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Nintendo Kid posted:Amtrak is nevertheless often significantly less expensive than the private passenger services ever were, inflation adjusted. It's also faster than most people think, a lot of perceived slowness comes out of the fact the lines are often indirectly routed to avoid troublesome terrain, and station stops on long distance routes are often quite long to ensure all passengers and luggage can be transferred on and off. My perception of Amtrak being terrible comes from the fact that it's faster and more convenient to take the bus, and parallel comparison to, say, France, or Israel, ffs.
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Jul 5, 2014 04:14
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Sharkie posted:Amtrack is more comfortable than the bus and usually cheaper than air. Plus you can walk around, visit the observation car, get drunk, etc. You can also sometimes find good deals on sleeper rooms. Plus I like it cause it's kind of romantic. Well, for me in Albany, having to take at least two buses to the other side of the river just to take the train down to NYC isn't worth it when I can take one bus to Greyhound, then a bus to NYC. Much cheaper, too. It would be great if they hadn't moved the station across the river, but there you are. I guess I shouldn't fault Amtrak, it's the US's inability to understand that passenger trains can't work well if they're not where people without cars have easy access to them. But to hell with the carless, right? No car, no rights. Nintendo Kid posted:Depends on the city pair. A lot of city pairs are significantly more expensive by bus than Amtrak.
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Jul 5, 2014 04:28
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Nintendo Kid posted:Blacksburg, VA to Pontiac, MI, for instance. That's one I recently traveled, at the time the Amtrak fare was $89 while Greyhound wouldn't go lower than $119 and required 6 transfers (in part because you had to get your own way to the nearest city with a greyhound stop) instead of just 4. I... stand corrected. 
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Jul 5, 2014 04:48
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Xenocidebot posted:One of you wads suggested not snubbing Evan Williams in a prior US Pol thread. Thank you, whoever you are.
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Jul 5, 2014 22:22
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skaboomizzy posted:Most states have OBAMAnnual vehicle OBAMAspection and OBAMAstration requirements (including OBAMAmissions), so it'll be super fun to see what happens when these vehicles are declared to be not road OBAMAlegal.
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Jul 7, 2014 07:45
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Joementum posted:June 13, 1972  Now I'm willing to believe HST was a Nixon plant.
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Jul 11, 2014 04:13
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illrepute posted:Hey Absurd Alhazred? I just wanted to say that I really liked your posting in the I/P thread, and it was neat to get the chance to see an average Israeli's take on the conflict. I sorta.. hope you don't read the thread right now, because it's in a pretty bad place, but if there would be a chance for you to effortpost on what Israeli politics are like from your view, that'd be amazing to read. I really appreciate your sentiments. I'm not really an average Israeli, being an expat and, you know, being openly hostile to a lot of views most Israelis, even somewhat to the left, would defend without question. I have a lot of sympathy for the people dismissing me as a Hasbara shill, because I used to react the same way, and I have friends who still do; it hurts all the more for it. That being said, where would be a good effort post for this? And what should I cover? I think I have some insights into Zionist history (from reading a lot of books - I'm not a historian), and I have some grasp of current politics and the balance of power and geopolotics (although I'm not a political scientist), but I wouldn't want to blather on by myself and then be taken as authoritative simply because people like my posting. While I disagree with Kaal about many things, I feel he might have more insightful things to say about anything security related, and Xander's been posting legitimate things, although we have fundamental disagreements. Others have said sensible things, as well. When the I/P thread started, I was hoping for a thread where you could hear from open-minded Israelis, like me, but also from Palestinians. One second-generation refugee posted once there, I don't know if anyone else did. I do know a lot of them would just not want to talk to an Israeli in this context, and considering how often even leftist Israelis simply dismiss Palestinian history, especially an-Nakba, I can't blame them. Others dismiss talking to Israelis who are not, say, openly and publicly members of the BDS movement as heterodox normalization with the Zionist enemy; I think that's historically been shown to be a bad way of going about it, but again, up to them. In that Platonic thread people from around the world could join in the conversation, argue about substantive differences, etc. Maybe everyone could learn something. Unfortunately, we got that thread. I am not sure if it's possible to do better in D&D. Pope Guilty posted:Wasn't he the guy back during the Israeli protests was talking about how bad the Israeli middle class has it and didn't see any kind of a parallel or comparison to how Arab Israelis and the Palestinians are treated? I don't remember what you're talking about. If you could link to a thread I will be able to defend or be embarrassed about what I said there, depending on what it was that I said, if I did said anything. It's been three years, I do most of my I/P arguing with people on Facebook, and I don't remember that I was very involved with I/P threads here until maybe the 2013 elections, or the refugee thread, whichever one came first. I could be wrong, though.
