Where'd she go?

In my classes, I seem to be one of the most likely to wait with my hand up, rather than interjecting into a discussion outright. At first, I found this strangely counterintuitive, but then I realized that, more than a Windsor House class, my Langara classes (especially Philosophy) resemble a Windsor House meeting - some thirty people sitting together in a brightly lit room, attempting to figure something out through dialogue. No wonder my instinct is to politely attempt the speakers' list!

Right now in Asian Mythology we're looking at the Ramayana. Here's my favourite passage from the fairly detailed synopsis we read last week:

Rama cannot but believe that Sita has been killed by Raksasas, and in mad passion, he declares his intention of destroying the whole world. He will fill the air with his arrows, stay the course of the wind, annihilate the rays of the sun and envelop the earth in darkness, hurl down the summits of the hills, dry up the lakes, destroy the ocean, uproot the trees, nay more, even annihilate the gods themselves if they do not give him back his Sita. Only with much trouble does Laksmana succeed in soothing the raving one and in persuading him to renew the search.

(no subject)

My impression has long been that Libertarianism, as a political philosophy, is based on principles of ethical egoism (of which Ayn Rand was the most famous proponent). Is this true? Can you be a libertarian without being an ethical egoist?