Total posts: 8,696
Why argue when there's Wikipedia?
The symbol # is known variously in English-speaking regions as the number sign, hash, or pound sign. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes including the designation of an ordinal number and as a ligatured abbreviation for pounds avoirdupois – having been derived from the now-rare ℔.
Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as "hashtags", and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag.
The symbol is distinguished from similar symbols by its combination of level horizontal strokes and right-tilting vertical strokes.
So, most of the difference depends on whether you got your education before or after 2007.
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@Unpopular
I think this is where you get an interesting debate, and this is what I was getting at in the OP. The republican party has changed. The republican party is no longer defined as open markets and small government. There's a lot of populists in the party now, a lot of people who want big government to run the markets and consider themselves the real conservatives of traditional, American, conservative values.
I agree that the Republican party has changed dramatically and abandoned all its former principles. But when these neo-Populists call themselves the "real Conservatives of traditional, American, Conservative values" that doesn't change the meaning of the word "Conservative" that only makes the neo-Populists wrong in their belief that they are Conservative anymore. Just because the Nazis called themselves Socialists doesn't mean they were Socialists. The definitions of words don't change just because people use the word deceptively. The principles of American Conservatism don't change just because the Republicans stopped believing in them.
If you ask people like Tucker Carlson, who now speaks for the masses, as I think he is still the most popular host on Fox News, the republican party of the past was not really conservatives but elites masquerading as conservatives.
Tucker Carlson is certainly speaking to and for the Trumpists, which makes a good-sized mob but hardly "the masses"- just under half of Republicans, or 1 in 5 voters or about 13% of Americans overall. Still, I consider Tucker Carlson a perfect illustration of the Republicans" Orwellian rudderlessness. On the night of Jan 6th, Carlson reported that Trump "recklessly encouraged" the attack on the Capitol. Six weeks later, Carlson characterizes Liz Cheney's identical statement as obedience to the Fascist Left. In 2018, Carlson's lawyers argued in court that Carlson can't be held liable for slander because "the "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.' and that "no reasonable person" would take what Tucker says seriously. Weeks later, Alex Jones' lawyers made the exact same argument in his custody battle- Alex Jones is just playing a character for entertainment purposes and "no reasonable person" would take his editorial opinion seriously. Trump's lawyer and main propagator of the election fraud falsehoods used to justify the Jan 6th coup attempt argued in court on Mar 23rd that when it came to claims of election fraud, "No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact." When under penalty of perjury (and only then apparently) the core of the Republican Party will swear to God that they are not serious people stating actual beliefs, that they are actors paid to play a part and that no reasonable person should believe them. Trump is the first and the worst of them, the most prolific liar in history: saying in public that COVID is not to be feared while simultaneously confiding to Bob Woodward his understanding of the peril; conceding the election one day, then the next saying he expects to be President again by August. Putin and Kim Jong-Un are friends. ANTIFA did Jan 6th. Bob Barr is really a "swamp creature." There is no Republican reality except what suits the power play of the moment. All ideological core is gone- even officially, the Republican Party no longer has a political platform or statement of first principles.
Yes the Republican Party was traditionally the party of the elite establishment and that establishment always tends towards Conservatism because the traditional has worked out well for them, they don't want change because they are in power, they want small government because the elites have their own bases of power. The notion that billionaire NY real estate moguls DON'T represent the elite establishment but AOC or BLM DOES represent the elite establishment is just more proof of FOX doublethink. As Orwell put it:
"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink."
ANTIFA did Jan 6th but also Jan 6th was no big deal but also Jan 6th was justified. The election of Biden was fraud but also the election of GOP Senators was fair.
COVID is a Chinese attack but also vaccines are a Fauci conspiracy. The poor are the elite and racial minorities the establishment. Whatever Tucker says today must be true even after he swore that he can't be trusted.
I think there is real tension in the party, which is funny, because people always talk about how its the democrats that are divided and they certainly are, but so are the republicans over what real conservativism means. It uses to be conservatives were one thing, but now they see the other branches of government as corrupt and so if they think all government is corrupt and you can only trust one man, I don't know, it's interesting how definitions may change.
Definitions of words don't change because just political interests employ words deceptively. American Conservatism is still what it was. Republicans used to fault John Paul Stevens for transitioning from the most Conservative appointee to the Supreme Court to the most Liberal but Stevens quite correctly points out that fifty years of his judicial philosophy is on the record and remained exactly the same. What has changed is the Republican Party. Romney and Cheney, the Bushes and George Will have not changed their political philosophy- they are still conservatives in the traditional American sense. They are RINOs now because the Republican Party no longer values Conservatism or indeed any political principle at all.
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@Athias
competitions like bowling, and billiards, and even "gaming" have entered the vernacular of Sports only in recent decades.
- The earliest reference to billiards as a SPORT that I can readily locate is Egan's London magazine "Annals of Sporting" 1823
- The earliest reference to lawn bowling as a SPORT that I an readily locate is Fitzstephen's "The Life of St Thomas Becket" written in the 1170's
- The Ancient Greeks referred to the Olympics as the "Olympic Games" "Olympiaki agones" since 776 BC
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@Athias
The definition of sports, like many words, have nuanced descriptions.
Yes, there are multiple sense of the word Sport, but none that include running and exclude billiards as you claim.
SPORT [noun] (countable and uncountable, plural sports)
- (countable) Any activity that uses physical exertion or skills competitively under a set of rules that is not based on aesthetics.
- Billiards and bowling are games of skill, so applicable
- (countable) Something done for fun, regardless of its design or intended purpose.Joe was banned from getting legal help. He seemed to view lawsuits as a sport.
- Billiards and bowling are fun, so applicable
- (countable) A person who exhibits either good or bad sportsmanship.Jen may have won, but she was sure a poor sport; she laughed at the loser.The loser was a good sport, and congratulated Jen on her performance.
