Dan

Hey Nairi, I think the Dutch have hit the nail on the head by talking about immigration first and foremost. I think it's one of the top problems non-third-world countries are facing, and definitely the root of a lot of other problems. The Dutch are the only ones so far who have actually realised that immigration might destroy their country, especially with the new wave of muslim fanaticism invading Europe.. I think Netherlands has a bright future. As for nationalism in other countries in Europe, it's pretty much dead (except maybe in Ireland, although there's still the issue of the IRA and all the clashes in there..), goes to show what happens when lemmings take over countries.. Lemmings like Blair...

^^^ this is what you asked. and hence my long reply. My concern when voting is not solely the Armenian issue, but the issues of the entire country (as well as humanity at large, USA having a significant role in international politics). In fact, the Armenian issue is of little significance IMO, because it won't make it to the top of the agenda of the elected president anyhow. And it should not. There are far more important issues that need to be addressed. And voting for a candidate just because he has had a great record with Armenians/Armenian issues is pretty dumb, IMO. That is why Armenians have not and will never be able to get what they want, in addition to being too disorganised and divided amongst themselves. Trust me, I think the Republicans are a bunch of bigots and pigs, but... I'm not about to give my vote to Kerry or any other Democrat for that matter just because of that (hypothetically speaking, of course).. It's against my morals.

Nairi, I heard about that, and I was having a chat about it with a coupla activists from Europe (some of them in the Netherlands, some from the UK who have visited the Netherlands), and they don't seem to like the situation there at all, especially when it comes to immigration.. Like Fortuyn said, "This is a full country. I think 16 million Dutchmen are about enough." (this in 2002, I expect the numbers to have risen as more people become aware of the problems..) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1971462.stm I think I agree with pretty much all of Pim Fortuyn's ideologies/beliefs. Such a shame that he was assassinated.

Twilight Bark, I am not trying to start an argument. In fact, I don't have time for arguments or negativity, and hence why I adopted this attitude. May I suggest that you stop taking what I said so literally? I didn't say that you should make 2 word posts. I said, if what you want to do is start an intelligent topic, all you have to do is POST it. As for your mental age, all I can say is that I hope you'd have fun with it, especially once the process of diffusion away from the forum of bores has been successfully completed..

Our lands? OK.. but if you expect them to return us our lands........ then mmhmm, no comment.. btw, koko, I am talking about reparation payments on a mass scale...

Noooo.. Sasun, you misinterpreted my post.. Hmm, let me re-phrase that.. justice when it comes to punishing genocide is a very personal issue (albeit on a national level). By personal I don't mean on an "individual" basis.. err, I don't know how to explain it.. lol. I hope you got the idea..? There's nothing wrong with taking the property from the thief and returning it to the victim of the robbery, just that when it is coupled with murder/genocide, it becomes very...... uhhh... minor (compared to the massacres..), and I really think that coupling reparation payments with recognition of genocide is offensive.

Twilight Bark, You're making it sound like it's utter disaster. Relax. If you think this place needs some intelligent discussions, your going away won't help, since you are one of the advocates of "intelligent" or "classy" threads. I don't see what your problem is with the "fun" posts. Just don't read them if you don't like them. In all forums, there is something called "general discussion" and discussions about different topics separated into different categories/sub-forums. Not all people have the time to type 2 pages in reply to a thread, I think we all pretty much have lives outside this forum (school, work, etc.), and most of us can check this board in between classes or during breaks while studying, etc. And while I definitely see a change in this forum from what it was when I first came on here to what it is now, you'd have to accept that to a certain extent. As a forum grows and gets new members, the chances of a lot of people agreeing with a suggestion or opinion diminish. Each new member is a different person with a different set of interests, and you can't force your ideal image of a forum on everyone and expect this place to be "successful" (or otherwise not dead..) That said, I also don't see why anyone should leave unless they really want to due to personal circumstances. Of course, you're free to leave, but it really annoys me when people come here and say they're leaving because there are no intelligent discussions, and in a way (whether intentionally or unintentionally) threatening (indirectly/subtly) for the mods to take an "action." I consider that childish. If you want some grown-up/mature discussions, all you have to do is click on a few buttons and type your message and post it. No one's holding you back. But don't try to force your ideologies on others, because that is a huge turn-off IMO.

Ooops, thanks for pointing that out, Sasun lol.. Sasun -- justice systems do not work on the same level as personal justice. And laws/systems are not always just/right.

