>> ^NetRunner:
>> ^rottenseed:
I think that it was stupid to bring race into this. Proof that we're not over seeing people for the color of their skin. This is just a petty a cheap way to get a blow in there and perpetuate something that is merely in the mind.
sorry for the downvote, NetRunner, nothing against you. I think you're awesome.

I can see your point -- to truly end racism, race shouldn't matter.
But I don't think that's really the goal. We should see race, see the differences between our backgrounds, and understand how our differing backgrounds color both our viewpoint and the views of others.
We just shouldn't treat people as if their race makes them scary, deficient, or predictable. We can learn not to fear the unknown, and instead find that there is a pleasant discovery to be made in exploring both the similarity and the differences between us.
We should be happy to see the red man get ahead man.

Great, celebrate differences. Go to a multicultural fair at your local community park. The fact remains that in order to fulfill a job requirement, you must maintain the culture of the company you work for, no matter what you're doing at home. In this case the the employee is Obama, and the "company" is the United States of America. I don't care if he's praying facing the East every morning or praying at his bedside every night. It's really none of my business. What is my business, is if he can run this country.

>> ^rottenseed:
I think that it was stupid to bring race into this. Proof that we're not over seeing people for the color of their skin. This is just a petty a cheap way to get a blow in there and perpetuate something that is merely in the mind.
sorry for the downvote, NetRunner, nothing against you. I think you're awesome.


I can see your point -- to truly end racism, race shouldn't matter.

But I don't think that's really the goal. We should see race, see the differences between our backgrounds, and understand how our differing backgrounds color both our viewpoint and the views of others.

We just shouldn't treat people as if their race makes them scary, deficient, or predictable. We can learn not to fear the unknown, and instead find that there is a pleasant discovery to be made in exploring both the similarity and the differences between us.

We should be happy to see the red man get ahead man.

I changed the title sweetheart

In reply to this comment by spoco2:
He isn't a redneck per se, he's an Aussie... sure, our version of a redneck... but still, we'd probably call him a yobbo...

What I love about this, is the common thing of people having bugger all money, living in shitholes, not getting ahead in life... but be buggered if they aren't going to have a huge, stinking great tv! oh, sure, they need to kinda vaguely balance it on a couple of things... but dangit, they can watch their Current Affairs or Today Tonight (two f*ck awful pretend 'news' shows here in Aus) on a big screen.

It makes me sad.

But him hitting his tv with a baseball bat make me smile

But thinking that he will now be an ambassador for my country while this makes the rounds of the interwebs... that makes me sad

He isn't a redneck per se, he's an Aussie... sure, our version of a redneck... but still, we'd probably call him a yobbo...

What I love about this, is the common thing of people having bugger all money, living in shitholes, not getting ahead in life... but be buggered if they aren't going to have a huge, stinking great tv! oh, sure, they need to kinda vaguely balance it on a couple of things... but dangit, they can watch their Current Affairs or Today Tonight (two f*ck awful pretend 'news' shows here in Aus) on a big screen.

It makes me sad.

But him hitting his tv with a baseball bat make me smile

But thinking that he will now be an ambassador for my country while this makes the rounds of the interwebs... that makes me sad

>> ^UsesProzac:
Oh, and thepinky, I downvoted that comment earlier in thread because I think that was a ploy for attention. I think I established earlier that I feel that's your whole intention.
And yeah, I deleted the comment you left on my profile. Are you going to get all up in arms about that, too?


You think that all I want is attention and this is the reason that I comment? I'm sorry, but this is simply not true. I usually comment on videos because I feel strongly about them or I feel that I can add something to the conversation. Sometimes I say things out of anger or frustration (this is what is seen as trolling by some) or I respond waspishly to disrespect, but I do not do these things for attention. I think that you have an attitude about me that causes you to project intentions and attitudes into my words that I never had.

I really wish that you would stop downvoting my comments. At first I didn't care, but now it is somewhat disheartening to go back to nearly every one of my comments to see that it has been downvoted by the same person with no explanation offered. It is especially discouraging to see comments from the last couple of days downvoted because since Deedub posted this thread I have been making an honest effort to be better. Could you at least occassionally tell me the motives behind all of the downvotes? Then perhaps I could do something to change the things that so offend you.

For example, why these?

In reply to this comment by thepinky:
Very nice, Deedub. But no votes, of course.

In reply to this comment by thepinky:
Upvote for the feminism.

At the risk of being melodramatic: When she was talking about the sexism she encounters, I was reminded of some of the comments made to me on the sift when I still had a photo of myself for my avatar. People accused me of "knowing that I was cute" and "using it to get ahead" and "trying to make people like me," etc. Even other women said that if I wanted to be a real feminist I should change my avatar. These comments surprised me because I was using that picture for the simple reason that while I was quickly creating a profile a friend suggested, "Why don't you use such-and-such picture? That would be perfect." (i.e. it was the right size, a closeup, and the facial expression was a good representation of me.) I wasn't trying to use my looks to get anything from anyone, and it is pretty insulting when people assume that a woman is intentionally using her appearance for personal gain. (Well, I suppose we all want to look good for selfish reasons, but you know what I mean, right?)

