agora (1) – n. A place of congregation, especially an ancient Greek marketplace.
agora (2) – n. A market free of forceable regulation, taxation, and government

(The) Agora – The aggregate of all such markets of any size.

95 Theses

1.Trade that is free, unregulated, untaxed, and unmonitored is the natural right of all human beings

2.In a voluntary trade, both parties receive more than they give up, otherwise neither would trade.

3.Nobody gets taken advantage of through mutually voluntary trade.

4.Taxation forces people to pay for things that aren’t worth the cost

5.Government regulation forces people to abstain from trades they would otherwise voluntarily make.

6.Markets collect, organize, and distribute information more rapidly, accurately, fairly, and efficiently than any central authority could ever do, even with superior resources.

7.Prices are information.

8.Force distorts market information.

9.Governments’ only means of action is force.

10.Governments operate blindly because they only see information distorted by force. The more information they gather, the less clear their vision becomes.

Well...even if global warming is not a conspiracy to institute world "governanace" (and i give that a 50/50 split at this point lol) it certainly seems that a lot of the world WANTS global warming to lead to world governance.

listening to a bbc show today - world have your say, which i already hate cause it totally sucks ass for multiple reasons - i was stuck by EVERY person from the developing world having the following though process:

the US appears to be dragging its feet on climate change
it is dragging its feet because of its current superior position economically
if the US agrees to a deal, it will hurt the US economically
therefore the US is not agreeing to a deal
therefore democracy does not work
therefore a benevolant dictatorship would be MUCH preferable - especially in the US
becuase, YOU KNOW, climate change is the GREATEST challenge facing humanity EVER and will be the greatest challenge for the next 100 years.

you know, i'm really beginning to come around to e's thinking.

* Ad hominem
A Latin phrase which has come to mean attacking your opponent, as opposed to attacking their arguments.

* Ad nauseam
This argument approach uses tireless repetition of an idea. An idea, especially a simple slogan, that is repeated enough times, may begin to be taken as the truth. This approach works best when media sources
are limited and controlled by the propagator.

* Appeal to authority
Appeals to authority cite prominent figures to support a position, idea, argument, or course of action.

* Appeal to fear
Appeals to fear seek to build support by instilling anxieties and panic in the general population, for example, Joseph Goebbels exploited Theodore Kaufman’s Germany Must Perish! to claim that the
Allies sought the extermination of the German people.

* Appeal to prejudice
Using loaded or emotive terms to attach value or moral goodness to believing the proposition. For example, the phrase: “Any hard-working taxpayer would have to agree that those who do not work, and who do not support the community do not deserve the community’s support
through social assistance.”

* Bandwagon

hey guys, just wanted to check in with the crew, I haven't had time to plow through all your emails, but will soon. it's going to take awhile to get
internet in our place, but luckily I have access in my office at school. I share it with about 6 other chinese teachers and there is only one computer
with internet, which they are constantly using. After some hunting around town I found a crazy five story mall deal that sells cameras, laptops, you
name it, and got a wireless switch so I cause use my little laptop in the office without competing with the army of chinese teachers trying to use
the one computer. while at that mall thing there was a gang of 15 monks in full saffron and burgandy robes all listening intently while a saleswoman
showed them the features on a canon camera.

china is pretty cool, Chengdu is a big city (11 million) and there is always something going on, the streets are packed with people doing their
thing. the big rage is electric bikes, basically they are like regular bikes (but smaller) with giant batteries on them, which gives them a 30 odd

all i can say is LOL

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/09/02/senator-schilling-woul...

In truth, Curt Schilling has always been a politician. Now, it seems, the former pitcher is considering making the title official.

Under a blog headed “potential Senate candidacy,” the Boston Red Sox legend wrote Wednesday: “I do have some interest in the possibility.”

It should not necessarily come as a surprise that the political vacancy left by late Sen. Edward Kennedy might hold an attraction for Schilling.

The day after he helped pitch the Red Sox to their first World Series title since World War I, Schilling saw fit to remind viewers of “Good Morning America” to vote, “and vote Bush next week.”

Rumors had him pondering a Senate run a year ago against Sen. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts – a prospect he seemed to dismiss only because he still thought he had a decent split-finger fastball.

Forced Flu Quarantine, described by Iowa Department of Health

"You must not leave the quarantine facility at any time unless you have received prior written authorization from the Department to do so."

[...]

"Your daily needs, including food, shelter, and medical care, will be provided for you during the period of quarantine at the quarantine facility. You should bring clothing, toiletries, and other personal
items with you to the quarantine facility. You will have limited access to a telephone at the quarantine facility. You may bring your cell phone with you should you desire to have greater access to a means of communication."

