Open Bar: Arguments About Turtles, All the Way Down

[Cain]

Yeah, they did drag that backstory out for a bit.  Like, a quarter of the film.  Somewhat unnecessary, to put it mildly.  And more Godzilla screentime would've been better.

I did like the start of movie credits though.  That was a nice touch.

[hooplala]

Yeah, they did drag that backstory out for a bit.  Like, a quarter of the film.  Somewhat unnecessary, to put it mildly.  And more Godzilla screentime would've been better.

I did like the start of movie credits though.  That was a nice touch.

I almost levitated during the opening credits.  It was a lot to live up to.

[Suu]

I saw Arizona got another Haboob.

Either Tucson does not get them, or God really hates Phoenix.

[Slyph]

Bought a can of K cider ironically yesterday

Bought a can of K cider sincerely today

Might buy a can of K cider enthusiastically tomorrow.

Finally progressed to tramp drinks.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

6 day summer flu sounds really nasty.
.

I finally kicked the bastard today, after running three IV bags into my arm.

Which I had to do by myself, because my wife - love her to death - is the Mad Slasher of Tucson.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I saw Arizona got another Haboob.

Either Tucson does not get them, or God really hates Phoenix.

We got the tail end of it.  This year, Phoenix is getting all the love, which is fine by me.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

In other news, there's the "ice water challenge".

http://abcnews.go.com/US/reason-crazy-ice-water-challenge-trend/story?id=24886646

When challenged, you have 24 hours to pour a bucket of ice water on your head, or you have to donate $100 towards ALS research.

Besides the fact that the most useful thing you can do is not accept the challenge, doesn't pouring a bucket of ice water on your head seem a bit arbitrary?

I kind of want to start a "put out lit cigarettes on your arm for dyslexia" challenge.

Everyone I've seen doing it has donated at least something IN ADDITION to pouring ice water on themselves. They've raised $1.39 million since the start of the trend, compared with $22,000 over the same time period last year, so it's both fun and effective.

I'm starting to see the anti-ice water challenge posts crop up on my feed, which means only one thing to me:  escalation. When I get home from work I'm going to put on facebook that I'll donate $5 for every person in my feed with a needlessly cynical ice water challenge status. It starts at $20, just from today.

I've been on this mini-resolution to troll with less venom for a while (venom-free is the stated goal, but let's be realistic), but shit like this:

So with all that money coming in and all that awareness raised, why does the Ice Bucket Challenge make me skeptical? And a little queasy?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

6 day summer flu sounds really nasty.
.

I finally kicked the bastard today, after running three IV bags into my arm.

Which I had to do by myself, because my wife - love her to death - is the Mad Slasher of Tucson.

Woohoo!

[Junkenstein]

In other news, there's the "ice water challenge".

http://abcnews.go.com/US/reason-crazy-ice-water-challenge-trend/story?id=24886646

When challenged, you have 24 hours to pour a bucket of ice water on your head, or you have to donate $100 towards ALS research.

Besides the fact that the most useful thing you can do is not accept the challenge, doesn't pouring a bucket of ice water on your head seem a bit arbitrary?

I kind of want to start a "put out lit cigarettes on your arm for dyslexia" challenge.

Everyone I've seen doing it has donated at least something IN ADDITION to pouring ice water on themselves. They've raised $1.39 million since the start of the trend, compared with $22,000 over the same time period last year, so it's both fun and effective.

I'm starting to see the anti-ice water challenge posts crop up on my feed, which means only one thing to me:  escalation. When I get home from work I'm going to put on facebook that I'll donate $5 for every person in my feed with a needlessly cynical ice water challenge status. It starts at $20, just from today.

Charlie sheen just kicked this shit up a notch by throwing $10K around as suggesting others actually kick in the same amount. Your wallet is likely to take a bit of a kicking now.

[LMNO]

Someone posted something to the effect of "How many buckets of ice do I have to pour on my head to raise awareness of Ferguson?"

But I feel that's a false equivalence -- I am perfectly capable of being aware of both ALS and Ferguson.  It's not an "either pay attention to this, or pay attention to that" kind of thing.  If you allow that kind of thinking, then you can always raise it to the next level... "Why are you paying attention to that, and not to the Ebola crisis/Syria/ISIS..."

In fact, someone has already calculated the amount of water being poured over people's heads, because don't you know there's a massive drought going on right now?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

[Suu]

Husband asks me to get in touch with other chief's wives and selectee wives to "vent" and to find "help."

Honestly, as stressful as this is, it could be worse. It could be A LOT WORSE. As in, he could be deployed worse. So for 6 weeks he goes through hell (although this week he's in Boston working on the Constitution and doing charity work. Yeah, okay. Hard.) and then he gets new pins and uniforms and it's all over. Seriously. I think my black belt test was harder than what he's gone through so far. And I told him. This really has just confirmed that my TKD instructor was an asshole, though.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

Someone posted something to the effect of "How many buckets of ice do I have to pour on my head to raise awareness of Ferguson?"

But I feel that's a false equivalence -- I am perfectly capable of being aware of both ALS and Ferguson.  It's not an "either pay attention to this, or pay attention to that" kind of thing.  If you allow that kind of thinking, then you can always raise it to the next level... "Why are you paying attention to that, and not to the Ebola crisis/Syria/ISIS..."

In fact, someone has already calculated the amount of water being poured over people's heads, because don't you know there's a massive drought going on right now?

Every time a celebrity dies, I get pages and pages of that same shit. "Oh, so I guess we're all so sad about Robin Williams that we're just forgetting about the millions perishing in refugee camps around the world."

I've been pretty proud of a fair number of my friends backlashing against that backlash. Everything from thoughtful responses about how acknowledging one thing does not diminish another, to "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, YOU SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTHS RIGHT NOW, SHUT UP!"

Me, as of last night sometime between reading how people in Detroit could really use those buckets of ice water and some post about reverse racism, something broke and I responded to a whole slew of messages with gibberish. It seemed to be the most appropriate response to any of it, and it felt really fucking good.

[hooplala]

So, am I right that the original point was that we were supposed to donate money to ALS, and if you didn't, the punishment was a bucket of ice water over the head? Or am I misunderstanding?

And if that was the point, why are so many people dodging it?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

So, am I right that the original point was that we were supposed to donate money to ALS, and if you didn't, the punishment was a bucket of ice water over the head? Or am I misunderstanding?

And if that was the point, why are so many people dodging it?

The point is to donate regardless, and if donation<$100, then icebucket, to get other people to  donate too.

Also, it's supposed to simulate how ALS feels, which is why ice water was chosen.