Invictus

There are 70 million people in Iran. You cannot possibly justify killing all of them to save a single American soldier, nor can you say that any one American is of greater worth than any one Iranian. The United States of America is not Nazi Germany.

My point was that, in comparison to the foreign support received by the Viet Cong, the aid sent to Iraqi insurgents is miniscule. I never said that that they were insecurely supporting "our enemies", I said only that the regimes themselves were insecure. This is lunacy.

What? You seem to be getting mixed up with what is and what should be. Property rights (under law) can be violated through private action - i.e. the theft, piracy, blackmail and the like by private individuals or groups- or public action - i.e. the extortion of income or resources from property holders by public officials, such as politicians and government bureaucrats.

A good film but highly inaccurate. The director deviated significantly from the acknowledged facts about Mozart and inaccurately portrayed him as a vulgar and sometimes whiny aristocrat. Also, most historians believe that his relationship with Salieri was a close one and definitely did not end with Mozart being murdered.

*Spoiler Alert* I saw this movie for the first time quite recently and was stunned at how pathetically it performed as an anti-racist statement. None of the positions espoused by Derek as a Nazi were refuted when he reforms- a reformation based on emotion rather than reason. Virtually every black person in the film is depicted as a thug while the Nazis are merely victims of their crimes. Most significantly, despite Derek's transformation his brother still gets brutally shot by one of the black kids at the end. It seems to be a greater indictment of affirmative action opponents than of racism. Observe that Seth uses the insult "democrat" to describe his ideological opponents, as if it is only democrats who would possibly oppose Nazism. Additionally, what was supposed to invoke Derek's racist ideals is the following, very reasonable, comment made by his father, "I got two black guys on my squad now who got their job over a couple of white guys who actually scored higher in the test". This is an obvious attempt to equate anything that isn't leftism with Nazism. American History X is yet another frustrating piece of liberal diatribe to come out of the Hollywood cesspit.

...i'm NOT going TO bothER.

Calm down mate. I now know that "we" means simply David and whoever he chooses to administor the site. If I was in your position I would have said "the admins". I just wanted to make clear that I did not share your view of bartwart as a subjectivist. I made clear my knowledge of capitalism in these two threads: http://forum.ObjectivismOnline.com/index.p...owtopic=531&hl= http://forum.ObjectivismOnline.com/index.p...owtopic=586&hl= Property rights refer to a set of legal rights over the use to which a resource is put and over the use made of any income that may be derived from that resource. Collectivism, in a political sense, is a system that stresses the primacy of collective goals and rights over individual goals and rights. I find your tactless pomposity offensive. I am glad you only make 1.4 posts a day and that the other admins have more respect for the members of this board. I will leave it at that.

More collectivism. Having the right to speak for the forums owners does not give one the right to speak for the forums members.

This smells like collectivism to me. Who is we? Who gave you the right to speak on my behalf?

My nation: The Republic of Selfish Money Grabbers "For the glory of man" UN Category: Capitalist Civil Rights: Superb Economy: Thriving Political Freedoms: Excellent Location: Asia The Republic of Selfish Money Grabbers is a large, socially progressive nation, renowned for its absence of drug laws. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 32 million enjoy some of the most opulent lifestyles in the region, unless they are unemployed or working-class, in which case they are variously starving to death or crippled by easily preventable diseases. There is no government in the normal sense the word; however, a small group of community-minded, pro-business individuals is mainly concerned with Law & Order, although Commerce and Social Equality are secondary priorities. Income tax is unheard of. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Cheese Exports, Automobile Manufacturing, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales industries. The police force is on a recruitment drive, employers may fire workers without giving any reason, the latest Harry Potter book is a bestseller, and organ donation rates are among the lowest in the region. Crime is a major problem. Selfish Money Grabbers's national animal is the pig, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the gold standard. Selfish Money Grabbers is ranked 41st in the region and 29,678th in the world for Largest Pizza Delivery Sector.

*Hissss* My dad will agree with you on that.

That is a good one.

