Have the balls to call yourselves social democrats or socialists, chaps.

I'm a liberal - or, as you'd call it, libertarian.

If you insist on taxation, then consumption tax is probably the best way to go; I just wonder if income taxes would be reduced accordingly if sales taxes are raised (or introduced). Obviously taking money from people so they can pay national debt makes as much sense as standing on a bucket and tryin...

Terrorists are soldiers now? You didn't realize they are fighting our soldiers on the battlefield? Terrorists are hardly soldiers. There is a meaningful distinction. And the barbaric response is just absurd. And what war? Don't get out much, do you? We had this thing called "9/11" and eve...

Terrorists are soldiers now?

And what war?

Cail wrote:www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/a ... id=topnews

F*ck it, I'm to tired to make it pretty.

Just read that

How can America's saviour do this?!

Hopefully he'll be remembered for his music, not his curious lifestyle. No . . . I'm pretty much hoping people will forget his horrid music and remember him for dangling his own child over a deadly fall, getting children drunk and sleeping with them (which he admitted to--whether or not they had se...

The court made a decision, and no proof has been offered otherwise. It would not be prudent or correct to label the man as a paedophile.

Hopefully he'll be remembered for his music, not his curious lifestyle.

I dunno. I wouldn't want the British 'government' apologising, because that would just imply a transfer of guilt onto a population which had literally nothing to do with events 150+ years ago.

Surely it's completely illogical, not to mention impossible, to apologise for acts done by people who are now dead?

It's not really like the politicalcompass one, but basically I watched a lecture by a psychologist called Jonathan Haidt (who I'm sure many of you are familiar with) who had set up a website to record various moral leanings of people with various political views... and then plotted a series of graph...

Aren't we done with the 'baby killer' thing? It's an adequate description of what he did. Only it doesn't hide behind a euphemism.

'Hero' is just an abuse of the word. Martyr, perhaps? Who knows.

Yeah... surely the amount of people who hold the opinion is irrelevant to the private rights of others?

That's my reading of the constitution anyway.

The Democrats gained ground in the Clinton years by moving toward the center. In order to stage a credible comeback, the GOP may have to do the same. IMO, of course. It is one of the peculiar things about party politics where simple tribalism and allegiance to the party (whatever that entails) actu...

Do you have a link for this? Sounds interesting in a train wreck kind of way

The McDonald's suit was still ridiculous. I'm not sure on what grounds people could even prosecute. But, then again, I'm no lawyer.

I've had the same conversation with my father several times, most notably over the latest laws outlawing smoking in restaurants. It's a hot button issue, that's for sure. When I discovered my father smoking a few years ago after lecturing me for years on the harmfulness of it I lost a lot of respec...

rdhopeca, you may justly have no sympathy for some of the dodgier practices of the tobacco industry, but considering how they are getting more and more hamstrung and smoking is still prevalent, I'm not sure that they can be blamed for marketing squarely at kids and teenagers and exacerbating the un...

Of course I'm not putting it past the tobacco industry to stoop to such levels, but I highly doubt some of the things being said here. Marketing to 'kids' for example... what age? I would imagine that marketing to mid-teens (13-16/18) would be the best way to get somebody hooked before they're 16/18...

I guess, after all the discussions about Kevin here on the Watch, it all comes down to: are you sacrificing yourself in service, or are you sacrificing yourself out of despair . No matter how bad things get, you always have hope if you live to fight another day. I think this is a perfect appraisal ...

Why isn't it? Because adults are quite capable of appreciating sweet flavours too? The argument is just as bogus as the one which says alcohol drinks with fruity flavours ought to be banned in supermarkets or have a minimum price, because young adults and teenagers are more likely to drink them. It...