"Things will be especially rocky if, like in Canada, it becomes illegal to compete with government healthcare."
It is illegal to compete with the government healthcare system here. I'm in favour of private hospitals here that would be subject to high levels of taxation that by law had to go directly into the public system, and being banned from doing organ transplants if they attempted to "jump the queue". If someone wants to pay to save the live of a family member themselves though, it's disgusting that we should even attempt to stop them.
"It isn't an insult. It's the truth. There are liberal wackos and conservative wackos. The term liberal is there to show which side of the political spectrum the person is on."
No, it is an insult, and it is not the truth. To be a liberal, means to be tolerant. To be a 'liberal wacko', would mean you believe very strongly in freedom of thought. I take offense to the way the term 'liberal wacko', because it means to be moderate.
Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
"He turned it into a synonym for socialism and it was downhill from there."
Socialism is an important part of my Country. I don't see how that word is derogatory either. It represents one particular part of a spectrum of ideas, and it can be quite useful.
"Everything EXCEPT Christianity is allowed to be taught in schools now."
Not where I live. Christianity was very much forced down our throats, and many of the teachers agreed with me that this wasn't fair. I was punished on many occasions for leaving the room during The Lord's Prayer, without a note from my parents that said we were Jehovah's Witness or whatever else. I do not believe that religion can be taught by force. That's where I'm coming from. I would like to see religion taught from the perspective of getting people to think about morality. This does include people discussing the hypocrisy of Christians when it comes up. Please don't take offense to that.
I fully support any Christian who wants to practice their faith though. I'm sorry if I'm not entirely familiar with the theistic battles in the U.S.. What I see of them, looks an awful lot like coercion though. Keep in mind that very little of anything other than "the media" comes out of the U.S.. That is what the world sees, not necessarily the reality. The same is true of the Arab world, I'm fairly certain of that.
"Bad enough that the little deranged motherfucker in North Korea has a nuke. We were asleep at the switch for that one. We absolutely cannot let Iran get the bomb."
Mutually assured destruction isn't so bad. The U.S. gets away with whatever it wants these days. Sooner or later, they need to wake up to the fact that their foreign policy needs to be severly adjusted. Otherwise China, North Korea, Iran, etc will become allied against the U.S., and we all lose big time.
The way the U.S. treats its friends isn't so great, God help anyone with a different perspective than them though. Afghanistan, and Iraq are largely the fault of the U.S., it's not fair to blame Islam for them.
Saudi Arabia's government uses Linux, some say that is shameful and shouldn't be encouraged. I think it's good to know that free software doesn't discriminate against anyone.
Also, I don't think there is any point in blaming the corporations for enabling these opressive governments either. Corporations aren't beholden to anyone but their shareholders. We give them their power, and don't govern their morality.
That's a shame. I see the same thing from the people who want to ban teaching of the theory of evolution though. By all means, push for bible studies in schools, but do a section on Islam (not the popular conception of it), and the Eastern religions as well. A fair and balanced one. But the theory of evolution is is just as valid of a belief system as the creationists have. I don't see how the two necessarily conflict though. I think it might be fun to try and understand the mechanics of God, if it does exist.
"Anti-Christian rhetoric on this board is fairly free flowing and thick and utterly without redeeming value."
I don't see a whole lot of anti-Christian rhetoric here. I see quite a bit of other-than-Christian opinions though. Some of it is pretty harsh, but so were you just now. You're just fanning the flames.
"don't worry, these publically-uptight-privately-closet-homos are more likely to open up a male brothel than form the fourth Reich anytime soon, thankfully"
They'll do it if the evangelicals think it's a good idea. Sooner or later, people will realize that Bush & Co are only superficial Christians. I hope. I'm not a Christian, but I think Jesus had a great message, and these guys don't have anything to do with it.
"It is like in the USA, when 1 muslim can tell a school with 100 christians they can not have a christmas play"
But why can't 120 agnostics, or otherwise get a say? I'm not knocking Christmas, but don't force people to act out a scene from the bible which they don't believe in, that's not fair either.
"half of those households must be in India, China and Africa."
