[AUDIO] Multiculturalism, Islam, and Censorship

As a courtesy to those who prefer to listen to audio books, and to the blind, I am happy to provide this audio version of my January 22, 2011 essay Multiculturalism, Islam, and Censorship (formerly titled “Why Lars Hedegaard is Being Tried”):

[TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION OF THE ESSAY, CLICK HERE]

Quick Note to Objectivists on Participation in the Electoral Process

A well known Objectivist, and one I greatly admire, recently commented on his facebook fanpage that:

This Repub field and the results from Iowa just prove that it’s still much too early for politics. Lots of educational work still to do…

It was an echo of a comment expressed by Ayn Rand shortly after the failure of the Goldwater campaign in the 1964 presidential election, and that sentiment got a few nods from the fanpage’s presumably Objectivist fans. That is not unexpected: many Objectivists, on the basis of what Rand wrote, and on the basis of what they think she meant by it, routinely state that “it’s too early” for participation in politics, or that “it’s earlier than you think”.

As I see it, Rand did not intend that Objectivists vacate participation in electoral or party politics, and I find it a galling cop-out when Objectivists poo poo any invitation to get involved in electoral politics. The usual response is that now is the time for education, as though education and electoral politics were mutually exclusive exercises, and as though most Objectivists are actually involving themselves in teaching in lieu of political action. The truth, for perhaps 99% of Objectivists, is that they are not involved in either. Too many, in a manner not unlike the libertarians, are in practice just curling up in a ball, navel gazing about ideal societies, re-reading Atlas Shrugged, and moaning “what a pity”. Well, something’s a pity, alright.

When time permits, I intend to write a more detailed piece about what Rand wrote, and what she meant by it, in context. In the interim, I below reproduce my response to the Objectivist gentleman’s recent facebook comment. I’ll just add that his comment was no more qualified or detailed than the quotation of it I make above. Accordingly, I cannot know, from that comment alone, whether or not he was implying that Objectivists should not participate in electoral politics. My response is less a response to his views on the subject, and more a response to those Objectivists who would take his statement to be confirmation that they can and should continue to remain uninvolved in electoral politics. And now, without further ado, my reply: Read more

Health Care and Ontario's Deficit: The Shocking, Secret Truth About Who and What's to Blame

Sunmedia’s Queen’s Park columnist, Christina Blizzard, today wrote about Ontario’s health care system and the deficit. It concludes:

Liberals have socked us with the two biggest tax hikes in the history of the province — the health care levy and the HST. And now they’re crying poor? They created this mess. We’re just paying their bills.

Given her message, the column’s headline (which Blizzard probably did not write) is a knee-slapper of hypocrisy: “Stop blaming and start restraining“. I agree with the sentiment of the headline, but it sure as heck is not the case that the PCs are somehow any better than the Liberals with respect to Ontario’s health care system. In fact, pinning the blame on the Liberals smacks of revisionist history. So I got to work writing a comment to the column on the newspaper’s web site. Of course, my comment has to pass Sun “moderation”, so there is a chance it will not get posted. So, for the record, here is the comment I submitted: Read more

McKeever's Minimal Maxims and Bon Arrows, Volume 2, Issue 3

All horror is real and anti-real.

I know that nobody knows nothing and somebody might not know anything.

The smile earned is effortless and innocent.

Kill without murdering. Command without enslaving. Seize without stealing.

Auditor General's report: LCBO colludes with suppliers to overcharge purchasers

Through a perverse “fixed markup system”, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario increases its revenues by asking liquor producers to charge the LCBO more. So writes Ontario’s Auditor General in his annual report, released today (see section 3.08, beginning at page 186).

According to the AG, when the LCBO decides to stock a new product, it puts out a “needs letter” to suppliers. For each type of product, the needs letter tells suppliers the range of prices at which the LCBO would like to sell the product. That price is not based upon supply and demand. It is based on pure whim (which might explain, at least in part, why the Lagavulin I used to be able to buy for forty some odd dollars now costs well over $100 per bottle, only a few years later). Don’t stop reading: it gets worse. Much worse. Read more

Full Transcript: Adam Carolla's Occupy Wall Street Rant

In 1971, author/philosopher Ayn Rand wrote of “the age of envy” and of the zero-worship mentality that, today, is prevalent among those in the Occupy Wall Street (formerly known as “Days of Rage”) movement:

“They do not want to own your fortune, they want you to lose it; they do not want to succeed, they want you to fail; they do not want to live, they want you to die; they desire nothing, they hate existence, and they keep running, each trying not to learn that the object of his hatred is himself . . . . They are the essence of evil, they, those anti-living objects who seek, by devouring the world, to fill the selfless zero of their soul. It is not your wealth that they’re after. Theirs is a conspiracy against the mind, which means: against life and man.” – Ayn Rand, “The Age of Envy”, in her book Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution

To those who really want to understand that mentality, I recommend a full reading of Rand’s essay.

In the meantime: within the last 24 hours or so, funny man Adam Carolla has gotten a lot of ink over a rant in which he – in a relatively unpolished, expletive-filled, but passionate and moving way – expressed a similar summation about the Occupiers. I was unable to find a complete transcript of it on the web, so I have prepared one for you, below. The original audio appears in a youtube video that appears immediately below Read more

Do not Remember their Sacrifice on Remembrance Day / Veterans Day

…instead honour their virtue in fighting for their lives, liberty, and property. Read more

Choosing a Camera for Affordable Quality Videography (Updated 2011-Nov-05)

I do not usually blog about photography. However, I have just completed a 1.5 year long election campaign, and I now have time again to return to video production. That effort will begin by replacing my 5 year old Panasonic standard-definition video camera with a new High Definition (HD) camera. I have done a considerable amount of research, and it has not been easy – there are numerous things to consider, and I have not found a single place in which they have all been addressed. So, to save you time – and so I don’t forget what I have learned – I am writing this blog entry. May you find it as useful as I hope to find it while choosing a camera. Read more

Ayn Rand's Finest Condemnation of Libertarianism

Over the years, I have read several compilations of Ayn Rand quotations concerning libertarianism. For the first time today, I was able to listen to Ayn Rand’s the Questions and Answers following her April 11, 1976 speech at the Ford Hall Forum, titled “The Moral Factor”. Her answer there was arguably the most succinct and essential statement of her views on why libertarianism deserves to be condemned. Read more

Atlas Shrugged Part 1: Review

Tomorrow, “Atlas Shrugged Part 1” will make its first appearance on Canada’s silver screens. Thanks to the generosity of one of the film’s producers, Harmon Kaswell, I was able to watch an advance copy of the film so as to provide my readership with a Canadian Objectivist’s review. Read more

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