What's in the news?

Started by Beorning, September 21, 2014, 07:02:11 AM

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Cycle

They think it might be a hoax.  While I can appreciate how frustrating this may be for the folks in L.A., I am glad to read it is more likely a hoax than not.

TaintedAndDelish

Quote from: Kythia on December 15, 2015, 05:50:11 AM
No it isn't for just oh so very many reasons. It's... It's just really really not. This isn't the thread for "why" but if you want to Pm or get a new thread I'll run you through the myriad of reasons.

Sure, I'm very interested in hearing your point of view either here or via PM.

Perhaps you are considering the argument that Star Wars employs stereotypes in their characters? I think the same thing applies to some degree. Nobody's work is %100 original. We all draw on our experience when creating something new. To a certain extent, the art will reflect the artist's experience and to a certain extent, the viewer's perception is partially constructed from or biased by their own life experience. What I have an issue with is people screaming malice when there's no clear ( note, I said clear, not murky ) indication that a work was deliberately racist or employing *negative* stereotypes.

Some might argue that similarities to existing races and stereotypes might make the characters more relatable, endearing or believable. When you think about it, if Star Wars used characters that were so far removed from what we call life that we did not recognize anything about them, then those characters might not work very well socially. You would have a very hard time trading a stereotypical half naked woman ( Read: Princess Leah) with an oozing slime colony or a sun-hot plasma based creature. (Jaba was a terrible stretch imho) At what point may the author draw inspiration from her/his/their (P.C. for the win) world with having their reputation torn up and stepped on?

We could say that the creators of The Brady Bunch were racist in that they neglected to include black people in their show, however, even if they decided to make the family racially mixed and made half of the kids black and half of them white, then our Asian, French and Belgian friends might argue the same - that their race was not fairly represented. Eventually, we end up having each kid, parent and blue collar worker in the show being a mix of 20 or so races in order to accommodate everyone. ( We might also need to make Mrs. Brady head of the household to appease the feminists in the crowd ). This just gets silly after a while. You can't please everyone.


Lustful Bride


TheGlyphstone

Quote from: Lustful Bride on December 16, 2015, 05:25:21 PM
It seems like with every passing day they really become more and more like the old Nazi regime.

Tyranny works from the same playbook no matter what hat it's wearing this time around.

MasterMischief

Quote from: TheGlyphstone on December 16, 2015, 05:56:16 PM
Tyranny works from the same playbook no matter what hat it's wearing this time around.


Cycle

Karma.

Martin Skreli, the self-proclaimed "most eligible bachelor in the world" who jacked up the price of Daraprim from $14 to $750, has been arrested for securities violations and running a ponzi scheme.  Enjoy your SEC probing, Skreli.

Ethan Couch, the guy who got probation for killing four people because he was "too rich" to know he shouldn't do things like that, has blown his parole.  Well, what did the authorities expect?  If he was too rich to know he shouldn't run over people, he's obviously too rich to know he needs to stay in touch with his PO.  Cut him some slack, will ya?  Rich kids need it.  You don't realize how hard life is when you have to do things like choosing between having your Mom buy you a Mercedes or a BMW.  The stress is almost unbearable.

Lustful Bride

So apparently since ISIS has realized they will inevitable be destroyed in normal warfare..they are trying to destroy the internet and damage the world that way.....shit.  :o But then how will I get my ponies!?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/are-isis-hackers-trying-to-destroy-the-internet/ar-BBnEEQy?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp

I need my daily dose of colorful equines that talk of friendship.

Cassandra LeMay

I know that Couch's lawyer made that "spoiled too rotten for his own good" argument during the trial, but was that really taken into account when he was sentenced to probation? What I've read about him going AWOL doesn't dwell on the judge's decision behind the sentencing.
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)


Lustful Bride


consortium11

Quote from: Cassandra LeMay on December 17, 2015, 11:28:53 AM
I know that Couch's lawyer made that "spoiled too rotten for his own good" argument during the trial, but was that really taken into account when he was sentenced to probation? What I've read about him going AWOL doesn't dwell on the judge's decision behind the sentencing.

No; the judge specifically said that the "affluenza" argument played no part in her reasoning.

That said, and as I mentioned this when the story originally came up, while I understand why the "affluenza" argument brought a lot of media attention, almost all of it negative, it disappointed me. It's generally accepted that it is appropriate to consider a defendant's psychological profile and the impact their background had on it during sentencing and it's also generally accepted that rehabilitation is a legitimate aim of sentencing by a court. I appreciate that arguing "the kid's parents were rich and spoiled him so much that he lost perspective on right and wrong" is a less sympathetic then saying "the kid grew up in a broken home in extreme poverty without any positive role-models and where a criminal lifestyle was endemic" the principle of it is the same.

