Invictus

So long as you are being forced to pay taxes it is quite reasonable that you reap the benefits of what your tax is paying for. The only reason you would have to feel guilty for using a government-funded resource is if you payed no tax.

I will respond to Static's post after today's classes.

The U.S. did not invade Iraq to enforce a U.N. mandate. It invaded to ensure the security of its people. The United Nations is a money sucking waste of time that exists to serve the agenda of a bunch of bigheaded unelected officials out to deepen their pockets and further their own agenda's. It is time for the US to withdraw and let the UN fade into complete obscurity. Enough tax dollars have already gone to fund the huge list of UN failures.

Why does he call himself "Allah"?

According to this site the first Sunday of June every year is "Capitalism Day". I can't say I've ever heard of this before and I doubt it gets much attention. But for those that are interested go here.

I wouldn't go so far as to call global warming itself a myth. The myth is the idea that climate change is caused by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide.

I agree with you on that. http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-502es.html

Which of Rand's works did you enjoy most? Of her fiction titles I enjoyed The Fountainhead above the rest. Atlas Shrugged was probably of a higher quality but it was my first experience with Rand's philosophy and I did not relate to it in the same manner as I did the books I read after having fully familiarised myself with Objectivism. With regard to her non-fiction works I definitely found Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal to be the the best, presenting an excellent moral case for capitalism. It was also interesting to read what Alan Greenspan thought before joining up with the fed's. The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution wins the award for "book that should be read by every college student".

Update: U.S. Marines lock down Fallujah

It is from his reply to the New York Workingmen's Democratic Republican Association.

The Cato Institute would disagree.

The following is a response I delivered to various inane comments about capitalism made on a leftist forum. -------------------------------------------- The above comments make abundantly clear the limited research this board’s members have done into to the theories they claim to follow and those they claim detest. For the benefit of those who have been hoodwinked into following socialism I have but together a brief piece on the practical implications of capitalism. Private ownership encourages economic efficiency and competition while ensuring that entrepreneurs have a right to the profits generated by their own efforts. Consequently entrepreneurs are given an incentive to search for better ways of meeting consumer needs. Be it by the introduction of new products, the development of more efficient means of production, higher quality after-sale services, or through more competent management than competitors. Contrast this to the environment under a command economy. Enterprises, that are state-owned, have little or no inducement to control costs and maintain efficiency because there is no way they can go out of business. The abolition of private ownership eliminates the incentive for individuals to search for new ways of serving consumer needs and results in an absence of dynamism and innovation. Even the armchair communists that infest this site should know that innovation and entrepreneurship are the primary engines of growth. By innovation I mean new products, new processes, new strategies, new management practices and new organizations. It is obvious that to sustain economic growth, the business environment must be conducive to these factors. So, what kind of system best encourages innovation? Capitalism. To reinforce what I said above, under a free market economy any individual who has an idea is free to begin a business and make money out of it, just as an existing business is free to improve operations through innovation. Depending on their level of success, the individual entrepreneur and the established business can each reap rewards in the form of high profits. Herein lie the enormous incentives created in capitalist economies to embrace innovation. In circumstances where all means of production are owned by the state, as in a command economy, incentive to innovation is removed because it is the state, rather than the individual, that receives all gains. This lack of economic freedom and incentive for innovation was the prime cause for the economic stagnation that occurred throughout the Marxist states of Eastern Europe and even some of the mixed economies of the west. Observe that those nations with the greatest level of economic freedom (Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States etc.) also rank among the highest in terms of economic growth. The assertion that global capitalism is detrimental to the poor of the world is another common fallacy. By lowering tariffs on imports, producers of poorer nations have access to lucrative markets in the west that would otherwise be denied to them. Similarly, western businesses have the freedom to move firms off shore, giving jobs to citizens in nations with a lack of domestic producers. Observe that in 1970 South Korea and Ghana had an equal GDP. South Korea recognised trade as a positive-sum game, concentred its resources on the production of goods that they produced most efficiently, engaged in trade to acquire those goods that they did not produce, and allowed “sweatshops” to be set up by foreign companies. Now South Korea has the 12th largest economy in the world while Ghana, who committed itself to “Pan-African socialism”, is in the same stagnant swamp that it started off in.

He was chairman of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate.

Ayn Rand testified to HUAC in 1947 regarding a pro-communist film entitled the Song of Russia. She seemed to think that because the communist party advocated the use of force it was legitimate to expose its members, though she recognised the right of communists to free speech. I'm unsure as to what she thought about the methods used by the committee and the extent to which it did its job. In an article included in Capitalism: The Unknown ideal, called Extremism, or the Art of Smearing, Rand mentions that she doesn't like Mccarthy but doesn't go in to the reason why.

Is there anything else you would like with that? A massage maybe? Or how about parade in your honour?

Welcome aboard.

Here is an article written by Jefferson on slavery: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/slavery.htm

Haha…Let's not go nuts. Forcing capitulation via intimidation seems to be the way to go when it comes to solving the immediate situation in Fallujah. I am in no real place to comment on how America's generals should do this but I think taking a few lessons from Mossad and the IDF would be a good start.

This forum is great. Places of rational discussion are rare and I'm glad to have found one here. The plethora of one-line posts to be found in most forums are absent from Objectivism Online. It is a testament to the intelligence and insight of Objectivists. Thanks go to David for bringing this place into being.

I read a few reviews and they seem to fit in with what's been said here. Nonetheless, my curiosity is too great to not watch it.

I liked Eddie Willers. He wasn't endowed with the same talents as Galt or D'Anconia but it never stopped from working to the best of his potential.

Ok, that makes sense.

What exactly is the purpose of the "warn level" that I, but nobody else, have under my avatar?

Article This event makes all to clear what we're up against in Iraq. The twisted and barbaric creed that is prevalent in the Middle East has resulted in a people who are capable of such reckless hate. I don't see how we can view this conflict as anything but an ideological war. Sure, putting a few bullets in the heads of the people responsible for this monstrous act is a first step, but to end terrorism altogether we must end that which hath given it life: Islam. How we go about this I am not altogether certain. But as sure as Christianity resides in obscurity in the west, so to will Islam be confined to anonymity in the east.

I'd prefer it if he just made The Hobbit.