The man in the high castle
I
remember once wondering why so few real-world Objectivists seem to be
any kind of industrial magnates, inventors, investors and scientists in
the bleeding edge of technological progress. Somewhat paradoxically
their doctrine does not seem to lead to success in the objective
reality. Will Wilkinson has noticed the same thing and asks "Should Objectivists Become Mormons?"
Of course, if they did this, they couldn't smoke those little
dollar-sign cigarettes that symbolize the fire of reason burning in
their minds.
In the post "UK man faces jail over 'made-up' child porn images", Boing Boing brings us the curious case of a British man who is being sent to prison for photoshopping child pornography starting from pictures of adult pornography models, with no actual children being involved during any phase of the process. All right, now I really want to see what is going to happen with Alan Moore's pornographic graphic novel "Lost Girls", especially if somebody tries to import it across the Atlantic. More generally, as much as I dislike pedophiles and child porn, I also strongly dislike the very idea of having "invisible raygun" laws in style of old Soviet Union, so that if you don't like somebody, you can simply make one anynomous phone call to the thought police and tell them that he is secretly a dissident, and then you don't have to see that person ever again. Virtual child porn laws and draconian drug laws would make it far too easy for psychos and stalkers to destroy the life of somebody they hate, especially in the era of the Internet, which I why I am opposed to them.
Two Blowhards links to the essay "As Time Goes By" in which the Indian author reminisces his arrival to America two decades ago. I remember the first time I landed to Canada, and when we exited the airport, there was a black guy at the exit of the parking lot. Something didn't work, so the guy called over an Asian guy to fix it. At that moment I knew I was not in Finland anymore, but inside some kind of weird land that I had so far seen only on television.
Following the links in that same blowhards post, I came upon a veritable feast of sites and blogs that I have never seen before, so perhaps I'll spend another hour or two checking them out while my better half plays the "Buffy" videogame that she purchased earlier today. I am not into videogames myself at all, since I find them all the same and for all practical purposes I am living inside virtual reality already anyways. The game looks OK to me, though, except that there is one difference to Buffy canon: when you kill something, you get its lifeforce. I wonder if anybody has ever tried to see if that also works in real life. That would be quite handy, to say the least.
First, those "red state" conservative ladies sure are full of spunk like their coastal liberal counterparts, and they also dress nicer, as Still Stacy demonstrates. Blogs should also be nice, and I am happy to see that I have avoided all ten of "Top 10 Ways to Uglify Your Blog" by Christian Montoya.
Next, we meet The Hatemonger's Quarterly, a conservative blog that makes "An Exciting Trial Offer": let the progressive left-wing academics actually rule the country for a short while, and see what happens. I would personally even improve this offer of letting feminists, leftists and other humanities intellectuals who "like Pol Pot more than they like their pot" (I forgot where I recently read this witty piece of wordplay, otherwise I would properly credit and link to it) rule some small country for a period of a couple of years. I am sure that in this time, they would turn it into a paradise that masses of people all over the world would eagerly want to move into, perhaps even risking their lives to reach it in makeshift rafts in shark-infested waters. Oh, no, wait, that was the people trying to get out of the countries that are ruled by leftists and feminists. My bad.
Speaking of leftists academics and their vastly superior intellect and wisdom, I have been familiar with professor Peter Kurgman for a while now, but I have never before checked out The People's Cube, or as it is known in the non-oppressyr language, "El Cubo del Pueblo". I am not into these computer graphics animated movies that are dime a dozen these days, but the post "The Ant Bully: Introduction to Anthill Socialism" sure made me want to go see this movie.
"Secret Fun Blog" is another site that reminisces the past. The post "Vegas Sign Graveyard" shows us the the place where the old Vegas went to die.
For those of us who have to wake up every morning and commute to work, Uber-Review brings us "Top Ten Most Annoying Alarm Clocks". Somebody sure has been clever thinking up these things. The site also features many other innovative and exciting products such as the Comfort Sphere.
