NOTABLOG MONTHLY ARCHIVES: 2002 - 2020

FEBRUARY 25, 2009

The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies was first published in the Fall of 1999; our Fall 2008 issue (running just a little late) is now out, and marks the beginning of our Tenth Anniversary Celebration.

The abstracts for the newest issue appear here; the contributor biographies appear here. There have been a few changes over at the JARS site... and more are coming. New indices for the Table of Contents and the Contributor Biographies are now on the site. Also, JARS has recently been picked up by the indexing service, Scopus.

The newest issue includes the following articles:

Mind, Introspection, and "The Objective" - Roger E. Bissell
The Peikovian Doctrine of the Arbitrary Assertion - Robert L. Campbell
Economic Decision-Making and Ethical Choice - Kathleen Touchstone

Reviews and Discussions
Re-Reading Atlas Shrugged - J. H. Huebert
Plato, Aristotle, Rand, and Sexuality - Fred Seddon
Reply to Fred Seddon: Interpreting Plato's Dialogues: Aristotle versus Seddon - Roderick T. Long
Rejoinder to Roderick T. Long: Long on Interpretation - Fred Seddon
Reply to Peter E. Vedder, "Self-Directedness and the Human Good" (Fall 2007): Defending Norms of Liberty - Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen
Rejoinder to Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen: Difficulties in Norms of Liberty - Peter E. Vedder

Enjoy!

Cross-posted at Liberty & Power.

Comments

I want to write for the one on war and peace.

Posted by: Nick Manley | February 27, 2009 12:55 AM

Congratulations Chris! Well on your way to 50 ;-)

Posted by: Andrew Taranto | February 27, 2009 07:42 PM

Congratulations on a great achievement.

Posted by: Chris Grieb | March 7, 2009 12:30 PM

Your great labors in the cause of Rand scholarship are much appreciated!

Posted by: Robert W. Franson | March 20, 2009 08:18 PM

Wow, it's been 10 years already? Thanks for all your hard work on JARS. I'm looking forward to that Nietzsche issue! :)

Posted by: Peter Saint-Andre | April 3, 2009 09:26 PM

holy crap, has it been that long? congratulations.

Posted by: JR Minkel | April 6, 2009 11:18 PM

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

My friend Don Hauptman reminds me that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of "Ben-Hur," the "Best Picture" of 1959 ... part of its then-unprecedented 11 Oscars. The NY Times has a nice video tribute to the film here. It's still my favorite film.

P.S. - The 50th anniversary of the release of "Ben-Hur" comes on November 18, 1959, the date that the movie premiered at Loew's Theater in NYC. The Oscar ceremony for 1959 films took place on April 4, 1960.

Comments

Ben-Hur (1959) is also my favorite move. I saw it in the theatre about a dozen times. However, all VHS and DVD versions have some scenes cut out - Ben-Hur and Messala as boys, and all the scenes with Flavia (Marina Berti) a temporary love interest. Do you know if any restoration plans are being considered?

Posted by: Tom Hirchburg | March 23, 2009 03:52 PM

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

Song of the Day: That's Entertainment, music by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by Howard Dietz, was first featured in the 1953 movie musical, "The Band Wagon," and was also prominently heard in the 1974 MGM compilation film of the same name. As you get ready to watch the Oscars tonight, take a look at this wonderful Judy Garland YouTube tribute, spotlighting this iconic Hollywood song. So concludes our 2009 movie music tribute.

Comments

Your Song of the Day choice of That's Entertainment reminds what a wonderful movie that song came from. The Band Wagon is the 2nd best musical of the 50ths after Singing in The Rain.

Posted by: Chris Grieb | March 7, 2009 12:24 PM

What a wonderful trip down memory lane. I am glad people still remember the good music from our past.

Posted by: Jesse James | March 9, 2009 02:09 PM

FEBRUARY 21, 2009

Song of the Day: The Untouchables ("Death Theme") [audio clip at that link], composed by Ennio Morricone, is a portrait of melancholy. Listen to an alternative audio clip from a wonderful tribute album by Yo Yo Ma.

