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"... commonly held views of heroism and stress response
are both inter-related and misplaced." (Read the entire blog entry)

A funny if disquieting peek into how others view Objectivists. Not sure if this is entirely tongue-in-cheek. (Read the entire blog entry)

Wrong reasoning from the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) (Read the entire blog entry)

In her book, Viable Values, Tara Smith splits moral camps into 4 camps: Intuitionism, Contractarianism, Rationalism, and Principled Egoism. Intuitionism and Rationalism are easiest for Objectivists to dispense with, but Contractarianism requires extra thought (before we dispense with it as something inherently immoral). (Read the entire blog entry)

There's no place like home... (Read the entire blog entry)

What lessons can I learn from these experiences to calibrate my skill at characterizing quickly the new people I meet?  While I dislike making harsh snap judgments, I dislike squandering my precious time even more.  So in the interest of getting back to basics, let me point to SuperSelf by Charles Givens. (Read the entire blog entry)

An answer to 'moral equivalence.' (Read the entire blog entry)

Toastmasters Clubs teach members not only to speak, but to listen and to think.  Unfortunately, communication relies on the effectiveness of all three skills in order to succeed.  Perhaps my letter proved too terse or perhaps others read too carelessly, but these two responses made their way into the April 2008 issue of the magazine. (Read the entire blog entry)

I picked the following quotes because of the unique response that they could have on the socialist mindset. It's not just what you say, but how you say it.

I remind my blog readers here that I'm a former zealot-Christian-socialist, and that when I first heard about Rand -- that she promoted selfishness -- I experienced moral revulsion and a deep fear of her (bordering on hate). Even after purchasing the Ayn Rand Lexicon, I avoided the "A" section like the plague (because it contained "abortion" and "atheism").

Using the point that how you say it is about as important as what it is that you have to say, I looked at quotes with a narrow aim. These quotes are meant to appeal to the mind without stirring up the emotional revulsion so common -- perhaps universal -- to the socialist mindset of which I was once a willing victim.

If I had first been approached with these quotes -- instead of being just told to read some Rand -- then my "persuasion" wouldn't have taken the precious months that it did. (Read the entire blog entry)

A chronological list of highly-relevant quotes (Read the entire blog entry)