George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
The things you lean on / are things that don't last
User ID: 107

This is a vile sentiment, and that you've received upvotes I suppose indicates at least a few here agree with it. Do you have any experience firsthand in any part of Africa? Do you know anyone either living there or from there? Does your statement cover all the population of the continent? Or just those with darker skin? Or is "African" code for black here? When I read this shit I really feel like discussion is pointless --getting to a point where you're willing to shrug your shoulders and consign an entire continent to the flames is just beyond my ability to empathize with. I align myself against you, that's about as polite as I can put it.
Wait we're skipping paella? What kind of hellscape apocalypse are we expecting here?
Great pics, in any case.
I like those photos; thanks for sharing. What strikes me is the near-complete absence of any people in them. One caption mentioned you were early in the morning but was that true everywhere you went? I know it's possible to wipe people from photos these days, is that what you did? Or is SK just not as densely touristed as Japan?
Ha, no doubt.
The suovetaurilia or suovitaurilia was one of the most sacred and traditional rites of Roman religion: the sacrifice of a pig (sus), a sheep (ovis) and a bull (taurus) to the deity Mars to bless and purify land (Lustratio).
I love the Motte! Thanks for the word!
Catgirl Celebrimbor
SindarRevolt
I KEED!
Ah! I learned the word dag from that Errol Flynn biography. Apologies, just a joke.
Ñoldoren Elf
Kidding. I'moin mobile now, that's my excuse. My excel is on my computer
"Lock or wool matted with dung hanging from the hindquarters of a sheep."
I keed! I feel I've set something in motion unintentionally.
You are, yes. Most regular post-ers are.
Personal preference I guess.
As a regular poster, yes, you are on there. I'm on mobile now but I think just basic info like your country of residence and maybe one or two points.
Roll Tide.
I feel like I can spot those (the 2nd) type posts fairly quickly. Typically here at least the one posting them has a low or zero post history except such links and responses to the links, and isn't a "known" quantity (eg someone known from the reddit days, etc.)
SSC on reddit is more difficult because I'm never on reddit any more, and there are a lot more random users there--or at least more than I'm interested in keeping up with.
Probably weird of me but I maintain an Excel spreadsheet of many motte regulars (their usernames , I mean) with my own notations, so I can have a clearer idea who I'm interacting with or reading.
The policy of disallowing (in principle) sock puppets helps, though we have a few Throwaway(insert number) accounts that can be confusing when I'm working out which one is the MD and which aren't.
It's interesting that you bring up circumcision. I have two sons, am myself circumcised, and I can recall prior to my first son's birth, when I brought up the issue with the Japanese doctor who was at the time very possibly the one who would be the attending surgeon (as it turns out, it was another doctor altogether) I remember him looking at me with what I can only describe as a kind of uncomprehending loathing, probably the same way I would look at a Somalian midwife explaining to me the ins and outs of how she would circumcise a girl. He told me circumcision had no medical basis, and was "just a kind of superstition." He said he had never done one, wouldn't really know how, but could probably get someone to try it if I really wanted my son to have the procedure done (I obviously declined.) Interestingly at this hospital there were posters on the walls regarding 戌の日 or "day of the dog," which is the 12th day of each month in the traditional Japanese Shinto religion. In the fifth month of pregnancy on the day of the dog women are supposed to go to a shrine for some type of blessing. This was posted in the hospital on the wall. This is only one such tradition surrounding birth and children in Japan. The argumentative part of me considered bringing this up to the doctor, but I didn't. Obviously in practice going to a shrine for a blessing is qualitatively different from slicing off foreskin. in principle, I wonder.
Anyway it's a good illustration of a kind of basic value that some have and some do not--I used to ask people I was out with in Japan whether or not to have my sons circumcised, what they thought. All the gay men said Definitely do (a small sample--notably they were also American). Some heterosexual men also said yes, but others said no, and asked why I would even think about it. I didn't have much of an answer other than that it had been done to me, and it seemed normal to me, and that they (my sons) might wonder why I was different than they are (turns out they have never once asked about it. Which also makes sense. I can't imagine as a kid asking my dad about his dick.)
If the "system" is not sufficient to handle differences in values, what would be a solution? Just keeping certain people out? One would be screening for very specific values, I suspect. I also think about Japan and how I, as an immigrant, fit in here. I am one of those who tries to learn the language and behave, if not completely Japanese, at least in a way that doesn't actively annoy people. In certain areas (one city I pass through on my commute which is a type of hub to the airport) you have large areas of Vietnamese, Chinese, and other Asians living. It is a noticeably different vibe--louder, less clean, probably also to some degree more relaxed--and I suspect they have been housed there (via their rental agencies) purposefully to keep them contained. I have often found myself shaking my head at "all the damn foreigners" in parts of Japan where I frequent. The irony does not escape me.
Sure that is the problem, but at least there was a plan A. There's never going to be a perfect answer where everyone gets along in all possible situations (remember, I've been married 20 years.) The alternative to trying to find common ground--which I'll boil down to: "Fuck 'em"--is, at best, expedient, but falls prey to an arguably worse problem of wholesale generalization (since you mention suicide bombers, Muslims leap to mind) of a group that is not homogeneous.
When I first came to Japan I'd eat a cookie or something and think "What? Where's the fucking sugar?" Now, these days, 20 something years on, I do taste the sweet in Japanese snacks (usually, still not in wagashi which in my mind should not be termed a sweet), but when I go back to the US, and have, as I did a few times ago, some peanut butter chocolate doughnut at Krispy Kreme, I feel as if I am about to go into a diabetic coma. And my friend had two! My point is you can wean yourself off really sweet stuff. I used to love it and now I have far less of a tolerance.
Do you stop eating once sated? The really fat people I've known don't necessarily eat giant portions, they just eat all the time here and there. And eating even when full is something I've heard people do. I've never had that problem.
As for food waste, just decrease portions? Also I'm interested, does Switzerland have very strict norms regarding this type of medication, such that you don't think you'll be given a prescription?
Once I recognize that a set of people doesn't share my values, what is there to do?
Search for shared values and go from there.
Maybe he was doing the Terran salute from that Star Trek episode.
Fun fact, the African Headmaster of the school at which I taught in the Peace Corps used to wear a Hitler mustache. I have a photo somewhere of him at a school function wearing on his lapel what I believe he took to be a corsage but was actually the bow for a birthday present. He was a notorious drunk, but more of a pathetic man than an evil one. I suppose that's why they posted him in BFE out in the Kalahari.
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I don't dismiss your points here, but I'm asking specifically about the idiomatic usage of the term by the guy I was responding to.
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