World Politics

[Anonymous]

The Rand Corporation LOLOLOLOL... got any cost estimates from Cato or Heritage or Rush Limbaugh??

Just as I thought. If you wore a suit, it would be empty.

 

[redtreviso]

Just as I thought. If you wore a suit, it would be empty.

""According to a recent study by the Cato Institute""

http://www.fitnessforhealth.biz/health-care-systems-around-the-world-britains-national-health-service.html

 

[Anonymous]

""According to a recent study by the Cato Institute""

http://www.fitnessforhealth.biz/health-care-systems-around-the-world-britains-national-health-service.html

Don't know what you are on about there. Perhaps you should read what you post?

Get back to the explanation of how the insurance market is like the gasoline market.

 

[redtreviso]

Don't know what you are on about there. Perhaps you should read what you post?

Get back to the explanation of how the insurance market is like the gasoline market.

One of the links you provided was from the author of the link I provided..and he quotes Cato institute.. Just like I thought... You're the little insurance lobbyist's helper of this forum. Keep'n them trains running on time eh??

 

[redtreviso]

from the mental ward (freerepublic)

Tribute to Sarah Palin and her bus tour
Self | Helen
Posted on May 27, 2011 9:07:44 AM PDT by Helen

Roll on. Roll on. Mighty Thunder.
Make the rumble drown out the lies.
Make the light outshine the darkness.
Feel the hunger of the people;
Feel the anger of the people;
Feel the power of the people;
Who hear your message as you roll.
Who join in spirit as you roll.
Our founding documents declare
We are one nation under God,
A nation indivisible.
Feel the unity of the people;
Feel the patriotism grow;
Feel the kindred spirit renew
As you roll on. Sarah. Roll on.
As the mighty thunder rolls on.
Politicians and reporters
They tremble as they watch you roll.
They try in vain to silence you.
Watch the false gods they all worship;
Watch the shaking shiny shoes;
Watch the blatant desperation
As they helplessly watch you roll.
They can not control how you roll.
Roll on. Roll on, Mighty Thunder,
Throughout this beautiful country.
Show us again its history
As you roll on. Sarah. Roll on.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

FoxNews..... for the win.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

""In the early 1950s, Greenspan began an association with famed novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand...

Philosopher? Is Steven King a Philosopher?? Upton Sinclair? J. D. Salinger?

How much of her writing have you actually read? While she was known as a novelist, and today her name is branded about in a warped and twisted manner as a political tool by conservatives, her thinking was actually quite deep, and rooted in philosophy. As a matter of fact, the crux of her writing was based not in politics, at all - she actually had much disdain for both parties, and was extremely critical of the "conservatives", often ripping them to shreds. No, her writing, at it's essence, was philosophical, rooted in metaphysics and epistemology in their truest, classical (not popular) sense.

I don't support her, as time passed her writing became forceful, constricting, and those who disagreed with her she would point out all of their little contradictions. I also believe there is a serious lack dynamic of pragmatic thinking regarding human behavior, motivation and ethos. But considering her background, the era she lived, even her social and political commentary is worth studying.

The point is yes, despite her name being branded, and her words parsed by manipulators and shallow thinkers like Paul Ryan and the lemming Tea Party followers, much in the way Thomas Paine's words are parsed and his thinking twisted, her years of writing about, and exploring philosophy does warrant her that title.

It should also be known that philosophers in the classical sense through history wrote in a similar commentary and structure of analysis as Ayn Rand. While there is much debate on what or who would qualify for such a term, and modern true philosophy experts debate her words, she is none the less often admired for her knowledge of philosophy. In a similar way, while not treated as philosophers in the classical sense, writers such as Robert Fulghum, Stephen Covey or John Gray often receive praise for bringing what amounts to writing of philosophy at their core, to the masses. Rand took a step above them though in actually writing long essays and books about philosophy itself.

 

[redtreviso]

How much of her writing have you actually read? While she was known as a novelist, and today her name is branded about in a warped and twisted manner as a political tool by conservatives, her thinking was actually quite deep, and rooted in philosophy. As a matter of fact, the crux of her writing was based not in politics, at all - she actually had much disdain for both parties, and was extremely critical of the "conservatives", often ripping them to shreds. No, her writing, at it's essence, was philosophical, rooted in metaphysics and epistemology in their truest, classical (not popular) sense.

I don't support her, as time passed her writing became forceful, constricting, and those who disagreed with her she would point out all of their little contradictions. I also believe there is a serious lack dynamic of pragmatic thinking regarding human behavior, motivation and ethos. But considering her background, the era she lived, even her social and political commentary is worth studying.

