Bort
| | | Previous Next 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 | | Comments | Testing Driving Ability whilst Hella Blazed
02/21/13, 17:39
Needs a "torpid and mellow" tag. |  | The Unbelievers
02/21/13, 12:41
There are some days I feel like a meat construct with several poorly coordinated control systems that collectively provide illusions of consciousness, free will, and self. There are other days I feel like a complete spiritual being trying to express itself through a clumsy meat vehicle. What I vacillate between isn't "atheism" and "theism" so much as whether I'm just meat or am I meat plus some transcendent properties. So at times I'm comfortably atheist, but at other times I feel I'm connected to some greater process on a spiritual level, and I can't just ignore that, illusion though it may be.
So I'm not about to trash religion for being "wrong", even though I concede they all sound fishy; if you feel there's something spiritual going on, you can't just ignore it. And I'm not going to tar all the religious with the same brush, because while there is no shortage of horrible religious assholes, there are also your Stephen Colberts (teaches Sunday School and also testifies before Congress for better rights for migrant workers) and MLK Jrs (also profoundly concerned with the well-being of the poor, plus Civil Rights).
But I *will* trash that great number of religious folks who have taken a faith that is supposed to teach compassion, and somehow reverse-engineered the compassion out of it. Not that I think there is a Satan, but nonetheless, that is Satan's crowning triumph. Also, great disrespect for those people in the middle who say "hey don't blame me for what my religious leaders say" ... don't tell ME that, tell THEM to shut the fuck up.
The good news is, fundamentalist circles have pretty much lost the young people today; kids are seriously turned off by Culture Wars and don't see how hating gays can be squared with loving one's neighbor. This is officially considered a crisis in evangelical circles. So I'm more optimistic about where religion will be in the years to come, when more Fred Phelpses are dead and more Fred Clarks are alive. | | Hubris: Selling the Iraq War
02/20/13, 14:19
Yes. It's one thing to get swept up in a lot of emotions and be susceptible to War Fever, but if it's been a few years and you don't really mind that you were lied to and you still support the war that was built on lies, you are pretty near the root of the problem.
It's funny how people kind of understand when they're being lied to, and will go along with it until the lies could start affecting them. Back in the day, people were supportive of any number of Bush's proposals, but on the topic of privatizing Social Security, they turned foursquare against him because they knew what he was really about. So while I know for sure there were some people who believed Bush was doing the right thing in Iraq, I suspect there were even more people who just went along, because fuck it, it's just Iraq and a few soldiers. | | Kittens on the Beat
02/20/13, 01:38
Five stars for the black and white kitten, who looks EXACTLY like a cat of mine who recently died. Apparently he faked his death to join a covert security agency. | | Hubris: Selling the Iraq War
02/20/13, 01:32
United Nations Security Council, zero votes against. That doesn't count for anything at all? Not even Russia or China was willing to say that action in Libya was wrong.
I agree that we shouldn't be too credulous when the US or England or France or NATO demands action to prevent a civilian massacre, but if you won't trust the UN, is there any organization you will? | | Hubris: Selling the Iraq War
02/19/13, 16:29
BHWW, do you allow that it's possible to believe military action is sometimes the best available approach, without automatically being a cheerleader?
You mentioned Libya as an example of a regrettable war, at least that's the impression I'm getting. But our involvement in Libya was dictated by the UNSC, with an 11-0 vote in favor of action (4 abstentions), because Kaddafi looked to be ready to wage war on the civilian population. Yeah, we could have kept our hands squeaky clean in all this, and Libya would have resolved itself neatly enough, in a thousand different basements with ten thousand different atrocities. How many deaths is it worth to keep our hands squeaky clean?
So much of what's going on now is ethics class elevated to foreign policy. Do you pull the lever that sends a trolley down a track with a group of people, one of whom is a terrorist who's planning to blow up a train in Barcelona? How do you count the lives you'll expect to save? There's no exact way to do it, but that doesn't mean you can just dismiss it as a factor. | | Firefly Nathan Fillion makes fun during shooting
02/18/13, 17:49
Jewel Staite played Amy Pond? What the hell, eye emm dee bee?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995118/combined | | Siskel & Ebert review DIE HARD.
