Robert Mayhew On Ayn Rand Answers

I'm excited to point out this newly posted essay by Robert Mayhew on the non-troversey* surrounding his editing of his book Ayn Rand Answers.

For those of you who are unaware, Mayhew edited a collection of transcribed answer sessions by Ayn Rand, which was published after her death. There is a certain contingent of what I call False Objectivists whose only mission in life seems to be to undercut anything done by the Ayn Rand Institute and its scholars, or anyone who supports them. They have been sniping about how the collection allegedly exhibits shoddy scholarship for, oh, years now. Even Jennifer Burns makes the same claim of bad scholarship in her recent Rand biography.

This is a shame, because the Institute is doing great work disseminating the right ideas and establishing themselves as a political think tank and media presence.

Mayhew's explanation is basically that Rand's personal instructions to the eventual executor of her estate (Dr. Leonard Peikoff) were to use the sessions however he wished. Rand herself did not necessarily regard them as fit for publication, and some of the answers from the book were even Rand's own edited versions! The book was aimed at the mass market, not scholars, and the changes were minor and intended to clarify. I would say this issue has been squashed.

Thank you, Dr. Mayhew!

P.S. - This is unrelated to the issue at hand, but while browsing for info I found this interesting interview with Dr. Mayhew. It gives a short but interesting window into his academic life at Seton Hall.

*I just made that up, but a quick Google search indicates it's far from original. Oh, well :)

NYT: Tea Party Full Of Hypocrites?

In a recent article on the Tea Party movement, the New York Times pointedly mentions that the protestors are living off the government benefits they are protesting against.

Although the article is not overtly critical, but merely suggestive, and allows the participants to express their justification for accepting government funds, the fact that the Times chose to point this is still obnoxious.

I do worry that when things get better, some will no longer fight as hard for freedom, if you are not principled enough to be for freedom when times are good, then you are in it for the wrong reasons. If you fight on principle, you will stay.

My personal soapbox is my web site, and I would blog whether I had a job or not, and will blog until the Constitution has an amendment protecting the right to freedom of production and trade.

However, I object to the common notion that if you protest taxation, you have no right to accept government services. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that I'd be rich. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

The main flaw in this argument is that it applies the moral rules of free trade while advocating coercion, for which different moral rules apply.

If you are in a voluntary agreement with someone, and you violate the terms of that agreement, then such an argument might apply. For example, if you are at a picnic, and you proclaim how awful the food is, but you proceed to eat it anyway, then you could be called a hypocrite. If you condemn someone as evil, but accept alms from them, then you would be a hypocrite.

However, if someone robs your home, and then offers you a bag of groceries they bought with your money, accepting those groceries does not take away your right to morally condemn them or call the police. It does not constitute your "agreement" to the terms of being robbed.

Like theft, taxation is morally wrong on principle, and those who are taxed are victims, not partners in a voluntary trade.

Rather than referring to Social Security, roads, unemployment benefits and the like as government "benefits", a better word would be "compensation" and "restitution", and only partial at that.

Protestors against big government and taxation have every moral right to accept government money while fighting against it. To state otherwise is to grant moral legitimacy to the thief, and punish the victim.

Some might wonder how society would proceed without taxation. However, in a free society, the needs of government would be dramatically lower and the wealth of citizens dramatically higher, since they would not be hampered by their alleged benefactors. There are plenty of resources to be found that contain either detailed plans for such a possibility, or an explanation of how it would work in principle, including Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.

In the meantime, I recommend that those fighting for freedom reverse the moral indignation of those who attempt to call freedom fighters hypocrites for accepting government money. Condemning victims of theft is itself morally vicious, and we need to call people on it.

iPhone Linksys WebDAV Problem

I have been using my iPhone as a shuttle drive to move personal files around, by using Files Lite, which is a mini WebDAV server for the iPhone*. You can then connect your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network and access it using any OS or application that supports WebDAV, or even a browser, with a URL such as http://192.168.0.10:8080/.

Unfortunately, my Linksys Wi-Fi was not playing nicely with the iPhone, and after starting the Files Lite app, it was still inaccessible on my home network. Outgoing traffic worked fine, such as browsing. However, incoming traffic could not get through, including ping.

WebDAV works fine on other networks, it's just my home network with a Linksys WR610N v1, which has the most recent firmware.

Strangely, whenever I ran another app called Scany, which lists the devices on the network, sharing on the iPhone began to work. However, I did not want to have to run a scan every time I wanted to access files on my phone.

Solution: For anyone else out there who might be having a problem, my solution was to change the wireless setting for the 2.4 GHz radio from "Mixed" to "Wireless-G Only" (the iPhone uses 802.11g). I left the 5 GHz setting on "Mixed", as the iPhone does not seem to care about it.

*The iPhone OS does currently support using the phone as a USB or "regular" network drive.

Wood Carving, Vail Village

This carving is from one of a series of panels on the sides of a European alpine-style structure in Vail.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Mill Creek Rd,Vail,United States

Update - replaced iPhone image with a version from my Canon G9.

A Stylish Yet Headless Snow Woman

Judging from the clothes, this is the type of snow woman you might find reading fortunes or selling organic vegetables at a farmer's market, should she be able to survive until spring, which is unlikely without refrigeration.


I'm not sure if she lost her head due to neighborhood mischief, lack of planning, or the elements. Many would say it was due to global warming, but I'm not a fan of rolling back the Industrial Revolution, so I won't be found on that particular band wagon.

Regardless, somebody had some fun with this, and I had to snap a picture while on a lunch time walk at Meadowglen Park.

Mary Jane Powder Day

Late March in some places means spring activities, but for Colorado skiers it usually means good snow. We've had a storm roughly every week in March dumping significant amounts of snow in the mountains, and sometimes on the Denver area.

Another storm was brewing for the weekend, and it delivered. Vail got 10", but Winter Park also got 7", and it's an easier drive back to Denver (especially since it looked like it was going to snow all day), so that's where I went. It turned out to be a great choice; probably one of the better days this season.

Below is the scene at Mary Jane lodge first thing in the morning. This is actually not a huge number of skiers for a powder day; I'm guessing people are getting burnt out on skiing and/or there aren't as many vacationers at this time of year:


If you're ever going to ski tough terrain, a powder day is the time to do it. If there's enough snow, and it's light enough, it can turn a difficult slope into an easy, slow-motion trampoline jump.

This was the case for me with Pine Cliffs, which are on the right as you ride the Super Gauge chair lift. I skied some of the first tracks, and it was like spreading butter.

Riflesight Notch, which runs under the chair, had some pretty abrupt deep bumps with crust underneath, but the ones what were still un-skied were great. Here are those bumps from the top:


Here they are again, looking up from the bottom, with my ski tracks down the middle, so you can see the snow depth, which varied from about 6" to 8":


This trail was never so easy!

