Funny Tale of Street Justice

Here's a funny real-life story of street justice, "How I got an uncooperative eBay buyer to pay for her purchase".

Here's the setup:

I had tickets to a sporting event and couldn't attend. I made a 1-day listing and clearly stated that the tickets must be picked up in person within 24 hours (the game was the evening after the auction ended, so there wasn't any time to ship the tickets).

A woman won the auction for about $600. The auction had ended at 10:00am and by 5:00pm she still hadn't responded to my emails trying to organize the exchange. Finally, at 9:30pm, I got a one-liner email: "I overbid and my husband won't let me buy these. Sorry and enjoy the game! :)"

I first tried explaining that I wouldn't have the time to resell the tickets (I already got turned down by the losing bidders). She said, "... that's not my problem. It's eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want." I still don't understand the car dealership reference.

I was pretty upset. I was basically going to be stuck with tickets to an event that I couldn't attend. That's when I got the idea to convince her to change her mind...

You can read the rest of his post to see what he did.

My immediate reaction was that this was a perfect example of unofficial "street" justice. But the author of the post does ask the legitimate question, "Was it unethical?" If anyone wants Diana to cover this question on her webcast, they should submit it through this page.

(Story found via Keith Schacht.)

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Hsieh PJM OpEd: "2010: Dawn of the Terran Empire?"

PajamasMedia has published my short, tongue-in-cheek piece, "2010: Dawn of the Terran Empire?"

My theme is that we must have entered a bizarre political parallel universe if Democrats are now running on how they voted against universal health care, and France is now telling us that we're being too soft on our enemies.

Enjoy!

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Clever Homeless Signs

Although I don't give out money to panhandlers, some of them do use clever signs.

And as Steven Malanga reports, the successful techniques are often disseminated across the country via the internet.

(Via Found On The Web.)

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Today's Radiology History

Another history from our Nebraska practice:



Our internal e-mail comments included the following exchange:

"[Dr. X] 'says' he is on vacation... But then this history came through from Nebraska... hmmmmmm"

"I'm sure that was no vacation for the goat."

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Today's X-Ray

One could pretty much guess the history from this image:



Yes, that's a foreign body in the patient's rectum.

More specifically, it's an electric toothbrush.

And according to the ER doctor who removed it, it was in the "ON" position.

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ER History

I worked the "nighthawk" 9pm-7am shift all week not long ago, which is mostly emergency radiology. Here's a history from a middle-of-the-night CT scan of the head and face that I recently interpreted:



As my on-call partner said, "I'm sure we're getting paid for that one!"...

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Asking the Right Question

   


That's great! Unfortunately, it is hilarious because what it refers to is so widespread.

The lesson to be taken from this "sign of insanity" is a key epistemological principle in Objectivism: that arbitrary notions -- ideas with no basis in reality -- must be rejected if you want your mind to actually be useful in pursuing life here on earth.

A familiar application can be seen in our justice system: When someone brings a baseless charge before a court, it is rightly dismissed as beneath consideration (and could even earn penalties for wasting the court's time). Chaos would reign if this were not the standing practice, with spurious claims sapping precious resources and inviting injustice. Well, the same should hold in the fact-finding forum of your own mind: if someone brings a baseless idea before a rational mind, it ought to be dismissed as beneath consideration or argument -- as "not even wrong."

As Leonard Peikoff discussed in his lecture series presenting "The Philosophy of Objectivism":

An arbitrary claim has no cognitive status whatever. According to Objectivism, such a claim is not to be regarded as true or as false. If it is arbitrary, it is entitled to no epistemological assessment at all; it is simply to be dismissed as though it hadn’t come up ... The truth is established by reference to a body of evidence and within a context; the false is pronounced false because it contradicts the evidence. The arbitrary, however, has no relation to evidence, facts, or context. It is the human equivalent of [noises produced by] a parrot ... sounds without any tie to reality, without content or significance.

