The only example I can come up with of a country that was governed almost exclusively by an intelligent "aristocracy" was the early United States. What other examples do you have?
Except that those "voluntary" activities were encouraged using ad campaigns aimed at children and sold products intentionally designed to enhance addiction.
You are talking about direct attacks - I am talking about indirect attacks. How many people do you think were ultimately killed by the effects of smoking?
- You believe in science and reason over religious dogma (and believing in intelligent life from other planets visiting and controlling our history is every bit a religion). - You can find Europe on a map. - You can find your state on a map. - Your salary is no more than 10 times the lowest salary at your company. - You are not a lawyer. - You've gotten your hands dirty while working. - You've never groped a woman/man who didn't want to be groped. - You don't smoke anything. - You don't buy products from Apple just to be cool.
I am sure I can think of more things but you get the idea.
Total government control is not the problem - Total Corporate control is and that is a much tougher battle to fight. It's hard to say - don't support evil corporations - because unless you plan on living on a farm and growing everything you eat and wear it is almost impossible to not give your money to some evil corporation.
This is an issue that crosses party lines but our current government is so polarized and dysfunctional that nothing is getting done to fix it. The worst part is I have no chance of winning office as an atheist so the best I can do is try to educate and inform as many people as I can - which as my friends will tell you, I do.
Ignorance and idiocy is a worldwide occurrence. In the US our neighbors seem to prefer believing in religious bullshit and in Russia and Mexico I guess it is alien bullshit. It just means we have to work harder on all fronts to fight this type of stuff and not encourage it.
It's a fake email address so I am not all that concerned (and not exactly what you were trying to prove). I actually voted against the people who are currently representing me in Congress - can't help how my neighbors vote.
And while the principles of OWS have a sound basis - their methods are horribly flawed.
People are bothering the White House with this type of bullshit and Congress is voting to reaffirm our national motto. Can we just call a do-over and kick everybody out of office and start over?
First - getting an annulment from the church just takes money - it's not that hard.
Second - how many devout divorced Roman Catholic men do you think are really out there? I think you're using an example based on a population of maybe 10 people in the US. You might as well used a purple one-legged kangaroo with cataracts.
Especially since Catholics are the least likely to adhere to church teachings. If you were going to pick a Christian sect I would think they'd be the last.
Well in NY you are relatively screwed but if you are less than 5 years older than the person under 17 you only get a Class A or B misdemeanor depending on what you did. Many states have nothing if you are within 2 years. It varies everywhere but believe it or not there is some sanity when it comes to these things.
Those 31 are specifically ones that don't have any crime. The site I referred to (http://www.ageofconsent.us/) specifically doesn't count those with misdemeanors:
* Note: Some states make an age gap less of a crime but still a crime; where this is the case we have also listed 'No'.
That site also allows you to read the specific laws for each state.
If you are paying $1M in taxes then you most likely are part of the problem and not the solution.
Where do you get that ratio of $1 to $1000, though? How do you even measure how much of a value you get from government? Most people don't even know what the government (both national and local) do that benefits them. They drive on their highways without thinking about how they are maintained.
Who is we and can you give specifics? Dept of Agriculture falls under " To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;" so what other criteria do you use to reject it?
How do you measure that exactly? Which 66% would that be? I agree that there is a ton of government waste but I don't see how regulating our food is one of them.
Yeah that's what we need. 30 competing private "inspection regimes" (29 owned by the food manufacturers) all with their own standards that will be incomprehensible to the average person. Perfect! I definitely think it makes sense to give control to the very respectable food industry that has never done anything shady.
What purpose do you tea party guys think the government serves if not to protect its citizens?
What measure are you using to say that the median person is "better off" today? How do you even measure what that means? Are you measuring by wealth, debt, independence, health, literacy, life expectancy, infant mortatlity? Can you narrow it down a bit for me?
There are studies that show that people who go to church regularly have larger families. Here is one just sample but with enough googling I am sure you can dig up others.
No matter what, though, you totally ignored/missed my whole point. I was saying that somebody will get rich off the this but it is unlikely that society will become wealthier as a whole because of it.
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The only example I can come up with of a country that was governed almost exclusively by an intelligent "aristocracy" was the early United States. What other examples do you have?
Except that those "voluntary" activities were encouraged using ad campaigns aimed at children and sold products intentionally designed to enhance addiction.
You are talking about direct attacks - I am talking about indirect attacks. How many people do you think were ultimately killed by the effects of smoking?
Exactly! You can only vote if:
- You believe in science and reason over religious dogma (and believing in intelligent life from other planets visiting and controlling our history is every bit a religion).
