realitycheck44

It was a song. I cannot thing of the name of the singer right now, though. Its about this guy whose dad left him early on in his life, but named him "Sue". It made his life very hard because he was the subject of ridicule, and he hated his dad for it. When he finally met his dad, the dad said it made the kid tougher and by being singled out the kid learned how to take care of himself. At the end Sue says When I have a kid, I'll name it... Bob or Bill or Joe, etc. Anyway, girls don't really care out their names: they can be feminine or masculine; but boys want a masculine name.

I agree, exercise is key. If you have a chance, skiing is what keeps me going through the winter. With you being in college, this might not be possible, but exercise really helps me. Running, soccer, swimming, etc, always make me feel better. My parental unit was becoming angry at me because it was taking me so much longer to do homework then my friend, who is playing football and soccer, while I only play soccer. I really do think that after exercise it is easier to concentrate, but that's just me.

I dunno, my mom and her co-workers believe in god, but they love Atlas Shrugged. As my mom put it, she doesn't "blame Rand for not believing in god, she just wasn't quite able to get her mind around the concept because of her childhood." I was like, uh you're missing something. Another person I have talked to is a pastor! He loves Rand except for the concept of god. I don't see how someone can refuse to think on one or two levels, and be rational on others, but that's them speaking, not me. Anyway, I don't understand it anymore than you do, but it seems to me that conservatives (the ones I've met anyway) think Rand is cool, except for the god thing. BTW, I wouldn't exactly label the characters of Atlas Shrugged as liberals, I would simply say they were rational.

Yeah, I asked that in another thread, but didn't really get a response. Why is it that conservatives are generally less welfare/socialistic and more capitalistic? It seems like the bible says almost the opposite. The only thing I can think of is they find that more rights are being violated by paying more, and they probably have faith that people will sacrifice themselves for the common good. One thing that has always bothered me is the amount of hypocracy in the church. They are forever saying that one should do stuff for the common good and sacrifice yourself for other, but many "holy" people are/have been extremely wealthy.

I disagree. Many conservatives that I have met like Rand, those that have heard of her. They usually disagree on one or two points (mainly god), but are one the whole rather rational, or more so than liberals. They do distort those ideas to support things like minimum welfare, etc. On the other hand, alot of liberals, such as my dad, are environmentalists, welfare and mixed economy perpetrators, etc. So where conservatives believe in god, liberals believe in a "common good", personally I think the common good is much worse than god. I do understand that your personal experience may be radically different than mine, but I just figured I'd give my opinion.

Thanks for sharing your poems! I'm not much for poetry, but those are great. I usually get board with poetry, but all the ones that you wrote held my attention. Please keep posting what you write, I really like it. Zak

I have not read any Kant, but I have read stuff about him, (from Ayn Rand) I do not understand how he can say we don't exist, but God does. Does this lie in his nouminal and phenominal worlds? Can someone give a quick answer, or should I just wait until I can get around to reading Kant?

Mr. Speicher, You made refrence to the multiverse. Do you consider this a legitimate theory? I am not looking for a lengthy explaination, for I do not know much about the subject. I did a report on the article in Scientific American a couple years ago and found it quite interesting. Could parallel universes be possibility? The way the article described it, there was a "parallel" universe that had person exactly the same as every person here on Earth. And many other universes that had a person the same as me, except he made one simple choice that was different than one I made. The thing that I found hard to believe is the thought that even names were the same. BTW, I didn't get the math behind it, so I cannot evaluate the theory on that basis. Anyway, I know this is kind of random and has nothing to do with philosophy, but I was just curious. Zak

I don't think that was the question. The question was is it possible to do an act that you have absolutely nothing to gain from (ie, a completly selfless act). Captalism Forever: Thank you for stating the obvious that I completely missed.

I second that. Not only that, but he employed a brilliant strategy for getting more military might. He would force the people he captured to fight on the front lines. That way, the more peole and cities he captured, the larger his army was. He also realized that if he made other people pay tribute to him, then he wouldn't have to spend time growing his own food or herding his own horses. By letting the people of his army know this, they wanted to fight for him. For example, if they captured a city, they would not be on the front line anymore, the newly captured people would. Not that any of this was in any way morally right, it is simply another sad story of mystics claiming it is their "duty" to rule over everyone else. Zak

Umm, this wasn't done by michael moore, was it? I think it was done to make fun of Farenheight 9/11. If you look at the directors, he isn't one of them. I thought it was funny, assuming it was made as a spoof of Farenheight 9/11. If it really was made by Michael Moore, then he's really sick.

If you get something out of it, is it altruism? For instance, if it makes you happy to help other people, then it is in your rational self interest to do so. Altruism is when you do something out of a sense of duty, rather than your own happiness. Your reasons for doing something are the driving factor. Something becomes altruistic when the happiness you get from doing it is less than the happiness you lost in doing it. Right? I do not have an answer to your origional post; I will think about it. Could you please evalutate my understanding of altruism? I think I understand what it is, but want to be on the same page with everybody else when thinking about this question. Thanks Zak

Ha ha. I was in World History today and my teacher said that Hillary Clinton was not nearly as liberal as everybody thinks and she doesn't know why its automatically assumed that Hillary is ultra-liberal simply because she's a woman. She also said that Hillary Clinton was nowhere near a socialist. I just sat there in disbelief. It all makes sense now.

First off, Ed great post. Toolboxnj: Scary! I seriously hope that "mainstream" America does not hold that view. What I've found, with my friends and classmates, is that most of the people who believe in God are simply indoctrinated with it and honestly do not think about it much. They are not anti-man or anything, they just sort of accept God without thinking and move on. One thing that has been puzzling to me is it seems like most of the Christian church would be more left than right. The whole "you are your brothers keeper" and "love your neighbor as yourself" are extremely collectivist statements. It seems like most "Christians" would feel obligated to take care of the poor and less well-off. Yet these are more leftist views, while people associate the right with religion. Is there something I'm missing here? Could somebody try to explain?