In a sense, therefore, the arbitrary is even worse than the false. The false at least has a relation (albeit a negative one) to reality; it has reached the field of human cognition, although it represents an error -- but in that sense it is closer to reality than the brazenly arbitrary.
...
It is not your responsibility to refute someone’s arbitrary assertion -- to try to find or imagine arguments that will show that his assertion is false. It is a fundamental error on your part even to try to do this. The rational procedure in regard to an arbitrary assertion is to dismiss it out of hand, merely identifying it as arbitrary, and as such inadmissible and undiscussable.

This can be a subtle and tricky topic, and gaining clarity on it represents an important mental upgrade. For further exploration I recommend Peikoff's excellent book, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, where he reorganized, systematized, and strengthened the material of those lectures.

[HT: Pharyngula]

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Get Your Own Federal Bailout

Here's the easy application form:


If the porn industry can request a federal bailout, why not you?

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Patience and Wisdom

"Two of the greatest qualities in life... Patience and Wisdom."

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Miracle on the Hudson

[HT: PZ Meyers]

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’Twas the Night After Single Payer

'Twas the night after Single Payer, when all through the land
Not a creature had health care that could be called grand;

The ERs were stuffed with those seeking care,
In hopes Dr. Daschle soon would be there;

The patients were all nestled sick in their beds,
Hallucinating that sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And doctors at their post, and nurses at their station,
Had just hunkered down for a long Administration,

When on the Rose Garden lawn there arose such a clatter,
I turned on CNN to see what was the matter.

Away to the screen it flew like a flash,
Camera shutters were clicking, Dr. Daschle with his sash.

TV lights shined in faces hailing the plan
Gave the lustre of "quality" for each woman and man,

When, what to my wondering eyes be endured,
But a huge new department, and forty-eight million more insured,

With a powerful new driver, two roles to fulfill,
I knew in a moment it would be government overkill.

Regulations not treatments his ideas they came,
New restrictions, new rules, and he called them by name;

"Now, Daschle! now, Dollar! now, Payer and Taxin'!
On, Common! on Cure-all! on, Daunting and Blighted!

To the top of the White House! it will hit the wall!
Now cash away! cash away! cash away all!"

As dry heaves that before an intestinal flare,
With patients on the wait list, what do they care?

So up in the bureaucracy the coursers they flew,
Through the cabinets of paperwork, and Dr. Daschle too.

And then, in a news conference, I heard more restrictions
The limits and taxing and fewer prescriptions.

As I called 911, one day writhing in pain,
The response that I got could only be called insane.

He was dressed in his scrubs, and checked my citizen's ID,
And the equipment malfunctioned, but the diagnosis was free;

A bundle of supplies, the treatment room disordered,
But they lacked what was needed, what the Dr. had ordered.

His eyes--how they glazed! dark circles how weary!
His cheeks were so sallow, his job was so dreary!

Another patient in line dehydrated like wheat,
Uncontrolled diabetes, his blood sugar too sweet;

The stump of a leg infected for weeks,
It was surgical care that this patient seeks;

He had Universal Insurance and a sad-looking face,
Because it only covered some gauze and an Ace.

He was pale and sweaty, a sickly young man,
And I cried when I saw him, in spite of his free-coverage plan.

A wink of the bureaucrat and a nod of her head,
Said, with Single Payer I had nothing to dread;

She spoke no more words, but took her first break,
Civil servants remember their rules are at stake.

And the Doctor came back, his fingers rubbing his eyes,
And he gave me a med and some vague replies;

He sprang to his computer, the new high-tech efficiency
Sent my records to D.C. for some clerk to see.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he walked out of sight,

"Single Payer for all has become a nightmarish fright!"

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Technophobia from 1900

Here's a sign from the early 1900's telling patrons about that new-fangled electrical light. I especially liked the sentence, "The use of Electricity for lighting is in no way harmful to health, nor does it affect the soundness of sleep."



I'm sure glad we Americans in the 21st century beyond such irrational fears of new technology!...

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