I got recommended to read Atlas Shrugged by a friend of mine. That friend turned out to be a beret-wearing high-art-snob ponce, but i didn't know it at the time.

I managed to finish it and whilst there were reasonable ideas in there that i think in some way we have paralleled in reality - whilst i find that most of her characters are sociopathic to some degree, i can very much sympathise with the idea of being led by the least capable in society who abuse the system of power that they shape and build to implement bad ideas badly.

I like the idea that the world would grind to a halt if the morons in charge did not have the ordinary, hard working people to keep things afloat... but that's about all i like about it. And i think we genuinely can see it happening in the world today in a less exaggerated fashion - the recent recession clearly demonstrated that the people in charge of money and property do not understand what they're doing and ignored the warning signs for years. Furthermore, our feckless leaders have done nothing about it, property bubbles continue to grow and bonuses for the upper echelons are still outlandish whilst the lower workers are struggling to get by in the recession. And then the expenses scandal of the MPs in Britain literally stealing money from the public pocket to have their moats cleaned (that actually happened) and such. Yesterday the watchdog looking into the scandal has decided that the investigation will take place in secret from the public and punishments will also be kept secret. Et voila, two clear instances of those in charge having no clue and no moral compass swept under the rug and forgotten about.

In conclusion, Ayn Rand is a very small minded individual who thinks that everyone in the world must think like she does. That is the only reason i can think of for the approximately 30 pages i read about the female lead character's personal sexual obsession with being taken aggressively by a man and made to feel defiled and used, and how all women feel that and all men wish to dominate and use a woman in turn.

But i think she got it spot on about how being led by those least capable morons will bring the world to its knees, and it won't require the hard workers to quit either. It just requires them to let it happen. And there's no little paradise to run off to, there's just Earth.

@artician - that's exactly it. The characters have no human empathy in Atlas Shrugged. I don't understand why it has to be all or nothing for most people - all conservative or all liberal. Why not the best of both? It IS possible to be ethical, productive and innovative at the same time.

Hey, @ponceleon, methinks it is you who missed her point.

Her VERY FIRST COMMENT was this isn't about censorship. It is about something else. And yet Norton just keeps hitting that drum.

SHE GAVE UP because Norton is an idiot who had one thing to say that she agreed with. And you, dear ponce, never understood that two things were going on.

She is sharp and funny. And trying to make a point about something that is falling on stone deaf ears. Including yours.

The comments about his race was a joke ponce.

Anyways this is a side of TED that I was not aware of. Very nice find. *promote

ps. for the record I'm Asian and I'm terrible at math. I didn't know the answer to that 2k x 8k question. I knew it was somewhere 16 but didn't know how many millions it was.

He's looks great for 46, but he's a little shaky with the snakes.

Edit: I think he has Columbus and Ponce de León mixed up.

*promote

I thought this was hilarious, I was really really laughing while watching this.

Youtube info :

Special Edition DVD! http://bit.ly/hccMLv

Thanks for supporting us!!

Before you leave mean comments, just know that our friend Ponce (the Cop) is an awesome and talented young dude who loves performing and making light of his Down syndrome. He's a smart and funny guy, and has complete awareness of his actions and decisions. And we all had a great time shooting "Retarded Policeman!"

DOES PONCE GET PAID FOR THIS!?
YES!!! He's not only our friend, but also this is a real acting job for him. The more people who subscribe and watch, the more money he makes. (More subscribers = more views = more money for Ponce.)

THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING!

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Ponceman, Down syndrome, byeee' to 'Ponceman, Down syndrome, retarded policeman, ponce' - edited by BoneRemake

Thank you, Ponce!
In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
*quality

"No one really knows what I'm talking about
Yeah that's right my name's Yauch
Ponce De Leon constantly on
The fountain of youth not Robotron
Peace is a word I've heard before
So move and move and move upon the dance floor
I'm gonna die gonna die gonna die one day
Cause I'm goin and goin and goin this way
Not like a roach or a piece of toast
I'm going out first class not going out coach"

>> ^dannym3141:

What a poncing posh twat. Obama should have give it a vigorous backhand and swatted the smug bastard across the nose.
Gonna have to go watch some artist taxi driver to cheer me up


See what he's saying about Camerface today, would you?

What a poncing posh twat. Obama should have give it a vigorous backhand and swatted the smug bastard across the nose.

