Not a bad point, but there are currently a lot more "you should be forced to live like I do" Red-Staters than "leave me alone and keep government small" Red-Staters. IMO that's going to change before too long, and you can thank Ron Paul for bringing the latter back into America's political consciousness.
Well Richard, it seems my fellow Texans have been slacking! Let me just take a few minutes to tell you about Jesus, and the wonderful sacrifice he made for you...
Now that you've explained yourself, I follow your logic and am mostly in agreement with you. I think you're oversimplifying things in your opening, but your 2nd paragraph is especially poignant.
There isn't much of a difference there. And if the bolded Nazi propaganda is true, then that's a good thing. There's the small matter that they also did the whole death camps thing, and that's why we find the Nazis vile. So, unless you are really trying to say that the 432nd also needlessly slaughters human beings off the field of battle, do kindly shut the fuck up and find a different thread to Godwin.
(I do not support this war. I think it's a good thing that these soldiers have to see the effects of their operations. I am also not a fan of bullshit pseudo-arguments like that contained in the parent post.)
Why on earth would you censor the name of the store chain that did this? It's only reports like this that make them honest. I'm certain that I don't want to give such an outfit my business, but I have no idea who to avoid. (Well, I have an idea of who to avoid already, namely Best Buy, but I'd like to know who *else* to avoid.)
You probably should have posted that under your username. You may be doomed to languish in obscurity in this thread as well as in the minds of the healthy majority.
There is some merit for caution, certainly, but there are too many barriers in place for people such as (perhaps) yourself who would jump at the chance of receiving treatment, no matter how experimental. As long as the treatment has no chance of mutating and running rampant (a scenario that is much less likely than is generally portrayed), people should have the right to volunteer for experimental treatment. It should go without saying that there would need to be a waiver of liability in case such treatment turned out to be harmful to the individual.
"Playing God" is one of those phrases that is always trotted out for emotional impact yet has no meaning whatsoever, except that whosoever spaketh the phrase should be smited with extreme prejudice.
There are a few kinds of grass that require less mowing because they grow very slowly. A quick Googling led me to nomowgrass.com; I've heard of others but can't recall their names.
That and, from what I've heard, the Democrats thought he'd "steal" votes from the Republicans and vice versa, so both parties were all for including him to their perceived advantage.
Listen for their screams and sobs, after the turnover next year, when they suddenly rediscover that U.S. government is, indeed, of the people, by the people, for the people.
I, for one, would love to make such a discovery. Unfortunately, it is no longer true.
It should be noted that Ron Paul and Eliot Engel sponsored legislation on July 31 to
ensure that a traveler entering the United States would be subject to searches of their data and digital equipment only if a border agent has a reasonable suspicion to believe the traveler is or is about to be engaged in criminal activity.
Oh that Ron Paul, what a whack job! It's a shame he doesn't realize that the system is already fucked beyond our control and that he's simply giving those Americans foolish enough to listen to him a false glimmer of hope.
Liek any good slashdotter, I haven't RTFA, but it seems to me that trolls are an important part of message groups because they throw some chaos into the system. There are countless times when I have been browsing Slashdot and seen some realy great +5 coments. When I check out the parent chain for context, I often find that there's a -1 trooll or -1 flamebait in there somewhere. If that troll hadn't posted and someone took the bait, we would be all the poorer for it, missing out on something realy inlightening or at least funny.
Not that I advocate trolling--I never do it myself (or if I do, it's anonymous and you can't prove it was meee!) But in any organic system (which message boards are, since they're composed of human output) you need that element of randomness to shake things up, keep things from falling into a static (that is, dead) pattern. Trolling is the net equivelent of the street corner preacher or naked cowboy - it can, if done well, make you rethink your assumptions or see things form a different angle, even if or especially if that angle is not the one presented by the troll. Indeed, sometimes when I am trolling I'm surprised to check my comments list and see a +4 or +5 insightful. I never tell that I was just having a bit of fun because i like the karma.
But as the summary says, the earliest definition of a troll is someone who disrupts the online communities. Disruption is not necessarily a bad thing. There are lots of people here who would like to see a disruption in the American political system. The whole civil rights movement was based on disrupting the system, and we are far better off for it. Hell, the COUNTRY was created by a disruption of England's policies towards the colonies.