- N/A
- (countable) Somebody who behaves or reacts in an admirably good-natured manner, e.g. to being teased or to losing a game; a good sport.You're such a sport! You never get upset when we tease you.
- N/A
- (obsolete) That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement. quotations
- Billiards and bowling are amusing, so applicable
- (obsolete) Mockery, making fun; derision.
- N/A
- (countable) A toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
- N/A
- (uncountable) Gaming for money as in racing, hunting, fishing.
- Billiards particular but also bowling may be bet on, so applicable
- Poker, as I said
- (biology, botany, zoology, countable) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. The term encompasses both mutants and organisms with non-genetic developmental abnormalities such as birth defects.
- N/A
- (slang, countable) A sportsman; a gambler.
- N/A
- (slang, countable) One who consorts with disreputable people, including prostitutes.
- N/A
- (obsolete, uncountable) An amorous dalliance.Charlie and Lisa enjoyed a bit of sport after their hike.
- Sex, as I said
- (informal, usually singular) A friend or acquaintance (chiefly used when speaking to the friend in question)
- N/A
- (obsolete) Play; idle jingle.
- N/A
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@Intelligence_06
Why do any of you say that autosports isn't sports?
I don't think anybody did. I said I didn't like it, I didn't say it wasn't true.
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Of all well known politicians, John Hickenlooper was my boss for a couple of years and a very good one- good at communication and compromise, a very saavy businessman who knows how to appeal to the cultural left. He's a terrible political campaigner but he was the second best Mayor and best Governor I've ever seen.
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AOC would make a terrible President- hopefully she knows that about herself. I don't mind a few rabble rousers in politics but rabble rousers are not good presidents because good president are all about compromise and representation. If I could choose any active Washington politician today I would probably choose Pete Buttigieg although he hasn't really been tested much. I like his record and demeanor, his calm intelligence, his big picture patriotism and his technocratic approach to problem solving.
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Is the choice actually random or should the choice reflect my preference in some way?
If totally random I choose Chuck McIntosh.
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@Athias
@oromagiI certainly empathize- I feel the same way when automobile racing is categorized as sport. Still, making up you own definition for words is not likely to help.I didn't make it up. The definition of sports, like many words, have nuanced descriptions. And competitions like bowling, and billiards, and even "gaming" have entered the vernacular of Sports only in recent decades.
I don't buy either of those claims. If anything, the old English meaning was even further flung including any amusement as good sport- from poker to sex and I assume the English, at least, have consider bowling billiards sporting pastimes since at least the 19th century.
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one what?
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@Unpopular
If your argument was only
the money could have been better spent
I'd think I'd have a hard time disagreeing but as an example of
what's wrong with our society and government
I think I could come up with at least 150 million examples of spending more egregious then paying for a couple hundred college tuitions. I mean it seems like we should be able to agree that soliciting for donations to a charity and then using those funds to fly to Paris with Salma Hayek, as our former president has admitted doing, is far worse behavior, ethically and legally then paying for some student's college tuition, or spending $4.8 billion on luxury yacht (32 times Geffen's donation) as Robert Kuok has done. I mean, at least Geffen's donation wasn't entirely selfish or wasteful or done under false pretenses.
Geffen himself has a $590 million dollar yacht that seems like it should come in for about four times the amount of "money better spent" critique than his Yale charity.
In Geffen's defense, Geffen was a failed actor before making himself a billionaire as a talent agent and studio executive. The Yale program is incredibly distinguished- offering Master's degrees and Doctorates to only about 50 students a year and producing an impressive number of successful theater professional out of that group. But a year at Yale cost about $100,000, placing a deep financial burden on artists who seldom make a great fortune (unlike many Yale degree holders). I'm sure Geffen thinks of this as giving back to his profession, the industry that made him rich as well as an opportunity to associate his name with one of the classiest brands in show business.
You argue that the science dept or cancer research might have been preferable so let's make sure to note that Geffen has already given $250 million to UCLA Med school and $100 million to renovate the Lincoln Center to the public benefit of New Yorkers, at least, as well as numerous other charities.
I'm not saying your argument is entirely without merit but if you are going to go after wasteful charity or selfish extravagance, there are a whole lot of far worse public cases to target than Geffen's donation here.
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@Athias
I certainly empathize- I feel the same way when automobile racing is categorized as sport. Still, making up you own definition for words is not likely to help.
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@Yassine
You asked two personal questions which I answered fulsomely. Just calling my answers false is not a basis for rational argument or even polite.
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@Unpopular
According to the Pew Center, 43% of republicans in 2019 believed that presidents could operate more effectively if they did not have to worry so much about congress and the courts. That number has increased from 14% when Trump took office. That means under Trump, 30% of republicans which is almost 1/3 of the party changed their view on the roles of the branches of government. Huh.
We have much more recent and relevant polling regarding American's faith in the Constitutional separation of power as discovered in polling about Jan 6th. The 2019 Pew poll was strictly political theory while Jan 6th was an actual pass/fail test. Whatever Republicans' self-delusion about the election results, there's no denying that all Constitutional processes had been respected and that Jan 6th was the Constitutionally mandated assembly of the Legislative Branch to count electoral votes and formalize the transition of Executive power. Anybody who supports, excuses, or forgives that violent interruption of Legislative power on behalf of the discharged Executive stands in opposition to the Constitution's balance of powers and endorses the supremacy of one man over and above the State's representatives and the duly appointed Judiciary. 45% of Republican voters (about 20% of all voters) supported the storming the day after Trump's attack and that number has remained fairly consistent. That's not hypothetical anymore- that's 1 in 5 American voters endorsing the Executive's rejection of powers granted to the Legislative and Judiciary by the US Constitution. When it came to a real world test of who supports the US Constitution, the majority of Republicans flunked.
