News that makes us laugh, cry, or both

[Starmaker]

Forcing someone to go to gay pride parades because she thinks gay is wrong is probably not the best way to do things.

WAT. PR, you're fucking crazy. The chick wants to be a counselor. You know what, next time you feel sick, go to the time cube guy for medical assistance.

[Wesley Street]

I don't know. To criticize the Jewish State is to be anti-semetic to a lot of folks. Israel is the Jewish State.

Those folks need to take an elementary school government class, understand that there's a difference between a nation, a country, and a state, and understand that criticizing one (typically the state in the case of Israeli shenanigans) does not equal criticizing all three.

I've met plenty of rabbis who believe in holding the Israeli state to task for its human rights violations.

[Clutch9800]

I don't know. To criticize the Jewish State is to be anti-semetic to a lot of folks. Israel is the Jewish State.

Those folks need to take an elementary school government class, understand that there's a difference between a nation, a country, and a state, and understand that criticizing one (typically the state in the case of Israeli shenanigans) does not equal criticizing all three.

I've met plenty of rabbis who believe in holding the Israeli state to task for its human rights violations.

That's kind of a slippery slope. Israel being surrounded by people that have taken a vow to drive them into the sea, yet refuse to lift a finger to actually help the Palestinians.

It would be great if Israel could be a shining paragon of virtue in a sea of hate, but it's naive and unrealistic to belive it practical.

If the Palestinians would embrace a Ghandi/King version of non-violent protest they'd have a state of thier own within 10-15 years. Gar-AUN-teed.

But they won't. Because they live in a European funded death cult.

Clutch

[Wesley Street]

Forcing someone to go to gay pride parades because she thinks gay is wrong is probably not the best way to do things.

Major jackassery on both sides. There's a big difference between gay awareness seminars or academic studies on LGBT culture, which is what the university should have suggested, and a gay pride parade. Even gay sex columnist Dan Savage finds the entire notion of gay pride parades to be extremely misleading to the unaware and the events themselves distasteful.

However Keeton has also refused to follow the rules of her profession by setting aside her personal beliefs and demonstrated that she would not work in the best interest of her clients. As a future medical professional this would be as dangerous as allowing a Jehovah's Witness to become a doctor.

[Maxus]

A federal judge blocked a lot of the most controversial aspects of Arizona's immigration laws yesterday, which go into effect today. I think two of the blocked portions involve having officers check the immigration status of anyone they're suspicious of if stopped for other reasons and requiring immigrants to carry papers at all times.

I understand the reason for nulling that out for right now, is that the federal government does still handle immigration, and so all suspected immigrants would have to be checked out by them.

Which, given the huge number of people who're going to be hassled and arrested by cops because they're suspiciously brown-skinned, is going to be a lot of federal time in Arizona.

Now, the funny thing is, to properly handle that, the government would likely have to do some serious hiring and training, but I'm sure if you told that to a right-wingnut, they'd turn into a raging tardbeast at the thought.

Also, 'reasonable suspicion' is still legally 'suspicion'. And suspicion can be anything down to 'the hairs on my forearm prickled when I looked at him because he's not white.' I'd have a hard time figuring out what probable cause would be for an illegal immigrant that isn't blatant racial profiling. What? There's a bunch of guys and only one of them speaks the language of God and the Angels that all other language are descended from English and translates for the rest of them?

[Prak]

five guys in a two seater truck with lawn mowers, weed eaters and leaf blowers in the bed?

[Clutch9800]

However Keeton has also refused to follow the rules of her profession by setting aside her personal beliefs and demonstrated that she would not work in the best interest of her clients. As a future medical professional this would be as dangerous as allowing a Jehovah's Witness to become a doctor.

That's nonsense.

There is no compelling reason that Doctors or Counselors can't have strong personal beliefs. It's all about professionalism.

Under what circumstances would it ever be appropriate to order someone to attend an "academic" study on LGBT "culture". As a matter of fact, why is letting what you do in the bedroom define you as a person even considered a "culture".

By the By, there are a lot of Doctors and Nurses who are Jehovah's Witnesses. My older sister is one of them. She's in Addiction Recovery now, so she's not required to do transfusions, but she did them all the time when she was in the E.R.

Clutch

[Maxus]

http://www.aolnews.com/gulf-oil-spill/a ... s/19569918

Is it wrong to be amused that the Greenpeace members wore safety equipment in this process? I have this mental image of them being pretty calm about turning it down, too.

