The Geek Forum

  • May 23, 2024, 06:49:22 AM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Due to the prolific nature of these forums, poster aggression is advised.

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Messages - Vespertine

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] 8 9 10 11 12 ... 49
151
Political Opinions / Re: A Hypocrisy of Political Correctness
« on: November 03, 2010, 10:43:14 AM »
Snark on this!

152
Political Opinions / Re: A Hypocrisy of Political Correctness
« on: November 01, 2010, 10:28:47 AM »
12, do me a favour please?  Consider posting summaries with the links.  I don't really click too many link from work, and I almost NEVER go to youtube while at work.  Consequently, I often have no context in which to make wiseass remarks in your threads.   :-D

153
Homework Help / Re: Religious Studies Assignment
« on: October 27, 2010, 02:43:10 PM »
I wholly support youth in Asia.
You would! 

[/stalking xolly around the boards]

154
Flamer's Corner / Re: Gentlemen, ladies, and . . . gentlewomen???
« on: October 27, 2010, 02:41:54 PM »
In Thailand, yes.
You would know!   :-D

155
Flamer's Corner / Re: Gentlemen, ladies, and . . . gentlewomen???
« on: October 27, 2010, 11:09:47 AM »
Gentlewoman is actually acceptable...from what I've seen (my Google-fu is strong), the two alternatives to gentleman appear to be 'lady' and 'gentlewoman'.  'Gentlelady' is all kinds of fucked though.

156
Entertainment / Re: The Most Evil Women In History
« on: October 22, 2010, 01:44:50 PM »
Yeah but you're evil in a good way.

LOL!  Thanks, but I know many men who would adamantly disagree with you.

157
Entertainment / Re: The Most Evil Women In History
« on: October 21, 2010, 05:51:14 PM »
Clearly they haven't met me either.

158
New Geeks on the Block / Re: It Is I
« on: October 20, 2010, 05:11:23 PM »
profound and meaning deep, jlmr.  Gone gone gone.  She is to us returning approximately sometime never maybe.  Bananas.

159
Anarchy / Re: Who's the strongest?
« on: September 30, 2010, 02:58:06 PM »
Depends on the Jedi. I mean, Mace Windu got off'd by a whiny teenager.

Oh and this:
Well, only because he was busy dealing with the Emperor's lightning at the time.  Otherwise Mace Windu woulda kicked his ass.

Also, Han shot first no matter how much George Lucas wishes to make it un-so.

160
New Geeks on the Block / Re: Aloha!
« on: September 27, 2010, 02:51:32 PM »
Le chat est sur la chaise . .EH

FTFY   :-D

161
New Geeks on the Block / Re: Aloha!
« on: September 21, 2010, 11:32:09 AM »
English, motherfucker.  DO YOU SPEAK IT?!?!?!

162
New Geeks on the Block / Re: Hola from Mexico!
« on: September 21, 2010, 11:30:47 AM »
Holy crap, I swear it was just recently that we were talking about you.  In a good way of course.  Welcome back!

163
Anarchy / Re: Question for you, Demo
« on: September 15, 2010, 02:16:58 PM »
Well, yeah, I got that part.  What I meant was a specific screening process to check for things like claustrophobia, or paranoia or some such thing.  You know, to make sure that when the hatch closes I don't completely take leave of my senses.

164
Anarchy / Re: Question for you, Demo
« on: September 15, 2010, 02:12:17 PM »
Weird.  I would've thought that there would be a screening process.  I mean, it seems to me like the last place you want to have someone freaking the fuck out is in a metal container 20,000 leagues under the sea.

165
Anarchy / Question for you, Demo
« on: September 15, 2010, 01:32:15 PM »
You spent time in the Navy.  I'm sitting here watching The Hunt for Red October.  I don't want a dissertation on whether or not it's accurate.  :P  What I want to know is, does the Navy administer psychological tests before they put a person on a sub?  I'm assuming they do...what kinds of tests?

166
Political Opinions / Re: International Security Threat
« on: September 15, 2010, 12:52:10 AM »
At the bottom of the story is the following line, "...abusive and threatening language..." (emphasis mine).  I'm willing to bet that he didn't get banned from the US for calling Obama a prick.  It's far more likely that he made some kind of threat against the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (again, emphasis mine :) ).

167
Sorry to hear it, Wunderkind, it's terrible to lose a pet.  No matter what anyone else says, I do think it's like losing a family member...pets are absolutely a part of our families.

168
Wow, xolly, you seem to have nailed it.  There's a breaking news headline that the pastor says the burning won't take place if the Muslim center is moved.

169
New Geeks on the Block / Re: HI...I need help :(
« on: August 26, 2010, 04:44:13 PM »
No no no.  The problem is clearly that he doesn't have it turned up to ELEVEN!

170
Political Opinions / Re: NOT racism ...|>
« on: August 18, 2010, 12:04:11 AM »
In terms of current day grievances, here's what I can come up with off the top of my head.

