A solar-powered teleprompter! Why didn’t I think of that before!
(Barack Obama)
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Anyone else wondering how he got inside Cerebro?
Clearly it’s a Magneto plot.
It was really hard for me to dislike Magneto because he is the spitting image of my Grandfather… People crack me up when he’s out and about doing double takes
Why would you want to dislike Magneto? Dude’s badass. Of course, I’ve always sort of gravitated to the villians.
*dons black and purple overlord outfit, sports a scowl and evilly trimmed facial hair. Makes a sweeping gesture.*
We will give them democracy and dare I say socialism at the pointed sword of intelligence and when they bleed their last foolish drop of blood, the People’s Breasts will swell as a herald of more to come… Ready my blades for tonight we feast on the storehouses of the ignorant.
*swoons*
*narrows eyes and growls*
You wench! To my tent, we have much to discuss for presenting the People’s Breasts…
*marches to the tent*
*skips off and attempts an appropriately contrite expression*
*puts the People’s Breast through appropriate thorough inspection and oral testing*
Now Jane makes sure to rub it in or else she won’t get bit again.
*steps out of tent with a smirk* To battle, we have lives to bring to ruin and villages to burn…
Huzzah!
*razes some villages and stabs a lot of people and runs down even more*
This is a good day…
^that to the 10th power.
He’s pretty bad ass, especially for an old dude.
I understand his views, even agree with some of them, but someone has to make the first move in trying to live together. His methodology is what sucks and blows!
Guess I’m the only one having to restrain themselves from ranting about how awesome Whedon’s run on X-Men was.
Yes, yes you are.
Awwww, ps is a jossian fanboi!!!
j/k
I’m not a fan of most of his stuff. Buffy and Angel were trash (can I get away with that here? Let’s find out).
Well, they were okay to a certain point. Buffy lost me that season after she died and Angel lost me when Cordelia slept with Angel’s 14 year old son. Gross. They later tried to pretend he was 18 but he SO wasn’t when he came back. Neither one of them were Firefly, which was way better yet got the shaft.
Totally. Firefly cancellation = epic shame.
Every time I watch my DVD’s I get angry all over again.
The best series on TV since the last couple seasons of DS9!
To be fair, I never gave either a chance, just saw some mid-run episodes and was deeply unimpressed (and had ranting fanboy buddies, which never helps). We all know Firefly was the shit, and like most good shows, had to be cancelled after one season.
Now, I’ve not seen any of his new show, Dollhouse. The concept just doesn’t seem all that appealing to me.
ROFL! Me too. Linkey.
Yet I have found time to sit through the first two episodes of Buffy creator Joss Whedon’s latest creation, Dollhouse (Tue, 9pm, Sci-Fi). And it’s bloody awful. Perhaps it’ll turn into a work of genius in its third season. I won’t know, because I’ll have either given up or died by then.
Oh that was hilarious, thank you!
Pleasure was all mine, believe me.
And Buffy was a great movie. The series was blah-mehtastic.
Eh, for lighthearted vampires, I much prefer Lost Boys. Even in it’s own very limited genre it’s unimpressive, IMO.
I think Lost Boys is one of those generational movies like Goonies and Labyrinth that if you saw it in childhood you love it now, but if for some reason you were the wrong age or it just passed you by you don’t get it.
I’d go geh. Definitely
Did you see ‘The Dark Crystal’ as a kid? Always loved that one. Looks like gelfling… smells like gelfling… must be – GELFLING!
ESSENCE OF GELFLING!! WANTS!!ELEBNETY!!!
Oh hells yeah, but I wasn’t a *kid*
See, this proves my theory. I did NOT see Dark Crystal as a kid and consequently think it’s lame as hell now. I mean, it doesn’t even have David Bowie in tight pants, for god’s sake!
Warning: Film contains high content of Bowie’s bulge.
Oddly enough, I love the costumes that Jareth wore. Struck me as what a Fey King would wear while being a badass still. Besides, he’s exhausted living up to your expectations…
Dude.
That’s an awfully thorough analysis of another dude’s junk.
You missed out something fierce. Dark Crystal was my favourite movie (well, after the Transformers movie, but you get the idea).
Bowie makes more of an impression with your glandular bias, I guess.
Love Lost Boys, teenage angst and horrid violence. I was fond of the use of the Lost signs on that billboard. A ton with vampires, murder capital of the world to its citizens.
The only thing I think you had to be there to understand was the clothes. Everything still makes sense or perhaps I am just thinking too much.
Labyrinth and Goonies are awesome and so is the Dark Crystal.
In retrospect, the quantity of Bowie Bulge in Labyrinth is kind of worrying. Yes it’s Jennifer Conelley, but she’s only just 16 and he’s 40? Ew.
Well if you had stretchy fabric that close over your junk and a lovely gal running around, you might have a bulge too.
As for age, well society has always been offkilter on that, though I personally support leaving anybody below 18 alone on an ethical basis.
Wasn’t the Sarah/Jareth relationship intended to come off as inappropriate, creepy, and stalkerish?
I sure hope it was. Otherwise that’s REALLY worrying.