- You can find Europe on a map.
- You can find your state on a map.
- Your salary is no more than 10 times the lowest salary at your company.
- You are not a lawyer.
- You've gotten your hands dirty while working.
- You've never groped a woman/man who didn't want to be groped.
- You don't smoke anything.
- You don't buy products from Apple just to be cool.
I am sure I can think of more things but you get the idea.
Total government control is not the problem - Total Corporate control is and that is a much tougher battle to fight. It's hard to say - don't support evil corporations - because unless you plan on living on a farm and growing everything you eat and wear it is almost impossible to not give your money to some evil corporation.
This is an issue that crosses party lines but our current government is so polarized and dysfunctional that nothing is getting done to fix it. The worst part is I have no chance of winning office as an atheist so the best I can do is try to educate and inform as many people as I can - which as my friends will tell you, I do.
Who said anything about letting those people vote?
Ignorance and idiocy is a worldwide occurrence. In the US our neighbors seem to prefer believing in religious bullshit and in Russia and Mexico I guess it is alien bullshit. It just means we have to work harder on all fronts to fight this type of stuff and not encourage it.
Wouldn't fossils mean that life "existed" and not necessarily that life continues to exist?
I think they also were talking more specifically about intelligent life.
90% believe in a god, 55% believe they are protected by guardian angels, 54% believe in psychic abilities, 41% believe in demonic/devil possession.
People believe in a lot of really dumb things.
It's a fake email address so I am not all that concerned (and not exactly what you were trying to prove). I actually voted against the people who are currently representing me in Congress - can't help how my neighbors vote.
And while the principles of OWS have a sound basis - their methods are horribly flawed.
People are bothering the White House with this type of bullshit and Congress is voting to reaffirm our national motto. Can we just call a do-over and kick everybody out of office and start over?
First - getting an annulment from the church just takes money - it's not that hard.
Second - how many devout divorced Roman Catholic men do you think are really out there? I think you're using an example based on a population of maybe 10 people in the US. You might as well used a purple one-legged kangaroo with cataracts.
The poster I was responding to wanted to eliminate government completely. That was my point.
Especially since Catholics are the least likely to adhere to church teachings. If you were going to pick a Christian sect I would think they'd be the last.
Well in NY you are relatively screwed but if you are less than 5 years older than the person under 17 you only get a Class A or B misdemeanor depending on what you did. Many states have nothing if you are within 2 years. It varies everywhere but believe it or not there is some sanity when it comes to these things.
Those 31 are specifically ones that don't have any crime. The site I referred to (http://www.ageofconsent.us/) specifically doesn't count those with misdemeanors:
* Note: Some states make an age gap less of a crime but still a crime; where this is the case we have also listed 'No'.
That site also allows you to read the specific laws for each state.
If you are paying $1M in taxes then you most likely are part of the problem and not the solution.
Where do you get that ratio of $1 to $1000, though? How do you even measure how much of a value you get from government? Most people don't even know what the government (both national and local) do that benefits them. They drive on their highways without thinking about how they are maintained.
Age of consent in New York is 17 anyway so there won't be any poor 18 year old guys on there after having sex with their 17 year old girlfriend.
And 31 states have a full "Age Gap" provision - meaning there is no crime - which I am pretty sure is a majority.
Not to be picky but the age of consent in NY is 17 so that 18 year old is fine having sex with the 17.9999999 year old as would be a 77 year old.
Who is we and can you give specifics? Dept of Agriculture falls under " To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;" so what other criteria do you use to reject it?
How do you measure that exactly? Which 66% would that be? I agree that there is a ton of government waste but I don't see how regulating our food is one of them.
So I assume you never use anything provided/maintained by the government?
Yeah that's what we need. 30 competing private "inspection regimes" (29 owned by the food manufacturers) all with their own standards that will be incomprehensible to the average person. Perfect! I definitely think it makes sense to give control to the very respectable food industry that has never done anything shady.
What purpose do you tea party guys think the government serves if not to protect its citizens?
What measure are you using to say that the median person is "better off" today? How do you even measure what that means? Are you measuring by wealth, debt, independence, health, literacy, life expectancy, infant mortatlity? Can you narrow it down a bit for me?
There are studies that show that people who go to church regularly have larger families. Here is one just sample but with enough googling I am sure you can dig up others.
http://rsc.byu.edu/archived/religion-and-family-connection-social-science-perspectives/chapter-3-religion-and-family-mi
No matter what, though, you totally ignored/missed my whole point. I was saying that somebody will get rich off the this but it is unlikely that society will become wealthier as a whole because of it.
That doesn't answer my question.