Editor's Desk

Well, not really. In fact, I couldn’t care less if you do or don’t. Maybe that’s because I went to school at a time before the feelings fad had corrupted education and stunted the maturation of adolescents. At my high school, teachers still had standards, students were expected to meet them, and it damned well didn’t matter what anybody felt about it.

Not so in today’s high school, as C.A. Baylor reveals in an autobiographical report, “Schools for Subjectivists.” If you care to look at what passes for “education” in The Era of Self-Indulgence, have a good stiff drink before joining Chris’s excursion into the modern classroom.

Chris’s report underscores that even the most compelling commentaries must be grounded in the bedrock of empirical fact. One of my goals is to expand TNI’s offerings to include original reporting and investigative journalism. I’m delighted to tell you that Scott Wheeler, a distinguished investigative journalist, has joined the TNI staff as our investigative editor. Check out the “Contributors” page for Scott’s bio, then check out “Blinkmanship: Path to a Nuclear Showdown” for the first sample of his work here. You can expect much longer, in-depth investigations from Scott and others in the future.

Ed Hudgins then greets the holiday season with “Secular Spirituality,” a provocative essay that challenges the common notion that “spirituality” can only arise in a religious or mystical context. Skeptical? Read on.

Soon, TV will bombard us with broadcasts of A Christmas Carol, featuring its straw-man capitalist, Scrooge. Is there an alternative? Except for the forthcoming film of Atlas Shrugged, a revival of Cameron Hawley’s once-popular novels would be most likely to scare the, er, Dickens out of anti-capitalists. In “Hawley’s Heroes and the Romance of Business,” Marsha Enright reflects on the life and work of the author of such pro-business tales as Executive Suite and Cash McCall.

Another unavoidable holiday film is It’s a Wonderful Life—if you want to avoid it, that is. Many Objectivists do: they regard it as altruistic propaganda. But Robert Jones begs to differ. In “It Was a Wonderful Life,” our entertainment editor makes the case that this beloved classic celebrates self-interest. (And, for the record, I agree.) Robert and co-author Marimer Navarrete also think you’ll love the latest installment in the Superman film franchise, Superman Returns. I saw it, and couldn’t agree more: it restores this American superhero icon to the pedestal where he belongs.

Ed Hudgins and I beat up the Republican Party in our Fall issue. But lots of people are piling on the GOP, including author Kevin Phillips in his new book, American Theocracy. Lance Lamberton reviews Phillips’s critique, and likes what he reads.

I was appalled when I read a recent news report that J.K. Rowling, author of the sensationally popular Harry Potter novels, was having misgivings about her sudden wealth. In “An Open Letter to J.K. Rowling,” I tell this wonderful woman something she may need to hear: that she deserves every last penny she has earned from her charming stories—and that she is morally entitled to a lot more. I hope my message reaches her.

If it doesn’t, it’ll hurt my feelings.