Re: Is Nancy Pelosi a Traitor?

In article <17hceq2yuxocm$.11rxf1p6awccv$.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>,
"Alex W." <ingilt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In a sense theft is mini-murder. The thief has killed a portion of my time
on earth.

Is it?
You already made a trade. You traded your time for the
means to acquire a material good. This property is
replaceable. How replaceable is a human life?

I believe that's Demonick's whole point. One may work a significant
fraction of a lifetime to earn a loaf of bread. When someone steals it,
they've stolen that significant fraction of your lifetime -- they've
taken your life! That's the "mini-murder" analogy.

In "big"-murder, folks just take all the lifetime you have left all at
once; that's the main difference.

If I were to
take your car, there is the possibility of restitution, of
making good any loss.

Only in a legal sense. There's no way you can ever return the peace of
mind that I had back when I lived in a world where Alex didn't steal my
car. Again, you have left me with a "life", but a lesser-life, an
empty-shell of a life in which I will never know the pleasure of leaving
my keys in the ignition while I jump out for a care-free tub of sherbet
at the beach. You may has well have killed me -- you've advocated
euthanasia for people who are better off...

(<sob!>)

How will you make good the
irretrievable loss if you prevent me from taking your car
and a death occurs as a result?

From the premise that my not allowing you to steal my car is somehow the
cause of someone else's death you have reached the false conclusion that
car-stealing is A Good Thing.

This is the danger of deducing from false premises.

Should you have missed it, I am fully in favour of making
good any damages or losses that you might occur.

(a) You *CANNOT* make good on any damages or losses. The best you can
hope for is to have paid your debt in the eyes of the law, which is
pretty damned weak, even for a car thief.

(b) You also tossed in that you don't think you've (in this hypothetical
example) done anything wrong -- so the whole idea that you might "make
good" seems moot.

that, what have you really lost?


Peace of mind. My care-free youthful innocence.

FWIW, I use to have a roommate whose job was to put a dollar value on
things like "missed romantic sunsets with girlfriend while she was still
young & hot enough to be turned on by such things, and the ensuing
sexual adventures that resulted." It was a hell of a job, if you ask me!

The use of your property
for some small time. Is that not a worthwhile trade-offf?

If you would stop to ask that question before stealing, you may or may
not get the answer for which you're hoping. I may decide "sure, go
ahead -- just fill it with gas when you bring it back." Or I may decide
"actually, no. Sorry about your friend, but I've got a poker game to
get to, and I can't be late."

That you would entrust your friend's life to your ability to steal him a
ride to the hospital is pretty lame, IMO.

--
Please take off your pants or I won't read your e-mail.
I will not, no matter how "good" the deal, patronise any business which sends
unsolicited commercial e-mail or that advertises in discussion newsgroups.
.

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