O Captain! My Captain! By Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman composed this elegy, or mourning poem, "O Captain! My Captain!" after Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865.O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills; For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding; For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head; It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead.My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.Lisa VanDamme on Literature and the Quest for Meaning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZed0X3-q5oOne essential condition of fulfillment and happiness is the philosophic conviction that your life belongs to you. But it is only a condition. A truly fulfilled and happy life requires a sense of meaning. How to achieve that meaning is a question for which we have few tried-and-true, culturally established answers. Thankfully, one resource we do have for answering that question, or even knowing how to go about considering it, is great art. This talk explores how classic literature can contribute to the vital quest for meaning.Recorded live in Cleveland at OCON 2019 on June 26, 2019Also don'f forget to check out Lisa Van Damme's amazing Read With Me app. Download it for free!Video: Why Britain Needs Americanism
https://youtu.be/LCRTNRyPclg"Jonathan Hoenig and I toured the UK a few weeks ago, lecturing in support of the new book on Ayn Rand's political philosophy, "A New Textbook of Americanism." Here is my lecture on individualism at Cambridge. Special thanks to Razi Ginzberg, head of the Ayn Rand Centre UK, for setting up this lecture tour; to Jonathan Hoenig for compiling this outstanding collection of essays; and, above all, to Ayn Rand for initiating a literary and philosophic renaissance. Enjoy" -- Andrew BernsteinThe Hero’s Journey
What trials unite Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins and many of literature's most interesting heroes -- and you? Matthew Winkler takes you through the crucial events that make or break a hero as based on the works of Joseph Campbell's A Hero With a Thousand Faces.https://youtu.be/Hhk4N9A0oCAThe Marriage
by Yvor Winters (1900-1968)Incarnate for our marriage you appeared, Flesh living in the spirit and endeared By minor graces and slow, sensual change. Through every nerve we made our spirits range. We fed our minds on every mortal thing: The lacy fronds of carrots in the spring, Their flesh sweet on the tongue, the salty wine From bitter grapes, which gathered through the vine The mineral drouth of autumn concentrate, Wild spring in dream escaping the debate Of flesh and spirit on those vernal nights, Its resolution in naive delights, The young kids bleating softly in the rain–– All this to pass, not to return again. And when I found your flesh did not resist, It was the living spirit that I kissed, It was the spirit's change in which I lay: Thus, mind in mind we waited for the day. When flesh shall fall away, and, falling, stand Wrinkling with shadow over face and hand, Still I shall meet you on the verge of dust And know you as a faithful vestige must. And, in commemoration of our lust, May our heirs seal us in a single urn, A single spirit never to return.Amy Peikoff’s Theory of Privacy
Amy Peikoff has a short blog post over at Legalize Privacy or her theory of privacy. You can check it out here.
Amy Peikoff Analysis of FTC Facebook Settlement
Writes Amy Peikoff :What follows is an excerpted and annotated version of the FTC’s “Stipulated Order” representing its “Settlement” with Facebook. It’s dated July 24. I’m giving you the lowlights, as I see them, plus my “translations.”
Some nuggets from Amy's offhand analysis:“Defendant agrees that the Department of Justice shall have the same rights as the Commission to engage in compliance monitoring as provided by Part XV of the Decision and Order set forth in Attachment A, as well as the same right as the Associate Director for Enforcement for the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Commission provided under Part VIII.B to approve the person(s) selected to conduct the Assessments described in Part VIII of the Decision and Order set forth in Attachment A, subject to any applicable law or regulation.” (page 4)
Translation: Anything the FTC can get or do as a result of this “settlement,” so can the DOJ. This becomes particularly relevant when you see some of the last paragraphs of the order, the ones which inspired the title of this blog post.
“If a User deletes an individual piece of Covered Information but does not delete his or her account, nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to require deletion or de-identification of metadata (e.g., logs of User activity) that may remain associated with the User’s account after the User has deleted such information.” (page 6)
Translation: All your metadata are belong to the DOJ, unless you delete your entire account in time. (And will that really work anyway, or is it already too late?) Deleting individual pieces of data is inadequate to protect your privacy.
Amy also writes that she is applying for non-profit status for an organization to fight this power-grab by the FTC and DOJ:"Would you like to help me do whatever is possible, using my unique theory of the proper legal protection of privacy, to fight this power-grab by the FTC and DOJ? If so, your donations are most welcome here. Make sure to add “FTC” in the optional comment field, and it will be earmarked appropriately. I’m in the process of applying for non-profit, 501 c(3) status, and so I’ll do everything possible to ensure your donation is tax-deductible, and will keep you posted about the status of the application."
Link: FTC-Facebook “Settlement”: All your data are belong to DOJAll Your Data Belongs to DOJ: Amy Peikoff Analysis of FTC Facebook Settlement
Writes Amy:What follows is an excerpted and annotated version of the FTC’s “Stipulated Order” representing its “Settlement” with Facebook. It’s dated July 24. I’m giving you the lowlights, as I see them, plus my “translations.” If you like, and if you have a strong stomach, I invite you to read the whole order here.Link: FTC-Facebook “Settlement”: All your data are belong to DOJ
Invictus
"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. "Invictus" is a Victorian poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). Written in 1875 and published in 1888 — originally with no title — in his first volume of poems, Book of Verses.Democrats Denounce Obamacare Tax Provision — That They Created
From House Votes to Repeal Obamacare Tax Once Seen as Key to Health Law - The New York Times:
In the heat of the legislative fight over the Affordable Care Act, Obama administration officials argued that including a steep tax on high-cost health insurance plans would hold down soaring costs by prompting employers to rein in such plans and force employees to spend more of their own money on their care.
