Xray

Ol' Man River sung by Wiliiam Warfield:

I know God exists.

moralist:

What exactly is it that makes you so certain?

My own direct personal experience.

Greg

Greg

So it was a purely subjective experience on your part, with no objective evidence involved?

I know God exists.

moralist:

What exactly is it that makes you so certain?

The ability to deceive also seems to be part of our evolutionary heritage.

A while ago, I watched a documentary where some clever monkey in the jungle uttered a loud 'warning cry' which made the others of the group flee because this type of cry signaled 'imminent danger' to them

The smart monkey, now alone, then feasted on the coconuts the group had left behind. For it was those coconuts he had coveted.

Hi Angela: That's pertinent to the fine distinction between what I consider, roughly, explicit and implicit altruism.

Putting others at service to one through deceit (or force) is implicitly altruist of him/her, in that it emerges from an earlier self-sacrifice of his independent mind to others. Also in consequence, he's explicitly altruistic in his subsequent dependence on them.

Lying cuts both ways, one becomes the server by way of being the served.

Tony,

I'd like to have this illustrated by an example:

In what way had a person who e. g. embezzled money 'earlier self-sacrificed his/her independent mind to others'?

Sure.

She didn't only write that lying is wrong because it implicitly puts one at service to others, through abnegation of one's mind, btw.

But can't an accomplished liar also be quite succesful at putting others at service to him/her?

Cheating on one's spouse isn't necessarily dishonest and it's not really cheating either, it's breaking a promise. The promise is either explicit as made in one's marriage vows or implicit --- it is the promise of fidelity.

But doesn't the very notion of "cheating" automatically involve dishonesty?

Can one 'cheat honestly'? This sounds incompatible, 'oxymoronic'.

So whether one cheats at a school test, at a game, or on one's spouse - dishonesty is always involved. For the cheater always wants to conceal the truth about what he/she is doing.

And I would invite her to any barbacue that my neighbors and I choose to have...as long as we have the right to FLAME whatever the fuck we, as individual Constitutional citizens, choose to throw on the charcoal pit...

Sorry Angela, with respects to your PETA membership.

As you may be aware, I have no problem with your personal assignation to those principles.

My issue is whether annonymous/amorphous individual taxpayers, involuntarilly have their justly/ethically earned labor, seized by the state to validate personal choices through a centralized tyranny.

It's quite simple...the state has the gun...you have your individual citizenship/sovereignty...next...state has no jurisdiction...you may still get dead though...

Selene,

Speaking of centralized tyranny: incredible what is currently happening in Russia! Putin's hunger for power won't be satisfied by annexing the Crimea and the East Ukraine. This is only the beginning.

The dangerousness of Putin had been grossly underestimated - for example by the former German chancellor Schröder who had the naiveté to call Putin "a democrat through and through." But Putin is exactly the opposite.

Hi Angela!

Good to hear from you, Angela. Missed you (for some reason...) ;)

I also butted heads with Angela when she showed up.

But she is more hardheaded than I am and she won me over.

Not the ideas so much as her character. She is an excellent example of a person who thinks first-hand with pure goodwill driving it all.

Michael

Hi Jules, Michael, and Tony,

Thanks for the welcome back!

I had to put him down last September. He wasn't quite 7. He had a digestive problem of unknown cause which got worse and worse. The vet came to my home and put him out of his misery while he lay on my kitchen floor.

--Brant

my pal

So sorry to hear about your dog's death, Brant.

But I'm sure Saga had very good life with you.

My prediction. Part 3 will be a piece of shit.

Drastic formulation, but this may indeed be true.

Hard as I try, I can't imagine Part III be made into a film. Galt's Gulch full of happy people - Danneskjöld rescuing Galt ...

How on earth can something like Galt's Gulch be presented convincingly on screen without sliding into the too rose-colored?

Even a genius like Frank Capra encountered problems in presenting a 'happy valley':

The preview of Frank Capra's 1937 Lost Horizon - a movie in which a 'eu'topian valley (Shangri-La) plays a central roletoo - was a compete disaster. Soon people started giggling during scenes which were not supposed to elicit any giggling at all.

Capra, who was present at the preview, broke out in a cold sweat. He slid out into the foyer to get himself a glass of water.

There he came across a spectator who told him (not recognizing Capra): "Have you ever seen in your life such idiotic Fu-Man-Chu stuff? Those who are guilty of producing such rubbish ought to be shot!" Poor Capra fled out into the rain. He did not see the disastrous end of the performance: almost all spectators had left.

Now with Atlas Shrugged, those who have read the novel will know beforehand about Galt's Gulch, but what about those who haven't read the book?

Of course it all depends on the way it is presented, but imo the Gulch full of people happily living there is just too idyllic to be convincing, even in the book.

Ayn Rand was a political radical, but she was also a romantic. Imo this combination poses a major hurdle when it comes to making her novels into films.

Nutz! She really is back!

--Brant

I failed--bitter tea indeed

Hi Brant,

You failed in what? In trying to chase me away for good?

How's your chocolate Lab ('Saga'?) doing?

The general choice was a radical hysterectomy...the problem in recovery is that there may be a small secondary infrection from any leakage from the surgery.

You should not allow her lethargy to lull you into not calling the Vet about it. Also, is she running any fever? Are her eyes "clear?"

