From the Editor, Fall 2013

Welcome to the Fall 2013 issue of The Objective Standard.

In the lead article, “The Roots of the IRS Scandal,” Steve Simpson exposes the fundamental causes of the Internal Revenue Service’s “closer scrutiny” of Tea Party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status, identifying the constellation of laws that effectively authorized the IRS to target such groups, showing how these laws operate in practice, and shedding light on the deeper premises that support these laws and fuel their enforcement. If you care about freedom of speech, read this article and recommend it to your friends. It is the only explanation I’m aware of that goes to the roots of this scandal, making its causes crystal clear.

In “Nuclear Energy: The Safe, Clean, Cost-Effective Alternative,” Thomas Eiden first elucidates the nature of nuclear energy, explaining how nuclear power plants work, why nuclear power is safer and cleaner than other forms of energy production, and why the nuclear alternative could provide the industrial world with ample energy for millions of years; Eiden then dismantles several widely accepted myths propagated by anti-nuclear groups such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resource Defense Council. This is one to recommend to your environmentalist acquaintances as well as your pro-industry friends.

Next up is Ari Armstrong’s extensive interview with Dr. Josh Umbehr, in which Dr. Umbehr discusses the nature of concierge medicine, his own version of this revolutionary approach to health care, and the various ways in which his approach results in higher-quality, lower-cost, higher-profit health care that both sidesteps and undermines ObamaCare. If you think that sounds too good to be true, read the interview, meet Dr. Umbehr, and see why it is true. Then share this interview with your doctor, your friends and family, and anyone else you know who has an interest in good health care. This is the beginning of a revolution we should all join.

Movies reviewed in this issue are: Les Misérables, directed by Tom Hooper (reviewed by Zachary Huffman); Oz the Great and Powerful, directed by Sam Raimi (reviewed by Ari Armstrong); and Star Trek: The Original Films (reviewed by Ari Armstrong).

Books reviewed are:

• The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire, by Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy (reviewed by Alexander V. Marriott);
• The Real Crash: America’s Coming Bankruptcy—How to Save Yourself and Your Country, by Peter D. Schiff (reviewed by Michael Dahlen);
• Living Proof, by Kira Peikoff (reviewed by Mikayla Callen);
• The Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander (reviewed by Daniel Wahl);
• Killing Floor, by Lee Child (reviewed by Ari Armstrong).

In addition to reading The Objective Standard, be sure to visit TOS Blog for daily commentary from an Objectivist perspective; join us on Facebook and Twitter for a steady stream of interesting links and (sometimes-heated) discussion; and check out our YouTube channel, where you’ll find my Reason at Large videos and much more.

Hope to see you there! —Craig Biddle

About Craig Biddle

Craig is cofounder and editor of The Objective Standard, cofounder and director of education at Objective Standard Institute, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. He is the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It; Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing; and the forthcoming Moral Truths Your Parents, Preachers, and Teachers Don’t Want You to Know. He is currently working on his fourth book, “Thinking in Principles.”

View all articles by Craig Biddle →