The Four Rs

Victory in Iraq Day

2008-11-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

(Reality, Reason, Rational Self–Interest)

Today, The Four Rs joins Zombie and many other bloggers to declare and to celebrate the achievement of our troops in the Iraq war:

It's VI Day!

After disposing of Saddam Hussein's supposedly strong army in about a month, the men and women of the U.S. military pitted themselves against entrenched warlords and waves of terrorists (commonly, and incorrectly, called insurgents in the news). Despite rules of engagement that seemed deliberately designed to sacrifice them to the scum they fought, a majority of the media openly hostile to them, politicians and peaceniks at home doing their best to denigrate and declaw them, and top–level leadership clueless about the purpose of and justification for war, our troops performed magnificently. It took far longer and cost far more lives than it would have without those unnecessary and often outright treasonous obstacles, but Iraq was subdued and is now no more violent a country than many considered to be at peace.

That's victory, whether or not the enemy or even our own government and fellow Americans will admit it.

Whatever follows in a country that is in many ways poised to fall into religious dictatorship, the U.S. and coalition forces have accomplished their military goal. To our troops, congratulations on a job well done, and never forget that there are those of us who support you and who are grateful that you fight for your freedom, and therefore ours.

Objectivist Roundup #71

2008-11-20T19:01:00.002-05:00

(Reason, Rational Self–Interest)

It's Rational Jenn hosting the Objectivist Roundup this week. Many fascinating posts, as usual, so it's very much worth a look. As usual.

Victory in Iraq

2008-11-18T19:59:00.000-05:00

(Reality, Reason, Rational Self–Interest)

By every measurable standard, the war in Iraq is over. We won.

Because this fact will never be admitted by either the outgoing Bush administration, the incoming Obama administration, or the mainstream media, well–known blogger and Little Green Footballs contributor Zombie has taken it upon himself to declare victory. He has designated 2008.11.22 as Victory in Iraq Day, or VI–Day. His declaration and explanation is available at his web page, Victory in Iraq Day, November 22, 2008.

On November 22, The Four Rs will join many other blogs in celebrating and congratulating our troops for prevailing over enemies both foreign and domestic, and overcoming often incompetent leadership and crippling restrictions, to achieve this victory.

Objectivist Roundup #70

2008-11-13T17:52:00.001-05:00

(Reason, Rational Self–Interest)

The Objectivist Roundup for this week is now available at The Rule of Reason. Be there or be rhomboid!

Transition Time

2008-11-08T12:15:00.001-05:00

[Reality, Reason, Rational Self–Interest]

Immediate post-election reporting is usually poor, in my opinion, because it is immediate. In the rush to say something, much of what is published lacks reflection and depth. Fortunately, it seems that we’re getting past that now.

In Great Britain, The Telegraph offers an example of more coolheaded commentary with Barack Obama Is Only Human, You Know, by Simon Heffer. Heffer traveled to the U.S. to observe the election and its aftermath, and files a fairly level-headed report. It suffers from the mixed premises shared by all media these days, but not so much from the dominant, blatantly left-wing bias of the great majority.

Here are some excerpts. On perspective:

[Y]ou can imagine the state of additional ecstasy—above and beyond that caused by St. Barack’s election—of Americans at TV pictures of rejoicing people all around the globe when the glad news was confirmed.

One was almost grateful for the cold bath of malice from the sinister President Medvedev of Russia, his strings pulled by the tyrant Putin, arguing improbably that America had caused the war between his country and Georgia and, somewhat more probably, that the U.S. had been the cause of the recent world financial meltdown and the coming recession.
You can always rely on the Russians to rain on any available parade: and perhaps in this instance it was no bad thing.

…

There are some nasty people on the planet—Mr Medvedev is but one of them—St. Barack will find that the minute he squares up to them (if he squares up to them) a lot of other nasty people will come out of the woodwork to oppose him.

At that stage, a world apparently united in its love of the charismatic new leader, full of hope, change and hope for change, becomes one once more factionalised by the power of America.

