Kitty Hawk

So if a Nazi is honest and has integrity towards naziism, he's still a good person? Same for an honest communist? I find all of the people you mentioned--Clinton, Stalin, Hitler, to be men of poor character. Carter happened to live in country where he couldn't get away with the things Hitler and Stalin got away with. All of them believed in the use of force against the citizens of their country. So do all current Republicans and Democrats, and I don't like any of them, either. Personally, or politically. Someone who believes in initiating the use of force, who does not respect individual rights, is an evil person. That's Jimmy Carter. And I believe the other poster dealt with Carter's selective honesty, which you failed to address.

At best, you seem to be saying Carter was a simpleton. An honest person who is completely clueless. I fail to see how that is admirable. A simpleton shouldn't put himself forward as being able to hold the office of President. He believed in the goodness of the American people? Why then did he feel it necessary to force them to reduce their energy consumption? In fact his opinion of the American people was that they didn't know what was good for them, and he needed to force them to do what they were too stupid to understand.

Actually, there's an older movie thread, called Enjoyable Movies, in which the very first post mentions Apollo 13. And I think people tend to avoid listing movies that have already been mentioned earlier in the thread. Having said that, I certainly agree that Apollo 13 is a great movie. I recently watched another great old movie, which I don't think has been mentioned yet: Beau Geste, the version starring Gary Cooper. It's a story of the sense of honor (and the camaraderie) of three brothers, and their loyalty to those they love, and to what they believe is right.

I don't know if this is the book you're speaking of, but Spearman wrote a novel called Daughter of a Magnate about a man who fixes a railroad problem, but I'm not sure if it was in Texas. It's an excellent novel, anyway. All Spearman's railroad fiction is available at Paper Tiger. Plus two of his excellent Westerns. There's another excellent author of railroad fiction named Samuel Merwin--who co-wrote AR's favorite novel, Calumet K. He also wrote The Road Builders, about the construction of a branch line in Texas, and The Short Line War, about a battle for control of a railroad somewhere in the Midwest. Both excellent novels.

I think State of Fear's value is that it will get thousands of people to question global warming, people who otherwise never would have questioned it. Very few people will ever bother to read science research papers on the subject, but hundreds of thousands will read a Michael Crichton novel. And whereas many thousands also read Tom Clancy books, such as Rainbow Six, most of his readers are not liberals. So I think Crichton is reaching a larger audience of global warming supporters. The story itself is pretty good, and John Kenner is definitely a heroic character. I agree with those who say that Peter Evans, the main character, is meant as the average American supporter of environmentalism---someone taken in by the environmentalist propaganda and their media supporters. But in the end, the philanthropist, George Morton, makes the fatal mistake so common among collectivists. He wants to start new and "different" environmental organizations. It is like those who say the Soviet Union was bad, and Communist China was bad, and Vietnam was bad, and Cambodia was bad---but communism isn't bad. We just need a new and improved communism/environmentalism, with better leaders.

24 Sometimes it's a little too soap opera-ish, but where else do you get to see terrorists turned into martyrs on a regular basis? Jack Bauer is a great character.

That's pretty much my reaction to the novels as well. They plod on endlessly, one battle after another after another after another. It's like one 10,000 page novel, and that's way too much. I read the first five books, and regretted the time spent on every one of them. I have the next three as well, but can't force myself to read them. I know the next one in line, Faith of the Fallen, is the one most praised by Objectivists. But there are limits to my "glutton for punishment" tendencies. Goodkind has disappointed me one time too many.

Another great book about an industrialist is James J. Hill & The Opening of the Northwest, by Albro Martin. It shows an incredibly hard working immigrant (from Canada) working his way up from the bottom, to the top. He built the Great Northern Railway, opening up the Northwest, as the title says. Unfortunately, the book is out of print, so you'll have to find it on one of the used book websites.

Thanks, that interview was odd, but interesting. The Library of Congress has recently made much of the papers of the Wright Brothers available on the internet. It's interesting to read their letters to family members and others, like Octave Chanute, Arch Hoxsey, etc.

I found this great photograph of Wilbur Wright in Pau, France, with Orville. Wilbur Wright in Pau, France Wilbur is holding up an instrument to measure the wind (direction or strength, or both). As someone who has always idolized the Wright Brothers, especially Wilbur, I love this photograph. It immediately brought to my mind Howard Roark. The self-confidence, intelligence, purposefulness, the tall, thin, angular body type. To me Wilbur Wright was Howard Roark.

