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[Carlos del Vaca]

Today I'm gonna avoid doing much work, because I'm exhausted after a great weekend in New York.  I really wanted to hate Yankee Stadium, but it's actually kind of nice.

The only down side, of course, is that I missed Baco de Mayo.

[KeithHernandez]

yeah, I mean, a job is a job, but this woman (and her group) are all the kind of people who intentionally make sure they are under the poverty line, so they don't have to pay taxes that will go towards wars.

Yeah, working for the census helps make sure schools are in the right place and shit.  Her actions are definitely consistent- she probably just got a little worked up when you started asking her stuff, all trying to act big and bad?

[theinevitable]

she just spent our entire interview talking about how "the system" and "the grid" were created to separate people from each other and funnel money to those in power, and how she strives to separate herself from that as much as possible. no taxes, no electricity, no health insurance. this came when I asked about how their organization depends on grants to survive, she said that she hates that because it means they're interacting with The Grid and relying on The Grid's resources.

[jaydub]

...how "the system" and "the grid" were created to separate people from each other and funnel money to those in power...

Its always amazing to me how much power and foreknowledge the kooks ascribe to The Government, or The Man, or The Illuminati or whatever.  A nice counter example is the (pre)existence of the MP3 vs the after-the-fact invention of DRMs like AAC, WMA or M4A/B/V.  If The Man knew the Sheeple would be stashing music on their computers and wanted to wring every drop of filthy lucre from us, how did He let the MP3 get invented first?

[Bobby Isosceles]

Its always amazing to me how much power and foreknowledge the kooks ascribe to The Government, or The Man, or The Illuminati or whatever.  A nice counter example is the (pre)existence of the MP3 vs the after-the-fact invention of DRMs like AAC, WMA or M4A/B/V.  If The Man knew the Sheeple would be stashing music on their computers and wanted to wring every drop of filthy lucre from us, how did He let the MP3 get invented first?

If an omniscient God knew we would sin, why would He give us free will?

[jaydub]

“God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends.” This may not be true, but it sounds good--and is no sillier than any other theology.

[theinevitable]

The thing that always bugs me is the desire to say that these things were done as some sort of sinister plot. Like, yeah, the society we have funnels money in certain ways. This means that those in power have zero incentive to change the system. this does NOT mean that the current system is the result of some kind of sinister plot.

[wombat]

Its always amazing to me how much power and foreknowledge the kooks ascribe to The Government, or The Man, or The Illuminati or whatever. 

Yeah, and that The Government etc could keep all of it a secret. I wish I had that kind of faith in the competence of human organizations.

[theinevitable]

I mean, to be fair, there is precedent in human society for people planning things in pursuit of their goals.

especially considering most urban areas in the US are the result of certain paradigms of "urban planning." I mean, if you had wanted to create a horrible pit of poverty and community disintegration, St Louis would be a pretty good achievement.

although, as the man said, never attribute to malice what you can attribute to pure human stupidity.

[greenkoolayd]

reagarding Saving Private Ryan:

"Fact: The Omaha Beach scene cost $11 million to shoot and involved up to 1000 extras, some of whom were members of the Irish Army Reserve. Of those extras, 20-30 of them were amputees issued with prosthetic limbs to simulate soldiers having their limbs blown off."


genius.

[theinevitable]

yeah, my dad's uncle never told anyone what he did in WWII, but apparently he was in one of those units that was at every battle. he had several big-deal medals but never told anyone what they were for.

hell of horrible flashbacks late in life. what a horrifying thing our brain is.

[jay-ell]

yeah, my dad's uncle never told anyone what he did in WWII, but apparently he was in one of those units that was at every battle. he had several big-deal medals but never told anyone what they were for.

hell of horrible flashbacks late in life. what a horrifying thing our brain is.

Spouse's pop went ashore there on the first day as a medic. He and I had some talks about that near the end of his life. For him it was a thing you do, then very carefully wrap up and put away deep for sixty years.

Hell of respect for both these dudes.

[greenkoolayd]

shit my kids ruined

violent j is john goodman

[theinevitable]

my grandfather has facebook, and my mom is playing this competitive solitaire (??) game on there with him, and he posted on her wall (in spanish) "this is a fun little game." I do not know why this is so funny to me, but I keep looking back and it and laughing.

he also posts things in Spanish on my wall, which is weird because he knows that I do not speak Spanish.

also: Phillipe, what is the saddest thing?
I think we have a winner.

I find Pruitt-Igoe really compelling. i cannot stop reading about it instead of doing my work. they blew it up in the 70s and now it's just a big green area in the middle of North St Louis.

Lately for some reason I am kind of overwhelmed by this feeling that I live in a city that is a crime-ridden hell of crumbling buildings. It's like, the honeymoon is over, and suddenly I realize how depressing it is that almost everywhere I drive/walk I pass buildings that have been abandoned for decades. Not around where I live/go to school, though, so that's good. But a few blocks north...

[dejavroom]

...writhe in aversion as I have to translate things like "Knights of darkness - wielding runes of death and destruction - bound by the will of the ____. . .  this is the hour of their ascension.  This is the hour. . . of your dark rebirth." Why oh why do these mmorpg characters have to talk like assholes? (And since I'm here, they dress like douchebags too)