Kimmler

Thank you to everyone who replied to this one...as always I know you are good men and women with better things to do than answer my questions. Joel or indeed anybody, care to take a guess on the number?

Sounds awful, but what was the last governor like? Better or worse?

Travolta and Co. were serious about Battlefield Earth and I did see the 'making of' extra on the DVD of said film. No one sets out to make a bad film and they had a modest budget and cast and stuck faithfully to the book. But no matter, the armchair quarterbacks rubbished that one too. Seems you don't get credit in this world for good intentions. I actually though Hollywood did a good job with The Fountainhead. TAS considers it to be a classic and they had an A-list cast and King Vidor did an exceptional job directing that film. His camera man was also on the ball. But in the end the film feel short of greatness...I'd give it an 8 out of 10. Worth watching but not worth buying the DVD.

In Brit land wages rise higher than prices 4 out of every 5 years. So we don't worry about inflation. Doesn't the same happen in America?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia Phobias are irrational fears and objectivists are 100% rational. Ergo, is must be impossible for an objectivist to suffer from a phobia. As why would they persist in being irrational re the phobia?

Your attacks have no bite because they are always aimed at a personality and never at the truth. I have no idea what you are attempting to say here. Shayne Oh no...my posting here seems to have lead to you two following out. Just for the record I think that sjw is an intelligent objectivist, which is like a dog that speaks; very rare. Adam is an objectivist with a sense of humour, which is like a dog that speaks Norwegian; even rarer. Adam, I agree with sjw on this because he is clever enough to see that what ever political party is in power the old adage "you don't subvert the system, it's subverts you" will hold true, leading to a pyrrhic victory.

I suppose it is difficult question to answer as the definition of what an objectivist is would be hard to pin down. But how many people would you say in the world today would describe themselves as objectivists?

Well said sjw...thank you for restoring some sanity to this topic. I share your expectations.

1. THOU SHALT ALWAYS WEAR TWEED. No other fabric says so defiantly: I am a man of panache, savoir-faire and devil-may-care, and I will not be served Continental lager beer under any circumstances. 2 THOU SHALT NEVER NOT SMOKE. Health and Safety "executives" and jobsworth medical practitioners keep trying to convince us that smoking is bad for the lungs/heart/skin/eyebrows, but we all know that smoking a bent apple billiard full of rich Cavendish tobacco raises one's general sense of well-being to levels unimaginable by the aforementioned spoilsports. 3 THOU SHALT ALWAYS BE COURTEOUS TO THE LADIES. A gentleman is never truly seated on an omnibus or railway carriage: he is merely keeping the seat warm for when a lady might need it. Those who take offence at being offered a seat are not really Ladies. 4 THOU SHALT NEVER, EVER, WEAR PANTALOONS DE NIMES. When you have progressed beyond fondling girls in the back seats of cinemas, you can stop wearing jeans. Wear fabrics appropriate to your age, and, who knows, you might even get a quick fumble in your box at the opera. 5 THOU SHALT ALWAYS DOFF ONE'S HAT. Alright, so you own a couple of trilbies. Good for you - but it's hardly going to change the world. Once you start actually lifting them off your head when greeting, departing or simply saluting passers-by, then the revolution will really begin. 6 THOU SHALT NEVER FASTEN THE LOWEST BUTTON ON THY WESKIT. Look, we don't make the rules, we simply try to keep them going. This one dates back to Edward VII, sufficient reason in itself to observe it. 7 THOU SHALT ALWAYS SPEAK PROPERLY. It's quite simple really. Instead of saying "Yo, wassup?", say "How do you do?" 8 THOU SHALT NEVER WEAR PLIMSOLLS WHEN NOT DOING SPORT. Nor even when doing sport. Which you shouldn't be doing anyway. Except cricket. 9 THOU SHALT ALWAYS WORSHIP AT THE TROUSER PRESS. At the end of each day, your trousers should be placed in one of Mr. Corby's magical contraptions, and by the next morning your creases will be so sharp that they will start a riot on the high street. 10 THOU SHALT ALWAYS CULTIVATE INTERESTING FACIAL HAIR. By interesting I mean moustaches, not beards.

Oh my dear...how can you live like that? A true gentleman always wears a hat when he is outdoors. I even wear an umbrella as a fashion accessory.

Kimmler, Oh, for God's sake. Moonshine is real liquor. You just showed that you never tasted any. (I'm from the backwoods, don't forget.) You Brits are all alike... Michael Mikey, the first erm...moonshiners were Brits. Oh the shame! Backwoods? Like in the film Deliverance?

Isn't it spelled (or perhaps 'spelt') "draught" by the British? You'd probably also need to have your capes and barrister's wigs imported. J Do you have restaurants in America where you use cutlery to eat your food? As America appears to be one massive prison. With fast food. I blame Obama. And his grandparents. What went wrong with America? Are people not wearing enough hats?