Maybe only my weird mind sees the parallel. Of course, Lara Logan as a journalist has it much worse than me on VideoSift.


In reply to this comment by thepinky:
Great video. We complain about more than just technology, don't we? Most of the complaining that I've seen in recent years has had something to do with government, war, and economy. When I hear complaining, it seems like Americans grieve about the state of our nation not because we have it all that badly, but because we are concerned about the dying soldiers, the poverty-stricken families, preserving the Earth for the good of our children, etc. That's why it is okay to be dissatisfied with the world. Hopefully it will result in positive change.

In reply to this comment by thepinky:
Everyone likes the idea of representatives who carry out the will of the people until

1. they are one of the minority
2. they are one of the majority, but the representative ignores the majority.

In reply to this comment by thepinky:
Thanks for noticing. I actually have a good sense of humor, but most people are too pissed off while reading my comments to notice.

They seem harmless enough to me.

By the way, I appreciate the upvote, but I thought it was ironic that the only comment of mine that you have upvoted is also one of the few comments I'm actually ashamed of posting.

In reply to this comment by thepinky:

Well, at least your morals don't conflict. (Excuse me while I vomit.) But, seriously, if you don't think infanticide is wrong, then being pro-choice would be a logical choice for you, albeit immoral and repugnant. It's these people who don't see the difference between infanticide and abortion that I don't understand.>>

^Fronzer:
It's arguments like these that make me glad that I'm not only pro-choice, but also don't have any qualms regarding infantcide.
Oddly enough, I'm against the death penalty. Strange how that works, isn't it?


I DO understand the difference between infanticide and abortion very well. I don't know why I wrote that.

Upvote for the feminism.

At the risk of being melodramatic: When she was talking about the sexism she encounters, I was reminded of some of the comments made to me on the sift when I still had a photo of myself for my avatar. People accused me of "knowing that I was cute" and "using it to get ahead" and "trying to make people like me," etc. Even other women said that if I wanted to be a real feminist I should change my avatar. These comments surprised me because I was using that picture for the simple reason that while I was quickly creating a profile a friend suggested, "Why don't you use such-and-such picture? That would be perfect." (i.e. it was the right size, a closeup, and the facial expression was a good representation of me.) I wasn't trying to use my looks to get anything from anyone, and it is pretty insulting when people assume that a woman is intentionally using her appearance for personal gain. (Well, I suppose we all want to look good for selfish reasons, but you know what I mean, right?)

Maybe only my weird mind sees the parallel. Of course, Lara Logan as a journalist has it much worse than me on VideoSift.

Very, very, very true.

And I think the core of the problem is in the middle of his words there, where he says that the core of racism and hate and the like comes from white workers who are working their butts off and not getting ahead. They don't know why, they are not educated enough to see the real issues, and they have the Republican party telling them what they can get angry at, so they do... it doesn't help them in the least, but they feel better for having something to vent at. Problem is, the Republican party does not have their best interests at heart at all, they just want to ensure the rich stay rich, but the weird logic that as long as the rich are ok, they'll employ lots of poor people and make everything ok.

So, great words indeed.

>> ^iaui:

RE: Animal... That's not true. Though his ignorance is a part of it, the biggest reason is that some selfish human thinks she can get ahead in the world by stealing from other people. What you're saying is that it's okay for some destructive person to have stolen $150,000 from him because he's a douchebag. That is incorrect. She was rewarded for hurting someone, and should have been punished.
I agree, he 'got what was coming to him', but it's strange to celebrate crime, don't you think? Crime is the opposite of peace.


I think I've misworded what I was trying to get across, because I largely agree with you. I don't think stealing is right. He was victimized, ironically to be sure, by the very thing he is for yet to what extent some of the blame fell on him for getting into such a situation is still hard to tell. It's not all his fault. He has hopefully learned what it's like to be a victim for a change, as he was pretty much advocating wholesale victimization himself. The person who stole from him, for whatever reasons, is obviously responsible for the theft and no more right then he is. Which of course doesn't mean that there can't be a "moral to the story" or things learned.

Laughing about it after the fact doesn't mean I approve, just that there are far worse things and that irony is delicious.

?!? Wow. QuantumMushroom... seriously if you think the rich fear being taxed more you're obviously not rich. It's funny to read someone's opinion and even though they've typed quite a bit of text and tried to back it up, to immediately define that post as a troll... Well done. You've succeeded.

