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Messages - dman11235

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1
Off Topic Fun / Re: So apparently I had cancer
« on: March 27, 2017, 09:28:52 AM »
Did they do a PET scan?

Not yet.  I get stitches, tubes and sutures removed in 2 weeks, after which surgeon thinks I'll be ok to see Oncologist and do testing.  He said they might wanna do barium enema, and with my guts torn up like they are now that would be bad idea.

What about a....CAT scan.... :flutter

2
Off Topic Fun / Re: Celebrity Death Thread
« on: March 01, 2017, 01:39:39 PM »
Bill Paxton dammit

3
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: February 04, 2017, 12:27:54 AM »
Can you name another youth group like the Boy Scouts?  That's why.

4
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: January 31, 2017, 09:20:26 AM »
I predicted 2 years before impeachment.  It looks like it might be 2 weeks.  Either that or we're in more trouble than I thought.

5
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: January 22, 2017, 09:39:40 AM »
iirc he had FOUR prosperity gospel people.  One of whom is a personal friend and adviser.

6
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: January 20, 2017, 08:46:39 PM »
What?  Was something ...  :whistle ... going on today?

Ironically, my i.p. address today is going through Wash DC 20007 (which I was totally unaware of, 'til 2 minutes ago). 


Goldman Sachs is near totally in charge of the economy now ; and "rumor" has it they don't follow anyone else's ideology.  Roll a d20 for result please.

I think America just rolled a 1, what happens with that?

7
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: January 10, 2017, 10:02:09 PM »
So Trump may or may not be into golden showers and Russia may or may not have blackmail on Trump.  Thanks to anti-information campaigns I cant tell if the story is true or not but this is still everything I ever wanted but didn't know I wanted.  In related news the final words of 2016 were 'The Aristocrats!'

Also in more serious news, Trump's....guy?  I don't know his actual title, but a senior Trump adviser or something, the guy who kept saying 'Says who!' in response to a journalist asking him questions probably was in Prague meeting with Russian intelligence officers to do....stuff (we have no real way of knowing what they talked about).  This happened in July/August.  In response to these allegations, he posted a picture of his passport (the outside, so no stickers/stamps) with text "I have never been to Prague!". He then proceed to admit to heading to Italy in June.  You know, the same time these meeting happened.  In a country where traveling to Prague would require no passport checks.

8
I'm pretty sure that this organization counts on that.....minus the murder part at least.  They go places like India, Russia, Indonesia, other places in the East Indies, places like that.  They mostly go places that don't have a huge set of infrastructure or culture, but still are modern enough to have everything they need.  And like in India, they lived in the rich parts of Mumbai.  Which are the safe parts.  And they worked in places with low danger, but poor people who are vulnerable to their cult messages.  India has specifically asked them to stop evangelizing while doing this help.  So they do 'good work' but the goal isn't helping people, it's saying 'look at how awesome OUR religion is!  Much better than YOUR old one!" Now, the low level people are the workers, they don't get paid much.  In fact, people outside the organization pay them.  The organization doesn't pay for this, you are reliant on your fundraising ability to go on these missions.  The organization heads however?  They take cuts.  They get PAID.

9
So my brother is a member of a cult.  His new job will include "the spiritual growth of new students"

Sounds like the PC way of saying "shamelessly indoctrinate and brainwash". :(

Basically.  He's working for a Christian organization btw.  Cru.  They have been known to extort money out of countries by sending missionaries too.  And....that's basically what he'll be doing.

10
So my brother is a member of a cult.  His new job will include "the spiritual growth of new students"

11
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: December 09, 2016, 10:05:31 PM »
Reminder: 44% of Americans think the world will end in their lifetimes.  A good chunk of them, enough to be noticeable, believe that this will be heralded by a Christian army and a Muslim army fighting in Syria.  ISIS is taking over very specific Syrian cities, because those are the prophesied battlegrounds, they are also trying to do this.  A number of people who really want us to go into Syria are doing this because they want to help usher in the end of the world.  So yeah, a pretty big chunk of conservative Christians would absolutely try to end the world.  I'm not sure Pence is one of them, but just because he's Catholic doesn't mean he won't.

