Why We Give Gifts
by Edward Hudgins
One year I gave my then-young nephew who was in the first years of elementary school a rock for Christmas. Not just any old rock but a piece of sandstone from a science store. In it were embedded fossils, shells and other little surprises. But you couldnâ??t just take a hammer, smash it to pieces and extract your prizes. The rock came with little scraping and brushing tools and, like a paleontologist, you had to slowly and methodically scrape away the rock.
It was exciting for me over the next weeks to get my nephew’s excited phone calls telling me that he thought he could see a little white piece of bone sticking out and he would keep me informed on his progress. I was watching a curious mind and a fired imagination learning patience and perseverance.
One Christmas season tradition that makes this holiday stand out from all others is gift-giving. Crowded malls lead to brightly-wrapped packages and then to bright eyes and smiles as the surprises are revealed to their recipients. Inevitably this tradition is criticized as too commercial, although it seems strange that anyone should complain about living in a society of productive individuals, which allows us to purchase all the material comforts that make life pleasant. In any case, we need to produce before we can give. Some suggest that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Is this true? Is this pure altruism or is there something in it for us the givers? This is a good time to ask about some of the reasons why is it of value to us to give gifts.
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Author: s1e2t3u4p5
Munich Looking Worse and Worse
A few weeks ago, I blogged that Spielberg’s new Munich movie might be worth seeing, at least for those with an interest in the fate of Israel. However, the reviews I’ve seen so far are not promising. Here’s an example:
When Steven Spielberg began filming Munich in June 2004, he set the tone for his fictional movie about Israeli agents who hunted down the Palestinian terrorists responsible for the slaughter of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Spielberg abruptly stopped filming and closed up shop. Why? Because the 2004 Summer Games were happening in August, and Steven Spielberg didnâ??t want to upset the terrorists.
Thatâ??s what Munich is about: not upsetting the terrorists. And rolling over while they attack and kill us. In Steven Spielbergâ??s world, not going after terrorists brings peace. In the real world, not going after terrorists brings more bloodshed.
Ed Hudgins Reviews New King Kong Movie
We Three Kongs
by Edward Hudgins
If art holds a mirror to reality, the original 1933 King Kong, the 1976 remake and the latest version by Peter Jackson, show a culture that swung from a romantic optimism to cynicism and now perhaps is returning to a healthier sense of life.
The original Kong very much reflected the values of its maker, Merian C. Cooper. As a six-year old a book his uncle gave him on â??Adventures in Equatorial Africaâ? inspired Cooperâ??s imagination with tales of the jungle and strange animals, including gorillas. He wanted to be an explorer! He went to the U.S. Naval Academy but got booted out for suggesting that the recently-invented airplane could some day sink battleships. He became a bomber pilot in World War I and was shot down and imprisoned by the Germans. After the war, in 1920 he flew for the Poles who fought Soviet invaders. He was shot down again and thrown into a communist slave camp but escaped. Years later he made movies celebrating American values to counter communist propaganda.
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C-Span2 Book TV on "The Capitalist Manifesto"
C-Span2 Book TV will broadcast a recording of Andrew Bernstein’s talk on his new book, The Capitalist Manifesto, which he recently gave at Marist College in Poughkeepsie. The broadcast includes the entire talk and Q&A, and is scheduled for Monday, December 19th, between 5:00am-7:00am EST.
Make sure to set up your DVD or VCR recorder.
Update: The program will be broadcast several additional times through the end of Januray. You can check the C-Span2 Book TV schedule for the times. The program is also available on the Internet during the broadcast, via RealPlayer or Microsoft Media Player.
"The Objective Standard" – a New Objectivist Journal
The Objective Standard is a new quarterly journal of culture and politics, written from an Objectivist perspective.
The purpose of the journal is to analyze and evaluate ideas, trends, events, and policies according to the philosophy of Ayn Rand – a philosophy of reason, egoism, and laissez-faire capitalism. The new journal provides a rational, principled alternative to the ideas of both liberalism and conservatism.
“Whereas liberals hold that morality is subjective (i.e., feeling-based), that majority opinion is the standard of value, that sacrifice for the common good is noble, and that rights are social conventions; and whereas conservatives hold that morality is grounded in religion (i.e., faith-based), that Godâ??s will is the standard of value, that sacrifice in obedience to His commands is good, and that rights are divine decrees; we hold that morality is grounded in the objective requirements of human life (i.e., reason-based), that manâ??s life is the standard of value, that the selfish pursuit of oneâ??s life-serving goals is good, and that individual rights are moral principles defining the basic requirements of a civilized society.”
The permiere issue is scheduled for April 2006.
Broadway's Jerad Bortz Inspired by Anthem
An article in Sunday’s edition of the Pittsburg Tribine-Review includes an interesting article titled “Triple threat,” about Broadway performer Jerad Bortz. It begins:
He’s always been a performer. As a 6- and 7-year-old at home, in Latrobe, he would dance and sing his way out of the shower. Today, Jerad Bortz is doing what he did way back then, only on Broadway.
A principal understudy in the smash hit “Wicked,” Bortz arrived at the Gershwin Theater on West 51st Street from “Mamma Mia,” another of the Great White Way’s bright lights.
Appearing on a recent cover of Dance Spirit magazine, the Greater Latrobe High School graduate was hailed as one of six young “triple threat” performers who are living their dream of making it in New York.
Triple threat?
Singing. Dancing. Acting.
Bortz, 26, was a natural from the time he walked on stage, said John Noble, a Greensburg attorney whose passion is the theater. In addition to starring in amateur productions, Noble founded “Night of the Stars” to showcase high school talent.
