But it seems logical that when you don't have automobiles or other dangerous machinery that there might not be the same social stigma with drinking.
Drunkenness increases the likelihood of all kinds of mistakes and misery, technology-related or not, such as overdosing on drugs (prescription/legal or not), choking on your food, hurting those you love, splurging your secrets, getting robbed, short-changed, or pick-pocketed, making stupid gambles, getting killed by your enemy (thinking of armies here), getting raped, getting AIDS, having unplanned pregnancies, falling off a boat and drowning, falling off a ladder, etc.
Technology just creates additional situations where the danger caused by intoxication is immediate and severe. You don't have to have a Bimmer and a cell phone to be a dangerous fool when you're drunk. I think the social stigma is as old as the vineyards themselves.
I know there is a new testament teaching about drunkenness.
It is certainly not only an NT teaching. Please follow this link to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia's entry on drunkenness, which I gave earlier. It's thorough yet concise.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1)
Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. (Proverbs 23:19-21)
I'd have to say you're right about that. That would explain why 2 Maccabees 15:39 says, "For as it is hurtful to drink wine or water alone; and as wine mingled with water is pleasant, and delighteth the taste." Note that this also supports my claim that wine was not to be drunk straight.
Most regions relied on cistern water, which could be quite nasty as you'll see from that link.
That's not as unique a thought as you might think. Following is an excerpt relating to John 2:1-11 (Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding) from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible written in 1706.
The beginning of Moses's miracles was turning water into blood (Exodus 4:9; 7:20), the beginning of Christ's miracles was turning water into wine; which intimates the difference between the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ. The curse of the law turns water into blood, common comforts into bitterness and terror; the blessing of the gospel turns water into wine. Christ hereby showed that his errand into the world was to heighten and improve creature-comforts to all believers, and make them comforts indeed.
Of course, there is a very important balance to this teaching of drinking the fruit of the vine. Drinking to merriment is not drinking to intoxication. Wine was often watered down (1 part wine, 2-3 parts water) back in those days, which was encouraged in the Rabbinic literature. In that light, one could "drink freely" without necessarily being drunk.
Private Abass Shomail fled from the Iraqi army a few days ago. Here is his story.
"
We want America to attack because of the bad situation in our country.... We have two blankets for every soldier, but they are very thin and don't keep us warm. The officers beat us. And the food is disgusting. I'm only paid 50 dinars [about £3] a month."
The Guardian asks what would have happened if he had been caught trying to run away. "I would have been executed." (The article makes an interesting distinction between the loyal, elite Republican Guard and the oppressed, grunt soldiers like Shomail.)
On that question the U.S. is lying. They have shown no evidence.
You people have got to WAKE UP!
We're drowning in evidence. Iraq is building a reactor. For what? Why do you suppose the most oil-abundant nation in the world has been feverishly investing billions of dollars in nuclear reactors? (And Iraq's GDP in 2000 was just $6.6B.) Concerns about fossil fuel emissions? This is the madman who set oil wells on fire at the end of the Gulf War which burned for many months (years?) spewing black smoke into the atmosphere.
See the first item on this page, Iraq: Failing To Disarm Videos, audio, pictures, slide shows, and transcripts. Featured are Secretary of State Colin Powell's 76-minute presentation to the U.N. and a "60 Minutes" interview. The first hour of Powell's presentation is about Saddam's WMD and his systematic means of deception to make fools of U.N. weapons inspectors. The last 16 minutes are devoted to Iraqi terrorist connections, which is the main kind of evidence for which you are asking.
I found this book at a time when I needed some reminding of what I thought my purpose was.
Are you sure it helped you to find your purpose? From what I've read of the other comments, Bronson's book is mainly a collection of inspirational stories. IMHO, this by itself would not suffice in helping you to find meaning and purpose. I've just started reading The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?. It stresses that there is a big difference between personal fullfillment (happiness) and fullfilling your purpose in life.
she'd realize (as I eventually did) that your "calling" is, as Bronson concludes, a glimmer that can oscillate. It's almost never an epiphany, instead it's a trend towards what you really want to do.
