Zigory

My articles: Atlas Shrugged Movie Update and more!

2010-07-29T15:14:00.015-04:00

Hello, everyone. Please keep up with my writings at www.parcbench.com!

See http://www.parcbench.com/2010/07/29/atlas-shrugged-movie-wraps-where-is-john-galt/

and for more articles by me, see

http://www.parcbench.com/author/gregzeigerson/

You might also find a few humorous bits I wrote if you type Zeigerson in the Search box at

www.parcbench.com.

Keep up with me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/zigory

and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/gregory.zeigerson …

See samples of my artwork and caricatures at

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39543&id=608848095&l=bf591a8f8f

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126135&id=608848095&l=4138bf2600

Thank you!

Cartoons by Zigory

2010-04-11T02:42:00.001-04:00

Stop Government Control of Health Care.

2010-03-18T14:47:00.002-04:00

Here's a thought: If you don't like your insurance company today, you can change it. If you don't like Government controlled health insurance, you will not have any alternative. Remember how you were unsatisfied with how Bush handled Katrina or the w...ar? Or how Obama is handling unemployment? Or how the post office handles your mail? Why would you trust them with your health care? Write to Congress now! It will be nearly impossible to repeal such an all-encompassing law once it's passed. It opens the door to more and more spending and bureaucracy. It violates your right to choose, and your doctor's right to decide.

Contact Congress! Kill the Bill!

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

or call 202-224-3121 and ask for the congressman or senator by name.

Government created high health care costs to begin with. Government is not the solution.

See http://blog.aynrandcenter.org/just-cant-wait-to-wreck-health-care/

Many doctors will quit if the health care bill passes. Most doctors oppose the bill.

See http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=527698

Finally, here's an entertaining history of the bill in 90 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brh-hGr8mXo&feature=player_embedded

Evolution

2010-01-16T18:03:00.001-05:00

I’ve been reading Darwin recently. I am trying to clarify the answer to this question: In the most advanced scientific understanding today, are evolution’s mutations thought to occur randomly, or is DNA influenced by an organism’s environment and/or experiences to mutate in a specific way needed for optimum survivablility? Does anyone have knowledge on this?

Recent Zigory Tweets

2010-01-16T17:45:00.001-05:00

Here are some of my recent tweets, in reverse order. Go to Twitter and find me under the name Zigory.

A promising candidate in Colorado is Stephen Bailey! http://www.stephenbaileyforcongress.com/ 8:05 AM Jan 10th

Having a Party? Contact me and I'll draw caricatures of your guests! Samples: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126135&id=608848095&l=4138bf2600 7:59 AM Jan 10th

Samples of my cartoons. Contact me if you need artwork done! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39543&id=608848095&l=bf591a8f8f 7:55 AM Jan 10th

See Stossel's FBN show about Atlas Shrugged on Youtube in six parts! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy_4RLd9QPE&feature=player_embedded 12:44 PM Jan 8th

All right! The states are fighting back! http://www.resistnet.com/forum/topics/states-fight-back 12:43 PM Jan 8th

If Scott Brown wins we'd have a political earthquake, turning Obama into a lame duck, per Robert Tracinski. http://www.brownforussenate.com/

This is urgent! To reverse the tide, throw your support to Scott Brown.

How does Israel avoid unions taking over and ruining security? How do you avoid anti-discrimination lawsuits re eye-contact-evasion profiling? Isn't all this security unnecessary if Israel & USA actually tried to win wars instead of funding enemies? http://bit.ly/5Tp5RD 11:59 PM Jan 4th

If anyone knows of an agent who seeks new writers (especially TV/film scripts and nonfiction books) Pls write me: zigory@comcast.net. Thanks! 4:11 AM Dec 26th, 2009

Season's Greetings! I hope you got what you wanted on Christmas if you celebrate Christmas! I got to watch my happy children 4:09 AM Dec 26th, 2009

This article expresses why I love Thanksgiving. It was my fave as a kid. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1125/p09s01-coop.html 5:01 PM Nov 25th, 2009

I enjoyed HBO Rock Hall of Fame special last night. Two Beatles songs but why no Paul or Ringo? 12:30 PM Nov 30th, 2009

Now is the time. Send "Health Care Is Not A Right" to Senators. Use Morality to stop Health Care Bill: http://fwd4.me/4Uk 11:17 PM Nov 19th, 2009

Wondering if Christie can make a difference in NJ. Even if he cuts taxes and spending, the Fed undercuts his impact. 6:30 PM Nov 4th, 2009

Avatar Review

2010-01-16T17:17:00.001-05:00

"Avatar" spoilers follow.

The unoriginal "ideas" in Avatar's screenplay are such cliched, non-
intellectual, California-Liberal New Age mysticism, that the basic
storyline, minus the physical-peril suspense and special effects,
could read as a satire.

Its references include Native American Mother Earth worship, the
evils of American imperialism, becoming "one" with one's tribal
ancestors, and the purity of primitivism and its superiority to
industrialization. All of this is presented as if based on biological
and geological reality.

Besides this, as usual with a James Cameron screenplay (see
"Titanic"), the dialogue is trite and the characters are shallow
stereotypes copied from hundreds of previous films and novels.

But most offensive of all is the imagery that is easily interpreted as
anti-American symbolism to leftist and international audiences. An
Earthling general is presented as the stereotype of a tough American
military man, in the mold of Patton. He is presented as evil and
corrupt. The invasion of the Na'vi nation is presented with no
subtlety at all as a war whose purpose is to "steal" the "oil" inside
their planet. ("Unobtainium" is invented to stand in for oil).

At the end, the sight in 3-D of Earth's (America's) helicopters
attacking Na'vi aliens (Third Worlders) and burning down their
homes is obvious, heavy handed symbolism, harking back to
Vietnam. It is presented so that the audience roots for the Third
Worlders to defeat the Americans. It's almost like treasonous
propaganda, created to incite anti-American anger.

A character who abandons Western Civilization to live among the
collectivist Nature Worshippers is shown to be noble and heroic.

I believe and hope the reason most people see the film is to marvel
at the phenomenal technical achievements in visual effects, the
remarkably believable designs of the diverse alien creatures, the
excellent pacing, and the suspenseful scenes of physical peril, which
reflect James Cameron's true talents.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-10T09:33:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year! In case you’re wondering where I’ve been, I’m still around but lately I tend to write on Twitter and Facebook instead of blogging. I’m Zigory on Twitter. I’m Gregory Zeigerson on Facebook.

Here are some of my tweets from a year ago:

excited about how unified and motivated the opposition is already
4:59 AM Nov 8th, 2008

I wrote a comment on this great Washington Times commentary: http://tinyurl.com/9rya9o 1:00 AM Jan 10th, 2009

hoping the country survives the poor quality of politicians running it
8:28 PM Jan 15th, 2009

listening to www.Slacker.com, which seems to be better than last.fm and pandora. I hope it's legal! It's so satisfying to create a station
8:26 PM Jan 15th, 2009

saw Paul McCartney on the View, he seems as if he's still in his 20s.
3:59 AM Jan 15th, 2009

It wasn't a "miracle" on the hudson, it was human beings at their best, well- trained pilots and rescue workers dedicated to action/success
6:21 PM Jan 16th, 2009

Gregory is wondering why Israel's only goal is "sustained quiet" and not victory.
8:55 PM Jan 16th, 2009

Want Universal Health Care? See http://tinyurl.com/98clj3
2:00 AM Jan 17th, 2009
-------------

wondering which evil regimes will benefit from A. Q. Khan's release from house arrest.
12:57 AM Feb 7th, 2009 from web

Despite Monday's Ticketmaster fiasco, I got Bruce tickets at face value by calling Philadelphia's Ticketmaster phone number.
8:05 PM Feb 6th, 2009 from web

Obama didn't campaign on this spending plan: http://tinyurl.com/dxu4jz
8:03 PM Feb 6th, 2009 from web

picking up a shepherds pie at TJ Byrnes
10:54 PM Feb 4th, 2009 from web

Why Israel attacked Gaza: http://tinyurl.com/at8ydr
4:53 AM Jan 31st, 2009 from web

Thinking, I saw Bruce last summer but will still try to buy tix Monday for the new tour--because he never disappoints! He's always rewarding
4:49 AM Jan 31st, 2009 from web

Why wasn't Madoff stopped? Good argument against SEC: http://tinyurl.com/bdpgbc
1:20 AM Jan 31st, 2009 from web

Stephen Moore on Ayn Rand http://tinyurl.com/d4qkst
3:08 AM Jan 30th, 2009 from web

listening to Marshall Crenshaw's fine 2001 concert at http://tinyurl.com/bhxbwt
12:41 AM Jan 29th, 2009 from web

TARP=Goodfellas; Government Stimulus=The Mafia. http://tinyurl.com/cbclze
10:59 PM Jan 28th, 2009 from web

Just found the other guest on my To Tell The Truth episode and we're corresponding for first time since meeting in 1971
7:40 PM Jan 23rd, 2009 from web

learned that my age-ten appearance on To Tell The Truth in 1971 as the youngest professional cartoonist, was repeated on GSN in 1999!
7:39 PM Jan 23rd, 2009 from web

trying to rescue my Domain Name---I think it's been rescued! Yay for godaddy.com
7:37 PM Jan 23rd, 2009 from web

Stephen Moore: An anti-wealth creation mentality has taken over Washington. We're taking $ from successful cos., giving $ to those who fail.
4:38 AM Jan 22nd, 2009 from web

Batchelor and Moore: "This is Inauguration Weekend of Failure!"/ "We're headed to a new Great Depression!" http://tinyurl.com/bpcx9v
4:29 AM Jan 22nd, 2009 from web

Atlas Shrugged Now True http://tinyurl.com/bpcx9v and see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html
1:05 AM Jan 22nd, 2009 from web

Have been listening to Keane, Nicole Atkins, Al Stewart Cds (some good stuff did come out in the 2000s!)
10:58 PM Jan 21st, 2009 from web

Want Universal Health Care? See http://tinyurl.com/98clj3
2:00 AM Jan 17th, 2009 from web
----------

My Tea Party Videos

2009-07-04T00:09:00.005-04:00

If anyone is going to the July 4 Tea Parties, be sure to read the material or view the videos at http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=media_topic_tea_party to get a sense of what is really important, the deeper principles we need to convey in order to make a significant impact.

I took my old camcorder to New York City’s Tax Day Tea Party back on April 15 to do some interviews and generally videotape the event. I intended to do this as a volunteer reporter for www.PJTV.com (Pajamas TV).

Unfortunately, I discovered that my old camcorder recorded in a format that YouTube and other sites would not accept. Eventually, I downloaded format-conversion software, but the urgency (newsworthiness) seemed to pass, and I became busy with other activities. More problematic was that my computer memory modules were not working properly, causing the computer to keep freezing up. Then the video was too long for YouTube so I had to figure out how to break it into smaller chunks.

So, to summarize, the internet debut of my videos were delayed due to technical difficulties.

Now, I have replaced the memory modules in my computer. Also, I have a new camcorder for future ease of uploading.

The good news is, I finally uploaded the Tax Day Tea Party video in time for the renewed interest created by the Independence Day Tea Parties! And the message of the Tax Day Tea Party is even more relevant now. The administration’s reckless spending and regulations have only compounded since April. Taxation and hyperinflation fears are even more well-founded.

And since the Tax Day Tea Parties, some on the left have claimed that the Tea Party Protesters are racists, or are a bunch of rich white guys, or are organized and paid to show up by large corporations.

These allegations have made my videos perhaps more valuable. I interview an Asian woman, a lesbian mother, and a young ordinary middle class couple. I videotaped an anti-tax sign proudly displayed by an African American woman, and a sign protesting the banks’ mishandling of money that clearly wasn’t being held by a wealthy Wall Street banker. It’s plain to see that there are people of all ages and all walks of life in the crowd.

Some of the signs refer to Ayn Rand and “Atlas Shrugged” and “John Galt.” I brought my own copy of Atlas Shrugged to hold up in lieu of a sign (My hands were full enough with the camcorder). Several people commented as they walked by, “Good book!”

The spirit was one of benevolence, and a deep desire to stop the destruction of America’s future, stop the violations of the Constitution (especially the Tenth Amendment), and of our rights. More than one member of the crowd told me they had recently been laid off, as I had just been laid off myself, after working for 23 years at the same firm.

I did see a few “VIPs” in the crowd although they are not in my video. I said hello to radio host and Fox News contributor Monica Crowley, and I met Kevin Williamson, an editor and writer at National Review. My video does include a few moments of a speech by KT McFarland, a New York politician.

Here are my videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVLnBm1odvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av4lhjCrb7w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPdseI4p_ok

Are You Angry Yet?

2009-02-21T01:09:00.007-05:00

To his credit, Rush Limbaugh yesterday said, “Tax-paying people who make it all work will not put up long rewarding failure, being forced to reward failure. Beware this huge backlash. It’ll turn. It’ll turn slowly, and like the tide coming in, it is unstoppable. It has already started, in fact. The pulse of the backlash has begun. The pulse of revolution is out there, and at some point the anger that you know is there will surface and you will see it and you will hear it. People will overcome their fear of opposition to this because at the end of the day they will not sit there and let everything they’ve worked for be destroyed, particularly on the basis that they deserve to be destroyed because it’s been unfair in the first place that they succeeded.”

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_022009/content/01125109.guest.html

I woke up planning to write a post about this very subject. Leftists, the hippie protesters and their intellectual leaders, tend to be angry. They are always protesting something. There is always someone who has less and someone else who has more, and they think this cannot stand.

Rush Limbaugh said, “We are all competitive, and it is in our genes to want to improve our lives for our families. It is called working in our own self-interests.”

Success is the result of this work. It is not unfair for some to succeed because of work and thought. The phony anger of the leftists against those who succeed, those who are productive, is nothing. It looks phony, it sounds phony. It will pale in comparison to the real anger of the productive against those who would steal the fruits of their labor.

Here is an early sign of anger, but couched in sarcastic humor, to make it bearable:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/18/more-scenes-from-mesa-i-need-a-beachfront-condo-mr-president/

Look at this video about your nest egg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bSGgBtqyKY

Whether through inflation due to deficit spending, or through direct taxation, or through endless regulations strangling productivity, or through the vanishing value of stocks and your 401(K), your nest egg will be taken from you.

Speaking of the deficit, here are the facts:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/20/americas-deficit-spending-spree-raises-alarms/

And you probably have seen this already:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039849853

I say, are you angry yet? Maybe you’re too angry. You’re jumping up and down. But you don’t know what to do about it. Let’s calm down. Have a seat. Let’s look at this more deliberately, from a rational, thoughtful stance.

Read this by Walter Williams:

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/09/EconomicMiracle.htm

Does this considered analysis somehow make you even more angry?

Well, then fight. Fight with all your intellectual might against Washington’s power-mad parasites of the productive.

Why not organize a march on Washington? The leftists do this all the time. It costs money to publicize and organize it. I don’t know if it does any good besides getting TV coverage, but it’s a thought. The theme? “I am not your serf.” “I did not vote for a fascist/socialist state.” “I work for my own sake.” “My property is not yours to steal and redistribute.”

Why not write a letter to the editor?

Why not write a blog or a comment to someone else’s blog?

How about filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Congress for passing a bill that violates Constitutional rights?

Call up and write to people in Congress and in the White House with your opposition.

Send money to organizations that really, truly defend your rights and your freedoms, in an uncompromising way.

How about the Institute for Justice? www.ij.org

David Horowitz Freedom Center? www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org

The Ayn Rand Institute and the Ayn Rand Center? www.aynrand.org

Send money in support of, and volunteer for, real pro-Capitalism, anti-statism political candidates, those who are for limited government and the rights of the individual. Are there any candidates like that? They may not be perfect but there are some candidates who are going to fight the current encroachments on our liberty. Support them.

And be sure to fight the Fairness Doctrine, local content regulations, public interest content regulations, and any other proposed limitations on free speech. I’m going to send you to Rush Limbaugh one more time. Here is his excellent letter to President Obama, published in the Wall Street Journal on February 20, 2009, in defense of freedom of speech:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_022009/content/01125111.guest.html

If freedom of speech goes, it’s time to pack.

Jerry Lewis Honored

2009-02-20T19:31:00.002-05:00

Jerry Lewis will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars on Sunday. Unfortunately, he has never received an Oscar for his filmmaking or performances. I think "The Bellboy" and "The Nutty Professor," as well as parts of other Lewis-directed films including "The Errand Boy" and "The Disorderly Orderly," deserve recognition.

Ayn Rand said in a radio interview, regarding her personal taste in comedians, "I cannot stand Jerry Lewis and Phyllis Diller." As I recall, she didn't like their image of Man or Woman as a non-heroic, under-achieving, juvenile (Lewis) or miserable (Diller) type. I'm not sure when the interview took place, possibly the early 60s, but I suspect she was referring to Jerry's work with Dean Martin. In my opinion, Jerry Lewis's characters were less whiny, unintelligent and irritating, and more funny and whimsical,in his 1960s solo movies. I do think the live TV shows with Dean Martin had spontaneous moments of unrepeatable hilarity, mainly when they ad-libbed, because of the dynamic of the team, the exhilerating timing and the relationship of the two performers, as described beautifully in Jerry Lewis's book "Dean and Me".

Jerry Lewis has steered clear of politics most of the time, but I understand he has usually supported Democrats, notably JFK. His few political comments tend to be common sense, and I usually find myself agreeing with his stated opinions.

In his book, "The Total Filmmaker," which helped to inspire me as a teenager to want to make films or otherwise be involved in creative expression (I'm still working on that), Lewis refers to the bureaucratic way film studios are run and describes it as exactly like the scene in Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" where a committee alters Howard Roark's building design.

Here's a clip of Jerry from "The Errand Boy":

Rush Limbaugh

2009-01-29T22:00:00.003-05:00

In Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, Rush Limbaugh contributes an editorial that proposes a “bipartisan stimulus” that allows for infrastructure spending but also includes major tax cuts for corporations and on capital gains. I think that’s still allowing Obama too much spending, but by setting it up as bipartisan, it’s a strategic effort to prove what actually stimulates the economy. I don’t know that it would prove anything and it doesn’t address draconian regulations and federal control of banks and so many other horrors now in process. But it’s an honorable effort in the right direction.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123318906638926749.html

What I do oppose in the writings and broadcasts of Rush Limbaugh include his beliefs in religion as the foundation of America, and his derivation of morality from religion rather than from reality, leading to his belief that a fetus has rights over that of the mother, or that assisted suicide is immoral and should be illegal. I disagree with those and other religion-influenced viewpoints he expresses, especially those that support theocratic laws, and I also disagree with him on limiting immigration. He is a Conservative and not an Objectivist, so I would not try to defend him on his Conservatism.

Having expressed my caveats, when it comes to issues of economics and political power (outside of the issue of separation of church and state) his daily radio broadcast can be an indispensible guide to understanding the news and what important facts most mainstream journalists regularly fail to investigate.

Once he is on a topic that isn’t directly connected with religious conservative views, in my opinion he resorts to a common-sense type of self-interest and reason as his apparent, implied philosophy. Outside of sacrificing one’s life for the sake of a fetus, or sacrificing the right of a terminal patient to avoid pain via assisted suicide, he is not particularly altruistic or pro-sacrifice.

His whole persona is of one that enjoys the good life, the wealth he has achieved on his own initiative, rather than a persona of humility and guilt and slavish service to the downtrodden. He is opposed to a victim mentality and he applauds individual accomplishment and self-responsibility.

He does, however, ascribe his talent as on loan from God. He is wrong to suggest his talent is from a supernatural source, but on the other hand it doesn’t sound like he’s kneeling and bowing his head in atonement and guilt for his success.

In fact, he has often recommended “Atlas Shrugged” by atheist Ayn Rand, to explain capitalism to people. Not only that, but he is on the front lines of daring to question environmentalism and for the right reasons. He sees the scam of it, that it’s just a ploy to impose socialism and big government regulations. And I will always be grateful to him for being the only voice against feminism in the 1980s. At that time and in the later 1970s, everywhere men and boys were being unjustly criticized for their natural masculinity. Any differences they had from women were considered flaws, and flirtation in office settings was on the verge of becoming illegal. Since then, that type of feminism has lost most mainstream support thanks in large part to Limbaugh.

He also usually expresses a reasonable, self-defense based foreign policy.

So as we enter the Obama years, I consider Limbaugh’s radio program useful. It’s telling that Obama has said, “Stop listening to Rush Limbaugh”.

As long as Rush sticks to economics and political power issues, his clarity of thought and expression, mixed with satirical humor, is excellent. His points about how Obama/Congress’s stimulus packages are a new “New Deal” and that such programs cannot correct a recession, and only extends it or turns it into a full blown Depression, are on target. I would recommend that people listen to his broadcast, especially now.

For some transcripts of his recent programs, see www.rushlimbaugh.com.

Once the economic crisis is over and he returns to more religious-right issues, I don’t expect to find as much value in his program. And he is no substitute for the secular pro-capitalistic and rational philosophy expressed in Op-Eds and essays and speeches by Objectivists found at The Ayn Rand Center, the Ayn Rand Bookstore and The Objective Standard. But he covers more of the intricacies from day to day than they are able to cover, so he is a fine supplement, if you discard all his religionist inclinations.

The only philosophy that will protect individual rights is Objectivism, not Conservatism. Rush is a Conservative, and Conservatism needs to be rejected in the long run. If you can separate out his rational views from his irrational views, he is a valuable supplement to Objectivist sources like The Objective Standard and The Ayn Rand Center.

It’s because the TV networks and news magazines and newspapers are so reluctant–to an unprecedented extreme–to criticize, investigate and analyze the Obama administration’s and the Democratic Congress’s actions and motivations, that I recommend Limbaugh. But I repeat that I am not a Conservative and the only philosophy that can save America in the long run is Objectivism.

See www.aynrand.org and
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/author/robert_tracinski/for Objectivist perspectives.