52% of conservatives agree that many of the country's problems could be dealt with more better if U.S. presidents didn't have to worry so much about congress or the courts, and 68% of liberal to moderate republicans say it would be too risky, so it is the more moderate republicans that want to put a check on executive power. If republicans and democrats were polled today, would these numbers look the same? Do 43% of republicans still believe that a president should be able to bypass congress and the court to carry out their agenda? Why is it the conservatives who most believe in the consolidation of power to be under one man, one authority, rather than support separation of powers?
Republicans who identify as conservative to a Pew pollster fail to reflect in any way the values of American Conservativism as is easily demonstrated by the poll results. The first principle of American Conservatism is a tradition of limited Federal power is relation to the States. By definition, if you agree "that many of the country's problems could be dealt with....better if U.S. presidents didn't have to worry so much about congress or the courts" you are not a Conservative by any American standard. There are almost no Conservatives left in the Republican Party, indeed little evidence of any political principle at all beyond the naked acquisition and retention of power.
It looks like the far right wants to live under some type of communism, with economic populism and one superior head of state, where anybody who challenges the supreme ruler is an automatic lemming because supporters of the supreme leader are the only ones you can trust.
That's not Communism by any definition, which was anti-Statist generally much less promoting any head of State. If you mean that the Republican's current political philosophy most closely resembles authoritarian USSR under Stalin (which called itself Communism but never demonstrated any of the principles of that political philosophy), then I whole-heartedly agree while also noting the concurrence of such renewed resemblance in Putin's Russia.
The republican party has gone to shite, along with the dems. But congress has become so ineffective, and the courts so partisan, there's no wonder so many people have little faith in them. What is the solution?
American must maintain faith in our republican institutions and our US Constitution, even if it comes to a second Civil War, even if we all perish in that pursuit. It is a slow and frustrating process but we must keep our eyes on the prize. We must preserve the freedom and fairness of elections and use that instrument as the best reflection of the American will. If Congress seems ineffective it is mostly because one party refuses to act or legislate or fulfill its Constitutional duties in any loyal sense-so I argue we should vote that party out of power and put into power people who will represent our values. I don't think the Courts are irretrievably partisan but to the degree Courts demonstrate real partisan preference they should be challenged and replaced with judges who will fulfill their oaths. Yes, our faith in America is being tested but we have faced this test before and found a way forward. We must pass this test and survive and thrive again as a people of the people by the people for the people.
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@Yassine
That said, if you're a Christian, why do you believe in this evolutionary story while you have a more compelling life story in the Bible?
I read the Bible the same way I read Homer's Iliad- I know the stories that form the core of my culture, I admire the poetry, I am chastised by the wisdom of the Sermon on the Mount and strive to obey the Golden Rule, I study our history as recorded therein but that book's value to me is in no way dependent on its factualness. I feel no more need to verify that a talking serpent tricked Eve than I do that three goddesses staged a beauty contest for Paris.
I am perfectly comfortable learning and loving a mysterious, unverified, and unverifiable Bible.
If you're a naturalist, what makes you believe in the truth of this story knowing that it's unscientific?
Belief has nothing to do with it. I trust results that remain consistent upon iteration. I trust theories that prove out. The Origin of the Species theorizes that if we look deep underground we will find the remains of creatures transitioning from apes to men, more like apes the deeper we go. So we dug and we found those bones by the thousands buried in rational geologic progressions. The Descent of Man theorizes that if we look at living organisms microscopically, we will find the mechanisms of inheritance that explain the replication of biological traits and the mechanisms of mutation that explain adaptation. So we dug and we found the double-helixed DNA molecule. I suppose one might call it a reinforcement of belief when molecular biologists send messages to our immune system via an injection of modified nucleic acids, defusing the rapid acceleration of a coronavirus pandemic but its not really about belief. It's just recognizing what methods work effectively and consistently and relying on that consistency and communicating those theories that prove accurate.
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@Intelligence_06
I'm reminded of a group of women friends of mine who started playing a sort of tough street version of rollerblade hockey in a local park on Sunday mornings for a few years. There were maybe twenty men who played and only three women but they played hard and competitively and were top picks for games. It then happened that our state was hosting some national street hockey exhibition and while there were women's teams from many states competing there was not a team from our state and the state decided to sponsor an ad-hoc team just for the sake of representation. The men recommended my three friends to state officials and the women then recruited from their friends and local venues. They never had a chance to train or even play together as a team before they competed but they beat every women's team they faced and won the championship. I expect this is because all the out-of-state women had only been competing against other women's team all along while my friends had been playing and succeeding along with the men. I suppose it's only anecdotal but I do suspect that one of the major reasons women are less competitive against men in a lot of sports is because they don't train against men much or ever. Yes, there would still be all the gender difference in terms of size and strength in many sports but I think the more women are allowed to compete against men, the more women will train to a level that will sometimes beat men. Certainly in something like billiards, if more women join and compete against men more often, I fully expect an exceptional woman would take the US Open and then other women champions would follow. A lot of sport is mental. Nobody thought a human could surpass the 4 minute mile but once surpassed, many runners found that capacity within themselves.
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@Intelligence_06
@oromagiBut that doesn't answer the question. Why is it separated by gender? Or do you just not know?
I'm no historian of billiards but I'm willing to speculate to some degree.
- Originally, billiards was a sport of the European upper class and ladies often played. Mary, Queen of Scots was a famous billiards player who was buried wrapped in the cloth taken off her prison billiards table.
- The game increased in popularity in America, particularly among Civil War soldiers and particularly as an object of gambling. The name "pool" is a gambling reference and tables were to be found at horseracing tracks and saloons before the popular adoption of pool halls. None of these environments were particularly welcoming to well-mannered women so there were few women players.
- Competitive women's billiards started in the UK in the 1920's and enjoyed some (aristocratic) popularity for a few decades.