True, a calling is not necessarily a single thing for life, and it's not synonomous with career. Os Guinness has a lot of insightful thought on calling in The Call. He says, "A sense of calling should precede a choice of job and career, and the main way to discover calling is along the line of what we are each created and gifted to be. Instead of, 'You are what you do,' calling says: 'Do what you are.'"
Forget the war on terrorism. The war should be on short-sightedness.
Talk about short-sightedness...
War on Terrorism = Defense of the nation and its institutions, e.g. NASA
We've successfully launched and landed a space shuttle 112 times. Been there done that, again and again. I hope we don't stop because we learn more each time.
The war on terrorism is a much greater challenge and one whose success is necessary for us to afford such luxuries as space flight. Forget the war on terrorism and you can forget space exploration. Forget medicine, forget technology, forget education, forget the normal tranquility, forget life as you know it.
The same would be true for China. If Islamic terrorists start attacking you Buddhists (remember the ancient Buddha statue destroyed by the Taliban), you'll come to understand that a war on terrorism is crucial to your country's prosperity, however you define it. There would be no opportunity to study the religious text of your choice nor the freedom to live it (or not live it). Biowarfare would be very effective in China's densely-populated cities. I bet contagious diseases like bubonic plague and smallpox would spread like wildfire.
"See yourself in others. How can you do harm?"
Nice words, but they must be put into context. I will not play a moral equivalency game. The U.S. is fighting to preserve a civilization of tranquility and liberty. Certain other countries, regimes, and organizations are fighting to impose a state of strife and oppression on whatever masses of victims they can contain by means of authoritarian rule and terrorism.
I see myself in the people who are harmed by terrorism more than (if at all) in the people who are committing the terrorism. The war on terrorism is fought because life is valuable! To protest war on terrorism is a statement that life is cheap, and that innocent life is not worth defending.
Those good words of the Buddha (which, I think, Bush would agree with) should be directed to the perpetrators of terrorism. Preach to the Al Qaeda masses, brother! Reach the nefarious ruler of Iraq with that message. Why is your pulpit facing the choir?
Somebody else mentioned UA Bar, but I prefer PrefBar. It's basically a toolbar and is very configurable. It has a UA spoofer (in drop-down menu) and lots of preferences too.
Funny stereotype, but hardly represents America as a whole.
Nachos and salsa are a staple, but there was no alcoholic beverage in sight at the Super Bowl party I was at. One of the ladies might have been getting a buzz from her Diet Coke, but that's about it.
Nobody placed any bets. Sports gambling is a senseless transfer of money that can easily create friction between friends.
Quite frankly, nobody really cared much about the game anyway. The Super Bowl is just an excuse to get together with friends. A lot of us got to the party late, because we regard an hour of spiritual food more important than part of a football game.
During the half-time show, both guys and ladies voiced their disgust at the singing sluts (an honest interpretation of the way they portrayed themselves). It's a shame that this is what the world sees of America. Michael W. Smith, Avalon, PlusOne, or FFH would've presented a far more respectable image and would've been a lot more entertaining, too.
The game was pretty dull for the most part this year. Our consensus seemed to be that the highlight of the program was the "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker" advertisement.
The best aspect of the Super Bowl experience for me is just being with people that care about each other. Last night, a friend gave me encouragement and helped me with a tough situation I'm going through. It was a great time of hugs, handshakes, and warm fellowship.
This is American Heartland Football. We have fun and make smart choices. God is blessing us.
Rule of Grammar: When a word ends in x, you make it plural by adding es.
Examples: tax => taxes; sex => sexes; fox => foxes; box => boxes
The word ox, with its plural oxen, is a freak of English grammar. It is the exception, not the rule.
Examples of this bogus pluralization applied to similar words:
I hate doing my taxen.
Both sexen have positive and negative characteristic qualities.
The hunters shot three foxen in the woods.
Your boxen will be shipped in 4-6 weeks.
Both en and es have the same number of keystrokes and bits. en has no advantage, except the appearance of 1337ness to people who don't know better. So please stop using it and trying to one-up the dictionary. (This goes for virii and Unices too.) I know it's only being used with geeky words so far, but that only makes the rules of pluralization even more complicated.
The English language is convoluted enough without deliberately introducing more irregularities.
However, I think Bush is much closer to tyrant than he is to pro-liberty. The guy is effectively initiating his own worldwide ethnic cleansing (sound familiar?).
