Thoughts On Abortion

The Pope pronounced that life begins at conception, so on Yahoo a bunch of people jokingly asked if that meant wasting sperm was a sin.

Don't get me wrong, I'm pro-choice, but it's just stupid to try to parody the idea that life begins at conception by claiming that sperm somehow come under the same idea.

Yes, it's a stretch. A sperm is a cell from YOUR body. Just like a skin cell that might get scraped off, it has no life of its own. Same for an ovum. But when DNA from the two combine, then it's a new entity, there's no denying that no matter what your view on abortion is.

I just think you have to be practical, that's why I'm pro-choice.

I'm just glad I'm not a woman so I will never have to make that decision. But if my daughter felt she needed an abortion, I would fully support her decision.

One thing people need to do is realize what an utter luxury it is to consider that every life is sacred. 2100 years ago when the German people were wandering Europe, they often killed their sick and elderly who couldn't keep up with the tribes. It was considered mercy killing, and it also helped the rest to survive.

When a man was killed in battle, his wife was given six months to find a new man. If she didn't get one, she and her children would be killed.

The Romans considered this barbaric, but even they would leave an infant to nature if it were deformed, or unwanted.

Dubai Ports Deal

4 REASONS WHY DPW DEAL IS HORRIBLE
by:outsource_this_2005 02/23/06 10:46 am
Msg: 57860 of 57902


1. Dubai Ports World, 100% owned by the government of Dubai is not subject to US law, cannot be dragged into US courts, because it is headquartered offshore and owned by a foreign government that will assert soveriegnty (SOVERIGN IMMUNITY) if the need arises. Hence there is no accountability. Documentation relating to security will be in Dubai, which is a class-A dictatorship. That's bad.

2. DPW is not even required to keep business records on US soil. The paper trail for DPW operations in the US will be beyond the reach of US law enforcement. That's very bad.

3. DPW is not required to appoint a US citizen to maintain control of the business records. A US citizen will be subject to US law and extraditable anywhere in the world. A Dubai citizen, manager of a Dubai government-owned entity, will have diplomatic immunity. That's very very bad.

4. People don't realize, and it hasn't been widely reported, that this deal is HIGHLY LEVERAGED. Dubai is floating bonds to close the deal, so if DPW does not find significant cost savings (e.g., replacing American workers with H-1B visa holders imported to US ports the next time the longshoremen try to negotiate a new contract), the deal will make no sense financially. DPW could easily go into insolvency over this. If you don't believe me, do your own research. DPW could technically walk away from the ports .. and guess what? ... DPW's out of pocket cost would be minimal, because most of the purchase price is being financed by bond holders. ARE YOU BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND NOW? East coast ports are a vital economic and national security asset. This is very very very bad.***


*** You will discover that P&O (the seller) was happy to sell their US operation to PCW (a Singapore-based ports operator, the 2nd largest in the world after Hutchinson Whampoa). Dubai Ports World insisted on making the purchase and bid a figure that PCW couldn't match.

The price DPW is paying MAKES NO SENSE (according to the Singapore firm PCW), IT'S WAY TOO HIGH, which explains the need for the oil-rich kingdom of Dubai to float bonds to close the deal.

Using bonds to finance the deal also INSULATES DUBAI from financial fallout if the deal, for whatever reason, "blows up" later on. SOMETHING ABOUT THIS DEAL IS HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS. DON'T YOU AGREE?



***** People who tell you "DPW is not involved in port security" are liars. The Bush Administration negotiated "special security measures" with DPW in order to approve the deal. Why negotiate "special measures" if DPW isn't involved in security? FELLOW AMERICANS, YOU'RE BEING LIED TO (AGAIN) BY BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS.

Evolution of Morality

Insecure Christians are fond of claiming that their religion is important because people would be immoral without it. For example,

If we just evolved the idea of morals is flat out stupid - Obviously if I kill my neighbor and take his job and wife I am doing a better at providing for my survival and that is the theory of evolution - this happens all the time in nature - Moral ideas without God is just an opinion nothing more.

But that isn't how evolution works. Evolution is about populations.

Imagine two communities, one where people are immoral, killing their neighbors and taking their wives, and another where people are moral, refraining from murder and promiscuity. The immoral community will spend a lot of energy on internal turmoil, they will lose productivity as people are murdered, the males will be less interested in taking care of children not their own.

Meanwhile in the moral community people are happy and productive. People can generally rely on individuals to stick around and not be murdered, so they can plan for future growth of their community. The males know which children are theirs, and so have a large stake in their care.

It's pretty clear that after only a few generations, the moral community will be much larger than the immoral one. It doesn't matter that immorality can often benefit a person at the expense of others. What matters is which population grows the fastest.