P.S. Another interesting radio program, which covers in depth various newsworthy topics that you won’t hear much about in most of the media, is The John Batchelor Show. This world-news oriented program heightens dramatic emphasis by means of musical intros, the host’s striking references to parallel events in history, and his use of dramatic language, metaphors and images. Batchelor recently spoke with Stephen Moore about his Wall Street Journal article suggesting that “Atlas Shrugged” is coming true. Here are the links:
http://johnbatchelorshow.com/mp3/jbs_090118a_abc.mp3
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html
http://johnbatchelorshow.com

United States of Tara? Cuckoo!

2009-01-16T00:38:00.004-05:00

Although The United States of Tara hasn't premiered yet on Showtime, it is getting a lot of publicity. As Diablo Cody -- who wrote the fine film Juno -- is writing several of the episodes, and an expert (Dr. Richard P. Kluft) and a D.I.D. patient are consultants, I expect it to be done with some realism and seriousness. However, creating an entertainment program out of such a tragic situation is always difficult. When is humor in such a program proper or tasteful?

This review is encouraging:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/15/DDR915A82V.DTL

If you take a look at the series and become interested in more material about D.I.D. (Dissociative Identity Disorder, also known as Multiple Personalities), I have read a book that I think successfully merges humor and entertainment values with telling a story of D.I.D.-- in this case, a true story. It's an autobiography in the form of a graphic novel ("comic book"), by Madison Clell, entitled Cuckoo.

It tells of her slowly discovering memories of the traumatic events that caused her to have the disorder, and then attempting to cure herself. It is harrowing but it is also told with enough humor that it does not overwhelm you. In fact I found it impossible to put down. Some of the drawings are rough, and some of the lettering takes a minute to decipher, but they reflect the mental state being conveyed. Obviously the content is not for the squeamish and not for children.

Cuckoo is more genuine and straightforward than United States of Tara is likely to be, in that there is no barrier between the author's own experiences and the reader. She speaks directly to you. Whereas, the cable series Tara is a fictional show created by professional dramatists primarily to entertain.

Get the Trade Paperback of Cuckoo at:

http://www.cuckoocomic.com/cuckoo_comics/purchase_comics.html

Also, in an unplanned juxtaposition, Cuckoo has been turned into a play, with more material and Madison Clell in a small role, which will be performed on stage during the month of February at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco, just as United States of Tara premieres on Showtime.

See: http://www.cuckoocomic.com/cuckoo_comics/the_play.html

Incidentally, Madison Clell, through therapy and her own heroic determination, has managed to cure herself of the disorder. The play of Cuckoo carries the story beyond the book, all the way to her final integration.

News from Florida’s Disney World and Florida’s Kip Liles

2009-01-09T01:40:00.001-05:00

My family visited Walt Disney World again over the Thanksgiving holiday. I was very impressed this year. While in recent years I found that the formerly unmatched high level of customer service started to descend to the level of average or worse, this year we had nothing but outstanding customer service. Everyone was super friendly and helpful and in good humor. It may have helped that because the crowds were not so heavy between Thanksgiving and Christmas, their stress level was lower. I particularly appreciated the cast members who seemed to be over retirement age. They had the magic in them, as if they had known Walt Disney, and had somehow fully embodied his warm, benevolent, humorous spirit. Like Leon Trager whom I mention in my previous post, and like the recently deceased original Disney animators Ollie Johnston and his friend Frank Thomas whom I met at an animation art gallery years ago, the delighted-by-his-job senior citizen cast member who greeted me and answered my questions at the Pop Century Resort was an example of the kind of person I want to be like when I grow older.

I worked at Disney World in 1989 and I found it easy to be friendly and to enjoy my work and I think my customer service was Disney-worthy (I did well on my evaluation). But in recent years I’ve seen a cast member at the Boardwalk roll her eyes when informed of a slippery floor that needed to be cleaned, and I’ve seen two Disney housekeepers at the elevator bank of the All Star Movies Resort, having a loud argument that culminated in one punching the other in the face. This year I saw nothing of the kind.

I also want to especially recommend one particular attraction. Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, which is the giant “golf ball” near the entrance, has been updated in the last year. The new version keeps all of the best qualities of the original, but is actually superior to the old one. It has many new, elaborate scenes and includes a wonderful interactive finale, where each passenger selects aspects of the future he’d like to see, and then sees himself in it. But most important is the overall theme. The new Spaceship Earth, which is sponsored by the excellent technology company Siemens, suggests that we are in the midst of a second Renaissance initiated by the vast opportunities that computers have made possible. The optimism and excitement about the future was a great contrast to the gloomy pessimism of CNN, MSNBC and the major networks and newsmagazines (except for their rose-colored reports on socialist Barack Obama, which cause me to expect soon the headline ”The Sun Shines Out of His Behind,” apologies to The Smiths ).

There were many more highlights. The Pixar attractions “Toy Story Mania” and “Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor” (not to mention the amazing “Turtle Talk with Crush” which we skipped this year) are as much fun as, or more fun than, you have already heard.

And this is the first year I have seen the Osborne Family’s Christmas (plus Chanukah) Lights. Talk about exceeding expectations: it is one more example of Disney and their partners at their best. Words cannot adequately convey the experience of seeing the city streets of the backlot lit up in such imaginative ways.

Also, we took side trips to the Wilderness Lodge to see part of Walt’s own model railroad train exhibited, and to the Grand Floridian Resort to see and smell the gingerbread house they have every Christmas season. And everyone, especially my daughter who loves to dance and sing, enjoyed the Hoop De Doo Revue.

We also were able to briefly meet up with Kip Liles and her husband. They are, once again, the kind of people I hope to be like, and the kind of people I want to surround myself with, people who are role models for all Earthlings. If you don’t know who Kip Liles is, she is the Super Foster Parent whom I interviewed on The Zigory Show. That podcast is available at http://zigory.solidvox.com/?p=3.

Update regarding the Kip Liles interview and the Michelle Malkin article called “The Death of Bradley McGee”: Kip has learned from a source that Billy, the brother of Braddie, is alive, still living with his (murderer) mother Sheryl Hardy, and outwardly appears to be okay. However, appearances cannot be trusted and I hope Billy’s community in Illinois keeps its eyes open. As should we all, for justice’s sake and our own.

Leon Trager

2009-01-08T23:39:00.003-05:00

I learned from Nicholas Provenzo's blog Rule of Reason that Leon Trager has passed away.

I met Leon and his son Noah, who was still in high school, at the Objectivism '92 Conference in Williamsburg, VA. Leon was full of positive energy and joy and was exactly the way I hoped I would be in my later years. He was encouraging to me. I said I was working on a writing project for a long time, perhaps too long, but I still thought it needed more work before submitting it to the marketplace. He said, "If you're not ready, you're not ready. When you're ready you will do it."

I had videotaped his son singing, with another attendee, comedic songs by Monty Python. Leon beamed at his son singing in public, as Leon said Noah was normally on the reserved or shy side. Leon asked me for a copy of the videotape but, alas, I didn't have a working second VCR so I regret that I did not dub it for him. (My mother was fighting cancer that year and the next which put the video on the back burner).

Another fact about him: Leon Trager decided that the US Holocaust Memorial Museum ought to carry Leonard Peikoff's book "The Ominous Parallels" so he single-handedly convinced them to carry it.

Wall E is Not Walt D---Repeat

2008-11-22T03:58:00.002-05:00

I am re-running one of my blog posts from June 30, 2008, because Disney is releasing Wall E on DVD for the Holiday Season. I can think of few films less appropriate for Christmas, the festive, joyful holiday. Here is my review of Wall E with a reader’s comment following:

One of the most important qualities Walt Disney’s movies, television programs, and theme parks imparted to me as a child, and to children everywhere, was a feeling of reassurance. I’m referring to the works of Walt Disney himself when he was alive, and of his studio the first few years after his death.

Even if the story is about things going wrong in one character’s life, it is clear that there is a larger world out there of sensible people and a system and world that makes sense, that there is something called normalcy, and the goal of the characters is to get back to normalcy or better, to improve their lives and live happily ever after.

The Banks family in Mary Poppins is at first somewhat unhappy, but there is hope and magical delight in the world outside, and there is a policeman and there are friendly neighbors who bring runaway children home. The home of (1961’s) 101 Dalmations’ owners is a happy, sane, home, and once the dalmations fight off the bad guys, they return to a state of eccentric yet happy normalcy. The world is expected to be filled with reasonable people who can get along and solve problems.

Even the satirical post-Walt movie The Barefoot Executive indicates that the larger world may be a little silly, but still okay at its core.

To a child, the sense of a system and society that is dependable and rational is extremely important to his feeling secure and optimistic, to his feeling free and motivated to learn and grow and become ambitious within that society.

The new Disney-Pixar movie Wall E is not at all in the spirit of Walt Disney’s movies. The characters of Wall E, Eve and The Captain are Disney-esque and very charming and funny. But the universe they inhabit is the opposite of Walt’s universe.

We are expected to believe and accept that in the future human beings (A) allowed a corporate monopoly to replace the U.S. Constitution (and all other governments) and become a dictator and (B) that no one noticed a problem with garbage disposal until it got so bad, the entire species had to leave the planet. In this dystopian vision of the future, the technology to build extraordinary robots and a spaceship that holds and takes care of the needs of the entire human population exists, but not the technology to get rid of garbage and plant trees or grass. Human beings are intelligent yet immensely moronic simultaneously.

Above all, the problem with this film and the fact that busy parents, or their child care providers, will one day buy the DVD and play it over and over for their children without watching it is the message that the universe makes no sense and the future is dark and adults are incapable of dealing with their problems until long past catastrophe. This is not a reassuring message to children who love life and can’t wait to grow up and flourish. It is harmful.

As my 5-year-old son said, “That’s a Garbage Planet. That’s not Earth. Why are they calling it Earth?” He understands that Earth makes sense. People are rational beings.

I explained it’s a make-believe silly story about Earth in the future where, as my wife said, “people become stupid” and can’t get rid of garbage. I reassured him and his sister that it’s ridiculous and that this is not going to happen in real life.

I received the following comment from Artifex:

Exactly right! For all the visual beauty and charm of Wall-E, the world we’re presented with is complete nonsense. BnL can build a massive spaceship with seemingly inexhaustible energy supply, human level artificial intelligence, what must be near-total recycling of resources (although strangely enough they seem to be ejecting a lot of trash into space - where does all that matter come from?), and the ability to hyperjump into another galaxy (!) in a matter of seconds but they can’t figure out trash disposal? Why doesn’t earth-that-was just fill the Axiom with garbage and hyperjump THAT into another galaxy? Why don’t they use the same recycling technology that must be present on the Axiom to solve the same problems on earth? Completely insane. It’s a shame - I really wanted to love this one.

I received the following comment from Mike:

Great post.

Saw your comment at the Think Progress site; your words were a voice of reason amongst so much vitriol, those words of hate that seem to be only language of left-leaning websites.

(wouldn't consider myself to be a right-winger, but I sure don't want to be classified with those who are haters of traditional values)

I'm so glad there are folks such as yourself who teach their children to think for themselves. Not having children myself, it makes me feel better about the future of this country.

Thanks to TCM for Glimpses of True American Spirit

2008-11-14T20:09:00.000-05:00

The cable channel Turner Classic Movies often provides a better glimpse of American history than the History Channel, because it shows the spirit, or sense of life, of America in the past. This is an elevated, inspired, courageous, innocent, moral spirit that lives on in the hearts of many Americans who were fortunate enough to grow up surrounded by it. It is a spirit that lives on today in the families and communities in America that aren’t interested in the hopeless-violent-crude-hostile-negative-gossipy-nihilistic culture presented by much of the arts and entertainment media today.

On Veterans Day, through the night, TCM showed films I would not allow myself to stop watching, though I had not intended to see them. My feeling about my life and how I interact with people days later are still elevated by the glow of these films.
They were movies released during World War II: “Hollywood Canteen” and “Stage Door Canteen.”

They were made in 1943 and 1944, about real places in NYC and Hollywood at the time. The canteens were nightclubs where stars served food to thousands of soldiers on leave, and performed for them, for free, while civilian women volunteered to keep the men company for the evening. Everything about these films are so different from today. There are speeches that burst forth as if unwritten, from characters or stars playing themselves, about the meaning of the war, and why we must win, to preserve our freedom and specifically the pursuit of individual happiness. No altruism at all.

In “Stage Door Canteen,” the volunteer hostesses encourage the boys to be happy and to enjoy the women’s company, and berate a woman who doesn’t behave warmly to a man. Obviously it’s about soldiers so they get extra consideration, but the culture was so far removed from the fundamental hostility toward men, the presumption of evil or harmfulness in men, that I witnessed suffusing college campuses and large cities in the radical feminist-influenced late 1970s and early 1980s. This attitude still influences parts of the culture today.

It felt revolutionary to me to see these 1940s films where women respect and encourage men so directly, and women are also respected and adored. This is shown more vividly in these two movies than perhaps in any other film or TV show I’ve seen, even from that period. It’s so rare to see this fundamental respect so explicitly portrayed, rather than merely implied while part of another story. Maybe it’s because the characters seemed much more real to me than usual. These films expressed my sense of life, my sense of how people should act (even when it’s not wartime). Perhaps they seem especially real to me because I saw a bit of this positive ideal in the culture during my childhood in the early 1960s.

These films make the canteens come alive, and show the reality of them, by exquisitely choosing the best moments. I wonder if any of the incidents are based on actual ones.

If you want a happy sign in 2008 that marks the end of the feminists’ pitting of women against men, and marks the end of the hippies’ egalitarian removal of commitment, masculinity and femininity, and passionate romance, from relationships: It’s the joyful musical film for kids, “High School Musical 3.” It is has a non-cynical, innocent point of view, with worshipful adoration shown by boys and girls toward the ones they love, and pleasant flirtation all around. The songs and dances are about joy and energy and optimism and looking toward a great future.

More Political Thoughts

2008-11-14T20:08:00.001-05:00

Now that there is no single leader of the Republican Party, and a clearly socialistic leader of the Democratic Party (and of the United States), I see evidence (on C-span, anyway) that the thinkers on the Right and the better Republicans (mainly in the House) are finally feeling free, with the inconsistent, concessionary McCain out of the way, to fight hard against the socialist/pacifist Democrats and the big-spending, bailout-supporting, me-too Republicans. They are energized. I think real intellectual debate could finally break out of the meaningless generalities and rally-the-crowd sound-bites we’ve witnessed during the campaign season.

Of course, the good news about Obama is that he will probably save stem-cell research and keep America pro-choice, will keep the borders open to all (hopefully excepting known terrorists) who wish to come, “wretched refuse” or not, and won’t appoint religious conservatives to the Supreme Court. But the bad news is everything else he may support, from restrictions on oil-drilling, to endless government spending, to paying off rather than destroying foreign enemies, to endless regulations on business and industry, to socialized medicine.

There is little hope of the Democratic Party becoming pro-laissez faire, so the better choice is to encourage the GOP to reinvent itself as such, and to reduce the influence of the religionists in the Republican party, now that the party has sunk to the bottom. Unfortunately, too many on the right still are religious pro-life types, whereas the reduction of the religious-right influence is not only more rational, but it is an important way to win back those who have deserted the GOP. My guess is that we won’t turn the nation or the party into atheists any time soon, but we can reduce the influence of the religionists in the GOP by emphasizing the principles of liberty, individual effort, private property, and self-defense.

Moving forward, I think it’s important to remember to pursue happiness. Defend your rights and property as needed, and then enjoy the unlimited opportunities still present in the United States for intellectual growth, productivity, learning, adventure, self-expression, building relationships, pursuing goals, and experiencing the arts and things of beauty.

Two Topics: The U.S. Elections and The Merging of Man and Machine

2008-10-31T20:13:00.001-04:00

On the November 2, 2008 ”60 Minutes” TV program, Scott Pelley will report on one of the most amazing and important leaps in technology ever achieved by Man. I predict that this discovery will be the stepping stone to never-before-imagined possibilities in human activity during the coming century.

As a CBS promotional message sums it up: “People who are completely paralyzed due to illness or trauma …are getting help communicating with a remarkable new technology that connects their brains to a computer. In the future, brain computer interface, or BCI, may even restore movement to paralyzed people and allow amputees to move bionic limbs.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4560911n?source=newsletter

Now, on to a less inspiring topic: The U.S. Elections.

Obviously, for someone like me who seeks a moral, individual-rights-based, laissez-faire capitalist society where no one’s income is taken from him against his will, where no one is forced to financially support projects he does not choose to support on his own, where businesses, investors and banks are free to succeed or fail without government regulations and without government bailouts that steal from taxpayers (and also reduce the buying power of each dollar by inflating the money supply via deficit spending) — and for someone who seeks a government with a consistent foreign policy of pure self-defense, where no American soldier is sacrificed needlessly and no mercy is shown to our enemies — and for someone who seeks separation of church and state — and open borders to immigrants — there is no acceptable candidate for President.

Even if you simply seek a candidate who consistently speaks in depth of actual ideas rather than one-liners, who speaks from actual knowledge of history rather than pre-determined slogans, who acts like a human being rather than a marionette, you are out of luck. Of course there are brief exceptions here and there where the two candidates show a glimmer of actual thought, but nothing measurable.

The way the candidates act like robots, perhaps they are current examples of the merging of Man and Machine.

Here’s what I plan to do on Election Day.

I think that even if you don’t want to vote for President, it’s important to vote for good candidates for the House and Senate. Good candidates are (approximately) the non-theocratic, non-socialistic and non-pacifistic ones. In other words, the ones that are generally pro-capitalism, pro-freedom, anti-taxation, anti-spending, anti-regulations, anti-bailouts, pro-defense and pro-choice, who primarily follow reason and not a mystical or religious guide. Few are going to fit all of these criteria, but some will fit most of them.

Many of the anti-bailout House Republicans, for example, should be rewarded for their fight against nationalizing the banks, with your vote. (But don’t vote for any Huckabee types.)

Also, since the pacifist-socialist-altruist-leaning Obama appears to be headed for the Presidency, voting for any relatively secular, pro-capitalist and hawkish Republicans you can find for the House and Senate is a good idea, in order to fight Obama and at least create gridlock. But don’t vote in any more theocratic Republicans. Basically, look for pro-choice Republicans, or those who are not primarily known for religious-right views.

In New Jersey, I will vote for Zimmer for Senate, a pro-choice Republican who has been praised for his anti-tax record, and Lance for Congress, another pro-choice Republican.

If (pragmatist-socialist-altruist) McCain wins, there is automatically gridlock, as he will be fighting the majority-Democratic Congress. But since McCain is expected to lose, the best hope for gridlock is voting for the better Republicans for House and Senate seats.

Gridlock is good because usually, the less the government accomplishes, and the fewer bills that become law, the better for all of us.

Finally, if Obama seems headed to win in a landslide, it may be worth voting for McCain just to avoid an Obama “mandate” by reducing the margin of Obama’s victory.

To sum up, both candidates for President are unacceptable. For Congress, the religious-right Republicans, and big-spending altruist Republicans are unacceptable. The pacifist-socialist-altruist, tax-and-spend Democrats are also unacceptable.

But it’s important to vote for any secular, anti-tax, anti-spending, anti-bailout hawkish Republicans for the House and Senate, if you have any in your district. There is a chance they will fight whoever is President and the rest of Congress, and at least create gridlock, which is a relatively good thing.

What I'm Working On

2008-09-21T07:11:00.000-04:00

Recently I’ve devoted some time to writing a TV comedy pilot script (on spec, which means no one asked me to).

I have had input from a professional TV story editor and writer, and also from an actor I know. I’m in the process of making final revisions.

The pro initially said, to keep things in context, “nobody ever sells a spec pilot script.” This obviously isn’t precisely true but is close enough to the truth, considering how many people write them and how few get on the air.

Still, as I work on it, I have to believe I’ll either sell it, or it will at least open doors for me. If it doesn’t sell, I can always turn it into a short story, screenplay, novel, graphic novel, or play so it’s not a wasted effort.

My attitude now is that it’s going to be so good (and also marketable) by the time I submit it, that I should expect only the best possible outcome. The pro has said very encouraging things about my work and my talent. I have totally agreed. So I will expect the best but I will be prepared for any outcome.

Meanwhile I have other writing projects to follow, and I plan to interview more fascinating people on podcasts for the Solid Vox Network in the near future. Keep checking this space and http://zigory.solidvox.com .

If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to comment below or email me at zigory@comcast.net.

My Personal Happy Anniversary

2008-09-11T22:59:00.011-04:00

Never mind the evildoers' anniversary just commemorated on September 11. I have a personal, happy anniversary to commemorate on September 12. No, it's not my wedding anniversary.

Exactly thirty years ago, on September 12, 1978, I met Ayn Rand for the first and only time.

I was about to start college at New York University as a seventeen-year-old freshman. My mother and I had to go to New York to do paperwork or pay tuition or something. But I had seen in my father's copy of The Village Voice, which he rarely picked up, an advertisement that said "Ayn Rand in person!" in big black letters.

Only five years earlier, my brother had shown me the fresh copy of The Fountainhead he had purchased when it was a book he chose from a high school elective reading list. (Thank you, Mr. Lamdanski). He said, "Read the Introduction." I was only 12. Still, I liked the Introduction. But I was not about to read such a long book.

When I was 13 and 14, I started looking for Ayn Rand books in the library. I mainly just wanted to know what her philosophy was, in her words rather than my brother's, without having to read over 700 pages of fiction to get to it. I would get to the fiction later.

I read a library copy of For The New Intellectual. (Thank you, Asbury Park Public Library). This was the "Eureka!" moment. I knew she was saying the truth, and that I had observed much of it myself. I knew she was my kind of person.

So on September 12, 1978, I talked my mother into letting me see Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand was to assist Leonard Peikoff in a Q & A after his first lecture (of a series) on the philosophy of Objectivism. Visitors were permitted at the first lecture even if not planning to attend the rest of the lectures.

My mother did not intend to pay for a ticket for herself, so she waited outside the doors and I entered. I listened to Leonard Peikoff as he spoke, and watched him cover the bright light bulb over his notes (and under his face) when people complained that it was distracting. I paid close attention as it was my first time hearing such a systematic presentation of the philosophy.

When it was time for Q & A, Ayn Rand and Frank O'Connor entered from the rear doors and walked down the aisle to a standing ovation. I knew they had just walked past my mother, who had remained outside the room, listening.

