Now I'm not looking forward to AP Government.

I've always been a semi-conservative, but after reading Atlas Shrugged and some of Rand's non-fiction I became a libertarian too.

Ouch indeed! Thanks to Ayn Rand I understand the nature of "competition" between employer and employee. It's no different with billionaires; they are improving our standard of living and there is absolutely no reason to punish them for producing value.

No problem, carl. I understand the need to vent.

Raw intelligence is not the issue; the ability to apply the IQ that you do have rationally is what counts. I agree with you, Blanco; most of the extremely intelligent people I've met are collectivists at the core, and it astounds me that they're unable to (or unwilling) to correct their political ideology.

Ugh! That sounds unbearable...

I was taking English 1 early for credit (8th grade, instead of 9th grade). I'm pretty sure he got his classroom set through the Institute's program, but I don't know that for sure. I'll ask him the next time I see him.

I know, right? An uncommon combination nowdays, but awesome nonetheless!

Thank you, emma. I do my best to cut through the irrelevant and the stupid, but Galt's Gulch is a really good way to recharge. I'm glad to be here.

It's amazing that they apply cause-and-effect so easily to concrete, "practical" issues, but choose to "blank-out" on larger, abstract concepts.

I am going to have to try this! :)

Just look at the USPS.

Wow! I just wanted to thank you all for the tremendous response in answering my question! I love the community here in the Gulch.

Thank goodness my high school doesn't require this yet, but I find it ridiculous that in order to participate in some clubs, you must have a certain number of volunteer hours - regardless of how much of an asset you are in other areas of the club. As a leader in one of the clubs I'm in, I worked very hard to make volunteer hours optional, but it was a huge uphill battle.
The difference between this and the situation you describe, Abaco, is that kids are free not to join a certain club. When they are required to spend their time washing out bedpans in order to graduate, it's inexcusable.

The Fabians long ago ceased to exist as an intellectual activist organization, turning into yet another insulated 'think tank' of no particular distinction among many others. But the seeds they planted continue to grow into a jungle.

(but Kant in that line up was much worse than just the ASD.)

"As we survey the government of Italy, therefore, we may now name all the essential ingredients of fascism. It is a form of social organization

"1. In which the government acknowledges no restraint upon its powers -- totalitarianism.

"2. In which this unrestrained government is managed by a dictator -- the leadership principle.

"3. In which the government is organized to operate the capitalist system and enable it to function under an immense bureaucracy.

'4. In which the economic society is organized on the syndicalist model, that is by producing groups formed into craft and professional categories under supervision of the state.

"5. In which the government and syndicalist organizations operate the capitalist society on the planned, autarchial principle.

"6. In which the government holds itself responsible to provide the nation with adequate purchasing power by public spending and borrowing.

"7. In which militarism is used as a conscious mechanism of government spending, and

"8. In which imperialism is included as a policy inevitably flowing from militarism as well as other elements of fascism.

"Wherever you find a nation using all of these devices you will know that this is a fascist nation. in proportion as any nation uses most of them you may assume it is tending in the direction of fascism... Dictatorship alone does not make a fascist state."

As We Go Marching: A biting indictment of the coming of domestic fascism in America, 1944, by John T. Flynn, better known for his The Roosevelt Myth

Check, check, check, ...

You do not sound like a nut at all, you are observing facts. There is a distinct effort to kill off creative thought and real knowledge and understanding, and replace it with dogma and "compassion" I have believed in a conspiracy to do this for 40 years, as it is the only logical explanation, unless they really did create the Stupidity virus and it got loose....

It ws happening in the 80s and 90s. My 2 boys were pee tested from age 12 (and were positive on several occasions). Came in handy when they finally decided they had screwed the pooch and were going in the Army to learn a useful skill, I held it over their heads and told them if they screwed up, the army would get their results. Both are senior NCOs and have served admirably. Never needed to carry out the threat. Funniest thing was the lab asking me if they consented to the tests, first I told them they did, second I told them they didn't get a vote, third they told the lab they did. Not sure you could do that today.

TANSTAAFL indeed! Next to Atlas, TMHM is one of the best story's to illustrate the value of freedom and the curse of oppressive, arrogant politicians.

As long as they are told it is free, they will come. Bernie is playing all of them like violins, he is much more dangerous than HillaryBeasts whining "It's my turn" crap...

Both of them fit the Democratic Part platform to a T. Especially Bernie...

Because they have been coddled, falsely praised, taught faux, revised history or no history at all.They do not pay attention to what's going on.

Did you ever watch Waters world? These kids do no know anything...even at a younger age we had a sense of it in my day.

They, like many, feel entitled; they have fallen for the "Rich" 1% when in fact that 1% that is greedy are the very one's blaming value creating, free market capitalizing, charity giving business creators...hence those that are pointing the fingers, like always, are the one's that have created the problems, invaded our once valued corporations as majority stock holders, board members or coerced them with regulations; then fleeced them for political donations.
The younger generation has been made in their image.

Not to mention, bad people are good and good people are bad...That is why they support bernie and hiltery for free stuff...

Just Wait till they start working at that 30.00 an hour minimum wage job and find out they are paying for all that so called "Free" stuff!

Sorry...guess I was venting a little.

And that illustrates the problem: the ideas that ethics is based on the "heart", that the source of such feelings is to be left unexamined, and that any idealist should support the left. There is no clash between the ethical and mature intelligent functioning, but that requires understanding that ethics does not mean sacrifice.

Do you know if the teacher assigned Anthem entirely independently or if through support from the Ayn Rand Institute's classroom books for teachers program? (They currently support Anthem only for grades 9 & 10).)

In fact, when Hitler was sitting in jail and writing Mein Kampf, the section on state security, which later became the Gestapo, was lifted almost verbatim from Commisar Felix Dzerzhinsky.