Looks like something Sci-Fi would buy.
-Kle.

That is, completely nonsensical.
-Kle.

-Kle.

I would suggest that attendance and participation if formal organization has little to do with whether someone is religious or not.

"I reply, 'Great! What are you personally doing to stop these idiots since they claim to be from your tribe?' "

What exactly are they supposed to do, kill them?
They could do what I do, and frequent websites where members of "my tribe" (in this case, SF fans) hang out and say bigoted things, and point out the error of their ways...
-Kle.

Nah, it was subtle social commentary that on Mars gender imposes no limits upon achievement and they've advanced far beyond needing spacecraft to tour the cosmos, while on backwards Earth, we think only men are good enough to pilot our space-cans.
-Kle.

Nope, the reason for that is ignorance. Melodrama, too.

@meirelle:
"Seriously. Science has taken a back seat to religion in this age. And it seems like it was just overnight, too. I swear it wasn't this bad when I was growing up in the '80s and '90s."

The thing is, when you were growing up you lived in a microculture. Almost all kids do. Then when you grew up, you went out and interacted with the real world, and discovered people who weren't just like you. As is normal for humans, you appear to have reacted with immediate dislike and prejudice. Human nature is often sort of sad.

Just being religious or not doesn't make someone good or bad. As for the idea that religious belief puts people into some kind of freakish fringe group, go to any town and count the churches/temples/mosques/etc. The majority of people are religious (or faithful) world-wide. It's always been like this, even in the '80s.

Maybe insulting a huge majority group isn't smart, even if you enjoy the bigotry?

I get so sick and tired of these stupid, false generalizations. I know a guy who's an MIT grad, works for Motorola, much more liberal than me, goes to church every Sunday. Most science/technical people, regardless of their political views, are religious. I only know a couple of folks who aren't, and the older my friends get, the more "find religion". It doesn't make them bad people, or anti-technology.

People don't have to be like me (or you) to still be good people.
-Kle.

The word you wanted was "bureaucratic".
-Kle.

Were you very young when you watched Independence Day ? Because you're right, Day After Tomorrow was imbecilic, but ID wasn't any better.
-Kle.

Still, worth it for the old pulp.

-Kle.

[www.machine-age.com]

Don't they have anything like this out in SF? All it takes is money...
-Kle.

Oh, please. There are plenty of secular Luddites, and plenty of scientist who are religious.

Religion isn't my thing, personally, but it seems to be a basic part of human nature.

Bigotry really doesn't bring anything useful to the discussion.
-Kle.

Of course, it's just a moronic movie.
-Kle.

Is there some sort of new evidence that Alzheimer's works that way?

'Cause, I'm just thinking scientists should use the right words...
-Kle.

What, y'think?
What gave it away, the total idiocy of the premise?
-Kle.

@B:
"Just for the record, the small farm in America is a myth. It was killed off in the early 70s by Nixon's agricultural polices. In fact, the only place left where there are any small farms is the left wing utopia of Vermont."

(a) This is false. Family farms exist in plenty of States, they're just economically insignificant.
(b)"Left Wing utopia". Really? The only State where concealed carry is a Constitutional right for all citizens? Don't get out much, eh?
-Kle.

Nope, it doesn't. OTOH, these tendencies have existed forever, and we're currently living in the best period of our nation's history. If you doubt that, please name another, superior era.

" Personally, I don't really think even 5% of politicians are good guys."

Good - too many people trust politicians.

Now, perhaps you could adjust your writing from now on, to reflect that stance. It will make you seem like less of a political dupe, and more of a rational thinker.

@EmperorofMongo:
"Do you like to conceal your identity behind a face mask or pseudonym?
Maybe you're a fascist.

Does that mean we are all...you-know-whats?"

Nope, not all of us - some of us have the courage of our convictions, and use our real names...

@Captain_Fitz:
"How the hell can you call Europe, a collection of the most liberal and egalitarian societies in the world, fascist? Fascism is described as a system of government which "encourages militarism and nationalism, organizing the country along hierarchical, authoritarian lines". Now what, if any, of that sounds even vaguely European?"

Lots of it. Europe is intensely hierarchial - look at the school systems, for a start. The UK is a total surveillance society, ruled by a hereditary despot to whom all sovereignty is reserved. The same despot has sole command of their military, BTW. Privacy rights are nearly nonexistant in the UK, as well.

For more examples, look at immigration and foreign national issues in France, Switzerland, and Italy - and that's not counting eastern Europe. Police powers are generally stronger and harder to resist in Europe.

Individual rights are much more strongly limited in Europe than in the US; they can be, and have been, legislated away in several major European nations. These things are generally done for the "greater good" - that's an excuse regularly used in history to tighten control and increase hierarchialism.

