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MentzerLivesOn

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Everything posted by MentzerLivesOn

  1. Well, I'm iffy about this one. There were many aspects of the old one that I never liked, like the "old" feel. The movie was clearly from the 70's, which I am not fond of. The style of the whole decade never sat well with me for some reason. The new version definitely got rid of that feel and left a clean, modern one. But I was downright appalled with Burton's portrayal of the Oompa Loompas! Am I alone on this? Every time a kid was about to get the boot I was like "Oh hell, here comes another hideous pop music video." It was painful to sit through. The Oompa Loompa chant was a classic part of the movie and Burton just completely did away with it in exchange for mainstream appeal. 13 year olds who spend every afternoon at the mall will be thrilled by this, but not someone who has realized that there is VERY little musical talent/value involved with that garbage. My rule of thumb: if the main component of the band next to the frontperson is a mixer, keep it away from me. Ok, musical rant over. I am a big Tim Burton fan. I don't think I've ever seen a Burton film I didn't like. No doubt he brought many improvements and to the table and indeed provided us with an entertaining final product. Better than the first? It does lack the childhood emotional wonder of the original, and I can't overlook the god-aweful Oompa Loompa scenes, but all in all I would watch this again before I'd watch the original.
  2. I first came across Symphony X reading this thread and downloaded the songs on their website. From then on I was definitely a fan, but I got to see them live Thursday on the Gigantour (Megadeth, Dream Theater, Fear Factory, Symphony X, Dry Kill Logic, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Life of Agony, Nevermore, and Bobaflex) and to say the least they were incredible! They definitely got the biggest crowd response next to Megadeth and Dream Theater (and perhaps Fear Factory, which was pretty much a tie). I was blown away by how well that guy could sing! That was certainly a night to remember. It lasted from 4:00 till after midnight with only about 20 min rest between bands. I'm still waiting for my hearing to fully return. It's funny how much you miss it once its almost gone By the way, for any of you who would like some free legal songs, go to Roadrunner Records and Century Media Records. There are still some independent record label sites I haven't visited yet, but these two should get you a couple hundred free legal tunes (Not the nicest, most Objectivism-friendly ones, though)
  3. Here ya go. Enjoy! To view questions (I answered #2): http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pag...ion_contests_tf And good luck non-contradictor! Essay.wps.rtf
  4. Hey everybody. Just thought I would take this opportunity to brag that I was one of three 2nd place winners in this year's Fountainhead essay contest. $2000 for three and a half pages is pretty good If any of the other top 4 (out of 244 place winners) post here, by all means boast with me! This is a pretty big accomplishment, all things considered. Thanks ARI!
  5. Here's the research paper I wrote for my lecture. It's ten pages long, so free up some time if you want to read it. Let me know what you think! Note: The citations are not yet complete. I will replace the in-text temporary citations with MLA fomat ones very soon. The sources of all quotes have been incompletely labeled, and are all either by Rand or Peikoff. Objectivism_Paper.doc
  6. Thank you, that put everything in much better perspective. I was a little paniced when I wrote that post. The day after, I started thinking about how much the government owes us after so much taxing, and you confirmed my thoughts. Thanks again for taking a huge worry off of my shoulders.
  7. I have been facing a huge problem lately regarding my college costs. I am going to attend a private college next fall and nearly half of my tuition will be paid by the government. I realize that this is a definite contradiction to my beliefs, but I feel trapped. I know that I will not be able to afford to go to school without federal grants, and my parents would never let me pass up the money. There is no way that they would pay eight thousand per year just so I could stay true to my political beliefs. They are good parents, but they do not understand my convictions. I am definately not ready to go off on my own, and a job would be too much for me to handle with a full class load. Looking at my situation, I don't see any real way out of this, aside from winning all of the private scholarships I've applied for, which is not likely. I know that you guys will think that I'm being weak and cowardly, and I am. I just can't think of any way out of it. The last thing I want is to feel for four years that my education was stolen. Please give me any advice you can. I'm prepared for some hard slaps in the face, so don't hold back. I think I need it.
