The provision in the constitution for arming citizens was not put there so that invaders could be fought off. It was put there so that the central government could be kept under control.
That idea has been lost, and the central government is out of control. The constitutional intentions are not being adhered to. It is time to change. But for that, the people have to wake up. Perhaps they are too full of Prozak, though.
Are you really awaiting a rational answer? It's no different than 'fundamentalist' Islamics. What they say and do have nothing to do with the actual fundaments. Killing visitors is expressly forbidden in the Koran. And of course 'killing for Christ' is an oxymoron.
Belief and rationality don't often go together. They can, they just don't.
How is this great for Europe? It makes US goods cheaper and easier to sell! It helps them pay their debt more easily. You think they are doing this for Europe? Think again!
Thought this might be more music quotations, but it doesn't have much to do with the Rolling Stones' song. That Midnight Rambler had plenty of work to do to keep him busy. And love didn't have much to do with it, except the love of mayhem.
Love. There's a subject. Can't live with it, can't live without it. Or is it just a post-Renaissance illusion? Did it exist for most people when our ancestors were mere peasants working the fields 16 hours a day all year long? When folks lived in tiny villages where everyone knew everything about everyone else and families of twelve or more lived in one small room along with any animals they were lucky enough to own. When babies were made, had and died right in the middle of everything else.
Today, we talk about it all the time in ways that tend to indicate we understand very little. Media have encouraged us to take it for granted on the one hand and to be desperate if we don't have it on the other. We all need affection and care to be healthy, of course, at least as children. What we find as adults is another story. But how many people are really adults? The 'loves' and 'losses' are mostly illusion, don't you think? Wouldn't things work a lot better if we took our time and knew who we were before trying to make a life with another who doesn't know, either? Isn't most of this upset preventable?
Well, I suppose it is a bit different perspective for a man, but still in this context I don't see what the fear would be. If it's in a respectable restaurant, what can happen?
OK, all other caveats aside (you already clarified that one is not in any relationship, and I assume it's in a place where there are decent places to eat, etc.), sure, why not go? Have to give the individual high marks for audacity, and that alone can make for an interesting person. In fact, this has more or less happened to me and I did go. Didn't turn into more than just a friendship, but there's nothing wrong with that, either.
No 'god' exists in the ridiculous, Santa Claus-like way the vast majority conceive. The very term should perhaps be banished from our language because of its destructive power to obviate responsibility.
Yet there is an effable 'Something' to the universe. Where could creatures such as we are (or at least can be) come from if the universe is mere mechanism? Where would love and poetry arise in a mere physical mixture?
I don't know what is the 'Truth', but I know some of the things it isn't. And it isn't in churches, synagogues or mosques. Or rather, no more there than under an stone you might pick up.
Karma is involved in the cycle of life, meaning that it is linked to 'rebirth'. The object of advancing in the cycle of rebirth is to eventually escape from that very cycle, thus avoid passing again and again through this world of illusion and suffering. So, karma is not good or bad, it just is.
Speaking personally, karma is just a metaphor, since I don't believe in it in the religious or cultural sense myself. For me, it is just a way of speaking about the actions in this life.
Quantum physics is provoking profound changes in the thinking of a certain group historically known for their skepicism when it comes to spirituality. There seems very little difference in the theories of how things work and some of the principal concepts of some religions, especially Hindu and Buddhist. Jesus said some interesting things that go with it, too, as well as modern knowledge about perception and psychology.
Anyway, the only question for God would be "can You prove I'm not imaginning this and everything else?"
Otherwise, just seeing God would pretty much answer all questions.
The pic could have been made in another country. I think you need to ask 'her' (if what you're thinking is true, it might not be the correct gender, either!). Get some kind of verification you'll be satisfied with. If she can't or won't give that, well, your question is already answered. But tell us what it is 'she' could be scamming; it could be important to everyone in case this becomes a trend.
Seems he just inserted this and ran. Trying to stir us, perhaps?
Systems are difficult to compare. Higher education is part of the public system in France, so Doctors don't finish school with hundreds of thousands of dollars' debt. They don't have to max out on the first slob who enters their new office. Also, most people here get into the profession to do good (quaint idea, I know).
Maybe supporting education for minorities or something would start a trend of lower-priced healthcare. It just seems barbaric to have more care available than can be consumed, then refuse to give it because of money. Do people exist for goods, or vice-versa?
No waiting here in France. System runs well. It is possible. Independence is all well and good, but some things are better done collectively. Remember, the US was one of the first to collectivize education, making free and universal an industry that was entirely private up till then. Anyone want to end that system?
No answers from the 'wise' originator of this thread? Courage of convictions absent?
I once heard a speaker defines rights as something you can exercise in a context. In the US you supposedly have the liberty to move about freely, but if you're being held at gunpoint in a bank, what good is that 'right'?
So, rights are what we decide they are. Is providing services that are available for the health of fellow human beings a right? I don't know, but I'd like to see a system in place that assured such. France has a system and a level of healthcare unexceeded in the world (stats available on the Web). It works very well. The French deal with it as a right.
And why do people go into the field of caring for others. Just to make money? That's REALLY sad!
We could reverse this question; does the richest country that has ever existed have the right to ignore suffering and allow helpless individuals to die when it is evidently avoidable? In most places, failure to aid someone in danger is a crime.
Humans, of course, created the CONCEPT of 'god'. That concept externalizes and objectifies. If 'GOD' exists, such objectification is absurd, and, thus, makes all religions an enormous lie (or even sacrilege).
It goes back to language. These seem like good, apt questions, but study a little philosophy and you'll find satisfaction in knowing that some of this IS NOT KNOWABLE in the classic sense of 'knowing'.
And I don't know if you find out at 'death' (another word for something we don't understand). But, wait, Grasshopper, until you don't need to wait any longer.
dbert Forum Posts (884)
RE: mine
Get it out! Let it flow!