John
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Posts posted by John
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I have never understood how people can ask for answers for concretes in their lives.
I'm sure it is similar to how people ask for answers for abstracts in their minds. It confirms the logic and builds confidence in a conclusion. What could possibly be wrong with that?
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Should a resident of CA recycle? I have been thinking about this and decided to start recycling. My situation may be different from others but here is why I came to this decision after moving to CA.
I buy bottled water because it is convenient and I live in the desert (I'm not used to desert water at all) so I'm going to buy bottled water either way. The first time I bought a case of water I though I was getting a great deal $2.99 for a 24 pack, but then I saw the tax. It was explained to me that the tax encourages people to recycle in CA. So, here I am paying this tax for every bottle of water I buy. I can either not recycle and pay the tax or recycle and at least get my money back.
Here are the reasons why I decided to recycle.
I get my money back (very important to me)
I take money from the state that it depends on (after all, most people probably don't recycle everything)
There are reasons not to recycle as well
the state still gets income from the plastic an metals turned in (I think this is true)
it takes time to turn in (but this is worth it to me 10min/2weeks)
I'm open to change my mind on this if anyone can convince me that recycling is a bad choice in this case. Let me know what you think.
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Hey what is wrong with raw milk. Look at #14 http://www.modernpaleo.com/principles.html
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I like this post. Opinions are full of uncertainty and not knowing true facts can lead to terrible decisions.
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I understand that Official-English would protect businessmen and limit government's expense. I think I can make a good argument for those but I'm stuck on how Official-English would not apply to a proper government. Wouldn't it make sense to use a common language?
I also think, the goal of the Official-English movement is to get everyone to speak English, not just in government, but in the daily life. The ammendment may be a stepping stone to regulations in business as well.
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So I want to be clear, here. Are we talking about proper government policy, as in an ideal political system, or are we talking about EO13166? Or are we talking about the proposed Constitutional ammendment?
If we're talking about proper government, then there should be no worry about the government offering all languages and restrictions on business practices--regardless of whether we have an official language or not.
I think it would be easier to talk about government as it is now. I mentioned EO13166 because the ammendment would squash it.
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I've had two problems so far. I may just be blind but I can't set my country to Afghanistan because it's not in the list. I've also had a problem with the chatbot kicking me out because of an invalid IP. I'm using windows on a virtual machine which is running on linux.
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This is a false dichotomy, meaning there are many more choices than those even if you confine government services to mean the morally justified functions of government. Suppose you only speak Mandarin, then surely there are other Mandarin speakers in your community who'd be willing to help you fill out forms and such, or some would provide such services for a fee.
BTW, the US government does provide visa forms in Spanish in the US Embassy in Mexico. The personnel that receives the applications and conducts interviews also speak Spanish. Tourists aren't required to knwo English in roder to be allowed to visit America.
Of course he could. he could also if English wasn't the official language. Again say you speak only Mandarin and come to my store to buy something. I'll try by sign language and much pointing to figure out what you want and how to charge you for it, but if that means neglecting 10 other customers in the meantime I'll likely ignore you. Even if the store is empty at the time, if I can't figure out what you want, then what am I supposed to do?
I think I understand what you are saying, so maybe I should clarify what I meant. First our government is required to provide services in foreign languages (EO13166), and money is already being spent in this regard. If English becomes the official language the US is passing the expense of translation to those who don't speak English. I believe, for writing this paper, I have to decide between supporting one of these arguments. As far as a businessman is concern, EO13166 may be used to accuse him of discrimination based on language. At least, that is what I gathered from the website.
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Thank you, everyone, for you responses. The paper is for writing 101 at UMUC. For now, it only has to be 1,000 words, but later in the class it has to be upgraded to 2,000. The problem with the question I picked is, I have to argue for or against amending the constitution to make English the official language. It's a decision between forcing people to learn a new language before receiving government services or forcing the tax payer to pay for the added expenses of a multilingual government. Yet, I'm not sure if a private business would be able to refuse non-English-speaking customers if English was the official language. I'm going to look up the proposed amendment and read what it says. Thanks again.
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Not even close. Yes the military is funded with stolen money but there is no way that a soldiers taxes pay for his training. I've been on courses in which I "spent" $20,000 in a single day.
