Digital currency with no fixed rate, no real value. One business in NYC is starting to accept Bitcoin payments. So maybe after your next night on the town you can scan your restaurant bill with your brand new RandPhone.
You could pay in bitcoin for a cure for pulled groin and hand over cash for treatment of rash a credit card for a fall in the yard but save your gold for infectious mold
I just read an article the other day where they said bitcoin is collapsing. And so has gold. So all the survivalists and paranoiacs, well I don't know what to say.
I've really come around to an opinion of the whole libertarian hipster class as elitist, narcissistic, utterly convinced of their inherent superiority, engaged in actions not for their own sake but for the sake of being 'anti' government (eg: the 'agora' not for the sake of growing one's own food but for the sake of creating a black market economy), and amazingly in love with survivalist, paranoid conspiracy theories.
Plus, they NEVER EVER smile for a picture, but prefer a deadpan uber-dramatic look.
And rereading that I don't think I really nailed down the crux of it for me, which is that I think they have no sincere authenticity. From what I've seen their motives lie more in the desire to be 'anti', to be against the status quo regardless of what that status quo happens to be. With a unifying motif of being superior to society as a whole.
System-haters. If you could do a field guide on them definite subspecies would be survivalists/preppers, conspiracy theorists and throw in a few Southern subspecies slightly different from the Northern forms. Ever go shopping with a prepper? all they wanna do is hit the camping stores and check things out like water purification tablets. Ah sweet libertarianism! like I'm not really into Swedish libertarians, you know the kind of family that does things in the nude, constantly walking around in the buff at a bbq and the thing goes in the onion dip:)
I am all for being prepared.. when we lived in Wilm I had the hurricane stuff ready to go by May 1. Water, batteries, things that can be cooked with just water, an extra propane tank full. Gallons of oil for the lanterns, things like that. When you hear the storm's comin is when you load your freezer with ziplocs full of water. The ice helps to keep the freezer cold and as it melts you have more usable water. Fire up the generator and make sure it runs. That sorta thing. But that's a damn sight different than someone who believes the black helicopters are just waiting to get them and ship them off to FEMA camps where they're going to be implanted with little chips n shit.
Another thing that really annoys me about some Libertarians is this, they downright despise you if you don't pass their doctrinal purity test. Let's say you're down with some libertarian things well you have to be down with all of it otherwise you're somehow not good, not a good or true conservative as if they're the only ones who can define the term.
They're elitist. And fervently believe that they are inherently superior to everyone who believes differently.
How many times have I heard the Libertarian snort of contempt that 'the people will get what they deserve' because they voted for someone other than RP? Like the vast unwashed masses just aren't as ___________ (insert laudatory adjective here) as they are. It's almost as if they fail to see themselves as part of society. No, actually it IS that they WISH to not be part of society. They want their own little supremacist enclave in which technology is king and everyone owns multiple assault weapons to defend against the day when The Government comes to turn you into a concentration camp inmate.
NC is not wealthy or elitist enough for a libertarian conclave to exist inherently. On the other hand, if there were an influx of said libertarians looking to establish a conclave, they would certainly enjoy their overwhelming supremacy over the natives.
Of course if he were here he'd probably say we don't really understand libertarianism because we haven't read The Books, the core curriculum I guess (Rand, Rothbard etc.). It'd be interesting to mix the different libertarians though, say the nudist Swedish libertarians and have them run around with assault weapons.
One of our state legislators introduced a bill that would require 'Atlas Shrugged' as a mandatory HS book. A local reporter read through the book and said a dog show was more interesting and informative. Bill failed...poor kids are still stuck with 'Moby Dick'.
Then there is the Rand Erotica, railroad magnate Dagny Taggart has sex with at least three different major male characters in the book. Let's see there's the early Francisco, steel mogul Hank Rearden and of course John Galt and I think that's in a railroad tunnel. Didn't do it for me, maybe I'm jaded. If it was gonna be a mandatory HS book what would they do about the Sex (boring as it is)?
I stand behind my view that basing one's political philosophy off a work of fiction (libertarianism) is qualitatively identical to basing one's religious philosophy off a work of fiction (scientology).
