Image from www.wired.com
According to the Wall Street Journal, Congressional Republicans have drafted a bill that “is designed to protect net neutrality—the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally—without applying the part of telecommunications law that regulates common carriers.”
Image found at http://searchpp.com/police-discretion/
Reason.com ran a piece recently about protests that took place in Nashville, TN and the response of some to the course of action that the police took towards them. In brief, a group of people protesting the grand jury results in Ferguson, MO closed down several highways, including Interstate 24, as well as staging a “die-in” at a local mall. Rather than dispersing the protesters,
Yaron Brook gives a passionate talk on applying the morality of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism to the concept of war and how war should be fought. While no philosophy can properly specify tactics, the specific means and methods used in fighting a way, it can provide the basis for deciding from what pool of possibilities these tactics can be drawn from.
In the early part of the talk Yaron discusses “just war theory,” the theory that in part says a country should not go to
An excellent introduction to major topics in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism presented by Onkar Ghate from 2003. The video includes a Q&A session with Onkar Ghate and Yaron Brook. Topics include: Individualism vs Collectivism, What are rights?, Proper role of government, Egoism vs Altruism, Ethics, Mysticism vs Reason and more.
The Q&A session is particularly interesting. Many of the folks had challenging questions which resulted in some great answers. I was somewhat surprised
Whenever a man is made to act without his own free, personal, individual, voluntary consent—his right has been violated. – Ayn Rand
While I generally try to not write immediately as things get me worked up, tonight I am making a bit of an exception. Just a few minutes ago a post appeared in my timeline showing an image of what is claimed to be thousands of #BlackLivesMatter protesters essentially
“Value” is that which one acts to gain and keep, “virtue” is the action by which one gains and keeps it. “Value” presupposes an answer to the question: of value to whom and for what? “Value” presupposes a standard, a purpose and the necessity of action in the face of an alternative. Where there are no alternatives, no values are possible. – Atlas Shrugged (quoted from the Ayn Rand Lexicon)
On Facebook yesterday
In re-reading Atlas Shrugged I am definitely seeing more than I did the first time. Or rather, I am better able to see parallels between Atlas and today’s world. Today I read the following in the chapter with the discussion of Directive 10-289 which would give the government complete control
I’ve been getting caught up with my podcasts and reading this week, which has been quite a challenge really.
Peikoff.com Episode 326 – After missing last week, this podcast is back with Yaron Brook answering questions on:
Philosophy in Action Radio Chat: Responsibility and Luck chapter 3 – Dr. Diana Hsieh continues her podcast series discussing her book Responsibility and Luck: A Defense of
Ayn Rand Institute’s director Yaron Brook is interviewed by Steve Simpson on Dave Brat’s victory in Virginia and the impact of Ayn Rand on today’s culture.
Each week I try to listen to a couple of podcasts which apply rational principles to issues of everyday life.
Philosophy in Action – This week Diana Hsieh and co-host Greg Perkins answer questions in-depth on whether an egoist should be willing to torture others to benefit himself, whether juries should be present during trials (as opposed to say receiving transcripts of all the accepted testimony), and