I read the Fountainhead when I was nineteen, and that was many, many years ago. To be honest, I think you're idolizing Ann Rand, and idolizing anything or anyone is not conducive to reasoning. Actually it stifles it. What Ann Rand wrote, no matter how brilliant and admirable shouldn't be taken as Gospel. If it is, then it becomes a cult.
philosophers, writers, apostles, et al... were the internet bloggers of their times... they just had fewer detractors due to access...
Not Gospel? Well if by Gospel you mean “fundamental truths”, indeed her writings are. Quote one statement she’s pronounced that is logically unsound. As to “idolizing”—if you mean I view her words as sacred and holy, guilty as charged; if you mean I view her as a Goddess to serve and bow to, your mistaken—I don’t idolize her, I salute her.
The 'middle east' is an important part of the world? I happen to agree with the Europeans(though not to such a crazy extent. I support balanced energy, which I think will fulfill our energy quota and reduce our dependence, but not entirely swear ourselves off, as the logistical difficulties are noted. Sometimes you have to take an inch before you can take that mile.) If we could isolate the ME, they could have their barbaric religious wars and we wouldn't have to waste another drop of US/Western blood.
Whoever said they rule the world? I did not. YOU suggested it, not I. The Israelis control the US government is what I said.
Hmmm? Strike a nerve? And who rules the world? The Jews control Israel, Israel controls America, and America controls the world—well, according to Progressives, anyway.
The list of crimes committed by Tel Aviv is long indeed. Perhaps the preeminent one is the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967, In my old age I've moved away from hatred. Thus I do not hate Israel, but I am painfully aware that they are not a US ally.
I disagree, that's just not a conspiracy theory i but into. They arr the closest thing we have to an ally. When more and more countries like germany cozying up to our enemies. We need countries with the will and the ability to oppose them. Europe is so incredibly weak and incapable of defending itself. It's not an area of the world that matters anymore. Israel and America are the good guys.
Actually the Apostles preached perfection of spirit, performed miracles and martyred themselves out of a love for mankind, otherwise we wouldn't have a BC and AD. This doesn't mean that magicians, warlocks, witches weren't able to perform miracles, cure's etc. - (and believe me there are still many around). The difference is that the source of their power isn't accompanied by excessive virtue, nor does it foster virtue in its recipients. Instead it feeds into their own self gratification and baser instincts. This makes the source of their power questionable since it cannot be from our Creator, but rather from the antithesis of creation - which is destruction. I'm the god of this world that's what I be to give you all of what you see - Jeannette
Excuse me, if you make what Rand wrote as being 'fundamental truths' then aren't you raising her to a status of a 'god'? Wouldn't that make you and her followers a cult?
" Well, what is more fundamental than" Think before you act"? Respect the rights of the individual? Is is? Conceptualization is integration? Everything that is, is what it is and behaves according to its nature. Or: Reality: "Existence exists—and the act of grasping that statement implies two corollary axioms: that something exists which one perceives and that one exists possessing consciousness, consciousness being the faculty of perceiving that which exists." "Reality is that which exists; the unreal does not exist; the unreal is merely that negation of existence which is the content of a human consciousness when it attempts to abandon reason." Or Reason: "Reason is the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses." "Reason is man’s only means of grasping reality and of acquiring knowledge—and, therefore, the rejection of reason means that men should act regardless of and/or in contradiction to the facts of reality." Or Force: "Whatever may be open to disagreement, there is one act of evil that may not, the act that no man may commit against others and no man may sanction or forgive. So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate—do you hear me? no man may start—the use of physical force against others." "Do not open your mouth to tell me that your mind has convinced you of your right to force my mind. Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins." Or Life: "What is the nature of the guilt that your teachers call [man’s] Original Sin? What are the evils man acquired when he fell from a state they consider perfection? Their myth declares that he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge—he acquired a mind and became a rational being. It was the knowledge of good and evil—he became a moral being. He was sentenced to earn his bread by his labor—he became a productive being. He was sentenced to experience desire—he acquired the capacity of sexual enjoyment." http://aynrandlexicon.com/ There's more. But I suspect you know. What I don't understand is why the rest of you can't grasp the obvious. Arguing about the writings of Ayn Rand is like arguing about whether or not the Earth rotates as it orbits around the sun. I suppose there was an excuse pre-Copernicus; certainly not after. Now, maybe you and others don't consider her ideas sacred and holy, but I, the individual do.
