I think that the newspapers that published those Muhammed cartoons are heroic -- too few newspapers are willing to take strong stands about anything, let along a topic as important as freedom of speech. I'd like to say that I'd be willing to risk my life to be outspoken about some topic, but here in Canada there aren't many things you can say that will get you shot and stabbed repeatedly. Maybe if I lived in some other country my principals wouldn't seem so important. Still, it's a nice idea...
Incidentally, have you seen Theo Van Gogh's "Submission"? I've got a copy of it, just waiting for me to get some friends together for viewing-party. I think everyone needs to see it on principal, to defy those who wanted to silence it's release.
Suffice to say, a good liberal should defend free speech at every opportunity.
Wasn't there talk sometime back about the US government directly providing means for people living in censorship-ridden nations to bypass their national firewalls? Whatever became of that?
Private initiatives like this are cool and all (and have proven very effective in the past), but it would be nice to see our governments taking a much stronger stand regarding free-speech. Free speech is the absolute foundation of democracy and freedom.
What bullshit. If rabid fundamentalists aren't the American majority, then how have rabid fundamentalists managed to control all three branches of the US government for so long? Are you really suggesting the non-christians and liberal christians are so enormously stupid that they would elect representatives that see them as evil heathens? Wait, no, I agree with you. Hypotheses based on the idea that people are stupid are almost always correct...
Is there anything more sad than seeing someone disparaging the idea of being liberal? As if there was something wrong with liking freedom? I mean, I guess it's fine if you really hate freedom that much, that's your perogative. But think about it -- would you really prefer to live in a society with no liberalism? No freedom of any kind? No one trying to preserve your freedoms? Maybe you should try living in Iran for a while -- I guaranee it will give you an ardent passion for the ideals of freedom. Liberalism is a Good thing.
Right, so that's why the "reasonable" people just elect the fundies into the government instead. Nice. Remember when Bush claimed that he spoke God's will? Yeah, that's a fundie. The fact is, fundamentalists just breed more fundamentalists. They need to be incarcerated -- they're a danger to themselves and others. After all, what could be more dangerous than stupidity? Only an infectious form of stupidity.
Just to be clear, the number of chromosomes that an organism has is quite variable. Lots of people have extra chromosomes or missing chromosomes. Some of these abberations don't even have noticeable side effects.
There is even a genetic abnormality that is being tested these days that gives people an extra pair of empty chromosomes -- they have no actual genes in them (although they're probably only a few mutations away from having genes from another chromosome transferred onto them, or having some viral DNA permanently written into them). My uncle and one of his children have it, so it even appears to run in my own family. So it's pretty easy for the number of chromosomes to change from species to species.
I was just reading about how Darwin himself first postulated the idea of kin-selection -- which is an extraordinarily sublte bit of evolutarionary theory. Quite remarkable, when many people even now, despite knowing quite a bit about evolution, can't grasp the concept.
What a lame criticism. I use CE/BCE because that's how I was taught throughout high school and university. You should try to deal with the fact that terminology changes. Or do you still refer to the sky as "the heavens", refer to the number 20 as "a score", and your car as an "automobile"? Do you use Roman Numerals? For that matter, AD itself is a relatively new term; people used to refer to "the 2006th year of our lord". Why not just revert to that, while you marvel at the miracle of fire and ponder the concept of using round wooden structures to accelerate travel. Seriously, grow up and try to live in the real world.
An ice age is caused by a very small but persistent change in climate. Drastic climate change (which YOU brought up) is caused by the normal cycling of the seasons. That kind of rapid, winter-is-upon-us-oh-no change is what freezes critters solid, not the hundreds years of years necessary for an ice age to start.
Have you ever tried powerful graphical editors like gedit or kate? They're great for working on small amounts of code, and are quite configurable. Of course, if you're already a wizard with vim or emacs, there's no reason to switch. But they do offer a lot.
Don't forget the enormous amount of money he donates to the WHO, not to mention paying for immunizations for hundreds of thousands of American kids. The Gates have become world-class philanthropists, and yet they get almost no credit for it. Humility in charity is an impressive thing.
Americans ARE like sheep. They are totally willing to give up essential liberties to gain some imaginary security. The fact that you bothered to bring up Clinton demonstrates that you are just a close-minded partisan. Of course Clinton was just as bad -- democrats and republicans have become indistinguishable. They both do exactly the same fascist crap.