- The game was considered rather low-class and dying out when the 1961 move "The Hustler" renewed popularity and it is after this point that some US women began to play professionally, although always in a much smaller proportion than men. Even if you look at movies in the '80's and '90's the cliché is still men playing while women admire from the margins- The Color of Money, Urban Cowboy. The clichés about hustling and fighting may play some part in dissuading women or attracting men.
- Many US tournaments are not segregated by gender and women do compete. Women compete in the US Open for example and have won some large payouts although no woman has taken the top prize.
- Many US tournaments include couples events and team events where women are often competitive.
- Overall, though, I think the main reason we still see gender division in billiards is because there are far fewer women, and so a woman who wants to go Pro has a much better shot at achieving cash rewards in the women's league. Big fish, small pond.
- At present, if all Pro billiards competitions became unisex, only a few women would be top-ranked and some women who currently make a living would be driven out of the cash prizes.
- So-
- there's less gender segregation than most sports
- some of that segregation seems cultural and anarchronistic
- some of that segregation is strategic and voluntary on the part of PRO women.
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@Athias
->@Intelligence_06This whole discussion is ridiculous to begin with. Billiard is not a sport!
disagree
Wiki:
SPORT pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators
CUE SPORTS also known as billiard SPORTs, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions.
Shooting SPORTs is a collective group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using various types of ranged firearms, mainly referring to man-portable guns (firearms and airguns, in forms such as handguns, rifles, and shotguns) and bows/crossbows.
Bowling is a target SPORT and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling).
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Let America Be America Again
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
-Langston Hughes
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An American Sunrise
We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves. We
were surfacing the edge of our ancestors’ fights, and ready to strike.
It was difficult to lose days in the Indian bar if you were straight.
Easy if you played pool and drank to remember to forget. We
made plans to be professional — and did. And some of us could sing
so we drummed a fire-lit pathway up to those starry stars. Sin
was invented by the Christians, as was the Devil, we sang. We
were the heathens, but needed to be saved from them — thin
chance. We knew we were all related in this story, a little gin
will clarify the dark and make us all feel like dancing. We
had something to do with the origins of blues and jazz
I argued with a Pueblo as I filled the jukebox with dimes in June,
forty years later and we still want justice. We are still America. We
know the rumors of our demise. We spit them out. They die
soon.
-Joy Harjo
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The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
-Emma Lazarus
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The STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;O say does that star-spangled banner yet waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:'Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.And where is that band who so vauntingly sworeThat the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,A home and a country, should leave us no more?Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.No refuge could save the hireling and slaveFrom the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.O thus be it ever, when freemen shall standBetween their loved homes and the war's desolation.Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued landPraise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
When our land is illumined with Liberty's smile,If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory,Down, down with the traitor that dares to defileThe flag of her stars and the page of her story!By the millions unchained, who our birthright have gained,We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained!And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall waveWhile the land of the free is the home of the brave.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Battle Hymn of the Republic
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
He have loosed the fateful lightening of his terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
His truth is marching on
I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps
I have read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His truth is marching on
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
His truth is marching on
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish'd rows of steel
As ye deal with my condemners so with you my grace shall deal
Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel
His truth is marching on
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
His truth is marching on
He has sounded form the trumpet that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul to answer, oh be jubilant, my feet
His truth is marching on
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
His truth is marching on
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me
As he died to make men holy let us die to make men free
His truth is marching on
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
Glory, Glory hallelujah
His truth is marching on
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
He have loosed the fateful lightening of his terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on
-Julia Howe
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Paul Revere’s Ride
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,—
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”
Then he said “Good night!” and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war:
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon, like a prison-bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers
Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed to the tower of the church,
Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,—
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,—
A line of black, that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride,
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,
Now gazed on the landscape far and near,
Then impetuous stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry-tower of the old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height,
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns!
A hurry of hoofs in a village-street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet:
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river-fog,
That rises when the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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I Hear America Singing
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
-Walt Whitman
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I know! Why is Olympic shooting divided into Men's and Women's?
or Bowling?
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MAD MAX: IMMORTAN JOE's CITADEL SHOULD INVEST in RENEWABLE ENERGY
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@badger
Oh, you are reading it now? Ok, I just added an actual spoiler, saw your note, then removed it.
Enjoy!
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@badger
Fucking spoilers! :(
I don't play the spoilers game- that shit's for Karens looking for reasons to be offended. If maintaining your personal sense of surprise really seems more important than the public's freedom to discuss media then it is on you to consume that media quickly and avoid public forums until then. The tyranny of the easily offended is shutting down our capacity to discuss things that happened and I think free thinkers have a certain obligation to not give a fuck. Bruce Willis is a ghost. Darth Vader is Luke Father.
For live events, especially sports, you have no right to expect protection from revelations.
For movies, I generally don't give away surprises for 2 weekends. After that, you didn't care enough to prioritize the movie so I don't care about your supposed right to be surprised.
For TV shows, you have until the next show airs. For whole seasons, one hits, and finales you have about two weeks.
For novels, you have one month.
Dune has been in circulation for 55 years. If you haven't read it yet its officially on you.
Besides which, saying that Jessica made a mistake is more perspective than actually revealing any plot point.
