Thuce Seven
Recent Activity
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Does the U.S. legislative branch need an overhaul?
If you want to talk about effectiveness you have to define the parameters of success. What makes a legislature effective? Congress isn't supposed to respond to every whim of the people, there is some lethargy and unresponsiveness purposely built into the institution. … Read More
January 16, 2008 |
Re: Re: Re: Re: The Meaning of Life - via how would you spend your last days on
I would argue that we are all a lot more alike than most people think. True, there are superficial differences such as where you grew up, what kind of things you spend your time doing, but ultimately we are all part of the same species and share an enormous amount in common. I'm not saying that people have other goals and little projects they like to work on, but ultimately our purpose is to reproduce. If it wasn't we probably wouldn't be here. I agree that we all want to leave the world a better place, but think about it for a second. We are not going to benefit from a better world in the future. We are not going to benefit if we save the planet and 500 years from now human beings are still around. Who will benefit from this? Our children and their children. … Read More
January 16, 2008 |
I'm not someone who thinks that there is anything particularly special about the era we live in, except for the fact that as a species this is the oldest we've ever been. However I do think there is something inevitable about where we're going, that it is not all just relative and that it is not only a matter of time before the whole world order is turned inside out again. While I believe the Westphalian state system will run its course, eventually to be replaced with some kind of global federalism, I do believe that the enshrining of individual rights and freedom in a formalized social compact between government and the governed is inevitable. Human civilization has only been around for a few thousand years, maybe it just took us a while to finally land upon the form of government that most precisely comports with immutable human nature. I would argue that human nature is inevitable, we today are motivated by the same hopes and fears and physical fears as our ancestors of 8,000 years ago, so why shouldn't the way we govern humans have any less of a sense of inevitability about it? … Read More
January 16, 2008 |
Re: Re: The Meaning of Life - via how would you spend your last days on earth?
I think meaning can only be bestowed on us by the thing that put us here. If you craft a toy soldier it is not up to the soldier to decide it's purpose, but you as its creator to decide whether to give him away as a gift or put him on the shelf or whatever you deem worthy. I believe that just as the toy soldier is a product of the craftsman's hand, human beings are a product of nature. It is therefore nature that gets to decide its purpose for us and I think it has decided unequivocally that we our main purpose in the lifetime it gives us is to create more of ourselves. The arc of history, from the birth of the universe to the formation of the planets to the first spark of life has been an arc of creation. When considering Mother Theresa et al, I'm not arguing that you can't break out of this natural construct of purpose and effect great change in the context of our own constructed societies. What I do argue is that if there is just one thing that could be called the purpose or meaning of life, the one common thread imbued in all of us by nature, it is propagation. And I don't think it is coincidental that it is also the most fulfilling. Maybe Mother Theresa missed out. … Read More
January 16, 2008 |
I am not a lawyer, but doess't the Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution (Article IV Section 1) require that states respect contracts protected by other states? Does that mean that a same sex marriage in Vermont has to be respected as lawful in Texas? … Read More
January 16, 2008 |