China is one of the leaders (as mentioned in the headline). They have what 1.3 billion people, and 94M Internet users (not sure of the broadband -vs- dialup ratio). I don't think they are quite in the same league as India and Africa. I would guess the density is much higher than 2.5:1 per household as well like you say, but I could be wrong.
"with a bit of change to our drug laws, we'd look a lot better statistically."
Its not so much about the statistics. It's the problems that prohibition creates.
If marijuana alone was legal to grow in your own home, and severe penalties introduced for bringing it outside of your house, there would be a HUGE dent in the drug trade. People who think the drug laws keep pot out of the hands of children should visit any high school in North America, and witness the reality of the situation.
In a large part of Canada, alcohol is only sold in government run stores. When I was growing up, it was much, much more difficult to find someone to buy booze for us, than it was to walk to the smoking doors and buy some grass. A lot of the time, we would settle for the weed, because booze was so much harder to get. Many of my old friends have since moved on to harder drugs, and this is how they got drawn in to those circles.
I've been using a slight variation of this for a few days, and just heard back from someone who noticed a typo:
Incompatable -> Incompatible
Thanks. In the interests of submitting my changes back for this contribution, what I ended up using was:
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"We made a choice that we'd rather try to prevent crime before it happens than stop repeat offenders, and the system shows that."
If anything the system shows that the system is broken. With the second highest rates of incarceration in the world, and shameful rates of recidivism, I can't imagine why you would be happy with the status quo, other than jealous pride.
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"Things will be especially rocky if, like in Canada, it becomes illegal to compete with government healthcare."
It is illegal to compete with the government healthcare system here. I'm in favour of private hospitals here that would be subject to high levels of taxation that by law had to go directly into the public system, and being banned from doing organ transplants if they attempted to "jump the queue". If someone wants to pay to save the live of a family member themselves though, it's disgusting that we should even attempt to stop them.
Very good point.
"As the great liberal leader explained it"
Who is the great Liberal leader? Trudeau? Wilfrid Laurier?
" Well, it could be definition 5b"
Ahhh, the obsolete one. I could see that, considering the opposition to the metric system as well.
No, it is an insult, and it is not the truth. To be a liberal, means to be tolerant. To be a 'liberal wacko', would mean you believe very strongly in freedom of thought. I take offense to the way the term 'liberal wacko', because it means to be moderate.
It's a fantastic concept.
"He turned it into a synonym for socialism and it was downhill from there."
Socialism is an important part of my Country. I don't see how that word is derogatory either. It represents one particular part of a spectrum of ideas, and it can be quite useful.
"Everything EXCEPT Christianity is allowed to be taught in schools now."
Not where I live. Christianity was very much forced down our throats, and many of the teachers agreed with me that this wasn't fair. I was punished on many occasions for leaving the room during The Lord's Prayer, without a note from my parents that said we were Jehovah's Witness or whatever else. I do not believe that religion can be taught by force. That's where I'm coming from. I would like to see religion taught from the perspective of getting people to think about morality. This does include people discussing the hypocrisy of Christians when it comes up. Please don't take offense to that.
I fully support any Christian who wants to practice their faith though. I'm sorry if I'm not entirely familiar with the theistic battles in the U.S.. What I see of them, looks an awful lot like coercion though. Keep in mind that very little of anything other than "the media" comes out of the U.S.. That is what the world sees, not necessarily the reality. The same is true of the Arab world, I'm fairly certain of that.
"Jesus wasn't the super nice guy that mainstream christian teaching would like to have everyone believe."
Oh? You met him did you? I can't be certain that there even was a Jesus. Regardless though, the message of Jesus is one of compassion.
"Why exactly should corporations stand above law, ethics and moral?"
I don't think they should.
"Bad enough that the little deranged motherfucker in North Korea has a nuke. We were asleep at the switch for that one. We absolutely cannot let Iran get the bomb."
Mutually assured destruction isn't so bad. The U.S. gets away with whatever it wants these days. Sooner or later, they need to wake up to the fact that their foreign policy needs to be severly adjusted. Otherwise China, North Korea, Iran, etc will become allied against the U.S., and we all lose big time.
