Hey, if that's deliberate, it's quite clever!

--Mindy

You kiddin'? I knew that long before you ever saw me here.

{shrug} I keep searching for serious people. There are a few, and I do have my hopes now and then but if you quote me on that I'll lie.

It's not enough, Lindsay. Do you understand?

I don't recall saying it was. Ever heard of "necessary but not sufficient" Billy?

Fags. I'm not fucking interested.

That's OK. You're not my type either.

"American voters will save America, for now,..."

Bullshit.

Like I told Jim Henley and his stoopid crowd the other night: I'll see your narrow ass under the next administration.

"As I've said before, to Mr. Beck's great annoyance for some reason, until reason learns to be passionate,..."

It's not enough, Lindsay. Do you understand? This is about one step removed from a labor theory of value. I don't care about peoples' "passion" any more than I care about their "sincerity", no matter how well they've thought it through. What matters to me now is what they do with it, and running their mouths and stepping into a voting booth every two years just doesn't count anymore.

Fags.

I'm not fucking interested.

"The chances of America stopping, realising there are major problems and actually tackling them seem remote. "

We are agreed, on this and on America's future unless something is done IMMEDIATELY.

Scott DeSalvo

www.desalvolaw.com
FREE Injury Report and CD Reveal the Secrets You Need to Know to Protect Your RIGHTS!

... I know what you're driving at, but voting Dem-scum across the board is not the solution.

Linz, the only solution is to turn the Producers on to the right philosophical ideas. Nothing less will do.

One area where the ARI (and others) might gain some traction is in arguing for the morality of Capitalism. That's one thing I'm optimistic about.

In regards to the current political dynamic, the best we can hope for is to buy some time.

So what to do? I'm not sure this time.

My personal argument for putting on the janitor's gloves and voting Democrat is that as the culture further disintegrates under Dem leadership the blame will be pinned squarely on their moral/political philosophy: "We are our brother's keepers."

If the same disintegration takes place under Republican leadership the blame will go on the rich for not giving enough.

Which is worse?

I hate to think of the appeasement dance Obama will do for Putin. But if things get bad enough he will have to delegate things to better people. And anyway what have the Republicans done since Russia invaded one of our top allies?

Some years ago, the Republicans were pretty good at not letting the Dems go wild with spending in Congress. That might be the best we can hope for at this point.

If you're a believer: "44% believe that Jesus will appear in the next 50 years:(" But, yes, I know what you mean, misplaced.

I agree about Osama losing this one Philip.

"But since the turn of the Century all that has been blown...deficits, no sense of optimism, no sense the future will be better than the past..."

Were she here to write a similar essay now, she would, tragically, have to call it, 'Get It Back!'

A very good, but disturbing, PR.

When I think of Rome falling to the depressing depths of the dark-ages because of a lack of a moral base, the rise of Christianity and the obscuring of Aristotle's wisdom, I shudder at the parallel of today.

What's worse is that today, with the likes of the internet and information being so easy to acquire, wisdom is so blatantly ignored. It's all there in front of our noses, yet America and Europe, who have had their Enlightenment, take this path? I could weep.

American voters will save America, for now, from all of the un-American ideas that are being expressed ad nasuem from the bastards at their political orgy. Rand was right about Americans then and she'll be right again. This is not a fat and happy time in America where we think we can indulge in a Clinton-type presidency. McCain's a political whore, but Obama makes him look like Captain America, and Obama's not getting away with his having as a friend an unrepentent terrorist, one who helped jumpstart his political career. This is still America, and Obama comes off as the hate child of McGovern and Carter. The closer the election nears, the more Americans will be paying attention to each candidate, and the more unelectable Obama will be.

http://fawstin.blogspot.com/

Some lunatic named Kucinich is screaming his tits off: "Up with free health care for all. Up with free education for all. Long Live Cuba" etc. (I made that last one one up, but he could easily have said it.) But here's the thing: if the bad guys can get so passionate and convey such a sense of urgency, if Senator Kennedy can do it in his condition, why the hell can't the good guys? As I've said before, to Mr. Beck's great annoyance for some reason, until reason learns to be passionate, unreason will prevail.

"It's not THEIR fault that their kids are being brainwashed by fucking Socialists."

Oh, yes it is. Let me tell you something, man: I was being brainwashed by socialists, too. My father took that shit in hand by the time I was thirteen, and no commie ever laid a finger on my mind again.

"You are a mean fellow."

He's talking about justice, Scott.

You need to think this through again.

I certainly wouldn't countenance laughing while America burned, Scott, and I doubt that that's what Eli is doing. But it's as you put it on your own thread:

Airhead America is correct, Linz. It is all here for us to see, and no one is allowed to talk about it, address it, attack it. Big trouble, indeed.

So there's no point in getting defensive when someone does talk about it. The thing is to join the chorus of "America, wake the fuck up!"

To put what I am saying into some sort of context for New Zealanders...

Visualise all the money the NZ Government spends on the Health service...Hospitals, medicines, Doctors salaries, cancer treatments, neo-natal care, free GP visits for children, heart operations (etc)

That same percentage of Government spending is how much the American Government spends just paying INTEREST on their debts ...by any stretch of the imagination it is at nightmare levels.

Now, there is no greater cheerleader for America than my good self....10 years ago I considered moving there, 10 years ago America was the sole mega-power in the World, there was a sense of optimism, clever chaps in Silicon Valley were busy inventing things and the 21st Century was viewed as a great opportunity.

But since the turn of the Century all that has been blown...deficits, no sense of optimism, no sense the future will be better than the past, a lot of warnings from the likes of Warren Buffet, Government bailouts of all manner of industries.

The chances of America stopping, realising there are major problems and actually tackling them seem remote.

