Dr. Robert R. Owens

You Need Limits to be Free

The problem with anarchy is that it must become organized to accomplish anything. Then like militant apathy it declares war against the machine never realizing that it is merely another cog in the wheel that grinds itself to dust.

You Should Ask Whose Property Is It

Even for someone who learned at their grandmother's knee that what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable the knowledge that some things are mine and some things aren't came early. The whole idea of freedom rests upon the idea that within the wider world which is society there is a smaller circle that outlines what is personal and what is communal. Even in monasteries where monks have taken vows of poverty they refer to my cell, my candle and my prayers.

Why We Need Capitalists

At one time in America most people were financially independent. I don’t mean by this that most people were wealthy. What I mean is that they worked for themselves as opposed to working for someone else as a hired laborer. People were farmers, or craftsmen, trappers, or frontiersmen. Thomas Jefferson pictured America as a republic based upon the yeoman farmer.

Why Should the House Impeach President Obama?

Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution requires that before presidents can assume their duties they must take the oath of office. Every president from George Washington to Barak Obama has placed their hand on a Bible and sworn," I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Whose Responsibility is It?

God makes all of us to be round pegs in round holes. In a free society if we end up a round peg in a square hole…..that’s on us.

Who Will Win the War Against Income Inequality?

From each according to their ability to each according to their need was the hollow promise of the Soviet Union. It was long known to be merely the cover for a ruthless Communist Party that pretended to build a worker’s paradise while in fact enslaving a nation for its own gain.

What’s the Reason?

Just as the pursuit of perfection can often end in the sacrifice of what is good so too the worship of reason often results in the exaltation of mediocrity and the circumscription of reasonable thought and action.

Never the Twain Shall Meet

When Kipling coined this phrase in the 19th century he was lamenting the gulf of understanding between the imperial British and their subjects on the Indian subcontinent. It has since entered general usage meaning two things that are so different they have no opportunity to unite.

Liberty Makes Ignorance Necessary

If we knew everything in the past and the future there would be little need for freedom. If we could accurately know all that preceded our fleeting moment upon life's stage, if we could know all the consequences of our present desires, and if we could know what we would desire in the future we could then chart a course to perfection without any detours and so freedom of action would be unnecessary and central-planning would make sense.

You Didn't Build That

We can't know what we don't know however we can know that we don't know or as Socrates taught us the recognition of our ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.

The Nature of Things

When my grandmother was born a horse was the normal means of transport. When my granddaughter was born the International Space Striation was the brightest light in the night’s sky. In other words, things change. When I sat on the couch and watched the first man walk on the moon with my grandmother she didn’t believe it was real. When I tell my low information neighbors that the International Space Striation is the brightest light in the night’s sky they don’t believe it is true. In other words, human nature doesn’t change.

Step by Step Inch by Inch

How do you fundamentally transform a nation from what it has been to what a clique of ideologues wants it to be? The easiest way is to convince the general population that what the would-be masters want is what the people want. Those seeking to subvert a culture must take a long view. They must realize that this will be a multistage project that will take generations to achieve.

Political Action Follows Political Philosophy

The vast majority of human action reflects the thoughts, beliefs, and feelings of the actor. There have always been and there will always be those whose actions are erratic or divorced from reality. The actions of this small minority are best ascribed to pathology not philosophy. For the rest of us we think therefore we are. What we think about today we act upon tomorrow.

The Uncivil War

In American schools the Civil War is a one trick pony. It was all about slavery and that is all it was about.

When the Have Nots Become the Haves

Saul Alinsky the political thinker who seems to have had more impact on President Obama than any other was very clear in his most important book about what his motives were and what he was aiming at, "What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. 'The Prince' was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. 'Rules for Radicals' is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away."

Liberty Tyranny and the Rule of Law

A foundational difference between a country that enjoys the benefits of limited government, individual liberty, personal freedom and economic opportunity, and one that suffers under the yoke of tyranny is that the former observes the rule of law and the latter witnesses the rule of whim.

Give Them an Inch

Let’s see the government had three years and the entire resources of the federal government and they can’t build a website that works. Now we have a website that won’t let you leave, is open to hackers, presents people with insurance they can’t afford and we are going to fine, excuse me, tax anyone without insurance who doesn’t use it. These people are making the DMV look efficient.

Why Central-Planning Won’t Work

Failure to plan is planning to fail. This truism has been a guiding light in my life and in the lives of countless others. Without planning we would never accomplish much in life. The haphazard serendipity of chance rarely adds up to a consistently positive result. We all know people who seem like they can fall into a sewer and come up smelling like roses. Most of us come up smelling like something quite different if we take the same fall.

The Question is, “What’s the Answer?”

In politics and economics as in everything in life there always seems to be more questions than answers.

A Word to the Wise

The most insidious result that central-planning and the overabundance of government control that it requires is not the mal-adjustments that it inevitably creates in the economy. It is not the crony capitalism and bureaucratic nepotism that it always fosters. It is not the smothering blanket of nanny-state regulations that strangle creativity. It is not even the tendency to one-party rule even when camouflaged behind a two party system that is in reality two heads of the same bird of prey. It is not a system which may actually contain only two parties if you believe there is the government party and the country party.