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As we approach St. Patrick's Day, it's important for us to remember that everybody loves an Irishman because an Irishman loves everybody.
Name three awesome Irish things. I'll start:
1. Pints of Guinness lined up on the bar.
2. The Rock of Cashel.
3. The final paragraph of Joyce's "The Dead."
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@Vader
Sometimes the funniest people I meet are gays tbh.
naturally
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Hickenlooper announced his candidacy for the presidency today. I know he does not have much name recognition outside of Colorado and he is certainly not the kind of charismatic controversy machine that the Democratic party seems to think necessary to combat Trump in the general but for people of any party who are looking looking for competent, moderate, rational leadership - Hick is definitely worthy. For that moderate remnant of the Republican Party who supported Kasich in 2016- note that Hick and Kasich have worked and campaigned together on a number of issues - including healthcare and there remains some real talk about a dual party ticket. Hick is a sort of Democrat's Kasich.
Hickenlooper was working in Denver as a geologist researching oil shale when Black Monday and Silverado crashed Downtown Denver's economy hard. Vacancy rates in downtown skyscrapers approached 90%. Hick took his science into craft brewing, opening his first restaurant and pool hall in the heart of skid row and made it the busiest restaurant in Denver in his first year. Forming a triumvirate with a local newspaper editor and a bookstore owner, they transformed downtown in the space of years, rejuvenate hundreds of historic, abandoned buildings while leading on major projects like Coors Field, Pepsi Center, Union Station. Now that first restaurant sits at the heart of an entirely transformed city of young, wealthy techsters. He took his successful formula into restaurant consulting and led the microbrewing revolution- opening hundreds of restaurants across the west and getting very rich. If the Front Range is truly now as many call it the Napa Valley of Beer- Hick can claim more credit for that transformation than anybody else.
When he ran for Mayor, I really thought he was too soft-spoken, too detail oriented. But in terms of economic growth, Hick proved to be the most successful Mayor the city has ever seen. Then he did same as a two term Governor. He handled the three worst natural disasters to hit our state without breaking economic stride. He opposed legalization of marijuana personally but worked hard to build in build in gently regulated supply chains, price controls and tax structures that are now the envy of less forward-looking states like California.
His family is rooted in Iowa politics- a cousin was Governor and four term Senator there. He's certainly not as Green as most Democrats would like- his deepest money support comes out of his old oil industry background. He's not a Medicare for all kind of guy but he has a lot of ideas about how to bring prices down. He's believes in Capitalist solutions and has a solid track record on that front. He's a scientist and an entrepreneur and his leadership style reflects those backgrounds.
Hickenlooper was my boss for a couple of years during the early day of his first brewpub. I didn't know him well but he was a good boss- a communicator, a forward-thinker, a scientist. He created a fun, busy, laid back business and fostered deep loyalties from many passionate people.
Does he really have enough mojo to make an popular national candidate? Probably not. But for Americans who are tired of the waste and inactivity caused our present polarization, Hickenlooper is a solid centrist deal-maker that genuinely represents the kind of effective executive most Americans say they want.
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@IlDiavolo
Well, there you go right there: even Alec ain't entirely straight.
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@IlDiavolo
What are gay rights like in Uruguay? My perception is that you're a fairly freedom loving bunch of folks down there.
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@coal
I am a brick wall behind a concrete fence behind a shred-wire perimeter in the middle of a desert with armed guards in each and every watchtower.
awww.
Fuck, Marry, Kill : Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi?
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@IlDiavolo
That is exactly what I was talking about, jokes about men getting mistaken for gays. It's funny because nobody wants to be mistaken for gay, which tell us that being gay is still perceived as a wrong thing, or at least as humilliating.
But its not that funny to call a gay man gay. Nor is it funny to call a woman gay. The people who are being laughed at are the straight men because when you call a straight man gay he freaks out. All humor is rooted in pain, no? Identify the pain straight men feel when they're called out as gay.
I understand that you don't bother about it because you're gay, but for a heterosexual is rather annoying to be mocked like that.
Ah well, even us homos hate to be mocked.
Actually, I still tease my little brother calling him gay, I do it because I know he will get pissed off.
