Light Blogging

The Tempest opens on Saturday, so I'm too busy this week to spend much time blogging.

I did find time to watch Yaron Brook and Onkar Ghate speak on "Cultural Movements: Creating Change." It is well worth the time spent.

As a side note, I found it interesting that Brook is not an unqualified fan of the internet. He cautions us that just because information gets out fast does not mean Objectivism is therefore spreading fast. He observes, as I recall, that the internet reinforces a short attention span. Internet users often use a kind of subliterate short hand in their messages to one another -- "Do U C?...LOL!" People are not reading Atlas Shrugged on the internet, and we need more young people who are capable of reading a long, serious novel.

I recently asked a retired high school teacher if he thought young people were dumber than they were when he was young. Without hesitation, he answered yes. I asked him if they could read a long serious novel like War and Peace. Again, without hesitation, he said no. They sit around watching TV, which is an entirely passive pastime. This is a real problem.

And speaking of widespread mindlessness, how about the adoration of the Messiah, Obama? It's the strangest phenomenon in politics since Ross Perot. He can reverse himself on anything and nothing sticks; he is the ultimate Teflon politician. Ideas and policies don't matter -- only Obama's personality seems to matter.

I enjoyed this passage from Robert Tracinski in TIA Daily:

Barack Obama has decided on a straightforward general election strategy: he will simply begin acting as if he is already the president and the actual vote is a mere formality.

That was the point of his overseas trip, during which he was received with pomp and circumstance by foreign leaders, and he amplified the message upon his return by scheduling meetings with the Federal Reserve chairman and the Treasury Secretary—an official from the cabinet of the actual, current president (George W. Bush, in case you forgot).

But here's the kicker: it seems that last week, Obama ordered his staff to begin preparations for his transition to the Oval Office—more than 100 days before the election.

One wonders if Obama's confidence is another case like Pauline Kael in 1972 when she said she didn't know anyone who voted for Nixon -- life within the liberal cocoon -- or if he really can't lose. It almost makes a vote for McCain seem like an act of justice in defiance of arrogance. Almost.