The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

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Now look at the forum.
Now look at me.
I'm on a horse.

Is it a high horse? Because those and dead horses are the only kind allowed on these forums...


Nothing's more fun than the first time you make a new group of players' mouths all drop open in shock.

If I make you love an NPC, you'd better worry that I'm going to knife them by the end of the adventure!

That's one thing I liked about Steven Erikson's Malazan Books of the Fallen - He spends ten pages lovingly crafting the day-to-day life of a character, getting you to care about them, only to have them unceremoniously killed by a runaway horse cart two streets away from the big fight that's actually the focus of that chapter....

I've had this conversation a lot over the last few years. I feel like people have a hard time separating love or the enjoyment they get from something from the quality of the object.

I have the lips and logo of The Rocky Horror Picture Show tattooed on my right shoulderblade, and spent eight years performing at the national conventions. While the songs and dialogue of the original stage show are classic, I freely admit the movie is crap as a movie - it's a low-budget production by people who had much more enthusiasm than skill at film-making. Nobody goes to the shows to watch the movie.
 

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Twofold:
1. Property tax. Virtually every place in the country charges property tax; if you stop paying them, you lose your house. So do you own it, or are you renting it?
2. Eminent Domain. Even when you aren't running into this problem, they can buy your house from you at any time, usually for going rate for the area, and you can't say no. Even though they have to pay, when you don't choose whether or not to sell something, do you really own it?

(Both of these apply to commercial and industrial property, too).

Ugh. No.

This is the philosophical equivalent of saying that every person in the United States is "owned" by the government, because they can imprison you (if they follow due process) and they can tax you.

Private ownership of property is a fundamental right. The government does not, in fact, own your property- this is a major distinction, given that there are, in fact, countries where the government owns all property. The idea that the government has some legal authority to buy your land for a public purpose, so long as you are afforded due process and you are paid the fair market value of the land, does not mean that you do not own the land; any more than the fact that someone can sue you and "get" your land because of defect of title.

And the idea that you don't own something because you might have to pay taxes on it is ... well, you are certainly welcome to that belief. Of course, the immediate issue with that is that not all land is taxed.

Anyway, given that real property interests in the United States are divisible, descendible, and alienable, for a person to say that the government "owns" all the land says more about the person saying it than it does about reality. You can't re-define common terms in order to make points.


ETA- anyway, the other posters in the thread have identified the real problem. Dracs. That's right, we have to keep our jobs safe not from the AIs, but but from the Dracs. They don't drink ... wine.
 

Ugh. No.

This is the philosophical equivalent of saying that every person in the United States is "owned" by the government, because they can imprison you (if they follow due process) and they can tax you.

They can tax your income; but they can't tax you just for existing. Which they can with any land ownership.

Private ownership of property is a fundamental right. The government does not, in fact, own your property- this is a major distinction, given that there are, in fact, countries where the government owns all property. The idea that the government has some legal authority to buy your land for a public purpose, so long as you are afforded due process and you are paid the fair market value of the land, does not mean that you do not own the land; any more than the fact that someone can sue you and "get" your land because of defect of title.

Sorry, but if, barring criminal activity, if someone can take your property and you do not have the option to say no, I do, indeed, think you don't really own it in some senses. And--I'm sorry, but I live too near to what was once Chavez Ravine to take "due process" here very seriously.

And the idea that you don't own something because you might have to pay taxes on it is ... well, you are certainly welcome to that belief. Of course, the immediate issue with that is that not all land is taxed.

Oh? Can you give me an example of private ownership of land that isn't taxed in the U.S.? The only case I can think of where that might be the case is churches, and that's a specific carve-out.

Anyway, given that real property interests in the United States are divisible, descendible, and alienable, for a person to say that the government "owns" all the land says more about the person saying it than it does about reality. You can't re-define common terms in order to make points.

I'll point out I did qualify it with the phrase "in a sense"; if that wasn't sufficient for you, then just be surly about it.
 



This could get recursive real fast...
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I think what is funny is that expansion of home ownership as a national policy was specifically pushed as an idea to fight communism.
 


Why are we talking about vampires? There's not even a shred of real, hard evidence that vampires exist. The National Blood Lottery is just a long-standing tradition, that's all! There's nothing vampiric about it, and all blood is disposed of properly afterwards; the State guarantees it! And it is well known that some mirrors are broken, and won't reflect some people, and it's absolutely no reflection on the people not being reflected (pun not intended)! And some people are just long-lived due to good genetics! And some of the same people are extremely light sensitive -- it's a medical condition! I just don't want to hear any more about fictitious, completely-nonexistent vampires, or I'm going to start biting necks! Er... I mean, just stop it!
 

Them: They are annoying cringy edge characters
Also Them: And I plan on killing them on sight!

e: Also Them, a Little Bit Later: Eh, slavery happens ¯\(ツ)
 

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