Thank you for reviving this one. Also, thank you for the promote.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
*promote

So I guess this a particularly egregious use of tasers, in light of all the recent tasing scandals (e.g. "Don't tase me bro!").

I was under the assumption that tasers were to be treated in the same situations as using an actual firearm; it's as deplorable as a police officer pulling a revolver at the dinner table and shooting his spouse.

Just like my parents, telling us the first time they snogged at the dinner table.

I would like to see a *.xxx top level domain, though.

That would help filter the porn a lot. It could be voluntary and I'll bet 95% of the pornographers would use it. I don't know why they haven't done it yet. I think it would solve a lot of problems with people stumbling upon porno pages unintentionally.

There is this site that scrapes the last images uploaded to Live Journal. I used to love it, but now some idiots are uploading porn to LJ all the time and it's really taken a lot of the fun out of it. It used to be a kind of snapshot at the general web gestalt, but it's become just another seedy spammers playground.

I am a porn advocate, in that I don't think it should be illegal and I think people deserve their privacy, but I am for keeping it in its place, which is to say keep it in the bedroom and off the dinner table.

>> ^Farhad2000:
If you smoke or drink anything in front of your kid you are unfit to be a parent. That exists even without MJ legalization. Marine your argument is weak founded.


So if I drink a glass of wine at the dinner table while my wife and kids eat with me, my kids should be taken to a foster home?

Hmmmm . . . ‘Sure are a bunch of folks obsessed with rank around here. Need I remind you of another definition of “rank” which reads “offensive in odor."

*sprays Lysol, one can in each hand*

Now I turn to my copy of Dr. Ernest Drake’s Dragonology: the Complete Book of Dragons. I found a map of the world that identifies the various dragon and serpent species and their lands of origin. Focusing on North America I found the American ampithere (Draco americanus tex). This particular species is from the prairie and steppe regions of the continent. It is typically covered in green fur, has no legs and has moth-like wings. It hunts buffalo and other large mammals. A full grown adult is typically 45 feet long and five to ten feet high. It will attack with flaming breath, tail lashing and constriction. The expected lifespan of this kind of dragon is 250 years.


Now I will focus upon our fire-breathing dragon-avatared sifter Zifnab. Apparently he’s only given us part of his sordid story. Several of his disgruntled royal servants have come forth since a “flame ‘n’ tell” book project has promised large sums of money. The book is due out this fall.

Zifnab’s personal chef has shed some light on Zifnab’s fixation with pepper. Unfortunately for the chef, all dishes become blackened at the royal dinner table. This most probably explains Zifnab’s reluctance to consume his ice cream turned soup. Sometimes the chef will cater to Zifnab’s love of strawberries by making Strawberries Flambé.

His personal valet has yet to grow back his eyebrows. According to the valet, Zifnab’s current baldness is the result of a recent hay fever attack. The royal tailor has given up on creating colorful royal vestments. Instead he simply sticks to black materials so that scorched spots are not as noticeable.

One anonymous source did send me a YouTube video to explain the pelt known as Fred. This individual told me that I would understand Fred’s fate better once I had watched it.

The fire department no longer responds to emergency calls from Zifnab’s castle.

Thus I will conclude here. I wouldn’t want this to just DRAG ON . . .

This video is a shorter dupe of a video that has already been sifted. The original still works.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Donnie-Darko-Dinner-Table

*discard

My friend keeps asking me why I don't save my money (I don't even have a bank account.) I tell her that I don't need to save a lot of money, because (as your friend said), what am I going to do with it while it's just sitting in the bank? Her answer was this:

"What if you hurt yourself at work? You have no health insurance, and an injury would take away your financial security for years to come."

And that's where I would like to interject my hatred for this country and its healthcare system. People want lower taxes, and they want a well-maintained healthcare system, as you said. But because they aren't willing to pay taxes for healthcare, it isn't national. And yet, they're perfectly willing to spend billions of dollars on our military. And if you say a derogatory comment about that military, soldiers' families and general "patriotic" Americans will rip your face off. Especially today, of all days. I'm afraid to go outside today, because I don't want to see everybody clad in our flag's colors. But anyway...

So I'm supposed to save my money in case I am hurt, when I'd rather have paid that money earlier to taxes that fund a national health system. However, it is odd where my tax dollars go. True, my federal money goes to the war machine, but that's about 10 dollars every two weeks. The two major tax burdens in this country are Social Security and Medicare, or "I'm going to help old people and poor, sick people." And that idea is great, except those two programs are sinking fast. I pay about 150 dollars every two weeks for those programs, and they're failing miserably. And they're programs that I don't receive if I am hurt. So it's not like I'm paying for myself. I'm paying for the elderly and the ill, but when it comes time for me to break my leg, I'm forced to pay for my own medical bills. My head hurts now. I hope it's not a tumor, because then I'm screwed.

