Contents
* NEW Junto meeting Nov. 1
* NEW Upcoming Junto speakers through April 2013
* NEW Epstein's PowerPoint on Economic Freedom survey
* NEW 10 Things I Learned from Gary Hoover, by Victor N.
* NEW Obama, unsurprisingly, gets Ayn Rand wrong
* NEW Cato podcast: Ayn Rand VS. Ron Paul
* NEW Econophobia: Irrational Fear of Makers and Marketers
* NEW Objectivism for Fun and Profit, lived by John Allison
* NEW Ayn Rand Institute's Yaron Brook on libertarians
* NEW "Free Market Revolution" review
* NEW "The Financial Crisis & the Free Market Cure" review
* NEW Book on methods of thinking by Leonard Peikoff
* NEW Listen to Glenn Beck's radio show free
* NEW Why do billionaires feel victimized by Obama?
* NEW Movie reviews of "Atlas Shrugged Part 2"
* NEW Money Speech online, from"Atlas Shrugged Part 2"
* NEW Ayn Rand quote at the end of "Atlas Shrugged Part 2"
* NEW Human life span took huge jump in past century
* NEW Students for Liberty FREE Conference, Sat., Oct. 27
* NEW New York City Ayn Rand Meetup, Sun., Oct. 28
* NEW Brook, Ayn Rand Inst. CEO in NYC, Tues., Oct. 30
* NEW Central Park Walking Tour by Begley, Sat., Nov.10
* NEW ''Atlas Shrugged'' Reading Group, Sun., Nov. 18
* NEW NY Heroes, an Objectivist group with many events
* NEW Institute for Justice, libertarian public interest law firm
* NEW Why we don't "give back"
* NEW "We the Living," film of Rand's novel, 70 years old
* NEW Paul Ryan & Ayn Rand, comments by Ayn Rand Inst.
* NEW Romney-Obama debate: lost chapter "Atlas Shrugged"
* NEW Objectivist and Libertarian groups and sites.
* Ayn Rand walking tours
* NYCjunto-discuss list
* About this newsletter
**************************************************
Junto is a group that shares information,
discusses current issues and presents speakers
Greg Rehmke
The Entrepreneur Army
Thursday, November 1
Admission Free -- No reservation necessary
* We'll socialize from 7:00pm to 7:30pm.
NOTE, changes here:
* At 7:30pm the moderator, Gene Epstein, will call first on
people have announcements of things happening before the
next Junto, that will be followed by other announcements
and people who want to introduce themselves.
* The speaker will begin promptly at 8:00pm and talk about
45 minutes, uninterrupted.
* Following the talk there'll be questions, discussions and
rebuttal of the speaker's points. Discussions are intense
but polite.
* The meeting will continue to 10:00pm or later.
* Announcements can also be emailed to:
announce@nycjunto.org
General Society Library,
20 West 44 St., between 5th and 6th Aves., NYC
near the Grand Central Terminal
Subway: 4, 5, 6, S to Grand Central -- 42nd St.
or
B, D, F, 7 to 42nd Street -- Sixth Ave. at Bryant Park
or
A, C, E, N, Q, R, S, 1, 2, 3 to Times Square -- 42nd St.
Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M42, M98, M101, M102, M104, Q32
Train: MTA Metro-North Railroad to Grand Central
Car: Some private parking facilities in the area. Parking on
side streets is metered, limited to specific days and times.
Please note:
* Discussions are intense, but polite. Participation by all
attendees is highly encouraged.
* Junto meets on the first Thursday of every month.
Greg Rehmke is program director at Economic Thinking,
a program of E Pluribus Unum Films.
Co-author ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to Global Economics''
A regular contributor to DailySpeculations.com. He manages
EconomicThinking.org
Across the developing world an army of entrepreneurs are
attacking. They are attacking hunger with new crops and better
distribution, attacking ignorance with informal private schools,
attacking unemployment with mobility and job training, and on
all fronts attacking established competitors with lower prices
and innovation. Established elites are fighting back, drawing
from foreign aid and U.N. grants.