How can one trust one's core philosophies to the guidance of a person who makes stuff up and writes it on paper for a living?
Isn't one of the hallmarks of a true cult their teaching don't bother with outsiders? cut yourself off from former friends, family know what I'm sayin'? They're better'n us, that's what I'm seeing.
Boredom? Yeah BB the Randians always say they're big on individualism in freedom and thought yet how come they all seem to think alike in the end? You know I think we're all being deliberately provocative here figuring there'll be a bite here or a nibble but nuthin'.
Getting back to true individualism for me that means the loneliness of having your own opinion, having a view that hardly anybody else shares, in fact you get derision for it but you have your reasons for holding it. What bravery is there in a conference room full of Randians all saying the same thing?
The famous Galt Speech in Atlas went on wayyyyy too long for my tastes and Rand must've been from the style of writing of just keep talkin'. Edgar Allen Poe on the other hand his writing philosophy was hook the reader from the first sentence, keep it succinct throughout and basically get to the point. I think Stephen King had some good works but I shy away now cause he still sometimes writes over 1,000 pages give or take a few hundred. I think Rand was so in love with herself she just liked to hear herself talk.
I used to so love James Michener. Hawaii. He starts with a bird dropping a seed. It was awesome.
I really don't read much fiction anymore. The stuff I have on my Kindle is all free Project Gutenberg type stuff, classics, Moby Dick, all of the Oz novels, Lewis Carroll. Last night I downloaded 24 (count em) books about needlework of various types, most from the 1800s and a few from the early 1900s. How amazingly cool is that?
Know anything about the Barnes & Noble Nook? similar to the Kindle no? Last Saturday night PBS here showed the original Planet of the Apes which was real cool and in my view there's running social and political commentary re evolution and faith throughout. Wondering if BB's saw it and what are his thoughts? Interesting factoid, Rod Serling co-wrote the script.
The Nook is like the Kindle yes. I haven't seen them in head to head comparison but I do know a couple of people who have them. The essential principle is the same. I kind of think the Kindle might have the market more or less cornered now. They have multiple models of varying price with varying bells and whistles. I have a Kindle Touch which I don't even know if they make anymore. It has a touch screen (duh) and it's the version that has advertising on it (only in things like screensavers and screen frames... doesn't interrupt the reading at all) and so it was $20 cheaper than the un-sponsored version. It holds 3000 (yes thousand) books so they say. One of my favorite features is that it does the text to speech thing so I can set it to read to me (which it does remarkably well) while I knit. Of course it has all kinds of settings for fonts and line spacing so if you can't see well it will work with you. It can get online using wifi (higher end models have 3G). It isn't backlit so you can't read in the dark but you CAN read in bright sunlight with no problem. A charge will last you about fifteen hours, maybe more, less if it's reading to you or you're playing games (I have a couple of word games on mine, more are available for fancier models). You can organize your books into collections (think like shelves) to make it easier to find what you need. On Amazon you can buy, borrow (I don't quite understand this concept) or just get free books (there is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of free porn books on Amazon. I have none, but they're there if you want them.) You can go to Project Gutenberg online and download (literally) millions of books already in Kindle format. You can email PDFs to your Kindle and they will be converted to Kindle format. You can store music and documents and so on in the Amazon cloud and on your Kindle as well.
I don't go ANYWHERE (seriously) without it. I probably have in the realm of about 400 books or so, I've read most but not all of them. Imagine the bookcase space I'm saving, what to speak of paper and trees and other resources. Plus, FREE? Really? It's like too good to be true.
The free books are generally older books whose copyrights have run out (this especially at Project Gutenberg) but you can also get lots of actual historical things now that museums and stuff are digitizing their collections.
Anyway, is my Kindle enthusiasm obvious enough? This is the best Christmas gift I EVER got in my whole life. If you actually like to read, it's for you.
If you just wanted to try it out, you can download the Kindle program onto your computer (for free). This will let you download books and read them. I did this for a month or so before I officially put the Kindle on my Christmas list, just to see if I would like it.
