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Articles by Ben Bayer
Our Iran Appeasement Reveals the Need to Declare Moral Independence
The signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to fight a militarily superior enemy to secure that independence. 250 years later, the American president signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Iran — a far weaker and viler enemy — securing none of his stated war objectives, but acceding to most of the enemy’s demands.
After the Pope’s AI Screed, It’s Time to Break Free from Dependency on Religious Morality
Most people would never go to a medieval bloodletter to treat a fever, or listen to a quack offering a cure for cancer taken from medieval scrolls. The life-saving benefits of modern medical science are too obvious for anyone sane to fully ignore. Why then do so many listen enthusiastically to clerics of Bronze Age religion for advice about our most important life choices — i.e., morality?
After the Pope’s AI Screed, It’s Time to Break Free from Dependency on Religious Morality
Most people would never go to a medieval bloodletter to treat a fever, or listen to a quack offering a cure for cancer taken from medieval scrolls. The life-saving benefits of modern medical science are too obvious for anyone sane to fully ignore. Why then do so many listen enthusiastically to clerics of Bronze Age religion for advice about our most important life choices — i.e., morality?
How to Build a Secular, Scientific Morality
Soon ARU Press will release a collection of Ben Bayer’s essays, Breaking Free From Faith-Based Morality. The collection will feature essays previously published in New Ideal on the subject of the religious roots of altruistic morality. The collection is aimed at secular readers who consider themselves rational and scientific, but who are nonetheless in the grip of the morality of altruism that dominates our culture.
Why the Missing Outrage Over (Domestic) Terrorism?
Political assassination attempts, like the one against President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, are rightly condemned from every political corner. So is the rising tide of political violence. But that’s not been true of some malicious acts of domestic terrorism impacting a wider group of people. Instead of righteous indignation there’s been relative silence, or even worse, endorsement. Why?
Why the missing outrage over (domestic) terrorism? Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Political assassination attempts, like the one against President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, are rightly condemned from every political corner. So is the rising tide of political violence. But that’s not been true of some malicious acts of domestic terrorism impacting a wider group of people. Instead of righteous indignation there’s been relative silence, or even worse, endorsement. Why?
The Vance v. Vatican Dispute over “Just War” in Iran Is Humiliating
Why are supporters of President Trump’s war with Iran seeking the sanction of medieval Catholic theology and bickering with the pope? Vice President Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson and sundry other commentators have now invoked “just war theory” to defend the president against Pope Leo XIV’s criticisms of the war. Their “gotcha” attempts seem to aim at catching the pope in an inconsistency. In reality they reflect the administration’s failure to justify what is truly a righteous war against Iran.
Ayn Rand’s Dramatization of the Migrant’s Journey To Freedom
In a Q&A session in 1973, when asked whether immigration should be restricted because of alleged effects on America’s standard of living, novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand indignantly finished her answer by asking: “How could I ever advocate that immigration should be restricted, when I wouldn’t be alive today if it were?” Rand came to America 100 years ago this February as an expatriate from Soviet Russia.
Iran is not Venezuela Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... American military action against Iran was long overdue. But despite going to war, President Trump has apparently not learned the lesson that eluded his predecessors: Iran’s distinctive Islamist nature is what drives its hostility.
ICE Tyranny is What Democracy Looks Like
This article was originally published by the Southern California News Group on February 16, 2026. ICE has now announced the end to its recent immigration enforcement “surge” in Minnesota, after its tactics resulted in the death of two people. As ICE tactics continue to undermine due process rights, the New York Times editorial board and kindred others have reflected on the role ICE plays in a broader challenge the Trump administration poses to democracy.
ICE tyranny is what democracy looks like Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... ICE has now announced the end to its recent immigration enforcement “surge” in Minnesota, after its tactics resulted in the death of two people. As ICE tactics continue to undermine due process rights, the New York Times editorial board and kindred others have reflected on the role ICE plays in a broader challenge the Trump administration poses to democracy. Trump’s immigration policies are dramatically unjust.
It’s Time to Rethink “Cancel Culture”
What’s the difference between “cancel culture” and shaming toxic people who infect one’s political movement? This question recently embroiled the American conservative movement after Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts refused to denounce Tucker Carlson for his interview with antisemite Nick Fuentes. Roberts said that Heritage rejects the policy of “cancelling our own people,” and specifically objected to “cancelling” both Carlson and Fuentes.
Mamdani’s “Warmth of Collectivism” Channels Ayn Rand’s Villains, but the Problem Is Wider than Socialism
Zohran Mamdani caused a stir in his New Year’s Day inauguration speech, when he proclaimed, “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Commentators immediately noted that it sounded like something straight out of a speech by an Ayn Rand villain. It was. But why is a prominent politician so willing to sound like some people’s idea of a villain?
The Lawyers Defending Trump’s Tariffs Know They’re Un-American. Here’s How We Can Tell
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it should be shocking that there are legal authorities openly claiming that our president should have the powers of a king. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening. On November 5, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the case concerning Trump’s sweeping tariff executive orders. To prepare, the court reviewed a host of filings from litigants and amicus briefs from interested parties.
