FreeLogic

If a man murders another man and the system of justice (the principle) requires that he be executed for his crime, wouldn't the act of execution (the act of applying justice) to the man be a concept instead of a principle? If a concept is a mental storage center for objects, events, and ideas wouldn't the application of the principle of "justice" be in-itself a concept?

I've heard of this concept before. My question is what's to stop someone with devious intentions from using this technology to stop people's cars and harm them? There are many cases where a car is a safety device such as using it to getting away from people chasing you for malicious reasons. It's a good idea if you could confine it to only police use, but that would be very difficult given the technology available in our society today. People have cracked the keyless entry systems using wireless laptops. The same could and would eventually be done by similar means.

I'm twenty-four and someday hope to be as smart as I thought I was when I was sixteen. -Wes

Sorry, I meant to edit that out of my post, but I missed it. Originally I was trying to emphasize how we have been recording music from FM radio stations almost as long as they have been around. It didn't really work. It's totally irrelevant. In some ways I can agree that dowloading music on the web hurts business. What I don't agree with is a situation like the one at XM. They just created a new mp3 player/recorder called the Inno. It allows you to listen to XM and then record songs on the player. The RIAA is suing them because they claim that it infringes on their distribution rights although the recorder operates exactly like an audio cassette system from Best Buy, only with flash memory. I'm trying to understand where this subjective law concept is coming from. I see their though process like this: Prostitution is illegal. If there are more women prostitutes than men, then it should only be illegal for women to be prostitutes. Since there's not huge populations of male prostitutes (or we just simply don't know) we shouldn't really care about that. The argument is one in the same. Since we can track the downloading of files, we should make it illegal. Since we can't track it on the radio...we won't worry about it. -Wes

Why is downloading an mp3 file to your iPod any different from recording an FM radio broadcast using a cassette tape or audio input line to your PC? For years broadcasters have been pumping the same, repetitive music down the throats of the American people and for an equal amount of time it has been recorded, traded, mixed, and played by hundreds of people on audio cassettes. Where was the great legal battle when this was going on? If I download an mp3 file of a song I really like I can be sued by the RIAA. If I record the song from an FM or XM broadcast then nothing will ever be said. Do you think if the RIAA had a way to track how people were copying music using cassettes that they would still not care about it? I think there are good arguments on both sides of the fence. I just wanted to add my thoughts to the topic. -Wes

I play the violin, paint, write short stories, and love to read. Occasionally I've been known to partake in karaoke. There are plenty of things to do, as stated above. -Wes

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. OPAR is sitting on my bookshelf and is next on my reading list. -Wes

I'm not really sure what kind of science fiction you might be into (hard sci-fi, or star wars type), but here are a few suggestions for branching out: Camelot 30K by Robert L. Foward: A story about a mission to a planet in the Oort Cloud home to a mideival-style society of shrimp-like aliens called Keraks. This one was really neat and has a very surprising ending. Cold as Ice by Charles Sheffield: A story about a submarine operator chosen to explore the hydrothermal vents on Europa in search of life who finds out that he's being set up for something much bigger. EON by Greg Bear: A story about an asteroid that appears in Earth orbit in the 21st century that was home to an ancient race of Russians, Chinese, and Americans. It's one of those American/Soviet Union Cold War science fiction stories. Very interesting, but be warned it's a little slow getting started. Hope this offers a few good suggestions. -Wes

What I mean is that I'm new to being aware of it as a philosophy in itself. I have always seen things in a different light than most people I know, and I had never found a philosophy or group that my personality traits fit into so well until I found out about objectivism. I was raised as a Christian, but turned away from the church long ago. I just couldn't find a rational reason to follow what I saw as pointless dogma. I learned about objectivism from reading Atlas Shrugged and The Virtue of Selfishness. Since then I've been reading as much as I can about the philosophy to learn more. I guess I consider that I've been an objectivist for a very long time, I just never realized it. Thank you for the kind welcome. -Wes

Hello Everyone, I'm relatively new to the concept of objectivism although I've been living many of the basic principles of the philosophy for some time and didn't realize it. I'm very interested in learning as much as I can and hope that I can also contribute something around here. -Wes