Peikoff on date rape

[Selene]

Fair enough as to the elite story.

However, the prior point is not about that elite, it is about the "...reality of most young men and women today" and there internet porn addiction which is having a devastating impotency amongst young men.

Well, the impotent ones can hardly go around raping, can they. Guess it's up to the geriatrics like Lennie.

I got that, but i did not think we were talking exclusively about "rape" in this conversation.

[caroljane]

Fair enough as to the elite story.

However, the prior point is not about that elite, it is about the "...reality of most young men and women today" and there internet porn addiction which is having a devastating impotency amongst young men.

Well, the impotent ones can hardly go around raping, can they. Guess it's up to the geriatrics like Lennie.

I got that, but i did not think we were talking exclusively about "rape" in this conversation.

No, of course we weren't. I was just being zappy. But if I start to twitch, please send help. I am not crazy!

Interesting that the Papal website is down, and the last comments on Ethelfood are 15 hours old. And the comments are about..comments (she is reteching the comments section). And vaccination, and exercise systems, and did I mention the tattoos?

[william.scherk]

Interesting that the Papal website is down, and the last comments on Ethelfood are 15 hours old. And the comments are about..comments (she is reteching the comments section). And vaccination, and exercise systems, and did I mention the tattoos?

I finally twigged to the Ethel (unless it was to Ethel of Lucy fame)

[caroljane]

Interesting that the Papal website is down, and the last comments on Ethelfood are 15 hours old. And the comments are about..comments (she is reteching the comments section). And vaccination, and exercise systems, and did I mention the tattoos?

I finally twigged to the Ethel (unless it was to Ethel of Lucy fame)

lol-- no, it was the Mertzes of ILL I named the dauntless doctors for.. I don't remember this Ethel but she's kinda cute. I used to have a two-piece just like that!

[william.scherk]

Here is Uncle Grandpa teasing his curious courtiers:

Q: I was interested in how you select fiction books to read. Could you indicate which authors you find worth reading?

A: I'm in the process of organizing my library, and I've had a number of questions like this. I want to try to make a decent list from my library of things that are not classics and are not Objectivist but that I enjoyed reading, and then give it as an answer to one one podcast question, but for now, I'll just recommend one short story collection. I never usually read short stories -- it takes so much time to get to know the characters and then its over -- but this particular one I thoroughly enjoyed.

It's by my favourite science fiction writer, Fredric Brown, and he wrote a collection of short stories called, "Nightmares And Geezenstacks." He's long dead, I think in the forties, but I showed that to Ayn Rand once, the very last story, which is one paragraph long, and all of his stories have a brilliant twist to them, and she started reading and she got halfway through the paragraph and she burst out laughing, you know, very strongly, and she said, "That is really clever." That's a tease, if you want to look that one up.

From his papal self's endless supply of Preston Manning impersonations, pratfalls, bulls, encyclicals, and other painful stumbles.

http://media.blubrry.com/peikoff/www.peikoff.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012-02-06.202_B.mp3

A striking Geezenstacks TV episode (of series Tales From The Darkside) was made back in the day. This video has spoilers, so let Uncle G have his tease, and don't watch the stunning ending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b6zni9I6uQ

Edited February 9, 2012 by william.scherk

[caroljane]

Interesting that the Papal website is down, and the last comments on Ethelfood are 15 hours old. And the comments are about..comments (she is reteching the comments section). And vaccination, and exercise systems, and did I mention the tattoos?

I finally twigged to the Ethel (unless it was to Ethel of Lucy fame)

lol-- no, it was the Mertzes of ILL I named the dauntless doctors for.. I don't remember this Ethel but she's kinda cute. I used to have a two-piece just like that!

Mine had straps of course.

A sad thing, that body IS on magazine covers today. The girl behind her would be "too fat." My 1967 body would hardly dare to go on the beach today.

[caroljane]

Here is Uncle Grandpa teasing his curious courtiers:

Q: I was interested in how you select fiction books to read. Could you indicate which authors you find worth reading?

A: I'm in the process of organizing my library, and I've had a number of questions like this. I want to try to make a decent list from my library of things that are not classics and are not Objectivist but that I enjoyed reading, and then give it as an answer to one one podcast question, but for now, I'll just recommend one short story collection. I never usually read short stories -- it takes so much time to get to know the characters and then its over -- but this particular one I thoroughly enjoyed.

It's by my favourite science fiction writer, Fredric Brown, and he wrote a collection of short stories called, "Nightmares And Geezenstacks." He's long dead, I think in the forties, but I showed that to Ayn Rand once, the very last story, which is one paragraph long, and all of his stories have a brilliant twist to them, and she started reading and she got halfway through the paragraph and she burst out laughing, you know, very strongly, and she said, "That is really clever." That's a tease, if you want to look that one up.

From his papal self's endless supply of Preston Manning impersonations, pratfalls, bulls, encyclicals, and other painful stumbles.

http://media.blubrry.com/peikoff/www.peikoff.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012-02-06.202_B.mp3

A striking Geezenstacks TV episode (of series Tales From The Darkside) was made back in the day. This video has spoilers, so let Uncle G have his tease, and don't watch the stunning ending.

What an attention span that man has...what a mind. All that time to get through a short story. No wonder it takes him 20 years to write a book.

That photo on the website...God! He looks like Leonard Cohen's developmentally challenged brother.

[william.scherk]

[in re Archie comic character Big Ethel and her high-school attempts to seduce Jughead Jones]

A sad thing, that body IS on magazine covers today. The girl behind her would be "too fat." My 1967 body would hardly dare to go on the beach today.

Ipanema is worse.** Count your blessings, ma.

But yeah, good thing Ethel and Archie and them stayed in high school. They did not ever have to get drunk chimpanzee-style at zesty new post-modern college frats (though Seymour Faucoult Quouque-Toque may opine otherwise ...)

___________________

**

The song was inspired by Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto (now Helô Pinheiro), a seventeen-year-old girl living on Montenegro Street in the fashionable Ipanema district in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^{[citation needed]} Daily, she would stroll past the popular Veloso bar-café, not just to the beach ("each day when she walks to the sea"), but in the everyday course of her life. She would sometimes enter the bar to buy cigarettes for her mother and leave to the sound of wolf-whistles.^[4] In the winter of 1962, the composers watched the girl pass by the bar, and it is easy to imagine why they noticed her—Helô was a 173-cm (five-foot eight-inch) brunette, and she attracted the attention of many of the bar patrons. Since the song became popular, she has become a celebrity.

In Revelação: a verdadeira Garota de Ipanema (Revealed: The Real Girl from Ipanema) Moraes wrote she was: "o paradigma do broto carioca; a moça dourada, misto de flor e sereia, cheia de luz e de graça mas cuja a visão é também triste, pois carrega consigo, a caminho do mar, o sentimento da mocidade que passa, da beleza que não é só nossa—é um dom da vida em seu lindo e melancólico fluir e refluir constante."

Translation: "the paradigm of the young Carioca: a golden teenage girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of light and grace, the sight of whom is also sad, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of youth that fades, of the beauty that is not ours alone—it is a gift of life in its beautiful and melancholic constant ebb and flow."

Edited February 9, 2012 by william.scherk

[william.scherk]

Just to wrap up and confess to my blunders in re Big Ethel ...

As established by the 1990 TV movie "Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again," the Archie gang gets together for a high-school reunion, and we learn this about the characters:

• Betty, a grade school teacher, is constantly bossed around by her crummy boyfriend, Robert.
  
• Veronica, having lived in France since graduation, has been married (and divorced) four times.
  
• Jughead, now a psychiatrist, is also a divorcé with a son, Jordan. Jughead carries emotional baggage that manifests itself in a terrible fear of women. (A running gag in the movie is Jughead's desperation to avoid seeing Big Ethel during his visit to Riverdale.) This is played for laughs at the end when at the reunion it turns out that Big Ethel is no longer the gangly, awkward teenager she once was but is now a striking beauty.**
  
• Moose and Midge have gotten married and become chiropractors. They also have a son, Max, who hits it off with Jordan.
  
• Seymour goes back to school.
  

When Archie sees Betty and Veronica for the first time in fifteen years, all his old feelings for them come flooding back, threatening his engagement—and it doesn't help that the girls renew their pursuit of Archie, heedless of the fact that he has a fiancée. Meanwhile, Archie also tries to keep gym owner Reggie, helped along by an uncharacteristically menacing Mr. Lodge, from evicting Pop Tate from his soda shop. Archie ultimately saves the Chock'lit Shoppe, though he loses Pam in the bargain, and decides to stay in Riverdale.

