By David Futrelle
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
Well, at least it’s a day off, right? Enjoy this open thread, and try to enjoy the day.
Here’s a panda video?
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@Catalpa
Cogent point. And suddenly I wouldn’t want him to be impeached.
Well, now the wannabe dictator’s onanist parade is out of the way; Happy Pride Day everyone!!!
It’s also the anniversary of the the foundation of the NHS.
Oh, that’s meant to be a nice picture. Ah well, use your imaginations.
The Libertarians I’ve dealt with regard “aggression” as purely a matter of physical abuse. Have asked them what they think about such fun shit as “company stores”, and never yet received any answers.
@Alan
The link is a lovely photo.
@cubist
Oh yes, to a libertarian, physical force is the ONLY form of coercion. And of course because the government can put you in jail, all laws including traffic laws are coercion “down the barrel of a gun.” (Dear bob they love that phrase.)
But an employer threatening to destroy your ability to work in the industry that you’ve dedicated your professional life to? Not coercion in libertarian-land. Because reasons.
Had a lovely meetup today with my local Vegan/animal rights group. It was primarily a social event; but of course as it says in the good book: “Whenever two or more vegans are gathered together, then they shall plot propaganda…”
So we were discussing the various ways of promulgating the message. Everything from direct action, though campaigning, to education.
One member of the group is a Brownie/Guides/Ranger Scout leader; so she gets ’em young. But what I was surprised to learn is that there’s actually ‘Influence’ and ‘Protest’ badges! So she just gets them to campaign and organise demos.
Oh, and they also have this one now. In my Scouting days it was all about knots.
@Cubist
One answer I got is that the market wouldn’t let those happen and to stop arguing hypotheticals. That was a fun conversation.
This discussion is now making me wonder what these libertarian guys would think of an economic practice I heard was done back during the Golden Age of Comics (~1940-50’s, I believe). The comic creators would come to an agreement with the publisher about the rights and money owed for their creations, only to find on their next paycheck a statement to the effect of “By signing this paycheck you relinquish all copyrights to the Publisher for all eternity.”
Would these libertarians consider any creator signing that paycheck so they could get food/rent money for that month to be doing so of their own free will? Or would they consider that a forced surrender of their copyrights?
The former. If you really cared about your copyright you’d fight it in court.
Definitely the former. Libertarians consider all signed contracts inherently fair, and ONLY physical coercion counts as “force.”
So Alaska is literally on fire and our political situation is a dumpster fire that could literally send the state into a recession, and guess what?
Yeah, the legislature is split between two locations.
Special session: one location doesn’t even have enough for a quorum and the other location lacks 7 critical votes in order to not let everything go to Hell in a hand basket.
We literally have 47 hours to repeal budget vetoes that cripple education, senior care, homeless shelters (including the ONLY youth homeless shelter in the entire state), healtcare and welfare services in general, internet access for rural communities, the village public safety program (and Alaska already has HUGE public safety problems and the governor vetoes funding for the only program that even SLIgHtLY functions??!?!?) and so much more.
I just moved out of state, but Alaska still feels like home and it’s kinda making me feel sick that we probably don’t have the votes to repeal and that the future of the university system and so very much more is in such jeopardy.
On top of, you know, the literal fires everywhere.
So yeah, open thread dump of “ALASKA IS NOT OKAY AND SEND HELP”