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I had to go to one those those sites "MM" to find them all. I don't know but as an Australian, why are they so uptight about fried chicken and watermelon, has Kernal Sanders done something to upset them?

During and after the post-Civil War reconstruction era, such foods were often linked with demeaning caricatures of the newly freed Afro-Americians. I have no idea why those particular foods were associated with that specific ethnic group (other than perhaps they were cheap enough to be available to the poor former slaves), but racism doesn't have to make sense. So if you see a picture of a huge watermelon field in front of the White House, it's an echo of the bad old days of Jim Crow.

Without meaning to be insulting, do Australians have similar references to a point in time when Aboriginies were marginalized, or did your fore-fathers have more collective human decency than ours?

Amen.

Contemporary Opera has become a caricature of Opera. Boring plots, horrible music, senseless, warbling dialog.

Puccini, Wagner, Et. Al. are laughing their asses off at what passes for Opera these days.

You want to listen to something especially stupid? Try Dr. Atomic.

Thanks for the link.

That's certainly interesting, but I'll note that that's the same test that has the really offensive Darwinism/abortion question on it. This is the first time I'm hearing about this guy, but if the amputation question is any guide, I suspect that the big blank space for arguing against creationism is really just room for you to set up straw men.

In other words, being familiar with your caricatures of your opponents arguments really isn't the same as thinking critically.

I could be wrong, but I wouldn't bet on it.

White racism is also at fault for creating mass media caricatures like Steve Urkel and Carlton Banks as black kids succeeding in society due to their overwhelming non-blackness.

For every one of those "racist" examples that happen in media, there are at least 20 that poke fun at white people. As corny as this may sound, people need to rise above other peoples' stereotypes of them. They need to embrace it as what it is and make their own path. Sadly, right now, all I see african americans doing is pimping hoes and slapping bitches; and yapping on a microphone about it as if it's something to be glorified. With that in mind, their kids' performance at school should be no surprise to anyone.

Africans and African American individuals have made great strides in science in technology. It's well known that botanist George Washington Carver invented over 200 things out of peanuts. It's less known that African Americans are also behind such technologies as pace makers and traffic signals.

However, that there are outstanding individuals of any race is not surprising. What is surprising, as you have pointed out, is the dearth of African Americans winning these competitions. However, if you look at the problem statistically, you'll find that they are winning in proportion to their representation as participants. Which is to say not at all.

But why is that? The simple answer is to ascribe lower intelligence to Africans, but that is a cop-out. The real answer is multifaceted and has roots both in external discrimination as well as negative factors in the African American community which hold back achievement. White racism is also at fault for creating mass media caricatures like Steve Urkel and Carlton Banks as black kids succeeding in society due to their overwhelming non-blackness.

The problem you describe is insidious and sad. But it isn't because Africans and African Americans are less intelligent than you or me. It's due to much more complex socio-cultural reasons that have their roots in racism.

Many Christians believe that those who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven are already named in the Book of Life. God is omniscient, therefore he already knows who will spend eternity in Glory and who will burn forever in the Lake of Fire. Calvinists hold this concept of preordination.

However such a concept flies in the face of a loving Creator for many Christians. So these subscribe to the concept of Free Will. The choices you make in life actually affect how you will be judged in the afterlife.

What it boils down to, though, is whether God is omnipotent and omniscient. If he is, then he knows that a vast number of people will die and enter the flames of Hades, and his refusal to do anything about it is far from the loving God caricature He is portrayed as. On the other hand, if he isn't those things, then how shall we live such that we can pass lightly through the Gates of St. Peter? Isn't the fallibility and lack of knowledge a sign of weakness in our God?

What this brings me to is your comment.

Fine. But the terms of the contract were changed. Unilaterally. The state offerd tax incentives to attract business and then withdrew them once the business is up and running. Why not just charge the going tax rates from the outset?

From the outset of what? Are laws never to be changed? No one can know the perfect formulation of taxes and services from the outset of incorporation. Laws should be allowed to change as no politician is infallible, and thus those subject to those laws should also have the ability to adapt (even to the point of leaving the neighborhood/city/state/country) if those laws become too heavy a burden.

It is a mistake to think that laws are perfect from Day 1.

