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Messages - eukreign

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1
General / The Good Book: A Humanist Bible
« on: May 18, 2011, 12:41:59 PM »
I regret purchasing this book and did a review on it:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3G0E48BE2GQSA/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B004YJX1NG&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=

In summary, this is supposed to be a secular version of the Bible drawing upon centuries of Eastern and Western non-religious philosophy.

It sounded good and there are a lot of good passages and such in it but the fact that the author is a statist kind of ruins the whole book.

Please click on my Amazon review above for details and vote on it to keep others from making the same mistake.

2
General / Re: DROs vs States
« on: May 16, 2011, 03:38:27 PM »
Assuming that's true, for starters they wouldn't be regional monopolies so there would be competition and choices

Why wouldn't DROs gain regional monopolies? There is nothing innately special about free market protection that prevents regional monopolies.

For example, the protection agency could have some extra money and build/purchase the major roads in an area. That's a significant asset. They may require anyone traveling on the roads to subscribe to their protection service.

In order for a new agency to compete it would require some substantial investment to build up similar roads.

Basically, my point is that over a long period of time a DRO/protection agency will become a part of the community. Unless there were two equally competing agencies from the start I think trying to break into this kind of market would be very difficult considering the resources required and the possibility of physical retaliation.

A protection agency protects subscribers, but who would protect the agency? A small start up agency could be harassed by the bigger one with force. Even in a free market economy truth will not always win out, if the monopolistic agency does a good job of managing the public opinion and keeping a majority of their subscribers happy they could maintain the status quo.

they would have accountability for their actions in a free market.

Before they can be accountable they would have to be guilt of something, which means public opinion would have to be against them. A large company with a good PR department can manage such public opinion. There is a lot a protection company could do to get away with something bad before they even have to get to the accountability stage.

If somehow the PR department fails and public opinion is negative then it becomes an issue of time and resources. A competitor would have to offer an equal (or sufficient for people to switch) service before people forget about the bad incident.

I think a good modern day example is gas stations. People chose which gas station to fill up purely on a financial basis not on which gas company has had less oil spills. I think the same will hold true for a DRO/protection agency.

I don't think that competition between protection service is similar to competition between two grocery stores. The stakes are much higher and the tactics could be deadly given that the expertise of the firms is violence. It seems unlikely that a protection service would restrain itself from using it's own service to protect itself from competition if it can get away with (eg, good PR department).

3
General / DROs vs States
« on: May 16, 2011, 02:31:25 PM »
In a free society one would be highly compelled to subscribe to some DRO or protection organization, etc; I can't see a scenario where you could avoid being a member in some DRO or protection organization, unless of course you've found some remote piece of land where nobody will find you...

So, given the assumption that you have to join some DRO or protection agency, how would that be any different than becoming a citizen of one country or another?

4
General / DIGG: 60 Minute Interview with Ron Paul On All Issues
« on: November 21, 2007, 10:13:46 PM »
Digg: http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/60_Minute_Interview_with_Ron_Paul_On_All_Issues

Please digg this article. It is probably the most thurough and balanced discussion of Ron Pauls positions on all issues done by the MSM. Also, includes the actual 60 minute panel interview.

Spread this digg to any other forums you visit. I think this is an important interview for everyone to watch and we can get a lot of new supporters out of it.

For example a grass roots Obama supporter dropped his Obama campaign and switched to Ron Paul after seeing that inteview: http://www.obamala.com/

5
The Polling Pit / Re: Text editor
« on: February 13, 2007, 03:24:56 PM »
Python vs. Perl

Python.

Opening brace on new line vs. Opening brace on same line

Real programming languages, such as Python, do not waste your time with braces.

Besides, when did Dentists deligate brace placement to programming languages?

Little edian vs. Big endian

Little endian.

Because less is more.

Tabs vs. Spaces

Spaces.

Reference semantics vs. Value semantics

That's like asking if you want a fast car or a rugged 4 wheel drive jeep. Depends on the task at hand.

Linux vs. BSD

The devil is cute but I still prefer Linux.

MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL

Mountain Dew vs. Jolt

The only difference is the food coloring. Doesn't really matter, I'd drink both if nothing else was available.