Gonna have to go watch some artist taxi driver to cheer me up

>> ^spoco2:

Wow, what the hell are these people actually doing that they are so scared about being filmed?
And once again, people treated others like shit, got caught on camera, it got on the web.
Now, if you go to the youtube page for this, you can find her name, her company, find that her company website is now down and she's been getting horrible phone calls.
And this is where things have gone all wrong and I wish internet 'vigilantes' would realize that they are destroying any high ground that there was by doing that.
You start of with a dick of a woman and a dick of a man escalating something that would have been boring as hell and probably not watched by more than the guy and his mates to something that demonstrates some real deep seated issues with the woman and her husband.
You show that online to show that it really isn't ok to go nuts about that, and if you're going to do something stupid in your car it's people's right to film you doing something stupid in your car.
BUT
To then start abusing her, giving out her and bringing down her website... well you've just become bigger dicks. You are doing EXACTLY what these two are, bullying and intimidating. You need to STOP this sort of shit... all you're going to do is make there be draconian laws that stop people being able to film anything, anywhere just to stop things like this.


I'd normally agree, but as far as i'm concerned, her bahaviour is fucking abnormal. The most she's going to get is a slap on the wrist, have to go to a few meetings maybe. Then she'll be poncing around again in her "auuuuudiiiiiii" blocking up streets again, and maybe she'll attempt to intimidate, falsely accuse, lie to, steal from, assault..... (did i miss any out?) people again from her high fucking perch.

I'm not going to say i approve, but i think she deserved a taste of her own medicine, perhaps she won't go around trying to scare people into doing what she wants now that she's been on the recieving end.

I accidentally downvoted your comment because i thought you were calling the filmer a dick, sorry, the wording is a bit confusing.

Thank, ponce. Having fun.

In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
Hey Boise,

Kickass sifting and commenting! Keep at it!

:

You're correct, I should not have brought a discussion from another thread into your post. Sorry about that.

As far as removing it from my channel. I'm not sure a parody of a conspiracy actually qualifies as a conspiracy as described in my channel's description.

I don't mind being made fun of, or teased for my beliefs. My friends do it all the time. But being belittled and condescended because of them is another story. And that shit's getting out of hand here on the sift as of late. Everyone here seems to think they are the know all and be all of every subject on the face of the earth, and it's a tad bit unsettling to be honest. I find it amusing how vehemently people defend that there's nothing fishy about 9/11, when clearly there's a lot fishy about it.

IMO, Ponce is now engaging in a form of bullying on the sift, picking on Marbles repeatedly whenever the subject of a conspiracy comes up. He's acting like a Jr. High School punk because someone believes differently than he does. It's no different from picking on the "Fag" because he's not that same as you.

The Daily show while being comedy actually talks about factual events going on in the US and the rest of thew world even though it uses a comedic spin to do so it's still "news" IMO.

In reply to this comment by Boise_Lib:
I'm fairly new around here and I need some enlightenment.

I don't care about the fight from another thread spilling over here, but doesn't the mere mention of the Illuminati invoke one of the biggest conspiracy theories of all time? I see your point about this being a parody of conspiracy people, but by that parody they are talking about the theory (I don't buy it BTW).

They're making fun of a real conspiracy theory. Should The Daily Show be included in the "news" channel? I say yes--but conspiracy is your channel, so it's your call.

Thanks

In reply to this comment by Duckman33:
>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

If you have something to say about @<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/marbles" title="member since May 7th, 2011" class="profilelink">marbles, at least have the courtesy to do so in his presence. Calling him out in a thread where he has not yet uttered a word is unsporting.


He/she/it is just being a douche to the nth degree because he/she/it thinks there are no such things as conspiracies and that anyone who thinks there are is an idiot. Yes ponc we all know our government would NEVER lie to us, the American people, EVER, right? I'm so glad they found those WMD's in Iraq. Or else that would mean they lied to get us into an unnecessary war.

Sorry but this doesn't qualify for my channel, it's comedy not a conspiracy *nochannel *spacy *lies *comedy

>> ^quantumushroom:

You don't even see Paul get to answer the question.
As for our hypothetical sick man, a "caring" society that hangs the millstone around Taxpayer's neck for everything else--including Juan Illegal's sex-change op--won't let it happen.
So, why do you Americans lefties STAY here? There are whole socialist progressive countries out there with "free" everything for their citizens, why struggle here in America? You're free to leave or stay; were I you I'd take the path of least resistance and move to Norway.


It's obviously one of the freest countries on earth, we know it's a great country. It has a free Democracy that has been hard fought and won, a lot of that fighting btw was done by lefties. The democracy though is broken and we're trying to fix it, we're not happy with it everyone believes that the people in power only work for themselves and the rich. That's why people don't vote or like congress.

Also it's not a "Millstone" you dramatic ponce...it's a bill spread out over millions, it isn't like we're saying millions should DIE so that one man can live. We're saying everyone should put money into the pot so the society can be healthier, and more people agree with that than you would like to admit.