lostfan

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 09:50 PM) Bush lost to Clinton because of Ross Perot. Perot split the republican vote and Clinton won with something like 43% to HW's 37%, had Perot not run, HW would have won easily. I forgot all about that motherf***er. But like I said I was in 5th grade lol.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 09:07 PM) She's 16 years old. She seemed genuinely upset about it and all the attention. She should have stayed off Twitter until she was finished with the Games. Her performance since the hair flap was horrific. It might have been different in the context of the full interview but when I saw her quotes after being asked about it, she didn't really seem to care all that much and she was pretty dismissive of it. She said "I'm gonna wear my hair like that next time I compete so they might as well stop talking about it"

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:52 PM) I absolutely cannot disagree with this. Rmoney hasn't said s*** on what would make him a better president. Now granted, a pile of dogs*** on the street might be better, but you hit on the biggest issue I have with this guy. He doesn't know what the f*** he's doing. Barry on the other hand, knows exactly what he's going to do, and we're well on our way. I was in the 5th grade and didn't know s*** about politics then compared to now but what I vaguely remember about the 1992 election was that Bush couldn't make a case against Clinton (who was pretty specific about what he wanted to do and people were receptive to what he was saying) and Bush kept just saying Clinton was going to be so awful but otherwise couldn't give a good reason why people should stick with the 12-year status quo that he was a part of. Romney is more or less doing that except he's so terrified of his own (actually not really that bad) political record that he won't run on it. It's actually funny to me.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:42 PM) Unlike Europe, our public pension system is rock solid. And yet with three years of trillion plus deficits you would think the Keynesian beast would be unleashed. But hell, at least we have 1.5% growth. We need more gov't employees we cannot afford. But it's not the spending, it is the lack thereof. Did these deficits appear out of thin air on January 21, 2009? President Obama signed the Deficit Expansion and Intentionally Wasteful Spending Act into law or something and I missed it?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:50 PM) It is a hateful hate crime? I only kill your people in large numbers because I care about them and want better things for them

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 07:04 PM) Because when the crime is black on white, or Muslum against Jew, police always tiptoe around saying it was/could be a hate crime. Maj. Nidal shoots up an army base because he hates non muslims, it gets called 'workplace violence', not a hate crime, or terrorism. It isn't applied evenly, in any stretch of the imagination, at all. 'Hate' isn't just whitey hating xxx. If a black person commits a crime against a white person that's just regular crime. If said black person belonged to an organized element who had the intent specifically to target whites with violence then yes, it would be a hate crime. I don't know what you're getting at with Muslim against Jew violence since anti-Semitic violence (including by Muslims) is one of the main types of hate crimes and really I would guess we probably have hate crime legislation in the first place because of Jews although I'd have to read up on that to verify that statement. MAJ Hassan is a stone cold terrorist so I'm not sure where you're going with that. That's pretty open and shut and it doesn't get any more basic than that, with the intent, foreign connection, and so on. Still, he is being charged with multiple counts of homicide. On the other hand if he did not have the terrorist links and he didn't yell out "Allahu Akhbar" he'd have just been a Muslim dude that went apes*** and started shooting people. Muslims commit crimes like any other group of people and it's not necessarily terrorism. The Hassan incident is simultaneously a workplace violence incident (it isn't something either-or, or zero-sum) because he exhibited certain indicators before he went on his shooting spree.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 01:30 AM) Terrorism =/= Hate crime Completely different. They are not the same thing but the logic being used is exactly the same here. Although terrorism does have a definition it's hard to apply to the real world and pretty difficult to prosecute so a lot of times terrorists end up getting charged with ordinary crimes (murder, etc. Richard Reid got charged with attempted murder, interfering with a flight crew, attempted destruction of an aircraft etc. etc. etc.) edit: n/m I didn't see until later that you were being sarcastic QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:49 AM) So if there was a terrorist attack in this country because the perpetrators hated America that doesn't make it a hate crime? They're often quite similar actually Yeah, that's kinda oversimplifying it, but basically. Terrorism isn't a "hate crime" in the literal sense because it's political but it's the same... adding motive/extra element to an existing crime.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:34 PM) The Wierd thing for me is, I find myself caring about the minutiae less this year, despite the fact that Romneys actual policy proposals follow the truly crazy Ryan budget. Whether that's burnout or the fact that I'm comparing to 2008 Obama + "omg credit default swaps are going to f***ing kill us all!", I dunno. I think the 2008 election was just kind of a special circumstance. Something about Obama vs. Hillary (barrier broken either way), followed by the crash, followed by McCain's bizarre behavior and gift of herpes to the American public nomination of Palin kept everyone's interest until about halfway through 2009. In my memory that's never happened before. On Nate Silver's 538 blog today he mentioned how many less polls there are compared to this same time in 2008.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:26 PM) For the most part the spending cuts mantra really hasn't born itself out in reality here either. Spending cuts is a conversation that should probably happen. But... not now. Economic recovery is going to automatically reduce a pretty big part of any deficit to begin with. I saw, I wanna say Dick Cheney(?) recently make a comment about defense cuts to the effect that we can't do it because then we won't be ready for the next war. I have a better idea... how about we don't randomly have another war? That's a good way to just piss away a big part of your GDP and never get it back.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:27 PM) It's the only revenge I can take on the world for the existence of Tebow. I heard Tebow was traded to the Jets! Can you confirm this rumor for me? Perhaps via ESPN?

