Hmm. Ok.... I'll have to look into that, but from what I understood,
deserts actually encourage harsher weather patterns. And that claiming
the american deserts as temperate weather would have the side effect of
eliminating many tornadoes in the States.


Oh well, even leaving the deserts alone, we'll have plenty of viable
space to play with.


And, yes, like I said- is this "with or without the annoying congress
and senate and stuff".


Because if I have those fat, lazy, corrupt jackasses to deal with....
my act as president would be a missile strike on the congress during a
joint houses meeting.

Wow. I coulda swore you have a species of mongoose in australia. I'll
explain here just in case others need the lesson.


A mongoose is an omnivore, rodent-like species. It hunts snakes for
food. Amongst many other things. On occasion, it will fight cobras. In
part, because they feed on them. And in part because an unprotected
mongoose nest is.... well.... an easy meal.


Now, if a mongoose acted like most other rodentlike species- it would
get the cobra's attention, and then hope it chased the mother/father
instead of going for the babies. In most cases, they'll fail, and the
cobra (which can get very, very large) will help itself to a few, if not
all, of the young.


The mongoose is an exception. The mongoose *fights*. And wins, too. I'm
somewhat familiar with australian cattle dogs (Heelers). And their
fighting method against venomous snakes are very similar. In 20 fights,
there will be 19 dead cobras.


That's why the analogy fits so well. The species that fights back-
which is otherwise another unimpressive large rat- little different than
a mink, or (big) ferret- is the one that saves its babies the best. When
the prey fights back, and has a chance to win, it always results in a
win record for said prey.


As the mongoose faces the cobra, so can an armed civilian face a
criminal.

It's still not the oldest. It's one of the two oldest still in
existence, but it is NOT the original.

Probably not. Jesus said to love the sinner, even as you hate the sin.
Although until the sinner repents, he still sins, and he did show a lot
of fairly violent tendencies. Especially to those who debased religious
organizations with corruption.

They could argue it's treasonous and that you DID know. In a court of
law, you'd never be convicted.


But they don't need to take you to a court. They can just make you
vanish for a few years.


And, yes, modifying existing laws is perfectly legal. As long as the
modifications were legally approved. Amendments are the most famous
example of this process in use.

For further reference- you can merely say "that's a tangent" and then
get back onto point.


But simply attacking/questioning/whatever the mongoose thing whist
skipping everything else is as much a meaningless tangent as the tangent
itself.


Which.... is a trap I'm falling into myself, discussing the finer
points of intellectual debate. We'll stop having this conversation in
public now, if you please.

Attack, in a debate, means a counterpoint without validity or logical
backup.


Unless you mean to say you did not understand that the mongoose/cobra
thing was an analogy. In which case, I'm sorry, I thought you were being
ignorant for insult value. And not actually unaware of it.

Fair enough. But all humans are more or less alike. Same obviously
primate heritage. Same basic behaviors. Same general psychology. We're
more closely related to chimps than most bacteria are to even their
literal fourth generation relations.

Put us up against any species of bacteria- even Staph or the Bubonic
Plague- and we're still well in the lead.

May I ask why you skipped all that relevant data and only attacked an
analogy?

Ok, fine. Add in the crusades and Stalin's still, twice over, the
bigger killer.


No war has ever been fought over religion. Politics, wealth, pride,
greed, power, oppression, and good old fashioned human cruelty. But
never religion.

Actually. SECT is a derivitive of "section". Which means "part of". So
Catholicism is a sect, even if it is the oldest one.

Besides, the so-called "eastern orthodox" church is just as old. Back
in the time of ancient Rome- Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox church
were one and the same. They broke off, mostly due to geographical
issues. The eastern orthodox stayed in the Byzantine empire (modern
Turkey), India, and later russia/etc.

The catholic church moved (yes, moved) into Europe.

This has nothing to do with Christianity, or any religion, though.


Take Stalin- an ATHEIST- who killed more people than any singular
genocide, before or since. He beat Hitler's mark many times over. In
fact, he killed more people than ALL Genocides in history, before and
since, combined.


Which may make the case that religion softens the xenophobic/genocidal
instinct within us humans. Probably wouldn't be able to hold that point
against scrutiny, but it certainly absolves religion of any guilt in
crimes against humanity.

I'm not done yet.


Seventh- do something REAL about our polution problems. Including
considerable alterations to recycling and disposal projects.


Eigth- take a page from ancient Rome and use our military for
improvement projects. Including cleanup functions, urban
renewal/defence, building repair workers, road workers, and basically
everything a city/state/country needs done.


Ninth- start the "terra establishment" project. Which will use
technology to make desert and wasteland more habitable to human beings.
Including prefabricated neighborhoods.


Tenth- Start the "disaster recovery" initiative- which will put money
into a prepared responce to the reasonably concievable disasters that
could happen in this country- primarily to evacuate cities and relocate
them to the prefab neighborhoods.


Eleventh- Revitalize the space program. Including an attempt to start a
real base on the Moon. Which will be an even more threatening military
resource than atomic weapons, as well as many scientific and tactical
values for space exploration and colonization.


Twelvth- Increase punishment for sex crimes to something remotely
reasonable given the nature of these offences.

Actually, the mongoose is known to eat cobras. Yes, they prefer easier
meals. But they'll do it.

With or without the troubles of a pain-in-the-arse congress and senate
that never seem to cooperate and the other needless hassles of politics?

I'll just assume I have unillateral power to do as I see fit.


First- settle this "gay marriage" debate. By declaring that marriage is
a religious concept, and it is illegal for a government organization to
put restrictions or rights upon it. Then update the legal value of a
"civil union" to match that of a traditional marriage law, then
considering all "marriage licenses" to be "civil unions" from that
moment forward. What foreign nations choose to call marriages will be
treated similarly.


Second- make real peace with our international neighbors by leaving
them alone. Strengthening our homeland military and eliminating its
presence in other nations. Except, perhaps Japan and similar situations.
Also, adding a duel-value to our military, so that each serviceman will
serve viable border/security functions whilst in the states, so we can
increase our defensibility without increasing government costs.


Third- strengthen our economy by raising tariff rates to a point where
American companies have a chance on American soil.


Fourth- declare that "services", such as phone operators/tech support
counts under similar tariff laws.


Fifth- loosen immigration laws (while strengthening borders). So that
foreign workers can get legal jobs in this nation with relative ease.
And, of course, pay taxes/etc.


Sixth- create a "foreign improvement inition"- that establishes
reductions of tariffs for nations that meet our requirements for labor
and wellbeing of workers. Thus encouraging world nations to fix their
own countries.

You know, I changed my mind. WAAAY too big for this one. I'll just go
through the highlights.


the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights

appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our
intentions

with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,

I'm going to post the entire declaration. I'll highlight every religious
connotation.

Oops. That wasn't the preamble. That was the declaration. I feel
stupid.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident....
"That all men are ****CREATED**** equal


That's your starter- hello preamble.

And the plague that drives our entire species, down to the last man,
woman, and child, into extinction.... well, it wins. It defeats us
entirely. Can't argue with that. But for every plague that's destroyed a
few million people.... know that every infected human being that
survives, kills about a billion of them.

Casualties wise, no individual microbe beats us. Although numbers wise,
they have us outnumbered considerably (they need that, though). Each to
their own tactics. But we're still standing, and we're still visiting
other worlds.