I think the point was that Jareth was only playing into her personal fantasies and she had to realize that she didn’t really want what she thought she wanted. That being said whenever my cousin and I watch Labyrinth we always yell at the tv for her to ditch the kid and tackle the Goblin King.
I’d agree with that if you reversed it. (Not that there weren’t some lame episodes/plotlines, but overall I enjoyed the show a lot).
Another reminder about the importance of voting.
I don’t get this “ZOMG Obama uses teleprompters!!!”-fuss. Is there something that distinguishes him from other politicians in that aspect?
Yes, but not what you’re thinking. What makes him unusual is that he can actually use them properly!
What distinguishes him is his total and absolute reliance on them, since whenever they go out on him he is reduced to a grunting, stuttering, empty suit who can’t articulate the latest spin on his attempts to completely gut this country for his Marxist ideals.
exactly! he’s like a puppet in a more true sense of the word than previously used.
Marionette. Puppet=hand shoved up butt. Doubtful.
But the commies are pulling his strings, remember?
Obama is a Reagan loving centrist corporatist. He’s about as far from Marxist or socialist as you can get. Of course, anything to the left of… Mussolini… is probably ‘communist’ to you. Do you even understand what socialism is? Have you read word one of Marx? No, thought not, those aren’t words with actual meaning to you, are they? Just insults to be hurled without understanding. You are like a parrot, trained to repeat things without understanding them.
Your corporate overlords are laughing at you and everyone like you. Laughing all the way to the bank with the money you’ve made for them.
Where to begin?
Oh, yes. I HAVE read Marx. I studied him in college – in fact, was compelled to do so as part of a required humanities class. Obama is one more step in the steady march toward the government control of industry and culture in this country and the distribution of wealth from the producers to the parasites. Clear enough for you? Think before you start hurling casual accusations at people. You never know who is on the other side.
Your last paragraph spells it out clearly for me. In your mind, anyone who has created wealth has done so by taking it from others, rather than by creating value. In your pathetic little angry soul, you believe that anyone who has more than you owes you what they have earned or inherited by simple virtue of the fact that you demand it, and you justify it by claiming that they have stolen it from the poor. Where would the poor have gotten it? Blank-out. By what right does the government choose who gets wealth and who doesn’t? Blank-out.
Get rid of some of your own guilt and wake up to what’s happening in this country. The government is siphoning off the lifeblood of productive people and pumping it into parasites who will simply piss it away and demand more.
The middle class and poor do most of the work… You do realize that right? The rich don’t magically make money on their own. All the classes are interconnected. The fact that you believe the poor are parasites speaks volumes of what you don’t know.
Where, exactly, is he claiming that?
Agreed, DWN. I went straight to generalization fallacy on this one. I get pissed off when I piss money away on true parasites, and I’d think you would, too.
ROFL. *agreed, DWN & Dhoti
Nor does it give the working poor the credit they deserve. As a group, they’re the folks government should be working hardest to encourage, embolden, or at least get out of the way of.
Agreed. The most incentive and opportunity should definitely be given to those who shoulder the greatest burden.
“Where would the poor have gotten it? Blank-out.”
I believe that sentence was where I got the claim from.
“…and you justify it by claiming that they have stolen it from the poor.”
He’s arguing against the idea that the rich are parasites; I don’t see how that implies that the poor are therefore parasites themselves.
“and you justify it by claiming that they have stolen it from the poor. Where would the poor have gotten it? Blank-out.”
Arguing against the rich stealing from the poor by implying that the poor would have no wealth on their own to steal… That implies anything they have, they didn’t earn. IE: Parasites.
You’re grasping. But if you’re just baiting, as I infer from your reply to HST below, then never mind.
Not really but I am definitely not in the mood to entertain your pseudosuperiority this week or any other. So by all means, nevermind yourself off the highest cliff with my blessings.
…and right on cue, the pouting when you’re called on your act and/or don’t feel like talking anymore. Talk about a complex…
Do me a favor, though — the next time you see me mistake one of your baits for a serious comment, will you let me know? It’s a time-saver that way.
Yes, yes, that’s nice dear. I suggest the blindfold and a big jump.
Internet arguments: A bit like fighting a war with rubber bullets.
Hurts a lot, but nobody ever wins.
Seriously guys, act like adults, rule 1 of convicing people is this: DO NOT INSULT THEM.
Which is tried and have tried with him before. I just stopped bothering. Besides, there was better debate to be had below.
And who is hurting? I am pretty sure nothing I say affects Dhoti and I feel fine.
Dwn, sorry, buddy, but you can’t have it both ways. Either you actually “stop bothering” and don’t talk to me at all — or just disengage when you think the arguing is going to start, like I tried to do — or you jump in and acknowledge that you’re throwing around insults and that “no one gets hurt”.
You can’t have both the fun of insulting and the glow of mature self-satisfaction at the same time — not without a healthy dose of self-delusion, anyway. Your hypocrisy is amusing, but transparent.
So, which will it be?
I do believe I stated exactly what I did. In past threads, I avoided exchanging barbs with you. Nowadays, I don’t even bother with the pretense and just treat you like the jackass you are. It isn’t hypocrisy, it is simply a progression. I started then I stopped.
What I stopped bothering to do is treat you in a civil fashion. Which is what ilaughatdrones was talking about, not avoiding you. Do actually read before you play at being mature.
