Republican Primaries

[bowdirk]

Paul/Kucinch 2012!

[mstrofbass]

I haven't read this yet, and it's from Austin (so it'll be liberally slanted), but anything that's said about Perry that's bad is probably true:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/rick-perry/

[Mark E. Hurling]

To each their own Zee-man. I've tried reading Rand several times and her characters come across to me as so cardboard-like I just can't stay the course. I have no brief for the good but inherently flawed hero who is always agonizing over some self doubt or other, but good grief no one has a WD40'd satin nickle finish and brain function like her good and bad guys do. No offense intended to you, I just can't tough it out. I've read several other objectivist authors of fiction who do a better job than Rand up to a point, but eventually even they make my ass too tired to continue. I suppose this all represents some character flaw of my own.

F. Paul Wilson on the other hand writes a rousing lot of great stuff that while you can taste the libertarian subtext is still fun to read. Like his Repair Man Jack novels. He wrote an incredible short story about how a US nationalized medical care program drove rationing and waiting periods to the point where medical combines started leasing cruise ships as floating hospitals too far off shore for the medical police. The story was about a pursuit between a smuggler engaged in taking a man and his near terminal wife to one and then trying to escape the US federales (the ATF) chasing him. This was written some several years before our current ObamaCare debacle, which by the way the 11th circuit in Atlanta just declared unconstitutional.

[Zee-man]

If you don't mind my asking, and not trying to derail this thread, what books of hers have you read?

[bowdirk]

A little background on Ayn Rand...

A very interesting analysis, ignore some of the tone of the article if you can and focus on the 'facts'. Are they correct?

http://www.alternet.org/books/145819...rs?page=entire

cheers,
Bowdirk

[Oldster]

Perry/Bachmann 2012

Even though I am an isolationist at heart I recognize its folly. That is why even though I have been described by my friends as to the right of Gengis Khan (Kerry pronunciation) I think of Ron Paul as an unrealistic nut on foreign policy. Fiscally however, he is the man. Add up the fiscal intellectual of every single person in the current Administration and Paul would have to 'tie half his brain behind his back just to make it fair'.

[Mark E. Hurling]

If you don't mind my asking, and not trying to derail this thread, what books of hers have you read?

Not at all, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Or I have tried to several times since high school.

[Zee-man]

I have never read Fountainhead and started Atlas Shrugged because it was supposed to be her finest work, but did not finish. The one book of hers I do enjoy, and own, is A Brave New World. Excellent book in my opinion, but I can not compare it to the other two. I really like the premise that individuality is important and that one should not be controlled by the government. There are some other morals to the story, but it's been quite some time.

There is another author who wrote a similar book to this, but sadly I don't recall the author or the book, otherwise I'd have purchased it by now.


Edit: I read the article, not all too enjoyable, though I still enjoyed the book I noted above. I don't know if I am right or left, probably somewhere in the middle, hence why I don't dabble much with politics. I merely want to be able to keep to my own, work hard, and live my life. So long as I don't bring harm to someone else, I see no wrong with it.

[tertius]

I have never read Fountainhead and started Atlas Shrugged because it was supposed to be her finest work, but did not finish. The one book of hers I do enjoy, and own, is A Brave New World. Excellent book in my opinion, but I can not compare it to the other two. I really like the premise that individuality is important and that one should not be controlled by the government. There are some other morals to the story, but it's been quite some time.

There is another author who wrote a similar book to this, but sadly I don't recall the author or the book, otherwise I'd have purchased it by now.


Edit: I read the article, not all too enjoyable, though I still enjoyed the book I noted above. I don't know if I am right or left, probably somewhere in the middle, hence why I don't dabble much with politics. I merely want to be able to keep to my own, work hard, and live my life. So long as I don't bring harm to someone else, I see no wrong with it.

Ayn Rand didn't write "Brave New World". That's Aldous Huxley.

[tertius]

Not at all, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Or I have tried to several times since high school.

Anthem is pretty good, if you can manage to swallow the central conceit of the story, which was difficult for me even at the tender age of 10 or so.