Plan B Forum

Guin--I plan to read them when I get a chance. and I am interested in your point about the film being faithful to the book--that is counter to what many of the critics have said (and the only negative press I've read on the film). Glad to hear that it's not necessarily the case. FWIW, I think Lisbet...

thestoat--I'll see if I can google any quotes later if I have time as i oin't have anything here with me, but I have always found him to be more concerned with the sound bite than with discussing the subject. There is one quote I recall which says something like we shouldn't have to be so open minde...

Guin--Just saw it this weekend; you're right, she was the perfect (anti-)heroine. And, unlike many action movies, the movie was quite good as well. Not typical tough woman sexploitation. I've heard a US remake in in the works; how good do you bet that will be? Kristina--I haven't read the books, but...

I don't know about the US but in QLD if you see someone in need of help (as in the case of the man shaking the victem) you have taken on a duty of care. You are bound by law to assist or call for assistance, not doing so and you are identified you can be charged with Puttin a life in Danger or begh...

I'd be surprised if someone thought for themselves and then decided to believe in a god based on the text in an extremely old book that had been modified for so many reasons by so many people for so long. If you're saying that someone exmined the bible and used it to prove the existence of god, the...

Scooter--I think your point about the territories of the vatican (the papal states) was the reason the US recognized the sovereignty of the vatican from 1789 through 1870 (although I believe there were not always formal diplomatic relations with the vatican during that time). All formal recognition ...

Crackpot--I have com-laints with the catholic church, but this has no bearing on whether the vatican should be seen as a country; IMHO it has no more busienss being recognized as a country than Mecca or Medina or even jerusalem does. The Vatican is the overarching office of the RC church, not a coun...

Grammar school? Not that I recall. But precisely what information are you looking for? A fossil record of something with "half an eye"? why would you think that would be "successful" enough to produce some kind of fossil record? Do you dispute the contention that an infinite number of monkeys typing...

I'm fully in favor of changing it. There's absolutely no reason we should have recognized as a sovereign nation. As for the binding effect, I think the power to enter into treaties is reserved to congress and the executive, and recognition is clearly a treaty. My guess is that the courts would be bo...

A fact keld? How about several? Mutations exist--fact 1. Some of these mutations are negative and lead to early deaths, some are neutral, and some are positive--fact 2. The positive mutations ar emutations which make it better for the individual to survive in its envrionment--fact 3 (don't believe i...

Such as (among other problems) a real population. The population of the Vatican -- setting aside the offspring of adulterous unions which the Vatican refuses to recognize and the offspring of mercenaries who happen to be on Vatican territory -- is entirely transitory. The present pope was not born ...

I think what the evolutionist would say (and I agree) is that mutations occur and the fittest ones survive and proliferate. Obviously our eyes have proliferated because they suit the needs of us in an evolutionary sense. Now what this has to do with whether or not a supreme being exists is completel...

But the vatican is somewhat different than a multinational corporation; the US recognizes the Vatican as a foreign country (with which we have full diplomatic relations--why? I really have no idea.) and, consequently, the Pope as a head of state. Could we, e.g., hold the queen or PM of the UK respon...

Sue--I'll look at those cases, but is a funeral which is pad for partially by public funds (at least in a national cemetary the grave is publicly funded as is the military presence, etc.) a "private finuction". This is not someone renting a public theater for their private use, but someone using pub...

You think this new character might prompt Reggie to finally come out of the closet?

Sue--Betty and Verinica were like Archie's Ginger and Maryann--and he couldn't make up his mind. Of course in real life, neither of them would have even spoken to him in a real high school.

I'm certain that many persons, including war casualties, ar eburied without the full military pomp, but I have also been to many burials that included military escorts/pall bearers for the coffin, the rifle salutes, fag folding ritual, taps, etc., and i do think that these are political statements. ...

He's got a point. Any aliens capable of traveling the enormous distances required would be technologically far advanced of us, not the sort of people you want to piss off. If they were that smart, i doubt they'd come here. Resources? We're using them as fast as we can, and seeking to spoil what we ...

And yet fighting continues throughout the world, and people who forget are happy to cheer people off to the war the same way we cheer sports teams on, looking at the death tolls as a scoreboard, and looking at our side as always in the right. Whether we forrget or remember, it seems we never learn.

As an aside, can the sitting and legal head of state of another country be legally arrested under internaitonal law or under the laws of most countries? I think most western countries recognize the Vatican as an independent country (alhough I don't know why), but would this make the pope legally exe...

Andrew--if the disruption was soely the noise generated by whomever was passing by, then I think your point is well taken; but here i think the disruption is more the message than the noise. I would think many burying their dead would object to a silent group of Westboro people holding the hateful s...