In no particular order: The Rock Braveheart Cry Freedom Lord of the Rings Doctor Zhivago The Magnificent Seven Patton A Few Good Men O Brother Where Art Thou A Beautiful Mind Men of Honor Funny, but pointless movies: Dumb and Dumber Tommy Boy Napoleon Dynamite Spaceballs Billy Madison I am wondering what you guys liked about Kill Bill? I thought it was an awful movie. The way blood spouted out of peoples arms was just so random and unrealistic.

I had been wondering about the tennis match also, and that was a great explaination. Thanks alot!

I agree with all of the principle arguments against patents, but I also agree with the pragmatist arguments for patents. It seems like in world where everybody is rational, there would be no need for patents, but, sadly many people are not rational. With patents, the person who doesn't get to the patent office first, has his rights taken away. But without patents, the person who works hard to develop a product, and has it copied and sold for less by an opponent, is having his rights taken away because his product is basically stolen from him. (The opponent could most likely produce it for less because he didn't have to pay for the development of it, and therefore sell more) So, in our society, which is a less violation of rights?

I talked about this with my mom a while ago and we thought that the best way for the movie to be made would be to cast unknown actors. That way the actor's political viewpoints or roles in other movies would not influence the people who have not read the book. I don't especially like Angelina Jolie. She doesn't come across as a very strong or intelligent woman. She is also extremely sexual, and I imagined Dagny as a more plain and basic, I guess. Angelina just doesn't do it for me, neither intellectually nor physically. Denzel Washington might make a good background prime mover, like Wyatt or Mulligan; Sean Connery might be good as Dr Aktson, but I still thing the best way would be to get unknown actors.

I dunno. I think you might be streching it a bit far. The only reason he "shrugged" was to prohibit society from mooching off of the prime movers. It wasn't the "I don't care" shrug. He would have kept on with his company if the government didn't want to take all of his earning and products, whereas the whole point of building the elevator system was to jump off the cliff. I think the point is that he used his mind to overcome an obstacle to help himself obtain pleasure. He also gave this pleasure to Dagny and Eddie, WHO WERE THANKFUL FOR IT. They admired him and his ability. They wanted to work hard an emulate him. This is so different from Jim who merely wanted to exploit him and was jelous of his ability.

Wow. Your really smart. I got a 1100 (540 math, 560 verbal) when I was in seventh grade, but haven't had the opertunity to take it since. I hadn't taken Geometry yet, so I think my math score was pretty good. You know, it's really sad; I got this certificate that said I scored higher than the average senior. I mean, I'm no genius. I'll start Calculus AB next year. I probably could do it this year, but I couldn't manage that with all my sports, but if you can, that's awesome. I like physics more than chemistry, so I'll probably do AP Physics instead. Maybe I had a bad teacher or something, but biology just wasn't my thing. I'm a sophmore too by the way. Zak

Hey dude. I'm in high school too. I know, it's kinda dumb that they changed the SAT. Ah, well, adding trig might help our scores in comparsison with other peoples. What did you score, by the way? It must of been really good if you want to use it. I agree, it's so cool to find other kids my age who are interested in Objectivism. I just had a debate with my world history teacher who thinks Ayn Rand is a little worse than the devil. It was my first encounter with someone who seemed to be deliberatly denying logic and reason. It was scary and eye opening. Welcome. You've read much more about Objectivism than I have, so it should spark some pretty interesting discussion. I look forward to it. What grade are you in by the way? I gotta do my world history homework. Hey man, Hot Topic has good band shirts if you can stand all the wacked out people in there. Just get in and out as quick as possible.

Question #3 I particulary liked the part where Francisco made up differential equations (although he only had one year of Algebra) to build an elevator so Dagny, Eddie, and he could jump off cliffs into the river. It illustrates how he thinks about and solves problems, and has fun doing it. That maked jumping off the cliff so much more enjoyable because he conquered it using his mind.

Two things. One is why start with #2 instead of #1? Also, I don't exactly agree with the analagy. Their companies are not fiefdoms. A fief is a grant of land from a king for a specified miliary service. A fief was usually run as a manor, which held all its subjects in serfdom. Serfdom does not allow hardly any rights and limits the ability for personal achievment, which neither D'Anconia Copper nor Taggart Transcontinental did. (I took the definition of a fief from "The World And Its Peoples- A Global History, 2nd Edition")

If it is true that homosexuals can in fact reproduce children, then why do we have different sexes? Wait, if I'm not mistaken somebody already posted that they cannot have children, homosexual couples merely "piggyback" off of heterosexual mating. Also, I don't know if this has been brought up already, but you almost never see homosexuality in other animals, do you? The reason homosexuality has not died out so readily is because humans are allowing homosexuals to "piggyback" off of heterosexuals. My question is do homosexuals breed homosexuals? Is there statistics about what sexual preference kids of homosexual parents have? PS. I haven't completely read all the other pages, so my apologies if I asked a question that has already been answered.

I really like that "prejudice- that is pre-judging" idea. I never thought of it that way. I was just going off of my experiences and frustration with my classmates who think they know idea conveyed in the meaning of a word, when really they do not. Often times a dictionary really will help them. My statement was pretty random. I was just thinking about how we were studying Christianity in World History the other day, and this guy got all mad at what was really a fairly neutral statement, but he thought the word meant something offensive. It was just me venting. It usually happens with kids who have kind of a low self-esteem because they don't like to admit they don't know what it means. I hope this happens less with adults. Anyway, after re-reading my post it sounded pretty dumb- I just got back from tutoring this kid in math and was pretty frustrated. Zak