Cleaned out a bunch of accumulated junk on my computer, including an accumulation of tracking cookies, and apparently dumped the cookies I wanted to keep as well. Sorry about that.

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No "uncle" here, GfS.

The Tea Party (which is the subject of this thread, remember?) represents the less educated segment of the extreme Right Wing of the Republican Party. But the philosophical base (and all political movements have a philosophical base, whether the proponents are willing to acknowledge it or not) of the puppet masters of the Tea Party is, basically, a weird mix of Christian Fundamentalism and Ayn Rand's "Objectivism."

Strings, I think the political philosophy of Ayn Rand is being extracted from her works and her views of religion conveniently ignored. Despite Rand's professed atheism, her beliefs are a dead ringer for the Calvinist contention that the rich are rich because God favors them. How do we know God favors them? Obvious! God has made them rich. The Tea Partiers like that. (But somehow, I don't really think Jesus would have condoned this tenet.)

But this religious belief does have a secular cousin. Perhaps, especially in Rand's case (and for the benefit of the less religious Tea Partiers), it would be better to liken her view to "Social Darwinism:"   "Poverty is a means of weeding out the unfit, thereby improving the gene pool."

Ayn Rand (and in my more naïve days, I read a lot of her stuff—before I saw some to the real world and grew up!) was unalterably opposed to any kind of government regulation whatsoever on business or business practices. Although she vociferously denied any homage or relationship to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzche, Rand's "John Galt" was her particular version of the "Űbermensche," or "Superman."

No, GfS, not the guy with the red cape and the blue tights. The "Superman" that Adolf Hitler was talking about, who was beyond the law and beyond morality.

There is many a corporation owner, president, CEO, manager, or major stockholder who is quite fond of this concept and is willing to donate vast amounts of money to (bribe) those politicians who will work hard for deregulation, and making Free Enterprise totally free to do whatever it wishes, and to hell with who gets ground under the wheels of the juggernaut.

Corporate Feudalism.

The Republicans are playing a dangerous game by not repudiating the Tea Party. This Right Wing of the Right Wing, rendered even more ignorant by Rupert Murdoch's disinformation machines like Fox News, and people like Rush Limbaugh and others, may just wind up taking over the whole Republican Party.

Something very much like this happened in the 1930s in Germany.

So, to those who persist in rattling on about the peccadilloes of the World Bank and blaming all the troubles of the world on someone named "Oblabbo," and making snotty and offensive remarks about those who don't stand in awe of their litany of platitudes, mere noise may generate heat, but does not shed much light on the situation.

The old saying, "Those who won't learn from history are doomed to repeat it," is quite relevant. To those who would accuse me of "living in the past:"    No, I'm not. But I know enough about it not to want to see it happen all over again.

Don Firth