The Good Post Gallery

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm actually a little embarrassed now, I didn't realize that post was in this thread so I just quoted it, copied it, and then went to Forum Community and then back to this thread to paste it rather than just hit "quote->post"

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

But anyway Maher kind of reminds me of Christopher Hitchens in that some secular liberals will actually admire him just for what he said in his atheism despite the fact that otherwise he was an incredibly sickening individual (for f**k's sake that asshole endorsed Bush in 2004, that's really all you need to know how much of an utter scumbag he was.) Maher is nowhere near that level of course but it's not a reason to overlook all his flaws.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Alas such an otherwise great post had to have the erroneousness mention of Rod Grams, who lost in 2000.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

xhamster is great.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's always funny to see presumed left-wingers suddenly argue that people working in degrading jobs where they get exploited is a great thing. I guess that mostly just applies as long as the people doing the work are coloured women rather than white middle-class males.

It gets extra funny when Lief himself compares it to working in coal mines.

See Gustaf, this is the problem with you.

I find Lief's arguments to be completely wrong, misguided and somewhat silly. But there's nothing in what he posted that in any way suggests he's a misogynist or a racist. You're just bringing out strawmen instead of actually addressing his points (which you don't need to, since Politicus did that excellently).

That's what I said when I mentioned your "disturbing tendency to judge people very early and to argue against strawmen instead of against them". At least get aware of this.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Eh well I missed that part. The rest though was a good rebuttal to Gustaf's constant pearl-clutching in that thread. Antonio's doing a great job of owning him otherwise.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

From a rather surprising source...

Oldies, there are a plethora of reasons the Republican Party is today more worthy of your vote than the Democratic Party.

Not only is 'the Democrats supported slavery in the 1860s' not one of them, that's actually really stupid. Because organizations that have been around for centuries change with the times.

The example that you are Christian but disapprove of the Crusades was brought up. You answered that that's OK, because Christ would have disapproved of the Crusades too.

Lincoln wanted to deport black people to Central America. However, this is not a valid reason to oppose the Republican Party today. Why? Because everybody who was part of the organization back then is dead. Therefore, they no longer matter. You have to judge an organization by what it does now, or what it's done in the comparatively recent past (within the memberships of the majority of it's current members is how I would define this) to decide whether you approve or disapprove of it. The 1860s can't decide your vote in 2012.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's inane about that? It's a great point, it serves as a deterrent, creates jobs, and isn't as harmful to those being processed as jail time or exuberant fines.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

A reply to a quoting of your posts about the benefits using 12 step programs on drunk drivers even if the drivers aren't actual alcoholics.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

wait memphis is a racist and misogynist?  did i miss something?

He is neither a racist nor a misogynist. Unless you think there are no differences between men and women. In that case, Memphis is certainly a misogynist.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Adults who like the for boys Adventure Time are just as lame as the bronies.  There's nothingIn these shows that an adult with no children can find useful.  Read a book. Expand your knowledge.

I'm not really interested in the ponies and I still don't know what Adventure Time actually is, but I find the idea that 'proper adults' should be able to divine some kind of utility-value (however defined) out of things they read or watch, and that the extent to which they admit of doing so has a direct correlation to the ostensible target audience age, a little questionable.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think it's more that the educated rich in Central London and Paris and Scandinavia are still secure in the instinctive knowledge that they own the country and the government, and that when government becomes smaller, the parts of it that they use will never be affected.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's your problem, Phil?

A sense of self-superiority based on something he really doesn't have much, if any, experience with beyond a fourth grade DARE class.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

At least Inks doesn't deal with his fellow moderators any other way than with the rest of us. You may disagree with his policy but you got to respect his impartiality.

I don't. This is an ONLINE FORUM not a state prison, Inks needs to chill with his extreme hard-line policing. He's obsessed with the means as opposed to the ends and it makes for having a highly negative impact on the forum. The moderating community as a whole has reached that point. A little drunk on power, a little high on themselves, and a whole lot of unnecessary expressions of control over relative calm. This shouldn't even be a conversation, it's ridiculous. I'm of the mentality that unless something is wildly, universally offensive, leave it the hell alone until a problem actually arises rather than stirring the pot more than if we didn't even have moderators. They have completely defeated the purpose of their existence by exacerbating exactly what it is they're supposed to quell. Just chill the Inks out, yo. Now you've got me all peeved over nothing...and I'm gonna have to smoke a j now. Thanks a lot.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Democratic Party was found in the 1820's, decades before the Jim Crow laws in the South.  The Democratic Party was founded as a result of a split in the Democratic-Republican party with one faction, the Democrats taking a populist route.  While it is true many Democrats from the end of Reconstruction to about the mid-20th century were supports of segregation and played on racial tension, it is not true that Jim Crow shaped the very foundation and philosophy of the party, as you claim.  Rather, it was a horrible and repugnant decision taken by the party in the aftermath of the Civil War, but it was not part in the party’s foundation. 