Sometimes I wear a sandwitch board sign that says "THE END HAS PASSED" AND refuse to respond to people when they ask me about it. When they start to walk away, I begin explaining what I mean until they turn around, then I stop talking again. I don't think anybody agrees with me (i don't agree with myself) but you can see in their eyes that it makes them think. And thinking is what we need more of in america. It's not even about what I say anyway, it's the fact that I'm creating frustration for the other people and myself by only trying to communicate while they are walking away from me. It's the creation of a hopeless communication breakdown that is my intent. I would like to run for office but with the corruption and difficulty to get to somewhere where you make a difference it just won't happen, so this is my patriotic duty.
In summary, trolling is bad because of the sheer amount of noise it creates but it also in a way is good. Agents of entropy are a distasteful but necessary part of the universe. Everyone has the urge to do impuslive and destructive behavior from time to time; this is necessary for the old to give way to the new and (agaiN) to keep the pattern mutating and alive.
An individual's best bet for political change these days remains to pick the party that most closely aligns with them and attempt to change it from the inside (a difficult and time-consuming task to be sure). Simply voting for the Loony Toon Party, knowing that it will never get more than 3% of the vote, is just not a practical solution.
This is exactly what Ron Paul's presidential bid was all about, and it seems like it's working. The Campaign for Liberty grew out of the movement that began inside the Republican party. It hasn't really ramped up yet, but the idea is to promote candidates who favor freedom at all levels of government. It's unclear if this is a Republican-party-only thing or not, but it certainly started out as one and picked up a lot of steam.
Could be backlash from the preemptive strike in his title. For a while, simply putting "I will probably be modded flamebait, but" anywhere in your post guaranteed at least a +3. I think that time is coming to an end.
Looks like your comment negated the effect - the post certainly has enough merit to, er... merit the +3 it's currently at.
You didn't fix anything. Rather, you fail because
(1) you missed the intent of the original post, which was humorous because of its subtlety, then
(2) having decided that OP was ignorant of the bit of cleverness that you and you alone must have discovered, you decided to piggyback for some insightful points, which unfortunately you have acquired, and finally
(3) you used the "fixed that for ya" meme, which makes you look like a pompous ass in nine out of ten situations, including this one.
God, I wish it were easier to throttle people over the Internet.
I've never had to turn off cookies or anything to view answers on Experts Exchange. Just scroll down past the masked answers and past all the categories: lo and behold, all of the answers are there in plain sight! This is the case for Firefox, at least.
"I can type." It's true, obvious, and adds absolutely nothing to the discussion. If I were to post that at top level in any story, it'd be modded troll or offtopic. The only difference between that and the post I am responding to is that my statement isn't needlessly antagonistic or inflammatory. Said post is arguably on-topic, but still quite flamey.
By "Grow up," I meant a slightly more polite version of "Stop acting like a smug asshole," so I'll tell you to grow up too, old man. You're assuming that I am Christian, which is not the case, and then using the same inflammatory language towards me. Back in my day the youngsters did that sort of thing, but the old people were wiser and had a bit more respect for differing views, perceived or actual.
It's not like I don't want to see arguments against religion. I just don't want to see the same stale statements repeated ad nauseum, cluttering up the comments. (And before anybody decides to get wise, that goes for "both sides"--it's just that the Christian flamebait is properly disposed of already.)
The biggest problem with discussing religion on Slashdot is the sheer amount of repetitive noise that doesn't get modded to oblivion because the (oversimplified, inane) statement is one shared by the majority.
I think what he means is not "the church has changed the text of half of the Old Testament" but "the stuff written in the New Testament is believed to (supercede / nullify / change) how the Old Testament is applied." He says as much when he references eating pork, circumcision, etc. I think it was just a poor choice of words.
Slashdot Mirror
The range of hypotheses needing to be tested isn't infinite - [...o]therwise we'd be here all week.
Well color me impressed.
Not a bad point, but there are currently a lot more "you should be forced to live like I do" Red-Staters than "leave me alone and keep government small" Red-Staters. IMO that's going to change before too long, and you can thank Ron Paul for bringing the latter back into America's political consciousness.
Here's hoping, anyway.
