Canada, Leonard Peikoff, Iran, and Collectivism

On October 12, 2001, Canadian-born philosophy professor and author Dr. Leonard Peikoff (author of the recently released book “The DIM Hypothesis: Why the Lights of the West are Going Out“) appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s political talk show. The appearance of course made its way onto YouTube, where the video has been viewed over 47,000 times, and 1452 comments have been made in response to it. Especially since being posted to YouTube, Dr. Peikoff’s views about the USA bombing or otherwise taking military action in Iran have often drawn the allegation – especially from libertarians, but not from Objectivists – that Dr. Peikoff, or Objectivism itself, is somehow collectivist in respect of war. The latest such criticism occurred on my own facebook wall. Accordingly, I take it upon myself to demonstrate that such allegations are false. Read more

Located: the Next Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

A picture is worth a thousand words. So… Read more

Advice for Politically-Active Objectivists When Dealing with the Media/Public

A fellow Objectivist with not too much experience speaking with the media asked for a few pointers. I replied as follows.

I suppose the most important thing is to speak in steak-and-potatoes terms. Abstractions that are well understood by Objectivists often lack a conscious connection to the concretes in a non-Objectivist’s life.

There are some others that come immediately to mind: Read more

McKeever’s Minimal Maxims and Bon Arrows, Volume 2, Issue 4

One’s collection of skipping records gets larger as one ages. Skip…skip…skip…ski…sk…s….
Worse: One eventually learns that one got said skipping records at a flea market, and that they’ve never been anything but skipping records, since time immemorial.
Worst: nobody around me seems to hear the damned things skipping.

As soon as “bad” meant both “good” and “bad”, dictionaries became irrelevant, and freedom included slavery.

A socialist leader’s virtue is the ability to shrink, not to grow.

If nobody ever knew your name, you were never alive in the first place. We build the souls we leave behind. Build one that will stand the test of time. – Note to a friend.

Just Right: Paul Ryan and Al Quds Day

“Just Right” is a radio show that airs every Thursday from 11:00 AM until noon, on 94.9 FM CHRW in London, Ontario. The hosts are my good friends Robert Metz and Robert Vaughan. The show looks at science, culture, current events and more, and gives listeners an insight the value of which normally long survives the significance of the particular event being discussed. Today, I had the distinct pleasure of filling-in for the illustrious Mr. Vaughan, and of preparing commentary on two items I found to be particularly interesting this week. The first: Republican Vice-Presidential running mate Paul Ryan’s devout Catholicism, his affinity for the writings of Ayn Rand, and the fatal flaw in his approach to defending capitalism and individualism. The second: the true nature and goal of the wretchedly anti-Jewish Islamic “Al Quds Day” demonstrations, and the destructive effect of permitting the demonstration to be held on the grounds of a legislature (in this case, Queen’s Park, in Toronto). Read more

Wilful Blindness, Religion and Politics

On his blog, Sunmedia writer Warren Kinsella expresses some puzzlement about why his submitted column on politics and religion didn’t appear in today’s issue of the Sun. Given that a left-wing writer was actually coming to the defence of a Conservative Prime Minister’s privacy, it is a bit puzzling (perhaps a Conservative writer with more pull wanted to be the one to please the PM?). However, in my view, it’s just as well. Kinsella’s defence of the PM was not warranted. Read more

The Future, Purpose, and Freedom: an Enlightening Dream

Dreams, though usually experienced in the dark, can prove most enlightening. On July 24th this year, I had such a dream, and it gave me a valuable first-hand experience that has helped me to understand the role of purpose in ones life, and its relation to the value of thinking rationally. It also gave me some insight into the methods and motives of those who see no value in rational thought, or who are hostile to it. And, perhaps most importantly, it helped me to identify a common flaw in the advocacy of freedom. I share this dream, and my thoughts about it, with you below. Read more

Red Alert!

{The following is the text of a speech given by Freedom Party of Ontario leader Paul McKeever to attendees of the party’s “Red Alert” Dinner on April 21, 2012, at the Primrose Hotel, Toronto, Ontario Canada}

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If there is one thing all of the news and speculation about Ontario’s 2012 budget has made clear, it is this: we, in Ontario, are at war. It is a civil war being fought among the millions who call Ontario home, but it has only two sides. As in any war, both sides want what will make them happy, but the two sides differ both in what they mean by happy, and in what they are prepared to do to obtain the happiness they want. Read more

"Bully": the new "Nazi"

You are a bully if you say that you disagree with this article…or if you don’t read it at all. But don’t worry, I’m a bully too if what I’ve written here offends you. At least those are implications of the new meaning being given to the word “bully” by today’s reds.

Truths and falsehoods are said about people every day and, every day, people are praised or condemned. Until recently, such statements did not constitute “bullying” unless they were false or vicious. The person who was spreading the falsehood that Sarah “has cooties” was bullying Sarah because it was dishonest and, therefore, vicious. Spreading a falsehood that John’s genetic make-up makes him stupid or dishonest was bullying, because it was false and, therefore, vicious.

However, over the last few years, the Reds have been attempting to destroy that distinction. They now assert that bullying does not have to involve the false or the vicious. Bullying, the reds now imply, includes any comment that someone does not want to hear or does not want others to hear. Read more

Poison Pill: How Ontario's Progressive Conservatives are Trying to Trigger an Election

It is becoming increasingly clear that Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are scheming to trigger another Ontario election this week. Moreover, it is being done in a way designed to make the Liberals look as though they are to blame.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath today said that she had vowed to “let” the budget motion succeed (not the bill, but the policy and planning blueprint released and voted upon weeks ago) and that she had kept that promise. What she meant was that she and her whole party abstained from voting, which gave the Liberals a numerical advantage over the PCs when the blueprint was voted upon. She said that she also was promising to “let” the budget bill pass this coming Wednesday. Her language implies that she again will have her members abstain from the vote on the budget bill, such that the success or failure of the budget will come down to a vote between the Liberals and the PCs. Read more

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