Kat

Leonard Peikoff inherited Ayn Rand's intellectual property rights, her copyrights and such. He has the keys to the vault. I see intellectual heir in his case as being legal jargon, although it sounds like some would like it to mean that there was a brain transplant involved there somewhere. He certainly did not inherit her intellect. What he knows he learned for himself. I am still waiting to see if anyone ever produced anything from Ayn Rand calling him her intellectual heir as she did with Nathaniel Branden. Kat

I have removed a picture of a mutilated baby that was posted. Not something I wanted to see at breakfast time. I don't care what your agenda is, whether it is anti-war, anti-abortion, racist or whether or not I agree or disagree with your point of view, I don't want pictures of dead babies (or other highly offensive graphics) posted on my site. The flaming has to stop as well or we will start removing posts and close the thread. We are not a collective, just an internet forum where everyone thinks and speaks for themselves. OL certainly does not promote racism. There will be times when people disagree and tempers flare. People are free to come and go as they please and sometimes they dare us to ban them or flounce off. That is the nature of internet forums. I do, however, ask that people exercise a bit more self-control in our home and refrain from intentionally insulting and offending each other. If a post is offensive, please click the report button to alert us. Kat

If you had to vote for one of the remaining candidates on Super Tuesday, who would it be?

Michael just asked me what time kick-off was and I told him I'd look it up. Seems silly but it actually took some digging, even superbowl.com doesn't post the actual kick-off time just a countdown counter and it looked too much like math to me.... I then checked the local listings and the pre-game stuff starts around two and the game at 5:00 central. In Chicago it is on Fox. Kick-off time is something like a quarter after. So to make it easy here are the times. Superbowl times 6:00 Eastern 5:00 Central 4:00 Mountain 3:00 Pacific Check your local listings to confirm time and channel. My team is not playing this year, but I am a Tom Petty fan so I may check it out. Kat

Happy Birthday Ayn Rand I'm declaring today a holiday so everyone take the day off and enjoy some pizza and cake. I don't know how appropriate it is to sing happy birthday considering the birthday girl isn't with us now, but do some celebrating anyway. Kat & Michael

Just got my Superbowl football pool numbers today. I hope I win. I didn't bet on a team and the Bears aren't playing this year so it doesn't seem as exciting as it did last year. I found some superbowl ads online and they are pretty funny. I really like the one for Blockbusters. Check them out here. Enjoy the game, Kat

It's that time of year again. If you have any favorite superbowl party favorites, post 'em up. Kat

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McCain wins in Florida; Giuliani set to quit Fresh off his victory in the Florida primary, Sen. John McCain is poised to take another big prize. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani plans to drop out and endorse McCain, two GOP sources said. That would give McCain added momentum heading into a debate Wednesday and next week's Super Tuesday contests. full story It sounds like disappointing news for some of us here. We'll see what happens. Is there any reason Objectivists should support McCain, I haven't noticed anyone really supporting him, but he seems to be collecting endorsements and seems to be the frontrunner on the republican side. What's his angle anyway? Kat

Here is a link to a table checklist on the candidates and where they stand on various issues: http://www.2decide.com/table.htm Kat

Although I don't have a ton of money in the stock market, like many, I do have some in mutual funds and a 401(k) at work. It appears that a lot of what is happening now is based on projections and panic. Since I have a good twenty years or so before I retire, I'm not about to take my money out after this recent freefall. Sure, I have reallocated to better diversify more of my future 401(k) allocations to safer investments since I was heavily weighted towards growth and emerging market stocks. Since I believe the market will bounce back within a couple of years, and certainly before I retire, it makes no sense for me to pull out when the value is low. I'll just keep putting it in and buying while its cheap. What I have in the market is there for the long term. If it were short-term, I probably would not have so much in high risk investments anyway. Back in 2002 after I had lost 50% in the market I got disgusted and took my money out of the market and bought my house. Thinking back, maybe that wasn't such great timing to withdraw when the market was so low. Like many at the time, I got a 5 year arm, but luckily I'm not in the subprime category and I refinanced just before real estate crashed and credit tightened up. It is probably a great time to buy property, but pulling money out of the market now to do it is probably not a hot idea. Do like Donald Trump and use other people's money if you can. I think the best way to handle financial mayhem is to avoid acting out of panic and just to ride it out if you can. Things settle down eventually. Kat

OK, after fishing around on Ron Paul's site for awhile, I found his paper that summarizes where he stands on issues and so I am attaching it to this post. If there are similar position papers around the other candidates sites, please post a link. It seems like so far only the Ron Paul supporters are trying to sway my vote away from Ringo. Kat Ron_Paul_Flyer_Issues.pdf