My theory goes something like this: humans are more bisexual than we admit. When shown a bunch a porn while hooked up to a bunch of monitors, the majority of women are just as aroused by the women as they are the men. Basically, most women are bisexual- men are more convenient for a host of reasons. Men are much more fetishy but hook some guys up to monitors and show them porn, almost all of them are aroused by another man at some point in the proceedings. Truly, I'm not sure we really needed a study to tell us that because even the briefest of pornhub surveys reveals that most of straight porn is a little bit gay and some of straight porn is flat out fabulous. Then you look around at how as soon as women are out of the picture- the army, the navy, prison, priesthood, summer camp, what have you, the guys start messing with other guys to a very surprising degree. Then you look at all these married guys and religious guys and athletes and celebrities who it turns out had secret gay lives... it is clear that there's a lot more to gay sex than what happens between gay men.
Seems to me that pretty much all men are somewhere between straight and gay with a heavy majority on the straight side of the field. So I think straight men panic pretty reliably when they're called gay because they're thinking about that one gay thing from summer camp or that one wet dream they had about Black Panther- men panic because they're afraid their secret shows. Studies also find that how men are told to fuck plays an important part in a man's sense of self-satisfaction while fucking. Men are taught there's a right way to fuck and a wrong way to fuck and fucking wrong means something important about your virility. We laugh at straight men panicking because they're adorably, painfully wrong- there is no wrong way to fuck.
I also see that Hollywood still produces comedy movies doing gay jokes.
less true now than ever but true, nevertheless
The question is if people like it, and if it's discriminatory.
Of course. Most discrimination is popular. Heck, Populism is the most famous of bigots. Popularity forgives no injustice.
I don't find most gay jokes offensive because they're not about me, they're about straight men. The tricky bit is the closeted portion of masculinity, in a range of degrees and varieties. Calling faggot can be funny but all humor is rooted in pain . Therefore, calling faggot can be unjust when it reinforces shame or a sense of being culled from the tribes of brotherhood.
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@Alec
Don't be so sure- it's going to get hairy. For perspective, the difference in avg. temp between the last ice age and 1970 was 4 degrees- those changes caused some major transformations- the English Channel was caused by that degree change, for example. Some changes caused major adjustments in human populations. Now we've popped up another degree in a few short years and looking to tack on another even faster. We know that life on Earth has survived hotter periods but we're heading into extremes of temperature and rapid shifts to the environment. We don't know whether we can preserve a sufficiently complex biosphere to support large apex animals. 2 degrees is expected to mean the extinction of most coral species- the death of which will translate into a cascade of extinctions in animal populations entirely adapted to coral reefs. We are watching to see if the Atlantic jet stream halts- an event that would transform all Atlantic environments and populations pretty dramatically. Expect migrations of nations of people that dwarf all previous migrations.
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@Discipulus_Didicit
I don't.Why do you believe your religion is right?
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The blatancy of votes is odd- not likely somebody who hoped to alter the outcome so much as testing the fences.
The most obvious con is that we get few enough voters already without new restrictions. I sort of enjoyed voting on a debate before debating.
On the other hand, building a membership of voters improves the value and accountability of invested voters.
On the other stuff, I'm generally opposed to any decrease in privacy.
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@coal
What broke your heart wurst and rye? Sorry, I meant worst and why.
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In the US, the landscape has shifted so much in the last few years that it's hard to know what has changed and what is merely out of fashion. I'd say 90% of what we call gay jokes aren't really about gay people at all- they are about straight men's fear of being perceived as gay or about straight men's fear of anal penetration and straight men seem to have relaxed tremendously on both of those fronts over the past 30 years. Most of the remaining jokes depend on gay stereotypes that play as fairly out of date now. Predictably, the funniest gay jokes are told by and for the gay community.
Two deer walk out of a gay bar. First deer says to the second deer, "Christ, I must've blown forty bucks in there."
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@RationalMadman
ok- I choose Samwise Gamgee- one of my all time favorite heros
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Poly's in my good books for being the first of only two to update my President's Day post
Lassiez fair is the way we need to operate. If everyone gets an RO that isn't needed or something like that, then the activity decreases
I think under any other circumstance I'd be agreeing with u Sup but I actually came to this site because I so admired the way bsh ran Ops like mafia & tourneys, etc. Warn, warn, hammer, forgive- warn, warn, hammer, forgive. When I read somebody complain that bsh had stolen DDO I immediately thought that bsh's brand of oversight was probably exactly what a DDO kind of site needed. I can't say I'm disappointed with the result although it is true that the activity level must increase for this site to be attractive. It's like moving to a nicer neighborhood where none of the neighbors ever come out.
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@IlDiavolo
--> @oromagiIt's everywhere, dude. For instance:And this one.
not science & also not science. got any science?
