Posted on 06/27/2009 7:38:16 AM PDT by Publius
Hey, it’s as good as a BTTT.
Reminds me of what happens if you feed racoons or bears and then stop.
Thanks, I appreciate the compliment.
I’m also going to echo one of the other posters on the thread. I only post when I think I’ve something to contribute to the discussion.
Another thought for you in regards to the bum versus Jim Taggart.
In David Horowitz’s “Radical Son” he talks about Berkeley, CA and the radical city council that took control of city government. The city council was out of control and pushed through every liberal/socialist agenda/experiment they could think of. It was so bad, citizens had to constantly attend meetings to try and keep things under control. One citizen commented that it wasn’t not possible to “just live” in Berkeley, one had to be active politically and be constantly on guard.
In AS and our current society, both the very wealthy and very poor are waging war on the middle class.
The very rich can afford intrusive government policies, because they’ll still be rich. The very poor don’t mind, because they don’t produce, they merely take.
The middle class, the people who just want to live and go on about their business, are forced to spend their time paying attention to politics. They can no longer allow themselves the luxury of “just living” in the United States.
The both of you have been providing excellent analysis and commentary, and I always come for that if nothing else.
This has so far been an excellent series of discussions among all who have participated, but here just as in real life I am more the listener, interjecting when I believe I have a special insight or certain expertise.
On the subject of this book I am content to allow the two of you (and several of the others on these threads) to run circles around me, confident that within my own areas of passion I can do the same.
ping
Deserves repetition:
“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I haven’t missed a week. I tend not to want to post unless I have something interesting to say, which isn’t always the case. Your work, and Bill’s are always appreciated thought.”
I could not say it any better. I cannardly wait for the FReeRepublic Saturday Atlas Shrugged thread!
Next week the plot gets a good kick in the — er, rump. It’s going to be an exciting Independence Day.
For my part, I finished AS several weeks ago (might re-read it soon; I’ll just skip the longer monologues). I have been reading the threads at work on Monday morning for the last couple weeks because I recently moved and STILL do not have internet access in my new home.
I suspect if she were alive today, Ayn Rand would despise Comcast as much as I do, but that’s another topic.
I first read AS in the 1960's. A good friend insisted (slightly) that I would appreciate it. He was correct.
Since then I have reread AS every 2-3 years, purchasing the paperback to give away after I finish every one.
Oddly enough, only a matter of days before you started this book club I had ordered yet another copy!
You, billthedrill, and every other poster here in the review are appreciated more than I can express thanks!
Hopefully the people whom I have pointed to the (much appreciated) weekly review will one day make others aware of Atlas Shrugged!
I fear we in the U.S.A. are approaching the last part of this prophetic book.
For many of my 74 years I have witnessed so much of AS come true.
My home confuser has expired ..I was chomping at the bit to get back to work so I could catch up at least reading this thread.
You touched on a subject that has been on my mind recently.
Johnson's Great Society may have done some good but the harm it did and is doing has reverberated down to our current difficulties.
Fatherless families and multigenerational welfare recipients meant younger and younger girls were having kids due to the check that was coming.
Kids were never intended to have kids..It takes a mature adult to be a parent...You give to your children from your wisdom and your fullness. Kids having kids have nothing to give them..they have no wisdom, no experience, no values..They use babies to fill up their internal emptiness.
With the loss of fathers came the loss of shame..It used to be kids were very concerned about bringing shame on their fathers name...Bringing shame on the family..It was part of the family values. With a single mother and each kid having a different biologic father...there is no name to be proud of.
This need for pride got shifted into pride in the gangs...With nothing legitimate to be proud of they went feral.
Lack of fathers also eliminated role models for teens...Their role models became the biggest drug dealer or the sports figure. If there is no man to teach a boy how to become a man...they will become a predator.
Concurrently with this came the black pride movement...Being smart and accomplished in anything other than sports was acting white..Kids beat up other kids for being bookish..
Add in the victim mentality that is indoctrinated into them in school and you have the prescription for the perfect disaster.
The recent riots in Ca after a sports team win has become normative.
You bring up the point that black neighborhoods had doctors and lawyers and businessmen...Think back to 1968 in LA...
Riots burned their own areas of town..Nobody is going back in to be burned out again...That would be insanity.
Poverty does not breed crime....Crime breeds poverty.
Sorry to be late to the party.
LOL!
No, but I first heard the term at the “Over the Line” beach softball tournament in San Diego in the mid-1970s.
Since this is a family oriented web site, I’ll reFRain FRom further defining its meaning and usage at OTL.
I first read AS in high school, right after it was first published. I was most profoundly impressed, as were most of my teenage FRiends.
I have regularly re-read it over the years and I am still profoundly impressed with Ms. Rand’s grasp of the evils of the LIEberal/Socialist/Marxist “reality.”
Pity that more Americans are not so impressed with Ms. Rand’s work.
If they were, chances are very good that we’d be an entirely different, better and much FReer country.
It may not be too late, but the bell is tolling.
Yes, that it will!
Bring it on!
Three copper wires break, and — oh! — what chaos is unleashed!
I’d argue, though, the pay of wait staff is much closer to free market principles than other wages.
Most restaurants don’t have problems finding wait staff. If restaurant wages were too low, no one would work for them.
I’ve been surprised at how much a good waitress can make a decent restaurant. And, the nice thing about cash tips is being able to keep a few bucks without the IRS knowing about it.
Fear? What fear? AS has a very happy ending, AFAIC.
President Johnson; the most aptly named of the 44, IMHO.
I heard something funny lately about Berkeley. I seems the “powers that be” decided that all houses must be retrofitted to be energy efficient. 80 year old drafty victorian houses must be sealed and insulated. When the home owners got the bill and figured out how much it would cost them, all hell broke loose!
We're thinking of changing it. Dagny marries Wesley Mouch and goes to work for a political activist in Chicago, who, with no qualifications whatever, manages to flimflam his way into the highest office in the country...naw, never mind. Who would ever believe that?
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