On hype:

It is one thing to run a fabulous campaign, to buy an election victory by massively outspending your rivals, and to have an Oscar–winning style of speaking.

But in the end, reality is what counts: and there may be a little too much of that around for the Obama magic to deal with.

Calm down, dears. He’s only a human being.

On what’s left of the opposition:

I hope the Republicans don’t fall into the trap the Tories plunged into in 1997, of thinking they lost because they were nasty or Right-wing.

They lost because their party was utterly incompetent, and the Democrats had piles of money.

America remains conservative. The Republicans, who have to be in shape to win back Congress at the 2010 mid–terms, will get nowhere by trying to out-Obama Obama.

And my favorite, on Obamania:

I was struck by the numbers—from Oprah downwards—crying on Tuesday night. Having always thought the Obama experiment would end in tears, I felt this premature: give him a chance.

Heffer closes by wondering what will become of British comedy now that Bush will be out of office. I’ve always been a fan of British comedy, or was back in the glory days of Monty Python, so it might be worth keeping an eye on that development.

Five Reasons the Public Bitch-Slapped the Republicans

2008-11-06T14:27:00.003-05:00

[Reason, Rational Self–Interest]

OK, I said I wasn’t going to comment on the election, but it came up elsewhere and I wrote a reply. So here’s an analysis of this year’s EPIC FAIL by the Republicans:

It’s been said that the Republicans lost this election cycle because they did not distinguish themselves from the Democrats, that they appear to be a me–too party or leftism lite, therefore people rejected them because they don’t want yet more of what the Democrats offer. It’s also been said that voters rejected the Republicans on religious grounds, that they voted against theocracy.

I disagree on both counts. The Democrats won the White House and larger majorities in Congress, so the electorate clearly doesn’t reject their platform. Also, other than what became a sideshow over what Sarah Palin’s beliefs might be, religion was at most peeping out from the shadows in this campaign.

I think the Republicans’ problem is that the vast majority of the public erroneously thinks there’s an enormous difference between Republicans and Democrats. Here’s what I've observed as the perceived difference on five key issues:

Economics:
Republicans equal Capitalists, and they help the greedy rich and big business against the little guy, which means that capitalism is Evil. Democrats have no economic label (good job by them avoiding being called socialists), but they’re Not Capitalists and they defend the little guy against the greedy rich and big business, which means that Democrats are Good, like Robin Hood. Plus the Dems will give all the little guys a piece of those greedy rich folks’ money, which they believe lies around in piles in big vaults in rich peoples’ homes, like Scrooge McDuck. Goods have intrinsic, correct prices, which ought to be identified and fixed by law, but the greedy rich and big business always force them to pay more than that. When they think about it at all, they think that economic systems are arbitrarily chosen by the government, like picking a color for painting a room, as if the Founding Fathers said, OK then, the president will serve four years, not five. Now, how are we gonna do economics?, and picked capitalism, which can just be replaced by some other system just as the way we elect vice presidents was changed. They are unaware of any connection between economics and morality, let alone recognizing the link to the nature of man and reality.
Environmentalism:
Republicans equal Capitalists, and they slash and burn trees and cute little bunnies just for fun, which means that Republicans are Evil and will destroy the earth. Democrats protect trees and cute little bunnies against the evil Republicans just like they protect the little guy against the evil rich and big business, so Democrats are Good and will save the earth. They make no connection between saving the earth and their own lives, thinking it means nothing more than cleaning up the rivers, reducing smog, and having more pretty trees around. When the EPA reaches into their homes with their new dictatorial CO2 controls and turns off the furnace, and into the stores and removes all the incandescent lights, they won’t even know it happened, and will have no idea why they’re freezing in the winter and can’t afford light bulbs. Most likely they’ll blame it on the oil companies.
Property Rights:
Not even on the radar, unless someone literally approaches them individually and tries to take something like their wallet or car. Mine goes no further than that for them (money, in particular, is not even considered property in the way, say, clothes or cars are—it holds some indefinable status between immediate, in–hand, tangible goods, and air). If they consider eminent domain at all, they think of it as nothing more than making way for roads and the like (and that anyone but the government can—let alone should—provide roads or other such public services is inconceivable to them). When they encounter cases like Kelo (which to them seem very rare and inconsequential thanks to under–reporting by the media), they seem so remote and so unlikely to happen to them that they don’t bother to think about it. They have no conception that the government gun even exists, they think that because people can vote they’re implicitly consenting to whatever the majority decrees, that taking part (or even just being a citizen) equals agreeing to whatever results (vs. complying with something one is given no choice about). So they don’t think of taking from some and giving to others as any kind of violation. In fact, they think it’s moral and right if the one taken from has more than the one given to—they call it being fair.
Energy:
Combine Economics and Environmentalism above with the tumble of gas prices in recent weeks, and they either don’t care any more (consider the low position energy held as an election issue in all the polls) or they want to protect cute little bunnies and docile, gentle polar bears from the evil Republican Capitalists, which the Democrats will do for them.
The War:
Republicans/Capitalists are militaristic war–mongers who automatically attack others, especially brown people,¹ out of hate, empire building, or capitalistic imperialism (grabbing loot and expanding markets). Democrats are caring and loving, and will bring permanent peace via flowers, hugs, and unilateral disarmament, or at least by simply not engaging in war. Like prayer, peace and love are active forces that can be exerted to effect desirable ends, so if we just care enough and refrain from warring all those people in the rest of the world who hate us because Republicans/Capitalists make us evil will magically love us instead, and there will be brotherhood forever. Except that white males need to be exterminated. And we ought to call it sisterhood, because brotherhood is sexist.