Baseless claims of ethnic cleansing sound very familiar.
Ever since Hitler, groups have used the accusation of "ethnic cleansing" to demonize their enemies. It's the same kind of disingenuous tactic as playing the race card to incite outrage or distrust toward a political opponent.
If you don't like Bush, state your grievances with specifity and clarity (bonus gravitas for historical evidence) but without the asinine libel. You discredit yourself and your cause by using cliché spurious hyperbole in an obviously desperate attempt to assassinate Bush's character.
Re:Troll reminds me of bake sale bumper sticker
on
America's Army on Linux
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Some of the uneducated population blindly follow G.W. Bush to war.
Some of the uneducated population blindly protest the war.
The educated are likewise split on the issue of war. It doesn't matter how much one has learned, but what one has learned.
It's weird that after a billion years of human evolution, we still solve conflicts by killing each others.
It wouldn't seem so weird if you didn't believe in evolution. The persistent, evil inclination of human nature throughout our existence (post-Eden) makes perfect sense from a biblical worldview.
To play devil's advocate, maybe evolution has determined that killing your enemies is the most effective method of preserving your DNA's posterity.
More like the idea that Iraq is more dangerous than North Korea because Iraq may develop nuclear weapons and may use them to attack the US. Meanwhile North Korea HAS nuclear weapons
Nomadic, the answer to your confusion is in your very statements. It's too late for anybody to deal with North Korea the way we're dealing with Iraq for the reason that N. Korea already has nuclear weapons. The U.S. is going after Iraq now to prevent there from being two N. Korea situations in the future. Saddam is grasping for nukes and any kind of WMD he can get his hands on. Once Iraq is in the nuclear club, there's no turning back. What's more dangerous about Iraq getting nukes than N. Korea is that Saddam has been supporting and possibly collaborating with Islamic terrorist groups which have carried out major terrorist bombings in all six inhabited continents. Saddam may not be Muslim himself, but he shares their hatred for the non-Islamic world. AFAIK, N. Korea has not been supporting Islamic terrorists.
Why is the world pushing the responsibility of dealing with N. Korea soley on President Bush's shoulders? I thought the world didn't want the U.S. to take action unilaterally. N. Korea is a problem that Asian countries or the U.N. should have to deal with. I say this is a job for Moammar Gadhafi, the new chairman of the U.N. Security Council.:-)
What other idiotic things has he thought up? Ah, how about trying to fix the economy with massive tax cuts for the top 1% of the economic ladder?
Ah, that that were true. That would be a good idea since the top 1% pays most of the taxes anyway. Tax cuts for the top 1% would be more beneficial for the economy than tax cuts for any other percentile. The more money that is in consumer's hands, the better the economy.
However, it's not just the top 1% getting tax cuts. The truth is that every, single, solitary citizen who pays a nickel in taxes will get a tax cut. Democrats are lying through their teeth about this. IMHO, the rich should be getting bigger tax cuts than they're going to get.
Tax cuts are a proven method of stimulating the economy. It is nearly a scientific fact. The tax cut experiment is repeatable and its results verifiable. Of course, it's not truly scientific since we can't control the countless external variables, but tax cuts have worked in every configuration of variables they've been tried. The probability of producing higher revenue for both the government and citizens is very high and beyond reasonable doubt. Even if other negative factors conspired to pull the economy further downward, the country would be better off with lower tax rates than we currently have.
IN (ex-SOVIET) RUSSIA, they have lower taxes than the U.S.! And it's a flat tax! During his presidential campaign, Steve Forbes was laughed at by liberals as a capitalist whore (or some such derisive label), but now even the somewhat-reformed Marxist, ex-KGB man Putin has seen the light that tax cuts are good for his country, and they've worked! As they always do. Russia: Changing 12, 20, 30 percent tax rates to single 13% flat tax produced higher revenues. It's incredible, even Russian Communists now understand capitalism better than American and Western European liberals.
I know you're proud of your paycheck, and convinced that you are part of this 1%, but you're not.
People living in freedom have no concept of life under tyranny in the way that monks living in a monastery have no concept of life in the real world. We've had freedom for so long, we can afford to casually joke about our leaders being tyrants. We've enjoyed an environment of liberty for so long, that we don't know what real tyranny looks like.
