Got a crazy forwarded political email from your family? Post them here.

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Mitchicon: Nov 3, 2006

sicarius posted:

So... does this mean that he was an atheist? Interesting. I doubt it really means much or will lead to anything at all, but it explains part of why the right isn't seeking to politicize his death as much as that of Woods - whose family is, apparently, quite religious.

It means that Republicans are pro-TROOPS as long as you fit into what they think a real 'Merican looks like. Just look at the Republican primaries when the gay soldier in Iraq phoned in to a debate, asking what the various candidates plans for the POST-DADT military were. The crowd started booing a deployed soldier.

# ? Oct 31, 2012 21:37

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# ? May 11, 2024 11:33

Mitchicon: Nov 3, 2006

Keshik posted:

It's not so much that as the fact that Mitt Romney tried pulling a Mark Antony and his mom told him to go gently caress himself so the right wing backed the hell off before it blew up in their faces.

Did a thing happen?

# ? Oct 31, 2012 21:40

Keshik: Oct 27, 2000

Mitchicon posted:

Did a thing happen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su-7y92YzrA

quote:

On the stump in Iowa Tuesday, Mitt Romney revealed that he met former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty at a holiday party some years ago. Doherty is one of four Americans killed during the September 11th attack on the American consulate in Benghazi.

Romney's story started out lighthearted, as he recounted how he and Ann mistook a holiday gathering across the street for their neighborhood party, and he ended up talking to Doherty. "He skied in some of the places I had. We had a lot of things in common," Romney said of Doherty. Both men are from Massachusetts.

"He told me that he keeps going back to the Middle East. He cares very deeply about the people there. He served in the military there, went back from time to time to offer security services and so forth to people there. You can imagine how I felt when I found out that he was one of the two former Navy SEALS killed in Benghazi on September 11th."

Romney was visibly emotional during the story, and the video of the speech was repeated throughout the day on network and cable news.

But one of Glen Doherty's best friends remembered Doherty's impression of this meeting much differently.

Elf Ellefsen met Glen Doherty skiing in Utah when he was 19, and the two men remained friends for more than 20 years.

"A guy living life wise beyond his years. Always trying to be progressive as well as do the right thing. Always challenging himself to his greatest ability," Ellefsen remembered.

He last saw Doherty a week before the final mission to Libya. "I stayed in his house (in California), we paddled out in the ocean together, spent some good quality time."

Ellefsen said Doherty recalled meeting Mitt Romney years ago, but the account was much different from what the Presidential candidate retold in Iowa.

According to Ellefsen, Romney introduced himself to Doherty four separate times during the gathering.

"He said it was very comical," Ellefsen said, "Mitt Romney approached him ultimately four times, using this private gathering as a political venture to further his image. He kept introducing himself as Mitt Romney, a political figure. The same introduction, the same opening line. Glen believed it to be very insincere and stale."[

Ellefsen said Doherty remembered Romney as robotic.

"He said it was pathetic and comical to have the same person come up to you within only a half hour, have this person reintroduce himself to you, having absolutely no idea whatsoever that he just did this 20 minutes ago, and did not even recognize Glen's face."

Ellefsen described Glen Doherty as a humble, non-political guy, and said it was ironic for him to be used during a presidential campaign.

"Whether it be Republican, Democrat, Green Party, Libertarian, it doesn't make a difference. Because this guy is using our great friend, our humble, and honorable great friend...who is truly larger than life...He has become part of the soapbox routine for politics in a presidential race."

Ellefsen said he understands why people would want to link themselves with Doherty. "Of all people to tie yourself to for advancement in life, it's not surprising that Romney or anybody else would want to tie themselves to Glen Doherty. Because he was incredible. And I can honestly say beyond a shadow of a doubt, he was the greatest person I have ever met in my life."

I asked Ellefsen what he thought of his friend's story being used on the political stump:

"Honestly it does make me sick. Glen would definitely not approve of it. He probably wouldn't do much about it. He probably wouldn't say a whole lot about it. I think Glen would feel, more than anything, almost embarrassed for Romney. I think he would feel pity for him."

Editor's note:
While it's unclear just what political, if any, motivations Ellefsen has, it is clear on his Facebook page that he's upset about the U.S. government's role in security overseas.

Ellefson isn't the only one upset with Romney. In an interview with Ross and Burbank, Barbara Doherty criticized Romney for using her son as a "political football."

