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Up here in Canuckistan your best bet would probably be somewhere in Alberta. Alberta doesn't have a provincial sales tax and when I lived in Red Deer there was an unpoken agreement in certain business's that if you paid in cash the owner would "forget" to add the much hated GST, our federal Goods and Services Tax - or as some refered to it the Gouge and Screw Tax. What about a ship? One of those huge oceanliners, only have it as a nation unto itself. With technology today many people can work on the net and there would be some employment in the service sector at least. It could put into port at some of the most exciting cities in the world, travel following the sun so that you were always in summer (a personal wish... Arghhhh... the winter we've had here in Ontario - global warming my ass).

I didn't read it that way at all. I thought the guy was alluding to the fact that as one of the most historic places in the world that he should have gotten around to going to the Fountain long before he did, and that the transparent borders of the EU nations made the sort of travel required much easier. This in itself is kind of a dumb statement as he probably never had a reason to go earlier but I don't think he was implying that Rome was his home by virtue of his 'European citizenship'

I'll join David in asking for an example. As far as I am aware even the most primitive versions of "God" are supernatural beings. With regard to your comparison of we poor mortals and 'god', to ants and ourselves it does not hold water. An ant by virtue of it's cognitive ability (or more rightly it's lack thereof) can not reason and therefore would not ever be able to understand the concept of us. I on the other hand as a rational intelligent being can conceive of endless inconceiveable possibilities. I can even fathom another being so advanced that its actions and thought may seem supernatural. A being like that could force a tree to grow upside down with it's roots in the air, but I would not extrapolate from that coersion that the being was a god, omnipotent, omniscient or not. Of course a being sufficiently advanced this being might be able by virtue of some power to force me to believe that it is a god but that isn't nearly the same thing as making it so.

Even if we were confronted with an advanced being capable of manipulating mater or energy in ways incomprehensible to us we would not jump to the conclusion that the being was a god, even if, perhaps especially if that being claimed to be our creator. I for one will not readily bow down to our alien overlords.

My take... http://uncommonsensecanada.blogspot.com/20...ontravened.html

I'd dearly love to live in a world with more John Galt's and fewer gods. Having said that I'm no more in the habit of arguing with the religiously devout than I am in arguing with my dog. When you think about it, to argue with a religious person is to enter into an argument where logic and reason are worthless. For anything you say can be wished away by miracle, divine intervention or some such magical nonsense. In an argument where the laws of physics, and all other scientific knowledge are rendered moot by some imaginary superman shouting "Abracadabra!" from a mountaintop you might as well resort to an "Oh yeah? Because I said so... That's why!" line of rebuttal yourself.

LOL. I think that they could do an abridged version hitting the salient points and not bore the non-Objectivist to tears if they do it in the same way as the "This Is John Galt Speaking" series on youtube. BTW if you haven't seen this series, you should. Oh, and take while you're there. Mine is the first one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKDl24_qZzA.

That one is my own. We also have an issued patrol sling but I find it to be over engineered.

The weapon is a C7A2. Modeled after the M16 but with improvements like rails, an optical sight, collapsible butt, full automatic and lots of other more technical stuff.

I'm actually not carrying anything in my hands. And the bald reference alludes to the fact that I'm bald and I look a little miffed in the picture.

Me. And I wonder why my youngest daughter refers to me as "Angry Bald Man"

2 Daughters 20 and 18, and me an old man of 41.

Career soldier. Senior NCO Armoured Recconnaissance, currently working in NDHQ (National Defence Headquarters) in an out of trade PONTI position. PONTI = Person Of No Tactical Importance

I'm in the Canadian Military and aside from parroting the responses of my American brothers (substituting Canada for the USA of course ) I will add that I soldier because I am well paid for my service and I am very good at it. It is the productive work that I was meant to do. Dealing with conscripted service is a different beast and I would suggest that if you can not find reason to support your nation, if you honestly believe that there is nothing in it worth fighting for (even if that reason is only those you love) in Israel then perhaps you should find the place/ideal that for you is worth fighting for.

Well she's always been artistic. Initially she wanted to be an architect but unfortunately her math wasn't up to the task. Graphic design allows her to have that creative outlet while still making money from it as opposed to being a starving type artist. I do Jiu-Jitsu, a little bit of Kali and am an Unarmed Combat instructor, though I havent been as active in it recently as I would like to be.

senorita your life is yours. Make your decision, for you. Be honest, and up front with your mom whatever that decision is. Honesty remains the best policy, always.

I understand your point. Though I'm not sure consciousness would necessarily lead to emotion in a machine. Is the decision of an AI to exist (or not) necessarily emotional? Could a 'conscious' being be it biological or mechanical not make value decisions without emotion. Can things not be beneficial or harmful without being good or evil? I don't know one way or the other, I'm just asking the questions.

Your premise is that the "specific characteristic" that defines a man is "rational faculty". In my opinion the specific characteristic is our DNA, not any quality of our reason, form, race or intelligence. Even once a rational man has ceased to form rational thought his DNA designates him as belonging to the species. The idea that someone (anyone) could decide that humanness ceases at point X, Y or Z is truly scary, not that it hasn't been done before. The Nazi's instituted euthanasia based on mental incapacity and designated all races except the Arian race inferior and therefore non-human/disposable.

Where to start… I’m a career Army NCO, an Armoured soldier by trade. I’ve served in Canada, Germany, Bosnia (with the UN) and Kosovo (with NATO). I’m married with two children. My oldest daughter is in university to become a teacher and my youngest will be following her next year to become a graphic artist. My wife is also in the Army. I’m at the end of my military career and transferred from the regular force into the reserves in 2006. I’m holding out for a couple of years as a reservist before I go into business for myself. My interests run the gamut from all things Army to politics to martial arts, home renovations and of course objectivist ideals. My Blog is called UNCOMMON SENSE, feel free to drop by and comment at your leisure. This is the most active objectivist forum I’ve come across and I look forward to getting to “know’ everyone.

I think that it isn't necessary (or even likely) for an artificially intelligent machine to have emotions. Don't forget that when a scientist talks of Artificial Intelligence they mean a machine with the ability to reason, and by reason they are just talking of an extrapolation on the 2+2=4 kind of functions that computers currently make, only instead of 2+2=4 the equation is something like WALL TO LEFT + WALL TO FRONT = TURN LEFT. What purpose would an emotive machine have? What advantage would it have?

2.5 hours is not a lot of time to take a serious look at the ideas put forward in an 1100+ page book. I'm sceptical that it can be done well. They should have made a trilogy. My .02

I answered 30+ for both but I think if I'd been aware of Objectivism, and the fact that selfishness isn't the evil that people have been telling me it is, ever since I was old enough to understand the words then I would have been hooked from the get-go.