TOC 2006 Summer Seminar


Kat

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Victor, Leigh Branden is Nathaniel's new wife. They were married in Maui this past May. In the bag she is holding is a very cute little puppy.

Kat

A PUPPY! I didn't know there was a puppy in the room during that talk! I would have been fawning all over it! What kind? What sex?

Judith

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A baby and a puppy. What would Ayn Rand say.

I don't know what Rand would say, but as far as I'm concerned, babies don't interest me in the slightest. Noisy, sticky, smelly, germ-ridden, disease-carrying -- they don't belong in lecture halls (or anywhere else where I am, as far as I'm concerned). But PUPPIES!!!! Puppies are enough to turn me into a boneless cooing mess of goo!

Judith

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Judith -- I agree that noisy babies should not be in lecture halls, especially when I'm the speaker they're disrupting! Of course in one of my talks at the Summer Seminar I showed pictures of my great nephew, tracking his growth from a few weeks to three years old to illustrate the principle of maturation.

Now here is a picture of me with my brand new little niece, Esabella Lucia Hudgins. She didn't interrupt my speaking at all and just slept right through my visit. Of course, this is something I fear audiences in lecture halls might do when I speak!

PB040610-B.jpg

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Judith -- I agree that noisy babies should not be in lecture halls, especially when I'm the speaker they're disrupting! Of course in one of my talks at the Summer Seminar I showed pictures of my great nephew, tracking his growth from a few weeks to three years old to illustrate the principle of maturation.

Now here is a picture of me with my brand new little niece, Esabella Lucia Hudgins. She didn't interrupt my speaking at all and just slept right through my visit. Of course, this is something I fear audiences in lecture halls might do when I speak!

PB040610-B.jpg

Grrr.

After all I've said about not liking babies...

After all the times I've called them hairless pink things (or yellow or brown or red things)...

After all the times I've said that all babies look alike...

Well...

Damn it...

Okay.

She's cute.

This one particular baby.

I'll admit it.

Just this one time.

Judith

(retreating in defeat)

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A PUPPY! I didn't know there was a puppy in the room during that talk! I would have been fawning all over it! What kind? What sex?

Judith

A Border Terrier dog called Kai. He was very cute. I said hello and had a good stroke.

Darn it Judith, we could have worked together on this. You could have distracted Leigh whilst I swiped the puppy and stuffed it in my bag!!

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Judith -- Thanks for your tough, honest, hardnose, no nonsense evaluation of the truth in the current issue under discussion. The evidence of the senses -- hmm, that could be a good book title! -- in this case suggests an exception to your otherwise universal principle with respect to small, neonatal homo sapiens. Granted, the subject in question, little 'Bella, is only three days old in this photograph and no one can accuarately predict the aesthetic appeal of her or anyone else's physical attributes in the out years. But as MSK suggests, if she continues along an likely glidepath of maturation, that appeal is likely to be on the high side of a standard bell curve.

Put another way, she's just the prettiest, sweetest, cutist, cuddly, huggable, adorable little baby you ever said "goo goo" to!

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A Border Terrier dog called Kai. He was very cute. I said hello and had a good stroke.

Darn it Judith, we could have worked together on this. You could have distracted Leigh whilst I swiped the puppy and stuffed it in my bag!!

Oh, well -- there's always next year! Of course, now that we've plotted publically, Nathaniel and Leigh know where to find us.... :lol: "She's got him!" "No, SHE'S got him!" "No, SHE's got him!!" "Yip!"

Judith

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Judith -- Thanks for your tough, honest, hardnose, no nonsense evaluation of the truth in the current issue under discussion. The evidence of the senses -- hmm, that could be a good book title! -- in this case suggests an exception to your otherwise universal principle with respect to small, neonatal homo sapiens. Granted, the subject in question, little 'Bella, is only three days old in this photograph and no one can accuarately predict the aesthetic appeal of her or anyone else's physical attributes in the out years. But as MSK suggests, if she continues along an likely glidepath of maturation, that appeal is likely to be on the high side of a standard bell curve.

