Thanks.

A concerned American

According to this 2010 Pew Research poll, 59% of Egyptians would prefer a democratic government; however, they were nearly split on whether Islam should play an important roll in the government. Contrast that with  this 2010 Zogby poll which states that Egyptians see the US as a threat–interesting since President Obama has been taking a lot of credit for this process, and has pledged that our military will help with the “transition” of the country’s politics. Gallop posted these results, which also show disapproval of the U.S.

So why, then are we Americans seemingly so supportive of this uprising when the Egyptians don’t really want us over there? We have political and economic unrest, unemployment, immigration concerns here within the United States. Would it not make more sense for the Obama administration to quit worrying about the rest of the world and maybe focus on the problems at home?

However this plays out, I am hopeful that this revolution will create an ally for the US in the Middle East. However, I doubt it. Iran’s President Ahmadinejad is already claiming inspiration for Egypt and Tunisia’s uprisings. I for one think that the US and Israel may have a tougher time in that corner of the the world.

Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

This evening, we watched an eye-opening documentary called Food, Inc. which looks at the monopolistic practices of major food producers. After watching this, the thought of eating a hamburger and French fries makes me feel a bit ill. But then, Super Size Me had a similar effect, but Food, Inc. was much more powerful. The film took a decidedly less overtly political stance than Super Size; instead plays out like a great work of investigative journalism. In many ways it seems like an update to the Jungle Upton Sinclair’s expose of the meat packing industry. And in many ways, the film illustrates that in many ways, the industry hasn’t changed–or has, rather reverted back to the ways in which it once operated.

The film also looks at the somewhat mafia-like business practices of agricultural biotech firm Monsanto, as well as some of the strange laws that have been put in place to protect these businesses (and highlights the members of the DC elite who have strong ties to said businesses.)

So yeah… It may be time to start another garden, and possibly start eating a vegetarian diet.

But this. THIS bothers me. We Texans are worried about jobs being cut, increased taxes and further funding cuts, and our Governor wants to push through Abortion legislation? You may remember that in 2007, he also tried to make HPV vaccinations mandatory.

So my question becomes, why in the midst of economic turmoil, does Perry keep trying to push his way into womens’ private business? And the worst part is that I can’t help thinking that this a way of pandering to religious groups as a way of drumming up support for some kind of future Presidential bid. I guess it’s the Libertarian in me talking but, I really would rather our elected officials focus on the problems of public safety, and stay out of peoples’ lives.

What do you think, am I overreacting, or are Governor Perry’s priorities out of whack?

(Disclosure: my wife works for a State agency)

I had this thought that during the month of February, I would write a blog a day, seeing as I have three weblogs that have not seen much use of late. However — due to circumstances such as ongoing car troubles, the threat of frozen water pipes and of course good things such as freelance projects — I have not taken the time to sit down and write.

But no more excuses. Here I am. And I have a couple of drafts in the can*, so stay tuned. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

*with or without campy television references.

~ r

Note: depending on the subject matter discussed, daily blogs may be posted on any of my 3 blog sites here, at ryannims.com or ryannims.blogspot.com.

(Republished from http://ryannims.blogspot.com/)

The initial reason for picking up the novel was not because I just had to have something to read (though nothing else seemed interesting to me) but because I could not escape the references in numerous and varied places – from the real world, to more obscure allusions such as video games and comic books.

The current political and economic situation has brought the novel back into the public conscious, with bloggers, journalists, t-shirt designers, and others pointing to parallels between 2009 America and the fictional time of Shrugged. Bloggers write posts connecting current policies with “Directive 10-289″ (in a nutshell, the bill that is passed in the novel whereby the U.S. government nationalizes all industries). Articles question not “who” but “Where is John Galt?” Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) reportedly gifts a copy of the novel to his interns upon completing their tenure. Needless to say, due to these very parallels, Atlas Shrugged has seen a boost in sales in the past few months. (as of this writing the novel has been in the top 100 on amazon.com for 176 days.)

Apart from the real-world connections to the book, my interest was piqued via two less-likely sources: the 2007 video game BioShock, and the 2009 film Watchmen.

In BioShock, the references to Shrugged are many, and have been highly publicized. The setting of the game – an underwater city called Rapture – was founded by an idealist, not unlike the Novel’s famed Galt. The name of this character, Andrew Ryan, is an intentional anagram of Ayn Rand. There is a character called Atlas, and signs strewn about asking “Who is Atlas?” The city presented in the game is nothing less than a visual characterization of Rand’s Objectivist philosophy – albeit a representation of how such a utopia can go violently awry.

The connection to the Watchmen is a little less obvious, but has everything to do with the character of Rorschach. Alan Moore created Rorshach as sort of an amalgam of two separate-but-similar comic book characters: Mr. A and the Question (the latter hero being one of my all-time favorite DC Comics characters) both created by Steve Ditko – a follower of the Rand’s philosophy. All three characters are in a sense, Objectivism personified.

Ditko created Mr. A as a hero who’s only super power is his strong moral code. His sometimes brutal form of justice comes from the belief that there is good and evil and nothing in between. If he must let a criminal fall off of a roof, he will do so with a clear conscience. Visually, Mr. A is seen dressed in an all-white suit with a white fedora and a metal, expressionless face mask. He leaves behind a card with two equal-sized squares in black and white.

The Question was created as sort of a “softer” version of Mr. A. His style of justice is based on the same ideology, however, what sets him apart, however, is that if the criminal were dangling from the roof, the Question might pull the guy up, before leaving him for the authorities. The Question also wears the suit and fedora, but has a flesh-colored faceless mask. His calling card depicts a question mark.

Rorschach’s style resembles Mr. A’s more than the Question’s – he is quite possibly the most brutal of the lot – but he is nonetheless driven by the same principles of good vs. evil. Alan Moore has stated that though his political leanings are contrary to Ditko’s, he nonetheless admired him for incorporating his politics into his comic books. Rorschach looks almost identical to his cousin the Question, however the face mask is white with ever-changing inkblots. His card is little more than a scrap of paper with two R’s resembling inkblots.

The point of this whole blog is that Atlas Shrugged and the other mediums with which I was introduced to Rand’s Objectivist philosophy has made me realize how much that way of thinking is analogous to my view of the world. Small government. Individual liberties. Laissez-faire capitalism. These are all things which I see as important in a social system. Things which I feel we Americans are losing.