Don't say Grace...

...say Justice.

I am busy and have nothing to say that Craig Biddle hasn't already said pretty damn well.

The religious tradition of saying grace before meals becomes especially popular around the holidays, when we all are reminded of how fortunate we are to have an abundance of life-sustaining goods and services at our disposal. But there is a grave injustice involved in this tradition. It is the injustice of thanking an alleged God for the productive accomplishments of actual men.

Go read the rest.

Happy Thanksgiving.

-M.

Ugh...

I'd like to issue a retraction.

-M.

Freddie Mac (still) Hemorrhaging Money

Freddie Mac lost $6.8 billion in the third quarter of this fiscal year. They consider themselves in decent shape because, for the second straight quarter, they've lost billions of dollars but not so many billions of dollars that they needed a "federal cash infusion" (read: stolen tax dollars). They've already received $51 billion since September 2008. Fannie Mae asked for another $15 billion a couple of days ago. Both of these entities own or guarantee half of the mortgages in this country.

Sometimes I feel like Francis Dolarhyde: "Do you see? DO YOU SEE?!" Are people really that blind to the crucial intersection of morality and economics? Tragically (though not surprisingly), all evidence points to "yes".

Brace yourselves, kids. It is still early. And it will get uglier.

-M.

This battle has just begun

I spend a lot of time on the internet. I get almost all of my news there (aside from the occasional edition of the Wall Street Journal purchased outside my favorite diner and the occasional bored venture onto primetime news networks), my blog rounds include upwards of 150 blogs ranging from current events to politics to economics to news analysis to philosophy to sports. I have to know what's going on in the world and in my fields (philosophy and history), so I try to keep up. But sometimes some of the sites usually on my regular rounds fall by the wayside (this happens to The New Clarion all the time--I don't know why I keep spacing them out). One of those that has fallen out of my regular rotation lately is Brian Leiter's blog. It happens.

For those of you who don't know, Leiter's blog is predominantly reporting news about the academic profession of philosophy: who left where to teach where, who died, etc., with a bit of reporting on the intellectual culture in general thrown in. Leiter is a philosopher and legal scholar at the University of Chicago and also is the editor of The Philosophical Gourmet Report, a ranking (often controversial) of philosophy graduate schools in the English-speaking world. 

Well, I stopped by Leitner's place again today and saw this. If you don't know who Donald Hubin is, don't worry. His contribution to philosophy is 30-odd years of poorly reasoned and wholly uninfluential articles on justice, paternity, rights, values and sundry other topics in ethics. 

These are the people young Objectivists (especially philosophy majors) will encounter in universities. Someone who thinks of his job not as teaching young people how to think rationally about philosophical issues, but as disabusing the poor little lemmings of their nonsense dogmas. And that's if you're lucky. Many of them are openly hostile. Trust me, I've seen them all.

And to include Rothbard in the same category as Rand, or even someone like Nozick, is just insulting. I'm sorry, but libertarians are going to have realize that Rothbard was a piss-poor thinker. 

Look, I've dealt with these cats for five years. I'm in it for the long haul: PhD. Don't let them break you down. And they will try to break you down like you're an alcoholic at an intervention. Stand your ground, be respectful (as long as they deserve it) and, above all, know your material. Know it backwards and forwards. Not only Objectivism but whoever you are studying. If you have to know Schopenhauer's opinion of Kant's transcendental aesthetic, know it thoroughly. If you have to know Schumpeter's criticism of Keynes' "general theory", know it thoroughly. If you have to know the influence of classical teachings on the Founding Fathers, know it thoroughly. 

If you know your material, know how to rationally integrate that knowledge and can articulate it eloquently, they have nothing on you.

-M.

5-0

It's looking more and more like I may owe Josh McDaniels an apology.

-M.

Don't act surprised.

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

This was going to happen at some point during his presidency. Might as well get it out of the way now, when he is merely promising universal prosperity and world peace, then when his nonsense collapses all around him.

I'll say nothing else except to point you to the list of recipients of this Oslo trinket and ask whether you think it should really be such an honor to be in that company.

-M.

An Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes

Do I really need to say anything else?

-M.

Good Riddance

Ted Kennedy Dies of Brain Cancer at Age 77

It's about time.

-M.

Les Paul, 1915-2009

I've been a day or so behind for the last week, so I just learned, after stopping by Myrhaf's, that the great Les Paul has passed away. A brilliant musician and innovator, there is no rock and roll without this man. He developed one of the first (and eventually most ubiquitous) solid body electric guitars as well as developing overdubbing, multitracking, delay and phasing effects, as well as innovative playing styles. 

A great man whose influence will live as long as rock and roll. Rest in peace, Les Paul. 

Thank you, Les.

-M.

Hall of Fame

Well, Shannon Sharpe has been snubbed from the Hall of Fame. I shouldn't be surprised. The Denver Broncos just get routinely snubbed from Canton. Floyd Little, Haven Moses, Tom Jackson, Steve Atwater, Karl Mecklenburg. RANDY GRADISHAR. It's obscene really.

From what I understand, there is a lot of backroom politics bullshit that goes on with the pile of fools who are tapped to vote for the inductees. Just look who else isn't in Canton: Cris Carter, Steve Tasker, Alex Karras, Ken Stabler and Jerry Kramer. Kramer's snub is particularly shameful. I acknowledge some bias, being a former offensive lineman myself, but this man really was the greatest guard to ever play the game. And he kicked field goals!

Now, I have a whole season of being disappointed by the Frankenstein monster that Jeff McDaniels has turned my team into.

Onward.

-M.