The Al Realpolitik Institute of Sulfur Mining & Extraction

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

In order, what I'm imagining is something (a) tragically stunted, (b) vaguely perverse, (c) indiscriminate and plotless, and (d) dolefully reactionary.

It sounds like you just wrote a question for the SAT.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Credit where it's due.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

No prizes for guessing who this was aimed at:

Out of curiosity, is there any level of education that you actually support, considering your blistering hatred for public schoolteachers and belief that university professors are 'wacky'? If not, why are you able to compose English at even the level that you are, and do you realize that it's somewhat hypocritical to do so?

Sort of like criticizing the US while living in it?

Why, no. Not very much like that at all, as a matter of fact.

Nice to know you've still got it, though.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

No prizes for guessing who this was aimed at:

Out of curiosity, is there any level of education that you actually support, considering your blistering hatred for public schoolteachers and belief that university professors are 'wacky'? If not, why are you able to compose English at even the level that you are, and do you realize that it's somewhat hypocritical to do so?

Sort of like criticizing the US while living in it?

Why, no. Not very much like that at all, as a matter of fact.

Nice to know you've still got it, though.

What's the difference then? If I understand your point correctly you mean that it is hypocritical to criticize a system one has benefited from. This seems very analogous to saying that one cannot criticize one's country of residence, for example.

The concern wasn't that krazen is 'criticizing' the education system so much as that he exhibits a blistering hatred of it, which he subsequently finessed by saying he doesn't hate the education system as of the time it (unsuccessfully or incompletely) taught him English composition. If I hated or consistently acted like I hated America it would certainly be hypocritical of me to live here, yeah.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I find "elite" institutions of higher learning in the United States terribly overrated as they largely cater to a demographic that by-large is predominantly narcissistic, willfully ignorant, self-absorbed, and concerned with enhancing their meaningless social status amongst their equally superficial and vapid peers. An entirely unsurprising outcome as the college admissions process in the United States largely rewards a mixture of privilege, entitlement, brown-nosing, lack of intellectual curiosity, and really anything they can find that isn't academic achievement.

Someone sounds like a true leftist.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Most Democrats, the moronic lefties... love to redefine actual events as inaccurate and paint over the inconvenient and painful truths;

Calm down, bro. A sizable portion of your party believes the Earth is ~6,000 years old.

Why is heatmaster back?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Most Democrats, the moronic lefties... love to redefine actual events as inaccurate and paint over the inconvenient and painful truths;

Calm down, bro. A sizable portion of your party believes the Earth is ~6,000 years old.

Why is heatmaster back?

A better question: why does he even exist in the first place?

Rural Ireland.

Having been to rural Ireland, to me that only partially explains it, although I may simply have had better luck with rural Ireland than, well, whatever luck produced heatmaster.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

And then:

Breaking news: A stick of dynamite calls gunpowder explosive.

I would normally ignore this kind of thing, of course, because it's beneath intelligence, but sometimes the drama queen stuff goes on and on, spreading, and it gets hard to ignore when it's not contained to one spot, like the Forum Community board. You, for instance, troll, then calls others a troll. You demean with one-line, one-sentence remarks literally on a continuous basis, then tell others to get over themselves. It's really endless. And I'm going to just stop there. Maybe adult conversation and differing points of view are hard for you?

Whatever, man. Whatever. That's already far too much attention given to you.

I actually have a(n) (un)healthily low opinion of myself, but whatever.

You're missing the point, as you have a habit of doing. Your post was self-satisfied drivel designed to demonstrate your 'rational' superiority over all those dimwits out there who find meaning in ritual, tradition and ceremony. It was arrogant and unpleasant. And pointless. A great big FYCK YOU DAD!!!!!!!!111 with no content whatsoever. You could have left things at 'well no' and, frankly, should have done.

That's all.

I apologise if the above post is even nastier than normal. I have had a ghastly day (for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the latest forum tehdrama, I should note) and am in a bad mood. I just find that particular attitude so aggressively dull sometimes. That's all.