Half of Africans now have handheld computers (cell phones)
to connect to the global economy, as do have the 1.2 billion
people in India. This battle between the poor and the elites
unfolds across America as well with skirmishes across a
dozen sectors.
The rich networks of self-help organizations in America
crackled with life for centuries but were drained by regulations
and stripped of customers by the welfare state. These networks
built America's early roads, parks, libraries, and schools, plus
helped the poor and the aged.
George Gilder noted in a recent WSJ op-ed: "Today, 70% of
government discretionary spending devalues human assets by
paying people to be unemployed, unmarried, retired, sick, poor,
homeless, hapless, disabled or drugged."
These destructive policies flowed from what Richard Epstein
calls Bill of Rights 2.0, the unfortunate New Deal "upgrade" of
the Founders' Bill of Rights 1.0. FDR and his "brain trust"
championed the positive rights claims in the "new Bill of
Rights," and Eleanor Roosevelt helped set these welfare rights
claims in the United Nations Charter and Declarations of
Human Rights.
Finally though enough evidence has accumulated, along
with enough debt, to open the door for alternatives. The
Entrepreneur Army already working informally at the edges
of society, can create the millions of small local jobs for key
needed services in transportation, construction, manufacturing,
education and health care.
Greg plans to draw from Robert Guest's book "Borderless
Economics" for upbeat new developments.
BIO: Greg has a degree in Economics from the U of
Washington and has worked with the Reason Foundation, the
Institute for Humane Studies, the Center for the American Idea,
and the Foundation for Economic Education.
In addition to directing programs for Economic Thinking,
Greg's a speaker at student programs for the Independent
Institute, the Mackinac Center, the Houston World Affairs
Council, and the Institute for Economic Studies-Europe. He's
a member of the Mackinac Center Board of Scholars.
He's written on environmental topics for PERC Reports, a
newsletter of the Political Economy Research Center (renamed
Property and Environment Research Center) in Bozeman, MT.
Greg's written over a hundred articles on public policy topics
as well as published resource books, study guides & newsletters
focused on the economic aspects of over twenty years of high
school and home school debate topics.
He's published articles in DailySpeculations.com, Reason,
The Freeman, the MasterResource blog, GlobalEnvision.org
and TechCentralStation.com. He's co-author of the "Complete
Idiot's Guide to Global Economics."
Visit his site:
tiny.cc/gRehmke
—————————————————————————
Visit Junto's site for information on current & past speakers, read
previous newsletters and to sign up for the Junto e-newsletter:
NYCjunto.com
Visit Junto on Facebook:
on.fb.me/JuntoNYC
Follow Junto on Twitter (we thank Kevin Levine):
twitter.com/NYCJunto
—————————————————————————
Junto focuses on libertarianism, Objectivism and investing.
Our founder and host is Victor Niederhoffer.
Visit his site at:
DailySpeculations.com
**************************************************
Please email the above text to your freedom loving friends
who might be interested in Junto.
Feel free to use the above text to promote Junto among
libertarians, Objectivists and investors.
NEW______________________________________________
Come to Junto, meet these upcoming speakers:
* Dec. 6, Wayne Leighton, prof. econ., Universidad Francisco
Marroquín (UFM) Guatemala, exec. dir. The Antigua Forum,
co-author "Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers:
The Economic Engine of Political Change." Visit his page at:
tiny.cc/LeightonUFM
* Jan. 3, Donald J. Boudreaux, George Mason U. econ. prof.,
author "Hypocrites & Half-Wits: A Daily Dose of Sanity from
Cafe Hayek." Read his essays and letters to editors here:
CafeHayek.com
* Feb. 7, Ivan Eland, sr. fellow, dir, Center on Peace and
Liberty, Independent Institute, author "The Empire has No
Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed" and "No War for Oil:
U.S. Dependency and the Middle East." Visit his page:
tiny.cc/Eland
plus
we'll celebrate Ayn Rand's 108th birthday. Learn about her and
her philosophy Objectivism at: AynRand.org
* Mar. 7, Brink Lindsey, senior fellow, Cato Institute: trade
policy, globalization, U.S. social & cultural history, nature
of human capital. Currently researching economic growth and
policy barriers that impede it. Read more about him:
tiny.cc/LindseyCato
*April 4, Matt Welch, editor in chief Reason, the libertarian
magazine of ''Free Minds and Free Markets,'' co-author ''The
Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can
Fix What's Wrong With America.'' Read more about him at:
tiny.cc/WelchReason
NEW———————————————————————
Epstein's PowerPoint on Economic Freedom survey, Oct. Junto
Gene Epstein, Junto moderator, will send you the "Economic
Freedom of the World 2012 Annual Report" by the Fraser
Inst., Canadian think tank. With it is his PowerPoint analysis
of it which he presented at the Oct. Junto. Email him:
gene.epstein@gmail.com
NEW———————————————————————
10 Things I Learned from Gary Hoover, by Victor Niederhoffer
If you wished you had made notes at the Oct. Junto or if you
missed it, you can read all the most important parts here:
tiny.cc/HooverVic
NEW———————————————————————
Obama, unsurprisingly, gets Ayn Rand wrong
by Ari Armstrong, The Objectivist Standard Blog
Thu., Oct. 25
In a Rolling Stone interview with Douglas Brinkley
published today, Obama criticized his distorted, straw-man
version of Rand’s ideas at length:
Q: "Have you ever read Ayn Rand?"
