The people I like least

[Ben Kenobi]

If you mean Woodrow Wilson (and not Harold Wilson, or some local Canadian politician called Wilson) it's vastly amusing that you call me an antisemite and describe yourself as a Wilsonian. You might want to research his views on racial hierarchies.

Yes, I was Wilsonian. I was not taught his anti-semitic beliefs, nor was I taught his racist beliefs towards black people or towards native Americans. Going through my essays from the time, this was the portrait drawn by my history teacher (herself, quite an ardent fan of internationalism and Wilson). I liked the idea of a one world government. I was taught that America hindered international progress. I was socialist leaning - but I preferred Trotsky to Stalin. Mostly because I saw Stalin's nationalist approach vs Trotsky's internationalist approach. I believed that freedom of speech and expression was a natural right, not granted by the state and that it was important for people to be able to express their beliefs irrespective as to the labels, "right" or "wrong", and that "rightness" or "wrongness" had no bearing on the ability of an idea to be expressed.

As I became older, I changed my beliefs. I went to university and fell in with the traditional Christians and Catholics (in part due to my belief that if you loved someone you should marry them and that sex was to be reserved for love and marriage). I have gradually sloughed off stuff I believed in earlier. I see the wisdom now in subsidiarity, in having smaller units govern, and the necessity for federalism vs populism. It's important that regions have power to counterbalance the popular vote. Now, I'm pretty firmly in the conservative camp with some libertarianish leanings (political compass scores me +5, -2). I believe in natural rights, although that has extended from just freedom of speech, to religion, and the right to bear arms.

[Ben Kenobi]

What a devastatingly witty and accurate rejoinder. Been reading much S J Perelman ?

Redistribution as a means to steal money from wealthy Jewish people strikes me as oddly congruent with the practices of other dictatorships.

[molly bloom]

Yes, I was Wilsonian. I was not taught his anti-semitic beliefs, nor was I taught his racist beliefs towards black people or towards native Americans. ).

So you say. I think it's a perfectly rational explanation for your joining an international organisation that discriminated against Jews for most of its history, forced them into ghettos, made them wear distinctive clothing, forbade them from engaging in a wide range of trades and occupations, forcibly converted them and aided and abetted their extermination in the Holocaust.

Going through my essays from the time,

Must be a real hoot. Are they as full to the brim with errors as your posts here, or have you worsened with age ?

I believe in natural rights

Yeah. The usual nonsense on stilts- about what we'd expect from someone who believes in wandering stars amd mediaveal fairy tales.

and the right to bear arms.

So almost like that Jewish guy, Yeshua, except not.

Redistribution as a means to steal money from wealthy Jewish people strikes me as oddly congruent with the practices of other dictatorships.

So how does that mean that the American Communist Party was antisemitic ? Are you suggesting in your usual unhinged fashion that the American Jews who were members of the Party were self-hating Jews ?

As I recall, even Stalin's Russia gave a homeland to Russian Jews.

[Ben Kenobi]

So you say.

It was not taught in my high school classes. I did not uncover this until doing some more research on him at university. Around 2002, I believe.

I think it's a perfectly rational explanation for your joining an international organisation that discriminated against Jews for most of its history, forced them into ghettos, made them wear distinctive clothing, forbade them from engaging in a wide range of trades and occupations, forcibly converted them and aided and abetted their extermination in the Holocaust.

What, the Communist party of the United States?

Must be a real hoot. Are they as full to the brim with errors as your posts here, or have you worsened with age ?

I believe I posted one here. I'm sure you'd be extolling the paper as I was a fellow traveller at the time.

I believe in natural rights Yeah. The usual nonsense on stilts- about what we'd expect from someone who believes in wandering stars amd mediaveal fairy tales.

If rights belong to the government, then the government can take them away. Natural rights argue that people have god-Given rights that the state cannot take away. Among which are freedom of speech, religion, and the right to bear arms. The purpose is to serve as a check against government overreach.

