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From asragirl

Hi - I just read all your writings on this site. Lots to contemplate. Your words provide me with an enjoyable picture of who you are. Burma?! How green! How wonderful to travel this green star. I so much want to see and hear everything, other cultures, languages, temples, lands, seas. Magic days....

From AtlasShrugged

Nice pictures, now that I know who I am talking to. Veda @ Epic : )
veda_henderson@yahoo.com

From TruLeesinCere

I had to read and reread this profile of yours because it is so well suited to finding the perfect car! My late father used to race corvettes...so I truly appreciate this wit and humor! He'd have laughed himself silly with appreciation! Godspeed Atlas!...and your last blog is impressive...the world needs more provocation of thought...

From neverjustordinary

I finally posted another blog... be impressed

From AtlasShrugged

It is interesting to witness. The human spirit yearns to have faith. Faith in something, anything, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. The Left for example, have a belief, a faith, in the lie of global warming. And with all faith, there are consequences for inaction, and rewards for action.

It is not my intention to debate the merits of global warming, but mearly to point out that when one takes God out of their life, it needs to be replaced with something that seems to have the same majesty. For the Left, it is the earth.

As I am constantly dumbfounded by the Left's unwavering pursuit of ideas that do not work and literally wreck a society, I question why. It comes back to faith. The Left, generally speaking, are without God and without faith in Him. Given that, there can be no faith in the hereafter or next life, so they [the Left] are relentlessly trying to create a utopia here in this world. Through socialism, political correctness, trying to spare the offense of anyone, or just exonerating one's self from responsibility, this terrestrial nirvana always seems just an arm's reach away.

But because they lack faith, it would logically follow that is us, humanity who has all control. Thus it is global warming, something that has to do with the power of man, that individuals can both contribute to, and from which they can make a difference.

So when one questions the validity of global warming and the inconclusive science behind it, to the Left, you are attacking their faith, their relgion. But they need global warming because the human spirit needs to believe. It is the contemporary humanist religion

From Deca8000

By the way, don't go to Columbia. Try an African safari. I hear they are awesome!

From Deca8000

I do love your "secret of life" ideas :)

From AtlasShrugged

The secret of life, I have come to find, is found in two virtues. Complete accountability for one's own actions, and gratitude.

The first is not so simple. The world tells us that we are not accountable. It is society's fault. It is the fault of someone who offended us, or the fault of some social injustice. That is the easy way out, and ironically, the road to misery. Whereas when we "own" what we do, and give no one power over us but that which we dictate (which should be none), we control our emotions and thus our happiness (love being a seperate issue).

Gratitude. Probably the most endearing trait in someone. When you have gratitude, humility necessarily follows, and good fortune and people will always be around. It seems that few things are more offensive, both to man and to God, than lack of gratitude. Shakespeear once wrote

"Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind,
As man's ingratitude"

But as the mundane of life goes, it is difficult to grasp that which we have, especially in this country. Our vast prosperity inspires greed. The only ways to overcome this, I have found, are either to go to a third world country and live among the people, or the much easier, pracital, and beneficial way, to serve others. It sounds very scriptural, but it is true. To serve others is food for the soul. Alas, the world teaches us that to serve thy self is the path to fulfillment.

But as with any carnal vice, be it greed, lust, pride, you name it, the void is never quite complete. It lends itself to misery and bondage. The Pursuit of Happiness, as was declared by our great Founding Fathers, meant freedom. But being free also means more than from the tyranny of others. It means the freedom to choose one's own path, and to be thankful even, or I should say, especially, for that with which we struggle.

From Deca8000

I actually prefer the words of a prophet. It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable.

From Deca8000

Hmmm, the location program is a little off! You don't live in Sanpete.

From Deca8000

By the way, it is in the mind that the game is won and not with speed or agility :) You have to believe that you can win first before you consistently achieve vistory.

From Deca8000

One of my concerns with the commentators of conservatism is that they all tackle every issue with the sword. Sometimes won't a feather do?

From Deca8000

Hey, we need a picture of us playing racquetball! Maybe when I pull my shirt up or jump for a ball! :) On your thoughts on liberalism, I think temperance in all things is one of the great keys to happiness. To think that all the worlds ills are caused by one identifiable group or another is too shortsided, IMHO.

