Controversy after OCON 2016

I got back from an awesome OCON filled with guitar-cello duets, talent-show selfies, an awesome fireworks show, and oh, right, some interesting talks about Objectivism as applied to art, childhood education, and foreign policy. It was my second time going (first was last year), and I had a great, but exhausting time.

Obvious disclaimer is obvious: I speak only for myself. My opinions are not necessarily those of ARI, OCON, my employer, people on Facebook who attended OCON, or crab people.

The sad state of free speech in college

I just saw some videos of the shameful assault on free speech at CSULA by students, faculty, and the president of the university. A speaker named Ben Shapiro was set to give a talk called "When Diversity Becomes a Problem" and had received permission and a venue to speak. In the week before the event, students demanded that the event be shut down, citing the usual (and usually false) claims of "racism" and "hate speech." The president canceled the event, but Young Americans for Freedom and Shapiro decided to hold the event anyway. A professor, Robert Weide, threatened to assault students sponsoring the event. Shortly before the talk started, the president un-cancelled the event, but hundreds of students barricaded the doors to prevent Shapiro and the audience from getting in the room. Here are some videos I found of the event.

Letter to the city government

So I just found out that, despite promising to end the program this month, the Mountain View city government has decided to extend its stupid food scraps collection pilot "indefinitely." This program cut garbage pickup services in half to once every other week and instead allowed residents to put food scraps in composting bins to be picked up. Upset at this pointless extension of a decrease in useful services provided by the city government, I wrote them the following email: