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The rotten oak tree from Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged | 1957 | Ayn Rand

Posted on 11/07/2012 1:47:49 PM PST by Maceman

The great oak tree had stood on a hill over the Hudson, in a lonely spot of the Taggert estate. Eddie Willers, aged seven, liked to come and look at that tree. It had stood there for hundreds of years, and he thought it would always stand there. Its roots clutched the hill like a fist with fingers stuck into the soil, and he thought if a giant were to seize it by the top, he would not be able to uproot it, but would swing the hill and the whole of the earth with it, like a ball at the end of a string. He felt safe in the oak tree's presence; it was a thing that nothing could change or threaten; it was his greatest symbol of strength.

One night, lightning struck the oak tree. Eddie saw it the next morning. It lay broken in half, and he looked into its trunk as into the mouth of a black tunnel. The trunk was only an empty shell; its heart had rotted away long ago; there was nothing inside - just a thin gray dust that was being dispersed by the whim of the faintest wind. The living power had gone, and the shape of it left had not been able to stand without it.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
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To: concerned about politics
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21 posted on 11/07/2012 3:00:05 PM PST by baddog 219
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To: Maceman

There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.

“Foreign Policy Drains U.S. of Main Weapon,”
The Los Angeles times, Sept. 9, 1962, G2


22 posted on 11/07/2012 3:14:25 PM PST by Raymann
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free
I know exactly now how Rome Fell. Immorality and opening their doors to invaders.

Like minds. I was thinking about the Roman Empire this morning, and how America has taken the same path. With half a population of sloth, envy, degradation, infanticide, homosexuality, and every other screwed up type of liberal thing one can think of, the U.S. is on the edge of a great cleansing. I don't think the U.S has much time socially, physically, or financially.

10+ quake coming in December somewhere in the world, and it's going to be devastating. It has to do with planetary pulls. (This man has been 100% right about quakes so far. So right, it's frightening.)

23 posted on 11/07/2012 3:16:09 PM PST by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: Raymann
There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.

Socialism is the prelude to communism. It gets the camels head into the tent.

24 posted on 11/07/2012 3:19:13 PM PST by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: expat2; concerned about politics

The next 4yrs, if we survive them, are going to be very ugly. And it’s going to start soon.


25 posted on 11/07/2012 3:20:42 PM PST by Carriage Hill (America - a great idea while it lasted... it's over.)
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To: tpmintx
You're thinking way too small:


26 posted on 11/07/2012 3:50:29 PM PST by FredZarguna (I'm sorry, General Washington. We owed you and the men at Valley Forge so much more than this.)
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Comment #27 Removed by Moderator

To: ping jockey

That’s actually a pretty good idea. LOL. That would solve all the PDs’ property rooms’ confiscated drug cache problems, and rotate the supply thru the gene pool.


28 posted on 11/07/2012 5:49:07 PM PST by Carriage Hill (America - a great idea while it lasted... it's over.)
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To: expat2
"Secession may be the only way out."

~~~~~~~~~

Time to start drawing lines and filling out our list...

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The only way to stop the "takers" now is to cut off the flow of cash from red to blue.


29 posted on 11/07/2012 6:53:23 PM PST by TXnMA
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To: concerned about politics; Maceman
Well stated concerned about politics.

In a way, an economic crash is the only way to free the tax slaves. If there's no money to take, the slaves may have a hard time getting by, but they will because they've had practice already, and they'll be a free people again.

Isn't it ironic that we have the option to bow out of the workforce under the protection of the thirteenth amendment?

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

This is the Achilles heel of the great socialist movement. It will only take a small percentage of workers to decide that riding the cart is much easier than pushing it to end the decline.

30 posted on 11/07/2012 7:46:12 PM PST by whodathunkit
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To: Bogey78O
Refusal to acknowledge the Germans if they invaded.

That did not work out so well. There is no place so completely conservative, so complete full of the spirit of liberty, that no Quislings can be found.

The muslims used this in their conquests. First find a few to work with you, and then over time, the pressure of dhimmi status will convert more and more.

What we needed to do, is recognize where the margin was, where the evil influence was coming. Instead of killing the Dept of Ed, GWBush expanded it. Instead of promoting non-government schools, GWBush expanded federal control of schools.

Destroy the roots of socialism in the schools. But of course, teachers are untouchable and so we lost.

And soon, we will follow the path of Germany and Sweden which have declared that any non-state education is anti-social and criminal. And the GOP-e will go along with it, after all, it's for the children.

General resistance without an understanding of the logic of the left's strategy is doomed to fail. The strategy of Fabian Socialism is to wrap themselves in the sacred cows of the conservative, such as education, to do their dirty work while being protected from assault.

31 posted on 11/08/2012 8:13:06 AM PST by slowhandluke (It's hard to be cynical enough in this age.)
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To: slowhandluke

Oh, I know it did not work out nor would it. The Nazis were far too brutal for it to work out.

The problem we have here is we’ve essentially lost the federal gov’t and have no hope of taking it back any time soon. The rest of the country just doesn’t realize how bad they are.


32 posted on 11/08/2012 9:14:11 AM PST by Bogey78O (We had a good run. Coulda been great still.)
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To: Bogey78O
The rest of the country just doesn’t realize how bad they are.

There's no way to argue with that.

33 posted on 11/08/2012 12:27:23 PM PST by slowhandluke (It's hard to be cynical enough in this age.)
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To: concerned about politics

I see more and more folks on here coming to this realization.

Total economic crash is the only way out, and it is inevitable.

IS EVERYONE PREPAREING FOR IT, THOUGH?

Hop on over to Kartographer’s threads if you’re clueless.
Get started NOW. You have about 5 months to 9 months at the outside. Shouldn’t make predictions, but that is my opinion.


34 posted on 11/08/2012 12:32:07 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Cowman

Wow... I’d never give BHO the credit for being smart enough to be the AC, but that passage from Daniel describes him to a ‘T’.


35 posted on 11/08/2012 12:33:38 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Gasshog

I’ve called him

“the John-the-Baptist of the Antichrist”.


36 posted on 11/08/2012 12:34:50 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: TXnMA

The “bluesters” say that the money actually flows the other way.

To which I reply - “then you wouldn’t miss us, eh?”

They get really mad, because they know what would happen if people were offered the choice of freedom vs socialism.

All the slugs would go blue, all the productive people to the red.


37 posted on 11/08/2012 12:37:40 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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