The well-funded campaign to cast doubt on climate change science has very little imagination. They simply accuse scientists of what they do - distorting data for financial gain to please some powerful interests. The fossil fuel industry does this every day. The expanding global community of scientists, in many disciplines, with ~100,000 research projects, does not. The effects of climate change are already being felt. For example, tens of thousands are dying in Bangladesh from increased flooding and storms. The difference now is that leaders in Bangladesh, and people around the world, are blaming this on the history of greenhouse gas emissions - dominated by the US. (China is a new contributor, most of the historical emissions have come from the US.) Bangladesh is now expecting numbers of climate refugees in the 10s of millions in coming decades. Around the world, the refugee crisis could easily exceed that of the 50M during WWII. And they will know who to blame.

What a clusterfuck... a mob of poorly trained, not even remotely motivated, without any discipline (and in some cases even common sense), and to top it all, high on drugs!

Wonderful, and so uplifting.

I agree with you, although my perspective has been changed recently due to the relationship I'm in. Never underestimate the power of love to make a parent completely blind and oblivious to the bad things their children do. Especially single mothers with strong maternal feelings who believe they're doing what's best for their child by never being critical of them...

On the plus side I've been experimenting with methods of child discipline, my partner now believes I've been studying parenting books since I'm getting good results, but in reality I've just been indulging my inner-scientist and figuring out what works best without resorting to a good beating

Good one, not perfection but if you hear Geddys solo tracks from the record and lately from a live, it's about that. Of course what makes it different is that Geddy is there walking and jumping, waving to the crowds AND doing this. It's quite surreal when you know how much talent there is when he takes these licks so effortlessly. And his right hand technique... It looks like a muddly mess and yet hits just the right strings at the right time. Farcry from disciplined action you see this fine lady doing in this video.

ChaosE - This may be a matter of semantics and definitions. Depending on how you define the terms, I agree with your point.

And, in moral philosophy, if it is not your _choice_, it is not an ethical choice. Sorry if this is philosophical bullshit, but think about it: your "not killing someone" because you don't have the motivation or means is not a virtuous choice, it is simply not NOT an unethical one. It is the lack of a negative, not the presence of a positive. Virtue is about our choices, not our defaults.

Virtue is like building a muscle. The virtue is demonstrated/evidenced in building my strength (taking the time and focus to work out and be disciplined), not in the fact that I am strong. If I stop working out, my muscle will decay.

This is like virtue. In a strange way, once we have habituated a virtuous choice to routine/automatic mode, it is no longer a virtuous choice. It was virtuous to build the habit, but it is not virtuous when it is automatic.

Again, it is philosophical quibbling/definitions, but it points to a real distinction that matters in our moment by moment experience. As moral philosophers put it, morality is about what you do in the face of difficulty and temptation, not when things are automatic. It is easy to be nice to people when life is going great for you. It is hard to be nice to others when things are stressful and falling apart. THAT is where the rubber of morality meets the road of reality/daily life. That is where virtue shows up (or doesn't).

I am married and monogamy is part of my commitment. If no other woman would deign to sleep with me, my not sleeping with them is no indication of my virtue. It is only in the face of propositions to which I say "no" that I am exercising the virtue of fidelity.

In this sense, the more we are responsible for our own choices, the more those choice CAN be virtuous and BUILD our virtuous character. In contrast, when other people make our choices for us, we neither act virtuously nor build virtuous character.

I am sure this is true in your own life. If you donate time/money/effort to a charitable cause, it impacts you personally and powerfully. When the government takes taxes from your paycheck to pay for social programs, it is impersonal and has virtually zero impact on your character.

Or, that is one way of looking at it - which the video is all about.

I feel like I can take a middleground on the whole tailgating issue, as a commuting biker I tend to experience both ends of the equation quite regularly and IMHO the problem lies in the extremes in attitude.

On the one hand if you drive/ride a lot and have good confidence in the vehicle and roadcraft in general (frequently the case with professional van and truck divers) it can be extremely frustrating when people don't practice good lane and speed discipline. I don't mean people maintaining a decent pace (it's your problem if you want to go faster than posted limits and they don't) I mean people either:
A. Driving below the posted limit (within reason)
B. Accelerating to speed absurdly slowly or slowing to 2mph to take a corner you could hit at 10-20 comfortably
C. Hogging the outside/passing lane because THEY are going as fast as THEY want to go so why should they speed up or slow down to get out of everybodys way? (C**TS!)

Under the above circumstances I understand why people end up tailgating, in fact I think it happens without much of a conscious effort most of the time. They are going so far below the pace the seems reasonable that you close the gap without realising. Getting to this stage is understandable/inevitable, it's what you do next that defines you as a responsible road user:

A responsible driver/rider at this point backs off, the point has already been made to the driver in front. They know they are going slower than you want to go or that you want to pass in the passing lane they are hogging. Sitting on their bumper is not only dangerous to both of you but it's obnoxious and likely to be counter productive. When you see someone driving too close your natural response is to slow down for safety or simply as a fuck you to the other guy. Even if you were about to get out of their way you might change your mind and think "screw you buddy I got the hint but now your just being rude".

When I back away I find people let me through far more often, wheras in the past when i've just tail gated them like a dick it's got me nothing but two angry motorists (and a hugely elevated chance of an incident). The lorry driver could have left a bigger gap but it didn't look that unreasonable (plus lorries have a hard time gaining speed and are naturally inclined (and taught) to preserve it where possible).

