Just because people keep repeating it does not make it true. HE did not have any program. He wasn't even close
I didn't say he had a nuclear program, I said he was actively trying to get a warhead. [I can't prove that nuclear warheads were found, so I'll concede on that point... for now]. http://www.usainreview.com/4_2_Nuclear_Iraq.htm = Interesting article discussing how we thought Iraq was pursuing a nuclear capability, and where he might get it. http://216.26.163.62/2003/ss_syria_04_02.html = and hey, look at that, Iraq was getting money from Syria for oil despite our embargo's and inspections. Go figure. Defanged and Defenseless? No, we had him cornered and he had money. It just made him more dangerous. All he had to do to get out from under our thumb was spark a war with one of our allies (or try to make it look like Israel dropped the bomb). He had nothing left to lose.
We give Israel six to 12 billion a year in foreign aid and it can certainly use that to pretect itself First, it's more than that. Have you ever bothered to figure out why? Why we give them money, why they're such pricks to their neighbors, etc.? Your resentment of the aid we give them doesn't solve the problem - it doesn't even move us into an area where we can debate or discuss the situation. When you figure out why we give a **** about Israel we can talk.
Floundering in Iraq - you avoided the point, and not very well I might add. Bush INVADED, probably illegally (globally speaking), the holiest land in the Middle East. Flooded it with infidels. The Great Satan walks free in Eden (floundering or not), and the rest of the Arab world turns their eyes and waits impatiently for us to leave. Roadmap be damned, Bush did something in the middle east WITHOUT the help of the rest of the world that his father couldn't do WITH the support of the world. That's Fsking brilliant. That he didn't spark a war with the ENTIRE Middle East with this little incursion is nothing short of amazing. Like I said, be as pissed as you want about how screwed up the whole situation is and how badly it's going now, but he did it - he captured Saddam, killed most of his regime, invaded a Muslim country in the heart of Muslim countries, and no matter what happens next,Iraq is better off without him [it's confirmed that he killed at least 61,000 of his own people, and estimated that 1 in 5 were tortured in his prisons].
A few people killed in a few dangerous missions? You must be high. If you were a veteran you've either had you head buried in the sand since the day you got out 20 years ago, or you joined the National Guard for a month during college (probably while high, as a protest) and were never deployed. And I might add that if you are a veteran, you should probably reconsider the 1 !=100 number. If you're number is 1, 1 is everything. 100 billion a year be damned.
The rest of your arguments make it pretty clear that you're a half witted disciple of Common Dreams. This isn't to disparage Common Dreams, a lot of their content is pretty good, but some of their soap boxing confidently ignores 'why' and tends to focus on the suspected 'motivation' or 'agenda's' of Bush and his cabinet. Those arguments are pointless, you can suspect anybody of anything but until you learn to focus on the facts that define the decision you're conclusions will be nothing more suspicion based on bias. Oil, Jesus, Neo-Con conspiracies... If Bush uses sun screen you cry about how he's obviously in the pocket of the oil and pharmaceutical industries. Try being just a little objective, you'd be surprised at how much you can learn.
I am still waiting for somebody (anybody) to explain to me why the Iraqi people deserved socialism more then any other people on the planet. Why they had to be delivered from evil first.
Because they have oil. No, not like that, it's because they have oil that makes them a LOT of money. Quickly. Making them able to afford the high cost of weapons programs and black market merchandise. Unlike the North Koreans who have no money, or the Chechnyans, etc.
Saddam was actively pursuing a nuclear warhead (several were found, btw), that it is widely believed in intelligence circles he intended to use on Israel. Saddam never threatened the U.S. directly, but he was pretty good at antagonizing our allies in the Mid-East. Which is why this little incursion had the potential to blow up in our face (AKA war with the ENTIRE Middle East from Egypt to India). Special attention here - Bush did a pretty good job if for no other reason that it didn't blow up in our face. You can hate his agenda, his methods, whatever else, but he handled this situation... brilliantly. Look, I hate to admit it too, but he did. For as bad an idea as I think this was, he HANDLED it extremely well.
