bobsponge

He doesn't believe a single word he says, anyways. Do you think the Kennedy family got rich by ignoring the laws of economics like he's proposing we do now? Heck no. He talks about the billions here and there, yet fails to say how many billions it will cost our economy paying the extra "mere $2.50" extra over 2 years. It will probably dwarf the other figures in comparison. How many minimum wage hours are worked in America per year? Multiply that by 2, and then by 2.5. That's what it will cost us. "When will the greed stop?" HA! What a hypocrite! His greed for OUR hard earned money is what is motivating his further greed for power! It's not HIS call what I pay MY workers, or what I do with MY money. Yet here he is assuming that he has a right to say what I do with MY money, to MY workers, just so HE and his hivemind collective can get votes. He can't even complete a sentence without slurring and stuttering. It takes him 5 times as long as it should to get a point across. Another thing he was arguing about was that the Republican side had more amendments passed than the Dems had, which, well, everyone voted for, yet he thought that unfair, with the retard mindset of "If you get some, then we should get one too!" Screw what's right and wrong! Hopefully he'll give his drunken self a stroke in his next tirade and help us rid the world of another incompetent moron.

Not by the law of conservation of energy. That energy being stored will heat batteries, or being used will heat wires and appliances.

The US has no gold to back a gold standard-- there is a reason they have not done an annual gold audit of Fort Knox since the 1930s. Remember why the merchants beheaded the French king when they demanded their gold and found the king's treasury empty? Most of the gold supply belongs to centralized private banks and private owner/investers. No. The best way to do it is not to standardize it on anything. No gold backing, and most importantly, NOT issued by the fed. The US government has the ability to coin its own debt-free currency without the fed. But since we get it from the fed, they create it and hold us to pay it back at interest via the federal income tax. The dollars we create today are a debt-based currency. If the government, not the fed, issued its own bills, such as Lincoln did with his debt-free Greenbacks, then one could freely trade without running the country into debt to the fed. What is the value of fiat currency? Whatever you make of it. The market decides. Sort of like the dollar today, anyways. It's valueless and people give it value nonetheless. The fact that it loses value, is not because it is fiat, but because it is being inflated by government loans/spending. The more dollars in the economy, the less their value.

Depends on what you define as successful businessperson, but I consider myself one.

Armageddon! It never ceases to amaze me. The democrats whining that "media has become the servant of a very narrow corporate agenda" when just about all but talk radio is pretty much OWNED by democrat agenda!? What more do you want, people? Will you not be satisfied until you have burned the last of it down so then you can complain that it's not there anymore? Is this the slow road to nationalization of the media? Funny how they also call it the "Fairness Doctrine". That's as fair as the Patriot act is patriotic. Barf. Double barf. Actually, make that hot, steaming, bile-laden, projectile chunky throat-burning regurgitation. "public interest-oriented media system" also makes chills run down my spine. Who decides what is public interest? Big Brother? Wow. Start packing your bags, my friends!

I just don't see how it is the government's business how I urinate or defecate. Standing, sitting, hanging from the rafters, upside-down, it's none of their business. Girls can pee standing up, you know.

Would be cool, though I liked Atlas Shrugged more. It was more in-your-face and biting. Though I liked Toohey more as a villain. AS's villains were more 'decentralized' it seemed. Anyhow, the Sony Reader is very cool. Much easier to read than a book (less thumb-stress!) though its interface leaves a few issues to be improved, for instance the crappy lack of ability to erase a single bookmark or the bookmarks in one given book-- all you can do is erase every bookmark in every book (kinda cheesy). Would also be nice to be able to hilight a quote you like for further viewing or reference. I look forward to a much less voluminous bookshelf, in any event, as well as the savings in postage and paper that will build quickly considering my book habit, and instant gratification to boot on the new book purchases.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced plans Monday to nationalize Venezuela's electrical and telecommunications companies, pledging to create a socialist state in a bold move with echoes of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution. "We're moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution," Chavez said in a televised address after swearing in his Cabinet. "We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life. We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it." Chavez, who will be sworn in Wednesday to a third term that runs through 2013, also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to eliminate the autonomy of the Central Bank and would soon ask the National Assembly, solidly controlled by his allies, to give him greater powers to legislate by presidential decree. The nationalization appeared likely to affect Electricidad de Caracas, owned by Arlington, Virginia-based AES Corp., and C.A. Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, known as CANTV, the country's largest publicly traded company. Full article at http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/01/...a.ap/index.html

I found that most of the preface in that book was useless rambling, and the actual meat of the book (where he actually describes his method instead of just 200 pages of his autofellatio) is a better idea simply to skip to. But the method works well, and it's nice to see that PDAs are incorporating features that work with GTD method.

