Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
"Suppose I offered you the following "service" ..."

Sounds like religion to me.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
"Suppose I offered you the following "service" ..."

Sounds like religion to me.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
Except for the part where you get the vote the people out who are supposedly ruling you.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
Oh - you mean the OTHER people who form the society aren't supposed to have a voice in how it's constituted. I get it.

---

Quote:

---

It's OK. Captain Hammer will save us...

---

Quote:

---

Except for the part where you get the vote the people out who are supposedly ruling you.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
Except for the part where you get the vote the people out who are supposedly ruling you.

That little part.

***************************************************************

My guess is you'll have no rational response to that.

---

Quote:

---

So, how much would you be willing to pay for such a "service"?
Well, I have one more thing about my "services" that I should
mention: I'm not going to give you a choice about whether you use
my "services" or not, or a choice about how much you will pay for
it. I will use my hammer to make you pay as much as I deem
necessary, for anything I say is worthwhile.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
"I mean I don't want them to hit me in the head with a hammer."

When was the last time government hit you on the head with a hammer ? (My guess is 'never'.)

---

Quote:

---

And if you don't like it - you can always leave. Sounds fair to me.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SergeantX:
It's OK. Captain Hammer will save us...

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SergeantX:
Castle was renewed. So was Dollhouse.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
"I mean I don't want them to hit me in the head with a hammer."

When was the last time government hit you on the head with a hammer ?

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by chrisisall:
I always suspected that you were an anti-authoritarian commie-lib at heart, Geeze.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Geezer:
Actually, anti-authoritarian and Liberal are probably pretty mutually exclusive as well.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
you don't have to follow any of those stupid rules either.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
"You guess wrong."

A literal hammer - that's what you were talking about, right ? Has someone from the government come and hit you on your actual head with a literal hammer ?

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SignyM:
I have the distinct impression of a two-year-old saying Make me.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
Let's see - YOU want to have all the bennies of society - language, families, communities, resources, technology, the combined efforts of untold people over time and space who have invented, gathered, husbanded, and passed on all the things that make your life possible, even comfortable. But when society as a whole decides that 'things will be done this way' YOU want to opt out at any time. While still getting all the bennies.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SignyM:
Sarge- Did someone make you eat spinach when you were young?

---

Quote:

---

Nanny state philosophy seems to make no distinction between the role of a parent and the role of the state, but I see them very differently. Children need the guidance and oversight of experienced guardians and benefit greatly from such an arrangement. Part of what it means to be an adult is that you no longer need that guidance and take responsibility for yourself. The right to do that, unfettered by those who presume to "know better", is fundamental to human dignity.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kwicko:
But Sarge, what about those children who "need the guidance and oversight of experienced guardians" and absolutely aren't getting it?

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:

Except for the part where you get the vote the people out who are supposedly ruling you.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SergeantX:
Mike,

I read the parable in the OP as a question of whether we want to the government to provide us the "service" of making parental type decisions for us. To treat us as children, even though we are not. To figuratively hit us over the head with a hammer when we make a decision not approved of by the state (or the majority, as the case may be).

The rights of actual children is a different issue altogether. I'm certainly not arguing that parents should be allowed to abuse or neglect their children.

SergeantX

"It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah"

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by piratenews:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:

Except for the part where you get the vote the people out who are supposedly ruling you.

---

Ross Perot and Ron Paul both quit the presidential race after George Bush Sr promised to kill ther families. JFK Jr and his family were bombed in their plane before running for US Senate against Billary and for president in 2000. CIA agent Bush Sr was photographed in Dealey Plaza when JFK was assassinated. 3 of Bush Jr's presidential opponents were arrested and jailed for daring to attend presidential debates.

Vote fraud by private foreign contractors hacking their own electronic voting machines is not "democracy", it's fascism.

Sheeple pay between 50% and 100% tax in "developed" nations, at gunpoint. The US REvolutionary War was in protest of 3% taxation...

That's why we have fluoride in the water and mercury in vaccines and dental fillings. Tobacco smoke reduces violence, as proven by US soldiers in WW2, 80% whom refused to fire on enemies attacking them. Smoke is used by beekeepers to make bees docile when "robbing honey" from hives.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kwicko:
Gangs, drug dealers, the mafia, Crips, Bloods, MS13, the Texas Syndicate, the Latin Kings, the Columbian cartels and the Mexican cartels, even the Taliban and Al Qaeda are now running wild in the "free market" of illegal drugs...

---

Quote:

---

I simply brought it up because I've been watching too much of "The Wire" and it was on my mind, and this thread made me think of it again.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kwicko:
Just trying to throw a little perspective on it from a direction you might not have considered.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SergeantX:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kwicko:
Just trying to throw a little perspective on it from a direction you might not have considered.

---

Always appreciated.

Even when bitterly opposed.

SergeantX

"It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah"

---

Quote:

---

Organized crime hardly represents a "free" market. It's quite the opposite. The idea of a free market is that all players are free to make their own decisions on what to buy, from whom, and for how much. A strict laissez faire interpretation still assumes the rule of law. (Even anarchists don't propose an economy that runs without rules, they just suggest it can happen without state government).

---

Quote:

---

Now you're tempting me to go on my anti-TV screed...

---

Quote:

---

Actually Sarge, The Wire carries my recommendation.

You see, it's a very damned accurate representation of the region that was my "world" for more than a decade - to an outright creepy degree.

The irony of it all is that often as not, the crooks and thugs are quite literally, from a localized point of view - the "Good Guys", offering protection to neighborhoods which would otherwise be victimized both by rival thugs AND the police.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kwicko:
Gangs, drug dealers, the mafia, Crips, Bloods, MS13, the Texas Syndicate, the Latin Kings, the Columbian cartels and the Mexican cartels, even the Taliban and Al Qaeda are now running wild in the "free market" of illegal drugs...
They are self-regulating - someone steps out of their area, they get capped. You want to expand into someone else's area, you cap them and take their spot. Your supplier finds himself coming in second in a razor fight or tries to slow down a bullet with his neck, and someone else steps in to take your place with a newer and fresher supply.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Geezer:
And a lot of folks say the reason the drug business runs with all this violence is because the nanny-state DOES make it illegal. Consider the violence that Prohibition generated. Consider that with alcohol now legal for sale, you don't see the Jack Daniels distributors and the Jim Beam distributors shooting it out in the alleys. Consider how many folk get traumatized, injured or killed due to faulty no-knock warrants and cowboy swat teams. Consider how the jails are filled up with non-violent first offenders who are learning how to be criminals.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by citizen:
But then the Alcohol distribution and manufacturing network is also regulated and overseen by that "nanny state", in such it just as easily supports what Kwicko was saying.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Geezer:
Not so much. Current Federal government regulation isn't in place to prevent anyone from buying and consuming alcohol (except minors), and the regulation and oversight is there mostly to collect tax revenue, not control social behavior. Less "nanny state" than revenue enhancement.

---