Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

on point

on point's Journal
on point's Journal
February 8, 2015

Yep. She voted to invade Iraq for no legitimate reason. That is war crime of 'aggression'.

So far she has waffled and tried to avoid answering the question.

Given that Bush admin was obviously lying, she was either:
a) part of conspiracy to take us to war
b) to craven to resist war fever (leadership and backbone failure)
c) corrupt - bought and paid for, or in her case I suspect a calculated effort to look tough to aid her ambition - costing the country trillions, our service people their lives, the lives of the Iraqi people, political stability in the region which we are still paying for. Just so she could get ahead at the expense of others.
d) conned. She was suckered by Bush and his cronies. Her judgement seriously called into question, she is not fit to lead nation.

Anyone of these disqualifies her from office in my book, but she had better give an honest answer, especially if it is not a,b,c,d.

August 10, 2014

Fundamental principle: Who has sovereignty of the body?

The state or the individual? That is the fundamental question that confronts us. The progressive march of history is for rights to be held by the individual and not the state or church. This is no different and is the real right we are fighting for, even though the 'fronts' are the draft, euthanasia, gay rights, freedom of consenting adults, drug use, abortion rights, and yes prostitution.

If we focus on the principle - the right of self determination for one's own body, then the answers become clear.

September 28, 2012

Time for the Muslim world to discover the Enlightenment. Claims of blasphemy sure sign it NEEDS it!

No roll back on free speech. What a stupid notion. If the point of view / person cannot stand challenge and ridicule, then it is a sure sign that it is dogma and NEEDS to swept out.


In terms of life cycle:
The life cycle of the Muslim belief system is behind that of the Christian one. But they need to catch up to Enlightenment.

Christians were busy with the same inquisition nonsense in their 12th century, but finally wised up by their 18th.

Muslims are now in their 13th century, but should have learned from others and lept forward to the 18th.

The world is not interested in going back while until they catch up.

In other words, get over it.

Claims of blasphemy are a sure sign the subject is worth the ridicule

(BTW different than false claims which might be subject to slander....)

July 8, 2012

Deniers fabricate all sorts of reasons in a never ending parade that never makes sense but are some

1. Env warming is a conspiracy put together by those who profit from pushing it - The scientists, Politicians (Al Gore mostly), and people who want to sell equip. They need to push it in order to keep getting money for it. Never mind the opposite argument that it is ONLY denied by those in the pay of the oil (EXXon) and coal companies. They certainly don't make it up because it would hurt their profits...

2. The Commie Socialist Fascists (I know they can't be the same but logic and facts are not the strong suit of who you are talking to) make it up because they don't like the lifestyle of profligate energy people. The idea here is that 'hippies' hate cars, trucks, suburbia, plastic, wasteful living, capitalism especially, etc and have created this hysteria in order to deprive them of their way of life through panic and authoritarian central action. Never mind this is really close to what the problem is, and that they are in fact projecting their issues on others. THEY DON'T WANT TO GIVE UP THESE THINGS, and therefore must INVENT this nonsense to avoid having to change. The essence of living in denial, like anyone with a problem, say like drug addiction.

3. OK, it is real, but it is not caused by people. It is a (pick one) natural thing that happens all the time because of sunspots, earth orbit, earth tilt, changes in the sun, volcanoes etc. The earth was warmer at one time and is just happening again, it is just part of coming out of the ice ages. These folks generally don't understand science nor know history and timescales, so informing the ignorant with facts is seldom helpful. The fact that NONE of these reasons correspond to the period of warming nor can explain it generally is lost on them because they don't know the difference between correlation and cause and effect proof. Showing them a graph with the rise in temp lining up with industrial activity is not true because of #2 and their enablers #1.

4. You can't PROVE it, therefore it can't be true. Again they don't understand the nature of scientific evidence. We will wait until you prove it and all the models have no margin for error.

5. OK it is real, but there is plenty of time to fix it and the market will provide the answer when the time comes. Generally these folks don't understand concepts like thermal mass, inertia, permanent damage (one way change), development response times and the scale required to off set the damage. By the time it is obvious, it will take massive and equally long term efforts to fix it compared to relatively minor efforts now.

6. OK, it is real, but it will be good for the planet. Minnesota will be warm in the winter now. These folks don't get that Kansas may no longer be able to grow corn or other outcomes. Their perspective is limited to their small life circle and cannot comprehend anything outside it nor feel responsible for others in other areas or times. Your basic selfish sociopath.

7. One of my favorites. Bejeesus is coming next year and will a) rapture away the delusional leaving behind the others to suffer with it (eg it is part of dogs plan); b) He made it and can fix it with a wave of the wand if needed. In any case no need to change or address it now.

8. If it is real, how come it is so cold in the winter? Didn't you environmentalists say just a bit ago that we were headed for an ice age? You don't know it so are always making things up (#1). These folks don't get that we are de-stabilizing a system and pumping extra energy into so 'swings' will be wider and it could for instance get warmer on the coasts but colder in land. There are many scenarios.

Those are some 'reasons' that the Deniers trot out, but mostly it is as said in #2. They don't want to admit it is real, because then they would have to act; or worse they would have to change their world view.

Profile Information

Member since: Sat Sep 13, 2008, 11:29 AM
Number of posts: 2,506
Latest Discussions»on point's Journal