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Whatever, Iron Maiden says it's 666. That's good enough for me.

...sometimes all you have to do is eat the problem.

Tell that to the 99%.
Eat the Rich

35 years ago, I was a "less than 1%" freak, communicating with friends electronically, using computers on a daily basis, etc. I did it because it came naturally to me and I didn't really give a damn whether or not it increased my overall popularity or social standing.

Well, starting about 5 years ago, I was becoming a "luddite freak" because I didn't carry a smartphone - again damaging my social standing, but this time because I wasn't communicating with friends electronically or using computers as much as all the cool people were.

One of the theories that's kicked around for the upswing in Autism births is the "assortive mating" concept - with match.com and similar services, "afflicted persons" who were unsociable and awkward in the bar/disco scene are able to pass on their genes much more quickly and easily than they were in the recent past.

David Bowie recorded a song "Oh You Pretty Things" back in 1971... read the lyrics with an open mind and tell me what you get from it. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics...

You will not develop the capacity to police yourselves. That is for the state.

We developed the capacity to police ourselves a long time ago, the tool we use for that is called the rule of law, it's enforced by courts and (wait for it...) the police. If you have a better idea I assure you I and many others are all ears, but the naïve notion that people will nice to each other if "government just gets out of the way" was disproven with every one of the thousands of hippie communes that started and failed in my youth during the late 60's early seventies. It was said to be the largest US internal migration since the civil war, most communes lasted less than two years the main problem being that since politics was taboo, verbal and physical bullying won the day and the group disintegrated, often leaving the bully with a nice piece of real estate and the "quitters" with nothing.

I find it ironic (and endlessly amusing) that the flower power people and the hard core libertarians suffer from the same naïve delusion that people will nice to each other if "government just gets out of the way". Anthropology and even the most tenuous grasp of history says that given the opportunity we won't "just all get along". Without enforceable laws (democratic or otherwise) society would simply not exist beyond the basic extended family tribe, almost by definition "civilization" would be impossible.

Throwing out "the state" is the easy bit, the real problem has always been and will always be - then what, Napoleon, Mugabe? - We already know anarchy does not work, if it did we wouldn't be "trapped" within our respective democratic nation sates at this point in our evolution, right?

Wow, guys, way to misunderstand. Take the lyrics to the Dead Kennedies' Kill the poor and change the words to "Kill the Jews" and that's more like what we're talking about.

OTOH, I wonder how the Germans authorities would react if you changed the words to "kill the fags"? Would that be illegal, too?

(Son, brother, and father to those who wrote the "Closet" South Park episode.)

Is that like 'I'm my own grandpa?'

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/weirdalyankovic/happybirthday.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdbhfpF3NA0

re: I doubt he was claiming to literally sharpen an axe. But then it's hard to know what someone else is thinking.

Yes. Exactly. He wasn't making a literal claim. He was quoting lyrics from the song Bring Me Down by the Vancouver Hip Hop Band Swollen Members:

Now he left out the middle of that stanza ("and I am back") but otherwise it's a word-for-word copy of those lyrics. People do tend to post lyrics or the name of song which captures the emotions or beliefs which they are feeling. I do believe people can quote songs for their metaphorical meaning: saying something does not mean believing in the literal meaning of those words, it can also be a reference to a prior saying of those words by yourself or someone else, or even a sarcastic reference. Girls know sarcastic.

I don't know about the rest of his postings, but seriously people, have some musical knowledge (or at least some human-being friends with musical knowledge!) That post from August 13th

On August 13, he wrote, "Sharpen up my axe; I'm here to sever heads."

is from the lyrics of a vancouver hip-hop band named Swollen Members , from their song Bring Me Down:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/swollenmembers/bringmedown.html

I seriously remember this being covered on slashdot about three months ago, wasn't it?

I don't know about the rest of his postings, but seriously people, have some musical knowledge (or at least some human-being friends with musical knowledge!) That post from August 13th

On August 13, he wrote, "Sharpen up my axe; I'm here to sever heads."

is from the lyrics of a vancouver hip-hop band named Swollen Members , from their song Bring Me Down:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/swollenmembers/bringmedown.html

I seriously remember this being covered on slashdot about three months ago, wasn't it?

So you had variables named like:
$m, $mm, $mmm, $mmmm, $mmmmm, $mmmmmm,

Oh, that's from the Crash Test Dummies Style Sheet. :)

(no, really...)

Or quote the wrong song...

Some are suggesting that the "Sharpen up my axe; I'm here to sever heads" quote is a line from Swollen Members song Bring Me Down. It should also be noted that he doesn't own any guns, which doesn't seem to follow the pattern of a psychopath about to commit mass murder.

So fantasizing about chopping peoples' heads off is "talking about anything freedom related" now?

Maybe or maybe not, but quoting fucking lyrics of a fucking song is very much freedom related.

Just quoting lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/swollenmembers/bringmedown.html

500 specialized channels so anyone could find the kind of material they wanted to watch anytime.

