Murphy's Bye-Laws - Latest Comments

Re: Delusions of Grandeur

Ilo Edd — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:18:45 -0000

Your words build a very interesting action and movement. Keep writing.

Re: All Up In The Mess

PintofStout — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:41:50 -0000

Perhaps a large piece of cake or an extremely juicy turkey leg or something that smears all over your face as you try to bite into it?

Re: All Up In The Mess

Sunni — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:47:17 -0000

What about those of us who can't eat bread? Do you have an ersatz metaphor for us?

Re: The Buck Never Stops

PintofStout — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:42:11 -0000

We're getting closer to understanding here, I think. I wasn't arguing that cause and effect doesn't play a role in our mental development; we all come from somewhere. I just can't make the leap from that to suddenly nobody has any culpability because they didn't get a fire truck for Christmas when they were six and haven't recovered.

What I am thinking of as free will is freedom to alter the course of a life via decisions, but those decisions have boundary conditions that are circumstances. Perhaps more of a choas theory than what seems like the extraordinarily rigid school of determinism that seems to want to be omnipotent to me.

Re: The Buck Never Stops

SDProg — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:25:42 -0000

There's a decision and a person, but it is entirely the result of cause and effect.

I fail to see how it entails no morality of any kind. Generally speaking humans have evolutionarily devloped social/moral norms that wouldn't suddenly go away if people didn't believe in free will anymore. Society also can't function without some system of morality.

Re: The Buck Never Stops

PintofStout — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:15:42 -0000

So you're saying there is no decision? There is no person, only a set of causes and effects?

I'm not denying cause and effect. I just think there is more than that. At some point a choice is made. If there is no choice, there is no morality of any kind, which sounds like a recipe for tyranny.

Re: The Buck Never Stops

SDProg — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:53:54 -0000

Yes, they can't be ultimately responsible because their actions, thoughts, etc. are the result of either genetics or the environment or some combination of the two. The idea is that humans (more specifically our brains) as a part of nature are bound to the same laws of cause and effect we have seen throughout the observed universe.

How does it only partially affect a decision? By what mechanism can the brain/a person escape cause and effect?

As Arthur Schopenhauer said: “You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want."

Re: The Buck Never Stops

PintofStout — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:13:11 -0000

I think determinism is too absolute. My understanding of it, admittedly only a quick read on wikipedia, is exactly what I'm arguing against here; namely that nobody can be responsible for their actions because there was no other choice. You frame the issue with a free will argument with zero boundaries or limitations, which I think is also wrong. I won't deny that events and circumstance, themselves results of prior events and circumstances, affect the decision people can freely make. I think that puts me somewhere in the squishy middle of the two dichotomous options you presented.

Outside of discussion of which theory is predominant, I would have a hard time believing anyone was wholly in one camp to the complete exclusion of the other.

Re: The Buck Never Stops

SDProg — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:36:55 -0000

Many libertarians/anarchists are atheists yet many don't subscribe to determinism, which doesn't really make sense in my opinion. I believe William Godwin (arguably the first anarchist) actually was a determinist. Obviously we as a society most hold people responsibile to some degree, but you don't necessarily need contra-causal free will in order for (political) libertarianism to be viable.

Re: Reflections Upon A Coffee Mug II

PintofStout — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:32:16 -0000

No, there's a fall alright. The child may not be conscious of it, but the perfect optimism of the child has no place to go but down. How far down the perception falls as the child matures has everything to do with reality, though.

Re: Reflections Upon A Coffee Mug II

Xnavydoc75 — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:59:55 -0000

Thats funny. I can remember how it smelled too. However, from one father to another, I dont think you should fear that "fall", even though I think I know where you are coming from. I really think that fall is more the exception than the rule and that you should take comfort knowing that you have the opportunity to impress upon a young man when so many people are less fortunate. You are a good guy and in the long run, that will mean the most.

Re: The Right to Ignore Reality

PintofStout — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:07:57 -0000

Thanks for the link Dr. Long. It took me a while to work through it with my limited time for such pursuits. I would recommend the read to anyone interested in the Natural Rights argument. The historical bit at the end is very illustrative (and for the curious, will stand alone without reading the preceding defense of Natural Law).

Natural Law is distinguished from conventional law; in other words,
Natural Law does not depend on or derive from manmade institutions and
customs. (If it did, it would not be able to serve as a standard by which
to judge manmade law.)

I see our apparent disagreement here as a problem of scale or the frame of reference we are working in. The way you had discussed Natural Law is very much within the bounds of our human-centric or moral-centric worldview as I discussed above. If conventional law is a courthouse, zooming out would reveal that the courthouse rests upon the planet Earth, which would correspond to the Natural Law to the courthouse's conventional law. Zooming out even farther (have to zoom way, way, way out) we can see that Earth itself has finite limits, as does the concept of Natural Law. The human experience and customs I'm purporting Natural Law is built upon are very, very broad. So, I see the disconnect as a matter of scale. The scale at which I am theorizing is quite a bit larger than the one you used.

Perhaps more plainly, your paper is based on reason which is a uniquely (so far as we know) human endeavor, making your handling of the subject reside within this human-centric framework. I was trying to get beyond that framework. Inside the human framework, I would agree with much of what you've written. I think I described Natural Law pretty crudely (and not by name), but, again, it was my purpose to briefly define its limits to be able to move outside of it.

