fractional slacker

The word is meaningless in philosophical terms. It's like racism. It's used a means to demonize political opponents. Try defining the word apriori rather than ex post facto.

Has a secular man ever asked that question?

"Although the ideology of the EZLN reflects libertarian socialism, paralleling both anarchist and libertarian Marxist thought in many respects, the EZLN has rejected[4] and defied[5] political classification, retaining its distinctiveness due in part to the importance of indigenous Mayan beliefs in Zapatismo thought. The EZLN aligns itself with the wider alter-globalization, anti-neoliberal social movement, seeking indigenous control over their local resources, especially land." They are a collectivist group trying to free themselves from the collectivist state. Having zero philosophical opposition to collectivism means they are merely expressing an aesthetic preference to form a different hierarchy. They don't oppose central power. They want power. I wouldn't consider them a model to follow from a rational perspective.

Is honking the horn an act of aggression? I observe this almost daily, that someone will use their horn as a weapon of anger rather than a means to avoid an accident. The former being aggression and wrong and the latter being useful and good. Another way of looking at this issue is to compare it to shouting. Shouting at someone without provocation is aggression, while shouting at someone to alert them of danger is courageous. My question is if someone uses their horn to be aggressive with you, what, if any, aggression is acceptable as a defensive measure?

I have as much use for the APA as I have for the DMV.

There was another Republican debate last night. The Drudge online polls shows Bush pulling in all of 1.4% with Trump at 37%. Consistently less than 2% = persona non grata. Adios amigo.

To me this guy is like the Donald Trump of fast food. He makes a big splash. He doesn't have a lot of substance, other than he is eschewing the PC/pop culture non sense, for which people literally eat up like there's no tomorrow. I wouldn't have any use for his cafe save the spanking thing. That's what I am talking about! May I have another, please?

Like many have already noted, the detail, workmanship, and presentation of infographs is outstanding. I plan to print some and place them in laundromat in near future. I would like to offer a skeptics point of view/criticism, not of your particular work, but of using reason and evidence in general. Metaphor Stef often uses: problem with ethics is you are selling a nutrition book to healthy people. And the same can be said for any serious topic whether you are using text, infographs, animation, audio, or video. The problem is reaching those who A) have had no interest in the subject, or B) reaching those who have been indoctrinated by public school or culture. Accepting reason and evidence (philosophy) is often a threat to one's self interest. The best way to overcome that barrier is very difficult to figure out. I don't know if that's helpful, but it's my two cents.

They had a vote. Men will NOT be allowed to use women's rest room. Looks like hate won, AGAIN! I have a dream that one day the gender of people will not be judged by their physical appearance, but by what they feel their gender is. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/opinion/in-houston-hate-trumped-fairness.html

Her channel has been deleted. If you want to see her getting attacked for her decision (largely by angry vegans), look up Essena Oneill on youtube.

Maybe it's a ploy for different source of revenue due to falling numbers. Maybe I am a sucker for crocodile tears. Who can be sure. What I do know is the youth is obsessed with trivial, superficial, flashy, bells and whistles of false connections via platforms like Twitter, Instagram, etc. This young woman seems to be pointing that out. Having won the social media lottery, that says something of her character I might suggest. The last 30 seconds says a lot to her rambling confusion give her inspirations include the likes of Eckhart Tolle, and Brene Brown. What if she were persuaded to pursue self-knowledge and philosophy instead of new-age gibberish? It's a long shot, I know. But if you take her at her word and she is sacrificing a lot of money to find happiness, it's not out of the question.

(Wanted to post this in "Future Topics for FDR" forum, but not able to for whatever reason. Feel free to relocate post as necessary.) Very attractive young woman from Australia uncovers and reveals the sadness she felt and experienced as a a social media star. Is now calling for her "followers" to reject vanity and live in the real world. Also interesting to see she is rejecting advertising revenue in favor of donations. Would love to hear her interviewed by Stef, if possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyI2Sugw6Yc

Declaring yourself "porn free" is interesting, but I'm not sure how that has any bearing on your ethical status as a moral agent. Plenty of good and healthy people consume porn, and likewise plenty of non virtuous scoundrels refrain from porn. Furthermore, porn has no objective definition, and hence is not subject to the laws of logic. Philosophy can not apply to the consumption of or the absence of porn. It's simply an aesthetic matter. Irregardless of how sausage is made, or it's negative health effects, declaring you no longer consume sausage does not make you healthy.

