posted
Why is it that we no longer seem to be doing the impossible and the fantastic lately? People who should have all the mental power to create the future seem to just want to whine about how hard things are because Bush is in the White House.
When did the Liberals give up on a positive agenda and become such bitter nay sayers? We could be transforming the Deserts into Gardens, we could be in Space with a new vehical, we could be making a tree that tastes like chocolate. The gene from the Narwal that gives it its unique horn could be trait transcripted into white horses.
There is nothing that keeps anyone from the fantastic but staying locked in the last failure, (which I admitt the liberals have a long line of) we still need your energy to make home interesting and to make the secure future we are building better then the now.
So, basically, Bean, you are finally admitting that it's the liberals who are the ones who have always been responsible for doing the great things in the past, and because liberals aren't "with the program" innovation has stopped in the world.
I'm impressed with your clarity of thought on this issue. On behalf of liberals everywhere, I really like this new attitude and, if you rephrase your request and ask really really nicely next time, we'll all be happy to use our brilliance to help solve some of the world's problems. Once again.
posted
How about if we, first, be realisitc, especially about things such as oil and the fact that we cannot continue to get cheap oil. Positive is all well and good, but you can't just tie a sheet to your and expect to fly off the roof. Quite frankly, I am disgusted by both liberals and convervatives, but more by conservatives and their absolute blindness. Sure we could do the impossible, but within reason, and not by doing the same ridiculous things over and over and expecting different results. It all just pisses me off.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Its not just the Liberals that do this. the only reason you notice it is because bush is in office. the conservitives did the same thing when clinton was in office. so its not all Liberals fault.
Posts: 513 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
You know what, Bean, I'd agree with this post if you changed the word 'Liberals' to 'elected officials who oppose the current administration'.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:We could be transforming the Deserts into Gardens, we could be in Space with a new vehical, we could be making a tree that tastes like chocolate. The gene from the Narwal that gives it its unique horn could be trait transcripted into white horses
We could be feeding people in the Sudan! We could be letting lower class Americans go to the doctor! We could be fixing the education system! We could let children from Bangladesh go to school rather than work a 14-hour day putting stitching on our Nikes!
Honestly, every dollar that goes to something extravagant and "fantastic" is a dollar that could be used to help a human being survive and live a decent life. It would be nice to have chocolate-flavored trees, but let's wait on that until we make sure everyone has enough food to survive.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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You know, we have more than enough grain to feed everyone in the world. More than enough.
But we don't do it.
Okay Bean Counter...let's figure out a way to do it.
I'd get behind ANY President who committed to that. I don't care what party he'd be with, I'd be behind him or her 100% right now.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote: When did the Liberals give up on a positive agenda and become such bitter nay sayers?
This sentence is crap. I'm a liberal (oh, is it supposed to be Liberal, now?) and I'm not a bitter nay sayer. Roughly half the country are liberals -- and we're all bitter nay sayers?
Somebody's been listening to a lot of Rush Limbaugh.
However, I do agree that the high mucky-mucks in the Democratic party are wasting a lot of time attacking Bush instead of trying to pass positive legislation to change this country for the better.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
So true, Annie. It makes no sense that in this modern world things like poverty and prejudice still exist. Now I am reading Shadow of the Giant and thinking I'd make a damn good Hegemon.
Personally, I think the democratic party has turned into a bunch of wimps. They are like yiping little dogs. Instead of just complaining about Bush they should really do something about him like have him impeached if the allegations are true. If not, then they should really fight for our economy, the environment and all of this. A decent life after all should be our birthright.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Unfortunately because we have a two-party system in this country, there's a situation where the minority party can't do anything constructive if they disagree with the Administration.
That situation is when:
The President, the House and the Senate are all from the majority party.
The Democrats, sad for them, find themselves unable to do much but use parliamentary tricks (like filibuster) to stop things they don't like. It's not that they aren't proposing legislation, but that if the majority party doesn't want to consider it, it'll never even make it out of committee.
They can't do anything about it because they don't have the votes.
They can whine about it in the media.
But what other options are there.
I'm hoping that eventually we have a viable 3rd party in this country precisely so that no-one has the power to totally block the other parties' voices. Everything would require a coalition of at least two parties.
Until then, we can pretty much forget about the minority party doing anything but whining when they aren't in control of either chamber of Congress or the White House.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
If we subtract the political dissension from this discussion, it's something I've felt as well. That we humans have tools we've never had before, and are in the unique position now in which we do indeed have unlimited possibilities in front of us, and yet we don't seem to notice it, for the most part, and seem to stay bogged down in the day to day.
