GarinStone

I want to add that Hancock was the only person to sign on the 4th. The rest was done at the beginning of August. Aside from that i've been dying to see this. I hear its quite amusing.

I never make more food than is nessecary... So i suppose you could say that I don't throw any away either. I took their stance to mean that we don't deserve or have the right to throw away whatever food we like. We have the right, its somewhat immoral to waste your money in such a fashion, though. Like I said - let them have it. If they get poisoned then they suffer, if they don't then its less food to go to the dump. I just can't figure out what kind of person would find moral cause in digging through a dumpster. It doesn't seem to be the most reasonable way to find food - and thats bad.

Are you sure this isn't some kind of early April Fools joke? Regardless, i say let them, and find themselves poisoned. We'll eat what we want. We earned it.

There were 10 380 dollar computers total. The people in line in front of me all had the intent to buy one of the computers. The person I was talking to was going to buy the 380 dollar computer, so by my buying it instead of him I was not affecting any of the other peoples ability to purchase the computer. There were only 10 of the cheap computers so only the first 10 people would have gotten them. The person i was talking to was the 4th in line and would have bought one. Thats the moral justification for my action - it was a trade that caused no harm to anyone, and benefited both parties who undertook it. I will talk to the office of the officer in the morning. She did not draw the weapon - that would have been ridiculous. Her hand rested on it and she made several repeated movements which were designed to draw my attention to the fact that she had the abilty to force me to do what she said.

The right word is not undercover. She was dressed in her uniform, she just covered herself with a blanket so people wouldn't know she was a cop. The other people standing in line wouldn't have been affected by it in any way - The person i was talking to specifically was already going to buy the item I wanted(a 380 dollar laptop) and there was a better one for 500, i offered to pay him 120 and twenty to buy the cheaper one for me and i would buy the more expensive one for him(because the cheaper computer was worth more to me than the more expensive one, while to him the more expensive one was better). No one would have been taken out of a computer at the end of the line(the 10th person if there were to be 10). The cheaper computer had a different video card - which is the card that i need. The more expensive one did not have the card but it had better specificiations in other things(which he valued more but not enough to buy it outright) 500 dollars would have still been a good price for me for the cheaper computer. I can't see what harm i caused to anyone that would have resulted in being threatened with a gun.

I went to the best buy to try and camp out at 9 pm on thanksgiving day. There were about 30 people already in line so i tried to go up to the front and buy someones services. I offered a trade, free of force, designed to benefit the both of us equally and i offered it because it was so. In one of the most disgusting, hideous, ridiculous displays of force i have ever seen - after trying to trade forward in line, an undercover cop stood up and held her hand to her gun. I ignored her because I couldn't imagine that it had anything to do with me. She then moved towards me and continued to insist upon her gun. She did not tell me that I had done anything wrong, or what i was doing wrong at all, she only offered her gun. I had to leave the place because she called the security(in addition to her gun, she needed more) on me, without saying I had done anything wrong at any point, only that I would "have to wait like the rest of them". I asked if the people in the front of the line got to go in first, and why they couldn't trade that right. She said the exact same thing as before and pointed towards the approaching security car. I cannot believe that her sword duty is to protect my rights(she was in a cop uniform - i'm not positive that such a thing could be but there have been greater oddities). I have told people who insulted our law inforcement that they were wrong before, but it is I who was wrong. When I asked for nothing but the freedom to speak, she offered a gun as an argument. A gun is no argument. its hard to describe my feelings right now, i have never been this pissed at another person before. what she did was beyond wrong, it was unconstitutional. It was hideous to stand in front of those people and be humilited like that for trying to trade. I'm not positive i've ever been this angry at all. I can't even express it. i swear upon my life that i will never forget these injustices so long as i live. I swear upon the altar of reason eternal hostily towards all forms of tyranny over the mind of man. I don't know why i'm posting this. Someone has to know.

Atlantis was either a myth or a small unimportant island. Its actually believed to only have been breifly before Platos time. The ark is a ridiculous concept. Of all the crazy hair brained things in the bible it stands out to me as the most blatently contradictory and impossible. Many reasons: 1. The animals would have eaten eachother 2. We're still discovering new species that could have never survived in the climate of the middle east. Where did these come from? 3. The building of an ark capable of withstanding such a storm requires modern technology - and even that is a stretch if this really was the all powerful wrath of god. 4. Why were sea creatures saved? Surely if bunny rabbits were hopelessly sinful then great whites weren't great people. Thats just the beginning of the list. These are really not too unsolved.

