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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit MACLUNKY -- The Lit Forum Maclunky Thread, v3

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Point Given , Sep 12, 2015.

  1. jSarek

    jSarek VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2005
    And even if the Republicans somehow don't confirm a nominee by November AND they lose the Senate, they still have until January to get whoever is being recalcitrant to play ball. No matter how you slice it, Trump is getting a nominee that will get rubber-stamped by his Congressional yes-men without any serious vetting, throwing the court to the conservative wolves, likely for decades.
     
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  2. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 7, 2012
    Looks like it's not only Star Wars films getting a delay....

     
  3. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    Sorry to add to the wretched news, but this happened in Maryland today: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/f...tal-gazette-newspaper-in-annapolis/ar-AAzj5x5

    I'm a professional journalist, and this kind of - obscenity, because there's no other word strong enough for this crime that still fits within the TOS - cannot be tolerated.

    It doesn't matter what the motives of the alleged shooter are; this is an attack on the free press, regardless of the mental stability/life situation/etc. of the alleged shooter. This is AMERICA, and this kind of garbage is not supposed to be happening here.

    Let me be clear: This incident would still be a tragedy, wherever it occurred, to whomever it occurred. NO innocents should be gunned down as they go about their daily work, school, life, etc.

    And yes, I'm biased about this particular tragedy. I freely admit that.

    But somebody, somewhere, is going to take this and use it to score a propaganda point, one way or another. I'm sure of it.

    And THAT? That's the problem with this country today. Too much positioning, too much angling for advantage and not enough compassion.

    And that's a problem from both ends of the political spectrum. I refuse to throw red, blue, whomever under the bus.

    We're all to blame, whether it be scared white voters quavering needlessly from the calls from people who have truly suffered injustice, or overly pampered young idealists who need to understand that free speech does NOT mean being "protected" from differing ideas.

    I'm scared, yes. But I'm also infuriated.

    For the first time in a long time, I'm just, outright, infuriated.

    Get off your knees, quit hoping for salvation from the skies or the proletariat, and vote, hand out meals, just listen to someone.

    To Hades with political parties and dogma and political correctness. We're all we have - flesh, blood, flawed, human. ACT LIKE IT.
     
  4. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    An addendum - I want to apologize to anyone who may have felt I was trying to pick on religion (or the lack thereof) in my last post.

    I truly believe there are many more people of faith who truly live out their faith in positive ways than there are negative worshippers.

    My initial post was written in the heat of the moment, reacting to a horrific incident. And that rarely, if ever, is a good condition to write in.

    It doesn't change (or excuse) the fact that in rereading my post, it sounds vicious toward many different groups, and insulting people isn't what I intended.

    We all just need to relate to one another, first and foremost, from our shared humanity, before any division, stance, etc. That's all I was trying to say; thanks.
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2018
  5. fett 4

    fett 4 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2000
    You don't need to apologise, if that's what you feel but this both sides stuff is simply not correct.
    When the President of the United States is openly calling journalists fake and enemies, add in the fake propoganda a bit job probably gets from FOX everyday (and I can tell you now as a non American, what they say is simply not true and what they say is pretty scary) its not going to be a stretch for a nutjob to listen to the President, take a gun and go after these so called enemies.

    So I'm not trying to be disrespectful to you Onderon but I don't think it is both sides and we are not all to blame. I think the blame is due to a specific (cynical) strategy by a specific group of people that pandered to a specific group oc people's base instincts and fears and sooner or later this was going to happen.
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2018
  6. fett 4

    fett 4 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2000
  7. AdmiralWesJanson

    AdmiralWesJanson Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005
    fett 4 likes this.
  8. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    You're not disrespectful at all. I just don't think "othering" the rank and file Republican base is a constructive solution (yes, anger against what's going on is both legitimate and needed to prevent apathetically accepting what's happening, but it has to be constructive anger).

    Fox has been a propaganda arm for years. They just seem to think now that they've been legitimized (they have NOT); they're actually less frightening than the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, whose owning family apparently sincerely believe that print journalism "isn't in touch with reality."

    The American left must, however, do a better job of relating to the white working class, of truly being as inclusive as it claims to be. Otherwise, we risk becoming no better than what we stand against.

    In short - I'm recalling a recent BBC (?) poll of Americans who think that we're closer to a second civil war over here than we were.

    That's ... the ultimate surrender. Not to political forces whom are clearly in the wrong, but to hate and violence - in all directions.

    And I, for one, refuse to surrender a country and an ideal that people fought and died for.

    I don't have to agree with people to live with them. We used to be able to do that over here, and we MUST get back to it before we can begin to fix the larger problems.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2018
  9. Daneira

    Daneira Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 30, 2016
    I really don't see the point of ascribing a political motive to the recent shooting. The perpetrator seems to have had a longstanding animosity with the paper, beginning with them reporting on a criminal harassment suit he was involved in. He then proceeded, with no sense of irony, to harass the paper for years, culminating in him murdering five people.
     
