The last couple of days have not been good for Arthur Miller. It has been revealed that shortly after one of the sons who suffered from Downs Syndrome was put in what was called a "home". Miller did this even through his wife at the time wanted to raise the child. Miller would not even mention the boy in his autobiography. Arthur Miller has been regularly referred to as the American playwright of the 20th century. His two most famous plays are "The Glass Menagerie" and Death of a Salesman
Around 1997 after several individuals had been freed from prison as a result of DNA Truscott contacted AIDWYC one of the other most successful of these groups about having such testing. After going back and looking through for such samples the report was there was no such material Aidwyc was not disheartening but not discouraged. Trusccott's wife Marlene and others had been gathering material and TV news program thought there might be a story in the case. The show began interviewing individu
William and Harry should be happy they look more like her that their father. Church music can be very moving and inspiring I glad Elton John didn't sing at this service. I hope that Objectivists can make the point that production is vastly more important that distribution. I hope that some producers can be as honoured.
A couple of people have asked why and how I became interested in this case. Shortly after Truscott had been sentenced to death I read a small item in Newsweek about the case. The item simply noted that agiatation about the death penalty might lead to its abolition in Canada. I forgot till one day in 1966 walking home from work in New York City I entered a small bookstore. This small bookstore had a newsletter about interesting forthcoming books. There was an item about a book called The Tr
A few quick thoughts. How does everyone feel about policeman sitting in bathroom stalls to prevent inappropriate sexual contact? Do any of you feel safer? Senator Craig in his wide stance explanation and his pleading guilty hurt his case. I think the Senator should resign. One of the stories in the Idaho Statesman says that Sen Craig had sex in a bathroom at Union Station. The bathrooms have a lot of use and are very busy. Not for sex. Bathrooms have to somewhat deserted.
Yesterday the Crown accepted the decision and will not appeal. This means the case is over. I have yet to start looking at decision so it will be a little longer for my longer comments. But I have been interested over forty years so I think I can take a little more time.
Tomorrow August 28 after almost fifty years Crown vs Steven Truscott will finally have a resolution. Steven Truscott was arrested, charged and convicted of the murder of a class mate in 1959. He was sentenced. That sentence was commuted. But his conviction was later affirmed by Canadian Supreme Court. Truscott came to his unlucky state of affairs because he gave a ride to this school mate. A younger girl in his classes she was in his home room. The Crown pathologist said the time of de
Monk is a very popular show on cable. I find the show very annoying. I like detective shows. I don't like Monk. I am willing to put up with many things with my detectives. They can violate rights. They can torture. They can kill people like Mike Hammer did. I don't want them to be neurotic. Monk is neurotic. He has a hand washing and cleaning fetish which in an earlier time would not have him on a police force but in some quite place where he would be kept away from sharp objects.
Popular Mechanics has published a very good book on 9-11 called "Debunking 9/11 Myths". They have further debunking on their web site. I recommend the book and the website.
The Agitator whose principal writer is Radley Balko is another very fine blog I look at every day. Balko used to work for Cato Institute but now is editor for Reason's blog Hit & Run. His work for Cato concerned police abuses and the increasing militarization's of local police forces. He has also written on the abuse of the Bill of Rights by many government agencies. The address is www.theagitator.com and I hope readers will look at this blog.