The new Sony Reader comes with a full text of Orwell's 1984 as the only full eBook factory-installed. I thought that was pretty cool of Sony to distribute it that way.

<<<The whole premise rests on an equivocation between political and economic power. He was a putz. It has always shocked my how such a naive philosophy based on such a simple error in thinking has taken such a deep hold on the world and caused so much damage.>>> I agree. The whole impression I got when I read TCM was that it was written by a jilted, whiny, jealous teenager who was simply outraged at having no power, while deserving none. The same sort of high-school angst I felt when I was 17 and unable to do the things that adults can, living under mom's roof, demanding respect and having earned none. Perhaps what has made it 'stick' is that it appeals to that mindset, and so many people in the world never mature beyond that level. I am the only rational objectivist (and non-socialist) I know of that sprang from the public-school ashes of my graduating class, and those who I have had contact with never grew out of their myopic high school worldview.

This is mine

I got a copy of the "Serenity Visual Companion" and it is pretty cool. Adds some insight into the thought processes of Joss Whedon. But my hunch was correct on Malcolm Reynolds-- Joss describes him as "libertarian" and says he is the type of person he would not get along with at all. Considering Joss is a strange mix of bleeding-heart liberal and afraid-of-big-repressive-government, this does not surprise me. Just thought that you other fans might find that interesting.

I read his book on the Singularity and he does not specifically predict 25 years, though I seem to remember something more in the realm of 50-80 years. He has cited lots of evidence to back up his predictions, quite convincingly, comparing bellcurves on technological advances with data creation and storage, etc to further his case. Since I am a techie, I don't think it's too far-fetched. Sony actually started patents rolling on a device that will stimulate the brain to produce sensory experiences, sort of like the doodad in Strange Days. His immortality theory doesn't stem from pure tech, but it does go hand in hand with it-- basically humans will engineer computers that can think faster than the human brain, which will in turn process data that will help us hash genes and the like, in addition to figuring out how to reverse-engineer the brain to work side by side with the raw binary processing of computers. At that point, when we and technology take off in symbiosis, that will be the singularity.

I think Trump is just like Wynand. Rich, powerful, and says what he says only because that is what sells. He's a smart businessman who gives into popular liberal media.

I would have no problem buying a calendar if the girls posed for their own profit, but I would refuse it if it were done for charity, not on the part of the girls' actions, but on the part of there being a charity involved.

<<< VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -- Pope Benedict said in his Christmas message on Monday that mankind, which has reached other planets and worships technology, cannot live without God or turn its back on the hungry. It was shameful that in "this age of plenty and unbridled consumerism" many remained deaf to the "heart-rending cry" of those dying of hunger, thirst, disease, poverty, war and terrorism. >>> Funny, we seem to have put man on the moon, sent probes to most of our planets, split atoms, and discovered many secrets of the universe without God's help. And, personally, the cry of hungry, thirsty, diseased, poor, and wartorn do not rend my heart. Most humans were born with legs and a will-- if you start walking, you can change your circumstances pretty easily. Bah humbug, everyone! And, on a similar note, not to be outdone by bigger Catholic hipocrites of the past: <<< BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley is going high-tech. He already has his own blog, now he plans to start podcasting to the masses, beginning with downloadable Christmas messages. The video messages -- in English, Spanish and Portuguese -- are part of a broader effort by the Boston Archdiocese to embrace new technology as a way to spread the church's message. The archdiocese is overhauling its newspaper and television Web sites, including offering the downloadable podcasts. It has assigned e-mail addresses to all priests, a handful of whom have resisted using computers. It also has an intranet site that officials expect will replace the monthly mailings to clergy. >>> Thou shalt not worship technology, unless, uh, it can be used to brainwa... er... convert more souls for the church!