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(i'm just brainstorming, none of these should be construed as an offer to debate although anybody is free to use any of these)
THBT: BRAVEHEART DEFAMES ROBERT the BRUCE
DUNE DEBATE: LADY JESSICA of HOUSE ATREIDES FUCKED UP the GALAXY
BIGFOOT is BULLSHIT
The USFG SHOULD REPLACE the STAR-SPANGLED BANNER as the US NATIONAL ANTHEM
CLAIMS of ALIEN-HUMAN ENCOUNTERS are BULLSHIT
CATTLE MUTILATIONS are BULLSHIT
THE NOVEL STARSHIP TROOPERS is BETTER than the MOVIE
NYC PRIDE should ALLOW POLICE to MARCH in UNIFORM
TRANS WOMEN should COMPETE in the 2020 TOKYO OLYMPICS
THBT: PLEDGING ALLEGIENCE to a FLAG is STUPID
HARI SELDON's ONE THOUSAND YEAR PLAN did NOTHING to INCREASE HUMAN HAPPINESS
THE ARIZONA Q-ANON AUDIT is BULLSHIT
IF HOMEOWNERS REBUILD after NATURAL DISASTERS, HOMEOWNER's INSURANCE should AMORTIZE the COST of EMERGENCY RESPONSE and REBUILT INFRASTRUCTURE
ZACK SNYDER's "300" is RACIST
As GENERALS GO, HANNIBAL BARCA is OVERRATED
As GENERALS GO, ROBERT E. LEE is OVERRATED
The UKRAINE should JOIN NATO
The MATRIX is a CAUTIONARY TALE of UNREGULATED CAPITALISM
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If you are innocent until proven guilty but then you are proven guilty and convicted in a court of law but then your conviction is overturned and your guilty verdict thrown out without exonerating you in any way....are you innocent or guilty?
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@SkepticalOne
I don't find the rest of your post to be necessarily relevant to the OP.
That's a shame because you failed to address the argument that racist lyrics are more representative of America then and now then whitewashed lyrics.
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@SkepticalOne
@fauxlawIn your view, FSK was threatening indentured servants and slaves of GB? I find that explanation lacking - we would expect FSK to address GB in general rather than just their hirelings and slaves.
I think fauxlaw is right- the "hirelings and slaves" are clearly a description of that band that swore that the havoc of war would leave Americans without a home and country.
The context is essential here. A band of British marines had been raiding up the Chesapeake all summer, freeing slaves was a standard part of the raiding although the extent to which those slaves joined in with the British is less clear. Slaves were generally untrained and more mouths to feed for fast moving raiding parties but experienced scouts and hunters would be very valuable. The British had freed a large number of slaves during the Revolutionary War with many promises of protection but ultimately only saved a couple thousand and left most of those in Canada and the Caribbean. Hard to know how much Maryland slaves trusted these invaders.
We should also note that Maryland always had more free Blacks than any other state. In 1810, about 10% of Blacks in Maryland were free (By 1860, nearly half of all Blacks were free). Depending on the outlook of local militias, some American forces might have had a substantial black contingent. Washington and Baltimore were the two cities with the largest free Black populations in the world outside of Africa and perhaps Haiti at the time and the defense of those city's ramparts would have included substantial Black populations.
All that said, I read Key's characterization as more a classist insult than a description of the enemy's actual duty. He is contrasting America's volunteer militiamen fighting for their homes to the marines of the British army fighting for money or because they have no choice. While there is no denying that British marines of 1812 were the finest, toughest army of the age (or most other ages), Key's accusation mainly sticks: the redcoats were a bunch of foreign mercenaries, emancipated prisoners, and indentured servants. Key clearly thought of the British army as rabble and these lyrics are meant as disrespect against that rabble.
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@SkepticalOne
For these reasons, I contend our national anthem should be retired for something more representative of all Americans.
- You say "reasons" plural for retiring the Star-Spangled Banner (I assume from its job as our National Anthem) but I only detect one reason: that the SSB is racist.
- I'm not a big fan of throwing out art just because that art no longer reflects our values. Art is not always meant to please or satisfy- Art can be offensive. Art is also an essential part of documenting our heritage. Moby Dick and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reflect and record racist times and values but I think we must preserve that art as part of how we remember our history and note our progress and resolve to do better. I don't think we toss out old statues just because we are offended by the values held by the subjects depicted. I don't think we should change the name of Mt Evans just because that Governor was a Klansman. That kind of white-washing makes the sins of our past easier to deny in future and pretends that we did not inherit what sins we inherited. I believe in preserving the past and the art of the past as authentically as we can, as well as carrying it forward with new artistic responses to old values.
- I believe that the racist content is the more representative art. You can't understand America at all without understanding American racism and how it defined us and defines us still.
- America the Beautiful is certainly less racist but it is certainly also less representative. Are we really all about Pilgrims and alabaster cities (actually a little racist if you think about it)?
- America the Beautiful loves the American geography but unlike any nation founded before us we are not defined by our geography, we our defined by our common project- that govt. of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth. I prefer an anthem that reflects our people and our history more than our geography.
- Which is more authentically American: amber waves of grain or Kaepernick taking a knee? Let's live in the sins of our past so that we remember that we have done better since and resolve to continue to do so.
- Also, almost nobody ever sings that third stanza.
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@FLRW
-->@oromagi‘The truth is still out there’
That goes without saying since the truth remains the truth no matter what your geographic location.
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@bmdrocks21
just because something has a disproportionate impact on some group doesn't make it wrong.
If that something is corruption and that impact is disenfranchisement of US citizens than yes, that is always wrong no matter who the group.
Enforcement of any law or regulation will always affect one group or another more than others for a slew of reasons.
But the GOP paying a private firm to illegally remove tens of thousands of blacks from the voting registrars was not "enforcement of any law," The opposite, in fact.
Taxes affect Whites and Asians more than Hispanics and African Americans, for example.
Including federal and state taxes, the tax code likely “worsens” the wealth gap, said Kim Rueben, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. Local taxes tend to be flatter, eating up more money from lower-earning households as a proportion of their income, she noted.
Disparities are less clear when focusing on the federal code, she said. Higher earners pay higher income rates — but they also have access to “special aspects of the tax code.” That includes the rules surrounding capital gains and inheritances, she noted.
“For people starting with less assets, which on average black and Hispanic households are, it is harder to access these benefits in the tax code,” Rueben said.
