Mammon

I had a friend who said it did the same thing and said "You're obese!" and it pissed him off. Not like, seriously, he still laughs about it. But, it's like "Geez, fuck you too Wii!"

If they treat innocents the same, wherever their borders fell, does it make them any different? What have you done to fight for your freedom today?

That was me.

Here's some food for thought. Do you know which country in the world has the most Muslim inhabitants? Answer: India! Yet, with the exception of the recent attacks in Mumbai, there aren't suicide bombers, beheadings and the assassinations like in the Middle East. Why is that? Well, I'd say it was because of the culture of India, which is more tolerant, homogeneous and focused on mutual corroboration then the culture of the Middle East, which in more rural primitive areas is focused on pitting yourself against others who aren't like you and being totally inclusive. In short, culture matters. Some cultures produce more scum then others.

He is right, there are cyber-stalking laws. This is really what I was trying to get at earlier about creeping the girl out. It's sad, but true. Let David handle it.

He is right, there are cyber-stalking laws. This is really what I was trying to get at earlier about creeping the girl out. It's sad, but true. Let David handle it.

Well, to some people a troll is whoever disagrees with them in slightest. So, I'm willing to let some lesser obvious ones hang around for a while to see what's really up.

I agree with Adrock's point about the government being involved in everything. And one of those things is the financial system, obviously. I have no problem with people taking the money. If our system wasn't weakened by eroding government intervention over the years, the private sector would of done something similar in order to avoid bank failures, like J.P. Morgan did a long time ago. I think the mistake being made by people like Zip above, is that they perceive a bank failure as a regular business failure -- which it isn't. If a car maker or glass maker goes out of business you lose some jobs, and only the people working directly with the company will be really "hurt." When banks fail, you run the risk of losing your entire financial system and with it, huge swaths of your entire economy. That's the case under our current system. It wouldn't be nearly that extreme in a free market, or a freer one. But over time it just becomes more and more unstable. This entire bail-out didn't and wont solve anything. But it could buy some time, if nothing else. Time to come up with a much better alternative and to begin implementation. In short, I don't condemn Allison either.

Do you just assume everyone in Gaza(and the Middle-East) is a blood thirsty monster waiting to kill Jews at every moment? I think a lot of them are undereducated, poor and hungry. They look outside to try to find the source of their problems, rather then inside. And that's a perfect opportunity for exploitation by ideologues, Islamic or otherwise. If you can convince some people that working with Israel is better then hopelessly attacking it, then you've nip part of the problem in the bud right there. What's this fuss about interpreting Objectivism differently? I do a lot of things differently.

Always the crafty investor eh? I'd advice against trying to find her on Facebook. Not that I don't feel for her. But, we are all strangers here and my experiences with these situations leads me to believe that people view it as creepy if strangers start PMing you about random stuff. Woman especially seem to get creeped out, regardless of intentions.

You've said several times that you don't know why they don't stop when they are defeated. I think I have a clue at least. I think it has to do with humiliation and it's place in Muslim culture. If you talk to any Muslim about the issues we are talking about, you might notice that they mention humiliation a lot. I've noticed it when talking to Muslim friends and co-workers. There is a feeling that, compared to the rest of the world they are slagging behind and aren't going anywhere. The feeling of desperation, hopelessness and humiliation is exploited by the idealogical leaders of the region like Yassar Arafat and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It's the same kind of situation young Europeans were in after WWI, but combined with a different cultural context. I'm going to divert a little bit and address this issue specifically. Because TW mentioned it in the way he did, I think that illustrates an observation about Objectivist's and their views on foreign policy. I can sum up the thinking of many Objectivist's views on the subject as something like "The rest of the world be damned!" or "world opinion be damned!" But I don't think that the people who say such things really take into account how interconnected the world is, and how globalization is shrinking our world and making us all highly interdependent on each other by spreading the division of labor around the globe. Why doesn't China destroy Taiwan? Because China and Taiwan are part of the same supply-chains for larger American, Japanese and European companies. If these emerging markets and developing countries show signs of political instability then investors leave their shores quickly. So it's within everyones interest to keep from killing each other. This why Pakistan and India's tensions have become diffused multiple times in recent history. No one wants to fight a war, they want to pick up the phone and help Americans figure out where their luggage got accidentally shipped to. We've got to worry about what the rest of the world does because the rest of the world produces so much of the value we enjoy on a daily basis. That includes Israel. How does all of this have to do with Israel? Well, for starters, some of Israel's neighbors like Jordan have begun to get on the globalization ball. So some stability has been brought to the region. But for the most part the Arab and Muslim crowds don't have these kind of problems. They've got oil wealth, so they can do whatever they want. They don't have a stake in the world really. This is why I think it would be best for everyone to just put the guns down and pick up the cranks in a factory or phones in an office. Get them to work together and collaborating and it will be for the best for everyone. The world, especially the Middle East has to be convinced of this, or else they will fall more behind and their problems will get worse. In short; we can't forget about the rest of the world.

