I am not sure which incident you are referring to? I am aware of two involving Twitter: 1) A person was about a Twitter message where someone was threatening to blow up an airport and 2) where a British politician suggested that a writer should be stoned to death. Now, both were very likely just very poor judgement and taste and not meant seriously. Still, I am not sure that it is a big deal for people to get into a moderate amount of trouble for doing things like that. Freedom of Speech comes with responsibilities and limits! One can argue of course what an appropriate response should be to what was most likely a joke in poor taste. Personally if I was the writer I would hope for the politician to get into a fair amount of trouble over his "joke". Maybe you're thinking of a different incident?
I would say that comparing that to life imprisonment or even the death penalty shows that you have no sense of scale. Also the guy in Britain threatened the life of a real person not a make-belief entity!
Sounds to me like you're describing the modern day Tea Party.
And your point is? That somehow makes the religious fanatics in the Middle East any less barbarous? Yes, the millions of dangerous religious lunatics in the US also worry me!
Heresy is just nothing more than a type of slander. Something that will get you arrested in the UK too.
No, it's not! How can you slander an imaginary being? Also, isn't it up to the slandered entity to defend itself? Finally, where do you get live imprisonment or people seriously calling for the death penalty for slander? I conclude that you have no fuckin' clue what the hell you're talking about! Just talking out of your ass again, huh? And I don't see how the illegal and evil behaviour of Israel has anything to do with this! Finally, just because I called them "Western Values" does not mean that Western countries do necessarily adhere to them in everything they do. We all know they don't. It's just that humanistic values, freedom of speech etc. are often called "Western Values" in Western democracies. Maybe I should have chosen a less controversial term.
...is what they are! This shows how dangerously crazy these people are. They are the enemies of freedom like all religious fanatics! Anybody who thinks people should be locked up for life or even murdered because of antireligious religious statements are people that are enemies of western values. The problem is that we have no good way of dealing with these lunatics when large parts of entire societies are thinking like this. It's like the West in the Middle Ages.
Well, I think 100 is a bit excessive, but how about 1 or 2? I used to live with 2 cats but now only have one and think it is wonderful but what really makes my life enjoyable is the 40k comic books that I own. And no, I don't see anything wrong with being a nerd! I feel that I have been a happier person than most other people and my "secret" is to simply do what *I* enjoy and not giving a damn whether other people do the same thing and/or approve of it or not!
Actually you wouldn't have to go to a tropical place, pretty much anywhere in the world would be sufficient. I am from Germany and I had *never* heard of the Seahawks before.
Thanks for your insightful and informative reply. Also, if I may suggest another alternative singular use for "their" in "but I kept at it because their* comment makes": How about "that person's"? Btw., I have no problem using "one" but that is probably because it is common usage in my own native tongue which is German.
Since I am not a native speaker of English, I can only speculate but "Bacteria From Beer Lasts 553 Days in Space" sounds very strange to me, shouldn't it be "Bacteria From Beer Last 553 Days in Space"? I mean "bacteria" is the plural of "bacterium" after all!
No you're not stupid! We should all aim to improve ourselves and our countries! And, I can't believe all the assholes that say that other countries have been as bad or worse. Who cares, everyone is responsible for their own actions! Otherwise all you're saying is that it's ok to be an asshole because there were and are other assholes! Highly unethical, if you ask me!
I agree with you and I think it is some psychological mechanism kicking in that protects us. I just get ticked off at the many arrogant humans that feel they're so fuckin' superior to other living creatures when that is clearly not the case. In fact I often feel that my cat is smarter than some humans that I observe. If my cat is in one corner of a room and I put cat food in an opposite corner she will head in a straight line for the food. Some people in similar situation would first leave the room, go for a 5 km walk on a complicated trajectory and then finally reenter the room through a window before going to the food. Humans are also very quick to take credit for work that others did, like in national pride etc. This and various other factors lead to a vast overestimation of abilities in most humans. In fact, I think that speech and writing are the primary reasons that we have been able to reach such a high level of efficiency in destroying the natural infrastructure that we ultimately all depend upon!
So your wife suspected you of having generated several massive nuclear explosions above ground to generate EMPs? Wow, she must think you're really bad ass!
