The Political Discussion Thread

[Goose]

Save the House of Lords.

Yeah, but they're a shadow of its former self.

I do believe in many parts of the world this is just so and I do also believe that even the president of the united states has started issuing kill orders for various US citizens around the world...and while that might be a good thing if they are comitting treason and waging war against us... some say the powers of the NDAA allow the Government to lock up citizens without charge or trial, anyone who they want practically.

Oh, don't get me wrong, of course there are still tyrants, dictators and idiots out there who still act like it's 1600 and they can go around killing left-right-and-centre as they want, but that doesn't mean that the world as a whole is anything like it was 200-300 years ago. The majority of the world is democratic (to various degrees) and in the majority of the world, people enjoy a lot more freedoms than they did 200-300 years ago. Heck, 300 years ago, most of the world wasn't even free, it was all colonies.

[Col.Foley]

Yeah, but they're a shadow of its former self.



Oh, don't get me wrong, of course there are still tyrants, dictators and idiots out there who still act like it's 1600 and they can go around killing left-right-and-centre as they want, but that doesn't mean that the world as a whole is anything like it was 200-300 years ago. The majority of the world is democratic (to various degrees) and in the majority of the world, people enjoy a lot more freedoms than they did 200-300 years ago. Heck, 300 years ago, most of the world wasn't even free, it was all colonies.

Again not saying we haven't made a lot of progress in terms of the advancement of human liberty. Just there are forces that seem bound and determined to undo that progress by telling us everything from who we can marry, who we can't marry, how we can marry, who we can even allow to be married, our healthcare, economy, housing, retirment, birth, education, and in a lot of cases even personal security

[Goose]

Again not saying we haven't made a lot of progress in terms of the advancement of human liberty. Just there are forces that seem bound and determined to undo that progress by telling us everything from who we can marry, who we can't marry, how we can marry, who we can even allow to be married, our healthcare, economy, housing, retirment, birth, education, and in a lot of cases even personal security

Except that that will in no way put us back into where we were 300 years ago. It may be a step back from where we are now, but you'd have to undue the most significant moment in the history of humanity since we figured out how to domesticate animals to get anywhere close to how it was 300 years ago.

[Rudy Pena]

Except that the King or Queen can't exactly have you beheaded just because.

Lets all just face it, every country who has a king or queen or emperor or anything like those have no real power in the government and is just something to keep up over hundreds of years of tradition of those countries.

So your point right there is moot.

[SaberBlade]

Lets all just face it, every country who has a king or queen or emperor or anything like those have no real power in the government and is just something to keep up over hundreds of years of tradition of those countries.

So your point right there is moot.

That's not really the case. It may be with the UK or Japan, but there are places in the world where Royalty has very real power.

[Rudy Pena]

That's not really the case. It may be with the UK or Japan, but there are places in the world where Royalty has very real power.

In which most of those places are against the western world and whatnot. So again mostly moot.

[Gatefan1976]

In which most of those places are against the western world and whatnot. So again mostly moot.

Err, The 1.9 billion people in the Brittish Commonwealth would disagree with that.......

[Rudy Pena]

Err, The 1.9 billion people in the Brittish Commonwealth would disagree with that.......

Read what i said in my post before the one you quoted. The queen doesnt have any real power in the government.

[Gatefan1976]

Read what i said in my post before the one you quoted. The queen doesnt have any real power in the government.

Feel free to correct me, but does not the Queen does still hold many powers including the ability to dissolve government and declare war??
I'd hardly call that "no real power"
(Granted the actual chances of the queen *employing* such powers is all but negligable)

Here's a *theoretical* question for you political buffs as we were playing "hypothetical" earlier.
IF at the end of WW2, conditions were such that the EU *could* have been formed, how much difference would it make now?

[DigiFluid]

Feel free to correct me, but does not the Queen does still hold many powers including the ability to dissolve government and declare war??
I'd hardly call that "no real power"
(Granted the actual chances of the queen *employing* such powers is all but negligable)

Powers on paper and powers in fact are very different things...

[Gatefan1976]

Powers on paper and powers in fact are very different things...

Not really, the difference is the *willingness* to excercise them.
I mean, sure, the chances of such powers being used is near negligable, as I said.

"On paper" the US could nuke Aus (or pretty much anywhere else), but how likely are they to drop the bomb on the Opera House?

[Rudy Pena]

Not really, the difference is the *willingness* to excercise them.
I mean, sure, the chances of such powers being used is near negligable, as I said.

"On paper" the US could nuke Aus (or pretty much anywhere else), but how likely are they to drop the bomb on the Opera House?

Well first of all, the US doesnt live on Kobol and second the BSG universe doesnt exist.

[Gatefan1976]

Well first of all, the US doesnt live on Kobol and second the BSG universe doesnt exist.

I KNEW there was I reason I avoided poli threads as a general rule.

[Rudy Pena]

I KNEW there was I reason I avoided poli threads as a general rule.

lol

[AlexanderD]

It's still going? Marvelous!