Now, the thing about snow measurements is they tend to vary greatly across the mountain. Windy areas get the snow blown away, but some areas collect snow, and that's where you go. Often this is in the trees, where the wind and sun does not reach. One place is the Eagle Wind chair lift. This lift serves mostly expert tree skiing, but if you are a good intermediate skier you can manage the black run under the chair lift, which is a moderate black slope with two main sections of difficult bumps. This is a "moderate" section:


Part of this trail can be roped off, forcing you to navigate some steep bumps left into the woods, and then to a bumpy runout along a creek bed. It was not roped off today, which meant you were able to ski all the way down under the lift.

Another good place for snow is the ridge that runs along the Panoramic Express lift. I was skiing probably 10" to 12" of snow there, and it was such a pleasure after the rather paltry snow season we had this year.

I also put my GPS in a pocket and recorded my ski day. The track skipped around a bit (the line sticking off on the lower right is an anomaly; there are no trails or lifts in that location).


The GPS logged about 20,000 feet of vertical for the day (8:30 AM - 1:30 PM), which is a pretty good workout on mostly bumps with a decent amount of snow. I finished at 1:30 because I wanted to beat the traffic home, my legs were screaming, and I plan to ski a full day tomorrow. Gotta save some energy!

Fix Word 2007 Document Map

My document map in Word got all messed up today, causing paragraph text to show up in the map instead of only numbered headings, properly indented.

I found a solution at this site. There is a macro you can run from the document, and it performed flawlessly. How nice to find an easy solution that worked the first time! The site provides links at the bottom on how to work with macros if you don't know how to do that. Here it is:Sub ReSetOutline()
Dim myPara As Paragraph
For Each myPara In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
myPara.OutlineLevel = myPara.style.ParagraphFormat.OutlineLevel
Next myPara
End SubSimply run the macro to apply the fix.

Update - Unfortunately, the problem came back later. However, removing the table of contents has fixed it for several sessions now.

The New Criterion Rests?

I guess we'll have to wait until April 1st to find out. This morning I received an email about the upcoming New Criterion edition for April, along with a PDF link, which they call First Delivery. I signed up for this, for free, some time ago when they had an article I was interested in.

The journal ignited a storm of criticism in February over its obnoxious treatment of Ayn Rand by Anthony Daniels. It added commentary in the March issue, in which it tried to justify the obnoxiousness and provide a philosophical justification on a couple of points. It failed both times.

The entire affair was like Whittaker Chambers all over again: critics who are supposed to be bastions of culture expressing ignorance and contempt for Ayn Rand, one of the few modern American thinkers who have really understood what is right about this country, and spent their life defending it. Rand developed a radiantly rational system of ideas for living on earth, and critics at the journal failed to identify her ideas correctly, and instead portrayed her as a tragic and twisted monster, their claims to have listed her virtues notwithstanding.

This month, the PDF edition is missing the section titled "Notes & Comments", the same section where they posted their follow-up commentary last month. I wonder why? Have they written a second follow-up commentary on Rand? I hope not, and they have learned their lesson, because they are extremely bad at it. The full online edition is released on April 1st, when we will find out if they wish to play the fools again.

I should mention that I have an extremely tenuous personal connection to the journal. When I was a grad student at Brooklyn College in Fine Arts, I approached Peter Tatistcheff, the founder of a prestigious gallery on 52nd Street in New York City, and he chose a painting of mine for a summer group exhibition. I was thrilled, and ended up selling the painting to a collector before the show even opened. The notice for the group exhibition appeared in The New Criterion, and although no artist was mentioned by name, I still have a copy as a memento. I'll have to dig up some pictures of the paintings some time and post them. We're talking pre-digital age here, so it will involve converting from hard copies such transparencies or prints to JPG.

I ended up passing on the art career (no regrets, really!). I was not able to secure a teaching job upon graduation, which was a common career path for gallery artists, and I was not interested in enduring poverty and/or the peripatetic life of an associate professor. With up to 400 applicants per position, even though I made it to the top 10 at three schools, it was a tough job market and I just didn't make it. It then became necessary to get a job to pay bills, and I started on a path that led to my current career as a software engineer.

It's an interesting job, with a lot of the same problem-solving as art, believe it or not. It's constantly changing, I am always learning, and the pay is good.

Photography currently satisfies the former artistic itch, so to speak, and also allows me to enjoy other outdoor pastimes at the same time; a nice synergy! Plus, I'm not sure how I'd carry an oil painting easel on my back while running ;) But, never say never!

Update: corrected spelling of "obnxious". Don't know how that one made it through spell check.

Objectivist Round Up

This week's Objectivist Round Up is at Reepicheep's Coracle. The Round Up features 18 (!) posts by bloggers who advocate Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

Not surprisingly, due to recent events the topics lean heavily towards health care from a pro-freedom perspective, but also include reserve requirements, fish and chips, memorization, and other entirely un-coerced (I'm talking to you, Obama) goodness. Enjoy!

Alderfer/3 Sisters At Dusk

This photo is from Alderfer/3 Sisters Open Space in Evergreen, CO. It's on the "back" (west) side of Evergreen coming from Highway 70, so takes me about 30 minutes to get there, but consequently it's a little less populated than other parks, and I've had some of my favorite after-work walks and runs here. The open meadow makes for nice sky views, and the rock formations (the "Sisters", which are behind me) make for terrain interest. It was a chilly 25 degrees at the time I took this photo, and I think it looks it!

Sapphire Point Walk

Sunday was a stellar sunny day in the mountains. I had skied a tough day prior, with wind packed snow that was taxing on the body. Later in the day it had softened up and became an absolute blast, but I put in a long day and was beat. I've had a head cold trailing me like a shadow, too, so I didn't want to push it.

So, I relaxed in Summit County, shopping, noshing and doing a hike and a run. The first was a short but pretty walk at a park called Sapphire Point, on Swan Mountain Road between Keystone and Breckenridge. It's a nice stop right off the road with a good parking lot, a primitive restroom, and a short but very scenic hike. Anyone who can walk can do this hike and get to the overlook view below. Here is a GPS track:


Within 2 minutes of the parking lot is an overlook with a stone wall and some educational plaques. This shot was taken from right near this spot, overlooking Dillon Reservoir and showing the Tenmile Range:


I think someone had just left some seeds just before I arrived, because the usual Rocky Mountain bird and chipmunk suspects were everywhere, snacking away. There were Stellar Jays and this Gray Jay:


Much of the trail is still snow-covered, and it was icy in the morning, so you might want spikes. Later on it was about 45 degrees and sunny, so the snow was soft. This is a typical view from the far end of the loop:


Just like on my Chicago Lakes hike, I was fascinated by the shadows on the snow. There was a light breeze and warm sun, so the play of shadows was reminiscent of that from summer leaves, even though the scene was chilly and leaf-less:


I'm starting to appreciate the nature of the bluebird sky days here in the Rockies more and more. We may get plenty of storms in Colorado, but they are liberally interspersed with sunny recovery days. On this day, it was warm enough so that if you closed your eyes, you could think it was summer. Then, you hear your feet crunching on the snow.

