J-William

Great isn't it? They tell you that something is the most important thing and you use it forever… And then they don't even mention it ever again. That's the state for you, if it was worth learning in third grade then it should of been worth learning in fourth grade. Honestly I think they came to the correct conclusion but I think they came to that conclusion about 20 years late. If you want to learn cursive, or another quick way of writing then you can do that in your own time, no need to waste everyone's time with that. It's the sort of thing that you could learn in a few weeks if you decided you needed to learn it.

Depends on what you mean by repeal. Certainly Kennedy Coolidge and Reagan lowered the income tax rate. But it is a fine question… For example there were a lot of tariffs imposed in the late 20s that contributed to the Great Depression, as far as I know those tariffs were never repealed they were just made irrelevant by various trade treaties. I suspect that you may be able to find one or two taxes here or there that have been repealed but nothing significant.

I got about three on the aces. My parents were mostly neglectful and violent, they didn't drink or do drugs or go to jail… And down on their resilience scale I got a depressingly low score. So in terms of life and recovery being very hard I think that even if you got zero aces that if you also had a low resilience score then you would not be very healthy. The listed resilience factors should be a base line that a child should start with... I mean goodness, you should absolutely feel that your parents love you and you have people around that can help and talk to you when you're upset. I damn well think you have a right to expect that as a child...

I take it you are not trying to make a case for mysticism. If you want to know about the origin of mystical experiences then there is a good deal of scientific literature on the functioning of the brain. They have recently been able to discover regions of the brain that when stimulated produce feelings of being at one with the universe, or other common feeling associated with myetical experiences. Beyond that I would suggest to you that you be more careful in your thinking. Because you use terms that do not have any meaning. Such as scientific awareness, or everyday existence. Those are vague and nebulous terms that could mean almost anything you wanted them to and are therefore meaningless. When we talk about mysticism what were talking about is things that are contradictory. Such as the effects of matter without matter or consciousness without a brain for the consciousness to be in.

Frankly a messed up child needs the solace of a well trained therapist and years of help before they are not dangerous. Stefan commonly points out when one parent leaves the children with an abuser the flawed logic that the adults couldn't handle the abusive partner but they think a child can handle that abusive partner. Well it is often the case that trained professionals cannot handle abused children so why would you think that a child could handle an abused child better than trained professionals? I think that addressing that analogy would be helpful, and I've got a boatload more analogies for you. I'm also pretty sure that I'm not letting my child play with knives or HIV contaminated drug needles or broken glass or rabid dogs… Damaged and broken children are just one of many dangerous things in the world that you shouldn't let your child play with. Life is hard and it is especially hard if you're growing up with abusive caretakers, but that doesn't make it okay for me to let my child be put in a dangerous situation. And don't get me wrong playing with an abused child is dangerous. Because even if they aren't violent or abusive they can infect your child with their way of being and coping with their environment.

You have presented a beautiful example of someone who cannot think. If they could think then they might have realized that what they are talking about for the most part is government contracts, and whether paying for the cheapest government contract or a more expensive government contract is a better way to get quality out of the government contract. I mean talk about not striking at the root of evil… That's barely even taking a feather duster to the leaves of evil. If you are going to be conflating the free market with competition for government contracts then of course you're going to make all kinds of ridiculous claims. But it's a little bit like a five-year-old who just put on his soccer cleats and shin guards trying to go up against Michael Jordan in a game of basketball. He couldn't play the game even if he was getting ready to play the right game.

It looks like smart businessmen think alike. I mean look what has become of AOL, they had a completely closed structure and now they are… I don't even know what they're doing right now. Also, I feel like everything he said is right. being able to use their patents won't help a big car manufacturer who would have found their way around the patents. Patents are a small hurdle for big manufacturers, but more importantly they are a HUGE hurdle for small companies. Tesla has done a relatively poor job at making affordable electric cars. So if this move can inspire a bunch of people to make electric cars in the garage and start their own companies, then somewhere in that group of people will be someone with an amazing idea will make electric cars viable for the masses. And if Tesla is worried about competition then they can just buy that car company up and incorporated into their company. It saves time and money that they would be spending tied up in litigation, and they won't be killing off the next great idea.

