Sounds more like a social opinion than a political opinion. Unless he wants someone to pass some laws halting this, it's just social commentary, nothing more.
The fear could override your proposed rational response. Remember: it's not what you do, it's what the owners of the nukes fear you will do. And if the US is toppling that much, it's all over, for the rest of the world as well as us.
Militant atheists tend to make one or both of two claims that moderate atheists do not. The first is that religion is demonstrably false or nonsense
Just that little bit makes me militant?!?!?! How is this not an obscene misuse of the English language? Next you'll be telling me that not liking tomatoes makes me a militant carnivore!
It depends on the church in question, really. Some faiths go so overboard with their religious services that is, at best, terrifying to attend, and at worst, traumatic. Some people are just psychotic. I will never attend another evangelist service ever, ever again, whereas your standard Protestant or Catholic service is perfectly acceptable to me.
Aside: As an Atheist, never date an Evangelical Christian. I've only had a moderately decent experience with one, while the others, despite their initial claims that they had "no desire to change me" ended up saying, at one point or another, well into the relationship, that "deep down, I thought I could bring God and Salvation into your life". It's never pretty, and I gotta tell you, it's harder to emotionally detach from someone who is still amazing in every other aspect but for some petty ridiculous belief that you couldn't really give a shit about other than the fact that they refuse to stop attempting to take you to prayer groups and bible studies or trying to pray with you. Psychos.
Hrm.... Mad Max world for just the people in the US, or Mad Max world for everyone. In the former, in no time at all we could be conquered because we no longer would have the means to defend ourselves, in the latter, we're all on the same footing.
I don't actually advocate this, but I almost guarantee this would be the thought process at the top, and when food riots were breaking out and China or the EU were attempting to exert its new found influence as it fills the void left by the increasingly weak US Government, you can see how it could quickly degenerate into nuclear fireballs, fallout, and No More Fun At All for the lot of us.:(
Slowest around here is 320kbps. Midrange is 3.0mbps/320kbps. Max is 5.0mbps/768kbps. Max is about 70$ a month. Midrange: 40$. Slowest: 30$.
Maybe in urban or suburban areas you're right, but most of the country (area) isn't urban or suburban. Population wise, you'd probably have a majority in those areas, but my guess is you'd still have a sizeable percent who aren't in those areas and don't have those options. DSL is pretty much the same around here, with lowest being 768kbps and highest being 5.0mbps max, but they don't reach that for anywhere except maybe the house directly next door to the switching station. Wi-Max isn't available, and as the area is beset by mountains and valleys, I'm not sure how well it would work to put in any towers. Not having any cell phone service depending on which hill you're on or dell you're in doesn't help.
I wouldn't find it to be much of a stretch that 1.5mbps is the average. Not everyone thinks they need the super fast speeds. Some just check email or sit on IM. I know so many families with the 320kbps/320kbps connection and it truly boggles my mind. But not everyone is willing to spend 70$ on internet on top of the rest of the TV costs and phone costs.
So, that turned out to be exceedingly tangential. My bad.
Well, since Cops are nothing more than civilians, we may as well take this one step further. Anyone annoying anyone deserves anything that they get.
After all, being a dickhead SHOULD get you a few shots to the face. Especially if you're a dickhead cop. (note: not all cops are dickheads. it's just the ones that are are generally 1000 times worse than your average non police-officer-dickhead)
Which is exactly why you should never be given a badge and asked to uphold the law.
If you can't follow it yourself, you have no business in that job.
I don't give a shit if you don't like it. Those are the rules of the game. I don't like that I have to wear a tie to work, but guess what? Those were the rules when I went into it. I can't take my tie off, say "well, I'm only human...", and expect to maintain my job.
Frankly, I'm not willing to spend the mad amount it'll cost for Super Ultimate Snazzy Pro Motor Scooter Edition just to find out resetting my bios "costs" me 4 of my 10 keys.
I realize that's a crazy exaggeration, but all the same - with that much money, I'm just not willing to chance it. Maybe after a few years and a reliable source I trust with more money and less fear than I can assure me everything is hunky dorey I'll give it a whirl. Until then, XP. Or maybe give Cedega a whirl. Or maybe play more (real) hockey. We'll see.
About 3.5 hours on Sundays from the beginning of September through the first or second weekend in January. Then another 3 hours every 3 nights or so from the beginning of October until, possibly, June.
