utemia

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics Stardock Forums

Ok, so you argue that you have to have a phd to form general conclusions like genetic engineering can have sideeffects that were unknown beforehand. It is your prerogative to appear like an idiot. [quote]you seem ignorant of genetic engineering[/quote] I never said I was a genetical enginner, but why don't you point out exactly what was wrong in my example or what was so dumb in that line of reasoning? You just make statements without backing them up most of the time.

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Can you for once be not polemic? You just sound like a redneck hooligan all the time

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

As to reasons why Hitler was so popular and was able to do all he did - that can not be answered shortly. Many different reasons acummulated, loss world war 1 and the treaty of Versailles with its extensive restrictions left the German populace with a resentment against the treaty and ultimately contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler. The form of government after ww1 in Germany (Weimarer Republic) was a unstable democracy with too many loopholes for dictatorial power for the president in cas

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

I was debating with myself wether to open that discussion or not, because it is a ugly can of worms for me. The Holocaust and WW2 are never very far away from the collective german mind.. it is not easy. Whenever I read or research its history, I can't really grasp how they were able to rationalize genocide, to perfect the process and logistics of killing millions. And how so many germans after the war claimed to never have been Nazis and to have had no knowledge about the deathcamps.. and so

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

The holocaust and world war 2 had nothing to do with wether guns were available to the german population or not.

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Nope, have to disagree on that one. It should not be impossible to have a neutral debate about a political issue, no less. lol it is a wonder that your political system works at all if everybody that is emotionally involved is automatically excused from acting rationally.

Reply to Nomad at Heart... in Life Stardock Forums

Going all Forest Gump? Sounds really like a great idea. You should go to Europe, we have all those very nice old pilgrimage walkways over the Alps and all over, and they are really great. Just an idea

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Questioning the validity of the 2nd amendment and having an academic debate about it, which include all different positions there are - pro and con, does not automatically mean changing the constitution. It seems that even talking about it (having a neutral debate) is already a sacrilege to some - and that is just nuts. I have discovered this entrenchment in certain political oppinions on numerous occasions, and it is rather primitive if you ask me. You should always be able to have an argume

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books JoeUser Forums

I have read some dystopian novels, and if you liked that book you might also like Oryx and Crake from Margaret Atwood. It is a brilliant book, very well written.

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books JoeUser Forums

[quote]But the question is wether that sentiment and interpretation, which are from the 18th century and the beginning of the idea of a national state, should still be valid for todays contemporary US society.[/quote] And that answer can be negative or positive, but even asking the question seems to turn the asking party into the antichist for some, who feel that it means taking away their freedom and making them easy prey for the government. It is sounds really really strange from the outsid

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

[quote]the English colonists weren't going to put down their arms (guns) for anyone, including the government, and that laid the foundation to the way we Americans have the ability to buy and use weapons today.[/quote] Yes, true. But the question is wether that sentiment and interpretation, which are from the 18th century and the beginning of the idea of a national state, should still be valid for todays contemporary US society. You do have a standing army, and wasn't the whole reason

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

And since everybody believed that world war 3 would be fought out on german soil, and since world war 3 was mostly percieved as a nuclear attack the military(nato) must have some plans on what to do about the emp fallout as well. You need communications and moving vehicles and airplanes for fighting a war after all - even if I don't have a clue about tactics otherwise. I have a friend from Lübeck (in the northeast of Germany). He told me that in case of an attack on west ger

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

No, Brad, I haven't read it. But it is a book that I would read if I had the opportunity, because it is interesting and a little bit frightening, like 28 days later without the rage but similiar situations. Basically, paranoid dystopia - and those are mostly a good read. And yes, Americans like being paranoid. It seems to be a way of living. In Germany, people do not have guns en masse and pretty much listen and trust the authorities. In fact, nobody I know owns a gun. No civilian can

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics Stardock Forums

What's with all the insults hmm? Are you incapable of maintaining a civilized way of communicating? That example was not to show my smartmess but to highlight the impact of technology in many different fields, because IQofSpam was pretty clear that human technology could not influence anything. If you did not understand that, well then maybe you should go back to school.