"It upsets me because this isn't something political. This is four wonderful young men who have sacrificed their lives for this country and so other people could be free."

Doherty says her son never mentioned meeting Romney and likely would have if it had been as meaningful as the candidate portrayed in his speech.

"If Mitt Romney met him and was so moved by him, I'm just wondering why someone from his office never called to see what they could do and I have never received a note of condolence from anybody in that party," Doherty said.

Josh Kerns, MyNorthwest.com, contributed to this report

# ? Oct 31, 2012 21:49

vez veces: Dec 15, 2006; The engineer blew the whistle,
and the fireman rung the bell.

Keshik posted:

I actually haven't thought about Tillman in quite a while. Didn't it turn out he was intentionally fragged by fellow American soldiers?

It was friendly fire. John Krakauer wrote a book about him that also goes into plenty of detail over the history of US involvement in the Middle East (he's the guy who wrote Into the Wild)

# ? Oct 31, 2012 21:49

clockworx: Oct 15, 2005; The Internet Whore made me buy this account

Didn't find this one while searching

quote:

Post Turtle ...
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, whose hand was caught in the squeeze gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his role as our president. The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a 'Post Turtle.' Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him, what a 'post turtle' was. The old rancher said:

'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'.

The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain:

you know he didn't get up there by himself,

he doesn't belong up there,

he doesn't know what to do while he's up there,

he's elevated beyond his ability to function,

and you just wonder what kind of dumb rear end put him up there to begin with.

Best explanation I've heard yet.

# ? Oct 31, 2012 21:58

Bombadilillo: Feb 28, 2009; The dock really fucks a case or nerfing it.

clockworx posted:

Didn't find this one while searching

Obama procceeds to run country.

Yep, not able to function.

Obama procceeds to kick Romneys rear end.

# ? Oct 31, 2012 22:03

XyloJW: Jul 23, 2007

Keshik posted:

Eh, I always thought it was pretty great when Pat Tillman's family went apeshit on people for talking about Tillman going to heaven and poo poo.

I actually haven't thought about Tillman in quite a while. Didn't it turn out he was intentionally fragged by fellow American soldiers?

If you really want to feel your gorge rise, read this: http://www.rall.com/2009/09/pat-tillman-revisited.html

tl;dr, Ted Rall made a comic immediately after Tillman's death calling the guy a moron and a racist and a murderer who got what he deserved. Then he spends 5 years doubling down on it, and then when the truth comes out, he says "See! I was right all along! I'm the only reason people know the truth (that he wasn't a moron, racist, or murderer)!" Scroll down to the comments to see him ranting endlessly about how the left abandoned him through those long years "alone", all because he dared to question the official narrative.

# ? Oct 31, 2012 22:18

Ashcans: Jan 2, 2006; Let's do the space-time warp again!

clockworx posted:

Didn't find this one while searching

I just want to point out that picture isn't a turtle, it's a terrapin.

Incidentally, I used to own a marsh terrapin. We kept it in a smaller enclosure in our yard, because our dogs kept hassling it. One day, I found the terrapin sitting on top of it's enclosures fence and I figured my sister had stuck it there as some sort of prank (she can be an rear end). So I put him back in carefully and went to yell at her. She acted like she had no idea what I was talking about, so I dragged her back outside.

When we got to the pen, we found the terrapin climbing the loving fence. Turns out those little claws are useful when you are a tenacious little dude. I watched him climb right up to the top and perch himself on the fencetop with the smuggest loving look a turtle (_terrapin) ever had.

So not only are old ranchers racist fucks, they don't know poo poo about turtles either. Keep shoveling cowshit old man, it's all you're good for.

# ? Oct 31, 2012 22:29

Cakeequals: Jun 15, 2011; I'm going to make sweet love to him! FROM THE BACK!!
RRRRRRRRR

So my grandpa posted this stupid rear end video about Obamacare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEM4NKXK-iA

Is it me, or does this sandwich analogy make no loving sense? And now my uncle has latched onto it too and is posting about pulling the wagon and Peter and Paul and whatever. I just don't get it.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 01:03

peak debt: Mar 11, 2001; b& :(; Nap Ghost

There should have been a third scenario: One guy is hungry - about to starve, actually - and the other guy doesn't give him the sandwich. Not because he's starving too, he actually has another four sandwiches in the beach house right around the corner, but simply because he puts his own need to have five sandwiches over the other guy's need to have one.

