Germany's hitherto second largest political party, the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland) has finally developed a small laicistic wing. Religion is sociologically a very private matter for most people here, although with a societal overtone that the church is always right, and always present (I guess it's the same for Switzerland, only a bit more anti-muslim). Atheism has not yet hit German society as a matter of public discourse, like in the UK.
Here's hoping for a Germany in which the biggest party doesn't have the word "christian" in its fucking name.

In reply to this comment by hpqp:
Gah, hope she gets replaced soon.

@Lawdeedaw he's a lot more rude and blunt than me, and I'm definitely a million times more delicate when talking about abortion, but the actual core of what he was trying to say, I agree with.

To strip away the rudeness and hyperbole, what he said about abortion is "life" is all over the place, and we don't mind killing bacteria, insects, or even large mammals without even batting an eye. We don't seem to have any concern about killing sperm or eggs, despite their "potential" to become people either. Why should it change instantly once they're combined? It's still just a potential person and not an actual person for at least some period of time after conception.

The other point he made about abortion is that there's more to the question to consider beyond what the foetus is, there's also the consideration of what "banning abortion" would mean -- the state forcing women to carry to term pregnancies against their will. Even if you decide that's morally necessary, there's a huge array of practical implications that follow from that that the pro-life side really just handwaves away as if they're not cogent.

And with the miscarriage thing, honestly, now you really are just making straw man attacks. He's not saying mothers can't be upset if they lose unborn children, he's saying it's none of anyone else's business if she decides she wants to lose it...

But mostly what I meant by "I agree with every word" was the overall argument about how this whole thing about Ron Paul is a cult. Ron Paul isn't some savior, he's just a guy. Worse, he's a politician. Worse still, he's a Texas Republican. There's some things he says liberals might like, but most of his ideology a screaming horror of bugfuck insanity that we definitely don't want to help him implement.

As for this:

[I]f your party is arguing about stupid bullshit with itself other while the other party leads this country to its demise, are not the “intellectuals” the dumber group because the should know better?

This is a topic of conversation that comes up often on the left.

But the problem is, we then argue about what we should unify around. Me, I say hash our divisions out in Democratic primaries, then stand foursquare behind the Democrat, no matter who he or she might be. Others bitch and whine and moan about the insufficiency of Democrats and argue that we should be constantly attacking Democrats, in order to try to send a message to them (and this will somehow sway lots of people to vote Democratic because something something Overton Window).

So even on this, we're divided.

Oh, and you wanna be careful with anti-intellectual ideas like "if you're so smart, why can't you all just stop thinking for yourselves and unite behind a misguided idea like those unthinking zombies on the right?"

One doesn't have to be smart to drown out everyone else in a conversation, you just need to be louder and completely unselfconscious about telling people comforting lies.

>> ^FlowersInHisHair:

I've heard this sort of attitude a lot in the last couple of days and it really bugs me. Just because other things in the world are worse, or other tragedies might affect you more deeply than this, it doesn't mean that this isn't sad or that Amy Winehouse wasn't deserving of our pity. Famine in Africa, terorism in Norway, my friend's cat got put down, my husband being diagnosed with cancer, Amy Winehouse's death. All bad news, all happened recently, and I feel sad about them all in different ways.


Since you quoted my post in your response, I'll assume you were responding to me as well. Sure, the death of any people would be felt by someone, and I'm sure those who like her music would feel sad. My commenting is to bring up the fact that celebrity deaths has been given more attention than the real problems in the world, because it's something that sells papers and gain audience from bored people. I think it has the same overtone of the "First world problem" meme and therefore the association.

<troll face>If that bugs you, well that's too bad, welcome to the interweb.</troll face>

*sigh*

Stick in the mud Spoco here again

You know, the original Duke3D had overtones of Duke being sexist etc. but I really do think they've taken it a step too far with the new game. These sorts of promotions, and the glory hole in game are hardly just tongue in cheek nods at how sexist the character of Duke is, they have stepped into the realm of ACTUALLY being horrendously sexist.

Pity, the game looks like it'll probably be really fun, it's just the step too far will leave a bad taste in my mouth. (That's what she said).