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

I agree that the plot is unrealistic paranoid science fiction, but it does raise interesting questions of what would happen if all electricity and technology would ceize to work from one moment to the next. It is a thought experiment and as such fun. I also firmly believe that the threat of nuclear attack followed by invasion is very unlikely - who would poison the land one wanted to conquer with radiation? Scratch that, threat of invasion in the US is nonexistent. Who would want to in

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics Stardock Forums

Well, since I don't know how many nuclear warheads have already been detonated - 2 ended WW2 and I don't know how many tests in Nevada, the pacific ocean and Kasachstan and other places I can't think of right now, by your statement the environment has already been affected and altered permanently by technology. My argument about technology affecting the environment is not limited to possible effects on global climate but applies to all aspects of the environment. If you think about it,

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1528313029232126903&ei=diJCSuLnEdaI-Aa7rc3OBw&q=duck+and+cover&hl=en

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Makes you wonder how humanity survived at all before its dependency on electronics, doesn't it? But no need to become overly paranoid. I am certain that essential systems could be repaired in time to prevent the complete breakdown of society and anarchy and restore order. Unless you live in a place where everybody stocks up in guns to defend themselves and their property against the government and any criminals with knifes (just in case), builds a nuclear bombshelter on the frotnyard (

Reply to Wisdom of the Past in Misc Stardock Forums

If a woman is raped and becomes pregnant she is out of luck so to speak. Either she is pregnant while not married, which is frowned upon in a lot of places still, or she has a child out of wedlock which is sin in most cultures and religon. This does not mention the traumatic experience, the humiliation, shame and also guilt that many feel. It is a very difficult situation and no easy solution is possible. If they abort they are not only a sinner once because they had a child out of wedlock bu

Reply to Wisdom of the Past in Misc Stardock Forums

It is always easy to wax poetically about just and right decisions when you yourself are not actually the one having to deal with it. That is true for all aspects of life though. Thankfully, the modern western society does not as a rule ostracise woman that become pregnant after being raped. That is not so everywhere. Rape has been used as warfare through the ages, and especially in Bosnia many woman and young girls were raped during the war. Many killed themselves rather than to

Reply to Wisdom of the Past in Misc Stardock Forums

Then she would have been a mother of twins while still young enough to be in elementary school - young enough to be their older sister and in no way fit to be a mother - a child herself in need of parents. Or she would have not survived the pregnancy at all, twins need room to develp after all. I

Reply to Wisdom of the Past in Misc Stardock Forums

It is something that is totally alien for me, almost no civilian outside law enforcement owns a weapon here. There are gunclubs and people who practise shooting at a range as sport, but I know nobody who even owns a gun. Can you explain to me why you think that the current legistlation is taking freedom away because it is increasing government control? For me, the current crisis came to be because there we no control in the financial sector and greed and the wish to make a quick buck b

Reply to Wisdom of the Past in Misc Stardock Forums

The man was dealt with as well, but abortion is abortion.. or that was the argument used. As I can tell, abortion is a very hotly debated issue in the states. It is my impression though that alot of that debate is very polemic and polarizing in its rhetoric, on every side, so it is very difficult to have a critical and productive debate over it to find the best solution. People have their opinion. rooted in religion or in civil rights or whatever, and are mostly not even willing to listen to

Reply to Wisdom of the Past in Misc Stardock Forums

I had an argument with my mother a few days ago: In Brazil a 9 year old girl was raped by her uncle and pregnant with twins. She aborted the twins - and in her case I have to say that there was probably no other way, she was 9!!! can you imagine a little tiny girl with twins? - and the biship there excommunicated her. I think that was just unacceptable and that the strict application of canonic law is totally excessive and inhumane in that instance. My mom said that the bishop had no choice b

Reply to Wisdom of the Past in Misc Stardock Forums

One thing to keep in mind when talking about the RCC in Europe or the church in general before the reformation in the 15th and 16th century I suppose is its long tradition and history one the one hand and the intricate relationship between political power and church hierarchy on the other. The reason why the RCC "controls everything" in Poland as you put it is most likely due to the fact that the RCC has a couple century long tradition. Poland and Lithuania used to be a really huge and