Well Richard, it seems my fellow Texans have been slacking! Let me just take a few minutes to tell you about Jesus, and the wonderful sacrifice he made for you...
Only joking, of course. I'm not from Texas.
The Homebrew Community again lead the way on Sonys Handheld for innovation.
Riiight.
*goes back to playing DS, a handheld with a touchscreen that's been out since 2004*
Now that you've explained yourself, I follow your logic and am mostly in agreement with you. I think you're oversimplifying things in your opening, but your 2nd paragraph is especially poignant.
That's okay, too. At that point we know that they're no longer fit for the office of the President.
There isn't much of a difference there. And if the bolded Nazi propaganda is true, then that's a good thing. There's the small matter that they also did the whole death camps thing, and that's why we find the Nazis vile. So, unless you are really trying to say that the 432nd also needlessly slaughters human beings off the field of battle, do kindly shut the fuck up and find a different thread to Godwin.
(I do not support this war. I think it's a good thing that these soldiers have to see the effects of their operations. I am also not a fan of bullshit pseudo-arguments like that contained in the parent post.)
Why on earth would you censor the name of the store chain that did this? It's only reports like this that make them honest. I'm certain that I don't want to give such an outfit my business, but I have no idea who to avoid. (Well, I have an idea of who to avoid already, namely Best Buy, but I'd like to know who *else* to avoid.)
You probably should have posted that under your username. You may be doomed to languish in obscurity in this thread as well as in the minds of the healthy majority.
There is some merit for caution, certainly, but there are too many barriers in place for people such as (perhaps) yourself who would jump at the chance of receiving treatment, no matter how experimental. As long as the treatment has no chance of mutating and running rampant (a scenario that is much less likely than is generally portrayed), people should have the right to volunteer for experimental treatment. It should go without saying that there would need to be a waiver of liability in case such treatment turned out to be harmful to the individual.
"Playing God" is one of those phrases that is always trotted out for emotional impact yet has no meaning whatsoever, except that whosoever spaketh the phrase should be smited with extreme prejudice.
There are a few kinds of grass that require less mowing because they grow very slowly. A quick Googling led me to nomowgrass.com; I've heard of others but can't recall their names.
because they mimicked the arcade machines you put quarters in perfectly.
And all these years I thought my quarter-putting prowess was a private performance...
What about the few machines I had trouble depositing money in?
=)
That and, from what I've heard, the Democrats thought he'd "steal" votes from the Republicans and vice versa, so both parties were all for including him to their perceived advantage.
Listen for their screams and sobs, after the turnover next year, when they suddenly rediscover that U.S. government is, indeed, of the people, by the people, for the people.
I, for one, would love to make such a discovery. Unfortunately, it is no longer true.
It should be noted that Ron Paul and Eliot Engel sponsored legislation on July 31 to
ensure that a traveler entering the United States would be subject to searches of their data and digital equipment only if a border agent has a reasonable suspicion to believe the traveler is or is about to be engaged in criminal activity.
Oh that Ron Paul, what a whack job! It's a shame he doesn't realize that the system is already fucked beyond our control and that he's simply giving those Americans foolish enough to listen to him a false glimmer of hope.
Liek any good slashdotter, I haven't RTFA, but it seems to me that trolls are an important part of message groups because they throw some chaos into the system. There are countless times when I have been browsing Slashdot and seen some realy great +5 coments. When I check out the parent chain for context, I often find that there's a -1 trooll or -1 flamebait in there somewhere. If that troll hadn't posted and someone took the bait, we would be all the poorer for it, missing out on something realy inlightening or at least funny.
Not that I advocate trolling--I never do it myself (or if I do, it's anonymous and you can't prove it was meee!) But in any organic system (which message boards are, since they're composed of human output) you need that element of randomness to shake things up, keep things from falling into a static (that is, dead) pattern. Trolling is the net equivelent of the street corner preacher or naked cowboy - it can, if done well, make you rethink your assumptions or see things form a different angle, even if or especially if that angle is not the one presented by the troll. Indeed, sometimes when I am trolling I'm surprised to check my comments list and see a +4 or +5 insightful. I never tell that I was just having a bit of fun because i like the karma.