And then you'd have to rate these three scenarios in order of preference. You'd have to be a pretty lovely christian to prefer the starving guy over the compulsive charity.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 02:14

Juffo-Wup: Jan 13, 2005; Pillbug

Cakeequals posted:

So my grandpa posted this stupid rear end video about Obamacare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEM4NKXK-iA

Is it me, or does this sandwich analogy make no loving sense? And now my uncle has latched onto it too and is posting about pulling the wagon and Peter and Paul and whatever. I just don't get it.

I think drawing an analogy between a mild preference for a sandwich and the need for life-saving medical care isn't nonsense so much as it is despicable.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 02:15

I Am The Scum: May 8, 2007; The devil made me do it

peak debt posted:

There should have been a third scenario: One guy is hungry - about to starve, actually - and the other guy doesn't give him the sandwich. Not because he's starving too, he actually has another four sandwiches in the beach house right around the corner, but simply because he puts his own need to have five sandwiches over the other guy's need to have one.

And then you'd have to rate these three scenarios in order of preference. You'd have to be a pretty lovely christian to prefer the starving guy over the compulsive charity.

This is a good point. The ideal way to view these types of issues is what brings about the best results. Does this one man's excessive sandwich sovereignty really trump the other man's life? I don't think so.

And when you look at it this way, D'Souza's argument falls apart, and he knows it. As Shermer points out, shouldn't his stated principle apply to other things, such as a standing army (let's ignore the ridiculous size of our military for now, as that's beside the point)? Why not all things the government does? What about criminal law? That's all coercion, is it not? Does the government rob society of some ineffable quality when it tells its citizens You cannot steal. You cannot rape. You cannot kill? No. What an absurd notion.

The only way D'Souza could argue this point and not contradict himself is to declare himself an anarchist. He doesn't do this, though. When he responds to the problem of the military question, he's back to arguing in favor of consequentialism. It's a blatant special pleading fallacy.

And besides, Obama didn't give us single payer.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 02:36

wormil: Sep 12, 2002; Hulk will smoke you!

The person posting it knows it's bullshit but is just pandering to conservative friends so instead of tackling it head on I just remarked that it worked just fine for George Romney.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 02:44

I Am The Scum: May 8, 2007; The devil made me do it

Totally off-topic irrelevant question: Why do the conservative image macros have the worst jpg artifacts?

# ? Nov 1, 2012 02:54

DarkHorse: Dec 13, 2006; Nap Ghost

Ugh, I could only watch about half of it before closing it in disgust, and that's pretty out of character for me.

For issues, there's also the framing of it as an antagonistic relationship that ignores the original question; if it's a Christian's responsibility to care for the poor, why are they not in favor of policies that help the poor? His argument is that because he's forced to, it's no longer a moral act. And of course there's the hypocrisy of the military being ok but healthcare isn't.

He's ignoring whether it's effective and also the ways in which the sandwich giver in society stands to benefit. If you're limiting discussion solely to the context of morality that might work, but somehow I think the argument "I don't support social policies that help the poor because it's not as good as when people give out of the goodness of their hearts (regardless of whether it works better or worse)" is not a very compelling one.

There's also the issue of periods of recession and so on, where people lose coverage through no fault of their own. He talks about people who "deserve" coverage and... I just... as;ljlkj;afelkjf.

Also with government involvement the receiver is no longer thankful, he's entitled :smug:

Basically, a lot of it is addressed in this argument, where entrepreneurs are disincentivized especially if they are ill through no fault of their own:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCLt1w7EeeQ

EDIT to add about Obamaween: The horrible thing is that apparently someone actually did this, in real life, to real kids.

But it's okay, they gave them more afterwards! :shepface:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHNBr3PZQaE

DarkHorse fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Nov 1, 2012

# ? Nov 1, 2012 02:55

Countblanc: Apr 20, 2005; _{Help a hero out!}

I Am The Scum posted:

Totally off-topic irrelevant question: Why do the conservative image macros have the worst jpg artifacts?

Because a lot of conservatives are old and don't understand how computers work. I hope this was enlightening.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 03:12

CloneCommander: May 15, 2004; The droid army is in full retreat.

sicarius posted:

Saw this today:

poo poo a brick on the guy who posted it. I don't know why exactly but when I saw Vilerat's image attached to political propaganda I got very agitated. This is the very definition of exploiting death for political capital and it's disgusting.

