Alfonso Jones

LOL, where's the decimal point in "thirteen"? 13.0 ---> 1.30 Schmuck! Ba'al Chaztaf Ba'al - - LOL. Bill P

Why should I accept the unsubstantiated and untested assertions of a whistle-blower as fact? I think the whistle-blower has established good grounds for further investigation. Has that further investigation taken place? If so, provide some reliable documentation on the matter. What conclusions have been drawn and established? If not, I will be happen to wait until something more solid emerges. You seem to believe that everything you believe is a fact. I do not concur. Ba'al Chatzaf Gulch - YOu would do well to listen to Bob (Ba'al) carefully here. He has spoken reasonably. You just can't accept the word of every one touting "conspiracy." Else you will end up in the Alex Jones category... If I believed everything I read on OL, I would believe, for instance: i) Ron Paul will be (was) the Republican nominee for President in 2008 ii) The Campaign for Liberty will have millions of members by the end of 2009 Neither turned out... Bill P

George, She couldn't stand not being able to control the libertarian movement. I think Rand and Rothbard were similar enough personalities that their ego duel and ensuing feud were close to inevitable. Robert Campbell http://www.voluntary...kissues/005.pdf I posted a link to this article before, on a blog entry about Gandhi. Published in 1983, most of it deals with Rothbard, and it put the final nail in the coffin of our friendship. Murray and I never spoke after this, except briefly at a memorial for Roy Childs held in New York. I am posting this link again because the article deals, in part, with the issue that you raised. Ghs Powerful piece, George. For those who are interested, Rothbard's original article to which you are responding can be found at http://mises.org/journals/lf/1983/1983_03.pdf Bill P

The NOIF principle? "NOIF" Neil; What does that mean? Inquiring minds want to know. Just in case anyone doesn't realize that there's surely some teasing going on: No Initiation Of Foce as perturbed by a transposition error. Bill P

Resentment of the Japanese still runs deep for many in China. Even for those who are a full generation or more removed from WWII. (Born in the 1980s, for example.) Bill P

Of course. I think such options are always open. Bill P

I would far prefer living in a society where people did care (though there would be doubtless be discussions, some of them heated, about what sort of actions those evaluations might lead to) than in a society where the dominant attitude was to brazenly declare indifference to the loss of human life. Bill P

Becky, Rachel, and I motored up to Sherman Oaks this evening to hear Barbara speak, and it was well worth the aggravation of L.A.'s perenially turgid traffic. Wonderful speech! Duncan Scott videotaped the presentation (possibly also the question-answer period), and I expect it will be made commercially available before long as part of his Objectivist History project. I'm not going to summarize the talk here, just say that Barbara's thoughts were clear, well-organized, and sobering. This talk and her recent one "Objectivism and Rage" ought to be included in any anthology of her best writing/thinking. REB Good to hear! Regards, Bill P

Robert Campbell Robert; Do you find this surprising? I don't. It's disappointing, though not surprising. Bill P

Now, that's funny!!! Bill P

Well put, George. I've written lots of papers (academic) and many practitioner type articles also, but I've learned over the years that it is best to have a customer who is largely committed to the endeavor before putting forth the effort. As a result of this, most things I've written in the last 10 years have been invited papers. I also have a horror story, however - of a book which I and a colleague wrote about 15 years ago without sufficient commitment from the publisher, only to find that the book never saw the light of day. Fortunately, I've been able to recover some return on my effort by mining my portions of the manuscript for other publishing purposes, but never enough to justify all the effort. Regards, Bill P

Chris - Consider that Rand published that essay in the Ayn Rand Letter, published dated December 6, 1971. I think it's broadly speaking been downhill since, with some progress on some fronts during the Reagan administration. Bill P Oh, yes, the wonderful "progress" during the Reagan administration: the tax bite went up, government spending went up, the federal deficit went up, the War on Drugs was boosted enormously, and millions of dollars were squandered on a task force that recommended a federal crackdown on "pornography" despite the fact that the information the task force itself gathered together made it clear that such a step would be both unnecessary and counter-productive. On the other hand, Reagan was able to claim credit for the airline, trucking, and FCC deregulation actually undertaken by figures like Jimmy Carter and Teddy Kennedy. And he was also able to claim credit for the implosion of the Soviet Union that Ludwig von Mises had pointed out sixty years earlier was inescapable for purely economic reasons, irrespective of what any third rate blowhard "actor" might assert on behalf of his mindless military policies. What a brilliant record of achievement! I am awestruck! JR JR - I fear you responded before carefully reading what I wrote. I said "some progress on some fronts." I did not say or imply anything like "a brilliant record of achievement." Bill P Calm your fears, Bill. I understood what you wrote perfectly. Where I do seem to have gone wrong is in supposing that heavy sarcasm would be an effective way of conveying to you my reaction to what you wrote. I'll try to make it a little plainer. I regard Ronald Reagan as the worst U.S. president since Abraham Lincoln, with the possible exceptions of George W. Bush, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and Richard Milhous Nixon. I can think of nothing - absolutely nothing - he did as constituting "progress," if, by "progress" in this context, we mean discernible steps in the direction of smaller, less intrusive government and greater individual liberty. JR So, I will assume you are now writing what you mean. You regard Reagan, and all of those listed, as being each being clearly worse than: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Barack Hussein Obama That's clear enough, though I certainly disagree with finding Reagan worse than FDR or BHO. Bill P