Correction: your point failed, so you lashed out like an overtired child. (I suggest a juice box and a nap.)
But please, keep pretending your bad behavior is really just a sign of your innate superiority. I love watching you embarrass yourself.
I actually missed this before now.
Point didn’t fail nor do I claim superiority. I merely claim to be unpleasant. I find it interesting that you keep stating that I am acting superior to which I have to state that I don’t find myself superior to you. I’m just done being civil with you. There isn’t anything to be superior about.
The point remains that the statement implies that the poor have nothing of value to steal. You constantly stating otherwise doesn’t really do anything more than my statement.
We are both stuck at stating opinions. The poster has fled and hasn’t added anything so my point can neither fail nor succeed, same as yours.
Yeah, but knee-jerking that slowboat is generalizing all poor as parasites is beneath you, DWN.
Eh, I figured one good generalization deserved another. He assumed that Seth is a low end parasite and reading his words definitely infer the poor having nothing worth stealing.
Besides, haven’t you realized that I am technically a troll too?
Wonder troll powers, ACTIVATE!
Form of… a ten foot dick!
Shape of… the chick you wouldn’t fu(k with it!
/freeform randomness off.
I have no idea where that came from.
Have you been drinking too much Red Bull?
You ever had a Red Bull? Ive never had a Red Bull before, but I had a Red Bull last night – I really like Red Bull.
REDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDBULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Pfft, I’m a giant, angry rooster, I’ll have you know!
Red bull is weak tea. Relentless tastes better and lasts much longer (and comes in a bigger can, woot). If you really wanna, go try a mana potion. Just for the love of god don’t do anything that takes patience or a steady hand afterward.
Mana Potion?
Scarily pokey stuff with a ‘drink only one in 24 hours’ warning label. Originally made by rpg’ers, hence the name, now very popular in hardcore videogaming circles.
Tried it once, was not a wise decision.
I should drink one and challenge the kids outside to another round of sword play.
I won last time but five on one sucks… I want to better even out the odds.
If I drank one of those, I’d look like Dick Cheney on the next LOL…
Me too but it would be an epic sword battle to end all sword battles.
Speaking of which, I need to buy another sword. I haven’t use dual swords in a while and that nerf one I dropped 11 bucks on kicked ass.
@dwn: *nitpick* Duel swords. Unless of course you mean you’re using two of them.
@Diss: Using the word duel wouldn’t make sense as there were many swords for dueling like the epee or rapier.
Dual as in two, my dear.
“…distribution of wealth from the producers to the parasites.”
Umm… Here?
The producers are the people who work. The parasites are the people who don’t work and live of the workers without contributing. Wealth is built by functioning systems of people known as societies. Without society, there would be no capability to store wealth in portable form, and there would be no property rights. We allow certain people to profit from natural resources by excluding all others using the threat of violence.
What the heck does ‘blank-out’ mean? The poor, without the rich there to keep them from controlling the natural resources and means of production, would produce wealth.
The government currently chooses who gets wealth through a variety of means, for instance, by keeping unemployment at an artificially high rate of around 5% through control of the money supply, the government reduces the value of labor. One example.
I agree with your last paragraph completely. But the owning class are the parasites. Their only claim to ownership of natural resources comes from the agreement of society. We can withdraw that agreement if we choose to, and seize control of the means of production.
The “parasites” provide the ideas and capital to produce items we can all consume and also creating jobs and income for others. I don’t call that parasite actually and I don’t see why you would say that. Most of the poor would have no idea what to do with natural resources and many have a mentality that keeps them poor. I would be happy with a government program that taught people how to manage their own money, that would be money well spent.
I agree that the wealthy folk do provide capital to produce items, etc. However, most of the ideas actually come from workers. If you work for a company and you come up with an idea related to that work, most companies have legal clauses in their employment contracts which stipulate that that idea belongs to the company, not to the person who created it. I am not saying that Bill Gates didn’t have great ideas, at all, in starting up Microsoft. However, after the initial years, he hired a lot of creative people to work for him. At that point, his creative input would be in deciding which ideas to promote.
Yes, but who started the company? The founders who are now the rich “parasites”. You see what I’m saying? We are shooting ourselves in our own feet when we condemn that progression.
I happen to be friends with 2 CEO’s, so I’ve some idea of the needs of capitalism. Both of them are concerned about the health of the company because their employees depend on those jobs. This concern for the employees seems to be lacking in too many other companies, which is where my innate socialism kicks in.
And one of those 2 (I haven’t asked the other) would LOVE universal health care. He wants to keep his employees (all creative types) happy and healthy so that they can be productive–enlightened self-interest, as well as ethics. But the cost of providing health insurance is really eating into the bottom line.
So no, I do not see all wealthy folk as parasites. However I do see the need to provide supportive services–which supports capitalism by creating educated, less-stressed, more healthy workers. Those supports by the way, would help US companies compete with companies in countries with better systems in place. And I also see the need to ensure that those companies in our country do not abuse their employees–safe working environments, a living wage, and so forth. Without these regulations, the companies who are already trying to do the right thing can be undercut by those who abuse their employees to pad the bottom line.
