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Four women, two of them well into middle age, were discussing funeral plans for a friend when an Atlanta police officer told them to move. Three did but one asked "why." In answer to her question, Mi...
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Insurance companies have been getting a lot of negative press lately, especially when it comes to health care. It seems that, generally, people believe that insurance companies exist primarily for so...
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In On The Duty of Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau wrote "How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with...
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There is enough evidence now to implicate the US government of a massive cover-up of 9/11. At this point, it's ignorant to claim otherwise. Yet, the only ones who suffer from the terrible events of 9...
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School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home
School-sanctioned privacy intrusion? "Schools are only interested in a child's best interests" claim those who ignore knowledge...
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Today I learned that, contrary to popular belief, a private business owner who made every pair of military business boots for US soldiers in World War I established the 40-hour work week which becam...
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Jerry Garcia is famous for saying "And as far as I'm concerned, it's like I say, drugs are not the problem. Other stuff is the problem." As the lawyers at the RIAA claim that copyright law "isn't wor...
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Seven years after the second invasion of Iraq, Iraq's capital Baghdad, home to more than six million people, hardly gets one hour of non-interrupted electricity supplies every 24 hours. Soldiers with...
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WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad - including two Reuters news staff. FTA: "The impo...
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Making generalizations always comes with challenges. After all, just because a claim is oftentimes true doesn't make it fact in all cases. Although intellectual dishonesty abounds, I generally catego...
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Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable. - John F. Kennedy
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Mar 8, 2010 at http://www.brain...
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As we consider the ramifications of WikiLeak's courageous action to provide us truth about the Iraq war, it is useful to also consider how poorly the mainstream media has served us and the pursuit of...
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Last night in group chat, we had a bunch of conversations (sometimes very heated) about what the Constitution does and does not allow. As part of it, we got into the US Great Depression, FDR, court ...
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Today I learned that there are surgeons who specialize in restoring virginity.
FTA:
The clinic is not in Dubai or Cairo, but in Paris. And the surgery they are waiting for is to restore their...
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Technology is so grand. With the research from this experiment, we might finally be able to replace the lowest form of humans - politicians - with robots. After all, if you can teach robots to lie, t...
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Talk about a circlejerk... The federal government tells poorly performing schools that, if they fire their principals, they will get additional money. So what do these schools do? They fire the princ...
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In politics, it seems that everything is an issue. Why? Because everything that politicians do is based on wealth redistribution - taking from one person and giving to another. As a result, politics...
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How do you make economics more fun so that people better understand basic concepts and, just as important, what the ramifications are from making poor economic choices?
FTA: "Who is better informe...
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What's the difference between being a slave and a serf? When slavery was common hundreds of years ago, your master kept 100% of what you earned. Now they take about 50%. Masters used to keep you in l...
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Obama's die-hard base is continuing to turn on him and abandon him... for the right reasons. (And Obama's administration is lashing out angrily at liberals, claiming that they should be "drug tested"...
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As scary as it might sound, we already know that evidence doesn't matter much in the context of politics. So, even when there is clear evidence of a certain idea being factually true, many people don...
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While hero Bradley Manning rots in solitary confinement, most are now aware that Wikileaks has courageously released 250,000 secret diplomacy documents which provide candid and critical views of US...
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H.L. Mencken is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century. Among other interesting facts, he was against World War II and democ...
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A fellow Braincraver wants to alert us, and we should take heed of his warning. He lives in Florida on the coast. Over this past month, his health has been deteriorating significantly. He's getting h...
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To claim that the US supports freedom (i.e., the absence of physical coercion) is nonsensical. Everything the US government does is anti-freedom. Take the situation in Egypt, for example. American ad...
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According to the Society of Professional Journalists, journalism is about providing "information in an accurate, comprehensive, timely and understandable manner." Sadly, in the mainstream media, jour...
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The statist argument is always the same: "If you have nothing to hide, why do you care?" The government can attach a GPS device to your car and monitor your movements, and it's perfectly legal. And n...
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Did you know that politicians in New York City have tried to play-up crime statistics showing that crime was down? It's becoming clear that it appeared as such because the statistics were faked. FTA:...
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Ron Paul famously said of neocons:
The neoconservative ethos, steeped in the teachings of Leo Strauss, cannot abide an America where individuals simply pursue their happy, peaceful, prosperous l...
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Regardless or whether you agree or disagree with specific social programs, we can generally agree that government wastes much money as it tries to engineer social outcomes (50% by some estimates). Th...
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I went to a high school in this district many years ago.
FTA: "Make sure you notice 'Codell, Neil C.' who is 4th from the top of the list. Career pension of $26,661,604. That's almost $27 million...
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Today I learned that the US government ordered a farmer to destroy his own crops in order to increase market prices. The case, Wickard v. Filburn, went to the US Supreme Court, and the court sided wi...
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There's a button that some wear on election day. It says "I voted." It's as if voting makes them feel powerful.
But the vote they cast typically isn't for a specific law - it's usually for a polit...
