skap35

Can you believe all the celebrities that are now coming to his defense?? This is yet another reason for me to hate hollywood even more. And that interview of him where he actually said he can't bring himself to understand what was wrong with it. What a sleaze. I really hope Switzerland and the California DA don't back down on this. Please let him spend the rest of his life in prison!

Anybody on here have a custom license plate that says "A is A"? I saw that on the car next to me on Friday down by the Dayton Mall.

When I first saw that it just made me want to punch him in the face. What a sleazy piece of trash. Good riddance. We are finally rid of a criminal and longtime enemy of liberty.

If those students had a booth at my university, the campus police would certainly make their lives difficult. My school has a history of hysterical reactions to anything that is in the general realm of firearms. Whenever there is a scheduled "empty holster" day on campus, we always get a very paranoid and frightening e-mail from campus police. The language of their warning letters makes it sound like anyone who carries an empty holster on campus is a dangerous psycho and thanks to evil Republicans, campus police have no power to stop these evil students. It really makes me angry when I see those warning letters go out. To be fair, they're probably trying to cover any liability on their end, but still...it just makes them sound ignorant. A couple weeks ago the cops sunk to a new level of stupidity. A student was filming a sci-fi zombie movie on campus and there was a scene involving a plastic laser gun, or something to that effect. They actually sent out a warning letter telling students not to worry about the obviously fake "gun" and that campus police would be escorting the actor with the gun the entire time. The only thing I can say about that is:

Unions have no value. I would argue that even in the 19th century they had no value. Obviously workers voluntarily migrated from the farm to the city specifically to work for a factory. If the conditions were so horrible, then why did people move to the cities at all? If they started working in a factory and didn't like it, then why not quit? There was clearly some compelling reason that drew the workers in AND kept them working in the factories. So clearly life in the factory was an improvement over the farm life they came from.

I agree with some age limitations but not others. Personally, my kids will not be driving a car when they are 16. I'm going to require them to wait until 18 for that. Whether or not that should be the law is another issue. That's just my personal parental decision. As for your comment about a 14 year old getting a license, the problem is that 14 year old is not mentally capable of operating a vehicle safely. That creates a severe danger to everyone else on the road. I understand your argument about parental responsibility, but I don't quite agree that one person has the right to impose an unreasonable risk of life on another person (by allowing their young child to drive). Another HUGE one for me is that I think it's insane to allow 18 year olds to vote. Very few 18 year olds have any life experience whatsoever and frequently have political views that are not grounded in reality. Due primarily to the fact that they have never had to support themselves. The voting age should be closer to 25 or 26 in my opinion. The only possible exception to that rule would be in the case of military service for obvious reasons.

I take it you've never had a liberal professor before? When someone holds your future in their hands (through your grades in this case) then there is nothing wrong with doing what is necessary to just get through the class. My dad tried that way of thinking when he was in school and ended up getting D's from that type of professor. In an ideal world you can voice your opinion to a professor and disagree with him. But sadly, modern universities are a liberal stronghold, and professors aren't always fair. It's unrealistic to think you can always express your opinion, no matter how right you are. If expressing your opinion will interfere with accomplishing your goal, then it is not Objectivist because it is not in your self interest.

Welcome to the real world. Sometimes if you want something, you need to keep your opinion to yourself and tell people what they want to hear. I can't even count how many times I had to deal with liberal professors and just keep my mouth shut. These people hold the future of your career in their hands. If you were on an equal footing with them, then by all means let your opinion fly, but you do not have an equal relationship with an admissions board. Unfortunately, that is the real world of college. My favorite experience with this was a very liberal professor I had for my Nazi history class. He was always making comments about how various Nazi tactics were very similar to the Bush administration. I just wanted to throw my desk over his stupid comments, but I just kept my mouth shut, and told him what he wanted to hear in my essays. It was painful, but I got an A. In a sense, doing that is a good lesson and is also very Objectivist: learning how to manipulate idiots for your own self interest.

It's precisely for this reason that I stopped obeying laws like this. I used to obey laws until I grew up and realized that by obeying this crap, you're just rolling over for them. I now believe in the old saying "if you don't get caught, it's not illegal." (at least that's my attitude when it comes to laws that trample on my rights) Just live in your RV anyway. Maybe no one will report you. If they do, promptly show your local government SS agent your pay stub that lists all the 100's of dollars in taxes you pay to the city. Explain to them that if they try to screw with you that you will quickly move out and they will lose that income. California is so broke right now thanks to the democrats that they might just back down.

This game is so much fun! My wife and I play it together. I run all the missions and explore the wasteland while she goes through all the abandoned buildings. She likes to just search for random stuff and then sell to all the traders. The only problem I have (and it is a BIG problem) is that it keeps locking up on me. Generally it just requires a restart of the X-Box, but the last time it happened was when I was in the back room of Arlington Library. I saved my game in there AND the auto-save was also in that room. But whenever I tried to enter the main lobby it would lock up. Since you have to go through the main lobby to get out of the building, I was effectively trapped in there forever. I ended up starting a whole new game, which was very frustrating. Although it wasn't ALL bad. Since it was my second time through I picked up a lot more that I missed the first time. I ran a few missions differently and ended up being much more powerful early on than I was before. Has anyone else had this problem? Apparently this is a big issue with any Bethesda game...

