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Can a dedicated member of the Gulch support Obama?

Posted by mdk2608 9 years, 2 months ago to Philosophy
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Just wanted to solicit comments and feedback for us to think about.


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  • Posted by woodlema 9 years, 2 months ago
    Unequivocally NO, in the context of your question. You cannot be loyal to opposing views. You must pick one to be loyal to.
    Had you not used the word dedicated, and simply said, can a Member of the Gulch support Obama the answer would of course be yes.

    Dedicated:
    ded·i·cat·ed
    ˈdedəˌkādəd/
    adjective
    adjective: dedicated
    (of a person) devoted to a task or purpose; having single-minded loyalty or integrity.

    The definition of Support:
    Full Definition of SUPPORT
    1: to endure bravely or quietly : bear
    2a (1) : to promote the interests or cause of (2) : to uphold or defend as valid or right : advocate <supports fair play> (3) : to argue or vote for <supported the motion to lower taxes>
    b (1) : assist, help <bombers supported the ground troops> (2) : to act with (a star actor) (3) : to bid in bridge so as to show support for
    c : to provide with substantiation : corroborate <support an alibi>

    The reason is simple. Obama and ALL his policies are based on the opposite or "reason." One cannot support a person who in every way is diametrically opposed to a principal. To "support" Obama is to do the opposite of Ayn Rand's philosophy.

    That is no different to me than expecting the Jews to Vote Hitler into office, or at least ask the question, Can a real Jew, accept/support Hitler as their President.

    Although with the contempt Obama has shown Israel over the past 6 year, and the Jews keep voting for him and supporting him I am beginning to wonder about the premise of my previous question.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago
      +1 Thank you for comments. I used the word "dedicated" purposely. I loved your comments about Israel and the slap in the face he gives to the only country in the region that is an true friend and free. His position is revealing.
      Finally your Hitler anology is a good one. Actually in 1933 there were some Jews who supported Hitler. Many were in denial and thought that Hitler was referring to the Jews of lower society and some agreed that things needed to be "cleaned up" a little. Only until he started to round up Jews who fought for Germany in WWI and were business owners and contributing members of society like themselves did they fully understand the evil that was about to come and that Hitler's policies included them. By then it was too late and their fate was sealed. Therefore a dedicated Jew probably would not have supported Hitler because they had better vision to assess the situation where as the casual Jew ( Possibly only by blood or name) might remain in denial thinking that is it others who are at risk. Either way its a interesting trying to think about it in hindsight. The parallels to todays world are ever-present and should be understood my more. I enjoyed reading your comments.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 2 months ago
    Of course not. He's a Democrat. If; he was a Republican I would say the same thing. I don't support the Government Party or any form of left wing socialist fascism. Not what they say no matter how good the street theater it's the results that count. I don't flush my support down the toilet - besides he's a lawyer. Strike Two. No need to look further except at the results. Strike Three. Same applies so far to every proposed candidate.

    First one that is submitted by some form of a Constitutional Centrist Party the TRUE center of the country I'm first in line.