I think I saw "The Accidental Video Game Porn Archive" mentioned somewhere years ago, but it is still funny. For a minute or two, at least. You know how I know you are gay? You like to look at pictures of video game warriors sucking each other off.
When you run out of room, there is no way to go but up. The growing central Mississauga could use some of the more tasteful buildings featured in the site "Hong Kong Skycrappers". These pictures sure warm the heart of this big city boy. The blog "Batgung" tells us more about life in Hong Kong, and the post that gives advice on how to beat the heat is certainly applicable everywhere where the sun shines.
The link to the "skyscrapper" pictures was provided by "All Things Cool" that also has a post "Freaky picture". Great, now I am going to have nightmares of the girl of that picture coming to kill me in seven days, perhaps reaching out of my monitor to strangle me while I am writing a blog post. I think that I once saw a documentary film of that happening to somebody, and those events took place in Asia of all places. But if she shows up, I'll kick her ass and tell her to go back to the grave where she properly belongs. After all, what is she going to do, being just a little girl?
Speaking of creepy little girls, I don't really remember how long Dakota Fanning has been working in Hollywood, since whenever a movie needs a little girl who can act, she is the one who gets cast. But I do find it kind of... weird that Dakota just doesn't seem to age. Apparently Dakota has recently been looking for rougher and edgier movie roles after all that cutesy pap to establish "cred", as the post "Investors Pull Out of Dakota Fanning…’s Rape Movie" at "Best Week Ever" informs us.
There is not much room in Hong Kong, and the situation is similar in Manne Hatten. For that matter, I have never been able to understand why the New York City and especially Manhattan are supposed to be some kind of examples of beautiful interiors, since first of all, how beautiful can you get in 500 square feet, and second, what is it exactly that magically prevents similar furnishings and interior designs being applied anywhere else? Perhaps the site "Apartment Therapy" can give us an answer.
The Round Headed Boy lists "100 Reasons to Remember John Huston". I wouldn't really know, since I have pretty much forgotten him already.
"Chase me ladies, I'm in the cavalry" seems like an interesting blog. This post without a title is about the "A-levels" of the British educational system. Isn't it funny how many British women seem to be named Pippa or Fiona? Judging from the post "The Bore's Craft", I am glad that Harry doesn't read my blog.
I must be getting old or something, since the post "16 Common Myths About Atheists" just seems so... juvenile to me. Or it is because I have read "Why Religious Believers Don't Take Intellectuals Seriously". I feel pretty sad to be an atheist when my supposedly "independent" and "freethinking" brethren happily goosestep to whatever trendoid lefty cause is currently in vogue, and carefully avoid saying anything bad about any religion of brown people, no matter how primitive and belligerent, so that they wouldn't be "racist". For example, I don't recall reading any of these good little dhimmis complaining about the recent events described in the post "Rape By Muslim OK In UK".
The picture in the post "The Tyranny of Consumer Choice" at "Infinitives Unsplit" is an old joke, but it is still somehow appropriate when placed next to the post "From the Mailbag: Foreign vs. Domestic" by Dennis Mangan. Chile and Argentina are indeed two countries whose fair maidens will soon be skyping lots of "Hi, wanna chat?" messages to Western males.
The Internet's greatest effect on business and life in general is eliminating the information poverty and therefore the need for all kinds of middlemen who were previously needed to find and bring interested parties together for a transaction to occur. It's about time to cut off these unnecessary moochers! This principle is vividly illustrated in the news article "Police target Internet-advertised prostitution".
"Half Sigma" offers us two interesting posts that once again made me slap my forehead and say "I have been thinking about that, I could have written that, so why didn't I?" First, "White parents adopting black babies" wonders why the leftists quickly forget their party line about how race is only a social construct when it comes to black children adopted by white families. I read the same thing once in Finland, when the lefty social worker was really huffy that the adoptive parents should teach the child "his" culture. So now the culture is given in the genes? Second, the post "Admission to "elite" NYC public high schools" indirectly tells us what would be the best way to fix public schools: drop the stupid idea that everybody is equal, and place children of the equal ability in the same classroom. This way, children of all levels of ability would receive teaching that was designed for their cognitive capacity, instead of trying to give everybody the same teaching designed for the average student that only bores the smart children and frustrates the dumb children so that they won't even learn to read.
