Free Republic

For FReepers who only know Ayn Rand from her [admittedly] clunky fiction, I highly recommend The Return of the Primitive.

Where Rand's fiction was dense and, sometimes, cartoonish, her non-fiction essays were concise, clear, and biting. The woman had an uncommon insight into the evil of collectivism and this book -- especially on the topic of education -- is worth reading. IM [never-to-be-humble-] O.

Read the rest, if you're interested, for the details. We all know he's being disingenuous now with his ads on Limbaugh, etc.. But it's interesting how he managed to change his immigration stripes to get elected.

I wasn't all that impressed with him, but this clinches it. Focus completely on Cruz and Rand for the time being.

Wasn't it a female that shot him? I think so.

And now, one day later, they're backing off the whole story. Dead kid. Murder and terror suspect. We don't know how.

The article was posted because it was in the recent news. And it is quite possible she grew up under the Communists.

I wasn't criticizing the fact that it was posted. It was quite interesting. I just think it's somewhat unfair to criticize a teenager who'd grown up under Communism -- and Merkel did; she was from East Germany.

No one is ”forced” to in that way. Many in the same situation did not join.

Fair enough, but I still wouldn't condemn youngsters for succumbing to peer pressure. Wasn't the last Pope a member at one time of a Hitler youth organization?

it is..but I only buy it for insurance...

That's the right strategy. Money should be insurance. We ought to be able to depend on its purchasing power instead of having to constantly worry about its declining value.

For Pete's sake, she grew up under Communism. Let's condemn a teenager because she did what teens do and joined a group. Probably because she was forced to.

This stuff really pi**es me off.

OK, this is a perfect example of good intention gone wrong

Yeah, reminds me of that vile "We love boobies" campaign the breast cancer industry uses to get kids involved. Good intentions, no doubt perhaps, -- but disgusting tactics.

People who “invest” in gold rather than holding it as an inflation hedge are just trying to follow bubbles. Gold isn’t an investment. It’s money.

USG crushing them with regulations should stop, and they should pay significant taxes.

Corporations should pay no taxes. The profits should be distributed to the shareholders who will then pay taxes on them. People pay taxes -- not legal fictions.

It takes a village!

. He’s trapped and he tries to break out?

Yeah, I'd have thought FBI agents were well-trained in the martial arts. Maybe he did get violent, but unless the kid drew a gun on him, why would he have to shoot him?

Sure sounds squirrely.

CBO Says 2013 U.S. Budget Deficit Estimated at $642 Billion

Sorry, dude. I can't agree. I don't dispute that the CBO made that estimate, but the CBO's track record is absolutely horrible -- scandalously so. You just cannot predict the future and the CBO's estimates are made from simple, static analyses of expected tax revenue.

Don't forget that the CBO [which is admittedly constricted in its work] also predicted that the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act would result in a drop in deficits. It was wrong.

I hope you turn out to have been right and that I will have been proved wrong. At the moment, I dont' expect that.

If that was my daughter, Jonny’s banana would be sliced off...

Oh, for Pete's sake. Are you serious. Is this what we've sunk to? Teacher touches child with banana; child is embarrassed. Teacher is suspended.

If he'd touched her with a picture of a bullet and been suspended, outrage would erupt here. But since he's probably a pointy-headed little gay guy teaching Freud, zero-tolerance is suddenly the new norm.

Why is that?

We think he's lying.

The budget deficit is not just declining—its almost going to be cut in half in 2013—to 640 billion.

I have no idea where you're getting those numbers, but you are extremely naive to believe them. Spending isn't being cut [spending growth reduced imperceptibly] and the only growth in the economy is the spending created by the new dollars Bernanke is printing.

New oil supplies are welcome, but to think they alone can save us is wrong. We're sinking like a stone, dude. Not too sure why you're so enamored of current economic policy, either.

This is one of the most cockamamie -- and inaccurate -- pieces I've read on FR in quite a while. Inflation didn't get us out of the Great Depression; the rollback of the New Deal by a Republican congress after WWII ended is what did the trick.

