Skitter

THE ISLAND SCENARIO

A. Five castaways are stranded on a tropical island with lots of natural wildlife.

B. Within hours of arrival the arguments begin about how to address their situation. Finding that they are not very fond of one another they decide to divide the island into five equal parts and go their separate ways.

C. They all agree to mutually respect these property lines, not to steal from one another, and not to murder or attack one another. In addition to this they agree to mutually prosecute any offenders of this agreement.

D. Soon after four of the five castaways decide to work together for mutual support, one remains isolated. In this group of four, we find a couple of the castaways have watched a few episodes of Survivorman, and another was an Eagle Scout. Together they know how to make basic shelters, start fires, fish and even hunt. Basic survival is no longer in question.

E. After about three or four months the four have gotten into a routine, they have reasonably decent shelters, with enough space to sleep comfortably, and they keep the rain off. They have a bit of fresh meat, fish and fruit. All things considered they are surviving. Then the four realize it has been sometime, possibly a couple of months since they last heard from Castaway Five.

F. Out of concern they go to visit Castaway Five, and are surprised by what they find. Just off the beach, Five has constructed a sturdy hut with three rooms, a patio, shelving, a bed with a matress made from animal hide, and even a chair and footstool, all out of bamboo. There is a tub made of fired clay, with a fire heated water supply to take warm baths. He/She has constructed a water filtration system, has a garden with herbs and vegetables. He/She has supplies of soap, salt, dried herbs, salted meats, tanned hides, cording, a powerful bow, and arrows with bone arrowheads. He/She is eating off of fired and glazed clay plates and has fashioned utensils from wood and bone. He/She has a number of herbal medicines, and even has a lotion with Aloe to deal with sunburn. Castaway Five is not only surviving he/she is thriving.

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So here are my questions. There are no right or wrong answers, only your thoughts as an individual, but please explain your answers:

1. What obligations, if any, does Castaway Five have to the others?

2. If Castaway Five refuses to share his/her herbal medicine with the others, despite even an obvious need, has he/she limited their freedom?

3. If Castaway Five is willing to share with Castaway Three, but not the others, has he/she limited their freedom? (Consider this sharing in a way that the others cannot partake in. For example a meal, a little lotion for a sunburn, soap and a bath, or something similar.)

4. Assuming you are one of the castaways, and number three sneaks some of the medicine away because you need it, what will be your reaction?

5. What price is to high for Castaway Five to ask for the goods the others might need/want?

I'm curious how this group will rank. It takes about five minutes...

http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

My score:

Economic Left/Right: 4.62 (Right)

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.21 (Libertarian)

I have always paid my taxes. I have no criminal record. I served in the military for nearly a decade. I understand being a good citizen. I understand paying taxes for national defense, or to support the criminal justice system. I need these things to protect my liberty. I can even understand paying taxes to keep highways in repair, as I directly benefit from those as well. I have acquired really good health insurance for my family. How am I benefited by paying taxes to provide health insurance to my neighbors family?

Slavery can be defined as the coercive use of one person's labor for the benefit of another.

So if I pay the taxes to maintain a government healthcare program, am I a slave to my neighbor?

Slavery: The coercive use of one persons labors for the benefit of another.

Question: Can anyone demonstrate to me how providing healthcare for my neighbor is a benefit to me?

How does your suggested party support my views as listed below?

Domestic Politics: I'm an individualist and a strict constitutionalist with an original meaning point of view. I support small government, State power over Federal power, fiscal conservatism, and social liberalism.

International Politics: I'm a nationalist and a political realist.

Economics: I'm a Darwinist laissez-faire capitalist, closely aligned with the Austrian school of economic thought.

Spirituality: I'm a humanistic naturalist (aka strong atheist)

fluctuate with my wife's menstrual cycle?

Background: My wife and I have been together for seven years now. Over the last 4 - 6 months I have been training to get back into racing again (cycling) after a couple of years off. As part of that I have been tracking my weight on a daily basis (AM and PM measurements). Last night I looked at my wife's logs and noticed she also tracks her menstrual cycle. I happened to notice that my weight variations seem to follow her monthly cycle which I thought was strange and I was wondering why and if that is normal.

I tried to find one on Google with no joy.

Due to legislation proposed by the Obama administration, the sale of firearms is on a steep vertical climb. Personally, I have not purchased any new weapons, only ammunition I am concerned may be hard to come by in the near future.

Here is some evidence of what I am talking about:

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1...

I went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and then compared their information against a map of the 2008 Presidential Election results I found at Wikipedia.

Here is what I found:

8 of the Top 10 US States for Unemployment are Blue States

If you count DC (not actually a state), then 9 of the Top 10 are Blue States.

