caroljane

Glad you are ok Ellen -I have relatives in New Canaan and was watching your area.

"What's good for gun business is good for America"

Terrific - it could be the intro to a novel! I would definitely read on. My only quibble would be "shocked or grossed out" - just "shocked" would fit better with your lean, spare prose. Good job.

Doesn't Ellen S. live in Connecticut? Hope she & her house are OK.

If that meeting is in NY tomorrow, I don't think she'll be saying anything. God has heard about it and "dark is his wrath on the wings of the storm"

Thanks M&K. Here in Toronto we are on the path but not expected to get hit anything like as bad as NJ (Adam and Baal) - anyway I take the MSM meteorologists with a grain of salt! My poor roof in my New Brunswick hometown on the Bay of Fundy is what I fear for, and the lower-lying houses of my relatives and friends.

A little strong, but from what I have read of Ms Geller's appalling blog and worse, the comments by readers of same, your supposition of her feelings is not much of a stretch. One gets the impression that she would be happy to see anywhere nuked that contained large concentrations of Muslims-- unless, presumably, they were on American soil,

Who else is getting Sandied? It's been raining here for forty days and forty.....well, it feels like it.

I wouldn't recommend Moore's speakeasy. Too much hate-arsenic in the free-speech tea.

ok then, "the worst choices of human nature"

Huh?

This wonderful sombre meditation was Kipling's best poem, far better I think than the wistful Etonesque "If". He also foreshadowed feminism with his line, "for the Colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady are sisters under their skins." The "lesser breeds without the law" phrase has often been misunderstood. He clearly meant, "outside the law" (ie the Judaeo-Christian, English law) not without law of any kind.

Oh, Tony! It is any nation, not only the unfree, that acknowledges the worst in human nature through the laws. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst is all any society can do. It is no comfort I know, but this bleeding heart liberal bled for South Africa during apartheid, and still bleeds for her now.

Michael, note above. As you said yourself, ridicule is better than violence.

Lovecraft = witchcraft. What a master he was, O how he creeped out my adolescent self!

This is just an lol shoutout to our webtrotting Ninth Doctor, re his sly and funny response on OO to the lonely Scottish Objectivist. On behalf of my friend Nick however, I should clarify what you deliberately beclouded. Herefordshire is close to Wales, not Scotland, --I don't think there are any Welsh objectivists either however. Also he isn't an Objectivist anymore, he is an anarchist now. PS - as to the guy who wants a new name, what's wrong with Freeman?

Still, that is the most optimistic post you have ever made. Congratulations!

The best movie version of a Rand novel was the Italian We the Living, a bootleg in which she had no involvement at all.

Here's a link to the surname history of "Scherk": http://www.ancientfa...-history/683114 Wow , so little known - where did they come from? Someplace here on earth?--Nooobody knows... the Scherks appear to always have been individualistic, enigmatic and unique . Sounds familiar for some reason....

In fairness, science and math advanced hugely during Rand's lifetime - as did the study of history also. But there really is no excuse for her ignoring or misrepresenting - or just not knowing - so much of world history up to the time of her own birth. Of course, it was intellectual history she was mainly concerned with, but in considering it she dropped a lot of context.

Yup - she's hotter than Fukushima and cooler than the ozone layer!

No, he is not as idiotic as Akin, and probably not idiotic at all, just deeply committed to his fundamentalist, social conservatism, which hinges on the abortion issue. He is part of a bloc though, which is thus committed, and whatever the election is about, they will keep their eyes on their own prize.

When private firearms were legal in the UK, the police didn't carry guns. When gun control was initially imposed in the UK, the police still didn't carry guns. Now when the UK has truly draconian gun control laws, the police carry guns. Interesting, no? Robert Campbell You are right of course. I did know guns were always legal there, I was thinking of the rural shotguns and so on, not urban handguns.

... those who support collectivist statism are only displaying the pretense of being motivated by helping others, since they don't voluntarily spend their own time and money helping others, and that their real motivation is freebies and/or power over others. J So only individualist freedom lovers ever do volunteer work, donate to charity or lend their broke brother-in-law a hundred bucks? Come on, J. Leftists might all be powemongering hypocrites, but they are not all misanthropic cheapskates either.

Carol, I know you're not an Objectivist but at the very least you could try to make a more reasonable criticism. Also remember that Galt's Gulch actually had working farms so I'd assume the strikers are all reasonably familiar enough with agriculture as to have ploughs and seeds. Objectivism has never alleged that "everything unpleasant about anything is due to the existence of looters and moochers." I think it depends on what Carol meant by the "Men of the Mind." Is Leonard Peikoff a "Man of the MInd"? Peter Schwartz? Harry Binswanger? If so, then I'd have to agree with Carol. They'd be hampered by an absence of ploughs and seeds. They wouldn't have the slightest clue how to make things with their hands from raw materials. Not only that, but they'd be arrogantly certain of their every uniformed opinion, and would massively underestimate the importance of mastering the arts and sciences of production through hands-on experience, trial and error. They'd be totally lost and dependent on begging if the world's actual producers went on strike. J Yes, actually, as it was Part IV that was proposed, I was not thinking of the producers, I am sure Ragnar and Co. would have been capable of practical action to get some food growing, It was the next generation Theorizers I was envisioning,,, not specifically the ARIans, but their followers... I think they would have a tough time applying axioms to real treeioms,