I love Australia, but I confess that I am not especially fond of the back-stab-fest that is Aussie politics, which seems mostly designed to chew up the decent and/or sane politicos and spit them out.
As for Julia, I guess she should be glad someone actually wants to fuck her in the normal way, rather than with the sharpened stake she herself favours using on others. And I find it hilarious that she of all people should start carrying on about the raw deal that Simon Crean got when she pulled a similar trick on Rudd.
My daughter got to survive her very difficult birth thanks to free Australian medical care.
Which would have bankrupted her mum and me had we stayed in the States to get married and settle, as we were penniless at the time, even assuming that we'd been able to get the care they needed in the US, without being able to prove we could pay for it first.
Yet they will refuse to fingerprint you without a documented good reason.
(Yes, I know this from personal experience. If you're curious: It was in connection with obtaining a criminal records check back in the US, for a job I had in Oz.)
Whether it be religion, lax government regulations, or just plain sexual addiction, we have concocted an endless list of reasons to justify lack of control when it comes to procreation.
Ever hear of a thing known as "history"? You should try reading a bit of it sometime, then you'd see just how very subjective and completely backwards your perspective is. And you would also perhaps realise that for tens (maybe hundreds) of millennia--up until the last couple of centuries or so--it was the same for us as for any other species: Breed like rabbits, or die out. *Limiting* our population is by comparison a very new and very radical concept. Of course there's going to be some inertia--this goes against everything we've needed to do to ensure our survival since the first slimies slimed on the Precambrian seabed.
You mention religion. Let's look at the Roman Catholic Church. Did it ever occur to you to wonder *why* the Church holds the positions it does regarding sexuality and reproduction?
There are some very good historical reasons for them--you might, for instance, recall a little travelling show known as "The Black Death" that toured Europe pretty extensively during the Dark and Middle Ages. ("BRING OUT YOUR DEAD! BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!" Funny in a Monty Python skit now--a fact of life back then.) With millions dropping dead like flies, the Church was deeply (and justifiably) concerned that it might itself die right out. *Literally*.
So of course the Church instituted teachings intended to maximise reproduction. (In their position, I'd have done much the same, absolutely.) Only now it's 6 or 7 centuries later, we're no longer facing a possible population crash and extinction, but we've still got the teachings from those times.
(And every time I see someone use the term "sexual addiction", I can't help but think that I'm probably dealing with someone who cannot accept the simple fact that we are engineered to want to fuck as often as possible. It's baked into us.)
So... we have a planet with too many humans, and not a lot of food. Until we fix our little willpower problem, "bugs" are not a solution - that's just ignoring the problem with a VERY disgusting fix.
"Our little willpower problem"--dear me, I didn't realise that Church Lady had a Slashdot account.
Seriously, you come off sounding like someone's (very repressed) maiden aunt.
Agreed about it all being in people's heads though.
*ahem*
I can't eat anything that has more than 4 legs.
Every so often, I order fish someplace and they bring it with a bonus prawn or two on top. Which means I get to send it right back for a new one, as even a bit of cross-contamination can cause an unpleasant reaction. ("This time, please do not merely remove the crustaceans that have dripped their juice on the fish and bring the very same fish back out to me as you've just tried to do. My family are really very nice people who don't like filing lawsuits. Thanks.")
People actually express sympathy when I explain to them, sure I can broil some crabs for them if they'd like, I'll just have to fix myself something else... Which is weird, when you think about it--how can I miss something I can't eat anyway? (Even weirder--how can I be so good at cooking things that I daren't eat myself?)
I did try a fried grasshopper once. While it didn't knock me flat on my back for the next day or so, the way eating a bite of lobster would, I still got a fair case of indigestion--something I normally almost never suffer from.
In 1970, Roger Freeman, an educational advisor to Nixon, and then working for the election of Ronald Reagan, said, "We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. That's dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow to go through higher education."
Much as I'd like to buy into that, I'm gonna have to play the [citation needed] card. Please provide a reputable source for this quote. Thanks.
