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  1. #106
    Mighty Member zinderel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zetsubou View Post
    The arsonist who burned black churches was not a Christian but a pagan Norse worshiper who was actively interested in the Black Metal music band that burned Norwegian Christian churches and murdered a gay man in Norway . He said, "I only truly follow the law of Odin".

    The Norwegian black metal scene was bitterly opposed to Christianity.

    The Christians are not the only religion that hates gays. Muslims hate gays. Norwegian Black metal hates gays. Read the news about the Murder of Magne Andreassen

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_...ck_metal_scene
    Obviously, you missed where I said 'nearly every case'.

    Or maybe you are arguing the likelihood that he, being white man born in America, was likely raised in a Christian church/family/community that, like so many others, masked lessons on bigotry behind religious lessons. I was raised in that kind of church. And for years after I got out, I clung to the ignorance and stupidity they had taught me about gay people, people of color, and women.

    That this young man is currently a pagan who misinterprets Odin and Norse mythology as badly as most fundamentalist Christians misinterpret the teachings of Jesus does nothing to lessen the decades of black church burnings by white American 'Christians' in the KKK and other related groups. Unless your theory is that Norwegian death metal pagans have been burning churches in America since before the Civil War? Do you think that there is a secret cult of Norwegian death metal enthusiasts hiding among the very public branch of Christianity that calls for the death, torture and erasure of gay people, and has a massively imbalanced grip on political and legal power in America? Or do you think that Mike and Karen Pence, Robert Jeffress, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, and the rest of them - whether in government or in the orbit of those who ARE - are secret Muslims, using their widely publicized Christian fanaticism as a misdirection to enact Sharia law and kill all the gays?


    No? Ok. So then you agree that Muslims and Norwegian death metal fans are not a problem in the same way white, Christian males are. Nor is Norwegian death metal fandom or Fundamentalist Islamic terrorists disguised as young female politicians a prevalent concern in America.

    White supremacists emboldened by Christian nationalism are the most extant problem in America, both in terms of the general public AND in terms of violent acts perpetrated on American soil. The unique form of racial animus present in America was exacerbated and fueled by Christian sects who used the Bible to justify chattel slavery, abuse, and forced separation of families. That same animus has continued to fuel 'Irish Need Not Apply' mindsets, anti-Chinese violence, anti-Muslim violence, anti-gay and trans rhetoric and violence, and more. Do other groups hate gay people? Of course. I would have to be blind to deny that reality, which is why I do not. Instead, I focus on the actual existential threats to my and my loved ones' well being.

    And, despite how badly you and people like you have tried over the years to convince us otherwise and make this topic impossible to address openly, that threat is not the boogeyman of burkhas and Sharia law and thrashing guitar licks. Not disaffected young people finding strength in violent, hateful black metal that they can't find elsewhere. Those things ARE problems, sure, and I'll admit that happily, but they are not the sole, or even primary problem facing America today the way that willful ignorance and horrific bigotry have been inculcated in 'Christian' churches and circles, and have merged with white nationalism to create an unrecognizable bastardization of Jesus' teachings that is only called 'Christianity' because that is what they call themselves.
    Last edited by zinderel; 04-13-2019 at 10:03 PM.

  2. #107
    Invincible Member numberthirty's Avatar
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    Just to go back to nuclear power vs. other types for a moment...

    While nuclear is seemingly cheaper, just about anyone can tell that comes with what is potentially an incredibly high price.

    Can't see what the argument for going the cheapest possible route is once you factor reality in.

  3. #108
    Mighty Member zinderel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by numberthirty View Post
    Just to go back to nuclear power vs. other types for a moment...

    While nuclear is seemingly cheaper, just about anyone can tell that comes with what is potentially an incredibly high price.

    Can't see what the argument for going the cheapest possible route is once you factor reality in.
    Yeah, that's pretty much my point. Sure, it's cheaper than switching to solar/wind/hydro in the short run. Sure it's 'safer' than fossil fuels - as long as everything runs perfectly and goes off without a hitch, that is - but the long term risks of nuclear energy and waste are also a thing that proponents of nuclear energy regularly fail to address.

    Not to mention that fossil fuels generally took years of buildup before their impact on the the globe is felt. But a leak in a coolant tower has permanently affected the entire planet in a matter of moments...several times over, now...
    Last edited by zinderel; 04-13-2019 at 10:10 PM.

  4. #109
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    The cooption of norse religion by racists is a sad thing indeed but has long roots dating back decades. It in no way makes them less right wing extremist pscyhopaths, though.

