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Thanks for your work RB, although I know you did it for yourself. I had the same feelings when I left the Regular Army to become a reservist. The only thing I can say is that the grass is just as green, and although it might have some brown patches of its own, all in all its just a slightly different kind.

I think that's a leap. He's more likely convinced (that happens quite readily when you preach to the choir) that what he is doing is adequate considering the nature of terrorism but knows there is no way to stop every possible terrorist attack. I'm not saying that his policies won't lead to a successful terrorist attack, just that he is probably not "resigned" to the fact that it will be his fault.

Rand... That's SA currency isn't it?

Simply and politely state that you are not gaining any value from continuing to have the friendship, that in fact it has become a detriment to you and that you don't want her to contact you again. If she asks why tell her calmly and objectively and if she begs you that she will be "better" tell her no. The rest will take care of itself.

I don't understand. Do you believe in god, the son and the holy ghost? Do you take the sacrament? Do you believe in the ten commandments and all the rest of what is written in the Bible? If you answer yes then you should most definitely be buried in accordance to your beliefs... If on the other hand you answer no you should be willing to stand for what you believe in spite of tradition, in spite of family pressures, or you are nothing but a Peter Keating, doing all the "right" things (the things everyone expects you to do or wants you to do) for all the wrong reasons. There is a little thing called integrity. Integrity is honesty in action. How nice Christians are is not the point, how nice your family is is not the point. What do you think would hurt your family more, you being buried as an atheist or you lying to them for the sake of tradition and being buried under false pretences and dedicated to a god and religion you have forsaken?

The Tar sands are also a moral choice for the USA (and the rest of the western world) as long as your choice of major suppliers is us or Saudi Arabia and their ilk.

I was rather disappointed with the article. I think they focused too much on the profit motive and as a result they ignored the real morality behind the philosophy. Objectivists aren't about profit for profits sake. Profit in and of itself does not equal a moral action. Bernie Madoff made some huge "profits" without ever coming close to acting in a moral fashion. I understand where Dr. Brook was going with this but I consider myself to be an Objectivist already, I know the causal chain from the axioms to living ones own life to productive effort to profit. The people who read and responded to the article on the other hand, apparently have no such knowledge. A big miss IMO

I know there were a couple of people that frequent here trying to set something like this up so I thought I'd post the link. Basically gents you've been beaten to the punch, but all is not lost. Anyone can join and O'ists can register with the site admin and help answer the questions. This isn't a discussion forum its not there to take arguments to or to refute any of the answers given. You post your answer an the best answers are voted up by the Objectivists that visit the site. Or at least that is how i understand it. Anyway... Check it out and have fun!

Yes, there is a duty for the government to protect citizens from violent reprisal. Violent reprisal is the initiation of force and therefore illegal. Now if you asked if the person should be protected from the legal actions of individuals, such as opposing speech, ostracism or voluntary economic sanctions (refusing to do any form of business with the individual) then, no the Government doe not have a duty to act, as a matter of fact it has a duty to stay the hell out of it.

Nice sled. I'm envious.

Sanction We strain to produce, Every day of the week. No pardon or excuse, No quarter to seek. To live like a man, To think, to create. To reason and plan, To earn all our weight. We value our values, We seek like and kind We honour and use, The sweat of our mind. Our soul-born intention, Is the crack that they seek. A moment’s inattention, They’re a poisonous clique. We see not their deception, As traders we act. They skew all perception, They waylay all fact. Still we victims are required, To play, and play nice. For their reason has expired, Their virtues are vice. What is sought can’t be taken, No demands will it heed. So it sits unshaken, Defies anger and need. We are its masters, They must count on our heart. We’re greedy bastards, Yet they need us to start. To sanction implicit, Their gaffes and their ploy. To ignore the illicit, To watch them destroy. So don’t brush-off or dismiss, All the evil they do. For you’ll be remiss, And their sanction will be you. Copyright 2009 Martin Gasser

Well they aren't talking about themselves! Just like Al Gore telling the rest of us to turn out our lights and turn down the heat to reduce our "carbon footprint" while he flies around the world in a private jet and lives in a $9,000,000 mansion.