For the record, General Ham got in trouble for his his travel and entertainment expenses and the early retirement is him quietly getting out. The whole point was so there wouldn't be a big fuss over it that would embarass him and embarass the Army. It's not even remotely connected to Benghazi. I don't know what the deal is with Gaouette but I'd lay heavy odds on it being something really stupid like that stupid-rear end video thing that Honor - the XO of the Enterprise - got in trouble for doing, or sexually harassing someone or some poo poo like that. I mean, yeah, get pissed about people we know being used as political tokens to score points, but also get pissed about the assumption that there is no possible legitimate reason that a couple high-ranking military officers might be relieved of their commands.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 03:21

Sarion: Dec 24, 2003

I post here often, but don't usually have content, just responses. But I came across something today that's kind of relevant and amusing. It's too long to post the whole thing here (several pages), but here's a link:

http://www.wnd.com/files/Focusletter.pdf

The summary: It's a letter written by Focus on the Family from 2008 about how terrible things will be under Obama. In particular it's written from the view point of a Christian in October 2012, warning America about how bad the next four years will be.

Some examples include:

quote:

(1) Boy Scouts: The Boy Scouts no longer exist as an organization. They chose to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys.

quote:

(8) Homosexual weddings: Church buildings are now considered a �public accommodation� by the Supreme Court, and churches have no freedom to refuse to allow their buildings to be used for wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples. If they refuse, they lose their tax-exempt status, and they are increasingly becoming subject to fines and antidiscrimination lawsuits.

quote:

(18) Pornography: It�s almost impossible to keep children from seeing pornography. The Supreme Court in 2011 nullified all Federal Communications Commission restrictions on obscene speech or visual content in radio and television broadcasts. As a result, television programs at all hours of the day contain explicit portrayals of sexual acts.

quote:

(25) Israel: In mid-2010, Iran launched a nuclear bomb that exploded in the middle of Tel Aviv, destroying much of that city.

quote:

(26) Health care systems: The new Congress under President Obama passed a
nationalized �single provider� health care system, in which the U.S. government is the provider of all health care in the United States, following the pattern of nationalized medicine in the United Kingdom and Canada. The great benefit is that medical care is now free for everyone -- if you can get it. Now that health care is free, it seems everybody wants more of it. The waiting list for prostate cancer surgery is 3 years. The waiting list for ovarian cancer is 2 years. Just as the Canadian experience had shown prior to 2008 with its nationalized health care, so in the U.S. only a small number of MRIs are performed � down 90% from 2008 � because they are too expensive, and they discover more problems that need treatment, so they are almost never authorized.
(27) Limited care for older Americans: Because medical resources must be rationed carefully by the government, people older than 80 have essentially no access to hospitals or surgical procedures. Their �duty� is increasingly thought to be to go home to die, so they don�t drain scarce resources from the medical system. Euthanasia is becoming more and more common.

It's kind of an interesting document, with the election right around the corner. All the things that were supposedly going to happen, and not one of them actually did; or if it did, it didn't have the effect promised (DADT repeal, for example). Apparently someone really has been keeping a shitthatneverhappened.txt - Focus on the Family.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 03:33

Pilkington: Nov 5, 2005; You see, the other raptors and I have constructed a crude suspension bridge to Venezuela

Someone on Facebook finally posted that Obama denying Navy Seals image macro. I saw the long post a page or two back going over it but I didn't quite understand what it had to do with Obama. Is there a simple explanation of this preferably with citations?

# ? Nov 1, 2012 03:40

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

Sarion posted:

(26) Health care systems: The new Congress under President Obama passed a
nationalized �single provider� health care system, in which the U.S. government is the provider of all health care in the United States, following the pattern of nationalized medicine in the United Kingdom and Canada. The great benefit is that medical care is now free for everyone -- if you can get it. Now that health care is free, it seems everybody wants more of it. The waiting list for prostate cancer surgery is 3 years. The waiting list for ovarian cancer is 2 years. Just as the Canadian experience had shown prior to 2008 with its nationalized health care, so in the U.S. only a small number of MRIs are performed � down 90% from 2008 � because they are too expensive, and they discover more problems that need treatment, so they are almost never authorized.

