-
Posts
2935 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
13
Everything posted by DavidV
-
Hey Facebook Friends, Living in China, sometimes I feel that there is a cultural "firewall" between China and the West. I am active on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. Whatever I post there quickly gets translated and "retweeted." In the interest of cultural exchange, I would like to try an experiment: Reply or message me with your message, favorite quotes, and topics. I will post some of them to Weibo and post some responses and comments back to FB wall.
-
"I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire." — Ayn Rand, from Anthem
-
"As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind." -- Gautama Buddha, from the Dhammapada
-
Marxist materialism/postmodernism has become so ingrained in our culture, that it is now taken for granted that there are no ideas, only feelings. All conceptual labels for ideas are taken to be merely veils underlying three basic human emotions: hate, love, and shame. For example, all political candidates classify themselves and others according to a combination of the three: hate for Nazis and terrorists, love and shame for the left and environmentalists, and hate and shame (aka duty) f...
-
While cleaning up old post drafts, I came upon the following post from 2005 on drunk driving. When blogging, sometimes I start writing an idea for later and sometimes I paste quotes for commentary. This sounds like Walter Block, but I cannot find the source anywhere. Does anyone know? Is it possible I wrote this? "The issue of drunk driving is one of those highly politicized topics that appeals to a cross section of conservatives and leftists because it promises both a revival of the tem...
-
The "cheating" claims by Ron Paul fanatics are sad and pathetic. How obtuse do you have to do be realize that Americans just don't care about capitalism and freedom? They *like* their welfare-warfare mixed economy. The idea of personal responsibility, competitive markets, and no entitlements terrifies them. We like our slavery dammit! Sheesh. Stop wasting your time and money on politics and focus your energy on something productive.
-
"If only there were a dogma to believe in. Everything is contradictory, everything tangential; there are no certainties anywhere. Everything can be interpreted one way and then again interpreted in the opposite sense. The whole of history can be explained as development and progress and can also be seen as nothing but decadence and meaninglessness. Isn't there any truth? Is there no real and valid doctrine?" The Master had never heard him speak so fervently. He walked on in silence for a litt...
-
"You are like me; you are different from other people. You are Kamala and no one else, and within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself, just as I can. Few people have that capacity and yet everyone could have it." Siddhartha to Kamala (in "Siddartha", by Herman Hesse)
-
"Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate — and quickly." - Robert A Heinlein
-
I like placing my MacBook on outside-facing surfaces and running the CPU at 100% to see what temperature it reaches at equilibrium heat dispersion.
-
For many years now, I have followed a simple rule that I set for myself: create something new every single day. By "creation", I mean to make something unique that would still exist if I did not. (Since I consider my computer as an extension of my mind, changing bytes on it does not count.) I do this for several reasons: First, to remind myself that the purpose of my mind is to effect change in the universe, not merely to collect and organize information. (Learning is an essential prere...
-
Can anyone tell me how to reliably connect via VNC to OS X Lion? Is there a simple and free alternative? UltraVNC and RealVNC can't handle 10.7.
-
"Can you prove that Apple is thriving because it takes much better care of its existing customers than do any of its competitors? I guess not. But it’s the difference between a company that simply wants to sell you a device, and a company that wants to sell you a device and make you happy that you bought it. Making a sale versus fostering a relationship between customer and the company."
-
Muslims do not recognize the Bahá'í religion as legitimate because a post-Islamic monotheistic faith conflicts with their view of Muhammad as the final prophet of God. Therefore, Muslim governments have refused to see it as anything but an apostate branch of Islam and sought to eradicate it. I think a similar attitude is held about atheists in America. Atheism is not seen as a legacy of the Enlightenment, but as apostasy from Christianity. Consider that most Christians are fine with other...
-
"Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion — in the long run these are the only people who count." — Robert A. Heinlein
-
"Progress doesn't come from early risers — progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." -- Robert A. Heinlein
-
"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." — Robert A. Heinlein
-
The Border Patrol keeps millions of people trying to find a better live from entering America. Hard-working immigrants make everyone richer - both themselves and those who employ them. Remember that real criminals organizations and terrorists have money - and anyone with money can easily enter the country legally. It is only poor workers and entrepreneurs violating trade restrictions who need to cross the border illegally. The Border Patrol is the leading front of the drug war, which ha...
-
"If you are the kind of person who knows that reality is not your enemy, that truth and knowledge are of crucial, personal, selfish importance to you and to your own life‚ then, the more passionately personal the thinking, the clearer and truer." -- Ayn Rand
-
Otto von Bismark, the first great statist, once said that "politics is the art of the possible." But it is not. Art is the field of conceiving and foreseeing the possible. Politics is just the art of make-believe.