As I mentioned earlier yesterday Sunday, August 19th was Errol Flynn day on TCM. One of the movies was Robin Hood. Robin Hood has been done in various versions but this is the best. As the readers of this forum know Ayn Rand did not approve of Robin Hood. Her reason are good but this is still a great movie. The acting by Flynn, Dehavilland, Rains and Rathbone is first rate. Flynn looks great. Rathbone is the proper villian. The script is well done. The photography is excellent. It i
Yesterday August 19th was Erroll Flynn day on TCM. That meant is was also Korngold day.. Who was Korngold. Korngold wrote the music for the swashbucklers Flynn made so many of. Korngold wrote for other Warner Brother movies. He was one of the three or four great Hollywood composers during the 30ths and 40ths. Korngold wrote more series music for the concert hall but I suspect his Hollywod music will be what is remembered. I don't know if any of the music can still be bought but go down
Some of the left wing bloggers have come with the idea of having a labor union for bloggers. Here are some of the reason why this is a silly idea. I don't know about other bloggers but I work for me and my readers. I am the owner. I determine the content. Unions are made up of employees. People who work for the person who hired them and provided the job. One of the items these bloggers want is health care. They have been told that there is right to health care. Now these left wing bl
Durham in Wonderland is written by K C Johnson. The blog is about the Duke Hoax. Professor Johnson has written since April of 2006 about the Hoax. The blog has been about the case and the reactions to it. As a professor Dr. Johnson has had a great deal to say about the Duke faculty and President. Much of his focus has been on the 88 professors who signed an ad the appeared in the college newspaper now known as the "Gang of 88. Dr. Johnson has ably followed the criminal case as it fell
The last day. We begin with the David Kelley lecture on the Objectivist Ethics. This is good material that I want to listen to again. Ed Hudgins talks about The Anatomy of Belief. People believe many wrong and bad ideas. Why is this the case. Exposing wrong ideas requires patience. Stephen Hicks second lecture is full of great reports. In the US under a partially free art is flourishing. Dr Hicks pointed that poetry books are selling very well in the United States. Chris Baylor fin
Tom Stone has a blog called Philospher Stone that I very greatly enjoy. He has two humour entries which are very funny. One is a list of children's books that don't make it One is how to have fun with scissors. He posts about philosphy, sports and baseball in addition to humour. Check it out.
Day Five started with David Kelley continuing his lectures on the Objectivist Ethics Advanced. This is very advance material so I will talk about the next lecture. Fred Seddon gave a great lecture about David Kelley "The Art of Reasoning". Fred is very good lecturer and always fun to listen to. Now one of my favorite lectures and lecturers. The lecturer is Stephan Hicks and the lecture was "The Fate of Art under Capitalism. Most artist think that capitalism and capitalist hat e art Dr.
With a comment Jeff Kremer about stakeholder theory. Stakeholder theory is based on democracy. Objectivists don't believe in democracy. The United States is not a democracy. The United States is a constitutional republic. Democracy is unlimited majority rule. If you get half the voters to support an idea that idea can be carried out To put the idea in its starkest forum if 50% + 1 had expected Hitlers idea of killing the Jews it would have alright. In the United States you still need s
Everybody is back from the off day. David Kelley is giving his advanced Ethics course. One of first points is that Rand's divides theories of Ethics in three. The Objective vs. subjective and intrinsic. The Objective is the correct one. The next lecture was by Robert Bidinotto on "Is There an Objectivist Sense of Life?" Bidinotto makes the point that one can come to different conclusions about works of art and still be using the correct method in analyzing them. He cited as an example D
Only one lecture today. William Kline finished on Business Ethics. Kline said that a sound theory based upon the Objectivist ethics would resolve almost all business ethics problems. Rest of the day tried to sleep. Went to the library at Towson. Day off is great idea.
William Kline continued on Business Ethics by talking about stakeholder theory. He discussed Milton Friedman's statement about business only having a responsibility to turn a profit.Kline discussed property rights theories and utility maximization. He made the point that these two theories may lead to conflicts. I then attended Dave Mayer's on Judicial Activism. This was a great lecture. Dave Mayer always gives a good talk. I wish he would fly and attend those on the West Coast. He cite
I will try and fill in some of my previous posting about Summer Seminar 18. David Saum and I got to Towson about 5pm. We checked in and meet some of the other arrivals. I have a theory that the first people you meet at an event suggest how the event will go for the week. The frist people I meet were all great. I then went to the barbecue and meet more great people. There seemed to be a great ethnic diversity than previous Seminars. The next day the conference proper began. The first t
Summer Seminar is over for another year. I will be reporting in the next few days about the speakers new and old. I hope in my postings I can convince more of you to attend. More will follow.