These are all things I have heard stated in various ways, either reported in the media or by people I know. I would estimate that 80 to 90 percent hold these kinds of views on at least half these issues. At no time is the public aware of any concepts or principles that would allow them to identify the themes and thinking common to both Republicans and Democrats.

Could they identify the similarities? Sure, they have the capacity to understand. But they’ll have to overcome everything they have been or are currently being taught. Not gonna happen any time soon.

¹I have heard that phrase used in this context many times, especially by those who refer to themselves as brown people. The general belief is that only whites, especially white males, can be racist, and that racism practiced by any other group is not really racism, especially when it’s against white males. In the schools where I teach, race utterly, completely, and absolutely dominates every tiny little aspect of the thinking of non–white kids (I don’t know about the white kids, because they’re too busy keeping their heads down to have said much of anything about it).

They even invent races. For example, each separate Spanish–speaking country is a different race in their minds. I had a 7th grade kid ask me, Are there different kinds of blood? Thinking she was referring to blood types, I replied, Sure. Different people have different blood types, like A–positive or O–negative. Mine’s A–negative. Completely missing the second part of my reply, she eagerly jumped in with, So there’s Puerto Rican blood, and Dominican blood, and black blood, and... I cut her off and tried to explain, but it was lost on her. As far as she was concerned, I had just confirmed that her racism was scientific fact.

Objectivist Roundup #69

2008-11-06T11:20:00.002-05:00

[Reason, Rational Self–Interest]

Titanic Deck Chairs presents this week’s edition of the Objectivist Roundup. Don't miss it!

I’ve Seen God! So Can You!

2008-11-05T16:19:00.001-05:00

[Reality, Reason]

From the Constitution Party’s platform:

The pre-born child, whose life begins at fertilization, is a human being created in God’s image. [emphasis added]

Here, then, are some pictures of God:

I don’t know about you, but I’m less than impressed.

Election Post–Mortem

2008-11-05T16:16:00.003-05:00

[Rational Self–Interest]

Everyone and their mothers are going to analyze the election to death, so I’ll just say this about it: Things are going to get worse in America, therefore in the rest of the world, and faster than anyone anticipates.

P.S. Had McCain won, not a word of that would have been different.