On Wednesday, that feature, once considered central to Obamacare, was dealt a blow by an unlikely foe: Democrats. The House voted almost unanimously to repeal the tax, not only a key cost-containment provision in Barack Obama’s signature health law but also one of the main ways it was supposed to pay for itself.[...]The tax is supposed to take effect in 2022, after being delayed twice. But the overwhelming vote in the House — 419 to 6, with only three Democrats opposed — increased the likelihood that it never does. Indeed, the debate on the House floor was striking, with one Democrat after another denouncing the provision as if Democrats had nothing to do with its creation.[...]But for Democrats, a key constituency is demanding repeal — organized labor. For decades, unions found it easier to bargain for richer benefits than higher wages, producing labor-sponsored health plans that now could face the tax.On Monday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., which represents more than 12 million workers, sent a letter to House members saying the tax was “driving employers to hollow out the health care benefits they provide, making medical care less affordable and creating serious access barriers for millions of workers.”
Journo Unpacks Hazony’s Argument for Nationalism
...and finds it wanting.Writes Elan Journo on Hazony's book, The Virtue of Nationalism:Hazony presents a conception of nationalism with soft edges, one that is supposedly compatible with some measure of liberty. And therein lies part of the book’s danger. It is calm, erudite, and theory-heavy. The book attempts to provide a serious, intellectual case for embracing nationalism.[...]In today's age of a return to nationalism, Journo's insightful analysis is a must-read.Link: The Vice of NationalismHazony repudiates the Enlightenment view of individuals as sovereign and capable of using reason to attain truths about the world.[...]What really happens in societies where reason and individual rights are dropped out of the picture, where each tribe/nation is left to do its own thing? At least two things are clear: First, such societies are highly tribal. People define themselves primarily, if not exclusively, by their tribal or racial identity, while viewing outsiders as less-than-human, because they were born to the “wrong” tribe/race. Second, and crucially, the door is left wide open for disagreements and enmities to be resolved through brutality, not persuasion, because outsiders are seen as innately inferior, wrong, unreachable. For example, consider the tribal wars that have decimated Africa. A notorious example is Rwanda’s tribal war in 1994, which claimed upwards of 800,000 lives. Or look at the repeated eruption of tribal/nationalist wars in the Balkans. There, during the early 1990s, we witnessed the return of “ethnic cleansing” and concentration camps. These are manifestations of tribal/national groups jockeying for collective self-determination.[...]To unpack Hazony’s argument is to see that his conception of nationalism is fundamentally opposed to the ideal of freedom."
Leonard Peikoff Radio Interview on The Ominous Parallels (1982)
https://youtu.be/TYkicuesWa4Police Use Forfeiture: Fighting Crime or Raising Revenue?
A new Institute for Justice study (PDF), made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation, finds the nation’s largest forfeiture program does not help police fight crime. Instead, the study indicates police use forfeiture to boost revenue—in other words, to police for profit. The IJ study, “Fighting Crime or Raising Revenue? Testing Opposing Views of Forfeiture,” combines local crime, drug use and economic data from a variety of federal sources with more than a decade’s worth of data from the Department of Justice’s equitable sharing program. Equitable sharing lets state and local law enforcement cooperate with the Drug Enforcement Administration and other DOJ agencies on forfeiture cases and receive up to 80% of the proceeds.The study—the most extensive and sophisticated of its kind—calls into question whether distributing billions of dollars in forfeiture proceeds improves police effectiveness. The new evidence undercuts claims by prominent forfeiture supporters, such as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who called forfeiture an “important tool that can be used to combat crime, particularly drug abuse,” and Attorney General William Barr, who, while acknowledging “problems and potential abuses,” called forfeiture “a valuable tool in law enforcement.”Specifically, the study finds:- More forfeiture proceeds do not translate into more crimes solved, despite claims forfeiture gives law enforcement more resources to fight crime.
- More forfeiture proceeds also do not mean less drug use, even though forfeiture supposedly rids the streets of drugs by crippling drug dealers and cartels financially.
- When local economies suffer, forfeiture activity increases, suggesting police make greater use of forfeiture when local budgets are tight. A 1 percentage point increase in local unemployment—a standard proxy for fiscal stress—is associated with a statistically significant 9 percentage point increase in seizures of property for forfeiture.
Socratic Dialogues in the Classroom
https://youtu.be/hCu5EgK5TdYMichael Strong discusses the importance of holding Socratic dialogues in the classroom to foster thinking of complex subjects.
Video: Socialism’s Legacy
https://youtu.be/PCrYoYpWuDoFollowing the collapse of the Soviet Union, many optimists claimed that the world was now somehow "after socialism." There are reasons, however—structural, political, moral, and intellectual—why the collapse of Communism did not entail the end of socialism. This talk by Alan Kors will explain why there can be no "after socialism" until the West comes to ultimate terms with the catastrophic legacy of international communism.Video: Free Speech and the Threat of Tech Regulation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xQxjosx-dkYaron Brook, Onkar Ghate, Brian Amerige, and Gregory Salmieri join Dave Rubin to discuss the growing threat to free speech, the Google leak, Project Veritas, free speech, YouTube demonetization, fake news, and more.