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Song of the Day: The Fugitive ("Main Title") [audio clip at that link], composed by James Newton Howard, is from the 1993 motion picture, starring Harrison Ford. One of my all-time favorite TV themes is the one by Peter Rugolo for the magnificent original David Janssen series. I love listening to this soundtrack as well, just as much as I enjoy watching this film ... over and over again.

FEBRUARY 19, 2009

Song of the Day: Independence Day ("Firestorm") [audio clip at that link], composed by David Arnold, is a dramatic selection from one of my favorite sci-fi films.

FEBRUARY 18, 2009

Song of the Day: Midnight Express ("The Chase") [audio clip at that link], composed by Giorgio Moroder, is a pulsating dance classic from the 1978 Oscar-winning Best Original Score to a harrowing tale of injustice.

FEBRUARY 17, 2009

Song of the Day: Ben-Hur ("Fertility Dance") [audio clip at that link], composed by Miklos Rozsa, offers a rousing start to our Annual Movie Music Tribute, in anticipation of the 81st Academy Awards. The tribute also begins on the occasion of my 49th birthday... so... uh... happy birthday to me!

FEBRUARY 16, 2009

I was watching "This Week" on ABC yesterday and was mildly amused by an exchange between Republican Lindsay Graham (Senator, South Carolina) and liberal Democrat from my own home state of New York, Charles Schumer. Graham said: "If you put most of our major banks under a stress test, they're going to fail. This idea of nationalizing banks is not comfortable, but I think we have gotten so many toxic assets spread throughout the banking and financial community throughout the world that we're going to have to do something that no one ever envisioned a year ago. Banking and housing are the root cause of this problem. ... I would not take off [the table] the idea of nationalizing the banks" (see here as well).

Now here's the height of irony: Chuck Schumer opposed the idea: "I would not be for nationalizing. Government's not good at making these decisions as to who gets loans and how this happens."

Well, good God... if we have to depend on the Democrats to tell the GOP that nationalizing isn't a good idea...

Of course, this is all One Big Joke anyway... there is virtually no difference between Republicans and Democrats, and the banks and the government are so incestuously intertwined, as I've argued here, that it is almost impossible to see where one entity ends, and the other begins. That's why we call it a "state-banking nexus." Democrat Maxine Waters of California understood this much, using Citibank as an example; with all the money that the taxpayers have given Citibank, that bank "is probably almost nationalized" already.

And the list goes on and on and on... from Citibank to Bank of America... the state is there for a taxpayer bailout that will further insulate the system from the kinds of revolutionary corrections that are required.

Comments

Chris,

First off: let me wish you happy birthday again ( :

The ideological incoherence of the parties has really reached a crescendo lately.

Look at this quote from Obama:

"It is absolutely true that we can't depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life. It is only government that can break the vicious cycle where lost jobs lead to people spending less money, which leads to even more layoffs. And breaking that cycle is exactly what the plan that's moving through Congress is designed to do."

So, you can't depend on the government to create wealth, but the government must be used to create wealth in a moment of crisis? That's like saying the Constitution is great, but let's not use it during a crisis. It's precisely in a crisis when a good principle or form of organization is needed. Obama is spouting pragmatic contradictions. And it's simply a blatant lie that the government has any resources to "jolt" the economy back to life. It's spending at a deficit and living on the credit of foreign central banks.

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/02/when-destruction-is-cost-of-denial.html

Glad to see you posting again. Love ya!

Posted by: Nick Manley | February 17, 2009 01:15 PM

Since I've never heard Schumer's name connected with anything remotely within the realm of tolerable, I'm tempted to think we ought to nationalize the banks. As Nietzsche said, "At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." The reverse is sometimes also true.

Posted by: Rmangum | February 20, 2009 06:04 PM

Actually, let's not nationalize. That's my view.

Posted by: David M. Brown | February 24, 2009 02:06 PM