The illiterate peasant bit can be ignored as trolling. I don't think he really means to change the topic to whether the (apparently inferior) illiterate peasant folk could possibly have something to offer humanity, or that he believes an all-powerful God could not instantiate an illiterate peasant presence.
I am not a teacher but I have a couple kids in elementary school and get to see the instantiation of mediocrity when some parents sit back and allow their kids to become someone else's problem. It's clear that reproduction is not just physical, but is also behavioral. Big douchebags unleash little douchebags unto our society, in some cases with barely disguised relish. And it's not so rare that these same people expect to bring their little psychopathic bastards to public school to have an Anne Sullivan/Helen Keller moment at the water pump with nary an effort on their own part. Sure, the teacher made some idiotic judgements, but I'd applaud the interviewers if they asked the indignant parents whether any of the teacher's claims might be true and, if so, what should be done about it.
As a musician I'm going to say the RB/GH likely do more damage than benefit toward acquiring actual guitar-playing skills. For guitar there is WAY more to playing good music than simply hitting the right tone at the appropriate duration. Hitting clean notes over 1 or 2 octaves of a major scale is a big undertaking for beginners, and at 16th notes can keep you practicing for a long long time. There are many dynamics and effects an accomplished musican adds in order to "phrase" a song, and some of these take considerable skill.
I don't play drums, the game may be more helpful there, but I suspect some fundamentals are still missed, such as clean hi-hat pedal lifts, double bass and whatnot. Just a guess. If the game incorporates a single drummer's part using multiple concurrent time signatures that sounds great, bring that on.
But I don't hate on the game players. I do think to myself "what about the guy that actually played the BH&H track? that's what's impressive..." But people having fun and trading tips about a game is fine - I sound silly hyperventilating over my favorite games, too.
That said, I won't get my children these games because a child will then expect real music to be accomplished that easily and will shut down when they meet the actual challenge.
...surely in the spirit of not being hypocritical warmongering oil fetishists we must now "liberate" North Korea.
Because fighting one evil does not obligate you to fight all other evils without regard to circumstances, viability, and consequences. If you happen to stop a purse snatching are you then obligated to confront gunmen trying to rob a convenience store if you happen to be on the scene. If that wasn't worth the risk perhaps you shouldn't have been such a high and mighty hypocrite with the purse snatcher?
Also, this is not hypocrisy because the US is clearly against N Korea having WMDs, not condemning other dictators for trying to develop them but excusing N Korea.
Exactly so. The songs are completely different. I'd bet "Land Down Under" was completely written well before they decided to add a flute track with those flavor notes. The inclusion of the Kookaburra notes was a clever allusion to a piece of Australian culture, NOT the basis for the song.
I think it's okay for libraries to alter existing budgets to account for the games, but too often government institutions turn first to requests to increase their funding. Find another way. Shave other parts of your budget and solicit contributions of money and used games from the public. If people value the idea they'll support it.
But I guess libraries are preserving our cultural inclination to simply reach for more instead of making do with what they've already got.
Some greedy capitalist will figure a way beyond this burden and make money from it at the same time.
There are already corporations whose sole focus is to track tax rates of various government entities and issue an updated electronic catalog to their (corporate) subscribers. If the sales tax information offerings already available are not satisfactory Amazon could create their own in-house solution, then make it pay for itself by re-selling this service to other companies. That would be nice for Amazon, but consumers of all things online will end up paying not only these taxes but also for the services and infrastructure for companies to conform.
The problem is the tax-drunken government entities tirelessly finding new ways to tax. Nothing makes me want to party French-Revolution style like taxes and bureaucrats. I don't want this tax, I want less spending. Governments at all levels have increased spending far beyond economic growth rates for decades now because it's really easy to spend someone else's money. I applaud Amazon's efforts to resist these taxes. It's not the government's money, it's ours. Even when they pass a law saying otherwise.
...I save fuel by biking most of the way to work. I started earlier this summer by driving most of the 20-mile distance, parking, then cycling the rest. Several months later I've settled on driving 5 miles and biking the remaining 15.
Honestly I've probably saved a very small amount of money overall due the the bike accessories I've picked up along the way, but I've got way more energy and lost several belt-notches.
Driving less than the full commute distance is probably not realistic for most, but something to consider.
'cuz, unless she was hatching a plot or clearly trying to hide something, I can't bring myself to care. And that's Bad, too.
The nasty, nonstop personal attacks on her ever since she was announced as McCain's running mate have numbed me to it all. After the first mischaracterizations and outright lies instantly grew legs and everyone got slap-happy with her record I'm all out of patience with it. Now real stuff comes along and I'm spent unless it's truly nefarious.
