One could make the exact argument about organized religion. That was exactly my point about this entire thread. If a person can't at least see the possibility of that, one could argue that they may be a victim of "groupthink".
And hey, Slashdot is not the real world. In the real world, it is completely opposite, and the Slashdotters get to enjoy "knee-jerk unthought rationalizations with no real personal freedom of thought reflected at all" by good old "Christians" anytime they voice their views. So let me ask you, would you rather have it be the opposite? Or is not having the upper hand in reality still not good enough?
Yeah because outside of Slashdotland (a.k.a. "The Real World") the use of Vista or XP is almost nonexistent. Everybody knows that the masses use OS/2 with Gopher primarily.
Do you ever have any of the science geeks you slam turn it around and accuse you of only believing in God because your parents/peers do and you haven't put any good thought into it yourself? If so what is your reaction? If not, how would you react? That train of logic goes both ways on the tracks...
(I know you will probably reply that you HAVE put a good deal of thought in it yourself. Then I would ask you - how do you know they haven't done the same as well?)
An Intel based Mac, maybe. A quad-core Intel Mac, I seriously doubt it. And that is exactly what the conversation was about. I don't care where you buy it from, I am saying it most likely doesn't exist in that price range. That was and always has been mine and the original poster's point.
Tell that to the other members of the church, the supposed "help your neighbor Christians", who will not hesitate to talk shit about the members they think "aren't doing enough". Those people right there, and there seem to be a great deal of them, are the very reason I do not attend a church anymore. They seem to think that going to a geographical location every week, and spending the right amount of money there, are the greatest principles of Christian life. Sorry, I would rather act like a good Christian and NOT attend a church than be a condescending, judgmental prick that does attend every week. It may not be the same where you are, but I have seen this at a multitude of churches in different denominations of faith, in different cities.
Just because a tithe isn't mandatory or mandated doesn't mean it isn't expected of you. And I am a confirmed Christian, have gone through multiple bible studies in the past- both old and new testament. What is in the bible gives a good insight into the background and history of the church, but has very little to do with the way organized religion is currently run.
"2. You generally don't have to pay to learn about the latter.
Don't be so naive to think that just because there isn't an "upfront fee" that you are not being charged, or that the church doesn't want to take your money. Ever hear of a tithe?
I hate to break it to you, but computer games were being made before 3 years ago. If you were a gamer in the 80s, you KNOW that Garriot is indeed a king. Ever heard of the Ultima series?
If you were gaming in the 80s you are either -
A) trolling hard
B)living in an ignorant state of denial
C)lying
about the "washed up has-been" crap.
So when a small business employee gets into a car wreck on the job and accidentally kills somebody, the victim's family should be able to take not only all business assets, but the house and all personal assets of the owner?? Yeah, I can't see where that would cause any problems...
Because any argument about the US in the Middle East always comes back to Israel. If we didn't give them unilateral support on every level, the number of "crazies" who hate us would be much, much smaller.
I'm not saying Israel should lay down and take it - what I am saying is when the news shows Israeli bulldozers plowing through civilian houses, or shows Israeli children encouraged to write "messages" to the Palestinians on rockets, it creates more enemies to the US. I sympathize with the fact that Israel has gotten the shaft since being made a country, I am just not ready to say that the end always justifies the means.
And I am really not sympathetic towards wars over who's invisible friend is better, or said that this land belongs to you, and only you. Just split the damn thing up already, and both sides agree to recognize each others right to exist. There is NO military solution to this problem. And often times "niceties to international law" can curry international support - which can lead to sanctions, embargoes, etc. that can have much more positive effects on the world outlook of your country. When both sides start acting like terrorists playing by no rules, both sides looking worse, and nobody comes out ahead.
Communism's worst enemy was itself. All we needed to do was give it enough rope and time and wait for the inevitable.
Nuclear warheads are nice deterrents, but if actually used you would not have a lot of global support. They did play a big role in the Cold War, but besides WWII they really haven't had much use in actual wars.
You are also forgetting the economic impact of 9/11. Making air travel scary was nice to them I am sure, but killing the value of the dollar, and taking "the greatest nation in the world" down a peg is was a much better goal. Remember, the goal of terrorists is not to kill people or bring down a building - it is to create terror. And if you have looked around at the post-9/11 US, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that they definitely succeeded in that respect.
I wouldn't say our mistake was withdrawing from that region, but by giving unquestioning support, and turning a blind eye to Israel on all of their shady activities - things a lot of the rest of the world would consider "terrorist activities". Tactics are tactics, no matter which side you are on. Especially if you are supposedly "the good guys".
One of the points we should have learned is be careful who you side with in the global march to defeat communism. Sometimes the communists turn out to be less of a threat in the long run than the other crazies we trained and armed. It is like training a pit bull to be aggressive, tormenting it, starving it, and then wondering why it bites you when it has the chance. Or, at the very least, sell them Stinger missiles with a battery life of a year or two at the most.
Slashdot Mirror
M.U.L.E.!!! Thanks for reminding me of that awesome game. I had to go fire up my Atari 800 emulator and play that for a bit!!
One could make the exact argument about organized religion. That was exactly my point about this entire thread. If a person can't at least see the possibility of that, one could argue that they may be a victim of "groupthink".
And hey, Slashdot is not the real world. In the real world, it is completely opposite, and the Slashdotters get to enjoy "knee-jerk unthought rationalizations with no real personal freedom of thought reflected at all" by good old "Christians" anytime they voice their views. So let me ask you, would you rather have it be the opposite? Or is not having the upper hand in reality still not good enough?
Al may be pissed, but not as pissed as Albini seems to perpetually be. That guy hates EVERYTHING.
