Archive for February, 2004

New Objectivist Community!

Do you want to take a leading
role in America’s intellectual renaissance? Are you interesting in
participating in an active Objectivist community on the web? Would you
like to exchange ideas in a forum that does not tolerate irrationality?

To provide all this and more, ObjectivismOnline.net has been created to
bring together the vast resources on Objectivism that are scattered all
across the Internet into one integrated marketplace. We believe that
the Internet is a key tool to spread the ideas of Objectivism, and would like to invite you to join us. ObjectivismOnline.net has
many features that make it the best marketplace for Objectivist ideas
on the Internet today:

  • A meta-blog combining original content,
    commentary on latest news and events, links to great articles on the
    web, and announcements about new Objectivist events, essays, books, and
    more!
  • Our forum,
    now in existence for over a year, brings the opportunity for extensive
    dialogue with Objectivist intellectuals all across the world on topics
    such as metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, art, science, and
    more! Our forum recently broke the 3,000 posts mark and has over 185
    registered members.

  • An essay
    section which serves as a resource for Objectivist ideas from all the
    branch of philosophy as well as other essays of philosophical interest.
    We currently have 35 essays and would like to greatly increase that
    with your submissions.
  • A chat
    room specifically for our users. We plan to use this chat room for
    informal chats as well as moderated discussions on various
    philosophical and informal topics!


  • Our web links section brings together Objectivism-related resources
    from all corners of the web. With 112 current links and more on the
    way, you can find a vast resource of ideas currently being spread!


  • Additional features include: a movie/music/book reviews section, photo
    and art galleries, and fliers for Objectivism clubs! Soon, we will be
    adding an in-depth marketplace where you can find reviews on a variety
    of products through amazon.com ranging from books to music to DVD’s and
    much more!

We are currently looking for volunteers to participate in this blog. If you are interested, please leave a comment or .

a quick look at the Win2k source

LMAO: “We Are Morons: a quick look at the Win2k source.”

Interesting: Commercial software aided reboot on Mars.

An Islamic “human rights” group

The video you are about to watch is a rap video designed to inspire people to take up jihad against the West. Posted on a radical Islamic website based out of the United Kingdom, the video is undeniably entertaining, as professionally produced as any video you might see on MTV. Consider the irony: radical fundamentalism, sworn to destroy Western culture and beliefs, uses that culture to market its hate. Paralleling the same deception, the Islamic organization that produced and marketed this video claims to be an Islamic “human rights” group but in reality is a group sworn to support the killing of Jews, Christians and moderate Muslims.

“An American Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World”

Check out Charles Krauthammer’s awesome speech: “Democratic Realism: An American Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World”. This is definitely one of the best and most insightful foreign policy talks I’ve ever read.

All of whom “just turned 18″, I’m sure…

Harvard University voted yesterday to approve a student-run magazine that will feature nude pictures of Harvard undergraduates and articles about sexual issues.

At this point, I could write a brilliant philosophical rant on how the vote was a liberal echo of the FCC’s “anti-indecency” jihad, ultimately stemming from a corruption of the concept of “censorship” by both sides, but uh, where do I send for my subscription??

Kerry’s Hypocrisy

In 1970, John Kerry shed his pacifist front, and revealed his altruist ideology:

Kerry said that the United Nations should have control over most of our foreign military operations. “I’m an internationalist. I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”

On other issues, Kerry wants “to almost eliminate CIA activity. The CIA is fighting its own war in Laos and nobody seems to care.” He also favors a negative income tax and keeping unemployment at a very low level, “even if it means selective economic controls.”

Kerry seems to favor worldwide military interventionism – but only if it’s not in America’s interest. Not surprisingly, he’s also in favor of increasing the welfare state, and Nixon-era price and wage controls. Bush certainly deserves to be taken to task for his lackluster response to terrorism and runaway spending – but coming from this guy, it’s the pot calling the kettle black.

Return of the KGB

Leading challengers to Putin’s re-election are quietly disappearing, with murder investigations being shut down by the Kremlin, and the state media keeping mum. Putin has already silenced and nationalized the media, secretely shot opposition politicians in cold blood, and all but assumed his former KGB role. Anyone doubting that Putin is capable of any of these things should remember that the KGB (now FSB) had no qualms about killing 30 million people in the gulags, by starvation, and outright — and no reason to behave now, especially now that it firmly controls the media. The Russians themselves are united in supporting a return of dictatorship, and their opposition to liberal (as in pro-liberty) candidates .
Despite the dark path to a return of Soviet-era tyranny, there remain major differences between today’s Russia and the Soviets: with communism discredited worldwide, the new tyrants lack an ideology to excuse their power grab, and have no “noble experiment” they can use to solicit sanction and aid from the rest of the world. Not that the Russians arren’t eager to accept a new religion – here are the current “science” headlines on the Pravda website, the former official Party paper:
“A Girl with an X-ray vision”
“Remedy for Evil”
“Soviet Army fought UFOs”
“Are Dragons for real?”
For more, I highly recommend visiting the Center for the Future of Russia.
Update: Rybkin says he was drugged and kidnapped.

My Books

One of the fads going around the blogosphere is to list a dozen or so of the songs you’re listening to. Interesting idea, but I don’t think one’s music preferences really say much about a person. So instead, I decided to post a photo of my bookshelf. Obviously, this is just a fraction of my collection, but it contains the books that impacted my life the most.

Orkut

Orkut is a brand new online community begun by a Google employee. It’s fast, easy to use (there are communities for every imaginable interest – I’m in 40 or so) and it makes it very easy to meet people for friendship, business or dating. It’s invitation-only, so contact me if you would like an invitation.

Ooops

Ever wonder what would happen if you used handwashing detergent in place of dishwashing detergent?