I'll assume she was a bit lazy about her multiple e-mail accounts like 99% of all other non-geeks until something nasty is found and sustained through public scrutiny.
Having a phone is nearly a necessity for the modern world (how do you call out sick when you can't place calls?), and often a landline just does not cut it (need to be locatable 24/7?), unless you want to have both a landline and a pager (plus, what good is a pager when fortress phones are getting harder and harder to find?).
I've got a landline for 25 bucks/month. That squares me away for full-time work, full-time school, and maintaining a household with 2 children. Cell phones are a convenience for 90% of mobile customers, nothing more. If you need a cellphone for your job employers typically provide one. That's the only reason I'm getting one in a couple weeks, after 8 years without mobile service.
The whole 'Cellphone Cartel' nonsense is hysteria. In reality western consumers are just rolling over and giving it up.
Wow. Why aren't we in the US trying to do this? We used to be so worried about the Communists beating us. But now it's like we don't even care. Where's the fire?
On the one hand investors are failing to see a profitable opportunity in the US for high-speed trains, and on the other hand I sure as hell don't want to subsidize more government rail for a population that refuses to get out of their cars.
Besides, Americans are going to have to get used to the idea that being #1 is neither a God-given right nor the purpose of a well-lived life. I don't mind if China knocks the US down to #2 as long as the US remains a great place for opportunity and expression. We don't have to be #1.
Okay, to be fair, if they start to encroach on Georgia's oil fields, the U.S. might get involved. The rest of those former Soviet states, though---the ones who aren't sitting on oil---I think it's safe to say they're on their own. I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying that if you think the current U.S. government is going to lift a finger to help anybody without it being for their own significant political gain, you've clearly been living under a rock the last eight years.
Nah, the members of NATO will not be shafted. This includes Poland, Romania, the Baltic States, and other former Soviet slave holdings. To allow such a thing would carry the unacceptable political cost of destroying NATO's credibility altogether, turning NATO into a lame duck, and shifting massive power and prestige Russia's way. Only the most naive western leadership could possibly think of allowing such a thing. Okay, so it could happen if Obama wins in November.
A big factor in how the Georgia situation went down is that they didn't quite make it into NATO.
For decades now, the KKK crowd has been the property of the Republican Party.
The Ku Klux Who? The KKK is largely a bogieman, with splinter groups vying for the name. There are still stumblefucks calling themselves the KKK, shaking in their sheets during "demonstrations" hoping they don't get their asses kicked (I've seen and was thoroughly underwhelmed by a public KKK march - if you can call less than 10 dumbasses a march). But the KKK now largely serves as a Hollywood punchline and a red herring diversion from the real racism remaining in our culture.
And the Republican party is not nearly far enough to the right for white nationalist groups. Calling the GOP the white party or the home of the KKK is race baiting on par with calling black repubs Uncle Toms. There's plenty of racism on both sides of the aisle.
While the rest of the world runs out of resources, us Canadians are sitting on a veritable goldmine of oil, precious metals, and uranium. This is suicide without a large military to assert your control over said resources.
Historically this is sound reasoning, but very few nations have the capacity to launch a major ground campaign across an ocean. And even if the infrastructure and naval craft magically appeared in a country hostile to Canada, the navies of NATO have a downright obscene advantage in technology, numbers, and (dare I say?) operational doctrine over all non-NATO naval forces combined.
Strategic warefare otoh... that's a different can of worms. Messy.
And that, boys and girls, is why the next world war will be fought between Russia and China.
nah. the chinese will be able to afford the going rate for that russian oil (which is a lot cheaper than rebuilding radiated industrial and metropolitan areas). if anything i'd expect russia's abundant resources to make the two strategic trade partners.
You are aware are you not that the risk of an American being killed by a terrorist is just about the lowest of all the things likely to kill one right ? Cars kill the most, ciggarettes and burger king are pretty high on the list, PLANE CRASHES are higher than terrorists... heck SUICIDE is a higher risk.
Except that being killed is only one of a whole array of negative consequences of war (hostilities, whatever). There are also negative political, cultural, and economic impacts. Very often the outcome of wars are determined by these factors, not casualties.
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>>>They are exploiting your fear of people you see as "opposite" to you in order to make millions
Funny. I don't remember giving anything to Beck/Limbaugh/Maddows/whomever.
And "free" online or radio content could never be a viable business model, right?
The illiterate peasant bit can be ignored as trolling. I don't think he really means to change the topic to whether the (apparently inferior) illiterate peasant folk could possibly have something to offer humanity, or that he believes an all-powerful God could not instantiate an illiterate peasant presence.
