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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Disappearances

Atlas Shrugged – Day 007 – pp. 64-73

And Chapter IV — The Immovable Movers

Dagny returns from a trip to United Locomotive Works in Jersey.  She had gone to see the president about why they were unable to deliver the locomotives Taggart had ordered.

As is seemingly the norm, the president is bathing himself in self-absolution.

Upon returning she finds Eddie who tells her that McNamara (the contractor who was to finish the Rio Norte line) has quit.  Retired.  Quit. Left the business.  Walked out on a fortune worth of pending contracts.

Looks like time for a little conflict build-up.

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The Doers vs. The Blame Avoiders

Atlas Shrugged – Day 006 – pp. 54-63

Dagny has been against participating in this project from Day 1.  At the time, however she was still a low ranking employee so she was SOL as far as her opinion went.

She revisits a Board meeting in her mind where Jim speaks at length about giving the Mexican people “a chance” and the duty they as the privileged class bear to extend that opportunity.

The board sunk $30 mil into the line.

Dagny thinks of quitting but tells herself that Taggart Trans. will need her now more than ever.

So while Jim is sinking a boatload of money (roughly $275 million of 2010 dollars) Ellis Wyatt is shipping loads of oil out of Colorado making the Phoenix-Durango line rich.

When the VP of Operations resigned, Dagny forces herself into the position against Jim’s protests.

Back to the present.

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