Galt's Gulch
14

"An individualist is a man who says..." - Ayn Rand

Posted by awebb 9 years, 1 month ago to Pics
14 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

Quote for the day.

Reminder: Save 40% on the Atlas Shrugged box sets for a limited time: http://bit.ly/ASBoxSets

Add Comment

FORMATTING HELP

All Comments Hide marked as read Mark all as read

  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 1 month ago
    The ability to say "No" to any one on any topic. The corollary is MYOB. As a teen, when I read Roark's response to Toohey, it was if a veil had been lifted from my consciousness. It was years before I could fully understand and put that simple sentence into practice, but still, even then, the course of my life was irrevocably changed.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by Clairity 9 years, 1 month ago
    "what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul"
    I often tell my children a parents greatest joy is to see their children become strong intelligent good people. They are.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ Stormi 9 years, 1 month ago
    Ever notice how unhappy and lost so many 20-somethings are today? They go through school being told they "are th future". They are to control and live for the other. They either are afraid to marry or do so for the wrong reasons. This one quote from Rand, if made the mantra for their lives, would have made all the difference.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    -
  • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 1 month ago
    And to think I was a state corrections officer for 21 years.
    But if you think about it, the convicted felon inmates I bossed really vermin control deserved it.
    Maybe with the exception of some drug users who actually committed no other illegality.
    In most cases, thieves in prison act worse than murderers.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
      -
    • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 1 month ago
      At the risk of being off topic here, but curious - with a million people in jail at any given time in the US, are they all criminals and vermin, or is the system so corrupt and dysfunctional that it engulfs all?
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        -
      • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 1 month ago
        A bit of meandering reading to follow. Thoughts popped into my head while writing in this little box.
        Good question. It's been over 11 years. I wish to amend that second line to "most" without including someone who was busted three times for felony meth use and its 3 felonies = a life sentence in Alabama. I've seen people go straight. More appear to come back though.
        A "department of corrections" succeeds when a vermin decides not to be vermin any more.
        There are always exceptions among inmates just like there are politically ambitious prosecutors and judges. Some don't give a damn about anything or anyone but their careers. Is not Congress mostly filled with lawyers? Then there are honest ones.
        Every prison in Alabama is overcrowded. The prison I worked at still has twice as many inmates than it was designed to hold.
        I can think of one inmate who may have saved my job by advising me of a mistake I made while suffering from a migraine headache. But then I was never known to be a harassing bully. My primary workplace goal every day was to walk out the front gate just like I walked in.
        Keep in mind that corrections officers (prison guards if you like) are only on the receiving end and are not in the judicial system. They (job description) only control prisons and make sure inmates don't escape.
        It's pretty much a thankless job until you start receiving your electronic retirement payments in your checking account.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          -
        • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 1 month ago
          An acquaintance of mine was recently sent to prison on battery charges. In fact, he did no such thing -- his wife has a history of calling the cops on him and claim physical abuse, without any physical evidence of such, in order to control and manipulate him. This time, the overactive cop arrested him, with no physical evidence, again. But it became a state matter and short of her admitting that she lied, he was forced into a plea deal (neither really guilty of a real crime, nor really innocent) because he couldn't afford the costs of fighting the state. Now, they do have a sick marriage (had?), but that is for them to take care of, not for the government. His individual issue is not important here; I'm bringing it up as an example of a person who, in my opinion, should not be in jail and for a matter where the government should not be involved. How many others are like his case? The plea system, for all its good intentions, seems like Solomon's justice - half a baby to one, half to the other. How many people are convicted "lightly" because they can't afford to fight the state, and how many are given a pass for the real crimes? Is dysfunctional a correct assessment?
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            -
          • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 1 month ago
            If you have not been misled and have accurately stated what happened, an injustice has occurred.
            Coercion with fear to force someone to confess to something lesser that he also did not commit is dead wrong. Psychological torture is still torture.
            I don't know where this happened but I thought a court attorney was supposed to be appointed anywhere in the USA if an accused person could not afford one.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
              -
            • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 1 month ago
              I wasn't there, so there may be details that I'm missing. However, I have seen a previous police report that made it clear that the woman was lying and manipulating. This report was not admitted in evidence because it was of a different occurrence! This was in Virginia, which has laws that surprise me all the time (like you're not allowed to see your speed on the radar gun, for officer safety!, so the cops can, and routinely do, add a few extra miles to your speed). He did have a lawyer - cost him about $5K, but to fight the charges with any reasonable probability of winning would have tripled to quadrupled that. He couldn't afford it, or just gave up. I would have spent everything to prove my innocence, but we're talking about a man who has already been manipulated and controlled. But the issue is why is the government in the marriage business in the first place, both in the coming and going directions?
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
              • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 1 month ago
                After I read the question at the end of your last post, I'm going to go with the first word that popped into my head--POWER.
                That's what government intrusion is all about.
                We have control freak puffed up toads who want to be our more than equal elite betters on all government levels.
                Come to think of it, the administration of the Alabama Department of Corrections is loaded with lowdown power freaks.
                I recall a shift supervising lieutenant warning me not to buck "people like that."
                This country's flight control appears to have an epidemic purely selfish moral problem.
                Thanks. Your input has helped me connect dots that I haven't really been motivated to do.
                Until now.
                Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  

FORMATTING HELP

  • Comment hidden. Undo