Re: PEX (was Re: Not always joking...)

In the Year of the Earth Rat, the Great and Powerful Keith F. Lynch 
declared:
> Sean O'Hara <seanohara@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> If I drop my wallet on the ground, it does not cease to be my
>> property.
> 
> A dropped wallet is misplaced, not discarded or abandoned.
> 

And the person finding it can tell the difference how?

>> Same applies to trash I leave in front of my house.
> 
> Wrong.  Trash you leave in front of your house is discarded.  If you
> didn't want it permanently removed, you wouldn't have put it there.
> 

No, it is not discarded. It is left out for collection by designated 
representatives of a county licensed waste management company, which 
I am paying just for that purpose.

>> Garbage-men don't collect my trash because they're willing to carry
>> it away; they collect it because I pay their company to come by
>> twice a week and get it.
> 
> If they're *not* willing to carry it away, they're not very good at
> their jobs.
> 

You know what I mean -- they don't take my garbage out of the 
goodness of their hearts; they do it because I pay them. If I don't 
pay, they leave it sitting on the side of the road.

>> It's a business transaction, pure and simple.  Anyone who doesn't
>> have a deal with me to collect my trash has no right to it.
> 
> If you're willing to pay someone to haul it away, why would you object
> to someone else hauling it away for free? 

It's a matter of principle -- it is my private property, for me to 
dispose of as I see fit. There might be items in the trash that I 
don't care if someone takes, but there are also items where I 
definitely do. It is not up to you to decide which are which.

> How would you even know
> whether it was the trash hauling company or someone else who did so,
> unless you watched the trash the whole time? 

I know because the garbage men come by while I'm at home in the morning.

> And why would you care?
> It's gone either way, and that's what you wanted.

In one case it's in a landfill where trespassing is prohibited and 
will presumably stay there forever, which is what I want when I 
throw something away.

-- 
Sean O'Hara <http://diogenes-sinope.blogspot.com>
Stormy: So, say I put my brain in a robot body and there's a war. 
Robots versus humans. What side am I on?
    -Sealab 2021