Leonard Peikoff, conservatorship

[Aaron]

Leonard Peikoff apparently is having conservatorship attempted to be applied to him.

While I haven't followed big-O Objectivist news or groups for many years (and Peikoff would likely write me off as anarchist or other not-really-an-Oist ), I have plenty of Objectivist friends who've gotten a lot out of LP's writing or podcasts, and this new action seems unjustified.

I don't know and can't comment about any particular personal drama he mentions - e.g. motives, will, or relationship concerning his family - and this is obviously only a single side of the story there. It must be a trying time for all involved regardless of these details.

I will say that any bar for conservatorship should be extremely high - and his writing a long but coherent defense against it seems at least some significant evidence against it.

While I personally wouldn't choose to employ words like 'evil' for rhetorical reasons (even if I thought that evaluation was correct), such moralistic language sounds like classic Peikoff too.

Protect Leonard Peikoff

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM

---

Dear Objectivist Students and Friends, I am Leonard Peikoff and I share with you today another fight against a grave social injustice. I am outraged, let alone astounded and even heartbroken, at a...

 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Aaron,

Good to see you.  

Thank you for posting this here on OL.

I hope you and yours are well and good and all is right in the world.  

 

But I am gobsmacked by this news. Well, maybe, not so much.

This case has tickled several antennas in my brain, so I am going to write about it.

This case will ripple all throughout O-Land and now is a good time to get some thoughts on record.

The best place to start is at the identification stage

 

Overview

Kira Peikoff petitioned for conservatorship of her father's person and his estate in San Diego, CA. The court filing notices are at Unicourt: Conservatorship of Leonard Peikoff. Leonart Peikoff has contested this in strong unequivocal terms both in and out of court. 

The link you provided on Facebook (here) belongs to an account that was probably set up by James Valliant. Why? Because the first post links to a GoFundMe page to help Peikoff cover legal expenses and, as given on that page, Valliant set that up. As of this posting, over $8k has poured in from 80 different people. The target goal is $20k.

Let me get my catty remark and snark out of the way. Valliant was a public defender in San Diego for years. If Peikoff is having trouble with this case, the quality of his legal representation might be the reason.   

At any rate, I will not comment much on the Facebook page except for Peikoff's post. I do believe, because of the context, the post really was written by Leonard Peikoff. But several O-Land people who post on Facebook believe in censorship culture to the point they will not let me see what they post. Valliant is one of them. (Who cares? I don't. But facts are facts and this is relevant right now.) I am not banned, so far, from accessing the content of that account, though. I can see everything except the comments from those who ban me.

I am an open book to Valliant, he can see what I write everywhere, but he likes to censor me where he can. He, like others here in O-Land, is little more than an amateur authoritarian. He's not even playing with the real authoritarians in the world.

For the record, I "liked" Peikoff's post, but I will not write a post on that account. See? I can censor me, too! Woo hoo! Getting with the program.  

 

On the other side, I like the fact Valliant is standing up for Dr. Peikoff. I place a lot of value on loyalty. Valliant is a loyal friend to Peikoff and I respect that. Frankly, I hope they both prevail in court in this instance.

 

On another point, Grace Davis is part of the Court filings. She filed a Joinder as Objector. Leonard Peikoff, in the Facebook post, says she is his wife. However, she is listed in the court filings as Grace Davis, not Grace Peikoff. That means little since people can get married and keep their original names. But because of normal custom, it does raise a question for the public. Are they really married? I say it's likely. I can't see Peikoff lying about that.

Peikoff, in the Facebook post, claims Kira filed the conservatorship suit when he changed his will to include Grace Davis as 50% heiress and changed Kira to 50% heiress.

 

My general evaluation of both Leonard Peikoff and Kira Peikoff

Regardless of my disagreements with Leonard Peikoff, he is a man of respect and, from what I have seen looking into this case, he is not senile or incapacitated in any manner. He's been known to be batshit crazy (Barbara Branden could get hilarious about that and I have seen some things myself), but that is his personality, not a degradation of his mental capacities. And he has an important body of work out in the world. That means something. In fact, it means a lot in my book.

I won't elaborate too much below since everybody in O-Land already knows plenty about him.

