Nothing much on the home front

Nothing much going on around here. Met up with an old highschool friend and realized how much I have changed. So has this town to be honest. The conversation was quite difficult, and the awkwardness never left, like it had the last few times.

Time to move on really.

I am finishing off reading Atlas Shrugged. This is a book that is worth reading by anybody, even if they don't agree with the hardcore libretarian vision of it. It's quite unlike any other novel i've ever read, with deep thought going into every aspect of it. I'm reading it for the third time this year, I took it with me on my trip because it's long and engaging. It's taken me a while to figure out exactly what my objections are towards her worldview.

I think the easiest to point out is the environmentalist critique. I beleive it's actually in The Fountainhead but she has a very utilitarian view of nature.

Another easy one, is her attachement to smoking. She talks about how great it is to see fire controlled by man at one's fingertips. That's obviously not going to win one any friends today, and of course I am a non-smoker so there's another easy one for me.

The other one that I have been thinking about a bit lately, is the short description of the problems of having state controlled medicine. She of course espouses the view that having need determine service is awful. Every aspect of distribution should be based on ability to pay. Money reflecting the value of one's work etc etc...

I found myself intrigued when looking at the Tommy Douglas story, and the attitude of the doctors who went on strike in Saskatchewan to protest Medicare. I wonder how many Canadians know that story, and realize it's implications.

It's refreshing I think in a way to read somebody who establishes a vision and looks at all the implications of it.

We see too many people who don't have a vision, those who do are the ones who change the world. I have to say of all the talks that I saw at Carleton, and I attended a fair amount, very few did more than pose a question or present a problem. In few places did you get to see someone who had a vision and looked at its implications. The exception was.... Michael Ignatieff. I disagreed with his vision but at least he provided one. He provided something concrete on which you could agree or disagree with. Interesting to say the least that he moved into Canadian politcs..