I opened this one with some trepidation lest I discover it contained some racist jokes. It’s a mad world so sang that great 80’s band Tears for fears. You should see the video for that. Unforgettable.

Yes, come on Ed, tell us. Has John, the Randian hero, found a distributor yet? If so, which one? How many theatres do you expect the film to open to or is it a straight to DVD production? MSK - Battlefield Earth was hilarious. Not quite a so-bad-its-good laugh fest but at times Travolta appears to be doing an Oliver Hardy impression. A very bad impression. The other actors are obviously just there for the money and boy do they let us know it. But what really rankled was the reverence they held the book in. Roger - as for being faithful, well just remember that Hollywood is to its source what moonshine is to real liquor.

By that reckoning we should all be thanking Travolta for Battlefied Earth.

Yes, that comment jumped out. It supports the Library of Congress reference that Atlas Shrugged ranks second to the Bible as the most read book in the world. I wonder if he wanted to separate it from the Bible reference by referring to Atlas as the most read novel in the world. That would leave the Bible as the most read non-fiction book. Just a thought. Adam Adam, That is the fantasy...here is the reality http://www.violetbooks.com/aynrand.html Oh, she is cruel mistress.

Thank him for what? For throwing together a quickie version of Atlas Shrugged (or one-third of it) on a 5 week shooting schedule in order to extend his control over the property? That falls a bit short of my notion of the Randian hero. here here! I was put off from making exactly the same comment due to the pooh-poohing I received earlier in this thread. On the strenght of this film, John seems more of a Toohey or a Peter Keating. If Agliolaro has a quality product to display for potential investors, you might think he would be willing to show more than ten minutes of it. How are we supposed to congratulate someone for an achievement when we are not even going to be allowed to see the alleged achievement?

Funny you should mention Delaware, as I was offered the post of editor of the Delaware Marxist Review. You may mock and scoff, but in Marxist circles it doesn't get any better than that. But in the end I turned it down. yYou dont't have draft Bass in America or have spotted dick in America. The former is a drink and the latter is a pudding and not an unfortunate affliction. Plus, I'd have to get my shirts imported...as in America you love your button down collars.

From the Randzapper website: - "Randzapper doesn't always keep up on the latest Randian nuttiness, so we are a little behind the times in noticing this remarkable essay by longtime Randolator Harry Binswanger. Disregarding the old adage that you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, Binswanger launches a salvo of personal attacks on the recently departed conservative pasha William F. Buckley. And when we say recently, we mean recently; Buckley passed away on February 27, 2008, and Binswanger posted his jeremiad on March 10. At least he waited till the body was cold. The title gives you a pretty good idea of what you're in for: "William F. Buckley, Jr.: The Witch-Doctor is Dead." Though personally, we think "Ding-Dong, the Witch-Doctor is Dead" would have had more of a, um, ring to it - so to speak. In case his readers missed the implications of the title - always a possibility when addressing dimwitted Objectivist twits - Binswanger begins his essay with the words, "William F. Buckley, Jr. is finally dead." Finally! You can just hear Binny breathe a heartfelt sigh of relief. Or it would be heartfelt, if he had a heart or was capable of feeling anything. Having established his bold, take-no-prisoners stance in defaming a dead guy who can't fight back, the intrepid Binswanger expands on his thesis that Buckley's grave is not worth crying over. Buckley was the man who initiated and sustained the movement to bring religion into the conservative movement. His first book was "God and Man at Yale," which I haven't read or looked at, but which is said to have criticized Yale education for being both leftist and anti-religious. Now, ya gotta love this. Binny has not "read or looked at" Buckley's famous book - one of the most influential tomes in modern conservative history - but he just knows it's bad, 'cause somebody told him so. Objectivist intellectualism at its finest! Let's hear it for the independent reasoning mind! (Has it ever occurred to you that the Randian movement is much like the crowd of disciples in Monty Python's Life of Brian? "You are all individuals," Brian tells them. "We are all individuals," the crowd chants in unison. Except for one guy, apparently untainted by Randism, who says defiantly, "I'm not!") Anyway, back to Binny and his bete noir. [buckley] then founded the magazine National Review, which Ayn Rand in her Playboy interview of 1964 called "the worst and most dangerous magazine in America," because of its crusade to tie capitalism to religion. Get it now? Binswanger knows Buckley was bad without reading his book - because Ayn Rand (peace be upon her) said so. The guru has spoken. The oracle has prophesied. Case closed. And she said so in Playboy, which apparently was not "the worst and most dangerous magazine in America," despite its reprehensible overuse of airbrushing. Inevitably, Binswanger next brings up that continuing thorn in Objectivism's paw, National Review's devastating and brilliant critique of Atlas Shrugged. The Whittaker Chambers piece on Atlas Shrugged was probably the most hostile and distorted review of that great work ever. Actually Chambers' essay was amazingly prescient and brimming with insights into the twisted Randian mindset. Read it for yourself. Or, if you're an Objectivist, just take Binswanger's word that it's not worth reading. After all, he's already told you what to think. In the intervening years, National Review has written at least two major attacks on Ayn Rand. I recall one titled, I think, "Saint Ayn," and it featured on its cover a drawing of Ayn Rand, as if on a stained glass window, looking heavenward. Heaven forfend! A magazine about public policy and conservative ideas that actually addressed Ayn Rand as a controversial and significant figure! Didn't Buckley know that, having received the Randian revelation, we were all expected to fall to our knees, blinded by the light, like Saint Paul on the road to Damascus? How dare they presume to criticize - criticize! - the Greatest Genius of the Past Two Thousand Years ™? Notice that Binswanger barely even remembers the cover story on Rand and has to guess at its title. Since he mentions nothing of the content of the piece, it is safe to assume he didn't read it, just as he didn't read Buckley's book. Apparently he did glance at the cover, though. That's what passes for serious intellectual engagement in Objectiworld. After taking Buckley to task for a couple of policy disagreements, Binswanger retails this unsubstantiated anecdote: Incidentally, Ayn Rand told me that in the years following her public condemnations of Buckley, he sent her more than one letter "crawling on his knees" (her words) trying to get her approval and/or a rapproachment. Needless to say, he failed in this attempt. Why do we have trouble believing this claim? Is it because the supremely confident and ever-poised Buckley does not strike us as the type who would crawl on his knees? Is it because Buckley had no conceivable reason to care if Ayn Rand liked him or not, inasmuch as Buckley was an influential leader of conservative thought and Rand was (and is) a sad joke ignored by everyone but dateless college freshmen? Is it because Rand lied so often about other incidents in her life, such as her affair with Nathaniel Branden and her early years in America, that her autobiographical ramblings have not the slightest whiff of credibility? Is it because Rand was obviously a megalomanical, narcissistic, delusional nut whose addled brain chronically conflated fantasy and reality? After careful consideration and much prayerful reflection, we think the answer is: all of the above. Not having excoriated the dead man quite enough, Binny lays it on with a trowel in his poisonous concluding graph: Buckley, more than anyone else, is responsible for subverting the "conservative movement," turning it into its current, depraved status as the anti-reason, anti-man, welfare-statist "religious right." The world is well rid of him. Nice, Harry. Really ... nice. You and the dead witch you worship were just made for each other. Now, because what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the goosestepper, let Randzapper emulate your style with this parting thought: Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, is responsible for polluting the minds of hapless young fools and creating a sick cult of personality that has ruined lives for decades. The world is well rid of this cheap Russian import. Indeed, the world would have been infinitely better off if Alicia Rosenbaum had strangled on her umbilical cord in her mother's feculent womb. In an uncertain world, at least you can count on Randzapper to stay classy. Always."

