I wasn't denigrating music that is "enjoyed" but what I see to border on near obsession with mainstream music or those that produce it (I actually have no pity for those harmed in accidents they could've avoided by not wearing iPod earbuds while traveling, whether they were operating the vehicle or hit by it. I also have no pity whatsoever for those who killed themselves when Kurt Cobain gave birth to the Doom cheatcode IDCOBAIN.)
As for music...most of it just helps me unwind. Personally I prefer utter silence or a good (preferably heated but still polite) discussion, but I've still got Metallica's Black Album and a whole bunch of Megadeth/Nightwish on my shelf. That doesn't, however, mean that it is what I prefer to listen to non-stop. Music has its purposes, but that isn't to drown out the world around us and the things we should be focused on (such as driving, walking, operating heavy equipment, etc.
Just my opinion. (I still have something by Biggie or Dre somewhere in my tape collection from high school, and to shock the truly sissy boys I still have an ICP tape lying around, its labelled "soft lyrics" but that's another story. I still like Bon Jovi or Hardline while I'm cruising on the highway }:) The list could go on and on, but I presume you get the idea:)
It is all about how I feel at the time. Orchestral stuff is good to unwind... different types of music induce different emotional responses. I've not bothered to emotionally hamstring myself by listening to only ONE type of music. I simply do not understand why so many people choose to be drowned in sound while doing things they should be fully paying attention to. Such as life. Frankly, I still hold that anyone hit by a car while wearing iPod buds should be denied coverage and the person that hit them, should receive the benefit of the doubt, unless the (other) driver is wearing iPod buds him/herself... in that case, no coverage to either of them, and NO lawsuit or appeal capacity at all.
I'm impressed to see someone get the point beyond the usual leftwing-rightwing dick woggling. Congratulations... regardless your political views, you have a valid point. Good job with it.
I say this having been a guy who went through the whole attempted feminization/mental castration that the school systems and modern PC world puts boys through. I also say it as someone who made it out (mostly) undamaged by their attempts. I was done with "schooling" by 15 and could've spent the next few years learning to run my parents' business, without missing 90% of the work day wasting away in a place where nothing new was taught or learned. Instead, I was forcefully kept in school because there wasn't enough demand for college level classes and my school had "no earlier than senior year" early graduation policy. While I was there I got to watch a bunch of hypocritical old people (henceforth known as "adults") tell a bunch of bored to death young adults/aka teenagers (henceforth known as "prisoners") how to live, how to think (or rather how not to ask questions that upset the status quo) and to continuously obey the clock, obey the authorities and beg for acceptance, forgiveness and permission to go shit and pee. (I more than once walked out of class to go pee when permission wasn't given. Most of my "compatriots" or "peers" didn't even have the balls to say it out loud... and probably damaged their bladders waiting for an hour to take a piss... but that isn't my problem, now is it? I set the example, they didn't follow it, too bad for them.)
The results are visible today. Those who toed the line and "grew up" are now raising a generation of even WEAKER offspring.
There is an upside. Unfortunately it isn't for those LIVING in the "West" it is for those looking to invade or conquer the "West".
If you are an enemy of the West, all you have to do is wait one more generation, when those who were tough have all died of old age, then come in and conquer the place with Super Soakers and BB guns. Why fight a bloody conflict with today's generation, when you can come in when their kids are grown up, and fight a group of castrated she-men and their wives... neither of which will put up more of a fight than your average comatose TV-zombie.
This is part of that "social bargain" that government is.
Let me rephrase, you waive your right to free choice in all things, and in exchange you receive whatever those you voted for feel that they owe you. Generally its mediocre services (such as justice or medicine), or total and complete abuse (such as prohibitionist laws, feel good propaganda and theft of personal property through armed robbery (confiscation) or fraud (taxes for "necessary services")).
Whenever a company with good service shows up (and Vonage was among them when they first started out), they get shafted by the collusion of the tools of government (corporations) and the tools of corporations (government). Who gets the shaft? Those whom the government is supposed to "protect".
Get over it folks, every time you rely on crooks to stop other crooks from robbing you, all you get is "We've robbed you twice, but don't worry, we'll make up for it!! Stay here, we'll be right back with a bigger bag."
I once FOUGHT to get DSL from Verizon, and they did EVERYTHING to make sure they wouldn't get my money, even disconnecting me while transferring my call to the "proper department" three times, hanging up on me once, telling me they service an area and later not following up when they said they would. Tech never shows up, etc.
Seriously, if they want business, such as mine, for example, the sun will go supernova before they get it.
Actually that time I was enjoying myself in hefty doses of sarcasm, facts not withstanding. All I'm saying is this crap has been in the environment for a good bunch of time, before our great great grandparents were being conceived, and the world is just as screwed up now as it was then, everyone is STILL hoping for their preferred prophet to come back wielding a flaming sword or the environment to burst into flames and kill us all, so Al Gore and the UN can save us by taxing our "carbon output", but in the end, our bodies die anyways... a little every day. Why the fsck are we supposed to be worried about 10000 years from now, when the vast majorities cannot live their lives well enough to even justify living past today.
Saving the world should be important, but why is it worth doing when those who scream it the loudest cannot even save themselves?
Glad you knew that lead was discovered and put to use during the computer age. And chromes were NOT used to treat leather, no siree, that's just our imagination!! Only in computers are these materials used. Nobody else ever used lead before high tech mining operations came into existence. Yep, it was a miracle discovery of the twentieth century. Hot damn, I better go find out what that grey metal stuff was that I keep shooting through my Brown Bess Musket replica!!! It definitely can't be lead. Gotta be some other metal, yep. And those evil historians, lying to me like that... the Romans couldn't have used lead, after all, they didn't have a computer industry. And how did they ever work that soft metal called lead, after all, it can only be used by "high tech environmentally irresponsible manufacturers", no way primitives who barely had iron and crude smelting capabilities could make use it! Oh wait, what's that? What? Lead was around before Iron? Wait, you mean... oh crap, so much for that theory.
Actually, I'm glad you noted my sarcasm in my earlier post.
I'll answer by stating merely that you and I are in the same boat. I buy little or no music at all, and for the most part I prefer orchestral music rather than lyrical stuff.
