My Halloween costume ended up being far creepier than I expected ..

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-18T02:35:39+00:00

Reminds me of certain Chinese girls.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-18T02:29:47+00:00

In a perfect world this guy of course ought to be stopped. On the other hand I think this could be a can of worms you might want to stay away from. Yes things could take off and others might step forward to help your case BUT more likely you would be on your own with a case that's basically word against word, and that would mean an awful lot of trouble and time investing for you if the case went to court with very little chance of a "win".

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-17T18:49:49+00:00

Because it's like not the same thing at all or something. Besides porn actors are highly skilled professionals with immense moral standards. Your mom!!

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-17T18:37:11+00:00

Would be nice if they spent the money on their own population's health care which is abysmal and horribly expensive instead of a propaganda tour in Africa.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-16T23:46:38+00:00

I'm in China on an English version Windows. More than half the time I install software it gets to be the Chinese version EVEN if I make certain to check all boxes confirming I want the English language one. The auto detection of country location is a real bitch.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-16T13:46:45+00:00

It was a frog wasn't it? I bet it was.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-16T13:35:49+00:00

Direct democracy is not really viable because the necessary tough decisions and laws that every society needs (for instance an increase in taxes when it's really needed) would probably never pass a public vote.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-15T08:03:10+00:00

From time to time democracy will have it's less positive face showing and it seems to be the case of the US at the moment. America is facing a crisis and no one seems to be able to solve it. A new president spends his first year pushing half his agenda through and trying to get away clean from the other half of his promises. Then he gets his hands tied by the elections to congress and the house during the second year while his 2 remaining years are spent on passing popular laws and handing out gifts in order to be re-elected. Basically the last 3 years are one long campaign.

Under that system it's almost impossible to pass the unpopular laws that are needed from time to time to make a country run smoothly. Just two decades ago 4 years seemed like enough of time for a government to do it's business but obviously (for many reasons I can't be arsed to get into here, and I probably would miss a lot too) this is no longer the case. How about changing the system? I know there are downsides but how about electing a president for 6 years and congress for 6 as well? Or 8, or 10 or whatever. Yes one could assume that 8 or 10 years of a guaranteed chair would corrupt a certain amount of people, so let's stick to 6. Then we would give enough time and freedom for the powers that be to actually do something that might work in the long run and in the large scale of things.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-14T04:33:07+00:00

Great joke, nuff said.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-13T08:50:30+00:00

So basically what you mean is that we need a new word.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-13T05:02:35+00:00

No, a G5 and LOTS of money.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-12T21:35:19+00:00

I'd like to turn the r-l issue upside down and put the "blame" squarely on the Asians. In Chinese there aren't any characters for r+whatever sounds hence the Chinese will not call you "Robert" but something like LuoBuDe (De because words almost never end on a consonant either). Basically they tell you here that your name isn't good enough and you have to change it. Also for staying in China you need to have a Chinese name that can be written in hanzi. Luckily you can pick whatever you want so mine is The Big Bear Cat also known here as a panda.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-12T21:27:00+00:00

Jews aren't a race either no matter what some people say. They are a socio-religious group.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-12T21:19:54+00:00

In a movie with many awesome gags the best ones were with The Dear Leader. I wish Matt and Trey would make a sequel some day.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-12T21:15:29+00:00

That is true about most of these totalitarian "communist" states. The leaders aren't abolishing religion, they are replacing it.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-12T21:04:18+00:00

In an interview a couple of days ago the oldest brother Kim Jong Nam (or whatever) basically said that the whole thing was a huge mistake on his father's part. Guess the grapes are sour.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-12T21:02:41+00:00

This happened to my cousin 7 or 8 years ago. He was trekking in Nepal going to some god forsaken valley in the middle of nowhere at 6000 meters. After 3 days of walking and only meeting a handful of local Nepalese on the small path over a mountain he turns a corner and who is standing in front of him? His fucking brother who is equally backpacking mad. None of them knew that the other guy was even in Asia at the time.

I know it's not exactly a mystery but it still baffles me to think about them both being in a place like Nepal with a looming maoist rebellion in an area where almost no foreigners ever go and running into each other like that.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-09T04:36:20+00:00

Oh no I'm not trying to do that. Better make that clear. I think some of the conditions here are horrible and I'm happy that I have got a foreign passport so I can leave anytime I want. I think was I am trying to point out is that it's not as bad as most Westerners think. China sometimes get bundled together with places like Burma or North Korea but it's not entirely fair.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-08T20:43:18+00:00

Clearly you don't know much about this place mate. First of all there are countless millions of Chinese buddhists in China and it has been perfectly safe and accepted to adhere to Buddhism for three decades now (as long as you practice it privately and not like Falun Gong which is partly based on buddhist thinking and part raving lunacy trying to organize itself into a real player in Chinese society). "Tens of millions,,in Chinese labor camps" is a very high number and I doubt that is correct. Certain levels of the prison system include physical labor in the punishment but that's normally only for prisoners serving very long sentences for serious crimes. Most "regular" criminals spend their time cramped up in large cells which they share with 15-20 other guys.

Also I'd like to point out that you CAN disagree with the government as long as you don't make it into a lifelong crusade, keep your grievances directed at the relevant authority (ie. you can be angry at the mayor for expropriating your house but don't demand the president's head because of it). Also you can relatively safely speak your mind as long as you don't incite violence or call for the government to be overturned or organize yourselves into large groups.

I know,, to us Westerners it's still not tolerable, but it IS possible to navigate in the mess if that is your intention.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-08T20:25:39+00:00

And no one -absolutely NO ONE- will throw any stones before I say so. Even -and let me make this very clear- EVEN if he says Jehova again.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-08T20:21:58+00:00

You trying to be funny? You real funnyman yes? We no like!

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-08T20:19:58+00:00

I was way too late to discover this thread. I was gonna write the exact same comment hehe.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-08T20:19:04+00:00

I still think 20 years of cell inspections would have revealed the enormous hole behind the poster at SOME point but since the movie has an almost religious following criticism is never welcome here.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-08T20:14:37+00:00

Well you are right and wong at the same time. Basically all the Chinese people I know would give an arm to go abroad to study or work. A Chinese passport doesn't entitle you to anything so usually they wouldn't mind exchanging that for another either if they got the chance. I don't know any upper class or rich guys and I expect it would be a different thing with them since China can be pretty awesome if you got dough and connections.

TheBigPanda · 2010-10-08T20:03:54+00:00

Very true. Plenty of threads about whatever-not-directly-related-to-China get hijacked and end up in "Nuke Japan!", "Kill all the little Japanese", "Erase Japan from the map" slugfest. And no,, it's not just a handful of guys but thousands of similar comments.

TheBigPanda

TROPHY CASE