la zafada

A person can convert to a faith and "be" Christian, Moslem, pagan, but no one can "be" Objectivist. No one arrives at Objectivism the way a religious person can arrive at a "state of grace." For Objectivists, there's only the spiral: the spiral of further knowledge, further integration, further application, further action. There's no plateau, no arrival. The spiral defines the Objectivist. I think that Rand may have unintentionally done the philosophy a disservice by creating John Galt. Galt is the perfect man, the Jesus of Objectivism. Galt was the man who developed as a completely rational (that is, virtuous) human being. I believe he is more of an abstraction than a concretization because even Rand could not satisfactorily concretize what that would entail. Even she could not imagine it well enough. Galt is a fictional device. We can use the fictional device as a model, but we cannot be a fictional device. None of us developed as a completely rational person. None of us can tell exactly what we would have been and done if we had developed correctly. We have to constantly work toward Objectivism. So, Henrik, my answer is: Grow, and to the extent that you grow, you're an Objectivist. Stall, and to the extent that you stall, you're not. That goes for all of us.

Happy, happy birthday, Betsy! Have another 50!

Newser just RT'd my Nobel award tweet: "Give me a gold medal and I'll run the marathon tomorrow." ROFL!

Sink the Bismark! One of my favorite movies ever since I saw it as a kid in the middle of the night while the rest of the family slept. Also: Kurosawa's Seven Samurai Branagh's Henry V Das Boot I'll put in a plug for the TV series, Combat!, with Vic Morrow. The version of Apocalypse Now that was initially released years ago was much more anti-American and "hippie" than the cut shown in theaters more recently. The Dam Busters is a remarkable British film that focuses on two amazing men: inventor Dr. Barnes Wallis and Wing Commander Guy Gibson.

I'm saddened by Lady Brin's death. Thanks, Bryson, for posting your thoughts, and for the great photo, too. I'll remember her.

Duh? This is just the kind of word salad I have to untangle in my day job. Care to untangle it yourself? What do you mean?

I've seen a lot of back constructions from nouns to verbs, usually with that "ate" suffix, which wipe out the correct verb, like "administrate" instead of "administer," "interpretate" instead of "interpret," and four or five others. The preposition is being destroyed, particularly "of," which is usually replaced by "for," i.e., "We calculated the height of each step" is now "We calculated the height for each step." "Couple of" is usually now just "couple." "He drank a couple Cokes." Prepositions that usually followed verbs are leaving the language. "Graduated college" used to be "graduated from college." "Departing the airport" used to be "departing from the airport." The distinction between "it's" and "its" seems to be disappearing, I suspect due to the Microsoft spell checker. Carrying that further, I've even seen "her's." On the other hand, there are some cute new terms like "grandmacita." But that's a growth of English, not a brutalization.

The price of How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers is going up as of midnight Eastern Time on Feb. 27. Writers who sign up for the course by then will be part of the Charter Class and will also receive graduate benefits that will be sold separately after Feb. 27. For details, read my Jan. 14 post below or go to How to Think Sideways.

This one is my favorite ginger tea. The chicory adds a darker undertone.

I’m about to finish taking a superb on-line fiction-writing course, How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers. The course is taught by career novelist Holly Lisle, who’s had 32 novels published. Her goal was to take the mystique out of writing fiction by using scientific method to achieve reproducible results. How to Think Sideways consists of lessons that integrate the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind. Holly teaches how to consistently get the best material out of your imagination and what to do with it once it’s out, from writing the beginning to inventing your own place in the market. In her fiction-writing lectures, Ayn Rand talks about the conscious-subconscious interplay needed to write fiction, but she doesn’t go into the practical, hands-on detail that Holly does. I’ve read dozens of books on writing, taken many classes from professional writers, and received guidance from agents and editors, but this course is unique. It has helped me fix problems with my fiction that made me bang my head against the desk. The current price is $47 per month for the 6-month course (total $282) with lessons posted on line weekly, or $25 per month for 12 months (total $300) with biweekly lessons. The 6 and 12-month versions include the same material. Fees are paid monthly. In case you don’t like the course, if you quit before the second half of any month, you can get a refund for that month. Today Holly announced that the price will go up as of midnight Eastern Time on February 27, 2009. That’s why I’m telling you now. Grab it!

Double Indemnity, 1944, with Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson.

