Leave Sousa out of this!!!

Sousaphones rule!!!

I agree. It’s similar to the idea of a “libertarian revolution” that one addle-brained imebcile once suggested.

The problem is that most of our systems are still rooted in, at the most, 1900-era philosophical systems based upon village-sized populations. Has anyone developed a societal philosophy based on larger populations yet?

You mean … “Rootless Cosmopolitans”? Stalin loved that one.

They’re just about the perfect age I’d wager.

To all those dissing our co-opting of Ayn Rand’s work, are we not allowed to pick and choose the parts of our culture that fit our value system? Did the native americans not watch westerns up until the point where the indians stopped winning? If anything, it’s a perfectly legitimate use of her work to take parts we agree with, the importance of reason and the mind, and toss away the parts we have no use for, her rejection of the divine.

Uh, yeah, that was exactly my point. anachronismo@117 said No conservative is against health inspections in restaurants

Notice how that is like me saying “No liberal holds communism as the ideal”. As you pointed out, there are fringe elements of people who identify as “liberal”, and they include supporters of communism.

Anachronismo said that absolutely no conservative is against health regulations. None. Zip. Nada. I replied by pointing out there are fringe people who identify as “conservative” who are in fact against health regulations.

So, yeah, you’re exactly right, there are fringe members of groups. Only problem is, you didn’t correct it when anachronismo committed the error. Which pretty much establishes that you’re probably a conservative.

Conservatives believe in some regulation (i.e. health standards), just a s little as possible.

Some conservatives, yes. maybe even “most”. But Anachronismo asserted that absolutely no conservative opposes health regulations. And some do.

Not that it means anything.:-)

Word to your trust fund.

In the interest of balance, why don’t you raise a child you didn’t want, alone, with minimal wage, in the worst conditions imaginable, just because the same people who told you you weren’t allowed to decide over your body, also told you that you shouldn’t wear condoms?

If anything, it’s a perfectly legitimate use of her work to take parts we agree with, the importance of reason and the mind, and toss away the parts we have no use for, her rejection of the divine.

That is, of course, perfectly acceptible. Nobody will fault someone for taking values from an individual that they agree with and expressing support for them.

However, those who co-opt her as a representation of their value system should bear in mind that her work also embodies a certain spirit of cold, heartless selfishness that throws the have-nots to the wind in order to benefit the haves. It is precisely that attitude which is seen by a lot of outsiders in the conservative movement: “fuck the little guy, he’s a pain in my fat pocketbook.”

Co-opting Ayn Rand does not exactly do much to counter the negative stereotype of conservatives being a legion of Ebenezer Scrooges. There’s a reason for that. Her views are seen by many to be those of a spoiled, heartless bitch. She does not exactly make a very good figurehead if you want people to identify with your views. She is wildly unpopular because she advocated for a philosophy which would bitterly screw the majority of the population if put into effect, for the benefit of a minority of people with the resources and wherewithal to milk the system.

Her views can easily be identified as being near identical to those which have caused the nation so much grief . A small minority holds most of the wealth, receives special treatment to grow and maintain that wealth, and is in many cases issued undeserved license to devastate the lives of others for personal gain. The system Ayn Rand suggests would make this already severe problem downright easy to accomplish and would probably even flatly encourage it.

Identifying with Ayn Rand is about as bad for conservatives’ public image as just putting up billboards that say “fuck you, I’m rich”

Ah.

They aren’t idiots or morons, they just have a different philosophy than 95 percent of the people hear. Who is being close minded now?

Which presidential candidates have you voted for in the last few elections?

No conservative is against health inspections in restaurants. They are definitely talking about smoking bans.

Really? Are you sure? I was having an argument with a self-identified “libertarian” who said we don’t need to inspect restaurants and people should be able to buy or sell contaminated food if they really want to.

His only requirement was that the food somehow be labeled with a description of the conditions under which it was prepared. So people can make “informed” decisions, as he put it. And if a store lies about how the food was prepared, people were supposed to enforce that via lawsuits. No government-run health inspection enforcement was needed he said. Individuals can figure it out on their own, he said.

The thing is, you don’t get to decide what “conservative” means. This no-health-inspection guy said he was a conservative in the sense of “ultra-small government”. Some conservatives say they want to make government small enough so that they can drown it in the bathtub.

So, don’t be making these absolute statements about what “no conservative” would say, cause you don’t get to define it. Fact is, there are some conservatives who say we don’t need health inspections. You’ve essentially committed a “no true Scotsman” fallacy, but with conservatives instead of Scotsmen.

http://aynrandsucks.blogspot.com/

This HAS to be a joke.

Then again, I said that about Jesus, Ronald Reagan, and Atlas Shrugged.

But… I can see no reason why a clever rightist rapper can’t do something along the lines of Jeru’s ‘Ya Playin; Yourself’ but in a right wing sense…

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Libertarian of the leftist stripe but I have no problems with right wing expressions of art.

In other words…they’re d-bags.