Clay

I made this one a couple of years ago. I like to use it right after Statist positions have been exposed for what they are, in online forums.

So, I was listening to Bill Burr's Monday Morning podcast in my car tonight, and one of hte listener emails brought up the concept of "Human Farming" and suggested Stefans "Story of your enslavement" video to bill. I'm not sure how to embed on this forum, but here's the youtube link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AQP82pTlyQ Bill doesn't sound like he watched the whole video, or got the message at all, because he really had a problem with Stefans tone and how he was communicating the ideas. His whole rant that he went on really had nothing to do with any of the content in the video, and he mostly seemed to be attacking straw-men. If you don't know who Bill Burr is, he's a comedian. One of my personal favorites, actually. His "Monday Morning" podcast is all about him giving people advice, and in his own words, the joke is that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

Can't figure out how to embed youtube here... but here's the link from peter joseph... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaP2GJvZlWY&feature=youtu.be Note from Peter Joseph: "I would like to say I value Mr. Molyneux's perspective with respect to the outcomes he intends with his notion of a "Free-Society." His intelligence and ambition is wonderful. However, during the course of our interview I was deeply disappointed with his perpetual ignoring of the central themes put forward with respect the underlying causal nature of the market, its inherent limitations and structural consequences. I will also say that it bothers me deeply how such antiquated market ideas are still ever popular and, again, while I respect his intents, he persist as very much a part of the problem, not the solution when it comes to the serious public health and ecological problems facing the world today, sourced in a distorted value system reinforced by the dominant and outdated ethos of market capitalism in all forms. Perhaps a further conversation can be put forward as I didn't get to touch upon 60% of what I wanted to. Many thanks for Stefan's time! " ~Peter

I thought this was pretty astute... what do you think?

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqiusfrKWZc&feature=youtu.be]

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZnTxsA9_8A] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZnTxsA9_8A

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and advice! It really helps alot. @StephenC You're right. It's a story, and not a short one at that. Long story short... my dad was hyper-critical of me as a kid, and whenever I even questioned/confronted his behavior... well... it didn't turn out so well for me. I can only imagine that's where my fear of confrontation stems from. @TheRobin Thank you for the perspective here. That's very helpful. I'm definitely going to use this "math" to try and ensure that all 3 of us find the terms to be agreeable. @vista_davis I think you're right about that one line "she won't even be around the house that much, compared to you," being a bunch of BS. That may have been what caused me the most anxiety out of hte whole conversation. Something about the way he said that, didn't sit right with me. It almost made it seem like they were looking for any excuse to get cheaper rent, rather than finding good reasons. I think it's possible that he hasn't really thought it through, and he just sort of blurted it out. I can't blame him for not seeing it differently though, since I didn't even bother to question or challenge him on it. I'm going to though. The questions you asked are very valuable to me. Thanks! @ribuck I definitely could accomodate the rent being a little cheaper for her, without feeling like a pushover. I guess, it really comes down to the fact that I just want to make sure that my feelings are taken into account, before a decision is made. I have a history of letting people take advantage of me, because I don't speak up for myself, and I want to make sure that's not what happens here. I agree with you, this does sound like a potential win-win situation. @David Bockman My room mate is the original renter, and the 1 year lease he signed in the beginning hasn't been renewed, so we're just on a month-to-month basis now. The landlord is happy, so long as she receives her $1100 every month. She has no problem with the arrangement, as far as I know. Thanks again everyone! So helpful!

I'm currently splitting a small rental house with one of my best friends and our 2 dogs. It's a small 2 bedroom house with 1 main room, 1 bathroom and not much else. I've been here for about 3 months now. Anyways, he mentioned a while ago that his girlfriend might move in with us, and he wanted to see if I'd be okay with that. I told him I wouldn't mind at all so long as she pays a third of the rent. He never objected at the time, but tonight they asked me how I felt about her moving in real soon. I basically said the same thing, and they challenged me on it this time. They made the case that it should be a little cheaper for her, since they are splitting a room. Also, she works 2 jobs and I work from home so they used the "she won't even be around the house that much, compared to you" as a reason to reduce her rent. I didn't really say much in response, because well... the conversation made me a little uncomfortable, I'm afraid of confrontation, and have always been a bit of a pushover (trying to work on that)... I like them both, and am very good friends with them both, and wouldn't mind living with them both, but I can't help but feel like this proposal is a bit unfair to me. If I'm going to make a case against what they're saying, I want think it through first so that I have good grasp on why I'm feeling this way about their proposal. I'm tired of being a pushover, but that part of my brain is telling me to just accept their terms to avoid any confrontation. I'm having trouble even articulating why I think she should have to pay equal rent. Maybe my feeling are wrong about that... I don't know. I could really use some insight, guidance or criticism. Thanks!

That's a good point, and for some reason I hadn't really considered that.

Why? I guess, just as a piece of anecdotal evidence, It doesn't make a good case for the educational benefits of unschooling....The opposite, really. A couple of her kids seemed pretty old to not be able to read such simple words, to me. I was pretty shocked by it... Reading is such an essential skill for learning, and it takes a good amount of time to develop. I don't have kids, but When/if I do I think I will make efforts to encourage an early interest in reading, so they start developing that skill at a young age. Some of my best and earliest memories of my mom are when she helped me learn to read story books before bed. I was way ahead of everyone in my school in reading ability by the time I started public school, and I've been devloping the skill ever since. I've always been thankful for that. So I guess that personal bias is part of why I was disappointed. Another reason I think I was a bit annoyed by Dana's kids lack of reading ability, is because I knew how authoritarian parents who watch the show will use that to confirm their bias against unschooling and peaceful parenting, kind of like how the other mother in the show did. She outright called it child abuse, which of course, is completely absurd, especially coming from someone who uses threats and coercion to control her own children. But yes, the fact that Dana's kids couldn't seem to read well, at all, was a bit disappointing and shocking to me. Am I alone in this? I hate to focus on this negative aspect of the show though, because I really love virtually everything about Dana's parenting style.

I enjoyed watching that. I love Dana and her philosophy on parenting. In contrast with the authoritarian mother from the other family, she and her family came across very happy and inspired. I liked how Dana was always eager to point out how cruel some of the other families rules were. She's pretty brave, and doesn't hold back at all when it comes to speaking her mind, even when the father was in the room with her. You can see how the children really appreciated the way she spoke to them like equal human beings, and how she apologized to them whenever she had to enforce one of the stupid authoritarian rules.... It was almost like they didn't know how to react to it, because they had never experienced it before. That made me sad. The other mother really made me angry. In particular, that part where Dana's son said the word "dam", in a casual conversation... and she basically said "if my kids were to curse, they're liable to get a smack in the mouth". Ugh... One thing that threw me a little off guard was when none of Dana's kids appeared to be able to read the "cycle" label on the dishwasher... that was disappointing to me. Other than that though, it was great.

I'm not sure if FDR would be interested in interviewing a politician, but Daniel Hannan is basically like the EU's version of Ron Paul. Here's a great little speech he gave to Occupy Wall Street, in defence of Capitalism.