Ruth

FYI Lindsay Perigo has been under attack from quite a few religious sites here in NZ recently. Sites include the Odious Flannigan's, NZ Conservative Wingnuts, and a National Front type site which I will not link to - Crusader Rabbit. Mr Perigo has written some great stuff recently regarding the evils and anti-freedom nature of Christianity, so credit where credit is due.

As my index predictions won me a lot of money on financial fora in 2009 I thought I would run this up the flagpole here for a bit of fun. I predict Dow 12,000 by close of business 31 Dec 2010. No doubt my nemesis, the clip-on tie wearing Gregster on SOLO, is calling Gold 5000 and DOW 3000. As Warren Buffet said "No one has made money in the long run by betting against America."

Thanks for your replies - I'm still looking. Middle Eastern cuisine seems to need specific ingredients which are not too easy to get here - preserved lemon, saffron powder and so on. I found a large tagine at the weekend - unfortunately it is not from North Africa but from France, and it is slip-cast instead of hand-made, but never mind! I've not tasted camel - but have tasted crocodile. It has a 'muddy' taste as you would expect. Goat is popular with the pacific island communities here as well - usually curried.

Adonis I have posted a question for you on the cookery forum if you can help me. Thanks.

I was wondering if Adonis could tell me where ras el hanout is sold in Auckland NZ. Also can one buy a large tagine anywhere in Auckland? I am a keen cook and a big fan of 'Moorish' flavours, including Claudia Roden's excellent book "Tamarind and Saffron". Thanks.

Here's some good news from NZ MSM: Pakeha is a European/White New Zealander. Whether any of the next generation take on any libertarian ideas remains to be seen - in my opinion there is no such thing as an Islamic Libertarian, just as there is no such thing as a Christian Libertarian - quite a few push that particular barrow as well. But the research shows Muslims here are certainly not "filthy savages" as some would have you believe. Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/3216195/Young-Muslims-adapt-well-to-NZ

Brant it surely hasn't taken you this long to figure that out? Gregster abused me back in Feb/March 2009 when I was buying US shares, calling DOW 10,000 and saying the stimulus would 'work' - calling me a mad bitch and being generally profane. Happily success is my best revenge as I have had the best year ever. Many go on about Ayn Rand's faults - to my mind her only fault was convincing clip-on-tie middle management dimwits like Gregster that they were all suppressed Warren Buffet's, Beethoven's and Einsteins who would flourish but for the awful state that suppressed them. Such creeps infest every walkway and underpass of life - business, and government - grabbing secretaries' backsides and so on...

The problem is fundamentalism - whether that be Islamic fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, or Christian fundamentalism. Fundamentalists are not our allies and we should not pretend that they are somehow 'liberal'. It is most unfortunate that Adonis has had such an abusive welcome to NZ and to Libertarianz. In my view anyone who comes with peaceful intent and does not burden the taxpayer is welcome in this country. It is also worth noting that US interests here have not been threatened by Muslims or 'Islamists' over the last few years - in fact the threats and security alerts come from the redneck demographic who fantasise about assassinating Obama....

Not on topic, but I want to say that Perigo has been noted by the US Embassy here in NZ as a possible security threat after his "Shoot Obama" encouraging assassination comment. I had not seen it before, but Scherk reposted it. So who hates America?

Well if Mr Perigo gives 'Gregster' a serve I am all for it. This vulgar man called me a 'mad bitch' and all sorts simply because he disagreed with my correct prediction on the DOW. He is the most gratuitously insulting individual I have ever come across on the internet. His ugly words match his face.

It's really not even cultish behavior, though that has been examined (and I do believe there are cult of personality Rand folks, but they are insignificant). I'm not even sure it is tribal, because it does not have enough basic drive to it to really qualify as that.I agree with that. It's really too bad that Perigo has become what he is (and he never used to be like this - I have the first Free Radical to prove it), because there's genuine joy that he is missing. Not the faux joy of mean-spirited sneering, but the real joy of seeing someone else achieving and finding happiness. Let's face it: You can't enjoy your own victimhood unless everyone else is at least as miserable as you are. This attitude, which is childish in the extreme, is supported by a carefully constructed online environment of sychophantic commenters.