As to Kira Peikoff, she is a successful thriller novelist and science journalist specializing in bioethics. She is married with two kids, 39 years old (according to Wikipedia), and she looks to me like a rational productive adult. I read one of her early thrillers, Living Proof, and liked it. I think I wrote about it somewhere. And I read another book by her, Mother Knows Best, which was also good. Neither were great, but they were good solid commercial fiction. 

I will go into Kira a little later since her work is not that well-known in O-Land.

Also, there was a time when we debated, right here on OL, whether Kira would inherit Ayn Rand's copyrights to The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, etc., from her father and what she would do with them. The current case hits that concern square in the middle.

Also coming, I am especially interested in how this event reflects on the Objectivist worldview and effectiveness in raising children, family, etc.

 

Leave it to say, at this point, I come down on Leonard Peikoff's side of this lawsuit. This whole thing smells like lawfare and family infighting to me and I despise lawfare. Which is ironic since Peikoff himself uses lawfare against others. (Payback through poetic justice is a bitch, but that is another issue.  )

I will keep my mind open to facts. But if I had to judge right at this moment based on what I have learned, I am biased against Kira. What the hell is she thinking?

In the end, we will have to wait and see what new facts appear and what she says, if she says anything in public.

More coming...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I used AI to look into this case.

The normal AI chats I asked were a disaster, one even said it could not access the court link I provided.

But Grok (the X AI chat) came up with something interesting. So here is what I have managed to get. From what I have researched so far, Grok is accurate and not hallucinating (which is the technical term for AI chats making stuff up). I don't think Grace is Leonard Peikoff's second wife, though.  

 

GROK TEXT

ME: The thriller author and bioscience journalist "Kira Peikoff" is in a conservatorship suit with her father, "Leonard Peikoff" in the San Diego courts. What are the details of this suit?

GROK: The conservatorship suit involving Kira Peikoff and her father, Leonard Peikoff, in the San Diego courts revolves around Kira's petition to be appointed as her father's conservator for both his person and estate. Here are the key details based on the information available up to August 31, 2024:

-- Filing and Case Status: The case, titled "Conservatorship of Leonard Peikoff," was filed on March 5, 2024, as a Probate - Other Probate lawsuit in the San Diego County Superior Courts, specifically at the San Diego Central Courthouse. As of the last update, the case status was listed as "Pending - Other Pending."

-- Petition Details: Kira Peikoff Bellis filed a petition for the appointment of a conservator, aiming to manage both the personal care and financial affairs of Leonard Peikoff. This includes a request for temporary conservatorship, indicating an urgency in establishing control over Leonard's affairs.

-- Court Proceedings: There have been several court dates associated with this case:

  - A case management conference was scheduled for August 19, 2024, with Judge Ronald F. Frazier overseeing in Department 1603.
  - Another hearing for the same day was set before Judge Daniel S. Belsky in Department 504, specifically addressing the petition for the appointment of a conservator.
  - A review hearing initially scheduled for August 26, 2024, was cancelled.

-- Legal Actions and Responses: 

  - Leonard Peikoff has actively engaged in the legal process, filing objections and responses to Kira's petition. This includes a joinder by Grace Davis, suggesting opposition or involvement by other parties possibly related to Leonard.
  - There was a stipulation for trial preference filed by Leonard, indicating a desire to expedite the legal proceedings.

-- Public Sentiment and Context: From posts on X (formerly Twitter), there's a sentiment that this conservatorship battle might be motivated by financial interests, with accusations of greed directed towards Kira for initiating the conservatorship after Leonard decided to leave half his estate to his second wife. However, these are public opinions and not legal findings.

-- Nature of Conservatorship: The suit seeks to establish Kira as having legal authority over Leonard's personal care and financial decisions, which would typically require demonstrating that Leonard is unable to manage these aspects of his life due to incapacity.

This case highlights the complexities of conservatorships, involving family dynamics, legal rights, and potentially significant financial stakes. The ongoing nature of the case suggests that all parties involved are actively contesting the terms and necessity of the conservatorship, with court oversight ensuring legal and ethical considerations are met.

END GROK TEXT

 

I had a follow-up question.

GROK TEXT

ME: Tell me about Grace Davis. the current wife of Leonard Peikoff.

