Re: Untraceable Payments, Extortion, and Other Bad Things

At 10:17 PM 12/22/96 -0800, Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote:
>Timmy writes:
>>Fortunately for the bulk of us, the likely number of deaths and economic
>>losses from such crimes of kidnapping, extortion, and even murder for hire,
>>is still likely to be vastly lower than the number of deaths caused by
>>powerful central governments enriching themselves and their cronies with
>>foreign wars. Not to mention the deaths in the Drug War, the lives wasted
>>in other interferences in private behavior, etc.
>
>imho, it's a very warped kind of mind that insinuates some evil is no
>big deal because greater evils exist in the world. 

You obviously (deliberately?) are misrepresenting May's comment above.  It 
isn't that some kinds of evil are "no big deal":  It's that quantiatively, 
refusing to accept a solution that would prevent, say, 100 deaths, simply 
because it would cause _one_ DIFFERENT death is foolish and misguided.  

If you feel inclined to deny this, consider the reverse situation:  Would 
you approve of the saving of one life if it cost 100 lives?  (all things 
being equal.)  While most people would feel uncomfortable being asked to 
make decisions of this kind, that does not mean that one outcome is not 
identifiably better than another.  






Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com

>You obviously (deliberately?) are misrepresenting May's comment above.  It 
>isn't that some kinds of evil are "no big deal":  It's that quantiatively, 
>refusing to accept a solution that would prevent, say, 100 deaths, simply 
>because it would cause _one_ DIFFERENT death is foolish and misguided.  
>
>If you feel inclined to deny this, consider the reverse situation:  Would 
>you approve of the saving of one life if it cost 100 lives?  (all things 
>being equal.)  While most people would feel uncomfortable being asked to 
>make decisions of this kind, that does not mean that one outcome is not 
>identifiably better than another.  

*I* am misrepresenting Timmy's statement?
please explain to me how anonymous extortion and kidnapping/ransom (what
Timmy was talking about) saves lives along the lines of the above 
reasoning...

On Tue, 24 Dec 96 12:19:22 -0800, you wrote:

>>You obviously (deliberately?) are misrepresenting May's comment above.  It 
>>isn't that some kinds of evil are "no big deal":  It's that quantiatively, 
>>refusing to accept a solution that would prevent, say, 100 deaths, simply 
>>because it would cause _one_ DIFFERENT death is foolish and misguided.  
>>
>>If you feel inclined to deny this, consider the reverse situation:  Would 
>>you approve of the saving of one life if it cost 100 lives?  (all things 
>>being equal.)  While most people would feel uncomfortable being asked to 
>>make decisions of this kind, that does not mean that one outcome is not 
>>identifiably better than another.  
>
>*I* am misrepresenting Timmy's statement?
>please explain to me how anonymous extortion and kidnapping/ransom (what
>Timmy was talking about) saves lives along the lines of the above 
>reasoning...

{netcom18:1} last vznuri
vznuri    ttyp7    den-co-pm15.netc Tue Dec 24 12:15 - 13:24  (01:09)
vznuri    ttyp4    den-co-pm6.netco Fri Dec 20 16:10 - 16:11  (00:00)

Nu, what is Nuri's relationship to Colin james III and Dimi Vulis,
both of whom have implicated their adversaries with an italian porno
site?

jd
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jason durbin
slothrop@poisson.com
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