Functional Philosophy

In this episode of Functional Philosophy, I answer the following questions: 00:48 - "I recently saw a news headline about 'Illegal Gambling' and it made me wonder what the Objectivist position should be. Obviously in the context of a free society, gambling should be fully legal in general. But could there be specific issues the government should regulate against? For example, if someone bets and loses a huge sum, say $1 million and would lose everything if they paid - I assume this would not be a valid contract the government could enforce. So would the existence of these kinds of bad outcomes create a need to regulate? Or would it be simply that case law would effectively set the limits of which gambling debts could be collected or not?" 09:29 - "Do preferences come from our values? If yes, does this apply to our sexual preference and does that make it a choice? If it does not apply to our sexual preference, why not? It seems that most people take it as self-evident that sexual preference is not a choi