Hey Genji! I'm hoping this happy birthday missive finds you well and ready to trip the day fantastic. Enjoy your day to shine

The twilight of your 30's ... Happy Birthday artician. Let it shine

Your video, Disabled Player Put in the Game for a Moment to Shine, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

@enoch,

but you and i may disagree on some things,but i would like to think we have both earned each others respect.


Agreed.

I also share a similar sentiment in lamenting the lack of actual legitimate journalism. I've only got a handful of people out there that I feel I can actually trust to make an effort to present all sides and the most relevant/important facts when presenting a topic. The dogged determination of most media(independent and otherwise) to show nothing but a single dimension to an issue that fits their own bias is saddening.

Chomsky in particular is a real lose to me as he has rapidly declined from shining a light on America's mistakes into someone that solely, and exclusively documents why America is evil. Anything good or reasonable in it's actions is never touched on or quickly glossed over, the corresponding evils and ills of any and all other parties is similarly ignored. The lone exception being those allied to America in which case their evil once again are documented.

I've lost patience with that kind of single mindedness and call it out as what it is, propaganda.

@ChaosEngine
agreed.
context matters and i think being a decent human being plays a large role in that dynamic.

people tend to attempt to break down complex ideas and/or ideologies into more easily digestible morsels.this "twitter speak",in my opinion,is largely responsible for the decay of human interactions.

we all are biased.
we all hold prejudices,and preconceptions based on our learned experiences.
which are subjective.

we see the world through the lens of our own subjectivity and even the most open minded and non-judgemental person,when trying to sympathize/empathize with another person, will use their own subjective understandings in order to understand that person.

this tactic,which we all employ,will almost always fall short of true understanding.

so we rely on words,metaphors,allegory etc etc in order to communicate fairly complex emotions and experiences.

what brendon o'neill is pointing out,is that when we start to restrict words as acceptable and unacceptable,we infantilize our interactions.

words are inert.
they are simply symbols representing a thing,action or emotion.
it is WE who apply the deeper meanings by way of our subjective lens.

i am not trying to make something simple complicated,but bear with me.
a rock will always be a rock,but a cunt has a totally different meaning here in the states than in britain.(love you brits,and cunt is a brilliant word).

the problems of culture,region,nationality or race all play a role in not only how we communicate but how that communication is received ...and interpreted.

so misunderstandings can happen quite easily,and then when we consider that the persons intent is by far the greatest metric to judge the veracity of the words being spoken,and just how difficult it is to discern that intent....this is where nuance and context play such a major role,but we need to have as many tools in our language box to express oftentimes very difficult concepts,multi-layered emotions and complicated ideologies.

and,unfortunately,there are attempts to legislate speech.

of course well intentioned,and reasonable sounding,but like any legislation dealing with the subjective nature of humans,has the possibility of abuse.

case in point:http://sds.utoronto.ca/blog/bill-c-16-no-its-not-about-criminalizing-pronoun-misuse/

a new canadian addendum to their human rights statute.on the surface this is a fairly benign addition to canadas already existing human rights laws,but there is the possibility of abuse.

a psychology professor from university of toronto was critical of this new addendum,and has created a flurry of controversy in regards to his criticism.

which you can check out here:
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/civil-rights/301661-this-canadian-prof-defied-sjw-on-gender-pronouns-and-has-a

now he was protested,received death threats,there was even violence and a new internet star was born affectionately labeled "smugglypuff".

see:http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/smugglypuff

i agree that free speech cannot be viewed with an absolutist mindset.absolutist thinking leads to stagnation and a self-righteous fundamentalism,so we NEED the free flow of ideas...even BAD ideas..even offensive and racist..because this brings all those feelings/thoughts/ideologies into the market of ideas to be either absorbed or ridiculed and ultimately ostracized for the shit philosophy they represent.

i WANT to know who the racists are.
i want to know who is bigoted or prejudiced.
i want to know who is holding on to stupid ideas,or promoting fascism dressed up as nationalistic pride.