Respect begets respect. When I came here I knew nothing of Objectivism having only read AS. I was almost completely clueless about philosophy but in order to learn I conducted myself accordingly. Having said that, you can issue a warning to an abrasive poster without ever being belligerent enough to cause someone to leave. So in the end I think the solution lies somewhere in the middle.

This guy is a whack job and everyone knows it. He doesn't represent the threat of the environmental movement. The people who do that are the scientists faking data to match their hypothesis, they are the clueless politicians pushing for Cap and Trade based on the lies of those scientists, they are Al Gore and the multitudes of frenetic housewives worried about trace amounts of BPA and preaching conservation for conservations sake. This guy is a sad insane man who everyone will or has already written off as such.

I didn't like the change, it seemed too crowded, so I changed it back.

FYI the Yermolenko Seamount lies outside of any nations EEZ and comes within 6 feet of the surface of the ocean.

With all the real issues the USA has to deal with economically I can't imagine a worse waste of money, time and effort.

Who is in charge of these "privately managed alternatives" and how did they get there? From what do they draw their legitimacy? Money? A proper government system is a system of, by and for the people, elected, accountable and ultimately replaceable through defined processes.

Yes. No matter how limited the intelligence of the individual it is possible to think and achieve something. Now if the person were mentally retarded that accomplishment might only be an understanding of the concept 2+3=5 but that is still an accomplishment. The accomplishment leading to the self esteem is not measured on some grand collective scale but on an individual basis against ones own abilities. Just as my self esteem does not depend on your perception of me, my accomplishments are not measured against anything but my own effort and capacity.

In TVOS Rand did suggest the use of Lotteries as a way of generating voluntary income for the Government, but she did not go into details unfortunately. I would be willing to play a government lottery in a free society but I don't think of it as being 100% Government run. It would/could be administered by a private company which derives a small profit from advertising and sales. I also think that when you choose your numbers you could also select where you want the money to go should you win. A simple tick box for Military, Police or Legal support. Then when your number is called the % of the take that goes to Government is ear-marked according to your wishes.

Seriously? No Meditational experience required? I've tried meditation on several occasions and I know some people who are quite adept at it and I can say from personal experience and from talking to them there is definitely a whole lot of work that has to go into any proper meditation (which is really nothing more than thinking really hard). Don't get me wrong. I do not think that meditation is useless, one good friend of mine has used it to help him cope with PTSD and he is a better person for the work he's put into his meditation/thinking. Also there is no such thing as an "altered state of consciousness". You are either conscious or not. You might think of something after "meditating" (thinking really hard) that you haven't thought of in that way before but there is nothing magical or even spiritual about the act in and of itself. Having said that I admire your determination and tenacity. Cheers.

When you lay down your principles at what point does it become convenient to pick them up again? You responded to what you saw as an injustice (a small one that did not impact your survival) by cheating and lying. Aren't you better than that?

To me, your initial post says much more about your personal integrity than it does about the system, the volunteer guy or anything else. Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking, it's honesty in action, it's paying ones debts and owning up to ones mistakes. To tell you the truth, right now, after reading this I wouldn't hire you to work for me

Nonsense. As soon as something is proven it ought to begin to be adopted. Conservatism is more akin to the three Monkeys refusing to see, hear or speak "evil" until they are dragged kicking and screaming toward the new reality, usually by reforms instituted while they were out of power. It is just as conservative to refuse to dismantle the Public education system today as it is "progressive" and many of the arguments are the same. I really don't understand the soft spot many Objectivists seem to hold for conservatism. It is just as wrong and just as irrational and just as poor at making headway toward individual freedom and rights as the progressive liberals. They might vary in their methods, they might have differing pet causes but each of them is as damaging as the next.

lol. Gripple appears to be a person of few words. So Gripple, tell us about yourself. More than 4 words would be helpful. Pixels are free(ish)