This whole argument is truly excellent (in the 'dis gon b gud' sense). I am as one might expect on Al's side, but the whole thing is spectacular.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Savor this:

BRTD, you treat religion worse than even the most annoying atheist of Christian fundie does. Because you treat religion as an accessory. To you it’s about what people wear, what people listen to and what they do with their hands a church and how hot the sermon leader is. That’s a twisted sense of religion buddy because you’re a vapid self absorbed sh-t. There’s nothing outside of you. Nothing outside of what you do, what you wear, what you smoke, what you listen to, where you shop or where you live. Everything can only be viewed through a Minneapolis based BRTD shaped prism. You can’t even understand why other Christians believe different things or worship different things or why people who aren’t Christian think your ‘Jesus is cool’ mantra is nothing more than t-shirt slogan psychology with no substance. You don’t care what people believe (or even what you believe) or ever take the time to think things through. If someone talks about a mass, or prayer or way of worship that means something to them because it’s not what you like you dismiss it; ‘Oh he’s wearing a suit, oh he’s playing an organ, I don’t have the attention span to deal with that because life for me is one big f-cking party.’

You’re the one who takes a two storey high dump on people’s beliefs BRTD and you have the cheek to call us boring? You’ve been posting the same topics, polling the same issues and generally shoehorning in things you like into conversations even if it has nothing to do with the subject on here for ten years. Grow up and move on. You think Opebo is cool, because you’re too unoriginal to come up with anything like his posting style and demeanour, or anything original at all. You know what? I’m pretty sure Opebo thinks you’re a dick.

I came here to post that.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

No rage hath a women scorned, and oh the tangled webs we weave intending to deceive; all the world's a stage, but neither a borrower or a lender be for he has a lean and hungry look. Off damn spot!

The first two parts of this are William Congreve and Sir Walter Scott, respectively.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Dumping on Shakespeare should not be protected by the First Amendment. I consider that akin to treason - worse because it disrespects the English language (which he more than anyone else in its modern form gave birth to), rather than a mere political entity.

He was also gratuitous and whiny (setting myself up for something, i get it) and is placed on a pedestal for being the inventor of the cliche as well as the master of unoriginality before it was original. Essentially, he was the world's first bullsh*tter and is treated like a God for it.

There's always the No Fear Shakespeare versions.

First time I've seen someone post directly into the Sulfur Mine. Good show, SJoyce. Good show.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

First time I've seen someone post directly into the Sulfur Mine.

Really? Look just 17 posts ahead of yours.

Anybody not Al. To the best of my recollection. Yes, I'm hedging now.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

eh, what do you call this?

No rage hath a women scorned, and oh the tangled webs we weave intending to deceive; all the world's a stage, but neither a borrower or a lender be for he has a lean and hungry look. Off damn spot!

The first two parts of this are William Congreve and Sir Walter Scott, respectively.

Not intended to be read as a snipe.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

eh, what do you call this?

No rage hath a women scorned, and oh the tangled webs we weave intending to deceive; all the world's a stage, but neither a borrower or a lender be for he has a lean and hungry look. Off damn spot!

The first two parts of this are William Congreve and Sir Walter Scott, respectively.

Not intended to be read as a snipe.

Am I enough of a would-be pedant to point out that the first one really isn't Congreve, but almost entirely Torie's own invention? Stay tuned to find out.

You are of course entirely right. Even the most commonly quoted version is a slight perversion. The original couplet is:

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned
Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorned.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This hasn't been BRTD's week.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

An evangelical who is pro-choice and pro-gay marriage isn't an evangelical.

So what am I?

A lunatic.

I think this one is even better:

An evangelical who is pro-choice and pro-gay marriage isn't an evangelical.

So what am I?

Catholic. You inherited it from your mother.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Koenkai, go back to wherever you were for the past few months.

Nice to see that some people haven't changed at all.

At least they're not pointlessly spiteful, Pinochet loving, wealth-fetishizing, late-19th-century-labor-relations admiring, have-I-mentioned-I'm-Asian-so-I-can-call-anything-racist-and-am-offended-if-you-accuse-me-of-the-same, neoconservatives, who think employers telling their employees how to vote is not only excusable, but on some level desirable, see fair electoral district representation as a quaint little nuisance, and generally carry themselves with the sort of slapstick villainous aura of an Atlas Shrugged character. Not that I'm singling anyone out or anything.

All of these but one or two are creative interpretations on your part, to put it lightly.

