caroljane

Offends me? No. In the people I am thinking of, it scared me,, they were definitely more powerful personalities than me, personalities that repulsed me, and I just wanted to avoid their notice.

Nope. Faulty question -- affirming the consequent. The right question, or the right sort of question, is one that puts a claim to a test, examines and analyses chains of reasoning. No doubt you use this kind of reasoning daily as you figure out how to avoid surveillance drones, death squads, bots, infiltrators and militias on your way to leafletting your localTIm Horton. My questions, "Did the USA government assemble 30,000 guillotines? Did the USA government acquire guillotines? Did the USA Congress mandate the purchase of guillotines" You seem to have answered those questions in the affirmative, Jerry, but without giving any indication of how you formed your answers, or what in particular warranted the answers. Or perhaps you simply accepted the claim as true without testing, without questions of any kind, without further thought. Luckily for humankind, Snopes does a little checking the claims. And guess what? -- the bald assertion is all that could be found. Some nutter 'news' site asserts this and such -- with zero evidence. Honestly Jerry, I wonder what kind of hideous minefield of risk and ambush and kidnapping and assassination you navigate through in a week, or how you get from home to Costco and back without falling into The Trap. From all sides, evil and malevolence, and bulging over the border at the 49th parallel a crazed regime building prison camps for millions. Do you ever give your head a shake, brother, and wonder if some percentage of your beliefs/fears/warnings might be based on crazy and unreliable bullshit? Image from http://www.tomsachs.org/work/chanel-guillotine-breakfast-noo linked at the Snopes page. See the following link for one of the founts of nutterdom, where the rumour/guff/confabulation erupted: http://shariaunveiled.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/why-did-the-u-s-government-recently-purchase-30000-guillotines/ -- check out the video embedded there to see the scriptural basis on which the lunacy seems to be based, eg, 'I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast." Why oh why oh why did the beastly US Government recently purchase 30000 guillotines, indeed. A new low for we Canucks on OL. Strange looking person I do not recognize, Your first para image of our intrepid Edmontonion daring all for the shining prize of the rolled-up rim, I admit, will enliven many a gloomy corner of the quotidian for me. Yet you are guilty the very error you highlight. Jerry has not denied that he lives in Edmonton, as Dglg has declared straight out that he lives in Toronto. Yet neither has said he is a Canadian, and their both posts emanate no spirit of Canuckistan. They could be expats, or in Witness Protection hiding from the Illuminati. We must not jump to conclusions. Nope. Faulty question -- affirming the consequent. The right question, or the right sort of question, is one that puts a claim to a test, examines and analyses chains of reasoning. No doubt you use this kind of reasoning daily as you figure out how to avoid surveillance drones, death squads, bots, infiltrators and militias on your way to leafletting your localTIm Horton. My questions, "Did the USA government assemble 30,000 guillotines? Did the USA government acquire guillotines? Did the USA Congress mandate the purchase of guillotines" You seem to have answered those questions in the affirmative, Jerry, but without giving any indication of how you formed your answers, or what in particular warranted the answers. Or perhaps you simply accepted the claim as true without testing, without questions of any kind, without further thought. Luckily for humankind, Snopes does a little checking the claims. And guess what? -- the bald assertion is all that could be found. Some nutter 'news' site asserts this and such -- with zero evidence. Honestly Jerry, I wonder what kind of hideous minefield of risk and ambush and kidnapping and assassination you navigate through in a week, or how you get from home to Costco and back without falling into The Trap. From all sides, evil and malevolence, and bulging over the border at the 49th parallel a crazed regime building prison camps for millions. Do you ever give your head a shake, brother, and wonder if some percentage of your beliefs/fears/warnings might be based on crazy and unreliable bullshit? Image from http://www.tomsachs.org/work/chanel-guillotine-breakfast-noo linked at the Snopes page. See the following link for one of the founts of nutterdom, where the rumour/guff/confabulation erupted: http://shariaunveiled.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/why-did-the-u-s-government-recently-purchase-30000-guillotines/ -- check out the video embedded there to see the scriptural basis on which the lunacy seems to be based, eg, 'I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast." Why oh why oh why did the beastly US Government recently purchase 30000 guillotines, indeed. A new low for we Canucks on OL.