Objectivist Roundup #68

2008-10-30T18:32:00.002-04:00

Reason, Rational Self–Interest

Ping–Ponging Toward Fascism is the host for the latest Objectivist Roundup. Among all the other great posts, This Author is once again represented!

Hut! Hut! Wait, I Mean May We Begin Now, Comrades?

2008-10-29T16:19:00.036-04:00

Rational Self–Interest

Here’s the latest from the wide world of sports:

NFL NEWS: All Games End In Ties Again This Week

Playoffs, Super Bowl Canceled as New Spread the Points Around Rule Teaches Teams How to Play Fair

NEW YORK (Four Rs Wire Services)—For the fifth week in a row, every game in the NFL ended in a tie, a result of this year’s new Fairness Rule. The point–sharing measure was adopted at an emergency meeting of the league’s Rules Committee in response to the near collapse of some teams early in the first few games, and took effect in the season’s fourth week. Bernadine Dohrn, appointed to the post of NFL Commissioner by President–To–Be Obama to deal with the emergency, calls the measure a triumph.

In harmony with Our Magnificent Leader’s¹ new vision for America, said Grand Commissioner Dohrn, we have succeeded in making NFL football a fair game, where even the weakest teams now compete successfully with the strongest. Without punishing anyone’s success, the NFL has improved the records of every team that had been behind the others.

Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak, whose team contributed 14.5 points to the Cincinnati Bengals in what would have been a humiliating 35 to 6 win, said he was simply giddy to be part of a system where teams sacrifice the fruits of their success to the greater good.

However, some teams still fail to see the truth of the new rule. We have an extremely talented team, said Jeff Fisher, coach of the Tennessee Titans, after his team’s 20 point tie with the Indianapolis Colts. Under the old rules we would be undefeated at this point in the season. We would never have given our points to the Colts if we weren’t forced to by the league. We earned those points, they belong to us, and we should be able to keep them.

Yesterday, High Commissioner Dohrn, acting on a tip from patriotic Colts tight end Dallas Clark, launched an investigation into possible pedophilia and cannibalism by an unnamed NFL coach.

The number of scoreless ties rose again, the Cowboys–Buccaneers game bringing the latest total to 7. While vile skeptics allege that having every game end in a tie causes players to lose the desire to perform, Fearless Commissioner Dohrn says she’s proud of the growing sense of righteous egalitarianism among players.

The offensive line of the Ravens permitted Joe Flacco to be sacked a league record 19 times because they wanted the Raiders’ defense to feel good about their performance, Glorious Commissioner Dohrn noted. The unsubstantiated rumor that they don’t care any more is nothing but a vicious, anti–social lie. The whole league has been ordered to stand firmly behind the new rules.

The 30 point score tax, levied on the former Redskins because their team name was offensive to oppressed Indigenous Americans, was lifted last week when they changed their name to the Rainbows, a move praised by their famous fans, previously known as the Hogs but now called the Light–Bearers. The removal of the tax enabled the team to contribute four points to the Lions in their 21 point tie. Prior to admitting their evil, the Rainbows had continuously scored negative points, draining the common point pool just to bring them to a score of zero. Following the enlightened lead of the Rainbows, the Jets are expected to announce their new team name, rumored to be the Hybrids, at a press conference on Friday, which should result in a lowering of their 50 point tax. There’s been no word yet on name changes for the Buccaneers, Chargers, Chiefs, Cowboys, Packers, Patriots, Raiders, or Steelers.

With every game now ending in a tie, the playoffs and the Super Bowl have been deemed no longer necessary, since they are elitist and damaging to the self–esteem of teams who don’t qualify or who lose playoff games. League attendance averaging less than 100 fans per game and the complete loss of television revenue are not factors in the decision. In fact, a statement by Commissar Dohrn has made both of those things untrue.

In an interview with ESPN’s Chris Berman, the ghost of Vince Lombardi was quoted as saying, What the fuck?

