Who would you kill?

I'd trade it for a cup of decent coffee. However, this is a profoundly silly discussion.[/quote]

Why then do you partake in it?

Maybe. While rhetorical, it's a sick question. I'd really prefer a MILF thread.

Hot damn, thats easy! I'd kill the first creature which possessed this 'irreducible complexity'. That would show them.

Oh, wait.

Since the effects of life over time is to dissolve the body and reassemble it elsewhere, we are all dead!

We are all copies of the dead.......

I wouldn't kill anyone (against my beliefs), but by golly, quite a number of folk (past & present) deserve a jolly good spanking! :wink:

Beat me Daddy, eight to the bar


In a little honky-tonky village in Texas
There's a guy who plays the best piano by far
He can play piano any way that you like it
But the way he likes to play is eight to the bar
When he plays, it's a ball
He's the daddy of them all

The people gather around when he gets on the stand
Then when he plays, he gets a hand
The rhythm he beats puts the cats in a trance
Nobody there bothers to dance
But when he plays with the bass and guitar
They holler out, "Beat me Daddy, eight to the bar"

A-plink, a-plank, a-plink plank, plink plank
A-plunkin' on the keys
A-riff, a-raff, a-riff raff, riff raff
A-riffin' out with ease
And when he plays with the bass and guitar
They holler out, "Beat me Daddy, eight to the bar"

He plays a boogie, he plays eight to the bar
A boogie-woogie, that is the way he likes to play on his piano
And we all know
That when he plays he puts them all in a trance
The cats all holler "Hooray"
You'll hear them say, "Beat me Daddy, eight to the bar"

----- instrumental break -----

In a little honky-tonky village in Texas
There's a guy who plays the best piano by far
When he plays with the bass and guitar
They holler, "Beat me up Daddy, beat me Daddy, eight to the bar"

The people gather around when he gets up on the stand
Then when he plays, he gets a hand
The rhythm that he plays puts the cats in a trance
Nobody there ever bothers to dance
But when he plays with the bass and guitar
They holler out, "Beat me Daddy, eight to the bar"

A-plink plink, a-plank plank, a-plink plank, plink plank
A-plunkin' on the keys
A-riff riff, a-raff raff, a-riff raff, riff raff
A-riffin' out with ease
But when he plays with the bass and guitar
They holler out, "Beat me Daddy, eight to the bar"

I wouldn't kill anyone either....

but, for arguments sake, I wonder what the world would be like if someone went back in time and killed Jesus when he was just a couple weeks old?

I guess we'd all be muslim.

so, what if we add Mohammed to the list, when he was just a babe in arms?

Chumly :wink:

In the deserts of Sudan
And the gardens of Japan
From Milan to Yucatan
Every woman, every man

Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me! Hit me!
Je t'adore, ich liebe dich,
Hit me! hit me! hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me slowly, hit me quick.
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

In the wilds of Borneo
And the vineyards of Bordeaux
Eskimo, Arapaho
Move their body to and fro.

Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me! Hit me!
Das ist gut! C'est fantastique!
Hit me! hit me! hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
It's nice to be a lunatic.
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

In the dock of Tiger Bay
On the road to Mandalay
From Bombay to Santa Fe
Over hills and far away

Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me! Hit me!
C'est si bon, mm? Ist es nicht?
Hit me! hit me! hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Two fat persons, click, click, click.
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me!
Hit me!
Hit me! Ow!
Hit me!
Hit me!
Hit me! hit me!
Hit me (x5)
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me

~

Wait a minute! I like Sulla! (If I've got my facts right ) Wasn't he the completely debauched patrician who "convinced" the Roman Senate to elect him as dictator on the provision that he would retire in 5 years ... and then actually did retire in 5 years? Sure he may have been totally immoral and killed a lot of people, but a politician who keeps his word is too rare not to appreciate.

:wink:

For what it's worth, I disagree (to a point, although I also can see it from the viewpoint that of course, we never do know what will happen in an alternative situation and it very well may be even worse (although I can't really envision a worse outcome for the people who were gassed in concentration camps and/or irradiated in Hiroshima).

