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I'm beginning to feel that Justice Kennedy has a very...unfortunate interpretation of the 4th Amendment. Let's not forget about this lovely gem: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/justices-approve-strip-searches-for-any-offense.html

This is highly ironic, yet nonetheless true.

Well-put. These are important things to consider for an 'after-life'; or reincarnation, or what-have-you. If everything that makes you, you (i.e., your memories, personality, thoughts, dreams, etc) is gone, what 'worth' is an afterlife, or reincarnation? At this point you might as well take the...

:hatsoff: I do what I can. Well, that's not quite true, I could be doing more to convince other people to stop voting along party lines...

This is the only conclusion I've ever been able to come do. While we don't understand the intricacies of our brain or our consciousness, all evidence points to it being solely tied up in that hunk of grey matter and electrical impulses. When they go, the show's over, folks. There are of course...

Fucking brilliant. :goodpost: ...on a somewhat similar note, I registered independent when I first registered to vote. In Oregon they send a card every so often (or maybe it's before every election, I don't know) just verifying your details so you're all set to vote. I noticed there that I'd...

A mistake you're making here - and it's a common one - is that because I've boo'd Bachmann, you assume I'm a Democrat. But I'm not. I've never been registered as, and there's only one Democrat I've voted for more than once (you can consider that my 'list of favorites', if you so desire...a list...

****. I had just complemented you, and then you go personifying almost everything that is wrong with American politics. Like a football game. :rolleyes: What a shame.

I can see why, and I don't blame you. Shame though; you're one of the few who offer reasoned disagreement. Thanks, in any case! :hatsoff:

I'm still irritated that I can't put him on ignore. Thanks, in any case. :hatsoff:

Thank ya kindly. :hatsoff:

Ha ha. My advice probably won't be of much worth to you; I usually couch surf and ***** on funny surfaces using my backpack as a pillow. And I'll probably have hitch-hiked/rideshared my way there in the first place. The charmed life.

These are favored arguments, yet when you look into them a little more, they aren't so strong; Canada intentionally puts elective surgeries far down waiting lists to keep costs down. It also inflates their 'waiting line' statistics. I'd also wager it's a large part of the Canadian custom coming...

There's so many to choose from...unfortunately. But we can based on words that have come out of her mouth. On record. But I'll let Rey C weigh in on that. I know how much he loves Bachmann... :1orglaugh

I think the main thing that most Americans miss so often in this debate is that healthcare is not a free-market system. You choose which TV to buy, or which restaurant to eat at. That's the free-market, right? You don't choose whether or not you go to the emergency room, or even most times which...

Please explain how this isn't a reduction to the "since laws don't stop 100% of something, there's no point in having them" argument. Don't get me wrong, this is beside whether or not the laws we have already are working/being enforced/etc. I'm not arguing (here) for more. It's just that this...

So by your equating guns with human trafficking and *****, you'd say we also shouldn't bother with laws regarding those, as they aren't 100% effective? This has always been the more likely conclusion to me of said scenario. Going from "I want money" to "my life is in danger unless I shoot this...

I'm not sure where you're going with this, but is it a reduction to the "as laws don't stop 100% of anything, we shouldn't have laws" argument? I just wanted to quote this again for emphasis. Chicago is a tired, dead-beat ***** for this argument that does not hold up. If Illinois started border...

You know we're in a bad place when a TV show about a newsroom does better journalism than our actual newsrooms.

Ironically, I'm quite impulsive. I'm still trying to figure out how I've signed myself up to live in Germany for the next few years. I'm glad you bring up Agnosticism and its common misconception; Agnosticism is the 'enlightened' choice, as you say, only when there is about the same evidence...

That's the only arena God has left. Science certainly doesn't support it. All of this is true. None of it remotely suggests a God in any meaningful sense of the concept (i.e., an Abrahamic god). Such a concept is a dead-end for discussion. It's like believing the Matrix is actually our...

Hence, the cosmological argument is a contradiction unto itself. "Everything has to have a cause...except that thing." An infinitely complex thing, no less, which flies in the face of everything we know about the universe (that is, that things grow from simple to complex, not the other way...

:hatsoff: It's too bad, really. I always enjoy challenges in these sorts of discussions. Alas, he simply isn't up to *****.

This right here shows us you're actually pretty dense. How is saying we don't know more credible than attributing some incredibly far-fetched and unsupported conclusion instead? Really? You're asking that? Here's the thing...I'm quite happy to have these sorts of debates, and in the end, I...

...and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the tall-tell sign of defeat in denial. Thanks for the discussion, anyway. It seems it's ****** on you, but hopefully other readers will find it...enlightening.

