Comments on: Comment Policy, part 2 http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog Loving this country enough to leave it / Loving this country enough to save it Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:53:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jack Cassidy http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/ii/comment-page-1/#comment-4773 Jack Cassidy Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:30:32 +0000 http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/?page_id=232#comment-4773 John, You have got it right. Let the uneducated (have not read Rand or have read just her fiction, or have read it all and "don't" get it) have they're say. But only answer the people who are committed to unbiased, intellectual discourse. I'm so glad I found this site. And, your obvious exception to people who are civil, but have not studied enough is a great idea. Thanks John, You have got it right. Let the uneducated (have not read Rand or have read just her fiction, or have read it all and “don’t” get it) have they’re say. But only answer the people who are committed to unbiased, intellectual discourse. I’m so glad I found this site. And, your obvious exception to people who are civil, but have not studied enough is a great idea. Thanks

]]> By: John Gula http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/ii/comment-page-1/#comment-901 John Gula Wed, 13 May 2009 01:28:47 +0000 http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/?page_id=232#comment-901 This site appears promising. Got here by way of Instalanche. Already gone Galt and willing to barter ideas. Go, go, go Johnny go. This site appears promising. Got here by way of Instalanche.
Already gone Galt and willing to barter ideas. Go, go, go Johnny go.

]]> By: John http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/ii/comment-page-1/#comment-569 John Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:04:59 +0000 http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/?page_id=232#comment-569 HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS

]]> By: John http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/ii/comment-page-1/#comment-466 John Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:07:49 +0000 http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/?page_id=232#comment-466 They're just <em>my</em> rules, not <em>the</em> rules. But I guess that means on my site they're <em>the</em> rules. :-) Everyone here should chill out, and do some of the things in your life that are more worthwhile than debating. Things like help me come up with ideas! They’re just my rules, not the rules. But I guess that means on my site they’re the rules. :-) Everyone here should chill out, and do some of the things in your life that are more worthwhile than debating. Things like help me come up with ideas!

]]> By: matt http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/ii/comment-page-1/#comment-465 matt Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:57:48 +0000 http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/?page_id=232#comment-465 To All, I am a culprit in using my itchy typing fingers against trolls and like creatures from the dark abyss. I apologize to John for making more work for him, because I didn't follow the rules. To All,

I am a culprit in using my itchy typing fingers against trolls and like creatures from the dark abyss. I apologize to John for making more work for him, because I didn’t follow the rules.

