I'm really starting to like that Harper guy

[d_rawk]

Haha. I might fire it back up after the election, once everyone stops paying attention to politics again

[SmoothedShredder]

How the fuck did I miss this thread?!

Gonna go get me some Ayn Rand!!!

[d_rawk]

You should -- the books are interesting and entertaining reads. I'm hard on Rand sometimes, but she does contribute something interesting to the larger conversation. The problem comes in because it gets presented as a comprehensive philosophy that conquers all else, and there are some pretty shaky assumptions and skewed logic underpinning it. And adherents resort to emotionalism and fanatical attacks at any challenge (which is also the problem with religious fundamentalists). For the same reason I'm uncomfortable with religious 'Sunday schools' for children, I'm uncomfotable with adolescents with copies of "Atlas Shrugged". (I'm not saying Sunday Schools should be abolished, or that teens shouldn't be able to read Atlas Shrugged. I'm just saying that they both make me personally uncomfortable.)

But you're old enough to enjoy it responsibly ... so, enjoy

(But just in case, as a lark, you might want to check out Objectivism: A Warning to Young Readers)

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Thanks for the links, d. The last one is nice and colourful with some nice quotes - e.g.,

"My father always told me never to trust a person whose system of thought has a name."

George Carlin

(hmmm...)

[SmoothedShredder]

George Carlin is a sage!!!

[mattm]

Deep Integration and Fortress North America. I just heard that Martin was signing papers for this in secret and now I just don't know what to think.

If you don't know, deep integration is the idea of a really united north america. I'm not getting into it, look it up in google.

This scares me the most because if we do this it says "Us against you" rather than "All of us together". This means we'll be against the rest of the world (why we have to gang up I don't understand but I bet it's for money).

This can't possibly go over well with the rest of the world and I would hate to see a world war since that will pretty much be the end of things. Going pretty far here but Deep Integration scares the living shit out of me. Like my friend Zoe says:

which means the us will have the rights to our oil and water and forests, PLUS we will not be allowed to do anything that interferes with the right of american corporations to make money -- like having publicly funded health care (cause it takes away from profits of american healt insurance companies)