Thanks for mentioning the iRex products, Cometmaker. I wasn't aware of them. I'm still using my pathetically antique eBookMan since both the Kindle and the Sony Reader seem to be half-hearted attempts at a device that could be terrific.

I would also be wary of someone "brandishing" or "wielding" a firearm. That is why I will be glad to have the legal power to carry a concealed handgun after I get my license. People who know what they are doing do not "brandish" or "wield" a gun. Are you speaking of criminals? How does your apprehension (a justifiable one) apply in regard to the right to bear arms? How do any emotions apply?

How wonderful! Congratulations!

Good timing starting this thread, since last Sunday I qualified for a concealed handgun license using a little Beretta. The county where I live is more than 560 square miles and more than a hundred thousand people live here. There are a few small incorporated towns with their own police force, but most people live in unincorporated areas. They're protected by the county sheriff's department, which has 6 deputies. Not being able to defend yourself here amounts to negligence.

Forty-one years for me, 46 for my husband.

Thanks for the article. I wasn't aware of this. Looks like I'll never visit Maine.

Look for "justifiable" federal govt. violence against citizens to increase. I haven't sat down and made a list, but when the left has been in power recently, the punitive force of the feds has often been used improperly against citizens, ie Elian raid, Waco. "Change" looks like it means change back to a Clinton-type government. Obama's so obviously a puppet of the power-hungry Old Left. He was a brilliant choice in terms of public relations, a real media coup for them. I wouldn't be surprised in the future by a Waco-type raid to close down any naughty coal-powered plants that refuse to go bankrupt.

Interesting. Thanks.

Hi, Zak, Are you familiar with the Neo-Classical painter, Jacques Louis David? If you like the work in the gallery, you might like David's "Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass." Some of David's paintings can be seen here.

Yes, Ray, thanks, I'm familiar with these findings. I work in publications and have at least one April 15th per month. With that and my personal projects, I'm pretty much staring at a computer screen all day under time constraints, probably much the same as a lot of people do. My Absolute is that great deity, Deadline. Maybe I need to become more Zen. Seriously, I do experience the lack of movement as a stressor and exercise helps me relax. We have a little gym in the house and I love the Bowflex but lately, instead of taking a block of time, I've been doing up to a couple of hundred Hindu squats a couple of times a week in bursts of 25 to 50, with a smaller number done on other days. They really energize me. Scan a page, do squats. Wait for the kettle to boil, do squats. Are you familiar with that exercise? Do you think it's useful?

Interesting thread. In my experience and in agreement with what some of you have said, the only way to determine what works for my individual health and well-being is empirical testing. On an approximately 1,250-calorie per day omnivorous diet, I was satisfied and lost weight but was unhealthy. Though stress had a lot to do with it, I've found that certain foods act as stressors on me as much as stressful situations do. Years ago, I eliminated wheat and stopped having some fairly serious health problems. Now when I eat some wheat, I know what will happen. Three hours later I'll be asleep and the next day I'll feel like I'm coming out of anesthesia. I do eat sugar- and wheat-based treats once in a while but with the knowledge that I'll have a reaction. Then I eliminated dairy and my feeling of well-being soared. The downside is that ice cream now tastes like lard. Chocolate, which I used to love, usually tastes like greasy ashes and the thought of eating a candy bar is nauseating. Recently I tried eliminating all grain and most legumes. Again, my well-being and energy increased. I do use some soy milk in my tea because I can't get used to having it black, but it's only a habit--the soy milk itself tastes pretty bad. When I was eating legumes regularly, it tasted okay. That doesn't seem to leave me much to eat, does it? If what I eat for the rest of my life is mostly meat, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables and nuts, to me that's a fair trade-off because my health is so much better. I've learned that that combination of foods is called the paleo diet, but I'm not advocating that or any type of specialized diet. This is what works for me now. A few months ago, my lab results were excellent except for rather high cholesterol, which I attribute partly to continuing stress, to which I seem to be particularly sensitive physically. I'm interested in what will happen to the cholesterol now that I'm off grain and legumes. If I notice negative health changes while I'm eating like this, I'll start tinkering again.

Brian, I won't elaborate because the acronym alone is risque enough for the Forum!

:D Catching up on postings after a crazy year and I found this... ROFLMAO. You've written some beautiful love poems in the last few months.

Years ago, I wrote a piece on Ayn Rand's wake. It was accepted for the ARI archives for possible publication in the future. I don't know if they're still looking for that type of material, but it might be worth a try.