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  • Posted by cem4881 9 years, 2 months ago
    I don't think so. Even tho I didn't like him as a candidate, just saw him as another slick politician, I was briefly happy that he was elected if only because the stigma of being a racist society was alleviated for a moment. But in the end, all that has happened is an increase in federal power, and presidential powers. I just don't see how anyone who values their rights as we do here can support him, and be taken seriously.
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    • Posted by Mamaemma 9 years, 2 months ago
      And has the stigma of being a racist been alleviated at all, cem48814?
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      • Posted by cem4881 9 years, 2 months ago
        Doesn't look like it, does it? He had such an excellent chance of furthering the cause of freedom that had been denied to the slaves. He had the moment to move us all to a more libertarian society, all in the name of freedom. He had the chance to flesh out more fully Martin Luther King's dream. He is the lousiest, most depressing, disappointing president I can imagine. The only line I can remember from his inaugural speech was that no longer will the blacks in America be refused service at a bar. Gah!
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    • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 2 months ago
      There is also an increase in the split between black and white people. I think that should be added to his "accomplishments". I can't totally blame him for the national debt as it's congress that makes the monetary decisions for the country, or so it's supposed to be,
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  • Posted by Eudaimonist 9 years, 2 months ago
    If Objectivists can support Republicans, they can definitely support Democrats.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago
      Overall I agree with that statement. However the question did not refer to republicans or democrats generically but rather B H Obama specifically. After Obama this is no longer our father's democratic party. The Democratic party has metastasized into a cancer on the American people. When Barack Obama says he will fundamentally change America it is similar to saying I want to fundamentally change my wife or husband. The only reason one would say that is that they no longer like their spouse. I do not believe BHO has objectivist values but rather is and anti-Rand in the Marxist tradition.
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  • Posted by Dan66 9 years, 2 months ago
    If dedicated you mean a believer of Ayn's opinions I don't think so. If you read Atlas Shrugged on page 136 there is a comment made "you didn't build that." It harks back to what Obama stated in 2012. He is on the wrong side of Ayn Rand. Now to be fair, I am a Christian, so I do part ways with Rand's opinion on religion, but to me her important beliefs center on free market capitalism and personal freedom. Obama hates capitalism, he resents those who have been successful and he is a disgrace to this country. He is trying to control our lives with Obama Care and is punishing those who don't have it by fining them. He is threat to freedom and capitalism.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago
      I agree with your position. I too am a Christian and do not subscribe to Rand's beliefs here. But on most everything else especially her position on capitalism and the views of the founding fathers, I am in her camp. When you mention that quote, I am amazed at how Obama in so many respects is the anti-Rand. He has taken so many Atlas Shrugged concepts and completely reversed them. Things like Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" program just to name one. These issue give us a clear understanding about what's in his mind and what I see I do not like.
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  • Posted by Poidog 9 years, 2 months ago
    Yes. In Bizarro world.
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    • Posted by Poidog 9 years, 2 months ago
      For those of you who did not read DC comics in the early 60's
      In the Bizarro world of "Htrae" ("Earth" spelled backwards), society is ruled by the Bizarro Code which states "Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!" In one episode, for example, a salesman is doing a brisk trade selling Bizarro bonds: "Guaranteed to lose money for you". Later, the mayor appoints Bizarro No. 1 to investigate a crime, "Because you are stupider than the entire Bizarro police force put together". This is intended and taken as a great compliment.
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      • Posted by Snoogoo 9 years, 2 months ago
        Yeah but then in Bizarro world Obama would be a champion of individual rights and the objectivists would be collectivists.. so they would still not be compatible..therefore the answer is still NO lol.
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  • Posted by scojohnson 9 years, 2 months ago
    It seems as though a lot of otherwise conservative African Americans ditch their political stripes to support him. So I would say it is possible.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago
      While true, the questions asks if a dedicated gulch member could support Obama. Most African Americans are not gulch members. My opinion is that gulch members value reason and intellect and if one uses his brain it is difficult to support Obama because he stands against everything a gulch member stands for.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago
      Americans yes. But a true dedicated member of the gulch could have seen through the bs and could probably not in my opinion support obama assuming they use their brain.
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  • Posted by Aliona 9 years, 2 months ago
    I would like to think the answer would be NO! But we live in a world filled with relevance . You liberals can go ahead and bash me and call me names what else is new
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  • -3
    Posted by Rex_Little 9 years, 2 months ago
    Depends on how you define "support". I'd say Obama is the best President we've elected this century.
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    • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 2 months ago
      Yeah, President Pinocchio is so wonderful that he won the 2013 Lie Of The Year Award.
      He's so wonderful that he sacrificed lives in Benghazi in an effort to be reelected after saying "Al Qaeda is on the run."
      He's the best president at figuring out how to Cloward and Piven flood this country with illegals and create an unsustainable $18 trillion debt. That'll build to at least $20 trillion when he leaves office.
      Ovomit is the best president at creating way more scandals than Nixon and Clinton put together.
      Heck, I could spend an hour on this response.
      Besides, this century has hardly begun.
      A worse Muslim-coddling Marxist may yet come along. Objectivists won't vote for that pig either.
      Not even part-way leaning ones like me.
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    • Posted by Madanthonywayne 9 years, 2 months ago
      Seriously? Bush may not have been great, but worse than Obama? That's absurd.
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      • Posted by Rex_Little 9 years, 2 months ago
        Bush gave us TSA, the Iraq war, the start of massive bailouts, and other expensive expansions of government. Other than Obamacare, BO has mostly just expanded the evils begun under Bush and others; I don't assign as much blame to that as I do to those who start bad programs, because these things tend to take on a life of their own once begun.

        I will say that depending on how Obamacare plays out, it could end up dropping Obama below Bush in my estimation.
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        • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 2 months ago
          Rex, obamacare is *evil* because it extends fed control
          into every part of our lives, from the bathroom to the
          kitchen, from the office to Myrtle Beach -- they will
          be able to control our behavior because it relates
          to our health.

          it is evil, and directly violates the constitution. -- j

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        • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 2 months ago
          Rex_Little, please read down to my (jbrenner's) comments to Circuit Guy. Search this thread for the word "undermine". Yes, Bush was a terrible master, but Obama is a dictator of the first order.
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        • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 2 months ago
          I don't think that any Gulcher would support those actions, but they must also be put into context. I certainly don't think that anyone would say that the TSA or Iraq war were specific objectives of Bush when elected. Nor was the massive bailout. These things came to be based on the circumstances. One can make a rational argument that they were wrong actions, but I don't see an argument that they were pre-meditated actions prior to events.
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  • -7
    Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
    I am biased b/c I'm a dedicated objectivist who supports President Obama.

