Monkey wisdom

[shereads]

<pulls pin from another vintage marshmallow Peep; hesitates; tastes it>

Eww.

Subo, are you saying people actually eat these things?

Marshmallows are just about the only sugar-intense food that I found repulsive even when I was a kid - and mind you, I used to think Frosted Flakes needed more sugar.

There are only two kinds of marshmallows worth eating: charred over a campfire until they are at least 30% carbon; the charms in Lucky Charms cereal.

No, the best thing about Peeps is their shelf-life. Or is it half-life? I get those confused.

<tosses Peep-grenade in the general direction of Fox News>

 

[cumallday]

~~~

From previous encounters I gather you are not amenable to reasonable discussion.


I could suggest that you have a poor understanding of Objectivism and moral imperatives, but then, I would be doing as you are, criticizing out of hand without furthering a discussion on anything.

I have rather a good understanding of the tenets of secular humanism and Marxism, thank you, although I do not claim to be a "student" of either.

My objection to Marxism, in general, and Das Kapital specifically, is that individual human values are sacrificed for the greater good of the whole.

My objection to Secular Humanism, in general, is the basic tenet that moral questions are not related to the 'physical world', exist only in the mind, and thus are not subject to critical terms such as absolute, and imperative or axiomatic.

Which means, one has no basis for making moral or ethical decisions if one basks in the religion of secular humanism.

Marxism has no redeeming qualities. Secular Humanism has many fine qualities but lacks an intellectual foundation for making ethical decisions.

Bah, humbug...

crawl back in your comfortable rug ya bug....


amicus...

You have a very good understanding on how to contradict yourself.

 

[rgraham666]

So, friend, what differentiates Marxism from capitalism?

I've never worked anywhere, except as a writer, that didn't demand I sublimate my personality into the corporate culture. And didn't make me pay a heavy price when I didn't or couldn't.

 

[shereads]

So, friend, what differentiates Marxism from capitalism?

I've never worked anywhere, except as a writer, that didn't demand I sublimate my personality into the corporate culture. And didn't make me pay a heavy price when I didn't or couldn't.

That's right, Rob. You distract him while Subo and I get more ammo for the Peeps cannon.

 

[Subo97]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, gooey yellow sweetness.

I've found marshmellows, of all the known mellows, are the best cure for apoplexy.

tossing amicus a rum soaked Peeps wrapped in a secular humanist newsletter

 

[amicus]

[QUOTE=rgraham666]So, friend, what differentiates Marxism from capitalism?

I've never worked anywhere, except as a writer, that didn't demand I sublimate my personality into the corporate culture. And didn't make me pay a heavy price when I didn't or couldn't.[/QUOTE]


~~~

First off, rgraham666, I am not your 'friend', and you don't really want to comprehend the differences between a free economy and a command economy, which is the second dishonesty in your small post.

I doubt you even have respect for the concept of 'work', as it applies to human endeavors.

We all enter this world in about the same way, totally dependent on our parents to feed and clothe us until we grow and learn and can exchange our labor for the necessities of life.

Almost all of your posts indicate you think someone 'owes' you a living, a job, housing, medical, et cetera.

There is much honorable about earning ones own way in life, although I doubt you can grasp the concept. The most humane, the most effective and efficient system by which individuals can offer their services is through the free enterprise system, capitalism.

Plus, the free market system has a built in, innate, code of ethics and morality of reward for success and penalty for failure that works all by itself.

Not that you will see or appreciate any of that...but others may.


amicus...

 

[shereads]

Okay, tipping point.

Amicus: Rob has obviously risen above some difficult circumstances and emerged as someone worth knowing. That makes one of you.

I've been attempting to cheerfully tolerate you, maybe even draw you to leave your dark little fortress of failure and self-hatred to have a bit of fun with the rest of us sometimes - because I feel sorry for you. You've dropped hints, without realizing it, that you are deeply bitter about things you think you should have achieved in life and didn't - and it's always the fault of someone else. You were meant to be a famous journalist, but instead Ed Bradley was hired as CBS' "token nigger.' You are the target of unwarranted insults and name-calling, despite the respectful tone with which you enter every discussion. You should be acknowledged in the AH for your fine intellect and superior capacity for reason; instead you're forced to seek the respect you're due in teen chat rooms.

I was determined not to give up on you; there sometimes seeemed to be a spark of playfulness peeking out through that Klansman's hood. But you never take the thing off, and looking at it for too long a time is sickening to those of us who grew up among your breed and know how deep and virulent the hatred runs. Mostly, it's self-hatred. But it's directed outward, and it contaminates everything it touches. Also, that Little Pixie AV is creepiing me out. You're ignored.

 

[rgraham666]

Don't know what he said, shereads, he's on ignore. I did see someone's quote of him which prompted my post.

