Jesus CHRIST!

I'm beginning to wonder if Ben Bernanke even knows what the economy IS.

In other news: Barney Frank needs a smack in the mouth.

Sweet Zombie Jesus, this is fury-inspiring. I'm going to go smoke myself into a temporary coma. Excuse me.

-Matt

Craig Biddle in Houston

I got back a few hours ago from seeing Craig Biddle give a talk at Rice University here in Houston entitled "Capitalism: The Only Moral Social System". A description can be found here. I must say, it was one of the better capitalism talks I have seen in a while. Biddle did an especially good job of concretizing the more abstract points of his talk, particularly during one point in the Q&A.

In fact, speaking of the Q&A, a questioner brought up the current presidential candidates which led Biddle to spend a good deal of time discussing the principle moral and political philosophies of both candidates, even breaking out his notes for his next talk which, apparently, is about that very subject. I don't know when or where that talk is going to be, but I recommend you go check it out if you can. From the little teaser we got, it sounds like it will be very interesting.


--M.


Update:
Apparently, Biddle's next talk, which I mentioned above, will be the next in ARI's lecture series. Info can be found here.

M.

Going John Galt?

I've been talking with some of the Objectivists I know and the subject of "going John Galt" has come up more than a few times. I've also seen it come up on some Objectivist blogs. 

My tentative position on this is somewhere in the middle. I don't think it is time to "go John Galt". . . yet. I think the time will come where something similar is required, however. That is, I think we are beyond the point of no return, but we are moving slowly. Certainly much slower than in Atlas Shrugged (I recall reading somewhere that Rand sped up the collapse in AS faster than it would likely happen to make it work in the novel's context). I think that in a nation where something like this is possible with such little outcry, something is very incurably wrong. And the only thing to do is prepare and wait for the time to rebuild. 

So, given that, what should we do? Well, since we aren't at the "buy gold, ammo and stock seed and I'll see you in the mountains" bit yet, I think we continue to fight. Not to save what cannot be saved, but to take from the destroyers as much as we can. By this, I mostly mean: to win as many minds as possible. 

Is it possible to have so much of an impact that America reverses direction? I don't know, but I doubt it. Of course, it's possible that I am wrong, and if it ever turns out that I am wrong, I will gladly admit so. 

It will be awhile, however. And until then (if I even live to see it), I will continue to support ARI and other fine organizations because I think it is possible, and very much desirable, to win many more minds, especially among the younger generations.

Now, this hasn't been a very in-depth examination of the present situation, but I never meant it to be. I simply wanted to present my current position. But I certainly welcome comments. But I don't think it looks good, kids.

Weimar Republic, anyone?

From the Migraine Fields--

Matt

It's easy to get under my skin...

...but do you know how hard it is to get me to throw up my hands and say "Screw it!"? That's what this election has done to me.

I am far from disconnected. I read three newspapers a day, on top of all the articles I read online and the the few hours of news I watch every day. But, if it were anybody but "Creepo" and "Dipshit" running for the highest office in the land, I'd be swimming in articles and bios about the candidates, offering my analyses left and right to anyone who would hear them.

I can't do it this time.

I can't dive into the muck as willingly as I used to. It's just so much more disgusting now. I can barely be prodded to watch the debates. And now I'm sorry I did.

In a post a couple of months ago, I said that I was voting for Obama because McCain just scared the devil out of me. Now, less than a month from election, I've decided to abstain. I can't sanction this sideshow.

This pile of inanity is so far afield that it has actually driven me into the arms of 20th century philosophy. I have spent most of the time I would usually have spent on political analysis and commentary plumbing the shallows of Wittgenstein, Russell, Ayer and Husserl. And others. I hate these thinkers, but it is actually more enjoyable to discover just exactly how wrong Wittgenstein is than it is to read an article about what dough-headed nonsense fell out of the mouth of either presidential hopeful the night before.

This is going to be uglier than a baby with a claymore, brothers. Cover your hair and your eyes. And guard your wallet.


From the Migraine Fields--
Matt

The colors! The colors!

Okay, I've altered the colors on my blog because I have received a few complaints from people who were having trouble reading light-colored text on a dark background. I may continue fiddling with things over the next couple of days.

Enjoy.

-M.

Update...

Nick Provenzo over at Rule of Reason  has published another update to the uproar over his abortion post. He has published several of the more venomous and ridiculous messages he received from the so-called "pro-life" nutjobs. Some of them are hilariously asinine, others are eerily disgusting.

Go check it out for a good laugh and a creeped-out shiver. 

"Our stigmata will stagnate and we will shake"--

Matt 

The greatest show unearthed!

Okay, I’ve been absent for a bit. Fall semester at university isn’t really kicking my ass, but it is time consuming. And, and the hurricanes. Half the city doesn’t have or is just now getting back power. I have a few things lined up, both for here and the YouTube account, but right now, I’d like to introduce a new feature here at Beyond the Wall of Sleep. Actually, this is just an excuse to introduce something that I can use as filler whenever I get too distracted to post as frequently as I would like.

So, every now and then I’ll post a strip from a little comic I’ve been working on off-and-on for a few months. It’s nothing particularly mind-blowing. Just something I do occasionally to pass the time, when I don’t feel like writing and when I don’t really have the alacrity to retain anything I read.

The comic is called “The Horrors of Babylon”. It used to be called “The World Will Be Poorer without You”, after a line in one of my short stories. But that name just didn’t fit the comic. So, I played with a few names in my head and eventually changed it. And if I think of a better one, I’ll change it again.