He is explicitly saying how Rand's ideas can help. This implies respect for the reader because it implies that the reader already bears a respectable mind with respectable thoughts in it without any previous input from him (or Rand). He is essentially telling readers that they are good and he knows a way to help them improve on that good. Not that they are evil for wishing others well. Agree. "You are all dumb" has often been the catch-cry of modern day libertarians/Objectivists. Brook is changing that. Certainly Rand never thought the populace was stupid.

This was excellent news Michael! The right- wingers (eg Malkin and co) have been in a spin about this one. Of course these pirates have been terrorising shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa for years, and you never heard a peep out of these clowns when Bush was in charge. Once again, the haters are left with egg on their faces. But it's another week, and I am sure the wingnuts will find something else to get all fired up about...:-)

Disrespect is an appropriate word, I think. People should be praised for being excellent at what they do. At heart I don't believe Perigo is a rude, ill-mannered man - but I may be wrong. He is certainly less rude than some of his fans. For example I will not engage with anyone who swears at me. He has never done that to my knowledge. I think a lot of his online hostility stems from frustration -- Rand's ideas have not been able to gain any significant traction here in NZ. I suspect a steady diet of National Review and Fox News has also been responsible for the doomsaying outlook we see now. And of course some people are not happy unless they have something/someone to hate. Obama currently fits the bill. A friend of mine who is a technical stockmarket analyst wrote a piece about group think. He wrote it about stocks of course, but I think it is relevant to life in general: See how the posters influenced each other with their comments - threads become support groups for those that have all made the same mistake. The effects of "group think" are all too evident as they lead each other down the garden path. These "toxic" threads share many similarities and are quite easily identified. Here are a few pointers :- Watch for a preponderance of overly loyal extremely positive contributions. Any negative posters are "run off the thread". Look out for multitudinous "cut and paste" entries of scarcely relevant articles from the net. Beware of threads where anyone posting a negative comment is personally attacked. Dissenting views should be encouraged, not rubbished. We learn nothing from those that agree with us. I used to get a bit 'obsessed' with certain people - but it is an energy sink Michael. Really they don't matter, and their opinions don't matter. Somewhere along the line Rand's adage 'Thou shalt think' became "Thou shalt think like me". Being proven correct and being successful in what one does is what is important.

Is there any segment of society actually preparing to "go Galt" in real life, or is this all just a lot of wind? The idea that in a capitalist system, the exodus of a large chunk of the executive class would do anything but open up a huge market for new entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity and take their place is pretty laughable. And most of the REAL capitalists know this, and would never do such a thing, which leaves a little group with pundit jobs who aren't about to influence anything. Anyway, Doug Mataconis at Below the Beltway says: Over at The Liberty Papers, Stephen Littau presents the definitive refutation of the conservative appropriation of Ayn Rand’s archetype: John Galt is not someone who merely caps the limits on his productivity to avoid being pushed into a higher tax bracket. What Galt does in Atlas Shrugged is much more radical: going on strike by refusing to produce anything for the benefit of society. Galt seeks out other high achievers and convinces them to do the same and help him build a society of their own. (…) To be invited to Galt’s Gulch one has to demonstrate that s/he has rejected the false virtues of altruism, collectivism, and mysticism (religion) and embrace his virtues of selfishness, reason, objective reality, and capitalism. While Malkin and Co. pay lip service to capitalism (especially when their people are not in control of the levers of power), their remaining values run counter to that of Galt’s. Is it not these very people who wish to erect religious monuments on government property, demand that Intelligent Design (Creationism) be taught alongside evolution in government schools, encourage individual sacrifice for the “greater good,” and wish to ratchet up the War on (Some) Drugs despite the evidence that the policy is completely counterproductive? As Stephen notes, the one good thing about the attention being paid to Atlas Shrugged at this point is that it might cause some people to read the book for themselves and discover what it’s really all about. Of course, when they do, they’ll find out that the Malkin’s and Limbaugh’s of the world never would’ve even been considered for residence in Galt’s Gulch. I totally agree with this, which is why SOLO's (and particularly Perigo's) drooling admiration for Limbaugh, Malkin, Palin and other anti-freedom wingnut conservatives is so destructive to Objectivism.