GROK: Grace Davis, currently known as Grace Peikoff, is the wife of Leonard Peikoff, a prominent philosopher and advocate of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. Here's what we can gather about her based on the information available:

-- Personal Connection: Grace Davis met Leonard Peikoff, and they eventually married. Their relationship has been described in positive terms, with one X post mentioning that they get along very well, suggesting a harmonious personal life together.

-- Public Appearances: While Grace herself isn't a public figure in the same capacity as her husband, she has been mentioned in contexts that suggest she supports Leonard in his professional endeavors, including legal battles. For instance, she was present beside Leonard during court proceedings related to a conservatorship case involving his daughter, Kira Peikoff.

-- Legal Involvement: Grace has actively participated in legal matters concerning Leonard. She filed documents in the conservatorship suit, indicating her involvement in ensuring Leonard's interests are represented. This includes filing a joinder in Leonard's objection to the conservatorship petition by Kira Peikoff, showing her active role in legal disputes affecting her husband.

-- Public Sentiment: There's a mention on X of Grace and Leonard's relationship being a point of discussion or curiosity, especially in how they manage to maintain a strong bond, which might imply they are seen as a unit in public or social circles.

-- Privacy: Despite her marriage to a well-known figure, Grace Davis Peikoff maintains a relatively low public profile. Details about her life before or outside of her marriage to Leonard Peikoff are not widely publicized, aligning with a preference for privacy.

From the information gathered, Grace Davis Peikoff appears as a supportive partner to Leonard Peikoff, involved in his personal and legal affairs, but she keeps a low public profile, focusing more on her private life with Leonard rather than engaging in public or professional activities independently.

END GROK TEXT

 

I would check everything if these comments were going into a book or other authoritative place, and I would rewrite them and dig further into some details. But for forum writing, this is pretty good as a general overview.

Michael

[Aaron]

Thanks for all the additional info, MSK!

I'm definitely going to have to check out Grok. I'd dismissed it after it wasn't as useful/smart of a static-knowledge LLM as latest Claude or ChatGPT. But (assuming it's not hallucinating like mad  ) its aggregation of web search including legal filings, Twitter, etc. is quite impressive.

[Neil Parille]

It's an unfortunate situation.  I don't know the details, but Leonard and Grace bought a 3.7 million dollar home in SD County two years ago.  According to Valliant, he bit off more than he can chew.

Leonard says in his letter that he gave so much of his estate to Kira that he can't afford legal fees.

LP might be the most competent 90 year old on earth, but I can understand Kira's concern.

[tmj]

I got the impression from his post on FB , that the loss of freedom of action under a conservatorship will be the main injury. One would think there would be a way to engineer an agreement with his daughter to avoid her placing the conservatorship and achieve the value of freedom of action in regards everyday financial decisions.

But given my lack of the full understanding of the situation , it seems to me to be a battle over future monetary gains from the rights to Rand's copyrighted materials.

[Aaron]

Michael H Mellen Revocable Trust - Property Records Search | RealtyHop

WWW.REALTYHOP.COM

---

Search property records for Michael H Mellen Revocable Trust. Find deeds, titles, and mortgages for individuals.

I am extremely skeptical of the conservatorship move being warranted.
But I am also struggling to see how the owner of Ayn Rand's copyrights/recipient of her royalties/purchaser of this house needs a GoFundMe.
 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Aaron,

On Google Maps, using the address in the link you provided, you can get a street view image of the house.

Not that I would suggest that or anything.

 

Michael

[Economic]

On 8/31/2024 at 3:48 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I used AI to look into this case.

The normal AI chats I asked were a disaster, one even said it could not access the court link I provided.

But Grok (the X AI chat) came up with something interesting. So here is what I have managed to get. From what I have researched so far, Grok is accurate and not hallucinating (which is the technical term for AI chats making stuff up). I don't think Grace is Leonard Peikoff's second wife, though.  

 

GROK TEXT

ME: The thriller author and bioscience journalist "Kira Peikoff" is in a conservatorship suit with her father, "Leonard Peikoff" in the San Diego courts. What are the details of this suit?

