What happened to heath? I'm serious. He took some time off, it seemed, and he's come back as if he had his brain replaced by his spleen. Before his little break, he was actually making some thoughtful posts and linking us to some interesting, well-researched articles. Now look at his last couple of days -- lots of anger, more than ever perhaps. Hope everything's okay in his non-BBS life.
I don't think I responded in kind. I may have been dismissive, or sarcastic in response, but I didn't call him names. I was probably wrong for doing that. I guess I was having trouble trying to debate seriously when the name calling starts. I should keep the personal sarcastic stuff out of this. Sorry for resorting to that level.
Perhaps we could place bets on what dreadful clamity we think occured in his life (B-bob, you willing to put money down on the spleen/brain transplant option?).
I'll put my money on "turned down at the bathhouse last weekend" based on the venom spewed in the HIV/AIDS thread.
I didn't mean you saying something to him specifically, I meant when you said "WHining is what happens when conservatives cry any time race or civil rights is brought up". It just seemed like a sentence that was ripe to derail the entire thread. I should have worded that better. Sorry.
How would this deter terrorism? If the gov't doesn't have access to the trader identity and funds (which I highly doubt btw) how are they going to prevent or figure out who is responsible for the act. If they are going by investment, a terrorist could easily increase the bid on a particular event to distract from the true act. Invest in the assination of some leader, but actually plan on destroying a building half way aross the globe. Also why would normal citizens enter this market? the market is wide open for manipulation. There isn't a lot of public data going around. The info is too asymetrical. Additionally, the consumers end up in an odd situation. If they predict something is going to happen, the government is going to try and use this "vote" of information to prevent the event from happening and thereby increasing the odds that the event doesn't happen. The consumer then loses their money. If the event actually happens the consumer not only has to live with the fact that they made money on the death and destruction of others, they probably gets marked as a potential terrorist and get investigated by the gov't.
You are correct. I said that because when I brought up a civil rights issue in another thread he accused me of playing the race card, and I was trying to reference that, not make general jab at conservatives in general. I should've been more careful. I apologize to any conservatives who can discuss civil rights and racism in a serious manner without claiming that the race card is being played.