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"For government [of conquered people] consists in nothing else but so controlling subjects that they shall neither be able to, nor have cause to, do you harm; which may be done either by making quite...
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In his famous statement "First they came," Pastor Martin Niemöller once blasted the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power as they purged group after group:
THEY CAME...
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Don't even get me started on the vicious "family" laws and their completely immoral courts, but I couldn't pass up providing this particular continued proof of government stupidity:
"France to int...
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It's a rope-a-dope. Don't you, for a minute, believe this is about porn and protecting children. Porn is the cover - what do you think they are really after?
FTA: "Customs and immigration officers...
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A thousand architects and engineers want to know how 3 World Trade Center skyscrapers suddenly disintegrate into fine dust. how did massive steel beams suddenly fail as a result of short-lived, isola...
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After providing $900 billion in "stimulus" with zero (and some would argue negative) impact on the economy, increasing the national debt by over $2 trillion (in slightly over 1 year, and it continues...
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The problem really is crime, isn't it? It doesn't matter whether it's legal crime, as committed by government agents, or whether it's crimes committed by communal garden scumbags. Before we can enjoy...
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Putting aside the debates as to whether or not social psychology is less rigorous because it is a soft science, or whether or not it is really science at all, how closely do our political choices mir...
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There's an adage in economics that goes: people do not walk barefoot because there aren't any government shoe factories. In markets where competition exists (not to be confused with free markets), bu...
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How we do like to complain about politicians. We vote them into office (well, some don't vote) and expect them to change the world. To reduce war. To make our lives better. To keep their promises. Af...
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Should lawyers, doctors, and politicians have the right to physically force a patient to receive medical treatment? Is it morally proper for someone else to force a decision upon you that they think...
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Government - they are experts at manipulating people. They even have a scary-sounding name for it: "psy-ops." What happens when they turn against their own? The psychological thriller The Manchurian...
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Ayn Rand once wrote that "Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration." Perhaps that's one of the reasons politics always appear...
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In light of the claim that Osama bin Laden has now been killed, we thought it might be a good idea to remind everyone of George Orwell's famous character in the novel 1984: Emmanuel Goldstein....
editorial posted by
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They've been trained by US governments. They are expert killers. They believe that the principles espoused in the US Constitution are actually worth defending. They've been patient, but have had enou...
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Milton Friedman, the originator of the withholding tax, once said "we're all Keynesians now" (referring to the disastrous economic policies promoted by John Maynard Keynes). More recently, Newsweek (...
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Obama is currently getting criticized because of his recent speech asserting that the US government officially supports a two-state solution based on Israel's pre-1967 borders along with negotiated...
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Today I learned that 18 US veterans commit suicide every day and 1 million veterans are sitting in jail.
When Staff Sgt. Brad Eifert, 36, finally made his way to the woods behind his house with...
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Today I learned which countries make up the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland), the difference between the United Kingdom (four countries) and Great Britain (England, Sco...
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In case you haven't heard, the US Totally Stupid Administration (aka TSA) has deployed Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) body scanners at many airports that produce radiation to scan your body for po...
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Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about getting a blow job. But here we have President Obama, a constitutional lawyer and professor, who is technically now a dictator without anyone calling for im...
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Today I learned one of the creators of Superman drew S&M and bondage comics that were banned by the Supreme Court, the creator of Star Trek created a show about a gym teacher having sex with his...
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(Meanwhile, as the Italian cabinet approves a tough austerity plan, and as Nero feasts while Rome burns...)
According to the AP, "France, Italy, Spain and Belgium are banning short-selling on sele...
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Welcome to the bizarre world of union ideology. Unions are hiring unemployed people at the minimum wage to walk picket lines. (Snicker.) Why aren't they being paid union rates? I personally think the...
editorial posted by
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Nuclear energy was discovered in the context of war (specifically World War II). In the 1950s, the US Air Force tried to come up with an idea of putting a nuclear reactor on an airplane to keep it ru...
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Ayn Rand wrote "Modern collectivists... see society as a super-organism, as some supernatural entity apart from and superior to the sum of its individual members." Those who support freedom are often...
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (aka who watches the watchmen)?
Called Colony Collapse Disorder, there is something killing honeybees. They are dying in "huge numbers." Scientists from the US Environ...
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Obama has broken many promises. That's par for the course when you're a politician. People know (and sadly accept) that politicians aren't going to do everything they promise.
But then there are m...
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The collectivists assert the socialist moral imperative that the highest good for each individual is to live for the sake of others (e.g., for the good of "society"). Marx summed it up perfectly: "Fr...
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The US government has recently passed a healthcare law that REQUIRES Americans to purchase health insurance. The US government also nationalized and now owns the car company General Motors. If the go...
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A Guantanamo Bay sergeant is blowing the whistle on US government torture and murder and the US Department of Justice is blatantly covering it up. This amazing Harper's article is a chilling account...
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Liberals in the US are in an uproar, claiming that the recent murder of six individuals and the attempted murder of the Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords were the by-product of rhetoric by Sar...
