Ah, you're under the impression that I'm arguing a *legal* point, rather than a *moral* one.

Yes, we have immoral laws that violate private property rights in order to "protect" some tit-mouse. Yes, they are legal. Yes, they are immoral.

We should eliminate laws that violate private property rights in order to impose some special interest group's point of view regarding selective pressures. They're a violation of basic human freedoms, and fly in the face of the very process of evolution that led to higher life forms in the first place.

You didn't answer any of my questions - and I don't understand where this new question is coming from.

Would you care to clarify how your question answered any of my three questions, or has this simply become a conversation you're having with something in your imagination? :)

Thank you, amalek - you said it better than I could.

Destroying our freedom in the interest of security, against mere "bullies" no less, is a sick position to take.

If government wants to have peeps into our private lives, I say they should offer themselves up first. Have every government employee's financial records, emails, purchases, and other records completely public. Install GPS trackers on them so we can all track their movement. Put cameras in their homes, cars, and offices so that we can watch them 24/7.

If they want the panopticon, let them go first.

Yes, the thug, gangbanger, and victimhood culture rule applies to any skin color.

Sadly, blacks are more affected by thug, gangbanger and victimhood culture, especially since they have these so-called "leaders" like Jackson banging the victimhood drum day-in and day-out. I've never heard of any south-east asian "leader" demanding racial quotas for tech companies because of prior oppression.

Cultures focused on academics, hard work, and personal responsibility tend to be prominent with asian immigrants, but other notables would be your typical jewish culture, or Mormon culture, or even just plain old "geek" culture (thank you slashdot). Cultures focused on ethnic studies to revel in narratives of oppression, or those promoting ebonics, or other self-segregation from mainstream values, on the other hand, cluster around certain ethnicities simply because of their particular targeting.

Bottom line - people of any skin color can succeed, but people with self-destructive cultures only make it harder to succeed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q...

So, if government employees start realizing that government power is too broad, unchecked, and outsized, will they actually do the work necessary to limit the size and scope of government, even though it might mean limiting their own personal powers?

It sounds like there's an opportunity here, but I'm not sure if any government employees have the wisdom to embrace the right answer.

So, you're saying freedom is only true in third world countries?

Or are you saying that only third world countries have no responsibilities?

Or was your precatory statement just a reflexive contradiction of me, and the only point you were trying to make was that first world countries manage their resources (like say, the carrier pigeon or the malarial mosquito)? :)

Cite?

After all, I thought Sotomayor was specifically chosen because she was a "wise-latina" :) If she's just as sexist against other women as say, John Roberts, what's the point? :)

Let's be very clear, though - regardless of what tangential and passive social ideas about inferior/superior you want to point at, that's not the critical path here. Back in the Jim Crow days, yes, overt institutionalized oppression was the blocking factor. Today, the critical path is around a victimhood culture that eschews personal responsibility and denigrates academic success as being "too white".

You're right - nobody has exclusivity over any of the species. Neither does anyone have any responsibility to keep non-tasty species around.

Freedom, I love it :)

I know lots of honest, hard working blacks. I know they're a tiny minority in their own communities because they resisted the culture they were raised in. I know it was hard for them to speak proper english and succeed in school while their peers denigrated them for being "too white".

And I know that many of them still feel tortured by the remnants of the victimhood culture they came from - they really are hurt by the implication that they're "too white", even if they keep up a brave face.

You manage your resources, I'll manage mine :)

And frankly, if both of us would allow thousands of species to go extinct so that our yummy steak animals had more room, we'd probably manage them the same way :)

For the record, I care about yummy animals. Cute animals can go fuck themselves - if they did, they might beat the selective pressures building around them :)

Actually, that's the funny part - the stuff we want to eat, tends to thrive. We've got plenty of cows and chickens. Lots of deer too.

It's all the stuff nobody wants to eat that goes all threatened, like Pandas or Siberian Tigers or Snowy Owls :)

Surprisingly, being tasty to humans is a *survival* trait when it comes to selective pressures :)

Crop foods, and crop animals figured out an evolutionary trick - and I salute them for it!

Poor asian kids, fresh off the boat, in crappy neighborhoods, focus on survival but still excel in academics and escape the poverty trap.

Certain cultures of poor american kids, born and raised in a victimhood culture, in crappy neighborhoods, focus not only on survival, but denigrate any of their peers who attempt to "act white" by speaking proper english or focusing on academics. These people don't escape the poverty trap.

We've long gotten past the point in time where whitey is actually doing any oppressing - the victimhood culture *oppresses itself*, by making it anathema to actually succeed.

Problem is, racism is stereotyped. White males are assumed to be racist, women and blacks are assumed to be less racist. Ask 10 slashdotters if white male hiring managers would be racist in their ratings of resumes, or if women and black hiring managers would be racist in their ratings of resumes, and I'll bet they'll rate the white male highest in terms of racism :)

There is an echo chamber of social prejudice where the social prejudice of given groups is taken as natural and confirmed.

The fact of the matter? I've met more black racists than white ones. YMMV.

I'll assert that even more pernicious than drug and gang culture is the culture of *victimhood*. When you believe that your failings are not your personal responsibility, and instead insist that they are someone else's fault, and that you must wait and demand for reparation from that someone else before life can continue, you end up in a morass. Mr. Jackson lives in this morass full time.