Post five statements you truly believe but expect most of the board to disagree with.

[Sterling_Archer]

1. Return of the Jedi is awesome, just as good as Star Wars and ESB.
2. Abortion is murder once the fetus has a working brain – around the end of 1st trimester.
3. Drugs shouldn’t be legalized.
4. Cigarettes should be illegal.
5. The majority of modern art is worthless garbage.

[Peanuthead]

1. Islam is evil

2. I don’t like dogs

3. Obama shouldn’t have run for President so soon

4. Neil Young sucks

5. Richard Pryor is not funny

[Dale_Sams]

1. Drunk drivers are stigmatized and punished in a manner not in accordance with their offense. Fine to drive, but you blow an .09? You’re a child molester. Speaking of which…

2. The treatment of sex offenders is cruel and unusual punishment…especially given that in some respects, guys who piss in an alley are lumped in with rapists. (Sex offender list)

3. Why shouldn’t returning veterans be booed? Why should I stand for a guy returning from a tour of duty working for an org. As vile as the US military? That whole defending my freedoms bullshit? I’ll take my chances on a plane if it means not bombing kids or starving a populace. Operation Enduring Freedom my ass.

4. At times, Drudge Report is a much better site for news than more mainstream outlets. There are stories the main sites ignore. “At times”, not usually but at times.

5. Self-proclaimed liberals are often as lacking in compassion and bigoted as those they claim to despise. You wouldn’t believe how many ‘liberals’ have defended the most horrible of Democrat acts simply because they were committed by their ‘team’

[WhyNot]

1. Bill Murray is the second most unfunny person in the history of show business, just after John Belushi.

2. Acupuncture works for many conditions/symptoms, even though its biophysical mechanism of action is unknown.

3. William Faulkner is an objectively terrible writer.

4. Applebee’s food isn’t all that bad. Sometimes, it’s even good. Also, Outback Steakhouse makes a tasty meal.

5. **Skald’s **Hypotheticals are some of the most entertaining and thought provoking threads on the SDMB.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

A lot of mine have already been hit. Let’s see…

1. Global climate change is real but non-anthropogenic; human activities have been at most a trigger for a change that would have occurred within the next few hundred years anyway.

2. By far the worst consequence of GCC is the shift of arable regions across geopolitical boundaries.

3. College sports should be eliminated except as athletic participation at a student level.

4. Traditional individual-hand poker is vastly superior to all community-hand variants.

5. The US is decades out of step with reality for not embracing a moderately socialist governmental model.

[RaftPeople]

@Red_Wiggler

In the American sports leagues, the primary purpose of the franchise is to make money for its owner (claims to the contrary notwithstanding). The leagues limit the number of franchises available to drive demand and give owners tremendous leverage in their negotiations with their host city/region. Pitch in on the facilities or we’ll take our club somewhere else.

This may warm the souls of capitalists everywhere but not mine. The team should be for the fans and by the fans. I don’t care if the product is better under the current system, either. People before products.

You provided an explanation that didn’t exactly articulate where the value/gain is.

Fans want a winner and to a lesser degree want to vote on the team colors. Seems like you want to emphasize the thing that fans in general consider less important, which doesn’t seem like it’s “for the fans”, kind of the opposite.

[Dale_Sams]

6. I disagree with how ‘retard’ and the use of ‘rape’ as a metaphor have been attacked.

A) Why are people associating ‘retard’ with mentally disabled? You think the mentally disabled want to hold onto that claim? Retarded means stupid (usually) not mentally disabled,

B) What’s so precious about rape that it can’t be used as a metaphor? “Dude don’t associate rape with a sports game. Rape is Veddy serious,”

Well so are about a billion other things.