GROK: The conservatorship suit involving Kira Peikoff and her father, Leonard Peikoff, in the San Diego courts revolves around Kira's petition to be appointed as her father's conservator for both his person and estate. Here are the key details based on the information available up to August 31, 2024:

-- Filing and Case Status: The case, titled "Conservatorship of Leonard Peikoff," was filed on March 5, 2024, as a Probate - Other Probate lawsuit in the San Diego County Superior Courts, specifically at the San Diego Central Courthouse. As of the last update, the case status was listed as "Pending - Other Pending."

-- Petition Details: Kira Peikoff Bellis filed a petition for the appointment of a conservator, aiming to manage both the personal care and financial affairs of Leonard Peikoff. This includes a request for temporary conservatorship, indicating an urgency in establishing control over Leonard's affairs.

-- Court Proceedings: There have been several court dates associated with this case:

  - A case management conference was scheduled for August 19, 2024, with Judge Ronald F. Frazier overseeing in Department 1603.
  - Another hearing for the same day was set before Judge Daniel S. Belsky in Department 504, specifically addressing the petition for the appointment of a conservator.
  - A review hearing initially scheduled for August 26, 2024, was cancelled.

-- Legal Actions and Responses: 

  - Leonard Peikoff has actively engaged in the legal process, filing objections and responses to Kira's petition. This includes a joinder by Grace Davis, suggesting opposition or involvement by other parties possibly related to Leonard.
  - There was a stipulation for trial preference filed by Leonard, indicating a desire to expedite the legal proceedings.

-- Public Sentiment and Context: From posts on X (formerly Twitter), there's a sentiment that this conservatorship battle might be motivated by financial interests, with accusations of greed directed towards Kira for initiating the conservatorship after Leonard decided to leave half his estate to his second wife. However, these are public opinions and not legal findings.

-- Nature of Conservatorship: The suit seeks to establish Kira as having legal authority over Leonard's personal care and financial decisions, which would typically require demonstrating that Leonard is unable to manage these aspects of his life due to incapacity.

This case highlights the complexities of conservatorships, involving family dynamics, legal rights, and potentially significant financial stakes. The ongoing nature of the case suggests that all parties involved are actively contesting the terms and necessity of the conservatorship, with court oversight ensuring legal and ethical considerations are met.

END GROK TEXT

 

I had a follow-up question.

GROK TEXT

ME: Tell me about Grace Davis. the current wife of Leonard Peikoff.

GROK: Grace Davis, currently known as Grace Peikoff, is the wife of Leonard Peikoff, a prominent philosopher and advocate of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. Here's what we can gather about her based on the information available:

-- Personal Connection: Grace Davis met Leonard Peikoff, and they eventually married. Their relationship has been described in positive terms, with one X post mentioning that they get along very well, suggesting a harmonious personal life together.

-- Public Appearances: While Grace herself isn't a public figure in the same capacity as her husband, she has been mentioned in contexts that suggest she supports Leonard in his professional endeavors, including legal battles. For instance, she was present beside Leonard during court proceedings related to a conservatorship case involving his daughter, Kira Peikoff.

-- Legal Involvement: Grace has actively participated in legal matters concerning Leonard. She filed documents in the conservatorship suit, indicating her involvement in ensuring Leonard's interests are represented. This includes filing a joinder in Leonard's objection to the conservatorship petition by Kira Peikoff, showing her active role in legal disputes affecting her husband.

-- Public Sentiment: There's a mention on X of Grace and Leonard's relationship being a point of discussion or curiosity, especially in how they manage to maintain a strong bond, which might imply they are seen as a unit in public or social circles.

-- Privacy: Despite her marriage to a well-known figure, Grace Davis Peikoff maintains a relatively low public profile. Details about her life before or outside of her marriage to Leonard Peikoff are not widely publicized, aligning with a preference for privacy.

From the information gathered, Grace Davis Peikoff appears as a supportive partner to Leonard Peikoff, involved in his personal and legal affairs, but she keeps a low public profile, focusing more on her private life with Leonard rather than engaging in public or professional activities independently.

END GROK TEXT

 

I would check everything if these comments were going into a book or other authoritative place, and I would rewrite them and dig further into some details. But for forum writing, this is pretty good as a general overview.

Michael

>>> I don't think Grace is Leonard Peikoff's second wife, though.