Leonard and Ayn took turns answering questions, including my own, which people had handed in from the audience. Ayn Rand herself answered all of my questions, which was thrilling and I tried to take accurate notes to review later when I could think more clearly.

When Leonard answered, Ayn would sit and scan the audience with her enormous eyes. It was as if she wished to look into the deepest souls of each one of us, in a benevolent way. I saw her doing this as a sign of her wanting to know who her fans were, since they were her kind of people. She wanted to see and know the people who loved and understood her work. It gave her pleasure. This is, of course, just conjecture on my part.

No photography was permitted. But someone in the front row took photo after photo of Ayn Rand. She asked him (or her?) for the 35mm camera. She opened the back of it, and dramatically unrolled the entire roll of film, exposing it to the bright light in the room. She held onto the camera, saying he could have it after the event was over.

When it was over, I took my partially-read copy of Atlas Shrugged and stood on line to obtain Ayn Rand's autograph. She asked me my name and how to spell it. Then she showed me the page where she had written, "To Greg Zeigerson." I nervously said, "You didn't sign it." She said, "I know, but did I spell your name correctly?" I said yes. (I wanted to slap myself). She signed her name, exactly as her signature appeared on "The Ayn Rand Letter" to which I had subscribed.

I asked, "Are you happy with the movie version of The Fountainhead?" She said, "I wrote the screenplay, you know." I said, "Yes, but are you satisfied with the final version?" She said, "They did the best they could." Earlier she had announced that she was writing the teleplay of an Atlas Shrugged miniseries. I was a teenager about to start film school at NYU. I said to her, "I wanted to direct the movie of Atlas Shrugged!" (with the obvious meaning, I would be too late since the miniseries was already going to be made). She said, "Maybe you will. The remake." This unexpectedly positive response was a moment I treasured. I nodded with seriousness, imagining with great hope that it actually was possible. She said, "You'll get the rights from my children." I pondered this, since I was unaware of any children, but I probably nodded again. She said, with humor, "But I have no children!"

I suspect she was thinking at that time about who would inherit the rights; perhaps it had not been settled yet. And her words may have just reflected that the topic was on her mind. This is pure conjecture, again.

Another fan told her he knew of a version of "Night of January 16th" being produced without her permission, with many changes in the plot and dialogue. She told him to call the producers the most obscene names he could think of, and "Tell them I said it."

My mother met me outside the doors. I saw Leonard Peikoff there and asked if I could take his picture. He said, "You want my picture? Sure." He seemed to think no one would want his picture. I still have that Polaroid photo.

My mother decided that since Ayn Rand spoke against Ronald Reagan for opposing the right to an abortion, that Ayn Rand must be in favor of "free love." It didn't help that the cover of my copy of "We The Living" had a picture of two men and a woman, implying a love triangle, but which she interpreted as a "threesome" (like in "Cabaret," said my mother).

I will never forget meeting Ayn Rand, exactly thirty years ago tonight.

Remember

2008-09-11T18:40:00.003-04:00

As seven years have gone by, here are the words that express my yet-to-be-fulfilled wishes, thanks to the immensely talented graphic novelist Bosch Fawstin:

http://fawstin.blogspot.com/2008/09/their-911.html .

I wish to add the following to Bosch’s words: Time dissipates the emotions. But the primary perpetrators, the Islamofascists, the leadership and supporters of anti-Western ideology and violence in Iran and Saudi Arabia, still have not “heard from us” in the way they need to, the way President Bush promised the firefighters and rescuers at Ground Zero in 2001. I’m not satisfied.

Wall E is Not Walt D

2008-06-30T12:15:00.000-04:00

One of the most important qualities Walt Disney's movies, television programs, and theme parks imparted to me as a child, and to children everywhere, was a feeling of reassurance. I'm referring to the works of Walt Disney himself when he was alive, and of his studio the first few years after his death.

Even if the story is about things going wrong in one character's life, it is clear that there is a larger world out there of sensible people and a system and world that makes sense, that there is something called normalcy, and the goal of the characters is to get back to normalcy or better, to improve their lives and live happily ever after.

The Banks family in Mary Poppins is at first somewhat unhappy, but there is hope and magical delight in the world outside, and there is a policeman and there are friendly neighbors who bring runaway children home. The home of (1961's)101 Dalmations' owners is a happy, sane, home, and once the dalmations fight off the bad guys, they return to a state of eccentric yet happy normalcy. The world is expected to be filled with reasonable people who can get along and solve problems.

Even the satirical post-Walt movie The Barefoot Executive indicates that the larger world may be a little silly, but still okay at its core.

To a child, the sense of a system and society that is dependable and rational is extremely important to his feeling secure and optimistic, to his feeling free and motivated to learn and grow and become ambitious within that society.

The new Disney-Pixar movie Wall E is not at all in the spirit of Walt Disney's movies. The characters of Wall E, Eve and The Captain are Disney-esque and very charming and funny. But the universe they inhabit is the opposite of Walt's universe.

We are expected to believe and accept that in the future human beings (A) allowed a corporate monopoly to replace the U.S. Constitution (and all other governments) and become a dictator and (B) that no one noticed a problem with garbage disposal until it got so bad, the entire species had to leave the planet. In this dystopian vision of the future, the technology to build extraordinary robots and a spaceship that holds and takes care of the needs of the entire human population exists, but not the technology to get rid of garbage and plant trees or grass. Human beings are intelligent yet immensely moronic simultaneously.

Above all, the problem with this film --- and the fact that busy parents, or their child care providers, will one day buy the DVD and play it over and over for their children without watching it --- is the message that the universe makes no sense and the future is dark and adults are incapable of dealing with their problems until long past catastrophe. This is not a reassuring message to children who love life and can't wait to grow up and flourish. It is harmful.

As my 5-year-old son said, "That's a Garbage Planet. That's not Earth. Why are they calling it Earth?" He understands that Earth makes sense. People are rational beings.

I explained it's a make-believe silly story about Earth in the future where, as my wife said, "people become stupid" and can't get rid of garbage. I reassured him and his sister that it's ridiculous and that this is not going to happen in real life.

George Will and Ayn Rand on Environmentalism

2008-05-23T20:56:00.001-04:00

I have posted a reply to George Will’s excellent column, “The United States’ New Pre-Emptive War.” Although there is one sentence about abortion rights that I would argue with, in the rest of the essay Mr.Will eloquently and accurately analyzes environmentalism, with reference to declaring polar bears “endangered” based on “future global warming,” and quotations from Nigel Lawson.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2008/05/22/the_united_states_new_pre-emptive_war

Here is my comment:

Ayn Rand Foresaw This Outcome

Almost four decades ago, Ayn Rand predicted that leftist environmentalists would seek to justify all-encompassing regulations, as George Will accurately describes above. She wrote in her essay “The Anti-Industrial Revolution”: “The immediate goal is obvious: the destruction of the remnants of capitalism in today’s mixed economy, and the establishment of a global dictatorship. This goal does not have to be inferred —- many speeches and books on the subject state explicitly that the ecological crusade is a means to that end.” (From “Return of the Primitive”)

China and North Korean Refugees

2008-04-12T03:11:00.003-04:00

All the talk these days is about China’s cracking down on Tibetans, and it is a terrible thing to witness.

Recently, China is claiming that the Tibetan protestors are puppets whose strings are being pulled by foreign religious elements, as a way of downplaying the situation and as an excuse to investigate and shut down churches or other groups who have any foreign involvement.

Related to this, things are getting worse in regard to China’s deplorable treatment of North Korean refugees and those who try to assist them inside China.

China has been known to send refugees, who have escaped North Korea’s police state into China, back to NK, to be imprisoned or tortured or killed by the authorities there, or to simply starve to death due to the conditions there.

Now China is recruiting more informants to report North Korean defectors by offering a reward equivalent to the average annual income in China, for each North Korean defector reported.

Added to that bad news, the punishment has been made more severe for those in China extending help to North Korean defectors. Instead of being fined, they now face the threat of imprisonment.

Of course, if China were to follow justice (and the international refugees convention) they would protect the North Korean refugees, give them asylum or allow them to move on to other countries safely, and allow people to assist them.

Here is a letter I have written to the Chinese Embassy:
———-
Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing in protest, upon learning that China is making punishments more severe for people who extend assistance to North Korean defectors.

I understand they face prison sentences now, rather than fines.

I believe that North Korean defectors are refugees who should be protected as such under the international refugees convention. Anyone helping such refugees should be permitted to do so, as North Korea does not respect the rights of its people.

Please end the threat of prison sentences for those who help North Korean defectors.

Additionally, North Korean refugees must not be repatriated as they face death or harsh penalties by the North Korean government for attempting to leave. North Korea does not respect human rights, these individuals need to be protected as refugees.

Most of the world is sympathetic to the plight of North Korean defectors, and sees them as refugees. Please show that you respect human rights, and protect them, and do not punish those who give them assistance.

Thank you.
————–
I sent this to chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn .

Feel free to write to them yourself. To send a letter (snail mail) to the Ambassador in Washington, write to:

Ambassador: Zhou Wenzhong
Address: 2300 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, N.W., WASHINGTON D.C. 20008, U.S.A.

Website: http://www.china-embassy.org/; http://us.china-embassy.org/; http://us.chineseembassy.org/

Or telephone him at 1-202-328-2500, or 328-2551 .

For more information, see http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/2008-04-up1600percent.htm
and http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/index.html

Horton Hears A Who: Good For The Whole Family

2008-04-03T22:11:00.000-04:00

We read the reviews that indicated that Horton Hears A Who was a good film and had nothing offensive for children, and so we took our five-year-old twins to see it. We all enjoyed it very much.

The story, as in the original Dr. Seuss book, is about a heroic dedication to justice, no matter the cost. Also, as Scott Holleran wrote at Box Office Mojo at http://www.boxofficemojo.com/reviews/?id=2468&p=.htm, it upholds careful thinking and learning about all the evidence rather than following pre-existing assumptions, tradition, or faith. It also upholds the value of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and of respecting every individual’s right to live regardless of non-essentials (”A person’s a person, no matter how small”). Obviously, in the story, any creatures that think, talk and act like human beings are considered persons.

This film contrasts dramatically with the offensive movie destruction of How The Grinch Stole Christmas of a few years ago (surprisingly directed by the usually talented Ron Howard). That film was full of vulgarity and it stretched out and undercut the climax so that any impact was dissipated. I heard similar atrocities were committed against The Cat in The Hat in a recent version.

I understand the animators of Horton had previously created the film Ice Age, which I did not like because of too much vulgarity and scenes of torturous pain, inappropriate for children and unpleasant for me. Here with Horton Hears A Who, they clearly made an effort to be classier, and sensitive and respectful to the original material. However, there is a short preview of an Ice Age sequel before the Horton movie starts, and it is slightly disturbing for small children, but to a relatively minimal extent.

Incidentally, the same story is the major plotline in the musical Seussical. We took our children to see the shortened-for-children 90 minute version (or was it 60 minutes?) of Seussical when it played New York for free last summer and they loved it too. And the Seussical Broadway Cast Album became a great favorite.

In fact, our children have seen and loved every version of Horton Hears A Who, including the original book, and the superb Chuck Jones animated TV special.

The War on Freedom of Speech

2008-03-21T23:00:00.002-04:00

I posted a comment after Yaron Brook’s OpEd on Forbes.com, regarding campaign finance restrictions limiting freedom of speech. I welcome any answers, here or on the Forbes page, to the question I pose at the end of my comment.

The OpEd is at http://tinyurl.com/37gkyx or at http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/19/yaron-campaign-finance-oped-cx_ybr_0321yaron.html

Here is the comment I posted:
————–
Yaron Brook explains well why this is not a small issue. Once we begin to lose freedom of speech, in small increments like this, the slippery slope becomes real. What will be left of the Founders’ Land of the Free? If America doesn’t protect its freedoms, where else can one go? One big question is raised by Brook’s comment, “A true crusader against political corruption… would seek to put an end to the government’s power to grant special favors to any group”: How do we put an end to the ever-growing powers that FDR, TR, Woodrow Wilson and others initiated in the early 20th century? Will it take new Constitutional Amendments restricting government power?

------------
I would add now, that a Constitutional Amendment won’t pass, and if it passes, won’t hold, until the American people more fully understand and embrace the idea of individual rights and a philosophy of self-interest and reason rather than altruism and pragmatism and majority-rule. So what is needed first is the full-scale education of the American people about the only philosophy that corresponds to the nature of man and reality: Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. Fortunately the Ayn Rand Institute is making enormous strides in getting these ideas taught in high schools and universities and known to many more people via the internet and other media. Please support them.

Atonement Movie Review

2008-03-07T03:51:00.004-05:00

Atonement is about to be released on DVD, and here is my review:

At first, every character we are introduced to seems either immoral, extremely unpleasant, a manipulator of others, or at best, simple-minded. After I saw Juno, which literally contains no villain, and where every character is decent and likeable, the characters at the start of Atonement made me fear I will regret spending the next two hours with them.

However, the film improves somewhat. The worst offender in the characterization department is Keira Knightley, whose performance as Cecilia makes her character far less likeable than actually written. If her character was presented in an admirable light, the story would have become more engaging and emotional.

In the end, the simple-minded, or naive, man, Robbie, played by James McAvoy, becomes the likeable and even heroic character, and as a result, the film becomes watchable and even slightly enjoyable at times. At one point, the story transforms into a war movie and at that time it improves.

Especially worthwhile are two sequences: the scenes of the nurses treating the wounded soldiers, which are based on the memoirs of an actual nurse of World War II named Lucilla Andrews, and the unforgettable, extended single tracking shot of Dunkirk after the battle has ended and the British prepare to evacuate. Horses are shot so that the Germans cannot benefit from their being left behind.

The story itself is ultimately about a youthful error whose impact spirals out of control; the theme is a dark one, but the resolution is somewhat emotionally rewarding in that it confronts how one might have to deal psychologically with such an error.

The production design, costume design and cinematography are superbly beautiful, and puts the viewer right into the period.

The first hour is only exposition; setting up the situation and relationships. I thought that if I could take the film and cut the first hour down to about 20 minutes–just get the important plot points and relationships shown–and recast the role played by Keira Knightley with someone warmer yet stronger, like Angelina Jolie or Kate Beckinsale, I could turn it into a good, short TV movie (by the BBC).

Overall, I would not recommend Atonement, as it adds up to an average film. (I am adding this line to clarify my overall impression).

Here’s a link to an article by the author of the novel Atonement, Ian McEwan, and charges that he plagiarized Lucilla Andrews’ autobiography:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/nov/27/bookscomment.topstories3

Trivia: Robbie types an offensive word early in the film and I didn’t think that was at all necessary. Another word would have done just fine.

-------------------

Show No Mercy to Islamic Fundamentalists (Video from YouTube)

2008-02-07T20:00:00.001-05:00

See my previous blog posting of February 7, 2008 called "Show No Mercy to Islamic Fundamentalists."

Show No Mercy to Islamic Fundamentalists

2008-02-07T19:35:00.000-05:00

Al Qaida in Iraq, and other Islamic terrorist groups, follow the principles of Islamic Fundamentalism. By abandoning reason and embracing on faith, without question, the teachings of their leaders and of the Koran, which pretend to speak for some sort of God or Allah, which must be obeyed, Islamic Fundamentalists become terrorists, who kill the innocent brutally. The West, and any individual westerner, who primarily follows reason and not this mystical nonexistent God, is unacceptable to these Islamic Fascists. Therefore they believe they must destroy the West and they will do so if they have a chance.

They cause unthinkable harm now on an individual or small-group scale, and they will cause unthinkable destruction once they get their hands on larger-impact weapons. It’s not over.

These evil destroyers and their supporting dictators in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia must be stopped. Who will stop them among the US Presidential candidates? Who around the world will stop them? Who will show no mercy to them, as they show no mercy to the innocent? Who will wipe out the Islamic Fundamentalist leaders and their weapons, and terrify any still alive strongly enough to end the movement?

We must show no mercy, but no one should ever do what they are doing to the innocent.
Here are the facts and evidence that support my commentary:

From Lauren Frayer, Associated Press
(http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Feb06/0,4670,IraqBoyTerrorists,00.html) :

“Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said he believed insurgents were kidnapping an increasing number of Iraqi children, though he could not offer details or figures.

" ‘This is not only to recruit them, but also to demand ransom to fund the operations of al-Qaida,’ al-Askari said. He aired another grainy video clip which he said showed Iraqi security forces rescuing an 11-year-old boy who had been kidnapped by al-Qaida.”

And from this report by Jennifer Griffin, Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328832,00.html):

“Kidnapping and extortion are how Al Qaeda in Iraq finances its attacks. It is big business…

“This story had a happy ending, but most kidnappings in Iraq do not. Ammar was from a simple family, and his father never could have paid the $100,000 ransom.

“In an interview after his son was returned to the family, Ammar’s father said, ‘The kidnappers told us that if we fail to pay the ransom, they will behead my son and put his head in the garbage can in front of my house. We told them that we don’t have money.’

“The raid netted five kidnappers and led the coalition forces to another boy being held in a hideout nearby. He was freed on Sunday.”

The following report is from a pro-Christian Church organization, the Barnabas Fund, but I have seen similar reports elsewhere and I believe them to be true.

Iraq: Children being cooked

“In at least one incident, an 11-year-old boy was recently ’slaughtered’ by Muslim militants believed to be linked to the ‘al Qaida in Iraq’ group, who later ‘cooked’ the child, several news reports said. His family was allegedly later invited to a ‘feast meal’ where they were forced to eat the boy, reports said.

“In the most shocking report from Iraq we have received, a toddler was kidnapped in Baghdad in October 2006. The mother could not afford to pay the ransom, and so the kidnappers killed the child. They returned the body to the mother. The little child had been beheaded, roasted and was served on a mound of rice. In another incident a 14-year-old Christian boy was held down by his limbs and beheaded, or, as Iraqi Christians have described it, ‘crucified’. His Muslim attackers called him a ‘dirty Christian sinner’ and chanted ‘Allahu akbar’ (Allah is great).

“Christians in Iraq, including converts from Islam and people involved in mixed-faith marriages, are being crucified by Muslim terrorists, according to a Dutch member of Parliament studying the war-torn country.

“Several Iraqi Christians ‘are nailed to a cross and their arms are tied up with ropes. The ropes are put on fire,’ Joel Voordewind told BosNewsLife, an online news agency focusing on Christians and Jews in difficult circumstances.

“According to the site, Voordewind described how a person, who ’survived’ a crucifixion, ‘even showed holes in his hands,’ apparently from nails.“Voordewind said victims of the crucifixions are ‘in most cases Christian converts who abandoned Islam or people who, religiously speaking, are involved in mixed marriages.’”

Here is a Youtube video with an audio interview describing similar unthinkable, most-evil actions by Al Qaida in Iraq. The audio is from the chat room/podcasting web site Paltalk (http://chat.paltalk.com/g2/webapp/groups/GroupsPage.wmt), according to the person who posted it on Youtube.com:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj1pWqeKa30

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj1pWqeKa30]

Rudy’s Out of the Race, so…

2008-01-30T17:42:00.001-05:00

Regarding my previous blog, as the late Gilda Radner used to say (as Emily Litella):

”Never mind!”

I have no one to root for in the election now.

Calling All Reluctant Republicans

2008-01-23T22:19:00.001-05:00

If (unlike most of the Republican candidates) you believe in the separation of Church and State provision of the U.S. Constitution, if you are strongly moral in a pro-individual responsibility, pro-reason, pro-honesty, pro-justice, pro-freedom, secular way–

If you don’t hate corporations and businessmen in a rabid, manic, almost racist fashion, but instead if you love the benefits of capitalism–malls, personal computers, TV’s, theme parks– and of the freedom to start your own business and earn your own way with pride–

If (unlike John McCain) you are for the right to Freedom of Speech (which he violated with the McCain-Feingold Act) and if (unlike John McCain) you think a physically painless and safe technique of interrogation like water-boarding is perfectly acceptable for America to use in order to gain information that will protect Americans from death and destruction inflicted by our enemies–

If you admire the great capitalists that created Microsoft, Apple, Pixar, Disney, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Kodak, Amazon, and if you want their taxes and yours to be as low as possible, so that their property rights and yours are protected, so that they and you are as free as possible to be as productive as desired–

If you think abortions are often sad events but that they are a personal matter that must remain legal, if you are not a religious evangelist, not a theocrat, not a Christian Fundamentalist, but you also don’t want to be forced to vote for the anti-capitalism party of Karl Marx’s ideas (The Democratic Party), just to prevent the election of theocratic politicians who impose their faith on you–

If you’re sick of Democrats (and Ron Paul) pretending that talking to our sworn enemies (such as the Islamic Theocrats that run Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the other Muslim Dictatorships) and diplomacy with them (aka bribing them) will somehow keep them from trying without mercy to terrorize and destroy us–

If you’re sick of Democrats (and Ron Paul) pretending that World War III isn’t at hand, that Western Civilization isn’t at risk, but you also don’t want to vote for Republicans who pay lip service to self-defense but are going to crumble at the first sign of confrontation (e.g., the milquetoasty Mitt Romney, the second-generation politician)–

If you see that all but one Republican candidate includes imposition of religious ideas (like being “pro-life”) in his platform–

Now is the time to act!

Vote for Rudy!

Now is the time to fix the Grand Old Party so it isn’t the voice of Religious Domination any more, so that it can be a valid alternative to the Democrats for the secular but moral voter, who is on the side of American self-defense, and who is for the American way.

Vote for Rudy!

If you are registered to vote in the United States primary elections as a Republican, or if you are registered in a state where Independents and Democrats are permitted to vote for Republicans, the solution to the theocracy crisis within the GOP is at hand.

Vote in your primary for Rudy Giuliani.

There is no front-runner right now in the GOP race. Rudy’s voters have been quiet until now. But starting with the Florida Primary on January 29, Rudy can come back to the front-runner status he held all of last year.

Many Republicans aren’t sure, so far, who they want. If they can see Rudy Giuliani is still viable, they will realize that he is the leader they want. And if Rudy Giuliani becomes the nominee, he will do more than anyone else to transform the Republican Party back to the more secular pro-capitalism, pro-self-defense party it once was, or nearly was, in the early 20th Century.

