moderateamericain

Im not so much worried as to the reason for going to war, as it actually happening. Whatever reason is presented to the American people be it valid or false, it still means young men will be dieing. I can honestly say im counting the days till the next election.

An arguments evidence is open to criticism on a professional level. If an economist says he has found evidence that global warming is happening, I am in the argumentative right to point out he's not a qualified voice on that evidence. If the evidence is assumed fact (dangerous in itself), then yes, anyone that uses it correctly to support their argument should do so and only have their argument questioned. But when coming up with original evidence, qualifications are essiential and subject to criticism. Good points, i agree. Ad hominem arguments can be both a valid statment and a fallacy, thanks for making that point. In my opinion, i think the other 2 are far more likely be presented in a false way then ad hominem. Good post!

Im hoping that someone could speak intelligently as to what the debate is about the scientific morality debate on stem cell research. What i know about it is that stem cells are a result of impregnation in the first 5 days of formation when the cells are basically a blank slate, in otherwords havent formed into any specific organism yet. What i dont understand is how if this hasnt developed into any specific organism yet why is there debate on this? please keep this to actually fact, to be perfectly honest i dont care if its against your religion. please stick to scientific factual evidence for or against it THanks a bunch

Oui. ...and anyone else in the world who likes to discuss Canadian politics...right jbq? je ne comprend pas francais bien! Je sais mes francais es terrible! lol Im trying to learn german now as well. whats funny about my french is i can understand what your writing, even if i dont get some of the words i know enough to understand whats being talked about so go for it, and ill just sort it out!

I had the opportunity to speak with my Brother for about 15 minutes the other day. And he told me that they are drilling and preparing for possible scenarios involving Iran. For those of you who dont know he is currently deployed to Rawaa Iraq at this time. I fear this more than anything in the world at this moment because Iran is NOT Iraq, I have no doubt of are ability to sweep away Irans military capability, are air superiority is just to great, those new F22 are incredible, but to take and hold Iran i believe would be catastrophic to the economy of the United States. I also believe the loss of American life in such a move would be just too much. I consider myself fiscally conservative, and socially liberal, Unless the Republican party comes up with a much more centrist candidate for president im considering voting democrat in the next election. I know my reasons are selfish, but id rather my brother come home on the train then in a box with a flag drapped over it. Some parameters for the tread, Please keep your post to your opinions as the title states its an opinion thread, Im not trying to persuade anyone of anything, i just enjoy hearing others opinions on this matter. Thanks a bunch

A very intresting observation, espeically to me as i will be traveling there in August for the Yankees Tigers game. A few friends and I take a trip to a different baseball city every summer to enjoy the city and take in a game at a different park. Anways, as to the topic at hand, i can assure you without a doubt that MOST major American cities are not on that level of alert except for the airports. You do know that in most European countries you can see the same thing right? I saw plenty of French and German troopers humping assualt rifles through Urban areas. Im not sure where in Canada you are from, however if you wanna go to a large American city and really enjoy yourself i reccomend Chicago in the summer.

Hi all, just dropping in for an evening of Mapleleafweb.com! I know i dont post much lately, my duties keep me tied down lately, but i have most definetly been paying attention to whats going on here. I was reading a book on Critical thinking the other day, and one chapter in particular really brought to my attention some major flaw in arguments that i see time and time again here. Anyways i though id share some ideas. The first flawed argument i see alot of is the Ad Hominem. An ad Hominem fallacy is litteraly an attack on the souce of the argument. For example, If a long standing argument attributed to Socrates was discovered to actually have been given by Socrates sandlemaker, would it make the argument less powerful or valid? A commandment that we should all live by is When considering the quality of an argument, thou shalt not consider the source of the argument An argument stands or falls by its own merit The second flaw in argument i see a great deal is appeal to authority most of us just find someone who appears credible and assume its correct. Take for example, the theory's on the collapse of the twin towers, lets say 1000 civil engineers/demo experts say the plane crash couldnt have caused the collapse that way but 5000 say it collapsed as it should have. which is right? the fallacy here is we have a preset bias and we buy into whatever we WANT to here. While experts are persuasive in arguments you have to be careful your bias doesnt get in the way. two questions you have to ask, Is the source of the testimony trustworthy? and is the source really knowledgeable about the topic in question? The third large one and its almost always a fallacy to use appeal to ignorance in other words because we dont know whether or not its false, it must be true. Think tabloids, Angelina Jolie is pregenant by an alien, she hasnt denied it so it must be true. Alot of you thruthies abuse the hell out of this, however not to pick on just you i see it from other arenas as well. For the record, Im just as guilty of some of these as some of you, and i dont claim to be perfect, however if some of you heed these a little closer we will have far more substance and far less post i have to skim through for a valid argument. Thanks a bunch!

