Hello Everyone,

I came across this website a few days ago and based on the threads I have read decided to join out of curiosity and and sick fascination.

While I don't consider myself on the same level of religious, objectivist, and social philosophies as any of you, I hope I will be able to add something to the conversation.

A little about me. I am a native of Metro Detroit, Michigan who has worked in the medical field since 1996. I have been a medic on an ambulance and in an emergency room, an orthopaedic surgeon's assistant, (all in Detroit,) and most recently I have been a surgical liaison for a implant company down here in Toledo, Ohio; a city that tries very hard to emulate Detroit but fails to even be one-half as fun.

I was downsized a few months ago due to a 4 million dollar loss of market share in Ohio for our product line to competition. Since then I have been working on becoming a real estate agent. Why switch to real estate? Because I am greedy and sick of making others rich while I do all the work. 70 hour work weeks while I was a salaried employee and only received a 2% commission was absurd.

I am a ('lower case') libertarian with strong capitalist/laissez-faire leanings and I believe the individual is the smallest minority whose rights are being quickly stripped away.

Spiritually, I consider myself a lay Buddhist but I respect all faiths (or non-faiths) so long as my concepts are respected. That doesn't mean I don't wish to debate...

Eh, I suppose you will just have to figure the rest out on the board. As I have been in the medical field, I hope you will be kind if I come across a little plebeian in my postings. I'm not use to -although I am very interested in- the concepts on this board.

With Regards,
P. Bateman

Welcome.
I myself come from Saginaw, about an hour and a half north of Dtown. Props on getting the F out of Michigan. Insanely enough I plan to move back.

Welcome. I hope you enjoy the forum.