Bad Therapy is Worse than No Therapy

…If this makes sense, there’s even more good information in my book. You can read the first few pages at www.DrHurd.com. Don’t bother with Amazon. The book’s available exclusively at my website.   Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @Mich… Continue reading

Obamacare’s Free Medical Care — Only $50,000 a Head!

…d underestimate all the variables and individual differences involved in a complex series of personal transactions known as “health care.” As a result, you end up with a more expensive and draconian mess than ever conceived of at the time the law was passed. And Obamacare is just getting started. With socialized medicine, you replace individual and self-responsible decisions of consumers with “command-and-control” central authorities. Unfortunatel… Continue reading

Bernie Sanders: A Worthless College Degree in Every Pot

…cans. It’s fascinating. Almost nobody would think this way on the real, day-to-day life level. Almost nobody would dream of petitioning a court, and hiring a lawyer, to get some well-off (or better-off) neighbor or colleague at work to pay for your kid’s college, or your new car, or your new wardrobe. You wouldn’t say, “This neighbor of mine has more money than I do. He’s one of the super-rich. I see the car he drives. I know he eats at nice resta… Continue reading

Free Will: Fact, Not Belief

…ues that a belief in free will is akin to religious beliefs, since neither complies with the laws of the physical world: “One of the basic premises of biology and biochemistry is that biological systems are nothing more than a bag of chemicals that obey chemical and physical laws. Generally, we have no problem with the “bag of chemicals” notion when it comes to bacteria, plants, and similar entities. So why is it so difficult to say the same about… Continue reading

The Intelligence of Wisdom (Part 1 of 2) (with Jose Ruenes)

…that’s what intelligence is, then where does wisdom fit in? Wisdom cannot simply refer to high intelligence. It’s something more. Defining Wisdom Let’s review several dictionary definitions of wisdom: ‘The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.’ And, ‘The soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of such experience, knowledge, and good judgment.’ Now we’re getting somewhere…. Continue reading

Facts About Health Care Your President Never Told You

…ists, like Oprah and Warren Buffet, will be able to afford private and high-quality health care. Think public schools, only worse — because while the mind can often recover from bad treatment, the body usually cannot. Yes, it’s possible that the Supreme Court will decisively strike down ObamaCare this June, in a best-case scenario. But this will simply leave us with the high cost of medical care caused, in the first place, by a government-sponsore… Continue reading

Brother, Can You Spare Another Trillion or Two?

…a national estimate of improper payments in cash assistance programs, state-by-state reviews have identified excessive rates of waste, fraud and abuse.” “An audit in 2013 of the Nebraska Health Insurance Premium Payment (HIPP) program—a component of the state’s Medicaid program—found that the state lacked appropriate documentation in every reviewed case file, calling into question the entirety of expenditures made under the program,” the report de… Continue reading

Feeling “Berned” by Socialism

…re to hear anyone go any further. In a recent washingtonpost.com column [10-1-15] David A. Fahrenthold did — just a little. He acknowledged that socialism is really less about money than about control. In the America that Bernie Sanders wants to create, tuition would be free for every student at every public college. Which, of course, is another way of saying that the government would pay for it. To do that, the Democratic presidential candidate w… Continue reading

Jimmy Carter: Wrong on Abortion, Right on Consistency

…place, I would tell the client, “This neighbor of yours is irrational and completely out of line. Call the police all right, but to inform them of this threat.” I’m willing to bet that just about any psychotherapist who IS a liberal Democrat (most of them are) would say exactly the same thing. The difference between these liberal therapists and myself is that I’m consistent. What applies in the personal context applies in the social and political… Continue reading

Jeb Bush Claims There’s a “Right to Rise”

…on Poverty launched in the 1960s initially raised living standards for low-income Americans, the poverty rate has not dropped since around 1970. “It has remained totally flat — and we’ve spent literally $1 trillion a year,” Bush said. “At some point, someone has to say: ‘This hasn’t worked. Let’s try something different.’” Try something different? How is Bush’s proposal different? Bush’s proposal merely reinforces the false idea that government h… Continue reading

Why Compromising on Principles is Stupid

…unless we have an actual political revolution. The entitlement and transfer-of-wealth state that we created was always morally wrong, and now it’s self-evidently unsound. Wrong principles got us into this mess; and only right principles can get us out of it. Actually, it’s probably too late to “get out” of anything. The consequences are there for us all to see, and more are coming regardless of the outcome of any one budget debate or election. Pri… Continue reading

Most Americans Are Hooked on the Welfare State

…publican President, especially a Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich or other pseudo-free market Republican, of which there are many. I’d venture a guess it wouldn’t pass under President Rick Santorum either, although this man will not likely ever be President. The second problem: It’s true that Big Government welfare socialists want to hook Americans, but more Americans than not appear to want to be hooked. There’s no widespread recognition of the fact th… Continue reading