Who is the "father" of the American Revolution? King George III ? His Majesty's Comptroller of Excise for the port of Boston? Or the first Virginian to realise the British were going to abolish slavery? <TABLE
Being born on the 12th day of the month (3 energy) is likely to add a good bit of vitality to your life. The energy of 3 allows you bounce back rapidly from setbacks, physical or mental. There is a restlessness in your nature, but you seem to be able to portray an easygoing, sometimes "couldn't care less" attitude. You have a natural ability to express yourself in public, and you always make a very good impression. Good with words, y
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Left wingers can be just as stuck in their ways as the rights, but the whole idea of liberalism is that you are open to persuasion, and are not even 100% behind your own thoughts. Your opinion is not already made up. You can change your mind! You dont always have to prove yourself right. Ted, I think if you
And I've thought of another one: if the function of elected representatives is simply to follow their electors 'instructions' doesn't that make any kind of parliamentary or congressional debate, in which representatives at least in theory try to influence each other, a waste of time?
Our representatives have a moral imperative to vote the will of their constituents. Thats why we ELECT them, not to express their personal will, but to enforce the will of the people. I was really struck by this statement because it expresses a more radical notion of democracy than operates in most of the wo
If the question of gay marriage is embolding anti marriage, anti family activism, that in itself shows that it isn't as much about gay marriage as it is questioning marriage and family all together. Agreed. That, in a nutshell is my argument for gay marriage. When even (parts of) the gay community want to em
Why do you accuse people who are against gay marriage of not liking gay people? For the obvious reason that some people who are against gay marriage are motivated by little more than irrational prejudice. I hardly think that that is a controversial statement. I've already acknowledged (above and on an
JoeUser Forums
I've changed my mind on quite a lot of things since I've been coming here: it's an occupational hazard of being 'militantly wishy-washy' . An example would be my increasingly sympathetic attitude towards American politics and society. Just as importantly, I've also not changed my mind on other issues, but come to a greater appreciation of the opposing view. An
Again, the future of the country doesn't turn on the issue of gay marriage -- it turns on the issue of lawmakers that decide to over-ride the will of the people that just recently voted for the provisions that the lawmakers are trying to over-turn. Technically you are right, but as an outsider I sympa
While promoting racism. Interesting. Bigotry is so exhausting. Only the most energetic can cope with more than one prejudice at a time.
Those that champion socialism do so because they are too lazy to help themselve, rather than wanting to follow any sort of religious teaching that tells them to help out their fellow man. Though I am not a socialist, and would very likely have a very similar critique of socialism to you, I do not think that
Hahaha...I'll be surprised if very many folks on here know who Kanye West is. Kanye West is the incendiary entertainer who has called for an end to 'gay bashing'. Link
China needs to be in a position to allow it to happen though, and a strong economy is that position. Yes, there could be something to that. I have read asian commentators who think that westerners, in prioritising democracy and human rights, are putting the cart before the horse; what is needed, they believe
Blair has already offered help as has Germany. Sounds like 'Old Europe' and 'New Europe' are pitching in.
Sure, they have been a world power before, but never THE world power.... This is true. So far only the British (to a large extent) and the Americans (pretty much completely) have managed this feat. Nevertheless I think it's true that China has had the world's largest economy for most of human history and was
jak sie macz Dziekuje, dobrze. Czy mówisz po polsku?
A glimpse into the DU Forum OK, it raised a smile, but what are you saying? Only dark skinned people with beards are democrats? Or the dark skinned people with beards in the picture are 'obviously' terrorists and therefore friends of the democrats? I think you make an interesting point about political extrem
Cindy Sheehan is free to say whatever she likes. And the same Constitution that recognizes that freedom also recognizes my freedom to say that she should shut up on account of what she says is stupid and wrong. Yes. Where are we disagreeing?
I decided I can't write it until I quit being a hypocrite. Spiritually speaking, hypocrites are about the only people I can admire. If one's system of values and ethics and one's spiritual aspirations are such that you can match them perfectly without ever failing, I don't think they can be that demanding.</
Very nice article. Not much to disagree with at all. As to "how those people that do actively spend time on spirituality fit in", my preferred analogy is a medical one. My own preferred spiritual path is a Buddhist one in which its basic teaching is set out in the form of a classical Indian medical diagnosis: there's a malady, there's a cause of the malady, a cure exists and here is the course of treatment. Many truly spiritual peopl
It's as ridiculous as me saying I support cindy sheehan, I just do not support anything she says. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" . S.G. Tallentyre, paraphrasing Voltaire. "Protesting a war is just as constitutional as fighting it" Ch
It is time that we take the word liberal away from the left. Liberal theory will always fail because it denies the very nature of human beings. A shame.
Me too...but just how realistic is it to ask a person to rein in their true selves, to deny their real persona? Not at all realistic, maybe even downright dangerous. I certainly wouldn't recommend it. I'm talking more about me exercising a little self-control from time to time and maybe learning some new, ge
but.....I'm a scrapper at heart *winks @ LW* and that just doesn't jive with Buddhism. This really made me smile, in a nice "that was insightful" kind of way. Of course, I could say something about the Buddhist tradition of Dharma Combat and how fierce that can get, but that's only skipping around the point.
My favourite Voltaire story is of the celebrated anglophile walking the streets of eighteenth century London and being set upon by a bunch of ruffians who had noticed that he was a foreigner. Voltaire addressed them, crying, "Stop! Is it not enough of a misfortune that I was not born an Englishman?", whereupon the easily won-over yahoos carried him in triumph back to his hotel on their shoulders... <img src="http://images.stardock.com/JU/smiles/BigSmi