I'm also religious, and a scientist, and I get no end of crap because people assume that I rigorously follow everything that my religion says
I find this very strange. How do you decide which parts of revelation are true and which can be dismissed? I $HOLYBOOK is wrong about the origin of meatballs, why do you suppose it is right about the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
There exists a large space for personal interpretation in most religions.
In general, people don't have much trouble convincing themselves that God wants exactly what they wan (what a coincidence!), and wants to achieve it exactly the way they want to as well.
But the idea that the scientific method is the best methodology for determining anything, and that everything can be understood through the scientific method, is an ideology.
The "scientific method", when boiled down to its essence, is nothing more than a belief that evidence is the best indicator of reality.
When you troubleshoot your car or computer, you follow the scientific method. Is it "ideology" that keeps you from taking it to an exorcist instead of probing and prodding to find out what the problem is?
The American Civil war was more of an economic war than a war on Slavery. A war on slavery was just propaganda.
The ACW was about a lot of things, but slavery was the proximate cause.
I for one agree that they should have been force to free slaves, but the problem is that everyone always believes something that simply isnt true about the American Civil war. Wars are only fought for the benefit of the rich, or when an oppressed people rise up which again is resisted for the benefit of the rich.
Dude, it was the rich plantation owners that owned the slaves.
The primary cause of the succession was fear that all the new states being carved out of the west would tip the balance between slave states and non-slave states.
Also, note that our Founding Fathers set us up the bomb with the 3/5 compromise, which allowed them to dodge the issue for the short term, but pretty much guaranteed the ACW in the long term.
that is why he left for something he was fully qualified to do: give away money.
I liked the Jon Stewart comment after the police raid over the lost iPhone:
[in confused voice, after reminding us of the Apple "1984" commercial:] 'Apple is busting down doors in Palo Alto and Bill Gates is killing mosquitoes in Africa.'
I feel like Microsoft has never developed a key software innovation and is not that good at predictions. I guess a lot of people feel the same as me. They are excellent at marketing their products and at keeping a healthy business although.
Until a few years ago, Microsoft was best understood as a stock pyramid scheme rather than a software company.
Glancing blows will only deflect the impact point.
IIRC, 1/3 of US casualties in the Gulf War were from enemy fire on the battlefield, 1/3 were from friendly fire, and 1/3 were from a SCUD missile that landed on a barracks after being deflected from its target by a Patriot missile.
Iran's firing missiles at the US now? Somehow I missed that... or could it be, this talk of a defense against Iranian missiles, effective or not, is simply fear-mongering?
A large fraction of the US electorate thinks God created the USA to protect Israel from Iran.
The threat of what would happen in retaliation should anyone actually launch against the US is enough of a drawback that I'm sure we'll never even see it used.
Do you think Hitler would have hesitated to launch a nuclear exchange in the last days of WWII, if everyone had had the missiles? He ordered his own army to destroy their own national infrastructure and send the country back to the Stone Age, because he felt like they had Failed their Destiny.
MAD only works if both sides are sane. Also, it requires that neither side thinks it's so clever it can get away with a surprise attack.
(FWIW, I'm a missile-defense skeptic. IMO it's just a scam for throwing big wads of money at the defense industry. In addition to not working, and probably never working in the face of vastly cheaper countermeasures, we're more likely to get nuked or gassed from a suitcase than from a missile. As Tom Clancy said about 30 years ago, if you want to nuke the USA you just disguise the bomb as drugs and bring it in through the Miami airport.)
It seems that the the US was racist and that is why we nuked Japan and that we treated the Germans with much more respect.
Maybe racism played a roll; German-American and Japanese-American citizens certainly weren't treated the same.
OTOH, it takes about 2 minutes in the Internet Age to find out that the Trinity test didn't happen until after Germany had surrendered. Might have taken 5-10 minutes in a library if your friend went to college sufficiently long ago.
Also, while Germany did get stuck with the threatened unconditional surrender, Japan got an exception clause allowing them to keep their emperor.
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I'm also religious, and a scientist, and I get no end of crap because people assume that I rigorously follow everything that my religion says
I find this very strange. How do you decide which parts of revelation are true and which can be dismissed? I $HOLYBOOK is wrong about the origin of meatballs, why do you suppose it is right about the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
There exists a large space for personal interpretation in most religions.
In general, people don't have much trouble convincing themselves that God wants exactly what they wan (what a coincidence!), and wants to achieve it exactly the way they want to as well.
But the idea that the scientific method is the best methodology for determining anything, and that everything can be understood through the scientific method, is an ideology.
The "scientific method", when boiled down to its essence, is nothing more than a belief that evidence is the best indicator of reality.
When you troubleshoot your car or computer, you follow the scientific method. Is it "ideology" that keeps you from taking it to an exorcist instead of probing and prodding to find out what the problem is?
If what was developed gets distroyed, or hidden for no apparent reason, other than lobby or corporate pressure than that is TREASON.
The Reagan campaign committed treason with Iran in order to get him elected. You can hardly expect a baseline of good government after that.
If they can hang on 'til the end of 2012, the problem will go away.
We should start calling them "Letters of Marque", so people will understand their purpose better.
