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For anyone who still has any doubts about Sam Harris's hardcore religious beliefs (statism), here's an article he wrote in 2011 on taxation, wealth inequality, unemployment and "voluntaryism" http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/how-rich-is-too-rich/

So this is a 3-hour debate between two religious socialists who worship the State above all else arguing over whether Islam is better or worse than Christianity? Hmmm...

It's good that you came to this realization so soon.

I don't know enough about the moon landing to make a comment on it, but I love how they claim that they found an intact passport in the WTC rubble from one of the terrorists who was supposedly aboard one of the planes. I also love how BBC reported that WTC 7 had collapsed 10-60 minutes before it actually did, and there were only a couple of tiny fires in it and no sign that it would collapse at all. Like your example from the moon landing shots, stuff like this is what you would expect to find in the "goofs" section of a movie at imdb.com. It shouldn't happen in real life. To me things like this tell me that not only the people in power are doing all this, but that they are laughing in the face of the public. It must be really amusing for them to see how the masses keep making excuses to justify (or ignore) things that cannot be justified, due to fear and conformity.

I don't believe him for a second, and if you had any self respect you wouldn't either. This guy tried to drown you for fun, FFS!! https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/40914-i-need-to-talk-about-these-things/ The "you're doing this to hurt me" is a typical reaction from a narcissist who believes everything is about them and they are perfect, but anybody else's feelings and experiences are irrelevant other than as means to manipulate and gain some leverage. If you're talking about how he hurt you, and he believes you're doing it to "get back at him" there is absolutely no chance that he has repented what he did to you. It's you who has to modify their behavior, you see? You are the one who is causing damage, his actions were perfectly ok. He is showing a complete lack of empathy for you, but faking it at the same time by telling you that after all, he is sorry. Well, saying "I'm sorry" doesn't make up for years of torture and repeated attempted murder. Not in the slightest. I don't believe you can ever restitute someone after causing so much damage. But even if you could, the fact that he believes that saying he's sorry is going to make it all ok shows that he doesn't have any plans for restitution as he doesn't even recognize and own the immense damage that he's caused you.

Interesting. I never thought about this pattern. Don't be surprised if it goes up to $200 in one or two years, though.

Three karaoke adapted songs from the same artist(s), done in 2010: (lyrics in description if needed)

I know, right? I mean it's ok if they don't know or never though about it, but they're always so aggressive. I've been called "evolutionist" as a derogatory attribute many times, and it's never been by religious fundamentalists. It's always been by feminists and other LGBT "progressives".

There's a difference between becoming so used to years upon years of abuse that they embrace it as good or a necessary evil yet rarely if ever talk about it, to something that just happened and they not only think of it as good, they think of it as something that makes them a more valuable person, to the point that they're bragging about it so much that everybody in the school knew.

If the guy was bragging about it after the fact, clearly it was not rape. It is important to define your terms consistently. I bet you would be the first to condemn feminists who have consensual sex while drunk and then cry rape because they regret it the morning after, and you'd be totally right. There is no way that a drunken 18 year old gal has better judgement than a sober 16 year old guy. Age and sexual consent is a complicated issue and I don't want to claim to know where the line in the sand should be drawn, but when you throw around terms like "rapists", you are devaluing what the term actually means. From what I saw in your link, I don't think that what these two women did is at all comparable to actual, forcible rape. The fact that they were his high school teachers may make it worse than it otherwise would be, because it is similar to a prison guard having sex with a prisoner. And if you were making that point, I might be willing to consider your point of view. But you're not, are you? If you were, why would it matter that one of the women was 32? And of course, this took place outside of the school's premises, so that is also a point to consider if you were making that point.

Of course fraud is immoral, by any standard definition of morality. If fraud isn't immoral, then I fail to see how anything would be. And it's not just about stealing. If someone sells you lemonade with poison in it but doesn't tell you about the poison, then they just engaged in fraud with the intent to murder you. If someone sells you a pair of Nike shoes that isn't really produced by Nike, then you may never figure this out, but the shoes they sold you weren't what you agreed to pay for, and that is fraud as well, and it is immoral also. Obviously the first example is much worse than the second. There are other examples of fraud that don't involve financial transactions. For instance, a woman has sex with you and tells you that she've been taking contraceptive pills every day for over a year, but she lied, then she defrauded you also, and that is also immoral. The key to fraud is to enter into an agreement with someone else using deceit, absent which the other party would likely refuse to enter into.

No, he provides countless historical examples.

Yes, read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Democracy--The-God-That-Failed-Economics/dp/0765808684/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412247673&sr=8-1&keywords=democracy%2C+the+god+that+failed

A fighting chance? A fighting chance for slavery and statism. Democracy is the worst possible system of government, and increasing it will only bring further pain, suffering and chaos.

Hong Kong has done as well as it has precisely because democratic elements are more limited there than in other countries around the world. The protestors are zombies begging to be enslaved more than they already are. Voting does not make one free. Democracy and freedom do not enhance each other, they are in fact strict opposites. If anything, many of these protestors want not freedom, but free stuff. In a free country, nobody should have the right to vote on what crimes can be committed in their name and against who. These protestors are not people you want to admire or emulate, to any degree. You should despise them instead, for they are devoting their time and energy to the purpose of further enslaving everybody in their country, and by ideology, also the rest of the world.

I can't even pretend to know what it's like to be tortured. I don't know if I could survive something like that. I was so horrified reading your story, that it took me a week to be able to come back to this thread and post this. You are a very brave man. And your bravery was evidenced also when you stood up in front of that preacher and the crowd of zombies and told it like it is. Like your friend realized, it might not have been safe for you to do it, but it was certainly a very good thing to do. Those people's lives will forever be affected by that experience, and even if they don't change their wicked ways, they will never forget you. Especially the children, if there were any around. You can take comfort in that. That doesn't mean you should look for these situations in order to stir things up, but you should be proud about what you did. You should also be proud about your ability and determination to turn your life around even after experiencing such utterly horrific things, and being raised to become a monster which you refused to be.