Not everybody. I had back surgery 2 months ago and, the very day I started working out again, broke my hand on some drunk's face when he tried forcing his way in my apartment.
Still, it was a bad run of luck for me. I got pneumonia in march, which left me screwed up until May, then ruptured another disc on the first Saturday in May, playing street hockey, didn't have surgery until July 28th, then managed to fall and hurt my back again right after the surgery, extending the recovery time, and THEN happen to break my hand in a freak occurrence last thursday night. The last year has not been kind to my body, in any way;x
I swear to God, it never fails: when I have mod points, I can't find a single article or comment worth spending them on, and when I don't, I find gems like this. Most irritating. +10 Awesome.
Uhm... okay. So if I start compiling and publishing a list of all criminals *and* accused defendants for use by employers in weeding out potential problems, then I'm not guilty of libel? After all, I'm just posting a list. And if a few people who aren't guilty get included, well, it's not *my* fault most businesses used my list in their hiring practices. After all, I'm just publishing a list.
Depends on if they were getting their job done or not. If they were on time or ahead of time with everything, and still had free time, it's up to *me* to task them with more work. If I don't, they can fuck off all they want. That's *my* fault for not doing my job.
Of course, if they were late as hell, did below average work, and still spent an hour each day perusing eBay, they're going to be out on their ass real fucking quick.
Oh yeah. Imagine how many people would be against the war if we raged through Iraq like the Mongols, literally raping, pillaging, burning, and killing as we went. Even if the Iraq war did begin, do you think our people would be behind it after motion video after motion video showed in great detail thousands and thousands of instances of true atrocity?
(I know, bad things have happened in this war, but compared to how bad it *could* have been, it's a positively sunny walk in the park. Which is a pretty horrible indictment of mankind in the abstract, but all the same...)
1. the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.
2. a method of inflicting such pain.
3. Often, tortures. the pain or suffering caused or undergone.
4. extreme anguish of body or mind; agony.
5. a cause of severe pain or anguish.
Sounds pretty cut and dry to me. If it causes someone excrutiating pain, agony, or anguish, then... yeah. Kinda pretty much has to be torture. Some people would absolutely go hysterical if you put them in a room with rats. Others wouldn't blink. Obviously, what is torture to one person isn't to another. Tearing up a Koran (or a Bible) would be met with cheers and huzzuhs if you did it front of me, whereas if you did it in front of a devoted Muslim or Christian, they would probably feel some pretty intense emotional anguish.
The whole point of Article 3 is to say "don't partake in torture". It doens't spell out what is or is not a torturous act because such a list could not be fully comprehensive and mankind excels at finding new ways of bringing pain to others. Rather than even attempt such a list, that would have to be updated on a daily basis if it were to be properly effective, they just go ahead with "don't torture humans; treat them with the inate dignity as humans that they deserve." Regardless of their actions.
I was thinking more along the lines of 8 9mm bullets cascading into your chest in a very short period of time at *least* knocking you flat on your as. Having shot a 9mm, I agree it's not the most powerful round on the planet, but it *will* drop you. It may not knock you completely out of the fight, but you're not going to stand on your feet after taking that many bullets to the chest.
Re:I can see plenty of prior art on this one....
on
The Culture of Evasion
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The fact that many people break their vows (their word) does not make someone who does so any more honourable or trustworthy.
I absolutely agree. My point was that, if the divorce rate is over 50%, we can probably safely assume that at least 25% of the population who did engage in marriage vows broke them (assuming here that *only* one party desired the divorce). I have no idea what percentage of people have gotten married at one point or another, but just a rough estimate says "quite a lot". I would say more than the majority of adults do at some point in their lives. I realize this isn't quantitative evidence, but it's Sunday and I just woke up, so you'll have to live with it;)
I don't really have any good numbers that back up the reasons for the marriage disolving. All I have are a few logical suppositions and a gut feeling. Regardless, we have at least 25% of all people who become married at some point getting divorced at some later point So at least 25% of (percent-of-population-who-gets-married) can't be trusted at their word. In other words, the 50% of marriages that end in divorce, we have a bottom limit of 25% who have forsaken their marriage vows. How many of their spouses also broke their marriage vows in some way as well? Somewhere between "all" and "none", with me leaning towards "a healthy amount", which isn't an actual number, but let's not focus on all the people who didn't love or cherish their spouse, or cheated on them, etc, etc, that caused the other to divorce them. I would say at least another 15% are guilty of this part.