So I would call those who prefer not to go ga-ga over bands and their internal issues as "free".
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Now for my own opinion of "mainstream music" and the urge to have it blasting non stop? As far as I've seen, participation in certain types of music concerts and or CD/tape collections tend to be more related to "fitting in" or "belonging" to a certain group (thus elevating one's status in society by being a member of some group or other, even if the group membership is the "depressed loner goth", it is still a "group"). It is also the fear of being truly alone with silence and introspection as one's only companions that drives participation, and the fear of silence, rather than the actual love of any type of music. The desire to hear voices and be "not alone" is what drives the urge so many have to keep the TV on, non stop and the desire to buy myriad CD, tapes, MP3's etc. It also seems to be why said discs, tapes or files have to be on the Walkman or iPod running non stop, with earmuffs drowning the user in sound.
Gods only know, if the user had some silence, with nature as their only sound source, the individual might have to take stock of the world and learn to live life, instead of merely running a rat race of someone else's design. But then again... since when is introspection valued by the fast food generations? That stuff is passe, old school, not fast enough, and it makes those senses actually work, rather than be kept on the IV drip.
My antidote to mainstream culture exposure is to take a hunting trip or fishing trip every chance I get, merely because it is relaxing to be out of doors. I rarely actually take a shot at any game, I mostly go to enjoy my time as a human being, away from all the rats chasing some cheese that is just out of reach.
Yep, chrome, lead, etc definitely DO NOT from the environment, so how DARE we put them BACK into the environment. They materialize inside computers out of thin air.
Kind of how maggots used to materialize on steaks during the Middle Ages, until some smartass decided to put some gauze on top of a jar containing a rotten steak... voila, flies on gauze, no maggots on steak... hot diggety damn! Science at work!
The sheeple have moved onto a new drug... ipod, itunes, zune, etc... online shops.
The really smart ones have been pirating the music all along, and maybe buying merchandise from the actual concerts. Personally, I know a few local bands that got their start selling CDR's of their own music. They're still small but at least those of us who like them, listen to them live and know most of them by name/face in real life. Can't say that with the big boys. Once they "sell out" as it were, they all develop "star syndrome", and forget who got them where they are. Loyalties shift, from their art to their profits, and the art shows it. I am all for selling or exchanging everything under the sun, but I strongly disbelieve that better art can be produced if businessmen are involved in its production. If the primary motive is profit, it isn't art, it is mere labor. And a labor for the love of something other than the labor involved, will show in the final result. As far as I've seen, it always does.
The market is self correcting, and right now the small players have the means to play the game on their own terms. This scares the crap out of the big boys. This is why they're forcing to move government and corporations in the direction of control and restriction over the online medium. Have to reign in the freedom the internet guaranteed to those who used it. Too much information is available that challenges the status quo, and it is available for free... all one has to do is sift it. Too many products are being sold without the leeches stealing their cut... this will have to change if big monopolies, both in government and business, are to survive and oppress the next century also. China is leading the way, and the rest of the world's "democracies" are quickly learning to follow the leader.
Chuck looks damn good for a 67 year old... damn good. Moves fast too. Interesting. Not that I won't believe it. Oh well, so much for good sarcasm and humor.
It can all be more quickly be attributed to the eagerness to please perceived "powerful" or "expert" individuals.
Expert worship, in other words. Common since the day one man learned to drive a nail without bending it and wouldn't let the others know how he did it.
You have to realize the majority of the sheeple are government educated, they never made the attempt to travel or learn on their own... their money spent on booze, cheap cigarettes and porn, not books, and more often not even on that. The herd (sheeple) tend to follow one another, without so much the threat of violence as much as the FEAR of perceived omnipotence on behalf of the state. The powerful only truly need to frame or actually catch one or two people, and the majority, properly schooled in docility and bovine obedience will do the rest of the work. Most often they ask no questions, think no thoughts, and do as they are told.
Your belief that the violence was so commonly used is mistaken. The state, much as the citizens it claims to protect, rely on the threat of violence towards each other to keep each other in control. The actual use of said violence often unbalances the equation and results in a loss for all but those who actually stay clear of the conflict and supply the fighting parties with resources (so as to profit from their conflict).
Otherwise, its all "obedience" training, from the moment we're old enough to be smacked around by parents to the moment we're taught we're too old to live freely.
Actually a similar device that is quite powerful (can nuke an egg and the user) quickly can be built from parts out of a microwave and a polished (inside) muffler pipe, or other thick pipe. This was a concept worked out by one Nikola Tesla sometime early in the 20'th century, right about the time he designed the generation/delivery system for the A/C electrical grids of the modern world. You can see a similar effect holding a neon tube in front of the device I described, one magnetron, one household power supply with shutoff / failsafe circuit breakers, and a shined pipe, preferably with a lead enclosure in the direction of the user (so you don't cook your testicles or ovaries while testing the device).
This thing has a range of a few feet (probably 30 max for irradiation and about 5 or so for slow to medium speed object/people cooking). At that 5 foot range it will light fluorescent lights or nuke old laptops equally well. Some folks have built the exact device to light fluorescent light bulbs within sealed packages on youtube videos. Old news folks, applied "HERF" education (government debunkers said it couldn't be done in the age before youtube:) Harder to "debunk" things now.
No, actually a psychopathic score can also be gotten by those who go "clean logic" route. I've acquired copies of the test scoring schemes a few times after taking several "mind health / personality trait" type exams.
I've come to think the sheep deserve their treatment because they continue to ask for it. They are enablers. If the sheeple were armed, and responded (not reacted, mind you, there is a difference) properly. Then the "psychopaths" would have to choose a different vocation or rethink their mindset.
