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A place to discuss topics/games with other webDiplomacy players.
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NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
15 Jan 13 UTC
Christianity under attack ..what would Jesus do in these situations?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19467554
4 replies
Open
How do I change my name?
I want to change Zachary H. Comstock to something else.
24 replies
Open
kestasjk (64 DMod(P))
11 Jan 13 UTC
(+6)
webDiplomacy 1.3
Hi all, released webDip 1.3, which actually doesn't contain any new features but makes the code easier to translate for developers. I'm deploying it here so it gets a good bug test before I release it, so please let me know if you spot anything odd or experience any errors.
(The next release will contain new features)
28 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
15 Jan 13 UTC
hey do you guys remember that time i depth charged
hahahaha behead those who insult islam
3 replies
Open
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
10 Jan 13 UTC
webDip Book Club--Nate Silver's The Signal and The Noise
Everyone is welcome to participate so longs as you follow these simple rules:
1) You must have actually read the entire section you're discussion, and
2) You must not discuss parts of the book beyond the reading schedule (No spoilers!)
12 replies
Open
redhouse1938 (429 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
Time to recast Christian politics in secular terms?
Yes.
redhouse1938 (429 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Let's say you're a pro-life type. You don't believe in God, or in any higher being for that matter, but you do believe in the "sanctity" (or maybe "specialness" in case of a non-religious person) of human life and that making abortion laws less strict actually means sliding down a plane where the sanctity of life is being threatened. Or say you're against gay marriage, not because it's different than the Christian marriage, but simply because you believe that a family unit of a mother and a father is the best way to raise a future generation of children in, men and women possibly being more complementary to each other than two men. Or let's say you believe that the islamic faith is a dangerous belief system that has to be combatted, without finding the christian faith a suitable replacement for it.

I think for many on the right, this will be a major political challenge in the 21st century: casting essentially christian points of view in a secular terminology, using a line of argumentation that people without faith can respond to.

Discuss.
redhouse1938 (429 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Here's an example; France is historically a country of secular politics, but faith kicks into this debate sort of automatically.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20382699
ulytau (541 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
And for the remaining rightists like myself, the major political challenge will be/is/has been to disassociate ourselves from conservatives that are hijacking the programme of personal freedom, liberties and self-realization for everybody into freedom, liberties and self-realization for conservatives.
redhouse1938 (429 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
wut
Octavious (2701 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
I can't for the life of me remember the last time I heard a UK politician argue for anything based on religious grounds. I'm sure it happens every now and then, but very rarely. One of the benefits of not trying to seperate Church and State is that Church and State have almost completely seperated.

(I have an exam in two hours and I'm bloody annoyed. I thought I'd left this sort of sillyness behind me when I finished uni)
redhouse1938 (429 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
You're lucky to live there then. :-)

Good luck with the exam! I hope this means you're making a soft turn to physical chemistry otherwise it's not worth it.
Octavious (2701 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Engineering is being forced upon me. It's really rather simple, but work insists I jump through these hoops
redhouse1938 (429 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Ouch you just insulted 80% of the webdip community and engineering has little to do with physical chemistry or faith-based politics. *Shoo* you derailer you.
Maniac (189 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
"I can't for the life of me remember the last time I heard a UK politician argue for anything based on religious grounds." - that's because all politicians know that they need to appeal to a wider constituancy and also know that using religion as a arguement can alienate people. What tends to happen is that people who hold religious beliefs about a subject present the arguement differently. Flying the union flag in belfast has nothing to do with religion; but is about tradition and a sense of identity. Maintaining church schools has nothing to do with furthering christen/islamic values but is to do with improving grades. Maintaining clergy in the upper house is about tradition, etc, etc.