and the only way to shine a light on these horrendous and detrimental ideas is to allow those who hold them openly state who and what they are...so we can criticize/challenge and in some cases..ridicule.

we should be free to say whatever we wish,but we are not free from challenge or criticism.
we can say whatever pops into our pretty little head,but we are not free from consequences.
we are also not free from offense.

i know this is long,and i hope you stayed with me,and if you did,thanks man.i know i tend to ramble.

but we can use the banning of gorillaman as a small microcosm of what we are talking about here.

i felt that we,as a community,could take gorilla to task for his poor choice in verbiage "nigger prince" and i attempted to make the case by using his history,dark humor and bad taste to add context to his poor choice of wording.

bareboards felt it was a matter for the administrators to deal with.i am not saying her choice was wrong.just that we approached the problem from different perspectives.

now gorilla decided to become the human torch and flame out.which threw my approach right out the window.

but the point i am making in that case,is that bad ideas,bad philosophies,bigotry and racism will ALWAYS reveal themselves if we allow that process to ultimately expose bad ideas/shit person.

the free flow of ideas is the proverbial rope that ultimately hangs all shit ideas.

thanks for hanging kids.
love you all!

Wherever you are, my friend, the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years to you.

I hope one day we catch up.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again, for the first time.

Till that day.

Maybe, but realistically, they won't. Here is a list of the most popular hits of 1916, let me know which ones you hear people singing today.

"O Sole Mio" by Enrico Caruso
"Santa Lucia" by Enrico Caruso
"Somewhere a Voice is Calling" by John McCormack
"Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night?" by Al Jolson
"I Love A Piano" by Billy Murray
"Pretty Baby" by Billy Murray
"I'm Gonna Make Hay While the Sun Shines in Virginia" by Marion Harris
"Keep the Home Fires Burning ('Till the Boys Comes Home)" by James F. Harrison
"There's A Long Long Trail A-Winding" by James F. Harrison
"Ireland Must Be Heaven, For My Mother Came From There" by Charles Harrison

For the police that are pulling out, your countercurrentnews quoted the Dan County Sherrifs office as pulling out and not planning to return. The local news link they reference though tells much more than just the biased spin countercurrent put on it. Sheriff Mahoney cites the reason for pulling out was that their agreed on involvement was only ever for the week they were there and no future funding was offered so they would be sacrificing local services to go back.

Even more glaring an omission if Mahoney is to be championed as countercurrent did, he described his officers experience at the pipeline as follows:

“Our people have shined, they report they stood in line and were confronted with baseball bats and tire irons and being sprayed with wasp spray,” he said. “Our deputies said there was a need for law enforcement.”

The full local story free of countercurrent's extremely prejudiced and biased stripping is below if you want a more full story. Surprisingly, the police officers aren't all just showing up on the protesters own property to start shooting them with water, tear gas, and rubber bullets while the protesters huddle up and sing kumbaya.

http://m.bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/sheriff-in-wisconsin-pulls-deputies-back-from-north-dakota-pipeline/article_c0378e3a-8e57-59f1-99
75-781c35bf1ee1.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

He's one of those comedians where the smarts just shine through, even when he's not trying.

Hey LooiXIV! Hope the sun is shining on your birthday. Enjoy a kingly day and get your googly on

Another Birthday Greeting just for you Gary. I hope you have a fun day planned and the sky shines bright on you!

Your video, The Man In The Bear Costume in The Shining Explained, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Agreed. I heard a song of theirs on the radio the other day and spent a lot of the song trying to identify it. It was obviously Metallica, and sounded like their old stuff, so I thought it might have been off Garage Days or something I didn't know that well.

Was pleasantly surprised to hear it's off the new album. Obviously the better production didn't shine through the crap car radio and traffic noise.

Your video, Rise and Shine, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 16 Badge!

I like when his bitterness only shines through in bits...like when he called his ex a B...right in the middle of a universe rant.