The only unifying element the Teabaggers seem to have is anger. They have no clear message, no unified agenda...just anger. As individuals they don't even seem to know why they're angry. That's why they're so easily influenced by the Becks and O'Reillys, because those people can provide them an outlet for all that fear and disappointment life has left them holding.

It's the gu'mint
It's the socialist/fascist/communist lib'rals
Gum'mints comin' to tik 'ur guuuuuns...

Whatever resonates for each individual becomes the focus of their anger within the Teabagger movement. Then they get used by the leaders of that movement as pawns for their corporate agenda. The Teabag elite don't care about what really effects the lives of the people they've conned into their movement. The members are just headcount to validate their astro-turf agenda.

If I had to make a prediction I'd say you're going to witness a power struggle within the movement very soon. Individuals are going to start a tug-of-war to get control of the movement to set the agenda. However, it's unlikely the movement can survive with an actual platform because that would force the pawns to focus their anger on causes they may not support. The Teabag movement only survives if it's amorphus and ill defined. A collective of angry individuals too cowardly to face the real source of their anger.

Perhaps about the time someone started thinking that astro-turf videos backed by huge corporations designed to block against against their own threatened abuses, were libertarian. The confusion appears to me to be primarily driven by self-professed libertarians, who somehow always seem to come down on the side of business (big or small), no matter how egregious their behavior might be.

As long as you hold the "government can do no right" point of view and refuse to admit any other possibility, you can't really expect other people to honor, or even necessarily perceive, the subtle nuances -you- think are important.

>> ^blankfist:
When did the terms 'capitalism' and 'free market' become conflated with 'corporatism'.
I had a great conversation last night with my good friend and a self-proclaimed hardcore Marxist about this very thing. Somewhere and somehow someone wanted to paint those terms with the same broad stroking brush. And a number of people on here use them interchangeably and think pointing out differences in them is just arguing semantics.
Capitalism is working from capital (savings). That's it. Our current US system is one based on debt and credit, and therefore not working from savings, and therefore cannot be capitalism.
Free market is a mutually beneficial agreement among private parties without coercion. That's it. There are no private agreements that do not require government oversight. None in business, anyhow.
Corporatism is a government created business cooperation. It has nothing to do with free markets and capitalism. Nothing. A corporation may work from capital or may want to create mutually beneficial agreements, but correlation is not conflation.
As @<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.videosift.com/member/imstellar28" title="member since April 2nd, 2007" class="profilelink">imstellar28 said: Corporatism != capitalism.

>> ^gwiz665:
My point is still this, if you define it, we can disprove it. If the definition is "God is the creator of the universe" then I can only respond, there has not been produce any credible evidence to that claim yet. Big Bang is more likely, given the amount of evidence. (I'm not too sure about that, I'm not an astro-physicist.)


I think we generally agree, but we're talking about two different levels of creation. You claim that the Big Bang is more likely than creation, but I would have to ask "is it impossible that the Big Bang was initiated by a previous intelligence?" I'm not concerned with specific religions.

I just feel that any assertion that there is no creator is as baseless as the claim that there is one. I can't even see a way to assign probabilities. The Big Bang could have been engineered, or we could be living in a computer simulation. Just because these are possible doesn't mean that I think they are supported or necessarily true. They're just possibilities.

I consider myself an atheist (or maybe a rationalist). My general habit is to constantly strive to disprove my own views, so anything that isn't supported tends to get thrown out. Either way, I enjoy the discussion. =)

NobleOne: Please do. I welcome a good rebuttal. Your tone indicates that you see atheism as a bad thing "blackness at the end of the tunnel", I completely disagree. There is no tunnel, there is no blackness. Live while you can, don't hope for an afterlife, because it's probably not there.

Rasch: I think you'll find it's called patronising. And I don't really care.

Psychologic:
"Science can disprove religious claims about the physical world (young earth, etc), but we currently do not have any methods for determining whether or not our existence was created."
And? The fact that we cannot test for it, does not mean that there is a God hiding in there. There could be anything where we can't test. Until we can perform some sort of analysis, there is nothing gained from injecting anything there.

"There's no evidence that supports the idea that our existence was created, and hence no reason to actively believe that it was. However, that does not mean that the evidence points away from that possibility. There are plenty of situations that could both involve a creator and fit into our current scientific understanding."
Ah, that is true. There is no directly evidence against a creator creating the universe, but this is only the latest god in the gaps. The fact that nothing points in the other direction does have some merit, but of course cannot absolutely disprove something. You can never disprove something. You can only look at the evidence and judge from that.

