Controlling the Media

Dr. Yaron Brooke has an excellent article–I mean a remarkably clarifying, coherent, logical, and lucid article–on Forbes.com entitled “War on Free Political Speech.“

Following Ayn Rand, Dr. Brook exhorts those who assume that in a free society, the rich will mostly be in control of all the media, and that presidential races will be funded by the extremely rich people who will promote their pet candidates through all means available, to “check their premises.”

Here’s just a hint:

“What is the actual effect of wealth on political speech? Is it true that a diversity of political viewpoints would be shut out without campaign finance restrictions? Clearly not, when wealthy Americans include a vast diversity of individuals, and when we are free to watch Fox News or CNN, read the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, listen to Rush Limbaugh or Air America, visit Instapundit or Daily Kos.”

This article reinforces a thought I’ve had in my mind for a long time now: there is simply no one from any philosophical school of thought who understands the entirety of the concept of rights–particularly, the right to free speech–as comprehensively, cogently, and non-contradictorily as an Objectivist does (for example, just read this post about two philosophers arguing over what free speech is). The flipside of this is, unfortunately, there are only so few people in this world who know what rights are and can defend them objectively without being driven towards a fatal contradiction.

The Evil Obamas

The disgusting racket of self-sacrifice and self-abnegation that the Obamas run must be exposed and condemned harshly for all its evilness. If ever I heard anything downright evil explicitly offered as virtue, it has to be these words of Michelle Obama–the wife of US presidential candidate Barak Obama and perhaps the next first lady of the United States:

“We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.”

And you thought Ayn Rand exaggerated the evilness of her altruistic villains in her novels? The Obamas are right out of the pages of Atlas Shrugged. If Barak Obama is elected as the next US president, it will be the end of an industrial and financial powerhouse that literally holds the continent of Africa and many nations afloat, and the start of a self-sacrificial, tribalistic, village economy that will surely bleed to its own death.

I picked up this story from The Undercurrent, which has written up its own harsh condemnation of Michelle Obama. I encourage bloggers to blog this story on your sites as well.

Slow Poison

I was over at Flibbertigibbet, reading his post on the US presidential race. It’s really scary how Christianity is gaining an even stronger foothold in US culture and politics.

Mike Huckabee is the currently leading Republican contender for the president. He is also an ordained Christian Baptist minister, and holds the following positions:

He’s against gays in the military.  He’s against gay marriage.  He’s even opposed to civil unions. As a Christian, he believes that homosexuality is immoral and that marriage is sacred.

He’s against abortion.  As a Christian, he believes that abortion means killing a child and a woman’s right to her own body is superseded by the fetuses alleged right to life.
 
He’s for the War in Iraq.

He’s against stem cell research for much the same reasons that he is against abortion.

He’s a creationist and an anti-evolutionist.  Why?  Jesus said so.

He regards environmentalism as a moral issue based on the Christian stewardship concept.

He supports national ID cards and use of RFID chips for tracking citizens.

The US Elections Post

Gawd, it sucks to not be in the United States during these most exciting of times with the US presidential race moving into full gear. Election year in the US is more than just about elections–it is about large personalities, ideologies, high-rollers and huge amounts of money, elaborately mounted public appearances, an orgy of flag waving and compulsive flag draping, fully orchestrated and pedantically controlled campaign speeches, media frenzy, office buzz, and global attention!

The sense I get from the news is that there’s a huge deal being made out of the 2008 presidential race because the candidates are the most diverse lot in the nation’s history. Frightfully, the front-runners–obviously decided by the media and some terribly unreliable early polls–are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Frankly, I can’t even stand to breathe next to either of these. I happened to run into Obama at the Thompson Center in Chicago when I worked for Mayor Richard Daley’s office. Obviously, given that I was working in the City Hall building, I was accustomed to running into media persons blindly tripping over each other as they tried to stay focused on some politician. Obama is a really tall man, with narrow shoulders, I remember thinking. He wasn’t too attractive to look at in person–but going by his TV appearances, he seems to have undergone some kind of a makeover.

What I strongly dislike about the man is that he is appears to be a vacillator, a compromiser, an appeaser of the prevailing opinion or the largest crowd. He tries to come off as this benevolent, obviously Christian, personification of all-saints-day. Of course, his far left leanings are highly offensive to me, as well.

But he’s hardly a threat because there simply ain’t no chance for him to win the presidency.

Now, Clinton is Obama’s twin sister–only more insidious and shrewd. I can’t really give any one concrete example for why I perceive Clinton as such. Given what I’ve read and watched on the news of her, she wants nothing more than just to be in power and history as the First Female President of the United States. The scary thing is, she might actually be the next President of the United States.

Were I able to vote in these American elections, I would vote Ron Paul for the presidency. Granted he is a long-shot for even the Republican nomination, but he’s the only candidate I can see myself agreeing with and being in support of. That is not to say that he doesn’t propound his own share of idiocy and nonsense. He’s a pro-life candidate (here, pro-life means someone who violates the rights of women on principle and by claim to the moral primacy of clumps of cells), Christian, and champions “family values”–which are apparently different from and supercede individually chosen values. Nevertheless, his position on fiscal and monetary issues are sound, he stands for limited government and liberty, and insists on strict adherence to the US Constitution.

Here’s a little “about Ron Paul” from his campaign website:

Congressman Ron Paul is the leading advocate for freedom in our nation’s capital. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Paul tirelessly works for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. He is known among his congressional colleagues and his constituents for his consistent voting record. Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution.In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the “one exception to the Gang of 535” on Capitol Hill.

He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.

He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.

He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

Anywhoo, Leitmotif officially endorses Ron Paul for the presidency. There, I said it!

My friend the Sentimental Minion informed me that YouTube will be covering the presidential debates starting with the Democratic debates this July 23rd. Viewers can also participate in the debate by making a 30 second video asking a question to any of the candidates. YouTube’s political video blog, Citizen Tube, will be streaming these debates along with the viewer videos.

Oh, and the most delicious part of this whole affair–Anderson Cooper, the most beautiful (gay) man on television news, will be hosting the Democratic debates on CNN! If nothing else, Cooper is more than enough reason to watch these debates.