A few abstract questions regarding the OP situation might be: Is virtue always better than utility? Do you owe everyone complete honesty in every situation? Are all lies the same, or are some worse than others?

Right? Occams Razor. It's like a doctor making more incisions because he has mad stitching skills. webdever, yeah, I was a little disappointed Woods gave this guy softball interview. It was practically an infomercial AncapFTW, It's like no one has ever heard of inflation. dsayers, the Woods interview attempted to address the moral objection. It's convoluted as hell starting with Zlwinski saying "If we assume the welfare state is here to stay,..."

Can a good/real libertarian support reforming, or possibly expanding, the welfare state instead of eliminating it? BIG is basically just "granting" every citizen a check, sometimes referred to as a negative income tax. The "government" writes you check with no strings attached. You spend on whatever you desire. It sounds like economic lunacy. I know. But it seems to be gaining some traction on the right now. http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/08/04/matt-zwolinski/pragmatic-libertarian-case-basic-income-guarantee

Another example of MBS - murder based society. http://www.examiner.com/article/eight-observations-on-the-death-of-irwin-schiff

You nailed it when you pointed out these folks are fundamentally detached from reality. They attempt to use logic and biology to prove logic and biology don't exist. They are petulant perpetual victims who can't stand the thought of not garnering constant attention for being victims. I am sure there is a word to describe what happens to society when modern civilization enables village idiots not only to live long lives, but to continue infecting the gene pool.

And Rousey gets another KO in 20 seconds! Guess the egalitarians will have to find some other punk they can bitch slap with their feminist garbage.

Anti capitalism masquerading as anarchism. Gee, that's a new one. This "solution" reminds of what's going on in Putin's Russia where his henchmen have been ordered to go around destroying contraband food imports. Meanwhile his people, while not quite starving in the streets, struggle to pay their food bill. Don't even get me started on Venezuela.

I realize the K-Klan are not the cause of society's woes. They are a symptom. The K-Klan gets a thorough literary thrashing for their vice and conniving ways in the following article - one of the best I have read. Will this be the turning point for which the public rejects the K-Klan? Will the near death of Lamar Odom be the straw that breaks the dystopian reality, chaos promoting, lust filled back of the collective K-Klan media empire? What say you? http://nypost.com/2015/10/18/how-the-kardashians-destroy-peoples-lives-for-reality-ratings/

Last night waded into the murky waters of trying to define mental illness a priori. A fool's errand perhaps, but nevertheless we gave it the college try. A few related, and just as difficult, questions we dipped into. What is the opposite of mental illness? What is consciousness? How could we separate effects from causes?

I see a lot of unsolicited advice to the OP. Why?

If a parent doesn't know of sexual abuse are they responsible for that? In the abstract, the answer would be no. In the absence of knowledge, there are no choices or responsibility. The question would then be is the nature of lacking knowledge of abuse caused from being uninformed, ignorant/oblivious, or malevolent? The incentives to feign ignorance cannot be underestimated or ignored. If there were only one minor incident of abuse for which the child was not substantially harmed, it would be safe to say the child could fool the parent into believing nothing is wrong. The parent could claim plausible deniability. At the extreme opposite end of the abuse spectrum where the child is exhibiting classic signs of abuse by withdrawing or acting out, a parent could not claim plausible deniability. At some point along that spectrum, the parent flips from benevolence to malevolence. Pinpointing that spot without context is nearly impossible.

Do you favor equality? Or do you favor discrimination, sexism, racism, transphobia, homophopia, etc? That is the gist of a Houston ballot measure to be voted on in near future which would allow men who self-identify as women to use women's restroom. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/5/houston-transgender-bathroom-bill-debate-centers-o/