CobraCommander Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 (edited) 17 minutes ago, mistertim said: No way. Doublemint is the scam. I chewed it tons of times, but not once did I have a couple of hot twins come up and want to hang out with me. I’ll tell you what, I am terrified of identical twins. They are far too mischievous and dastardly for me. TWO separate times, a set of identical twins ruined my bumper car experience. They can communicate non-verbally and that terrifies me. They are constantly scamming people. Edited January 17, 2023 by CobraCommander 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 2 minutes ago, CobraCommander said: I’ll tell you what, I am terrified of identical twins. They are far too mischievous and dastardly for me. TWO separate times, a set of identical twins ruined my bumper car experience. They can communicate non-verbally and that terrifies me. They are constantly scamming people. First time I met my Grandfather's twin was at my Grandfather's funeral... It is hard to explain what it felt like seeing his body in the casket then sitting next to his brother for the aftermeal in the Church's basement... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsluggo Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 On 1/13/2023 at 9:20 AM, Corcaigh said: Nothing wrong with fun, but why merge the most momentous occasion - your saviors birth - with a pagan festival. this is such a head-scratchingly useless nit to pick. nobody, including you, possibly cares when or why a group chose to schedule their celebrations ... particularly OVER ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO. the solstice is a nice time for a celebration... it has an OBVIOUS calendar significance, and people are stuck inside, and its cold outside, and its dark... so the Christians chose that time to celebrate something of meaning to themselves ...and STOLE the date from the Saturnists <gasp> ... or whomever you cited...that grabbed it from the group before them, that had stolen it from the group before them.... since, for ever, which is when humans noticed that the days got shorter every year, before they started getting longer. it is such a useless thing to pretend to get bent out of shape over. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmirOfShmo Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 12 minutes ago, CobraCommander said: I’ll tell you what, I am terrified of identical twins. They are far too mischievous and dastardly for me. TWO separate times, a set of identical twins ruined my bumper car experience. They can communicate non-verbally and that terrifies me. They are constantly scamming people. My identical-mirror-twin wife agrees with you. I'm still trying to figure out the scam... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CobraCommander Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 12 minutes ago, Renegade7 said: First time I met my Grandfather's twin was at my Grandfather's funeral... It is hard to explain what it felt like seeing his body in the casket then sitting next to his brother for the aftermeal in the Church's basement... This is the stuff nightmares are made of. 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xameil Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 1 hour ago, TheGreatBuzz said: The weather in Baltimore today is a perfect example of this. I really need to accept that I need a cane for some days. I'm thinking a flame one like they had on House but open to awesome suggestions. You need the same cane Archer used Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sisko Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 1 hour ago, mcsluggo said: this is such a head-scratchingly useless nit to pick. nobody, including you, possibly cares when or why a group chose to schedule their celebrations ... particularly OVER ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO. the solstice is a nice time for a celebration... it has an OBVIOUS calendar significance, and people are stuck inside, and its cold outside, and its dark... so the Christians chose that time to celebrate something of meaning to themselves ...and STOLE the date from the Saturnists <gasp> ... or whomever you cited...that grabbed it from the group before them, that had stolen it from the group before them.... since, for ever, which is when humans noticed that the days got shorter every year, before they started getting longer. it is such a useless thing to pretend to get bent out of shape over. I don’t disagree. However, according to the Xtians, all those other people had it wrong and were worshipping false gods. Given that the Xtian god claims to be all jealous and whatnot, you’d think it would be totally pissed at someone picking a day shared with other religions to celebrate the birthday of its doppelganger. Second, if the worshippers of the doppelgängers weren’t constantly whining about it, it wouldn’t be an issue. Nobody would care whether you said Merry Xmas or Happy Holidays. This is an entirely self-inflicted wound. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tshile Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 “News” in this country. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sisko Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 On 1/13/2023 at 9:14 AM, CousinsCowgirl84 said: No fun committee smh.. Nah, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are THE no fun committee. When I was a kid, there was a family of JDubs that lived on our street. One Xmas, somebody noticed they were sitting on their porch looking at us playing with our new stuff. So, we decided to get together and give them some of our gifts. Wait, I think I misremembered that. We all rode our bikes, big wheels, etc. back and forth in front of their house until their parents made them leave the porch. Yes, like most kids, I was a monster.😂😂 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsluggo Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 3 minutes ago, The Sisko said: I don’t disagree. However, according to the Xtians, all those other people had it wrong and were worshipping false gods. Given that the Xtian god claims to be all jealous and whatnot, you’d think it would be totally pissed at someone picking a day shared with other religions to celebrate the birthday of its doppelganger. Second, if the worshippers of the doppelgängers weren’t constantly whining about it, it wouldn’t be an issue. Nobody would care whether you said Merry Xmas or Happy Holidays. This is an entirely self-inflicted wound. i don't disagree. ... the "war on Christmas.." bull**** is amongst the most irritating anyplace/anywhere but...as an agnostic... i have to say that people sleep on just how irritating fundamentalist athiests have become in recent years. Being an athiest is more than fine, in my book: but constantly preaching about athiesm/looking down-the-nose at non-athiests/constantly trying to convert everyone else to athiesm is just as tedious as a bible thumper. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 4 minutes ago, tshile said: “News” in this country. Printed News is fine for most part, TV news has sold its soul with respect to "how to get people to watch", imo...(notable exception being PBS Newshour) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sisko Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 20 minutes ago, mcsluggo said: i don't disagree. ... the "war on Christmas.." bull**** is amongst the most irritating anyplace/anywhere but...as an agnostic... i have to say that people sleep on just how irritating fundamentalist athiests have become in recent years. Being an athiest is more than fine, in my book: but constantly preaching about athiesm/looking down-the-nose at non-athiests/constantly trying to convert everyone else to athiesm is just as tedious as a bible thumper. I can't stand that either. I don't like fundamentalists of any kind. However, I'm happy to engage with religious people when they bring it up. If they're just jibber jabbering and making conversation, no big deal. However, if it's all just a pretext to get to the picture below,(may be NSFW?) I start asking a bunch of difficult questions, e.g. contradictions, condoning slavery, no evidence of the flood, amazing "coincidental" similarities with older religions, etc. It usually ends up being a short conversation. Now if anyone's curiosity gets piqued and they should happen to start doing their own research...so much the better. Spoiler 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbear Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 Equal justice for all...The thing is I think most people just agree to pretend this is true. I think the majority know it is not true. "Parents don't have favorite children." yeah, I posit this is likely a lie needing acceptance to make every family (a society unto itself) work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xameil Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 1 hour ago, The Sisko said: I don’t disagree. However, according to the Xtians, all those other people had it wrong and were worshipping false gods. Given that the Xtian god claims to be all jealous and whatnot, you’d think it would be totally pissed at someone picking a day shared with other religions to celebrate the birthday of its doppelganger. Second, if the worshippers of the doppelgängers weren’t constantly whining about it, it wouldn’t be an issue. Nobody would care whether you said Merry Xmas or Happy Holidays. This is an entirely self-inflicted wound. So, the reason i heard for the shared holidays is basically following the Roman Empire playbook for conquering new areas. They would incorporate the culture they conquered into theirs so there would be more acceptance of the Romans. For Christianity, when St. John was making his journey, he tried to incorporate some of the "local" religions into Christianity to make it easier to be adpoted. I will add, i may be off base as well. This is just what i was taught Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 44 minutes ago, gbear said: Equal justice for all...The thing is I think most people just agree to pretend this is true. I think the majority know it is not true. I dont agree, I'd say most know we aren't there yet, but maybe not on same page that that's the actual goal and has been for a long time. It's not woke, it's not new. Typically my experience is the correlation of people that claim we are there now and denying any evidence that we aren't, which to me speaks more to their motives or what they really think. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 14 minutes ago, Xameil said: So, the reason i heard for the shared holidays is basically following the Roman Empire playbook for conquering new areas. They would incorporate the culture they conquered into theirs so there would be more acceptance of the Romans. For Christianity, when St. John was making his journey, he tried to incorporate some of the "local" religions into Christianity to make it easier to be adpoted. I will add, i may be off base as well. This is just what i was taught Which goes back to my original contention: Christmas's original purpose was not to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The gift-giving, singing, and all that stuff predated Christmas and was merely appropriated as a tool of conversion. If anything, the commercialization of it is quite fitting to the original intention: the powerful using it to further their purposes. Back in the day, more Christians means more power for the church. Today, more money from commercialization of Christmas means more power to our corporate overlords. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsluggo Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 (edited) 57 minutes ago, PokerPacker said: Which goes back to my original contention: Christmas's original purpose was not to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The gift-giving, singing, and all that stuff predated Christmas and was merely appropriated as a tool of conversion. If anything, the commercialization of it is quite fitting to the original intention: the powerful using it to further their purposes. Back in the day, more Christians means more power for the church. Today, more money from commercialization of Christmas means more power to our corporate overlords. that is bull****. my college room-mate adopted a girl from rural china (decades ago). They didn't know her birthday, so they made one up, and celebrate her birth that day every year. Nobody bats an eyelash, obviously On the other hand..... you hate Christians, so you put nefarious import into ANYthing that Christians do. There is plenty of actual bad stuff that Christians do that you could sink your teeth into..... this "stealing the winter solstice" crap is just a nothing-burger. And frankly, you can expand the "plenty of bad things that Christians do", to all religions... and for that matter, expand it to all groupings of humans that result in the accumulation of some sort of authority and power. Christianity/Jesus/Christmas isn't the reason that bad stuff is done, its the tool that bad people use to do bad stuff. The fact that there are billions of Christians worldwide, and that they have had a grip on power for thousands of years (and that they also have too much of a grip on power in THIS country) is just a force multiplier to whatever bad **** that they have managed to squeeze-out over the years. the equation is simple: Religions give people power. People with power do bad things unless they are checked. QED/ Edited January 17, 2023 by mcsluggo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 1 hour ago, gbear said: Equal justice for all...The thing is I think most people just agree to pretend this is true. I think the majority know it is not true. Actor George Takei likes to mention to people, his memories of his family being forcefully removed from their home, by soldiers of the US Army. Loaded on a train. And shipped to an internment camp (Arkansas?). Where they were kept, surrounded by barbed wire. Guarded by soldiers of the US Army. And where, every morning, he and his fellow elementary school students were required to stand, put their hands over their hearts, and face through the windows, through the barbed wire fences, towards the flagpole in front of the commandant's office, and recite the words "with liberty and justice for all". 