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Contrary to what the United Nations does, Mother Earth doesn't have a conscience. She can't tell us which of her resources she wants us to save, which to take care of, and which to use. Ergo, how we...
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Einstein once wrote that "our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears." Many agree. For example, David Hume suggested in A Treatise of Human Nature that humans are prone to letting emoti...
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Go figure... who would have thought that using the philosophy of Socialism to force the reduction of costs, artificially set prices, and provide for everyone would result in long-term problems? Oh, w...
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As Murray Rothbard put it in his marvelous article The Anatomy of the State, "Some theorists venerate the State as the apotheosis of society; others regard it as an amiable, though often inefficient,...
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We are social beings. As a result, depending on how much you value the opinions of others, what someone says about you can matter. Often, you've likely heard people negatively labeled as fringe cons...
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FTA: "The High Court's award of a £215,000 divorce payout to the former wife of a leading barrister - 25 years after the couple split - is a terrible blow to those who rightly believe that women are...
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In Mel Brooks's very funny History of the World Part I, King Louis XVI is told by his advisor that the people are revolting. The king replies "You said it. They stink on ice."
As the UK government...
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It's easy to predict the future. Take anything that the government says, reverse it, and you'll come pretty close to having a crystal ball. Why? Nietzsche knew: "The governments of the great States h...
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If we are to believe UNICEF, there are about 158 million children aged 5-14 engaged in child labor, "working in hazardous situations or conditions." Most people give this a scary name like "child ex...
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The Noble physicist Richard Feynman once said "There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to cal...
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Steve Lee says he never set out to be an Internet hit. He just loves guns - and thought he would write a song about it. He says he is as shocked as anyone that his YouTube clip I Like Guns has been v...
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Democracy and the 10 commandments: "Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote."
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Mar 29, 2010 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewbl...
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FTA: "Do some soldiers enjoy killing? If so, why? ...The reluctance of ordinary men to kill can be overcome by intensified training, direct commands from officers, long-range weapons and propaganda t...
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During the holiday season, we typically hear cries for "peace on earth and goodwill toward all." It remains to be seen how this is possible when the US (purportedly) spends $660 billion on military...
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The oil catastrophe could have been averted were it not for the US government rejecting the help of people who know what to do in an oil spill and have the equipment for dealing with it. Why didn't t...
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Libertarians and others who don't like government (e.g., anarchists) are always talking about limiting and shutting down government programs. Yet they continue to use the benefits of these programs....
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In the business world, most workers receive a base salary and then salary increases or bonuses based on performance. Performance can be measured by various factors, including company performance, ind...
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Pulitzer prize winning author, Columbia professor, historian, and liberal Eric Foner thinks liberalism is in a state of contradiction. One the one hand, he says liberals want an "activist government"...
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Can you think of any other or, at this point, are we out of options? How do you convince and/or reason with people who think civility is no longer an option? What other ways do you suggest to people...
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As Thanksgiving rolls around to the US, children will be taught the false story of the first Thanksgiving (just one of many myths children are taught). The real story is a case study that teaches a v...
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Many of you here have often made the claim that you consent to the "social compact" by living where you live, or receiving the benefits from the state that you do. How can you call it consent if ther...
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And they say that justice is blind... HA! The courts don't even try to hide their unequal treatment of genders in court anymore. They are now cocky enough that they can actually publicly state their...
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In his prophetic novel 1984, George Orwell described a facecrime: "It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smalles...
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Politics are a disgusting abyss of failed attempts to legislate morality. But why is it like that? Perhaps one of the primary reasons is because people can't seem to agree on what morality is; or, mo...
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As if Duke University's reputation for discrimination wasn't tarnished enough... if you go to school at Duke, don't expect to learn common sense.
Is the following a result of the Duke lacrosse non...
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I was recently having a conversation with a friend who was getting on my case because I don't vote in political elections. She likes Ron Paul but ultimately decided to vote for Obama because she knew...
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Capitalism gets a bad rap, often claimed to be the destroyer of everything good. One argument made is that capitalism creates class warfare - the rich against the poor. So-called "social crusaders,"...
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore aren't going to be happy. Scientists are messing up their politics.
So it turns out that the only thing man-made about global warming is t...
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Throughout most of human civilization, centuries of men have starved, died from the elements (for lack of proper housing), suffered terrible health, and barely lived. Even today, starvation kills mil...
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Today I learned that the Flying Spaghetti Monster was a humorous protest against the government's decision to permit the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public school...
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How we do love eye-candy. And, after all, "since when is a woman dressing sexy in public a bad thing?"
By now, you've probably heard about the various "slut walks" that are happening all over the...
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In NY state, the exam to determine whether kids get to move to the next grade has been dumbed down by giving partial credit for very wrong answers. Go figure (pun intended).
FTA: "A kid who answer...
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Considered the third, best-selling poet of all time, Khalil Gibran once said "Desire is half of life; indifference is half of death." Apathy is defined as having a lack of emotion, interest, or conce...