>> ^thepinky: this is not the child's fault.

So now you're calling a 50-cell blastocyst a "child"? Whaaaaat?


>> ^thepinky:
Abortion only adds to an already heinous situation.

Says someone who's never been raped and then carried the fetus through full term.


And to think that we can just "counsel" people and everything will be awesome, is fucking hysterical.

Do you know how many orphans there are in this country? Do you know how many orphans never get adopted, grow up with zero parents and go on to lead utterly shit lives?

Do you understand that people like Palin and McCain are against gays adopting children? (find me one anti-choice politician or religious leader who also believes in gay adoption)

Noone likes having an abortion. Most people will never even tell their best friends. There are very good reasons why most western European countries have very few abortions, but remain free to do so. And to leave this to the pro-life crew is exactly the opposite way of bringing down the number of abortions we have here in USA.

To leave this up to hard-core evangelicals, and those who are wholly influenced by the far-right, and the Fallwell's and Dobson's who believe even basic sex-education and contraception is immoral and against GOD, is basically begging for "back-room" and "coat-hanger" abortions.

Europe didn't decrease abortion rates by leaving the issue in the hands of the most religious. They did it with full-blown sex-education, and saturated their schools and public squares with free contraception. Which is another reason why HIV and STD's are rampant here, and sparse over there.

I'm with Biden on this one:
"As close to a consensus that can exist in a society that is as heterogeneous as ours."


And notice Palin keeps using the "choose" word. She would "counsel" someone to make the right "choice". OK, so then after that awesome counseling, then they choose to abort, then what?


This debate is nonsense. It's a wedge-issue that the Repubs will never part with. They "gay marriage" thing is almost a non-issue anymore, they've obviously been found to not be so fiscally conservative as people thought. They've completely screwed their awesome "WAR ON TERROR" issue, immigration for now is DOA. So this is all they've got, and they're not letting it go.

>> ^MarineGunrock:
W H Y W A S N ' T T H I S M A N M A D E P R E S I D E N T ?
[edit]
Show me a man that has a better understanding of our economy. Without a doubt, the economy is now the most important issue facing America today.
He NEEDS to be president. NOW.



Sorry dude, but a lot of us wholeheartedly disagree with you.

Yes, Ron Paul is one of the smartest men in congress when it comes to certain aspects of the economy. He understands the markets, and our economic history almost more than anyone.

But, after watching him for the last two years I've come to realize that his knowledge is based 100% in theory, and not in reality. He couldn't give less of a shit about your and my reality, or the reality that faces huge swaths of this country. He doesn't give one shit.

He is a "free-market" fundamentalist, and thinks that somehow, CEO's everywhere are totally honest, good men who would only do awesome and honest and good things if that darn government oversight would stop, you know, overseeing stuff. Anyone who's had their eyes open, their heart beating and their lungs taking in breath over the last couple decades understands the exact opposite, and has watched these very same awesome CEO's tear our economy apart, slash our wages, steal our healthcare benefits and 401k's, and walk away with enormous bonuses worth more than most countries GDP.

Ron Paul's ideas of a "free market" are theories, and dangerous ones at that. His theories are one of those "if only" ideas/concepts that have NEVER ever been put into practice anywhere.

I would take a tanked economy with guidance under Barney Frank, than a "free-market" in a country that now has forced-prayer in schools, abortions made illegal, and "states rights" putting an end to anti-discrimination laws, integrated schools, and usher in every completely nutball right-wing extreme-christianist wedge issue you could ever imagine, shoved down the throats of us citizens.

Yes, Obama could do well with putting Paul somewhere in his cabinet, or in the FED or somewhere. But his domestic policies are utterly frightening, and the dude who he just supported for POTUS is one of the most crappy, hacked-out straight-up-white-dude's out there, with a completely laughable and outrageous platform.


Ron Paul is way more of a christianist fundie than you are allowing yourself to understand. "States rights" is a code-word. It's a lie. It's real meaning is to give the states their right to enforce some of the most backward, draconian laws every considered.

He wasn't ok...

Here is the news account of this wreck fron the Colfax,CA record.

Second victim pulled from Colfax big rig wreckage
By Jenna Nielsen, Journal Staff Writer

