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J. Hall

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Everything posted by J. Hall

  1. I can't believe no one's mentioned the "6th Day". Hero with bad philosophy? Check. Religionism? Check. Luddism? Check. Then there's the "End of Days" - arguably worse. I'd also steer well clear of "What the Bleep do we know?" if you value your sanity - it presents a worldview that is the complete polar opposite of Objectivism.
  2. Oh yes, Asperger's Syndrome. Some clown once tried to suggest that I'd got that. I've had a look into the methodology of how they diagnose this syndrome and I found it very fishy. This is merely my take on the subject. The first alarm bell is the hint that social skills are something you're either born with or something you learn automatically, which isn't true. I don't think there is such a thing as intuition. In humans, communication and social behaviour is something you learn at an early age and use so often to the point where it becomes almost "automatic" (and therefore mistaken for as being instinctive). I don't know how old you are, but as an anology, compare how awkwardly you handled a car while you were learning to drive compared to how "automatically" you handled it after ten years of driving experience. The second alarm bell, I believe Dr Hurd sounded in an article a few years ago; modern psychology were trying to create a false dichotomy between being "social" and being "intellectual". No prizes for guessing which one they though was superior, but the point is that the dichotomy is nonsense.
  3. Justify this "right" for individuals to own property. Judging from the responses you have recieved, I wouldn't bother replying; you're probably wasting your time. But if you do, then point out that property was purchased using one's money, which was obtained using one's labour. If you don't own your own labour, then you are slave. This quote demonstrates that he doesn't understand this : Where in the hell did you come up with this? (in response to your objection to being taxed in order to support others) And proof that he's a thug: To protect the capitalist from the worker and NOT the worker from the capitalist. You must be christian. Ask this fool what a "capitalist" is (watch the contradicions fly) and point out that anyone who works is a "worker". No where in this thread have I made my views known. In case you hadn't worked it out already, he's a Marxist of some variant or another. 1) The squalor that is sub-saharan Africa is about as laissez-faire as it gets. Where does the Congo rank on this list? Africa is mostly anarchist, with the occasional communist dictatorship. LFC does not exist there. blah blah blah...why does Western Europe enjoy a higher standard of living (better healthcare, lower crime rate, etc) than the U.S.? It doesn't. Look at the unemployment and inflation rates. BTW, where is this discussion being posted ?
  4. I don't agree with "crimes of passion". There is no reason why someone should be let off the hook for, say, murder, just because they killed on impulse rather than thinking and plotting before hand. If anything, it's worse because an impulsive killer would be far more likely to "do it again".
  5. The solution to your problem is simple : Sit in the lotus postition for half an hour, empty your mind of all thought and then contemplate the patterns of veins on a leaf. Just kidding. But seriously, you need to go into more detail. What were her annoying traits, what was she studying and why can't you just wait until she's finished her studies before getting back with her ?
  6. In the context of being under a rational, objective law, which technicalities could possibly exist that would allow him to go free ?
  7. Contrary to popular belief, Playboy isn't 100% porn. They've recently done an interview with Donald Trump. I'm pretty certain he wasn't posing for them either.
  8. Ted Rall is a socialist. Like a cartoonist version of Michael Moore. Rather sad, really.
  9. Ayn Rand interview on gun ownership : Interviewer : I’d like to turn to politics. You have stated that the government ought to be the exclusive agent of the use of force under objective law and justice. Ayn Rand : That’s right. Interviewer : Yet at the same time today we see an alarming rise in violent crime in this country and we see more and more people applying for gun permits to protect themselves. Do you see this as a dangerous trend, number one, and number two, do you favour any form of gun control laws ? Ayn Rand : I have given it no thought at all and off hand I would say no, the government should not control guns except in very marginal forms. I don’t think it’s very important because I don’t think it’s in physical terms that the decisions and the fate of this country will be determined. If this country falls apart altogether...if the government collapses…bankrupt…then having a handgun in your pocket isn’t going to save your life. What you need is ideas and other people who share those ideas…and fighting towards a proper civilized government, not handguns for personal protection. There was also an essay written called "Philosophy for the defence of firearms ownership." or something like that, but the link I had to it appears to be dead. I've still got the article in a .pdf, though, if anyone wants to read it.
  10. Perhaps reading Piekoff's essay might help you to understand what is going on. It mentions David Kelley too, who thinks along similar lines to Branden.
  11. Psychology, like many of the humanities, has been taken over by Kantians. That's why it isn't progressing. I should know; I've been on the recieving end of the tripe.
  12. Maybe it was scientology I was getting it confused with...
  13. http://forum.ObjectivismOnline.com/index.php?showtopic=1334
  14. Neotech's take on objectivism is metaphysically flawed. This is obvious from their belief in extra terrestrials, "zonpower" and other arbitary...err...concepts as the basis of their philosophy.
  15. That's an old tactic that Chomsky uses too. He thinks that if he can ridicule other people's ideas enough, his will magically become correct by default. It's just like this question : Does disproving evolution mean that the universe was therefore farted into existence 10000 years ago by some neolithic war god ? Answer : Definitely not.
  16. Wasn't this posted by someone else recently ?
  17. They advocate laissez faire capitalism with no consistent (or non-contradictory) philosophical foundation. Many of them, like conservatives, think that the justification for capitalism lies inside the bible. Others follow Karl Popper's school of concept stealing, which undercuts knowledge and thus epistemology. Some even follow Immanuel Kant, who does pretty much the same thing. All of these sources are irrational in some way and even though libertarians claim to support capitalism, they have no way of justifying it or backing it up and they will eventually slide into anarchism, pragmatism and even Marxism as a result, as you see them doing today. The most prominent example of this to date is their pitiful pacifist stance with respect to the war on terror. "A plane is hijacked and flown into a building ? That's all our fault. We deserved it for being rich."
  18. Kind of obvious really. Especially with a name like that.
  19. Well, Mickey Moore's reign at the top didn't last long. It's just been knocked off the #1 spot by the sequel to Spiderman - A comic book character created by an Objectivist. It's kinda funny in a way, isn't it ?
  20. As erandror said, don't treat this as if it has any basis in reality. It's just like Marxists and their claim that they advocate "freedom" i.e. they don't at all - it's mere lip-service. Someone gave an example on a newsgroup sometime ago : If a parrot says "A is A", he is not saying "I have come to the rational conclusion that reality is non-contradictory, or to put it in the form of an equation : A is A", instead, he is merely counterfieting rational thought. He is not saying something knowingly meaningful, the parrot is simply making noises. Exactly the same applies when Marxists and others claim to be rational. You might benefit from reading the "missing link" article in PWNI.
  21. "We the Living" was one of her first efforts. I'm guessing that Objectivist philosophy was not wholly complete when she wrote it. Can anyone confirm this ?
  22. Some open minds should be permenently closed for repairs. -Unknown.
  23. 50% income tax. I think it's gone even higher than that, now.
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