Thank Identity Politics. Both Bush and Obama (I didn't coin the phrase "Bush Lite" for him but it fits) attained office by pandering to their base and evoking delectable passion.
They didn't necessarily take care of that base after election, and tossed some of them under the bus.
"*Goes on to imply that men participating in stereotypically feminine activities or caring about their appearance is wrong for no particular reason other than it being "gay"
I implied no such thing. RTFP more carefully.
I'll rephrase it for those who didn't get it the first time because they were predisposed to regard any such observation as prejudice:
It's OK to be gay. It's OK to be a fashion designer and be gay, and it is obvious that male fashion designers ARE gay. Pointing out the obvious is not insulting or homophobic. Pointing out the sky is blue doesn't insult the sky.
What is also obvious is that designers will choose humans to model their art whose bodies reflect the designers preferred body type! Nothing wrong with that, either. I don't care if they like boys, and for that matter I don't care if they ravish them in the marketplace. I favor complete sexual freedom for consenting adults, which this discussion is not about!
What IS wrong is not to note the obvious, which is that fashionable models frequently are so thin that their androgynous "look" has very little to do with most women. They look feminine boys, and since every nuance of their look is carefully crafted that is no accident.
When Ms Fatty McFatass on the street, who more likely looks like the (once fashionable!) Venus of Willendorf instead of a meth addict, is marketed the ideal that she should look like a thin boy it's no wonder her self-esteem suffers. Ms McFatass is the target of fashion marketing, because she is a consumer. If she really cares about fashion, she follows what she thinks is the herd and is weak-willed. That makes her vulnerable, especially in the "perfect storm" of fattening food (also vigorously marketed), social pressure to be thin, and media worship of celebrities.
"Probably it's for canceling the plans for the ABM (missiles/radar) in Europe, which he did last month. While it pissed off a lot of Poles, it sure made Russia feel safer. So the Russians canceled their new short-range nuclear missile deployment in turn, which made a lot of 'Old' Europeans feel safer."
We damn well need to make buddies with Putin if we have to attack Iran, and it's not like selling out Poland to the Soviets doesn't have precedent.:)
"If this goes on there will be a public option, the US is gonna end up like Cuba, or the UK. France, Canada, Japan, all engulfed in civil strife, with the walking dead, condemned by bureaucratic Death Panels, roaming the streets and hordes of atheists burning churches."
"Wow, so in your world affordable health care is "insane" but blowing billions of dollars on a war is business as usual? Where do you people come from?"
The Deep South, mostly. We don't need health care to go to Heaven, but we do need to defeat the Wogs to make Israel secure.
The Republican Party doesn't HAVE a Conservative core, because there aren't any Conservatives left that matter. It has a Right Wing Christian core, and is now the Party of God. Religionists think they are Conservative, but they don't know what it means.
Eventually power will return to the Repubs as inevitable Democratic hubris takes hold, but don't ever pretend it is due to Conservatism, which is so dead it doesn't even stink anymore. Conservatives lost because they don't have the balls to challenge the Bible Thumpers who took over the party. They aren't tough, they aren't vicious enough to fight serious political battles (ivory towers are much safer), and they don't have a movement.
I propose that, for the simple reason that any male involved in fashion is gay (not a homophobic troll, hear me out!) that their preferred female models reflect the sort of boy they want to be, to fuck, or both.
Men that actually like women in a sexual way (normally) prefer feminine women, not meth waifs (not that some women can't make the "meth waif" look work for them).
Fashion is a matter of gay men wanting to sell what they enjoy. Nothing wrong with that, but "everything wrong" with anyone stupid enough not to instantly understand it because it's so obvious.
The target audience is vulnerable. Anyone who deeply cares about fashion as a consumer (and therefore doesn't make money from it) is of questionable intelligence and malleable character.
How come everyone who repeats the Magic Niemoller Quote gets modded up? Gah! I'll be helpful and supply the missing line:
"Then they came for the children and I did not speak out because I was a priest."
