AWells

Well, look on the bright side... they didn't blow anybody up this time

quote:Fire all teachers who can't teach, screw the unions, hire people that actually care and actually try to teach.Honestly, this is so appropriate today. I had a composition class this morning where half the class didn't show up to begin and large portion, including myself, walked out. Why? Because the teacher sucks... she wasted a huge portion of class time having a discussion with a student about crime statistics and minorities which was further off topic for class than this post is for this thread. When another student asked her if we would bring the class discussion back on topic or go for a break, she blew up. Yes, the teacher has had numerous complaints (I had her last semester, too), and the only reason she still has a job is because she's in the union.

quote:Unfortunately they call it the help of those who don't ..who use compassion as a tool...DL and Litvyak...who are basically laissez-faire throwbacks without a ounce of morality to share between them ....who were probably neglected in their youth or something....I'd say I have plenty of morality, though my moral code doesn't corrospond anywhere near 100% with what society views as morals. For instance I don't sleep around and I don't use drugs, both ideals that follow the mainstream society. I won't hesitate to admit that I gladly use compassion as a tool, however. As for being neglected as a child... I recall having clothing, plenty of food, and all the toys I could ever want... I fail to see how I was neglected. I've never been much of a socialite, however, even as a child so I spent more time keeping myself entertained than I did playing with friends, partly because I live in the middle of no where. I don't think of that as a bad thing, however, since I find myself fairly independent these days in the fact that I don't need other people around.

quote: The theory that the universe "always existed" goes DIRECTLY AGAINST science, since it's empirically proven that every effect/thing has to have a CAUSE.And exactly what law of science would that be?

quote: ALL public schools should be privatized, and the property taxes that are collected for education should be put into an account and EVERY parent should be given a voucher for a given amount every year. Say $5000 just for grins, and that money is specifically for the parent to pay for their childrens education that year, to be used at ANY institution of learning of their choice, INCLUDING homeschooling, private religious school, whatever school THE PARENT chooses.My only problem is the idea that non-parents have to pay for the children of parents. Why should I pay for the baby factory on welfare that wants to send her 13 kids to school? Privatize education and make the parents pay the costs, don't hand them vouchers at the expense of taxpayers. [ 10-14-2002, 09:21 PM: Message edited by: Litvyak ]

quote:Well, putting tanks and FBI personnel outside the schools might workReally, I've been thinking that the best to improve education is to rent firearms, body armor and drug paraphenalia in high schools. It gives children access to the fundamental school supplies they need in the high schools of the 21st century while providing a nice source of revenue.

quote:Not concerned about working Americans , schools and educationReally, school children these days are more interested in drugs and shooting each other than education so why be concerned about it? quote:ready to go to war at the drop of a hatI prefer going to war before the hat drops, personally. quote:I only hope you are the right age to go over and pull you own weight instead of having someone else do your fighting for you.I'm 24 so I'm the perfect age to go over should I be needed. [ 10-14-2002, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: Litvyak ]

quote: quote: I don't know, they both sound sexy in thier own way Thank you darling, I canÔÇÖt help but agree, though most people wouldnÔÇÖt. Oh well... apparantly most poeple don't have taste quote:Lothar has a point and I for one would appreciate it if some of the people who support this police action would admit that that the safety of American citizens isn't the sole or even primary reason the Bush Administration insists upon forcing it.Does it really make that much of a difference what his motivations are? Many good things occur for less than noble reasons, and the elimination of Saddam certainly sounds like a good thing to me. Hell, if Bush wanted to invade Iraq for no other reason than fun I wouldn't complain. quote: Still I am floored by the deafening silence when we ask where is the domestic policy? You mean like Clinton's excellent domestic policy of letting the ATF and FBI use tanks to crash through the homes of law abiding gun owners, or shoot thier families right down to the family pet? quote: what are we doing to improve schools and educate our children. Where is the assurance that those of us who have worked and paid taxes for YEARS will ever see a dime of Social Security benefits? Recycling children and the elderly would sovle that problem. Just remember to vote me for president in 2012. quote: Working Americans who invest in our and our country's future are rooked by slick snake oil salesmen who levrage our childrens future by raiding the companies they have driven in the ground. Nobody's pissed about this? Not really... nope. quote: " When your only tool is a hammer you see every problem as a nail" That's what we're dealing with here. I don't know... I have a hammer a few screw drivers and a socket set and I still agree with attacking Iraq. [ 10-14-2002, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: Litvyak ]

quote: And that makes nepotism OK because...? It doesn't make it ok or not ok... it simply means you can vote against if you don't like it.