"Baggage checks at airports, rooting out terrorists, and $20 CDs! It's TYRANNY! Bush is Hitler! (Ha ha hee hee, hey pass me the keys to my Corvette.)"
Yeah, like he gets these fool notions in his head that there are "terrorists" out there. What planet is he on? I've personally never seen a terrorist in my life. We're in danger from people in the Middle East?? That's got to be a tale as tall as the WTC^H^H^HEmpire State Building.
In the newest Mozilla nightly builds (2003012108 on WinXP is stable for me, but large downloads are usually corrupted), there is a built-in way to access and change the hidden preferences. There's no need to edit prefs.js anymore.
Just type about:config
Then double-click what you want to change. Prefs that still have the default value are green. Prefs that have been changed are blue.
I agree, Australia definitely should be concerned about what goes on with Iraq. However, nothing the PM says or does would change whether the U.S. attacks Iraq or not. Sending e-mail to the Aus. PM protesting the war will not change U.S. policy. Like I said, they might as well be complaining to CowboyNeal.
I was very careful to explain that I do NOT believe this to be a 'hand-painted' image, created entirely in Photoshop or GIMP or something.
Whether the picture is entirely fabricated or just an altered photo is irrelevant to my point. Both can be done easily. The ability to produce the desired image either way does not prove that a particular photo is fake.
Also, I didn't mean to imply that you were taking this as proof that the picture was inauthentic. I was just cautioning people not to get themselves set on a conclusion based on this alone. It certainly does raise (more) doubts, though. I don't believe the photo is real myself.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God.
That is a lie from the pit of hell. The Koran flatly contradicts Judaism and Christianity. If followers of both the Bible and Koran worship the same God, then God is a vicious liar, and is not worthy of worship by anybody. God's name would deserve to be reviled and spat upon. If God is the source of all religions, then he is indistinguishable from Satan, the father of lies, the Great Deceiver, according to my religion. Religions have vastly different concepts of God, good & evil, life, and reality. I don't think I exaggerate when I say that there is as much difference between some religions as there is between anarchy and totalitarianism or Mother Teresa and Nero.
The core of God's commandment (love God, and love one another) is consistent across all religions.
How the injunction to "love" is actually lived out varies vastly from religion to religion. An act of love or worship in one religion may be considered an act of hatred, deceit, and/or insanity in another religion. Don't let the similar vocabulary of "God", "love", and "peace" fool you. Differences in doctrine can change the whole landscape in intrepreting the meaning of words and their religious application.
What is love? Love how? Love whom? What about people I don't like? How often? Under what circumstances? Why? Do I love under religious compulsion or free will? To what degree? As much as I love myself?
If they want to effectively protest the war, they should be sending e-mail to shussein@presidentialpalace.gov.iq (would be a logical guess)
To war or not to war, that is the question... for Saddam Hussein.
And the Australian PM has what say in this conflict??? The peaceniks might as well be bugging CowboyNeal. Here ya go: cowboyneal@slashdot.org. That will have just as much effect on the war. Seriously.
Ahh, good work. That may in fact be how the picture came to be.
However, it's a logical fallacy if you take this to be *proof* that the photo is not real. Almost all night sky views, with or without UFOs, are nothing more than black backgrounds with dots or simple geometric shapes with blurred edges or trails. They're not like rain forest scenes with artistically detailed plants and wildlife (e.g. ferns, parrots, monkeys). Almost any *real* night sky photo would be easy to manually reconstruct in graphics software.
Slashdot Mirror
h t t p colon slash slash slash dot dot slash dot dot slash dot dot org
Drunkenness increases the likelihood of all kinds of mistakes and misery, technology-related or not, such as overdosing on drugs (prescription/legal or not), choking on your food, hurting those you love, splurging your secrets, getting robbed, short-changed, or pick-pocketed, making stupid gambles, getting killed by your enemy (thinking of armies here), getting raped, getting AIDS, having unplanned pregnancies, falling off a boat and drowning, falling off a ladder, etc.
Technology just creates additional situations where the danger caused by intoxication is immediate and severe. You don't have to have a Bimmer and a cell phone to be a dangerous fool when you're drunk. I think the social stigma is as old as the vineyards themselves.