Here are this week’s scores:

Colts and Titans: 20
Seahawks and 49ers: 23.5
Giants and Steelers: 0
Bengals and Texans: 20.5
Browns and Jaguars: 0
Falcons and Eagles: 0
Chiefs and Jets: 26
Chargers and Saints: 0
Rams and Patriots: 0
Bills and Dolphins: 20.5
Rainbows and Lions: 21
Buccaneers and Cowboys: 0
Cardinals and Panthers: 25
Raiders and Ravens: 0
Vikings, Broncos, Bears, and Packers (byes): 11.2

(Teams with a bye this week were each awarded 11.2 points, the average score of all teams that played, so they wouldn’t be left behind or feel bad about the league not scheduling them to play this week.)

¹Capitalization in conformance with Executive Pre–Order 10–290, Requirements for Voluntary Exaltation of the President–To–Be.

Update, 2008.10.30 6.05 PM:

A fellow blogger wrote a similarly–themed post back before the Olympics. Check out Deus Ex Machina’s Athletes Shrugged—it’s great!

Update, 2008.10.29 8.31 PM:

A whopping 137 points to anyone who can guess why I chose Dallas Clark as the Colt snitch—there’s an actual reason, but it’s awfully obscure. Your points will be awarded out of next week’s NFL Common Point Pool. True, you will have earned them, which goes against the spirit of the Spread the Points Around rule, but...I’ve now carried a joke too far, so I’ll stop.

By the way, I have no beef with Mr. Clark. In fact, I’ve always thought him an excellent player, and true to the Colt tradition of wearing weird numbers for certain positions (Clark is a tight end wearing #44, cf. part–time quarterback Tom Matte, #41, and linebacker Mike Curtis, #32). I’m sure he would only ever accuse anyone of pedophilia or cannibalism if he knew for sure they were guilty, and never as part of a political smear job.

Update, 2008.10.29 4.19 PM:

Wow, this post comes with an instant update. The government has always stuck its nose into sports: mucking around with the sanctity of contracts in dealing with steriod use, granting the NFL an exception to the anti–trust laws that shouldn’t even exist, stepping on voluntary human interactions by regulating sports betting, etc. ESPN has the latest, a demand by senators for the NFL to make more games available on free broadcasts. Read the article, notice the nitpicking, the focus on tiny little details. WHY IS THE SENATE SPENDING TIME ON THIS? Is the government ever going to refrain from butting in on private affairs?

Don't Get Me Wrong

2008-10-25T19:09:00.001-04:00

Reason, Rational Self–Interest

Even though I've tried to make it clear that I don't support John McCain, that I'm only voting for him and not Barack Obama for the same reason I'd rather have cancer than AIDS, I here's one bit of evidence from the mountain I could produce that proves he's utterly incompetent to hold any office, let alone the highest in the land. In an interview on 2008.10.22 with Wolf Blitzer of CNN , he said the following:

The first role of government is to help people who are in crisis or need.

Compare this bit of mental midgetry with someone else's statement of the purpose of government:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men

I first became aware of politics at about age 7, during the Nixon/Humphrey election of 1968. Other than them, leading up to this year, the presidential candidates that count whom I've seen are Wallace, McGovern, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Anderson, Mondale, Bush I, Dukakis, Clinton, Perot, Dole, Bush II, Gore, Kerry, and, of course, Pat Paulsen. This year represents the nadir of quality for the choice for president. (Speaking of nadirs, Nader is far below that.)

Obama will be a swift, unmitigated disaster for this country, but I'm nonetheless disgusted that McCain is what stands as the lesser of these ridiculously great evils.

The Hypnotized Never Lie (Do Ya?)

2008-10-25T15:45:00.004-04:00

Reason, Rational Self–Interest

Obama supporters, especially those who think that Republicans are really any different than your messiah (which would be effectively all of you), take note. Pete Townshend anticipated the 2008 U.S. presidential election, and all the fanaticism and lunacy that's come with it, way back in 1971:

Be prepared to meet the new boss, much worse than the old boss.

