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Reply to How to Ruin a Child's Life from Birth in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I think a name has to fit two criteria: 1. It has to work with a title, such as Dr, Staff Sergeant, Attorney-at-law or Emperor 2. It has to work in the most menial job imaginable. So the traditionals work fairly well at this. You can have Max the garbage collector, Staff Sergeant Max Fightmaster the US Army media spokesman for Iraq (real name!) or Emperor Maximilian. Some of the new names don't work so well though. Mispellings like Billee and surgically attached names

Reply to I love you, I'm just not IN LOVE with you in Marriage JoeUser Forums

The safety word is bananas!

Reply to Do You Believe? in Life JoeUser Forums

[quote]After living a crime free life for forty years we can "assume" this man does not "like" fighting" or there would have been other examples of it.[/quote] Perhaps he abused his children, or beat his wife, or something else that an otherwise upstanding member of the community can sometimes hide for 40 years. Better yet, why don't you just name this individual so we can look into the full story for ourselves? It's clearly someone you know, as you seem to be very personally i

Reply to Dou you believe in the Free Market? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Have you ever heard of a command economy that doesn't end in the Gulag?[/quote] Exactly, you need a balance. Friedman has some interesting ideas, but I'd hate to see them made a reality.

Reply to Do You Believe? in Life JoeUser Forums

[quote]How you get "bloodlust" from a single act is so far beyond my thinking, I have nothing to reply with.[/quote] Well I'm making assumptions, the first being that he's the kind of person who regularly gets into fights. People who don't like fighting don't get into fights. The second is that if he does like fighting, and if he doesn't feel guilty about murdering someone, then obviously he wouldn't have many qualms about killing again in similar circumstances. Bloodthirsty i

Reply to Dou you believe in the Free Market? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]That's Friedman's vision of a free market? What am I missing here?[/quote] He doesn't mention the violence, but you're a man of the world, have you ever heard of an unregulated free market economy that doesn't end in repression?

Reply to Do You Believe? in Life JoeUser Forums

He can be a good man in some ways, but if he doesn't regret murdering someone in the past, chances are he'd do it again given similar circumstances, so from my perspective he's only a good man until he kills again. How effectively he can resist his bloodlust is the only appropriate measure, and if he's gone 40 years without physically assaulting someone he's probably a good man. If he hasn't, then murder is probably still on the cards and he's someone I'd probably steer well clear of.

Reply to Dou you believe in the Free Market? in Politics JoeUser Forums

I believe in free markets. They need to be tempered a little by a bit of state influence, but mostly free is good. Some examples of appropriate tempering: taxation, quarantine laws, health and safety legislation, mandatory fiscal reporting, state ownership of essential utilities some examples of inappropriate tempering: state ownership of the majority of companies in any sector save infrastructure, excessive taxation, monetary controls, government oversight on wages

Reply to Political nicknames and el presidente in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]That's the second time this month I've gotten that[/quote] Well you might have noticed that the only people who elongate the vowels in the word fabulous are the effeminate - it's practically a standard of the genre! [quote]So, have you earned a fucking private sector dollar yet, boy? Managed to elucidate a coherent ideology beyond "fag"? Anything?[/quote] Yes, is that supposed to be an insult, no idea what you're aiming at with the third question. Als

Reply to Political nicknames and el presidente in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]This is a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous post, and you, young man, have become quite the faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous political analyst.[/quote] And you've become vastly more camp since your last visit, Mr St Hubbins! (do I have it right?) But that's okay - the world has always had a liking for the outrageously effeminate, so I'm sure you'll slot right in somewhere! [quote]Some might say you're superficial, and that hating on Yanks is beyond cliche, no matter how passive-aggressiv

Reply to Political nicknames and el presidente in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Because unlike our liberal brothers and sisters in my country, most conservatives do not attack people personally, we disagree on political points rather than personal attacks.[/quote] But aren't you just saying then that you enjoy a masochistic relationship with liberals, where you as the masochist deliberately seek out opportunities to be lambasted and the liberals are your unwitting aids? That may be what you get out of it, but I'm not so sure many other conservatives would ag

Reply to Political nicknames and el presidente in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]His middle name is being used against the whinners and not against Osama, I mean Obama himself.[/quote] Okay. So what you're saying here is that it's used so that you can annoy people who think it's an insult, but not because you mean it as an insult. This is a little too meta for me. Why do you want to distract from your own arguments by adding in pointless red flags for hostile bulls?