Interesting also - the screenwriters were blacklistees who could not be credited, the scorer composer Malcolm Arnold was a conchie who nevertheless volunteered for combat after his brother got killed, then shot himself in the foot to avoid it. The director wanted Charles Laughton for the Guinness role, but CL decided his health would not stand the heat of Sri Lanka . Lean also was reported to say "I hate British actors" and way preferred directing William Holden. Typical recipe for a classic work of cinematic art.

At least narcissism is relatively harmless. Whatever Obama's got is a real threat... Carol: No, never, twasnt I. On "little" jokes, or on socialists being mentally ill. (Look to someone closer at hand...hint...hint). My jokes are BIG, if so dry they are dessicated - and what I think of socialists is unprintable. Calvin: Spoken evidently as someone who has fortunately not been intimate with a narcissist.a Tony, I like dgl have been fortunate and never intimate with a narcissist, but I realize now that I have known a few, based on the symptoms that are now grouped under NPD. My impression of these people was that they were staggeringly self-confident, had a "sense of life" securely based in their own individuality . I admired them. I didn't like them, but I definitely admired them.

At least narcissism is relatively harmless. Really? The judge who sentenced Ariel Castro to an eternity in prison recently described him as an "extreme narcissist."

"Take my life....please" Mark Dice is obviously Andrew Dice Clay's dumber cousin.

Masterpiece. Did you know that Sessue Hayakawa, who comes across as 50ish tops onscreen here, was 68 when he made that movie? What an actor.

Incidentally, did Rand really perceive bad reviews as the same in kind, only different in degree, as burning at the stake? Oh, dat wacky artistic-philosophical temperament...

I guess I have a reputation to live up to.http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10644&view=findpost&p=135501 Socrates, poisoned by order of the democracy of Athens. Jesus Christ against the majority of [indecipherable] crucified. Joan D'Arc, who was burned at the stake. Galileo, made to renounce his soul. Spinoza, excommunicated. Luther, hounded. Victor Hugo, exiled for twenty years. Richard Wagner, writing musical comedies for a living, denounced by the musicians of his time, hissed, opposed, pronounced unmusical. Tchaikovsky, struggling through years of loneliness without recognition. Nietzsche, dying in an insane asylum, friendless and unheard. Ibsen [indecipherable] his own country. Dostoevsky, facing an execution squad and pardoned to a Siberian prison. The list is endless. First, Wagner didnt write musical comedies for a living. Second, while some musicians and critics disapproved of him, you should see what he wrote about them! Lets see, beyond that, Luther hounded, I dont know, if you read his antisemitic stuff you might come away saying he wasnt hounded enough. Jan Hus had a great influence also, in spite of getting toasted, but wait, she includes Joan of Arc, I guess she didnt want two burning victims. Tchaikovsky? As composers go he had it pretty easy, with financial security (through a patron) and great fame in his lifetime. Id swap him out for Schubert here. Joan of freaking Arc??Yeah, at the end of her life she was alone, as those described by Blackadder as the "condemned community" tended to be, but she had lots of company before that in like, leading her army and stuff. And her innovative idea was "get the English out of France", a notion that had been popular in France for quite a while, hence the term "Hundred Years War". She had a lot of popular support for somebody who heard voices in her head. Did Rand never hear of Giordano Bruno? Maybe she just wanted to put a woman persecuted lone crusader on her "endless list" but could not think of anyone except herself.

Cripes. I was supposed to be the Brenda Starr but I soon realized that I could not bear to ask people impertinent questions. I don't mind doing it now, though. Sometimes the buts reappear as ands.

You woulda liked mine too Brantibus. Dead last in graduation from Business College and the best storyteller I ever heard.

