Happy Birthday #107, Ayn Rand!

[Blart]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR QUEEN OF THE $

http://www.graphicsgrotto.com/animatedgifs/birthday/images/agbirthday6.gifhttp://exiledonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ayn-rand21.jpeghttp://www.graphicsgrotto.com/animatedgifs/birthday/images/agbirthday47.gif

Some light birthday reading,

The Unlikeliest Cult in History
http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/the-unlikeliest-cult-in-history/

Textbook Sociopath Ayn Rand based her hero (John Galt) on a Serial Killer
http://www.alternet.org/books/145819/ayn_rand,_hugely_popular_author_and_inspiration_to _right-wing_leaders,_was_a_big_admirer_of_serial_killer

Atlas Sucked
http://sites.google.com/site/atlassucked/part-1

Ayn Rand in the 21st Century (comic book!)
http://wonkette.com/415825/thats-objectivist-ayn-rand-in-the-21st-century

[Arkie]

One man drove 12,238 miles across 30 states to scrawl a message that can only be viewed using Google Earth.

Nick Newcomen did a road trip over 30 days that covered stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. First, he identified on a map the route he would need to drive to spell out the message. He put a GPS device in his car to trace the route he would follow. Then, he hit the road.

Newcomen, unlike previous GPS artists, actually traveled the lines he traced on the map. He used a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to “ink” the message. Starting his trip in Marshall, Texas, he turned on the device when he wanted to write a letter and turned off the device between letters. The recorded GPS data was loaded into Google Earth to produce the image.



http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2010/08/worldsbiggestwriting-660x647.jpg

[mhgaffney]

Yes, read Ayn Rand.

Then puke.

[Rohirrim]

Interesting that two psychopathic drunks (Rand and Hubbard) from the same era launched the most ridiculous political philosophy ever and the most ridiculous religion.

[Rohirrim]

But as soon as a group sets itself up to be the final moral arbiter of other people’s actions, especially when its members believe they have discovered absolute standards of right and wrong, it is the beginning of the end of tolerance and thus, reason and rationality. http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/the-unlikeliest-cult-in-history/

Great observation!

[Smiling Assassin27]

Ayn, you don't look a day over 100, babe.

[Arkie]

But as soon as a group sets itself up to be the final moral arbiter of other people’s actions, especially when its members believe they have discovered absolute standards of right and wrong, it is the beginning of the end of tolerance and thus, reason and rationality. http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/the-unlikeliest-cult-in-history/

Great observation!

Fighting for our natural rights to life, liberty, and property justified the rebellion of the American colonies. These natural rights have been stripped away by these "final arbiters of right & wrong" over the last 100 years. The right legislates morality and the left legilates prosperity. Your right to earn a living should be as exempt from taxes as freedom of speech. Some taxes are paid through consent when we acquire & own property, but the income tax is taking the fruits of our labor through coercion like slavery.

[Rohirrim]

^What that has to do with Ayn Rand, I have no idea. Anyway, her entire thesis collapses when you realize that man does many things from many impulses (as Ms. Rand's life itself is a fitting testimony). Rational self-interest is only one of them. To look around at this world and think that you can create a viable philosophy based on man's ability to act solely by reason is laughable. Man may act, but he rarely reasons. Our entire economy is in a shambles right now because of a bunch of really wealthy people acting out of uncontrolled greed with a complete absence of reason.

[Blart]

Your right to earn a living should be as exempt from taxes as freedom of speech. Some taxes are paid through consent when we acquire & own property, but the income tax is taking the fruits of our labor through coercion like slavery.

I pay taxes because a majority of my fellow citizens made an agreement with the government to provide us with goods and services. If I don't pay for those goods and services, that's a breach of contract.

[Arkie]

I pay taxes because a majority of my fellow citizens made an agreement with the government to provide us with goods and services. If I don't pay for those goods and services, that's a breach of contract.

What about the other citizens that didn't make that agreement?

[peacepipe]

What about the other citizens that didn't make that agreement?leave.

[Blart]

What about the other citizens that didn't make that agreement?

They implicitly entered into the contract. Either they swore to follow our nation's laws and constitution when they immigrated here, or their parents exercised power of custody and chose their citizenship/residency upon birth.

You can still be against taxation and work to amend it, but it's definitely a part of your contract with society.

Taxes are just as much "theft" as property is "theft." Where does anybody get the right to "own" something? The government.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

>>Our entire economy is in a shambles right now because of a bunch of really wealthy people acting out of uncontrolled greed with a complete absence of reason.<<

Exactly.

These shameless dirt bags are just like crack addicts except their drug of choice is money/power.

[elsid13]

What about the other citizens that didn't make that agreement?

Stop driving on the federal and state funded highways and don't call the fire department when your house is on fire.

[Fedaykin]

What about the other citizens that didn't make that agreement?

Welcome to the real world. Not everyone agrees on everything, and our government is not set up to require it. Our government is set up to require only a majority (or sometimes a super majority) consent, with the provision that items must respect the Constitution.

The income tax was created legally within that system. So pay up or GTFO. You can, of course, continue to talk about changing it -- that's your right under the Constitution.

But to claim it's slavery is nothing more than an insult to real slaves.