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Jul 11, 2014 04:42
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The Monkey Man posted:Which parties have you voted for, Alhazred? I only voted for a party once, and it was for Meretz. For a while I thought I was too radical left wing to do something like voting. Now if I had to choose I would probably vote for Balad (Tajamua, or National Democratic Assembly), a Palestinian nationalist secular party, because while I disagree with some of their views, I think that they are going good places, particularly with their outreach to Mizrahi Jews. I mean, if I could vote for a parliamentarian, I would definitely vote for Ahmed Tibi, but he is currently in a coalition of parties which include the Southern Islamic movement, and I don't see myself voting for a religious party. However, I think that now that I've moved out of the country, it is inappropriate for me to vote there. It is also logistically a hassle, because there are no absentee ballots. razorrozar posted:It kinda sucks how people can get so angry at a culture or group they refuse to believe any of them have anything worth saying. A lot of Israelis are assholes, yes. Why should Absurd have to take the blame for that, especially if he doesn't espouse the views people take issue with? As we speak my country is bombing people it has kept in an open-air prison for almost a decade now. There are probably at least 100 dead by now (80 last reported), and many more are likely. This, furthermore, has nothing to do with providing the Israeli people with any geopolitical or security gains. So even if we were to accept Israeli claims as to the precision and legitimacy of their bombing campaign, those people have all been killed for absolutely no good reason. I entirely understand why people are upset. I am upset. Most of my friends are upset, and opposed to this, but I get into arguments with friends-of-friends who aren't. Even after having given up on trying to convince them of the immorality of our government's action, just trying to argue on the merits for Israelis qua Israelis, you have to climb a sheer cliff of spite. It's very disheartening.
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Jul 11, 2014 05:02
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Wolfsheim posted:Just poppin' in to say I laugh every time I see this pic Is that Governor Perry? Why the long face, Ricky-poo?
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Jul 11, 2014 06:12
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SedanChair posted:Literally "if they take a picture of me smiling with the Kenyan, I'm finished." Obama was probably just riffing the whole time trying to get him to crack. The Finest President. Yeah, but what's the context? Some kind of inter-governmental thing where the State of the Republic of By God Texas has to deal with those damned DC Carpetbaggers?
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Jul 11, 2014 07:13
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SedanChair posted:Wasn't it the Super Serious Meetup to Discuss the Immigrant Crisis? Holy crap, you were right. I'm GISing it and he is absolutely serious in each and every photo. Absurd Alhazred fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Jul 11, 2014 |
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Jul 11, 2014 07:17
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Cheekio posted:A friend of mine said his debate team got creamed because the team that went on to win the competition made a compelling case against the axiom of an absolute truth, invalidating their opponents' claims. That sounds even less informative or interesting than the I/P thread. "You can't disprove solipsism, check and mate.  " --- an argument judged triumphant by a panel of their peers, apparently.
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Jul 11, 2014 18:58
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kelvron posted:Pics as requested. (Phone posting so just a gallery link for now. I'll fix it later.) Funny how all these participation trophies are styled like medals. 
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Jul 11, 2014 19:48
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Tatum Girlparts posted:Too bad he never tried getting his house bombed and his loved ones murdered because his faith scared a fat old upper class slob an ocean away, maybe that would have fixed his actual problems instead of just one of the symptoms. He was really big on the Kurds in his debate with Galloway (a disingenuous poo poo in his own right; now there was a debate worth watching!), so he may be happy in 
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Jul 12, 2014 05:07
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Feta cheese goes well with grapes. I've also done plums with smoked Gouda, you slice them and alternate. Delish. It works better the higher quality the cheese is. You need a good flavor contrast, like sweet with sour or salty.