I actually feel like this is the best time for intelligent people to be alive. Between programmers being able to create apps and sell them on the various mobile phone marketplaces, between writers being able to avoid the publishers with ebooks and blogs, and with recording artists being able to bypass the RIAA with the various music marketplaces. Any intelligent person who can't make a living with a little hard work and ingenuity is really just a lazy person.
I hear this statistic a lot as some kind of indictment of our education system, but if you think about it, it makes sense. People are expected to pay for or at least contribute to their (post-secondary) education because the purpose of that education is to benefit them, at least in the sense of given them a better chance at a higher paying job.
No, that's fucked up.
The purpose of education is to provide society with more productive members.
(Your comment epitomises one of the very worst problems with America and Americans, and one of the reasons that this American doesn't live there any longer--not only is it always All About Me And My Money, but it's automatically assumed that the rest of the world thinks this way, too.)
I was wondering what all the hoohaw was over until I realised that all the free SMS/Web gateways that one used to be able to find apparently vanished some years ago.
Slashdot Mirror
Your perceptions would be more accurate, were you actually to watch TOS, which you evidently have not done.
And is it just me, but does anyone else read Christopher Pike when the see Christopher Pine's name written?
It is heartening to learn that I am not alone, after all. :)
Firefly does not belong to the same era.
I love Australia, but I confess that I am not especially fond of the back-stab-fest that is Aussie politics, which seems mostly designed to chew up the decent and/or sane politicos and spit them out.
As for Julia, I guess she should be glad someone actually wants to fuck her in the normal way, rather than with the sharpened stake she herself favours using on others. And I find it hilarious that she of all people should start carrying on about the raw deal that Simon Crean got when she pulled a similar trick on Rudd.
My daughter got to survive her very difficult birth thanks to free Australian medical care.
Which would have bankrupted her mum and me had we stayed in the States to get married and settle, as we were penniless at the time, even assuming that we'd been able to get the care they needed in the US, without being able to prove we could pay for it first.
Just thought you might like to know.
Dunno how that happened, but that was me.
Also, it's "ute", not "pickup truck".
...and for those of us who actually care about what we drink, there's Toohey's. :)
The AFP are a political goon squad.
Yet they will refuse to fingerprint you without a documented good reason.
(Yes, I know this from personal experience. If you're curious: It was in connection with obtaining a criminal records check back in the US, for a job I had in Oz.)
Having lived in both countries, I'll take the crims any day. Much safer with them there, and the religious whackjobs on the far side of the Pacific.
The Guardian is the only "serious" paper in which I've ever seen apostrophes used to form plurals.
In the editorials, no less.
Did you miss this?
knock me flat on my back for the next day or so, the way eating a bite of lobster would,
Do you not understand what "cannot eat" means, which is what I said, as opposed to "don't like" or some other thing which I did not say?
Fine, I'll spell it out for you, dumbass:
I AM HIGHLY ALLERGIC to CRUSTACEANS.
EATING A HANDFUL OF POPCORN SHRIMP COULD POSSIBLY EVEN BE *FATAL* FOR ME.
Happy now?
I love how little drama queens like you assume that I must be one, too.
I'm talking about Earth. Not sure which world you're referring to.
Your world sounds like a really dark and lonely place.
That's hilarious. Thanks for the linky. :D
Whether it be religion, lax government regulations, or just plain sexual addiction, we have concocted an endless list of reasons to justify lack of control when it comes to procreation.
Ever hear of a thing known as "history"? You should try reading a bit of it sometime, then you'd see just how very subjective and completely backwards your perspective is. And you would also perhaps realise that for tens (maybe hundreds) of millennia--up until the last couple of centuries or so--it was the same for us as for any other species: Breed like rabbits, or die out. *Limiting* our population is by comparison a very new and very radical concept. Of course there's going to be some inertia--this goes against everything we've needed to do to ensure our survival since the first slimies slimed on the Precambrian seabed.
You mention religion. Let's look at the Roman Catholic Church. Did it ever occur to you to wonder *why* the Church holds the positions it does regarding sexuality and reproduction?