Bush may be an ass-hat, but the only one questioning whether or not what happened in Iraq is a good thing in the long run are people like you who hate him. Get past your petty personal politics and do a little more homework before you ask easy questions. And if you want to deliver democracy to everybody and free everybody [blah blah blah], go join the Army. I can just about promise that you'll have every chance in the next 10 years to risk your life for very little money freeing somebody. Not sure who yet, but then if we deployed every man, woman and child in America we wouldn't be able to save 1/4th the world. And we'd probably all die long before we won freedom for anybody... even say, Canada [again, they beat the crap out of us all 5 times we tried to invade]. But you'll get your chance, guaranteed.
Btw, Clinton doesn't have the glowing intelligence record you seem to think he has, we lost quite a few lives during his run (Remember Mogadishu? The Embassy bombings (ours and the Chinese)? Kansas?), so you probably want to tone that down too.
In short K Head, we ran over Iraq with a tank because the guy running the place wanted to take his kill-em-all attitude global - and he had the money to do it. If we could've taken his money (and we tried) that would've been good enough, but it wasn't working.
Re:Now how do they expect to land a probe on ACID?
on
Melting Europa
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· Score: 4, Funny
And here I was thinking about how hard it would be to land a probe on ACID. I mean, you have to consider music selection, who's with you, how paranoid you should be, whether the bats with the glowing red eyes are real enough to worry about without looking like your insane by ducking randomly... I personally react badly with acid, so I'd have to say it would be pretty tough.
My father owned a hobby shop with my uncle - (*decades ago, but I have a point) and my uncle started getting careless with the money. The business almost went under, my dad (to keep things civil) bought him out for an excessive amount of money.
I rented a room to my best friend while he was getting back on his feet (after a particularly bad breakup with his girlfriend). To put it delicately, we're still friends because he moved out. In a year and a half he paid rent 5 times (I did volunteer the first 2 months free to help him get some savings and pay off some other bills). He of course tried to make up for it by cooking (my food - and almost never cleaning), but it put me in a very bad position. My wife and I wanted rent, and we saw him buying toys (literally - toys) when he hadn't paid yet, etc. etc. A couple of times we 'zero'd' his past-due to help him start over, which would get us next months rent almost on time, and then it would start over. Partial rent, promises for next week (and something would come up), not good. It put a real strain on our relationship because I had to collect from him, or kick him out, or ask him to keep the noise down... He started to feel like I was trying to take advantage of his owing me, and I felt like he was taking advantage of our relationship by not paying.
You have to have complete faith and respect for their work ethic - You shouldn't even have to ask them to do anything, they should be looking out for you (and you for them). And you still need to protect yourself and be prepared for losing them as friends if you're put in a position that requires you to decide. Better to keep them separate.
On the other hand, I met my wife at work and we worked together for several years (every day). I'd work with her again in a heartbeat; I just hope she feels the same way...:)
who cares?;) [there are a lot of people doing a lot about it - check some of the recent stories on critics of closed systems and open source versions of voting machines].
The founding fathers were in fact called 'terrorists', & most of those who signed the declaration of independence were killed (by which I mean hung - along with their families) in the resulting war.
The people who are most quietly passionate about freedom in this country are in now or were in the military. If it came to a revolution you can bet more than a few tanks would be rolling in favor of the opposition. Picking a side is practically a time honored tradition in the military and I believe still taught as a moral imperative at West Point. Which means precisely that if there were any real form of revolution in the US, a decent chunk of the US military would already be on your side.
The worst case scenarios you hear of (where the US forces crush any attempt at rebellion) assume that the military and intelligence and all of the civil defense authorities do exactly what politicians tell them to without question, up to and including blowing up orphanages. Fortunately, reality is a lot more brutal.
Even more fortunate, no matter how bad the system gets in America the foundation still allows the forces of rebellion to take over legally without ever picking up an assault rifle. That's why we have elections - if you had enough people to start a rebellion you could just get elected. If you didn't have enough people on your side, you're keenly aware that the majority of the people don't want you in charge. And if you ever lose your right to vote, you and all your neighbors (and most members of the military) have that rifle handy to remove the minority that stole your right to vote.
What kind of crap are you spewing now? High in the leadership of the church? 99% responsible for the actions of the 1?
Hey - here's a little Mormon philosophy for you: "we believe that Adam will be judged by his own sins, not the transgressions of others" ['scuse the paraphrasing, I'm drawing on 20 years of not going to church]. It means that if you commit the crime, you do the time. See, it's kind of like the rest of the country.