"They" aren't "coming" for anyone. This is an interesting experiment where that which is public becomes VERY public. Once everything public is public, the public will have to develop new ways of interaction.
"I'm more concerned about someone hacking a Predator or Reaper."
I'm not.
If I wanted to break shit and kill people I'd look for things powerful enough to do damage but obscure enough not to be well-secured. (I'll not cite examples to avoid putting thoughts into idle heads.)
We are surrounded by "stuff" with tremendous destructive potential that is "part of the landscape" and hence is not thought of as a weapon.
I wouldn't have an avatar in the first place because they are, let's face it, stupid vain nonsense. I don't need to be represented by a cartoon character other than those I vote into office.
"Interesting that inmates have access to computers and TV. I'm glad we pay for that for them while normal citizens are having a hard time finding a job..."
That's because the purpose of prison is to make the most effeminate portions of the public feel good about themselves instead of deter crime by crushing criminals. That an inmate would dare do anything at all against orders means the system is too weak. We should admit we are facing bad people who are willfully beyond redemption and act accordingly. The inmates rightly see mercy = weakness.
"Never, ever do citizens of a country deserved to be wiped out for the sins of politicians."
The "politicians" didn't lead Japan to conquest, the entire Japanese culture did. The Japanese people were delighted to participate at any available level. "Banzai!" wasn't a cliche back then.
It is popular to distinguish the noble peasant from his leaders so we may conveniently blame-then-sacrifice those leaders (a fact Hideki Tojo certainly understood, and note that NONE of the executed Jap war criminals tried to throw Hirohito under the bus despite his complete responsibility for ordering their conquests).
The Japanese people had for decades eagerly embraced violence throughout areas their country conquered. Not just standard wartime brutality, but protracted, perverted recreational sadism and mass murder like the Rape of Nanking.
"That is an incredibly simplistic view of WWII. "
It describes perfectly what the Japanese did. They certainly did try to enslave Asia and killed millions of Asians in the attempt. Millions of Japanese served in the forces that did this, and countless civilians worked to make it happen. Japan as a nation was vicious until it was beaten, at which point benevolent US management and diplomatic handling of the Emperor saved the day:
"(8) List of reforms that General Douglas MacArthur submitted to Emperor Hirohito and his Japanese government in October 1945.
1. The emancipation of the women of Japan through their enfranchisement - that, being members of the body politic, they may bring to Japan a new concept of government directly subservient to the well-being of the home.
2. The encouragement of the unionization of labor-that it may have an influential voice in safeguarding the working man from exploitation and abuse, and raising his living standard to a higher level.
3. The institution of such measures as may be necessary to correct the evils which exist in the child labor practices.
4. The opening of the schools to more liberal education-that the people may shape their future progress from factual knowledge and benefit from an understanding of a system under which government becomes the servant rather than the master of the people.
5. The abolition of systems which through secret inquisition and abuse have held the people in constant fear-substituting therefor a system of justice designed to afford the people protection against despotic, arbitrary and unjust methods. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of religion must be maintained. Regimentation of the masses under the guise or claim of efficiency, under whatever name of government it may be made, must cease.
6. The democratization of Japanese economic institutions to the end that monopolistic industrial controls be revised through the development of methods which tend to insure a wide distribution of income and ownership of the means of production and trade.
7. In the immediate administrative field take vigorous and prompt action by the government with reference to housing, feeding and clothing the population in order to prevent pestilence, disease, starvation or other major social catastrophe. The coming winter will be critical and the only way to meet its difficulties is by the full employment in useful work of everyone."
"The ONLY way to stop determined terrorism is to hear the claims of the terrorists and negotiate. "
That's the only legal way. O
Overwhelming reprisal that destroys or demonstrates credible willingness to destroy everything and everyone the terrs fight for is another.
That's old school, and why China has so little terrorism. It worked for Hafez Assad as well. It isn't nice, but it can be very effective. It cannot be applied by Western nations, because their laws forbid fighting effectively and ensure they will lose most unconventional conflicts.
