i'm familiar with "book smart", it's typical connotation is that you are supposed to have no common sense.
>> ^lavoll:

I once had american in-laws of that calibre. I remember the dad in the family angrily ending a discussion about the Balkan war this way: were bombing to prevent those guys from raping them women.
and with this family it was also the first time I heard the term 'book smart', and it was used very condescendingly.

>> ^NetRunner:


How about the people who will go out, and donate money, volunteer for, and vote for a guy like this? Can they be saved? Can the rest of us be saved from them?


i find this really interesting. i have two really, really badass friends. They're eclectic neo pagans. They support gay marriage. They love pre-marital sex. They love kinky sex. They give their children advice on masturbation and safe sex. They are not themselves swingers, but they hang out with lots of them. They smoke pot. They both have master's degrees in health science fields. They decorate their "yule" tree with pentagrams. They're really intelligent, groovy people. and They love Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin. I can't even ask them about it because we made a pact a long time ago that we wouldn't discuss politics. Because it makes our heads explode. BUT THIS MYSTERY IS MAKING MY HEAD WANT TO EXPLODE.

the problem with is not that he has faith in a creator, the problem with this is that it's the stupidest, most inarticulate argument ever and that he wants to lead nations.

I really dig andrew jackson jihad. they're kind of lo-fi anti folk diy 2 man out of pheonix. but they're not assholes. they've got easy beats and clever lyrics. sometimes their songs remind me of like... really dark metal songs, slowed down and folked up. like most diy outfits, they have a shit ton of random albums, i'll link you some songs from their split with ghost mice because i think it has the most complex, darkest shit on it. and on that album ghost mice covers their song "survival" which makes me really really happy. but i honestly have no idea how to embed just audio here....... pm and give me instructions and i'll change it.

1. little prince
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYm2H7kK8uo

i like these next 2 songs, because a. they're fucked up and b. they're one song split in half
6. all the dead kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5LHm8mky4E&feature=related

7. unicorn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ddX36PAG1Q

and just because i really really really love it, here's their song "survival"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fkKlr6pCSM

my shop is totally into this idea. we've partnered with other small local businesses to sell packages of their services/gift cards out of our store. especially since people tend to ask our advice about who's services/products to use. we have packages for car maintenance from our favorite mechanic, packages of house cleaning from the housekeeper we all use, gift cards to the independent restaurants surrounding us, gift cards to the local "art barn" and packages for the local winery we drink at... in addition to our own gift cards.and our caterer friends having been setting up samples of their holiday treats in our shop and we've been trying to send clients there to buy their baked goods for holiday parties instead of the chain grocery stores. it's actually kind of making me like christmas more.

I want to believe that this is the point chris hedge's is attempting to make:

whenever i listen to or read anything from sam harris i feel like he's trying to blame religion for all the evil. but i don't feel like he's naming it correctly. there's a more basic manipulation taking place. religion is simply the chosen mechanism. religion is a tool for social control. faith is a rather benign human characteristic. people WANT to have faith in something. and religion manipulates that desire to control X population. it's not the faith in something mystic and silly that fucks up the world, it's the emotional manipulation employed. but in alternate universe B, maybe the mechanism for social control looks completely different. and there are more than one mechanism for social control happening in this universe. class and race and sex are the most obvious. in harris's effort to vilify one single mechanism, instead of the underlying attribute (you could call it greed?), it often feels like he's creating another kind of tribalism. us vs. them. smart atheists vs. stupid evil religious people. i feel very divisive when i listen to him and his ilk. i'd rather not dislike religious people. i'd rather focus all my bad feelings on the men who manipulate basest desires to control the masses for financial gain. i'd rather hear more about who they are and how to stop them then about how insane religious people are going to destroy all of creation.

i'm upvoting only for the discussion here.

i'm an atheist. but i'm not a passionate one.
i normally really like chris hedge's.
i normally really don't like sam harris, or pz myers for that matter. i used to really really dislike hitchen's (the whole pro-iraq war thing) but i find him more palletable now. i think hedge's nailed what exactly it is about those men that rubs me the wrong way, it's the haughtiness.



but... this clip is full of straw men. it's beneath hedge's. feels like an advertisement for his book. but instead of making me want to read it, it makes me want to throw it at him for trying to sell shit with straw men and inflammatory-ish-ness. he can do better.

pffffft... i'd like to mention ladder theory. it seems to have been coined by a very angry, very sexually frustrated man on the internet. but i found it interesting. i have mostly dudes for friends. i've only gotten emotionally/sexually confused by 2 of them. one is a long term boyfriend. but i've interviewed them all about this ladder theory-ness. we all mostly agree with it. here it is:

men tend to have just one ladder, they would consider sticking their penis in every girl the know, just at varying levels. you may be the top rung on the ladder, or you may be at the very very bottom rung of the ladder. there is also the abyss... which is like "i'd rather chew my own arm off then sleep with this person". if you're there, you're either a relative or someone they dislike so much that you're not friends. or maybe you're an ex who did something awful.

girls have 2 ladders: a "guys they'd fuck ladder" and a "just friends" ladder. you can jump and/or straddle ladders, but you risk falling into the abyss.

i am aware that i've been/ may still be on some rung of my dude friends ladders, i suspect i occupy a rung at the very very bottom or maybe i'm in the abyss because i occupy "sister" status in their brains. they're all on my "just friends" ladder. so, it'll never happen. and i'm ok with that. i'm also not friends with emotionally stunted douchebags, which helps.

i feel like the only time you're not actually friends (despite whatever sexual interest may exist) is when you're so preoccupied with getting into your friends pants that you're not actually being her friend. or when one friend is in love and the other does not reciprocate. other than that, two reasonable, sexually attractive adults can be friends just fine.

I'm holding out for teleport.

also, I just imagined my future grandkids being toted around this way and gave me shivers.

wonderful!!! i loooove it! i want it hanging in my space!
In reply to this comment by AdrianBlack:
Sylvia Ji's art is where I get most of my avvy pics...every time I see this one, I think of you!

This one is good, searched for my brother, a list of TONS of army dudes with his name and he was the first on the list. and i didn't need to know his bday, only his first name last name and branch. if he isn't on the list here, it would seem that he's never even talked to a recruiter. not the best proof though maybe if your sis-in-law is smitten.

edit: it seems to depend how old his service is. for instance, brother was in the database but my father (who's service is considerably older) isn't. >> ^MycroftHomlz:

http://www.military.com/buddy-finder/
This one is pretty good... It seems I cant find him on either site.

That databate doesn't seem so great, i just entered my brother, i know everything but his SS# (middle name, dob) and it couldn't find him. and i know for a fact he's a veteran. >> ^MycroftHomlz:

https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/scra/scraHome.do
But you need to know the persons birthday. I could still use some help on this videosift... Any suggestions are welcome.

youll need his fullname and date of birth, which should be easy enough for your wife to get out her sister casually then you can pay for a background check. for an individual to do a background check is not terribly expensive maybe $40 at the most, worth it to find out if your sis is dating a psycho.

i have 2 clients that are P.I's, but i won't see them again for about 2 weeks.. i'll try to remember to ask them if they know anything.

if there's a joint, it'll crack.

i guess the weirdest places i can crack would be clavicles (mostly the right one) right posterior ribs .. probably the 7th, 8th and 9th ribs, sacrum (often, mostly right side) right side of my jaw, right elbow... oh and my wrists tend to crack hugely at about noon every work day.

i think my sternum cracked the other day for the fist time. i don't think that's supposed to happen. and it stinkin hurt.

I haven't seen moneyball, but we looooooooove baseball.