I'm actually in the exact same place as you. I finished my Master's in Computer Science last year, and I'm about to start on my PhD this fall. I considered an academic career, but decided against it. I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it, but I would prefer to do research for an actual company (or start my own company). An academic career is certainly rational, but may not be moral. The only reason I say that is because I think that government funding has ruined the concept of tenure and academic freedom. In an ideal environment, academia should isolate you completely from anything political so you are free to pursue your research and be influenced only by the truth. But if you ever want funding you need to play the political game. This is where some academics can lose their morals. Two examples of this are sociology and environmental research. Both of these areas tend to start with a political stance and try to find evidence that supports it (and ignoring evidence that would be inconvenient to their sources of funding). This clearly is not the scientific method, but that is the way these groups have to get funding. Fortunately, you and I have selected a career that isn't quite as politicized as others, so this shouldn't be as much of an issue for you. However, you'll end up dealing with politics no matter where you go. Unfortunately, it's just a fact of life.

If only I had taken your advice and not wasted my time. I just died a little inside. :dough:

You should read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon. There are many reasons for the fall of the empire, but Gibbon placed a large amount of the blame on Christianity. To be fair, the Romans were deeply into mysticism from the very beginning. Religion was closely linked to government policy by consulting oracles, offering sacrifices after victorious battles, etc. I would argue that Christianity was at least a lesser degree of mysticism than the traditional Roman religion. At least Christianity didn't believe in the silly Roman practice of haruspicy (studying animal entrails to predict the future).

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000...39649689,00.htm The European Commission has proposed to extend consumer protection laws to cover software. In other words, if a piece of software is exploited by a hacker, or if it's run in a poor software environment and crashes, then the developer can be held liable. This is yet another attack on innovation and business in general. Why would I risk developing software (particularly FOSS) when I'm placing myself at such a stupid risk?? Sort of reminds me of AS...I'll continue to develop software for my own benefit, but I'm not going to allow these idiots to benefit from my hard work if they're just going to sue me for it. This quote really demonstrates that the sponsors of this have no clue what software is or how it's created: Do these people not understand that beta products are, by definition, in a testing phase of development? I know some of the other Objectivist programmers on here can appreciate how horrible of an idea this is...Let's hope this proposal fails big time!!

I love techno/trance/electronica!! I heard of DJ Shadow, but not any of the others. I'll have to check them out. My personal favorite is Kraftwerk. Their music is *very* different from any modern electronic music, but they invented the entire genre. They developed techno back in the 1970's, which I think was pretty visionary back then. Also, a lot of modern, mainstream music (rap/r& use Kraftwerk songs for the instrumentals.

This made me so mad when I first heard it. In fact my wife, and everyone else I've talk to about it, just considers it to be a big joke. Do these people honestly think this sort of thing is going to get them votes? All it does is piss people off because *everyone* sees this as yet another waste of our money and even more government intervention. Not only that, but we need Republicans more than ever now. Why the hell are they wasting their (our) time with this crap? What ever happened to Republicans being the party of small government?

I read that book when I was a kid and liked it. Can't remember what it's about anymore though...

...and nothing of value was lost. (or gained by the dems) I actually find this to be funny. I six term senator was doomed to end his career by losing a primary by 20+ points. I'm sorry but that is just pathetic. This was a desperate attempt for his own survival. Lets hope it doesn't work...

I just joined the Facebook group! but it's unlikely that I could ever attend a meeting since I'm way down here in Dayton. Although my family is in Cleveland, so I'm up that way every few months. Just out of curiosity, how many people actually attend your meetings? Just trying to get a feel for how many Objectivists are up in my old home town.

This is obviously just a political tactic by the governor. However, I do know that Texas has a unique set of rules that came with joining the Union. I don't know if this is true or not, but I did hear that one of the conditions of Texas becoming a state was that they technically have the right to secede if they so choose. I have no idea if it's true or not...it's more likely that it's just an Internet rumor... There is another interesting technicality that I heard on the Neal Boortz show though. Apparently one of the conditions of statehood was that Texas, if they choose to do so, can elect to divide itself into five separate states. The federal government has no say either. I have no idea if it's true, but if it is, just think of the political swing: eight more conservative senators... Does anyone know if Texas actually has that power?

Well thank you very much for the kind words. I'm glad there are so many people out there who remember my grandfather and enjoyed his show.

If you are interested, here are several YouTube videos of an old speech of his at a gun rally. http://www.youtube.com/user/MikeSessa

If a dictator like Hugo Chavez nationalized (stole) my business and my property then I am entirely justified in using any force necessary to reacquire what belongs to me. Period.

Giant mirrors in space?!?! Haven't these idiots ever watched Futurama?? If the mirror gets deflected slightly by space debris then it will just concentrate the sunlight into a super-intense beam and burn us all!!!

I think I remember reading that somewhere. I just think it's a bit ironic that the very substance that will kill us all will also save our lives. I agree completely. It should be pretty obvious by looking at any tropical zone that warmer temperatures increase biodiversity. So my question is: how is an environmental factor with such a positive effect on life going to destroy life? I guess that question is pointless anyway since environmentalists don't really care about the environment. It's all about destroying capitalism.