Wow, really? "The problem with universal health care is then too many people get health care"? That's the worst FYGM I've seen in a long time. "Too bad you're poor and can't afford health care, your job is just to die so us rich people can enjoy health care free of wait times, since if you got it too that would mean we would have to wait in line with the rest of the plebs." Jesus.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 03:44

Discospawn: Mar 3, 2007

Cakeequals posted:

So my grandpa posted this stupid rear end video about Obamacare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEM4NKXK-iA

Is it me, or does this sandwich analogy make no loving sense? And now my uncle has latched onto it too and is posting about pulling the wagon and Peter and Paul and whatever. I just don't get it.

The idea that morality is not 'honest' if there is a benefit to it is horse poo poo. All religions coerce their followers to act according to their beliefs because of a threat of a less-than-perfect afterlife. People have made this argument to campaign against charity, because if you feel good after doing it then you weren't really being altruistic.

I don't know what the gently caress the Socratic Club at Oregan State University is, but I'm pretty sure the socratic method doesn't involve somebody asking a question from the audience and then allowing 2 blowhards on stage to dodge the question in an intellectually dishonest way.

Discospawn fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Nov 1, 2012

# ? Nov 1, 2012 03:46

Markovnikov: Nov 6, 2010

Sarion posted:

I post here often, but don't usually have content, just responses. But I came across something today that's kind of relevant and amusing. It's too long to post the whole thing here (several pages), but here's a link:

http://www.wnd.com/files/Focusletter.pdf

I love how half of that is "WE WONT BE ABLE TO HATE ON DEM GAYS ANYMORE".

Also, "millions of petrodollars" is a great name for pretty much anything.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 04:28

wormil: Sep 12, 2002; Hulk will smoke you!

wormil posted:

The person posting it knows it's bullshit but is just pandering to conservative friends so instead of tackling it head on I just remarked that it worked just fine for George Romney.

Apparently my comment worked, my friend lost his poo poo and went on an incoherent rant. The only time I remember him doing anything like that.

Pilkington posted:

Someone on Facebook finally posted that Obama denying Navy Seals image macro. I saw the long post a page or two back going over it but I didn't quite understand what it had to do with Obama. Is there a simple explanation of this preferably with citations?

I wasn't sure either then found this:
http://rt.com/usa/news/facebook-obama-sos-meme-699/

# ? Nov 1, 2012 04:39

Eggplant Squire: Aug 14, 2003

vyelkin posted:

Wow, really? "The problem with universal health care is then too many people get health care"? That's the worst FYGM I've seen in a long time. "Too bad you're poor and can't afford health care, your job is just to die so us rich people can enjoy health care free of wait times, since if you got it too that would mean we would have to wait in line with the rest of the plebs." Jesus.

Seriously I like how it's supposed to be a Christian writing that too. So now letting poor people die from health issues since they aren't rich or fortunate enough to get medical care is a "Christian" Value? I assume in The Bible: American Edition Jesus spat on the lepers for not showing enough initiative to earn money in order to cure themselves. American Fundamentalist Christianity is so far off from the original principles that I would call it a separate religion entirely and one that is totally loathsome.

I also like how I should care what these people are scared of as an American voter.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 04:46

Cowslips Warren: Oct 29, 2005; What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?; Grimey Drawer

'Merican Jesus doesn't have time to save your liberal socialist rear end when He is out there Protecting Merican Soldiers from Muslims.

My mom was sent a video tonight about a man who is 'so sick of this all!' Despite saying both parties are to blame for wasteful spending, he spent several minutes asking WHY Michelle Obama had to visit South Africa ON OUR TAX DOLLARS AND BACKS OF THE RETIRED AND SOCIAL SECURITY GETTERS and why Congress and the President won't take lower pay and poo poo insurance because everyone else clearly has to.

I lost it when the guy said that most people who make 250K a year are small business owners, and THEY employ 70% of Americans and Obama wants to tax them to death. No, Mom, I'm not being argumentative by saying 'prove it.' I'm asking for facts beyond some white man yelling about Obama wasting money.

No, the points are NOT valid. I can say Romney is Muslim till I'm blue in the face, and that doesn't make it TRUE. Saying something does not make it true!

