Text 2247, 102 rader
Skriven 2006-06-09 20:40:00 av Robert E Starr JR (2693.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Atheists: America's m
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* * * This message was from Josh Hill to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
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@MSGID: <qeph82hqfdfknaovptf6sihu7762f9tsfa@4ax.com>
@REPLY: <lYSdnTk9Z8XtcBzZRVn-gg@comcast.com>
On Thu, 8 Jun 2006 16:17:59 +0000 (UTC), Kurt Ullman
<kurtullman@yahoo.com> wrote:

>In article <csgg82998c2quk191qd83dq132dnr8ikc7@4ax.com>,
> Josh Hill <usereplyto@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> No, I meant what I said: supposing that one can live like a rajah
>> without harming the innocent is like supposing that one can fire
>> gunshots at random without harm.
>> 
>>
>     You know this how? Define the innocent? Tell how BG's garage 
>translates into people on the other side of world (or hemisphere) not 
>getting their oral hydration?

You're telling me that money spent on luxuries for the rich can also
be spent instead on necessities for the poor?

You're just not making sense here, Kurt. This is a concept so ancient
and so universally known (thank you, Jesus) that it hurts.

>> >> >      Or be too rich for Josh,...
>> >> 
>> >> Should I respect the guy who steals radios out of the neighbors' cars
>> >> to buy junk? No? Then why should I respect a guy who amasses billions
>> >> in part through activities that the courts have repeatedly found
>> >> criminal and then uses some of it to heap obscene 200 car luxury upon
>> >> himself? A pig's a pig, whether powerful or not, but you'd scarcely
>> >> know it from conservatives who reflexively defend the rich while
>> >> excoriating the poor.
>> 
>> >        Ah, so now Bill Gates is nothing more than a common criminal and 
>> >MS is just a large fencing operation.
>> 
>> IOW, a junkie is a "common" criminal, whereas Gate's criminal behavior
>> is better because it's uncommon? That speaks volumes, Kurt.

>      Only that you would go so far out your way to deliberately 
>misinterpret what I said. 

LOL, like you should talk after your putting-words-in-my-mouth "Ah, so
now Bill Gates is nothing more than a common criminal and MS is just a
large fencing operation.

That being said, I restate my thesis: those who celebrate Gates do so
because wealth, power, and "success" mean more to them than ethics.
For them, the sin of the "common criminal," as you put it, is that
he's poor.

>> >  BTW: Courts have yet to find it 
>> >criminal in any manner. Some, mostly EU, have found it to be civily not 
>> >nice. Nobody has found anything criminal as of yet.
>> 
>> Dude, both domestic and foreign courts have repeatedly found that
>> Microsoft violated the law, and those decisions are far outnumbered by
>> the trials that ended in settlements against Microsoft. One would have
>> to be the mother of all ostriches not to think that Microsoft has
>> engaged in an orgy of illegal activity.

>        Not one was criminal. And YOU specifically stated that he should 
>pay because of criminal behavior. 

Dude, I refer you to my comment about OJ Simpson below.

>> As to the matter of civil vs. criminal action, I'll note that OJ
>> Simpson was found culpable only in a civil trial and leave it at
>> that.d

>     Yep. Civil has a MUCH lower level of proof needed precisely because 
>they are not trying to prove a crime... just a tort.

And the fact that OJ lost only a civil case means that he wasn't
criminal?

That being the case, why should the fact that Gates -- whose history
of criminal behavior began as I understood it when he sold blue boxes
in his youth -- happens to have been prosecuted as an adult only in
civil cases be taken as evidence that he didn't violate criminal
provisions of the antitrust and other laws?

For that matter, how about his perjury and contempt of court?

And, really, why should it matter? The guy's a lawbreaker any way you
look at it, and causing billions of dollars of damages cannot be
considered a minor sin. I do not see why I or anybody should have
anything but contempt for such a man.

-- 
Josh

"I'm not going to play like I've been a person who's spent hours involved with
foreign policy.
I am who I am." - George W. Bush
                                 
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