Twitter is the perfect instrument for Lib/Paranoid debates. Conservs are so helplessly unable to see themselves, and Twitter just makes for a perfect transmission device of their idiocy.

In order to “get” Objectivism, it’s important to not actually read Ayn Rand. In the same way that it’s important to Christian faith that you not read the Bible yourself.

After the first few hundred pages always lies an inescapable realization.

twitty book, twitty fan.

Shorter Amanda Carpenter:

“How much of this garbage do I actually have to read and pretend to like before I can get on the wingnut welfare gravy train?”

Oh, hell, just read the first five pages, every fifth page and the last five pages. I’m pretty sure you can read “Paradise Lost” or “The Faerie Queene” with pretty much the same results. You won’t know much, but you can write a paper about it and do OK. Just ask Megan McArdle. She was an English major at the University of Pennsylvania and she bagged a reich fiance after cleaning up at a cocktail party. Works, ya know. They had to talk about something besides empty glasses.

clearly, she doesn’t yet “get” the concept of embarrassing yourself in public by flaunting your ignorance or your shallowness. Maybe she should run for public office…

No, in public office those unruly “citizens” expect you to actually DO something, like show up for floor votes, or read boring legislation, so it’s too much work. Just ask Sarah Palin.

But flaunting ignorance, cluelessness, shallowness, is no barrier to riding on the wingnut welfare gravy train. Just look at Jonah. No one else has made that particular case with such care and attention to detail.

Always the sign of a Masterwork of Literature and a MIlestone in the History of Human Thought when you can lop off the first third and then skim the rest for “relevant parts.”

“I’m really greedy and self-centered. Need some catch phrases for self-justification.”

I never understood the concept of “Going Galt” until I was confronted with the opportunity to read Atlas Shrugged. From that point onward, taking my brilliance elsewhere seemed like a better and better idea.

And I was feeling defensive about possibly bringing out a long quote from Josephus later. (For the ew comments section it was perfect.)

(IMHO after 170 pages Josephus is important to read because he is not a rabbinic source. )

More tweets just in.

Dr. Suess fans. If I read Horton Hears a Who! and get that there are tiny people inside my head responsible for the voices, do I need to read Green Eggs and Ham?

AmandaCarpenter

Dick and Jane fans. If I just read the Dick parts in See Spot Run, will I get the whole plot, because it seems very complex, with all the running and stuff. But I do like Dick.

AmandaCarpenter

Beautiful. LOL.

I’ll bet she had the “Worlds 100 Greatest Classical Music Melodies” in the CD player when she wrote that.

We’re missing a bet here: a comic book version of “Atlas Shrugged” would sell like wildfire to these tools.

On page 348, Ayn Rand wrote detailed instructions on how to find $1000 that she had hidden somewhere in the Metropolitan Museum. The money is still exactly where she left it.

They claim to read the entire book while somehow skipping the parts about rejecting religion and god.

We’re more of the wetsuits, greed, and dildo school. Well, we can do you greed and wetsuits without the dildo, and we can do you greed and dildo without the wetsuits, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can’t give you wetsuits and dildo without the greed. Greed is compulsory. They’re all greed, you see.

Geez, is this the same Amanda Carpenter?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Carpenter

Hey, there’s always the sequel…

Y’all just keep getting better and better, especially our esteemed host. You’ve really been on a roll lately, TBoggs.

As someone who read the Fountainhead many years ago and found it totally forgettable, I have to laugh at the idea of being able to skip 600 pages of a book to get to the “relevant” parts.

DennisSGMM, I’m up for writing the comic version of Atlas Shrugged if someone else is up for illustrating it. Oh, and if someone tells me what it’s exactly about because no way in hell I’m reading the thing.

I’ve been out of college a long time. Don’t they make Cliff Notes any more? Do they still have Classics Illustrated comic books? Either one of those will get you the essence without having to wade through all that drivel.

The movie will be great, if they can corral the nuanced stylings of Powers Booth as Hank Readen and time the release for the next SAG, DGA or WGA strike:

http://www.canmag.com/nw/14393…..s-shrugged

I knew “The Legend of Baggy Pants” wasn’t going to be the peak fer Charlize Theron. She’s bigger than golf.

I was hesitant to click on your link per usual, but that was a much better link! Gah. What mind-numbing drivel that will be, Charlize Theron, notwithstanding.

VonZepplin, oh, I know I could read the Cliff Notes or some other concise summary of the story, but you see, I don’t even want to sully my mind with that much crap. I just want someone to give me three juicy quotes and a timeline. That’s about all of this nonsense that my mind can handle before I want to poke my eyes out with a fork.

for many of your objectivism needs

http://walkingfish.com/objectivism/ — includes a link to the 2-page long Atlas Shrugged abridged version

As a social psychologist, I am exposed to various world views in the books and journal articles I read every day. Divergent views are generally respected, or respectfully critiqued.

I can’t remember who said this, but “Objectivism is so absurd as to be indistinguishable from a parody of itself”.

It’s a world view that works very well in this context. I submit that it’s the only one that would.

There must have been a moment at the beginning when we could have said no.

Thanks for the link, JDM3.

I note that Ms. Carpenter was born in 1984. That has to be some cosmic sign, no?

I think so, but perhaps lost on her, inasmuchas she does not seem to be a creature of nuanced subtlety. Mebbe she can ask MMcArdle about it. I’m guessing they might know each other from around.

Wait. How would one distinguish between a well-read Ayn Rand devotee and a poorly-read Ayn Rand devotee?

I’m guessing that it was McArdle who advised her to skip the first 600 pages.

OT, but did anyone infiltrate Tragic – The Gathering?

Coulda been Abinormal Douthat, but I think MMcArdle is her literary friend. Abinormal may be her tennis friend.

I see it now…

Dagny by Dagny by Chris Muir

bahahaha.

Just read this. You’ll get the drift.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/11/20tucker.html

Hm. Amanda may not be that hip. Over at MySpace (yes), she has engagement party pics up. Her intended looks a little as if he’s related to Glen Beck:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.co…..Id=3244933

Lovely stone:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.co…..Id=2975071

They still make Cliff’s Notes, but the notes for Atlas Shrugged are 2000 pages long. It seems there’s just no way to say enough about objectivism.

After long days at work Carpenter enjoys playing with her Miniature Schnauzer, Wiki.[6].

…indeed…

…speaking of relevant parts…

“Playing with her Miniature Schnauzer” — sounds suspiciously like “Hiking the Appalachian Trail”. I hope she remembers to wash well when she’s done… for objectivity’s sake.

My favorite juicy quote is, “He looked, for a moment, like a man who wanted to slap his own face.” That describes it for me, Ayn! She felt she was a better novelist than she was a philosopher. Also.

By the way, I wrote a 4 panel comic that described in much greater detail than in AS how Rourke came to go from miner to mine owner. It was a thing of beauty.

Oooh, is it anywhere online? I would love to see it. And, that is a good quote. I think that’s all I need to take away from the book.