Apparently, a government interagency group is developing non-binding guidelines for foods which are marketed to minors. If food producers were to follow these guidelines, either the food itself would need to be changed or the marketing thereof. Read more on CNN, HuffPo, and BNet. I’m of two minds on this topic. On the one hand,…
Category: Closed Blogs
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 15: Account Overdrawn
I believe I’m getting to the portion of the experience of reading this book that I was dreading, the part that marathon runners call “The Wall” (NB: My knowledge of marathon running comes exclusively from Run Fat Boy Run, despite my brother’s engagement in them… I should ask him sometime about The Wall, assuming he…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 14: The Sanction of the Victim
There’s a governor’s race going on right now in Michigan. One of the leading candidates, Rick Snyder, is running as a Republican but presents himself as a non-politician. Today, I saw an ad for his that talked about cutting taxes and ending “silly regulations” in a tone that made it unclear whether “silly” was restrictive…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 13: White Blackmail
I find myself being tempted by Rand’s philosophy. I do think her obsession specifically with money, though, is too simplistic. Also, anyone who claims to love Atlas Shrugged and then proceeds to praise Bush over Obama has read a different book than I. More after the summary. Chapter summary: Hank’s wife discovers his affair, although…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 12: The Pull of Aristocracy
The man up in the tower was enjoying the show. — Planet P, “Why Me?” Chapter summary: Most of the action of this chapter takes place at Jim Taggert’s wedding reception. The highlight is a monologue by Francisco on money not being the root of all evil. There are also confrontations between Dagny and Jim’s…
Applebee’s sliders for the kidlet
We went to Applebee’s last night for the first time since kidlet started eating Big People food. We were rather shocked that the “children’s menu” was printed in black on white paper, with no logo or anything to indicate it was an official Applebee’s menu. Just the words “Kid’s Menu,” a list of items and…
Nuncation
Yesterday, somebody I know mused about the antonym of procrastinate. There isn’t a verb I’m aware of for doing something immediately or for doing something before it’s due. However, it’s possible to build one. Procrastinate comes from Latin. Pro- means toward or for. Cras means tomorrow, while crastinus is the possessive. -Ate is a standard plural…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 11: The Man who Belonged on Earth
It’s not Rand’s fault that the title of this chapter evokes not one but two David Bowie references, both of which come well after Atlas Shrugged and probably neither of which is related. Regardless, though, for the time being when I think of Hank Rearden, my mind sings, “You’re face… to face… with the man…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 10: Wyatt’s Torch
One reason I wanted to post (if possible) after each chapter was that I figured it would keep me motivated to keep reading if there were evidence of my progress. Another reason is that it keeps me honest, so when I finish the book, I can’t pretend I had different opinions as I progressed than…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 9: The Sacred and the Profane
I’m not sure if it’s my commitment to try to be more pleasant towards the book, or if this chapter was genuinely better than the previous one. Either way, it was a more positive experience. Chapter summary: Taking up where we left off in the last chapter, Dagny and Hank have an, um, discussion about…