tasmlab

I recently officiated (more like emceed) an atheist wedding. We spent some time on this, and the vow/declaration isn't just between the two getting married, but an inclusion of the entire family/friend circle. Sort of "We're really serious about our relationship, think it will be sustaining, and would like your acknowledgement and support." We even had some repeated vows that the audience had to repeat and agree to. We later had them all sign a document. In a stateless society, I believe it would still have the functional value it has now in organizing probate, assigning inheritances, custody of children decisions, etc.

Anecdote: In my (my former) town of 17,000 a tight mayoral election was determined by two votes. My wife and I, who didn't cast a ballot, could've turned the whole thing. On a small enough scale you could probably make the case that at least change can be affected (strictly a consequentialist argument). Of course, the new mayor didn't lower taxes or cancel public school or anything. If my neighborhood association of about 50 homes had a vote, I'd probably want to do it.

I think Libertus' answer is probably the easiest, but the Dude could also fly down on his chariot and show Himself. Turn some water into wine and get the party started.

I was surprised at how happy this made my atheist friends on Facebook i.e., they were congratulating the pope and thinking this was an admirable thing for him. Like the church is finally going to be reasonable. But if the pope is going to say it fits into the framework of the Bible, than he is either wrong or lying. The creation story is pretty clear and any dummy can read it. If he can import any meaning into the Bible than the Bible is junk. I'm guessing this is a move to preserve revenue and keep the pedophilia factory running and funded.

Even if one were to concede to every one of his points: - How does this link to what is in scripture? It runs against it (dude is a Catholic) - Per Ray H's note, he would be powerless - A consciousness doesn't have to be assigned to it. - No moral content has to be assigned to it. The real question is "Why is he trying so hard?" or, for that matter, why does Acquanus? (SP)

Purely my opinion, but excessive tattooing signals to me a certain kind of recklessness or disdain for the self. Like you don't care how you may be different in 10 years.

http://tomwoods.com/blog/no-youre-not-a-dummy-for-believing-in-god/ I like Tom typically. He and Stef have been interviewed on the same show. He talks about how some atheists are fine to look over his belief as something we can ignore and roll our eyes at. To which I was like "yup." I listened to it, and I can't recommend that anyone else should. It's a pretty insane rant that he insists is on irrefutable logic.

Feast on this FDRers! Entertaining and relevant, and probably some misplaced ideas. http://fckh8.myshopify.com/

I'd suggest anything out of Studio Gibli. Animated features with wickedly complicated plots, puzzles about right and wrong, wonderfully fantastic. Nothing particularly libertarianish, but authority (and often the government) is almost always the villain. "Spirited away" should blow your hair back. "Princess Mononoke" and "Howl's Moving Castle" are both superb. (Mononoke is a bit bloody/violent, but my kids love it.) The entire catalog is worth watching. Half of their titles are in the general i.e., adult list of IMDB's top 250 of all time.

Bully! Congrats!

Being honest and expressing your needs may have been a mistake. I don't necessarily mean either is bad, but prospective employees have to "sell" themselves to their employers, just like a salesman has to sell a product. Everything has to be on fulfilling what the buyer wishes and the value they will get. You pretty much got it here, unequivocally: "The hiring manager is looking for people happy and motivated to perform the assigned role. " That's it and all of it. All said, maybe this will give you a chance to find a really good, elegant match, where the employer WANTS somebody with somebody who wants more/different in the future.

A little lost here is how CEOs are paid. Their base salaries are often not that big (sure, way bigger than most folks, but not the bat shit numbers they end up with) Most get equity and make massive chunks from selling their privileged shares/options of the company on the stock market. The super-charged stock market, which itself is propelled with the average Joe being forced into it with 401Ks and having to beat inflation, means that much of their money is made not from the profit margins of the company but from the public. If one is skeptical about the role of governments and our financial cartel, I would say that there is something a little sinister and unjust about CEO compensation. A company could feasibly keep stock options and keep them as margin, but the CEO is an agent of the board and the shareholders, and giving him/her stock is both without risk and a great motivator to keep share prices going up. The lefty ire towards CEO compensation is misplaced to be sure. We should WANT successful CEOs to be very well paid. I think if you got rid of the government, had private money, and right-sized the stock market, compensation would be a fraction of what it is today. (Armchair speculation from stranger on the internet)

I'd recommend renting and not consider buying before wife and kids come along. Even then I'm not sure. Nothing to do with investment or equity, but young people should value mobility, whether they need to move in town or out of town for a job, find the love of their life elsewhere, or simply get a girlfriend they want to move in with. As an investment, houses go down in value too. I lost $140,000 last year on the house we owned, not counting having to buy a roof, a hot water heater and having it painted, about $25,000 in expenses just with those three items. We also decided to move and it took us over 2 years to sell the home, massively stalling our plans. After 14 years of home ownership, we're happy renters now. Working and saving are smart things to do, but don't forget to have some fun. You are only young once.

