Grip tape anyone??

Hedges on Truthdig:

I finished my book with a deep dislike for megachurch pastors who, like Trump, manipulate despair to achieve power and wealth. I see the Christian right as a serious threat to an open society. But I do not hate those who desperately cling to this emotional life raft, even as they spew racist venom. Their conclusion that minorities, undocumented workers or Muslims are responsible for their impoverishment is part of the retreat into fantasy. The only way we will blunt this racism and hatred and allow them to free themselves from the grip of magical thinking is by providing jobs that offer adequate incomes and economic stability and by restoring their communities and the primacy of the common good. Any other approach will fail. We will not argue or scold them out of their beliefs. These people are emotionally incapable of coping with the world as it is. If we demonize them we demonize ourselves.

They said it wasn't a gateway drug
My homie was takin' subs and he ain't wake up
The whole while, these billionaires, they kicked up
Paying out congress so we take their drugs
Murderers who will never face the judge
And we dancin' to a song about our face goin' numb
But I seen homies turn grey, noses draining blood
I could've been gone, off 30's, faded in that tub
That's Prince, Michael and Whitney, that's Amy, Ledger and Pimp C
That's Yams, that's DJ A.M
God damn they're making a killing
Now it's getting attention cause Sara, Katey and Billy
But this shit's been going on from Seattle out to South Philly
It just moved out about the city
And spread out to the 'burbs
Now it's everybody's problem, got a nation on the verge
Take Activis off the market, jack the price up on the syrup
But Purdue Pharma's 'bout to move that work

My drug dealer was a doctor, doctor
Had the plug from Big Pharma, Pharma
He said that he would heal me, heal me
But he only gave me problems, problems
My drug dealer was a doctor, doctor
Had the plug from Big Pharma, Pharma
I think he trying to kill me, kill me
He tried to kill me for a dollar, dollar

And these devils they keep on talkin' to me
They screamin', "Open the bottle," I wanna be at peace
My hand is gripping that throttle, I'm running out of speed
Try to close my eyes but I keep sweatin' through these sheets, through these sheets
Four horseman, they won't let me forget
I wanna forge a prescription, 'cause, doctor, I need some more of it
When Morphine and heroin is more your budget
I said I'd never use a needle, but sure, fuck it
I'm caught up, I'm on one, I'm nauseous
No options, exhausted
This is not what I started
Walkin' carcass, I lost everything I wanted
My blinds drawn, too gone to leave this apartment

My drug dealer was a doctor, doctor
Had the plug from Big Pharma, Pharma
He said that he would heal me, heal me
But he only gave me problems, problems
My drug dealer was a doctor, doctor
Had the plug from Big Pharma, Pharma
I think he trying to kill me, kill me
He tried to kill me for a dollar, dollar

More, more, more
Re-up, re-up

Death certificate signed the prenup
Ain't no coming back from this percocet
Actavis, ambien, adderral, xanax binge
Best friends with the thing that's killing me
Enemies with my best friend, there's no healing me
Refilling these, refilling these
They say it's death, death
Institutions and DOC's
So God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference
And the wisdom to know the difference

Your video, Kayaker Caught in the Grip of a Hydraulic Sieve, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

It's more natural to hold a phone in portrait (vertical) than in landscape (horizontal). Typically landscape requires 2 hands -- and if filming landscape with one hand, it becomes easy to lose grip.

I know it ruins the cinematic quality, but he didn't film the dude for our entertainment, he filmed it as proof.

It's also a logistical issue, as it is easier to grip a phone vertically than horizontally. This is the reason why there are so many videos filmed in this mode. Especially in situations where people are unable to use both of their hands to stabilize the video, such as running, when in danger, or at the top of a bridge...

Also, his subject is a human which stands upright, so filming vertical allows him to distribute his subject matter across the entire canvas; whereas landscape would cut off the primary focus and distribute the background on either side of the subject, which is unimportant to the situation, in place of filming the man from head to toe in a single frame.

And EVERYONE was in on it! How f'ing horrific!? How can we expect to fix any of the problems in the world, if we can't come to grips with what we are as evolved, biological animals in a fragile ecosystem on a lonely rock spaceship who thrive in communities; and not as some divinely created children of some imaginary wizard authority.

How about at least letting the girl take pride in her own skills and effort instead of needing to thank God for doing nothing.

