That's a rather speculative argument your making. We don't know exactly what was and wasn't said between the bikers and the driver. The bikers alleged this dude was giving quite a bit of back and forth and we don't know exactly what threat is made to provoke him driving over the bikes and escalating the whole thing. I never said that this was caused by lane splitting I was using it as an example from my own experience to make a point about some car drivers attitude and behaviour towards us.

The impression I get (and this is just a hunch like anyone else's including YOURS) is that this dude was talking shit and the bikers initially stopped him to make it clear he was in no position to be making threats (which lets face it would have been a foolish move for anyone). It's entirely possible that this whole thing could have been diffused at that point (and maybe not we don't get to see or hear the altercation).
Maybe this dude was just scared and calling the police, maybe he was directly antagonizing them as he did so as the bikers claim.

At no point have I done anything but condemn the bikers actions, I was merely trying to elucidate a different perspective and find a more informative angle than just "these bikers be dicks". They are people too (albeit ones of dubious moral character)


Are you familiar with the concept of holding two irreconcilable truths simultaneously to gain a deeper insight?

That's what I was doing here, I'm sorry I failed to make that more clear to you (language alone can be a clumsy way to communicate)

There's a veritable mountain of historic, behavioural and situational factors at work here, one of them is the basic resentment and animosity you subconsciously accumulate against a certain kind of car driver by simply being a biker. Other include mob dynamics, lifelong neuroses and inhibition control etc. etc.

When we say things like "fag gangs with knives" and make no attempt to understand their behaviour we get nowhere. In fact its worse than that, we go backwards as the simplistic black and white level untermensch/ubermensch relationship serves simply to fuel the same kind of situation in the future. That distinction exists but only works if derived dialectically rather than dualistically. (to paraphrase you need to be a bigger less emotionally compromised man/woman than these people or it will continue to happen. It's not a matter of who's right and wrong so much as "what failed and why?".)

I keep trying to not disagree with you because to a large extent I don't, I just don't believe in fixed perspectives. Your not wrong, but it does not invalidate the majority of what I'm trying to say/do. This is how higher synthesees or argument and understanding are derived. Someone had to chime in for the other side otherwise no-ones ideas have a chance to expand, on this occasion the duty fell to me and Chingy (not for the 1st time).

Dialectic logic > Aristotelian Logic

Like @Grimm said, these fellas did not just profit from a flaw in the system. They spent vast amounts of time and money lobbying for changes to the system, changes which made these exploits possible in the first place. Exploits that in most cases are still in violation of the law over here, but the oversight was starved out to a point of non-existence or simply handed over to entities they should be monitoring in the first place.

As a result, the City of London in particular accumulated enough economical leverage to hold the entire country hostage, knowing full well how a sweep of the City would lead to catastrophic ripples not only through the UK and Europe, but the entire bloody world. So now they can do whatever they please without fear of repercussions as seen in the case of HSBC.

This selective application of the law breeds contempt for the law, particularly if compared to the poor who get hammered for the slightest inconsistency in their paperwork. Too big to fail undermines the free market, but too big to jail undermines the basic rule of law.

Even in the very few cases that were prosecuted, only the institution was penalised, never any high level individual. Some of those responsible need to be held accountable, otherwise the riots in Tottenham will look like child's play compared to what will happen the next time these idiots drive the entire economy to the brink of collapse.

By the way, I'm still waiting for someone to end up in jail for the rigging of Libor or ISDAfix.

Go to Ostia Antica, the ancient (i.e. gladiator-era) port of Rome. It lay buried in accumulated silt for centuries but has relatively recently been excavated and is a beautiful and wonderful site to visit. If you go you'll see stone-paved streets that have never had a car drive on them, only gladiator-era horse-drawn wagons, and they have parallel ruts for the wheels of those wagons and aren't worn in the middle.

So, what's his motivation? Is he on the take from the military-/intelligence-industrial complex? Is he genuinely worried about the boogeyman to a point of irrational fear? Is he using security as a means to accumulate more personal power?

Whatever his reasons may be, it worries me to see folks just like him in ever increasing numbers occupying positions of power all over the place, all singing the same tune: the implicit right of security trumps all other constitutional rights, so shut the fuck up and obey.

An "Information diet" .....

Here's the deal McNeil, too often, a peep with a functioning IQ and an addiction to accumulating data and "knowledge" on the internet with no real practical application skills becomes a walking, spewing, ineffectual Trivial Pursuit robot.

What effect does the knowledge of the universe have with no practical means of affecting social, spiritual, cultural, etc. evolution? Web-access is being tailored to accommodate the Babylonian machine, not to empower the individual or society at-large.

Loathe the tactics Google has instituted, it won't change for anyone's better but for those with the keys to the web.

I had a cat that used to get in fights (plural, it happened more than once) with coyotes. By the time he was 5-6 years old he was down to about 1/3rd of an ear total, broken tail, permanent limp, sliced lip so he drooled all the time, mangy lookin', etc.

Maybe that level of accumulated battle scars convinced him to retire from fighting, and he survived in that state for another 5 years or so. Tough ol' bastard.

@criticalthud
Yeah, I've been accused of that, but I blame that on the "arguing on the internet" aspect of things, rather than my actual mindset. For instance, as much as I talk up Medical Science, I still don't trust doctors, and in the last 10 years, have only visited to A) get a Physical Examination required by a job, B) get a prescription for a PT, C) Get innoculated for one of the bird/swine flu, as I had been sick for a week after spending a weekend at a "Gamer Convention" (PAX), where there were many confirmed cases.

But, while I don't trust doctors, I actively campaign against "Alternative Medicine", as I've seen many people hurt by it. I've seen one person poison themselves after getting food poisoning, because "like cures like", and I've had one friend commit suicide after they were convinced that the anti-psychotic medicine they were taking wasn't "natural", and quit it.

Whenever I think of alternative medicine practitioners and their criticism of Proper Medicine, I have one quote that sticks in my head, courtesy of The Big Lebowski:
"You're not wrong, Walter. You're just an asshole"

Sure, Medical Science can be improved. But you can't improve it by removing the science. You improve it by removing the politics. Remove the kickbacks from big pharma. Remove the groveling and begging for research funds. Remove the Actual Politics of Insurance and Medicare and Medicaid and VA Benefits. Remove the Actual Politics of the 'War on Drugs".

Those are the problems in our current medical community. But rather than attempting to solve the actual problems that we all agree on, most naturopaths are just treating the symptoms... working on the edges of society, and contributing to the distrust of the individual doctors, rather than the overhaul of the entire system.

And there are certainly many types of naturopaths. Of those that I've met (my wife spent three years in a "Traditional Western Herbalism" school, so I've met quite a few), most have problems differentiating between an idea and a fact. An unsettling amount believed that herbalism is effective because the ancient aliens that brought us to earth also brought us a dramatic and intelligent plant-system which was created to diagnose and treat all of our illnesses.

They believe that through meditation, they are able to connect to this awareness, and this awareness is what will tell them what to give their patients.


It's not the individuals I have a problem with, it's their poor education that I have a problem with. Some NPs can overcome the disadvantage of their environment that de-values scientific method and fact-gathering. Many MDs can overcome the disadvantage of years of de-valuing their own intuition.

But acknowledging the similarities between the two ignores the actual harm that is caused by alternative medicine. Alternative medicine shares the same risks as Proper Medicine, with the same chances of mis-treatment.... but it removes any chance of surgery or active treatment to cure issues. It removes the huge base of shared understanding, and replaces it with a very small base of folklore that has been accumulated through "give the patient this plant, if they don't die, it must have cured them".

Personally I see him as a morose Englishman rather than a morose Wright. And who cares if he directly builds on Wright or is unoriginal? All culture is accumulative. The point is you *add* to what has gone before.

Muslim fundamentalists seem to be more numerous and powerful than the Christian ones. The reasons for this have little to do with the religious fundamentals themselves as laid out in their holy books. Both books are full of soaring praise of peace and execrable lust for vengeance over imagined slights. Both books really do say that those who don't worship your way should be put to death. Whether you listen to the nasty parts or the nice ones has everything to do with your relative economic situation. If you are satisfied with your lot, it is easy to find the passages of your screed that advocate peace, harmony, and tradition. If you are unhappy and see yourself as oppressed, it is easy to find the passages that advocate war, upheaval, and radical acts of violence against the oppressor. Muslim fundamentalists are more numerous and powerful than the Christian ones because the Muslim countries are poorer. The radical messages get more traction among them. The more poor Christians we accumulate in this country, the more our own homegrown radicals, the WBC, will be taken seriously.

When payroll tax went up on Jan 1st, I had to subtract about $200 from my monthly retirement investments. At my average rate of return over 30 years (when I plan to retire) that's a HUGE chunk of change. It's hundreds of thousands of dollars out of my future pockets.

I thought Obama wasn't going to raise taxes on the middle class???? He's trying to raise taxes even more now!!!! How am I supposed to accumulate wealth when he keeps taking money off the top of my paycheck?

Libertarian nonsense. There has never existed a "free market" that did not have rules and regulations enforced by a government. Cite a historical example of a functioning, laissez-faire economy at the state or nation level, I dare you.

Since government in the form of a democratic republic is representative of and composed of the people that are governed, removing the government from the economy means removing the people from the economy. A transition to an ideal "free market" simply means that those that currently "have" will face absolutely zero pressure to consider the "have nots". There will be no environmental regulations, no ability to prevent monopolies, nothing to stop outright exploitation of the labor force.

Our government hasn't created the 1%, it has failed to stop them from accumulating the wealth and power that they have. The answer is not to abolish the only mechanisms that could possibly rein them in but to strengthen and enforce those mechanisms.

I'd say that he certainly flinched, I just think it was well after the piece of shrapnel with his name scribed upon it had already passed.

Would love to see the outtake where he blows off the adrenaline accumulated by such a near miss (or given the comment about the women who chase him, mebbe I don't want to see it... (or mebbe I do...=)).

Haha! Damnit, I'm trying to get rid of power points, not accumulate them!

Thanks though!

Nice work! Loved the stack of paper accumulating under each scene and credits being all the thrown away sheets of paper.

I won't go on about the worst as I'm just trying to forget them and it's boring.

FILMS
Dredd. Well cast, looks great, a lean story and a well wrought vision of Mega-City One. Loved it. The soundtrack is great as well.

The Avengers. More superhero films should be made like this, particularly when handling multiple characters. Better than any of the preceding films that built up to it.


GAMES
Far Cry 3. Haven't finished it but this is a wonderful open-world shooter/stalker/explore-em-up. A self-contained world that totally convinces.

X-Com. Great remake/reboot/whatever. This could have gone wrong so easily but speaking as a fan of the orginal 1994 classic, this got far more right than it got wrong.


BOOKS
Sadly, I don't recall reading much this year. In fact I may not have read a book at all. A friend is obsessed with Murakami so I may start there in 2013.


MUSIC
I'm accumulating music fairly organically and randomly from Youtube viewing, games and other sources. But I can't really recall any of the big releases this year. The one thing that made me smile though was Gangnam Style.

TV
Just Breaking Bad. TV is so bad in the UK right now I've long stopped watching it.