July 4th makes me sick

[Alcon]

This topic was pretty mind-numbing, except for a few posts (especially Jake's and Verily's).  As far as I'm concerned July 4th is pretty much one big sports event.  People take pride in a cause that they're associated with mostly by coincidence.  It gets creepy when it serves as proxy-pride because personal restraint disallows self-promotion.  When that happens, or when it bleeds into nationalism, it can get scary.  Mostly it's harmless and we blow stuff up.  Better we blow stuff up harmlessly than the alternative, I guess.

But, really, Canada seems just as nice and I think we have better things to form our identities around.

[Alcon]

No he would, just like most other people. They myth that those places are so much better would get destroyed really quickly after they moved.

The second part of your sentence makes sense to me.  But you actually think that anyone who moved to Canada would "hate" it once they got used to it?  I assume you've been to Canada.  What secrets are they hiding behind their facade of being nearly identical to us?

[Alcon]

By "hate" I mean they would have the same complaints that they have about the U.S. or different ones that would equal what they "hate" about the U.S. meaning they wouldn't get any great benefit that they think they would get.

I guess I agree with that, sort of.  I think that anyone who hates American culture would be hard-pressed to not resent parts of Canadian culture.  But there are certainly areas where a sane person could see Canada as vastly better, hate the U.S. on, and be happy with Canada.  Those would have to be issue-specific, though.  In general, our cultures are pretty much identical.

[Alcon]

Judith Miller? That right wing hack who was trying to defend Karl Rove and Lewis Libby? haha.

So, you're arguing it's wrong to censor/ban media, and then someone raises an example where the U.S. does, and then you defend it by complaining about the contents of their media production.

Ummm, right.

[Alcon]

By "censor", I'm referring to baning such as on Manhunt 2, which Jas quasi-defended.

And the huge difference that makes one justifiable and the other heinous is?

[Alcon]

The point is they're to different things

omg really

and that's not what I was talking about in "media" freedom. I was talking only about banning media, period, nothing more. And just saying that I don't give a sh!t what happens to Judith Miller who is a worthless whore. I actually laughed when she got locked up.

But you have to explain what ethically establishes the difference.  You can't just say "they're different, so I can have totally different standards."  They have to be different in a way meaningful to your standards.  Otherwise you're just, well, a fascist.

[Alcon]

They're different because that wasn't the topic for discussion!! Geez!

So, it being the topic of discussion on an Internet message board universally changes its ethicalness?