1. Alexandra Popoff, author of the new biography of Ayn Rand, is interviewed here.
2. The Ayn Rand Fan Club interviewed David Kelley on his theory of propositions.
3. The Ayn Rand Institute’s Aaron Smith interviewed Elan Journo concerning his recent reviews of the 2009 biographies of Ayn Rand by Jennifer Burns and Anne Heller. Journo continues to misrepresent these books. At the end of the interview, Journo says there is a biography in the works (presumably the authorized one by Shoshan Knapp, which has been promised for at least 20 years).
4. Leonard Peikoff will be voting for Trump
5. Kira Peikoff, Léonard’s daughter, is dropping her conservatorship action. Her statement reads in part:
In March of 2024, I filed for a Conservatorship over my 91-year-old father, Dr. Leonard Peikoff. I took this action after I lost all communication with him and he deeded title to his house to his nurse and then married her. I was subsequently cut out of his life. I felt I owed it to my father, with whom I had a lifelong loving and close relationship, to protect him. The conservatorship was my only option to reach him and to try to help him after communication closed.
After much thought, I have decided to drop the conservatorship case. Although I still believe I have a strong legal case that is supported by multiple disinterested witnesses (see first comment below), a neutral Court-appointed medical expert, and the presumptions of undue influence under California probate code, my dad has shown himself to be beyond reach as a victim used by his abuser.
Even though many people in our lives can attest that we previously had a close and loving relationship for 38 years, my father has been convinced, under what I believe is the undue influence of his nurse-turned-wife, that I am an evil, greedy person who doesn’t care about him and only wants his money. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even if I were to prevail at trial, so much damage has been done already that it would amount to a Pyrrhic victory.
My father’s love for me has been destroyed, and I no longer believe that any amount of evidence brought to his attention will open his eyes. Also, a conservator’s actions to protect him from financial fraud would take at least another year or two of contentious litigation to reverse the harm that has likely already occurred. If he is not able to understand what should be obvious, that I am trying to protect him, I do not wish to put him through a prolonged legal battle at this stage of his life.
Kira also released a couple of affidavits from people who know Leonard and have first-hand information concerning his relationship with his new wife. While Leonard may be competent, it’s hard not to conclude that he is being taken advantage of. For example, his wife’s son appears to be living in the nearly four-million-dollar mansion. Harry Binswanger sided with Kira saying Peikoff’s wife is a “gold digger.”
The Peikoff situation is just very sad. Is there any word on who will inherit the rights to Rand's published works?
ReplyDeletePeikoff said Rand’s books will go to a committee of Objectivist scholars and won’t contain any family members. But how will Grace be able to pay the mortgage and taxes without the revenue from the books?
ReplyDeleteWell, that would be a better option than bequeathing them to someone with no history of even being an Objectivist, as I assume is the case with Mrs. Peikoff (given that they met because she was hired as his caregiver).
Delete>Rand’s books will go to a committee of Objectivist scholars
DeleteYou mean, "a committee of Students of Objectivism." Decorum, please!
>But how will Grace be able to pay the mortgage and taxes without the revenue from the books?
DeleteNot sure if there is a mortgage, as he might've purchased the house outright. As for taxes, living expenses, etc., LP could require regular payments to Grace&Son from the Committee of Objectivist Scholars.
20 years to write a biography? What is the hold up?
ReplyDeleteNo one knows what the holdup is on the bio. There is a report that it’s done. I suspect it has Deon thing to do with Oeikoff
ReplyDeleteNot a good look from the "giants" who seek to rule over us.
ReplyDeleteThe leadership of the ARI either supported Harris or didn’t vote, Robert Mayhew took a strange position— he said he can’t vote for Trump but would vote for Harris if she had issued a sufficiently pro Israel statement. It’s interesting that if the three things the ARI cares about most — Israel. Abortion and immigration - Rand only said much about one.
ReplyDeleteNP
Peikoff voted for Trump in all three elections, I believe. I’ve found that many Objectivists are in favor of an open border, though I’m not sure Rand herself ever took that position publicly. They’re also for unrestricted abortion rights, a position Rand did hold, and big supporters of Israel, as was Rand. I guess it makes sense that they would lean toward Harris. Personally I wanted both candidates to lose. 🙂
DeleteAbove comment (12:01 PM) was by me. Forgot to sign in.
ReplyDeleteRand never wrote anything about immigration. In one answe she said she believed in “open immigration” but I don’t know what she meant by that. NP
ReplyDelete>I’ve found that many Objectivists are in favor of an open border
DeleteIt's an idiotic position. See recent interview by Tucker Carlson with "border czar" nominee Tom Homan:
https://rumble.com/v60slpz-tom-homans-plan-to-destroy-the-cartel-empire-end-child-trafficking-and-secu.html
Carl Barney has a statement see www.carlbarney.com on the Kira situation
ReplyDeleteBrook said Barney’s attack on him was dishonest
ReplyDeleteComment on post dated 11/14/2024 12:01:00 PM above:
ReplyDeletePeikoff voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024. Apparently he did not vote for him in 2016 – see
http://ariwatch.com/LeonardPeikoffOnDonaldTrump.htm
>Apparently he did not vote for him in 2016
DeletePeikoff voted for Hillary? LOL!
>Peikoff’s wife is a “gold digger.”
ReplyDeleteNo kidding!
Wonder if LP's two ex-wives (Amy and Cynthia) have chimed in on the scandal yet.
ReplyDeleteRe an "authorized" biography of Rand from Shoshana Milgram Knapp, see this:
ReplyDeletehttps://objectivismefr.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ShoshanaMilgramInterview.pdf
It's extremely longwinded and meandering. It's clear from her opening statement that Knapp isn't interesting in writing what is normally thought of as a "biography" — with details about the subject's life that allow the reader to decide what is most relevant — but rather, she's interested in writing what used to be called a "paean," i.e., a kind of song of high praise placing the subject's importance in its proper historical context, at least so far as it appears to the biographer:
"Q: Several biographies of Ayn Rand already exist. Why are you working on a new biography?
A: Thank you for asking the question. We’re here in Newport Beach California at OCON (Objectivist CONference) in July 2018. That means that it’s been quite a long time since Ayn Rand’s death in 1982, but since then there hasn’t been the kind of book I would have expected to find in a library or book store that one does ordinarily find for major writers, in which you have an assessment of the writer’s importance and the facts about the writer’s life as they concern the writer as a creator. This is a book that I was looking for, for years, and now it turns out that I’m going to be writing it myself."