# ? Nov 1, 2012 05:16

Ned: May 23, 2002; by Hand Knit

Some guy on my local newspaper site posted this along with the picture of Ambassador Stephens -

quote:

Do American ambassadors typically get abused and anally raped before being dragged through the streets as well? (This was widely reported by multiple Arab news sites and bragged about by the perpetrators, who remain at large in spite of President Obama's promise of "justice".)
http://israelinsider.net/profiles/blogs/arab-media-reports-us-ambassador...

Does the Obama Doctrine, properly articulated, always allow 7 hour assaults to take place while refusing military assistance?

You are defending actions of an Administration that are indefensible. I'm trying to remember the last time an American ambassador was kidnapped and murdered. I just can't seem to recall it.

More facts will be coming out in the days ahead.

My local newspaper folk are pissing me off to no end about what happened in Benghazi and I don't have anyone to back me up there.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 05:27

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

Sarion posted:

I post here often, but don't usually have content, just responses. But I came across something today that's kind of relevant and amusing. It's too long to post the whole thing here (several pages), but here's a link:

http://www.wnd.com/files/Focusletter.pdf

The summary: It's a letter written by Focus on the Family from 2008 about how terrible things will be under Obama. In particular it's written from the view point of a Christian in October 2012, warning America about how bad the next four years will be.

Some examples include:

It's kind of an interesting document, with the election right around the corner. All the things that were supposedly going to happen, and not one of them actually did; or if it did, it didn't have the effect promised (DADT repeal, for example). Apparently someone really has been keeping a shitthatneverhappened.txt - Focus on the Family.

I just read through some of the other stuff in here and I can tell you that whoever wrote it is incredibly stupid. In (23) they literally say that Russia is going to invade the Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria, all by 2012 and all with no repercussions from the US, UN, EU or NATO. In (25) they say that not only will Iran nuke Tel Aviv, but that Israel's response, rather than being to launch their own nukes back at Iran (hint: they have many, many more nukes than Iran will ever have), was to cede to all Iran's demands and create a free Palestinian state.

Whoever wrote this knows even less about foreign policy than they do about domestic policy or economics. Holy poo poo.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 05:49

myron cope: Apr 21, 2009

Assuming that the FCC dropped all the rules on decency and networks could have 24 hour gently caress and suckfests on tv, what makes these morons think they actually would? I mean, the networks still bow to the almighty advertising dollar, and wouldn't want to piss them off.

How has their fake outrage machine not exploded into a million pieces by now?

# ? Nov 1, 2012 06:24

Aeka 2.0: Nov 16, 2000; Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.; Dinosaur Gum

The cable networks already can do what they want. Comedy Central late night drops F bombs all the time for instance . Just like you said it comes down to the advertisers.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 07:23

constantIllusion: Feb 16, 2010

myron cope posted:

Assuming that the FCC dropped all the rules on decency and networks could have 24 hour gently caress and suckfests on tv, what makes these morons think they actually would? I mean, the networks still bow to the almighty advertising dollar, and wouldn't want to piss them off.

How has their fake outrage machine not exploded into a million pieces by now?

Maybe it's just me being jaded, but I seriously think that organizations such as these know that tv will never be a 24-hour boink fest. Just as I believe they know there's nothing to fear with gays, single parents, married couples without children, and feminists. I believe their ultimate goal is to keep people afraid, because along as you keep people afraid, you can control them and make them do whatever you want. :tinfoil:

# ? Nov 1, 2012 07:41

Monocled Falcon: Oct 30, 2011

I've been checking out some right-wing blogs and I think I've got a decent grasp on what they thinking.
"Our Troops" can do no wrong, therefore if something bad happens and stopping it wouldn't have literally impossible, it was the democrats/liberals/politicians' fault.
Since the incident at Benghazi occurred over a time frame long enough that it was physically possible to travel from one of the American military bases in Mediterranean area to Benghazi, the only reason the SEALs didn't sweep in and save everybody was because of Obama.

https://www.blackfive.net/main/2012/10/bigger-than-watergate-proof-that-the-president-is-lying-about-benghazi.html

Oh, and since there were some unconfirmed reports of an "Operator" using a laser guidance system at Benghazi, there must have been an AC-130 overhead that mean old Obama ordered to stand down.

