Is evil rational?

[moralist]

The evidence is you cannot escape what you become as the result of what you do... and neither can I... and neither can anyone else.

...and like all double edged truths, this cuts both ways.

Greg

If this was true of Stalin, produce some evidence to back it up.

The evidence is your own life, Frank... and you can't produce any evidence that Stalin was not subject to exactly the same moral causality that you are!

You deny the moral principle that what you are is the result of what you do operates in your own life exactly the same as it does in the lives of others. And that denial of moral causality in your own life can only be done with an abysmal lack of self reflection.

Greg

My life is not Stalin's life. Even if you proved that I suffered ill consequences from performing some evil act (which you have not)...

Ok, Frank.

Just wanted you to have the opportunity to make your view perfectly clear. You deny the existence of moral consequences for your own actions as well as for Stalin's.

The point is not to argue because neither you nor I could possibly be convinced by each other to change our chosen view. The real point is for each of us to describe our view and how it differs from the view not chosen. And we each will live and die with what we chose.

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

Stalin sent his daughter's fiance to Siberia. You don't have to get into his mind to know he was off his rocker, just look at what he did.

--Brant

[Brant Gaede]

So--is evil rational?

So, what is evil?

Let the discussion begin.

--Brant

[Francisco Ferrer]

Stalin sent his daughter's fiance to Siberia. You don't have to get into his mind to know he was off his rocker, just look at what he did.

--Brant

Do people off their rocker suffer anguish for their transgressions?

[Wolf DeVoon]

Stalin sent his daughter's fiance to Siberia. You don't have to get into his mind to know he was off his rocker, just look at what he did.

--Brant

Do people off their rocker suffer anguish for their transgressions?

Imagine yourself unable to trust anyone, to think straight, to separate fact from haunting imaginary phantasms.

Dr Myasnikov, who was part of the medical team that treated Stalin in his final days and was also present at the dictator's autopsy, does not appear to have noted anything suspicious about Stalin's death. However, he wrote that the hardening of the dictator's brain arteries that he had personally seen at the autopsy had convinced him that the condition had played havoc with Stalin's already complex character for years. "It is easy to imagine that in Stalin it caused him to lose the ability to distinguish between what was good and bad and who is a friend and who is an enemy," he wrote. "At the same time, people's personality traits become exaggerated: an angry person becomes evil, a slightly suspicious one painfully paranoid. This completely matches Stalin's behaviour in the last years of his life." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8466880/Josef-Stalin-had-degenerative-brain-condition.html

Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, would recall his old boss's "utter irresponsibility and complete lack of respect for anyone other than himself." Stalin's choices, as much as Lenin's legacy or the requirements of Marxist ideology, transformed the government he ran and even the country he ruled during the 1930s into a gargantuan extension of his own pathologically suspicious personality. http://bev.berkeley.edu/fp/readings/Gaddis.txt

By 1950 Stalin's mental and physical health had begun to deteriorate and he was absent from the Kremlin, the government headquarters in Moscow, for long periods of time. His subordinates were fearful of becoming victims of Stalin's growing paranoia, which manifested itself in plans for another purge. In January 1953 Stalin ordered the arrest of a group of Kremlin doctors on charges of plotting the medical murder of high-level Soviet officials. Just as a renewal of mass terror seemed imminent, Stalin died of complications from a stroke in March. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/prof_josephstalin.html

[Jules Troy]

"All of them" Jules is 1.6 billion Muslims--or did you mean a smaller category? As bad as you might imagine things to be, you don't need to default into this fulmination.

--Brant

[Jules Troy]

My actual default is to get out and return to a "don't tread in me" policy. The current policy is bleeding us dry and it accomplishes nothing.

If hypothetically you MUST go after "someone" for the war on terror, take out Iran anddddd Saudi Arabia. 9/11 15 of the terrorists were Saudi.

Iran for the Hezbollah killing of 400 marines in Beirut as well as all the terrorist organizations it has funded and trained in proxy acts of terrorism.