As to women, I remember a program in Discovery Channel that found out women with higher leadership skills have more testosterone. Eventhough women have lower and perhaps insignificant testosterone levels, it's easy to know what could happen to them if their testosterone levels increase a little bit. They very likely become like Xena, the warrior princess. Lol. I would like to know how americans call this kind of girls.
What do you got against Xena? tho I'm pretty sure she's New Zealandish.
I've just found out you're gay checking out your profile. Geezis, you should have started with it. Now I get it why you're so naive in regards to gender equality.
non-responsive ad-hom & bitch u don't know my life. It is true that gay rights are inextricably linked to women's rights so my alliance is more natural than conversion. so what? Is it so naïve to talk about majority rule? Is it so naïve to talk about new paradigms in leadership when the present paradigm is to shove world-ending weapons into the hands of the most violent? Isn't the best of humanity found by overcoming our primate destinies?
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@IlDiavolo
Testosterone is what makes the difference. Some biology reading can enlighten you.
That's what I was afraid you going to say. The little reading I've done on the subject tells me that there has not been much serious research into the relationship between leadership and testosterone in women because unlike men, the amount and range of testosterone in women is too small to allow for practical study [see https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-38657-001.] What studies are reading?
The behaviors most associated with testosterone are, of course, aggression and risk taking. Where testosterone is not tempered by cortisol, violent behavior is highly indicated. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3693622/
We do associate high testosterone aggression with dominance with primate troops. Given humanity's history of offering leadership roles to the most violent among us, I daresay it is not surprising that elevated testosterone is associated with leadership roles.
Feminism interrogates and challenges the value of controlled violence as a leadership trait, questions the value of stockpiling devices exclusively designed to end the world, questions the value of spending half our GDP manufacturing killing devices. I have no doubt that were we to test Trump and Putin we'd find elevated levels of testosterone but Feminism asks whether those dudes are offering worthwhile leadership.
One distinct advantage of putting the majority gender in charge is the devaluation of aggression, risk-taking, violence, and criminality as leadership traits.
Instead of saying women are insufficiently violent to lead why can't we prefer leadership that is less apt to violence?
One thing is to believe women are more important, which is true, and other thing completely different to believe women can lead this world, which I really doubt.
And yet we've never tried. My original point was that so many of place a high value on democracy and majority rule but in the big picture- not one government has ever really tried it. If we really believe in majority rule and women are almost always the majority in any culture, then we must give the women the reigns sometime and discover what that's like.
There are several studies that have shown women with leadership capabilities have a bit more of testosterone than the average woman.
Please provide three.
I'm just saying that a man can be greater than any woman could ever be.
I'm just saying that tells me more about your willingness to be dominated than about the nature of men vs. women.
Both, of course. If you don't supervise women at work, it could be a mess.
I think supervising a woman's work exclusively because some man thinks any woman can't go unsupervised is illegal discrimination & deeply creepy.
And talking about tech and CEOs, the number of executive females have decreased last year. Why could it be?
This is an Indian talent agency. What do scientists say?
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@IlDiavolo
Testosterone is what makes the difference. Some biology reading can enlighten you.
That's what I was afraid you going to say. The little reading I've done on the subject tells me that there has not been much serious research into the relationship between leadership and testosterone in women because unlike men, the amount and range of testosterone in women is too small to allow for practical study [see https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-38657-001.] What studies are reading?
The behaviors most associated with testosterone are, of course, aggression and risk taking. Where testosterone is not tempered by cortisol, violent behavior is highly indicated. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3693622/
We do associate high testosterone aggression with dominance with primate troops. Given humanity's history of offering leadership roles to the most violent among us, I daresay it is not surprising that elevated testosterone is associated with leadership roles.
Feminism interrogates and challenges the value of controlled violence as a leadership trait, questions the value of stockpiling devices exclusively designed to end the world, questions the value of spending half our GDP manufacturing killing devices. I have no doubt that were we to test Trump and Putin we'd find elevated levels of testosterone but Feminism asks whether those dudes are offering worthwhile leadership.
One distinct advantage of putting the majority gender in charge is the devaluation of aggression, risk-taking, violence, and criminality as leadership traits.
Instead of saying women are insufficiently violent to lead why can't we prefer leadership that is less apt to violence?
One thing is to believe women are more important, which is true, and other thing completely different to believe women can lead this world, which I really doubt.
And yet we've never tried. My original point was that so many of place a high value on democracy and majority rule but in the big picture- not one government has ever really tried it. If we really believe in majority rule and women are almost always the majority in any culture, then we must give the women the reigns sometime and discover what that's like.