  5. #110
    Mighty Member zinderel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    The cooption of norse religion by racists is a sad thing indeed but has long roots dating back decades. It in no way makes them less right wing extremist pscyhopaths, though.
    Amen. Here in Portland, I've been seeing some cooption of Celtic religion and mythology into white supremacy too and I just...want to grab them and shake them and remind them that once, us Irish folk weren't 'white' enough, either!!

  6. #111
    Astonishing Member jetengine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Mets View Post
    He hasn't said anything about what kind of oversight he would support.

    He has suggested that one thing will lead to another type of bad oversight, the effects of which he seems to have grossly exaggerated (unless 100,000+ people have died over the course of several years as a direct result of policies that go against the disabled; Debkox linked to one result that 100,000+ ESA claims were closed following the deaths of claimants which may be where the number comes from but this doesn't mean that the requests for information contributed to all those deaths.)

    What would you consider acceptable efforts to determine eligibility?

    We might largely be on the same page on this, against bad oversight when it comes to disability benefits, but in favor of some form of oversight.
    I suggested that Mets because (to be frank) Americas corporate system is a hell of a lot worse then here in the UK. Half the **** you guys do we'd never wven consider. So if 100,000 is what we can do, you guts will easily overshoot it.

    As for what kind of oversight I'd support ? Well how about listening to a fucking doctor? That'd be a good start. Only employ trained medical professionals for these assesments if you can since a bureaucrat cant even begin to understand half the issues some people have.

    Secondly make it as neutral as possible, as soon as a guy with an R next to his name becomes president you shouldn't have the system suddenly try to scrape every bit of cash it can by denying seriously ill people their money.

    I think the issue at core though is the same conservative talk piece though about the terror of the "Leech like benefits cheat" rather then the more realistic issue of "Rich people and companies that dont pay their tax". Apple or Amazon alone easily dwarf any number of benefits cheats.

  7. #112
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    Starting from a place of believing people and their doctors is probably smart.

  8. #113
    Extraordinary Member PaulBullion's Avatar
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    Does any cost/benefit analysis of nuclear power include how much it costs to keep nuclear waste safe from stuff like terrorists and earthquakes for 80,000 years? It seems like borrowing money from our ancestors to consider it "cheap" in any way. And the measures taken to protect it for tens of thousands of years also don't come without a carbon footprint.
    "How does the Green Goblin have anything to do with Herpes?" - The Dying Detective

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  9. #114
    Extraordinary Member PaulBullion's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zinderel View Post
    Progressive political figures targeted by assassins:
    Lincoln (succeeded)
    JFK (succeeded)
    Bobby Kennedy (succeeded)
    MLK (succeeded)
    Roosevelt (failed)
    Harvey Milk (succeeded)
    Gabby Giffords (failed)
    Bill Clinton (failed)
    Vernon Jordan (failed)
    Larry Flynt (failed)
    Harry Truman (failed)
    John Purroy Mitchel (failed)
    William Jay Gaynor (failed)
    William H. Seward (failed)


    Conservative political figures targeted by assassins:
    Garfield (succeeded)
    McKinley (succeeded)
    Ronald Reagan (failed)
    Steve Scalise (failed)
    George W Bush (failed)
    Donald Trump (failed)
    Dick Cheney (failed)
    Gerald Ford (failed)
    Richard Nixon (failed)
    Andrew Jackson (failed)
    George Wallace (failed)
    A. Mitchell Palmer (failed)

    Success rate: Dead progressive figures - 5/14
    Dead conservative figures - 2/12

    So yeah, progressives have more to fear from potential assassins than conservatives, based on actual history and factual events. And when one looks at WHY various figures were targeted, one finds progressives mostly being targeted for their race, their support of social justice causes, for trying to clean up the police force, for trying to move America forward, socially.

    Meanwhile, conservatives get targeted because of policy decisions that hurt people, and that tends to make people angry enough to want to kill...

    But sure, I mean...yeah, 'both sides' and all that...
    You forgot to include U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, U.S. Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, two former intelligence chiefs (ex-CIA Director John O. Brennan and ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper), billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer, and Robert Fucking DeNiro, who were all targeted for assassination with mail bombs by a Trump supporter.
    "How does the Green Goblin have anything to do with Herpes?" - The Dying Detective

    Hillary was right!

  10. #115
    Invincible Member numberthirty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zinderel View Post
    Yeah, that's pretty much my point. Sure, it's cheaper than switching to solar/wind/hydro in the short run. Sure it's 'safer' than fossil fuels - as long as everything runs perfectly and goes off without a hitch, that is - but the long term risks of nuclear energy and waste are also a thing that proponents of nuclear energy regularly fail to address.

