Colombia Doesn't Need a Free-trade Agreement to Get Rid of its Self-destructive Tariffs
By David Holcberg (International Herald Tribune, April 19, 2008)
Colombia doesn't need a free-trade agreement with the United States to get rid of its self-destructive tariffs on products imported from America.
It is in the self-interest of Colombians, as it is in the self-interest of any people, for their government to eliminate all tariffs on imported products.
Such tariffs raise the price of imported products and rob buyers of the savings they would have pocketed if trade were free.
Moreover, governments have no moral right to force their citizens to pay tariffs for foreign products they want to buy. Any government that respects the rights of its citizens and is concerned about their welfare should eliminate its tariffs unilaterally, regardless of what other governments do.
The United States, as the leading capitalist country in the world, should phase out all of its protectionist policies and its tariffs on foreign products. The economic benefits to Americans would be incalculable, as tens of millions of producers and consumers would benefit directly from the savings that would accrue from the freedom to buy cheaper goods. In addition, such a principled stand on free trade might serve as an example to other nations, who could choose to be smart enough to follow America's lead or dumb enough to stay crippled by retaining their own protectionist policies.
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
April 25, 2008
Rational Egoism in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
Who: Andrew Bernstein, professor of philosophy and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A talk and Q & A examining The Fountainhead and explaining Ayn Rand's morality of rational egoism
Where: University of Maryland, Arts Building, Room 2309, College Park, MD
When: May 1, 2008, at 8 pm
Admission is FREE and open to the public.
Hosted by: the Terrapin Objectivists
Club Contact: anyborgh@umd.edu
Description: In The Fountainhead, novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand fully dramatizes the moral theory of rational egoism--the theory which holds that it is each person's responsibility to choose his goals and values by use of his independent reasoning mind; and that it is his right to pursue these goals in quest of his own selfish, personal happiness. Put another way, conscientious adherence to one's best rational judgment is the only appropriate means by which to live a fully human life--and success, creative achievement and personal happiness are its proper goals and ends. The theme of the novel is the virtue of independence in thought and action: the crucial importance of deriving your values and standards by the exercise of your own best judgment, as opposed to blindly following the judgment of others; and then pursuing these values consistently and indefatigably, as opposed to betraying or compromising them in practice. Dr. Bernstein explores how the plot and conflict of The Fountainhead convey this theme, including a detailed, in-depth analysis of the five major characters in the story--Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand, Dominique Francon, and the hero Howard Roark.
Bio: Dr. Bernstein is a visiting professor of philosophy at Marist College; he also teaches at SUNY Purchase (which selected him Outstanding Teacher for 2004) and formerly at Pace University and at Marymount College (which selected him Outstanding Teacher for 1995). Dr. Bernstein lectures regularly at American universities and appears frequently on radio talk shows. His op-eds have been published in such newspapers as The San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily News and The Houston Chronicle. Dr. Bernstein is the author of three Ayn Rand titles for CliffsNotes: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead and Anthem. He also authored Penguin's Teacher's Guide to "The Fountainhead," and The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire.
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Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
For more information on this talk, please e-mail media@aynrand.org.
For more information on this event and on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985 the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Please Note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI.
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
The Threat of Totalitarian Islam
A panel discussion at NYU
What: A panel discussion on the nature and threat of totalitarian Islam, followed by a Q&A
Who: Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute; Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum; and Flemming Rose, cultural editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
Where: New York University, Kimmel Center, E&L Auditorium, New York, NY
When: Monday, May 5, 2008, at 8 pm
Admission is FREE and open to the public. All attendees must RSVP to nyuoc_president@yahoo.com
Description: What is the nature of totalitarian Islam--is it limited to terrorism or is it a broader movement? Are non-Muslims its only victims? Who precisely is the enemy? Does the West bear responsibility for creating this movement? What policies can defeat it?
Defenders of Islam around the world have striven to silence critics with threats, protests and acts of violence. How should the West respond to demands for censorship, as in the Danish cartoon controversy?
Panelists will address these critical issues in a lively discussion.
Bios:
Yaron Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and a recognized Middle East expert who has written and lectured on a variety of Middle East issues. Dr. Brook has discussed the Israeli-Arab conflict and the war on Islamic totalitarianism on hundreds of radio and TV programs, including FOX News's The O'Reilly Factor, Your World with Neil Cavuto, At Large with Geraldo Rivera; CNN's Talkback Live; CNBC's Closing Bell and On the Money; and a C-SPAN panel of experts on terrorism.
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate. Abroad, he appears weekly in Israel's Jerusalem Post, Italy's l'Opinione, Spain's La Razón and monthly in Australia's and Canada's Globe and Mail. His Web site, DanielPipes.org, is the single most accessed internet source of specialized information on the Middle East and Islam. Mr. Pipes has appeared on ABC World News, CBS Reports, Crossfire, Good Morning America, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, O'Reilly Factor, The Today Show, the BBC and Al-Jazeera.
Flemming Rose is a Danish journalist, author and the cultural editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In September 2005 Mr. Rose commissioned a series of cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad. He was concerned about the tendency toward self-censorship in Europe and some Muslims' insistence on special treatment of their religious sensitivities in the public domain, which he wanted to bring forward for debate. The backlash from Muslims around the world caused an international crisis and the Danish government experienced its worst foreign policy crisis since the Nazi occupation during WWII.
For more information: e-mail media@aynrand.org
Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews now and after this event.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail:
Please note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
How Government Makes Disasters More Disastrous
In a speech from New Orleans last week, Republican presidential candidate John McCain lashed out at the Bush administration for its response to Hurricane Katrina. McCain's remarks, which appeared calculated to make disaster relief a key campaign issue, revived harsh memories of the savage storm that inundated the Mississippi Delta in late August 2005, leaving more than 1,800 people dead and causing widespread property damage.
Although the floodwaters long ago receded, government officials are still counting the disaster's costs. Earlier this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers disclosed that 489,000 claimants are seeking damages caused by poorly designed levees. Of those claimants, 247 want more than $1 billion each, including one whopper for $3 quadrillion (a stack of a quadrillion dollar coins would reach beyond Saturn).
The tax dollars spent resolving those claims will augment the tens of billions already paid to restore and repopulate New Orleans, a below-sea-level bowl situated precariously amidst a lake, a major river, and a gulf, in a known path for hurricanes.
Disasters can sometimes shock a nation into questioning entrenched practices. But Hurricane Katrina, perhaps the worst natural disaster ever to befall America, has failed to spark serious challenge to long-standing government policies that actively promote building and living in disaster-prone areas.
The Katrina tragedy should have called into question the so-called safety net composed of government policies that actually encourage people to embrace risks they would otherwise shun--to build in defiance of historically obvious dangers, secure in the knowledge that innocent others will be forced to share the costs when the worst happens.
Without blaming the victims for having followed their own government's lead, it is time to question whether those policies should continue.
The first strands of today's safety net were spun in the nineteenth century, as the Army Corps of Engineers shouldered the burden of constructing and maintaining levees and other flood controls along the Mississippi River. From then to now, Congress and the states have responded to each new flood by installing newer, higher, and stronger barriers at public expense, as if the preservation of a city like New Orleans in its historical location were a self-evident necessity.
Throughout the twentieth century, new strands were woven into the safety net, first in the form of loans to disaster victims, then by direct grants, infrastructure repairs, loan guarantees, job training, subsidized investments, health care, debris removal, and a host of similar rehabilitative measures.
In 1968, the National Flood Insurance Program began supplying subsidized coverage for structures and their contents in flood-prone areas. Similar state-subsidized insurance programs arose for hurricanes in Florida and earthquakes in California. In 1978, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was created to coordinate the increasingly complex job of government disaster response.
At each juncture, more aid was funneled to disaster victims without serious challenge to the wisdom of encouraging people to occupy vulnerable locations.
In response to Mississippi floods, Florida hurricanes, and California earthquakes, the number of major disaster declarations almost doubled from the 1980s to the 1990s, from an annual average of 24 up to 46. At century's end, Congress was paying an average of $3.7 billion a year in supplemental disaster aid, with state taxpayers contributing many millions more. As of August 2007, Katrina relief alone had cost federal taxpayers $114 billion.
By gradual steps, this disaster safety net became part of the legal landscape, taken for granted by private investors and owners deciding to undertake new projects or rebuild storm-damaged areas. Relief programs--by minimizing, disguising, and shifting the real risks of defying natural hazards--became an active force distorting private decision-making and inviting even worse future tragedies.
Thus if a pre-Katrina Mississippian asked himself, "Should I build my house 10 feet above sea level, a quarter-mile from the Gulf Coast?" the answer came back: "Sure, why not? The government will look after me if disaster strikes."
This entitlement mentality ensured that each new tragedy would generate fresh demands to expand the safety net. In Katrina's aftermath, those demands centered on State Farm, which dared to deny certain claims under homeowners policies that covered wind damage but expressly excluded floods. Mississippi's attorney general immediately sued to void flood exclusion clauses as "unconscionable" and "contrary to public policy" and even launched a criminal investigation of State Farm's claims adjusting practices.
Last year, a jury inflamed by adverse public opinion awarded $1 million in punitive damages against State Farm for having stood on its contract rights in a dispute involving a single house. That case was recently reversed on appeal, but the victory is cold comfort for State Farm, which in the meantime elected prudently to calm the litigation storm by paying tens of millions of dollars to settle claims for unproven wind damage. Voila! The safety net had a brand new strand, woven at the insurance company's expense.
Disgusted, State Farm announced last year that it would cease writing new homeowners policies in Mississippi.
As more private insurers withdraw from high-hazard areas--or raise their rates to reflect the staggering legal and public relations costs of offering disaster insurance--a predictable lament arises: the free market has failed, and government must fill the vacuum so that the statist safety net remains strong. Thus it surprises no one to hear Florida Gov. Charlie Crist challenging this year's presidential candidates to support creation of a federal catastrophic fund that would keep insurance premiums artificially low in disaster-prone areas across the country.
But the solution is not more of the market distortions and perverse incentives that have lured so many people into harm's way. The solution is to replace the prevailing entitlement mentality with a free market in disaster prevention, insurance, and recovery.
In a free market--without tax-paid levees, government disaster relief, or subsidized insurance--anyone who contemplates building or buying property in a high-hazard area will need to face hard facts about the local history of natural disasters, the efficacy and cost of preventive measures, and the availability of insurance.
For example, the high price--or total unavailability--of private insurance will resound like a clanging alarm bell, signaling the market's objective view that a particular building plan is abnormally risky compared to less dangerous locales.
With their own lives and wealth at stake, people will have every incentive to evaluate risks objectively. And if hardy souls still choose to occupy and fortify New Orleans, or build on an earthquake fault, or live in a tornado alley, the risk and reward will be theirs alone. No longer will government make disasters more disastrous by pretending that citizens have a right to defy the forces of nature at others' expense.
Set Yahoo! Free
By Alex Epstein
Yahoo! has just released its first-quarter earnings numbers, and neither the market nor analysts are impressed. What will be the company's next move? Multiple suitors claim that they can leverage Yahoo!'s online products and talented employees better than Yahoo!'s widely criticized management is doing. The leading bidder is Microsoft, whose $40 billion offer it is prepared to take directly to Yahoo! shareholders via a proxy fight. Other proposals said to be in the running are an advertising collaboration with Google, a merger with AOL, and a possible deal involving News Corp (including MySpace).
The stakes are high. The right move could lead Yahoo! to a new level of innovation and profit, while the wrong move could cause the company's value to plummet.
Unfortunately, the fate of Yahoo! will not be determined simply by who makes the best proposal to shareholders--but by whose proposal antitrust bureaucrats arbitrarily deem sufficiently "competitive."
Consider the Microsoft bid. If Yahoo! shareholders decide the Microsoft bid is best for their company, and want to move forward immediately with the challenging task of combining two companies with thousands of employees, they may be prohibited from doing so. Antitrust enforcers could hold up progress for months deliberating whether the merger is "anticompetitive"--and then possibly kill it altogether. Competitor Google is cheerleading this outcome, claiming on its official blog that "Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet."
But a Microsoft and Yahoo! combined market share offers no threat to competition whatsoever--a fact that search-giant Google should know, given that the once-puny company was able to out-compete the once-dominant Yahoo! and the mighty Microsoft. Whether a market is competitive is not determined by the number of competitors or the percentage of customers that choose to buy their products; it is determined by whether companies are free to attempt to outdo one another to win over customers with superior products. The fact that someone is winning in a market by a large margin does not make the situation anti-competitive. It illustrates that competitive freedom has produced a company with superlative products.
Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! have high market shares only insofar as their products are more appealing to consumers than are their competitors'. None of these companies, or any combination of two or even three of them, can force a single consumer to use its services instead of a more attractive search engine or web portal available--nor can it prevent competitors from outdoing it with superior products.
A Microsoft-Yahoo! combination could not threaten competition. To the contrary, it would be an act of free competition, an ambitious attempt by two companies to improve their products by combining strengths. What would actually stop competition would be to prevent the shareholders of these companies from making a move they regard as vital to their success.
The threat of antitrust prosecution is also impeding Google's own efforts to make a deal with Yahoo!. Google has proposed that Yahoo! outsource its search advertising to Google, a move that some analysts say could boost Yahoo!'s ad revenue by 25 percent. Unfortunately, if Yahoo! agrees to the deal, the government will likely kill it because, once again, the companies have a high combined market share. According to Reuters, "Antitrust experts said regulators would likely oppose any permanent alliance between Google and Yahoo." And, just as Google is calling Microsoft's bid anti-competitive given its market share, Microsoft is saying the same of Google: "Any definitive agreement between Yahoo and Google would consolidate over 90 percent of the search advertising market in Google's hands," Microsoft's general counsel complained. "This would make the market far less competitive."
In reality, no deal between Google and Yahoo! is a threat to anyone besides inferior competitors; neither company can force even one person to click on http://www.google.com/. Yahoo! should be able to field and accept any offer from Google it chooses--including a full-blown acquisition. Indeed, it is very possible that if cash-rich Google were not terrified of antitrust prosecution, it, like Microsoft, would try to acquire Yahoo! outright. Such a deal might be Yahoo! shareholders' best option and make possible a whole new level of Internet content--but under antitrust, it won't even come to the table.
What we are observing in the battle over Yahoo! is not genuine, merit-based competition, but competition based on political pull. He who cajoles antitrust bureaucrats to endorse his deal and stop his competitors, wins.
Instead of attempting to outdo one another in crying to the government, Google and Microsoft should take a principled stand in favor of open competition for Yahoo!--a competition in which the company's fate is decided by who makes the best business proposal and not who has the craftiest lobbyists and lawyers.
More broadly, they--and we--should call into question the antitrust laws that make competition-by-pull possible.
In my paper, I described the function of emotions this way: “They give one an automatic, instantaneous response to percept(s) or imagination, based on previously formed judgments that are stored in the subconscious.” Dr. Ghate did not object to this sentence, but he asked if I could describe the function of emotions from a philosophical, rather than a psychological, perspective. I am used to thinking about emotions from a psychological perspective, so I wasn’t sure what he was looking for. To help clue me in, Ghate said, “Think about it this way. What is the function of the subconscious?” (To be clear, for the purpose of this article, when I use the term “subconscious,” I am referring to the aspect of consciousness that stores and retrieves data in the form of concepts.) Now this question, I had an answer for. I devoted a paragraph to the teleology of the subconscious in my article on Mind-Body Integration. I reproduce it below:
“The teleology of the subconscious must now be considered. Man is able to deal with vast quantities of information because his subconscious provides him information related to whatever his mind is focused on at any particular time. If one's mind is well organized in a hierarchical fashion, then the subconscious will provide information stored close by within the hierarchy. Conceptual units may be interrelated and cross-classified in a variety of ways, and the subconscious aims to provide the focal awareness with related information. For instance, if one is thinking about snakes, his subconscious will send him units related to snakes, like reptile, or animal, or some memory of an encounter with a snake, or some emotion related to snakes (like fear), etc. The information provided depends both on the organization of one's mind and the context in which the idea arises in the focal awareness.”
I gave Dr. Ghate some approximation of this paragraph (including the snake example) during our conversation. Once again, my tack on the question was much more psychological than philosophical. With more prodding from Ghate, I was able to reduce it down to a more fundamental point: The function of the subconscious is to make one’s knowledge immediately available to him. Now how does this relate to emotions? Dr. Ghate finally gave me his answer.
The function of emotion is to make one’s values immediately available to him. This formulation sounds similar to the one I started with, but the comparison to the function of the subconscious opens up more avenues of thought.
The subconscious provides one with an instantaneous stream of data related to whatever he is focusing on. If one is having a discussion about nationalized healthcare, for instance, his subconscious may stand at the ready with data about economics and capitalism generally, the pharma industry in particular, and a variety of related concrete examples. During the discussion, a rational (non-insane) man’s mind would not respond with information about puppies, black holes, and the Illiad, because these things are not directly relevant. This has survival value, because the data stored in one’s subconscious can become vast over a lifetime. If one had to manually sort through every piece of knowledge he ever acquired for each new process of thought, he would be utterly paralyzed.
Because the functioning of the subconscious is automatic, it cannot do one’s thinking for him. While one is discussing nationalized healthcare, his mind will provide him with many different items of knowledge. But one must choose which ideas to focus on, how to organize them in his focal awareness, and how to present them in conversation. If one were to simply blurt out everything that his subconscious brought to mind, he would be unable to utter a complete thought. He would wander from subject to subject, never completing a sentence, never communicating anything effectively, neither to himself nor anyone else. (Those who have known me for a while may recognize this as an exact description of the 17-year-old Dan trying to explain Objectivism :)
Also, even a healthy mind may provide data that are seemingly relevant, but which do not in fact lead one in the right direction. In thinking about the ills of government-sponsored health insurance, one’s mind may wander to whether or not he paid his insurance premium this month. One must keep his mind focused in order to filter out data that is nonessential in any particular context. One has a crucial epistemological responsibility to separate his conscious and subconscious mind, and always to organize and evaluate the ideas that are automatically provided by the subconscious.
Emotions, too, have survival value because they reduce one’s values into an instantaneous response to whatever one is focusing on. Just as one’s knowledge becomes vast over time, so one’s evaluations become vast. If every is implies an ought, then there are as many (implicit) evaluations stored in one’s mind as there are items of knowledge. If one had to manually sort though every judgment he ever made, or could make, before choosing a course of action, he would be paralyzed.
But emotions are also automatic, and they cannot be used as a substitute for thinking. When discussing nationalized healthcare, one may experience a negative emotional response, clueing him in to the fact that it is evil. This emotional response is based on a variety of related evaluations: the value of health care, the value of free trade, and the disvalue of government intervention, to name a few. But one must use his focal awareness to determine which evaluations are relevant in the present context. One’s emotions may conflict with his conscious evaluations, in which case only reason can resolve the conflict.
Also, even a healthy mind may provide automatized evaluations that are seemingly relevant, but are in fact nonessential. For instance, imagine that a doctor is having the nationalized healthcare discussion with a new acquaintance whom he judges to be fundamentally rational, but who retains some bad ideas. And this acquaintance is defending nationalized healthcare partially as a devil’s advocate. The doctor, who is intimately familiar with the evil effects of socialized medicine, may experience an overwhelmingly negative emotional response. He may feel himself growing very angry. But he is angry at the idea and its consequences, not at this new acquaintance who is honestly trying to unravel the issue for himself. It would be wrong of the doctor to lash out at his potential new friend. Again, one must keep his mind focused in order to filter out data that is nonessential in any particular context.
I think this comparison of the subconscious to emotions is brilliant, and I want to thank Dr. Ghate for the formulation. I must add that, while I think that Ghate would agree with most of what I wrote here, he only presented the formulation in general terms. The examples and extrapolations are all mine.
The broader point, and the one which I wish to develop further in the future, is that the mental mechanism for the subconscious and for emotions is the same. I believe that the mind treats automatized concepts, memories, physical motions, evaluations, and emotions as interrelated units. One can follow the development of this theory by reading The Psycho-Epistemology of Acting, Mind-Body Integration, and The Psycho-Epistemology of Sexuality (especially part III.) I’ll get around to writing a book about it one of these days.
Thanks for reading,
--Dan Edge
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Thanks to Ari Armstrong for posting this item on Dinesh D'Souza's Townhall column "What Muslims Really Think." In his column he does something that find stunning. He asserts the hypothesis that most Muslims are freedom-loving individuals.
The problem for most Muslims is Western liberalism. But here we must distinguish between two kinds of liberalism. There is the classical liberalism of the American founding. Call this Liberalism 1. This liberalism is reflected in such principles as the right to vote, to assemble freely, to debate issues, to trade with others, to practice one’s religion, political and religious toleration, and so on.
Then there is the modern liberalism of the 1960s. Call this Liberalism 2. This liberalism is defined by such tenets as the right to blaspheme, the complete exclusion of religious symbols from the public square, the right of teenage boys and girls to receive sex education and contraceptives, the right to abortion, prostitution as a worker's right, pornography as a protected form of expression, gay rights and gay marriage, and so on...
Now we are in a better position to understand Islamic attitudes regarding the West. The vast majority of Muslims worldwide embrace Liberalism 1 while rejecting Liberalism 2. They are generally comfortable with classical liberalism while abhorring the tenets of modern liberalism.
Let's understand this. A religious, conservative commentator actually wants us to believe that it is religious traditions, both Christian and Islamic that are compatible and benevolent towards classical liberalism? The implication is no different than the philosophical interpretations of conservative legal intellectual Robert Bork in his Slouching Towards Gomorrah, which I blogged about recently. Except D'Souza gives it a religous basis, and in so doing, finds more in common with Muslims who tolerate radical hatred of the West.
Freedom and liberty exist to the extent that government is limited to the province of protecting individual rights, not trampling them in the name of some sort of social morality. Islam is not a peaceful religion held hostage, but is instead implicitly tolerant of the ideas that the radicals preach.
Our newest Oblogger, Kostubh, highlights the same argument being made half a world away, in his latest, "The Myth of Moderate Islam." In it he points us to an Indian review of a Pakistani film “Khuda Kay Liye” (For God’s sake) which attempts to equate the violence of radical Islam and the response of the US to the 9/11 attacks. And the author is wise to spot the contradiction.
What interested me most about the film was that in seeking to show Islam in a good light, it accidentally exposes the prejudices that make moderate Muslims the ideological partners of jihadis. In painting America as the villain of our times, the prejudices against the West that get exposed are no different from what Mohammad Siddique, one of London’s tube bombers, said in the suicide video he made before blowing himself up. In the video, that surfaced during the trial now on in London, he describes himself as a soldier in the war against the West: ‘I’m doing what I am for Islam, not, you know, for materialistic or worldly benefits.’
The same contradiction exists in D'Souza's piece of course. In mis-identifying the essentials of classical liberalism and liberty as the outgrowth of religious traditions, he unwittingly shows us his distaste for the very basis of individual rights. Notice the contradictions inherent in his lists of Liberalism 1 and Liberalism 2. The right to "debate the issues" unless your side of the debate questions the existence of God (blasphemy); the "right to vote" and submit to the will of the majority if the vote doesn't go your way on something like abortion; the "right to toleration" unless you're gay. ; the right to "trade with others" unless that trade involves paying someone to teach your kids the way you desire or to perform certain "questionable" medical procedures on your own body.
