Yes! What could go wrong?
13%
No! Can you say - BP oil Spill?
87%
Comments
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
From Screwed:
"If we are going to live in a Democracy, we need to have a healthy middle class. Thom Hartmann shows us how the ‘cons’ have wronged this country, and tells us what needs to be done to reclaim what it is to be American."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
From Cracking the Code:
"In Cracking the Code, Thom Hartmann, America’s most popular, informed, and articulate progressive talk show host and political analyst, tells us what makes humans vulnerable to unscrupulous propagandists and what we can do about it. It is essential reading for all Americans who are fed up with right-wing extremists manipulating our minds and politics to promote agendas contrary to our core values and interests."
Would we be expected to be the first reponders in the event that a huricane threatened them?
This'll last until someone paints their house the wrong color. :-)
Quack! Quack! Can you say "sitting duck?"
Has Mr. Thiel finally figured out that the natural sequel to "Atlas Shrugged" is "Assholes Slugged?"
Ayn Rand's so-called "philosophy" is nothing more than the hedonic delusion of a socioopath, and it is not original either. Every generation of selfish authoritarian boobs has had the same stupid, evil myth of entitlement: A. The adherent is a member of an elite group with a monopoly on brains and talent (BS); B. The adherent and the rest of this "elite" are therefore entitled - ordained! - to monopolize wealth & power (More S); and C. The "elite" are entitled to treat the rest of humanity like cattle, cheating them, exploiting them and even slaughtering them in pursuit of their just entitlements. (Piled Higher & Deeper.)
How do you spell a raspberry?
Before Ayn Rand there were the Nietzschean Ubermensch cults that fueled rightwing extremists in the years leading up to WWII. Before that, there was Social Darwinsim. Before that, George Fitzhugh - favorite philosopher of the Confederate slavemasters. Before him, Joseph de Maistre, favorite philosopher of the old feudal aristocracies in the face of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries' democracy movements. It is always the same sociopathic trash. It always leads to no good.
And it always fails in the end - goes down in flames, loses, goes kaput, Tango Utopia, reviled and repudiated.
That's probably why every generation of greedy fools has to remake this same damned trash with a new label.
So Mr. Thiel has discovered that dehumanizing other human beings is fun. And if it feels good it's gotta be true, right? No. It's a glitsch in the brain that goes back to the chimps, animals that automatically slaughter strangers of their kind.There is good evidence that thinking like this is both addictive and makes you stupid.
Maybe instead of building a desperate refuge in the ocean deep ("Tango Utopia?") Mr. Thiel can discover that Ayn Rand's philosophy isn't so hot after all? Maybe he could stop masturbating the monkey brain and learn to treat the rest of humanity with dignity and respect?
Nah.
Once it fails, maybe they'll shut the heck up. Heh heh.
For God's sake, what is going on?
Will I be required to pick up my toys?
No minimun wage! ( we have that in Texas, ask any illegal alian.) No building codes (we have building codes but they are not enforced in Texas). No rules ( we have one in Texas, the rich run over the poor). If I don`t like it here, why don`t I move. Haha. Read no rules again and guess which side Perry and I stand on. Just wait til he gets to be Pres. and we will show you what we mean when we say the rich get richer and the poor continues to snival and ring their hands and vote Republican thinking someday I might be rich and will need all these perks. Yee haw, Go R P. It looks like another good cattle drive.
What happens if you try to raise a child without boundaries (rules) or have you tried to raise a dog without boundaries? We all need boundaries. Rules, or constraints, provide a context in which a person, a dog, or a society can thrive. Take those away and not only is it more difficult to thrive. It also makes it easier for those with the most resources to take control and run roughshod over those without the power of infinite resources. I say, rules are good. After all, isn't that the basis of all religion? (I am not religious but consider myself to be very spiritual).
Libertarians utopia fail proof for sure. One mans sewer is another mans drinking water on that Billionaire Barge.
Sounds kinda cool.
Will it work?
Does pure democracy work?
Does anarchy work?
I guess it will be the billionaires version of king of the hill.
Regardless of my skepticism, I wish them luck
finding fresh water
finding big game to hunt and kill
finding green pastures to plant
finding safe havens to park their billions free from <em>heavy</em> tax burdens
finding peace</ul>
I posit one thing - who's gonna protect their billions from pirates? Avast matey - thar's easy pickins just outside the US boundaries where we pirates too are not constrained by cumbersome laws.
Peace!
well said mdmro - mostly anyway. The snide remarks aside.
I'm gald to hear someone else state the obvious - Ayn Rnad was a disgruntled old woman in a love-hate relationship with her dear fatherland, Russia. Most of her published rants were dismissed .... until support of "Fountainhead" grew during the anti-comminism days and culminiated with her "masterpiece" Atlas Shrugged.
It doesn't really bother me much that people follow one philosophy or another. It bothers me when people follow a work of fiction as their bible.
I guess I'm just as guilty ' cause I strongly belive that the philosphy of Popeye the Sailor is great work on which to base my life. And no... I am not a spinach farmer trying to prop up prices.
Peace!
" To conquer, first divide!"
What a stupid question? Did you vote? Why? You don't have enough information......Do you have an opinion? How? You don't have enough information!
"Do not ask for whom the bell tolls.............."
P.S. I don't know how Ayn Rand got into this, although I am aware of Mr. Hartmann's attempts at "ad hominum" dismissal of her.....but her novels don't contain any heroes from the professions of banking and finance. Her philosophy, regardless of Mr. Hartmann's characteristion is best understood from two other works, The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism; The UNKNOWN Ideal.
To summarise the first, the general principle is that if you are incapable of self love, you would lack any true capacity to love other's, and Mr. Hartmann certainly does not appear to be opposed to the first part of that concept.
The title of the second book would give pause to anyone regarding the attempt to link her with any aspect of capitalism historically or otherwise......being an UNKNOWN IDEAL?
Finally, her philosophy....Objectivism is not something that anyone supporting "intelligent reasoning", from a secular humanist base should have a problem with.......because from what I can tell, Mr. Hartmann is at least trying to make the attempt.......
" Do not ask for whom the bell tolls.............."