I entered this thread in order to say that I think the veterans should have their day at the monument. I couldn't care less that a Tea Partier led them in. Who cares? The fact that it was someone from the Tea Party who did the right thing and not a Democrat seems to gall people to no end. Who cares? I don't. I would have cheered any Democrat pushing back against this stupidity as well. Let the heroes in.

Is this serious? Is Kanye West literally insane or just monumentally stupid?

Clearly the reasoned debate plan failed to stop the patriot act so lets go with some flair this time and kick start a giant ass monument for this man's heroics.

Dubai will serve the failed future as testament to the ridiculous impracticality and excess cascading into the failure once again, of humanity's insanity.

All for a 40 days and 40 night sandstorm of biblical proportions to completely cover Dubai up to the first observation level of this ugly monument to engineering waste and the complete failure of the United Arab Emirates to approach the pace of the 21st century.

May Dubai disappear in my lifetime.

People lived to 35 at that time. They feared the desert and every year the flooding of the Nile saved the people for another year. If your religious leader that makes the Nile delta fertile every year wants to build a giant monument to the gods and leaders that have a connection to the gods then you do it, no force needed.

Yeah, common knowledge among so-called "experts" on anything amounts to variations of true, false, and meaningless. Slaves in a conventional sense of the designation in ancient Egypt the architects and laborers may not have been-The monuments remaining are still a testament to the influence of Pharonic power over the skilled-trades and the coordination of efforts. SOMEONE made SOMEBODY build the things, eh?? Giza doesn't look like a volunteer, community-beautification project somewhere in Seattle....

HOLY SHIT! What IS that??? Is.. is that a bug?? A computer game... with a real BUG?! OMFG... this has got to be a FIRST! I mean, I've been gaming for nearly 30 years and I've owned thousands of titles, but I don't know if I've EVER seen one with a REAL bug before!!!!!!!

This is monumental! This is... EPIC! This is....

...stupid.

So, you found a bug in SimCity. Whoop-de-freakin-do. Just because of all the media sensation surrounding the failed launch, this otherwise simple (yet amusing) bug is being hailed as some kind of incredible evidence that the Glassbox engine is somehow complete crap, right? Oh, okay, I get it now.

Yes, no OTHER developer has ever released bugs in their games. Yes, ooooh, let's all marvel at the bug that makes Sims walk around in circles under some special circumstances that are not even revealed to the rest of us. I play SimCity, and I play it a lot. I've never seen this happen. Not saying it's rigged, or that it doesn't happen to other players or anything, but after nearly 100 hours of playing and a dozen or so cities built, I've never seen this bug myself. Just sayin'.

Downvote.

The animation was pretty, but I'm all about storytelling, and the content wasn't even good for high school. Right from the beginning, what was the point of showing the showman as unable to get an audience? This had no effect later on, but it's half the show. Why weren't people impressed to begin with? Doesn't make sense. Why were they crying when he left? He didn't touch their hearts or improve their lives; he gave them things.

That's all meh. What really irked me was there's all sorts of clichéed assumptions made all the way through: all small dogs want to be big and/or male owners of small dogs want big dogs; children are unsatisfied merely imagining that sticks are airplanes; all women want to be big blonde princesses or to have fancy handbags, and all leaders want giant monuments built for them. Puh-leeze. It was less Needful Things than playing on tired stereotypes.

I especially didn't like the implication in the end that old bald people with bad backs are less trustworthy. I understand "ugly/old/bald" has been a common shorthand for "bad person" when there isn't enough time to develop a character properly, but inviting the audience to judge people based on their appearance is something I expect not to see in a modern production.

The travelling salesman trope, and it's implications, are as old as the hills. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TravelingSalesman

In that case shouldn't the narrative have been shown from the point of view of the village occupants? The closest we saw to them suffering any consequences of their actions was a distant puff of purple smoke as the Smoke Seller laughed.

If let the buyer beware was the point, then show me the buyers suffering the consequences. A massive guard dog turning into a mangy ankle-biter while defending his owner from a burgler, the boy's airplane / rocket turning back into a pointy stick and catching him in the eye, show me the old ladies at a fancy party being laughed at when their fancy bags and clothes turn back into tat, or the major becoming a laughing stock when, as he goes to unveil it to invited dignitaries, his massive monument tuns back into a walking cane (without even a jewel adorning it anymore).

Oh, the irony of my old friend @Krupo "scaling back". Huh.

In the spring of 2006, Krupo started flooding my inbox with Sifts, his messages worded as if everyone knew this Internet monument. Clearly, I resented all the linkspam and the only way to stop him was to convince him that I was a regular member and already knew everything that was happening at VS. The only way to do that was to become a member and be here all the time, commenting everywhere and sifting myself.

And I'm still here today, just keeping the wolf from the door.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/us/chris-bliss-builds-monument-to-bill-of-rights.html?hp&_r=0

Sometimes we get it right.

And congrats on the excellence of your internet business people. A trifecta!

It's all down hill from here. Any big plans for this monumental occasion?

Thanks for the promote..... and the monumental effort that it took to do so
In reply to this comment by deathcow:
*promote jesus that took some work

Seems pretty plain to me. Joss didn't say vote for Obama, he's just having some fun with Romney. Free country, he's allowed to have an opinion and if that turns off a few of his fans, then I don't think he's going to lose sleep over it. He wrote the fucking Avengers script! I think he'll survive somehow.

That said, the election system in this country sucks, and changing it is going to require a monumental effort on the part of a hell of a lot of people. Congress will fight tooth and nail to preserve the status quo, because it serves them best. Until we get a system that isn't designed to result in a 2-party system, we will always have this situation of choosing between Asshole #1 and Asshole #2.

It's kind of sad that the one thing that Congress will show true bipartisan support on is saving their own asses.

Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

This world is temporal; it is passing away. These monuments of human achievement we have constructed to declare our own glory are all sandcastles awaiting high tide. They are grains of sand being washed into the cosmic sea. We will leave this world the same way we entered it; at the complete mercy of forces beyond our control or understanding. This American dream is a shadow play; there is nothing from this world that can completely satisfy us:

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

We know there is much more to this life than the gratification we can squeeze out of this moment. There is a perpetual, lingering dissatisfaction, when your hope is resting on shifting sands. Uncertainty is lurking at the doorstep, trying to sell us a lifetime subscription. A guest pass on a prison ship made of mind and sinew. We hunger for we don't see; a sense of permanence. A place called home. Something to fill the gap between heart and mind. We thirst for an eternal wellspring, welling up into life everlasting. A joy inexpressible and full of glory. We know there is more because He set it in our hearts to seek after Him. We know all of the ways of this world lead to death, but when put away uncertainty and seek after Him with all of our hearts, we will the find the bridge to eternity; we will find our Savior.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.