Update, 2008.10.25 4.39 PM:

By the way, McCain won't be much better, if at all. It's just that you Obama supporters are so laughably moonstruck over the guy. What are you going to do when you can no longer evade the fact of what an absolute bastard he is?

Evil Profit

2008-10-23T19:33:00.000-04:00

Reality, Reason, Rational Self-Interest

Funny how no one is screaming about oil company profits now that the price of gasoline has tumbled. Remember how vile everyone thought those companies were when the price was going up? How their profits were called obscene? How the idiotic politician–thug Maxine Waters wanted to nationalize them because they were so evil?

When was the last time you heard anyone refer to profit, no matter how much or little, as anything but evil?

Next time someone talks about how evil it is that corporations earn profits, i.e. earn anything more than the cost of keeping them doing what they do, the cost of creating the goods and services they sell, ask if he earns more than what it costs to keep him doing what he does, the cost of remaining alive. Note that the only thing a human being truly needs to remain alive is a little food. Then point out that everything he has beyond his food requirement—house, car, refrigerator, TV, computer, cell phone, books, DVDs, underwear, toothpaste, aspirin, cooked food, even any food he doesn't need immediately—was paid for by his profit.

Ask what justifies his being paid so much more than his bare survival requires. If he tries to claim that he only has a problem with too much profit, ask how he decides what's too much. Then, because it will be true no matter what he says, point out that by his own standards his profit is too much compared to someone remaining alive on 27 cents a day in Burundi.¹

Ask if he's willing to live without his own profits. Then ask why not, and how he can stand being so evil. You might have a chance at that point to teach him that profits are good.

¹Global World Income Per Capita. Finfacts Ireland. Published 2008.02. Accessed 2008.10.23.

Inevitably, Venezuela Gets Worse

2008-10-23T18:22:00.002-04:00

Reality, Reason

In Venezuelan Inevitability, I talked about how oil production in that country has dropped sharply under Hugo Chávez, and that it's not going to get any better. Well, now El Presidente has another problem to solve with his socialist¹ super-duper-ness: keeping the lights on.

In a scene all but directly lifted from Atlas Shrugged,

Pastora Medina, a legislator representing San Felix and nearby cities suffering chronic power problems, this month tried to bring the issue up in the national Congress in Caracas, but the legislature's leadership refused to let her speak.

Several hours later, as the legislature discussed a South American integration plan created by Chavez, Congress itself lost power...

Stay tuned to find out what fails next in Venezuela.

¹Hey, since I called Chávez a socialist did I just make him black?

Objectivist Roundup #67

2008-10-23T16:47:00.003-04:00

Reason, Rational Self-Interest

The Rule of Reason hosts this week's Objectivist Roundup. Lots of great articles listed there—be sure to check it out!

Has Anybody Seen My Socks?

2008-10-21T19:32:00.001-04:00

Rational Self-Interest

Seriously, if you borrowed ’em, I need ’em back.

Socialism in Miniature

2008-10-21T09:17:00.005-04:00

Reason, Rational Self-Interest

Pay careful attention to the words of Mrs. Holt, the mother in Girl, 13, Who Smokes Drinks and Has Sex Rewarded by Mother with Cigarettes at The Telegraph. She could be any socialist in the U.S. or Europe speaking about how to provide for the people. Like Michael Moore, who said to John Stossel when he questioned Moore's documentary advocating socialized medicine for the U.S., Sicko, I gotta believe that, even though I know you're very much for the individual determining his own destiny, you also have a heart. Or Barack Obama, who, as everyone knows by now, wants to spread the wealth around to help out everybody behind Joe the Plumber.

Reading that article, I couldn't help but think of this, from a comment by Judy Aron on a post at her Consent of the Governed:

I left my parent's home when I got married—I don't need the government to be my mommy and give me an allowance and tell me what to do.

Silly rabbit. Socialism is for kids, not for independent adults.

