We can disagree, if you like, but I would actually agree with you that the left is intolerant, but just add that they do not 'own' intolerance. Unfortunately, intolerance is not a rationed substance; there is plenty to go around. The right is intolerant too, and they often do not support women's rights and gay rights.

Jan

I blame it on global warming.

Your point being? I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand this obsession on my comment on watching a smart young woman fall down the same stinking rathole of false belief as I did when about her age.

Obviously it legitimately refers to rights to actions that males but not females can take, such as the right to abortion. But those who don't understand the concept 'rights' go beyond that, either denying the rights or turning them into 'entitlements', with both sides of that false alternative tying it to much other baggage of different kinds.;

"Should never be allowed to speak" is very different. They can say what they want but most of them should not be elevated in significance of their ideas just because they are celebrities. Lawrence in particular may or may not be any better, but she was not wrong on this issue as described by the article. It certainly did not show her to be "damn stupid", which in this case is just religionist dogma that has no credibility either and which is driving people away from tea party reform by its association. Lawrence may be one of those turned away from even considering it because of this nonsense. I don't know what 'speak for yourself' as an 'aside' is supposed to mean.

Another example of the kind of what we call "bumper sticker thinking" (if such can be called thought). Adolf Hitler, who was more observant of mass thinking than he's been given credit for, advised that people can be more easily led by the use of simple, incendiary phrases, repetitively infused into their daily life. "Women's Rights" has become synonymous with abortion on demand, as has "women's health." There is an order of magnitude more free clinics that offer much more in the way of real health services for women than Planned Parenthood clinics, which are primarily abortion mills.

Such mindless, phrase-based reflexive outbursts become so much of the liberal's very person that they are immune to logic. They see any resistance to these branded in positions as personally threatening. They see first amendment rights applying only to those with "correct mindsets." Opposing views are deemed as the same as physically violent threats, and therefore criminal and worthy of suppression and punishment.

But the religious militants are 'downvoting' it. They are anti-intellectual, anti-Ayn Rand dogmatists who don't belong here.

If you watch the videos of the rally with Huckabee where they waved their crosses with mindless hymns and chants you can see it could get a lot worse than pitchforks. Fortunately they are a small minority, even in Kentucky. At least some of them at the rally may ordinarily be normal, independent, hard working rural people, but the emotionalism and irrational sloganeering shows how easy it is to stampede people with mixed premises and lack of education on basic principles.

You wrote "I can only hope that she, like I, grows out of the commie moocher lie". It has nothing to do with the article.

you are correct and i agree with you. it is just that over my lifetime so actors have demonstrated that they should not comment on political activities because it does show how stupid they are. what i said is just advise to this particular person. as an aside speak for your self!

There must be something in the atmosphere that causes people who reside in the area of the Beltway and L.A. to go stupid.

Well said! Perhaps from the current American Political Cyrillic in vogue...

Zacka tacka tacka tacka Zow... (Sorry, asked siri what did the fox say...)

Exactly. My contention was it's easyer to become a sheep and bleat with them tan to stand as a lone wolf (like her character did) and make both a stand and a difference.

Apparently she's been hanging out with the wrong crowd, some pretty unsavory characters. I just hope eventually she realizes she need not be a sheep of the flock. And I hope it doesn't take her until she's in her 40's...

The answer to your question is another question:

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

I don't see that Susanne said that Lawrence is a commie-moocher, just that she had thrown in with them. There is also the consideration that it is very fashionable to be a Democrat, and that if you are a Republican the Industry does not like you. (The basis for the 'sheep' comment.)

Since Lawrence's objections actually had reasons behind them - Women's rights and access to Birth Control - I think it is possible that if she realizes that there is an alternative to the D/R dichotomy, she may choose a third path. Her characterization of the Religious Right is unfortunately accurate. There are a lot of people who fit the depiction she gives of narrow-minded bible-thumpers who are ready to lynch anyone who does not agree with them. She does not see that this is also true of liberals, though their form of lynching might be more in line with brainwashing...

I do not agree with her but I think she might someday wake up to the fact that she does not have to conform to either standard.

Jan

I am always confused when I hear "women's rights" uttered. What rights do females have that males do not have?

Well then this has answered my question, which I have had for many years, as to whether I live up to Objectivism. I am in total disagreement with Ayn Rand as there is NO moral right of abortion aka murder. No human has the "right" to take the life of another human. That right comes into play only in a defensive posture when ones own life is threatened by another. Which is the right to life given by our humanity not by a supernatural being. An embryo is NOT a potential, it is a "growing" human being and is apart from the woman body. It is shielded by the womb separate and distinct from the host Mother. At the time of conception IT IS a human as it cannot grow to be anything other than a human. So when someone says as FoundingFathers says "How can a person be this damn stupid?" The question can only be answered by looking at the persons family, peers and environmental input. Abortion is not "women's healthcare" nor is it "women's basic rights" it is bullshit and murder. And if that means I am referring to Ayn Rand as stupid on this point then so be it. She had her opinions on the subject of abortion and they conflict with mine. SHE was a human NOT a GOD or supernatural being. There is much that I agree with her on but this is not one.

Ayn Rand was a strong supporter of the First Amendment right of freedom of speech as absolutely essential to a free and civilized society. So are most of the rest of us on this forum.

You just said everything that I wanted to say ewv. Thank you.

I love her comment about the Kentuckians brandishing their "crosses as if they were pitchforks." It's perfect.

Where did Lawrence say she is a 'commie moocher'?

Whatever else Lawrence believes in politics, this article is very limited in scope. It said that she objects to the Republican attack on the right of abortion and found Kim Davis' outburst in Kentucky politics embarrassing. That is not "damn stupid" and calling her that for these positions is not an argument. Religious conservatism is not the standard of discussion her.

Ayn Rand explained the right of abortion and rejection of religion and conservatism very well. The kind of religious dogmatism in this post implying that Ayn Rand must also be "damn stupid" for not being a religious conservative, without even an attempt at rational discussion, does not belong here.