Karl Gallagher's Political Journal

I saw more flowers here and there in the neighborhood on my perambulation this afternoon. I checked out the patch of trees and brush a little to the south of my apartment building, and saw a few actual cherry blossoms, and some more buds and half-opened blossoms. In a few days, there may be quite a display.

The other day, I found my way to an interview with the late Professor Milton Friedman back in the 1990s (the interviewer, Brian Doherty, died recently). I think that Friedman had wise words on various matters, and I was particularly struck by his views of Ayn Rand (whom he never met): “As I always have said, she had an extremely good influence on all those who did not become Randians. But if they became Randians, they were hopeless.”

That makes sense. Atlas Shrugged dramatizes the results of government trying to take over everything and manage the economy. Some of Rand’s essays standing up for liberty are also memorable, and make cogent points. But you should not mistake her for the great philosopher she thought she was.

Or, as someone said after the 2008 election, “You can disagree with her philosophy, and you can say that her heroes aren’t realistic. But you have to say one thing for her: it has now become clear that her villains are pretty realistic.”

And now to work.

Earlier today, I observed bright yellow flowers on a row of forsythia bushes near my apartment, and pink cherry blossoms on one sapling which gets plenty of sunlight; the cherry trees in the patch of woods a little to the south are not yet blossoming. I also saw other trees with larger flowers; these are not cherry trees, and I don’t know just what kind they are.

Earlier this week, I finished an Office Action on my single remaining amendment, so now I have nothing on my Amended docket.

I have been working on my oldest Regular New application, but there’s still plenty left to do.

Back when I was in high school, I read Rudolf Flesch’s famous book, Why Johnny Can’t Read, which had been published about twenty years earlier, even back then. The dispute over phonics versus other methods continues, and I think that this is one of those cases where the official experts (many perfessers of education) are wrong, and the outsider critics are basically right. Be that as it may, John Stossel is astringently on the side of phonics.