Moonlapse

I won't dispute that the most efficient and 'successful' societies were the work of 'the few' so to speak. Consistent focus on a particular ideology will naturally get results if designed and executed well enough. However, this is the realm of hegemonies - doing whatever it takes to gain the upper hand and secure global dominance. I'm sure everyone knows about the current players in this ancient game: The reigning champion - the 'West' - headed by the U.S.A., a country initially intended as a historically unique haven of liberty. The problem, IMO, was that the role of government was not explicitely limited and that legislature was incredibly prone to economics. This was an ideal mix for idealogues to patiently change the paradigm over the course of the nineteenth century. Democracy is in the backseat, and the primary concern is to defend the title. The contenders - fundamentalist Islam and China. China, whose global prominence dates back thousands of years, was temporarily subdued by the West in the Opium Wars. Careful planning and high levels of government control have once again made the West their dependents. Outsourcing from the West has provided them with a techincal back to leapfrog over, and soon they will become a source of innovation. Their military capability is probably grossly underrated by your average American and they see our yellow ribbons as a sign of national weakness and unwillingness to fight. Similar to the way that China has learned the Wests economics and has exploited its weaknesses, so fundamentalist Islam has been given direct military training and they have in turn been exploiting military weaknesses. This originated with the attempts to preserve our supply of good ol' oil that fueled so much of our complacency. Anyways... my point is... You may dream of living under an ancient and successfully dominant dictatorship, but I don't want to be involved in the same old primitive crap. I want to be able to focus on my life and the place I live in, without some zealots with official titles to steer the rudder of the country I live in, in an attempt to gain global dominance. Thats why I say screw politicans, dictators, whatever you want to call them. Protect me and my rights and forget the great social experiments.

26, I didn't get a single one of the mixed up letters/words with same letters questions, but math and association stuff seem to be my thing. "There is simply no one prevailing characteristic of Mensa members other than high IQ." That's retarded. I should make my own test, then the people who score high on it can be in my club. It will be for the common good, of course. BTW, is there an aptitude test for common sense?

I'm just hoping the U.S. doesn't get involved in any changes that occur there, which is probably futile since Bush has already set an 80 million dollar budget to 'foster democracy' in Cuba. Last I knew, my democracy consisted of listening to someone on NPR say 'Democrat' and 'Republican' probably 37 times in the span of 15 minutes and then submitting a vote to a horribly designed machine inside of a Christian church.

Yes, try to publicly express dissent in Cuba the way you are free to do so elsewhere and see what happens. I have plenty of criticism for the current state of the U.S. but at least I am able to voice my opinion without consequence and I feel that there is some way I can make a difference. If I didn't think so, I would leave. Why are there so many Cubans in Miami? There were not so many in the 50's.

More insight into the paradox of Ayn Rand, from Nathaniel Branden: (this will most likely bore the living daylights out of nearly everyone) http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/ar...devers_rand.htm http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/ar...wer_preface.htm http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/ar...nswer_part1.htm http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/ar...nswer_part2.htm

You guys shouldn't tempt me to start posting here.

In addition to what Vig said, its technically doable with enough time and effort... but updates to the forum would probably wipe it out.

Reminds me of an incredibly revelant passage in this book. How many articles have you read about the current crop of college graduates who now leach off their parents... I recall reading at least two in the past year. I don't think that schools per se are wrong. I think that parents should have a choice about who is influencing their children, and how. Obviously, a school that can educate children to post graduate levels by the time they are 18 would do a lot of business. Other schools would innovate to try to get the same reasults with less overhead or do a more thorough job for the same cost. I am against the monopolization of schools much like I would be against government-backed monopolization of food sources.

Parents/guardians need to play a direct role in education. That is what it means to be a parent.

Some services do hold some value. I mean seriously, I value public libraries (even if I buy any book I need, if i cant find the info on the internet) and I value the fact that some minute fraction of my tax money goes to medical care for nieces and nephews of mine whose parents are utterly incompetent at providing for themselves, let alone a child. Now, how different do you think the U.S. would be if idealogues and corporate giants never gained control over state matters, society had not been shaped through forced schooling, foreign interventionism never came into play, etc. ? In this scenario, however it plays out in your mind, would the government or corporations be so overbearing? Would people be more inventive, entrpreneurial, and reliant on themselves and their communities? Would the U.S. be a hegemon? Would we targeted by terrorism?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html I find this interesting because I love the writing of Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden. Ultimate irony on several levels.

