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  • in reply to: power in LA, stan has #44399
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    The arrival of the NFL significantly altered the list of the 50 Most Powerful in Southern California Sports

    My first thought reading all this was…SFW.

    My last thought, though, was…SFW.

    ————-

    I heard, Mr. Kroenke has a golden toilet.

    I also heard that he is so powerful that when the media is in his presence
    they feel tingling sensations in their anuses.

    I dont even know what that means, but its what i heard.

    w
    v

    in reply to: "The Trouble With Diversity" #44374
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Is Affirmative Action a conservative policy to make rich white people
    feel better? Yes? No?

    Check out the four minute mark of the Vid:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyruiScXqcU

    in reply to: "The Trouble With Diversity" #44362
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    [Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. ~Pat Robertson

    That just sounds like a normal american teenager’s high school years.

    .

    ————–

    Well yeah, maybe in Maine.

    Here in appalachia its more like …4-wheelin, witchcraft, anti-family, oxycontin, bath-salts, become lesbian, snake-handling, shoot deer,
    shoot fish, do community service, Home-confinement, Probation, sing in the choir, get mining job, get laid off, get fracking job, get injured, apply for disability, find jesus.

    w
    v

    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Don’t be so quick to go against facts that way.

    An amphibian would never have drafted Gurley.

    ———————-

    Snead was there, in the stadium, the day
    Gurley’s knee got blown out.

    Coincidence?

    w
    v

    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    What is this “guess what” thing,
    Snead has fallen into.

    w
    v

    It’s the evolved, more adult version of what players always say–“you know.”

    He used to be a college player, but, the brain changes as you grow older. You know?

    —————-

    What if that’s not what’s happening.

    What if his mind is slowly being taken over
    by some evil mysterious force.

    I’m not even talkin about some Lizard type force.

    Could be amphibians, for all we know.

    w
    v

    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    What is this “guess what” thing,
    Snead has fallen into.

    w
    v

    in reply to: "The Trouble With Diversity" #44344
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Great quotes, WV. I’ve never gotten a coherent response from Christians who believe the bible literally, when I talk about their god as genocidal madman. The trap is that literal belief…

    ————–

    Well, havin been born-and-raized in the bible-belt
    I can tell you, the usual response from evangelicals is simply this:

    God is a jealous and vengeful god.

    They are fine with that. They dont question it.

    w
    v
    “An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects.” Martin Luther

    “listen to feminists and all these radical gals – most of them are failures. They’ve blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house.
    That’s all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they’re mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They’re sexist. They hate men – that’s their problem.”
    ~Reverend Jerry Falwell

    [Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women
    to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. ~Pat Robertson

    in reply to: "The Trouble With Diversity" #44340
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    This is also pretty much the same exact thing that led to right-wing evangelicals becoming politically active back in the early 1970s. For them, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the ruling against Bob Jones University, on the issue of segregation. Samantha Bee explains: …

    ————-

    I assume the Religious-evangelicals are still a powerful core faction
    of the Rep Party. They may not be quite as visible as they used to be
    but I assume they still carry a significant amount of weight on the Right.
    Lots of votes out there, among the fundamentalist-christian crowd.

    w
    v
    “You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?” ― Mark Twain

    “The Bible tells us to be like God, and then on page after page it describes God as a mass murderer. This may be the single most important key to the political behavior of Western Civilization.” — Robert Anton Wilson

    in reply to: Patriots best drafting team ? #44332
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Well, they keep winning and winning and winning, so
    I am gonna assume they are putting good players on the field
    year after year after year

    Arguably…I don’t think that’s an accurate assessment. They do have a pretty decent drafting track record (but then when was the last time the Rams dumped 2 first-round picks?) So they are okay. Pretty good. But….IMO they win year after year because they have a seasoned Brady in a system he has played in his whole career. Plus they have a couple of key players. There is coaching too but then…that still depends on Brady.

    But when the Denver got to Brady last year, or when the Giants got to him in that first superbowl, New England was not as gifted and dominant, suddenly.

    That leads me to a hypothetical. Put Brady on last year’s Rams and they are certainly better than 7-9. Put the 2015 Foles and the 2015 Keenum on last year’s Patz and they might be better than 7-9 but not by much.

    ———–
    Well i know you know more about the Pats than i do. I never watchem and I dont really know a damn thing about any team other than the rams.

    So i admit i’m totally ignorant.