By your logic, all Americans are guilty because they're allowing Darl and company to remain publicly active members of the US. Not to mention being "very high in the leadership of the" LAW because they have licenses to practice.
You ass-hat. You deserve every flame you get for that piece of trash.
yeah... uh, but it's a culture thing, not a Mormon vs. gentile thing. It tends to happen to a lot of other communities too (think bible belt), and there are some pretty good reasons why...not good as in 'it's a good thing' but as in 'this is why, socially speaking'.
It's for the same reasons winning football teams begin to think they're actually better people as well as better players on the other teams, to the point of committing crimes and thinking it's ok because 'we rule!'. [This is not to start that whole "jock vs....everyone else" argument, I think we can all agree that religious wars end badly... oh sh*, now I've brought politics and the Iraq war into it... if only I could work in the OS wars somehow this chain would never end.] Anyway - The culture shock you've felt comes from years and years of the Mormons reinforcing each others beliefs. More often, the main business' you feel the weirdness from is a form of xenophobia - your not like anyone in their community, they don't 'get' you (or think they don't), and they're not used to outsiders (plus the inherent suspicion that comes with your outsiderness) so they tend to not 'put themselves out there'. Basically, they are kind of unfriendly. Not rude, but certainly not friendly. Throw on top the business ethic of a few of the worst offenders of the 'we rule' mentality and you have a culture that ends up exactly as you describe it but not for the 'gentiles' reason you note. They'd screw their own mothers and justify it by paying their full tithe on the profits (after expenses, taxes, etc. of course).
I thought your post was interesting (vs. most of the other rabid spewings in this chain), so I thought I'd add the sociological reasons. And I'm pretty sure you've met my aunt and uncle in Montana. My aunt might actually be of the screw-the-non-gentiles group... but when I was 11 I saw her beat the crap out a cow that broke into her flower garden (with a frying pan, in her underwear *shudder*), so I'll not be the one to cross her.:)
your sig - Dooon't... (shakes head, looks like he wants to slap you) speak that language here, you ass-hat. (what Elrond should have said... if you ask me).:P
"...they may write crappy insecure overpriced shoddy software, but on this one issue their half-assed semi-competent best is an order of magnitude better than we usually manage.'"
I read the books, I pulled my history [thanks mom, for caring] and I was diagnosed in Grade School, but this was several years before anyone had heard of ad (they thought it was an auditory processing problem), and so - a couple of years ago went to the doctor [one I heard was supposed to be one of the best in the state]. Whom I disaffectionately began to call my drug dealer. Why? Because he kept trying drugs on me. No tests, no evaluations, nothing but pretty much taking my word for it - I believed (believe?) I have it so he kept trying to find the right balance of drugs to correct for it.
Understand, some of the drugs helped, but I hate taking drugs (of any kind) and this felt a lot like going to an eye doctor who kept having you try on used pairs of glasses to see which ones helped you see better.
How can one go about getting a proper diagnosis? Is there such a thing? Are there verifiable tests (blood chemistry or otherwise) that would help narrow down just exactly what it is you need?
because after seeing that, you'll need some religion. Fast. And by GOD the only one that will make sense after that warping experience would be Scientology.
Interesting, true, but don't forget that doctors get hosed by insurance companies too - My brother (in-law) loses up to 70% of his 'fee' to the insurance company for everything from "processing charges" to "handling fee's", to you name it. Sometimes everything.
Real world example: A one hour meeting with a doctor, who charges $500 for the visit. $350 will go to his/her insurance company, leaving $150 for the doctor to pay rent, staff, and insurance, not to mention his own paperwork. Take home pay for the doc ends up at about $10-20 an hour. Which is why they overbook, make you wait, overcharge you and the insurance company, exaggerate, lie cheat and steal, etc.
If a doctor is hosing your insurance company, it's more likely that the insurance company is hosing your doctor too - your just getting caught in the crossfire. Not that it makes it right, but it's not always just simple greed. And lets not forget that the AMA won't publish a 'recommended fee' book for procedures (like the auto-industry so you don't get hosed on car repairs) - and will in fact sue your pants off if you try to guestimate national averages publicly.
In short, this is one *&%^@ up system. (Let the finger pointing begin...)
Ok, wait... who's side are we on? 'Cause I want to get to flaming before I actually read anything about what's going on... (mob rules, no touch-backs, gas is fair - NOT IT!)
