It's written somewhat in the style of something I might publish were I running for President. Some of this will probably surprise some of you. I'd like to hear your opinions on my positions, feedback, further questions, anything you want to say. Enjoy.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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See, that right there made me stop reading and realize that some alien had taken over Omega's body.
Who are you?
Go back to your own planet and leave us in peace!!
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
You're just babbling incoherently. ~C. Montgomery Burns
Registered: Mar 1999
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See, Liz and I had this bet, and now I know I'm going to win! In two years, you're going to be living in NYC, wear leather, have purple hair and tatoos, and your best friends are going to be a gay couple - Jeff & Gordon - at whose wedding you officiate!
quote:I believe the feelings of loved ones must be taken into account.
This is a tricky thing. I've dealt with depressed people, and I can safely say that appealing to the person's conscience, trying to use guilt to force the person to live often makes it worse. Saying "Think of your mother!!" may easily deepen the anguish, making the original sorrow stronger; "Now I'm hurting my mother as well, I can't bear this..." Or worse, a turn in arguments; "I should stay alive just to make someone else feel good? Rooaaarr!!!"
Good list nontheless, I support anyone going to such length to define (as far as they can) their standpoints in all popular questions they can think of.
As a european gaijin, I have no interest in things regarding the US congress, state legislature or the dollar (from german daler, lol!), but the other things were interesting.
Extra tidbit: From 1534 up until 1873, Sweden had the Daler, then we changed to Krona (Crowns).
So the US keeps sloppy seconds, teeheehee.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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Also, begging patience for a layman, why hold out for a terraforming of Venus? Is it impossible to do Mars first? Venus is further into the system, right? So lots of more gravity to force to get there, no? And shitty gas all over the place, like ammonia and other worthless substances.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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your best friends are going to be a gay couple - Jeff & Gordon
Jeff? Are you trying to tell us something?
I've dealt with depressed people
Oh, I don't mean depressed people. I suppose I didn't actually address legal action in that bit. I think any desire to end one's own life should be brought before a judge, at the very least. That judge can require treatment, in cases of depression, or give an okay for you or someone else to end your life, in cases of old age or incurable painful medical conditions.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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quote:Originally posted by Nim the Merciful: Also, begging patience for a layman, why hold out for a terraforming of Venus? Is it impossible to do Mars first? Venus is further into the system, right? So lots of more gravity to force to get there, no? And shitty gas all over the place, like ammonia and other worthless substances.
It's not impossible to do Mars, I just think Venus seems easier. It's capable of holding an atmosphere and has earth-like gravity, and Mars will never have either of those. Of course, we'd have to either get it spinning or implement an artificial day/night system. Not sure what you mean by "lots of more gravity to force to get there", but I'd think Venus, being closer to Earth, would require less energy to reach.
I'm not an expert, but this is what I understand so far. As I understand things, Venus is very hot and has extreme surface temperatures. These are the two main problems with any sort of mission to the planet. I THINK part of the reason for the high atmospheric pressure is the high temperature. Once you start sublimating elements that should by all rights be solid, your atmosphere is gonna weigh a lot more. So if we could, say, block a good chunk of the sun's heat, the planet should cool down significantly, which should let the heavy gasses solidify on the surface, reducing atmospheric pressure. Of course, given that Venus is nearly tidally locked, it'd just heat up again if you removed the block. We'd need some sort of artificial day/night scheme using large orbiting devices of some kind to maintain a reasonable temperature and thus reasonable pressure. Once that was done, it'd just be a question of survival needs, instead of the planet actively killing you.
But I'm just a computer science major, what do I know?
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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Hah. No. Actually, it's been a running joke on 98-Rock that Nascar star Jeff Gordon is gay. So a few weeks ago, the morning show crew flipped out when there was a bit of a controversy over a local paper publishing the engagement announcement of a gay couple named ... Jeff, and Gordon.
Very interesting reading. Reminds me of an article from one of Michael Moore's books, really (I forget which one, mainly because I've forgotten who I've lent them to) - most Americans think they're Republicans but really when you look at their core beliefs they're far closer to being Democrats, I'm not saying that's necessarily the case with you, Stephen, it's just something that occurred to me while I was working through it.
