Friday Hodgepodge

Image of first page of United States Constitution via Wikimedia Commons.

Notable Commentary

"Rather than fighting against the separation of Church from State, Star Parker would better serve the ideas of Capitalism and the Constitution by noting that religion is merely one set of ideas that can be taken on faith and argue for a separation of State from all ideology." -- Bob Stubblefield, in "Letter: U.S. Is Not a Christian Nation" at The Aiken Standard.

"The goodness of a legal system's efficacy -- goodness that would constitute that system's being an ideal -- is completely dependent upon the ends that it advances." -- Tara Smith, in "Neutrality Isn't Neutral: On the Value-Neutrality of the Rule of Law" in Washington University Jurisprudence Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 49-95. (PDF, 2011)

"One of the bedrock principles of Western medicine is a respect for a patient's bodily autonomy." -- Paul Hsieh, in "Pelvic Exams on Anesthetized Women Without Consent: A Troubling and Outdated Practice" at Forbes.

"I'm hoping that as people realize that she is deeper and more interesting than just politics and the way the Left (and sometimes the Right) presents her, ... [m]ore people then will be open to studying her ideas and discussing them." -- Yaron Brook (interviewed by Alex Baltzegar), in "Interview with Yaron Brook: Why Ayn Rand Still Matters" at Merion West.

Vote for a Worthy Candidate in 2018

Impact Today recently pointed out an opportunity to help place the 1996 documentary, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, in the National Film Registry:

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress scans the decades to select twenty-five motion pictures (at least ten years old) for posterity. The picks are made after the Librarian confers with the National Film Preservation Board but gives special attention to films that get numerous votes via their public voting form, which can be filled out online.

You can find further details, including where and how to vote, here. Polls close in December.

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Added attribution link to image caption.