Diploid said:

How is land not private property of a government that we rent?

Private property is, well, private property. I don't pay rent to anyone for my land. There is eminent domain, but that's not the same thing as rental property. What are you talking about?

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Diploid said:

Well, tax isn't rent. It's tax. You can't be evicted for not paying tax, you just won't be able to sell the property with a tax lien. You could just not pay it until you die, as far as I know. Disclaimer: I'm no expert so correct me if I'm wrong.

And I already mentioned that eminent domain isn't the same thing as rental property. Eminent domain doesn't cost you anything except in the very unlikely event that your land is taken under the doctrine, and then you're paid market value.

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Background:
Property becomes tax-defaulted land if property taxes remain unpaid at 12:01 a.m. on July 1st.  Property that is tax-defaulted after five years (or three years in the case of property also subject to a nuisance abatement lien) becomes subject to the county tax collector’s power to sell that property in order to satisfy the defaulted property taxes. The county tax collector must attempt to sell the property within four years of becoming subject to sale.

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Quote:

Many internees lost irreplaceable personal property due to the restrictions on what could be taken into the camps. These losses were compounded by theft and destruction of items placed in governmental storage. A number of persons died or suffered for lack of medical care, and several were killed by sentries; James Wakasa, for instance, was killed at Topaz War Relocation Center, near the perimeter wire. Nikkei were prohibited from leaving the Military Zones during the last few weeks before internment, and only able to leave the camps by permission of the camp administrators.
Psychological injury was observed by Dillon S. Myer, director of the WRA camps. In June 1945, Myer described how the Japanese Americans had grown increasingly depressed, and overcome with feelings of helplessness and personal insecurity.[88] Author Betty Furuta insists that the Japanese used gaman, loosely meaning "perseverance", to overcome hardships which was mistaken by non-Japanese as being introverted and lacking initiative.[89]
Some Japanese-American farmers were able to find families willing to tend their farms for the duration of their internment. In other cases Japanese-American farmers had to sell their property in a matter of days, usually at great financial loss. In these cases, the land speculators who bought the land made huge profits. California's Alien Land Laws of the 1910s, which prohibited most non-citizens from owning property in that state, contributed to Japanese-American property losses. Because they were barred from owning land, many older Japanese-American farmers were tenant farmers and therefore lost their rights to those farm lands.
To compensate former internees for their property losses, the US Congress, on July 2, 1948, passed the "American Japanese Claims Act," allowing Japanese Americans to apply for compensation for property losses which occurred as "a reasonable and natural consequence of the evacuation or exclusion." By the time the Act was passed, the IRS had already destroyed most of the 1939–42 tax records of the internees, and, due to the time pressure and the strict limits on how much they could take to the assembly centers and then the internment camps, few of the internees themselves had been able to preserve detailed tax and financial records during the evacuation process. Thus, it was extremely difficult for claimants to establish that their claims were valid. Under the Act, Japanese-American families filed 26,568 claims totaling $148 million in requests; about $37 million was approved and disbursed.[90]

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Diploid said:

But I still don't see how a tax is a rent. It's a bill for municipal services like fire department or police. You can't opt out because if there's a fire or a break in, they can't exactly refuse to come because you didn't pay.

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Icelander said:

No because I've finally made peace with ythan and am not going to stir that pot for you.

However I will say durning the mod wars I was given a 30 day ban without even a warning by Geokills who was an owner at that time.  I broke no rules but I did tell some unpleasant truth.

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Diploid said:

Well how about that.

/me gets out check book and writes tax check quick!

But I still don't see how a tax is a rent. It's a bill for municipal services like fire department or police. You can't opt out because if there's a fire or a break in, they can't exactly refuse to come because you didn't pay.

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Ythan said:

I really don't care about the drama on the site and I try to avoid that aspect of it.

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So that explains the 2000 unanswered private messages in your box

I don't think I'd want to moderate either, TBH.

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OrgoneConclusion Said:
Turns out the aliens were not evil, but benevolent teachers showing the irony in mankind's thought and action.

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I can only hope aliens are that generous.

I feel like this thread is in serious need of a cuddle puddle. I'll start things off

Ythan said:

Icelander said:

No because I've finally made peace with ythan and am not going to stir that pot for you.

However I will say durning the mod wars I was given a 30 day ban without even a warning by Geokills who was an owner at that time.  I broke no rules but I did tell some unpleasant truth.

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Is that why you have a beef with me? Because you were banned once by another admin?

Dude I say in all sincerity, I didn't even know about that until you posted and I checked you ban history. I have no recollection of what the "mod wars" are or were. If you feel like I've wronged you somehow in the past it's not because I'm malicious, it's because I'm oblivious. I really don't care about the drama on the site and I try to avoid that aspect of it. Maybe you think I should and it's my responsibility, but whatever, I at least want you to know where I'm coming from. If it was up to me I'd focus exclusively on programming and never get involved with mediation on the forums. That kind of shit makes me feel like a kindergarten teacher.

Anyway, if you were banned unjustly, I'm sorry. I have no problem with you, except that you always seemed to call me out at every opportunity. Maybe it's just a misunderstanding.

Also I have no desire to butt into this forum and I think Diploid does a good job.

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No you got it wrong. My issue with you was in your reaction to my bringing up the issue of the web site delay problem.  I felt I was being polite enough about it but you didn't feel that way. You alluded to me with out directly flaming me as an asshole.   Anyway my issues with you have been only about that. Otherwise I don't know you from Adam and never held you in any way responsible for what Geokills did.  Btw we worked that all out also and I basically like the guy.

So lets let this die right here.

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so if her little magnetic thing works for her, then... can it be called stoopid?

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OrgoneConclusion said:

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so if her little magnetic thing works for her, then... can it be called stoopid?

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Yes. Untold things with no substance whatsoever (Reiki, homeopathy, astrology, some herbs) 'work' because of the placebo or other psychological effect.

This type of nonsense is a drag on a society in which the rationalists are attempting to push forward. It is like a boat in which the focused people are rowing in sync while others are rowing backwards, out of sync or merely splashing their oars.


The Curiosity landing is a mind-blowing achievement to critical thinking. Every single part, from rockets, to lasers to the intense navigational math is all based on tested premises and logical thinking.

Magic fairy dust makes people feel good for a short time, but really accomplishes nothing except to make the peddlars richer.

Superstition belongs in the past.

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Quote:

please stop using that spelling it makes you look stoopid

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Blame Diploid - he started it.

So when you get really sick, you would rather sample the New Age healing flavor of the month rather than something that has been clinically tested?