This is interesting. With the tax free benefits of being deployed, in 2007, my taxable income was so low that I was refunded all of the taxes I paid that year. The military definitely passes the bill to US citizens.
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I'm trying to do some research, for a short paper, on the debate over making English the official language in the US. Does anybody here know of any sources I can use for this?
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Darn, I guess I'm the only Objectivist in Afghanistan. Thanks for making this group!
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I've read in an interview that he also has ADD. I can imagine how this would piss off a lot of the elite writers. I think it's great that he could overcome such a problem.
Sorry I looked it up. It was actually a form of dyslexia.
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I imagine another reason why he's hated by the speculative fiction elite is that he reportedly broke into print by sending the manuscript of his first novel to a publisher, who read it and immediately offered him a quarter of a million dollar advance. That kind of seemingly effortless success at becoming a top-tier genre author probably sticks in the craw of the many writers laboring in the mid-list.
I've read in an interview that he also has ADD. I can imagine how this would piss off a lot of the elite writers. I think it's great that he could overcome such a problem.
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Hey I'm John! Don't you mean jonkc (the one who made that post)?our feminotheist friend John might even prove that GOD...
umm...yeah your right. I thought it was funny at the time because the article was trying to show that some other thing determined our actions.Isn't that the whole science of psychology? -
I have a question about the study from the original post. Could it be that the brain activity that caused certain actions was the subconscious? As I understand it the subconscious produces those automatic responses that the study is describing. Also the subconscious is programmed by conscious values (or it could default to emotions). So the article only proves that the subconscious exists. I think it would be great to see a study on how the conscious programs the subconscious.
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It looks good to me. Is there any similar objectivist meterial that is not in online form?
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You should read this article from the same site. The author gives up on molding science to his emotions and just starts quoting from the bible for evidence.
He explains that a physical concept of god is "alien to the Bible and to common sense" It's obvious that a concept is "alien" to the bible but what about the "common sense?" There is no answer in the article. The funny thing is that there is no mention of faith as the answer just a blank out.
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I believe this was covered in the discussion already. There is no difference between stealing CDs and downloading illegal music. The "actual items" you are referring to are the songs you are stealing from musicians. The digital information is irrelevant because it is the sounds the data stores that are intellectual property. The fact that the musicians thought of the songs qualifies it as their intellectual property. Copying the music is immoral because it denies the musicians right to their property, which is their only means of sustaining their life. A caveman would only have a right to the fire that he produced not the right to all fire ever produced. A caveman would also have the right to trade or give away his product just as musicians do.
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If I value something in nature such as oil and I obtain it without initiating force against others it is mine. How would I explain this to other rational people? What are the principles involved?
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I see what you are saying. It's a good idea to always have something thought out before you post. I'm starting a few word docs that I'm going to write then post. I know of another good way to get content. You could subscribe to newsletters for just about anything and everytime you get one you could post what you think about it. I just got one from the ELF where they try to defend "water rights" by blowing up a water pumping station. The idea is to get some news and write an objective evaluation of it.
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Thats a good idea. I'm going to start thinking about things to write about to get some content on my site. I've also signed up for blog snob and blog shares. Right now I'm almost worth 500,000.
By the way do you have a blog?
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After studying the role of a director more I now agree with you. The director can agree with the writer’s ideas or he can change it. The written script for a movie is a complete work of art in itself. The director takes the ideas from the script and judges if they should be in the movie and if they can be better (unless there are legal issues).
My problem was that I thought the director got his values from the writer without making any judgments. This is wrong. He does make judgments and if he doesn’t like something he changes it. The same can be said of a director in music.
PS: Sorry I didn’t reply sooner. I’ll try to keep up on conversations I get myself into on this board.
Should a resident of CA recycle?
in Ethics
Posted
I would do that if I had to pay for garbage. My appartment complex takes care of that for me. When I lived in Washington I recycled to save space all the time.
claire, I'm not sure how to respond to you. This was a pretty simple post that outlined my reason to start recycling. I've already though about it an made the desicion. I posted it on here to see if anyone agrees with me. I'm not a clone asking for orders!