#61 – “There’s nothing nearly so unexamined or reflective of “groupthink” among the members of the various guilds in Hollywood (or most unions) as there is in the proclamations of objectivists and the even less-thoughtful folks who just parrot cast-off bits of their fictive “philosophy.””

If you are referring to me, I am neither. Sorry to disappoint. Also see my following comment.

#65 – The Constitution does not give us the the right of assembly – or any other right. As the Declaration of Independence states, our rights come from God. The only legitimate function of government is to protect our right to life, liberty and property – rights that existed prior to government. Anything beyond that is immoral and illegitimate.

If you are going to concede that our rights from government, then you have to allow the corollary that government can take them away. This why the Founding Fathers gave us a republic instead of a democracy – they knew that all too often it is a common tendency for people, when they can, to live and prosper at the expense of others. This is often done through the ballot box. They don’t realize that in the end they will vote themselves into slavery – and we are not too far from that now.

As regards unions, you might spend some time here: http://www.mises.org/ Do a search on union or unions.

The issue of this strike is one of compensation for work provided in a changing electronic media. Hopefully it will not be like the baseball strike, where many a fan walked away and took years to return.

PLEASE…BOTH SIDES… SETTLE THIS DAMN THING FAST SO EVERYONE CAN GET BACK TO WORK !!!!!
[AND SO LETTERMAN AND CONAN STOP SHOWING RERUNS!]

It may be eloquently written, and passionately felt, but it’s a bit lacking in intellectual thought. There’s NO question that TV and movie production are collaborate efforts that all help to make the whole of the show; but each thing (writing, directing, editing, location shooting, etc) are all just subsets of that whole and in fact are NOT the same thing.
As a member of the writers guild Mr. Ryan is morally obligated to follow his union and not do any writing for his show. BUT, if any of his salary is derived from editing, director prep, etc then he has an obligation to continue with those parts of his job.
The WRITERS are on strike, not anyone else. Writing is NOT editing, directing, etc. IF they were then there would not be different unions, each with their own contracts. The fact that there are different unions disproves Mr Ryan’s point.

The fact that 300 million people with rights can constitute a group of people with the same rights does NOT make their rights ‘group’ rights. The fact of the matter is, the Bill of Rights ARE and always have been INDIVIDUAL rights (and have always been held to be so by the courts). I think you’re confusing the general definition of a ‘group’ with the constitutional definitions of groups vs individuals.
The 2nd amendment is an easy example. If the 2nd is an individual right then you as an individual have a right to own a gun not only as part of a group (military/militia) but also for the purposes of home self-defense, target shooting, hunting, etc. IF the 2nd is a ‘group’ right then you would only be allowed to own a gun as part of a group (the military/militia). Your 1st amendment right to free speech works similarly: if it’s an individual right then you can stand on the street corner and say anything you wish; if it’s a group right then you would not be allowed to speak by yourself.

We enjoy the writers’ work. We need to support their efforts to be paid fairly.

Hey Anthony, maybe you could post that video on the front page?

Saying that doesn’t make it so, and Rand failed to make the case. There’s nothing nearly so unexamined or reflective of “groupthink” among the members of the various guilds in Hollywood (or most unions) as there is in the proclamations of objectivists and the even less-thoughtful folks who just parrot cast-off bits of their fictive “philosophy.” :)

As far as problems for the movie…presumably there are no pickets at the location site. If and when Abrams and other WGA members have to cross picket lines at the studio in order to work on the film it might cause some discomfort.

OTOH, it’s been reported that the picketing is being set up at hours such that it doesn’t interfere with Teamsters arriving for work, etc. Perhaps the producers can arrive and leave at hours that don’t require them to make the choice.

Mark,

What about The Bill of Rights? Doesn’t that belong to a group of 300 million people?

Just sayin.