6
The Polling Pit / Re: DO RIGHTS EXIST?
« on: August 11, 2006, 02:24:56 PM »
If you do not have the right to infringe on the equal rights of others than preventing you from doing so is not taking away your rights at all. 

I think what he's trying to say here is that you can be imprisoned for exercising your right to free speech but that doesn't mean that you don't have the right to it.  Someone choosing to physically prevent you from exercising your rights doesn't mean that the right doesn't exist. 

Than what is a "right"? If are prevented from speaking how can you still have the right to free speech?

7
The Polling Pit / Re: DO RIGHTS EXIST?
« on: August 11, 2006, 12:49:17 PM »
I'd say they don't exist unless you defend them. And at that point they aren't really rights but more like choices. There are two parts to this that I see:

1. You and the agressor makes decisions about your interaction. He attacks you and you kill him in self defense or allow him to kill you or are unable to defend yourself.
2. After the fact if there are other interested parties in what happened in #1 then it comes down to custom. If the community that you live in it is acceptable that if you kill someone attacking you are in the right then the community will pat you on the back or leave you alone. If it is not okay to act in self defense than they will do whatever it is that community does in those cases. The same applies if you are killed and how they usually deal with killers.

So, in summary, first you and the other person make decisions, then if those decisions affect the community and the community has a custom on how to respond to those decisions they will respond.

8
General / Re: Man walks away from cop poining a gun at him!
« on: May 11, 2006, 10:20:23 PM »
Anyone got this video to play under Linux?

9
General / Re: Christian Anarchy is the only sensible answer...
« on: March 29, 2006, 09:55:25 PM »

10
General / Re: Christian Anarchy is the only sensible answer...
« on: March 29, 2006, 05:32:49 PM »
God-dar  :shock:

11
General / Re: Ian is this your new girlfriend?
« on: March 28, 2006, 12:35:06 PM »
Is Julia coming with you?
Bit personal dontya think?

How is my question anymore personal than the original question of the thread?

12
The Polling Pit / Re: The 6 types of Libertarians, which are you?
« on: February 24, 2006, 04:58:18 PM »
Easily a limited government libertarian. The government should hold the role of enforcing laws based on widely agreed-upon general principles and dealing with national matters such as trade, diplomatic relations and mantaining the military.

You mean like two wolves and a sheep agreeing on what to have for dinner?

13
General / Re: modified version of Labor Theory of Value...
« on: February 22, 2006, 03:35:51 PM »
Quote
Quality of the good and the information about the good are not the only factors that influence the price.

you mean like the economic rent that attaches when a media/sport star "endorses" the product?

- distance to the store where the product is sold, shipping cost
- condition of the product (new/used, bad condition/good condition)
- method of manufacture of the product (organic/non-organic, custom made/mass produced)
- presentation of the product (packaging, how it is displayed at the store, your ability to test the product at the store or see the product in action)
- warranty you get with the product
- reputation of the store
- coupons, sale events, liquidation sale
- auction (depends on who is present at the auction on the day you are bidding on the product)
- need for the product
- scarcity of the product (gold is finite and that affects its price)
- buying items individually vs. buying them in bulk
- etc.

I can go on and on.

14
The Polling Pit / Re: The 6 types of Libertarians, which are you?
« on: February 22, 2006, 01:04:10 PM »
I certainly won't say roads, judges, police, or a postal service... while I can see private solutions for some of these, I'd say certain global tolerance threshold issues (WMDs, maybe some pollution issues) or a complementary national defense might be something I would consider, given the current state of the world and the likelihood of Libertarianism or Anarchism's fruition.

More reading material...

DEFENSE SERVICES ON THE FREE MARKET - one chapter from Rothbards book Man, Economy & State
The Myth of National Defense - short discussion of the actual book The Myth of National Defense, you can also download the entire book in PDF fromat here.
The National Defense Myth - another article about the same book
Privateering and National Defense: Naval Warfare for Private Profit PDF

15
General / Re: modified version of Labor Theory of Value...
« on: February 21, 2006, 11:42:02 PM »
Quote
What is "perfect competition?"

an infinite high quality supply of goods to choose from inwhich all the information about the good is known for an infinite number of buyers...

Good luck with that. I'll stick with reality.

theoretically the costs would equal the value...

Quality of the good and the information about the good are not the only factors that influence the price.

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