There's a sticky thread just to address this very phenomenon: https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/533-for-our-religious-friends/

I'd first recommend something that really helped me: creating plans. Sit with some paper, a word file or excel sheet and write down the different categories of things you'd like to work at (career, money, relationships, wife, family, hobbies, home, etc.) and just write down what you'd like to see happen. Then pick some interim steps that are easy to achieve. Spend a few minutes each day mulling it over. It isn't a solution in itself, but if you have a bunch of poorly defined ideas all competing for your active brainspace, it can be very frustrating. Some organization might help. Mine is an Excel sheet with about 30 different tabs, with categories ranging from personal finance, to business ideas, to weight loss, books I've read, philosophical quips, plans for my employees, etc. The file is named "lifeplan.xls" and I have it as a permanent icon on my computer dash. I started it when I began planning to start my own company 10 years ago, and it worked out.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HSS5xujeRaY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(Me: successful business owner with completely useless college degree) If you don't have to pay for school and you are enjoying it at all, might as well finish and have fun. Have a beer and chat up some girls. Maybe start a rock band or something. No risk, can be a great time. If you've got a product ready to go, go ahead and launch it and see what happens. If you flame out, you can always finish college later. No risk, unless you burn through tons of cash with the business. In my personal experience, I needed about eight years in the workforce as an employee to really figure out how business worked. Maybe you're a natural, but for me it likely would've been a disaster to invest any serious money in a new business right out of school. Good luck! Check out Praxis at www.discoverpraxis.com. It's a libertarian college alternative that focuses on entrepreneurship. It's hard to get accepted though.

My older two moved out around 3.5, our three year old (and change) still sleeps with us. All three, even the nine-year-old, while fine in their beds would still prefer to sleep with us if asked. Probably about once every 2 or 3 weeks we'll spend a night co-sleeping i.e., my son and I will sleep in the guest room and my daughter sleeps with mom and her little sister in the bedroom. My older two often decide to share a bed too. I don't know what the right answer is, just sharing personal experience.

Is she counter help or a manager? I guess the former, being only 21 years old. A McD's store manager makes over $40K/year and likely has benefits. http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/McDonald-s-Salaries-E432.htm

I think a secular homeschool adult will be a rare species indeed. I'm not sure I would make the decision based on the anecdotes of those you find, although I'm sure it will be insightful to some degree. You don't a society-sized sample of those who weren't homeschooled, secular or not. I've visited this discussion board a few times. You may be able to cast a wider net for your search. There's some decent stuff on there anyways: http://www.secularhomeschool.com/forum.php (Me: secular homeschooling my children, raised as Christian and PS'd)

It's a truly awful game, but when my daughter was three we'd play "Disney Princess" for Wii with her sitting in my lap. I would hold the controller and she would hold the numchuck. The only action she needed to do was shake it when it was time, so it was simple and safe enough for her to do. We got to do plenty of talking, reflecting on the game and hugs/contact. It was very nice. Very feminine though. My boy didn't care for it.

That video was better than I expected. I'm raising two Minecraft addicts right now. Glad they are going to save the world.

Unschooling is technically illegal in the USA too. At least in my state, and I'm guessing the laws are similar in most if not all. Fortunately, the homeschooling laws make it an easy law to ignore.

My youngest daughter when approaching 3 seemingly for weeks would just shout at me "go away, daddy! Go away, daddy!" every time I approached. She's stopped after a while. Do you play WII with your son? My kids and I play wii together daily. We just finished Wind Waker together (they are older, 6 and 9). Three is pretty young for most games. Kirby returns to dreamland and smash brothers were good games for when my boy with on the older half of 3. Wii sports.

Sounds good to me. Sign me up! I really really don't want to die.