Dargormudshark

I really liked the movie, but that is basically the only research I've done on him. Yes, his personal life suffered from the way he went about his expirements but that doesn't mean the movie showed him as an individual against the collective. He stood up against the irrationality that he was confronted with and that is highly admirable.

Does that mean Galt is Milton Friedman? I don't know if he was offered that job but I know he was offered economic advisor several times but turned it down for very good reasons. I have alot of respect for him for doing that.

I was ticked off, I was in Best Buy and they had 2 copies of it which I thought was pretty suprising; BUT the plot summary on the back says that he dynamited his greatest project, or something like that. I know that necessarily doesn't give away the ending but I was shocked when he blew up Cortlandt while reading it so to give it away is a downer for anyone who looks at that dvd deciding to watch it or read the book.

He'd make it a skyscraper

I think Bangkok serves Peart's views a little more, the best of both worlds is how he would probably put it. You have your "Apollo" track and then after you have your "Dionysus" track. You could also look at it as "ok, I just listened to a really serious song, now I need to give my head a rest and listen to a song about something stupid, like weed". It could have also been a lyric exercise "I can write an epic about Individualism and I can write a song about pot. I will also say, out of the thousands of rock songs (mostly in the 60's and 70's) "A Passage to Bangkok" is definantly the best song, musically and lyrically, about pot.

No, I don't mind

What is wrong with excessive desires beyond "need"? We don't need to get water from the tap, we can always dig it up like a poor villager in Africa but its thanks to men being rationally greedy that we get modern plumbing. When I explain my use of the words "greed", "selfishness", and "ego", three virtues that Objectivism holds, I have to use rational as an adjective to explain it to people who have not really studied Objectivism. Rand did this as well, if you notice in a lot of interviews, take the Donahue ones for example she always has to do the common "By that, I mean" and then backtrack and say "Rational Egoism", etc... The reason why she or any other rational person in the world doesn't say "Rational Greed, Ego, Selfishness,etc..." is because you shouldn't have to. Rationality is not and shouldn't be an exception, it should be the default when it comes to the definition. So if I say, "that is greedy" you should assume I'm referring to some being rationally greedy, not irrationally greedy. What is "irrational greed"? Irrational Greed is the second definition you presented, "excessive desire (mostly of material things) that one does not need or deserve." This is irrational because you aren't respecting the concept of truth and justice. If you set out to get something (an end) without any honest means to do so than you are making it right for any other man to do so, then you find yourself in an abyss of hypocrisy and abstracts because you aren't following the concept of truth and justice. For an example, killing your best friend to get a job that he is next in line for and you are right behind him. You aren't following a concept of ones metaphysical right to live freely, thus denying your right to live freely because you are contributing to the idea of this concept being impeded upon. I think alot of the comments so far are pretty dead on but I think one of the keypoints to make clear is Rand's use of language. Some of the most important and beautiful words such as the Ego, Selfish, and Greed have such a huge stigma due to altruistic ideas that is must be made clear in a rational way.

If we do i'm out haha

Interesting article on how airline aecurity is effecting musician's in the UK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060910/wl_uk...ty_060910162527

I seriously doubt too many of the animals of his choice would welcome the sexual initiation with indifference, especially lions, tigers, wolves, and certain dogs.

Interseting, yet a dissapointing scientific observation.

Thinking about the big Rand moments, I've come to the conclusion that the day she arrived in this country should become a national holiday. I'm going to replace this day with Easter or something, lol.

I can't cite the actual quote, but I think Peikoff sums it up best when he brings up the answer Bush gave to the question "Who was the greatest political philosopher ever" and he responded "Jesus Christ". Any man who says that and ascribes to Christianity and its conservative stance is an Altruist, they just don't act on it politically (I'm not being condascending, I know you know this). I can't be 100% of his psychological thought torwards his benefit but as you've seen, he slams those who have been accused of working for their own benefit whenever he delivers lines like the ones that were in the previously posted article. reason for edit:grammar repair

Then i'm suprised he hasn't taken more stabs at Objectivism. I wonder how far Galt's Gulch is from South Park? When you say that out loud that actually sounds like a good way of asking what is difference between Objectivists and Libertarians.

I'm a capitalizt nation according to the UN as well, and my crime rate is really high. But my economy rocks though, I guess Dagny and Hank aren't having to give anyone sanction in The Republic of The Undying I : )