The new chat thread - now with bitter arguing

[rahvin]

We all were joking. I am joking RIGHT NOW, see if you can do anything about it.

[Caotico]

Just for the record, it wasn't meant to be a reprimand at all. I thought everyone associated that phrase with this, so it wasn't really a serious comment...

[La Rocque]

Originally Posted by La Rocque

At least we know 'Dark tranquillity never joke'
I remember reading that somewhere on this forum?

Originally Posted by plintus

Everywhere - it's in my signature.
Was said towards the question about whether LEGO video is official.

Yes I know, I was just joking -

[hyena]

Originally Posted by Caotico

Just for the record, it wasn't meant to be a reprimand at all. I thought everyone associated that phrase with this, so it wasn't really a serious comment...

Well, sorry then - I didn't know about "The Germans". This goes a long way to show my relationship with pop culture.

I'll buy you a few beers in Rome to atone.

[RampageSword]

^Ouh. Nice user name.

Regarding Fawlty Towers, I have often been told it was a classic of the genre and now I think I just heard enough about it so I'll go ahead and educate myself.

[Siren]

I've seen a few Fawlty Towers episodes, luckily the one linked was among them. Really good for laughs, but airing it at 4am doesn't help.

[RampageSword]

^That's why they invented Tivo.

[Siren]

^and DVDs. But it's too much work for me.

[DisplayofCharacter]

Again, sorry for the delayed reply. I've been moving Freshman on campus all year (because of my job) and had to recoup. That being said:

@Rahvin: I wept mercilessly.

@Siren: You guys should maintain your independence. I don't want the familiarity of our American fast food if I ever get over there. On top of that, hopefully you guys never adopt our extreme fascination of recreation for the sake of doing something whilst there is nothing to do. You'll be the fittest country and the best one at sports. Or whatever. How's the weather?

@Matse: Your hoo-hoo is showing. You know what I mean. *wink wink**

*I don't mean anything, actually, just bored.

[Taliesin]

Originally Posted by Caotico

Just for the record, it wasn't meant to be a reprimand at all.

I didnt understand it as a reprimand either. Not talking about the war is actually a great way to avoid misunderstandings. I trust the forum enough though to understand the occasional ww joke. Besides, a good ww joke makes the germans look bad and no one else

[Dark_Silence]

Originally Posted by rahvin

@DS: part of it was awesome because of the puke emoticon, but most of it was awesome because of the post within a post within a post within a... effect.

must i add that i wasnt drunk at all?

[hyena]

i resent the state of political journalism in this country. we never had a distinction between tabloids and broadsheets, and all sorts of irrelevant news items about the personal life of footballers make headlines every day. but this morning we reached a new level - the two major dailies let the public know, with abundance of details, that our minister for foreign affairs found a girlfriend.



i protest.




the papers never told me he was available to start with.





edit: on a serious note, did anyone try G-Chrome today? it's not downloadable yet in italy, uffa.

[rahvin]

Originally Posted by hyena

the papers never told me he was available to start with.

That's because he's a known homosexual. Which is also the reason why we're being force-fed his every companion of the female persuasion.

[Misanthrope]

Originally Posted by hyena

i resent the state of political journalism in this country. we never had a distinction between tabloids and broadsheets, and all sorts of irrelevant news items about the personal life of footballers make headlines every day. but this morning we reached a new level - the two major dailies let the public know, with abundance of details, that our minister for foreign affairs found a girlfriend.



i protest.




the papers never told me he was available to start with.





edit: on a serious note, did anyone try G-Chrome today? it's not downloadable yet in italy, uffa.

I don't know where you live but most first world countries are so alienated at this point people wouldn't be able to comprehend anything but their daily slave lives.

[hyena]

Originally Posted by rahvin

That's because he's a known homosexual. Which is also the reason why we're being force-fed his every companion of the female persuasion.

Is he now? My, my, I had no idea. This is going to sound like a lewd question, but how on Earth do you know?

Anyway, on a more serious note, it's weird. I thought we were beyond the stage of closeted politicians, seeing how in the past 5 years or so people came out left right and center. Well, maybe not center per se, but the guy is not from a Catholic party.

[Siren]

Originally Posted by hyena

Anyway, on a more serious note, it's weird. I thought we were beyond the stage of closeted politicians, seeing how in the past 5 years or so people came out left right and center. Well, maybe not center per se, but the guy is not from a Catholic party.

With politicians you have to think about votes. Being homosexual he has homosexual votes. Will showing off a gf bring him votes from the more-conservative-and-in-doubt-about-his-sexuality voters? If yes, you have your answer.

[Taliesin]

Originally Posted by Siren

Being homosexual he has homosexual votes.

With a gf he would lose those again though.

You always hear about how politicians think that way in the US, with Obama making a pretty odd choice for vice president and all, but Im not sure that is very common here. The occasional populist phrase is uttered of course and in the preparations of national or regional elections everyone pretends to hate each other so it appears the parties actually have a somewhat differentiated program and stuff.. but stunts like that? Im not sure I could name one.
Besides, the mayor of Berlin (Wowereit) is openly homosexual and so is the head of the liberal party FDP (Westerwelle)
The latter is hilarious, because everyone suspected him of being gay and there actually is a song called "I spent the night with Guido Westerwelle" by a male comedian, predating his coming-out by a good 5 years or so. When it was over, it was a lot less interesting and I dont think it has any effect on voters or anyone's view on the party and man am I glad for that.