I intended the educational freedom idea to be a starting point. Can we just get rid of corporate welfare? Social security? Immense layers of bureaucracy? An interruption in these would seriously inferfere the expectations of entire structures and groups of people who are accusomed to and reliant upon them. I feel that most people are so alienated from other real people and so captivated by abstract masses of 'authority' and media that its hard to imagine these people becomming motivated to ensure that the others around them are not just slipping through the cracks. I do actually believe that this would be the natural reaction for fully responsible people - people want harmony and are sympathetic by nature. I know that I myself am hesitant to significantly contribute monetary aid to anything because I consider the taxes taken from my paycheck, the taxes I pay when purchasing anything, the taxes I pay for simply owning property, etc to be more than enough of a sacrifice on my part. However, I am incredibly interested in the children in my extended family and try to stimulate their intellects as much as possible. Instead of buying meaningless, waste-of-time toys, why not get them a good book or something they can be creative with? I do this because I think it will make a big difference in their lives later on. Perhaps they won't be satified with the generic meaning for life handed to them. Mutual agreement. Clothes are a necessity right? Many people wopuld probably not survive without them. Does that mean that the government needs to be involved with clothing people? Groups of people use their mental and physical capabilities to produce clothes. As a consumer, I buy the clothes that I like best or think are the best value. The people making these clothes create and mantain this end without having to govern me and I aquire the clothes by mutual agreement and benefit. So many things are percieved to be only the realm of the state. It hasn't always been this way, it slowly became this way. I don't think the schooling system has produced so much for the modern world. Education has... but the U.S. school system is not primarily focused on education IMO. History and my personal experinces confirm that for me. Do you know about Thomas Edison's education? Government is necessary. Absolutely. However, its role should be to enforce individual rights and protect its citizens from outside threat. Slavery cannot be practiced without violating these rights. Violence, theft, etc.

I'll check into that

That show kills me, even if I think that sometimes he's in the same boat as the some of the groups he makes fun of.

"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours." - Hunter S. Thompson Congratulations!

If a thread gets moved to the off topic forum, then any of your posts in that thread will not be counted.

An interesting read... prvides plenty of fodder for further research into the Celt V. Roman era. http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=63909

Polybius writes during the second century BC. This is a period when Celtic swords had transitioned from shorter (~60 - 75cm) cut and stab types to long (~85 - 90cm) slashing types. The earlier swords, Halstatt and La Tene, were 'generally' of high quality. I say generally because the number of superb quality (close to steel) swords found are thought to have belonged to warrior nobility in central Europe. They certainly had the knowledge and capability to create excellent stabbing weapons, at least in earlier times, but I'm not informed enough to say why later examples were much longer and of poorer quality - to the point where historians like Polybius can generalize them as being nearly useless in battle. Not many surviving examples reflect this level of quality. P.S. The use of bronze swords was apparently still prevalent even during the iron age.

They all left the door open for someone or some group to assume the state's power to remove freedoms from or exert control on the rest. I would define freedom as ultimate personal accountability. Maybe its just Americans, but a lot of people I know are conditioned to think that giving people (other than themselves or who they associate themselves with) a lot of freedom is undesirable. Perhaps that's the case now that many people are not accountable to themselves and the natural consequences of their actions, but rather to a regulation and its state imposed consequences. If you remove much of the overarching behavioural control of government (that does not directly apply to individual rights), many people will have nothing within themselves to fall back on. Does that mean the situation deserves to persist? How do you give people the ability to reason, forsee consequences, and respect the freedom they and others deserve? With a state regulation or institution? Most government intervention never truly solves any problems, it transfers responsibility from individuals to an establishment and reinforces the need for further intervention as a solution. I'm rambling now... The point is, that freedom itself doesn't solve problems, but it creates people who can - because they have learned that using your mind and/or body to overcome the challenge of survival is the essence of life. The reason I've focused on educational deregulation in many of my discussions is because children are the key to social change. I'd like to see kids growing up and learning outside the influence of the government with no limitations on what they can know or think and see the resulting changes in the U.S.

Not to mention something that is often referred to as the 'Ice Age' which turned that place into a friggin huge glacier.

OOO!!! Me too!! http://www.newbelgium.com/beers.php I'm absolutely taken with the 1554 Black Ale (very unique, IMO) and the Beire de Mars (seasonal). I also like the Sunshine Wheat which makes a pleasant black and tan with the 1554 (which I happen to be getting loaded on at the moment) I've been hankering for Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter lately and it will probably be my next purchase. My previous selection was Beamish Irish Stout, which I bought during a very rainy spell, but the weather turned very hot and humid for several days, putting a damper upon my drinking enjoyment.

Ahhh, that must explain why they so eagerly syndicate Bosnian Pyramid articles and claim that Septimius Severus was a "Black Roman".

hehe, no problem

Flux, schmux.

No need, Cicero said that. Suum cuique.