I mostly agree with you, even though, I can't see attaching more than 2 USB devices to a laptop at any one time. My biggest gripe is the lack of a blu-ray drive. What get's me is all the Apple fanboiz defending that and mumbling something about streaming and/or downloading hi-def video. As if a 5 GB file would give you the same quality as a 50 GB blu-ray 1080p disk! Of course I also would like to be able to install arbitrary software on my iPad and iPod Touch. And then they go on as to how much that would cost. But obviously there are thousands of Apple customers that would love to have the option to pay for blu-ray.
I am one of those weird people that use Mac OS because it's UNIX that just works with the hardware. If there was similar high-quality hardware with identical battery life and high-quality drivers for all the hardware I'd be running Linux.
You're full of bullshit! Apple has fantastic customer service! I have dealt with them 4 or 5 times and they have been going our of their way to help me every single time! I doubt that there are many other companies with customer support like Apple's!
How many individuals have dropped nuclear bombs on cities?
Depends on how you want to count! First, how many individuals had access to nuclear bombs? W/o access this is a mute point! But, the way I like to look at things, it is always individuals, whether they're the POTUS or a bomber captain, or the guy who releases the bomb etc. IMNSHO, I believe that we are all responsible for our individual choices. As you might be able to guess, I don't believe in blindly following orders no matter who gives them! I think we'd be living in a slightly better world if we held individuals accountable for their actions at all times. In my country, I am a recognised conscientious objector, which to me simply means that I will not blindly murder people wearing different uniforms just because some government tells me to do that. For the record: I do not think that all wars are unjust but I choose to decide for myself which ones are and which ones aren't!
"My side"? As far as I am concerned, *I* am *my* side!
In return for us Libertarians compromising your side must be willing to include an explicit proclamation that full automatic weapons small than 30 caliber...
To that I say: Fuck that! I don't know about "my side" but I think it is crazy to give individuals access to arms! It certainly makes me feel far less safe to know that my moron neighbour, who just lost his girlfriend, and is drunk, may hate the music that I am playing a little too loud,and may own a gun... I am originally from Germany and when I first moved to the US the per capita ratio of people killed with small arms was more well more than 100x in "favour" of the US. I realise that there are other factors that contribute to this shocking difference, like the higher social inequality in the US coupled with a worse social security net etc. But still, I do think that wide availability of small arms to individuals is one major contributing factor. Switzerland, btw. has had a higher gun-related murder rate than Germany but still much less than the US. Maybe that is due to Switzerland having far less economically marginalised and desperate individuals and that most gun-related murders are committed with hand guns and not rifles which are unwieldy and hard to conceal?
1) I don't like the idea of people with more money than I have, having vastly more military power. 2) I want as few people as possible to have access to nuclear weapons. Ideally zero, in fact. 3) Democratically elected governments are, in my opinion, far less likely to use weapons of mass destruction than individuals.
While I understand that in a country, (USA), where it is legal for corporations to bribe politicians, a.k.a. campaign contributions, that there is a fair level of discontent and distrust in the political system. I'd contend that to a large extend the majority in a democracy always has the government it deserves and politicians almost always pander to some extent to what they perceive to be the will of their constituency. My own country declared that it does not intend to own nuclear weapons and I for one am grateful for that even though I do trust my own government more than the US government. Of course my country is currently more secular and currently seems less likely to do something crazy. Sadly, like everywhere, I think that that could change again over time. I am afraid that we will see the emergence of equally dangerous weapons of mass destruction that over time will be far easier to gain access to than nuclear weapons. In a way I think our only chance to escape extinction as a species in the long term is to disperse into space and maybe into the Oort cloud. I just hope we will make it the next 100 years or so which is what I'd estimate it will take us before it becomes technologically and economically feasible to gainfully exploit resources elsewhere in our solar system. I'd give us about a 10% chance of succeeding. Maybe even then we'd be at constant threat from self-replicating machines that some moron and/or fanatic has loosed upon mankind.
P.S. I don't like Bill Gates very much but I think that he is a fairly sane individual and I think that he would be fairly unlikely to use a nuclear weapon!