Lawrence Wilkerson's dismissive comments about self defense are very disrespectful to people who have had to resort to self defense. He wouldn't say things like that had he been unfortunate enough to have had such a personal experience. (As one parent of a Fla victim said - his child would have given anything for a firearm at the time of the event.)

Re. 2nd amendment, yes, it's not for pure self defense. The reasoning is provided within the text. The government is denied legal powers over gun ownership ('shall not be infringed') in order to preserve the ability of the people to form a civilian paramilitary intended to face [presumably invading] foreign militaries in combat ('militia').

It's important to remember that the U.S. is a republic - so the citizens are literally the state (not in abstract, but actually so). As such, there is very little distinction between self defense and state defense - given that self and state are one.

Personally, I believe any preventative law is a moral non-starter. Conceptually they rely on doling out punishment via rights-denial to all people, because some subset might do harm. Punishment should be reserved for those that trespass on others - violating their domain (body/posessions/etc). Punishment should not be preemptive, simply to satiate the fears/imaginations of persons not affected by those punished. Simply, there should be no laws against private activities among consenting individuals. Folks don't have to like what other folks do, and they don't have to be liked either. It's enough to just leave one another alone in peace.

Re. Fla, the guilty party is dead. People should not abuse government to commit 3rd party trespass onto innocent disliked demographics (gun owners) just to lash out. Going after groups of people out of fear or dislike is unjustified.







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As an aside, the focus on "assault rifles" makes gun control advocates appear not sincere, and rather knee-jerk/emotional. Practically all gun killings utilize pistols.

There are only around 400 or so total rifle deaths per year (for all kinds of rifles combined) - which is almost as many as the people who die each year by falling out of bed (ever considered a bed to be deadly? With 300 million people, even low likelihood events must still happen reasonably often. It's important to keep in mind the likelihood, and not simply the totals.).

Around 10'000 people die each day out of all causes. Realistically, rifles of all sorts, especially assault rifles, are not consequential enough to merit special attention - given the vast ocean of far more deadly things to worry about.

If they were calling for a ban+confiscation of all pistols, with a search of every home and facility in the U.S., then I'd consider the advocates to be at least making sense regarding the objective of reducing gun related death.

Also, since sidearms have less utility in a military application, a pistol ban is less anti-2nd-amendment than an assault rifle ban.







As a technical point, ar15s are not actually assault rifles - they just look like one (m4/m16).
Assault rifles are named after the German Sturm Gewehr (storm rifle). It's a rifle that splits the difference between a sub-machinegun (automatic+pistol ammo) and a battle rifle (uses normal rifle/hunting ammo).

- SMG is easy to control in automatic, but has limited damage. (historical example : ppsh-41)

- Battle rifles do lots of damage, but are hard to control (lots of recoil, using full power hunting ammo). (historical example : AVT-40)

- An 'assault rifle' uses something called an 'intermediate cartridge'. It's a shrunken down, weaker version of hunting ammo. A non-high-power rifle round, that keeps recoil in check when shooting automatic. It's stronger than a pistol, but weaker than a normal rifle. But that weakness makes it controllable in automatic fire. (historical example : StG-44)

- The ar15 has no automatic fire. This defeats the purpose of using weak ammo (automatic controlability). So in effect, it's just a weak normal rifle. (The M4/M16 have automatic, so they can make use of the weak ammo to manage recoil - and they happen to look the same).

Practically speaking, a semi-auto hunting rifle is more lethal. A Remington 7400 with box mag is a world deadlier than an ar15. An M1A looks like a hunting rifle, and is likewise deadlier than an ar15. Neither are viewed as evil or dangerous.

You can also get hunting rifles that shoot intermediate cartridges (eg. Ruger Mini14). The lethality is identical to an ar15, but because it doesn't look black and scary, no one complains.

In practice, what makes the ar15 scary is its appearance. The pistol grip, the adjustable stock, the muzzle device, the black color, all are visual identifiers, and those visuals have become politically more important than what it actually does.

You can see the lack of firearms awareness in the proposed laws - proposed bans focus on those visual features. No pistol grips, no adjustable stocks, etc. Basically a listing of ancillary features that evoke scary appearance, and nothing to do with the core capabilities of a firearm.

What has made the ar15 the most popular rifle in the country, is that it has very good ergonomics, and is very friendly to new shooters. The low recoil doesn't scare new shooters away, and the great customizability makes it like a gun version of a tuner-car.

I think its massive success, popularity, and widespread adoption, have made it the most likely candidate to be used in a shooting. It's cursed to be on-hand whenever events like Fla happen.