Should drug addicts be paid to get sterilised? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...london-11545519 The money behind Harris's campaign gives her enormous power, and she wants to deploy this against some of the most disenfranchised and vulnerable people on the planet. Can't she see how dangerous it is for one person to be able to decide who does and who doesn't have children?

Kimmler, Anyway, I don't think facing black lung--or even shrugging from it--is necessarily a Galt thing to do. Michael Nobody should have to face up to black lung.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Foxconn_suicides Apple boss Steve Jobs insists that Foxconn is "...not a sweatshop" and insists "We're all over this" He insists regular inspections have been made and that conditions are improving for those working in the plant. But, human rights group Sacom, which interviewed 100 workers and sent its own undercover reporters into Foxconn plants over the last six months, has concluded that staff continue to be treated "like machines" They found that: - A pay rise of 2000 Yuan per month promised at the time of worldwide interest in the suicides has failed to materialise. - Staff are officially limited to working 'only' 80 hrs per week; most are bullied into working more and cheating on their overtime records - Treats only extend as far as days out to workers rallies (!) - A culture of absolute obedience still prevails at the plant which includes disciplinary actions including workers having to copy out sayings of Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, such as "A harsh environment is a good thing" & "Hungry people have specially clear minds". Last week Apple announced "phenomenal" profits of £2.7bn in the last 1/4 and is poised to overtake Exxon Mobil as the US's biggest company. So, what did they have to say about the Sacom report? As of yet nothing.

You need to be a Galt to be a miner. I salute them, I would never do it, would any of you?

Old saying: "You don't subver the system...it subverts you" Running modern capitalism is very expensive and requires big government. How on earth do you keep the great unwashed in line otherwise? I have been told, let 'em read Atlas Shrugged, but so far is hasn't worked. In Europe there are riots against government cuts not for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining#Dangers_to_miners 33 miners were rescued in Chile this month and received worldwide coverage. 37 miners were killed in a gas explosion in China this month who didn't. 34. Is the average number of accidental deaths in Chilean mining industry each year in the last decade 57. Is the number of miners killed in accidents in the USA so far this year. Is John Galt a miner? It is a difficult and dangerous job.