8-11-12 Hodgepodge

Paul Ryan on the Ticket

It appears that Paul Ryan (R-WI) will be Mitt Romney's running mate.

In recent days, conservative pundits have been urging Romney to choose Ryan in large part because of his authorship of a House-backed budget plan that seeks to curb overall entitlement spending and changes Medicaid into a voucher-like system to save costs. [Merely curbing an "entitlement" is not something Ayn Rand would advocate. --ed.]

The official announcement is supposed to occur today.

Given the common, incorrect media portrayal/smear of Ryan as an Objectivist, this pick could provide a golden opportunity to achieve clarity on just how bad both leftists and conservatives have been for this country. For starters, follow the Richard Salsman link below.

Unfortunately, this will also provide conservatives with a chance to tell everyone how "unselfish" they are at a time Americans most urgently need to be informed that selfishness is good.

Weekend Reading

"People who gossip have already revealed something about themselves." -- Michael Hurd, in "Self-Esteem Triumphs over Gossip" at DrHurd.com

"It's bad enough to be a parasite, but it really turns ugly when the parasites deny the existence of those whose blood they are feeding off, when they take over what others built while snarling that the others didn't build it." -- Harry Binswanger, in "Revenge Of The Zeros: The Battle Between Ayn Rand And Collectivism Reaches A Climax" at Forbes

"The real problem today is not 'political polarization' but the fact that a majority of people agree on so much politically (above all, the moderates)." -- Richard Salsman, in "An Objective Political Spectrum: 100% Pro-Choice Means 100% Moral Government" at Forbes

"Even though this particular regulator is gone, how many more Dr. Smiths still work at the FDA, delaying other vitally-needed medical innovations for American patients?" -- Paul Hsieh, in "The Federal Government's War on Medical Innovation" at Forbes

Even More Information

Almost anyone can take comfort from Michael Hurd's column. Nevertheless, it can still be very disappointing, especially at first, to learn that someone has been gossiping about you and even more so to learn that others have taken it seriously. Hurd's astute observations that gossip is a revelation about the one gossiping also apply in some respects to anyone you see lapping it up.

An Entire Corpus Culture, Reviewed

I found "How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book" amusing:

For example, let's say we're talking about Jeff Bezos. Simply start the section with "Jeff Bezos was headed for a life of run-of-the-mill middle class success. Then he was Zapped." Then, at the end, say "Bezos wasn't just clever. He was Zapped."

Now your chicken soup stories are magically transmuted from anecdotes to data. Colloquially, they are said to be "Gladwelled."

I've never read a Gladwell book, and I have found some of his commentary thought-provoking, so I can't vouch for whether this is truly good satire. That said, given the penetrance of pragmatism in our culture, I can see such an approach being popular.

--CAV