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I am not sure which incident you are referring to? I am aware of two involving Twitter: 1) A person was about a Twitter message where someone was threatening to blow up an airport and 2) where a British politician suggested that a writer should be stoned to death. Now, both were very likely just very poor judgement and taste and not meant seriously. Still, I am not sure that it is a big deal for people to get into a moderate amount of trouble for doing things like that. Freedom of Speech comes with responsibilities and limits! One can argue of course what an appropriate response should be to what was most likely a joke in poor taste. Personally if I was the writer I would hope for the politician to get into a fair amount of trouble over his "joke". Maybe you're thinking of a different incident?
I would say that comparing that to life imprisonment or even the death penalty shows that you have no sense of scale. Also the guy in Britain threatened the life of a real person not a make-belief entity!
Sounds to me like you're describing the modern day Tea Party.
And your point is? That somehow makes the religious fanatics in the Middle East any less barbarous? Yes, the millions of dangerous religious lunatics in the US also worry me!
Fair enough!
Heresy is just nothing more than a type of slander. Something that will get you arrested in the UK too.
No, it's not! How can you slander an imaginary being? Also, isn't it up to the slandered entity to defend itself? Finally, where do you get live imprisonment or people seriously calling for the death penalty for slander? I conclude that you have no fuckin' clue what the hell you're talking about! Just talking out of your ass again, huh? And I don't see how the illegal and evil behaviour of Israel has anything to do with this! Finally, just because I called them "Western Values" does not mean that Western countries do necessarily adhere to them in everything they do. We all know they don't. It's just that humanistic values, freedom of speech etc. are often called "Western Values" in Western democracies. Maybe I should have chosen a less controversial term.
...is what they are! This shows how dangerously crazy these people are. They are the enemies of freedom like all religious fanatics! Anybody who thinks people should be locked up for life or even murdered because of antireligious religious statements are people that are enemies of western values. The problem is that we have no good way of dealing with these lunatics when large parts of entire societies are thinking like this. It's like the West in the Middle Ages.
I think what you really need is -Os.
Well, I think 100 is a bit excessive, but how about 1 or 2? I used to live with 2 cats but now only have one and think it is wonderful but what really makes my life enjoyable is the 40k comic books that I own. And no, I don't see anything wrong with being a nerd! I feel that I have been a happier person than most other people and my "secret" is to simply do what *I* enjoy and not giving a damn whether other people do the same thing and/or approve of it or not!
Actually you wouldn't have to go to a tropical place, pretty much anywhere in the world would be sufficient. I am from Germany and I had *never* heard of the Seahawks before.
Thanks for your insightful and informative reply. Also, if I may suggest another alternative singular use for "their" in "but I kept at it because their* comment makes": How about "that person's"? Btw., I have no problem using "one" but that is probably because it is common usage in my own native tongue which is German.
Since I am not a native speaker of English, I can only speculate but "Bacteria From Beer Lasts 553 Days in Space" sounds very strange to me, shouldn't it be "Bacteria From Beer Last 553 Days in Space"? I mean "bacteria" is the plural of "bacterium" after all!
No you're not stupid! We should all aim to improve ourselves and our countries! And, I can't believe all the assholes that say that other countries have been as bad or worse. Who cares, everyone is responsible for their own actions! Otherwise all you're saying is that it's ok to be an asshole because there were and are other assholes! Highly unethical, if you ask me!
Canada is the 51st state, the UK is more like the 54th state after Australia and Germany.
I am from Germany and I resemble that remark!!
Oops, wrong way around!
I agree with you and I think it is some psychological mechanism kicking in that protects us. I just get ticked off at the many arrogant humans that feel they're so fuckin' superior to other living creatures when that is clearly not the case. In fact I often feel that my cat is smarter than some humans that I observe. If my cat is in one corner of a room and I put cat food in an opposite corner she will head in a straight line for the food. Some people in similar situation would first leave the room, go for a 5 km walk on a complicated trajectory and then finally reenter the room through a window before going to the food. Humans are also very quick to take credit for work that others did, like in national pride etc. This and various other factors lead to a vast overestimation of abilities in most humans. In fact, I think that speech and writing are the primary reasons that we have been able to reach such a high level of efficiency in destroying the natural infrastructure that we ultimately all depend upon!
...human beings are animals, no more and no less!
So your wife suspected you of having generated several massive nuclear explosions above ground to generate EMPs? Wow, she must think you're really bad ass!