I am not a teacher but I have a couple kids in elementary school and get to see the instantiation of mediocrity when some parents sit back and allow their kids to become someone else's problem. It's clear that reproduction is not just physical, but is also behavioral. Big douchebags unleash little douchebags unto our society, in some cases with barely disguised relish. And it's not so rare that these same people expect to bring their little psychopathic bastards to public school to have an Anne Sullivan/Helen Keller moment at the water pump with nary an effort on their own part. Sure, the teacher made some idiotic judgements, but I'd applaud the interviewers if they asked the indignant parents whether any of the teacher's claims might be true and, if so, what should be done about it.
As a musician I'm going to say the RB/GH likely do more damage than benefit toward acquiring actual guitar-playing skills. For guitar there is WAY more to playing good music than simply hitting the right tone at the appropriate duration. Hitting clean notes over 1 or 2 octaves of a major scale is a big undertaking for beginners, and at 16th notes can keep you practicing for a long long time. There are many dynamics and effects an accomplished musican adds in order to "phrase" a song, and some of these take considerable skill. I don't play drums, the game may be more helpful there, but I suspect some fundamentals are still missed, such as clean hi-hat pedal lifts, double bass and whatnot. Just a guess. If the game incorporates a single drummer's part using multiple concurrent time signatures that sounds great, bring that on. But I don't hate on the game players. I do think to myself "what about the guy that actually played the BH&H track? that's what's impressive..." But people having fun and trading tips about a game is fine - I sound silly hyperventilating over my favorite games, too. That said, I won't get my children these games because a child will then expect real music to be accomplished that easily and will shut down when they meet the actual challenge.
...surely in the spirit of not being hypocritical warmongering oil fetishists we must now "liberate" North Korea.
Because fighting one evil does not obligate you to fight all other evils without regard to circumstances, viability, and consequences. If you happen to stop a purse snatching are you then obligated to confront gunmen trying to rob a convenience store if you happen to be on the scene. If that wasn't worth the risk perhaps you shouldn't have been such a high and mighty hypocrite with the purse snatcher?
Also, this is not hypocrisy because the US is clearly against N Korea having WMDs, not condemning other dictators for trying to develop them but excusing N Korea.
If it's really important to someone they will figure out how to send a check or money order.
So how much would it cost to get them to re-direct my fear flow to the calm, deadly badass region of my brain?
Exactly so. The songs are completely different. I'd bet "Land Down Under" was completely written well before they decided to add a flute track with those flavor notes. The inclusion of the Kookaburra notes was a clever allusion to a piece of Australian culture, NOT the basis for the song.
i wonder if the treatment included retraining the cat on burying its business in the cat box.
I think it's okay for libraries to alter existing budgets to account for the games, but too often government institutions turn first to requests to increase their funding. Find another way. Shave other parts of your budget and solicit contributions of money and used games from the public. If people value the idea they'll support it. But I guess libraries are preserving our cultural inclination to simply reach for more instead of making do with what they've already got.
Some greedy capitalist will figure a way beyond this burden and make money from it at the same time.
There are already corporations whose sole focus is to track tax rates of various government entities and issue an updated electronic catalog to their (corporate) subscribers. If the sales tax information offerings already available are not satisfactory Amazon could create their own in-house solution, then make it pay for itself by re-selling this service to other companies. That would be nice for Amazon, but consumers of all things online will end up paying not only these taxes but also for the services and infrastructure for companies to conform.
The problem is the tax-drunken government entities tirelessly finding new ways to tax. Nothing makes me want to party French-Revolution style like taxes and bureaucrats. I don't want this tax, I want less spending. Governments at all levels have increased spending far beyond economic growth rates for decades now because it's really easy to spend someone else's money. I applaud Amazon's efforts to resist these taxes. It's not the government's money, it's ours. Even when they pass a law saying otherwise.
It's not the government's money, it's ours.
...I save fuel by biking most of the way to work. I started earlier this summer by driving most of the 20-mile distance, parking, then cycling the rest. Several months later I've settled on driving 5 miles and biking the remaining 15.
Honestly I've probably saved a very small amount of money overall due the the bike accessories I've picked up along the way, but I've got way more energy and lost several belt-notches.
Driving less than the full commute distance is probably not realistic for most, but something to consider.
