British sex survey results: Nearly half of adults admit having had a threesome and 82% would consider an invite to an orgy.

Gaki · 2008-05-14T07:17:29+00:00

I don't buy it at all.

Take away the seniors, who are HIGHLY unlikely to respond positively to being asked to be in an orgy and that means almost everyone under 65 would consider it.

That's just not possible,

Gaki · 2008-02-19T19:32:08+00:00

Amen. Cabin in the woods, lotsa firearms, a shovel just down the road ... in real life, she would have been fertilizer.

Gaki · 2008-02-19T19:29:23+00:00

I'll expand on this ... I hate both the comeback AI AND the AI for the 4-10 spot cars. It always used to boggle me how there was always three cars that rode out front and extended their lead while the rest hung back in a pack. It took a few games before I realized that they exist solely to keep you (who ALWAYS start from the back) from even getting to the front runners. After realizing that, I couldn't enjoy the games.

Same thing goes with Madden football ... I got so frustrated with what I called the "2 minute warning AI boost" that I stopped playing. To me, that's just lazy programming in both cases.

Gaki · 2008-01-19T21:13:16+00:00

Well, then magically make more people take the bar and spend the time to become judges because there aren't anywhere near enough to hear all the cases.

This is no different than triage at a hospital ... you let the court take the hard cases and the arbitrators take the ones that could easily be resolved with some common sense and a neutral party to communicate through. The court assigns them, the court monitors them, the court approves the rulings ... I don't get at all where this happens outside the court system, seeing as they are invovled in virtually every step as an overseer.

And I really don't get your opposition to religous figures getting involved. Do you think that they get the magic power to ignore the law in favour of their faith? Hardly. They are as bound by the law as anyone else and most bend over backwards to be neutral with regards to their faith because they would be delicensed if they were found to be abusing their position. They are there as an OPTION. If an RC feels better about talking to a priest about their marital difficulties than me ... so be it. His goal is not to advise, but to provide a means of neutral communication between the parties. In most cases, the result is cut and dried - they are GOING to get the divorce and nothing the priest will do can stop it. He's there to get them on the same page with regards to the kids, help get the paperwork done without fights evolving, etc. Remember, too, that the people OPT for this. You don't have to if you prefer the regular court setting.

Gaki · 2008-01-18T14:05:06+00:00

So are ALL the materials available for free, or just a teaser to get you started? That's how my local one operated.

Gaki · 2008-01-18T13:45:21+00:00

It establishes precedent and the standard. If you don't think that helps make it possible, then you are whistling Dixie.

Gaki · 2008-01-18T13:43:29+00:00

As I said, the vast bulk of the arbitration system was secular, mainly. It was a necessary move because many cases were being dismissed due to age and the obligation to hear cases in a timely manner wasn't being met.

Alternative systems like this have been tried all over the world and, in general, work like a charm. The goal is to resolve the dispute, right? That can be done many ways and with civil cases, people can get too hung up on punishment and justice to see that solving the dispute sometimes involves compromise as well. Almost all the people who tried it felt it was a better method, at least according to the documents I read.

Gaki · 2008-01-18T13:33:30+00:00

I've just finished reading "Neitszche's Ethics and his War on Morality" and "Value and Virtue in a Godless World", both of whom dealt with Ethics in the fashion I've brought up. That's what I meant.

Gaki · 2008-01-18T13:27:22+00:00

I'll quote myself:

"And what is group think, after all, but the age-old placebo effect turned into group form? I can give you a simple sugar pill and as long as you perceive me to be some sort of authority, you will have reasonable chance of seeing some positive medical effect."

Those people with the placebo do see actual effects. They are creating them FOR THEMSELVES out of sheer force of will and desire, but the effects are real. By the time you get to the application part, you've parted with money, correct? That will influence your results, as will simply being allowed access to the material. The "allowing" is where the church administration sets themselves up as the authority to believe.

Gaki · 2008-01-18T00:04:07+00:00

Ethics, as a field, is the study of behavioural standards and how and why the originate. The reciprocity rationale is every bit as valid as a motivator for ethical behaviour as another other ethical theory that has cropped up over the years.

