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Greyhawk

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Everything posted by Greyhawk

  1. So does that mean there's no good either? Just the amoral unfolding of a divine will? Have any major theologians worked with those ideas? Religion makes my brain hurt
  2. Were the arresting officer's parents brother and sister?
  3. Sometimes I realize I am too harsh on Objectivists. The fact that many in this thread can appreciate her work is a good thing.
  4. I really like the ambiguity of those paintings, you really have to put yourself into them to give them meaning. When you start selling I think I'll pick one up down the road.
  5. Hey CS, thanks for taking the time out of your day to type up that response. As both you and JMeganSnow have confirmed, the idea of denying the vote is contrary to the Objectivist position. I am curious however how a voluntary financing of government would avoid similar problems. Would this not lead to a kind of oligarchy where votes are weighed as opposed to counted and the interests of wealthy elites consistently shape government policy at the expense of the wider population?
  6. Hello I have heard some Objectivists argue in favour of establishing a "Rights Respecting Republic" (I use the quotes as I have heard the exact same phrase used by different people) which would deny the right to vote to those perceived as enemies of Rights possessed by "Man Qua Man"; enemies such as Communists, Muslims, and others. Such a system would ensure a constitution based on Objectivism while preventing these groups from modifying and destroying it. I am wondering what board members here think of this. The fact that I've heard many Objectivists use the same phrase makes me wonder if it is an official Objectivist position expounded by Rand, Peikoff and others or if its simply the fact that I've encountered random nutters. Should such as system be used, if so how would abuses be prevented?
  7. Hi I got lost in thought (make up your own joke here) and would like to know what an Objectivist would have to say on the following. Modern computer gaming is an art form, millions of dollars and experts from innumerable fields are used to create a product which is designed to utterly engross a person in a virtual world. The game designer is successful only insofar as they are able to persuade you to sacrifice other values - like moving out of your parents basement - for continuing the game. An unforseen effect of this is the number of people who choose to sacrifice their social lives and personal hygiene for the game. This has led to vast numbers of people suffering from a wide variety of problems, from social disorders to obesity. Now some game companies, like Nintendo, are encouraging users while playing to actually put the game down and get outside. I don't have a specific question here but wonder if anyone has any comments about this.
  8. Given Rand's uniqueness among major female figures of the last hundred years in terms of gender identity and relations I look forward to seeing someone really tackle the OP and give an Objectivist critique of the portrayal of women in these 'sexist' ads. PS - I personally find the ads heterosexism and delegitmization of the Lesbian aesthetic a step backward in the struggle of liberation. I mean come on, lesbians rock!
  9. Maybe those should be merged with the 50 page Iran thread? Actually, each of the other questions almost make separate topics themselves.
  10. A brilliant and insightful analysis, unique in its quality and rare even in the annals of the internet.
  11. Its from Neil Postman, a self styled neo-Luddite. He has a lot of interesting things to say about technology and society. He is of course anti-life and anti-man.
  12. Hi Andrew. You raise a lot of points, so I'll try to break my reply down as logically as I can this late at night And sorry in advance, I nit pick like Hell As far as I understand it the way most US Government aid to Israel works is that America gives money to Israel who must in turn buy American goods with this money, in a sense a good chunk of the aid is just recycled back into your economy. Sorry I couldn't find a link to break it down though. As far as blood goes, very little American blood has been shed on Israel's behalf, directly. One can definitely argue that things like the Beirut bombing were caused by Israeli actions but directly the only American casualties were those sailors on the USS Liberty which is really obscure (I'm sure if I looked I could find more American soldiers have been killed by Canadian friendly fire in the time since the Liberty). When Zionism was ramping up in the 30's and 40's the Jews sold Israel as a colonial outpost safeguarding the 'West' in which Israel could act as a buffer and proxy for Europe and America. The Suez Crises for example allowed Israel to take the vast amount of condemnation for reopening the Suez for Western shipping, later they also knocked out the Osirak reactor in Iraq which prevented Saddam from producing nuclear weapons which he was very, very close to doing. The Israelis were the ones who had to hit Iraq, in the security interests of both Israel and America, but only Israel was held acountable in the Arab world. I am not an expert, by any stretch, on international relations but it seems to me that had America bombed Iraq in 1981 or had France and England landed ground troops in Egypt in 1956 the consequences both with the Arabs and with the Russians would have been far higher, though I may be wrong. One could also argue that in the Lebanon conflict in the 80's Israel, by supporting a Christian regime was acting by proxy in the interest of France. My understanding (again sorry no links) is that roughly half of the IDF's budget comes from American aid. So yes, Israel's predominance is largely the result of American charity. Hmm, calling American-Israeli relations 'friendship' seems to be the wrong word, but I can't think of a better one. As for influencing Israel's society? Heck no, not in any real way anyway. Israel has actually regressed during its friendship with America in a lot of ways but mostly due to internal demographics and political changes. While Israel created its secular and democratic culture independantly of America (it had already been formed by Russian and Eastern European Socialists before 1948) many have criticized Israel for becoming a more patriarchal society with deeper ethnic divisions emerging.For example (again no links so I may be wrong) something like half a million secular Jews have left Israel in the last few decades, this leaves more for the crazy backwards religious kind who, like there Palestinian counterparts, have most of the babies. And that's all I can type right now.
  13. I'm not going to touch the Palestinian issue as in these parts there is no point. In terms of Israel and the other Arab States however American aid has kept the IDF at such a high deterrent level that peace has existed between the major states (Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) for 30 years, that has definitively been in America's interest.
  14. It takes a big man to change their views so drastically, kudos.
  15. I agree with everyone who said the author misunderstands Rand's ethics of the producer versus the parasite. As for another point he made, that people will use Rand's ideas to justify their own irrational selfish behavior, he's right but it doesn't really help his case. Ideologies get distorted, misquoted and used to justify destructive intent all the time. People promote socialism with democratic rhetoric, and war in the name of peace.
  16. I find it fascinating that prisonplanet, which seems so desperately anti-Obama would have comments like this in an article on Israel - "Isr hell is a bogus entity…much the same for murika…created BY & FOR DEMONS…" "go for it jew bastards..go for it.." ( http://www.prisonplanet.com/barak-hints-at...th-lebanon.html ) Not calling anyone here a racist but I suspect a bit of race hatred behind that site.
  17. The CCHR is a major Scientology front organization, you can read about it here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Comm...on_Human_Rights Though they are very good at hiding it, the main CCHR site - http://www.cchrint.org/ Says nothing about Thetans, Xenu or the other stuff.
  18. Someone is going to say, 'wittily' that he is not a "Citizen Qua Citizen" who violates our values yadda yadda. I hope I'm wrong.
  19. A key to philosophical detection and moral evaluation is to understand what one is dealing with. If someone says, "We should steal from the producers to give to useless trash" that can be obviously broken down to a bad philosophy and morally categorized accordingly. However leaping to moral judgement while thoroughly misunderstanding the obvious, saying that a charity that works by donation is evil and 'the enemy', is not a good sign.
  20. Its a charity. Where is this great act of Kantian/Tooheyite Evil?
  21. Its amazing to hear singers like singing in Hebrew. Until the Zionist project Hebrew was about as vibrant a language as Gallic or pig latin. You can read about the ressurrection of the language in just a hundred years, from the bones of a religious liturgy to a language spoken everyday by millions here.
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