How Ayn Rand destroyed a home

Salon presents a young adult's description of how Ayn Rand destroyed her family. This vivid and intensely personal article by Alyssa Bereznak exposes the ugly underbelly of objectivism, summed up by the following words by Ayn Rand:

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
I disagree with those who believe that Rand offers a path to a meaningful life. I see life as a yin-yang dynamic, a struggle we all have trying to balance our own needs and wants with the needs of the group. [More . . . ]

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The real problem with Guantanamo

Glenn Greenwald spells out the real problem with Guantanamo:

What made Guantanamo controversial was not its physical location: that it was located in the Caribbean Sea rather than on American soil (that’s especially true since the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that U.S. courts have jurisdiction over the camp). What made Guantanamo such a travesty — and what still makes it such — is that it is a system of indefinite detention whereby human beings are put in cages for years and years without ever being charged with a crime. President Obama’s so-called “plan to close Guantanamo” — even if it had been approved in full by Congress — did not seek to end that core injustice. It sought to do the opposite: Obama’s plan would have continued the system of indefinite detention, but simply re-located it from Guantanamo Bay onto American soil. Long before, and fully independent of, anything Congress did, President Obama made clear that he was going to preserve the indefinite detention system at Guantanamo even once he closed the camp.

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What Being An American Means To Me

I am not given to setting out pronouncements like this very often, but in light of the last several years I thought it might be worthwhile to do so on the occasion of the 236th anniversary of our declared independence. I don’t think in terms of demonstrating my love of country. My affection for my home is simply a given, a background hum, a constant, foundational reality that is reflexively true. This is the house in which I grew up. I know its walls, its ceiling, its floors, the steps to the attic, the verge, and every shadow that moves with the sun through all the windows. I live here; its existence contours my thinking, is the starting place of my feelings. The house itself is an old friend, a reliable companion, a welcoming space, both mental and physical, that I can no more dislike or reject than I can stop breathing. But some of the furniture...that’s different. I am an American. I don’t have to prove that to anyone. I carry it with me, inside, my cells are suffused with it. I do not have to wear a flag on my lapel, hang one in front of my house, or publicly pledge an oath to it for the convenience of those who question my political sentiments. Anyone who says I should or ought or have to does not understand the nature of what they request or the substance of my refusal to accommodate them. They do not understand that public affirmations like that become a fetish and serve only to divide, to make people pass a test they should—because we are free—never have to take. [More . . . ]

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Barack Obama drones on into the Heart of Darkness

A recent article in the New York Times confirms Barack Obama's personal involvement in the use of drones to assassinate persons in Pakistan and elsewhere:

"Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret “nominations” process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. He had vowed to align the fight against Al Qaeda with American values; the chart, introducing people whose deaths he might soon be asked to order, underscored just what a moral and legal conundrum this could be."

I realize that Barack Obama's unrelenting series of drone assassinations is an intensely inconvenient topic for many of the people who voted for him. I understand this reluctance to consider this topic because I too voted for Barack Obama. Back in 2008, I heard Obama repeatedly promise that he would quickly end American involvement in Afghanistan.
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Another batch of thought-provoking quotes

I don't write them; I merely collect them. There's no particular topic. These are some of the quotes I've enjoyed and collected over the past couple of months: "I like rice. Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2000 of something." Mitch Hedberg (1968 - 2005) "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." Upton Sinclair (1878 - 1968) “Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.” George Carlin “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. Then they build monuments to you.” — Nicholas Klein Trade Union Address for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, 1918 "A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking." Jerry Seinfeld (1954 - ) "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005) "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." John Steinbeck "If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us." Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962) "Be careful who you pick as your enemies as you have a tendency to become like them". Bill Russell/Boston Celtics "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." Ray Bradbury “The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.” Albert Einstein “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” Ben Franklin "I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process — an integral function of the universe." ---Buckminster Fuller “Religion. It's given people hope in a world torn apart by religion.” ― Jon Stewart "Freedom isn't free. It shouldn't be a bragging point that "Oh, I don't get involved in politics," as if that makes you somehow cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liar s and panderers The government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable." Bill Maher "We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth." Teddy Roosevelt "It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake." Frederick Douglass "Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so." Gore Vidal (1925 - ) "You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do." Olin Miller “Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” ― Howard Zinn "That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence." Christopher Hitchens.

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