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Meet Ragnar Danneskjöld

Posted by awebb 10 years ago to Entertainment
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Ahoy landlubbers! Okay, International Talk Like a Pirate Day isn’t until September 19th (it’s a real thing - look it up) but today you can get up close and personal with a pirate. Better yet, it’s a philosopher turned pirate so there shouldn’t be too much pirate lingo to wade through.

Eric Allan Kramer, Ragnar Danneskjöld in “Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt?”, takes a moment to tell us more about his role in the upcoming film. Plus, we get a sneak peek at some of his scenes in ASP3. Enjoy!

SOURCE URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2fgmVZYga0


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  • Posted by ddavignon 10 years ago
    There were 792 investor-owned privately armed ocean-crossing capable Revolutionary warships between 1775-1781 that captured over 3,100 British Empire vessels. Most everything Grorgie Washington fought with was captured off the high seas from merchant and subsidized vessels of the Crown. At the same time the new state navies plus Continental Navy totaled only 64 tax-supported ships. Only three were left operable at war's end, as their orders were to sink, kill, and occasionally capture; while the privateers were about capture, cargo sold after an admiralty court verified it was British and not some other nationality as Congress did issue letters of marque and reprisal to keep sealanes open. The first American Privateer was a Massachusetts state ship, Captain Jonathan Haraden, a rope maker, his ship's name was "The Tyrannicide".

    In the War for Free Trade and Sailor's Rights, 523 American Privateers again captured over 3,100 Empire vessels, assisted by 23 US Navy ships. The major center for privateering was Baltimore that was attacked by widened British troops that burned Washington DC, yet Baltimore was successfully defended in a strategy by Maryland Militia Major General and US Senator Sam Smith and Privateer / US Commodore Joshua Barney. A hit tune came out of that battle, an anthem called the Star Spangled Banner.

    Ayn Rand knew and understood the difference between privateers fighting to keep commerce free in a war against a mercantilist/fascist government enemy, versus pirates that stole anything from anyone.
    She refers to Ragnar Dannesjold as a privateer while the government refers to him as a pirate. Nothing new. However, words do matter as does to legal warriors the US Constitution's Article One, Section 11. To libertarians /objectivists that might replace a govt letter of marque with that from a reinsurance company, understand that we are not talking about govt contractors but sea going mercenaries that do not risk death for merely money but a cause usually called freedom. The British had privateers but Haraden took care of them off the coast of Spain.

    The greedy capitalists (little old ladies with gold pieces) only wanted a third of the prize vessel from successfully entering it. The state capitalists wanted a larger portion called halfsies. John Paul Jones of the US Navy lamented he could not get a navy ship manned when there was a privateer competing., Alas, the Navy. He did all right getting his own ship sunk while capturing a bigger one, but public school history books do not mention Haraden who captured over a 1,000 British cannon with his 16-gun true Privateer "the General Pickering".

    The crews were highly motivated in this risky operation as the were rewarded by task and function by a 1/20th of the 2/3rds. However many cabin boys, say 8, set sail, they got 1/8th of 1/20th of 2/3rds. A captain received 1/20th, and had a captain's purse of 1/20th to reward excellence in marksmanship from the marines in the fighting tops or a gun crew that could hull an enemy ship. Haraden invented the plumbob pendulum that told him when to fire a broadside level, and the air rudder in a "jackass brig".

    Lessons learned from death dealing privateers ironically show us how to achieve Percentage As You Earn (PAYE) medical finansurance today defacto for all without force. Hmmm. My privateers er consultants have been preparing a surprise on that, and offering mortgages for 27% of income to earn back the 92% of home loans owned by Freddie Mac due to silly brittle as peanut brittle fixed installment payments falling apart in the down times. Investors in privateers shared the risk with the lenders, both either lost or broke even, but unlike averaged installments, with PAYE finance the lenders or investors get to share in the good times. Seems we might learn how to free up America from studying privateers, redemption into debt to end slavery and indentured servitude, mountain men, and old country dictors're koning for a percentage of income. Anyone care to join my crew?

    Brock d'Avignon, Captain of Spaceship Earth.
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    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 10 years ago
      Thanks for the history lesson. +1. Would you recommend a source for us to enjoy?
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      • Posted by ddavignon 10 years ago
        MacClay's History of American Privateers (1898); Coggeshall's American Privateers (1856) from 1st hand accounts; Patriots, privateers, and Poltroons. Try dusting off +200 year old enlistments, admiralty court records, and visit maritime museums & libraries at the Peabody in Salem, to VA Maritime on the east coast. Wagon trains carried these books west from BYU to USC. Laissez Faire Books courtesy of the International Society of Individual Liberty ISIL.org has stockpiled many out of print books or copies. Took me 2 years to deduce and learn how there was a machinery of freedom method of reward and finance or my word for financing distant and high risk: finansurance. Talking to elderly doctors who reckon as in calculate, and reckon as in reconnaissance of a chicken coop to name a number of chickens representing a percentage of income for fixing the broken legs of a rich farmer and a poor farmer. The econometric unit of the chicken can just as easily be a bushel or cup of pecans or dollars for taking care of comprehensive medical care (or the amount of what you want). If you want cosmetic surgery or Human Investments (HI) in human cyber-amplifiers or genomics research & immortality booster spice; then you contract volitional science by agreeing to a different percentage-of-income. Sorry for the index finger typing typos on Job's iPhone. Enjoy, Brock d'Avignon
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        • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 10 years ago
          Well, I am not going to search admiralty records on the East Coast, as I live in Texas. However, the UT library does have several editions of the first two recommendations. I am cleared for use of the rare books collections and other later editions are in the circulating stacks. Thanks!

          You seem to have a theory of social econometrics that would benefit all of us. The _Libertarian Papers_ from the Mises Institute at Auburn are one venue I can recommend. They are peer reviewed, but even I got published there.

          On a related note, I know from my own research and publications on medieval commerce that given the need and an opportunity, people develop and evolve social structures to support trade and exchange in (perhaps to us) surprisingly robust modes. Goods were bought and sold at the Great Fairs of Champagne with letters of credit from notaries in Florence. Bankers got together and cleared their books without touching a coin. In fact, pounds-shilling-pence was invented as an _abstraction_ to manage a plethora of local coinages of varying weight and content.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 10 years ago
    I hadn't thought about half of what we're going to see here, especially the helicopter scene. But after he explains everything, I can see Eric Allan Kramer as a logical casting choice.
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  • Posted by ssnyh 10 years ago
    I recall Ayn Rand mentioning that it would be okay to change the book's plot line a little to suit a movie, and what this video shows does very well by that.
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