The most important thing that will help our industries to compete with others in the global market is a reduction in taxes and getting government out of the middle of things so our industries don’t move out of the country and lose us even more jobs. Yes, we need regulations but we need to keep things in balance, balance is the key and is difficult to keep.
Those jobs have already left the country. Manufacture is already gone, except for those items where overseas shipping would be more expensive than paying good wages in the US. We’ve actually lost factories to Canada, because a company would not have to pay health insurance for Canadian employees. And I really doubt that Canada has fewer regulations!
Those jobs left because they found cheaper labor in countries with less labor laws.
…and much lower taxes
I’m just gonna jump in and head off ‘so we need to send our ten-year-olds to work too, to compete’ before someone suggests it. Because that’s where that line of logic will take you, if you follow it through.
I don’t think Ireland is putting 10 year olds to work…
Taxes have little to do with where a business locates. Labor costs, including health care costs, are much more important to a business, along with availability of necessary skilled labor and access to energy, raw materials or products.
It isn’t taxes that are killing American companies, it is health care costs. We have the most expensive health care system in the world, but it only ranks 37th or 38th in positive health outcomes. The health care mobsters are holding American businesses hostage.
Seth: I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of privatized healthcare (wooo English socialism!)
Are companies legaly required to offer healthcare, which is then overpriced? Is it seen as a prerequisite by employees, but not legally required?
Sounds like a bum deal, whatever the specifics.
Health insurance as a benefit was created during the Nixon years, where there was a freeze on salaries (part of Whip Inflation Now!), and the companies wanted some carrot to dangle before employees. Interestingly enough, Nixon had wanted to create a national health care system, or so I’ve read.
I don’t think it is a legal requirement to offer health insurance as a part of full-time employment (can anyone help me here?), but it certainly is expected by prospective hires for salaried positions! I DO know that some jobs require that the new hire not be eligible for that health insurance until they have worked there for one or 3 months, because friends of mine have had to wait through those time periods, without coverage!
Your friends are the exception, not the rule. One of the major myths of the ruling class is that the majority of them are ‘good people.’
In reality, the majority of them are sociopaths with no conscience, at best. That’s what it takes to succede at those levels.
That’s also what it takes to be a successful politician, but I digress.
Good point! Probably true about all positions of power. Or more to the point, true about all, or most, human beings when they are put into positions of power.
Microsoft’s a great example, because it really highlights the impedance mismatch between classic industrial, unskilled-laborer-centric Marxism and modern business built on knowledge workers and skilled laborers. They’re contributing significantly more to the company than just their labor and they’re mobile.
are you aware that a great number of so-called microsoft employees are actually temps or contract workers. microsoft was sued several years ago because they were keeping temp agency employees for over 3 yrs yet because they were ‘temp’s’ they were ineligible for benefits like medical coverage, stock options, raises, etc.
btw, microsoft lost the suit, had to provide back benefits to anyone who’d been in the same position for either 18 mo’s or 2 yrs and reclass them as employees.
that was about the time tech support moved over to india…..
“I didn’t get to be a billionaire by writing checks…”
~Bill Gates, Simpsons.
Yeah, I’ve heard of the case, and I think the figure is something like 50% of software development and testing employees are temps. I guess it shows that companies of a certain size need grunt labor, regardless of industry.
But even so, there are a lot of highly skilled employees contributing significantly to, and benefiting from, the direction of the company. It’s a far cry from the masses of wrench-turners/few fat cats that seems to be how large corporations are distilled in classic Marxism.
The trouble with classical Marxism is that it was historical observation, grounded in it’s time, so it’s easy to miss the point from our perspective. If you look to the core ideas, they’re very much relevant, but the specifics have changed.
Modern society gives people the illusion of freedom. They are allowed to choose (by competiton) who will get which of the necessary jobs. They are allowed to choose what they will spend their money on, within a range of acceptable options. They are allowed to break the rule of three.
By tying people’s ideas of their own freedom to the free market, through their choices and power as expressed through their salary, they are made into it’s defenders. By making people believe that they fight for their own freedom and best interest in defending a system that exploits them horribly, you save a whole lot of effort putting down revolutions. And they in turn can be used to put down those worse off than them.
Of course, the more disempowered you can keep a group of people, the less you have to worry about all that.
I’m not some kind of conspiracy nut, this wasn’t engineered by evil men in dark rooms. The societies that didn’t work this way, that didn’t have such systems in place, don’t exist any longer, or didn’t stay capitalist.
The same free market that facilitates, say, hundreds of thousands of individual-owned small businesses? (On this side of the pond, at least.) And has distributed a massive amount of newly created wealth into the hands of the middle class? (Again, over here.) No, I think the modern post-industrial economy has, if anything, made wealth more accessible to more people.
It’s had to make more wealth accessible to more people. There is less imbalance, because people wouldn’t tolerate the levels that existed before. A whole lot of wealth and power had to shift to keep the people from revolting. But that doesn’t mean we’re anywhere near an even, or even fair, distribution.
These systems help keep the amount going down to a bare minimum, it’s not practicable to cut it off altogether.
Why do you say that? To me, that seems to be what individually accessible investments are all about, from bank accounts and stocks to things like residential real estate. (Well, until recently.) But I’m very interested to hear your reasoning.
