Would You Move to Galt's Gulch?

If you want to liberate Cuba, all you have to do is arm south Miami and send them on their way...

Post 61

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 6:15pm

Well I think I am on Andrew Bissell's side, it's just that he doesn't know it yet.

Rick, I will take a seat and let you have the last words here. My argument [...] will stand or fall by its own merit

Well I really don't quite know what your argument is. I would never put spin on what you'd said. You know me. I suggest to you that what you really mean, but have been unable to say clearly to me, is that you want to give the Cubans a revolution as though it was some kind of wrapped gift. Nobody looses their farms, property, culture, society, family- it'll be a nice surgical strike where a large group of colonist invaders then find real estate and build homes of their own.
I think that's what you mean. Could be quite wrong. Not trying to missrepresent you, if you think you can reach Galt's Gulch that way then it's a nice dream. That's a whole different kettle of fish to what I'd been addressing.

I'm also sorry that I lost my temper so -- I think that it might've been more civil of me not to do that.

You'd have to slap me around a great deal before I started getting angry with you, such is your credit with me.

all Rick tries to do is make claim that it is horribly evil

It is horribly evil! Even the above kettle of fish I'm groping at is horribly evil. Kiwis have written books about how evil it is. There's even a movie!

Rick, why don't you stop talking about that, and try to come up with less violent ways to free Cubans?

Because this isn't a thread about freeing nations per se, it's about starting a GG nation.

Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed. You cannot import revolutions. But you can destroy nations and replace them. I'm still not 100% on which of these Ed wants, but either way: I'm not down with that.

Post 62

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 7:18pm

Dean, Jon, Andrew, and Lance,

Thanks for the moral support, you guys.

Now, lemme' try out some quippy, payback poetry ... Giles style, daddio:

If tricky Rick got any more Ricker,
then I'd go off my Rocker, quicker.

His thunder from down under,
is merely wonder:
on the blunder of plunder,
not of pulling statist and state asunder.

Ed

Post 63

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 7:40pm

Rick, I want to thank you for the touching "such is your credit with me" -- line. I hope my new quip poem doesn't put me over my credit limit with you.

You write so well, that it's like you could make someone laugh, cry, and then challenge you to fist-a-cuffs, all in the same paragraph! That's scary power man, please, be careful with it -- you could put out an eye with that kind of wordsmithing.

Anyway, I thought the Cuban thing smelled pretty good, and wondered if it would taste the same once lit up. You're telling me that this cigar is -- or ought be -- banned at the border, because that's what borders are for. In short, I wanted a freer trade of ideas than your border patrol would've admitted.

[thoughtful pause]

[perked-up, wide-eyed] Hey! Who's up for an Objectivist invasion & re-colonization of Novia Scotia?!!!

Ed

Post 64

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 7:49pm

Ah, found you. Knew you were around there somewhere.

I hope my new quip poem doesn't put me over my credit limit with you.

Let me put is this way...

If Thompson resumed this gripe, which is recent
I'd'a had to look twice to still think he was "decent"

You response was unexpected, rather too rash
Now get you back to normal with your ubiquitous slash =====
Even if you play a grouch I'll still have you beat
And you'd may as will dive into a trash can on Sesame St

Hey! Who's up for an Objectivist invasion & re-colonization of Novia Scotia?!!!

Grrrr!

Post 65

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 8:10pm

Rick, Lance was right about you.

============
Even if you play a grouch I'll still have you beat
============

Eh?

============
Hey! Who's up for an Objectivist invasion & re-colonization of Novia Scotia?!!!

Grrrr!
============

Hmph.

[deep breath in, iris altering shape, hair-raised, hair-streaking in color, canines shining]

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: rrrrrrrrrrrrROAR! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: [deafeningly thunderous]

[taunting now]
I hear Novia Scotia has cooler weather, than Cuba does ...

Ed

Post 66

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 8:56pm

Yes - I hear there's actually ice up there, and that's in the summer...

Post 67

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 9:31pm

Theres no way I'm moving up there-- too cold! Only semi-tropical warm weather all year for me. Hmmm... unless I could have more freedom. Hurray for freedom! I can put on a coat. Grrr.

Post 68

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 9:39pm

Dean, didn't you go to Michigan Tech? Da U.P. shoulda got ya used to da cold weather, eh?
(Edited by Pete on 10/03, 9:39pm)

Post 69

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 11:47pm

Sure, I'm used to it. I'm also used to paying taxes.

Post 70

Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - 6:24am

Good point Dean - suffering the evils while evils are sufferable...