I know there is a new testament teaching about drunkenness.
It is certainly not only an NT teaching. Please follow this link to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia's entry on drunkenness, which I gave earlier. It's thorough yet concise.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1)
Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. (Proverbs 23:19-21)
Most regions relied on cistern water, which could be quite nasty as you'll see from that link.
Of course, there is a very important balance to this teaching of drinking the fruit of the vine. Drinking to merriment is not drinking to intoxication. Wine was often watered down (1 part wine, 2-3 parts water) back in those days, which was encouraged in the Rabbinic literature. In that light, one could "drink freely" without necessarily being drunk.
The State of Kuwait has a great web site that documents much of Iraq's brutality. And don't forget Saddam's goons cheering the crashing of the Columbia space shuttle. "We are happy that it broke up," Iraqi government employee Abdul Jabbar al-Quraishi said.
The Iraqi leadership has been painted correctly.
You people have got to WAKE UP!
We're drowning in evidence. Iraq is building a reactor. For what? Why do you suppose the most oil-abundant nation in the world has been feverishly investing billions of dollars in nuclear reactors? (And Iraq's GDP in 2000 was just $6.6B.) Concerns about fossil fuel emissions? This is the madman who set oil wells on fire at the end of the Gulf War which burned for many months (years?) spewing black smoke into the atmosphere.
See the first item on this page, Iraq: Failing To Disarm
Videos, audio, pictures, slide shows, and transcripts. Featured are Secretary of State Colin Powell's 76-minute presentation to the U.N. and a "60 Minutes" interview. The first hour of Powell's presentation is about Saddam's WMD and his systematic means of deception to make fools of U.N. weapons inspectors. The last 16 minutes are devoted to Iraqi terrorist connections, which is the main kind of evidence for which you are asking.
Are you sure it helped you to find your purpose? From what I've read of the other comments, Bronson's book is mainly a collection of inspirational stories. IMHO, this by itself would not suffice in helping you to find meaning and purpose. I've just started reading The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? . It stresses that there is a big difference between personal fullfillment (happiness) and fullfilling your purpose in life.
she'd realize (as I eventually did) that your "calling" is, as Bronson concludes, a glimmer that can oscillate. It's almost never an epiphany, instead it's a trend towards what you really want to do.
True, a calling is not necessarily a single thing for life, and it's not synonomous with career. Os Guinness has a lot of insightful thought on calling in The Call . He says, "A sense of calling should precede a choice of job and career, and the main way to discover calling is along the line of what we are each created and gifted to be. Instead of, 'You are what you do,' calling says: 'Do what you are.'"
Talk about short-sightedness...
War on Terrorism = Defense of the nation and its institutions, e.g. NASA
We've successfully launched and landed a space shuttle 112 times. Been there done that, again and again. I hope we don't stop because we learn more each time.
The war on terrorism is a much greater challenge and one whose success is necessary for us to afford such luxuries as space flight. Forget the war on terrorism and you can forget space exploration. Forget medicine, forget technology, forget education, forget the normal tranquility, forget life as you know it.
The same would be true for China. If Islamic terrorists start attacking you Buddhists (remember the ancient Buddha statue destroyed by the Taliban), you'll come to understand that a war on terrorism is crucial to your country's prosperity, however you define it. There would be no opportunity to study the religious text of your choice nor the freedom to live it (or not live it). Biowarfare would be very effective in China's densely-populated cities. I bet contagious diseases like bubonic plague and smallpox would spread like wildfire.
"See yourself in others. How can you do harm?"
Nice words, but they must be put into context. I will not play a moral equivalency game. The U.S. is fighting to preserve a civilization of tranquility and liberty. Certain other countries, regimes, and organizations are fighting to impose a state of strife and oppression on whatever masses of victims they can contain by means of authoritarian rule and terrorism.
I see myself in the people who are harmed by terrorism more than (if at all) in the people who are committing the terrorism. The war on terrorism is fought because life is valuable! To protest war on terrorism is a statement that life is cheap, and that innocent life is not worth defending.