"Yeah, but that was before we realized that the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free might take our jobs!"
Let's remember that the THPM were useful and needed during the Industrial Revolution, when the bronze bitch in New York Harbor was built. There WERE plenty of jobs. That's finished now.
We don't need massive amounts of manual laborers any more. We outsource that to China, so let the economic immigrants bang on Beijing's door instead.
"There won't be an oil shortage any time soon, but if there is a shortage, the problem will be more severe than you think, tractors are currently machines that turn diesel into food, with no oil, getting food to market won't be the problem, growing it at all will be the problem."
Rationing would obviously favor necessary uses first, just as it did during WWII.
"Me thinks they're getting ready to start a war. And they're engineering consent."
We should be so lucky.
Let's remember there is nothing of value in the Middle East other than oil, and that the area is so infested with religion that it will fester forever unless Something Disruptive happens.
If Israel and Iran have a nuclear war, may they empty their arsenals at each other and may Israel light up some of its other rivals when it exercises the Samson Option.
"The only way to use the A-bomb is to kill civilans en masse. Theres no military use of an A-bomb without 99% civil casualties."
That's utter babble, long disposed of by the atmospheric testing of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons including plenty of detonations within the continental US. If one uses smallish tac nukes against large military targets, from troop formations to fleets, they are viable and effective weapons.
Slashdot Mirror
"No one has flown planes into any buildings in Europe that I know of."
Eurabia isn't resisting Jihad in a meaningful way. The elite may send troops, but the societies themselves have
surrendered.
"But people seem to enjoy the show."
Thank Identity Politics. Both Bush and Obama (I didn't coin the phrase "Bush Lite" for him but it fits) attained office by pandering to their base and evoking delectable passion.
They didn't necessarily take care of that base after election, and tossed some of them under the bus.
"*Goes on to imply that men participating in stereotypically feminine activities or caring about their appearance is wrong for no particular reason other than it being "gay"
I implied no such thing. RTFP more carefully.
I'll rephrase it for those who didn't get it the first time because they were predisposed to regard any such observation as prejudice:
It's OK to be gay.
It's OK to be a fashion designer and be gay, and it is obvious that male fashion designers ARE gay. Pointing out the obvious is not insulting or homophobic. Pointing out the sky is blue doesn't insult the sky.
What is also obvious is that designers will choose humans to model their art whose bodies reflect the designers preferred body type! Nothing wrong with that, either. I don't care if they like boys, and for that matter I don't care if they ravish them in the marketplace. I favor complete sexual freedom for consenting adults, which this discussion is not about!
What IS wrong is not to note the obvious, which is that fashionable models frequently are so thin that their androgynous "look" has very little to do with most women. They look feminine boys, and since every nuance of their look is carefully crafted that is no accident.
When Ms Fatty McFatass on the street, who more likely looks like the (once fashionable!) Venus of Willendorf instead of a meth addict, is marketed the ideal that she should look like a thin boy it's no wonder her self-esteem suffers. Ms McFatass is the target of fashion marketing, because she is a consumer. If she really cares about fashion, she follows what she thinks is the herd and is weak-willed. That makes her vulnerable, especially in the "perfect storm" of fattening food (also vigorously marketed), social pressure to be thin, and media worship of celebrities.
"I've also known many girls who lament how terrible they supposedly look compared to celebrities."
Sounds like an opportunity to console them...
"Probably it's for canceling the plans for the ABM (missiles/radar) in Europe, which he did last month. While it pissed off a lot of Poles, it sure made Russia feel safer.
So the Russians canceled their new short-range nuclear missile deployment in turn, which made a lot of 'Old' Europeans feel safer."
We damn well need to make buddies with Putin if we have to attack Iran, and it's not like selling out Poland to the Soviets doesn't have precedent. :)
"If this goes on there will be a public option, the US is gonna end up like Cuba, or the UK. France, Canada, Japan, all engulfed in civil strife, with the walking dead, condemned by bureaucratic Death Panels, roaming the streets and hordes of atheists burning churches."
