Statistically speaking, objectivists probably exhibit the highest performance of just about any ideology across a broad swath of socioeconomic measures, so I think there is some wisdom there that could be incorporated well into more mainstream ideologies.

Wait... no... QM, you aren't really an Objectivist, are you?

Really? lol...

^ So your argument is that the highly regulated field of engineering isn't regulated because engineers agree with what's being mandated by the regulation?

Why then are you arguing with a member of the medical profession about what should and should not be regulated?

Never mind, I think I know.

Anyways, I'm hoping somewhere along the line you figure out that this objectivist hate of sympathy and empathy really gets in the way of your ability to advocate your philosophy in any sort of even semi-constructive way.

People have concerns that you don't. People have experiences that you haven't had. People know things you don't know. People certainly have their own deeply held beliefs about how the world works, and how it should work. People aren't really going to be open to reexamining those beliefs if you start the conversation by insulting their beliefs and dismissing their concerns.

That's why Richard Dawkins is a fool for being the way he is, and why you're a fool for acting the way you do.

Until you come to grips with that, you will find that most of your screeds will get either ignored, or repudiated with prejudice.

Now, do you have something sensible to add to the conversation, or are you just going to scream at people who've got crappy, overpriced private insurance, who gets charged exorbitant prices by a private hospital for necessary medical treatment, that they should focus all their blame on government having required the doctor go to school?

If everyone like me stopped working, you'd be living in poverty too. I didn't say I was going to stop working...just stop paying taxes. By the time socialism is in full swing in this country I'll be retired and you'll still be slaving 40+ hours a week to pay all my bills.

Cheers.

>> ^peggedbea
i completely support your idea to drop out and live in abject poverty. maybe then you wouldnt be such a whiny objectivist selfish little bitch who lacks the perspective to have a relevant fucking take on anything.

As an addendum, I wonder how much that ER bill is when your son has an asthma attack? Surely you are present, and can see what exactly they are doing (giving him a anti-inflammatory, likely a steroid, either intravenously or via a respirator). I wonder how much those shots or respirators would cost if they were freely available? $5, $10? How hard would they be to administer at home? The fact is, you really don't have any business going to an emergency room for an asthma attack.

i tend to think when "the big guy" gets all fucking freaked out about tweeking the status quo its because the little guy might actually come out of it a teeny bit ahead.

insurance companies make money denying people coverage.

you invinsible "im young healthy and fairly well off, i dont need health coverage" i take care of your invinsible asses all the time. youre usually the ones who cry about the iv and bitch about the bill.

i know this wasnt exactly brought up, but its something that erks the fucking fuck out of me.
so, let me address this "illegals" using the ER as a clinic are uninsured and never pay their bill. see these "illegals" pay sales tax on everything they buy, they pay taxes on their utilities, their cell phones and they pay property tax, even if its rolled into their rent and paid by a landlord. they pay taxes. all the time. even if nots income tax. truthfully they probably pay more taxes than i do since i get that big fat single mom of 2 kids tax rebate business and texas has no state income tax and im frugal and try real hard not to buy anything. soooo... all that sales tax they pay (and in a border state like texas i bet thats a HUGE amount of money), part of it goes into the county cauffers that has money set aside in its budget to reimburse hospitals for indigent care. so yes, they ARE paying for healthcare, in a sort of socialized redistrubuted kind of way. ooooh scary.

oh and as for not paying an ER bill, i work in an ER. i have what might resemble the worlds shittiest health insurance plan. my son has asthma and is a bit accident prone to boot. i have a $5000 deductible per family member. so when i leave the ER for a legitimate emergency (asthma attacks, stitches, etc)and get a bill that says my insurance company isnt going to pay shit and i owe $4000. i. dont. fucking. pay. it. i pay $400/month and my insurance doesnt cover a damn asthma attack at the hospital ive given 8 years of my life to.
the system is broken. as much i despise the government something has to be done. and its real apparent the free market isnt going to take care of it.

and im stellar28, i completely support your idea to drop out and live in abject poverty. maybe then you wouldnt be such a whiny objectivist selfish little bitch who lacks the perspective to have a relevant fucking take on anything.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this fine roast. I’d like to take a moment to thank gwiz665 for his undeniably unsubstantial role as masters of ceremonies. His highest ranked comment: *sticky. I’ve seen more participation from an armless lifeguard. I guess he’s too busy stalking alien_concept. Fuck that creepy douche.

And I’d like to give thanks to burdturgler for getting drunk (or not taking his medication), leaving the majority of attention-whoring posts, and ultimately becoming disgruntled and embittered like the girl who couldn’t get a date to the prom but went any way so to not lose face. In the end, of course, she does lose face, and I think we can all see that to be evidenced here, as well. Burdturgler is a Xanax away from climbing to the top of a Texas University clock tower.

