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Post by the4thpip on Jul 25, 2015 3:49:36 GMT -5
I'm looking at the end game. ... or falling for a "slippery slope" fallacy. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. |
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Post by the4thpip on Jul 25, 2015 3:51:08 GMT -5
Is the issue that liberals aren't as susceptible to social backlash as the conservatives on what they are vocal about? I don't think so, Jim Carrey gets a lot of flack for his views on inoculation and Bill Cosby certainly hasn't been getting any slack because he's liberal. Agreeing with you mostly, but Cosby has been very conservative on a wide range of social issues for decades. I would never consider him a liberal. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 25, 2015 5:24:47 GMT -5
I don't think so, Jim Carrey gets a lot of flack for his views on inoculation and Bill Cosby certainly hasn't been getting any slack because he's liberal. Agreeing with you mostly, but Cosby has been very conservative on a wide range of social issues for decades. I would never consider him a liberal. Right. The beloved father-figure who berated young men for wearing their pants too low turns out to be a predator. |
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Post by the4thpip on Jul 25, 2015 5:27:27 GMT -5
Agreeing with you mostly, but Cosby has been very conservative on a wide range of social issues for decades. I would never consider him a liberal. Right. The beloved father-figure who berated young men for wearing their pants too low turns out to be a predator. And ironically, the guy who was vehemently against legalizing drugs on Letterman used to drug women to rape them. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 25, 2015 5:29:12 GMT -5
Right. The beloved father-figure who berated young men for wearing their pants too low turns out to be a predator. And ironically, the guy who was vehemently against legalizing drugs on Letterman used to drug women to rape them. And the hypocrisy just keeps on comin'. I wonder what Cliff Huxtable would say... |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Jul 25, 2015 8:51:06 GMT -5
If the general public (especially US as I've never lived in another country) didn't hold celebrities in such a high regard would they still do what they do? Or is it a money and power trip? Both? Not so much the illegal stuff but just the Blasé dickery. Would any joe elevated in that level of fame and riches be able to resist the same?
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 25, 2015 9:20:41 GMT -5
Really though, can estranged parents just not take a hint? How should I approach this? I just want to be left alone. Was my mistake taking the time to visit my father in the hospital? Perhaps I shouldn't have picked up the phone? It's been a few hours since the visit and in my soul I'm already regretting it. Assistance? I don't think it was a mistake to visit your father, PapaShogun, even if it does make you vulnerable to more demands on his parts. You acted in a decent, even in a kind way that says more about your character than about what he may or may not deserve. But the man made his own bed and now must lie in it: it is unfair to expect you to suddenly become his friend. If that is what he wanted, he should have thought about it decades ago. It's not my place to give anyone advice, but were I in your shoes I'd make sure he was all right and then wish him the best and keep my distance (which will be easier if you do indeed move to Macau, an insanely cool project). Any emotional blackmail on your father's part (which I've seen many people resort to in similar circumstances) I would meet with a very cold shoulder indeed. As far as I'm concerned, you already went above and beyond what could be expected of anyone. If the man wants to connect with you (and as a father I can imagine how that could be), it is his responsibility to become the kind of person you'd want to associate with. To expect you to become his best bud simply on account of being related is unfair and not a little childish. Good luck with this, and remember that by becoming a better person than your father seems to be, by becoming a person he could be proud of, you already paid any kind of filial debt you might think you owe. If he doesn't realize that, then he doesn't understand wnat being a parent means. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 25, 2015 9:21:49 GMT -5
Feeling pretty low this morning. I found out yesterday that my cousin Stacy, who has been more like a little sister over the years, is not expected to live through the weekend. She's had health issues for decades but a recent series of strokes has left her in a vegetative state and unable to breathe without a respirator. Come Monday they pull the plug as per her living will. Despite the three year difference in our ages Stacy and I were close companions as kids, but we drifted apart after I went off to college and she started having kids. She worked as my caregiver briefly back in '99 but our paths only occasionally crossed after that, even though we only live a few blocks from each other. And now we're losing her.
