JackC

Your opinion on the politics of that war, invasion, military campaign does not change the legal charges against someone accused of assault/attempted assault. OK, fair's fair. If you're going to charge this guy for bruising Bush's ego, how about charging Bush for causing the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children killed because of his war, invasion, military campaign?

Come hear me good brothers come here one and all Don't brag about standing or you'll surely fall You're shinin' your light yes and shine if you should You're so heavenly minded and you're no earthly good No earthly good you are no earthly good You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good You're shinin' your light yes and shine if you should You're so heavenly minded and you're no earthly good Come here me good sisters you're salt of the earth If your salt isn't salted then what is it worth You could give someone a cool drink if you would You're so heavenly minded and you're no earthly good No earthly good you are no earthly good You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good You could give someone a cool drink if you would You're so heavenly minded and you're no earthly good If you're holdin' heaven then spread it around There are hungry hands reaching up here from the ground Move over and share the high ground where you stood So heavenly minded and you're no earthly good No earthly good you are no earthly good You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good Move over and share the high ground where you stood So heavenly minded and you're no earthly good No earthly good... "No Earthly Good" by Johnny Cash. Dedicated to the wankers in the Catholic Church of Brazil by me.

Science should be criticised, it's part of what makes it work but it should be criticised for what it is, not what it isn't. But it is becoming painfully obvious that the state of education in this world is so piss poor that people feel they can criticise science and yet they don't even have the first clue what it is. That is a real tragedy and it makes me very sad.

Yeah, as a share holder, I'm fucking thrilled about it

But they are, at least the sort of people who are affected by minimum wage laws are. McWorkers are like light bulbs, if one doesn't work you simply plug in a new one.

I'm typing this in the hopes that you are sincerely looking for the truth, and not simply an argument. When the government sets a minimum wage, they are effectively making it illegal to employ people who produce a value of less than the minimum wage. Lets say for the sake of argument the government sets the minimum wage at $10 per hour. Now, if you are a successful business owner, you will probably not consider hiring someone who can produce less than $10 per hour of value to your company. Otherwise you will be losing money, and businesses are not run to lose money. If you hire someone for the minimum wage of $10 per hour that only provides $8 of value per hour to your company, then you will be losing $2 for every hour this employee works. Obviously most people who do not provide the value set by minimum wage will become unemployed. Exacly. Trainees and unskilled workers are a good example of people who cannot provide sufficient economic value if miniumum wage levels are set too high. The more unscrupulous companies out there will simply hire illegal workers who aren't affected by minimum wage laws.

Again, one group of people simply think that something we know can happen has also happened elsewhere, the other group think that something exists unlike anything else we've ever seen or had evidence of. The situation is just not the same. Yup. One simply thinks that there is a real probability that life exists elsewhere in the universe while the other has no doubts that an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, creator of the universe exists and must be worshiped believing that it came to earth, died for our sins and is now the way, the truth and the light. I'd say there was a slight mismatch there.

Speculation? We have found hundreds of extra solar planets, and we've only been looking at the stars closest to us, and only for about a decade. You may want to read the link I provided. I think you may want to read the link you provided.

Fuck. I didn't even know yankism was catching. Is there an antidote?

I think you've lost that lovin' feelin'.

Not necessarily. The Empire State building, the Taj Mahal, the Mona Lisa, Calculus, Quantum Elecrodynamics, the Bikini and Top Gun; all pretty cool things left behind by humans not living in mud huts and eating grass. Land fill, chemical weapons, heroin, Auchwitz and country music ; we'd probably be better off without.

Looks pretty good with people to me. Why do some see humans as foreign objects on the earth? We are, after all, just as much a part of nature as every other thing on the planet. It's not humans per se, but the shit they leave behind.

Ballance of probability. Number of known life forms : 1,589,361 identified and catalogued Number of known gods : 0

I hate pancakes. Unless they're roasted and served with beef.

For all practical purposes, we are alone. This planet and our lives on it are solely in our hands, there is no one to help us if we fuck it up.

Meh, the nearest star is 4.2 light years away and it's a red dwarf so there's little chance of it supporting life. Any life sustaining solar system has to be a lot further away than that. That means that any message is going to take a long, looong time to get a reply.

I don't think it much matters. Like Quade says, the distances are so great that for all practical purposes we are alone in the universe and even if we knew that we weren't, it wouldn't change much.

Are you absolutely sure about this? Are you aware of every human being's personal experiences? I've heard the argument about hallucinations, blah, blah, blah; so don't bother. So, are you positively absolutely sure or are you making a personal assumption? Assuming what? That no one has ever come back from the afterlife with holiday snaps? Or that god is indistinguishable from his own non-existence? Given that the objective evidence for god remains resolutely at zero (personal experience is not objective and I would argue isn't even evidence), I think the possibility that religion is speculative has to be seriously considered. Nothing is being assumed.

Louisiana seems to have shown that they neither understand nor care about science so if you're a scientist, avoiding the place probably wouldn't be a bad idea.

You should only be allowed to vote if you've attended and passed a government sponsored voter indoctrination program. Otherwise, people simply cannot be trusted to vote for the correct candidate. Goddamnit.

So complex that no one has ever succesfully explained what one actually is.

Or it might not give you ANY truth. Since no one has ever come back from the afterlife to tell us about it, and no God has ever been found, it could well be that the whole God/afterlife concept in the Bible is speculative. I'd say that was by far the most likely situation.

That information came directly from the Bible (see Mark 4:43-48 for example, there are loads more references). Are you saying that the Bible is speculative?

I think you are seriously underestimating the power the church to influence peoples thoughts and actions. If a politician defines themself as catholic, then their belief system is catholic. If the official catholic teachings on subject X change, then that person is left with a dilemma. Either they also change their views on X, or they cease to be catholic. Ceasing to be the thing you have defined yourself as for your entire life is not an option most people are willing to take and they would find it much more palatable to simply change their position regarding subject X instead. Because the church can hold influence over people in this way, it can also have influence over policy. That is what the Vatican are trying to do here.

I disagree. When the church takes a stand on something, members of the church tend to listen. If that person is a politician, the church could undoubtedly affect their policy decisions. Since I think democratic systems works better when divorced from undemocratic interference, I think the church issuing an ultimatum can only do harm. In essence, it could be argued that elected officals with religious beleifs have a confliction of interests that is not beneficial to the democratic process.