Shawshank Redemption is also what comes to mind. Andy Dufrense is comitted fully to justice. While there are some contradictory parts in the movie, I love all the ways he helped people get around the income tax. There is also a certain quote that I doubt I'll ever be able to forget: Either get busy living or get busy dying. Not to mention the fact that is one of the greatest movies ever made.

"I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth." My responce to "but how did we get here?"

I take offense at the reason they included Nietzsche but not with his presence. (His claim of God is dead was their reason with reference to the popular graffiti) Positivist beliefs are contradictory so far as I understand them(sociologists make no sense to me) The hilarity of the list comes from the inclusion of Darwin on Honorable Mention. What great harm did that do - did it further science and turn people away from God? Was Nietzsche really more influential or were the listmakers scared that the list would be laughed away if they included Origin and gave their reason for doing so - it proves that the tribesman who penned the old testament were wrong. I don't claim to have read On Liberty but barring Rands one mention to his oddly contradictory views I believe that in their end a few are beneficial(similar to Nietzsche placement of importance with the self, however horrible the rest of it is) And for a conservative god loving paper - why no Rand? She probably would have been proud to make the list.

The American Revolution of course. I'm going to be a laywer or else I'd be getting a doctorate in history and my dissertation would pertain to something having to do with Thomas Jefferson. Not quite sure because I doubt its going to happen. I will take care to capitalize Objectivism to clarify things.

This is an awesome idea and awesome execution. A little more hope for another day.

I'm from Fullerton California and I go to college there (History and Philsophy major going to transfer to USC). I live by myself except for my guitar. I'm also only 16. How did I find objectivism? I have always held the same values, but i accepted guilt for them(just as hank rearden did). Throughout school and work I felt that I could carry anyone, and that the most undeserving were easiest to carry because they complained the least. The thing that changed me in Atlas Shrugged was Hank because he represented me in so many ways. My beliefs before that - I was a libertarian atheist(since i was 12 and decided to ask why i believed in god or government). I never made the same connection as Rearden about being the guiltiest man though. Now I understand why it always made me happy to achieve. I thought happiness came from sacrifice but I never recognized the contradiction. I looked at things out of context far too often but i've corrected that. My favorite Rand quote is : "What is the nature of the guilt that your teachers call his Original Sin? What are the evils man acquired when he fell from a state they consider perfection? Their myth declares that he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge - he acquired a mind and became a rational being. It was the knowledge of good and evil - he became a moral being. He was sentenced to earn his bread by his labor - he became a productive being. He was sentenced to experience desire - he acquired the capacity of sexual enjoyment. The evils for which they damn him are reason, morality, creativeness, joy - all the cardinal values of his existence. It is not his vices that their myth of man's fall is designed to explain and condemn, it is not his errors that they hold as his guilt, but the essence of his nature as man" So thats me. Nice to meet you.

GarinStone - a charecter from one of MY stories(never finished) who refused to accept being taxed and ended up on public trial for not giving his money for the good of the people(this was BEFORE i read rand) so his excuse was not that he deserved it but that they didn't. Part of my whole already being there but calling it the wrong thing.

Well in book form I think catch 22 was the funniest I've ever read(and i'm only about 10 pages into it. The bit about his pain not being jaundice is priceless) The funniest movie i've ever seen is either big daddy or happy gilmore. I love adam sandler. The funniest TV show has got to be family guy. The funniest stand up comedian is george carlin. His way of explaining what he thinks about god and prositition is priceless. (God - "Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! .... But he loves you!)

I liked Hank and Dagny the most... simply because Hank was the person who was converting me to reason as I read - Galt was the climax of that, but I felt as if my deliverance had come from Rearden.

I can't agree any more. I'm reading Atlas Shrugged for the second time, and without spoiling too much, I've caught quite a few things. Sure, i knew immediatly who the third student was later in the book(although i didn't understand who made the motor immediatly), but we've all got to remember - not everybody who started atlas shrugged was an objectivist. So Reardens pulling himself up from the desk because it was only himself who had motivated him forever didn't make as much sense the first time. I can't wait to go through all the other books again. Another thing - I cared a lot more about Midas Mulligan and what Jed Sternes kids had done.