Re: Gabby Douglas There were, naturally, people on Twitter who post their mediocre-to-God-awfully-stupid thoughts in real time for the whole world to see. This is pretty routine, and sometimes reaches a fever pitch in response to certain events - ask Jay Cutler. So the usual amounts of people that say stupid s*** all the time made comments about Gabby's hair. This really shouldn't have been that big of a deal, HOWEVER I have seen FAR MORE attention dedicated to shouting down that original (limited) crowd of trolls, and this is pretty much the only reason the "controversy" is still going. On my Facebook I see more of those "stop talking about her hair!" posts than posts actually congratulating her on her gold medal.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 04:40 PM) Up until a month ago I did not have a twitter or facebook. I do now for marketing reasons, but its under a pen name. Its just a major risk having my name associated with anything due to my profession. ^^this Though several people on here know my real name, so if you know, you know, not a big deal. I just don't want that tied directly to this account where I've said a lot about my opinions on national security, politics, defense industry, etc.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:13 PM) I rather enjoy your rants...please do not stop. You aren't that guy, because you actually have something intelligent to say... Unlike this person: lol. He could make a whole other point but he is too dense to even be aware of that. I like how the NRC tends to be run by execs from the nuclear industry, though. Which is more or less how the GOP runs the rest of the government when they are making those decisions (not that the Dems are pure and wholesome but this is essentially GOP doctrine). Solid.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:15 PM) Vs taxation, which is just government forced austerity. Meh not unless you're going to skyrocket tax rates. 4%, or 2%, or whatever is really not going to break the economy and cause s*** to fall out of the sky. In reality we have not had taxes this low in what, like 60 or 70 years? They weren't even this low for Reagan.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:12 PM) Everything both campaigns say is stupid and/or a bold-faced lie. Didn't you realize that 4, 8 or 12 years ago? That's politics. Say whatever you want to get elected, do whatever you want after you get elected. I know. Let me rephrase: Romney is not even attempting to talk about policy, any further than "Obama sucks and f***ed us all" which is completely meaningless considering that was automatically going to be said by whoever the nominee was. Can't even be bothered to give specific reasons why and (I know this is going to sound like I'm speaking some forgotten, ancient tongue) what he's actually going to do different (tax cuts don't count. you're a Republican, no s***.) Yawn... Meanwhile the media does what the media does, reporting a 3-point swing in a single poll as if it actually means anything at all whatsoever while the rest of the national polls hold steady with Obama's built-in electoral lead in a race that hasn't really budged in months, and won't. Someone wake me up in November.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:08 PM) Maybe you should post another soapbox rant on FB. lol... I swore to myself back in the spring that I wouldn't do that. I am annoyed by others' political rants so I don't want to be that guy that I hate.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 07:55 PM) Only Romney? I hate election years in general and while 2012 isn't as bad as I thought it'd be for someone who's active on social networking it seems like there's quite a bit of meaningless bulls***. I do remember actually talking about public policy in 2008 even if some of it was about stuff that was never really going to happen (cap and trade, high speed rail, etc.) but what are we talking about now... basically nothing. But seriously, literally everything the Romney campaign says is stupid and/or a bold-faced lie. I know this is true of every elected official but Romney goes to new levels with it.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 08:05 PM) I wish lostfan would get ... lost. ;D Oh, and for the record, good points made. I is reedng buks an nowed things frm it

