Gideon Reich

Thanks very much!

I'm interested in forming a weekly study/social group in South Orange County, California. I live in Aliso Viejo and by South Orange County I include such localities as Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Laguna Beach, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, etc. At this stage I have in mind a rather informal group and hope to begin by studying OPAR using Gary Hull's Study Guide. Location and time yet to be determined but I'm thinking of meeting during a weekday (say Wednesday, 7pm) at an appropriately sized local diner/restaurant or bookstore. If interested email me at gideon.reich@yahoo.com.

The article on Yaron Brook is entitled 'You don't fight a tactic'. The article on Ayn Rand is called The nexus. Both are by Orit Arfa and both are fairly sympathetic and respectful.

Hi Betsy, I was very saddened and surprised to hear of your husbands condition via your cybernet announcement. Still, reading your updates I am happy to see that he appears to be doing better. I wish Stephen a speedy recovery. Sincerely, Gideon Reich

I'm presently listening to these lectures for a second time and I just finished lecture 8 recently. He does discuss what he calls the "ecology movement" in lecture 8 which covers half of politics and law. Lecture 8 covers the D part of those two subjects (mostly), the M part is covered in lecture 9. Ecology is categorized as a D2. He also mentions something about the Islamic terrorists in the q&a of lecture 8. I think he had more to say on religion (both Islam and others) in lecture 9 since that falls under M. I don't remember him addressing multiculturalism directly so far.

A very readable, fascinating book. Highly recommended.

Thank you very much! I did enjoy my day, in fact the entire weekend. On Saturday the family and I went to Disneyland courtesy of my employer (it was for the entire company) and Sunday we hung out with friends and family. Also, thanks for the kind comments on my blog and sorry I haven't had much time to write more lately.

There's now a link on Bidinotto's site (hat-tip D. Eastbrook, who posted the link on the comments to The Primacy of Awesome blog) that details the production plans for the Atlas Shrugged movie. The good news is that a three part movie is planned and if you read near the end, the Estate of Ayn Rand does have some small input into the early drafts of the scripts. The bad news is that Kelley's involvement is deep enough ("has worked closely with Hart to insure the screenplay's philosophical fidelity to the novel"...sigh!java script:emoticon('', 'smid_9') ) that he will be listed a co-producer. Like Mr. Eastbrook I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I'm hoping against hope that they do not destroy the integrity of the novel. On the other hand Kelley's involvement almost guarantees some issues. According to the article, even Kelley gives the present script an 8 out of 10. Nevertheless, if the movie is a success it should encourage even more people to read the book and it will give an opportunity for increased attention and debate on the ideas involved, even if there might be some misleading things in the movie.

Read this book back in high school. I loved it back then and it still fascinates me.

Interesting. I'm looking forward to finding out more at the appropriate time.

If one is to believe this rather hostile article (hat-tip Randex) then Gary Hull is attempting to form a new liberal arts college: It is somewhat frustrating to find out about this from what is clearly an enemy of the proposal but does anyone know more about it? I've been wondering for some time when a critical mass of Objectivist intellectuals would be available to found such a college. Perhaps the author of the rant is mistaken and the Gary Hull mentioned in the article just happens to have the same name and is not in fact the director of VEM at Duke.

I thought there were some things to like about the President's proposal. Certainly it's a long way from ideal (which would be elimination of immigration quotas) but it is clearly superior to what we have now. Presently people risk life and limb to cross the border and work in this country. If the President's plan is passed many of these people will be able to work in this country legally. I think this is a good thing.

Thanks for your comments!

Hi Stephen, I came across this fascinating story in New Scientist. Here's an excerpt: So they don't have any proof? Any comments?

Scharffen Berger -- perhaps one of the only good things to have come out of Berkeley. I'll match this American brand to any European fine chocolate. Try their 80% bars!