"Oh and on the topic of health care; which is most likely to provide the best care for its' patients? A system which is controlled by un-elected corporations whose only goal is to please share holders and turn a profit or a system funded and controlled by a government answerable to it's people?"

I wasn't speaking to effectiveness; I was speaking to the fact that letting the government be your doctor destroys privacy and gives them pretty much total control of your life "for your own good".

Since you bring up effectiveness though, nationalized medicine is basically an insurance company, run by the gov't. Here in the US, we have a very prominent example of government insurance - Social Security. How "effective" has that been? If it was required to show a profit, it might have worked...

@MOP88:
"Europe is the reason why the famous right mantra ("the terrorists hate our freedom") is complete and utter bullshit. Guns are a big no-no, but everything else is fair game and good fun."

Right. Just like the way that superglue is a controlled substance in the UK, or the way you can be arrested for speaking in France or Germany. European society is highly regulated, you just don't care about the regulations. Being a slave and liking it is not the same as being free (hyperbole, here).

"And the governments step in if something really bad could happen."

A perfect example of what I just said. I don't need the government to be my parent, nor my Big brother.

At least here, I can know for sure if the products I am buying are not geneticaly modified. Or that drinking milk will not give me cancer due to bovine growth hormones...

Ah, yes - governments that bow to the will of anti-technology conspiracy theorists. That is progressive.

Not that they do a good job of it - thalidomide, mad cow, little water flouridation in the UK...
-Kle.

Well, if it was exactly like the ones from SW, it would be an improvement over effective goon squads. The SW guys have armor that's useless, and guns that it's impossible to hit anything with.

@All_Thumbs:
"Your comment in itself is kind of proof that the those on the right that dream of creating a society of control have really already won."

Look, there are just as many people on the Left who want a society of control, that's actually the biggest problem. DHS was Joe Lieberman's baby, the Clipper Chip was Al Gore's, have you looked at the Congressional Record and seen who voted for the Patriot Act, and the recent FISA law? I won't even get into nationalized medicine. Blindly thinking one side is "the good guys" is only going to help the people you claim to dislike.

"When someone commenting on a sci-fi blog thinks that making an allegorical statement about the seeming inexorable creep of this country toward fascism makes someone a tinfoil hat conspiracy nut, then freedom has already lost. "

I expect you're using "Fascism" incorrectly here. However, using either the correct or the popular definition, we're a lot less Fascist here than most of the world, to include most of Europe...
-Kle.

-Kle.

-Kle.

I would suggest that it's important to be able to recognise this, and to be able to ignore them (when annoying) so that one can enjoy something meant as mere entertainment, as mere entertainment.

Unless you enjoy making yourself miserable, in which case; go misery!
-Kle.

-Kle.

I can't suspend my disbelief that high.
-Kle.

What a bunch of nifty kooks those Long Now guys are. Thanks for putting this up.
-Kle.

The United States is going to go away sometime, but "the middle of this century" is... unlikely.

As for the nation breaking up, that's already been tried and brutally suppressed. What part of the nation could even begin to (effectively) resist the Federal forces today? The only chance of successful rebellion in the US is for the armed forces (or large parts of them) to side with the rebels. I don't buy that in a secession scenario. I buy it less in a fragmentation scenario. Things would have to change a lot for these ideas to be practical.

I've visited 49 of the 50 States Annalee, and I see far more similarities than differences. People are people, and as long as you're nice, they're generally nice right back.

The Red-Blue thing is harmful BS that you really shouldn't promulgate. "Republicans" and "Democrats" have more in common than not.

As for things being worse now than ever before, people like to think that, but it's simply false. Generally, things continuously get better with time. What historical period do you folks think you'd rather live in, here in the States? In the late '50s, there was a depression so bad that a quarter of our population was put under the poverty line. In 1969, there were 3000 domestic bombings. We were certainly a lot more divided as a nation in the '60s, the '50s, etc.

The "good old days" weren't actually good - people just forget the bad parts.
-Kle.

I feel compelled to point out that roadside bombs are probably loads of fun for the people that plant them...
-Kle.

"We" as in "humanity".

You should really read the article before you spread scorn around, BTW...
This isn't something we (anyone) know how to do, and there is no "group of scientists".

It's a project from a design student.
-Kle.

Yeah, not succeeding when you were committed is probably even worse than accidentally succeeding when it was just a cry for help.

-Kle.

-Kle.

Heck, Stallman started out as a cranky young geezer, basically.
-Kle.

You'd think that some sort of interstellar warlord could hire a publicist, and get a better name.
-Kle.