[ But, in countries like china, other places, your free speech DIRECTLY has an effect. everything hinges on opinions of people -> not the money people has to exercise their freedoms. You can reach anyone, and you can change minds, if you are let speak freely. ]
The US is better than china, anyone can be free to twitter and tweet and post on facebook etc..., in china you bad mouth the government and you have to go to a "reeducation through hard labor camp".
As for your Money=Free Speech in America argument, are you talking about Talk Radio and TV?
Do you think anyone should be able to have their own talk radio station who has an opinion? I don't see any private or public talk radio stations in china airing anti-chinese government opinion, do you? Do you think everyone has a "right" to use a government provided photocopier so you can publish anti government flyers everywhere? Who pays for the toner, the paper?
The internet is a new vast and wild frontier where people can post their opinions to be picked up my Millions of citizens, be it either youtube, twitter, facebook or your own website.
Even the poorest individual in the USA can go into a public library and post things that can potentially be read by millions if not billions of internet citizens.
[this is the recent data about situation in usa. 80% of population only get 15% of income. basically, 80% of 300 million, basically 240 million people, are not in a position to exercise their freedoms. had it been possible, there would be at least any kind of different political or social situation due to these people 'becoming rich' and practicing their freedoms. ]
How many people in the above have internet access or easy access to it?
Only 18% of households in the USA don't have internet, most of those are older people who don't care to have it in the first place. And last i heard you cannot be turned away from a public library for being "too poor".
What is the wealth distribution in China? China does have a growing Middle Class, but it is no where nearly as big percentage wise as the US.
The animals in the ocean will just have to adapt won't they, unless you believe that the earth was created 6,000 years ago and think evolution is the devil trying to trick you, nature will find a way to fill the niches opened up by having a slightly more acidic ocean. It is called natural selection and it works pretty well the animals that can survive more acidic oceans will thrive, the ones that don't well too bad...
You can't steal the GPS units, because they are just using the GPS units the priests have attached to their own ankles as part of their parole for being a sex offender.
This "article" is nothing but the church trying to put a positive spin on the problem of kiddy fiddling priests.
[ Why would you "respect" a practice that is sending innocent people to hell? ]
As an Atheist why would this even concern you as you don't even believe in Heaven or Hell, or do you? Why would you care if someone somewhere thinks you are going straight to hell unless deep down you were troubled they might have the slightest possibility of being right about you possible eternal salvation?
I am Agnostic and I am not bothered at all if my next door neighbor thinks I am going to the fiery pits of Satan's backyard. I could care less what they think of me. I am not a prick either who tries to tell them how wrong they are for believing in a higher power. Instead I try to live my life the best I can and lead by example. If they try to spout any religious nonsense at me I politely tell them I am not interested and don't get into an ass hole screaming match with them. If they object I tell them that in this country we have personal responsibility and if I go to hell then I am responsible for my own soul if they think it exists and if I end up in "hell" then it was my own conscious decision and right protected by the constitution.
Gary Johnston: I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in their Blackhawk helicopters. The infidels fired at the oil fields and they lit up like the eyes of Allah. Burning oil rained down from the sky and cooked everything it touched. I could only hide myself and cry as my goats were consumed by the fiery black liquid death. In the midst of the chaos, I could swear that I heard my goats screaming for help. As quickly as they had come, the infidels were gone. It was on that day I put a jihad on them. And if you don't believe it, then you'd better kill me now, because I'll put a jihad on you, too.
If the displays that are being vandalized are on church property then I have no problem with them using security cameras and prosecuting the people who vandalize/steal parts from them to the fullest extent of the law. Church property = private property.
Do I think churches should be taxed like any other business, YES.
Do i think nativity scenes don't belong on public property, YES.
Do I think people can put a nativity scene in their own front yard, YES.
Do I think churches can put a Nativity Scene on their own property, YES.
Do i think they should keep the phrase "Merry Christmas", YES, mostly because it drives the rabid atheists crazy, but mostly because the foolish Christians don't realize that "Christmas" itself is a stolen pagan holiday that used to be called "Winter Solstice" or "Saturnalia"
I am a Libertarian, and an Agnostic, but I am not a rabid Atheist, and I don't condone the vandalism done by the more rabid schmuck like atheists and the stuipid teenagers or adults looking for a cheap thrill.
Heaven is a terribly boring place, Hell is suffering, I would rather take another chance at life and Re-incarnate, of course it would be nice to retain ALL my memories of the past life so I could learn from experience and not make the same mistakes twice.