You live in cluelessville, where getting picked on is something that every kid has to put up with
That's not cluelessville, it's the real world. Every (and I do mean EVERY) kid WILL get picked on. It's not something you have to put up with, but it will happen. And every... and I do mean EVERY kid will pick on someone else. Don't tell me you never did it, because you did. Didn't you? Remember now? That's right. You did it too, so get off your soapbox.
There's a whole other world of pain out there, of scars that last deep into adulthood
I was lit on fire (3rd degree burns), spit on by my 'best friend', stripped in public and beaten too. Some things can be prevented and if I'd told someone I probably wouldn't have had to put up with that (or picked better friends) - I was pushed into a mostly frozen lake while ice-skating and almost drowned. But I'll tell you something.. One of the best memories I have of High School was defending a kid that was getting ruthlessly picked on. It got my ass kicked, but they left him alone, and never picked on anyone around me again. And I found out there were a lot of other kids who wanted to say something too. Some of them were the cool kids that were standing around watching it happen - I thought they were in on it just because they were too afraid to say anything. THAT is a life changing realization. Thus - the disdain for people like you who believe that they were victims and that no one would help them. My offense at people who play the 'triumphant victims' is that most of you never stepped in to defend someone else when it was happening to them, knowing full well it would turn the wrath on you. You were just grateful it wasn't you.
You can't stop kids from picking on other kids. You can teach them right from wrong, and you can teach them to stick up for the other guy, but you can't stop it. Your problem as a 'triumphant victim' is that you survived it, but you offer no suggestions as to how to stop it from happening to others. I believe you can curb the prevalence of it all by teaching kids to have courage.
In short - you can't stop it from happening to you, but you can stop it from happening to the other guy. And that's what's most important.
Oh c'mon - First, everybody gets picked on in Jr. high / high school. Period. Find one person who didn't and I'll show you a liar. Even the jocks, even the most popular cheerleaders got picked on by someone. And I'd be willing to bet good money that even the most picked-on of us picked on someone else at some point. Felt bad about, never did it again, but did it. The popular kids probably showed less conscience for doing it, but they are not without their scars either so let's all quit playing the triumphant victims.
[don't mean to be do direct but I find/. a little trying on this subject because the 'holier' attitude is little hypocritical for a crowd so bent on personal integrity.]
Now, I assume that you told your parents about the bully before almost killing him (which is probably why your folks told the school to fuck off), and I imagine that someone ratted you out for almost killing that kid. If you'd have killed him, where do you think you'd be right now? Just making parole? Tough call, but if you ask me you got lucky - and I'm guessing that little stunt bought you years of relished infamy at your school (which is why no one bothered you again)...
With that said, I hope my kid never has to fight anyone, but if she does, I hope it's justified, and I hope she gives it everything she's got and more so she never has to do it again. Some people need to get hit. And hard.
Finally - on topic - if some other shit in my kid's school starts up one of these websites, I'll pay to have someone rat them out. And then may God help them and their family, because while violence may be a last resort, it's not off the list of options, and it comes in pretty much even with litigation. Being an adult doesn't mean the 'balled fist' doesn't apply to you. In fact, I'd suggest that it's even more applicable since your the example your kids will follow. Thus - if your a dick, and your teaching your kids to be dicks, and you get your teeth knocked out (all of them), maybe your kids will learn that being a dick just gets your teeth knocked out.
Its like a tenant saying to a landlord - "there is a technical mistake which makes the tenancy agreement void - so I can now live in your house rent-free forever.."
Wouldn't it be more like the tenant telling the landlord "that mistake makes this apartment public property, therefor, I can live here rent-free"?
You missed the part that I think is probably the most important - by learning how many ways you can manipulate the genes and what effects they produce, you're far more capable of coming up with vaccines and treatments that will combat full ranges of variations. In which case, when some nut bag releases a doomsday virus they won't have to waste nearly as much time trying to narrow down exactly how THIS germ behaves, they can tweak a class of inoculations to combat the majority of the outbreak.
Short answer, you're right. It sucks but it's necessary.
