Idiocracy? The term "idiot" is offensive. They prefer to be called the mentally absent now.
This is the future of Political Correctness.
As bad a rap as social Darwinism has, it has its upside. Mainly that the gene pool is strengthened rather than weakened. I'm not one for Eugenics, as nobody knows what value an individual may bring to the world. And being mentally challenged and completely without sense are two different things.
But, stupid people are ninety percent of the population now. Common sense is so rare, it should be considered a super-power.
Sure. My passion for fishing is actually sturgeon, but I don't have the tackle for the big fish anymore. Just have a trout pole. I've caught steelhead on it, but it was a struggle.
Realism and pessimism are not the same thing. A negative view of human nature is not realistic, anymore than a Pollyanna view of human nature is realistic.
We are a mixture of both. To weigh your outlook in either direction is not realistic. Bitterness is not realistic. Optimism is not realistic.
Realism is realistic. Negativity is as irrational as positivity.
I think past experience molds our outlook, for positive or negative. But every day is a roll of the dice, unless our attitudes load the dice. The dice have no memory. Only we do. And memory is not reality.
Dropped in to find some controversy and found no intelligent (or unintelligent) debate in process. Guess I'm headed back to FB where I belong these days.
You're not buying that because you are still stuck in a world of words and the need for linear progression. Logic is: A "such that" A is equal to B if A is x and B is y and x = y. But what if x is equal to i (an imaginary number)?
Normalization of expressions containing infinity within logic is the process of balancing + infinity with - infinity. But these are just words as infinity has no positive or negative quality, and it just makes the inexpressible easier for the logicians to deal with.
"Get it out of the expression!" Cry the logicians, "Its messing up our linear thinking."
Hotel infinity is always full, but always has a vacancy for new visitors (no matter how many times a unit on a number line is divided, there is always another division that can be made).
Zeno's Paradox is a numerical Koan.
When you have transcended the need for linear thinking and can deal with "imaginary numbers" (ideas that go beyond all tools of rational expression), that is when enlightenment occurs.
The question of chicken and the egg begs the question of simultaneity. The answer does not lie within the dimensions we can even consider. These dimensions lie outside words. They are not logical, but that does not mean they are not real, or have no meaning.
The perception of infinity by attempting to view the infinity of reflections created by parallel mirrors is a concrete example. We cannot view this progression because We get in the way of ourselves. The eye of the observer blocks the reflection. If the eye were transparent there would be no issue. Hence the Blake quote on the doors of perception needing to be cleansed, and perception, thus cleansed would see the truth: everything is, indeed, infinite.
After about a year and a half, and a couple of disappointments, I'm glad to say I met someone on CS and we've been together for 3 years now. It may not happen like this for everyone, but I'm here to say that it CAN happen.
It hasn't always been easy, especially the distance in the beginning, since I'm from Oregon and she was from Ohio, but I think if people love and respect each other enough, it can work.
In addition to the manifestation of any one of these ten worlds in any single life moment, these worlds contain all the other worlds (mutual possession).
Multiply these 100 worlds (10x10) by the ten factors (The ten factors are introduced in the Lotus Sutra to define the fundamental reality of life. "The true aspect of all phenomena can only be understood and shared between Buddhas. This reality consists of appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, internal cause, relation, latent effect, manifest effect and their consistency from beginning to end.") and you have 1000. Multiply this by the 3 realms (self, society, environment) and you have 3000 worlds.
Please note that these worlds are not exclusive but are interpenetrating. Whenever we manifest 1 life state, all other states are holistically contained within this state as "Ku", or part of what David Bohm called the "implicate order".
I smoke and its my house and I still go outside. Not only is it respectful to my significant other who does not smoke, but second-hand smoke stains clothes and penetrates furniture, etc.
4-5 Russet Potatoes 1/2 lb. grated Chedder Cheese 1 Can of Stagg Chili
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cut potatoes into thin round slices perpendicular to the central axis of the tuber. Pan or deep-fry rounds until almost crisp. Do not fry until done; rounds will be baked afterward.
Spread a bed of chili in a casserole pan and arrange the fried rounds on top; sprinkle top with grated cheese. Cover pan with foil and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 5-10 minutes until cheese is browned.
Remove from oven, allow to cool 2-3 minutes. Serve with a bottle of Guinness.
Aye and begorah, I feel like doing the Irish Hat Jig!
There are lots of other options. Bank Transfer Day was a good idea and didn't involve violence, only a willingness to accept inconvenience for the sake of principle.
Life isn't fair. Anyone who thinks fair exists has a problem with magical thinking.
I didn't look at the videos actually. I've just been paying close attention to my local occupy movement. The videos here don't influence my opinion near as much as the three overdoses, vandalism via molotov cocktail, and increased crime due to the concentration of many different elements into an illegal encampment have.
However well intended their aims might be (ending crony capitalism) I think they are not representative of the 99% as they claim. Their methodology is lame and their implementation has been just as lame. The BTD (Bank Transfer Day) has been much more effective at sending a message than occupying public property has been.
I doubt that they actually hate you for being nice. What they're trying to tell you is that they want someone who can assert themselves and you are not it.
You can assert your needs without being mean. Nice & Mean are two way different things. Never arguing? Disagreeing with someone isn't arguing, its having your own opinion and having the guts to stick up for that opinion. Arguing is disagreeing and then belittling their opinion. You can think the other person is wrong and disagree without arguing.