Finally, Some Self-Examination in the Media

2008-10-20T21:42:00.005-04:00

Reason, Rational Self-Interest

Orson Scott Card, a Democrat and a reporter, takes Democrats and the media to task for their long-standing political double standard in Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn on the Lights? An excerpt:

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie—that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad—even bad weather—on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth—even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Some Who Shouldn't, Do Anyway

2008-10-20T21:00:00.005-04:00

Reason, Romanticism

Jason Hackenwerth illustrates perfectly what I discussed in Those Who Can’t Do, Appreciate. Building on the precedent set by the great S. G. Martin, Hackenwerth creates works whose merit cannot be disputed. He takes the medium to places never before seen. Note the technique and scope of his work. Consider him in terms of past masters of sculpture like Michelangelo and Rodin, as well as their present-day descendents such as Bobbie Carlyle. There can be no question about Hackenwerth’s rightful place in the artistic pantheon.

Fun with Formatting

2008-10-19T18:58:00.003-04:00

Reality, Reason

I spent a lot of time over the past week or so working out some nifty formatting stuff for the site: drop caps and a small-caps first line for each post, print-style indented paragraphs, better handling of included pictures and videos, and behind-the-scenes stuff that makes it a lot easier for me to format posts consistently—things like that. It meant that I had to repost everything, which may make the RSS feed and email subscriptions see posts as if they're new again; I apologize for that if it happens to you. On the other hand, I have things set up now so that such reposts should never have to happen again.

Anyway, I think the new stuff looks great. Hope you do, too.

I Am Joe

2008-10-18T13:49:00.004-04:00

Rational Self-Interest

Update, 2008.10.19 17.30:

In addition to Iowahawk's post, linked above, which started the whole I Am Joe movement, there's an excellent post at the dungeon-games.com blog, complete with videos showing what's going on. Obama and his Blueshirt machine should be ashamed, though I doubt they have any idea what shame is. Here's the definition if any of them happen by here and are curious.

Objectivist Roundup #66

2008-10-17T22:36:00.008-04:00

Reason, Rational Self-Interest

Rational Jenn hosts the Objectivist Roundup this week, containing the first contribution from Yours Truly. Have a look.

Those Who Can't Do, Appreciate

2008-10-14T18:29:00.009-04:00

Reason, Romanticism

At Not PC, Peter Cresswell posts about this painting by Jacob Collins:

Drawing
by Jacob Collins

I love a still life by an artist who practice realism. Linda Mann is one of my favorite present-day artists, and the Quent Cordair gallery offers some fine works in that category. Collins's Drawing is a magnificent instance of the form.

All my life, I've been able to grasp any activity I see, in almost every field. I'm not just talking about understanding, but executing as well. There has always been a direct connection between my comprehension of something and the performance of it. Sometimes it takes some practice, and I'm certainly never a virtuoso, but I've always been able to immediately connect the understanding in my mind with the actions of my body. For me, in nearly every case, to observe something is to understand it, and to understand it is to be able to do it. Not with the knowledge and skill of a master right away, to be sure, but without requiring much, if any, instruction. I can watch a sport I've never played, or listen to a song I've never heard before, or watch a mechanic fix something on a car I've never fixed before, and in the space of a few minutes be playing that sport, singing that song, or fixing that car, and doing so quite well. It's like that for me with just about any activity.

But art confounds me.

Beyond the approximate level of stick figures, I cannot make the connection between what I see and how I would go about creating something similar. Looking at Collins's Drawing, beyond perceiving the benevolent world his sense of life and choice of subject display, I see his profound technical expertise. But I cannot translate that into action: it would be impossible for me to create even a crude imitation of that work, or any other.¹ This inability extends into other realms that use artistic methods as well—I could hack together something vaguely resembling a table, but even to save my life I couldn't craft anything remotely like this:

Table
by Raymond Bock

It's not a matter of understanding. I know something of the techniques used to create various kinds of artwork, and I know how and why artists use them. But I cannot do what they do. When it comes to art, I cannot make my hands do what my mind knows. For a long time this prevented me from appreciating art, and I spent little time with it. Eventually I realized how much I had been missing, and I learned how to value art without being able to create it myself.

