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Dr george

My, such discussion of my internal affairs!

My nation is a Civil Rights Lovefest, which implies high civil and political freedoms with a more regulated economy (HMH) (in my case, no pollution, a minimum wage, a minimum age to work, etc.) CRLs are classified left-leaning because civil rights are generally higher than economic rights.

IRL, I'd probably look more like a Left-Wing Utopia (HLH), but I appreciate the advantages the relatively wealthier CRLs offer.

Yes, I've met Prudence Falopian before! :D

Dr george

"New Old New New York is ranked 1st in Philosophy 115 and 587th in the world for Rudest Citizens." That it is all.

Even in Anarchy, NONNY sneaks in many of the freedoms of Dr George, while maintaining a highest level economy. He is one of the greenest nations in NS, for instance. He completely lacks several manufacturing sectors, especially arms manufacturing.

Dr george

Ooops, I just fell into Anarchy again. :(

Tagarand

What the hell is that underneath the factbook? What did I miss?

Ragaskan

Commend Crazy girl
A resolution to recognize outstanding contribution by a nation or region.

For: 3,431. Against: 821.

Voting ends in 3 days 7 hours.

Ragaskan: AGAINST.

Dr george

Tag, NS apparently noticed that a lot of us were exchanging embassies and hopped onto the boat. We've had a lot of embassies over the years.

Congratulations to Superior Intelligence and Aki Zeta for being in the world top 1000 Healthiest.

The Atheist Empire Ambassador of Superior Intelligence

thanx.
i actually think living in my nation would be gr8! :D

Dr george

ARB and I have had some discussions about that over this past year. Dr george is my best attempt to build a nation that I would really want to live in, and Son of dr george is my attempt to recreate such. It's difficult to eliminate crime, for instance, without draconian police measures; it's more difficult to build a great economy while being committed to the environment.

I dunno about living in The Atheist Empire Ambassador of Superior Intelligence--I would want at least moderately good voting rights.

Dr george

Congratulations to (deep breath): Ninja Dog, The Profligate Son, Equinox Parallax, Aki Zeta, Black Friday, Arcimboldo, Malnota, Grendelfearing Kittens, Anarchy Unlimited, and NONNY for being in the world top 1000 Most Politically Free. Honourable Mention to Hoosier Daddies for missing it by only 15.

El labrador

Hello, this is the ambassador from The Internationale, in response to Philosophy 115 sending an ambassador to The Internationale. :)

In Solidarity Comrades,

El Labrador/La Pasionaria,

The Internationale

Ragaskan

In Regards to Cloning
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.

For: 4,545. Against: 3,814.

Voting ends in 1 day 5 hours.

Ragaskan: FOR.

Ragaskan

Commend Crazy girl
A resolution to recognize outstanding contribution by a nation or region.

For: 5,446. Against: 1,240.

Voting ends in 2 days 5 hours.

Ragaskan: FOR.

The Fresh Start of The Voice of ARB

Actually knowing what it would be like to live in your nation is not easy. Just because your nation is, say, a Civil Rights Lovefest doesn't mean a reasonable person would want to live there. You still might have dispute settlement by duelling, government-arranged marriages and mutiple privzatized armies duking it out on your territory.

I've actually worried quite a lot about this problem, and if this is an interesting topic for you, check out my posts about "spectra", and in particular the "well-being index", on the Ulthar Forum. The WBI is my attempt to quantify how good life is in a nation. Unfortunately, I have to have complete information on a nation's issue choices to compute one but, if anyone happens to have that, I'll be happy to do it. This nation is too young for its WBI to be completely meaningful, but the last time I computed it, it was +4 (comfortable). My nation Xampotism was designed to have a high WBI, and reached +7 (utopian), but I still don't think I want to live there - it has some repressive policies to keep its citizens safe that I wouldn't support in real life. In most of those cases, NS doesn't offer the more moderate option that I'd like to choose.

Ed miliband

My 'political freedoms' are deemed 'excellent', yet in this category I rank a mere 27th in Philosophy 115.

What would kant do

How our issue choices turn out is not always intuitive and how they are rated against past choices is the subject of much study and debate - all publicly viewable, including Doc George's significant input, here:
cityofulthar.wordpress.com/ns-school/

Tagarand

I know there are many people here who are liberal leaning. But it's not as though we've covered all bases. Does anyone here own firearms. If so, are any of them handguns?

Dr george

Welcome to P115, Comrade El labrador!

Dr george

Ed, as a region we place a goodly amount of emphasis on political freedom. Since I have several puppet ambassadors waiting for assignment and most of those are Anarchies, it tends to skew the results a little bit.

We're a left-leaning region for sure, Tag. You are the most vocal of our liberally-challenged nations and we are much the richer for you to keep us honest and non-complacent.

The statistic that a handgun in your home is 22x more likely to be used against you than against the bad guys (assuming that's true) is enough of a pragmatic reason for me personally never to own one.