From AtlasShrugged

It sounds ignorant, and almost dismissive in credibility to attack one side or one ideology, while at the same time vehemtly defending your own as a paragon of virture. Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh for example, believe that Democrats, and Democrats only, are the sourse of America's problems. It is convienent for one side or the other to dismiss or ignore what their side does that is deplorable or detrimental, while still attacking the adversary. That being said, there is one ideology, a poison to the soul, that is becoming such a cancer on the body of America that the consequences are difficult to fathom. That idea is liberalism.

Liberalism, in its present day form, is consumed with unlimited rights, equality, and the pursuit of individual gratification. With no judgements on personal behavior, moral relativism, and government picking up where the individual, despite his or her behavior, fall short, the land of Leftists is a carnal man's paradise.

Is there a Plutonic absolutism? Is there really right and wrong? Or have we as a people evolved so much that morals are defined by each individual's systemic conception of reality which have been created by personal experience?

There are many paradoxes in contemporary liberalism. One being that there should be no judgements on personal behavior, which translates into unlimited personal freedom with no consequenses. But it also has become so cynical about humanity that it trusts not the freedom of the individual, and instead values government sanctioned equality over the liberty of a people. The government knows more what the individual should have instead what that individual decides what is best. There is a direct correlation between how much "equality" a government forces on its citizens, and how much freedom they actually have.

The redistribution of weath, taxing the rich, and social programs in general, which are championed on the Left, are enslaving more and more people to the government. The beauty and utopia of liberalism is there are no repercussions. It is an easy way to live. Unfettered abortion, welfare, gun control, litigation for everything, all take responsibility away from the individual. Drug addiction is no longer a series of poor choices, but a "disease", worthy of government sponsered treatment, and entitlements to a decent living wage. We should not condemn a man for molesting a child, so the argument goes, but instead understand his individual circumstances, the inequality that he may have faced growing up, the poverty that he may have been subjected to, ect, ect, ect. Each action a person does is defined not by his choice, but by his circumstances. This "inequality" as they like to call it, and their remedies to correct it is a one way road to tyranny. The more the government takes responsibility for the actions of the individual, the less the individual can act

From AtlasShrugged

To quote my favorite author, Oscar Wilde, "there are only 2 tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want, and the other is getting it". Why do we constantly chase the end of the rainbow? The grass in never greener, and if we think it is, we need to start watering our own. And why did God put us in a world that He does not want us to be a part of? The only way to repel and overcome the vicious decedence of it all is to remove yourself entirely and overcome that which we came here to live in.

Human nature is such that is constantly searching for that missing link. We try to fill the void with material things, objects in which the world says will make us happy. But one of two things happen when we buy stuff. We either want more of it, or have buyer's remorse, neither of which lends itself to filling that void in of which we in search.

If I were to take a theological perspective on why this is, I would say that it is because our soul, who once knew the love of God, has been seperated from that divinity that we once knew. Paradoxically, one can only find that love, as well as the love of the world in which we are commanded to repel, through humility and kindness. My favorite quote of all time, that which says it all, by Ben Franklin. "Work as if you were to live a hundered years; pray as if you were to die tomorrow." Had Ben thrown in cherish your sweetie pie (though I think it can be implied in "work"), it would be a complete instruction manual for life.

From AtlasShrugged

As I get older, do I become more wise or more foolish because I think I have become more wise? Socrates did say that the only thing he knew was that he knew nothing. Am I so arrogant to believe that I have gained insight? And is the wisdom and knowledge gained through experience worth the pains of getting older?

Sadly, most knowledge is gained through failure, and then repeated to others (and never accepted by those who receive it) with a cynical view of that which has already been attempted. Though, that is not always bad. Failure is essential to character building, as is suffering.

God gave us this life, to do with it what we will. But He filled it with so many paradoxes that it causes one to wonder the if the quote from Voltair, that God is comedian playing to and audience too afraid to laugh, is really true. But therein lies a paradox. When one gains worldly knowlege, figuring out life, maybe even shrewdly, one becomes prideful and thus blocks the connection to God. But if one realizes true humility, realizing his true weaknesses, powerlessness, as well as lack of the infinite knowlege that he does not possess, the veil is removed, and God becomes clear. When this occurs, God gives knowlege and clear understanding of His mysteries. But when one gains so much knowlege, one becomes prideful and it starts over again. It is a constant battle from within.

From Deca8000

Atlas is a world class racquetball player and statesman:)

From miriam4you

it will be more interesting if you put more pic.

From Snegurka

you won't believe it , but i found you in here! ;))