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I Me Mine: The Unholy Trinity Of Ayn Rand

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By OTOOLEFAN

“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.” – Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was out of her Vulcan mind.

This is a simple fact that can be verified by anyone with even minimal Google skills. She was the Albert Schweitzer of Selfishness and the Mother Theresa of Greed all rolled into one. This, naturally, makes her a hero to the Right and qualifies her for sainthood. Too bad she was an Atheist.

Her philosophy, so she said, was one of pure reason, unstained by taudry emotion. But as sane people know, one of the quirks of being a human is serving the heart as well as the mind.  Ayn Rand believed you should only serve yourself. In her world, everyone was free to agree with her version of individual freedom and all others were worthy of contempt and scorn. She considered altruism immoral and selfishness a virtue.

Ayn Rand called her philosophy “Objectivism”. For the layman, “Objectivism” is Latin for “I don’t give a shit about anyone but myself.” It’s self-absorption with a bow on top. She makes the Kardashians look like Anna Karenina.

“The best aspect of Christmas, is that Christmas has been commercialized.” – Ayn Rand
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Ryan, The Conservatives Long Term Downfall, Be Careful of What You Ask For

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By Daily Kos / Daily Kos Member

Paul Ryan was probably one of the worst picks for conservatives. Strangely enough, it’s because Ryan is a true conservative and now makes the ticket a truly conservative ticket.

Most conservatives, and people across the country, had their doubts about how conservative Romney really is. If you look at his health care law in Mass., some of the other laws he passed, and his past statements, he certainly comes across more as an opportunist rather than a conservative.

This past week, conservatives everywhere were putting pressure on Romney to pick not only a conservative VP, but specifically, Paul Ryan. Now the conservatives have exactly what they asked for.   [Read more…]

Inside the Romney-Ryan Bromance

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The Atlantic / By Nancy Cook and Rebecca Kaplan

In the weeks before Rep. Paul Ryan released his latest budget blueprint this year, he urged all of the presidential candidates to follow his fiscal lead. He critiqued GOP front-runner Mitt Romney’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference as “pretty good,” but cautioned that all of the candidates needed to take bold policy stances. “We need to have an election with a mandate, so we can fix these problems,” he said at a breakfast with reporters in mid-February.

He was equally noncommittal about his allegiances weeks later, when he praised both Romney and Rick Santorum for broaching the topic of entitlements on the campaign trail. “Their specifics have jived perfectly well with what we’ve been saying,” he told National Journal. “We’re all saying the same thing, and that’s very good in my opinion.”   [Read more…]

DUMBSHIT Airways

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By Bob Dorn

Nowhere can ostentatious American dumb be seen in such sharp relief as when your international flight lands and you board the connecting flight home. Maybe you were impressed by the effete flight attendants and Spanish passengers who spoke your language and two others, but now, exhausted and nearly unconscious aboard the plane bound for San Diego, you look at the in‐flight television offerings and find blurbs meant to attract your eyes; words like these describing an installment in a Showtime serial: “Sean and Matt spend a day bonding together.”

Aside from the whisper of man‐sex in there, that blurb could only appeal to people whose kids bear those names. It’s a cinch that Delta did not for a minute consider offering Sean and Matt’s special day to fliers on the Madrid to Atlanta run; after all, passengers could see more interesting stuff going on in the seats around them. But look at the phrase, “bonding together.” That’s where stupid really lives in Delta’s in‐house tv guide. Which word could best be eliminated? Why didn’t Delta simply say S and M “spend a day together”? I know, I know, that’s inert, and lays there all flat, like Mitt Romney’s version of “America the Beautiful,” or the joke he might tell. Like Romney himself, the phrase, “spend a day together,” seems to lack something. So, the Delta blurber inserted “bonding.”   [Read more…]

The NFL has a new lockout; football preseason starts with scab referees

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by Laura Clawson / Daily Kos 

In 2011, the National Football League locked out its players to get them to accept contract concessions. In 2012, it’s the referees’ turn. Preseason play started this week with replacement officials brought in from college football and, apparently, the Lingerie Football League. If the NFL’s efforts to force players to take pay and benefit cuts and weak safety policies didn’t convince you that this is all about greedy billionaire owners, a second lockout of a second group of (much lower-paid) workers, again with possible safety repercussions for players, should go a ways toward convincing you.

The reviews of the officiating coming in are … not good. There’s the ref who confused Atlanta and Arizona and also, after forgetting to set the first down marker, had to announce that “the first down chains were not set prior to the snap so we shut the play down prior to the snap.”    [Read more…]

New Weight-Loss Drugs Could Well Be America’s Next Health Care Disaster

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San Diego Company’s Belviq Drug Ok’d After ‘Concerned Citizen’ Petitions FDA to Override Advisory Committee Concerns

By now, most people are aware of the obesity statistics. Thirty-four percent of US adults are obese, 34 percent are overweight and more than a third of children are either obese or overweight. The average American man weighs 194 and the average woman, 165. (This trend brings to mind an old New Yorker cartoon in which a doctor tells an overweight patient, “According to this chart you should be seven feet and two inches tall.”)

