Dan Haggerty

I believe that was what led to the “Stolen Corpse” theory. Or maybe it was the "Frozen Looter” principle?

It has been an admittedly long time since I read The Romantic Manifesto (mid 90's, I was still driving which compounds the issue) but I seem to recall walking away from that book with the idea the Objectivist Aesthetics was still in its development. The book really covered writing, did some dancing on painting and maybe sculpture (?), barely touched on music and even that didn’t quite connect all the dots, and that was it. In fact I seem to recall that both aesthetics and epistemology were underdeveloped. Didn’t Rand admit to the fact more work needed to be done in those areas? Or am I way off base here?

FWIW, Darrell has been on ObjectivismOnline for a little while. Right around the election he posted a birther story from 2008 with the dates removed: the Supreme Court is to intervene next Monday to prevent the imposter’s inauguration, yada yada yada, all you had to do was google a phrase or two from it to find it’s long debunked bunk. I replied in one of my more sarcastic tones, maybe you’ve noticed that birtherism is one of those things I have zero respect for. Of course I gave a link to snopes or wherever else you could find the original. Very soon the thread was deleted, within hours. Whether this was at his request I don’t know for sure, though I certainly assume so. No respect for birthers? Really? You sent the schoolmarm into thin-skinned hysterics when you posted the tin foil hat in his post on the subject. That was hilarious by the way.

Why deport these people? Ba'al Chatzaf The irony is, they are already trying to deport themselves, so the petition actually means nothing outside they want to grant their wish but not let them keep their homes when they go. So we have reached the point people are trolling a Gvoernment website to do what amounts to snarky comments in the comment section? Brother, you asked for it!

That would be Proposal 6. That silly one issue one project drama started several years ago and they likely spent more money on that then any group did on any of the other the six proposals we had in Michigan. Sadly the opposition commercials were equally silly and one was even sophomoric but in the end we voted it down. In fact we voted all 6 proposals down which was a good thing.

How can someone who has obviously spent time with the subject be so clueless on something like this? She comes across as either clueless or dishonest.

It is OK to be both disappointed and hopeful. We should be disappointed that Obama won. He has no right to be elected in a rational world. The disappointment is an emotion that is screaming at us what values we have that are experiencing the pain side of the pleasure/pain reaction. Experience the pain and acknowledge it for what it is, the values at stake, then build. We should be mad. Why should the mooks who Occupy Random Locations™ get to be the people who are mad? To paraphrase Ragnar, let them discover the consequences of when the mindless mad meets the man with the mind who is mad.

@ Jonathan: I agree that Ryan was a solid choice and realistically he was likely the best we could have got for VP, but like you said Team Romney blew so many chances to stand on principle it is not funny. The jellyfish is an awesome example. In fact, you could say that, to paraphrase Peikoff, the choice next time we could have a choice between non-man versus anti-man. My big fear is that the take away for the Republicans is that Romney was to moderate and while they will get the need to stand on conviction they’ll screw the pooch instead and nominate a fundamentalist like Bachman or Perry.

Thank you. Now get back in game, grab the ball, and don’t stop until you see the end zone and cheerleaders!

What?! A thread about the good of the election! Am I crazy? No. Well, let me say this, the election was not good and I am also disappointed... Very disappointed. I voted for Romney but my primary course was always the desire to fire Obama. He was not fired. And isn’t it a kick in the teeth to know just how bad Obama is, and see America elect him anyway? It’s like America just told us “Tough – We want collectivism”. But let’s be honest here. We already know America has accepted too much of the collectivist principles. Mysticism and collectivism are well entrenched no matter how we cast the dice, and while Obama is not qualified to run a lemonade stand let alone be the leader of a *free* country, there is no reason to think Romney would have been the cure to the poison. Romney would have done a better job but that is when compared to Obama, which lets face it this is a pretty easy curve to beat. The issue is we would still be sliding down the path to central planning despite who won today. So the good news? Well, we won’t have a business man taking the blame and getting the free market painted as the bad guy so easily when the next recession hits. Let’s remember, Bush talked up the free market but gave us more Government than Clinton did, and yet Bush is blamed for “deregulation failures” on the economy when we know the Bush years added something like 18,000 new bureaucrats. So under Bush businesses were blamed and the free market was accused of failing when a first year economy grad should be able to tell you that we don’t have a free economy and that the failures are easily traceably to Government interference. Note I said should. And that is the point. The free market gets painted as the bad guy when it’s government interference and with Obama such nonsense will reign hollow when Romney could have been easily painted with “market failures” and “pro-business” to an economically illiterate country. The battle is still one of ideas, after all. The re-selection of Obama is just proof of that. But there is still to be optimistic: Here is Michigan Proposal 2, which would have allowed Unions to challenge any law that restricted their contracts or right to collectivist barnstorming, and apply it retroactively, was shot down. This was the Union’s attempt to float a legal balloon to see if they can stop what happened in Wisconsin here in Michigan, and a lot of State’s have been watching to see if they could get away with this monstrosity. We shot it down in a pro-Union state which means it will be harder to bring to a local gang near you. I’m proud we voted it down and it is a good sign for attitudes. Two States legalized Marijuana? This could not have happened 20 years ago. Two States legalized gay marriage? Again, this is a sign of a good trend. As a long term trend, let’s remember that in the last twenty years we as a Country have enforced gun rights and except for one State (Illinois is, not surprisingly, the exception) all States have increased an owners rights to carry and conceal. These are examples. We should start a thread with more! OK, these are examples of silver linings on a stormy day. Grasping a few straws? Maybe. But honestly there are signs of life in a sea of swill and the principle is people do want to be free and there is hope, real hope, if only we can get people to ply it consistently to their lives and principles. Jonathan could give us a lecture on this being an example of the sublime. This election sucked, not because Obama won, but because we got a bucket of cold water reminding us that the Obamas of the world can and will be elected and the task to change it is greater than we want to admit. Obama just ripped the band-aid off and has reminded us of the problem for what it is. Whether Obama won or not, the ideas that make his Presidency possible still would exist and we have to see them for what they are. Romney would have been another band-aid to a wound that is festering and losing blood. Well, enough with band-aids. Time to wake up and smell the napalm in the morning and get to work - We didn’t loose an election, but won the recognition that in the war of freedom it really is all or nothing when it comes to certain core principles. I say it is time that we each find a way to take advantage of this wake up call and do something about it. We’re upset because we are right and yet we are losing. But that is the point. WE ARE RIGHT. Time to start acting like we are right and take the fight to the collectivists. We can beat these idiots by definition, since if they were competent they wouldn’t need the Government to be the man they are to lazy to be. Thank you Obama for winning and showing me what needs to be done. Thank for giving me this bloody nose and I’m a big enough man to admit that I likely needed it. I swear, by my life and my love of it, you just lit a fire under my ass that you will not be able to put out.

I'll go for the long shot - Obama wins 300 in the EC but looses the popular vote ala Bush/Igor in 2000.

I hope you are right and that I'm just suffering from cynicism thanks to the State of things. I'd be delighted to be called out for it two years from now if things are going well in a Romney Presidency.

There's an interview with Gary Johnson on the TAS site, so that might have something to do with it. This is consistent with my view, which is vote Romney if you're living in a battleground state, otherwise vote Johnson. Living in Michigan I usually find myself in the position of voting for the LP candidate since the Dems have a lock. This year it is looking close (based on some polls) so I'll be voting for Romney.

Outside of Peikoff tossing around the term Nihilist to easily, I actually find myself agreeing with him on this.

I love Snidley Whiplash! He's so purely over the top and bad for the... Who am I kidding, it’s the mustache.