I'm not even going to delve into all the other ways in which people break promises. Promises to ourselves, to our God(s), to our family or loved ones, to our landlord, etc, etc. Not quite the same as a marriage vow or an oath of office, but still indicitive of how much our word means to us, collectively, as a society.
My argument is not that Clinton did or did not participate in a particularly dreadful act (choice of wench aside), or that it doesn't matter because it's his private life. My argument is that our society is full-up with people who can't keep their word on even the smallest of things, yet they are in positions of power - civil servants, CEOs, teachers, firemen, policemen, etc, etc. Yet we still trust them to do the oaths related to their job. Whether Policeman Bob bangs 16 women in one year, while he's married, is moot. We still expect him to do his duty when he's in uniform. A CEO can cheat on his wife all he'd like, as long as, while he's at work, he continues furthering the interests of the stockholders. I think it's rather unfair that Clinton was effectively turned into a Pariah when so many others in our society, who are in positions of power and trust, go completely unmolested for the exact same reasons. If Republicans continued their War on Immorality after the Clinton impeachement proceedings, on all those other people who participate in immoral acts (congressmen who break the law, for example), I wouldn't take issue with anything Clinton was put through. Well, no, I would have said "surely you understand there's a difference between getting a blowjob and being suspected of accepting 90,000$ in bribery charges. The latter is clearly Abuse of Public Trust 1, whereas the former is, at worst, Abuse of Public Trust 16." But that's a minor disagreement, not cynical dismay at the hypocrisy of our countrymen - from congressmen down to every last citizen who got seriously outraged at such transgressions, all the wall ignoring their own failings that violated public trust.
I understand the desire to hold the President of the United States to a higher standard, but as far as I'm concerned, that should apply to all of those in power - both in the public sphere and the private. I'm not even talking legally - I'm talking solely social outrage.
Piffle. I would hazard a guess to say that a fair share of the populace forsakes their marriage vows at one point or another. Just look at the divorce rate, for one. That doesnt even take into consideration all the marriages with affairs and extramarital dalliances that continue along for some wack-ass reason or another.
At best, the attempts to demonize Clinton on his absolutely horrific choice of -ho- merely brought out societys clearly hypocritical double standard concerning such events. Otherwise alot more people would end up with their balls nailed to the wall, so to speak - people you put your trust in. People in positions of power. Etc, etc.
Naw, this was just a pitiful example of our "holier-than-thou" ways while we completely gloss over our own dirty little secrets.
(As an aside, I fully support executing anyone who does have an affair. But thats mostly because I think the world could use a drastic reduction in population, not for moral reasons.)
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Sounds more like a social opinion than a political opinion. Unless he wants someone to pass some laws halting this, it's just social commentary, nothing more.
The fear could override your proposed rational response. Remember: it's not what you do, it's what the owners of the nukes fear you will do. And if the US is toppling that much, it's all over, for the rest of the world as well as us.
It depends on the church in question, really. Some faiths go so overboard with their religious services that is, at best, terrifying to attend, and at worst, traumatic. Some people are just psychotic. I will never attend another evangelist service ever, ever again, whereas your standard Protestant or Catholic service is perfectly acceptable to me.
Aside: As an Atheist, never date an Evangelical Christian. I've only had a moderately decent experience with one, while the others, despite their initial claims that they had "no desire to change me" ended up saying, at one point or another, well into the relationship, that "deep down, I thought I could bring God and Salvation into your life". It's never pretty, and I gotta tell you, it's harder to emotionally detach from someone who is still amazing in every other aspect but for some petty ridiculous belief that you couldn't really give a shit about other than the fact that they refuse to stop attempting to take you to prayer groups and bible studies or trying to pray with you. Psychos.
Hrm.... Mad Max world for just the people in the US, or Mad Max world for everyone. In the former, in no time at all we could be conquered because we no longer would have the means to defend ourselves, in the latter, we're all on the same footing.
:(
I don't actually advocate this, but I almost guarantee this would be the thought process at the top, and when food riots were breaking out and China or the EU were attempting to exert its new found influence as it fills the void left by the increasingly weak US Government, you can see how it could quickly degenerate into nuclear fireballs, fallout, and No More Fun At All for the lot of us.
Slowest around here is 320kbps. Midrange is 3.0mbps/320kbps. Max is 5.0mbps/768kbps. Max is about 70$ a month. Midrange: 40$. Slowest: 30$.
