Thuce Seven
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Does the U.S. legislative branch need an overhaul?
If you want to talk about effectiveness you have to define the parameters of success. What makes a legislature effective? Congress isn't supposed to respond to every whim of the people, there is some lethargy and unresponsiveness purposely built into the institution. Read More
January 16, 2008
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Re: Re: Re: Re: The Meaning of Life - via how would you spend your last days on
I would argue that we are all a lot more alike than most people think. True, there are superficial differences such as where you grew up, what kind of things you spend your time doing, but ultimately we are all part of the same species and share an enormous amount in common. I'm not saying that people have other goals and little projects they like to work on, but ultimately our purpose is to reproduce. If it wasn't we probably wouldn't be here. I agree that we all want to leave the world a better place, but think about it for a second. We are not going to benefit from a better world in … Read More
January 16, 2008
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I'm not someone who thinks that there is anything particularly special about the era we live in, except for the fact that as a species this is the oldest we've ever been. However I do think there is something inevitable about where we're going, that it is not all just relative and that it is not only a matter of time before the whole world order is turned inside out again. While I believe the Westphalian state system will run its course, eventually to be replaced with some kind of global federalism, I do believe that the enshrining of individual rights and freedom in a formalized social… Read More
January 16, 2008
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Re: Re: The Meaning of Life - via how would you spend your last days on earth?
I think meaning can only be bestowed on us by the thing that put us here. If you craft a toy soldier it is not up to the soldier to decide it's purpose, but you as its creator to decide whether to give him away as a gift or put him on the shelf or whatever you deem worthy. I believe that just as the toy soldier is a product of the craftsman's hand, human beings are a product of nature. It is therefore nature that gets to decide its purpose for us and I think it has decided unequivocally that we our main purpose in the lifetime it gives us is to create more of ourselves. The arc of histo… Read More
January 16, 2008
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I am not a lawyer, but doess't the Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution (Article IV Section 1) require that states respect contracts protected by other states? Does that mean that a same sex marriage in Vermont has to be respected as lawful in Texas? Read More
January 16, 2008
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"Live each day like it was your last" - think about it for a minute.
If everyone lived each day as though it were their last society would break down in a matter of days. This may seem like a harsh indictment of human nature but it's happened before in history - for example in between bouts of the bubonic plague in Europe, many people had lost their entire families to the disease and thought the chance of them avoiding it was unlikely - trade broke down, people didn't produce food, rapes and other violent crime rose dramatically - all as a result of people living like the day like it was their last. The reason the human race has come so far (relative to … Read More
January 16, 2008
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Re: Re: The Meaning of Life - via how would you spend your last days on earth?
I had considered what it meant for my argument that not everyone has children. I admit that I am a materialist - in the sense that only material things exist - and that the afterlife or any other metaphysical factors did not enter into my considerations. As for homosexuality - and I would argue that the transgendered would usually fall into this category - they may not be inclined to enter a relationship that might bare offspring, but I believe the innate feeling is still there. Homosexual couples adopt and can even produce their own offspring through surrogation. However, I don't prete… Read More
January 16, 2008
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Re: Re: Re: Does the U.S. legislative branch need an overhaul?
I think the point is that the legislature is the legislators. If the exact same 250 year old senators and representatives occupied the house today, I would agree that an update would be appropriate. However, the structure of the legislature is flexible enough that it is still relevant. Read More
January 16, 2008
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economics is the study of the decision making process that underlies the allocation of scarce resources in the face of unlimited wants Read More
January 15, 2008
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USA should remain neutral over a nuclear Iran
Why are we telling Iran that nuclear weapons in their hands would be unacceptable? They are a sovereign nation, they can do what they want. What becomes an issue is when they start talking about using one against another sovereign nation, and that is what we should be addressing, but to simply patronize them and say that their possession of a nuke would be unacceptable seems like a immature way to deal with the issue. When they view us, justifiably, as arrogant, condescending and meddling they are far less likely to respond in a constructive way. If I were Sec of State I would tell them… Read More
January 15, 2008
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I'm 22 and saving for a retirement that's 45 years from now doesn't make sense
I agree, I just started working and the idea of saving for a retirement that will happen in 45 years seems ridiculous. No one has any idea what the financial or political landscape will look like in 50 years. A 1950 dollar is worth about 12 cents today! Sure I will be able to take advantage of compound interest etc, but inflation compounds too! Plus I have no idea what I'll be doing for the next 45 years or where I'll end up - I've lived in 5 countries already and I can say for certain that that number will have increased by the time I retire. So, can anyone convince me that I should be… Read More
January 15, 2008
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Re: Are non-profits as effective as for-profits?