Japan has a driving test system that 95% of Americans would fail if they had to take it to renew their US drivers License.
It also costs in the hundreds of dollars to even GET a drivers license in Japan. Maybe if did the same there would be less accidents because the dumb idiots wouldn't be able to drive.
The thing that makes SUV's unsafe is the following equation involving cellphones.
Attractiveness of Driver = Odds they are currently blabbing on a cell phone
People who are butt ugly are usually not talking on cell phones because they have no friends to talk to. Next time you drive past a fresh wreck take a look at the people, odds are they are good looking. Odds are a cell phone was involved.
"Beauty is a Hazard to the Beholder"
Good looking people are a safety hazard, I propose a Government program to "hobble" the looks of good looking people to keep them friendless and to cut down how much they will be using their cell phone.
Why doesn't the state raise the speed limit if everyone is driving 75 on a road with the speed limit set to 55?
Oh, because they would lose their FEDERAL road funding!
The Federal Government has the state governments nuts in a vise over stupid shit like this.
So instead of a road that has a reasonable speed limit, the feds dictate the speed of the road and you end up with long lines of tailgating traffic making it even more unsafe (and a prime source of "revenue generation" for the cops ).
Now I hate the people who "play speed enforcement" on their own, but there have been times when I was in the far right lane on a three lane road going 10mph OVER the speed limit and assholes were passing me in the two lanes left to me like I was standing still. I have never gotten a speeding ticket, and always "Drive the exact speed limit" on residential streets.
But some of you jerks on this board who blatantly exceed the speed limit over 20mph or more ought to just shut the frack up about people "driving too slow" if they are going the speed limit or less than 10 over the speed limit. Hopefully your dumb punk arses will get slammed with a high speeding ticket and you can help the local cops buy a new coffee machine for their breakroom.
I am against seat belt laws. However, I do wear my seat belt and my car does have a air bag.
If someone wants to do the human race a favor and catapult themselves through the front windshield when they get in a wreck and die instead of consuming health care costs then I am all for it.
Let "Clevon" the redneck kill himself in the first wreck he gets instead of continuing to live on to pass his idiot genes. Let "stupidity take care of itself".
Oh great so they want to remove the "Darwin Gene Pool Cleanser" feature that cars have had for the last 110 years. That feature being the back bumper and poor visibility that removed children from the gene pool who are too dumb to live. There children are always playing and hanging out behind running automobiles in driveways.
People complain about our world becoming more like the movie Idiocracy, well crap like this only adds to the number of dumb people we allow to live on in this world in the name of "Protecting the Children" and "Safety". If we keep removing the inherent Darwinist mechanisms in daily life even the most dimwitted fool will be allowed to pass their genes on tot he next generation and the gene pool will start to grow over with the gross algae called stupid people.
I for one think that letting people do stupid things and making them face the deadly consequences at the same time is a very good idea.
Children like to play int he street like idiots in my neighborhood, I drive by at 10 mph when I see them because I don't want to hit them, however the teenage pizza delivery driver I see sometime blasts through my neighbor hood at speeds in excess of 40mph.
I guess when little Suzie or little Malcolm get squashed like a bug on the Pizza Palace delivery car bumper their parents were to blame for not teaching the little "darlings" not to play in traffic. Well those genes won't be passed on unless they had brother or sister who hopefully will learn better the hard way.
Not to mention all the jay walking idiots I see everyday, the idiots only have themselves to blame when they get ran over. Simple physics tells us that a 2,000+ pound car moving at many many times walking speed is going to win the war of inertia when slamming into a 100-200 pound human being.
Yep, it is not like you can drive 55mph while backing up....
But congress sure can.
Expect the usual lobbyists to be writing this bill for our dimwitted congress just like the last several thousand page long bills that have passed through there.
Slashdot Mirror
[ But, in countries like china, other places, your free speech DIRECTLY has an effect. everything hinges on opinions of people -> not the money people has to exercise their freedoms. You can reach anyone, and you can change minds, if you are let speak freely. ]
Good luck voicing your opinion in China....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704444304575628410670226430.html
The US is better than china, anyone can be free to twitter and tweet and post on facebook etc..., in china you bad mouth the government and you have to go to a "reeducation through hard labor camp".
http://worldjournalism.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/1-tweet-1-year-of-jail-time-in-china/
Here are two sites where people can bad mouth the government in the USA, not shut down yet...nor should they ever be.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
http://www.freerepublic.com/
As for your Money=Free Speech in America argument, are you talking about Talk Radio and TV?
