>> ^alizarin:

That's supposed to save my life?

Exactly my reasoning. And they've determined that if you're "out-of-position", meaning not sitting in an upright back position in your seat with your arms by your side, then airbags could be dangerous. Cited.

Think about that next time you prop your feet on the dash [passenger], or cross your legs on long drives [passenger again], or lean forward to grab something from the floorboard, or even lean forward to change the radio station.

Saw it here at the Esquire back in the 90's with a girlfriend at the time.

You could tell which guys in the audience were writers, because we were the ones leaning forward and sitting on the edge of our seats.

I did rappeling in Boy Scouts. Tons of fun. You learn to lean back. Then you go down forward. Did all that. Heck, I got Eagle Scout at the end.

So at High School some time later, my P.E. class was doing 'The Tower', which is at one side of the atheltic field. All these jocks who thought they were tough as nails, turned in to cry babies. Rather amusing to watch. I got up there, past all of them, linked up, and just leaned forward and ran down the wall. Got down and climbed back up there. Was rather fun taunting all those jocks for being scared.

After you rappel a 300 foot cliff, that tower, was only 90 feet was like two hops.

One of my friends that did USMC basic said, if I had joined, I would have done pretty well on most things. Alas, being 6'10" tall, I found to my dismay, the US Military's height limit was 6'8". Oh well...

Granted, I just promoted this and I understand this site has a very heavy atheist user base. Actually, it's the promoted, encouraged and abject hatred of anyone who is religious at all that has kept me away from here. I really don't argue religion, especially here. But I will just post my opinion on the content of this very short video since I happened by it. And I'm going to break it down as it happens.

The question in the beginning seems to be "Are you a religious man?" (when considering the wonders of nature etc). He answers "no". She then asks if it (again his experience with nature) has any philosophical meaning to him and he begins by telling her she hadn't asked him that. When, in fact, that's the question she's now actually asking. But he reveals that he has a particular problem with Christianity even though it was never specifically brought up. If the question is "How does your extensive background in observing nature impact your philosophical view of the world?" and the answer begins with "Well, I don't like Christianity". Then I think that's a problem. There's a skewed view coming from somewhere else that has nothing to do with the question being asked at all.

Then we go into this dramatically told story of the boy with a worm eating his eye. And he leans forward and thrusts this bullshit out trying to force it down her throat into meaning something. But it doesn't. I can tell you all sorts of stories. I know someone who was pushed in front of a subway train. Dead. There was one guy I walked passed in an alley that was being beaten to death with metal garbage cans. I personally have been shot at, electrocuted, stabbed, almost drowned under ice, poisoned, stitched up to the point where I was on a first name basis in the emergency room, fuck .. I should be a super hero .. or at least God's enemy number 1 .. but I don't think it works that way. Bad things happen to all kinds of people. It's a sad argument to say God doesn't exist because human suffering does.

In any event, this worm feeds on other things besides the human eye. Obviously. Or it would be extinct or we'd all be fucking blind. So this worm was not "made by God" to devour some child's eyeball. The same way HIV was not created by God to destroy the gays. It's nature. And someone like Attenborough should know that nature takes it's course without discrimination. It is VERY frustrating to hear him say "you believe it was created by God ... that God said "I will make a worm that can only live by eating/boring people's eyes". Even if you are a hardcore atheist this is utter shit.

He caps off his personal hatred of Christianity with "the Christian idea of a God who cares for each of us". And that the eyeball eating worm is incompatible with that. Well personally, I think his argument is already moot just from what I've said above but there is nothing ... regardless of whatever magic gumdrop land concept of Christianity that he has .. that says that people who follow the faith won't suffer.

If anything, everything about it tells you it is the path to more suffering.

In short, no chtierna. No, it wasn't Satan, it wasn't a punishment and no it wasn't some decree of God beyond our comprehension. The worm ate the eye the same way you eat the cow. Or the carrot if you're vegetarian. Or the way I eat my celery out of bloody mary most sunday mornings.

You mean I finally get to do my first *quality? Woohoo! Drinks are on me.


Ok, so this was years ago, and I was at a friend's birthday party. I had lost a significant amount of weight because I would bicycle everywhere, and I hadn't been out drinking. So I decide, damnit man, ahm Scah-ish, and I'm goun ta drink meh ancestor's drink! So I get a fifth of Cutty Sark and start doing shots. Now, not having ever tried Scotch but once prior to that night, I have to tell ya. It's liquid peat moss. Or maybe just Cutty Sark is. I don't know. But as with any liquor, once you get the first few shots down, you don't even taste or care anymore. So I proceed to drink about more than 1/2 the bottle, as well as a few beers...

So let me lay the scene for you here. We've got a small 1 bedroom apartment crowded with about 30 people. The stereo is up high, and after about 3 hours, I've made it to a chair at the dining room table. I start to get dizzy, so I put my elbows on the table, interlock my fingers and rest my chin in my hands, as I'm looking out into the room. And EVERYTHING is going up and down, in and out, and swirly. You know, like a merry-go-round? I can also hear every word at each of the conversations which were taking place around the room, as well as in whatever song was playing at the time. I don't even remember who eventually was around me but people were saying stuff like "Oh man, look how white he is!" "Dude, you need to go to the bathroom..." And I'm going "No, it's ok. I'm not gonna puke...I'm not gonna"

The last thing I saw was vomit shooting through my interlaced fingers.

So what do you do? Just put yourself there for a minute. Your that fucked up and you just start throwing up. Yup, I cupped my hands together to lean forward and make a bowl with my hands.

Now, physics was the LAST thing on my mind at this point. I forgot a critical variable: volume. Needless to say, I got. it. everywhere. All over the cake, in the ashtrays, people's cigarettes, in people's drinks, on people. Someone told me later I looked like a fire hydrant with an obstruction in the way. Luckily almost everyone there was a friend, so I survived a potential beating. (But at the cost of the ribbing I still take to this day )

So they throw me in the bathroom. Now, I'm conscious enough to know that I don't want someone pissing next to my face as I bow before the Porcelain God, so I lock the door. And promptly pass out. Eventually I finally wake up enough to open the door, and am promptly hauled out passed the line that formed, and am unceremoniously dumped on the bed. The only recollection I have of the rest of the night, is waking up several times lying face down, my hands and arms in the "goalpost" formation, and my head to pointing to the left. Have you ever gotten tired of lying in one position? I lifted my head, just to turn it to the right and got the whole Ferris Wheel action from before. So I kept passing out unable to turn my head.

Next morning, incredibly, I had no hangover. However, that is the only night in my life where I have no recollection of events. You could say I blew the dog and I'd have to take your word on it.

Ah well...it's good for a laugh.

Generalization or not, she has some very valid points. In fairness, I think I would have liked it better had she pointed out that most religions denounce violence. It's usually religious extremists that cause all the trouble and violence in the world. I know people that are Catholic, but don't believe that Creationism should be taught in schools. Whenever anyone takes something to an extreme, it can cause trouble. Religion just seems to have a way of magnifying that because it seeps into every aspect of life.

Also, someone referred to her as using a cheap trick by showing cleavage. I fail to see how wearing a somewhat low cut shirt invalidates her argument. If I had to guess, I'd say the fact that she was close to the camera and leaning forward a little bit was more for dramatic effect, not to get her rack on Videosift.

Ever saw a female hobo lingering around in front of the building, all of sudden pulls down her pants, leans forward and start shooting it out while still standing up?

I have. Right in front of FIT in NYC

I was kinda hoping he was going fall asleep, lean forward, and drive the pen up a nostril and into his brain.