The body of a co-driver was extricated this morning by Cal Fire crews at the scene of Monday's big rig rollover crash near Colfax.
The body of a second man was found underneath debris Tuesday morning at the accident site of a big rig rollover near Colfax Monday, officials reported.
The man, whose name is not being released pending notification of his family, was reportedly a passenger in the big rig, which rolled into a guard rail spilling its load of recylced plastic down the embankment near the Magra Road exit on westbound Interstate 80, California Highway Patrol offi-cials reported.
The driver, who was trapped inside of the truck’s cab and was also killed in the accident, was re-portedly going 70 mph and passing another truck in the fast lane when he lost control and slid down an embankment, said CHP Officer Rich Ruiz.
“This morning, as the investigator was going over log books, (it was) determined there was possi-bly a co-driver involved,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz said investigators also have video footage of the accident, recorded by a device on a Wal-Mart truck, which the driver of the big rig was passing at the time of the accident.
“The driver of the WalMart truck was doing 55 mph, so we estimate the driver (of the big rig) was going 70 mph when he approached a curve and lost control. You see in the video the trailer starts to fishtail. When the driver tries to correct, he is sent over the guardrail.”
Battalion Chief Jeff Brand of Cal Fire said crews located the co-driver under the debris and extri-cated him this morning.
Brand said when the truck was overturned, the cab was torn off and wedged beneath the contents of the trailer and the trailer itself.
All westbound lanes were closed as a result of the accident, which occurred at approximately 2:30 p.m. All lanes were opened by approximately 7:45 p.m., California Highway Patrol officials said.
Ruiz said the driver of big rig had only had his license for nine days.

http://trkrjim.blogspot.com/2008/09/big-rig-rollover.html

Fisk is spot-on.

The abortion issue is too big a vote-getter for the GOP that they'll never want to see Roe v Wade overturned. They have no intention of losing their biggest wedge issue, and discussing otherwise is a practice in futility.

Review wasn't as great as usual, but man that trailer at the end was pretty cool. Blur Studios work for sure.

... and The Man justifies himself. When the advertisement is longer than the video, I have a problem, epic or not. Upvote still because the review is spot on, and whoever thinks that watching yourself die for 5 minutes is fun in a video game should have to watch themselves die for 5 minutes IRL and then asked in Valhalla, "Was it as awesome as you thought." However good an ad is it shouldn't be forced into these videos. The exapist noticed one part of their site is getting more hits, *cough* sifties *cough* so they inseminate it with ads, makes sense but I disapprove anyway. It's like a rider in a legislative bill except we don't get the cool line-item-veto option. Only we kinda do, cuz we don't have to watch the whole thing. Plus it's at the end at least, not the beginning or, Odin forbid, wedged in the middle. If the ad is that cool, make it it's own video and maybe we'll upvote that. Seriously tho, 4 minutes of video and 6 minutes of ads? Jeez it's like the publisher had scissors in his eyes or something.

PS: Can't decide if I would check out the game his mash-up ad describes at the 9:30 mark.

Quality videos on a quality site, sir!

Come one, come all! Step right up and watch the Mexican midget sing the Thai version of My Humps while farting on a feline! Only here at the Applewood State County Fair can you find such marvelous attractions for all the kids to enjoy! Every girl and boy can revel in the glorious and uproarious high jinks of today's latest and greatest creative creatures! Everybody take a step forward and then take a step back through time to witness the witless misfits wreaking havoc on mind, body and soul! So let's take a trip down memory lane and drive past a concrete wall with a human foot wedged inside, a cornucopia of non-pornographic yet graphic videos of monkeys proving that Evolution is In Action and a racist Jew with a fascist solution to ending immigration across our great nation!

Come one, come all, to the greatest show on Earth! Only here at the Applewood State County Fair in Siftylvania!

>> ^kronosposeidon:
Mah-how mah-how mah-how the hell did we get here?

I think I can understand the logic that went into Palin.

She's a big hit with the Bill Kristol set, because she's young, attractive, well-spoken, has a great biography, she's not an old white man, and she's a hardline neoconservative ideologue.

She's a Karl Rove style pick with a twist -- she'll comfort the people who're devastated that Bush can't just stay President forever, plus they think she has a chance to drive a wedge into the (in their mind) deeply divided Democratic party over women's issues.

They also believe that Hillary won't come out and hit Palin with a chainsaw over issues, because they're absolutely convinced that Hillary wants Obama to lose.

So the bullet points they gain are:

• Energize the "base" of evangelicals, and social conservatives
  
• Get a press buzz to focus on this "Fresh new face", to combat Obama on that front.
  
• Appeal to socially conservative women who want a woman in the White House
  
• Be able to say "see, we're not a bunch of sexists and racists after all"
  

What they lose is:

• The ability to hammer home Obama as not being experienced enough (Palin's resume is thinner than Obama's)
  
• The ability to reinforce the importance of National Security (since Palin has 0 experience with that)
  

That has me a little concerned, because in my analysis that means that the McCain campaign is going to totally detach from issues that matter (like experience), and go into total smear-merchant mode.

They've already made the shift, since there's now a spate of ads talking about William Ayers running here in Ohio, joining the ads that just flat out lie about Obama's tax plan (saying he'll raise your taxes if you make more than $42,000, which isn't true).

I expect the RNC convention to spend the entire time driving home baseless smears about patriotism, muslim, Wright, Ayers, and maybe we'll get to hear about the guy who claimed he had gay sex with Obama from the mouths of "serious" people.

I also expect that most of the positive stuff will focus on Palin's biography, and McCain's record as a P.O.W., and only Lieberman will talk about the bipartisan stuff.

