No - even if he is 14 years old, his argument is still true.
You do not have the right not to be offended, full stop.
You do have the right not to be discriminated against in matters that affect you physically or financially, but people saying bad things that you don't like?
Piss off, you sanctimonious twat - it's idiots like you that make liberal ideas seem stupid, because you are.
Thanks for clearing up the Ayers thing - I've never heard of Bill Ayers, and I didn't ever recall A J Ayer (who was a proper philosopher) discussing old Adolf.
As the old song goes -
I don't care what the Weatherman says, If the Weatherman says it's raining, You won't find me complaining...
Nazionalsozialismus translates to 'National Socialism', but in fact it was a form of corporatism, in which industry was used as a tool of the state - not nationalised, but incoroporated deeply into the state itself.
Something similar is happening in Britain, as the 'third way' morphs into the Fourth Reich - the ties between state and industry are becoming closer, and the will of the Neues Arbeit elite is expressed through the actions of private industry.
The only way to deal with bullies is to fight back.
So you might get punished for it?
Great - take your punishment, but remember that if you've done it right (beat the living crap out of the head bully, for example), nobody is going to want to fuck with you.
Make sure that people know that there's a cost involved in pushing you around, and they'll back off - be prepared to pay the price in punishment from authority, and it's cheaper in the long run.
When faced with a gang, you either run like hell, or if you can't, you take out the biggest threat first.
That's not always the biggest thug - it could be the little clever bastard that directs things.
Nobody has ever tried to bully me more than once - even in adult life I am quite prepared to stand up to bullying, and make sure I do it in public, where everyone can see what's going on and the bully gets humiliated in front of their peers.
Cyber-bullying is a different matter - by its very nature it is more private (text harrassment, posts to social networking sites, etc.), so what needs to be looked at is how to bring the bullies to public account.
Not being a prolific user of that sort of thing, I don't have an answer, but I'm sure there is one.
Yet another proponent of the meme that most people once believed the earth was flat - wrong!
Here's a great modern delusion for you - the banking system.
Everyone believed the snake-oil theories that lending ten, twenty or even thirty times the accumulated savings of a bank was sustainable, and that debt could be treated as an asset to be packaged up and sold as a 'security', until one day it became clear that the money produced by such a system was illusory, and only existed so long as property prices kept on rising and enough economic activity occurred in the world at large to cover the defecits.
Look where that delusion has got us - some $61 trillion disappeared overnight, but that $61 trillion was never there in the first place - it only existed in the minds of bankers and stock traders.
And everyone bought in to this delusion, because for a few years it caused les bon temps to rouler.
I will never cease to be amazed at the boundlessness of human credulity so long as I live, no matter how much despair that credulity causes.
...if psychiatry were a science rather than an art...
And if my auntie had bollocks she'd be my uncle.
Some areas of psychiatry (cognitive therapy springs to mind) are useful and deserving of research - others (the whole field of 'psychoanalysis') are little more than mumbo-jumbo, while the mainstream of psychiatry consists of little more than trying one pharmaceutical after another until a calm and compliant patient is achieved.
Kesey mainly used it as a way to get free LSD - if you read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, you'll get a feel for Kesey's attitude - he wasn't adversely affected by MK-ULTRA at all, though the acid did fry his brain a little.
Didn't know about Kaczynski, but from his manifesto it's clear that either LSD or severe Aspergers (or both) played a part in forming his world view.
Basically, all MK-ULTRA was was a bunch of experiments in chemical and psychological interrogation methods - nothing to get too hung-up about (especially if, like me, you like LSD).
Personally, I'd rather know how everything works, and accept that questions about 'meaning' don't apply to the natural world, but only to social interactions.
I prefer not to waste my time looking for meanings that aren't there, and to use my ability to discern meaning only when dealing with other sentient beings.
Simply discovering that someone believes something that is false does not imply delusion.
The classical example is that the belief that the world is flat was not delusional during the dark ages.
No - virtually nobody (except a few religious literalists) believed the world was flat during the dark ages or at any point since Erastothenes measured the circumference in the 2nd Century BCE.
So although you believe something that is false (that people in the 'Dark Ages' thought the world was flat), you're not deluded - merely mistaken.
If, however, you subscribe to a belief that some beardy guy in the sky told a bunch of Iron Age tribes to write down the absolute truth in a book, then I'd argue that you're delusional.
The scale structure has been known for around 20 years - I first saw it in a product at 3M in around 1989 or so, and the guys responsible (it was a plastic film intended to reduce drag) were full of enthusiasm about it.
Being able to change the texture is pretty cool - to replicate that capability would be even cooler.
It really depends upon who turns up from the corporations - if the IP lawyers have their say, then expect crazy software and business process patents to be favoured.
If the CFOs and CTOs are involved, then the debate may be more balanced - fighting stupid patent cases as a cost of doing business can't be attractive for the beancounters, and the technical guys are more likely to appreciate how ludicrous the idea of patenting an algorithm is.
This could turn out to be a good thing - the fact that it is being debated at all is encouraging.
Slashdot Mirror
Get over it, idiot - most monotheistic religions are a poison on mankind, and you're part of the problem.
Sorry, but you're being silly.
here is a reasonable estimate of those killed by Yawveh and his followers - have the Islamists done anywhere near that figure?
Islam is a religion of peace - even the name means 'supplication' - Judaism on the other hand is the most hate-filled evil religion ever spawned.
Please go away and read your history, twit.
Damn - I wish I had mod points today.
That's the most elegant argument against 'hate crimes' I've seen in a long time.
No - even if he is 14 years old, his argument is still true.
You do not have the right not to be offended, full stop.
You do have the right not to be discriminated against in matters that affect you physically or financially, but people saying bad things that you don't like?
