The majority of gun-owners I've known are of the, shall we say, hippy, variety? They believe in coddling the weak and helping the downtrodden. Yet they own guns. They also use sharp knives to carve their food... food they cook with that scourge of man- the all-consuming flame of Prometheus!

I was in a European city recently, I was just as afraid of being mugged there as I was back home. Moreso, I might add, for in that city I was a tourist and therefore a target.

It's not the weapons we should fear, it's other people.

I like the future. I disagree with all of the hyper-judgemental luddites. People want to look different and take surgical steps to achieve that? Good. I want future generations to see that as acceptable because that means it might one day be acceptable to get chips in one's brain, cybernetic tentacles and myriad other bodily improvements. And I want all of those things.

Cowicide, I've said it before and I'll say it again: All of the anti-war sentiment in this country couldn't get an anti-war candidate either of the major party nominations... getting the Co$ tax-exempt status revoked seems a bit more realistic.

After all, the pro-war elements in this country, mainly hard-line christians of one flavour or another, hate Scientology. That should make an examination of Co$'s tax-exempt status politically palatable to people like Sen. Grassley and others.

Frankly, I think the hipsters' priorities are in the right place- change what you can.

Hate Fox all you want, at least they never put this: http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5/methfront/whatiscnnsaying.jpg
As their front page. (A list of articles about Obama's primary victories interspersed between an article about election violence in Kenya (with pic) and an article about Michael Vick's dogs. Pure, unadulterated race-baiting.

I didn't shop that image, I merely recorded it.

Viacom & al have it out for Spitzer, which is why there has been a concerted effort on all of their outlets to push him to resign. They replayed quotes from Letterman backing this up all through the morning traffic reports on both of their stations. What bothers the ever-living shit out of me is that they aren't challenged from any other sentry.

So like every other argument involving the advancement of human capabilities we have luddites in one corner and progressives in the other.

We ban travel to Cuba to protest their oppressive government that jails dissidents and stifles free speech.

Now let's all drive to Wal-Mart and pick up some cheap crap made by Chinese slave labor.

Well, we'd better set #4's hospital room-mate up with the girl in the article and get them to start breeding.

...or at least try to clone them.

Takuan: does that mean you've rethought your FP? Or...

#72 NOEN "Then you won't mind if I take yours. No? Then I'd suggest there is a flaw in your thinking somewhere."

Actually, I wouldn't. I gain no benefit from existing, I only continue because I am convenient to others. (which is a result of empathy)

See, since you obviously love your life you are incapable of considering the philosophical considerations taken by those who have transcended their biological compulsion to be alive in the first place.

Now disengage the pathways your brain has been using to reroute around grim truths and start using some logic.

What is it with the anti-Objectivists that make Objectivism seem so suddenly attractive? It might be the tendency to take any attempt at rational discourse and turn it into a name-calling contest.

Empathy is something that is felt by mentally-healthy human beings as a chemical response to seeing other objects in a state of dereliction or danger. These objects can be people, places, animals or physical structures. A psychopath is incapable of feeling any of that.

Furthermore, the idea that human life has inherent value, conceptually, is terribly flawed by the fact that life is far too cheap to be valuable. It is a commodity. That's not a judgement of mine, that is a fact. An otherwise healthy four-year-old will die from simple diarrhea while decidedly empathetic people march in futile protest to keep a vegetable on life-support.

So, at least try to attack ideas rather than resorting to name calling.

(disclaimer: I'm an Absurdist, I stopped knowing when I was kidding and when I was being serious a long, long time ago)

Panera's free wifi blocks Modern Drunkard.

Yeah I didn't have much else to add to this thread because I have half a bottle of John Jameson in me... but I was also drunk enough to decide that it was worth pointing out in the first place.

YMMV

THE SPECIALIST: "choose your battles."

You do understand what that phrase means, right? "Choose your battles" implies picking the battles you think you have a chance of winning. Considering that neither party has an anti-war candidate with a chance of clinching their party's nomination, I don't think that's a battle you can win.

Getting the IRS to revoke a malicious cult's tax-exempt status on the other hand... protests might just be able to accomplish that.

Also, I get the impression that you're a $cientologist...

Anyone else realize that this article is a back-handed advertisement for a huge corporate chain?

It took me an half a bottle of tequila for me to realize the tie-in.

The editors of Men's Health do not seem to comprehend that anyone ordering such a thing is unlikely to be concerned with the caloric content.

I cannot discern if it looks tasty or disgusting. The idea was "perfected" in a corporate kitchen/laboratory. They probably tested it with focus groups, so it might taste pretty good. For the very same reasons it may taste like ragout d'hobo scabs. I'll never know because you'd have to pay me to eat at an Outback.

#10: All infants should be on the no-fly list.

#46 the funding of the taliban was a vestige of the cold war; it was the same reason we ignored and reviled the world's largest democracy (india). However, destroying the taliban was/should be a global effort based on much higher ideals.

#43- no, it wasn't the same ideal in afghanistan, that's where the major betrayal ensues... they were ruled by the taliban and the rest of the civilized world was rallying for it to stop. As it turns out, that didn't work out like we hoped.

#9- I would say that any society which culls those intelligent enough to question its absurdly mythological foundation is not only a threat By systematically imposing a death sentence on anyone with a modicum of intellect Islam is threatening not only civilization but the human race as a whole.

I hate the way religions have warped mankind and have inculcated a sense of inspired barbarism. Evolution has brought us to believe that killing is wrong, but only through religion can killing be justified for divine ends. The rest of the civilized world has castrated these dogmas in the name of a more diverse social contract benefitting all participants. However, the Mohametans slay until only those stupid or spineless enough to agree with their backward principles remain. That was the foundation of their faith and it continues to this day unimpeded by the progress of the rest of mankind.

Articles like this make me side with Hitchens. All religions are horsecrap but Islam is a threat to civilization.

#25- Maybe a kid doesn't dream of working at McDonald's but maybe a kid dreams of owning a couple of fast food franchises. Learning how to run one would be the first step in that direction.

This would have been better as an xkcd cartoon.

I'm from north jersey (sopranos country), I've had pizza all across this country and have yet to experience anything less than disappointment when ordering pizza outside of what I call The Pizzadough Line. Said line encircles a 30 mile radius centered on NYC.

It's the sauce and to a lesser extent the quality of the mozzarella (pronounced: moot'sa'rel). Even transplants from this area seem to find themselves adding too much sugar to the tomatoes. I haven't determined why this is, but it's possible that tomatoes are more bitter in other parts of the country(?). This would then explain why Chicago pizza has such a bitter sauce im(not-so)ho.

But that contradicts the fact that I can order delectable pasta in many places and still not get a decent pizza. I haven't tried pizza in Toronto but I did sample a few in Quebec. With all of their french-inspired culinary magics they were unable to make a decent (expletive redacted) pizza.

Perhaps my tongue is a bigot? However, my tastes are normally xenomanic, if I haven't eaten something before I'll try it just for the sake of trying it (this is how I found myself eating a brain taco in Chicago). Why then the inability to enjoy "foreign" pizza? My experiments will continue until I have an answer.

You're doing a heck of a job, Bloomie.

*yawn*

Let me know when the First Church of the Sith is opening.

What did it taste like? I suppose we'll never know.

The groom's expression struck me as a "Dear lord, I've married a lunatic." realization.