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Comment Re:I'm Optimistic (Score 1) 816

You make a good point about other companies being bad, but let's make a few notes here:

I doubt many people will claim that Disney never made good, inspired movies. They most certainly have, but many feel they've lost any sense of originality. Secondly, I don't like giving credit to Disney for Pixar movies. Pixar is now part of Disney, yes, but as I understand it, they have a certain level of autonomy.

Comment Re:Education is the answer to the problem. (Score 1) 862

I agree, and I think, for many people, and I'm basing this on my own experiences, so feel free to call bullshit on this, religion is more about comforting people from really, really horrible truths.

People can go through a lot. History is full of people suffering horrible fates and basically having their entire lives destroyed. Now imagine going to someone whose entire family has been murdered in a senseless war or someone who is dying of some incurable, painful disease that there is no explicit reason for these things happening beyond "well, you had land and that warlord wanted it" or "you were unfortunate enough to be born with a genetic predisposition towards this particular disease and medical science has not gotten to the point where it can fix it, assuming it ever can."

It's not hard to see why many people would choose to believe the hardships they face are part of some grand plan that will, eventually, lead to everyone everywhere being happy.

Of course, personally, any plan that involves rape, torture, disease, faminine, pestilence, arson, murder, and jaywalking, is not really a plan I feel comfortable being a part of.

Comment Re:Or... (Score 4, Funny) 446

I'd be kind of interested to see a poll to test this idea that at least 2/3 of Americans would be for anything used on suspected terrorists.

"Do you support training Olympic athletes to hurl javelins (the spear not the missle) long range at suspected terrorists?"
"Do you support training an army of suicide bombers to pre-bomb suspected terrorists?"
"Do you support cutting off parts of countries that harbor suspected terrorists and floating them out to sea?"
"Do you support opening a transdimensional portal to the Realm of the Dark Ones to place suspected terrorists?"

I'd like to know just how outlandish you'd need to go before support dropped.

Comment Re:Theocracies (Score 4, Interesting) 862

I had a boss who became a born-again Christian (this is in the U.S., for reference) and afterwards he would always spout on and on about how every single word in the Bible was true and there were no contradictions. I suspect a lot of what he said and what he believed was sort of passed-on to him. He would always talk about Bible groups and people who showed him movies, and it was they, for instance, who taught him that the ACLU is trying to legalize child pornography.

It's also kind of funny. Before he was "saved," he once told me that as long as people let him do his own thing, it didn't matter what they believed or did. I later expressed that view to him and he told me that was Satan's viewpoint.

Comment Re:is that why he uses the same boring cliches? (Score 5, Insightful) 398

The "teleprompter thing" is mostly just people trying to justify their dislike for the man. When we dislike someone, we tend to latch on to any little thing to validate our dislike, regardless of how valid a complaint it is.

Please note, this is neither a defense nor an attack on Obama. This has happened with pretty much every political figure in history (that you could legally speak ill of in public).

Comment Re:I disagree; Bill is an idiot. (Score 1) 1774

I think you're right here, and we have to specify that when we talk about Creationism, we're talking about God--errr, some, unknown all-powerful, unspecified being that is most definitely NOT just a thinly disguised Judeo-Christian God so that the theory's followers can claim it's not a religious theory--just magically making every living thing appear on Earth as they are today and there is no long-term change to any species.

Because here's the thing. Evolution doesn't prohibit the existence or influence of any given deity. Evolution is completely indifferent. Maybe some God created the system of Evolution. Maybe some deity created the universe and set in motion the events that would create evolution. Evolution is about how one species becomes another, how small changes in genetics add up over time and how that reflects on the world. Why life started in the first place, if there is some intrinsic meaning to life, or other questions of a similar nature are, to my understanding, irrelevant to the point of figuring out how life changes.

Comment Re:Yes! (Score 1) 1774

So, what happens when you get your politics in the sciences? Should we ignore that because, you know, it'll cause arguing which will cause some people to act immaturely?

Of course not. Politics affect science. And politics is frequently wrong. Just look at all the "vaccines cause autism!" scares that happened.

I'm also sure /. is pretty tame compared to most places. Which is sad, but true.

Comment Re:It is news to me (Score 1) 1469

I'm not sure where you're getting this notion that a woman just hops down to Planned Parenthood, has an abortion, and they're back to normal. I think a huge part of what people are saying here is rape leaves scars. Deep, horrible mental scars. Abortion or no, it stays with you.

And if I may say, part of this abortion debate is about whether a fetus *IS* in fact human to begin with. Many would contend that it is not. Does it contain human DNA? Most certainly. Will it develop into a human being? Barring unforeseen acts, such as the death of the mother or a miscarriage, yes. Does that make it a full human being with all the intrinsic rights? Some would argue no, it does not, until it reaches a period wherein it is self-aware and reasonably developed or some other benchmark.

Comment Re:And this is tech news (Score 1) 1469

It'd be nice if we could get people to only have sex in committed, monogamous relationships, where both partners were sure they were safe, mentally prepared, and willing and able to face the repercussions that can come from even safe-sex.

Though, as you point out, that's a dream. Teens are horny. They have sex. Telling them not to have sex has worked exactly never in history. So the age-limits and teaching teens about safe-sex is about the best we can do.

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