1. Archaeologists digging up and displaying the bones of ancestors in the face of strenuous objection of the indigenous people.

2. Holy sites desecrated so that someone can put up a building/bridge/structure of some sort.

3. A local example: one of the ski resorts up north creates "fake" snow using reclaimed water...spraying it all over Native American holy ground.  It's seen as a massive desecration.

As I said, these are off the top of my head.  I'm quite sure that if you were to get off your lazy ass and do some of your own work, Google could show you a gazillion other examples.  Fuck, you challenge Wunderkind as though you're, well, challenging her.  Knock it off.  Do some research.  Read something.

171
Political Opinions / Re: Tiananmen Massacre
« on: August 17, 2010, 05:34:58 PM »
Uh... C_R, there is no money under communism.

There is also no government.

And there is a super-abundance of goods, meeting everyone's needs and wants in plenty.

Why steal or hoard something that everyone has more than enough of?

The idea is that greed is born of want, so if all basic needs are filled, the greed instinct eventually dies away.

Marx and Engels supposed that a communist society is the natural culmination of societal evolution. They noted that, like organisms, societies evolve into more complex structures, and each evolutionary leap is a partial improvement over the previous state.

The stresses inherent in capitalism -- basically, class inequality facilitated by the private ownership of the means of production -- will themselves destroy capitalism, giving rise to the next society on the evolutionary ladder, in which the means of production are owned publicly: communism.

Here was the plan:

Clearly, the stresses inherent in capitalism had come to a head in the second half of the 1800s. It was time for the working class to put an end to their misery (and their conditions certainly were miserable and inhuman). So the workers would rise up and kick the fat cats out of their mansions and hang the dirty politicians they kept in power with their filthy lucre, and take possession of the factories and refineries and transportation and institutions, and run them in an equitable way. That is the dictatorship of the proletariat -- a direct representational democracy in which money and property had no influence -- Socialism, the gateway to Communism.

The role of the Communist Party was to lead the people to revolution, guide the people in governing the Socialist state, and educate the new generation of Socialists.

Now get this: at some point, when the people have been sufficiently educated and enlightened, the need for the Communist Party goes away, as does the need for any government. Marx called it the "withering away" of government. That is one important aspect of the transition from Socialism to Communism.

So your dire prediction of scruffy commies squabbling over a few quarters or a crust of bread is uncalled for. Not only will everyone be too busy being happy and fulfilled to squabble, it won't even be in their natures to do so. Also, greedy throwbacks such as you or me would stand out like sore thumbs in a greedless society, and public opprobrium -- shame -- would keep us in check, and presumably preclude any ability to mate, thus accelerating the dying out of greed and other atavistic instincts.

Anyway, that was the plan.



Or, as V originally said, Jesus Christ (C_R), have you ever ACTUALLY read ANYTHING of any real substance?!?!?

 :-D

172
Political Opinions / Re: NOT racism ...|>
« on: August 17, 2010, 05:16:54 PM »
The hypocrisy I was referring to is that of the media. Whether it's based in political correctness, or based in politics (writing/running stories a particular way, in certain locales, to promote a political agenda).

It's interesting you should bring that up.  I agree about the hypocrisy, but I've actually now seen an example of what I consider to be a responsible editorial decision from one of our local news outlets. 

An undercover cop (and two others) got ambushed during a drug deal a couple weeks ago.  One of the officers died.  The most recent update I read in the local news was that another suspect had been arrested.  Near the end of the story the article said that three of the suspects are African-American and the fourth is Hispanic, "and is here legally".  They NEVER used to say anything about that.  I brought it up to my sister who tells me that she sees it all the time now on the same news outlet.  We came to the conclusion that the editorial board is making an attempt to diffuse the state of race relations here in Phoenix, and both my sister and I applaud their efforts.
 
Backstory: Here in Arizona, immigration (specifically anyone who even remotely resembles a Hispanic) is something that almost no one can talk about without shouting...things have gotten very nasty, and if you ask me, there's real violence simmering just below the surface.

173
Political Opinions / Re: Tiananmen Massacre
« on: August 17, 2010, 04:09:54 PM »
Jesus Christ, have you ever ACTUALLY read ANYTHING of any real substance?

174
Political Opinions / Re: NOT racism ...|>
« on: August 17, 2010, 04:07:36 PM »
are you gonna feed me or what?
Only if someone actually gives me the go ahead to feed you your own heart after scooping it out of your chest with a grapefruit spoon.

175
Political Opinions / Re: Tiananmen Massacre
« on: August 17, 2010, 01:44:54 PM »
On a more serious note, I would put forth the idea that many (if not most) tribal-type 'societies' are probably a good example of communism in action without the atrocities.  Now, I'm just throwing that out there without ever having researched any sort of tribal, agrarian group in any detail.  But, the idea that all of the hunting/gathering spoils going into the community pot and being disseminated from same community pot is the textbook definition of communism.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] 8 9 10 11 12 ... 49