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Originally written by Jumpin' Salmon:

Yes. But as far as relative quote trees goes, the damage done by 1 Advil/day is far less than 1/50th of a lethal dose of radiation per day.

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Originally written by Drew:

Exposure to radioactive materials generally isn't a good thing though. My grandpa died from cancer owing to exposure to uranium in one of the diffusion(?) plants that were operating after WW2.

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Originally written by *i:

This bias stems from an irrational and exaggerated fear of radiation compared to other things that are far more hazardous.

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Originally written by Jumpin' Salmon:

I have to take issue with the idea that the environment is out of control, as stated by the OP. Nothing could be further from the truth. For example, I know there are proven causal relationships between atmospheric conditions and the results I see materialize. Why, just today I happened to notice that it was very humid and fairly cold. Quite quickly it began to mist, and then snow, and then more mist. I didn't have my trust weather balloon handy, but past experience indicates that what happened was that it was winter. Luckily this episode is typically followed by a period of notexactlywinter, followed by three weeks of summer sometime in late July.

Honestly, it seems to be in control. Do you live someplace that has cultural expectations of the elements that differ from mine?

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Originally written by The Ratt:

Quite simply, the most realistic method to stop adding carbon stored in fossil fuels into the atmosphere is biodiesel. You grow corn, or soybeans, or any vegatable oil (like used stuff from McDonalds) and you turn it into biodeisel that can run in any deisel vehicle. No conversion needed. It recycles carbon and boosts local economies.

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Originally written by Goldenking:

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Originally written by Excalibur:

If the government needs to do something about it, I say build more nuclear power plants. (They're really quite harmless)

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Yes, but there's a certain cultural stigma associated with nuclear power plants. The UK has proposed building one, and the Britons are giving them a fair bit of grief over it. The only reason I'm against nuclear power plants per se is that they aren't actually renewable. They produce far too much waste.

Once again, I say that wind wheels, tidal farms, geothermal plants, biomass plants, and whatever else they come up with, these are the energy sources of the future. Nuclear, coal, and oil will be filling in the gaps, instead of how it is now.

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If Saddam was actually defying U.N. inspections so badly that a war was necessary, why was it not deemed possible to get a U.N. resolution to that effect? France, Germany, and the other European countries were part of the inspections process as well, and few of them agreed with U.S. policy.

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It should be noted, incidentally, that you're using the Blair argument, not the Bush argument. Blair has consistently cited 1441 and violations in the weapons inspections as justification for the war; Bush has rarely done so.

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I find your unthinking blanket opposition to genocide disturbing. When conducted in a sympathetic manner, government-mediated mass killing is one of the most fast-acting, efficient and humane forms of population control. After all, people can't just expect to keep breeding forever without consequences, and being shot in the head sure beats starving to death.

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And this doesn't seem like a weakness in the law to you?

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Official police policy is against killing rioters. I wouldn't be so sure about the police themselves. In any case, whoever dies is just as dead whether they were killed intentionally or not.

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On the other hand, when half your population is too fat to ride one...

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Trains can run on electricity, which can be generated by non-fossil-fuel means. The US may be overly reliant on trucks for shipping, but that doesn't mean every country is.

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This is absolutely hilarious to me. I may be way off base here, but my suspicion is that cfgauss is a conservative.

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And I agree totally. We should have another completely effective and foolproof government agency devoted solely to the treatment of alcoholism. In fact, I think all diseases should have there own special government agency that provides prompt and effective treatment. That is a fantastic idea, so well thought out and easily implemented.

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And what of it if someone wanted to search for WMDs in the Pentagon, and also demanded entry into a slew of places? Even Bush admits that there were no weapons there. Why you feel compelled to argue that Saddam did not comply with the UN command to disarm on the basis that he didn't let nose-pokers go everywhere is beyond me. But I suppose we poked explosive noses all over, so phooey with that...

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So essentially, I don't have to be praying, but at 6 AM, Noon, 6 PM, et cetera, I had better kneel to Mecca for five minutes as per government mandate? Saying "the thoughts are free" can justify virtually anything up to and including concentration camps. (PS- Have we forgotten about the Nazi Rule from the book of fallacies, people?) So yeah- don't believe in a god. But our government will avowedly espouse its principles, make confining legislation based on its commandments, and force that religion in everything except for name on you.

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Oh yeah- and just out of curiosity, what makes democracy inherently good? (Not that we live in one, but nevertheless.)

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Are you stupid or something? The WTC attack only barely killed 3,000 people. The Iraqi war has cost easily over 20,000 in Iraqi civilians.