What do you mean an excuse by pre Copernicus? Haven't you ever heard of the Antikythera mechanism? By the way, I stopped going into Classical Greece, when I found myself idolizing their brilliance. It frightened me, since it was limiting my own reasoning. The Antikythera mechanism (/ˌæntɪkɪˈθɪərə/,) is an ancient Greek analogue computer used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses for calendar and astrological purposes decades in advance. Then you have made Ann Rand a 'god'.
Nope. A saint—I’m God, just not the mystical omnipotent one who can cause a women to give birth to twin elephants, (now that would be a miracle, to paraphrase a favorite philosopher of mine, Dr. Leonard Peikoff, but God in the sense, my life is mine. The Greeks also had a working steam engine—and Greece was the birthplace of reason, logic, and fidelity to reality, so it stands to reason. Then the mystics took over, and the world went to hell. Then irony of ironies—one powerful mystical tribe brings to its powerful arch rival mystical tribe the writings of Aristotle, the philosopher who said, “Nuts to that rubbish”.
Oh so there was no mysticism in Ancient Greece? You're funny! Tell it to Zeus or better yet to the oracle of Delphi. (He was actually possessed). Frankly I think they were highly superstitious, and probably chanted or spoke in verse because of the flexibility of the language. Socrates brought reasoning, and with it the belief in one Creator God - and he died for that belief. ZEUS Take that you fools of misery, for I'm a god of lofty see; who knowest more the way to go than stupid folks like you below. - Jeannette
I served as well. I disagree. We were justified in Desert Storm and Desert Shield. We can discuss that in more detail if you like, but I actually agree we need to stop getting into endless conflicts. Stop politicizing them, identify the objective, and let the military use the power they feel justified to achieve that objective. We have been asking our soldiers to fight in conflicts with their hands tied behind their backs since Korea.
Hell no there wont be peace even if israel stopped their own aggression It would only weaken them enabling the threat to israel. The problem is the existence of israel. It is unacceptable to her enemies. And that wont change. Yet some act as if this isnt the truth. In older times this would be solved by a war between the people at odds. And one side kills the other side. In ancient times even the women and children would be killed so you dont get revenge from the survivors. Since the world will not allow for evolution to operate with Israel destroying their enemy by killing them out the madness will continue . Sometimes the only solution is to kill all that moves. Which is why that is common in our history as a species. The natural way.
The only reason Saddam rose to power is because the US helped him do it. So whatever the US did to try and clean up its own mess after the fact is only "justified" in the loosest sense of the word. That said, Bush Sr. at least waged that war intelligently, which is far more than I can say for his disastrous son. I don't agree. I was in Iraq during the surge when rules of engagement were tightened significantly and I never felt overly constrained as a result. The problem with the campaign in Iraq is that there was never a military solution in the first place. Unfortunately, the political establishment has little interest in solutions that don't involve intimidation, threats, and violence. They are openly contemptuous of diplomacy and see it as a form of weakness. Quite ironic when you consider the fact that most of these tough guy politicians have never been anywhere near an actual battle because, despite their macho posturing, they are actually cowards.
Simple. Because an elite few demand we remain there. Because western "democracy" is a charade. Because "the people" are not really in charge.
The Byzantine Empire was a Christian theocracy and it survived one thousand years. They didn't kill off the barbarians. They bought them off with tributes. In Europe, the kings armies always fought armies. They never killed civilians until the 20th century's militant atheism and paganism. Is that what you want, another Hitler, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin? Darkness reigns without the light, with souls a-wandering in the night, of pagan lusts, barbarity, of malice, harm and cruelty. We pray that there will be a day when evil such will slide away and man finds that he's free once more with hatreds gone and also war.- Jeannette