    But i just dont buy your notion that its mainly Brady and a few other key players.

    I’ve watched Belichick do wonders with that Patriot Defense even when he was starting WRs at DB. I’ve seen’em plug-and-play too many ‘depth players’ over the years. And there was the year Cassell won eleven games or so.

    I think you are minimizing the Organization and the Personnel Evaluators, coupled with the mastermind Belichex. The fact that they jettison first rounders and still win, just tells me they do well with 2nd rounders or 3rd rounders, etc.

    But again, what do i know.

    w
    v

    in reply to: "The Trouble With Diversity" #44331
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    ….was listening to NPR on the car radio and i heard that Bruce Springsteen and Itzak Perlman and a bunch of glittering celebrities were boycotting North Carolina.

    Cause of the Identity politix thing. Trans people cant use bathrooms of their choice.
    They have to use the other bathroom.

    THAT brings about a boycott.

    Meanwhile… NC can pass laws the crush the poor every legislative session, and that gets
    no reaction from the rich celebs.

    And so it goes.

    wv grouch

    in reply to: Goff game & highlight vids (get to know yer new qb) #44323
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    “He was at his best when we went out on the field and we started making things more complicated” — Gruden

    in reply to: Patriots best drafting team ? #44319
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    They just cut one first round pick and traded away another.

    And both ended up in the NFC West (Chandler and Easley).

    ——————-

    Well, they keep winning and winning and winning, so
    I am gonna assume they are putting good players on the field
    year after year after year. So then, that would mean
    they are Personnel Wizards. Somehow, someway they are
    evaluating, finding, signing bunches of good players.
    Maybe they are good in the lower rounds? Maybe they find
    a way to have more draft picks? Maybe they do a great job
    in free agency? I dunno. But i doubt they just have
    such a great scheme and such a great coach that they make
    bad players look good.

    PS, i do not believe its just ‘Brady’. So dont go there.
    Dont say the B word. I wont have it.

    w
    v

    • This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by Avatar photowv.
    in reply to: Human-Pig Chimeras: is this a good idea? #44269
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I can’t see how that could happen. Such a being would be inherently non kosher. Was recently in Everglades National Park and watched dolphins doing it. Always in threesomes that they called a pod. Unfortunately from my perspective its always dude-gal-dude for the pod. Good news is calf support is nonexistent.

    —————–

    I’m not a hundred percent sure i wanna be a dolphin, anymore.

    in reply to: Rams sign Easley #44266
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Then unless he is an experienced PT he seems like trouble to me. Who is going to step up in the locker room to counteract such behavior?

    Well, this is all just (partly) informed guesswork, but, the Rams have a famously stable locker room, with leaders (on the DL no less) like Hayes and Donald. Plus I don’t imagine the Rams would sign him unless they made their parameters clear. That’s leveraged by the fact that he knows he can’t get cut again—and he also knows (from watching Fairley get signed) that being a good and productive citizen on the Rams DL leads to down the road benefits.

    —————–

    Plus he gets to be on Hard Knocks.
    Be a tee-vee star.

    w
    v

    in reply to: Human-Pig Chimeras: is this a good idea? #44263
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Unless the body parts are kosher count the jews out.

    —————-
    Indeed. ..but…what if…a Pig/Human Hybrid was born, and…it converted/became Jewish? What then?

    I personally wouldnt mind my DNA being mixed with a
    Dolphin. Or one of those Aliens they have at Roswell.

    Seriously, i cannot quite wrap my head around this — they really are
    doing this. Mixing pigs and humans. For profit. It blows my mind.

    Will these beings be ‘owned’ by corporations?

    w
    v

    • This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by Avatar photowv.
    in reply to: "The Trouble With Diversity" #44261
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    “Conservatives can at least say, “Yeah, I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t care because other people aren’t my problem. I’m in it for me.”


    I would say I don’t want other people making their problems, mine. Especially if they choose to live what I consider an immoral, extravagant, reckless life. That definitely should not be my problem.

    ————————

    Well, i think you summed up a core fundamental difference between Left
    and Right, right there with that paragraph.

    I am always looking for statements with that kind of clarity.

    That was very clear. I also talked to a liberal, Catholic, Grad-School-Educated professional the other day who said exactly the same thing. He was a Clinton supporter, btw.

