mike90

Well in the US at least Id say the nonvoters are split between the type of moron who is so lazy and uninformed its probably a good thng they're not voting, and people like myself who realize its the same dishonest crook in the pocket of lobbyists and big business no matter who you pick.

26,M I see a lot of people here arguing out of idealism, not realism. Realistically there are already too many bad parents doing the bare minimum in raising their children. Too many people out there with a total lack of direction because no one ever gave a damn about them. While you can't argue that a baby born into poverty or a life of mistreatment will definately have a poor life because of it, you have to admit it raises the chances. Any child thats a product of a rape( or even is simply unwanted) is going to have a higher chance of being raised impoverished, being resented, not having adequate mentorship to make something out of themselves, being the black sheep of the family and etc etc. Even if you could make every woman carry every unwanted pregnancy to term, your then just left with a mass of unwanted children being born. adoption isn't a cure all either.Many end up growing up in foster care, which seems to increase the risk of suffering physical or sexual abuse. Life in and of itself is not intrinsically of value IMO. It's the quality of that life. So if your going to crusade for unwanted to children to be brought into the world, remember that someone has to take care of these children after you forget about them. And you cant argue that every living thing would want to be living. I've known people that were raised /treated so badly by family that they say they wish their parents had aborted them.

I think the issue is not so much that they want them to suffer no punishment at all, but that they were initially trying to charge the kids with attempted murder.

The thing you have to realize bascule is that in a lot of cases the adults reading Harry potter books aren't missing out on any of your great literature, simply because they have no interest in reading that type of book. Indeed a lot of these people if not reading Harry potter would be reading something like Dean Koontz. I haven't read any of the books on your list of great works, and have no intention of doing so. (also not a harry potter fan btw) What you are failing to accept I think is a large portion of the population does not read for their intellect, they read purely for entertainment. I would like to learn something new or be made to see something in a different light every time I read, but ultimately I do it for entertainment, and I'm not going to force myself to slog through something like shakespeare simply because its "brainier" then what I currently read. Personally 9 out of 10 times I try to force myself to read a " great work" I'll get maybe 40 pages into it before I decide to stop punishing myself. Honestly I think it is a good thing if you can get people to read anything, as it might get them started as a regular reader. Hell I've met people that have only read one book in there entire lives, which I find mind boggling. Wether or not its a permanent trend, If it takes Harry potter to get a 30 year old to go to the library I dont see how its a bad thing

There was an episode of Law and ortder SVU several years ago dealing with a company that made porn with 18-20 year old girls then digitally altered the images to look like children. On the show what eventually happened was it tempted a pedophile too much and was a factor in him raping , and then inadvertently murdering a little girl. Granted this was only a tv show, but it raised many good points. I don't beileve that we as a society should be trying fulfill the fantasies of disturbed people in any way, wether that be through fake snuff films or fake kiddie porn. What your going to end up doing is legitimizing sick behavior and giving ammunition to organizations like the child love movement or whatever its called. Personally i beileve we should treat sexual abusers with bullets. I don't think that most people that stick up for these people in one way or another understand how likely reoffending is, and that 9/10 times sexual abuse pretty much ruins the persons life permanently

Wormwood... 1) Im not saying I have the solution to the problem, merely pointing out the inequity. 2) I know white people are discriminated against too, all races can be depending on the area your living in. And I agree racism is no reason to just give up on your life or to act irrationally, that just feeds the problem so it can go on for eternity. Believe me I wish the black community would stop going out of its way to embarass itself. 3) Profiling IS racism if your only pulling over people based on their race. And yes there are plenty of black cops out there, that doesn't mean a lot of cops aren't racist. |Honestly I don't see where one is rerlated top the other. 4) I don't personally blame slavery for anything, and I hate when black people try to act as if they somehow are suffering because of it. The only reason I brought slavery up is to make the point that its a link in a chain . From slavery to sharecropping to menial labor to perennial second class citizens. Sure after the act in 1968 that began to change more, but you have to think of the massive number of people growing up until and during that time that ended up being raised in projects and ghettos. That's not an environment that a large percentage of people go on from to have fantastic successful lives. 5) Sure a lot of those people are old. But do you really think none of them raised children to beileve the same things they do? If idiotic beliefs died with the parents we wouldn't have seen near continuous war over stuff like religion the last couple millenia. 6) Sure there are lots of black folks in prisons. That doesn't make it ok to assume every black person is a crime waiting to happen. And it shouldn't make it ok to pull over or harass people just based on their skin color if their not doing anything remotely suspicious. 7) Employers hire immigrants because they know they will work for next to no money and under horrible conditions usually. If its well known that certain races can be easily exploited and taken advantage of how is that not racism? their race is exactly why their being treated the way they are. And I never said employers do equate to white 8) Never said it should help you, just shouldn't make your life an actively crappier experience. 9) Nice one. When exactly did I ever say I agree with affirmative action? For your information I'm totally against the concept. I'd like to think the quality of the work I do is enough to keep me employed, not my skin color P.S. This'll be my final post here, so I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who took the time to answer questions that I had and make me feel welcome here, it was much appreciated.