The point is yes, despite her name being branded, and her words parsed by manipulators and shallow thinkers like Paul Ryan and the lemming Tea Party followers, much in the way Thomas Paine's words are parsed and his thinking twisted, her years of writing about, and exploring philosophy does warrant her that title.

It should also be known that philosophers in the classical sense through history wrote in a similar commentary and structure of analysis as Ayn Rand. While there is much debate on what or who would qualify for such a term, and modern true philosophy experts debate her words, she is none the less often admired for her knowledge of philosophy. In a similar way, while not treated as philosophers in the classical sense, writers such as Robert Fulghum, Stephen Covey or John Gray often receive praise for bringing what amounts to writing of philosophy at their core, to the masses. Rand took a step above them though in actually writing long essays and books about philosophy itself.

Do you think non-human philosophy counts? Would you say Joseph Heller was a philosopher in his descriptions of insane thought in Catch 22 or in Something Happened? In the context of my contempt are the Greenspans and Ryans and some uber capitalists who site her work as their calling in life..The Mein Kampf for the pathologically selfish. "I finally learned to think of ME first" (as if those types ever had that problem)

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1453336/pg1

 

[redtreviso]

""#6. “A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader.”

#7. "Carry the battle to them, don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything."

#8. "When a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know he's going to vote against me."

#9. "Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home--but not for housing. They are strong for labor--but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage--the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all--but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine--for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing--but only when the private power companies get their rake-off. They think American standard of living is a fine thing--so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it."""


http://www.firedupmissouri.com/editorials/10-truest-things-harry-truman-said-about-republicans

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Well, one can certainly do with Rand what she did with others, and pick and choose aspects of her philosophy one doesn't agree with. Paul Ryan does this, just on the opposite perspective.

Her fascination with Hickman is obviously not something I will defend. Though it did occur when she was fairly young, and trying to harmonize the writings of Nietzsche with her own, thus the "Superman" reference. But I won't defend her at all actually. As she frequently would find contradictions in others work, such as referring to Immanuel Kant's entire works as "saving religion from the onslaughts of science", it opens her up to fair game in return, certainly.

But I don't really think Rand is the enemy here. Read enough of her writings, and I've read almost all of it, including The Objectivst and Ayn Rand Letters, and both Brandon's books on her, etc. and you see the good, the bad, the ugly, everything. It's frustrating when comparative simpletons referring only to aspects of her political presumptions of the day, when her thinking is much, much deeper than that.

Rand used to point out admiration for Aristotle, who to me created the greatest base for modern thinking in history. But Aristotle also advocated servitude (slavery). Rand pointed out that while Aristotle was wrong on this issue, a philosopher's system is not based on politics, or law, but on their metaphysics and epistemology. The same applies in my eyes to Rand. Her use of the term "selfishness" was done to illicit a response to the hard socialist views of the day. But even she noted that the vision this conjures of a immoral brute destroying all in his path, was not what she meant, only that your life belonged to you And yet, this brutal, predatory political selfishness is what many aspects of what our society has not only accepted, but legalized. Thus it is my opinion that Rand used poor social judgement when with her virtue of selfishness egoism when applying it to human endeavor. Her clouded social analylsis, and eventual passive mind on social civility and advancement, was inhibited by this root of her egosim.

Needless to say, it's well known that completely ignored the system she benefited from, and died almost entirely alone, having alienated nearly all who came in contact with her.

As James Madison's one said, "If all men were angels..."

 

[redtreviso]

Well, one can certainly do with Rand what she did with others, and pick and choose aspects of her philosophy one doesn't agree with. Paul Ryan does this, just on the opposite perspective.

Her fascination with Hickman is obviously not something I will defend. Though it did occur when she was fairly young, and trying to harmonize the writings of Nietzsche with her own, thus the "Superman" reference. But I won't defend her at all actually. As she frequently would find contradictions in others work, such as referring to Immanuel Kant's entire works as "saving religion from the onslaughts of science", it opens her up to fair game in return, certainly.

But I don't really think Rand is the enemy here. Read enough of her writings, and I've read almost all of it, including The Objectivst and Ayn Rand Letters, and both Brandon's books on her, etc. and you see the good, the bad, the ugly, everything. It's frustrating when comparative simpletons referring only to aspects of her political presumptions of the day, when her thinking is much, much deeper than that.

Rand used to point out admiration for Aristotle, who to me created the greatest base for modern thinking in history. But Aristotle also advocated servitude (slavery). Rand pointed out that while Aristotle was wrong on this issue, a philosopher's system is not based on politics, or law, but on their metaphysics and epistemology. The same applies in my eyes to Rand. Her use of the term "selfishness" was done to illicit a response to the hard socialist views of the day. But even she noted that the vision this conjures of a immoral brute destroying all in his path, was not what she meant, only that your life belonged to you And yet, this brutal, predatory political selfishness is what many aspects of what our society has not only accepted, but legalized. Thus it is my opinion that Rand used poor social judgement when with her virtue of selfishness egoism when applying it to human endeavor. Her clouded social analylsis, and eventual passive mind on social civility and advancement, was inhibited by this root of her egosim.