    At any rate, the core difference I am talking about here, stems from how to view human “choices” and the question of how/when do conditions overwhelm or influence ‘choices’.

    w
    v

    in reply to: "The Trouble With Diversity" #44260
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    And, yes, I agree with him that, in America especially, liberal elites have often used the issues of race, gender and sexuality to forestall any discussion of economic inequality and class

    Just jumping in, I have to say…meaning no offense to anyone…that this is all old. I think it’s important to recognize that…it puts the discussion more in context, IMO.

    Liberals who buy into multiculturalism (my preferred term) often, yes, ignore, misunderstand, or don’t get class.

    But then the left opposition to that particular construction is old. In fact Michaels was writing in the 80s and 90s.

    The left opposition to all that liberal stuff goes way back, and it does not make the corresponding error of ignoring race, gender, and sexuality.

    And that has been true for a few decades.

    The left is fragmented into pockets, and sometimes, one given section of it has not heard about other sections of it.

    What’s interesting to me is that in the last few years, this stuff has gone much more mainstream. That is, access to it and interest in it has gone up.

    ————–
    I agree, its old. But I started noticing the dynamic more and more in the corporate-media, and it started bugging me more and more.
    The ‘trans-gender’ thing just totally set me off. Cause I look at the house burning down and i see the media absolutely going ga-ga over identity-politix issues, and….blah blah blah.

    And to state what i assume is obvious — i am not saying identity politix issues are unimportant. Of course they are important. But when they are used as a diversion from ‘class’ or inequality or what i call ‘poor people issues’ then it sets me off.

    But yeah, its an old game. Lots of things have been used over the centuries as ‘bread and circuses’ to divert the masses from
    looking behind the curtain.

    Michael wrote the Trouble with Diversity in 2006, btw. Apparently he thought the dynamic still needed talkin about.

    w
    v

    in reply to: Also stopping by to say Hi. #44258
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    WV,

    I see that. And perhaps I’m being too “literal” about definitions. But from where I sit, even if we get to the point where you want to see things go, and I’m with you all the way, it’s not “capitalism” any longer. It’s something else. Not sure what the word would be, but it’s not “capitalism.”

    Along with that, yes, you’re right. We aren’t in any position at the moment to replace the current system. But the tragedy is, we’re not even in the position to “tame” it. We don’t have the political will — or access, or resources, or power — to stop it from moving further to the right, becoming more and more “neoliberal” in country after country. So, personally, it’s even pie in the sky to talk about “reform” in this point in time. Which then leads me to think, since pretty much all discussions regarding system change are massive longshots, why not talk about (and aspire to) something that would really improve the lives of billions, give everyone dignity and autonomy over their economic life and prevent ecological catastrophe? As in, if it’s all a pipe dream, why not go big?

    I’m pretty eclectic in my thinking, but if I had to choose just one “school” right now, I’d take libertarian socialist. Your favorite, Noam Chomsky, is perhaps the leading representative of that currently. But he’s coming from, as you know, a long line of left-libertarians, like William Morris, Elisee Reclus and Petr Kropotkin, who also sometimes called themselves anarchist-socialists, anarchist-communists, or just socialists. To me, none of their dreams can be realized under the capitalist system, and we can’t “tame” our way there, either. It really does need to be replaced. Because, fundamentally, capitalism is all about controlling the work of others and profiting from that work. It’s all about, at its core, ownership — of humans, goods and services, resources, the earth. From where I sit, I just can’t conceive of any kind of human emancipation that includes people having that ability — to own the production of others, their time, their bodies, their autonomy, even if it’s just eight hours a day. And I can’t see how private ownership of the means of production, which necessarily includes resources and the earth, could ever lead to any liberation for humans, and it’s just not environmentally sustainable.

    Anyway, hope all is well, and thanks again for introducing me to those other writers.

    ————-
    Oh, we are on the same page, BT. Comrad 🙂

    We just talk with different accents, different writing styles,
    different emphasis, but we are on the same page.

    I despise corporate-capitalism. And if i could waive my magic wand, and heal the peepulz, and magically create a citizenry that was less stressed and thus had the time/energy/health to ‘think critically,’
    then I’d bet we would end up with one version or another of — libertarian-socialism.

    The only question for me would be — should there be a small dose of some form of capitalism in the mix. Would that create a positive spark of creative-energy or would that…light the fuse. Again.

    w
    v

    in reply to: Also stopping by to say Hi. #44239
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    WV,

    I agree with you a ton on these issues, but I think — just guessing — I’m even more opposed to capitalism than you are. If I understand you correctly, you’re opposed to a certain kind of capitalism — corporate. To me, it’s just a natural evolution already contained within the system itself. Capitalism itself, IMO, leads to globalization and corporatization globally and can’t really avoid it. .