Don't worry Baratunde, in the media and to the rest of America, Trump has gone from this odd eccentric rich guy who says crazy shit to get ratings to an absolute tool. He is laughed at by the press and his credibility and the respect of his piers has become nil.

In the racial overtones of the entire thing, I do agree and every single prominent republican who supported birtherism if even with such simple words 'I take him at his word' will not only suffer in their next elections but also in the respect of their fellow Americans. For today there isn't a single person in the country who doesn't know that at its heart, racism has reared its ugly head and far to many a man and women in public office all but put their stamp of approval upon it.

That said I believe the heart of this entire debacle isn't racism, but rather that Republicans are frightened. Their consistences are frightened. The future is bleak for the republican party as their base continues to shrink and the number of those who vote democratically continues to rise. This isn't the end of this issue and if Barack Obama is reelected, something similar will certainly appear again. Just remember that the republicans can be blamed only so far as their fear will drive them to irrationality.

>> ^iaui:

It really sounds like she's humming the tune along with the saw, but I don't really know what a saw sounds like so perhaps those overtones are all coming from it... I wish there was a better recording. The mic is clearly peaking each time she bows the saw.
But totally awesome, nonetheless.


The musical saw has been a staple for all sorts of eerie music throughout the years. For instance, the music in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Chances are pretty high that you know the sound, you just didn't realize it. Sort like how Dr. Pepper is prune flavored -- most people have tasted carbonated prune juice, they just didn't know it.

It really sounds like she's humming the tune along with the saw, but I don't really know what a saw sounds like so perhaps those overtones are all coming from it... I wish there was a better recording. The mic is clearly peaking each time she bows the saw.

But totally awesome, nonetheless.

A. Octave B. 5th C. Tritone

Whenever you hear a pitch, there are also a number of much softer, sympathetic pitches that sound. These are called overtones. (Here is a graphic of the overtone series: http://www.deandrummond.com/oton1.jpg) Overtones are very soft, and usually only the first few are (barely) detectable to the ear - although factors like instrument construction, peculiarities of the performance space and other notes sounding at the same time can affect the production of overtones. The first two in the overtone series are an octave and a 5th, so when ^ Karen Cheng plays the octave and the 5th, the overtone series is reinforcing those pitches, which gives those intervals a very 'pure' sound.

The tritone is the 10th overtone in the series, and occurs 3 and 1/2 octaves above it's root pitch, which means that it is not only very soft, but more often than not, out of the range of human hearing. Although a naked tritone is odd sounding by itself, it is used to create many beautiful, lush and complicated harmonies. Hundreds of years ago, the tritone was considered the interval of the devil by the church and it's use was forbidden. That quickly faded away as western music began to come into its own as an art form. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and almost every other notable western composer have used the tritone often in various harmonic contexts.

The oft used chord progression she uses at the end is I V vi IV, which is similar to the Pachabel cannon progression used in a similar video (I V vi iii IV I IV V).

(/theory lesson)

1. somehow they attributed this to "anti-americanism", like they hear from their right wing radios that democrats/liberals/lefties/socialists are always screaming about how terrible everything american is and burning flags, somehow in their brains un-nationalism=nationalism=fascism.

4. clinton and obama also increased military spending. we fought tons of proxy wars under the clinton administration and obama has just shifted the focus from iraq to afghanistan. and i can't argue that. they're right. even though they completely skimmed over 8 years of hyper-patriotism.

7. TSA porno-scanners. obama reauthorized the patriot act. also, can't argue with them, except theyre still ignoring the last 8 years.

8. so they're mormons, and historically, the government has interfered with the church. they see the whole prop 8 fiasco as modern day proof of that. and government is trying to legislate for the church, not the other way around.

9. no, corporate power is not protected. this socialist administration is infriging on them and the epa wants to bankrupt all the businesses.

10. unions are the enemy. nurses unions are the reason all of the hospitals in california are in trouble. labor unions are evil. theyre the mafia. blah blah blah. labor unions are fascist organizations funding the obama administration to take out the middle class. this list has a liberal bias.