There are several studies that have shown women with leadership capabilities have a bit more of testosterone than the average woman.
Please provide three.
I'm just saying that a man can be greater than any woman could ever be.
I'm just saying that tells me more about your willingness to be dominated than about the nature of men vs. women.
Both, of course. If you don't supervise women at work, it could be a mess.
I think supervising a woman's work exclusively because some man thinks any woman can't go unsupervised is illegal discrimination & deeply creepy.
And talking about tech and CEOs, the number of executive females have decreased last year. Why could it be?
This is an Indian talent agency. What do scientists say?
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resurgent’s list looks pretty sloppy and overranging but I think we have to assume that perjury precedes history. Bearing false witness has been against the law since at least Hammurabi. My sister-in-law alone generates two or three false accusations per day
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@Swagnarok
Any list of powerful rulers is bound to be bloody. I don’t think I buy women as disproportionately bloody but as I said the tiny sampling size distorts.
Was Catherine more bloody than Peter I? Was Elizabeth I more bloody than Henry VIII? I don’t particularly think so , tho the body counts might tell a different story. Do know of any literature that backs your claim?
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@IlDiavolo
Due to a basic understanding of how hormones work in men, I can say with confidence that men are born to own this world.
What is that understanding? How do those hormones work?
It's not our fault, it's just how nature made us. That is why Christinity put men as head of family.
Men were traditionally head of the household in all the cultures of the early Christians- Roman, Greek, & Hebrew. I don't think it can be fairly said that Christianity made some conscious move towards elevating men. If the Nag Hammadi literature tells us anything, it's that women were more important in the early Christian church than just about any other Mediterranean religious institution- Isis worship, perhaps.
Evidently, I can't deny there were conspicous women who performed very well as leaders, which make us think that nature is sometimes generous with women giving them a little bit more of male hormones (testosterone).
unsubstantiated, unsubstantiatable, and blech.
So, I have to disagree with your statement. I can mention some male figures that can make my point, like Alexander the Great, Constantine, or Napoleon.
I said average. Are you putting forward Alexander as an average male leader?
In contrast, the idea of women being in executive positions without any sort of male supervision could be counterproductive as it actually happened in a well-known company:I hope you stop thinking there is any remote possibility that women can be in the "top spot" as leaders, regardless of some honorable exceptions.
I'm thinking of Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Zenobia, etc. You're countering with tech bro surveys? You have attributed effective female leadership to an excess of testosterone but also to male supervision- do you mean both?
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@IlDiavolo
The first thing Americans should understand before demanding gender equality is that men and women are different in nature, so the results and performance of each gender are going to be different, depending on the type of activity or job. Forcing otherwise is not just moronic but unfair.
OK, done. I think I can say with confidence that better than 99% of all Americans understand that there are gender differences.
The law has been making its job, which is give equal opportunities to either men or women. If men outperform women in most activities despite law, that is the way mother nature made us. Going against nature is a call to mediocrity and inefficiency.
I don't disagree except that I get the impression you're suggesting that men outperform women in the activity of government- which I don't buy. Obviously, there have been far fewer women in the top spot in any style of government but when you evaluate the average quality of leadership shown by those women against the average quality of leadership shown by men, the women are far, far, superior. Now, small sampling sizes can skew the comparison but I think that history demonstrates the superiority of female heads of state to a sufficient degree to warrant a popular embrace of women in executive positions across the board.
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@Greyparrot
Thx, greyp. Another tangential post from yet another white supremacist. Too racist to keep a job at the National Review is quite racist. Now he’s a naturalized citizen oppsed to all immigration on another SPLC watch-listed site. Derbyshire opposes women’s right to vote and says that women reach peak attractiveness at age 15. What a creep. Why do you read these creeps?
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@RationalMadman
yes! That man strode the earth like a king
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@Greyparrot
I only saw one white male in the running at the time.
I see. So what you saw and what was true were two different things.
Are you saying that because Sanders is a white male he is incapable of manufacturing oppression?
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@Vader
I'm going with Black History, I won't start a new post since I doubt the theme will be popular.
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@Vader
Hillary didn't get voted in...
Well, she did win the majority of the votes. She wasn't made president because our present system gives more electoral weight to rural regions in economic decline at the expense of prospering urban voters: not particularly democratic or intelligent.