No one is disagreeing with you that Democrats were segregationists in the past, but the idea that this unfortunate past is somehow irrevocably tied to everything the Party still does is plain wrong.  It would be the equivalent of me saying the Republican Party is intrinsically tied to homophobia forever, because of the actions of some Republican politicians today and in recent history, pushing for gay marriage bans.  I strongly disagree with the Republicans on this issue.  That being said, for me to say that everything the Republicans do from now to the end of time is somehow influenced by this horrible position is wrong and I would never make that claim. 

You see, here is the thing.  The beliefs and ideologies of people, groups, and even entire organizations can change over time.  Should we hold all Germans born today as responsible for the actions their country took in WWII?  Should we hold all Americans responsible for the actions our ancestors took against Native Americans, actions politicians of BOTH parties supported?  I hope you can see why I think that it is ridiculous to say that everything we do is somehow a reflection of the past, especially if we’ve changed. 

Judging by your posting history, I somehow feel posting this is a pointless exercise on my part.  I know people with deeply-held beliefs are very unlikely to change them based on a post from some stranger on a discussion forum, and your beliefs seem deeply-held.  Still, I hope what I said at least provides something for you to reflect on. 

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

A great retort to a deluge entry:

His base will simply freeload like they always do. Miss 32 year old power lawyer working 80 hours a week will pay for it.

Haha, well discouraging the behavior of being a lawyer will certainly be a positive side-effect!

However, don't feel too bad, krazen - all those 'freeloaders' will also be working 80 hours per week, cleaning up the garbage or frying chicken or something like that.  So, your 'everybody is miserable' goal will be more than fulfilled.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Inks actually gets a good one:

Phil, nothing of what I said was incorrect.  I have some serious problems with Catholic doctrine.  The opposition to birth control other than family planning is very legalistic, and that's not the point of Christianity.  Christianity is not a hard set list of dos and don'ts.  Yes, there are the 10 Commandments, but there are sins other than those, and the Catholic Church, like the Jewish leaders in Jesus's time have become too focused on strictly applying rules.

Some of the doctrines of the Church smack straight up of heresy, such as Papal infallibility.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yes, a good (laugh) post indeed! Love Inks whining about institutions that are too worried about strictly applying rules. Can't make this stuff up.

Actually that's a good point, it's perhaps the first ever likely simultaneous entry in both the Good Post Gallery and the Irony Ore Mine.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yes, a good (laugh) post indeed! Love Inks whining about institutions that are too worried about strictly applying rules. Can't make this stuff up.

I'm not whining about them strictly applying rules... It's not the strictness I mind; it's the fact that I think the rules themselves are wrong.

But you have called for strict enforcement of laws that you have said you also think are wrong as well.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What I want to know is what in God's name Benghazi has to do with Hagel or anything related to him. It's so transparently just the new excuse for whatever the Republicans don't feel like doing, at least in the bailiwick of foreign/defense policy. I can't recall a similar excuse that became so unbelievably irritating and craven so quickly at any time in recent history, though of course such things are inevitably subjective.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is what makes the Bushie story so intriguing.  When building all the details seem pretty boring and straightforward, but then the twist comes and we're left piecing together all those previous scenes actually meant and our mind is blown at how we missed it the first time.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Really the problem is that any standard for evaluating the merits of a policy could also be used as a standard for categorizing other standpoints. So just as we have a political compass that categorizes views according to their attitude to libertarian notions of "freedom" and "government intervention", you could have an egalitarian compass where views get boxed together based on whether they promote equality in different areas, a Catholic compass where being anti-abortion and pro-death penalty would get represented as applying contrary principles, and so on and so forth. What the most natural way is to categorize political views is itself a question of political theory; it doesn't stand outside on purely neutral ground.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Jeff, answer me this... Does the plan contain any of the following words/phrases: Kenya, salesman, door-to-door, and then I go out and find 3 more people to sell the product, move, apply for a credit card, engagement, Maisha, unemployed, wait for a management position, or adoption?

If so, it's a bad plan.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

3. You don't need cable and Internet to live in a house.  Especially when you're talking about short-selling a house.  Bank fraud, Jeff... Bank fraud.  The idea of you getting approved for a short sale for this house is just disgusting.  I think you know you shouldn't be eligible, and your actions here are truly despicable.

What the hell?  You think someone shouldn't be approved for a short sale because they have internet and cable TV?  You have no connection to reality, man.  Just vengeful nonsense.  Poors can be poor and still have internet and cable TV - those things are very minor incidental expenses. 

If anyone is eligible for a short sale it is BushOK - he's destitute and unemployable.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's convenient to frame the world's problems as one group's fault.  Unions, corporations, Jews, welfare recipients, the UN, Satan, the Catholic Church, and genetically-modified foods are just some of the usual suspects.

Come on, that's just silly.  It is obvious that one group - the wealthy - are responsible for all the world's problems, because they clearly have all the power.  To blame 'unions' for anything is just bizarre, like blaming the janitor for a stock market crash.