Concur. I thought the "order of operations" was the following: Susan Ludell, Cynthia Pastor, Amy [   ], Grace Davis. It's been a while, so it could be mistaken.

[Economic]

On 8/31/2024 at 11:16 AM, Aaron said:

Leonard Peikoff apparently is having conservatorship attempted to be applied to him.

While I haven't followed big-O Objectivist news or groups for many years (and Peikoff would likely write me off as anarchist or other not-really-an-Oist ), I have plenty of Objectivist friends who've gotten a lot out of LP's writing or podcasts, and this new action seems unjustified.

I don't know and can't comment about any particular personal drama he mentions - e.g. motives, will, or relationship concerning his family - and this is obviously only a single side of the story there. It must be a trying time for all involved regardless of these details.

I will say that any bar for conservatorship should be extremely high - and his writing a long but coherent defense against it seems at least some significant evidence against it.

While I personally wouldn't choose to employ words like 'evil' for rhetorical reasons (even if I thought that evaluation was correct), such moralistic language sounds like classic Peikoff too.

Protect Leonard Peikoff

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM

---

Dear Objectivist Students and Friends, I am Leonard Peikoff and I share with you today another fight against a grave social injustice. I am outraged, let alone astounded and even heartbroken, at a...

 

 

>>>his writing a long but coherent defense 

Unless, of course, he didn't write it. What if someone else wrote it? And how many posts on FB (or any other platform, for that matter) begin with the author stating his own name, as if to allay possible doubts; i.e., "I am Leonard Peikoff . . ."? The whole thing is very odd.

[Economic]

On 8/31/2024 at 3:24 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Aaron,

Good to see you.  

Thank you for posting this here on OL.

I hope you and yours are well and good and all is right in the world.  

 

But I am gobsmacked by this news. Well, maybe, not so much.

This case has tickled several antennas in my brain, so I am going to write about it.

This case will ripple all throughout O-Land and now is a good time to get some thoughts on record.

The best place to start is at the identification stage

 

Overview

Kira Peikoff petitioned for conservatorship of her father's person and his estate in San Diego, CA. The court filing notices are at Unicourt: Conservatorship of Leonard Peikoff. Leonart Peikoff has contested this in strong unequivocal terms both in and out of court. 

The link you provided on Facebook (here) belongs to an account that was probably set up by James Valliant. Why? Because the first post links to a GoFundMe page to help Peikoff cover legal expenses and, as given on that page, Valliant set that up. As of this posting, over $8k has poured in from 80 different people. The target goal is $20k.

Let me get my catty remark and snark out of the way. Valliant was a public defender in San Diego for years. If Peikoff is having trouble with this case, the quality of his legal representation might be the reason.   

At any rate, I will not comment much on the Facebook page except for Peikoff's post. I do believe, because of the context, the post really was written by Leonard Peikoff. But several O-Land people who post on Facebook believe in censorship culture to the point they will not let me see what they post. Valliant is one of them. (Who cares? I don't. But facts are facts and this is relevant right now.) I am not banned, so far, from accessing the content of that account, though. I can see everything except the comments from those who ban me.

I am an open book to Valliant, he can see what I write everywhere, but he likes to censor me where he can. He, like others here in O-Land, is little more than an amateur authoritarian. He's not even playing with the real authoritarians in the world.

For the record, I "liked" Peikoff's post, but I will not write a post on that account. See? I can censor me, too! Woo hoo! Getting with the program.  

 

On the other side, I like the fact Valliant is standing up for Dr. Peikoff. I place a lot of value on loyalty. Valliant is a loyal friend to Peikoff and I respect that. Frankly, I hope they both prevail in court in this instance.

 

On another point, Grace Davis is part of the Court filings. She filed a Joinder as Objector. Leonard Peikoff, in the Facebook post, says she is his wife. However, she is listed in the court filings as Grace Davis, not Grace Peikoff. That means little since people can get married and keep their original names. But because of normal custom, it does raise a question for the public. Are they really married? I say it's likely. I can't see Peikoff lying about that.

Peikoff, in the Facebook post, claims Kira filed the conservatorship suit when he changed his will to include Grace Davis as 50% heiress and changed Kira to 50% heiress.