Anyone who believes in natural rights and socialism is left with a choice - either the natural rights go away, or the socialism goes away. I chose to keep the fundamental principle that freedom of speech was a natural right and that socialism insofar as it deprives people of the right to express their opinions is wrong. Others choose to uphold speech codes, the right to ban speech that is determined to be offensive so as not to upset the nomenklatura and toss away natural rights. I faced this choice in first year.

and the right to bear arms. So almost like that Jewish guy, Yeshua, except not.

The same Jesus who argued restraint in the use of arms by his disciples as self defense was not necessary, "as it was the will of God that he be persecuted"? I've read those passages. Nowhere do I see that Jesus argues disarmament of those who possess a firearm. That people have the right to carry if they deem it necessary seems to me an appropriate check on the power of the government, especially in light of campaigns by various government for registration and confiscation, as we see even in the state of New York today.

It was done in the Soviet Union and in Germany too. And we all see the results of this.

So how does that mean that the American Communist Party was antisemitic ? Are you suggesting in your usual unhinged fashion that the American Jews who were members of the Party were self-hating Jews ?

In that they were Jewish Communists? Absolutely.

As I recall, even Stalin's Russia gave a homeland to Russian Jews.

And yet, the Russian Jews themselves chose to flee to Israel.

[Boris Godunov]

fakeboris

Just popping in to say I'm glad this is still the preferred nomenclature.

[Dr Strangelove]

Follow 3 qualifications:

1) smart/talented
2) lazy/not money oriented
3) redistributionists

Discuss.

What about people who are lazy/not money oreinted and redistributionists but not smart or talented? Are you cool with them?
What about someone who's smart, not money oriented, and a redictributionist? Do you have a special level of contempt say for someone who works for "Doctors Without Borders", is a dedicated tireless worker on behalf of the health of people living in conflict zones, but who perhaps makes appearences asking for money from the rich, i.e., you?
I'll bet you loathed Albert Schweitzer.
You probably despised Mother Teresa.

[Captain ******* Kirk]

You probably despised Mother Teresa.

Who doesn't? Mother Teresa was a terrible person.

[Hauldren Collider]

I was always a little skeptical of mother theresa's supposed amazingness, but never cared enough to actually read up on it. Huh.

[Uncle Sparky]

I have voted Communist. Still probably more valid than voting for a Tea Party Repub.

[Fake Boris]

Question: how have nonrenewable consumable resource prices generally evolved relative to hotelling's rule? What does this imply for the rate at which we've extracted them?

I don't know. Stop being a lazy ass and tell us what you're getting at.

Go on....

Fiat money is levied on the labor of workers, who require resources to accomplish said labor.

[Fake Boris]

What if you have what you need, but you're still not satisfied? You know, like a normal person?

Find a way to make other people satisfied and get your cut on the profits yielded.

[Boris Godunov]

Who doesn't? Mother Teresa was a terrible person.

Or do I mean for Mother Teresa? I can't decide...

[Dr Strangelove]

Who doesn't? Mother Teresa was a terrible person.

I'm shocked - that they forgot to mention the forced conversions of dying people.

[Lorizael]

Who doesn't? Mother Teresa was a terrible person.

Give her a break; she came from Albania.

[Dinner]

Or do I mean for Mother Teresa? I can't decide...

On a different note she was probably the world's most famous Albanian and I did enjoy my visit to her home town* which included a huge beautiful church for such a small community. Yes, she was a religious fanatic and so did some pretty questionable stuff but she also did a lot of good stuff so you have to balance the two (the religious nutjobbery vs the helping the poor thing) and on balance there was more good than bad. I really dislike religion but even I have to admit that much.

* = Technically she was born in Skopje (the very dirty capital of FYROM) but she grew up in Prizen in Kosovo). So, Lori, she was ethnic Albanian but either Kosovar or Macedonian depending on how you want to count it. That said the whole area was owned by the Ottoman Empire at the time so maybe she was really an Ottoman national.