Going deeper into the rabbit, supposedly Obama ordered everybody to stand down and not help. But these two tried to send help, but were stopped by Obama's minions or possibly were the only two people in the entire military to take issue with that.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 10:09

sicarius: Dec 12, 2002; In brightest day,
In blackest night,
My smugface makes,
women wet....

That's how it goes, right?

Monocled Falcon posted:

I've been checking out some right-wing blogs and I think I've got a decent grasp on what they thinking.
"Our Troops" can do no wrong, therefore if something bad happens and stopping it wouldn't have literally impossible, it was the democrats/liberals/politicians' fault.
Since the incident at Benghazi occurred over a time frame long enough that it was physically possible to travel from one of the American military bases in Mediterranean area to Benghazi, the only reason the SEALs didn't sweep in and save everybody was because of Obama.

https://www.blackfive.net/main/2012/10/bigger-than-watergate-proof-that-the-president-is-lying-about-benghazi.html

Oh, and since there were some unconfirmed reports of an "Operator" using a laser guidance system at Benghazi, there must have been an AC-130 overhead that mean old Obama ordered to stand down.

Going deeper into the rabbit, supposedly Obama ordered everybody to stand down and not help. But these two tried to send help, but were stopped by Obama's minions or possibly were the only two people in the entire military to take issue with that.

I've basically stopped commenting on anything that seeks to use someone's death as a tool for political gain. It just makes me mad. Yes, I believe mistakes were made related to Benghazi and I think the deaths of any number of people are tragic. That doesn't mean I'm willing to allow the two to be connected.

I can tall about Benghazi as a political situation without invoking the deaths of innocent people (this is a clear case of appeal to emotion). If the person can't be bothered to discuss the situation without crying "BUUUUUT PEOPLE DIEEEED" I can't be bothered to talk to them. People die in every military action - that's why we use the military. It certainly doesn't help that we, as citizens, aren't aware of the full situation.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 10:29

Vodos: Jul 17, 2009; And how do we do that? We hurt a lot of people...

Someone posted this "CONSERVATISM IS CALLING" video on FB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsa4uLmTw0M

I don't know much about the deficits but that just seems disingenuous as gently caress. Is there a good article somewhere that someone who posts such a video would accept?

# ? Nov 1, 2012 10:44

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

Vodos posted:

Someone posted this "CONSERVATISM IS CALLING" video on FB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsa4uLmTw0M

I don't know much about the deficits but that just seems disingenuous as gently caress. Is there a good article somewhere that someone who posts such a video would accept?

It's incredibly disingenuous for a number of reasons. First of all, the 2009 budget was submitted by President Bush, not Obama. That's not his first budget. What this means is that while yes, it's true he didn't meet his goal of cutting the deficit in half, they're moving the goalposts on that. They say he's promising to cut it to half of 2008, which would be ~$220B, when in fact he's promising to cut it to half of 2009, which would be ~$700B. There's a massive difference there.

Second, deficit spending is not the problem. Right now, as we've mentioned time and time again in this thread, interest rates are lower than inflation. Simple math says every country should be borrowing as much as it possibly can when that's true, and investing all of it in infrastructure, human capital, and new industries. Even if not every investment pays off, most of them will and the country as a whole will benefit greatly from it. And since US treasury bonds tend to be issued with a fixed interest rate and despite the credit downgrade people continue to trust that the US government will pay back its loans, the government is actually, in a way, making money by adding to the deficit. This is the very first and most counterintuitive thing about the deficit. You always have to remember, and point out to people, that a country is not run like a home or even like a business, though it's more like a business than a home. Debt and deficit is not a terrible thing for a government.

Then the video goes into "numbers are big!" territory while failing to mention the fact that the US economy is also massive, which is just dumb. A deficit of $1T in the middle of a severe recession may be a massive amount objectively, in "1 trillion paper clips weigh as much as 800,000 Honda Civics" land, but it's not anywhere near as much when you realize that annual US GDP is over $15T.

Oh boy, Greece Italy Spain and France. The US is not going down those roads because people who invest in US treasury bonds still trust the US to pay them back reliably. That's why interest rates didn't go up when your credit rating was downgraded.

Okay, Obama plays golf sometimes while using the phrase "I will not rest until..." Are these people stupid?

I don't even want to address the rest of the video. Sorry, I don't have any articles to cite. I imagine someone else will though, this is the same territory we retread again and again.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 13:38

FronzelNeekburm: Jun 1, 2001; STOP, MORTTIME

It probably won't win anyone over to point out that the Obama quote they base the video on was from July 3, 2008, several months before the economy really exploded (and, for that matter, when gas prices were over $4 a gallon).

