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Reply to The nation state is getting weaker in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]There is clearly a true history that binds all Germans together. A common language alone is a strong hint.[/quote] They've only had a common language since the first unification. Even today the elderly from opposite sides of the country can experience difficulties understanding each other's dialects. Modern education has largely eradicated that, but there were a number of languages for most of what could be called 'German' history. They could communicate of course, and if you mov

Reply to Was It An Honor Killing? in Misc JoeUser Forums

[quote] After all this, I remembered that when I lived in Texas, the law there seemed to be that if you caught another fella riding you lady, you could shoot him and be justified, but if you shot both it was murder. Reverse Honor Killing?[/quote] It does sound quite similar. Isn't it nice that people are much the same everywhere? It's just a shame that so many cultures lack the wealth/space/freedom/whatever it is that makes evil unattractive.

Reply to Was It An Honor Killing? in Misc JoeUser Forums

[quote]Second, the statement cries out that 2 wrongs must make a right. If the speaker does not beleive that, then why are they bringing up a past crime whose perpertrators have long turned to dust? To show that 2 wrongs now make a right?[/quote] I like to think my argument is more nuanced than that. People do it because they're people. They're just as demonic as they are saintly and you're only going to become an evil bastard yourself if you pretend to be better than other people. As

Reply to The nation state is getting weaker in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]There is also no "artificially induced myth". The history of the Jewish people, as of the Germanic peoples are well-recorded, and while their histories might be myths, they are hardly "artificially induced". [/quote] There was no time in history where the Germans were a united people. They were grouped together by outsiders, but they were never united in the way that early Germans were portrayed in the artificial histories of the unification days (clearly a Prussian effort) and t

Reply to Saturday in the 5K Zone in Misc JoeUser Forums

These are great stories BFD. I'm glad you're sharing them with us. It'd be shit if they got lost like so many military stories.

Reply to The nation state is getting weaker in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Nation states have historically provided 2 key benefits: The ability to pool resources for a common defense and a single market.[/quote] Not quite accurate - it's only in the last 150 years or so that states and provinces in most nation-states have had their rights to charge tax on goods limited or removed. In many nation-states there are still a number of different markets, each geographically located and separated by import tax borders or, in a few special cases, quarantine.<br

Reply to What’s in a Handshake? in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Interesting fact - if you give a firm handshake in Indonesia you're either a criminal or an unsophisticated rural bogan. Everyone has a limp handshake over there. I got to the point where I wouldn't shake hands with anyone, it was too cringe-worthy.

Reply to Was It An Honor Killing? in Misc JoeUser Forums

[quote]Make me understand that because a daughter displeases daddy's idea of what is righteous, daddy can pop a cap on her and it is OK.[/quote] It seems to be a Middle East thing. You don't see them at all in Indonesia, which has about 200 million Muslims. Don't forget Christianity/Judaism allowed for honour killings too (Leviticus is full of excuses for those in a mind for a little murder) when they mostly lived in the Middle East. There's something about living in a desert r

Reply to War on Terror Vrs Political Correctness in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

[quote]you deny them places from which to plot and launch attacks, you find their finances and freeze them, you take out charges to anyone that supports them, you keep up the pressure on them till they stop.[/quote] The best way to fight a war against a violent but hidden criminal (ie non-state) foe is to take it public. Trumpet their crimes to the world, use police to track them down and trial them publicly. It's how the mafia was broken, it's how human trafficking cartels are broken.

Reply to A Tale of Two Communities! in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Everyone would love to drive a Mercedes as they are synonymous with quality.[/quote] They're not actually. People think they are because Mercedes have a great marketing department, but if you look at the comparison of mechanical faults over the first five years (the length of time most cars are owned) Mercedes do okay but not as well as you'd think. Companies like Toyota, Porsche, Honday and surprisingly enough Hyundai actually top these charts. I don't think pu

Reply to A World of Green Zones and Red Zones in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]If only the far-right conservatism can forsee the problems it will face if its policies were implemented. this same scenario happened time and again allover the world and resulted in these upheavals but the far-right never learns no matter how many times it gets destroyed. it grows again (out of blind-selfishness) and never changes its self-destructing ideology.[/quote] The far right might not change, but the history of the US suggests the right can. What is it, 200+ years of uni

Reply to Anti-piracy advertising is hilarious in Entertainment JoeUser Forums

SanChino: Exactly! I got the first season of Heroes for Christmas and it was way easier to just download the episodes off the net. The picture quality wasn't as good but at least there wasn't any enforced watching of the cinematic masterpiece that is 'you wouldn't steal a car' I'm glad I don't have to watch them, but it irritates me that the fatcats in marketing think it will change people's minds to force them to do something they don't want to do. [quote] (And on top of all t

Reply to A World of Green Zones and Red Zones in Politics JoeUser Forums

Enclave capitalism is fascinating. As Brad is always saying, it's amazing how much we need our rich and middle classes to provide essential services. Without them, roads fall apart, schools crumble into dust, hospitals die and the idea of a communal citizenship pretty much disappears. Indonesia could be said to have an enclave capitalist approach. The efforts of the World Bank and the IMF have drastically reduced their tax income and corruption has claimed much of the rest (by reducing

