Freedom Must Be Lived on the Offensive

"Our ideas about openness, tolerance and freedom must be lived on the offensive. Voluntary self-limitation gives those who fight against our values a confirmation in advance that we will not stand behind them."
- Klaus Wowereit, openly-Gay mayor of Berlin, in response to Deutsche Oper's decision to cancel a production of Mozart's Idomeneo over a scene which featured a depiction of Mohammed: "Opera cancels over Muhammad scene", Washington Times

Upholding Western Civilization

Looks like it's up to the Objectivists:

. . . between the Christian traditionalists and the modern pseudo-secular subjectivists, there is no one in the mainstream of our culture who is capable of defending the real Enlightenment-era foundations of our civilization. If the pope won't do it and leftist intellectuals won't do it—then I guess we're going to have to do it ourselves.
("Is the Left Secular?" - TIA Daily, September 18th)

The Silence of Ayn Rand’s Critics

"In terms of moral character and integrity, Rand stood head and shoulders above other celebrated intellectuals, who are not run down personally in conversations about their ideas, whether they be Picasso, Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, or even Karl Marx. It is no doubt antipathy for Rand’s ideas that has led many of her critics to latch on to the Brandens’ portraits with such avid interest, but it is also a fact that Rand claimed to live by her principles. The mendacity of the Brandens has therefore done more than harm Rand the person—it attacks the most basic claim of her philosophy by suggesting that Objectivism is no more practicable than any other clever subjectivist philosophy. Therefore, the revelation that the Brandens lied about such things reveals a malice not just toward Rand but toward Objectivism itself."

Excerpt. Read the full essay at http://www.solopassion.com/node/11.

The Morality War

The human race is divided into those who believe it is right to go after what they really want out of life, and those who don't.

The real battle today is between selfishness and altruism. This is the core of every conflict going on in the world today, not politics and economics. Politics and economics are not causes, but effects, the underlying cause of which is, in fact, morality.

For the record, I side with selfishness.