Those good words of the Buddha (which, I think, Bush would agree with) should be directed to the perpetrators of terrorism. Preach to the Al Qaeda masses, brother! Reach the nefarious ruler of Iraq with that message. Why is your pulpit facing the choir?
rhymes with stupider. :)
Somebody else mentioned UA Bar, but I prefer PrefBar. It's basically a toolbar and is very configurable. It has a UA spoofer (in drop-down menu) and lots of preferences too.
Nachos and salsa are a staple, but there was no alcoholic beverage in sight at the Super Bowl party I was at. One of the ladies might have been getting a buzz from her Diet Coke, but that's about it.
Nobody placed any bets. Sports gambling is a senseless transfer of money that can easily create friction between friends.
Quite frankly, nobody really cared much about the game anyway. The Super Bowl is just an excuse to get together with friends. A lot of us got to the party late, because we regard an hour of spiritual food more important than part of a football game.
During the half-time show, both guys and ladies voiced their disgust at the singing sluts (an honest interpretation of the way they portrayed themselves). It's a shame that this is what the world sees of America. Michael W. Smith, Avalon, PlusOne, or FFH would've presented a far more respectable image and would've been a lot more entertaining, too.
The game was pretty dull for the most part this year. Our consensus seemed to be that the highlight of the program was the "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker" advertisement.
The best aspect of the Super Bowl experience for me is just being with people that care about each other. Last night, a friend gave me encouragement and helped me with a tough situation I'm going through. It was a great time of hugs, handshakes, and warm fellowship.
This is American Heartland Football. We have fun and make smart choices. God is blessing us.
Ha! Shows how much you know about Americans. We gain pounds, not kilograms.
Examples: tax => taxes; sex => sexes; fox => foxes; box => boxes
The word ox, with its plural oxen, is a freak of English grammar. It is the exception, not the rule.
Examples of this bogus pluralization applied to similar words:
Both en and es have the same number of keystrokes and bits. en has no advantage, except the appearance of 1337ness to people who don't know better. So please stop using it and trying to one-up the dictionary. (This goes for virii and Unices too.) I know it's only being used with geeky words so far, but that only makes the rules of pluralization even more complicated.The English language is convoluted enough without deliberately introducing more irregularities.
Baseless claims of ethnic cleansing sound very familiar.
Ever since Hitler, groups have used the accusation of "ethnic cleansing" to demonize their enemies. It's the same kind of disingenuous tactic as playing the race card to incite outrage or distrust toward a political opponent.
If you don't like Bush, state your grievances with specifity and clarity (bonus gravitas for historical evidence) but without the asinine libel. You discredit yourself and your cause by using cliché spurious hyperbole in an obviously desperate attempt to assassinate Bush's character.
Some of the uneducated population blindly protest the war.
The educated are likewise split on the issue of war. It doesn't matter how much one has learned, but what one has learned.
It wouldn't seem so weird if you didn't believe in evolution. The persistent, evil inclination of human nature throughout our existence (post-Eden) makes perfect sense from a biblical worldview.
To play devil's advocate, maybe evolution has determined that killing your enemies is the most effective method of preserving your DNA's posterity.
Nomadic, the answer to your confusion is in your very statements. It's too late for anybody to deal with North Korea the way we're dealing with Iraq for the reason that N. Korea already has nuclear weapons. The U.S. is going after Iraq now to prevent there from being two N. Korea situations in the future. Saddam is grasping for nukes and any kind of WMD he can get his hands on. Once Iraq is in the nuclear club, there's no turning back. What's more dangerous about Iraq getting nukes than N. Korea is that Saddam has been supporting and possibly collaborating with Islamic terrorist groups which have carried out major terrorist bombings in all six inhabited continents. Saddam may not be Muslim himself, but he shares their hatred for the non-Islamic world. AFAIK, N. Korea has not been supporting Islamic terrorists.
Why is the world pushing the responsibility of dealing with N. Korea soley on President Bush's shoulders? I thought the world didn't want the U.S. to take action unilaterally. N. Korea is a problem that Asian countries or the U.N. should have to deal with. I say this is a job for Moammar Gadhafi, the new chairman of the U.N. Security Council. :-)
What other idiotic things has he thought up? Ah, how about trying to fix the economy with massive tax cuts for the top 1% of the economic ladder?