]]> By: Karyn McD http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/ii/comment-page-1/#comment-454 Karyn McD Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:27:08 +0000 http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/?page_id=232#comment-454 ALL ABOARD THE AYN RANDWAGON – GOING GALT In the past week or so, one cannot turn on the TV or open a newspaper without hearing of Ayn Rand and her seminal work Atlas Shrugged. High profile ‘news comedians’ Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, amongst others, have referred to Ms. Rand at length in just the past few days. The Wall Street Journal has run ran several op/ed pieces and there is an abundance of letters to the editor. Rush Limbaugh – he, of twenty million listeners and considerable conservative clout, is urging people to buy it and educate themselves. And they are. Atlas Shrugged is selling at a rate of knots and faster than any time since it was first published in 1957. The influential Economist reports that sales of the book have risen sharply since Obama’s election surging every time he announces another spending plan. Colbert dead pans that ‘things have gotten so bad Americans are actually reading’. The Randroids who call her a prophet are right. And there is a reason. For those of you who have not yet thumbed through the over 1000 page tome that is Atlas, the premise is thus: it tells the story of the United States economy crumbling under the weight of a government that dotes on interventions and regulations. In the meantime, Washington responds by blaming the free market and greed. Rand wrote about an out of control government siphoning off the profits of the rich. Sound familiar? In the novel all the successful business people go on a strike and retreat to a hideaway in Colorado named Galt’s Gulch after the hero John Galt. He describes the strike as ‘stopping the motor of the world’ with the withdrawal of ‘men of mind’ to demonstrate that to do so would cause economic and societal collapse. The current economic crises both here in the US and globally along with runaway government do not just happen by themselves. Why did the government, who allowed, no, encouraged Freddie Mac and Fannie May to go on a crusade to promote ‘affordable housing’? Banks were forced, literally, to give loans to unqualified home buyers. Look where that has got us. There is obviously a lot of blame to go around. This includes former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, who was a proponent of Rand’s objectivist philosophy in the 50’s and 60’s. Perhaps he wasn’t paying attention in class. Ms Rand’s work should be required reading matter for all members of elected bodies and every political appointee. With each week and with every bailout and spending plan, our politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that Atlas Shrugged parodied in the 1950’s. The Library of Congress, Book of the Month Club and The Economist has all found that it is the second-most influential book in their lives. Naturally, the Bible comes first. The moral is simply this: politicians invariably respond to crises – that, in most cases, they themselves created by spawning new government laws and regulations. This, then creates more havoc and poverty which insanely leads our leaders to create more programs to solve this and the downward spiral repeats itself until productive elements of the economy collapse due to high taxes and other government burdens imposed under the guise of ‘fairness’, ‘equality’ by the do-gooders who govern us. Obama’s current economic strategy and those of most other nations is taken straight from the Atlas Shrugged playbook; the more incompetent you are the more handouts you will get. How many more billions are going to be flung at the very people who got us into this mess in the first place? Every bailout is sold as a ‘need to calm the markets’. That’s not exactly what the Dow Jones seems to show having lost 25% of its value since Obama took office. Speaking of money and when the day of reckoning comes when those who are productive are supplanted by what she calls the ‘moochers’ and looters’ Ayn Rand summed it up thus: “Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming self sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed”. Atlas Shrugged celebrates the entrepreneur, the risk taker and those who cultivate and create wealth. Of course, Ms Rand has her critics with some complaining that she was particularly dispassionate, too simplistic and not nuanced enough for their tastes. Maybe. Yet the warning sounds that resonate from Atlas Shrugged are louder today more than ever: when making a profit, wealth ingenuity and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear -- leaving everyone the poorer. One great scene occurs towards the end when the American economy has finally been rendered comatose by those very people who oversaw it in Washington DC.; those great economic minds who have never run a business in their lives. So with the economy completely tanking, no tax revenue as businesses go bust either by taxation and regulation or entrepreneurs simply walking away because there is no point, desperation sets in. The politicians come to John Galt, the heroic businessman who has resisted and fought against the government’s control, meddling and theft and beg him to help them get the economy back on track. The following discussion is eerily prophetic: Galt: "You want me to be Economic Dictator?" Mr. Thompson: "Yes!" "And you'll obey any order I give?" "Implicitly!" "Then start by abolishing all income taxes." "Oh no!" screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. "We couldn't do that . . . How would we pay government employees?" "Fire your government employees." "Oh, no!" If we want genuine economic stimulus – one not based purely on spending for pig odor research and the tinpot museum in South Carolina or the Kennedy family (who surely have enough under the mattress), then what about the radical idea of abolishing income tax? Mr Obama in DC, Mr Brown in Britain and Mr Rudd in Australia, to name a few, want to do the opposite in the interests of ‘fairness’. The President of the Atlas Society, an organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of Ayn Rand said "the older the book gets, the more timely its message." He goes on to say there are plans to make "Atlas Shrugged" into a major motion picture -- it is the only classic novel of recent decades not to be made into a movie. "We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now." Indeed. Wall Street editorial member and columnist, National Review contributing editor as well as numerous other positions such as fellow at the Heritage Foundation and President of the Club for Growth, Stephen Moore wrote recently that, when he worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, they used to label any new hire who had not read Atlas Shrugged a “virgin”. If you haven’t read it, it’s time to lose your virginity. ALL ABOARD THE AYN RANDWAGON –