    It seems to go without saying that objectivists can work with people who don't agree with objectivism on all issues.

    Factions form in a republic, contrary to what James Madison hoped in the Federalist Papers, but objectivists don't get caught up in them. We're not the board members Rand mentions in Fountainhead to check in with our political allies before saying what we think.
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    • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 2 months ago
      Let me get this straight-- you support lying, cheating, stealing, destruction of private property and ultimately destruction of the country, for the public good, of course, and then you call yourself an Objectivist? Either you need to get basic education or, more likely, you are hijacking the term "Objectivist" just like the socialists have always been hijacking everything that works and destroying it. You, sir, are truly evil.
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    • Posted by LetsShrug 9 years, 2 months ago
      Not even a half assed objectivist would support obama. And a dedicated one wouldn't even joke about it. If you said your first sentence with a straight face then you are a conflicted, blank out, mess who likes to bastardize the meaning of objectivism.
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      • Posted by $ Susanne 9 years, 2 months ago
        Or worse, an anti-objectivist practicing what an anti-objectivist naturally would - lying, deceit, fact-twisting. I can only hope that it was said as irony, tho, following some other posts... I fear it may not have been.
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    • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 2 months ago
      CG, I find it remarkable that you are still here. If we decide in Atlantis that we must keep a socialist around just to remember what they are like, as Rush Limbaugh suggests, then I suppose you will likely be that socialist. Anyone who supports President Zero can have absolutely nothing in common with Galt's Gulch. He and his administration do something every DAY to anger me.
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      • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 2 months ago
        Be careful, I'm still here, even though there are several here who continue to trying to drive me out. I don't agree much with CG, but so long as he states that he sees value in AS, I don't have a problem with him being here (b'sides, I need someone else to take some arrows when my back is full of arrows) ;-)
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      • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
        "you will likely be that socialist."
        I am no socialist. It's an absurd notion.
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        • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 2 months ago
          I can see how you would not vote for McLame or Romney. However, how could you vote for Obama a second time and not be a socialist? Yes, socialism is absurd. I sincerely hope that you can change, CG. Unlike most of the zombies who voted for President Zero, I still hold hope out for you. Obama is an amalgam of Ellsworth Toohey and Mr. Thompson. He could not be more antithetical to Ayn Rand values.
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          • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
            I believe you are wrong about President Obama being a Rand villain or a socialist. If I thought that I obviously would not support him.
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            • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 2 months ago
              Rand came to America to flee Communist values. President Zero set out to "fundamentally transform America". To what, you might ask? Certainly he sought to transform America away from what Rand fled toward. Consequently Obama is trying (and frankly succeeding) in transforming America into something that is anti-Rand.

              President Zero does everything he can to undermine free enterprise (You didn't build that!), undermine the truth (Look at how he twists the labor #'s.), undermine the Constitution (too many violations to count, or do I need to remind you about his pen and his phone?), undermine life (Remember his stance on abortion before he became president.), undermine the health care system (Cornhusker kickback and the payoff to Bill Nelson of Florida), undermine the university system (via nationalizing the college loan system), undermine the bond system (paying off his Detroit GM retirees before the constitutionally first bondholders), undermining the money system (How are those 0% returns on what you have in the bank working out for you?), etc. At best, he is a socialist, and that is only if you think he is a man of good will. He wants to do these things, and thus I must conclude he is an evil villain. BTW, I'm not the one down voting you.

              Obama does everything possible to make sure that A is not A.
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              • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
                Thank you for the good comments.
                "President Zero set out to "fundamentally transform America". To what, you might ask?"
                Politicians say that sort of thing hoping the listener will fill in the blanks with something he wants.

                Regarding the list of supposedly socialist comments and actions, most of them I think are either are larger problems not related to one person or are not correct. We'd have to have a thread for each of them. We could add his proposed budget with increased deficits, which I actually think his personal fault and puts us at more risk than people realize.

                The personal demonization and name-calling, though, are just buying into something I long-ago figured out was nonsense.
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                • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 2 months ago
                  If you read past threads, the Gulch has had threads on all of those topics.