Do you think anyone should be able to have their own talk radio station who has an opinion? I don't see any private or public talk radio stations in china airing anti-chinese government opinion, do you? Do you think everyone has a "right" to use a government provided photocopier so you can publish anti government flyers everywhere? Who pays for the toner, the paper?
The internet is a new vast and wild frontier where people can post their opinions to be picked up my Millions of citizens, be it either youtube, twitter, facebook or your own website.
Even the poorest individual in the USA can go into a public library and post things that can potentially be read by millions if not billions of internet citizens.
[this is the recent data about situation in usa. 80% of population only get 15% of income. basically, 80% of 300 million, basically 240 million people, are not in a position to exercise their freedoms. had it been possible, there would be at least any kind of different political or social situation due to these people 'becoming rich' and practicing their freedoms. ]
How many people in the above have internet access or easy access to it?
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/05/14/18-of-us-households-have-no-internet-access
Only 18% of households in the USA don't have internet, most of those are older people who don't care to have it in the first place. And last i heard you cannot be turned away from a public library for being "too poor".
What is the wealth distribution in China? China does have a growing Middle Class, but it is no where nearly as big percentage wise as the US.
But I though Hugo Chavez was a "man of the people" and a friend to the "average Jose" in his country.....
I thought it was a "Democratic Revolution" that happened in Venezuela when Chavez took over.
Don't you know that if you see something, you should say something....
Great, not they have one of the tools they will eventually use to take over our solar system....
Didn't they also find more stars in galaxies recently, even lowing their dependence on "dark matter".
The animals in the ocean will just have to adapt won't they, unless you believe that the earth was created 6,000 years ago and think evolution is the devil trying to trick you, nature will find a way to fill the niches opened up by having a slightly more acidic ocean. It is called natural selection and it works pretty well the animals that can survive more acidic oceans will thrive, the ones that don't well too bad...
But only after all the original actors bite the dust....
.Hack//Sign
Someday I will be able to buy it....
Lack of respect for personal property rights fueled by an out of control class envy fed by popular media?
You can't steal the GPS units, because they are just using the GPS units the priests have attached to their own ankles as part of their parole for being a sex offender.
This "article" is nothing but the church trying to put a positive spin on the problem of kiddy fiddling priests.
I recommend not screwing with other people's private property despite how much you may loathe it.
[ Why would you "respect" a practice that is sending innocent people to hell? ]
As an Atheist why would this even concern you as you don't even believe in Heaven or Hell, or do you? Why would you care if someone somewhere thinks you are going straight to hell unless deep down you were troubled they might have the slightest possibility of being right about you possible eternal salvation?
I am Agnostic and I am not bothered at all if my next door neighbor thinks I am going to the fiery pits of Satan's backyard. I could care less what they think of me. I am not a prick either who tries to tell them how wrong they are for believing in a higher power. Instead I try to live my life the best I can and lead by example. If they try to spout any religious nonsense at me I politely tell them I am not interested and don't get into an ass hole screaming match with them. If they object I tell them that in this country we have personal responsibility and if I go to hell then I am responsible for my own soul if they think it exists and if I end up in "hell" then it was my own conscious decision and right protected by the constitution.
Gary Johnston: I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in their Blackhawk helicopters. The infidels fired at the oil fields and they lit up like the eyes of Allah. Burning oil rained down from the sky and cooked everything it touched. I could only hide myself and cry as my goats were consumed by the fiery black liquid death. In the midst of the chaos, I could swear that I heard my goats screaming for help. As quickly as they had come, the infidels were gone. It was on that day I put a jihad on them. And if you don't believe it, then you'd better kill me now, because I'll put a jihad on you, too.
If the displays that are being vandalized are on church property then I have no problem with them using security cameras and prosecuting the people who vandalize/steal parts from them to the fullest extent of the law. Church property = private property.
Do I think churches should be taxed like any other business, YES.
Do i think nativity scenes don't belong on public property, YES.
Do I think people can put a nativity scene in their own front yard, YES.
Do I think churches can put a Nativity Scene on their own property, YES.
Do i think they should keep the phrase "Merry Christmas", YES, mostly because it drives the rabid atheists crazy, but mostly because the foolish Christians don't realize that "Christmas" itself is a stolen pagan holiday that used to be called "Winter Solstice" or "Saturnalia"
I am a Libertarian, and an Agnostic, but I am not a rabid Atheist, and I don't condone the vandalism done by the more rabid schmuck like atheists and the stuipid teenagers or adults looking for a cheap thrill.
