great minds think alike...

 ...ya keep the change LOL

I haven't read much, just excerpts of that and Adorno's Negative Dialectics. Is your class accompanying the book with supplements from Marx or Lukacs? I have some disagreements with the philosophy of the Frankfurt school but every once in a while there'll be a good insight.
I don't really have too much to say about them other than I think they're mostly masturbatory academics pulling their dicks in isolation from everything that matters in the world.

Nope. They reference Capital quite a bit though from what I've read so far. Heh good thing I've already read it.,... It's a pretty dense book so far, but I'm getting the hang of it. Pretty difficult read but yeah pretty much it's very masturbatory. We're covering Adorno, Hannah Arendt (Eichmann In Jerusalem), Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Adriana Cavarero, and Giorgio Agamben (Who I've been assigned to present on). Basically the goal of the class is to learn about contemporary continental European philosophy in the context of analyzing the rise of the Nazi party and the atrocities of the Holocaust

i have never read a thing by any of these people! i feel weird not having read Lacan (heh after playing Xenogears...) are any of them any interesting or are they all just jerkin it?

...ya keep the change LOL

RAMCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

I was going to post an amusing anecdote about almost pulling a firearm on a law enforcement officer, which apparently runs in my family, but I just heard something on the news that is really bothering me. The Dove World Outreach Center in Florida is organizing a "Burn a Koran Qu'ran day."

Just by itself, that is annoying enough. A bunch of ignorant zealots (as if there were any other kind?) lashing out against something they don't understand, and worse still, putting my state on the retaliation map in the process.

Then, the newscast goes on to mention that Muslim groups around the world are likely to hold the government responsible for allowing it. Uh, excuse me here a minute. Our government and maybe even our religious leaders are going to be held responsible for the actions of one fucked up splinter? Hmm, that sets an interesting precedent. Next, our general shows up to say that it is a bad idea because it may cause a backlash against our troops overseas.

If feels somewhat analogous to a school rivalry on crack. Lets say a couple of students from school a bash school b and burn effigies of its mascot in one of their front yards on the weekend. Is it reasonable, then, to assume that school b will turn as a singular entity and attack school a, burning it to the ground and slaughtering students and faculty alike?

Is it just me, or does it sound like a feedback loop where members of each side overreact and constantly re-affirm all the prejudices and stereotypes that the other holds about them?

But, Killer, why are you upset by this? After all you seem to be a complete jerk/jackass that leaps at the opportunity to argue/brawl with others on a routine basis, hell, you even started this post by using the words "pulling" "firearm" "on" "law" and "enforcement" together in one sentence, surely you come down on the side of the angry mob every time. Why, is my memory failing me (fat chance) or did you even participate in the "Everybody draw Muhammad" day?

Well, yes I did, but not because I thought it would be funny to portray someone's prophet as a human toilet paper dispenser who juggled camels with the circus, I figured there were others who would have that and bluer bases well and truly covered.

To recap-
Burn a Koran Qu'ran day = stupid, but hey, I've seen people in other countries burn my flag, so I guess it is still fair.
Holding a nation responsible for the high crime of allowing (somewhat) freedom of speech/expression to exist = irresponsible.
The mosque at ground zero = a little ill conceived. A multi-faith initiative/religious tolerance center might have been a better memorial, but the few people who wouldn't be mature enough to handle even that would certainly have fucked it up anyway.
Draw a Religious Figure days = Dead on. If you want threaten to kill me over a sketch, I'm going to use a paintbrush the size of a car and a couple acres of canvas to make sure it can be seen easily in areal photography, if cost was not an issue, of course. Next up should be Jesus, Buddha, L Ron Hubbard, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster in no particular order. Lets see if we can build up a supply of extremist Pastafarian terrorists.

As I've always said, I don't have a problem with any race, religion, or creed (unless, of course, we're talking about the horrible band of the same name). People are universally retarded.

Censored as a concession to the spirit of tolerance, the only "deity" people should really be worrying about.

Nope. They reference Capital quite a bit though from what I've read so far. Heh good thing I've already read it.,... It's a pretty dense book so far, but I'm getting the hang of it. Pretty difficult read but yeah pretty much it's very masturbatory. We're covering Adorno, Hannah Arendt (Eichmann In Jerusalem), Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Adriana Cavarero, and Giorgio Agamben (Who I've been assigned to present on). Basically the goal of the class is to learn about contemporary continental European philosophy in the context of analyzing the rise of the Nazi party and the atrocities of the Holocaust

i have never read a thing by any of these people! i feel weird not having read Lacan (heh after playing Xenogears...) are any of them any interesting or are they all just jerkin it?