The two main reasons to vote for Rudy Giuliani are that he will restore the secular identity of the GOP, and that he will actually and proactively defend America against our enemy attackers. A secondary reason is that, with the help of advisors like Steve Forbes, he will lower taxes and otherwise make good choices regarding the economy.

Another factor for my belief in him is the effectiveness with which he made major improvements in New York City, which anyone who visited the city for just one day in 1989 and then again for one day in 1999, could easily notice. I lived and worked in NYC during those years. He confronted powerful groups no one had confronted before, and made major improvements in quality of life, lowering taxes, fighting crime. He was effective.

What about his failed marriages, his family situation, his so-called scandals? They are minor details. Bill and Hillary Clinton have many more scandals in their histories, and their electability is not questioned. Frank Lloyd Wright had major scandals in his personal family life, but his greatness as an architect is not in question.

Vote in the primaries for Rudy Giuiliani.

Volunteer to help campaign for Rudy at http://www.joinrudy2008.com/ .

Send the Rudy 2008 campaign your money at
http://www.joinrudy2008.com/drive2five .

Write letters to the editor and blog about Rudy being the best candidate.

Tell your friends you are voting for Rudy.

Dr. Harry Binswanger (Objectivist philosopher and former student of Ayn Rand herself) has announced this month on his mailing list, HBL (http://www.hblist.com/), that he is supporting Rudy Giuliani for President, primarily in order to remove the influence of the religious right from the Republican Party and from the U.S. government.

But way back in March, I blogged an explanation of why I support Rudy. See this link:

http://zigory.thinkertothinker.com/?p=53

And see this recent article at Front Page Mag that focuses on one reason why Rudy is unique among the candidates:

http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=6D347ACA-8929-4DC6-8F80-CB95575B44ED

Unheralded Popular Music Artists Who Deserve to be Heard

2007-12-20T03:26:00.001-05:00

Aren't you tired of all the radio hits that come out, that have the same chords and the same sentiment, the same faux-gospel female or brooding, gritty male singing voices, the same instrumentation and production, again and again, yet pretend to be new songs? Have you ever heard of the current (within the last 15 years) popular music artists Bess Rogers, Eisley, October Project, Happy Rhodes or Kim Fox? They are separate, unrelated artists, all very talented, and they create beautiful, or fun and interesting songs, but they don't yet have the fame and fortune they deserve. Give them a listen. There are many other talented but unsung singers/composers of pop music to be found. It just requires searching.

More famous, but not famous enough, are Marshall Crenshaw, Richard Thompson, and Linda Thompson, all very talented and interesting songwriters and musicians. And you've heard of Al Stewart, but did you know some of his best work came out long after "Year of The Cat"? Try his "Between The Wars" CD. And Justin Hayward, of The Moody Blues, released an outstanding CD called "The View From The Hill" that you probably never heard. (I also recommend his 1975 "Blue Jays" album with John Lodge if you never tried it).

Christmas Movies and Shows I Recommend

2007-12-19T19:46:00.000-05:00

“Miracle on 34th Street”– A perfect film in so many ways. I didn’t even understand all of its implications until I had seen it several times as an adult.

Chuck Jones’ half-hour TV special "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" is another small masterpiece.

The Alistair Sim version of “A Christmas Carol” (about a man with low self-esteem, who can’t enjoy life, and learns to see his error).

Also, the Richard Williams animated version of “A Christmas Carol”.

Also, “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol”.

Rankin-Bass TV Special “The Little Drummer Boy”. It’s about trade. A child with no material possessions can offer his music, and it can be the most appreciated of all values (appreciated by the magic healing baby who then heals his donkey as payment).

“The Homecoming” 1971–(The pilot for The Waltons TV series). I love the atmosphere of a rural Christmas with a large loving family, and the suspense that could arise during a storm, clearly based on a true story in the young life of Earl Hamner, Jr.

“The Snow Queen,” a strange but beautiful animated film from the 1950s.

“Lady and The Tramp” has a bit of a Christmas theme and is one of my favorite animated films.

“Meet Me In St. Louis” has some Christmas scenes and is a fine film.

“Almost Angels,” a Walt Disney movie about the Vienna Boys Choir, which is not a Christmas movie but since it includes “Greensleaves” and snow-capped mountains, I’ll include it, since it’s another perfect movie with the spirit of artistic achievement, and of a purposeful life as a beautiful, thrilling adventure.

“Santa Claus and The Three Bears,” an animated film for children from the 1960s. It’s not really that good, I just like the spirit of it.

Activism Now! Israel, North Korea, Global Warming

2007-11-29T02:21:00.000-05:00

Hi, everyone.

There are so many important issues out there on which to comment, and regarding which to take action. I don’t have the time to blog on all of them, but I’ll just list a bunch of links here and you can do the rest.

Here’s an easy way to protest the current demands at the Annapolis conference, for Israel to compromise with terrorists and murderers. This web site will automatically dial phone numbers to American and Isreali leaders so you can leave your own voice message defending the rights of Israel against the leaders of its enemies, the dictatorships that systematically violate the rights of their own citizens and engage in terrorism against Israel. Israel by comparison is a civilized, free country and democracy that has the right to self-defense.
http://callsforjerusalem.org/s/norpac.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=CE6526B5-15D0-4F90-A9E2-CB2FD445F745

Here’s a link to a web site that is promoting a Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 protest against Chinese treatment of North Korean Refugees, at Chinese consulates around the world. These refugees have miraculously escaped the concentration camp that is North Korea, and yet have to endure mistreatment by China and then repatriation to North Korea, where they could then possibly be tortured and murdered for daring to escape.
http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/
http://www.nkfreedom.org/fileadmin/Image_Archive/IntlProtest12.01.07.htm

And here (See sites listed below) are links to essays and web sites that answer Al Gore and other Environmentalists who want to use the alleged 3 degrees of climate improvement to come over the next 100 years, as an excuse to immediately impose government regulations on the whole planet. This good news about the wonderful warm weather to come, is also the reason to systematically make self-sacrifice the habitual state of everyone, especially all the little children who are taught the world is coming to an end. This state of self-sacrifice is necessary presumably so that everyone is so miserable they won’t notice that they have no free enterprise system any more, and they won’t care when all their money is taxed away to make the Green politicians and subsidized Green cronies rich, and all their actions need to be approved by Green-enforcer bureacrats via endless paperwork, or else!

Send these links, these articles, to all your fearful friends who want to give up everything, the whole industrial revolution, in order to merely slow down–not even stop–the inevitable end of the world, coming in their minds only of course:
www.nzcpr.com/guest76.htm
www.cei.org/pages/ait_response-book.cfm
www.weatherquestions.com/Roy-Spencer-on-global-warming.htm
www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=030306H
www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=010405M

Atlas Shrugged’s Film Director

2007-10-18T20:27:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to the late Ayn Rand on the 50th Anniversary of the publication of her masterpiece, "Atlas Shrugged." It is still selling well and influencing the thinking of more people than ever.

I finally saw the movie, "House of Sand and Fog," directed by Vadim Perelman. He has been selected to rewrite the screenplay by Randall Wallace (who was hired to rewrite the screenplay by Jim V. Hart), and to direct the movie version of "Atlas Shrugged" starring Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart.

Since I learned that instead of the trilogy that the producers initially planned, the movie is just going to be a single standard-length feature, I gave up all hope of it being even remotely representative of the 1,084-page novel. Remember, a screenplay for a two hour movie is about 100 pages long, with wide margins on both sides of the page whenever there is any dialogue.
I believe that Angelina Jolie is a talented actress who is capable of, and likely dedicated to, doing justice to the role of Dagny, despite any political differences she may have from Ayn Rand, so her casting did not have any impact on my pessimism.

But now that I've seen the director's previous movie, I have even less hope for "Atlas Shrugged" to convey even the sense of life or essence of the novel.

This is the central conflict in "House of Sand and Fog":

The government evicts a woman from her home unjustly, causing her to becoming homeless and determined to reclaim her house, when an immigrant purchases it at a government auction as a major step in his effort to use real estate to begin to raise his family's standard of living in the United States. Both are flawed but good people, and the film details the choices each one makes that result in a downward spiral.

"House of Sand and Fog" is the poster child for the "malevolent universe premise," which Ayn Rand called the view that man cannot achieve his values; it is the idea that successes are the exception, and that the rule of human life is failure and misery. This premise is antithetical to her philosophy, which holds that the universe is auspicious to human life if a man adheres to reality.

The movie shows human beings' ordinary self-interested actions to cause conflicts that result in tragedy due to tragic flaws in the characters, or on a more simple level, because of miscommunication and a government property-tax error.

"House of Sand and Fog" also suggests a mystical "determinism" philosophy. As Ben Kingsley stated in an interview with Charlie Rose, the film represents the Ancient Greek or Roman view that the Gods enjoy placing mortals together with precisely those others who would cause the maximum conflict and harm, just for the sport of watching the events play out.

I can find some good things to say about this movie and its director, however. First, the movie can be viewed as a critique of property taxes and of government auctions of unpaid-tax-based foreclosed real estate. In this way the film supports the idea of an individual's right to his own property. Certainly the bureaucrats in government are essential to causing the central problem in the movie.

But this message would have been clearer if the eviction was not the result of a mistake, but rather the result of standard state policy.
Another positive value in the movie is the way Ben Kingsley's immigrant character is portrayed. His is one of the most dignified, self-respecting, noble characterizations I have seen in any movie.

Additionally, Vadim Perelman has an excellent ability to give proper weight to the emotional value of a scene by staying with it, rather than cutting away quickly. His unhurried pacing of the film gives the audience time to think and feel, unlike so many films today.

Another quality I appreciated is that there is no sarcastic or ironic humor in the dialogue. Perelman doesn't randomly throw in modern slang or cynical attitudes the way so many other filmmakers do these days. The characters say what they mean, eloquently, at times with beautiful language, and without irony. (That is not to say that the film has no "swear" words.)

Artistically, the film is sound. It is an almost perfect representation of the malevolent universe premise. The seriousness of the story is given its proper weight. It is emotionally harrowing. You grow to care about the characters and see them as real people. (That is, as long as you believe they have volition and are not the playthings of the Gods). Vadim Perelman is a good director, based on this film.

Can Perelman switch his sense of life from dark to light? If so, and if the "Atlas Shrugged" script grows to 4 hours or more, perhaps there is hope.

She Moved Through The Fair

2007-06-15T04:14:00.001-04:00

Many of you will know that the title of this post is also the title of a traditional Irish ballad. Just about every singer who you suspect might consider singing this song has done so plus some you never would have expected. I discovered I owned so many versions among my tapes and CDs, without even trying to collect them, that I once made a tape for myself of seven different versions in a row.

As you may have gathered, I like this ballad very much. And when I played a recording of it for my fiancee about ten years ago, my eyes started to well up, and she decided it should be made a part of our wedding. My coworker D.L. Shroder, who is an actor (see him at http://www.imdb.com/), graciously agreed to recite the lyrics of the ballad at one point during the ceremony. As he read it, he himself choked up.

Well, years later, when listening to yet another version on yet another album, I noticed a verse I had not heard or seen before. In this verse, it seemed that the singer’s lover is actually a ghost, and the wedding anticipated in the song never takes place at all. The song, which was a song of innocence and utter romantic ecstacy and anticipation, suddenly became a tragic, malevolent-universe type of song, the opposite of what I wanted recited at my wedding.

I decided that since that verse was never recited, my wedding was not actually tarnished.

However, I am happy to report that the version with the ghost is possibly inaccurate. Last Sunday I saw a concert by British folk guitarist Bert Jansch at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. He performed this ballad. But in his introduction, he revealed that when his old band Pentangle had recorded the song, they had made an error in the transcription of the lyrics. One word had been misrepresented. Instead of “My dear love came to me” they had sung “My dead love came to me”. He said his old band mate Jacqui McShee thinks it’s about a ghost to this day.

What a relief to learn the true lyrics are as I had hoped. I suppose I could have searched the Francis Child Ballads or other sources to find out for myself, but certainly Bert Jansch is as good a source as one can have.

However, now I read at Wikipedia that the ballad is in fact tragic and has two versions, one with “dead” and one with “dear”. Who can you trust?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast_Child

Here is the version I had recited at my wedding:

“She Moved Through the Fair”

My young love said to me,
“My mother won’t mind
And my father won’t slight you
For your lack of kind.”
And she stepped away from me
and this she did say,
“It will not be long now
‘Til our wedding day,”

As she stepped away from me,
And she moved through the fair,
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there.
And then she turned homeward,
With one star awake,
Like the swan in the evening
Moves over the lake.

Last night she came to me,
My dear love came in
So softly she came that
Her feet made no din
And she laid her hand on me
And this she did say,
“It will not be long, love,
’til our wedding day.”

Tony Awards and My Disney Podcast

2007-06-07T20:54:00.000-04:00

The important post to read is my previous one called California Restrains Free Speech. This post is just for a couple of lighter topics.

The Tony Awards are handed out on Sunday June 10. I only saw one Broadway show last year, Mary Poppins, and on that basis I am rooting for Gavin Lee to win a Tony. He played Bert believably and brightly, and he connected with the audience, drawing you in. He also danced in very difficult circumstances (such as inverted).

Jane Carr, the actress who played the cook Mrs. Brill, was also amazing, in being such a vividly real personality.

Ashley Brown, however, the actress playing Mary Poppins, did not act so much as vogue her role. Where Julie Andrews in the movie kept you guessing, "What is her angle? Where is she coming from? What is she really thinking?", Ashley Brown was purely superficial, except for a few better moments toward the end. However, she was competent, adequate and professional enough for me to say, as Walt Disney is famous for saying to his staff when not displeased, "That'll do."

For more of my opinions on the show Mary Poppins, see my March 2007 post called "I'm Still Here."

Speaking of Walt Disney, I just recorded the first episode of my new internet radio show, "Inside Walt's World." I discuss my memories from 1989 when I worked as a telephone operator at Walt Disney World. It is now on rotation at the Disney-themed Extinct Attractions Radio station at http://www.live365.com/stations/extinctattractions or more simply at www.extinctattractionsradio.com. You may hear it on any day throughout the month of June 2007 at 1:00 pm Pacific Time or 4:00 pm Eastern Time (USA Time).

California Restrains Free Speech

2007-06-07T19:37:00.000-04:00

The California Supreme Court has recently ruled that certain prior restraints on free speech are permissible.

The case involves a woman who lives near a restaurant. She would publicly rant against it, shouting falsehoods to potential customers, such as that the restaurant is involved with prostitution, drug dealing and the Mafia, and not only that, but it serves tainted food, too. She was found to have committed slander. However, there was an added injunction against her.

The majority opinion in the case captioned Balboa Island Village v. Lemen stated:

"Defendant [Lemen] ...objects to ...an injunction prohibiting her from repeating [in the future] statements the trial court determined were slanderous, asserting the injunction constitutes an impermissible prior restraint. We disagree."

According to Howard Bashman in his blog "How Appealing":

"Two justices dissented, and they reasoned that the injunction constituted an impermissible prior restraint on speech and that the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate that damages were insufficient to compensate the plaintiff for any harm that resulted from further repetition of the defamation."

http://howappealing.law.com/042607.html#024669

I am alarmed at this decision and precedent. Ms. Lemen, the defendant, argued that "a statement that was once false may become true later in time." I agree, and I believe one cannot morally or constitutionally prohibit speech before the fact. The Court rejected that argument concluding that further legal motions could be made by either party if things change. I disagree, and believe if she is punished for slander, that is motivation enough for her to cease. If she slanders again, then another suit or motion could be made for that new event, and eventually she will cease. But taking prohibition of speech as the status quo and then requiring motions to modify or dissolve the injunction if things change strikes me as backwards-thinking, a presumption of future guilt, and a violation of rights. I'm not an expert and I would welcome any informed opinions.

An easy-to-read and thoughtful commentary on this case by Vikram David Amar is at this site:

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/amar/20070511.html

Film on Eminent Domain

2007-05-24T23:23:00.000-04:00

I recently attended a screening of a not-yet-released documentary film about the impact of eminent domain laws on individual citizens. It is called “Greetings from Asbury Park.”

The movie focuses on eminent domain’s impact on one woman, the 91-year-old Angie, who had spent half her life in her small home in Asbury Park, since arriving as an immigrant. We see her making phone calls, hiring a lawyer and "storming city hall" to fight for her rights.

Asbury is my old home town and the filmmaker, Christina Eliopoulos, also grew up there. It's a formerly vibrant beach resort town that has deteriorated over the last 40 years due to race riots, corrupt politicians and extreme welfare-statism which moved in large numbers of the mentally ill and of welfare-dependent people. This combined with high property taxes and high crime rates sent most, but not all, of the remaining sane, working, law-abiding residents packing.

As a result, irreplaceable buildings like the gorgeous Mayfair Theatre, which could no longer draw an audience and pay the high property taxes, were torn down. My own brief home movies of its demolition are shown in the documentary.

However, the film is primarily about the current government's use of eminent domain laws to drive out the remaining residents by force, and demolish their homes and businesses, to make way for condominiums.

I was surprised and delighted to see that Dana Berliner, of the pro-property rights Institute for Justice, is featured in the film. (She is the daughter of former Ayn Rand Institute Executive Director, Michael Berliner). Although there are some comments by individuals criticizing the city’s redevelopment plan as “Trickle Down Reaganomics” and someone calls for government-funded low-income housing, overall the movie is clearly focused on the injustice of a government taking over private property, in a moving way.

If you’d like to screen the film or donate money to assist in the film’s final editing, distribution and promotion, please contact Kerry Margaret Butch by emailing her at kerrymbutch@yahoo.com. You may also email Christina Eliopoulos at celiop99@mac.com. Say Greg Zeigerson sent you!

There will be a screening hosted by the Institute for Justice's Castle Coalition featuring guest speaker Dana Berliner at Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove, NJ on June 22nd, 2007.

Racism, Freedom of Speech and Mikko Ellila

2007-05-10T04:05:00.000-04:00

Prodos has posted on his blog the English translation of Mikko Ellila’s essay. See http://prodos.thinkertothinker.com/?p=325.

Mikko’s essay has some racist notions. While I totally disagree with those notions, I still uphold his right to freedom of speech. Speech isn’t force. If individual rights are to be respected, everyone must be permitted to express any ideas, no matter how false or unpleasant. In a free marketplace of ideas, the best and truest ideas win out in the culture eventually. Once some types of speech are prohibited, any other type of speech can be next. I uphold the right to freedom of speech for Mikko, as well as Don Imus and Howard Stern, as well as Nazis and Klansmen and even Al Gore and John Kerry, despite the degree to which they all offend me. Every dictatorship controls speech because the dictator knows it is in trouble once the people learn the truth.

For a vision of a world without freedom of speech, see Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451″. (Incidentally, Ray Bradbury has expressed anger at Michael Moore for stealing and distorting his title without permission, for Moore’s so-called documentary film with a similar title).
Having defended Mikko’s right to write anything he wants, I will now comment on why I disagree with his essay. Mikko’s essay suggests that members of a race share the same traits. Even if some members of the same race share certain traits, it is virtually never true that all members do, unless it is a meaningless and irrelevant physical trait that defines the race such as skin color.

In life, one deals with one person at a time, not all members of a race. (Even when addressing a group, you are addressing each individual in the group.) Each person creates his own personality, and achieves what he is able to or wishes to, based on the choices he makes and actions he takes within the context of his level of freedom, knowledge and ability, and the limitations imposed on him by his circumstances. Each person is an individual and his race is irrelevant. What he shares or doesn’t share with other members of his race has no bearing on how you interact with him.

If you recognize reality, you treat each person as an original, unique, irreplaceable self-created individual. There is no collective mind, only individual minds. (There is a Collective Soul, but that’s just a rock group, who has admitted to taking its name from a line in Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.”)

Individualism is the only way to fight and end racism. Taking each person as unique and respecting each person’s rights equally leaves no room for considering other members of his group. Capitalism is the only system that rewards individual effort and allows anyone to achieve what he can on his own initiative, regardless of any facts about any other members of his race or group. Individualism and Capitalism are the means to end racism.

For a more eloquent discussion of these issues, please see Ayn Rand’s essay “Racism” in her book “The Virtue of Selfishness” excerpted at http://freedomkeys.com/ar-racism.htm ..

See also George Reisman’s Essay “Capitalism: The Cure for Racism” excerpted at http://www.capitalism.net/excerpts/1-931089-07-8.pdf and available at http://www.capitalism.net/gr_pamph.htm .

See also Peter Schwartz’s essay “The Racism of Diversity” at http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3399

Free Speech Threatened; Blogger Persecuted

2007-05-04T03:24:00.000-04:00

One of my fellow http://ThinkertoThinker.com bloggers, named Mikko Ellila, is having his right to freedom of speech threatened by Finnish authorities. Although I cannot read Finnish, I completely support Mikko’s right to express any opinions and present any facts. Moreover, all indications suggest that his writings tell the truth.

His blog is at http://mikkoellila.thinkertothinker.com/

Prodos’ May 3, 2007 blog post details the issue: http://prodos.thinkertothinker.com/

Mikkos wrote to Prodos the following:

“I am writing to you because I received a letter from the municipalpolice department saying they want to interrogate me because of theanti-Muslim, pro-Israeli, pro-European, pro-American posts in myblog. According to the letter, I am suspected of hate speech merelybecause I have pointed out that Islam is a fascist ideology thatadvocates killing Jews, atheists, homosexuals etc. …

This is a very important symbolic case, the first of its kind inFinland. Noone has ever been interrogated before in this country forblog posts criticising Islam. Probably thousands of people will be following this case already before I will visit the police station for the interrogation next Monday, because I have told about theongoing police investigation to several other bloggers whose pagesget thousands of visitors per day.”

Some action that you can take on behalf of freedom of speech and Mikkos Ellila, action that blogger Baron Bodissey recommends, includes:

Contact the Finnish authorities. The Finnish embassy has a handy US map with state-by-state contact information here: http://www.finland.org/en/

Here’s the main contact info for their embassy in Washington:

Embassy of Finland
3301 Massachusetts Avenue
N.W.Washington D.C. 20008
U.S.A

Tel. +1-202-298 5800Fax: +1-202-298 6030
E-mail: sanomat.was@formin.fi
Homepage: www.finland.org

Per Baron Bodissey: “Don’t be shy: remind the Finnish authorities how highly-regarded free speech is in their country. It seems that they may have forgotten that.”