I agree btw that religion doesn't play a big part in UK politics, but it is still there.

fulhamish (4134 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
Hi redhouse, this article might interest you http://www.lifenews.com/2012/02/28/confessions-of-a-pro-life-atheist-why-i-fight-abortion/

I guess that those of us who take up a pro-life stance are fed up with being branded religious, anti-scientific fundementalists.
Octavious (2701 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Oh, I don't know, Maniac. I'm very much in favour of church schools but don't have a religious bone in my body. CofE schools have the best songs :)
Octavious (2701 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
There's not many MPs I could say the religion of, thinking about it (aside from the Ulster nutters). Ann Widdecombe and Tony Blair are Catholic, but they've both left. Gordon Brown is a... one of those miserable Scottish churches. I really don't know any others.
redhouse1938 (429 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Interesting article, ful, I read it. Yes, that's what I mean. You don't hear that kind of story very often. I'd be curious to find a female pro-life atheist as well and hear her stance.
bo_sox48 (5202 DMod(G))
14 Jan 13 UTC
There are plenty of reasons to be against abortion that don't have a thing to do with any god or religion.
redhouse1938 (429 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
True, but I'm talking about an even broader context than just abortion. This goes for a range of issues. Stem cell research could be another one (note that I am an avid supporter of stem cell research).
bo_sox48 (5202 DMod(G))
14 Jan 13 UTC
I know what you mean, but abortion's the best one to discuss because each side can make a clear argument there.

There's a certain moral capacity that some people carry on things like that... isn't that what all law is based off of anyway? After all, nobody will point to the Bible to say that you shouldn't murder people, but it's there too. If one can reasonably explain their moral dissension over an idea like stem cell research, I'd find it respectable even if I don't agree on it. I too support it but I guarantee you nobody in my household did until my mom came down with cancer, and in hindsight, I have no idea why, but we claimed we had our reasons.
Tolstoy (1962 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
"I'd be curious to find a female pro-life atheist as well and hear her stance."

The founder of Libertarians for Life is a female atheist. Here are a few anti-abortion arguments from that perspective:
http://www.l4l.org/library/index.html
Fasces349 (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
The pro-life advocates don't consider fetuses to be sacred, they consider life to start at conception, I know a few people who are pro-life and atheist. The argument is that because they are already alive, and all life should be treated equally, the mother has no right to kill the fetus in her womb, just like nobody would give a mother the right to kill her 1 year old baby.

I believe life starts at birth and have no objects to abortions.

While I understand someone having a position of pro-life and not be religious, every argument about gay marriage is either religious or homophobic.
Thomas Olai (599 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
There are no such thing as a homophobic.... You are not scared, you're an asshole!
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+2)
If I have a tapeworm, I pull it out.

I don't need the governments permission to remove unwanted parasites.
Thomas Olai (599 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
A fetus is in no way a parasite, even if you can point out some similarities, both terms are strictly defined. What you dont need is the governments permission to remove an unwanted embryo or fetus.
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
I don't need that, either :)
Fasces349 (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
+1 yellowjacket. Most hilarious thing I have heard all day.

"There are no such thing as a homophobic.... You are not scared, you're an asshole!"
Hate is one of the irrational ways to react to fear. When you hate gays, its because your scared of them.
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
I don't understand what's to be fearful of in gays. I look around and most of them are slight of build and rather not aggressive in nature. If one DID try to impose his will I'm pretty sure I could fend him off.
Draugnar (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
A fetus is a parasite in the broadest meaning of the term as it feeds off the mothers body and gives nothing of substance in return. But, at the same time, the mother and the fetus share a certain amount of common DNA, the mother having provided half of it from her own which is why DNA testing can determine parent/child relationship.

