Intellectual activism in defense of the American way of life.
Archive for January, 2003
The Case of the Missing Abortion Fliers
Jan 21st
Here is the letter I sent to the Batt today:
During the last two weeks, the A&M Objectivism Club has been organizing a speech called “Pro-Choice Is Pro-Life: The Philosophical Basis for a Woman’s Right to Abortion.” Because this is a very controversial topic, we expected a fair amount of controversy, but what we did not expect was for our fliers to be torn down with such aggressiveness by our opposition.
As a poor college student, printing hundreds of fliers is a significant cost to me and the other members, and reflects our strong opinions on the issue and our desire to share our views with our fellow Aggies. Monday afternoon, another member and I spent several hours putting up 500 fliers all over campus. When I went to class this morning however, I discovered that nearly all of those fliers had been torn down, leaving the other groups’ fliers around them intact. This action is only indicative of a larger history of tearing down and even vandalizing our fliers and posters.
It seems to me that no one who is confident in the truth of his or her position would be so desperate to silence his opposition for fear that they will change their audience’s mind. However, this has not been the case, as some unknown groups or individuals have decided for the rest of Texas A&M which issues and arguments students deserve to hear. I hope that my fellow Aggies will agree with me that no matter what your stance is, each side deserves an opportunity to present its ideas in a public forum, and censure their friends or groups when they decide to go on their next “censorship run.”
1000 fliers and 5000 staples
Jan 20th
Preparing for Dr. Bernstein’s speech this Wednesday has been more of a challenge than I expect. Today, I went on a flier run with Keenan and posted 500 flier within an hour. Unfortunately, the flier misspelled the word “Objectivist” as “Abjectivist,” though we figured people wouldn’t read that part anyway.
On Sex and Relationships.
Jan 20th
I am well aware that I have very unique, and in fact radical views on just about everything when compared to the rest the world. It is hard enough to find friends who share my views, and even harder to find girls who share enough of my view on life to start a relationship with. Until now, I’ve never defined just what traits I’d look for in a partner, so I think it’s about time I gave the matter some thought.
There are probably about 0.0 people on earth who share my exact views, and even if I did find someone who matched all my philosophy exactly, I’d probably be bored to death becuase we’d have very little to talk about! So, looking for someone who matches my positions and values on everything would clearly be unproductive.
If, on the other hand, I ignored my values when looking for a girl, I would not benefit from a relationship any more than if I had found no one at all. If I relied on my good looks, ambition, and money (hah!), I might be able to get a girl in bed without too much trouble, but it would be an empty victory. Sex is neither an end in itself, nor an act solely of friction and hormones, but should be a celebration of shared values, ideals, and achievements. Sleeping with (or just dating) someone who did not share my values, no matter how attractive, would be like getting a big and shiny trophy without having won or deserved it. It might impress the rest of world, but it would only be a facade hiding a lack of self-confidence or true achievement.
Clearly then, any rational person who thinks of love and sex as more than mere social ritual or instinctive urges needs to have a standard for a potential mate, and in the first post dedicated to my personal life in nine months of blogging, I have decided to do just that by narrowing down the essential traits a person would have to have for me to begin a relationship with them. I would probably narrow the qualifications even more for a life partner, but here are the essentials of the “sense of life” that form my prerequisites to a relationship:
- Gender (sorry guys)
- Self-confidence.
- An essentially optimistic view of life.
- Their own happiness as a major goal in life (as opposed
to duty) - Ambition for the future.
- A passion for something.
- Enough intelligence to carry out a serious conversation
with me.
(Looks matter too, of course, but if attractiveness is
hardwired, there is no point setting standards anyway.)
What has the world come to?
Jan 18th
I was looking on ebay for an ICQ #, when I came across 5 AOL cd’s. I can’t believe anyone would pay $ for AOL cd’s but then people sell all kinds of crazy stuff on ebay, including snow, Grandma, kids, and even their virginity.
34 BELOW ZERO IN NEW YORK CITY
Jan 18th
Drudge:
34 BELOW ZERO IN NEW YORK
X X X X X
MIAMI SETS RECORD COLD
What happened to global warming? Ah, that’s right, this cold front is part of an ecosytem too complex for supercomputers to understand. Oh well, let’s destory industrial civilization anyway so none of us will live long enought to worry about the long term.
New Photos!
Jan 15th
My editorial in the school paper…
Jan 14th
Well, most of it. They cut out all the controversial and philosophical stuff. See the original, and the version they published.
My Cool Schedule
Jan 13th
Let me brag about my cool schedule for a minute. I am taking history of political thought (with all the classics, from Plato to Machiavelli), American political thought, American foreign policy, industrial organization, and economic development – definitely the best schedule I have had in my last four years at A&M!
Sean Penn on Iraq
Jan 12th
From Drudge:
ON LARRY KING LIVE, PENN MADE A COMPELLING, FOCUSED CASE AGAINST THE IRAQI WAR, ADVOCATING DIALOGUE BEFORE BOMBS.
JOINED IN PROGRESS…
PENN: …IT IS, UM, IMPORTANT. I AM RESPONSIBLE. WENT TO LEARN. I HAVE SEEN AND KNOW. YEAH, IT IS COMPLICATED. SURE, BAGHDAD. NO, MUCH IS REPELLENT ABOUT IT. WE HAVE FAMILIES. BELONG IN BELLEVUE. THEY DID. DISEASE. INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY. I DID NOT GO AS A JOURNALIST. AFTER THE 1991 BOMBINGS, IT WAS SOLD TO THE PEOPLE. AND THE STARVATION, I SAY THIS AS A FATHER OF CHILDREN. YES, I DO.
KING: DID YOUR WIFE WANT YOU TO?
PENN: THEY MAKE IT BUFFOONERY, WELL, IT IS A NERVE-WRACKING THING. BUT I AM MORE SHY FROM THE SHAME I WILL FEEL. NO, THIS IS A MISCONCEPTION OF THE CURRENT NARCISSISM OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY. MORE THAN TWENTY HOURS ON A PLANE. YOU START TO THINK. YOU DO. IT IS NOT GOOD TO BE FAMOUS. WHEN I WANT TO GIGGLE, I TURN ON BILL O’REILLY. ONCE EVERY 5 YEARS I HAVE SOMETHING I WANT TO DO. I AM QUITE CRAZY ABOUT IT, BUT IT MAKES ME CRAZY. GULF WAR COST $82 BILLION.
KING: WOULD YOU GO TO NORTH KOREA?
PENN: IRAQ NOT POLITICAL IS HUMAN. I DONT SPEAK OUT MUCH, BUT I FEEL IT IS MY RESPONSIBILITY TO SPEAK OUT AS MUCH AS I CAN. BAGHDAD. CONSCIENCE, AND I DID FEEL, UM, COULD BE GREAT TO TRY TO, UM, DIALOGUE. ARMS INSPECTORS. REALLY UNAMERICAN. MURDOCH. BECAUSE I AM A FATHER. I’D LIKE TO WRITE MORE. NOT PROLIFIC TO WRITE SCRIPT. TO BE DIRECTOR. YES, SURE. CHILDREN BOMBS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, CAN’T READ ARABIC. THANK YOU, LARRY…
KING: GNARLY, DUDE.
Noam Chomsky, Marxist
Jan 7th
James Ostrowski has an interesting piece on Noam Chomsky in today’s Mises article. I knew Chomsky was a Marxist, but Ostrowski elegantly refutes his views, and shows just how clueless he is. Take a look!
Amazon WishList
CafePress
My T-Shirt Designs
View David Veksler’s profile
ObjectivismOnline Forum
Talkback