kvnchrist

What about loving your kid for who he is. I don't think the government has any concept of that.

Actually, if you read through all of those science articles, you would realize that something like that is in fact an actual likelihood. Actual to me doesn't fit in with the word likelihood. That's like distinct possibility of an affirmed maybe. I understand what you guys are trying to say and it is noble, but I was responding to the statement that those people who voted no weren't responding for a given reason. All sentient beings deserve respect, dignity and honor, even when they can't understand the concept. Animals are a good example of this. My question is how you can determine if these so-called intelligent machines are sentient. Are they self aware, beyond their mechanical need for diagnostics. A mere computer can be set to run diagnostic tests at startup, but does that make it sentient?

Should the government be able to take your kid, If they think he or she is too fat? obesity

I don't think it's an inability to grasp concepts. The reason I haven't chimed in is arguing fantasies doesn't appeal to me. Sorry, but we might as well be talking about gay marriage between unicorns.

This was about those who point their fingers in other peoples faces and call them names for doing what is natural to them.

How kinky. what would you strap them with? lol :unsure: :unsure: :unsure: http://i55.tinypic.com/oh6yb4.jpg I know what strapping means. I was just making a joke. Copme on man!

I was thinking about the history of humanity. Not what we've accomplished but what we are inside. Are we basically any more mature as far as facing the world as we were 1000 years ago. Have our toys, our cities, our science and knowledge made us any better as being human inside, or have they just elevated our arrogance and egos. Do we not, still fear that we don't understand. Do we not dehumanize those that we make war upon, in order to justify our own behavior. Do we still covet that which is not ours, envy what others have created and demand by the right of might. Could someone, in the future, look back at our world today and see the same savagery in the today's society that we had back in 1000 A.D Is the only difference in the tools we use.

I get so tired of those people who think they have monopoly on the word Morality. Morals are a gauge of conduct and only that. Just because others don't follow the guidelines that some hold to, does not make them immoral. Being immoral is having no morals at all. This is an impossibility, because to have no ethics(morals), one would have to be dead. The moral gauge starts at the side which defines how far out on a limb that person would go to help someone they don't know and on the other end, how far that same person would go to get what they want. Some people would steal, as others would not. Some would kill as others would not. Is the person who kills in the name of God any different than the person who kills in the name of greed. Acting in a dignified manner is not being moral, it is acting in accordance to the culture that one finds himself. In one culture, a thief would get his hand cut off and in another, he would go to jail. I know of people who are Gay, whom many call immoral that would do more for these so-called moral people than those people would do for any gay person.

With all the turmoil in the world. The changing alliances and the characteristic unknowns that are running these revolutions in the Middle East, is it wise for any western country to continue foreign aid to these countries. If we are simply propping up despotic regimes are we aiding them in stepping on their own people, and if the country does revolutionize, wouldn't it be prudant to find out who is now pulling the strings. Do we really know these people and know that our money is actually being used for the best purposes, by those we give it to. Another point is are we giving it with the idea of helping out or are we just trying to place a layer of control on that country, so we can use them for our own purposes.

I think they were tired of seeing my posts. To be honest, I was about to stop posting new threads, for just that reason. I have all these ideas and more are working themselves out when I read other peoples replies I was debating this in another forum and to make communism workable there has to be enough selfless people to give up what they have, Try to find 15 people to give up things so that 5 people can have the same standards without working any more than they have. That has never worked . Also try to find the leadership that will be able to make communism work, without resorting to what The Soviet Union did. Remember the purges. The Gulogs. Not exactly the utopia that Karl was expecting.

Man, look at our leaders and see if you can say the word think without cracking a smile.. lol Come on now, we can't even think about domestic affairs without getting in each others faces.

Well, conservative or liberal. I don't like so many news sources controlled by only one hand. The potential for censorship is too high.

You don't think criminals should be punished for their crimes? Lets try this one on for size then...... I wouldn't mind seeing the "three strikes and yer out" laws taken a step further. Get that third strike, and WE take YOU out. You are done. No longer a problem. And NOT a tax burden either. Why should my taxes pay for three hots and a cot for some killer? Whack his ass dead. End of problem. And no 10, 15, 20, 25 years of appeals either. You get ONE appeal after conviction. If that is upheld, you are DEAD the next day. Yeah, I am pretty cold blooded. What is the logic in punishment? Is there any real point in punishing criminals? What's the logic in nopt punishing them. Have you ever known a victim of a crime. How do they feel about that?