Stefan has said repeatedly to not donate if you don't have the money, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't want people feeling guilty about it. Also if you are a student you probably have some time you could spend promoting the site on other websites, or something of that nature. I'm sure you can do just as much good with time spent promoting FDR as you could with a small donation. So this isn't really about FDR or about donating… So I will assume that you are smart enough to figure those things out. Can you tell us about your history with guilt? And maybe your history with money?

I don't personally regard it as a big issue I can spell fairly well mostly as a result of reading a lot when I was younger. I think being very good at spelling is a useless skill. Now it is useful to be vaguely serviceable at spelling because otherwise spell check won't know what word you want. But I think that anything that a computer can do vastly better than you is best left to the computer. I don't spend my time memorizing Wikipedia or a dictionary because I've got a computer to do that. Or a phone in my pocket. I live in China and honestly most of the Chinese people I know are forgetting how to write Chinese characters well because they just use the computer. The great thing about English is that spelling makes no sense so there aren't very many rules and what rules there are don't do you any good because you can probably remember how to spell the words that follow the rules, and the words that don't follow the rules don't follow the rules… So learning the rules will help you to spell those words. If you really want to learn to spell well you will need to read a lots or spend a lot of time with lists of words practicing to spell them. I'd rather spend a lot of time reading, at least that way at the end of this process you would have done something useful.

That looks just like the show jackass. But less friendly and more nihilistic… I'm sure it's popular amongst all the young broken men who have never learned about empathy. I had a friend in high school who was a big fan of jackass as well as horror movies. I'm fairly certain that fans of these videos are not big into self knowledge.

Oh yeah, cuz you just know those gay men wandering around cities in assless chaps are promoting rape... Unless you mean man on man rape, and then you'd be saying "he asked for it" which is an argument feminists don't like. I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh, and he used a term that I feel is more and more appropriate: feminazi. Anyhow, Somehow I don't think racial profiling would be something your average feminazi would approve of. Because even though black men are men, we probably should be sensitive to the racial issues of black men... Gender profiling on the other hand, they are all for that!

I think this was the entire basis of the show House. He was willing to break rules, noses and piss off people in order to save lives. Doesn't seem different in terms of hurting people. I'm sure that Adolf Eichmann was a perfectly agreeable gentleman, and he took part in killing millions. Of course. It's the less agreeable people who are willing to disagree with a powerful people and groups. I mean Socrates wasn't terribly agreeable, and many people find Stef downright disagreeable.

Sounds great to me!

Haha, that's pretty good. Dawkins has enough sense to point out the facts. Though if he really wanted to piss them off he should submit that Ayn Rand is a very popular writer and social justice warriors should be happy about that.

Sounds about right for a lefty, and presumably a marxist... pretending to care about the poor while riding on the backs of the poor in a cushy position that poor people are forced to pay for... Marx would be proud!

Wow, he sounds like a garden variety psycho! the kind you need if you are going to kick out the old gang leader and implement your own gang... If you look at Che through the lens of someone who believes that being accused of a crime against communism means you must be immediately punished by death... Well then calling Che a bloodthirsty murderer is a "lie"

They have religious awards? Wow... I was a scout for years and I didn't even know that (I may have seen it in their book and merely forgot about it...)

I agree with the general sentiment expressed by others here. As a geologist working to find more and better sources of oil you will be bringing huge benefit to mankind. The fact that anyone who benefits mankind draws the lamprey of the state to suck out their life is no moral reflection on you. Someday it will be a different story, but don't take the moral stain on yourself. We need every hand we can get in this fight, and if you're worried about how the sins of others reflecting on you you can't be in the fight all the way.