'cuz, unless she was hatching a plot or clearly trying to hide something, I can't bring myself to care. And that's Bad, too. The nasty, nonstop personal attacks on her ever since she was announced as McCain's running mate have numbed me to it all. After the first mischaracterizations and outright lies instantly grew legs and everyone got slap-happy with her record I'm all out of patience with it. Now real stuff comes along and I'm spent unless it's truly nefarious. I'll assume she was a bit lazy about her multiple e-mail accounts like 99% of all other non-geeks until something nasty is found and sustained through public scrutiny.
OS/who??
Having a phone is nearly a necessity for the modern world (how do you call out sick when you can't place calls?), and often a landline just does not cut it (need to be locatable 24/7?), unless you want to have both a landline and a pager (plus, what good is a pager when fortress phones are getting harder and harder to find?).
I've got a landline for 25 bucks/month. That squares me away for full-time work, full-time school, and maintaining a household with 2 children. Cell phones are a convenience for 90% of mobile customers, nothing more. If you need a cellphone for your job employers typically provide one. That's the only reason I'm getting one in a couple weeks, after 8 years without mobile service.
The whole 'Cellphone Cartel' nonsense is hysteria. In reality western consumers are just rolling over and giving it up.
Wow. Why aren't we in the US trying to do this? We used to be so worried about the Communists beating us. But now it's like we don't even care. Where's the fire?
On the one hand investors are failing to see a profitable opportunity in the US for high-speed trains, and on the other hand I sure as hell don't want to subsidize more government rail for a population that refuses to get out of their cars.
Besides, Americans are going to have to get used to the idea that being #1 is neither a God-given right nor the purpose of a well-lived life. I don't mind if China knocks the US down to #2 as long as the US remains a great place for opportunity and expression. We don't have to be #1.
Okay, to be fair, if they start to encroach on Georgia's oil fields, the U.S. might get involved. The rest of those former Soviet states, though---the ones who aren't sitting on oil---I think it's safe to say they're on their own. I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying that if you think the current U.S. government is going to lift a finger to help anybody without it being for their own significant political gain, you've clearly been living under a rock the last eight years.
Nah, the members of NATO will not be shafted. This includes Poland, Romania, the Baltic States, and other former Soviet slave holdings. To allow such a thing would carry the unacceptable political cost of destroying NATO's credibility altogether, turning NATO into a lame duck, and shifting massive power and prestige Russia's way. Only the most naive western leadership could possibly think of allowing such a thing. Okay, so it could happen if Obama wins in November. A big factor in how the Georgia situation went down is that they didn't quite make it into NATO.
For decades now, the KKK crowd has been the property of the Republican Party.
The Ku Klux Who? The KKK is largely a bogieman, with splinter groups vying for the name. There are still stumblefucks calling themselves the KKK, shaking in their sheets during "demonstrations" hoping they don't get their asses kicked (I've seen and was thoroughly underwhelmed by a public KKK march - if you can call less than 10 dumbasses a march). But the KKK now largely serves as a Hollywood punchline and a red herring diversion from the real racism remaining in our culture.
And the Republican party is not nearly far enough to the right for white nationalist groups. Calling the GOP the white party or the home of the KKK is race baiting on par with calling black repubs Uncle Toms. There's plenty of racism on both sides of the aisle.
Their inventory seems fine to me - I got Roadhouse, Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot, and Battlefield Earth right on time.
While the rest of the world runs out of resources, us Canadians are sitting on a veritable goldmine of oil, precious metals, and uranium. This is suicide without a large military to assert your control over said resources.
Historically this is sound reasoning, but very few nations have the capacity to launch a major ground campaign across an ocean. And even if the infrastructure and naval craft magically appeared in a country hostile to Canada, the navies of NATO have a downright obscene advantage in technology, numbers, and (dare I say?) operational doctrine over all non-NATO naval forces combined.
Strategic warefare otoh... that's a different can of worms. Messy.
And that, boys and girls, is why the next world war will be fought between Russia and China.
nah. the chinese will be able to afford the going rate for that russian oil (which is a lot cheaper than rebuilding radiated industrial and metropolitan areas). if anything i'd expect russia's abundant resources to make the two strategic trade partners.
...Canada and Denmark, one of whom has a pathetically small military...
And which one would that be?
Does it come with a glovebox to store your dignity while you ride it?
Give it a week near the Gaza Strip, for a daily workout.
You are aware are you not that the risk of an American being killed by a terrorist is just about the lowest of all the things likely to kill one right ? Cars kill the most, ciggarettes and burger king are pretty high on the list, PLANE CRASHES are higher than terrorists ... heck SUICIDE is a higher risk.
Except that being killed is only one of a whole array of negative consequences of war (hostilities, whatever). There are also negative political, cultural, and economic impacts. Very often the outcome of wars are determined by these factors, not casualties.