 

My general evaluation of both Leonard Peikoff and Kira Peikoff

Regardless of my disagreements with Leonard Peikoff, he is a man of respect and, from what I have seen looking into this case, he is not senile or incapacitated in any manner. He's been known to be batshit crazy (Barbara Branden could get hilarious about that and I have seen some things myself), but that is his personality, not a degradation of his mental capacities. And he has an important body of work out in the world. That means something. In fact, it means a lot in my book.

I won't elaborate too much below since everybody in O-Land already knows plenty about him.

As to Kira Peikoff, she is a successful thriller novelist and science journalist specializing in bioethics. She is married with two kids, 39 years old (according to Wikipedia), and she looks to me like a rational productive adult. I read one of her early thrillers, Living Proof, and liked it. I think I wrote about it somewhere. And I read another book by her, Mother Knows Best, which was also good. Neither were great, but they were good solid commercial fiction. 

I will go into Kira a little later since her work is not that well-known in O-Land.

Also, there was a time when we debated, right here on OL, whether Kira would inherit Ayn Rand's copyrights to The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, etc., from her father and what she would do with them. The current case hits that concern square in the middle.

Also coming, I am especially interested in how this event reflects on the Objectivist worldview and effectiveness in raising children, family, etc.

 

Leave it to say, at this point, I come down on Leonard Peikoff's side of this lawsuit. This whole thing smells like lawfare and family infighting to me and I despise lawfare. Which is ironic since Peikoff himself uses lawfare against others. (Payback through poetic justice is a bitch, but that is another issue.  )

I will keep my mind open to facts. But if I had to judge right at this moment based on what I have learned, I am biased against Kira. What the hell is she thinking?

In the end, we will have to wait and see what new facts appear and what she says, if she says anything in public.

More coming...

Michael

>>>As to Kira Peikoff, she is a successful thriller novelist 

Prolific, perhaps. Not necessarily financially successful. Different.

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

E,

I take it you don't like Kira Peikoff.

 

Michael

[Economic]

16 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

E,

I take it you don't like Kira Peikoff.

 

Michael

I have no opinion about her.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

12 minutes ago, Economic said:

I have no opinion about her.

E,

Yet you are a one-issue poster so far with lots of innuendo and no facts.

I don't mind that you don't like Kira or even her father.

I do like facts to go along with it, though.

Michael

[Economic]

>>>Yet you are a one-issue poster

So? I'm not going to post lots of comments on lots of issues just to make OL appear more active than it actually is.

>>> with lots of innuendo and no facts.

Check your premises. You arbitrarily asserted KP was a "successful" novelist based on zero objective facts and one subjective opinion: you liked 2 of her novels. So what. KP might be "successful" at writing novels; whether she's successful at selling them is an entirely different issue. I have no idea whether she is or not. Neither do you.

In any case, I've never met KP; I've never read her novels; I've never seen her documentaries; ergo, I have no opinion about her one way or the other. All I know about this "one-issue" is what her 91-year-old daddy publicly accused her of on FB. I neither like KP nor dislike her, so it's clear you are the one with lots of innuendo, not I.

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

E,

Trolling?

Heh...

Enjoy the forum.

Don't expect much interaction with me, though. I don't discuss things in a trolling tone.

I used to, but I stopped that sort of posting years ago.

It's boring.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

As to Kira, I find her a mixed bag.

Since she will likely be the heiress (or one of the them) of Ayn Rand's copyrights (unless Leonard Peikoff writes her out of his will because of her conservatorship lawsuit), for me, it is important to know something about her.

 

Let's start with the good

Kira writes novels and I, myself, am striving to write fiction. No comparisons, though, other than we both write fiction. We have different visions and aims and, publication-wise, she is way further along than I am.

But there is one thing. Kira said in an interview (see here) she uses Plottr, an outlining software for fiction writers, although it can be used for nonfiction, too. I have my own copy of this program, but not the subscription model. I have a lifetime license for the PC version. I find it great for keeping track of throughlines, whether plot, character, a particular symbol, call-backs, or anything else that will be mentioned in a story more than once. From the videos and information I have read about it, most people use it in conjunction with Scrivener (which I also use) and/or the word processor of their choice (usually Word). 

Apropos, neither of those links are referral links. They probably should be, but there it is.  

