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erik

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Everything posted by erik

  1. I am currently on the 4th book in the Sparrowhawk series which is set prior to the American Revolution. They are written by an admirer of Ayn Rand. I recommend them.
  2. Its not cult? I got initiated last week. Those bastards! Just kidding.
  3. I find myself being "absent minded" lately. Lack of sleep and too much caffeine are the likely culprits. Parts of my job are pretty repetitive and I find my mind drifting off into other things during these tasks. Between that and being interrupted by phone calls during these tasks I've made a few mistakes doing them of late. Its very irritating. If its something I want to do I seem to have no trouble focusing. Go figure.
  4. I saw Batman Begins over the weekend and I liked it. I also played the Video Game tie in for X-box before I saw the movie. I liked the way the two tied in because in the video game you are essentially doing what Batman does off camera. Sneaking around instilling fear in the criminals until they are so scared you can fight them. Notice in the movie that the only time he took on lots of guys they were so scared they could barely fight back.
  5. Yeah I noticed my Forum use ( and pretty much any other activity ) drop when my baby was born. Older folks don't have time to get on Forums heck it takes me 30 minutes just to pay all my bills.
  6. The Star Wars Universe has different rules from ours. A rational mind should able to accept that, learn the rules and then move on. With some of you there is no attempt to do that obviously which is fine. I myself am willing to accept that and get on with the enjoyment of the film. Its fine to make value judgements but when they are made in ignorance and out of context its pretty annoying to say the least.
  7. Wow some of this criticism just cracks me up. I guess I am just too much of a Star Wars fanboy but of a lot of it shows a complete lack of knowledge of the movies. I think they did a great job of tying everything together. Palpatine had Force Precognition. Its a Force power that lets you see slightly into the future. I mean they can jump to lightspeed, you have to suspend your disbelief to enjoy Sci-Fi. If you can't go watch something else. Also force users can predict the future. Luke did it in Empire Strikes Back and thats why he left Yoda to save his friends. Hmmm the Jedi aren't Objectivists thats a real shocker. A reason to dislike the movie well I guess lets dislike every movie ever made except the Fountainhead. Cmon people lighten up.
  8. I've participated in these threads before and I always find them interesting. A few points. As a student of Objectivism I'm not completely versed in everything so feel free to correct me if I make errors in reasoning where appropriate. Also forgive me if I make typos. I used to be good at spelling when I was younger but for some reason have lost that ability. 1. The Native Americans are said to have no concept of property. That may be true at 1st contact ( 1492 ) but the Europeans at that time didn't have a much better one. There was a cultural exchange that happened for the next 300 years while Europe developed individual rights, limited govt etc. Natives traded furs etc with Europeans for weapons, finished goods during much of this time. To trade both parties have to recognize property rights correct? 2. Objectivism did not exist back then. So to say 19th century US govt was moral or not moral in what it did just seems silly to me. The US Consititution has been violated ever since it was written by many individuals or groups of individuals. While it is the greatest gov't created as of yet it has many flaws which allow non-moral things to happen all the time. 3. About the only thing you can say with certainty is Natives and Europeans both did bad things to eachother. There are too many factors involved to make gross generalizations.
  9. I actually know a lot about this issue as MAP policy is in effect with everything I sell. I agree its up to the manufacturer to do what he wishes with his products but I personally don't think its a very good policy in practice for either the manufacturer or the dealer. That is unless you are the largest dealer in a given market and you can use the MAP policy to protect yourself from competition. Also the MAP price is an arbitrary # made up by a sales dept. It has no bearing at all with what someone will pay for the item. So sometimes its way too high and that will scare off a potential customer. Or if its a large item that incurs a lot of shipping it might be too low and you might just break even at MAP. We sell far below MAP ( email or call for price of course ) and the items that we would break even at MAP we don't even bother to sell. Some companies will even try to enforce a minimum sell price. We usually dump those companies. Its funny those companies always go out of business, or just fade into obscurity. They think that they can just pull a # out of the air and magically people will start paying it. Not in my experience. I would love to make magical profits like that but for the most part its just not that easy. You have to compete on price, you have to have good service, you have to have a good reputation, you have to stock deep, you have to advertise, you have to keep doing it for years and years, etc, etc. This goes for manufacturers and dealers/stores alike. I can see where maybe a handmade watch like a Rolex where MAP policies may work. They have been around forever, and they are a famous brand. Thats all the time I have for today bye.
  10. erik

    Global Warming

    I for one would not mind a longer Summer. 6 months of wet, dreary weather start to wear on a person. Its finally warming up here now.
  11. erik