It's A Long Way From 65 And Sunny

...like it was Monday. We've had our second snow storm since Friday, and my drive home was awful, because it occurred right at the point where the snow was beginning to harden into a layer of ice, and I kept wondering if someone was going to come up from behind and slide into me. Snow was coming down so fast I had a tough time keeping my windows clear. I should have left early and worked from home!

Where I Think We Are

Doug Reich of Rational Capitalist had a good, upbeat appraisal of the health care situation, which defenders of freedom sorely need at this point.

I posted a comment, the initial catalyst for which was Doug noting the disappointing fact that some legislators seem to have opposed the health care bill only because they didn't want funding for abortions. Of course as an Objectivist I am opposed to outlawing abortion, I am opposed to basing policy on religious scripture, and I am disappointed when politicians will not aggressively defend self-interest and oppose altruism. My comments:

I find that to be so pathetic. Their support for capitalism and individual rights is similar to their focus on the unborn: potential, not actual. An entire industry is about to be put under a government jackboot and that's all they can object to!

That's what happens when you focus on things that are not of this world: you no longer care about the here and now.

Although the vote was depressing, I think that Obama is going to be the "high" point of liberalism. There will be a Republican backlash, but it will be short-lived because they have no moral backbone (see above). It may even swing back again towards the liberals in the following cycle. Liberalism has a slight moral advantage now, which makes up for its utter lack of practicality.

However, better ideas are getting out there, and it's going to become harder and harder for our opponents to take advantage of people's ignorance. Liberals (and some conservatives) still think Ayn Rand is just a simplistic crackpot who had nothing to say; therefore they're not really paying attention. They won't even know what hit them until it's too late.

I think the whole battle is going to come to a head as a public moral showdown between egoism and altruism (and the underlying battle for reason). At some point, altruists will realize what's at stake, and they will fight tooth and nail to smear egoism and paint it as evil.

But it's not going to work, because we know what's right, and unlike current conservatives, we're not going to back down. And that's when we'll really start to gain ground.

Of course I am aware the Republicans voted against the health care bill, and I am glad for that. However, if they had taken a more principled moral stand against the type of controls/abuses/expropriation contained in the health care bill over the last few decades, we would not be on the threshold of socialized medicine.

CO Politicians Who Have Lost My Vote

As promised, the following politicians, who I voted for in 2008, have lost my vote forever due to their support of the awful Democratic health care plan during its entire path to passage:

• Congressman Ed Perlmutter
• Senator Michael Bennet
• Senator Mark Udall

In politics, small transgressions must be weighed against the benefits, and I am willing to take a certain amount of bad with the good, in minor matters.

However, this plan is beyond a line in the sand that should never have been crossed.

You cannot legislate prosperity and health into existence.

Especially not by effectively enslaving a certain portion of the population (health care providers, insurance companies and taxpayers). Reality does not obey Congress; it cannot be cheated or coerced. This plan will not create the promised prosperity, it will merely add to the slowly crushing burden the health care industry already endures. At which point, you will no doubt call for even more government controls. The whole situation brings to mind a certain novel I've read, and admire.

Gentleman, even though losing my vote is a small price, it's all the leverage I've got, and for you it will be the price of ignoring cause and effect, ignoring economics, ignoring our well-being, and ignoring my warnings.

Cute Fuzzy Chipmunk

What we all need when the country is going to hell at the hands of politicians is cute animal pictures.

This chipmunk was at the Sapphire Point overlook Sunday, munching on some seeds that someone shouldn't have left (you're not supposed to feed the animals, even though it seems cruel). It looks so soft. The camera even captured some particles falling due to munching, and there's a notch visible in its ear. I wonder what happened? Chipmunk fight? Perhaps the hidden world of chipmunk society is more violent than I realized.

US House vs. US Health Care

Well, they did it: the US House passed the awful health care bill. One news outlet, not necessarily known for their free market credentials, reports that the bill provides coverage.

(Cue screeching record sound)

Excuse me? The bill does not provide coverage. Rather, it finds various ways to coerce politically unpopular parties like business and big insurance companies to provide it, then the politicians take credit for being "humanitarians"… even though they used force to accomplish it and provided absolutely nothing. The politicians simply created a set of slaves, by outlawing not providing coverage.

And don't forget us, because of course we are also providing it, with our tax dollars, against our will.

There's sure a lot of stuff being done against people's will. But that's the liberal way.

In fact, the Democratic plan is based on bald-faced lies about what is causing the problems we have (the actual problem is government does not let markets work), a total disrespect for people's choices, i.e. for free markets, and a thoroughly immoral disregard for our inalienable individual rights.

I am totally disgusted with our government and with the Democrats in particular.

I am also grateful to any politician who opposed the plan, provided it was for a proper reason, i.e. individual rights, i.e. freedom.

Unfortunately, it's too little, too late, especially when you concede that it is morally permissible to force things on the citizenry, provided there's a good enough reason, as most Republicans do. I don't think I've ever heard a Republican say it's morally wrong to force someone or to enslave them and take their money. Yet, there will not be real change towards freedom in America until they do say it. I hope that day does come.

Eagle Creek From Vail Village

This is a sight that you pass by each time you walk into Vail Village at Bridge Street, yet might never notice. The photo was taken from the bridge itself, and you would never know from this image that on either side of the creek are modern buildings and a bustling ski town. It looks like wilderness. It also suggests the original reason for starting the ski area and town: it's a beautiful place with great natural resources close at hand, and they are still there.

Note To Obama: Force Is Not The Way

Yet another ObamaMail in my inbox informed me of the following anecdote:

At yesterday's health reform event, President Obama told the story of Natoma, a self-employed woman in Ohio who found herself in the position of losing her health insurance after yet another rate hike from her insurance company

And what is the best way to ensure that we have the lowest prices and best services? It is not the President's plan, which consists of forcing health plan choices on America, forcing business to provide certain services under certain terms and prices, and forcibly taking money from some to pay for the expenses of others.

Look at the markets that have low prices, innovation, variety, and market vibrancy, such as home computers. What is distinctive about this market? It is largely free.

Look at markets that are stagnant, expensive, and wracked by crisis (auto, banking, health care). They are highly regulated. Yet the President wants to further destroy these markets with controls.

Enough! President Obama and other Democrats, stop trying to force you ideas on America, and stop spending my tax dollars to try to do it, by sending me emails telling me how great it would be to violate our individual rights.

Chilly Mule Deer

Snow hit the Front Range Friday, and after work I drove over to Red Rocks for a quick snowshoe. It's never crowded in a snow storm, and I always find something of interest. At dusk I caught some mule deer that came down out of the hills for dinner.


