Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

I thought of this while writing a post where I admitted I have different opinions about the importance of freedom of speech since I started to post here.

Despite being to the left of what Americans would call liberal, I have certainly gained a better understanding of what we would call the far right. Here. Where I encounter real people.

I've realised decent people, who I like, can have beliefs I would previously have found extreme.

I've begun to understand the culture of a country that is so very different to mine. That the words "American" and "culture" can exist in harmony for example, and that some Europeans can be snobbish. Same with the realisation that Americans really cook. And even have more interest in good food than I do. McDonalds and Domino's are not necessarily every American's sole food provider.

On a more personal level, I learned that people struggle with all sorts of issues, and what I perceived as a world where everyone was okay except for me was a self-pitying fabrication. Everyday people have huge issues underneath the surface. Children, self-esteem, depression, work, family trouble. Success is how you handle it, not where you appear to be. And sometimes you just don't handle it and that is okay too.

And that there is a world where you can use three and four syllable words and not get blank looks. Well - it's the internet, you can't see them anyway. But there is a place where you can write a paeon to a dead politician in one thread, then talk about having sparkle dust on your boobs in the next. Those were my first posts as I remember. I knew I was home.

BTW - I wasn't anti-American before I came here. I was just lacking in information.

Hope this isn't too Hallmark.
I just wanted to get it off my sparkle-dusted chest

Originally Posted by Elspode (Post 614338)

It doesn't matter where the war is, what the war is about, or who is in power when it happens. The other side will do nothing but stand there and throw stones. American politics knows no other way to function. It is simply not possible for us to function any other way. Shit, at this point, if the Democrats stood up and said "You know, maybe universal health care isn't such a good idea after all", the Republicans would immediately stand up and shout how the Dems didn't care about people.

One side takes a position, the other side shoots it down. The topic is irrelevant.

Originally Posted by Elspode (Post 623752)

Okay, I've had a moment to think about this, and now I'm going to try to respond intelligently.

I...*we*...all live in a society where the norm has become accusation, finger pointing and character assassination. We live in a society where *one side* claims to own the keys to all things Right, Good and True. This One Right Side, while doing everything humanly (and often, religiously) possible to besmirch anyone who doesn't fall into lockstep with them, also makes claims that their *spirituality* is being suppressed - that their *religious freedom* is being subdued...by "evil forces". Yes, *evil*. Not misguided. Not disagreeable. *Evil*. As in, "In league with Satan". As in, "you disagree with us and our motives, therefore you are minions of Darkness." Egad.

Meanwhile, the "other side", being equally inept and misguided, spends all it's time trying to tear down other perfectly functional standards of public legality because it might be abused or inflated by the "other side" to further restrict processes that the "other side" doesn't yet want put down.

What I, as a thinking, ostensibly free, American, don't like is this whole notion of "all or nothing". I especially dislike politics being furthered through the addition of Damnation and Hellfire as a lever. Yes, we have moral issues that need to be sorted out in this country. Yes, there are things that were better in the God-fearing 50's than they are now. There are also things that are much better now (anyone remember when it was okay to hate black people because God didn't like 'em either?).

In summary, I'd like to say that injecting (insert your religious path here) and holding it up as the be-all, end-all of Life on Earth is *never* the right answer, and as long as anyone tries to shove it down my throat and call me a moron for not swallowing it, I'm going to complain.

Originally Posted by Griff (Post 625822)

If you want to know where the exact point is where you become an asshole in your post it is marked above.

#s given in a government training here.

Originally Posted by DanaC (Post 646271)

Originally Posted by Carruthers (Post 646648)

Originally Posted by classicman (Post 652336)

...
You have a perspective that is very different than mine. Thats one of the things I love about interacting here. The diversity.
...

Originally Posted by Cloud (Post 652340)

(happy)

Originally Posted by glatt (Post 654108)

I think there should be some sort of system where people like this are charged with the crime, and the police get to show the evidence they have that these guys did it, and these guys get a chance to show it wasn't actually them, and then someone, or a group of people act as a sort of referee where they decide if they are pretty sure that the guy did it or not. And then they look at how bad the thing was that the guy did, and then they look at what the rules are for the punishments you give for the kind of bad thing these guys did, and then the referee(s) decide on the punishment, working within those rules. And I think it should be a calm and thoughtful process where these referee(s) use their minds. Oh, and these referees, they shouldn't be a bunch of snooty rich people. They should be regular people.

Originally Posted by Griff

Revenge

At times ... I wish
I could meet in a duel
the man who killed my father
and razed our home,
expelling me
into
a narrow country.

And if he killed me,
I’d rest at last,
and if I were ready—
I would take my revenge!

*

But if it came to light,
when my rival appeared,
that he had a mother
waiting for him,
or a father who’d put
his right hand over
the heart’s place in his chest
whenever his son was late
even by just a quarter-hour
for a meeting they’d set—
then I would not kill him,
even if I could.

*

Likewise ... I
would not murder him
if it were soon made clear
that he had a brother or sisters
who loved him and constantly longed to see him.
Or if he had a wife to greet him
and children who
couldn’t bear his absence
and whom his gifts would thrill.
Or if he had
friends or companions,
neighbors he knew
or allies from prison
or a hospital room,
or classmates from his school...
asking about him
and sending him regards.

*

But if he turned
out to be on his own—
cut off like a branch from a tree—
without a mother or father,
with neither a brother nor sister,
wifeless, without a child,
and without kin or neighbors or friends,
colleagues or companions,
then I’d add not a thing to his pain
within that aloneness—
not the torment of death,
and not the sorrow of passing away.
Instead I’d be content
to ignore him when I passed him by
on the street—as I
convinced myself
that paying him no attention
in itself was a kind of revenge.

Nazareth
April 15, 2006

Taha Muhammad Ali

Originally Posted by Undertoad (Post 664806)

Well a-one day Zip was a-shootin at some food
And up from the ground come a bubblin' poo

shit that is
blackwater
texas dookie

Originally Posted by Shawnee123 (Post 664808)

Well the next thing you know ol' zip's a millionaire
The Cellar folk said "ZIP, move away from there."
They said Pennsylvania is the place you oughta be
So he loaded up his pool and he moved right to Philly.

Originally Posted by Undertoad (Post 664811)

Burbs, that is
Dumb neighbors... bad traffic...

Originally Posted by Son of Clodfobble

Out of nowhere this evening, my son gave me a hug and said, "I love you" for the first time ever.