some intresting obvservations either way. My experience with soccer (futball) and football (throwball courtesy of black dog) is limited to 4 years of soccer in highschool and 6 years of football (4 years hs 2 walk on in college) In playing both sports, I can honestly say that I had a greater love of football. Soccer was a great game, and i still pay close attention during the world cup, but the thing that makes Football so intresting to me enough to go tailgate for the panthers or travel up to app state or another college to watch it, is the rich tradition that it holds. Personally I prefer college football to pro ball, pro players are their for the money college players are there for the prestiage and because they love it. Now is there problems, sure, sports boosters, gambling, etc. But the rich traditions and rivialries are very exciting. I dont think that Blackdog is being a "wanna be Euro" as some of you put. I think if you dont grow up into the tradition you cant really appreciate it. Its not elitist to not appreciate something that you dont trully understand. I can still remember the beat of the drums, as we walked down into are stadium and the lines of the band as we ran through them as they played are fight song. I still remeber every sprint and bone crushing hit, Hit someone or be hit at full speed and you feel like your teeth are gonna rattle out, watching the score board as time ran out with you on top, and sometimes the sadness of defeat. Those things never really go away, and unless you experieced them yourself, you wont ever appreciate them. As far as Canada getting a pro team, the big thing that i think is preventing it besides fan base, is weather.

You can also download it , check on the right hand panel. I burnt mine to cd as a keepsake. my younger brother is 19, big age gap there, and hes about to be deployed in his Light armor recon battalion into Rawaa Iraq, One thing I noticed about myself is that my sympathy for the Iraqi citizen went right out the window when i found out he was getting deployed there. Call me crazy, but between him and and an Iraqi i hope he kills the any iraqi who even points a gun at him. That may be sadistic, but i want my brother to come home bottom line. And yes, I did whoop him a good one for joining the Marine corps last year.

I could not vote for her at all. If she became president id move to canada. . Theres no way in hell the south would elect a women president, i just dont think we are there yet.

Okay: the majority or Iraqis speak Arabic, with some exceptions (Kurds, for example). Pedant. yeah the pay was worth it .

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...deoid=708661231 Enjoy!

So as im sure most of you old timers who still post here i made a bit of stent here for a while back. And i just wanted to pass on my observations of my time spent in Iraq. I made the journey there working for a cellular company who was doing maitenence duties on the Satellite phones. They were also training military personel on how to maintan them but i didnt have any part in that. When I landed in baghdad i was suprised at the level of activity, I thought it would be empty streets because of the violence, but it was really busy actually. I was quartered with the 7th logistic combat brigade, a nice bunch of kids, who made fun of me as an old army vet. Marines think there batter dont stink . When I walked around I was advised to always keep a flak jacket on and where a helmet. (which i did) In the month and a half i was actually there i lost count on the number of explosions i heard, but i only was ever close to one of em. I got close enough to smell the burning remains of what had once been a car i think. A young man and a older Iraqi women were killed in the blast. several others had various degrees of injury, One thing they all had in common was the Blood trickling out of ears and nose. A big enough explosion close enough to you will do that. The Iraqi people are a great people, but you can sort get the sense that they look at us like another type of dictator. I even had a few young men shout some things at me in their native tounge, which is Farsee? i think. Either way i didnt understand it. Umm what else, I saw a few injured Marines come back, one took a near miss from an RPG and lost his leg for it. Was fairly grusome. Other than that, Id say most people were fairly friendly, they try to sell you everything.

THats the god awful truth right there, they exsist because we buy from there.

Criminal recklessness. Theres no law in the united states that has the ability to impeach for that. Unless he gets behind the wheel of the limo half cocked. If america is in decline, i hope you like learning chinese.

CNN is my news network of choice, not to go on a rant here but i am so ashamed that somebody like Michael Moore was ever admitted to Michigan State U

Im not married but i have been in some fairly long relationships, Ive long sinced figured out that i am always wrong even when i am right, therefore i have given up trying to prove my points with my girlfriends. All it leads to is me sleeping on the couch at night. I think i will leave this argument to people who dont mind going stretches without sex.

