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OCSL

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Posts posted by OCSL

  1. He paid less than the contractually agreed amount the last time.

    If you would have said that in the first post I would have answered differently. Ditch him (especially considering you are employed elsewhere). As for the original question, however, I still do not think it would be immoral to continue doing business with him (it is only my opinion that you shouldn't).

  2. Can someone explain the "court subpoena for Obama's long form birth certificate" that is circulating around the news today? I was under the impression the long form certificate was released.

    Here is one link: http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/07/05/exclusive-court-subpoena-for-obamas-original-birth-certificate-served-to-hawaii-health-department/

    edit: Never mind, sorry. I guess this is asking for the original. My reading comprehension failed me.

  3. What if this becomes possible? We're already getting close.

    I highly doubt we are getting close to mind reading. Admittedly, I did not watch the video since I blew out my computer's speakers.

    I understand this. My question is why a book (itself), song (itself), or invention (itself) is property. If it is, then patents are moral, but if it isn't, then patents are an initiation of force. If no one forces you to tell people about your idea, how are you harmed if people use it?

    What the patent and copyright laws acknowledge is the paramount role of mental effort in the production of material values: these laws protect the mind’s contribution in its purest form: the origination of an idea.
    To use your examples, songs and inventions are property because they are a direct product of the man who produced it. The originator of an idea deserves recognition for what he/she has done.
  4. 1. Rand said that patents and copyrights are a recognition of the idea that people have the right to the product of their own mind. Ignoring exceptions Rand did or would've made to this (children, mathematical discoveries, or a laser which is our only hope of saving the Earth from a giant asteroid on a collision course with our planet) doesn't this just mean that it should be illegal for someone to read your mind and use one of your ideas (which no one else knows) without your permission?

    I apologize for posting a meaningless reply.. but I read this paragraph in the library and burst out laughing and everyone looked at me. Those crazy psychics are stealing my property!!

    To contribute to the thread:

    How is telling someone they can't use an invention someone else came up with not an initiation of force if the person who invented it willingly told other people about it?

    Isn't it also an initiation of force to tell someone to get off of your property? Property rights exist to protect individual's property and those laws need to be upheld.

  5. Isn't the telephone guilty of the same thing? Or even writing itself?

    Maybe, but in a far less significant way. When you talk on the telephone or write a letter to a friend, I doubt that many people say less than if the person was standing right in front of them. Facebook, however, champions the use of short responses (replying to status, commenting on photos, etc.). This isn't a bad thing at all, but it is definitely different from talking on the phone or writing. If you compared two people who talk on the phone each week, to two people who use Facebook to communicate I would assume there would be a huge difference in how personable their interactions are.

  6. I don't really have a problem with Facebook itself, but the insistence by my peers, family, and even one of my teachers that I sign up for an account (as Steve mentioned above). Facebook does combine a lot of things into one as Sirius mentioned above, but I do not see what I can gain from all this since my phone already does the same thing (e.g. contact list, email, instant message, picture messaging). As for the others, I honestly have no interest in seeing pictures of my friends daily events, I'd rather hear them tell me about them. The biography that Facebook provides is largely irrelevant since I would assume anyone who is your friend would already know those facts. I would say my social life is moderately active, and to this date, I have never experienced a need for Facebook even though almost everyone I know is constantly using theirs. I have nothing against Facebook and the second it proves it can increase my productivity I will sign up. Just my two cents.

  7. *** Mod's note: Split topic from here ***

    *** I'm taking Grames' suggestion (below) to split this out into a separate topic. -sN ***

    I have trouble seeing it because I have no facebook account.

    It gets tiresome when people assume everyone has one.

    Very true. I swear I'm the only person at my college (teachers included) without a facebook.

  8. This is from 2000 but I'm under the impression his views are currently no different:

    I’m a conservative on most issues but a liberal on health. It is an unacceptable but accurate fact that the number of uninsured Americans has risen to 42 million. Working out detailed plans will take time. But the goal should be clear: Our people are our greatest asset. We must take care of our own. We must have universal healthcare.

    If you guy weren't already jumping up and down in excitement about him possibly running for pres...

  9. Forwarded from the daily objectivist newsletter he subscribed to, each one had a title like "George W. Bush, Genius"

    I'd like to see that one.

    The author does not even grasp the definition of selfishness according to Objectivism. How could her father have understood the philosophy if he could not impart that simple fact on his daugter over all the years he apparently talked to her about the philosophy?

    Seeing how everyone in the comments agrees that this is the "typical story" is mildy annoying.

    I've read Ayn Rand, and I find it fascinating that her "followers" have found enough substance in her writing to base a life philosophy on.

    This is especially irksome. I've been studying O'ism since May and I still don't feel like I have a full understanding. There is plenty of substance.

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