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Bat Guano

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Everything posted by Bat Guano

  1. Interesting question. Does the end justify the means? In general, the answer has traditionally been no. I think that is an appropriate answer here, too, and it sort of answers your second question - the malfeasances were not justified, and this implies they were not necessary. As for the first, I don't really know in depth how much brutality and exploitation occurred in the course of other conquests than WWEM, so it's hard to measure. As for the third question, it's pretty clear that brutalizing conquered people does not advance enlightenment of the oppressors; quite the opposite. One example is European treatment of the Native Americans. Early on in the conquest of North America, before the European settlements became large and powerful enough to be dominant, they were less nasty to the natives than they would be later on, further west. There was a good amount of communication, and the Euros actually got some good ideas from the natives - notably the portions of American governmental structure borrowed from the Iroquois. In general it's never good for the soul to oppress and brutalize, and that applies to cultures as much as it does to individuals.
  2. And if you try any preversions in there, I'll blow your head off!
  3. Doesn't make any sense to me at all. 13/88 = 14.8%. Would it not have made sense to you if the line read: "On average, out of 100 claims that pass the credible fear screening, fewer than 15 will ultimately result in a grant of asylum."? Means the same thing, and 'X out of 100' is a much more common example. At least in this country, where we use the decimal numbering system. Use of 88 as the denominator seems gratuitous. Y'know, almost as if it's meant to send a message of some kind....
  4. You have the pressure, correctly, cranked up to the maximum, so you're off to a good start. Just start pressing buttons. What could go wrong?
  5. The 1st amendment argument is specious. Nonmembers are already entitled to refunds of the portion of their dues spent on political activities.
  6. It's a doggy-dog world. All too common.
  7. The space force will be dominant no matter what piss-ant planet Mitt gets. Donald wins again. And Mitt's a loser.
  8. The whole thing is just a way to piss off Mitt Romney.
  9. They can sell roast chickens cheaper than raw chickens because they roast the ones they would have thrown away for being too old to sell. So cheaper yes, but better? Not so much. I can turn out a better product than the over-brined, mushy rotisserie birds easily. Just season it with S & P, put some onions and garlic in the cavity, throw some herbs in and around it, and put it in the oven for an hour or hour and a half. Really easy.
  10. If you're into old ships, the Vasa museum is fascinating. I spent a rather embarrassingly large amount of time there.
  11. They don't even ask how high.
  12. Well, of course she did kill Vince Foster, though. You gotta admit that. Personally, with her bare hands. Maybe her teeth too.
  13. And you waited in line almost an hour for that, right?
  14. This is a common talking point, but it's not true. Reagan got the budget - taxes and spending - he wanted in 1981 and beyond. D's supported his tax cuts, and he proposed, and got passed, massive spending increases, mostly on defense. Never submitted any serious spending cuts at all.
  15. This is true; I've seen it. Fox, Breitbart, Rush, pj media, the occasional zerohedge, a few other blogs, and that's about it. They had to have made a conscious choice at some point to go deep into the bubble and reject any other media sources; I don't know why someone would do that, but there it is. I guess they like the warm embrace of having their biases confirmed and no alternative worldview. I'm trying to figure out whether they know what they're doing, or do they really believe the fake news narrative. It seems on some level the more intelligent of them have to know they're consuming nothing but sources that go beyond bias into fantasyland, but they'll never admit it. I just don't get why, though; I've never been much on the team aspect of politics, and actively seek out opposing viewpoints, even subjecting myself to Fox on a semi-regular basis, until the stupidity seems like a really egregious waste of time. These people seem like the exact opposite in that regard; they'd rather remain actively misinformed than even glance at a mainstream newspaper or broadcast.
  16. http://y.yarn.co/392a0000-d497-40a4-b9b8-f69f41099fbe.mp4
  17. I hope the story will help someone else. I'd like to think something good may come out of it. Thanks to all of you for helping me understand the disease; I posted here for that selfish reason, and you came through. You have helped me come to terms with it a little better, reduced the anger a little, and that is a start to the healing process. If some of you have lived through the hell that I saw in my brother's life, and I have no reason to doubt your words, then I am inspired beyond measure that you managed to escape it, and I hope and pray fervently that you never go back to it. Thanks again.