Remindes me of Wierd Al's Cable TV

I got celebrity hockey
The Racketball Channel too

... he was more of a Dead Kennedys fan anyway....

All you other Mark Zuckerbergs are just imitating.

Continuing this line of thought, Merrill said, "Put all your eggs in one basket; Count your chickens before they hatch. Serve some wine before its time, find yourself an itch to scratch."

Citation Needed

It is a fair question. (Can I ask how old you are?)

Bottom line, the Cold War was not that long ago and it cast a long, dark shadow across the American psyche. The "commies" are any Communist nation and to some degree anyone who's a fan of Communism or even socialism, which is seen as just one step removed.

People care about the commies still because it was not that long ago that they were our big boogey man. They are not afraid of commies as much as hateful: commies are bad because they wanted to nuke us once, and anything that is kind of like communism must also be bad.

I am 40 years old and when I was a kid the threat of nuclear war--with the commies--was very real. Distant, of course, by the 70s and 80s, but still real. There were "in case of nuclear war" instruction signs in buildings near the fire exit maps. We had sappy songs about it.

A generation before mine, the fear of nuclear war with the USSR was much more intense. It's interesting to listen to people who lived through the Cuban missile crisis talk about it, and about living in that time in general.

I am not justifying today's fear of socialism, which I agree is absurd. But it's a cultural and emotional issue, not a rational one. It will be interesting to see how the matter changes in another generation or two.

He already did one about pac-man, it just never was released on an album http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/weirdalyankovic/pacman.html

To quote Weird Al Yankovic's song White and Nerdy, "There's no killer app I haven't run" Lyrics . According to wikipedia this song was released September 26, 2006. This indicates to me the term app was commonly used more then three to four years ago as this song is filled with nothing but jokes related to nerds like "I'm fluent in Java Script as well as Klingon".

hang on, I know Arnie's left office but surely I haven't slipped back in some timewarp to the 70s?

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deadkennedys/californiauberalles.html

obviously they missed the verse about restricting communications :)

No, the word you want is "moronic", because none of that is irony.

I've been everywhere, man.

Who knows what the hell we invaded Iraq for.

Oil.

Awww, truth hurts.
And if metamods are around: you know that wasn't moderated right. That was informative.

Who knows what the hell we invaded Iraq for.

Oil.

Actually it's Weird Al from "White and Nerdy"

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/weirdalyankovic/whitenerdy.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw

Great song.

I want a hundred fans, 200 teeny boppers
I want police protection from 87 coppers
I wanna go gold even better platinum
If you wanna be a star you gotta kill yourself, man
It's the truth step back, take a look around
Elvis is dead for being fat - 500 pound
Kurt Cobain's rich as fuck he's buried in the ground
Jimi Hendrix and his amp still ain't makin' no sound
Michael hutchence, he's one of 'em too
Made a hundred million quid dying tossing on the loo

(...)

Committing suicide to enhance my career
It worked for Mickey and Tupac Shakir
Jesus was nailed up to some wood
2000 years later and book sales are still good
I heard in a song suicide is painless
And it's 80% sure to make you famous
Wanking with a bag on yer head tied to a door
That bloke from INXS he knew the score

- Goldie Lookin' Chain

i'm a bit older than you, and i surely do remember "old times".

but i surely won't argue about restricting places for the young people. what i would argue for, deposits. they deposit a value that covers biggest damage they could do to the place in a single run, and live with it. i would be pretty much happy with such a system in my time, actually.
i had very little income, but then i saw people open bath/guest house to visitors only to get fireplace glass getting smashed that cost ~$(usd)500 - and their revenue for the evening was ~$240. not a way to make some money. so deposit $1000, get it back at the end. whatever, borrow it from your parents who will probably not be excited about writing that amount off for their spoiled brat. i'm somewhat reminded about a couple of songs :)
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ramones/beatonthebrat.html
http://www.lyricstime.com/sham-69-hey-little-rich-boy-lyrics.html

If I want a sex partner with multiple personalities, I'll keep my wife.

  Although I didn't see PMS-ing Polly on that list.

How about a robot with a Rotary Adjustable Mood Code?

I would have told the clueless PHP then do it yourself, oh they didn't teach you that at MBA school, did they?

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deadkennedys/terminalpreppie.html

Life ain't easy for a boy named "Sue"

They'll lead as two kings?

I need you
To let me know
that there's a heartbeat
Let it pound and pound
And I'll be
flying like a free bird
And you need me
Like ugly needs a mirror
And day by day
This horizon's getting clearer

Computer Age, Neil Young. From his album Trans.

Now, I personally enjoy the hell out of drugs, sex, and computers (preferably supercomputers, which is why I'm reading this damn article) - in which order depends on which day of the week it is (today's Friday, so it's drugs and computers; tomorrow's Saturday, so it's sex and drugs). The fact that I enjoy sex with women (preferably more than one, but I think the average /.er is happy if they can get one gal; word of advice to fellow geeks - date bisexual women...it's a lot of fun) doesn't necessarily mean I have anything against gays. To each their own.

