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The more you give – the more you get

Atlas Shrugged – Day 056 – pp. 619-628

Dagny’s in awe. And in horror. Horrified awe? Awesome horror?

In any case, I don’t think she still fully gets it. The part about “inaction” actually being action (in this instance.)

She sees things as they are because they (her, Francisco, Hank et al) didn’t work hard enough. Francisco is trying to tell her it’s because they worked too hard. (And didn’t charge enough.)

I think this is where a lot of objection to Rand’s philosophy comes in.   That her idea of “chasing money” is her moral end in itself. It’s not. . .

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Pirate bookkeepers and out-of-town legislators

Atlas Shrugged – Day 052 – pp. 579-588

I’m going to try something a little different starting this evening. Rather than narrate the story like I’ve been doing, I’m going to try to recap a little less and think out loud a little more. A little more color, and a little less play-by-play. I’ll still include quotations from the book that I find particularly arresting, but not too much retyping. (I was starting to feel like I was just rewriting the damn thing!) So let’s see how it goes shall we?

Where were we? Oh yeah. Hank was confronting the Dread pirate Danneskjold (. . .Nah, “Dread Pirate Roberts” from the Princess Bride’s better too. Who names a pirate Ragnar?)

Anyway, Hank and Ragnar. Ragnar is explaining his accounting system to Hank. That he has a rather large account in his name. He has no way of knowing all of what’s been looted from Hank, with the exception of one account where meticulous records are kept.

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Beating yourself with the blackjack

Atlas Shrugged – Day 057 – pp. 559-568

To climb into Hank’s head for the moment, I’d guess that he thinks they have some evidence about his black market dealings or over-pouring Rearden Metal or something like that.

Dr F pulls a stack of copies out of his brief case. Hotel registries with the name of Mr. and Mrs. J. Smith. (I guess you didn’t need to be so creative back in those days.)

“You know, of course,” said Dr. Ferris softly, “but you might wish to see whether we know it, that Mrs, J. Smith is Miss Dagny Taggart.”

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A Real life Directive 10-289

It’s always nice to see family.

My cousin had a lay-over in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday so she gave me a call and we went out for a bite to eat.

She’s a pilot for probably the only profitable airline in the country. We got on the subject of the merger between her employer and another carrier. (Actually her airline is buying the other one.)

She mentioned the McCaskill/Bond legislation. Continue reading “A Real life Directive 10-289”

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TCU – Baylor: A brief musical interlude and an ass-whuppin’ by the Frogs

I figure as long as I’m logged in, may as well keep posting the trip.

Had to cut the nat-gas-mobile conversation short as the Marching Horned Frogs showed for a rousing round of the fight song and other entertainment.   (How is it, you can’t help tapping your feet to a good fight song?)

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Plotting the death of the free world

Atlas Shrugged – Day 055 – pp. 539-548

If I may paraphrase Directive 10-289. . .

Point One – you are officially chained to your job — quitting is a criminal offense

Point Two – if you own a business, you have to keep it in operation no matter what

Point Three – all patents, copyrights, intellectual property and the like must be turned over to the state as a “patriotic emergency gift”

Point Four – nothing new shall be invented, produced or sold

Point Five – industry shall be required to produce the exact same amount of goods as they did during the “basic year”

Point Six – everyone shall spend the same amount of money they did on the goods they bought in the “basic year”

Point Seven – all wages, prices, salaries, dividends (and about any other payout you can think of) shall be frozen

Point Eight – anything not covered (or if you break the rules) ends up in front of the Unification Board . . .

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Secrets revealed

Atlas Shrugged – Day 053 – pp. 519-528

My God! How long have I been gone! Well the move is about done. Pictures to hang and a few more things to organize, but for the most part, I’m all in. I think I set a world record for how much crap one guy can have. Seriously. The whole damn thing took 4 weeks. I know a guy down here who claims he can throw all his stuff in a duffel bag. I’m jealous.

So where were we? Oh yeah! “another death was all but assured…”

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Sex and the city (Ayn Rand style)

Atlas Shrugged – Day 050 – pp. 489-498

Just as an aside, I happened across an article in an open tab I was reading about the death of Tony Curtis. A beautiful man if there ever was one.  It read:

“As a performer, Mr. Curtis drew on his startlingly good looks. With his dark, curly hair worn in sculptured style later imitated by Elvis Presley and his plucked eyebrows framing pale blue eyes and full lips, Mr. Curtis embodied a new kind of feminized male beauty that came into vogue in the early 50’s”

“A vigorous heterosexual in his widely publicized (not least by himself) private life, he was often case in roles that drew on a perceived ambiguity. . .”

Hank and Francisco are about to engage in a little “boy talk.” I think I’m going to try to keep that image of Tony Curtis in my mind.

Anyway, back to the book.

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The “non-defense” defense

Getting a little behind on my posts.  Maybe blogging a 1200 page book, moving and starting business in the same month isn’t such a good idea.  (Glad Hank Rearden wasn’t around to hear that.)  Back to business…

Atlas Shrugged – Day 049 – pp. 479-488

Hank has just double dog dared the court to take away all his stuff. But not under the politically protective guise of punishing him for breaking the law. Come out and take it and show the world what you’re real intentions are.

Politically unappealing.

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