Inflation is nothing but the means by which the government takes the citizens' money without having to raise taxes. It is extremely damaging. It consumes our capital and has hollowed out our domestic manufacturing base.

I still remember how downright giddy she was on election night when Zero was re-elected

Funny. I don't remember that at all.

Any old gold bug over 60 years old who knows his history — is going to bail out of gold.

Heh. I just turned 60, so I guess I'm too young to "bail". Look. The budget is not being cut perceptibly and growth will continue to be a mirage of increased government spending which isn't economic growth at all.

I agree that the oil and gas industries are a welcome bright spot in the economy, but I don't expect widespread benefits from them as long as the investment climate is so horrible -- due to Obama's regulations, health care, and constant threats of tax hikes.

Kids have the rest of their lives to figure out the process. If they even need to, which in most cases they won't.

It took thousands of years for man to deduce the mathematical algorithms. What possible sense does it make to force children to it all over again? You are correct.

Sometimes, it makes perfect sense to teach concepts backwards. Start with the long division algorithm and an understanding of what's going on will come with repetition.

There isn't time for kids to have to reinvent everything.

I mean, the guy sounded crazy as a loon. He makes sense here.

My sentiments, exactly. What he wrote here is very plausible.

TORYe.

So, the people who pay most of the taxes get most of a given tax cut? Well no sh_t Sherlock.

Exactly what the author said. Did you read actually read it?

Language acquisition cannot begin till the child's brain has developed enough to form concepts. That's typically around the age of three.

Before that, everything entering the baby's brain is sensory. Familiar after a while, but not truly understood. Now, that's not to say the unborn child isn't learning -- just that he doesn't know what he's learning. That comes later.

IMO.

You can’t eat gold. You have to convert it to money to buy bread.

After the money's become worthless [not predicting that anytime soon, of course], that step will be eliminated.

I do agree, though, that people looking for investment returns from gold aren't to be pitied. Whether it's legal tender or not; it's still just money.

The fact that, in the long term, we will continue to use commodities seems rather unexceptional.

Though I have absolutely no use for Maher, I thought that one was pretty funny.

Its really bad when your friends turn against you.

Yes. And of all the scandals, the AP's wiretapping is the one most liberals feel can be defended [national security, you know]. Glad to see the AP isn't going to let it die.

There is nothing amusing regarding the reality of what is going down.

Look. I'm not going to war over a George Will column, but his opening statement was clear:

"Leaving aside the seriousness of lawlessness, and the corruption of our civic culture"

I took that to mean that it was the desperation of the administration he found amusing. I've certainly found it so.

Why George what else would you have to write about if not about your own personal amusement. America is NOT laughing.

Looking pretty hard to find something to criticize, huh? What is it? The bowtie that you can't stand? Now, read the article and tell me what you disagree with like a big boy.

If anyone in Britain was labouring under the misapprehension that 0.3pc GDP growth in the first quarter of the year and signs of a manufacturing revival were something to cheer

The Brits and the Europeans, despite their faults, still report GDP quarterly growth accurately. In the U.S., that same 0.3pc GDP growth would be reported as +1.2%. We multiply by four to "annualize" the number.

the sweeping budget cuts countries are using to try to repair their balance sheets are killing investor confidence

There are no "sweeping budget cuts" anywhere in any country. There aren't even any budget cuts. At most, what we're getting are small reductions in spending growth.

Austerity my skinny, white, um, legs.

“They are sociopaths. They are all sociopaths.”

Heh. So they finally realized that there is such a thing as a bad boy.

Well, our high school was put on lockdown last Summer when a, um, well-intentioned teacher saw a hunter walking down the road with his gun. The school’s way out in the country surrounded by woods and pastures. Hunters aren’t unknown there.

In the seventies, we'd already gone through gas shortages. For a while [I was a stockclerk in a grocery store], there was a shortage of flour. People still baked back then and there were rumors that flour supplies were low. And then, one night, Johnny Carson made a joke about a shortage of toilet paper which set off a nationwide scramble to stock up on it. Everything works fine till people lose faith.