The way the U.S. treats its friends isn't so great, God help anyone with a different perspective than them though. Afghanistan, and Iraq are largely the fault of the U.S., it's not fair to blame Islam for them.
Saudi Arabia's government uses Linux, some say that is shameful and shouldn't be encouraged. I think it's good to know that free software doesn't discriminate against anyone.
Also, I don't think there is any point in blaming the corporations for enabling these opressive governments either. Corporations aren't beholden to anyone but their shareholders. We give them their power, and don't govern their morality.
"kick China out for censoring their citizens overtly!"
That, and for not respecting international borders.
That's a shame. I see the same thing from the people who want to ban teaching of the theory of evolution though. By all means, push for bible studies in schools, but do a section on Islam (not the popular conception of it), and the Eastern religions as well. A fair and balanced one. But the theory of evolution is is just as valid of a belief system as the creationists have. I don't see how the two necessarily conflict though. I think it might be fun to try and understand the mechanics of God, if it does exist.
"Anti-Christian rhetoric on this board is fairly free flowing and thick and utterly without redeeming value."
I don't see a whole lot of anti-Christian rhetoric here. I see quite a bit of other-than-Christian opinions though. Some of it is pretty harsh, but so were you just now. You're just fanning the flames.
"don't worry, these publically-uptight-privately-closet-homos are more likely to open up a male brothel than form the fourth Reich anytime soon, thankfully"
They'll do it if the evangelicals think it's a good idea. Sooner or later, people will realize that Bush & Co are only superficial Christians. I hope. I'm not a Christian, but I think Jesus had a great message, and these guys don't have anything to do with it.
"He ruined the name of "liberals" in America, by going as close as possible to out and out socialism."
There's another one. Moderate socialism can be a good thing. Universal health care would be a great start.
"It is like in the USA, when 1 muslim can tell a school with 100 christians they can not have a christmas play"
But why can't 120 agnostics, or otherwise get a say? I'm not knocking Christmas, but don't force people to act out a scene from the bible which they don't believe in, that's not fair either.
"People assign themselves a retarded ideology"
;)
What's yours called?
"That's even before the schism that brought about the Catholics (the folks with the pointy hats)"
Who the KKK? Wasn't it fairly recently that they even let Catholics in?
"Don't get me wrong, there are tons of liberal wacko's too"
Can anyone tell me how liberal became a derogatory term in the U.S. ?
I find this very strange every time I see it here.
"half of those households must be in India, China and Africa."
;)
China is one of the leaders (as mentioned in the headline). They have what 1.3 billion people, and 94M Internet users (not sure of the broadband -vs- dialup ratio). I don't think they are quite in the same league as India and Africa. I would guess the density is much higher than 2.5:1 per household as well like you say, but I could be wrong.
Sorry to nitpick.
"with a bit of change to our drug laws, we'd look a lot better statistically."
Its not so much about the statistics. It's the problems that prohibition creates.
If marijuana alone was legal to grow in your own home, and severe penalties introduced for bringing it outside of your house, there would be a HUGE dent in the drug trade. People who think the drug laws keep pot out of the hands of children should visit any high school in North America, and witness the reality of the situation.
In a large part of Canada, alcohol is only sold in government run stores. When I was growing up, it was much, much more difficult to find someone to buy booze for us, than it was to walk to the smoking doors and buy some grass. A lot of the time, we would settle for the weed, because booze was so much harder to get. Many of my old friends have since moved on to harder drugs, and this is how they got drawn in to those circles.
Its a strange world we live in.
Beautiful.. This will spread like wildfire on the mailing lists. :)
I've been using a slight variation of this for a few days, and just heard back from someone who noticed a typo:
Incompatable -> Incompatible
Thanks. In the interests of submitting my changes back for this contribution, what I ended up using was:
"while our dollar was really low"
;)
Ooops, 'high' (which I was yesterday) makes more sense.
"We made a choice that we'd rather try to prevent crime before it happens than stop repeat offenders, and the system shows that."
If anything the system shows that the system is broken. With the second highest rates of incarceration in the world, and shameful rates of recidivism, I can't imagine why you would be happy with the status quo, other than jealous pride.