Lateralus

Gotta agree with Indy. I like the dames from black and white films. [hide=Audrey Hepburn][/hide] God she's gorgeous. That said, I am partial to a little Natalie Portman too.

I analyse action quite a lot. My own and other people. I think about why a person might have done something, even if it's trivial, and I end up convincing myself that it's some kind of power play. I forget about it pretty quickly. I try to think of story ideas as often as possible. Failing that I try to think of pretty sentences. Because I've been reading Baudrillard, my mind has been principally occupied with post-modernity. I can definitely feel that we're in a state somewhere between modernity and post-modernity and I don't much like where things are headed.

Black coffee (2 sugars), Robinson's apple and blackcurrant, Tennent's lager, Johnny Walker Black. Edit: Changed my mind about the lager. I do like Tennent's very much, but I'm going to go for Stella Artois and Heineken as the preference.

I was speaking with someone just yesterday about the huge responsibility the Pioneer Plaque has. It's quite well thought out, and I don't know that we could send a better message than that.

Well, if a corpse is a person and so is someone who is completely brain dead, then being a person is not what matters. The existence of a 'self' is the issue that matters.

Obviously we're treading in murky waters once again, and I can't define it exactly, but can try to illustrate my point with an example. Terri Schiavo was a human, but she was not a person. 'Self' is a much better word to use.

My history class at school was almost entirely about source analysis. I thought it was a useful class.

Gangs are a symptom. Fix social and economic inequality and they'll go away. As with just about everything, education is the answer. Making it illegal just to be a gang member is a horrible idea. Essentially you would be convicting people of thought crime.

Human and person are not the same thing.

That's the worst analogy I've ever heard.

Use the edit button rather than making two posts so close together please.

Everyone I know hates Bush, so I don't know if he's going to be remembered as a good president in other countries. From outside view, Bush is the one that was the bad one, and also the one, in my opinion, that made everyone hate the United States. I'm sorry, but without knowing who those people are that means absolutely nothing. Just about everyone under the age of 16 (at least) hates Bush because that's the message that has been trickled down to them. The people who constantly called Bush an idiot were generally idiots themselves, and it was just joke that stupid people made to feel smart. With regards to the Iraq war - The United States and allies did what was required of them to take steps against very real threats. Now, the day to day happenings of the war were hardly ideal at all, but I shudder to think how different things could have been if not for many of the Bush administration's foreign policies.

Nicotine is generally considered more addictive than heroin I believe, at least in terms of dependency.

Where do you/they live? I'm from the UK, where cigarettes are typically much more expensive than the states, and a pack and a half a day adds up to just over 200 pounds (about 330 dollars). I'm not arguing that it's not expensive as hell (and like I said, it's worse here) but it's not as expensive as you/they say.

It's true that it's hard to understand why anyone would smoke unless you're a smoker yourself. The benefits are only really obvious to those who have already broken through the disgusting first week or so of smoking and then reaped the tasty, tasty rewards. It's good that it's like that; it makes it easier for me to go on about how I love smoking without worrying that I'm influencing anyone too much. Why do I love it? Many reasons. It's the ultimate in self medication, and it's ridiculously versatile. Can't sleep? Go for a smoke and you'll feel tired. Too sleepy? Go for a smoke and you'll wake up a bit. Hungry? A little cigarette will tide you over until you can get home. It'll make you hungry if you're full too. Quick short puffs will make you feel stimulated, deep and slow ones will relax you. I couldn't be without cigarettes. Having a craving all the time keeps me ever so slightly mad, which fuels almost everything I do. Nicotine aids concentration and memory. I couldn't read or write as effectively if I didn't smoke, that's for sure. If you care about your health, then of course you shouldn't smoke. But that's not the way I live my life.

It most definitely is killing, however, the severity of that term differs a lot. We kill germs by washing our hands. We kill sperm by doing you-know-what. There's nothing really wrong with killing either of those. And as for abortion, you could say the same. Yes, the baby was killed but killing isn't always going to be evil or whatever. Sometimes it's necessary. To say abortion isn't killing a fetus just sounds dishonest to me though. On the other side of that though I feel people use the word kill on purpose to invoke emotion. It's not the same as killing an actual baby (who is already born) but they still hold it as the same. Again, it depends on the timing. Terminating a zygote or early stage foetus and terminating a baby a few weeks from birth are quite different things. I don't see the distinction between a foetus that's developed for 8 or so months and a baby who is two weeks old.

Yeah. I'd love to see them and Alice in Chains, but having to endure through all those others? [cabbage]. I saw Lizzy supporting Deep Purple and they were absolutely terrible. With John Sykes on vocals and guitar, right? He's a hack. Yeah that's right. He was terrible and wouldn't stop swearing. I like a good curse but this guy was ridiculous. Gorham's playing and tone were awful too. I don't even like the real Lizzy stuff (with the exception of Sun Goes Down), but I can recognise the massive talent of Phil Lynott and Gary Moore. Without them the band is less than nothing.

It's pretty insulting to call a girl easy because she has sex after a few dates. Girls love it too - They just keep that quiet (mostly).

Lots of Van Morrison and Asobi Seksu. Bit of an odd combo, but my ears are happy.

It's a very confusing issue for me. On the one hand, I don't think early abortions involve ending a life or, even less accurately, killing a person. I don't believe in souls so terminating some cell growth is just that in my eyes. On the other hand you are ending an opportunity for life, which isn't something I could say I'm delighted about. If it was a girl I got pregnant I'm sure the coward in me would be incredibly relieved if she decided to get an abortion, so I can't condemn other people for it. In the end the convinience and ability to protect me from unwanted circumstances mean I'm for abortions being legal and available.

Yeah. I'd love to see them and Alice in Chains, but having to endure through all those others? [cabbage]. I saw Lizzy supporting Deep Purple and they were absolutely terrible.

I'm about average build, leaning towards the slimmer side of things. The funny thing is I look like I'm in pretty good shape, but my insides must be completely rotten from the years of abuse.

Congratulations to all.

It's a thought experiment of course. Since the number of people who believe it has nothing to do with the truth of it, it works just fine. It's not to say that they're equally plausible (since as you said, one is obviously made up for the sake of argument) but that the amount of supportive evidence for the two is the same. I wouldn't ridicule someone for the study of the Bible because that's a perfectly reasonable thing to be doing with your time. A priest can chastise me all he likes for not believing in god - It's an argument I enjoy having and one I think he'd have trouble with. He has every right to criticise my non-belief, provided that that's all he does.

You can assign value to any arbitrary action in that way. If someone genuinely believe that doing the funky chicken would bring them money, you would quite rightly ridicule them. Let them do it if it makes them happy, but let your thoughts be known. I don't think such issues exist.