Venezuela elected another fascist to replace Chavez, but it's apparent they've lost faith.

From $3.75 to $4.19 in ONE DAY is a scam. Now, it’s $4.35!!

From someone who calls himself "LiveFreeOrDie2001" that's pretty funny stuff. So, live up to your moniker, live free, and don't buy it! That'll learn the capitalist bastards.

It’s such a shame we have to relearn these lessons.

Yes. And the lesson of the importance of sound money is almost lost knowledge. I'm constantly challenged on FR by well-meaning commenters who cannot conceive of a world where the national government doesn't adjust the money supply to "accommodate" the needs of the economy.

I think the Graniuad nickname goes back as far as the 50’s at least.

Heh. Well, there you go. One should know his history.

I lost interest in what David Stockman has to say when he publicly trashed supply-side economics while still in the Reagan administration and basically agreed with the “voodoo economics camp.”

I did, too. And though I don't get a commission, I still recommend the book. His thinking is clearer now than when he was a young-skull-full-of-mush.

This is an excerpt from David Stockman's book The Great Deformation. Roosevelt socialized our money and I'm waiting for FR's resident inflationists to join in quickly on why that was so important. Government knows best!

Capitalism can't be trusted. Too many excesses, you know.

Having a dyslexic day, are we ?

There was once an hysterically-funny British blog which did nothing but make fun of "The Guardian". I wish I could remember the name, but it's been shut down for five or six years.

The blogger always referred to the paper as "The Grauniad", a moniker which sticks even today.

PIRG....What, pray tell, is that?

Public Interest Research Group. Completely non-partisan, of course.

VAT taxes are flat, they don’t vary by country

What do you mean by that? The rates certainly do vary by country. What are you responding to?

you have it exactly backwards, markets do anticipate

What did I write that made you think I don't believe that? Always helpful to put up what you're referring to.

the trade deficit with China is still growing

No! Thank you! I wasn't talking out our trade deficit with China -- I was talking about China's dwindling trade surplus overall. Of course, if we are inflating as fast or faster than China, we'll maintain a trade deficit.

Trade takes place because of prices. And ours are still relatively higher than China's. But China has engaged in rampant monetary inflation in the last few years [in an effort to keep the Yuan stable vs. the dollar] and that has caused a surge in imports as its domestic prices rise.

This is stuff that's been known for centuries. Now, granted, were the dollar not the international reserve currency, it's likely that its foreign exchange rate would have dropped enough to counteract the inflationary effects on foreign trade. But since that is not the case; well. Chronic trade deficits.

Really? Let's take a look at Rand's own words and how they would apply in a military context:

But Rand didn't write in a "military context". Do you think that a military context is an accurate description of everyday morality? Aren't you searching for holes in her philosophy?

Nothing wrong with that, by the way. Just think you're over-analyzing her.

I'm not wrong about inflation not causing trade deficits. Inflation only affects trade deficits in a world of fixed exchange rates

I must admit that you've made a good point. Nonetheless, China's vaunted trade surplus is disappearing as it continues to inflate. Japan's has,too [tsunami damage aside]. Germany -- not so much.

Floating exchange rates certainly do mitigate the ravages of inflation. But not all of them.

I like what Trump’s saying — this time. But let’s remember that his track record is about as good as Dick Morris’s.

Impeach Obama!

No. Not yet.

Point being, no great civilization, society or nation comes into being without people recognizng a cause or bond greater than self.

Well, I would suggest that when thousands [or millions] of individuals recognize a cause that is valuable to them personally and join with other thousands or millions of individuals, great things can happen. But it all starts with the individual.

In either case, being ordered into a duty against one's self interest is entirely antithetical to Rand's highest moral purpose which is the achievment of one's own happiness.

Wow. You really do have a warped impression of her philosophy. If a man desires liberty but must go to war to defend it or regain it, then the fact of being put in harm's way is not against his self interest.

Really, your understanding of Rand is inaccurate and, actually, pretty insulting.