I’m guessing we’d define a “fair” distribution of wealth differently — if the population in general has a good standard of living, I’d consider wealth to be fairly distributed, even if it’s not at all even. Sure, a Bentley or two in the driveway would be nice, but if I’m living a comfortable, stable, and secure life, why should I care if I can’t afford them?
I’d say that the kinds of freedom you talk about, particuarly financial freedom, are superficial. As we’re seeing right now, personal fiscal choices make little difference for the vast majority. We’re deliberately given this kind of freedom, and encouraged to value it, so that we don’t go hankering after more. The kind of dangerous freedoms like the ability to elect a party not dominated by business interests, for example.
My idea of a fair distribution would be everyone having enough. Even in developed nations, that’s clearly not the case, people die of starvation in the US and the UK. On a wider scale it’s luducrious to even suggest it might be.
Interesting — thanks for the explanation.
(that violent shuddering you just felt was the Earth reversing it’s spin)
It was kind of shocking, but pleasant none the less. Thanks for the interest.
So I have to ask now, what do you think the significance / role of economic freedom is in modern western society? I’m actually very curious.
I’m interested in the assertion that small businesses are thriving here when evidence suggests they are actually being squeezed out by large multinationals that wouldn’t have been allowed to exist pre-Reagan.
Sorry, the owning class do not come up with ‘ideas.’ They hire people to come up with ideas, pay them a small salary, and then reap all the benefits of those ideas. The idea that the poor could do nothing without ‘capital’ is silly. Not in a capitalist system, obviously! That’s my point.
What an elitist attitude you have towards poor people, but of course it does justify using and abusing them, right? The White Man’s Burden, oh how sad it is to be smarter and better than others. What a pain it is to always have to tell everyone else what to do. Cry me a river.
In some ‘socialist’ European countries, everyone is taught how to handle money, and nearly everyone owns their own corporation, however large or small.
I am not saying anything about the poor people. It is a lack of education and nothing more. I was trying to find an example of studies that show what happens to most people after they win the lottery, most are poor again within 10 years because they don’t think of money as a tool and a resource. They are not equipped and it doesn’t mean they are stupid. I don’t understand why they don’t teach those skills in school.
Um, Lottery money isn’t earned. It is a luck of the draw situation. Obviously there will be people who can’t handle it and squander it away.
Now look up monarchs who spent their countries into near oblivion. Stupidity isn’t a class based trait, it is a human based trait. Rich people can be stupid enough to make themselves poor too by not earning their wealth and flitting it all away.
You are confusing luck with skill. They aren’t the same. Some poor people work their way all the way to the top. How ruthless they were along the way is another story but we won’t go into that now.
So no, poor people do not equate a lack of education. Poor can simply be lack of well heeled birth and opportunity.
Money is money, no matter how you come by it, if you don’t know how to use it properly you will squander it and lose it. This is a skill and also there is a state of mind that you deserve it, that is important in keeping wealth. Also, we don’t have monarchs in this country so that doesn’t apply to this argument.
It was stating that inability to handle money isn’t a poor only problem. I also mentioned the rich, which we do have. The rich have also proven to be incompetent with money just as the poor have.
So yes, I already inferred that it was a skill and not one that is class related.
I never said it was poor only, many rich born lose their money if they aren’t careful… It’s a skill and to some extent an attitude.
So we’re technically in agreement. Cool. Have a cookie with me.
*hands one of Lynn’s homemade delightful chocolate chip cookies to you and munches one of my own*
Yum!! since they are sooooo good, invest in the supplies and start selling them! That’s how Mrs. Fields got started and that other guy that sells cookies… You could be a rich over lord.
We’ve considered it but Lynn is the one making them and thus doing the bulk of the work. To make any kind of viable profit would require a level of involvement that would make her hate cookies.
I haven’t quite got the vindictive side needed to turn her kitchen into a labor camp yet.
Well, I would pay good money for one right now if you delivered… mmmmmmmmmmm.
Supply + demand = COOKIES!!!!
White man’s burden? Who said anything about race? And why do you assume I am a white man?
It’s an old phrase, google it if you don’t know it. Anyone talking politics should be familiar with the concept.
I’ve heard of it, I don’t know why you’ve used it. In your very next sentence you state that in European countries everyone is “taught how to handle money”. Who is teaching them? White men? I don’t happen to think it’s about race, that’s an old and outdated assumption. Look who’s our president.
It’s not about race. It’s about imperialism. When Kipling wrote the poem, the white folks happened to the imperialist aggressors of the world. It’s about justifying oppression by claiming that you are saving the savages from themselves, you aren’t exploiting them, you are helping them. It’s a burden, and so why shouldn’t you profit a little?
Well, I do agree that there was a lot of information lost when the Europeans landed, information on herbs and natural healing modalities that the native peoples had. They were too arrogant to admit that the natives had skills that could be shared. Too bad they were not considered equals.
So, um, you are saying that the problem with imperialism is that we didn’t get all the knowledge we could from the natives? Not that we, you know, slaughtered them, stole their land and enslaved them?
Those aren’t problems! They’re Features!