Maybe in urban or suburban areas you're right, but most of the country (area) isn't urban or suburban. Population wise, you'd probably have a majority in those areas, but my guess is you'd still have a sizeable percent who aren't in those areas and don't have those options. DSL is pretty much the same around here, with lowest being 768kbps and highest being 5.0mbps max, but they don't reach that for anywhere except maybe the house directly next door to the switching station. Wi-Max isn't available, and as the area is beset by mountains and valleys, I'm not sure how well it would work to put in any towers. Not having any cell phone service depending on which hill you're on or dell you're in doesn't help.
I wouldn't find it to be much of a stretch that 1.5mbps is the average. Not everyone thinks they need the super fast speeds. Some just check email or sit on IM. I know so many families with the 320kbps/320kbps connection and it truly boggles my mind. But not everyone is willing to spend 70$ on internet on top of the rest of the TV costs and phone costs.
So, that turned out to be exceedingly tangential. My bad.
Well, since Cops are nothing more than civilians, we may as well take this one step further. Anyone annoying anyone deserves anything that they get.
After all, being a dickhead SHOULD get you a few shots to the face. Especially if you're a dickhead cop. (note: not all cops are dickheads. it's just the ones that are are generally 1000 times worse than your average non police-officer-dickhead)
What the hell? How the hell else are you supposed to tell someone you're suffocating - wait until you black out or asphyxiate?
I just have one question. Are you a retard or a moron? Because I honestly can't tell at this point.
Which is exactly why you should never be given a badge and asked to uphold the law.
If you can't follow it yourself, you have no business in that job.
I don't give a shit if you don't like it. Those are the rules of the game. I don't like that I have to wear a tie to work, but guess what? Those were the rules when I went into it. I can't take my tie off, say "well, I'm only human...", and expect to maintain my job.
Frankly, I'm not willing to spend the mad amount it'll cost for Super Ultimate Snazzy Pro Motor Scooter Edition just to find out resetting my bios "costs" me 4 of my 10 keys.
I realize that's a crazy exaggeration, but all the same - with that much money, I'm just not willing to chance it. Maybe after a few years and a reliable source I trust with more money and less fear than I can assure me everything is hunky dorey I'll give it a whirl. Until then, XP. Or maybe give Cedega a whirl. Or maybe play more (real) hockey. We'll see.
So if I try to get there by jumping real hard, he'll cut my legs off?
Sweet. Nice guy.
About 3.5 hours on Sundays from the beginning of September through the first or second weekend in January. Then another 3 hours every 3 nights or so from the beginning of October until, possibly, June.
Football and Hockey. Woo!
Ummm... that's called Karma. If it's excellent, you always start at 2. Go to your user page and scope it out.
Not everybody. I had back surgery 2 months ago and, the very day I started working out again, broke my hand on some drunk's face when he tried forcing his way in my apartment.
;x
Still, it was a bad run of luck for me. I got pneumonia in march, which left me screwed up until May, then ruptured another disc on the first Saturday in May, playing street hockey, didn't have surgery until July 28th, then managed to fall and hurt my back again right after the surgery, extending the recovery time, and THEN happen to break my hand in a freak occurrence last thursday night. The last year has not been kind to my body, in any way
I swear to God, it never fails: when I have mod points, I can't find a single article or comment worth spending them on, and when I don't, I find gems like this. Most irritating. +10 Awesome.
Or opinion, correct? After all, if they said "it is my opinion she's a cum guzzling gutter slut", well, there's not alot she can do then, is there?
Uhm... okay. So if I start compiling and publishing a list of all criminals *and* accused defendants for use by employers in weeding out potential problems, then I'm not guilty of libel? After all, I'm just posting a list. And if a few people who aren't guilty get included, well, it's not *my* fault most businesses used my list in their hiring practices. After all, I'm just publishing a list.
Depends on if they were getting their job done or not. If they were on time or ahead of time with everything, and still had free time, it's up to *me* to task them with more work. If I don't, they can fuck off all they want. That's *my* fault for not doing my job.
Of course, if they were late as hell, did below average work, and still spent an hour each day perusing eBay, they're going to be out on their ass real fucking quick.
Naw, he was obviously put here to test our patience and restraint.
Oh yeah. Imagine how many people would be against the war if we raged through Iraq like the Mongols, literally raping, pillaging, burning, and killing as we went. Even if the Iraq war did begin, do you think our people would be behind it after motion video after motion video showed in great detail thousands and thousands of instances of true atrocity?