Good grief, What doesn't this man have his hands in?

You don't think criminals should be punished for their crimes? Lets try this one on for size then...... I wouldn't mind seeing the "three strikes and yer out" laws taken a step further. Get that third strike, and WE take YOU out. You are done. No longer a problem. And NOT a tax burden either. Why should my taxes pay for three hots and a cot for some killer? Whack his ass dead. End of problem. And no 10, 15, 20, 25 years of appeals either. You get ONE appeal after conviction. If that is upheld, you are DEAD the next day. Yeah, I am pretty cold blooded. The thing about that is that if a criminal isn't punished until the 3rd time that only gives them an unrealistic view of what punishment is. No matter how old you are, you know that if you do something wrong, You'' get in trouble. Look at a kid that has gotten into a cookie jar. Does that child not lie or try to get out of getting caught, because they are afraid of the penalties. The main thing about 3 strikes is that these people will have nothing to loose, when confronted by life in jail. What's the difference between going to jail for life on a burglery rap or shooting it out with the police and killing four people in the process. Both crimes will get you life. People get desperate when they see no way out and may just up the ante to try to escape being captured

How kinky. what would you strap them with? lol :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:

I've been contemplating this for a very long time. As all of you know, I am the product of a highly structured up-bringing, trying to fit myself into a much wider world. My trips in the military to other countries has opened my eyes to a wider, more tolerant world. The main thing that always strikes me is the overwhelming quagmire of repression in this country when anything of a sexual nature is brought up in public. Most people, in private talk about a good many things, including sexual orientation, but when the discussion goes beyond a defined group of people the subject almost becomes toxic. This mindset has effected all walks of life and all age groups. The whole mindset has created such a strong sense of denial of reality that it has driven people underground and broken up families. Always, I've heard the term Shame and Morales set up as some kind of a barricade in the discussion of topics that many are unwilling to address, because they are so stigmatized by such topics. I've heard, so many times, people talking about the repression of women in the middle east, because they hide their women in Burkas. Well, what's worse. The hiding of individual women in Burkas or the hiding of whole realms of expression, by making such topics Taboo. I wonder if many of the problems that are so insurmountable would be so, If so many would stop denying that they even exist. (1) Would there be as many rapes if Prostitution was legal. I know rape isn't about sex, but about power, but could it not help with those who can't seem to catch the eye of a lady (2) Would there be so much drug violence and overcrowding in our prisons if the lesser drugs like marijuana and hash were decriminalized. Would it not help in the increasing revenues and our sagging economy? (3) Would we have as many problems to solve if we were to except a wider degree of humanity (gays, transsexuals, foreigners), and above all, listen to what they have to say. Is it fear of the unknown that defines our comfort zone or the fear that we might find just how delusional that area of comfort is.

It's the discussion of religion that is banned. Hopefully nobody jumps this thread into that. There is no need . Self interest is too broad a subject. It could be said that anyone of these 4 subjects can be used for self interest. I would also look closely at idealism. in this world. How many causes are being debated all over the place and aren't our politicians claiming to stand on them. Even if you disagree with the politician part, how many of those who follow lock step behind them are deeply idealistic.

I've been asking this at several places and have gotten mixed answers. I don't really want what's your motivator. I'd like to see what you think is main thing moving society in your areas of the world

Could you expand on that.

When you are talking to a person of the opposite sex What part of their face stands out more to you? What do you most look for and admire. To me it is a woman's eyes. They are the windows of their souls and you can tell a lot from them. The famine lines, the delicate eye lashes and the way they decorate them in darker colors makes them ever more lovely. What really melts my heart is when they demurely look down when when they are contemplating an answer. I could nearly fall off my chair when they do that.

