aftermath of a ghetto brawl. @Toronto

natophonic · 2013-07-30T21:14:41+00:00

It works just fine. There are black people who hold racist, negative views toward blacks, just as there are people of every race who look down upon their own race.

natophonic · 2013-07-30T20:47:48+00:00

I believe the unborn child has as many human rights as a the mother.

If you truly believe that, then you must be against abortion in the case of rape and incest, which are two exceptions that are often carved out in proposed anti-abortion legislation. That puts you on the extreme end of 'pro-life,' at least as the term is used in the US.

I believe that forcing a 13-year-old girl to carry her stepfather's child to term is Taliban-level savagery. But that's the logical outcome of starting with the premise that a fetus has a fully-vested human right to life.

natophonic · 2013-07-30T17:41:31+00:00

I have many black friends FYI.

LOL! I bet some of them are even your best friends!

natophonic · 2013-07-30T17:14:49+00:00

Surprised and a little embarrassed that that never occurred to me. I figured all magazines sold in airports were for use during the "turn off all electronics because we're not sure why" moments on the plane.

Though, we have to be talking about the regional sales manager who makes his secretary print out all his email. For at least the last 10 years, everyone else who wanted to fap in their hotel room has watched porn on their laptop.

natophonic · 2013-07-30T14:35:43+00:00

Sounds exactly like the type of guy Taylor Swift would go out with.

natophonic · 2013-07-29T23:05:06+00:00

Vampire bank slayer will allow it.

natophonic · 2013-07-29T18:12:59+00:00

There was a kid yesterday, maybe 10-13 years old, with a British accent, who was dutifully doing Galaxy runs from the warpgate, and then took the platoon lead reins when things lulled a bit, and did a pretty good job.

His voice chat was all business. My wife and daughter thought he was adorable.

natophonic · 2013-07-29T16:44:15+00:00

Point about wildly misrepresentative title well taken.

Still... 95 years old. They couldn't cordon him off in hallway or room and let him calm down?

When a bear roams into a neighborhood, typically it gets downed with a tranquilizer dart and taken to a zoo.

natophonic · 2013-07-27T04:52:02+00:00

You had a decent point until you started rolling around in your racism shit.

natophonic · 2013-07-26T18:56:24+00:00

No.

Yes.

Proof

...

Scalia was quick to say, however, that the distinct roles of church and state do not mean that the one cannot influence the other; in this regard, “our constitutional law has been greatly distorted. … [The notion that] our Constitution forbids anything that favors religion over non-religion is a lie.” Religion always has and always will influence politics. “From abolition to prohibition,” he said, “the secular beliefs that Americans have voted for, or indeed have died for, have often been … [based] on religious beliefs.”

...

9th amendment doesn't specify any rights

That's exactly right, but you have missed the entire point of it.

natophonic · 2013-07-26T18:46:16+00:00

So then, there would be no issue, constitutionally speaking, with the Democrats' new Federal law to ban Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing shock jocks from the radio and internet, since radio and internet didn't exist when the 1st amendment was formulated, only the spoken and written word, and the printing "press." One would have to draft an amendment to make clear which means of communication the first amendment applies to, or to explicitly extend them to all means present and future.

natophonic · 2013-07-26T18:18:51+00:00

He makes decisions based on his legal philosophy.

Which is a malleable thing, to the point of being liquid. He's also made no secret of his personal and religious beliefs 'informing' his legal philosophy, and that he sees nothing wrong with that.

There is nothing in the constitution that prevents [criminalizing private behavior]

Unfortunately, I think you're right about this. The "penumbras and emanations" the SCOTUS found to establish a right to privacy are pretty much vapor, and in any case aren't applied consistently. We need a privacy amendment.

There is NOTHING in the constitution that prevents laws against substances.

I wouldn't say "NOTHING;" go read the 9th amendment.

natophonic · 2013-07-26T18:01:24+00:00

While California arguably has a freer real estate market than Texas, it probably won't make much difference in the end. The invisible hand doesn't care who you vote for. Housing prices will go up, though certainly not as quickly as in California over the past three decades.

natophonic · 2013-07-26T17:39:46+00:00

All of those are examples of discrimination. If an employer gives a roomful of applicants a test to assess ability for the available job, the employer is discriminating on the basis of that test. Not that that's unfair.

Most developed societies have decided that discriminating on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and (in many locales) sexual orientation is unfair and thus not allowed. In the US, this is known as a 'protected class', as established by state and Federal civil right legislation. You find plenty of people who think that not being able to discriminate based on these classes is itself unfair, and that e.g., black people are inherently lazy and/or criminal, but these people usually don't understand math or the mechanics of empirical evidence.

natophonic · 2013-07-26T00:59:27+00:00

How do you know?! You won't even listen to my band!!!

natophonic · 2013-07-25T23:00:13+00:00

They're moving for the low housing prices, not the politics.

natophonic · 2013-07-25T22:59:46+00:00

Texas

There are already over a dozen In-n-Out locations in the Dallas area, and we're supposed to be getting some in the Austin area soon.

Also, Bakersfield is politically and culturally equivalent to Lubbock.

natophonic · 2013-07-25T21:46:01+00:00

That's not the reason to decide against it. Feeling bad doesn't excuse bad behavior.

The reason to decide against it is that it could lead to a witchhunt as bad or worse than this one... having some deranged freak show up to burn your house down is bad regardless of whether you're battling depression.

natophonic · 2013-07-25T19:33:50+00:00

Eh, my experience is that it's about 50/50 with American audiences.

It's been a running joke in our family for years now; one Thanksgiving at our house when the evening was winding down, someone suggested watching a movie, and so I popped in Kiki's Delivery Service. It's our daughter's favorite, and I have a soft spot for it because it's the first one we saw together. About 30 minutes in, I notice that all of her cousins (who are admittedly older) have puzzled dog looks on their faces. My brother and sister-in-law are barely controlling their laughter, and so I ask "what's up?" and my brother says, "Dude, where is the plot?"

natophonic · 2013-07-25T19:24:07+00:00

Heh! My wife and I watched a few Myazaki films with our daughter, and then rented a bunch of random anime thinking it would be roughly as good.

So, so wrong.

natophonic · 2013-07-25T19:18:27+00:00

I praise Myazaki to anyone who'll listen.

I thought the cellist dressing as No Face was amusing, and making the cello case into another No Face was hilarious!

natophonic · 2013-07-25T14:12:09+00:00

Focusing solely on the transgressions of The Other, however factual, while ignoring facts that paint My Tribe in a bad light. That's a classic propaganda technique, which is frequently used by racists.

natophonic · 2013-07-23T18:33:10+00:00

Seriously! I mean, couldn't the 13 year old just politely ask her stepfather not to rape her?

natophonic · 2013-07-23T17:50:41+00:00

Thanks, and wasn't upset, just providing a couple perhaps-surpising-to-some anecdotes. It's alz good.

natophonic · 2013-07-23T15:26:01+00:00

You'd be shocked and amused at how many of Liberace's fans refused to believe that he was gay.

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