Not everyone agrees on the reasons for the ballooning American physique. Is it inactivity? Overeating? The wrong foods? Environmental factors? The Centers for Disease Control report that excess weight is linked to coronary heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, liver and gallbladder disease and osteoarthritis. One statistical report says obesity is actually more harmful than smoking, drinking or poverty. And that’s assuming the overweight aren’t afflicted with those conditions, too.
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The Starting Line – ‘Dump Romney’ GOP Group Surfaces Prior to Convention

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But he hasn’t even been nominated yet… Former backers of GOP candidate Rick Santorum have released a memo sent to delegates bound for the GOP convention later this month that calls for RNC delegates not to vote vote for Mitt Romney, even if they are bound to him.  Calling themselves “Jews and Christians Together,” the group briefly gained notoriety back in March for their connection with robocalls in Ohio that accused Romney of supporting “open homosexuality in the military, the appointment of homosexual judges, and the ENDA law, making it illegal to fire a man who wears a dress and high heels to work, even if he’s your kid’s teacher.”  Website Buzzfeed.com reports that “Jews and Christians Together” is the brainchild of Steve Baldwin, former head of the Council for National Policy, a low-profile, well-connected conservative group. The memo was reportedly sent out to 20,000 people in politics and the media, as well as RNC delegates.   [Read more…]

Field of View: Sweet Home Chicago

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Tell anyone you’re headed to Chicago and you’ll get a list of must-sees and -dos. I couldn’t even begin to scratch the surface during my short stay, but here’s what I learned:

  • They don’t call it the Windy City for nothing. A more appropriate name might be The Wrath of God.
  • As soon as you feel one raindrop, no matter how small, run for f$%*ing cover. Whatever you do, don’t listen to the locals when they, “Should be nothing―just some scattered showers later.”
  • People don’t honk a quick f$%* you in Chicago; they scream full-on sentences with their horn that’ll make you blush.
  • The views are breathtaking, especially from the John Hancock Observatory and the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower).
  • If you can, load The Blues Brothers soundtrack onto whatever device you have. You’re going to want to listen to it.
  • The buildings go all the way up, and the architecture is remarkable.
  • Visit Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria.  I preferred the “Lou,” which had the freshest tomatoes that I have ever tasted. But if you’re a meat lover, the “Malnati Chicago Classic” is for you. Just beware that beneath the cheese is a layer of thinly-sliced sausage covering the entire pie.
  • Oh, while visiting Lou Malnati’s you might see Trueblood actor Joe Manganiello and squeal like a little girl before calling your husband to get credit for not chasing the hottest werewolf on TV down the street. I’m just saying that might happen.

All photos by Annie Lane, except where noted.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — A Much Grander Vision for San Diego; Public Market Project Underway

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At no cost to taxpayers!… Unlike other visions for San Diego (a football stadium and Convention Center expansion come to mind), Dale Steele and Catt White are making their plans for a City Public Market along the lines of Seattle’s Pike’s Place, San Francisco’s Ferry Building and Barcelona’s La Boqueria into a reality via crowd source funding on the internet’s KickStarter. As of July 2012, KickStarter has 4,048 projects funded and has raised a total of $241 million in start-up capital.

Both Steele and White are long time players on the San Diego market scene; White currently manages neighborhood farmers’ markets in Little Italy, North Park and Pacific Beach. They have already leased a 92,000 square foot property near Petco Park and are renovating more than two acres of warehouse space. Plans for the market include two days a week with farmers’ stalls, booths with local crafters and artists, music festivals, movie nights and quinceañeras, chef’s tasting events and art exhibits, along with the occasional Chaldean Festival, Chinese New Year’s parade, Filipino fiesta or charity fundraiser.   [Read more…]

Pussy Riot Band Members Push the Limit of Russian Dissent

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St. Maria, Virgin, Drive away Putin
Drive away! Drive away Putin! Pussy Riot

Three members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot have been in custody since February and face a possible prison sentence of up to seven years. They are charged with “hooliganism on the grounds of religious hatred” for singing their punk prayer “Mother of God- Drive Away Putin” in Moscow’s main Orthodox church.

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Sex in San Diego: Applying to Become a Sex Talk Operator

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by A feleségül

Last week, I applied for a job that might be the solution to my dilemma. I applied to be a Sex Talk Operator. You know – where guys – girls, too, I guess, call the sex line and become titillated by the female on the other end of the phone. I could do that, I think.

If I were a different kind of person I could enjoy turning men on, and then hanging up on them. But the Human Relations expert (?) I talked to warned me that I could not hang up on the caller – the cost is excessive – and billed to their credit card by the minute! I would be paid a small stipend, and the longer I talked to the caller the more commission I would make. (I guess I don’t want a “wham, bam, thank you ma’am situation.”)   [Read more…]

Wynola Wine and Restaurant Romp

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By Morloc

With Ramona wineries shuttered except for weekends, our day for a wine and food romp last Thursday was a washout for any place new. The regulars, Pamo Valley tasting room and Southern California Wine Co., were both too near in the calendar’s rearview mirror. So, it was a reprise in Wynola, just around the corner down SR-78 from Julian, for a wine and restaurant romp, friends Owl and Buzzard in tow.

First stop, since it was nearly closing time, was the sly and winsome doña of Country Cellars (4456 Highway 78-just steps away from the Wynola Farms Marketplace) for a take home of a Shadow Mountain “100% estate” 2009 Carignane (sic) at a quite reasonable retail price. Always like to see SoCal locals daring to bottle single varietal from the thunderously leaden pole of the grape spectrum.   [Read more…]

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