When I studied Dr. Peikoff’s courses almost 40 years ago, I was thrilled by the knowledge and delighted with the clarity, certitude, and wit of his delivery. I had taken hundreds of courses during my life, but none that compared to his. It is through them that I became an Objectivist. They changed my life….
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Announcement: Mailing List Problem
Dear friends, I apologize for the inconvenience, but I’ve had a minor hiccup with my mailing list and anyone who signed up between May 15 and May 22 was not successfully added to the list, despite the confirmation message you may have seen. If you signed up between these dates, please do so again—the problem…
Victims of the Lockdown
It’s tragic when people die prematurely from any cause, be it heart attacks, strokes, Alzheimer’s, asthma, pneumonia, flu, or COVID-19. Now, illnesses and deaths from COVID-19 have special celebrity (with some justification, but not much—flu is just as deadly, and sometimes more so). The number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 undoubtedly is inflated by the…
Victims of the Virus—or of Sacrifice?
Young people are constantly told to go to college and study hard, and that they’ll get a good, high-paying job if they do. Someone owes these young people an apology. They are faced with the worst job market ever, competing with 33 million unemployed (and counting). All this from a virus that young people statistically…
The Greatest Showman
I love The Greatest Showman, a spectacular movie which I watched last night for the fourth time. Everything about it is perfect. I think it is a great work of art. The story, about love and a great entrepreneur, is captivating. The music and songs delight, haunt, and thrill; they are performed flawlessly, as is the acting. Hugh…
COVID-19: Stupidity, Incompetence, Dishonesty, Evasion
Let me start with three honest, competent, and smart experts—true experts. Dr. Peter Attia, a physician who specializes in the study of longevity, wrote on April 20, “The good news is that [COVID-19] doesn’t look nearly as catastrophic as it seemed in mid-March. . . . The numbers of new cases and new deaths seem…
The COVID-19 Catastrophe Is the Result of Monumental Mismanagement.
The first act of management is planning. No planning? There can be no management. Planning is thinking, identifying facts, and projecting courses of action. There was little credible, thoughtful planning for the management of COVID-19. Instead, we got reactiveness and political posturing, just as we did in the November elections. Above all, planning requires reliable,…
Magnificent Painting
Today I hung and lit a magnificent new painting by Bryan Larsen. The painting is especially spectacular under its nightlights. These lights bring it alive and show the diffusion of the light from Prometheus’s torch, which spreads left to the muses until the last two are more subdued. It is an intriguing painting. What is…
Richard Salsman’s (Ayn) Rand Camp
I was delighted to host Richard Salsman and his wife, Lisa, at my home last weekend. Richard is a professor of the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Department at Duke University. We had lovely meals together, and one evening we were joined by Alex Epstein. I’m happy to announce that Prometheus Foundation will be sponsoring an…
COVID-19 Symptoms
The attached table (from the Australian Government Department of Health) compares the symptoms of COVID-19 against those of the cold and the flu; it may be helpful to you. There are more differences between a cold and COVID-19 than there are between COVID-19 and the flu. The flu and COVID-19 share very similar symptoms and…