I explained myself badly (sorry for my poor english). What I meant is the opposite: I don't think the US is violent because there are many guns - I think there are many guns in the US because it is an extremely violent society, and that violence is rooted in its culture. The USA has always being an imperialist power, and IMO this distinct characteristic emanates from a large part of the population being obsessed with its "god-given right" to apply violence. Yes, its always about "self defense", but you know how relative things might be... Saddam was supposed to have deadly weapons of mass destruction, so slaughtering hundreds of thousands of civilians was self defense; George Zimmermann killed a 17 year old unarmed teen in self-defense, and this guy (video in the link) shooting a 13 years old kid would have probably been considered self-defense too if we didn't have a video.

My point is that this is a vicious circle - obviously guns are not the core problem, but more guns won't make your society safer, on the contrary it will make it unsafer. Look at that old man who killed the 13 years old, that shit only happens in the third world AND the USA. That old guy probably felt his 4 shotguns gave him "the power" to teach a lesson to anybody who fucked with him (wow, nice feeling), and that he had a "god given right" to kill someone for breaking into his house, even if that person is an unarmed teen. That "cowboy mentality" seems pretty common in the USA, as the aberrant "stand your ground" law indicates. And I know what some of you will tell me - "stand your ground is perfectly fine, because how can someone know if an intruder is armed or unarmed? How do you know if he will try to kill you? If someone breaks into your property, you just shoot him..." Wow, nice society living in constant fear and violence, where random kids go to schools and slaughter their mates. And if not, they can always go to Iraq or whatever come next.

I think the problem is very, very deep. Everybody here is so convinced about them being "the good guys", but you seem to forget that 99% of the people (including the criminals) consider themselves "the good guys", the bad one is always the other guy. That's basic human psychology. I already made the example of the military, and how relative is who is "the bad" or "the good" guy in real life - it's not all about law abiding citizens and psychopathic serial killers, things are more complex and subtle. And there you have people arming themselves and thinking "hey, I have the balls and the means to protect my family", this mentality is deeply rooted, and at some point some idiot will be totally convinced he saw a "bad guy" who might be a threat, who could have the exact same mentality and could be armed too, so its better to shoot first just in case because hey, that's how life is.

That's sick. Human life is the most precious thing we have. I'd for one prefer to live and let live by breaking this pointless and horrendous loop.

I pretty much agree - guns are just inanimate objects (with only one purpose: to kill), and its just stupid to put the blame on inanimated objetcs - the blame is on individuals committing the crimes. The amount of privately owned guns in the US is a cause and reflection of its violent culture, dominated by fear and greed. Gun-lovers are not helping at all to change that culture, though.

Just received my refund!

On Keynesianism: capitalism means "private ownership of means of production", while Keynesianism is just a kind of monetary policy. In a time where a huge crisis was spreading poverty and hunger among the general population (1929), something that could have threatened the belief in the capitalist system (in fact communism was quickly spreading in Europe), Keynesianism come to the rescue by reactivating the US economy, giving an "extra ball" to a system that could have collapsed. This has happened over and over, Keynesianism is by no means "anti-capitalist", because by no means it discusses the private ownership of means of production - its just a type of monetary policy that can be enforced in a capitalist society.

On anarchism: the oxymoron is anarcho-capitalism. The point of anarchism is to have "no ruler", private or public, the philosophical point is to live without any coercion or hierarchies. Capitalism is coercitive and hierarchical by nature: there will always be bosses (the ones owning the means of production: factories, land) who will tell others what to do - those others will not own their time, because they will have to rent it in order to survive.

Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism is not OK with "public" rulers but is very OK with "private" rulers. They want something similar to the middle ages: no state, no government, the wealthiest rule and that's it. Someone wealthier than you could come and buy himself a bigger army and take your land, so you need to compete to be wealthier as its the only way to be sure you will be OK. In fact, Rothbardians love to put Medieval Iceland as an example of "anarcho-capitalism". Pretty cool stuff BTW.