____________

** When [Jughead] finally decided to accept his fate and go to her house, he was amazed to discover that Ethel was a late bloomer and was in fact a gorgeous fashion model, who still had a crush on him. At the end of the movie, Jughead chose to stay in Riverdale with his son and pursue a relationship with Ethel.

Whew!

Edited February 9, 2012 by william.scherk

[caroljane]

Just to wrap up and confess to my blunders in re Big Ethel ...

As established by the 1990 TV movie "Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again," the Archie gang gets together for a high-school reunion, and we learn this about the characters:

• Betty, a grade school teacher, is constantly bossed around by her crummy boyfriend, Robert.
  
• Veronica, having lived in France since graduation, has been married (and divorced) four times.
  
• Jughead, now a psychiatrist, is also a divorcé with a son, Jordan. Jughead carries emotional baggage that manifests itself in a terrible fear of women. (A running gag in the movie is Jughead's desperation to avoid seeing Big Ethel during his visit to Riverdale.) This is played for laughs at the end when at the reunion it turns out that Big Ethel is no longer the gangly, awkward teenager she once was but is now a striking beauty.**
  
• Moose and Midge have gotten married and become chiropractors. They also have a son, Max, who hits it off with Jordan.
  
• Seymour goes back to school.
  

When Archie sees Betty and Veronica for the first time in fifteen years, all his old feelings for them come flooding back, threatening his engagement—and it doesn't help that the girls renew their pursuit of Archie, heedless of the fact that he has a fiancée. Meanwhile, Archie also tries to keep gym owner Reggie, helped along by an uncharacteristically menacing Mr. Lodge, from evicting Pop Tate from his soda shop. Archie ultimately saves the Chock'lit Shoppe, though he loses Pam in the bargain, and decides to stay in Riverdale.

____________

** When [Jughead] finally decided to accept his fate and go to her house, he was amazed to discover that Ethel was a late bloomer and was in fact a gorgeous fashion model, who still had a crush on him. At the end of the movie, Jughead chose to stay in Riverdale with his son and pursue a relationship with Ethel.

Whew!

How in the world did I miss that TV movie? Coincidence, I live nearly next to Riverdale High (like millions of others in North America I' m sure. Also in Neighbourhood Notes, McGuigan's Scottish Pub has opened, three doors down. I feel like Kevin Costner. I built the Hag&Sporran, here on OL out of airy nothing. Then along came Mcguigan's with the sporran. I feel confident that I can provide the hag element. I am looking out my raincoat and perching crag.

[caroljane]

Just to wrap up and confess to my blunders in re Big Ethel ...

As established by the 1990 TV movie "Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again," the Archie gang gets together for a high-school reunion, and we learn this about the characters:

• Betty, a grade school teacher, is constantly bossed around by her crummy boyfriend, Robert.
  
• Veronica, having lived in France since graduation, has been married (and divorced) four times.
  
• Jughead, now a psychiatrist, is also a divorcé with a son, Jordan. Jughead carries emotional baggage that manifests itself in a terrible fear of women. (A running gag in the movie is Jughead's desperation to avoid seeing Big Ethel during his visit to Riverdale.) This is played for laughs at the end when at the reunion it turns out that Big Ethel is no longer the gangly, awkward teenager she once was but is now a striking beauty.**
  
• Moose and Midge have gotten married and become chiropractors. They also have a son, Max, who hits it off with Jordan.
  
• Seymour goes back to school.
  

When Archie sees Betty and Veronica for the first time in fifteen years, all his old feelings for them come flooding back, threatening his engagement—and it doesn't help that the girls renew their pursuit of Archie, heedless of the fact that he has a fiancée. Meanwhile, Archie also tries to keep gym owner Reggie, helped along by an uncharacteristically menacing Mr. Lodge, from evicting Pop Tate from his soda shop. Archie ultimately saves the Chock'lit Shoppe, though he loses Pam in the bargain, and decides to stay in Riverdale.

____________

** When [Jughead] finally decided to accept his fate and go to her house, he was amazed to discover that Ethel was a late bloomer and was in fact a gorgeous fashion model, who still had a crush on him. At the end of the movie, Jughead chose to stay in Riverdale with his son and pursue a relationship with Ethel.

Whew!

