Warbler

I hate it when the power goes out. We’ve and bad snow/rain/ice storm today and it is also very windy. The perfect conditions for power outages. The power went off and back on a few times today and then around 5PM it went out for a couple of hours. I thought it was going to be out all night. Fortunately, it came back on around 7PM.

Darth Solo said:

I thought you had already left Warb. I’ve got a plucking call up again from evil empire call of duty in a couple of fragments of time, don’t know anything bout anyFrink anymore 😃

huh?

TV’s Frink said:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/state-senator-compared-planned-parenthood-to-a-nazi-concentration-camp_us_58c83610e4b09cd957673c97?

This month, someone made a donation to Planned Parenthood in Republican State Senator Steve Fitzgerald’s name ― and the Kansas lawmaker was not happy about it.

On March 10, Planned Parenthood’s Great Plains clinic tweeted out a photo of a letter Sen. Fitzgerald wrote to the women’s health organization. “It is with great dismay that I received your letter that a donation was made in my ‘honor’ to your heinous organization,” Sen. Fitzgerald wrote.

The state senator went on to liken Planned Parenthood ― an international nonprofit organization that provides healthcare to millions of women and men ― to a Nazi concentration camp.

“This is as bad ― or worse ― as having one’s name associated with Dachau,” Sen. Fitzgerald wrote, referring to the first Nazi concentration camp created in 1933. “Shame on your organization and shame on anyone that would attempt to blacken my name in this manner.”

When asked if Sen. Fitzgerald was implying that Planned Parenthood is actually worse than the Nazis, the state senator replied: “Oh, yeah,” adding that the Nazis “ought to be incensed by the comparison.”

FFS.

Let me get this straight, he said that Planned Parenthood was actually worse than the Nazis?

I would think this might offend Jewish people, especially those that lost loved ones during the Holocaust and those still alive that survived it.

I’ve just seem some footage of the Discovery. I don’t like it. It looks like took the saucer section of a typical Federation Starship and glued it onto the back section of a Klingon ship.

moviefreakedmind said:

I was never saying that American culture is better in all aspects. The familial bonds of foreign cultures is one of the positives of other cultures that I was thinking of. My main points was that I can’t think of any other culture that I’d rather live in. So far no one has even told me that they disagree with that.

The problem with this is, that you don’t just live in a culture, you live in a country and under a government. So again is the culture the problem(and maybe some cases it is and maybe some cases it is not) or the country/government?

*sigh*

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

Anyone who spends a lot of time traveling around the world comes to realize that while there are many aspects of other cultures that are bad, there are also a number of areas where other cultures are better than ours. In my travels I’ve been struck by some areas where our U.S. culture is really bad compared to others. To wit:

• In most cultures, families care for their elderly relatives. We largely abandon our elderly.
• In most cultures, being uneducated in math or science is considered embarrassing. Here it is often a badge of honor.
• Most cultures know a LOT about what is going on in other countries. Here, we mostly have very little idea what is going on outside of the U.S.
• Most cultures have far less obesity than we do.
• Most cultures revere educators. Here, educators are routinely derided.
• Most cultures eat more vegetables and less sugar than we do.
• Most cultures drive far less than we do.
• In most cultures, everyone knows their neighbors.
• Most cultures revolve around small, local businesses. Here, Wal-Mart rules.
• Most cultures value money less than ours.
• Most cultures value art MUCH more highly than ours.
• Most cultures have less violent crime, and far fewer shootings than ours.

My point is, we may be “great”, but we’re not even close to perfect. We can learn a LOT from other cultures, and would benefit from adopting many aspects of other cultures. Which leads me to my final example - most cultures (with a couple of notable exceptions) aren’t as gol-darn stubbornly insistent that they are better than everyone else!!!

+1

darthrush said:

Possessed said:

Honestly I think sometimes you are so eager to be offended you just jump at the chance to be up in arms about something without taking the time to consider the actual meaning of what is said.

+1. Moviefreakmind has made some good points which is that it should be okay to criticize certain parts of a culture. The treatment of women in Islam is an example of this. Cultures are fantastic and interesting to learn about and being willing to learn new things from these cultures is what I find is most important.

Yes, but sometimes I think he blamed problems on culture where is should be blamed on the Government.

I admit I jumped the gun.

But I am not eager to be offended.

maybe.

