The New Clarion

The Wednesday July 14th Detroit News carries an op-ed by NYT writer David Brooks who wants us to know there are two kinds of people in the business world. But Mr. Brooks, like so many in the educated class, has a hard time forming concepts in any hierarchy or at least doesn’t want us to. (more…)

Terry Savage, in a column on a lemonade stand encounter, argues that this experience “sum up what’s wrong with U.S.” I would suggest that she’s correct in her evaluation but dead wrong in the source of her consternation.

The children running the lemonade stand in question were giving away their product for free to all comers. Savage, flush with indignation, contradicts her companion’s statement that this represented the “spirit of giving”:

“No!” I exclaimed from the back seat. “That’s not the spirit of giving. You can only really give when you give something you own. They’re giving away their parents’ things—the lemonade, cups, candy. It’s not theirs to give.”

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Bill Gates is the Andrew Carnegie of our era. Like him, Bill Gates generated incredible wealth by creating a company singularly driven to be the best in its industry but gradually came to agree with his detractors. And by the time he stepped down as a leader, he had committed himself to spending the rest of his life making up for his honestly-earned success. His acceptance of altruism in the midst of pursuing his own selfish values blinded him to the possibilities of economic freedom.

Most recently, he told {via} a charter school trade conference that they represented “the only place innovation will come from.” (more…)

It’s time I weighed in on on the Great NY Mosque controversy at this point in time.

I wish to note that there are in fact, two huge issues at play for me in this discussion.

The first is the issue itself, which is the debate over whether we should support the immediate use of certain innately arbitrary legal powers (zoning laws) by government in order to stop the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero.  I will discuss this issue here.

The second issue, is how Objectivists handle disagreements like this.  That’s of greater long-range interest to me, and I will address it at some point; however, that will have to wait until I have gathered all the data and the discussion has more-or-less played out.

The very quick summary, to set the initial direction, is this:  I am in agreement for now with Paul and Diana Hsieh, in their posts here and here, and the reader may wish to also note my comments there.

For the Record:  I remain open to being convinced that the construction of the mosque represents a sufficiently immediate and pronounced danger to our liberty and country, that it should be stopped by *any* available means.

As yet, I have not yet seen the countervailing argument that meets the necessary conditions: to wit, that demonstrates a grasp of the opposing argument.  I have chosen to respond to this post by New Clarion co-blogger Embedded I to illustrate and clarify my position.

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It seems to me that some of our admired Objectivist friends do not sufficiently appreciate how widespread and insidious the Islamic threat actually is.  This is a war, and not simply of ideas.

Lies, Damn Lies, & Muslim Lies: The Muslim, and especially Islamic, ethics fully endorses the use of dishonesty to non-Muslims.   An article at the Middle East Forum site, makes this point very clear, explaining how the same Imam speaking in English says very benign things and then, in purportedly the same context in Arabic, is jihadist.   When the former explanation ends, The Mainstream Media end thinking.  See, The Two Faces of the Ground Zero Mosque.

Particularly notable about this mosque is that

• few Muslims live in reasonable traveling distance of it, yet it is being constructed to hold thousands;
• it is an Islamic tradition to build mosques over the most significant icons of vanquished enemies;
• it is just another building to us, but to them it is proof of Allah’s will, & of Islam’s supremacy;  finally
• its imam lied when denying non-American (Arabic)  funding for this mosque.

Were certain American communists, during the 1940s, given a pass when it became known they being funded and guided by Russia?  (more…)

On this Fourth of July, let us look at what the current president of the United States of America thinks the country is all about. In a recent speech on immigration Obama said,

Being an American is not a matter of blood or birth, it’s a matter of faith.

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There has been an argument among Objectivists on the mosque that some would like to build at Ground Zero. Leonard Peikoff opposes the mosque and holds the US government should prevent its existence. Others disagree. Amy Peikoff has two posts supporting her husband.

The argument is complicated and certainly not self-evident. It’s a matter on which good people can disagree. I see in the various comment threads people I respect on both sides.

What would be worse for the rule of law in America, our government violating property rights of those who would build a mosque or giving the enemy in a time of war an enormous morale boost by seeing a mosque built where militant Islam scored its greatest victory?

This strikes me as the kind of argument one finds in a mixed economy. Our government is bad and getting worse. It intervenes now in so many areas that it seldom does anything significant that is limited to the scope envisioned by the writers of the Constitution. Good is packaged with bad, and sorting out what is fundamental or most important can be maddening.

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