[bodigami]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DefiledEngine', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Life can't be completely fair, but it isn't in my nature to ignore what could become murder, suffering and deprivation on a massive scale. It gives my life substance and meaning to simply care. That may seem foolish, but man doesn't live by chicken fried steak alone.

[threadbear]

BigTex, I understand what you're saying, and agree with your point of developing a philosophy that buffers disappointment. I'm not a disappointed person, but I do understand them. I've worked with kids enough to see, how some of them can become embittered and cynical for the rest of their lives. It becomes self reinforcing, but you have to admit, they have a ton of material to work with. It's not as if they have to cherry pick to access tremendous amounts of negativity.

The rest of your post could be interpreted as being comfortably apolitical. For whose sake? Are you saying that nobody can make any approximate kind of judgement about what is right and what is wrong?

[BigTex]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'T')he rest of your post could be interpreted as being comfortably apolitical. For whose sake? Are you saying that nobody can make any approximate kind of judgement about what is right and what is wrong?

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'J')ack, I guess being "American" is a little like being "black". It is a general consensus creation. It's not simply what you consider yourself, it's what you are considered by others.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'S')o you have no problem with Vulture capital, working through real estate investment trusts, for example, buying up distressed American mortgage debt for pennies on the dollar?

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I')t occurs to me that, both as individuals and as people relating to one another, humans were never designed to fit into such gigantic categories. Once you get beyond small groups, it's all propaganda.

There is no "American." But, for better or worse (and I think it is worse, now), there is definitely a political entity called America.

[DefiledEngine]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')A computer is a tool. It can be used for non-essential entertainment, but it's still a tool. Same with the Internet. And openly writting and reading about Peak Oil is NOT entertainment, it's an honest reaction to Peak Oil... although, if not accompained by action on the "real world", can become "doom 'n gloom entertainment".

[MrBill]

Who says we can help everyone?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')ive armed men burst into the small room and courtyard at dawn, just as 21-year-old, 22-week pregnant, Sunita was drying her face on a towel.

They punched and kicked her stomach as she called out for her sleeping boyfriend "Jassa", 22-year-old Jasbir Singh, witnesses said. When he woke, both were dragged into waiting cars, driven away and strangled.

Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded murder.

A week later, the village of Balla, just a couple of hours drive from India's capital New Delhi, stands united behind the act, proud, defiant almost to a man.