Bah. That was Hillary's motto and she lost. Maybe try Conservative approach and reach out to the working class farmers while keeping the feminist philosophy. Hilary lost bc of that
By any measure, Hillary Clinton is more Conservative than Donald Trump. Anybody who thinks Donald Trump is trying the Conservative approach doesn't understand the meaning of the word or the history of that faction in American politics.
There is no such thing as a working class farmer. The majority of the 3.2 million Americans who identify as farmers make less than $10,000/yr from agriculture and hold some other job as their primary source of income. In a 2012 census 46% of farmers reported no net farming income (in other words, any money made was by govt. subsidy) Of the 758,000 people who actually work the fields, roughly 50% are noncitizens according to the USDA. Roughly a quarter are women. Some 230,000 are under the age of 18. 42% of agriculture fatalities are under the age of 18, half of those under the age of 15. The average legal wage for field workers is $18,000/yr (below poverty level). Illegal workers are estimated to make 15% less than that. The big picture is that there are people who own farms and are often eligible for substantial govt. subsidy. And then there are the farmers, the people who actually work the farms, who are among the most destitute and disenfranchised of Americans.
I've heard Hillary talk about these farmers and their problems. As far as I can tell, the present administration has been nothing short of catastrophic for farmers.
Be grateful you can run for presidentGrateful to who? II was reffering to women
I know you were. The point was that if women have the same rights as men, then women owe nobody gratitude for their birthright.
I think your central point was that Feminism is irrelevant because women have achieved all the milestones of full enfranchisement. I disagree and have pointed out one the most obvious missing milestones: Federal power that reflects women's majority in the US.1st and 2nd wave feminism was of the best things to happen in America. I think 3rd and 4th wave feminism is a disgrace and a disaster to this country and fighting for things you can not change
3rd and 4th wave feminism are social media straw men, radicals on both sides arguing over labels and picayune exceptions. If you think second wave feminism (embodied by women like Clinton) is a social good why don't you agree with that movement when it states that Feminism is still essential?
Jimmy Carter says that there is no social problem in the world that can't be solved by placing women and the priorities of women first in politics. I agree with Jimmy.
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@Vader
Sorry you don't voted in to get elected.
unintelligible
Maybe you should, idk, change your philosophy and maybe you will get elected.
That is precisely what women are doing, working to assume the reigns of power. Feminism is that changed philosophy.
Be grateful you can run for president
Grateful to who? I'm a white man descended from the Pilgrims. My ancestors were holding elections here before there was an America. Those ancestors taught me never to be grateful to someone else for a fundamental right: nobody can give me that right or take it away it from me. One might acknowledge my right or violate my right but nobody else is the source or the keeper of that right and nobody deserves my gratitude for its maintenance.
I think your central point was that Feminism is irrelevant because women have achieved all the milestones of full enfranchisement. I disagree and have pointed out one the most obvious missing milestones: Federal power that reflects women's majority in the US.
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also, doesn't it seem that our present culture's taste for climax tends to move later than Shakespeare's middle? I've read the better half of Shakespeare and often found that fifth act lacking in suspense [ "De nails, de arm, de ilbow"]
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@Vader
Let's talk for a minute hear before I hear all the women bitch at me,3rd and 4th wave feminism is so stupid and idiotic. You are arguing for things you already have and things you just can't solve for.1) Equal Treatment for Women. it happens boo. i am sorry2) Equal Pay. There is nothing you can do other than convert to communism where women will receive way less money. also it is a small difference too3) Equality for LGBTQ+ community. Already laws making it legal4) Trump Impeachment. It won't happen everThen they say men are ALWAYS RACIST, Sexist, and need to be changing. They force a child to be a girl when he wants to be a boyToxic Femininity
Boo. Women are the majority of all Americans (we seem to just be talking about US here), and in a democracy, majorities rule. Until women at least once had a majority in Congress, in the courts, and multiples presidencies, until women have acheived more tangible milestones in the assumption of power, we are failing, as Americans, at representing our majority.
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@Greyparrot
Oh, quite the condemnation, greyp What about John Hickenlooper? What about Pete Buttigieg?
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gosh. Ok, let's try:
can't he just be cute stupid manipulative young narcissist who gets a year for fucking up and never gets a job again?
or:
can't we all just agree not care?
or:
Woke was a pretentious name anyway and labels aren't that helpful. Woke implies a consciousness and so denies the un-woke credit for being conscious but then everybody has their own notion of what being woke implies so the label only serves one function: separation. I probably agree with most of the politics of "woke" but then I guess I don't just feel the need to join the club. If liberals want to improve upon the critique of social elitism maybe the end of woke politics offers an opportunity to improve the brand.
