Bullet Points:
** It’s cute that they’re putting jokes on the back of bacon packages. Look at this one: Serving size – two slices.
** Progs now say the government is too big…”President Donald Trump is using every tool he has to challenge woke practices in America — and he has a lot of them. Notably, none of the mechanisms the president used were put in place by conservatives for leverage against progressive institutions. Trump is simply availing himself of the vast federal apparatus created by liberals on the assumption that an ever-more powerful and extensive federal government was synonymous with righteousness. Now that someone is in charge who disagrees with them and who is willing to use all the influence that the progressive state affords him, they are vulnerable to the centralized power that they’ve eagerly built up over decades.”
** Japanese ink is expensive – because it’s made by bare Japanese feet? Like French wine, made by stomping the grapes? I don’t get the foot thing, but it is a thing.
** Peterson discusses the twelve-inch personality.
Arizona Rocks
Arizona’s oldest volcanic rocks are 1.8 billion years old. Some of Arizona’s most spectacular geologic features and scenery are volcanic, e.g., Flagstaff’s San Francisco Peaks. Volcanic rocks and features are ubiquitous in space and time (the graphic on the right illustrates 200 million years of significant volcanic activity).
Arizona boasts seven young (Quaternary) volcanic fields; young, that is, by geologic standards. The three youngest fields are the San Francisco, Uinkaret, and Pinacate volcanic fields. The former two reside on the Colorado Plateau of northern Arizona; the Pinacate field is situated on the Arizona-Mexico frontier about 40 miles south-southwest of Ajo, Arizona.
The San Francisco field near Flagstaff was active as recently as 1085 CE, just 932 years ago with the eruption that formed Sunset Crater. The Uinkaret field, perched on the north rim of Grand Canyon, also evinces volcanic activity as recently as about 1,000 years ago.
The White Wolf Mine is north of the transition zone on the map, on top of the Mogollon Rim, the Southern end of the Colorado Plateau. It’s outside the volcanic fields.
VM Shrugged?
The US passed various immigration acts starting in the 1870s, during a transition period between our early nationhood and the 20th-century world power we became. Is there a relationship between that period and the explosion of resentful, entitled people who are reacting so hysterically to every aspect of the Trumpkrieg™ that is now two months old?
I thought of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, a terrible great book. Or possibly a great terrible book, depending on how you look at it.
Its terribleness comes from three primary flaws. Rand is a curmudgeon, and her grimly doctrinaire atheism makes large swaths of the book an irritating slog. Her moral worldview is cartoonishly black-and-white, often making her characters cardboard stand-ins for intellectual tropes. And the book is wildly overwritten; my copy is 1168 pages, and it could easily be a tight, fast-moving 250-pager.
But its greatness lies in two strengths. Rand despised totalitarian leftism the way we all should: utterly and passionately. And the central conceit of the book was an answer to the fascinating question, “What would happen to a corrupt leftist society if its most productive citizens began purposefully disappearing?”
Written in the mid-1950s, it presciently (if exaggeratedly) predicts the flight of productive citizens from blue to red states that’s been going on over the last 30 years or more. As CA, NY, and IL get more greedy and socialist, talented people shrug, vote with their feet, and take their skills and net worth to TN, TX, and FL. None goes to Arizona. Stay away from Arizona if you know what’s good for you. Arizona has volcanoes, jaguars, sand, scorpions, and rattlesnakes. Keep moving from California to Texas. You can stop for gasoline along the way (buy a snack to help the economy) and then drive east. It’s fly-over country. Hillary Clinton said that the people are “deplorable.” Pedo Joe Biden said that they’re “garbage.”
Back to Atlas. The book’s most direct echoes involve the kind of virtue-signaling social justice warriors who simultaneously look down on and criticize the successful people and inventors they depend on.
The book is replete with Bernie Sanders-esque railing about how the rich don’t pay their fair share and Musk-hating Tesla-vandalizer types – and the villains agree with so many in the “resistance” now. They’re all convinced that beggars have the absolute moral right to be choosers.
I’m seeing this phenomenon on many foreign policy fronts now that we’re learning how much foreign aid we’ve been indiscriminately showering on the rest of the world.
We’ve had a nonstop convoy of C-130 flights going 24/7, shoving giant pallets of cash out the rear cargo hold at 15-minute intervals worldwide. And yet the Europeans want to lecture us that we’re not paying enough for the UN, and NATO, and the “March of AK-47s” program to provide Russian small arms to jihadi toddlers in Gaza. (It’s like the March of Dimes, except that instead of collecting dimes, we’re disbursing rifles.)
