The Goat Pen

Nope, that was your kind of gay gig. We were delta house. In fact, our house has historically been referred to as the zoo (long before Animal House came out). When I got there, the university had recently cut all ties with us (since reinstated, sadly enough). We were free agents. The only "hazing" we ever did was case night (pledges bring a case of beer and have to sit in the basement until they finish it, joined in by the rest of the members, of course) and tequila shoot outs. I don't think anyone viewed it as a hardship. I certainly didnt...

We always did Round The World for our hazing. Can spell Drugs without DU. (of course they've been banned for a decade or so now)

Good assessment of Atlas Shrugged from National Review...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/ ... eorts?pg=1

http://freegames.thetechherald.com/onli ... iller.html

Have fun.

hedge wrote:Good assessment of Atlas Shrugged from National Review...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/ ... eorts?pg=1

Yes I read that review two years ago. And I largely agree. But the review (and Ayn Rand/Objectivism) discounts a critical guiding principal to how most Americans interact with one-another, at a Christian level.

The cardinal principle of Objectivism is Atheism. To an objectivist, anyone who is the least bit religious is (by their very nature) "a fool." To believe in a higher power, a Divine power, is so illogical as to not even to be considered. When you take away God, take away Christ and His Divinity, you reduce man to nothing more than animals fighting to survive in nature. Murder no longer means anything, that is an artificial construct created out of God's Commandment (NOT to do it) and Moral convictions about not harming women. "Murder" does not exist in the animal kingdom, some animals even eat their own young and no animal has ever done a day in prison as a result of that. With true Objectivism, you needn't worry about murder because.... we are all just animals and some of us simply aren't fit to survive. Thus, the coal-fired-engine-in-the-tunnel conundrum, is no conundrum at all, not in the least. Those people are assholes, let them all die, the world will be better place if they did (survival of the fitest.)

Where you remove Christ, you are left with math. In 1942, the Soviet Union fought Germany with math, not with rifles (because they didn't have enough), tanks, or planes. The Soviets simply had more people than the Nazis had bullets. So they threw wave after wave of human bodies at the Germans until they overwhelmed them because... because, what-the-fuck difference does it make? There is no God, there are no morals guiding the Soviet leaders, there are only numbers and statistics.

The absence of Christ and Morality means that Ayn Rand was free and "justified" to fuck any man she wanted all the while married to a limp wristed Beta male who (because he was intellectually inferior to Rand) was compelled to simply sit by and "take it." He was not her equal and he knew it. And Ayn married him under those pretences. He was free to leave her but (if you remove Morals and Christ) what other woman would have him if we are all simply animals measured against one another only by our own intellect? And to Ayn, her nipples hardened the most by those "heroic" men who (using only their own intellect) built skyscrapers, things that nature could NEVER do.

All that aside, Ayn Rand's point is still valid. She is disgusted by government's belief that government knows better than ordinary people how best to live their lives. The absence of Christ leaves such a vaccuous hole in her thinking that a forum like National Review is (of course) not going to endorse her thinking hook, line, and sinker, but they will pick and choose what parts of Objectivism they DO like.

So, without a belief in Christ as a deity, you are nothing more than an amoral 'animal' with no regard for human life?

AlabamAlum wrote:So, without a belief in Christ as a deity, you are nothing more than an amoral 'animal' with no regard for human life?

Well, you can roll it all the way back to Judaism and Moses. Prior to God's "10" (do not do this, do not do that) that Moses carried down the mountain, murder was not a concept that meant anything to "man." Remember AA, Moses had absolutely no qualms about murdering Baka because God had not yet given His people "The Law."

And even after God gave them "The Law", King David (an entirely immoral man) had absolutely no qualms about picking and choosing which of God's laws he felt he needed to follow. Thank goodness a Rabbi and a Carpenter was born of a virgin in Bethlehem hundreds of years later and was able to give Judaism a complete and total "reboot." That scared some of those in power so much that it earned our Lord and Savior a death sentence.

Following Christ's teachings is hard AA. I mean think about it, Luke 16-18 is a real tough one to get past, particularly with so many people divorcing. In Judaism there is no such thing as "fornication" but there most certainly is to Christ.

