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An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

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Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#21

Post by JumpCrisscross »

discardorama wrote: post #16
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #10

The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…

> I don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering others to destroy their lives You do know that Paul Erdös, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century (if not ever) was a meth addict, right? I'm not saying "meth is good"; but that blanket generalizations are bad.

> Paul Erdös [sic]...was a meth addict

Do you have a reputable source for this? Wikipedia and a quick "Paul Erdos meth" Google were both fruitless for me.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#22

Post by penprog »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21
discardorama wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering others to destroy their lives You do know that Paul Erdös, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century (if not ever) was a meth addict, right? I'm not saying "meth is good"; but that blanket generalizations are bad.

> Paul Erdös [sic] ...was a meth addict Do you have a reputable source for this? Wikipedia and a quick "Paul Erdos meth" Google were both fruitless for me.

He is probably referring to how he took amphetamines, which aren't meth.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#23

Post by dalke »

discardorama wrote: post #16
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #10

The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…

> I don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering others to destroy their lives You do know that Paul Erdös, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century (if not ever) was a meth addict, right? I'm not saying "meth is good"; but that blanket generalizations are bad.

He was addicted to amphetamine (Benzedrine) or methylphenidate (Ritalin), not methamphetamine.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#24

Post by mikeyouse »

discardorama wrote: post #16
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #10

The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…

> I don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering others to destroy their lives You do know that Paul Erdös, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century (if not ever) was a meth addict, right? I'm not saying "meth is good"; but that blanket generalizations are bad.

Paul Erdös was prescribed Ritalin in 1970 when he was nearly 60 years old and had already produced the bulk of his work. He was probably addicted but never varied from his doctor-prescribed dose. Also, Ritalin is nowhere near the same as Methampetamine.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#25

Post by TehCorwiz »

asocial wrote: post #9
mycroft-holmes wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "voluntary trade" makes it sound like said trade wasn't actually illegal Just because something is illegal doesn't mean it's wrong.

That is completely true. But the police don't arrest people for breaking ethical principles, they arrest people for breaking laws. So also, in context, not entirely relevant.

Last time I checked extortion and making a false police report was against the law. I think context was that the police are participating in the SWATings while not putting in any effort to track down the perpetrators and at the same time they're putting a disproportionate amount of effort into shutting down otherwise peaceful markets.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#26

Post by lsb »

discardorama wrote: post #16
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #10

The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…

> I don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering others to destroy their lives You do know that Paul Erdös, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century (if not ever) was a meth addict, right? I'm not saying "meth is good"; but that blanket generalizations are bad.

http://amphetamines.com/amphetamines-vs-methamphetamines/

http://amphetamines.com/paul-erdos.html

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#27

Post by jotux »

AlisdairO wrote: post #14
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #10

The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…

> The argument that heroin and meth should be legal is asinine. I don't think it's asinine. There's clearly reasonable arguments for it: mostly that the consequences to society of harsh crackdowns on drug abuse are worse than those of legalisation - in particular that addicts feel that they have no option but to kill or steal in order to obtain their next fix. Do I think people ought to do hard drugs? Absolutely not,…

I recently saw an episode of "Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown" where he visits Colombia. He talked to locals about the drug trade and one person he interviewed made a very good argument that stuck with me:

Many people see drugs as a single problem with a single solution (eliminate all the drugs). But it's much more reasonable to see it as two problems: trafficking and use. Trafficking would be decimated with legalization and money fighting it could be spent on programs to help users.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#28

Post by nijo108 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21
discardorama wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering others to destroy their lives You do know that Paul Erdös, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century (if not ever) was a meth addict, right? I'm not saying "meth is good"; but that blanket generalizations are bad.

> Paul Erdös [sic] ...was a meth addict Do you have a reputable source for this? Wikipedia and a quick "Paul Erdos meth" Google were both fruitless for me.

Paul erdos was an amphetamine user in his later life.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#29

Post by EpicEng »

mycroft-holmes wrote: post #7
asocial wrote: post #5

The “police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market,” Ver says, “while evil hackers were busy terrorizing quadriplegic Hal Finney and his family.” "voluntary trade" makes it sound like said trade wasn't actually illegal (in other words, like something the police are actually supposed to stop, pe…

> "voluntary trade" makes it sound like said trade wasn't actually illegal Just because something is illegal doesn't mean it's wrong.

Right, but the police do not decide which laws to ignore and which to enforce. They are the enforcement arm, not the legislative. No one should be alarmed that people when people are arrested for peddling illegal drugs.
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