When Trump suggested that we might be shutting down the money flow to Ukraine, many Europeans lost it. The six- or seven-nation poll shows that around 70% of Europeans want Zelensky to get a lot more support… but only around 20% want to give him any of that themselves. They’re happier with other people’s money going to the Ukes. Strange. Putin is an ocean away from us, but right on their doorstep, and they are very adamant that WE do whatever it takes to keep him within his borders.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Australian universities are freaking out after the Trump administration sent them a questionnaire asking whether they’ve got ties to commie or socialist parties, receive funding from China, or recognize genders other than the two real ones. The wrong answers could potentially jeopardize $386 million (over a third of what Australia spends on research each year) in research grants.
The Aussie professors are wearing lab coats and demanding an “emergency meeting” with their Prime Minister. One of them was “astounded” by the questions, saying, “if this were any other country, it verges on foreign interference.” Seriously, why are we paying for Aussie scientists to do research? Australia is a first-world, Anglophone nation. They’re not some struggling sub-Saharan country desperately battling a snake-borne diptheria strain (which Fauci probably paid to create in a crumbling lab in Mombasa) that is the leading cause of death among their citizens! Also, are American scientists broken? If not, and if expensive research is worth doing, why don’t we do that at home?
And it’s not just foreigners who are stamping their feet in their clunky foreign shoes and cussing us out in their comically non-English languages. Many Americans also threaten to hold their breath and give us the silent treatment if we don’t pony up the dough they’re used to getting. Some of them are government workers in the crucial fields of grievance mongering, racial and gender bean-counting, and maintaining a minimal pulse rate while “working” from home. And some of them are actually doing legitimate work that we can’t afford anymore, now that we’re the brokest nation in the history of nations.
Woke universities are similarly out of sorts. They’ve been happily demonizing and excluding conservatives from their programs and campuses and rhetorically (and for all I know, literally) fellating terrorist supporters and their cosplaying allies while gorging themselves on grant money provided by the (despised) conservative majority in the country.
When Pres. Trump said the federal money flow would stop if they didn’t change their ways; they became outraged and terrified. Just like the sanctuary state and city governors and mayors when they found out that they’re going to have to face the natural consequences of their arrogant defiance of our immigration laws. The purest distillation of this attitude appeared in the story of Trump’s proposed changes to SNAP (i.e., food stamps). The GOP is proposing a bill to ban the use of SNAP benefits to buy junk food and sodas, and the people who rely on you and me to buy their food are not happy about it. In a sane world, this wouldn’t require any debate. We know that the leading health problems among poor Americans – and many non-poor Americans! – are caused by unhealthy diet and obesity, and taxpayers are already paying exorbitant costs for welfare recipients’ health care. So, who could argue that we need to buy junk food for the poor? Big junk food companies, beggars who are surprisingly picky eaters, and the Democrats who need the sick-and-fat vote, that’s who!
A couple of their arguments are transparent dodges. They say altering how the SNAP program works this way will be tough. They also say nobody can define “junk food” because one person’s junk food is another person’s healthy snack.
Nope. This argument is even easier to debunk than its older counterpart, “How do you define pornography?” Because you know both when you see them. Show any reasonably intelligent adult Stormy Daniels in a g-string, washing down a plate of chocolate chip cookies with a Mountain Dew, and he’ll point and say, “Why is that porn star gorging herself on that junk food?”
But their other arguments are even worse. They say that the proposed bill limits personal choice and infringes on the freedom to eat whatever you want, which would be true if you were paying for the food yourself. But since you’re not paying for the food yourself, you should get the same offer my dad gave me when I was a kid and looking at a plate of meatloaf (again!) that he bought with his paultry salary: “You’ve got two choices: take it, or leave it.” They’re also worried that “The bill could stigmatize SNAP recipients, making them feel judged or shamed for their food choices.”
***
Trade
As you read or view media reports on Trump’s Trade Wars, bear in mind these facts.
Mexico’s GDP is $1.8 trillion a year, and its exports to the United States are $506 billion a year, making up 28% of its economy.
Exports to Mexico make up less than 2% of our $27.7 trillion GDP.
Canada’s GDP is $2.1 trillion, and its exports to the USA are $413 billion a year, making up 19% of its economy.
Exports to Canada are less than 2% of our GDP.
Delusional politicians in Canada, like Ontario’s Doug Ford, are huffing and puffing like a fat man on mile two of a marathon race.
Ford said, “We’re going to make sure that we inflict as much pain as possible to the American people without inflicting pain on the Canadian population.”
As the Indian chief said, “How?” We can replace Canadian bacon with slices of ham. However, I don’t think the 51st state can replace its $100 billion trade surplus by opening a few more Tim Horton stores in Red China.