  8. Let me start by saying that I like Metal music a lot. Something about the sound draws me in. I recognize that the lyrics are nearly all the antithesis of Objectvist views (with certain exceptions, of course), but I generally don't listen to the songs for their lyrics. The anger that it projects seems to relieve anger and stress that I would feel should I not listen to it. That being said, I am an extremely happy person. I love life in its entirety and am almost always smiling and laughing. Aks anyone who knows me; I am probably one of the most fun-loving and high-spirited people they know. This seems to lead to a contradiction. I am a happy person, yet I listen to some of the most unhappy music there is. I have great appreciation for melody, and the rock bands that are heavy on melodies are some of my favorites. But I strongly dislike any other type of music, especially rap, country, pop, etc. I fully subscribe to Objectivism and love Romantic art, especially painings and sculptures. I visited the college I will attend (the University of Saint Francis art major) the other day and was utterly disgusted by the scores of depressing, unhappy, and downright ugly artworks. There was only one that I liked: a vibrantly bright painting of a pheonix rising from its egg in a bed of fire. I am looking forward to improving the gallery when I attend the school. Now, back to the music. Is it a contradiction that I am an Objectivist, yet like non-Objectivist music? Or is it simply a psychological matter and not a philosophical one? Like I said, it does not negatively affect me, it is just the only sound that attracts me. If this issue has been addressed elsewhere, please redirect me. Any thoughts and insights are welcome.
  9. Thanks for the replies, guys. My speech is on May 6, along with an 8-10 page research paper on the topic, which will be no problem. All I have to do is condense Peikoff's 400+ page book into 10 pages covering the fundamentals. Needless to say, I have an abundance of resources. I agree that a Q&A may not be a good idea. My teacher can be a real ass, as I have found when I present my views on the topics of our 'Socratic Seminars.' She always comes up with some witty, and generally illogical, quip that would take a rather lengthy debate to refute. So I think I will avoid a formal Q&A and just answer any questions they feel compelled to ask at the end. Obviously I can't say, "Sorry, I don't want to answer any questions because I don't feel like it and am likely incapable of elaborating on anything I just said." I will just have to do my best to prepare myself beforehand. Of course, there are some religious people in the class, so I'm sure that the atheism part will be met with a little silent backlash, but I'm fairly confident that I can explain my position fully. I recognize, though, that many of them will be unwilling to accept my explanation, so I won't put too much effort into persuading them to reject God. That is not my goal, nor is it to my best interest to turn everyone against me. I won't explain any other philosophies, such as Kant's or Plato's, because none of them will have the faintest clue what I'm referring to. Perhaps I will present examples of how some of these philosophies affect them, such as Ayn Rand did in Philosophy: Who Needs It. I think that this, along with the explanation of Objectivism will do the job of refuting other philosophies just fine on their own. I even emailed Dr. Peikoff asking for any advice he could offer. I know I probably don't have a chance in hell of getting a reply, but I thought it couldn't hurt. Lecture pointers from the best in the world would be pure gold to me. I'll definitely let you guys know if he replies. Thanks again!
  10. I'm a high school senior and I'm preparing for a mandatory 40-minute speech for my AP Language class. I have chosen Objectivism as my topic, as I don't know enough about anything else to talk for 40 minutes. Also, I am looking forward to using it to further clarify my knowlege of the philosophy. The first section of this lecture will be a discussion of the importance of philosophy, then I will go into a brief (20-30 min) explanation of Objectivism itself. I am somewhat concerned about my ability to effectively convey the whole of the philosophy and why they should care. I understand everything I read, but when it comes to verbally explaining it, I have troubles. Do any of you have any suggestions/comments/warnings that you would like to share? I really want to make this a presentation worthy of the subject, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
  11. I'm doing a book analysis of The Fountainhead (due Monday) for my high school (college level) english class. The analysis will be in the form of the front page of a newspaper, because I thought that there would be a lot of great ways to sketch the main characters and climax of the story. Right now I'm searching through the book for examples of articles from the Banner to use as examples. In order to make the project look complete, I would like to use a picture of Cortlandt Homes. Do any of you know where I can find any photos, either from the movie or concept art? It would help me immensely. Thanks
  12. Does anyone know on what page Rand mentions Wittgenstein? I've tried to find it, but can't. I haven't read the book, so I was just thumbing through randomly.
