Welcome to the Free Talk Live bulletin board system!
This board is closed to new users and new posts.  Thank you to all our great mods and users over the years.  Details here.
185859 Posts in 9829 Topics by 1371 Members
Latest Member: cjt26
Home Help
+  The Free Talk Live BBS
|-+  Profile of Diogenes The Cynic
| |-+  Show Posts
| | |-+  Topics

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Topics - Diogenes The Cynic

Pages: 1 ... 8 9 [10] 11
136
General / Irony is a bitch
« on: September 10, 2009, 10:42:42 PM »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrRdIeK9xoc&feature=related


I wonder how he now feels about arresting others over minor matters.

137
General / More Open Market
« on: September 02, 2009, 08:26:03 AM »
The week before last, we spent Shabbat in the home of a transplant surgeon in the Ohio.

I asked him about his work, and he seemed genuinely frustrated with current policy.

As it is now, organ donations are standard in America. One can not be paid, or recieve any other compensation for a donated body part. They can be given only freely.

The problem is that all the donors who give up permission post-mortem cannot make up for the shortage there is any given day. Hindus regularly sell their bodies to science, but they cant legally be harvested because they recieved compensation.

There are a considerable amount of people would voluntarily give a liver, or kidney for a close relative, but this isnt always practical; such as when an adopted family member becomes ill. Up to a few years ago, there were less then 50 people who donated an organ to a person they didnt know. This number has improved recently, but still acconts for the smallest category of donations.

He had reason to be frustrated. This guy has to watch patients die on a regular basis because the market for paid organs has not been opened up. Sure, there are black markets today, but the illegality lends itself to abuse of the people giving up their livers.

He said the common problem people have with an open market is that it would

-Discourage free donations
-Be an abuse of the lower classes a la A Modest Proposal
-People in debt would be forced into it
-The sellers would be underpaid to significantly decrease their lifespans

(this is all in relation to living donors)

The problems mentioned to those in opposition are easily answered by those with a very superficial understanding of economics.

Point one isnt true given my own experiences. I am a regular blood donor and if I had the ability, would donate via a blood aperthesis machine for free, even if others get paid for it. For me, the idea of saving another life is payment enough. I am not alone in this, as I have organized several blood drives where people donated their blood. People dont stop being generous when incentive comes into the picture.

Point two is related to point four so I will address them together.

Point three is unavoidable, but not very significant.

The remaining points cant be addressed by noticing that a black market already exists for this. This means that given an open market the abuses of donors being kept in the dark about final selling prices would stop. Prices would eventually fluctuate to the point at which it would provide proper incentive for living donors to give.

Your thoughts?

138
General / Mindfucking Cops.
« on: September 02, 2009, 12:26:38 AM »
Think about everyone you knew as a kid who became a cop. The average one was some c student social loser who had jock straps shoved over his head. They were not the best, or they would have done something useful with their lives, and they arent the brightest, otherwise they wouldnt work for 30k per year in a job where being killed is a major occupational hazard.

So, there are some institutionalized chips on collective shoulders that most have. Its universal that they go ballistic when you asked if they were picked on in high school. They only get that angry because its an obvious sore point. Likewise they pretty much all feel like crap for enforcing laws they dont agree with. Asking how young the youngest person they ever arrested was, and you will see behind the answer the enfeebled answer given by someone not brave enough to resist an order, but brave enough to fuck up someone elses life.

What are some ways you would mess with cops?

139
General / Historical Precedent
« on: August 19, 2009, 07:39:22 AM »
I think that with new social experiments, it is necessary to look into the past to see how similiar situations worked out.

A lot of people here like the idea of minarchism, and corporate rule. The two closest historical parallels would be Athens for the former, and Jamestown for the latter. For Athens, minarchism was unquestionably bad, and for Jamestown, corporate rule was mediocre.

In terms of tax collection, a voluntary system di for for Athens, and is what I think to be one of three reasons their economy was so good. The other two reasons being slavery, which is unconscionable, and their propensity for not enriching their descendents.

Warren Buffet often mentions that a tax completeky taking away property would make the economy explode. What thinks you?

140
General / The Fundamental Problem
« on: August 09, 2009, 04:00:57 PM »


A quick reading of Machiavelli's The Prince will convince you that all politicians today are charlatans. The reason they remain in power is that they still do, in their own crappy way, what their constituents want.

The issue then becomes "why do constituents use the government"?

Its usually to use the government as a social battering ram against practices they dont like.

For real change, peoples attitudes towards government must change.

What thinks you?

141
General / Insomnia Sucks
« on: August 06, 2009, 12:27:48 AM »
Insomnia Sucks

Discuss.

142
General / A Crisis of Beliefs
« on: August 05, 2009, 07:23:35 PM »
As a person who believes strongly in free markets, I have to admit I don't like monopolies. They stifle open markets, and interfere with the business model of competition making products better.