What interests me about the D'Souza piece is that in justifying the idea of a "moderate" Islam, he shows us the very mechanism through which "radical" Islam is allowed to perpetrate it's crimes. For if the blowback against elements of liberty that one finds distasteful is justified, in idea, then how long will it be before someone straps a bomb to their chest and puts the idea into practice? And who will actively oppose them?
That D'Souza would draw a line in the sand and side with religious influence shows me the true extent to which religious intolerance has become a force in today's society. In doing so he is uprooting classical liberalism from its secular grounding. If he wishes to see the logical end of such an association he need only look to the best example of it's logical, consistent end in today's world, radical Islam.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
"Mecca is the direction all Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers. The call was issued at a conference held in the Gulf state of Qatar under the title: Mecca, the Center of the Earth, Theory and Practice. One geologist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca's was in perfect alignment to magnetic north. He said the English had imposed GMT on the rest of the world by force when Britain was a big colonial power, and it was about time that changed.Just as their fundamentalist Christian opposite numbers are "unearthing" and publicizing Biblical explanations for everything, from the true age of the universe to the fate of the dinosaurs to the squirms of bacteria. Actually, Greenwich Mean Time was adopted by international agreement and refined in the 1920s by astronomical scientists from around the world. Force had nothing to do with it. But perhaps the most bizarre news from Qatar is the announcement of a special Muslim watch.
"The underlying belief is that scientific truths were also revealed in the Muslim holy book, and it is the work of scholars to unearth and publicize the textual evidence."
"The meeting also reviewed what has been described as a Mecca watch, the brainchild of a French Muslim. The watch is said to rotate anti-clockwise and is supposed to help Muslims determine the direction of Mecca from any point on Earth."This must earn a special reward for sheer irrationality. But, the "scientific" conference of Muslims is evidence of the hubris Islamists are experiencing as they throttle and subjugate the West. Christians are not the only mystics who wish to make science the servant of religion.
"The United States is the world's largest recipient of foreign direct investment. According to the Economic Report of the President, in 2004, foreigners owned $5.5 trillion in U.S. assets and had $2.3 trillion in sales. They produced $515 billion of goods and services....According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2006 alone, foreign investors spent $184 billion investing in U.S. businesses and real estate, the highest amount foreign investors have spent since 2000...."Williams can be forgiven for not noting it - his focus was on the anti-free trade sentiment in the U.S. - but many of those "foreign investors" are Mideast potentates of the Persian Gulf who control what are called "sovereign wealth funds" (SWFs), which total over $1 trillion. An April 12th article on the MoneyNews site, "Mideast Wealth Funds Rescue Developers," notes that
"Flush with cash and looking for better-than-modest returns, several Middle East sovereign wealth funds are putting money into carefully selected U.S. real estate ventures.Note that the term "sovereign" means "government" - and the term includes the so-called "personal wealth" of about 50,000 royal family members spread between Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, their particular family heads being the government. As for the real meaning of the term "wealth," in the context of OPEC and Arab medievalists, it means "loot." The "loot" is the revenue generated by private Western oil properties which Western governments, particularly those of the U.S., Britain, and France, should never have allowed the Arabs to nationalize or otherwise expropriate from the oil companies. The oil companies, for their part, seeing that their properties were not going to be protected by their respective governments, pragmatically entered into "partnerships" with the tribalist ruling cliques in that region, over the decades expanding and improving the properties and cementing their survival on those partnerships.
"The funds, controlled by their governments of origin, have already pumped billions of investment dollars into U.S. companies and enterprises, but cash allocations to real estate ventures is a relatively new phenomenon." (Italics mine.)
"The U.S. Treasury is struggling with how to handle any political or Islamic ramifications as Persian Gulf sovereign wealth funds look to make substantial investments in capital-poor American banks and securities firms.SWF investments in the genuinely productive Western economies are tantamount to our own federal government buying controlling or minimal interests in private corporations, which technically would be fascism. What does the infusion of SWFs in private corporations portend?
"WND previously reported sovereign wealth funds in six Persian Gulf countries, including Kuwait, the U.A.E. and Qatar, have now amassed $1.7 trillion, positioning them for attempts to control major banks and securities firms in the U.S.
"Since the beginning of the year, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, two of the largest U.A.E. states, have been in discussions with the U.S. Treasury, offering reassurances that their investments in U.S. bank and security firms would not impose restrictions usually dictated by Islamic law, commonly known as Sharia."
"...Recently thwarted FDI [foreign direct investment] projects in the United States reveal that organized interest groups have sought to target and derail Saudi investments. Locals who objected to Saudi Arabian investment into their community have made a comparison of legitimate Saudi investments to suspect illegal organizations. One project failed as a small group of activists launched a media campaign accusing [sic, alleging?] terrorist ties.The author, Tanya C. Hsu, protesteth too much, very likely under the instructions of her Saudi employers. Note that the Saudis group themselves with other "foreigners," as though they were in the same class with private British, French, or other non-governmental foreign risk takers who have invested money in American companies. Note also that the Saudis pose as "victims" of actions taken by Americans who fear an economic takeover of the U.S. by powers hostile to its republican character, without mentioning proven Saudi complicity in funding terrorism, or Saudi-funded political activist groups such as CAIR, or Saudi "libel tourists" who sue authors and publishers to suppress publication of books that demonstrate the links between Saudi money and terrorist activities.
"Many Saudi investors are also concerned about becoming victims of lawsuits. Saudi and other foreign investors with no complicity whatsoever with 9/11 or links to terrorism nevertheless perceive the aggressive efforts of an army of U.S. lawyers and entrenched interest groups to 'link and accuse' foreigners in a broad net of litigation. The threat of becoming ensnared in such lawsuits has been reason enough to avoid long-term investments in U.S. markets. If plaintiff efforts to freeze and tie up investments in advance of any evidence of guilt succeed, foreign faith in U.S. financial markets will suffer." [Italics mine to underscore one of the veiled threats.]
"One American financial institution that has attracted Saudi investments is the Washington-based Carlyle Group, whose principal officers include several members of the Saudis' favorite American government of modern times, the first Bush administration. Its principals, who have made millions of dollars from the firm, include former Office of Management and Budget director Richard Darman, former secretary of state [and now defense secretary] James A. Baker III. Former president George H.W. Bush is also a well-paid advisor to Carlyle. Bush has traveled to Saudi Arabia on Carlyle's behalf." [Carlyle, incidentally, failed at the same time as Bear Sterns in the government-caused sub-prime mortgage debacle.]No doubt Bush Senior has often visited Saudi Arabia with his $100 million buddy, Bill Clinton, whose presidential library in Arkansas received $10 million in donations from the Saudis and untold millions from other Persian Gulf billionaires. Clinton's own Arab connections are probably greater than what has filtered through the media sieve.
"President Clinton's new $165 million library was funded in part by gifts of $1 million or more each from the Saudi royal family and three Saudi businessmen. The governments of Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar and the deputy prime minister of Lebanon all also appear to have donated $1 million or more for the archive and museum that opened last week."In exchange for what? For practicing grand scale political chicanery to enfeeble America and deliver it in a state of dhimmitude to its destroyers.
"Then she saw the answer; she saw the secret premise behind their words. With all of their noisy devotion to the age of science, their hysterically technological jargon, their cyclotrons, their sound rays, these men were moved forward, not by the image of an industrial skyline, but by the vision of that form of existence which the industrialists had swept away - the vision of a fat, unhygienic rajah of India, with vacant eyes staring in indolent stupor out of stagnant layers of flesh, with nothing to do but run precious gems through his fingers and, once in a while, stick a knife into the body of a starved, toil-dazed, germ-eaten creature, as a claim to a few grains of the creature's rice, then claim it from hundreds of millions of such creatures and thus let the rice grains gather into gems." (p. 948, hardcover)Or into pyramids in the Mideast deserts. Are Americans willing to starve and toil as environmentally acceptable germ-eaten creatures to help the Islamic rajahs of the Persian Gulf build them? For that is the secret means and end of the wielders of SWFs. It remains to be seen.
...[A] mathematician discovers timeless truths independent of human observation and free of the transient nature of physical reality. "The abstract realm in which a mathematician works is by dint of prolonged intimacy more concrete to him than the chair he happens to sit on," says Ulf Persson of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, a self-described Platonist.But the Platonists are forced to deal with some tricky implications of their views:
Those who espouse discovery note that mathematical statements are true or false regardless of personal beliefs, suggesting that they have some external reality. But this leads to some odd notions. Where, exactly, do these mathematical truths exist? Can a mathematical truth really exist before anyone has ever imagined it?In contrast, there are those who believe that such talk of an abstract realm is just mystical hogwash:
Brian Davies, a mathematician at King's College London, writes that Platonism "has more in common with mystical religions than with modern science." And modern science, he believes, provides evidence to show that the Platonic view is just plain wrong. He titled his article "Let Platonism Die."But the latter school is faced with a different set of intractable questions:
...Reuben Hersh of the University of New Mexico ...rejects the Platonic view, arguing instead that mathematics is a product of human culture, not fundamentally different from other human creations like music or law or money.
On the other hand, if math is invented, then why can't a mathematician legitimately invent that 2 + 2 = 5?The solution to this millenia-old argument is to abandon both the intrisicist approach of the Platonists and the subjectivist approach of their opponents. Instead, mathematical concepts (like all concepts) are neither intrinsic nor subjective but objective. It is in debates like this where the Objectivist approach to epistemology and concept formation prove their value -- in being able to cut through the errors made over the centuries by struggling philosophers and mathematicians.
...The challenge, [Hersh] admits, is to explain why it is that mathematical statements can be definitively true or false, not subject to taste or whim.
The concept of number as used in science today is one of man's greatest achievements: a grand-scale integration capping centuries of effort and enabling a vastly expanded efficacy in all areas of life. But the growth in complexity of the number system has rendered the meaning of number ever more mysterious; number is seen both as a touchstone of certainty and as an arbitrary human construct whose applicability to the real world is a deep mystery. This is because the nature of number has not been properly identified; and as Ayn Rand pointed out, that imprecision is dangerous.She is also offering a follow-up course at this year's 2008 OCON, "Two, Three, Four and All That: The Sequel":
This course clarifies the meaning of "number" by examining it in the light of Miss Rand's theory of concepts. Recognizing the objectivity of number provides a new framework for resolving both historical and modern debates, and yields a heightened appreciation for the science of mathematics as a whole—further reinforcing the value of Objectivist epistemology.
Science shelves of bookstores are today awash in accounts of modern extensions of the idea of number, including infinity and the continuum, set theory, transfinite numbers, and the like. Many of these ideas, and the "mysteries" that proceed from them, figure prominently in modern philosophy and in popular discussion of the nature and limits of reason.I have long had an interest in those topics such as foundations of set theory, the nature of the concept "infinity", etc. Hence, if her 2008 course is as good as her 2007 course, then it promises to be a real treat. Diana and I have already signed up for it.
In this course, Dr. Corvini explains and evaluates some of the most influential of these ideas, using as a frame of reference both their historical context and the view of number as objective developed in her earlier courses. By identifying the fundamental nature of the ideas and of the errors involved, we see again the importance of a proper theory of concepts, and clarify the differences between an objective approach to mathematics and the more traditional views.
I want to thank The Gazette for its editorial advocating concealed carry on campus ("UCCS students want their guns," Our View, April 13).On April 22nd, I participated in the "Empty Holster Protest" at CU Boulder. It was sponsored by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. As for the importance of concealed carry on campus, John Lott recently published an op-ed on the dangers posed by gun-free zones like college campuses.
I'm a graduate student instructor at CU Boulder. Since 2001 I've been licensed to carry a concealed firearm in Colorado. Every time I hear of a new school shooting, I worry that some psychopath might unleash his rage on my campus. University policy forbids any firearms on campus. I obey that policy but it won't stop a killer from waltzing onto campus armed to the teeth. So if my students and I were in his path, we could only cower in fear in a corner of the classroom, helplessly waiting for him to kill us.
If the university respected my concealed carry permit, my good aim could protect my students from such an unthinkable end. Since I'm a law-abiding citizen trained in the proper use of firearms, my gun poses no danger whatsoever to other peaceful people.
CU's anti-gun policy is wrong. It ought to be changed, not just in Colorado Springs, but in Boulder, too.
I applaud the efforts of the UCCS chapter of Concealed Carry on Campus.
Such efforts are just starting at Boulder, too. Students and parents wanting to advocate concealed carry at CU Boulder should contact Jim Manley at james.m.manley@colorado.edu.
Diana Hsieh, Sedalia
The right of the people to be secure in their ..., papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,....In 2006, the district court of California ruled in his favor. The ruling stated: "The government ... argues that, even if the minimal Fourth Amendment standard of reasonable suspicion applies to such searches, its search of Arnold's laptop... comported with that standard."
It might seem odd that returning from the Philippines is "reasonable suspicion"; but, the officers also questioned him. Without knowing the details, I'll simply assume that there was something suspicious about his answers. So, that part does not concern me.
What does concern me is something else the government claimed: "... that the border search of information stored in a computer hard drive is not subject to Fourth Amendment protection."
This claim is far more serious, because the government is claiming the right to search laptops of anyone at the border, without any suspicion whatsoever. Even if one grants the legitimacy of customs searches for contraband, how can the government claim the right to extend such a search beyond the physical?Ayn Rand Institute Press Release
And You Thought It Was Your Room
April 16, 2008
Irvine, CA--Is it legal for a roommate locator service to match up customers according to their mutual preferences: male or female, gay or straight, have children or childless? Probably not, according to a recent federal appellate court decision in Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com. That's because the federal Fair Housing Act and a similar California law ban discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, or marital status in housing transactions.
"This lawsuit attacks individual liberty in a particularly sensitive area," said Thomas Bowden, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute. "Adults who contemplate sharing living space should have absolute contractual freedom to use a roommate-matching service that treats their own individual preferences as paramount.
"It's perfectly obvious that an incompatible roommate can make life miserable, as anyone who has occupied a freshman dorm room can testify. People should not have to get government permission to arrange their private affairs according to their own best judgment.
"The government's job is to protect you against physical force and fraud, not to overrule your preference for a roommate who shares your sexual orientation--or not; who is of the same sex--or not; or who has children--or not.
"The law should respect and protect the right of Roommates.com, or any other such matching service, to design a questionnaire that suits their customers' needs. Roommate seekers who object to a particular questionnaire are free to find another matching service, or to start their own.
"This case illustrates why the Fair Housing Act, which does nothing but infringe on freedom of contract in the housing market, should be repealed."
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Mr. Bowden is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute, focusing on legal issues. A former lawyer and law school instructor, who practiced for twenty years in Baltimore, Maryland, his op-eds have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Daily News, and many other newspapers. Mr. Bowden has given dozens of radio interviews and has appeared on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes.
Thomas Bowden is available for interviews.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550 ext. 213
For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
The Danger of Environmentalism
By Michael S. Berliner
Earth Day approaches, and with it a grave danger faces mankind. The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog, or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe. The danger to mankind is from environmentalism.
The fundamental goal of environmentalism is not clean air and clean water; rather, it is the demolition of technological/industrial civilization. Environmentalism's goal is not the advancement of human health, human happiness, and human life; rather, it is a subhuman world where "nature" is worshipped like the totem of some primitive religion.
In a nation founded on the pioneer spirit, environmentalists have made "development" an evil word. They inhibit or prohibit the development of Alaskan oil, offshore drilling, nuclear power--and every other practical form of energy. Housing, commerce, and jobs are sacrificed to spotted owls and snail darters. Medical research is sacrificed to the "rights" of mice. Logging is sacrificed to the "rights" of trees. No instance of the progress that brought man out of the cave is safe from the onslaught of those "protecting" the environment from man, whom they consider a rapist and despoiler by his very essence.
Nature, they insist, has "intrinsic value," to be revered for its own sake, irrespective of any benefit to man. As a consequence, man is to be prohibited from using nature for his own ends. Since nature supposedly has value and goodness in itself, any human action that changes the environment is necessarily immoral. Of course, environmentalists invoke the doctrine of intrinsic value not against wolves that eat sheep or beavers that gnaw trees; they invoke it only against man, only when man wants something.
The ideal world of environmentalism is not twenty-first-century Western civilization; it is the Garden of Eden, a world with no human intervention in nature, a world without innovation or change, a world without effort, a world where survival is somehow guaranteed, a world where man has mystically merged with the "environment." Had the environmentalist mentality prevailed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we would have had no Industrial Revolution, a situation that consistent environmentalists would cheer--at least those few who might have managed to survive without the life-saving benefits of modern science and technology.
The expressed goal of environmentalism is to prevent man from changing his environment, from intruding on nature. That is why environmentalism is fundamentally anti-man. Intrusion is necessary for human survival. Only by intrusion can man avoid pestilence and famine. Only by intrusion can man control his life and project long-range goals. Intrusion improves the environment, if by "environment" one means the surroundings of man--the external material conditions of human life. Intrusion is a requirement of human nature. But in the environmentalists' paean to "Nature," human nature is omitted. For environmentalism, the "natural" world is a world without man. Man has no legitimate needs, but trees, ponds, and bacteria somehow do.
They don't mean it? Heed the words of the consistent environmentalists. "The ending of the human epoch on Earth," writes philosopher Paul Taylor in Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics, "would most likely be greeted with a hearty 'Good riddance!'" In a glowing review of Bill McKibben's The End of Nature, biologist David M. Graber writes (Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1989): "Human happiness [is] not as important as a wild and healthy planet . . . . Until such time as Homo sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along." Such is the naked essence of environmentalism: it mourns the death of one whale or tree but actually welcomes the death of billions of people. A more malevolent, man-hating philosophy is unimaginable.
The guiding principle of environmentalism is self-sacrifice, the sacrifice of longer lives, healthier lives, more prosperous lives, more enjoyable lives, i.e., the sacrifice of human lives. But an individual is not born in servitude. He has a moral right to live his own life for his own sake. He has no duty to sacrifice it to the needs of others and certainly not to the "needs" of the nonhuman.
To save mankind from environmentalism, what's needed is not the appeasing, compromising approach of those who urge a "balance" between the needs of man and the "needs" of the environment. To save mankind requires the wholesale rejection of environmentalism as hatred of science, technology, progress, and human life. To save mankind requires the return to a philosophy of reason and individualism, a philosophy that makes life on earth possible.
Michael S. Berliner is cochairman of the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
This Op-Ed was published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Calgary Herald, and El Nuevo Herald (April 22, 2004)
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
April 17, 2008
Woodstock's Legacy: The Rise of Environmentalism and the Religious Right
Who: Yaron Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A Ford Hall Forum talk that will consider how the opposing forces of reason and emotionalism have manifested themselves in American culture in the four decades since Woodstock, with special focus on the rise of religion and environmentalism. A Q&A will follow.
Where: Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street, Boston, MA
When: Thursday, May 8, 2008, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The public and media are invited. Admission is FREE.
Summary: In 1969 Ayn Rand's Ford Hall Forum talk, "Apollo and Dionysus," addressed the nearly simultaneous events of Woodstock and the first lunar landing. Employing Greek mythology's god of the sun and god of wine, she compared the awe-inspiring accomplishments of NASA's Apollo space program to the famous three-day concert that has come to exemplify the counterculture of the 1960s and the "hippie era." Almost four decades later, Dr. Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, reflects on her words and explores the implications of how American culture since Woodstock has valued individualism relative to collectivism and civilization relative to primitivism.
Bio: Yaron Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and is a contributing editor to The Objective Standard. A former finance professor, he has published in academic as well as popular publications. He is frequently interviewed in the media and appears weekly on the new Fox Business Network to debate and discuss current economic and business news. His columns and opinion-editorials are published on forbes.com and in many major newspapers. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.
For more information on this talk, please e-mail events@aynrand.org
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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: larryb@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
Established in 1908, the Ford Hall Forum is celebrating one hundred years of hosting public lectures in Boston, Massachusetts, by leading cultural figures, politicians and intellectuals. From 1961 to 1981, Ayn Rand was a frequent speaker at the Forum. Several of her lectures were subsequently published as essays in such books as The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought. Since her death, Dr. Leonard Peikoff has spoken at the Forum on a number of occasions, most recently in 2003. Dr. Brook spoke at the Forum for the first time in 2006.
Ayn Rand Institute Press Release
Tax Code Should Not Be Used to Dictate Our Values
April 17, 2008
Irvine, CA--In "Life And Taxes," an opinion piece published today on forbes.com, Dr. Yaron Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, argued that the government has no right to use tax policies to influence anyone's behavior.
The government's job, according to Dr. Brook, "is not to dictate your values but to protect them. In a free country, you choose values and then use your own money as a tool to achieve them. But a value-rigged tax policy reverses this cause and effect--it uses your money against you, bribing you with tax breaks that let you keep some of your earnings in exchange for abandoning your preferred values."
Our current tax policy, Dr. Brook explained, "works by attaching financial incentives to a long list of values deemed morally worthy. If you want to maximize your wealth come tax time--and who doesn't?--you must look at the world through tax-colored glasses, 'voluntarily' adjusting your behavior to suit social norms and thereby qualifying for tax breaks. In this way, the social engineers of tax policy preserve the impression that you're exercising free choice, while they're actually dispensing with your reason and your judgment."
If government were restricted to its proper functions of defending individual rights and stopped trying to socially engineer our behavior through the tax code, concluded Dr. Brook, "a great burden would be lifted, not just from the economy, but from our lives."
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PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
The Threat of Totalitarian Islam
A panel discussion at Berkeley
What: A panel discussion on the nature and threat of totalitarian Islam, followed by a Q&A
Who: Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute; Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum; and Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
Where: UC Berkeley, 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley, CA
When: Tuesday, April 29, 2008, at 7 pm
Admission is FREE and open to the public.
Description: What is the nature of totalitarian Islam--is it limited to terrorism or is it a broader movement? Are non-Muslims its only victims? Who precisely is the enemy? Does the West bear responsibility for creating this movement? What policies can defeat it?
Defenders of Islam around the world have striven to silence critics with threats, protests and acts of violence. How should the West respond to demands for censorship, as in the Danish cartoon controversy?
Panelists will address these critical issues in a lively discussion.
Bios:
Yaron Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and a recognized Middle East expert who has written and lectured on a variety of Middle East issues. Dr. Brook has discussed the Israeli-Arab conflict and the war on Islamic totalitarianism on hundreds of radio and TV programs, including FOX News (The O'Reilly Factor, Your World with Neil Cavuto, At Large with Geraldo Rivera), CNN's Talkback Live, CNBC's Closing Bell and On the Money, and a C-SPAN panel of experts on terrorism.
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate. Abroad, he appears weekly in Israel's Jerusalem Post, Italy's l'Opinione, Spain's La Razón, and monthly in Australia's and Canada's Globe and Mail. His Web site, DanielPipes.org, is the single most accessed Internet source of specialized information on the Middle East and Islam. Mr. Pipes has appeared on ABC World News, CBS Reports, Crossfire, Good Morning America, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, O’Reilly Factor, The Today Show, the BBC and Al-Jazeera.
Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall courses in military history and classical culture. Mr. Hanson received his PhD in classics from Stanford University in 1980 and is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, scholarly papers and newspaper editorials. He has written or edited 16 books.
For more information: e-mail media@aynrand.org
Please note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
The Threat of Totalitarian Islam
A panel discussion at Harvard University
What: A panel discussion on the nature and threat of totalitarian Islam, followed by a Q&A
Who: Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute; Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum; and Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch
Where: Harvard University, Emerson Hall, Room 105, Cambridge, MA
When: Tuesday, May 6, 2008, at 7:30 pm
Admission is FREE and open to the public.