Obama: "Sure."
Q: "What do you think Paul Ryan's obsession with her work
would mean if he were vice president?"
Obama: "Well, you'd have to ask Paul Ryan what that means to
him. Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we
were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up. Then,
as we get older, we realize that a world in which we’re only
thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else,
in which we're considering the entire project of developing
ourselves as more important than our relationships to other
people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity --
that that's a pretty narrow vision. It's not one that, I think,
describes what's best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem
as if sometimes that vision of a "you're on your own" society
has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party.
"Of course, that’s not the Republican tradition.... You look
at Abraham Lincoln: He very much believed in self-sufficiency
and self-reliance. He embodied it -- that you work hard and
you make it, that your efforts should take you as far as your
dreams can take you. But he also understood that there's some
things we do better together. That we make investments in our
infrastructure and railroads and canals and land-grant colleges
and the National Academy of Sciences, because that provides
us all with an opportunity to fulfill our potential, and we'll all
be better off as a consequence. He also had a sense of deep,
profound empathy, a sense of the intrinsic worth of every
individual, which led him to his opposition to slavery and
ultimately to signing the Emancipation Proclamation. That
view of life -- as one in which we’re all connected, as opposed
to all isolated and looking out only for ourselves -- that's a
view that has made America great...."'
Although in a few details Obama accurately indicates the
gist of Rand's positions (e.g., Rand held we should develop
ourselves, work hard, and expend effort to achieve our goals
in life) for the most part he grotesquely distorts Rand's ideas....
Obama points out that Lincoln saw the "intrinsic worth of
every individual" and opposed slavery, implying that Rand
somehow did not share Lincoln's view. In fact, Rand wrote
passionately against the evils of racism and involuntary
servitude, and (although she offered a technical critique of
intrinsicism as a philosophical doctrine) she held that each
individual properly lives his own life in pursuit of his own
values. Rand famously identified the fact: "The smallest
minority on earth is the individual."...
Read the rest at: tiny.cc/RandByObama
NEW———————————————————————
Cato podcast: Ayn Rand VS. Ron Paul
Don Watkins, of Ayn Rand Institute, contrasts them & talks
about capitalism and foreign policy: tiny.cc/RandVsRonPaul
NEW———————————————————————
Econophobia: The Irrational Fear of Makers and Marketers
By Roger Donway
What has prompted people, over the course of three millennia,
to look upon work and commerce as degrading and deceitful?
Why have they instead tended to look upon the leisured and
lordly as models of the good life?...[a new] thesis...economic
life, involving production and trade, is a relatively new
phenomenon in the world; that its maxims and mottoes have
only begun to seep into mankind's store of common wisdom;
and that it has not had nearly enough time to begin shaping the
biological evolution of human emotions.... Read the rest at:
tiny.cc/FearMaker
This essay is from the Business Rights Center, which is part
of The Atlas Society: tiny.cc/BusinessRights
NEW———————————————————————
Objectivist Philosophy for Fun and Profit, lived by John Allison
How a banker avoided ruin by cleaving to Ayn Rand's
system of ethics. By Mark Hemingway, Nat. Review Online
...because Rand doesn't endorse altruism for altruism's sake,
many people misconstrue her to be amorally selfish. Rand
"doesn't view ethics as self-sacrificial," Allison says, "she
views ethics as a rational means to success and happiness.