But, I cant find it in me to hold it against someone else that they engaged in smart business practices that made them wealthy. We also cant hold a persons success against them, and demand they (Harrison Bergeron style) handicap themselves. Taking their property away would be theft.


What is the solution to the problems monopolies present?

143
General / If Gaza was granted statehood.
« on: July 17, 2009, 02:36:16 PM »
Imagine if Gaza was granted statehood immediately and unilaterally.

Israel just said, yup, you can govern yourselves. They then ended Gazas restrictions on the airports, and sea.

Then what?

Other nations couldnt justifiably send money to them in the form of aid forever because they would have to open up some sort of economy? What would they do? Less then 1% of the area is arable. People there dont have many trades.

Any act of terror by Hamas could legitimately be viewed as a causus-belli, and treated as such.

They dont have anything to mine, or farm and manufacturing is nonexistent.

Think about it, what kind of country could it be?

144
General / I dont think I have ever been so pissed off
« on: July 08, 2009, 07:25:49 PM »
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority


Basically, there is a Government agency that regulates the comic book industry. They place a stamp of approval on comic books that adhere to their code. The thing is, most comic book publishers don't submit their comics to the agency, and the agency cant prevent distribution (thank G-d) making them even more useless.


What are your thoughts on the CCA?

Alternative Topic: What is the most useless government agency out there? I mean one whose use is openly negative and/or infringes on the Constitution. Dont post things like the Executive branch. We all know it exists, and I am predisposed to say that some level of government is inevitable. I mean useless, amusing, and surprising that it exists. Case in point; Radio Free Cuba, an illegal radio station that transmits 24 hours a day from Miami and is dedicated to fomenting subversive activity in a foreign nation. For its entire length of existence it has been jammed by Cuban authorities.

145
General / Other Peoples Anger
« on: July 08, 2009, 02:34:54 PM »
A few weeks back, I was driving from Flatbush to Monsey, and on the George Washington bridge, I needed to switch over to a lane on my right.

I look back on my blind spot, and rear view, and there is plenty of room, so I put on my blinkers and start crossing over.

Hoooooooooooooooooonkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I pulled back over in my lane because some idiot saw my turn signal, then sped into my area and began honking at me because of it.

He then pulls behind me and like some stupid pseudo cop begins flashing his lights, and honks.

Then he pulls aside me and still honking "orders" me to "pull over".Nevermind the fact that there is no place to pull over, a glance at his car reveals several unhappy looking minorities.

I assess the situation. These guys have numerical courage so they want to administer an ass-kicking on their own terms. They have no real way of getting me off the road. The only options they have that would scare me is ramming or shooting, and neither is a likely situation. I have a rental and can ram it into things day in and day out, because I already paid the insurance. Sun Tsu would tell me duking it out would result in my loss and not theirs.

I decide that for all intents and purposes there is nothing they can do to me. I dont have to care a bit about their anger, and the most infuriating thing to do is to not reciprocate. I turn to them, smile and wave, then cut them off and drive home.

How do you deal with other peoples anger?

146
General / New Diseases
« on: July 06, 2009, 07:49:21 PM »
Have you ever been to them gym and seen the emaciated women who pounded the cardio machines day in and day out for hours?

I began to suspect that they had unhealthy perceptions and gave them then name exercise anorexics. Lo and behold, years, psychologists began stating that that is a definite problem mentality and began screening for it.

Another type of person I have encountered is the unaddictive personality. The kind of person who goes from one commonly addictive substance to another without withdrawal, and goes off any addictive substance for years at a time.


What disease names have you come up with?

147
General / Diogenes Taste DSM
« on: July 01, 2009, 11:34:13 PM »
Its an open ended question. Which was the better/funnier/cooler/whatever family? Vote for the one you prefer.

148
General / I know this is a bad idea
« on: June 16, 2009, 11:56:57 PM »
But another relationship just ended in my life, and it hurts.

Its a stupid idea to open myself up here, but as I have no other venues, here goes:


I just got off a relationship with a girl I had dated for a few months, because it was not going well. Not long afterward, I met a smoking hot girlie. We dated a lot in a 3 week period. Too much actually. Both felt smothered and we mutually decided to cool off. We rode a whirlwind in that time, and when it was over, she called me up to tell me the bad news.

I was too cynical for her.

Not shocking, I know, but I am basically the same person here as I am in real life, and it just didnt work out. This is a bummer.

149
General / Is the NAP Necessary?
« on: May 08, 2009, 02:16:26 PM »
Is the Non Agression Principle a necessary component of Libertarian thought?

I ask because untill I came here roughly a year ago, I had never heard of the NAP, yet I have considered myself to be a libertarian since early high school. As a result, I have never defined my political thought by non aggression, or tied myself down to its conditions.

So, does libertarianism need the NAP, or is that a component of one of many different political philosophies that incorporate libertarian thought?

150
General / What do we do about the national debt?
« on: May 04, 2009, 07:47:50 PM »
Your thoughts?

Pages: 1 ... 8 9 [10] 11

Page created in 0.02 seconds with 28 queries.