Hybrid, I never liked you...but now that you have that crown...*kneels*

*grudgingly* All hail Lord Hybrid




[EDIT] Jk Love ya Hybrid!

The Simpsons has no laugh track. Amazing that nobody named it yet. I think it was the first US comedy in a long time not to use one. Maybe they got away with that because it's animated, though the Flintstones did have a laugh track. Similarly, other modern animated series don't use laugh tracks (American Dad, Family Guy, Ren and Stimpy, etc.).

Also MASH banned the laugh track from the operating room in a compromise between the show makers (who wanted no laugh track at all) and the network, who insisted on it for all other scenes.

The "Ripping Yarns" DVD set comes with an optional sound track with out laugh track. I thought I would prefer the pure version, but I must (grudgingly) admit that that show seems funnier with the laugh track. It has occurred to me that "Curb Your Enthusiasm" might actually seem funnier with a laugh track, but still I am glad they don't use one--more integrity.

I had a boss once who said "There are two types of employees. Those who work for themselves and those who work for others."

If you are working for yourself, you will always do a good job. If you are grudgingly doing things that others "make" you do, it is unlikely that you are enjoying your work or doing it well.

Ron Paul is a fool if he thinks there's anything that can be done to appease muslim savages. Even if all the mohammedans vanished tomorrow, there's still the matter of 1.5 billion Red Chinese looking to take over the globe. It's a dangerous world, and the command chair is no place for clueless kenyawaiians with a grudge against America, a grudge almost as large as the one carried by puddin'heads here at bolsheviksift.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Very creative! Here's what you need to know about BHO.
He's a child of privilege posing as a downtrodden victim who somehow climbed out of America's drowning pool of "racism".
Every president ever has existed under an altered image. George Washington didn't really cut down a cherry tree.
He isn't terribly bright but he knows what he's doing. He was nominated to assuage idiots' "White Guilt." He is an affirmative-action president with no real political credentials.
Right, people who aren't very bright become professors of constitutional law at Harvard all the time.
He's got a grudge against America, American Exceptionalism and free market capitalism. What the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright believes, BARACK believes.
I have a grudge against Exceptionalism and free market capitalism, but still love America with all my heart. Do you still beat your wife?
He's likely a closet atheist, but for now obviously can't admit it.
There he goes proving his intelligence again. Bush wasn't a Texan either.
He has had no achievements to speak of since taking office, unless--UNLESS--you understand what his true motives are: turn America into just another forgettable Euro-dump with no identity. Suddenly it makes sense!
Does getting Osama count? Before you say that it's the Seals that got him, remember that Obama came under heavy fire for thinking we should reach into Pakistan.
"BULLPLOP QM! Barack wants JOBS for Americans!" As long as he embraces Keynesian rubbish, it won't happen. And he can't turn back now.
You don't know that his strategy won't work, this problem was a long time in the making. And it will be a long time getting out. (I've seen Morganthau quote)
The libmedia works for BHO as if they were being paid directly from the White House. They hide his gaffes, downplay his goof-ups and hide the results of his schemes.
I can't argue with this one. I stopped watching the news a long, long time ago.
America is worse off now than when this jug-eared socialist was elected.
Again, no one... no one... could have stopped the giant snowball yet.
I'm not a liberal (anymore) so I can't match wits wit the brilliant geniuses here, but the results of the BHO Fraudsidency speak for themselves. Every day.
I don't know why I feel the need to defend this president. Especially considering that I think all politicians are completely full of shit. I guess I was just way more comfortable with him than any of our other options. Do we really believe that he's anything but a powerless figurehead anyway?

Also, as far as the video is concerned, the problems we face are way more complicated than "working harder" and "getting more". A complex system composed of billions of individuals cannot be boiled down to a few simple rules. And the rules we have will constantly have to change as people adapt to the new system anyway. All kindergartners are taught that one plus one equals two. It takes a lifetime to even visualize what it truly takes to have a functioning society.

Very creative! Here's what you need to know about BHO.

He's a child of privilege posing as a downtrodden victim who somehow climbed out of America's drowning pool of "racism".

