It's almost time for the 2008 Olympics, and the Chinese authorities are making sure their coming out party is as green as possible. And what does environmentalism entail? Draconian restrictions, of course. The Communist Party of China can relate to t...
Elsewhere on ThoughtLeader, Bert Olivier, an academic of the philosophical persuasion, rails against those who defend "the unforgiveable practices of capitalism". He leans heavily on a polemic known as The Corporation, a documentary (and book) by Joe...
Free market advocates often hear the charge that they don't care about the poor. That their belief in the power of markets driven by self-interest and the profit motive implies they're selfish and egotistical. That the rich exploit the poor. That wit...
Last week, the Financial Mail led with a lengthy cover story on the oil price and its implications for the South African economy. It contains some very enlightening facts, such as a chart which shows that for every ten units of fuel South Africa uses...
The last fortnight has seen a disgusting display of inhumanity, targeted against foreigners living in South Africa. Whether or not they're illegal, whether or not they're fleeing repression in Zimbabwe, whether or not they have jobs, local scum who t...
Well, that's it, then. The Al Gore Inc special-interest lobby has won another victory. The United States has declared the polar bear to be an endangered a threatened species. So from today, global waffling alarmists can cite the doomed polar bear in ...
Last night, I found a neatly printed-out and stapled copy of Beware the Alchemists, by Ludwig von Mises. Detritus of good intentions some time past.
Transcribed by Bettina Bien Greaves from notes taken during a lecture tour in the 1960, the style ...
The current rise in food prices is very, very dangerous. Not because food will be more expensive, but because chances are the government will intervene to prevent this.
The unions in South Africa have already called for a food price freeze. This m...
The Australian, a newspaper in, well, Oz, reports that global warming appears to have stopped in 1998, that 2007 saw a 0.7°C drop in temperature, and that sunspot activity suggests we may be entering a period of global cooling again. Despite the ...
"The mark of an educated mind is the ability to entertain a thought without accepting it." That's one lesson to take from the Big Bad Bullard Barney.
The quotation is attributed to Aristotle. He noted another mark of an educated mind: "to rest sat...
Ivo Vegter writes and argues for fun and profit. He is a columnist, magazine journalist and apprentice model shipwright. In his spare time, he helps run a research company. He specialises in the tech and telecoms industries, but keeps a blog on politics, economics and other curiosities on the spike