[hyena]

i'm not sure that being gay per se attracts the homosexual votes. i am not informed enough to comment on other countries, but where italy is concerned i suppose it's more about the kind of stance one has on gay rights. for example, there is this guy i used to work with who came of age politically in the radical party, very pro-rights, but is now the speaker for berlusconi's party. he's openly bisexual, but homosexual voters who identify with the gay rights movement don't give a toss about this, they shun him because he's in the conservative camp. i'd say that being gay attracts votes if you're in a left-wing party, it scares voters away if you're in a catholic party or in the populist right, and it's quite irrelevant if you are in berlusconi's ranks. but i may be wrong on that.

[Siren]

Originally Posted by Taliesin

With a gf he would lose those again though.

How about the bisexuals then?

I guess my perception comes from a more closeted environment (as i guess my country is). Off the top of my head i could name a politician (right-wing) who is exclusively homosexual and everyone knows this, but i don't recall him ever coming out and declaring it.
Of course i might be wrong in all this, but the scenario is that the crypto-gays (most of which really are bisexuals here, long story, we just call them gay, sorry for the confusion) are something like freemasons: they know each other and support each other, but not openly. So in this scenario they wouldn't be put off by the publicity stand since they supposedly know it's one and that it is necessary. I'm not sure parties have any relevance in this, since everyone in greece is gay anyway.

[hyena]

oh my - this time i'm seriously worried by the state of the media. i just read about the enthralling mr. berlusconi on a major paper.

[La Rocque]

A friend made an interesting comment on the recent Olympics
Now that the Olympics are over, the leaders in China can take off their masks of friendliness
and go back to being the political thugs they've always been.
Plus they'll throw the switches to get the pollution flowing again
and continue making products that are a danger to life and limb -

[hyena]

Puzzling article in the New York Times.

First, look at this ridiculous sentence: "Teenagers have sex. How often and how safely depends on how much knowledge and support they have." Oh rly? Knowledge = frequent sex? If I only knew when I was a teen.

The only sensible part of the article is the ending - if you don't want your teenage daughters to get pregnant, for heaven's sake tell them about safe sex. But the whole story about parents protesting for more sex education in schools: this is a serious shifting of the burden. My parents told me about human reproduction, condoms, other contraceptive methods etc when I was more or less 11 - well in time to ward off disasters if I had chosen to have sex at, say, 14. I guess that almost all parents have the ability to explain to their children what a condom is, barring cases of excessive cultural deprivation. Of course I am in favor of sexual education in schools, it's an important part of any science/biology curriculum. I seem to remember that sex ed classes where held when I was in middle school; a consultant from the local health department toured state schools to give 4 hours of facts on all relevant aspects to students aged 11-13. But this is not a substitute for parental guidance. The idea that teens fall pregnant because schools do not tell them not to is preposterous.

And then again, we're talking about the USA here, not a poor African country: besides having parents, people have the Internet. They should be able to look up "Condom" in Wikipedia (I just did and learnt a new fact: "Because condoms are waterproof, elastic, and durable, they are also used in a variety of secondary applications. These range from creating waterproof microphones to protecting rifle barrels from clogging." Who would have thought). The whole idea that a public scapegoat is needed for a high rate of teenage pregnancies is completely at odds with common sense.

[Naglfar]

Teenagers, no matter the of the level of education and how affluent they are, will do stupid shit. Especially things they want to do. If you don't go out and tell them, say, they can get STDs from blowjobs, they'll assume you can't get one from "just" a blowjob (as you might guess, I've encountered this before).

I understand the constant arguments for personal responsibility coming from people who believe in the central role of the individual in American society, but when certain issues become a large problem in the state in general (re: U.S. teen pregnancy rate), the state is remiss in its duties if it does not take steps to address them.

It's also not just a function of educating children; misinforming them is another problem. Teen abstinence programs are the opposite of sex ed; they tell you the only effective way to prevent these problems is to not have sex, and informing teenagers how to have safe sex undermines abstinence programs because it teaches them to have sex without ruining their lives. So American teenagers are not just NOT taught how to have safe sex, but they're also in some cases encouraged by adults to be ignorant about it.

[Siren]

Not all parents are knowledgeable enough to educate their children, so sex ed should exist. Of course it's still a dream in this country.

That said, i have encountered a person in his 20s who had never heard of AIDS and had absolutely no idea what it is. He came from some Eastern European country, i think either Georgia or Russia, and his education level was quite low (i suppose due to changing countries and family issues and so on). My point is, ignorant people do exist, and in no way should sex education be left in their hands.. Actually, they should be sex educated too.

[suwat666]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7598549.stm
"Musical tastes and personality type are closely related, according to a study of more than 36,000 people from around the world."