Slashdot Mirror
Just because people keep repeating it does not make it true. HE did not have any program. He wasn't even close
l = and hey, look at that, Iraq was getting money from Syria for oil despite our embargo's and inspections. Go figure. Defanged and Defenseless? No, we had him cornered and he had money. It just made him more dangerous. All he had to do to get out from under our thumb was spark a war with one of our allies (or try to make it look like Israel dropped the bomb). He had nothing left to lose.
I didn't say he had a nuclear program, I said he was actively trying to get a warhead. [I can't prove that nuclear warheads were found, so I'll concede on that point... for now]. http://www.usainreview.com/4_2_Nuclear_Iraq.htm = Interesting article discussing how we thought Iraq was pursuing a nuclear capability, and where he might get it.
http://216.26.163.62/2003/ss_syria_04_02.htm
We give Israel six to 12 billion a year in foreign aid and it can certainly use that to pretect itself First, it's more than that. Have you ever bothered to figure out why? Why we give them money, why they're such pricks to their neighbors, etc.? Your resentment of the aid we give them doesn't solve the problem - it doesn't even move us into an area where we can debate or discuss the situation. When you figure out why we give a **** about Israel we can talk.
Floundering in Iraq - you avoided the point, and not very well I might add. Bush INVADED, probably illegally (globally speaking), the holiest land in the Middle East. Flooded it with infidels. The Great Satan walks free in Eden (floundering or not), and the rest of the Arab world turns their eyes and waits impatiently for us to leave. Roadmap be damned, Bush did something in the middle east WITHOUT the help of the rest of the world that his father couldn't do WITH the support of the world. That's Fsking brilliant. That he didn't spark a war with the ENTIRE Middle East with this little incursion is nothing short of amazing. Like I said, be as pissed as you want about how screwed up the whole situation is and how badly it's going now, but he did it - he captured Saddam, killed most of his regime, invaded a Muslim country in the heart of Muslim countries, and no matter what happens next,Iraq is better off without him [it's confirmed that he killed at least 61,000 of his own people, and estimated that 1 in 5 were tortured in his prisons].
A few people killed in a few dangerous missions? You must be high. If you were a veteran you've either had you head buried in the sand since the day you got out 20 years ago, or you joined the National Guard for a month during college (probably while high, as a protest) and were never deployed. And I might add that if you are a veteran, you should probably reconsider the 1 !=100 number. If you're number is 1, 1 is everything. 100 billion a year be damned.
The rest of your arguments make it pretty clear that you're a half witted disciple of Common Dreams. This isn't to disparage Common Dreams, a lot of their content is pretty good, but some of their soap boxing confidently ignores 'why' and tends to focus on the suspected 'motivation' or 'agenda's' of Bush and his cabinet. Those arguments are pointless, you can suspect anybody of anything but until you learn to focus on the facts that define the decision you're conclusions will be nothing more suspicion based on bias. Oil, Jesus, Neo-Con conspiracies... If Bush uses sun screen you cry about how he's obviously in the pocket of the oil and pharmaceutical industries. Try being just a little objective, you'd be surprised at how much you can learn.
They meant a white guy from Alabama - he was looking for 'gnome-porn'. ?!
Because they have oil. No, not like that, it's because they have oil that makes them a LOT of money. Quickly. Making them able to afford the high cost of weapons programs and black market merchandise. Unlike the North Koreans who have no money, or the Chechnyans, etc.
Saddam was actively pursuing a nuclear warhead (several were found, btw), that it is widely believed in intelligence circles he intended to use on Israel. Saddam never threatened the U.S. directly, but he was pretty good at antagonizing our allies in the Mid-East. Which is why this little incursion had the potential to blow up in our face (AKA war with the ENTIRE Middle East from Egypt to India). Special attention here - Bush did a pretty good job if for no other reason that it didn't blow up in our face. You can hate his agenda, his methods, whatever else, but he handled this situation ... brilliantly. Look, I hate to admit it too, but he did. For as bad an idea as I think this was, he HANDLED it extremely well.
Bush may be an ass-hat, but the only one questioning whether or not what happened in Iraq is a good thing in the long run are people like you who hate him. Get past your petty personal politics and do a little more homework before you ask easy questions. And if you want to deliver democracy to everybody and free everybody [blah blah blah], go join the Army. I can just about promise that you'll have every chance in the next 10 years to risk your life for very little money freeing somebody. Not sure who yet, but then if we deployed every man, woman and child in America we wouldn't be able to save 1/4th the world. And we'd probably all die long before we won freedom for anybody... even say, Canada [again, they beat the crap out of us all 5 times we tried to invade]. But you'll get your chance, guaranteed.
