Comments on: What Hath Ayn Rand Wrought

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:43:28 +0000

Well, there is the name of your blog to tip people off, Hipparchia. Yes, Kryten knows how to zing.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:10:27 +0000

Orson Scott Card should stick to his Science Fiction/Fantasy… oh… he has! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:09:22 +0000

sigh… i’m so transparent.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:23:19 +0000

Somehow I was sure you would come by to complain about my mischaracterization of the actions of lemmings, but considering the maturity of the comment I was responding to the finer points of animal behavior patterns would be lost.

When you base your world view on the ranting of people famous for writing fiction actual knowledge of Arctic animals is too much to ask.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:26:00 +0000

in defense of lemmings

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:42:57 +0000

The people who read and love JRR Tolkien and JK Rowling love the books but understand they are works of fiction. They seem to understand the “fantasy” label.

Other authors seem to fill an odd shaped void in the lives of some seemingly intelligent people, and the authors apparently believe their own delusions.

The real world exists and you have to live in it. A fantasy only works for so long, just ask the Hedgemony.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:26:44 +0000

Ah well… L Ron Hubbard = Scientology. LOL What more needs to be said? 🙂 Scientology has managed to out-con even the Mormons or … [insert any other religion here] LOL

*shrug* sure proves there are many stupid people out there.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:55:46 +0000

“Poor” people tend to be a whole lot more careful with their money than “rich” people, and some of those “poor” people who were finally able to buy homes because of the CRA were long-time civil service employees and teachers who happened to want to live in “bad neighborhoods” where they could afford to buy a house.

The housing bubble started and ended in South Florida, and I can guarantee that no one was using the CRA to buy a condo in Cape Coral. Builders weren’t putting up affordable homes down there, it was all condos and McMansions in hurricane evacuation zones. People got crushed by a bad economy, ARMs resetting, and spikes in property taxes and property insurance costs.

I remember people asking my advice during the dot com bubble, and pointing out that a couple of people with a web site hosted on a server in their bedroom with no obvious revenue stream did not justify spending $100 on a share of their stock. Market share was only meaningful if there was an actual market, i.e. cash flow outside of the stock market.

I get really annoyed with “true believers”, they always have excuses when their “ideal model” fails. I have read some brilliant people like Chomsky, Pauling, and Azimov who are without peer in their fields, but you hand them real life and they go round the bend. I didn’t think Ayn Rand was all that great as a novelist, and L Ron Hubbatd was a hack, but their followers are something to behold.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:53:29 +0000

LOL OK… Now I’m laughing! LOL

Orson Scott Card should stick to his Science Fiction/Fantasy… oh… he has! LOL

In case no one has ever explained it to you, regulations are only relevant if they are enforced, and there has been a total lack of enforcement for some time.

Yup! Right on the money with that one Bryan.

Greenspan is just doing the usual republican shortsighted, ignorant fantasy world of “But it should have worked! If everyone had just done it by the playbook, it would have worked! It’s not my fault! They didn’t do what I said! Boo hoo”… Ya know how it goes… expect to hear a hell of a lot more of this over coming months and years about pretty much everything. We’ve already been hearing it about Iraq & Afghanistan, it”l get worse. 🙂

By: LadyMin

LadyMin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:14:02 +0000

Oh wow… Orson Scott Card has gone batshit crazy with that article. Who’d have guessed the entire financial crisis would have been prevented if banks didn’t lend to poor people who, as we all know now, won’t pay back their mortgages.