He isn't terribly bright but he knows what he's doing. He was nominated to assuage idiots' "White Guilt." He is an affirmative-action president with no real political credentials.

He's got a grudge against America, American Exceptionalism and free market capitalism. What the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright believes, BARACK believes.

He's likely a closet atheist, but for now obviously can't admit it.

He has had no achievements to speak of since taking office, unless--UNLESS--you understand what his true motives are: turn America into just another forgettable Euro-dump with no identity. Suddenly it makes sense!

"BULLPLOP QM! Barack wants JOBS for Americans!" As long as he embraces Keynesian rubbish, it won't happen. And he can't turn back now.

The libmedia works for BHO as if they were being paid directly from the White House. They hide his gaffes, downplay his goof-ups and hide the results of his schemes.

America is worse off now than when this jug-eared socialist was elected.

I'm not a liberal (anymore) so I can't match wits wit the brilliant geniuses here, but the results of the BHO Fraudsidency speak for themselves. Every day.


>> ^Crosswords:

>> ^quantumushroom:
And when will Supergenius Barack Hussein Obama be releasing his kollij grades?

Never cause he's a Manchurian candidate created by the Kenyan Illuminati who control the world's drug companies. That's why he was so insistent on getting healthcare legislation passed, so he could make sure everyone could have access to the drugs and get them addicted so they can all be his mind slave zombies he'll use to make war on the peaceful utopian capitalist society on planet orbiting Gliese 581. If he had actually gone to college someone would have remembered him graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law, but not surprisingly nobody ever saw him graduate, even his 238 year old lizard man Illuminati grandmother who's actually the queen of England never saw him graduate.

Did I do it right, can I vote republican now?

Modern interpretation of the "Turn the other cheek also" bit and the rest of the "sermon on the mount" ignore cultural context. There's tons of commentary about it if you Google it. Jesus was teaching passive resistance. Not that he necessarily existed at all.

Anyway, he goes on whith the old trope about aksing contrition allowing wrong-doers to do more wrong without consequence. The point of contrition is that if you have to openly, verbally acknowledge your sins, you become more aware of bad things you do, and are less likely to do them again. Raised Catholic myself, until I left the church, I avoided doing bad things because then I'd have to confess them. People who delight in others' suffering aren't the type to get all contrite about it. It's a strawman argument. He equates, "cleansing of unrighteousness" with forgiveness, though they're not the same thing. Unrighteousness is the defect that causes you to do bad things. If you sincerely believe you have been cleased of it, then you will have to choose to act against your god to reoffend. It's a pretty smart system. He also assumed that forgiveness also wipes away contrition. It doesn't. It just clears your heavenly ledger of sins that will be counted against you when you die.

And he really goes wrong with, "Love your neighbour as yourself." He's not commanding people to have loving feelings towards their neighbour or themselves. That's impossible to comply with. It's not love as a feeling, it's love as action. He's commanding people to treat everyone well rather than to harbour grudges and be a bitch, which only leads to escalation. If everyone treated everyone else decently, the world would be a much more comfortable place to live, and we'd all prosper more easily.

Further, it means if someone does something bad, and you show them love, it's more likely to change them in a good way. If you show them hate and contempt and "take pleasure in their suffering", it's just going to make them a worse person, and someone who has already shown a tendancy to do bad things is exactly the wrong person to make worse. You can love someone while protecting yourself. It's way, way out of the Western concept, but it's common in other places to punnish someone, even severely, with love.

The worst is the selective interpretation of "...as yourself." This means "Love your neighbour as well as yourself." It's an extention of your own love to you. When you love yourself, you'll treat yourself better, take care of yoruself more, show yourself more understanding. The result will be your having more love to share with others. I'm totally down with that.

So, you and I are talking about confirmation bias in another thread. Do you think that as an anti-religious person in general, you feel satisfaction when you are shown fault in religious teachings? Does it satisfy you to the point where you might not really analyse what's being said? Looks to me that's what's happened here. You were looking for someone to agree with you, and someone slamming Jesus' main teachings hit the sweet spot. I dislike religions too, and enjoy people like Hitch and Tyson, and to a lesser degree Dawkins doing their thing, but this is really weak soup.