There have been plenty of evidence against the Christian God(s), because he keeps receding every time we look for him. My point is still this, if you define it, we can disprove it. If the definition is "God is the creator of the universe" then I can only respond, there has not been produce any credible evidence to that claim yet. Big Bang is more likely, given the amount of evidence. (I'm not too sure about that, I'm not an astro-physicist.)

Anime films I've watched include:
Ghost in the Shell: Reasonably entertaining back when I watched it many moons ago
Princess Mononoke: It was so hyped by a co-worker a number of years back... watched it, was very bored by it
Ninja Scroll: Pretty sure I watched this one way back, was ok I think... nothing amazing
An Episode of Cowboy Bebop: Yup...

And a host of other ones I have seen portions of, or started to watch and couldn't make it very far through. And also all the ones I used to watch as a kid (Astro boy, Star Blazers etc.), and I enjoyed them when I was pre teen, but they were very poorly animated.

You'll probably write me off as some mainstream, big budget loving waste of space who wouldn't watch a foreign language film if he was paid to... but you'd discover that was patently false (not to say I don't enjoy big budget films too).

I just don't like Anime. Fine if you do, but if you try to justify a movie with animals using their ballsacks as parachutes and landing devices as something that's relevant to folklore and mythology, sorry, you lose me.

Okay, I've been looking at these, and my official position is that the Republicans have been punk'd. Some liberal agent provocateur has gotten into their system and planted this blatantly absurd idea in their collective consciousness and rallied them to follow it. The GOP has no command and control structure (thanks Mr. Steel) so they can't vet these things before they take on a life of their own. The result is that we see the wingnutiest of the right wing base eat up tons of air time looking like fools talking about how they are going to teabag the president.

This reminds me of PUMA, are the people taking part in these events even Republicans? Has the GOP been astro-turfed?

I don't think it's a good idea at all from a finance point of view.

The problem with games is that, the good ones anyway, involve you playing for some time. Thereby less pageviews, thereby less revenue. Plus there's less to discuss about a game vs a video.

Videos are generally a few minutes of watching followed by a whole heap of watching. Games would be a whole lot of playing with a little discussion past 'I just got 40 gazillion points on astro babe humpers!'

Ah yeah
It's the fat joint right here
Here we...
This joint right here is dedicated to
Well, I'm not malicious
But all those whose words vicious
Talkin behind the back
This shit is wack
Here we go
You need to walk like a duck (walk like a duck)
Walk like a duck (walk like a duck)
You need to walk like a duck (walk like a duck)
Say what? (Like a muthafuckin duck!)
You need to walk like a duck (walk like a duck)
Walk like a duck (walk like a duck)
You need to walk like a duck (walk like a duck)
Yo Jorge, how do ducks walk?
Check it

Kurious was never one for ring around
The rosie, not Josey, but I mosey on down
To a meadow where the flowers stay wilted
So what I ain't hit as many skins as Wilt the Stilt did
It's like that, never labelled a wack
And yo, they choose behind my back to do the Duckville quack
My style is cool, sweet like a ???
But still (what?) you gossip like a bitch
Mental stimulation when I'm rollin with the rat pack
If you're frontin rock, get the doodoo out your knap sack
The fat track provided by the Beat' got you goin
'nuts kickin butts, underneath be when I'm flowin
I'm knowin, you frontin-ass ducks is gettin smeared
My crew rolls thick like a hillbilly's beard
Constipated Monkeys gettin to the point quick
Like my man Apache said: yo, get off (MY DICK!)

