caroljane

Peter, Jorj Burnd shau agres with u. Me 2. Hop ur bettur. Thank u 4 nis wrdz.

Adam, Thanks for the shout-out to my lifeline, the 506 streetcar which stops in front of my door and takes me to work and pretty much everywhere else I want to go. A fond memory of it was last July 1, Canada Day, it was full of mostly new Canadians returning from various celebrations, some of them a little dazed as it was their first. A little girl on the seat behind me was earnestly practicing the national anthem with her reflection in the window: "O Canada, we stand on God for thee!" Guess some of those Canadian Objectivists survived after all.

Phil, first LOLOL. Second, if you are angling for an associate membership in the Fraternal Order this is not the way to go about it. You must be recommended by a Secret Brother and complete the Forty-Nine Tasks. I'll put in a good word for you. Third, I am surprised and pleased to hear that there are Canadian Objectivists, I did not know anyone had survived the successive purges. Our mobsters are mostly of Italian extraction and do not use machetes but garottes and in conformity to local culture, skate sharpeners. I am reliably informed that they raise all of their fingers, and bring them down again. As to the shoes that is a vile slander, the French Canadians are all provided with shoes, two pairs a year per family, if they do not choose to wear them that is not the fault of the government. I myself as an Anglo never wear shoes unless I absolutely have to. About the subway doors, seriously, you are right. Nobody can open the doors except the drivers or guards and in fact I have never seen them opened while the train is in service. I don't know the reason but I will enquire, my son works for the TTC. I am sure there is a good reasonable collectivist explanation. In solidarity, Carol

Life Imitates Art Dept. The BC College of Physicians and Surgeons has issued an advisory based on a recent complaint by a patient undergoing elective eye surgery under local anaesthetic, who was disturbed that the doctors and nurses discussed hockey throughout the procedure. No errors were made in his surgery, it was determined. He was lucky. And dumb. Who schedules elective surgery at playoff time? He had it easy. Try having a baby on Stanley Cup Final night.

Go ahead. (Wrestling Rich to the floor) The crashing silence till now was a NO, Phil, NOBODY would like to see it.

I liked your poem, as well. I thought it was spot-on and I read it over and over. Inspired, and nicely constructed, you should publish it elsewhere. It is unfortunate that this site does not allow voting. Mike Thank you MEM. I don't agree about voting. Being read and enjoyed is the only vote that matters. I would say further that one thing that makes this site unique, and in my opinion the best Osite, is the absence of hierarchy and the fussy classifications of "newbie", "junior member", "VIP" and so on, as well as the silly earnestness of moderation by an eager clerkly class of ideologues.

CONFIDENTIAL Gord, Joel has got the internet going at the satellite hut again and he says he thinks we have been mentioned there somewhere down in the States! But not exactly part of the Secret Plan, I don't know what to think. It was about an "obscure pan-Arctic aboriginal organization" and says the international security agencies are watching us. Obscure! The Igloo is the most famous lodge here and the oldest, also the only one. Typical sloppy reporting. As to the security, you know there are a whole bunch of Mounties here now because of Prince Harry getting lost, and Claudine and the girls snowshoeing out to find him and get him to make Harper go that wedding. I don't think they are onto the SP but thought I better check. One of the Mounties who is a Mason (second cousin) asked me if we were really the Slavus Medicii and I didn't know what to say, nobody knows that except the Grand Shaman, do you think you could get a straight answer out of him? Not that I would say anything. Brother J still has not paid his dues but he is the only one who can work the internet and he did get Grampa McAloon out of the woods, so tell Nanook to lay off until things blow over. For now I will assume everything is OK and I will tell the Mounties I don't know anything because I really don't anyway. ISS, Doug

Chicago Shrugged too late.

It could be said that OL itself is an example of a type of multiculturalism. A German and a Canadian, influenced by a Floridian, are reading an American work of literature. A Michigander and a South African have joined an obscure pan-Arctic aboriginal organization which is under the eye of international security agencies. An Australian goth discusses gender issues with a Brazilian expat classical musician. The disparate cultures of anarchism, minarchism, libertarianism, even, er, socialism, coexist in grumpy truce, with frequent border clashes and myriad kaleidoscopic alliance changes. Many frequently combine to make sport of Coloradians, Californians and New Zealanders.There are also regular skirmishes with the Republic of Coates. The multiculture is centred in Chicago, home to both MSK and Obama. You can't find a better example than that.

After four months on the Internet I am still learning the language. Thread Drift is what I formerly thought of as Conversation.

