Would you... if you could?

Good one, jp.

Revenge for Enron employees. Revenge for your wife. I must say, I'm beginning to detect a pattern here. You're out for vengence! Do you happen to be in the crimminal justice field?

Thats a whole interesting question in itself. I guess it almost becomes a Does the end justify the means? question.

Or, if there is a prior "reason" for an act, does that justify an act? That is, if I hurt someone that hurt my loved one, is that somehow more okay than if I hurt someone that did not hurt my loved one? Interesting. Of course the easy answer is "Yes its fine to hurt them, they did something to hurt your loved one." But is it really fine?

Thats an interesting method, JoeFX. We should tell that one to Indecisive8 on here! Might help them become decisive! :wink:

Thinking about this one.

One of my pet peeves is people not taking responsibility for their actions. A man rapes some one and she led him on, a woman spills coffee on her lap and the restaurant didn't warn her it was hot, CEO's lay off thousands of workers because it is what the shareholders wanted. It is never your own fault... always somebody else's. We are the ones that pay for it. Either financially or emotionally.

Maybe there is a pattern in my posts... but it has come to the point where SOMEBODY has to start holding people responsible. If we all take the easy way out of things there will be no body left to pay for it.

As far as hurting somebody in response to them hurting somebody I loved... i think it would depend on how they felt about it. If they were truely sorry for their actions and had to live with that guilt the rest of their life I would say fine... you paid your price. If they denied responsibility or simply didn't care that they hurt somebody... it would take every ounce of self control in my body not to take actions into my own hands... and I hate to say it but I don't think I would feel all that bad about it.

I was just joking with you...two comments doesn't really make a pattern yet.

I agree. A major problem with our society is too few people want to take responsibility for anything in their lives. This leads to so many problems that others often end up paying for.

Being self-employed, I use up most of my day taking responsibility for my own actions, for better or worse. Excuse me if I am speaking in parable or metaphor, but I would hope that at the end of the day, I would choose 'for better.' I could chat all day about the litigious nature of US society, but I must run...

When it comes to violence, I'm an eye-for-an-eye kind of woman. Guess that came from my father. When I was young and began dating, he gave me explicit instructions that if I was attacked by someone, I should not call the police. I should only tell him and he would handle it.
I never doubted for a moment that he would, indeed, handle it. My only concern was if he could get away with it.
Not exactly on-topic but, responsibility, vengeance and rape brought this to mind.

That is totally on topic eoe... your father would do it even if he wasn't guaranteed to get away with it. We can assume he would do the same if he could get away with it. I'll mark him down in the yes column.

jpin, to clarify, I didn't pick up on your original question about cheating on one's spouse. The comment above was in reference to politicians. One particular politician, as a matter of fact.

And yeah, put Daddy in the yes column. Definitely.

The question: If you could stop the spread of HIV/AIDS by pushing a button to make all HIV viruses in the entire world disintegrate simultaneously, would you?

The Catch: Since HIV is a retrovirus, the disintegration of HIV RNA/DNA would have the adverse effct of also disintegrating the host cell in which the HIV DNA has integrated itself. In other words... a lot of people would die as well.

So... would you?

cheat on spouse -no, I have to be able to live with myself

kick a politician - no, I'm as nonviolent as they come

steal $1,000,000 -no, same as cheating above

wipe out HIV and infected individuals -no, but this is a tougher no. If you'd asked this question 10 or so years ago when HIV infectivity meant progression to AIDS over 95% of the time, then I might have said yes. As it is, HIV positivity is becoming a chronic state more than an acute one. I'd love to wipe out HIV, but not at the expense of millions of lives.

Good point J_B.

I have an aunt who was infected during a blood transfusion during a surgery (I think going on 20 years ago now). She is as healthy today as she was 15 years ago. I would point out though that while this may be more typical today in civilized countries, there are a bunch of undeveloped places where it is still close to a death sentence.

and the cost of care can be prohibitive, but still...

Re: Would you... if you could?


I like to think I wouldn't, but I try to avoid putting myself in any situations where I might find out that I would.

Well in my opinion i think i would. in my earlier, i did things and would get caught most of the time. i think that if i had a chance to do something without getting caught i would take the opportunity. i have read all throughout this page about the cheating issue. Even thought i love my boyfriend i think that taking chances makes you grow as a person and you might learn something along the way. this is a really tempting thing and it would vary from person to person, but i say what the hell you should try everythign once.

cheat on spouse? been there done that but not with squinney who is my fourth wife. Would I ever do it again? No. Not worth it and besides I've learned one valuable lesson in my life if only one... without love, pussy is pussy.

Well to cheat on a spouse, I'd have to have one first. I wouldn't, though. It's not biologically safe even if you don't you get and frankly, since I despise people who cheat on their wives I'd be a hypocrite if I did so myself.

well i get what ur tryign to say "blueveinedthrobber" but it might not even be just about sex. It can be a new experince that u can't miss out on. I mean the point of this was so that no one would ever find out only YOU would know. So what would be the harm in it. You get a chance to do somethign without someone getting hurt. (What they dont know doesn't Hurt them)

cheat on my spouse:
No never. I have seen very close and first hand how this affects people and I could not live with myself if I ever caused any one close to me that kind of pain. Even if I was guaranteed to never get caught I would know and that would be enough. I have even been falsely accused of it once and the fact that anyone I know would think me capable of it infuriates me.

kick a politician:
Yeah theres a few, plus line up some of the people who agree with them. Truth be told we could all use an ass kicking once and a while.

Steal a million dollars:
That would be mighty tempting, especially now when we are about 3 months behind on everything due to crappy job market. In the end I would have to say no for the same reasons as cheating. I would know it was wrong to do and I'm a firm believer in karma and would always be worrying about when it was going to come back and bite me in the butt.

Wipe out AIDS
No I'm not about to start playing God. A cure will eventually be found for AIDS but there is no cure for death.

The whole discussion about being a vigilante or hurting those that have hurt someone you love, well, let's just say that there are a few people walking around today that the only reason they are not dissolving in a vat of acid is because on the chance that I would get caught they (alive or dead) are not worth losing my freedom by going to jail. It sounds bad, it is bad. I am about the most calm, friendly person you could meet, but there are some things that are just not forgivable and the person in question does not deserve to breath the same air that there victims do. I would most likely not take it to death. Where is the lesson in that? They would, however, live the rest of their lives in great pain and every time they scream out in agony they will think of what they did and why they are now where they are.

Eeesh I sound like some crazed weirdo. I guess this marks me firmly in the yes category.

RE: the cheating and not getting caught - no. No way, no how, under no circumstances. I think infidelity shows a lack of respect for yourself, not just the person you are deceiving. I would never inflict the pain of the infidelity on another person, and I would also never inflict the guilt on myself.

I'm new btw - this place looks great. *hello*