To be leery of another culture because of the atrocities that are carried out in a daily basis in the name of that culture is being ethnocentric at best. If i say to you, "Muslims blow up buildings and buses. " Am i wrong? No because it happens on a daily basis. Just so you know, Im just as leery of Christian fundalmentalist as i am Islamic. The difference here is that you dont see Buddhist setting off bombs in markets or flying planes into buildings. Is it fear that drives me to be leery of Muslims, maybe some, but more likely its my instinct to survive that every person has. I would rather err on the side of caution and appear a dick then to be wrong and have my head lopped off. Getting back to the topic at hand, If you want to really stab at the heart of Terrorism you have to attack Saudi Arabia its one of the largest funding points for terrorism in the world. Unfortunetly my US government is on friendly terms with them. Apparently some terrorist are ok while otheres are not.

A few varying opinion's hear with some thought put into them. Personally, I believe that the lebonese government has little or no say, nor after this war has any influence into the country. Hezbollah is the government of Lebanon. As we clearly saw there ability to wage war was better then what Iraq put up in its effort to defend itself. It is my personal opinion that Israel should either, forgive the vulgarity, shit or get off the pot. The same could be said for the US in iraq. Over 2000 dead service men and many more wounded says to me that the janurary deadline that the IRaqi president has set for US force withdraw should be observed. Back on topic, I believe Israel handled that war incorrectly in so far as it did not use overwhelming force to simply annihlate the enemy, instead it made the same mistake that we have made in Iraq and only used the minimal force necessary. Would the death toll be higher? sure. But the political victory that Hezbollah has gained i believe in the long run will cost even more lifes in both Israel and Lebanon. In summary, for those of you who want the short version, I believe Israel should have completely destroyed Hezbollah's ability to launch weapons across border. Not just in the south but the whole country. Only when Hezbollah could no longer effectively launch offensive's into israel could a victory be claimed as it stands now Hezbollah defiently got the upper hand so to speak, body count aside.

I guess my take on this whole thing is, Who deserves Israel/palestine? The original Herbew people who occupied it are not the same people that live there today, the Arabs controlled it for over a thousand years. And prior to that it was under Roman, Mongal, turk, and persian control. So who does it really belong 2? When israel became a country in 1949 it was under attack the very next day. The Israelis have been fighting not for oil or some fertile piece of land, but for their very exsistance. Has there ever been a more persecuted people than the jews? The russians slaughtered millions, the germans slaughtered millions, the egyptians slaughtered millions, and im willing to be based on Hizzbalah's charter that they would love to do the same thing. As far as contested territory i remind you to the victor go the spoils of war. England took far more territory in its time in conquest then Israel ever has taken. Do i dislike Israel, absolutely not. Its a country that has fought for its survival from day 1. It has the loyalty of its people, and the recgonition of most of the world as an independant state. I put it to you this way, if Mexico started lobbing rockets at texas, would you expect us to sit their and take it?

I love when americans do it were annoyingly patriotic; but when other countiries do it there just supporting there sports franchise

There is a difference between: - crying a river for somebody who has been charged, tried under due process and convicted by a jury of his peers and - crying a river for somebody who is incarcerated without charges and without any respect for human rights. Speaking of double standards, I find it distressing when members of a free and democratic society are sooooo comfortable violating the principles of democracy, freedom, blind justice and due process to suit their hot-headed desires. I agree with you 100%. It always amazes me when I hear people support GITMO. I wonder, if Americans were captured in a war, say in Iraq before their army fell, if they would support the same kind of prison. you do realize these people were picked up on the battle field, have been reviewed and processed by our military (several times) and in some cases have been offered back to their respective gvts only to have the offer rejected. Even if these enemy combattons were actual gvt soldiers (which they are not so they DO NOT GET GANEVA CONVERTIONS RIGHTS) we could/should still hold them until the war is over. I support GITMO because the new commander there has done an excellent job improving the "rights" of those prisoners. Also the supposed "rights" you feel these prisoners have dont extend to them because they arent US citizens. Im glad im not in power, id prolly have any of them who planned bombing attacks that resulted in the death of innocents executed.

As for why carolina has a hockey team i couldnt tell you, unless you live in raleigh nobody gives a shit. As for the name, believe it or not we do get those whopper storms kicking here even as far as charlotte at times.

I put no stock in religion. Christianity has so many glaring pagan cross overs. (example. christmas tree) If you are a christian the only advice i can tell you, believe in your faith, not what some asshole tells you.

You defend that action?