rene

Make up your mind.

long shes forgotten what it was like to be sad. time now undefined

wow, ralis, I'm impressed that you would post anything about something good being done by your loathed evil elitist 1%. So, I guess the answer to my question as to why the four year max was chosen by you is that is the longest you could stomach? Fair enough. Thanks for your replies! Most appreciated.

Which one? the Northern Gateway through BC?

silas, hi, excellent post. Can you elaborate on what you feel the 'precepts that inform the interpretation' are? Thanks! [This would be a great topic over in the ttc subform, btw, and then we wouldn't interrupt Vmarco's thread...]

Ralis, hi Thank you for your thoughts on this. I can see how each suggestion could be helpful and, more importantly, within the realm of possibility. Is there a reason you chose four years for the ipr/patent maximum? I would think 8-10 years would be more fair to enable full recoup of any R&D costs, and enable maximum profits, yes for a longer limited time period but not so short it would discourage funding creativity. But maybe there is something I'm not aware of that makes four years the better option? warm regards

footprint, hi and welcome! Oh... I think it would be just delightful thinking of ChuangTzu as a stand alone philosophy! His 'building on parts of the TTC'' can be compared with taking the uncarved block and cutting it up into little toothpicks... Still, I like that he has a voice here, in Marblehead. (-: warm regards

the real thing is Coke! will be a tremendous jolt to Pepsi taoists.

Love it !! Good on ya, marblehead. (-:

You mean like this?

who am I to say? too many parts too many names. so says Lao Tzu. (-:

I thought I saw you out there!! (-:

Tricky to explain, yes. For me, rather than ideas of 'empty', when natural actions originate from the true heart - what benefits me also benefits others; what benefits others also benefits me - so ideas about compassion, self or selfless are not even defined. And I recognize what you're referring to. (-: warm regards

I know, me too, and it's starting to make my head hurt. G'nite.

I'm not so sure that they would ever open back up. Consider the global turmoil if the US closed shop for even a month. Wonder what we'd find when we eventually peeked out. There would be an over-supply of workers, initially. They'll crop pick and will be glad for the opportunity to not starve. This is all fun and games conjecture, sure. Just keep in mind, though, what happens to the whole web even when you really really lightly tug on one strand....

It's not that 'real compassion' is intolerant of all belief systems... it's that 'real compassion' is beyond belief systems. warm regards

you see a problem with that? The fact that you don't, is astonishing. warm regards

Ralis - before this all got derailed... I had a question for you in my post 216, and a follow up in 220. At your convenience, please, but only if you wish. Thanks.

Here's where we part ways, I guess. Still need fed gov for a lot of practical reasons. You want 50 different currencies to deal with? You want 50 different sets of laws dealing with contracts? I assume you want to eliminate the UBC as well. Or maybe you don't want trade at all between the states... If Wyoming needs to sue South Dakota for breach of contract - where would they file their suit? The UN?? ahahahaha You want basically 50 little countries not united by their commonalities for the most efficient distributions that are geographically dispersed? You want Texas and Oklahoma to hold hostage Iowa and Kansas over sale of refined petrochemicals? That's fuckin nuts, all due respect. Thought you were such a big fan of America? I'm all for a smaller fed gov, and for the Fed not having any powers not spelled out in the Constitution - but there still should be a balance, imo. All State and no Fed, is no better than all Fed and no State.

econ mba? not me. how about you, narveen?

I like it. Have you determined yet how many federal employees would then be unemployed? The extra military could be sent south...for border duty. What would you then see the role of Congress being? same only smaller? I'd keep the doj - but it would be a shadow of what it is. still necessary to represent fed in litigation cases.

I agree with this, and what zerostao and idequest just said. Only problem, though, is it would take shutting the doors. Even if there were no unions (and i'm not saying there should or shouldn't be) but even paying only minimum wage to an American worker - you still couldn't produce a shirt to be cheaper than one brought in by WalMart. You'd have to close the doors to ALL imports. You would also need to stop all exports. You would also need to stop the migrant workers coming in from Mexico to pick crops - so that all the Americans who used to work in producing goods created for overseas trade now had an opportunity to work... Are those part of the things that would "have to be done to get it started" ?

ralis - I misspoke on something. When i said i dont care about the financial sector, what i meant is i dont care about the elitist 1%. because when this all collapses, they wont have any more 'food on the table' than I will. I do care about the financial sector because their policies exacerbate how soon it will happen, and the size of what will happen, and when this bubble goes *pop* *pop* *pop* - what falls on us all wont come near resembling soap suds. warm regards