The one thing that should be understood is that not all pro-life people believe life begins at conception. That distinction belongs to a minority, but unfortunately most vocal, group. Many of us believe life begins somewhere around a heartbeat or brainwaves or the reaction to pain or the development of the limbs into obvious human like features and we have varying degrees of where that line occurs and an uncertainty that says "better safe than sorry" in that we shoudl error on the side of protecting something that may not yet be a human life than on the side of not protecting something that has become a human life.
Draugnar (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
@YJ - I've never understood why one would be afraid of gays except if they have latent homosexual feelings they don't want to admit too. Now I will admit there are a few lesbians scare the fuck out of me because they are bigger and stronger than me. :-)
fulhamish (4134 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Parasites, of course, must be of differing species. Thanks for the emotional input, but try again.
Fasces349 (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
@Draug: do you support gay marraige, its clear that your not pro-choice
Draugnar (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Re: parasites must be of another species... Must they? This is the second definition from a medical dictionary: "2. the smaller, less complete member of asymmetrical conjoined twins, attached to and dependent upon the autosite"

By that definition, the shared DNA between mother and child could be construed as the child being the parasite and the mother being the autosite.
Draugnar (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
I absolutely DO support same-sex marriages (gay being men usually and lesbian being female). I support marriages between any two or more consenting people of legal age to eneter into a contract. I wouldn't support child marriages or marrying animals or inanimate objects. But if the two (or more) people can both sing legally binding contracts, they can enter into a marriage in my book. I'm not a strict "Christian" in the religious sense.
Draugnar (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
And I am pro-choice to a certain stage in the fetus' development. I pretty much run on 1st trimester is OK but 2nd is iffy and 3rd no way.
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
I don't understand why all this talk of trimesters has to come into it. I want to sledge a baby 2 hours after delivery.
Maniac (189 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
@draugnar "But if the two (or more) people can both sing legally binding contracts"

I can't sing at all, but would like to get married. Stop oppressing me!

Fasces349 (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Yellowjacket, I talk of trimesters. Like you I support abortions up to the 4th trimester (first 3 months after life), but in extreme cases I have supported abortions up to the 23rd trimester.
Draugnar (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
@Maniac - LOL! Unfortunate typo. But maybe that should be a requirement to get married. Must be able to carry a tune and not sound like that one dude from American Idol. :-)

@Fasces - Why just until the kid turns 5? Maybe we should support it up until the 75th trimester (18th birthday).
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
Well Draugnar, at the age of 5 a child has a reasonable (that is to say, nonzero) chance of survival if released into the wild, so they are no longer at an age where I feel it's appropriate to terminate, as they are no longer fully parasitic.

Before the age of 5 they are wholly dependent on their parents for food, shelter, entertainment, and basically everything else. Best to knock a few off to set an example for the behavior of the rest.
fulhamish (4134 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+4)
The unborn, the disabled neonates, the old, the chronically sick, the unemployed, the mentally incapable......parasites the lot, no matter what the trimester. Atheist utilitarianism at its best(!) Singer and Dawkins would be proud.
FlemGem (1297 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
fulhamish - You mentioned the unemployed, but how about the employed-but-lazy? Or the employed-but-spend-all-day-on-boardgame-websites?
Draugnar (0 DX)
14 Jan 13 UTC
@ful, I almost said 503rd trimester. 125th birthday. Great minds think alike.
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
ROFL FlemGem you're describing me as I type this.


40 replies
2ndWhiteLine (2611 D(B))
14 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
The best thing ever!
The forum is getting awfully depressing and argumentative lately. It needs more puppies interrupting professional soccer games:

http://deadspin.com/5975882/holy-crap-these-dogs-interrupting-a-soccer-match-are-adorable
2 replies
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
13 Jan 13 UTC
Should we execute rapists? ....they do in India.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21003279
59 replies
Open
jmo1121109 (3812 D)
14 Jan 13 UTC
Game to test for bugs PLEASE JOIN!
Would anyone online please join this game to help test for bugs in the new version? I will cancel the game by the end of the day.

http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=108303
10 replies
Open
SYnapse (0 DX)
13 Jan 13 UTC
Book publishing
I am currently writing a book entitled "The Nature of Survivalism" which is a philosophical treatise regarding the future of nations and a contextual look at how politics came to exist. I have written about 23,000 words so far and have in mind to finish at about 80,000.
17 replies
Open
EOG- Happy Lucky 5
gameID=108270