The first “Night of the Stars” nine years ago featured Bortz in the role of Broadway legend George M. Cohan in the musical “George M.”
“It gives me chills just to think about it,” Noble said.
“There are a lot of talented kids,” Noble continued. “The difference with Jerad is that his talent continued to grow and expand.”
And later in the article comes this story:
One day, in school, Bortz asked Cavanaugh to drop by the band room.
Cavanaugh’s English class had been studying the Ayn Rand novel “Anthem,” a story of rediscovered individuality in a world of mass conformity. The saga fired Bortz’s imagination, so much so that he wrote a song based on the novel, complete with orchestration.
Waiting for Cavanaugh in the band room was the high school band, Bortz and two other singers. Together, they performed Bortz’s composition for their teacher.
See the full article to learn more about Bortz.
Ayn Rand's Books Censored in Philippines?
In an article for Human Events Online, Mark Skousen writes:
In 2002, a student named Franscisco (a pseudonym) at the University of the Philippines read my book, The Making of Modern Economics (ME Sharpe, 2001). The book is a popular textbook that tells the story of the great economic thinkers, from Adam Smith to modern times, all written from a free-market perspective. (Itâ??s now in its third printing, and has been translated into three languages.)
One of the most controversial chapters is chapter 6, â??Marx Plunges Economics into a New Dark Age.â? The student was a member of a Communist front student organization at University of the Philippines, but was so impressed with my critique of Marx that he typed the entire chapter into an email and sent it to all his Marxist friends and sociology professor. As a result, they all abandoned Marxism in favor of free-market economics, including his professor.
Now apparently my book has become so effective in countering Marxism in the Philippines that it has been removed from the major university libraries in Manila — along with Ayn Randâ??s books!
Keep reading for more background information.
Rep. Chris Cox Replaced by Fellow Rand Admirer
New from townhall.com:
Today it is official, former State Senator John Campbell will take the Congressional seat vacated by SEC Chairman Chris Cox.
Campbell is a solid conservative.
In September, I had a chance to interview him during his race. I have republished that interview in full in the extended section. Read the whole thing, and you will see that Campbell will be a welcome addition for conservatives.
Interview with CA State Senator John Campbell
Thursday, September 29, 2005
TC: Weâ??ll start with some questions about conservatism in general. Can you explain to me, and to our readers, what you see as the core foundational principles of conservatism?
JC: Core foundational principles to me are individual rights and individual responsibility. From a domestic policy basis, I think everything kind of flows from that, even the concept of smaller government, or if you want to go into lower taxes or less regulation. All of that flows from the concept that most rights and privileges should be incumbent in the individual and also the responsibility for one’s actions, the consequences for oneâ??s actions come from the individual. I think from a domestic policy standpoint itâ??s that.
From a foreign policy standpoint, it comes simply from the view of Americaâ??s place in the world in that of strength, but also of being the world leader and worldâ??s example for democracy and for the rights and responsibilities of the individual as expressed through democracy.
TC: What conservative thinkers and philosophers have influenced your own political journey?
JC: Well, if you go back early in life, Milton Friedmanâ??from an economic standpoint. I was an economics major in college, and a lot of Milton Friedmanâ??s writings influenced me. And also, and I know sometimes this person has been riddled with controversies of late, and I understand that. I have read almost all of Ayn Randâ??s books. Whereas I know sheâ??s come under attack of late for some things, again the core philosophy of individual responsibility comes through so clearly, and is so eloquently put in books like Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead. So if you want to go back kind of early in life, in terms of philosophers, those are a couple I would say.
FrontPage Mag: Copyright? What's That?
I’ve always thought highly of FrontPage Magazine, or at least the few articles I’ve read there personally — but now I wonder how much of it was even content that they created, instead of stealing it from another site without permission.
Today they reproduced the full text of our January 2004 interview with Sabine Herold, with (a) no request for permission, (b) no acknowledgement of the original publication or copyright holder, and (c) no link back to our web site. In other words, it was a brazen violation of our copyright to the material.
And they featured it on the main page of their site, as original content.
I’ve written their editorial staff to ask that the oversight be remedied. Problem is, it’s the kind of thing which should never happen in the first place at a professional magazine. Even most amateur bloggers show better courtesy than this. What were they thinking?
UPDATE: In response to my request, they’ve promptly shortened the article and provided a link to the full article on our site.
No reply yet from them on whether reprinting copyrighted articles without permission is standard practice or some kind of anomaly at their publication. …I guess it must be their standard practice. Lovely.
Munich: Spielberg Pays Homage to Israeli Athletes
Many admirers of Ayn Rand’s novels feel strongly about Israel’s right to exist. In that vein, this report from Drudge might be of interest:
“There has never been an adequate tribute paid to the Israeli athletes who were murdered in â??72,” Spielberg says.
â??I donâ??t think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today,â? director Steven Spielberg tells TIME in an exclusive cover-story interview. â??But itâ??s certainly worth a try,â? Spielberg says.
Since filming began in June, the movie (reported to cost around $70 million) â??has been surrounded by rumors, criticism, and suggestions that Spielberg was too pro-Israel to make a fair movie,â? according to TIME.
“I’m always in favor of Israel responding strongly when it’s threatened. At the same time, a response to a response doesn’t really solve anything. It just creates a perpetual-motion machine,” Spielberg says. “There’s been a quagmire of blood for blood for many decades in that region. Where does it end? How can it end?”
Check out the Munich movie trailer, if you haven’t already.
UPDATE: The movie is getting slammed by some early critics for, among other things, its posturing and moral relativism. Proceed with caution…