Why do you assume I’m so horrible? Of course I don’t think that. It would have been much better for all to blend than to mow over them, although most died from disease. It was the arrogance that kept that from happening, many of the natives tried to blend in but they were not accepted as a group. There was a lot of intermarriage it’s just that their knowledge was not valued to the detriment of everyone.
I’m not assuming anything, I’m asking questions.
well seth, i think those are features my ancestors could have lived without.
How exactly would the poor produce wealth without the knowledge of the educated classes? History tells us that kings and queens of yore deliberately kept their subjects stupid so they’d never question authority, yet from those same subjects emerged go-getters such as Bill Gates.
Wait… are you suggesting that the workerbees at Microsoft rise up and slay Bill to seize control?
Ya know, that might be entertaining. Actually Kings were taught to rule, it never meant they deserved to rule. They were rich by birth and tradition and had the money gained from taxes levied against peasants.
Granted, there isn’t anything wrong with a monarchy as long as the monarchy didn’t exploit the peasants. There was a social contract at work in which the king and nobles protected the poor in return for a skim of the peasant’s labor profits.
The inherent problem is when people think they are better than other people, thus they believe it is possible to make people stupid. Sure, you can make them ignorant but good luck keeping it that way. Humans are curious by nature and all things fall apart when you decide that one group of humans is better or less than another.
The earliest kings were elected, and when their virility gave out, they were killed by their subjects. I mean, the king IS the land, right? If he can’t get it up anymore, how will the crops grow?
Ah, the good old days.
Naw, they just killed the queen and got the king a new one…
Actually in the earlier days, they killed the king, fertilized the fields with his blood, and got a new king for the existing queen. Matriarchy ruled in the pre-historical days!
Women were considered the wellspring of life. Men were replacable.
Much better!
Although yucky.
Ah, I had forgotten about monarchy styles that old school. Though I do have to wonder… If you kill the king, wouldn’t the land die? Or would the “kingness” just bestow itself to a virile young successor as I assume?
Sorry, I’m applying logic where it isn’t wanting. Curse my cynical brain.
No, that’s exactly what happens, that’s why you have to KILL the king, his blood goes back into the land, and thence into the new king.
Ah, I knew I was missing a bit of old school blood magic.
How very Sidhe of you, Seth.
In some cultures, (the ones that inspired the “land and the king are one” part of the Arthurian legends, frinstance) you don’t get to kill the king unless famine hits.
If we practiced that here, we could let the president do his job as long as unemployment remained below 2% or so, and all people with jobs had a living wage. As soon as either one doesn’t apply- pfft! Off with his head!
That’d keep their attention focused where it needs to be!
properly, as in like a crutch?
hello folks, a tellapromter doesn’t mean the words are being written by someone OTHER than the reader, it is an alternative to paper so you don’t have to look down. the words, if a speech, are that of the reader.
honestly how good are any of us at memorizing whole speeches? i know even when reading of the paper i stutter and grunt and lose my place.
Duh. All communists suck at extemporaneous speaking…
So Bush was a communist?
{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGRYPYuFZLk}
Fallacy fail.
All communists suck at extemporaneous speaking IS NOT =
all people who suck at extemporaneous speaking are communists.
I’ll have to work on my linguistic skills, clearly I just can’t hold a candle to your capitalist eloquence.
In bed…
My secret shame!
As if being a communist wasn’t enough
*shakes head sadly*
*does the sad walking away part from the end of the Incredible Hulk TV show, complete with unbearably tragic music*
*comforts*
*links to Stewie Griffin and “the Lonely Man.”*
Broken sound card is sad.
*offers epoxy and silver solder for the sound card*
you=fail
So, there’s no commutative property of public stupidity?
We take the stupidity out the back and shoot it in back of the head for the good of the proletariat. How did you miss that in basic indoctrination?
*grins* Wait, are you implying that he doesn’t have speechwriters? No national-level politician actually writes their own speeches anymore. Maybe frames stuff out and then edits and suggests stuff, but not write the whole thing. (On the back of an envelope, on the train to Gettysburg…)
No score and 8 years ago, W’s father brought forth a verbally incontinent abomination, dedicated to putting prepositions at the end of sentences …
Well it means he can read at least. But then that makes him one of the liberal elite as far as some people are concerned.
Not only can he read, but he cad read aloud without using his finger to point at the word he’s reading!
Is there anything much easier and more fun that baiting American concervatives?
I enjoy spelling correctly.
So do I:
C-O-R-R-E-C-T-L-Y!
Join me Dhoti!
C-O-R-R…
Facetious, I know…
No, it’s not at all facetious. It’s merely waggish. Get it right.
i’m always amazed when i get the spelling correct
this must be master-baiting
What a cunning linguist.
What’s the difference between a band of pygmys and a and a Hollywood Hills women’s track team? Well, one is a cunning bunch of runts…
Consecutive idiots – you has them.
I liked the LOL for this picture that said Obama will own your ass at the game of dots.
Ooooooo, I love that game! Haven’t played it in years… /reminiscing
Oh lord, bless the conservatives and their weak teleprompter jokes. It’s adorable, like watching a child cling to their favorite blankie.