42% of Blue States are below the national average for unemployment

63% of Red States are below the national average for unemployment

Why is this?

Somebody told me that income level has an effect... which I'm not sure is relevant as you either have a job or not, but I compared two states (Alabama (Red) and Rhode Island (Blue)) just to see the differences. Here is what I found:

2007 Median Household Income (I couldn't find 2008 numbers):

Alabama: $49901

Rhode Island: $54735 (A 9.6% lead for Rhode Island)

Cost of Living Difference: 35.06%

This makes Alabamas $49901 equal to $67398 in Rhode Island. A 23% lead for Alabama.

Alabama has a 2.5% lower unemployment rate meaning you have a better chance of having a job to earn that money.

Those numbers don't consider taxes.

Alabama has 2-5% income tax

Rhode Island has a 3.75-9.9% income tax. Meaning you keep more of those dollars in Alabama that are already worth more than in Rhode Island. That doesn't count a hose of other taxes like gas tax (20.9 cents per gallon in Alabama vs. 31 cents per gallon in Rhode Island)

The clear winner in this first examination is Alabama.

I would also like to know what those Blue Politicians are doing with all those tax dollars. Higher Taxes + Higher Incomes = More Tax Revenue. So why is their crime and unemployment still so high?

the Blue States have a much higher rate of unemployment.

I found the basic numbers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics website and then crossed those with the 2008 Presidential Election results by state I found at wikipedia.

RED v. BLUE: Unemployment

http://www.bls.gov/LAU/

8 of the Top 10 US States for Unemployment are Blue States

If you count DC (not actually a state), then 9 of the Top 10 are Blue States.

42% of Blue States are below the national average for unemployment

63% of Red States are below the national average for unemployment

So what reasons are there for unemployment levels being higher in Blue States?

I have a small sales agency currently employing 13 people (not counting myself). As with much of the market, business is currently down. Although my business is in no real danger for the moment, I need to cut costs to insure profitability. As 80% of my expenses are the people that work for me, I have narrowed my options to one of two choices:

1. Fire two people who I have already selected - leaving them to struggle in a very tough job market.

2. Cut company sponsored health care (I pay half) and the 401K match for everyone until the market comes back around.

I'll be making my decision tonight and executing it tomorrow.

Which would you choose?

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/mar20...

It is so consistent that one cannot cite "coincidence".

Let me be clear... I hate Obama. I really do. He has demonstrated nothing in his ideology or character I can find praiseworthy.

That said, if McCain had won the election, what would be different in the US today? Give justification for your answers please.

Nothing has changed. He is still speaking a lot of words and saying nothing. He still promises the moon, and is unable to reach it. I have not seen one idea presented by his administration that makes sense when measured against what the US is founded on, or what it stands for. His appointees are crooks, his agenda is going to break the bank. He is a collectivist. The list goes on and on.

I'm at a loss. I would really like to support the leader of my country, but I just can't stand him. Any ideas?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28994296/

It is my determination that the admission of error was a major mistake, and far worse than the mistake made by the bad appointment.

Although this may seem counter-intuitive let's think about it for a moment.

As a former Navy lieutenant I don't want to hear that my leaders are fallible. When someones life depends on your decision making abilities, they must trust you to make the right ones, even if they don't understand the decision they must believe that you do. Agreement is not required, only the understanding that the chain of command has established the correct path. Admitting he cannot make little decisions well, why would I trust him with my life? What if he is wrong yet again? This sort of hesitation costs lives.

At another level by his own admission we know his decision making is suspect and that brings every decision he has made, or will make, into question. All this admission has done is given ammunition to his opposition to challenge him at every turn. It is little choices like this that bring leaders down, and is but one more example of why his lack of experience is going to cost us.

Thoughts?

Everytime I take one of these things just a few hours later I get these tremendous side cramps. This morning my calf cramped up so bad I couldn't stand up.

I only connected the cramps to the energy shots when I stopped taking them for a long period and then tried one this weekend to get past a "sleepless hurdle".

I thought they were supposed to prevent cramping?

I'm fairly active, I eat very healthy (including eating bananas and taking a multi-vitamin and multi-mineral daily.

Thoughts?

In real world interactions there are consequences for our behavior. For example being nice delivers certain results, while being a jerk delivers alternate results.

Online interactions are different. Rarely do such interactions come with any real consequences. There is often little to be gained or lost by acting a certain way ("good" or "bad"), so I am curious why people seem to default to negative behaviors while interacting online?

What does this say about humanity?

how many of our fine American countrymen would be clueless what to believe in?