Wow. This shit is a house of cards. But, sadly, here in the US, no one seems to care. Miley Cirus does a twerk dance and the whole country loses its mind. And then the DC shooter thing happens and the media can't help but focus on guns and video games.

I hope the Guardian releases something juicy soon, so we can get back to being appalled at the whole intelligence gathering scandal.

The world's biggest gang!

Member for seven years. Still doesn't know how to use the site.

Too bad we never landed on the moon and this is just another hoax!!1!

That is downright infuriating. I understand governments may share intelligence, and that's bad enough in a lot of ways, but when they share raw data, likely including my call and email contents for both business and personal, that's disgusting.

@ChaosEngine, again, I don't entirely disagree with you. I think allowing the law to protect the rights of the individual makes total sense. Whether that individual is a minor or adult.

Where we definitely will have our disagreement is, as you mentioned, to the extent of the laws' reach.

I think laws should protect the minority, not impose the majority's will. I also believe children should have a voice in their personal choices that supersedes the will of the parents or the will of society.

I understand a seven-year-old child who was homeschooled that God will cure his cancer may not be the most qualified mind to make complex medical decisions, but, in the end, we either give people control over their lives or we pretend to know best.

Just because you and I don't believe God will cure little Jimmy's cancer doesn't mean we should have a right to tell little Jimmy he has to go to the hospital and receive care. Otherwise we end up with these kinds of stories.

The war on drugs is a perfect example of the majority, or community, knowing best how we should all run our lives. So was prohibition in the States. So are seatbelt laws, soda bans, sin taxes, prostitution bans, Tennessee's baggy pants law, bans on rain collection, fines for muddy tires, gambling laws, private establishment smoking bans, and even NJ going as far as to ban hugs in a middle school.

People know best how to run their own lives. Families at least have an interest in the well-being of their members. But the community doesn't always make the best legislative decisions when trying to do good.

I strongly disagree seeing how elected representatives are personally responsible for shaping foreign policy.

People are coming around. Slowly, but they're coming around. Could you imagine this happening at a townhall meeting five years ago in the U.S.?

I like how the red line that was drawn by "the world" was the use of chemical weapons. Has the US forgotten about its use of Agent Orange in Vietnam?

If your country's record of war atrocities isn't squeaky clean, then I say noninterventionism.

@ChaosEngine, believe it or not, I actually agree with you. I don't think kids are the property of their parents. I also don't think people are the property of the community or any other group of people, parents or otherwise.

The hard fact, however, is that only parents can choose to have a child, not a community. The child is solely the parents' responsibility, I believe, because it was solely their choice. And I do believe they should have some fundamental rights to their children, such as making decisions for their family that the majority of people may or may not agree with.

I'm an atheist, and I'm, too, bothered when people use God as a reason to not treat their children for an illness, but that's the fringe minority, isn't it? But when you write "You have the privilege of raising them, but only if you treat them right." Who is the judge of what is the right treatment? You? Me? The majority? I believe the majority thought slavery was pretty groovy here in the States at one point.

Get a vasectomy, gents.

Sorry if my response isn't up to your impeccable standards, but A) I don't have to justify my reasons for the videos I Sift because B) I'm not your monkey. And C) you turned the discussion back on me and D) made personal attacks against me instead of the argument.

You want to debate or discuss things like an adult, I'll discuss things with you like one. You want to devolve into a petulant fourth grader on here, you get the butthurt comments.

@VoodooV

Why does your butt hurt so?

http://i.imgur.com/n4F8pMt.jpg

*quality *promote

That got a big laugh out of me.