lepercolony

. . . HAVEN'T WE SUFFERED ENOUGH?! i do miss him sometimes. too bad he couldn't debate to save his life, maybe he would've stuck around longer.

i'm intrigued. don't know what his platform is, and i'm sure we'd disagree on a fair amount. but intrigued.

following up: much more constructive criticism for BLM. from Ben Carson of all people, too. https://www.yahoo.com/politics/ben-carson-blasts-black-lives-matter-for-targeting-127559300721.html "Of course, the protesters are right that racial policing issues exist and some rotten policemen took actions that killed innocent people,” Carson wrote. “But unjust treatment from police did not fill our inner cities with people who face growing hopelessness. Young men and women can’t find jobs. Parents don’t have the skills to compete in a modern job market. Far too many families are torn and tattered by self-inflicted wounds. Violence often walks alongside people who have given up hope.” . . . "I grew up in neighborhoods most Americans were told to never drive through. I saw bullets, drugs and death in the same places I played tag and ball with my friends. Both of my older cousins died on the streets where I lived. I thought that was my destiny. But my mother didn’t. She changed all of that. She saved my brother and me from being killed on those streets with nothing but a library card. My mother knew what the problems were and she shielded me and my brother from them. I can tell you she wasn’t worried about Socialist senators from tiny rural states. “BlackLivesMatter” could learn from her to focus on the real sources of our hopelessness."

that's an unfortunate response. i can see the connection she's trying to make between the two cases, and i 100% believe she means every word she says. unfortunately, she's conflating separate issues, and what's disappointing is knowing that this will totally enable some folks to dismiss legitimate misconduct against certain minorities by allowing them to say to themselves, "well they're all violent, they do it to themselves . . ." that said, i do think displaying accountability would make BLM's message more accessible to those outside their community (which is where their message needs to be heard). they have to pick legitimate battles in order to be considered legitimate themselves. can we say black on black crime is a critical issue in some regions? yes. can we say there are unjustified police shootings? yes. but what you can't say is that the first thing excuses the second thing. conflating the two, as this woman does here, is lazy and wrong in my opinion. that's how we're persuaded to stop considering these incidents on a case-by-case basis, as they really should be. that's what leads us to shrug and roll our eyes instead of thinking critically. i'm not a cheerleader for BLM or anything, i just think it's sad when their message is misunderstood. on the other hand, if they don't start picking their battles more critically, their message will remain incoherent.

he interviewed Ed Snowden, too. that one's def worth a watch, it's the Gov't Surveillance segment. one could probably argue that his Net Neutrality segment directly influenced that particular legislation. not to mention the part where he directly addresses "Internet Trolls" is amazing. @Sennex i too have watched almost all his segments on YouTube (despite having HBOGo lol).

well, it's Friday. what do you want. i've had a lot of buildup over the week since my job has been to look at spreadsheets eight hours a day. this is where my brain comes to splooge.

bahahahaha it worked. i'll be honest here . . . i was exaggerating slightly to see if i'd get a response, but i didn't think it'd actually work. WELCOME BACK POOFY. i think it's a matter of perspective -- i think we can all agree that the #blacklivesmatter hashtag, and the later "organized" movement, arose in direct response to recent national headlines (it's important we agree on that because it's a fact). so when people -- often people who happen to not be black -- remove this context and read the hashtag literally as if it's a black supremacy statement, they naturally (and incorrectly) feel that this warrants the defensive reaction that has become: "All Lives Matter." it's akin to saying, "hey what about turtles tho?" in response to the social outrage that occurs when a dentist shoots a lion with a bow and arrow. so when you say, "what about when black guys are in the wrong," it's kind of a good example of what i'm describing. that response would only be appropriate if the #blacklivesmatter message was, "Black people do no wrong." but it's not (as best as i can tell anyway, i'm not sure they have a cohesive mission). here's the thing: i truly believe "All Lives Matter" is a perfectly natural human reaction that doesn't necessarily come from a malicious place. but i also think keeping an issue within the appropriate context, and not applying it at a macro level such that the issue loses all significance, is important. that's all. i'm not defending the movement. i just think if it's gonna be dismissed, it should be for logical reasons, not emotional ones.

officially the most ridiculous thing you've ever written. and i've read a lot of your posts over the years. [not saying black folks are precluded from being racist . . . just saying "All Lives Matter" is the most pointless statement you could possibly make. it's literally meaningless. unless of course you actually believe that all lives matter equally in the eyes of the law, in every instance, which would be an interesting place to take the discussion.]