Description: What is the nature of totalitarian Islam--is it limited to terrorism or is it a broader movement? Are non-Muslims its only victims? Who precisely is the enemy? Does the West bear responsibility for creating this movement? What policies can defeat it?
Defenders of Islam around the world have striven to silence critics with threats, protests and acts of violence. How should the West respond to demands for censorship, as in the Danish cartoon controversy?
Panelists will address these critical issues in a lively discussion.
Bios:
Yaron Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and a recognized Middle East expert who has written and lectured on a variety of Middle East issues. Dr. Brook has discussed the Israeli-Arab conflict and the war on Islamic totalitarianism on hundreds of radio and TV programs, including FOX News's The O'Reilly Factor, Your World with Neil Cavuto, At Large with Geraldo Rivera; CNN's Talkback Live; CNBC's Closing Bell and On the Money; and a C-SPAN panel of experts on terrorism.
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate. Abroad, he appears weekly in Israel's Jerusalem Post, Italy's l'Opinione, Spain's La Razón, and monthly in Australia's and Canada's Globe and Mail. His Web site, DanielPipes.org, is the single most accessed Internet source of specialized information on the Middle East and Islam. Mr. Pipes has appeared on ABC World News, CBS Reports, Crossfire, Good Morning America, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, O'Reilly Factor, The Today Show, the BBC and Al-Jazeera.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and the author of seven books on Islam and jihad, including the New York Times bestsellers The Truth about Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). Spencer is a weekly columnist for Human Events and FrontPage magazine, and also writes a weekly Qur'an commentary for HotAir.com. He has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the
For more information: e-mail media@aynrand.org
Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews now and after this event.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail:
Please note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
Here is an interesting signpost of how America is changing. Up to the '70s, one heard "goddamn" in polite conversation. It might have been considered salty, but it was something adults said regularly, kind of like saying "hell." You can find the expletive in Ayn Rand's novels.
I remember being surprised in the early '80s the first time a religious man asked me not to say "goddamn." I could hardly believe this person took the idea of God so seriously as to object to a meaningless swear word. Hell, I was an atheist saying the curse. It's not like I meant "Let a supernatural creature come forth and consign thee to the everlasting bonfire!"
Today the word has become less common. I think it has joined the four-letter words as a dirty word one should not say. I take this as another indicator that religion is taken more seriously today.
Lawrence Auster objects to the use of this word in the title of a book by William F. Buckley. 30 years ago, Auster would have been dismissed as a puritanical freak. Today I fear he is the future of conservatism.
This post is inspired by the State of Texas’ recent abduction of 416 kids from a polygamist compound.
One way to measure the degree of freedom in a society is by looking at the kinds of associations made by its members. A free people can choose to enter into any association they wish, and are not forced into any associations against their will. By associations, I include both social associations, such as friendships, meeting, publications, and marriages, as well as material associations, such as gifts, trade, business agreements, and common property. Voluntary associations are those entered into by mutual consent to mutual benefit. Non-voluntary associations (the status of minors aside) include taxes, crime, restrictions on trade and commerce, and any other regulation of consensual behavior that is imposed on individuals against their own judgment.
A free society requires a certain kind of tolerance for other people’s beliefs and associations. Because the term is unclear, it is necessary to distinguish two kinds of toleration. Political toleration is equal treatment under the law - the presumption that every human being has the same rights as everyone else. A violation of this kind of toleration is only possible in interactions that involve the threat or use of force. Political discrimination includes preferential or detrimental treatment of any group or individual based on any criteria other than an individual’s respect for the rights of others. Examples of political intolerance include laws that favor the rich or poor (such any government tax or fee that is not fixed), racial quotas, or limitations on contracts based on sexual orientation or the market share of one’s business.
In contrast to political toleration, social toleration is non-judgmentalism. As applied to cultural distinctions, it is known as multiculturalism. A total commitment to social toleration requires the presumption that no particular culture, way of life, or value system is superior to any other. Practically everyone engages in various kinds of social intolerance when they issue moral praise and condemnation, or choose to associate or dissociate with various people or groups based on their beliefs or identities. There are many levels of intolerance — we might buy our groceries from someone we would not necessarily want as a business partner or spouse.
I believe that a free people must be politically tolerant, but socially intolerant. Political tolerance is necessary because the freedom of association requires that individuals be able to establish any voluntary association they choose, including those that the majority disapproves of, such as polygamous relationships. A society that does not respect this right will eventually succumb to pressure group warfare followed by dictatorship, as conflicting moral views battle in the political arena until one seizes power by force. Social intolerance on the other hand, is necessary because in a society that does not use political means to prohibit destructive (but voluntary) behavior and ideas, people must rely on their own judgment for moral guidance. In order to live successfully in a politically pluralistic society, individuals need to use their own judgment to decide which associations are harmful or beneficial within the context of voluntary associations. (In this context, a presumption of innocence is equally important in social as well as political tolerance.)
Politically, freedom means the freedom to disagree - to be free to make choices regardless of the approval of others. A free people must be free to create and join religious cults, no matter how absurd their beliefs or how self-destructive their practices are. Socially, freedom requires an ethic of self-reliance and independent moral judgment. To survive and thrive in a free society, we must decide which people and groups to join and which ones to condemn and avoid.


Exploiting the Earth—using the raw materials of nature for one’s life-serving purposes—is a basic requirement of human life. According to environmentalism, however, man should not use nature for his needs; he should keep his hands off “the goods”; he should leave nature alone, come what may.
Environmentalism is not concerned with human health and wellbeing—neither ours nor that of generations to come. If it were, it would advocate the one social system that ensures that the Earth and its elements are used in the most productive, life-serving manner possible: capitalism.
Capitalism is the only social system that recognizes and protects each individual’s right to act in accordance with his basic means of living: the judgment of his mind. Environmentalism, of course, does not and cannot advocate capitalism, because if people are free to act on their judgment, they will strive to produce and prosper; they will transform the raw materials of nature onto the requirements of human life; they will exploit the Earth and live. (The Objective Standard - Principles in Practice, 04/17/08.)
What do we conclude from Hillary Clinton's 10-point win in Pennsylvania?
I don't think it matters which one wins, Obama or Clinton -- they're both Dead Democrats Walking. Neither can beat McCain. Clinton carries more baggage than a Greyhound bus. Obama, if he won the nomination, would be the furthest left-wing candidate for a major party in history.
More is coming out about Obama's terrorist friends, William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. They remain anti-American to this day; four decades of experience have failed to dent their radical premises. Dohrn is the only prominent voice who expressed approval of the Charles Manson murders. These are the people Obama chooses to hang around.
The more I watch Obama, the less I think of his intelligence. This is not something the MSM talk about at all. I suspect his vapidity and lack of substance come from a slow mind. The way he got rattled and incoherent in his last debate is more evidence. The guy is not sharp.
Obama makes Clinton look experienced, competent and of sound judgment. So Obama has accomplished something remarkable in his life after all.
I base my thoughts about Obama's hopelessness on what we have seen in Presidential elections since 1972. One big X factor could prove me wrong: have the American voters changed significantly? Is there a new "paradigm"? We keep hearing about these new voters, the Millennial Generation, who are always reported as the most altruist-statist-collectivist (and therefore, I would add, stupid) generation in history. These young Americans, we are told, are not afraid of the government, unlike those cynical older generations.
I wonder if liberal reporters are not projecting their premises on the Millennials. They see young people, who are typically idealistic, and think, "If they're idealistic, then they must be liberals, because right-wingers are selfish and immoral."
Leftists have always hoped to change human nature and form people who act as selfless cogs in the state machine. In the USSR they strove to create homo sovieticus. In the Millennials, they hope they have found the novo homo americanus.
But. But... maybe they have succeeded in creating voters so lacking in independence and pride that they will go along with the mob at the orders of a dictator. Young people are voting for Obama over Clinton, for whatever that's worth.
Of course, this election is complicated by the Republicans electing a big government candidate, John McCain. It's still too early to decide -- I intend to wait at least until Labor Day -- however, at the moment I think the candidate who would accomplish the least amount of damage to American freedom would be Hillary Clinton. It would not be for lack of trying on her part, but that she is so widely hated that she would have little support for any big sweeping changes. And the Republicans in Congress would be energized to fight her every step of the way.
What if your personal library could contain the best history books ever written?
Thomas Jefferson’s library at Monticello once numbered perhaps as many as 10,000 volumes. It was the largest personal collection of books in the United States of the Founding Era.
When the British burned the Capitol in 1814, Jefferson offered to sell his library to the government, providing a core of new reference materials for the representatives of the still young republic. Concerning the scope of the materials offered, of which 6500 volumes were eventually purchased, Jefferson commented, “there is in fact no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.” (Read more about Jefferson’s library here: Library of Congress.)

Of course, most of us do not have reason or occasion to amass a library of 6500, let alone 10,000 volumes. But wouldn’t it be great to have the books your really need?
What if you could build a history library of only the most essential texts, which would allow you to research any important historical topic and provide you with a gateway into the vast store of human knowledge about the past?
As my own collection of history books approaches the 2000-volume mark, I’ve decided to share my list of top ten books on four different crucial historical topics, for a total of only 40 books.
This includes my top ten books on each of these four topics:
You don’t have to scour libraries and bookstores, and spend thousands. I’ve done that! Take advantage of my groundwork, and build a great library with only forty. Over the next weeks, I’ll be sharing with my mailing list subscribers which 40 books out of my 2000 book library I would save if there were a fire in my house!
Don’t miss it! The first issue of this four-part series, I cannot live without books!–an exclusive e-zine series for Powell History mailing list subscribers, comes out this weekend. Be sure to join the Powell History Mailing List to get your recommendations, learn about Powell History products, and receive special offers for current and upcoming courses.

Another recent trend has been calls to extend the system to India's private sector.
Shifting to an economic base: Some of those to were admitted in the "reserved" quota, were good students, from well-off families, who used the quota as a way to get a final little edge in the extremely competitive Indian college entrance. This is bad, of course. However, now, people have begun to question why the system is based only on ancestry, and are suggesting that its intent is to uplift the poor. Therefore, the argument goes, anyone from a "scheduled caste" who has made it (has a decent family income), should not be allowed to use the quota. By keeping out those who were "gaming" the intent of the system (claiming incompetence where there was none), this new approach will allow even less competent people. This will make a bad system even worse.
An observation: Sometimes a friend will comment that attitudes in India are more capitalistic than in the U.S. , citing polls that show people in India reacting more positively to terms like "profit" and "capitalism". This is a mistaken view. Since the economy in India was so tightly controlled, what people are positive about are the new-found freedoms and the results. It does not follow that they want to be like the U.S. in politics. The basic political philosophy still aims for a mixed-economy, just not as socialist as before.
My personal visualization of this is : India is racing upward toward the "goal" that is Western Europe, while the U.S. is drifting downward toward that same goal.
A Lesson : A lesson I take away from India's reservation system, is that it's tough to rollback a government-given privilege. If I apply the lesson to U.S. politics today, I think it is critical not to allow the Federal government to make any significant move toward universal healthcare. If they do, it will become like public schools, where the NEA is a strong lobby against change, and where parents routinely vote against change from a fear of change.
Although I am usually loath to recommend any history book written after 1920, when the subject matter itself postdates WWI, you simply have no choice. And, truth be told, I have read more than a handful of quite excellent histories from modern writers, despite the dreadful state of the profession, so I’m willing to give credit where credit is due.
When it comes to the topic of European Union, the title I recommend is The Community of Europe by Derek Urwin. Although not quite fitting in the category of “excellent histories,” this work has many virtues.
The theme of this work is European integration. No historical topic can be more relevant to anyone wanting to understand Europe’s current course.
Ever since the disaster of WWII, Europeans have been trying to fashion a non-belligerent way of life amongst themselves, to create a “community” of nations. Their answer to this challenge has been the concept of “supranationalism.” In recent weeks, I have posted some of my thoughts on this topic in my essay on Europism (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 coming soon). In simple terms, supranationalism is the attempt to assert a broader collective self-identification in order to justify the creation of a “United States of Europe.”
Urwin looks mostly to the bleak years of post-WWII Europe when presenting his thesis. This is a reasonable approach, because it highlights the first tentative steps of the supranationalist agenda and shows how the European Union was formed in the period of European subordinacy to the Cold War superpowers. (Especially interesting is the role of Charles de Gaulle’s anti-Americanism in directing the early progress of the Union.)
The most important value of Urwin’s book is that it presents the basic progression–the story–of European integration from the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and European Economic Community (1957) to the Maastricht Treaty of European Union (ratified in 1993).
Two things are missing in this presentation: 1) The advent of supranationalism in the context of nationalism and internationalism is not sufficiently treated. To truly understand the genesis of the new approach one must understand the failure of its predecessors and how the former is derived from the latter. 2) A philosophical evaluation of supranationalism is also wanting. What the modern student of Europe needs to understand is the collectivist roots and nature of supranationalism and the collectivist responses of its opponents. Urwin provides the material for the student of political philosophy to work with, but he does not aid in the integration himself. That is up to the reader.
Still, the treatment is brief and relatively accessible. Consequently, you won’t too often find that the details are distracting or discouragingly complex–especially if you have the benefit of an initial orientation through my two-lecture history of Europe in the Twentieth Century, coming soon (part of “A First History for Adults,” Part 2). [Get the full course here!]
Also coming soon: Thomas Jefferson’s library had 6500 volumes it. Find out how you can be fully informed with just 40!I cannot live without books!–an exclusive e-zine series for Powell History mailing list subscribers– will help you create the ultimate history library. Be sure to join the Powell History Mailing List to get your recommendations.

Tax policy works by attaching financial incentives to a long list of values deemed morally worthy. If you want to maximize your wealth come tax time--and who doesn't?--you must look at the world through tax-colored glasses, "voluntarily" adjusting your behavior to suit social norms and thereby qualifying for tax breaks. In this way, the social engineers of tax policy preserve the impression that you're exercising free choice, while they're actually dispensing with your reason and your judgment. [bold added]This is, of course, on top of all the wasted time and effort this obscene ritual costs Americans every year. (HT: Paul Hsieh)

There is an implicit confession in this attack, which astonished me when I first noticed it. It reveals that some faithful apparently know that they are on shaky ground. They go to great lengths to evade it, but at least on some level they know that reason is valid and faith is not. This is indicated by the logic of their argument.Burgess Laughlin also draws an interesting analogy in the comments. (HT: Kendall J)

...[B]ecause Alex was able to produce a close approximation of the sounds of some English words, Pepperberg could ask him questions about a bird's basic understanding of the world. She couldn't ask him what he was thinking about, but she could ask him about his knowledge of numbers, shapes, and colors. To demonstrate, Pepperberg carried Alex on her arm to a tall wooden perch in the middle of the room. She then retrieved a green key and a small green cup from a basket on a shelf. She held up the two items to Alex's eye.Of course, researchers have to be extremely careful not to anthropomorphize when interpreting such results. And even if animals are able to perform this sort of mental integration and differentiation of their percepts, this is not the same as being able to reason in the human sense. Hence, this post should not be construed as endorsing any form of "animal rights".
"What's same?" she asked.
Without hesitation, Alex's beak opened: "Co-lor."
"What's different?" Pepperberg asked.
"Shape," Alex said. His voice had the digitized sound of a cartoon character. Since parrots lack lips (another reason it was difficult for Alex to pronounce some sounds, such as ba), the words seemed to come from the air around him, as if a ventriloquist were speaking. But the words—and what can only be called the thoughts—were entirely his.
For the next 20 minutes, Alex ran through his tests, distinguishing colors, shapes, sizes, and materials (wool versus wood versus metal). He did some simple arithmetic, such as counting the yellow toy blocks among a pile of mixed hues.
If your goal is to fix the genuine problems in our health care system, then you MUST advocate FREE MARKET reforms. Eliminate the tax incentive for employer-provided health care. Eliminate all mandates and other regulations on health insurance. Eliminate regulations on medical providers. Gradually eliminate welfare programs.A few days ago, I received the following e-mail inquiry about the implications of that paragraph in particular. It said:
Do you advocate eliminating most or all business and financial regulations in addition to the medical regulations mentioned above? If objectivism and the business/economic beliefs of Ayn Rand were to be law of the land, for lack of a better phrase, how would such a government prevent abuses by businesses and protect the consumer's rights from being trampled on?Those are excellent questions. I'll answer them briefly here, and I hope that others will chime in with more in-depth analysis in the comments.
In 1974 I matriculated at Pepperdine University as a born-again Christian who rejected Darwinism and evolutionary theory, not because I knew anything about it (I didn't) but because I thought that in order to believe in God and accept the Bible as true that you had to be a creationist. What I knew about evolution came primarily from creationist literature, so when I finally took a course in evolutionary theory in graduate school I realized that I had been hoodwinked. What I discovered is a massive amount of evidence from multiple sciences -- geology, paleontology, biogeography, zoology, botany, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, genetics and embryology -- demonstrating that evolution happened.And this thread just gets better.
It was with some irony for me, then, that I saw Ben Stein's anti-evolution documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, opens with the actor, game show host and speech writer for Richard Nixon addressing a packed audience of adoring students at Pepperdine University, apparently falling for the same trap I did.
Actually they didn't. The biology professors at Pepperdine assure me that their mostly Christian students fully accept the theory of evolution. So who were these people embracing Stein’s screed against science? Extras. According to Lee Kats, Associate Provost for Research and Chair of Natural Science at Pepperdine, "the production company paid for the use of the facility just as all other companies do that film on our campus" but that "the company was nervous that they would not have enough people in the audience so they brought in extras. Members of the audience had to sign in and the staff member reports that no more than two to three Pepperdine students were in attendance. Mr. Stein's lecture on that topic was not an event sponsored by the university." And this is one of the least dishonest parts of the film. [bold added]
Even more disturbing than these distortions is the film's other thesis that Darwinism inexorably leads to atheism, Communism, Fascism and the Holocaust. Despite the fact that hundreds of millions of religious believers fully accept the theory of evolution, Stein claims that we are in an ideological war between a scientific natural worldview that leads to the gulag archipelago and Nazi gas chambers, and a religious supernatural worldview that leads to freedom, justice and the American way. The film's visual motifs leave no doubt in the viewer's emotional brain that Darwinism is leading America into an immoral quagmire. We're going to hell in a Darwinian hand basket. Cleverly edited interview excerpts from scientists are interspersed with various black-and-white clips for guilt by association with: bullies beating up on a 98-pound weakling, Charlton Heston's character in Planet of the Apes being blasted by a water hose, Nikita Khrushchev pounding his fist on a United Nations desk, East Germans captured trying to scale the Berlin Wall, and Nazi crematoria remains and Holocaust victims being bulldozed into mass graves. This propaganda production would make Joseph Goebbels proud. [bold added]In other words, evolutionary theory contradicts the Bible, yes, but this attack is against reason as such, and is based on (and justified by) the false premise that freedom has no rational basis.
The world is full of great art the vast majority of people will never see. Even the world traveler who tours Chicago, New York, Paris, and St Petersburg several times over, will not see all the collections in great detail, much less a single painting. Any visitor to the Louvre will undoubtedly want to see the Mona Lisa, but he is not likely to see it in any detail, without a crowd urging him to move on, or a curator keeping him from examining the detail too closely. Once viewed, the image of a painting fades quickly from memory, with postcards, coffee table books, and even high quality reproductions offering a poor substitute for the original.
I can’t speak for other art admirers, but to me, a painting is ultimately just information. For me, the canvas is just an imperfect container for the data. It is valuable only insofar as it represents an irreplaceable source, from which all copies and memories must come from. It’s a very imperfect source – fragile, singular, and inevitably decaying in time, destroying its precious cargo as it slowly succumbs to entropy.
Imagine however, if we could clone the canvas – and not only clone it, but create a superior container for that information, one that not only does not decay over time, but reveals more information than the original source. A perfect digital representation of a painting could contain not only its state at the time of its digitization, but the record of its lifespan, including its original state, as well as the creative process itself. With a global network, such a representation could be accessed instantly from anywhere in the world. It would not be like seeing the original – it would be better than the original, representing far more information than merely viewing the canvas can provide.
Lumiere Technology is a company which hopes to do just that. They intend to digitize the world’s art and make it available (for a price) to art students and fans worldwide. Their multispectral scanning process captures images in more detail than ever before, not only in terms of resolution, but in 13 wavelengths, from ultraviolet to infrared. (45 min YouTube video.) Their digital restoration process can strip away faded varnish and hundreds of year of wear to show images in their original color. It can highlight certain wavelengths for the colorblind, or look beneath the painting in infrared.
Lumiere’s scans are certainly not the last word in digitization, but they might be the harbinger of a revolution. I can already imagine the day in which the motivation to see the original artwork is a curiosity, done for bragging rights rather than a means of studying it. Undoubtedly, a small but vocal minority will persist in silly claims that there is something to be gained from seeing the “warmth” of the original.
“Mr. President, the United States must continue to stand strongly against the Mugabe government’s abuses of power in Zimbabwe. We must join with our European allies, the United Nations, and – most importantly – the countries and institutions of the region to press for positive change in Zimbabwe. That means a peaceful democratic transition in 2008, and support for economic growth and opportunity – including the lifting of sanctions – once the dark cloud of Mugabe’s rule is lifted, and Zimbabweans are able again to reach for the new horizon they deserve.
“I call on President Mugabe to immediately release all political detainees and repeal the ban on political rallies, to end the use of violence and torture in the jails, permit a free media and abide by the rule of law….”
“When Robert Mugabe became president over a quarter century ago, there was great hope. {There’s that “hope” again.] Zimbabwe had emerged from British rule, claiming its freedom and its future for itself.”
Usually, when businesses "go green", at least the particular assaults on freedom they're trying to "exploit" for good publicity damage themselves the most. But here's an example from Down Under of a business employing slick new technology to make itself look concerned for Mother Earth -- technology which could easily be turned around to demolish a nice chunk of the individual freedom now enjoyed by private citizens.Tucked away under the rim of wheelie bins found in two Sydney councils are small radio frequency tracking devices collecting information on a household's waste habits.The data are, so far, being kept between council officials and their contractors, but the predictable whining of green busybodies who want this turned into a tool for the enforcement of nonobjective law has already begun.
Randwick Mayor Bruce Notley-Smith told The World Today they are the way of the future.
"We will be able to find out the weights of the various bins and collect the data, the entire amount, as opposed to the quantity that is recyclable," he said.
The garbage truck reads the data on the bin, weighs the bin, and the data is collated on a computer.
"We've aimed to increase or target problem areas in the city where there's a lower level of recycling," Mr Notley-Smith said.
"The fact is that 50 per cent of the city of Randwick is multi-unit dwellings and we have faced a number of challenges there with getting compliance with recycling."
The data collected will allow the council to confirm which areas are recycling and which are not. [format edits, bold added]
“Little has been made in the mainstream press of the brand of black liberation theology preached by Obama’s pastor and spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., who holds a master’s degree on world religions with a focus on Islam, and who has traveled to Middle East countries in the company of Louis Farrakhan. Rev. Wright created and presides over the Center for African Biblical Studies, whose mission is African-centered Bible studies: “We are an African people, and we remain true to our native land, the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.”
I had this conversation with a fellow actor the other day:
ACTOR: I tried out for this play by Ann Rand.
ME: Ayn.
ACTOR: Ayn. I forgot the title.
ME: Night of January 16th.
ACTOR: Yeah, that's it. I decided not to do it. It's got her philosophy in it.
ME: I know all about it. I'm an Objectivist. I subscribe to her philosophy.
