BlackHeron

I am sorry to have miscommunicated that this was not a traumatic experience for PetrKL. It most certainly was a traumatic experience. If what I said made it sound that it wasn't then it was my fault in not explaining myself well. It's NEVER the child's fault when a parent and a child do not connect. It's not the child's responsibility to be initiate communication or even to convey their needs. I was simply attempting to state (poorly it seems) that it sounds like PetrKL was unable to connect with the parents and to be able to express the hurt and confusion at what was seen during the night and not understood. That's not the fault of the child, there is something lacking in the parenting somewhere that made it hard for PetrKL to come to them and talk about this traumatic experience. This is something that the parents should have noticed if a child was scared, hurt, and afraid after seeing something. That's their job. Kids see things all the time that they don't understand and they should feel comfortable coming to their parents and talking it through. The fact that PetrKL did not feel comfortable doing this points to what I feel is the real issue. Lack of connection and compassion on the part of the parents. That's their job, and I think that they failed PetrKL here in a time of need. I'd like to express again that I did not mean that any of this was the fault of the child PetrKL, or that the trauma of this event was not real. I meant that this should have been a non-event in a healthy parent/child relationship if it were handled by people with real parenting skills.

I think there is a difference between people having sex when they thought the kids were sleeping and "putting on a show" and getting off on involving others into their sexplay, especially having had to get the other girl liquored-up first to "break the ice" so to speak. It's like the difference of a family that embraces casual nudity around the home, and someone getting into the face of a child and fondling their junk right in front of them in an aggressive manner. I am sorry and empathize that you were confused, scared, and ashamed by what you saw your parents doing as a child, and that you did not feel close enough and connected with your parents to be able to talk about it with them and allow them to help you understand that you didn't do anything wrong and that what was happening was a natural thing and nothing to be ashamed or scared of. They should have noticed that you were upset about something and needed to make you understand that you were safe and they never meant to frighten or alarm you. Instead, because they didn't do that, you were scared and ashamed and couldn't talk to them about it. I can imagine that may have made you feel very lonely and all alone in the world at that time, and long afterward. I think maybe that this might be the real source of your unease about this memory. Perhaps the issue of a possible lack of connection with your parents on their part, leading to your inability to talk to them about what was bothering you.

The worst thing about this whole incident is that has mostly blown over in the news already. For a minute there I thought there might be some real public outcry out there among the muggles. This speaks volumes about just how sick society has become in the USA. If this isn't enough to get people to wake up, what is? Probably nothing.

What about religious anarchists? -The ones who don't want rulers on earth but have pledged themselves to be slaves to some sky fairy in the supposed next life?

The "Free State" project... There is no such thing as a "free State." At least as far as statism is concerned. It's a contradiction in terms. The only state of freedom occurs in voluntaryism -somthing the FSP-ers aren't quite ready to embrace. Back when I was a minarchist I joined the FSP, thinking perhaps there was some way to save the "republic." I"ve grown beyond that in the last 15 or so years. I never bothered to remove my name from their list. Why bother? I simply realized that Statism is not the answer. Violence and coercion are not the answer. It seems that the FSP people haven't quite figured this out yet. This little dust-up with Chris only highlights the fallacy of (big-L)ibertarianism. To see the People Farm is to leave it -not try and improve it, or attempt to negotiate with the masters for better care and feeding.

It is Turtles all the way down.

Statism is a religion, but people won't admit this to themselves even. At least a regular religious person knows it is a religion deep down, while a statist doesn't even know they have been brainwashed -which is what all religions basically are: brainwashing. Religion and statism both are just a microcosm or a projection of traumatic childhoods being reprocessed and re-lived. These people grew up brainwashed and have spent a lifetime normalizing aggression, violence, and force in the form of authority. It's classic conditioning and Stockholm syndrome. None of them are going to be an easy nut to crack. They have a massive buy-in that no simple logical discussion is going to make a dent in. Until we can get people to stop hitting their children and break the cycle of violence/force kids are going to grow up morally/ethically challenged and without sufficient empathy to grasp UPB and the NAP. So debating with a statist or a religionist is like trying to get into a foot-race with the kid born without legs. It's just not a very satisfying endeavor when the legless guy is not ever going to be able to run, and the irrational brainwashed person is never going to learn how to really think. What is the point?

I've found the spandex-hate to be more of the same thing we are talking about here. There is a reason why serious riders (not just racers but distance riders too) wear it. We know it looks funny to the muggles, but we don't care. It works. Riding in street clothes for any time/distance gets extremely uncomfortable rather quickly. Short rides of under 30 miles without decent gear is bearable, but once you start riding for more than an hour or two it pays to have on the spandex. But it's easy for the unwashed masses to be scared and offended by anyone who dares to dress differently in public for any reason...

I think this quote wins the entire internet for today, if not the entire year.

I still get a lot of flack from folks who feel that not watching TV is threatening to them. I'm not "fitting in" with society. I'm pretty anti car and anti roads. I do own a car though. I can't always ride my bicycle everywhere (although I try) but I need to commute between Chicago and Madison, WI once a month or so. A car is not all that expensive when you know how to work on them yourself, have the tools, and drive a mid-90's Japanese-built quality automobile that was designed and constructed to last forever when properly maintained (340,000 miles and counting) Being in my late 40's and married, and not needing full-coverage insurance keeps the costs down quite a bit too. Liability-only for my age/status/clean record is a pittance. Paying full coverage insurance on a new $30k+ car that the bank owns is very pricey, more so if you are a dangerous lead-foot with the citations to prove it.

Wikipedia: When a metric ton of NaCl isn't enough grains...

I do understand where you are coming from kalmia. I don't like the idea of calling the po-po myself and would try to avoid it if there was any other viable alternative. But sometimes it is like driving on the roads. Sure, they shouldn't have been built but it's the infrastructure we have. I've tried flapping my arms as hard as I can and can't seem to fly and air-cars are not commercially available yet. So what are you going to do? At some point even an ethical voluntaryist needs to interact with the evil system. The game is rigged, but unfortunately it's the only game in town and our choices are pretty limited in some situations. Kobayashi Maru. When it comes down to some kid being abused or holding my nose and calling the pigs, I guess the kid is more important...

For The Win

Metric system FTW! I can see how this happened though. Bad data in the databases. Poor record-keeping. Cutting of corners. Standards not being followed, etc. Mistakes like this do happen in the free market, but they are self-correcting and the folks that make them PAY for them. I wonder if anyone is even going to lose their job for this one?

There are anarchists and there are anarchists I've tried to read a bit about what WH has had to say in the media but I'm still not sure what "flavor" anarchist he is. That's the problem with Establishment Media. All we get is spin from those guys. I would love to hear Harrelson on the show and furthermore I'd love for Stefan to help plant a seed into his mind of a more pure philosophy-based anarchism to whatever degree he is willing to listen.