If you described her in principle, she would say that you
shouldn't take advantage of other people because that is
unethical behavior and self-defeating. But you also shouldn't
self-sacrifice. What you really need to do is run your life in
relationship to other people in context to what she calls the
trader principle. The trader principle is about what I call
creating win-win relationships. We trade value for value
and we get better together..."
Read the rest at: tiny.cc/ObjFun
NEW———————————————————————
Ayn Rand Institute's Yaron Brook on libertarians
"I don't think there's been a significant change in terms of
our attitude towards libertarians. Two things have happened.
We've grown, and we've gotten to a size where we don't just
do educational programs, we do a lot more outreach and a lot
more policy and working with other organizations. I also
believe the libertarian movement has changed. It's become
less influenced by Rothbard, less influenced by the anarchist,
crazy for lack of a better word, wing of libertarianism"....
This is from: tiny.cc/ariReason
NEW______________________________________________
"Free Market Revolution:
How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government," review
In The Freeman, by George C. Leef, Oct. 5
Most Freeman readers have probably come across books that
purport to defend capitalism and the free market, but do so in
a weak, apologetic way....
If you cringe at books like that, allow me to introduce you
to one that makes a full-throated, unapologetic case in favor of
laissez-faire. "Free Market Revolution" by Yaron Brook and
Don Watkins (respectively, executive director of and a fellow
at the Ayn Rand Institute) argues strongly and convincingly
that the pursuit of self-interest -- profit -- is morally good and
is the only path to progress and harmony. Their book couldn’t
be more timely.... Read the rest at: tiny.cc/ARideas
NEW______________________________________________
"The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure:
How Destructive Banking Reform is Killing the Economy"
by John Allison, former bank CEO, Cato CEO
Reviewed at United Liberty, by Jason Pye, Oct. 16
...Allison gets right to business [as he] explains very
pointedly that the "primary cause of the Great Recession was
a massive misinvestment in residential real estate," the sources
of which are the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, and the SEC....housing was being misrepresented
as an "investment" rather than "consumption."...
The rest of this review of this insider's report by a banker at:
tiny.cc/AllisonCure
NEW______________________________________________
New book on methods of thinking: Leonard Peikoff, Rand heir,
The best way learn about or to even begin reading "The DIM
Hypothesis" is to read this review of it by Tony White, on
Amazon. It gives a simple overview of the ideas offered in
this book, better than the book does itself.
Here's the best part:
The theme of The DIM Hypothesis is that just as men have
a moral character, so they also have a conceptual character, a
learned, automatized approach to using the instrument of their
mind. You could also think of conceptual character as
"cognitive personality" or "style of thinking".
For example, a man may hear Ayn Rand's principle that
"Man's basic means of survival is reason" and his mind will
automatically begin to range over such concretes as a doctor
learning to perform life-saving surgery, or the invention of
agriculture, or the internet, or electric power lines heating a
home in the dead of winter, or a computer controlled robotic
factory, or internal combustion engines, or the fact that
education -- the systematic training of the rational faculty --
is crucial to human life. His mind will automatically go to real,
concrete examples to be integrated under the principle that
"Man's basic means of survival is reason." This automatized
approach to thought is Integration, the I in DIM.
Another man hearing the exact same principle will have a
completely different approach. Hearing that "Man's basic means
of survival is reason", his mind will automatically seek to avoid
integration; right away his subconscious will throw to his
conscious mind such questions as "What about babies? What
about the insane? What about taking a rest from study? What
about sleep?" His mind will habitually, automatically attempt
to tear apart or deny any principle it hears; it will not try to
integrate, but to disintegrate. Disintegration is the D in DIM.