They weren't too concerned about me. This one was lying down resting in the snow for several minutes while I took pictures, then rose to stretch and move on.

Elk Meadow Short Run

This was a teeny-tiny run at Elk Meadow, only 30 minutes, but it was at 7700 feet, it was in the mountains, and it felt good. I was not as winded as I was in past years when running up here after a long break; I'm either better at pacing myself or more acclimated after a few years in Colorado... or both.


Although there is still snow on trail, it's getting soft and is interspersed with dry or slightly muddy areas. One of the advantages of running in the foothills is the trails are sandier, so water drains better and the mud is not as sticky. Your foot leaves a print, but little mud adheres to the sole.

There is more snow in the wooded areas, and it's probable that there are slick spots here and there, but I ran this without spikes and had no trouble. Although we have a large snow storm hitting us today (good ski weekend!), I look forward to more runs as warmer weather sets in for good.

A Thought: Health Care And East Germany

Something that keeps occurring to me as the health care debate progresses is: how can advocates of intrusive state control (such as socialized medicine) have such dramatic historical examples from the 20th century in which the command economy and authoritarian rule failed miserably, and yet still advocate heavy government intervention in markets and in our lives?

The archetypal example of this is East Germany, which suffered slow and crushing stagnation side by side with its freer and more prosperous Western neighbor. Is it possible for such policies fail on a grand scale, yet still work on a lesser scale such as public governance of the health care industry? No. Yet its advocates push forward anyway. Why?

The fact that one government was a dictatorship, while others are democratic, is not the answer. That is the method of assigning those in power, but it does not determine whether their policies will work. Even if we had Plato's so-called philosopher kings in power, such rulers still wouldn't be able to run an economy.

The reason is a failure to think in principles.

The principle of using force against others is wrong and ineffective regardless of the scale of its use. It didn't work on a macro scale in Eastern Europe, and it cannot work on a lesser scale in the United States. It was morally wrong on a macro scale and it's still wrong on a small scale here, in Europe, Canada and everywhere else. It's wrong not because it was misapplied, but because it was applied at all.

Cardinal moral values are universal, because we are all human, and our nature requires that we all follow certain course of action to live proper lives. As stated by Ayn Rand:

The three cardinal values of the Objectivist ethics—the three values which, together, are the means to and the realization of one’s ultimate value, one’s own life—are: Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem, with their three corresponding virtues: Rationality, Productiveness, Pride.

Productive work is the central purpose of a rational man’s life, the central value that integrates and determines the hierarchy of all his other values. Reason is the source, the precondition of his productive work—pride is the result.

However, the personal application of those values can only be accomplished by an individual, as applied only to that individual. You cannot simply lop off values and transfer them from one person to another, declaring some particular good as good for anyone, and proceed to transfer it to others. This is the fraud of redistribution of wealth, in which the goods destined to benefit some individual are forcibly "universalized" and transferred to others. You can see this is not an appropriate strategy in the simple fact that if you applied it consistently, you would run out of victims and starve. It is impractical and immoral.

This is what the initiation of force means: overriding someone's judgment about how to use their life, body and property, and forcibly taking it away. This is the principle behind all government transgressions, and behind public health care in particular.

Nobody should be fooled by the incremental steps proposed by the President and the Democrats with regard to health care; the endpoint is still authoritarian rule that is no different in principle from that of the worst 20th century dictatorships. We are not there yet, but we will be, if we fail to recognize the principle, and oppose it vigorously.

Magazine Purchase FAIL

This sight in a grocery store men's room both annoyed me and fit the wry humor of the FAIL image model, which I enjoy in small doses.


In retrospect, I wonder if I should have tossed it in the trash so nobody ended up buying it, only to have their toddler chew on the corner. Ick. Of course, how else will our immune systems learn what is bad if we don't chew on restroom floor luxury lifestyle magazines as children?

Home On A Grain Silo

Here's an interesting home from the Czech Republic built on top of a grain silo. An improbable combination, but the views and the interior are beautiful.

50

50 -- The number of states that should not have so-called pre-existing condition laws.

This paraphrases the latest ObamaCare email I got from the White House this morning, which was titled "9" and began with the following:

9 -- that's number of states and the District of Columbia where there is still no specific law that makes it illegal for insurers to reject applicants who are survivors of domestic violence by citing the history of domestic violence as a pre-existing condition.

My reaction to this is: Good; 9 down, 41 to go.

Laws prohibiting business from refusing coverage to certain individuals constitute a violation of their individual rights (which should apply to businesses as a collection of individuals). A business has the right to offer services on whatever terms they choose, and to refuse those services as they choose, provided they don't break an existing contract. Laws prohibiting denial of service are themselves a denial of rights.

The essence of freedom is the right to engage or not engage in an arrangement or trade with someone else, and to decide what the terms will be. To force someone to engage in a trade on terms dictated by others is the essence of brute force; it is the operating principle of authoritarian governments everywhere, of dictatorship. It is wrong, and it is not appropriate in a free country like the United States.

Spring Is In The Air

The trees and plants are still brown, and patches of snow remain, but the Denver area really feels like spring, and it's invigorating. All this blue sky really lets the sun in:

This image is from a Denver-area web cam
Even at 55 degrees, it felt like 70 when I walked for lunch today. Due to the time change, yesterday it was light after work and I went for my first run in a quite some time. I'm loving it.

Correction: moved comma to before "yesterday"

0

0 -- The number of additional terms Democrats are going to hold office if they pass this awful bill.

I received my daily email in the "numbered medical slavery series" from the White House today, with an email subject of "1", which contained the following:

1 -- in every six dollars in the U.S. economy is spent on health care today.

If we do nothing, in 30 years, 1 out of every three dollars in our economy will be tied up in the health care system.

Skyrocketing health care costs aren't just crippling the U.S. economy -- they're emptying the pocketbooks of American families. If we do not enact health insurance reform, individual and family spending on premiums and out-of-pocket health care costs could increase 79 percent in just 10 years.

It's true that if we do nothing, things will not get better. However, the last thing we need is more of the government interference that is suffocating the health care sector now! Show me a market that has high prices and disgruntled customers, and I'll show you a market that's heavily regulated. That's what we have with medicine. Yet, the President wants more of that, not less.

Here is my response:

1 -- in every two health care dollars flows through the government.

0 -- the number of dollars that SHOULD flow through the government.

0 -- the number of additional terms Democrats are going to hold office if they pass this awful bill.

If the President's plan passes, it will be a financial disaster and a moral travesty. Taking peoples' money and forcing them to make certain choices is not a way to run a country, or to improve a market sector.

Only free markets will improve health care choices and prices. We do not have free markets in health care, but we should. It is the only thing that will improve the shortcomings of health care in America.

