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Invictus

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Everything posted by Invictus

  1. True. I know quite a few people who are regular sailers.
  2. It's about time! j/k I came by Objectivism the same way most people in today's world do- via the Internet. While not a full-fledged Objectivist, my mum has read many of Rand's works (something I didn't realise until I asked her to pick me up a copy of Atlas Shrugged) and fully understands my reasoning behind taken such a keen interest in them. I understand what you mean. The ten steps recommended by Marx to implement communism have been present in Australia for some time. Robert Menzies, the founder of Australia's most fiscally conservative party, firmly believed that "The functions of the State will be much more than merely keeping the ring within which the competitors will fight. Our social and industrial laws will be increased. There will be more law, not less; more control, not less." Things are as bad now as ever, with Australian's paying the most tax since the nations founding.
  3. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. Source
  4. Peter Jackson is planning a re-make of King Kong. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2905249.stm
  5. I only recently found out that this movie existed. Has anyone here seen it? What events in Rand's life does it cover? How does it fair in terms of accuracy?
  6. At least it will be interesting to see how Stone goes about turning Alexander into a left-wing hero.
  7. Me. I've been waiting for a modern interpretation of the Trojan War for ages. Baz Luhrmann had plans to make a movie about the same man but it was axed in favour of Stone's. Disappointing.
  8. The Nazi's had not decided on extermination until they lost the battle of Britain and came to the realisation that the war would last longer than expected. Until that time the solution to the "Jewish question" was the removal of all European Jews to Madagascar. My knowledge of Israel has come primarily from Benny Morris but also from Alan Dershowitz and Donna Rosenthal. You nailed it. Links to anti-Israel articles and pictures of dead Palestinians a plenty.
  9. Nonsense. Have you not noticed that the most backward nations in this world are also the most religious? All that religion does to a people is create illusions of a world beyond the one in which we live. Consequently a love of life is sacrificed in favour of a love of death. Instead of people living for their lives they live for their deaths. Is this the kind of society you view as being "in line"? While Christianity is still prominent in western nations, people have learnt to revolve their religion around their lives, rather than their lives around their religion. Herein lies the reason for western civilisations greatness. The day the Hajj becomes an obscurity is the day that the Arab world is on the path to civilisation.
  10. Did anyone else need to rub their eyes after reading this absurdity?
  11. The following is a compilation of posts that I made during a debate on a leftist forum about the Arab-Israeli conflict. -------------------------------------------------------- The severity of the current crises in the Middle East is entirely the fault of the Arabs refusal to recognise the state of Israel’s right to exist and their unrelenting attempts to destroy it. Indeed, it is Israel’s destruction, rather than Palestine’s establishment, that has long been the priority of Arab governments and even the Palestinians themselves. On many occasions the Palestinian people have been offered a state, and on each of them they have responded by murdering Jews. When the Peel Commission of 1937 proposed dividing Palestine between the two sides, with Jerusalem and the majority of land going to the Arabs, the Palestinians, without offering so much as a counter proposal, engaged in arbitrary massacres of Jewish civilians. The most horrific of these took place in Hebron, where the entire Jewish population was either killed or expelled. The greatest tragedy of the Palestinians rejection of the Peel Commission was that it prevented up to a million European Jews from immigrating to what would have been a Jewish state, instead these Jews ended up in Nazi killing fields and gas chambers. Rather than show remorse over this, the Palestinians sided with Nazi Germany and did everything possible to ensure that the Jews of the Middle East shared the fate of their European cousins. The grand mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian people, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was involved in the spreading of Nazi propaganda and the organising of Arab-German commandos who attempted to poison Tel Aviv’s water supplies. Here is a little of what he had to say: “Rise o sons of Arabia. Fight for your sacred rights. Slaughter Jews wherever you find them. Their spoiled blood pleases Allah and our religion. That will save us.” Husseini, who spend most of the war years in Berlin advising Hitler on the “Jewish question”, was declared a war criminal at the Nuremberg trials. Regardless of this he was granted Asylum in Egypt and continued to lead the Palestinians. He is now considered by Arafat and many other Arabs to be a hero of their cause. In contrast to the actions of the Arabs, the Jews of Palestine formed armed legions and fought valiantly against the Nazi menace. The second opportunity for Palestinian statehood came with the U.N. partition plan of 1947 that would have divided Palestine on similar lines as the Peel Commission. As you’d expect, the Arabs responded to this generous offer with a war that had but a single purpose: to destroy the Jews of Israel. Immediately after the Israeli declaration of Independence, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon bombed civilian targets within Israel. Despite their backward air force and comparatively tiny army, Israel defeated the Arab aggressors. They were spurred on by the knowledge that a defeat would mean a repeat of the Holocaust, just as the Arab battle cry suggested, “Murder the Jews, drive them into the sea”. As a result of the war Jordan and Egypt found themselves occupying the West bank and Gaza strip respectively. Rather