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[amicus]

Okay, tipping point.

Amicus: Rob has obviously risen above some difficult circumstances and emerged as someone worth knowing. That makes one of you.

I've been attempting to cheerfully tolerate you, maybe even draw you to leave your dark little fortress of failure and self-hatred to have a bit of fun with the rest of us sometimes - because I feel sorry for you. You've dropped hints, without realizing it, that you are deeply bitter about things you think you should have achieved in life and didn't - and it's always the fault of someone else. You were meant to be a famous journalist, but instead Ed Bradley was hired as CBS' "token nigger.' You are the target of unwarranted insults and name-calling, despite the respectful tone with which you enter every discussion. You should be acknowledged in the AH for your fine intellect and superior capacity for reason; instead you're forced to seek the respect you're due in teen chat rooms.

I was determined not to give up on you; there sometimes seeemed to be a spark of playfulness peeking out through that Klansman's hood. But you never take the thing off, and looking at it for too long a time is sickening to those of us who grew up among your breed and know how deep and virulent the hatred runs. Mostly, it's self-hatred. But it's directed outward, and it contaminates everything it touches. You're ignored.

~~~~

Without the personal attacks so common place in SheRead's posts, there is little more to her than that.

Ignored? Fine. You add absolutely nothing besides personal vitriol anyway, you won't be missed.


amicus...

 

[shereads]

Don't know what he said, shereads, he's on ignore. I did see someone's quote of him which prompted my post.

Thanks for the kind words.

You were wise to ignore him. I don't remember why I stopped. I think it was a combination of misplaced compassion and a more selfish reason: he's so easy to best, even if he doesn't see it. I began to see what a waste of energy it was when I copied a friend who's not familiar with Lit on someone else's very funny reply to one of A's posts. She wrote back, "Yeah, it was a clever reply. But isn't that a bit like outsmarting a child?"

:kisses back:

Have some of these marshmallow Peeps, Rob. if Subo eats all of them, he'll be sick.

SUBO: Did you know Peeps celebrated their 50th anniversary a couple of years ago? The blurb on the package said, "50 YEARS OLD!" I believe it.

 

[Subo97]

Well, I've been eating Peeps for over 50 years. I wonder if they just made one great stockpile and have been doling it out ever since.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Newbies might be fooled by your bluster, but do you really think the rest of us didn't figure out, long ago, that the way you "win" a debate is by pronouncing yourself the winner?

In all fairness, that very same tactic DID put Dubya on the throne the first time...

 

[shereads]

In all fairness, that very same tactic DID put Dubya on the throne the first time...

Yes, but for that to work you need a certain set of circumstances: For example, your brother is the governor of the contested state, and the woman in charge of calling for a recount is your state campaign manager, and your daddy and his friends appointed a majority of Supreme Court justices.

It's not enough just to be arrogant.

That gets you no higher than Scooter Libby.

 

[shereads]

Well, I've been eating Peeps for over 50 years. I wonder if they just made one great stockpile and have been doling it out ever since.

I suspect that modern-day Peeps are clones of the first Peep. There's a secret basement lab someplace.

Speaking of Peeps and laboratories, I never tire of recalling this stunning medical achievement:

CONJOINED PEEPS SURGERY

http://files.photojerk.com/shereads/scrubbedin.jpg

 

[dr_mabeuse]

It never, in my opinion, had much to do with the oil.

The Iraq war was straight out of the Old West. A gunfighter walks into town and shoots somebody dead. Just to show who's in charge.

The Iraq War was about overturning all the international conventions and laws. The current U.S. administration was telling the rest of the world, "The rules don't apply anymore. We're back to the law of the jungle."

Yes. People who say it was about oil give the planners and instigators way too much credit. They assume that they were able to bring this thing off and cover their real motivation and with clever deceit and involved machinations, that they were in control of the whole thing from the start.

It's just too disturbing to face what the Iraq war really was - gross ignorance, arrogance, and incompetence on a scale probably unmatched since the nineteenth century.

 

[jomar]

Yes. People who say it was about oil give the planners and instigators way too much credit. They assume that they were able to bring this thing off and cover their real motivation and with clever deceit and involved machinations, that they were in control of the whole thing from the start.

It's just too disturbing to face what the Iraq war really was - gross ignorance, arrogance, and incompetence on a scale probably unmatched since the nineteenth century.

I don't think the planners get credit for being cunning, though no one may be held accountable in the long run. Gross ignorance, arrogance, and incompetence on a scale probably unmatched since the nineteenth century aside still don't preclude wanting to secure oil for the US as part of the motivation for invasion. And I agree, it's out of control and truly is disturbing.

 

[shereads]

