champu

Is it, in your opinion, possible for the word marriage to ever evolve through common usage to include homosexual unions?

The story was on the AP wire yesterday afternoon. It doesn't surprise me that many media outlets are covering it. Attached is a three way comparison of the photos in question. (credit: AP) Suggesting that this was done on purpose because of Llamazares's political views is an attribution to malice where stupidity suffices. If you go on google images looking for particular features to use in a composite, chances are you're going to wind up using a picture of someone famous. /edited to add: And is it me, or does Llamazares look kinda like Judd Hirsch?

That's because people are mobbing water, food, and supply trucks/helicopters and able bodied people are trampling those in greater need out of desperation. Disaster relief includes food, water, and hospitals but it does not only consist of food, water, and hospitals. Like it or not, you have to keep people from going Mad Max on each other.

The concept of being able to admit you're a homosexual is still fairly new in this country and is not yet universal. We are in the middle of the evolutionary process that you're looking for. In California as homosexuals gained a modest level of acceptance in some areas they started getting married. This went along fine until a special interest group put prop 8 on the ballot and forced a governmental change in the language away from the direction it was headed. I understand your concern regarding the government and its manipulation of the language to promote agendas (Vietnam was a "conflict" but battling drugs is a "war"... wtf is that?) but the government can go wrong either by forcing a jump in evolution or by reversing steps that have already occurred. Now... It's possible that you're playing devil's advocate to try and show people that a path of lesser resistance is available to them in taking the word "marriage" out of government altogether, and I agree that course of action would be easier. But don't dress up a sidestep of those who would wed church and state in the clothes of etymological conservatism.

Yay! Now joining a union is a tax dodge. As the article said, a significant victory for the unions. How many people are projected to be hit with this tax at this point? And how many total dollars worth of health coverage are going to be taxed? (they've bumped up the family threshold, exempted people in high-risk jobs, and now they've exempted anyone in union jobs)

"Let's suppose it costs $50 for me to have someone killed. And let's suppose we want to kill all the gays. If there are x gay people in this class, it would cost x * $50 to kill them all. For example... by show of hands, how many people in the class are gay?"

This is what I was getting at with my first post. I need a cal factor. And that's another thing, the clock doesn't actually move on its own power. How far away it is from midnight is largely inconsequential if it's not running. It doesn't take any longer for someone to manually move the hands to midnight from 11:50 than it does from 11:55* * note: this actually remains within the metaphor better than I had intended. (i.e. I find the idea of slowly drifting on a mechanical course into nuclear war highly unlikely.)

Emmerich needs to stop making end of the world movies. Similar to when "they" connected a shitload of computers together to see what happens. Or when "they" wrote a shitload of code to see what happens.

Given the Mumbai attacks in 2008 and the fairly recent Indian Prime Minster's comments about his disappointment in Pakistan, I'd find it hard to believe Indo-Pakistani relations have improved in the last two years.

There happen to be a lot of things in that region. Like the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet. And while there are numerous "HAARP type" facilities around the world (the one in Ramfjordmoen is an international collaboration) you and this article both focus on HAARP because the University of Alaska receives funds from ONR, AFRL, and DARPA to conduct their research there. Have you ever peed in the ocean?

"Pseudo-Science" isn't strong enough of a pejorative to describe this story entitled: Norway Time Hole “Leak” Plunges Northern Hemisphere Into Chaos A month ago the Russians apparently have a failed SLBM test that results in a spectacular light show in Norway. Now we get an (admittedly, user-contributed) article in Pakistan about how it was a US experiment that has caused an incredibly harsh winter for the entire northern hemisphere. /edit to clarify for those who don't click the link that the article is on a Pakistani website.

wouldnt that be an interpretation of what we think we see? although i like the thought of seeing the end of the world, it makes me smile :) A couple interesting things to read about on this topic are the COBE and Wilkinson missions.

I don't get it...what part of the system "worked"? You have to subscribe to bill's idea of who comprises the system. It is his belief that every human being on earth is part of the government system. Well, more importantly you have to understand that this thread was IMMEDIATELY hijacked and contains little actual discussion about the Slovak screw-up. I don't think anyone is arguing that any system did anything in that incident. Hell the communication was so bad the poor guy got detained by Irish police for three hours. Regarding who is considered part of the system, as I said before I think "mobbing" is an acceptable planned defense for certain attacks. It allows security personnel to take their minds off things like snow globes and small swiss army knives that don't really pose a threat to a plane with a few non-submissive passengers and pay more attention to catching things like shotgun shells.

