magekillr

Sweden agrees with you: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009157611 http://sugiero.blogspot.com/2008/01/top ... women.html

insane, the fact remains that the United States and other Western countries that have laws against homosexuals are not theocracies, and should not include any baseless religion that you see as truth into their laws. If you can't name a single secular reason to ban homosexuality, or a reason to not give them rights, then you have no right to do either of these two things. It's downright hatred, and I can't believe that people feel the need to make these things their top priority when there are other causes that Christ would be expecting you to go out and achieve. Hell, now the Christian Right is boycotting McDonald's. No, not because their food is downright disgusting and horrible for the body, but because they're "supporting the homosexual agenda". Jesus christ I feel like I'm living in 1865.

You would not have gotten along with me, I suppose. I ripped my mother's shirt off while in a shopping cart one time. I know what I want, when I want it :lol:

I live in America, I discuss American patriotism and nationalism while leaving it for the rest of the forum to discuss it in their own general ways, or to be specific for their own country. Perhaps OT should have a subsection for "debate" if you feel this is "flamebaiting". Why are people proud to be American? Thats like being proud to be 5'11", or proud to have a pre-disposition to colon cancer. Aren't you "proud" of something that you've done or worked on or accomplished? Being "proud" to be American is pretty silly to me. I'm happy to be American, but not proud. With that said, the "patriots" with the John Deere hats and the 4x4 trucks in my town all think this country couldn't be any better. To me, however, I see no ceiling to America's greatness and I think people are prone to settle for where we are at now. I refuse.

American Independence Day has just passed (or will as I'm typing this up), so I figured I would see what other people think about Patriotism and Nationalism. I think nationalism and patriotism are both equally dumb ideas as they are used synonymously quite often. I don't see anything terribly wrong with celebrating the birth of your nation, especially with the way the world is structured I guess, but the levels that America takes it is so beyond me. I went to my grandparent's house today to enjoy barbecues, drink, family, and I'm asked where my "Red white and blue" is. I said that I don't believe in having pride in one's nation, and my family looked at me like I was born somewhere not on this Earth. The attitude that somehow I'm ungrateful because I disagree with unconditional pride in my country is what makes me mad about this holiday. Actually, not the holiday, but the idea in general. Numero Uno Problem with America: The American Dream. The American Dream is the biggest lie ever to be told, and the fact that people continually profess it is the reason we don't have very good foreign relations. "We're so great because this story wouldn't be possible anywhere else in the world! This makes America the greatest country on Earth! Let's share this great freedom with the rest of the world so they can live like us and be happy!" That's the attitude that I'm fed up with; that we need to be revered and worshiped as being a safe haven and refuge for the rest of the world in the names of freedom and liberty. People continuously call me ungrateful and say "Just look at all the people that want to come here!!!", but they don't realize it's precisely BECAUSE other people have it so much worse than us - both within and without our borders - that I cannot be party to self-indulgent nationalism. We celebrate our triumphs at the expense of ignoring the woes of others. My love for humanity does not stop at the border, and American patriotism seldom takes the form of remembering the glorious things we have wrought for the world's benefit, only the glorious things we have wrought for our own benefit. And who is we, in any case? Our urban poor, the hundreds of homeless people with whom I interact on a daily basis at work, many of them veterans of our dirty wars, are they reaping the benefits of this great society of which we so self-indulgently pride ourselves on being a part? Our despised illegal immigrants, who do the work of slaves with almost nothing in the way of recompense so that we can enjoy our bloated standards of living while reviling the very people who make them possible? The millions upon millions in this nation who don't have access to even basic health care? That is vanity, not pride in a high achievement. Any country can strive to make itself better, to inflate the quality of life of its citizens. That's nothing exceptional. Something to be grateful for, yes, but that gratitude must go hand-in-hand with an appreciation of the arbitrariness of privilege and an awareness of the need to redress the imbalance between what you have and what the rest of the world has not. Until these things become the dominant themes of what America calls 'patriotism' I cannot take part with my whole heart. American-style patriotism ultimately serves to illustrate and enhance the differences and disparities among the human family in terms of wealth, achievement, safety, happiness, privilege, education...ultimately, indeed, to celebrate them; this I cannot bear. Maybe it's white guilt. If so, it's welcome. What are you views about patriotism and nationalism, within your own country and even in general?

Me and the father. No blood relation...just thought I'd point that out because people on other forums go "Omg I totally see the resemblance!"

I use facebook every day as means of political campaigning, and for new forums. Plenty of discussion boards there. Um, I've also networked with quite a few people, have found job opportunities, lawyers have helped me prepare my case against the honor court, and I've met some amazing people. Hell, last night I was on the phone for 3 hours with 6 people from one facebook group.

I didn't, guss did. Besides, if someone felt the need to talk about this, why would they make a new topic?

That ruling was justified in the 18th century, but it didn't fly in 1967 :shame: Ah no, I'm religious, I'm Christian and I don't see anything wrong with inter-racial marriage. Well good, maybe in 5-10 years (or less...) state sanction bans will be removed by another Supreme Court case because banning gay marriage is in violation of the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th amendment. I can't think of any secular reasons for banning it, and I've looked for a long time.

Isn't religion the same reason we believed Inter-racial marriage to be wrong? Loving vs. Virginia anyone? That ruling was justified in the 18th century, but it didn't fly in 1967 :shame:

At one time or in your life? In one's life time, well, whatever floats your boat...there is no set amount. At a time? Depends on your partner. Some like and even welcome open relationships... I say the "ok" number is relative on the people in the relationship.

