Saffire

I consider the kidney stone to be God's "soda tax".

Collectivists! It's when you're a capitalist-individualist, but then when a rainy day comes, you freak out and turn into a communist. ;)

Oh I would totally agree with Michael Jackson here. Much of statism is about the "letterhead" - that extra artistic touch that emphasizes that THIS is power, and THIS is truth, and there are no alternatives. It's why we have flags and it's why the police wear blue costumes and judges wear black robes. The Nazis did a fantastic job creating a beautiful government letterhead out of virtually nothing - Germany had been decimated in WW1 and their national pride and history was virtually meaningless at the point when Hitler rose to power. It was said that the SS troops were selected from the most handsome German men, and people often joke that this was because the guy in charge of doing it was gay (all Nazis are secretly gay, remember!) but in truth is goes back to the idea that you could create a "master race" and achieve this perfect society. All governments are premised on this, to some degree or another - eliminating poverty via extortion and theft of the middle and upper classes, for instance. Of course, it never works. But we try, and that's what counts!

This should be your campaign slogan if you ever end up running for office, Nick. :D

The Christmas season makes me really appreciate Summer. :laugh3: The music playing in the stores is annoying, the emphasis on buying crap for people (rather than making it or just spending time with your family). For these reasons I prefer Thanksgiving. Plus you get the food component, which is great. But when I was little I definitely loved Christmas - for all the wrong reasons, LOL.

Oh and I nearly forgot, I'm healthy. No wheelchair, cancer, birth defects, or mental illness. That's a huge advantage considering how many drugs and medical expenses most people have. At the rate I'm going, though, my body will start to break down eventually... I need to exercise more and keep eating healthy.

Combination of things... right now it's: 1. I was arrested in Feb on a bogus charge, so I have that on my record still (I'm waiting for the solicitor to expunge it). 2. I'm terribly shy, unless I'm around people I already know or I have mutual friends with. I suppose you could call it social anxiety. 3. I'm sort of young. (23) 4. I don't know the right people (this ties in with #2) But on the flipside, I've got a TON going for me: 1. I'm a (relatively) handsome white male. I'm gay, so that's the only area where I'm open to irrational societal prejudices. But it could definitely be worse. 2. I was born in America. As much as I rag on this country, it's still one of the better places to live in the world. Wouldn't mind having been born in Switzerland or Australia, but again, it could have been MUCH worse... like if I were born in Somalia or something. 3. It's the year 2009. Everyone here should thank their blessed stars they weren't born in the 1400's, or 2,000 BC. Seriously. I sort of wish I had been born in the year 3000, though, because I'm an optimist about the future. But who knows? Maybe this is the golden age of humanity and it's all downhill from here... I sure hope not. 4. I have lots of people who love me. I don't know if I could make it a day without my friends and family here. 5. I have a car, and a roof over my head. So all in all, I think I'm in the perfect place to "launch" and be successful in life. Here's hoping I just don't blow it.

Oh dang... Soufiane, looking good! Thanks, Gitta, you're so sweet ;) ALMOST as sweet as Nathan. I feel like his invitation for sex could be a trap, though. :D It's like George Bush and Tony Blair suddenly want to pull troops out of Iraq - something's fishy.

At least I can hear your mom's high pitched screams of ecstasy with them.

omg i need to take a pic in my car... Here's I (sans suit):

Viagra and that stuff they put in the roach motels. Snort it. EDIT: Get online, Nick!

This all started when they banned public nudity. And you people cried "slippery slope" when I warned you!

I love roleplaying. :wink3: And Coldplaying. :P There are more quality people here than at any other forum I've found.

Oh Nick, bee-have! :P

Okay on the question of how an anarcho-capitalist society would defend its territory; Take into consideration the reasons nation-states have for invading other lands - 1. They are attempting to expand their tax-base (increase population) 2. They are attempting to gain control of valuable natural resources 3. They are attempting to wipe out an enemy/opponent I can't really think of a scenario where an anarchist territory would be more valuable to a nation-state under their rule, than left alone. The reasons are econonomic - 1. In an anarchist society, money would be backed by an element (something that cannot be printed or reproduced, like gold or silver). Forcing every individual in the anarchy to switch to a new currency would be very difficult and counterproductive. As Josh said, because there isn't a central military or capital city and the anarchy has no leadership, subjugating the population would require a long-fought war of destruction and confiscation. At the end of it all, you'd basically have destroyed the whole place before you can extract any value from it. Invading another nation-state, on the other hand, is very simple - the tax collection apparatus already exists in the form of local governments and paper currency. The population is domesticated, being used to a government, and more than likely all their weapons would have already been confiscated anyway. 2. The question of natural resources... I suppose a country would like to gain control of them and use them, but remember that there is always a cost to extracting the resource - mining, deforesting, etc. The anarchist territory would have already placed a value on the resource, and would have already implemented competitive means to access it - competing corporations would be working day and night to provide the resource at the lowest possible cost to consumers. In general, it's economically non-feasible to go in with a military and socialize the resource, because that would only increase its cost from where it was priced in the free-market. It's like going into the Dollar General Store with a gang of thugs to steal all the trinkets there, and risk injury and death, when you could far more easily just buy all the crap legitimately. 3. Without an "official" foreign policy, anarchist territories would be neutral. They would trade with all, and exclude no-one from entry. So it's unlikely anyone would care enough to exterminate the population for the sins of their non-existent government.

Wow, Wendygirl is right for once. But she needs to take it a step further. Okay, so we recognize that taxation is by definition theft (the taking of money via the threat of force/violence). Of course, statists will claim that taxation is necessary to keep society functioning. This couldn't be further from the truth. The only thing a civil society requires is a stable currency that is generally trusted by the people. With it, we are able to voluntarily purchase security services, subscriptions to access privately-owned roads, insurance, etc. Government isn't necessary, and it's always doomed to fail because it's a collectivist institution. This is where WendyGirl needs to intellectually mature - she's aware economic collectivism doesn't make sense, but she needs to take it a step further and understand that social collectivism is equally contrived.

Where there's a will, there's a way! :laugh3:

It's not technically pedo unless the person is prepubescent. In all other cases it's just a cultural taboo about age-discrepancy or maturity. Sorry to be a stickler about this, but it annoys me when people overuse the term pedo.

I've had girls get wet when I explain options contracts to them. You guys just aren't doing it right.

Hey Iran, I'm gonna let you finish, but I just wanted to say America had the greatest nuclear blasts of all time. ~Kanye West

Nick has the efficiency of an Austrian economist!

Nathan, if you had even done a simple google search for his name you'd know that he opened an orphanage in Baghdad for the children of people killed in suicide bombs. And he's a Druid Level 70 in World of Warcraft. Don't judge a book by its cover!

Well sorry for posting an attractive guy. Jesus.

A true humanitarian should lobby for everyone to have every right given back to them that was stolen from them at birth.

:laugh3: Yeah, he's friends with his mirror. I wonder if he has an "awkward smile" pic? ;)