-scheherazade

Glad to see appreciation for MF Doom. The Sift has 0 appreciation for hip-hop, I have no idea of why, a little bit of racism, hatred for mainstream, too many dorks, too many burning man types? I don't know.

I mean you look at the hits for some of these artists and it's beyond hundreds of millions of hits if not a billion in some cases. Innovators like MF Doom, Dr. Octagon & Big L never got anywhere close to that sort of popularity.

The new Aesop Rock that came out this month is fucking awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZVlSqjjkic as well as the new Death Grips; open your minds.

I'd point out that choosing the lesser of two evils for the last few decades is how we -got- here. We've taught the parties that they can offer up anyone, no matter how poorly qualified or corrupt, and that we'll still reward them with our votes.

No more. I'm not convinced that Trump is competent enough to do much real damage...no more than an orangutan would (and probably less than Bush did). But whatever damage he does, it's better than continuing to do the same fucking thing we always do, and give the 1% even more time to consolidate their grip on the reins.

I have studied Spanish all my life and am constantly reminded how grateful I am that I didn't have to learn English as a second language. The difference in the details of spelling and pronunciation between the two languages is orders of magnitude apart. On the other hand verbs, nouns and adjectives are less complex in English. I'm still trying to get a grip on the subjunctive tense after all these years.

I understand it down force is one of the contributing factors to rather bland and uninteresting racing because you lose a lot of the extra grip it affords you when you are chasing close to somebody else. So basically Lotus ruined F1 yeye.

Give a fuck whatchya heard
Yeah fuck whatchya heard
Fore this real shit kicked your whole click to the curb
What, what...
But you don't hear me though

Run up bitch ta da death get gripped my steeze is ballin' out
Of control whatchyou know 'bout bubblin'
Hustle bones comin' out my mouth

Hustle bones comin' out my mouth [repeat]

That hot lic a shot
Never not strapped
Wit a Glock tongue cocked
Run it back
That knock a cop off unconscious Molotov
Cocktailin' sound bomb a snitch
Flat line of chalk drawn round the clock
Too many marks dropped ta count the stiffs

Stuck on the fence
How does it feel
It don't make sense
Nothing is

That rip you a new one trick I'm the true one,
And only never know me never will no son
Leave ya laid out ta fade out
Show a cunt the door
Hit and run
Hustle bones comin' out my mouth

Hustle bones comin' out my mouth [repeat]

That can't wait ta blast
Blood stained knuckle brass gives a fuck sick wit it flav on
That ex con
Hard to da bone
Darkness from the zone
Mastered and pushed far beyond

Eons beyond the line never crossed,
By dem punks livin' soft while I ride that bomb
Dr. Strangelove
Into the sun
Look no hands megatons
Rode like man we can't lose
No shit, no shit

That hit it till it drip wit
Da blood of the raw way
It was fore dem forgot
Why doin' dirt, make slang sound tough gong original
fuck da wrong way
Only one real way to work
That shit out da
Beat street spit
Über freaked heat lit
Hell flame to your brain
Blood thirst
What what...
Run it back, run it

Run up bitch ta da death get gripped my steeze is ballin' out
Of control whatchyou know 'bout bubblin'
Hustle bones comin' out my mouth

Hustle bones comin' out my mouth [repeat]

Criminal intent anti-legal ill
Thief in da night peel your life back spin the wheel
[x4]

Run it back, run it

3rd world country..check. This was not just one manufacturing defect. Clearly the main flywheel that grips the cables broke free from the gear box, but electrical sensors failed (door operation when in motion) and emergency brakes which trigger when wheels on the carriage spin to fast (ie not based on a computer triggering system) all failed or never existed to begin with.

This type of concrete (or something very similar) has been in use since 1973 in the Netherlands. Currently about 90% of the Dutch highways use this. Its big advantages are less noise, less aqua planning and more visibility due to less water from tires. Its disadvantages are somewhat less grip, more wear and issues with freezing. The freezing doesnt necessarily break the concrete but any salts used to de-ice the road will also be washed away meaning that the top layer of the road will often be very slippery. In the Netherlands, with between 23 and 46 days with temperatures below zero on average, the amount of trouble that causes is acceptable compared to the advantages.

I understand your fear. I did swing/lindy hop in high school and I was fine in practice and at clubs, but on stage my hands were a river of sweat. I think I lost grip at least twice in my first couple dances. I was more embarrassed because my partner had to hold onto my sweaty hands. Yuck.