Note: a large portion of the US consider us to be a Christian nation, and thus a Christian army.  We are not, but they consider us as such.  ISIS considers us as such.

12
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: December 09, 2016, 09:19:01 AM »
Have...have you seen our nuclear sites?  You know, the places that have come under fire recently for the people drinking on the job, cheating on the tests (everyone there cheating on the tests, at all levels, facilitated by all levels), the launch silos in disrepair, etc.  I say recently, I mean a couple years ago.  But the problem just went away, not being fixed, people just stopped caring.  Which put us back to before this was common knowledge.  This has been a problem for a while.

Although, that might be a good thing here, maybe the people in charge of turning the keys will just forget how to do it when the order come in.

13
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: December 05, 2016, 09:49:35 PM »
No no no.  See, Carson is great for the HUD Secretary.  it has 'urban' as part of its name!  And as Huckabee pointed out, Carson actually use public housing at one point in his life!  That makes him double qualified!

14
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: November 24, 2016, 04:42:59 PM »
Fun fact!  Trump's administration already is looking like it has a total net worth over 35 billion!  Champion of the common man indeed.

Wilbur Ross, a vulture capitalist, is being considered for Commerce.  He made his money buying up failing steel mills and then selling them for profit.  To off-shores companies.

His education is Betsy DeVos.  She's famous for destroying Detroit's school system.  And making tons of money off of it.  Her brother was the head of Blackwater.  She's in favor of spending public money on private schools.  And tangentially segregation.

EDIT: Also, this.

15
Off Topic Fun / Who here is good at Geogussr?
« on: November 17, 2016, 10:05:24 AM »
The Abbey is gonna release a new expansion for RE:IS soon, and has given two hints as to what it's going to involve. First hint is a girl with an ax.  Second one is a Google Street View picture.  Not even a screen grab, a picture of a laptop screen.  So we're tying to figure out where this place is, but you can't make out any text anyehere in the picture.  Any help from you guys?

http://imgur.com/a/pyMYC

You should probably go into figuring that out without seeing the girl, but if it does help here's the first hint:

http://imgur.com/a/7v9mf

and the thread we are discussing it in:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/296970/discussions/0/352792037330412758/?ctp=3


EDIT: Well, we figured it out.  Thailand.

16
Off Topic Fun / Re: When Does a (Unmodified) Rock Become a Tool?
« on: November 12, 2016, 10:06:33 PM »
It's more that it is a rock as it lies on the side of the road, and then a tool when it is in your hands.  These are not mutually exclusive terms.  It never ceases to be a rock.

17
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: November 12, 2016, 07:43:03 PM »
Quote
The world's real problem is population. Unless we can stabilize it, nothing we try to fix will stay fixed. But that's racist talk because right now the most populous areas, and the fast growing ones aren't white. Thus we can't discuss anything that might work, regardless of its palatability.

Birth rates level off as a country gets more prosperous and free. So we just need to make everyone better off. Which is the point of liberal economics in the first place, according to Adam Smith.

Except that if everybody suddenly started making as much trash as the populations in the USA and Europe, things will get pretty ugly pretty fast.

Heck, there's already a big pollution problem in China with all the factories and new cars around. And that's after the one-child policy bringing the birth rate down.

Last but not least there's certainly not enough energy for everybody to have first world living standards right now even if the companies didn't charge anything for it.

Waa waa waa things aren't perfect yet :P  China's problem stems more from the government policies and whatnot than population gross.Sure the population has an effect on it, but the lack of clean air standards there really hurts things.  Same with India.  India still burns poop for warmth in a lot of places.  Certain places in Europe have very high factory production but much less pollution.  Same with the US, but we aren't as good about pollution as Europe is.  The EU anyways.  As for energy needs....can I introduce you to my friend, fusion and fission power?