You, sir, need to design video games!
"Wow, so in your world affordable health care is "insane" but blowing billions of dollars on a war is business as usual? Where do you people come from?"
The Deep South, mostly. We don't need health care to go to Heaven, but we do need to defeat the Wogs to make Israel secure.
"Do you honestly think what he's done is on the level with Martin Luther King? Or Mother Theresa? Or Linus Pauling? "
All the above, and Chuck Norris too!
Kissinger and Arafat got Peace Prizes.
I respect the Prize as little as I respect the United Nations, which is not at all.
The Republican Party doesn't HAVE a Conservative core, because there aren't any Conservatives left that matter.
It has a Right Wing Christian core, and is now the Party of God. Religionists think they are Conservative, but they don't know what it means.
Eventually power will return to the Repubs as inevitable Democratic hubris takes hold, but don't ever pretend it is due to Conservatism, which is so dead it doesn't even stink anymore. Conservatives lost because they don't have the balls to challenge the Bible Thumpers who took over the party. They aren't tough, they aren't vicious enough to fight serious political battles (ivory towers are much safer), and they don't have a movement.
"Yet. No doubt they're working on it."
I'm willing to mod you down for a modest fee. :)
I propose that, for the simple reason that any male involved in fashion is gay (not a homophobic troll, hear me out!) that their preferred female models reflect the sort of boy they want to be, to fuck, or both.
Men that actually like women in a sexual way (normally) prefer feminine women, not meth waifs (not that some women can't make the "meth waif" look work for them).
Fashion is a matter of gay men wanting to sell what they enjoy. Nothing wrong with that, but "everything wrong" with anyone stupid enough not to instantly understand it because it's so obvious.
The target audience is vulnerable. Anyone who deeply cares about fashion as a consumer (and therefore doesn't make money from it) is of questionable intelligence and malleable character.
How come everyone who repeats the Magic Niemoller Quote gets modded up?
Gah! I'll be helpful and supply the missing line:
"Then they came for the children and I did not speak out because I was a priest."
"They" aren't "coming" for anyone. This is an interesting experiment where that which is public becomes VERY public. Once everything public is public, the public will have to develop new ways of interaction.
"What do you think will happen with a system like this in the hands of Anonymous or some group like them."
Lulz?
"I'm more concerned about someone hacking a Predator or Reaper."
I'm not.
If I wanted to break shit and kill people I'd look for things powerful enough to do damage but obscure enough not to be well-secured. (I'll not cite examples to avoid putting thoughts into idle heads.)
We are surrounded by "stuff" with tremendous destructive potential that is "part of the landscape" and hence is not thought of as a weapon.
I wouldn't have an avatar in the first place because they are, let's face it, stupid vain nonsense.
I don't need to be represented by a cartoon character other than those I vote into office.
"I'm going to go down there & patent shit, then sue any sod that has a crap."
I'm sure I can dig up prior art.
"Interesting that inmates have access to computers and TV. I'm glad we pay for that for them while normal citizens are having a hard time finding a job..."
That's because the purpose of prison is to make the most effeminate portions of the public feel good about themselves instead of deter crime by crushing criminals. That an inmate would dare do anything at all against orders means the system is too weak. We should admit we are facing bad people who are willfully beyond redemption and act accordingly. The inmates rightly see mercy = weakness.
"Lol. You have no choice in who your military kicks the shit out of."
There is plenty of POTENTIAL choice, but it involves icky political activism and a lot of work.
"Never, ever do citizens of a country deserved to be wiped out for the sins of politicians."
The "politicians" didn't lead Japan to conquest, the entire Japanese culture did. The Japanese people were delighted to participate at any available level. "Banzai!" wasn't a cliche back then.