In addition, Americans have individual rights and you are trying to trample them. We have an inalienable right to make our own choices regarding health care, our income, and everything else in our lives. You are trying to deny that right.

This speech titled Health Care Is Not A Right is more appropriate today than ever. It's time we recognized that the true moral right in this case is the right to be free to choose our own course of action and to live our life as we see fit, without being forced into certain actions by our government or other citizens. Only if we work towards that state will things improve in health care and other areas.

Critical Week For Freedom In Health Care

For those of who think that government compulsion is not an appropriate way of dealing with others in society, this is a critical week. As health care blogger Dr. Paul Hsieh aptly puts it:

This is the endgame, folks. Most political observers regard the health care bill as a 50-50 "toss-up" or "too close to call". It really could go either way. What happens this week will determine the course of this great country (for good or for ill) for decades to come.

Your voice could be the critical difference in swaying the right one or two minds. If you value your lives and your freedom, the time to speak up is now!

It's time to contact your representatives in government and tell them that the President's plan wrong, that we need more freedom, not less.

Most of us want the best we can have in life, and this includes health care. Democrats claim to want to improve the situation, but unfortunately almost everything in their plan will make it worse, as well as burden the country with unjust laws and huge forced expenses.

Experiments with state control in the 20th century have failed dismally (East Germany, Russia, etc.), yet its advocates push blindly onward, hopeful that the more subtle uses of state control in Europe and Canada will not be seen for the failures they are. But the laws of causality cannot be overridden. To the extent coercion is used, failure will follow. Those who claim success in government care overseas are either not correctly identifying causes, or not correctly identifying the facts that support them.

Imagine how expensive computers would be if Dell had to make a different computer for every state, and states forced certain features to be added, and certain customers to be given discounts, and required that anyone who walked into a computer store be given a free computer. Costs for those who actually paid for computers would be far higher than they are now, quality would fall, features would be less appropriate for each customer, and the nation would be haggling over what type of mouse should come with a laptop and why computer programs are so expensive. That's what happens with medicine, and it will get much worse if this bill passes, making markets even less free than they are now.

We need to free up insurance competition across state lines and remove restrictions on insurers and health care providers, not add more. Only then will service quality improve, like in every other free market. You cannot force quality and value into markets, as the Democrats are trying to do.

Most important, is morally wrong to force people to make certain choices and offer services of a certain kind against their better judgment. Both customers and providers alike have an inalienable right to be free to make their own decisions. Individual rights form the foundation of our freedom and of the best aspects of American government, and we should not let them go without a fight.

We need to defeat this bill decisively, once and for all, and get on with the work of real reform: freeing up national health care markets so they can function as markets once again. In the name of our future health, please contact your government officials now.

Vail's Vonn Wins 3rd Straight World Cup

The Vail Daily and other mountain papers this weekend were plastered with the image of a smiling Lindsey Vonn and her World Cup trophies, after she passed Bode Miller to become the American skier with the most career World Cup wins at 33!

Alpine skiing is probably my favorite winter event, and I'm glad it got plenty of TV coverage during this year's Olympics. If you watched any of it, you saw how tough the race courses were, how bad the weather was, and how the athletes had to overcome quite a bit of adversity to stand on the podium. Lindsey competed with a painful shin injury and later a broken finger, took a fall in the giant slalom, yet still out with a gold and bronze medal.

Her grace under fire was inspirational. I can't imagine what she and the other athletes went through inside, but she never showed it, and delivered.

I can also understand plans for some R&R time now that the job is done:

"I am now going to go somewhere warm for a long time and not put my skis on after today probably until August," Vonn said. "It has been a long season and I am looking forward to some place — really anywhere — with a lounge chair and a drink with an umbrella in it."

I haven't been anywhere warm during winter since high school, but I think it may be worth another try. Somewhere with some nice running trails by the ocean and high-speed Internet ;)

Corrections: added "giant" to "slalom", changed "might" to "worth"

Mount Of The Holy Cross From Vail

I took this photo while skiing yesterday, from near the top of the Teacup Express chair lift. You cannot see the cross from this vantage point (it's farther around to the left on the peak), but when I see this mountain I always think of my memorable run/hike of this peak in 2008. It's one of my favorite Colorado outings to date.


If you're ever in Colorado in the summer and are near Vail, I recommend hiking this wilderness area. I took the Fall Creek trail and crested the ridge to see that cross staring right at me. On descent I passed through the East Cross Creek drainage along the Half Moon trail, and through some of the most impossibly green forest I've seen in Colorado. I had just started my blog at that time, so I've never posted anything about that trip. I will.

2

2 -- The number of invincible reasons why the President's health care plan is absolutely wrong and should not be passed. Again, I am paraphrasing a terrible email I got from our White House, in what I'm calling "the number series" (the emails always start off with a number), which were paid for with money taken from me (taxes), and which advocate denying my free choices and forcing me to pay for the care of others. To say the least, I resent that. Here is a selection from the email:

625 -- that's the number of people who lost their health insurance every hour in 2009.1

A statistic like that tells a frightening story -- losing insurance can happen to anyone. How many more Americans have to lose their health insurance and how many more businesses have to drop coverage before we fix our broken health care system?

The only problem is, the President has absolutely no clue how to fix it and never will, because he thinks physical force is a moral and practical option for dealing with others.

One cannot solve problems -- something that requires all the powers of rationality one can muster -- by forcing certain choices on people, and forcing choices on providers (i.e. what services to offer and for how much). This means opposing people's better judgment and rendering them incapable of making the best decision for their situation. No good can come from such a thing.

This fact is masked by advocates' practice of, say, pointing to the old person who got cheap drugs and claiming victory, while ignoring the galley full of slaves that made it possible. Here is my response to the White House:

2 -- The number of invincible reasons why the President's health care plan is absolutely wrong and should not be passed:

1) It is morally wrong. Because as a species we humans survive by reasoning, anything that prevents reasoning is a direct threat to us and is therefore wrong. Laws that force health care choices upon us, or upon providers, rob them of the ability to act on their rational decisions, thus forcing them to act towards their own destruction. Don't believe this is what happens? See East vs. West Germany.

2) It is impractical. It is impossible to improve society by forcing men to do your bidding. When you negate people's rational decision-making by preventing markets from operating, you kill the engine of progress (thought and self-interest) and thus stifle the economy. See the history from #1.

Colorado Springs Selling Out To PETA?

I'm all for kindness to animals. I've had wonderful pets, I'm enraged by animal cruelty, and often carry insects outside rather than crushing them. I don't see the need to kill a living thing unless necessary. However, I draw the line w-a-a-a-ay before People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

This story is an interesting case of strange bedfellows. The normally conservative Colorado Springs, CO (home of Focus on the Family, for example) is sufficiently strapped for cash that they are considering accepting free trash cans from PETA, provided they allow PETA's messages to be printed on them. Rather than quote myself, I'll simply re-print what I posted as a comment, which is as follows:

Having trash cans is not worth the price of allowing an anti-human message on them.