I will readily admit I only began watching that show when I heard the intro was done by the Barenaked Ladies. The burden of proof is on you, not me. You are the one claiming that because we don't have a ready explanation, the explanation is automatically 'God'. If you have any real logical bone...

On an individual level, I entirely agree. Not that my situation is necessarily at all parallel with some of theirs, but I've always been of your opinion: if you're going to move to another country, you should well accept its culture, not the other way around (there are of course many many ways...

Yes...logically dismantling your positions is nothing new. People have been doing it long before you and I were born. If you know this, why do you still cling to the fallacious logic? I ask earnestly, but judging from your dismissal of what you don't like to hear, you're not interested in...

Judging just from the one article, it looks like a pretty tricky situation. The fact that means they're there for humanitarian reasons, yet aren't succeeding. To ship them all back would be the opposite of said humanitarianism, yet the current situation's obviously not working: I certainly...

You should know that both the cosmological argument for the existence of God, as well as your comments on the people of Mali, contain the large inherent logical fallacy that proponents of these never seem to notice. Think Occam's Razor. A 'supreme being' is incredibly complex, and (as the...

Any individual so concerned - so distressed and unable to live with the happiness of others, a happiness that is at zero cost to said individual - is doing everyone a favor by removing themselves from the species. Good riddance.

I think my ****** in Oregon - with "pre-existing conditions" - will be very happy about this.

I just want to clarify as my language might seem less than respectful, that I in fact quite respect bob and BC, which is why I can get ******** trying to explain that these arguments simply don't hold up anymore.

These, I have to say, are cop-out positions - they're formed from a kind of logic that seeks a feel-good answer, but as Mayhem has pointed out, simply aren't supported by evidence. That is to say, what they're inferring: yes of course, there have been warming and cooling periods. Study after...

Am I to assume then, that one of the two posters between xfire's post and mine who I have on ignore, have brought up Gore, who hasn't been mentioned for about 10 months in this thread and is completely irrelevant to my current post? I suppose it shouldn't surprise me. I only put the arrogantly...

Slightly delayed, but: :hatsoff:

Just to interrupt the spamfest... I never did quite get the opposition to the idea that our constant pollution is a bad thing (when we know it is). Well, maybe that's not quite true - I do understand the opposition to the idea that we should use less. People don't like to feel guilty driving...

You say this all the time, and to answer bluntly: I make great efforts to make sure and especially to take heed in the areas that I am ignorant in. You do not, which is why I've said before and still stand by that you're in the top 5 least informed regular posters here. Somewhere not too far...

I'll answer this from my point of view as a British-American and mix in many of the opinions I've heard living in England and Germany...I voted for Obama the first time around and I don't regret it. What with McCain singing songs about bombing Iran, he was simply continuing the narrative that's...

Too fucking true. As for my own two cents...it's good news that I'm happy to hear, but I'm skeptic it'll mean much in the long-run. I don't see any of the systemic problems being fixed and running a deficit, smaller or no, still means we're racking up debt. Still, though...always nice to see...

I tried this line with them once, and they surprisingly argued against me on it. It's a lost cause all around. :dunno:

And he called it... Facebook.

Can you put quotes in signatures?

****. I realized that shortly after they segregated the board and I discovered that almost nothing in the general chat section was at all interesting. I like current event/news stories, but as soon as they're within three degrees of separation of politics they're thrown into the politics section...

I'm a bit confused with the pronouns in this article; did Obama ask a judge to postpone Obama's own order, or did Obama ask a judge to postpone the judge's order? It may seem a silly question, but when the precedent of filibustering one's own proposal in Congress has already been set, the sky's...

Ah, this old cherry. I reckon they probably could imagine the future of *** technology. I never liked the argument that the 2nd Amendment was written in the time of muskets and therefore doesn't apply to today (one of the more amusing counters I've seen to that is something along the lines of...

Do you? I've seen you rail against this time and time again without offering any actual facts, other than some anecdotal "Well, I know some people..."

I couldn't agree more. This is one of those bills that, on the shallow surface looks good, but will probably result in the further downfall of our scientific innovation. This coming from an entirely dysfunctional body that is Congress. :rolleyes:

These conclusions suggest that there's only one discussion to be had, while that's simply not true. Ignoring trolls while engaging in otherwise reasonable discussions in, say, other threads is not being 'silenced'. It's not their view prevailing. They do not control the discussion, they're just...

The goal of trolling - according to the article HHJJ posted, and I agree with it - is to control the discussion. Spamming threads is not controlling the discussion. Having people reply to those threads is. The most 'severe' consequence we, as non-moderator/administrators can enact, is to make...