And Chemus, that whole drug sentencing thing is probably the biggest indicator of racism in the police force.  Not the biggest, the most apparent.  Crack cocaine carries a long jail sentence for possession.  Powder cocaine carries, I believe, a fine, and probation.  They are both the same thing, but in different forms, a large(r) crystal vs a powder.  One is used more heavily by urban blacks, the other by wealthy whites.  The sentences were decided on long after those were the stereotypes associated with those particular drugs.  And the urban blacks got hit with the much larger punishment for the same offence.  And then of course there's stop and frisk, the fact that a black male is more likely to go to jail than a white male for the same offence and for doing literally nothing, just being held, etc. etc.

18
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: November 12, 2016, 11:17:23 AM »
Very well.  Are you aware that what I said above was what the law was?  And that is what Mike Pence wants it to be?  They want government to be involved in the marriage and relationships of people, preventing them from being in a relationship with someone of their own gender.  I understand it is not a large issue with you, but can you understand how it can be a large issue for someone else?  Particularly someone who is gay or has gay loved ones?

EDIT: Also, this is something I don't think a lot of conservatives get.  As a liberal, my view about government is that it exists solely to be a protector and benefactor of the people.  Very, very similar to what you said you view as the role of government.  Our differences lay with how best to go about this.  I understand how government providing healthcare can benefit its citizens more than simply not instituting laws about healthcare can.  Using this example, the government regulates the industry simply to protect its citizens.  And because this regulation does(n't) increase cost, a subsidy for the people would benefit them (the regulations actually don't increase cost.  That is a fallacy.  The regulations actually have reduced cost, because without regulations we could and in fact have in the past had cartels and monopolies which artificially raised prices on things). So it's still under the 'protection' mission that these things come about.  Same thing with the social safety nets, like Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare.  Those are protecting the citizens.  Things like police and fire obviously protect.  Military too.  But so does the mass transit systems that a lot of cities have produced (more efficiently in other places like Europe, but still in the US).  Those things protect because it makes lives easier for the people using them, making it easier for organizations like police to move about (if there are fewer cars, that means it's easier to drive).  Even such frivolities like public parks protect.  They protect the mind, making people happier, and making it so QOL is better.  But the more important aspect of things that improve quality of life are that they generate revenue.  A happier populous is a more productive populous.  A more educated populous (free/subsidized education) is a more productive populous.  This generates the excess revenue used to fund those other, more concrete protection thing.  If it wasn't for our public education system, we would not be as successful of a country as we are now.

19
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: November 12, 2016, 09:43:30 AM »
Chemus.  Do you believe that government should be allowed to prevent people from marrying, in a religious, civil sense? As in, do you believe government should prevent a business or church from doing the ceremony, with no legal ramifications and should be allowed to prevent people from saying that they are married? Ignoring all the benefits that couples get, just, should government be allowed to tell people what they call themselves with regards to marriage?

20
Off Topic Fun / Re: The Politics Thread v3
« on: November 11, 2016, 02:02:14 AM »
Um....dude....in that article itself, it admits that green house gases do indeed trap infrared radiation. It, quoting from the article you linked, says "it slows the release of infrared radiation to space".  That's trapping it.  Slowing it means it's here longer.  That's trapping it.  That's ignoring all the other, quite honestly, bunk claims and science in that article.  Another example is the moon being hot/cold compared to the earth.  The moon is actually quite cold.  Surface rocks can be very hot, but that's like saying your house is burning down because you touched a hot pan on the stove.  But even so, that's not even the point of climate change and global warming.  The point is that those buffers that your article talks about, the oceans especially, being those great heat sinks, are warming up.  The air is not a good heat sink.  The oceans are.  And I can actually go into the physics of why CO2 is a greenhouse gas (and why water and CO are as well) if you want, but it's kinda getting off topic and would take a while to go through.

Quote
Yup. Seen that. But what about temps outside human history? Climate. Changes. We aren't gonna turn into Venus.