Ah, that that were true. That would be a good idea since the top 1% pays most of the taxes anyway. Tax cuts for the top 1% would be more beneficial for the economy than tax cuts for any other percentile. The more money that is in consumer's hands, the better the economy.
However, it's not just the top 1% getting tax cuts. The truth is that every, single, solitary citizen who pays a nickel in taxes will get a tax cut. Democrats are lying through their teeth about this. IMHO, the rich should be getting bigger tax cuts than they're going to get.
Tax cuts are a proven method of stimulating the economy. It is nearly a scientific fact. The tax cut experiment is repeatable and its results verifiable. Of course, it's not truly scientific since we can't control the countless external variables, but tax cuts have worked in every configuration of variables they've been tried. The probability of producing higher revenue for both the government and citizens is very high and beyond reasonable doubt. Even if other negative factors conspired to pull the economy further downward, the country would be better off with lower tax rates than we currently have.
IN (ex-SOVIET) RUSSIA, they have lower taxes than the U.S.! And it's a flat tax! During his presidential campaign, Steve Forbes was laughed at by liberals as a capitalist whore (or some such derisive label), but now even the somewhat-reformed Marxist, ex-KGB man Putin has seen the light that tax cuts are good for his country, and they've worked! As they always do. Russia: Changing 12, 20, 30 percent tax rates to single 13% flat tax produced higher revenues. It's incredible, even Russian Communists now understand capitalism better than American and Western European liberals.
I know you're proud of your paycheck, and convinced that you are part of this 1%, but you're not.
I'm unemployed.
"Baggage checks at airports, rooting out terrorists, and $20 CDs! It's TYRANNY! Bush is Hitler! (Ha ha hee hee, hey pass me the keys to my Corvette.)"
</sarcasm>
Just type about:config
Then double-click what you want to change. Prefs that still have the default value are green. Prefs that have been changed are blue.
I agree, Australia definitely should be concerned about what goes on with Iraq. However, nothing the PM says or does would change whether the U.S. attacks Iraq or not. Sending e-mail to the Aus. PM protesting the war will not change U.S. policy. Like I said, they might as well be complaining to CowboyNeal.
Whether the picture is entirely fabricated or just an altered photo is irrelevant to my point. Both can be done easily. The ability to produce the desired image either way does not prove that a particular photo is fake.
Also, I didn't mean to imply that you were taking this as proof that the picture was inauthentic. I was just cautioning people not to get themselves set on a conclusion based on this alone. It certainly does raise (more) doubts, though. I don't believe the photo is real myself.
That is a lie from the pit of hell. The Koran flatly contradicts Judaism and Christianity. If followers of both the Bible and Koran worship the same God, then God is a vicious liar, and is not worthy of worship by anybody. God's name would deserve to be reviled and spat upon. If God is the source of all religions, then he is indistinguishable from Satan, the father of lies, the Great Deceiver, according to my religion. Religions have vastly different concepts of God, good & evil, life, and reality. I don't think I exaggerate when I say that there is as much difference between some religions as there is between anarchy and totalitarianism or Mother Teresa and Nero.
The core of God's commandment (love God, and love one another) is consistent across all religions.
How the injunction to "love" is actually lived out varies vastly from religion to religion. An act of love or worship in one religion may be considered an act of hatred, deceit, and/or insanity in another religion. Don't let the similar vocabulary of "God", "love", and "peace" fool you. Differences in doctrine can change the whole landscape in intrepreting the meaning of words and their religious application.
What is love? Love how? Love whom? What about people I don't like? How often? Under what circumstances? Why? Do I love under religious compulsion or free will? To what degree? As much as I love myself?
To war or not to war, that is the question... for Saddam Hussein.
And the Australian PM has what say in this conflict??? The peaceniks might as well be bugging CowboyNeal. Here ya go: cowboyneal@slashdot.org. That will have just as much effect on the war. Seriously.
However, it's a logical fallacy if you take this to be *proof* that the photo is not real. Almost all night sky views, with or without UFOs, are nothing more than black backgrounds with dots or simple geometric shapes with blurred edges or trails. They're not like rain forest scenes with artistically detailed plants and wildlife (e.g. ferns, parrots, monkeys). Almost any *real* night sky photo would be easy to manually reconstruct in graphics software.