Bless the libbies and their weak… everything. It’s like watching a broken record rotate on a turntable, scratching over… and over… and over… and over… and over…
How many folks even have a turntable these days? I’m wondering how many PK’ers have ever seen a 33 1/3rd play on a turntable…
*MEMEMEMMEMEMEME*
And I have the original “White” album.
OK, that’s two of us. Maybe 4 if we add in bad fairie and Uncle Fester?
But I’m probably the only one with a Victrola (my great grandmothers)!
Old school, FTW! I have a replica Victrola, myself…looks kind of like the linkey…
The scratch before the song is reminiscent of the smell before a thunderstorm. You *feel* it, and it gets your adrenaline flowing.
put the needle on the record
put the needle on the record
put the needle on the record
put the needle on the record
put the needle on the record
when the song beats go like this
Try again. Linkey.
I’ll have you all know that I’ve got two turntables and a microphone.
Very cool looking! Mine is this tall cabinet, which was 1/2 full of the old opera records that my great-grandmother had bought for her retirement (she sang at dinner theater). Pretty darned loud! But there is something about the anticipation that comes from hearing the cranking of the handle before playing…
I see you shiver with antici…..pation.
Heh! Agreed.
lol, i just got rid of my turntable a few years ago – traded it to a daughter’s bf along with the rest of the component system in exchange for helping us move — he thought he was in hog heaven with this ‘antique’ system and the over-compensating speakers my ex picked out.
I’ve been told by my techie BF that there now exists a device one can purchase to convert old records (even 78′s) to digital. I have an ipod, but I don’t know that I want to go that far!
Yeah, I think it’s just a turntable with a USB connection. And, I’m guessing, software to go with.
Never owned one, but my dad was into vinyl. And bowie.
Happy memories.
First 45. Off the top of your head. GO!
“Twist and Shout.” B side “*something*…. Place.”
“I only want to be with you.” B side “Write a letter.”
“Suspicious Minds.” B side … can’t remember
Got all of them along with a cheap-ass record player.
Wore them out.
jailhouse rock — radio station demo version, can’t remember what was on the flip, and monster mash and monster mash party? on the b side
And then there were 8-track tapes. *shudders*
Growing up we had an intercom system in the house that hooked up to this giant radio/8-track tape player in the kitchen that was mounted into the wall. And we had a stereo record player in the living room, and a TV console with the record player on the top. Yeah, we were with it in my family
I got a free stereo system from my cousin when I went to college–I assume now that she wanted to get rid of the 8-track player!
conservatives? it’s called an observation.
there were liberals that i’ve voted for. i vote for the person, not the party.
sad fact is, he’s well spoken as long as he has his lines fed to him. sorry, but that’s what it comes down to.
As a left-of-center liberal, I take NO offense at this one…the guy does rely on the teleprompter waaaaaay too much…
Seriously — thin skin much? Next you’re going to freak out when someone points out he has big ears.
Wait!? Those are his EARS!!!??? I thought he was picking up XM Radio with those…
I keep telling you, they’re for levitation when he reveals he’s the anti-christ.
‘Bout time my unholy master showed up. I been prayin’ so damn hard at my black altar…
Pfft, my ears are superior. Convert to Dark Dragon God worship. We have cookies.
Cookies are mighty tempting. But how can I be sure that the levels of unholy horror that my raising of evil creates won’t be compromised? I’m in this for all the right reasons, you know, not some weekend warrior.
Total domination of the fools, complete with harem sound good?
There will also be family flay days where you bring your children in to watch the best masters remove skin from undeserving peasants.
if i don’t attend, can i donate family members and former spouses to be flayed?
I can accept that and other payments as tributes.
Evil and harems, truly a man (sorry, dragon) of the devil-worshipping people. Time for dedicatory sacrifices.
I am pleased.
Also there is the zombie baby cannon to install on your car. Nothing says get the fu(k out of my way like launching a fleshing eating, undead infant at somebody.
DRAGON RIGHTS NOW!!!
The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of fleeing villagers?
Hellz yea.
If they’re running that just means they want to be chased.
And if they aren’t running, it just means they want to be eaten.
And if they weren’t food, they wouldn’t be made of Meat!
And if they weren’t made of meat, they wouldn’t need rights.
What are you going on about? Meat always taste right.
ZOMBIE RIGHTS NOW! Just because they’re undead doesn’t mean they can’t vote!
*sets you on fire* Bad girl, No zombies!
*pats out fire* I’m not a zombie, I’m a vampire *displays skin* See? I’m for the rights of all Undead. *flounces off*
Damn undead. *Sets on fire again*
With that many solar panels it must be for Joe Biden’s teleprompter!
lol!
Well, at least if he decides he wants a midlife career change after the presidency he’ll be well-equipped for a position as a news anchor.
Yep, right down to the liberal bias.
In general, the anchors don’t write the news, they just read it, so I doubt that would really matter.
I just love that you guys think the mainstream media is liberal. All of them owned by the wealthiest and most conservative of Americans.
…and they pander to the liberal masses by exalting the left and crucifying the right. The owners may my conservative but the reason for their wealth is because liberal bias in news MAKES MONEY.