ACTOR: Oh. (Pause.) Yeah, well, it seemed like kind of an old-fashioned play, so I decided not to do it.
I never thought there was much philosophy in the play myself, but it bothered this fellow -- until he learned he was talking to someone from whom he would get neither agreement nor sympathy. Then he switched his objection to the play being old-fashioned, which it is (and that's a good thing).
I think a great deal of the antipathy to Rand comes from people who lack the virtue of independence and go along with our cultural leaders because they don't have the spine to do otherwise. Once Objectivism begins to spread, I suspect there will come a moment when the "go along to get along" types become sympathetic as they see that others have paved the way and made it safe. It will be a watershed moment. Right now altruists on the left and right can still scare the weak into line with a sneer and a contemptuous laugh.
It's tough to resist a graphic that begins, "Total odds of dying, any cause: 1 in 1."
Sen. John McCain this morning said “greedy” Wall Street investors are partly to blame for what he said is probably an economic recession the nation is now suffering.
“There has to be a modification of the greedy behavior of some of these people,” he said, using the word “greedy” repeatedly in remarks to the Associated Press annual meeting at the Washington Convention Center today.
By “modification” McCain means that he wants to replace the greed of investors, whose rational self-interest motivates them to maximize wealth, with the greed of politicians and government bureaucrats, whose greed motivates them to create as much economic destruction as possible, in the attempt to maximize their political prestige and power. Such economic destruction, in the form of the Federal Reserve’s manipulation of interest rates and Congress’ hampering of markets is precisely what is responsible for the economic recession McCain would like to see happen. Honest businessmen thrive in a booming market – it takes an economic crisis (real or invented) for political crooks like McCain to justify the expansion of political power.
Cut through the clutter in the news concerning developments in the Middle East. Find out what really matters. Tune in to Powell History Recommends Middle East Watch. Each week, I’ll be monitoring the news for historically significant events in the region’s major countries, and passing them on to you, with brief commentary about why these events deserve your attention.
Noted Reformist Cleric Jailed in Iran (Associated Press)
Much attention continues to be focused on Iran’s influence over the Iraqi insurgency and to its posturing over its nuclear program. Certainly these deserve attention, but any treatment of these topics has to be informed by a proper assessment of what Iran is. It is an oppressive Islamist theocracy that continually violates the rights of its own citizens by denying a fundamental principle of moral civilizations: the separation of church and state.
Turkey Court Takes Politically Explosive Case (NY Times)
PHR will be following developments in Turkey closely in the months to come, because Turkey’s supreme court has accepted a case that could lead to a ban on the ruling party. The AKP party, led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, though democratically elected, has a platform that contradicts the secularist tenets of Turkey’s constitution. If it isn’t stopped by the court, another military coup is likely to occur.
Egypt: Elections and Future of the Muslim Brotherhood (RightSideNews)
This article runs down the current political situation in Egypt, and points to problems that are likely to occur when Mubarak kicks the bucket. Egypt’s biggest problem is that Nasserism was ideologically vacuous. The country’s run-of-the-mill state socialism is economically destructive and may very well produce the kind of widespread discontent that Truman era thinkers worried would lead to world communism. In this case, however, it’s Islamism that will profit.

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Explain, by means of an example(s), the “crucial epistemological responsibility” [OPAR p.161] which follows from the fact that emotions are not a means of grasping reality. What is a rational individual’s approach to emotions and their role in his life? Explain in some detail.
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Objectivism holds that reason is man's only means to knowledge, i.e., his only faculty for identifying reality. Emotions, by contrast, are not tools of cognition, but are a derivative response to automatized evaluations. In OPAR, Dr. Peikoff argues that one has a "crucial epistemological responsibility" to "grasp the distinction between reason and emotion." This short essay will discuss how a rational man ought to view the role of emotions in his life.
Emotions are one's psycho-somatic response to his automatized evaluations about the world around him. They give one an automatic, instantaneous response to percept(s) or imagination, based on previously formed judgments that are stored in the subconscious. For instance, one will be saddened by the news that an old friend has died. One does not have to think about all the good times he spent with his friend, or about the many virtues his friend possessed, or about the value one places on friendship as such. All of these judgments and memories are stored in the subconscious, and when one hears that his friend has died, sadness is the immediate, automatic response. On the other hand, one will experience joy when he perceives some aspect(s) of reality that he believes is good for him, like an admissions acceptance letter from his college of choice. In both cases, one's emotions are responding to something he perceives, as evaluated by automatized generalizations stored in his subconscious.
It is crucial to acknowledge that emotions -- as an automatic, derivative response to previously formed judgments -- do not provide direct evidence about reality. Emotional responses are not volitional. Without the use of reason, one has no means of determining whether his emotions are responding to valid or invalid evaluations. Emotions can never be used as a substitute for logical thinking.
The "epistemological responsibility" to maintain a proper distinction between reason and emotion is necessary because it is not always clear to what, precisely, one's emotions are responding. For instance, one could see a woman on the street and get a bad feeling about her, but be unable to identify the source of his emotion. Perhaps she resembles his mother, whom he secretly hates. Perhaps she reminds one of himself, whom he loathes. Perhaps she has the shifty manner of a thief. There could be any number of reasons why one may get a bad feeling from looking at someone, some rational and some irrational. The only way to tell the difference is to explicitly identify the source of one's subconscious evaluations -- and to evaluate them using his full focal awareness.
While emotions and reason are naturally in harmony, they can sometimes seem to be in conflict. Reason and emotions do not in fact conflict, they only seem to do so. It is ideas that conflict. There are no contradictions in reality, so if one's reason and his feelings appear to be in opposition, then either his conscious or subconscious evaluations are flawed, and he must use reason to resolve the conflict. For instance, one may feel anxiety as his young business grows. The cause for this may be that, on some level, he does not believe that he deserves success. On the other hand, perhaps he is anxious because, despite his current success, he is letting things lapse in the business (like proper accounting practices or quality control).
In the first example, the man's emotions are reacting to an irrational premise in his subconscious. There's nothing actually wrong with his business's success, but he feels as if it's a bad thing. He feels this way because of a false, unchecked idea stored in his mind: that he does not deserve success. If he focuses his mind on the source of his anxiety, he can (given time) discover this unchecked premise and work towards expelling it from his subconscious. But only reason can identify the source of the emotion and determine whether or not it is valid. The feeling itself provides no automatic guidance to evaluate its cause.
In the second example, the man's emotions are reacting to rational premises, and are warning him about dangers that he has failed explicitly to identify. Success in business cannot last if one allows his accounting practices and quality control to lapse. But in the excitement of the moment, one's failures in these areas could be overlooked. If he endeavors to discover the cause of his anxiety, he will find that his subconscious is giving him a reasonable kick in the butt. Again, the feeling itself provides no automatic guidance to evaluate its source -- only reason can provide such guidance.
If one experiences a reason/emotion conflict in an emergency situation, then he must act according to his best (reasoned) judgment in the moment, without full knowledge of the nature of the conflict, and then work to resolve it as soon as possible after the emergency is over. For example, a battered woman thinks that her life will be in danger if she stays with her husband. But she still loves him, and does not want to leave. If in her best judgment, she truly believes her husband is a threat, then she ought to leave and try to untangle her mixed emotions for him after the immediate danger is over.
In all these cases -- and in any case where reason and emotion seem to conflict -- the rational man uses reason as the final arbiter of truth, and the ultimate guide to his actions. He does this because reason is his only connection to reality. Emotions are automatic responses to previously formed generalizations, some of which may be mistaken, or left over from childhood, or simply forgotten about. Reason and emotion are naturally harmonious, but this harmony is only possible to the man who acknowledges reason as his only means of knowledge.
Reason/emotion conflicts are not always the result of vice. Their source can be perfectly innocent, like irrational premises left over from a bad childhood, or simply honest error. But it is not enough to acknowledge that the conflict should not exist. One must explicitly identify the source of the error and correct it. Sometimes there are a web of errors tangled up in one's subconscious, and deciphering them can take years. While one is working towards bringing his reason and emotions into harmony, he must keep in mind the continual need to make the implicit explicit.
For the rational man, there are no "bad" emotions. Emotions are neither good nor bad -- they are automatic, and cannot be evaluated as such. Of course, one can evaluate the ideas behind the emotions, but this does not mean that an emotion that responds to an irrational idea is "bad." This is an important distinction, because some people wrongly ignore what they judge to be "bad" emotions. For instance: after a young Objectivist has sex for the first time, he feels dirty without knowing why. But he knows that there is nothing wrong with sex. The young man believes that he isn't supposed to feel dirty after sex, so he simply ignores the emotion, and discards it as unimportant. This is a serious error, as it leaves the fundamental psychological conflict unresolved.
It must be stressed that Objectivism does not advocate emotional repression. The rational man does not ignore his emotions, he uses them as a guide to his own psychology. But this is not the same thing as using emotions as tools of cognition. Emotions have survival value because they provide an immediate awareness of one's automatized evaluations. Such information can be useful in helping one decide what he ought to focus on. Consider the example above about the man who feels anxiety when his business starts to succeed. This feeling of fear, whether rationally justified or not, gives one a clue that something is wrong here. Whether his feelings are responding to a fundamental lack of self-esteem or an actual problem with his business, one is prompted to look at the conflict and untangle its cause. If he strives to identify and fix the problems, whether they are problems with his psychology or his business, then either way he will have become a better man.
Only the rational man can experience a life rich in emotional depth. When one's subconscious is free of contradictions, then his emotions are undiluted by conflicts. All of his values, explicit and implicit, are in unison. A deep, intense feeling of happiness is the rational man's reward for a life well-lived.
--Dan Edge
1. Boortz makes a remarkable assertion:
Much of this mortgage crisis came along when the loony left started demanding that mortgage lenders do more to bring minorities and people with marginal credit into the wonderful world of home ownership. As a result of threats from leftists in government the subprime mortgage business was born. Now we see the results.
Is this true? Are subprime loans a PC welfare scheme that would not exist in a laissez-faire capitalist economy?
It makes me wonder how many hidden economic distortions there are because of our mixed economy. How radically would life be different if we had a separation of state and economy?
2. Mike Huckabee has begun running for President -- in the 2012 election. And if you don't think he's a serious candidate, remember this recent news about Paul Weyrich, Mr. Conservative:
The room—which had been taken over by argument and side-conversations—became suddenly quiet. Weyrich, a Romney supporter and one of those Farris had chastised for not supporting Huckabee, steered his wheelchair to the front of the room and slowly turned to face his compatriots. In a voice barely above a whisper, he said, “Friends, before all of you and before almighty God, I want to say I was wrong.”
In a quiet, brief, but passionate speech, Weyrich essentially confessed that he and the other leaders should have backed Huckabee, a candidate who shared their values more fully than any other candidate in a generation. He agreed with Farris that many conservative leaders had blown it. By chasing other candidates with greater visibility, they failed to see what many of their supporters in the trenches saw clearly: Huckabee was their guy.
Indeed, Huckabee is the conservatives' guy. He might bring socialism to America, but by golly, he believes in God!
3. The Return of Big Government.
The return of Big Government? The smart-aleck response here would be something like "Really? I didn't know it ever left."
I confess, that was my first reaction to that headline.
Here's a little straight talk: Whether you pull the lever (or fill in the oval or touch the screen) for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or even John McCain in November, you're probably still going to end up in 2009 with a push for Big Government of the sort not seen in a generation. More taxes. More regulation. More spending. "It's going to be like watching That '70s Show," says Daniel Clifton, political analyst at Strategas Research Partners, which provides research to institutional investors.
Great. Our taxes will go up to pay for the second mortgages of Washington bureaucrats who stand around the water cooler all day doing Jim Carrey impressions.
4. At first I thought this SKYY Vodka response to the Absolut ad was a parody because of this:
“Don’t get me started on the Gadsden Purchase,” continues Karraker. “I think the folks in Tucson and Yuma would be rubbed the wrong way if they hear this landmark deal was somehow nullified as suggested by Absolut, a Swedish-owned brand.”
Nobody seriously says "Don't get me started on the Gadsden Purchase." Looks like Karraker is trying to be funny and cash in on Absolut's controversy at the same time.
6. Just one more reason why Obama would be a disastrous president:
If elected President, Senator Barack Obama plans to delay Project Constellation for at least five years, putting the saved money into a new $18-billion-a-year education program that would, in essence, nationalize early-education for children under five years old to prepare them for the rigors of kindergarten and beyond.
Nationalized early education?
That erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all, it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.
Continued adherence to a policy of compulsory education is utterly incompatible with efforts to establish lasting peace.
Ludwig Von Mises, Liberalism, p. 114
The boy must be transformed into the man; in this school he must not only learn to obey, but must thereby acquire a basis for commanding later. He must learn to be silent not only when he is justly blamed, but must also learn, when necessary, to bear injustice in silence.
Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.
It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity.
Benito Mussolini, from "The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism," 1932.
He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.
What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.
On the website of the Wall Street Journal, under the heading "Capitalism Shrugged: Should Ayn Rand Be Required Reading?"-and after stating a few uncontroversial facts, several inaccuracies, and some inconsequential fluff-Heidi Moore gets to her point:Click here to read all of Biddle's post.Rand has a bit of a reputation problem among those who have not drunk the Kool-Aid. . . . Deal Journal readers, we put the question to you: Should there be more Ayn Rand to instruct young, impressionable minds? Or is the problem with capitalism today too much Rand already?Gosh, Ms. Moore, since you put it that way, how could readers of the Wall Street Journal possibly answer in the affirmative? How could self-respecting, independent thinkers bear the prospect of being regarded as Kool-Aid-drinking cultists for holding that reality, reason, self-interest, individual rights, freedom, and the like deserve the attention of college students?
"I am not the destroyer of companies; I am a liberator of them. The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed--you mark my words--will not only save Telidar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."Gecko's use of the word "greed' in his speech can not be equated to its use by the advocates of ethical egoism; the characterization of vicious businessman named after a reptile cannot be mistaken for a spokesman for self-interest. After all, nowhere in the real world of 1980's investment was there a real Gordon Gecko. The parallel that Stone seeks to establish in Gecko is to men such as Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky, yet this parallel falls flat upon proper analyses.
The best indicator of Republican John McCain's surprisingly strong presidential prospects in what should be a slam-dunk Democratic year is not his solid general-election poll numbers but rather the increasingly shrill attacks from Democrats.Huntley is correct that poorly-aimed smears which also play loose with easily-checked facts stand an excellent chance of killing the Democrats.
The latest was a grotesque slam from Barack Obama supporter Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. In a newspaper interview in his home state, Rockefeller let loose this stinker: "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues."
Never mind that laser-guided missiles hadn't been invented during the Vietnam war. Bombing is a part of warfare, and McCain was serving his country as have legions of other bomber airmen. Rockefeller smeared them all. One further point: McCain was a prisoner of war in Hanoi when U.S. planes bombed the city, on the orders of McCain's admiral father.
So wrong was this that Rockefeller not only quickly apologized, but his office also later made a point of saying that McCain had accepted his apology. [bold added]
Prosecutors called Chi Mak the "perfect sleeper agent," though he hardly looked the part. For two decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in a Los Angeles suburb, buying a house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered him as a hard worker who often took paperwork home at night.Having read many of Viktor Suvorov's fascinating books on Soviet spying on the US during the Cold War, I find the prospect of Chinese spying quite worrisome.
Eventually, Mak's job gave him access to sensitive plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons. These he secretly copied and sent via courier to China -- fulfilling a mission that U.S. officials say he had been planning since the 1970s.
Mak was sentenced last week to 24 1/2 years in prison by a federal judge who described the lengthy term as a warning to China not to "send agents here to steal America's military secrets." But it may already be too late: According to U.S. intelligence and Justice Department officials, the Mak case represents only a small facet of an intelligence-gathering operation that has long been in place and is growing in size and sophistication...
I learned something interesting in a meeting this week. I was sitting in an demand planning meeting for one of my products and discovered that we had a few orders that were delayed. It seems that booking export containers and ships is getting increasingly difficult. What with the devalued dollar and everything, U.S. exports look pretty cheap and stuff that normally would never leave the country is flying off the shelves. Sure enough I found a similar article that day in The Wall Street Journal, Container Shortage Puts US Export Boom in a Box. For those of you who didn't know, exporting US goods to places such as Asia used to be dirt cheap. So many inbound containers from places like China were piling up that freight rates were held very low just to find something to put in them so they wouldn't head back to China empty. Now, there's a shortage!
That's great right? Sales. Revenues. Profits. The economic stimulus the FED has been doing must be doing the trick. Wrong. This is simply a temporary spike and the brick wall we're going to slam into on the other side of this spike is made worse by the FED's recent attempts to keep the domestic economy going.
Here's how it works. The FED has devalued the dollar. US goods look cheap to other countries. They buy lots more than they normally wouldn't. US volumes spike up, and revenues and thus profits are higher. All looks great. Until US firms have to buy new raw materials to replenish those goods they sold. Guess what. It's a global economy. A lot of those raw materials come from overseas. A ton of finished consumer goods also come from overseas. We have to pay more to get them because our dollar is devalued. Oops. That means the prices we were charging before have to be increased. It takes a while for all those costs to trickle in, but if you watch key import commodities like oil you'll see what we're headed for. Now we're forced to increase prices and hoping to continue selling our goods. But wait, our prices will eventually get back to the levels they were before the dollar was devalued, and foreign countries won't want our exports any more.
Sure enough the signs are there. Today's Wall Street Journal, "Dollar Slips Below 7-Yuan Barrier". We used to blame the Chinese for messing with our currency, but releasing the Yuan from it's peg to the "boat anchor" of the dollar was smart, and now we see the devaluation clearly. And from yesterday's "U.S. Trade Deficit Widens" - import volumes ticking up along with exports. And the most telling, "Import Prices Show Broad Rise"
Import prices surged in March, lifted by not only oil but also the biggest jump in non-petroleum costs on record, a worrisome sign for inflation.
Petroleum import prices increased 9.1% last month and fell 1.9% in February; prices soared 60.0% in the 12 months since March 2007. Between March 2006 and March 2007, petroleum import prices climbed by 3.1%.
Excluding petroleum, all other import prices rose 1.1% in March, after increasing 0.7% in February. Prices excluding petroleum increased 5.4% in the 12 months since March 2007, nearly double the 2.8% climb between March 2006 and March 2007.
The FED has done the equivalent of announcing a "fire sale" on the US economy in the hopes that all while all that merchandise is going out the door no one will notice that we're actually destroying value by selling our goods too cheaply. On the other side of that is an even deeper slump. All the while the FED keeps pumping more money into the economy, and demanding greater regulatory authority. Argh.
We're headed for Jimmy Carter-era stagflation folks, and the FED is putting its foot on the accelerator to get us there. All the while they blame the financial markets for the woes that they directly caused. The solution is not going to be pretty. I wouldn't be surprised if we see double digit interest rates again before this is all over.
The real solution is not more government regulation over the economy, it's less, nay no government regulation of the economy. Lasseiz faire! The FED caused this mess. Had monetary policy been privatized, this wouldn't have happened. It's going to get much worse before it gets better, folks.
This speech by Michelle Obama is chilling.
I know that Michelle is not Barack. Neither are Barack's radical preacher, his terrorist friends and his communist father. Barack himself prefers to speak in vapid generalities that make young Democrats swoon and send a tingle up Chris Matthews's leg. Still, this is his wife, and marrying her says something about Obama's judgment.
Her statement of altruism is forthright:
We have lost the understanding that in a democracy we have a mutual obligation to one another. That we cannot measure our greatness in this society by the strongest and richest of us. But we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done.
All done at the direction of the state, of course. Which Michelle goes on to admit:
...Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your division. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual; uninvolved, uninformed.
Do you see how this follows logically from Michelle Obama's altruist premise? If we all must sacrifice to the least among us, then we need a leader to direct our sacrifice. It would be irresponsible and immoral for a President to do otherwise. You will not be allowed to remain in your comfort zones.
No one gets a free ride in a fascist state. No one is allowed to opt out, to live for his own sake; that would be selfish. We have a mutual obligation to one another.
Your life belongs to the state.
Barack Obama will require you to work. Arbeit macht frei.
UPDATE: Revision.
[T]he most important thing that Rand does is make one question one's beliefs. I always wondered how capitalism could be morally justifiable, whether or not the rich should be shunned as most of society does, why the welfare state is inherently bad, how selfishness could be perceived as anything but appalling. In a word, where in my heart I was scared to be an egoist, Rand showed me that I should not hate this impulse, but I should embrace it, and that if all were to embrace it, the bounds of human progress would be limitless. I learned that striving to achieve and putting thought to action was the highest goal that I could seek, and that this would lead to my ultimate happiness. [bold added]Ben Weingarten earlier indicates the growing intellectual influence that Ayn Rand has had over the past few decades.
One of the key assumptions underlying arguments for government regulation is that when people switch over from the private sector to the public sector, they're somehow transformed from devils to angels. I've never understood any part of this -- most people I see in the private sector are more conscientious and harder working than those I see in the public sector; and more importantly, the market provides an incentive to do good, honest work lest a competitor unseat you -- no such mechanism is at work in the public sector.And yet his preamble still doesn't prepare you for the orgy of theft by government officials covered in the article. Take a look.
Neal Stephenson's trilogy, The Baroque Cycle, is a must read if you are interested in any of the following: history, The Enlightenment, science, philosophy, reason, how ideas shape world events, the birth of capitalism, pirates, battles, or love stories. Yes, this isn't so much a book review as a trilogy review, but the books can't really be separated. [link dropped]That's as far as I've gotten so far. Or something like that.
Dear So-and-So,I'm sure my letter could have been more eloquent and polished, but sometimes activism is just about what's possible in the time that you have available.
I am writing to ask you to oppose Senate Bill 217, which would impose mandatory health insurance in Colorado.
The government of Colorado ought to respect and uphold our rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. That requires allowing people to make their own decisions in life -- whether right or wrong.
Mandatory health insurance would violate those basic American rights. It would force people to spend THEIR money as THE GOVERNMENT sees fit, regardless of the circumstances of their lives. This legislation would force people to spend money on health insurance -- at prices inflated by other mandates requiring coverage for services they don't want and won't use and by massive government welfare programs and regulations. As a result, many people will not be able to afford goods of greater value to them -- like an apartment in a better neighborhood or tutoring for their child.
No one should have to sacrifice even a trivial pleasure like a night at the movies because the government forces them to spend their money to pay for services they won't ever need -- like alcohol rehab, the HPV vaccine, autism treatment, prostate cancer screening -- as this legislation would do. (Those are already-existing Colorado mandates. This legislation would encourage even more, as special interest groups lobbied for their "indispensable" service to be covered.)
That's not the end of the wrongs of mandatory insurance -- by any stretch of the imagination. As shown by the less-than-shining example of Massachusetts, this law would drive health care costs upward, encourage doctors to retire or move to another state, decrease access to quality care, create a massive new bureaucracy, and imperil the state's finances.
This legislation is MORALLY WRONG. Please DO NOT support it.
If your goal is to fix the genuine problems in our health care system, then you MUST advocate FREE MARKET reforms. Eliminate the tax incentive for employer-provided health care. Eliminate all mandates and other regulations on health insurance. Eliminate regulations on medical providers. Gradually eliminate welfare programs.
Then, health insurance might become what it should have been all along: a person's own safety net for major injury or illness, with all ordinary medical expenses paid for out-of-pocket. That's how other forms of insurance work -- and they work well as a result.