Selene,

Indeed she has also had that small seconday infection from leakage from the surgery - that's why it didn't seem to bee healing well. So we took her to the vet clinic again. It is being treated with antibiotics and she is doing a lot better now.

Thanks again for your kind words and for the medical info!

Angela, I hope everything is going well with your family and your Golden Retriever [??].

A...

Hi Adam,

It's been quite a busy time in my life during the past two years, with caring for elderly relatves occupying a larg chunk of my time.

As for our (meanwhile 9 year-old) Golden Retriever dog - interesting that you should ask about her as well - actually she had to undergo an emergency operation last week! We had to rush her to the hospital (her abdomen suddenly had bloated) - the diagnosis was metritis and they had to operate her right away (ovario-hysterectomy).

She's home now but still very weak, and not yet quite over the hump because the wound doesnt seem to be healing too well, but at least she's still alive!

As for my other activities: I took a 'side trip' into discussing some criminal cases again - among them the very controversially debated Amanda Knox case.

In criminal cases, one absolutely needs to work with the principle of non-contradiction! When one comes across a contradiction, one always has to examine it closely.

And how are things going here at OL? Lively as usual, as it seems.(I just took a look at the 'Tyranny of the Majority' debate). :-)

Please note that I pointed out the theoretical nature of my argument in my OP.

“All theory is gray, my friend. But forever green is the tree of life.” (Goethe, Faust Part 1).

Now we have to get Angela to this zone...

Leave it to the Germans to allow naked people to roam freely…but only in certain places.

So goes the general reaction in Europe these days to the news that the city of Munich has given enthusiastic approval to allowing naked people to stroll freely and to sunbathe in public spaces.

This doesn’t mean that just anybody who feels like taking his or her clothes off can strip down everywhere. The city, according to the Atlantic Cities, has designated six official “Urban Naked Zones” in parks offering privacy, but also only minutes away from the busy city center.

“While these areas’ locations in parkland gives them a degree of seclusion, none of them are fenced off or hidden away,” the site reports. “One spot is barely 10 minutes from Munich’s main square, located along a stream to which tourists flock.”

That would be ms. Xray on our forum.

A...

I think Ms. Xray is in Vienna unknowingly awaiting the arrival of a reincarnated absolutist Jan III Sobieski.

--Brant

who will save her relativistic ass from the besieging absolutist Muslim hordes (right at the gates of the city)

(Jesus H. Christ!)

@Selene

@Brant

Munich is just a pretty easygoing city when it comes to things like designated areas of public nakedness.

Which doesn't mean the city of Munich is as easygoig in other respects: for example, public prostitution is confined to the outskirts of the city.

Dagny (imdb)

Never liked the anorexia look. She needs some carbs.

I'd gladly buy her a ticket to a buffet.

I think Laura Regan looks the part. That's how I've aways imagined Dagny: very slender and willowy.

But isn't Dagny's haircolor described as brunette in the book?

Well Ragnar does have blond hair...

I thought of Ragnar as being a good deal younger.

So sad to hear about Barbara Branden's passing.

It was Barbara's outstanding biography of Ayn Rand that opened the door for me to the person who was Ayn Rand.

Thank you so much, Barbara, for this great gift.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmermans-girlfriend-drop-charges/story?id=21153527

So Samantha Scheibe was "the woman in there" whom Zimmermann's estranged wife mentioned in her frantic 911 call this September.

I just looked at some pictures of Samantha Scheibe - what could it be that draws an such an attractive young woman to someone like Zimmerman? Is it a wish to be in the limelight ('better to be in an 'infamous' limelight than in none at all')?

Or is it the allure of the potentially 'dangerous' man?

Anyone who has studied criminal cases will know that it is not unusual even for convicted killers to get marriage proposals in prison ...

"Brothers in Arms" - I love that song!

Knopfler's way of playing the guitar plus his husky voice are right up my alley!

I love cooking with garlic but have always hated peeling it - I'm going to try this out!!!

The defects of the film have little to do with its budget (Part 1 cost $20 million). As a fan of independent film, each year I see dozens of films made with far, far less while still managing to be beautifully shot, edited and acted.

Film is a visual medium, and the creators of Parts 1 and 2 have apparently never encountered the idea that in order to engage the viewer, one must show more than tell.

Atlas the Book is a tapestry of arresting images, startling contrasts, and larger than life heroes. Atlas the Movie is flat, lifeless and thoroughly ordinary.

There is more drama in a puppet show.

Imo AS simply cannot be adapted into a convincing film, not even with top-notch actors, a large budget and a top-flight director.

If I had the money I would donate it with the proviso that they do something, anything, with the Galt torture scene. I don't know what could be done but that scene is just too comic-book for a series that has proceeded in a somewhat normal cinematic fashion.

Ragnar Danneskjöld finally 'coming to the rescue' through the window like a true comic-book hero ...

Has George Zimmerman ever been asked whether, if he could trun back the clock, he would have acted differently?

Or what would have happened if Zimmerman hadn't been armed? It probably would not have come to any confrontation at all, because GZ wouldn't have acted with the 'bold' feeling of being armed.

Not only has GZ taken Trayvon's life, he has destroyed his own life as well. For he will forever be remembered as "The man who shot the kid".