  10. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    That does appear to be true, from everything I've heard about this case. Drawing a 1:1 line between this and the froth going around would be disingenuous of me.

    It still scared the daylights out of me. And someone should have gotten this guy into mental health treatment long before this took place, because the extent of his harassment of the paper certainly looks like the hallmarks of mental illness.
     
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  11. Ulicus

    Ulicus Lapsed Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2005
    Witcher Samurai Jack style:

     
  12. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    Heh. Yeah, that's about how most of Geralt's fights tend to go - messy, but ultimately victorious. (I'm assuming the potions didn't kick in until later in the fight; he should've been regenerating health sooner. [face_thinking]:p
     
  13. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    I really don't understand the fascination with Gerald. I simply cannot get into those games.
     
  14. Vthuil

    Vthuil Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2013
    It's really too bad, since as has been noted in the past, like half the Nilfgaardians are basically just you.
     
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  15. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    If we could play as them, that would be nice. And I know that we can technically use their costumes. But Gerald's personality is just so... crude.
     
  16. MercenaryAce

    MercenaryAce Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 10, 2005
    You have a strange definition of crude then.

    edit:
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2018
    cthugha, Gorefiend and Gamiel like this.
  17. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Have you tried the books?
     
  18. fett 4

    fett 4 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2000
    I can agree with what you say but at some point voters do have to take responsibility for the people they vote for.
    Take a look at this beauty here, isnt she a charmer saying stuff like this. Her Voters need to say No, this is obscene what she's implying
    https://www.refinery29.com/amp/2018...edium=twitter_share&__twitter_impression=true
     
  19. jSarek

    jSarek VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2005
    Idaho District 7? Looks like that's the spot that covers the southern part of the panhandle. With rural Idahoans as her primary constituents, her approval rating likely went up after that. It probably would have gone up more if she'd actually shot them. There are three books to the Bible in that part of the country - the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
     
    fett 4 likes this.
  20. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    What does give me hope, though, is that the article read that some people did reply to the candidate and call her out for her stance.

    AFA Americans and guns ... there's two strains of American gun owner, I've found (and let me preface this by saying that both strains do contain responsible gun owners).

    There's the practical gun owner - hunters, ranchers in wild areas with wild animals who need defending, victims of abuse who feel a need to protect themselves.

    And there's the ideological gun owner. They can overlap with the practical gun owners, but they've invested so deeply into the mythopoeic vision of American independence being forged by plucky militias against an overreaching tyrannical government that they feel an existential threat at even the notion of "gun control," which they read as code for "take away their ability to defend themselves."

    Where the nuance comes in is that the mythopoeic vision was factual ... during the War of Independence, and likely the War of 1812. Not today.

    But you've got people who believe the "true America" is still that one that echoes down centuries after we won independence from Britain. They can't place their situation within the proper historical context.

    Let's be clear - most gun owners of both strains are responsible. Yet we still have a horribly high number of accidental and mass shootings.

    The other shoe, so to speak, is that even today, too many Americans feel shame and embarrassment about seeking mental health treatment, or attempt to shame those who do seek it. It's not solely a macho male problem, although certainly that's a large part of it; some of it is a kneejerk anti-intellectualism, a know-nothingism that crops up every so often.

    I wish I had better answers. I do. I wish we as a nation could articulate our stances in more civil terms and reach a sane solution.
     
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  21. Amon_Amarth

    Amon_Amarth Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2005
    Not a fan of Geralt per se (prefered the books), but it is hard not to like anything Gendy Tartakovsky style.
     
  22. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006
    Bong Dazo, the comic artist who helped draw for the KOTOR comics, died yesterday from liver cancer at the age of 53

    An Obituary
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2018
  23. Amon_Amarth

    Amon_Amarth Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2005
    Oh no, that's quite young. :( I liked his art in the Daze of Hate arc.
     
  24. Charlemagne19

    Charlemagne19 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2000
    You know, if I could choose to make a CGI set of DVD movies for Star Wars I would choose the Thrawn Trilogy.

    I would ALSO choose Lost Stars by Claudia Gray.
     
    AdmiralWesJanson likes this.
  25. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    John Oliver did a piece on NRATV and in a interview (for NPR) he did later he said, on what it was like to watch all of the NRATV: "Well, when you watch all of, it kind of has a pretty profound effect on you because - what we're trying to show you is little pieces. But when you watch the whole thing, it does give you pause. It kind of makes you panic because it's just wave after wave of fearmongering. And it can make you think, oh, maybe I need to have a gun, which is entirely the point. I guess that's what was interesting. The distance that we found interesting was - you know, the NRA portrays itself as its MO being, you know, fiercely, dogmatically defending the Second Amendment, and yet NRATV really is just, to an extent, shilling for gun companies."

    Here is the piece on NRA TV


    And here is the interview with transcript