Anti-piracy advertising is hilarious in Entertainment JoeUser Forums

I've just been watching a few dvds before heading out for new years, and as it happened I just saw one of the ridiculous propaganda ads for the various anti-piracy organisations played as part of the dvd. You know the ones - they say stuff like "You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a wallet, you shouldn't buy copyrighted goods" and leave you with the feeling that maybe you should be stealing cars and wallets, because that would at least differentiate you from those anti-fun sc

Reply to Will Smith is More Evil than Hitler in Politics JoeUser Forums

Here I was thinking you were going to make some witty comment about the evil of perpetrating godawful movies like 'Wild Wild West' and 'I am Legend' on this earth, when instead you reveal a bunch of Yanks have got their panties in a knot over something utterly unimportant. There are some days where the truth seems vastly more trivial than fiction.

Reply to Benazir Bhutto assassinated! in International JoeUser Forums

[quote]Her death jeopardizes the future of democracy in Pakistan.[/quote] In a way yes and in a way no. Democracy as foreigners would have it - yes. Democracy as Pakistanis would have it - probably not. The Islamic right seem to be extremely popular, particularly in rural areas. They're also fairly well-known for being less corrupt than the democrats or Musharef. Personally I think it would be better for Pakistan to learn first-hand that Islamofascists aren't any better than regular eve

Reply to Benazir Bhutto assassinated! in International JoeUser Forums

It's a shame she was assassinated, but she wasn't a great president. She was utterly corrupt and hopelessly nepotistic. Still, she was better than Musharef so I suppose that counts for something.

Reply to My friends are liberals in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I've always found that being able to disagree with your friends about politics is always a good thing. Being naturally contrarian it's a gift I have with everyone - those left of me are dirty hippies who wash in tiedie and eat their own filth and those right of me are one jackboot away from Pol Pot. Disagreements are fun, and the advantage of disagreeing with your mates is that you'll inevitably make up as soon as you stop arguing, so that's always a bonus. So much better than arguing w

Hope you had a great christmas in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Howzit. This is just a quick reply to everyone who sent me a christmas message. Hope you all had a great holiday and enjoyed your time off, I know I did. Hopefully you also managed to bury the remains of unlikable relatives without getting caught and/or were able to deal with them without resorting to execution-style murder. Getting back together with family can be an iffy time for everyone but I'm sure we all made it through intact. See you around.

Reply to Now THIS is What a War on Christmas Looks Like! in Current Events JoeUser Forums

On the article - The same sort of thing happens in Indonesia around that time in certain areas of the country. It really does put the war on Christmas into perspective! on the comments - I've always hated lent. It's a real downer. I'm happy with the idea of a war on it. How about, just for the month of lent, adding a new vice to your collection? Why not take up theft or coveting the asses of neighbours, or disrespecting your parents?

Reply to Slavery for the government in Blogging JoeUser Forums

[quote]That if only I'd take JoeUser down, some other "Entrepreneur" would finally have their opportunity to set up their own blog community to replace it. Which is, of course, nonsense. The market doesn't work like that. If JU went down, it would go down. The people would go and find some other existing site and new sites would emerge organically as they would have otherwise.[/quote] It's not that they would finally have their opportunity, it's just that there are more than 500,000 o

Reply to A smarter tax system in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]What I would propose would be a system in which we maintain the progressive tax structure for governmental services (defense, education, roads, EPA, courts, federal police, etc.) but have a per taxpayer tax to cover the rest. That is, if people really support having the government provide health care insurance for other people's children, then they shouldn't mind paying correspondingly more in taxes to pay for it.[/quote] Do you mean a kind of opt-in extra service (such

Reply to Slavery for the government in Blogging JoeUser Forums

[quote] I think it's pretty harsh to tell someone if they want to change the system, they should just get out of the country. The fact is, Draginol is acitizen, as am I, and we do have a right to be represented by the government.[/quote] I didn't look at it from that perspective; I was wondering why you guys seemed so narky. Sure you can stay and try and change things, but you're going to have to think of some practical ways to regain control over education first as unfortunately it

Reply to The Myth of the College Degree in Current Events JoeUser Forums

[quote] My Beloved Other, Simon, is an excellent example. He has a BA in Social Science, a Master's in Political Philosophy, and put in six year's worth of postgraduate effort on a PhD, which He eventually abandoned due to a geographical move which made it all but impossible to complete.[/quote] The kind of degree you have is pretty important though - A PhD in philosophy will actually shut off job opportunities because many people assume it means the person is a lazy intellectual.<b

Reply to Slavery for the government in Blogging JoeUser Forums

[quote]How easy it is for you to say that when you pay a tiny fraction of what I pay for in taxes.[/quote] You know I respect you Brad, but what are you trying to say here? Is wealth a prerequisite for an informed or balanced opinion on citizenship? Are you suggesting I'm cursed by my peasant nature into little thoughts, and am therefore incapable of being rational over money? You might be right, but I thought you were less class-focused in your views. [quote]Moreover,