Artysim

Reply to i am back on this kick again in The Environment JoeUser Forums

Paladin, paladin... where to start? "It has been proven 40 years ago by NASA, every hundred years the sun gets 10% hotter and larger." Well, first off, if the sun were actually getting 10 % hotter every 100 years we'd all be dead right now. The sun is gradually getting hotter- current estimates largely mesh that in the last [U][B]4 billion years the sun has gotten roughly 3 percent warmer[/B][/U] So yes, it is getting hotter, very gradually, very slowly. Nowhere near w

Reply to Global Warming Part 2 in The Environment JoeUser Forums

[quote] I have no problem with trying to learn more about how we can mitigate our impact on the environment, assuming that impact is a bad thing. The bugaboo is deciding whether our impact on the planet is negative or positive, which is a value judgement subject to all kinds of emotional influences, not a scientific theory subject to testing. Much of man's impact on the planet has been beneficial, witness our ability to sustain such a huge human population, assuming doing so is a good thing. We

Reply to Science Lesson From a Creationist in Pure Technology Stardock Forums

Fact is, evolution is a theory, subject to peer review and cross examination by scientists who have essentially dedicated their entire professional careers to this topic. At present, evolution is the best theory out there. With time, it may indeed be proven false, or more likely certain aspects of it refined. However it does not contradict the existence of God, nor does it try to explain whether or not there was a creator (as other fine users here have already stated) What it

Reply to Where Did Racism Come From? in History Stardock Forums

[quote]but they were also radical, rabid racists[/quote] So too were much of the clergy of "the new world" Which decided that many of the native cultures were savages and needed to be forcefully converted, wiped out or controlled, whether by the sword or other means of coercion. Millions of aboriginals were wiped out or enslaved in Africa and the Americas long before Darwins' work had permeated much of popular western schools of thought. And, there were the crus

Reply to Where Did Racism Come From? in History JoeUser Forums

Tee hee! Yes I agree with Zoo, equating evolution with racism is a bit of a stretch indeed. The bible practically does preach different races, namely the divide between jews and gentiles. According to the bible they are God's chosen people. Why? Why is a specific cultural group of humans more favoured than all other humans by the creator of the entire universe? Because some people a few thousand years ago made some decisions that pleased the creator of the universe and because of it th

Reply to The Left is Getting Desperate in Republican Stardock Forums

Dr Guy, As a leftist I agree wholeheartedly with you that the left is indeed, getting quite desperate. The next scandal will be the accusation that McCain had a computer chip implanted in his brain when we was a POW by the NVA and that they are quietly biding their time until he can get into office to activate their mind control device. Once this ploy falls through, our next scheme to derail the McCain steamroller/juggernaut will be to run interference by confus

Reply to Honey, Who Shrunk The Groceries? in Life Journals Stardock Forums

KFC- You are not going crazy. You are indeed paying more for less, especially with your groceries. The downsizing of packaging is a way that the major distributors are using to try and minimize the impact of food cost increases, but you can only minimize so far before the public at large wakes up to what is going on- A) Inflation- the value of the U.S dollar is dropping, for several reasons. It usually takes several months for changes in inflation to work their way down to the con

Reply to How Will the U.S Pay for the War in Iraq? in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]One more thing, Right now our soldiers take the brunt of terrorists angst because 1. They're Americans 2. They're THERE If we leave, then America better be prepared to start sacrificing civilians of all walks of life, because they aren't going to just stop. They will bring the fight to us. And since they are such cowards, they aren't going to be attacking trained soldiers. Oh no. They like women and children a whole lot better. Got some?[/quote] Yes, the argument that we are fig

Reply to How Will the U.S Pay for the War in Iraq? in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]ok. The way we are going to pay for the War is to give everyone Refunds so that they can contribute these refunds back to the government. I mean isn't that what all the Dems will do with their tax refund? If so, we conservatives should just follow their example.[/quote] :LOL:

Reply to How Will the U.S Pay for the War in Iraq? in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]I'd vote for eliminating medicaid as a good way to pay for the war.[/quote] Would definitely free up a lot of cash.... would the public accept this?

Reply to How Will the U.S Pay for the War in Iraq? in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]Not only won't the next president allow a defeat in Iraq on their watch (the only candidate that hasn't signaled they will continue the war is Ron Paul), the programs each of the major candidates are proposing will require increased spending.[/quote] I guess what I was trying to say with this article was, what if the U.S is forced to leave because it simply can no longer afford the financial cost of operating in Iraq. Will the next president sacrifice more domestic spending to k

Reply to Strategy games suggestions? in Strategy JoeUser Forums

My favorite strategy game to date is master of orion 2 (MOO2) Although well over 10 years old it's still the most enjoyable for me. One of the things I enjoyed about MOO2 was the random events, like a giant space amoeba showing up and swallowing one of your planets whole. Or the space dragon that would show up and try to ransom you, or if you paid him enough he would go bug one of your enemies. And of course who can forget loading out a fleet of death stars and chortling with glee while you got

Reply to Deep Discount Rips You Off! in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Best thing you can do is exactly what you just did- tell people this horror story as much as possible. For every single unhappy customer out there, they will turn away at least ten potential customers by spreading the story to their friends and associates. If the story is bad enough, those friends and colleagues will further spread the word. If you wanted to you could send an e-mail to deep discount linking to this article, saying "look at the bad publicity I've caused you for a lousy 40 bucks!"