Another man hearing the same principle will have still
a different approach. Hearing that "Man's basic means of
survival is reason", his mind will attempt to process the
principle in a realm of pure abstraction, apart from concrete
reality: "Man is the rational animal, by definition. As such he
must necessarily have two choices: he can survive by means of
reason, or by not-reason. Man clearly cannot survive by means
of not-reason, that would be absurd, therefore he must survive
by means of reason. QED." This mentality is not explicitly
destructive -- it does not attempt to explicitly disintegrate the
principle as the D mentality does -- but wants its principles to
exist in world of floating abstractions, detached from the actual
concrete facts that the principle is supposed to integrate in his
mind. Dr. Peikoff calls this Misintegration, the M in DIM.
Within the M and D conceptual characters, Dr. Peikoff has
two subdivisions of greater and lesser consistency: D1/D2 and
M1/M2. M1 would be a devout churchgoer who nonetheless
accepts the theory of evolution based on the evidence; M2
would be a fundamentalist who thinks that the human race
literally began six thousand years ago with Adam of the Bible,
and that dinosaur fossils were evidence planted by Satan to
tempt Man astray. D1 would be progressive education or
impressionistic painting; D2 would be deep ecologists who
want the human race to wipe itself out or a Jackson Pollock
painting.
You can read all of White's review at: tiny.cc/AboutDIM
Tony White's site, which I recommend: Peripatetic Thoughts
-- Exploring the Aristotelian-Objectivist view of life:
tiny.cc/whiteObj
NEW———————————————————————
Listen to Glenn Beck's radio show free:
tiny.cc/GBeckLive
NEW———————————————————————
Why do billionaires feel victimized by Obama?
by Chrystia Freeland, The New Yorker, Oct. 8
...Leon Cooperman...billionaire....founder of a hedge fund...
Sternlicht, the founder of the W hotel chain...said that he
agreed totally with Cooperman....guests had witnessed the
"activation" of a "sleeper cell" of hedge-fund managers against
Obama...."The President has a philosophy of disdain toward
wealth creation."...[at a] conference in New York, he compared
Hitler's rise to power with Obama’s ascent to the Presidency,
citing disaffected majorities in both countries who elected
inexperienced leaders....T.J. Rodgers, a libertarian and a
Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has taken to comparing Barack
Obama's treatment of the rich to the oppression of ethnic
minorities.... Cooperman said, "Our problem, frankly, as the
President remains anti-wealth, anti-business, anti-energy,
anti-private-aviation, he will never get the business
community behind him...." This is from: tiny.cc/HedgeObama
NEW———————————————————————
Movie reviews of "Atlas Shrugged Part 2," opened Oct. 12
"I won't be a slave." Those are the words of Dagny Taggart,
the protagonist...The way you interpret Taggart's words will
probably determine whether you agree with the critics (who
almost universally hated this movie) or with the average
moviegoers who gave the film an 80 percent positive review....
Now, I'm not going to try to claim that the film versions of
the first two-thirds of "Atlas Shrugged" are brilliant artistic
masterpieces, because they aren't -- but they are a darn sight
more relevant to your life and our country's plight than almost
anything else you will see on the silver screen....
by Frank Miele, read the rest at: tiny.cc/AtlasReviewMT
****
...part II does a superb job of attacking statism. So much of
what it portrays, with remarkable faithfulness to Ayn Rand's
novel, is frighteningly similar to things we see these days from
Obama Land. It is easy to imagine a "State Science Institute"
under Obama with outsized and illicit power. It is easy to see
Obama's team pushing various pieces of legislation outlawing
forms of economic competition, freezing wages and prices and
even job status, and doing all sorts of other things the bad guys
do in "Atlas Shrugged II." So much of the rhetoric from the
statists in the fictional account is so similar to the rhetoric from
statists in real life in the United States....
by Quin Hillyer at: tiny.cc/statism
****
I was impressed by the way they reduced the 14-1/2 page story
of 20th Century Motors/John Galt to just a few sentences.
by Iris Bell
****
"Atlas Shrugged Part 3" due July 4, 2014
NEW______________________________________________
Rand's Money Speech online, from"Atlas Shrugged Part 2"
See how the five page speech is turned into a few minutes of
film. Jim Taggart is the first person speaking, not Francisco, as
the introduction seems to be saying: tiny.cc/MoneySpeech
NEW______________________________________________
Ayn Rand quote at the end of "Atlas Shrugged Part 2"
If you stayed to the very end of the film, after all the end
credits had run, you got to see a quote from the Money Speech.