Possessed said:

Honestly I think sometimes you are so eager to be offended you just jump at the chance to be up in arms about something without taking the time to consider the actual meaning of what is said.

not true.

moviefreakedmind said:

EDIT: You also ignored the second, and most important, half of my post.

I didn’t ignore it, I just didn’t respond to it.

Like I said before, I guess I misunderstood. I apologize.

Jeebus said:

The overall tone of Off Topic.

care to elaborate?

moviefreakedmind said:

My point was that I can’t think of any cultures other than Western and East Asian ones that I’d (or anyone I know) would prefer to live in.

Cultures or countries? There is a difference. Is it the culture that is oppressive or is it the government?

As for having a cavalier attitude toward culture, I guess I might. I honestly really enjoy examining and learning about different cultures, and I enjoy certain aspects about all of them. I just don’t like to shrug off troublesome things purely because they’re part of a culture that someone cares a lot about. The subordinate position of women in Islam is an aspect of Islamic culture that a lot of people in the Muslim world, men and women, find very important. Should we refrain from criticizing or condemning that because it’s important to them?

Warbler said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Warbler said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Western culture and parts of East Asian culture is better than all others that I can think of.

Excuse me? Did I just hear you say that the African culture is inferior to Western Culture? Also, what exactly do you mean by East Asian? Because if that doesn’t include China, you just said something about the culture my niece came from that is really going to set me off.

By the way, I forgot to mention this earlier, but you’ve brought your niece into political discussions multiple times and then proceeded to get angry about it. No one on this forum has ever brought up your niece. They never have and never will, so please stop.

When Chinese culture is brought up, by default it includes my niece. When it is brought up that those not born citizens can’t be President, it involves my niece. Don’t like it? Too bad.

You said Western culture and parts of East Asian culture are better than all others. Well naturally, the begs the question exactly what is and is not “parts of East Asian culture”. The naturally follows for me to wonder whether or not this includes China. If not, then you must be saying that Western Culture and parts of East Asian culture are better than the culture my niece came from. Naturally, saying such a thing would upset me. Don’t like it? Too bad.

You are the one who struggles to separate people from culture. Being Chinese doesn’t mean you came from any culture. Didn’t you say she was adopted?

Yes, from China.

Is she even old enough to more than tacitly subscribe to any culture?

She was 2 1/2 when she came here, she is now 10.

I made the above post before this this one:

moviefreakedmind said:

Warbler said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Western culture and parts of East Asian culture is better than all others that I can think of.

Excuse me? Did I just hear you say that the African culture is inferior to Western Culture? Also, what exactly do you mean by East Asian? Because if that doesn’t include China, you just said something about the culture my niece came from that is really going to set me off.

You didn’t hear anything, you read things. There are a lot of very troublesome aspects of “African culture”. I put “African culture” in quotes because Africa is not a homogenous place; it’s made up of a variety of people and cultures, but female genital mutilation, honor killing, superstition, and religious violence are very prominent throughout the continent. I said parts of East Asia because I think that Japan and South Korea are very stable and lovely countries that I suspect I’d enjoy living in as much as the United States. Funnily enough, I actually said “parts of East Asia” in order to exclude China because a prominent element of the culture there, especially after the Communist revolution wiped out much of their earlier culture, is to put industry and work ahead of health and safety. Obviously this is primarily a government thing, but it extends to a lot of families too. Look, for example, at the children that are given to olympic training camps based on genetics that are overworked in order to win gold medals for China, and then discarded if they’re injured, if they fail, or even just once they get too old. You apparently think that by culture I’m referring to people, and if that’s the case then you have no idea what I’m talking about. People are people wherever you go. I also don’t think that any cultures are perfect and there are positives to almost every culture (except for maybe any cultural aspects specific to North Korea), but I think that it’s ridiculous to say that they’re all equally good, or to say that I have to respect something that I think is terrible because it’s a part of someone’s culture.

EDIT: Just so I’m clear, I don’t agree with what that asshole in the article is talking about. He’s clearly referring to interracial marriage and cloaking his bullshit with an argument based on cultures when he’s obviously talking about race.

Maybe I misunderstood. But it can be hard to separate people from culture.

Just imagine how Al Sharpton would react to anyone saying that white culture was better than African American culture.

Another thing: Government doesn’t always equal culture.

moviefreakedmind said:

Warbler said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Western culture and parts of East Asian culture is better than all others that I can think of.