    Not to mention that fossil fuels generally took years of buildup before their impact on the the globe is felt. But a leak in a coolant tower has permanently affected the entire planet in a matter of moments...several times over, now...
    It's(nuclear) just extra complications for no really good reason.

    If you are looking at how much it costs, you've lost the forest while you've been looking at the trees.

  11. #116
    Ultimate Member Gray Lensman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PaulBullion View Post
    Does any cost/benefit analysis of nuclear power include how much it costs to keep nuclear waste safe from stuff like terrorists and earthquakes for 80,000 years? It seems like borrowing money from our ancestors to consider it "cheap" in any way. And the measures taken to protect it for tens of thousands of years also don't come without a carbon footprint.
    There might be a better way for nuclear with Thorium-Fluoride reactors. The waste only last for a few decades, the reactors are less prone to meltdown, and the fuel is more common than uranium - and it is very difficult to make nuclear weapons with it (which is why the technology wasn't pursued during the cold war). Hopefully the projects underway work - we need to hit the problem of emissions from every possible angle.
    Dark does not mean deep.

  12. #117

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    On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Tim Bearden, a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives who immediately upon entering office, began work to try and that the Confederate flag put back on the Georgia state flag. Yes, Bearden was a member of the Sons of the Confederacy tried to gin up support for himself by pushing for various anti-immigrant bills as well, and even expressed concerns that the paranoid conspiracy theory of NAFTA leading to a North American Union would come to pass. Bearden also loved to tout his love of the 2nd Amendment, once drawing the attention of the TSA after boasting he would walk into Hartsfeld-Jackson Airport in Atlanta packing heat just to prove how committed he was. Bearden's status began to wane, however, after several ethics complaints were lodged against him for accepting six-figure sums from municipalities for being a "consultant" without doing any work began to emerge. We wish we could say Bearden's career as a legislator came to an end due to a loss in an election, but it actually was the fact that he was granted a job by Gov. Nathan Deal to train people at the Department of Public Safety. Yes, a paranoid, Neo-Confederate, anti-immigrant kook who once tried walking into an airport with a gun to prove a point was employed to teach people about public safety.

    In 2016, and in 2017, and 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of Michigan State Sentor Tom Casperson, who gained some notoriety for his reaction to the Flint Water Crisis. As the Michigan state legislature’s Republicans relented, and begrudgingly approved $30 million in aid to go towards Flint (which falls well short of what they’ll need to fix their seriously damaged plumbing infrastructure), Casperson took to the floor of the chamber to give a passionate defense of poor, poor Gov. Rick Snyder. He did not, however, choose his words wisely, acknowledging “mistakes were made” but comparing some of the vitriolic attacks on Snyder to “a poison in the heart, a poison of the spirit.” This after the Snyder administration had LITERALLLY POISONED PEOPLE. Casperson continued his rant, claiming people were unfairly“crucifying” Snyder, as well. Of course, that isn’t the only time Casperson has had a major gaffe on the floor of the State Senate. Back in 2013, he gave a fictionalized account where he claimed a pre-school had been beset by three wolves “multiple times” just after children had come in from the playground. The original story involved zero children, and only one wolf. Casperson was forced to apologize, but based on his speech, the legislature already had voted to send a resolution to Congress try and get gray wolves removed from the Endangered Species List because they were “so dangerous”. If you’re still not getting the idea, Casperson is also a Birther, who in an interview on a local radio show talked about how he “wasn’t sure if President Obama was born in the United States”, and felt there was some bias, and that if the same controversy had surrounded, say, President Bush, the media would have never let it go. Casperson’s voting record includes support for HB 4745, which would allow medical professionals to deny healthcare services based on their “religious, moral, and ethical beliefs” (Because that should supersede the Hippocratic Oath), opposition to HB 6048, which would have allowed victims of rape and sexual assault to be provided access to emergency contraception, and support for HB 5697, also known as the “rape insurance law” which would force Michigan women to provide their own insurance plan to provide medical services if they want medical care due to a miscarriage or abortion… without any exception for rape. Casperson, also was the sponsor of SB 926, a bill which would have criminalized flying a drone anywhere near a hunter trying to bring down big game to try and scare off their quarry. (There were exactly zero reported incidences of anyone doing this when he drafted the bill.) J[He also has repeatedly voted for bills to attempt to begin drug testing welfare recipients, and voted for HB 4188, a bill to allow adoption agencies to refuse to allow couples to adopt children based on their own “religious beliefs”. It was a bit unnerving to find out that Tom Casperson was running for U.S. House in 2016, trying to get elected to represent Michigan’s 1st Congressional District, but he was mercifully defeated by Jack Bergman in the GOP Primary for that seat. As such, Casperson had to return to the Michigan State Senate, but in 2018, he was term-limited, and during his last term in office he became the target of an investigation by the FBI into politicians being bribed by a towing company, and in wiretaps, those who have been charged were recorded discussing paying off Casperson. All we know is, we’re relieved that Tom Casperon is no longer in office and we’ll set aside his profile and we’ll move on to profile a different kooky Republican on this date instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 744-40, since this was established in July 2014.)