“There’s nothing in the way the federal income tax is written that’s explicit about race. But because of the demographics and characteristics of different taxpayers, it can have different effects,” she later added.
There is nothing inherently wrong with them making up that large of a percentage of the purged voters. There may have been ~1,100 of AA that shouldn't have been purged, but was that incorrect purge rate higher for them? How many of other groups were incorrectly put on the purge list?
The first list DBT Online provided to the Division of Elections in April 2000 contained the names of 181,157 persons. Of these, approximately 65,776 were identified as felons. 88% of this list were Black (FL is 11% Black). That's 159,418 Blacks removed from the rolls. In May, election official complaints led to the discovery that at least 8,000 people on the list had never been convicted of more than a misdemeanor. DBT never claimed that more than a third of the removals were due to felony convictions and even that list was shown to be extremely tampered with. Election day revealed thousands and thousands more on the criminal list who had never been convicted or only had misdemeanors. Blacks who had been pardoned by the Governor were still on the list.
The reason that there was a large voter purge was in part spurred by the massive fraud in the 1997 Miami mayoral election,
also by Republicans
in which elderly people were manipulated in their votes (hence the mentally impaired part of the bill), dead people voted, and nonresidents voted. So this came from a desire to enact voting security and ensure confidence in election outcomes.
Which explains why a Republican Secretary of State paid a well-established firm $5000 for a well-justified list in 1998. It does not explain why a Republican Secretary of State paid a former drug runner $4 million for the super sloppy list of 2000 that "just happened" to remove 8 times more black voters than all other voters combined. The company officially warned the State that its process would misidentify many, many legal voters and the State approved. That is a crime that by itself won the Republicans the presidency in spite of garnering half a million fewer votes than Democrats.
The intervention did not necessarily go against the majority of voters' choice if it prevented more illegal voters from voting than legal voters.
Yes it did. That crime necessarily overturned the majority of voter's choice as soon as it illegally disenfranchised 537 voters.
Hispanics, at the top of their Republican support were still a net negative for Bush, meaning that targeting Hispanics overall would have helped them.
Hispanics are the swing vote in FL. You can piss off the Blacks because they were never going to vote GOP anyway but if a FL Republican pisses off Hispanics, particularly Miami Cubans who vote in blocks (the 1997 Mayoral election being a great example), Republicans lose Florida, period.
20 counties rejecting it means nothing. There could be a handful of reasons for them rejecting it. I'd imagine every democrat county rejected it because it affected their voter base negatively and they want to win elections.
Some county commissioners rejected the data because they found their own name on the purge list!
Let's ask ourselves honestly, if a third of all counties in GA or AZ had objected to a voting procedure as illegally disenfranchising thousands of white males, would Trump voters even care what the facts were? No. Fat Nazis would be scaling the walls of the Capitol with swastika flags and nooses in hand even as we.....oh, wait.
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Badger asked me to comment so I will point out that the popular American conception of a Capitalism vs Socialism dichotomy is an artifact of Cold War religion without much grounding in reality.
Capitalism is private ownership of the means of production for the purpose of profit.
Socialism is public ownership of the means of production for the purpose of public welfare.
Communism is a specific utopian form of Socialism that has never been tested and was made irrelevant by the industrial revolution, globalism, and the migration of human populations to large cities. Anybody who talks about Communism as a thing that existed is going by misleading labels and not by actual definitions. Anybody who calls Stalin's USSR or Communist China an example of Communism or Socialism is wrong- the people never owned the means of production in those states. In any autocracy, the autocrat(s) control the means of production and all attempts at private or public control are shot in the back of the head.
I don't believe either economic philosophy exists apart from the other and that excesses in either dynamic are unsustainable.
In order for the people to genuinely control the means of production, some kind of democratic system of government is necessary and with that inherent enfranchisement comes at least some degree of independence necessarily. But the mob can be just as tyrannical, stupid, slow, and fickle as any individual and when the overall public benefit runs contrary to an individual's sovereignty and comfort, freedom is trampled. The necessity of satisfying the majority necessarily limits the efficiency of profit-making and the accumulation of wealth.
Capitalism allows for greater extremes on the freedom index than Socialism. Unlike Socialism, Capitalism carries no inherent promise of democracy- slavery is not just permitted under Capitalism, it is outright encouraged as a most efficient form of human labor. We should remember that the most perfect Capitalist society ever depicted in fiction is The Matrix- all human production efficiently managed by AI for the maximal production of energy. Since a society where no humans are free can still be called Capitalism- we can't conclude that Capitalism is closely linked to freedom. Nevertheless, Capitalism is far more efficient than Socialism. Without encouraging the freedom of private enterprise to take risks, re-invest, innovate, and restlessly re-negotiate, public economies stagnate and regress.
You can't have one without the other. Socialism has a requisite degree of freedom that Capitalism lacks but a well-regulated free market is far more profitable and so makes room for greater degrees of freedom, ultimately.
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The much anticipated DNI preliminary assessment was released last Friday. My assessment of their assessment is that I could have written most of it for them years ago, it was that predictable.
##########EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP)
hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP.
AVAILABLE REPORTING LARGELY INCONCLUSIVE
Limited Data Leaves Most UAP Unexplained…
Limited data and inconsistency in reporting are key challenges to evaluating UAP.
- But Some Potential Patterns Do Emerge
Although there was wide variability in the reports and the dataset is currently too limited to allow
for detailed trend or pattern analysis, there was some clustering of UAP observations regarding
shape, size, and, particularly, propulsion. UAP sightings also tended to cluster around U.S.
training and testing grounds, but we assess that this may result from a collection bias as a result
of focused attention, greater numbers of latest-generation sensors operating in those areas, unit
expectations, and guidance to report anomalies.