11. obama killed all the student loans. there is no more access to student loans anywhere, eventhough i am currently living off of student loans. also, academia is where terrorist sympathizers hide out. which explains why her 2 most liberal children are working on graduate degrees in liberal things like physics and disability studies. and her conservative children didn't go to college. my brother and i are really the close minded fascists. if you point out my moms graduate degrees she says she got it during the clinton administration then she went and got a job with it outside of education. unlike my brother and i who don't actually have real jobs. even though my brother works for the military and the military pays for his education. nothing makes any sense.

12. they related this one to the ex con that works for my stepdad. he's finally off drugs and making an honest living and obama won't take his ankle bracelet off probably because he is a white non-violent offender. i'm not even sure what that has to do with the topic, but thats the anecdote they shared with me.

most of what they say doesnt make any sense to me. and vice versa. but i find if i break things down into really small individual issues then we agree like... climate change isnt man made... but it is bad for the planet to dump all of our trash in the ocean and bury toxic waste and cut the tops off all the mountains and burn things into the atmosphere. .... but there is not such thing as global warming.

or our border with mexico is a huge security risk and people in el paso are terrified of the drug wars raging in juarez and we need to deport all the undocumented workers and close our border for good until mexico sorts their shit out.
but women and children who flee from mexico are refugees and should be treated as such.

even when we talk about anarchism, they like anarchism. but if you were to say i was left wing and had radical leanings... they'd freak the fuck out.

so their values and morals are mostly intact, and theyre mostly just like mine... we just use different languages and theyre not worried about atrocities that happen in other places.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

Wow, that's nuts. How did they spin 1, 4 and 7-12? >> ^peggedbea:
omg! i've actually gone through this exact list with her and her husband before and the most bizarre thing happened - they attached every single point to "liberals". the phenomenon here is that the language has been changed. the world "liberal" is no longer derived from the word "liberty". it simple means "ugly nazi fascist death monsters"
and the word "liberty" now means "liberty in christ".
i shoplifted a copy of "the overton window" over the summer and read it aloud to my friends, the entire thing is chocked full of doublespeak. the introduction itself is almost entirely doublespeak. and sometimes i read articles on fox's website, or the drudge report or whatever for fun. it's loaded with doublespeak. almost every article uses some device to change the meaning of language. it's brilliant.
one of my best friends brother is a linguist at UF. i'm pretty sure when those boys come back to texas for christmas we're going to have a serious discussion about this.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Have you tried explaining to her what fascism is?
Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3

Wow, that's nuts. How did they spin 1, 4 and 7-12? >> ^peggedbea:

omg! i've actually gone through this exact list with her and her husband before and the most bizarre thing happened - they attached every single point to "liberals". the phenomenon here is that the language has been changed. the world "liberal" is no longer derived from the word "liberty". it simple means "ugly nazi fascist death monsters"
and the word "liberty" now means "liberty in christ".
i shoplifted a copy of "the overton window" over the summer and read it aloud to my friends, the entire thing is chocked full of doublespeak. the introduction itself is almost entirely doublespeak. and sometimes i read articles on fox's website, or the drudge report or whatever for fun. it's loaded with doublespeak. almost every article uses some device to change the meaning of language. it's brilliant.
one of my best friends brother is a linguist at UF. i'm pretty sure when those boys come back to texas for christmas we're going to have a serious discussion about this.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Have you tried explaining to her what fascism is?
Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3

omg! i've actually gone through this exact list with her and her husband before and the most bizarre thing happened - they attached every single point to "liberals". the phenomenon here is that the language has been changed. the world "liberal" is no longer derived from the word "liberty". it simple means "ugly nazi fascist death monsters"

and the word "liberty" now means "liberty in christ".

i shoplifted a copy of "the overton window" over the summer and read it aloud to my friends, the entire thing is chocked full of doublespeak. the introduction itself is almost entirely doublespeak. and sometimes i read articles on fox's website, or the drudge report or whatever for fun. it's loaded with doublespeak. almost every article uses some device to change the meaning of language. it's brilliant.

one of my best friends brother is a linguist at UF. i'm pretty sure when those boys come back to texas for christmas we're going to have a serious discussion about this.


>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

Have you tried explaining to her what fascism is?
Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3

those heavy dubsteppy bass overtones or whatever suit this really well.