Any organization can only be effective in relation to an objective. Non-profits and for-profits usually have different objectives and it is thus difficult to compare their effectiveness. If you are talking more generally of effectiveness and efficiency in terms of non-profits vs for-profits I would say that there are examples of very effective and efficient organizations on both sides of the profit line. If the question is asking to compare their effectiveness in relation to a single, unified objective, then I would say for-profit organizations are more effective because they are usuall… Read More
January 15, 2008
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Diversity, as conceived by most institutions, is a worthless objective.
Diversity is not necessarily a good thing in itself. Diversity of thought is probably a good thing, whether it's in a university or corporate setting and that's probably what they are referring to when they say they value "diversity." However, a diversity of skin color is NOT a diversity of thought. A diversity of skin color is not necessarily diversity of thought, culture, social class or pretty much anything else - its just a lot of different colors. As such, it is a worthless objective for any institution. Read More
January 15, 2008
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Re: Re: Will war between nations ever end?
Let's not forget that this era of cooperation and peace in Europe has only been around for about 60 years, virtually nothing in the context of human history. It may seem implausible to us now that the current world order should ever be upturned, just as it seemed utterly implausible to the average citizen of Rome or the Assyrian empire that their world orders would eventually come to and end. I agree that the nation-state paradigm will probably eventually run its course and without nations the question is moot, but war in general I'm inclined to believe will be around as long as we are. Read More
January 15, 2008
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Re: Is climate change a human rights issue?
Human rights are immutable. They don't change depending on whether it's raining or not, or whether your clan has enough arable land this year. Saying that climate change is responsible for 200,000 deaths in Sudan is a perverse way to frame the issue and implicitly absolves the murderers of their actions, or at least that's how I understood it. I agree that climate change may produce tension and conflict that may lead to the dereliction of human rights, but that does not make climate change a human rights issue per se. I think to resolve this argument we would have to dig deeper into the… Read More
January 15, 2008
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I would contend that there are only a couple entities on the planet that would have access to anywhere near the resources we need to do this - USA, China maybe? Russia? And the problem is that it's not really of any discernible benefit to any of these organizations to pursue a project like that. I'm sure we have the technology to do it, but we also have the technology to do a lot of other stuff, but we don't do things just because we can do them. Read More
January 15, 2008
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The Meaning of Life - via how would you spend your last days on earth?
The question is: if you had 90 days left to live, what would you do? The answer to this question is telling of a person's priorities in life and what they consider innately good, an ends in itself rather than a means to some goal to be achieved in the future. If you had 90 days left, would you stay at work? Start to learn Spanish? Start exercising more? I doubt it, because these are all means to a ends, not ends in themselves. The means are meaningless when they are divorced from their ends - in this case, through random death in 90 days. So what are the meaningful things in life? What … Read More
January 15, 2008
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Re: Does the U.S. legislative branch need an overhaul?
William Thompson proposes an overhaul of the legislature which he contends is predicated upon an outmoded conception of the functioning of the human mind. This idea presupposes that the purpose of legislature's design is to replicate the process of human thought. I would contend that the division between the "land-owning" elite in the senate and the "uncouth merchants and farmers" in the house was not meant to give representation to different aspects of human thought. That there were to be two houses at all was not inevitable. The outcome of the Constitutional Convention was due more t… Read More
January 15, 2008
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The Rich Owe a Debt to Society
Innumerable benefits accrue to one who chooses to enter into society as opposed to living a solitary life. These benefits include security and companionship, but most importantly it allows us to reap the benefits of comparative advantage. That is, John is a good basket weaver, Sarah is a good farmer. They both need baskets and food, but instead of John trying to grow his own food and Sarah trying to learn how to weave baskets, they both spend their time doing what they're good at and John trades his extra food for Sarah's extra baskets. Comparative advantage allows us to occupy ourse… Read More
January 9, 2008
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What do you think of the One Laptop Per Child project?
Do you think this project will create the revolution in education in the developing world that the progenitors of this project expect and hope for? Read More
January 9, 2008