Oh? For a nation that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup in 30 years, its new PM sure sounds tough. Well, he’s tougher than Justin Castreau. Overboiled spaghetti is even tougher.
Identify the Aircraft
1
Yes, we all know what it is, but the photo is cool.
2 & 3
End
I can name the C-47 Douglas in the background, a plane my dad flew in WW2 as well as B-24s and 25s.
Everyone loves the Vulcan ( and rightly so ), but there has never been a cooler , more futuristic looking jet bomber than the Victor , IMHO.
Although the Valkyrie runs a very close second . Sort of like Alydar to Affirmed .
Valkyrie +1
As a child I asked myself, “Where did it go?”.
I don’t find it beautiful, but there is nothing else like the Victor.
It’s like a plane from a parallel universe.
– Kle.
“Shrugging” is good for ones Chi, with the added benefit of reducing stress in neck muscles thusly reducing headaches caused by others who believe they have a say in your life…no chiropractor required. This is the path I’m currently on. It’s a daily battle because secular tentacles are an invasive species and dangerous to the independent thinker.
“It’s a daily battle because sexual testicles are…”
I misread the sentence the first time and after two slaps on the wrist, a shrug, and a shake of the head it’s now understandable; that’s what speed reading can do for/to you.
I also need new glasses.
It’s understandable. Paul often mistypes and blames it on his keyboard.
😂
Can never be operator error, it’s always the machine.
There is always a ghost in the machine.
My iPad is possessed, has a mind of its own…need to perform an exorcism altho the Cloud may thwart all efforts to cleanse its silicon soul.
B…hahahahahah…now I can’t unsee that, and I wrote the dang thing.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Handley Page Victor;
2. Douglas C-47 in background with De Havilland Chipmunk in foreground.
Nailed them all.
Pretty good considering things got heavily rattled over there yesterday.
Sunday Sermon a day early. Rousing good show!
.
I had in mind the retirement project of editing Shrugged into something more manageable, by sharply editing all the multi-page ranting and rambling discourse. But then I shrugged myself.
C47, or DC3 in the background in photo #2. There used to be one at the aircraft salvage yard near me, but it’s gone now so I guess it was airworthy.
DC3s used to fly cargo to Willow Run and I felt the were using my roof for VFR, rattling the (older) windows.
I used to watch “Catalina Air” fly their DC-3 out of Long Beach three times a week.
As I heard Walter Williams say ” How Much of Someone Else’s Money are We Entitled To !
As American’s We Need to Start Living that Statement .
Some will say, without missing a beat, “more”.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Handley Page Victor. I think it is a more attractive aircraft than the Vulcan.
2. front: de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk
3. back: Douglas C-47 Skytrain
Easy on my Tim Hortons.
One of the drawbacks of being on the road is finding an acceptable substitute.
Of course, I’m about to sally forth into the depths of Ontario this week.
And I’ll be driving my F-150 with the Trump sticker on it this time.
But I won’t lack a coffee source.
Ed, AAR on the coffee please.
Huh. I’m going to Vancouver, BC this coming weekend. Meeting a research collaborator. I suppose we could do most of it by Zoom or Teams, but it’s an excuse to have coffee with a friend and bitch about our jobs and talk shit about people.
Actually I’m flying into Seattle, then driving to Vancouver because I have stuff to do in both cities. Let’s see if they toss my rental car on the way out of BC.
A brief mention of Tim Hortons.
—-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-beeayCdzPU
He’s right, of course.
Can we trade our Mavericks for Tom Hortons?
For those not familiar with the Intermountain West, Mavericks have sprouted like Dollar Generals. High gas prices, overpriced mediocre food, and shitty coffee.
Clean restrooms, if you can find them without a GPS.
The only plane I knew was the de Havilland Chippy. The CAP unit at the airport we used had one. I don’t know much about it but the Cessna 140 that I flew could not keep up with it.
Dear CA, NY, IL people. Florida is terrible! It’s full of mosquitoes, swamps (not the D.C. kind), snakes, alligators, and, worst of all, transplanted Yankees! Stay away. Oh, and don’t forget the hurricanes. New Mexico might be good. It’s not even close to the Gulf of America, and you know how you love “Mexico “, even if you wouldn’t want to live there.
Thanks for the rundown on “Atlas Shrugged”. I believe I will pass on reading it now and jump on one by Major Frederick Russell Burnham, ” Scouting On Two Continents”.
Major Frederick Russell Burnham, ” Scouting On Two Continents”.
I will look for that.
Scouting is a really good read!
