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To the Glory of Man
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Happy Thanksgiving! Kudos and thank you to producers. Thank God for many things and for Ayn Rand.
"Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. In spite of its religious form (giving thanks to God for a good harvest), its essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers’ holiday. The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production. Abundance is (or was and ought to be) America’s pride—just as it is the pride of American parents that their children need never know starvation." - Ayn Rand
Flights of Mind, Brought to Life
“The Last Supper,” “Mechanical Lion” and “Robot Soldier” at the exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci’s Workshop” at Discovery Times Square Exposition
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/arts/d...
"If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence." - Ayn Rand
From Ayn Rand Answers: Which of the Founding Fathers do you most admire and why?
"If I had to choose one, I would say Thomas Jefferson - for the Declaration of Independence, which is probably the GREATEST DOCUMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY, both PHILOSOPHICALLY and literarily."
Excerpt from http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/foundi...“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
Jefferson—and the other Founding Fathers—meant it. They did not confine their efforts to the battle against theocracy and monarchy; they fought, on the same grounds, invoking the same principle of individual rights—against democracy, i.e., the system of unlimited majority rule. They recognized that the cause of freedom is not advanced by the multiplication of despots, and they did not propose to substitute the tyranny of a mob for that of a handful of autocrats . . . .... Read More
When the framers of the American republic spoke of “the people,” they did not mean a collectivist organism one part of which was authorized to consume the rest. They meant a sum of individuals, each of whom—whether strong or weak, rich or poor—retains his inviolate guarantee of individual rights.
Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels, 111.
With all my love and respect -
Warsaw ghetto uprising leader Edelman http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091002/ap_o...
An American's Creed
I do not choose to be a common man
It is my right to be uncommon...
If I can. I seek opportunity... not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen,
humbled and dulled by having
the state to dream and build,
to fail and succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
I prefer the challenges of life to the
guaranteed existence; the thrill of
fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence
nor my dignity for a hand out. I will
never cower before any master nor bend
to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect,
proud, and unafraid; to think and act for
myself; enjoy the benefits of my
creations; and to face the world boldly
and say, "This I have done with my own hand,
I am a man. I am an American".
-- Dean Alfange
My reviews:
The Art of Nonfiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/682...
The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers
by Ayn Rand http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/682...
Selected Stories of O. Henry http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/280...
Candide by Voltaire http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/378...
I think Jim's and Eddie's guardian angels worked overtime. Good outcome in spite of the pain. And Joy, you too with all your trials of watching and worrying. As you said, life can get exciting. As my husband is fond of saying, "A little too exciting." nina ps Happy Belated Birthday to Margaret. Hope the Year turns out better for her all through it...nina
Hi friends,
Please check out the new group I created: Goodreads Tea Party. Thank you. Have a fine day.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1530...
I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day. Enjoy the long weekend. Happy Presidents' Day.
Happy Birthday to President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln.
This is to Jim and his family and friends and animals. I know what it is to suffer through an ice storm. So you are in my prayers this evening. Take Care, Terry
Thank you to the 995 who entered to win Reason Reigns. Winners: Dianne Sadler and Doug Hobbs, both from the US. I will send the book on Monday.
I have listed another Reason Reigns giveaway (pending approval by Goodreads). Have a great day.
The Reason Reigns giveaway ends in two days. At this moment there are 931 enter-to-win entries. Thank you so much to everyone who joined.
To ALL, have a happy day.
A hero is being honored at this moment: Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III
Captain, may everything good be always with you.
Hello Soferdig. Welcome to the group.
Ayn Rand did not want to rule a single human being. This is explicit in The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and all her books.
any random act of kindness we do today will change life for those around us. Pay for the next person in line behind you at Starbucks, McDonalds, Chevron today.
There are many decent cab drivers. A number had returned many thousands of money left in their cabs.
Nina, I hope you write a short story about the kind driver who drove your granddaughter home on a snowy day, when she did not have cab fare. What a good individual.
WEATHER REPORT: I have three grandchildren and two great grandchildren who live in Spokane, WA..So far this winter and it's still snowing, there are sixty nine inches of snow on the ground. A kind cab driver took my granddaughter home one night as the buses weren't running and she didn't have cab fare.. He didn't charge her.. Christmas spirit abounds when need arises..nina
Dear Friends,
May you and your loved ones have a safe, joyous Christmas and a blessed 2009. May all your Christmas and New Year wishes come true.
Christmas
(Ayn Rand's answer to the question of whether it is appropriate for an atheist to celebrate Christmas)
Yes, of course. A national holiday, in this country, cannot have an exclusively religious meaning. The secular meaning of the Christmas holiday is wider than the tenets of any particular religion: it is good will toward men — a frame of mind which is not the exclusive property (though it is supposed to be part, but is a largely unobserved part) of the Christian religion.
The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas” — not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form — by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .
The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-buying . . . stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street decorations put up by department stores and other institutions — the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors — provide the city with a spectacular display, which only “commercial greed” could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle.
- The Objectivist Calendar, Dec. 1976.
The era of reason is the title of honor claimed by the enlightened world. It is the period of time when reason reigned, when people revered and lived by reason.
page 127: http://books.google.com/books?id=rlCZFKY...
"Since the golden age of Greece, there has been only one era of reason in twenty-three centuries of Western philosophy." - Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels, 100.
Can you fill that in a bit more, Ilyn? What was the time frame of the era & what does he mean by 'era of reason'?
Since the golden age of Greece, there has been only one era of reason in twenty-three centuries of Western philosophy. During the final decades of that era, the United States of America was created as an independent nation. This is the key to the country—to its nature, its development, and its uniqueness: the United States is the nation of the Enlightenment.
- Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels, 100.
Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. In spite of its religious form (giving thanks to God for a good harvest), its essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers’ holiday. The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production. Abundance is (or was and ought to be) America’s pride—just as it is the pride of American parents that their children need never know starvation.
- “Cashing in on Hunger,” The Ayn Rand Letter, III, 23, 1.
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