To describe it as succinctly as I can: This is the kind of comic I would find funny. Topics include philosophy, science, economics, history, geek culture, b-movie horror film culture (e.g., Bob Wilkins, Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Addams Family, Vincent Price, etc.), camp and kitsch (usually on the darker end of the spectrum), some politics and a few other things. It’s certainly not for everyone. But, if you enjoy a good Bob Wilkins, Kierkegaard or cryptography reference, this is for you.

The three recurring characters are Tzim Tzum, Ms. Penny Dreadful and Autumn Mitternacht. I am an okay artist, if I take my time. But I don’t put an incredible amount of work into these things. They exist largely for the jokes and references. They’re a boredom project.

The first on is called “Of Bullshit-ology”. Let’s see if you can guess what that is a reference to. Enjoy.

(You may have to click on it to see a bigger version. Flickr doesn't seem to have anything between "too small to read" and "too big to fit in the post".)

Provenzo on abortion; religionists on how to embarrass yourself publicly

Nick Provenzo over at Rule of Reason posted a piece about Palin’s Down’s Syndrome child and the ethics of abortion. It’s a good piece (except for one possibly misleading part that someone outside of an Objectivist context might misconstrue, but which Nick later clarified) so go read it.

What I’d really like to draw attention to for anyone who has yet to see it, is the quality of comments over at Rule of Reason. It’s goddamn embarrassing. Sometimes, it’s hard to think of some people as fellow human beings. The raving lunacy with which the conservative readers attacked Nick (thanks to links from HotAir, LifeNews and LewRockwell.com, among others) is astonishing. He gets called a moron, a eugenicist and “a sick wacko” among other horrible things. He was even compared to “white supremacists, nazis and other groups hellbent on genetic cleansing.”

In my experience, this sort of inanity and frothy-mouthed, unbalanced hysteria is reserved for when someone tells the left to go take their social justice, socialized medicine or environmentalist nonsense and shove it. Take a lesson from this, kids: it doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, left or right, when you reject reason, you are reduced to the kind of ravings that would embarrass a mental patient.

This was directed at Diana Hsieh in response to one of her comments: “I wish i had an egg to smack on your head”. Charming.

Take a good look. This is what religion has wrought.

From the migraine fields—

Matt

Mother Nature sucks...

Okay, the blog is not dead (is there even anyone out there to check the pulse?). With the fall semester at university under way and hurricanes Gustav and Ike crashing my party, I have been a tad neglectful. But fret not, things are a-brewin' and I will be resuming regular posting within the week. Cheers.

"I liked you better when you had hope."
"No, you didn't."

-Matt

A few notes...

...just so you know I'm not dead. I've been working on a few projects, so I haven't been updating with the frequency I would like. But here is some brief commentary on some recent happenings. I know of a few Objectivist bloggers who have a regular feature like this, so I might continue to do one every now and then.


Victoria Osteen (or, Sky Bitch of Houston)

I generally don't like to gloat about someone else's problems, but I just hate these people.

For those of you who don't know, Joel Osteen is a pastor at a megachurch here in Houston. He does, however, have several best-selling books and I believe he is on television quite often. So many people have probably heard of him.

His sermons, which are broadcasted nationally, are some of the most annoyingly foolish piles of religious nonsense I generally experience.

The church is a converted sports arena. That should give you an idea of the size of his congregation. I also live about half a mile from this atrocity, so you can imagine how much of a bitch it is to get around downtown in a major city on a Sunday with the biggest church in the nation releasing the drones to go to their apre-sermon IHOP breakfast.

Anyway, it seems his wife threw a hissy-fit on a plane when she didn't get immediate service after demanding the flight attendants clean up a fifty-cent piece size spill. While bitching out, she apparently tried to force her way into the cockpit and shoved a flight attendant into a bathroom door and elbowed her in the breast.

Some of the claims made by the woman bringing the suit are kind of foolish, but the general consensus of everyone who is not Osteen or her lawyer is that she did indeed wig out and try to force her way into the cockpit.

This trend of religious leaders acting like general a-holes and engaging in graphically hypocritical acts makes me smile.


XM/Serius Merger

The FCC finally deigned to allow Sirius and XM Satellite Radio to merge. Of course, in a free society, private companies wouldn't need to grovel to government bureaucrats to exercise their property rights, but one aspect of this merger struck me as particularly disgusting.

As a condition of being allowed to merge, the new company must pay fines of about $20 million because several radio receivers and signal boosting towers violated FCC technical rules. What rules? The companies failed to create and market receivers that were capable of receiving a signal from both companies prior to the merger.

That's right. Before they even knew if the government would leave them the hell alone and let them practice business the way they saw fit, they had to potentially waste millions of dollars on production and marketing of a product that, if the FCC had rejected the merger, would serve to aid their competitors. The new company is essentially going to be fined for not being sufficiently stupid prior to merging.

Reason #8,903,772 to abolish the FCC.


Beijing Olympics

Okay, personally, I have always thought, and I still think, that the U.S. should boycott the Beijing Olympics. This is a collectivist, authoritarian nation that shows no respect whatsoever to individual rights.

There was a big stink a little while a ago over China going back on the promise to refrain from monitoring and restricting the internet access of foreigners in the country to participate in or attend the Olympic Games. No surprise there.

Now China has revoked the visa of American speedskater and gold medalist, Joey Cheek, barring him from competing in the Games. Why? Essentially, because he is a Darfur activist.

Now, I think the notion of "doing something" about Darfur is foolish. But the only reason this man's visa was revoked was because of his work with Team Darfur, a bunch of athlete-activists who try to raise money for their cause. China's economic and military ties to the Sudan are very well known, so it's not hard to wonder about why this happened.

Of course, barring a gold medalist from competing against China's athletes only sweetens the deal.


That is all--
Matt