I don't know if it'll work, but that's my prediction as an armchair strategist.

Anybody who loves the minor characters in Star Wars is alright in my book. I've always like Wedge, myself. But Ackbar was a great creation and truly memorable as well.

Why do I feel like having lobster all of a sudden? Keep up the good work, Kulpims!

>> ^Sniper007:
...and yet: people will intentionally inject, directly into their bloodstreams, far greater quantities of far more dangerous micro-organisms in the name of health. Go figure.


...wat?

Part time bartender. I'm always careful to use tongs, wash the lemon, board, knife and my hands when I'm working, but I've never seen anyone else bother.

The law in Britain is such that waiters and bartenders don't need the same kind of food safety training as kitchen staff, in fact they don't need any at all.

I always specify no lemon wedge when I order a drink anywhere.

There's no universal definition of either feminism or feminist stances, which is why there's no way to discuss it and reach any universal agreement. There's simply no way to win when taking on "feminists", because anything and everything you say WILL be wrong. If you think women should be able to wear burkas you're oppressing them, but if you are for them wearing whatever they like you're objectifying them. It's all depending on what feminist you ask and where you're asking the question, and always the discussion is predetermined by the mindset that all womanhood is being oppressed and that manhood as a whole is oppressing them.

There are still areas where men and women are unequal, but you really have to realize that driving a wedge inbetween the people who hold those beliefs and trapping them in an argument where all answers are wrong won't further any thoughts on equality.
"Equal but different" is how my mother brought me up to look on men and women. There are people who don't see it that way; some who see it as men being superior to women, and relatively recently that women are superior to men, that's where you need to focus your attention if you ask me.

Feminism isn't about reprimanding people for complimenting a woman in a clumsy manner, about verbally attacking someone for making a joke or try to create some moral highground by drawing farfetched conclusions based on scewed movie statistics. Chastising the people who hold the equality beliefs will not further any feminist cause, because there's no corralation between enjoying Dita von Teese's burlesque show and objectifying women and viewing them as inferior to men.
Change comes from engaging the minds and views of persons who haven't been brought up into thinking humans are equal no matter their gender.

There was a political party who formed in Sweden called FI (feministic initiative) which fell apart in a matter of months. It did so because it couldn't agree on a political agenda, what policies to push and what parties to cooperate with, due to everyone having different ideas on what feministic initiative meant. There was no common ground to build a platform on, because on every issue one member wanted to pursue, another held the opposing view on the same argument.
The initiative ended up polarizing people even more and doing more harm than good, simply by attacking persons who held the view that everyone's equal by turning everything they did into an affront to women's suffrage.

I've long thought evolution and religion can be compatible, its the people and institutions that are inflexible. At our current level of scientific understanding I think there are plenty of places to <insert creator influence here>, and I know many people that do just that. Truthfully, as an atheist, I don't mind those that are hardline literal scripturists. Its their right to choose what they do and don't believe in. I don't want to be told what to believe and neither should they.

My problem is when religion is pushed upon the populace as a whole. Laws whose only basis in reason is religion, or trying to wedge God into and on every aspect of society. Trying to get creationism out of the science rooms, or religious views/symbols out of law isn't an attack on religion its a defense against it.

I saw an interesting article today (I wish i could find again) talking about South Carolina's proposed "I Believe" plates. Though (as far as I can tell) the plates are an option, a lawsuit was/is being brought against the state by individuals trying to keep church and state separate. When i read the article further I was surprised to see it was being brought forth by four Christian pastors, a Rabi, and some Hindus. Though I don't remember the article going further into it, I can only guess they feel as I do, and that government has no place promoting one religion or denomination over another. Either promote all equally (including a lack of religion) or keep their noses out of it completely.

>> ^Equilibrionist:
even if you are right, you don't need to try to force your ideas upon all others.

Science is not religion, it does not want belief, but those of us who understand science simply ask that those who ignorantly accept great benefit from it show some fucking respect. If you use electricity or electronics, if you take the drugs your doctor proscribes, or try to avoid contaminated food, then you accept science in practice, so don't be a prick about it when issues of "debate" are contrived as wedge issues.

The truth is valuable because it works, even for people without friends, whereas large groups of friends who believe they can fly will still fall to their deaths.

Those of us who like the truth also tend to get along rather well with each other.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'tornado, supercell, wedge, wind, cloud, form, mesacyclone, music, spacy' to 'tornado, supercell, wedge, wind, cloud, form, mesocyclone, music, spacy' - edited by silvercord

^ Agreed, I don't respect her tenacity. That's like respecting Bush for his tenacity in maintaining the Iraq war at all costs.

Had the tenacity been used for, say, beating up on McCain, I might respect it.

Instead it was a full-court press to drive a wedge into the democratic party to engineer exactly the kind of contentious split we have now, just so she might have a chance of winning against Obama.

That kind of blind ambition kinda undercuts anything you say about your values.