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sisko Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, PokerPacker said: Back in the day, more Christians means more power for the church. Today, more money from commercialization of Christmas means more power to our corporate overlords. In many cases, that's two of the same thing.🤣 2 hours ago, mcsluggo said: that is bull****. my college room-mate adopted a girl from rural china (decades ago). They didn't know her birthday, so they made one up, and celebrate her birth that day every year. Nobody bats an eyelash, obviously On the other hand..... you hate Christians, so you put nefarious import into ANYthing that Christians do. There is plenty of actual bad stuff that Christians do that you could sink your teeth into..... this "stealing the winter solstice" crap is just a nothing-burger. And frankly, you can expand the "plenty of bad things that Christians do", to all religions... and for that matter, expand it to all groupings of humans that result in the accumulation of some sort of authority and power. Christianity/Jesus/Christmas isn't the reason that bad stuff is done, its the tool that bad people use to do bad stuff. The fact that there are billions of Christians worldwide, and that they have had a grip on power for thousands of years (and that they also have too much of a grip on power in THIS country) is just a force multiplier to whatever bad **** that they have managed to squeeze-out over the years. the equation is simple: Religions give people power. People with power do bad things unless they are checked. QED/ "We're going to select a random birth date for this ordinary human child without a birth date that anyone knows or would care about" compared to "We're going to adopt the sun god's birthday to celebrate the birth date of our human god incarnate because it'll help proselytizing." Talk about your apples to oranges comparisons. I get that it's over a thousand years later, but go to a Jew or a Muslim and suggest changing the dates of one of their holidays to help increase the number of converts and see what happens. It's kind of interesting that you went relatively quickly to the "you hate Xtians" line. Most people don't care about Xtians one way or the other. It's the trying to control other peoples lives, waking us up knocking on our door early on a Saturday morning, embracing white nationalism, and a host of other things that's at issue. Yes, Xtian and other religious folks do a lot of good. However, equating backlash to the bad stuff religious people do to everyone hating your religion because you happen to love god better and more correctly than anyone else is just nonsense. FWIW, if the validity or truth of a religion was correlated in any way to how much it's hated, Judaism and more recently Islam would easily be your best bet for the "right" choice to get to heaven. j/s Edited January 17, 2023 by The Sisko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Evil Genius Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 (edited) A checked swing in baseball. The Euro step in the NBA. Edited January 18, 2023 by The Evil Genius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sisko Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 To dovetail and expand on one others have mentioned, the constitution. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
China Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 On 1/15/2023 at 7:50 AM, gbear said: Free will. How close are we to being able to predict a person's actions in a given situation based on chemistry in their brains? If all of our decisions can be modeled out, how long till all of humanity can play out in a computer simulation faster than we live it? Maybe the Calvinists got it right... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterMP Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 (edited) On 1/15/2023 at 7:50 AM, gbear said: How close are we to being able to predict a person's actions in a given situation based on chemistry in their brains? If all of our decisions can be modeled out, how long till all of humanity can play out in a computer simulation faster than we live it? I think this is unlikely. Quantum mechanics tells us the universe is not really deterministic but probabilistic. While the brain function itself seems to be mostly the result of the movement of relatively large things where QM won't matter much, it is clear that in totality a person's mental state is related to the whole body (including the microbiome) and some reactions and processes at the larger scale will be based on the movements of small things (electrons and protons) and QM will matter. The end result will be at best we'll be able to define probabilities for people's actions/thoughts. I suspect in the not to far off future we'll be able to do things to affect people's thoughts and actions by flooding certain parts of the brain with certain molecules/ions and some people will declare that the death of free will. But really if you do X, the person will do Y is not new. If I hit the knee in the right place with the right amount of pressure the person's leg will move and historically has not thought to be a violation of the idea of free will. For what you are saying to be true, I think we'll have to understand what underlies QM and that will have to be deterministic in nature and not probabilistic. Edited March 1 by PeterMP 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skins24 Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 (edited) - Money - biggest scam in the history of humanity. Shouldn't be confusing lol, but to specify - our current form of currency. I'm fully aware it's not this simple, but it is basically based off of nothing. A non-value based currency is a scam. - Car registration fees - beyond stupid and absolutely pointless - I think this has been mentioned, but the 5 day work week has been proven time and time again not to be worth it and a scam - https://abcnews.go.com/Business/4-day-workweek-work-companies-share-results-after/story?id=107635577 Edited March 1 by Skins24 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Die Hard Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 14 hours ago, China said: One of my favorite films of all time. Severely underrated. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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