the dynamite politics thread

[Dark_Jester]

Yep. This argument is just making everyone bitter and assholish...

 

[Northern Lights]

It's like a high school flashback.

 

[Siren]

You're all assholes!

(including Nick and Ben )

 

[Wolfman Von Jones]

I know, that's what's so goddamn fun about it .

Nick

 

[Dark_Jester]

I knew it! I'm surrounded by assholes!

 

[Qsilver]

Watch out! there's one right behind you!

 

[rahvin]

if it were the word of god, meant for all faithful, it would be universally understandable and clear. The very fact that it can be interpreted differently without malicious intent very much suggests that it's just another piece of culturally relevant writing.
I at least would be very wary of a god that seems to be unable to get his message across, no?

maybe. then again, this is true assuming the intent of the deity is that of communicating its own will to mankind. it is an element of most beliefs that the intention of the divinity cannot be understood. this does away with discussions aiming to second-guess what the deity does, as this area is simply not a possible object of rational analysis.

moreover, a clean-cut message can become hard to identify centuries later. while a god should certainly possess the skills to make it absolutely clear to everyone at any given time in history, the question "why he didn't?" has implications similar to why he didn't stop the nazis to kill eight million people, and so on. the point in this case is how much of what happens follows logic at its human, comprehensible level.

i think this kind of problems work best at clarifying how even the more mundane precepts of most religions are, at their core, based on an act of faith in terms of suspension of rational thinking. it is indeed a flaw of many curches and doctrines that this emotional, unbridled aspect is so often underestimated so that it comes across as minor.

 

[t.a.j.]

maybe. then again, this is true assuming the intent of the deity is that of communicating its own will to mankind. it is an element of most beliefs that the intention of the divinity cannot be understood. this does away with discussions aiming to second-guess what the deity does, as this area is simply not a possible object of rational analysis.

Maybe, but would that not also render the whole point of religion mood?
If we cannot understand what god's will is, then we cannot ever aim to act morally right but act right only out of coincidence.
Furthermore, if god is unknowable then all priests and scriptures lose their function and the holy truth of the gospel because a vague "I believe", with not so much as a reasonable explanation behind it, like science offers.

i think this kind of problems work best at clarifying how even the more mundane precepts of most religions are, at their core, based on an act of faith in terms of suspension of rational thinking. it is indeed a flaw of many curches and doctrines that this emotional, unbridled aspect is so often underestimated so that it comes across as minor.

Yes, though I wouldn't call it a flaw.

 

[Lost To Apathy]

Oh, today Mordechai Vanunu was arrested again. It feels pretty shitty knowing that THIS country rejected his application for asylum, yet they import 20000+ immigrants to live on welfare in a shitty suburb every year. Pretty embarrassing i'd say..

Göran Persson is hitler and knugen is his bitch!

 

[Salamurhaaja]

In other news:
Look the MoFos are building bigger bombs for the terrorists:
http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id=29
YaY!

 

[fireangel]

we are so gonna get a weirdo as chancellor

not that the previous ones were all good, but this lady is soo talking much and saying nothing, the perfect politician clone. You cannot "fix" any of her opinions, and when she said in her time as minister of the environment, let´s support atomic power plants she tried make it sound like the purest and most secure form of energy ever. I still haven´t forgiven yet, let alone all the crap that followed.
I read/heard dozens of statements of her and I cannot remember actually any kind of information or clear opinion from them.



And again, any female chancellor would be welcome by me - if she was at least moderately reasonable.

 

[Phish]

i perfectly agree. almost anybody would be better than her

 

[Taliesin]

Yea I agree with you on that.. plus the resurfacing debate on atomic power is so utterly pointless it's appalling.
The Christdemocrats are a party for maybe 15-20% of the population, yet 40% are stupid enough to be lured towards their shiny phrases.

 

[Malaclypse]

what i fear most though is that foreign news (and germany's own as well, probably) won't talk more than 10 percent about her politics - 90% percent of the comments will be about how embarassing she looks today - again. ok, this may not be the "correct" attitude, but i don't want my country to be represented by someone who looks like a planet with artificial hair. the same goes for males as well of course, i got the creeps when they brought up gunther verheugen as probable foreign minister...

btw, for those not knowing what i'm talking about:

merkel:

verheugen (this picture actually isn't a fake)

i can only imagine the laughter this years' election will bring upon us.

 

[Phish]

lets hope the social democrats are able to get their will through at least a little bit

 

[fireangel]

I seldom agree with you Malaclypse, but this is right. Even though I for example don´t like Condoleezza Rice, at least she dresses so smoothly that there is no reason to even mention it. It´s not vulnerable. I can´t understand why Mrs. Merkel can´t get any outfit right.

And strangest of all, she studied physics and holds a doctorate; I just read today that she did hitchhike through some far away Russian states, like Georgia when she was younger (and that state actually belonged to the Soviet Union, now it´s independent). She speaks fluently Russian and English. So why does none of this shine through? She´s supposed to be intelligent, dammit...

I still wonder if it was right to call for new elections in the first place... On the other hand, surely we could have gotten the same result in a regular election, too, in next year or when. It was indeed a tricky result to deal with.
But then, many of our current problems still are rooted in the previous conservative era, from 1998 and before. Something is going in circles here....


EDIT:
PS Taliesin: yep, shortage of oil and high prices are not a sign towards atomic energy and lots of cancer deaths, plus not changeable pollution of the whole world and a bunch of nice little boxes that no-one wants to store. It´s a sign to a) save as much energy as possible (by good isolation of houses, smart heating/cooling, first class public transport, efficient electronic devices - why are we a country of engineers after all ) and b) continue looking for good alternatives. I know that people complain about the noise from windcraft for example, so these things surely must put into consideration, too. Still many areas are specially fit for a certain kind of energy, like geothermic in Iceland, or solar energy in practically every country with pretty hot climate.

 

[fireangel]

What is the opinion of the forumers from Italy on their change in electoral law? That now you have majority-law again?

 

[hyena]

i think it's not a good idea.

 

[La Rocque]

@ Lewis "Scooter" Libby, hey mofo we got you the first of the White House liars.
Next will be Rove, then Cheney. W was lucky, too stupid to know what was going on.


And the walls came tumbling down

 

[hyena]

@dave: there's basically two categories of people. those who do what they have to do and don't get caught, and those who do what they have to do and get caught. libby is in the latter group. this allows the casual observer to conclude that he's not trustworthy - someone who is at that level should be a little smarter than that, should be able not to get caught. on the other hand, this is the only reason of indignation that i accept. the rest is just ordinary business.