How in the world did I miss that TV movie? Coincidence, I live nearly next to Riverdale High (like millions of others in North America I' m sure. Also in Neighbourhood Notes, McGuigan's Scottish Pub has opened, three doors down. I feel like Kevin Costner. I built the Hag&Sporran, here on OL out of airy nothing. Then along came Mcguigan's with the sporran. I feel confident that I can provide the hag element. I am looking out my raincoat and perching crag.

sorry I forgot the quotes there .."out of airy nothing/ a local habitation and a name" I don't remember who wrote it (Shakespeare?)

[Brant Gaede]

Interesting that the Papal website is down, and the last comments on Ethelfood are 15 hours old. And the comments are about..comments (she is reteching the comments section). And vaccination, and exercise systems, and did I mention the tattoos?

I finally twigged to the Ethel (unless it was to Ethel of Lucy fame)

lol-- no, it was the Mertzes of ILL I named the dauntless doctors for.. I don't remember this Ethel but she's kinda cute. I used to have a two-piece just like that!

Mine had straps of course.

A sad thing, that body IS on magazine covers today. The girl behind her would be "too fat." My 1967 body would hardly dare to go on the beach today.

Just leave your head at home.

--Brant

[caroljane]

Interesting that the Papal website is down, and the last comments on Ethelfood are 15 hours old. And the comments are about..comments (she is reteching the comments section). And vaccination, and exercise systems, and did I mention the tattoos?

I finally twigged to the Ethel (unless it was to Ethel of Lucy fame)

lol-- no, it was the Mertzes of ILL I named the dauntless doctors for.. I don't remember this Ethel but she's kinda cute. I used to have a two-piece just like that!

Mine had straps of course.

A sad thing, that body IS on magazine covers today. The girl behind her would be "too fat." My 1967 body would hardly dare to go on the beach today.

Just leave your head at home.

--Brant

Snap! That's what I usually did, now that I think back on it.

[william.scherk]

I built the Hag&Sporran, here on OL out of airy nothing.

sorry I forgot the quotes there .."out of airy nothing/ a local habitation and a name" I don't remember who wrote it (Shakespeare?)

Shakespeare's line is spoken by Theseus: ". . . as imagination bodies forth/ The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen/ Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing/ A local habitation and a name."

I also liked the casual description of Bizarro/Archie-World Objectivism: "an uncharacteristically menacing Mr. Lodge"

Who is playing Mr Lodge at the Objectivish Class Reunion (well, of course, there would have to be at least seven separate reunions, to accommodate all the factions and their snits)?

(William, I was thinking of you here ("the ick factor of Objectivism" ) - to try to show that misimplementation and misinterpretation of the principles by we O'ists at times - people errors - should be viewed as distinct from the principles themselves.

We all push too far sometimes; Peikoff, particularly, is ludicrous in matters sexual.)

I accept that. I am a lumper, I am sad to say, but I do sort you out into the non-Ick lump (my first use of that term was with that numbskull ARI-release Tsunami OpEd back when two hundred thousand dead meant something). Barbara Branden has been careful along the way to point out that same thing (mostly with reference to the sociopathic and/or self-drunk Objectivish I poke at).

On the other hand, why do Peikoff's mad uninformed run-ons get such an obeisant, if not fawning, reception? Are his students and grateful readers still that stupefied by authority? It just makes me shake my head. Did my mother raise me wrong, to side with those subtly pre-judged as deserving, of presumed harlots and temptresses and sluts and sirens?

What am I (and Carol, and you, and PDS and 9th et al) getting wrong here?

This is the issue where I sorta partially stand with Doctor Comrade Diana -- if and when and rarely she critiques ARI for authoritarianism or wild or undisciplined whacks at the ball. She would ordinarily ROAR over a woman's body ...

But then she does go as sweet and silent as a Kremlin wife at times, doesn't she (or, perhaps, allow Paul Hsieh's straightforward rejection to stand for hers, canny thing)? Too many times. Is it too much to publicly remark upon Ick?

Edited February 10, 2012 by william.scherk

[caroljane]

[quote name='william.scherk' timestamp='1328836117' post='155)

I also liked the casual description of Bizarro/Archie-World Objectivism: "an uncharacteristically menacing Mr. Lodge"

Who is playing Mr Lodge at the Objectivish Class Reunion (well, of course, there would have to be at least seven separate reunions, to accomodate and the factions and their snits)?