What argument? I was not arguing anything. Brant asked me about a particular lawyer. I admire this guy's expertise, but the system is the system. Actually I consider good defence lawyers a bulwark of democracy, and I am not going to kick if they specialize in Mafia or bad-cop clients. Even amongst them, a few will actually be innocent of what they are accused of, and all deserve the fairest hearing possible. "What God abandoned, these defended, And saved the sum of things for pay." AEH, "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries"

Before you were talking about people like the cop who shot Sammy, now gangs? That cop, although he clearly made a stupid and reckless mistake (and should be punished, not as a matter of justice, but as a matter of precedence), could have been a guardian angel for someone unfortunate enough to have an experience with a gang member... Cops are human... they make mistakes, and can be immoral, but without them it would be a lot worse. The same can be said for law abiding citizens who want to own a gun. It's better than ONLY the gang members having guns. Yes. Sammy could have joined the Force and become such a guardian angel himself. \We will never know, as he is being buried today, maybe you noticed. He has a "fine and private place|" to reason out all his unreasonable-death-deserving errors of judgement. The mistake-making officer has the best cop-saving lawyer in the province and fair expectation of many years of freedom, if not complete exoneration ; How many bad cops did he save? How many good ones? Why do you think he'll save Mr. Nine Shot? --Brant I do not know of the good ones they do not tend to get charged with assault and excessive force etc. The acquitted or community-service ones include the current head of the |Police Union, his father the former head of same, a guy who shot a small 52-year-old schizophrenic woman to death after she herself had called police (yes, she had a knife), and that is off the top of my head. He is connected from every orifice and knows where all the bodies are buried. This case is so hot right now that he may not succeed entirely but he will go by the playbook: advise client not to cooperate with SIU investigation, as is his right. Stall, delay. Leak sympathetic info about the officer to press. Leak unprovable allegations against victim to same. Wait, wait until the memory of the victim fades and the public are interested in another story. Etcetera. And all the time, twist the arms, work the connections.

Speaking of what is a man, I just watched Bridge on the River Kwai for only the second time, although I had the impression I had seen it many times over. It is that kind of movie I guess. It came out in 1957, I know Ayn Rand was pretty busy that year but I wonder if she saw it and what she thought of it.

XRay, I am really seriously interested in this heretofore unknown to me conjunction of philosophy. But following your comment I cannot forbear to remind you, that the Stoics were all men. Tag onto this, welldone \PDS for finishing A Man in Full. Could you give us a mini-review? It sounds like a title that would have interested Rand who required men to be fuller than the usual.

ample of your GOK good example of your ethics. If something wins money it must have virtue, well expressed or not.

You can only prevent criminals from getting guns when there are fewer guns to get. and of course the ones that exist they will get.

Michael, you have a romantic notion that business leaders are divided between beaurcrats and innovators. In their hiring practices they are quite similar.......

Robert, this reminds me of someone who posted here in the past (forget who) an obvious computer prodigy who believed that computer expertise was the acme of human achievement, scorned anyone who did not realize that, and possibly had dropped out of school. I have seldom been in the position to hire people, but genius even so I do not think I would have hired him.

What was the matter with that grim face lady's mascara\? \This distracted me so much I could not pay attention to the dialogue. \just talk so I lost interest.

Before you were talking about people like the cop who shot Sammy, now gangs? That cop, although he clearly made a stupid and reckless mistake (and should be punished, not as a matter of justice, but as a matter of precedence), could have been a guardian angel for someone unfortunate enough to have an experience with a gang member... Cops are human... they make mistakes, and can be immoral, but without them it would be a lot worse. The same can be said for law abiding citizens who want to own a gun. It's better than ONLY the gang members having guns. Yes. Sammy could have joined the Force and become such a guardian angel himself. \We will never know, as he is being buried today, maybe you noticed. He has a "fine and private place|" to reason out all his unreasonable-death-deserving errors of judgement. The mistake-making officer has the best cop-saving lawyer in the province and fair expectation of many years of freedom, if not complete exoneration.