  13. Have any of you heard of or read any of Wittgenstein's works? I am currently conversing with a philosophy student on another board and he subscribes to Wittgenstein's views. I was hoping that some of you had a fair understanding of it and could try to summarize it for me. I am short on time these days, so it will be hard to find time to read his book. Here's the thread we're on: www.highintensity.net/Forums/ViewTopic.asp?topic_id=1021&start=0 Any help would be greatly appreciated.
  14. This was one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen. That being said, it was great! I admit that while I was watching it, I was constantly waiting for it to be funny, but it never really happened (except for when Napoleon threw the orange at the van and his uncle screamed - hilarious!! ) It's one of those movies that royally sucks when I watch it but gets so much better when I talk about it with my friends. We pick out minute details and laugh the whole time. Viewed as a whole, it bites. Taken in tiny pieces, it's gold. I think that some of you need to lighten up a bit. NEVER go to watch a comedy expecting a life-changing, deep experience. Comedies are supposed to be dumb and pointless. If they aren't, they should be filed under Comedy-drama. Pure comedies exist solely to amuse us. Expecting something like Napoleon Dynamite to be the next romantic masterpiece is like expecting George Bush to be the greatest president ever.
  15. Somebody please tell me that I read this wrong. I was searching for a biography of Ayn Rand and found this. I had to read it three times to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. The Confessions of Ayn Rand
  16. Man, I love music. I listen to it constantly, even when I do homework because it helps me concentrate. My FAVORITE band is MetallicA. I went to their concert in August and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Lyrics aren't of the utmost importance to me, but I enjoy songs much more if I can identify with them or agree with their meaning. Here are some of my favorite new songs I love to hear on the radio: "Alive" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd (Great positive sense of life song) "Scars" by Papa Roach (I can personally identify with this song completely), and "So Far Away" by Crossfade (Great new band!) Shinedown is probably my favorite new band. One listen to that CD and I bought it right away. Pretty much anything really hard is great, like Damage Plan (RIP Dime), Godsmack, Korn, and Slipknot (especially when I'm working out!) If it rocks, I'm there, pretty much regardless of the lyrics.
  17. I would like to add that, as kind of a New Years resolution, I destroyed my collection of nearly 200 pirated CDs on Jan. 1. I used this as a final committment to reason and a formal statement of my full acceptance of Objectivism. I thank Mrs. Rand for all she has given me, including the ability to see the moral consequences of my extensive thievery.
  18. I am going to major in computer graphics and animation in college and there is a very good school in my city that I want to go to. However, this college is expressly Catholic and I was wondering if any of you have had an experience with this type of school. How big a part of the curriculum should I expect it to be and will it really make any difference that I am a-thiest?
  19. I apologize if the essence of this post has already been written elsewhere, but I didn't have time to look. On Dr. Peikoff's website, I found a lecture he gave on this subject. His views are as follows: Both candidates, indeed, are very bad. In terms of policy, they are equally undesirable. However, Bush is clearly much, MUCH worse than Kerry. The reason for this is Bush's explicit attempts to make religion and faith a central part of our government. He has presented a faith-based initiative to Congress, expressly supported and proposed funding to faith-based organizations, and even appointed a fundamentalist to head the FDA's department of reproductive health (who, in his book, blended accounts of Christ healing women with case studies from his practice). He is actively pushing a fundamentalist core into our country's government. Kerry, however, is not doing this. Though his views are at odds with ours every step of the way, he has no such agenda. Now who would you rather have? He also condemns anyone who abstains from voting on the basis that both candidates are bad, calling it an immoral evasion. If you do not vote, then the chances of our lives falling further into the hands of a religious fundamentalist are greatly increased. If we do not attempt to get Bush out of office, this is the way we are headed.
  20. Hello, I am new to the Objectivist philosophy (or any real philosophy for that matter) and have a question about self-sacrifice. I know that Ayn Rand flatly scorned the idea of self sacrifice for the sake of others, but what is the Objectivist view of sacrificing your own life for a loved one in danger? If someone you truly love is in mortal danger and you have the power to save them - at the cost of your own life - is it immoral to do so? There would be a selfish motive for me in that, should I neglect to save my loved one, I would be haunted by it and feel quilty that they are not alive. Should I survive them, I'm sure that it would make me feel uncomfortable with myself for the rest of my life.
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