- And a Handful of UAP Appear to Demonstrate Advanced Technology
In 18 incidents, described in 21 reports, observers reported unusual UAP movement patterns or
flight characteristics. In a small
number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with
UAP sightings.
The UAPTF holds a small amount of data that appear to show UAP demonstrating acceleration
or a degree of signature management.
UAP PROBABLY LACK A SINGLE EXPLANATION
- Airborne Clutter
- Natural Atmospheric Phenomena
- Foreign Adversary Systems
- Other
UAP THREATEN FLIGHT SAFETY AND, POSSIBLY, NATIONAL
SECURITY\ EXPLAINING UAP WILL REQUIRE ANALYTIC, COLLECTION AND
RESOURCE INVESTMENT
#################
- The report seems to deliberately ignore the possibility of unclassified US tech but that is to be expected from the DNI. To my thinking, the revelation that most of the reports happen around US testing and training facilities is a big red arrow pointing at US experimental craft.
- I was surprised that 80 of the 144 reports showed up on more than one sensor- that is, had some kind of radar ping to suggest that the object was not a trick of light but physical- that is a much higher proportion than I would have expected.
- Of those 80, "a handful" (let's guess less than 10) demonstrate at least some characteristics worth further investigation- multiple sensor confirmations, propulsion, acceleration, radio emissions, signature management (that is, stealth).
- None of the recently leaked UFO incidents seem to match any of these handful.
- It would be nice to correlate the worthy handful with testing facilities but I suppose that's too much to ask.
I think that a rigorous examination of such reports is a reasonable security precaution and I think it is to the benefit of everybody that pilots feel free to report such phenomenon in a timely manner without a lot of hoo-hah. We should be able to turn on a lot of eyes on unexplained objects in a short period of time. If there is US tech we are trying to keep secret, commanders should have enough information to know when to turn all eyes on and when to stand down. I wish DNI and military reports were a little more willing to dismiss and debunk the obvious bullshit but I suppose that bullshit helps to mask the secret tech (and perhaps that tech's shortcomings as well). Ultimately, I am fine with spending a little more taxpayer money to improve the speed and quality of the sensors we can turn on UFOs but I am more convinced than ever that the US Govt has a pretty good handle on the nature and scope of most UFOs already.
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@Wylted
I just talked to somebody in construction. He said the repairs to the structure could cost up to 2 million dollars.
$9 million
He said that when you try to do those repairs owners often will try to give pushback because it would cost a mere 10,000 a piece for each of these residents. Which might be a lot to people reading this but is a drop in the bucket to millionaire condo owners in MIami.
Owners at Champlain Towers South were facing payments of anywhere from $80,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $330,000 or so for a penthouse. The first payment was due July 1st.
He also said that owners give construction shit for the noise that fixing the structural issues of a building causes.
Repairs had been underway for several months and may have contributed to the collapse.
Saying stuff like"Oy vey, why can't you hammer quietly"
We get it. You hate Jews.
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@Wylted
The condo that collapsed in Miami as we know, had a disproportionately large amount of "reptilians" that lived there.
We get it. You hate Jews. You love neo-Nazis. We get it.
They were told they needed to fix a lot of the critical issues with the building as early as 5 years ago.So why wasn't it fixed?The most likely answer I can think of is as follows. The residents actually owned the place. They weren't renters. So the reptilians who are a cheap and sneaky species, knew of the buildings troubles and also knew construction was taking place near by. Being both cheap and sneaky, they decided to wait until construction was complete and somehow blame their own buildings structural issues on the near by construction and have them pay for the repairs.Anyone have another explanation as to why the condo owners would put their own life in danger knowing full well the structural integrity of the building was at risk of collapse, other than a reptile plan to sue construction nearby in a dishonest fashion to have repairs paid for?
- A more likely explanation than a non-human conspiracy? Yes.
- It is way too early to speculate usefully and at the very least the foundations of the building have to be examined before any speculation is warranted. That could be weeks away.
- Any 12-story steel and concrete building constructed on a sandbar is going to be a short-lived edifice by Mother Nature's reckoning.
- Sinkholes can form underground with little warning and sinkholes are extremely common in Miami-Dade county which is basically just a thin layer sand on top of old coral reefs slowly precipitating into calcium carbonate.
- The southern tip of FL was the first part of the US discovered by Europeans but just about the last place settled (Miami's population in 1900 was 1,600 people) because we lacked the tech to build permanent structures on thin strands of sand between the swamp and the sea.
- This building, facing the Atlantic, has sustained weathering from 12 hurricanes including 3 major and one dead-on category 5 hurricane since it was built. I don't think there's another place on earth where humans have tried to keep the beaches stable in the face of so many storms. Miami averages more than an inch of rain per week.
- This building has been sinking at a rate of about 2mm/year or about 3-4 inches overall since it was built. That might not seem that bad unless parts of the building sink at different rates, adding weight to steel rivets and twisting beams until they give.
- At the same time, the ocean has risen about 7 inches around Miami forcing corrosive salt water into the drainage and sewage infrastructure underneath. Surfside had a moratorium on any new construction in the '70's because their water infrastructure couldn't handle the growth. Champlain South was the first new construction after the moratorium because they paid $200,000 for sewer improvements (even in 1981 money, that wasn't a lot)
- To me, it seems less amazing that this building collapsed than the fact that so many hundreds of others stay up. Even 2000 years ago, homebuilders knew better than to build on sandbars.
- Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
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@Theweakeredge
-->@oromagiWhat?? They are allowed to come - just not in uniform?? "Oppress" That's the word you wanna use for not allowed to come in uniform? Your spewing bullshit now.
Yes, oppression is the correct word for forcing people into the closet, for telling queer and allied cops they should be ashamed of the job they do and the uniform they wear and they should hide from their gay family on the day they are supposed to show people who they are. Yes, goddamn it, that is fucking oppression and the queer community needs to pull their head out of their ass on this one.
