ReasonWorks - Latest Comments

Re: Atlas Shrugged: Initial Impressions

aaronpowell — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:32:30 -0000

It's still too early to know if I'll "totally agree," but I'm inclined to think Rand and I will disagree rather frequently. We come to libertarianism from quite different directions. Still, as my next post will indicate, I do think her critique of collectivist intellectuals has a hell of a lot of truth to it--and she's excellent at satirizing their views.

Re: Atlas Shrugged: Initial Impressions

twitter-15918841 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:19:21 -0000

Very. Well. Put. Ayn Rand is one of those people who, if met in person, would probably often be told, "I totally agree. But, please stay off my side..."

Re: Colorado’s Defeat of Racial and Gender Equality

Bob Melvin — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:39:52 -0000

Sad day for the forward thinking citizens of Colorado.

Depressing on the heels of such a victorious week for our new president. The message Colorado affirmed of hateful lines of division paint a stark contrast to the new opportunities the rest of our country affirmed on Tuesday.

Sad, sad vote to continue 1960's style Affirmative Action. A shameful embarrassment for all Coloradans. Some form of this measure will appear again to stamp out institutional discrimination by The State which is currently owned by the Left. Bought and PAID for with Union dollars some from outside of Colorado.

Re: I’ll Trade My “Bush Sucks” for Your “Obama Hope” and an Entitlement to be Named Later; An Election Post-Mortem

Trevor Burrus — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:25:39 -0000

I don't disagree. Obama may turn out to be admirably malleable to public opinion and disagreement and thus be a capable leader. I hope so. I think perhaps the point of my essay is that, given the vacuum of hopelessness that was created by Bush via the processes I described, Obama didn't need to do much more than fill the void with hope. If he did that in an articulate manner - something that seems hard for him not to do - then he would run an effective campaign. Although I'm calling him out for some substanceless-ness I think substanceless-ness was the right campaign strategy.

I hope he is the way you describe.

Re: I’ll Trade My “Bush Sucks” for Your “Obama Hope” and an Entitlement to be Named Later; An Election Post-Mortem

Mark Dunn — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:17:28 -0000

Nice post Trevor. While I read it I had a couple of thoughts that I thought I would share.

While I am oversimplifying your argument, I think it follows this "Obama is all style and no substance" meme that has followed Obama throughout his campaign and that will continue to follow him(side note: I think it's really funny that spell check keeps trying to correct the spelling of Obama. Recommendations: Obadiah, Obadias, Bamako and Alabama.).

One piece of evidence that I think deserves some analysis when considering the style/substance theme is the way that Obama ran his campaign. In a word, it was flawless. Admittedly the way that his campaign was run lends little insight into the policy choices and trade-offs that Obama will have to make. But I do think it demonstrated Obama's competence and dedicated interest that will serve him well as President. Unfortunately don't have time to flesh this argument out as well as I'd like but I think it is a bit of evidence that Obama's pre-election phase presented us with nothing more to consider than his style when choosing whom to vote for.