Fran

Narfa posted a photo:

I have added some more photos from this year's Rand camp. http://www.flickr.com/photos/99336865@N00/ I've added most of the names - but sadly I can't remember them all

Hi Roger Hurray, thanks for posting this! It looks like just the kind of book that I'm looking for and was relieved to find that it's still in print. I've just ordered a copy for myself and maybe I could buy a dozen copies and send them to prominent Christians in the UK - PM Tony Blair being one of them ;-) Fran

If my memory serves me correctly, a late friend of mine [Chris Tame, for those who may have know him] told me that Steve Ditko was asked to do a comic-book version of Atlas with Ayn Rand's approval. However, Ditko backed out of it because rightly or wrongly he perceived that everybody had their own idea of what Hank, Dagny, Francisco, etc looked like and he was concerned that he'd be unable to meet with their expectations.

Thank you, Victor, for sharing this - I really enjoyed and benefited from it.

Names added

Here are a few of the photos that I took at this year's Rand Camp. Here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/99336865@N00/ I will upload more next month, but there's a limit to how many I can upload size-wise, and I thought I might be able to get away without resizing them first, but alas I couldn't and used up a ton of space trying

Sounds like a cunning plan. //;-)) Sorry Roger - calling you Bissell was meant in impish jest and not formality - and I'll call you Roger or REB from now on, as I know how irritating it is to be called by a name that you don't like.

Sorry William, I regret to inform you that only scoring ten means that you are completely normal. Thus giving ample proof that you are not a true Objectivist... ;-)

Hi Kat I am definitely interested in the list and so would be grateful if you would post it. I liked your analysis of Oists - I was trying to say something along those lines - you said it more eloquently than I And I'm looking forward to meeting you at the summer seminar Fran

I'm interested in, but am not knowledgable about, autism. If you go solely on that test, I think it means that you score higher than normal but that you're not Aspergic i.e. not in the autistic bracket. However, I have a friend who is a clinical psychologist and she has told me in the past that you cannot go on tests of this type, so if you had scored in the aspergic or higher bracket, then an accurate appraisal would need to be done by a clinical psychologist. I scored about 25 on this test too. This does not surprise me and I bet there are a lot of people with a score like this. I don't see it as good or bad. Autism can impact on people's ability to empathise with and form relationships with other people, so it depends on whether it affects their quality of life. Hmm, not sure whether I've met your need for reassurance or not?

Barbara, same message to you, how about publishing your book as an e-book on your website as I, and it looks like others too, would like to read this novel?

Why did NB decide not to publish his novel - last I heard at the 2005 summer seminar his agent was looking for a publisher? Bissell, tell him to self-publish using a POD (print-on-demand) digital printer and some of us'll buy it, or he could have it as an e-book on his website?

Hi Nick I hear how important it is to you for people to have clarity as to the basis of their convictions and I'm guessing that you get annoyed if you don't see this in what people say? I value this too, especially having grown-up in an irrational, religious household where people didn't think for themselves. I didn't read your comments to Paul and Angie as merely an observation though, I see observations as something without any evaluation, a statement of the facts; whereas I did read character evaluations in what you said e.g. tagging them as not being 'good objectivists'. I appreciate the insights that your posts provide but my enjoyment of them is tempered by this. I would have liked you to have shown more consideration, as what I value so much about this forum is the ease and openness with which I and other people can talk about things without the fear of being branded 'not a good Objectivist', which has plagued the Objectivist movement for so long. Come on Nick, do you really want to fight with these people, what purpose does that serve you? I'd like to hear your reactions to my post, even though I may take a while to respond as I don't have regular internet access at the moment. Fran

Hi Charles My apologies for taking so long to reply - I'm back in the UK and I don't have regular internet access. I really appreciate that you shared your story as I can see myself in Anna and don't think that motherhood is something that I would enjoy. It seems like a joyless task. I'm sure there are benefits to having children, but the disadvantages seem to outweigh any advantages, and I keep hearing the research that says that children do not bring happiness, rather unhappiness, and that people become happier when their children leave home. My mum didn't enjoy being a parent and I think if she had been born in my generation, she would not have had them. I just need to be certain that I'm choosing not to have children for my own reasons, and not just because my mum disliked it so much. I'm just eternally grateful that I was born into a generation where contraception allows me to remain childless and that I'm not dependent on a husband for my survival. Thanks Fran

Kat, in the UK if you want to "bonk" somebody it means that you want to have SEX with them! Are you really wanting to do this with everybody???!! //;-)) Does Michael know about this? :-k Err, I'm asking cos I now have a dollar sign.... Does this mean then that you used to 'bonk' everybody on SOLO? Hmm, now I understand how SOLOPassion got its name [and why you were banned]. . .