Should Brant Gaede have a gun? Carol snaps her fingers and Brant's gun(s) disappear. Brant no longer has any guns. Brant is home invaded. Brant kills three home invaders with his samurai sword. Should Brant have a samurai sword? Carol snaps her fingers and the samurai sword disappears. Uh, Carol, all I have left now are steak knives. Would you kindly mind your own business? --Brant blood luster There is no slippery slope here. People have murdered each other with whatever comes to hand since there have been people. Cars, saws, steak knives, anything can be used to kill. Only handguns are designed solely for the purpose of killing and they do it very efficiently. If they disappeared tomorrow, as I would like, and knives were then outlawed, of course those of homicidal bent would start carving them out of spoons, and so on. Gangs would be obliged to set about each other with chopsticks and steam irons. But the body count would still be less than it is with the more efficient tool of death so popular. We all have our hobbyhorses, Brant, and you know this is mine, the thing |I would like to see disappear in my personal Rapture, just as you said. Gulch feels the same way about the Federal Reserve, Baal could do without Iran, Adam..er, really doesn't seem to like the President. We all wish there were not a powerful factor in the world that we perceive to be doing harm. That being impossible we want to limit the harm. And sorry but it is my business. You see your right to your gun as logically inseparable from your right to life. I see them as contradictory. You are a reasonable Island, peacefully trading and socializing with other Islands, but I am part of the continent, part of the main. Human life and the right to it, mine and yours and everybody's is my business. Donne for now Carol Carol "hobbyhorse:" The utter stupidity of this statement cuts to the core of the paucity of your attempt at making a cogent argument about guns... Carol: 1) Are you remotely aware of the Kalashnikov "rifle" which has dominated the global arms environment for the last four (4) decades?; 2) Are you remotely aware of the modern technology of the computer creation of weapons that is revolutionizing the access to weaponry?; 3) Are you aware that a bare bones incompetent can make a weapon in his apartment that can effectively kill his opponent, with a "gun," or, some other device? Nowhere on the planet has there ever been effective gun control...ever. nuA... Quite. Nowhere on the planet has criminality been controlled, ever , if by effectively you mean entirely. But it has been reduced by various means at various times, and one constant is the criminality of gunshot deaths by accident or intent, where the availability and incidence of guns has been reduced. Killers just kill fewer people with guns when there are fewer guns to get hold ofThat is my only point and it is not in fact stupid. Naturally I include the delightful proliferations in instant-death technology in my "click fingers and disappear" fantasy.

Non Truculentus sed Luminosi

Should Brant Gaede have a gun? Carol snaps her fingers and Brant's gun(s) disappear. Brant no longer has any guns. Brant is home invaded. Brant kills three home invaders with his samurai sword. Should Brant have a samurai sword? Carol snaps her fingers and the samurai sword disappears. Uh, Carol, all I have left now are steak knives. Would you kindly mind your own business? --Brant blood luster There is no slippery slope here. People have murdered each other with whatever comes to hand since there have been people. Cars, saws, steak knives, anything can be used to kill. Only handguns are designed solely for the purpose of killing and they do it very efficiently. If they disappeared tomorrow, as I would like, and knives were then outlawed, of course those of homicidal bent would start carving them out of spoons, and so on. Gangs would be obliged to set about each other with chopsticks and steam irons. But the body count would still be less than it is with the lightweight portable 100% guaranteed tool of death so popular. We all have our hobbyhorses, Brant, and you know this is mine, the thing |I would like to see disappear in my personal Rapture, just as you said. Gulch feels the same way about the Federal Reserve, Baal could do without Iran, Adam..er, really doesn't seem to like the President. We all wish there were not a powerful factor in the world that we perceive to be doing harm. That being impossible we want to limit the harm. And sorry but it is my business. You see your right to your gun as logically inseparable from your right to life. I see them as contradictory. You are a reasonable Island, peacefully trading and socializing with other Islands, but I am part of the continent, part of the main. Human life and the right to it, mine and yours and everybody's is my business. Donne for the moment, Carol

Saws don't cut wood. Carpenters cut wood. People are not wood.