Post 71

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 2:24pm

I would not move to Galt's Gulch, as tempting as it would be.

As a Christian I have to stay in the world and try to save it right to the bitter end. So I try to surround myself with people who can think and I retreat to their company whenever the world drives me mad.

As you can imagine I disagree with Rand's portrayal of Christianity in Atlas Shrugged, while some branches of Christianity are like that, as someone with more than a token interest in theology I find Christianity's teachings very close to Objectivism.

Madeleine

Post 72

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 4:58pm

Oh Madeleine, don't be so hard on us Obectivists -- after all, we're not that hard on Christians ... er ... uh ... let me take that back (and start again).

Oh Madeleine, you mentioned that you "have to stay in the world and try to save it" -- but us Objectivists, we're trying to save it to (with less and less appeasement and sanction from the victim).

Have you met Rich Engle? He is a respected and respectful SOLOist who also sees links between Objectivism and Gospel. Though he's not an Orthodox Christian, he speaks of mysticism in a different way than Rand or say, I, would speak of it. Sometimes we give him a hard time for this though, but he usually brushes off like champ (after the scuffles). Some may even grant him the UPPER HAND in some of these scuffles.

At any rate, in the beginning there was one, now there are (at least) two of you guys here -- and likely several dozen Christian lurkers.

p.s. MY history with religion has been nothing other than spiritual torment -- with myself and my loved ones "living" less and less (dying on the inside), the more religious we get/got. My life experience has, for me, confirmed a Randian view on this matter.

I don't know what to say about folks such as yourself though (apparently healthy, attractive, sense of humor, kind, witty). It seems almost like God spared you that internal death that I have become so familiar with (over decades) -- in myself and in my loved ones around me. It'd be cool to understand/explain this differential outcome noted when different folks adopt the same Savior.

Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson
on 10/05, 4:59pm)

Post 73

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 5:17pm

Ed. Completly agreed. Sanction.

---Landon

Post 74

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 5:23pm

God grief..

I don't know what to say about folks such as yourself though (apparently healthy, attractive, sense of humor, kind, witty).

I do. Make "apparently" into "apparently" in the case of this person.

Post 75

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 5:30pm

[oh my - here goes the chest beating...]

Post 76

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 6:07pm

Thanks for the straightforward acknowledgment, Landon. And heck, with that last sanction of yours, I ALMOST UP TO 4 ATLAS THINGIES NOW! If my calculations are correct (that number 4 comes with 1250) -- then I'm only 7 away! Whew-hew!

Rick, methinks thou dost protest too much. Hint: That's a Shakespearean way of asking whether or not you, personally, know Mrs. Flannagan. You come from a similar part of the world -- but do you know her, Rick?

Ed

Post 77

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 7:02pm

I'M RUNNIN' ON FOUR CYLINDERS NOW!!! WOOO-HOO!!!

4-cylinders, what's that (you say)?

Well [getting into straight posture; deepening voice], well, you see, "4-cylinders" is kind of like an insider's term for attaining 4 Atlas icons. You see, it's sort of an 'elite' thing, you know. Don't worry kid! With enough hard work, you'll get there too, someday. After all, this is a free market of Atlas points. Producers get rewarded here.

Alright now (more sincerely), I have to fess up. But my fessing doesn't necessarily destroy my 'early/timely?' 4-star-manship here at SOLO. Apparently, I have a real fan here (and, more probably, 2 of them) that want to see me succeed. Very shortly after I announced I was excited about being close to becoming a 4-star general here -- I had 8 freakin' sanctions from folks!!!

To dispell the charge of 'sanction-whore' (and pandering to sycophants) levelled at me after writing the Ye' Ole' article -- I DON'T EVEN KNOW who did this to (read: for) me. Yeah, sure, I stated it'd be cool to be among the elite (the "4-star generals")-- but the question is if I have earned it or not. And I'm -- shamelessly -- leanin' toward the "earned it" side!

Thank you to my exuberant fan(s), who launched me into a higher dimension. As folks benefit from both the rationality, and the self-esteem, of others -- my guess is that you will be paid back in kind!

Ed
[4-stars, baby -- Schwartzkoff ain't got nuthin' on me!]
(Edited by Ed Thompson
on 10/05, 7:06pm)

Post 78

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 8:10pm

I got my Phil Donahue interviews and a swag of other material from an Auckland bookshop called Aristotle's that isn't there anymore. And yes, I'm familiar with Shakespeare. Quite fond of King Lear, but there'll be much much more about that latter.

Post 79

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 8:10pm