The percentage of psychotics, sociopaths, psychopaths, and whatever denominations may have been "found" to further alienate responsibility from the individual... regardless of the "brain chemistry" excuses given for it, are lifestyle choices trained over a period of time. Simply put, it is mental and emotional conditioning, part of which we all go through in the government sheepifying facilities known as public schools. The psychopaths see that children are forced to be defenseless and take no responsibility for their actions, and then subconsciously test the waters. They get away with bullying, stealing, doing whatever else suits their fancy. They get "punished", which, to a healthy mind isn't really punishment. Being put in detention, where one can read or write is a blessing as opposed to the consistent droning of a teacher who knows as much about her slowly taught, boring subject matter as the students she teaches. Suddenly the world takes on a different hue for these people (the bullies/psychopaths). I know because I faced this choice consciously, the only difference was that I saw it coming up and made my choice fully knowing of the outcome. When he tried his hand with me, I responded in kind, and knocked one of these kids on his ass, and he NEVER bullied me again. I even asked him if he was okay:) Since no other kid did what I did, and the school system did its usual inept response by trying to put everyone on mind altering drugs instead of letting kids be kids, he continued on to other future victims, but I was safe, because he perceived my strength and rather than work on a hard target, he found the point of least resistance and went on his merry way. The results of my conscious decision were, pleasure, enjoyment, higher safety than all the other students... and suspension from school. Yep, TWO days of in school "quiet time" and one day outside of school where I could actually read, write and not listen to some drone try to inculcate me into authority worship.
It is all about choices we make. We make them, and live with the consequences of those choices. I'm not necessarily talking about "societal" consequences, I'm talking about internal, personal, natural consequences, things we all do, and face, that change us, for better, or worse, as the case may be. Most people try to shirk these choices off however they can and blame it on external factors, genetics, brain chemistry, bad childhood, not enough hugs or too many. We cannot truly control all that, but we CAN control how we react to things and what path we take. Even the fears we think we are born with, can be traced to some event in our primal childhood memory, stuff buried deep within that we forget happened. Once confronted, our previous conditioning can be "dealt with". Those who score psychopath and who ARE psychopaths are merely those who answer one way which they might be contemplating at any one point in life (as all humans do, at a subconscious level) and then ACT upon that path without considering any of the others. They are little different than the sheeple who willingly allow that abuse of themselves to take place, unchallenged, unresisted, uncontested.
I had a friend who almost got raped by a stalker. Her national "state police" type apparatus decided that since he was someone she had possibly known, until he made death threats and she had evidence, they couldn't even keep an eye on her. They'd "look into it". I asked her if she would consider getting armed and trained
We can agree on a lot of it. However there is a pecking order and these types tend to try to "climb it". I never said it was "rich vs peons". I said it was "rich vs rich" but the game involved rarely gets any of the gentlemen killed, only the non human/sub human sheeple are butchered.
Frankly I must ask this. If unquestioning sheep populate the places, volunteer for hellish, servile "duties", volunteer to "elect" which of the gentlemen may "rule" for a "limited time" (every game has turns doesn't it?), would you not also feel as if the sheeple were mere food? Does a natural predator or even a natural parasite really care what it eats if that is what it has always been able to eat, or perhaps, if that food volunteered to be a host/prey?? In fact the sheeple actually DESERVE their servitude and their masters, because they consistently vote for these people despite having had CONSISTENTLY bad results each time. Any wild animal would be wise enough to stop doing something that consistently fails and find another way. Yet the sheeple do not. They are even offered ways out by the masters themselves, which they never take, always formulating excuses such as "oh not me, too old", or "ooh, not me, I'm not that kind of person."
Exactly. I see consistent testing by these "masters" in every walk of life, and I'm noticing that they're DARING people to say no, and yet, of all things, that NO word scares the hell out of sheeple and they fear to ever utter it, neither to their own children nor friends nor even to their enemies or perceived enemies. Every time they say NO, they feel as though they have to come up with an excuse. Strange... is it not? The path away from that servile sheepish life is easy but seems hard, and so very few take it.
As for the masters being psychopathic... what would you be if the people around you literally WANTED, VOTED, FOUGHT for their own slavery and then for that of others, and bought (hook line and sinker) every scheme you even only half hatched up and left incomplete??
I've done what I could to see this situation from both sides of the picture, both during my job, school and contracting days, and have found something out (which is why some of my past posts seem so heartless).
People cannot be "freed". If they want no freedom, or restricted freedom, they will change their environment to reflect themselves. That is why we have so many sheeple bleating around the sidewalks and highways and cubicles and warehouses, and they breed and raise more sheeple. Until they look up ON THEIR OWN, nothing changes.
Information will always be available to them, even in Soviet Russia it was available, to all who seek it, if they but look. This is why I wouldn't bleed a drop to "save them" (the sheeple). They must save themselves, not be saved by others.
I for myself have chosen to be "neither predator, nor prey... upon my own species." Your choices are your own. Your mileage may vary with the level of research you put into this subject, and the mindset you approach it with.
There's a difference between self defense and herd mentality. I've seen little to redeem mankind in my eyes so far in the cities and suburbia and even in the rural areas as far as government worshipers go. The only thing that can possibly redeem them in my eyes is the fact that some are willing to step outside of that "just because everyone else fell in line" crap and stand/walk/crawl on their own and question that "authority". I'm not talking USA here, I'm talking every country I've ever been to.
We all live, we all die, and by what I've seen in my life, I'm willing to believe we all continue to come back here, or wherever. By the sounds of it, most prefer to live on their knees, and die on their knees and plot how to obey when the master hits them... some, however, walk away or plot revenge. Those are called "men". Society has tried to destroy that breed of human, leaving only effeminate, obedient, "males", not many "men" left around but they still exist, thankfully. After all, you cannot shove "society's good" down someone's throat if he's a man and decides to search the truth out for himself. You can only shove society down the throats of the obedient masses. That's why you need a democracy. The masses rule, and since they are easily lead, guess what that leads to? Eventual tyranny or eventual chaos, as things have to be held within an iron grip to keep the unthinking sheep in line. Men will walk their own paths, and thus are rare.
Just my few cents:)
PS - if you point a gun at my head, and threaten me, and then put a gun in my hands, you'd be in a "bad" place. Any "man" would shoot you before you could blink if you put a high powered rifle in his hands after threatening him with death. Course most soldiers are tough as hell, but sheep, not men. Men have one additional attribute, applicable only to sentient beings, intelligent beings, if you would. They find ways to circumvent coercion. Sheep do not. Sheep make fantastic woolen clothes and food, and seem to have little issue with being converted into those things, other than screaming when they are butchered. Interestingly, sheeple have the exact same qualities. You can choose which you are, because they're mutually exclusive.
