Dear Dr. Hurd: I have always found the following very difficult. When to discuss a subject, incident, action that upset me with the person involved? My thinking goes something along the lines of this: What do I hope to gain … Continue reading
Several readers have asked me to clarify the difference between short-term compromise and all-out self-sacrifice. More than one Life’s a Beach! column has emphasized that the latter should never be part of a marriage or any partnered relationship. A short-term … Continue reading
The following is from an article by Cass Sunstein, writing in The New York Review of Books. It’s a review of “Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism” by Sarah Conly. This quote will give you an idea of why I rarely … Continue reading
Dear Dr. Hurd: You recently quoted the following from Ayn Rand’s novel ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ in the pivotal conversation between Dagny and Cherryl Taggart. “It’s true. Some people do want to destroy it. And when you learn to understand their motive, … Continue reading
‘Dagny, how did you do it? How did you manage to remain unmangled?’ ‘By holding to just one rule.’ ‘Which?’ ‘To place nothing—nothing—above the verdict of my own mind.’ ‘You’ve taken some terrible beatings … maybe worse than I did … Continue reading
You will often hear the phrase, ‘What goes around, comes around.’ I like this phrase, although not for the reasons people usually give. People who like or use this phrase generally mean to imply, ‘There’s a higher being making sure … Continue reading
The new health care law, the ‘Affordable Care Act,’ is actually making it less affordable for employers to provide coverage to employees. Under the Affordable Care Act, large employers must provide health coverage to all full-time workers and their dependents … Continue reading
A reader sent me a comment about one of my columns where I suggested that the biggest mistake people make is to try to change others. She agrees that the choice of what to think and do will always be … Continue reading
What’s interesting about these times is not what we debate — but the things we don’t debate. It’s not the things that are said, but the things that are seldom or never said that matter the most. We debate, for … Continue reading
Occasionally, a parent or a spouse will tell me that their child or partner ‘needs help.’ I ask them why they think that, and they either don’t answer me, or they say that they can’t get their loved one to … Continue reading
We’re always hearing from politicians that the battle is ‘Wall Street vs. Main Street.’ The politicians promise to protect Main Street from Wall Street. In a fog of ignorance, it might sound appealing and it certainly generates applause. But in … Continue reading
Thanks to a reader, I recently ran across a somewhat cynical yet surprisingly astute commentary on human relationships: There’s a really good chance that the last person who got annoyed with you for seemingly no reason at all did it … Continue reading