  18. She said she didn't. When she walked into the house of horrors, the first thing she said was, what's with all the vodka? She said the most she ever saw him drink in the 10 years they'd been together was a few beers or glasses of wine. But my father said that when my brother was still living with him he used to hide bottles in the basement; I hadn't known about that. Must have been his college years and shortly afterward, until he moved out. So I suspect he was hiding his consumption from his wife, too; as I said, it seems he was very good at it. Or maybe she was just naive, I'm not sure. He had a detached garage and when we were cleaning that out we found several bags of empty vodka bottles, so I suspect he may have been going out to the garage to 'work on projects' or whatever on a regular basis. I used to go drinking with him occasionally in our teens and twenties (I'm a year younger than he was). He could really put the stuff down even then. Well, I could too; maybe it's our Irish ancestry. I didn't take the same path, though; besides him, I had numerous friends who developed drinking problems - probably close to half my friends from high school ended up in some kind of program or rehab. I could always keep up with any of them, but I never felt the need to drink and it was always social drinking with me. Drink alone? Maybe a beer after work or a glass of wine with dinner, otherwise nope; I do not enjoy hangovers, at all. I hardly drink at all now, so that's why I'm having so much trouble understanding the thing - how does this compulsion take hold as strongly as it obviously does? I guess I'm bringing up all this stuff because at some level I knew he had a problem, probably better than anyone else because I was the one that had gone drinking with him. I didn't know how bad it was. Sometimes we'd be at a lake house and he'd be sipping on a tall drink for hours at a time. He pretended it was soda, but I knew what was in it, even though he hadn't offered to share it with me. He thought he was getting away with it, and I let him think that. So now there's that guilt that I didn't do anything about it; although from reading this thread I'm pretty sure there was nothing I could have done anyway.
  19. Thanks for all these. I think it helps my understanding somewhat. Progressive disease - I guess that explains much or all of it. There were signs that he was struggling desperately to change things, and obviously he couldn't. That's the heartbreaking part; certain things pointed to how hard he was trying. Much clearer, though, was the fact that he'd pretty systematically pushed everybody out of his life. He was hiding and keeping any kind of human contact to an absolute minimum. And that's another heartbreaking part; he had always been an outgoing, sociable, charming guy who cherished his friends and relationships, and eventually found himself completely alone. His life must have been an absolute hell. I found myself trying to imagine the kind of pain he must have been in, and being unable to comprehend it.
  20. That was definitely part of his personality. A big part actually. Thanks, that's a puzzle piece I can put into place.
  21. I don't know if this is the right thread for this, but I need to vent. If it's not, sorry; neg the fuck out of me, I don't care. I just spent a week driving over 2000 miles to have my brother cremated. I knew from childhood that he liked to drink, more than was good for him, but apparently he was very good at hiding exactly how much he liked to drink. His wife had been out of the country for several months and he had been living alone, and when she was unable to contact him for a few days I called the police and had them check on him. He was dead in his bed. I drove up there and was the first to see the life he'd been living in all its splendor. First thing I noticed was the 6 empty vodka bottles on the kitchen counter, and the one that was still 2/3 full. Liter bottles - the plastic bottles of the cheapest, shittiest vodka available. Many empties of diet 7-up, which seemed to be his preferred mixer. Next thing I saw was the huge pile of trash in the middle of the living room floor, mostly consisting of empty vodka and diet 7-up bottles. And the piles of other types of trash all over the house. His wife was right behind me, and got to see all this stuff too; it was hard on me, but I'm sure it was harder on her. When she started bagging up the trash the next day I asked her how many empties she'd found. She said she stopped counting at 60. His life was out of control. I went through the papers I could find, and discovered massive amounts of debt and other fuckery. There was no way he was going to climb out of that hole in less than many years even if he lived a perfect life, which was apparently not an option. So I've got a question. I don't know if there's an answer that will mean anything, but how the fuck does someone get to that point? How does your life spiral out of control so badly? The one that kept going through my mind was, how did he get so far off track? For what it's worth, he was still holding down a job - he was a professor, and had turned in his grades for the semester the day he apparently died. I have no idea how he was able to do that, either. Again, sorry if this is not the right place, but I'm frustrated and angry and heartbroken. I'm going to be having nightmares about this for a long time.
  22. Yup, those are artichokes. Look like they're about ready to eat, too. Cut them before they flower, steam 'em, and enjoy. Never heard of volunteer artichokes before. Pretty cool.
  23. Yup. They're calling themselves 'Columbiners.' It's a real thing. For ‘Columbiners,’ School Shootings Have a Deadly Allure
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