It had some of the middle section removed. Here's all of it:
"Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see
that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion -- when
you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission
from men who produce nothing -- when you see that money is
flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors -- when
you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work,
and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them
against you -- when you see corruption being rewarded and
honesty becoming a self-sacrifice -- you may know that your
society is doomed."
NEW______________________________________________
Human life span took huge jump in past century
by Trevor Stokes, The Daily Debate edited Robert Tracinski
...Humans are living longer than ever, a life-span extension
that occurred more rapidly than expected and almost solely
from environmental improvements as opposed to genetics....
Four generations ago, the average Swede had the same
probability of dying as a hunter-gatherer, but improvements in
our living conditions through medicine, better sanitation and
clean drinking water (considered "environmental" changes)
decreased mortality rates to modern levels in just 100 years,
researchers found.... Read the rest at: tiny.cc/Lifespan
NEW______________________________________________
Students for Liberty FREE NY Conference, Sat., Oct. 27
Barron's economics editor and Junto moderator Gene Epstein
will speak: "Bleeding-Heart Capitalism." 3:30pm in Lerner Hall,
2920 Broadway, at 115th St. Host: Columbia U. Libertarians.
9am to 8pm. The largest annual regional conference, bringing
together students from the NYC metro area and all over the NE.
You'll hear top speakers in the libertarian movement,
network with other pro-liberty students, discover countless
opportunities for jobs, internships, conferences and seminars
and have a lot of fun with other students. Non-students of all
ages welcome.
Register and more info: StudentsForLiberty.org
NEW______________________________________________
New York City Ayn Rand Meetup, Sun., Oct. 28
Come join us at 3:00pm. We'll talk about Ayn Rand, her
works, Objectivist life, challenges, options, associations and
knowledge.
Give and take, open to all, no charge, no reservations.
The Midtown Restaurant, 155 East 55 St., bet. 3rd & Lex., free.
Benny Pollack, organizer says: ''Join our group of regular
Objectivists for a lively discussion on topics related to Ayn Rand
and Objectivist philosophy in general.
''Please join us. If you are already versed in the topic, want
to learn or just want to spend an intellectually stimulating
afternoon, please come. I hope to see you all there.''
The Ayn Rand Meetup is on the last Sunday of each month.
Learn more about it at: AynRand.meetup.com/8
NEW______________________________________________
Brook, Ayn Rand Inst. CEO speaks in NYC, Tues., Oct. 30
Gotham Tea Party speakers: Yaron Brook, son of Israeli
socialists, the author of "Free Market Revolution: How Ayn
Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government," columnist for
Forbes.com, CEO Ayn Rand Inst. has much to say about the
stakes in this election. Also speaking: Pamela Geller, blogger
and activist known for her stance against radical Islam will
report on her recent experience running ads calling for the
support of the civilized man against the savage.
7:30pm, Annie Moore's Pub, 50 E. 43 St., bet. Vanderbilt
and Madison, $10 in advance, no refund on prepaid admissions,
$15 at door -- snacks included
For more information and to pay: tiny.cc/YaronNY
NEW______________________________________________
Central Park Walking Tour by Robert Begley, Sat., Nov.10
This NY Heroes tour begins at 59th St. and 5th Ave, at the
golden statue of Sherman on horseback, being lead by an angel.
Robert will be holding a small American flag. Meet at 12:45pm.
We'll start 1:00pm sharp. $10 per person, 20 person maximum.
We'll go into the Park, to the Literary Walk, seeing statues
first of Columbus, then Shakespeare and other writers. On
to the Bethesda Fountain, then Daniel Webster and finish at
Strawberry Fields. The tour will last about 90 minutes, to about
2:30pm. We'll have a late lunch and conversation after the tour,
at Dallas BBQ, 27 W. 72nd St, just off Central Park West,
from about 2:30pm to 4:00pm.
