>> ^Yogi:

>> ^artician:
I'm so curious to why people reject that notion. Is it purely fear of other religions and cultures? Are that many americans actually for invading other countries? I've never encountered that state of mind before, at all. From my experience most people are pretty quick to equate War with Evil.

I have a theory that most Americans know pretty much what we're doing. The fight between the indoctrinated (both the right and the left) is actually a fight about how we should go about doing what we're doing in the world..
Democratic presidents aren't any better on war crimes than Republican presidents. They just seem to be in the business of trying to tell everyone they're being nice and when they have to do something awful it's all the other countries fault...
This is also helped along by the media who play their role well.


Exactly. Without war America goes back to the 30's - California's border closed, 400,000,000 acres of farmland turned to dust by greed and lack of regulation, stillbirths due to malnutrition, bank of America paying people (WHITE People!) 5c a day for picking lettuce and beating them in some cases to DEATH for demanding a liveable wage (it was 25c before the excess labour turned up from the dust bowl).
Then corresponding communist organisation by the workers, FBI involvent in repression via total constitutional breaches, etc etc.

Without WW2 it looked like civil war - or reduction to a slave force for big east coast finance. Then the massive battle fleet parked off the coast of Japan mysteriously provoked an attack - and whammo - a job for everyone, a new massive industry (still what America spends half of all it's money on to this day), and a border extended effectively all the way around the globe, allowing the cycle to start again except on a much bigger stage.

What happens now when the organisms reach the edge of the petri dish? Well, better stick some of that annual $1 trillion into FTL research cos we're going to need a new planet.

The choice - face up to it, or shout boo at anyone who tries to tell you the truth.

>> ^artician:

I'm so curious to why people reject that notion. Is it purely fear of other religions and cultures? Are that many americans actually for invading other countries? I've never encountered that state of mind before, at all. From my experience most people are pretty quick to equate War with Evil.


I have a theory that most Americans know pretty much what we're doing. The fight between the indoctrinated (both the right and the left) is actually a fight about how we should go about doing what we're doing in the world. Indoctrinated Democrats have no problem with bossing other countries around and getting our way, we just have to be nicer about it and do it carefully so that we at least LOOK like we're good. Whereas the indoctrinated Republicans believe we are "Special" and should not only do it but do it with complete disregard for what ANY else thinks or says.

This is just a theory based on what I've seen from what our presidents do. Democratic presidents aren't any better on war crimes than Republican presidents. They just seem to be in the business of trying to tell everyone they're being nice and when they have to do something awful it's all the other countries fault.

I mean look at Bush and Obama...Bush locked up people indefinitely and said they deserved it and he does it because they're they enemy. Obama doesn't bother he just assassinates them. If Bush assassinated more like Obama he'd come out and take full credit and say it was AWESOME that he was doing it...Obama not so much, more hand wringing and deflection.

This is also helped along by the media who play their role well. It's just a theory but I like it.

pffffft... i'd like to mention ladder theory. it seems to have been coined by a very angry, very sexually frustrated man on the internet. but i found it interesting. i have mostly dudes for friends. i've only gotten emotionally/sexually confused by 2 of them. one is a long term boyfriend. but i've interviewed them all about this ladder theory-ness. we all mostly agree with it. here it is:

men tend to have just one ladder, they would consider sticking their penis in every girl the know, just at varying levels. you may be the top rung on the ladder, or you may be at the very very bottom rung of the ladder. there is also the abyss... which is like "i'd rather chew my own arm off then sleep with this person". if you're there, you're either a relative or someone they dislike so much that you're not friends. or maybe you're an ex who did something awful.

girls have 2 ladders: a "guys they'd fuck ladder" and a "just friends" ladder. you can jump and/or straddle ladders, but you risk falling into the abyss.

i am aware that i've been/ may still be on some rung of my dude friends ladders, i suspect i occupy a rung at the very very bottom or maybe i'm in the abyss because i occupy "sister" status in their brains. they're all on my "just friends" ladder. so, it'll never happen. and i'm ok with that. i'm also not friends with emotionally stunted douchebags, which helps.

i feel like the only time you're not actually friends (despite whatever sexual interest may exist) is when you're so preoccupied with getting into your friends pants that you're not actually being her friend. or when one friend is in love and the other does not reciprocate. other than that, two reasonable, sexually attractive adults can be friends just fine.

http://videosift.com/video/I-Get-Mad-1

Sesame Street says it is okay to get mad. And that friends would understand if you get mad when they do something awful.

Seems like the Sift missed that episode of Sesame Street. Burd isn't allowed his justifiable anger, he gets beat up for it.

Into something awful...









