Wholesome 8===D

Some of the Bullshit! episodes rubbed me the wrong way. The series it wasn't so much about debunking things as it was about rhetorically making atheist libertarian arguments look good. But after watching some Penn Says (Penn Jillette's video blog, I found it by accident yesterday) he seems like a much nicer guy.

So far, this one is my favorite.



Towards the end of this video one of his kids says "daddy, stop yelling" and he keeps going but wraps it up quickly.

Fun fact: Several years ago, 1999 I believe, Penn signed one of my textbooks. I saw him talking to a group of guys on the 16th Street mall in Denver. I wanted him to sign something, but that was all I had on me.

I swore I wouldn't sell the particular textbook, but for some reason, I don't have it now. I don't think I sold it.

Seriously, buy a copy of Atlas Shrugged for everyone on your Christmas list.

If you know me, you probably know that I have very few kind words to say about Ayn Rand, Objectivists and Libertarians. I was reminded of this while watching some episodes of Penn and Teller's: Bullshit! (for FREE!) on Google Video.

Why do Libertarians feel then need to keep talking? As if we haven't heard their line of Bullshit! a million times before? You know, it seems to constantly net them.... what? I'm guessing about a good 3% of the vote (on average) in general elections? Could it be that people have heard it all before and have come to realize, like I have, that Libertarians don't actually develop interesting ideas and policies as much as they have this language and dogma everyone in their insular, incestuous, sectarian, cult-like organizations cling too? You are part of the mystery.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think all of that Libertarian language and dogma is bad. I don't think all of the Christian language and dogma is bad. I strongly agree with two of the ten commandments and I'm on the fence about a few more. But it's not about that, it's about people who are so dogmatic the only ideas bouncing around in their heads are the ones their cult-culture tells them are okay to have bouncing around in their heads. Then they go and try to proselytize the rest of us, on usenet, on email lists, on college campuses, on Showtime, and on Google Video.

So, why do I want you to go buy dozens of copies of Atlas Shrugged? Because it's one of the best ideas I've heard so far for creating a utopia. Any Rand John Galt (the protagonist in the book) has this brilliant plan to get all of his high dogmatic friends to leave the rest of the world behind and go establish a community somewhere far away to teach the rest of the world a lesson. You see, Ayn Rand John Galt's character is so narcissistic and self-righteous that he believes the world just couldn't get along without people like him. I can't think of anything that I would like more, or that would bring us closer to a utopia, then getting everyone like that to leave.

Please, every extremist organization in the United States go move to compounds in the middle of nowhere. Take your guns, your drugs, you're boatloads of Bullshit! and leave. I'm tired of putting up with you. When the rest of society barely notices or cares that you're gone and we go on living our lives in peace, you can rest assured that you taught us a lesson.


Now, if you really care about whoever it is on your Christmas list and you don't want to see them go, you might want to consider getting them a copy of The Open and Closed Mind by Milton Rokeach. Sure, it's 46 years old (making it a little younger than then the 49 year old Atlas Shrugged), but it might have been just that much more ahead of it's time. Either way, it's certainly better researched than Ayn Rand's shitty fiction.