Perhaps it would be better to ask how, if both Bush and Obama added trillions to the deficit, we are supposed to fix it by cutting taxes. Republicans fought tooth and nail to protect the Bush tax cuts, but the CBO has been yelling for years about how disastrous continuing those tax cuts will be for the federal budget.

Obama has clearly spent a lot of money while in office, in the name of blunting the impact of the recession. Romney has proposed plenty of tax cuts, but it's not clear how he would make up the difference in revenues vs. spending. There are very few programs to cut that would balance the ledger, and they're all untouchables like Medicare and the military.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 13:55

P_T_S: Aug 28, 2009

vyelkin posted:

I just read through some of the other stuff in here and I can tell you that whoever wrote it is incredibly stupid. In (23) they literally say that Russia is going to invade the Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria, all by 2012 and all with no repercussions from the US, UN, EU or NATO. In (25) they say that not only will Iran nuke Tel Aviv, but that Israel's response, rather than being to launch their own nukes back at Iran (hint: they have many, many more nukes than Iran will ever have), was to cede to all Iran's demands and create a free Palestinian state.

Whoever wrote this knows even less about foreign policy than they do about domestic policy or economics. Holy poo poo.

As someone who had to listen to Focus on the Family radio programs as a child, I can offer some perspective. To that particular set of fundamentalists (FotF, Left Behind enthusiasts, AFA, etc.) the Cold War never ended. It colors every perception and opinion they have about the world. I think this is mostly due to such organizations being run like personal fiefdoms by old white men.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 13:57

nsaP: May 4, 2004; alright?

I Am The Scum posted:

Totally off-topic irrelevant question: Why do the conservative image macros have the worst jpg artifacts?

If they're anything like my parents it's likely some of them have been running it thru stupid filters to share it. I get single images in word documents from my mom. Or URLs....

# ? Nov 1, 2012 14:07

vez veces: Dec 15, 2006; The engineer blew the whistle,
and the fireman rung the bell.

Cakeequals posted:

So my grandpa posted this stupid rear end video about Obamacare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEM4NKXK-iA

Is it me, or does this sandwich analogy make no loving sense? And now my uncle has latched onto it too and is posting about pulling the wagon and Peter and Paul and whatever. I just don't get it.

Show me a person who thinks it's appropriate to compare UHC to sandwiches and I'll show you a person who supports a woman's right to choose:

I pass by a sandwich shop every day, but I'm on a diet. I can't have the carbs, and I know that if I eat a sandwich I will feel awful. I also know that sandwiches are delicious, and so every day that I resist buying a sandwich, I feel a sense of pride in my willpower. But now Mitt Romney wants to shut down that sandwich shop, which will take all the morality out of avoiding sandwiches.

Either both analogies are valid or both are inappropriate (hint: it's the latter).

# ? Nov 1, 2012 15:02

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

FronzelNeekburm posted:

It probably won't win anyone over to point out that the Obama quote they base the video on was from July 3, 2008, several months before the economy really exploded

Are you sure about this? That was my first instinct too but I googled the quote and all I got were sources saying it was from a month or so after he took office.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 15:24

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# ? May 11, 2024 11:33

Deuce: Jun 18, 2004; Mile High Club

Sarion posted:

I post here often, but don't usually have content, just responses. But I came across something today that's kind of relevant and amusing. It's too long to post the whole thing here (several pages), but here's a link:

http://www.wnd.com/files/Focusletter.pdf

The summary: It's a letter written by Focus on the Family from 2008 about how terrible things will be under Obama. In particular it's written from the view point of a Christian in October 2012, warning America about how bad the next four years will be.

Some examples include:

It's kind of an interesting document, with the election right around the corner. All the things that were supposedly going to happen, and not one of them actually did; or if it did, it didn't have the effect promised (DADT repeal, for example). Apparently someone really has been keeping a shitthatneverhappened.txt - Focus on the Family.

Did anyone manage to get a copy of this document they can mirror? WND seems to have been either goonrushed or had it taken down, all I get is an error message and other sites don't have the complete documents.

# ? Nov 1, 2012 16:54

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Got a crazy forwarded political email from your family? Post them here.

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