Just look at the last election -- numerous incidents of registration interference by both parties. You know, there are countries where this shit doesn't happen. Where gerrymandering and election fraud don't take place. Where the government doesn't spy on its citizens without warrants, or run concentration camps in foreign countries. Where the public doesn't calmly accept a war based on what were proven to be lies. Where people aren't subjected to theocratic "abstinence education". Where school boards are all trying to have the theory of evolution removed from classrooms and replaced with "creation science".
Yes, Americans are sheep. And you sir are a prime example.
Wow, way to take one of the two things that's set console games ahead of PC games in the past, and ruin it. I bet Dead or Alive 5 will require two hours to get configured properly and have a big long installation process.
Science can't explain something? It must mean that volcanoes are formed by intelligent eruption! From now on, geology textbooks will need stickers claiming that Plate Tectonics is just a theory, and that there are other theories that explain vulcanism -- like Loki raging against his chains, or something.
Don't American troops have notoriously little success getting along with indigenous populations? That's barring a few special circumstances, like cities that have just been liberated from Nazis and stuff like that.
I'm pretty sure that Canadian soldiers get some training on how to get along with locals, which has definitely aided the success of Canadian peace-keeping missions under the NATO umbrella. Do American soldiers get this? Given the amount of "liberating" they do, it seems like something they would really benefit from. If teaching the marines to be polite prevents even one annoyed jerk from turning insurgent, it would be worth it.
Well said. There are definitely atheists who elevate their atheism to the status of religion -- ever seen those people who go around trying to get into religious debates, and haranguing everyone they can? But in general, no. Atheists lack any of the characteristics associated with religious faith. Which is why I fucking hate secular humanist clubs... it's atheism, with all the annoying bullshit of a religion. What the hell!
You're a little backawards. It's not about a negative attitude in CS towards women, it's about a negative attitude in women towards CS.
Just look at how many people have mentioned fat greasy computer nerds in this thread. Women aren't down with that. They prefer fields without any associations with being fat and/or greasy.
Of course -- major extinctions are SUPPOSED to take place in the span of 50 years.
People die of heart-attacks all the time too. But it's different when it's YOUR fault. If you cause something, you are morally responsible for it. Oh right... the thousands of papers supporting global warming (and the one or two contradicting it, written by ECONOMISTS) are just a liberal conspiracy, I forgot.
I don't know about your crappy country, but here in Canada, our history books actually include bad stuff. We all learn about Louis Riel, the Korean War, the Holocaust and our role in successfully ignoring it, the FLQ crisis and how retardedly people reacted to it, etc.
Most western nations are honest about their histories. America is the principal offender about rewriting history, at least among the nations that don't AGGRESSIVELY censor their media and literature.
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Incidentally, have you seen Theo Van Gogh's "Submission"? I've got a copy of it, just waiting for me to get some friends together for viewing-party. I think everyone needs to see it on principal, to defy those who wanted to silence it's release.
Suffice to say, a good liberal should defend free speech at every opportunity.
Private initiatives like this are cool and all (and have proven very effective in the past), but it would be nice to see our governments taking a much stronger stand regarding free-speech. Free speech is the absolute foundation of democracy and freedom.
Maybe you need to look up the word "liberal" and "conservative" in a dictionary some time...
What bullshit. If rabid fundamentalists aren't the American majority, then how have rabid fundamentalists managed to control all three branches of the US government for so long? Are you really suggesting the non-christians and liberal christians are so enormously stupid that they would elect representatives that see them as evil heathens? Wait, no, I agree with you. Hypotheses based on the idea that people are stupid are almost always correct...
Is there anything more sad than seeing someone disparaging the idea of being liberal? As if there was something wrong with liking freedom? I mean, I guess it's fine if you really hate freedom that much, that's your perogative. But think about it -- would you really prefer to live in a society with no liberalism? No freedom of any kind? No one trying to preserve your freedoms? Maybe you should try living in Iran for a while -- I guaranee it will give you an ardent passion for the ideals of freedom. Liberalism is a Good thing.
Right, so that's why the "reasonable" people just elect the fundies into the government instead. Nice. Remember when Bush claimed that he spoke God's will? Yeah, that's a fundie. The fact is, fundamentalists just breed more fundamentalists. They need to be incarcerated -- they're a danger to themselves and others. After all, what could be more dangerous than stupidity? Only an infectious form of stupidity.