I support Freedom and Individual Rights in Health Care -- see http://www.westandfirm.org -- and I hope that you'll do the same.
-- DMH
Diana Hsieh
Sedalia, Colorado
Ph.D Candidate, Philosophy
University of Colorado, Boulder
Imagine a conversation that goes something like this:
Person A: “Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett — at the Alamo, after twelve days.”
Person B: “Washington crossed the Delaware; the Hessians, the long sleep.”
Person A: “Napoleon…Waterloo.”
Person B: “Napoleon — at Lodi, the Little Corporal!”
In case you need to brush up on your history, the conversation went as follows:
Person A: “I think I have an insurmountable problem. It’s going to be the death of me.”
Person B: “When things are at their worse, you have to make a bold move.”
Person A: “Honestly, I think I’m out of options this time.”
Person B: “Don’t give up just yet, this could be an opportunity to make a name for yourself.”
The two conversations are the same; only the latter is expressed in fully generalized terms — “universals,” whereas the former is expressed almost entirely in historical concepts.
I imagine that while reading this some of my readers will immediately have been reminded of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which the crew of the enterprise attempts to communicate with an alien species called the Tamarians that uses historical concepts exclusively.
In this story, when the Captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, greets his counterpart, he says something to the effect of “I come in Peace”–i.e. the usual Federation protocol.
The answer, however, is not expressed in universal terms. His opposite number responds, “Rai and Jiri at Lungha, Rai of Lowani. Lowani under two moons…”
This and subsequent exchanges are, of course, extremely frustrating for both sides.
The reason is that the aliens are in effect handicapped by permanently operating on a lower level of abstraction that the humans. The only solution to the problem, orchestrated by the alien captain, is to try to forge a bond of common experiences, and thus build up a common vocabulary of historical terms around them. (The two captains are forced to work together to fight a strange creature that inhabits the planet where their ships have met.) When the individual that operates on the higher level of abstraction—Picard—is able to understand the basic mode of communication of the less advanced species and determine the universal equivalents of the historical referents the aliens rely on, he can communicate in the alien’s idiom. (The reverse would be impossible.)
In the final exchange, the fact that the two species have come to understand each other is expressed by Picard, in purely historical terms, using his own name and that of the other captain and the location of their shared ordeal:
“Picard and Dathon at Eladril.”
The episode itself is wonderfully imaginative and satisfying. It is just one example of the portrayal of human efficacy in the series, which is especially uplifting about Star Trek: The Next Generation in general. If you’re tired of drunks, depressives, terrorists, cheating housewives, and back-stabbing reality show competitors, rent it on DVD. It can reinvigorate you with a sense of the grand and the heroic.
It’s the issue of historical concepts, however, that I really want to look at.
Although the idea that a space-faring culture could possibly communicate on an exclusively historical level is ludicrous, it is interesting to note that people who use general concepts do also use historical concepts in certain instances.
For instance, when someone uses an unorthodox solution to solve a seemingly impossible problem, one might say he cut the Gordian knot. (This refers to an episode in the life of Alexander the Great, in which he literally cuts through a knot, which, as local legend would have it could only be “undone” by the man who would rule the world.)
Another example of a historical concept that people use to this day is that of a Pyrrhic victory. When someone wins a contest or struggle of some sort, but the cost is so high that he emerges with no advantage or so crippled by the victory that he cannot leverage it, then he has won a Pyrrhic victory. He might as well have lost! (This happen to Pyrrhus of Epirus, a Greek king who’s victory over the Romans in southern Italy was crippling to his fortunes in the long run.)
To “cross the Rubicon” is to make a fateful choice, with enormous consequences for yourself and others, as Caesar did when he cast the die and invaded Italy in a bid to become Emperor of Rome.
These types of terms, though few and far between in current usage, represent one of a surprising variety of cognitive tools that people are able to use to grasp reality beyond general concepts. In the next installment of this series I’ll talk about why I think these terms are important, and why the fact that we don’t have more of them in the language today is a symptom of a serious problem in our culture.
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A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.
Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly. (New York Times, 04/06/08.)
Arriving on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, she says she was told that the day's schedule included a "school assembly" in the gym after lunch.Certainly, Moslem parents should be free to send their children to a Moslem school -- at their own expense. A private system of education would not prevent that. But it would prevent ordinary citizens who -- like myself -- would never voluntarily donate money towards the spread of Islam, from being forced to do so through taxation.
Before the assembly, she says she was told, her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform "their ritual washing."
Afterward, Getz said, "teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day," was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man "was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered."
"The prayer I saw was not voluntary," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."
Islamic Studies was also incorporated into the school day. "When I arrived, I was told 'after school we have Islamic Studies,' and I might have to stay for hall duty," Getz said. "The teachers had written assignments on the blackboard for classes like math and social studies. Islamic Studies was the last one -- the board said the kids were studying the Qu'ran. The students were told to copy it into their planner, along with everything else. That gave me the impression that Islamic Studies was a subject like any other."
... [B]uses leave only after Islamic Studies is over. [This is despite it being an "optional" activity. --ed]
1. Greg Ransom drops a bombshell about Barack Obama. After closely reading the Senator's autobiography, Ransom noticed some mysteries. Among them: Obama claims he was driven by his father's ideals -- but the content of those ideals is never revealed. Ransom did some research and found that Obama's father was an anti-American communist who advocated confiscating property and nationalizing foreign businesses, among other things.
Of course, any Republican who asks Obama about all this will be attacked by the left for "Swiftboating," "McCarthyism" and so on. But facts are facts. Obama grew up admiring his father's ideals, which were uncompromising, hard-line communism and which Obama avoided in his autobiography. What does Obama think of his father's ideal today?
2. What American knucklehead said this?
We've committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world.
And this?
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
And what ignorant socialist railed about...
...capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries.
Those statements all came from Martin Luther King, Jr. Jeff Cohen complains that King's anti-militarism is "silenced" today, but I think he should be relieved Americans don't know more about King. It's hard to worship an anti-American leftist as a saint.
3. Comrade McCain wants to use state power to control how much money filthy capitalists can earn.
"If there's ways we can motivate shareholders and boards of directors to punish these people we should do it," the Arizona Republican said. "If there's ways we can prevent this from happening again, we should exercise those options."
Oh, excuse me -- he didn't say "control," he said "motivate." Yes, the power of the state's guns is an excellent motivator.
4. Liberals lay the "chickenhawk" line on the wrong guy.
(HT: AmSpecBlog)
The Early Admissions deadline for the Objectivist Academic Center (OAC) is April 16, 2008 -- just a few weeks away!As I've said before, the courses offered by the Objectivist Academic Center have exceeded my wildest expectations. I cannot recommend the program highly enough.
The OAC is a distance-learning program of the Ayn Rand Institute offering classes on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, as well as on the methods of objective thinking and communication. If you are interested in Ayn Rand’s ideas and would like to study them in greater detail under the guidance of ARI staff intellectuals, then the OAC is the program for you.
By applying early, you greatly increase your chances of acceptance into a limited number of openings. Also, those who are not offered Early Admission are reconsidered during the Regular Admissions process on an equal basis with other applicants, giving them, in effect, two chances to be admitted. The application process is quite competitive, so we urge you to apply today!
Visit www.objectivistacademiccenter.org for more information. If you have any questions about the program, please contact oac@aynrand.org.
Early retirement selfish, unpatrioticThere are a few noteworthy unstated premises in his argument.
...But there's just something - make that lots of things - wrong, in general, with retiring at 55, 62 or even 65. I would go so far as to call it profoundly selfish and unpatriotic.
Dropping out of the work force while still in one's prime means ending one's contributions to America's strength, mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future and leeching trillions of taxpayer dollars from the economy.
...Thus, working longer would increase national output and personal wealth. And given our nation's crying need for teachers, social service workers and public servants, millions of "seasoned citizens" could serve our communities while giving meaning and money to people with decades of life and activity left in them.
...For everyone's good, Americans should at least be able to work as long as their shorter-lived, poorer grandparents did. By doing so, they would be unselfishly helping preserve and strengthen our nation's future by alleviating - rather than worsening - our national debt and making hands-on contributions to our children and communities.
Founders Land Company has assumed management at the Berry Hill hotel and resort property, according to a Monday press release issued by John E. Powell, director of marketing.As someone who thought that the Berry Hill property was an exquisite setting for the college, this news comes as a disappointment. In fact, all of the news to come out of Founders College of late has been a disappointment.
"The Berry Hill Estate is under new management," according to the press release. "On April 3 the lease to Founders College Education ended. On that date the owner of the property, Founders Land Company, assumed direction of management."
"The exclusive focus of new management will be on hotel operations rather than the college," continuted (sic) the press release. "Its goal is to develop this historic local treasure to its full potential as a destination hotel, resort and center for important events in the South Boston community."
Davis: … What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it's dangerous--While Davis does have the right, as a private citizen, to "spew and spread" such dangerous nonsense, her doing so in the context of a government hearing constitutes a threat to Sherman's freedom of speech. As such, it is morally wrong, contrary to the proper purpose of a government (if not illegal), and completely unacceptable.
Sherman: What's dangerous, ma'am?
Davis: It's dangerous to the progression of this state. And it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you'll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!
Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I'm sure that if this matter does go to court--
Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon. [bold added]
Ace of Spades links to an article about the stress of blogging that made me laugh:
SAN FRANCISCO — They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.
A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.
Yes, let us pity these hapless souls who work at home, get creative satisfaction in their job, reach thousands of readers every day, make their own hours, can blog naked and smelly if they want and need not worry about bosses looking over their shoulder. Cue the violin.
I will admit that I'm glad I'm not a professional blogger. I'm happy being an amateur blogger, because if this became my job, then it would be, well, a job. Then I would have a responsibility to produce. I could not ignore this blog for days at a time as I occasionally do.
I won't even put a tip jar on this blog. It's not that there is anything wrong with blegging (ghastly neologism, that). Asking for contributions is perfectly moral. But it changes everything. With money received from readers comes an implicit trade agreement: for money received the blogger will continue to produce content. I don't want any obligations to anyone. I'm sitting here tapping away on my keyboard because I enjoy it. If it ever becomes a job, I'll shut it down. I already have a job, thank you.
Of course, it's easy for me to dismiss professional blogging because this blog is peanuts and it always will be. I started this blog on November 19, 2005 with no readers. As I write sitemeter says I average 93 visits a day, and I am grateful for every last one of them. I communicate to readers not just in America and Canada, but in faraway places such Germany, India and Brazil. I could not have reached those 93 readers a day before the internet; considering that I get to do this for free, the whole deal is sweet to me!
I could never be a big-time blogger. If you write about politics, you should be a pure partisan like Right Wing News or Daily Kos to get the kind of numbers you need to go pro. As an Objectivist and a radical for capitalism I don't fit either party. Also my focus is too diffuse for this blog to prosper. I write about whatever grabs my interest. Most readers want a narrow focus; they go to, say, a Lakers blog to read about the Lakers. Fortunately, there are at least 93 people in the world who have active minds and enjoy reading about a variety of topics.
UPDATE: I should clarify that I'm not saying there is anything wrong with making money. Money does not make an activity "impure." My point is not Platonic. In fact, there is other writing I do, such as playwriting, that is more important to me than blogging -- and I do aspire to get paid for it. This blog, however, is a form of recreation. Take it for what it is.
In my recent “roundup” of bloggers tackling history, I missed one who shouldn’t be missed. He’s one of my keenest and ablest students, ”SB”, over at One Reality.
His recent post Digging for Artifacts relates to Egypt’s backward looking culture and a theme I discussed in my fourth lecture of the Islamist Entanglement: Egypt’s “sense of nationhood.”
Ayn Rand coined the term “sense of life.” By that term she meant “a pre-conceptual equivalent to a metaphysics,” or an implicit sense of one’s place in reality. In my research on Egypt I’ve become convinced that Egypt exhibits a cultural-historical analog: a “sense of nationhood.”
Simply put, this sense of nationhood is the view that Egyptians are a great historical nation. It is an implicit premise embedded in Egyptian thinking that extends back to its “glorious” pharaonic past, of which the ever present pyramids and temples provide a constant reminder. This self-identification also involves a 2400 year history of foreign occupation that began with an invasion by the Persians c.600 BC , and lasted through to Ottoman Rule, which ended in 1798. Egypt’s sense of nationhood is a kind of subconscious estimate of the value of the people and their past which has been a major factor directing them to where they are today.

Mahmoud Moktar’s sculpture ”Egypt’s Awakening” is an allegory of its sense of nationhood.
Interestingly, there is no real philosophy of nationalism in Egypt. In his essay, “Egypt’s Liberation: The Philosophy of the Revolution,” Nasser explains and exemplifies this fact. Nationalism — a European ideology — did find a receptive audience among Egypt’s intellectuals starting in the 1870s. This movement, common to many Middle Eastern countries, culminated in the formation of the Wafd party, which tried to have Egypt’s case for nationhood heard at the peace confereences of Paris in 1919. But Egypt’s sense of nationhood never took off as an ideology. The basic reason is that Egypt’s nationalists failed to achieve independence. They were stymied by a combination of British meddling and monarchical intrigue, and were politically discredited.
In the wake of that failure, Egypt faced a desparate choice between two alternatives: Islamism and Nasserist military dictatorship. Although it is true to say that Nasser was more politically astute then the Muslim Brethren of the time, and connived his way into power, I think it’s fair to say that if Egyptians hadn’t felt that he was the great upholder of their “sense of nationhood,” he would not have held on to power. It was because of Egypt’s emotional baggage about its past that Nasser was able to develop himself as a cultural hero for Egyptians, and why, even after his terrible defeat to Israel in 1967, he had overwhelming popular support. (Of course, Eisenhower gave Nasser an incalculable boost, by spanking the British over their Suez Crisis response.)
What is interesting about Egypt’s current position is the interplay between its sense of nationhood and Islam, the only explicit metaphysics and code of values its people widely accept.
The two are incompatible and have been in constant tension since Nasser came to power. Because the latter is an all-encompassing and explicit system of ideas, and it has no ideological rivals, it’s only a matter of time before it takes over. In fact, I predict an Islamist takeover within a generation. That does not mean, however, that Egypt will necessarily succumb to participating in some kind of new Caliphate, even though Islamism is on the rise throughout the Middle East. Egypt’s sense of nationhood should continue to act on an emotional level to keep Egyptians apart from their fellow Muslims.
Learn more about this topic in my lecture on the emergence of modern Egypt.

PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist
Who: Dr. Tara Smith, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute.
What: A talk and Q & A examining Ayn Rand's view of egoism and how it can enable each of us to live more successful, happy lives.
Where: University of Chicago, Harper Memorial Library, Room 140, Chicago, Illinois
When: Wednesday, April 16, 2008, at 7 PM
Admission is FREE.
Summary: Ayn Rand is well known for advocating selfishness, yet the substance of that selfishness is rarely understood. This lecture presents Rand's ideal: a virtuous egoist.
Dr. Smith explains why a person should be an egoist, the kind of egoism that Rand does and doesn't commend, and the kinds of virtues that a person must exercise in order to actually advance his self-interest. Along the way, Dr. Smith differentiates Rand's rational egoism from hedonism, materialism, and predation, and sketches Rand's egoistic account of two vital but widely misunderstood virtues: honesty and justice.
Bio: Tara Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, where she currently holds the Anthem Foundation Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism. She is the author of the books "Moral Rights & Political Freedom," "Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root & Reward of Morality," and "Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist," as well as numerous articles.
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Dr. Tara Smith is available for interviews now and after her talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
For more information on this event and on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site at www.aynrand.org. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."
Please note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
April 9, 2008
Why Unregulated Capitalism is the Only Moral Social System
Who: Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A lecture and Q&A explaining the philosophical and moral basis of capitalism.
Where: UCI, Crystal Cove Auditorium, Irvine, CA
When: Monday, April 14, 2008, at 7 PM
Admission is FREE.
Description: Capitalism is blamed for exploitation, environmental destruction, cut-throat competition, sweatshops, child labor, and the rising cost of education. But are these claims true? What is capitalism's essential nature? How can it be considered good? Find out the answers
Bio: Yaron Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and is a contributing editor to The Objective Standard. A former finance professor, he has published in academic as well as popular publications. He is frequently interviewed in the media and appears weekly on the new Fox Business Network to debate and discuss current economic and business news. His columns and opinion-editorials are published on forbes.com and in major newspapers. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.
For more information on this talk, please e-mail events@aynrand.org.
### ### ###
Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site at www.aynrand.org. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Please note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI.
Ayn Rand Institute Press Release
Sales of Ayn Rand Books Reach 25 million Copies
April 7, 2008
Irvine, CA—Since the publication of Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living, 72 years ago, sales of her books increased exponentially, having recently reached the mark of 25 million copies, a staggering figure considering the length of her two major novels and the philosophical nature of their themes and ideas.
We the Living, whose theme Ayn Rand described as "the supreme value of a human life and the evil of a totalitarian state that claims the right to sacrifice it," had a small initial printing of three thousand copies. The novel, which tells the story of three individuals facing an all-powerful communist state, steadily gained popularity through word of mouth, as did all of Ayn Rand's novels, and 70 years later has sold more than 3 million copies.
Anthem, Ayn Rand's shortest novel, was published two years later, in 1938, and so far has sold more than 4 million copies. Anthem portrays the struggle of an individual to discover his ego and gain his independence in a futuristic society where individualism is ruthlessly suppressed and the word "I" is no longer used--in conversation or thought.
The recurring theme of the conflict between individualism and collectivism is also present in Ayn Rand's third novel, The Fountainhead, published in 1943. This conflict is dramatized in the story of Howard Roark, an architect whose independent vision and unbreakable artistic integrity pits him against the mediocrity and conformism prevalent in his own profession and in the society of his time. Sales of The Fountainhead reached 20,000 copies in its first six months of existence, climbed to 150,000 copies two years after its initial publication, and recently surpassed 6.5 million copies.
Ayn Rand's last and most important novel, Atlas Shrugged, was first published in 1957 and, like The Fountainhead, has sold more than 6 million copies since its release. With a theme stated by Ayn Rand as "the role of the mind in man's existence," it sought to demonstrate "a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest" and to present a "moral defense of capitalism." The plot of Atlas Shrugged involves the mysterious disappearance of the most able and productive individuals in a collectivist society that oppresses and exploits them while refusing to recognize their need to function in freedom.
The powerful themes and gripping plots of Ayn Rand's stories gained the attention and admiration of millions of readers who, over the span of seven decades, have bought 20 million copies of her novels. Ayn Rand fans also bought 5 million copies of her nonfiction writings, which include essay anthologies such as For the New Intellectual (1 million copies sold), The Virtue of Selfishness (1.25 million copies sold), Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (600,000 copies sold) and the Romantic Manifesto (350,000 copies sold).
In 2007 alone, more than 800,000 copies of Ayn Rand's novels were sold, along with 60,000 copies of her nonfiction books--both figures all-time annual records.
According to Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, the enduring appeal of Ayn Rand's writings should not be surprising: "Ayn Rand offers readers the opportunity to experience masterful plots with heroes who show us the crucial importance of reason and the supreme value of pursuing our own individual happiness. Based on the growing popularity of her books since their publication, we can confidently predict that sales are bound to increase--and that's a hopeful development not only for the future of capitalism in America but also for the future of freedom on Earth.”
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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews. He is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and is a contributing editor to The Objective Standard. A former finance professor, he has published in academic as well as popular publications. He is frequently interviewed in the media and appears weekly on the new Fox Business Network to debate and discuss current economic and business news. His columns and opinion-editorials are published on forbes.com and in major newspapers. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.
To book Dr. Brook for your show, please contact Larry Benson:
949-222-6550, ext. 213 (office)
949-838-5137 (cell)
media@aynrand.org
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
April 7, 2008
Religion vs. Morality
Who: Dr. Andrew Bernstein, professor of philosophy and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A talk arguing for a secular, rational basis for morality. A Q&A will follow.
Where: University of Colorado, Boulder, Wolf Law Building, Room 207
When: Thursday, April 10, 2008, at 7 pm
Description: Conventionally, most people believe that morality can only be based in religious faith that in a world without God no principles of right and wrong could exist. Related to this, philosophers have long held that no objective, fact-based, rational code of values is possible.
Regarding both points, this talk shows that the exact opposite is true. The purpose of morality is to guide human life on earth and religion is utterly incapable of it. Flourishing life requires a code of secularism, rationality, egoism and freedom. Religious faith clashes with every principle of a proper moral code, and, as such, has led, and can only lead to, hell on earth.
Bio: Dr. Bernstein is a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Marist College; he also teaches at SUNY Purchase. Dr. Bernstein lectures regularly at American universities and appears frequently on radio talk shows. His op-eds have been published in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Times, The Los Angeles Daily News, and The Houston Chronicle. Dr. Bernstein is the author of three Ayn Rand titles for CliffsNotes: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and Anthem. He also authored The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire.
For more information on this talk, please e-mail media@aynrand.org
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Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: larryb@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
Please Note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
April 7, 2008
Global Capitalism: The Solution to World Oppression and Poverty
Who: Dr. Andrew Bernstein, professor of philosophy and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A talk arguing for the morality and practicality of global capitalism. A Q&A will follow.
Where: Rogers State University, Will Rogers Auditorium, Claremore, OK
When: Wednesday, April 9, 2008, at 7 pm
Description: The opponents of global capitalism overlook the key points in the debate. The capitalistic nations of Europe, North America and Asia are by far the wealthiest societies of history—with per capita incomes in the range of at least $20,000 $30,000 annually. But capitalism is not merely the system of prosperity; fundamentally, it is the system of individual rights and freedom.
Capitalistic nations protect their citizens’ freedom of speech, of the press and of intellectual expression. Similarly, their citizens possess economic freedom, including the right to own property, to start their own businesses and to seek profit. By stark contrast, the pre-capitalist systems of history, and the non-capitalist systems of the present, are politically oppressive and economically destitute; their citizens have no rights and, consequently, little or no wealth.
What deeper principles make possible the freedom and wealth enjoyed under capitalism—and lacking in its political antipodes? How has capitalism already greatly enhanced the lives of millions of human beings in formerly impoverished Third World countries? What can the men of the free world do to further promote the spread of capitalism into the repressed nations of the globe?
Bio: Dr. Bernstein is a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Marist College; he also teaches at SUNY Purchase. Dr. Bernstein lectures regularly at American universities and appears frequently on radio talk shows. His op-eds have been published in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Times, The Los Angeles Daily News, and The Houston Chronicle. Dr. Bernstein is the author of three Ayn Rand titles for CliffsNotes: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and Anthem. He also authored The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire.
For more information on this talk, please e-mail media@aynrand.org
### ### ###
Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: larryb@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
Please Note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
The Real Meaning of Earth Hour
By Keith Lockitch
On the evening of Saturday, March 29, cities around the world turned off their lights for one hour to "raise" awareness about global warming. In observation of Earth Hour, iconic landmarks such as the Sears Tower and the Sydney Opera House went dark, while participating individuals turned off residential lights.
The purpose of Earth Hour, according to its organizers, who plan to make it an annual event, is to encourage people to think about how they can reduce their energy consumption. While the event itself--one hour with the lights off--admittedly had little effect on carbon emissions, what matters, say the organizers, is the symbolic meaning of the event. So what is the meaning of Earth Hour?
We hear constantly that the debate is over on climate change--that it is now an indisputable fact that human carbon emissions are causing a planetary emergency. Earth Hour is intended to showcase public concern about global warming and to inspire people to take practical actions to reduce their "carbon footprints."
