nathanm

Acknowledging that something is wrong does not mean that one must abandon the gradations within. It's entirely possible to accept spanking as wrong and still not equate it with murder and genocide. Once you make the binary choice you still get your gradient. If you hit your kid just once in his or her entire life it doesn't mean you are wholly evil, but simply accept that it was wrong to do. It might be small, it might be insignificant, it might be forgotten, it might be remembered…none of that really matters. By accepting something as morally wrong or right, regardless of degree, you at least know in what direction to take your future behavior.

Cool! I favor the weasel honeymoon one myself.

I made one comment, that doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. Besides, these are very rare conversations concerning people which I see approximately three times per year, so I wouldn't really call it much of a relationship to start with.

Hi Jay and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your situation, I can relate to many if not all of the parts. One way of looking at the bullying stuff is that assholes are pushing you away from their asshole group, so it's kind of a good thing. Not that getting beaten up is good, but at least there is clarity about what sorts of people are worthwhile and which aren't. It's much worse to get the same from your family, though. The upside is, as is self-evident, you found like-minded people. Loners don't have to be alone. Got any art online by chance?

(I own two Dresden Dolls CDs and a DVD, that's the extent of my knowledge of Amanda Palmer.) I see nothing wrong with her talk, it's just about an artist providing value to the fans, being kind and generous and using current technology to connect with people. Giving stuff away for free and asking for donations? Gee, I wonder where else we might have heard of such a business model? Self-centered? Well yeah, of course it's about her experience. Who else is she supposed to talk about? I'm sure you could find a hundred other celebrity type people who are far more self-absorbed in an annoying, hypocritical manner. She produces stuff other people want and has earned rewards for it. I think if anything the talk is endearing and makes up for my annoyance and eye-rolling at her typical lefty admonition to vote prior to their otherwise ass-kicking cover of War Pigs. (She won too, as we know the saintly Obama has done nothing at all warlike during his office unlike that big meanie Bush. Yay!) The bed thing; this is completely subjective based on the situtation. Sometimes it's nice to decline someone's generosity, other times you are being insulting by doing so. You have to take that sort of thing on a case-by-case basis. Usually if someone is doing something nice for you, but you think it's TOO nice, I think it's best to decline and defer a bit at first just to establish some humbleness, but if they continue insisting then accept it graciously. No need to start a back and forth argument that accelerates into needless unpleasantness.

I don't see it as ironic at all. It's economic theory trolling on the part of the host. He didn't want to convey an idea about money, he just wanted to bait people. He didn't tell everybody that they could exchange the coin for $30 at the coin store. What you see in the video is really just the free market at work. Value is subjective. People want the tool that allows them the easiest means of exchange. A silver dollar is not that to them. You can buy whatever you like using FRNs, but try and use exotic coins and you're going to have a bad time. Nobody is interested in an economic treatise, they just want me to hand over the regular bills and they'll hand me the loaf of bread. The 'ignorant' people are just making the choice that makes the most sense to them. The man who did buy it valued it as a souvenir, which is fine too. The host assumes that his coins ought to be objectively valuable to everyone equally, but in practice it does not work that way. It's like trying to exchange tickets to the symphony with people in line for a Justin Bieber concert and smugly denigrating the fans for not taking the offer to hear The Superior Music.

I just can't decide what to do with that sweet sweet interest payment from last year's fiscally responsible savings. Do I get the candy bar, the bag of chips or a box of pencils? Ooh, I know, I can try my hand at the claw machine! Well, whatever I choose, thanks for the awesome incentive to save, Mr. Banker!

That'll be the last time she takes advice from a Stieg Larsson book title. In any case I salute the brave officer for his actions, we must stamp out members of the Silly Party wherever they are found.

Good people infiltrating and destroying or reforming corrupt systems has more to do with movies than it does with reality. It's a cop out because one person does not have that kind of power. There's no hero that will save everyone else, you can only do your small part. The messianic approach has consistently failed to improve the human condition, although it's mighty lucrative for the messiah and his cronies. The idea has to come first. Practically you can't be the one person out of 100 inside the system who wants to damage the system. But you won't get that far anyway, because if those are your odds that means the electorate hasn't accepted your ideas. If you are about ideas rather than political action you have many more non-governmental ways of spreading the word. In the age of the internet the lowest schmoe on the street has an equal opportunity to be as famous as the most powerful politicians in the world. I suggest a catchy dance tune.