--
I expected the answer that you gave me. It doesn't surprise me that some countries with higher taxes can feel more communal than my country. I feel so alienated here, and I've lived here for my entire life. The only days people feel communal are days like today, when we're supposed to feel like a big, happy family. But we're that family who acts cordial at the Thanksgiving dinner table, then an hour later we're fighting over the TV remote control.

I'm actually not against the level of taxes that are levied in this country. I just hate the way they're spent. If we could stop paying for the war machine, maybe we'd progress further and the world wouldn't have a reason to hate us so much anymore.

How does one become a citizen of Sweden, anyway?

In reply to this comment by Kreegath:
Haven't really had time to think this through, so you'll have to take what I say with a grain of salt. Been trying to come up with some stuff Sweden's doing better than the US and why, and as it stands we'd both agree I think that the US is doing slightly worse in education at the moment.
This is more of a rant than a coherent argument, but let's see where it goes.

I think it could very well boil down to taxes, both when it comes to having them and the general mentality among citizens about paying them.
There seems to be a problem in the US with the second issue, where (judging from online news videos) people appear to have great difficulty connecting sociopolitical issues with each other and applying them in real life.
Taxes and welfare issues in particular, to take an example for discussion's sake. To tie back to Sweden, it's probably safe to say that nobody really enjoys paying taxes like they would enjoy going to the movies or going out for dinner, but the fundamental understanding that the quality of our social benefits, schooling, infrastructure and healthcare are directly connected to the amount of cash the government takes makes it a natural thing in the public mind. The discussion isn't whether we should have them or not, but rather what education and healthcare standards we can live with before starting to discuss lowering taxes.
To tie back even further, to a few posts back when we talked about abortion, there seems to be a similar detachment from the issues of how the government is supposed to help take care of all the babies that the people who are against abortion want to save, when many of the same people are for lower taxes and taxcuts to a system which doesn't even have national healthcare, where the vast majority of cash goes to the military and where the military is the only branch the tax cuts won't ever touch. It doesn't make any sense, but when you look at the status of some states and the policies they're pursuing, it's becoming more clear that increasing taxcuts and lower taxes are linked to the failing public school system, crumbling infrastructure and lack of public healthcare. Kind of like wanting to have the cake and eat it up too, where people don't want to pay for the state/federal service but still expect it to maintain its quality.
In that aspect I think Sweden's doing much better than the US. Even though people on a personal level probably don't feel any different towards each other in respective country, I think Swedes as a community feel more strongly connected and are more focused on helping each other out than hoarding personal fortunes.

After all, even if I didn't have any kids or intend to get any, there'd still be several good reasons for me to pay for our public education and feel great about it. I'd know people with kids, who'd get kids or who knew people with kids, and I'd also like to be able to walk the streets at night without having to fear for my life.
A friend of mine who works at an eldercare clinic said, when asked about this, "I'm only sitting at home with my comp six days a week except for saturdays when I go out and party. What am I supposed to do with all of my salary?"

In reply to this comment by thinker247:
I was hoping you'd raise some issue about which I could argue, but I agree with you completely. Damnit. ha!

So what is your opinion of Sweden versus America? I always see Sweden at the top of the list when it comes to social issues, and I'm jealous. Are the lists an accurate portrayal of Swedish society?

Zor, I seriously doubt it. Chamberlain giving away half of Czechoslovakia, and then brandishing a signed agreement from Hitler and proclaiming that he had "secured peace for our time" is basic ninth grade history here in Ontario. It's the type of basic WWII fact all the grown-ups surrounding the young Chris Matthews would have been railing about incessantly at the dinner table for the twenty years following the war.

wow Conan really laid into him there. Also if you dont find Conan's comments at the dinner table to be hilarious you just might be Jordan Schlansky. :-D

This reminds me of my dad around the dinner table growing up. I'm not exaggerating either.

Sit yourself down to the partisan politics dinner table.. for you are being served!



Divide and conquer.

I don´t have the faintest idea, but it seems to be true (that they complained) http://www.brandrepublic.com/login/News/799064/

Its funny that the problem wasn´t that the dogs were treated badly, just that it was "humiliating". Its beyond me. Their next target is probably the "degrading and demeaning" use of leashes. Or dinner table segregation.

From their website:
Every year, hundreds of professional beekeepers forklift their wooden hives onto 18-wheel semis, strap down the loads, and head out on the highway.

Across the country - from the Imperial Valley in California to the Florida panhandle and the hills of Maine – farmers rely on honeybees to pollinate crops worth $15 billion every year.

But parasites, pesticides, and modern agricultural practices are making it harder and harder for beekeepers to keep their bees alive, and the crisis could affect what shows up on all of our dinner tables.

ohhh....choggie was slow to the dinner table again.....

farhad, yer such a nice guy...


Walton
Dear Margaret: My ship picked up this guy. He RULES.

Frankenstein
I discovered the secret of life, and everyone died. (dies)

Frankenstein's Monster
Inexplicably, I have become suicidal. (jumps out a window)
THE END