V. funny. I really enjoyed that

I'd appreciate hearing people's thoughts on the following: An Objectivist/Libertarian friend is the CEO of a small company. He told me that it is morally right to pay women employees less than men. His arguments for this are the following: Women invariably go on to have children and when they do the employer has to pay for marternity leave and should therefore pay women a lower salary to cover this. (Unfortunately, I didn't ask him how much less he would pay), when I challenged this and said that in a free country employers wouldn't be forced to do this; his response was: Even if you didn't have to pay maternity leave, women usually still have children and this means that in two years time or so a woman is going to leave to have a baby(s) and therefore you've got to find a replacement for her, which is a lot of hassle for the employer [what about the men who only stay at a company for two years - which is a common period of time to stay at a company before moving on? But I forgot to challenge him on this]. Therefore these interruptions to their career and the time they take off to care for their children when they are sick, means that they are of less value than a man and they should therefore be paid less accordingly. When I challenged him on the above and said, okay what if I was to sign a contract to say that I don't want children and I'm not going to have any, his response was that women are more hassle to employ than men and therefore he'd rather not employ them [i'm not clear in what way they are more hassle - does he mean their monthly mood swings?]. I have to say I was so shocked that an Oist was coming out with this, that I didn't really challenge his argument properly; but I thought the whole point of Oism was that you judged each person as an individual, but he didn't seem to want to do this and said that he's morally just to pay women less, if he employs them at all. It makes me mad to be paid less than a man for doing the same job. I also think that the more rules and regulations governments put in place to make it 'fairer' for women, the less employable women become. Fran

Thanks Dragonfly - I tried Googling her too and wasn't sure if it was the same person. I was wondering where it ended with her in the book?

Thanks for those insights Ellen. It's interesting to me that you knew there was something depraved about about him. I wonder why then he could be held up as a model Objectivist, when it doesn't look like he was that good at hiding it?

Now having created this topic, I can't really think of any... :-s There are 10 kinds of people in this world; those who understand binary and those who don't. :-k

Dragonfly, does it mention what happened to Plasil in the end? Did she ever get over it?

@&%$*~# &^@$!!!!! Out of all the people they have denounced, he's the one who has actually committed a heinous crime, which is why I'd definitely want to be made aware of it. Yet I've known about Objectivism for ten years and this is the first I've heard of it! I can't believe that they rant on relentlessly about Chris Sciabarra and the Brandens and let this one go with hardly a murmur - and these are the people who consider themselves to be champions of morality! &%~@ #&! I've lost all respect for them now. I'm so angry.

Cool! That's so exciting - what kind of work do you do at Disney Land, Roger? [i was going to ask "Are you Mickey Mouse?" but I figured that that would elicit rolled-eyes and groans from you...] Are you working there on Wednesday, the free day, too, cos if you are we could all come and see you //;-)) Play tricks on you... ;-) Seriously, I'm hoping a bunch of people will go to Disney Land on the Wednesday cos I really want to.

Seeing as I know at least some of you have young children, I wanted to tell you about my all-time-favourite children's book the Gruffalo. "The Gruffalo? What's a Gruffalo?" There is everything to like about this story from the beautiful, detailed illustrations to the flowing rhyme and clever story. My 6-year-old nephew has loved this book since he was 2, and now we read a page each. I'm 32 and I love reading this book as well and having a nephew gives me the excuse What makes it extra special for Objectivists is that Mouse has to use his head to stop himself from being eaten. Here's the gist of the story: Mouse takes a walk in the deep, dark forest and on his way he meets a Fox who thinks that mouse is very good to eat, so he invites Mouse back to his den for lunch - failing to mention of course that it'll be Mouse who is 'lunch'. However, Mouse is not fooled and invents a story about why he can't stop for lunch as he's going to see his friend the Gruffalo. "A gruffalo? What's a gruffalo?" asks Fox. "A gruffalo! Why, didn't you know? He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws." And his favourite meal is roasted fox. On hearing this Fox runs off leaving Mouse safe, to which Mouse chuckles to himself: "Silly old Fox, doesn't he know that there's no such thing as a Gruffalo!" Mouse meets Owl and then Snake who similarly want to eat him. Twice more Mouse prevents himself from being eaten by describing to them more about his friend the Gruffalo: "...and knobbly knees and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of its nose." But of course, everybody knows that there's no such thing as a Gruffalo... until Mouse meets him, and he really does have "terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws and knobbly knees and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of its nose." And what's more his favourite food turns out to be a Mouse sandwich! Oh help! So, Mouse has to do some quick thinking... ...and he tells the Gruffalo that he doesn't want to eat him because he's really the most frightening creature in the whole forest. The Gruffalo scoffs at this suggestion, but follows Mouse back the way Mouse has come. On the way they meet Fox, Owl and Snake, who on seeing Mouse with his terrifying friend the Gruffalo, all rush off thinking that it's them the Gruffalo wants to eat. And so the Gruffalo (being a bit thick) believes Mouse's bluff and he too runs off. Leaving Mouse safe to eat his lunch. Here's the link to Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014240387...5Fencoding=UTF8 To read all the 5* reviews from Amazon.co.uk (it's a British book) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/custome...reviews.start=1 And here's the Gruffalo website: http://www.gruffalo.com/index2.html