Trying to get a libertarian elected into government office probably isn't the greatest idea, but Jeffrey Tucker for Pope is a campaign I could support. Are they still hiring over there?

Paying a plumber cash in hand morally wrong, says Tory minister http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jul/23/taxandspending-hmrc

Statists have selective hearing and reading abilities. e.g. You say: "I don't think roads should be paid for with stolen money." They hear: "I don't think roads should be." Get lost ya road hater!

It's a very reply-able statement, but I didn't bother with the person that wrote that. They also made the direct statement "taxes are not theft". I could have a more productive discussion with a talking budgie.

"Most people don't want to pay for fire or police.... until they are on fire or being robbed and cannot fight off the thieves themselves.If you make things voluntary, simple things we take for granted will fall apart. Highways/Bridges, Fire, Police, Power, etc. will go to shit, to start. And once they go, everything else will go.You are living in a fantasy world where magically everyone's self interests will somehow coincide into a working manageable society. It's fucking crazy, I'm sorry."

Worrying about problems in a post-government world is like worrying about what health problems you might have in the old age home after the polar bear stops chewing on your head. The problem now is that way too many people either cannot see the polar bear or think that getting mauled by a bear is good and necessary; or if you're lucky, they think it would be better if the bear didn't bite so hard. We're at a place where there is instant offense taken at any sign of conventional slavery or racism, but equally vile government behavior is completely denied and covered up. When people start having a gut reaction against the concealed violence as they do with palpable violence we can start moving onward to more advanced ideas of organization.

Until people recognize that there's no such thing as being a little bit pregnant or that having a little bit of cancer is healthy there's not much you can do. Yes, there are degrees of less evil and more evil within the system but if a person can't understand that the whole thing is wrong it doesn't pay to split hairs. Take anything the government does to the individual and have the individual do the same thing. Ask them what the difference is. Then give up when they don't get it, cause they'll probably never get it. There's a patch cable wired to their shitty high school history class, mainstream media and their lemming family members and their brains and not many other signals are getting though. Seems like there has to be some kind of seed of skepticism planted early in your life, otherwise you'll never get it.

That's a very good point. It's a social matter I suppose. For me I avoid the issue with my family because it's easier that way. Cowardly? Probably. My folks are already very indifferent about religion but we do discuss more serious religious conflicts elsewhere in the family (currently, a Jehovah's Witness\Catholic rift with my aunts). I will come out as atheist if asked, and I doubt there would be much of a problem. (My coming out about not-voting vanished like mosquito sigh in a windstorm…really anti-climactic!) Religion has always been about the superficial BS and not the core dogmas. So it's a more lightweight theism on the whole, but obviously for other people it's a major deal as you say.

But I thought we were supposed to be afraid of trans fats! (!?) If you've successfully transitioned from your religious upbringing, I think atheism should be incredibly boring. It should be something one graduates out of. I remember Hitchens saying something along the lines of not needing an atheist version of church because we don't need to be reminded all the time of what we don't believe. Religious people made a claim, the claim turns out to be false, then it's over. Check please. You don't need to join a That Claim Ain't True Club for the duration. People aren't members of a club that denies the existence of gods yet to be invented or against books that haven't been written yet are they? I don't mean to say that all the speeches, books and shows are not useful; obviously they are for people transitioning. But after you're in the club the club is no longer needed. Paradox? Hmmm.

This asteroid was clearly launched at earth by disgruntled Keynesians in the pocket of the powerful Glazier Lobby in an ill-fated effort to boost the Russian economy.

That kind of story should be dated 1513 rather than 2013. Yikes!

[ROFL]

Oh don't worry, Earnest. I'm sure nothing will come of it. I'm quite sure you haven't just painted a big red target on your forehead. In fact I bet that no one at all will do any nefarious Photoshopping to your picture in the near future! I mean, can you imagine how RUDE it would be to Photoshop Earnest's face onto something fun-making now, AFTER he's declared such shenanigans to be unconstitutional? Of course not! Perish the thought.

"City Hall" is also good. If only more rival politicians poisoned each other's wine.