Ben Bayer

From my latest for New Ideal, part of an ongoing project: "Once we exorcise morality of these ghostly remnants of religion’s past, we’ll see this leaves more than enough room for new secular moral ideals to flourish."

A flourishing space economy requires freedom. NASA’s plan to direct it threatens hard-won progress. Read Mike Mazza's article: hubs.la/Q048xZg10

Why Billionaires Don’t Owe California Anything California’s proposed wealth tax is un-American expropriation of its most productive residents. @BakulaRobertas and Onkar Ghate discuss.

@Afri_hubb @sentdefender Yeah because they don't depend on the mood swings of a billionaire right now.

Smart move by the White House turning down Musk's TSA salary offer,the last thing we need is critical airport security depending on the mood swings of a billionaire. Government functions should be funded by government, period. No matter how generous the private offer looks, selling off public responsibilities sets a dangerous precedent.

According to CBS, citing sources with knowledge on the matter, the White House has rejected Elon Musk’s offer to pay the salaries of TSA workers, who have been working without pay due to the Democrats’ holdup of the Department of Homeland Security funding.

@cspan The White House also introduced a new joke writing AI. This video.

"Figure 03" AI-powered robot accompanies first lady Melania Trump to a White House summit on empowering children with educational technology.

“An ultimatum is a final, uncompromising demand or set of terms, the rejection of which will lead to serious consequences, such as a breakdown in negotiations, a breakup, or retaliation.” (Dictionary.com)

Trump Is Fighting for American Freedom Overseas While Killing It at Home In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, @elanjourno and Onkar Ghate discuss recent developments in the Iran war.

@TS_Secrets How is it no one’s commenting that managing a restaurant is a perfectly respectable job with lots of opportunity for advancement?

My neighbor spent about $80k on his son’s college finance degree. His son graduated, filled out 105 applications, and couldn’t land a finance job. Right now, he’s managing a Jimmy John’s while he “waits for a break.” Then my neighbor said, “I’m going to introduce him to some of my friends so he can get an entry-level role.” And it hit me. If the outcome is still who you know, not what you studied… what exactly did the $80k buy?

@LowOnIronMan Me too

@BenBayer Cant see why that’d be true, but I’m down to hear someone make the case for it.

"How could I ever advocate that immigration should be restricted, when I wouldn’t be alive today if it were?" Ayn Rand's comment in a 1973 Q&A wasn't an isolated comment. She often sympathetically portrayed the migrant's quest for freedom in her fiction. new-ideal.aynrand.org/p/ayn-rands-dr…

@LowOnIronMan You might also say she'd change her position on capitalism if she'd seen the state of the world today.

@BenBayer You’d have wonder if her position changes at all if she sees the state of the world today. You can’t have a capitalist country without any capitalists.

Iran is not Venezuela. The Iranian regime’s policies won't change for the better simply by appointing a more pliable leader, as in Venezuela. Whereas Venezuela is led by thugs and gangsters, Iran is an ideologically driven militant regime: shorturl.at/tJNXw

The dispute between Anthropic and the federal government raises many questions about AI, government power, and moral responsibility. My colleagues @MikeMazza and @BenBayer broke it down. 🧵

Feeling pretty awesome and privileged to have spoken over the last two days on the morality of capitalism at universities in formerly communist countries (Macedonia and Bulgaria) to attentive and serious students. Thanks to Free Market Road Show!

That’s why the message in this piece is so important: ocregister.com/2026/03/10/ira…

Closing the straight probably DOES hurt Iran more than the U.S. What the administrators still seem not to get is that this would not deter them. Not every world leader is motivated by self-interest, especially not religious zealots.

Here @mikemazzareal and I apply insights from Ayn Rand’s “To Young Scientists” to the recent Anthropic controversy.

🚩 1/ The Iran war is overdue, but Iran is not Venezuela. 2/ Venezuela is run by thugs + gangsters. Iran is an Islamist regime driven by religious ideology. 3/ Iran’s 1979 revolution created a clerical dictatorship committed to exporting Allah's law worldwide. 4/ This regime has waged religious war on us, since 1979 5/ You can’t “buy off” an ideological regime. 6/ The endgame must target the regime’s Islamist foundation—just as Imperial Japan’s militarist ideology had to be dismantled after WWII. 7/ A reason for hope: many Iranians reject the theocracy. 8/ A secular Iran is possible. But only if we grasp one basic fact: Iran is not Venezuela. ocregister.com/2026/03/10/ira… cc @ocregister @IDF @DavidMKeyes @EylonALevy @DrEliDavid @emilykschrader @AvivaKlompas @bariweiss

Just published in @ocropinion

@EvilMopacATX The number of people who live in Austin and complain about Austin without realizing how good it is here in spite of things in the thread.

Weird Austin Shit™ Name your favorite/least favorite/neutral odd thing about Austin I'll go first: Only one side of the street having a sidewalk in neighborhoods🤯