And, for the record, I'm a dedicated ThinkPad user (despite the crappy ATI drivers that don't work worth a damn unless you're using a specific version of X) and a patriot (in the sense of Anti-Flag's song "Red, White, And Brainwashed" : "If you don't fight to make things better, then you're the one betraying the country". Though they need to get off their high horse with the word "Aryan". No one is perfect I guess...).

You, my surprisingly lucid friend, should probably check in with your doctor. Schizophrenia is hard to treat, so we'll bear with you while you do that. Check back in when you have something sane to say.

Myself? I'm off to post my original comment. I was just blown away by the sheer psychotic doggedness it took to post what you did (as I had believed that to be solely my province).

Especially after listening to the Dead Kennedys' song "Soup is good food" from 1985!.

lyrics (WARNING! do not read if you're unemployed or have a weak stomach)

But doesn't he explicitly mention "MySpace" in White and Nerdy? Does that get bleeped out?

For those not getting it: this is a tribute to the song "One" by Filter:

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one, its the loneliest number since the number one
No is the saddest experience you'll ever know
Yes is the saddest experience you'll ever know
Linky.

Neil Young got it about right.

Sorry, I strongly disagree for a broad number of reasons.

The first and most obvious reason is economic. Let's face it, how many cordless drills do you need on your block? Most people could share with a large number of neighbors and nearly never have a usage collision. How many washers and dryers? I bet your neighborhood could cut that in half if you just shared. See how this works? The reduction in economic activity is potentially serious.

The second reason, which ought to be obvious to anyone, is that if we actually learned to get along there would be no need for the majority of the bullshit apparatus of the state. One percent of our population is in prison right now in the US, that's kind of astonishing to consider.

The simple truth is that by keeping people in a state of persistent anxiety (suppress it if you can) you can cause an increase in economic activity and help to keep people in a state of suppressed emotional and educational development which helps to produce a steady stream of cannon fodder, which is what this administration is looking for. There's been a constant flow of crap headed in that direction, for example the No Child Left Behind act which is not only an unfunded mandate which further taxes our strained school system (anyone who says we don't need further funding needs only to look at class sizes - although I do understand the basic, so-called libertarian difference of opinion) but which is also a guarantor of mediocrity.

Perhaps you think I'm being paranoid; so does my mother. Guess what? It's the lack of paranoia (if you want to call it that - I don't care) of the previous generations that got us to where we are today. Their misplaced trust in their government, and their confusion of love of country with love of government, has put us in a position in which every one of us is subordinate to the demands of lucre, and we are all paying.

We have a shortage of patriotism in this country - it has been well-supplanted by jingoism.

The Eagles were great, eh pops? ;)

Hey, even him?

'Kinder and Gentler' was parodied by many:

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand

We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer

Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.

- Neil Young

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neilyoung/rockininthefreeworld.html

I can't help but be reminded of that classic DK song Kill the Poor while reading through these comments.

He got the Internet Goin' Nutz!

I imagine that when we are able to create vehicles that produce no pollution, it will be considered excessive and morally repugnant to drive gas guzzlers.

Regardless, I will drive the Red Barchetta weekly. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rush/redbarchetta.h tml

Besides that, what is really up with this love theme in music? There is around zero pop songs that isn't about sex, love, boyfriends, breakup etc. If you name one I will give you a cookie.

I've often thought that, myself. On reading your comment, I decided to find out.

Billboard's Top 40 track #2 (was #1 last week) is Nickelback's "If Everyone Cared". It's some hippy crap, saying "everybody be nice to eachother and cooperate and the world will be a better place". It does seem to mention romantic love but that isn't the main theme.

LOL! #3 is Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" and it is about sex and/or love, but the lyrics are so funny that I have to share them.

For comparison, I googled for Pantera lyrics and got this, an album with ten songs, one of which is not about love or sex. Okay, a newer album has not a single song about love.

Metal kicks ass, partly because the usually incomprehensible lyrics can sometimes be interesting, but mostly because of the music. Since you're into non-love lyrics, you might want to consider some alt country music too. There's quite a bit of metal crossover. Hank Williams III has been in lots of metal and punk bands, and has his own metal band Assjack, but his country music with his Damn Band is hardcore. Listen to the song "Bad Magick" by Shooter Jennings to feel like you're hearing a dusty old recording of Led Zeppelin collaborating with Bad Company. Shooter Jennings effortlessly segues from country to metal and back in the song "Busted In Baylor County", playing part of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" (the Live At Irving Plaza version has a much longer portion of "Sweet Leaf" than the album version). Rebel Meets Rebel is said to be the last project Dimebag Darrel did before he was killed; it has The Cowboys From Hell playing and aging country outlaw David Allan Coe on lead vocals (and the song "Get Out Of My Life" has Hank III in it too). Jay Berndt of Kilgore Smudge now fronts a country band called The Brimstone Assembly, which offers a style of hardcore country similar to that of Hank III.

Holy shit. I need to get a life.