The President Has No “Foreign Policy” Discretion To Impose Sweeping Global Tariffs
On Wednesday, Nov. 5th, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments to scrutinize the tariffs President Trump’s sweeping levied against every nation on earth. Trump invoked emergency powers from an obscure law to justify this move. Those now petitioning the Supreme Court to declare the tariffs unconstitutional have argued that whatever that obscure law says, Congress cannot delegate its exclusive powers — including the power to tax and to regulate foreign commerce — to the president.
The president has no ‘foreign policy’ discretion to impose sweeping global tariffs
FILE – President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, on April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) PUBLISHED: November 3, 2025 at 12:36 AM PST On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments to scrutinize the tariffs President Trump’s sweeping levied against every nation on earth. Trump invoked emergency powers from an obscure law to justify this move.
Never Forget - or Forgive - the Ongoing Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal
The sexual abuse scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein is especially outrageous inasmuch as he used his political connections (and money) to escape prosecution for so many years. But if it’s outrageous when money and power enable impunity for horrible crimes, shouldn’t it be even more outrageous when the pretense of moral authority enables someone to commit even worse crimes?
What happened to ABC and Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t censorship. It was worse. Original
The debate rages: Is ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel censorship? It wasn’t. It was something much worse, even if his suspension soon ended. ABC announced the suspension days after Kimmel’s on-air comments suggesting that Charlie Kirk’s apparent killer, Tyler Robinson, was “one of” the “MAGA gang.” This was false: from everything we now know, Tyler Robinson was motivated by leftist ideology to murder Kirk.
The Dark Form of Control Even Anti-Abortion ‘Moderates’ Want
Abortion rights defenders were rightly concerned about bills in ten states that aimed to designate fetuses as “persons.” These would have counted abortion as homicide and arguably made women punishable for their “crime.” The fear was heightened by recent stories of women like Brittany Watts in Ohio who were arrested after miscarriages.
The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts: Excerpt from the Re-issue
On June 1, ARU Press published a new edition of Harry Binswanger’s The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts. First released in 1990, the book has been out of print and not easy to find. We are happy to make it available again to readers in paperback and kindle, with audiobook to be released soon.
Ayn Rand on Free Trade, the 'Essence of Capitalism’s Foreign Policy'
President Trump has now touted a new trade deal with China in an effort to calm markets and return business to normal. But tariffs on China remain at a historic high of thirty and the alleged threats to American national security that originally rationalized tariffs have not changed. Recent lawsuits challenging the tariffs have reasonably objected that trade deficits and fentanyl don’t count as real national security emergencies.
Ayn Rand Knew Free Trade and National Security Were Allies
We are happy to publish an excerpt from Ben Bayer’s article “Ayn Rand Knew Free Trade and National Security Were Allies,” originally published by the Southern California News Group on May 18, 2025. A longer version of this article with more archival evidence of Ayn Rand’s position on free trade will be published in New Ideal on May 21, 2025. Famously a champion of capitalism, Rand saw free trade as the mechanism by which capitalism ensured international peace.
Ayn Rand knew free trade and national security were allies Original
President Trump has now touted a new trade deal with China in an effort to calm markets and return business to normal. But tariffs on China remain at a historic high of 30% and the alleged threats to American national security that originally rationalized tariffs have not changed. Recent lawsuits challenging the tariffs have reasonably objected that trade deficits and fentanyl don’t count as real national security emergencies.
Ayn Rand knew free trade and national security were allies
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Vance's Twisted Christianity Is No Alternative to the Left's Morality
The news of JD Vance’s meeting with Pope Francis just before the pontiff’s death featured news of an “exchange of opinions” over immigration policy between the vice president and Vatican officials. That exchange likely resurfaced questions raised by a controversy in January, when Vance, a Catholic convert, invoked an idiosyncratic spin on Catholic theology to justify the Trump administration’s policies. In February, the Pope fired back with a statement calculated to rebuke Vance.
The constitutionally dubious law empowering Trump’s ’emergency’ tariff authority Original
Donald Trump’s April 2 tariffs paralyzed businesses that rely on international trade, wreaked havoc with financial markets, and injected new economic uncertainty into everyone’s life. Far from offering “liberation,” Trump’s executive orders embody an arbitrary lawlessness that threatens the individual liberties of the entrepreneurs who create goods and services so many of us depend upon.
How Religious Thinking Fuels the Atheist Schism Over Transgender Ideology
Tensions are running high in the atheist community in the United States, where a long-brewing value conflict has now boiled over. In December, several prominent atheist scientists, Jerry Coyne, Steven Pinker, and Richard Dawkins, resigned from the honorary board of the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) in protest of FFRF’s decision to unpublish an article by Coyne that was critical of transgender ideology, leading to the dissolution of FFRF’s board.
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