Needless to say, it's well known that completely ignored the system she benefited from, and died almost entirely alone, having alienated nearly all who came in contact with her.

As James Madison's one said, "If all men were angels..."

response to the hard socialist views of the day.. Hers is not an American story though.. She speaks as a cast off Romanoff crony victim of the Russian revolution. Her economic virtue value thing is Marxism turned upside down and not appropriate commentary on the American capitalist system. The US is not an inverse model of post revolution Russia. As far as those who embrace her "always me first" objectivist goal of the individual, again this is decidedly responsive to the communist state where she came from. Some people nowadays take bits and pieces of this to excuse being a sociopath or worse. It is their bible, their religion..FINALLY something they believe in, much to the peril of anyone around them. I find it really sad.

 

[redtreviso]

Just another rank and file Republican..

""Ralph Lang, 63, of Marshfield, was staying at a Motel 6 when his .38-caliber handgun discharged into an unoccupied room across the hall, according to the federal criminal complaint. Madison police were called after Lang told a motel clerk that the gun went off, and he was worried that the bullet might have hit someone.

Lang, who was arrested for reckless endangerment, told police that he had a gun "to lay out abortionists because they are killing babies," the complaint said

Lang told police that he planned to go to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic the following morning to find the doctor who was doing the abortions and shoot him in the head, the complaint said.

He was charged with attempting to injure and intimidate in violation of the federal access statute, according to U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil.
"""

 

[rhubroma]

...Rand used to point out admiration for Aristotle, who to me created the greatest base for modern thinking in history. But Aristotle also advocated servitude (slavery). Rand pointed out that while Aristotle was wrong on this issue, a philosopher's system is not based on politics, or law, but on their metaphysics and epistemology. The same applies in my eyes to Rand. ...

Actually, in my view, her admiration of Aristotle is rather off-based, while her criticism demonstrates a historical consciousness that is quite bizarre for a so-called intellectual. For we can't apply a modern ethical criteria to the classical world. In the case of slavery, Aristotle's world believed in the ineluctablity of fate, whereas the ethical considerations regarding right or wrong and slavery only come in much later. In other words, in the ancient world slavery was a widely, if not universally, accepted institution; and in a primordial economy such as existed then, slaves fulfilled the role of being the engines of production in building, agriculture and even the arts and crafts.

It would only be with the later early Christian theological/philosophical exegesis, such as Augustine's De civitate Dei, that slavery as the fate and natural condition of some (as Aristotle maintained it was, for his world had to, per force of a natural order, be made up of masters and servants), be rejected. In compensation, thanks to the good ol'Bishop of Hippo, we were now under an even worse and more perilous form of slavery, that of sin, which was our birth inheritance being all children of Adam and Eve and thus slaves of sin who can only be liberated by divine grace. If not, eternal damnation. I'd say, consequently, Augustine has gone on to condition a prominent Western thought as much as anyone: that is the perceived need for redemption.

Be that as it may, slavery during the early modern period was, unlike the classical world, based upon a strict concept of racism, which became politically problematical since the Age of Reason, though continued in the US even in the post democratic-revolutionary period, as it still does in some places throughout the world to this day.

I wouldn't discount the role that Neoplatonism played among the Renaissance humanists and the humanistic school in general, as decisive to foundation building in the early modern period that led to the other cultural (not scientific) component of modernity, without which, today's contemporary world would have evolved differently.

Lastly, of course, there's Marx. Not too bad really: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Marx. Somehow I wouldn't place Rand in this group.

 

[redtreviso]

Lastly, of course, there's Marx. Not too bad really: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Marx. Somehow I wouldn't place Rand in the this group.

somehow?? I can't really imagine Rand being worth mentioning at all.. Like say
phyllis schlafly...

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I wouldn't put Rand in that group either, obviously. Good analysis otherwise Rhubroma. To continue, a comment:

Hers is not an American story though.. She speaks as a cast off Romanoff crony victim of the Russian revolution.

What's fascinating is that she wrote almost as if she had never heard of or was even aware of the corruption, collusion and stratification of the classes that existed in Tsarist Russia pre-revolution. Or the Wiemar Republic for that matter.