Plus Iran actually declared "war" on the US. The US just has not returned the sentiment.

[Francisco Ferrer]

Imagine yourself unable to trust anyone, to think straight, to separate fact from haunting imaginary phantasms.

Like a few 'Nam vets I know, Uncle Joe was paranoid. That'll teach him to murder 40 million.

[Ellen Stuttle]

Greg has something one can work with at least personally.

Which one?

Ellen

[Brant Gaede]

Greg has something one can work with at least personally.

Which one?

Ellen

Moi.

[Selene]

(of course you don't have to volunteer information to me, but I am left wondering if you were still counselling her before her appearance at the 'penalty phase' of proceedings. Additionally, I don't understand how the case could make its way to Federal courts -- Corsello chose not to lodge an administrative appeal of her de-licensing, as far as I can tell.)

No problem William:

My insight and guidance occurred in the first thirty (30) days of her being served which is critical

to removal.

As a general exception to the usual rule giving a plaintiff the right to make the decision on the

proper forum, the defendant may be given the right to move a lawsuit filed in state court to the

federal court of the original court’s district. The right to remove actions from state to federal

court is governed by Section 1441 of Title 28 of the U.S. Code, the general removal statute.

According to the statute, a lawsuit can be removed to a federal court only when the federal court

would have had original jurisdiction of the action if the matter was brought to federal rather than

state court. Cases raising federal questions and cases involving diversity of citizenship can be

removed to federal court. A case that does not raise a federal question or involves diversity of

citizenship can be removed if an amended pleading or other filing subsequently provides grounds for

removal. Defendants may remove state law claims for which a federal court has only supplemental

jurisdiction, if they share a common nucleus of operative fact with claims based on federal law.

Federal court has the discretion to accept the case as a whole or remand the issues of state law.

A written “notice of removal” must be filed in the federal court and signed by the attorney for the

removing party or by the party himself. The removing defendant must also file a copy of all process,

pleadings, and orders served on the defendant in the state court action. The notice must be filed

within 30 days of service of the initial pleading. Once the notice of removal is filed in the federal court, the removing defendant has to give notice to all adverse parties and must file its copy with

the state court.

- See more at: http://civilprocedure.uslegal.com/jurisdiction/removal-to-federal-court/#sthash.x2c6zdlt.dpuf

There are numerous strategic bonuses and advantages to removal:

1) it is generally unexpected;

2) it flips/switches the defendant in the state action to the plaintiff in the federal action which

now puts you in the drivers seat in terms of FRCP [Federal Rules of Civil Procedure]. You now get to

"drive" the case;

3) the Federal system is clearer and universal as opposed to the state procedural mazes which change as the state changes;

4) in my personal opinions, the federal judges are generally more qualified that state judges; and

5) it is creative.

A...

[moralist]

Do people off their rocker suffer anguish for their transgressions?

You just revealed your blind spot.

Doing evil is always a free choice.

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

Stalin sent his daughter's fiance to Siberia. You don't have to get into his mind to know he was off his rocker, just look at what he did.

--Brant

Do people off their rocker suffer anguish for their transgressions?

Me? I'm happy, happy, happy!

--Brant

transgressions?--I don't need no stinkin' transgressions!

[Jules Troy]

Muahahahahaaaaa Brant you had to see it coming!

[Brant Gaede]

If only you had grown up reading, your brain wouldn't be scrambled eggs.

--know it all

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Me? I'm happy, happy, happy!

Brant,

Be glad you are not in Iran:

Iran's 'Happy' Dancers Sentenced to 91 Lashes

These lashes have been recently suspended, but if the victimized kids do it again within three years, the lashes will be carried out.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

I would decline to go to Iran.

--Brant

[anthony]

So--is evil rational?

--Brant

No.

I've appreciated Prager's articles, but here he's employing "rational" as 'empirically justifiable', or 'rationalized' - like it's commonly used. This way, "rationality" is 'logic' isolated from metaphysical reality and ethics. (Which he does allude to his own way, by reference to God and -religious- morality).