Enough is enough!

Perhaps you have heard about the developing scandal concerning Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and the deal to buy Merrill Lynch. The previous Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke threatened Mr. Lewis in order to intimidate him into continuing the unprofitable acquisition of Merill Lynch. The Wall Street Journal reported on the government’s use of force on April 28th. A mere four days later, another instance of government intimidation came to light. A lawyer representing Chrysler bondholders says that one of his “clients was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House Press Corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight. “

Such barefaced examples of the government initiating force on innocent citizens makes one wonder when (if) Americans are going to start sticking up for their individual rights. Samuel L. Jackson said it best in Snakes on a Plane: “Enough is enough!“

Last Official Meeting!

Wednesday, April 15th will be the Students of Objectivism’s final meeting for the 2009 fall semester. We will meet at 7:00 pm in the Blagdon room on the first floor of the league. A few things we can do Wednesday:

• Discuss if/how we should consolidate the library so that the club can get more use out of it. Tori just received another generous donation of books!
• Watch “Bridging the ‘Is-Ought’ Gap: How to Derive Morality from Facts,” a lecture + Q/A by Harry Binswanger
• Run through Peikoff’s latest podcast
• Decide the direction of the club for next year

See you there.

Meeting April 1st

I hope everyone had a good Edison Hour. I know I did!

Our next meeting is Wednesday April 1st at 7:00 pm in Blagdon room of the Michigan League. Unfortunately, a few of us have to leave at 9:00 in order to attend a meeting with some other like minded groups.

Hopefully this leaves us enough time to watch one of the lectures that just arrived in the mail from ARI. I just received “The Problem of Universals: Failed Attempts and Ayn Rand’s Solution,” by Gary Hull and “Bridging the ‘Is’-'Ought’ Gap: How to Derive Morality From Facts,” by Harry Binswanger.
See you on Wednesday!

Wednesday, March 18th

The next meeting is this Wednesday, March 18th at 7:00 pm. We are meeting in the usual room (1st-Blagdon in the Michigan League). On the agenda:

• ITOE chapters 2+3

• Edison Hour

-How to advertise more. Is there any sort of event we can put on in the diag? Giant flood lights would be awesome!

• Library status

-Doner Mark Hogan has graciously given UMSO several new books which are currently in Tori’s possession. This is a good time to consolidate our library and take inventory.

• Order a video

-ARI has a great lending program for campus clubs. If there are any videos we are interested in renting, we should put in an order soon to ensure we receive it before the end of the year.

• General discussion

-Current events, Peikoff’s podcasts, and anything else I’ve forgotten.

Meeting Tomorrow

We will be having a meeting tomorrow (March 4th) at 7:00 pm in the Blagdon room on the first floor of the Michigan League. Andrew has provided a quick list of discussion topics for tomorrow:

• ITOE Study Group
  • I was supposed to develop a study guide and questions to coincide with the first two chapters of ITOE. I don’t have anything to send out to the group, but I’d like to put something more formal together tonight (though there’s only a 50% chance of this as I might be at work kind of late).
• Further the club’s agenda and purpose
  • This continues to be open ended, but I am particularly interested in seeing us organize and take on more intellectual activism. Some ideas that popped into my head are:
    • Organizing a pro-man alternative to Earth Hour - http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/03/ann_arbor_leaders_embrace_eart.html
    • Writing another op-ed to (hopefully) be posted within the next two weeks
      • If people are interested in writing, I’d also like to push hard for more posts to our blog
    • An Atlas Shrugged Seminar? This is an idea that popped into my head after seeing the article Adam posted to the Twitter feed - http://twitter.com/umso/status/1259560934
    • Etc., etc.

‘The Perils of Environmentalism’ Published in The Michigan Daily

Check out Adam’s viewpoint article published in The Michigan Daily.

The environmental movement’s contempt for man can be traced back to its philosophical underpinnings. Environmentalists subscribe to the idea that the environment has intrinsic value. In other words, they believe that nature is automatically valued, with or without the existence of man. This is precisely why environmentalists oppose mankind’s destruction of wetlands but not the natural destruction of wetlands. It’s also why they oppose the building of a manmade dam but not a dam built by a beaver. Mankind’s disturbance of the inherent “goodness” of nature is seen as wrong and, ultimately, as immoral.

Viewpoint: The perils of environmentalism

Follow UMSO on Twitter!

You can follow UMSO on Twitter via twitter.com/umso. There you can find meeting announcements, activism links, and miscellaneous 140 character tidbits.

The Modern Library – 100 Best Nonfiction Books

The Modern Library – 100 Best Nonfiction Books

I find it encouraging that the top of the Reader’s List includes

• The Virtue of Selfishness (it is, in fact, ranked #1) and
• Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand.

Yes, the list also includes some works promoting bad ideas (or the absence of ideas as is the case with the #2 slot), and the presence of Objectivist works doesn’t imply any sort of wide endorsement, but it’s apparent that these books are not only read but also held in high regard.

The ideas are spreading, and people are receptive of them.

Club Information

The first meeting of the University of Michigan Students of Objectivism club went very well. The club will take on a “study group” type format, with the book of choice being Ayn Rand’s Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. We will be discussing chapter one on the first Wednesday after break (March 4th). Once again, the meeting will be held in room “Blagdon” on the first floor of the League. The room is in the back (if entering from North University St.), all the way down the main hallway.

New members, feel free to stop in and meet everyone. Doing the reading is not a requirement for attending meetings!

-Adam Gaglio

First Meeting of the Year!

I’m pleased to announce that the University of Michigan Students of Objectivism club will be having its first meeting of the new year tomorrow (Wednesday, February 18th) at 7:00 P.M. in Blagdon room on the first floor of the league. See you there!

-Adam Gaglio