The serious stuff. Debates and discussions on politics, religion, etc.
These are just general guidelines and may be added to or changed if and when the need arises. The forum is a place for serious debate, discussion of news and current events, and also witnessing, if you must. Whether it's the deep discussion on...
http://www.theage.com.au/world/beheader ... -8qok.html This was bound to make headlines, but was there ever a shred of doubt that this man was criminally insane?
First who really said this? I have seen it attributed to both Twain and Will Rodgers. Second, why do people still not understand this? I talk to people and they do not understand ballot issues for states to spend money buying up land for parks,...
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cybersecu ... _0413.html A recently proposed but little-noticed Senate bill would allow the federal government to shut down the Internet in times of declared emergency, and enables unprecedented federal oversight of...
Pardon my use of dickfingers in the title here, but this guy is just symbolic of the fakeness of the GOP these days -- as part of their little April 15 protests, Sam Wurzelbacher is speaking at the state capitol here today. I went down to watch for...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_ ... ne_obama_2 The short story, an official in the white house authorized a photo moment wherin Air Force One flys over Staten Island with a fighter jet escort. New Yorkers look up, see the 747 comin' out...
"Sexting" is the stupid word du jour I just discovered in this NPR report. It means young teens sending each other nekkid photos of themselves on their cell phones. These photos may or may not be intended to be sexually arousing; in this story, it...
I wandered by a Target today and saw a guy sitting outside, registering people to vote. Target hasa policy for a while to provide what they call "distraction-free shopping" to their customers. Basically no person or group, regardless of reason or...
I read another message board from time to time that is somewhat obsessed with crunchy-granola style naturalism, and the members are anti-circumcision in the extreme. I certainly understand the logic that if there's no good reason to surgically...
Mellodome seems to be a fairly homogeneous place, so I'm not sure how a thread like this will work. But let's give it a shot - post an (honestly held) opinion that you think is an unpopular one, on Mellophant in particular or to the wider world. And...
Richard Curtis, the comic writer of Blackadder was commissioned to create a movie short about global warning, called 10-10. It had a host of stars and celebrated everyone who is tackling Carbon Emissions... ...by blowing up those who don't. ...
OK, not really. But.... Primarily “Red States,” right? The article cites Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma and Montana, South Carolina, as harboring some dissidents willing to wield the legal shears that would carve their silhouette out of the map. ...
It's census time again folks. My 'friends' over at the Tinfoil Hat Forum are very much up in arms over not filling it out for an assortment of reasons that strike me as, well, the kind of reasons people wearing tinfoil hats would come up with. ...
Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall fell. For obvious reasons that is big news here. Unfortunately I was only nine years old at the time. That mean that while I remember it I couldn't tell you where exactly I was when I got the news. During the more...
As reported here. I think we are stealing this of youse American's, aren't we? Are you happy with this as a way of determining who runs your country? Is this style of debate ever capable of producing anything more than theatre and image, rather...
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/16/florida-officials-43-children-zapped-by-stun-gun-during-prison-tour/ At least, that's the story of Prison Officer Walter Schmidt. This happened during a "Bring Your Children to Work Day", so most of the...
Hey, at least he doesn't have to worry about being in a nursing home, now!Faulkner, who is suffering from cancer, was handed a 20-year sentence last month and is to head to prison in August. "Twenty years, that is a death sentence," said Giles...
W. It's a beautiful letter, don't you think? It is the star attraction in any attempt to gain information (who, what when, where, how). We need it for everything from Free Will to Free Willy. Whatever. It's a good letter. A good letter...
On 5th May, the UK goes to the polls to determine if it wants to change the election process currently used to something different. The current process is First Past the Post (FPTP), the suggested amendment is to change the process to Alternative...
Locally, we're having a pretty appalling time with the city school district. Despite perennial promises of reform and improvements, the four-year graduation rate has dropped to 46%. Not all of the other 54% will have been drop outs. According to...
Inspired by http://www.mellophant.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10671 I feel that part of the requirement for having children is the ability to provide a stable home environment with both parents pulling their share of the load. The child should...
Two men in black show up at your house or place of business, with NSA, CIA or FBI Identification. They usher you into another room and present the following offer; Three years ago, we perfected, if you can call it that, a drug that appears to...
According to Western Intelligance services, all that's stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb is the agreement of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. About a year after that, they will have the capacity to drop it on anywhere in the...
Say it was discovered that our planet had been visited by beings with a vastly superior intellect that were considering inviting us into a Galactic Federation, but only if we stopped eating meat - Would that be enough to make you give up your...
Well, one of the PM's closet aides, Damian McBride has resigned for some very inappropriate emails containing unsubstantiated rumour and innuendo to be used against opposition politicians. As far as Damian McBride was concerned anything was fair...
