Wapsi Square Forum

It isn't the institution of the government which is inherently evil, it is abusing the system by those in charge that is evil. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that. As long as governments use force to extract wealth from innocent people, or compel innocent people into actions not of...

Did you bother reading what I just wrote? Without taxes, we end up subsistence-level tribal people, incapable of supporting the population density seen in most countries. Perhaps you need to read what I wrote. I never said that we shouldn't have government. In fact I explained why - in spite of gov...

I won't say that government is inherently evil, nor that it cannot function without violating people's rights. Having said that, most governments have done so in the past, We generally regard it as evil to demand, under threat of force, that someone hand you money for no stronger reason than becaus...

I say government is inherently evil. It cannot function without violating people's rights. The best, most virtuous government that could ever govern humans would still be evil. We put up with it because people are sometimes evil. We hope that government will be effective in restraining and undoing ...

It is NOT - or, at least, not JUST - the outcome that determines whether a person, or an action, is virtuous. Well, it's looking like there's general agreement that virtue requires verb activity to be accomplished. OK, then, let me warm up a fresh skunk to toss into the arena: Is Virtue an absolute...

And what if the third man, upon learning that the job involves counting the gold, goes to the master/employer/whatever and says "I will be so tempted to steal some of your gold that I am not confident of my ability to resist. Please assign another to this task, and perhaps give me their work i...

There USED to be a rivalry between University of Texas and Texas A&M University, but UT decided to pitch a hissy fit when A&M declined to buy into UT's shady recruiting practices. So now A&M gets to square off against Alabama every year instead.

The concept of virtue means succeeding in the face of difficulty That's a very reasonable definition, Shneekey, and I think it's not uncommon. So, I suspect that a fair number of people would agree with your analysis. It isn't, of course, the only definition of "virtue"... and that's wher...

Honestly, and with the realization that this is just my viewpoint and I am well aware that few would agree with me, only the second would be considered virtuous. The concept of virtue means succeeding in the face of difficulty. Succeeding where there is no difficulty is no particular virtue, because...

Some Noise.

Mmm... not sure that would work, the whole 'case plugging into phone and jack plugging into case'. Pretty sure if you have the case plugged into the phone, it'll make a permanent closed connection as far as the phone is concerned, and will eff up your battery in record time, with it draining out sup...

I've only been to Windycon once, about 1990 I think, and it was pure coincidence that I was in range. I was in Shaumberg for two weeks for some software training, and learned on Saturday night that the con was occurring in another hotel a couple miles away. Caught a bus Sunday morning, found that t...

How hard would it be for an adult who never really watched sports, to learn enough about football to act as an announcer? I kid you not: two weeks ago, a passenger on the bus asked me if I liked football, to which I answered that I don't really watch sports... She then (either not having heard my r...

That's okay, they're in the job hunting market too. I got an unsolicited job offer (which is, by its very nature, suspicious) to work for a charitable organization. Apparently, my job is to accept donations from foreign nationals by wire into my account and forward it on to another account, and I wo...

GlytchMeister wrote:Stakes work equally well on both...

Just don't miss.

I'd stake a steak that a missed stake would be a mistake.

A baseball bat might work . . . if you're strong enough and healthy enough to use it, have enough room to swing it (good luck in a hallway), and the attacker doesn't have a gun. It is your house, so you get to pick where you engage him. Him having a gun is completely irrelevant in a home invasion s...

Honestly, a firearm is a pretty poor choice for home defense, when all is said and done. Firearms are ranged weapons. In close-quarters combat, they require exponentially more training than most people ever get, or ever realize they NEED to get, in order to use it effectively. Ignore what you see in...

Wierd Al did a video called 'Phoney Calls' which addressed this topic as well.

Meanwhile, a couple of months ago, I received a text message from a cell phone number in Nova Scotia, telling me that "BMO has suspended your account due to unverified bank information. Please login and verify your identity to enable access", followed by a link to follow... The problem is...

I think three or four years ago there was a couple inches of accumulation, and it tried to re-freeze the following evening, but that's the closest to bad winter weather I can recall. Other than that, it generally doesn't get too cold here, fortunately. And we're generally far enough south that we're...