Michelle

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About Michelle

  • Birthday 04/18/1988

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  • Interests
    I don't like long walks on the beach. I hate sunny days. Picnics are overrated.<br />I do, however, enjoy a good discussion. And a good book as well.
  • Location
    TN

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    Michelle Allen Richardson
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  • Description
    I'm female. I'm white. I'm 21. Anything else is a generalization.

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  1. If I come off as condescending, I don't mean to be. And I'm not fear-mongering. But I do think there is a difference between a rational fear and an irrational fear. If these "dangerous Islamists" were merely individual nutjobs, I wouldn't think much more of it. Every ideology has its extremists. The problem with Islam is that even many of the supposedly "moderate" Muslim leaders harbor dangerous, potentially lethal beliefs. And this is because their beliefs are perfectly legitimate within the context of their religion. What to do about them? To be honest, I have no idea. But that doesn't make a sober assessment of the danger Islam poses to the rest of the world illegitimate. And the simple fact is that "extremists" are not the only dangerous ones. Heck, they might even be the less dangerous ones, since the moderates have access to the mainstream of society. From what I've seen, we don't disagree on anything of a factual nature. So I would ask why you're reacting so violently to what I said? I'm not a Geert Wilders, and I'm certainly not a Bob.
  2. You do realize that there were prominent Muslim leaders, in England, not Iran or some other Middle-Eastern death pit, who were agreeing with Khomeini's fatwa. Not only that, but supposedly "civilized" people were ACTUALLY WILLING TO KILL RUSHDIE THEMSELVES IF THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTED ITSELF. Hell, even the Muslim Parliament supported the fatwa. These aren't psychos or minority viewpoints. What the hell can you say about people, full citizens of a first-world nation like England, who are willing to kill a man for writing a novel in order to defend the faith? I especially fear for America. How many Muslims here would be willing to turn martyr for the glorious Allah once things intensify in the Middle East?
  3. What are "thoughts" if they're immaterial? Or, more precisely, what is the immaterial composed of?
  4. He stood and adjusted his suit jacket so that his body didn't betray his shameful weakness. He walked toward her and sat informally on the edge of her desk. "Why make a product when you can make dollars? Right this second, I'm earning millions in interest off money I don't even have." Oh, yes, that sounds EXACTLY like something Hank Rearden would say. If these miserable little communists want to make fun of ATLAS SHRUGGED, the least they could do is read the damned novel first so they can understand what it is that they're ridiculing.
  5. Yeah, I'd like to see how good you look that close-up to a camera at her age.
  6. I've confirmed The Ambassadors as unreadable. I should also add Infinite Jest to the list: I've only read a few paragraphs of it, and already it has made my eyes glaz over twice. I'm not enduring 1000+ pages of this rubbish.
  7. What, apparently people here were under the impression that every Muslim man was an irrational savage with gore dripping from his jaws? Of course, it is important to realize that murderous beliefs and a civilized attitude are not mutually exclusive. Even "moderate" Muslim leaders were calling for Salmon Rushdie's head, after all.
  8. I know of no reason for thinking so. As to Einstein he was no more of a socialist than many European intellectuals were at the time (end of 19-th and early 20-th century). Also his disgust with German nationalism made perfectly good sense. He was opposed to Germany taken military actions after the assassination of Franz Josef in Sarajevo. The Great War was utter and unnecessary madness and Einstein was right in opposing it. Ba'al Chatzaf Have you read Einstein's essay in support of socialism? It isn't long.
  9. She didn't. As to her perhaps having sex with him but this not being included in the book, don't you think that, with the degree of importance attached to sex by the characters, that it would be manifestly obvious in Dagny's attitude toward Eddie? Also, there is a scene where she mentions to Rearden that she had one other love besides him. The reader knows that it is Francisco. Why would she lie about it? Dragonfly: isn't your insinuation that Dagny should have slept with Eddie on occasion... well, somewhat insulting? Dagny treats sexual intercourse as something noble and life-affirming. She doesn't degrade herself by allowing a man she doesn't love to have sex with her out of pity. If she had occasionally slept with Eddie Willers, she would have degraded herself, Eddie, and their relationship.
  10. :lol: Good. Maybe people won't be clamoring over eachother so quickly for the free lunch now.
  11. Well, one thing is for sure: this place is exhausted soil for her. She has been deliberately confusing discussions for months, and everyone has followed the same route: they talk to her seriously, because she acts 'innocent and interested,' if you will, to discover what they believe. After a while, they start getting frustrated because she acts daft and all their discussions go in an incomprehensible circle. Eventually, they start wising up and noticing patterns to her behavior. Suspicious patterns. You don't have to know NLP techniques to realize she's just messing with you. Eventually they either end up ignoring (as I usually do now) or insulting her. I don't like speculating about motives, because I feel it is none of my business, but I think you're probably right about *why* she's doing this. She's not a troll, since she's not trying to just rile shit up. She's obviously not interested in serious discussion. She can't be here for pleasure: she shares no common values with the people here, and she is constantly being insulted.
  12. Weyl's forte was mathematics. In this he was one of the best. He also invented the gauge concept in physics (Eichinvariantz). Ba'al Chatzaf Sorry, I was actually referring to Einstein there. Weyl was a socialist too?
  13. Why not "patriotic paranoids?" I appreciate the sentiment, but I doubt Obama will be rounding people up for the ovens any time soon.
  14. Good quote, although most of the quotes attributed to him are abominable, and having skimmed his essay on why he supports socialism, I am not given to thinking that he is a particularly lucid thinker when it comes to politics, either.
  15. I'll never read The Ambassadors. That's more than twice the length of something he wrote previously that I was unwilling to finish. He's just a really, really horrible writer. Funny fantasies about those reports. I've often wondered what kind of agony it must be to sift through thousands of plain bad submitted manuscripts for a publishing house.