*promote

" being distraught over for having been called a nigger in her own home."-Nope wrong, she did not say that she was nor did Dr. Laura call her one...inflammatory, over-reaction on your part though I am willing to listen again-Oh and, she did not extend the hypersensitivity to the entire population, merely to the more outspoken pundits and reactionaries.
To answer your questions in order:
1. No
2. Yes
3. Yes and no-Not neutral or smiley, but acceptable among familiars.
In this particular day-and-age context, one could equate the term "nigga" used informally among black men who are kindred spirits to the term "queen" or "mary" used similarly among gay men or women.
Its unfortunate that anyone be the target of a comment directed towards them with clearly racial overtones. I am assuming that you are not a Caucasian or Asian and that you have a series of responses to blatant or cloaked racist terminology in any context. Am I wrong to assume that the term "black folks" is also offensive vernacular? If so, I apologize.

I agree that madam uber bitch was a bit hard on the woman who clearly takes issue with the situation within her household. I do not however, based on the segment presented believe that Dr. Laura suffers from anything more than rabid-bitch-when-it-comes-to-idiots syndrome. It comes with her territory of screening calls for the best brand drama her show affords and telling people (mostly emotionally frazzled females from America), that they need to ditch their emotionally-based responses to situations and take practical measures to deal with their problems. She's got extremely conservative views regarding sexuality and same sex couples and has pissed off most gay people in the world as well

I believe this video offering to be a similarly emotionally-charged response to an issue which is particularly personal to yourself, and you used it as a pulpit from which to decry injustice.
If the world would have never experienced the brand of slavery the Americas served up we would not be having these conversations.
Thanks a lot, empire.

Right. Good bye.
In reply to this comment by Sigh:
Riiiight. I fell into the moron trap. You start talking politics on the internet. I remember now why I never posted on here and just laughed at the idiotic statements like yours of people who think they can change things. You are just another peon who means nothing. I'm done with you and posting on this site. There's too much agenda pushing by faggots like you who try to twist every word someone says until they believe their own bullshit. Good luck with life failure. >> ^NetRunner:

>> ^Sigh:
Except I'm not a right winger. I actually voted for the idiot. I want my vote back. He is as bad as bush.
Oh yeah? You one of these left-wingers who think they're moving the overton window left by reinforcing right wing attacks on Obama (i.e. dumb, failure, just like Bush, etc.)?
Seriously, I don't think conversion to metrics is worth fighting for. It'd be nice to see it happen some day, but the big problem is the stupidification of our political system. We can't have a rational conversation about anything anymore, least of all something like making our measurement systems compliant with the international community.
You may not be right-wing, but you totally fell into the moron trap -- I mention Obama's name, and you had to talk shit about Obama yourself, rather than simply agree that anti-Obama insanity plus our normal cultural insanity would make it completely impossible for us to do anything about trying to move to metrics (or deal with the economy, or deal with the environment, or deal with banking regulation, etc.).

Riiiight. I fell into the moron trap. You start talking politics on the internet. I remember now why I never posted on here and just laughed at the idiotic statements like yours of people who think they can change things. You are just another peon who means nothing. I'm done with you and posting on this site. There's too much agenda pushing by faggots like you who try to twist every word someone says until they believe their own bullshit. Good luck with life failure. >> ^NetRunner:

>> ^Sigh:
Except I'm not a right winger. I actually voted for the idiot. I want my vote back. He is as bad as bush.
Oh yeah? You one of these left-wingers who think they're moving the overton window left by reinforcing right wing attacks on Obama (i.e. dumb, failure, just like Bush, etc.)?
Seriously, I don't think conversion to metrics is worth fighting for. It'd be nice to see it happen some day, but the big problem is the stupidification of our political system. We can't have a rational conversation about anything anymore, least of all something like making our measurement systems compliant with the international community.
You may not be right-wing, but you totally fell into the moron trap -- I mention Obama's name, and you had to talk shit about Obama yourself, rather than simply agree that anti-Obama insanity plus our normal cultural insanity would make it completely impossible for us to do anything about trying to move to metrics (or deal with the economy, or deal with the environment, or deal with banking regulation, etc.).