Actually, JFK was killed in Seattle, and THEY want you to think it was Dallas. That is how powerful THEY truly are.
Yeah because outside of Slashdotland (a.k.a. "The Real World") the use of Vista or XP is almost nonexistent. Everybody knows that the masses use OS/2 with Gopher primarily.
Actually, the proper response would have been "Because God told me they didn't."
Do you ever have any of the science geeks you slam turn it around and accuse you of only believing in God because your parents/peers do and you haven't put any good thought into it yourself? If so what is your reaction? If not, how would you react? That train of logic goes both ways on the tracks...
(I know you will probably reply that you HAVE put a good deal of thought in it yourself. Then I would ask you - how do you know they haven't done the same as well?)
You actually believe in the Spaghetti monster and his noodly appendage?
Consider yourself chided, sir.
An Intel based Mac, maybe. A quad-core Intel Mac, I seriously doubt it. And that is exactly what the conversation was about. I don't care where you buy it from, I am saying it most likely doesn't exist in that price range. That was and always has been mine and the original poster's point.
"Okay guess what folks? You can run GIMP and Eclipse on a Mac! Not only that but it seems a bit unfair to compare a Mac Pro with a refurbished box!"
Sweet! Now just point me to the quad core Mac for $400 and we can do an honest comparison. Oh, one doesn't exist?
That WAS the point.
Also, Dude, "chinese fellow" is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
I'm much more alarmed by the grave and complicated situations themselves than the terms being used to describe them. But maybe that's just me.
Maybe Google should change their motto to "Do slightly less evil than the other guy."
Tell that to the other members of the church, the supposed "help your neighbor Christians", who will not hesitate to talk shit about the members they think "aren't doing enough". Those people right there, and there seem to be a great deal of them, are the very reason I do not attend a church anymore. They seem to think that going to a geographical location every week, and spending the right amount of money there, are the greatest principles of Christian life. Sorry, I would rather act like a good Christian and NOT attend a church than be a condescending, judgmental prick that does attend every week. It may not be the same where you are, but I have seen this at a multitude of churches in different denominations of faith, in different cities.
Just because a tithe isn't mandatory or mandated doesn't mean it isn't expected of you. And I am a confirmed Christian, have gone through multiple bible studies in the past- both old and new testament. What is in the bible gives a good insight into the background and history of the church, but has very little to do with the way organized religion is currently run.
"2. You generally don't have to pay to learn about the latter.
Don't be so naive to think that just because there isn't an "upfront fee" that you are not being charged, or that the church doesn't want to take your money. Ever hear of a tithe?
I'd rather eat the 10 pounds of protein than the 100 pounds of grain. If God didn't want us to eat cows, why did he make them out of steak?
I hate to break it to you, but computer games were being made before 3 years ago. If you were a gamer in the 80s, you KNOW that Garriot is indeed a king. Ever heard of the Ultima series?
If you were gaming in the 80s you are either -
A) trolling hard
B)living in an ignorant state of denial
C)lying
about the "washed up has-been" crap.
"I foresee a story about some stupid, yet useful, things you can do in your iPhone...
You mean like make a phone call with one?
Another case of data being lost due to RAID. NEVER use RAID if you want to keep you data intact!!
(Yes, I know that certain RAID types are for performance, not redundancy. It's a joke people...)
So when a small business employee gets into a car wreck on the job and accidentally kills somebody, the victim's family should be able to take not only all business assets, but the house and all personal assets of the owner?? Yeah, I can't see where that would cause any problems...
Because any argument about the US in the Middle East always comes back to Israel. If we didn't give them unilateral support on every level, the number of "crazies" who hate us would be much, much smaller.
I'm not saying Israel should lay down and take it - what I am saying is when the news shows Israeli bulldozers plowing through civilian houses, or shows Israeli children encouraged to write "messages" to the Palestinians on rockets, it creates more enemies to the US. I sympathize with the fact that Israel has gotten the shaft since being made a country, I am just not ready to say that the end always justifies the means.
And I am really not sympathetic towards wars over who's invisible friend is better, or said that this land belongs to you, and only you. Just split the damn thing up already, and both sides agree to recognize each others right to exist. There is NO military solution to this problem. And often times "niceties to international law" can curry international support - which can lead to sanctions, embargoes, etc. that can have much more positive effects on the world outlook of your country. When both sides start acting like terrorists playing by no rules, both sides looking worse, and nobody comes out ahead.
Communism's worst enemy was itself. All we needed to do was give it enough rope and time and wait for the inevitable.
Nuclear warheads are nice deterrents, but if actually used you would not have a lot of global support. They did play a big role in the Cold War, but besides WWII they really haven't had much use in actual wars.
You are also forgetting the economic impact of 9/11. Making air travel scary was nice to them I am sure, but killing the value of the dollar, and taking "the greatest nation in the world" down a peg is was a much better goal. Remember, the goal of terrorists is not to kill people or bring down a building - it is to create terror. And if you have looked around at the post-9/11 US, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that they definitely succeeded in that respect.
I wouldn't say our mistake was withdrawing from that region, but by giving unquestioning support, and turning a blind eye to Israel on all of their shady activities - things a lot of the rest of the world would consider "terrorist activities". Tactics are tactics, no matter which side you are on. Especially if you are supposedly "the good guys".
One of the points we should have learned is be careful who you side with in the global march to defeat communism. Sometimes the communists turn out to be less of a threat in the long run than the other crazies we trained and armed. It is like training a pit bull to be aggressive, tormenting it, starving it, and then wondering why it bites you when it has the chance. Or, at the very least, sell them Stinger missiles with a battery life of a year or two at the most.
No, but when the US makes the exact same mistake Russia did and tries to occupy Afghanistan, what exactly have we learned from the Russians?