    Global Warming

    I recently read "State of Fear" and basically all you can prove with the available data is that large fast growing urban areas are warmer than they were 100 years ago. NYC for example inreased a bit in average temperature while Albany has actually gotten cooler. You can do this for any large city and smaller city in a given region and get the same results. The average temperature of the Earth has been pretty stable with a slight increase starting after the "little ice age" which just so happens to be before any industrialization was happening at all. So looking at all the data I would have to agree that urban areas are warmer due to heat retention and urbanization, but overall there is not a warming trend of the entire planet. Certainly not one caused by the very slight CO2 increase in the atmosphere allegedly caused by humans. The Earth itself is responsible for more greenhouse gases being spewed into the atmosphere than humans. Even if you disagree with MC you should get "State of Fear" for the references in the back of the book with all the data. This will help you draw your own conclusions.
  12. Wow, I could tell from the title exactly what kind of rubbish this movie was. A friend of mine said I should watch it and told him I didn't want to waste 2 hours of my life. Glad I didn't.
  13. Others here have covered everything very well but let me add this. Even if you don't have anyone in your life you can talk to, you have the people on this forum. I find that if I am having a bad day, I can come here and just read some people of like minds thoughts and it seems to cheer me up. You at least know about Objectivism in HS, I learned about it much later to my dismay.
  14. Yes there is a LOT of context I did not put because I don't want to hijack this thread. Lets just say I could write a book on it. Thanks for your Reply TomL.
  15. Interesting thread. Here is my 2 cents. When marrying a religeous person and having kids with them keep these things in mind. They will want them in Church. They want to brainwash them as soon as possible. The Grandparents will want them in Church or saying prayers no matter what you say. Religeous Grandparents will not listen to what you say. Also people tend to get MORE mystical the older they get so things probably won't get better they will get worse. I speak from experience! Here is a question. What do you do if you are married already and you become a student of Objectivism but your spouse does not. Get divorced? What if you have kids?
  16. I'm glad this is a topic. I too had heard this was the funniest movie of all time from lots of people. The wife and I rented it and about halfway through we looked at eachother stonefaced and I asked her if she thought it was funny. We both agreed. Not very funny. I got a few chuckles in after that but I still felt I had wasted 2 hours of my life after watching it. It was ok, but not something I'm going to ever watch again or recommend to someone. If I had seen it in the theater I would have been really pissed!
  17. I got the same thing yesterday by mail. It really pissed me off.
  18. Who is the Author? It sounds similar to "Conquests and Cultures" by Thomas Sowell. Although not an Objectivist he seems like one of the more objective historians I've come across. I'd recommend that book.
  19. I'd say AR would score well on an IQ test. She was a genius at Philosophy as far as I can tell. She was also a highly motivated person obviously, just look at her body of work. Keep in mind also that English was a 2nd language and you couldn't tell that in her writing. Overall she was a very impressive intellect.
  20. I think KOTOR ( Knights of the Old Republic ) and Kotor II are two of the finest games available. You can play as an Objectivist if you want to, not many games let you do that. Another good one I didn't see mentioned was Deus Ex Invisible War. Other good ones are: Chronicles of Riddick Fable Halo or Halo 2
  21. What ever became of Releases' meeting with the Professor?
  22. 1. I don't think the USA got any financial help during 9-11 or during the 5 hurricanes that blasted us this Summer. 2. I don't like how people are saying its the USA's fault for the Tsunami as if we could have an impact on the earths plate tectonics 3. While I feel bad for the victims of the Tsunami and any individual that wants to help should, I don't think the USA should be "obligated" to send taxpayer money as AID. This is a pretty big disaster but what if there were several large ones in a row. Must we bankrupt ourselves to help others out or would it be wiser to save for when disasters strike us, like they do all the time. We have floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, etc all the time here at home to deal with. While the death toll is large for this incident that is because these 3d world gov'ts did not warn anyone. If Florida had no warning before all the hurricanes that hit this Summer I'm sure lots more people have died here too.
  23. I and my wife usually tip 20% or more if good service and 15% for poor. If I get really bad service which is rare I usually end up with free food.
  24. I can't really give advice other than to talk to her about it. I mean if she came home to you in a hot tub with a strange woman she would probably be jealous too. What should have happened is she should have let you know up front what was going to happen so that you didn't jump to conclusions. Of course expecting a 19 year old to actually think before acting is a pretty tall order, no matter how smart they are. I'm guessing you are older than your wife?
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