About anarcho-syndicalism: its just a concrete way of organizing the economy in an anarchist society, and BTW is the only "way" that has been "tested" in a medium-sized area for aprox. 8 years (Aragón, in Spain, between 1930 and 1938). An example of an anarcho-syndicalist society: the workers OWN the fruits of their labour (so the workers OWN the land and the factories they are working in, etc - this is a basic principle of anarchism, torn apart by Rothbard in his ill-conceived interpretation of anarchism), and workers and only the workers decide what to do with those fruits. There is no "civic government", there is no "upper echelon", everything would be decided directly by people itself in assemblies. The central point of anarcho-syndicalism is WORK, so people would freely associate themselves depending on what kind of work they do. There would be no "California" or "Switzerland", you would have "the union of blacksmiths of the Orange County", etc... So, imagine you work making cars in a factory in Detroit: you would directly decide in an assembly how to manage production, what to do with those cars, etc. (in anarcho-syndicalism a "free market" is possible, on the contrary on Kropotkin's anarcho-communism is pretty much pointless). You could also decide in your assembly to be part of the "federation of car factories of Detroit", that would have its own assembly representing their associates, maybe getting better conditions from the "federal union of steel miners" who sell you the steel... And so on, anarcho-syndicalism is basically an "onion structure" of federated assemblies where no one is "elected" or "chosen", everyone participates directly in decision-making. If you want to go deeper, the book that set the fundamental principles of anarcho-syndicalism is Rudolf Rocker's "anarchosydicalism: theory and practice".


Not it could not. A communist/socialist government would NEVER use a commodity which supply they cannot control as a currency.

Your Government is striking NON STOP. First and foremost, its slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people all over the world just because of economic interests. They are killing people, you know? Secondly, they are stripping you naked of your most basic rights, and still you say "if the government makes the first strike the people will band together and overturn them"? Seriously, what kind of strike are you expecting? Please let me know.

Maybe you mean that its OK if thousands of "foreigner" kids are slaughtered in their countries, while its not so OK if the kids in some California town are attacked? Maybe if the Federal Government "strikes" a small town in California, then all the nation will raise its arms and overturn the Government? Well, maybe they will wipe a couple more of towns with drones and the rest of the population will just STFU because they are too comfortable and they just know a rifle can do nothing against a drone or a Tomahawk. Plus, I don't see why they would need to "strike" US population in that way, they will just strip of their rights and squeeze from them all the money they can for their ventures. So, again: what kind of "strike" are you expecting to react?

Finally, there seems to be a lot of "anarchists" here - well, in my book anarchist believe in free associations, they do not believe in States, God or Nations. This is what Bakunin wrote in "The God and the State". Nations and religion are just big lies used to control people and rule over them. But still, you think that "people will band together if the Government strikes first". What people? What kind of strike? Let me know.

US soldiers are using YOUR tax money to slaughter people all over the world, thus you could be held responsible for that. You are financing them. Some of those soldiers are probably your very neighbors.

So why don't you use your guns to stop those killings, committed by your neighbors? Because those "bad guys" are just destroying other people's families, and not your own? Or maybe just because you know you do not stand a chance against the Federal Government and the US army?

You are delirious if you think that the most armed countries are the most peaceful - first example, the USA. It's the country in the world with more weapons (35% to 50% of all the privately owned guns in the world are in the US, while its population only amounts to aprox. 5% of the world population), while its one of the most violent countries in the world. So... the problem is you need more guns?? Really?

Then, you are repeating over and over the Switzerland example which is a blatant demonstration of how mistaken some of you are, you are just repeating meaningless clichés - Switzerland is a peaceful and neutral country, thus they do no even have an army. Because they do not have an army and are neutral in all wars, their citizens military duty is to store firearms at home, but:

- carrying a firearm in Switzerland is strictly prohibited, unless you a) are en route to practice with your unit or b) you work in security (meaning your are a policeman or similar). There's no way a regular citizen is allowed to carry a gun, there's no "special permit" or license possible. If authorities catch you carrying a pistol, you go straight to jail. Oh yes.

- the immense majority of firearms "owned" by Swiss citizens are just 3 models of weapons, the ones provided by the State - which also provide the ammo, which has always to be sealed unless there is a invasion, war, etc... And only the Gov. could say "ok we are now at war, take out your guns".