Paranoia: Yay a swarm of strawman arguments, but then again I should have expected it. First off I never ever said it's only unfair on black people or that every white person has it easy. Don't try to put those words in my mouth for me. What I AM saying is if you break it down along racial lines it's clearly not equal. You have one race holding the majority of power, influence, and wealth in a a verry racially diverse country. That's not being bitter or angry or racist, that's noticing the obvious Your " long hair" argument is asinine. I've heard this argument many times before, please dear god dont get offended, but this is an argument I only ever hear from white people. Becuase the average white person has no idea what dealing with racism is like, they tend to assume everyone else is being over dramatic about it. ( which to be fair does happen in the media way too much) The main problem with your argument is if someone discriminates against you overr you hair/clothing style/ etc , at least you could change whatever that was if you didn't like the treatment. I can't change my skin color. And not to get all my people, as I generally hate it when black people do this, but just because the racism isn't right in front of your face doesn't mean its not going on. I've had a nightstick pulled on me by a security guard for no reason, had a gun pulled on me by a cop for no reason, had friends of mine get beat up by cops and pulled over by cops for no reason. As for your last couple of smart ass lines, you know what? You have no right to judge me. You DON'T KNOW me. I've worked hard my entire life to try to make the best life for myself that I can. I never asked anyone for any handout or tried to pin my problems on anyone else. You don't want to see whats plain in front of your face? Let me break it down for you. I brought up slavery because its all a chain, exploitation of minorities never went anywhere it's just convenient for white people to let themselves believe that. Yes we were dragged over here to be slaves, then given freedom that wasn't even freedom. And black people had to fight and struggle to finally win "equal rights" with the civil rights act in '68. But heres the thing people seem to forget so quickly: It wasn't given to us we had to fight for it. Think about that fact. Only 40 years ago such a LARGE PERCENTAGE of the populace was so clearly racist we had to pass a law forcing people to treat blacks equally, and that law was passed amongst rioting and beatings and a lot of bloodshed in general. That is how dead opposed so many people were. And were supposed to beileve that since they changed the laws all these people just magically changed their minds? Yeah.... No what people do now is the PC route, they keep their racism subtle. Do you know I literally cannot walk into one upscale store in my area without being followed by sales clerks or security? And I get a little extra special attention from local cops, especially if I happen to be hanging out with black friends. Also I think its worth mentioning that up until maybe a generation ago most minorities were shunted off into most of the menial low paying work in the country.( A lot are still there, and you might be surprised how many employers violate about every labor law when it comes to immigrants, because they know they will accept just about any treatment to keep a job) Which helped lead to generations growing up in poverty in the projects which is still having repercussions today. Sure all of these things can happen to anyone of any race, but being a minority or immigrant clearly does not help you. I'm not sure how thats even debatable by a reasonably observant person. Haezed: No its really not helping the black community dweling on all of this, I wish they would really just let it go a little. But theres a line between blaming everyone else for everything that goes wrong in your life and acknowledging that its not an equal playing field just because we would like it to be. The language " white people" isn't intended to offend, but in this case yes it is an issue of white people being racist towards other races trying to assimilate into America.That has been the case with every race that has immigrated over here, having to live through the hazing period to be accepted as "real americans" . Its well documented in history that this has happened, so I don't feel its offensive, I really wouldn't know how else to put it. Slavery is not a justification for any irrational behavior. Neither is racism. But what is truly frustrating is this mindset of... Im sorry to say it.. but this mindset of the average white person that slavery and racism occurred duyring this " dark age" of American culture, and everything is just great and equal now. Which the average minority could tell you isn't true at all. Im sorry if people don't like to hear it. but there is sitll plenty of very blatant racism going on every day

