Short Note re: the Mythically Anti-socialist Conservative Party

Gerry Nicholls, former Vice President of the National Citizens Coalition, is apparently still buying the nonsense drilled into peoples heads about Conservative parties. In a Letter to the Editor today, in one of Canada’s national newspapers, the Globe and Mail, Gerry writes, in part: Read more

Paul McKeever’s Minimal Maxims and Bon Arrows, volume 1, issue 6

Those who cannot remember the past condemn us to the reliving of it.

Eat of my need, drink of my want. – Man’s last supper

It is illegal to obtain or destroy a free man’s values without his consent.

Another rich man lost his shirt.
A holy roller’s name’s now dirt.
Cold and rain clouds on the run:
Ten percent chance of heat and sun.
The fix was in for the gold medal winner.
The diet you failed don’t make one thinner.
That poor woman’s child can’t walk,
Can’t swallow, can’t hear, can’t even talk.
The sold out show was a giant flop.
The fat plain singer came out on top.
A bowl of sweet lemons and sour grapes:
The yummy daily diet of irrational apes.

The Liberal Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks

Two days ago, the Chronicle Herald published a story in which they describe a taped conversation between Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt and her then aide Jasmine MacDonnell.  The two women are heard discussing the issue of the radioactive isotope shortage that has resulted from the May 15th shutdown of a  52-year-old nuclear reactor (the reactor was shut down due to water leakage).  Raitt says to MacDonnell that it is “good” that Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is avoiding media exposure over the isotope “crisis”, because it will allow Raitt to take all of the credit when the crisis is resolved. Read more

Palace of Darkness: Brainless Body Meets Brain in a Jar

Post Shredded Wheat has an interesting new website to promote a rather uninteresting breakfast. ThePalaceOfLight.com (nickname of the electric-lighted Niagara Falls building in which Shredded Wheat was first produced) is the place to find a humourous five-episode micro-series that features a bumbling conservative Post Shredded Wheat boss by the name of Frank Druffel. Frank likes the fact that Shredded Wheat has not changed since it was introduced in 1892, and he is determined to prevent any changes. As Frank sees it, Shredded Wheat is “perfect”, just the way it is. Read more

The Interest Myth Exploded

I recently received a question from a reader concerning my post of October 20, 2008, entitled “Banking and Morality: 100% Reserve versus “Fractional” Reserves“. It reads as follows: Read more

Rand as Nietzsche: Talking Points Memo Designed to Diminish Respect for Rand

TPM (“Talking Points Memo”) is a web-based collection of about 4 web sites. I have not visited it much, but I seem to recall investigating a recent phenomenon where a number of bloggers or journalists suddenly were using phrases so similar – in such disparate publications/blogs – that they seemed to be following some collectivist marching orders (“Gallant Gallstone”, anyone?). On that occasion, the origin appeared to be a blog post to a TPM web site. All of which makes sense, I suppose, given the name of the site(s).

Given the apparent role of TPM in co-ordinating blogging efforts on the left, I thought it worth my time to bring attention to one article – one talking point, if you will – that sprung up on the TPM web site a few hours ago. Titled “Rand/Thrasymachus, Marx, and Dostoyevsky“, I thought perhaps I might find in the article something of value. Instead, the article’s author, who goes only by the name Nebton, provides the reader with misrepresentation after misrepresentation in an effort to support one talking point: that Ayn Rand’s ethical philosophy (rational egoism) is just a rehash of philosophy from ancient times. Implied: don’t bother reading Ayn Rand when considering the nature and causes of the current economic crisis. Read more

The Passion of Paul McKeever's Critics: An Open Letter to Grasshopper

On February 28, 2008, I released a video titled “Straw Men are Huemerous”. It was a response to a paper written by Michael Huemer, a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, titled “Critique of ‘The Objectivist Ethics’ “. Huemer’s essay purports to be a critique of the first essay in Ayn Rand’s book “The Virtue of Selfishness”; an essay, titled “The Objectivist Ethics” (hereinafter “TOE”), that lays out the essentials of her ethical philosophy. Read more

Paul McKeever’s Minimal Maxims and Bon Arrows, volume 1, issue 5

Peikoff, Ridpath, and – forgive me – even Brandon: Eh is Eh, eh?

“God only knows…”
I know it ain’t so.
Nobody knows nothing,
and nothing don’t know.

Live for a what, not for a when.

The day wore on and, one after another, freed of the need to pull the wagon, they happily rode upon it, until, at sunset, it ground to a halt. It would be a long, cold, night. – A Brief History of America

A Short Note on Tolerance and Sanction

An acquaintance and fellow student of Objectivism read Leonard Peikoff’s “Fact and Value” this week. I asked him for his thoughts on it, and he wrote: Read more

For the Aspiring Politician: What to Study

Today, I received a letter that asked me for some advice. The young man, who had chosen to leave university after two years of bad education in a university, asked what he should study as an aspiring politician. I gave him the following advice:

“When I was in high school, I asked a local politician what I should study in order to be a politician. He said: “Study whatever you want”. At the time, I thought he was just being rude; just saying “get out of the way kid, you’re bothering me”. However, I now know that he was right, at least in the sense that he would have defined “politician”. Read more

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