Roy, x2 on the rundowns. I saw the 2011 movie. Larry’s a very reliable source and what a time saver V.M. is for what really matters in the news! I’m currently creeping along through ” The Discoverers” by Daniel J. Boorstin
thanks, I will write that down and give it the once over. At my age I have to pick and choose and get the max benefit. I have spent a lifetime collecting great books but never had time(took time to read them). Now I am trying to play catchup. I really do have some good ones.
Larry, you threw us Texans under the bus by suggesting the California escapees keep headed east on IH-40 and IH-10 through Arizona and proceed to Texas. We already have too many of those folks located in “Little Moscow on the Colorado” (Austin). So, in our “defense” I’d suggest those leaving California consider the following: although Arizona has more venomous snakes than Texas, ours are larger; in Texas our California style ghettos are full and bursting at the seams; while Texas doesn’t have a State Income Tax and Arizona does, just remember Texas observes the Yankee summertime tradition of Daylight Saving Time, while Arizona doesn’t. Lastly, it takes a lot less fuel to drive from California to Arizona.
watching the great lemming migration eastwards, I can see no reason why they should stop on the great sandbanks of our Eastern shore, the Sargasso Sea/Utopia lies only another couple hundred miles or further east.
re:Cletus
I am in full agreement.
I also concur with The Boron
Juan
the snap idea is great, but will be impossible to enforce and cause chimp-outs at the cash register. i pity the cashiers, who don’t get paid enough to rumble with the beasts….the atlas migration includes libtard economic refugees looking for cheap (relatively) housing. unfortunately they bring their attitudes with them and are shocked that there are no six figure jobs for underwater basket weaving instructors here.
I personally see nothing wrong with SNAP involving getting in line to be handed a sack of rice, a sack of beans, and a gallon of cooking oil. Hey, it’s good enough for all those USAID recipients in the third world, why not for food aid at home?
Seeing as we’re in the first world with refrigeration capacity, we could even throw in a wheel (or brick) of government cheese.
I agree. I think that SNAP needs to return to the days of government cheese and basics. A lot of restaurants accept SNAP cards (SNACK?). Maybe that’s needed in some neighborhoods, or maybe we need to reintroduce soup kitchens for SNAP needing a SNACK in the inner cities? They way it’s being done needs to end.
As someone who has had to have SNAP to survive (it was a dark period of woe and suffering, much suffering, much woe, much better now) I have no problem with restricting SNAP/Food Assistance to vegetables (fresh, canned or frozen,) basic grains and starches and basic products made with them (flour, pasta, cereals and such,) sugar (as in brown or white or artificial sweetners,) dairy products (cheese, butter, milk but NOT ice cream or ice cream products) and uncooked or canned meats.
–
And, yes, food staples. Would have killed to have some government cheese or a bag of rice when I needed them.
–
Anything else? Go sell plasma. Or stop drinking alcohol or drugs or tobacco products and use the money to buy your own stuff.
–
Always amazed me when I was at rock bottom and struggling to see others buying premium products on the peoples’ dime. During the time of woe, I’d fix food for two people on $150-200 a month. Hell, I’d go to a day-old bread store and buy a month’s worth of bread and freeze enough.
There was a time when I was in the line at the grocery store buying ground beef to feed the kids and the people ahead of me were buying steak and lobster with food stamps. Maybe it’s SNAP envy – but people would accept the need of others if they stuck to the basics rather than were able to do what they’ve been doing with food stamps.
Bartering food stamps has been s practice of long standing.
Exactly why even coding the Snap card against UPC codes wouldn’t work.
I’ve also been at the store when some welfare queen is stocking up the larder using her SNAP card. Been at a liquor store when I’ve seen welfare queens buying their hooch. Seen SNAP cards used to buy gas or clothing or cigarettes.
-.
And with today’s modern scanning system, there’s no reason an EBT card can’t pay out for only allowable products. It’s really simple. Code the UPCs that are allowed so that they only can be paid for. It’s simple data management.
–
It won’t stop the users from paying for everything else with money, but it is a start. Which, curiously, is also part of the problem when welfare queen buys a bunch of stuff and pays with EBT/SNAP and with cash. But it will slow down the grift.
>people ahead of me were buying steak and lobster with food stamps
I used to see that all the time. Someone would be buying north of 20 lbs of steaks, and lots of sugary snack foods, with their EBT card. And then climb into a late-model SUV that was pulled up by the store entrance (blocking traffic). Meanwhile I’m buying the loss-leader $4.67 roasted chicken.
My friend James LaFond has a series called “The Ghetto Grocer” which is basically a bunch of anecdotes about his decades working at inner-city Baltimore grocery stores from midnight stocker to store manager. (Guess which he prefers.) Oh, because of where I was shopping (western Boston suburb) it was all white people doing the steaks and SUVs thing.
