US Election and Supreme Court

[Randallw]

Well Deadstar I agree we can agree to disagree..ee..ee Rest assured, in the interests of being friendly I gave your links a look. I found their content interesting, but commenting will just throw wood on the fire.

Let me take this oppurtunity to say how wonderful I find it that even with our diverse community we can agree to disagree without resorting to arguments. Whenever I feel drawn to express my opinion (and usually I refrain, believe it or not) I expect to come back to criticism. I am delighted that replies are always civil.

[Raging Deadstar]

At Least we havent decided to disagrEEE

Excuse me, There are some alien jellyfish who are about to get smited

The brief sounds of Anti Proton Beam Wielding Flaming Death (tm) can be heard in the distance...

Ooops...My Bad, One less Hydrogen Gas Giant to worry about, I forgot about that entire flammable thing... [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Campfire.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Campfire.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Campfire.gif[/img]

It's a great community here, Rarely do arguments get too heated, although the Last political threads were getting a bit too warm

[tesco samoa]

I am more worried about the PNAC folks and the pax america. As the plan is well under way now which is good for nobody outside the USA...

[geoschmo]

tesco samoa said:
I am more worried about the PNAC folks and the pax america. As the plan is well under way now which is good for nobody outside the USA...

You think? Well under way? If the plan was to topple Iraq, Iran and Syria by force, I think the extreme difficulty of maintaining Iraq, and even Afghanistan to a degree, has pretty much made it clear this is as far as we can go.

[Rasorow]

"You think? Well under way? If the plan was to topple Iraq, Iran and Syria by force, I think the extreme difficulty of maintaining Iraq, and even Afghanistan to a degree, has pretty much made it clear this is as far as we can go. "

Its as far as any reasonable person should go at one time - that I will agree with...

Though I would say its farther then one should have gone at one time. We all have fought multi-front wars before and know what happens. Least when we do it, its a game and no one dies, is maimed, or suffers.

Also to a point made earlier... I think this community is really something else. Everyone has been able to express their opinion respectfully and intelligently discussed their views without burnning up the Boards. I just think that is something else and while I think that should be the norm, the reality is - its not the norm. I am pleased and grateful that I have found one place that is intelligent, reasonable, and respectful.

Hats off to all

Rasorow

PS just re-read and what I meant is about fighting multi-front wars is that we are all war gamers and strat buffs. We know what happens through resource drain, logistics nightmare, and increased causalties in our games when we fight on more then one front in our games. Not saying that all of us know what it means to be actually in the foxhole but you have the same problems in the real world as the strat games - only worse.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

deccan said:
I've just finished reading A Strange Valley by Darrell Bain which is set in a near future USA which is dangerously veering to become a religious right theocracy after the presidency of a certain Bush Jr.

Then someone discovers a strange valley inhabited by atheistic, skeptical, rational humans who turn out to have been mutated by unusual prions and the president does everything in his power to stop the prions from spreading including setting off a dirty nuke. Quite a fun read.

That's another one of those 'if only this happened, everybody would live in peace' stories. Wether it by an invention, a philisophical discovery, a religious ideal or atheism, I don't see the point. The auther sets up the situation that makes something the villian, and then sets up the situation that fixes it. Basically, it's a circular arguement; the auther sets up a philosophy using fiction and then justifies it using fiction.

[Azselendor]

What few people realize is that the Adams produced three presidents, not just two. The third was a great nephew of the younger adams. I'm searching for the website that laid out that family tree.

As I had mentioned in another thread that the Dems are favoring Hilary and Edwards for the next election, there are rumors that the GOP is favoring Jeb Bush or another Bush family member or close friend.

And you guys are right, had Kerry won, I would not have said that. I'm strongly against anything that resembles a dynastic admistration in America. That is why I support term limits at all levels of government.
It can be said the democratic process played out, but what played in america was anything but democratic. When sides start mud slinging at each other, they aren't talking about policy or the betterment of america - they are just trying to keep the attention focused on themselves while they try to BS thier way by reason.

Edit - I had written a lot more, but left it off to avoid becoming too politically-charged.

[deccan]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
That's another one of those 'if only this happened, everybody would live in peace' stories. Wether it by an invention, a philisophical discovery, a religious ideal or atheism, I don't see the point.

Of course, the books fail miserably if one tries to take it as a form of argument. This is certainly a case of "preaching to the choir". Even the anti-theism tirades in the books are simplistic and underwhelming.

But then again, if theists can have and enjoy the smug in-your-face, I-told-you-so satisfaction of the "Left Behind" series and other Christian fantasy stories of angels that get physically stronger through human prayer battling in the streets (and yes, I've read a few of those too), there's no reason why atheists can't have their own equivalent fantasy stories. It's no more or less than an equal and opposite reaction.

The books even base the valley in the middle of the Bible belt and calls it an island of reason and sanity in a sea of insanity. And there's a ridiculous amount of homosexual and group sex in the books. All this is obviously designed to cause the maximum amount of offense to religious sensibilities.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Obviously, people on both sides can have those books. I just won't read them as soon as I realise that's what it's about.