(I know, bad things have happened in this war, but compared to how bad it *could* have been, it's a positively sunny walk in the park. Which is a pretty horrible indictment of mankind in the abstract, but all the same...)
The whole point of Article 3 is to say "don't partake in torture". It doens't spell out what is or is not a torturous act because such a list could not be fully comprehensive and mankind excels at finding new ways of bringing pain to others. Rather than even attempt such a list, that would have to be updated on a daily basis if it were to be properly effective, they just go ahead with "don't torture humans; treat them with the inate dignity as humans that they deserve." Regardless of their actions.
Are you kidding? I'm surprised my video card didn't come with an onboard nuclear reactor to power it. Re-goddam-diculousness.
I was thinking more along the lines of 8 9mm bullets cascading into your chest in a very short period of time at *least* knocking you flat on your as. Having shot a 9mm, I agree it's not the most powerful round on the planet, but it *will* drop you. It may not knock you completely out of the fight, but you're not going to stand on your feet after taking that many bullets to the chest.
I don't really have any good numbers that back up the reasons for the marriage disolving. All I have are a few logical suppositions and a gut feeling. Regardless, we have at least 25% of all people who become married at some point getting divorced at some later point So at least 25% of (percent-of-population-who-gets-married) can't be trusted at their word. In other words, the 50% of marriages that end in divorce, we have a bottom limit of 25% who have forsaken their marriage vows. How many of their spouses also broke their marriage vows in some way as well? Somewhere between "all" and "none", with me leaning towards "a healthy amount", which isn't an actual number, but let's not focus on all the people who didn't love or cherish their spouse, or cheated on them, etc, etc, that caused the other to divorce them. I would say at least another 15% are guilty of this part.
I'm not even going to delve into all the other ways in which people break promises. Promises to ourselves, to our God(s), to our family or loved ones, to our landlord, etc, etc. Not quite the same as a marriage vow or an oath of office, but still indicitive of how much our word means to us, collectively, as a society.
My argument is not that Clinton did or did not participate in a particularly dreadful act (choice of wench aside), or that it doesn't matter because it's his private life. My argument is that our society is full-up with people who can't keep their word on even the smallest of things, yet they are in positions of power - civil servants, CEOs, teachers, firemen, policemen, etc, etc. Yet we still trust them to do the oaths related to their job. Whether Policeman Bob bangs 16 women in one year, while he's married, is moot. We still expect him to do his duty when he's in uniform. A CEO can cheat on his wife all he'd like, as long as, while he's at work, he continues furthering the interests of the stockholders. I think it's rather unfair that Clinton was effectively turned into a Pariah when so many others in our society, who are in positions of power and trust, go completely unmolested for the exact same reasons. If Republicans continued their War on Immorality after the Clinton impeachement proceedings, on all those other people who participate in immoral acts (congressmen who break the law, for example), I wouldn't take issue with anything Clinton was put through. Well, no, I would have said "surely you understand there's a difference between getting a blowjob and being suspected of accepting 90,000$ in bribery charges. The latter is clearly Abuse of Public Trust 1, whereas the former is, at worst, Abuse of Public Trust 16." But that's a minor disagreement, not cynical dismay at the hypocrisy of our countrymen - from congressmen down to every last citizen who got seriously outraged at such transgressions, all the wall ignoring their own failings that violated public trust.
I understand the desire to hold the President of the United States to a higher standard, but as far as I'm concerned, that should apply to all of those in power - both in the public sphere and the private. I'm not even talking legally - I'm talking solely social outrage.
Ah well. A man can dream.
Piffle. I would hazard a guess to say that a fair share of the populace forsakes their marriage vows at one point or another. Just look at the divorce rate, for one. That doesnt even take into consideration all the marriages with affairs and extramarital dalliances that continue along for some wack-ass reason or another.
At best, the attempts to demonize Clinton on his absolutely horrific choice of -ho- merely brought out societys clearly hypocritical double standard concerning such events. Otherwise alot more people would end up with their balls nailed to the wall, so to speak - people you put your trust in. People in positions of power. Etc, etc.
Naw, this was just a pitiful example of our "holier-than-thou" ways while we completely gloss over our own dirty little secrets.
(As an aside, I fully support executing anyone who does have an affair. But thats mostly because I think the world could use a drastic reduction in population, not for moral reasons.)