There is even a genetic abnormality that is being tested these days that gives people an extra pair of empty chromosomes -- they have no actual genes in them (although they're probably only a few mutations away from having genes from another chromosome transferred onto them, or having some viral DNA permanently written into them). My uncle and one of his children have it, so it even appears to run in my own family. So it's pretty easy for the number of chromosomes to change from species to species.
I was just reading about how Darwin himself first postulated the idea of kin-selection -- which is an extraordinarily sublte bit of evolutarionary theory. Quite remarkable, when many people even now, despite knowing quite a bit about evolution, can't grasp the concept.
What a lame criticism. I use CE/BCE because that's how I was taught throughout high school and university. You should try to deal with the fact that terminology changes. Or do you still refer to the sky as "the heavens", refer to the number 20 as "a score", and your car as an "automobile"? Do you use Roman Numerals? For that matter, AD itself is a relatively new term; people used to refer to "the 2006th year of our lord". Why not just revert to that, while you marvel at the miracle of fire and ponder the concept of using round wooden structures to accelerate travel. Seriously, grow up and try to live in the real world.
An ice age is caused by a very small but persistent change in climate. Drastic climate change (which YOU brought up) is caused by the normal cycling of the seasons. That kind of rapid, winter-is-upon-us-oh-no change is what freezes critters solid, not the hundreds years of years necessary for an ice age to start.
Try again, neocon hack.
Another neocon half-wit ignores scientific facts in favour of seeing only what he wants to.
Have you ever tried powerful graphical editors like gedit or kate? They're great for working on small amounts of code, and are quite configurable. Of course, if you're already a wizard with vim or emacs, there's no reason to switch. But they do offer a lot.
Don't forget the enormous amount of money he donates to the WHO, not to mention paying for immunizations for hundreds of thousands of American kids. The Gates have become world-class philanthropists, and yet they get almost no credit for it. Humility in charity is an impressive thing.
Just look at the last election -- numerous incidents of registration interference by both parties. You know, there are countries where this shit doesn't happen. Where gerrymandering and election fraud don't take place. Where the government doesn't spy on its citizens without warrants, or run concentration camps in foreign countries. Where the public doesn't calmly accept a war based on what were proven to be lies. Where people aren't subjected to theocratic "abstinence education". Where school boards are all trying to have the theory of evolution removed from classrooms and replaced with "creation science".
Yes, Americans are sheep. And you sir are a prime example.
Wow, way to take one of the two things that's set console games ahead of PC games in the past, and ruin it. I bet Dead or Alive 5 will require two hours to get configured properly and have a big long installation process.
Damn you and your reasonable explanation! This is slashdot, not some reasonable forum for insightful discussion.
Science can't explain something? It must mean that volcanoes are formed by intelligent eruption! From now on, geology textbooks will need stickers claiming that Plate Tectonics is just a theory, and that there are other theories that explain vulcanism -- like Loki raging against his chains, or something.
I'm pretty sure that Canadian soldiers get some training on how to get along with locals, which has definitely aided the success of Canadian peace-keeping missions under the NATO umbrella. Do American soldiers get this? Given the amount of "liberating" they do, it seems like something they would really benefit from. If teaching the marines to be polite prevents even one annoyed jerk from turning insurgent, it would be worth it.
Aren't flak jackets, by definition, just supposed to stop shrapnel? That seems a far cry from stopping bullets...
Well said. There are definitely atheists who elevate their atheism to the status of religion -- ever seen those people who go around trying to get into religious debates, and haranguing everyone they can? But in general, no. Atheists lack any of the characteristics associated with religious faith. Which is why I fucking hate secular humanist clubs... it's atheism, with all the annoying bullshit of a religion. What the hell!
Just look at how many people have mentioned fat greasy computer nerds in this thread. Women aren't down with that. They prefer fields without any associations with being fat and/or greasy.
Of course -- major extinctions are SUPPOSED to take place in the span of 50 years. People die of heart-attacks all the time too. But it's different when it's YOUR fault. If you cause something, you are morally responsible for it. Oh right... the thousands of papers supporting global warming (and the one or two contradicting it, written by ECONOMISTS) are just a liberal conspiracy, I forgot.
Nice save. No one will ever notice that you're trying to participate in a discussion about which you deliberately know nothing.
I don't know about your crappy country, but here in Canada, our history books actually include bad stuff. We all learn about Louis Riel, the Korean War, the Holocaust and our role in successfully ignoring it, the FLQ crisis and how retardedly people reacted to it, etc. Most western nations are honest about their histories. America is the principal offender about rewriting history, at least among the nations that don't AGGRESSIVELY censor their media and literature.