Chris - Consider that Rand published that essay in the Ayn Rand Letter, published dated December 6, 1971. I think it's broadly speaking been downhill since, with some progress on some fronts during the Reagan administration. Bill P Oh, yes, the wonderful "progress" during the Reagan administration: the tax bite went up, government spending went up, the federal deficit went up, the War on Drugs was boosted enormously, and millions of dollars were squandered on a task force that recommended a federal crackdown on "pornography" despite the fact that the information the task force itself gathered together made it clear that such a step would be both unnecessary and counter-productive. On the other hand, Reagan was able to claim credit for the airline, trucking, and FCC deregulation actually undertaken by figures like Jimmy Carter and Teddy Kennedy. And he was also able to claim credit for the implosion of the Soviet Union that Ludwig von Mises had pointed out sixty years earlier was inescapable for purely economic reasons, irrespective of what any third rate blowhard "actor" might assert on behalf of his mindless military policies. What a brilliant record of achievement! I am awestruck! JR JR - I fear you responded before carefully reading what I wrote. I said "some progress on some fronts." I did not say or imply anything like "a brilliant record of achievement." Bill P

Chris - Consider that Rand published that essay in the Ayn Rand Letter, published dated December 6, 1971. I think it's broadly speaking been downhill since, with some progress on some fronts during the Reagan administration. Bill P

Please note that those sentiments were written by Ayn Rand, as my post indicated (and, in case anyone missed it, my post wraps back to the one starting off this thread). Regards, BIll P

I'm reminded of what Rand said in "Don't Let It Go, II" in the AYn Rand Letter: Can this country achieve a peaceful rebirth in the foreseeable future? By all precedents, it is not likely. But America is an unprecedented phenomenon. In the past, American perseverance became, on occasion, too long-bearing a patience. But when Americans turned, they turned. What may happen to the Welfare State is what happened to the Prohibition Amendment. Is there enough of the American sense of life left in people—under the constant pressure of the cultural-political efforts to obliterate it? It is impossible to tell. But those of us who hold it, must fight for it. We have no alternative: we cannot surrender this country to a zero—to men whose battle cry is mindlessness. We cannot fight against collectivism, unless we fight against its moral base: altruism. We cannot fight against altruism, unless we fight against its epistemological base: irrationalism. We cannot fight against anything, unless we fight for something—and what we must fight for is the supremacy of reason, and a view of man as a rational being. These are philosophical issues. The philosophy we need is a conceptual equivalent of America's sense of life. To propagate it, would require the hardest intellectual battle. But isn't that a magnificent goal to fight for? Bill P

Well put, Barbara. There is so much that was good in Ayn Rand, and worthy of emulation. It is an insult to the best of what she was to imitate her in her weaknesses (or to to fake reality by pretending she had no weaknesses). Bill P

If you'll settle for CDs instead of LPs, they are listed by Amazon as being available, at: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Efficient-Thinking-CD-set/dp/1579704867/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269732470&sr=8-5 Bill P

Well put, Brant. Many of the advocates of these "lights out" events would find an ideologically friendly environment (in so many ways) in North Korea. Bill P

I may have overlooked it - but did you give a link for this ranking? I'd be interested to see what countries rank above the US. Bill P

That's the spirit! Never surrender. Bill P

I assume you mean "leave" in a permanent sense. I am living in Shanghai, China, and have been here part-time since 2003, full-time since 2006. I don't see leaving the USA (as in abandoning citizenship) as appropriate. There is still hope - - - and where will you find greater freedom, particularly freedom of speech, than in the USA? Bill P

You have that right! Here's hoping that the proportion of those who just voted "yes" on the Health Care bill who are DEFEATED in their next try for reelection is strikingly high, so much that the lesson is clear to all. Don't tread on us! Bill P

Let's do what we can to ensure that as many as possible of those who voted "yes" today are voted out of office at the very next opportunity. I am sickened by what has just happened. But it's not "over" by any means. Not even time to cry. Just time to redouble our efforts, speak out, make certain to vote, . . . . Bill P