                  As for the name-calling, calling Obama a socialist is being too kind to him. He is a naked Marxist. As for the evil villain part, just look at his smirk any time he intentionally pokes producers in the eyes. He gets a perverse joy out of bringing producers down. The Ellsworth Toohey comparison is as close as you are likely to get.

                  As for his budget, our $ is not ours, according to him. Such money was not earned legitimately, according to him. I resent his demonization of my morals and values. In his mind, good is evil, and evil is good.
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            • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 2 months ago
              Check your premises, CG.
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              • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
                That's meaningless unless you specify the premise.
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                • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 2 months ago
                  The basic premise that you should be concerned with, CG, if you pay even lip service to Objectivism, is whether you're OK with the government stealing money/resources from those that have earned and built them and transferring them to those who have not earned them. Regardless of the advertised "reasons." Is stealing wrong, or is it right? Is putting working people in bondage for the sake of someone's social causes OK? Is slavery OK? Perhaps, you apparently believe, slavery is OK if the slave master is a good guy and really needs the labor of the slaves? CG, if you truly believe what you're saying, your logic circuits are very faulty.
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                  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
                    This is just absurd, saying I believe in theft, bondage, and slavery. I obvious don't believe in any of that.
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                    • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 2 months ago
                      OK, but Obama does, and you've stated, to my surprise, that you support his policies!! Why do I say that he believes in all of the above - based on his actions: Transfer of wealth, taxes, government subsidies and loans - all of those actions are taking resources (stealing, openly through the use of force) from those that have created the resource and given it to others who have not earned it. And keeping quite a bit within the government system and with his friends. I am in bondage to work for the benefit of those that do not work. And elementary economics will teach you that when you feed those that don't work, they will never want to work. This is just the economic side of Hussein's policies. As to the destruction of the US in all other areas - cultural, foreign policy, military - you must see that yourself. As to Hussein's affiliation with communists and socialists - look at his teachers, mentors and friends, without exception. So, how can you claim that you are not a socialist, do not belief in theft, bondage and slavery, and support the people that do?
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                      • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
                        What you say reads as if we had a Republic consistent with what the Founders talked about in their letters and papers until six years ago, as if we hadn't heard of taxes, subsidies, gov't loans, etc before, and suddenly we found ourselves with a bloated and intrusive gov't thanks to one politician.

                        Absurd as it sounds, the notion works. It works on me. The hyperbole probably encourages me to vote. It also takes time away from actual reform. If the discussion is "OMG, President Bush is the anti-christ who aims to destroy the US by turning it into an empire who enslaves the world to serve politically-connected contractors," then we're talking about that bit of stupid nonsense instead of real problem. It gets people's (e.g. like me) attention. Some people join in the name-calling and facile policy explanations. Most people who have lived a little and had a chance to build/run something know that getting things done is hard and usually when a project or org outside their expertise is struggling, the simplistic solutions are wrong.
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                        • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 2 months ago
                          One more point - I have met die hard Democrats who are in fact very hard and honest workers themselves and are not moochers. But they support government enforced re-distribution because they believe that the world is not fair and someone in power needs to make it fair. Of course, that is a ridiculous notion - maybe the world is unfair - who's to decide and using what reference? The world is the world; get used to it. But through their votes, these people affect all of us, through the force of arms of the government. They have no knowledge of the subject, no education in the field, yet they take it upon themselves to be experts. What if I were a professor of literature and voted on how you needed to design an electronics circuit? And if I rallied my entire literature class to vote on that circuit? Would that make sense? In the name of fairness, I suppose. Just because one can yabbety yab on economics issues hardly makes him and expert, yet that yabbety yabber controls our lives. For the next Constitution, I think that division of labor criteria need to be incorporated, lest we end up with the same failure.
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                          • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
                            "But through their votes, these people affect all of us, through the force of arms of the government."
                            Yes. I agree with everything you said in this last comment except for the parts pinning it on Democrats. I see no difference at all on these issues between Ds and Rs. Ds come off slightly better, but I think that's just b/c they're targetting their BS to an urban audience.
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                            • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 2 months ago
                              In my opinion, today's Democrats and today's Republicans are almost the same. They are both socialists, with Republicans hanging on to religion and the Democrats hanging on to "alternative" families and gender redistribution. They are both evil, as they both enforce their views onto others through the use of force. Obama, however, is a special case, as I believe that he not only hates this country, but is doing everything in his power to damage it. In any other country, he would have been tried for treason.
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                              • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
                                "They are both evil, as they both enforce their views onto others through the use of force. "
                                Yes. Moreover, the two issues you mentioned them differing on, religion and gender expression, are not affected by gov't policy. People won't stop going to church or express gender differently depending on which party is in charge. It's a sham.
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    • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 2 months ago
      I don't think his continuous lying, his millions of my dollars vacations, his finding the way to circumvent the law, his Muslim tendency’s fit very well with Ms. Rand philosophy.
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      • Posted by slfisher 9 years, 2 months ago
        You know, criticize his policies all you want, but criticizing him for his vacations isn't rational. *Any* president who goes on *any* vacation costs the same, and ISTR that President Obama takes fewer than some.
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        • Posted by $ Susanne 9 years, 2 months ago
          His timing of these vacations are suspect; worse, his disconnect with events around him - or deliberate ignoring of them - show he is not a leader, but a grandstander faker. If he can lie about that - why not lie about everything - after all in a looter mindset like that, one thinks "Hey, if others can do it and get away with it, so can I."
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        • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 2 months ago
          Uh, let's just ignore his trip to India for the lights festival where he dragged along half the US Navy. Let's ignore the Christmas trips where he used Air Force One and Two to fly all his political allies out to Hawaii. Let's just ignore that this President has played more golf than any other President in history. Let's just ignore the First Lady's jaunt to Paris and her shopping trip there. Let's ignore his daughters' unsupervised trip to Mexico. I could go on and on.