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Are you telling me that an American life is worth over 6 Iraqi ones? Hmm. For some reason, "imperialism" is wrestling within my mind.

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If another alcohol diversion program doesn't exist, the government should create one (which is exactly what many countries do). It shouldn't throw its lot in with unregulated and unaccountable private organisations.

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Well, yes. Governments can do whatever they like. Some of the things they do are even legal. But if we're going to get into the issue of what a political system ought to be and do, there's no avoiding ideology.

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the fact that one tends to have a higher rate of long-term harmful effects is merely a quantitative matter, not a qualitative one.

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If pollution isn't causing the world any severe harm, the issue of whether first-world or third-world countries pollute more is irrelevant, and you would have had no reason to mention it.

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Bicycles. There are plenty of places in developed nations where most people don't own cars and don't need them. Most of those places are outside the US.

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We went to war for unclear purposes that have been retroactively redeclared several times. I will reiterate, however, that Saddam Hussein was not the terrorist threat to us that you seem to believe. He was a threat to his own people, but we haven't let that drag us into war elsewhere.

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It isn't, but the processes of a coal power plant release more radiation into the environs than a nuclear power plant's processes.

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Fun fact: no matter where you live, global warming will ruin your life. Raising temperatures 2-3 degrees will cause massive crop failures, reduce the food supply well below demand, and so forth.

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Global warming will cause methane clathrates to melt, and more methane in the athmosphere means more warmth which means more methane will be freed means more warmth which means...

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As far as radiation increase from nuclear power, um, under normal operation a coal plant emits more radioactivity into the environment than a nuclear plant does. Although high level radioactive waste is produced, the volume is quite small and is easily contained and kept out of the environment.

Even with nuclear weapons testing, the natural background on average has increased less than 1%. For scale, no negative health effects have been observed below about 200 times natural background. In fact, people in slightly higher radiation zones appear to be healthier on average than those in lower radiation zones.

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I disagree 4.808 x 10^3, Bush will not give funding to technology advances. Reminder: Bush is 'in' with the oil companies (drilling in Alaska!) He doesn't want to risk losing any money from the oil companies by developing new technologies that wll replace them.

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Then you've never had a court order you into an alcohol treatment program. Alcoholics Anonymous is a cult and there's no two ways about it.

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Once elected to public office, for public purposes you are no longer a person -- you are the holder of that office. Your job is to base policy on the consensus of your constituents, not your own opinions.

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I suppose that means the US has never used tear gas against rioters? Under international law, that's classified as a chemical weapon, and people have died from being exposed to it.

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So the citizens of third world countries don't count as "people"? How telling.

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And again, I'll say, again: there's no poof for increasing tempratures being caused by people--and as an entirely sepperate thing I was saying, but will say again, which is on the same topic--3rd world countries pollute way more than us!!!

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Let me remind all of you republicans: IN 6 MONTHS to 20 YEARS, OUR OIL WILL RUN OUT! Guess what happens then. Every country in the world will pass us in the technological race. The US will be thrown into the dark ages because we wern't prepared for an oil shortage. That means that the US will sink to the bottom of the economics graph and the US will no linger be a super power.

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Instead, there will be the EU and Japan running the world instead of us! (*gasp*). Remember what happened in th '70s? Oil Shortage!

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He had that capacity, as evidenced by his chemical trucks and actions of Chemical Ali. He didn't use that capacity, as evidenced by the pervasive lack of WMDs. He actually followed the commands of the world when asked- unlike a certain American president who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty.

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That is a theocracy. What does "freedom" mean? It means, "the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action." I wonder what anonymous tenet will be violated by pushing religious values onto a person's life?

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Most of Western Europe has the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction. We don't invade Western Europe. The potential to commit a crime is not itself a crime.

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Please explain clearly, succinctly, and in terms that can be understood without an extensive background in physics, Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

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People trying to make a career out of this, please stay away. Thuryl, please stay away also. We know that you can not only explain it but probably point out all the misunderstandings we are likely to commit.

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Bad Karma happens when you do things like rip into the free press for mistakes like the Koran in the toilet controversy, but never mention or apologize for the war when no weapons of mass destruction or scuds or chemical/biologicals were found.

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I would be interested how you think that you know this. Polling attempts over there have generally failed.

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It started with British occupation, followed by numerous rebellions until 1932 when it went through various dictatorships, until now where once again the country is occupied by the British and us for various geopolitical reasons.

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I'm probably mistaken, but wouldn't severe global warming trigger another ice age?

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