But it is far from indisputable that we face any sort of planetary crisis. Predictions of catastrophic global warming have long been disputed, and continue to be disputed, by numerous serious scientists skeptical of the global warming "consensus."
Furthermore, what is never mentioned is the fact that reducing greenhouse gases to the degree sought by global warming activists would, itself, cause great harm.
Politicians and environmentalists, including those behind Earth Hour, are not calling on people just to change a few light bulbs, they are calling for a truly massive reduction in carbon emissions--as much as 80 percent below 1990 levels. Because our energy is overwhelmingly carbon-based (in 2005, fossil fuels made up 86 percent of world energy production), this necessarily means a massive reduction in our energy consumption.
People don't have a clear sense of what this would mean in practice. We, in the industrialized world, take our abundant energy for granted and don't consider just how much we benefit from its use in every minute of our every day. We drive our cars to work and school, we sit in our lighted, heated homes and offices, powering our computers and countless other labor-saving appliances, and we count on the indispensable values that industrial energy makes possible: hospitals and grocery stores, factories and farms, international travel and global telecommunications. It is hard for us to project the degree of sacrifice and harm that global-warming policies would force upon us.
This blindness to the vital importance of energy is precisely what Earth Hour exploits. It sends the comforting-but-false message: Cutting off our use of fossil fuels would be easy and even fun! People spent the hour star-gazing and holding torch-lit beach parties; restaurants offered special candle-lit dinners. Earth Hour makes the renunciation of energy seem like a big party.
The participants of Earth Hour spent an enjoyable sixty minutes in the dark, but all the while they remained safe in the knowledge that the comforts and life-saving benefits of industrial civilization were just a light switch away. This bears no relation whatsoever to what our lives would actually be like under the sort of draconian carbon-reduction policies that global-warming activists are demanding: punishing carbon taxes, severe emissions caps, outright bans on the construction of power plants.
What is really needed is greater awareness of just how indispensable carbon-based energy is to human life. Forget one measly hour with just the lights off. How about Earth Month, without any form of fossil fuel energy? Let those who claim that we need to stop emitting carbon dioxide try spending a month shivering in the dark without heating, electricity, refrigeration; without power plants or generators; without any of the labor-saving, time-saving, and therefore life-saving products that industrial energy makes possible. Those who claim that we must cut off our carbon emissions to prevent an alleged global catastrophe need to learn the indisputable fact that cutting off our carbon emissions would be a global catastrophe.
It is true that the real importance of Earth Hour is its symbolic meaning. But that meaning is the opposite of the one intended. The lights of our cities and monuments are a symbol of human achievement, of what mankind has accomplished in rising from the cave to the skyscraper. Earth Hour presents the disturbing spectacle of people celebrating those lights going out. Its call for people to abandon their use of energy and to rejoice at the sight of skyscrapers going dark makes its real meaning unmistakably clear: what Earth Hour represents is the renunciation of industrial civilization.
Question: can a foreign vodka be sold to Americans using an ad that insults America? For this ad is a multiculturalist slap at America. The idea that American land should be returned to Mexico is a fantasy of MEChA, a leftist organization of "Chicanos."
Don't give me the "Hey, lighten up -- it's a joke" line. It might be a joke (though not a terribly funny one), but it is a dishonest joke that uses humor to smuggle in a bad idea. The use of humor is not an automatic get-out-of-jail-free card.
Born Again Redneck urges a boycott of Pernod, the company that owns Absolut. I'm with him, although I don't drink much anyway.
History is written by the victors, and there can be no doubt that the left has dominated American culture since the Progressive Era. Exhibit A is what we know, or think we know, about Senator Joseph McCarthy. The left created a myth that has become history.
I've ordered Blacklisted By History: The Untold Story of Senator Joseph McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies by M. Stanton Evans, but have not yet read it. The book looks to have an astonishing store of facts that no one else has cared to examine. Evans has been working on this story in one way or another for over half a century.
The revelations in this book review alone are breathtaking:
In short order, 20 million people a day would be watching the Army-McCarthy hearings on live television. In those hearings -- in which no proof was offered that Cohn had threatened investigative action against the Army to get favors for Schine -- McCarthy would suffer a blow from which he would never really recover. It was delivered by the sanctimonious Army special counsel Joseph Welch, who baited McCarthy into blurting out that one of Welch's law firm associates, Fred Fisher, had been a member of the National Lawyers Guild, a Communist front.
In a scene that has been played and replayed countless times in the ensuing five-plus decades, Welch delivered an Oscar-worthy performance:"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never fully grasped your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to Harvard Law School and came with my firm and is starting what looks like a brilliant career with us.... Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad... I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you.
"Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you left no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
His eyes reportedly filling with tears, Welch wound up:
"Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss this further with you. You have been within six feet of me, and could have asked me about Fred Fisher. You have brought it out. If there is a God in Heaven, it will do neither you nor your cause any good, it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will not discuss it with you further."
There was only one problem: Welch himself had "outed" Fisher six weeks earlier. As the New York Times reported in a story about the Army filing formal allegations against Cohn and McCarthy:
"The Army charges were signed by its special counsel, Joseph N. Welch. Mr. Welch today [April 15] confirmed news reports that he had relieved from duty his second assistant, Frederick G. Fisher Jr. of his own Boston law office, because of admitted previous membership in the National Lawyers Guild, which has been listed by Herbert Brownell Jr., the Attorney General, as a Communist front organization."
To this day you will not hear it reported that this big dramatic moment that slew the McCarthy dragon was a calculated, bald-faced lie. The irresponsibility of the establishment media in perpetuating this lie boggles the mind.
It's a story about "group think," about the left's remarkable ability to conform ideologically, to stay obediently within "political correctness" and to shun any independent thought. It reminds us how dangerous is public education (government schooling). Americans spend their youth learning to conform; they are NOT taught to think independently, but instead they are "socialized" by progressive education. This ideological conformity is critical to the left.
It's a story about the left's cynical "the end justifies the means" premise. Words are mere weapons to the communists, to be used as necessary to defeat their enemies. As we have seen from the history of communism in practice, those who can flout the truth can commit any atrocity, no matter how big.
Most important, the Joseph McCarthy story is about how communists manipulated the Democrat Party and the media into spreading outright lies about the man. It's a story of smears and character assassination, something that continues on the left to this day (see Borking). We think of the Democrat Party as especially bad today, but it has long been a party full of radical leftists, communist sympathizers and useful idiots.
I look forward to reading the book.
...The Pilgrims' first winters after they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and established the Plymouth Bay Colony were harsh. The weather and crop yields were poor.I don't know if Ayn Rand was familiar with the Pilgrims' story when she wrote her fictional history of the Twentieth Century Motor Company in Atlas Shrugged. (Of course, her direct personal experience growing up in the USSR undoubtedly provided her with ample evidence of the importance of property rights, without having to study the history of the Pilgrims!)
Half the Pilgrims died or returned to England in the first year. Those who remained went hungry. Despite their deep religious convictions, the Pilgrims took to stealing from one another.
...One of the traditions the Pilgrims had brought with them from England was a practice known as "farming in common." Everything they produced was put into a common pool; the harvest was rationed according to need.
They had thought "that the taking away of property, and bringing in community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing," Bradford recounts.
They were wrong. "For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much imployment that would have been to their benefite and comforte," Bradford writes. Young, able-bodied men resented working for others without compensation. They thought it an "injuestice" to receive the same allotment of food and clothing as those who didn't pull their weight.
...After the Pilgrims had endured near-starvation for three winters, Bradford decided to experiment when it came time to plant in the spring of 1623. He set aside a plot of land for each family, that "they should set corne every man for his owne perticuler, and in that regard trust to themselves."
The results were nothing short of miraculous.
Bradford writes: "This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corne was planted than other waise would have bene by any means the Govr or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave far better content."
The women now went willingly into the field, carrying their young children on their backs. Those who previously claimed they were too old or ill to work embraced the idea of private property and enjoyed the fruits of their labor, eventually producing enough to trade their excess corn for furs and other desired commodities.
...With proper incentives in place, the Pilgrims produced and enjoyed a bountiful harvest in the fall of 1623 and set aside "a day of thanksgiving" to thank God for their good fortune.
"Any generall wante or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day," Bradford writes in an entry from 1647, the last year covered by his history.
We now know the Pilgrims' good fortune had nothing to do with luck. In 1623, they were responding to the same incentives that, almost four centuries later, have come to be regarded as necessary for a free, productive and prosperous society.
It used to be that if one didn't hurry up and say something about an event, the op-ed scow was gone, leaving the slowpoke commentator at the dock. But now, with the oceanic marketing campaigns calculated to continually flop up sales, one can put two cents in and be right on time for months.If you want to be a good writer, it pays to read good writers. Mr. Crouch just moved up in the queue.
A killer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison in a trash can was captured in California after boasting of an appearance on Fox's America's Most Wanted, state police said Sunday.He knows he's a stupid chump, so he has to convince himself otherwise by eliciting awe from other people. So he tells the world what a genius at getting out of jail he is. Nice.
Malcolm Kysor, 54, was arrested Saturday in a Bakersfield, Calif., park after someone notified police about the claim, police said.
"Basically, it's a citizen's tip. He was in a park and he started bragging," Trooper Donald Claypoole of the Girard barracks said.
Kysor had been serving a life sentence since 1988 for an early 1980s slaying in Erie County. [bold added]
As there are clearly more causes than there are colours, a particular coloured ribbon could denote a number of different things that the wearer could be seen to be raising awareness of. Not that this potential confusion matters all that much: as Moore remarks, a few of her ribbon-wearing interviewees had to be reminded which causes their ribbons represented, while one teenage collector of wristbands proudly described to her "a gold anti-poverty band, a particularly rare wristband that he had given to his girlfriend as a present":I guess after I move to Boston, I can take some solace in the comic relief the question, "What does that ribbon stand for?" can afford me from time to time.
"When I asked him whether he thought it a little contradictory that an anti-poverty wristband should be gold [What? This is the one thing I can think of that a ribbon campaign has gotten right! --ed], he was genuinely surprised at the observation; absorbed in the task of locating rare bands, choosing which to display and which to give as gifts, he hadn’t given consideration to the meaning of the objects he collected." [minor edits, bold added]
In many respects, Ribbon Culture is an analysis of several apparently contradictory aspects of contemporary culture. The ribbon is, explains Moore, "both a kitsch fashion accessory, as well as an emblem that expresses empathy; it is a symbol that represents awareness, yet requires no knowledge of a cause; it appears to signal concern for others, but in fact prioritises self-expression". [minor edits]Add to this the countercultural origins of this fad, and two trenchant observations by Ayn Rand do much to explain what is really going on here.
Avowed non-materialists whose only manifestation of rebellion and of individualism takes the material form of the clothes they wear, are a pretty ridiculous spectacle. Of any type of nonconformity, this is the easiest to practice, and the safest. ("Apollo and Dionysus" in The Objectivist, Jan. 1970, p.775)The fact that companies are trying to make money from this foolishness isn't new, either. The only thing, incidentally, that corporations can be blamed for here is aiding in their own self-destruction -- by helping leftists express their solidarity as they continue to attack capitalism.
The desire for the unearned has two aspects: the unearned in matter and the unearned in spirit. (By "spirit" I mean: man's consciousness.) These two aspects are necessarily interrelated, but a man's desire may be focused predominantly on one or the other. The desire for the unearned in spirit is the more destructive of the two and the more corrupt. It is a desire for unearned greatness; it is expressed (but not defined) by the foggy murk of the term "prestige." …What could be more unearned than moral credit obtained for doing little and thinking less about something?
Unearned greatness is so unreal, so neurotic a concept that the wretch who seeks it cannot identify it even to himself: to identify it, is to make it impossible. He needs the irrational, undefinable slogans of altruism and collectivism to give a semiplausible form to his nameless urge and anchor it to reality -- to support his own self-deception more than to deceive his victims. ("The Monument Builders," The Virtue of Selfishness, 88.)
James Wolcott, a leftist with a stinging style, makes some acute observations about the movie Grand Hotel:
Watching Grand Hotel on TCM, it occurred to me, not for the first time, that the world was never more beautiful than it was in classic Hollywood black and white. Certainly women never were. Black and white gave their eyes and skin a glisten, their hair a backlit aurora, that now seems to belong to some now-gone mechanical age of the gods. Grand Hotel seems all ink and ivory, with little intermittent gray. The image of Garbo's ballerina, crumpled on the floor, her tutu a luminous tissue paper white, intercut with John Barrymore's profile as he tenderly spies on her, his presence shielded in shadow--it makes you wish the movie could dispense with the Old World weariness of the dialogue and just keep on contemplating itself. (Dinner at Eight, so much more fun.) In Joan Crawford's scenes with Wallace Beery, you can see each eyebrow, mouth corner, pupil, and shapely ankle individually doing its dramatic bit to create a composite portrait of a secretary to a tycoon type leveraging her assets while maintaining a cool deposit of pride and reserve.
I have long thought the first hour of Grand Hotel is the pinnacle of romantic movie acting. Garbo and Barrymore are more than human; they are gods. They are so beautiful and noble that the soul soars when watching them. If the world can produce such people, then anything is possible.
All this glamour and heroism is disastrously contradicted and undermined by Grand Hotel's theme: money is the root of all evil. (The movie is a product of Hollywood's "red decade," the 1930's.) The plot deteriorates into sordid naturalism in the last half of the movie, with Wallace Beery's character -- a communist's caricature of a capitalist -- brutally beating someone to death with a telephone.
As always with evil, the theme of the movie is a parasite on that which it condemns. Hollywood built the best sets money could buy, hired the best actors money could buy and filmed a story about glamorous rich people, all to get an audience and make a profit -- and then the Hollywood Reds told that audience that money and capitalism were bad. The hypocrisy of the commies would be laughable if communism in practice were not an unspeakable enormity.
Let us be grateful to the Reds for providing a place for the gods to dance before us. Nothing else matters. The anti-capitalist theme seems dated today -- perhaps a indication that the West is already better due to the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Watch Grand Hotel for those gloriously romantic scenes with Barrymore and Garbo, despite the malevolence and tragedy of the plot and theme. (And enjoy a hot young Joan Crawford before she became that creature with the eyebrows in her later career.)
The old saying, "They don't make 'em like that anymore," is true about '30s movies. The growth of naturalism in our culture has destroyed Hollywood's ability to make a movie like Grand Hotel. Today's filmmakers would not know where to begin. We watch such a movie and marvel, as travelers in the Dark Ages looking at Roman ruins must have done. "How did they do it," those wanderers in the Dark Ages must have asked. "How did they achieve such greatness?"
Is there anything as silly as hating the opposite sex? You know, men who think all women are lying whores or women who think all men are lying womanizers. Surely you've heard people of both sexes make similar claims about the other sex.
It's an unthinking form of collectivism to make such a sweeping generalization -- and one easily refuted by thinking up examples of honest men or women. But still, there are sad souls who go through life burdened by the premise that the other sex is the enemy. It's a cynical idea that can only lead to unhappiness and failure.
The idea comes when people get hurt by a lover -- and who has not felt the pangs of unrequited love, or worse, betrayal? The pain can be devastating. I've known men who are otherwise rational and sane sent temporarily out of their mind by a cheating wife. We're talking about intense passion here, the stuff of drama.
In this time of great suffering people often make the big mistake: they generalize from their loved one to the entire sex. They don't think, "X lied to me," they think, "All women are lying bitches like X." It does not occur to them that a sample of one is hardly enough to leap to conclusions about all men or women.
The phenomenon is complicated by feminism. Consistent feminists hold men as the enemy. Feminism, like many New Leftist ideologies, is a form of egalitarianism. Throughout history men have had power and privilege; women have been stuck with child raising and fixing dinner. It's not fair and the greater freedom women have been afforded by the end of feudalism and the rise of capitalism is all to the good.
You can see feminist assumptions in movies, TV and literature, though not often explicitly. The implicit message of feminist stories is that men are bad. Men are the enemy. Men are a necessary evil with which women must cope. There is no "masculinist" school of art that stereotypes women as the enemy; such stories would be unegalitarian, therefore they are unthinkable by the New Left.
I've been surprised to observe that women who support Hillary Clinton make a wholly feminist argument. They don't talk about the policy differences between Clinton and Obama -- it would take a subtle mind to find them. The women I have talked to have focused exclusively on the "sexual politics" aspect. They talk about how "the old boy network" decided Obama was their man. One Democrat woman complained to me about Obama's condescending body language around women.
"Women Push Back in Support of Clinton" shows the typical thinking of Clinton's female supporters:
Debra Starks has heard the calls for Hillary Rodham Clinton to quit the presidential race, and she's not happy about it.
The 53-year old Wal-Mart clerk, so bedecked with Clinton campaign buttons most days that friends call her "Button Lady," thinks sexism is playing a role in efforts to push the New York senator from the race. Starks wants Clinton to push back.
...
"Women have always been asked to step aside if it was somehow for the greater good. In this case, Clinton, and a lot of her female supporters, clearly feel that she would make the better president and that it would not be for the greater good for her to step aside," Wilson said.
It's hard for feminists to get beyond sex. One might want Clinton to step down because of her high negatives or her "baggage" of scandals past. Clinton's strange memory, which shows her to be either a liar or out of touch with reality, is reason enough not to support her. I won't even mention Clinton's statism, as Democrats would admire that. With Democrat women, the only thing that matters is that Clinton is a woman and her opponent is a man. (Is it any wonder that liberals often seem unintelligent to us non-liberals? Their ideological premises that reduce everything to biological collectivism make liberals stupid.)
Republicans should not enjoy the spectacle of the Democrat Party being torn apart by multicultural tribalism, not when biological collectivism is held as an ideal and indoctrinated to our children in government schools. Tribalism threatens to tear apart Western Civilization. The Obama-Clinton clash between race and sex is a canary in the coal mine.
Individualism is the antidote to all forms of collectivism. Every individual man and woman chooses his character. No one's character is determined by his sexual identity. Those who get burned in the pursuit of love must make the extra effort to think rationally and well. Hasty generalizations about men and women infect a mind with crude collectivism.
As a teacher, I can say with confidence that the best way to make sure you understand something is to write about it. The process of collecting, ordering, and transmitting your thoughts in written form requires a greater rigor that speaking. There’s a dimension of finality to what you write that forces you to think it through just that much more. So I’m especially glad to see that some of my students out there are doing their best to tackle the material we’ve covered in The Islamist Entanglement by writing about it.
One of the assignments that I’ve challenged them with has been the production of a distilled narrative integration. That’s fancy talk for the shortest possible paragraph that captures the essential storyline. So far they’ve done a fantastic job. I have a number of students who already have genuine command of the basic history of the Middle East after just four lectures, and we’ve got six more lectures to go!
Others have also chosen to summarize each of the lectures for themselves as they proceed, or to pick up on particular themes. Here’s a “roundup” of interesting writing by my students around the blogosphere.
Titanic Deck Chairs
New blogger C. August has been especially busy with some good insights. His post EU Asserts Democracy at Turkey’s Peril looks at the fascinating conflict of Secularism vs. Islamism in Turkish culture. He also has a nice analysis of how altruism has undercut American foreign policy in his piece on A Brief History of President Doctrines. I agree with August’s evaluation of the Monroe Doctrine wholeheartedly. It is the single best foreign policy doctrine ever proposed. And the so-called “Roosevelt Corollary” is the most pernicious corruption of a crucial value to America I can think of, matched only by Roosevelt’s virulent attacks on capitalism through his “trust-busting” initiatives.
Armchair Intellectual
Gideon Reich writes about the current situation in Afghanistan in his post We Continue to Refuse to Win. Reich is right that the Afghanistan situation cannot be isolated from the situation in its neighbors, Iran and Pakistan. This isn’t new, of course. You here about the connections in the media all the time, but America’s leaders do continue to evade that the situation in the Middle East requires an integrated perspective–and, that the purpose of fighting a war is to win. (I’ll be looking at the history of Afghanistan in lecture 5 of The Islamist Entanglement — available in full as a separate product for only $20.)
I also like how Gideon highlights McCain’s recent speech for its historical content in Bush, McCain, and Why Republicans Are Not Worth Voting For. It is indeed a myth that Republicans stand for self-interest and uniltareralism, and it makes complete sense for McCain to identify with the Truman Doctrine.
Powell History Around the World!
Martin Lindeskog of Sweden at egoist.blogspot.com has been enjoying the course so far. He has a post about lecture 1 on his site. (Warning, Martin–a true capitalist–has a lot of externally linked ads on his blog–it can take a while to load. I recommend his sign-up box so that you can get his posts via e-mail.)
Over in New Zealand, Peter Creswell runs “Not PC,” which takes aim at political correctness in that quarter of the globe. Peter has a some nice things to say about Powell History in his post Economics and History By Essentials. Peter’s blog has a neat mix of materials from philosophy to visual art and architecture. I especially enjoy seeing his posts on Frank Lloyd Wright. Check it out!

PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
2121 Alton Parkway, Suite 250, Irvine, CA 92606
March 27, 2008
The Originality of Atlas Shrugged
What: A talk analyzing the theme and content of Atlas Shrugged. A Q&A will follow.
Who: Tore Boeckmann, speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute
Where: Tufts University, Barnum Hall, Room 104, Medford, MA
When: Monday, March 31, 2008, at 8 pm
Admission is FREE.
Description: Ayn Rand said that "creating a new, original abstraction and translating it through new, original means" is "my kind of fiction writing." Tore Boeckmann tests the originality of Atlas Shrugged in regard to both abstract theme and concrete means by comparing the character of Francisco and the event of the tunnel disaster with similar concretes from Friedrich Schiller's plays (Fiesco and Mary Stuart). The comparison highlights non-obvious ways in which Atlas Shrugged concretizes its theme.
Bio: Tore Boeckmann's mystery short stories have been published and anthologized in several languages. He edited Ayn Rand's The Art of Fiction, and has lectured at Objectivist conferences in America and Europe. Recent publications include "The Fountainhead as a Romantic Novel" and "What Might Be and Ought to Be: Aristotle's Poetics and The Fountainhead" in Essays on Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead," edited by Robert Mayhew.
For more information: e-mail media@aynrand.org
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Tore Boeckmann is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: larryb@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site at www.aynrand.org. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Please note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
2121 Alton Parkway, Suite 250, Irvine, CA 92606
March 27, 2008
Religion vs. Morality
Who: Dr. Andrew Bernstein, professor of philosophy and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A talk arguing for a secular, rational basis for morality. A Q&A will follow.
Where: University of Michigan, Angell Hall, Auditorium C, Ann Arbor, MI
When: Thursday, April 3, 2008, at 8 pm
Description: Conventionally, most people believe that morality can only be based in religious faith that in a world without God no principles of right and wrong could exist. Related to this, philosophers have long held that no objective, fact-based, rational code of values is possible.
Regarding both points, this talk shows that the exact opposite is true. The purpose of morality is to guide human life on earth and religion is utterly incapable of it. Flourishing life requires a code of secularism, rationality, egoism and freedom. Religious faith clashes with every principle of a proper moral code, and, as such, has led, and can only lead to, hell on earth.
Bio: Dr. Bernstein is a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Marist College; he also teaches at SUNY Purchase. Dr. Bernstein lectures regularly at American universities and appears frequently on radio talk shows. His op-eds have been published in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Times, The Los Angeles Daily News, and The Houston Chronicle. Dr. Bernstein is the author of three Ayn Rand titles for CliffsNotes: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and Anthem. He also authored The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire.
