old_nick
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Posts posted by old_nick
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For the survivors, Pandemics can be good things.
That is how it is with nonhuman animals as well. Animals overbreed until predation, disease, and/or starvation culls their numbers. After which times are again bountiful until the breeding kicks back in and nature decides it is time to wash, rinse, and repeat.
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Research should not be restrained. Who is fit to judge what is or is not studied and what motivations might they have? Let's say Lab X develops a new disease(I'll call it SuperFlu) and SuperFlu has has a virulence of 98% and a fatality rate of 97%. Lab X could publish their paper on it and teams all over the world could study it, discover how it functions, discover how it affects the body, discover how the body reacts to it, and so on. In short, we learn a great deal on a great many subjects. But the government steps in instead. Perhaps they lock it up, perhaps they study it for a cure. How long do you think it'd be before someone decides the national villain of the week deserves a case of the SuperFlu?
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Dog is tasty from what I hear, human tastes like pig (or is at least reported so) and has many documented cases of people eating it for pleasure, religious rites and out of survival, an finally there are some porn stars make heaps of money and own small empires (Jenna jamison for example).
Never had dog. But I have cat. Greasier than duck(so very very) but pretty good.
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So you would eat your dog, resort to cannibalism, and prostitute yourself out for a buck... And you
think I'm a sociopath?
How is that sociopathy? There is strong historic precedent for eating "pets" some dog breeds were even developed for that purpose. Eating the corpse of someone who has died does them no harm. If I were to die and my friends could be sustained through eating my flesh, let them have at it. To be honest, if I could find a legal means of letting my closest friends consume my heart when I had passed, I'd request it. What better send off for someone you love? And there is nothing inherently immoral with prostitution. I'd argue the profession of prostitute is much more moral than that of the priest.
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Today is the 42nd anniversary of the Kent State Massacre.
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Solidarity!
it's a puzzle to me how the average person is so disconnected from what went before - the struggle for fairness and basic rights - and how they are able to align themselves so completely with individuals, government and corporations guided by greed
I spend the day remembering, and hoping for a better future and a return to humanity
Solidarity, grateful! Sorry, I posted during my limited posting experience and suppose someone chose not to approve it. Honestly, I suspect the disconnect is deliberate. We have those in power working to keep it and the best tool for doing so is to keep the masses ignorant and to keep them at one another's throats.
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Aren't time and space just as real as leprechauns, Tooth Fairies and werewolves? They are all mental constructs correct?
Space and time(or more accurately spacetime) are just words for describing the expanding geometry of the universe. So they are as real as the universe and everything in it is.
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Lighten-up, my comments were not specifically directed towards you. I said nothing about you being out of work or having to struggle.. Paid your own medical bills? Good for you. I'm glad you paid your own bills and found a job after being poor for 4 months, but I said absolutely nothing about you or anyone else's lack of work ethic being the result of choices they made. My whole opinion was that if a person was in a position where they would die or they could steal a loaf of bread and survive, they would most likely resort to theft and live. Can you honestly say that if you had a little 4 year old girl, that you would watch her starve to death rather than steal her a little food? I was not attacking anyone's character or their ethics, I was simply making a general comment that most people would break laws under certain circumstances. The fact that you never broke any laws during hard times is honorable, sorry if I unintentionally hurt your pride. Let me rephrase my assumption; "When push comes to shove, every individual puts themselves and their own family first, and given the correct circumstances, every individual would harm others for a little money, Jesus and Brother Devon excluded".
In addition to the erroneous assumptions BrDevon noted, you also seem to be equating money to survival. There are people all around the world even today who manage to get themselves and their families through with little to no money. In some cases the situation is not ideal, but starving to death they are not. In my own experiences, it seems to be those who see money as a panacea to the ills of society that suffer most when times get tight. So the question then becomes, why do you worship money to the degree you feel there is only chaos without it?
BrDevon, I am unsure what living situation you are in now, I am hoping it is much better. I urge you to give a look into Plant a Row For the Hungry, if you do any backyard gardening. For that matter, I urge that of all here.
