My three favorite films are WALL·E, Fight Club, and Galaxy Quest. I'd recommend them all, especially WALL·E and Galaxy Quest to someone who likes sci-fi, action, and comedy.

I don't kill bugs on purpose. But, yeah, I can feel bad if I do so on accident....

I disagree with your policies, but in this case I certainly wouldn't say that makes you evil. A bigot? Technically, yes. But not evil.

I believe that there are certain times when assassinations are appropriate. Death is a natural part of war, and if killing a terrible person is necessary for the greater good, I say it's justifiable. That said, I'm against torture in just about any circumstance. To me torture is much worse than killing. It's just inhumane, and since it's been proven to be ineffective at extracting information, it's pretty much just hurting people for the sake of hurting them. I think it's very wrong.

I don't text. Personally, it seems like a step backwards in technology. Plus I don't use the phone all that much anyway.

I'm against it. I don't generally think it's the government's place to say what we should and shouldn't do with our bodies.

I would say so, not a major one but they are preventing him from moving and doing something so much against his will. I mean its not physical pain but then again neither is waterboarding Wolls

Um...you don't think having something forced down your throat would be painful? You don't think being waterboarded would be painful? :?

In my opinion, if someone is setting off the metal detector they should have the right to remove whatever metal they're carrying and then try again. That's the way it's always worked when I've gone through security checkpoints. I don't know what the little girl had on her to make the alarm go off, but I think that she should have been given a chance to remove whatever objects were triggering it before being physically searched. Of course, if she's still setting the alarm off after removing these objects, I think it's reasonable that it be required to be searched before boarding the plane. No reason a parent can't hide a gun on their kid.

Anyways, I don't exactly get the title of this thread. The implication seems to be that there's no such thing as an American terrorist. And maybe also that you can tell who a terrorist is just by looking. If that were the case, we wouldn't exactly need security checkpoints, now would we? We could just say, "Hey, you're an American! I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt anyone. Enjoy the flight!"

I also think it's really unfortunate that when a 3-year-old white girl gets searched people can become outraged, but when a 40-year-old Arab guy get searched, the same people will think it's completely justified. We're all people. If someone thinks that searches like this are wrong, then apply that philosophy to everyone. If you think that searches like these are sometimes necessary, don't make exceptions.

[QUOTE="MurasakiYugata"]

As far as hitting people back goes...generally, I'd encourage everyone, man or woman, not to retaliate. If someone hits you, I think it's probably best for everyone involved if you just walk away, although I know this isn't always exactly a realistic expectation....

-Big_Red-

I don't know. Vengeance can be a tricky sort of thing. I mean, if somebody is hurting you and the only way to defend yourself is to hurt them back then, yeah, I'd consider that perfectly justified. But if there's a situation you can diffuse or talk out or walk away from...while doing so may not be your moral obligation to the other person, it still just seems...best to me. When you start the whole, you-hurt-me-so-I'll-hurt-you-back thing, who knows how it will escalate and where it will end? And I know that for some people retaliation might give them a sense of justice. And if I were ever faced with a particularly extreme situation, I might very well yearn for that justice myself. I mean, I'll admit, the only real abuse I've faced has been emotional. Maybe it's different when there's a physical element involved. But I'm guessing the same sort of values could be applied in either scenario. Generally speaking, I like to try and set what I would consider a good example for others to follow. Refuse to sink to their level and hope that they'll learn a thing or two from my actions. Mind you, this doesn't seem to actually work. I think it can just lead people to see me as naive and weak and stupid. This attitude of mine may be a big part of why some people have walked all over me. And, of course, much as I wish I were always in control of my emotions, there are certainly times when I break too. There have been times where I've said and done things that would not exactly be considered the moral high ground. But as of late I think I've been pretty good lately at keeping myself reigned in. In any case, yeah, maybe it's different with physical encounters. I don't know and I hope I never have to find out first-hand.

Bunnies!!! :D