Piss off, you sanctimonious twat - it's idiots like you that make liberal ideas seem stupid, because you are.
Thanks for clearing up the Ayers thing - I've never heard of Bill Ayers, and I didn't ever recall A J Ayer (who was a proper philosopher) discussing old Adolf.
As the old song goes -
I don't care what the Weatherman says,
If the Weatherman says it's raining,
You won't find me complaining...
Sorry, but you're almost entirely wrong.
Nazionalsozialismus translates to 'National Socialism', but in fact it was a form of corporatism, in which industry was used as a tool of the state - not nationalised, but incoroporated deeply into the state itself.
Something similar is happening in Britain, as the 'third way' morphs into the Fourth Reich - the ties between state and industry are becoming closer, and the will of the Neues Arbeit elite is expressed through the actions of private industry.
You're talking nonsense - please don't bother.
The safe word was actually a phrase - "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?"
The problem was that Eli wasn't listening at the time.
What? Sarcasm has caught on? Never...
Hundreds, maybe - thousands is somewhat improbable given that the 'exodus' myth is generally placed at only 1300 BCE or so.
The only way to deal with bullies is to fight back.
So you might get punished for it?
Great - take your punishment, but remember that if you've done it right (beat the living crap out of the head bully, for example), nobody is going to want to fuck with you.
Make sure that people know that there's a cost involved in pushing you around, and they'll back off - be prepared to pay the price in punishment from authority, and it's cheaper in the long run.
I agree 100%
When faced with a gang, you either run like hell, or if you can't, you take out the biggest threat first.
That's not always the biggest thug - it could be the little clever bastard that directs things.
Nobody has ever tried to bully me more than once - even in adult life I am quite prepared to stand up to bullying, and make sure I do it in public, where everyone can see what's going on and the bully gets humiliated in front of their peers.
Cyber-bullying is a different matter - by its very nature it is more private (text harrassment, posts to social networking sites, etc.), so what needs to be looked at is how to bring the bullies to public account.
Not being a prolific user of that sort of thing, I don't have an answer, but I'm sure there is one.
Yet another proponent of the meme that most people once believed the earth was flat - wrong!
Here's a great modern delusion for you - the banking system.
Everyone believed the snake-oil theories that lending ten, twenty or even thirty times the accumulated savings of a bank was sustainable, and that debt could be treated as an asset to be packaged up and sold as a 'security', until one day it became clear that the money produced by such a system was illusory, and only existed so long as property prices kept on rising and enough economic activity occurred in the world at large to cover the defecits.
Look where that delusion has got us - some $61 trillion disappeared overnight, but that $61 trillion was never there in the first place - it only existed in the minds of bankers and stock traders.
And everyone bought in to this delusion, because for a few years it caused les bon temps to rouler.
I will never cease to be amazed at the boundlessness of human credulity so long as I live, no matter how much despair that credulity causes.
And if my auntie had bollocks she'd be my uncle.
Some areas of psychiatry (cognitive therapy springs to mind) are useful and deserving of research - others (the whole field of 'psychoanalysis') are little more than mumbo-jumbo, while the mainstream of psychiatry consists of little more than trying one pharmaceutical after another until a calm and compliant patient is achieved.
Now where did I put my lithium?
Didn't know about Kaczynski, but from his manifesto it's clear that either LSD or severe Aspergers (or both) played a part in forming his world view.
Basically, all MK-ULTRA was was a bunch of experiments in chemical and psychological interrogation methods - nothing to get too hung-up about (especially if, like me, you like LSD).
OK - please give me a description of theism that makes it sound not-absurd.
If you can, that'll be a first.
Remember - you aren't allowed to appeal to ignorance in your definition, as we're all supposed to be educated here.
Good luck!
Personally, I'd rather know how everything works, and accept that questions about 'meaning' don't apply to the natural world, but only to social interactions.
I prefer not to waste my time looking for meanings that aren't there, and to use my ability to discern meaning only when dealing with other sentient beings.
No - virtually nobody (except a few religious literalists) believed the world was flat during the dark ages or at any point since Erastothenes measured the circumference in the 2nd Century BCE.
So although you believe something that is false (that people in the 'Dark Ages' thought the world was flat), you're not deluded - merely mistaken.
If, however, you subscribe to a belief that some beardy guy in the sky told a bunch of Iron Age tribes to write down the absolute truth in a book, then I'd argue that you're delusional.
LOL, looser - I woon!
I read Cat's Cradle (and Slaughterhouse 5) before I read Catch-22 - that's how geeky I was back in the 70s :o)
Look - Hitler was a vegetarian
Nuff said.
The scale structure has been known for around 20 years - I first saw it in a product at 3M in around 1989 or so, and the guys responsible (it was a plastic film intended to reduce drag) were full of enthusiasm about it.
Being able to change the texture is pretty cool - to replicate that capability would be even cooler.
It's a beautiful little village with an excellent church and museum, if you ever get a chance to visit.
In the immortal words of Father Ted Crilley -
"Down with this sort of thing!"
The man must be a fecking eejit even to think that this sort of data gathering is acceptable.
It really depends upon who turns up from the corporations - if the IP lawyers have their say, then expect crazy software and business process patents to be favoured.
If the CFOs and CTOs are involved, then the debate may be more balanced - fighting stupid patent cases as a cost of doing business can't be attractive for the beancounters, and the technical guys are more likely to appreciate how ludicrous the idea of patenting an algorithm is.
This could turn out to be a good thing - the fact that it is being debated at all is encouraging.
I'm non-practising in the sense that I don't go to church, and don't do the god thing.
But my attitudes and the way I live my life are influenced by my upbringing, so I still view myself as a Methodist.