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I hope to see you in Las Vegas

I hope to see you in Las Vegas

Last updated on: September 5, 2018 at 9:53 am by Dan Peterson

I hope to see you in Las Vegas 2018-09-05T09:53:32-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Vegas by night. (Wikimedia Commons public domain)

Several times on this blog I’ve mentioned the annual libertarian extravaganza known as FreedomFest.

I’ve participated in (I think) two or three of these previously, and I’ll be doing so yet again this year.

On Thursday, 12 July, from 1 PM to 1:50 PM, I’ll be debating with Michael Shermer on the topic of “Is Faith Compatible with Reason?” To save you the agonizing suspense, I’ll argue that yes, faith is compatible with reason.

It now turns out that C-SPAN Book TV intends to cover that debate.

Which means that my approaching humiliation will reach a national audience.

Dang.

On Saturday, 14 July, I’ll be moderating a session titled “How to Turn a Bestseller into a Classic.” The two discussants will be Maurice O’Sullivan, a professor of English at Rollins College in Florida, and Daniele Struppa, an Italian-born mathematician and the current president of Chapman University, in California.

FreedomFest is a very stimulating gathering with lots of interesting sessions and speakers, and I hope that you’ll consider attending. If you do, please feel free to say Hello. In fact, after Michael Shermer pummels me to the pavement and stomps on me, I may need some kind words of comfort!

***

And while I’m in the libertarian vein:

Barack Obama made it quite clear on several occasions that, to some greater degree or other than American presidents previously had, he favored the redistribution of wealth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1irae5l4UU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPbCSSXyp0

In that light, this strikes me as a really great idea.

After all, the same differences in opportunity, native talent, luck, health, and the like that affect wealth and earnings also impact grades and educational success. In fact, low grades themselves obviously hinder people from becoming brain surgeons, lawyers, MBAs, classics professors, and engineers, and thus keep them from earning the relatively larger amounts of money that such folks typically receive.

So why not redistribute grades?

NIMBY — Not in My Backyard — isn’t, on the whole, a cogent counterargument.

So . . .

From each according to his ability! To each according to his needs!

Confronting left-leaning college students with this idea is rather like the notion of arbitrarily failing students who argue for moral relativism in ethics and philosophy classes. (On what grounds could they reasonably complain?) Like James Stewart’s character in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope, they’re confronted with the distasteful reality of their own ideas — for real, and not merely in an intellectual game. And that’s good for the soul.

***

We ate dinner last night at the Filomena Ristorante, on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. Some of the best Italian food that I’ve ever had in the United States. Wisconsin Avenue was hard to navigate most of yesterday, because it was shut down for filming. Somebody told me that it was for a forthcoming Wonder Woman movie. Another person asked him “Did you get to see her?” without naming “her.” “No,” he said with obviously deep regret. “But I saw her stunt double.”

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