For more information on this talk, please e-mail media@aynrand.org
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Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: larryb@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
Please Note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
The Price of Bush's Commitment to Palestinian Statehood
By Elan Journo
On his recent visit to the Middle East, Vice President Cheney voiced the Bush administration's belief that a Palestinian state is "long overdue" and vowed to help make that goal a reality. Many conservatives and liberals agree with the administration that America should help fulfill the long-deferred Palestinian aspirations to statehood. The idea is that in doing so we would go a long way toward dousing the flames of Islamist terrorism.
But does U.S. backing for Palestinian statehood advance our security?
Only if you think we're better off fostering a new terrorist state.
That may seem excessively harsh given President Bush's mantra that Palestinians just want "the opportunity to use [their talents and] gifts to better their own lives and build a future for their children." The Bush line we keep hearing is that the terrorists and their supporters are but a fringe element that will be marginalized under the new state, which will coexist "side by side in peace" with Israel and the Western world.
But listen to Palestinian clerics at Friday sermons, calling for violent attacks on Israel. Look at the lurid posters in the homes and shops of ordinary Palestinians, passionately glorifying "martyrs" and terrorist kingpins. Look at their coordinated digging of tunnels to smuggle in weapons and explosives. Look at the popular collusion with Islamist militants and their stream of recruits. Recall the years of ferocious attacks against Israeli towns.
If the mass of Palestinians just want peace and a better life, they would not despise and war against the only state in the region, Israel, that protects individual rights and that offers a standard of living far superior to (even the richest) Arab regimes. They would be far better off, freer and safer, if they put away their rocks, bullets and dynamite belts and sought to live and work in Israel (as some once did).
Instead, they flood the streets to protest negotiations about peaceful co-existence with Israel. Ideologically, their dominant factions are the Islamic totalitarians of Hamas and the nationalist terrorists of Fatah. These differ only in their form of dictatorship--religious or ethnic. Both promise their followers, one way or another, to wipe out Israel.
That hostility to Israel, the only free nation in the Middle East, should make any U.S. president stand firmly against the Palestinian cause. Particularly in a post-9/11 world, Washington should recognize that U.S. security is strengthened by preventing Islamist terrorists from securing another stronghold and training ground.
Given the overwhelming evidence that it would undermine U.S. security, what explains the Bush administration's come-hell-or-high-water promise to do "everything we can" to back a Palestinian state? It is the administration's belief that America has a duty to ease the suffering of the world's wretched, regardless of the cost in lives to us.
That's why, after Palestinians brought Hamas to power in a landslide, Washington responded with "compassion" for their "humanitarian" needs. Of course the United States and its European allies felt compelled to "isolate" the Hamas regime by cutting off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. But they refused to believe the Palestinians themselves should be held responsible for how they voted, because they're already dirt poor. This meant suspending our judgment and absolving Palestinians of culpability for choosing murderers to lead them. So, despite the embargo on aid to the Hamas-led government, in 2006 U.S. aid to Palestinians increased by 17 percent to $468 million, propping up their terrorist proto-state.
This policy's result is to endorse, facilitate, and vitalize Palestinian aggression. We've seen the unleashing of a popularly supported Hamas-Hezbollah war against Israel in 2006 and ongoing attacks springing from Gaza. Al Qaeda has reportedly already set up shop alongside other jihadists in the Palestinian territories. Just imagine the mushrooming of terrorist training camps and explosives factories under a sovereign Palestinian state. Imagine how emboldened jihadists will feel operating under a regime that Washington has created and blessed.
This is the price of a policy based not on furthering U.S. security, but on undeserved pity. This is the price of willfully ignoring the vile nature of Palestinian goals, treating these hostile people as above reproach and rewarding their irrationality.
Isn't it time we demand a policy that puts our security first?
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
2121 Alton Parkway, Suite 250, Irvine, CA 92606
April 21, 2008
The Morality of Capitalism
Who: Eric Daniels, research assistant professor at the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A talk explaining why capitalism is the only moral social system. A Q&A will follow.
Where: Hilton Costa Mesa, 3050 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
When: Thursday, May 22, 2008, at 7:30 PM
Admission is FREE.
Description: Despite capitalism's enormous success in producing material abundance and political freedom, it faces a crisis--one that may lead to its demise. Capitalism is perishing because its supposed defenders lack a real defense.
In this lecture, Eric Daniels explores the most common arguments in favor of capitalism. He finds that they all break down in the face of the popular argument that capitalism is immoral and destructive--because it is selfish. Dr. Daniels explains that only Ayn Rand's crucial insight--that capitalism is the only moral social system because it is based on "the virtue of selfishness"--can truly defend capitalism. He illustrates the need for a moral, and not just an economic, defense of capitalism.
Bio: Eric Daniels is a research assistant professor at the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has lectured internationally on American ethics, on American business and legal history, and on the American Enlightenment. Dr. Daniels's publications include a chapter in The Abolition of Antitrust and five entries in the Oxford Companion to United States History.
For more information on this talk, please e-mail events@aynrand.org.
### ### ###
Eric Daniels is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site at www.aynrand.org. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Ayn Rand Institute Press Release
Abolish Campaign Finance Laws
March 21, 2008
Irvine, CA--In "War on Free Political Speech," an opinion piece published today on forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/03/19/yaron-campaign-finance-oped-cx_ybr_0321yaron.html), Dr. Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute, argued that campaign finance restrictions "subject political speech to the corrupting influence of government control" and called for the abolishment of all campaign finance laws.
According to Dr. Brook, "Campaign finance reform has done nothing to get corruption out of politics, but it has been effective at keeping corrupt politicians in politics."
"It's not money that corrupts," elaborated Dr. Brook, "it's the lure of arbitrary political power. A true crusader against political corruption would not strip American citizens of their right to free speech; he would seek to put an end to the government's power to grant special favors to any group."
Do large contributions buy political favors? They can, said Dr. Brook, but only because politicians "have power to grant special favors to special interests in the first place. Take away that power and politicians will have nothing to sell."
In reply to those who claim that in the absence of campaign controls, wealthy private citizens or corporations would have the power to censor the speech of others, Dr. Brook reminded us that "Only the government has the power to stifle free speech and replace persuasion with coercion." And he added that "Private citizens or corporations can refuse to support, finance or promote ideas or candidates they disagree with--which is their inalienable right--but they cannot forcibly suppress them."
Dr. Brook said also, "A wealthy individual, for example, can spend lavishly on ads, even buy an entire newspaper or broadcast station, to convince Americans of his viewpoint; he cannot force us to listen or agree."
"At the same time," Dr. Brook pointed out, "a candidate lacking money is free to seek financial support from citizens who agree with him, whether it be a few wealthy individuals or millions of like-minded Americans who are willing to put their money where his mouth is."
Although the advocates of campaign finance "reform" have not managed a complete government takeover of election financing yet, they have already managed to deprive many Americans of their freedom. According to Dr. Brook, "It's time to reject this pernicious view and restore the First Amendment."
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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews. He is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and is a contributing editor to The Objective Standard. A former finance professor, he has published in academic as well as popular publications. He is frequently interviewed in the media and appears weekly on the new Fox Business Network to debate and discuss current economic and business news. His columns and opinion-editorials are published on forbes.com and in major newspapers. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.
To book Dr. Brook for your show, please contact Larry Benson:
949-222-6550 ext. 213 (office)
949-838-5137 (cell)
media@aynrand.org
I was browsing the Ayn Rand Lexicon and came across the following [in the entry on free speech]:Paul and I have discussed this matter at some length, but I don't have time to write up our present view in any detail. Very briefly, our view is that the government can properly forbid nuisances as a kind of tort. However, a nuisance is not just something that someone doesn't like. Rather, it's an unavoidable, perceptual impingement, such that a person cannot go about his ordinary business in its presence. Examples of nuisances would include bright lights, loud music, and nasty smells -- but not a Mexican flag, a mural of a nude woman, or rap music at a normal volume. The particular content of the nuisance is irrelevant. A person has no right to be protected from exposure to disagreeable aspects of the world. That would open the door wide to all kinds of rights-violating restrictions on speech. However, a person does have a right not be "assaulted" by physically painful or unavoidably distracting percepts via some kind of nuisance law.Only one aspect of sex is a legitimate field for legislation: the protection of minors and of unconsenting adults. Apart from criminal actions (such as rape), this aspect includes the need to protect people from being confronted with sights they regard as loathsome. (A corollary of the freedom to see and hear, is the freedom not to look or listen.) Legal restraints on certain types of public displays, such as posters or window displays, are proper but this is an issue of procedure, of etiquette, not of morality.[The NoodleFood reader continues:] I can readily understand the concept of statutory rape. I am having difficulty with the notion that "[l]egal restraints on certain types of public displays . . . are proper," when the context refers to displays on private property -- no matter what the content. Rights can be violated only through physical force, and words and pictures are not force. Since when has there been a right not be "confronted with sights [a person] regard[s] as loathsome?" By what public standard could anyone determine what was "loathsome" and subject to restriction?
The rights of those who seek pornography would not be infringed by rules protecting the rights of those who find pornography offensive e.g., sexually explicit posters may properly be forbidden in public places; warning signs, such as "For Adults Only," may properly be required of private places which are open to the public. This protects the unconsenting, and has nothing to do with censorship, i.e., with prohibiting thought or speech.
I am inclined to assume that I am missing something, rather than that Rand is inconsistent(!). What am I missing?
Engineers consider themselves problem solvers, and when the world seems to present a problem, they look to engineering-type solutions to solve it. Engineering, Gambetta and Hertog suggest, predisposes its votaries to absolute and non-negotiable principles, and therefore to fundamentalism; it is a short step from appreciating the predictable laws of engineering to following an ideology or a creed that is infused with its own immutable laws. It is easy for engineers to become radicalised, the researchers argue, because they are attracted by the "intellectually clean, unambiguous, and all-encompassing" solutions that both the laws of engineering and radical Islam provide.I would add only that the notion from modern philosophy that reason is incapable of providing certainty is doubtless what makes it so easy for these sociologists to regard engineering and religion as similar based on the fact that both claim to provide certainty -- despite their essential difference in method.
This is partly true and partly and viciously false. The method of engineering is the method of science. The principles and laws of science are indeed absolute and non-negotiable. But they are not just that. Unlike religious principles, they are objective, evidence-based, verifiable and demonstrably true. To the extent that an engineer is attracted to radical religion, he is denying the validity of the scientific method.
As the security device inventor contemplated the problem, he recalled from his teens the awful buzz of an ultrasound welding machine at his father's glue-plastics factory. He remembered that his complaints about the noise would be met with a quizzical look from workers: "What noise?"But kids can be pretty swift, too....
From that impulse to help rid his local market of loiterers came his invention, "the Mosquito," an electronic contraption that emits a high-pitched pulsating sound that can mostly be heard only by teens and people in their early to mid-20s. It works because an age-related hearing loss called presbycusis reduces the ability to hear high-pitched sounds after the late 20s. The device is mostly inaudible to older adults, young children and pets. [bold added]
Young people, meanwhile, have turned the table on the technology. Many have downloaded the sound onto their cell phones, creating a ring tone that they can hear but older adults can't. Teen Buzz, a short Mosquito ring tone, has become among the most downloaded ring tones worldwide. Some use it to alert high school classmates of recently sent text messages. For others, it's come in handy when parents curtail use of their cell phones. [bold added]Back in my Navy days, my hearing test results were quite impressive. Now, I'm going to have to look for that sound on the web somewhere to learn whether I am one of those rare adults who can actually hear this.
In his latest TIA Daily email, Robert Tracinski observes that McCain promises more multilateralism in foreign policy. (I'll provide a link if the column shows up on Real Clear Politics.) Tracinski writes,
But what is especially galling to me is that John McCain knows better. On national defense, I believe he is a sincere patriot who loves America and values what our military has accomplished in the cause of freedom. So why all this talk about America having to show that it is a "good citizen" and having to "shoulder our responsibilities"? Isn't serving as the world's strongest and most resolute bulwark against tyranny and terror, bringing down two evil empires and working on preventing a third—shouldn't that be enough to earn the world's gratitude? What other, greater "responsibilities" could anyone reasonably demand of us?
Why would McCain talk about being a "good citizen," the kind of nonsense one would expect from leftists who want to bind America's foreign policy so that we do nothing in our self-interest?
I will offer a guess. John McCain, as long as I have been watching him, has shown a remarkable talent for saying what the establishment liberal media want to hear. This has made him the media's favorite Republican. It has made him a "maverick" among Republicans. It has earned him hours of criticism from conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh.
I can understand McCain's pandering to the media up to a point. We live in an age in which the MSM shape our culture by selecting what to focus their attention on and ignoring other news. Thus, a Republican can say the word "macaca" and the media go into their feeding frenzy, blowing it ridiculously out of proportion to its importance and focusing all their cameras and column inches on that utterance -- until a politician ends up destroyed. Avoiding this selective focus is of life and death importance to a politician's career. The temptation must be great for every Republican to issue the standing order to his subconscious: let me say what the MSM want me to say.
Of course, this is a disastrous policy. If your statements are molded, Peter Keating-like, to what other people want to hear, then you will become what they want you to be. If those people are the MSM, then you will become more liberal.
"this massive city of steel at the edge of the Red Sea will take its place as a cog of globalization: plastics produced here will be used to make televisions in Japan, cellphones in China and thousands of other products to be sold in the United States and Europe. Construction costs at the plant, which spreads over eight square miles, have doubled to $10 billion because of shortages in materials and labor. The amount of steel being used is 10 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower."The Times article also reports that,
"Abu Dhabi is planning to spend close to $1 billion for a new museum with the help of the Louvre, in Paris. Dubai's latest grandiose idea is to build a small-scale replica of the French city of Lyon, complete with residential housing, a museum, a culinary school and a soccer club."Americans will be helping to finance these and other massive projects in Saudi Arabia and in the Persian Gulf fiefdoms through their gas and heating oil prices. One important thing to remember about these projects is that they are not strictly "private" undertakings; every one of them is a government project. Strictly speaking, neither Saudi Arabia nor any of the other medieval kingdoms or satrapies in the Mideast has a "government," representative or otherwise.
"Last year...a fund controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi bought a stake in Citigroup for $7.5 billion, while another run by Dubai's ruler bought a large share in Sony, the Japanese consumer electronics giant. Sabie, a major Saudi petrochemical company, bought the plastics division of General Electric for $11.6 billion, and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation bought half of Dow Chemical's commodity-plastics unit for $9.5 billion....In recent weeks, other big banks plagued by losses from the mortgage crisis, like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, have raised tens of billions of dollars from a variety of Middle Eastern and Asian funds, including ones from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia."The American Congress for Truth reports an April 1st Human Events article, in "America for Sale to Sharia Sovereign Wealth Funds," that
"In December 2007, Bourse Dubai, the world's first and largest Islamic equity exchange, bought 20% of NASDAQ, the biggest U.S. electronic stock market, and 'rebranded' it as part of Dubai's company. The Bourse also got NASDAQ's 28% of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). In addition, Qatar acquired a 24% LSE stake, giving the two Gulf nations control over nearly 52% of the London exchange. On March 15 [2008], Iran, which now dominates the leading 100 Islamic banks - followed by Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the UAE - announced plans to list a $90 billion energy holding company on the Dubai International Financial Exchange, which is wholly owned by Bourse Dubai."This article, incidentally, was co-authored by Rachel Ehrenfeld, an American, who was sued in a British court by Saudi billionaire Khalid Salim bin Mahfouz for writing a book, Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It, which, among other things, revealed Mahfouz's role in promoting the Islamic conquest of Britain and Europe. The British court ordered her to pay "$225,000 in damages and legal fees to Mahfouz, as well as apologize and destroy existing copies of her books," according to ACT for America on April 1st. Mahfouz is a professional libel "tourist," or terrorist who prefers to extinguish his victims with costly litigation instead of with planes or bombs on vests or in backpacks.
Woodstock's Legacy:
The Rise of Environmentalism and the Religious Right
Who: Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A talk that will consider how the opposing forces of reason and emotionalism have manifested themselves in American culture in the four decades since Woodstock, with special focus on the rise of religion and environmentalism. A Q&A will follow.
Where: Hilton Costa Mesa, 3050 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
When: Thursday, May 1, 2008, at 7:30 PM
Admission is FREE.
Description: At Ford Hall Forum in 1969, Ayn Rand examined the cultural significance of two high-profile, enormously well-attended but very different events: Woodstock and the "Apollo 11" launch.
In her lecture, "Apollo and Dionysus," she showed how philosophical ideas play out in a culture: she showed why these two events, so opposite in nature, were a product of a long-standing philosophical dichotomy, reason versus emotion. She concluded her talk by noting that, against the bromide that man's senses and reason confine him to the grubby, material world while his mystical emotions lift him to the stars, reality "last summer . . . offered you a literal dramatization of the truth: it is man's irrational emotions that bring him down to the mud; it is man's reason that lifts him to the stars."
In this talk, Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, will consider how these two opposing forces, reason and emotionalism, have manifested themselves in American culture in the ensuing decades. He will examine the Apollonian elements which are lifting us to the stars. And he will examine the Dionysian elements, which are dragging us back down into the mud, figuratively or literally: religion and environmentalism.
Bio: Yaron Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and is a contributing editor to "The Objective Standard." A former finance professor, he has published in academic as well as popular publications. He is frequently interviewed in the media and appears weekly on the new Fox Business Network to debate and discuss current economic and business news. His columns and opinion-editorials are published on forbes.com and in major newspapers. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.
For more information on this talk, please e-mail events@aynrand.org.
### ### ###
Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site at www.aynrand.org. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."
Recognizing the first weekend of May 2008 as 'Ten Commandments Weekend'.UGH.
March 13, 2008
Mr. BROWNBACK (for himself and Mr. LIEBERMAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the first weekend of May 2008 as 'Ten Commandments Weekend'.
Whereas the Ten Commandments are precepts foundational to the faith of millions of Americans;
Whereas the Ten Commandments are a declaration of fundamental principles for a fair and just society;
Whereas, from the founding of the United States, the Ten Commandments have been part of America's basic cultural fabric;
[Quotes from past presents omitted]
Whereas, in addition to being understood as an elemental source for American law, the Ten Commandments have become a recognized symbol of law in our Nation's culture;
Whereas a marble relief portrait of Moses, the Hebrew prophet and bearer of the Ten Commandments, is located prominently in the United States Capitol over the gallery doors of the chamber of the House of Representatives in honor of his work in establishing the principles that underlie American law;
Whereas images of the Ten Commandments are prominently displayed in many Federal buildings, including the United States Supreme Court, the National Archives, and the Library of Congress; and
Whereas the first weekends of May in 2006 and 2007 were celebrated by many Americans as 'Ten Commandments Weekend' in recognition of the importance of the Ten Commandments in their faith and the history and culture of the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) recognizes the first weekend of May 2008 as 'Ten Commandments Weekend';
(2) celebrates the Ten Commandments as a significant aspect of the national life of the United States; and
(3) encourages citizens of the United States to reflect on the integral role that the Ten Commandments have played in the life of the Nation.
Ayn Rand Institute Press Release
"Earth Hour" Sends a Deceptive Message
March 31, 2008
Irvine, CA--Last Saturday evening, cities around the world turned off their lights for one hour to "raise awareness about global warming." In observation of "Earth Hour," iconic landmarks such as the Sears Tower and the Sydney Opera House went dark, while participating individuals turned off residential lights.
According to its organizers, the purpose of the annual event is to encourage people to think about how they can reduce their energy consumption. While they acknowledge that one hour with the lights off would have little effect on carbon emissions, the organizers say that what matters is the symbolic meaning of the event.
"In fact," says Dr. Keith Lockitch, resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute, "the symbolic message that Earth Hour sends is deceptive and destructive.
"Despite the constant claim that 'the debate is over' on climate change, it is nowhere near a proven fact that human carbon emissions are causing a 'planetary emergency.' But it is a fact that carbon-based energy is a life-and-death necessity in today's world.
"Earth Hour sends the false message that we must cut off our carbon emissions and that doing so would be easy and even fun! People went star-gazing and held torch-lit beach parties; restaurants offered special candle-lit dinners during the hour. This bears no relation whatsoever to the kinds of sacrifices that would be forced upon us if global warming activists succeed in imposing real carbon-reduction policies.
"We, in the West, take our abundant energy for granted. It is hard for us to imagine what life would actually be like under the sort of draconian restrictions on energy use that global warming activists are demanding. Earth Hour clouds the issue even more by making the renunciation of energy seem like a big party. People spend a fun hour in the dark, safe in the knowledge that the comforts and life-saving benefits of industrial civilization are just a light switch away.
"What we really need to raise awareness about is just how indispensable carbon-based energy is to human life. Forget one measly hour with just the lights off. How about "Earth Month," without any form of fossil fuel energy? Let those who claim that we need to stop emitting carbon dioxide try spending a month shivering in the dark without heating, electricity, refrigeration; without power plants or factories, grocery stores or hospitals; without any of the labor-saving, time-saving, and therefore life-saving products that industrial energy makes possible.
"If there is any symbolic significance to Earth Hour, it is the opposite of its intended meaning. The lights of our modern cities are a symbol of human progress, of what mankind has achieved in rising from the cave to the skyscraper. But during Earth Hour we see the disturbing spectacle of people celebrating those lights going out--of people rejoicing at the sight of skyscrapers going dark. If anything, what Earth Hour represents is the renunciation of civilization."
### ### ###
Dr. Lockitch has a PhD in Physics from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI). He writes and edits for ARI and is a professor in the Objectivist Academic Center, where he teaches undergraduate writing and a graduate course on the history of physics. His writings have appeared in publications such as the Orange County Register and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Dr. Keith Lockitch is available for interviews. To book him for your show, please contact Larry Benson:
800-365-6552 ext. 213 (office)
949-838-5137 (cell)
larryb@aynrand.org
For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."
... for Moron of the Year.
Hellooo..... it's the economy, stupid(s).
A few years ago I bought Brian Simpson's, Money Banking and the Business Cycle. It's an excellent course, with a very simply premise: that the business cycle of boom and bust that we've all become so familiar with over the last few decades is caused by government intervention in the banking industry, namely the FED as the chief instigator of monetary policy. I work in an industry that is very much cyclical and affected by this cycle moreso than others, and was curious about this thesis. It made sense once I listened to it.
And now, today, I get to watch every move Simpson said is typical of the cycle being played out in real life, with almost complete predictability. It is as if the hysterical Wesley Mooches of the world are there before my eye.
First we have the FED, and Ben Bernake. After causing this financial crisis with a loose dollar policy, they lately resort to tactics that are sure to bring us recession. First, as the threat of an economic slowdown looms, they are quick to drop interest rates, the last move a whopping 0.75%, in the hopes of "stimulating" the economy. Second, in the hopes of "stabilizing" the financial industry, they inject capital in the form of subsidies, bail-outs and other forms of corporate welfare.
This stuns me. It really does. The problem in the first place was excess liquidity, caused by the FED. Injecting even more capital, in these two forms is compounding the problem, not fixing it. This is the fundamental aspect that Simpson highlights in his course. It stems from a fundamentally Keynesian notion that government regulators can fundamentally stimulate demand. It ignores one of the basic laws of economics, Say's Law, which says that demand constitutes it's own supply. That supply is inexorably linked to demand. Injecting excess liquidity only temporarily boosts demand. The unintended consequence is that it also destroys supply, and in doing so the long term response of demand is a slump, and ultimately recession. The FED needs to mop up liquidity, not provide more of it. This is exactly the wrong move to make.