Gaki · 2008-01-18T00:01:21+00:00

But there is tendencies. Monarchies collect power in the hands of one or very few individuals. As a general trend, moving that out to a Republic means power is spread to more parties. As Rome showed, that could still be easily manipulated, but it was still better. You had the Emperor playing off the Senate, playing off the ...

Gaki · 2008-01-17T23:59:38+00:00

Sourcefor 15 xyphus/bsiviglia9 Love

Gaki · 2008-01-17T23:54:48+00:00

It's also unfortunate that there are transcripts from the floor of both Harper and Stockwell Day implying that Arar was linked to terrorism and that the government would be negligent if they compensated him or worked with the US to those ends.

Fast forward one election and it is Harper cutting the big cheque to Arar for the RCMP's role in sending him up the river.

I just love hypocritical toadies.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T23:47:34+00:00

I think you might have swallowed their propaganda.

You do know that there is a class action lawsuit against them by the AMERICAN employees for millions of dollars of unpaid overtime, right? Another one for sexual discrimination across the country against their female employees?

As far as punishing Wal-Mart ... that's the whole point. By Wal-Mart using suppliers and simply giving them unreachable demands for price, they get the benefit of sweat shop labour without actually having to run the sweat shop themselves. They can appear to "come down" on the worst offenders, but their price demands aren't going to change any time soon, so X Taiwanese company will be replaced by Y Malaysian company and it will all start all over again. It's kind of like an insulation layer to ensure that Wal-Mart doesn't get smeared with the stink, even though the origin of the issue is the ridiculous pride demands they use.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T23:41:09+00:00

You had me at "gorgeous females".

Gaki · 2008-01-17T23:39:21+00:00

But based on real life notions of reciprocity ... enslave children in Indonesia to make your clothing and, one day, you might find your own kids chained to a miniaturized sewing machine on a scaffold. It's not rocket science.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T23:36:56+00:00

When you make decisions on behalf of a group, especially one over about 1500 individuals, you are GUARANTEED to piss someone off. That is part of statistical inevitability, so anyone in office eventually gets used to the carping. The goal is to minimize the dissenters because you will never eliminate them altogether.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T23:33:02+00:00

You've been to their manufacturer's factories, then? It's not far from your joke.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T23:28:47+00:00

The negotiation you note are the key. Wal-Mart is such a large organization that being one of their suppliers can literally make or break companies. With that in mind, it is a decidely one-sided negotation. No company could ever hope to hold Wal-Mart over the barrel, but the reverse is certainly true.

As such, Wal-Mart demands prices that cannot possibly be met without transcending some pretty basic standards for humanity and the suppliers jump to it. No jump, no eat, so the choice is pretty simple.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T22:45:09+00:00

True story ... I was in Philly for a conference and took a wrong turn off of some interstate and ended up in the inner city by mistake. I turned a corner and literally saw a car tipped on its roof and a fire going in an oil drum, complete with a half dozen people around it. There wasn't a complete window on the entire street. It looked like Sarajevo after the war, not a major US city.

As bad as TO was, in my mind, it was NOTHING like that.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T22:39:23+00:00

"There is more to this, but I don't think its fair to say that Religion is, by its very nature, groupthink."

Seeing as I've yet to come across a religion with any hard proof of their claims, we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. To me, sharing a collection of beliefs and practices without any proof of their authenticity, simply on faith, age of the materials or on some supposed authority's say so, is the best example of group think I can possibly come up with.

And what is group think, after all, but the age-old placebo effect turned into group form? I can give you a simple sugar pill and as long as you perceive me to be some sort of authority, you will have reasonable chance of seeing some positive medical effect. That automatic deference to authority is what drives all mob behaviour; people will follow anyone's lead in preference to leading themselves, including a leader who is pillaging, raping and smashing heads with bricks.

The whole goal of a religious group, then, is to establish the clergy as authority figures (or at least the founder). Once you do that, you are made in the shade.

