Re: Rage against spammers and telemarketers

[der Mouse <mouse () rodents-montreal org>]

> This post and your one regarding DDT have shown you for what you are:
> a misanthropic elitist who is trying to have his religion (Gaianism)
> established by law.

Hmm.  Thank you for stating it so clearly.

Can you explain exactly what you mean by Gaianism?  I'm not entirely
clear within myself on my religion, and you appear to be able to see
into me more clearly than I can.

I'm also wondering how I'm trying to get any of this into law.  I
wasn't aware I was trying to have any law changed (well, not in any way
that's relevant to this; I _am_ aware of working for anti-spam
legislation in some minor ways).  Could you explain that?  I'm
wondering if I've been lobbying in my sleep or something.

> It's OK that you don't believe in a Democratic Republic,

Aside from the contradictions in the term, I believe in what I think
you mean by it; I've _seen_ some.  (Note that this doesn't mean I like
them; also doesn't mean I don't.)

> human rights trumping those of animals, or free markets, and at least
> you are honest about it.

You appear to be using "believe in" to mean something more like
"support" or "consider good" than the usual sense of the term (which is
more like "be convinced of the existence of").  With that rereading: I
believe that a republic is one of the half-dozen or so forms of
government that's reasonably workable at modern population densities.
I believe that human rights trump animal rights in many cases, but I
also believe that many so-called "rights" are nothing of the sort, and
some that are shouldn't be.  (Some businesses, for example, appear to
think they have some kind of right to make a profit with their current
business plan, even after the world has changed enough to render that
plan unworkable.)  I also believe many of the cases said to be human
rights trumping animal rights are actually human convenience and greed
stomping on animal rights (to the extent nonhuman animals _have_
rights; most "rights" are human inventions).

Free markets - I'm not sure I believe in them.  I don't think I've ever
seen an example of one, and with good reason; I suspect such a thing,
unless it formed only a small part of a society, would turn into a
particularly nasty form of plutocracy, bordering on kleptocracy.  (The
scientist in me wants to perform the experiment.  The humanist shudders
at the risk of making life nasty, brutish, and probably short for an
entire population.)  Even the freeest markets I've seen have had
regulations of various sorts imposed.

> This was the reason Madison insisted on the second amendment.  Lest
> the government be perverted by an unaccountable elite.

Hasn't worked very well, has it?

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