What it means to be an American - Page 4

Flint · 06-02-2006, 09:38 AM

...and no sense of humor. that's the other thing. the hate and the no humor.

MaggieL · 06-02-2006, 10:38 AM

"Funny" is a movable feast. Many asshats like to blame the poor reception their asshatery gets on a lack of sense of humor, when in fact it's simply as result of having some taste. Finding Adam Sandler or Carrottop to be dreary and dimwitted does not prove someone doesn't have a sense of humor, for example.

MaggieL · 06-02-2006, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skysidhe

no way!

Way. Oh...the link on that page to the sheet music is broken. This is the location they're trying to link to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by skysidhe

then second it says to freeze 'in normal way'. What's the abnormal way?

Probably any way that allows large ice crystals to form. The normal way prevents that.

Flint · 06-02-2006, 10:46 AM

That's a good point, Maggie - in that one specific instance where the "asshattor" places direct blame upon the "asshatee" . . . However, consider the other side of the coin: the inability to recognize humorous intentions, IE responding out of left field with a stern reply to a light-hearted post. In other words, an "apples" reply to an "oranges" post.

jinx · 06-02-2006, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skysidhe

if you are really special some cool hub caps.

Cool hub caps is an oxymoron.

Flint · 06-02-2006, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinx

Cool hub caps is an oxymoron.

You're an oxymoron!

(See? That was a joke. Whether it was funny or not is irrelevant to whether it was posted with serious intentions. The inability to recognize a joke as a joke doesn't simply equate to whether you thought it was funny or not.)

BigV · 06-02-2006, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitsune

Uh...wha? You need to tune around above/below 12 and 30 meters sometime! 17 836 20 191 65...

73s.

Did somebody say numbers stations? Bonus link.

jinx · 06-02-2006, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flint

You're an oxymoron!

So's your mother.

Kitsune · 06-02-2006, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigV

Did somebody say numbers stations? Bonus link.

I used to fall asleep in front of an old Hallicrafters HF rig, tuned to some distant voice spewing seemingly random numbers. I was intrigued by them, listening for any hint as to what they might be or what purpose they served. I still hear them, today, and they haven't lost any of their mystique.

Note: falling asleep to numbers stations gives you very strange dreams.

BigV · 06-02-2006, 12:58 PM

wrt monitoring emails, calls, internet searches, etc ad nauseam:

Quote:

Justice Department wants Internet companies to save personal Web surfing data
By Elise Ackerman
Mercury News

The U.S. Department of Justice has told Google, Microsoft and other major Internet companies that it wants them to keep detailed records of where people go while surfing the Web for up to two years.

the sh*t just never stops. Why not just have regular mandatory public mass strip searches, maybe at checkpoints?! You just never know what might turn up.

*This* is your best shot at catching perverts with a taste for child pornography? Bonus question: Who here thinks this will be restricted to the effort to catch the above mentioned perverts? Hmm? Anyone, anyone? Now who thinks this will be ABUSED to troll for whatever looks...interesting. Like, oh, I don't know... searches for information contrary to the administration's One True Way (tm)?

Special shout out to AG Gonsalez: Go away. When I need a cop, I'll call one.

And in aticipation of the terror-addled knee-jerk reaction "It's in the interest of national security!! If you don't have anything to hide, there's no reason to be opposed to such a plan." To the utterer or thinker (and I use that term very very loosely here), I say bull shit. Privacy, liberty and security are not quantities in some zero sum game. They are not mutually exclusive. I urge you to read the excellent short essay, The Eternal Value of Privacy by Bruce Schneier.

Quote:

This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives.

Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.

Kitsune · 06-02-2006, 01:03 PM

I moved your comment here, because I think it is a really important note and I don't want to clutter up this BBQs/SUV/apple pie thread with anymore ranting about Big Brother.

MaggieL · 06-02-2006, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flint

the inability to recognize humorous intentions

...is not identical with recognizing humor.

If you haven't manged to be funny, don't expect to be treated as a humorist. Credit is not given for "trying".
Or being trying.

Flint · 06-02-2006, 02:59 PM

@Maggie: I'm not defining a "joke" by whether people thought it was funny or not. I'm saying there are posts intended to be taken seriously and those that aren't. The inability to distinguish between these two categories can subjectively be considered either the fault of the author for inadequately expressing him or herself, of the fault of the reader for failing to comprehend the meaning intended by the author.

Nowhere, in no way shape or form, does the variable perception of whether the "joke" was "funny" or not have anything to do with anything I've posted here.

The "inablity to recognize humorous intentions" is "not identical with recognizing humor." Right, that's what I've been saying all along. "The inability to recognize a joke as a joke doesn't simply equate to whether you thought it was funny or not."

Flint · 06-02-2006, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaggieL

Or being trying.

See, now that's funny.

skysidhe · 06-02-2006, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinx

Cool hub caps is an oxymoron.

yeah, I kinda said it with tounge in cheek.

To be american means using oxymorons. Or being one sometimes.

Like the Hell's Angles.

Usuing personal characteristics like Hate and Humor are common to all peoples and isn't really an 'american' thing.

oh,,, and I do laugh when people are actually funny when they are Not stupid funny, or warped funny. I think witty is funny. I don't think it's funny how the internet filters most of a persons personality. I don't think it's funny how somepeople want to paint ugly little pictures of someone else.

Hating the 'right' people is a just a warped . There is no RIGHT. Hate just IS sometimes. Very unfortunate but everyone does it at times. I don't think that subject matter was given to be funny.

[edit]

06-02-2006, 09:38 AM	#46
Flint Snowflake Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Dystopia Posts: 13,136	...and no sense of humor. that's the other thing. the hate and the no humor. __________________ **************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio**

06-02-2006, 10:38 AM	#47
MaggieL in the Hour of Scampering Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Jeffersonville PA (15 mi NW of Philadelphia) Posts: 4,060	"Funny" is a movable feast. Many asshats like to blame the poor reception their asshatery gets on a lack of sense of humor, when in fact it's simply as result of having some taste. Finding Adam Sandler or Carrottop to be dreary and dimwitted does not prove someone doesn't have a sense of humor, for example. __________________ "Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..."

06-02-2006, 10:46 AM	#49
Flint Snowflake Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Dystopia Posts: 13,136	That's a good point, Maggie - in that one specific instance where the "asshattor" places direct blame upon the "asshatee" . . . However, consider the other side of the coin: the inability to recognize humorous intentions, IE responding out of left field with a stern reply to a light-hearted post. In other words, an "apples" reply to an "oranges" post. __________________ **************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio**

06-02-2006, 02:59 PM	#58
Flint Snowflake Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Dystopia Posts: 13,136	@Maggie: I'm not defining a "joke" by whether people thought it was funny or not. I'm saying there are posts intended to be taken seriously and those that aren't. The inability to distinguish between these two categories can subjectively be considered either the fault of the author for inadequately expressing him or herself, of the fault of the reader for failing to comprehend the meaning intended by the author. Nowhere, in no way shape or form, does the variable perception of whether the "joke" was "funny" or not have anything to do with anything I've posted here. The "inablity to recognize humorous intentions" is "not identical with recognizing humor." Right, that's what I've been saying all along. "The inability to recognize a joke as a joke doesn't simply equate to whether you thought it was funny or not." __________________ **************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio** Last edited by Flint; 06-02-2006 at 03:04 PM.

06-02-2006, 01:03 PM	#56
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	I moved your comment here, because I think it is a really important note and I don't want to clutter up this BBQs/SUV/apple pie thread with anymore ranting about Big Brother.

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