Robert Jones

DAILY. She, not that butcher Arafat (may he burn in hell for his murderous acts of sending his own people's children to their deaths as well as the lives of so many innocent Jews), deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, because only through a reformation of faith can Islam coexist with the rest of the world and be though t civilised.

Which do you think will happen first:

1. A kind of "protestant reformation" will transform Islam

or

2. Islamic crazies will get a hold of weapons of mass destruction, possibly radiological bombs or even full bore nuclear fission weapons and they will take out New York City (where the Jews are) or Washington D.C..

?????

Ba'al Chatzaf

Hey, listen, here's the thing: I have to be honest, I'm inclined to think the latter will happen before the former. I only wish our leaders of both parties understood the gravity of the situation and stopped playing politics and got on this like they should. Both parties are consumed with power lust and don't give a whit about stopping these insane people.

That said, what am I to do on the other hand? Give up? No. When I see someone like Irshad Manji, my heart goes out to her. Of course I know she's in a miniscule minority. But, you've got to start somewhere. I do not think that her's is the only path to stopping this madness. I think that Trident submarines in the Persian Gulf are our best friends right now. But, one of the smart things Edmund Burke said was how evil prevails when good people do nothing. Irshad Manji, who's braver than you or I or anyone else on the planet, is not doing nothing. At the risk of her life, she is doing a whole lotta something. She wants to return Islam to reason, evidence, science, cosmopolitan art and culture, and debate. I must honor that, for if I don't then honor doesn't exist anymore. She is my hero.

I was posting over in the Nathaniel Branden corner and ran across this wonderful quote:

Parents cannot give a child self-esteem,. No one can. But they can make the road to self-esteem immeasurably easier—by treating a child not only with love, but also with respect and acceptance, by communicating confidence in the child's competence and moral and intellectual capabilities, by providing appropriate guidance, by upholding reasonable expectations that inspire rather than oppress, and by giving a child the experience of living in a rational universe.

This quote is so spot on I just had to point it out to the parents around here. For the last week or so, the theme on the every day thread has been children/parents, so go take a look at February 4–10 for some good insights from Nathaniel Branden's Self-Esteem Every Day. The above quote is from February 6.

Kat

That is so important. I make every day an adventure for my 19 month year old boy, Evan. My biggest success is that I've taught him to be cautious, but not fearful, of heights and of falling down. The first time he fell down when he was learning to walk, and he cried, my instinct was to run to him, hold him and tell him it would be all right. But it was just a fall, he can recover. So, I looked at him and firmly said "get up," making an upward motion with my hand. He got up, stopped crying and then I went to him and dried his tears.

Because of this, when he falls now, he doesn't cry or even pout; he gets right back up again, sometimes smiling all the while. When he climbs stairs on his own, he never runs up them, but goes up slowly using the bannister. He is a very confident child, yet has a good, kind, heart, and shares everything since the age of six months -- very mature -- not because I even taught him, but because there is something benevolent in his nature that gives him joy to give something to others. He understands he is a capable child with something to offer others.

Today's quote also has good parenting advice. It is about teaching the kid self-acceptance, not repression.

April 19 – Self-Esteem Every Day

A child says, "I hate Grandma!" A parent answers, "Wow, right now you are really feeling mad at Grandma! Want to tell me about it?" The parent is teaching self-acceptance. In a moment or two, the child's anger will most likely be gone.

A child says, "I hate Grandma!" A parent answers, "What a terrible thing to say! You don't mean it! What's the matter with you?" The parent is teaching repression, self-rejection and self-alienation. The anger is driven underground to fester.

A child says, "I hate Grandma!" A parent answers, "Okay, fine: I'll tell Grandma not to cook Thanksgiving dinner, bring presents for Christmas and bake your birthday cake. After all, you wouldn't want to have someone you hate around on those days that are so important to you." The parent is teaching the brat that he is not the center of the universe and that his feelings don't have veto power over the adults in the family. ;)

Robert,

I want to ride piggy-back on your plug for Irshad Manji. Here is what I posted on the other thread.

What a wonderful soul! Here is Irshad Manji's website:

Muslim Refusenik

On the article below, there is a link to the video of her appearance on 60 Minutes (click on the video link under her picture on the left). The article is about a reformed Islamist terrorist, Hassan Butt:

The Network

I saw her 60 Minutes appearance and what a wonderful, wonderful thing she is doing. I like her idea about recapturing the religion and blaming the majority of moderate Muslims for complacency. This young lady is putting her life and efforts where her mouth is. And I believe she is only a small start. I predict a huge impact in the Muslim world that will grow from this seed.