More on Rudy Giuliani

2007-04-13T23:25:00.000-04:00

I remember economist/Objectivist Richard Salsman during the 1996 Presidential primaries suggesting during a Q and A that it is so important to weaken the religionists’ impact on the Republican Party, to return the GOP to its more secular identity of the pre-Reagan past, that it is essential to vote for any secular, nontheocratic Republican in the primaries, even if he is a big-government liberal. At the time, he recommended voting for Arlen Specter.

This is another reason why, if we are to have any hope for the Republican Party, which is still the less Marxist/statist/collectivist of the two parties, Rudy Giuliani is the best choice of GOP candidates running now, and even any expected to consider running within the year (e.g., Newt Gingrich). Giuliani is not very religious and strongly supports the separation of church and state.

Yes, as New York Mayor, in the negative column, he welcomed terrorist Gerry Adams, and yes, at times he got government too involved in areas that are not part of its proper function, and yes, he persecuted and prosecuted Michael Milken many years ago. However, in the positive column, he also has been very strong in defending illegal immigrants from deportation, protecting women’s right to have an abortion, he justly and boldly threw terrorist Yasser Arafat out of a concert to which he hadn’t been invited, and according to Wikipedia:

“When Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal suggested that the [9/11] attacks were an indication that the United States ’should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause’, Giuliani asserted,
There is no moral equivalent for this [terrorist] act. There is no justification for it… And one of the reasons I think this happened is because people were engaged in moral equivalency in not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism. So I think not only are those statements wrong, they’re part of the problem.

Giuliani subsequently rejected the prince’s $10 million donation to disaster relief in the aftermath of the attack.”

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani#_note-62
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/11/rec.giuliani.prince/

How many other politicians do you imagine would reject a Saudi’s ten million dollars and give a Palestinian leader like Yasser Arafat the boot? These are very strong indications that Giuliani understands the principle of justice and will act in a non-appeasing manner as President. His positive treatment of Gerry Adams conflicts with these other actions and does trouble me, however.

Steve Forbes, who is usually pro-capitalism in his economics and who is, like Giuliani, very conversant with history, has signed on as a consultant to Giuliani. I think this is a good sign, as Giuliani has not in the past supported Forbes’ Flat Tax idea, but is now embracing it, according to the New York Times. The “FairTax” or National Sales Tax replacing the income tax is probably a better idea, but Forbes’ Flat Tax is the next best thing and a step in the right direction. Overall Forbes is an excellent choice for economics advisor.

By the way, did you know that there is an openly atheist Congressman? It’s Pete Stark, Democrat of California.

See: http://www.secular.org/news/pete_stark_070312.html

I'm Still Here

2007-03-23T21:54:00.000-04:00

I haven’t been blogging for awhile but I will be doing so again.

I am taking a TV writing class taught by a professional TV writer, and I will end up with a pilot script by the end of it. It’s loosely based on my first screenplay which I had put aside as needing more thought and improvement. I suddenly realized that a TV series format could be perfect for the content of the first half of my feature. Stay tuned for more on that. So far I’m thrilled with the response to my work in the class. Of course it’s “impossible” to sell a pilot but one has to try.

Some of the many topics I have thought of blogging about are the Presidential candidates for USA Election 2008 (So far I don’t see any better candidates running or likely to run than Rudy Giuliani, despite his shortcomings–he understands and knows the facts of history, and I believe he would implement a foreign policy of self-defense; he firmly stood up against Arafat and a Saudi royal in his mayoral career–and I think it’s important that he gets early and consistent support so he has a chance to win), the Broadway show Mary Poppins (I would give it a mixed review; the storyline makes less sense compared to the movie, Mary leaves the household in the middle–that’s not what I came to see–yet Mr. Banks blames her anyway for causing all the trouble, some of the songs have lost their oomph and rhythmic pacing, the orchestra is too small, the wife has become a victim instead of a confident suffragette, and there’s an overall psychotherapy-session feeling, but it has lovely and thrilling moments nonetheless and is very entertaining), and the movie Breach (I liked it–how strange that a man can compartmentalize his knowledge to such an extent, evading the results of his misdeeds, disconnecting his religious beliefs from his actions, etc. Great acting by Chris Cooper, and adequate acting by Ryan Phillippe. The book on Robert Hanssen surveyed his entire career but the film just portrays its last days, an effective choice).

Well, I guess I don’t have to blog on those topics any more. But feel free to reply with comments and I’ll clarify anything too sketchy above.

Meanwhile, I have to get my tax materials to my accountant before he gets overburdened by last-minute submissions, and I am trying to get a lot of computer-related technical stuff done (I always procrastinate on that, I’m just not a computer-oriented person although I am glad they were invented).

Updates From Zigory

2007-01-19T17:28:00.000-05:00

Here’s my brief comment regarding the report in The New York Times on January 14, 2007, that Randall Wallace is writing a two-hour screenplay for the Atlas Shrugged movie:
A two-hour movie cannot convey anything substantial about the 1084-page novel’s plot, drama, and ideas. It would be like reading an outline for a proposed movie. It would be less fulfilling than Cliff’s Notes. A better idea would be to take a 100-page segment of the novel and dramatize it, without pretending to represent the whole novel. My hope is that Randall Wallace will be greedy enough to want three paydays instead of one, and write a trilogy after all.

About The Zigory Show with Hugh Fink: The Solid Vox web site (http://solidvox.com) and all of the Prodosphere sites are changing servers and Prodos is going through toil and trouble to make them all work correctly.

When that is taken care of, my very enjoyable, funny and informative interview with comedian/producer/writer Hugh Fink will go online at http://zigory.solidvox.com. After that, more Zigory Shows are on their way. I’m keeping with the Performing Arts/Show Business theme as it is one of my main areas of interest and expertise. I am currently planning interviews with people known for their work in Old Time Radio and in animation.

Emmy-Winner Hugh Fink on The Zigory Show

2006-12-20T18:40:00.000-05:00

In another Zigory Show about the art and business of entertainment, I recently interviewed Hugh Fink, a stand-up comedian, television writer and producer who has won an Emmy for NBC’s Saturday Night Live. He has also taught comedy at UCLA. This new episode of The Zigory Show will soon be available for listening and downloading on www.zigory.solidvox.com.

He was the subject of an article in the New York Times on October 17, 2006 about his plan to perform at his alma mater that went awry due to an attempt by authorities to alter his routine. We discuss this incident in the Zigory Show interview.

An article about David Spade’s Showbiz Show, with quotes from Hugh, its creator and producer, appeared in the New York Times on September 15, 2005 (reprinted in its entirety elsewhere on September 28, 2005) and Hugh is also quoted in a Times article about Saturday Night Live on January 2, 2005.

I have known Hugh since our college years at New York University. It was great fun catching up with him and fascinating to hear his views on what makes something funny, what is the most important element in writing good comedy, the different types of humor, what one motivation he believes all comedians have in common, and the steps of his career so far from class clown to stand-up comic to writer-producer. We discuss today’s edgy humor and what value it can have, what are its disvalues when mishandled, and compare it to softer, lighter comedy such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Whether you agree with his opinions or not, he is a knowledgeable, experienced professional in comedy whose comments are of interest to anyone with a curiosity about entertainment and humor.

(To contact Zigory please email me at zigory@comcast.net.)

Kingdom of New York City

2006-12-07T20:42:00.000-05:00

King Bloomberg and his Merry Board of Health Fascists now dictate restaurant recipes in all of New York City’s 24,000 food establishments.

What’s next, a gendarme in every home’s kitchen making sure at the point of a gun that you don’t cook with trans fats?

See http://www.nysun.com/article/44691 . Also see excellent comment by Dr. Mark A. Hurt at http://www.nysun.com/comments/3902 .

George Reisman wrote a good blog post on the topic of food-choice freedom at http://georgereisman.com/blog/2006/12/you-cant-have-trans-fats-because.html#links (although his request that libertarians become more like Objectivists is at best futile). He paints a vivid and believable picture of where this trend toward violating freedom of choice is headed — a snapshot of what life may be like one day soon — and what principles must be upheld as inviolable, in order to prevent it.

On my previous blog post topic, did you know that Rudy Giuliani had stepped down from the Baker-Hamilton commission (Iraq Study Group) early on? Here’s a good editorial about Baker vs. Giuliani: http://www.nysun.com/article/44790 . I continue to support Giuliani for President in 2008 unless an even stronger candidate comes along.

Iraq Study Group's Terrible Idea

2006-12-06T18:11:00.000-05:00

Today’s bipartisan report by The Iraq Study Group regarding the Iraq War makes the exactly wrong recommendation: Talk to and negotiate with Iran and Syria. In other words, give them credibility.

See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16068589/ .

Iran and Syria’s actions have been purely evil, consistently. Why pretend they will change now? Just “hope” they suddenly turn sane after being psychopaths? They are not simply psychopaths, but psychopaths on principle due to their beliefs! This hoping and wishing for the best is not a good plan if you want to live — or live free.

What could account for such illogical wrong-headedness on the part of supposedly intelligent, wise, accomplished men? It is the influence of their own religious beliefs, specifically its focus on altruism and forgiveness. It is also a long trend of intellectuals teaching moral relativism or equivalence, or the doctrine of diversity, which denies one’s right to make distinctions between cultures, including distinctions between good and evil! We are taught to put blinders on rather than see the full picture with utter clarity.

What To Do In Iraq? Ralph Peters' New View

2006-11-30T21:07:00.000-05:00

I haven’t followed Ralph Peters’ columns closely, but I understand he has in the past supported the Iraq war in part because overthrowing a dictator and establishing “rule-of-law democracy” is “noble” (not because it could be in America’s defensive self-interest). On November 2 in USA Today he wrote, “I supported the removal of Saddam Hussein. I believed that Arabs deserved a chance to build a rule-of-law democracy in the Middle East.”

Recently Peters seems to have had a change of heart, and has realized that American self-interest is the priority. In his most recent editorial, he even emphasizes the importance of well-defined terms to aid in thinking logically, and the importance of a well-defined, self-defensive purpose in war.

In his November 30 column in The New York Post, he writes regarding the inaccuracy of calling the Iraq situation a civil war, “In a civil war, you have clearly defined sides struggling for political power, with organized military formations and parallel governments.”

He writes that instead, “the violence in Iraq comes from overlapping groups of terrorists, militias, insurgents, death squads, gangsters, foreign agents and factionalized government security forces engaging in layers of savage religious, ethnic, political and economic struggles - with an all-too-human lust for revenge spicing the mix….No military lexicon offers a useful term to describe the situation in Iraq.

“This matters. We not only speak, but think, in language. To communicate effectively, we must describe things efficiently. Agreeing upon its name is essential to a deeper understanding of any phenomenon. Nouns are the handles with which we grip reality.”

This of course is true. But the words I think he’s searching for are “anarchy” and “altruism” (as in American self-sacrifice). Anarchy results in part from an ineffective government with no Constitutional commitment to defending liberty, and no philosophical basis in the culture for defending individual rights.

So what do we do now in Iraq? To his credit, he does not support Bush’s altruistic idea of staying there, taking no aggressive actions, allowing our soldiers to die or get wounded day after day, until the Iraqi government says they don’t need us anymore.

Peters writes, “The administration and Congress have to face a fundamental question: Which result is more important - preserving Iraq as a unified state with a facade of democratic government, or protecting our own national-security interests?

“The two priorities now conflict. Really taking on our enemies - not least Moqtada al-Sadr and his legion of thugs - would require us to defy the elected Baghdad government we sponsored. To kill those who need killing to pacify Iraq and re-establish our ascendancy would mean that we would again become an outright occupying power.

“Not that it really matters, but doing what it would take to win would also tear up our permission slip from the United Nations.

“On the other hand, the prospect of endlessly shoring up a corrupt, divided Iraqi government unwilling to protect its own citizens, and to do so at a cost in American blood, would be a far more immoral course than ordering our troops to kill the butchers who’ve been assassinating them and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.”

Note that he uses the term “immoral” correctly; he is saying that altruism and the sacrifice of Americans to a corrupt Iraqi government is immoral. He is calling for our troops to actually take action against the “butchers,” saying it is the more moral course. (It is hard to believe–but plainly true–that our troops are literally prevented from taking such action! They are just supposed to stand there and be targets, apparently.)

Peters begins his conclusion with these words:

“A fundamental problem is that the mission in Iraq remains vague. And vague mission statements are not conducive to military success.

“Generalities won’t do. Let’s tell our troops precisely what we expect of them: Are they there to defeat our enemies, or just to buy time with their lives in the forlorn hope that something will go right?”

In fact, according to President Bush, our troops are there to altruistically assist the democratically elected Iraqi government (that includes Communists and Islamic Theocrats) in any way they want, for as long as they want, because democracy (i.e., unlimited majority rule) is some kind of holy thing, the same holy thing that put into power Hitler in the 1930s and Hamas in 2006.

Peters ends with these sensible words: “And let’s not lose sight of the incontestable fact that, while being liked in the Middle East would be nice, being feared by our enemies is essential…we need to remember that, whatever else our government does or fails to do, its ultimate reason for being is to protect Americans and American interests.

“Saving the dubious Maliki government is a secondary concern, at most. The uncompromising defeat of our enemies is what matters.”

What are the best solutions to the Iraq situation? There are probably a few. One is Peters’ idea of becoming an “occupying power,” and unleashing our military to smash the enemy within Iraq, but also (my own addition) imposing a constitutionally limited government.

Another idea is to juxtapose two actions nearly simultaneously: Withdraw our troops from Iraq and the next day launch massive attacks on Iran, including nuclear facilities, government sites, Islamic fundamentalist schools and terrorist training sites. Overwhelm the totalitarian Islamists. Warn the other nations to shape up or we’ll strike them. Then when the dust settles, give moral and intellectual support–not military support–to a promising group trying to establish an individual rights-respecting government in Iran.

Well worth viewing or listening to is Yaron Brook’s “Democracy vs. Victory” on the Registered Users Page of http://www.aynrand.org/. First register, then see http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_ari_events and go to the right side and click on Free Online Video Selections, Registered Users Page.

Brook shows that victory and defending America is not President Bush’s plan at all. As hard as this once may have been to believe, it is made chillingly obvious by Brook.

Chuck McCann on The Zigory Show

2006-11-22T17:04:00.000-05:00

My latest interview on The Zigory Show was a delight to conduct, and recommended to you if you have an interest in the entertainment business and especially the history of comedy and the early days of children’s television. My guest was Chuck McCann, and you can hear the interview online at www.zigory.solidvox.com right now!

Chuck McCann is a veteran Hollywood comedian and actor, who created many children’s television shows primarily in the New York area in the 1950s and 1960s, where I first encountered him.

I watched him probably from my birth until he went off the air when I was about 6, as he performed with puppets, played The Great Bombo (an inept magician and escape artist), portrayed a large Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, and many other characters. He was a student and friend of Stan Laurel and has often portrayed Oliver Hardy on television.

A highlight of my conversation with Chuck McCann is his commentary about Stan Laurel the man, and the influence of Laurel and Hardy on later comedians.

He is the voice of numerous cartoon characters including Duckworth on “DuckTales” and The Thing on “The Fantastic Four.”

He directed and performed in a feature animated film called “The World of Hans Christian Anderson” and he played W. C. Fields in the 1982 TV movie biography of Mae West.

He starred in “The Projectionist,” appeared in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and several Mel Brooks films, and added his spark to numerous TV commercials. It was a great pleasure to speak with Chuck, and to thank him for being part of my happy childhood memories.

Here is the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) filmography on Chuck McCann: CLICK HERE (over 100 listings!): http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0564841/ .

My interview with Chuck McCann is at http://zigory.solidvox.com .

“Atlas Shrugged” Movie: Whither will Randall Wallace Lead Us?

2006-10-27T23:20:00.000-04:00

After I wrote my post about Angelina Jolie being cast in “Atlas Shrugged”, Variety reported that Randall Wallace, writer of “Braveheart” and “Pearl Harbor”, and writer-director of “Man in the Iron Mask” and “We Were Soldiers”, will write and direct “Atlas Shrugged”.

I am only familiar with “Braveheart”, which was decent, and heroic, if somewhat convoluted and ultimately conveying a tragic/malevolent-universe view. I have also heard that “Man in the Iron Mask” was worthwhile. But “Pearl Harbor” was considered mediocre and historically inaccurate by most critics and people I know who saw it. Because of the less than ideal “Braveheart” and the fact that Wallace majored in religion at Duke University, I am less enthusiastic about him than I was about James V. Hart as the screenwriter. For example, I suspect that all of the explicitly atheistic and anti-religion ideas will be removed from the story.

However, James V. Hart is still listed on www.IMDB.com under “Atlas Shrugged” as one of the writers along with Wallace, so perhaps they are collaborating, which may help the overall script quality and faithfulness to the novel.

The good news is that Wallace is as Hollywood “establishment” as they come, more successful than Hart, and with Angelina Jolie automatically makes “Atlas Shrugged” seen as a major motion picture with great box office expectations (by those people who don’t already know how commercial the story is even without famous names attached). The two of them also assure a huge amount of publicity. Wallace’s association with the currently friendless Mel Gibson in two films, and with the highly successful but critically berated “Pearl Harbor”, may bring negative publicity, but publicity the movie will get.

Interestingly, Jon Voight, Angelina’s father, played President Roosevelt in “Pearl Harbor”.

P.S. I just found this quote from co-executive producer Karen Baldwin saying “Atlas Shrugged” may not be a trilogy, and that Randall Wallace was hired to revise the screenplay, but may not be the director:

http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_4537477

”We’ve hired Randall Wallace (”Braveheart,” “We Were Soldiers”), and he’s going to revise the script, so we’re letting Randy and his writing determine how many movies there will be…Ideally we’d like to have the script so we could be in preproduction in the spring.” She added that a director won’t be confirmed for the Lionsgate project until the script is complete.

I dislike the premise that the decision on one versus three films is at the mercy of Randall Wallace’s desires. This means the producers are giving Wallace the power to make decisions the producers should be making. Clearly a single film is not going to be adequate to convey even a tiny percentage of the story. I think Wallace’s clout will cloud the minds of the producers.

If Wallace wants a bigger payday he will want to write three screenplays, so there is the hope that will be an incentive towards a trilogy.

The World According To The Taliban

2006-10-18T21:12:00.000-04:00

Shortly after September 11, 2001, I attended a concert by the prolific and accomplished songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson. He was long ago a major component of the English folk rock band Fairport Convention, along with the late Sandy Denny (”Who Knows Where The Time Goes” is their most famous song). He wrote “Crazy Man Michael” and “Farewell, Farewell”, among others, for Fairport Convention. After leaving the band, his songs included “Valerie”, “Persuasion” and “I Misunderstood” and he recently released a mini-survey of the last 1000 years of popular music on CD and DVD.

At the concert, I was still shell-shocked and wondering if, after buying a home in New Jersey the previous month, I should sell it and buy another one much farther away from New York, so that I could survive any future attacks on New York City by Islamic Fundamentalists (I still am considering that move, but for now we are staying).

During the concert, Richard Thompson introduced a song with comments of sympathy for what we in the area have been going through, and said he had recently written the song to show the Taliban’s view of the world. I found the song to accurately encapsulate the frightening-to-ponder attitude of anti-Western death worshippers such as the Taliban. I was moved by the performance as it was the first satire I had heard and it was an emotional relief to contemplate the evil we face via satirical jabs for the first time. It shows the mystic’s feelings-based rather than reality-and-reason-based philosophy as experienced psychologically by a Taliban. I understand that Thompson considers himself a Muslim, but obviously he doesn’t take the fundamentalist view.

Here are some of the lyrics to that song, which eventually appeared as “Outside of the Inside” on his CD entitled “The Old Kit Bag” in 2003.

A few lyrics from “Outside of the Inside” by Richard Thompson:

“…what’s the point of Albert Einstein
What do we need Physics for? …
Shakespeare, Isaac Newton
Small ideas for little boys
Adding to the senseless chatter
Adding to the background noise
Hard to hear my oratory
Hard to hear my inner voice

Van Gogh, Botticelli
Scraping paint onto a board
Colour is the fuel of madness
That’s no way to praise the Lord
Grey’s the colour of the pious
Knelt upon the misericord.

There’s a message on the wind
Calling me to glory somewhere”

The Zigory Show will make you hungry!

2006-10-12T18:14:00.000-04:00

On my latest edition of The Zigory Show, I interview Michelle Steffens, who has been a chef at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill and Bolo restaurants in New York, and who operates her own catering business in New York and New Jersey. She talks about the business and pleasure of food, with anecdotes from her career, and tips on making your own dishes more flavorful.

You may listen to this podcast at http://www.zigory.solidvox.com/ right now!

Thanks for listening!

Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart

2006-09-28T02:07:00.000-04:00

These are my comments on the news from Variety that Angelina Jolie has signed to play Dagny Taggart in Howard and Karen Baldwin’s movie version of Ayn Rand’s great novel “Atlas Shrugged”. Can Angelina Jolie do the role justice?

I have only seen Angelina Jolie act in one movie, “Girl, Interrupted”. She won an Oscar for her supporting role as Lisa Rowe, a patient at a mental hospital who knows all the angles, in order to manipulate the staff so things go her way. For example, she finds ways to repeatedly escape the mental hospital, view secret files, get away with forbidden activities.

I read Susanna Kaysen’s original, short nonfiction book dealing with her bout with “borderline personality disorder”, and the film expanded rather than condensed the story. In the same way, Angelina Jolie had to create her character’s attitude and mannerisms by studying and integrating the clues from the script, and I think she did an outstanding job with that. There is very little in the original memoir about Lisa.

Some may say Jolie was playing herself, but whatever she did, it is a memorable and vivid performance. Within the mental hospital’s patient society, she is their leader, by being aloof and focused on her own needs (rational or irrational). I can see within this characterization, that Jolie has the potential to be the personification of nonconformity, of individualism, in a rational character as well. I believe what draws her to play Dagny is that aloof independence and driving ambition, that passion to pursue what she wants.