How to "psychotic leaders" or "insane leaders" carry out the murders of millions? Stalin only personally killed some 1000 people or so. His multi million death quota was reached by willing underlings.
Perhaps the blame lies with the sheeple, not with the evil rulers. I've said this over and over again, its "fellow men" who are to blame, not "evil men or evil corporations, but the sheeplike nature of the majority of mankind... the mass man so to speak, for he does not lead, and does not think, he merely follows."
"The war wasn't meant to be won or lost, it was simply meant to be fought. The war was never meant to end, merely to go on."
Do you folks actually think that both sides of this conflict hate each other as much as the peons do? Sheesh. When the rich meet at the country club, the boys from Company A, and the boys from Company B, regardless of nationality, are friends.
The same is true of "presidents", "bankers" and anything else. Gentleman's rules, to all games. Gentlemen don't KILL each other. They get proxies, peons, idiots and fools to slaughter each other in their names. After all, only fools would hate someone they've never had a chance to get to know, or witness first hand their deeds (and their motivation, of course). Short of aggression carried out against the individual in question, "fighting a war" generally involved mass psychosis, usually cultivated by carefully trained and prepared "superiors" and "intelligence personnel."
This stuff's as old as the world. The wars will go on, the arms races will go on, and humanity will go on. All the fears and the doomsayers are merely meant to up the ante, and keep the peons scurrying about, frittering their lives away doing nothing at all interesting or worthwhile, other than what they have been TOLD to do by someone else, for someone else's benefit and minor, if any, benefit to themselves.
Welcome to the future:)
The only reason I keep watching this mess is because it is, frankly speaking, fun to watch. Nothing more, nothing less.
Actually I recall several doctors I've dealt with who have been "by the book" licensee types. What's on paper or in the computer is PERFECT, regardless of discrepancies, or common ailments with said symptoms, etc. I've long ceased to use doctors and my health has been nothing but flawless since I've stopped pumping their "legal drugs" into my body via their prescriptions.
Strange that I'm healthier than my friends with heavy insurance costs, heavy medical schedules and constant "healthcare" woes and "checkups". Funny how a consensus by men in black robes (judges) or white robes (doctors) is "good" while common sense is "wrong"... odd eh?
Seems to me like the "new religion" is not christianity, or islam, or judaism, or buddhism, or zionism... no siree, its "expert" worship. Its worshipping and putting faith that some guy who gives you a disclaimer to sign "While there is a chance you may die, I am not responsible if you die as a result of my actions, sign here X." How many professional plumbers, or even handymen have ever said "sure I'll fix it, but if it breaks or if your whole house falls down, it ain't my fault, sign here!" before they do the work?
Why are doctors and software makers and even lawyers, allowed to cheat you out of a proper guarantee, despite the fact that they run the highest risk of damaging you via their incompetence, ineptitude, or plain "treating the symptoms, not the cause" mindsets?
Strange, when the transmission came unlinked in a car I bought, cops were nowhere in sight. I quickly moved the car OUT of the intersection (pushing works, especially on a level or slight incline road)... as do triangles or a cell phone (which I borrowed since I didn't have one with me at the time).
I'm curious if the tie rod completely snapped and destroyed your steering or if the thing could still be pushed in a semi straight direction... If you couldn't move it, you have triangles you know... and flares, they should be part of anyone's emergency tool kit in a car... as well as a well stocked first aid kit, blankets, bandages, a couple of dry rations, etc... all you need to survive should you ever be stranded without help. And it isn't that hard for a normal Joe SixPack (J6P) to actually wave traffic around his car. You don't need a cop with a crown victoria for this, you can do it yourself with EQUAL proficiency... well if you bother to learn how.
Of course in your jurisdictions cops might have a law passed against having cones, flares or triangles out, so perhaps its best you wait inside the vehicle, with no lights or markings to denote a broken down vehicle. After all, it might disturb the glassy eyed sheeple who would prefer to not be bothered while waiting for the "car in front of them" to get moving. And don't even think about putting on your hazard blinkers or calling a tow truck yourself. That just cuts the state out of the loop and shows just how useless cops are.
"The government should have a hand so I can stay stupid, ignorant, and clueless, and may I never learn what my goods are worth."
Do you listen to yourselves when you ask this stuff? Just because idiots ask appraisers what homes are worth, doesn't mean truly wise and intelligent people cannot do their own research. I did mine, on everything I buy and sell. From computers to cars to a piece of jewelry or a piece of software I download.
And often, the best reviews are from my fellow men and women, not from "licensed experts".
Expert and government worship and doomsday cults (such as christian, muslim and jewish and global warming/cooling apocalypse cults) have a lot more in common than people give them credit for.
I like how the statists immediately jump on the "licensing" necessity.
Lets get real, I've seen plenty of "licensed" drivers, lawyers and doctors who do NOTHING like what one would expect from the magical, mystical papers called "diplomas" and "licenses".
Almost reminds me with all the fresh minted Microsoft Certified Professionals who go to work in IT, thinking they know it all, and proving they don't.
Cute stuff.
Hear hear!! A toast for more government involvement in shit they can't fix or make better!
Since when are "police officers" something other than "bad guys"?
Why do you make the assumption that "law enforcement" has anything to do with "good guys"?
When was the last time you dealt with a professional cop who wasn't writing someone a citation or doing something to beef up their bust or "citizen abuse" quotas? When was the last time a cop said "hi there, how are you today?" without staring at you as if you're a bleeding juicy steak in the middle of a shark feast?
Cops are merely armed robbers who rob you under the color of law... which as Thomas Jefferson once said, "is often merely but the tyrant's will." There are scant few reasonable men these days, and an over abundance of scum and bad guys. In fact, you could say since socialism conquered the West some 150 years ago, we have had a massive SURPLUS of parasites, freeloaders and thugs.