Blythe

Quote from: Cycle on December 17, 2015, 11:23:55 AM
Karma.

Martin Skreli, the self-proclaimed "most eligible bachelor in the world" who jacked up the price of Daraprim from $14 to $750, has been arrested for securities violations and running a ponzi scheme.  Enjoy your SEC probing, Skreli.

This popped up on my newsfeed today. I can't say I'm surprised he was up to this sort of thing, but I'm glad that some sort of karma seems to have finally bit him right in the keister.

Beorning

Meanwhile, in Poland, the Constitutional Tribunal crisis continues...

The government relented and printed the CT's ruling that says that the three judges that had been chosen by the previous parliament need to be sworn in. Still, the president continues to refuse to do. Meanwhile, in the parliament, Law & Justice MPs are pushing with yet another change to the laws pertaining to the CT! Some lawyers (including our Ombudsman, as well as the Supreme Court) are already warning that these new laws might actually completely block the CT from making any rulings in the future...

BTW. Check this out:



These are our president's fans awaiting his arrival for a ceremony commemorating the 1970 massacre of workers by the Communist government. Do you know what the central sign says?

"Mr President, blessed is the womb that birthed you and the breasts you sucked from."

Seriously.

Lustful Bride

Quote from: Beorning on December 17, 2015, 04:46:21 PM
Meanwhile, in Poland, the Constitutional Tribunal crisis continues...

The government relented and printed the CT's ruling that says that the three judges that had been chosen by the previous parliament need to be sworn in. Still, the president continues to refuse to do. Meanwhile, in the parliament, Law & Justice MPs are pushing with yet another change to the laws pertaining to the CT! Some lawyers (including our Ombudsman, as well as the Supreme Court) are already warning that these new laws might actually completely block the CT from making any rulings in the future...

BTW. Check this out:



These are our president's fans awaiting his arrival for a ceremony commemorating the 1970 massacre of workers by the Communist government. Do you know what the central sign says?

"Mr President, blessed is the womb that birthed you and the breasts you sucked from."

Seriously.

Isnt there like an Impeachment method that can be used? ITs like this guy is breaking laws left and right and doing so without a care.

Beorning

I don't think we can impeach a ruling president here... What's possible is prosecuting him. But a president can be prosecuted only by so-called State Tribunal... and to do so, you'd need to win a vote in the parliament. Considering that the party that backs the president also has the majority in the current parliament, it won't happen.

Overall, the situation is tough: Law & Justice has the president, the government and the majority in the parliament. And they aren't a pluralistic party with differing opinions - if you ask me, they are all loyal soldiers of the party's chairman, Kaczyński. So, Kaczyński and his followers have a pretty solid grip on power right now and there's not much that can be done to stop them...

TheGlyphstone

And meanwhile, they are busy trying to pass laws to either take control of or guarantee the only branch of the government that they don't have a lock on?

Beorning

It looks like that, yeah.

Of course, the L&J supporters say that the party is only trying to fix things and that all this criticism the party's actions cause is irrational fear and hate, as well the various "cliques and castes" trying to stop the new goverment from curtailing their privileges...

If you ask me, L&J has long been a party with authoritarian tendencies. They want to influence everything... Their understanding of democracy is simplistic: they believe that now that they have won the elections, they have the mandate to do whatever they want. They see the existence of independent branches of government as a flaw of the system - for them, winning elections should mean total power over the country.

TheGlyphstone

Makes their name a little disingenuous.

Beorning

Many people have commented about it over the years...

And it's not the only disingenous thing about them. For once, during the election time, they were saying that they wanted to rebuild the national unity, to give respect to people regardless of their political beliefs, that they were going to respect the opposition parties... Now that they have won, they are trampling the opposition - and their leader says that people who oppose L&J are Communist, thieves, traitors and idiots. Talk about rebuilding the unity...

TheGlyphstone

Failing to live up to your campaign promises, a staple of modern 'democracy'?

gaggedLouise

Quote from: TheGlyphstone on December 17, 2015, 06:30:55 PM
Failing to live up to your campaign promises, a staple of modern 'democracy'?

*nodnods* People used to talk about "quarterly capitalism", didn't they? An exchange economy where short-term deals and ditto projections are more important than what kind of real results (or black figures) a company achieves. So, now we're approaching "quarterly democracy".

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"


Avis habilis

Or if he suddenly breaks into a Kenny G tune they know they've maimed his taste center.

MasterMischief

Quote from: Avis habilis on December 18, 2015, 07:15:02 AM
Or if he suddenly breaks into a Kenny G tune they know they've maimed his taste center.

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