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Solidarity!
it's a puzzle to me how the average person is so disconnected from what went before - the struggle for fairness and basic rights - and how they are able to align themselves so completely with individuals, government and corporations guided by greed
I spend the day remembering, and hoping for a better future and a return to humanity
I find this modern notion of rule by greed very particular and very telling when considering just how it comes about. It's amazing the lies people will believe that drive them to the extreme of rule by greed.
I hope your contemplation went well and you took confidence that things, slowly but surely, are moving in a positive direction. After our talks yesterday we had a reading of Berkman and some Bakunin and sang Solidarity Forever. It was incredibly moving to see so many comrades holding hands and singing in solidarity!
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Today is May Day, International Workers' Day. On this day in 1886, the Haymarket Massacre happened in Chicago while workers were in the streets protesting for your rights to work in safe humane conditions. In this case an 8 hour work day. Do you celebrate May Day? How do you do so? Do you strike? Do you take to the streets and protest the slavery of the capitalist system?
My comrade collectivemates and I are attending a protest today and this evening giving talks to our comrades from all over this region on anarchism, communism, collectivism, and independence from the power structures society tries to force us in.
Solidarity!
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Can time and space exist apart from God?
They have for all existence. They have also stood apart from the Tooth Fairy, leprechauns, and werewolves.
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Okay... I was thinking more about it. If I had the money free and clear, I would hire my old boss from H&R Block (An enrolled agent who is a master at tax code and how to invest one's money for the best possibility of a positive return on the investment), then form a charitible foundation. From there, I would buy the now-abandoned mall where I used to work. There is over 2 linear miles of storefront that can be converted to shelter the homeless, put in a clinic for doctors and dentists, there is the old food court where folks could be fed, form an auxillary office for labor and training to have job search classes and assistance, convert a store or two into classroom space for the college across the street to have volunteers teach English as a Second Language, and other life skills classes (how to balance a checkbook, better shopping skills to maximize one's shopping money....).
This lot would be ideal because it is on a busline on the main road to a major business hub, has a college across the street, and is still close enough to the capital city that all can be accessed by bus in half an hour or under.
I have thought it sinful that this lot remains empty for no other reason than the owners (who own a major grocery chain) refuse to allow it to be developed to prevent a large company with a logo that looks like an asterisk from putting in a super store. Apparently, it would be best to just let the buidling rot.
There are even job opportunities to be had - cleaning and maintaining the building, working the kitchens of the food court, security (could do it as an internship for the many schools that train security officers here), or the various offices that could be housed there.
At the very least, I would want to see:
Public transportation (already there)
Secure housing for homeless
Food for the hungry
Resources to teach life skills and job skills
Basic check ups and health care (There are medical offices and a hospital within 5 miles for folks who need more intensive care).
I see the living spaces as open designed dorms, with cots separated by clinic curtains - not glamorous, but it provides a basic shade of privacy.
The best part is that the layout of the building would allow the housing spaces to be set with men on one floor, women on another, and there are wings for the food and office space. There is one wing left over to house families so married couples would not need to be separated, but would not have to be housed in with the singles. (Yes, I have had over a year to think about how I would love to see this space used for the betterment of locals who so desparately need some help).
My area is on the brink. I can barely name a person who is not living one paycheck (or less) away from a critical disaster. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head, because a year ago, I didn't. Homelessness is not just for "those people" or for druggies or the mentally unstable. There are many reasons one can lose access to good health care or housing and far too little is done to not only help the immediate need, but to provide long term solutions, such as finding new employment, developing educational skills, learning how to interview for a job, and so on.
Well, for now it all remains a dream, but if I had the money, that would be the plan. The only thing left from there would be to take a small corner store front and turn it into a shared place of worship where area clergy could hold services for those who wished to attend. No one's faith would have a monopoly on the spot, but a rotating schedule would allow the space to be used for services or just quiet relection on the "down" times. No one would be required to attend, but it is there for those who seek.
I think the time has come where we abandon the everyone has a private home model and start to embrace community housing with supportive resources. It is not a lifestyle for everyone, but it is less expensive to live as a community, and a far better option than the standard homeless shelter model or the streets.
I know some anarcho-communists who'd volunteer there if you ever got that. A good thing to think of on this May Day, I think.