The internet is the most amazing thing to happen since the printing press.
The gathering of like minds that it allows is affecting every field of human endeavor, in the same way the advent of cities, and the subsequent formation of guilds, affected the quality and state-of-the-art of brickmaking, blacksmithing, glassmaking, and all other crafts, causing a rapid advance in techniques and knowledge. The internet is like a worlwide city in that sense.
Instead of months and years between conferences and papers being published, the lag time now for advances in fields like physics or genetics is only days and weeks. And nobody has to travel now, to be right in the middle of everything.
In politics we are doing an end run around the politicians by forging strong personal ties individual to individual from country to country around the world. Never before in history could people maintain such close friendships across all national borders, and make no mistake, the borders of the world will become less important because of it. We are all one family, after all. We already know this. The internet is going to teach it to us in a daily, practical way.
The exploration and colonization of space is right around the corner. We must and will get commercial interests more involved, and the thing will take on a life of its own and become unstoppable. Wealth unimaginable is up there, unlimited resources, if we learn how to tap into them efficiently.
Genetic engineering is here to stay. Eventually who can doubt that some people will use this knowledge to reshape the human body and mind to match whatever dreams of the spirit can be dreamt? Will some people have acres of wingspan and bodies adapted for the cold and vacuum of space? Will some choose great size and strength? Will others learn how to enhance human intelligence? It seems that the diaspora across the solar system will be accompanied by another radiation, too, the explosive radiation of the human species into many forms and variants, into a number of subtypes.
And of the heart, of the spirit, there is a great growth spurt coming. The way we shall overcome the barriers in front of us, the method by which we shall dodge what looks like certain extinction and attain all these wonders in our future, shall be through a flowering of the spirit, a swelling of the heart, in which people will become more than we've ever yet been. More caring and more connected and just... more.
I can't wait for the future. Our future is so bright.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
It cracks me up that somebody can say "The fantastic isn't happening anymore" and then point to other people as the bitter naysayers. Just off the top of my head, are independant commercial space tourism and powered robot exo-suits not fantastic enough for you? I think it's more the case that the fantastic is becoming the mundane at a fairly rapid pace.
Oh, and with the political tones of the first post, one could assume that by "we" you meant America and you may notice that my second link is something being developed in Japan. Maybe American scientists could "do something" as you request easier if science and education got some of the billions of dollars currently being spent on war? Just a thought.
quote:Maybe American scientists could "do something" as you request easier if science and education got some of the billions of dollars currently being spent on war? Just a thought.
posted
Think how easy it would be to make some legislation that put those billions mentioned in the two previous posts, or half those billions or a tiny percentage of those billions, to social programs or foreign aid or Anything.
How about every time Hilary Duff is going to be in a movie they scrap the movie right then and there and donate the budget to some sort of useful cause?
Seriously though, there is a lot of money just wafting right now from one pocket to another that doesn't really need to be there so much. If only we could harness a fraction of those millions- perhaps by taking a percentage of the profits of mass-money-making endeavors- we could perform what we cannot do right now simply because we "haven't the money".
Heavy taxes on cigarettes generates revenue and cuts sickness silmultaneously. Gamblers could be taxed more heavily- 5.00 entry charge? (although I know that particular industry supports quite a few communities). Alcohol, porn- same thing. People are going to indulge no matter what, so why not make some money?
Also, I agree with the general feeling of this thread. Unicorns are all very well, but if I was a starving person or someone who was facing heavy medical fees and I knew that money was being poured into creating unicorns I might be more than a little hurt.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Sure, you say that now...but what if ground up unicorn is the cure for all diseases, huh? What then?
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I'm not trusting the Conservatives with the chocolate trees, though. I live in a Republican town and all I can get here is Hershey's. Hershey's! It's enough to make me cry.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
No matter what your political views, you have to agree that crazy tree-hugging liberals eat pretty well.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
As long as it takes to have a chocolate-flavored tree in every garage and a unicorn in every pot.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Think how easy it would be to make some legislation that put those billions mentioned in the two previous posts, or half those billions or a tiny percentage of those billions, to social programs or foreign aid or Anything.
Impossible. We're talking about interfering with free trade, denying them the right to spend their own money on what they wish.
quote:How about every time Hilary Duff is going to be in a movie they scrap the movie right then and there and donate the budget to some sort of useful cause?
