Moonlight Graham

Why is marijuana illegal, but Civ games are legal? They're like crack x 1000.

Big STTNG fan, not so much the original series (except the movies). I agree with above, also "Chain of Command", the one where Picard is captured and tortured by the Cardassians:

This thread. I'm done with it.

Yes I suppose you're right.

This isn't the first time Mr. Canada has admitted he may have been wrong about a previous core belief. Not an easy thing to do for anyone, and yes should be applauded.

I think it goes beyond the fear of death. I think it seeks to explain those big burning questions people couldn't (and sometimes still can't) answer. Where did humans come from? How did the earth and the stars and the universe come to be? What happens when we die (relates to the fear of death)? For other religions, like Greek or Roman mythology, it can explain things like why does it rain, why does it thunder/lightning? Why do we have earthquakes floods etc.? As you say, science has helped answer many of these ancient questions.

Let's all assume for a second that God does exist. Would you rather live by your own free thought and concept of what is right/wrong and go to hell, or accept his doctrine of right/wrong and be his bitch but go to heaven for eternity? I guess if God did exist and created me I suppose I'd already be his bitch, so I'd choose heaven lol.

Many Judeo-Christian religions etc. teach that if you don't follow what is right or wrong as determined by God, you will go to hell etc. or otherwise be punished. But who is God to tell me (or religions to tell me that God tells me) what I should believe is morally right or wrong? Do I not have the right to respectfully disagree with him, and to have a philosophical debate with him on issues of morality? If I think people should have the right to divorce, or that homosexuals can have sex, do I not have the right to believe these things? If I were a homosexual, would it be admirable/honourable to defend my right to have sex with my gay boyfriend & so acting & believing what I think is morally just, by accepting whatever punishment (going to hell, purgatory, etc.) God will impose on me? Do we have a right to define our own morality instead of blindly following what is tyrannically dictated to us by God as stated in a horribly flawed & human-edited/written book? Am I starting a revolution vs God, and if so, do you think we could kick his ass & dispose of his rule over us if we had enough guns? If successful, should we install a democratic regime of morality where we the people determine what is right/wrong instead of a tyrant God?

AW, I like you. You seem like a good person, a smart person. But for some reason when you get into certain debates (like this one) with Canadian posters having opinions on the US that make you feel slighted because of your nationalistic pride, logic seems to fly out the window with you and it's impossible to have a fair, rational debate with you. You get your back up and get all butt-hurt. Looking at the threads in the "US Politics" forum, if I were an American maybe I'd be reacting the same, dunno. It's just hard to debate you on US political matters because you make it all "American vs Canadian". I tried to make my previous post as respectful and analytical as I could, it still didn't work. I'd debate you on this but it's just going to go in circles, so let's just agree to disagree. Wa??? Again, I think I'm very fair on the US. I criticize them when they deserve it, I also praise them and have several times on here argued how the US is under-appreciated, especially as the global hegemon. I posted a thread last week titled "This is why America is great" for crying out loud! Can't win with you.

I think there's some truth to what you're saying. Most are on their way to work. For me, I don't have time to stop to listen to a busker on my way to work. They should try the same experiment on a Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon in some busy downtown section, and make it on the street outside or in a busy mall.

There's nothing really controversial with your argument. Looking at the evidence, Canada seems to be quite convincingly the most important country to the US (and vice-versa without a doubt). We're the #1 US trading partner, and we buy so many exports from the US that no other country even comes close. We're the #1 exporter of oil, and share an energy/electricity grid like you referred. Trade, infrastructure, defence, resources, tourism, Canada leads in all. You could make a meh case for Mexico, and a decent case for China (buyer of debt, reliance on cheap labour/goods for higher standard of living), but I'm pretty sure most who analyzed it would say Canada is the most important country to the US.

That just proves we need more internet privacy, not less. To me, it's scary that any website/blog etc. (including this side) can very easily know your IP, the area of a city you're connecting from, what browser you're using, your screen resolution, what you searched to get to that site, and of course track all your usage of their site etc. etc. I had a blog once and used Google Analytics, and was shocked by the amount of info anyone can track about their users.

Vikileaks has been a great read. Internet vengeance is so hilarious.

Speak softly and a carry a big...plate of poutine to share with your friends! We're so freaking loveable it's ridiculous

Unless you're paying for things with coins or 20's.

Or the opposite: maybe MP wages should be determined relative to that years' Canadian GDP-per-capita or something lol. That would sure get them off their asses!

This was about as predictable as a sunrise.

From reading that, Stockwell obviously has limited knowledge of economic history. Just in the last few decades, the Reagan/Thatcher led neoliberalism of pressuring wide free market reforms in developing countries helped some of those states economically, but hurt many others. Every country, government, sector, and policy issue etc. is different, and demands a careful case-by-case treatment, and simply brushing everything with the "free market is always best" dogma has been proven a fallacy. Ie: South Korea has proven that in its case, a market economy mixed with strong state-guided economic planning can produce excellent economic growth. It's also asinine to me that people like Day seem to care far more about the rights and overall lot of "hard-working rich people" than hard-working everybody else.

I totally agree 100%. People get way too offended these days. They are just words. Sticks and stones... When did we become such babies? My feelings are hurt waaaaaah!! Whatever happened to just ignoring people? Maybe it has to do with people now growing up with fewer siblings. Nothing will toughen you up against name-calling than a few siblings teasing the heck out of you since birth.

Seems recent events have convinced many citizens and governments that not paying for spending and racking up debt/deficits actually has negative consequences beyond passing the buck to your grandkids. Looks like reality has hit, we have to balance our books, and our current standard of living (both publicly and privately) is beyond our means and unsustainable. We've been living in a la-la land dreamworld. It was fun while it lasted...i guess.

I don't think Michael's intent in this thread was to single out the US in an underhanded way. I think his point is that some Christians are bonkers, and that he wanted to shed light on this horrible camp.

There was no such thing as Canadian citizenship until 1947. Until then, we were all British.

Maybe that wasn't the original message? God didn't write the Bible, nor Jesus.

I think many if not most churches are set up with good intentions, but power corrupts, and humans seem to inevitably screw up what at one time may have been good messages.