In the character of Lisa in “Girl, Interrupted”, Angelina Jolie was able to convey a type of selfishness, a driven pursuit of what Lisa would consider her values, and also a total disregard for the opinions of others. Yes, the character of Lisa is mentally disturbed, but it is what Angelina Jolie found within that character that I believe motivates her to play Dagny, and shows that she is capable of playing Dagny.

To sum up, based on viewing “Girl, Interrupted,” I can see that Jolie is able to show a driven, selfish pursuit of values, as well as total independence/nonconformity, a complete disregard for the opinion of others.

She isn’t the physical type I would have chosen for Dagny, but she is far from “wrong” for the role.

I’m not saying I expect the movie to be good; I will wait and see. But there is reason to believe it may be decent, even thrilling and worthy of the book, as the screenwriter James Hart wrote the film version of Carl Sagan’s “Contact”, which I thought was a good screenplay, and the producers Howard and Karen Baldwin were involved with “Ray” which I didn’t see yet, but have heard from reliable sources was very good. Both are thought to be films respectful of their source material–in the case of “Ray”, the facts of Ray Charles’ life.

Also, I have heard that the Baldwins are planning to produce “Atlas Shrugged” as a trilogy. This will allow it to have a chance of suggesting the scope of the story. No movie or trilogy will recreate the book word for word, as the book is too long, and no one should expect that.

The only film that I know of that recreated a normal-length novel almost word for word, was the 12-episode miniseries of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited”.

My Favorite Halloween Movies (A Bit Early)

2006-09-21T17:47:00.000-04:00

Elizabeth of the Elizabethan Blog (www.elizabethan.thinkertothinker.com) asks me for a list of good movies for Halloween. Interesting question. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Some of the following I haven’t seen since childhood or my teen years, but I am fairly certain they are all worthwhile. If you don’t mind intelligently scary films, or humorous ones, as opposed to simple shockers full of gore, here are my Halloween recommendations:

1. “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein” (don’t see one without the other), directed by James Whale with Boris Karloff. Catch a brief glimpse of one of my favorite character actresses, Una O’Connor, as Minnie, in an early scene.
2. “Dracula” directed by Tod Browning with Bela Lugosi.
3. “The Other” by Tom Tryon, directed by Robert Mulligan (recently released on DVD).
4. “Psycho” directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
5. “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury (although in the movie they ruined the ending of the novel by deleting the most important scene–the discussion of how to defeat the villain).
6. “Burn, Witch, Burn” a/k/a “Night of the Eagle” by Fritz Leiber and Richard Matheson.
7. “Bell, Book and Candle”.
8. “The Nanny” with Bette Davis.
9. “The Innocents” with Deborah Kerr.
10. “Two on a Guillotine” with Dean Jones.
11. “The Sixth Sense”.
12. TV Special: “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”.
13. “Rebecca” directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
14. “Freaks” directed by Tod Browning, with a cast of real ones, will give you chills.
15. “The Unholy Three” directed by Tod Browning, with Lon Chaney.
16. “The Unknown” directed by Tod Browning, with Lon Chaney. Pointlessly horrifying, but that’s what you want on Halloween, right?
17. “Eraserhead”. To experience a true nightmare as if you are having troubled sleep, no one has captured a bad dream on film as well as David Lynch did with “Eraserhead”. It’s not elevating or enlightening. It’s slow, nonsensical, sometimes boring and awful in many ways, but it gives you the feeling of being asleep and having your worst nightmare ever, if you want that feeling on Halloween.

For a comedic Halloween film, my wife recommends “Arsenic and Old Lace” with Cary Grant, but I haven’t seen it yet. I’ve heard good things about an animated version of Ray Bradbury’s “The Halloween Tree” but I haven’t seen that either. And you can’t go wrong with Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” TV series, most episodes of which I have seen and loved.

Also be sure to visit The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World or Disneyland if you live nearby.

Golden Age Quality Movies Being Made Today

2006-09-20T21:48:00.000-04:00

I don’t like much about today’s popular culture, but I find gems in the hay at times, especially because I look for them. On the negative point, looking at the promotional “Fall Preview” specials about the new television season (for example, the special shown by The CW which is the merging of The WB and UPN “networks”), I find that instead of making me eager to see programs being advertised, including ones I may have wanted to see, the promotional preview makes me want to avoid those shows. These TV previews, and many movie trailers that screen in theaters, feature tasteless dialogue or activities, loud music, quick and unintegratable editing, and unappealing, ignorant or pessimistic sarcastic characters. I suspect some of the programs and films aren’t as bad as the previews make them seem. Why the promos are made to send away people like me — an employed, college-educated male in my 40s married with children, with an interest in the beautiful, the thought-provoking, the informative, the dramatic and the delightful in my TV or movie viewing — I don’t understand. One would think I’m in a good demographic.

Meanwhile, turn to TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and you are in another world. The presentation, the introductions by Robert Osborne, the short films and documentaries between features, and above all the movies themselves are elevating, quality experiences. The movies by and large are from the 1940s back to the 1920s, the Golden Age.

Well, today, although there seems an endless stream of films with titles and subjects like Beer League, or the latest horror/slasher series, one can still find films and TV series that would not seem out of place among the classic movies of the 1930s or 1940s.

If you are looking for 21st Century movies that would feel perfectly at home among the Golden Age films, I can recommend two. They have in common that they are period pieces, and that they both coincidentally feature actor Paul Giamatti. One is Ron Howard’s “Cinderella Man” from 2005, and the other is the new film now playing at your local theater, “The Illusionist”.

You can rent “Cinderella Man” on DVD, and see a beautiful tale of a man with consistent honesty and an unshaking faithfulness to his moral code and his deepest values as he struggles to survive in a boxing career during the Great Depression.

“The Illusionist” is the inspiring story of an Austrian magician so brilliant at his illusions that he is the object of a prince’s envy while he is adored by the public and respected by the police chief hired to investigate him. The plot contains some twists that are fun to observe.

Here are some other recent films with that Golden Age quality: “Kate and Leopold” with Hugh Jackman, “Apollo 13″ by Ron Howard, “Schindler’s List” and “The Pianist” for vivid views of the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust, “Cinema Paradiso”, “The Sixth Sense” and “The Lord of The Rings” Trilogy. Although they have their flaws, the recent Star Wars prequels, especially “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith”, are of Golden Age quality as well. Beyond those, I would add the “Star Trek” films and TV series. Also, although it’s too dark and convoluted, “Dark City” with Kiefer Sutherland is a fascinating and stylized Good vs. Evil tale with imaginative plot ideas, visual effects and settings, a/k/a production design.

On television, what I’ve seen of “Smallville” and “Law and Order” usually impressed me in a similar way. Many have recommended “24″ but I haven’t seen it yet.

Easy To Understand Messages at Islamist Protest Rallies

2006-09-08T18:41:00.000-04:00

An acqaintance of mine informed me about these images from an Islamist protest rally in London. These images apparently have been around for awhile but I had not seen them until now, because they were not publicized in American media at all. The signs state, for example, “Be prepared for the REAL Holocaust!” and “Freedom, go to hell!”

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/muslimprotest.asp
Snopes confirms the photos are not altered.

If it weren’t such an important issue, it would be laughable that the U.S. media refuses to publicize these messages from Islamist protest rallies (so as not to offend with the truth?), and that the Israeli and U.S. governments still haven’t obliterated the terrorist-supporting anti-Western leaders in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia and their weapons and armies, and their progeny like Hezbollah and Hamas. What more motivation and justification do they need, after the many “we will attack and destroy you” comments of Iran’s President and other Islamic leaders. It’s especially horrible that Israel quit their self-defense war against Hezbollah too soon, simply handing the enemy a “win”. I suspect the United States pressured them, and I know Europe did, for “diplomatic” reasons.

See these links for more:

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49865
Mushroom Cloud on the Way

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40338
Islamic Leader Hails Chechen Attack

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/26/
ahmadinejad/index.html

Iran’s President’s comments.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/26/news/iran.php
Iran says wipe Isreal off the map.

I'm A Singer? Achieving Goals.

2006-08-23T21:20:00.000-04:00

Last night I auditioned to be a singer in a New Jersey choral group called The Celebration Singers. This is significant because I have never sung in public before (except in a chorus in 8th grade).

Actually, I once did try recording myself singing “Somewhere” from West Side Story at the Karaoke-type recording studio Sound Tracks that used to be at Downtown Disney in Florida’s Walt Disney World. The result was atrocious–which led everyone who heard it to confirm that I cannot sing. But I always suspected that the fact that the Sound Tracks recording engineer played Barbra Streisand’s high-pitched female voice into my headphones while I performed is the reason I couldn’t find the notes as I tried to sing the song as a deep-voiced male.

Plus, whenever I tried to compose songs by singing into a tape recorder, I thought I sounded okay. And as a pre-adolescent, I took a mail-order course in ventriloquism, which taught me how to project my voice, and how to speak from my diaphragm, and do vocal warm-ups, all of which relate directly to singing.

Finally, I found that singing Brahms’ Lullabye with my wife to our twins over the last three years has been good practice and that if I tried, I could sing it–and other children’s songs–fairly well.

So, I courageously showed up at this audition. The Celebration Singers includes professional singers who have a number of serious accomplishments in their resumes. The conductor who auditioned me is an accomplished professional who knows what he’s doing. What was I doing there?

He had me sing back to him what he played on the piano. Then he changed the key, so I sang higher and lower, to see what my range was. Then he asked me to sing an actual song if I knew one. I sang two verses of “Climb Every Mountain” by Rodgers and Hammerstein, a song I remembered word for word, note for note, for some reason, ever since learning it in music class in Fifth Grade (or was it Third Grade?). I had rehearsed it in the car while driving to the audition, since it’s the only place where I could be alone and wouldn’t disturb my family or embarrass myself. I wanted to continue and sing the middle part but he stopped me.

He said I had a good ear and seemed surprised that I had never sung before.

This morning I received a telephone call inviting me to join their next rehearsal!

I had no expectation that I could actually pass the audition but I thought, why not try. I drove to the hall after putting my children to bed, showing up in the last 15 minutes of the audition period. This is how life-changing events take place. It’s always worth trying if you have a desire.

Here is a link to the web site of The Celebration Singers:
http://www.celebration-singers.org

Interestingly, it started out as the company choir of, and funded by, Standard Oil, or Esso (now Exxon). It is now an independent non-profit organization.

Besides this exciting new adventure, I recently drew some character designs that may be used for an animated version of a bear that promotes children’s TV programming at a local station in Pennsylvania. These kinds of creative endeavors are exactly what I wanted my life to include when I planned to be a Renaissance Man (or at least a multi-talented creative person) during my childhood. It’s true, life gets better as you get older; you get to do what you intended to do, as you keep pursuing your interests over time. Eventually you do achieve your goals as long as you keep trying. (And smaller arenas can eventually lead to larger ones.)

I’m also proud of my interviews on http://www.zigory.solidvox.com. I’ve recorded two programs so far. (I would have done more but I have found scheduling times when guests and producer Prodos and I are all available to be unexpectedly challenging.) Unfortunately my music-related interview with M. Zachary Johnson has not yet been put on the site due to a backlog at the Prodosphere, but I expect it to appear soon.

I will apply all this confidence I’m gaining from these achievements to completing my longer and more ambitious writing projects which are still in progress.

Podcastic! My Music Chat With M. Zachary Johnson

2006-08-16T18:05:00.000-04:00

I recently recorded an interview with M. Zachary Johnson, composer and music critic for The Intellectual Activist. Deeply inspired by the ideas of Ayn Rand, he is articulate and thoughtful, answering questions with great intelligence. I learned a few things while chatting with him. Topics included what inspired him when composing pieces on his CD “Saxophone Music of M. Zachary Johnson,” the future of Romanticism in music, Ayn Rand’s hypothesis regarding why a series of tones can create emotions, whether serious music is losing its audience, the misleading distinction between popular and serious (classical) music, and how he first discovered classical music.

To hear samples of M. Zachary Johnson’s music, go to http://www.mzacharyjohnson.com and follow the links.

To hear my conversation with Matt Johnson, look for it to appear in a few days on http://zigory.solidvox.com, where it will be available as an MP3 file for listening, downloading or saving to your MP3 player.

20th Century Classical Music I Like

2006-08-10T01:41:00.000-04:00

I’m a layman when it comes to Classical music. I don’t play an instrument and I don’t read music, and I have trouble remembering the titles of pieces when they are numbers instead of evocative words.

That said, I love many Classical pieces. I prefer the Romantics and I love creative, lively, and also somber, tonal music, including choral music. Some of my favorites from the 18th and 19th Centuries are Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Beethoven, Verdi, Rimsky-Korsakov and sometimes Schubert.

Here are some composers I like who composed after the Romantic and tonal-music period had “officially” ended:

Other than the 20th Century holdovers from the 19th Century, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Debussy (from the latter two I only enjoy certain pieces), there are some less-well-known 20th Century composers I like who were influenced by the Romantics and who composed tonal pieces with structure, lush and beautiful sounds, and uplifting emotions well into the 20th Century. These are: Paul Creston (I enjoy his Symphony No. 1 and No. 2), Randall Thompson, and William Grant Still. I like a few of Henry Cowell’s pieces too. My wife happens to play the flute on some Manhattan Chamber Orchestra recordings of a few of these composers, but that has only led me to learn of the works, not to influence my taste.

On to the 21st Century: Online I have heard samples of new compositions by M. Zachary Johnson (http://cdbaby.com/cd/mzacharyjohnson) and I like what I have heard. He is directly trying to revive the spirit of Romanticism and he may well have succeeded.

Terry Teachout, a music critic, has suggested that a return to tonal music and Romanticism by younger composers, whose pieces are being added to the concert performances of today’s orchestras, is a trend. I hope so.

Here are two essays on the subject by Terry Teachout, “Back to the Future” and “Romantics’ Return”.

http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,996278,00.html
http://www.walter-simmons.com/wilderness/reviews/teachout.pdf

I don’t like (nor have I heard) all of the pieces to which he refers, nor do I necessarily agree with all he says, but I think his heart is in the right place.

In the coming week, I expect to have a new podcast available at www.zigory.solidvox.com that will be related to this topic.

Three Cheers

2006-07-20T22:24:00.000-04:00

Three Cheers for Israel, finally taking meaningful action against its enemies (and ours), the purest of pure evil, Hezbollah and Hamas and hopefully also against their supporters, the governments of Iran and Syria. Who could look at the situation objectively and say Israel is in the wrong (except to say Israel is holding back too much)? As Onkar Ghate says in this Op-Ed, and as Ayn Rand first proved, the initiation of force is evil. Mr. Ghate’s Op-Ed, “The Indispensable Condition of Peace,” is a must-read.

Israel has focused on the terrorist groups, their direct threat, but I hope they move on to the leadership of Iran and Syria with the (weapons and intelligence) assistance of the United States. Or the USA should take charge of that enterprise ourselves; see this Op-Ed, “The U.S.-Israeli Suicide Pact” by Elan Journo.

Of course, history is not encouraging. The United States usually tries to moderate Israel, hold them back, even though they are doing our military work for us against our own enemies, by simply trying to defend themselves from the same ones. What they are doing will make the United States safer, and the world safer, not just preserve Israel’s existence for awhile longer.

The United States has consistently treated Israel’s enemies as if they have a right to make demands after relentlessly murdering people, as if they have a right to any consideration at all. They don’t.

For a snappy and clever but more partisan view of the situation, read Ann Coulter’s “Liberals: Born To Run.” It blames Democrats for the United States’ appeasement policy, and they deserve it, but Republicans are just as guilty historically. President Bush is only a smidgen more aggressive than the Democrats. If the ”Two State” solution isn’t appeasement, what is?

Welcome To My Weblog

2006-07-20T22:16:00.000-04:00

Hi! You have found Zigory’s weblog (oh, all right, “blog” if you must be vulgar about it).

I’m Zigory, also known as Greg Zeigerson. My blog is also available at www.zigory.thinkertothinker.com. I include here the archives from that site, and will post new blogs as the inspiration hits me.

I've also got a podcast at www.solidvox.com. One podcast is available and my next podcast is still in the works as I write this. I’m excited about the many fascinating guests in varied fields I’m planning to interview! I hope you’ll download and listen when the shows become available. Look for my programs to be fun, educational, surprising, humorous and even inspiring!

To contact me, send an email to gregoryzeigerson@yahoo.com or zigory@comcast.net

My Archives: Older

2006-07-20T21:48:00.000-04:00

Here are my older archives, originally published at www.zigory.thinkertothinker.com, in reverse order:

The Wild
April 17th, 2006

Still enthused about our forthcoming Disney World vacation (and not only me, of course: Our three year old daughter is starting to tell strangers that she ’s going there), I went to see the animated movie The Wild last night. It is under the “Walt Disney Pictures” banner, and even rated G, so I expected it to be a picture for the whole family, of which the studio is proud, and that it may help keep me in the Disney mood.

Disappointed am I. It’s mediocre and has just about nothing in common with the Walt Disney legacy. To be sure, it is not unusually offensive (the way the usually superb Ron Howard offended me with his witless and crude destruction of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas). It is just irritating and amateurish in its writing and direction. For those of you who know something about animation, has no one informed the director “Spaz” (his self-chosen moniker) or any of the animators the concept of the “hold”? A “hold” in animation is when the movement stops for a moment to emphasize an expression or an attitude or a gesture. It is priceless when used well (and gives the animator a few frames worth of a break, besides). Perhaps the all time masters of the hold in animation are Chuck Jones (think of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner), Tex Avery, and Bob Clampett during the golden age of Warner Brothers cartoons.

The Wild has a total of zero holds. Everyone and everything is moving twenty-four times every second from movie’s beginning to end. Who can watch that? My eyes just couldn’t take it. The attitudes and gestures were all there. They were just there ten times more often than any human mind could process.

But that could be forgiven if the story was clever, conveyed a meaningful theme and was told with clarity, drama, and humor.

Instead of clarity, every sentence of dialogue was written to sound ironic or sarcastic or “funny” or “witty,” never actually achieving real humor or wit. It’s hard to know what any character really wants if they never express themselves clearly and simply. (I suppose once in a while they did, but that was the exception.) There is no attempt to make the squirrel’s romantic crush remotely believable, and the father-son theme is trite as can be. Finally, there is so much slapstick violence (characters get hurt a lot) that I almost question the G rating. It’s a valid rating but the film is definitely too full of scares (like the far superior The Incredibles) for anyone under age 7. (This is not new in the Disney tradition, as Snow White, Bambi, Sleeping Beauty and maybe Peter Pan are also too intense for the very young).

There is no less artistry required to make a kid’s comedy animation than any adult movie. In fact, more awareness of one’s all-ages audience is required to make it entertaining and meaningful rather than irritating, boring or traumatizing. The theme of The Wild, trite as it is, has potential value but it’s ineffectively communicated.

I think “Spaz” and his crew believed they had a film so full of roll-on-the-floor belly-laughs it would excuse the flimsiness of the story. Unfortunately they were mistaken. This was not a Pixar movie if you didn’t figure that out yet. The good news is, Pixar is back in business with Disney and we can look forward to their consistently superior material, starting with “Cars” for which I have high expectations.

Thoughts on Walt Disney World
April 13th, 2006

When I was a little boy, my mother only took me to Walt Disney movies because she knew they would be good, quality movies, better than other movies for children.

I grew up learning the Walt Disney philosophy that good will triumph over evil, and you will succeed if you try hard enough. Walt Disney movies conveyed a way that things should be, an orderly, correct way parents and children may act, ideally. The movies showed examples of how civilized people behaved. They represented normal childhood (and human) emotions of fear and having strong wishes, and showed that struggling against challenges and villains is normal and is usually rewarded.

Part of the reason this had an appeal was to show me how things could be ideally, how I would someday live (when I grew up and had my own family), in contrast to the occasional turmoil, financial obstacles, and lack of orderliness in the environment of my own childhood. I could live in the Disney characters’ world for awhile, and I could even find things that were like their lives in my own life. If they went skating, I found there was a skating pond near me and I could make a goal of doing the same thing. (A similar effect resulted from my reading Beverly Cleary’s Henry Huggins books). I especially recalled Disney’s “Atta Girl Kelly” TV movie, about Seeing Eye dogs, that took place in Morristown, New Jersey, not far from where I lived. It was nice to see a place closer to my home environment represented in the ideal Disney world.

Since I felt I had the same view of the world as Walt did, and Walt was my ideal father figure when he would introduce his TV show, I really wanted to go to Disneyland but it was all the way on the other side of the country. I felt that it would be so great to meet the characters.
Then when I turned 10, Walt Disney World opened on my side of the country but it was still too far away and too expensive for my parents to afford the trip.Finally I was able to go to Disney World for the first time when I was 21. My mother had received money from a relative and decided to take my brother and me there with the money. To save money we flew down one way on PeopleExpress airlines and took the train back. Epcot had just opened and it was the Christmas season.

Being 21 seems like the wrong age, but in fact to me it was just as good as being a child’s age. I wasn’t as excited to meet Snow White as I would have been at age 10, but I really needed inspiration and fuel. I had just graduated from college and was working two minimum-wage part-time jobs to survive, as it was the recession of 1982 so there were hiring freezes just as I was trying to get my first job in film or TV. I was also struggling to get over shyness in making calls for my job hunt. The fact that no one was hiring made me start to believe that was the way of the world, someone had to die or retire before a new job opening would occur. Of course, later I learned that wasn’t true, that new jobs are always being created. My bedroom in the apartment I shared in Brooklyn with two other guys was cold, the window didn’t close all the way. I rescued a stray cat from the cold winter, but I wasn’t doing much better than the cat. So going to Disney World finally, after asking my mother to go eleven years prior, wasn’t so badly timed.

The Magic Kingdom was one of the few things in my life to that point that was actually better than I had imagined it. It was what I expected but with so many more beautiful, imaginative and fun details.

I remember on my first visit at age 21, how the customer service, the incredible willingness of everyone to help us out if we had any questions at all, was so unexpectedly comforting. Especially compared to the often very poor customer service and even lack of English comprehension in New York City.