I don't know what the first part of your reply really had to do with the discussion but I will bite. You left out Omnipresent in your list with Omnipotent and Omniscient. His omnipresent attribute is unchanging holiness, if that could change he could no longer be God. God would be less holy and not worthy of praise if it was forced praise so it has to be free will. Also this means that he cannot stop someone from making the choice to reject salvation because that would mean that being was no longer free and would turn God in to something he is not.

by the by this brings me to why I hate most laws such as prohibitions on drugs, sex, or societal restrictions or any other personal behavior and don't identify myself publicly as a Christian very often. God gave me free will, who the Fuck are you to come in and say 'no you can't smoke that joint, no you can't make Laudanam in your own home from the Poppies you grew in your garden'. Who the fuck died and made them God? The God I know gave me true Freedom to fuck up and commit sin.

Many Christians believe that those who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven are already named in the Book of Life. God is omniscient, therefore he already knows who will spend eternity in Glory and who will burn forever in the Lake of Fire. Calvinists hold this concept of preordination.

However such a concept flies in the face of a loving Creator for many Christians. So these subscribe to the concept of Free Will. The choices you make in life actually affect how you will be judged in the afterlife.

What it boils down to, though, is whether God is omnipotent and omniscient. If he is, then he knows that a vast number of people will die and enter the flames of Hades, and his refusal to do anything about it is far from the loving God caricature He is portrayed as. On the other hand, if he isn't those things, then how shall we live such that we can pass lightly through the Gates of St. Peter? Isn't the fallibility and lack of knowledge a sign of weakness in our God?

What this brings me to is your comment.

Fine. But the terms of the contract were changed. Unilaterally. The state offerd tax incentives to attract business and then withdrew them once the business is up and running. Why not just charge the going tax rates from the outset?

From the outset of what? Are laws never to be changed? No one can know the perfect formulation of taxes and services from the outset of incorporation. Laws should be allowed to change as no politician is infallible, and thus those subject to those laws should also have the ability to adapt (even to the point of leaving the neighborhood/city/state/country) if those laws become too heavy a burden.

It is a mistake to think that laws are perfect from Day 1.

Questionable Content sucks. It's not funny and the characters are disgusting caricatures of indie people. It's like a soap opera for geeks.

Posting AC because I don't know how many QC fans there are here and I certainly don't think I'm allowed to express an opinion without being modded down.

My take is that "fundamentally flawed" businesses make up only a small part of failures in businesses older than a couple of years.

someone hasn't seen the record industry

That's a non sequitur. Not only are small businesses not the "record industry", the record industry consists of a lot of businesses that aren't "fundamentally flawed".

No, you're claiming the diversity of the owner's PERSONAL ASSETS somehow have a bearing on the viability and sustainability of a business. Allow me to link that chart making the case for increasing piracy to combat global warming.

You're damn right I'm claiming that. I'd even go as far as to claim that it was pretty obvious. Rather than waste time attempting to borrow money in a down economy, how about I put some strings-free money into my business? Never heard of that trick? Maybe you ought to talk to your relatives about how they funded their businesses.

no they dont, they go into luxury cars for huge investment bank executives, or float around in bond markets making capital gains income for people who will never spend it.

Utterly ridiculous caricature of investing. What is there to say except that you are grossly in error? You don't have the mental tools with which to discuss anything of an economic nature.

Anime characters look like caricatured humans. It's simply your own cultural bias that makes these characters appear Caucasian by default. You probably unconsciously expect asian and african characters to be portrayed with exaggerated racial traits.

Neither Equilibrium nor V for Vendetta deal with the same ideas as 1984 in any comparable depth.

The graphic novel V for Vendetta is significantly deeper than the movie of the same name, and is intended to present a different set ideas than Orwell's novel 1984, though it does have overlap.

Neither V for Vendetta nor Equilibrium is a "crude caricature" of 1984, they are independent works with their own points. If you want someone to get the ideas of 1984, have them read or view some version of that work -- ideally, read the damn book, or if not that watch one of the film adaptations.

(The movie V for Vendetta, though, may rightfully be called a crude caricature of Moore's graphic novel.)

You may not like the fact that there is a large group of people that refuse to watch 1984. The message of 1984 IS important. How do we reach them?

Some ideas cannot be dumbed down or made comfortable.

Neither Equilibrium nor V for Vendetta deal with the same ideas as 1984 in any comparable depth. They're a crude caricature which loses most of the insight of the original.

"Foo is bullshit. Foo is completely arbitrary. ... Uh, but Foo is useful when done a certain way..."

While I get the gist of your comment (assuming you don't actually have a self-contradictingly caricaturized model in your head), it seems to me you could have put it more clearly.