Btw, Clinton doesn't have the glowing intelligence record you seem to think he has, we lost quite a few lives during his run (Remember Mogadishu? The Embassy bombings (ours and the Chinese)? Kansas?), so you probably want to tone that down too.
In short K Head, we ran over Iraq with a tank because the guy running the place wanted to take his kill-em-all attitude global - and he had the money to do it. If we could've taken his money (and we tried) that would've been good enough, but it wasn't working.
And here I was thinking about how hard it would be to land a probe on ACID. I mean, you have to consider music selection, who's with you, how paranoid you should be, whether the bats with the glowing red eyes are real enough to worry about without looking like your insane by ducking randomly... I personally react badly with acid, so I'd have to say it would be pretty tough.
In a word.
:)
My father owned a hobby shop with my uncle - (*decades ago, but I have a point) and my uncle started getting careless with the money. The business almost went under, my dad (to keep things civil) bought him out for an excessive amount of money.
I rented a room to my best friend while he was getting back on his feet (after a particularly bad breakup with his girlfriend). To put it delicately, we're still friends because he moved out. In a year and a half he paid rent 5 times (I did volunteer the first 2 months free to help him get some savings and pay off some other bills). He of course tried to make up for it by cooking (my food - and almost never cleaning), but it put me in a very bad position. My wife and I wanted rent, and we saw him buying toys (literally - toys) when he hadn't paid yet, etc. etc. A couple of times we 'zero'd' his past-due to help him start over, which would get us next months rent almost on time, and then it would start over. Partial rent, promises for next week (and something would come up), not good. It put a real strain on our relationship because I had to collect from him, or kick him out, or ask him to keep the noise down... He started to feel like I was trying to take advantage of his owing me, and I felt like he was taking advantage of our relationship by not paying.
You have to have complete faith and respect for their work ethic - You shouldn't even have to ask them to do anything, they should be looking out for you (and you for them). And you still need to protect yourself and be prepared for losing them as friends if you're put in a position that requires you to decide. Better to keep them separate.
On the other hand, I met my wife at work and we worked together for several years (every day). I'd work with her again in a heartbeat; I just hope she feels the same way...
jake
who cares? ;)
[there are a lot of people doing a lot about it - check some of the recent stories on critics of closed systems and open source versions of voting machines].
The founding fathers were in fact called 'terrorists', & most of those who signed the declaration of independence were killed (by which I mean hung - along with their families) in the resulting war.
The people who are most quietly passionate about freedom in this country are in now or were in the military. If it came to a revolution you can bet more than a few tanks would be rolling in favor of the opposition. Picking a side is practically a time honored tradition in the military and I believe still taught as a moral imperative at West Point. Which means precisely that if there were any real form of revolution in the US, a decent chunk of the US military would already be on your side.
The worst case scenarios you hear of (where the US forces crush any attempt at rebellion) assume that the military and intelligence and all of the civil defense authorities do exactly what politicians tell them to without question, up to and including blowing up orphanages. Fortunately, reality is a lot more brutal.
Even more fortunate, no matter how bad the system gets in America the foundation still allows the forces of rebellion to take over legally without ever picking up an assault rifle. That's why we have elections - if you had enough people to start a rebellion you could just get elected. If you didn't have enough people on your side, you're keenly aware that the majority of the people don't want you in charge. And if you ever lose your right to vote, you and all your neighbors (and most members of the military) have that rifle handy to remove the minority that stole your right to vote.
What kind of crap are you spewing now? High in the leadership of the church? 99% responsible for the actions of the 1?
Hey - here's a little Mormon philosophy for you:
"we believe that Adam will be judged by his own sins, not the transgressions of others" ['scuse the paraphrasing, I'm drawing on 20 years of not going to church]. It means that if you commit the crime, you do the time. See, it's kind of like the rest of the country.
By your logic, all Americans are guilty because they're allowing Darl and company to remain publicly active members of the US. Not to mention being "very high in the leadership of the" LAW because they have licenses to practice.
You ass-hat. You deserve every flame you get for that piece of trash.
yeah... uh, but it's a culture thing, not a Mormon vs. gentile thing. It tends to happen to a lot of other communities too (think bible belt), and there are some pretty good reasons why. ..not good as in 'it's a good thing' but as in 'this is why, socially speaking'.