Re: Waking Pat Halloran

Magicrat — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:18:33 -0000

Ditto.

What a horrible loss. Pat was a gentleman who made time to talk to everyone like they were his best friend.

... and I could not agree more that he was taken from us before he reached even an inkling of what he was destined for. I remember seeing "The Black Crowes" play in a bar in 1990 ... before anyone had heard of them. I remember their mandolin player and thinking, "man, these guys are going to be famous someday". They were.

In 2005 when I first saw CEANN, I had that exact same feeling.

I hope that Brian and the rest of the band are not discouraged. Pat is a huge loss ... but, I really think he would want them to go on w/o him. He seemed like that kind of guy ... and I certainly think they are capable of it. The footsteps of Lynrd Synyrd, AC/DC, others.

... and of course, the selfish part of me wants to hear them play again and again. I don't want Pat's passing to deprive me of that fantastic music.

I hope they see it that way, too.

Re: The Right to Ignore Reality

Roderick T. Long — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:35:52 -0000

A case for the other side:
http://web.archive.org/web/...

Re: Sacred Cow Tipping

scott huminski — Sun, 15 May 2011 10:02:03 -0000

U.S. Police State Target (rock music video) Released

Anti U.S. Police State Musician/activist, Scott Huminski, releases his 6th rock video with his band Scott X and the Constitution Commandos.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: Mission Accomplished?

plumbing — Wed, 11 May 2011 06:41:16 -0000

Accomplishing something is very fulfilling. It seems like, all of the efforts you'd given is worth the price.

Re: Mission Accomplished?

PintofStout — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:47:22 -0000

Yeah, I never really trusted anything he's said either. Truth is on a sliding scale in the halls of government. Warped is in the job description for POTUS - I assume it as a given.

I would say that he has been the most open about blatantly breaking campaign promises, probably because he was so firm and specific in those promises (GITMO, Med Marijuana, Anti-war, etc, etc, etc).

Re: Mission Accomplished?

Sunni — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:33:44 -0000

The more I hear from Obama (and I actively try to minimize that quantity, in deference to my health), the less I trust anything that comes out of his mouth. So yeah, I own that I'm a little biased—but I think it's justified. Anyone who lets an honorable man sit in prison for months over the question of a piece of government-issued paper is seriously warped.

Re: Mission Accomplished?

PintofStout — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:46:18 -0000

I tend to believe the basic story that they shot him on Saturday, all else is up in the air to me. If the US did or he was dead before (or not yet, even), I don't think it matters. It won't change the manner in which the US wages its War on Terror at home or abroad, and it won't change significantly the way any terrorist groups wage their war against the US. At most it was a political and psychological victory for some.

I'll have to watch the video at some point when I'm not at work and have access to it.

Re: Mission Accomplished?

PintofStout — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:38:55 -0000

I posted this yesterday, but it must have gotten lost in the comments on the blog and this Disqus application. So, I'll post it again. I posted it on Tuesday.

Oh, those knuckleheads. No, I didn't mean that they are consciously doing anything besides surfing the wave of groupthink. If anything, I was putting it out there that possibly this pent up frustration was the engine providing the energy or motivation for any action at all. The thought of this motivation wouldn't cross their mind and would only be subconscious, at best.

Re: Mission Accomplished?

Sunni — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:19:31 -0000

Does no one remember that former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto stated in a 2007 interview with David Frost that bin Laden was assassinated? That part comes ~6:10 in to that video. I'm not saying that she's necessarily right ... just that I have less reason to be distrustful of her than Obama. He's proving to be as much a master of the "wag the dog" trick as Clinton.

Re: Mission Accomplished?

Xnavydoc75 — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:42:54 -0000

I don't mean credit like in congratulations, its more of a generalization behind the motive of these window lickers out vandalising stuff. Maybe one person has a reason, the rest are probably just sheep. If you buy into the conspiracy theories, Osama got away twice. If he gets killed or captured after just a month, then the war is over and Bush and Cheney would have had to think up another reason to kill people. I think the Saddam capture was a little more realistic. I mean, they found him in a hole, not a million dollar palace two blocks from the 3rd largest Pakistani military outpost. Either way, the whole thing is all BS. I'm sure you know that though.

Re: Mission Accomplished?

PintofStout — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:40:38 -0000

I'm not sure who I'm giving credit to or where you read that. If Osama had owed the IRS taxes, they'd have caught him years ago, but he was a useful bugaboo. Maybe he became worth more dead than alive now. Of course it is used as a political victory. Just as Bush used the capture of Saddam as a victory.

Obama has been perfectly useful to the people who put him in office, and I'm not talking about hopeful voters.

Re: Mission Accomplished?

Xnavydoc75 — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:57:13 -0000

You give them all way too much credit. The only reason he is dead now is because Obama needs a political victory so everyone forgets how much gas costs and how useless he has been so far.

Re: Ah, Vacation…

driving school cheltenham — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:02:49 -0000

What a wonderful experience you had. It was like two years ago since I had my vacation. I'm hoping I could have next time.