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 06:59 PM) Dude, even I can tell you the answer to that one. It raised AWARENESS. Because thgat trumps all. Awareness that slackers are still living in mom's basement wioth no jobs due to crappy college degrees and/or no desire to start work at the bottom. Awareness that there is a whole bunch of people that feel the world owes them an ipad or gormet meals just because. It also accomplished double digit deaths, rapes and hundreds of arrests. Oh, and huge costs to the actual working people who pay taxes to clean up their mess after they left/were kicked out of the various parks and for police overtime. eh that's a stereotype, the vast majority of supporters of that movement had jobs, and the difference between them and the regular percentage of unemployed people was only a few percentage points.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 12:47 PM) It shifted the national conversation away from the stupid debt ceiling and austerity, austerity, austerity to discussing inequality. Europe keeps trying austerity and the constant contracting of those countries' GDP prolongs their recession to the point where they threaten to implode, or drag us back into a full-blown recession with them. Some, here, want to effectively contract our GDP as well, but we haven't done that (aside from massive layoffs of state employees) and while the economy is still s***ty at least it's actually growing. I mean, it's almost like there is an actual, recent, real-world example of a certain idea being bad... the irony to me is that generally the same people are mad that we are "going to end up like Europe." Well, yeah, but not for the reasons you think

I'm getting a serious case of Romney blather fatigue

QUOTE (Reddy @ Aug 7, 2012 -> 12:24 AM) i... was... responding to kap... I think you meant to quote his post.

Remember when Chone Figgins wasn't absolutely horrific?

QUOTE (Reddy @ Aug 6, 2012 -> 06:37 PM) I'm so glad you've finally come around and you fully support the rights of gays to marry. That's really big of you to realize you held an ignorant opinion, and to change it. Not sure what you're saying... I've believed that for years now Gay marriage is tossed out there a couple of months before every election and people haven't caught on. This particular argument is about absolutely nothing (unless you are taking the position that by giving CFA money, you're contributing to their causes, but that's a slippery slope, why buy anything from anyone you ever disagree with on anything?). Or you could take the position that you're not cool with companies telling people what they should be thinking, but by and large that's not what this debate is about either. We've got a general election for president coming up and dozens of topics that should be in the spotlight but this has been the dominant item for 2 weeks. "They" are aware of that too and they will continue to keep coming up with ever-more-creative ways to steal our money.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 6, 2012 -> 11:06 PM) You still have to have done SOMETHING. Talked to someone about killing your wife, bought bomb parts online after posting you wanted to kill XXX and so on. They get terrorists on that for conspiracy after they buy (fake) bombs from undercover officers. So they DID something, not just woke up one day and said to themselves 'i wanna blow up a bridge today'. Dude blows up bridge because he is a dips*** Dude blows up bridge and claims he is doing it on behalf of an Islamic resistance group ...are those two things not different? The same thing happened but one of them has the element of terrorism added to it.