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Egoism Individualism Sovereignty Splendor (These ideas are explicated in this sloppy manifesto) SplendorQuotes: Splendor is the interior experience of being so enthralled by the act of creating the values that contribute to and ultimately comprise your idealized perfect self that, while you are experiencing it, you are your idealized perfect self. Living is what you're doing when you're too enthralled to notice. Dying is what you're doing when all you can do is notice. Man is the only animal capable of comprehending what his life requires, and he is the only animal capable of failing to do what his life requires. Self-love is the joy and reverence you earn and deserve by the relentless pursuit of your deepest desire. Self-esteem is the high regard in which you presume to hold yourself in appreciation for the accomplishment of absolutely nothing. Greg Swann's writings Wild Cochise Gang: Our family pages and Christmas cards Read my free e-book about love, splendor and philosophy, The Unfallen My Myers-Briggs type is ESTJ: Administrator--Much in touch with the external environment. Very responsible. Pillar of strength. 8.7% of population. Take a free Myers-Briggs personality test. War with Iraq: The Cain Doctrine The 'wrest' of the story Taking a better grip Why the Bush Doctrine will prevail--and fail A Just and Libertarian war... Persephone's second coming... presence of the recent past Nick and Norm drive the point home A Costco family Christmas Hang tough The season's greetings Curing the incuriosity of the East A canticle for Kathleen Sullivan Colloquy with a goat Back-handing the sinister American left To Condi, with sweetness Reds Sacrificing Diana Defusing the Unabomber Let 'em eat steak Shyly's delight Anastasia in the light and shadow Archives Join the email update list 
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Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Make National Socialism work and win $10,000! O'Connor Health Care Communications, a PR firm niche-marketed to the health insurance industry, asks Who is John Galt? Specifically, they want someone to tell them how to make our idiotic National Socialist health care system work: The O'Connor Report is sponsoring a national contest to generate new ideas about healthcare reform.Naturally, the free market is not the solution to be sought. There is no place in a free market for something called O'Connor Health Care Communications. Interestingly, the company's logo is a medical cross disintegrating down and to the left. Who says they don't know what they're doing? SplendorQuest: "The Old Apartment" This song begins with a lie, so we might as well get it out of the way. The song is "The Old Apartment," written by Steven Page and Ed Robertson and performed by Barenaked Ladies. In the liner notes for Disc One: 1991-2002, Larry LeBlanc, Canadian editor of Billboard, tells the band's lie: "The Old Apartment" has a deceptively angry story line, tricking people into thinking some guy is breaking into his old girlfriend's apartment. In fact, it's about a couple revisiting their old apartment, and how painful it is to see how things have changed.As we'll see, this is not true. I think this a great song, a great piece of literary art. The truth of the song is so much more powerful than the lie that it is a double-atrocity to try to disguise it. Hear it if you can, but hear the words by reading them: Broke into the old apartmentThe underscoring is deliberate. These are the lines that put the lie to LeBlanc's lie. Nobody is 'tricked'. This song is about some guy "breaking into his old girlfriend's apartment." More properly, it's about a guy who, having beat up on his girlfriend until she finally got rid of him, can't let go of the love he ruined, even though he has learned nothing from the experience. You get to see inside his mind: "Why did I have to break in? I only came here to talk." It's the story of a wife-beater told from the wife-beater's point of view, which I don't think anyone else has ever done. The underscored lines show us that the protagonist was and still is a violent jerk. The events put him in the apartment alone; no girlfriend, old or new, is going to do nothing as he breaks into a home, stomps on the floor, and tears the phone out of the wall. And when he refers to his new girlfriend in the third person, he tells us that she is not present, and that she is not the person addressed by the lyrics. All that is fine with me. If we accept LeBlanc's lie, the song makes no sense. But if we accept instead the obvious truth of the lyrics, then this is a fully-realized exploration of real life. This is everything that Cut, discussed below, is not: It's a heartbreakingly true story about the way real people really behave, and it is told in action, not dialogue. The story is squalid, but the splendor is in the storytelling, which is masterful. What is the sound of Atlas shrugging? From The Washington Times: More than 800 doctors in Florida, and a dozen more in Mississippi, stayed off the job yesterday to protest rising malpractice-insurance costs.I'm working right now with a doctor from California who is training to be an airline pilot. Who knows how many would-have-been doctors have been scared away from the profession by Hillarycare and other abominations. Becoming pregnant is by now a very poor idea in many states. Me, years ago: "This is the stark relief of art, and the drama of it is compellling. Art is not better than real life, art is simply real life accelerated and stripped bare so that we can understand it in a glance. But here is real life accelerated and stripped bare, clear for all to see." Ayn Rand saw it all comming half a century ago. We can't say we weren't warned... Cain's world: SOTU in situ... He won't do it, but Bush should use the State of the Union speech to announce that the War on Islam has by that time commenced. He'll do the ordinary thing, which will invite the ordinary rejoinders. Too bad. Tonight is probably his best opportunity. Monday, January 27, 2003
SplendorQuest: introspectroanalysis i took myself to the vet at the zoo to measure my animal heat for you he sounded my skull with a rap on my head and said I might need psychiatry instead the shrink had no patience for gross physiology the shrink had no practical use for ontology he said 'i ponder imponderables both little and small i measure immeasurables that aren't there at all if it's fever or burning or a chilling condition get out of my office go see a physician!' the doctor was kind for a man in a hurry i told him about you but he said 'not to worry! you think you're the first guy with this problem i bet take this prescription you coulda got from the vet' i said 'doc forgive me the thing is i'm not ill it's my thoughts it's my passions my pastimes my will that woman possesses me with love soft and sweet from the ends of my hairs to the soles of my feet i sleep her i dream her i wake her and then she captures my soul for the whole day again i seek no escape no! i am her belonging i just want to know is this love or mere longing?' he started to speak then he paused then reflected he said 'on its face this is oddly complected here's my son-in-law's card what an ass what a jerk he's mostly no help but he sure needs the work' the son-in-law worked from a dingy apartment the off-off-off-off-campus physics department he called me an idiot he called me a dope then he took me to task with a spectroscope but the answer he found was an answer divine not love dear not lust but the two locked in twine for he saw my passion burning bright at every wavelength of heaven's light |
SplendorQuests
Work
I am a a Realtor working in sunny Phoenix, Arizona, and the Designated Broker for Bloodhound Reatly. I am an Accredited Buyer's Representative, a Certified Buyer's Representative, a Certified Residential Specialist, an E-Pro Internet Certified Realtor and a Graduate of the Realtor Institute. I speak frequently on real estate issues and write a weekly column for West Valley sections of the Arizona Republic. If you need--or you know someone who needs--to buy or sell a home in the Metropolitan Phoenix area, I would be grateful for the opportunity to compete for the business. I think I represent the best of all worlds: Objectivist intelligence, Libertarian integrity and Catholic conscientiousness. For a liberty-loving take on real estate news, visit the Bloodhound Home Marketing Group weblog. And if what I'm doing suits the readership of your web site or weblog, please do link to it. Or go me one better by putting the customizable button above on your web page. Either way, for every person you refer who buys or sells a home with us, we will donate 10% of our net commission to the charity or advocacy group of your choice (within limits; we won't give money to people who kill people). Find out more from our referral page.
Play
If you don't know how to play poker, but want to learn, a place to begin is my Amazon list of poker books for beginners. Just remember: If you don't have a Positive Expected Value--you're gambling... | ||