>> ^hpqp:

Quote mine: fallacy of quoting out of context.
Care to illustrate how his citation of Bible verses is such?
As for recycling other people's arguments, that's pretty much what everyone does, some with more eloquence than others of course.
>> ^messenger:
He quotemines the bible and recycles others' arguments only to demonstrate that Jesus wasn't a very good god.

Oh yeah, the Arab Spring revolts were such a NATO conspiracy. They really had to spread it, topple a couple of other dictators peacefully, all that to be able to... whatever it is they're scheming to do.


Yes, and remember that the Afghan war was all about a pipeline. Then for a little while it was about minerals. I don't remember what it's all about now. Oh, and the Iraq war was all about oil too. Obviously. Also, the Cold War was all fake.

The general WTC conspiracy (ie. it was all done by the US government) is complete nutbars. It imagines a kind of omniscient foresight and complete control that it is quite clear the US government (and all of its fantastic, bumbling agencies) lacks.

It can be an oddly pleasing little fiction to imagine hyper-intelligent, all-powerful string pullers manipulating world events. The reality is that the guys at the top are, well, guys like George Bush - aggressive, not to smart, motivated by emotion and family grudges, and born in the right place to the right people to one day end up in power.

And this video is clearly made by disingenuous douchebags. They don't acknowledge and counter the "official explanation" (and there is official explanations for this stuff, it's not new material) - they just kind of hand-wave it away. If they said "well, this is the official explanation but here's why we still think there's issues" then I'd have a bit of respect for them. Instead, they pretend this is stuff that hasn't been responded to; the same approach you see in, say, anti-evolution videos. Douchebags.

Humorously, the "1500 engineers agree" crap is also common in anti-evolution videos; similarly, I'm sure it would be easy to respond with 1500 engineers named Steve who accept the general "official" version. If they had good arguments, they should have led with them, instead of trotting out the same tired crap and hiding behind the "big numbers" of engineers they found.

Wow, someone has a grudge against George Lucas.

Then again, who doesn't?

@hqpq..true, I admit I have said some harsh things about atheists, and stupid things in general, and I apologize for some of those remarks. I'm far from perfect. I have, however, endevoured to be more magnanamous and patient with my heathen friends here.

If I were to compile a list of all the nasty things people have said to me on the sift, even you might be shocked. The point is, whether you like me or not, I still accept you as a human being and would have a civil conversation with you. I don't hold any grudges. You obviously don't feel the same way, and you go out of your way to announce it to me as much as possible. Well, I get it..you don't like me; I hear you loud and clear. Now hear what I have to say: God loves you, and so do I.

So this is what it looks like when two unfit guys decide to fight out a grudge? Looks like true love.

>> ^burdturgler:

>> ^quantumushroom:
A mediocre impersonator: the only job His Earness can take credit for creating.

Surprisingly, you and your buddy up there missed the point. This isn't about the comedy or the performance, it's about the hypocrisy of the g.o.p. conference laughing at infantile jokes then kicking the guy off stage when the jokes turned on them.



I dont have time for buddies or friends, take your heart felt hurted feelings and make a pie and keep your fingers busy doing something constructive. You dont know why I downvoted or upvoted because you never asked, you dont seem "man " enough to actually engage in conversation and ask questions, you seem a tit for tat grudge holding Popsicle.

Try to understand what's being said here. According to the definition, a "fundamentalist Christian" would be someone who has extreme views as opposed to the general norm of Christianity. Yet, the general norm of Christianity is that scripture is the word of God. So therefore it doesn't apply. It's exactly opposite of the truth.

You're also living in some sort of fantasy world where 80 percent of the world doesn't believe in God, because it does. Approximately 1/3 of the human population of the world identifies themselves as Christian. Perhaps in your insular Universe I represent some sort of extreme, however, I am quite normal according to the true standard of human conduct and belief.

Comparing God and Unicorns is also completely ridiculous. Not only is the question of whether the Universe was created an entirely credible question, God is at the least a philosophical idea. However, I am talking about God who came to to Earth to live as one of us. This is a matter of history.