Now I'm not defending people like Sharpton for a moment, but this comment bugs me a bit. I've heard similar comments from white people before, and it's not a matter of us " letting ourselves be offended" as it were. It's the fact that as long as blacks have been in this country we've been exploited and every attempt has been made to marginalize us in society. The same thing could be said for many other minorities, but then again many other minorities didn't have to first deal with their people being dragged over here as slave labor, and then having to fight for hundreds of years to get to equal status. The reason there are no words to have an equal effect on whites is simple: white people are and always have been the main power base of America. It's a lot easier to take insults in stride when your race controls nearly everything in the country including the vast majority of the wealth and political power. Racial slurs will trigger an automatic, instinctive, and imo not undeserved rage in the average black person not found in most other races. Despite the happy rainbow picture painted we are still a long way off from enjoying equal status to whites.Just because they stopped calling us n*****s and let us use the same restrooms doesn't mean we are treated as equals or given an equal oppurtunity to succeed. Thats just more American urban legend like this "American Dream" thats supposed to exist here too. In summary yes we are more hostile and and sensitive but it's NOT because of some "inferiority complex". It's because as a people were just a bit tired of getting screwed over. It always boggles my mind that 40 years ago we were still actively being held down in society and somehow the majority of white people seem to think everything must be cool now and that the entire situation has reversed itself in a mere 40 years. White people forced blacks and many other minorities into lives of poverty and strife for a long time out of greed, and ity going to take a lot longer then 40 years for us to be on equal standing. There are many families living in poverty today because bigotry put them there.

A bit too much deference is given to certain resident experts, to the point where they are allowed to borderline troll at times due to their contributions in other areas of the site

I think its safe to say the conversation has moved beyond just aspects of religious idealogies being harmful, but rather the strict adherence to any belief/opinion/point of view to the point that it does not allow for another to have a contradictory point of view without them being bad/wrong/evil and in need of some sort of enforced "correction". To me this then means the ultimate problem lies with human nature itself, or at least some negative aspects of it. This makes the solution a lot more complex. But to try to keep it in context to the original point of the thread, religious idealogies specifically: I do see some signs of a shift, at least in America, as younger members of strictly conservative religions begin to question total adherence to concepts that don't seem to apply socially anymore, and the need to take in the overall theme of religion more then try to interpret everything literally. Perhaps the problem is the isolationism inherent in countries where religous intolerance is so prevalent, maybe if there was a gradual input of other cultural beliefs and ways of thinking over time it could help. How this could be accomplished the way things are now, I am not sure

And of course the things you post aren't your opinion, they are absolute fact. And of everything everyone else has been posting is fact too. None of it was opinions:rolleyes:

1) Australia is not the only place on the planet. Just because not every possible effect of global warming is happening theredoes not mean it is not happening on the planet period. 2) Yes you are good with numbers, thus making you good with statistics we get it. That in no way means you know how to interpret those statistics correctly. The very fact that you relate every claim to australia as if its indicative of the entire rest of the world alone shows you do not have enough knowledge of the subject matter to do so. 3) Bascule is entirely correct in saying that you have in no way proven anything so far, and you dodge every question with either " go read my blog" or just your own opinion, which doesn't seem based on anything factual or any knowledge of the subject on an even basic level. 4) One more time just to be clear, its Global Warming, not Australia Warming and as Edtharan mentioned, its more to do with weather abnormalities in general then just the temperature.

That sounds a lot like me. I've searched the internet off and on for years to see if theres anybody out there that has thought out a solution that sounds practical. I've met some great people , but I haven't found what I'm looking for. I try to tell myself there is still hope for improvement in human relations, but all the information I've gathered so far tells me that it indeed might just be wishful thinking on my part. Im an optimist be nature and Id like to think mankinds better nature will eventually win out, by I don't see any signs of humankind moving any closer in that direction.

Well I may give it a chance sometime just to be open minded, but its hard to imagine the clear ( and overly emotional) bias in that article not pervading the rest of the book. His comments in the article made it pretty clear he considers religious people to be irrational and of subpar intelligence, hardly the opening to a great debate.

Well its tough on matters like this because what I beileve is tied to my own "religious" beliefs. I basically see the widespread growth of human empathy as the only chance mankind has to attain world peace. I think only when we can understand how others feel because we too can feel exactly how they feel will we reach peace. I also beileve in the idea of a global shared consciousness, but I think were a long way from that. On a practical level however, without empathy I find it hard to imagine things changing for the better. Also certain dictatorships have placed heavy restriction on media and internet access to their people as a means to help them maintain power Id love to imagine humanity banding together and celebrating our differences rather then fighting over them, as they are what make our different cultures unique. But I find that unlikely without superb leadership ( lacking so far with no visible sings of improvement IMO its actually getting worse) or a massive boom in the empathic population