    John Moore

    Welcome to the 744th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing John Moore, a former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1995-2017. While when Moore turned in his resignation, he claimed it was due to “health reasons”, but Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn said that Moore’s medical condition actually was a chronic case of being a horny d***-weasel who sexually harassed a number of women in the state capitol over the two decades he was in office. (Moore also ducked out of an interview with the media when they started asking questions by claiming he had to take a phone call from his wife, who admittedly probably has questions of her own.)

    In the interests of not making Moore’s profile all about him being brought down by the #MeToo movement, we’ll note that during his legislative career, he also co-sponsored legislation to expand the ways people could get exemptions from having to vaccinate their children, to legalize prayer in schools (despite what the Separation of Church and State says about that), and to authorize people to carry guns into houses of religious worship. He also voted for legislation to suppress the vote with stricter unnecessary voter ID laws that curb the non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud, voted against minimum wage increases, and was such a hardliner on abortion that he voted for exceptions for victims of rape or incest on any and all anti-choice legislation that he supported.

    He will not be missed.
    Last edited by worstblogever; 04-14-2019 at 01:12 AM.
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  13. #118
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Latest Attacks On Ilhan Omar Show That Anti-Muslim Hate Isn’t A Partisan Issue

    As members of the GOP perpetuate anti-Muslim harassment toward the congresswoman, Democratic leadership has been eerily silent. My take: Democrats never had to deal with a Muslim in that level of government and don't know how to handle Omar who so far, has refused to toe the party line. One thing's for certain, being tepid in their defense of Omar lends credence that Democrats are leaving her out to dry and be savaged by Republicans, and that's wrong. Meanwhile....

    **********

    Rashida Tlaib Slams Democrats For Silence On Trump’s Islamophobic Attacks On Ilhan Omar

    The Michigan congresswoman has a message for Democratic leaders: Don’t celebrate diversity while ignoring Islamophobia. Good to know someone is defending Omar when Dems won't, which is just what Trump and Republicans want.

    **********

    Trump Declares ‘Absolute Right’ To Send Undocumented Immigrants To Sanctuary Cities

    In a baseless tweet Saturday night, Trump ordered for undocumented immigrants to be moved for political retaliation. My take: Trump is hoping that all those imaginary rapists and killers he rants and raves about will wind up in sanctuary cities to raise hell so he can puff out his chest and boast about how he was right about the "evils" of illegal immigrants.

    **********

    Conservatives Are Trying To Claim Pete Buttigieg Isn’t Actually A Christian

    Evangelical leaders want to discredit the kind of progressive Christianity that the Democratic mayor advocates. Lemme guess, those blatant hypocrites who openly support a two-time divorcee and known adulterer as president have their collective panties in a bunch because Mayor Pete is gay.

    **********

    Laura Ingraham Laughs, Jokes While Covering Nipsey Hussle’s Funeral

    The Fox News host played a clip of YG’s anti-Trump song that featured the late rapper. Disgusting bitch. I'll readily admit I never heard of Mr. Hussle until he had been gunned down, but for Ignoramus to make jokes at his expense is just plain evil, but predictable for the sort of scum who foul the airwaves on Faux News.
    Last edited by WestPhillyPunisher; 04-14-2019 at 02:24 AM.
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  14. #119
    Mighty Member zinderel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by numberthirty View Post
    It's(nuclear) just extra complications for no really good reason.

    If you are looking at how much it costs, you've lost the forest while you've been looking at the trees.
    Man, 30...are we...are we...AGREEING on stuff? *offers a rum-soaked high five*

  15. #120
    Invincible Member numberthirty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WestPhillyPunisher View Post
    **********

    Rashida Tlaib Slams Democrats For Silence On Trump’s Islamophobic Attacks On Ilhan Omar

    The Michigan congresswoman has a message for Democratic leaders: Don’t celebrate diversity while ignoring Islamophobia. Good to know someone is defending Omar when Dems won't, which is just what Trump and Republicans want.

    **********
    When Marc Lamont Hill is having to call Pelosi out, that is a pretty sad state of affairs.

    You've got a Rolling Stone cover? Pelosi will be there. Front and center.

    Something like this where some actual leadership would be the right move? Not so much.

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