It's like that and - ah
Didn't go to Georgia, took the train to Alabama
On the midnight tip like Gladys Knight and the Pips
My sole intention bein to move the marrow in your hips
Family confusion's what motivates the rhymer
Got an aunt named Tom, uncle named Jemima
Kurious Jorge on the welfare line
Plus American Airline never prepared mine
Ears for the poppin, hands for the clappin
If I sense turbulence, commence to see the captain
Two strikes, your motion got a notion of funk
I must prescribe a mint (why?) cause your breath stunk
(Ill) I paid the bills, sent a check to my mama
If you try to wreck my mind, there's mad drama
I'ma deliver one worm for the hawk
Eliminatin quacks on the duck walk

I drop limes like you drop mescaline
Tabs on my tongue as I swung from the swing
And came up with that thing they call 'Walk Like a Duck'
Quite frankly don't give a fuck
Mama raised me humble, so I never ever label
Myself as the best, cause some of the rest got more flavor
But that's okay, beyond a shadow of a doubt
I got skills, I ain't conceited, but still might take you out
Half Puertorican, half Cuban, not Fidel
Castro, like an astro you know I excel
Time to sell mad units, scratchin on my pubics
Complicate confusion like a ?Nick Kubrick? on a Rubik
Who kicks the bubbles that allow the truth to surface?
I never will delete, so I don't defeat the purpose
Slapshot the gift like a hockey puck
Ha-ha, you fuckin duck

the editing in this video was exceptionally annoying. it doesn't give you enough of a context from the astro boy clips to understand the comparison fully.

I totally got a Jetson's vibe from this! Go Astro! Go!

In other news, 95% of astro-physicists found to be cracker ass motherfuckers!

Ahh yes, giant battleships with enormous guns in space.

As with most of this stuff I watched as a kid (Astro Boy, Voltron etc.) the animation really is shite... let's move as LITTLE as we can... come on... just a tinsy, tiny bit people... there we go, that was 10 minutes of screen time in just 5 minutes of work... keep it up!

As time rolls foward, the more money these corporations pump into pseudo-science bullshit to stem the flow of renewable, sustainable energy forms from taking foot, the more emboldened it makes those who are in the business of ridding humanity from its oil/coal dependancy.

Non-energy corporations are waking up to the fact that once initial investment capital has been paid off from an economical energy source, the fuel for the energy thereafter is 100% free, and virtually unlimited, with extremly low maintenance and upkeep costs. Long term, switching over is far cheaper than keeping the status quo.

So to all those asswipes who think we have no control over global warming, who have no idea about the physics thats seated behind the theory of global warming (which by the way, in scientific nomenclature, a 'theory' is the highest level of prestige awarded to human understanding, theories explain facts under observable and crucifiable situations), who have had no formal education in even physics 101 where thermal dynamics is taught, who have never read a book in their lives, and have a slippery, astro-glide encased grasp on any concept of economics, I give you, a big shut the fuck up, sit down, and accept that renewables are the way of the future, wether you fucking like it or not.

So sick and tired of these stall tactics that are continually pushed in the face of humanity for no other reason than to promote corporate greed, all at the expense of the humanity they sell their shit to.

/rant

To appeal to the corporate, democratic, industrialised capitalists out there still on the fence about global warming and our need to act or not. Put the whole debate out of your head, and think from your hip-pocket.

Imagine a world where the energy required to run everything in your house, is literally, free.
It is uninterrupted, enviornmentally friendly, unlimited, free energy.

From a business point of view, even if this energy, after investment capital was paid off (read: wind, concentrated solar thermal, geo-thermal or wave power), was sold for 3c/kwHr, you would still be making a huge proffit. And, worst case scenario on maintaining status quo, you would be save near total annihilation of the human race.

There is no sane argument against going to electrical cars, powered up by a grid that sources it energy from 100% renewable and sustainable energy, anyone who claims otherwise is a fruitcake.

Not a very informative on the birth of our solar system. This vid makes it seem like its a mystery where the elements come from... not elaborating on how fusion creates helium from hydrogen and heavier elements as it goes along, I'm sure that scientist was about to explain it before the bullshit editting and consumerism stepped in.

http://www.astro.ubc.ca/~scharein/a311/Sim.html#Blackbody
found this cool site animating different reactions in the sun.

I'm into Amateur Astronomy. If ANYTHING is on 'this side' of the moon. It will be instantly detected. Check this out. This image is the type of high resolution shot one can achieve with BACKYARD equipment.

http://higginsandsons.com/astro/images/Moretus-mosaic-08-03-07.jpg

Check that resolution out. If there was any base or complex. It would stand out like a sore thumb. Make sure to click on the image to zoom it into its full resolution.

There is no doubt that the US govt wants a moon base. Whether it currently exists or will exist in the future. But there is no 'alien' base. Japan has a probe in orbit of the moon now. China is getting into it as well. Any 'secret' base certainly wouldn't remain secret for too long.

Still, such videos are quite humorous.