"I respect that you feel that way, but I don't see it that way myself." And end it there...That's asserting yourself.
Dude? Four days? In the rain...that's not being nice. That's desperation. Move on!
If not, then Fred made another mistake by calling them "Mr." Happy...
Back to thread details. I will not be going anywhere. However, this will by my first Thanksgiving together with my sweetie as she has traveled back East the last couple of years.
We plan on having the works. Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Candied Yams, etc.
I'm even considering a green bean casserole, but haven't decided for sure yet.
We've already got our Christmas tree up (its artificial and our first full size tree, and it was on sale so...) and are decorating it. She will be gone for 2 weeks to OH after TG , so...I'll be here by myself for that time trying to eat the turkey up solo, and then she'll be back for Christmas.
Hopefully I'll have thought of something to get her by then. I don't think candy canes qualify as a substantial Christmas gift.
There are literally hundreds of Departments and Agencies in the Federal Government, often redundant, often only in existence to give public workers a title and an ostensible purpose in collecting a paycheck.
When they come up with a Department or Agency ensuring everyone knows how to breathe (having some important sounding name like: The Commission on Education of Respiration), I will have seen the ultimate limit of federal self-justification, being as breathing is an autonomic reflex and requires no education (unless you suffer from Sleep Apnea or similar health disorder in which case its the jurisdiction of the Department of Health).
Doubt it not, bureaucracy has taken over our country, and will only continue to grow if we let it.
It got him the same boat that Obama is currently in. One term.
I haven't got the exact figure, but Jimmy Kimmel had a skit about it last night. An overwhelming majority of people prefer a "generic Republican" over Obama in 2012. The characterization of "generic republican" in the skit was alarmingly Mitt-like.
One last post to illustrate that I'm not as "barbaric" as the OP would have everyone believe.
Lets go back to my original post; IMO the items bolded are what a government shouldn't be, domestically or in terms of foreign policy, so I really don't see why I was challenged other than from pure obtuseness on the part of the OP.
The red items are my thoughts on what it should be and how it should conduct itself. If this isn't a reasonable set of goals and missions for government than I'm out of ideas. Why should I have to defend my opinions against what other people think? It's an OPINION!
Now. This will be my last post. Have at deconstructing this post however you like. I don't feel like wasting anymore time on defending a position I feel is based on reasonable and realistic ideas, drawn from real life and personal experience, and expressed to the best of my ability.
You are basing your assumptions on your perceptions of what I said, not what I said. You are not challenging my views with anything real. Those "evil mexicans" you said were going to come knocking on my door come in peace, or leave in pieces. I don't expect the government to protect me. I am armed and will remain so, and the police would arrive just in time to collect my corpse if I believed otherwise.
I base my ad hominem on your past "challenges" to my views, which as I said, always resorts to hypothetical rhetoric to "challenge" my belief in personal responsibility. I can't help Africa, I can't help the Irish, I can't help you. Deal with it.
Stop expecting anything different from "Government" (or me, or anyone else) and start doing for yourself, or doing without. That's what the rest of us do, who live in the real world and not in the world of "What if?".
Last post in this thread. I see where this is going. You can have the last word. It's what you really want, anyways.
As usual you give me lots of sweeping generalizations and vastly unrealistic hypotheticals to prove your point. I'm evil because I believe in personal responsibility, I get it.
Thanks for the character assassination, assumptions as to what I do and don't have a problem with, as well as making me responsible for the whole world when I can barely take care of myself as it is.
Why don't you just ask me how long its been since I stopped beating my wife? You know, like a question that I can't win at, no matter how I answer?
I may be evil and uncaring but you're a jerk. How's that for resorting to ad hominem? Ban me from your thread please. On second thought you won't have to. I'll not trouble you further with my views as you really don't want to hear my opinion anyway. You just want everybody to agree with you.
Mr. Howard: We ARE citizens of an American nation! And our rights are being threatened by a tyrant three thousand miles away!
Benjamin Martin: Would you tell me please, Mr. Howard, why should I trade one tyrant three thousand miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away? An elected legislature can trample a man's rights as easily as a king can.
I don't know what a government should be, but ask yourself this, what shouldn't it be? I've asked myself this, and I've come to a conclusion. I don't need a nanny, I don't need a bully, and I don't need a parasite leaching me dry.
My feeling on this is that I've already got a mother and father (as well as a "Big Brother"); they've done the best they can for me.
They set rules and boundaries that were reasonable and rational as well as establishing consequences that were straightforward and equivalent to the boundaries, and then they let me decide for myself.
They didn't tax me to the point of ridiculousness. After I turned 18, if I lived under their roof, I payed rent, and took care of any other expenses that were mine, including food and whatnot.
They didn't expect me to pay their bills, or for their mistakes just because I happened to live in their dominion. They didn't try to tell me who I could sleep with, what church to go to (if any), or anything like that.
I don't see this as unreasonable.
But here it seems we have people who want me to be socially responsible for everyone elses' problems, while these people are in no way obliged to do the same for me. I am able, so it MUST be me. They are unable, so again, it must be me.
I wasn't raised that way. Life isn't fair. First lesson. Second lesson, no government in the world, past or present, has made it that way. Utopian dreams are just that, complete fantasy.
All governments are able to do is keep honest people honest. Maybe.
Galactic_bodhi Forum Posts (9,196)
RE: What if your future was like this Movie called
Do I? Let me remedy that.