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I wasn't denigrating music that is "enjoyed" but what I see to border on near obsession with mainstream music or those that produce it (I actually have no pity for those harmed in accidents they could've avoided by not wearing iPod earbuds while traveling, whether they were operating the vehicle or hit by it. I also have no pity whatsoever for those who killed themselves when Kurt Cobain gave birth to the Doom cheatcode IDCOBAIN.)
:)
As for music...most of it just helps me unwind. Personally I prefer utter silence or a good (preferably heated but still polite) discussion, but I've still got Metallica's Black Album and a whole bunch of Megadeth/Nightwish on my shelf. That doesn't, however, mean that it is what I prefer to listen to non-stop. Music has its purposes, but that isn't to drown out the world around us and the things we should be focused on (such as driving, walking, operating heavy equipment, etc.
Just my opinion. (I still have something by Biggie or Dre somewhere in my tape collection from high school, and to shock the truly sissy boys I still have an ICP tape lying around, its labelled "soft lyrics" but that's another story. I still like Bon Jovi or Hardline while I'm cruising on the highway }:) The list could go on and on, but I presume you get the idea
It is all about how I feel at the time. Orchestral stuff is good to unwind... different types of music induce different emotional responses. I've not bothered to emotionally hamstring myself by listening to only ONE type of music. I simply do not understand why so many people choose to be drowned in sound while doing things they should be fully paying attention to. Such as life. Frankly, I still hold that anyone hit by a car while wearing iPod buds should be denied coverage and the person that hit them, should receive the benefit of the doubt, unless the (other) driver is wearing iPod buds him/herself... in that case, no coverage to either of them, and NO lawsuit or appeal capacity at all.
I'm impressed to see someone get the point beyond the usual leftwing-rightwing dick woggling. Congratulations... regardless your political views, you have a valid point. Good job with it.
I say this having been a guy who went through the whole attempted feminization/mental castration that the school systems and modern PC world puts boys through. I also say it as someone who made it out (mostly) undamaged by their attempts. I was done with "schooling" by 15 and could've spent the next few years learning to run my parents' business, without missing 90% of the work day wasting away in a place where nothing new was taught or learned. Instead, I was forcefully kept in school because there wasn't enough demand for college level classes and my school had "no earlier than senior year" early graduation policy. While I was there I got to watch a bunch of hypocritical old people (henceforth known as "adults") tell a bunch of bored to death young adults/aka teenagers (henceforth known as "prisoners") how to live, how to think (or rather how not to ask questions that upset the status quo) and to continuously obey the clock, obey the authorities and beg for acceptance, forgiveness and permission to go shit and pee. (I more than once walked out of class to go pee when permission wasn't given. Most of my "compatriots" or "peers" didn't even have the balls to say it out loud... and probably damaged their bladders waiting for an hour to take a piss... but that isn't my problem, now is it? I set the example, they didn't follow it, too bad for them.)
The results are visible today. Those who toed the line and "grew up" are now raising a generation of even WEAKER offspring.
There is an upside. Unfortunately it isn't for those LIVING in the "West" it is for those looking to invade or conquer the "West".
If you are an enemy of the West, all you have to do is wait one more generation, when those who were tough have all died of old age, then come in and conquer the place with Super Soakers and BB guns. Why fight a bloody conflict with today's generation, when you can come in when their kids are grown up, and fight a group of castrated she-men and their wives... neither of which will put up more of a fight than your average comatose TV-zombie.
They cross my property line without my permission, especially hauling hazmat, they don't come back out :) Trespassing is trespassing.
This is part of that "social bargain" that government is.
Let me rephrase, you waive your right to free choice in all things, and in exchange you receive whatever those you voted for feel that they owe you. Generally its mediocre services (such as justice or medicine), or total and complete abuse (such as prohibitionist laws, feel good propaganda and theft of personal property through armed robbery (confiscation) or fraud (taxes for "necessary services")).
Whenever a company with good service shows up (and Vonage was among them when they first started out), they get shafted by the collusion of the tools of government (corporations) and the tools of corporations (government). Who gets the shaft? Those whom the government is supposed to "protect".
Get over it folks, every time you rely on crooks to stop other crooks from robbing you, all you get is "We've robbed you twice, but don't worry, we'll make up for it!! Stay here, we'll be right back with a bigger bag."
I once FOUGHT to get DSL from Verizon, and they did EVERYTHING to make sure they wouldn't get my money, even disconnecting me while transferring my call to the "proper department" three times, hanging up on me once, telling me they service an area and later not following up when they said they would. Tech never shows up, etc.
Seriously, if they want business, such as mine, for example, the sun will go supernova before they get it.
Or you could do the SANE thing and stop watching the boob tube...
Actually that time I was enjoying myself in hefty doses of sarcasm, facts not withstanding. All I'm saying is this crap has been in the environment for a good bunch of time, before our great great grandparents were being conceived, and the world is just as screwed up now as it was then, everyone is STILL hoping for their preferred prophet to come back wielding a flaming sword or the environment to burst into flames and kill us all, so Al Gore and the UN can save us by taxing our "carbon output", but in the end, our bodies die anyways... a little every day. Why the fsck are we supposed to be worried about 10000 years from now, when the vast majorities cannot live their lives well enough to even justify living past today.
Saving the world should be important, but why is it worth doing when those who scream it the loudest cannot even save themselves?
Holy crap!!
Glad you knew that lead was discovered and put to use during the computer age. And chromes were NOT used to treat leather, no siree, that's just our imagination!! Only in computers are these materials used. Nobody else ever used lead before high tech mining operations came into existence. Yep, it was a miracle discovery of the twentieth century. Hot damn, I better go find out what that grey metal stuff was that I keep shooting through my Brown Bess Musket replica!!! It definitely can't be lead. Gotta be some other metal, yep. And those evil historians, lying to me like that... the Romans couldn't have used lead, after all, they didn't have a computer industry. And how did they ever work that soft metal called lead, after all, it can only be used by "high tech environmentally irresponsible manufacturers", no way primitives who barely had iron and crude smelting capabilities could make use it! Oh wait, what's that? What? Lead was around before Iron? Wait, you mean... oh crap, so much for that theory.
Actually, I'm glad you noted my sarcasm in my earlier post.
I'll answer by stating merely that you and I are in the same boat. I buy little or no music at all, and for the most part I prefer orchestral music rather than lyrical stuff.