......................................ly cute!

In reply to this comment by chicchorea:
...just occurred to me...hatch into what???

In reply to this comment by Norsuelefantti:
I'm sure they'll hatch soon...

In reply to this comment by chicchorea:
Ahhhhh, so it was you...found a couple...guess I'll have to wait awhile to find the others.
In reply to this comment by Norsuelefantti:
Have you found the eggs I hid in your room yet?

In reply to this comment by chicchorea:
Happy Easter my friend.

It's not in my nature to fault someone for being an ol' softy, so I can't begrudge your desire not to take a victory lap. I, however, will rejoice once I see the Hammer frog marched to the slammer. Thus always to the corrupt. He brought it all on himself, so good riddance. Besides, there's a line forming to fill his dirty shoes in Congress, so it was time for him to let the The Next Generation take his place. We don't need another fat Captain Kirk, do we?

In reply to this comment by NetRunner:
I agree with everything you said except the part about no sympathy. It's just how I'm wired. I have no sympathy for people who do something awful, escape justice, and then find some other hardship in life. But people who do wrong, and meet justice for their actions, I feel sympathy and pity for. I can't get happy about it -- I feel more sadness and some relief than elation.

I'm sure a 2 minute visit with him in prison would cure it, but still, I'm not big on doing a victory dance when justice is served.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
As far as crime and punishment is concerned I'm also a liberal:

- Our drug policy is an abomination, and mandatory minimum sentencing is outrageous. It's the main reason the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
- Three strikes laws should be eliminated
- The death penalty is barbaric
- Our criminal justice system is still racist. Black men and other persons of color are convicted at higher rates, and are more likely to be incarcerated and receive longer sentences than white dudes that commit the same crimes.

HOWEVER, I have NO sympathy for any type of public official who betrays the trust of the people he is supposed to serve. That goes not just for politicians, but judges, prosecutors, and cops too. One of surest ways to to bring about the downfall of a society is to have dirty public officials running the show. And I'm not partisan about this. If DeLay were a Democrat, independent, socialist, Green, or what have you, I'd feel the same way about him.

The only thing I don't want to happen to the guy is for him to get raped or otherwise harmed while he's in prison, but then I feel the same way about everyone in prison. Prison shouldn't automatically mean rape, beatings, and the possibility of homicide, but when you have prison overcrowding because of harsh sentencing laws, it's hard for guards to ensure the safety of all inmates. And let's not forgot that it's mostly Republicans like DeLay who have been the authors of all the tough-on-crime legislation in the first place.

So DeLay got what he deserved. Also Republicans like him (and many Democrats) have never served the interests of the people, but of their corporate masters. These corporate assholes in turn fucked up the economy through fraud and other criminal behavior. Many, many people have lost their jobs or their life savings or both because of this shit. They have created misery on an enormous scale. They are criminals as well who also deserve to go to prison. Madoff is just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands more need to be sent to the clink, because Madoff and other people like him didn't do this shit all by themselves.

Those are the people that Tom DeLay served. I hope he receives the maximum sentence. Not a drop from my bleeding heart will be shed for him.



In reply to this comment by NetRunner:
I did hear about that. I'm one of these seriously bleeding-heart liberal types. Now that he's going to jail, I feel sorry for him.

Still, it's good to see that parts of our justice system still work.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
You might have seen this story already, but if not, then it should make your Thanksgiving happy.

I agree with everything you said except the part about no sympathy. It's just how I'm wired. I have no sympathy for people who do something awful, escape justice, and then find some other hardship in life. But people who do wrong, and meet justice for their actions, I feel sympathy and pity for. I can't get happy about it -- I feel more sadness and some relief than elation.

I'm sure a 2 minute visit with him in prison would cure it, but still, I'm not big on doing a victory dance when justice is served.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
As far as crime and punishment is concerned I'm also a liberal:

- Our drug policy is an abomination, and mandatory minimum sentencing is outrageous. It's the main reason the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
- Three strikes laws should be eliminated
- The death penalty is barbaric
- Our criminal justice system is still racist. Black men and other persons of color are convicted at higher rates, and are more likely to be incarcerated and receive longer sentences than white dudes that commit the same crimes.

HOWEVER, I have NO sympathy for any type of public official who betrays the trust of the people he is supposed to serve. That goes not just for politicians, but judges, prosecutors, and cops too. One of surest ways to to bring about the downfall of a society is to have dirty public officials running the show. And I'm not partisan about this. If DeLay were a Democrat, independent, socialist, Green, or what have you, I'd feel the same way about him.