—
As for bartering food stamps, there’s also the thing of buying Cokes (or other soft drinks) from the grocery store, and re-selling it to mom-and-pop convenience stores for cash. Typically at half of what the convenience store will sell it for.
Atlas Shrugged – why does an author need 200+ pages just to complete the story start-up?
The Cliff Notes told me all I needed to know.
I’m waiting for Larry to offer his 250 page rewrite…
Devoted fans would excoriate me. I’m not a big fan, but I still think that it’s an important book. It hits a lot of points, given what it is and isn’t.
Just left the Colorado plateau two days ago. Visited my most amazing place in the world for my 80th birthday with friends of 50 years (Grand Canyon). Way too many people——can’t even imagine summertime. Brought back many pleasant memories of ventures into the canyon in very remote areas. Tourist trails are ok but crowded. I think I will stay in my adopted home state of Idaho for another 27 years. That will make me 107. Maybe then I can start to collect some of that demonrat $$$$ largess.
Idaho is also a state that those fleeing from tyranny should avoid. While things look nice and it carries the heavy burden of being the potato state, the thought that Idaho is a conservative state is completely incorrect. Idaho has a huge amount of crazies who are in positions of authority in local and regional offices both elected and appointed.
Arkansas, Missouri, OK Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska offer much saner governments, less expensive houses and more likely better neighbors. In Idaho, a dumpy 45 year old house requiring thousands to repair it, placed along a state highway, an hour’s drive from towns large enough to have Home Depot or Costco costs at least $360,000. Newer dumps are closer to $450,000. Unbelievable, but that’s what they are going for.
Angry-
G-d Bless you for making to this stage!
May your wishes be granted!
as to the demon/rino rats…
Trust The Lord.
Juan
Concerning Trade Wars and Tariffs: Almost everyday, the independent, internet news reports more crazy, unnecessary spending going to countries and organizations all over the world. Let them complain. Put the money back here where it belongs.
Canada’s Prime Minister Carney said that the old days of cooperation with the US are over. Good. As noted here, approximately 20% of Canada’s GDP comes from American business so Carney is really wanting to cut Canada’s nose off. More importantly, (unverified by official governmental sources) approximately 80% of Canada’s toilet paper comes from US producers. Strike at the center of gravity and cut off toilet paper to Canada.
Concerning TM words: How do we document or properly reference Trumpkreig when pontificating elsewhere?
Note to Californians.
I-70 in Colorado makes the “Five” look like a racecourse. We have the same taxes and fees you are trying to escape. Consider Nebraska or Kansas as a destination.
Californians feel at home in Wokeorado. Drug friendly, anti-firearm, run by communists.
All the Natures Bounty Green Cross RecMed shops the aging hippies in their Prius’ (already having burned up their Tesla to say “take that Musk!”) and younger tune-outs who moved in for the “legal MJ”…could want.
What we really need is for these people to move to France, or Cuba, or the PRC.
– Kle.
personaly,
not politically “ cool”
i think they need to be
“ deleted”
permanently.
period
I think The Donald (and the greater majority of those he’s gathered around him) are trying to keep our country from sinking in the uprising sea of bureaucratic socialism that Rand expounded upon in Atlas Shrugged
Read this somewhere recently (as things heat/burn up on The Left). If it was here I’ll gladly pay the fees in VM-grade Krugerrands:
–
“Why is it all dystopian movies are always after some disaster by those in power who end up destroying the environment in order to seize power. They live in super tidy modern city compounds surrounded by a massive electrified and fortified wall while the regular folks are scrapping out a depression type living in the hinterland rubble? Why couldn’t it be we’ve solved the problems inherent to humanity and live in a decent world? (Or something like that)
absolutely spectacular AI 浮世絵
“Trumpkrieg” Love it.
Atlas Shrugged – yes way too long and boring as hell at times. I tell people to read Anthem. That pretty much covers all of her views in a short book.
Arizona Rocks; Is there any pumice in the lava areas? We ” homesteaded” for 9 yrs on the upper Rogue River, less than 27 miles from Crater Lake Oregon, formally Mount Mazama.
Below us @ Lost Creek Reservoir we found pumice stones floating or washed ashore.
Interesting facts; The caldera is 5 miles in diameter and it’s approx 4,000 ft to the lake floor. Lake depth is 1949 ft, 9th deepest in the world.
Hydrothermal activities are present at the lake floor.
The 12,000 ft volcano erupted 7,000 yrs ago, further activity created Wizard Island.
Flagstaff spreads pumice on the roads when it’s icy and it turns the place black (a far more woke color than the odious white of snow).