The invasion of Iraq may have been screwed up in every other respect, but there are winners: Halliburton and the other corporations with rebuilding contracts are getting fat at an all-they-can-eat money buffet. I'll bet the new Dubai headquarters will be stunning. I can hardly wait to help pay for the executive john.

And yes, there will be a benefit to the oil companies, if Iraq's new petroleum policy is passed this month as expected. It will be the friendliest deal for non-native oil interests of any middle eastern country.

For ordinary Americans, the war is a disaster. But for Americans with global financial interests, it's not going that badly. Cheney wins.

 

[Subo97]

Yes. People who say it was about oil give the planners and instigators way too much credit. They assume that they were able to bring this thing off and cover their real motivation and with clever deceit and involved machinations, that they were in control of the whole thing from the start.

It's just too disturbing to face what the Iraq war really was - gross ignorance, arrogance, and incompetence on a scale probably unmatched since the nineteenth century.

You're being way too hard on the nineteenth century. It's not easy to build a civilization without Peeps.

 

[shereads]

You're being way too hard on the nineteenth century. It's not easy to build a civilization without Peeps.

Is that what they built those fortresses with? The ones from ancient Sumer and Troy, with parts of their outer walls still standing after centuries of sandstorms?

I always thought they used Hostess Twinkies.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Yes, but for that to work you need a certain set of circumstances: For example, your brother is the governor of the contested state, and the woman in charge of calling for a recount is your state campaign manager, and your daddy and his friends appointed a majority of Supreme Court justices.

It's not enough just to be arrogant.

That gets you no higher than Scooter Libby.

From what I've read, even with all the cheating, all the rigged votes and all the deleted democratic voters, Bush STILL wouldn't have won, but then a good friend of the family popped up and announced on his TV-station, before the votes were even finished counted, that Bush was the winner - and all of a sudden, all other news programs got afraid that they had missed something, so they quickly joined in the chanting.
It was media, not votes, that made Bush the dictator.

 

[shereads]

From what I've read, even with all the cheating, all the rigged votes and all the deleted democratic voters, Bush STILL wouldn't have won, but then a good friend of the family popped up and announced on his TV-station, before the votes were even finished counted, that Bush was the winner - and all of a sudden, all other news programs got afraid that they had missed something, so they quickly joined in the chanting.
It was media, not votes, that made Bush the dictator.

The television networks have an informal policy of not predicting a winner in each state (based on exit polls) until the polls have closed. Tim Russert on NBC called the Florida election for Al Gore after the polls closed at 7pm - but forgot that Florida reaches across two time zones. There was still another hour of voting in the westernmost part of Florida, which happens to include the county with the poorest population, the most African americans, and most heavily Democratic. People who were leaving their jobs at the end of the work day, planniing to vote after work - and aware that the state Highway Patrol had set up random drivers' license checks that slowed car traffic to teh polling places - may have heard the news that their candidate had carried Florida, and gone home.

I turned of the news that night confident that BushCo had lost my state, and consequently the election, and that life as we had known it would go on. I woke up to the news that Bush had been declared the winner by a margin narrower than the one that would have required a mandatory recount under Florida law - if not for the fact that the person in charge of enforcing Florida election law, and who announced Bush the winner, was also his state campaign manager.

Bitch.

If it makes you feel any better, the bitch ran for the senate in November and didn't even get Bush's endorsement. These people eat their young.

I'm still angry at Tim Russert from NBC for announcing Gore the winner in our state before the polls closed. Thank you for reminding me why my stomach hurts whenever I watch him on Meet the Press, grilling politicians about this hideous mess we're in. It's partly his fault, dammit! I should write him a mean note.

 

[amicus]

Ah, how quickly you forget the now infamous 'exit poles' all across the south, that errantly predicted a Democrat sweep of the South for the better part of an entire afternoon until actual results showed otherwise.

The reason? Democrat party operatives manipulated the exit pole results to give a false picture of the election.

Sound familiar?


amicus...

 

[Seattle Zack]

Ah, how quickly you forget the now infamous 'exit poles' all across the south... blah blah blah ... Democrat party operatives manipulated the exit pole results.. blah blah blah ... amicus...

Come now, Twinkles, you do know it's "polls," right? They don't actually have shabbily dressed Czechs masquerading as Warsaw residents questioning voters, do they?

 

[amicus]

[QUOTE=Seattle Zack]Come now, Twinkles, you do know it's "polls," right? They don't actually have shabbily dressed Czechs masquerading as Warsaw residents questioning voters, do they?[/QUOTE]


~~~

Chuckles...did I actually do that, 'poles', instead of 'polls', sighs, it looks that way, I suppose I did; my bad.

I never claimed to be perfect, but surely, you can do better than that? Or is that your only purpose in life, to catch my typo's?

Hmmm...


amicus....