...everyone else" argument, I think we can all agree that religious wars end badly... oh sh*, now I've brought politics and the Iraq war into it... if only I could work in the OS wars somehow this chain would never end.] Anyway - The culture shock you've felt comes from years and years of the Mormons reinforcing each others beliefs. More often, the main business' you feel the weirdness from is a form of xenophobia - your not like anyone in their community, they don't 'get' you (or think they don't), and they're not used to outsiders (plus the inherent suspicion that comes with your outsiderness) so they tend to not 'put themselves out there'. Basically, they are kind of unfriendly. Not rude, but certainly not friendly. Throw on top the business ethic of a few of the worst offenders of the 'we rule' mentality and you have a culture that ends up exactly as you describe it but not for the 'gentiles' reason you note. They'd screw their own mothers and justify it by paying their full tithe on the profits (after expenses, taxes, etc. of course).
:)
It's for the same reasons winning football teams begin to think they're actually better people as well as better players on the other teams, to the point of committing crimes and thinking it's ok because 'we rule!'. [This is not to start that whole "jock vs.
I thought your post was interesting (vs. most of the other rabid spewings in this chain), so I thought I'd add the sociological reasons. And I'm pretty sure you've met my aunt and uncle in Montana. My aunt might actually be of the screw-the-non-gentiles group... but when I was 11 I saw her beat the crap out a cow that broke into her flower garden (with a frying pan, in her underwear *shudder*), so I'll not be the one to cross her.
your sig - Dooon't... (shakes head, looks like he wants to slap you) speak that language here, you ass-hat. (what Elrond should have said... if you ask me). :P
"...they may write crappy insecure overpriced shoddy software, but on this one issue their half-assed semi-competent best is an order of magnitude better than we usually manage.'"
Now that's what I call a compliment.
I read the books, I pulled my history [thanks mom, for caring] and I was diagnosed in Grade School, but this was several years before anyone had heard of ad (they thought it was an auditory processing problem), and so - a couple of years ago went to the doctor [one I heard was supposed to be one of the best in the state]. Whom I disaffectionately began to call my drug dealer. Why? Because he kept trying drugs on me. No tests, no evaluations, nothing but pretty much taking my word for it - I believed (believe?) I have it so he kept trying to find the right balance of drugs to correct for it.
Understand, some of the drugs helped, but I hate taking drugs (of any kind) and this felt a lot like going to an eye doctor who kept having you try on used pairs of glasses to see which ones helped you see better.
How can one go about getting a proper diagnosis? Is there such a thing? Are there verifiable tests (blood chemistry or otherwise) that would help narrow down just exactly what it is you need?
Is this what they did to your daughter?
Sgt_Jake
because after seeing that, you'll need some religion. Fast. And by GOD the only one that will make sense after that warping experience would be Scientology.
Interesting, true, but don't forget that doctors get hosed by insurance companies too - My brother (in-law) loses up to 70% of his 'fee' to the insurance company for everything from "processing charges" to "handling fee's", to you name it. Sometimes everything.
Real world example: A one hour meeting with a doctor, who charges $500 for the visit. $350 will go to his/her insurance company, leaving $150 for the doctor to pay rent, staff, and insurance, not to mention his own paperwork. Take home pay for the doc ends up at about $10-20 an hour. Which is why they overbook, make you wait, overcharge you and the insurance company, exaggerate, lie cheat and steal, etc.
If a doctor is hosing your insurance company, it's more likely that the insurance company is hosing your doctor too - your just getting caught in the crossfire. Not that it makes it right, but it's not always just simple greed. And lets not forget that the AMA won't publish a 'recommended fee' book for procedures (like the auto-industry so you don't get hosed on car repairs) - and will in fact sue your pants off if you try to guestimate national averages publicly.
In short, this is one *&%^@ up system. (Let the finger pointing begin...)
oh... heh! Yes, those silly predictions again. {Smithers! Find that reporter and release the hounds!)
Ok, wait... who's side are we on? 'Cause I want to get to flaming before I actually read anything about what's going on... (mob rules, no touch-backs, gas is fair - NOT IT!)