Sure, I will explain why I wouldn't vote for John Kerry. Happy reading! I am against including sexual orientation in that list for hate crimes. Now that it has been put in place here in Canada, I can see how bad it is. Putting every possible thing on that list would cut down on what little freedom of speech that's left... it's quite annoying when a gay guy yells "hate crime hate crime" when someone disagrees with his lifestyle. It's not a crime to disagree. A candidate who advocates building a country of political correctness would not get my vote. I disagree with this too. Being gay should NOT, I repeat, should NOT be something that comes into the workplace. Take that bedroom BS to the bedroom, not the workplace. I don't care who you f***, just don't make it be the thing around which MY life revolves (you can make your sex life the thing around which your life revolves, but please, keep that to yourself, don't bring it to the workplace. The workplace is not a place for showing sexuality). Actually same with the military. I don't see why someone needs to expose their sexuality (whether straight or gay) to everyone in the military. Just keep it to yourself. Referring to the inclusion of openly gay people in the military. Does that National Association of the Advancement of Colored People include white people..? Or wait, us white folks are colourless.. Colour is better, eh? Affirmative action (and the quota system for admissions and scholarships) advocates will NOT, I repeat, will NOT get my vote. It's about time that those who deserve to be admitted or awarded scholarships got their rights. Rights, not privileges, is the key word here. Programs -- such as what: sending more American tax dollars to Africa so that they can waste it and have more unprotected sex and breed more babies and spread AIDS? No thanks. What's done in Africa is done with. Fight AIDS in your own country first. I can see HUGE parallels between John Kerry's platform and the Liberals during the provincial elections here in Ontario (reducing class size, etc.) Again, take your faith and personal beliefs in God or whatever the hell you believe in, off my body, out of the laws and out of my life, and stop wasting my tax money on such programs!!!!! Diversity my ***. More like diversihell. Where the unskilled take the place of the skilled (much like the illiterate taking the place of educated people in immigration). NO to affirmative action. It's probably the only reason I am against John Kerry. I don't care how gay positive the guy is. In fact, I don't even care how homophobic Bush is, as long as he doesn't support affirmative action. There are more important things than being "open-minded." This is the only thing I agree with in his platform, in addition to the investigation of POW/MIA. The rest of his platform is utter BS. As for the Armenian issue -- which president hasn't lied about the Armenian issue during his campaign...? I thought that's why Bush got all the Armenian votes -- because he sounded oh-so-pro-Armenian. If you think the relations between USA and Turkey are gonna go down the drain once Kerry becomes the president of USA, you're oh-so-wrong.

gurgen (thanks to Sasun for the correction lol), i don't care about the stuff that was gone when it happened. it was a long time ago and material things fade away from memory, but the memory of the human being remains. equating the human being to the material things such as the house, the furniture, etc. is degrading and offensive, IMO. May I remind you that the central issue to the genocide was not the fact that they stole our belongings, but that they raped, killed, massacred our ancestors. gamavor, you'd know what i'm talking about if someone close to you has died / been killed. an example of that would be: if someone gets robbed and killed because he's carrying a laptop with him, would the victim's family want the criminal to pay the amount of money that the laptop was worth? they probably don't care. i wouldn't.

well, ok, i agree that there are a lot of silly topics that could all be put in one thread instead of a dozen threads... so maybe people should start doing that and using the search feature before posting something, to see if it has already been posted before.. as for the introduction threads, it could help to have a Sticky (pinned) thread for introductions. Every forum I go to has that sorta thing. Instead of starting new topics for each newcomer, they can just post and say hi in that thread..

Just inserting some humour into the thread: http://www.conservativetruth.org/humor/vote2004.jpg

So paying money to show that you deeply regret someone's death...? It's actually quite offensive... I would not accept it, no matter what my financial circumstances were/are.

Heh, let's see how jews would answer that had they been told that bygones were bygones and that there'd be no reparation payments for the survivors... >< As for the issue of reparation payments, I am afraid I don't approve of it... Because it brings our ancestors who were massacred down to the level of money and materialism -- the issue of the genocide is far more serious than a bunch of reparation payments and checks wired to survivors.. I don't really care if they give reparation payments or not, as long as they recognise the Armenian Genocide. Am I the only one who's against reparation payments (considering how much time has passed on the genocide and how little effect it would now have..?) Besides, it's like saying "yeah, I killed your grandparents, but here, take this money for reparation."

I wouldn't vote for Kerry. I would've PROBABLY voted for Dean (speaking hypothetically, since I'm not a U.S. citizen anyhow), but if it comes down to Bush vs. Kerry, it's a no-win situation for me. So I wouldn't vote for either.... http://armenians.com/forum/style_images/1/icon8.gif

You know, what's next -- having all new posts pass through a queue for moderators to read and approve???? Those who engage in intelligent conversations/discussions already do so, and those who don't, create a trash forum for them to post in, and you're done. ArmenSarq, and what made you say that in THIS post? Is asking a serious technical question about the board not serious enough for your tastes? And for one, I am yet to see an "intelligent" post by you. So why don't you stop b****ing and start posting some of that intelligent stuff for the lack of which you are complaining? Seriously, lighten up. And for the record, if MJ were so intelligent, he wouldn't have made a pastime out of bashing me in every thread. That goes to show his "class"... What's next, allowing only a select few to post because they are the only ones who engage in anthropological and scientific discussions? Why don't you make a password protected category for those few "intelligent" people then? That way us unintelligent folk can have no way of accessing it and ruining it all for you... lol, ArmenSarq, I am unable to comment about your "description" of character suggestion for lack of words... if you want to check out someone's activity on the forum, check their profile. Instead, what I would suggest is a "rating" feature that would enable all members to rate a threadand give reputation points. But that could get too messy and I'm not about to engage in a popularity contest.. Because, well, as some would say, that's too "gay"... Exactly, sev-mard jan!!

Oh axel, I might be one of "them" too lol. In fact, this entire forum could be a means of gathering info about people.. it's all a conspiracy, I tell you!!!

No it is not. Shallow people are shallow, and stereotyping is shallow. I am not stereotyping stereotypes because stereotypes are stereotypical alread, so it's not stereotypical of me to say what I did. It's just the facts that I'm stating.

What post? I meant, stereotyping all men as shallow.. not the post being shallow lol..

wow.. i couldn't have said it any better lol... are you a member of the WNP by any chance?!?!?!!?!? lol!!! just checking.. o wait, you're in the States though..

It's called stereotyping, Azat. The pastime of shallow people.

oooh, sweet deal. i'm into that censorship/hypocrisy thing lol. will check it out. thanks.

nairi jan, yeah, we're men, but sometimes it hurts, especially if you're in love (yes, there is something called love from a "distance" -- as long as you know a lot about the person, it's no longer a crush, it's more about love...)

Uhuh, and that 1% have control of the nuclear bombs that would kill the 99% in less than 1 second..

No I haven't read it. Is it good?