The government does provide useful services. They're still outweighed by unnecessary services, pork barrel project, and rewarding campaign contributors by at least 10:1

Considering the amount of cash and political support from 1 of the 2 parties required to get elected in the US for whatever position, whoever ends up winning is by definition corrupt.

Until such time as the electorate wakes the fuck up and changes the criteria based on which they vote, nothing will change and the downward spiral will continue.

I have found over the years that in a lot of communities there's plenty of people that will happily spend time answering questions, provided said questions are asked in the right manner.

From my experience, the way a community responds to a question often tells more about the individual asking the question than the community itself.

And that was in the 1960s.

Well, there's your answer. There's an entire army of people out there that seem to want nothing more than to return to the good ol' black and white, wife in the kitchen and man at work 1950's.

You know, before rock'n'roll came along and destroyed society and all that was right and proper.

As a Dutchman, you know, the country where bikes have their own lanes and there are more bikes than people, I'm going to teach you a very simple rule when dealing with cars.

Unless you see the car actually breaking to let you pass or you have direct eye-contact with the driver, he/she hasn't see you and you should act accordingly.

I only got my driver's license at 34, and I had no fucking idea just how many ways the driver's view gets obstructed even when 100% focussed on the road.

Humans are very fallible. Even when driving in the most responsible way possible, accidents can and will happen. Anticipate accordingly.

Hell, you're lucky. Next time you may find yourself with a limousine parked outside.

1. Take a position based on purely selfish motives.
2. Conjure up arguments to defend said position.
3. ???
4. Profit! (in the short term)

I've always felt that many of the symptoms currently attributed to Asperger's are behavorial traits that in the past would be considered typical of many males and accordingly compensated for, both domestically and in terms of employment.

Many of the hurdles in my own life that I have had to overcome are hurdles that in another time would never have been an issue. Ironically many of these hurdles are directly related to the freedom to make choices. What kind of career, a relationship or not, etc. In a time where I'd been married to whoever my parents felt would have been a suitable match and a job that matched my skills and personality (just how much empathy does, say, a blacksmith or a soldier need anyway?), these issues would never have cropped up in the first place.

Men, who happen to be in the majority when it comes to Asperger's, have always had a large percentage of insensitive pigs among them. Only in modern times have we started labelling this a disease instead of simply a personality trait.

I just drop the rent on offices to the point where everybody's happy, even if they're profoundly miserable from standing in line for 3 days.

Knowledge of plants that reduced fevers and fought infections, which kinds of food to ingest etc.

Just because our ancestors didn't know *why* something worked didn't mean they didn't experiment and observe.

Unfortunately they are fundamentally incompatible. You cannot have evolution led by anything, because then it becomes not evolution, but very gradual incremental design.

Sure it can. In fact, Creationists themselves were the result of God rolling snake-eyes on the evolution roll.

Do you also hide death from them?

Ehmm, you just nailed the whole "religion" thing. The concept that this life can be pretty damn miserable and after it ends you serve as wormfood is too hard on a lot of people, so they make up fancy fairytales about a "next life" they get to go to if they're good.

Being afraid of death is a valuable evolutionary trait, but it makes us do funny stuff sometimes.

If your cause requires forcing somebody else at gunpoint to comply, it isn't just, it isn't honorable, and it cannot be justified. So, just don't do it.

You, Sir! Yes, you, I say! Would you kindly remove your penis from the screaming lady? No? Well, I shall file a formal complaint with the United Nations of Rainbows and Unicorns, indeed I will!

While war is horrible, atrocious and to be avoided at nearly all costs, sometimes the alternative is even worse. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and doing nothing. And sometimes not doing nothing requires the application of force.

In his particular case both his father and his son had already decided to donate, so even if he hadn't, They'd very likely still have found him based on familial matches.

Add a dose of social pressure and there you go.

And I expect that within your community you were the exception, with a nice amount of disapproval and social pressure as a result?

In your case the brainwashing didn't take, good for you. Many are less lucky and proceed to do the same to the next generation.

Worst of all, religion denies all of man's achievements, ascribing them instead to an all-mighty deity who simply bequeaths them on a whim. What a wonderful belief system ... not.

I saw this the other day on some school project of a 6 year old. They were constructing some sort of gift card to thank God for their daily bread. For some reason her mother, who is the one that works her ass off to actually provide said bread, seems to approve of this.

Insanity breeds insanity.