[]

Don't , don't don't tempt me...please.

"Lenny Peikoff! Hey! Read any good books lately?

Dave Kelley, how ya doin! Seen any good movies lately?"

[caroljane]

Sorry, I can't seem to fix the above post. The comment is mine of course, about Objectivist Class Reunion. I am picturing the alumni now, on their way to the Meet'n'Greet, as they debate how best to get their party bus out of a ditch.

[Ellen Stuttle]

On the other hand, why do Peikoff's mad uninformed run-ons get such an obeisant, if not fawning, reception? Are his students and grateful readers still that stupefied by authority? It just makes me shake my head.

Me, too, after all these years -- and even though I saw quite a bit of "obeisant, if not fawning" attitudes toward Rand when I was living in NYC. Still, "obeisant, if not fawning" toward Rand, who was powerful, charismatic, exciting, becoming same toward Leonard Peikoff.....??? I still don't feel that I understand it.

Ellen

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Frankly, I had to look up "obeisant."

Deferential and curtsying are not the impression I get. Worshipful and star-struck seem to fit the bill better.

In other words, not the fake-smile toadying of suck-ups, but the certainty of true-believers before their godhead.

Michael

[9thdoctor]

http://forum.objectivismonline.com/index.php?showtopic=23082&view=findpost&p=288951

The word around the campfire is that LP will deal with this kerfuffle in his March 4 podcast.

[9thdoctor]

I am afraid to look at Noodlefood for Doctor Comrade Diana's possible comment on Peikoff's latest and greatest howler.

Her High Comradeship has announced the topics for her next message to the world. Nothing about Lenny's latest on the list.

http://forum.objecti...ndpost&p=288534

Having had her fill of baby baby back ribs, her Comradeship plans to address the latest and greatest howler this weekend.

http://forum.objecti...ndpost&p=289309

Meanwhile, one of her brethren wrote a more prompt response of undeniable quality:

http://jasonstotts.c...eikoff-on-rape/

[william.scherk]

Having had her fill of baby baby back ribs, her Comradeship plans to address the latest and greatest howler this weekend.

http://forum.objecti...ndpost&p=289309

Meanwhile, one of her brethren wrote a more prompt response of undeniable quality:

http://jasonstotts.c...eikoff-on-rape/

9th, you are my lighthouse. Thanks for keeping us informed. Meanwhile, added to the straightforward Hsieh the Paul takedown, a Stott-like angry fawn says a lot about a kind of restlessness with Uncle Grandpa that gives me a bit of hope for the Objectivish of tomorrow. And if the valiant good doctor comrade sets against the good ship Uncle Lollipop, better.

In my wildest dreams, though, the multiple factions take residence for some week in Vegas -- a mix of media circus, politico funders, peace meetings and expansion plans. All the honchos, all the lobbyists, the writers, the opinionistas, the fellow travelers from Fox, the Rushies and the Tea Partyite Objectivish and atheist Republicans for guns, the gifted, the thwarted, the craven, all the bullshit artists, all the writers and gladhanders and reverends and factionalists.

At some lone hotel, the Summit of delegates from each of the splits.

Unity and Forward to Victory once we cremate Uncle Grandpa. The old unappealing vanguard shall be replaced by a young unappealing vanguard. There, square in the middle, the luscious, brainless-baby food farmer and mother of none, Doctor Comrade. New empires, new universes of advancement.

I do not know why she makes me feel listless, though, ultimately. She is so perky and certain and properly exercised and nourished and morally correct. Could it just be down to my long steep in the collectivist tea of British Columbia that I cannot more easily fall for her blandishments? I am sad and confused about my lack of connection to the Doctor and the Comrade, especially as she positions herself for Leader of Tomorrow. I just do not believe enough in Reason I guess, sob sob.

Edited February 24, 2012 by william.scherk

[Brant Gaede]

Having had her fill of baby baby back ribs, her Comradeship plans to address the latest and greatest howler this weekend.

http://forum.objecti...ndpost&p=289309

Meanwhile, one of her brethren wrote a more prompt response of undeniable quality:

http://jasonstotts.c...eikoff-on-rape/

9th, you are my lighthouse. Thanks for keeping us informed. Meanwhile, added to the straightforward Hsieh the Paul takedown, a Stott-like angry fawn says a lot about a kind of restlessness with Uncle Grandpa that gives me a bit of hope for the Objectivish of tomorrow. And if the valiant good doctor comrade sets against the good ship Uncle Lollipop, better.