I remember the first day we entered the park later than we had intended due to the difficulty of getting the family to work together in a timely fashion, and then it was raining a little. So the day started out with problems. But very soon, the spirit of the place had overtaken all the little obstacles, struggles and squabbles and turned it into a good day. I remember thinking, this is a good message to remember for life: a day (or a life) may start out with challenges and struggles, but if you stick with it, you will enjoy the day (or life) later as you achieve your goals.

All the messages of optimism and hope in Epcot were especially meaningful to me at a time when I could only see that I was working two uninspiring part time jobs for minimum wage and living in a cold bedroom and needed a solution. I remember wanting to work at Epcot, and asking the Kodak lady under Spaceship Earth about jobs there. She explained how to apply and that they promoted from within the company. I felt hope, and that I belonged there. I felt, this is the only company that says what I want to say, that does things the right way, and this may even be my way out of my predicament. Meanwhile I still planned (as I always had) to write books and screenplays on the side on my way to becoming a new Walt (or something like him even if on a small scale).

Even the other people visiting had such a happy, open, friendly demeanor. My family met a family from the Midwest, with a daughter, at an AT&T exhibit. We started comparing notes on the various attractions we had seen and what we recommended to each other, and I exchanged numbers with the girl. She and I visited each other a few years later, and we have remained in touch over the years, and attended each others’ weddings.

I remember having an epiphany at the Mexico pavilion. It was getting dark and the World Showcase was lighting up, we stood on line to enter the attraction and I heard the theme music and looked at the illuminated, fascinating designs in the Mexico architecture. I felt a wave of hope for my life, a wave of total certainty my life would improve and be wonderful.
This happens because Epcot and Walt Disney World are constantly reminding you that life is worth living. You are treated like a VIP by everyone. You are confronted with unexpected delights around every corner. If your days have been filled with drudgery, Walt Disney World reminds you how to play, that not every second needs to be spent working or trying to find a new job, that it’s okay to play with toys for the fun of it, like a child!

I went back to New York and the Disney feeling stayed with me for months. Nothing could get me down. Finally I applied to graduate school so that I would be more qualified for employment.
Graduate school was expensive, and there wasn’t the scholarship money that had paid for my undergraduate degree, so after one semester, I interrupted school and instead went on job searches endlessly. Soon I could do a call or an interview at the drop of a hat. I switched from job to job until I found one that suited me. I even worked at Disney World in 1989, drawing caricatures for guests, and working at their telephone switchboard. It was a great experience but I finally decided to return to my New York office job because the pay was so much better.
Now I am very fulfilled, my job pays decently, I’m doing my creative projects on the side–including self-publishing a comic book, writing scripts, doing a blog and soon a podcast– I’m happily married and I love being the best father I can be to my two children. I get to play with toys with my children every day, and watch DVDs with them of Walt’s Mickey Mouse cartoons and other Disney films. So Epcot did not lie to me, there really is hope even if you think you are in a rut. Just take action and pursue your goals and don’t settle for the unacceptable. And always make time to play and enjoy the sun!

My wife and I visited Walt Disney World every year since the time we first started dating seriously. Every time we go, we have a glow of happiness for a month or two. It reminds us how enjoyable life can be, how good customer service can be, and recharges our batteries to pursue big goals and to make our lives and our home even better. After we had our twins, we stopped going to Disney World, to focus on being great parents. This month, we are finally going to take the twins to Disney World for their first time. They are three and a half, a good first-time age, the same age I was when I briefly saw Mickey Mouse waving while sitting on a sign for “It’s A Small World,” as we sat in the boats entering that attraction at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

Art Teacher’s Suspension
April 8th, 2006

Here’s an utterly absurd situation. How uneducated can educators be? The Middletown, NY, Board of Education has suspended a high school art teacher, Pete Panse, for recommending nude figure drawing classes to his advanced students. He may even be permanently fired after a 25-year career. Any student of art knows the importance of drawing nudes from life–a tradition for thousands of years–to learn anatomy and three-dimensional forms and the elements that make up the beauty of the human being. If this is not permitted, then presumably a pre-medical student also must be prevented from observing the human body. This is the Taliban’s idea of education! This is anti-education!

If a Catholic nun, Sister Wendy Beckett, isn’t afraid of nudes in art, why should anyone be? (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sisterwendy/about/index.html)

If you want to come to Mr. Panse’s defense against the ignoramuses, there is action you can take.

See: http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2006/Peter_Panse/case1.asp
and: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Reinstate_Pete_Panse/

Psychics Etc.
April 7th, 2006

Before I get to the main comment, here is a followup to my previous post: I emailed the following comments to comments@whitehouse.gov (with a link to Charles Krauthammer’s Time magazine essay of March 30, 2006 at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21843):

I would like the White House to take heed of Mr. Krauthammer’s warning and take decisive military action as soon as possible against Iran’s nuclear program as well as its terrorist training camps and its government in Tehran, who are a sworn enemy of the United States and the real, fundamental source of the 9/11 attacks.

On a less serious topic, when I was attending college decades ago, a psychic visited my campus dormitory, and gave a talk in which he “read” the minds of some of the students in attendance. He seemed to pick up detailed, private facts about friends of mine, facts they had not revealed to anyone but which they admitted to the psychic, and later to me, were true.

This one event made me consider the possibility that psychic powers may be real. I could not explain how, though, so I just filed that away as an open question. I don’t see how he could have had spies all over the campus for the amount of time necessary to learn the private thoughts of so many students.

Well, last night on Court TV, a program called “Psychic Detectives” featured that same psychic from all those years ago, named Phil Jordan (http://www.philjordan.com/). Although clearly a program designed to promote a belief in psychics, the story they told indicated that Phil Jordan was able to assist the police in a small town, with his calling forth of impeccably accurate details again and again, until they could locate evidence that would solve a murder case.

If anyone who is logic and science-oriented reads this blog (even if it’s a long time after I write this), I welcome any thoughts on the possibility of psychic powers.

Let’s Get Serious
April 1st, 2006

I work in Downtown Manhattan. Every day since Islamic fundamentalists violently took away the World Trade Center from my neighborhood, murdering thousands in a painful, horrifying, bloody manner, I am passionately angry at them for at least one or two minutes per day.
I’ve been in a state of anticipation. When do we get them, destroy them? Every day, I wait for the intensive retaliation, the destruction of all their mosques, the obliteration of Tehran, the wiping out of all the terrorist training camps and weapons factories in the entire Muslim world. All it takes is some good information and some good bombs. I’m also waiting for every anti-American academic and filmmaker to be arrested for treason, as their words embolden and inspire our enemies to fight us one more day.

I’ve had it. I can only think of one potential president who might do what needs to be done, Rudolph Giuliani. He actually knows and understands the lessons of history. I want to believe we can survive even if he doesn’t run and doesn’t get elected, but it would be difficult to justify such a conclusion. The trouble is, we may not be able to wait till 2009. Our current leaders are unacceptable. They aren’t doing enough, fast enough or furiously enough. We can only depend on the incompetence of our enemies to keep us alive until 2009.

Here are some words that everyone needs to read. Charles Krauthammer’s essay “Today Tehran, Tomorrow the World” is at

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21843

and here is a web site with the important facts to know about the fundamentalist Islamists:

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

Will someone wake up the US government?

Fifty Years Ago and Now
March 31st, 2006

Just to write a lighter post than the one yesterday, here are some happier thoughts.
I enjoy seeing TV and movie stars on 1950s game shows shown late at night on GSN (Game Show Network), and then seeing the same stars, with spirit and verve and personality unchanged, on today’s TV.

For example, (besides their other 1950s programs) Carl Reiner was on The Name’s The Same, Andy Griffith was on I’ve Got A Secret, Betty White was on various game shows in the 1950s and Debbie Reynolds, Carol Burnett, Jane Russell, Paul Anka and Jerry Lewis were on What’s My Line in the 1950s.

In the current decade, mainly in the past year, I’ve seen Betty White on Boston Legal and the Ellen talk show, Carl Reiner on Ellen and The Tonight Show and in Ocean’s 11 (remake), Jane Russell on Larry King, Andy Griffith on Larry King, Jerry Lewis on David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Fox News, and his own telethon, Paul Anka on VH1 and PBS, Carol Burnett in reunion shows with her TV cast, and Debbie Reynolds on David Letterman and other talk shows and documentaries, and in recent movies.

These people have careers spanning more than 50 years. It takes a very special person to achieve that in show business.

And the magic to me is, having not been born yet in the 1950s, those game shows are a time machine. I get to see what life was like in my parents’ time which seemed so very different and more elegant and graceful than my own. Let’s face it, nothing in 1973 looked or felt like how things seemed in 1953 (from the evidence of what has been preserved on film). In contrast, 2006 looks and feels much more similar to 1986 (except for a few great new gadgets). Even looking at my parents’ 1956 wedding films, I can’t comprehend that they lived in that time, the time of Marilyn Monroe and the heyday of Doris Day and Cary Grant, when an effort was still made to make life glamorous, when men wore hats all the time and women wore elaborate dresses or skirts, and everyone flirted, before the hippies and feminists turned us all into unisex blue-jeaned clones.

So hats off to those who have managed to be an important and elevating part of all these different eras in the popular culture. They are very special people.

Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jong Il
March 30th, 2006

Warning: this is an upsetting post.

I finally saw “Children of the Secret State” on Discovery Times Channel last night. I’ve seen other documentaries on North Korea and on its refugees, but this one is the sharpest in its evidence of atrocities, including video images by Ahn Chol of starving orphans heroically photographed at the risk of his execution if discovered. Despite North Korea’s claims of a bumper farm crop in 2005, you can be certain there is still starvation in the rural towns, there are still prison camps where entire innocent families are starved, beaten and killed with long knives (because a father or an uncle spoke words that were not permitted to be spoken). You can be sure there are still “hostels” for orphan children where they are given no food and must escape or die.

Kim Jong Il’s late father, Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, learned directly from Stalin. It is inevitable under Communism, or any form of Collectivism, where the Individual is officially subordinate to the State or the Group, that the sacred value of the Individual, his right to his own life, is obliterated and replaced by a total lack of respect for any human life or human right except for the whims of the Dictator. People become a drain on the system in a Collectivist, controlled economy, instead of the source of Plenty (for themselves because they are free to act in their own self-interest) that they are in Capitalism. People become expendable.

The food aid the USA sends to North Korea goes directly to the North Korean military and the government. It doesn’t go to the starving people in the small towns.

If you ever said “Never Again” in regard to the Hitler Holocaust or the Stalin Holocaust, well, it’s been happening again for a long time in North Korea. It’s not a racial group as it was under the Nazis. It’s anyone who could weaken the government’s power — by speaking — that is persecuted, imprisoned, tortured. Where else is it happening again? What do we know about the situations for prisoners of conscience in Iran and Syria? And we do know about the horrors in Sudan and Rwanda thanks to their dictators.

While any free country has the right to attack NK, or any other nation that doesn’t respect the rights of its own people to be free, America needs to be careful not to get entangled if it is not in the interests of its own defense. But NK has declared America to be its enemy, and probably has nuclear weapons. NK will certainly assist groups like Al Queda and states like Iran, by giving them weapons parts and technology, and weapons themselves, if America is the target.

The innocent people of NK can only benefit from a self-defense based (ideally aerial bombing) attack by America on the NK government and its nuclear facilities. Even if the prisoners and other innocent civilians die from American bombs, they will be grateful when they start to hear the bombs drop. I know this from interviewing Nazi concentration camp survivors.

We don’t have to set up the new government, we just have to get rid of the dangerous one. If possible we could try to assist a freedom-loving leader in establishing a constitutionally limited, rights-respecting government (with our know-how, not with our own fighting men). The only necessity to protect the safety and future of America (and our civilized, free allies) is that today’s oppressive NK regime is out of power, and their nuclear weapons are destroyed. Starvation won’t end instantly, and lawlessness may abound for awhile. But our priority needs to be to get rid of a dangerous nuclear-powered enemy first. Action is necessary. Eventually the starvation will end as people become free to work for themselves instead of the “Dear Leader”. That will be an indirect benefit to the innocent North Korean people, if we destroy their government for our own self-defense reasons.

We need not worry about the intense immigration into China and South Korea that may result. There are ways for these nations to absorb them. This should not prevent our taking necessary action.

Needless to say it’s just as necessary for us to also take action against the states that create anti-American terrorists, primarily Iran, but also Syria, and possibly Saudi Arabia. If Iran is obtaining nuclear weaponry, it must be stopped, now.

Another problem I wish to point out is that China keeps sending refugees who escape from North Korea into China, back to be punished by the NK authorities. I recommend that everyone put pressure on China to stop doing this including by writing letters to Chinese representatives and to publications.

Anyway, here are some links:
The program Children of the Secret State:

http://www.hardcashproductions.com/recent02.html

An organization that assists North Korean refugees who have escaped:
http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/

Another site of interest, including information on a pro-freedom march for NK in Washington, D.C.:
http://www.nkfreedom.org/index.php?id=29 http://www.nkfreedom.org/index.php?id=1

Forthcoming Walt Disney World Trip
March 25th, 2006

We’re taking a trip to Walt Disney World in a few weeks. This reminded me of how inspiring it can be to see some of the attractions such as the Hall of Presidents and Carousel of Progress (both originally designed for the New York World’s Fair of 1964, where I first saw them at age 3) and Epcot’s Future World.

However, in recent years some of the attractions were revised to their detriment. The Disney imagineers in the last decade destroyed the serenity and beauty of the lovely Enchanted Tiki Room presentation, which had been a work of art supervised by Walt himself, by adding Gilbert Gottfried and a rabble-rousing element to the show and labelling it “under new management”. I refuse to experience it again until it goes back to the original owners.

But more serious is the damage done to The American Adventure program in Epcot.
By the way, there is an Ayn Rand quotation from “The Fountainhead” on the wall directly opposite the front entrance, don’t miss that if you go. The quotation is, “Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.” It’s part of the same passage that Jerry Lewis (of all people) copied into his little notebook when he read the novel, so he could read it again and again as he pursued his show business career. Sometimes in December they put a Christmas tree in front of it, and I always request that they move the tree so the quotation is visible. But my problem is with the show itself.

As I recall, The American Adventure was quite different when it premiered in 1982. The animatronic portion was shorter and purely patriotic, uplifting, and dealing with principles of freedom as did the opening film.

Then in the 1990s, they added more sequences to the animatronic portion, and changed it into a laundry list of the things that went wrong in American history, including propaganda for “saving” the environment courtesy of Theodore Roosevelt, emphasis on things like the alleged harm done to the Indians, slavery, Prohibition, the Depression, the 20th century persecution of blacks in the South, the Vietnam war protests, to the point where the uplifting emotion about America’s founding principles and its successes, in the opening movie portion (which remained positive and inspiring) and in the original short animatronic program (1982), was to me virtually lost.

It’s almost as if The American Adventure was now the Anti-American Adventure!

Of course, the visual and technical aspects were superb, and were more amazing than in 1982, but the patriotic message became muddled at best.

I haven’t seen it since 2001, so maybe they have changed it again since then. I’ll check it out on my forthcoming trip.

Needless to say, most of Walt Disney World remains a delight and extremely worthwhile. Obviously I have been there many times (I even worked there in 1989) and intend to return many times.

The Objective Standard
March 24th, 2006

I am reading the beautiful print version of the first issue of The Objective Standard and it is outstanding, perhaps worth the price of the whole subscription! It surpasses my expectations. I especially appreciated and will continue to consult (as my children start school) Lisa VanDamme’s article on the hierarchy of knowledge in education.

This is Craig Biddle’s academic journal with an Objectivist viewpoint (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/). I hope that soon it will be on all the large newsstands and in all the university bookstores, and every Borders and Barnes & Noble store, in the nation (the world?). Craig writes me that one of his goals is that it will be on newsstands within a year.
It is so refreshing to read material by first-rate thinkers. If only everyone knew about this publication — and also The Intellectual Activist (http://www.intellectualactivist.com) and Capitalism Magazine (http://www.capmag.com/) — then many, many people would develop a different, more accurate perspective than they have now under the influence of today’s typically missing-the-point periodicals and broadcast programs.

My Archives: Less Recent

2006-07-20T21:20:00.000-04:00

Here are my less recent blog archives, in reverse order, originally published at www.zigory.thinkertothinker.com.

Protecting Children
May 30th, 2006

Well, I just finished taping the first episode of The Zigory Show, my internet radio program (podcast). It was an emotional experience, and a rewarding one. I thank Prodos so much for giving me and others the opportunity to take a crack at broadcasting.

The program should be available in a day or two at http://www.zigory.solidvox.com/ and I highly recommend it. It’s an intense conversation. The subject matter is of interest to all sorts of people, even if they aren’t knowledgeable about Capitalism or Ayn Rand, so if you find it compelling please email all your friends to give it a listen. Here’s my official capsule summary of the podcast:

Protecting Children

On this episode of The Zigory Show, Greg Zeigerson interviews Kip Liles, a former foster parent to over 200 children. She became an activist in the cause of protecting children from harm after one of her foster children was returned to the custody of his mother and stepfather only to be murdered by them.

We explore the role of the police force, the courts, current laws and statutes, and foster parents, in protecting children or failing to do so. Why do some courts make judgments that are not in the best interests of the child? Why are so many abused children returned to harm’s way? For background on the discussion, see the column, “The Death of Bradley McGee” by Michelle Malkin, available here: http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000858.htm

I Have A Guest
May 25th, 2006

Well, I have a guest lined up for my first internet radio broadcast (podcast). We will be recording it in the coming week. The topic will be protecting children from harm: the role of the police force, the courts, the laws, and foster parents. What laws and judgments are in the best interests of the child? Why are so many abused children returned to harm’s way? I will keep you all posted on when the program is available for downloading from http://www.zigory.solidvox.com/ and I will name the guest at that time.

Ray Bradbury’s America
May 19th, 2006

I have to share this moving poem by Ray Bradbury with you. It’s entitled America: An Ode to Immigrants from the May 17 Wall Street Journal.

The final lines are:

Ten thousand wanderers a week
Engulf your shore,You wonder what their shouting’s for,
And why so glad?
Run warm those souls: America is bad?
Sit down, stare in their faces, see!
You be the hoped-for thing a hopeless world would be.
In tides of immigrants that this year flow
You still remain the beckoning hearth they’d know.
In midnight beds with blueprint, plan and scheme
You are the dream that other people dream.

My First Podcast
May 19th, 2006

My first Podcast should be coming up in a couple of weeks. It will be available at http://zigory.solidvox.com/ at that time. You will be able to listen online or download the mp3 file to your Ipod or similar device. The identity of my first guest shall remain a secret to all but Prodos (my Production Assistant, Producer, Impresario, Studio Chief), until the program becomes available.

Meanwhile, listen to Stuart Goldsmith’s interview with Andrew Bernstein on the morality of capitalism, available now at http://StuartGoldsmith.SolidVox.com

Music: Schlegel, and Genesis Reintepreted
May 18th, 2006

Disclaimer: The following is about my personal musical taste, which may not be the same as yours!

Ayn Rand enthusiast Christopher Schlegel wrote a symphony based on Objectivist virtues, called Symphony No. 3, “The Virtues of Man”. http://cdbaby.com/cd/schlegel

On his original recording, he had played it on a limited-range synthesizer and it sounded a bit dated, like Larry Fast’s Synergy records of the 1970s. The instrument’s limitations diffused the emotions and beauty in the composition.

Now he has re-recorded the piece with better instrumentation, although still including a synthesizer. It is far more listenable and enjoyable and I recommend the new version. It has the optimism and joie-de-vivre of (since I was just there, I’ll use this example:) the music in Walt Disney World’s Epcot attractions such as Illuminations.

I’m not sure which version CDBaby is selling, the 1997 original or the improved 2006 recording.

Now on to the topic of Genesis:

I have long found many of the musical compositions by the rock group Genesis, especially in the 1970s, to be inspired, passionate and interesting melodically (and often lyrically — some of the early songs are inspired by the Greek myths, for example). However, some of the songs are a bit too noisy for everyday listening, and some of Peter Gabriel’s singing (before he left the band) isn’t so pleasant (For example, his croaking “Why?” on the otherwise grand if pessimistic song “Time Table” from the “Foxtrot” album makes it hard to listen to it).

Well, in recent years, classically-trained musicians have transcribed the original songs to piano and classical instruments, and some of the original Genesis members have composed and recorded new, melodic music with classical instrumentation. These have been mostly outstanding. The best of the new interpretations really capture, illuminate and even enhance the values of the original compositions that might be lost in the noise of the rock band, and I truly enjoy them as an alternative to the rock recordings.

I especially recommend “David Myers Plays Genesis.”

Myers was the keyboard player for the world-class Canadian Genesis tribute band, The Musical Box, and he transcribed some of the best songs, including “Time Table,” “One For The Vine” and “Firth of Fifth,” to piano with sensitivity and intelligence.

Almost as good is “Genesis for Two Grand Pianos” by two Norwegian pianists, Guddal and Matte.

They have also released a second volume which is excellent.

And there is also a string quartet with piano led by Steve Oakman who recorded a CD called ”A Classic Rock Tribute to Genesis” which I don't recommend. But apparently this classical Genesis thing is a cottage industry!

Meanwhile, Steve Hackett’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Tony Banks’ “Seven” are new classical compositions by original Genesis songwriters.

The Hackett piece is pleasant background music, played with virtuosity, but not quite inspired.

I enjoy Tony Banks’ “Seven” which sounds like John Williams style movie scores.
Steve Hackett has also composed a second classical-style piece, “Metamorpheus,” which I haven’t heard.

Good Essay on Immigration
May 18th, 2006

Here is Dr. Harry Binswanger’s excellent summary of the immigration issue. I agree with him, with one fairly trivial exception. I think there is value in living in less-densely-populated areas than New York City, at least for some people, but I don’t think such places would disappear any time soon. Anyone who has the will and the money could buy enough land to create a low-density population “gated community” anyway.
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4620

My Amazon Reviews
May 18th, 2006

In case anyone is interested, here are my random reviews of books, movies and CDs on Amazon.com. Some of my ratings are inflated because I am enthusiastic when I start to write a review and then realize that 4 or 5 stars is too high a rating, but Amazon doesn’t allow me to revise down the number of stars.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3CHSGA6EYQBUU/ref=cm_aya_bb_rev/102-9636989-6160124?ie=UTF8

Here is a list of my favorite movies, also on Amazon.com. It’s just a list of some of my favorites and as a part time/former cartoonist, it’s animation-heavy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/
33F3SOJAPMCB5/ref=cm_lm_pdp_title_full/102-9636989-6160124

More on Immigrants
May 12th, 2006

Remember, Republicans were not anti-immigrant during the Elian Gonzalez episode. They championed the family who wanted to keep Elian in America. But Democrats, who tend to be in favor of immigration, reversed themselves and were so intent on returning Elian to Cuba they sent a SWAT team after the six-year-old boy.