How's that orgy of nationalism called the world cup going from the perspective of a freedom lover in Brazil?

Here's a little secret about the boyscouts... It can be almost anything you want, depending on the troop you're in. So for instance, most scout troops are tied to churches... depending on which part of the country many of them just use the church space and don't have much god in their troop. But some churches (like mormons) use the scouts as a branch of the church and as a point of recruitment. So, saying that... the real rub is if you live somewhere that has good alternatives like the mountaineers then I'm sure you can find some very good boyscout troops that don't push god and country. On the other hand, if you don't live somewhere like that... then your luck will be worse. When I was a boy I was a member of two different scout troops. The first was in a not terribly conservative city, and the troop was attached to a church with very nice facilities and there was very little god in our troop (plenty of country...) Our family then moved to Texas. In Texas I tried out several troops that were attached to various churches. the mormons were a big mormon club that would be happy to welcome me to their club... and other troops were heavily pushing the religion angle as well. The troop I finally settled on did not push the religion angle, and the church they were tied to did not interfere. In fact we were stuck out in a rundown building out back of the church and I never once saw the church open while we were there. The big problem we had from not being tied strongly to a church was that our facilities were lousy, and our troop was very small because it didn't have the supply of church members. So, if you've got a kid... I strongly endorse camping and outdoorsy stuff. Boyscouts can be a way to do that, but go in with eyes open and shop around for a good troop. Or join another organization that isn't so questionable in their beliefs and practices.

I hear FDR is hiring if you have good ideas and know how to work...

I don't either, but I was looking at Twitter and was vaguely surprised that some group called ISIS is the bad guy in Iraq now... So they're apparently some jihadist group, but not really related to al queda... but I don't really know. Obama is going to bomb Iraq to support the government... or maybe they won't. I'm sure all of the dead Iraqis would just as soon the US government stop trying to "help".

Is anyone truly surprised by the mess in Iraq? it is so predictable, I predicted it back in 2002-2003, and I'm no world-spanning genius of international relations. I mean I have cracked a history book, so maybe I am a genius compared to any of the Bush neo-cons or Obama's administration... I wish I had more to say on this, but I remember before the war that neo-cons were saying it would only be like 500 billion dollars. I talked to my father (who considers himself a libertarian... make of that what you will) and he scoffed at the idea that it would cost trillions of dollars and turn out to be another Vietnam. It wouldn't have taken a Ludwig von Mises to keep Iraq from falling into chaos. Any third rate Austrian who'd read a little Adam Smith could have kicked the economy out of its' coma. But predictably the US keynesians drove that horse straight into the mud. It's so grimly predictable, and the causes are so... mind-numbingly boring. Tolstoy said that all happy families are alike, but he was of course completely backwards. I doubt he ever saw a happy family. All dysfunctional families or groups are grindingly, painfully similar. They are completely predictable like a lousy made for TV movie. I can tell you without even looking that the left blames Bush and the right blames Obama some idiots are saying it would be worse if the US didn't invade... and the US government is going to back the current guy until they get tired of him like they did with Diem in Vietnam. ugh... It would be funny if it weren't for the rivers of blood.

Hey, I'm not from Russia, but it's lovely to meet you!

I'm curious how you ended up in a situation where a homicidal 14 year old was attacking you? Wow... that letter is intense. it's also... almost incomprehensible to me. I mean at 14 he must have been at least 6 foot or very nearly... You'd think even as dumb as the stepfather was he would have been able to process that a 5 foot man picking a fight with a 6 foot teenager is not going to end well. It's a wonder your uncle didn't kill him, especially by the time he was old enough to join the navy. I mean the amount of hate he must have felt plus the difference in physical size and strength. When he says they "asked" him not to kill the man he must mean they threw themselves between them so he wouldn't kill him. I think this relates to the recent show where Stef said that he does feel something for his mother, and that's why she's "not fucking dead!" Maybe that's the love he mentions at the end of the letter.