GunboatDiplomat

I don't see it as a non-sequitur. If you find that quote offensive in some way, you presumably approve of the Talibans treatment of women.

> After the US et. al. cut off fuel and oil trade. They don't teach you that part in school.

And do you know why we did that? Was that mentioned? Did they talk about Japan's war of conquest in China or the Rape of Nanking, among a thousand other atrocities?

> Don't think the US didn't do everything it could to antagonize the enemy. Japan was repeatedly slapped in the face until it had no choice but to respond to protect its honour.

Is that what it's called when we objected to Japan's war of conquest against China? Antagonism? Fine, let it be so. Japan brought doom on themselves.

Does it not matter that we were running those maneuvers largely in response to Japanese aggression in China and the Pacific? Does it matter that the reason we were in tension with Japan was their murder and conquest spree in China?

Does any of it excuse the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor?

I think the answer is no, despite my great respect for General Butler.

I don't think so. Benjamin Franklin is probably the prototypical self-made man. And you would never claim that "he did it all himself." He wouldn't have claimed that either. It's clear from his Autobiography that there were many people who helped him along his path to success, but that doesn't change the fact that he was a self-made man.

Conan, what is best in life?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PQ6335puOc

So can you identify no situation in which killing someone is appropriate?

Think Sears is bad, try KMart.

Yes, and?

Well, you're entitled to eat whatever you can afford to eat. If that's meat, it's meat.

>Slavery was more stable: lasted millenia.

And slavery required less violence, per capita, to maintain? I don't think so. Innumerable slave revolts. Wars of conquest to capture slaves. Slave raiding. The daily violence needed to enforce slavery. Sexual violence perpetrated on slaves.

Capitalism is a rock of stability, from a civil society perspective, in contrast. When was the last time a developed capitalist nation had a civil war, or even a major violent revolt?

>the notion of striving for equal individual ownership of goods as a spark to action is nonsense.

Well he didn't say that. But you would do well to remember that during the Russian Revolution and subsequent years, those who were somewhat prosperous among the peasantry were purged, punished, sent to Siberia because of their prosperity. Their prosperity meant they were capitalist oppressors, you see.

>If they refuse or tell you how evil buying glasses online is, get a new optometrist.

It's truly hilarious how defensive they get over online glasses purchases. I've been using Zenni for over 5 years now, and there's no way in hell I'd go back to using a local optometrist for my glasses.

I'm not particularly interested in Cuban propaganda, no.

> He believed in freedom and dignity.

That's exactly why he never allowed free election, a free press, free speech, free markets, or freedom to leave his island paradise.

>He saw the US government as the enemy of progress everywhere in the world

That just makes him an idiot. The US government has been the primary proponent of progress, spreading free markets and democracy around the globe.

>What opposition? Imperialists and mafia members who wished to turn Cuba into an enclave for gambling?

The million plus refugees from Castro's island paradise. Most of whom were not wealthy. Just not fans of Castro's brutality. Go to Miami and tell them how awesome Castro was.

Fidel was a brutal dictator and his memory deserves to be pissed on. Any who celebrate him are ignorant, evil, or fools.

And Venezuela is a paradise on earth!

China was doing really really badly until Mao died and Deng took power and began implementing market reforms, bringing capitalism in.

Where is the success of capitalism? It's in the rapidly falling global extreme poverty rate, soon to be below 10% for the first time in human history. It's in the cell phone networks blanketing Africa and Asia, giving people access to easy communication and banking. It's in the rapidly rising standards of living throughout Asia and Africa and parts of Latin America not under the communist thumb. Capitalism is the greatest force for improving people's lives that has ever been, and likely to be the greatest that ever will be.

There's the old parable

>"In the USA, you can stand in front of the White House in Washington, DC, and yell, "Down with Reagan!", and you will not be punished. Equally, you can also stand in Red Square in Moscow and yell, "Down with Reagan!", and you will not be punished.

So his exiling of over a million cubans is acceptable, then?

That seems, at best, orthogonal to the issue of foreign investment and business.

You seem to be extremely confused. Of course moral lessons can be taught through stories. That a moral lesson is taught through story does not make the moral taught true in any sense. Which makes bringing up the One Ring and Tolkien extremely strange.

That seems doubtful. The glass of wine or beer is, firstly, more palatable than marijuana, secondly, you can do it indoors without everything smelling like weed, and thirdly, the mild depressant effect of one alcoholic beverage is way more pleasant than getting high. Not to mention the cost.

Why is a moral lesson in a story a moral lesson? I can invent any moral lesson and put it in a story. That a supposed moral lesson is featured in a work of fiction does not lend credence to it.

Well, sure, but that is a work of fiction.

I've always thought it's more that absolute power attracts the corrupt disproportionately.

In town, with the level of traffic seen? Yeah, it's keeping to the posted speed limits. Realistically, I'd be doing 5 to 10 over except in explicit residential zones, when there are cops (limit to 5 over), and when traffic doesn't allow it.

My guess? Elon.

In part, I think you're overestimating how difficult it would be for you to gain access to customer data covertly, given root access to all the servers at your company.

Going out on a limb, printed food would still need foodstock inputs of some type, and housing still needs land.