There are some very good historical reasons for them--you might, for instance, recall a little travelling show known as "The Black Death" that toured Europe pretty extensively during the Dark and Middle Ages. ("BRING OUT YOUR DEAD! BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!" Funny in a Monty Python skit now--a fact of life back then.) With millions dropping dead like flies, the Church was deeply (and justifiably) concerned that it might itself die right out. *Literally*.
So of course the Church instituted teachings intended to maximise reproduction. (In their position, I'd have done much the same, absolutely.) Only now it's 6 or 7 centuries later, we're no longer facing a possible population crash and extinction, but we've still got the teachings from those times.
(And every time I see someone use the term "sexual addiction", I can't help but think that I'm probably dealing with someone who cannot accept the simple fact that we are engineered to want to fuck as often as possible. It's baked into us.)
So... we have a planet with too many humans, and not a lot of food. Until we fix our little willpower problem, "bugs" are not a solution - that's just ignoring the problem with a VERY disgusting fix.
"Our little willpower problem"--dear me, I didn't realise that Church Lady had a Slashdot account.
Seriously, you come off sounding like someone's (very repressed) maiden aunt.
I'd only heard or seen "biological" in British TV commercials in reference to underarm and other, um, personal stains on clothing. :)
Here in Sweden, the usual word is ekologisk.
A representation is a representation. You're splitting hairs.
Agreed about it all being in people's heads though.
*ahem*
I can't eat anything that has more than 4 legs.
Every so often, I order fish someplace and they bring it with a bonus prawn or two on top. Which means I get to send it right back for a new one, as even a bit of cross-contamination can cause an unpleasant reaction. ("This time, please do not merely remove the crustaceans that have dripped their juice on the fish and bring the very same fish back out to me as you've just tried to do. My family are really very nice people who don't like filing lawsuits. Thanks.")
People actually express sympathy when I explain to them, sure I can broil some crabs for them if they'd like, I'll just have to fix myself something else... Which is weird, when you think about it--how can I miss something I can't eat anyway? (Even weirder--how can I be so good at cooking things that I daren't eat myself?)
I did try a fried grasshopper once. While it didn't knock me flat on my back for the next day or so, the way eating a bite of lobster would, I still got a fair case of indigestion--something I normally almost never suffer from.
You wouldn't know a real welfare state if it jumped up between your legs and bit off your nutsack.
That's okay--neither would about 99% of Americans.
You can't see this because you are so selfish and greedy that you cannot comprehend that anyone would donate money.
No.
*You* are motivated by greed, and thus you assume that everyone else is, too.
ProTip: This is known as "ascribing one's own motives to others", and it's almost never a smart thing to do.
In 1970, Roger Freeman, an educational advisor to Nixon, and then working for the election of Ronald Reagan, said, "We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. That's dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow to go through higher education."
Much as I'd like to buy into that, I'm gonna have to play the [citation needed] card. Please provide a reputable source for this quote. Thanks.
Spot on.
My kingdom for a mod point.
I actually feel like this is the best time for intelligent people to be alive. Between programmers being able to create apps and sell them on the various mobile phone marketplaces, between writers being able to avoid the publishers with ebooks and blogs, and with recording artists being able to bypass the RIAA with the various music marketplaces. Any intelligent person who can't make a living with a little hard work and ingenuity is really just a lazy person.
I felt this way about 20 years ago.
Turns out that I was right. :)
I hear this statistic a lot as some kind of indictment of our education system, but if you think about it, it makes sense. People are expected to pay for or at least contribute to their (post-secondary) education because the purpose of that education is to benefit them, at least in the sense of given them a better chance at a higher paying job.
No, that's fucked up.
The purpose of education is to provide society with more productive members.
(Your comment epitomises one of the very worst problems with America and Americans, and one of the reasons that this American doesn't live there any longer--not only is it always All About Me And My Money, but it's automatically assumed that the rest of the world thinks this way, too.)
I was wondering what all the hoohaw was over until I realised that all the free SMS/Web gateways that one used to be able to find apparently vanished some years ago.