What is more stupid that this sort of monetary policy? Treasury secretary Henry Paulson proposing that the solution to avoid this sort of incident again is to grant the agency that came up with this failed monetary policy, broader regulatory authority! This stems from the idea that somehow the market has failed and it is regulators that must prevent such an occurrence. This is the moral equivalent of putting the fox in charge of the hen house, and it accepts the same premise that was accepted by Elliot Spitzer in his recent tirade that I blogged about last month. The irony is that while Spitzer was explicitly bashing Rand in that statement and while Paulson represents himself as a friend of free market capitalism, they both exemplify the worst of the regulators of Atlas Shrugged, with their near hysterical belief that government is our last hope.
And finally, who has done the most to hurt the cause of laissez faire capitalism in the last years than anyone, from the largest increase in socialized medicine to allowing this sort of financial debacle to occur on his watch? Our own version Mr. Thompson? None other than the present administration and President Bush.
People sometimes tell me when they read Atlas Shrugged that Rand's scenarios are overblown, that nothing like that really happens. Just look around. Honestly, you can't make up stuff this bad.
Honestly, my heart hurts. I see our oil executives and our banking executives being hauled before congressional committees and have to take a browbeating for supposedly causing this crisis, and I watch their pitiful excuses. Where is our Hank Rearden? When will one of these executives assert his right to his profits? When will one of these executives point the finger where it needs to be pointed and demand the thing that is the only solution to these problems. Government get out! Laissez faire!
[E]ven for the legitimately innocent such as children, hostages or POW's, as terrible as it is, one's self-defense cannot be tempered by considering the harm they may come to. The moral blame for their fate falls squarely on the aggressor who makes the war necessary, and indeed the potential consequences to such innocents is a fundamental reason why any citizen must take the responsibility of opposing and denouncing the evil elements within his society -- before they can rise to power and wreak their havoc. If citizens fail to do this, they can not blame their government's foreign victims for defending themselves with every possible means, including killing and even targeting civilians.You will note that underlying this argument is the premise that the sole purpose of a government is the protection of individual rights. This is a crucial point, for a man who has taken to calling himself an "imperfect servant" as he seeks the highest office in the land -- and who makes much of his military background -- has obviously forgotten or chosen to ignore it:
A prisoner of war in Vietnam at a time his own father commanded all U.S. forces in the Pacific, McCain said, "He prayed on his knees every night for my safe return. ... Yet, when duty required it, he gave the order for B-52s to bomb Hanoi, in close proximity to my prison."Let us set aside such questions as whether the war in Vietnam was a proper war of national self-defense, and let us assume that all options to save the POWs without sacrificing American self-defense had been exhausted.
In remarks both personal and philosophical, McCain recalled ancestors buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and mused about "the honor we earn and the love we give when we work and sacrifice with others for a cause greater than our self-interest." [bold added]For John McCain, his use of the word "duty" is not just colloquial or sloppy. He is not merely referring to the oath his father took to defend America -- or even his mission to defend the lives and rights of individual Americans -- as "duty". He is speaking of anything but, as can only be meant by the words "sacrifice ... for a cause greater than our self-interest" -- and as the body of his political thought and his public record further indicate.
(IsraelNN.com) Dr. Wafa Sultan has been forced to go into hiding with her family following a fatwa (religious edict) from an Islamic scholar, according to Omedia. Sultan faces the fatwa following a recent debate on Al-Jazeera in which she challenged Egyptian Islamist Talat Rheim over Dutch cartoons of Mohammed, who Muslims revere as a prophet. Sultan argued that Denmark had the right to print the cartoons.I'm not sure that's the most effective response, so more suggestions for action would be much appreciated. (Via Brian Smith)
Sultan joins a growing list of public critics of radical Islam facing death threats. Her supporters have asked the American public to join them in writing to the embassy of Qatar, the country which sponsors Al-Jazeera, as well as to United States President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking them to defend Sultan's right to free speech and personal safety.
In the physical realm, a small group of people who know what they want and are willing to act in a concerted fashion to accomplish their goal can shape the direction of the rest of the crowd. Here is some interesting research.Why does Paul mention state (rather than national) politics? Because national politics is flooded with well-funded people attempting to move the crowd, almost always toward greater statism. In local and state politics, it's far easier for a small group of people to shift the wind of public opinion. And if enough people are moving their respective states in a better direction, then that will help move the nation.
"Recent research shows that as little as 5% of a crowd can influence the direction of the rest of the crowd":http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/005005.html http://www.leeds.ac.uk/media/press_releases/current/flock.htm Professor Krause, with PhD student John Dyer, conducted a series of experiments where groups of people were asked to walk randomly around a large hall. Within the group, a select few received more detailed information about where to walk. Participants were not allowed to communicate with one another but had to stay within arms length of another person.The equivalent from the world of ideas is best expressed in this scene from The Fountainhead:
The findings show that in all cases, the "informed individuals" were followed by others in the crowd, forming a self-organising, snake-like structure. "We've all been in situations where we get swept along by the crowd," says Professor Krause. "But what's interesting about this research is that our participants ended up making a consensus decision despite the fact that they weren't allowed to talk or gesture to one another. In most cases the participants didn't realise they were being led by others."
Other experiments in the study used groups of different sizes, with different ratios of "informed individuals." The research findings show that as the number of people in a crowd increases, the number of informed individuals decreases. In large crowds of 200 or more, five per cent of the group is enough to influence the direction in which it travels. The research also looked at different scenarios for the location of the "informed individuals" to determine whether where they were located had a bearing on the time it took for the crowd to follow.
Kent Lansing: "All I mean is that a board of directors is one or two ambitious men--and a lot of ballast. I mean that groups of men are vacuums. Great big empty nothings. ...Don't worry. They're all against me. But I have one advantage: they don't know what they want. I do."
One could make the case that the same is true at the level of state politics -- a relatively small number of people can have a disproportionately large impact on the direction of political discourse if they know what they want and they are willing to act in a consistent, concerted fashion towards their goal.
There so much clutter in the news concerning developments in the Middle East. How do you find out what really matters? Tune in to Powell History Recommends! Each week, I’ll be monitoring the news for historically significant events in the region’s major countries, and passing them on to you, with brief commentary about why these events deserve your attention. Here’s my first roundup:
Egypt: “A battle over female circumcision” (LA Times)
Islamists and conservative clerics are fighting proposed legislation in the Egyptian parliament that would criminalize female circumcision and raise the minimum age of when a girl can marry. The Islamists view the bill as an affront to Sharia law…(Full article here.)
Historical significance: Egypt is a society deeply divided. The debate over the issue of female circumcision — imposed on as many as 70% of Egyptian girls — is indicative of the divide. The Muslim population is alienated from the Mubarak regime and its partly Westernized elite. And Mubarak hasn’t got long to live. When he’s gone, Egypt will become an Islamist regime within a generation. (Find out more by hearing my upcoming lecture on Egypt, as part of the Islamist Entanglement. Individual lectures in the series are available for only $20.)
Turkey: “Turkish Leaders Face Court Case” (BBC News)
Turkey’s constitutional court has decided unanimously that it can hear a case aimed at closing down the country’s governing AK Party. The chief prosecutor earlier filed a petition calling for the party to be banned for “anti-secular activities” (Full article here.)
Historical significance: As reported here on PHR, Turkey — the Middle East’s most secular country — is in serious jeopardy of reverting to Islamism. After decades of benevolent secular dictatorship, initiated by Mustafa Kemal, Turkey has gradually become more democratic. However, because most of the population remains deeply Muslim, secularism is constantly under threat. (Learn more, by hearing my lecture on modern Turkey, available separately or as part of the Islamist Entanglement series.)
Iraq: Nothing Defining
Although President Bush claimed that the Iraqi government’s latest attempt to crack down on violence in Basra was a “defining moment,” nothing of significance happened in Iraq this week. In other words, nothing happened this week that tells us anything new about the Iraq situation, nor indicates that its primary actors are going to do anything to prevent Iraq from disintegrating into civil war when the US leaves. The militias in Basra will continue to operate and continue to receive support from Iran. US forces will continue to try to help the Iraqi government stand on its own, but they won’t attack Iran — the known supplier of those same militias. As the French like to say, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – the more it changes, the more it stays the same.
Iran: “A puppeteer’s tribute to Iranian democracy” (International Herald Tribune)
It isn’t necessarily news, but it is an op-ed that clarifies important issues about how the Iranian “democracy” functions. Ahmedinejad may indeed be on the way out, but that won’t mean that Iran will be changing direction in terms of its regional aspirations.

I was trained in the Stanislavsky method. There is a lot of confusion about what "method acting" is, mostly due to the influence of Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio.
As I understand it, Strasberg emphasized emotion memory -- an actor "feeling it." This school of acting forgot that the purpose of acting is to communicate drama to an audience. In the '50s you might have seen two actors on the Actor's Studio stage mumbling to themselves; their acting was "real" but it was not communicated to the audience. As a result, there have been actors who, when told by a director to do something, respond that they can't do it because they don't "feel it."
I can sympathize with these actors to a point. In my acting process I try to start slow in rehearsals and find a reality by pursuing objectives without worrying about results too early. Inevitably, by the third or fourth time I rehearse a scene, the director will become impatient and say something like, "You've got to be bigger" or "Pick up the pace." These results notes are annoying in the first few weeks because I KNOW I must be bigger, but I'm trying to get there from the inside out instead adopting superficial results.
One of the key epiphanies good actors make in their development is that acting is the imitation of what humans do, not what actors do. The beginner will approach a scene by trying to "act" -- that is, aping the results of other actors instead of finding the human reality.
This does not mean that one cannot learn excellent tips by watching master actors. I have learned much about enunciation, emphasizing words and elongating consonants by watching Alan Howard in the scene from Coriolanus on You Tube. But I can integrate these techniques into my acting because I have the foundation of my Stanislavsky training.
I'm not big on exercises. I get impatient with them because their purpose is not immediately tied to the purpose of theatre, communicating to an audience. I think it's better to learn by being in plays and solving problems, always with an eye to the ultimate purpose of performance.
I have learned through rehearsals that the quickest way to find the reality of the scene is to listen to the other actors and react to their words and actions. Just listen and react. Your reactions will take you to unexpected places and give you instant insight into what you are doing.
The biggest mistake actors make in this regard is that, until they are off book, they keep their nose in their book. Wrong! You must get your nose out of the book, look at the actor who is speaking and react. Even in audition, in a cold reading in which you have no idea what's going on, you should try to lift your nose from the page and look at the other actors. When you do this, your acting improves instantly.
Another big problem beginning actors make: they do not stylize their acting. They make unnecessary movements, gestures, grimaces and vocalizations that clutter up their acting. I saw a rehearsal in the last year in which a young actress shifted her weight back and forth and fidgeted throughout like a restless child -- and she was playing the wise Portia in The Merchant of Venice! It did not occur to her that her every movement should be selected for the purpose of characterization.
Art is the selective recreation of reality. Actors must select their movements and eliminate the clutter. The Coriolanus scene I linked to above is highly stylized. Gestures are kept to a minimum and every movement is carefully chosen. The stillness of the actors is striking and powerful, but never alienating or unreal.
Once you are on firm ground in the rehearsal process, then you turn your focus to communicating to the audience. This is where technique comes in. This is where "feeling it" is not enough. The purpose of a play is to make the audience feel it, and here whatever works is good.
I was in a play recently in which I said, "I have been betrayed before by those I have known and loved." Now, I did not feel any great emotion inside myself when I said this. But I communicated emotion by choosing a brief pause before the words "and loved." That pause told the audience that the words did not come easily. That pause was the residue of being hurt in the past. The audience felt the emotion; all I did was coldly apply technique.
UPDATE: Other acting posts:

Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge went dark Saturday night as the world's first major city turned off its lights for this year's Earth Hour, a global campaign to raise awareness of climate change.That's right; it's our turn to point out that this effort is complete garbage. Here we have an attempt to meld a common sense position (don't waste energy) with little more than anti-human nihilism. The light bulb literally brings us out from the darkness and it has served as poignant symbol of human creativity and genius, yet here, the light bulb is turned into a symbol of depravity and destruction—and all on the basis of the environmentalist's creed that nature has an intrinsic value separate from man's life and the spectral claim of man-made doom.
A lightning show was the brightest part of Sydney's skyline during Earth Hour, which began at 8 p.m. when the lights were turned off at the city's landmarks. Most businesses and homes were already dark as Sydney residents embraced their second annual Earth Hour with candlelight dinners, beach bonfires and even a green-powered outdoor movie.
"This provides an extraordinary symbol and an indication that we can be part of the solution" to global warming, Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett told Sky News television, standing across the harbor from the dark silhouette of the Opera House.
[. . . ] Following Australia, lights will go out in major Asian cities including Manila and Bangkok before moving to Europe and North America as the clock ticks on. One of the last major cities to participate will be San Francisco — home to the soon-to-be dimmed Golden Gate Bridge.
[. . .] Even popular search engine Google put its support behind Earth Hour, with a completely black page and the words: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn." [Tanalee Smith, Associated Press Writer]
The Islamist Entanglement is the third installment of the A First History for Adults™ program, designed to help adults learn history. It is a 10 lecture course on the history of the interface between Western and Islamic civilization, which focuses on the modern history of that relationship, starting c.1700. The course begins with a discussion of the "Eastern Question," as it was called in European diplomatic circles, and charts the impact of Europe's empires on central Asia through to WWII. It then shifts in emphasis to the conduct of American foreign relations with the region in the context of the Cold War, and follows through to the present. Over the course of the ten lectures, the history of seven major Middle Eastern countries will be examined in turn: Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, with a 1.5 hour lecture dedicated to each. As the course proceeds, the differences and similarities between the various Islamic states will be examined, with the final aim of situating the current Middle Eastern crisis in its proper historical context.
Could somebody please state, in essential terms, how 1798 and 1956 are milestones in Britain's involvement in the Middle East? Be as brief as possible, i.e. force yourself to essentialize. ([1hfa3-1] Homework: Britain and the Five Milestones, 02/26/08.)
You are invited to a special Bible talk entitled "Who Is Qualified to Rule Mankind?" which will be given at the time and place shown below. [bold added]At least anyone who goes will know what he's getting himself into....
He reportedly told followers that, in the afterlife, they would judge whether others deserved heaven or hell.I frequently comment here on the power of the philosophical ideas one holds to affect his actions, and yet even I am amazed from time to time at what some people are willing to forfeit in favor of otherworldly considerations.
Followers were not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or handle money, Russian media reported. [bold added]

From the Sydney Opera House to Rome's Colosseum to the Sears Tower's famous antennas inChicago, floodlit icons of civilization went dark Saturday for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.The bulk of the rest of this mindless article is a long litany of cities -- not including my own, I am happy to say -- that took part, but I did find the following noteworthy:
The environmental group WWF urged governments, businesses and households to turn back to candle power for at least 60 minutes starting at 8 p.m. wherever they were.
The campaign began last year in Australia, and traveled this year from the South Pacific to Europe to North America in cadence with the setting of the sun.
"What's amazing is that it's transcending political boundaries and happening in places like China, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea," said Andy Ridley, executive director of Earth Hour. "It really seems to have resonated with anybody and everybody."Count me as someone for whom this does not "resonate" and please explain to me why being "wedded" to the technologically advanced "lifestyle" natural for my species is somehow wrong.
...
"There's a widespread belief that somehow people in the United States don't understand that this is a problem that we're lazy and wedded to our lifestyles. (Earth Hour) demonstrates that that is wrong," Richard Moss, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the climate change vice president for WWF, said in Chicago on Saturday. [bold added]
1. How much money does America give to the Palestinians every year? In return we get this crude propaganda about a child killing Bush and turning the White House into a mosque.
2. The story about the 84-year old marine stopping a robber with a much-deserved kick in the groin is getting a lot of notice on the web. But the fact that it is big news says something about modern culture. 200 years ago if a robber was shot to death, no one would have thought twice about it. A man's right to self-defense was taken for granted then. Today a victim fights back and people are shocked. It's a measure of how altruism, moral relativism and subjectivism have warped us.
3. John McCain advocates vast economic regulations to fight global warming -- then he calls it a "market-based solution."
McCain, who once admitted that he "doesn't really understand economics," claimed the solution to the "looming threat" of climate change is to "unleash the power and innovation of the marketplace."
Unfortunately, McCain's plan fails to free anything. In fact, his big government climate policy would mitigate not global warming but economic growth.
...
McCAIN CLAIMS THE Climate Stewardship Act is a market-based solution to global warming. It is anything but. He would have the government cap emissions; create the emissions market and rake off the profits; and control clean energy research.
If he really wants to put forward free market alternatives, they do exist. He could advocate the elimination of government market interventions that obstruct emission reductions and discourage the adoption of lower emission technologies.
McCain is not only a statist, he is a dishonest one who uses free market language to sell his restrictions on the free market!
The only way to "unleash the power and innovation of the marketplace" is for the government to GET OUT OF THE WAY. McCain, just like Clinton and Obama, thinks the state must intervene and regulate -- two euphemisms for dictate.
4. What was the purpose of Earth Hour, an hour on Saturday, March 29th, when people were supposed to turn out their lights? Like recycling and "reducing one's carbon footprint" it's a useless, symbolic crusade aimed at changing the way people think. Environmentalists continually push sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, hoping that people will accept voluntary deprivation of their standard of living for "the environment" or "the planet."
5. Al Gore's latest:
Former Vice President Al Gore is launching a $300 million, bipartisan campaign to try to push climate change higher on the nation’s political agenda.
Notice that it's "bipartisan." Involved are Pat Robertson and Newt Gingrich. (Remember when Gingrich led the "Republican Revolution"? What a joke.)
6. "Dem Elite Working for June Solution."
Hoping to avoid a summer-long bloodbath for the Democratic presidential nomination, some party leaders such as Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen have urged a convention of superdelegates in June, after the caucuses and primaries are over.
In other words, Bredesen wants a real convention that will pick the Democrat candidate so that the other convention can be a meaningless party infomercial, the way conventions are supposed to be these days.
Your Child Is Not State Property
Rocked by a nationwide storm of criticism, the Los Angeles County court that declared homeschooling illegal in California has agreed to rehear the case in June. At issue is Justice H. Walter Croskey's Feb. 28 decree, which ordered the parents of "Rachel L." to send her away to a public or private school, where she can get a "legal education."
Justice Croskey's edict interpreted state education laws that govern all children, whatever their home situation and "whatever the quality" of their home education. Except for the rare case when parents already hold state teaching credentials, parents who find public schools intolerable and cannot locate or afford a suitable private school were branded by the decree as outlaws if they choose to instruct their child at home.
California legislators were entitled to enact this blanket prohibition, according to the judge, because they feared the supposed social disorder that would result from "allowing every person to make his own standards on matters of conduct in which society as a whole has important interests."
"Allowing"? By what right does government presume to "allow" (or, in this case, forbid) you to make your own standards concerning your child's education?
Government has no such right. Neither the state nor "society as a whole" has any interests of its own in your child's education. A society is only a group of individuals, and the government's only legitimate function is to protect the individual rights of its citizens, including yours and your children's, against physical force and fraud. The state is your agent, not a separate entity with interests that can override your rights.
If Justice Croskey's description of California law is correct, then the state's educational policy is at odds with America's founding principles. Parents are sovereign individuals whose right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness includes the right to control their child's upbringing. Other citizens, however numerous or politically powerful, have no moral right to substitute their views on child-raising for those of the father and mother who created that child.
Instead, a proper legal system recognizes and protects parents' moral right to pursue the personal rewards and joys of child-raising. At every stage, you have a right to set your own standards and act on them without government permission. This parental right to control your child's upbringing includes the right to manage his education, by choosing an appropriate school or personally educating him at home.
Of course, there are certain situations in which government must step in to protect the rights of a child, as in cases of physical abuse or neglect. But no such concern for individual rights can account for California's arrogant assertion of state control over the minds of all school-age children residing within its borders.
Education, like nutrition, should be recognized as the exclusive domain of a child's parents, within legal limits objectively defining child abuse and neglect. Parents who starve their children may properly be ordered to fulfill their parental obligations, on pain of losing legal custody. But the fact that some parents may serve better food than others does not permit government to seize control of nutrition, outlaw home-cooked meals, and order all children to report for daily force-feeding at government-licensed cafeterias.
The shockwaves from Justice Croskey's decision will likely impact not just homeschoolers but also the apologists for government education--teachers' unions, educational bureaucrats, and politicians. Their political and financial survival depends on a policy that treats children as, in effect, state property--but only rarely is the undiluted collectivism of that policy trumpeted so publicly.
What if, in the harsh glare of the "Rachel L." case, parents start asking whether the state has any right at all to be running schools and dictating educational standards for children, in order to advance society's "interests"? This calls into question the moral foundation of public education as such. In this light, one wonders if the court's decision to rehear the case could be a first step toward muting, and muddying, the controversy.
For their part, the defenders of public schooling can be expected to stay busy papering over their system's own failures--the very failures that helped fuel the homeschooling movement, by driving desperate parents to seek refuge at home from the irrationality, violence, and mediocrity that have come to characterize government education, in California and elsewhere.
For now, at least, the battle lines are clearly drawn. Are parents mere drudges whose social duty is to feed and house their spawn between mandatory indoctrination sessions at government-approved schools? Or are they sovereign individuals whose right to guide their children's development the state may not infringe?
The answer could determine not only the future of homeschooling but the future of education in America.
Feb 13, 2008: Since his last combat deployment in Iraq, Jeremy Hall has had a rough time, getting shoved and threatened by his fellow soldiers.Un-freaking-believable.
The trouble started there when he would not pray in the mess hall.
"A senior ranking staff sergeant told me to leave and sit somewhere else because I refused to pray," Hall, a 23-year-old US army specialist, told AFP. Later, Hall was confronted by a major for holding an authorized meeting of "atheists and freethinkers" on his base. The officer threatened to discipline him and block his re-enlistment. "He said: 'You guys are being a problem and problems can be removed,'" Hall said. "He was yelling at us and stuff and at the very end he says, 'I really love you guys, I want you to see the light.'"
Now Hall is suing the major and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, accusing them of breaching his constitutional rights. A campaign group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is waiting for the Pentagon to respond to a lawsuit filed in a Kansas federal court on Hall's behalf. It alleges a "pernicious pattern and practice" of infringement of religious liberties in the military.
The group's founder, former Air Force lawyer Mikey Weinstein, said he has documented 6,800 testimonies by military personnel -- nearly all of them Christians -- of sometimes punitive or humiliating attempts to make them accept a fundamentalist evangelical interpretation of Christianity.
"I am at war with those people who would create a fundamentalist Christian theocracy in the technologically most lethal organization ever created by our species, which is the United States armed forces," he said.
He plans to add extra charges and possibly other lawsuits this month.
"It violates title seven of the US code for an employer to push their Biblical world view on an employee," he said. "But it's a trillion times worse when that is not just your shift manager at Starbucks but that is your military superior."
He singles out one of the major Christian groups in the military, the Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF). The group represents 15,000 US military personnel around the world, according to its director, retired Air Force general Bruce Fister. "It is not the position of OCF to try and coerce people to believe what we believe," Fister told AFP. OCF's aim, as stated on its website, is to achieve "a spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit." It professes belief in "the eternal blessedness of the saved; and the everlasting, conscious punishment of the lost."
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