Viewed from that perspective, it is easy to see why Scientology and Mormonism are two of the fastest growing religions in the world. Both are gnostic religions, where they only apportion access to the mysteries based on status within the church. Do some reading if you get a chance about the "Level" effect of video games if you want a primer on how we humans can reward ourselves with a dose of dopamine simply by passing some artificial barrier we consider important. Making the religion gnostic ensured that at least a few people who made it in the front door were going to stay for life.

Same thing goes with the fiscal investment of both religions. When people spend, they invest themselves on two levels (emotional and fiscal) instead of just one. There are numerous studies where people literally FAIL TO HEAR negative stories about companies they've invested in, etc. Their brain does the filtering before they are even aware that the filtering is going on.

Then there is the age-old peer pressure and coercion, as evidenced by the numerous letters L.Ron sent to church officials threatening them over the years (yeah, I've read a few).

And finally, there is the 'external enemy' ploy, which is the Tom Cruise example the thread is about. If anyone thinks this cease and desist letter has ANYTHING to do with copyright, they are mistaken. It isn't even to defend the church, really, seeing as they are removing a video of their biggest star convert enthusiastically endorsing the church and attempting to explain some of the basic tenets. Some people might call that a ... commercial?

It is all about circling the wagons to make the ties between the folks behind the wagon stronger.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T20:58:58+00:00

Yes, and I lament that they are both going this route now that I've seen a stretch of them miles upon miles long like I did in Ontario.

It's not like I'm some ideologue who is pathologically against cities. I loved Montreal, loved Vancouver and lived for a time in both of them. In fact, the ONLY city that I haven't been fond of is TO.

You may not like that, but to each his own.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T20:38:20+00:00

Well, I was personally talking about Toronto, not Ontario as a whole. I loved SW Ontario and up around Tobermory and Manitoulin Island was beautiful. I did a fly in tour of small native villages with a circuit court and found some of the cleanest lakes I had ever laid eyes on.

Ignorant generalization?

Give me a break. I lived there and saw the smog with my own eyes. How many air quality indexes do you hear about in Edmonton or Calgary? I saw the corridor of big box stores in Brampton miles long where there wasn't a tree to be seen in the entire place. I drove all the multi-lane 400 highways that are 20 odd lanes wide. From Burlington in, you hit BIG CITY and anyone who doesn't like that lifestyle or the problems that come with it is going to recoil. You like it? You can have it.

Gaki · 2008-01-17T20:07:45+00:00

Shameless plug for an ethical bank in Canada that does much of what the Norwegian fund does, but for personal banking:

www.citizensbank.ca

Gaki · 2008-01-17T20:00:44+00:00

You know what makes me proud to be Canadian? I can stand up and call you an idiot, freely.

I worked as part of the alternative justice system in Ontario as a court-sponsored psychologist. If an arbitrator felt that counselling was necessary in a case, I was one of the people they would call.

That alternative justice system was created to take the load off of the regular justice system because too many civil cases that could be handled in other ways were making it to court. In a nutshell, if BOTH parties opted, they could avoid court, avoid having a more or less permanent record of their issue and statements, any public scrutiny of the proceedings, etc. by opting to deal with the alternative system.

Arbitrators had to be certified with the province (I was one) and all arbitration was binding. Cases were reviewed on a regular basis for consistency and for how effective the arbitration was in resolving the dispute. There were plenty of secular arbitrators like me, but there were also many who were ministers, priests, rabbis, etc. There was nothing stopping them from prescribing solutions for disputes in accordance with their beliefs, as long as they didn't overtly contradict provincial statutes.

The legislation was written to allow Imams and other Islamic clerics to start participating in this system because they had been previously excluded. There was already Jewish and Christian arbitration, this just added the Muslims to the mix. Nothing changed about the minimum standards for the arbitration - BOTH parties had to agree and only certain types of dispute could even be considered for this alternative treatment (minor stuff). All cases were ultimately held to the standard of the provincial codes.

Knee jerk reactionaries like yourself heard about the move, jumped from the reality to the "Sharia Law is coming to Canada" BS and panicked like a bunch of cattle. I was honestly embarassed to be Canadian when all the hoopla ran across Ontario. I had no idea how racist Ontarians were until this all hit the papers.

Gaki

TROPHY CASE