"Cathy, pass me those boltcutters....Thank you. Now, where is the switch. Ah, right HERE...That'll do. Let us now move this to the organic-food-serving web cafe and observe the reaction upon the internet."

[Prak]

because for a lot of people, what they do in the bedroom, and who they kiss, isn't even the biggest part of the gay identity anymore. For a lot of people it's other stuff, like the fight that's been going on for how long now(?) for rights and respect.


Then there's the fact that their seems to be a lot of overlap between gay culture and transgender/queer culture, which does have an actual culture, because that's definitely not just about who does what in the bedroom, but also about redefining gender roles, fashion, gender-based mannerisms, etc. However, given the fact that the entire culture is made of people who are trying to express themselves and be their own person regardless of cultural norms, it's more appropriate to think of it as an anti-culture, I suppose...

[Clutch9800]

However, given the fact that the entire culture is made of people who are trying to express themselves and be their own person regardless of cultural norms, it's more appropriate to think of it as an anti-culture, I suppose...

That's pretty fucking astute. Eh, I suppose people are people and we're all just buyin what they're sellin.

Also, 'reasonable suspicion' is still legally 'suspicion'. And suspicion can be anything down to 'the hairs on my forearm prickled when I looked at him because he's not white.' I'd have a hard time figuring out what probable cause would be for an illegal immigrant that isn't blatant racial profiling. What? There's a bunch of guys and only one of them speaks the language of God and the Angels that all other language are descended from English and translates for the rest of them?

No. Reasonable Suspicion is the belief by a reasonable and prudent person that something has or is about to happen based on articulable facts. It is not a "Hunch".

Probable Cause is the belief by an agent of the governement based on training and experience that a crime has, or is about to be committed. Also based on articulable facts.

As far as hiring and training a bunch of people, maybe. But they'd probably fuck that up like they did the TSA. They pay baggage screeners jack shit.

I happen to work at the Federal Law Enfocement Training Center here in Charleston. I can tell you by personal experience that the training that ICE provides to the state and local agencies on immigration law is pretty damn good. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn good. I think people have this image in thier minds of the Sheriff from "Porkys" going around rousting brown-skins for shits and giggles. I sincerely doubt that would be the case because it is too damn hot to walk around rousting people for no good reason.

Anyway, the cops know where the illegals are. It's easy to spot them. But when the sand settles and the sugar shifts, no matter what the right-wing pundits may scream about, illegal immigration is a civil matter, not a criminal one. That said, when illegals do commit crimes, that civil process for deportation should be started.

I hope we can at least agree on that.

Clutch

[Maxus]

Anyway, the cops know where the illegals are. It's easy to spot them. But when the sand settles and the sugar shifts, no matter what the right-wing pundits may scream about, illegal immigration is a civil matter, not a criminal one. That said, when illegals do commit crimes, that civil process for deportation should be started.

I hope we can at least agree on that.

Clutch

FINALLY.

Someone actually said it! Up until now, I've been hearing "Those filthy criminals shouldn't get away with breaking the Law!"

[Crissa]

I think people have this image in thier minds of the Sheriff from "Porkys" going around rousting brown-skins for shits and giggles.

If the local sheriffs didn't act like that (Arpaio) the impression would fade away.

All the training in the world doesn't change the sheer facts that driving while brown is still a crime in some places, that police still use their weapons not in defense of the law but as punishment for not heeling to their arbitrary commands.

That's kind of a slippery slope. Israel being surrounded by people that have taken a vow to drive them into the sea, yet refuse to lift a finger to actually help the Palestinians.

Very true. However... What finger are they supposed to lift? At this point in time, Israel is busy fencing and killing Palestinians in the same way (minus the final solution) that the Nazis were doing so to the Jews. What slippery slope? The one they've been going down since their response to a military solution by outsiders was to begin mowing down second-class citizens with tanks and bulldozers?

You know what? The Palestinians did have their own country - except they weren't allowed to travel between the two halves, not even going the long way around. Basically, it can't work.

And you're just showing your ignorance of what's happened in the last fifty years. Palestine hasn't had a military since the 1980s. They haven't have police since the end of the 1990s - Israel blew up all the police stations because some kid threw a rock at a checkpoint. With actual bombs.

It would be great if Israel could be a shining paragon of virtue in a sea of hate, but it's naive and unrealistic to belive it practical.