Frankly I think sexuality is over-emphasized in society and I don't really think it's as important as we all make it out to be. People who get really obsessed with identifying with their sexuality - hetero- or homo- - are really missing the point by choosing to emphasize the differences between people (thereby making them points of contention, intolerance, conflict) rather than our overwhelming similarities, which transcend race, sexuality, ethnicity, economic background, whatever. George Carlin often talked about this in his stand up, and of course being the bastard he was, he would do so in major ways that don't matter. Like he'd recognize that our society focuses so much on differences, but never recognizes the similarities that transcend us. However, in his talking points to further prove his points, he would discuss things like "Have you ever gone into a room, and forgot why you went in there?" Your obsession with your own sexuality shouldn't lead you into causing suffering for others, whether through infidelity, spreading STDs, failing to take precautions and spawning unwanted pregnancies, having children you aren't able to care for, etc. Stop the obsession about sexuality, and look at the similarities between HUMANS! Damn...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5TU2wE_ ... re=related My favorite bit...it's just too true and his facial expressions make me lose it haha.

I said I don't believe in any of that nonsense and that I was using the title for attention. Well the liberal media would be biased to you, so that's not a surprise. Would FOX be better? It was from The Guardian if anyone was wondering.

This one really just blew my mind - I can't believe Brussels got on board with this, even with Sarkozy pulling the strings. I just can't believe it. Europe, you better do all you can to get Mr. Bush out of your business... SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/30/eu.privacy

Nationalism and Patriotism...two overburdening qualities if you ask me. Why should you be proud of your country simply because you were born there by mere chance?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/ ... index.html You tell me :roll:

Why would they have the Necromancer when the witch doctor does the same things, and shoots fire balls without Trangoul's? Would be a waste of one of the 5 classes to have Witch Doctor and Necromancer.

I'll go ahead and take Bluelancer's statement about it being "one of the best ever", to "THE best ever". I have played LoD on and off since it first came out, and I still don't get entirely bored of it. The story wasn't "that long" (especially if you "rushed"), but the amount of game playing time was very high and I never got bored. The idea of a smaller world with a shorter story line with the "unlimited" game time is far more appealing to me than say WoW. I got bored of WoW after one month, the game just required too much of my time. Diablo I could just go on, level a little, log off...come back almost immediately where I left off and not have fallen terribly behind. By far the greatest game series ever made... I'm so excited and I definitely creamed my pants at the trailer graphics. The cinematics are going to crush Diablo 2's in quality...especially b/c D2's were made 8 years ago :o :shock: The graphics and game play look much better, but tbh I wish they didn't do away with the necromancer for this lame witch doctor. Diablo is a "dark" game, not some RPG taking place in the 13th century full of wonderful fairies and pixie dust magic.

Steps to make a theory: Hypothesis-->Experiment-->Repeat Experiment-->Submit for Peer review--> Editor writes back-->Revise-->Retest-->Resubmit for publishing (if it gets published, that is)-->If published scientists attack like vultures to disprove because science is essentially the art of disproving-->Scientists may accept it into the community--> THEORY! What do the other scientists think? People outside the scientific realm blur the lines of context between a scientific theory and the everyday use of the word "theory". Or is it because religion somehow got involved in politics? US in particular. Not only that, broadcasting religious, political views in the Middle East is offensive specifically to Muslims... lol Agreed. Americans have such a distorted view on their founding. We're taught that somehow these brave Puritans were being prosecuted of their religious freedom and forced to believe what the Church believed. To escape all this, they fled. Rubbish, they were basically sent out because of how ridiculous their beliefs were...religious prosecution indeed. More like getting rid of the crazies lol.

I don't believe you should follow every single thing the party says - you still have your own opinions. But pretending like you don't have to follow a certain party to make your opinions known is pretty foolish. In this country, we have two major parties - Labour and the Conservatives. I am a socialist. The Labour party sure as hell isn't socialist, but it is the only party whose views I agree with which stands a chance of forming a government. Sure, maybe on principle I should vote for Respect, but this is politics. All split-off groups like Respect do is weaken the left-wing. It'd be counter-productive for me to vote them. I agree with all of that, I was just saying I don't like the idea of forming your opinions purely based on prepackaged party policy. I can see where bringing voting into what I was trying to say confused things. Yeah the Democrats are pretty far from my real beliefs...technically the average democrat is center right/dead center. If I were voting on issues alone, I would have voted for Kucinich, or Nader...even they aren't my ideal candidates on issues alone. Won't find candidates that match your ideals on issues alone though, and you especially won't find a party that matches your issues alone. The Greens are much closer to me...but the fact is America is a conservative country with some moderates thrown in, and some liberals sprinkled on top. Major parties will appeal to the majority of the country.

Why are there weird letters and stuff throughout the post? I can't read it :? :wall:

Same, except for my one friend Caitlin. I thought there would be more people to identify with when it came to politics at college (as colleges tend to be more liberal), but I find Virginia Tech to be more centrist than liberal. Even online, like in the DC vs. Heller case...it was me vs. tip.it lol (except for Hoffman). I feel so out of place sometimes :?

You're the kind of voter I like. Party loyalty is stupid to me. But this has nothing to do with being apart of a party...this is where your views will generally land. Granted if you're a one/two issue voter, then you'd be more than likely qualify as someone who shouldn't take this compass into mind.

I never did. If that's your inference, that's your issue. I disagree. You're right, it is intrinsically in our nature as an evolved species to follow those measures; after all we're just another animal. However, where humans differ from the other species that dwell on this planet (such as bees :roll: ) is their ability to reason. That's great for you, but it's a level of feelings that I don't wish to have, nor to be consumed by. I utterly reject your false hypothetical dichotomy. What are you going to do now?