Marblehead

I think it has more to do with the natural flow of things without having first placed expectations on others.

Yeah, we will see how this evolves as there is a bit of criticism ongoing.

7 hours ago, moraldilemma said:

Right on. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the help.

But don't fuckin' cuss too much.  People might think this site is based in Australia.

Oh!  Damn!  I forgot to congratulate you on your advancement.  Sounds like you have been doing some serious work at getting yourself on a functional path.

But keep in mind, the appointment was that of "Acting AG".  A place holder until Trump is ready to make an appointment that must be approved by the Senate.

BTW  While it is true that the opposite of right is left, it is also true that the opposite of right is wrong.

It must have exited through the left door because they damn sure didn't come through the right door.

2 hours ago, exorcist_1699 said:

On the other hand,  Taoists argue

I won't argue with what you said as it appears to be consistent with the little I know of Taoist Alchemy.

However, for now I will continue to hold to the concept of "transmutation".  It is consistent with the Taoist concept of "creation and destruction" as well as "birth, life, death".  And it is also consistent with science and my personal experiences.

I don't know.  Romania is in the list and they have lots of vampires.

Now you can ask:  Is the cat alive or dead?

Yeah, I'm still working on trying to understand myself.

I never walked a mile for one though.

Used to get the 5-packs in our C-rations in the Army.

23 minutes ago, Wu Ming Jen said:

Lets get back to that more pie discussion and get this thread in the pit. 

I would have cherry pie a la mode without the pits.

Emptiness is very useful, for example, the empty space in the wall for the door.

6 hours ago, Aetherous said:

Why is this apparent insanity so common among leftists these days? What happened to intellectualism?

Apparent?  No, not only apparent but factual.  Their way is the only acceptable way and there is no requirement for it to be logical or reasonable.

Yes, brainwashing and drug culture.

Cats don't normally hold their eye to eye stares for very long.  Once they have determined out intentions they release the stare.

But then, don't try that with the big cats.  They will detect your fear and kill you.

2 minutes ago, wandelaar said:

 

The main thing that is keeping me from participating in the political threads is that being biased is consider as something that is OK. I don't think that is a fruitful attitude. One should try to view the facts as objectively as possible, and one should try as best as one can to only use logically and factually correct forms of arguments. Otherwise the discussion quickly degenerates into name-calling, the typical straw man arguments, incorrect generalisations, etc. Political street fighting of this type may helps one to score some short-term successes, but in the end it helps no one and only poisons the relations between people of different political persuasions.

 

(I know that there are also a few more nuanced participant in the political threads, but they don't set the general tone.)

I offer one point for that.

However,

As you pointed out, objective observation of the facts.  If the historical facts indicate that 'whatever' is bad in the long term then it should be a given that we should be biased against that 'whatever'.

The same with judgements.  If a person has been unreliable nine time out of ten it is only natural that we should judge that person as being unreliable.

And this applies to every aspect of our life.  Including politics and religion.

But then, we should always leave our emotions home when we go out discussing controversial issues.

Liberalism isn't the problem.  It's the welfare state that is the problem.

8 hours ago, dawei said:

In Camus's the Stranger:  "The benign indifferent of the universe"...  is he talking about existentalism or Dao  

What a question.

I can't suggest that it is Daoism as from my readings of him I was never inspired to think that he ever knew anything about Daoist Philosophy.

He may still have been in his existentalistic mentality at the time of writing that.  I think it is fair to suggest that he was headed toward that path.  But something broke him out of that path.  I like to think that it was his becoming more influenced by Nietzsche.

Human life is absurd but still worth living.

Not a very bright future but not unrealistic either.

But I will remain an Anarchist as long as I can.

One will always show their true emotions when discussing religion and politics.  Sometimes I talk about religion, sometimes I don't.  Same with politics.

It's no secret the I am a Conservative.  That would naturally cause me to be biased regarding both religion and politics.

There is nothing requiring us to read the political threads.  I have never gotten in trouble when I take a break from them.

The Spirit of TheDaoBums is alive and well.  There are many members who are not getting involved in the political discussions but remaining in those threads that are of interest to them.

I think I will now go lay down in the Valley of the Spirit.

Worked great.  I'm back to normal (unread content).