And systemic oppression by the police is a problem EVERYWHERE in the U.S, its a problem with the system as a WHOLE. And not just for LGBT people. for minorities of all different kinds - in general - the US Police Department has a problem with brutality and corruption - we should be focusing on getting rid of ALL of the police, and replacing it with a much less corrupted department.
That is political posing without a shred of common sense or thinking. When the rule of law is gone, the mob always comes for the faggots first. The police enforce that rule of law. When you get rid of the police, you don't get some utopian emancipation, you get the mob or you get soldiers- those are the only choices when the police are gone and neither is kinder to queers than the cops- study your history.
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@Nyxified
-->@oromagi @TheweakeredgeIn concurrence with what Theweakeredge has said, just because you are comfortable with police at pride doesn't mean that everyone is.
I didn't say that I am comfortable with police at pride, I said my level of comfort is entirely irrelevant to the politics of pride. There's all kinds of crazy bitches at a pride fest that make me feel uncomfortable- always has been. Like I said earlier, I don't like Roger Stone marching in pride parades but I would never dare ban him or boo him for marching. I haven't the right and that would corrupt the political value of the exercise. The point of pride is being who you are, entirely who you are, and demonstrating maximum inclusivity within that context. Fuck the comfort level of everyone and anyone. Everybody should be welcome at a pride fest. If you are uncomfortable with the ethos of pride, then you are the one who should be staying home.
Cops are free to participate in pride off-duty.
No they aren't. Cops are being told they can only participate if they put unapproved aspects of their identity into the closet. The closet is the opposite of freedom. Pride parades should know better than other venue in the world the real harm of forcing people back into the closet.
Police have been and continue to be a symbol of oppression for the 2SLGBTQQIAAPN+ community.
Like I said, as a victim of that oppression and a witness to it I am here to tell you that it is better today than it has ever been before- why punish police for making such substantial improvements? Why punish the cops who embrace pride for the sins of the rapidly shrinking minority who don't? It is 100% counter-productive.
While I agree that police marching at pride is, in a way, a victory, and I agree not all cops are bad, your experiences as a member of the LGBTQ community are not a trump card. Just because you can move past the centuries of oppression symbolized by the uniform also worn by the enforcers of still existing laws that are discriminatory against the LGBTQ community (mostly trans people) doesn't mean everyone else can, nor should they have to.
Hell, yes, it does. That is literally the heart of tolerance, sufferance, and liberalism. That is the American mission in a nutshell.
You can't fix discrimination by counter-discrimination.
You can't promote tolerance by practicing intolerance.
If queers can't figure out what love thy neighbor means and welcome everybody as an example to all, than we have no business asking others to figure it out to our benefit.
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@Theweakeredge
@oromagiYou do not represent every gay person who has been harmed by the police - the antigay police is not the only reason why they shouldn't march in police at pride - your also missing the entire systemic oppression thing they do.
As I said, I see no evidence of systemic homophobia in police depts. anymore. I do see some evidence of systemic racism in some places- State troopers in Monroe, LA, for example.
If you are saying gays should exclude uniformed cops from pride parades in solidarity with oppressed minorities elsewhere, I strongly disagree. Excluding the police only heightens tension and creates barriers.
Many police and their allies are gay and minorities, too. By calling police unworthy of pride, you make gay cops and minority cops feel unwanted, unwelcome in their community. I know gay FBI agents and gay Secret Service agents who are sitting out pride, furious at feeling disinvited from family.
The correct response to oppression is NEVER to oppress the oppressors- all you do is increase the amount of oppression in the world. Revenge by segregation is never the path to justice.
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@Vader
@oromagiI did not know that you are gay
how is that even possible?
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@ILikePie5
Why can’t Biden just sign the bipartisan bill without putting conditions on it? Simple question really.
Because the GOP are a bunch of bad faith anti-American putschists who can't be trusted to give a drink of water to a thirsty voter unless they're sure they'll get their vote. Mitch McConnel promised last week that if he makes Majority leader again he'll never consider another Democratic nominee to the Supreme Court but then he has the nerve to whine about proper parliamentary procedure. Mitch McConnell raped bipartisanship in the ass for 6 years and now can't understand why Biden wont cuddle.
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@Wylted
Plenty of homosexuals are conservatives.
Yeah, but they're all in the closet and don't come to parades, except for Roger Stone.
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@ILikePie5
@oromagiThe news is that 10 Republican senators have struck a deal with Biden on infrastructure and McConnell is howling treason. But FOX News doesn't want to report on Biden victories so FOX tells puppets like Wylted where to focus their attentions and pop, the Wylteds of the world obey.And then Biden said he wouldn’t sign that bill unless more money for liberal wish list projects are added to it
The infrastructure bills have been pursued in tandem since March. Some stuff is covered by reconciliation and does need any GOP votes. Some stuff is not covered under reconciliation and now BIden has negotiated a price and scope for those projects and got GOP support on record.
Remember that the GOP promised infrastructure for four years under Trump and instead chose to cut taxes for the wealthiest. What the right wing calls a liberal wish list Americans calls catching up on years of greed, neglect, and inaction by the GOP.
Giving tens of billions to the moribund fossil fuel industry to clean up coal or build unneeded pipelines- that is a real wish list. Few jobs and a lot of money handed out to a lot of wealthy people and little to no public benefit realized.
Getting lead pipes out of our water supply, expanding childcare and community colleges to make our workforce more completive, building an electric vehicle infrastructure- that's just basic shit we need to do to keep up with China, to remain a first world country. What you call a wish list I call good government.
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@fauxlaw
Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
I have to say I'm surprised by the ignorance demonstrated here and a little put off by the tone. Was this a sincere religious inquiry or just a pack of rhetorical velociraptors looking to cull an individual from the herd? I'm not so sure now.
Damn, is there anything online less Christian then a RELIGION forum?
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