I'm really not going to bother with a poster pretending to be three. Nor am I going to entertain cheap attempts at feigning being offended - or for that matter what drugs allow one to see anything other than a trio of moons and a deer's head as part of my icon. No, Russ is not going to make me change it despite your juvenile attempts.
That being said, there were a few interesting comments for discussion mentioned earlier in this thread which I'd like to touch on.
The most successful European countries are based on varying degrees of Biblical law
If there are any laws within the multitude of countries on the European continent which have Biblical applications it is by sheer happenstance. If the bible says don't kill people and I erect such a law, it is not safe to assume I am practicing Biblical law. I'm just practicing moral law (your bible just happens to match some of my morals - nothing more, nothing less.) This is reinforced by the fact that a great many European countries (in fact, the most successful ones) are extremely gay tolerant. This is really something you need to consider in your argument, Russ. Gays can marry in some European countries and in others are widely accepted. You suggest that they are so successful because they are applying Biblical law to their legal structure - but what about the acceptance of gays? Of your own volition their economies should be teetering on the brink even now and be close to ruin but, on the contrary, the Euro grows stronger every day and the US dollar, unfortunately, is ever-crippling.
We were also talking about patriotism earlier on in this thread and the kind of evils it can bring about. Two quotes I'd like to share with you all - I couldn't've said them any better myself.
I am against every kind of nationalism because it represents mental regression. We can love our roots but also look ahead. The vision of a modern man for me entails a person without roots, but in a noble sense of the word. It knows wherefrom it hails, is capable of returning there, but, at the same time, feels compelled to live elsewhere and to cut the umbilical cord.
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
That last one was Albert Einstein.
I don't differentiate nationalism from patriotism. It's all primitive tribalism at its very worst. I can see what you mean, Linda, about your husband appreciating certain aspects of his homeland while also not being a devout flag-waver. Interestingly, in the US right now flags are raised above Taco Bell even - there was once a law preventing flags from being raised (so tastelessly I might add) above such instiutions. Flags were for government buildings, schools and people's front steps (though in the case of the latter it's beginning to get a bit frightening) I honestly feel I may be discriminated against or outrighted lynched for not placing the present day American swastika on my car: a yellow ribbon sticker. Interestingly, and perhaps enviously, a lot of my British friends have indicated that contrary to the U.S. where criticizing the government makes one considered a terrorist, in the U.K. you're actually not patriotic unless you
do criticize and slander the current regime. It's like their God-given right as a Brit, as one friend of mine put it.