quote: Not when you are pres, your two brothers are governors of two important states, your cousins are senators of three others. It provides too much of a power and control base. Our government was specifically designed with checks and balances of power in mind. That all goes out the window when nepotism is involved to a large degree. There are anti-nepotism policies in place thoughout this country. In my place of employment you cannot supervise a direct relative. Many companies do not allow fraternization. Why not for the pres? Let us stop building an American Royal Family. All six of those positions are elected by the people. It's not like Bush was elected and appointed his family all over the government. And the two Governors aren't even Federal officials.

quote: We aren't God. True, we exist... that makes a big difference. quote: Sure, there still may be reproduction, but there could be a huge population loss. I fail to see a population loss as a problem. quote: Ok here are two positions and a response of mine: 1. You reject the CONSTANTLY PROVEN idea of cause and effect and thus science. At that point, you have no reason to assume the existance of God, but you also have no reason to assume that miracles can ever be explained. You should then concede that miracles, centered around religious phenomena, could possibly/probably have no explainable cause within science. Therefore, the obvious concept of them being around religious artificats/areas implies there is God (probably around the religious affiliation of said artifacts/areas), or at least some sort of God. 2. You accept science and cause and effect and realize there had to have been an original cauase. Thus you admit the existance of a higher power, but can also maintain that there's no effect on our life now (deism).I don't subscribe to either philosophy since they both are fundementally flawed. I think the first position has been argued enough, so I'll stick to addressing number two. It breaks down because it makes an assumption that the universe was created by a higher power. That means that the higher power either had to be created itself or had to always have existed. Now, if something had to create the higher power than logically something had to create that and on and on... so that line of thought is illogical. That leaves the arguement that the higher power always existed and that it created it the universe from nothing... which is scientifically impossible by the laws of conservation of matter, mass and energy. The only scientifically rational explination is that the universe was never created and has simply existed. Improbable? Far less so then the belief that a god has always existed... after all we can prove the existance of the universe but not the existance of any god. quote: How does stopping murder, theft, blackmail, etc give any benefit to the people in control, and how exactly does it benefit the CHURCH who are the ones who have always dictated it? Pacifying the population has enormous benefits to those in control. To give a detailed description of why, though it should be common sense, would take more time than I have right now. quote: I fail to see how the Judeo-Christian values aren't logical. Besides the belief and dedication to a fictional entity that has never been proven to exist?

Definitely a review I can agree with, at least from my Beta experiance. Never tried the retail product because there just wasn't enough substance to the game.

quote: My objection to it is mainly a religious one, specifically where God destroyed a city full of Sodomites. The U.S. destroyed 2 cities of Japanese, is it wrong now to be Japanese? quote: quote: Does either sodomy or masturbation hurt society? Is it immoral to get pleasure from something that doesn't hurt anyone else? Depends if it's hurting society or not. Taken to the extreme of everyone doing it, it would destroy society rather easily (lack of reproduction). You can't assume that it's not bad for society just because one instance isn't bad. Sure, Dragon Lady beleiving in total pleasure for herself and not caring about society doesn't HURT society, but I still object to the concept since if it was applied to everyone, we'd be in anarchy. Plenty of people indulge in pleasuring themselves, it doesn't mean they're hurting society. Even if nobody had reproductive sex we live in a day and age when intercourse isn't even needed for reproduction. quote: This argument, yet again, makes no sense. "Control" doesn't matter unless there's a point to it. So all those priests, cardinals, bishops, etc would do just fine if they didn't collect money from thier flocks of sheep? quote:We know that God (higher power, whatever you want to call it) existed and God creates.I know no such thing. quote: Sure, but there's no reason to assume multiple entities, or entitites over the rest of the course of reality, especially since we only know about one universe. And there's no reason to assume the existance of even one enitity. quote: So why aren't we going around doing whatever we want? Why do humans/civilizations have moral codes if it's not for some repect/fear for/of a higher power? Because it's hard for people to stay in power over other people if they just did everything they want. Morals are about controlling the population so that a group of people can maintain power over another group of people. Most morals are backed by laws and people to enforce those laws and those morals that are not are often ignored. quote: quote:Mandatory abortion is the way to go, especially considering how many people shouldn't reproduce (and remarkably... these people that shouldn't reproduce are the ones that seem to do it the most). Talk about an arbitrary standard. Your assuming that you'd be the one choosing who should be aborted/sterilized and who shouldn't. Nope, I'm assuming there's plenty of logical minded people that could make such a determination. Of course, I wouldn't mind being the one... it would actually be rather fun. quote: quote: Voluntary my @$$! I don't think there would be a problem with making a mandatory retirement and recycling age. I would think that the elderly would happy just knowing they were still useful at that age. I mean, honesty, lack of a sense of usefulness is quite common among the older generations. If you ever run for President, i'm moving. Well, you got like 10 years to pack before I'm eligable. Of course, I don't want the job, anyways.