McCain and Obama seem more interested in point scoring against each other than saying "Here is my 20 point plan to reduce the National Debt by 15% in my first term" or "Here is my 20 point plan to abolish pork barrel earmarks" ..or .."Here are the first 100 Government programmes which will be abolished next year because we can no longer afford them"

Lindsay is correct....Americans should cast an eye at France... (obviously few Americans have actually been there so will need to look from afar)...and what it has been reduced to from decades of handouts and you get a sense of America 2020...and the reason none of this will be done is because the 'Joe Sixpack' demographic have votes and it would be political suicide.

On election day...tick the LIBERTARIANZ box...

It is not a question of laughing whilst America burns....simply a matter of the Americans having been warned by numerous people from Barry Goldwater to Ron Reagan to Tom Coburn to P J O'Rourke and no one is prepared to do anything about it.

No one will cut government spending, no one will cut taxes in a meaningful way, no one will end corporate welfare ...and so...after 40 years you just have to shrug your shoulders.

January 20th, 2009 (less than 5 months away)....unless the new President, in his Inaugural speech, says he will not sign a Budget which is not in surplus (and sticks to that) ...then the merry-go-round will continue.

On election day...tick the LIBERTARIANZ box...

"...due to their lack of foreign travel, arrogance, stupidity (the "Joe Six Pack" demographic), a sense of history (making certain things impossible to visualise) and no one quite realising the consequences of four decades of budget deficits...and so when the day of reckoning comes it will be bloody, (yet great fun to watch). "

Wow, what a rotten, fucked up sense of life you have...and how mistaken you are. It is many of these "Joe Six-Pack" types who are the last bastion of hard work, justice, and commons sense. It's not THEIR fault that their kids are being brainwashed by fucking Socialists. You'll really laugh while America burns? You are a mean fellow.

Scott DeSalvo

www.desalvolaw.com
FREE Injury Report and CD Reveal the Secrets You Need to Know to Protect Your RIGHTS!

"Linz has an individual view, though, which is: vote on merit."

The implications of that should be starkly clear enough, even to people who do not grasp the fundamental evil of submitting each others' rights to herd approval.

Elijah...while there are a thousand things to gripe about in America, we do not have a Ministry of Women's Affairs. Point, set, match, go fuck yourself.

-Jeremy Six Pack

Linz, really enjoyed this. My loathing for both parties is equal, but the scales tip whenever a large gathering of Democrats appears, as in Denver. Obama most likely will be elected...and it will take a year or so afterwards for most Americans to realize he's no Martin Luther Kennedy Roosevelt Jr. Just the same old Dems gassing about the same old crap.  Maybe he's a closet libertarian...a boy can dream, yeah?

Yes, a splendid article, Lindsay...I mentioned George McGovern earlier today and was met with head scratching...so delighted someone is on the same page.

McGovern is at the Convention and there were several close-ups of him today. Jimmy Carter too. Ugh! Wotta line-up of historical horrors!

... I know what you're driving at, but voting Dem-scum across the board is not the solution. SOLO is not going to presume to tell folk how to vote, or that they're lousy Objectivists if they vote a certain way. Linz has an individual view, though, which is: vote on merit.

I agree with Leonard that the situation is frightening, but I don't think a Christian theocracy is the imminent danger. It's a PC theocracy combining the Christian Left, Islamofascists, feminazis, environazis, socialists and academic nihilists. This theocracy is enabled by the smug, lazy, complacent inertia of those who should know better. KASSless (TAS) are useless, as we know, but ARI are hamstrung by this imminent-Christian-theocracy, attack-Republicans-only nonsense. Why else am I first cab off the rank on the Dem Convention?

Yes, a splendid article, Lindsay...I mentioned George McGovern earlier today and was met with head scratching...so delighted someone is on the same page.

What you say is true and Paul Keating, former Australian Prime Minister, touched on this in a speech at the weekend which I am in the process compiling a new thread about ..(but keep deleting what I have written and starting over! ha ha!)..but with any luck I will have it completed by tomorrow.

Americans are the last people in the World to realise these sorts of things...due to their lack of foreign travel, arrogance, stupidity (the "Joe Six Pack" demographic), a sense of history (making certain things impossible to visualise) and no one quite realising the consequences of four decades of budget deficits...and so when the day of reckoning comes it will be bloody, (yet great fun to watch).

In another time, in another place, I would be shedding tears....but with the ability to 'sell short' (and profit from things going 'tits up') one finds it hard to give a damn about a lot of stupid people when you can simply bet against them and trouser $10,000 every couple of days.

On election day...tick the LIBERTARIANZ box...

Very nice piece, Linz. I agree with you 100%.

It's a sad thing. American culture was once so full of "reverence for itself." That is no longer the case in any meaningful sense.

I look at the names there - Nancy Pelosi, Jesse Jackson Jnr., Edward Kennedy, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden - and I cannot fully believe that anyone beyond the fringe can support them in any way.

Then I look at the Republicans. The reality is that the last 8 yrs have seen a drastic increase in government controls. The Department of Homeland Security is the scariest development I've ever seen in American government and it was initiated by the Republicans. Faith-based initiatives? Economic string-pulling? The individual is getting hit hard from all angles by Federal, State, and Local politicians in both parties - it is out of control.

The one good thing about all this is that we are seeing just how right Ayn Rand was. It again demonstrates the Law of Identity. And even though things might get very ugly politically and culturally in the short-term, we do have the right ideas to guide us over the long-term.

So, by all means, let's tear down the Dems - but it must be clear by now that the Republicans are just as quick to trash individual rights as the Dems.

Submitted to Real Clear Politics go there now to vote for the article. Unfortunately you can't link directly to the SOLO submission, only the "reader's articles" page, so you may need to search for it.