I mostly agree with you, even though, I can't see attaching more than 2 USB devices to a laptop at any one time. My biggest gripe is the lack of a blu-ray drive. What get's me is all the Apple fanboiz defending that and mumbling something about streaming and/or downloading hi-def video. As if a 5 GB file would give you the same quality as a 50 GB blu-ray 1080p disk! Of course I also would like to be able to install arbitrary software on my iPad and iPod Touch. And then they go on as to how much that would cost. But obviously there are thousands of Apple customers that would love to have the option to pay for blu-ray.
I am one of those weird people that use Mac OS because it's UNIX that just works with the hardware. If there was similar high-quality hardware with identical battery life and high-quality drivers for all the hardware I'd be running Linux.
You're full of bullshit! Apple has fantastic customer service! I have dealt with them 4 or 5 times and they have been going our of their way to help me every single time! I doubt that there are many other companies with customer support like Apple's!
How many individuals have dropped nuclear bombs on cities?
Depends on how you want to count! First, how many individuals had access to nuclear bombs? W/o access this is a mute point! But, the way I like to look at things, it is always individuals, whether they're the POTUS or a bomber captain, or the guy who releases the bomb etc. IMNSHO, I believe that we are all responsible for our individual choices. As you might be able to guess, I don't believe in blindly following orders no matter who gives them! I think we'd be living in a slightly better world if we held individuals accountable for their actions at all times. In my country, I am a recognised conscientious objector, which to me simply means that I will not blindly murder people wearing different uniforms just because some government tells me to do that. For the record: I do not think that all wars are unjust but I choose to decide for myself which ones are and which ones aren't!
"My side"? As far as I am concerned, *I* am *my* side!
In return for us Libertarians compromising your side must be willing to include an explicit proclamation that full automatic weapons small than 30 caliber...
To that I say: Fuck that! I don't know about "my side" but I think it is crazy to give individuals access to arms! It certainly makes me feel far less safe to know that my moron neighbour, who just lost his girlfriend, and is drunk, may hate the music that I am playing a little too loud ,and may own a gun... I am originally from Germany and when I first moved to the US the per capita ratio of people killed with small arms was more well more than 100x in "favour" of the US. I realise that there are other factors that contribute to this shocking difference, like the higher social inequality in the US coupled with a worse social security net etc. But still, I do think that wide availability of small arms to individuals is one major contributing factor. Switzerland, btw. has had a higher gun-related murder rate than Germany but still much less than the US. Maybe that is due to Switzerland having far less economically marginalised and desperate individuals and that most gun-related murders are committed with hand guns and not rifles which are unwieldy and hard to conceal?
Btw., some numbers are here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
1) I don't like the idea of people with more money than I have, having vastly more military power.
2) I want as few people as possible to have access to nuclear weapons. Ideally zero, in fact.
3) Democratically elected governments are, in my opinion, far less likely to use weapons of mass destruction than individuals.
While I understand that in a country, (USA), where it is legal for corporations to bribe politicians, a.k.a. campaign contributions, that there is a fair level of discontent and distrust in the political system. I'd contend that to a large extend the majority in a democracy always has the government it deserves and politicians almost always pander to some extent to what they perceive to be the will of their constituency. My own country declared that it does not intend to own nuclear weapons and I for one am grateful for that even though I do trust my own government more than the US government. Of course my country is currently more secular and currently seems less likely to do something crazy. Sadly, like everywhere, I think that that could change again over time. I am afraid that we will see the emergence of equally dangerous weapons of mass destruction that over time will be far easier to gain access to than nuclear weapons. In a way I think our only chance to escape extinction as a species in the long term is to disperse into space and maybe into the Oort cloud. I just hope we will make it the next 100 years or so which is what I'd estimate it will take us before it becomes technologically and economically feasible to gainfully exploit resources elsewhere in our solar system. I'd give us about a 10% chance of succeeding. Maybe even then we'd be at constant threat from self-replicating machines that some moron and/or fanatic has loosed upon mankind.
P.S. I don't like Bill Gates very much but I think that he is a fairly sane individual and I think that he would be fairly unlikely to use a nuclear weapon!
Ok, that's certainly a valid possible interpretation.
By your logic, people should be allowed to own nuclear weapons!
Thanks for explaining this! I have heard of The Three Stooges. Not much of a fan though, I prefer the Marx Brothers.