    ——————-
    Well two things. First this kind of Mega-Macro-Uber Issue stuff is…a bit academic to me sometimes. Which is not to say its trivial or unimportant or useless. It just means i lose energy rather quickly on these questions about eliminating entire Mega-systems. I mean it just aint gonna happen, and even if it did it would take a long time, and the groundwork has not been laid, blah blah blah. So, i dont have too much energy for the mega-macro “what if” questions.

    But. Having said that….to address your post, I’d say, I will always ‘wrestle’ with the question of whether there might be a decent form of capitalism. I think about it everyday. Can there be a capitalism with a human face? Can it be controlled, tamed, limited? Or is capitalism like the baby dragons on Game Of Thrones. Cute, when young, but eventually, inexorably, it grows into a flaming, murderous monster.

    I dunno the answer to that. I kinda think its…a mystery. Unwritten. Maybe its possible to have a nice mix of capitalism and socialism and anarchism. Maybe. Probably not…but maybe.

    It certainly does not seem possible to me with the citizens we now have. The citizenry seems too wounded by corporate-capitalism. Too many generations have been infected by propaganda and corporate-ideology, imho. That combined with the prevalence of pro-corporate-Religion has created….the situation, we iz in.

    No amount of ‘academic’ utopian conversation is gonna change the fact that right now, on the ground, the masses of Amerikans have been
    drenched, deluged, inundated with and drowned in misinformation, disinformation, and corporate and religious ideology. So thats where we are at. Surrounded by that. If we could wave a magic wand and eliminated decades of ‘history’ then we could start talking
    about new systems and socialism and anti-captialism, etc.

    In order for a huge revolution to take place, poor people, the poor-masses would have to be the driving force. And if you talk to actual poor people, they are too stressed out, and too damaged to
    even think about ‘capitalism’. They are consumed with the fact that their teeth hurt, their kids are unhealthy, they have no money to pay the rent, and they cant pay for their latest anti-depressant prescription….

    So where does that leave us? I dunno. I got no answers, other than an occasional gesture, like voting for Jill.

    w
    v
    “You have reached the shore. There are no directions”
    Levertov

    in reply to: "The Trouble With Diversity" #44236
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Yes, i like him too. I bin skimming his book. Got it for a penny at amazon. I came across him in an Adolph Reed article. He influenced Reed, apparently.
    (Reed is in this thread:

    "Identity Politics is Neoliberalism"

    w
    v

    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Well, I watched that playoff game where it was obvious RG was hurt and hurt bad. Its inconceivable to me that Shannahan failed to notice how
    hurt RG was. He should not have been playing in that game after it became
    obvious he was a sitting-duck.

    Having said that, yeah, I believe Shannahan’s story about RG informing
    him of what plays he wouldn’t run. And i also believe Shannhan tried
    to get him to throw the ball away and to slide more. I said that myself a long time ago — people were slamming Shannahan for the way he used RG and i remember thinking, why doesn’t the kid just learn to slide more, etc.

    He aint ever gonna be a
    ‘pocket passer’. It aint his game. The offense
    ‘should’ be designed around what he does best. I think Shannhan did that.

    w
    v

    in reply to: Also stopping by to say Hi. #44212
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Well if we are going to get all phill-o-sophical and utopian,
    I’ll ask a breezy question — Do yall think that a corporate-capitalist system (I always call the Amerikan system “Corporate capitalist” to distinguish it from some other types of capitalism that might exist out there on the planet) makes citizens
    more ‘selfish’ ? I mean every system ‘does things’ to its citizens, right? Pours ideas and notions into their heads. As well as ‘leaving out’
    other notions.

    So does Corporate-Capitalism make Americans more self-absorbed, and/or selfish than other systems in the world? Is there a way to study or know
    the answer to that?

    Corporate-capitalism certainly seems to turn humans into “consumers”
    and “tv watchers”, for better or worse.