Hassan Butt also deserves all of our support. That guy has balls. One thing in the article about Hassan disturbed me. Apparently England has been shooting itself in the foot for a long time.

Butt was only 16 when he was recruited by the network. Like thousands of other young British Muslims, he became exposed to some of the most radical Imams in Britain – Imams who supported attacks on westerners all over the world and believed that they had a tacit agreement with the British authorities.

They could preach hatred, they could recruit followers, they could raise funds, and they could even call for Jihad – Holy war – as long as they didn’t call for attacks on British soil. London became such a safe haven for Muslim militants that it came to be known as "Londonistan."

The only hitch I see is that she is Sufi and this denomination of Islam is not seen well by many traditional Muslims. This is why Hassan is so important to her now. He is traditional. I think I will end up writing more about these people as we go along.

Bless them.

You made my day with this one.

Michael

Michael: I saw the PBS broadcast last night, and what a powerful documentary it was, particular when Irshad was in the Netherlands, interviewing that member of Parliament (whose name I can't recall at 6:30 a.m.) who lives with round-the-clock bodyguards after the murder of Theo Van Gogh. The mother of the little girl who died in the Madrid railway bombing was also a poignant interviewee. She said that she could never forgive Bin Laden. Bless her heart, because whenever I hear about the parents of suicide bombers who encourage their children to this madness, I now have the example of one woman whose heart isn't filled with hate and poison, but with the love and sadness for her departed daughter. That's the evil of the Islamist Nazis: That they've so inverted the natural parental instinct to love and protect their children that they gladly send their own children to their suicides.

Irshad Manji is one of the few people in the world -- Moslem or not -- with real guts. She is heroic, knowing a veritable sword of Damocles hangs over her head every minute of her life. She is truer to herself than anyone in the world today, because she's true to herself beyond even inconvenience, but with death threats sent to her DAILY. She, not that butcher Arafat (may he burn in hell for his murderous acts of sending his own people's children to their deaths as well as the lives of so many innocent Jews), deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, because only through a reformation of faith can Islam coexist with the rest of the world and be though t civilised.

I admire her for keeping her own faith; frankly, I would have converted in her situation, just out of disgust with fellow Moslems. She is the truest individualist in the world today.

Thanks for the dose of sanity, Victor: That one can be opposed to the Bible without sounding like an incoherently silly schizophrenic. You are always an honorable poster on these boards.

By the way, friend Dodger, I would suggest to you that I am not a Catholic based upon the Bible, but based upon a glorious sense-of-life projected by many Biblical and canonized heroes, including the Saint of Reason, Thomas Aquinas.

For the same reason I am an enthusiastic admirer of Ayn Rand's novels. You know what I figured out, once I did some growing up? It was this: That I admired Rand not because I agreed with the letter of Objectivism, but because of the glorious sense-of-life projected by her larger-than-life heroes. Tell you what: If you really want to sabotage Objectivism, in the next printing of "Atlas Shrugged," replace Galt's speech with your incoherent drivel. And then, watch the results! This is too absurd to even contemplate Ayn Rand writing anything remotely approaching what you just wrote.

Regarding:

"Im sorry, but I am completely emotionally detached when I talk to people who believe in Christianity. I think they are sheep and that they dont deserve my nice caring side. I would much rather show them the asshole that I can be."

And, this place is called "Rants," so I gotta cut you some slack there. "Emotionally detached"? Please edit out all the cartoonish lines like:

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!"

...and then I will buy that one.

Listen, pal, I know you think you're just among "your own kind," so you can spew crap like this, sort of like white guys making n*gger jokes when there are no blacks around.

But, you're also responsible for your words. And, based upon the juvenile "gotcha" nature of your rant, I'd place your age at about 15 or so. But the proper word isn't "asshole." It's "bigot."

Sheep? I'll show you a whole lotta sheep! Me and a whole slew of Army troops and Marines, my buddies going back 25 years. Come by the American Legion hall where we honor God and Country and dare call any of us "sheep"! While I'm no hero, I know a hell of a lot of guys who've been in harm's way, who've been in firefights, who've been in foxholes up to their knees in rain and their own filth. The vast majority of whom are quite religious in their own way, and don't take any crap from anyone. You'd last about five seconds, because you'd be preaching your unsolicited judgmental garbage on a good number of men who would just as soon bounce your hide out onto the street.