Liberal masses????? Crucifying the right??? Ok mr. martyr, sure enough Liberals are the ones crucifying anyone… keep believing the BS that Fox feeds you…
*pats head*
That isn’t what happens. When the Republicans were in power, you never heard a single Democrat’s ideas mentioned in the mainstream media. In fact, you heard, “The Democrats are out of ideas!” which obviously isn’t true.
But now that the Democrats are in power, somehow, disgraced Republicans like Cheney still get all the airtime they want to sell their ‘ideas’ to the American people. Why is that?
Because he sells papers (or airtime). The most controversial, regardless of party, get on the air.
Okay, if the masses (meaning, more than 50% of the nation, maybe?) are liberal, then SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP! That means you guys lost because the democratic process works the way it’s supposed to, duh!
I love that you don’t do research. To wit:
CBS – majority shareholder Sumner Redstone: self-declared Democrat.
ABC – Disney – largest shareholder Steve Jobs: not exactly a conservative.
NBC – GE – largest shareholders Barclays, State Street, Vanguard, FMR, Mellon, etc. — well-connected to both parties.
I notice you didn’t say ‘Republicans,’ which is good. The mainstream media owners, and the owning class in general, aren’t Democrats or Republicans. They play both sides, and vote for whoever will cut them the best deal.
They control the media, and make sure that the pro-owning class message gets out, so the owning class politicians all play ball with them. Whatever their party alliance, their first loyalty other than to themselves is to other owning class people.
I would love to see the reaction of the rich if everyone in America who makes less than 150k “disappeared” for 3-4 weeks.
Who would babysit the children, fix the car, cook dinner, pickup the garbage, maintain the sewers, make the clothing, farm the food etc?
The 150K+ people would cease to exist without us “parasites”.
Dude… I think you’re caught up in an erroneous definition of parasites.
Parasites=fourth generation welfare queens pumping out kids to get more welfare while refusing to every attempt gainful employment.
Coming from welfare trash, I’ve personally witnessed it. My family moved 37 times when I was a kid b/c pappy knew the LAW when it came to eviction for non-payment.
Houston, I think we have a definition problem!
Parasite is one who lives off of the labor of another, without any contribution to the provider. It could be either the situation described by HST, or it could be a Paris Hilton type. It certainly is NOT the working poor, nor would I consider it descriptive of an ethical company owner.
Yup
Fu(k that skanky wh0re with Perez Hilton’s dick.
There went my desire to eat today…
I’m marketing it as the ultimate diet plan.
“Watch two hours of this and be sure to brush your teeth well to avoid decay from bile burn.”
As involuntary test subject, I want a stipend from the profits… Damn capitalist…
Oh my…
I agree, those types certainly ARE parasites.
The question is, why is the system setup in a fashion that not only allows, but seems to promote that type of behavior?
ie: more kids = more welfare
Hmmm, I have a few responses but most of them are anger filled… So I shall pass and let calmer heads press on.
Why the system’s set up that way is in an effort not to punish (i.e., starve) the kids for the parents’ idiocy/parasitism. The question isn’t so much why it is, as how it can be fixed. I have some ideas on the matter, but I’d be the first to admit they’d be unlikely to ever be implemented.
Forced sterilization for those not capable of taking care of their own kids either through job or circumstance. But I’m a gun-toting blood-thirsty God-botherer, so who am I to say?
Honestly, I have to agree…
Problem with that idea is this country’s past history using forced sterilization in efforts for eugenics. We sterilized a lot of folk because they were ‘defective’. The problem was the definitions of ‘defective’ being used, sometimes simply meaning Native American or poor.
I’m fascist enough to want to go a step further…….sterilizations for everyone until you apply to have a kid. Once again, I temper my statements with the fact that I’m in a position to see nothing but the abuse of the system, and stay pissed off every day.
I actually wouldn’t mind a gonad-lock, if there was a safe, side-effect free version, followed by applications for the right to parenthood.
I saw the major hoops that a colleague had to go through to first foster and then adopt an infant taken away from a drug-addicted couple–this was the 7th child taken away from this couple by social services.
I also know of a couple who really, really would have liked to get a vasectomy for their moderately retarded son. The son ended up fathering a child with severe medical problems, and his also moderately challenged wife messed up with the complicated medication needed, and the child didn’t survive.
Of course a safe gonad lock would also make for excellent contraception, which would mean fewer unplanned pregnancies…
But then I can be a brutally practical bit(h at times.
Vasectomies are usually reversible, in most cases. I wish there were a better way. Chemical, maybe? But it would have to be semi-permanent, because what druggie is going to remember to take his pill?
Say “Obama”. Say “Telemprompter”. Watch idiots fight
( furiously flipping thru my copy of “Atlas Shrugged)
Is this really the best insult you guys could come up with? What’s particularly bad is that off teleprompter he can’t possibly sound worse than some of the moron pundits that are always talking and talking and talking.
It’s only an insult if you recognize the morsel of truth of Obama’s overreliance on them, and are defensive about it.
Otherwise, it’s just a joke about solar powered teleprompters, and would work just as well with anyone who uses them.
Ain’t no POTUS without the TOTUS.
Link!
Actually, those panels (whetever they actually are) look a lot like the filters in my home heating/cooling system.
Maybe they’re political BS/Hot Air filters… in which case, no wonder there’s so many of them in that shot.