Avoiding impacts on Earth should *not* be a goal for humanity. The endgame of such a quest is the elimination of the human species. After all, that's the only way to truly avoid making a mark on our planet: death. Even the most rabidly self-abnegating cave dweller still has an impact on planet Earth.

Instead, we should worry about protecting the individual rights (i.e. freedom) of everyone on the planet so that we will have the ability and the finances to solve whatever problems arise, such as what to do with trash, greenhouse gases and such, if indeed such things really pose a threat.

I say "if", because there is no such thing as a fixed quantity of resources that we must frantically preserve. Human ingenuity always finds a way to expand resources, provided it is left free to do so.

Unfortunately, the same principle of self-sacrifice that PETA advocates, in which they ask people to give up meat, is the principle that demands we sacrifice our individual freedom to the state by forcing environmental regulations on entire nations, thus crippling the engine of the Industrial Revolution: the energy industry. It is morally wrong, and wrong for the practical survival of humankind. That is why the message is ultimately anti-human.

If you partner with PETA to allow messages like that, it's the principle of humanity's right to think it is worthy of survival and flourishing that you are compromising.

P.S. - This partnership would not really be that surprising in terms of fundamental ideas. The reason is that to the extent the government officials advocate the principle of sacrifice (Christian or otherwise), they will be perfectly in tune with PETA's message. Such ideas are pretty common these days.

Objectivist Round Up

This week's Objectivist Round Up is hosted by Titanic Deck Chairs. The Round Up features posts by bloggers who advocate Objectivism, the philosphy of Ayn Rand. Topics include induction and Sir Francis Bacon, gardening, a salt ban, and sundry philosophical topics. Enjoy!

Wall Of Soft Drinks

This colorful quilt of boxes is from the kitchen at my job. I'm glad there are few diet drinks in there!

300 Million

300 million -- That's the number of people who will be forcibly denied the right to decide how to spend their health care dollars if the President's awful plan passes.

This is a paraphrased response to a horrid email I received from Nancy-Ann DeParle of the White House, for which the subject line was simply "8". I like to keep up on what the scoundrels are up to, but it's creepy and upsetting. Here is part of her email:

8 -- that's the number of people every minute who are denied coverage, charged a higher rate or otherwise discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition.1

8 is also the number of lobbyists hired by special interests to influence health reform for every member of Congress in 2009.

Such obvious yet unintended irony displays the oblivious malice of the policies emanating from the office of the President these days. Let me name some of the problems (bear in mind that this is only part of the email):

• Although some lobbyists are used to obtain special -- and unjust -- legal treatment for their sponsors, our legislatures pose an objective threat to American business, and so another purpose of this practice is self defense.
• Insurance by its very nature involves the elimination of risk, for both the customer and the insurer. Part of this involves treating customers differently. To not allow companies to do this is to enslave them for the benefit of others.
• If good insurance products are the goal, then the very last thing in the world we should do is to enact the President's plan, which would forcibly subject the industry to additional restrictions on service offerings. The obvious failure of the command economy is invisible only to those who are not trying to see. Especially those who mistakenly attribute our current troubles to -- of all things -- freedom! Find a prosperous market (Internet, software, computer hardware), and you will find a relatively free market. Find a troubled market (automobiles, banking, insurance, medicine), and you will find one that is heavily regulated. Case closed.

Anyway, here is my email response to the White House:

A) 300 million -- That's the number of people who will be forcibly denied the right to decide how to spend their health care dollars if the President's awful plan passes.

B) Please stop advocating my enslavement for the sake of others' medical care using my tax dollars.

Of course, "Please" is not a word the government will use when forcing its choices on me, should the health care plans pass.

Snow Forms, Chicago Lakes Trail

Here is an assortment of snow shots from my recent hike. I took 200 photos on this outing, and the variety of subjects to be found even in simple snow drifts may help illustrate why. The shapes are both random and ordered, complex and simple, accidental and seemingly engineered.

Different people will react differently to these aspects, but for me, the complexity attracts my interest and the order gives it a sense of coherence and elegant purpose, even though there is none, other than manifesting the action of natural laws. It brings to mind the book Chaos, which explains the development of the science of what was once thought of as randomness. In fact, researchers found quantifiable patterns within certain instances of supposed chaos, something I found fascinating.

Chicago Lakes Winter Hike

As per my post Saturday, I bailed out while on my way to ski, and turned back to try something different. That something different was a hike in the Mount Evans area.

Even though it's very close to Denver, I've only been to Mount Evans once before: I parked at Summit Lake and hiked over Mount Spaulding to the summit of Evans. In retrospect, it wasn't a very sporting summit hike compared to ones I've done more recently, even though it required clambering over a lot of boulders. It's only about 2 miles long and 1,400 feet up.

Chicago Lakes, on the other hand, was a more substantial distance, especially because of stretches with soft snow, and I was pretty tired by the time I had covered the 9.4 miles. With lots of stops for photos, it took around 5 hours. The hike began in the parking lot near the Mount Evans toll gate right off of CO 103. Here is the GPS track:


The Gear

The day started out windy, so I wanted to be prepared for the chilling effect wind can have, and brought a medium weight down top and waterproof/windproof shell. However, the wind ended up being pretty mild, so both were stowed away for most of the hike. I took my showshoes, in case there were drifts, but due to the traffic, the snow was sufficiently compacted so that I could walk with only my Kahtoola spikes, and I strapped the snowshoes to my backpack. My feet did punch through the snow crust a couple of times near the top, but that was it. I wouldn't have wanted to do the hike without spikes of some sort; the snow was slick in spots and there was ice over the path near streams. You could do it, but it's nicer to not have to worry about your footing.

The Trail

This trail is alpine forest between 10,000 and 11,000 feet elevation, then increasingly open alpine forest above that, with wide-open tundra next to the lakes at my turnaround point at 11,600 feet. In spite of the length, I found the hike engaging, and the forms created by snow and surrounding rugged mountainsides were interesting. This is a pretty typical stretch in the forested sections:


Rocky cliffs line the valley on the left as you ascend the section above the Idaho Springs reservoir.


On the right side of the trail in this section, forest fires cleared large sections of vegetation, creating an eerie landscape of bare tree trunks, with new growth only starting to fill in. The snow and the cold light of the overcast day added to its forbidding appearance:


The eponymous Chicago Lakes are at the very end of the trail, nestled against the rock walls of surrounding peaks. There are two lakes: Upper and Lower, and I only made it to the Lower Chicago Lake this time, since I was tired, running out of time, and the upper lake lies above a steep ridge.