In my wildest dreams, though, the multiple factions take residence for some week in Vegas -- a mix of media circus, politico funders, peace meetings and expansion plans. All the honchos, all the lobbyists, the writers, the opinionistas, the fellow travelers from Fox, the Rushies and the Tea Partyite Objectivish and atheist Republicans for guns, the gifted, the thwarted, the craven, all the bullshit artists, all the writers and gladhanders and reverends and factionalists.

At some lone hotel, the Summit of delegates from each of the splits.

Unity and Forward to Victory once we cremate Uncle Grandpa. The old unappealing vanguard shall be replaced by a young unappealing vanguard. There, square in the middle, the luscious, brainless-baby food farmer and mother of none, Doctor Comrade. New empires, new universes of advancement.

I do not know why she makes me feel listless, though, ultimately. She is so perky and certain and properly exercised and nourished and morally correct. Could it just be down to my long steep in the collectivist tea of British Columbia that I cannot more easily fall for her blandishments? I am sad and confused about my lack of connection to the Doctor and the Comrade, especially as she positions herself for Leader of Tomorrow. I just do not believe enough in Reason I guess, sob sob.

Is she sucking the life out of you to suck the life into her?

--Brant

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I just looked at the links and skimmed.

This jumped out at me (from the Hsieh post): "I hope to see you on Sunday morning!"

As in Sunday School?

Dayaamm!

Michael

[PDS]

I am afraid to look at Noodlefood for Doctor Comrade Diana's possible comment on Peikoff's latest and greatest howler.

Her High Comradeship has announced the topics for her next message to the world. Nothing about Lenny's latest on the list.

http://forum.objecti...ndpost&p=288534

Having had her fill of baby baby back ribs, her Comradeship plans to address the latest and greatest howler this weekend.

http://forum.objecti...ndpost&p=289309

Meanwhile, one of her brethren wrote a more prompt response of undeniable quality:

http://jasonstotts.c...eikoff-on-rape/

I'll say it again: would-be Objectivish scholars and thinkers would impress me more if they spent a little bit of time solving the dilemma of how to finance government in a free society, how to structure an Objectivist legal system, how to move from a welfare state to a society based on individual rights, maybe writing a book that someone other than their close family might read, etc.

These are some of the important issues identified by Ayn Rand (remember her?) in the 60's, but apparently they are unworthy of attention.

Instead, we have the likes of DH and Piekoff answering questions on the morality of pasta salad and whether (in Selene's apt and delightful turn of the phrase), the first 5 inches are "consensual", and, of course, other such stirring issues of the day--all while a secondary group of moral cowards blog and explain and await a time when they can freely speak their minds without fear of purges--a bunch of Peter Keatings who have read The Fountainhead and AS, and almost nothing more.

What a cluster fuck. What a pissing away of Rand's legacy.

[caroljane]

I'll say it again: would-be Objectivish scholars and thinkers would impress me more if they spent a little bit of time solving the dilemma of how to finance government in a free society, how to structure an Objectivist legal system, how to move from a welfare state to a society based on individual rights, maybe writing a book that someone other than their close family might read, etc.

These are some of the important issues identified by Ayn Rand (remember her?) in the 60's, but apparently they are unworthy of attention.

Instead, we have the likes of DH and Piekoff answering questions on the morality of pasta salad and whether (in Selene's apt and delightful turn of the phrase), the first 5 inches are "consensual", and, of course, other such stirring issues of the day--all while a secondary group of moral cowards blog and explain and await a time when they can freely speak their minds without fear of purges--a bunch of Peter Keatings who have read The Fountainhead and AS, and almost nothing more.

What a cluster fuck. What a pissing away of Rand's legacy.

Yes. But part of her legacy was the exclusiveness of her thought. It was she who declared that everybody except herself and those she designated could not be Objectivists but only students. And students must perforce look for guidance to their teachers.

I came across a poster on OO who weighed in on the shopping cart return debate saying, "I have opinions about everything." I thought, that poor boy. He must be exhausted, not to mention those who are favoured with the exposition of his opinions. But is it not the essence of Rand's thought, that everything in life must be subjected to rational analysis and ultimately judgment?

It can't all be blamed on the Popes and Ethels