On your last note, Christians aren't perfect, no human being is. I'm also not holding anything over you. I don't see myself as better than anyone else. Dealing with a bunch of militant atheists who want to drag God through the mud on a constant basis does tend to wear at the nerves. However, just because I have occassionally played the fool doesn't mean that God hasn't improved my character. I actually do practice what I preach and I'm not holding any grudges against anyone here. As far as being alone goes, here is something true for everyone:


Matthew 5:45

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

James 1:17

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.


>> ^Drax:
Applying the term fundementalist to Christianity is used to donate a radical or extreme belief. Within the sphere of Christianity, it is neither radical or extreme to believe in scripture as the word of God
From my perspective your belief that a book written a long time ago should be taken as literaly as you take it is very extreme.
It's as extreme to me as someone coming up to you and insisting that unicorns are real. Then persisting to try and get you to believe that they are real. Then pronouncing YOU insane for not believing that they are real. Then telling you your eternal soul is in danger if you don't believe in unicorns. Then declaring that your perception of reality is flawed for not believing in unicorns. Then putting you down, even mocking you for not believing in them.
You get the idea.
But to me, that's EXACTLY the same level of extreme that you're demonstrating from my perspective.. and I would take a guess it's true for the general audiance here as well. So yes, I think enoch's on the mark there with that one.
Understand, I go through life having fun, treating others well. I enjoy friends, I'm happy with my understanding of the world and always curious to learn more. How do you think you come across to me? Unicorn Man, that's how.
Why don't you just join our community; hold on to your views all you like.. maybe point them out when the topic becomes relevant, etc. Maybe even open your mind a little, I think that would be a good thing for you. Because as far as one of god's messengers goes.. I've seen you get frustrated and end up derogatory towards others (and not just this thread). In other words, you're just as flawed and human as the rest of us, so stop acting like you've got something you can hold over us. All you've got is yourself.

I do believe that, in fact, I felt pretty much the same way when I was agnostic. I didn't believe He was God, but His words spoke to my heart about how human beings should treat eachother. I never had a problem with Christ..to me, He was certainly of the very best that humanity had produced, before or since..and I have yet to read an account of anyone who comes close.

To me what Christ taught leads to perfection of the human character. He teaches more self-denial than even buddhism, total humility of person, equal treatment for every human, and love for your fellow man, without any exception. He taught us to forgive one another, to harbor no grudges, to work things out and come to an angreement.

If people followed what Christ taught we would have no wars, there would be no violence..there would be no poor, no starvation, no inequality. There would be no hatred, no lies, no injustice. The Earth would be at peace. That's gotta be worth something. I wouldn't understand someone who could look at that and take nothing from it.

I believe all His ways lead to life. Abudent life..and I have seen the results. Christ was a humanist too though, because He came not for His own sake but for all people. He died, whether you believe He was divine or not, for us. That was His mission as He saw it and that's what He did. The only real question is whether He is risen, or not. If He didn't rise, then I am a fool. If He did, it proves everything He said. I think that's really the only practical way His claims could be evaluated, if His resurrection is a historical event.


>> ^xxovercastxx:
>> ^shinyblurry:
Sadly, he's right. I was fairly astonished that so many Christians didn't see anything wrong with celebrating someones death, Bin Laden or not.
I think you'll find a great many atheists who do subscribe to the sort of philosophy Jesus preached. Just because we don't think he was divine doesn't mean we think he was wrong. He had some good ideas; revolutionary ideas for his time; and his origins don't change that.

>> ^RadHazG:

Wow. and here I thought I would have to wait until the end of 2012 to laugh in the faces of idiots like this.


O no, people are always claiming "IT'S COMING!!!" One of my first girlfriends in college, as a matter of fact, brought me, grudgingly, to church with her. Once there I was surprised to learn that her pastor was feeding these kids some garbage about the world coming to an end in roughly one week. (true story)

I broke it off with her after a fight about how idiotic it all was; but looking back I should have used it as an excuse to fuck like mad until fake doomsday. Damn.