The lower lake is on the left while looking up the trail, and appears in the center of the photo below, frozen and white. In the summer I would have descended to take some pictures across the lake, but in the winter it's just like a white sheet of paper, smooth and featureless.


In the center is the wall of rock below which the upper lakes lies:


An unnamed outcropping is on the right, rising over the basin. Looking on a map, this is really only the rocky end of a higher ridge, but it looks pretty imposing from this vantage point:


True to the rhythm of mountain weather, the overcast skies of midday gave way to blue skies again later in the afternoon. As I headed down, the sun started to shine, adding warmth to my descent:


Spanish Moss is something I used to associate with southern states like Mississippi, but there is sufficient moisture here in Colorado at 10,000 feet to cause the branches to be draped with it:


This section of forest, in the basin of Chicago Creek, is also where I found the deepest snow. Low afternoon sunlight introduced long shadows onto the snowy forest floor and onto the strange shapes of drifts on rocks, and it was almost sensory overload. I couldn't stop staring around me. Pillows of snow were everywhere, like great gobs of white icing. If you are tired this also may be the toughest part of the hike, since a number of switchbacks take you back up out of the valley, only to descend yet again to the trailhead. Looking back, you can catch a last glimpse of the high peaks:


I look forward to coming back to this trail for running in the summer, since it's not that far away from home, yet it affords high alpine views -- and difficulty. The fact that the trail has a relatively moderate incline would also make it a good spring warm-up run before the tougher outings of summer. I'd also like to come back and check out the bristlecone pines at the Mount Goliath Nature Area. Either way, there is ample opportunity for fun and photography.

Colorado Mountains Are Falling Apart

Who's in charge of maintaining these mountains, anyway? They're literally falling apart around us. As evidence, check out this rock slide on I-70. Amazingly, nobody was hurt! Some sections of mountain highways have huge steel nets to catch rocks, but I doubt they would have caught these.

Twisted Branches, Chicago Lakes Trail

Forest fires several years ago near Mount Evans left miles of mountainside barren, with only rocks and trunks remaining. The sight is interesting in its own way, and the lack of needles on the pines allows you to see their twisted branches in all their complexity. This picture could be used to define the word "gnarled":


While researching facts online, I also learned that there are groves of bristlecone pines in this same area, some of which are 2000 years old. I'll have to return this summer to check it out!

Snow Pillows, Chicago Lakes Trail

Yesterday when I hiked the Chicago Lakes trail near Mount Evans, the forested valley was full of sculpted snow shapes among the pines. Here, Chicago Creek still flows unfrozen through the valley, leaving blobs of white frosting on the rocks:

Sunrise Hills From Lookout Mountain

The photo below was taken this morning from Lookout Mountain Park in the foothills west of Denver. The sun had just risen, and I wanted to capture the warm first light of the day.


I had gotten up very early and hit the highway to ski by 6 AM (!), like I usually do on winter weekends. The sky was clear, the sunrise was approaching, and a pink glow was spreading in the east.

But I was having second thoughts on my ski day. It looked like it was going to be an absolutely beautiful sunny day here, the expected powder day at Vail did not materialize, plus I was really craving something different and an escape from the throng of humanity that descends on mid-season ski areas. Here is an image of 8 AM* ski traffic, so you can see what I mean by "throng":


Anyway, I drove back down to the city, washed my car, shopped for breakfast, had a cup of Rocky Mountain Roastery Java Estate, and posted this. I already feel better! As for the rest of the day, we'll see what develops...

Update: I ended up hiking Chicago Lakes near Mount Evans. More later.

*Corrected "7 AM" to "8 AM".

Meadowglen Park, Arvada CO

One of the things I like about the Denver metro area is that there a lot of sunny days each year. Some measures put it at 300. This means it's easy to go for a lunchtime walk at noon almost any time of year and not feel like you're going to freeze, because the sun makes it seem warmer than it really is.

Meadowglen Park surrounds a small suburban reservoir that maps designated as "Pomona Lake Number 2", right off of 80th Ave.


This lake will not make any tourist maps, but it has paths around it, and some nice homes back up to the lake's edge, and it's a pleasant place to take a walk. The park is situated along the Little Dry Creek greenbelt, with paths and parks scattered here and there.

With more days above freezing, lake ice is beginning to soften and melt, starting the primordial brew that will thrive with life later in the summer.

2010 Mountain Dog Photo Contest

The quirky Mountain Gazette has a great photo feature in which people submit photos of their dogs enjoying the great outdoors. Here is the 2010 edition. I highly recommend browsing through them, if you want put a smile on your face!

Some of my faves are here, here and here, but there are so many. Good luck picking a favorite.

Funny thing is, after only three years in Colorado, I know exactly where some of these spots are because I've run there. I've even met one of the dogs on trail: Horton who lives near Quandry Peak, who was wagging up and down the mountain when I hiked it. I finally met his owner David Pfau at his shop in Breck and he's a friendly, interesting guy and a terrific photographer.

Objectivist Round Up

This week's Objectivist Round Up is hosted by Rational Jenn. The Round Up features posts by bloggers who advocate Objectivism, the philosphy of Ayn Rand.

This weeks's posts range from how to mix a good Manhattan, Tiger Woods, the traits of dictators, and sundry philosophical subjects. Talk about variety; enjoy!

Newt Gingrich On Budget Reconciliation

Since it looks like Obama and the Democrats are going to abuse the reconciliation process to try to force their health care bill through the legislature, this article by Newt Gingrich on the history and proper usage of the budget reconciliation process is very timely.

The purpose of the process is to ease the passage of bills aimed at keeping budgets under control. In fact, this purpose has been further refined by the adoption of the Byrd Rule, to prevent abuses of the process by passing bills not directly related to controlling the budget:

During the first several years' experience with reconciliation, the legislation contained many provisions that were extraneous to the purpose of implementing budget resolution policies. The reconciliation submissions of committees included such things as provisions that had no budgetary effect, that increased spending or reduced revenues when the reconciliation instructions called for reduced spending or increased revenues, or that violated another committee's jurisdiction.

In 1985 and 1986, the Senate adopted the Byrd rule (named after its principal sponsor, Senator Robert C. Byrd) on a temporary basis as a means of curbing these practices.

Clearly, the Democratic health care plan is unrelated to budget control, except in the fever dreams of Democrats. Instituting a huge new set of controls and bureaucracies can only have the effect of increasing spending, and the stated goal all along was not controlling the budget, but (supposedly) providing health for all Americans, something that it will in fact make worse.

If health care can be a matter of budget reconciliation, then so can any legislation claiming to impact the budget positively. The rules would lose all meaning under such an interpretation.

Incidentally, while Human Events proves useful for some articles and notifications, they are a Religious Right group, and therefore do not advocate a clear separation of church and state. As an Objectivist, I cannot fully support them. Capitalism, and a free America, must be grounded in a secular defense of the rights of the individual, not in the special favor of, and natural endowments bestowed by, a mystical supreme being.