In the post "UK man faces jail over 'made-up' child porn images", Boing Boing brings us the curious case of a British man who is being sent to prison for photoshopping child pornography starting from pictures of adult pornography models, with no actual children being involved during any phase of the process. All right, now I really want to see what is going to happen with Alan Moore's pornographic graphic novel "Lost Girls", especially if somebody tries to import it across the Atlantic. More generally, as much as I dislike pedophiles and child porn, I also strongly dislike the very idea of having "invisible raygun" laws in style of old Soviet Union, so that if you don't like somebody, you can simply make one anynomous phone call to the thought police and tell them that he is secretly a dissident, and then you don't have to see that person ever again. Virtual child porn laws and draconian drug laws would make it far too easy for psychos and stalkers to destroy the life of somebody they hate, especially in the era of the Internet, which I why I am opposed to them.
Two Blowhards links to the essay "As Time Goes By" in which the Indian author reminisces his arrival to America two decades ago. I remember the first time I landed to Canada, and when we exited the airport, there was a black guy at the exit of the parking lot. Something didn't work, so the guy called over an Asian guy to fix it. At that moment I knew I was not in Finland anymore, but inside some kind of weird land that I had so far seen only on television.
Following the links in that same blowhards post, I came upon a veritable feast of sites and blogs that I have never seen before, so perhaps I'll spend another hour or two checking them out while my better half plays the "Buffy" videogame that she purchased earlier today. I am not into videogames myself at all, since I find them all the same and for all practical purposes I am living inside virtual reality already anyways. The game looks OK to me, though, except that there is one difference to Buffy canon: when you kill something, you get its lifeforce. I wonder if anybody has ever tried to see if that also works in real life. That would be quite handy, to say the least.
First, those "red state" conservative ladies sure are full of spunk like their coastal liberal counterparts, and they also dress nicer, as Still Stacy demonstrates. Blogs should also be nice, and I am happy to see that I have avoided all ten of "Top 10 Ways to Uglify Your Blog" by Christian Montoya.
Next, we meet The Hatemonger's Quarterly, a conservative blog that makes "An Exciting Trial Offer": let the progressive left-wing academics actually rule the country for a short while, and see what happens. I would personally even improve this offer of letting feminists, leftists and other humanities intellectuals who "like Pol Pot more than they like their pot" (I forgot where I recently read this witty piece of wordplay, otherwise I would properly credit and link to it) rule some small country for a period of a couple of years. I am sure that in this time, they would turn it into a paradise that masses of people all over the world would eagerly want to move into, perhaps even risking their lives to reach it in makeshift rafts in shark-infested waters. Oh, no, wait, that was the people trying to get out of the countries that are ruled by leftists and feminists. My bad.
Speaking of leftists academics and their vastly superior intellect and wisdom, I have been familiar with professor Peter Kurgman for a while now, but I have never before checked out The People's Cube, or as it is known in the non-oppressyr language, "El Cubo del Pueblo". I am not into these computer graphics animated movies that are dime a dozen these days, but the post "The Ant Bully: Introduction to Anthill Socialism" sure made me want to go see this movie.
"Secret Fun Blog" is another site that reminisces the past. The post "Vegas Sign Graveyard" shows us the the place where the old Vegas went to die.
For those of us who have to wake up every morning and commute to work, Uber-Review brings us "Top Ten Most Annoying Alarm Clocks". Somebody sure has been clever thinking up these things. The site also features many other innovative and exciting products such as the Comfort Sphere.