Reply to How Will the U.S Pay for the War in Iraq? in Politics Stardock Forums

Sorry forgot to add the following possibility- make the oil companies pay for an increasing share of the burden. They are, after all the business entities that are profitting the most from doing business in Iraq, next to all the private contractors employed there by the Gov.

How Will the U.S Pay for the War in Iraq? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Sooner or later the war in Iraq is going to end. I think everyone from all political persuasions can at least agree that at some point, the majority of U.S service personnel will leave the country and come back home. The reasons for coming home however may turn out to be far different than many folks think. When the troops come home, it will not be because of political or military victory. If those do occur it will be counted as an additional bonus and if victory h

Reply to On Bums and Entrepreneurs in Religion Stardock Forums

[quote]I can say, however, that entrepreneurship is the very lifeblood of our economic energy which. It has been entrepreneurship that has directly led to our vastly improved material living conditions. As you type on your computer on this website you should be firmly aware of the role of entrepreneurship in your ability to do what you are currently doing.[/quote] Well, what I'm trying to get at is that what you're saying is true, some of the time, if the application

Reply to How Do You "Solve" the Health Care Problems? in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

[quote]if you cut open your hand slicing a tomatoe and you need some stitches, maybe a tetnis shot for good measure to top it off the bill is thousands of dollars! BS! It might cost a couple of hundred but not thousands. Sounds like a Canadian urban legend to me. At least you would get treated. I had a friend who cut his hand on a hotel mirror and was turned away from the ER because he didn't have $100 Canadian up front. Health Care really isn't the issue. Health Insurance is the issue. The b

Reply to 19 Years is Long Enough Exxon, Time to Pay! in Current Events Stardock Forums

True enough Jythier. I'm all for an impartial justice system. It does seem though that 19 years is a tad long for a settlement. What gets me is how the bigger entities can throw up a smokescreen of lawyers and endless appeals to stave off having to pay the consequences for their actions as determined by the court. Some of the plaintiffs, namely members of the Chugach natives in Alaska have passed on in the intervening 14 years since the company was ordered to pay. How long should an orga

Reply to The Torture songs revealed! in War on Terror Stardock Forums

ha ha ha ha!!! As a liberal I have no problem with the list you have above. My version of torture would be 1) Rush Limbaugh 2) Bill O'reilly 3) Sean Hannity 4) Being forced to watch Fox news 5) Being forced to watch Glenn Beck Watching/listening to any of the above for a few minutes is interesting and entertaining. After about 15 minutes though the eyes glaze over and itsa time to change the channel. Comeon man, get your facts straight!

Reply to On Bums and Entrepreneurs in Religion Stardock Forums

I think that the importance of entrepreneurship and what it does for society is being blown out of proportion. The spirit or "energy" of entrepreneurship is entirely neutral. By itself it is neither good nor bad for society, it is nothing more than a tool. What matters is HOW one chooses to use that tool. This is where social conscience, responsibility, common sense and hopefully love for your fellow human beings come into play. Did you ever see that movie "it's a wonderful life"

19 Years is Long Enough Exxon, Time to Pay! in Current Events JoeUser Forums

It's been 19 years since the Exxon Valdez struck the Bligh Reef and spilled over 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. This devastated the marine ecology in the area, killed many local fisheries industries, and caused a disruption in the foodchain that many estimate will still take decades to recover in some areas. In 1994 a federal court ordered Exxon to pay approx 5 billion in damages to 30,000 fishermen, natives and local businesses that su

Reply to On Bums and Entrepreneurs in Religion JoeUser Forums

Excellent article Sodaiho! Here's how I see it- we've become a society that thrives off of the failure of others. Go to any poor part of town (big city or small town doesn't much matter any more) and see how many payday loan and money tree outlets are there. Now, if we really cared about those less well off there would be laws against that kind of thing... the last thing someone who's making minimum wage needs is more debt with usurious interest rates. Instead we're encouraged to pounce

Reply to McCain Needs Some Backbone in Politics Stardock Forums

To be fair, context does matter. It's not what you say, it's how you say it. Inflection, tone of voice, even your body language (if it's a face to face convo) I didn't hear the introduction to the rally, so to be honest I really have no clue as to whether or not it was derogatory, however... good on Mccain for apologizing, I think it will help him far more than hurt him. This sends the message that he believes in basic decency and doesn't want to get into personal mud-slin

Reply to On behalf of evil capitalistic bastards everywhere in Politics Stardock Forums

Tee hee! I like your sense of humour! "Since no one will stand up for greedy evil capitalists these days, I'll take a stab at it." Well letsa see here- the number of special interests lobbyists (most of them business related) on capitol hill is at an all time high. In fact, since Reagan came into office the federal gov. has been about as pro-capitalist and pro-business, pro-globalization as it could get. Reagan even went so far as declaring war on the sun whe

Reply to How Do You "Solve" the Health Care Problems? in US Domestic Stardock Forums

[quote] I was reading an article yesterday, and hopefully I can find it again, where the "free" government healthcare systems in other countries are failing due to several reasons. One of them being that people have to wait weeks for simple procedures which in time gets worse, and the fact that people who smoke, drink, etc. are using up an enormous resource of the "free" healthcare system.[/quote] Island dog- did you know that the average Cuban now has a longer life expectancy AND