Free Republic

Absolutely right. Religion is not the only (and perhaps not even the best) platform from which righteous moral principles can arise. Though I am a believer I do not equate atheism with lack of virtue in any way. Though excess zealotry on either side of the fence diminishes the virtue of both IMO.

Funny, I was muted on an o’ist board just yesterday for (among other things) besmirching the name of Leonard Piekoff by making note of his recent struggles with that very issue, the diminishing deniability of the notion that personhood occurs before birth. But IMO the potential vs. actualized argument is weak (the biological function of procreation and its purpose, and nature's intended destiny of the human embryo is axiomatic, so by what principle does that unique yet dependent individual not have the right to see that nature fulfill that destiny unhindered by the force of man?). So the issue really boils down to competing rights and the capacity of the respective adversaries to possess and exercise them. While they hang on to the claim that the “critical event” of birth is the point at which rightful personhood occurs, it disagrees with other o’ist principles related to rights and how they apply to different individuals with different capacities. The capacity of a normal healthy near term unborn person exceeds that of other more mature individuals in certain circumstances where they would claim those people have an undeniable right to life, at least.

Ah well, I'm not sure how one could fully embrace objectivism and not be atheist. And indeed, it is not strictly to accommodate religion but I don't buy the full line. It really chaffs people in some o’ist circles but I'm not afraid to say I don't believe modern society can survive and prosper adhering strictly to that philosophy. America is a great case in point because we have collectivism and initiation of force built in to the US constitution in limited, measured and purposeful fashion, and here we stand with arguably the highest standard of living ever at any time or place. O’ists’ counterpoint is that “real” o’ism has never been tried. An argument I believe I have heard somewhere else, okay.

I have to echo the comments here about videos, I much prefer printed posts to videos, much easier to access and fully digest.

From the perspective of the US they are not illegal anything - yet. But people who claim to be speaking for them say this large force of people are intent upon entering the US, and it is evident from all that has transpired they are not asylum seekers. Indeed, they have refused opportunities to make application to both Mexican and US authorities. Which doesn’t leave many options as to how their intent might be properly characterized.

Sure, we send some of our guys from Hobbs to our Alb location for training once in a while, our location is close to University and Menaul so it is a little sketchy there. Twice in the last couple years we have had guys’ trucks stolen staying at the Holiday Inn Express on Menaul. I have stayed up there a lot, usually at the Clubhouse and never had any trouble. Lately we have changed our preferred place to stay to NE Jefferson & I-25 but honestly I'm not sure that's any better.

I wonder how old you have to be to get that...

I think it is very possible the present dearth of solar activity may be consequential. As a ham radio operator I have followed solar activity for decades as it has a great effect on radio propagation, but also I have observed recent weather changes which are cause for some concern. In the past seven years here in the Chihuahua Desert we have had record single day snowfall broken twice, record yearlong snowfall total broken twice, and the first blizzard ever in recorded history. During the same time our annual rainfall and average temperatures have trended below average. On the plus side I thing there have been fewer tornadoes in the area immediately east of the Rockies, the storms tend to move farther east before they gain sufficient strength. But ask them at my other home on on the west coast what they think about having tornadoes where they never had them before, or back to back hundred year floods and things of that nature.

...his theory is that sunspots cause earthquakes.

I haven't read his theory but I can see how they might. No correlation has been established much less causation but solar activity is known to cause terrific disruptions in the earth's magnetic field. These disruptions are readily observed through various phenomena above the surface but their effect beneath the surface is largely unknown.

Zactly. Someone told me they thought the vast majority of “the rank and file” were good, honorable people but I would have to think long and hard about whether I would go out on a limb for “the vast majority”, to be honest.

Those wacky Amish are at it again...

Taxes are fungible. If you see $750 million in increased hotel/tourist tax revenue as a result of the project then maybe, but usually when tax increments are talked about as justification for a project they actually fall short. And it is never acknowledged as such on paper but the slack must be taken up by other taxes.

And major sports stadiums often don't pay for themselves during their useful life. Case in point the Seattle Kingdome, which still had about 25% of its mortgage balance unpaid when it was razed.

