1. Award-winning comedian George Carlin dies

Comment #198097 by SkepticalThinker31 on June 23, 2008 at 7:51 am

Comedy along with the freethinking community has lost a true giant.

2. Muslim countries win concession regarding religious debates

Comment #197195 by SkepticalThinker31 on June 21, 2008 at 10:19 am

Why don't we flood the OIC with our grievances? (I know they probably won't make a difference, but it is worth a shot): http://www.oic-oci.org/oicnew/feed_back.asp

3. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116805 by SkepticalThinker31 on January 27, 2008 at 1:36 pm

Yes, sometimes these dictators are elected, but I think it is necessary to remove these elected officials once they start sytematically murdering their own people. Do you really think the people still support this elected official once he/she starts killing them or even if some still do, many do not. I'm not saying the U.S. should do it alone, but instead it should be done with a multinational force. If the dictator is removed by an international force hopefully the nations that make up this force would work together to fix that particular nation for that nation's best interest and not for their own interests. Possibly the U.N. could step in and help do this, so a stable and fair government is put in place. As a result hopefully the installed government would work for their own nation and not for us or any other particular nation. We should help this government create a constitution that is fair and balanced and protects against the tyranny of the majority. We have learned that one nation probably should not do it alone like we are doing in Iraq.

4. Death Sentence for Afghan Student

Comment #116798 by SkepticalThinker31 on January 27, 2008 at 1:15 pm

I already e-mailed my local congressman about this and I hope he does something, but I'm not holding my breath. I believe that since the U.S. is already in Afghanistan we should help them fix their consitution which is filled with contradictions. To read about the contradictions read this article: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/03/ad051c73-2777-4497-9f13-1293c2293380.html

Nothing was done to change the constitution after the incident outlined in the article ocurred, although Rahman was released due to his "Insanity" as the article foreshadows.

5. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116794 by SkepticalThinker31 on January 27, 2008 at 12:46 pm

This is not being condescending - merely acknowledging that with freedom comes responsibility which one cannot just develop overnight. Surely sometimes it might be necessary to intervene (genocide) for example. But should the US have been invaded during the time of segregation but after slavery? Or during the time when they held slaves? Should a hypothetical powerful foreign country which recognizes that slave holding is such systematic abuse have invaded and imposed their values, their culture?

In the case of slavery perhaps a powerful foreign nation at that time like Great Britain (I know they were economic allies with the confederacy) would have offered to work in accordance with President Lincoln to rid the U.S. of slavery I think that would have been fine. If they just invaded the U.S. and removed the government then I would have a problem.

To me it depends on the degree at which this foreign power wants to impose its values and culture. If a nation like Britain had wanted to just help get rid of Slavery I believe a great deal of Americans would have been fine with that, but if they wanted to completely overthrow the government and replace it with an imperial government I'm sure they would have been against that.

I think it is only necessary to dismantle a governemnt when a dictatorship is in place, but even then you should work in accordance with the main opposition group(s) within that particular nation so the transition from dictatorship is smooth. In the case of the U.S. when slavery was around it wasn't a dictatorship. There were those in the government who supported slavery and those who opposed it.

The U.N. was created to prevent things like the genocide in Darfur, but the problem is that China is basically blocking anything from being done there.