First off: I own a Pre. I own a TX. I own some Palm stock. I don't want my company wasting their time doing anything but making what I bought from them better -- that's time better spent on implementing standards.

iTunes isn't an open standard. If Palm wants to add music syncing to their product, they can do it themselves, or use another product that they're allowed to use.

Sheesh. My wife has a Sansa music player. Do you mean I have to suddenly go and download software from Sansa, and not just use whatever the f-- I want to move the stuff over?

Yes. Or use a product that allows Sansa interoperability, like (I assume) WMP.

This goes WAY beyond just "we don't support that". This is Apple going out of their way to break it.

No shit, captain obvious.

Bull crap. This isn't DRM, this has nothing to do with DRM.

I wasn't the one who brought up DRM. Learn to parse quote tags.

Palm was never mighty -- they were popular. Big difference.

Palm was the PDA maker at one time. That sounds pretty mighty to me, but if you prefer, use whatever adjective you want for a company that Palm once was but is no longer. It doesn't change the facts, just the words.

Whatever words you choose, what I wrote still stands. Palm was once a great company, now they're playing amateur-hour with their iTunes hacks. They are a sad caricature of their former self.

Try arguing with what I say, not your own caricature of my statements.

The OP argued that Apple stifles innovation because it blocks applications.

You replied that it was hard to develop mobile applications before the iPhone SDK.

See how the logic does not follow now?

You seem to be arguing

Try arguing with what I say, not your own caricature of my statements.

You need some basic logic lessons sonny.

I had no trouble spotting your fallacy.

-jcr

Wikipedia points out:

From Cosmos and his frequent appearances on The Tonight Show, Sagan became associated with the catch phrase "billions and billions". As Sagan himself stated, he never actually used the phrase in the Cosmos series.[18] The closest that he ever came was in the book Cosmos, where he talked of "billions upon billions":[19]

A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars -- billions upon billions of stars.

        -- Carl Sagan, Cosmos, chapter 1, page 3[20]

However, his frequent use of the word billions, and distinctive delivery emphasizing the "b" (which he did intentionally, in place of more cumbersome alternatives such as "billions with a 'b'", in order to distinguish the word from "millions" in viewers' minds[18]), made him a favorite target of comic performers including Johnny Carson, Gary Kroeger, Mike Myers,[21] Bronson Pinchot, Harry Shearer, and others. Frank Zappa satirized the line in the song Be In My Video, noting as well 'atomic light.' Sagan took this all in good humor, and his final book was entitled Billions and Billions which opened with a tongue-in-cheek discussion of this catch phrase, observing that Carson himself was an amateur astronomer and that Carson's comic caricature often included real science.[18]

I read an interview with him once where he was asked about it, and he responded that it makes him kind of frustrated, since the phrase is nonsensical. There's no change in order of magnitude, so there's no point in tacking on the extra "and billions."

Your show me why I gave up debating religious people, because it is is pointless, they purposely short circuit their thinking and live in denial of what their own teachings say.

Or perhaps (GASP!) I belong to a religion other than Christianity. I'm Jewish; I don't know what the hell Romans 5:12 says or much of anything about the concept of original sin. In my religion a sin is just doing something contrary to what God told you is the right thing to do. We don't need Adam and Eve or some stupid Roman guy telling us that if you transgress a commandment, you've committed an sin.

Way to short-circuit your own thinking by caricaturing all religious people as fundamentalist Christians.

"a little caricature of Carter that is placed throughout the book"

Man, just like "Atari BASIC: XL Edition" that I learned a ton of BASIC with as a kid. It had "Kilroy" (as in "... was here") throughout it.

I vividly remember reading some of that book while on a trip to the department store with my mom. In fact, not only do I still HAVE that book (surprised? don't be... I was the "Atari vs Dell" guy on Slashdot the other day), it's on the shelf next to me, and just yesterday I happened to grab it when I responded to one of those dumb chainlettery things on Facebook ("grab the closest book, open page X, type sentence Y as your facebook status").

This is starting to freak me out. ;)

The whole christian faith for instance is predicated on sin entering the world through one man, the whole purpose of christ's death was necessary to absolve man of sin. Under evolution man did not commit sin and death was always there since the start. Sin cannot exist and the purpose of the christian message becomes completely meaningless.

Wait a minute, how does evolution mean sin cannot exist? That doesn't sound like science, that sounds like some religious-right strawman caricature of "evolutionists". It's complete bullshit.