>> ^videosiftbannedme:
Don't ask me why, but I got the same feeling I get when I watch any of the Maru cat videos. And sure enough, at the end, it was Japanese. Now that makes me wonder what qualities of both videos are distinctly Japanese. Points to ponder...


Well in each case the videos are made up of short clips that each display a build-up to a resolution of action, over and over. Also the things that happen are prosaic and slightly tranquilizing to watch. Plus there's no sound besides the ambient noises; it's almost like there's nobody there.

"Because providing for a common defense is written into the Constitution, while taking care of citizens' every need (and want) is not."

While you're certainly entitled to your opinions, you aren't free to revise the Constitution to leave out the portions that are inconvenient to your argument. Let's go to the text:

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
...
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States"

So yes, "provide for the common defense" is written in the Constitution - but so is "promote the general welfare." Stepping away from your straw man argument about catering to "citizens' every need (and want)" and getting back to health care - I think it's clear that improving the health of the US falls well within the bounds established.

"...the huge, tyrannical government the South feared during Civil War days is now a dangerous reality."

You mean that huge, tyrannical government the South feared would regulate their slave trade? You don't see the irony in siding with the pro-slavery South in order to convince people to "defend liberty?"

"...there's a conservative pissed at 9 billion lost PER YEAR on Medicare fraud. "

Red herring issue - but hey, if you really want to go there let's do the comparison. On one hand, according to you, conservatives are pissed about 9 billion lost PER YEAR on Medicare fraud. On the other hand, you have liberals pisses about $605 billion and 4,276 troop deaths due to the fraudulent war in Iraq. Who do you think has the moral high ground?

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:
^ netrunner
All social legislations only cater to a portion of the populations moral convictions at the cost of the others. It violates the ideas of freedom. The issue isn't whether I think I have the authority over you to interpret the constitution. There is a more basic set of ideas about what the constitution was setup to protect, it might be easier to deal with those first. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is about the more general starting point we have to go on for a social contract. The constitution in whole can be seen a protecting and preserving these things, both against/from others and the government itself. Meaning, no body shall wrongfully cause you death, confinement or restriction, deprivation or enforcement of ambitions.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is in the Declaration of Independence, not in the Constitution. That document starts off:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

A perfect Union does not let someone die from illness because they don't have money in their pockets. It is not Justice to say that a man's right to property supersedes another man's right to live. The general welfare is promoted by keeping people healthy and free of disease. I am not Blessed with Liberty if I have to bankrupt myself just to keep living.

I hold these truths to be self-evident and all that.

As for the rest of your response, you're mostly giving your own interpretation, rather than words and concepts actually delineated in the Constitution.

The phrases "Social legislation" and "personal responsibility" and even "right to property" do not appear in the Constitution.

I'm fine with that, and we can certainly have a discussion based on our own viewpoint of how we should think about the way the government should act and why, but let's dispense with the idea that the Constitution forbids the entire slate of liberal policy goals, including things like a national committment to universal health care.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

What amazes me are the numbers of people telling the US Government to stay the Heck Out of their Medicare! LOL! The Irony! Promote the General Welfare is quite different from Do Nothing when Health Insurance CEO's ration and dictate your care for the Almighty Dollar, NOT Promoting the General Welfare!

>> ^KnivesOut:
The tags should be changed. We have no way to know from context whether this was provoked or not, you're drawing conclusions from a few seconds of video. I only upvoted because the audio is hilarious.
If I could I'd add this to lies and controversy.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of cops. These days, the tazer is being used like a tranquilizer gun on a game-reserve, except they're treating every common citizen like s/he's a wild tiger.

I'll concede that unprovoked was a bit much for the tags, but I do believe he's being as peaceful as a person can be when they approach him yelling "Taser taser taser!".

I also added it to Controversy, but Lies? There are no actual facts in this video that are wrong, except if you mean the description or title, in which case, see my earlier point.

The tags should be changed. We have no way to know from context whether this was provoked or not, you're drawing conclusions from a few seconds of video. I only upvoted because the audio is hilarious.

If I could I'd add this to *lies and *controversy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of cops. These days, the tazer is being used like a tranquilizer gun on a game-reserve, except they're treating every common citizen like s/he's a wild tiger.

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

Drugs? She's obviously high on the holy spirit.<sup>*




*</sup> Holy spirt = street name for mix of mescaline and horse tranquilizers

If you do it right, you get fractal views of things around the room, your surrounding start to migrate about, blend, roll over themselves, and dominate what you can see. You get very surreal hallucinations, ranging, in my cases, from teeth floating out of a smiling face and becoming larger than the originating head, tranquil river valleys as seen through the bathroom mirror, wondering why I can't get there, and utter confusion as to why I arrive back in reality having ripped apart my bedsheets, facing a wall, with my pillow clenched tightly, especially since I started the trip downstairs in the main room on the couch. I naturally don't remember parts of the trip in the middle, I describe it to people who are about to take it that it's like taking a sledge hammer to your brain then trying to pick up the pieces. It's much more fun to watch someone who has never done it before do it. When smoked in little bits your brain starts the "pulling, swirling" sensation, where you feel like you're in a cement trucks mixer, and your falling into the turn, but you never fall, even though you're always falling. Other descriptive things would include "cactus like pins and needles all over", "funny, cartoonish images dancing in ones field of vision" "trying to continuously push yourself out of a stupor created by an artificial bubble of time distortion." I gave the tiniest hoot to a girl once that had never done it, she exhaled immediately, i turned around to say something, turned back to see what everyone was looking at, and she had ran out onto the street outside, like, bolted, and guys ran after her to see what was wrong. fukkked! thank you.

I think Arvana just goes around Canada finding cute cuddly animals and injects them with a tranquilizer...then posts the results on Videosift...

It is adorable though! (the cute little hamster in this case, not Arvana sneaking around with a syringe full of tranquilizer agents...)

I wish they had recorded it in super slow motion, so we could see the raw anger in the bruce lee squirrel's face, or complete tranquility, who knows.

Wait, so Serenity came in 2nd but they still named it Tranquility?

... WHAT WAS THE FREAKING POINT OF HAVING A NAMING CONTEST IF YOU TOTALLY IGNORE THE RESULTS!?!??

Hah, had a hunch you were the one who promoted it, thanks

In reply to this comment by LadyDeath:
*promote

Damn one album per artist is harsh



No particular order:

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds Of Fire
Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Goes Numb
Thrice - Vheissu
Yndi Halda - Enjoy Eternal Bliss
3 - Wake Pig
Al Di Meola - Elegant Gypsy
Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
Blue Sky Black Death - Late Night Cinema
Converge - Jane Doe
Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery
Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Protest the Hero - Fortress
Pure Reason Revolution - The Dark Third
Riverside - Second Life Syndrome
The Flashbulb - Soundtrack to a Vacant Life
The Who - Quadrophenia
Wintersun - Wintersun
X Japan - Art Of Life
Between the Buried and Me - Colors
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# ∞
Liquid Tension Experiment - Liquid Tension Experiment
Chiaki Ishikawa - Boku wa Mada Nanimo Shiranai
Damien Rice - O
Refused - Shape of Punk to Come
Edge Of Sanity - Crimson
Ulver - Bergtatt
Radiohead - OK Computer
Laura - Radio Swan is Down
In Mourning - Shrouded Divine
Bill Bruford - One of a Kind
Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow
John Coltrane - Blue Train
Naked City - Naked City
Death - Symbolic
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Camel - Mirage
Yes - Close to the Edge

For the moment anyway, lots of new stuff I will probably get over in a few months.

This hurts my head so much, I think I'm the one who needs tranquilizers.

Thanks!

In reply to this comment by fissionchips:
*promote. I really dig these tranquil landscape collages.