Reply to Faithful Intellectuals in Religion JoeUser Forums

There've been lots of faithful intellectuals. Augustine and Marcus Aurelius were two (one early Christian and one Stoic). Most of the Greek philosophers were mildly religious, whether that expressed itself in Dionysian ritual or Stoicism. Most mediaeval thought came from religious figures, although admittedly the depth and breadth of anyone's faith in the middle ages was questionable. In any case one of the west's earliest political theorists was a devout Muslim, and in fact his beliefs stro

Reply to Political nicknames and el presidente in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]I find it about as offensive as the left using McSame for McCain, just a war of words. meaning nothing in the end. It just shows what side you chose.[/quote] Sure Modman, but what do you think is the implied meaning behind it? Is Hussein a funny/offensive name to call someone? If it is, is there more to it than the Arab connection? The reason I'm asking is that I'm tempted to simply write off anyone who uses it as little more than a fairly unoriginal racist (Osama is so

Political nicknames and el presidente in Politics JoeUser Forums

Political nicknames are a popular pastime. Australians all know who Little Johnny, Mad Mark or Saint Kevin are. Americans are familiar with Clint-in and probably others I don't know straight away. But what's behind these names? I've recently noticed there seems to be a bit of a movement for opponents to refer to US presidential candidate Barack Obama as Hussein. In some ways it makes sense, as it is his middle name and lots of people are referred to by their middle name.

Reply to The First Secular Crusade- Introduction in World War II JoeUser Forums

[quote]With no predefined values, there is no reason not to kill, steal, or destroy.[/quote] I think you'll find religions offer plenty of reasons to kill, steal or destroy. Western Judaism/Christianity/Islam in particular offer lots of reasons, ranging from the sins of those you smite to the righteousness of slavery. But I can see there's no reasoning with you if you haven't taken the time to even read wikipedia. You've obviously decided what secular humanism is already and a

Reply to I do not think personal attacks have a place on JU. in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Personal attacks have [I]always[/I] had a place on JU. I can't even remember a time when there weren't a few floating around. You might not like it, but most JUers seem to enjoy a bit of personal conflict every now and again. The best thing to do if you're not a fan is to ignore it.

Reply to The First Secular Crusade- Introduction in World War II JoeUser Forums

I prove you wrong: "Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality." This is the statement of the International Huma

Reply to Favorite hangover cure? in Humor JoeUser Forums

fried rice before bed. Something with plenty of msg is what you're aiming for, it'll make you thirsty enough to drink plenty of water too. But basically the rice gives the alcohol something to savage so your guts get a few hours of peace. You'll wake up with a strong need to embrace the porcelain, but you won't have a headache. Your local dodgy Asian all-nighter can fix you up.

Reply to In an ideal world Fox News would be considered a criminal organisation. in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Does the monarch have authority to overrule (veto) Parliament? Been awhile since I focused on that (say 40 years) but I don't think so.[/quote] She can do one better than overrule parliament; she can dissolve it. As you can probably imagine, it's not a power that gets much use. She wielded it in Australia in 1975 through the Governor-General, John Kerr. I'm not sure when it was last used in Great Britain proper.

Reply to How Annoying! in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]I suppose these unwanted visitors won't be spending any money in hotels, restaurants, etc either, the bastards how dare they.[/quote] As it so happens, they probably won't be. From the pilgrim accommodation they've been showing on the TV, it's mostly school classroom floors and wooden showers with no screens for tens of thousands of Catholics. While they might be spending some money on food, most parishes are catering for the events, so they won't be looking for much food.<br

Reply to In an ideal world Fox News would be considered a criminal organisation. in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]In a republic we elect representatives that will vote on these issues. Both of our governments are democratic republics. [/quote] Not quite - the UK is a constitutional monarchy, not a republic. It's different, mainly in that there is a royal family instead of a president. The theoretical advantage is that a single person doesn't have a great deal of power, but in practice a prime minister is vastly more powerful than a president if he can keep his party in line. It's in

Reply to In an ideal world Fox News would be considered a criminal organisation. in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]For those looking for something milder we can have "conservative lite" or "liberal lite"...they'll both be the same thing although there will be taste-test booths set up to see if you can tell the difference![/quote] I bet 9 out of 10 can pick the difference.

Reply to In an ideal world Fox News would be considered a criminal organisation. in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] Classic elitist liberal condescension, based on the underlying belief that the "average joe" is a dolt (the corollary being that the condescender is "enlightened" and knows better what is good for the "average joe" than Joe does). No respect for any opinion but their own.[/quote] Classic idealistic pie-in-the-sky pontificating, all theory and no proof for their assertion that the average Big Brother-watching, celebrity-chasing person is actually a virtuoso at research and wo

Reply to Why I disagree with socialized medicine in Democrat JoeUser Forums

[quote]The difference is in who makes the decision, not who pays for it.[/quote] There are two ways you could have come to that decision. Let's look at them. First of all, you might mean that in a private system everyone contributes to pay every other person's hospital bills, in which case - No... In a private-only system all healthcare is paid for by those who need it. In a public-only system all healthcare is paid by everyone through taxes, whether through a flat ta