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Jul 13, 2014 17:18
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ThirdPartyView posted:Lahmacun? Best way to eat döner/shawarma.
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Jul 13, 2014 21:23
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When I was in Sweden I noted that the most common fast-food place was Pizza-Kebab combinations.  In Toronto there is a Hungarian-Thai place, and if you've never had Wiener-schnitzel and mango salad for dinner, well, you've never lived.
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Jul 14, 2014 04:41
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ReindeerF posted:Non-Indian Asians. Come hang out and listen to the Thais or the ethnic Chinese Malays or anyone talk about Indian food. Dirty! Stinks! Dirty people! Unclean! You ever see them wash!? etc. Surely there's a way to make this a white supremacy issue. This is D&D, dammit!
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Jul 14, 2014 04:48
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ReindeerF posted:I need a crying Thailand flag after reading that. A pork patty with shallots sounds amazing, actually.
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Jul 14, 2014 05:17
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Swan Oat posted:i highly recommend ethiopian food, that spongy bread is delicious and a fun thing to eat with Amen to that. It's kind of like laxoox, a Yemeni spongy bread, which is also good. Yemeni food is generally amazing. Man, now I want some, and there's none of that around here. Absurd Alhazred fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Jul 14, 2014 |
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Jul 14, 2014 05:26
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Negative Entropy posted:When it becomes possible to eliminate genetic disorders with DNA editing, should such editing be treated like vaccines, as something everyone gets unless the parents forbid it? Even if they were ideal, in what way is it different than allowing parents to do DNA screenings and then decide whether or not to abort the fetus? I think one of the issues with vaccines is the public health angle, where refusing them harms herd immunity and affects those who legitimately cannot take the vaccine. There is no such angle with genetic disorders. Warcabbit posted:So you can't handle spicy food? I went to a local Jamaican hole-in-the-wall place and ordered jerk chicken. I... couldn't finish it in one go. And then I tried eating the leftovers with yogurt; it didn't really help. 
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Jul 14, 2014 05:39
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Negative Entropy posted:I guess a more pithy question is whether or not parents should be allowed to give knowingly give birth to children with genetic disorders. paragon1 posted:Uh, well, with DNA editing presumably the fetus would come to term and result in a healthy child instead of medical waste, as the case would be with abortion. Right. Um.. well, really depends on cost and side-effects, then. If it's cheap/free and has no serious side effects, then I think it's pretty reasonable to require it. If it's expensive and has many side-effects (which it probably will to start with), then I don't think so.
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Jul 14, 2014 06:07
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Ogmius815 posted:I don't understand why we shouldn't use technology to try and ensure that future generations of humans don't have to deal with terrible illnesses that have plagued us. I'd even be willing to consider letting people screen for really in-depth poo poo like intelligence or attractiveness if it were possible. The implications creep me out, but there's a difference between my thinking something is icky and its being morally wrong. I'm pretty much fully in favor of a woman's right to choose and I'm not all that interested in scrutinizing what reason women have for making reproductive choices. Well, considering the fact that, as far as I know, there doesn't seem to be a single measure of either beauty or intelligence that can be consistently be made insensitive to cultural norms, I'd say that's even less likely than free genetic therapies with minimal side-effects.
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Jul 14, 2014 06:32
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Was on a psychedelic/prog-rock binge recently. Traffic is kind of awesome, and Yes is what Genesis would sound like if it were actually good. Also Procol Harum have their moments. After listening to ELP and King Crimson for a bit they kind of wore me down. Any recommendations?