02/17/13, 07:25
I have to agree with Ebert, it's one thing for all the non-Willis characters to be slow on the uptake, but it's another for them all to be too dumb to live.
Guess that part is a cultural relic of the 80s, where government was the problem, and that includes policemen, unless it's Bruce Willis because he's not following anyone's orders. | | Two disgusting people review Frank Miller's disgustingly crappy comic book Holy Terror
02/17/13, 04:39
I think the continuum of Batman badassery goes something like this:
goofy Silver Age
O'Neill / Adams
Miller
Morrison
While O'Neill / Adams did indeed return Batman to a shadowy figure, he was still routinely getting injured by thugs. Miller made him unstoppable except by superpowered aliens, and Morrison took away even that exception.
These days, the ability to harm Batman is essentially evidence of a superpower. | | PUA - The Door Pattern
02/17/13, 04:23
It's been said before, but imagining there is such a thing as a "friendzone" is toxic, because it implies that "just friends" is a transitional state. When Obama's socialist agenda finally takes over and sex education is taught from kindergarten onward by gay atheist Muslims, I really hope they bother to clear this up.
Not that I can blame people for getting it wrong; a huge number of TV shows and movies teach that, if the guy just keeps being a decent guy long enough, eventually the girl of his dreams will perceive his charms and fall for him. Without some amount of social experience it's going to be tough to see through the bullshit; without seeing through the bullshit it's going to be tough to get the social experience. It's easy to laugh at these guys or get fed up with them, I get that, but I also get that they've been sold a bunch of malarkey and are doing the best they can with a very bad map. | | PUA - The Door Pattern
02/16/13, 11:15
"Nice Guys" in the "friend zone" seem to fall into two categories (or maybe it's a spectrum with two basic polarities):
- genuinely well-meaning guys who believe a woman may change her mind about romance if you're a decent person, and don't get why it never seems to work
- manipulative worms who are positioning themselves for an opportunity to strike
The mistake both are making, and yes I'm generalizing, is: women are likely to decide pretty quickly whether romance is even a possibility, so try to find out sooner than later whether she's interested. And if she's not, decide whether she's still worth being friends with, with the understanding that no girlfriendery will come out of it either way. The worst thing you can do is circle like a jumbo jet waiting for a runway to open up below; eventually the jet runs out of fuel and the results are never pleasant.
Since I'm dispensing advice as if I know anything about anything: ladies, understand that, when you offer a gentle let-down like "can we just be friends?" that stands a good chance of being interpreted as "I find you generally unappealing, but saying that would be impolite". If you're serious about being friends, show it just a little: "I'm going to go miniature golfing later, wanna join me?" But if you don't want to be friends, don't mislead him. The guy in question is quite possibly looking for validation that he's a worthwhile person, and he has it in his head that a date (and even better, a relationship) will prove it once and for all. That's not yours to fix, but you can at least not feed his doubts about his basic value by saying "friends" and then blowing him off. | | Egyptian Cleric Abu Islam has an opinion on Christian women who go to Tahrir Square
02/16/13, 04:01
When the Muslims conquered lands formerly held by the Byzantine Empire, the conquered peoples gained religious freedom for the first time. | | Yelling goats compilation
02/15/13, 13:41
disgruntled_goats! | | Automaton figure of a monk, South Germany or Spain, c. 1560
02/15/13, 09:43
Gutenberg printed thousands of flip books just to sell these things to children. | | Driver finds owl trapped in car grille
02/15/13, 03:23
Whistles go HOO HOOOO! | | A Day in the Life of poeTV.com
02/15/13, 01:02
Am I going to have to locate "The Big Book of Hell" to see if that's from what I think it is? | | A Day in the Life of poeTV.com
02/14/13, 11:12
My life just passed in front of my eyes. | | Marco Rubio Takes A Drink During Republican Response
02/14/13, 01:36
Trying to capture the elusive Jesse Pinkman vote. | | Hitler Icecream truck
02/12/13, 12:53
Beer Hall Putsch-Up Pops | | creepy clown toy's batteries are mixed up
02/12/13, 08:43
"This is what happens when we put the wrong battery in our clown toy." No, I believe you have finally put the RIGHT battery in. | |
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