 

Kira has written and published five novels, Living Proof, No Time to Die, Die Again Tomorrow, Mother Knows Best, and Baby X. Her print publishers include Tor Books, Staples Press, Pinnacle, Crooked Lane Books. She has Kindle versions of all her novels and Audible audiobooks for 4 of them (for some reason, Die Again Tomorrow is not included). Her style is medical thriller, or better, Health Care Industrial Complex thriller  . 

I have only read two of them (Living Proof and Mother Knows Best), but I have read reviews about the others. She is good at developing medical-related technical and social issues within the thriller format. I have massive respect for this. Try it sometime and you will see what I mean. Her fiction writing is no small achievement. I have some writing criticisms, but I will get into them elsewhere (if I even do). In this context, though, I don't want those criticisms to dwarf my respect for her fiction-writing achievements. In my book, as a fiction author, she's good. Period.

 

Now for the bad

As I looked into her, I became uncomfortable with her focus on bioethics. Not because there is anything wrong with bioethics, but in today's world, when someone starts talking about something like that in public, they are usually setting up rationalizations for surveillance, control, and experiments on humans under false pretenses.

Kira has written articles for several mainstream outlets about science and medicine and she leans toward progressive publications (NYT, Slate, Salon, etc.). She is currently in a professional relationship with Bayer, in other words, Big Pharma (and Big Agriculture). Here is her page at Leaps, a Bayer organization. 

That sets off warning bells inside my head like no other given today's context. I don't want to get into the Big Pharma (and Big Agriculture) debate right here, but take a look at The Ten Leaps at Leap, the areas Bayer is investing in. There are fantastic goals and even some achievements for humanity presented alongside massive human impact and control plans and implications with a progressive (or Predator Class) slant. For one example, Bayer wants to "reduce environmental impact of agriculture." Heh. What does that mean? Manmade climate change, of course, and here we go. Read the text on the site if you don't believe me.

One particular thing bothered me. On Kira's Linkedin page, she was gushing about an inhaled form of delivering mRNA technology to humans to deal with cystic fibrosis (see here). Good God!  I mean, when will it occur to her (and the people involved) that power-hungry people and psychopaths will abuse this power by polluting the air we breathe if they can get their hands on it. From what I have seen, I don't want mRNA technology anywhere near me, but in the hands of people like this, they will not give me a choice. The word that scares the crap out of me coming from these people is. "Oops."

Thanks, but no thanks.

 

This is important if Kira is to be heiress to Ayn Rand's copyrights. When a person is on board with large-scale social control projects to make irreversible changes to a person's body without their consent, they are not talking about freedom or reason. Of course, Kira is free to believe what she will, but I can't help but speculate what she will do with Ayn Rand's copyrights if that is in her soul.

 

Because of this, I looked into her views on transgenderism. I could not find anything, but I did find an article she wrote for Cosmopolitan sometime back (see here) on what it's like to be intersex (which is the mental precursor of a person transitioning to another sex). Based on the tone of that article, and on her involvement with Big Pharma, Big Ag, and some of their goals, I imagine she is OK with it. (Let's not forget that transgenderism brings in tons of government money to the Health Care Industrial Complex.) But, to be clear, I don't know her opinion on transgenderism for sure. I am only speculating based on the context.

One thing is for sure. If you look at the topics in her fiction works, she is interested in human "enhancements" like finding other ways to conceive and give birth than the normal one, experimenting on humans, and things like that. This puts her squarely within the transhumanist sphere, although I do not know if she openly identifies as such. Many of the issues I have seen about her, though, align perfectly with the issues the transhumanists promote.

 

 

Kira Peikoff links

Enough on Kira Peikoff. You have my thoughts. Now it is up to you to see and make up your own mind.

For reference, here are some links.

Kira's website

Kira's Amazon author page

Kira's Facebook page

Kira's X account

The Wikipedia article on Kira

 

Closing

I could give more, but this is a good start to get an overview of Kira Peikoff. If you are like me and you like to identify something correctly before you judge it, this is a good start. I gave a few judgments above (after all, I'm me  ), but there is plenty of stuff for you to see with your own eyes and identify for yourself.

This is the lady, so far, who is legally going to get Ayn Rand's copyrights.

Now come to your own conclusions.