If the Palestinians would embrace a Ghandi/King version of non-violent protest they'd have a state of thier own within 10-15 years. Gar-AUN-teed.

But they won't. Because they live in a European funded death cult.

Do you know how much money gets funneled to the Palestinians? And to Israel? Do you know which number is larger? By several magnitudes?

Do you know which of the two groups has killed more people indiscriminately than the other? Because aside from your first statement, the rest of it is totally nonsensical.

-Crissa

[Clutch9800]

If the local sheriffs didn't act like that (Arpaio) the impression would fade away.

All the training in the world doesn't change the sheer facts that driving while brown is still a crime in some places, that police still use their weapons not in defense of the law but as punishment for not heeling to their arbitrary commands.

Have you ever been to Maricopa County? For one thing, it's huge. For another, it's scary. I'm pretty tough, but Maricopa County scares the shit out of me. That said, Joe Arpaio is an elected official. I realize he might not be too popular in the perfumed palaces of Santa Cruz county, but ultimately that doesn't matter, because he is popular in Maricopa County. If he ceases to be, the good people of Maricopa County will vote him out.

And you're just showing your ignorance of what's happened in the last fifty years. Palestine hasn't had a military since the 1980s. They haven't have police since the end of the 1990s - Israel blew up all the police stations because some kid threw a rock at a checkpoint. With actual bombs.

I know exactly what has happened in the last 50 years. I also know why Palestine doesn't have a military or a police. They don't have either because Hamas doesn't want them to.

The "Arab Street" could solve this problem with the stroke of a pen if they wanted to. Jordan could settle them all in the East Bank. Syria could put them up in Golan. Egypt could settle them in the Sinai. They already control southern Lebanon. I know, I was there in 1983.

Of course that doesn't satisfy people like you Crissa, because you like to ghettoize people by skin color and see the Jews of Israel as "white", and the Palestinians as "brown". Unfortunately you are confusing the "North American Domestic Jew" with the "Israeli Commando Jew". And they ain't the same thing. It seems to me that people see the Middle East as an "All Arab All The Time" thing, and it isn't, and it shouldn't be.

What part of the Palestinians embracing non-violence do you think is nonsensical. Do you think random Katyusha fire and suicide bombers are legitimate tactics that will engender world support?

Clutch

[Kaelik]

I can only assume he meant "European funded death camp"

Because that would actually make sense.

EDIT: Clutch, You know how we could save all the poor mexicans being harrassed in Arizona?

We could move them all to Mexico!

Oh wait, forced deportation is not a solution to people being assholes, especially not when perpetrated on the victims of assholery.

Many Palestinians are assholes too, but guess what, deporting all of them is going to turn all of them into assholes, just like mandatory segregation and deportations gave the first set of assholes all their recruits.

[Psychic Robot]

Major jackassery on both sides.

Yes. Political correctness is a disease. As is employment non-discrimination. If you're hired by a private company, they should be able to fire you on any grounds whatsoever, even if it's them being a cocknosed titpecker.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Psychic Robot must have missed the '70's. The reason Political correctness started was because people were rioting in the streets. You can argue all you want, but keep in mind that a little respectful speech goes a long way.

However, if he can handle the shitty economy (as in, the economy is never what you would call "good" even during boom years), he'd like Virginia. People can (and too often, do) fire people for racial reasons. All they have to do is record that they were fired for being a cocknosed titpecker. Employment-At-Will gives lots of work-arounds to federal discrimination laws.

[RobbyPants]

Yeah, Michigan is the same way. I don't know how many racial firings happen up here, but as an employer, you barely have to try to come up with a "reason" that will be good enough.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Major jackassery on both sides.

Yes. Political correctness is a disease. As is employment non-discrimination. If you're hired by a private company, they should be able to fire you on any grounds whatsoever, even if it's them being a cocknosed titpecker.

A warning: you might want to add some sarcasm tags.
Sarcasm doesn't travel well through the internet, and with some of the comments you've made in the past people might even take this seriously.

[RobbyPants]

I thought he was serious.

[Prak]

I can only assume he meant "European funded death camp"

Because that would actually make sense.

It's abrahamic. It's more or less a death cult by default. Now, it may not be european funded (I honestly don't know), but abrahamic religions are more or less all about how this life is shit, and a test to get into the awesome after party, so you're supposed die as pious as possible, and you get bonus points for doing something fanatical on the way out, whether by refusing to recant your beliefs and mustering cheap jokes at your own expense while being painfully torture executed, or killing as many people as possible while you commit suicide.

