posted
Yeah, but if you're gonna base your morals on those of a pulp sci-fi American hack screenwriter's idea of a perfect society, after it's been filtered through 30 years of corporate censorship, then I'd say you need a refresher course in reality. Unless that was meant to be a joke. . . please tell me it was meant to be a joke?
------------------ "I do prefer the arse, but you can't dismiss the leg. They're joined at the hip, so to speak."
posted
"We can't judge them for things that seem all right in their culture."
There are things in different cultures that we shouldn't judge, like eating bugs. But there's a LINE between cultural and universal ethics, and there is something definitely wrong when people are killed as a direct or indirect result of someone's actions. Do you really believe the abortion gangs are doing what's "all right" in Chinese culture? That it's okay to kill female infants because they're economically worthless? The men who force women to abort are COWARDS, you know, not cultural crusaders. They're too afraid to stand up to the government, so they pick on the easy prey, which happens to be women.
------------------ "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." --Albert Eistein
posted
I don't know if this is true, but I have heard that they do some abortions by sticking a hypodermic needle full of formaldehyde into the baby's brain as it's being born. Whether abortion is murder or not, I don't know, but doing that is! If it's true, then China is real fucked up.
------------------ "The Web brings people together because no matter what kind of a twisted sexual mutant you happen to be, you've got millions of pals out there. Type in 'Find people that have sex with goats that are on fire' and the computer will ask, 'Specify type of goat.'"
Lighten up, Firsty. It's just that you were almost implying that China is evil because they wouldn't get admitted to the Federation. And then you're on to "humans are Americans, and Vulcans are Brits..." (although I DO wonder what us Aussies would be under that system)
Anyway, where were we? Evil chinese baby killers, right? Now, y'see, I don't know much about Chinese culture. Get on all right with the folks down at the local takeaway, but that's as far as it goes. All I wanted to do was head off judgment on things like the eating of bugs, as Tora said.
What I think is the problem over there is the devaluing of the individual. The State feels there should be less people, and they introduce all these measures that the rest of the world might one day need to have a crack at. But they don't give a monkeys how these measures affect the common man, it don't feature in their plans. The bosses in Beijing don't have to see orphanages full of abandoned babies. I doubt they have any probs getting women on demand. Its not like the changing family model is gonna lead to increased dissatisfaction which will cost them the nexy election because, whoops, they don't have 'em. All these things could happen anywhere, given a government with a certain amount of totalitarianism. Now you folks have elected that feller Bush, ya might find that out yourselves.
TLE: they could do that anywhere in the world. Prolly do, too. Start saying "oh, only the Chinese would do that" and your back to what Xentric said.
------------------ "I do prefer the arse, but you can't dismiss the leg. They're joined at the hip, so to speak."
posted
"All these things could happen anywhere, given a government with a certain amount of totalitarianism. Now you folks have elected that feller Bush, ya might find that out yourselves."
Bush, the guy for smaller government (and against abortion, for that matter)?
------------------ Frank's Home Page "Gardening for Dummies is too intense." - Rick
posted
"All these things could happen anywhere, given a government with a certain amount of totalitarianism. Now you folks have elected that feller Bush, ya might find that out yourselves."
Thy logic is in abeyance.
If anything, Gore is the totalitarianist, with his designs on social engineering and the great expansion of government and intrusion of government into all facets of life and so-called "targeted" (read: 'discriminatory') tax cuts.
------------------ "Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master
posted
Well, China does need fewer people. And if someone abandons their child, or kills it, or buys/sells women as a commodity, it's the fault of those individuals, and they should be punished, not the government.
Which isn't to say the government shouldn't be punished at all. They should. Just not on this particular principle.
------------------ "What he did to that walrus gentle-man was inexcusable." -T. Herman Zweibel on "Mr. Woodrow Wood-pecker", The Onion, 7-Nov-2000
posted
Well what will happen in a few hundred years in Europe or America, won't the population growth there cause pretty much the same problem (unless of course we're living on the moon). If anything, what's happening in China may be a frightining loook into our future (remeber Soylent Green?)
posted
The population in Europe is on the verge of declining, with some nations already sitting near zero population growth, and a few already in negative percentages. Because I have shockingly little to do with my time, I made a little list, which we shall now see, assuming it isn't mutilated beyond recognition. (Edit: Which, of course, it was. Bah and double bah! One more time then, now with new and improved HTMLizing from our very own TSN. Let's give him a hand, folks.)
Nation
Growth rate
(in percentages)
Bosnia & Herzegovina
3.1
San Marino
1.49
Luxembourg
1.27
Andorra
1.22
Ireland
1.16
Vatican City
1.15
Liechtenstein
1.02
Croatia
.93
Serbia
.739
Iceland
.57
Netherlands
.57
Norway
.5
Monaco
.48
France
.38
Denmark
.31
Switzerland
.3
Germany
.29
Albania
.26
Austria
.25
United Kingdom
.25
Greece
.21
Belgium
.18
Portugal
.18
Finland
.17
Slovakia
.12
Slovenia
.12
Spain
.11
Italy
.09
Sweden
.02
Moldova
0
Poland
-.04
Czech Republic
-.08
Belarus
-.17
Romania
-.21
Lithuania
-.29
Hungary
-.33
Estonia
-.59
Ukraine
-.83
Bulgaria
-1.16
Montenegro
-12.22
A quick and dirty bit of averaging gives an overall growth rate for Europe of 1.519% or so. Far from the rate necessary for bringing Charleton Heston in to clean things up.
[This message has been edited by Sol System (edited November 10, 2000).]
[ Okay, so I screwed up the table. How was I to know it wouldn't accept unclosed TH and TD tags?! ]
[ addendum the second: I don't know why there's a huge gap there. I guess we know how to make spoiler space, now. Just use a table! *rolls eyes* ]
[ Number Three: Okay, the infinitely wise Guru Capps has informed me of the proper way to do a table in a post (here's a hint: don't hit "enter" unless you really mean it), so it ought to be better now. I hope... ]
[This message has been edited by Charles Capps (edited November 10, 2000).]
[ Fourth and final appendix: The UBB has a weird, er... thing about it that was still screwing up ever so slightly. But CC's fixed it. And Sol feels special. That is all. ]
[This message has been edited by TSN (edited November 10, 2000).]
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