Germany, what the fuck were you doing?
0 replies
Open
Lando Calrissian (100 D(S))
13 Jan 13 UTC
Good Live Game
Today is about the first day in a long time I have had nothing to do.
Are there players around who want to play a good press WTA live game?
Or some players that want to put a big pot gunboat on the table?
9 replies
Open
bo_sox48 (5202 DMod(G))
13 Jan 13 UTC
World Map Problem
For some reason, the Kamchatka peninsula is experiencing some problems... I convoyed an army over and I couldn't get it into Siberia because there's a volcano in the way...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7805018.stm
1 reply
Open
philcore (317 D(S))
12 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
Athiests, Christians, Monty Python fans and debaters alike - you must watch this clip!
This is an interview with John Cleese and Michael Palin after the release of "Life of Brian" and it is fucking brilliant. I absolutely love the way the educated English can sound so civil while hurling insults at each other. Al Swearington would be proud! It's refreshing to see 4 people argue with eachother so brilliantly, humorously and politely

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5gm9hoTw6Y
5 replies
Open
Dharmaton (2398 D)
13 Jan 13 UTC
page 1010
next thread pages of note 1100 & 1111 lol
0 replies
Open
redhouse1938 (429 D)
12 Jan 13 UTC
Salary curve
Behold.
41 replies
Open
SantaClausowitz (360 D)
13 Jan 13 UTC
Teaching American History
Another installment of the debate
35 replies
Open
centurion1 (1478 D)
13 Jan 13 UTC
whos france?
cause your a piece of shit. also russia.
1 reply
Open
bo_sox48 (5202 DMod(G))
12 Jan 13 UTC
Teach a Man to Fish...
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/50647/man+wins+fishing+tourney+with+fish+stolen+from+aquarium/

...And he'll win fishing contests in the most unrighteous way possible.
2 replies
Open
zebrotto (100 D)
12 Jan 13 UTC
single player
is possible to play alone vs comp to understand rules and strategies?????
11 replies
Open
bo_sox48 (5202 DMod(G))
08 Jan 13 UTC
Welfare States
I know the positives... I've thought about it for ages. According to all of you, thinking optimistically while maintaining a realistic view on what I can get is naive. So what's the negative that I apparently don't get about socialism or corporatism? They're bad words to each other, but what's so bad about either?
73 replies
Open
TheJok3r (765 D)
10 Jan 13 UTC
Right in the Gunboat EOG
gameID=105753

Will make one in due time. But congrats Austria on having a gift-wrapped solo at the courtesy of England.
15 replies
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
11 Jan 13 UTC
(+1)
Putting our domestic concerns into a more global perspective
Rape Epidemic in South Africa http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20970413 and Sunni Muslims blowing up Shia Muslims in Pakistan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20977984
22 replies
Open
Lando Calrissian (100 D(S))
11 Jan 13 UTC
modern family
Anyone seen this week's episode?
2 replies
Open
Tom Bombadil (4023 D(G))
05 Jan 13 UTC
The Return of Tom Bombadil
I'm starting up 2 new games that need willing participants/victims. Specifications and details inside!
25 replies
Open
bo_sox48 (5202 DMod(G))
11 Jan 13 UTC
A "..." Moment
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/50-popular-women-web-google-search-results/story?id=10573331

Lucky #7...
9 replies
Open
Ernst_Brenner (782 D)
11 Jan 13 UTC
Pissing the night away
He drinks a whiskey drink, he drinks a vodka drink,
he drinks a lager drink, he drinks a cider drink...
0 replies
Open
Commander_Cool (131 D)
11 Jan 13 UTC
A question about support
Hi guys, I need a little help with the support rules
6 replies
Open
Al Swearengen (0 DX)
09 Jan 13 UTC
(+4)
Horrible Players Wanted
Per below
64 replies
Open
Bosco (0 DX)
11 Jan 13 UTC
Game Night Tonight?
Anyone want to play a game this night? http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=108067
2 replies
Open
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