Sounds funny, but I have found myself trying to literally 'turn the page' while reading with the Kindle. You forget it isn't a paper book. Oh and I haven't even mentioned the dictionary.. if you don't know what a word means, just touch it and up pops the definition! And you can also highlight, annotate and share your highlightings and annotations (if you want to) and share what books you've read and your ratings of them to your social network.
I can't actually find enough superlatives to adequately express myself on how much I love my Kindle. I thought at first I would hate not having paper in my hands, and I do still love my paper books, but it sure is nice being able to set it on the arm of the rocking chair and just tap to flip pages (as opposed to having to hold a book open with two hands) or to have it read to me... I bought a cheap $8 cover on Ebay that's little by little being destroyed.. it fits so nicely in my purse or in my lunchbox and seriously, it goes to work with me every day, it goes from room to room with me... doctors offices.. I even have a charger that will charge in the truck so theoretically I could have it read to me while I was driving. This is particularly nice if I'm a passenger since I get sick if I read in the car.
I'm thinking saving on bookcase space you're also let likely to get bit by a brown recluse as this is one of their favorite haunts. Have you used wifi alot? I've just gotten my feet wet meaning I've come to the first page of the Terms of Service which I recently read (kind of) at a McDonald's. Then there's logging in etc., sounds a bit annoying.
You could pay in bitcoin
ReplyDeletefor a cure for pulled groin
and hand over cash
for treatment of rash
a credit card
for a fall in the yard
but save your gold
for infectious mold
I just read an article the other day where they said bitcoin is collapsing. And so has gold. So all the survivalists and paranoiacs, well I don't know what to say.
ReplyDeleteI kinda threw this out there to get a bitcoin-POV but he hasn't been around lately.
ReplyDeleteI've really come around to an opinion of the whole libertarian hipster class as elitist, narcissistic, utterly convinced of their inherent superiority, engaged in actions not for their own sake but for the sake of being 'anti' government (eg: the 'agora' not for the sake of growing one's own food but for the sake of creating a black market economy), and amazingly in love with survivalist, paranoid conspiracy theories.
ReplyDeletePlus, they NEVER EVER smile for a picture, but prefer a deadpan uber-dramatic look.
And rereading that I don't think I really nailed down the crux of it for me, which is that I think they have no sincere authenticity. From what I've seen their motives lie more in the desire to be 'anti', to be against the status quo regardless of what that status quo happens to be. With a unifying motif of being superior to society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteSystem-haters. If you could do a field guide on them definite subspecies would be survivalists/preppers, conspiracy theorists and throw in a few Southern subspecies slightly different from the Northern forms. Ever go shopping with a prepper? all they wanna do is hit the camping stores and check things out like water purification tablets. Ah sweet libertarianism! like I'm not really into Swedish libertarians, you know the kind of family that does things in the nude, constantly walking around in the buff at a bbq and the thing goes in the onion dip:)
ReplyDeleteI am all for being prepared.. when we lived in Wilm I had the hurricane stuff ready to go by May 1. Water, batteries, things that can be cooked with just water, an extra propane tank full. Gallons of oil for the lanterns, things like that. When you hear the storm's comin is when you load your freezer with ziplocs full of water. The ice helps to keep the freezer cold and as it melts you have more usable water. Fire up the generator and make sure it runs. That sorta thing. But that's a damn sight different than someone who believes the black helicopters are just waiting to get them and ship them off to FEMA camps where they're going to be implanted with little chips n shit.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that really annoys me about some Libertarians is this, they downright despise you if you don't pass their doctrinal purity test. Let's say you're down with some libertarian things well you have to be down with all of it otherwise you're somehow not good, not a good or true conservative as if they're the only ones who can define the term.
ReplyDeleteThey're elitist. And fervently believe that they are inherently superior to everyone who believes differently.