than give this land to the Palestinians they chose to keep it for themselves. The reason no outcry resulted from these occupations is simple: Israel’s defeat, not Palestine’s creation, remains the top priority among Palestinians, the rest of the Arab world, and armchair activists up to this day. Yet another opening for a Palestinian state arose at the 2000 Camp David peace negotiations. When Arafat turned down the offer of the Israeli Prime Minister Ahud Barak that would have given the Palestinians 95% of the West Bank, the entire Gaza strip, Jerusalem, the Temple mount and US$30 billion dollars in compensation, he made it all to clear that his desired path was one of bloodshed and that his goal was the destruction of Israel. Prince Bandor of Saudi Arabia predicted the consequences of Arafat’s actions when he plead with him at Camp David, “You have only two choices. Either you take this deal or we go to war”. Bandor has since labelled Arafat’s decision as a “crime against the Palestinians- in fact, against the entire region”. I couldn’t have said it better myself. To make it so blindingly clear that even a bunch of stoners like you should understand, Arafat’s communications minister stated, “The Palestinian Authority began to organize for the outbreak of the intifada since its return from the Camp David negotiations, by request of Yasser Arafat”. It is for the abovementioned reasons that simply giving the Palestinians a state will not solve the conflict. The Arabs will continue to pursue its much-desired goal of destroying Israel. Any Palestinian state will simply be used by Libya, Syria and Iran as a launching pad for further attacks against Israel. Regardless of this, it is my opinion that Israel should take unilateral steps to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although they will not receive a guarantee of peace they would lift from their shoulders the heavy burden of occupation. What will best deter the Arabs from engaging in another all out attack on the Third Temple is Israel’s nuclear arsenal, that they, more than any nation on earth, have a right to posses. Jews lived in Palestine long before the U.N. partition of 1947. A small number remained in Judea when the Romans emptied it in 70 C.E. But it was with the First Aliyah in 1880 that the Jews arrived en masse and legally purchased land from Arab landlords and the Ottoman government. At this time the already extremely low number of Arabs living in Palestine (most of whom were Bedouin and Egyptian rather than Palestinian) was dwindling significantly. However, with the arrival of these Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Europe (encouraged by Arab leaders who accurately predicted their arrival would better the situation) Arab numbers flourished. This fact can be attributed to the improved healthcare, water supply and sanitation that the Jews brought with them, cutting infant mortality rates, increasing life expectancy and all but eliminating malaria. Additionally, the newly cultivated land provided the Arabs with many lucrative employment opportunities. The Jewish immigrants turned a desolate and near uninhabited expanse of land into a prosperous and modernised series of towns and communities.
  12. Laziness is not a common trait among objectivists.
  13. Braveheart, Master and Commander, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings and Black Hawk Down are a few that spring to mind.
  14. Avatars in general- not necessarily pictures of yourself.
  15. Most proponents of capitalism do seek the legalisation of currently prohibited drugs. http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?id=3435 http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?id=219
  16. At the very least they are, to quote everyone's favourite revolutionary, "useful idiots". They distribute a lot of anti-communist and pro-capitalist propaganda that help erode many of the misconceptions about capitalism held by the youth of today.
  17. Why is it that so few people at this forum have avatars? They make it a lot easier for people to distinguish between the different members, particularly for newcomers like me. I recommend everyone go to his or her profile and insert an avatar.
  18. This may seem a significant amount but relative to the overall size of North Korea's economy it isn't. At a GDP per capita of only $1,000, the DPRK's Military expenditures amount to only $5,217,400,000, compared to the $276,700,000,000 defence budget of the United States. CIA World Factbook North Korea's escalation is an attempt to win concessions from the U.S. government. If action is not taken against it other countries will adopt similar tactics of nuclear blackmail as a means to extort the American people. So, what action can be taken? At the very least, all international aid must be cut, and heavy sanctions should be put in place. But this alone will not suffice. North Korea would still be developing a nuclear arsenal and would continue to flaunt it as means to hold the US to ransom. Ultimately we are left with two options: miitary action now against a nation developing WMD's, or military action at a "later date" against a nation with an advanced unconventional weapons program.
  19. It is a pleasure to be here. I think a lot of children growing up share the experiences and feelings expressed in my post. Unfortunately, any notions of self-worth that a child might develop are decried as evil and quickly purged by teachers, churches and society at large.
  20. While we're on the topic of musical scores for movies, who here liked Howard Shore's compositions for The Lord of the Rings films? Personally I felt that they served as an excellent contribution to the journey, going beyond a simple accompaniment. The creatures, places and events in the film were all given a certain unique feel by the music.
  21. This is very much in line with the authoritarian mindset of the left. I once put up a pro-war poster next to an anti-war one at my school. It lasted about thirty minutes.
  22. "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows. This- the supremacy of reason- was, is and will be the primary concern of my work, and the essence of Objectivism."-- Ayn Rand
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