Not saying there aren't economic benefits to civic projects like this that are hard to measure and hard to sell to a populace that probably won't think the whole thing through, but that doesn't relieve the government of the responsibility to honestly account for how they are being paid for, especially since the benefits will lag behind the costs several years.

I guess. I have often heard there are still a lot of wealthy Venezuelans but I have to wonder how many of them are actually still in country and in what way they participate in society today.

...with no knowledge of the distances ahead, but with the knowledge of death behind them -- moving, to collapse on the roads, in the gullies, in the breaks of rotted bridges.

This, of course, is it in a nutshell. Which I see as a bit of a challenge. We read the book to the end and it comes to an anticlimax, the warnings unheeded bring them to this desperate state but it isn't the end. Just as in the novel the producers and the wealth have expatriated, the engine has stopped and the millions of the Eddie Willers' remain in the ruins, to what end for them?

We have some recent history, witnessing the collapse of the Soviet republics and how many of them have returned to prosperity in our lifetimes, and it seems to me Venezuela is near that stage in its "evolution" where it is time to start thinking about how it is going to come back.

Or am I overthinking it? Is there a role for the outside, for the greater, more prosperous of modern civilization to play in a future re-emergence of a state like Venezuela? I don't know, I have to confess I'm not as well versed in how the old Soviet republics (among others) came back from the brink.

What do you guys see in the yet to be written chapters of this saga?

Service stations? Maps? There haven't been "service" stations for a long time, even in Oregon. Just a guy (or gal) pumping gas once they make their way to you. Sometimes they are up to exchanging pleasantries, sometimes they just grunt.

Years ago (okay decades) I used to do the real "service station" thing. We made 3 cents a gallon on the gas, maybe enough to pay the the rent. The real money was made in the service bays.

We laughed when the station across the street put a big cooler in the garage and started selling... ...milk.

Now, good luck finding a station where you can get a tire fixed or a quick oil change. Whatever, we obviously didn't have the last laugh.

I see what you did there...

Personnel is policy. Sessions seems to be most interested in keeping marijuana (unconstitutionally) illegal. And almost nobody east of the continental divide understands the seriousness of central government policy whereby it (unconstitutionally) claims ownership of the majority of the real estate in the west.

To most flatlanders this might seem like a case of some guys who didn't pay the rent on some land they were using and mounted some kind of armed resistance to the landlord coming to evict. Even when they know that the basis of any economy is the creation of wealth through added value, in the west the most essential raw material (land) is controlled by a single entity. For enterprises like the Bundy Ranch (and it is not only ranchers) there is no option, there is no land available to buy or lease except "federal" land, and who may prosper and who may not is chosen by a single master.

I suppose our kids are counted among those “on the streets” since they weren’t “in the system”, but I think they were better off.

Good people if you want to think that, fine. Elsewhere in the news we find a story of two boys in NE Portland Oregon who were farmed out to a state funded home and how things went for them. White, English speaking boys sent to a home where the foster parents do not speak English (presumably Spanish), kept in a windowless basement room, laundry and cleaning not being done and sent to school in dirty, stinky clothes and finally, subjected to long term harassment and sexual hazing by a succession of older boys in the home. And even though state caseworkers are required to make a personal visit to each child at least once every 30 days, they made none in most of two years the boys were in that home. The state paid them $750,000 in a settlement and the "news" is how much of that the lawyers got as much as the negligent actions of the state and the abusive actions of the foster parents.

It may not be the same in every state but the whole system in Oregon is rigged to maximize the federal spiff given to states for kids "in the system" to support an ever growing cadre of union represented government employees (indeed, foster parents themselves are forced to join and pay a part of their stipend to SEIU local 503) as the base of the Democrat political machine. They couldn't care less about the welfare of the kids, they are simply a revenue stream.

They aren’t worth the eight mile drive to my polling place.

Sad to say I am similarly inclined. At least we have a bona-fide Freedom Caucus member here in NM-2 FTTB but he is running for Gov. next year (hoping to succeed the completely unaccomplished alleged Republican Susana Martinez) and leaving the House. I don't have good feelings for anyone who has announced for the seat on the GOP side (while on the Dem. side it seems their challenge will be keeping their candidates out of jail).

It is a truly sad state of affairs.