But as the summary says, the earliest definition of a troll is someone who disrupts the online communities. Disruption is not necessarily a bad thing. There are lots of people here who would like to see a disruption in the American political system. The whole civil rights movement was based on disrupting the system, and we are far better off for it. Hell, the COUNTRY was created by a disruption of England's policies towards the colonies.
Sometimes I wear a sandwitch board sign that says "THE END HAS PASSED" AND refuse to respond to people when they ask me about it. When they start to walk away, I begin explaining what I mean until they turn around, then I stop talking again. I don't think anybody agrees with me (i don't agree with myself) but you can see in their eyes that it makes them think. And thinking is what we need more of in america. It's not even about what I say anyway, it's the fact that I'm creating frustration for the other people and myself by only trying to communicate while they are walking away from me. It's the creation of a hopeless communication breakdown that is my intent. I would like to run for office but with the corruption and difficulty to get to somewhere where you make a difference it just won't happen, so this is my patriotic duty.
In summary, trolling is bad because of the sheer amount of noise it creates but it also in a way is good. Agents of entropy are a distasteful but necessary part of the universe. Everyone has the urge to do impuslive and destructive behavior from time to time; this is necessary for the old to give way to the new and (agaiN) to keep the pattern mutating and alive.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
I'm glad that we're beginning to watch the watchers.
But I would not blame Gonzales for trying to find like-minded people for underlings.
Me neither...not when there are sooo many other things to blame him for =)
An individual's best bet for political change these days remains to pick the party that most closely aligns with them and attempt to change it from the inside (a difficult and time-consuming task to be sure). Simply voting for the Loony Toon Party, knowing that it will never get more than 3% of the vote, is just not a practical solution.
This is exactly what Ron Paul's presidential bid was all about, and it seems like it's working. The Campaign for Liberty grew out of the movement that began inside the Republican party. It hasn't really ramped up yet, but the idea is to promote candidates who favor freedom at all levels of government. It's unclear if this is a Republican-party-only thing or not, but it certainly started out as one and picked up a lot of steam.
Could be backlash from the preemptive strike in his title. For a while, simply putting "I will probably be modded flamebait, but" anywhere in your post guaranteed at least a +3. I think that time is coming to an end.
Looks like your comment negated the effect - the post certainly has enough merit to, er... merit the +3 it's currently at.
I'll probably be modded Insightful, but... =)
...and I rest my case.
You didn't fix anything. Rather, you fail because
(1) you missed the intent of the original post, which was humorous because of its subtlety, then
(2) having decided that OP was ignorant of the bit of cleverness that you and you alone must have discovered, you decided to piggyback for some insightful points, which unfortunately you have acquired, and finally
(3) you used the "fixed that for ya" meme, which makes you look like a pompous ass in nine out of ten situations, including this one.
God, I wish it were easier to throttle people over the Internet.
I've never had to turn off cookies or anything to view answers on Experts Exchange. Just scroll down past the masked answers and past all the categories: lo and behold, all of the answers are there in plain sight! This is the case for Firefox, at least.
"I can type." It's true, obvious, and adds absolutely nothing to the discussion. If I were to post that at top level in any story, it'd be modded troll or offtopic. The only difference between that and the post I am responding to is that my statement isn't needlessly antagonistic or inflammatory. Said post is arguably on-topic, but still quite flamey.
By "Grow up," I meant a slightly more polite version of "Stop acting like a smug asshole," so I'll tell you to grow up too, old man. You're assuming that I am Christian, which is not the case, and then using the same inflammatory language towards me. Back in my day the youngsters did that sort of thing, but the old people were wiser and had a bit more respect for differing views, perceived or actual.
It's not like I don't want to see arguments against religion. I just don't want to see the same stale statements repeated ad nauseum, cluttering up the comments. (And before anybody decides to get wise, that goes for "both sides"--it's just that the Christian flamebait is properly disposed of already.)
The biggest problem with discussing religion on Slashdot is the sheer amount of repetitive noise that doesn't get modded to oblivion because the (oversimplified, inane) statement is one shared by the majority.
Seriously, grow up.
I think what he means is not "the church has changed the text of half of the Old Testament" but "the stuff written in the New Testament is believed to (supercede / nullify / change) how the Old Testament is applied." He says as much when he references eating pork, circumcision, etc. I think it was just a poor choice of words.