I’ve neglected PoT for the better part of the summer, and intend to continue the policy of neglect for the next few weeks. Explanation: Alison and I got married in January, and purchased a home (a townhouse) in June, closing in mid-July. Though I’m an old hand at the marriage thing, this was our first home purchase, and involved a pretty steep learning curve, having to do with a complicated bunch of adult transactions. So that absorbed a fair bit of time and energy.

And though the move in my case was “just” a matter of 40 miles–we moved two counties west of where I’d previously lived–it involved a bit of culture shock from which I haven’t yet recovered: from blue-voting Essex County to the 25th Trumpiest Town in New Jersey, just a few miles down the highway from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. (Not sure we have room in our family budget for a membership there, but definitely looking into it.) The cultural change is not quite but almost on par with what one encounters on driving the two miles between the West Bank and Jerusalem, or Sderot and Gaza. But more on that some other time. 

Though life in Hunterdon County is a hell of a lot more pleasant than it was in Essex County–to say nothing of life in Manhattan, our other home–I find it weird to be living cheek-by-jowl among the people who put Donald Trump into office. To say nothing of living in “horse country.” Right now, I find it challenging enough to have to take care of a fluffy, bitey cat, so it’s unlikely horses are in the picture any time soon. But still, it’s a bit disorienting.

Anyway, when you own 5,000 books, it takes awhile to unpack. Bottom line: don’t expect anything from me here anytime soon. I’m enjoying my time away from PoT, and you probably are, too.

No better time, then, to invite someone else to blog. PoT’s most recent addition is Robert Campbell, Professor of Psychology at Clemson University, editor (until very recently) of New Ideas in Psychology, and co-editor (with Stephen Cox, Roderick Long, and Chris Sciabarra) of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. He specializes in developmental and cognitive psychology, and has been active for decades in philosophical and psychological debates about libertarianism and Objectivism. Though we technically have two social scientists at PoT–Alison has a degree in forensic psychology, and Hendrik Van den Berg is an economist–I figured we could use some beefing up in the social science department. And it’s obviously a plus that Robert knows his way around philosophical issues as well.

Anyway, give him a warm welcome. And though it may not look that way, I shall return.