Lunch isn't included, you pay for your own meal. Sign up at:
tiny.cc/CentralPark
NEW______________________________________________
''Atlas Shrugged'' Reading Group, Sun., Nov. 18
The subject is part 2, chapter 9, "The Face Without Pain or
Fear or Guilt." Robert Begley is leader of this discussion.
The $5 fee to attend goes to the Ayn Rand Inst. to give
Rand's novels to high schoolers and home schoolers.
The Reading Group is sponsored by the New York
Objectivist Society: tiny.cc/NYobjSoc
Sun., Nov. 18, third Sun. of the month, 4:30pm to 6:45pm,
inside 120 Park Ave., S.W. corner at E. 42nd St.
This Reading Group has only one rule, you can't integrate
or refer to material in the text that's after this chapter.
Please read the chapter in advance as preparation for the
discussion. Robert will give an analysis of each scene, then
open it to comments and questions, before going to next scene.
We'll end with a discussion of the meaning of the chapter title.
Visit the Reading Group's site: tiny.cc/ReadAtlas
NEW______________________________________________
NY Heroes, an Objectivist group with many events
Two events are mentioned above. Check to see what's doing.
* NY Heroes "Celebrate Self" Biannual Hike, Sun., Nov 4
* Central Park Walking Tour by Robert Begley, Sat., Nov 10
* Atlas Shrugged Reading Group, Sun., Nov 18
* Firearms Shooting at Nassau County Range, date to come
meetup.com/nyheroes
NEW______________________________________________
Institute for Justice, only U.S. libertarian public interest law firm
Their mission is cutting-edge litigation and advocacy both in
the courts of law and in the court of public opinion on behalf of
individuals whose most basic rights are denied by the government.
They've won more than 70 percent of their cases since their
1991 founding. Read more about them at: ij.org
NEW______________________________________________
Why we don't "give back"
This is a portion of a letter to the editor by a friend of mine:
"...Our Constitution did not grant us rights. Our rights exist
in each individual, and the Constitution was written to protect
them. I am not the property of the state, and I do not
acknowledge the state's or society's claim on my productivity.
"The only true charity is that which is freely given.
Capitalism is the only system that creates wealth and
fosters true benevolence and generosity.
"I will freely give, but I will not 'give back.' " Marjorie Peters
Read the whole letter: "Obama campaign engaging in socialist
concepts," 10/17/2012 at: tiny.cc/PetersLetter
NEW______________________________________________
"We the Living," film of Ayn Rand's novel, 70 years old
By Don Hauptman "This month marks the 70th anniversary
of the first public exhibition of the great Italian film version of
Ayn Rand's first novel, "We the Living." The story of how the
movie was originally made, and of the events that followed,
are as dramatic and compelling as fiction.... Read about it here:
tiny.cc/70yearLiving
NEW______________________________________________
Paul Ryan & Ayn Rand, comments by Ayn Rand Institute
* UK's Guardian, Don Watkin: Why are so many Americans,
students to politicians, talking about Rand's novel, why is she
comparatively unknown in Europe?
* FoxNews.com, Onkar Ghate on the view that people
respond to Ayn Rand's ideas in their youth, then outgrow her:
"The key to Rand’s enduring popularity is that she appeals
not to the immaturity but to the idealism of youth."
* Christian Science Monitor, Watkins: Some called Ryan
"Ayn Rand candidate." "Ryan is worlds apart from Rand.
Rand did not want to save Social Security; she wanted to end it.
* Daily Caller, Don Watkins explores Ryan's views on
individual rights and how they compare to Rand's."[D]on’t be
too quick to leap…to the conclusion that Ryan is an avowed
Randian on rights. Even if we leave aside Ryan’s Catholic
dogma about souls and embryos, which Rand completely
rejected, and focus only on the economic issues for which
Ryan is most known, the differences remain stark.”
NEW———————————————————————
Romney-Obama debate: a lost chapter of "Atlas Shrugged"
By Oleg Atbashian, Oct. 5 If Ayn Rand were to write
a Christmas story, it would look like last night's presidential
debate, in which good triumphs over evil, as looters and
moochers get shamed and exposed for what they really are....