So I would call those who prefer not to go ga-ga over bands and their internal issues as "free".
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Now for my own opinion of "mainstream music" and the urge to have it blasting non stop? As far as I've seen, participation in certain types of music concerts and or CD/tape collections tend to be more related to "fitting in" or "belonging" to a certain group (thus elevating one's status in society by being a member of some group or other, even if the group membership is the "depressed loner goth", it is still a "group"). It is also the fear of being truly alone with silence and introspection as one's only companions that drives participation, and the fear of silence, rather than the actual love of any type of music. The desire to hear voices and be "not alone" is what drives the urge so many have to keep the TV on, non stop and the desire to buy myriad CD, tapes, MP3's etc. It also seems to be why said discs, tapes or files have to be on the Walkman or iPod running non stop, with earmuffs drowning the user in sound.
Gods only know, if the user had some silence, with nature as their only sound source, the individual might have to take stock of the world and learn to live life, instead of merely running a rat race of someone else's design. But then again... since when is introspection valued by the fast food generations? That stuff is passe, old school, not fast enough, and it makes those senses actually work, rather than be kept on the IV drip.
My antidote to mainstream culture exposure is to take a hunting trip or fishing trip every chance I get, merely because it is relaxing to be out of doors. I rarely actually take a shot at any game, I mostly go to enjoy my time as a human being, away from all the rats chasing some cheese that is just out of reach.
Yep, chrome, lead, etc definitely DO NOT from the environment, so how DARE we put them BACK into the environment. They materialize inside computers out of thin air.
Kind of how maggots used to materialize on steaks during the Middle Ages, until some smartass decided to put some gauze on top of a jar containing a rotten steak... voila, flies on gauze, no maggots on steak... hot diggety damn! Science at work!
The sheeple have moved onto a new drug... ipod, itunes, zune, etc... online shops.
The really smart ones have been pirating the music all along, and maybe buying merchandise from the actual concerts. Personally, I know a few local bands that got their start selling CDR's of their own music. They're still small but at least those of us who like them, listen to them live and know most of them by name/face in real life. Can't say that with the big boys. Once they "sell out" as it were, they all develop "star syndrome", and forget who got them where they are. Loyalties shift, from their art to their profits, and the art shows it. I am all for selling or exchanging everything under the sun, but I strongly disbelieve that better art can be produced if businessmen are involved in its production. If the primary motive is profit, it isn't art, it is mere labor. And a labor for the love of something other than the labor involved, will show in the final result. As far as I've seen, it always does.
The market is self correcting, and right now the small players have the means to play the game on their own terms. This scares the crap out of the big boys. This is why they're forcing to move government and corporations in the direction of control and restriction over the online medium. Have to reign in the freedom the internet guaranteed to those who used it. Too much information is available that challenges the status quo, and it is available for free... all one has to do is sift it. Too many products are being sold without the leeches stealing their cut... this will have to change if big monopolies, both in government and business, are to survive and oppress the next century also. China is leading the way, and the rest of the world's "democracies" are quickly learning to follow the leader.
Chuck looks damn good for a 67 year old... damn good. Moves fast too. Interesting. Not that I won't believe it. Oh well, so much for good sarcasm and humor.
Stephen Hawking and Chuck Norris met... Chuck Norris got his ass handed to him.
That would've been far more credible than Einstein... whom, I believe was long dead by the time Norris was conceived.
It can all be more quickly be attributed to the eagerness to please perceived "powerful" or "expert" individuals.
Expert worship, in other words. Common since the day one man learned to drive a nail without bending it and wouldn't let the others know how he did it.
You have to realize the majority of the sheeple are government educated, they never made the attempt to travel or learn on their own... their money spent on booze, cheap cigarettes and porn, not books, and more often not even on that. The herd (sheeple) tend to follow one another, without so much the threat of violence as much as the FEAR of perceived omnipotence on behalf of the state. The powerful only truly need to frame or actually catch one or two people, and the majority, properly schooled in docility and bovine obedience will do the rest of the work. Most often they ask no questions, think no thoughts, and do as they are told.
Your belief that the violence was so commonly used is mistaken. The state, much as the citizens it claims to protect, rely on the threat of violence towards each other to keep each other in control. The actual use of said violence often unbalances the equation and results in a loss for all but those who actually stay clear of the conflict and supply the fighting parties with resources (so as to profit from their conflict).
Otherwise, its all "obedience" training, from the moment we're old enough to be smacked around by parents to the moment we're taught we're too old to live freely.
Actually a similar device that is quite powerful (can nuke an egg and the user) quickly can be built from parts out of a microwave and a polished (inside) muffler pipe, or other thick pipe. This was a concept worked out by one Nikola Tesla sometime early in the 20'th century, right about the time he designed the generation/delivery system for the A/C electrical grids of the modern world. You can see a similar effect holding a neon tube in front of the device I described, one magnetron, one household power supply with shutoff / failsafe circuit breakers, and a shined pipe, preferably with a lead enclosure in the direction of the user (so you don't cook your testicles or ovaries while testing the device).
:) Harder to "debunk" things now.
This thing has a range of a few feet (probably 30 max for irradiation and about 5 or so for slow to medium speed object/people cooking). At that 5 foot range it will light fluorescent lights or nuke old laptops equally well. Some folks have built the exact device to light fluorescent light bulbs within sealed packages on youtube videos. Old news folks, applied "HERF" education (government debunkers said it couldn't be done in the age before youtube
No, actually a psychopathic score can also be gotten by those who go "clean logic" route. I've acquired copies of the test scoring schemes a few times after taking several "mind health / personality trait" type exams.
:) Since no other kid did what I did, and the school system did its usual inept response by trying to put everyone on mind altering drugs instead of letting kids be kids, he continued on to other future victims, but I was safe, because he perceived my strength and rather than work on a hard target, he found the point of least resistance and went on his merry way. The results of my conscious decision were, pleasure, enjoyment, higher safety than all the other students... and suspension from school. Yep, TWO days of in school "quiet time" and one day outside of school where I could actually read, write and not listen to some drone try to inculcate me into authority worship.