clicks = $$$ EDIT: goddammit Doc. never mind. you leave Hawaii out of this, you hear me. the Us vs. Them dynamic in this country right now, with law enforcement in particular, is something i've wanted to try to unpack here for some time, especially with someone like Doc to refer to. i have police in the family (a few uncles). i also believe that profiling can lead to unnecessary, sometimes tragic outcomes. mostly though i think isolated incidents snowball into larger problems, like distrust of police and racial backlash, when people make generalizations about groups like police and minorities and paint them all with the same brush. i think police are held to an unrealistic but necessary standard and should be commended in most cases. i also think there are people who should not be police. and i think oversimplifying this issue is a deadly mistake, with a human cost on both "sides." i wish the mainstream media wouldn't race bait, but i'm frankly more concerned with the radical blogs as those have the potential to inspire some pretty insipid readers to do evil.

the painting. how much for it.

hi, how much?

i wonder if a video like this would make me feel better about the Star Wars prequels. hahahaha what am i even saying, never mind.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2015/07/23/nicki-minaj-taylor-swift-alllivesmatter-and-zero-sum-feminism-or-not-everything-is-about-taylor-swift/ "I think insecurity feeds this. There’s fear that the reason you’re being heard right now is not because you’re objectively more interesting or more deserving, but just because that’s the way the system currently runs, and that if everyone had a fair shot you might suddenly cease to be heard." it's ok to feel defensive, but i think if people understood why this stuff made them feel defensive . . . they'd feel less defensive.

https://gma.yahoo.com/confederate-flag-wavers-greet-president-obama-oklahoma-114509650--abc-news-topstories.html because heritage.

i wouldn't blame a flag for anything. most people wouldn't. you could probably take a stab at blaming culture though, because in this case a flag can be emblematic of culture. the same culture that celebrates an economy based on slavery (aka institutional racism, aka "history"). the same culture that gives a gun to a kid like Dylann Roof for no other reason than that's just what happens. the same culture that often exhibits pride for willful ignorance and isolationism. stuff like that. so yeah, when this kid posed with his flag, it was because he was repping his culture, not because he's a flag enthusiast. don't blame the flag. as far as the backlash against it, and all the calls for censoring history by revising existing monuments and the like, i really think that noise was created or at least magnified by the fact that they decided to keep flying it while the state flag was lowered to half-mast immediately after the shooting. nobody could understand that, and despite the explanation that was provided i think it kicked off a lot of dialogue about what the flag "means" today. finally, i'm not sure i know enough to consider this shooter mentally ill. disturbed, sure, but i don't think it's as clearly clinical as it was in, say, Adam Lanza's case. as far as i know, Hatred isn't a medical condition. not one with an over-the-counter prescription, anyway. EDIT: OP was pretty funny btw, nice find BB. // another EDIT: my intent here wasn't to disparage culture, so i hope it's not read that way. i just think that anyone who grows up in an echo chamber of beliefs will come out the other end somewhat deficient by definition. and i suspect this deficiency directly contributed to Dylann Roof's actions.

troof.

squad of Batarian Brawlers. lulz.

yeah sounds like i missed a real party there.

aw c'mon man. ain't you curious? just the tip? for what it's worth, i detected no spin on this one. seemed like pretty straightforward reporting for the most part. just, you know, don't read the comments or anything if you want your head to remain intact.

guy carries loaded gun without permit. gets arrested. "This is a case of a law-abiding citizen being turned into a criminal by New Jersey gun laws," Nappen told FoxNews.com in an interview last March. is it just me, or did the law work exactly the way it's supposed to. but yeah no totally evil gun laws be evil.

ooo Infiltrator, good call.

we played, what, like four games? i only got my Suppressor to 60% completion. i hate this gun so much.

https://games.yahoo.com/news/psn-flash-sale-discounts-mass-200749369.html Trilogy for $4.80. //still won't buy

i'm seeing Ex Machina after work but i'll try to jump on for a couple games unless it'd be too late for you guys -- probably won't be until around 10pm. it's gonna be super weird talking to my teammates for a change. haven't had use for the headset in many cycles. [that was a Mass Effect reference that i don't fully understand because i still haven't played the campaign.]

even my dick has goosebumps.