So, this is what you want for the US? You want to store weapons because your Government forces you to (military training is mandatory and the "swiss militia" soldiers are conscripts), but you cannot carry/use those guns unless the Government specifically allows you to because there is some kind of war or invasion? Really? I don't think so, Switzerland is one of the most regulated countries in the world, and is quite the opposite of what you would like for the US. The fact some of you keep repeating over and over the same example of Switzerland demonstrate you know nothing about the reality of their policies, you seem to ignore no one carries firearms, no one is EVER allowed to fire their guns unless they are practicing with their unit, they cannot even use their guns for self defense (if you shot a thief armed with a knife that broke into your house and you kill him, you go to jail for life unless you have an excellent defense that can prove that the thief's intention was not just to steal from you, but to outright kill you... Which is very difficult to prove unless he injured you)... And you still say Switzerland is an example you like? Wow, genius.

What I will have to agree with most in here, is that guns are just tools - evil tools, but just objects nevertheless. People kills, not necessarily guns. As Switzerland (or Finland) demonstrates, there can be a lot of guns in people's houses and very little crime. That's a fact. Do you know why? Because it is a matter of CULTURE. No one in Switzerland thinks carrying a firearm is their "god given right". They are just forced to store them because they have no army. They cannot use them, but nevertheless no one really wishes to carry them. Which is a very different approach than "people can only be free if they have guns, and BTW if I see someone in my property I will blow his brain off because it is my god-given right"... See, the problem in the US is that you have this cult for violence, you think there are a lot of "bad guys" (both inside and outside the US) who are waiting to gang rape your family, so your only chance to survive is to master violence...  Well, this "cowboy mentality" is reflected and executed by the US Government too in its foreign policy.

We have been told a fairy tale about a phantomatic organization called Al Qaeda, which leader hid in caves in Afghanistan, which supposedly organized 9/11 training their men with Microsoft Flight Simulator. Most of people in West bought that story, and pretty much everybody in high positions agreed Al Qaeda is evil and must be destroyed.

Making a long story short: the US military attacks Al Qaeda in Yemen and Pakistan, while gives them funds in Syria in the fight against Al Assad. Now it seems the US will strike Syria to help Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic fundamentalists against the Syrian secular regime, where religious freedom is guaranteed and any kind of political form of islamism is forbidden.

Seriously guys, WTF?

Anyhow, my call is the US will not have the balls to do a "real" war, sending occupying forces to the territory. Its pretty obvious to me they will just throw some tomahawks to show off. They know too well Hezbollah is very strong in Syria, they are heavily armed with Russian and Chinese weapons financed by Iran. This could be a new Vietnam (or Iraq), and they know it - they cannot afford that ATM.

This is correct. If you are a business operating completely legally you will recoup the VAT and declare the different import duties as expenses, thus a fake value on the invoice will just badly mess with your accounting. But for all the consumers who are not a registered company or for "pro" operations managed in a "shady" way, an undervalued invoice will just mean less costs they were not going to recoup anyway.

NO REFUND RECEIVED

Still "refund processing" on my Avalon store account.

You see how Mike just said that they are poor kids who were drugged and brainwashed, meaning that they are not 'the bad guys' - he implied the bad guys are on higher positions, which is a fair point.

On the contrary you can bet that for the family of the Reuters reporter murdered in that video those US soldiers are indeed the bad guys that should be taken out.  So... If they are indeed "the bad guys" also for you and Americans in general, why don't your armed friends go and use their freedom-tools against the US military preventing the killings their neighbours are commiting abroad?

Maybe because if its not your family who is threatened you don't really care, even if those murders are committed in YOUR name?

Maybe because you know you do not have any chance against the military, and that's just the way it is?

As you see the point of firearms protecting citizens against the Government is ludicrous (a point I read a lot here), especially taking into consideration we are speaking about the US, which Government (and army) supports the interests of the people ruling the world.

And if you know you do not stand a chance against the people ruling the world, maybe you just want your guns to be safe in case a random criminal/psycho tries to kill you. Well, in that case world statistics say that less guns = less violent crime, which leads to a less violent society as a whole.

This cult to the idea that individuals have the "God given" right to carry firearms is disturbing and sick.

The world is fucked up - lets try not to fuck it up even more by adding more and more deadly weapons to it.

Well, because I bought back in full between $67 and $105. My trading position was all BTC, so I had to sell on Gox before buying on Bitstamp to sell again on Gox, etc. etc. etc...

