""I'm free to burn money in front of bums"...it's actually illegal to burn currency in most countries, just saying."

The US Treasury does it all the time. But that probably isn't what you meant. :-P

@Braillard - " If every life is worth the same, then every opinion also is, isn't it? "

No. The life has the equal worth by virtue of being alive. What the life produces, be it shit from the ass or shit from the mind, has different worth amongst different individuals. The brain surgeon's life is worth exactly the same as the drunken scum in a wige beater living on welfare. But their contribution to society has a very different worth. Likewise, not all opinions are equal.

@Thucy, where in this thread have I insulted you? I've insulted FineRedAssdouche but not you.

Have you? Tried, maybe.

I've insulted you, you just didn't take offense. The insult does not require the victim to take offense to be an insult, If I kick your ass not realizing your are a masochist and you enjoy it, that doesn't make my assault any less an assault. It just means you found it pleasurable and so my desired result was not fulfilled,

Fair enough. :-)

Chicken cutlets.

So, more to the point, it's true, Draugnar, that there's an essentially equal, intrinsic value in each human life, but that's the only value. If you were on a sinking ship, you'd be happier if the one guy with survival skills sufficient to save the dozen people on your life raft was on board and didn't hit his head and drown. That's the only point with the AIDS researcher thing: if their deaths sets back research into the disease and contributes to a bunch of additional deaths, then that's a tragedy above and beyond the simple fact that hundreds of people died in a plane crash. So it's not that their lives were more valuable, just that there might be other deaths now because of their passing,

Second sentence: "...but that's *not* the only value." Gah, typing on an iPad sucks...

Agreed. I wasn't arguing differently. I was just pointing out that equal value to life does not mean equal value to the opinion of the individual.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/07/18/what-ronald-reagan-said-when-korean-air

KAL 007, 1983. History repeats itself.

Who said you insulted me? I was talking about name calling and insulting anyone at all. What do you get out of it, other than hate, other than pride? It's not edifying, it's not necessary, and being free to do it is no good reason to. Why insult when you can encourage?

Well, when dealing with a drunken ssorenn... :-)

But seriously, Thucy, I am taking your words to heart along with my discussions with some of the mods and admins I respect and endeavoring to do better. I fail on occasion, but I am trying.

As am I for the tiny bit that that matters.