Atlas Shrugged

I had no idea who Ayn Rand was, never heard of John Galt or Dagny Taggart.

For me “Atlas Shrugged” started as a casual recommendation from a co-worker, and slowly turned into a direct urging. Until I finally just  bought the book and decide to commit to reading all 1100 plus pages. Well worth the seven months it took to read it. It starts as a brilliantly written book, and finishes as an experience.

If you didn’t know any better you would think this book was written this year, not 1957. The plot of the story is right out of the headlines of most U.S. newspaper in the last year. Atlas deals with the decline of the economy and the effects of the railroad industry. You can easily insert any other industry in it’s place. I felt at several times you could easily substitute  in banks. after all while I was reading this book, our government was handing away trillions in taxpayer bailouts to the unproductive, socially irresponsible corporate executives.

It’s impossible for me to summarize a thousand page book in a blog post, so I just want to touch on Galt’s Speech towards the end of the book. The 70 page speech had an incredible impact of me. Full of philosophical ideas, and spiritual references, there were nights where I simply read a paragraph and put the book down, because ideas were unraveling in my brain.

I remember the first time I read the new testament, It was paradigm shifting. Galt’s speech had the same effect. I’ve read the Old Testament, the New Testament, and now Atlas, a  sort of Post Testament for me.

A lot of the ideas in Atlas are things I have felt my whole life but could never put a finger on why I felt that way. Church never addressed these issues for me, religion in general is scared to talk about the ideas of Atlas. For me, it’s not a take one or the other, the bible and Atlas both sit on my book shelf, As the two greatest books ever written.

I like this picture, it humors me.

Perhaps that’s the best summary of all. How do you summarize a thousand pages other then to say, on September 12, 2009 during the Tax protest in Washington D.C., people were moved so much with passion to make signs like these here here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and  here.

Reinventing Collapse -Welcome to the U.S.S.A.

I got turned on to Dmitry Orlov by a friend. I read an article he wrote here. I found it fantastically written, pure, honesty, and a little gritty. Orlov presents the state of current affairs and how that is shaping our future. He also give some good advice on how to prepare for that future.

Certainly it is a point of view not shared by everyone. But after reading his article I decided to read his book “Reinventing Collapse”

It’s a rather simple concept. He lived through the break up of the U.S.S.R. In the book he compares different parts of society and culture in the U.S.S.R. to America today and makes some amazing insights. In Many cases we believe America can not fall apart, but the same feeling was true in the U.S.S.R.

Orlov goes over ideas like transportation, education, money, food, housing, family … etc… how each of these things were effect in the U.S.S.R. and what they might look like if the U.S.A. collapses.

It’s one of those books were if you have never thought about the idea of living in a collapsed nation, this will open your eyes and get your brain moving.

The Cricket In Times Square

Read the last chapter of the “Cricket In Times Square” last night to the kids. They really enjoy reading before bed, most night they beg me to read.

last night we read one chapter, and I was closing the book  and mentioned we only had one chapter left. Both jack and Abby started pleading ” Please Dad we need to know  how it ends”

So I caved in, we finished the book. I just put the cartoon on hold from the library, they love that when we get it.

I think the next book we’re going to read is “The Indian In The Cupboard” I remember that one from third grade.

Reading The Tale of Despereaux With My Kids

We just finished reading “The Tale of Despereaux”.

Every night after the kids get ready for bed and have brushed their teeth, we pick someones bed to set on, and we all cozy up. normally I read three to four chapter a night.

I wasn’t sure if they would be into it, but they all seem to enjoy, especially Jack. You can tell he’s using his imagination while your reading. At the end of every night I summarize what happened that night, so the younger two can get a handle on the story.

The other night we only had two chapters left, after we finished for the night and they were begging me to finish it. So I decide to go ahead and finish the book.

The story was building up to a confrontation between the rats and Despereaux in the dungeon. the kids were a little extra close to me, so they could see the pictures. They were gasping, and clinching my arm, the anticipation was mounting.

At right at that moment where the story should climax, and your waiting for Despereaux to kill the rats, the princess pipes up and says “lets all go upstairs and eat soup” and then it just ends …

I could tell Jack was disappointed, so we talked about the book and what they liked and didn’t like. Jack tells me

“I thought there was going to be a war with the rats and Despereaux, and then they all eat soup together, it’s kind of girly!”

I promised him he gets to pick out the next book.

But at least now we can go watch the movie.

The End of Food

The End of Food by Thomas Pawlick

Not to be confused with “The End of Food By Paul Roberts”, which I haven’t read, but suspect is similar in nature.
If you haven’t read the End of Food by Thomas Palwick, good luck finding it. Amazon had used copies for $128. I couldn’t even find a couple at my local library, I had to have them transfer it in from another town, with a big sticker on the front, that states if I damage this book they will charge me $125!