My curiosity got the better of me and I finally went to see The Passion yesterday. Mel Gibson is a great director. The Patriot was good and Braveheart was one of the best movies ever made. I can thus fully understand that those who believe in the teachings and stories of Christ would be able to connect with the events taking place on screen and be quite taken aback by them. But I, not having any emotional affiliation with Jesus or Christianity, couldn't help but come out of the cinema thinking that Gibson is just a sick weirdo. The length and brutality of the whipping scene was ridiculous and the close ups of [both] nails going through Jesus were totally unnecessary. Accusations of anti-Semitism are not to be written off. While virtually everything contained in the film is straight from the bible, it seems that Gibson has gone through all four gospels and selected those segments that most vilify the Jews. Additionally, while the Roman soldiers eagerly torture Jesus, the upper echelons of the Roman forces appear very reluctant to have him executed (Pilot nearly cries at one point). The Jewish crowds also resemble a group of marauding orcs. Having said this, I couldn't really care if the Jews of ancient Judea killed Jesus. The idea that a people can be held accountable for the deeds of their ancestors is absurd.

Yes. The level of music's worth goes beyond its popularity among audiences and is not, therefore, dependent on the ear of the listener. Bach's incredible technical facility, demonstrated by his ability to transform ensemble compositions into solo pieces, marks him as one of history's greatest minds. But what really makes his music great is the amazing expressiveness that conveys so well his love of life. The Brandenburg Concertos and Cello Suites are better than "Baby One More Time" not only because they took longer and required a more productive mind to write, but because of their ability to invoke deep emotional feelings within the listener. People who like Britney Spears ultimately like bad music.

AutoJC, Bad call on Johnny "commie" Depp as Ragnar Danneskjold.

Read The Failure of the New Economics: An Analysis of the Keynesian Fallacies, by Henry Hazlitt.

Michael Douglas would make a good Wesley Mouch.

Following this philosophy would exclude you from driving on taxpayer-funded roads, walking on taxpayer-funded sidewalks and observing for pleasure taxpayer-funded gardens.

Hmmmm...

These are all very good points, Praxus. Comparisons made between the Vietnam war and the current situation in Iraq are totally absurd and do nothing but demonstrate the complete lack of historical knowledge possessed by certain hacks on the left. For starters, the Vietnamese insurgents, unlike the Iraqi's, had been involved in a guerrilla war with the French for decades before the American's arrived and were thus experts in the field. Furthermore they were a unified force led by possibly the best military tactician of the 20th century in the form of General Giap. Yet perhaps the most significant difference is the fact that the Viet Cong were backed by North Vietnam, China and the USSR, while the Iraqi's are getting only cautious support from the insecure regimes of Iran and Syria.

I’m sure you have all heard it said many times that the nations of Eastern Europe were better off under socialism. This is a misconception that has been coming up a lot lately and is in need of some attention. Even my usually respectable International Relations lecturer raised the possibility that free market reforms have had an adverse effect on the economies and people of the former Marxist experiment states. The graph below, called the liberalization Index, demonstrates the extent to which seven former socialist states have undergone economic liberalization. The boundaries of the index range from 0 (least liberal) to 1 (most liberal). As you can see Russia and Ukraine have been the most reluctant to adopt liberal reforms while the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have welcomed free enterprise. From World Bank, World Development Indicators Now observe the level of growth experienced by the nations that have embraced a free market compared to those that haven’t. Between 1991 and 2000 Poland has had an annual GDP growth rate of 4.4, Hungary 2.2, and the Czech Republic 1.3. Contrast this to the situation in Russia, with -3.5, and Ukraine, at -7.4. Furthermore, all but Russia is experiencing greater growth than during the soviet era when Hungary was moving at 0.9 a year and Ukraine at -7.5. It is obvious that free enterprise is the recipe for growth. Source. This is not to say that problems are not being experienced throughout the former USSR. When a people are subject to the kind of collectivist atmosphere - that sees creativity punished, stagnation enforced, freedom of the mind suppressed, and inefficiency encouraged - for as long as the Eastern Europeans were, the cure is never immediate. But given time, and further liberalization, communisms leftovers will be overcome.

That is true. I'm still waiting for the "massive wave of attacks" promised by Hamas in response to the assassination.

The resemblance between these two is incredible.

100 posts

I'm not exactly sure what that time is in Australia but I think it's during my economics exam. Hopefully I'm wrong.