GOING GALT
In the past week or so, one cannot turn on the TV or open a newspaper without hearing of Ayn Rand and her seminal work Atlas Shrugged.
High profile ‘news comedians’ Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, amongst others, have referred to Ms. Rand at length in just the past few days. The Wall Street Journal has run ran several op/ed pieces and there is an abundance of letters to the editor. Rush Limbaugh – he, of twenty million listeners and considerable conservative clout, is urging people to buy it and educate themselves. And they are.
Atlas Shrugged is selling at a rate of knots and faster than any time since it was first published in 1957. The influential Economist reports that sales of the book have risen sharply since Obama’s election surging every time he announces another spending plan. Colbert dead pans that ‘things have gotten so bad Americans are actually reading’.
The Randroids who call her a prophet are right. And there is a reason.
For those of you who have not yet thumbed through the over 1000 page tome that is Atlas, the premise is thus: it tells the story of the United States economy crumbling under the weight of a government that dotes on interventions and regulations. In the meantime, Washington responds by blaming the free market and greed. Rand wrote about an out of control government siphoning off the profits of the rich. Sound familiar?
In the novel all the successful business people go on a strike and retreat to a hideaway in Colorado named Galt’s Gulch after the hero John Galt. He describes the strike as ‘stopping the motor of the world’ with the withdrawal of ‘men of mind’ to demonstrate that to do so would cause economic and societal collapse.
The current economic crises both here in the US and globally along with runaway government do not just happen by themselves.
Why did the government, who allowed, no, encouraged Freddie Mac and Fannie May to go on a crusade to promote ‘affordable housing’? Banks were forced, literally, to give loans to unqualified home buyers. Look where that has got us. There is obviously a lot of blame to go around. This includes former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, who was a proponent of Rand’s objectivist philosophy in the 50’s and 60’s. Perhaps he wasn’t paying attention in class.
Ms Rand’s work should be required reading matter for all members of elected bodies and every political appointee. With each week and with every bailout and spending plan, our politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that Atlas Shrugged parodied in the 1950’s.
The Library of Congress, Book of the Month Club and The Economist has all found that it is the second-most influential book in their lives. Naturally, the Bible comes first.
The moral is simply this: politicians invariably respond to crises – that, in most cases, they themselves created by spawning new government laws and regulations. This, then creates more havoc and poverty which insanely leads our leaders to create more programs to solve this and the downward spiral repeats itself until productive elements of the economy collapse due to high taxes and other government burdens imposed under the guise of ‘fairness’, ‘equality’ by the do-gooders who govern us.
Obama’s current economic strategy and those of most other nations is taken straight from the Atlas Shrugged playbook; the more incompetent you are the more handouts you will get. How many more billions are going to be flung at the very people who got us into this mess in the first place? Every bailout is sold as a ‘need to calm the markets’. That’s not exactly what the Dow Jones seems to show having lost 25% of its value since Obama took office. Speaking of money and when the day of reckoning comes when those who are productive are supplanted by what she calls the ‘moochers’ and looters’ Ayn Rand summed it up thus:
“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming self sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed”.
Atlas Shrugged celebrates the entrepreneur, the risk taker and those who cultivate and create wealth. Of course, Ms Rand has her critics with some complaining that she was particularly dispassionate, too simplistic and not nuanced enough for their tastes. Maybe.
Yet the warning sounds that resonate from Atlas Shrugged are louder today more than ever: when making a profit, wealth ingenuity and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear — leaving everyone the poorer.
One great scene occurs towards the end when the American economy has finally been rendered comatose by those very people who oversaw it in Washington DC.; those great economic minds who have never run a business in their lives. So with the economy completely tanking, no tax revenue as businesses go bust either by taxation and regulation or entrepreneurs simply walking away because there is no point, desperation sets in. The politicians come to John Galt, the heroic businessman who has resisted and fought against the government’s control, meddling and theft and beg him to help them get the economy back on track. The following discussion is eerily prophetic:
Galt: “You want me to be Economic Dictator?”
Mr. Thompson: “Yes!”
“And you’ll obey any order I give?”
“Implicitly!”
“Then start by abolishing all income taxes.”
“Oh no!” screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. “We couldn’t do that . . . How would we pay government employees?”
“Fire your government employees.”
“Oh, no!”
If we want genuine economic stimulus – one not based purely on spending for pig odor research and the tinpot museum in South Carolina or the Kennedy family (who surely have enough under the mattress), then what about the radical idea of abolishing income tax?
Mr Obama in DC, Mr Brown in Britain and Mr Rudd in Australia, to name a few, want to do the opposite in the interests of ‘fairness’.
The President of the Atlas Society, an organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of Ayn Rand said “the older the book gets, the more timely its message.” He goes on to say there are plans to make “Atlas Shrugged” into a major motion picture — it is the only classic novel of recent decades not to be made into a movie. “We don’t need to make a movie out of the book,” Mr. Kelley jokes. “We are living it right now.”
Indeed.
Wall Street editorial member and columnist, National Review contributing editor as well as numerous other positions such as fellow at the Heritage Foundation and President of the Club for Growth, Stephen Moore wrote recently that, when he worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, they used to label any new hire who had not read Atlas Shrugged a “virgin”.
If you haven’t read it, it’s time to lose your virginity.

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