@davidxto: I have not. Perhaps we will meet in person some day and discuss these deep thoughts. Unfortunately, for now, I'm done practicing my discussion board articulation skills. They still need some work, but that's the nature of language and communication, a fluid progression of actions and reactions. Hemingway once wrote, "Writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge..."

I think the same can be said of many things, but for me it's especially true with writing... something I need to focus on more at present. Take care. I hope you reconsider writing about some of your unique experiences.

The very definition of "tolerance" is dependent on some form of subjective analysis that has to be affirmed by a second or third party. But it can't be reached if one or more parties involved fail to exercise something like empathy or sympathy (subjectively defined themselves) with an interest in reaching some level of mutual understanding. A bit of introspection is required. Eventually that introspection can lead to an exploration of "usefulness" in action. In that vein, personally, I'll say adieu to the good folks here.

@weirdmenace: @davidxto: y'all are gettin too deep. Let's bring it back to a good ol' intellectual rodeo that goes a little more like:

"Freedom I says!"

"Equality I says!"

"Prove it!"

"Racist!"

"Communist!"

"Oh look, sports and entertainment gossip!"

Crickets...

@Shalmaneser: "Think of the President as an agent selected by a majority of voters to enact their wishes"

Replace "President" with "Representative." Checks and balances and all that stuff. The president, in our system, is the chief officer of the Executive Branch, not supreme arbiter of majority will. If he or she tries to be said arbiter, then... well... back to checks and balances.

"He is, in a way, the majority of the country's voters telling you that they reject your views and opinions"

So are polls. Neither of which has carte blanche to impose majority opinions.

The idol worship crowd will create a litany of excuses for this sort of proof of intent. "Well what he meant was" etc.

Unlike the random linking of progressive-focused articles which cherry-pick convenient facts to create circumstantial evidence about "what this means," videos of explicit intentions are akin to confessions. Folks have to abandon their prideful projections of self onto their beloved "leaders" and accept the possibility that their choices are being constructed by the choice architects, and their conversations created by the dialectical synthesizers.

That said, this video has been around a long time. First time I saw it I thought it might change the way people thought. It didn't. I don't expect it will now, either.

@davidxto: Shocked indeed - just as I am to read that you knew of the place. I've been fortunate enough to visit some family members that still live there, though they were all originally from Furth. Anyway, I'd read some stories about Tangiers and Dali.

[quote][b]davidxto[/b] - @Lazarus Laughs Last:
43 years have passed since I spent 3 weeks in Tangiers. It is like yesterday - more happened in that short time than most people ever experience. If I didn't get sick and recuperate I might have never made the ferry back to Algeciras. But then the following week I was sitting with Dali in his garden in Port Lligat. I have no idea how I did those things.
[/quote]

Have you ever thought about putting those experiences to paper?

@davidxto: Man... you aliens know lots of stuff. That's fascinating though.

@davidxto: So they treated hallucinogenic poisoning with other hallucinogens?

Yeah, everything by Karl Marx.

But on a serious note, this is an interesting topic. The obvious answers would be ancient literature about Arthur and his knights or depictions of Richard III being a hunchback, which in light of a recent discovery appear exaggerated.

@davidxto: I replied to you but it disappeared (double yew tee eff?). Good stuff though, as usual.

You're not the droid I'm looking for. Move along.

@Follow the Money: Sometimes I wonder if you are the same person who also posts as (Insert left-leaning google spirit fingers pseudonym here), as well as any one of the fly-by posters that frequent the asylum from time to time... then you do something different, and I have to get over my prejudices.

But for the purpose of discussion - whatever the topic was, your opinion is wrong!

hashtag smileyfaces and drinks with umbrellas.

Nice to see folks put away the serious face for a bit. Much more fun that way.

[quote][b]Follow the Money[/b] -
No quarrel with Israel. I have a quarrel with our representatives being more concerned with Israel's interests than those of American citizens and taxpayers. In my opinion, our international policies and aid have been shaped far too much by concerns for Israeli security vs. what would be best for America.
[/quote]

Perhaps they are sometimes one and the same. I don't think there are any easy answers with the Middle East. The bigger problem I have with all this is the wasteful theatrics of these confirmation hearings.

I read "Generation X" and find that I can go no further.

Memories of Dan Cortese on the beach surrounded by bikini-clad women with hair sprayed lion manes wearing sunglasses and celebrating mediocrity like it was the last day you could ever visit a beach anywhere.

And then my mind wanders indoors, where the dimmed bluish lights make stoic shadows of the center-part, baggy clothing audience, mesmerized by the spectacle of Alice in Chains Unplugged. That Alice in Chains Unplugged was the stuff of legend... but STP is still my favorite band from the 90's.

And now I can hear the voice of Scott Weiland winding its way through the synaptic gaps in a canoe of supreme awesomeness and wondertude.

What was that guy's name that did MTV news? Kurt Loder? I can still see him talking about Cobain's suicide. That was like... the Hindenburg of the '90's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5UOC0C0x8Q

@jlscott: Do you know about this site? http://hplovecraft.com/writings/fiction/

It's got all of Lovecraft's stories. My favorite has always been The Lurking Fear.

[quote][b]jlscott[/b] - Good. I want to see what's under the Mountains of Madness. You better hope they melt, because if the don't they'll build up until the world tips over and takes you and Hank Johnson with it.
[/quote]

I wonder what Hank would advise we do to stop Cthulhu...

[quote][b]Anonymous Dude[/b] - We are having the wrong argument about this; and in doing so are wasting valuable time.
Whether manmade or a cycle of Nature, the North Ice Cap is melting. Antarctica is melting.
When the Arctic Ice Cap is melted, the sea will be about 22 feet higher.
Bring the East and West Coasts in a few miles to take care of that.
Goodbye, NYC, DC, Boston, LA, San Fran,...need I go on?
However, Antarctica is a different story. Antarctica contains 70 percent of the world's fresh water; 90 percent of its natural ice.
Sea levels rise TWO HUNDRED FEET with that melt.
East coast at the Appalachians. Gulf Coast around...ATL. West Coast at the Los Angeles Mountains. Goodbye, Florida...
Draw THAT on a map of America.
[/quote]

Then I'm sitting on some future beachfront property. Cha Ching.

@davidxto: We are naming winter storms now. That pretty much sums it all up.

Yup. I don't blame the media though. We eat that stuff up. PANIC, baby!

Dear American children, make sure you live in fear of every waking moment of your life. Believe the adults who tell you that you are in imminent danger constantly. Be a good citizen-worker-voter, be a noble patriot. Be afraid of helping yourself, and remember:

If you see someone thinking for themselves... "SAY SOMETHING!"

That is my audition for Homeland Securty Spokesman.

huh. I have two thoughts. (sometimes more, but just two for now.)

1. Did I miss something?
2. Yes.

The U.S.

@avenger: Not that I care much about Louisiana, but this piqued my interest, so I found a pretty good write up about what both sides are saying here: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/01/eliminating_louisianas_in...

There are Constitutionally protected sales tax exemptions like "groceries, residential utilities and medicine." They are looking at keeping those exemptions, which arguably help the poor more than the wealthy, while eliminating exemptions for luxuries like "lawn services," which most poor folks don't spend money on anyway.

That article out of New Orleans is pretty spin-free and gives both sides a voice.

@davidxto: It's because you're a robot. Everybody knows "you people" ain't good for the money.

@EducateGeorgia: When that sucker rises and sets I find myself outside, looking up and otherwise "wasting" time.

[quote][b]melmarino[/b] - Which obvious and nonsensical thing are you taking issue with?
[/quote]

You know...