I've come to think the sheep deserve their treatment because they continue to ask for it. They are enablers. If the sheeple were armed, and responded (not reacted, mind you, there is a difference) properly. Then the "psychopaths" would have to choose a different vocation or rethink their mindset.
The percentage of psychotics, sociopaths, psychopaths, and whatever denominations may have been "found" to further alienate responsibility from the individual... regardless of the "brain chemistry" excuses given for it, are lifestyle choices trained over a period of time. Simply put, it is mental and emotional conditioning, part of which we all go through in the government sheepifying facilities known as public schools. The psychopaths see that children are forced to be defenseless and take no responsibility for their actions, and then subconsciously test the waters. They get away with bullying, stealing, doing whatever else suits their fancy. They get "punished", which, to a healthy mind isn't really punishment. Being put in detention, where one can read or write is a blessing as opposed to the consistent droning of a teacher who knows as much about her slowly taught, boring subject matter as the students she teaches. Suddenly the world takes on a different hue for these people (the bullies/psychopaths). I know because I faced this choice consciously, the only difference was that I saw it coming up and made my choice fully knowing of the outcome. When he tried his hand with me, I responded in kind, and knocked one of these kids on his ass, and he NEVER bullied me again. I even asked him if he was okay
It is all about choices we make. We make them, and live with the consequences of those choices. I'm not necessarily talking about "societal" consequences, I'm talking about internal, personal, natural consequences, things we all do, and face, that change us, for better, or worse, as the case may be. Most people try to shirk these choices off however they can and blame it on external factors, genetics, brain chemistry, bad childhood, not enough hugs or too many. We cannot truly control all that, but we CAN control how we react to things and what path we take. Even the fears we think we are born with, can be traced to some event in our primal childhood memory, stuff buried deep within that we forget happened. Once confronted, our previous conditioning can be "dealt with". Those who score psychopath and who ARE psychopaths are merely those who answer one way which they might be contemplating at any one point in life (as all humans do, at a subconscious level) and then ACT upon that path without considering any of the others. They are little different than the sheeple who willingly allow that abuse of themselves to take place, unchallenged, unresisted, uncontested.
I had a friend who almost got raped by a stalker. Her national "state police" type apparatus decided that since he was someone she had possibly known, until he made death threats and she had evidence, they couldn't even keep an eye on her. They'd "look into it". I asked her if she would consider getting armed and trained
We can agree on a lot of it. However there is a pecking order and these types tend to try to "climb it". I never said it was "rich vs peons". I said it was "rich vs rich" but the game involved rarely gets any of the gentlemen killed, only the non human/sub human sheeple are butchered.
Frankly I must ask this. If unquestioning sheep populate the places, volunteer for hellish, servile "duties", volunteer to "elect" which of the gentlemen may "rule" for a "limited time" (every game has turns doesn't it?), would you not also feel as if the sheeple were mere food? Does a natural predator or even a natural parasite really care what it eats if that is what it has always been able to eat, or perhaps, if that food volunteered to be a host/prey?? In fact the sheeple actually DESERVE their servitude and their masters, because they consistently vote for these people despite having had CONSISTENTLY bad results each time. Any wild animal would be wise enough to stop doing something that consistently fails and find another way. Yet the sheeple do not. They are even offered ways out by the masters themselves, which they never take, always formulating excuses such as "oh not me, too old", or "ooh, not me, I'm not that kind of person."
Exactly. I see consistent testing by these "masters" in every walk of life, and I'm noticing that they're DARING people to say no, and yet, of all things, that NO word scares the hell out of sheeple and they fear to ever utter it, neither to their own children nor friends nor even to their enemies or perceived enemies. Every time they say NO, they feel as though they have to come up with an excuse. Strange... is it not? The path away from that servile sheepish life is easy but seems hard, and so very few take it.
As for the masters being psychopathic... what would you be if the people around you literally WANTED, VOTED, FOUGHT for their own slavery and then for that of others, and bought (hook line and sinker) every scheme you even only half hatched up and left incomplete??
I've done what I could to see this situation from both sides of the picture, both during my job, school and contracting days, and have found something out (which is why some of my past posts seem so heartless).
People cannot be "freed". If they want no freedom, or restricted freedom, they will change their environment to reflect themselves. That is why we have so many sheeple bleating around the sidewalks and highways and cubicles and warehouses, and they breed and raise more sheeple. Until they look up ON THEIR OWN, nothing changes.
Information will always be available to them, even in Soviet Russia it was available, to all who seek it, if they but look. This is why I wouldn't bleed a drop to "save them" (the sheeple). They must save themselves, not be saved by others.
I for myself have chosen to be "neither predator, nor prey... upon my own species." Your choices are your own. Your mileage may vary with the level of research you put into this subject, and the mindset you approach it with.
There's a difference between self defense and herd mentality. I've seen little to redeem mankind in my eyes so far in the cities and suburbia and even in the rural areas as far as government worshipers go. The only thing that can possibly redeem them in my eyes is the fact that some are willing to step outside of that "just because everyone else fell in line" crap and stand/walk/crawl on their own and question that "authority". I'm not talking USA here, I'm talking every country I've ever been to.
:)
We all live, we all die, and by what I've seen in my life, I'm willing to believe we all continue to come back here, or wherever. By the sounds of it, most prefer to live on their knees, and die on their knees and plot how to obey when the master hits them... some, however, walk away or plot revenge. Those are called "men". Society has tried to destroy that breed of human, leaving only effeminate, obedient, "males", not many "men" left around but they still exist, thankfully. After all, you cannot shove "society's good" down someone's throat if he's a man and decides to search the truth out for himself. You can only shove society down the throats of the obedient masses. That's why you need a democracy. The masses rule, and since they are easily lead, guess what that leads to? Eventual tyranny or eventual chaos, as things have to be held within an iron grip to keep the unthinking sheep in line. Men will walk their own paths, and thus are rare.