Now the parties have reversed positions again regarding those crossing the American border.
Why is this? Because the two parties are pragmatist parties. They don’t follow essential principles, just whatever will achieve the political goal of the moment.

Although today Ann Coulter is unfortunately siding with the anti-immigrant Republicans, her analysis of the Elian Gonzalez story in her book, “How to Talk to a Liberal,” is sharp as a razor.
First the Clinton administration said, the Courts will decide. Then the Courts decided Elian should stay in America. So the Clinton administration said, the Courts have no jurisdiction, we must follow the law. But “the law” meant whatever Janet Reno’s whim happened to be. She decided to send people with machine guns to capture the boy and send him back to the dictatorship in Cuba. Why? Because the Democrats love Castro. Democrats still think Communism is a noble idea.

The Democrats suddenly discovered “family values” for the first time, as a reason to send Elian back to his birth father. But Elian’s birth father was not married to Elian’s mother when Elian was conceived nor when he was born, nor after that time (only long before). No law gives custody rights to the father of an illegitimate child. So “the law” is not what the Clinton administration followed at all.

What really drove the Democrats to favor Elian’s return to Cuba was their political love of Castro and wish to pretend a Communist dictatorship is a nice place for a boy — perhaps as a step towards their effort to end the US sanctions against trade and tourism activity with Cuba. And what really drives the Republicans’ current wish to send other immigrants back to Mexico, is their fear of immigrants becoming citizens and voting for Democrats. It’s all pragmatism over principle.

Republicans: Hopeless?
May 11th, 2006

Republicans seem hopeless. What the heck are all the Republicans doing being anti-immigrants (or anti-illegal immigrants if you prefer). Have they lost their minds? Whatever happened to the Melting Pot?

The Native Americans were less anti-immigrant than a lot of Republicans seem to be today. Where would most of you be if your ancestors were deported by a (fictional, hypothetical) advanced Native American nation in the 15th through 17th centuries because you didn’t have the proper papers?

Originally I understood as reasonable a desire to protect our borders from terrorists and other enemies of the United States. But that issue is not what all the talk radio guys and gals, and Lou Dobbs, are talking about. They are talking about Mexicans, for heaven’s sake. Even if they aren’t racists, I sure wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking they are!

Remember the 2000 GOP National Convention? How they made it look like the Republican Party has only Black and Hispanic people in it? As silly as it was, I approved the idea that the GOP needs to welcome those demographic groups that historically vote predominantly for Democrats, and explain to those groups why Republicans believe that their principles and policies are just, and in the interests of all individuals, not just a few.

Apparently President Bush does continue to hold this belief, but his fellow Republicans are turning hostile as a result. It makes no sense. All immigrants (except terrorists/enemies/felons) should be considered legal immigrants. Rooting out the terrorist cells and crooks is the job of the CIA and FBI and NSA. If you are afraid of immigrants taking all the welfare money and getting all the freebies, stop giving out the welfare money and freebies. If anything, the large number of immigrants will create a good reason to terminate the welfare-state programs. (Ah, but then there’s the overwhelming fear of violating our sacred moral code Altruism!)

Ayn Rand wrote, “Don’t bother to examine a folly. Ask yourself only what it accomplishes.” (This is written from memory but I think it’s an accurate quote). Rush Limbaugh revealed what the Republicans are afraid of when he said that the pro-immigrant position of the Democrats is really just a way to increase the number of voters in the Democratic Party. Aha! Republicans are afraid all those Mexicans and South Americans will vote for Democrats.

Obviously, they needn’t worry about all the immigrants voting for Democrats if they explained why they should vote for Republicans — the party that is supposed to respect and protect the right of every individual to pursue his own happiness freely, the party that is supposed to cut taxes and spending and regulation and therefore allow new jobs and new businesses to be created, allowing a life of total freedom and productivity and even luxury to those who pursue it — and if the Republicans proved it by following through with action and not wimpiness. But today under the GOP we are witnessing the growth of spending and regulations, the literal imprisoning of CEOs, and only minimalistic tax cuts.

My solution? Speak up and educate the Republicans of their folly. Then, get Rudy Giuliani into the White House. He may fix the whole party.

We’re Back!
May 4th, 2006

Our vacation in Florida was a success. It improved as the week progressed, because we slowly learned the best ways to take three year old twins to Disney World. It’s totally different from the adult vacation experience. Basically, we learned that if they don’t get a nap (our kids can’t nap in a park, only in their beds or the car), at least we need to end the day and leave the parks after 6 to 8 hours maximum (something we didn’t do the first three days).

Also, we knew that we needed to avoid frightening attractions, but we didn’t expect “Mickey’s Philharmagic” to be frightening. None of the travel guide books warned us, but to our daughter the 3-D movie was too real and had scares (really just “Boo”-type surprises) in it that made her jittery about all other attractions thereafter. “I’m under the water with Ariel!” she shouted in horror, but she wouldn’t close her eyes or turn away. Our son thought it was funny and enjoyed it throughout. Eventually she learned to trust us (usually) when we said an attraction isn’t going to be scary. We did know to avoid the frightening-to-toddlers 3-D films “Honey I Shrunk The Audience” and “It’s Tough To Be A Bug” and we even decided to play it safe and avoided the relatively benign Muppets 3-D movie. We also took a day off to just relax after every two days at the parks.

The children especially enjoyed meeting characters and seeing the parades and they experienced plenty of both. The “Chef Mickey’s” breakfast and “Cinderella’s Royal Table” lunch were especially fun for all of us.

By trading off, my wife and I were able to ride the exhilerating “Soarin’” which was new to us (simulating flying over California scenery).

“Turtle Talk With Crush” was truly amazing, an interactive animated character that answers questions and reacts to the audience; it’s apparently instant animation, and of the highest quality. The humorous characterization was true to the movie “Finding Nemo”. The underwater effects were also instant and perfect. This is very high level technology and artistry! It suggests a future of “Live” animated theater or television — like a sequel to “Finding Nemo” could be presented as an animated yet live performance nightly, always spontaneous and different! Naturally the lines were long to enter this show.

The week started out with the parks being far hotter and more crowded than we expected for this time of year but became more comfortable and less populated later in the week.

Reviewing “American Adventure,” it cannot be called anti-American (and I only suggested in my earlier blog that it is “almost” that). It is still a patriotic presentation. But it’s the history of America as told by a mainstream historian of today; i.e., a left-leaning historian. It’s the CBS or ABC News version of history. The events they chose to present were primarily those the Left considers important, with a few bones thrown to the pro-capitalism Right and the patriots. It opens and closes with Benjamin Franklin praising the words of John (”Grapes of Wrath”/pro-socialism) Steinbeck. The only Presidents whose words are heard from their own lips (or an animatronic version of same) are liberal ones (Republican Theodore Roosevelt, Democrats FDR and JFK). You have to search for any Republicans not named Lincoln or Roosevelt. They did include a brief moment of Republican anti-Communist Walt Disney’s face — but then this attraction is located in his “World”.

My Archives: Recent

2006-07-20T20:54:00.000-04:00

Here are my recent blog posts, in reverse order, which were originally published at www.zigory.thinkertothinker.com:

The New Colossus July 6th, 2006

It is worth reading slowly and even aloud, this poem which is engraved at the Statue of Liberty’s main entrance. Think about each word, each phrase. This is a poem that is not shy about stating exactly what and whom it is talking about. There is no ambiguity. I believe it’s my favorite poem.

“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, 1883

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch,
whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning,
and her name
Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome;
her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Encounters With Socialism
July 6th, 2006

As you may know, my home state of New Jersey’s “non-essential” services have shut down thanks to a budget impasse (Yes! New Jersey is now closer to laissez-faire than it’s been in decades! If so many services are non-essential, why are we forced to pay taxes to support them?). Except for some people who want to gamble in Atlantic City or visit state-run parks, this shut-down has bothered nobody I know. Of course, if it wasn’t illegal, private individuals would readily buy and run the parks, and casinos would happily run their games without the state watchdogs present (and by stopping the gambling, the casinos have been forced to lose millions, but then, the state will also lose millions in tax revenue).

Meanwhile, there are plenty of county and city-run parks to go to and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of people gambling within their own homes. “Closed” beaches are really just beaches that are free instead of costing $7.00 a day for admission. Sure, there are no lifeguards, but I’m sure the same kids would be happy to get back to work if a bunch of beachgoers pooled resources to give them their salaries. Only the absence of the Division of Motor Vehicles is a slight annoyance, since I needed to take care of something there (but only because of the DMV’s own rules imposed on me).

There are still socialistic monopolies in New Jersey even with the beautiful sunny days of freedom this shut-down has created. (Of course I’m expecting that I won’t be taxed for services not rendered. I’m not being naive, am I?).

Besides the horrible socialist monopoly that is the public school system (and New Jersey has relatively good schools by national standards), and the government-run pothole-strewn highways that flood readily during thunderstorms creating dangerous river-like conditions, there is The People’s New Jersey Transit, which runs the buses and trains. I pay for every ride even though NJT is subsidized by the state. It’s getting my money twice. Great system, huh? So what kind of service do I get for all that money?

Well, yesterday, I waited for my bus to New York City. After waiting for 15 minutes, I figured it must have come early and I had missed it. So I walked to another street for a local bus that would take me to another town’s train station where I could connect to a train to New York City. (My town has a train station too, but most trains pass it by; they almost never stop there because….it costs the government too much since the town is small? Not enough tax revenue coming in to pay for the stopping of the train. Train-stopping is expensive?).

As I understood it, that bus was supposed to appear at 2:21 pm. The train station is only a mile away so there was a good chance of catching the 2:29 train. But the 2:21 bus showed up at 2:30…with the 2:30 bus right behind it.

I asked the driver what time this bus was supposed to be here. “I know I’m late,” she said. I repeated, “What time is this bus scheduled to be at this stop?” “I don’t know when it’s supposed to be here,” she said. She added, “You can’t expect the bus to be on time.” All I could do was repeat her words out loud, incredulously.

I got off at the railroad station where I would have to wait an hour for the next train. After I pondered for a few minutes how I was going to explain this to my supervisor at work, and what I would do for the next hour, I walked into the railroad station. On the other side was the bus to New York City, the one I had initially assumed I had missed (it also stops at the same train station). I got in. It was 38 minutes late. But since I allow extra time to get to work, I made it to work on time. No thanks to socialistic transit.

Privatize the transit systems! Make privately-owned commuter vans and buses legal!

Independence Day
June 29th, 2006

As Independence Day approaches, I want to focus on the hope that America has always inspired in people like my Eastern European-born mother, my Ukrainian-born paternal grandmother and other immigrants throughout our history. And further back, the excitement, the thrill that explorers like Lewis and Clark experienced as they embarked on dangerous yet exciting journeys of discovery. To them, exploring the unknown America was the equivalent of our explorations of the far reaches of the solar system. But they did not send unmanned vehicles that sent back photographs. They crossed the forests and mountains themselves, and brought back images of what they found by drawing into notebooks by hand.
But beyond the thrill of exploration there was also the emotion of hope for great possibilities without limit in this new land. There was the desire to establish a great nation, one that would respect everyone’s right to freedom, everyone’s right to pursue wealth and happiness in his own way, to create and trade products and services freely.

When I first learned in my Third Grade class of the Trading Posts of the old frontier, I loved the idea. Everyone brings what he produces, and trades it for another man’s product which he needs. The white settlers and Native American Indians for the most part traded with each other benevolently. It’s a microcosm of Capitalism.

Nowhere was the hope for a great future, a great new nation open to all, and ”with liberty and justice for all,” greater than within the hearts and minds of the Founding Fathers. They had seen the horrors and errors of history, the failings of other nations, and they were determined to create a government that corrected the mistakes of past nations, and held strong against the evils of the past, a government truly by and for the people. They actually succeeded.

Now we only have to beat back the slowly growing encroachments on our liberty of the last 100 years with the “eternal vigilance” the Founders knew would be necessary, and with a philosophy that upholds individual rights inviolably. Objectivism, anyone?

Time In Ayn Rand’s Words/Zigory’s Priorities
June 23rd, 2006

Here are Ayn Rand’s own words about the subject of time, from “Ayn Rand Answers”, edited by Robert Mayhew:

“My view is, in effect, Aristotelian…there is no such thing as independent time or space. The universe is finite, and the concept of time applies to the relationship between entities. Specifically, time is a measurement of motion, which is a change of relationship between entities within the universe. Time cannot exist by itself. It exists only within the universe; it does not apply to the universe as a whole. By ‘universe’ I mean the total of what exists. The universe could have no relationship to anything outside itself: no motion, no change and therefore, no time.”

A couple of thoughts about yesterday’s post: You should know that the situation of cramped apartments and the need to have roommates is typical in New York City, unlike some other cities. Also, I forgot to mention my move to Florida and back after 7 months (because Disney’s salary–and seemingly that of every non-professional job in Florida at the time–was too low to cover expenses).

I don’t regret the priorities I chose over time, and the adventures I’ve had, and now I thoroughly enjoy my new family and home and long-term writing projects (plus the podcasting and blogging). Parenting and teaching my children, being able to share with them and my wife enjoyment of a house and yard in a pleasant park-filled neighborhood, are at the top of my value priorities along with my writing/arts projects. I made the right decision in devoting the time to improving my situation and to searching for the right mate.

Those who start out with parents or uncles able and willing to assist financially do have a great advantage in terms of saving time, but eventually those without such advantages achieve their values as well, in a relatively free society like the United States. But sometimes I imagine how much easier things would be without New York’s rent regulations/controls that effectively keep artificially low-rent spacious apartments off the market (secretly passed along from family member to family member, close friend to close friend, as if a rare treasure–or kept unused rather than relinquished), and incredibly high taxes that turn decent salaries into poor ones.

Time: Metaphysical and Personal
June 21st, 2006

I read a fascinating reply Ayn Rand made to a question regarding the nature of time, in the book “Ayn Rand Answers”, which is a collection of her extemporaneous remarks during Question and Answer sessions after her lectures or classes. Among her points (from memory since the book is not in front of me) is that time is a tool man uses to measure motion, and is only relevant within the universe. One cannot discuss time outside of (apart from/ “before”) the universe, it is only a meaningful concept within the universe. This is an approximation of what she said. She (unlike me, perhaps) made her ideas very clear, even though she was speaking off the cuff.

I have at times in my thinking, wondered, if the universe began at a point in time, then what existed before the universe, and how far back does time go? What could the concept “before time began” possibly mean? (The concept “before” depends on the concept of time, so nothing could occur “before time”). Ayn Rand’s idea that time is simply a conceptual tool used to measure motion within the universe helps to answer these questions.

On a more personally relevant level, time management (within each day, and within a lifetime) is a skill that every productive person needs to address (at times). I have achieved many of my difficult goals over the years, yet some are still ongoing projects. What are the time-users (as opposed to the derogatory phrase time-wasters) that make some projects take longer?
In retrospect, in my life the biggest time-users have been family, romance, illness, moving from home to home, and learning/recreation (books/media/arts). In earlier years of my life, my parents, grandparents, etc. would often schedule difficult-to-avoid events (on holidays, for example) or need difficult-to-refuse assistance. As I got older I became self-sufficient, living on my own, and more able to refuse many of the time-consuming events.

A big time-user before my marriage and children included the seemingly endless search for a soul mate; going out of the house, meeting people, dating, placing and answering personal ads over and over… Even after I met her and dated her, I didn’t realize she was the one until after spending several years apart, during which I had a chance to formulate exactly what qualities my ideal mate needed to have (honesty, a happy outlook–my sense of life–and strong intelligence) and what qualities were not important (almost everything else). If I had been clear about that earlier, I could have saved a lot of time.

Another enormous time-consuming black hole: Living in New York, as my income grew I kept moving from apartment to apartment. I disliked having to live with a roommate, and disliked living in only the smallest rooms or the most inconvenient or unattractive neighborhoods, but by moving frequently, and changing jobs frequently to increase my income, eventually I was able to live in my own apartment, in a nice and convenient neighborhood. Then, when I became the partner of my soul mate, I moved in with her. Then we made the jump from renting to buying a co-op apartment, which doubled in value very quickly, so we finally sold it and bought a house. All of this moving around makes one feel uprooted, it requires packing and unpacking which take up months before and after each move. It’s not conducive to the completion of long-term projects. But I am happy that I didn’t settle for the unbearable, since the qualities of my home environment are very important to me. A certain amount of light, space, security, aesthetics do matter.

Finally, before this blog post gets too long (”before?”), once I hit age 40, it seems that finding and seeing doctors and specialists about the endless series of mostly minor health problems that seem to arise after that age is another major time-consumer. I cannot logically avoid it, yet it is very annoying at times. Not to mention the time taken by the ailments themselves.
I hope that your use of time to read my blog or hear my podcast is time that you find enriching and worthwhile, i.e., a good use of your time. (But if not, please don’t waste your time!) Later!

Various Topics
June 16th, 2006

Some unrelated thoughts:

It seems the hardest thing about doing a podcast can be getting busy guests, who are experts in their fields, to finalize the date and time when they will sit for the interview. I have three such guests in the works.

Don’t believe the hype about the rock band Arctic Monkeys being the next big thing in the USA. They are talented in what they do, but what they do is not likely to gain a large following in America. Does the average American know who Oasis or Blur or The Jam was? Even if they do, do they really care? Did Robbie Williams translate his British superstardom to America? They all have limited appeal here because their style is limited to a specific genre. England is a much smaller country with sometimes very different tastes than the US. (I could be proven wrong if the very young Arctic Monkeys become better songwriters, more varied, less noisy and encompassing more styles and subjects as they practice and learn and grow older).

It’s truly amazing how creative my three-year-old twins can be, in their pretending, as they play with toys or any other object in the house. They tell stories, create characters and situations. And the passion with which they want to understand everything, and their ability to comprehend when we explain something clearly, is also thrilling to watch.

My son loves cars and fire engines and tractors. He has seen commercials for the movie “Cars” and he passionately wants to see it. He was saying for weeks, “We forgot to see the movie ‘Cars’!” before it even came out. I said, “No, they didn’t finish making it yet. When it’s in the theater, we’ll go.” Finally, this weekend we plan to go.

About the Ann Coulter controversy: I admire and often agree with her, although I strongly disagree with those of her opinions that are religion-tainted (re stem cells, abortion, the usual conservative Christian issues). My thoughts about her “widows” comments are that I always would rather err on the side of being rude if it’s a choice between rudeness and lack of honest clarity about an important issue. Sometimes the only way to get across what you mean is by using the sharpest words. On the other hand, it’s best to keep an argument focused on the principles and not the personalities. But in the case of the four widows, their personal circumstances is the issue; they (as agents for the DNC) themselves use their personal situation as if it’s an argument that can have no response.

Never Again?
June 9th, 2006

For those who say about the Nazi concentration camps and the deadly prison camps of Stalin, “never again”, here is some news: it is again, now.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50382

More evidence about North Korea’s concentration camp Haengyong, with its ”Killing Compound” known as Camp 22, is detailed in this article from WorldNetDaily. Political prisoners become the subject of evil experiments here — when they aren’t starved or beaten or killed in gas chambers. Sound familiar?

Yes, it isn’t our job to save everyone, but clearly North Korea is a dangerous enemy of the West and the U.S. in particular, and they have nuclear weapons. The concentration camps make it even more obvious that we need to strike them with no reluctance or restraint. I have heard directly from Auschwitz survivors that while in the camp they welcomed the sound of the bombs getting closer even if it meant they would die too.

Billy news, X-Men, Jane Russell
June 9th, 2006

Kip Liles emails me that she found convincing evidence from an internet source that Billy, the brother of Bradley McGee (see my post about my podcast called “Protecting Children”), is still alive at age 5. But that’s all she knows about Billy.

Meanwhile, I saw “X-Men: The Last Stand” and I thought its plot, while often stretching one’s ability to suspend disbelief, nonetheless was exciting, suspenseful, and contained surprising and satisfying confrontations between characters, unexpected and dramatic events, and surprising yet believable choices made by various characters. I hadn’t read the comic books, I’ve only seen the movies, so it was all new to me. Compared to most fantasy and science fiction films today, this plot was jam-packed with ideas, probably because it was based on many years’ worth of comics written by very talented and imaginative writers who put a lot of thought into the stories (along with their editors). People like Marvel’s Stan Lee and DC’s Carmine Infantino and the late Julius Schwartz are extremely clever and talented people, certainly moreso than many in the film business today.

Speaking of the film business, I see that a star of the golden age of movies, Jane Russell, is performing live on stage in her home town of Santa Maria, California a couple of times a month. Since she wasn’t being hired for film roles, she was bored so she started her own show at the local Radisson. She also long ago created an organization, WAIF, which places foster children into adoptive families. Incidentally, she was and remains a Republican, and has said on the Larry King show during a remembrance of (GOP) comedian Bob Hope that in her heyday of the 1940s most of Hollywood was Republican.

http://www.wic.org/bio/jrussell.htm
http://www.firedupmissouri.com/node/4278
http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/fulldetail/id/192323
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000066/bio

Foster Children
June 2nd, 2006

Last night, there was a moving program on ABC’s “Primetime” with Diane Sawyer, about foster children, which showed some success stories where a few atrociously abused and neglected children started to heal themselves with the help of foster parents and a private children’s care facility called Maryhurst, and some were even adopted — although many remain in limbo.
There is a lot of information on the subject here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/FosterCare/

It seems clear that many of the worst cases occur in households where parents are drug or alcohol abusers. No further proof is needed that clarity of the mind is the essential value and that drug abuse or any other activity which distorts or halts such clarity are the essential evil.

2006-07-20T20:53:00.000-04:00