[YogSothoth]

1. Not only is pro-choice great, but abortion is great. Its a simple medical procedure, it should be normalized and used often. It annoys me when people say abortions should be rare. No it shouldn’t, there is hardly ever any complications. I have no problems with a women who has constant abortions, its a form of birth control to me

2. We should ignore dead people’s wills

3. Many entertainment artists are lauded as great only because they did something first, or were the first to popularize it. Greatness in terms of complexity, thoughtfulness, skill, etc. are overrated for bands like the Beatles, old movies such as Citizen Kane, or sports stars like Babe Ruth. If they had started in modern times, they’d just be another group in the crowd

4. Only poetry that rhymes should be considered poetry. Poems that don’t rhyme are not poems and are not difficult to create

5. We should give back a couple of states to the Native Americans

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@YogSosoth

2. We should ignore dead people’s wills

I know I wrote to resist critiques in the OP, and I don’t mean to–but can I ask you to expand on this? How would you dispose of a dead person’s property?

[BrotherCadfael]

I’ll go along with all of these:

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Judy Greer is much better looking than Scarlett Johansson.

@Procrustus

All things being equal, smaller breasts on women are more attractive.

@GusNSpot

The average US citizen today does not accept responsibility nearly as well as the average citizen in 1958.

@Dale_Sams

Drunk drivers are stigmatized and punished in a manner not in accordance with their offense. Fine to drive, but you blow an .09? You’re a child molester.

@Amateur_Barbarian

College sports should be eliminated except as athletic participation at a student level.

[Rachellelogram]

1. Anyone under the age of 18 at the time a crime is committed should be charged as a juvenile because they are, legally, a juvenile. Even if they’re 17 and 364 days old.
2. The sex offenders registry is a horrible idea that needs to be eliminated. Either a lawbreaker has done their time, or they haven’t. If they’re out of jail, then they deserve to live wherever they want without being persecuted by neighbors. If they’re not rehabilitated, keep them in jail.
3. If your kids *never *listen to you, then you probably fucked up pretty bad as a parent.
4. I don’t care about pink slime, meat is meat. And mcnuggets and burgers are fucking delicious.
5. One more, one more… umm… if all the people who claimed gluten “insensitivity” would shut the hell up about it, that would be cool.

[Smapti]

1. Sammy Hagar was better than David Lee Roth.
2. Soda pop should not be served with ice.
3. Total government surveillance is of net benefit to society and is not inherently threatening to civil liberties.
4. The state should actively promote atheism and discourage people from holding religious beliefs.
5. Greedo shot first.

[HeyHomie]

1. Dr. Who is cheesy and dull.
2. The Earth has gone through natural heating and cooling cycles throughout its billions-of-years existence; the idea that human beings can have any effect on climate, on a global scale, transcends credulity.
3. Rush is no better than (and no worse than) any other band of the “Classic Rock” era.
4. I have absolutely no problem with the Duggars; they don’t appear to be harming anyone, so WTF business is it of mine?
5. Government education of children is a detriment to society as a whole; not a benefit. Education can be handled far better by the free market.

[here_and_there]

1. Parents should be punished for the crimes of their young children (up to the age of 12), as if they committed them themselves, not the children. Or at least, be punished as if they persuaded or forced their children to do these acts (don’t know the proper term for that).

2. The** Mars rover thingy** is well made fakery… (my guts are usually right…)

3. The dream of Conquering Space is ^%&%^$#!, because it is simply impossible. A cheap delusion. Humanity is contemned to continue living, in misery, in this planet (Earth itself is actually pretty nice). Some people might make it to the Moon.

4. Slash copied , and then altered a song of the band Flou to create “Always on the run”, without ever giving them credit.

5. Capitalism is coming to its end. Don’t know if its going to be progressive or disastrous.

[Mr.Nylock]

1. Being right about things can be kind of boring
2. All politics is just political theater used to calm the masses
3. Being a nerd is not something to be particularly proud of
   4):smack::p:mad::):rolleyes:;):dubious::(:D:cool::eek:
4. Mr. Nylock is a genius (that’s kind of a lie - its not something I truly believe).