 

Still more coming later, but that will be about how utopic ideologies, including Objectivism, can lead people to make messes out of their family lives. (God knows I know this topic from personal experience.  )

Michael

[Economic]

>>>Trolling?

Arbitrary assertion?

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

19 hours ago, Aaron said:

I am extremely skeptical of the conservatorship move being warranted.
But I am also struggling to see how the owner of Ayn Rand's copyrights/recipient of her royalties/purchaser of this house needs a GoFundMe.

Aaron,

You raise an interesting question about that GoFundMe page.

 

When things get hinky, including in philosophy or love, follow the money.

 

As a personal opinion, I don't like seeing Leonard Peikoff going out on a platform like Facebook, playing the victim card hard, and asking for money from the public. 

 

On another point, about Grok, at first I was not impressed with it.

But Elon has pulled out all stops and it got a lot better with an upgrade. It looks like Elon wants to compete for real against the big AI Chats and he wants to win.

Check this out about the next incarnation:

btw - On another point about Grok, if you want to make a picture, you just write your prompt into where the prompt normally goes and say you want an image. The results are not great yet, though. Or at least, they are mixed. 

For example, here is one prompt I came up with:

ME: Provide a positive image of Ayn Rand done as a line drawing.

 

Ugh. 

That did not get better with tweaking. 

 

However, here is another prompt I gave it:

ME: Provide an image of a Tesla car.

 

 

So that part is still being developed.

As with all AI, you have to check everything.

Michael

[Economic]

>>>what it's like to be intersex (which is the mental precursor of a person transitioning to another sex)

That isn't what the article said. The interviewee — someone named "Dalea" — said the following when asked by KP to define the term "intersex":

"KP: Hi Dalea. Can you explain to Cosmo readers what it means to be 'intersex'?

Dalea: Sure, intersex people are born with a mix of anatomical sex traits (chromosomes, reproductive organs, or genitals). Sometimes they are apparent at birth, sometimes they're discovered later in life. I have Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS).

What is AIS?

AIS manifests in different ways, yet the key factor is that during gestation, the unborn child develops a resistance to androgens (male hormones), which help build both males and females in the womb. AIS women are born with XY chromosomes, a female appearance, and internal gonads (they can be called testes). AIS variations go from being completely undetectable on the outside at birth, to visible variations on the genitals when the androgen insensitivity is partial. This means that on the outside, a body can look completely like a regular female on one side of the spectrum, to having noticeable traits of both on the other."

* * *

A bit different from "the mental precursor of a person transitioning to another sex."

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

23 minutes ago, Economic said:

A bit different from "the mental precursor of a person transitioning to another sex."

E,

(sigh...)

I don't do gotcha anymore.

If you can't see what I'm getting at, no problem. Think about it and maybe one day you will get it. Or maybe not. I don't care.

Meanwhile, others do get it.

I've got other stuff to do than this bullshit...

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

1 hour ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Still more coming later, but that will be about how utopic ideologies, including Objectivism, can lead people to make messes out of their family lives.

I have this planned and coming, but I'm going to hold off for now.

I should get to it before long, though.

Michael

[Economic]

7 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

E,

(sigh...)

I don't do gotcha anymore.

If you can't see what I'm getting at, no problem. Think about it and maybe one day you will get it. Or maybe not. I don't care.

Meanwhile, others do get it.

I've got other stuff to do than this bullshit...

 

Michael

>>>Think about it and maybe one day you will get it.

In other words, "To those who agree with me, no explanation is needed; to those who disagree with me, none is possible."

Got it. The fact is that so far as your summaries of articles are concerned, you're a fountainhead of misinformation.

To paraphrase the great editor Moses Hadas: Your posts fill a much-needed gap.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

5 minutes ago, Economic said:

In other words, "To those who agree with me, no explanation is needed; to those who disagree with me, none is possible."

Got it.

E,

Challenged are we?

You keep getting things wrong, act like you are right and off to save the world about it from behind a pseudonym and a keyboard.

 

You're probably a good kid.

Try facts before opinions.

Facts are your friends.

Michael

[Economic]

>>>Facts are your friends.

They're obviously not your friends, since you've posted nothing but opinions and misinformation.

Re pseudonym: you didn't complain for decades when Alisa Rosenbaum used one. Get over it.