I thought the director was a done deal. His name escapes me, but he was at the Atlas Celebration in Washington, DC and made a pretty good impression. Now, with rumors of Angelina expecting twins, the movie may be stalled again. I think that maybe they should be looking for another actress rather than a director at this point. I really don't think this movie is a big priority for her and she mentioned a while back she wants to take some time off for family anyway. Kat

Just as I would never serve liquor to a child or buy them cigarettes, I would not advocate minors having sex. Children cannot consent to underage sex any more than they can consent to drinking or voting. The laws set the age. It's not up to them. Sex is an adult activity. Teens mature differently, I have two teenagers. They are 3 years apart and it seems like they are 10 years apart. Rather than look at age as a number in these cases, people probably want other things considered such as maturity, age gap between the parties involved as well as the ages of those involved. If a 19 year-old is sexually involved with a 17 year old, most people would think nothing of it. If the gap were wider, say a 20 year old and a 15 year-old, you are talking jailbait and the older one may get in trouble. If the child is younger than 12, any adult who touches them is a predator IMHO. I'm sure many people will see me as puritanical, and that's fine. I lived my life and seen what I have seen. I'll just say that I've seen too much too close. Kat

Shayne, I'm glad to hear it is not endorsed by Ron Paul and I suspected it wasn't. I was on Ron Paul's site a little earlier today watching him on video for the first time, and like I said earlier, I was impressed. Maybe I'm just getting too old to get this mash-up craze. I said it was crap because it was very annoying to watch because of the choppiness, not anything McCain or anyone said. Whatever he was saying was interrupted by the dingbat. It was like when you are trying to watch something and someone has the remote and keeps flipping channels on you and you just want to turn the TV off. Kat

That mashup was crap. I did not find it funny at all. It insults the viewers' intelligence. I hope that is not not from Ron Paul's official organization. I was actually starting to like the guy. Kat

I'm in the "sixteen will get you twenty" camp. Even with teenagers, anything more than about a three year difference in age strikes me as inappropriate. It is a psychological/family matter when children are having sex with other children. If it is a case of an authority figure put in charge of caring for the child such as a teacher, it most certainly is a criminal matter. If a 12 and 13 year old are doing it "consensually," it is immoral and possibly psychologically damaging, but should be left to the families involved to deal with it rather than the courts. More than likely if kids are having sex at such a young age, I would suspect that at least one of them has been sexually abused or exposed to pornography by an adult. In such cases, an investigation may warranted to protect the children and catch a pedophile. Sexual abuse of children is far more common than most people realize. Kat

Very good analogy. I feel like a vegetarian in Texas cowboy country. I am still undecided about the election and I don't feel like sifting through all the rhetoric and propaganda to figure out who my candidate is. As much as I love this country and having the right to vote, I am very tempted to sit this one out. I wish there was some comparative information out there showing side by side (maybe in table format) the basic views of the top 5 candidates along with comparison to Objectivist political philosophy. That would make it so much easier to sift through all the blah blah blah that makes me politically apathetic. (Does Ron Paul even fall into the top 5?) Maybe if there was a comparison between Guiliani, Ron Paul, and McCain, it would be very helpful. Does any republican have a chance at winning the general election. I'm in Chicago where Obama is extremely popular. So if someone around here wants to take on the task of presenting an objective side-by-side comparison of the candidates' positions on issues important to us--domestic, international and economic--or have found something of this nature online, please share it on the stump in the backyard. I'd like to see links to the candidates websites as well. Kat Hating politics, but yet feeling shamefully uninformed...

I wouldn't call yesterday a holiday to celebrate and I am certainly not jumping up and down performing a victory dance. I feel a sense of relief more than anything. This whole episode was a real downer, angered many of us (justifiably) and the feelings of anger and betrayal only intensified the longer TAS delayed, denied any wrongdoing and dumped on us at OL calling us uncivilized for taking issue with the whole thing instead of taking swift decisive action. I felt like TAS turned on me personally and I could not understand why. I still don't. How could Perigo, being such a bitter enemy of TAS, have possibly been invited when long-time supporters here were being rejected left and right? How could TAS do this? I kept trying to tell myself Ed would never invite Perigo, but yet it looked as if he would let the invitation stand. Ed is one of the few people in this world that I truly admire and trust to do the right thing and act with integrity. My trust was shattered. It was one of those moments where you think the good guys have turned into to bad guys and you just want to throw in the towel. Anyhow, the damage was done, now it is being undone and it will take some time to heal the scars and rebuild the trust and admiration that I once held for TAS as an organization. I still hold a great deal of admiration for Ed and Robert and realize that they were doing their jobs trying to repair the damage that Will has done to the organization. I want to think he acted alone and was naive about Perigo, but I deep down I really don't think either. I do hope that in the future there will be a little more oversight in the invitation and acceptance process to avoid these types of sticky situations in the future. Again, I applaud TAS for doing the right thing. Thank you and apologies. We still love you guys. Kat