OK Phil, OK, here's one: "How could she go on? She could not cry yet. She had to survive, even if she could not remember now just why-- a life in the service of something that had once felt far more pressing... I am at the mercy of history, she thought, but I can push it too a bit. One thing I know is that nothing remains the same. No great problems in this society have been solved, no wounds healed, no promises kept except that the rich shall inherit.What swept through us and cast us forward is a force that will gather and rise again. Two steps forward and a step and a half back. I will waste none of my life." Vida,1979

Adam, how are you active in Missouri when you live in NY? I know you are a great multitasker and activist but this one stumps me.

"code", hah, weasel word! I feel about my Canadian spelling as you feel about your snippets. Your wishful sunlit OL universe would be ideal,Candide, but I fear it would be quite monotonous.

By free association: Entrancing, beautiful, timeless. Thank you ND and Attenborough. Some images of the hunters could have come straight from a World Cup final. Did you like Quest for Fire? I wish they would make tons of sequels to that.

Adam, given the context, I can assure you that the Call of the Loon would have been more appropriate audio.

Did she play a dime-a-dance girl in that one?

I hope you will look at the media from the time that Atlas Shrugged was written, as well as the time which formed Rand's concepts of American feminine beauty. Strong intelligent women like Barbara Stanwyck had been on the movie screens, and America's princess was Grace Kelly. Then again, there was Mamie Eisenhower.

Carol, Now where did that come from? You do surprise, often, so I'm becoming less surprised - also, you cast a lot of bait on the water. This time I will take a nibble at it. That's me: Tony J MacKerel . I know that you know that Rand borrowed back "soul" for her own purposes, and tellingly, too, (but I would say that). Obviously, it matters how we frame "soul", but whichever way, we always arrive at the point of: whose soul is it anyway ? who's to do the 'making' of it (and how)? who gets to benefit from the 'making'? Hoping you'll take a bite at this. B) Tony Dear Mr MacKerel, I knew there was some Scottish in you somewhere! It isnae rational to gie a man a fish, looking at the scandalous price of fish these days - if everybody would learn to fish they could bluidy well eat. The soul I think of as the essential self, and I think Rand did too in her own way. Her way was to consider the essential self as a combination of rationally-integrated elements derived from reality. The mind reflected and fed the soul, and directed the body to express its highest values - productive work, with self-esteem and love as its rewards. Undoubtedly I am misreading or distorting Rand's message, but my impression above is what I perceive as strait and stringent in it.

The youngster in the paraphrase from Hanta Yo! would have done better to keep his reasoning quiet, and silently rattle through his heuristic until he arrived at a best guess. That way the crabby elder could have got the answer he was looking for. What is this? Looks like an aerial of the lawn after the Family Picnic.

I told you Phil's handwriting shows he is an incorrigible optimist!

There is no prouder posture.

As someone who has expressed admiration for the striking originality of your writing, I am asking you what you mean by "situation to principle". I am not an Objectivist but admire the way Ayn Rand expressed her philosophy in ways any ordinary reader could understand. Please explain.

Perigo believes in God? No, what I meant was that Pigero's aesthetic "sense of life" preference is to weep over art forms which contain yearning, to weep about fictional characters who fall in love, to weep about swooning over being in the presence of fictional heroes, and to weep about fictional characters expressing their adoration for God (despite not believing in God himself). He apparently interprets fictional characters' submission to and dependence on God as their admiration of greatness, which, to him, appears to be the highest virtue -- which kind of makes sense: his perspective is that of a consumer of greatness rather than a producer, so it's fitting that he would see his act of observing greatness in others as the best he's ever going to achieve. It's the mindset that makes him think that he's going to save Objectivism and the world with his consumer's tastes in music. J J - re producers/consumers/ - how do you think Rand viewed her middlemen - agents, lawyers etc? Were they Willers or second-handers or niche marketers or what?

Schoomarmishly, strait and straight are not the same. Carol respectably clad in checked gingham

As a teacher, I know only too well there is no such thing as teaching. There is only learning, and helping people to learn. I speak only of teaching those who want to learn. Coaxing the reluctant, beguiling the lazy, browbeating the recalcitrant, are experiences which I have thankfully been spared. Rationally, I think that in today's world there is no need for human middlemen or women between the eager student and the knowledge so abundant on the internet and through such excellent structured series as Khan's. Yet education is a burgeoning industry and my hourly wages creep up. With any concept, any truth, any fact, any pronunciation of an English noun a student will want a real person to answer his question, even if the best answerer would irrefutably be a 1000 year's dead philosopher whose answer could be easily found easily on the Internet. I know that all knowledge is self=taught, but I can never believe that souls are self-made. Too strait is the gate, too narrow is the way.