Strange coincidence, though - just this morning I woke up and almost the very first thought that popped into my head was that they really need to start firing cometary masses of ice at Venus. The sooner you start, the sooner it'll be finished. No idea why I'd be thinking about terraforming Venus at 0730. . .
quote:Originally posted by Lee: most Americans think they're Republicans but really when you look at their core beliefs they're far closer to being Democrats, I'm not saying that's necessarily the case with you, Stephen, it's just something that occurred to me while I was working through it.
I'm of the opinion that our parties no longer have core beliefs. They exist to perpetuate themselves and the occupations of their elected officials. Part of the reason I wrote this is that I no longer wish to be associated with any political label of any kind, because they tend to lead to people making unfounded assumptions. If you want to know what I think, I'll hand you a copy of this and let you figure it out.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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quote:Originally posted by Lee: Strange coincidence, though - just this morning I woke up and almost the very first thought that popped into my head was that they really need to start firing cometary masses of ice at Venus. The sooner you start, the sooner it'll be finished. No idea why I'd be thinking about terraforming Venus at 0730. . .
Read Greg Bear's Forge Of God: (good) Aliens destroy Europa and Ganeymede to replenish their consumables and then fire off all the ice at Mars and Venus. ...OTOH, there are bad alien forces that fuck Earth royally.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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My opinions on some of those, though not all:
Death Penalty--I agree with you.
Abortion--Can't say I like abortion, but I do support the right to choose.
Euthanasia--Might as well agree.
Immigration--OK, I guess.
Space Travel--Yay! Space!
Drugs--Agreed, mostly. Don't like drug use, either.
Gun control--Disagree. I think there should be tougher gun laws, and we should be thinking of an assault weapons ban. After all, what are they good for? Shooting deer? Keeping yourself protected in case Baathist guerillas invade Oak Hills?
Official language--I'm fine with not having an official language, even though English is the most accepted.
Foreign Policy--Don't like arming brutal regimes, either. I do not feel that a missile defense is worth it, like you...simply because we are not threatened by ICBMs by anyone. I doubt North Korea would launch a missile at us, I doubt Iran will have any 10,000 mile or whatever missiles anytime soon, and I doubt China will ever attack us. Now, for other countries, it's a possibility. As for Israel, yes it deserves to exist. And so does Palestine. Despite the relative clam there is now, we should be working toward a better solution to the conflict, first by being tough on Sharon and second by being tough on Arafat. Though last year the road map crashed and burned.
Gay marriage--I disagree. I am Christian, too, but I do not see harm in giving people the rights they deserve.
posted
Disagree. I think there should be tougher gun laws, and we should be thinking of an assault weapons ban.
Why do you say disagree? I'm all for tougher laws, at least once we try making the ones we have legal and actually enforcing them. And I'm not necessarily against banning assault weapons, either, though I'd be interested to know how many people were killed with them. Most deaths I hear about are from handguns, though that isn't necessarily representative.
Gay marriage--I disagree. I am Christian, too, but I do not see harm in giving people the rights they deserve.
Again, why do you think you're disagreeing with me? What I said was more that I don't think it really matters what the government recognizes, just that it should at least be consistant.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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Read "The Forge of God" many years ago, still re-read it occasionally. Still one of the better end-of-the-world books out there. Not really been sure about the sequel though - "Anvil of Stars" - following the adventures of the human children on the Ship of the Law as they seek out the origin of the planet-killers. For one thing, a lot of it doesn't match the original epilogue of "FoG" in the details.
Euthanasia. . . I understand the principle. Kate's even spoken to me on the subject. Thing is, although I understand the reasoning behind people wanting to die rather than suffer a prolonged and ultimately fatal illness, and I also understand but don't especially subscribe to the viewpoint of those who oppose it, I know that I can't really picture myself being in the position of either having to choose such a fate for myself or support someone else's choice.
You see, I don't have especially strong opinions on many subjects. I'd find it quite hard to compose a whole screed like Omey's done. A lot of the time I prefer not to hold opinions on things that don't affect me. Others I haven't made my mind up about. Like, drugs. I've done my fair share. And I've never had any problems with them. But I also know that I've been fortunate in that regard. I don't do drugs anymore, by the way - matijuana makes me feel ill and keeps me awake, and I promised never to use cocaine again when I got married, because my wife doesn't like it.
One opinion I did always have was that Omega, you were quite young when you joined our little community. It always seemed to me you had a lot of opinions that seemed unsustainable in the real world. I always thought that you needed to grow up a lot (must try that myself someday!). No offence, because I actually kind of respect what you've written in that piece; but the very title of this thread suggests you feel this way yourself, or so it seems to me.
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