    Btw, I think it was Ozone that noted that Americans have it a lot better than folks in some of these poor-countries where there is very little freedom of speech and things are bad in a lot of ways. Granted.
    But what if the nation with the most-freedom-of-speech, is the nation most responsible for destroying the environment/biosphere through all yer basic corporate-destruction (pollution, toxic waste, fracking, etc) ?
    Would that not be a bit ironic. The nation with the most free,
    conversations, and free access to info — is the nation that is doing the most to destroy the entire biosphere. Seems ironic somehow, to me.

    w
    v

    in reply to: Rams sign Easley #44210
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Two ACL surgeries and he’s a knucklehead,
    but i got no problem with it since its a one year
    prove-it deal.

    This coaching staff seems to do pretty well with
    DLinemen.

    w
    v

    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Adam Schefter ‏@AdamSchefter
    Rams reached agreement on a 1-year deal with former Patriots DT Dominique Easley, per source.

    Adam Schefter ‏@AdamSchefter
    Rams D-line now includes five former 1st-round picks: Aaron Donald, Michael Brockers, Robert Quinn, Quinton Coples, Dominique Easley.

    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Has he or his dog,
    been Tazed yet?

    w
    v

    in reply to: I believe everything in this OP piece #44173
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Haiti ,Honduras, Libya ,Syria , Iraq and the Ukraine. Every thing she touches goes to shit and she wants a do-over ?She has sold weapons to despots , dictators and psychopaths, her next mistake could very well come in the form of a mushroom cloud and she is currently under investigation by the FBI !!!!’The absolute worst candidate in my lifetime,nothing incremental about it.

    ————–

    Now, now, guys. Hillary is willing to fight for people
    to have the right to go to the bathroom of their choice.

    So, that makes her a progressive. So shut up and get
    on board.

    Seriously, its a difficult choice isn’t it — vote for Hillary and do the usual ‘lesser of two evil’ things. Which would indeed have real consequences. Probably a couple of less hideous Supreme Court Justices. Not good ones but maybe not hideous ones. Is that important? Sure.

    But long-term what would a Hillary win do for the DNC and the Democrat Party? I assume it would teach them that the ‘far-left’ is always gonna get in line and vote the DNC-way. And so there will be more Hillarys in the store for us. And the Bernies will always be marginalized.

    But what if Hillary loses to Trump. What lessons will the DNC folks draw from that? I dunno.

    I agree with zn that Trump would be rightwing-bad. But what if it would be worth it in the long run to break the DNC formula for foisting DNC democrats on us.

    I mean sure, Hillary would be better than Trump. But what would a string of Hillarys do to the biosphere and poor people? Aint it time to get off the slow train to dystopia ?

    I dunno. I’m not sure what the right thing to do is. I really dont know.
    But i do know I’m voting for Jill Stein. And like i said before, I’ll sleep just fine if the Donald become the President of Corporate-Amerika.
    Maybe thats what it will take to wake people up.

    w
    v

    in reply to: lawsuit against Rams: interesting 1st step #44165
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I’m not an attorney, just a primary care doc.
    But I’m certain it would come down to business inducements (i.e., inducing customers to buy more or engage in business activities under false pretenses).
    I would think people who bought PSL’s over the last several years would have a better claim that reasons you listed.
    Again, no attorney here. How about it, wv?

    ———————-

    You know, my first reaction was to think the plaintiffs had
    a snowballs chance in hell, but this is kindof an oddball case.
    There did indeed seem to be some obvious lying going on with
    Demoff and Ownership. I’m still skeptical the Rams will lose,
    but I’m no longer totally sure. Waterfield has a better feel for
    civil stuff than me.

    I’m still trying to figure out if i can sue the Rams
    for drafting Trung.

    w
    v

    in reply to: Three Takeaways: Passing Game Coordinator Mike Groh #44164
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Groh doesnt get talked about much
    but he might end up being the most important
    cog in the machine next season.

    w
    v

    in reply to: I believe everything in this OP piece #44153
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Of course everyone waves their flags and pretends they aren’t just flags.

    ——————-

    My flag has a burning flag on it.
    Just so you know.

    w
    v

    in reply to: Martz on Goff and Wentz (audio: 4/26, article: 5/15) #44141
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    No I would argue it IS Brady.

    ===============

    Well you are wrong. Just substitute
    any other Hall of Fame, Multiple MVP QB,
    and the Patriot Offense would be fine…

    …I dunno If I’d agree that there’s no chance
    Goff could be bust. Too early for me to be sure
    about him. I preferred him to Wentz though.

    w
    v

Viewing 30 posts - 8,911 through 8,940 (of 12,326 total)