Go back and actually READ that screed of yours. It is chock full of the manic, intolerant, rush to judgment brand of Objectivism that's better flushed down the commode and sanitized thereafter with a good helping of Pine Sol.

Get your head out of your duffel bag, son! Ever occur to you that, if Objectivism is about anything at all, first and foremost it's about thinking for yourself? I know it is incomprehensible to you, but thinking for yourself is NOT treating the Bible OR "Atlas Shrugged" as REVEALED TRUTH, which is exactly what you're doing. Neither is thinking for yourself letting Ayn Rand, Lenny Peikoff or anybody else sit as a board of censorship insie your head. ("Oh, gosh, I can't be religious, because Rand said that means I'm not guided by free will, but dancing on the strings of a puppet master deity.") It takes ZERO guts or brains to come aboard this forum and parrot what Ayn Rand or anyone else in the "Movement" says.

Grow up! Your manner of expression is not welcome here by me. Tell you what: You get the guts to be religious AND write for Objectivist publications. I would no sooner renounce my deepest-held beliefs just because of who cuts my paychecks than, say, Martin Luther, Thomas a Becket, Jeanne d'Arc, or Howard Roark would have.

Either that, or take your shtick to the Focus On the Family folks and see if they put you on the payroll. Is the picture coming in any clearer now?

It is to the eternal glory that the people on THIS side of Objectivism's fence have -- while not budging an inch on the principal of an atheistic metaphysics -- been accomodating in the extreme to those with a religious worldview. Take a look at the Moslem guy who's coming to the IOS summer seminar to connect the Islamic tradition of Ijtihad -- of rational debate and inquiry within Islam, rather than blind dogma -- and following the example of Averroes. Then DARE get up in his grille and serve up the same bizarre, screaming pile of fecal matter you just said about the Bible and Christians, but instead about the Koran and Moslems. Do you hear that sound? It's the silent sound of shame, of crickets chirping, because you've helped to drive home the stereotype that Objectivists are a bunch of hysterical zealots and puritans!

So, I request that you get yourself an attitude adjustment because I know the Bible pretty well, too, and can make mince meat in no time out of your non-sequiturs and ad hominem attacks. Don't get in a pissing match with a skunk.

I urge you to appeal to your mature reason instead of your inner child's emotions.

While, sadly, I'm inclined to agree with Bob, that does not mean I throw my hands up in the air and give up. While we must find a way to so humiliate these Islamists that they'll never be heard from again, it's our moral duty to promote and encourage reason where it exists.

Irshad Manji, who's received death threats for her stances, is one stand-up advocate of reason. I beseach anyone concerned with the future of civilisation to watch her PBS special tonight, titled "Faith Without Fear: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith." It should be airing at 9 p.m. Central (I can't find air times for stations outside of San Antonio).

Check it out!

While, sadly, I'm inclined to agree with Bob, that does not mean I throw my hands up in the air and give up. While we must find a way to so humiliate these Islamists that they'll never be heard from again, it's our moral duty to promote and encourage reason where it exists.

Irshad Manji, who's received death threats for her stances, is one stand-up advocate of reason. I beseach anyone concerned with the future of civilisation to watch her PBS special tonight, titled "Faith Without Fear: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith." It should be airing at 9 p.m. Central (I can't find air times for stations outside of San Antonio).

Check it out!

Letting himself be played by Gary Cooper instead of Charlton Heston or Gregory Peck.

Jeff,

Actually, I agree with you. If I have a problem with Roark and Dominique, it is with Roark's attraction to Dominique in the first place. I can see her attraction to him, but not his initial attraction to her, and not enough real value to carry it through those two marriages.

The long almost telepathic stares do not really convey enough information (in reality) for him to see her as more than a spoiled rich girl at first. The last thing he would be interested in is spoiled rich girls, so his initial attraction always seemed to me to be out of character. Even the Vest Dunning parts that were cut show him to be almost biding his time with a girl.

If I suspend belief on the initial attraction, put it in the category of love at first sight without rhyme or reason (although they come later), the rest makes perfect sense.

Michael

I have a one-word counter-argument for you Mike:

Chemistry

Expecting governmental public housing bureaucrats to stand by their word.

