CapitalistSwine

"Turns out the kids aren't alright: Some 23% of American teenagers have diabetes or prediabetes; 10 years ago, that number was 9%, a new study says. http://www.newser.com/story/146448/nearly-25-of-teens-face-diabetes.html

Another lovely article the internet has graced us with on Ayn Rand I came across.... http://lfb.org/blog/name-your-favorite-ayn-rand-flaw/

I apologize for failing to clarify my purpose in doing so. Some people within the Objectivist community have felt it sensible to tag me with the title of "Muslim Sympathizer" and one person even defriended me over it recently, so I am extra careful to clarify myself in this area when talking to other Objectivists, because I am in no way a Muslim sympathizer, I am cautious and very specific when it comes to foreign policy matters, and this is sometimes (somehow) mistaken as sympathy or approval. So I wanted to make it clear I don't approve of such barbaric practices such as stoning and I have n

I am not sure if you can currently see my postings on facebook but, for instance on Mark Nitikman's wall, I have been condemning such things outright when postedo n his wall as well as in the Open Objectivism group there. Now that I have made that clear, of course you won't hear about it, I don't hear about it either. You know what I do, I google it, and I find a number of examples of just that for pretty much any of these events. I am all for bombing the living hell out of any Muslim extremists that are a real and active threat against our country as long as things are kept in perspective of

I am not sure how I feel about the fact I accurately predicted how this thread was going to go almost down to post specifics after I noted the participants on page two, with the exception of the apology to Diana, which certainly changes my view of Thomas, of whom I enjoyed and appreciated the presence of on my facebook until he mischaracterized over and over again after my numerous attempts to clarify and correct the misunderstanding. This seems to be a habitual problem with a certain subset of the Objectivist community and is quite frustrating as it breeds hostility and isolation when ther

I have been engaging in some discussions on this on a fairly regular basis with people as of late (they were always initiating the convo). Anyways, I don't want to focus on Iraq & Afghanistan, but rather these previous wars. Which do you believe were in the United States' rational self-interest (I am talking about involving ourselves, not whether or not we handled it properly once we decided to do so) and would be supported by the likes of Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand details at length at how war is one of the worst atrocities known to man but she also realizes that at times it is absolutel

@Daniel Oh man, that Amway reference completely hit home for me.

I fully realize this. Why you are comparing Imperial Japan to Islamist groups is beyond me, however. I would argue this is entirely different as well, while you may be able to come up with a long list of similarities, the devil is in the details. This is a pretty strong claim. I have not seen evidence that Iranian government wishes to see it's own destruction. If you have any please feel free to provide it. Suicide is clearly forbidden in Islam, but the permissibility of martyrdom ops (Istishhad) is an altogether different topic, with scholars being split on the issue but has mor

While I agree with your comments Grames, this seems to be an oversimplification of a lot of factors that are relevant and could very well change the course of how things transpire regardless of their beliefs. I also don't think the fact that man Soviets were atheists as opposed to the Iranian alternative necessarily increases the chances of such a thing. We could have had nuclear war on several occasions with the USSR which ended up being rather close calls. We also must keep in mind that there are two opposing leadership "groups" within the Iranian government.

Also Re; the BBC article. I haven't read it yet, I will tonight, but its been made clear by other sources that it would be impossible for Israel to sufficiently deal with Iran's nuclear capabilities with the aircraft and bombing logistics involved. It would require a prolonged heavy bombing scenario ala several weeks ala Libya that realistically would almost certainly be met by the United States if such an event were to take place. They could take out some of their capabilities but in no way would they neutralize them such as was the case in their earlier attack to stop nuclear progress.

No more risky than the USSR situation, in which case they could have obliterated our country even if we retaliated, instead of making a dead zone out of a single city (if they are lucky, and if they have a death wish for their own country). I would suggest that Pakistan (which is also and is in a destabilized zone) is of more import when it comes to the likeliness of a nuclear device being used against the United States or her allies. There seems to be a considerable number of people in defense/military/intelligence that have been airing worries over Pakistan as the number 1 nuclear concern f

While I am certainly no fan of his "everything to the states!" stance, I think this oversimplifies it somewhat. I do believe, and I may be mistaken here, that this is not his stance on, for instance, same-sex marriage, in which case he is the best on that issue aside from Gary Johnson. I believe he wants to leave that up to the individual churches and their dealings with individuals, and has spoken out against the notion of having requirements for marriage mandates by government on a number of occasions, which is a fairly standard libertarian position these days. This certainly gives one pause

I pretty much agree with Steve on this word for word, with a few minor differences that aren't really worth mentioning unless this discussion fleshes out more.

I agree with you on the philosophical level, but once we come into reality this is not so simple. This assumes that the President holds Objectivist views of what is right, and an Objectivist President would also likely suggest that a large portion of the population was at least sympathetic to Objectivist views. We are far from the latter and even farther from the former. Many Presidents have though things, massive genocide among them, to be right (or necessary) that were downright dictatorial. This is why those crusty old documents exist in the first place, i.e. to bar abuses of power.

This should never occur. The only political group that I am aware of that actually takes this notion seriously within its demographic is the anarchists, and that fact alone, if the obvious and horrifying implications of such a situation weren't already... should be enough to dismiss it out of hand. The legitimate areas of the government are, as Ayn Rand stated: 1. The Police (Domestic Security/Enforcement of the laws to protect individual rights) 2. The Military (Security from External Threats/Protect the society from threats to the rights and safety of its citizens) 3. The Law Courts (Ju