Eye Of The Sun

Tuesday at noon, it was about 60 degrees, the sun was warm and above me the clouds were whirling around in tiny curls like sand in a tidal pool. Every cubic foot of cloud was twisting and turning. I snapped this photo while the sun was momentarily shrouded.


I'm guessing the strange pinkish coloration is due to the way my camera's sensor handled the huge range of light, although there can occasionally be rainbow effects with diffuse clouds. It reminds of some of the nebula photos I've seen:


Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: R. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Spain) and Z. Tsvetanov(NASA)

Prediction Of Snow-To-Liquid Ratio

This is definitely a science geek post, so read on if this fits you.

The other day I was trying to find some information on the amount of snowfall that will result from a given amount of liquid water precipitation. I had just returned from skiing in Utah's Wasatch Range, which gets a lot of light snow each year, and I was in the middle of writing a small app to download precipitation data from NOAA in XML format and convert it to snowfall amounts for various ski resorts.

I wanted to do this to predict the best time and place to ski :) There are pages online that do similar things, but I wanted to tailor the list and perhaps play with the date ranges and format. And I just wanted to have a programming project.

In the course of my search for a ratio, I found a 15-minute streaming video of a climatology lecture on exactly this topic. It's technical, and some of the terms (especially the statistics) are above my head, but a layperson can get the gist of it. I found it to be pretty interesting and exactly what I was looking for.

Regarding my original inquiry, it looks like 10:1 is a good enough default snow-to-liquid ratio.

Bear Canyon In Fog

As I walked up this typically busy path in Boulder Mountain Park, the farther I got towards the canyon the fewer fresh footprints I saw in the snow. Eventually there was no one, and when I stopped I heard only my breath, the patter of falling snowflakes on my hood, and the occasional chattering squirrel. Winter hikes are amazingly peaceful, and the more I do, the more I like them.

The New Criterion Still Wrong On Rand

It is truly frustrating to see an allegedly learned journal continue to miss the point, and misrepresent the philosophy that I live by.

In its March issue, The New Criterion comments on the storm of criticism it received over the awful Anthony Daniels article Ayn Rand: engineer of souls. First, it feebly suggests that Daniels acknowledged her virtues (before she was likened to Joseph Stalin). It suggests her supporters have stopped taking their medication, or are similar to religious zealots. Finally, it utterly fails to understand her ideas -- yet again.

I will write on only one aspect of the commentary: Ayn Rand's view of selfishness, and will use The Ayn Rand Lexicon, a free online resource, to contrast Rand's actual views with the commentary.

The argument made in the commentary starts with the assertion that Rand has based her ethics on tautologies, and that nothing valid (i.e. saying nothing valid about reality) can be based on tautology:

One proposition is that we cannot knowingly act except from a desire or interest which is our own. Not only is this true: it is what philosophers call a necessary truth: it could not be otherwise. The other proposition is that all of our actions are self-interested. But this proposition, far from being self-evidently true, is patently false.

and later:

The fundamental logical error, as the Australian philosopher David Stove pointed out, is in inferring real-life consequences from a tautology.

The only problem is, neither tautology represents Rand's Objectivist ethics.

The first is simply a matter of ownership, and is no different from saying that my thoughts are in my head, and not yours. This is trivially obvious, but is not an underpinning of Rand's ethics.

The second tautology, that "all of our actions are self-interested", is simply not what Rand said. In fact, I can't imagine how anyone could come away with such an opinion after reading Rand's writing on ethics, since practically every line of her essays is dedicated to eliminating the subjective and grounding morality in observable causal relationships.

The only thing I can guess, if I am to be charitable, is that the writer is confusing moral standards with particular concrete ends. Rand did indeed advocate that the choice of what particular values to pursue is up to the individual, and in that sense the choice represents their "self-interest". However, the abstract moral values or standards used by the individual to appraise such possible courses of action are beyond the reach of individual choice and are determined by human nature and the nature of life. Additionally, Rand explicitly states that the selection of rational values is not automatic or intrinsic:

An instinct of self-preservation is precisely what man does not possess. An "instinct" is an unerring and automatic form of knowledge. A desire is not an instinct. A desire to live does not give you the knowledge required for living. And even man's desire to live is not automatic . . . Your fear of death is not a love for life and will not give you the knowledge needed to keep it. Man must obtain his knowledge and choose his actions by a process of thinking, which nature will not force him to perform. Man has the power to act as his own destroyer—and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.

Here is a statement of Rand's view of the nature of value and where it comes from:

There is only one fundamental alternative in the universe: existence or nonexistence—and it pertains to a single class of entities: to living organisms. The existence of inanimate matter is unconditional, the existence of life is not: it depends on a specific course of action. Matter is indestructible, it changes its forms, but it cannot cease to exist. It is only a living organism that faces a constant alternative: the issue of life or death. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action. If an organism fails in that action, it dies; its chemical elements remain, but its life goes out of existence. It is only the concept of 'Life' that makes the concept of 'Value' possible. It is only to a living entity that things can be good or evil.

That fact forms the basis for what our moral values should be, and rules out the possibility that our self-interest is whatever we think it is, as stated here:

Desires (or feelings or emotions or wishes or whims) are not tools of cognition; they are not a valid standard of value, nor a valid criterion of man's interests. The mere fact that a man desires something does not constitute a proof that the object of his desire is good, nor that its achievement is actually to his interest.

Does any of this sound like she is saying "all our actions are self-interested"? Of course not, because that is not what she advocated.

The fact that life is the ultimate standard of moral value leads to the view that only values that further life are proper for an objective ethics, which in turn leads to the formulation of a set of three cardinal moral values that constitute self-interest:

The three cardinal values of the Objectivist ethics—the three values which, together, are the means to and the realization of one's ultimate value, one's own life—are: Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem, with their three corresponding virtues: Rationality, Productiveness, Pride.

Productive work is the central purpose of a rational man's life, the central value that integrates and determines the hierarchy of all his other values. Reason is the source, the precondition of his productive work—pride is the result.

Again, does this sound like she is saying "all our actions are self-interested"? It is easy to see that the journal's commentary fails to grasp the most basic tenets of Rand's ethics, let alone criticize them.

Furthermore, the commentary begs the fundamental question of "what is self interest?" when it makes statements such as the following:

Sensible people have a low opinion of human nature. They know that human beings are often vain, selfish, calculating, and ungrateful. But to universalize cynicism is not wisdom but folly.

In other words, it accepts a negative and incorrect view of self-interest, thus assuming an answer to the very question at hand.

There is simply no excuse in this day and age for misunderstanding Rand's writings to such a degree. When will journals such as The New Criterion give critiquing Rand the college try, instead of simply repeating the same misconceptions? It makes me think they are not really trying.

Correction: updated title of the Anthony Daniels' article.