I've already talked about this as for as religious right trying to police up America, but I think we as Americans seem to think we are the world's police and I think we are spending too much time, effort, man power and revenue on issues that really don't concern us, and when we do step in, all we do is slow down the inevitable. There are problems with peoples in this world that stretch back millenniums and are cultural as well as religious. Do we think we are so great and wise that we can defuse deep seated hatred by an infusion of money and boots on the ground. People have been at each others throats since mankind has walked the Earth. Those that have ended in warfare and bloodshed have always worked themselves out. Have we the right to step in a muzzle bitter enemies, just to find them glaring at each other with the same seething hatred they've always had. What would happen if one would stand in the middle of a dog fight. Would it stop the fight or just eventually get those in the middle bit on both sides. What has happened to the word Sovereignty. Is it a meaningless word from a bygone era, or has the world become sovereign over the countries of the world, and If so, what would happen to your country If there were enough countries that begin to take a dislike to yours.

I've done about everything, except those jobs that pay well. Presently, I driver over the road and pull a refrigerated trailer. We usually haul food products, but on occasion we pull medical supplies. I kind of like it, because whenever they load me wrong or there was too much delivered that was not ordered, the consignee,(place where I deliver to) somtimes rejects the product. They put it back on the trailer and I have to call in to my company, and they call the shipper to see what they want done. 9 out of 10 they tell us to dump it. When they do that, we are supposed to go to the nearest dumpster and throw it all away. Well, there are times when it's only a ripped box and the product isn't damaged at all. Heck I've had a whole pallet, of these kids packaged drinks that you stick the straw through and drink, that was rejected because a few packages from the pallet atop that had busted and split liquid over that pallet and it stained the boxes. Heck, I took home 9000 of those packaged drinks and distributed them amongst my family. Just coming in before I started my vacation I had 2 cases of Twix bars with well over 500 candy bars in each I kept. 2 cases of pudding that had about 200 individual cups apiece, and 4 cases of margarine, with about 12 tubs per case. My relatives got most of that. As far as the job I'd like to have, well I have several but I'd like to get a job as a millionaire and retire at the same time. I don't sell the stuff like most truck drivers do. People can loose their jobs over that. If the customer finds out that a driver is selling their product they could cancel business with the trucking company and the company won't stand for that. There are stupid people all over the place and I've been a victim of that since birth. I'm just more experienced at hiding it. I drive all over the place, but they usually keep me in the mid to lower East of the states. I used to go into Canada, with another company, but thankfully I don't anymore. It's not that I don't want to. I love Canada, especially the upper West. British Columbia is gorgeous. The mountains in that area are staggering. I mean Colorado has beautiful scenery, but B.C. is beyond that. No the thing I hate is more going through customs on the way back into my own country. It seems you leave a country into the welcoming, but cautious arms of another country, but return an expected criminal, needing to be colonoscpied to death and ran through the ringer, then tossed out of the building, for the sin of not having something interesting to bust you with. That makes travel outside the country less and less appealing. So I just stay here. Buzz up and down the Eastern seaboard. Sometimes I get a run out west. The load I had that brought me back to Kansas was heading to California, but I was due my vacation and after being out over the road for 1.5 months. I was ready to come back in. I'd forgotten the color of my own bathroom

Why should it be America, when the western world has been screwing with third world countries since the age of Columbus. Would there had have been the state of Israel if the British hadn'[t been in Palestine. Wasn't Kuwait originally apart of Iraq, and if the west hadn't stepped in there, would have their been the first gulf war. Would India been partitioned, If the west had not been there. Would the Muslim Brotherhood even existed, if were it not the influence of the Western Nations, trying to bring the culture of the west into their world. The seeds of any 3rd world war were sown a long time ago. With the restructuring of the middle Eastern nations, Like Egypt ans whats going on in Libya and Syria, which I think is way overdue, the West may just find they'll have to start walking the walk on human rights, instead of paying lip service to it from the comforts of our capitals. Who are we going to stand with, when we've been so heavy handed in placing these Arab leaders in, that are friendly to the West. We've stood by them as they've abused their own people and now we stand back with liquid running down our legs, hoping that we can deal with those that claim victory. As for China, would the Communist be in power there if Marshall hadn't stopped the nationalist leader, who from what I understand had the Communists against the wall, and gave them the time to regroup and ultimately conquer in the end.

This is pretty much a dead subject that's been driven into the ground and resurrected only when politically expedient. You almost never hear about this, until an election year comes around. My view is it's your body and your conscience. You can do what you like, if you can handle the if's of latter years.