It is their moral code that is now being tested.

It is late in the day, the sun is setting through the cleft in the cliff and Dagny stands on the foyer as I sit and watch the latest riot footage from New York and California.

"Will you turn that thing off and come out here? The sunset is spectacular."

I click off the LCD flat screen and it retracts into the wall and turns into a digital picture frame. I turn and look at Dagny as she faces the sunset in a white sundress, cut low in the back, revealing her well toned shoulders and inviting neck. The sunlight caresses her like a lover. It frames her face with shafts of light from the fast setting sun.

"Why watch that stuff. I can't bear to see what's happening out there since the Equalization of Opportunity bill passed."

"I know. However centuries of plagues and disasters have been brought about by their moral code, and this one is no different in any sizable manner except for the fact that we have a ringside seat. It is their moral code that is now being put to the test. It is their belief that man must live to serve another man and that this code is just, is fair and is practical."

"How long will it take them to realize it possesses none of these traits? How long will the looters keep looting and how long will the riots continue?"

"As long as it takes I guess. There are already signs that some of the masses are turning their backs on the socialism that has impoverished them. Already some businesses and gangs are using free market principles in neighborhoods destroyed by socialism and where the government forces fear to enter."

Dagny turned to me and the purple hued skies descended over the receding golden aura. Soon the stars would be visible in force, each one sending some of its light to caress her.

"But all the state farms have been subsidized and the farms put out less food than ever. Some folks haven't had meat in a year since the Obama Equal Meat Directive bill was passed by Pelosi & Reid back in April 2009. And I don't even know where to begin with the Electricity Quorum Mandate passed in July when electric plants were Federalized. Did you know they run the power plants only a few hours a day now?"

"I know. It's become a 3rd world. I thank goodness we had the foresight to set up the new solar cell grid. In the future, after the socialist nightmare is over, a plant of a few square miles will put almost as much power as a coal burning plant. It will be almost pollution free in operation."

"Do you remember when you tried to warn them? Do you remember when you still went by the nom de plume SDAI-Tech1? I wonder where they are now, perhaps starving, without electricity, or perhaps rotting in one of Obama's Social Disobedience Detention facilities."

"I tried to warn them. Others did too, remember? They all scoffed and refused to listen. My god, do you remember how they laughed at the spectre of socialism - as if it were candy they couldn't wait to stuff into their mouths?"

"Yes, I remember it well. It was only a few short years ago. I remember how eager they were to tax the rich and socialize medicine. Now the sick are dying in the streets. There aren't even a 1/3 of the hospitals in operation that were in use in 2008. The military now has to force doctors and nurses to keep them from walking away from their posts, once they stopped receiving payment late last August. And the quality? My god, I saw better care in some Baja California hospitals back in the 1980's!"

A distinguished looking young man enters. He wears a white smock and a big grin.

"We got the first prototype electronic viral inhibitor finished. I thought you two might like to see it in action as it treats a case of the common cold. D'Anconia's daughter will be the first official patient."

I smile broadly. This will be the realization of a lifelong dream - specific viral cancellation in living tissue. That this electronic medical miracle happens while hundreds of millions suffer without even access to the drugs they took for granted under the free market of the Bush years. Now the sick beg in the streets and in front of the White House for the pharmaceutical companies to reopen, but most factory facilities were closed and shipped overseas to China. I think the one federalized factory is all that's left, asides from a few black market drugs from garage laboratories and Europpe, and that one factory is back ordered for years. Only the government employees, military and great society stormtroopers get the medicines these days.

"We'll be right there. Thanks."

Yes, we have the most modern hospital, the latest medicines, the brightest researchers and scientists from around the world. Our farms are ultra-productive and the solar plant is now producing enough electricity to power a town twenty times our size. When the world has learned its lesson - when the ignorance has been replaced by wisdom - we will be ready to sell them the miracles and salvation they sought to acquire by looting others back in the beginning of the dark ages - the Presidential election of 2008.

"A quarter for your thoughts?"

"Not just a penny?"

"No, I know what they are worth and I'm still getting a bargain."

"Oh, I was just thinking about the future. Someday, all those desperate, gullible masses now suffering because of their own ignorance will live again in a world of plenty. A world where the irrational is no longer paraded as noble. Where true morality returns and the sanctity of the individual over the collective is re-established. When the masses do not have the right to rob another man with more just because they are a collective mob. When such a farce is not paraded as noble or just but is realized as exactly what it is - plain robbery. When that lesson has been learned, they will have earned the technological wonders we enjoy here - they will understand that they must offer something in return. They will abandon the entitlement mentality that they embraced so completely and realize that no man owes another man anything or is compelled to serve that other man because some small minds say that is just.

Dagny looks at me and smiles.

"C'mon let's go. We are about to witness a miracle as great as the Wright brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk."

I hold the door open for Dagny and I look at the clouds in the majestic desert sky. I can't help but notice one is shaped as a smiling winky face - a clear portent that things really will get better for everyone.

;-)