That's just silly. A) That money would not even be there if it weren't for investors hoping to get the money back in spades and B) movies are not a drain on the economy -- they make money.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
if genetic engineering was advanced enough I would volunteer to become a Dark Elf, c'mon dark, handsom, long white hair its BEGGING for the attentions of women!
But ya, the US spends like 400,000,000,000$ per year on military related stuff, China currently considered as the last evil nation etc etc spends about 60 billion. A fraction of what america spends I wonder who is more belligerent? And billions more is spend on armaments by every other nation on the globe why? Because fat balding white men smoking cigars make money on dealing out death to millions. Arms dealing betting be a international crime.
Also, for 20 billions$ we could send a crew of 4 to mars for 600 days, does that sound good to you?
Man, genetic engineering could allow us to grop sooo much crops in kazakasan and western china and soooo many other god damn places where barely 10% of the land is arible.
Posts: 1567 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
You don't need votes to achieve the fantastic... You need imagination, hard work, and luck. That's because the government is not often the source of fantastic possibilities - it is individuals who are that source, I think.
Posts: 2432 | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Amen to that last, it is clear that many of you suffer from the Socialist Disease of thinking the Government should do this or that for you...
A big part of being conservative is being cantancerous anti social and independent, all traits I have incorperated into my BC persona...
That demonstrated, instead of looking for the next freebee from Uncle Sam or putting other impoverished nations on our welfare rolls (sheesh!) or even telling people they cannot watch Hillary Duff, men of great valor and knowlege could be doing things of great import!
What if the next thing is the Higgs Field scattering engine, which reduces mass by an order of magnitude and allows cheap comercial space flight, all whipped up by reefer smoking dropouts in Eugean Oregon? That is the energy we need from liberals. Feed the hungry and you just get more hungry, we should let them feed themselves and give them whatever they need to become as self satisfied and useless as we have.
We are carving out a time of safety for you to act in, yes we are killing and dying for your chance to do something wonderful while we still stand atop the pinicle, we cannot be the greatness that will be remembered from this time, we are only the ones willing to do the dirty job and we will continue. Stop obsessing about what we have to do to get the job done and go do something with the time you have.
Even if we succeed we are buying a century at best, so get busy!
quote:Sure, you say that now...but what if ground up unicorn is the cure for all diseases, huh? What then?
Save the Unicorn!
quote:That's just silly. A) That money would not even be there if it weren't for investors hoping to get the money back in spades and B) movies are not a drain on the economy -- they make money.
It wasn't intended to be taken seriously.
quote:Impossible. We're talking about interfering with free trade, denying them the right to spend their own money on what they wish.
And freedom is important, I know, I know. Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote: The Democrats controlled the House for 45-odd years, and the Senate for almost that entire time.
And a lot of good (and some bad, yes) things happened during that time period. The party of the president has had power over lawmaking for the last few years, and I've yet to really see a major piece of legislation that changes ANYTHING in this country be passed. The one exception, just recently is the Energy Bill, which is riddled with problems, but hey, at least it got passed, it's a LOT better than nothing.
Both parties piss me off. Republicans are smug, and Democrats (I'm referring to those in the Congress and White House, not all people everywhere) spend their time calling the Republicans smug and sniping at what they say in sound bytes. Democrats can complain that they aren't in power, but they aren't offering alternatives. If they would, they could get the word out about them, if they were viable, and the Republicans still turned them down for political reasons, they'd pay for it in the next election.
Republicans though have little excuse. The filibuster isn't being used on EVERY piece of legislation that enters the chambers of Congress. It's barely being used at all. They can't get anything passed when they have total control, and then blame the Democrats. That's pathetic, just as pathetic as the Democrats spinning their wheels and shouting at the wind.
But more so than all those people, I blame the voters. Vote the idiots out of office and bring in people who actually want to do something. They are out there, they just aren't as well funded as the guys already there.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Research requires money. Sure maybe physics student can just have a great idea one day, but to prove if it works he or she needs funding. Particle accelerators and such don't come cheap. That means either a government grant or private investment. Private investment isn't often going to happen unless there's a demonstratable commercial application to make money, so even getting something "fantastic" to the point where you can show it might be possible is going to take money. You don't get any results by saying "get busy!"
And again, it's hilarious that you've decided liberals are the only ones who can invent anything new. Let's play along: Liberals' job is to invent things and Conservatives' job is to protect us from terrorism and rogue nations and such, okay? You go win that war in Iraq now, but we're not going to give you any money to do it. Stop obsessing about what we have to do to get the job done and go do something with the time you have. What do you mean the world's not instantly safe from violence? Go get busy!
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