But by my thinking Hitler and Sadaam were like the firing pins in their respective metaphorical weapons. If they'd been removed - maybe the weapon wouldn't have fired. Or if you prefer a more benignly peaceful analogy, they were like the yeast in the bread recipe- if they'd been removed - maybe the loaf wouldn't have risen.
And I didn't talk about killing bunches of people to save bunches of people - I targeted two thoroughly evil dictators who, if they'd been removed from the equation-might have changed everything for millions of people.

In terms of alleviating human suffering and diverting or preventing war, even in terms of thinking about it - I just don't have the personality to say, "You know, I know this is evil, but let's just watch and see what happens because if we do something to change the course of events - that might make it even worse"...especially if we have the benefit of hindsight to know that the end results were and are horrifying.

I think Lovejoy was asking, what particular event in your life, or in the history of the world, would you have been willing to forego your day to day conduct and moral code to TRY to prevent.

I thought it was an interesting question -hypothetical or not.
And as a horrified observer of what these people were instrumental in bringing about - yeah- I think I would have killed them - and I wouldn't have felt that I was performing an immoral act - and if I were- so be it, I'd be willing to pay the consequences- because I'd have felt more immoral if I'd had the power within me to act and change things and I'd decided it was too much trouble.

Nobody.

Impressive, Tico. I thought to sail that one by.

aidan, i got you the first time. and also for what it's worth, i also still respectfully disagree. hitler was of course a central figure, but nazi ideology and movement would not have been held back if he wasn't there, i believe. it was unfortunately a much wider sentiment that has older roots and has been developing openly since late 1920s. who knows what the war would have looked like. but hoess, goerring, himmler, eichmann and the like would still be kicking around.... some of them were deranged enough, plus there was large following. what i meant (and i didn't mean to suggest you say this -I do) was that to prevent holocaust, killing hitler would not have sufficed, in my opinion. you'd have to have shed a lot more blood.
that can still leave you wanting to kill him, understandably, for what he actually did do.

I got you the first time too Dag- I do know the social, cultural and political factors that were in place between the first and second world wars that led to the environment that existed to allow Hitler and his Nazi regime to rise to power, etc. etc.
I have taken courses in modern (as in twentieth century) European history, and since leaving school have read books about it on my own-one of the history teachers I taught with had written his dissertation on it...
And as I said, you may very well be right, but that we'll never know.

What I do know from life and experience that often removing or changing one single aspect of a situation (and sometimes not even a key one) can change the whole course of events. I'd have been willing to try that in these situations- because we can see what the alternative netted the world.

Well, killing Jesus in itself couldn't make us all Muslim, since much of the Qu'ran as revealed to Mohammad included Jesus and his teachings.


But fascinating point.

[sarcasm]
Weren't there these people called "Jews"? Don't they fit in somewhere?
[/sarcasm]

And what about atheists? Wouldn't they still be atheists?

proofread. I can't fathom what the flock you're saying.

Sorry, I'll try and make it clearer.

I was taken aback by Chai's comment that if "Jesus", whose historical existence is disputed, were to have been killed by a time-traveller, "we" would all be Muslims. Hence the quoted material.

I ventured to suggest that perhaps there was at least one already existing religion (Judaism) which would not have been cancelled out by such an act.

I used [sarcasm] and [/sarcasm] tags, itself a sarcastic device, before and after that remark.

I was attempting to implicitly express amusement at Chai's notion that everybody ("we") is either a Christian or a Muslim, and ruefully ponder on what sort of person might hold such a notion.

Sorry if I was too obscure.

I, on the other hand, got what you meant, Contrex.

But that's because I'm kind of an obscure mind..


I've no killing tendencies...

got you, aidan, and i understand what you're saying and feeling.

i just see some points differently is all. no biggie. luckily we will not have to be solving any silly dilemmas of this sort in the real life anytime soon (hopefully not in my lifetime anyway, ideally never).