A Person - I'll put it as kindly as I can - please stop being a useless Evan Bayh-level moderate hero.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

'You' is BS Bob.

Well, I guess this has some vague parallel relation to SC-01...just as Sanford's mistress was a homewrecker, you seem to relish the role of being a threadwrecker.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

DC Al Fine lays the smackdown, and although I think HockeyDude's a great guy in most ways I have to say this particular set of posts kind of had it coming:

After religion is destroyed, greed by and large will be destroyed.  Most people are naturally benevolent, they need religion/superstition/junk science to feel they have a superior standing than others and therefore justify their greed.

This is backwards, of course. People are naturally self-centred and need society to teach them otherwise.

Plenty aren't. 

You must be logged in to read this quote.

For an atheist, you sure don't seem to put much stock in scientifically conducted research.

What scientifically conducted research?

The most religious Americans actually give more money to secular causes than do secular Americans.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

And how many "secular" Americans are there?

If you had actually bothered to read the article or the quote I provided, you would have noticed that the authors of the study divided the sample into quintiles from least to most religious. That means the secular and religious samples compared are equal size

Ehhh... go buy your way into heaven/do it because you are told if you like, whether you like it or not that's what guides the good deeds of most religious people.  If the ends justify the means, good for you.  I don't agree.

Unfounded assertion is unfounded

I just don't understand the complete lack of equality in the matter.  The religiouses are allowed to advertise their belief system as the humanity's salvation... but us atheists aren't allowed to do the same?

Nonsense. You're allowed to defend atheism and have done so on many occasions...poorly.

I genuinely believe atheism/agnosticism/secularism is what will save humanity.  That's why I believe in it so strongly. 

A sound and coherent argument if there ever was one.

More bigotry against atheists from the Atlas, but that's to be expected.  Every minority has to deal with BS. 

No. You make unfounded and bigoted assertions against religion and when someone presens contrary evidence you launch into hysterics about some persecution of atheists that only exists in your head.

Religion helps equalize people, and helps people become more charitable... the person a few posts above has it completely backwards.

LOL!  I won't entertain anything that has the words "religion" and "help" in the same sentence... much less "religion" and "equalize".  Yea... when I think equality I think religion. 

Ladies and gentleman. The open minded atheist!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It's good to know that an otherwise laughably bad candidate supporting state-sponsored revenge killings when they're opponent doesn't is still enough to pull a tied race in this country. I was afraid we were in danger of becoming sensible or compassionate or something. Just because the revenge killings have no positive sociological effect whatsoever and the majority of the population recognizes this is no reason we should stop doing them!

Er, could you edit this post after I've corrected the original to the right form of 'their'? I'd just woken up when I wrote it; thanks.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Just found this thread. Not sure what to make of it...

If you're interested in the backstory:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=173182.msg3720350#msg3720350

Thanks

You wont be thankful after reading it..

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm not sure whether or not this was intentional, but it was good.

I know very little about Naso's experiences or psychology. He hasn't shared all that many of them. Which is fine. I choose not to share unflattering things about my life as well.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

You know, it's because of people like Bushie that Deuteronomy 21:18–21 is in the Bible.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

A major prayer has been answered!! When we left Kenya earlier this month, there was a teacher's strike that prevented students from going to class right around exam prep time. After much prayer from God's people, the teacher's strike has been called off, so the teachers and the students can return to the classroom and prepare for and take the necessary exams later this summer! So proud of several young men and women in Kenya who, instead of partying while the teachers were on strike, organized study sessions with their peers to study on their own for the exams. They take their schooling seriously and with pride! That hit home to me when I heard that. Thank you, LORD!!

Wow, so not only does Bushie's version of God not dis-incentivize bad behavior, but He's also a strike breaker? At least the Catholic God isn't anti-worker.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

seems like a potential market inefficiency.

Ladies and gentlemen... Tweed!  A thoughtful, reflective left-communist when it comes to Taylor Swift fandom – a calculating, bloodless, neoliberal when it comes to intimate human relationships!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Great post - except that Tweed cannot in any circumstance be described as "thoughtful".

The term "market inefficiency" comes from Moneyball and is commonly used in jest in baseball circles.

That's genuinely good to know. Thank you.