It is popular to distinguish the noble peasant from his leaders so we may conveniently blame-then-sacrifice those leaders (a fact Hideki Tojo certainly understood, and note that NONE of the executed Jap war criminals tried to throw Hirohito under the bus despite his complete responsibility for ordering their conquests).
The Japanese people had for decades eagerly embraced violence throughout areas their country conquered. Not just standard wartime brutality, but protracted, perverted recreational sadism and mass murder like the Rape of Nanking.
"That is an incredibly simplistic view of WWII. "
It describes perfectly what the Japanese did. They certainly did try to enslave Asia and killed millions of Asians in the attempt. Millions of Japanese served in the forces that did this, and countless civilians worked to make it happen. Japan as a nation was vicious until it was beaten, at which point benevolent US management and diplomatic handling of the Emperor saved the day:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmacarthur.htm
"(8) List of reforms that General Douglas MacArthur submitted to Emperor Hirohito and his Japanese government in October 1945.
1. The emancipation of the women of Japan through their enfranchisement - that, being members of the body politic, they may bring to Japan a new concept of government directly subservient to the well-being of the home.
2. The encouragement of the unionization of labor-that it may have an influential voice in safeguarding the working man from exploitation and abuse, and raising his living standard to a higher level.
3. The institution of such measures as may be necessary to correct the evils which exist in the child labor practices.
4. The opening of the schools to more liberal education-that the people may shape their future progress from factual knowledge and benefit from an understanding of a system under which government becomes the servant rather than the master of the people.
5. The abolition of systems which through secret inquisition and abuse have held the people in constant fear-substituting therefor a system of justice designed to afford the people protection against despotic, arbitrary and unjust methods. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of religion must be maintained. Regimentation of the masses under the guise or claim of efficiency, under whatever name of government it may be made, must cease.
6. The democratization of Japanese economic institutions to the end that monopolistic industrial controls be revised through the development of methods which tend to insure a wide distribution of income and ownership of the means of production and trade.
7. In the immediate administrative field take vigorous and prompt action by the government with reference to housing, feeding and clothing the population in order to prevent pestilence, disease, starvation or other major social catastrophe. The coming winter will be critical and the only way to meet its difficulties is by
the full employment in useful work of everyone."
"The ONLY way to stop determined terrorism is to hear the claims of the terrorists and negotiate. "
That's the only legal way. O
Overwhelming reprisal that destroys or demonstrates credible willingness to destroy everything and everyone the terrs fight for is another.
That's old school, and why China has so little terrorism. It worked for Hafez Assad as well. It isn't nice, but it can be very effective. It cannot be applied by Western nations, because their laws forbid fighting effectively and ensure they will lose most unconventional conflicts.
"Yeah, but that was before we realized that the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free might take our jobs!"
Let's remember that the THPM were useful and needed during the Industrial Revolution, when the bronze bitch in New York Harbor was built. There WERE plenty of jobs. That's finished now.
We don't need massive amounts of manual laborers any more. We outsource that to China, so let the economic immigrants bang on Beijing's door instead.
"There won't be an oil shortage any time soon, but if there is a shortage, the problem will be more severe than you think, tractors are currently machines that turn diesel into food, with no oil, getting food to market won't be the problem, growing it at all will be the problem."
Rationing would obviously favor necessary uses first, just as it did during WWII.
"Me thinks they're getting ready to start a war.
And they're engineering consent."
We should be so lucky.
Let's remember there is nothing of value in the Middle East other than oil, and that the area is so infested with religion that it will fester forever unless Something Disruptive happens.
If Israel and Iran have a nuclear war, may they empty their arsenals at each other and may Israel light up some of its other rivals when it exercises the Samson Option.
"The only way to use the A-bomb is to kill civilans en masse. Theres no military use of an A-bomb without 99% civil casualties."
That's utter babble, long disposed of by the atmospheric testing of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons including plenty of detonations within the continental US. If one uses smallish tac nukes against large military targets, from troop formations to fleets, they are viable and effective weapons.