          And all this has come on the American taxpayer's dime.

          I didn't much care for GW Bush, but at least his vacations were either to Martha's Vineyard (a Presidental retreat) or his own Ranch in Texas. I retain EVERY right to criticize this President for his MISuse of taxpayer dollars.
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    • Posted by richrobinson 9 years, 2 months ago
      We must be defining Objectivism differently. Are you suggesting Obama supports some Objectivist principles?
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      • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
        "Are you suggesting Obama supports some Objectivist principles?"
        I believe so. I don't know him, even though other people, and I don't follow policy news close enough to evaluate every decision he makes. I had a lot more Hopes of Change six years ago. I'm much less concerned about the merits of particular politicians than the trends toward more presidential powers, more gov't intrusiveness, more cultural acceptance of militarized approaches to problems, and more acceptance of the gov't managing basic life skills for the middle class. Maybe you think President Obama has accellerated these problems. I don't think so, but you probably agree they existed before him and they're getting worse. Amazing technologies are creating new ways for people to create wealth and share their ideas, which increases personal liberity, but at the same time we're trending toward turning liberties over to the gov't.
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        • Posted by richrobinson 9 years, 2 months ago
          Those technologies you speak of will be useless if we don't respect patents and IP rights. They will mean nothing if our economy collapses. Obama has doubled the National Debt and done more to move us towards socialism than FDR. He is a disaster. Perhaps his most enduring legacy will be his ambivalence towards ISIS and other radical Muslim groups.
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          • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
            Thank you for your reply.
            "Those technologies you speak of will be useless if we don't respect patents and IP rights."
            Yes, or almost nothing, and less incentive for people to produce if they cannot keep what they produce.

            "They will mean nothing if our economy collapses."
            I'm more worried that we'll go into living-dead mode with the technologies offsetting the looting, avoiding any dramatic collapse, but with fewer game-changing revolutionary technologies.

            "Obama has doubled the National Debt and done more to move us towards socialism than FDR. "
            The deficit spiked due to a recession and series of stimuli that Bush started and Obama kept doing and worse. I accept the claim that the deficit is a problem, and lately with the proposed increased deficit, President Obama has clearly been part of the *problem* not the solution.

            "Perhaps his most enduring legacy will be his ambivalence towards ISIS and other radical Muslim groups."
            He's doing mostly the right things to fight extremists. He condemns extremists for the evil criminals they are. He supports pluralism, democratic reforms, and avoiding even the appearance of sanctimony. He avoids aggrandizing them when they operate as a loose band of criminals but willing to respond militarily when they try to form a state.
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        • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 2 months ago
          CG, all the evils that you mentioned above did exist before Hussein. Both Bushes were socialists and, of course, so was Clinton. Hussein is much worse because he is a Muslim Communist - yes, an oxymoron, but true nevertheless. They exist - when the Iranian revolution happened in '79, there were quite a few Muslim Communists in Iran, funded by the Soviets and somehow believing that their opposite ideologies can be combined. After the Ayatollah got power, I believe they were quickly eliminated. Anyway, our Hussein is doing everything that he can to destroy the country - he has done considerably more damage than Osama. But he himself, like Hitler before him, would have amounted for nothing had he not had support from millions of extremely poorly educated (would that make them "uneducated?") Americans who fell for the Hope and Change and the Free Lunch program. I remember hearing His speech in '08 at some college and recognizing that I was listening to an almost verbatim translation of Lenin. You see, education does matter.
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