Put another way, she's just the prettiest, sweetest, cutist, cuddly, huggable, adorable little baby you ever said "goo goo" to!

What can I say -- the picture made me smile, and I'm usually not one who smiles at baby pictures. :)

Judith

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Judith -- I'm sure when you were a baby you brought smiles to many faces! And your posts on Objectivist Living are bringing smiles to our faces!

Gods, Ed, when you decide to turn on the charm, you can be lethal! :D If you give lessons to Esabella, she's going to be Big Trouble. :devil:

Judith

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Judith: "I don't know what Rand would say, but as far as I'm concerned, babies don't interest me in the slightest. Noisy, sticky, smelly, germ-ridden, disease-carrying. . . "

I might once have agreed with you, but I was present, many years ago, just after my nephew was born -- and focusing on what I was seeing, I felt a sense of awe. If there is a miracle in the world, the birth of a baby surely is that miracle -- the fact that two people can create a human being, a human being who did not exist before and who never would have existed without them, and who might change the world, for good or for ill, by his thoughts and actions Out of two microscopic seeds came life; out of blind matter, came consciousness. Walking on water is nothing in comparison to this.

I felt also that I finally understood the source of the stories in religions of the Garden of Eden. Looking at my tiny nephew, I thought that here is the Eden story: here is a being who is totally innocent, without the capacity to understand good and evil, without the capacity to do evil. It is only with knowledge -- with the apple -- that he would understand good and evil and have the capacity to choose between them.

Babies are indeed the last, best hope of mankind.

Barbara

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Judith: "I don't know what Rand would say, but as far as I'm concerned, babies don't interest me in the slightest. Noisy, sticky, smelly, germ-ridden, disease-carrying. . . "

I might once have agreed with you, but I was present, many years ago, just after my nephew was born -- and focusing on what I was seeing, I felt a sense of awe.

I'd probably feel something similar had I ever been present at such an event. I'm sure much of my attitude has to do with my absolute lack of exposure to babies. I have no siblings and no children, and I never babysat as a kid, and on the few occasions when someone has plopped a baby into my arms, I've been kind of perplexed about it. I do remember my cousin's daughter wetting on my lap when I was eight years old, and seeing the next door neighbor's baby boy as a newborn when I was also eight years old, which was my very first exposure to human male anatomy.... (I whispered to my mother, "What's WRONG with him?!?") :lol:

I'm really not a heartless blankety-blank, as my response to baby animals indicates. :) Another part of what I say is just humorous schtick.

But there's something about animals that's just so easy to love. Lacking the capacity to be rational, they lack the capacity to be irrational. Lacking the capacity to be moral, they lack the capacity to be immoral. They never disappoint you. You can safely love them wholeheartedly and without reservation.

On the other hand, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that, had I ever had a child, I'd be one of the worst offenders out there talking people to death about babies in general and my kids in particular! :laugh: I always swore I'd never, ever baby talk a puppy, but it didn't take more than five miles down the road from the breeder with my very first one before I was doing enough baby talk to sicken my former self. (And it didn't stop when the puppy grew to be near 200 pounds, I fear. :blush: ) So despite all my protestations, I'm sure I'd be quite gooey about babies too if I had one of my own!

Judith

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But there's something about animals that's just so easy to love. Lacking the capacity to be rational, they lack the capacity to be irrational. Lacking the capacity to be moral, they lack the capacity to be immoral. They never disappoint you. You can safely love them wholeheartedly and without reservation.

Judith,

Boy did that ever nail it. I'm biting my tongue to not continue with more examples...

:)

Michael

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I'm biting my tongue to not continue with more examples...

Go ahead and give examples, Michael! It's your forum! And I'm interested in what you have to say.

On those rare occasions when I'm feeling blue and looking hard for something to admire in the world, I don't have to look much farther than a happy animal.

Judith

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