SkinWalker Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 Originally posted by rccar328 According to Webster's, ethnocentric means, "characterized by or based on the attitude that one's own group is superior." So...are you saying that just because our President believes that the most prosperous and most powerful nation in the world is superior it is wrong for him to condemn leaders as transparently evil as Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il? Nope. I'm saying that it was ignorant of a world leader to make a flip remark about a nation who's culture might demand that they save face. And thus, create a problem that could quite easily have been avoided with a bit of tact. He could still have gotten his message across, but tactfully. One expects a world leader to have just a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lathain Valtiel Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 Originally posted by griff38 18 is appropriate. I can tell you from my experience that age is no guarantee of maturity. Look at Bush, he's 60 and is still a provencial neanderthal. Ah yes, and he somehow graduated from Harvard (Or was it Yale? One of them.)/ Brilliant show of maturity here, yup. And please, nobody even dare bring up ethnocentrism, it is effectively irrelevant. Every country is ethnocentric to a monstrous degree. The US is no exception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinWalker Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 Originally posted by Lathain Valtiel Ah yes, and he somehow graduated from Harvard (Or was it Yale? One of them.)/ Brilliant show of maturity here, yup. It was Yale. And I must give Bush credit for the sense of humor he has about his academic ability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET Warrior Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 Does anyone know what Bush got his bachelors degree in? Because if he was a C student...and if his degree is in Business or Communications..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grace Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 no got my vote cause I wanna vote in this years pres election and I wont be able to if they up the voting age... turning 18 this summer!! GO ME!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lathain Valtiel Posted January 28, 2004 Share Posted January 28, 2004 Originally posted by ET Warrior Does anyone know what Bush got his bachelors degree in? Because if he was a C student...and if his degree is in Business or Communications..... Economics.. SOMETHING about economics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET Warrior Posted January 28, 2004 Share Posted January 28, 2004 Originally posted by Lathain Valtiel Economics.. Oh yeah, that's one of those really tough majors with the super tough economics and business classes:rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abcd1234 Posted January 28, 2004 Share Posted January 28, 2004 I dunno economics must be tough if Bush were to have gotten his degree in it and then lost all those jobs like he did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MennoniteHobbit Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Originally posted by ET Warrior Ever see Minority Report? Good example there. You can't predict the future because we have CHOICE, and choice can change a lot of things. Yup... I've seen that movie. Pretty good. Yeah, we have a choice. But still, sometimes the human instinct overrules all for the time being. Only after we're done doin sumpin, then we may start thinkin... "Hey wait a minute... it wouldn't have happened anyway, would it?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET Warrior Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Ummmm, I really have no idea how your post is relevant towards the point I was making with my Minority Report analogy..... In that we can't just assume that eventually a country is going to be a threat and take them out early, because in the end they may decide to throw off their evil ways and join us in peace and harmony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET Warrior Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 And I will again put this in simple terms, sans-theatrics. We are not the world police. The entire purpose of the UN is to work together to decide the best course of action for the world. As the world gets more and more advanced and we start working together more and more, we cannot simply be the lone hero nation who rids the world of evil and everyone loves us for it. Simply ignoring the advice of all of our allies and basically giving them the finger and telling them where they can shove it does not seem like something an advanced super-power should do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master_Ginn Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 How bout we try and stay on the topic of this thread, THE VOTING AGE! You can post on other threads about likes and dislikes of Bush. I for one think the voting age is fine. I think it helps make one more mature, perhaps to think a little more than their used to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinWalker Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 Thanks for the help, Feanaro, but I think I can manage the moderation bit. Sometimes these threads in the Senate take on a life of their own and morph a bit, particularly on a relatively stale topic (as "voting age" was). In fact, the last post was nearly about a month ago. The best way to keep a thread on topic if it's one you are interested in is to post on the OT. Beyond that, (this is for everyone) if you feel a thread is getting too far off topic or perhaps too heated, PM me with concerns. Even if I'm part of the "heat" Let's not resort to tit-for-tat banter about "on-topic" / "off-topic." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rccar328 Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 A wacko legislator in CA wants to lower the voting age, giving 14-15 year old kids a quarter of a vote and 16-18 year old kids a half of a vote. They call this a way to increase voter turnout, but let's face it: 18 year olds already aren't really flocking to the voting booths. Plus, increasing the number of voters isn't really the right method of increasing voter turnout...instead why don't we get people who already have the right to vote out to the voting booths? Now, I work with teenagers, and for one thing, they for the most part don't care about politics. For another thing, the politics that they do care about they are totally ignorant about. I think this is an attempt to get an impressionable voter base that they can indoctrinate into voting how they want...it's definitely not a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abcd1234 Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 This is a terrible idea. I agree that they need to figure out a way to get the voter turnout to increase, not just allow more and more people to vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 Originally posted by rccar328 A wacko legislator in CA wants to lower the voting age, giving 14-15 year old kids a quarter of a vote and 16-18 year old kids a half of a vote. They call this a way to increase voter turnout, but let's face it: 18 year olds already aren't really flocking to the voting booths. Plus, increasing the number of voters isn't really the right method of increasing voter turnout...instead why don't we get people who already have the right to vote out to the voting booths? Now, I work with teenagers, and for one thing, they for the most part don't care about politics. For another thing, the politics that they do care about they are totally ignorant about. I think this is an attempt to get an impressionable voter base that they can indoctrinate into voting how they want...it's definitely not a good idea. People said the same thing when they wanted to allow women to vote, you know that right? Techincally all politicians want people to vote for them, and vote the way they want. so... yeah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 Some aren't ignorant but lowering it is ridiculous. It's fine the way it is. They're indeed in a very unstable period of their life and are quite easy to manipulate(from both the conservatist and liberal movement). Bad idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET Warrior Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 Originally posted by InsaneSith People said the same thing when they wanted to allow women to vote, you know that right? Yeah....geeez, we gave em the vote and NOW look at the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 Well I think giving them a small fraction of a vote would help boost them into the electoral process, and it's only for local government. not like it's national *inserts tongue in cheek for effect* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uber_Saber Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 Why are we old enough to be taxed, but not old enough to vote? Here's one under-age person who intends to vote when he gets the chance. And if I'm old enough to fight for my country I think I'm old enough to vote. So no, I don't think it should be raised. Maturity and intelligence are definitely not related to age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toms Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Ahh, this brings back memories of all those pointless debates in school. I don't think age has anything to do with it, i know 16 year olds who are well versed in politics and 40 year olds who are complete idiots, read papers just for the gossip and have no interest or knowledge of politics at all. Once you become legally old enough to be considered responsible for your own actions then you deserve a right to have a say in how your country is governed. Of course, these days prosecutors seem willing to try younger and younger people as adults (and you could argue that kids grow up a lot faster these days), so if anything the age limit should be reduced. But i think 17 - 18 is about right. Voter inteligence is a totally different matter. I guess we could test people to see if they know enough to vote Unfortunately there is no way around the fact that 80% of people who do vote will probably know almost nothing about any of the issues and be voting based on how they were brought up or the views of whatever media they are exposed to. Voter apathy however is something that they might be anle to do something about. Howard Dean, whatever you thought of him, did manage to connect witha whole section of the population that rarely votes. Internet and other high tech voting methods are definately a step in the right direction. I'm also highly in favour of including a "none of the above" option on ballot papers, as i often feel none of the candidates are suitable, but my only option then is to note vote at all. I'm also all for fixed spending, free advertising slots and anything else to try and take the "buy your way in" feeling away. But i don't think age has anything to do with it at all. --------[edit] What i do think needs to be addressed is breaking up the old boy network that all politicians come from and possibly introducing some younger politicians. I'm not entirely sure how you would accomplish this, but I think part of the reason young people (and other groups) don't care about politics is that they don't feel represented. For a 2 chamber system maybe the second chamber should be "fixed" somehow to proportionally represent the population, or to allow "non career politicians" to sit for short terms. I don't know. I do think something needs to be done though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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