The feet thing: the reason is that using your feet to knead or crush something is that you can apply not just the force from all the major muscles of your legs (which are pretty powerful), but also your full bodyweight. Thus, small and slight folks can get a impressively high amount of force compared to just using hand, wrist, and arm muscles. Fun fact: urban bakers in England used to knead troughs full of dough with their feet, in order to get (for the time) industrial quantities of dough kneaded and baked every day, right up until the Industrial Revolution made it possible to mechanize.
One would hope that they washed their feet first…but they only bathed once a year back then, so likely not. I’m sure there was an earthy musk (not Elon) that was imparted to the bread.
Natural, organic yeast?
V.M. Shrugged
As a 250-page reader, I’m very content reading V.M. authored articles.
I’ve been able to look beyond Rand’s humanism and atheism and appreciate the identification of problems, looking for better solutions.
Having worked out of Arizona for several years, I can respect the patriotic spirit and each state’s resident’s desire to keep it’s natural beauty to themselves. Many Oregonians felt the same way. I saw the Rogue Valley evolving from sawmills and orchards to asphalt and golf courses in the 90’s, as the Californication began. Serving many of them as rural property owners, the perspective developed that some were to be respected as smart enough to make the exodus.
I’m sure as a Cougar can scream and am convinced that if Musk can launch efficient rockets, maybe even to Mars, before us who remember 1975 pass on;
DOGE can get light years of scientific research out of the 386M in grants here on WTP’s soil.
I hope to God our public servants who are doing legitimate work are not collateral damage in the budget cuts.
Are we truly the brokest nation, morally and financially, or the most indebted?
H/T L.L. in calling out the choosy beggars and their surrogate parents!
MHEGA… Make Healthy Eating Great Again
P.S. For the sake of liberty, y’all enjoy all the tofu or turkey bacon BLT’s you want. My better half makes hers with wild greens, organic tomatoes, and goat panela. Make’m any way you want as well. Get out the sugar jar and corn syrup and make an i.v. if you please. I do care, but I won’t say noth’n unless you want WTP to pay for it!!!
I saw the American Heart Assoc defending the sugary drinks on SNAP. I’d always thought obesity was bad for the heart, but maybe you can buy a change to that?
Oh, we’re back to sugary drinks?
Only if using pure cane sugar like they used to…or Mexican sodas which still do. Mickey-D’s fries used to be potatoes, beef tallow, salt…now they have about 16 things on top of potatoes…not the same as they were in the 70’s.
well they have to do something to give the gmo potatoes some flavor. they have no taste on their own and the texture of a cotton bandage.
X2, and what better flavor than salt and beef tallow?
Rand’s “Objectivism” is not the opposite of Bolshevism. It’s the other side of the same psychopathic coin. Rand, exactly like the evil “Collectivists” she claims to oppose, KNOWS how everyone MUST live. Anyone who does not accept HER “truth” is a “parasite” and a “looter” deserving of nothing but death. Don’t believe me? Recall what happened to Dagny Taggart’s assistant (I can’t be arsed to look up his name.) Poor bastard was left weeping by literal side of the railroad tracks in the middle of nowhere, miles from water and shelter. It’s been four decades since I read Atlas Shrugged but so far as I can remember, he didn’t betray Dagny, he didn’t work against her. His sin was not being “elect,” not being a steely-jawed rapist with an “angular” name like Roark or Galt.
—
Rand the human being is very much a flawed individual, a chain-smoking, amphetamine addicted (“diet pills”) adulteress. Despite being married to the hapless Frank O’Connor, she carried on a long public affair with her disciple the former Nathan Blumenthal who re-named himself “Nathaniel Branden”. (Now it may be accidental, but Branden is an anagram of “Ben Rand” as in “son of Rand”. If it were a Chinaman like me or an Italian who did that, prolly means nothing, but both Branden and Rand were Jewish. What a weird coincidence. Maybe best not to think too deeply on the implications.) Then again, “Ayn Rand” was also a re-naming of the former Alisa Rosenbaum, another parallel with so many of the leading Bolsheviks (Trotsky/Bronstein, Zinoviev/Radomyslsky, Yakovlev/Mâčin, Kamenev/Rozenfeld; and so forth).
—
Now a speed-addicted, nicotine stained, beaver toothed, atheist, chronic cheater can nonetheless be brilliant, have great insights. Just because someone is a shithead in his personal life doesn’t guarantee that he is stupid or wrong about other things. But Rand’s world view is that of a jealous, resentment-filled narcissist who engages in splitting (things are either all good or unspeakably evil) and scapegoating (psychologically projecting evil unto others. Hmm, should her philosophy be called Projectivism?). This is literally insane behavior, but parallels the Marxist world view which also splits the world into the Virtuous Productive and the Exploiter/Oppressor. Marx was a man who was also filled with envy and resentment, though unlike Rand he was German and not Russian. Atlas Shrugged is full of cruelty to all those not part of the Elite (the Selected, the Superior) who holed up in Galt’s Gulch. That was what, a few thousand at most? Probably a few hundred. The rest of humanity were parasites at best, in Rand’s world view. Useless eaters, subhumans. What other movements, peoples, cults, use that sort of terminology?