Plus, the point here is to see how fast I can move fiat from Gox to Bitstamp in a recurrent way - both fiat and BTC have to move quickly for arbitrage to work. BTC is quick, fiat not so much...

Yep, that's amazing stuff indeed.

Not my money for the moment. How much did they steal from you, Nagle? I thought you were out and that Bitcoin was a ponzi scheme which endgame was approaching.

Did you bought back and now you trade BTC? Is the endgame finally approaching? Maybe the endgame will finally be the collapse of MtGox and the other exchanges due to regulatory pressure/illiquidity?

Anyhow: please report how much MtGox stole from you so we can start legal action.

Wow, you are a weird guy. I really think your judgment really works in its very own, profoundly broken way. You think that knowing that a lot of Rom/Romani come from Romania is strange, when its basic common knowledge (or hiper-basic google skills)... On the opposite I use a very peculiar expression currently used in very specific cases linked exactly to what you were saying to pliznau (you were one of the snitches, etc.)... And you say that's easy with Google!!!!!

Wow, just wow again Vlad. I'm really amazed by how your brain works. You have this thing that makes me come back and reply...

Look, pliznau just hinted about a real life experience different than yours, and you attacked him in the most vicious (and delirious) way.

And BTW, we all have personal, real life experiences that might be the opposite of the ones you are describing, but:

1) bringing up our real life story in a forum where Bitcoin is discussed is not the best idea
2) when discussing deep changes that affected vast regions, one's own experience is tremendously limited and obviously too subjective and biased. You are using emotions, not rationality.

And now I think I will live "Vlad's thread". It's extenuating indeed...

Did you read what I wrote? I might not be Romanian, but do you think I do not know the East, and especially Romania, when I used the expression "tovarasul securist"? By the way, there is no point in discussing with you - we will have to agree to disagree, especially when you know so well "your race"... I for one have never found nothing that could lead me to think that moral or ethics are related to race.

OK Vlad, whatever. Just try to grab and read an history book, you may stop speaking clichés.

Man, that "cyst ball" looks just like a scar from a type of smallpox vaccine which was widely applied in some countries some years ago. As a traveler passionate in history I've met plenty of people (especially in their late 30's and older) with those scars and they are just that - smallpox vaccine scars.

I don't know if you outright lie, but you definitely exaggerate a lot, and you certainly mix facts with delusions... Come on, you violently accused pliznau of giving BJ's for 50€ just because *some* people of your country is forced to do that when they find themselves homeless abroad... How sick is that, Vlad?

BTW, does your scar looks similar to this?

Yep, both in Italy and Spain there are a lot of young men from the East (especially Romania) offering blowjobs for 50€ or less - not only in "gay parks", but also in the main squares of the big cities, where gay men look for "rent boys". These "services" always existed, and depending of the context and economic situation, the nationalities of the "rent boys" performing the services has been changing through the last decades. Nowadays and after the fall of the communism, most of prostitution (male and female) in Europe is performed by Eastern Europe people. Local prostitutes almost disappeared in the last decade in Germany, Italy, Spain... Now you have Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, etc. all over the place, competing only with South American people.

On a side note: it looks like the fall of communism was not so good for many Romanians, right? As you say some of them are now forced to sleep in bushes and give blowjobs. So, what's the reason in your opinion? Maybe is there a genetic disorder in Romanians that make them filthier? Or maybe is just that communism spoiled their soul, and now they do not want to work, they just want to steal and give blowjobs?

In my book there is no black or white, only a million shades of gray - you hate communism, but 99% of Russian citizens lived much better during communism than during the pre-communist era with the Zar - and this is a hard cold fact. With the Zars Russia was a peasant, medieval country, and with communism it became a world power. So, while I perfectly know the situation in Romania was (both before and after) quite different, you need to understand that there might be a person like pliznau who says he lived better in communism than before or after - and he is not necessarily a "tovarasul" securist.

Sorry Vlad, but you just speak about how intelligent you are, but yet you do not seem to understand the basic of cryptos, you do not read anything, you do not learn anything, you just ramble like an enlightened religious, unbalanced fanatic with delusions of grandeur. Think about it - that's why people found you amusing, its only the "im so glad im not as fucked up as that guy" effect.