Rational Nation USA

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny Rarely do I visit the Daily Beast. When I do, more often than not I find the material less than interesting or substantive. Today was just a bit different. The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted. As an actor and woman who, at times, avails herself of the media, I am painfully aware of the conversation about women’s bodies, and it frequently migrates to my own body. I know this, even though my personal practice is to ignore what is written about me. I...

By: WILL " TAKE NO PRISONERS " HART I quite resent this notion that the American people are somehow a greedy lot, and that they're only concerned about themselves. It certainly doesn't mesh with the world that I see and it doesn't mesh the data, either. According to the Charitable Aid Foundation, the United States is THE most generous country on the planet (65% of its citizens donate money, 43% donate personal time, and 73% help out strangers). And to think that this type of charity would somehow shrink up if in fact the government did decide to cut back a little is both ridiculous AND insulting..............................................................................................I also deeply resent the demonization of wealth and achievement in this society. It was, folks, the industrialists and business visionaries of the United States who truly made it the great place in which literally every frigging immigrant on the planet wan...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny This site was started almost three years ago, in large part because of the influence the free thinkers of the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, and Ayn Rand have had on my thought and life. It has been good.

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny Really? Not the vaunted MSM. Reuters - NBC News' decision to air an edited call from George Zimmerman to police in the moments before he shot Trayvon Martin was "a mistake and not a deliberate act to misrepresent the phone call," according to the president of the network's news division.The edit in question, which aired on the network's flagship "Today" morning show last week, made it appear that Zimmerman told police that Martin was black without being prompted, when, in fact, the full tape reveals that the neighborhood watch captain only did so when responding to a question posed by a dispatcher. Under growing public pressure to explain the incident, NBC News President Steve Capus provided Reuters with the fullest explanation to date of how the edited call made it on air and what the network is doing to prevent such a consequential error from happening again. Capus confirmed a previ...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny As the Obama Administration continues to play the blame game. Pathetically lacking in honesty and self respect. { Fox News } - The Obama administration is responding to the recent report that shows a federal agency spent more that $800,000 on a lavish conference near Las Vegas by putting some of the blame on the Bush administration. “At least we have taken, bold, swift forceful action to hold those responsible accountable and put in place protections to make sure this never happened again,” a White House official told Fox News. The Inspector General Office’s report last week about the 2010 General Services Administration conference outside of Las Vegas indicates the Obama administration knew about the trip since May 2010. The report was followed by a release of videos. One video shows an employee performing in the fake music video, which is laced with jokes and references that only federal employees are likely to ...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny Trayvon Martin,a 17 year old teenager entering young adulthood was shoot dead in Sanford Florida. This much we know with certainty. When the story first broke this classical liberal with libertarian leanings accepted, based on the early news reports, that George Zimmerman as guilty of a horrendous and unforgivable crime. However,as more information surfaced I began to question the veracity of the liberal contention that Zimmerman had in reality committed an act of first degree murder (my initial conclusion). Given time, and the proper reflection after new information (and opinions based on this information) surfaced it seemed, at least to this writer anyway, to step back and chill just a bit. This I have recently been able to accomplish. Absence my initial judgement (which was based solely on emotional determinations) I have been able to see things kn a more rational light. Which is to saw we must allow justice, wh...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny Earlier this week President Obama caused a bit of a outrage over his remarks with respect to his signature piece of legislation, the ACA, or ObamaCare. As the Supreme Court concluded oral arguments on the constitutionality, or lack thereof the President felt the need to weigh in politically on the subject. This is what he said. CBS NEWS - "Ultimately, I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress. And I'd just remind conservative commentators that for years what we've heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example. And I'm pretty confident that this court will recognize that and ...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny In my opinion the President, in his attack on the United States Supreme court belies both his basic ignorance of our republic as well as his arrogance. His last uttering in and of itself is enough to deny the man, and I use the term loosely in this case, another term as President. Forgive me my rational liberal friends but his recent statement is more telling of his statist leanings than anything he has heretofore said. With this last he has proven beyond any doubt he is indeed clueless. The Washington Post - There was something rather unsettling in President Obama’s preemptive strike on the Supreme Court at Monday’s news conference. “I’d just remind conservative commentators that for years what we’ve heard is the biggest problem on the bench is judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law,” Obama said. “Well, here’s a ...