You're welcome. Not necessarily. If the value of the real estate will be going down, that means you open yourself up to the possibility of owing more money for your property than it's worth, even after putting a down payment and paying your mortgage for years. If you can get a mortgage that's lower than what your rent would be, this may make some sense (though not necessarily because rent can go down based on market conditions, and your mortgage can only go down due to inflation). This idea that renting is a waste of money really only applies if not only mortgages rates are low (and rents are high), but also the value of real estate is appropriate and will either stay the same in the future or go up (and the price of rents will also either stay the same or go up). If you expect it to go down significantly, and/or mortgage rates are high (or unpredictable, such as with adjustable-rate), then it's buying on credit that's a waste of money, and renting is the money saving proposition. Because mostly all State entities worldwide have given all sorts of incentives for people to take mortgages and buy plenty of real estate, the price of real estate worldwide is highly inflated. I don't know where in particular you live, or where you want to buy real estate in, but this phenomenon applies almost universally, to different extents. There are many ways to invest. Unfortunately in this day and age, with global record-high inflation rates, and global interest rates at record lows, you can't simply rely on savings like you could do through most of human history. You have to invest, otherwise your savings leak value by the day. So you either have to learn how to invest, or find someone you can trust who can invest for you. If you want, send me a PM and I can give you some ideas. Well it's up to you, but in my view, a certificate or degree is just a piece of paper with your name on it. It has very little if any real value in the market. Very large companies with inefficient hiring programs, or smaller companies with clueless owners who have no idea how to hire, will rely on these papers to make a decision to hire you or not. But this is generally not the type of work you want. A good hiring program makes for a good work environment, good pay and an overall good job. And under those circumstances, nobody is going to care about what papers you have (unless for legal reasons). They will care about your skills, knowledge, work ethics, experience, etc. And of course, if you want to start your own business, then you don't need any degrees. (except in some specific areas where the State requires it)

https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/39445-401k-dillema/ Unless you can get a fixed rate, 30-year mortgage at a very low rate, just rent. You'll be saving yourself money for when the real estate bubble pops. This also has the added benefit of keeping you mobile should better opportunities or necessity arise to move somewhere else. Just buy the cheapest thing that will fit your needs. This will vary upon what your needs are. If you also need to make an impression with your vehicle (to girls, potential business partners, etc), then that's also up to you to consider. Whether to borrow for it or not depends on the rate you're getting, but if the only way you can get an expensive vehicle is by borrowing for it, I would make pretty darn sure that the benefits outweigh the costs. Consider how much money you'd be saving by buying a used car versus brand new, but also consider the potential risks if the car suddenly needs a lot of maintenance or totally breaks down. If you don't know anything about cars, and don't have anyone you can trust to help you out here, I would consider buying brand new to prevent headaches. But it also depends on what the price difference is. Where I live, there is little difference, so it makes no sense to buy a used car unless you're buying it from a friend or something. Make money now, invest it wisely, and it will pay off big time when you're older. Forget about formal education, it's a waste of time and money. Learn your skills while working. Whether that is working for a wage, as an unpaid intern, or in your own business. You can always research and study things in your free time. Professors can be useful, but you don't need someone to tell you all the subjects you need to learn, in what order, in what time, and in what way.

I'm sorry about your childhood dveb. It's not easy to see all the psychological harm that this kind of pattern causes. Especially because just about everybody grew up in some sort of similar or worse situation. Having a tooth pulled out is bad, but it's the sick behaviors and lack of an ability to make healthy connections with others and with yourself are what is truly terrible. The good news is, there are things that can be done to heal and remediate these problems, and thinking about them is a very important step. If it's helpful at all, this is a somewhat related thread from a year ago https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/37481-rethinking-radical-unschooling/ About talking to your parents about these issues, it's not easy, because you know how they will react and respond, but at the end of the day it's about asking the very straightforward questions that you are asking yourself. Why did they do this instead of that? And so on. Ultimately it is the conclusions about your relationship with them, and the shattering of the fantasies that you had to build to explain away certain things, that keep you from talking to them about these things. If you've yet to read or listen to it, the book RTR can help a lot here, the wisdom and illumination contained therein, of things that are so simple, yet so rarely talked about, cannot be overestimated.

Hi Aleksey, Could you expand on that? A few years ago I saw a news item where a Russian politician said it was legitimate for a private citizen to use defensive violence against a police officer who was carrying out a criminal act. It seems to me that in the financial industry at least, there is little in terms of laws and regulations. I don't know about taxes, though. And is there a lot of welfare? I don't think the russian State is taking on a lot of debt at least, I could be wrong. And how is inflation? And private crime? And do you see the general trend for these things getting worse, or better? What are the general sentiments about capitalism and liberty versus control and safety?

Has anyone considered moving to Russia in search of freedom? They've gone through a lot of economic liberalization since the days of the USSR, and it looks like this trend will continue. Thoughts?

He kept taking all sorts of nastyness from this guy and kept interacting with him.

Ah come on, this has got to be a joke. I don't believe it. Not that there aren't people who are that crazy, but this doesn't sound like one of them to me.

For crying out loud man, what took you so long to stop communicating with this person? Rather than posting a warning about them, I suggest you try to spend more time thinking and considering how you behaved in this interaction.

Well you can't trust State agents. And democracy is the worst possible form of government even when there is no fraud. But if there are significant suspicions and there is a second round of voting and the yes win, I will be glad for Scotland and the world.