Messages

I think this is a good direction to go.

I'm glad we have you back, and I'm glad to see we can hopefully have some sort of working system for how this site runs.  Of course, I'll reserve judgement until I see what ECH has to say about this but I myself can see no reasons for its refusal (and if there are some, I'll want to know what they are, so I can see if they have any sort of merit).

Someone email me either when the forum has finished burning down, or else when we've decided what is going on.

I've tried to stay out of this as much as possible.  I don't like getting involved with fights between friends, even where there is a clear case of something I don't like happening, because often both sides feel they deserve unreserved support, and that is something I cannot give.

I also have to take the forum into account, as a whole.  You're talking about making radical changes without having one of the main players in how this forum runs even present.  Some would, and probably will, argue that ECH shouldn't be present or have a say in what is going on here. 

But I'll say this.  Unless this is cleared up in such a way as everyone gets something they can agree on, then we will be back here in 3 months, in 6 months, in a year...all the while sapping away energy from vital and interesting projects.  You may want the quick solution, you may even demand it.  But unless a deal between everyone can be thrashed out and all this stupid, petty dominance games come to an end, then this place may as well shut up shop now.  There's no point in its further existence if this is what it is going to be like, because I sure as hell wont stick around, and anyone interested in accomplishing anything other than "I trolled some other Discordians, lol" wont be either.

Take that as you will.  I'm too busy trying not to fail my course to have the time to go more in depth.

If you have the spare money and don't mind a few African/Native American/Greek diversions, I highly recommend Trickster Makes the World as a book to read.

Also, I do intend to participate in the main forum, once the MLA course is over.

Also, this blogger manages to show quite well what I mean by atomistic individualism.  Calling himself a contextual libertarian, he makes the point quite well about social and cultural influences http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2003/11/in-praise-of-contextual-libertarianism.html

Sounds fair to me, even if I don't exactly know what you mean by reglical.

Well, I didn't wonder if they were rich and comfortable per se, but that was part of it.  Families who both value education, had the means to be able to send their child to such a school and had the knowledge and reasoning ability to decide it was the best for their child.  That might be harder to pick up via demographics than how I framed it, almost certainly, but that was what I had in mind.  I believe usually, according to the sociologists, its middle class families who value education most, but I'd have to check on that.  Either way, the greater the mix of backgrounds and social groups, the greater the chances are it is a successful model and not just a fluke anyway, so the point is redered fairly useless.

Wired.com

I know its not a blog, hush now.

1) I need to spend more time hanging out on PD.com. This thread is proof of that.

2) I need to read a book about the 8 circuit model one of these days.

Prometheus Rising is probably the best, I agree with Rata.  It is best to approach it as more of a philisophical model than a scientific one, just as a warning.  There is no 'evidence' for it, its just an interesting, and possibly useful way to think about things.

[are]

Could you elaborate on the educational choice issue.  I'd like to know more about this.  I'm presuming you mean the choice of where or if to go to school? 

Also, what are the socioeconomic demographics for a Sundbury school?  How large was the mix there between different groups in society?  Obviously they are successful at some level, but I have to wonder if thats not due to the sort of parents who are drawn to such a school rather than the teaching methods alone.  I may be wrong, its just a suspicion I have, but you know how statistics can be...

IHT are being purposefully disingenous.  An Israeli minister in the aftermath of the Lebanon/Hezbollah spat in 2006 threatened mass devastation on Gaza as well, should Israel have to fight a two front war.  Its not just an off-hand comment, but a threat of policy.

I also love the bit about the kid.  Sounds like the reasoning of the US military when they dropped a bomb on Zaqarwi and killed a 5 year old girl at the same time.  Actually, it sounds kinda like the reasoning the IRA used to use, when their publicity went bad after a bombing.  "Well clearly its the people who got caught up in it's fault.  We certainly have no moral responsibility, we only dropped a bomb/failed to send coded warnings to the police/are legitimately resisting the British occupation.  Sucks to be the kid."

The thing is, any policy of mass retaliation is just going to put the Palestinians in the Hamas camp anyway.  AFAIK, Fatah lost the civil war badly, despite some neat toys from the USA making their way to their hands as part of an aid package, but managed to disillusion most of the population about how bad Hamas really is, even when compared to their levels of corruption and thuggery.  Sending the tanks rolling in and raiding the refugee camps etc is only going to put people mentally on the defensive, and cause them to side with Hamas, seeing as they have most of the Palestinian firepower in Gaza.

Cool, whenever, I just thought maybe you'd forgotten or something.  Have fun.

I am a bad person.

Also, 000, did you ever get around to doing some colouring?  Not that I'm in a hurry or anything, but it was getting a little dull having the old black and white avatar.

I found it via KiltedFox, who owns the site and posts on POEE.

http://www.kiltedfox.com/

Protip: TTM looks nothing like Frodo at all.