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The Rational Argumentator's Statement of Policy:
March 2, 2006:
Mr. Stolyarov presents a new, explicit formulation of the rules and procedures guiding TRA's editorial policy and the use of TRA property by contributors. All readers and contributors should familiarize themselves with this statement in order to facilitate a more productive and harmonious relationship with TRA.

Argumentation

Murphy v. Stolyarov: Debate on Capital Punishment: Round 2:
February 26, 2006:
Dr. Robert P. Murphy responds to Mr. Stolyarov's "The Capital Punishment Imperative," and Mr. Stolyarov replies again, defending his advocacy of the death penalty.

Economics

What Money is Not:
March 1, 2006:
Dr. Robert P. Murphy uses Austrian economic analysis to dispel four common myths about the nature of money-- propagated by laymen and mistaken economists alike.

Filosofy

An Objectivist Condemnation of Abortion: Edition II:
February 27, 2006:
G. Stolyarov II offers a re-formatted, polished version of his now widely known opposition to abortion from a secular, Objectivist perspective. He explains the possibility and necessity of an entirely secular opposition to the barbarous murder of unborn humans—a case that can be argued by religious and non-religious opponents of this practice alike. This position is derived from the principles of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist intellectual system; Mr. Stolyarov shows how Rand’s fundamental premises contradict her support for legalized abortion and how a more consistent application of those premises will lead one to deny the abortionists’ stance. He argues that—judging from Rand’s definition of man as a being of volitional consciousness—the fetus is human, because its attainment of volitional consciousness is futuristically certain in the absence of an unlikely accident or deliberate human intervention. If the fetus is indeed human, then its right to life must be held sacred and protected by law. Mr. Stolyarov then proceeds to refute arguments in favor of abortion by Rand and other “Objectivist” thinkers.

Historical Analysis

The Example of Our First President:
February 21, 2006:
George Washington was a private innovator, wealth-generator, brilliant commander, and a politician who recognized the dangers of a government grown too large. Dr. Edward Hudgins reminds us of the economic, ethical, and political lessons Washington has for us today.

Why Nazism was Socialism and Why Socialism is Totalitarianism:
February 23, 2006:
Dr. George Reisman contends that the government of Nazi Germany was fundamentally a socialist government; he explains why comprehensive state economic controls-- as existed in Nazi Germany and other socialist countries-- necessarily leads to the suppression of political freedoms and the ruthless elimination of anyone out of step with the ruling elite. 

Politics

Any Storm in a Port:
March 1, 2006:
The recent takeover of U.S. ports by a Dubai-based company exposes the U.S. government's weakness to ideologies of political correctness--which forbid even the remotest suspicion of a company based in a Muslim country as possibly linked to terrorism--writes Selwyn Duke. Political correctness renders us weak in the face of the terrorist threat.

Clinton and Schumer are Profiling Muslims:
March 1, 2006:
In their criticism of the recent takeover of six American ports by DP World, Senators Clinton and Schumer are violating their sacrosanct politically-correct ideologies which prohibit racial profiling of "underprivileged" groups, writes Selwyn Duke. For a moment, despite their dogmas, Clinton and Schumer have assumed a more proper, commonsense view.

PC Malaria Programs and the World Bank:
March 1, 2006:
The World Bank needs to cease bowing to politically-correct environmentalist fears and prohibitions of the life-saving pesticide, DDT. In any programs it undertakes, the World Bank should encourage the use of pesticides-- which have saved many Africans' lives from the ravages of malaria, write Cyril Boynes, Jr., and Paul Driessen.

Paul McCartney: A Victim of His Own Gibberish:
March 1, 2006:
Tom DeWeese writes that Paul McCartney, a long-time advocate of radical environmentalist schemes, has now himself fallen prey to one such scheme: the evil policy of Sustainable Development-- which has prevented him from enjoying a harmless cabin on his own property.

"However skilled one may be professionally, his abilities amount to nothing when he surrenders the ultimate sovereignty of deciding matters for himself and charting his own course in life. He merely becomes a vessel for others to fill, or a robot to pander to others’ whims at first command.."

~ G. Stolyarov II

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