No, it's not the minimum wage hikes, though those anger me a good deal. I wrote my congressman about why minimum wage is a mistake, and he replied with a terrible "Oh, really it won't hurt the shop owners or cause them to fire workers because we will give them a tax credit to make up for it." So, in essence, the minimum wagers will be paying higher taxes to pay for their higher wages. Wool over eyes. Simply amazing how they can sell these people their own votes. -bob

Just thinking again on the hollow 'share the wealth' argument I keep hearing from the commie libs. When everyone has a million dollars, what is the value of a dollar anymore? Nothing! It brings me back to a memory from 7th grade. Ms C (a teacher I hold little respect for, who liked to challenge her students with workload rather than actual challenge) instituted an 'extra credit bucks' system in her class, wherein one could do extra work/reports/etc for extra-credit currency. This currency could be traded with other students for goods and services, used to 'buy up' a poor grade on a test or assignment, etc. Well, come MayDay, she said "Now we're communist, so everyone turn over your extra credit bucks." She then counted them all, divided it evenly, and redistributed it. I ended up pretty much where I started, but the poor sap who worked his butt off lost his fortune. And, since everyone had the same amount of extra credit bucks, trade for candy, help, etc. ground to a complete halt and everyone began hoarding their 'currency'. It was an interesting experiment if ever I saw it, and it was one of my first experiences with objective economics. So our elected officials first inflate our money by printing it without control, then want to stop reporting how much they print so we can't get as angry as we should be, and then they want to devalue it more by shifting towards communism. Fun fun fun. Just needed to vent. -bob

Just watched the show again, what little of it there is. And I think part of the reason I like it is because Malcolm Reynolds seems to be an objectivist. Or so it seems. Anyone else care to opine about Firefly?

This is why indentured servitude should be legal. Sure, you have a right to refuse medical care if you don't want it. You have the responsibility on that end-- carry something that says "Do not resuscitate", or pay for your own medical insurance (which would be a LOT cheaper if the guv didn't meddle with medical care), or deal with the possibility you will be stuck with a big ugly bill that may take you years or decades to pay off. That's how it ought to be done, in my opinion.

Sends shivers up my spine. Does anyone remember CCD? I was the one the nuns snarled at, because I was always asking questions that could only be answered with "Because it says so in the bible!"

I was raised in a catholic family (grandfather attended seminary and would have been a priest had he not met my grandmother) but I kept running into contradictions in catholicism that led me to abandon it. I then became one of those guys who brings the Mormons to tears on my doorstep by arguing logic against religion. Throughout that time I played with the Cyberpunk movement but found that it was too hard to blame 'the man' and 'the corporations' for all the woe and suffering in life. I used to write my own little games on the TI99/4a, and put together a little sim sort of like a cross between Utopia and Populous-- and when I set up a communist or socialist economy in the game, no matter what I did, the little civilizations collapsed into abject poverty. Kind of a strange and extremely geeky way to spend my teenage years, writing economic game simulations, but it worked. The biggest point I remember from that stuff was that when every single person has a million dollars, those million dollars are worth absolutely nothing. Amazing what you can get out of a TI99/4a As an adult I experimented with yuppie consumer culture but was unhappy- not because of the success but because I was still working for someone else. I didn't really break out of my funk until I was about 27, self-employed, and in direct control over my own destiny. Didn't read Rand until I was 29, but I had been an Objectivist before then-- just didn't know what one was and hadn't had someone sum it all up as nicely as Rand did.

Since hippies seem to have no trouble creating "hippy communes" why don't Objectivists create "Objectivist Capitals"? Seriously, if we were to gather forces, we could buy (or build) our own island somewhere and do whatever we wanted, free from taxation, regulation, crazy political parties, and oppressive government. Has anyone tried to do this? If they failed, what were the reasons?

It's a good way to weed out those who are your friends, and those who are your enemies. I recently emailed Mel Martinez (FL) regarding my hatred of the minimum wage proposals, and got a reply back why he thought it was a good idea. I immediately scraped him out of my hero list and put him on my '$h!t' list. He has yet to answer my email response explaining in gory detail why minimum wage will put a damper on the economy.