I propose maybe the consequences of the Fall of Woke aren't so dire. What do you suppose the consequences are?
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you think its going to be that important, huh? I've hated this story from the first I heard it. Celebrities in peril, ugh. I don't know... are there really going to be two sides in conflict? I mean, do you thinks there's going to a lot of support for Smollett?
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Thx, Coal
Is Putin vulnerable to being murdered in his sleep? I mean, is there definitely some alternative power block that poses a genuine threat? I suppose its safe to assume but I don't hear much about likely physical threats to Putin in the US media. Would you name three likely threats?
I don't understand Russia's embrace of Putin or of corrupt forms of government, generally. As far as I can tell, Russia's predilection for terrible leadership has been the primary obstacle to what should be a nation of considerable self-determination and participation upon the world stage. I'll confess to a poor readership of Russian history but in my ignorant opinion: too many Stalins, not enough Peters. Not a question, really, except can you help explain this outlook or do I have it wrong?
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Compliment prior posters generously
SupaDudz? More like superstudz! thx, sup!
Did you know that the original "Washington Crossing the Delaware" was painted in Germany by a German painter and was destroyed by the Sept 5th 1942 bombing of Bremen? wow
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DEBATE TOURNEY
(8 people random seeding)
1. Virt
2.Oro
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FANFIC TOURNEY
dart fanfic or any fanfic?
FORUM POST
(8 topics with over 5k words)
1.Oro
2.
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5.
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8.
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Rookie of the Year
rookie of the quarter, more like
Most Sufficient Voter
Add one vote
Most Impactful Member
not likely a positive attribute
Best Debater
Add one vote
Quality Forum Poster
Add one vote
Meme King/Queen
No please
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@Greyparrot
I don’t think most people would say so about my community although I habitually keep my door unlocked unless I’m gone overnight. Door unlocked with a crow bar behind the door and a good dog. When I moved in 10 years ago there was a lot of trade on my block- drugs and prostitution in the old black city core. In some ways I felt safer before. If someone broke into my house then I’d know who to ask for help. There were more shootings but you knew better that they weren’t shooting at you. Now
we’re getting pretty gentrified - the bail bonds in an acupuncture, the liquor store is a vegan bakery. Some of the new condos built in the empty lot across from my house sold for over a million. There have been a few murders and wifebeatings over the years but fewer all the time and I don’t worry much about some random act of violence.
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@mustardness
You should read the poem instead of replying to the final refrain, which is only heard by the narrator. Mending Wall is considered by many a masterwork of American literature. It is certainly as profound a condemnation of Trump's wall as I've read, for those few remaining with the ears and patience for poetry.
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@Alec
I agree with everything you just said.
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Mending Wall
By Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."
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@coal
I did not know you were so versed in Russian things. Where does that come from in your biography?
So, here's a Russian question: I think you & agree that Putin has some discernible leverage over Trump so I wonder what you think Putin's endgame might be. I suspect Putin must anticipate diminishing future returns on all manner of Russian investments suggesting an increased urgency to use what he's got to the best effect. What he's got is some expensive and aging nukes that might still be wielded to tremendous effect, perhaps even only in threat. And I would think now is about the best window of opportunity for exploiting multiple frayed alliances to a position of inaction or feckless response. Is Putin a big risk taker in your estimation? Am I too pessimistic?
Take your time, I see you're fielding a lot of questions today. I'd also love to see your answers to my president's day questions forum.
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I'm so not HypeBeast I had to google what is HypeBeast. The shit I saw just left me staring. How's about I'll hype a pint of guinness?
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@Swagnarok
I agree it is a dilemma and I believe these sort of decisions belong well away from any sort of public consensus- the more intimately held and individualized by case, the better. I am not a parent but I think there's some important risk in honoring a child's opinion too much, even when the question is as personal as social and sexual identity. I think my advice would be to forestall any permanent change and adopt changes incrementally in response to expert supervision but I don't think I could ever impose that sensibility on parents seeking some satisfactory adaptation. I think something like this is case to case. My judgement in this case is there's no evidence that some kid's mother is doing other than fine, that Jeff Younger is a grifter working his kid's story for cash. I'd like to see Younger defer to his ex-wife's objectively superior capacity to help.
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@Swagnarok
Do I seriously think Trump might still be President twelve years from now? Well, Trump is nothing if not everlastingly surprising but no. I wonder what odds Trump himself would give? I really like the notion of credibility but I'm certain to disappoint you eventually.
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