Just my few cents
PS - if you point a gun at my head, and threaten me, and then put a gun in my hands, you'd be in a "bad" place. Any "man" would shoot you before you could blink if you put a high powered rifle in his hands after threatening him with death. Course most soldiers are tough as hell, but sheep, not men. Men have one additional attribute, applicable only to sentient beings, intelligent beings, if you would. They find ways to circumvent coercion. Sheep do not. Sheep make fantastic woolen clothes and food, and seem to have little issue with being converted into those things, other than screaming when they are butchered. Interestingly, sheeple have the exact same qualities. You can choose which you are, because they're mutually exclusive.
How to "psychotic leaders" or "insane leaders" carry out the murders of millions? Stalin only personally killed some 1000 people or so. His multi million death quota was reached by willing underlings.
Perhaps the blame lies with the sheeple, not with the evil rulers. I've said this over and over again, its "fellow men" who are to blame, not "evil men or evil corporations, but the sheeplike nature of the majority of mankind... the mass man so to speak, for he does not lead, and does not think, he merely follows."
"The war wasn't meant to be won or lost, it was simply meant to be fought. The war was never meant to end, merely to go on."
:)
Do you folks actually think that both sides of this conflict hate each other as much as the peons do? Sheesh. When the rich meet at the country club, the boys from Company A, and the boys from Company B, regardless of nationality, are friends.
The same is true of "presidents", "bankers" and anything else. Gentleman's rules, to all games. Gentlemen don't KILL each other. They get proxies, peons, idiots and fools to slaughter each other in their names. After all, only fools would hate someone they've never had a chance to get to know, or witness first hand their deeds (and their motivation, of course). Short of aggression carried out against the individual in question, "fighting a war" generally involved mass psychosis, usually cultivated by carefully trained and prepared "superiors" and "intelligence personnel."
This stuff's as old as the world. The wars will go on, the arms races will go on, and humanity will go on. All the fears and the doomsayers are merely meant to up the ante, and keep the peons scurrying about, frittering their lives away doing nothing at all interesting or worthwhile, other than what they have been TOLD to do by someone else, for someone else's benefit and minor, if any, benefit to themselves.
Welcome to the future
The only reason I keep watching this mess is because it is, frankly speaking, fun to watch. Nothing more, nothing less.
Actually I recall several doctors I've dealt with who have been "by the book" licensee types. What's on paper or in the computer is PERFECT, regardless of discrepancies, or common ailments with said symptoms, etc. I've long ceased to use doctors and my health has been nothing but flawless since I've stopped pumping their "legal drugs" into my body via their prescriptions.
Strange that I'm healthier than my friends with heavy insurance costs, heavy medical schedules and constant "healthcare" woes and "checkups". Funny how a consensus by men in black robes (judges) or white robes (doctors) is "good" while common sense is "wrong"... odd eh?
Seems to me like the "new religion" is not christianity, or islam, or judaism, or buddhism, or zionism... no siree, its "expert" worship. Its worshipping and putting faith that some guy who gives you a disclaimer to sign "While there is a chance you may die, I am not responsible if you die as a result of my actions, sign here X." How many professional plumbers, or even handymen have ever said "sure I'll fix it, but if it breaks or if your whole house falls down, it ain't my fault, sign here!" before they do the work?
Why are doctors and software makers and even lawyers, allowed to cheat you out of a proper guarantee, despite the fact that they run the highest risk of damaging you via their incompetence, ineptitude, or plain "treating the symptoms, not the cause" mindsets?
Strange, when the transmission came unlinked in a car I bought, cops were nowhere in sight. I quickly moved the car OUT of the intersection (pushing works, especially on a level or slight incline road)... as do triangles or a cell phone (which I borrowed since I didn't have one with me at the time).
I'm curious if the tie rod completely snapped and destroyed your steering or if the thing could still be pushed in a semi straight direction... If you couldn't move it, you have triangles you know... and flares, they should be part of anyone's emergency tool kit in a car... as well as a well stocked first aid kit, blankets, bandages, a couple of dry rations, etc... all you need to survive should you ever be stranded without help. And it isn't that hard for a normal Joe SixPack (J6P) to actually wave traffic around his car. You don't need a cop with a crown victoria for this, you can do it yourself with EQUAL proficiency... well if you bother to learn how.
Of course in your jurisdictions cops might have a law passed against having cones, flares or triangles out, so perhaps its best you wait inside the vehicle, with no lights or markings to denote a broken down vehicle. After all, it might disturb the glassy eyed sheeple who would prefer to not be bothered while waiting for the "car in front of them" to get moving. And don't even think about putting on your hazard blinkers or calling a tow truck yourself. That just cuts the state out of the loop and shows just how useless cops are.
I love this...
"The government should have a hand so I can stay stupid, ignorant, and clueless, and may I never learn what my goods are worth."
Do you listen to yourselves when you ask this stuff? Just because idiots ask appraisers what homes are worth, doesn't mean truly wise and intelligent people cannot do their own research. I did mine, on everything I buy and sell. From computers to cars to a piece of jewelry or a piece of software I download.
And often, the best reviews are from my fellow men and women, not from "licensed experts".
Expert and government worship and doomsday cults (such as christian, muslim and jewish and global warming/cooling apocalypse cults) have a lot more in common than people give them credit for.
I like how the statists immediately jump on the "licensing" necessity.
Lets get real, I've seen plenty of "licensed" drivers, lawyers and doctors who do NOTHING like what one would expect from the magical, mystical papers called "diplomas" and "licenses".
Almost reminds me with all the fresh minted Microsoft Certified Professionals who go to work in IT, thinking they know it all, and proving they don't.
Cute stuff.
Hear hear!! A toast for more government involvement in shit they can't fix or make better!
Since when are "police officers" something other than "bad guys"?
Why do you make the assumption that "law enforcement" has anything to do with "good guys"?
When was the last time you dealt with a professional cop who wasn't writing someone a citation or doing something to beef up their bust or "citizen abuse" quotas? When was the last time a cop said "hi there, how are you today?" without staring at you as if you're a bleeding juicy steak in the middle of a shark feast?
Cops are merely armed robbers who rob you under the color of law... which as Thomas Jefferson once said, "is often merely but the tyrant's will." There are scant few reasonable men these days, and an over abundance of scum and bad guys. In fact, you could say since socialism conquered the West some 150 years ago, we have had a massive SURPLUS of parasites, freeloaders and thugs.