For almost four years now we've been seeing Rand's dystopia
coming to life: cronyism in the government and big business,
manipulative media, corrupted education, dying economy,
social stratification, massive poverty, unemployment, and
disillusionment -- all the result of a well-meaning attempt to
"fundamentally transform" this country on the basis of "giving
everyone his fair share."... Read all of it at: tiny.cc/OlegDC
NEW______________________________________________
Objectivist and Libertarian groups and sites.
* Groups which meet in Manhattan:
NYC Junto -- nycJunto.org
NYC Ayn Rand Meetup -- meetup.com/AynRand-8
NY Objectivist Society -- tiny.cc/NYobj
Atlas Reading Group -- tiny.cc/ReadingAtlas
NY Heroes -- tiny.cc/NYheroesObj
Ayn Rand NY Tours -- tiny.cc/TourRand
Manhattan Libertarian Party -- manhattanLP.org
* Sites to visit:
Ayn Rand Institute -- AynRand.org
The Atlas Society -- AtlasSociety.org
The Atlasphere -- theAtlasphere.com
The Objective Standard -- theObjectiveStandard.com
Forum for Ayn Rand Fans -- forums.4aynRandFans.com
Aristos: An Online Review of the Arts -- aristos.org
Philosophy in Action -- philosophyinAction.com
Sense of Life Objectivists -- soloPassion.com
Objectivism Online -- objectivismOnline.com
Rebirth of Reason -- rebirthOfReason.com
Ludwig Von Mises Institute -- mises.org
Institute for Justice -- ij.org
Cato Institute -- cato.org
O List -- oList.com
__________________________________________________
Fred Cookinham Ayn Rand walking tours
He offers 5 different Ayn Rand tours: tiny.cc/TourRand
* Ayn Rand's Park Avenue, Nov. & private tours
Where Rand lived and held her salons.
Meet on NE corner on east 42nd St. at Vanderbilt Ave.
Grand Central Terminal’s SW entrance.
starts 11:00am, Nov. 4, Sun. & Nov. 24, Sat.
* "Atlas Shrugged,'' Nov. & private tours
See places Rand researched and fictionalized in her novel,
around and in Grand Central Terminal.
Meet on the SE corner of Park Ave. at E. 50th St.
Outside the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel.
1-1/2 hour, starts 11:00am, Nov. 17, Sat., & Nov. 18, Sun.
* Skyscrapers of ''The Fountainhead,'' private tours
* Ayn Rand Fifth Avenue, private tours
* Ayn Rand on Broadway, private tours
Scheduled tours $20, $15 for those over 65. Private tours $30.
To arrange for your private tour or for more information,
call Fred at home: 718-397-9019 or on his cell: 917-607-9019
or email him: fcookinham [at] juno.com
Fred Cookinham's walking tours keep getting better,
because he never stops researching.
He's often at Junto and Ayn Rand Meetups. Highlights of
previous years Fred gave a special ''Ayn Rand and Free Market
Tour'' for Mont Pelerin Society and ''Ayn Rand's Park Ave.'' on
BBC's Radio 4 ''The Right Stuff.''
—————————————————————————
NYCjunto-discuss list
Junto members can discuss Junto speakers and other topics.
You can read these posts at: yhoo.it/JuntoP
To post to this list you need to be a member of it.
Become a member at: yhoo.it/JuntoD or send email:
NYCjunto-discuss-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
—————————————————————————
About Junto
* Gene Epstein moderates Junto. He's the economics editor
and books editor of Barron's, the weekly business
magazine, author of ''Econospinning: How to Read Between
the Lines When the Media Manipulate the Numbers:''
tiny.cc/Econo
* Iris Bell writes this e-newsletter.
* Oleg Atbashian created NYCjunto.com. He also sends out
this e-newsletter and cares for its email list.
* Andy George helps with the sound system and supplies music.
* Our founder and host is Victor Niederhoffer. Visit his site at:
DailySpeculations.com
* This e-newsletter comes out twice a month. You might
get an occasional extra email about a timely event.
* To subscribe to this newsletter put "Junto list" in the
subject line, email your name & preferred email address to:
info@nycjunto.org
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END
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