The Objective Standard Blog

The Objective Standard Blog

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Spring Issue of TOS

Posted by Craig Biddle at 12:45 PM

Spring 2010

The print edition of the Spring issue of TOS is at press and will be mailed shortly; the online version will be accessible to subscribers beginning March 20; and the Kindle edition will be delivered to Kindle subscribers on March 30. For promotional purposes, we are making Steve Simpson’s article “Citizens United and the Battle for Free Speech in America” available on our website early and for free.

The contents of the Spring issue are:

From the Editor

Letters and Replies

ARTICLES 

Citizens United and the Battle for Free Speech in America by Steve Simpson

Government-Run Health Care vs. the Hippocratic Oath
by Paul Hsieh

The Virtue of Treating People Like Animals: Why Human Health Care Should Mirror Veterinary Health Care
by Sarah Gelberg

The Practicality of Private Waterways
by J. Brian Phillips and Alan Germani

Norman Borlaug: The Man Who Taught People To Feed Themselves
by Audra Hilse

Making Life Meaningful: Living Purposefully
by Craig Biddle

BOOKS REVIEWED

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Reviewed by Heike Larson

Winning the Unwinnable War edited by Elan Journo
Reviewed by Grant W. Jones

Why Are Jews Liberals? by Norman Podhoretz
Reviewed by Gideon Reich

Capitalism Unbound by Andrew Bernstein
Reviewed by Ari Armstrong

Essays on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged edited by Robert Mayhew
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

The Sparrowhawk Series by Edward Cline
Reviewed by Dina Schein Federman

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin
Reviewed by David H. Mirman

Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

If you have not yet subscribed to TOS, why not do so today? You can subscribe online or by calling 800-423-6151.

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Thursday, March 04, 2010

Citizens United and the Future of Campaign Finance Law

Posted by TOS Admin at 5:04 PM

From the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights:

Citizens United and the Future of Campaign Finance Law

A Panel Debate in Washington, D.C.

Who: Steve Simpson, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Eric Daniels, Research Assistant Professor, Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism
Tara Malloy, Associate Legal Counsel, The Campaign Legal Center
Doug Kendall, Founder and President, Constitutional Accountability Center (Invited)
Moderator: Tom Bowden, Analyst, Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

What: A panel discussion on campaign finance laws. 

Where: 722 12th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20005 (Americans for Tax Reform's event room)

When: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at Noon (lunch to follow)

Description: We invite you to join us for an engaging discussion on one of the most important and controversial campaign finance decisions in decades. In Citizens United, the Supreme Court held that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on speech during elections. Critics view Citizens United as a striking example of judicial activism that will unleash a flood of corporate money in elections. Defenders view it as a ringing endorsement of First Amendment rights. All agree that it will have a significant impact on campaign finance laws. Please join our panel of experts for a vigorous discussion and debate about this important ruling.

Admission: FREE. Open to the public.

RSVP: Please email Krissy Keys at the Institute for Justice at kkeys@ij.org by Friday, March 12th.

Sponsors:  
Institute for Justice
Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

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George and Sharlee McNamee Fight to Keep Their Own Back Yard

Posted by Craig Biddle at 12:20 PM

From FOXNews:

George and Sharlee McNamee have a beautiful home, an ocean view and a bounty of children and grandchildren who invade their house every weekend. The breeze is fresh, the view is stunning and retired life in Corona Del Mar, Calif., is good.

But the McNamees wake up every morning fighting for their rights. In this case, the freedom to use a picnic table, shed and shower in their own backyard.

"We fight for two reasons, property rights and freedom," says George McNamee, a silver-haired former insurance salesman. "My wife and I decided a long time ago, those two things matter. Without that, there isn't much left."

For the last decade, the McNamees' backyard has been a battlefield. The retired couple has spent $250,000 in legal fees protecting amenities worth little more than $100.

Those numbers are shocking, but not to those who know the regulatory reach and zeal of the California Coastal Commission, which claims that items in the couple's backyard—the picnic table, a thatched palapa, a shower and barbecue—are illegal. Failure to remove them results in a fine—and that fine is $6,000 per day. . . .

Read the whole thing.

For background on this horror story and on the tyrannical nature of the California Coastal Commission, read Paul Beard’s article “The California Coastal Commission: A Case Study in Governmental Assault on Property Rights,” which is now accessible for free. And please send these links to everyone you know who cares about property rights. Your property could be next.

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Capitalism: The Only Moral Social System

Posted by TOS Admin at 2:14 PM

Craig Biddle will be delivering his talk “Capitalism: The Only Moral Social System” at the following universities next week:

  • February 22, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Grainger Hall, Morgridge Auditorium (Room 1100) [map] 7:00pm
  • February 23, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Willey Hall, Room 125 [map] 7:30pm
  • February 24, Ohio State University, Wexner Center for the Arts, Performance Space [map] 6:00pm
  • February 25, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Physics Building, Room 204 [map] 7:00pm

Admission is FREE and open to the public.

Description: Capitalism is widely recognized as the practical social system because, wherever and to the extent that it is implemented, it leads to wealth and prosperity. But this same system is widely regarded as immoral because it enables people to act fully in their own self-interest—that is, to act on their own judgment and to keep, use, and dispose of the product of their own effort. In this talk, Mr. Biddle demonstrates why, far from making capitalism immoral, the fact that it enables everyone to act selfishly and own property is what makes it not only the most practical but also the only moral social system ever devised.

Image: Wiki Commons

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The Logical Leap: Induction in Physics

Posted by Craig Biddle at 12:46 PM

The Logical Leap: Induction in PhysicsPenguin has announced that July 6, 2010 is the official release date for David Harriman’s book, The Logical Leap: Induction in Physics.

Here’s the blurb from the back cover:

A groundbreaking solution to the problem of induction, based on Ayn Rand’s theory of concepts

Inspired by and expanding on a series of lectures by Leonard Peikoff, David Harriman presents a fascinating answer to the problem of induction—that is, the epistemological question of how we know the truth of inductive generalizations.

Ayn Rand presented her revolutionary theory of concepts in her book Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. As Dr. Peikoff subsequently explored inductive reasoning, he sought out David Harriman, a physicist who has taught philosophy, for his expert knowledge of the scientific discovery process.

Here, Harriman presents the result of collaboration between scientist and philosopher. Beginning with a detailed discussion of the role of mathematics and experiment in validating generalizations in physics—looking closely at the reasoning of scientists such as Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Lavoisier, and Maxwell—Harriman skillfully identifies the method by which we discover laws of nature. Refuting the skepticism that is epidemic in contemporary philosophy of science, Harriman offers demonstrable evidence of the power of reason. He then argues that philosophy itself is an inductive science—the science that teaches the scientist how to be scientific.

You can see the Table of Contents and First Pages at Falling Apple Science Institute, and you can preorder the book at Amazon.com. For a preview of Harriman’s work on this subject, see his TOS articles:

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