Excuse me? Did I just hear you say that the African culture is inferior to Western Culture? Also, what exactly do you mean by East Asian? Because if that doesn’t include China, you just said something about the culture my niece came from that is really going to set me off.

By the way, I forgot to mention this earlier, but you’ve brought your niece into political discussions multiple times and then proceeded to get angry about it. No one on this forum has ever brought up your niece. They never have and never will, so please stop.

When Chinese culture is brought up, by default it includes my niece. When it is brought up that those not born citizens can’t be President, it involves my niece. Don’t like it? Too bad.

You said Western culture and parts of East Asian culture are better than all others. Well naturally, the begs the question exactly what is and is not “parts of East Asian culture”. The naturally follows for me to wonder whether or not this includes China. If not, then you must be saying that Western Culture and parts of East Asian culture are better than the culture my niece came from. Naturally, saying such a thing would upset me. Don’t like it? Too bad.

Ryan McAvoy said:

Warbler said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

TV’s Frink said:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/steve-kings-racially-charged-comments-put-republicans-the-spot

“You cannot rebuild your civilization with somebody else’s babies. You’ve got to keep your birth rate up and that you need to teach your children your values” and in doing so, then you can grow your population and you can strengthen your culture, you can strengthen your way of life,”

Please tell me that ^ is really part of an 80-90 year-old speech from Hitler that the article mistakenly quoted and not a CNN interview by an elected member of the US congress from today?

I guess I am blind and stupid, but what is so bad about the quote itself? I’m not seeing it.

You don’t think those sentences sound like he is saying America needs to be breeding certain types of people to keep the nation pure? Sure sounds like Nazism to me… and judging by all the Nazis currently zieg-heiling this Congressman all over social-media, I guess it sure sounds like Nazism to them too.

As I said, I had only read the part that you quoted. But after reading the whole thing, I now see what you guys were talking about.

TV’s Frink said:

Warbler said:

What is meant by intermarriage?

Interracial marriage.

In that case, I am confused. He said “If you go down the road a few generations or maybe centuries with the intermarriage, I’d like to see an America that’s just so homogenous that we look a lot the same”. It sounds like he is saying that he’d like to see an America that was the produce of years of mixed race marriages. It does stand to that after centuries of mixed races marriages, would be less and less people that were purely one race and therefore we would look more alike. That part doesn’t seem all that bad.

moviefreakedmind said:

Western culture and parts of East Asian culture is better than all others that I can think of.

Excuse me? Did I just hear you say that the African culture is inferior to Western Culture? Also, what exactly do you mean by East Asian? Because if that doesn’t include China, you just said something about the culture my niece came from that is really going to set me off.

TV’s Frink said:

The first sentence.

Also go back and look at the rest.

King called Western Civilization a “superior culture” and said some cultures contribute more to American society than others.

“If you go down the road a few generations or maybe centuries with the intermarriage, I’d like to see an America that’s just so homogenous that we look a lot the same,” King added.

Sorry I was only reading the quote in Ryan’s post. Reading the whole thing, it does look rather suspicious, especially knowing that David Duke approved of what he said. When David Duke agrees with you, you know you are doing something wrong. What is meant by intermarriage?

“You cannot rebuild your civilization with somebody else’s babies. You’ve got to keep your birth rate up and that you need to teach your children your values” and in doing so, then you can grow your population and you can strengthen your culture, you can strengthen your way of life,”

Where in that comment is “whites only”?

Ryan McAvoy said:

TV’s Frink said:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/steve-kings-racially-charged-comments-put-republicans-the-spot

“You cannot rebuild your civilization with somebody else’s babies. You’ve got to keep your birth rate up and that you need to teach your children your values” and in doing so, then you can grow your population and you can strengthen your culture, you can strengthen your way of life,”

Please tell me that ^ is really part of an 80-90 year-old speech from Hitler that the article mistakenly quoted and not a CNN interview by an elected member of the US congress from today?

I guess I am blind and stupid, but what is so bad about the quote itself? I’m not seeing it.

TV’s Frink said:

Alternative facts, fake news, bullshit…whatever you want to call this.

News from CNN and the New York Times?

I find it hard to believe that such an experiment would be conducted and those leaving the experiment would not explain the whole to those taking over. That seems unscientific.

I think Spock would say: