>> ^FlowersInHisHair:
Don't actually MAKE the dog bark, ffs. God, their poor neighbours.

That's a Jack Russell. It's going to bark incessantly regardless, so at least they're getting some entertainment out of it.

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>> ^JiggaJonson:
Reminds me of how many Native American tribes wont let you photograph them because they believe it steals their souls. That dog is a superstitious buffoon.

Yes, everyone knows that it's webcams that leave their users as soulless husks.

The dog is thinking...

"God-damned cats. Always messing with the time-space continuum."

I will embrace the distortion of the siftocalypse continuum by not reclaimvoting. *naughty me.

I know, but I gave you the easy answer

In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
but 4 that we can experience...space time continuum, brotha'

In reply to this comment by rasch187:
Only three that we can see.

In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
>> ^rasch187:
^ possibly, but remember that space isn't two-dimentional.

That was the easy answer...for full points, how many dimensions is space?

but 4 that we can experience...space time continuum, brotha'

In reply to this comment by rasch187:
Only three that we can see.

In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
>> ^rasch187:
^ possibly, but remember that space isn't two-dimentional.

That was the easy answer...for full points, how many dimensions is space?

Since police don't get convicted for shootings, and people who shoot police don't get off, shouldn't this cause a rip in the space-time continuum or something?

http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/caring-continuum.jpg

To make the point, it may have been more appropriate to say, "I could be more annoyed."


Still, it was as clever as all get out! HA!


In reply to this comment by thepinky:
Oh, this discussion annoys the heck outta me. I could be less annoyed.

http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/caring-continuum.jpg

>> ^Jaace:
"tasers save lives" is only true if the police were going to use a gun instead or perhaps their "whomping" stick OR if this guy was armed. They could have easily broken the glass in the back seat and NOT tasered this guy as he was CLEARLY not a threat and no one would have been injured. This is an outrage.
I don't think ALL cops are like this, but the few that are need to have their badges taken away irrevocably.


Very true. Police Services all use some sort of "force continuum". A subject displaying some sort of resistance, authorizes the officer to use one level of force higher then that being displayed by the subject. Every Service is different, but what this guy was displaying would be considered (by the Service I work for) passive resistance and verbal non compliance. This would not allow me to use a taser or any other non lethal weapon. Only when a subject becomes actively aggressive (punching, kicking, spitting) can a weapon like the taser or the baton be utilized. I cannot understand, nor would I work for any Service that allows it's officers to use weapons on passively defensive people. It's pathetic and gives a useful weapon like the taser a bad reputation.

>> ^gwiz665:
The illusion of intelligence does not confirm it.
People tend to anthropomorphize their pets, but that does not make them "people". While we sometimes cannot necessarily see the evolutionary connection to an animal's action, this does not mean that it isn't there.

This applies equally well to other humans, and even to ourselves. None the less, we assume that we are all in there somewhere. If we are in here (any of us) then it stands to reason that consciousness, which is complicated, would not be species specific. Since it seems to exist on a continuum, even within our own species. It seems not particularly adventurous to claim that others seem to have different, if less extreme, cases of the same quality.

Now you could, of course, take the position that nobody is conscious, and that consciousness is simply a useful illusion which our deterministic minds employ. This may very well be true, but In that case we are still in the same club as dogs/cats.

>> ^nadabu: oh, and the whole abortion debate is handled on preposterously unscientific grounds most of the time. it's plain as day that unborn "fetuses" are very much human children long before they are born. my son was born at 24 weeks. would he really have been "just a fetus" that my wife had some "right to kill" for the next 16 weeks were he not premature? Heck, i saw my daughter on ultrasound at 8.5 weeks. She already looked very human (just with an oversized head) and was moving around. Where on earth do we get the idea that human rights should only start at birth?

Roe V. Wade, which is the current state of the law in the US, allows limits on 3rd trimester abortion, for the reason you mentioned. But saying conception, or 1/2/3 months = human would mean that most miscarriages are manslaughter, or that the mothers body is, at the very least, a crime scene, this would be more absurd than the status quo.