I think I saw "The Accidental Video Game Porn Archive" mentioned somewhere years ago, but it is still funny. For a minute or two, at least. You know how I know you are gay? You like to look at pictures of video game warriors sucking each other off.
When you run out of room, there is no way to go but up. The growing central Mississauga could use some of the more tasteful buildings featured in the site "Hong Kong Skycrappers". These pictures sure warm the heart of this big city boy. The blog "Batgung" tells us more about life in Hong Kong, and the post that gives advice on how to beat the heat is certainly applicable everywhere where the sun shines.
The link to the "skyscrapper" pictures was provided by "All Things Cool" that also has a post "Freaky picture". Great, now I am going to have nightmares of the girl of that picture coming to kill me in seven days, perhaps reaching out of my monitor to strangle me while I am writing a blog post. I think that I once saw a documentary film of that happening to somebody, and those events took place in Asia of all places. But if she shows up, I'll kick her ass and tell her to go back to the grave where she properly belongs. After all, what is she going to do, being just a little girl?
Speaking of creepy little girls, I don't really remember how long Dakota Fanning has been working in Hollywood, since whenever a movie needs a little girl who can act, she is the one who gets cast. But I do find it kind of... weird that Dakota just doesn't seem to age. Apparently Dakota has recently been looking for rougher and edgier movie roles after all that cutesy pap to establish "cred", as the post "Investors Pull Out of Dakota Fanning…’s Rape Movie" at "Best Week Ever" informs us.
There is not much room in Hong Kong, and the situation is similar in Manne Hatten. For that matter, I have never been able to understand why the New York City and especially Manhattan are supposed to be some kind of examples of beautiful interiors, since first of all, how beautiful can you get in 500 square feet, and second, what is it exactly that magically prevents similar furnishings and interior designs being applied anywhere else? Perhaps the site "Apartment Therapy" can give us an answer.
The Round Headed Boy lists "100 Reasons to Remember John Huston". I wouldn't really know, since I have pretty much forgotten him already.
"Chase me ladies, I'm in the cavalry" seems like an interesting blog. This post without a title is about the "A-levels" of the British educational system. Isn't it funny how many British women seem to be named Pippa or Fiona? Judging from the post "The Bore's Craft", I am glad that Harry doesn't read my blog.
I must be getting old or something, since the post "16 Common Myths About Atheists" just seems so... juvenile to me. Or it is because I have read "Why Religious Believers Don't Take Intellectuals Seriously". I feel pretty sad to be an atheist when my supposedly "independent" and "freethinking" brethren happily goosestep to whatever trendoid lefty cause is currently in vogue, and carefully avoid saying anything bad about any religion of brown people, no matter how primitive and belligerent, so that they wouldn't be "racist". For example, I don't recall reading any of these good little dhimmis complaining about the recent events described in the post "Rape By Muslim OK In UK".
The picture in the post "The Tyranny of Consumer Choice" at "Infinitives Unsplit" is an old joke, but it is still somehow appropriate when placed next to the post "From the Mailbag: Foreign vs. Domestic" by Dennis Mangan. Chile and Argentina are indeed two countries whose fair maidens will soon be skyping lots of "Hi, wanna chat?" messages to Western males.
The Internet's greatest effect on business and life in general is eliminating the information poverty and therefore the need for all kinds of middlemen who were previously needed to find and bring interested parties together for a transaction to occur. It's about time to cut off these unnecessary moochers! This principle is vividly illustrated in the news article "Police target Internet-advertised prostitution".
"Half Sigma" offers us two interesting posts that once again made me slap my forehead and say "I have been thinking about that, I could have written that, so why didn't I?" First, "White parents adopting black babies" wonders why the leftists quickly forget their party line about how race is only a social construct when it comes to black children adopted by white families. I read the same thing once in Finland, when the lefty social worker was really huffy that the adoptive parents should teach the child "his" culture. So now the culture is given in the genes? Second, the post "Admission to "elite" NYC public high schools" indirectly tells us what would be the best way to fix public schools: drop the stupid idea that everybody is equal, and place children of the equal ability in the same classroom. This way, children of all levels of ability would receive teaching that was designed for their cognitive capacity, instead of trying to give everybody the same teaching designed for the average student that only bores the smart children and frustrates the dumb children so that they won't even learn to read.