ReplyDeleteHow many times have I heard the Libertarian snort of contempt that 'the people will get what they deserve' because they voted for someone other than RP? Like the vast unwashed masses just aren't as ___________ (insert laudatory adjective here) as they are. It's almost as if they fail to see themselves as part of society. No, actually it IS that they WISH to not be part of society. They want their own little supremacist enclave in which technology is king and everyone owns multiple assault weapons to defend against the day when The Government comes to turn you into a concentration camp inmate.
Do I sound bitter? I suppose I am.
The more wacko of that ilk are planning
ReplyDeletean earthly paradise. However, the
locals are quite upset and it probably won't fly. Perhaps Yonkers, or NC?
NC is not wealthy or elitist enough for a libertarian conclave to exist inherently. On the other hand, if there were an influx of said libertarians looking to establish a conclave, they would certainly enjoy their overwhelming supremacy over the natives.
ReplyDeleteOf course if he were here he'd probably say we don't really understand libertarianism because we haven't read The Books, the core curriculum I guess (Rand, Rothbard etc.). It'd be interesting to mix the different libertarians though, say the nudist Swedish libertarians and have them run around with assault weapons.
ReplyDeleteOne of our state legislators introduced a bill that would require 'Atlas Shrugged' as a mandatory HS book. A local reporter read through the book and said a dog show was more interesting and informative.
ReplyDeleteBill failed...poor kids are still
stuck with 'Moby Dick'.
Then there is the Rand Erotica, railroad magnate Dagny Taggart has sex with at least three different major male characters in the book. Let's see there's the early Francisco, steel mogul Hank Rearden and of course John Galt and I think that's in a railroad tunnel. Didn't do it for me, maybe I'm jaded. If it was gonna be a mandatory HS book what would they do about the Sex (boring as it is)?
ReplyDeleteIt's not because you haven't read the Core Curriculum.
ReplyDeleteIt's because you are inherently Untermenschen.
I stand behind my view that basing one's political philosophy off a work of fiction (libertarianism) is qualitatively identical to basing one's religious philosophy off a work of fiction (scientology).
ReplyDeleteHow can one trust one's core philosophies to the guidance of a person who makes stuff up and writes it on paper for a living?
& even if you happen to like that person what makes you think they have all the answers? Has the makings of a Cult to me.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps, as Charles Darwin noted, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge".
ReplyDeleteI told you I was bitter.
ReplyDeleteIsn't one of the hallmarks of a true cult their teaching don't bother with outsiders? cut yourself off from former friends, family know what I'm sayin'? They're better'n us, that's what I'm seeing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the attributes of a cult is
ReplyDeletegroupthink. Odd that the Randians
practice groupthink while promoting individuality. go figure
I just don't understand how a group of people otherwise so intelligent can get into this kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteBoredom? Yeah BB the Randians always say they're big on individualism in freedom and thought yet how come they all seem to think alike in the end? You know I think we're all being deliberately provocative here figuring there'll be a bite here or a nibble but nuthin'.
ReplyDeleteHe's on my FB list so I see him everyday.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to true individualism for me that means the loneliness of having your own opinion, having a view that hardly anybody else shares, in fact you get derision for it but you have your reasons for holding it. What bravery is there in a conference room full of Randians all saying the same thing?
ReplyDeleteIMO, what separates the Randians is
ReplyDeleteJohn Galt. A hero to some...
society's ultimate leach to others.
The famous Galt Speech in Atlas went on wayyyyy too long for my tastes and Rand must've been from the style of writing of just keep talkin'. Edgar Allen Poe on the other hand his writing philosophy was hook the reader from the first sentence, keep it succinct throughout and basically get to the point. I think Stephen King had some good works but I shy away now cause he still sometimes writes over 1,000 pages give or take a few hundred. I think Rand was so in love with herself she just liked to hear herself talk.
ReplyDeleteI used to so love James Michener. Hawaii. He starts with a bird dropping a seed. It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteI really don't read much fiction anymore. The stuff I have on my Kindle is all free Project Gutenberg type stuff, classics, Moby Dick, all of the Oz novels, Lewis Carroll. Last night I downloaded 24 (count em) books about needlework of various types, most from the 1800s and a few from the early 1900s. How amazingly cool is that?