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Jul 14, 2014 07:25
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Avshalom posted:I love Leonard Cohen like the father I never had, and I've also been listening to a lot of new-wave klezmer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iUHW2yzErQ quote:I know posting random images isn't the done thing in DnD, but I was charmed by this frog and wanted to share it. It is an adorable frog.  pangstrom posted:That's when incompetent people (e.g. people bad at cognition) are also incompetent at knowing they're incompetent (e.g. bad at metacognition). Nassim Taleb Syndrome.  By the way, various friends of that unpalatable friend I was arguing with on Facebook (people in the I/P and Fw:Fw:Fw: threads may know what I'm talking about) have found that they have amazing insights into the world after taking a lot of drugs. So I have invented a new term: Drug-Induced Dunning-Kruger.
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Jul 14, 2014 17:49
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XyloJW posted:You and at least one friend, before the age of 17, high fived over the House of Representatives? Jesus, man. I was much younger than that when I was rooting for Ross Perot in the 1992 elections. Is that or ?
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Jul 14, 2014 19:29
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Speaking of people who should not be doing Ska, Israeli Madness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYQ3WBi_n68
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Jul 14, 2014 19:42
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comes along bort posted:The gently caress backwoods rock did you live under. Swing revival was sooooo 1997. "Megilloth" is literally "scrolls" in Hebrew. That is literally "scrolls of the scrolls".
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Jul 14, 2014 19:51
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SedanChair posted:Er, you guys realize that ska happened without any intervention from white teenagers right? I thought the general consensus was that white teenagers ruined it, thought?  Speaking of gay and music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCZvYXwBlkk
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Jul 14, 2014 20:14
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Joementum posted:I have to be careful about critiquing bad 90's music because at the time I was really into prog. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BGlFsf9DM8
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Jul 14, 2014 21:05
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Don't be silly, it's the chat thread! It has no rails! I had this half a decade where I would move to a new apartment, the city/town would be starting construction/renovation of the area, and then it would be done just before I would have to move out. Really irritating. N. Senada posted:Somebody on facebook said this about the 1%, and I don't know how he came to it. Does anyone know what stats he's referring to or if this is true? Pulled out of  . Calling it now.
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Jul 15, 2014 05:00
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America, where you are free to clog up your nose to spite your face tax.
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Jul 15, 2014 05:30
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zoux posted:Everytime I hear some politician or public official use the term "disconnect" as a noun as in "there's a disconnect between thing a and thing b" I literally gnash my teeth. It does grate on the ears, but what would you use instead?
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Jul 15, 2014 16:24
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razorrozar posted:Someone posted a crying Palestinian kid who lost his whole family in the D&D Images thread and I've been super depressed ever since I saw it. I hope you at least don't have Facebook friends who constantly put up Hasbara bullshit. I'm taking a break from confronting them simply because I'm otherwise not getting anything done and I've already exhausted all my arguments.
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Jul 15, 2014 18:22
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ReindeerF posted:Optics is mine. What a stupid loving word. Also every lazy, clubby loving Aussie type nickname for something like "lege" (legislature), "spox" (spokesman/woman) and so on. I actually like "optics". Anybody uses that term, and they're basically signalling to you most helpfully that they don't care about substance, only about how things are perceived.
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Jul 15, 2014 18:43
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zoux posted:Hahah I've never seen this before. Literally wish our public sector unions were more like that.
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Jul 15, 2014 19:02
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XyloJW posted:The last time I discussed slang with auspol: I refuse to believe that this is anything but the absolute truth about Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA
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Jul 15, 2014 19:34
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Joementum posted:All the Francophone word endings in English got added during the Victorian era, which is why Americans don't write "centre", "colour", "labour", etc. I need a source for this. I have so many friends who are all uppity about their Received Pronunciation and Spelling bullshit.
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Jul 15, 2014 20:46
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Chantilly Say posted:Counterpoint: yarmulkes. Countercounterpoint: Rabbi Ovadia "Bling" Yosef. 
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Jul 16, 2014 05:59
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Dante Logos posted:I'm thinking of starting a Education & Politics thread. Anyone have anything that we should cover or include? I know enough about Texas Education but is any other state doing something incredibly stupid with their? Education and Politics: Dumb and Charter.
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Jul 16, 2014 18:24
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