A perfect example of private enterprise succeeding where government supported efforts failed is the invention of the airplane. The Wright Brothers succeeded without a cent of government money; meanwhile Saumuel Langley, head of the Smithsonian Institution at the time, got $50,000 of government support to produce an aircraft. Langley failed, the Wright Brothers succeeded.

Perhaps you could point out where anyone said this war was a game? Or perhaps not.

I mentioned it in my list, top of page two.

Merwin and Webster grew up together in Evanston, Illinois, and started out writing comic operas: A few more words on George Lorimer. His Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son is an excellent book. It's not really a novel, being a string of fictional letters of advice on business and life to his son. Lorimer himself had started out, in his business career, working for the meat-packaging tycoon Phillip D. Armour, and it is after him that he modelled his Self-Made Merchant. "This was America," as Ayn Rand said of Calumet K. When the phrase "great men" applied to business moguls, and the million-plus readers of the Post admired them and were interested in their life stories.

Both Merwin and Webster wrote other "business fiction" novels, originally under the tutelage of George Lorimer, editor of the Saturday Evening Post. From a book on Lorimer and the SEP: Merwin and Webster's first collaboration was The Short Line War,, about the struggle for ownership of a railroad line. On his own, Webster wrote a couple of other interesting novels: The Banker and the Bear, and Roger Drake: Captain of Industry. Merwin's solo efforts, however, are much better, and include The Road Builders about the construction of a railroad line (which I have reviewed fully under "Book Reviews" on the front page of this website), The Whip Hand set in the logging industry in Michigan, and The Merry Anne, about a ship owner and captain on Lake Michigan. All excellent novels, although hard to find, being out of print. But they are worth the effort to find, especially the Merwin novels.

Here Guerilla's Paradise, among other places. Here's an excerpt:

Another encouraging thing from the battle of Fallujah is that our troops are now authorized to assault any mosque from which enemy troops are firing. And we are doing so on a regular basis.

The Mongols conquered all of China, Central Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, and all the other -stans), all of the Middle East, Egypt, parts of India, Russia, and defeated several European armies in Eastern Europe. And that was all within two generations. The extent of their empire was far vaster than Rome's. The Romans, of course, never ran into the Mongols, who only emerged with Genghis Khan around 1200 AD. There is no denying the Mongols were a great warfighting machine. I don't think al Kufr was saying they were good at anything else. Nor am I. As to the question of which is the greatest civilization overall, there is no question that Greece is head and shoulders above all others. Phoenicia deserves some recognition, as they were mainly a nation of shopkeepers, so to speak, a trading nation. One of their colonies later became more of a militaristic nation---Carthage. I believe Phoenicia also may have had the first non-pictographic alphabet, although I'm not sure on that.

I think you should recuse yourself from this poll, Thales.

This article, Thank You, Arlen, gives a description of why the conservative Right hates Arlen Spector. Here's an excerpt:

A helpful force of moderation, with respect to Supreme Court nominations, is Senator Arlen Spector. He is now in line to be the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearings. Spector is a non-conservative Republican.

I have not heard yet whether Powell will be part of the second Bush Administration. I am obviously hoping he will not be. Has anyone heard?

A is A was right, the American people decisively upheld America's right to defend itself in this election. There is no joy in the "Arab Street" tonight. The rest of the world, the terrorists, the global socialists, the liberal media, all threw down the gauntlet to America in this election, daring us to elect the unilateralist. The American people picked up the gauntlet, and slapped the world in the face with it. The American sense of life is still hanging in there, in spite of the world's opposition.

You have got to be kidding. Right? Saddam Hussein was indeed elected---by a 100% vote. Does that suggest anything to you, Mr. Yes? Like if you don't vote for Saddam, you're a dead voter? And of course this was only after his initial rise to power, which was through the murder and assassination route. Try again in your version of history and fact.

This is from a FoxNews poll: So the issues on the mind of voters are as follows: terrorism, the economy, Iraq, health care, social security, taxes, and education. Conspicuously absent from this list is any mention of religion. Combining terrorism and Iraq, the war is the main issue for 42% of America. Nothing else is even close, and theocracy is off the radar screen. That is how the candidates will view votes cast for them: as a mandate for or against fighting the war. Neither of them will get any mandate or message whatsoever about theocracy in America.