George Soros is a Billionaire investment capitalist who came to the attention of millions of Americans for the first time with his 527 organization MoveOn.Org.  From where I’m sitting, George seems like kind of a nut-job and an egomaniac…but then anyone who comes up with his own civil philosophy, and then spends billions of dollars promoting it around the world would have to be…wouldn’t he?  And frankly, he’s the egomaniacal nut-job opposing the same egomaniacal nut-jobs that I’m opposing at the moment, and for some of the same reasons.  So as far as that goes, I welcome his contributions so far.   Still…that’s not a good enough reason to just throw in with him totally without learning more about him, his organizations, and his opposition.   Here is a link to George Soros’ Open Society Institute.  There are articles describing some of the actions and organizations that they are supporting, and why.  Also, some superficial treatments of the organization’s philosophy on some focused issues.   Here is a link to a page on the same site, where you can find bios of the principles in the Open Society Institute.   There is a disclaimer on the Open Society Institute web site saying that George Soros’ political activities are separate from their philanthropic activities, and that if you want to know about his political activities as a private individual, you should go here.  One of the things you can download is the text to a pre-election speech at the National Press Club.  Also, a good resource is the transcript of an interview with him from NOW: With Bill Moyers.  And another is a chapter from his book The Bubble of American Supremacy.   Soros’ Open Society Institute was active in the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2002, which is thought to be the inspiration for the recent Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, which brought Viktor Yushchenko to power (Yushchenko;s supporters waved Georgian flags, and Yushchenko himself held up a rose while greeting the crowd…the rose being the symbol of St. George, and also the symbol of the Rose Revolution, which happened on St. Georges day).  They were also active in Yugoslavia fermenting grassroots action against Milosevic, in Croatia against Tudjman, and in Slovakia against Mechar.   George Soros has been a busy man, and has had an eventful life, here are some highlights.  Not everything is roses with this guy.  He’s been compared to Dracula…participating in ”sucking the life” out of whole economies by betting against the value of their currency.  He’s been convicted of insider trading in France .  He’s a partner in the Carlyle Group, something he has in common with George H.W. Bush, Osama Bin Ladin, and the Saudi Royal Family.   But on the upside, Dennis Hastert has accused him of getting his money from shadowy drug cartels (like the Carlyle Group, and The Bank of England …Hey, I didn’t say it…Hastert did…blame HIM ).   I like George Soros…I mean, good, bad…doesn’t matter at this point…he’s entertaining as hell.  You never know what this guys going to do or what field he’ll come out of next, and that’s just plain cool…plus…Dennis Hastert really hates his guts.   Actually, a lot of people really hate his guts…many of them are the kind of conservative Libertarians who’s religion has become laissez-faire capitalism.  Now, Soros isn’t adverse to capitalism.      If you’ve read everything I’ve linked to, you’re as crazy as I am.,,but you’ll also know that Soros is of the opinion that there is nothing wrong with laissez-faire capitalism AS SUCH…that is, as an amoral way of pursuing your own self-interest.      The problem he has with the special kind of people who have turned it into a religion is that they believe that the answer to all problems lies within the market, and that the marketplace is inherently moral (many people who read Ayn Rand at too young an age…or too low an I.Q. level believe this...somehow, they missed the fact that the biggest crook in Atlas Shrugged was Dagney Taggart’s brother…an industrial capitalist, and the one for whom Ayn reserved her greatest derision)      They don’t like that he believes that the market is amoral, and that morality must come from other sources.  Here is a response that one of them (a guy named George Reisman) has to his opinion.  Don’t read it too fast or in one sitting, or blood will shoot out of your eyeballs.  He REALLY doesn’t like Soros.      The gist of this response, that Soros has no coherent understanding of philosophy or economics, and that his entire approach to life is fatally flawed…which must be why he’s and unknown pauper living in his own filth, and nobody listens to him…oh wait...anyway, read it slowly, over time.  I must confess, that I am not finished with it myself yet.      I would suggest that Reisman and Hastert should go bowling, but Reisman would probably confuse and intimidate Hastert with his overly complex and academic language and the evening would end awkwardly with Hastert calling him a “drug-addled fairy” or something.  You just can’t give some people a social life without them crapping all over it.      Hastert would feel much more comfortable throwing balls around with Richard Poe, another Soros critic, who’s work just has to speak for itself.  You’ve got to visit this link.  Count the specious and unfounded attacks…but even better, get how many of them appear to be self-contradictory and yet even the more damning for it…like “secular” “anti-Israeli” and “Jew”.   Woo Hoo!  A Triple crown for Poe, and double those points for doing it without a trace of conscious irony.  And the most damning of all…he’s the criminal mastermind behind the McCain-Feingold act…the very one that allowed him to form MoveOn.Org…because Lord knows, he couldn’t have funded a Political Action Committee to buy influence before McCain-Feingold.      Here’s another website urging people to turn out and protest against radical leftists…like MoveOn.Org, funded by the radical leftist that gave billions of dollars to undermine Communism…wait a minute…no, don’t think about it…DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!  See? We have a nifty flier….we must be right.      Here’s another trashing Soros for pretty much every imaginable slight to common decency…wanting to treat gays like people, wanting to make sure that repressive anti-drug laws don’t interfere with drug treatment programs, treating gypsies like people…you know….real subversive stuff.          But interesting, isn’t it?  Soros’ life has gone through escaping Nazism, working to defeat Communism, and now, opposing the rampant abuses of unrestrained Capitalism;  How he’s pretty much at one time or another been something that everyone can hate; how he can stir up so much emotion and rancor and yet be totally untouched and untouchable.        What’s next?  Monarchy?  Technocracy?  Theological Oligarchy?  Evidently, the smart money is on Human Decency At Home and Abroad.  I’m all atwitter.