Happy Independence Day, sweet land of liberty. May you soon get it back!

So pledged the Founding Fathers.

And, they meant it.

The fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence had everything to lose. They were professional men. Wealthy men. Landowners. Many with close ties to Britain. Many with families dear to them. Young like Edward Rutledge, 26, or older like Ben Franklin, 70.

Life is too short to compromise time and resources...

This was in my inbox this morning. Food for thought if ever I've read it:

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

SOLO-International Press Release: The Anti-American President, Pt. 4

Lindsay Perigo
July 2, 2009

You know you're entitled to call President Barack Obama "President Benito Obamadinejad" and that he is part of the Gramsci/Alinsky/Chomsky Axis of Evil when:

Without getting into too much detail, there are some persuasive bits of evidence which suggest that financially, America is in for it, and it is going to continue to get worse.

[Lifted from the The Anti-American President Pt 3 thread—Linz]

Analogous to Benjamin Button, Sherk seems to be moving backwards from the facts of reality as time marches on and Obama's policies get progressively worse.

Iran & Obama's Hollow Moral Core

By Edward Hudgins

June 25, 2009 -- In December 1989, I stopped in Moscow, on my way to Estonia as part of the first group from the West to hold a conference on free markets in the Soviet Union. A colleague and I met with scholars and others who we thought would be sympathetic to our mission. Not infrequently we were told that they had heard and, we gathered, been inspired by the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher about the nature of their regime, an evil empire, and what should be done: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

The government has cancelled the Enviroschools programme, for which they earn my belated congratulations.

It’s a first step in beating back the forces of darkness, and if my saying that sounds like hyperbole then just listen right up.

General Motors was once not only the world’s greatest and most prosperous automobile company but the world’s greatest and most prosperous manufacturing company, indeed, the world’s greatest and most prosperous company of any kind.

This is a paragraph from the ethics section of Wikipedia's article "Objectivism."

The Affair … The Break … The Affair Revealed (The Passion of Ayn Rand) … Peikoff in denial … Judgment Day … Anti-Peikovian backlash … IOS-TOC … The Passion of Ayn Rand’s Critics … Ancient history … Yawn … Better things to do …

I was one of those who resolved not to read James Valliant’s book, The Passion of Ayn Rand’s Critics, openly touted as “The case against the Brandens.” My position was—why gnaw at those old bones?

Received the following today, to which, naturally, I've replied yes. Transmission details are in the note:

"The emotion involved in art is not an emotion in the ordinary meaning of the term. It is experienced more as a 'sense' or a 'feel,' but it has two characteristics pertaining to emotions: it is automatically immediate and it has an intense, profoundly personal (yet undefined) value-meaning to the individual experiencing it.

Surprise, surprise.

You can watch the entire thing now - for free - already on Google Video.
Watch it while you can, here is the link below.

What is Objectivism?

Let its founder speak first. Asked to specify Objectivism's essentials standing on one foot, Ayn Rand, standing on one foot, said:

SOLO—Sense of Life Objectivists.

• "The total passion for the total height."
• Rational passion and passionate reason.
• Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
• "This above all, to thine own self be true."