 

[redtreviso]

I wouldn't put Rand in that group either, obviously. Good analysis otherwise Rhubroma. To continue, a comment:



What's fascinating is that she wrote almost as if she had never heard of or was even aware of the corruption, collusion and stratification of the classes that existed in Tsarist Russia pre-revolution. Or the Wiemar Republic for that matter.

mental illness..alcoholism..denial..fantasy...Much like Republicans who pine for the 50s..Wondering why things can't be all wonderful like they were in their little leave it to beaver world back then. Of course many weren't even born yet.. Rand's notions of pre revolution russia is like that too..She wasn't there..

 

[rhubroma]

I wouldn't put Rand in that group either, obviously. Good analysis otherwise Rhubroma. To continue, a comment:

What's fascinating is that she wrote almost as if she had never heard of or was even aware of the corruption, collusion and stratification of the classes that existed in Tsarist Russia pre-revolution. Or the Wiemar Republic for that matter.

If I'm not mistaken her family was among the privileged high bourgeois class of St. Petersburg, among a nation of otherwise starving peasants in Tsarist Russia. It is only, therefore, natural that they became victims of the socialist people's (soviet) revolution.

Having lost everything, as they say, the family emigrated to the US, where Rand quite naturally saw the new world as the Promised Land. There she elaborated her already radical anti-soviet sentiments into a bona fide world view based upon so called rational egoism and capitalism.

Rand certainly was aware of the desperate conditions of those Russians who had grown up in families not as affluent as her own, however, like just about every other bourgeoisie class, to say nothing of the nobility, could not empathize (nor care) with their springtime, because it represented her world's autumn.

I wouldn't call, consequently, fascinating her complete lack of consciousness, but typically reactionary. And thus conservative and bourgeois in the utmost.

 

[Anonymous]

One of the links you provided was from the author of the link I provided..and he quotes Cato institute.. Just like I thought... You're the little insurance lobbyist's helper of this forum. Keep'n them trains running on time eh??

Wow, you nailed it

So, tell me again, how's the insurance market just like the gasoline market??

I've been waiting patiently...

 

[redtreviso]

Wow, you nailed it

So, tell me again, how's the insurance market just like the gasoline market??

I've been waiting patiently...

It is like the gasoline market in that speculation rules the day..The gasoline futures traders raise prices on made up shi*.. What if this happens? What if Iran closes the straits of Hormuz after Israel attacks them ..blah blah.. Insurance carriers do the same thing..What IF ONE DAY they are forced to cover people who will give them a loss, even though they aren't now.. Best to hedge on the backs of their current clients now.. Oh now health care costs are going to go up because fuel for ambulances costs more..OH NO....Raise rates..Floor polish used in hospitals might become more expensive ..raise rates..etc.. OR.. the board of directors ALL want super golden parachutes not just the CEO.. raise rates..

But they tell idi---people like you it is all because of "obamacare"

 

[redtreviso]

Pledge of Allegiance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2BfqDUPL1I

 

[Anonymous]

It is like the gasoline market in that speculation rules the day..The gasoline futures traders raise prices on made up shi*.. What if this happens? What if Iran closes the straits of Hormuz after Israel attacks them ..blah blah.. Insurance carriers do the same thing..What IF ONE DAY they are forced to cover people who will give them a loss, even though they aren't now.. Best to hedge on the backs of their current clients now.. Oh now health care costs are going to go up because fuel for ambulances costs more..OH NO....Raise rates..Floor polish used in hospitals might become more expensive ..raise rates..etc.. OR.. the board of directors ALL want super golden parachutes not just the CEO.. raise rates..

But they tell idi---people like you it is all because of "obamacare"

Your grasp of both the insurance market as well as the 'gasoline')) market is truly remarkable.

Tell me, where can I buy insurance futures (being a commoditiy and all)?

Also, do you consider the insurance market to be "free"?

Thanks in advance.

 

[patricknd]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/29/sarah-palin-motorcycle-_n_868585.html

this one will get red hot.

she's looking fine for ya

 

[redtreviso]

Your grasp of both the insurance market as well as the 'gasoline')) market is truly remarkable.

Tell me, where can I buy insurance futures (being a commoditiy and all)?

Also, do you consider the insurance market to be "free"?

Thanks in advance.

Well tell us all about your poor put upon insurance carrier mr thinks he hit a triple. Oh and tell us how you aren't just trying to justify not covering your employees at all and giving yourself the money..

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

She's looking fine for ya

Kewl! Easy ridin' all the way to the White House!

Palin-Bachman 2012!

* Didja notice, no wedding ring? Puff out yer chests boys!

 

[Anonymous]

Well tell us all about your poor put upon insurance carrier mr thinks he hit a triple. Oh and tell us how you aren't just trying to justify not covering your employees at all and giving yourself the money..

Triple? Pfft. Anything hit that high and that far ought to have a stewardess on it.

So that I have this straight, when pressed, you can't answer direct questions. Correct?

Weak sauce.