Sad as this makes me, I'm also pissed off because none of this is necessary. Stacy has been diabetic since she was seven yet has spent her entire adulthood smoking, drinking, ignoring her dietary restrictions and leading as sedentary a lifestyle as possible with five kids and a husband serving in Iran. She could have another thirty good years (her father's side of the family regularly lives into their nineties) if she hadn't been so cheerfully ruled by her addictions. Even knowing that hert disease runs rampant on her mother's side, even though she witnessed firsthand other family members (including my mother) die as a direct consequence of cigarettes, she couldn't or wouldn't stop. I think it's selfish as hell to leave your family bereft because you're enslaved to your vices.
I dunno. My emotions are all churned up right now. Her family wants me to come up to the hospital to say goodbye but my niece's comics-loving stepson is spending the weekend with me for the first time and I don't want to drag him along so I probably won't. That, and I'm afraid I'll be tempted to yell at her for her stupidity.(My sister and brother are going.) Can't say I want to go to her funeral either but I will make that.
Sigh. Goddammit, Stacy!
Cei-U!
No summoning today, just a plea for any of you that smoke to quit!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 25, 2015 10:24:22 GMT -5
Oh, damn, I'm really sorry Kurt... I know what it's like to feel like yelling at someone we love for not taking better care of themselves.
I'm not the praying kind, but you're in my thoughts (and Stacy too).
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 20:42:47 GMT -5
A sort of regular in our bar (we'd have a social, sometimes rowdy chat every now and then, especially politics as we're on opposing sides) has just been formally charged with murder along with several others.
Cripes.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 21:27:24 GMT -5
I don't think so, Jim Carrey gets a lot of flack for his views on inoculation and Bill Cosby certainly hasn't been getting any slack because he's liberal. Agreeing with you mostly, but Cosby has been very conservative on a wide range of social issues for decades. I would never consider him a liberal. Yep. I have it on good authority frm my Bible-thumping right-wing cousin that the liberals are behind all the negative things that've come out about him. |
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Post by Phil Maurice on Jul 25, 2015 22:49:25 GMT -5
A sort of regular in our bar (we'd have a social, sometimes rowdy chat every now and then, especially politics as we're on opposing sides) has just been formally charged with murder along with several others. 
Murder, is it? How interesting. Mmm. Yes, I think you should tell us everything you know about this sad business. And please, leave nothing out, however unimportant it may seem. 
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Post by Icctrombone on Jul 26, 2015 9:14:15 GMT -5
Agreeing with you mostly, but Cosby has been very conservative on a wide range of social issues for decades. I would never consider him a liberal. Yep. I have it on good authority frm my Bible-thumping right-wing cousin that the liberals are behind all the negative things that've come out about him. My Bible says that you will know people by their fruit. A good tree doesn't give bad fruit and a bad tree doesn't give good fruit. Or as former Giants head coach used to say" You are what your record says you are". |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2015 11:41:58 GMT -5
Damn, Kurt, that's rough. So sorry for you & your family. Sometimes it's just too damned easy to surrender oneself to, & thereby ensure the inevitably of, an early demise because of family history & genetic predilection, taking up the behaviors that any sense of self-preservation would place squarely off-limits. I guess that's what your cousin has done. *sigh*
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Post by The Captain on Jul 26, 2015 12:53:39 GMT -5
Well, my day just took a turn for the worse. Got home from church and my wife noticed a yellowjacket on the inside of one of our windows, which was odd because our A/C has been on for the past day, so there have been no open doors or windows. Then she noticed another, and another, and another, and...you get the picture. We looked all over but couldn't find where they were entering the living space, but one step out onto our deck showed up where they were coming from: a dime-sized hole just on the outside of our gas-burning fireplace. Looks like they're getting into that space and slipping in through the vent, as I turn off the pilot light in the summer to conserve natural gas and reduce ambient heat in the room.
One quick call to a highly-recommended pest control guy who specializes in stinging insects led to a $350 estimate for "emergency service" because it's a Sunday and it's something that I'm not going to mess with or let lie for a day. I'm obviously not happy about it, but I do thank God that He's blessed us enough so that we have a back-up fund to cover crap like this when it comes up.
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