Friday Hodgepodge

Notable Commentary

"The best drama is grounded in reality, and medical drama is no exception." -- Paul Hsieh, in "How Badly Does Hollywood Distort Truth in Medical Dramas?" at Forbes.

"Civilization has benefitted from a long evolution in art; thanks to authors such as Tolstoy and Hugo, the literary microscope has been invented." -- Lisa VanDamme, in "The Literary Microscope" at Medium.

"We must be free to think: to grapple with facts, follow our judgment and draw our own conclusions." -- Steve Simpson, in "Three Free Speech Myths" at Merion West.

"There is a third flavor of socialism, which was unfortunately popularized by Milton Friedman." -- Keith Weiner, in "Socialism and Capital Consumption" at SNB & CHF.

If the right and left look alike today, it's in part because William Buckley did what he could to prevent examination of the moral premises behind the similarity. (Photo by Daniel Fazio on Unsplash)

Justice for William F. Buckley

Or: Better Late Than Never

Via HBL, I have learned of a much-needed corrective for the rash of undeserved accolades for William F. Buckley on the tenth anniversary of his passing. A fitting title, "William F. Buckley: Cowardly, Dishonest, Unjust, Racist, and Loved by Conservatives," and the following conclusion bookend the piece:

So, in the same year that Ayn Rand published Atlas Shrugged -- a hymn to individualism and individual rights -- William F. Buckley published a collectivist screed claiming that whites are "the advanced race" and contemplating when it is "worth" using violence to keep blacks in their place.

Yet conservatives lie about Ayn Rand and celebrate Buckley.

That speaks volumes.

I recommend reading this in its entirety.

Reich Is Wrong

Tom Bowden writes about a video that has been popping up at every turn lately:

To promote his new book, The Common Good, political commentator Robert Reich has recorded a video called "Trump's Brand Is Ayn Rand." In it, Reich attributes a long list of current social ills to Rand's influence over Donald Trump, political conservatives, and the culture at large. But his argument depends on distorting Rand's actual views and exaggerating her cultural influence. All three of his main points can be readily refuted. [link in original]

The detail to which Bowden does this should embarrass Reich, but it probably won't.

-- CAV