It might not be that unfair to suggest he was antagonising the car infront, but it pales into insignificance compared to...

.....the other side of the equation (which blue peugeot falls squarely into) who are generally IMHO far worse/more dangerous. The one's that adopt an imperious and selfish attitude to speed and road position. "I'm going as fast as I want to go and there's car on the inside that I'll pass in about 30seconds so I'm just going to sit in the outside lane going 2mph faster than slow lane traffic, because why should I have to go to the trouble of changing lanes to let someone else go faster than I want to go!"

Touching the brakes to give a tailgater a shock done properly is fine (I might even go so far as to recommend it) but holy shit! I think it'd be dangerous to scrub more than 1 or 2mph never mind an illegal stop on a dual carageway. Even if there was a mechanical reason for stopping it's still illegal to stop there without pulling off to the side.

Either way 45k in damages feels like pretty just deserts. I dearly hope he got at least a 12 month ban to boot. There's slipping up and then there's premeditated dangerous driving!

I usually try to see things from everybody's perspective when it comes to stuff like this but the Peugot driver is so disproportionately stupid and reckless than I can't really even try to defend him/her. I get why they might have been annoyed but that all became irrelevant the moment they tried to cause an accident!

*backup=[...snipped...]


Her name is Yoshimi
she's a black belt in karate
working for the city
she has to discipline her body

'Cause she knows that
it's demanding
to defeat those evil machines
I know she can beat them

Oh Yoshimi, they don't believe me
but you won't let those robots eat me
Yoshimi, they don't believe me
but you won't let those robots defeat me

Those evil-natured robots
they're programmed to destroy us
she's gotta be strong to fight them
so she's taking lots of vitamins

'Cause she knows that
it'd be tragic
if those evil robots win
I know she can beat them

Oh Yoshimi, they don't believe me
but you won't let those robots defeat me
Yoshimi, they don't believe me
but you won't let those robots eat me

Yoshimi

'Cause she knows that
it'd be tragic
if those evil robots win
I know she can beat them

Oh Yoshimi, they don't believe me
but you won't let those robots defeat me
Yoshimi, they don't believe me
but you won't let those robots defeat me

Oh Yoshimi, they don't believe me
but you won't let those robots eat me
Yoshimi, they don't believe me
but you won't let those robots eat me

Yoshimi

It's cute, but it would be for everyone's benefit if that dog was more disciplined. I'm not sure the dog was too far from nipping the guy at around the minute mark.

Yeah well, a handful of cunts on this site fucked me into a corner because of their petty bullshit and dysfunction-Glad to know they're in their holes as well and would love to be able to engage them or embrace them, whichever they chose.
Pretty sure it was my tenacity and commitment to righteous action in the face of intolerant assholes who have done very little work on themselves and haven't the slightest clue who they really are that PROMPTED the creation of the invocations described.

Trolls hide under bridges, the righteous trot right the fuck across that bitch.

Also quite certain that for all their work to see me burn in hell, all it netted them was stigmatization and self-immolation once the smoke cleared.
Some folks brains start to burn when have to face the bullshit they've packed it with through years of disciplined unconsciousness.

The petty cop thugs who laughed and giggled (literally) as they served me a felony 3...Karma will take care of them, I pray for their enlightenment.

Blaines a talented creature but what he's doing here is pretty unimpressive if it's sticking stuff through a piercing created through discipline. My roommate use to wow party crowds by sticking knitting needles through 2 different parts on his arm. I would imagine that someone could work a large needle between vital places in a hand without damaging tissue too much. OR, it could be the ol', 'hatpin through-the-arm' illusion?? Ooooohh, spooooky!

Starting to really despise Will Smith..wish he'd take him and his kids out of the media loop with the money and run.

Agreed, this guys attitude is terrible.
Fact is, boxers generally ARE difficult to deal with. They're generally fit, and more importantly they can usually take a hit far better than a lot of other martial artists.

Which is why humility is important. Even in a dojo, you don't necessarily know the life experience of your opponent. They might have just walked in the door and be a complete noob in your art, but they may have also trained for years in another discipline. Courtesy and respect go a long way.

Yeah, if you check the wikipedia article linked above, it describes Tricking as "a type of acrobatics derived from martial arts such as sport karate incorporating techniques found in gymnastics, break dancing, and similar disciplines."

So even the (semi) official description acknowledges that it's more acrobatics than martial arts.

A little background: the Concord Blue Devils is a Drum and Bugle Corps, which is like a marching band for athletes and masochists. They do field show competitions like the halftime marching band shows you've seen at football games, but unlike school marching bands, they have (usually) 64 horns, 24 drums, 24 color guard and an almost militaristic training regimen. They rehearse weekly throughout the year and then train and compete on the road all summer, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, split between strength, calisthenics, music and marching. That's how they build their discipline and cohesion. I marched with their main competitor in the late 90s.

I'm most amazed by the amount of control this conductor has over his band and their discipline to follow his direction so closely.

Very impressive.

Yeah there's tons of very intelligent people throughout history who were wrong about tons of stuff, but were still prolific and jumped forward thought and disciplines further than others before them.

Marx is a very intelligent person and you're stupid to ignore people like him outright.