Tagarand

The liberal thinking wasn't a shot or anything. I just generally know how Conservatives feel about firearms, and was wondering if the liberals here all felt the opposite.

I've never read that statistic, not to say it isn't somehow true and doesn't exist. But I've read far more statistics that say or attempt to prove the opposite. At any rate, I'm obviously a handgun owner, was just trying to get another take.

Astatinon

Being British, owning a firearm isn't exactly as easy as it is over in the USA, but even so, I've never really felt I needed any kind of firearm for protection, either from other people or the government and I find it odd how people think its a vital thing to have, I believe that as a society we have grown past the point of people needing to be constantly armed.

The Fresh Start of The Voice of ARB

The conservative/liberal labels don't fit me very well, Tag, but I am far closer to conservative than I am to liberal. And I do not share what I imagine you believe is "how conservatives feel about firearms". The legal arguments for handgun ownership are quite respectable; the practical arguments aren't IMO. And the obsession of many conservatives with the "threat" of gun control is something that I can't understand emotionally, even agreeing that "guns don't kill people" and sympathizing with the idea that the people might need to violently remove a tyranny at some point in the future.

One of the things that distresses me about the modern conservative movement is the laundry list of positions one must take, or else you're one of them. Liberals are allowed to be pro-life or pro-business (yes, really, they are! Certain businesses have no better friends than "progressives"), so why can't I be conservative and yet be anti-gun or believe in global warming?

The shroud of wally

"conservative movement is the laundry list of positions one must take, or else you're one of them."

Thats the problem with democracies with few and strong parties, you are either A or B (in the US for example liberal or Conservative) and you must accept all the positions of either A or B as a whole. Preatty much like McDonald´s combo.

Still, the alternative is multipartidism, which despite sounding better on theory, in the practice it tends to deliver into a strong party that almost always win the elections, with the exeption where there is a crisis, in which case the power shifts to a weak oposition party which then is blamed for the crisis by the strong party which will win the next elections; and the cycle beggings again.

Of course, as always the best choice is a middle path, as Aristóteles claimed is his wriittings

Tagarand

"One of the things that distresses me about the modern conservative movement is the laundry list of positions one must take, or else you're one of them. Liberals are allowed to be pro-life or pro-business"

I agree with you, and didn't mean to rope everyone into that. But let's be honest, 90% of people who are bothered to think politically, are sheep, and do subscribe to all liberal, or all conservative view points. I agree with most of what you said, aside from the bit about it being something from the "modern conservative movement". Both sides, liberal and conservative, demand that you pass their litmus test.

In democratic primaries, everyone is trying to out liberal the other, no better than conservatives. They sit and they pander to the pro-choice and the anti-gun lobby, as well as the tax the rich people. That's just the unfortunate way things have shaken out.

---

It would be nice to live in a country where guns weren't an issue, but they are. Cities that outlaw handguns are far more dangerous than those that don't (look into Chicago and DC, for examples). Most of the violent crimes are committed with illegal firearms, anyway, so I have to imagine cities like that are doing their citizens a great disservice in banning weapons while their gun crime goes up. Odd.

I wonder if you could elaborate on what practical argument for handgun ownership you find fault with? My argument is pretty basic. I have a handgun in a childproof drawer next to my bed, as well as one in my pickup. If anyone ever breaks into my home or tries to steal my truck (which is sadly a common occurrence in the city I live), I'll protect my possessions and my family however I see fit. Having one in your hand or letting off a warning shot I imagine, would be an incredible deterrent, probably solving the problem without any bloodshed necessary.

Switzerland mandates military service, and requires that men remain in the reserve military until the age of 30 (34 for officers). These reserve men are made to keep their rifles in their home until atleast that age, and they often keep them past this age. There are only 2 people for every gun in Switzerland. Yearly, more people are stabbed than shot.

It's clearly not a matter of guns, but the culture. And I don't think it's only Conservatives who choose to use guns, and I'd wager it's hardly Conservatives who are responsible for the negative uses for firearms. Minorities like hispanics and african americans, who vote overwhelmingly Democrat, make up a huge portion of violent crime in the united states, many of them using fire arms. They have no better access to "legal" firearms than whites, and yet they're rates are very, very high.

Ed miliband

Like Astatinon I am British and it would not occur to me to aspire to own a handgun. Unless you're a stupid, macho drugrunner in Stockwell, why would you feel the need of one? Even our police don't carry guns - or very few do.

Also, this stark division of society into conservative and liberal is specifically American, with the word 'liberal' often slung as an insult. Social liberalism is one thing (we tend to say 'progressive') and economic liberalism (i.e. Thatcher, Reagen, Clegg, Westerwelle, anyone named Bush) quite another. Here there is a distinction between liberal, in both senses, and social democrat.

El labrador

Thankyou Comrade Dr george! It is a pleasure to be here.

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