And to ReverendTed... Who?

And to Shepppard... No one likes you. The only thing I know about you is your depraved admiration for cops who taze little girls in the skull. Shepppard was that disturbed guy in high school who pretended to be allergic to soap and was expelled for being caught in class shoving unhatched bird eggs up his bung until they cracked and seeped back out. Looked like swollen cabbage vomiting urine.

And thanks, as always, to dotdude for facilitating these roasts and refusing to say anything unpleasant. Be a prick for once, you bastard! You’re so agreeable if berticus broke into your home and raped you, you’d offer to cuddle him afterwards. Speaking of berticus, has anyone else ever met a nastier more dangerous gay? I mean, if you speak more than two sentences with the guy, he always brings it back to fucking you. Berticus is to the gay community what Ted Bundy is to the straight community.

And, did everyone notice what alien_concept did with my name? Isn’t that precious? I was expecting her to knit me a sweater or something girly, but instead she made an acronym of my name. I mean, yeah, she could’ve been original, but we can’t be too tough on her. She does, after all, have a vagina. We should be proud that she has learned how to use a computer instead of covering it with glitter and trying to bake pies inside it. A bit of future advice for you broads: less talkie, more suckie.

And deputydog... I think we’re all tired of your douchebag self-portrait avatar. We get it, you think you’re sexy and you want everyone to see you. I think you may be trying too hard. Everyone knows berticus doesn’t care what you look like; he’d fuck anything with an asshole.

And rasch187, so glad you could manage some extra time to show up outside of your candlelight vigils for the countless choggie sockpuppet accounts I’ve instabanned throughout the year. Let me lighten the mood with a joke... Hey, what do they call smart people in Norway? Swedish tourists.

And xxovercastxx, it’s obvious the concept of a comic book grading system is lost on you, much like the concept of turning down your volume when a video is too loud. And, don’t pretend you’re above the puerility of a good roast, you big silly narcissist; let’s not forget the time when you roasted yourself (http://cult.videosift.com/talk/Let-me-have-it).

Hey rottenseed. Roasting. You’re doing it wrong. Take joedirt’s penis out of your mouth and come up with some snappier jokes. You made a list. A list? We’re not going to the grocery store; we’re having a roast. I am petitioning you to remain hobbled until you find your funny. Speaking of finding the funny, that goes for you, too, ponceleon, you unfunny bastard. You’re also boring and uninteresting. For example, ponceleon has contributed two worthless Talk Posts; one about Appletinis and the other about Hulu being blocked outside the US. Riveting. He is to a talk post what Nickelback is to Rock n’ Roll.

Am I the only person here who thinks JiggaJonson didn’t even try to be relevant, let alone funny? Something about me raping his mother and murdering his father? Way to bring the lulz, JJ. You’ve only just surpassed Ryjkyj who is not worth writing more than a sentence over. Done.

Look who showed up! Randomize! I have to admit I’m surprised to see you’re back after you made that pledge to leave the Sift for the VideoSift for Vampires. Did you grow tired of choking on your own masturbatory pretension?

And, thanks to the corn-husking Nebraskan MrFisk who, most people don’t know, has lived through a broken spine. Damn shame. That. You. Lived. If only we banned your quadriplegic ass the first time. It’s good to also see your sockpuppet account, thinker247, is here to take time off from his usual hobbling or Siftquisition. Damn, you’re so vile even your sockpuppet is in danger of being banned.

Sagemind wrote me a poem. Ass. Please read my above comment to rottenseed about roasting and doing it wrong. This also goes for you imstellar28. Why do all Objectivists seem to miss the point of every fucking thing? And vairetube, or as I like to refer to you: westy-lite. Your spelling is better than his, but... yeah... what the fuck, dude? Did you roast me or was that a stream of conscious letter to Santa Claus asking him for shellfish?

[edit] And Crosswords, I totally skipped you. You're probably used to that, though, being that you're so unremarkable in every way. Hell, I tried to find something interesting on you, but could only find this. So, fuck you for being too boring to make fun of.

Anyhow, thanks to all of you who showed up and gave it your best shot. At least you tried. Fucking douches.

Rougy, you've got an evangelical's invitation to an argument. That is so close to an objectivist pick-up line. Next he'll be asking if you wanna let him come over and break your fireplace.

rougy,

you will need more than a bare assertion to convince anyone of the idea that because something has not ever happened to date, it never could. Politics is driven by ethics, and ethics is driven by philosophy. Everyone has one, whether they can verbalize it or not. And most of the masses get theirs from their peers, and parents, all of whom get theirs from their teachers, who get theirs from the intellectuals who pass on the ideas of the philosophers.

