Jerry Falwell Dead

[Guynemer]

Quite F***ing True.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
just to clarify , since the implication is lost on my favorite polycast host:

I don't think rejoicing in anyone's death is a good idea; understandable, i guess, if the guy raped your daughter or ruined the lives of millions. still not something to revel in or be proud of. in addition i thought this implication was clear in my original post, that falwell is a benign old man, by these standards. castro is not. grow a brain , record a net show, do whatever it is you do and make your absurd comparisons elsewhere.

Well, to you, Castro may have ruined the lives of millions, but he has done some good (Cuba's healthcare, for example), even if you disagree with almost everything he's ever done. The same with many people and Bush - you could equally argue he's ruined the lives of millions, either in Iraq, through government debt (the lives of future millions) or underfunded social programmes. Would rejoicing Bush's death be understandable?

Either you have a rule that it's not understandable to celebrate anyone's death, or you accept that other people have a different impression of who has ruined the lives of people and who's death deserves to be rejoiced. Or you find a better rule, for example it would be, IMHO, ok to celebrate the death of someone who had ruined your life, personally, such as someone who raped your daughter.

Castro probably has a higher approval rating than Bush, even considering your opinions of him.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by MrFun


I fully respect differing opinions of mine that are based on facts, education, and experience -- in other words, informed opinions.


I have no respect for bigoted opinions that seek to stigmatize minority groups.

The fact that you cannot make a distinction between informed opinion and bigoted opinion is scary.

People are people, and should be allowed to have their opinions. Whether they are educated, informed, black, female or gay. I am not saying that all opinions are equal (which you would know if you read any of my posts), I am saying that everyone should be able to have their own opinions.

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

I am in favor of freedom of conscience, no matter what is on your conscience.

I think that it is the most important freedom.

Jon Miller

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Jon Miller


People are people, and should be allowed to have their opinions. Whether they are educated, informed, black, female or gay. I am not saying that all opinions are equal (which you would know if you read any of my posts), I am saying that everyone should be able to have their own opinions.

Jon Miller

I'm glad that you and I agree that everyone has the right to their own opinion.

But just because I cannot respect a bigoted opinion (such as the insistence that blacks are criminally-minded) does not mean that I oppose the principle of free thought.

I don't seek to deprive anyone of freedom of thought; bigots can wallow in the mud all they want but I will never respect their opinions.

[Drogue]

What is "freedom of conscience"? I keep hearing this phrase, but don't really get what is meant. If you mean freedom to think what you like, in the absense of mind-reading, surely everyone automatically has that? Or does it mean to act on conscience, in which case how far does that go? Would someone have the freedom to act on their conscience and pursue vigilante-justice, for example?

[Dry]

Originally posted by Drogue
Would rejoicing Bush's death be understandable?

There is a big difference between Bush and Castro,
Bush is not president for life.

People disliking a leader celebrate in fact his removal. If the removal requires him to die, then death will be celebrated.

If Bush dies during his presidency, there's likely to be a few celebrations somewhere in the world. If he dies after, I doubt there'll be much agitation.

A public figure is much like a leader for life than a temporary president.

The question is in fact: do people rejoice to the death of the man, or to the disappearence of the figure.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Dry
There is a big difference between Bush and Castro,
Bush is not president for life.

People disliking a leader celebrate in fact his removal. If the removal requires him to die, then death will be celebrated.

If Bush dies during his presidency, there's likely to be a few celebrations somewhere in the world. If he dies after, I doubt there'll be much agitation.

A public figure is much like a leader for life than a temporary president.

The question is in fact: do people rejoice to the death of the man, or to the disappearence of the figure.

This is a good point. However couldn't the same apply to Falwell? Is it that people are rejoicing his death or simply that he won't be around to spout his views any more?

Were you to believe Castro is wrecking Cuba, then his death may be a positive thing in that removing him from power could have larger beneficial effects than one many dying. Indeed, you could argue that for Falwell, although it would be harder as his effect on other people is perhaps less extreme.

It does seem that people are celebrating his death though, which is sad, as opposed to celebrating that he'll no longer be able to have an effect on people.

[Lonestar]

This ruins how I hoped it would turn out.

[Drake Tungsten]

Ming, just in case you didn't realise, Drake and I are messing around.

I wasn't; I really hate French-Canadians. I think Fake Boris is the reason.

[Nostromo]

If it brings some excitement in your petty little life, good for you I'm glad to help! The good part is that you can say "I hate French-Canadians" and nobody will raise their eyebrow. Its safe. OTOH, you can't say "I hate them ******s" or "I hate them jews".

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Drogue



Castro probably has a higher approval rating than Bush, even considering your opinions of him.

Let's compare apples to apples. We can't even do that until people start swimming from here to Cuba.

[Drogue]

I wasn't stating as such, just asserting that it's not a massive logical leap that more than 28% of the Cuban population approve of Castro. And following from that (but also from other angles) that you could consider Bush as bad a leader. I don't, personally, but it's possible for people to. Given that, celebrating Castro's death is the same to some people (or even worse to some people) than celebrating Bushes, were it to involve their removal from power.

I just think celebrating someone's death because you disagree with them is bad form, and that includes people you may believed have ruined millions of people's lives. Obviously Dry's point remains, that celebrating the loss of their effect (ie. death involving their retirement) is a different thing, but their celebrating their death solely would still count.

[SlowwHand]

I hold higher opinion of Billy Graham, and he "reprimanded" Falwell for political involvement issues.
I doubt Graham is dancing a jig like some here are doing.

[DaShi]

Well, I don't want to be like Graham either. So