I'm not one of those who stands in awe of anything beyond their capacity simply because it's beyond their capacity. Even more so, I am most definitely not like those who despise both what they cannot do and those who can. It would be nice if I could do what artists do, but there are things in my life more important to me than that, and those are the things on which I expend life. I am very glad, however, that there are people for whom creating art is what's important, because they make my life the brighter. Thank you, Mr. Collins.

¹I have no doubt I could splatter paint on a canvas or carve a rock into a bizarre shape or smother a banana in feces but, despite the claims of so many who do that sort of thing, that is not art.

Venezuelan Inevitability

2008-10-13T14:38:00.006-04:00

Reality, Reason

According to an article in The Telegraph, Venezuela's oil production has dropped by 25% since El Presidente Hugo Chávez seized absolute power. The government oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S. A. (PDVSA), produced 3.2 million barrels per day B. C. (Before Chávez), and is currently producing only 2.4 million A.D. (After Dictatorship).

The article mentions three factors associated with the drop:

A production bottleneck: Venezuela produces low-grade crude which has to be processed before shipping, and the three existing facilities for doing that cannot keep up.
The "Petrocaribe" club: Chávez has made deals with his "friends" to allow them to pay only 30% up front for their Venezuelan oil imports, with the rest spread over payments spanning decades. (The United States is the only one of Venezuela's customers paying full price.)
Loss of focus: PDVSA is no longer just an oil company, it has also been charged with performing completely unrelated activities like growing food and making furniture and appliances.

The processing problem is the most straightforward matter—capacity must be increased. Of course, socialism is not known for its industrial production, the marquee example being the communist Soviet Union having to import food despite controlling the Ukraine, a region fertile enough to feed the entire world. Chávez's fellow Petrocaribe socialists compound that problem by ensuring that many of the funds necessary to pay for new facilities will only be arriving in dribs and drabs, if at all, and the recent crude price plummet makes each barrel of Venezuelan oil bring in less revenue. So it's not likely Venezuela will see that increased processing capacity any time soon. In addition, the Chávez regime making PDVSA central to the social battle for the advance of [the] country by subjecting it to his whims can only bring about further reductions in the country's oil output. Of course, there are undoubtedly other factors not mentioned in the article.

All this is simply the result of socialism and dictatorship. As in all such governments, Chávez has substituted central control (in this case, his bizarre personal judgment) for the thinking of millions of individuals whose freedom, still limited B.C. but by comparison infinitely greater than A.D., made Venezuela one of the top oil producing countries on earth. With Chávez in charge, the country will inevitably lose that status.

The Four Rs

Victory in Iraq Day

Objectivist Roundup #71

Victory in Iraq

Objectivist Roundup #70

Transition Time

Five Reasons the Public Bitch-Slapped the Republicans

Economics:

Environmentalism:

Property Rights:

Energy:

The War:

Objectivist Roundup #69

I’ve Seen God! So Can You!

Election Post–Mortem

Objectivist Roundup #68

Hut! Hut! Wait, I Mean May We Begin Now, Comrades?

Rational Self–Interest

Update, 2008.10.30 6.05 PM:

Update, 2008.10.29 8.31 PM:

Update, 2008.10.29 4.19 PM:

Don't Get Me Wrong

Reason, Rational Self–Interest

The Hypnotized Never Lie (Do Ya?)

Update, 2008.10.25 4.39 PM:

Evil Profit

Reality, Reason, Rational Self-Interest

Inevitably, Venezuela Gets Worse

Reality, Reason

Objectivist Roundup #67

Has Anybody Seen My Socks?

Rational Self-Interest

Socialism in Miniature

Finally, Some Self-Examination in the Media

Some Who Shouldn't, Do Anyway

Fun with Formatting

I Am Joe

Update, 2008.10.19 17.30:

Objectivist Roundup #66

Those Who Can't Do, Appreciate

Venezuelan Inevitability