This Week on the Web (January 13 – January 19)


********************************************************************************************

Video of the Week:

A Short Course in Brain Surgery
Stuart Browning, YouTube

Ontario’s “compassionate” socialized system failed a patient who needed an MRI, so he turned to the “selfish” U.S. market for help.




Editorial Cartoon of the Week:

Dead Ball
Cox and Forkum




NEWS

Military gear bound for Iran, China traced to Pentagon surplus sales
International Herald Tribune

The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries — including Iran and China — who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components.

In one case, federal investigators said, the contraband made it to Iran, a country President George W. Bush branded part of an "axis of evil."

In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, say those parts made it to Iran.

The surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers.





COMMENTARY


Bush's Iran Policy Encourages More Attacks on Americans in Iraq
ARI Media, The Ayn Rand Institute (via Principles in Practice)

In his January 10 speech, President Bush acknowledged that Iran is providing key material support for attacks on American troops in Iraq.

"Iran's support for these attacks constitutes an act of war against the United States—the latest act of war in a long series stretching back to the Iranian hostage crisis," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "Our government has a moral obligation to respond to these vicious acts by taking decisive military action against Iran: hostile nations must not be given a blank check to murder American citizens.

"Shamefully, instead of vowing to retaliate against Iran, President Bush has meekly announced plans to 'disrupt' future attacks and destroy isolated 'networks' of Iranian agents plotting to murder more American citizens.

"President Bush's inaction against Iran will encourage the regime to sponsor further attacks on Americans in Iraq, and to expand the scope of its aggression further. Those who value the lives of our soldiers and the security of America must demand that the Bush administration change course and eliminate the Iranian threat."

**********************************

Battles Are Yours to Pick
Michael Hurd, DrHurd.com

You don't have to be in any fight or conflict, with anyone at any time, unless you CHOOSE to be. All anybody can do is put you in a situation where you must escape. This isn't to imply that it's wrong to defend yourself. It's simply to imply that it's wrong to assume you must fight a battle on the terms of the person who's harassing you. Strive to be conscious of what's important to you, and why -- and what's not important to you. If there are people in your life who invite you to struggle with them about things that are unimportant to you, then consider the option of ignoring their invitations. This isn't cowardice, or spinelessness. Cowardice or spinelessness is refusing to defend and protect what's important to YOU. You don't exhibit strength by letting someone else decide what's important for you to defend.



**********************************

How to Truly Support our Troops
Alex Epstein, The Ayn Rand Institute (via Principles in Practice)

Whatever their views of President Bush's new "surge" of 20,000 soldiers, both liberals and conservatives continue to claim that they support our troops. Liberals say they support our troops by criticizing or opposing "Operation Iraqi Freedom," which they claim has unnecessarily killed 3,000 soldiers. Conservatives say they support our troops by supporting the mission that most of our troops believe in.

In fact, neither liberals nor conservatives truly support the brave men and women who risk their lives to defend America. For both, "support our troops" is a cheap, undeserved claim to patriotism—one that obscures their unwillingness to do what is truly necessary to protect America and its soldiers.

Granted, almost everyone wants to give our troops the resources they need to do their jobs: the best weapons, armor, provisions, and training available—as well as praise, gratitude, and encouragement. But for our government to truly support our troops, it must do far more than help them do their jobs; it must give them the right jobs to do—the jobs that will effectively defend America while minimizing the risk to their lives.


**********************************

Royalty Pains
Max Schulz, TCS Daily

The final big-ticket item in new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's first-100-hour agenda, to be taken up today, is an energy proposal that will do nothing to help achieve long-term energy security. Instead it will merely serve to satisfy Democratic bloodlust about "Big Oil" and the energy industry's recent high profits.



********************************************************************************************

Other links

The Ayn Rand Institute

The Objective Standard

Capitalism Magazine

4Commonsense.net

OpinionJournal.com

Junk Science

Activism Humor

The Intellectual Activist



Web Logs

Principles in Practice– Principled commentary on cultural matters and current events from “The Objective Standard”

Cox and Forkum – Political cartoons and commentary

Noodle Food

The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid – Donald Luskin

Dollars and Crosses – CapitalismMagazine.com

Rule of Reason – The Center for the Advancement of Capitalism

4CommonSense

**********************************************************************************************************
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone who may be interested (or they can sign up by sending an email with “Week on the Web” in the subject line to rsmurphy@hotmail.com).

Send links to articles that you feel would be a good addition to this newsletter to rsmurphy@hotmail.com.

To receive this newsletter in Microsoft Word format, please reply to this email and include “Week on the Web - MS Word” on the subject line.
If you wish to unsubscribe, please reply to this email and include “Week on the Web - unsubscribe” on the subject line.