Elgar is a magnificent composer. We played several of his works, including a very beautiful cello concerto, when I was still in the symphony orchestra in São Paulo.

Michael

I know that everyone is really enamored with the Jacqueline duPree recording with Barbirolli that got a second wind after the movie "Hilary and Jackie" came out. But my all-time favorite is Andre Navarra's 1957 recording with Barbirolli. When it comes to Elgar, Barbirolli couldn't be touched.

I envy you: To play trombone for an Elgar piece!

What: Still no reply? What's the deal? I'm listening to Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for Strings, and while not as passionate as Wagner, it's pretty damned passionate for British music.

Hello? Anyone? Bueller?

Yoko so adept.

Recycle John's old demos.

Laugh all way to bank.

John; Great C&W is great music. Haven't you ever wanted to say "Here's a quarter tell someone who cares.

"

Ditto. While there may be little of note nowadays save a bunch of slick clones affecting insincere twangs and moronic lyrics (Tim MvGraw, Alan Jackson, and a bunch of others too mediocre to remember the names of), the 1950s through 1970s saw some incredibly awesome acts like

Patsy Cline

Eddy Arnold

Johnny Cash

Willie Nelson

Hank Williams

Hank Williams, Jr.

Loretta Lynn

Brenda Lee

Wanda Jackson

Jerry Lee Lewis

Roy Orbison

Jim Reeves

Charlie Daniels

and a slew of others I'm too tired to name at 5 am. Check any or all of them out!

Beatles were over-rated. The Kinks and the Stones were much better. Anyhow, the Beatles were hardly the watershed band people make them out to be -- I think they confuse them with Led Zeppelin.

Though I'm a huge Zep fan, I think that much of their "watershed" credit should go to Jake Holmes, Willie Dixon and others.

You're absolutely right, but the genius of Zeppelin lay in its fusion of folk, blues and metal. When it comes down to brass tacks, they WERE a metal band. But, the complexity of it all! How they took Memphis Minnie's dirge "When the Levee Breaks" and turned it into something utterly beyond description is nothing short of genius!

By the way, to me Zoso was their "watershed" album, although "Whole Lotta Love" (two years earlier) was truly their watershed song, the one that defined their hard-driving song, while taking it in another direction from their other "caught my woman with another man" blues-rock songs/covers and earlier metal stuff, which owed a lot to Black Sabbath.

To get back to my original point: In 1,000 years, the Beatles would never have been able to make anything that could touch "Kashmir" or "In My Time of Dying."

Robert; If there were justice there would be two university presidents seeking other employment. Brodhead of Duke and the president of Virginia Tech.

PRECISELY! The campus police were on top of things? THE CAMPUS POLICE?????? I don't know how "hardcore" the Virginia Tech "campus police" are, but if they're LIKE EVERY OTHER CAMPUS POLICE, they're a bunch of KEYSTONE COPS, RENT-A-COPS, WANNABE, HAS-BEEN NEVER-WAS cops!

Oh, it was a "domestic incident"? WHAT? As though that lessens the severity of the threat? The Virginia State Police troopers should have been on that campus like stink on shite! They should have been on LOCKDOWN!

Unbelieveable!

As for the Duke President AS WELL AS ALL THOSE LEFTIST PROFFESOR SANCTIMONIOUS LYNCH MOB, I'd get the baddest-ass civil liberties attornies and go after them PERSONALLY with DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER lawsuits! WHERE IS THE ACLU? (That's just a rhetorical question: The ACLU is defaming the characters of people who want to fly safely without Imams kneeling in the aisles, facing Mecca).

Everyone take warning! We can expect a fire storm in support of gun control with the shootings and killings at Virginia Tech. I suspect that it is already against the law to have a firearm on campus in Virginia. Virginia is a gun rights state but hold on to your hats.

If only but ONE of the students had a conceal/carry permit and weapon at his side. It wasn't lack of gun control that mainly contributed to the high death toll, but the fact that the campus police let classes go on FOR OVER TWO HOURS after the initial attacks, trying to hunt him down as though he stole somebody's bicycle, letting the students sit there unaware of the situation and like SITTING DUCKS!

They should fire the university president. As much as I hate slip and fall lawyers, if I were one of the dead's parents or spouse, I would be -- rightfully -- suing the hell out of that college!

THIS WAS AVOIDABLE!

