Firestarter

I had to turn off my pop-up blocker as well, but that was fucking hilarious. And very appropriate for the target. Jesus Christ, Mole just aced someone. Unbelievable. My faith in the natural order of the universe shuddered briefly, but then again, it was just The New Me he aced. That's not difficult. Still, not too shabby, Mole, not too shabby.

Not this time. No. Go to Baghdad. Go tell a child on the street who watched his mother being raped and his father getting shot in the head that no one had the right to kill the madman who left him an orphan. Go to a Kurdish village and tell the people there that they deserved to be human guinea pigs for a tyrant's chemical arsenal. Go dig up a mass grave containing thousands upon thousands of men, women and children, corpses buried dozens deep - go dig it up and grab one of the countless skulls staring blindly into the dirt and shout in its face that we were wrong. Go do that. Then shriek your petty sarcasm to the wind.

Spiderweb Software's newest game just came out. Download a huge demo at the company website and try it out as long as you like before you decide whether to buy it.

I agree.

Any form of rape is by definition sadistic torture.

Fair enough Tyler, you already admitted the charge was fair on the grounds of DHS regulations. I'm not trying to defend the campaign in its entirety; I wasn't a part of it and I don't know all that was said. All I was pointing out was that the word "unpatriotic" isn't automatically a smear. It can be a rational and substantiated attack.

Yep. The UN is our creation; we have an interest in taking it back from the Arab, Asian, African, and European blocs and rehabilitating it so it will one day become an institution that can actually do some useful work. If that's still possible.

To me it looked more like the UN desperately clutching at yet another chance the President graciously offered them to make themselves relevant in the world once more. Praise is due to the UN for nothing more than finally acting in their own self-interest, but even that's admittedly remarkable. Usually the UN goes out of their way to act like complete buffoons.

One of the central issues was the regulations governing Department of Homeland Security employees. Cleland was firmly on the side of the unions. Chambliss, like most of the GOP, was on the President's side. That's mainly why Cleland lost. Again, I'm not trying to make claims about whether Chambliss was right or Cleland was wrong, but hypothetically, couldn't one argue that waiting for (allegedly unlikely and militarily insignificant) multilateral support in the face of a gathering threat is also detrimental to our nation's interests? I think it's an honest argument, and if you want to call someone "unpatriotic" for taking the opposite view, it's a defendable charge. It's not necessarily a smear campaign. Insinuating that someone supports Hitler, on the other hand, is clearly "dirty politics."

This must be a product of the vast right-wing conspiracy that controls the media... there's no way in hell an administration as corrupt and incompetent as ours could ever have achieved anything significant in international diplomacy. The President's a bullying unilateralist cowboy without a serious thought in his head, remember? </sarcasm> I'm eagerly awaiting the liberal apologists's attempts to explain this away. "It was all the State Department's hard work! They managed to pull this off in spite of the White House!" It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic. I wonder what you people will find to bitch and whine about next?

And can't a particular stance on a particular issue be patriotic or unpatriotic? Isn't it arguable that by putting workers' unions ahead of national security, you're compromising the latter for the former? And if you're willing to do that, isn't "unpatriotic" an arguable charge? See Tyler, I'm not trying to make you admit that Cleland was unpatriotic. I'm just pointing out the fact that his service was irrelevant, that his being a cripple was irrelevant, and that someone could in good faith attack his stances on the issues as being deliberately detrimental to the security of the nation. And that is the definition of "unpatriotic."

I'm not sure how losing your limbs makes you a patriot. It's not like he was given a choice: "Either you can betray America or lose both your legs and one arm. Which do you prefer?" That's more like John McCain. Losing your limbs simply indicates that you were unlucky, unskilled, or both. I'll grant that the fact that Cleland enlisted willingly gives him some cover, but let's be serious. Are people supposed to choose their senators on the basis of competence and sound stances on the issues or blind emotional appeals? I don't think either is relevant. Patriotism is what you feel, do, and stand for now, not what you did or didn't do three decades ago. You can't say "I'm a patriot because I served in Vietnam." Look at the tenses. The only thing you can reasonably say is "I am a patriot because this is what I believe."

And that's why you guys suck. Seriously, why should anyone get a free pass on national security just because he fought in a war 30 years ago? One can respect veterans in general and still question a particular veteran's patriotism, integrity, and intelligence. Democrats try to inoculate themselves with military service against any and all charges without ever specifically addressing them or arguing the issues. It doesn't work anymore. It hasn't for a while. Sorry.

You're thinking of Saxby Chambliss vs Max Cleland. It was a brilliant campaign; Cleland came off looking like a soft, weak union panderer. Which, being a Democrat, he was.

I'm not sure when it was funny in the first place.

Talk to the dean if you like. My grade is final.