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I'm not interested enough in money to vary my routine for it. I am happy doing what I do now. My job provides more than I need to get by, but beyond that, it is a job I love. If someone were to offer me a million dollars for no change to my routine, I'd give it to my collective so we could put it to good use. Perhaps we'd use it to start a new communal house, who knows.
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I've seen people die. Most of the time their eyes are closed. They didn't see anything. They imagined it.
There is some data indicating DMT to be responsible or partially responsible for NDE's, which presents some interesting questions as well as interesting ideas. It can, to no small degree, be used to induce "spiritual experiences" in people. Experiences no different than any other "spiritual experiences" a person believes themselves to have experienced. It is for this reason Ayahuasca and other entheogens are so common in spiritual use, the users literally believed themselves to be having spiritual experiences on it. We know now it is just neurochemistry at play. The same can be said for all "spiritual experience". It's all in your head. It's all in my head. It's useful so make use of it. It just becomes detrimental when you lose the ability to separate what is in your head from what is actually happening. Which seems to be the very basis of modern religion. Imagination is good, imagination is useful. I use it myself. Just don't convince yourself what you're imagining is real.
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I play guitar, banjo, piano, and harmonica. Music has been a large part of my family as far back as any of us care to remember. The fingers aren't quite as nimble as they used to be, but I can still get music out of them when the mood strikes.
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Melbourne has a great music scene.
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Elvis Costello
Leonard Cohen
The Aubreys
Bell Nuntita
The Waifs
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A couple of things, as a man already having a couple of nude women around the house that like to cook and clean, I can vouch for what a wonderful idea it is.
Next, as a form of sex work(they are, after all, selling sexuality) I fully stand behind this. I often think people do not see sex work as legitimate work, when it truly is. We all sell our bodies in one way or another.
May start a thread on it if anyone is interested?
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~ old_nick, you can & do give me the giggles at times! Thank you
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What makes me giggle is that when you consider the longest most analyzed theological question historically, it has been "where does the sun go at night?" No other theological question has been discussed, debated, and explained in such depth as that one. Now I ask you to consider, how many of them got it right? How many of them got it wrong? Or more to the point, how many of them did not think it was a shining, "person" or flaming chariot? Theology gives nonsense answers to questions it cannot even hope to understand. It does not give us fact, merely fantasy.
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I am immortal and I live as such until ultimately proven otherwise.
Are you biologically human? Have you matured to breeding age? Did you continue to age after you hit that point? If you did, congrats, you're going to die like the rest of us. Assuming radical life extension or mind-uploading technologies don't come along in your lifetime. I hope they do, for both of us.
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My routine would not change. We could die at any given moment, live like it. I do not understand why some live as though death is some far off thing. Every moment we encounter situations that may kill us.
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Why consider anything not suggested to be? I could tell you there are thousands of omnipotent emu hiding behind my house who will grant wishes if you feed them blessed pickles. But until I provide evidence to suggest such a possibility, it does not even merit consideration. Gods, spirits, souls, magic, these things do not even merit consideration. Why go according to the discoveries of science as opposed to anything else? I find myself again quoting Sam Harris's challenge: " I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for now which the best answer is a religious one."
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Good and bad are merely human constructs. They are not inherent things, just how we choose to view a given action at a given time when weighing desirable against undesirable.
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Your opinion only.
Hey, by all means, if you can demonstrate a heaven exists I'll be glad to retract the statement. If you can demonstrate human immortality exists, I'd be happy to retract my statement. If you can demonstrate a god exists, I'll be happy to retract my statement. If you can demonstrate Jesus ever existed, I'd be happy to retract my statement. But as it stands, you're asking us to all make-believe the belief structure has some validity which has never been demonstrated. Theism is snake-oil.
Which sect, when, and where?
Any sect of the cult which promotes a hell at any time it has promoted it as a place anyone gets sent to for not accepting the cult's teachings.
What Does "Liberal" Truly Mean?
in Philosophy & Theory
Posted
You're thinking of the U.S. Libertarians. Libertarian means, for all intents and purposes, anarchist and has a broad spectrum of meanings. For example, as an anarcho-communist I fall under the umbrella of libertarian socialist.