[Username17]

To criticize the Jewish State is to be anti-semetic to a lot of folks. Israel is the Jewish State.

This concept needs special calling out for being fucking retarded.

Jews are Semites. Arabs are Semites. Being "ant-semitic" requires having some sort of negative opinion of semites. If you hate the nation of Congo but have no special or related opinion about other states and nations of Africans, you are not being racist against Black people. If you have a negative opinion of Israel, and you do not have the same negative opinion of:

• The Palestinians
• Egypt
• Lebanon
• Saudi Arabia
• Iraqis
• Malta

...then you aren't being anti-semitic. Whether your opinion is justified or bizarre, mainstream or outer-space, good or bad, reasoned or gut, it just is not fucking antisemitic. If you have any opinion on the Israel-Palestine conflict that isn't some variant of "Kill them all" then your opinion is not ant-semitic.

In any conflict where every major side is composed exclusively or primarily of one kin of people, it is a fucking waste of time to throw accusations of racism around on people taking one side or another. It's really, deeply retarded bullshit. Every tribe and faction in the area is composed almost entirely of Semitic people, and it is really fucking hard for anti-semitic feelings to inform much of an opinion one way or the other on the proceedings.

Seriously, to get to non-Semites, you need to go north to Turkey or east to Iran or something.

-Username17

[mean_liar]

CLUTCH, shut up... at least in regards to Israel/Palestine.

Blaming Arab nations for not encouraging the Palestinians to fight harder is a strange thing to advocate when you're also taking the position that a Ghandi would solve all their problems. Thing is, it wouldn't - Israel is never giving up those territories. Never ever, not so long as the orthodox religious groups and returners form such make-or-break Knesset coalition components. All it would do is keep the place quiet. Hell, your own solution is to not use non-violence, it's to retreat and give up. Maybe that's A solution, but it's a pretty shitty one for people who have been kicked off their land.

They don't need a Ghandi to do that, and they don't need Hamas. They need a Chamberlain.

[Clutch9800]

I can only assume he meant "European funded death camp"

Because that would actually make sense.

EDIT: Clutch, You know how we could save all the poor mexicans being harrassed in Arizona?

We could move them all to Mexico!

Oh wait, forced deportation is not a solution to people being assholes, especially not when perpetrated on the victims of assholery.

Many Palestinians are assholes too, but guess what, deporting all of them is going to turn all of them into assholes, just like mandatory segregation and deportations gave the first set of assholes all their recruits.

No, I meant "death cult".

As far as "deportation" goes, that's spilt milk. The vast majority of Palestinians live as refugees now, so moving them to an autonomous, contiguous Palestinian State would be a step up in the world.

The question is where? I think the East Bank would be the best place, but Jordan (as a stable Arab state) would have to step up and offer the land.

I know I come across as a rabid Arab hater in this, but I'm not. The Palestinians have some very legitimate beefs. That said, clinging to the past is not the answer. We need to move forward.

Clutch

[violence in the media]

What part of the Palestinians embracing non-violence do you think is nonsensical. Do you think random Katyusha fire and suicide bombers are legitimate tactics that will engender world support?

Clutch

I'm not speaking towards any legitimacy here, but I certainly understand when people decide to take up arms and spread around some of the misery they have.

[Clutch9800]

CLUTCH, shut up... at least in regards to Israel/Palestine.

Blaming Arab nations for not encouraging the Palestinians to fight harder is a strange thing to advocate when you're also taking the position that a Ghandi would solve all their problems. Thing is, it wouldn't - Israel is never giving up those territories. Never ever, not so long as the orthodox religious groups and returners form such make-or-break Knesset coalition components. All it would do is keep the place quiet. Hell, your own solution is to not use non-violence, it's to retreat and give up. Maybe that's A solution, but it's a pretty shitty one for people who have been kicked off their land.

They don't need a Ghandi to do that, and they don't need Hamas. They need a Chamberlain.

You got me wrong bud. I never implied that the Arab states should encourage the Palestinians to fight harder.

What I did imply is that they should do more to take care of the Palestinians, up to and including taking them in and carving out a state for them in an Arab country. If things continue as they are there won't be a Palestinian people anymore, and that is not the solution I advocate.

The Diaspora is spilt milk.

Clutch