What was the clock supposed to have read, say, before the advancements in understanding of nuclear physics made in the 1930s? 11pm? Noon? Maybe it was the day before and the start of the Manhattan Project was the beginning of the "day" we are [thankfully] stuck in. And why has it never been 8 minutes to midnight? It's been 7 minutes five times! And 9 minutes twice! Are they trying to tell me with all that dancing around it's never been not quite as bad as it was in '47, '60, '68, '80, or '02 and yet slightly worse than it was in '74 or '98? Is this a quantum doomsday clock that's missing an energy band at 11:52pm?

Of course with a hunk of plastic explosives in your lap that's burning instead of exploding as you (and whoever else) intended, it's highly unlikely you're going to fix the device and detonate what's left of it. So it's hard to say the passengers' actions, notable as they may have been, actually saved the day. It's perfectly legitimate to consider "mobbing" a last line of defense in the system. In fact, there'd be even more ridiculous items banned if the TSA had to ensure nothing was allowed on board that could allow take over of an airplane full of completely submissive people. But I can picture the facepalms around the meeting room table when the guy with the laser pointer highlights the box in his flow diagram on a powerpoint chart that reads, "terrorist plan fails of its own accord."

About 10 years ago, and it's still around, a guy created a forum on his website called "FYAD" (an acronym for "fuck you and die.") and I always thought it was kind of an interesting approach to controlling profanity and fighting in other forums on the site.

I read your previous link. The only thing more ridiculous than intentionally removing "ic" from "Democratic Party" because you think anyone gives a shit is giving a shit that someone intentionally removed "ic" from "Democratic Party." Apparently this "ic" fued has been going on for decades, and yet I'm not the least bit surprised that I have never heard of it before now.

Eric Holder's testimony to the House Judiciary Committee this spring is a good example of why people need always be willing to be critical of others that are trying to argue on behalf of a viewpoint they share. On several occasions I've ragged on people in this forum for making terrible / misguided arguments in favor of things I agree with. There's at least a couple problems with bad arguments. First, getting partially right answers for the wrong reasons is non-repeatable, and leads to things like Phlogiston. Second, in today's polarized political environment it's just as effective to parade around a terrible counter-point as it is to make a good point of your own. And if the point being promoted this way is wrong, then it's a hell of a lot easier too. I'm not going to defend what Eric Holder said because I don't have to. Whether there is intent to cause lasting physical harm is immaterial. Torture is as much or more a psychological affair than a physical one. SERE training is exactly that: training. Entrants may not know what they're in for, but they know they're training. It's ridiculous to think that a particular technique used in these two different circumstances will have the same psychological impact and thus automatically carry the same designation as either torture or non-torture.

In the video you can see the reserve pin cover flap a couple times before the pilot chute comes out. Not knowing any better I'd guess the pin was partially dislodged and came out as the rig was shifted about in freefall. Useful tips that are irrelevant if I'm wrong but still good advice: 1) Check your reserve pin for proper seating. 2) Make sure you use a reserve ripcord with a correctly sized cable for the harness/container you are using 3) Try to jump a rig that has flaps that don't come open in freefall.

This is actually a pretty interesting theory. Although I'm not sure I'd call the 2006 Trans-Atlantic Plot "bumbling." Luckily we never got to see if they could actually pull it off, but there were a couple dozen people involved, and the coordination looked to be at least minor-league (compared to 9/11's "major-league" and some of these other guys' "drunken weekend softball with friends") The one-off people caught appear to be a mix of mid-level planners, useful idiots, and zombies. Whether or not anyone they may have worked with intended for them to fail is hard to say, but regardless, I doubt they know very much.

Rushmc, that is what we think YOU'RE doing. Feeling instead of thinking. Sorry you "feel" that way If you would take the time to "think" about it, you would see your error Redefining words and labels around what you and other people are doing actually has a lot in common with waterboarding itself. Both are incredibly irritating in the short term, excessive practice over extended duration can have lasting psychological impacts, and at the end of the day you walk away having heard what you wanted to hear even though it may not accurately reflect reality. Please stop torturing speakers corner.

I guess, as they say, that's why they have 31 flavors.

No... I've never listened to him. That doesn't change the fact that being incapable of writing someone's actual name when talking about them is idiotic and juvenile. If Limbaugh does it too, it's still idiotic and juvenile.

Using terms like "Lush Rimjob", "Shrub", "Obamanation", "rePUBIClowns", etc. etc. on an internet forum inherently constitutes an act of trolling. Unless you only use them on back-patting forums where everyone always agrees with each other, then they serve as sophomoric shows of solidarity. (like using the term micro$haft on a linux forum)

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=9463387 All that's missing is if Westergaard had a chainsaw in place of his right hand and a shotgun in his left hand.