[...]

"If you fail to comply with this Quarantine Order you may be ordered to be quarantined in a more restrictive facility."

Source on CDC site

So, there's been this guy on the internets for a number of years named Hal Turner. Most of what I know/knew about him is what I've read other places. His rap was that he was an anti-semite and had a lot of associations with white-supremecist organizations (seems to be true from my research). I'd come across one of his articles every oncr in a while. I never actually read any of his racist stuff, but what I did come across seemed like it was written by a nut.

Well, over the past year or so he has become increasingly shrill and has said things on his web broadcast that will most likely get you
arrested or at least get a good talking to by the Secret Service. He finally went over the edge and apparently advocated, or came really
close to advocating, killing federal officals. He got arrested and his
held without bail. On June 3, 2009, Turner was arrested and charged
with inciting injury to two politicians in Connecticut and a state
ethics official.

The interesting thing is that it has been reported by the AP that this
dude was apparently an FBI informant from 2002-2008. He was paid by
the FBI to act as an agent provocateur in order to foment action

we've talked a lot on here about the idea that a journalist can be objective ... that it is impossible for a journalist not to imbue his article with some of his own bias and life experience ... the pure objectivity is a fairy tale, at least as far as journalism goes ...

I wonder if this translates over to the supreme court, and Obama's nomination to replace Justice Souter. I've been reading all day the back and forth heating up between right and left about the nomination.
One of the main complaints against Sotomayor so far is that she has no problem allowing her life experience and her ethnicity color her judgments ... this is based on her own writings:

[from WSJ] In a speech published in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal
in 2002, Judge Sotomayor offered her own interpretation of this
jurisprudence. "Justice [Sandra Day] O'Connor has often been cited as
saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same
conclusion in deciding cases," she declared. "I am . . . not so sure
that I agree with the statement. First, . . . there can never be a
universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina

In unveiling the regulatory plan, Mr. Obama would signal to Europe that he intended to crack down on the risk-taking and other free-wheeling practices by the financial industry that resulted in the global economic meltdown.

there's several things wrong with this paragraph that was in the NY Times article about Obama possible regulations on exec comp ... but in
general ... any kind of 'cracking down' on risk in our financial system is not a good thing ... risk is the foundation of our system ... I don't see that limiting risk or 'protecting' the system from risk will do anything but change the capitalist system, such that it
is ... investors take risks every day, business owners do the same ... our system thrives and grows (and declines) on risk ... the freedom to
take risks and determine what level of risk you're willing to take,
and the value of risk ... isn't that intrinsic to this system? how are
you going to take risk out of the equation?

not a good thing at all ...

Glennn Beck appears to be going crazy. Or something...

Glenn Beck was a hardcore addict that once upon a time found God and Mormonism. From there he somehow went on
to become a conservative radio host, author, and now has a 5pm show on Fox News daily. He spent most of the
Bush years as a lock-step neo-con. Late in Bush's second term he started to distance himself but still
pretty much towed the party line.

During the campaign season he claimed something to the effect that supporters of Ron Paul were domestic terrorists and should be rounded up and put into concentration camps. This obviously caused a firestorm of complaints on the tubes and lead to Ron Paul supporterss demaning that Ron Paul be allowed to defend himself and his beliefs on Beck's show,
which Beck obliged. The exchange was civil and Beck conceded that Paul was right about many of his economic ideas but he took exception with foreign policy issues, drug legalization, and some other standard libertarian ideas.

Over the course of the next year or so Beck slid towards accepting
many Ron Paul/libertarian positions, particularly
a lot of anti-Fed ideas and sound money positions. (Although Beck has

Jack Kerouac, Barak Obama, and Louis Armstrong

What do they have in common?

They all made their marks and entrance to the public consciousness as a voice of change. And they all have, or will, most likely make their exit from the public eye as a person bypassed by history.

Jack Kerouac foretold the counter-culture. A voice of a generation. In the end, he was a drunk fool and supporter of the Vietnam war who could not let go of his Catholic faith in a rapidly changing world.

Louis Armstrong was arguably the first mainstream African-American public figure. He brought Jazz to the masses and his life and death followed the course of American pop-culture for most of the mid-20th
century. In the end, he died being viewed as corny, outdated, and even an Uncle Tom.

Barak Obama came into power on a wave of Hope and Change. Its pretty clear that the individuals he has surrounded himself will in all liklihood not to be up to the challenge of what will unfold over the

A democrat says we are losing a war and they are a surrender monkey. A republican says we are losing a war and that makes him a what? A patriot.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/25/mccain.afghan.war/

btw, did you guys know that mccain was a prisoner of war?????? i think it was korea or something...