quote:After all, I rather be viewed as ÔÇ£that attractive young lady with the nice ÔÇÿshiny thingsÔÇÖÔÇØ then as ÔÇ£that heartless young lady with her cruel and antiquated philosophyÔÇØ.I don't know, they both sound sexy in thier own way

My best one was waking to recall the fact that my van had gone off a railroad trussle, fallen 35 feet and landed upside down in 4 feet of water. It was really a bummer until I remembered that I didn't own a van.

quote: This struggle to promote the good in people is not just a way to keep people in line....that is true cynicism I'd have to disargee. The whole idea of trying to convince others of what qualities and virtues are actually good and what ones are bad is all about keeping people in line. quote: but one wouldn't know it when barraged by propaganda that strokes the ego and promises "success" if you live only for yourself. Well, it's my life why the heck would I live it for anybody but myself?? quote: but I'll be damned if I'm going to sit back and let people be turned into exploitable assets because a small group of greedy sociopaths thinks their games are part of some manifest destiny People don't need to be turned into exploitable assets, many people are quite content to be that way of thier own free will. Some people are wolves and some are sheep... it's just the natural order of things. I mean after all, there's plenty of people who believe in living for other people rather than living for themselves, right?? quote: I picked up the notion somewhere that people were born equalnot just AmericansI dont know where.maybe all that liberal education Equality for everyone... sure you didn't learn that from Karl Marx? Marxism, Socialism, Communism, etc is well proven to not work. Why? Because it goes against human nature. As I said there's wolves and sheep, and there always will be.

What can I say? I occassionally find something intelligent sounding to post

quote:That is a worthless argument, because the way the world operates is always subject to change. There was once a time when slave societies made the world go 'round. Did that justify or even rationalize them?Slave societies were just another form of might makes right in action. Might makes right is always the way world works, though the forms it takes evolves over time. Are slave societies considered acceptable today? Of course not, because that's the people with the most power are against slaverly. At the time when slaverly was at its peak it was considered right because the people with the most power wanted slaverly.

quote: I used the shot gun to kill every living thing(and some dead things) in the house. And hopefully you're reffering to the game

quote: as for me heading up,you damn skippy ill let you know when im heading up. I still have most of my citytech set... well everything except the instruction booklet... the MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!!!. you know where i can get another??? Most, if not all, the rules are repeated in the compendium which is still fairly easy to find if you shop around local hobbie/comic shops or look online.

I think most people in the United States would find that practice loathsome (hell, I felt sick when I met somebody from Africa who had been through that and described how it was done... I won't repeat it here, though), but it's viewed on quite differently in many parts of Africa. It just goes to show how widely morals can vary. [ 10-11-2002, 09:07 PM: Message edited by: Litvyak ]

Now that I've spent the day working on my car (a quite relaxing past time), I'll come back to this argument... quote: What makes the enforcement of morals right is the morality, not the force. As Dragon Lady pointed out, it's the force of the majority that determines what morality is to begin with. Morality is not something that people are born with, it's learnt from parents, peers, teachers, and the media as a child grows and develops. The values instilled are the values of the society. If a child was raised to believe that murder was acceptable they wouldn't view murder as an amoral act. Take a look at the Middle East where in the most of the region women simply dressing the way they do in the Unitied States is considered amoral, or take a look at Africa where removing a girl's clitoris so she won't enjoy sex is considered socially acceptable and would be appalling to most people in the United States.

quote:'Might makes right' argues that the usage of more powerful force is right simply because the force is more powerful.That's the way the world works, whether you choose to see it or not.

I don't see how might makes right can be viewed as a philosophy of lawlessness. Might makes right is the cornerstone of enforcing law in any nation... that's why there are millions of police officers in the United States, after all. They are the 'might' that enforces what the majority of people feel is 'right'. If we were to get rid of the police and say instead that we'd rely on the good nature of people to prevent them from commiting crimes, then we'd have anarchy. On a global scale it's no different. Somebody needs to stand up to criminal governments and put a stop to it. Otherwise we have lawlessness at an international level.

Actually I was thinking more along the lines of the fact that beaver is slang for a certain part of the female anatomy.