Morals stem from the root that a woman could be "ruined." That is where morals come from, a belief that a maiden's "worth" is predicated on her "purity." A woman's "virginity" is her "wealth" that she traded to a man in marriage for his willingness to support her for her whole life, a support that removes her from her father's "financial burden." Spoil/deflower that "purity" prior to Holy Matrimony (something that Christ taught us as something that is SACRED!), and you are acting in an immoral manner. Doing something (anything) that is in any effort to deflow a virgin out of Holy Matrimony, and you are acting immorally. Understanding this (even if you disagree with it totally) is understanding what Christ was teaching, the root of morals.

Other religions get around this morality/virginity conundrum with other marriage bargains. In Judaism, even as late as the very early 20th Century ("Fiddler on the Roof" AA?) and also in India TODAY, women don't trade "virginity" as their wealth for marriage. Instead, the fathers of the bride have to pay off the future husbands in dowries to remove the "burden" of their daughter's financial support! That is a Dowry (something that never really existed in Christianity.)

The concept of morals are not discussed enough, mostly because we are becoming more and more secular. But at the most subconcious level AA, you and I understand morals even if we can't properly communicate them. That is why you and I are disgusted/horrified by a male teacher sexing his 15 year old female students, but female teachers (like Deborah LeFave) do not enrage us as their willingness to sex our 15 year old sons does not "ruin them" the way our daughters could be "ruined."

" "Murder" does not exist in the animal kingdom, some animals even eat their own young"

Tis a pity you were not the spawn of such a one...

It is hilarious that Ayn Rand would've found IB to be just the kind of idiot who deserves to die just as much as the characters in her book, yet even so, IB idolizes her. Much like her "limp-wristed" husband did. IB has even taken to calling Rand's bastard child, Ann Coulter, his second wife. Interesting...

"Prior to God's "10" (do not do this, do not do that) that Moses carried down the mountain, murder was not a concept that meant anything to "man.""

You are truly a fool...

"Spoil/deflower that "purity" prior to Holy Matrimony (something that Christ taught us as something that is SACRED!), and you are acting in an immoral manner."

So you're saying God was acting immorally for impregnating Mary before Joseph got to tag that ass? Interesting interpretation...

Yeah, he's bad wrong. But it's kinda funny. I always love the unintentional humor the most.

hedge wrote:"Spoil/deflower that "purity" prior to Holy Matrimony (something that Christ taught us as something that is SACRED!), and you are acting in an immoral manner."

So you're saying God was acting immorally for impregnating Mary before Joseph got to tag that ass? Interesting interpretation...

HE didn't. Only Mormons believe that God (the Father) took on a human body to deflower Mary.

Mary was married to Joseph and (somehow) was still a "Virgin." This was a Virgin Birth (the presence of The Holy Spirit.) Joseph and Mary got together a little later and had James (brother of Jesus.)

Read your Bible, you heathen.

AlabamAlum wrote:Yeah, he's bad wrong. But it's kinda funny. I always love the unintentional humor the most.

I'm sorry AA, I must have you confused with someone else. I actually believed that your question for me was a sincere one, not a snark oriented Hedge one.

Just found IBs Facebook profile photo.

"Read your Bible, you heathen."

I am entirely confident that I have read more of the Bible than you have and, more importantly, have understood much more thoroughly what it is attempting to peddle. You are a pod person who brings nothing to the table, you swallow anything the Bible says, like a whore sucking cock, wholesale, at the most rudimentary level of understanding. In short, any "interpretation" you arrive at is not fit for intelligent discourse. Just like everything else you touch...

"I'm sorry AA, I must have you confused with someone else. I actually believed that your question for me was a sincere one, not a snark oriented Hedge one."

I'm sure his question was serious. Unfortunately, your answer was not...

IB:

The belief that no cultures viewed murder as wrong before the fable of the burning bush and stone tablets is beyond the pale. There were established civilizations before Moses that had laws and a belief in right and wrong - which included punishments for murder; predating Moses are civilizations in Sumer, Persia, Asian, Egypt, etc, and numerous other cultures concurrent with Moses or even afterwards (Toltec, for example) that had no knowledge of 'stone tablets', but who had well defined laws and mores.

You've essentially implied that atheists, without benefit in a belief in god(s), are wild animals.

He did more than imply...

The only burning bush I've ever seen was this chick back in high school who put out almost daily. Nasty stuff.