People are both good and bad, and religion has little or nothing to do with any of it, being just another thing to blame.
If only this was true. Sadly, when it comes to flying jets into building, imprisoning Galileo, shooting school-girls in the head, or inquisitions, religion has quite a bit to do with it.
(Wiki): "A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary."
Would you agree that if someone believed that the Easter Bunny was an actual creature, who hopped around all over the world on Easter, hiding eggs in his yard; that he might be considered delusional?
In that case, if 'Bunnyism' was a world religion, Dawkins' book might have been titled "The Bunny Delusion."
... comparing residential apartment dwellers with uniformed and armed soldiers on the front line of a continent-invading army.
You're absolutely right. There is no comparison.
Since current insurgents fail to dress in military uniforms and hide among civilian population they are war criminals in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
"Combatants that intentionally use protected people or property as shields or camouflage are guilty of violations of laws of war and are responsible for damage to those that should be protected."
Flag as troll.
...and why don't you get a second/. account so you can flag things you don't like yourself, instead of having to formulate your own rational arguments.
You shouldn't take pictures if you are unsure of the legality of doing so.
I don't think he was unsure. From the article, "MacDougall said that Markiewicz was told that he couldn't take pictures inside the mall."
If that's true, then he was on private property, and told not to take pictures, and he did anyway. Even though it was a public space, as a private property, the mall can set restrictions against this if they like (and many post policies like this at the entrances.)
Review the defined worldview of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a political entity, and the millions of people killed, internally and externally, by it, to correct your error.
Saying Stalin killed people because he was atheist, is like saying Hitler killed people because he was vegetarian.
There are plenty of people, deeply religious to atheist, who lack morals. Just ask the victims of 9/11 just how 'moral' their attackers were.
I enjoyed the Selfish Gene and the Extended Phenotype very much. In following books you've moved to explaining the very basics of the evolutionary theory. Do you plan to ever return to write about more complex aspects of the evolution?
You might enjoy: "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution"
"E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation" by David Bodanis is not fiction, but a ripping good read. Aside from just the formula itself, it goes into the history of each symbol in the famous formula, but the interesting lives of the people who played a part in each symbol. Includes everything from the French Revolution to WWII!
It goes on to show all the cool & terrifying technologies that the formula led us to, and even to the end of our sun, and the death of the universe itself.
How do you expect an author to provide for his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand children? You selfish bastard!
Unfortunately for the Hooke estate, the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great offspring of the original microbes are demanding 347 years of royalties for the use of their ancestors likeness.
People are either completely bang onto everything or completely wrong on everything. thusly if someone is right or wrong concerning something he is right or wrong on everything else.
You know what, you are completely right. Someone may have been wrong in the past, or had unorthodox views and still be completely right on something else.
So, from now on I will give Spitzer's views the same weight and consideration I give to Crispin Glover, Richard Chase, and Ed Gein.
A "teenage boy" at 17 who is taller than Zimmerman. A 6' tall, 17 year old wearing a hoodie walking around a gated neighborhood in the middle of the night, in sweltering Florida, in a high crime area = totally normal.
Being a "...6' tall, 17 year old wearing a hoodie walking around a gated neighborhood in the middle of the night, in sweltering Florida, in a high crime area..." is not a crime.
If you think you see a crime, call the police. That's their business.
...if I punch you and we start fighting, you could then claim self defense if you shot me, but I couldn't if I shot you. The same if I pulled a knife and threatened to stab you.
The problem is that if Zimmerman started the fight, and Martin (the only other witness) is dead, now Zimmerman can claim anything he wants.
Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman, was a US Magistrate judge and his mother was a court clerk so, even before he had a lawyer, it would be easy for him to get advice on exactly what to say to beat the rap.
Slashdot Mirror
It makes it easy to belittle your fellow man. As if to drive home the point, you're comparing the religious to a house-plant...
You're right.
Maybe his house plant never shot a school-girl in the head for wanting an education.
Bingo.
People are both good and bad, and religion has little or nothing to do with any of it, being just another thing to blame.
If only this was true.
Sadly, when it comes to flying jets into building, imprisoning Galileo, shooting school-girls in the head, or inquisitions, religion has quite a bit to do with it.
The difference being, if you're ignorant of baseball you don't deny its existence and insist that divine intervention causes the game to play itself.
Hey, hey, hey... Let's try to keep on track here.
The evolution of man from primordial soup happened relatively quickly compared to how slowly most baseball games run.
You've accused them of being delusional
(Wiki): "A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary."
Would you agree that if someone believed that the Easter Bunny was an actual creature, who hopped around all over the world on Easter, hiding eggs in his yard; that he might be considered delusional?
In that case, if 'Bunnyism' was a world religion, Dawkins' book might have been titled "The Bunny Delusion."
If it would be wrong for this to happen to us, it is wrong for us to do it to them.
That is correct.
Of course, we do dress our military in uniforms, and make every effort to do separate them from our civilian populous.
That said, this enemy (not Afghanistan civilians; but al-Qaeda, Taliban, etc.) seems to consider civilian targets fair game.
I deeply grieve civilian collateral damage, but I put the blame for this on the *perfidy committed by the al-Qaeda and Taliban forces.
* Specifically, The 1977 Protocol, Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, Article 37, Section 1, Part (c)
... comparing residential apartment dwellers with uniformed and armed soldiers on the front line of a continent-invading army.