Have you seen pickup trucks nowadays? Some of those things look quite capable of hauling space telescopes around.
Also known as "Penis Compensation Vehicles".
The American Civil war was more of an economic war than a war on Slavery. A war on slavery was just propaganda.
The ACW was about a lot of things, but slavery was the proximate cause.
I for one agree that they should have been force to free slaves, but the problem is that everyone always believes something that simply isnt true about the American Civil war. Wars are only fought for the benefit of the rich, or when an oppressed people rise up which again is resisted for the benefit of the rich.
Dude, it was the rich plantation owners that owned the slaves.
The primary cause of the succession was fear that all the new states being carved out of the west would tip the balance between slave states and non-slave states.
Also, note that our Founding Fathers set us up the bomb with the 3/5 compromise, which allowed them to dodge the issue for the short term, but pretty much guaranteed the ACW in the long term.
The fight to keep or free slaves was not fought because of the slaves it was due to power grabs from the federal government.
Nice fantasy you've got going there, bub.
Maybe you can get a job on the Texas SBOE.
Actually, I hope you were just trollin'.
"No mules were flogged in the making of this software."
that is why he left for something he was fully qualified to do: give away money.
I liked the Jon Stewart comment after the police raid over the lost iPhone:
[in confused voice, after reminding us of the Apple "1984" commercial:] 'Apple is busting down doors in Palo Alto and Bill Gates is killing mosquitoes in Africa.'
I feel like Microsoft has never developed a key software innovation and is not that good at predictions. I guess a lot of people feel the same as me. They are excellent at marketing their products and at keeping a healthy business although.
Until a few years ago, Microsoft was best understood as a stock pyramid scheme rather than a software company.
Ouch.
I don't see anything about flying cars.
The real confusing thing for me is that his "sliver" -- 12%
Is the 12% even accurate?
What percentage of the earth's water is in the oceans, and how much of the oceans are devoid of life?
Just curious - for how long are you people going to blame Bush for everything?
How long until his screw-ups heal themselves?
FWIW, I don't blame Bush for everything. I also blame Obama for continuing some of Bush's bad policies.
What about the airborne laser defense?
Alas, still waiting on the flying cars needed to carry it.
And where can we learn more about the anti-military/peace-at-any-cost complex?
I suspect your delusions are the best source.
Because there are two sides to every story.
Are you saying that there's a side to the Sgt. York ADA story that you'd like to tell?
it might render your porn poorly.
Maybe it's because I don't know who Ron Paul is
He's a nutbag who has run for office under three different party affiliations, whose latest efforts have been to appeal to the "don't tax me" crowd.
A sort of Republican-for-the-middle-class, without the obsession with sex.
I shouldn't call him a nutbag; he actually mixes one or two sensible ideas in with all the nonsense.
It's interesting to see your not-previously-exposed European's take on his position.
Glancing blows will only deflect the impact point.
IIRC, 1/3 of US casualties in the Gulf War were from enemy fire on the battlefield, 1/3 were from friendly fire, and 1/3 were from a SCUD missile that landed on a barracks after being deflected from its target by a Patriot missile.
Iran's firing missiles at the US now? Somehow I missed that... or could it be, this talk of a defense against Iranian missiles, effective or not, is simply fear-mongering?
A large fraction of the US electorate thinks God created the USA to protect Israel from Iran.
All it has to do is make an attack more difficult. That makes a missile attack less likely.
Not if every million dollar means of making it more difficult is subject to a ten dollar countermeasure. That puts you in an arms race you can't win.
Though you can very well bankrupt yourself trying...
each time seeing the same things "It doesn't block nearly as large amount of them as was claimed"
All you need to know about the claims of the military-industrial complex can be learned by reading up on the Sgt. York Air Defense Artillery fiasco.
The threat of what would happen in retaliation should anyone actually launch against the US is enough of a drawback that I'm sure we'll never even see it used.
Do you think Hitler would have hesitated to launch a nuclear exchange in the last days of WWII, if everyone had had the missiles? He ordered his own army to destroy their own national infrastructure and send the country back to the Stone Age, because he felt like they had Failed their Destiny.
MAD only works if both sides are sane. Also, it requires that neither side thinks it's so clever it can get away with a surprise attack.
(FWIW, I'm a missile-defense skeptic. IMO it's just a scam for throwing big wads of money at the defense industry. In addition to not working, and probably never working in the face of vastly cheaper countermeasures, we're more likely to get nuked or gassed from a suitcase than from a missile. As Tom Clancy said about 30 years ago, if you want to nuke the USA you just disguise the bomb as drugs and bring it in through the Miami airport.)
It seems that the the US was racist and that is why we nuked Japan and that we treated the Germans with much more respect.
Maybe racism played a roll; German-American and Japanese-American citizens certainly weren't treated the same.
OTOH, it takes about 2 minutes in the Internet Age to find out that the Trinity test didn't happen until after Germany had surrendered. Might have taken 5-10 minutes in a library if your friend went to college sufficiently long ago.
Also, while Germany did get stuck with the threatened unconditional surrender, Japan got an exception clause allowing them to keep their emperor.