That is why Objectivists debate with ideas in lieu of demonstrating with placards -- and the reason why they have been invisible to you for 50 years. Today, the numbers grasping the efficacy of her ideas all or in part are growing exponentially. Her political principles will never be effected by a government until an Objectivist ethic will be dominant in some particular geographic region of the planet or universe. It is impossible to predict when or if that could ever occur, because it depends on the volitional choices of individual human beings. It could be in 10 years or it could be in ten thousand years.

If one does not agree with her philosophy and wants to help stop its burgeoning influence now, it is not her or her followers you must attack. It is the power of her ideas that you must deal with by offering cogent alternatives to her reasoning. It is too late to be hoping that empty assertions and unsubstantiated characterizations with emotional connotations will stop the growth of her influence. Those who persist in such impotent tactics are starting to look like those proverbial deer caught in the headlights.

"Ayn Rand was a truculent, domineering cult-leader, whose Objectivist pseudo-philosophy attempts to ensnare adolescents with heroic fiction about righteous capitalists"

http://world.std.com/~mhuben/critobj.html

You have been awarded 1 Power Point for fixing the embed code for Dead Pool video The Stephen Colbert Objectivist Children's Sleepover. Thank you for helping maintain VideoSift's reliability.

I'm not an anarcho-capitalist. They do not believe in government at all. That's insane.

By the way there are many different factions of Libertarianism, but it's always the more fringe versions like Neolibertarianism, Anarcho-Capitalist and Objectivist that people bring up to make it sound like we're all a bunch of self-centered, pro-Corporate, anti-poor anarchist assholes.

Personally, I'm of the camp that believes in open trade, low elective taxes (user fees, excise taxes, tariffs), a government that protects rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, and a government that does not pass laws to restrict liberty and oppress people. I'm going to start my own faction: The Jeffersonian Libertarian.

Wait, you're not an Objectivist? Color me shocked.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
imstellar,

I've not read your book or the Communist manifesto, nor do I care to. I'm sure they are both of historical interest, but they have nothing to do with the here and now. While I am more of a socialist than, say, George W. Bush, I have no desire to live in the kind of by-the-numbers, pure socialist system that haunts your sheltered existence. I'd just like a decent health care system, more effective schools and a better life for the everyday working stiff. If that makes me a commie in your book, then so be it.

We have evolved past the early 20th century capitalist/socialist tintypes to which you cling. Both systems have their pluses and minuses and neither seems to work well in the absence of the other. Capitalism works well for a great many things, but fails in situations where making money is not the measure of success, like education, healthcare, medicine, infrastructure etc...

You are very quick to dismiss those who see things differently than you as close minded. Maybe it's time you took a look in the mirror. In a decade (at most), you will look back at some of these comments and cringe. When I say this, I'm speaking from experience, as I believed in all that Ayn Rand nonsense at your age too.

>> ^quantumushroom:
The people that hate Ayn Rand mistake these two idiots for real news.


How could anyone hate that poor girl, trapped in secret rooms all day, hiding from the Nazi's.

I haven't read her book tho, but I'm glad these two fine news gentlemen did a segment on her tonight!

Thanks for your thoughts.

In reply to this comment by thepinky:
I'm not actually studying literature but English, which of course is very similar. I was not about to get involved in that discussion. For one thing, I don't know enough about Ayn Rand. For another, if I get involved I am just going to waste hours and hours reading up on the subjects at hand (that part would be worthwhile) and then writing a response that is too long, too passionate, and gets flamed or ignored, anyway. At least, that's the pattern I've seen in the past. I read a little bit of what you wrote, though, and I agree with you as far as my knowledge of objectivism and postmodernism goes.

In reply to this comment by chilaxe:
Am I remembering correctly that you're studying literature? If you have any thoughts, I'd be interested in hearing them.

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Stephen-Colbert-Objectivist-Children-s-Sleepover#comment-597743

I'm not actually studying literature but English, which of course is very similar. I was not about to get involved in that discussion. For one thing, I don't know enough about Ayn Rand. For another, if I get involved I am just going to waste hours and hours reading up on the subjects at hand (that part would be worthwhile) and then writing a response that is too long, too passionate, and gets flamed or ignored, anyway. At least, that's the pattern I've seen in the past. I read a little bit of what you wrote, though, and I agree with you as far as my knowledge of objectivism and postmodernism goes.

In reply to this comment by chilaxe:
Am I remembering correctly that you're studying literature? If you have any thoughts, I'd be interested in hearing them.

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Stephen-Colbert-Objectivist-Children-s-Sleepover#comment-597743