Palwick begins with a story about a tomato that didn’t seem right. It had the texture  of a tennis ball, not a vegetable. Being a former farmer and current journalist, he decided to look into the modern farming industry to get a better grasp at how our food is grown.

The results, obviously, were not good. Are farming industry is growing at  a unsustainable rate. every year it takes more chemicals and more land, and more technology to grow our food.

The result is that the nutritional value is lower, big time.

One example about Tomatoes are that they are picked while they are still green. Before they have flavor or any nutrients. Then they are artificially ripened with “ethylene gas in” transit to their location. Tomatoes naturally make ethylene gas, that changes the color from green to red, but leaving them on the vines until they are ripe, doesn’t give super markets enough time to sell them before the go bad.

Because of globalization, we no longer buy tomatoes from local farmers, we buy them shipped in from over a thousand miles away, if not more.

This is causing the nutrient level of our food to suffer. You’d have to read the book to get all the facts. But vitamin C is disappearing from supermarket vegetables, along with Iron, and fiber, and vitamin A, etc…

Palwick goes over all of the modern farming techniques that are depleting the nutrients from the earth, the chemicals that damage the vitamins, and the gmo seeds that are changing our foods DNA.
A good read if you can find it.

I Got Elfed …

At work we have a running game … An elf leaves a gift on your desk and the only directions are to elf someone else who hasn’t got a gift yet.

The Little elf left me this bad boy …

I know nothing about gardening, but I’m open to the idea.

Luckily I have a feeling gardening is going to be a very popular hobby in a couple of years, so I’m going to get a head start.

Screwed, The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class

Last week I took a trip to half priced books looking for Mac System admin books. But i ended up checking out the clearance shelve and found some real gems.

I picked up this book by Thom Hartman, Screwed, The undeclared war against the middle class for $2.

A great read, I’d give it 4 out of 5, so it’s not quite a must read.

Some of his ideas are to liberal for me, and Hartman (writing this book during the Bush 43 administration) seems to think that just electing democrats will turn the country around.

But his ideas about creating a middle class and why it’s crucial to the health of a nation are brilliant. He gives historical example after examples of how the decisions by Nixon,Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 have intentionally killed our middle class and moved our industry overseas to prevent the majority from pulling themselves out of poverty in the United States.

To have a true middle class, a majority of the people in a nation must be educated and economically secure and must have full and easy access to real news so they can make informed decisions. page 9

Michael Crichton Dies of Cancer

I just read author and filmaker Michael Crichton died unexpectedly last night. He was privately battling against cancer, according to a statement released by his family.

Crichton’s works often focused on the use and abuse of emerging technologies which spiral out of control and endanger people, as was the case in “Prey,” “Sphere,” “The Andromeda Strain” and “Timeline.” The author’s medical background also played a role in his work, leading to the award-winning television series “ER.” His most recent novel, 2006’s “Next,” dealt with genetics and law.

I feel inspired to pick up one of his books

A Foreign Policy of Freedom

The Ottomans and Romans, the Spanish and the British,

all who have tried empire have faltered,

and at great cost to their own nations

In 1998 a Kuwaiti professor, amazingly was quoted in a proper pro-government Kuwaiti newspaper saying “The U.S. frightens us with Saddam to make us buy weapons and sign contracts with American companies thus ensuring a market for American arms manufactures and Untied States continued military presence in the middle east.

We have been bombing and occupying Iraq since 1991, longer than the occupation of Japan after World War ll. Yet Iraq has never committed aggression against the United States. So the idea we are there for our national security is a joke. After we removed Saddam from power the first thing the United States did was secure the Oil fields. What does that tell you about priorities.

The War in Afghanistan has long been over, after we reached an agreement to build a pipeline through the country. We got what we wanted and it wasn’t Osama Bin Laben. For a great over view of how Untied States Interest shifted to Afghanistan  check out this.

Our Policy in the Middle East is totally schizophrenic and driven by Arab Oil, weapon sales, and Israel. page 73

Ron Paul says treating all of our  enemies enemies as friends. This policy has probably done more to destroy our credibility as a champion of freedom in the world than any other thing. The Untied States is the worlds largest manufacturer of weapons, our defense budget is 10 times larger then the next closet country with 528 Billion dollars a year. Many countries view us as going into a region starting a conflict and then selling arms to both sides. That’s a great thing to be know for.

Of course our foreign aid dollar is now and has always been a weapon. page25

Celebrate Banned Book Week!

Banned Books Week

September 29–October 6, 2007

Little did I know this week was Banned Book week, I would have made a lot of noise about it. I’ve written before about a couple of banned books I’ve read.

Fahrenheit 451 and of course 1984

So celebrate Banned Book week by reading something you shouldn’t!