You live in cluelessville, where getting picked on is something that every kid has to put up with
That's not cluelessville, it's the real world. Every (and I do mean EVERY) kid WILL get picked on. It's not something you have to put up with, but it will happen. And every... and I do mean EVERY kid will pick on someone else. Don't tell me you never did it, because you did. Didn't you? Remember now? That's right. You did it too, so get off your soapbox.
There's a whole other world of pain out there, of scars that last deep into adulthood
I was lit on fire (3rd degree burns), spit on by my 'best friend', stripped in public and beaten too. Some things can be prevented and if I'd told someone I probably wouldn't have had to put up with that (or picked better friends) - I was pushed into a mostly frozen lake while ice-skating and almost drowned. But I'll tell you something.. One of the best memories I have of High School was defending a kid that was getting ruthlessly picked on. It got my ass kicked, but they left him alone, and never picked on anyone around me again. And I found out there were a lot of other kids who wanted to say something too. Some of them were the cool kids that were standing around watching it happen - I thought they were in on it just because they were too afraid to say anything. THAT is a life changing realization. Thus - the disdain for people like you who believe that they were victims and that no one would help them. My offense at people who play the 'triumphant victims' is that most of you never stepped in to defend someone else when it was happening to them, knowing full well it would turn the wrath on you. You were just grateful it wasn't you.
You can't stop kids from picking on other kids. You can teach them right from wrong, and you can teach them to stick up for the other guy, but you can't stop it. Your problem as a 'triumphant victim' is that you survived it, but you offer no suggestions as to how to stop it from happening to others. I believe you can curb the prevalence of it all by teaching kids to have courage.
In short - you can't stop it from happening to you, but you can stop it from happening to the other guy. And that's what's most important.
Didn't Arnold take office yesterday?
Oh c'mon - First, everybody gets picked on in Jr. high / high school. Period. Find one person who didn't and I'll show you a liar. Even the jocks, even the most popular cheerleaders got picked on by someone. And I'd be willing to bet good money that even the most picked-on of us picked on someone else at some point. Felt bad about, never did it again, but did it. The popular kids probably showed less conscience for doing it, but they are not without their scars either so let's all quit playing the triumphant victims.
/. a little trying on this subject because the 'holier' attitude is little hypocritical for a crowd so bent on personal integrity.]
[don't mean to be do direct but I find
Now, I assume that you told your parents about the bully before almost killing him (which is probably why your folks told the school to fuck off), and I imagine that someone ratted you out for almost killing that kid. If you'd have killed him, where do you think you'd be right now? Just making parole? Tough call, but if you ask me you got lucky - and I'm guessing that little stunt bought you years of relished infamy at your school (which is why no one bothered you again)...
With that said, I hope my kid never has to fight anyone, but if she does, I hope it's justified, and I hope she gives it everything she's got and more so she never has to do it again. Some people need to get hit. And hard.
Finally - on topic - if some other shit in my kid's school starts up one of these websites, I'll pay to have someone rat them out. And then may God help them and their family, because while violence may be a last resort, it's not off the list of options, and it comes in pretty much even with litigation. Being an adult doesn't mean the 'balled fist' doesn't apply to you. In fact, I'd suggest that it's even more applicable since your the example your kids will follow. Thus - if your a dick, and your teaching your kids to be dicks, and you get your teeth knocked out (all of them), maybe your kids will learn that being a dick just gets your teeth knocked out.
Maybe at least they will get another pat on the wrist.
I think when you don't let go it's called holding hands...
Its like a tenant saying to a landlord - "there is a technical mistake which makes the tenancy agreement void - so I can now live in your house rent-free forever.."
Wouldn't it be more like the tenant telling the landlord "that mistake makes this apartment public property, therefor, I can live here rent-free"?
You missed the part that I think is probably the most important - by learning how many ways you can manipulate the genes and what effects they produce, you're far more capable of coming up with vaccines and treatments that will combat full ranges of variations. In which case, when some nut bag releases a doomsday virus they won't have to waste nearly as much time trying to narrow down exactly how THIS germ behaves, they can tweak a class of inoculations to combat the majority of the outbreak.
Short answer, you're right. It sucks but it's necessary.
This guy takes a picture (stupid) and gets fired.
Ballmer pulls a hamstring while looking insane, on stage, in public... and gets a couple of days off to recover.
Cruel, cruel world...