You're absolutely right. There is no comparison.
Since current insurgents fail to dress in military uniforms and hide among civilian population they are war criminals in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
"Combatants that intentionally use protected people or property as shields or camouflage are guilty of violations of laws of war and are responsible for damage to those that should be protected."
Flag as troll.
...and why don't you get a second /. account so you can flag things you don't like yourself, instead of having to formulate your own rational arguments.
You shouldn't take pictures if you are unsure of the legality of doing so.
I don't think he was unsure.
From the article, "MacDougall said that Markiewicz was told that he couldn't take pictures inside the mall."
If that's true, then he was on private property, and told not to take pictures, and he did anyway. Even though it was a public space, as a private property, the mall can set restrictions against this if they like (and many post policies like this at the entrances.)
... before a dialog box pops up on these systems and states that Adobe Flash Reader needs to install a Critical Update.
...you mean it punches out a card that says Adobe Flash Reader needs to install a Critical Update.
Not so sure about the people who get to live in places where a couple missiles rain from the sky every so often.
...you mean, like Israel?
Israel says 79 rockets fired at it from Gaza
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/us-israel-violence-idUSBRE89N09U20121024
Or, perhaps they feel using a drone to make an attack, rather than risking American soldiers, is the better choice?
So it's OK to kill women and children, provided they're dark skinned, far away, and can't shoot back?
Those women and children were in the proximity of terrorists. We didn't target them specifically.
The Taliban often hide in populated areas, like Karachi and Sohrab Goth, and they know perfectly well the propaganda value of collateral damage.
If I conduct attacks on the US, and hide among innocent civilians, the danger I expose them to is on me.
Do you support killing someone before proven guilty?
You're confusing criminal law with the rules of war.
Do you really think American troops in WWII arrested and tried every German soldier before killing them?
No, you are simply wrong about factual history.
Review the defined worldview of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a political entity, and the millions of people killed, internally and externally, by it, to correct your error.
Saying Stalin killed people because he was atheist, is like saying Hitler killed people because he was vegetarian.
There are plenty of people, deeply religious to atheist, who lack morals. Just ask the victims of 9/11 just how 'moral' their attackers were.
I enjoyed the Selfish Gene and the Extended Phenotype very much. In following books you've moved to explaining the very basics of the evolutionary theory. Do you plan to ever return to write about more complex aspects of the evolution?
You might enjoy: "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Evolution/dp/0618005838
"E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation" by David Bodanis is not fiction, but a ripping good read. Aside from just the formula itself, it goes into the history of each symbol in the famous formula, but the interesting lives of the people who played a part in each symbol. Includes everything from the French Revolution to WWII!
It goes on to show all the cool & terrifying technologies that the formula led us to, and even to the end of our sun, and the death of the universe itself.
Sounds weird to say it but, a fun, fun read!
http://www.amazon.com/mc2-Biography-Worlds-Famous-Equation/dp/0425181642
pix or it didnt happen!
Steel-plate, micrographic engravings or it didn't happen!
FTFY
How do you expect an author to provide for his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand children? You selfish bastard!
Unfortunately for the Hooke estate, the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great offspring of the original microbes are demanding 347 years of royalties for the use of their ancestors likeness.
No, he didn't start the fight.
You state this as if you know it to be a fact.
I never said he did, or didn't, start the fight. I said:
"if Zimmerman started the fight"
Unfortunately, only two people know who started the fight:
One is dead.
The other has a tremendous motivation to lie.
People are either completely bang onto everything or completely wrong on everything. thusly if someone is right or wrong concerning something he is right or wrong on everything else.
You know what, you are completely right. Someone may have been wrong in the past, or had unorthodox views and still be completely right on something else.
So, from now on I will give Spitzer's views the same weight and consideration I give to Crispin Glover, Richard Chase, and Ed Gein.
A "teenage boy" at 17 who is taller than Zimmerman. A 6' tall, 17 year old wearing a hoodie walking around a gated neighborhood in the middle of the night, in sweltering Florida, in a high crime area = totally normal.
Being a "...6' tall, 17 year old wearing a hoodie walking around a gated neighborhood in the middle of the night, in sweltering Florida, in a high crime area..." is not a crime.
If you think you see a crime, call the police. That's their business.
...if I punch you and we start fighting, you could then claim self defense if you shot me, but I couldn't if I shot you. The same if I pulled a knife and threatened to stab you.
The problem is that if Zimmerman started the fight, and Martin (the only other witness) is dead, now Zimmerman can claim anything he wants.
Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman, was a US Magistrate judge and his mother was a court clerk so, even before he had a lawyer, it would be easy for him to get advice on exactly what to say to beat the rap.
I feel I must say that, "Electronic Tweezers" is a great name for a rock band.
Thank you.
Young kids should copulate geniuses, then they'd all be smart.
You might have missed that particular class in sex-ed.
And criminal law.
And English.
Or go to an Apple Store?
I'm not sure real geniuses work for $9.33 an hour.
No, no, no, Jehovah one is the one and only true savior, Bob is the prophet, and slack is your salvation.
No, no! The shoe is a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtrDCLeFQUA
Wow. Roughly 1/3 of the posts to this article are child posts of the random first post. This must be some type of record.
This must be some type of record.
FTFY