Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

Hi! I finally found you guys. How come you left me on infirm with all the wackjobs?

Anyway, to answer your question, your happy because it fuels your anti-European, anti-human rights sense of imperialism. But don't count your chickens before they are hatched, cuz this is the latest nail in the coffin of a westernized judeo-christian Europe and a further move towards the ultimate reclamation of the continent by the Muslims. Which is your worst nightmare.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

This is the future Burgerboy, get ready for it.

Sorry, Flinty, nothing personal
 

I have picked that book up intending to buy it at least ten times. I haven't though, and its because even I can't handle a vision as bleak as Harris'. I don't think I'm going anywhere when I die, and I don't buy any religion. But I can't imagine a world in which everybody just shrugged and said "Yep, this is it. This is all you'll ever know." We'd have a lot of fucked up people around doing some incredibly fucked up things. I think faith is an informed decision to reject the pointlessness of it all. Some folks can't deal with the fact that its all random and inconsequential. Even if I don't agree, I have to admit, their belief is sort of encouraging. They're something sort of laudable about a person really earnestly wanting to be more than he is, and actually beleiving he is more than he is. So I guess I won't pick on the faithful so much anymore. I get it, even if I don't buy it. Like Lennon said, "Whatever gets [them] through the night, its allright..."

Sorry, Flinty, nothing personal
 

But there can be downsides. Like somehting convinced GGG that over 3300 of his thoughts were valuable enough to share.

Sorry, Flinty, nothing personal
 

If Sebby says that, it must be a pretty bleak vision indeed.

Sorry, Flinty, nothing personal
 

Nope. They're doing evil. No 72 virgins for them.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

I believe this is just a speed bump on the road to European unity. The polling showed that most of the French are for a Constitution, but it just needs to be rewritten. I think they are worried by two things. 1) The union forcing a neo-liberal (as they like to say "Anglo") economic system. Which will make them too much like the United States (God forbid) and flood their country with cheap labour destroying their social safety net. 2) Turkey - since most French envision a much tighter union that goes beyond just Economics they don't want Turkey in. The British, who see a loose European confederation, don't mind Turkey so much.

Europe needs to unify it is even going to have half a chance to keep up with the US in the near future, and China and India in the far flung future. At a certain point Economic unity also requires social integration (especially for socialist leaning nations).

Sorry, Flinty, nothing personal
 

Actually, he argues that without faith, morality and ethics (and more moral world) has a better future. It is not all that bleak. Although I don't agree with everything he says, he does a really good job of sumarizing the current trends in philisophical thought.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

It's not necessary to have a constitution, but I think it facilitates some of the stated goals (which I think are pipe dreams), including providing collective armed forces to rival those of the US.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

Nice try troll boy

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

Well, the rest of Europe ought to be celebrating that the French army won't be let in.

Sorry, Flinty, nothing personal
 

I'm done with pondering the great hereafter, faith vs. reason, science vs. religion. There no soultion, no winning the argument, no reward but more questions. From this point foreward, I vow to attempt to regain the clueless and content, positive mindest I brought into Freshman year. Gimme back the ignorance. I was far happier when the sole form of introspection was found at the business end of a bong. All this consideration of man's deeper meaning or lack thereof wears the mind for no good reason. Best to refocus on getting one's ya yas out. I've heard enough about cholestrol, cancer, Islam, the real estate bubble, the loss of the middle class, social security reform, stem cells, the cost of higher education and mad cow disease. Put it all out of my face. I want to be high, drunk, chasing skirts and have my life before me like a thundercloud. Turn back the information age. I don't want to know any more. We're all a pack of half assed dilletante know nothings anyway, so whats the fucking point?

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

I vanquished you racist repukes on one board, until your leader banned and deleted me. obviously the threat of having your vile PoVs exposed again lead you to respond with ad hominem attacks.

Typical.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

The Euro armies are impotent precursors of the fate that awaits W's stormtroopers.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

What does this mean?

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

Western style European military-imperialism is dead, and W's leading the US down the same path. Are you blind?

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

Blindist fuck.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

Prove it. You can't.

Freedom's on the march! Why do you hate America? I'll bet you've never even been in a Wal-Mart.

Sorry, Flinty, nothing personal
 

Medication run out?