Oh my gosh, I don't know how I missed this one, Chris. Hope you get well. As a diabetic who's been in an out of the hospital since November 2005, I have three words for you:

!. Exercise

2. Aspirin

3. Olive Oil

Take those every day and you will protect yourself as well as whatever other exercise and prescription regimens you are on. Working for me (so far).

Hang in there!

Yeah, that's what I think too: If Objectivists really want to be taken seriously, keep pushing the "Satanism" envelope!

Sheesh!

See my piece on How Al Gore is Ruining Opera under the Article thread, which is about Die Walkure.

http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/in...amp;#entry25358

Ed: Great analysis of the overanalysis second-raters are grafting onto Wagner's great works.

I have always said that Wagner was the father of heavy metal, an observation borne out by the heavy usage of low brass and "speed metal" thrash guitars in the soundtrack to "300."

I do not know ONE metalhead who, if they're at all into classical music, does not revere Richard Wagner.

Hence, you will find the staging, lighting and fx at a Dio or Metallica concert in concordance with the proper staging of a Wagner opera than you will by going to a lot of today's productions of Wagner, it seems.

> The fact that I find myself more comfortable among you guys and the people at TAS (in particular Robert and Ed as well as Iraida Botshteyn and her husband Igor) than I am at Mass in my own parish speaks volumes in that David Kelley put his money where his mouth is on the issue of toleration.

I'm glad to hear that, Robert. I also want to add that your movie reviews are one of the parts of The New Individualist I actively look forward to. While I don't agree with all of them (so be prepared for a letter to the editor of disagreement occasionally!) I find your perspective and sense of life on films to be better than many secular Oists with whom I'd agree more on metaphysics, etc.

"Rocky" rules.

Thanks, Philip, for that. I very much appreciate that you derive enjoyment from my reviews -- by all means, whether you agree or disagree, write a letter to Robert. Sometimes it seems that I am writing for an audience of one (me), if I were to just go by the letters column. Most of the letters tend to be "in-crowd" arguments over the finer points of Objectivism, very technically-oriented debates. What I've tried to do with my corner of the magazine is create exactly the kind of place you mention, one in which Rand's overwhelmingly "benevolent universe" sense of life reigns supreme. (Of course, if I find a movie appallingly bad, then I go into full H.L. Mencken cynic mode). Nonetheless, I'm grateful for your comments.

I've got some reviews of some great movies coming up, so I hope you enjoy those too.

Ever since I wrote that review of "Rocky Balboa," I've gotten the boxed set of the other five, and last night I watched "Rocky III" with my son Evan, who is 19 months old. He is so smart -- he was shadow-boxing to it!

Cheers,

Rob't

Wow, it's true! Great minds DO think alike!

I once posted a "review" on Amazon.com for a book on "Christ-Centered Depression Therapy," a counterpoint which was from my own unique perspective, titled "Irish Catholic-Centered Depression Therapy," which was basically just a recipe for drowning one's sorrows in Tullamore Dew, Jameson's, Paddy's and Guiness. The board moderators pulled it down after about a year when someone whined to them about how, if my "advice" were taken seriously, could lead to dangerous consequences.

Duh!

I saw an ad during a Wild game last week announcing that Dio is on tour, with Megadeth and Machine Head, and coming to an auditorium near me. I might have to check that out.

Dude, thanks (makes the two-finger secret sign)!

Nobody in metal had an operatic set of pipes like Dio! He could hold a note for over a minute, it seems.

Yes, Dio had a great "set of pipes", but Sabbath ceased to be Sabbath when Ozzy left. There's more to music than having good chops.

Mick

That's an interesting take, because I always thought when Geezer let go of Ozzy, he truly flourished as a creative artist by going solo and picking up Randy Rhodes. It's a matter of taste, of course, because Ozzy singing "Sweet Leaf" and "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath" is a tough act to follow. I just prefer Dio, but still respect the Ozzman.

PS: Keep in mind that 'rap' is a sub-section of Crap...literally.

Who says? :getlost: Well, I say Star Trek is a subsection of crap. Yeah, I said it! *gets all indignant*

Such cracks can sting, right Kori. I have learned to simply roll with the punches if you are to enjoy the benefits of cyber world.

Kat: Oh, that Lucy in the Sky with Dimonds....painful, painful! How can a Beatle fan do this?? :hmm:

Beatles were over-rated. The Kinks and the Stones were much better. Anyhow, the Beatles were hardly the watershed band people make them out to be -- I think they confuse them with Led Zeppelin.