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Well, considering the announcement that Linz has been disinvited, my previous post to Ed may seem a bit odd. The posts crossed, but I'm leaving it up so people can better understand why there was such a ruckus around here. Ed, I don't know why you let that invitation go out, knowing what I know you know about Perigo, but you did the right thing in the end. Thank you. Andrew, about music... back in the old days on the old solohq forum, I actually believed I would be banned for my musical tastes, but it didn't happen that way. I was banned quite a bit later when they started going after Brandenoids. People can listen to whatever music they like and still be Objectivists IMHO. I'm a classic rocker, Michael is classical, Tina (Inky) is a bit goth, but her tastes in music are all over the place. We are all Objectivists in this household despite the fact that we have a wide variety of musical tastes. What you like is part of who you are and one of the things that makes us unique individuals. Many Objectivists share Ayn Rand's musical tastes and some don't. It doesn't really matter anyway. Kat

Ed, I am refusing to go to the summer seminar as long as that invitation to Perigo stands. I will not help TAS pay for Linz to travel from New Zealand as well as cover his accommodations, Perhaps Perigo is skilled at public speaking and maybe he put on a great show several years ago with a talk called Elixir of Life, but now he is invited to give talks bashing others in the Objectivist community and people who don't share his musical tastes. Is this what you want? Perigo has nothing positive to offer. His greatest talent nowadays is stirring up Linz-mobs to spread hatred throughout the Objectivist community. This man's sole contribution to Objectivism over the last 2 years or so has been to smear good people in the Objectivist community such as Barbara Branden and Chris Sciabarra as well as bash and alienate countless other former friends, allies and most of the contributing authors to Free Radical and the original SoloHQ. Anyone who has watched this guy over time can see him turn his friends into enemies time and time again. This is NOT the way to unite the Objectivist community. Perigo's rational passion is fueled by malice. ICK! Like Michael, I loathe what Perigo stands for. The fact that Perigo, of all people, received a special invitation to speak at the summer seminar is a slap in the face to many of us at Objectivist Living. This timing of this invitation is curious to say the least, but I won't speculate on that here. The Atlas Society events are where many OL members gather and get to interact in person. This has effectively ruined my summer vacation. I will certainly miss seeing many of our friends at the summer seminar. That is just one of the reasons some of us are upset about this. But there's more. Considering that for the last two years Perigo's primary activity has been promoting PARC, a book written specifically against my good friend Barbara and her ex-husband Nathaniel Branden as well as his various campaigns to trash the Atlas Society, Objectivist Living and others, inviting Linz is an insult. Do you like being insulted in your own home? I don't. And what I don't like is that nobody at TAS seems willing to take any responsibility for doing something they had to know would upset and alienate many of their regular supporters who attend Atlas Society events. The conference is several months away and he can be disinvited. TAS tried to wiggle out of this one by wagging their fingers and calling us uncivil for being majorly ticked off. Well, inviting Linz after all he has done to Barbara, Chris and others is an extremely hostile action against Barbara and those of us who love her. We thought TAS loved Barbara too, especially after the 50th anniversary event. Alas, actions speak louder than words...By inviting Linz to speak, you are promoting PARC. Do you get it now? Kat

Laure, thanks for putting this up. It helps me to understand things a bit better as I never viewed Neil's criticism of Valliant's book as an attack on Ayn Rand at all. PARC needs to be discredited as it is nothing but a smear campaign against Barbara and Nathaniel Branden. Valliant and his ilk are the cultists and PARC's purpose is to cultivate cultists. Perigo has a personal vendetta against Barbara Branden. He turned violently against her and uses this book as a weapon. He was against the book until his rift with Barbara, then he did a complete turnaround. He hates Barbara because she rejected him. PARC is fueled by hatred of Barbara, starting with her own cousin Leonard Peikoff who wants revenge on her for writing PAR and exposing the affair that was kept secret from him for a very long time and shattered his impression of Ayn Rand as morally perfect. That is why he gave access to Ayn Rand's journals to Valliant. Maybe I'm a freak, but reading Passion of Ayn Rand made me love and admire Rand more, not less. Barbara is a wonderful person and someone I adore. It has been wonderful to actually get to know her personally over the years. The way she has been treated in the Objectivist world is appalling and Michael and I provide an online sanctuary for her here at OL. Members of OL don't have to agree with our views, we just don't allow Branden bashing in our house. btw - I'm sure nobody here really thinks you are a cultist. Kat INTP