I'm pretty sure the stupidest war ever was the War of Jenkins' Ear, which not only was dumb in it's own merit but also spawned two additional wars that killed close to 2 million people.

Basically Britain and a trading company decided that a little war would help to spur trade, so they seized on an 8 year old incident involving the Spanish boarding a ship and cutting off the captain's ear to fan the flames of conflict.

While the casualties of this little conflict were only around 30k dead or wounded, and a paltry 500 ships, it nicely helped kick off the War of Austrian Succession. That fun conflict led to around half a million dead.

Not satisfied, the powers of Europe stewed over the previous two incidents and then decided to really get down and dirty. The Seven Years war was the first really 'global' war, involving every European great power of the time and spanning five continents. Roughly 1.25 million people got to shuffle their mortal coil off the world thanks, in part, to a little trade war over an ear.

"they were doing just fine with stones"

Were they? What was the average life expectancy? How about childbirth mortality rates? Hell, how's their dental health?

Obviously, a bit of iron isn't going to fix those problems, but it might make them more efficient hunters. Maybe their diet has improved because of this?

"Now there aren't any known pure stone age people left at all now"

Is that necessarily a bad thing? We had the stone age, we grew out of it.

I feel like it's easy for us to want to preserve their way of life, but no-one is giving them the option. If presented with a choice, most people wouldn't opt for a neolithic lifestyle. Even the so-called "paleo" adherents aren't really living that way.

I completely get where you are coming from, but part of me also feels like we are keeping humans in a zoo.

I honestly don't know what's the right answer.

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Um...this ended his 28 hour long stabbing spree, the reason the cops were there and why they recognized him.....sounds like "something stupid"and illegal to me, as did pulling the knife and stabbing people right in front of them, which they continued to just watch until citizens detained and disarmed him, and only then did they take him away, ignoring the mortal wounds he caused to those citizens, so they were not correct at all, he was a known armed public threat that they didn't even warn others about, they just cowered behind the door out of fear of a non existent gun, then offered no assistance to the man that just did their job....and took credit for it....sorry.
I think you need to watch again, assuming you watched at all, you missed literally everything.

Libertarianism is for teenagers and idiots.

Any well-adjusted adult with any ability for critical thinking can see how stupid this is. Even his premise is idiotic. The government doesn't use guns to enforce parking violations (for example) they certainly don't use guns to provide healthcare to people. When was the last time a bus driver pointed a gun at you and said, "Get on the bus, it's public transit, cars are illegal now!"

Just because America has a lousy political system and therefore generally a string of bad governments, does not mean government is bad. It just means American government is bad. The countries with the highest levels of citizen happiness, the greatest spread of wealth, the highest education standards, the longest lifespans, the lowest infant mortality rates, the lowest crime rates, all have the kinds of governments Libertarians rail against.

Libertarianism, in summary, is childish, stupid, and immoral. No big surprise @bobknight33 is a fan then.

@Diogenes

You're kind of unfairly painting it as a choice between division by "largest" or division by 7 billion complicated individual plans. What i was talking about was division by number of people that live there. That way you're not unfairly giving US citizens a "god" given right to pollute the Earth more. Maybe that's why China is gaming the system, if the system was gaming them.

Your best argument would be to say it's by size of economy and presumably you need the industry and manufacture and all the pollution that goes along with it, so US gets #1 spot. I would argue that the effect is counteracted by two things.

First, China is a less developed nation than the US. Some Chinese cities obviously pollute far, far too much but in rural areas there may not be the skills/infrastructure for higher technology energy production. America having a larger economy and being more developed is better placed to invest, update and pollute less per person.

Second, America is a modern democracy and can be held to account by its citizens, whereas China is relatively oppressive, far more likely to imprison protesters, and not strictly subject to election. You guys can do something, so do it. Or at least let a Chinese guy count as much as an American

It could also be that China doesn't give a shit, of course, and would go off on a fertility drive or something.. Or then again maybe they'd improve their mortality rates. Who knows.

Uh... no... "Blood Alcohol Content" levels don't work that way...

He blew a B.A.C. of 0.28%, not 28%. Around a quarter of one percent of his blood was alcohol. Alcohol is THAT toxic to you, that less than half a percent can kill you.

28% is like, embalming fluid kinda shit...

His .28 is like, 2 dozen american beer or a Canadian six-pack.

I also figure he probably downed a flask to get rid of the evidence before being pulled over and that probably dropped him from "merely shitfaced" to "mortally endangered" by the time they tested him.

"When you have an established, scientific, emerging truth, it is true whether or not you believe in it."

That is a basic statement of reason that many Americans cannot concede.

Most of us believe that basic facts about the universe, like where it came from, what causes consciousness, and if mortality is real can be asserted without evidence, and no one can ever tell you differently.

And if that's the case with the biggest questions, then certainly something less profound like "how does carbon affect the climate" is a matter of belief as well.

The A7S II is an incredible piece of hardware but it maxes out at a little over 400,000 effective ISO while the X27 can do 5,000,000 effective ISO. Of course, the A7S II is much more accessible for mere mortals/civilians.

@newtboy,

You said:Stop.

Glad we might be getting somewhere .

I agree on not forgiving the blatantly racist factions. I've said the same thing of ISIS, jihadists and their ilk. They and guys like Richard Spencer remain the mortal enemies of civilization. We never accept them or their ideas, if they want peace or cooperation, they are the ones that need to change.

I do still fear that for all practical purposes your position, and seemingly that of the democrats and protesters out in force, is little different from writing off everyone that voted Trump. If the expectation is that Trump voters need to be the ones that swallow all the change or make all the compromises then the difference doesn't matter. If you want to get people to vote your ticket or candidate, you've got to be the ones reaching out. Demanding the prospective voters come apologetically to your party isn't drawing them in, it's driving them away.

Neil Mcdonald from CBC I think summed up where a lot of Trump voters came to the conclusion that Hillary was no lesser evil:
You can bet they're listening closely every year at Halloween, when progressives reliably denounce as racist anyone allowing their children to dress up as a member of any other culture. Like, say, sending a little girl out dressed as Mulan.

Or when they're denounced as Islamophobes for even discussing the question of why so many people who commit mass murder of innocents do it in the name of Allah. Or as transphobes for using the pronouns "he" or "she" without explicit permission. Or as homophobes for obeying their priest or imam. Or as some sort of uninclusive-o-phobe for uttering the phrase "Merry Christmas."

There are millions of people out there who aren't terribly interested in a lecture about the difference between "cisnormative" and "heteronormative," and how both words supposedly describe something shameful.

You mean apart from the time he got angry in the temple (or is wrath not a deadly sin if your dad is god?).

How about the time he questioned gods plan (let this cup pass from me)?

Jesus wasn't perfect.

And "good enough" for what? To get into heaven? Thanks, but no. If it's a choice between fornication and indulgence for my mortal time or having to spend an eternity with god.... sign me up for the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.

Man, I love the Mortal Kombat movie. So bad it's so good, and the soundtrack is fantastic, classic 90's techno/rave.

The Immortals - Mortal Kombat has been added as a related post - related requested by OverLord.