I think The Wrath hits on a good point. No matter what Israel does, it doesn't seem to help them any. I think a war of ideas need to waged first to diffuse the opinions that make that possible. I'm going to go on a limb here and suggest Israel do nothing, actually. Let the Palestinians attack them over and over again and they can reverse the sympathies, perhaps. Of course it's not that simple. If Israel destroys Gaza, their neighbors will destroy or attempt to destroy them. The case needs to be made against Palestine first before bombings should be brought to the table.

Welcome to the forum! Feel free to contribute whatever you can and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Excellent point, but allow me to take a cynical, pessimistic position here and ask, When has anyone cared what the Constitution says on anything? On the flip side maybe it will be stricken down in the Courts because of the ex post facto.

Well, Fox likes to air dirty laundry. It's what their audience wants. If you look at the Most Read section on their website, about 50% of the stories are about sex, scandals and celebrities. There's no surprise there. As far as the woman calling down the wrath of Fox News, I don't see any evidence. We don't know how the network got a hold of this story only that they did and they reported it. As to the motivation of the woman, maybe she wants some sort of legal action taken on her behalf? It's probably not a nice feeling to know a place you once trusted is about make public the things they asked you to trust them with. Sure, it wasn't the smartest move on her part. But I don't agree with the churches actions, although it seems like the most logical thing a church should do considering the nature of their services -- to bestow and exploit guilt and ignorance. Are there people who are very dependent on others? Yes. How this particular story shows people are more dependent on the State, I'm not really for sure. But if you want to deeply psychologize you can make whatever guesses about the motives you want here. Fox didn't have to run the story. The woman didn't have to tell anyone. The church didn't have to be a bunch of douches. Well, scratch that, churches always have to be horrible. I don't know her motivations. I think the whole thing is stupid all around.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2...warren_d-2.html As strange as it sounds it's true. I wouldn't pick Rick Warren for anything, let alone swearing in a new president. Unity is nice and all, but this one makes me personally cringe. I'm almost tempted to say I'd rather have Rev. Wright. If only for the ridiculous irony. Ideally I'd prefer both men to stay as far away from the capitol as possible. Rick's in California and he should stay there.

The Manga is about ten trillion times better then the Anime. There are no fillers, which are distracting and actually misrepresent the characters in my opinion. The art works a lot better because it's in the original black and white which sometimes doesn't translate to the anime very well. It's a lot more enjoyable, and you can easily find the manga online to browse through.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNew...E4BG4N920081217 Obama is Time's Person of the Year. The prophecies are coming true!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/20...ml?nav=rss_blog I think it's interesting that some of the Republicans are choosing not to smear for once. Definitely a wiser move on their part.

What about investigating securities fraud and the like?

No, I think he was just out to make a quick buck on the ignorance of a lot of people.

The problem with that is -- how do you figure that? You'd have to establish some convincing causes and effects there. I don't think it's enough to just say it out right like that. Like "well, more people will starve when the bail-out passes!" That's a stretch for most.

Say that being unemployed doesn't mean being unemployable. These people can still work and make money to eat. And with $75 an hour you have plenty of money to save up in case of emergencies or being laid off.

http://www.amazon.com/Logics-End-Robinson-...2306&sr=8-1 This books is supposed to use fiction to prove evolution wrong. I couldn't think of a more appropriate name then the title of the book "Logic's End" I consider it more of a warning then a title.

I think "public good" means good for everyone on some level. Was the law supposed to save the lives of everyone in the state, or just the dock workers and truck drivers? It might prolong their lives, but it's going to make it harder. Which I find ironic.