The only thing I don't want to happen to the guy is for him to get raped or otherwise harmed while he's in prison, but then I feel the same way about everyone in prison. Prison shouldn't automatically mean rape, beatings, and the possibility of homicide, but when you have prison overcrowding because of harsh sentencing laws, it's hard for guards to ensure the safety of all inmates. And let's not forgot that it's mostly Republicans like DeLay who have been the authors of all the tough-on-crime legislation in the first place.

So DeLay got what he deserved. Also Republicans like him (and many Democrats) have never served the interests of the people, but of their corporate masters. These corporate assholes in turn fucked up the economy through fraud and other criminal behavior. Many, many people have lost their jobs or their life savings or both because of this shit. They have created misery on an enormous scale. They are criminals as well who also deserve to go to prison. Madoff is just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands more need to be sent to the clink, because Madoff and other people like him didn't do this shit all by themselves.

Those are the people that Tom DeLay served. I hope he receives the maximum sentence. Not a drop from my bleeding heart will be shed for him.



In reply to this comment by NetRunner:
I did hear about that. I'm one of these seriously bleeding-heart liberal types. Now that he's going to jail, I feel sorry for him.

Still, it's good to see that parts of our justice system still work.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
You might have seen this story already, but if not, then it should make your Thanksgiving happy.

This is not real (of course - since it would be really stupid to risk that).
Freddie posted this on the Something Awful Forums about how they blew up the watermelon:

"A quarter diameter bit of black powder is what we used. People expect the watermelon itself to be comped, but we do the whole thing as "real" which is what you don't expect."

There have been a number of books that dealt with the subject:

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

Freakonomics had a section about how terrible we as humans are in gauging the likelihood of something awful happening. The authors illustrate their point by asking you if your child would be safer visiting a friend who had a swimming pool in the back yard, or a friend whose parents owned a handgun. As you could guess, the swimming pool is 100 times more dangerous than the handgun.

Of course, each of these books have extensive references in the back.

"I don't think that Bill Gates feels any richer inside than I do."

This is probably far truer than he thinks. What a wonderful person.

When I watch the news I should cry because I've seen something beautiful, not something awful. Why don't we see more of people like this?

She was emanating the 'fuck me' vibes something awful.

>> ^NetRunner:
I think he was smug because Hannah Giles slipped him a key to her room.
news

The toad isn't trying to escape because it's just not fast enough. A frog would try to hop away, it can move fast. Evolution has taught the toads that their best chance for survival is to react as you're seeing here. It's not running away because it can't run away, not fast enough to be effective. It's got poison glands all over it's back and it's trying to use them. Just because you don't understand the behavior it doesn't mean you can arbitrarily assign your own meaning to it and that becomes the truth. Sorry.

Besides this, what have all the rest of your straw men got to do with anything? I mean seriously?
>> ^FlowersInHisHair:
>> ^robbersdog49:
The toad's main defense is the poison in it's skin on it's back and the top of it's head. It's trying to defend itself by keeping the poisoned areas where the attention is. It's terrified and is acting defensively.

And yet the toad is making no attempt to escape.
Why is it that when someone posts a video like this, there's always someone who has to sniffily try and make out some kind of animal cruelty is going on, or something awful has happened to the animal in the past?
"Actually kittens are terrified when they play with string."
"Dogs only chase flashlight beams if they've been abused as puppies."
"Hamsters run in wheels as a display of what's known as cage-stress."
"Otters only float on their backs holding hands if their sexual development was interrupted at the pre-Oedipal stage."
I mean, ffs.

>> ^robbersdog49:
The toad's main defense is the poison in it's skin on it's back and the top of it's head. It's trying to defend itself by keeping the poisoned areas where the attention is. It's terrified and is acting defensively.


And yet the toad is making no attempt to escape.

Why is it that when someone posts a video like this, there's always someone who has to sniffily try and make out some kind of animal cruelty is going on, or something awful has happened to the animal in the past?

"Actually kittens are terrified when they play with string."
"Dogs only chase flashlight beams if they've been abused as puppies."
"Hamsters run in wheels as a display of what's known as cage-stress."
"Otters only float on their backs holding hands if their sexual development was interrupted at the pre-Oedipal stage."

I mean, ffs.

I saw that on the "strange spiral lights in the sky" link to Something Awful. I also noticed that the user was banned for posting it. Some people are meme intolerant I guess.

There is no relation. THat hippo is a pretender to the throne.

In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
serious cat, meet skeptical hippo

http://www.motivatedphotos.com/?id=27658

Here's a nice summary via the Something Awful forums: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3238877

Hit the link for some delicious HQ pics. WTF this phenomenon is, beats me. I genuinely wish it were some aliens.