Heaven is a terribly boring place, Hell is suffering, I would rather take another chance at life and Re-incarnate, of course it would be nice to retain ALL my memories of the past life so I could learn from experience and not make the same mistakes twice.
I'll bet some people don't know about the concept of "Back-up lights" that are already mandatory on vehicles.
Japan has a driving test system that 95% of Americans would fail if they had to take it to renew their US drivers License.
It also costs in the hundreds of dollars to even GET a drivers license in Japan. Maybe if did the same there would be less accidents because the dumb idiots wouldn't be able to drive.
The thing that makes SUV's unsafe is the following equation involving cellphones.
Attractiveness of Driver = Odds they are currently blabbing on a cell phone
People who are butt ugly are usually not talking on cell phones because they have no friends to talk to. Next time you drive past a fresh wreck take a look at the people, odds are they are good looking. Odds are a cell phone was involved.
"Beauty is a Hazard to the Beholder"
Good looking people are a safety hazard, I propose a Government program to "hobble" the looks of good looking people to keep them friendless and to cut down how much they will be using their cell phone.
Why doesn't the state raise the speed limit if everyone is driving 75 on a road with the speed limit set to 55?
Oh, because they would lose their FEDERAL road funding!
The Federal Government has the state governments nuts in a vise over stupid shit like this.
So instead of a road that has a reasonable speed limit, the feds dictate the speed of the road and you end up with long lines of tailgating traffic making it even more unsafe (and a prime source of "revenue generation" for the cops ).
Now I hate the people who "play speed enforcement" on their own, but there have been times when I was in the far right lane on a three lane road going 10mph OVER the speed limit and assholes were passing me in the two lanes left to me like I was standing still. I have never gotten a speeding ticket, and always "Drive the exact speed limit" on residential streets.
But some of you jerks on this board who blatantly exceed the speed limit over 20mph or more ought to just shut the frack up about people "driving too slow" if they are going the speed limit or less than 10 over the speed limit. Hopefully your dumb punk arses will get slammed with a high speeding ticket and you can help the local cops buy a new coffee machine for their breakroom.
I am against seat belt laws. However, I do wear my seat belt and my car does have a air bag.
If someone wants to do the human race a favor and catapult themselves through the front windshield when they get in a wreck and die instead of consuming health care costs then I am all for it.
Let "Clevon" the redneck kill himself in the first wreck he gets instead of continuing to live on to pass his idiot genes. Let "stupidity take care of itself".
Americans are too fat to swivel their multi-chin necks and their stuffed faces any more than 45 degrees in either direction.
Come on, have you ever seen Jabba the Hut move his head?
Oh great so they want to remove the "Darwin Gene Pool Cleanser" feature that cars have had for the last 110 years. That feature being the back bumper and poor visibility that removed children from the gene pool who are too dumb to live. There children are always playing and hanging out behind running automobiles in driveways.
People complain about our world becoming more like the movie Idiocracy, well crap like this only adds to the number of dumb people we allow to live on in this world in the name of "Protecting the Children" and "Safety". If we keep removing the inherent Darwinist mechanisms in daily life even the most dimwitted fool will be allowed to pass their genes on tot he next generation and the gene pool will start to grow over with the gross algae called stupid people.
I for one think that letting people do stupid things and making them face the deadly consequences at the same time is a very good idea.
Children like to play int he street like idiots in my neighborhood, I drive by at 10 mph when I see them because I don't want to hit them, however the teenage pizza delivery driver I see sometime blasts through my neighbor hood at speeds in excess of 40mph.
I guess when little Suzie or little Malcolm get squashed like a bug on the Pizza Palace delivery car bumper their parents were to blame for not teaching the little "darlings" not to play in traffic. Well those genes won't be passed on unless they had brother or sister who hopefully will learn better the hard way.
Not to mention all the jay walking idiots I see everyday, the idiots only have themselves to blame when they get ran over. Simple physics tells us that a 2,000+ pound car moving at many many times walking speed is going to win the war of inertia when slamming into a 100-200 pound human being.
The how would our friendly undocumented workers get their drivers licenses?
Yep, it is not like you can drive 55mph while backing up....
But congress sure can.
Expect the usual lobbyists to be writing this bill for our dimwitted congress just like the last several thousand page long bills that have passed through there.