ICANN has now approved a huge increase to what can be considered as a TLD, so that not only will .com and .net be joined by thousands of other variations, but that non-latin characters will also be allowed so that domain names will be available in...
A new test has been developed and about to be marketed which would hope to give a rough estimate of the time left remaining in your life through a simepl blood test. It works by testing telomeres, which sit on the end of chromosones and wear away...
A hypothetical for the good people of domebo: Suppose the state of Wisconsin recently held an election for dog-catcher. It was a heated battle. Many first-time voters were registered. Among the instructions given to first-time voters was this:...
Dr. Ernest Madu Dr. Ernest Madu runs the Heart Institute of the Caribbean in Kingston, Jamaica, where he proves that -- with careful design, smart technical choices, and a true desire to serve -- it's possible to offer world-class healthcare in...
The volcano in Iceland had stopped all air traffic in Europe for the last six days. The only things flying were birds and insects, unaffected by the volcanic ash in the air which was floating around. The impact on a day to day basis has been minor,...
Ableism is a central concept in disability rights. The term was originally popularized by Thomas Hehir, a special education scholar who defined it as “'the devaluation of disability' that 'results in societal attitudes that uncritically assert that...
Protesters of the G-20 in London today are chanting "Abolish Money". This boggles the mind. No mater what your beef is with the G-20 or the WMF or the World Bank. No one is going to listen to anything you have to say after hearing this chant. This...
AP is reporting Dr. George TIler has been murdered at his church in Wichita, Kansas. Link. He had been repeatedly hauled into court by the local prosecutor. No further details.
This is a few months old, but I don't remember seeing any chatter about it. No high-quality study done to date can document that having an abortion causes psychological distress, or a "post-abortion syndrome," and efforts to show it does occur...
We've all seen those ads from way back when that make you want to laugh and hurt someone at the same time. The ads that imply women are helpless, fragile creatures, the ads that say you should give your baby soft drink instead of breast milk, the...
It is presumed to have crashed and they are searching the ocean for it. It went through an area with thunderstorms, and fourteen minutes later reported electrical problems. Story here and here. :( Reuters: Air France said the Airbus...
Site After hours of debate, members of the Alberta legislature passed human rights legislation allowing parents to pull their children out of classes dealing with sex, religion or sexual orientation.... The groups in opposition said the issue...
For the purposes of this discusson, assume that Earth-like life is common throughout the universe and intelligent life is also common. Just to exclude robots, sentient hydrogen clusters and other truly "alien" aliens. Could a herbivorous species...
A new groundbreaking experiment has shown that a man locked in vegetative state for the last 5 years is not only aware and capable of understanding people, but also communicating answers as well. Apparently, they can do this by using MRI scans to...
Where does the US stand in terms of word ranking of socialist states? Have the recent economic troubles and gov't intervention materially increased our leaning in that direction? As I understand it, socialism and democracy exist on a continuum, and...
Americans, is Obama living up to the hype? Are you generally pleased with his time in office, so far (with the caveat that he can't really get that much done in such a short time)? Has he made any wrong decisions in your opinion?
A pro-life group is putting forward the idea that abortion should not be a "right" granted to women as part of law. Part of the reasoning about it is the number of abortions carried out each year is too high and that women are using it as a...
I absolutely hate discussing gender differences, as I am easily offended by such generalizations, and, while I fit the conclusion that I reach, I am anything but 'masculine' in the societal sense. However, I believe I know why the topic is so...
Pretty literally in this case. Iranian woman Ameneh Bahrami was blinded when she had acid thrown over her by a stalker Majid Movahedi after his appraaches were repeatedly rebuffed. She was not dressed provocatively and was a model citizen. Now...
The UK Government toady released their accounts. Details of all the spending they have carried out over the last 5 months since coming to power. It shows, warts and all, all the expediture from team building days to renovations to consultancies....
It looks like the ANC lead by Jacob Zuma are on course to lead the next South African government with approx 65%-70% of the vote. Given the sex and corruption scandals that plagued him earlier, that is quite a showing for him. So what does this...
Watching a series on the Constitution, with one episode focusing on the 14th amendment. One issue they briefly allude to is "anchor babies". I wonder how widespread the phenomenon is?
So, surprisingly, it turns out many of my Fellowphants have strong opinions on abortion, and really I don't care what your opinions are but you should all hear mine because it's awesome. Plus, since this is the biggest topic in the controversial...
I'm watching the Pope leave Vatican City. Can't say I'll miss him...hope they do a better job picking the next guy.
Alligators are fascinating creatures. Survivors from the age of dinosaurs, they and their crocodilian kin are the closest living relatives to birds. The mother alligator fiercely defends her nest, and protects her hatchlings for up to three years....
As some of you may know, I have argued this position before as an aside in other threads, but I think it deserves its own topic. Increasingly, there have been calls for more "humane" farming and scientific research—calls to avoid causing animal...
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