Know anything about the Barnes & Noble Nook? similar to the Kindle no? Last Saturday night PBS here showed the original Planet of the Apes which was real cool and in my view there's running social and political commentary re evolution and faith throughout. Wondering if BB's saw it and what are his thoughts? Interesting factoid, Rod Serling co-wrote the script.
ReplyDeleteThe Nook is like the Kindle yes. I haven't seen them in head to head comparison but I do know a couple of people who have them. The essential principle is the same. I kind of think the Kindle might have the market more or less cornered now. They have multiple models of varying price with varying bells and whistles. I have a Kindle Touch which I don't even know if they make anymore. It has a touch screen (duh) and it's the version that has advertising on it (only in things like screensavers and screen frames... doesn't interrupt the reading at all) and so it was $20 cheaper than the un-sponsored version. It holds 3000 (yes thousand) books so they say. One of my favorite features is that it does the text to speech thing so I can set it to read to me (which it does remarkably well) while I knit. Of course it has all kinds of settings for fonts and line spacing so if you can't see well it will work with you. It can get online using wifi (higher end models have 3G). It isn't backlit so you can't read in the dark but you CAN read in bright sunlight with no problem. A charge will last you about fifteen hours, maybe more, less if it's reading to you or you're playing games (I have a couple of word games on mine, more are available for fancier models). You can organize your books into collections (think like shelves) to make it easier to find what you need. On Amazon you can buy, borrow (I don't quite understand this concept) or just get free books (there is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of free porn books on Amazon. I have none, but they're there if you want them.) You can go to Project Gutenberg online and download (literally) millions of books already in Kindle format. You can email PDFs to your Kindle and they will be converted to Kindle format. You can store music and documents and so on in the Amazon cloud and on your Kindle as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't go ANYWHERE (seriously) without it. I probably have in the realm of about 400 books or so, I've read most but not all of them. Imagine the bookcase space I'm saving, what to speak of paper and trees and other resources. Plus, FREE? Really? It's like too good to be true.
The free books are generally older books whose copyrights have run out (this especially at Project Gutenberg) but you can also get lots of actual historical things now that museums and stuff are digitizing their collections.
Anyway, is my Kindle enthusiasm obvious enough? This is the best Christmas gift I EVER got in my whole life. If you actually like to read, it's for you.
If you just wanted to try it out, you can download the Kindle program onto your computer (for free). This will let you download books and read them. I did this for a month or so before I officially put the Kindle on my Christmas list, just to see if I would like it.
ReplyDeleteSounds funny, but I have found myself trying to literally 'turn the page' while reading with the Kindle. You forget it isn't a paper book. Oh and I haven't even mentioned the dictionary.. if you don't know what a word means, just touch it and up pops the definition! And you can also highlight, annotate and share your highlightings and annotations (if you want to) and share what books you've read and your ratings of them to your social network.
I can't actually find enough superlatives to adequately express myself on how much I love my Kindle. I thought at first I would hate not having paper in my hands, and I do still love my paper books, but it sure is nice being able to set it on the arm of the rocking chair and just tap to flip pages (as opposed to having to hold a book open with two hands) or to have it read to me... I bought a cheap $8 cover on Ebay that's little by little being destroyed.. it fits so nicely in my purse or in my lunchbox and seriously, it goes to work with me every day, it goes from room to room with me... doctors offices.. I even have a charger that will charge in the truck so theoretically I could have it read to me while I was driving. This is particularly nice if I'm a passenger since I get sick if I read in the car.
All right. I'll force myself to stop now.
I'm thinking saving on bookcase space you're also let likely to get bit by a brown recluse as this is one of their favorite haunts. Have you used wifi alot? I've just gotten my feet wet meaning I've come to the first page of the Terms of Service which I recently read (kind of) at a McDonald's. Then there's logging in etc., sounds a bit annoying.
ReplyDeleteI use the wifi most at home for downloading books and stuff. There have been a few times I've used it out like at McD and stuff but not for too much.
ReplyDeleteAs I learned if you have at least a modem and a wireless router at home you're in business.
ReplyDelete