Fetuses before 20weeks have no brain function, that is the science, they are not people by any reasonable definition. We, at present, have a continuum of "value" which the law places on a fetus as it becomes more likely to be conscious. As it stands birth is the least absurd of the arbitrary criteria we could use for discrete personhood.

Our moral sense did not evolve to deal with the fluidity of personhood, but that is what we see when we look at the science. No solution is morally satisfying, because the universe is not structured to appease our moral sense.

Funny how that defense (along with "just following orders") didn't hold up at the Nuremburg trials.

Now that you’ve officially Godwin-ed the thread, does it mean the space/time continuum is about to collapse? How about this? Barak Obama yesterday said that he was “not going to hold agents responsible for following orders…” How does it make you feel to know that Obama believes the Nuremburg defense is valid?

No matter how many ways you ratonalise it, this is torture. Torture is wrong. There is no way to justify it.

I already said that waterboarding is torture. If you thought otherwise then you are mistaken. But I disagree with your generic comment that ‘torture is wrong’. You can only make such a statement when you have supplied the EXACT definition of what torture is. If you leave the word vague and fuzzy then it could mean anything. The act of confining someone involuntarily is torture, but I wouldn’t say it was ‘wrong’.

Broad, sweeping generalizations go nowhere. Define what you consider to be an acceptable form of pressure to obtain intel from uncooperative detainees. Explain how your choice is not torture.

There is no argument about whether this is torture or not...blah blah blah...you $%&!

Read what I wrote. I already said WB is torture. Your lack of the ability to comprehend a VERY simple and clear statement is not a sign of my ignorance. Just so you can't miss it, I'll say it again. Waterboarding is torture. As a form of torture it is both effective while at the same time being relatively benign. It is scary, panic inducing, freak-out horrifying – but causes no damage. CIA says waterboarding terrorists helped to prevent attacks in Los Angeles. Hundreds, maybe thousands of lives saved and all we had to do is waterboard a guy like Zubaydah. I call that a pretty good deal.

Who writes this shit?

California Assembly Bill HR 36 Relative to Pluto's planetary status

WHEREAS, Recent astronomical discoveries, including Pluto's oblong orbit and the sighting of a slightly larger Kuiper Belt object, have led astronomers to question the planetary status of Pluto; and

WHEREAS, The mean-spirited International Astronomical Union decided on August 24, 2006, to disrespect Pluto by stripping Pluto of its planetary status and reclassifying it as a lowly dwarf planet; and

WHEREAS, Pluto was discovered in 1930 by an American, Clyde Tombaugh, at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, and this discovery resulted in millions of Californians being taught that Pluto was the ninth planet in the solar system; and

WHEREAS, Pluto, named after the Roman God of the underworld and affectionately sharing the name of California's most famous animated dog, has a special connection to California history and culture; and

WHEREAS, Downgrading Pluto's status will cause psychological harm to some Californians who question their place in the universe and worry about the instability of universal constants; and

WHEREAS, The deletion of Pluto as a planet renders millions of text books, museum displays, and children's refrigerator art projects obsolete, and represents a substantial unfunded mandate that must be paid by dwindling Proposition 98 education funds, thereby harming California's children and widening its budget deficits; and

WHEREAS, The deletion of Pluto as a planet is a hasty, ill-considered scientific heresy similar to questioning the Copernican theory, drawing maps of a round world, and proving the existence of the time and space continuum; and

WHEREAS, The downgrading of Pluto reduces the number of planets available for legislative leaders to hide redistricting legislation and other inconvenient political reform measures; and

WHEREAS, The California Legislature, in the closing days of the 2005-06 session, has been considering few matters important to the future of California, and the status of Pluto takes precedence and is worthy of this body's immediate attention; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the Assembly hereby condemns the International Astronomical Union's decision to strip Pluto of its planetary status for its tremendous impact on the people of California and the state's long term fiscal health; and be it further

Resolved, That the Assembly Clerk shall send a copy of the resolution to the International Astronomical Union and to any Californian who, believing that his or her legislator is addressing the problems that threaten the future of the Golden State, requests a copy of the resolution.