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

I am relatively new so I am not used to your lingo. Is a Repuke the same as a Republican? Just trying to figure out when I am being attacked for an affiliation.

No Vetos
 

Does anyone else find it amazing that Bush has not Vetoed any bill yet. I realize that the Republicans control both houses of Congress, but still, it is a little amazing. I know Carter vetoed a lot of bills when he was in office and the Dems controlled both houses. Did Clinton veto any bill in his first two years when the Dems controlled both the House and the Senate?

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

At least some one is tuned in. there may be hope for you yet.

No Vetos
 

Wake up! its all staged and orchestrated by Rove.

No Vetos
 

Bush has been extraordinarily succesful in getting Congress to march in lockstep behind him thus far, and this probably explains why he hasn't had to veto anything.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

No, but thanks for your concern.

No Vetos
 

Dems tend to be more fragmented and less disciplined than Repubs. It's one reason why we rarely run Fortune 500 corporations. Can you see Hastert or Lott/Frist sending Bush a bill he doesn't want on his desk? Me neither.

No Vetos
 

Ty, I thought we told you not to give this url to your DU friends?

No Vetos
 

Hank spends more time over there than anybody. I think he did it to stop the morality discussion.

Daniel Okrent, until recently the NYT's ombuds-type, took a cheap and unsubstantiated shot at Paul Krugman on his way out the door, and Krugman has now responded. I didn't think Okrent was an idiot, but picking (and losing) this fight doesn't reflect well on him.

No Vetos
 

Yes. But it also says how little Congress has done in the last four years.

Didn't his dad go until the last year of the admin without having a veto overridden?

does Krugman think Bush will be reelected?

No Vetos
 

the attorneys I know at DU took one look into the frothing defective gene pool of insanity at the infirm board years ago and concluded that the crazy and inane ramblings and cyber skidmarks of you all would drive even the sanest democrat nutso.

in my case, i am immune to insanity and i have made you knobs my pet project.

question for u:

if the first election was an invalid fraud, what affect does that have on the re-election?

Once an Empire is in full swing, it herlps little to ask how the emperor came to power

Cicero on Julius Ceasar

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

I disagree. The constitution can't be rewritten in any way more favorable to France (since any future renegotiation would include the new eastern European countries). France completely shot its wad getting the constitution into the condition it was in already. (And a sorry-ass condition it was, too.)

Then again, I think the EU was effectively dead as a potential unified political entity when they admitted Britain. It is now in French interests to kill it as an economic entity as well, since all future developments will be contrary to its interests (reduction of subsidies and further opening of markets). They are well on their way to doing this (see: the destruction of the Maastricht criteria).
I agree with (1), but their social net is pretty fucked anyway in the long term since it structurally entrenches increasing unemployment. I think (2) is a superficial concern (though Americans certainly underestimate the zenophobia of Europe). I think the rejection of "Europe" is much deeper than details of the constitution or immigration concerns.

I think the real underlying concern is that, in an expanded Europe, France can't steer policy (foreign, internal, regulatory or economic). The French have long fancied the EU as the tool by which they will reestablish their role as a real global power (with the oomph of a bunch of other contries quietly following their lead). There's no longer a chance in hell for that, and so the EU is now something that frustrates the exercise of French power rather than magnifying it. Why would they vote to further entrench that situation?
I agree 100%. But it will never happen. Therefore Europe is destined for global irrelevance, for a generation or so at least.

and you thusly expose yourself as a useful idiot of the regime.

the whole of the W experience reminds me of my college roommate. a dupe if there ever was one. he fell prey to a con man who had a "natural weight loss" pill mlm scam going. the guy eventually went to prison, but not before he ruined the futures of thousands of little people.

it came out in court that when the feds busted him he was in his office at kneeling stand reading aloud from the bible.

sounds like W's fate when the revolution comes knockin'.

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

at least until the caliphate of the islamic republic of europe is firmly established.

If they were little people, why did they spring for natural weight loss?

Thoughts on the No Vote?
 

I think (2) will largely prevent a political union, and (1) will to the extent that the countries cannot agree on the overall regulatory framework.

Social integration may come but it will be the tail on the dog of economic unity.

Dissent. Krugman is considered a jackass these days. He lost his fucking mind over W.