RE: Animal... That's not true. Though his ignorance is a part of it, the biggest reason is that some selfish human thinks she can get ahead in the world by stealing from other people. What you're saying is that it's okay for some destructive person to have stolen $150,000 from him because he's a douchebag. That is incorrect. She was rewarded for hurting someone, and should have been punished.

I agree, he 'got what was coming to him', but it's strange to celebrate crime, don't you think? Crime is the opposite of peace.

This was a great talk indeed, fascinating stuff.

From looking at some of the comments here there are calls for 'four party systems' and the like...

But you know what, it doesn't work that way.

For instance. In Australia, there are the two really big parties, the Liberals (who are actually conservative) and the Labor Party (Who are the left wingers). But then there are two other pretty large parties, the Greens (very environment focused, very left), and the Democrats (also left, but not as much as the Greens).

Now... the Greens and the Democrats wax and wane in popularity, and win seats and the like, but never really pose a real threat at taking leadership of the country.

And why is that? Because the majority of people are pretty much... average... and they don't give that much thought to the long terms affects of political decisions, they don't think about what's best for the community as a whole, just what they see as best for them.

They don't necessarily think about injustice or the like, just how they can get ahead better.

And thinking of a country run by actual libertarians... would be horrific, as it would by authoritarians. No country should ever be run by a complete, hard line anything really, as you need a bit of it all melded together.

And that's really what the major parties in each country appear to give.

Although I am saddened about how right the middle seems to be moving... more and more right, less and less left. Sad.

I'm a bit bewildered by McCain's response. It seems like he doesn't understand the question, because he answer is so painfully boilerplate. And actually, it would be reasonable if he didn't actually parse the question -- the reporter had a thick accent. But she clarifies her question and asks again, and he gives the same boilerplate. He must have been confused about something.

If he actually understood the question, there's no reason he wouldn't say "Spain is a NATO ally and a friend but I don't get ahead of my self during election time", which is effectively what his press release tried to say after the fact. His boilerplate answer instead implies that Spain is an enemy.

I think he simply didn't understand her. He knows who Zapatero is, though, he's not that dumb.

Yeah but it's common knowledge in the sporting world that there is more money in cheating than there is in preventing cheating. As a result the cheating industry is about 2 years ahead of the people trying to catch the cheaters. I'll only believe he's clean if they hold his samples for four or five years and test them again using the latest methods.

I think Lance Pharmstrong was the real proof of how far you can get ahead of the competition if you have unrestricted access to performance enhancing drugs.

>> ^bamdrew:
They dope-check Phelps daily. They showed his personal schedule yesterday when I was watching the tube.
In reply to this comment by Drachen_Jager:
Is there a performance-enhancing-drugs channel?

There are definitely going to be a handful of cases where it is parents pushing to get benefits, but that's a minority within the disease to the point where I think this guy needs to get diagnosed for some mental illnesses himself!

I do think autism is sad, especially severe cases, and this is just insulting. But while I believe that, I also think it's sad that only the very top percentage of the people that do well ( as in, gifted and talented kids ) get any reward and are actually usually punished for their behavior in trying to get ahead. No one can win with assholes like this.

good point, why do women go through so much trouble to look attractive? society teaches us, i suppose, though I feel good when I look good...so why the hell not?
women often play sexism for all its worth. i have worked with countless women dressed in short skirts with cleavage spilling out, falling all over men just to get ahead and I always chuckle when they can't hack it. these women enrage me far more than any man whose human urges incline him to comment on a hot bod. on the other side of the spectrum of women are those who are always whining about feminism...rise above, ladies, rise above. though it might take a while for things to catch up (ie. the media), for the most part whatever a woman wants she can get.

First, I'm sorry this happened. I hope you are not in too much pain.

CT scans simply don't cost that much. I've had one. Because of a bad house fire and some bad smoke inhalation, I wound up in the hospital here. My ENTIRE bill including a CT of my noggin and tons of other tests was like $2,000. The ambulance trip cost almost as much as the rest of the visit. But for the future, get insurance. The ENTIRE accident would be covered in full if you have decent insurance. In addition, you're lucky you weren't in a room under medical watch for a week, that'd be tens of thousands of dollars. Also consider if you had needed reconstructive surgery, you'd need near $100,000 for that. BTW, if you did ride the ambulance, as great as that is for service, it's about $1,300. =/

I also recommend you call another hospital and get a price for the same tests you got. That might give your argument some more weight. Hospitals hate competing. Get ahead of them and don't let them push you around. They have FAR more options available to you than they say. I've known people who had their entire bill annulled due to their inability to pay it in full. Show an initiative to solve the problem and square the bill, but an inability to do so reasonably. They often fold to that. Of course, if you have the ability to pay for it, you'll have to, but don't overpay for tests.

P.S. Don't forget I'm not an MD. unless you consider my avatar to be a valid doctor, than I might be on weekends.