No, we aren't going to turn into Venus.  But we are going to lose a lot of resources we have now, it'll be more expensive and difficult to live here, and it will be our fault.  What about temps outside human history?  I don't have a fancy graph, but are you not disturbed by that insanely fast uptick at the end?  In that chart, there's Krakatoa, there's the mini ice age caused by the invasion of Europeans in the Americas, there's the end of the ice age, and look at how small and slow those are compared to the end of that chart.  Look at how subtle all those changes are until the end.  Venus is closer to the sun and has a LOT more green house gases than we do.  It has a CO2 concentration of something like 96%, and then it has sulfuric acid in the air as well which is an even better insulator.  We have no acid (well, not as much since we implemented reforms to emissions), and our CO2 levels hover way below that, below 5%  It's something like 2% right now I think?  At no time in the Earth's history, aside from the very beginning when it was basically a ball of molten rock and meteors constantly, has the temperature average of the planet changed so rapidly.  Not even the comet that hit 65 Myrs ago.

Quote
The person chooses 'B' or 'D'. The person responsible for my health, and healthcare, is me. If you injure me, you get to pay, but otherwise, I'm responsible. 'A' just means that everyone who pays the hospital also pays for those who don't pay (the exact same as "taxing corporations"; their customers get to pay taxes twice). One reason Healthcare prices have inflated is because there's unaccountable money (the person with the benefits is not ultimately responsible) injected into the system (Same with tuition prices; grants, scholarships, et. al. merely serve to inflate prices for all). Right now, if a person goes to ER when it's not life threatening and can't pay, everyone else picks up the tab anyway.

So you are A) okay with hospitals not treating someone who can't prove they have the means of paying, and B) you are okay with them treating you and forcing them to pay regardless of their ability.  You are okay with the hospital doing a procedure, without consent, and forcing them to pay.  That's what option D is.

Option A is what we were doing because as a society we decided that we were obligated to help our fellow man.  The moral choice for a hospital was to treat everyone, and figure out payment later.  Because otherwise bad things happen (see: mob tactics).  Option C is what we are doing now, because the government was able to collect and provide a benefit to its citizens.  A safety net.  Obamacare attempted to move this one step further, letting the government provide insurance, which would have reduced prices for everyone, and it has spectacularly worked, given out medical climate.  Rates, even after the rate hike we're expecting next year, are far below what it was projected to be before the implementation of the law.

Do you believe that all consumer protection services should be canceled?  I'm honestly asking this.  Should companies and businesses be allowed to make whatever claims they want, any business practice they want, and just let them run wild?  That's the sort of stuff that we did in the 1800s and early 1900s.  Life was really, really bad back then, especially for the working class family.

Quote
You don't get to tell me what I can't say. You can disagree with me. You can oppose my position. You can decry that my words make me sexist/racist/homophobic. You. Don't. Get. To. Shut. Me. Up.

You're right.  But do not confuse this with the person listening's right to not listen to you, or to not think you're a monster, racist, sexist, unicorn, whatever they want to think you are.  They have that same right.  They have the right to be offended and treat you as an offender.  However, you do not have the right to hurt someone.  Again, no shouting fire in a crowded theater.  Just like no punching.  You mentioned the whole conflict thing, this is that conflict thing.  You can absolutely be charged with conspiracy for shouting hate speech because the law knows that it is not 'fully protected'.  They have to show that you intended to incite violence with it, but in some cases this is not hard to do.  Others it is hard to do. And regardless.  You having the right to say something awful, does not mean the other people have to listen to you or respect you or take you seriously or insult you back.  You do not get to tell them what to say, you do not get to shut them up.  It makes you stressed to be called a racist after you say something that insults someone?  You just freaking insulted someone!  And you are complaining about them complaining about it!  You are trying to say that they can't say back to you what you just said to them!

Finally, the BLM stuff.  Your original complaint with them was that they were hateful and such.  I mentioned their purpose and now you are saying that they're not focusing on the correct part of things.  But are they?  Why is the existence of 'black on black crime' preventing people from being outraged that the government is killing people based on race?  I mean, it's not true that that's happening, but some police officers have shot people because of their race.  That i a thing that has definitely happened over the past entirety of human civilization, but more pointedly the past couple years.  I won't pretend to know what it's like living as a black teen in today's America, but I can listen to what they're saying about their own experiences, and I encourage you to as well.  I don't feel I need to counter the points and arguments you made in this section, because I feel they're irrelevant and sidestepping the issue.  Regardless of the existence of other times of gun related deaths, it's still wrong that police kill unarmed civilians.  And BLM is not supporting those other gun violences either.

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