I did like The Fountainhead…swear Rand’s muse for Roark was Frank Lloyd Wright…a brilliant architect but not very good at getting along in the world…which made him transcend his peers in design.
But Roark was at least talented and a good engineer. Unlike FLW, who was talented and not a good engineer.
Correct…FLW told his engineer all that steel reinforcement was unnecessary. Today, could have rebuilt Fallingwater three times from scratch using modern materials for all the shoring and restoration/preservation funds they’ve spent to date.
I agree that The Fountainhead was a better book than Atlas Shrugged.
I really like much of Wright’s design, but in addition to the structural goofiness with Falling Water, etc, there’s this: A girlfriend was knew a woman who lived in an actual FLW house. (One that they’d clean up periodically so that groups could tour it — that sort of significance.) So this woman said that while it looked cool, and obviously there was tremendous social cachet to living in a genuine FLW, it was a continual trial. She said that it was actually difficult to lead a normal life in the damn thing, and everyone was always getting bruised from bumping into horribly non-ergonomic angles and so forth.
the Elite (the Selected, the Superior) who holed up in Galt’s Gulch. That was what, a few thousand at most? Probably a few hundred. Easy big guy – I like Ouray, Colorado. I have photos of me partying there in Galt’s Gulch. It’s a few thousand who live between there and Silverton, not hundred. You need to hang out there before excoriating those of us who like to smash our 4x4s on the rocks of the San Juans. You’ll come around, you’ll see. Sitting there on the roof bar on Main Street in Ouray, you too will look down on the belching tourists and will agree that they may indeed be useless eaters.
Part of what warped Rand was her escape from the Soviet Union. Her first book was basically a modified semi-autobiography of getting the hell out of that hell-hole. (In the book the heroine dies from starvation on the way out.)
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She also wrote comic book characters. Each of her characters, especially her heroes and heroines, all exhibited 1 great trait. They are the epitome of that trait. Read her books using the Comic Book Character filter, add spandex suits with or without capes, and it all makes sense.
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Unfortunately, Rand really liked to beat the issues to death, repeatedly, and then resurrect them and beat them to death, repeatedly, and then resurrect them and beat them to death, repeatedly, and… Jeez, lady, we got the point about the first time you made it so you don’t have to hammer it into us 500 or more times.
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I read “The Fountainhead” and kind of liked it. Would be a good candidate for a Readers’ Digest Condensed version. Maybe. But I couldn’t get through the first 50 pages of “Atlas Shrugged.” Because I figured out the hook and had the issue beat into my head enough by then and it was no longer interesting.
Just to be clear, I — and a friend — was/were all-in on Rand from say 16 to 18. That and the Libertarian Party. Then we went to college and I started attending LP meetings. Did not meet a single stupid person, but 90% were weirdos working low-end jobs (not because of intellectual incapability, but because they had highly rigid thinking about how the world SHOULD be, and could not deal with how it was), 5% were slick grifters, and maybe 5% were basically normal. Probably about half of this population were also self-proclaimed Objectivist. That got me to “check my premises” as Rand loves to say.
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Anyway, I read all her fictional works as well as the philosophizing [1]. I even have a copy of the Playboy>/i> interview of Rand. (Yes, a 16-yo goes to the trouble of getting hold of a Playboy LITERALLY to read an article. How nerdy is that? Keep in mind this was back before ubiquitous internet porn. Hell, it was pre-internet.) Someone said above (I couldn’t find the comment just now) that the thing to do was to read Anthem. I agree with this completely. Anthem is well done. In fact, I have a new (to me; from ye olde used book shoppe) copy of Anthem that has photo-reproductions of Rand’s handwritten comments and corrections on the typewritten copy of her first draft. Picked it up a couple of weeks ago. All of which is a long way of saying that I don’t think she’s entirely full of crap. She had some good observations, which I’m assuming LL was referring to. But personally she was a not-nice person (to be polite) and her overall philosophy is narcissistic, mean-spirited, and worst (to me) has no place for the transcendent. I personally have zero religiosity as such, but I am convinced that the human mind/spirit/whathaveyou, REQUIRES the idea of something far greater than the self to be healthy.