But he fucked up countless other things. Not to mention the many run-on sentences, the lack or abuse of punctuation, the inarticulate metaphors, and the terribly awkward use of common words like "irony." Grade: C-minus. Professor Marney

I was there for: 1. the JFK assassination, 2. the death of the alien in the ship that crashed near Roswell, 3. the MLK assassination, 4. the Soviet loss in Olympic hockey in 1980, 5. and Scully's initial appointment to the X-Files. (Upskirt camera.) What's the matter? Don't you believe in miracles?

THE BULLSHIT QUIZ *WHO IS?* What poster do you remind yourself of? Too inarticulate a question to answer. What poster is your best friend poster? DrTom The poster you admire the most? Agent of Oblivion The funniest poster you know? fk teale The sweetest poster you know? If I could think of someone, I'd hate him/her. The sexiest poster you know? CanadianChick The cutest poster you know? CanadianChick The smartest poster you know? No comment. The nicest poster you know? EricMM The stupidest poster you know? cynicalprofit The scariest poster you know? "Scariest?" I'd have to take y'all seriously to answer that. The sneakiest poster you know? Don't know what this means. The poster who knows you the best? DrTom The biggest pervert poster you know? Incandenza The weirdest poster you know? Choken One *FAVORITES* Favorite book?: Collected Works of Plato Favorite Board game?: Scrabble Favorite Music group(s)?: pop, classical, rock, reggae Favorite Song(s)?: So Unsexy - Alanis Morissette, November Rain - Guns 'n' Roses, Love Theme from The Killer - Sally Yeh, I Kissed a Girl - Jill Sobule, It Must Have Been Love - Roxette Favorite Music Video?: Whenever, Wherever - Shakira (the song sucks, but the body makes up for it. And if you knew how much I've come to hate the song, you'd understand what a high compliment that is) Favorite Food?: fettucine alfredo Favorite Radio station?: 107.3 Favorite Magazine?: The Economist Favorite Smell?: jasmine Favorite Color?: grey Favorite Foods?: Italian, Chinese, Korean, French Favorite Ice cream flavor?: chocolate Favorite Alcoholic Drink?: vodka martini Favorite Movie(s)?: Lawrence of Arabia, The Rock, The Killer Favorite Quote from a movie?: "The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts." - Lawrence of Arabia Favorite Sport to play/to watch?: badminton/baseball Favorite TV Show?: Babylon 5 Favorite Cartoon?: The Transformers Favorite Cartoon Character?: Optimus Prime from The Transformers Favorite Hangout?: Morton's Favorite Restaurant?: Marcel's in Georgetown Favorite Holiday?: Christmas Favorite Nonalcoholic drink?: tea, Earl Grey, hot Favorite Candy?: Altoids sours Favorite Fruit?: pomegranate Favorite Flower?: orchids Favorite Season?: autumn Favorite Animal?: cat Favorite Place to be kissed?: in public or in the rain Favorite subject in school? literature

Silly me. I thought the central issue was raping babies, and you sort of have to take a moral stance against that. Unless, I suppose, your name's cynicalprofit. I'd never have guessed. Seriously.

Maybe he still loves her and wants to respect the wishes he says she expressed? This case (and all others like it) is just one more reason for legislation to be enacted requiring all adult citizens to make a living will. It'd save untold millions in legal costs alone.

And cynicalprofit wins the prize for the most disgusting comment yet. "Safer to be raping babies?" It's so fucking lovely to see that you have your fucking priorities in order, you sick piece of shit.

I agree with you that this is a ridiculous case; as long as no one is forced to say the Pledge there is no harm being caused. Of course, I think that references to "God" and "one nation indivisible" should be removed and everyone should be forced to say the Pledge, but that's beside the point. It's rather funny, though, that you're claiming a reference to God is "secular." Last time I checked, there was nothing under the sun less secular than God. But it excludes quite a few, doesn't it? Let's see, all polytheistic religions right off the bat, it's blasphemous for any number of the stricter faiths who refuse to say or even write the word "God," and aren't the religious fundamentalists always claiming that atheism is a religion itself? A reference to "God" is contrary to all these examples, and many more.

Responding to The Los Angeles Times by Jill Stewart An interesting and amusing, if unsurprising, read. From her source at the Times: "The air of unreality among people here was so extreme that when they did the office pool, of something like 113 people who put in a dollar to bet on the outcome of the recall and on who would be chosen governor, only 31 bet 'yes' on recall and 'yes' Schwarzenegger to win. All you had to do was read a poll to know how wrong that was, but inside this place only about 25 percent of the people could see the recall coming."

It's pattern-dependent; wait until you get into group psych. (Unless you're finished.) If both positive and negative reinforcement have the same basic character then social comparison ensures that the value of any reward for one individual will be reinforced by deprivation and public embarrassment for others. Not always. Consistency is the key. It's like setting up an echo or a reverberation; both striking the bell and letting the metal vibrate on its own for a while add to the resulting volume. You just have to time it properly. <leaves psychology textbooks on floor, knowing that wifey will pick them up later> <notes condescending remarks; comes back with withering expose and many crushing rejoinders>