Though I'm loath to defend Objectivists, aren't there really only a couple thousand of them? And can't TJ Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor almost be considered one?
I wonder how they stack up against other religious groups? I'm sure that they'd be happy that I consider them a wacky religion.
Posted by Disgruntled | 9:08 PM
About dividing pupils to groups according to their cognitive capacity: here in Finland, I can only imagine how Mr. Kari Uusikylä would go ballistic at such a suggestion. While waiting for my pizza-to-go to arrive in the local pizzeria, I was perusing a magazine called "Anna" (Light reading for females.) Mr. Uusikylä was interviewed about the concept of intelligence, and was quick to play the Hitler card by pointing out how Hitler's inner circle consisted of very intelligent men...
A casual reader was left with the impression that people with above average intelligence should be watched very closely.
Posted by Anonymous | 4:55 AM
Is it all disturbing to any one else that annoying little Dakota Fanning's passage into "womanhood" was going to, and may still, involve a hideous rape? I just hope this never comes together
Posted by Reel Fanatic | 5:47 AM
Well I'm glad that all other crimes have been solved so police have time to stop people having sex.
In Australia, cops get paid to go to strip clubs EVERY night to entice the girls to show more than is legal. Of course they need money to appear legit.
Your tax dollars at work.
Posted by darkbhudda | 9:07 AM
Here's perhaps a bit more unusual case of "white flight" from school districts.
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2005/11/new-white-flight.html
Posted by H-Baari | 5:58 PM
Alan Greenspan was an acolyte of Ayn Rand's at one point. But I think he's pretty much the sole Objectivist (or fellow-traveller) to make something of himself.
Posted by Fred S. | 1:03 AM
There is nothing essentially contradicting in being a skeptic when it comes to superistition (i.e. atheist) while being non-skeptical when it comes to public discourse (e.g. trendy leftist).
Of course you might say that a "true skeptic" applies his skepticism towards all aspects of life, in which case leftoid atheists really are dissontant.
Posted by Anonymous | 4:13 AM
Re: White Flight and the Fremont Union School District ...
As someone who lives nearby and who has a math teacher for a spouse and whose children are half Chinese, I think too much is made of the so-called white flight in Cupertino.
Sure, the Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans in Palo Alto and Cupertino are competitive ... but so what.
Posted by Richard Sharpe | 2:57 PM
I think it was Max Stirner who first claimed that socialists like Feuerbach were not "true atheists" due to their devotion to "social justice" or whatnot. Of course, Stirner the original "egoist" and precursor to Rand did a pretty lousy job of managing his own life and engaged in such poorly thought out endeavors as this one, quoted from Wikipedia: "One of the most curious events in those times was that Stirner planned and financed (with his second wife's inheritance) an attempt by some Young Hegelians to own and operate a milk-shop on co-operative principles. This enterprise failed because the German dairy farmers harboured suspicions of these well-dressed intellectuals with their confusing talk about profit-sharing and other high-minded ideals. Meanwhile, the milk shop itself appeared so ostentatiously decorated that most of the customers felt too poorly dressed to buy their milk there."
Posted by tggp | 4:14 PM
as one of those of a generally objectivist bent who is also completely incapable of functioning in society, i'd like to point out that it is likely that highly successful people hold the general "sense of life" and worldview Rand enumerated WITHOUT having the obsessive, nerdy, almost autistic drive to systematically work out and organize every aspect of their driving philosophy. people who espouse objectivism think about it all the time, people who are of a sort of innately "objectivist" character LIVE their philosophy all the time, without analyzing it or thinking it to death.
Posted by Anonymous | 12:15 PM