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[1] Philosophizing: who the HELL says of herself “I am the second greatest philosopher of all time, second only to Aristotle”? Cripes. I like Aristotle myself, but you don’t make that statement about yourself, FFS. Reminds me of Ludwig Plutonium, who later became Archimedes Plutonium. LP/AP is not just a pre-internet Usenet meme. He is (or was?) an actual person. I saw him once on the street in Hanover, NH (Dartmouth College. At the time LP/AP was working as a dishwasher at the Hanover Inn, IIRC. He had on a bright orange down jacket and was carrying a briefcase in each hand.) Briefly, the LP story is that he used to post to the sci.math group with stuff that got crazier and crazier. Basically that the universe is embodied in a giant plutonium atom. It didn’t help his sanity that there were people who would routinely egg him on for the lolz. Anyway, Ludwig would get into fights with his detractors, and claim that he was the second greatest mathematician ever, after Archimedes. At some point he “realized” he was the reincarnation of Archimedes, and changed his name to Archimedes Plutonium. My Dartmouth informant claimed that AP at some point actually WAS in serious mathematics but apparently had a breakdown. Quite sad, really.
Perfect summation, Mike_C.
I would pay to sit behind Mike C in AP English…really good summation. A single page synopsis of any book was really difficult for me, the engineer brain loves “important” details….altho the tax lady…yeah, hired one for life going forward to navigate the IRS Kobayashi Maru Nebula…looked at my collated folder…”I like engineers”. Heh
That’s very kind, but it’d be 98% just bitching, and not particularly funny snark. :-(
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We could always tell when a patient was an engineer. Say we ask a guy to record his blood pressure daily for a week. The majority of people you get three numbers scrawled on the back of a grocery store receipt, and something like this, yet: “152/90, 13, 160/88”. So, what days were those, and what does the 13 mean? Patient will have no clue. An engineer on the other hand will bring a printout with BP taken every two hours, noting which arm, whether supine, seated or standing. And sometimes with repeat measurements. This information will be in both tabular form and graphed.
Mike C, Sir
I would sum “rand’s” deficiency as being
FEMALE
a descendant of Eve.
whom the subtil serpent intentionally attacked,
rather than the stronger, Moralistic
Adam…
just my thoughts…
Juan
Striking opening graphic. Is the left hand meant to be clawed? Or am I misinterpreting it and the figure is not a human woman but a manifestation of the Garuda or something similar?
Makes me wonder what Gustav Klimt might have come up with if he had a Singaporean Chinese patron instead of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer.
Stop playing with her Klimt.
I’ve just started a podcast episode from Bill Buppert. He claims Ukraine shows drones have made infantry obsolete, and in ten years any fighting group that wants drone tech will be competitive in, he didn’t say it, but stalemate by mutually assured destruction. That means “tax” collection will end, because it will cost more to collect than it yields. That means all these social problems produced by communism will end, because communism itself will end. Plan now for what you want to do after communism falls.
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_Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time_ was 1,600 pages, while its aftermarket index, _The Naked Capitalist_, was only 144 pages. There’s literary room to summarize _Atlas Shrugged_. Instead of a new power source as the means for the shift in political power, you could substitute drone swarms.
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If you find bad people collected into a city with a big wall around it, nail the city gates shut and cut off the power and water.
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Rand kicked out Rothbard because he was actually libertarian.
I have a different take on drones, EL. I’m not saying that you or Buppert are wrong but the AI development monster has just reared its head as have supercomputers that use altered states of matter. I want to see where that goes along with humanoid robotics before I predict ten years out.
I’m not worried about AI, I’m worried about humans. The trick with the AI flowering, as Perry Metzger said, is to make sure the common man gets the peacetime applications too, which buffer against the wartime applications. Compare to the populist failure with nuclear fission, where only government got the bombs and the common man didn’t get the electric power.
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I do not believe there are additional states of matter, at least ones accessible at reasonable temperatures and pressures, but I could be convinced by practical physical demonstrations.
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Drones can be operated by humans located in a bunker inside a mountain.
forgive my ignorance
but,
who the F is
this libertrarian guy?
Good luck making infantry obsolete.
*
Even if drones could do that (they can’t), who exactly is operating the
drones, if not infantry? You give an infantryman an ATGM, he’s still
infantry.
– Kle.
Consider Vernor Vinge’s _Marooned in Realtime_, where the drone/missile/ICBM battle is directed by computers faster than humans can think. The drone does not have to be a German Shepherd for an exposed human within hearing range.
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I also read a movie critic of one of the Iron Man movies where the flying suit visual display was distracting the human from noticing that the suit was making dogfighting decisions faster than the human could invent or approve them.
That’s the conceptual F-47 that the USAF is rolling out.
so.
he read.
as a cild
I read
Superman.
🥱
should be
child…