tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post4375807468701899601..comments2023-12-28T06:30:48.808-05:00Comments on The Rule of Reason: The Supreme Court GaietiesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-63556558631152128912015-07-07T20:07:50.364-04:002015-07-07T20:07:50.364-04:00Posted for Hilda, who for some technical reason ca...Posted for Hilda, who for some technical reason can't leave a comment here:<br /><br />Ed, unlike most other columns on the issue your is packed with logical arguments based on facts. It's such a pleasure to read. I can't resist qu<br /><br />Hilda N.<br />15m<br />Hilda N.<br /><br />Key points from this article:<br />1. It is not the right decision for the Court to redefine the plain, straightforward meanings of English words. Nor is it the right decision for the Courts to order a state legislature to draft its statutes using a language/dialect that the majority of its citizens do not speak.<br /><br />2. Language does evolve – but court orders enforced by the guns of federal marshals do not constitute an "evolution" of language.<br /><br />3. There were real rights violations for same-sex couples. These rights violations were wholly remedied by civil unions. The law is about correcting rights violations, not making people feel good.Edward Clinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160209827969614964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-75012106385750604122015-07-06T19:47:45.891-04:002015-07-06T19:47:45.891-04:00Can America survive as a non-European nation or a ...<br />Can America survive as a non-European nation or a nation where Europeans are the minority group? I don't know. The Randian answer as always is to just have "individual rights" as if they were some type of magic talisman. But all I know is that in my life time I have seen the racial demographics change dramatically. Some towns I grew up in I literally can not find a white person. That demoralizes me deeply. Especially since I know that has been official Leftist policy. The Putnam studies (Harvard professor) show that ethnic diversity lowers community trust. In our welfare state context, racial diversity is a negative which is reducing the quality of life for lower and middle class whites. Again, even if you abolished the welfare state, I'm not sure if you could eliminate the bad effects of diversity. But who can know.<br /><br />And drug legalization could only occur in a society where there was no welfare, no public education, and where self-responsibility was internalized. That is not now. Can you imagine if drugs were legalized in this climate. I don't even know if you could legalize drugs in a society where significant sections of the citizenry have sub-90 IQs. <br /><br />I spent close to 20 years as an Objectivist. I still have significant sympathies for Rand. But I see the current Objectivist movement as ossified and largely worthless. Binswanger is case in point. What I wish existed was a serious number crunching free market libertarian think tank that showed with data how economic interventions are destructive. The model here would be what Stephan Mollyneaux is doing. He has some awesome videos of data rich material showing how there is no "male patriarchy" or "war on women", etc. He shows with data that the Leftist narratives on gender and race are bogus. His videos make it easier to buy into libertarianism. The Objectivist movement does not do this. They just rely on pure philosophizing which does not motivate or educate. The problem is Mollyneaux is an anarchist. But he still has a better intellectual product than anything the Objectivist movement puts out. <br /><br />Its sad in a way. Rand was a bright light for me when I was young. She was the "red pill" to get out of both the Leftist and religion matrices. But I don't think her philosophy is enough. And the movement that bears her name is largely garbage now. And most of the alt-right movement, despite the fact that they get the evil of the Left better than anyone, are legitimately racist, irrational, Jew hating and anti-philosophical. In essence, there is no quality anti-Left movement out there which advances free market liberty in a non suicidal way. Sad times.madmaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14375140131881725965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-33060099930723478932015-07-06T19:47:38.565-04:002015-07-06T19:47:38.565-04:00I too see much of libertarianism as in agreement w...I too see much of libertarianism as in agreement with essential Leftist premises. Many right wingers have noted that libertarianism as a movement has moved to the left. It was my hope that Objectivism would have been immune to this but it does not look like the case. Binswanger's pro gay "marriage" piece is an example. He, like most Objectivists, doesn't get the all out assault that Leftism represents. They don't see how today's Left is becoming so despotic that they will in time make the villains in AS seem like boy scouts. <br /><br />But, on the other hand, if you are going to be an advocate of a principled approach to individual rights, same sex marriage, drug legalization and immigration are very tough issues. Marriage was a codification of the long term sexual selection strategy that made advanced civilization possible; what biologists call K-selection. Undermining it could be destabilizing for society as a whole. Coming soon will be polygamy. That could be destabilizing for society because if 5 or 10 % of males, rich men, have multiple wives, then what of the men who don't get wives? Do libertarians have an answer for that? Will legalized prostitution be enough to sedate those men?<br /><br />The problem with libertarianism and Objectivism is that it sees nationhood as only a matter of philosophic principles. It ignores biology. So, a nation can no longer be based on racial or ethnic kinship; ie Yaron Brook's hysterical rant against "racism". Which he of course doesn't apply to Israel. So now we have what many right wingers call "the proposition nation"; a nation with some fuzzy allegiance to "American founding principles"; ignoring the fact that America was founded as an Anglo-Germanic nation whose intention was to create a country for free white males. This was basically codified in the first immigration act of 1790. <br />madmaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14375140131881725965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-64738334072569056572015-07-05T06:58:52.278-04:002015-07-05T06:58:52.278-04:00Andy Texan: I attended Rand's wake and funeral...Andy Texan: I attended Rand's wake and funeral in 1982, as well. Yes, libertarianism is, as you put it, the flip side of the left. Objectivism seems now to have contracted a virulent strain of post-modernism, as witness the number of Objectivists who agree with the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage (it was the right decision for the wrong reasons, they're saying). And of course the Court itself has been out to lunch for about half a century. Edward Clinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160209827969614964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-58877036009604291032015-07-05T00:09:04.002-04:002015-07-05T00:09:04.002-04:00I think the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand par...I think the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand particularly it's anti-religion tenets have failed to hold up under scrutiny. Too bad that these aspects have made objectivism at odds of regular G-d centered conservative thought (ie Robert Godwin or Dennis Prager for examples) which I find much more persuasive. Anti-left thought leaders need to work in concert to combat the hydra-headed monster. Many aspects of "Libertarianism" are really the flip-side of the licentious left-wing coin. Note particularly how the libertarian arguments for "gay marriage", open immigration and drug legalization channel left-wing narratives. This cannot be correct.<br /><br />As another matter, I had the great good fortune to pay respects to Ayn Rand at her wake in 1982. Since I don't live in NYC is was pure good luck.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03688647747392318324noreply@blogger.com