[Lacunae_Matata]

1. College sports should be semi-professional. If “student-athletes” are out there generating millions of dollars for their schools, they should get a stipend, in addition to tuition, room, and board.

2. Seinfeld was never, ever funny or entertaining.

3. Socialize the hell out of the American healthcare system, as one unified system, including the VA.

4. The drinking age in the US should be 16, and the driving age should be 21. We have it backwards.

5. Gun owners should be licensed like drivers - trial period for practice, competency testing, education requirements, renewals every few years including eye exams - and should be required to carry liability insurance to protect and compensate anyone injured if a gun is misused. (And, just like car insurance, which won’t pay for your damages if you wreck out during the commission of a felony, gun liability insurance shouldn’t compensate if the injured party gets popped while playing “ambush the police officers and invade Walmart to start the revolution” or whatever stupid illegal thing one might do with guns.)

[YogSothoth]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

I know I wrote to resist critiques in the OP, and I don’t mean to–but can I ask you to expand on this? How would you dispose of a dead person’s property?

How dare you?! I’m going to report you to the OP!

checks OP

Fuck.

.
.
.

In all seriousness, I’ve been debating whether to create a topic on this for a while but here’s the gist of my belief:

1. As an atheist, I believe nothing happens after death, and a dead body is essentially a shell of flesh and bone. Its property owned by the survivors and should be treated as such. Any superstition regarding its continuation in any form should be discouraged at least and legislated against at most

2. Living people matter. The most worthless living person should be accorded more rights than the most respected dead person

3. Material wealth only benefits the living

Given those premises, I see little good in treating a Will as a sacred document. At death, a person loses all sense of being and will not EVER come back. It does absolutely no harm whatsoever to ignore their last wishes. Nobody ever, from the beginning of time to the end of time, will be directly harmed by ignoring the wishes of the dead. Therefore, to treat Wills and such as law in deference to a dead person who will never exist again in the entirety of space-time is foolish.

Upon death, unless the property is given to a living person, all property defaults to the government. No, I’m not at all afraid that it will make government assassins more popular.

Without a next of kin, there is no more Mr. X. All his stuff belongs to the living, and the living who makes the best claim for it is the government. If there are descendants, then the property is divided to them as normally done. This is to prevent people from killing others for inheritance, so that part I would keep. But all conditions of estate ownership can be ignored if the living proprietors of the estate chooses to. No weird conditions for ownership: if you’re dead, you don’t get to make any decisions, period

It would encourage people to establish clear lines of succession and inheritance. All laws that determine who is the proper owner of an estate is fine and shouldn’t be touched. But suppose grandpa says that antique bracelet goes to his favorite daughter but the wife is determined to be the inheritor. In that case, she gets to decide, not the old coot, because she’s alive and he’s not.

[Ambivalid]

Handicap-accessible restroom stalls should be well adorned with signage instructing patrons that it is only to be used when no other option is available. While I’m sure most people already know this, there are LOTS of people for whom this little reminder would all that was needed to keep them from unnecessarily occupying the handicap-accessible stall when other options were available.

[dalej42]

1. Many women lie about ‘rape.’ They have regrets the following morning.
2. Laws against drunk driving should be weakened. The BAC should be .15 and you need to actually be driving to get a DUI. MADD is a bullshit lobbying group.
3. I’m really sick of all the soldier homecoming videos.
4. Standardized testing is a good thing. No test is perfect, but it has forced many teachers to get away from math appreciation and other such nonsense.
5. Vodka martinis are better than gin martinis.

[panache45]

1. How can anyone be so stupid as to believe we don’t have free will?

2. Conservatives understand economics better than liberals.

3. I wish the 2nd Amendment would be repealed, leading to total prohibition of firearms. Unfortunately, this would lead to a civil war, with one side having all the weapons.

4. Why do we have to take a test to become drivers, but not to become parents?

5. Organ donation should be routine and mandatory.