Lacan is actually pretty interesting, I like psychoanalysis a lot. I think I enjoy it mostly because it has no ambition to cure or even really treat mental illness/neurosis but instead seeks to explore and maybe understand consciousness. Like anything though, the field is mostly filled with quacks and its pretentions as a 'science' are pretty questionable. Don't worry about not having read any of them, I haven't looked at anyone on that list aside from Lacan and Adorno.  I'm willing to bet I ain't missing too much.

It's pretty strange that your course is focused on the rise of the nazi party and holocaust, one would think taking it back to WWI and the ultimate failure of the soviet union would be more appropriate for continental philosophy considering that Marx is essentially the common denominator in the work of just about every european philosopher since.

To recap-
Burn a Koran Qu'ran day = stupid, but hey, I've seen people in other countries burn my flag, so I guess it is still fair.
Holding a nation responsible for the high crime of allowing (somewhat) freedom of speech/expression to exist = irresponsible.
The mosque at ground zero = a little ill conceived. A multi-faith initiative/religious tolerance center might have been a better memorial, but the few people who wouldn't be mature enough to handle even that would certainly have fucked it up anyway.
Draw a Religious Figure days = Dead on. If you want threaten to kill me over a sketch, I'm going to use a paintbrush the size of a car and a couple acres of canvas to make sure it can be seen easily in areal photography, if cost was not an issue, of course. Next up should be Jesus, Buddha, L Ron Hubbard, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster in no particular order. Lets see if we can build up a supply of extremist Pastafarian terrorists.

Burning a koran is stupid but it's not equivalent to people burning US flags in other countries. People burn US flags because the US drops bombs on their cities or funds+arms an oppressive apartheid state that tears their houses down and lays siege to their cities. People who burn korans in the US are 100% racist xenophobes who are being deliberately provocative to one of the most marginalized religious groups in the US(also happens to be the religion of the people who the US has been slaughtering on the other side of the world). Same goes for the whole "draw religious figures" thing, it's a stupid and provocative thing to do that explicitly targets a minority group because visual representations of the prophet are forbidden in Islam. Also stop perpetuating the racist "controversy" over the Islamic community center in Manhattan, it's several blocks away and is in no way 'ill-conceived' or 'insensitive'. Muslims have every right to build their worship centers wherever they want and the only reason it's an issue is because(once again) right wing racist organizations and racist churches are making it one.

the truth is not "in the middle" on these issues. By any objective measure the social climate in the US is becoming more and more openly hostile towards muslims and the only non-disgusting position is in defense of and solidarity with muslim communities.

Stone a woman for being gang banged is the way to go

Also I think I'm going to try ayahuasca sometime soon.

ayahuasca is gross, you puke real bad, and goes on for a long time but it's a pretty intense/good experience

I met with him on his work break today and hung out and talked while he smoked a cigarette. He works right in the same mall I do so we're likely to see a lot of each other even if we don't go anywhere for a while.  I was surprised when he asked me if I worked out- I don't hit the gym- and said I was quite lean.

His name is Brandon and he's a cub - I normally ogle the hunky muscle types but I'm finding him kinda hot. To my surprise, I find his effeminate speech patterns kind of a turn-on. Frankly I'm just pleased someone finds me attractive.

hope you don't mind me prying but i always figured words like bear/cub/twink and such weren't even used by homosexuals. i thought those were words created by bored straight people. :\ please set me straight (lol) on this.

hope you don't mind me prying but i always figured words like bear/cub/twink and such weren't even used by homosexuals. i thought those were words created by bored straight people. :\ please set me straight (lol) on this.

twink isn't really used much but bear/cub is def. used by gay people a lot. Just go on to craigslist casual encounters and search those terms or crack open a gay people magazine/weekly

twink isn't really used much but bear/cub is def. used by gay people a lot. Just go on to craigslist casual encounters and search those terms or crack open a gay people magazine/weekly

gotcha. i figured those terms were actually slightly offensive.

I heard that muslims burn the quran when they're cold and also that they wipetheir butts on it because it's the most common paper in the dark lands

twink is kinda offensive

white guys are blasting club can't handle me right now by flo rider on tinny lab speakers unironically atm.

hey killer wolf the problem with the "draw Mohammad day" is that you're alienating and offending a large majority of Muslims that don't threaten people for it. How's about this: stop burning Qur'ans, let people gather wherever they want (first amendment? only if you're not brown. also it's a community center, not a mosque), and don't actively try to offend people.

Also you're turning into oddbutinteresting

You're just splitting hairs here. To someone who is ultra-christian, it goes against their faith to have something other than their bible (as incomplete/erroneous as it may be) preached as gospel, should all other religions kowtow to this just so as not to offend them? That would be ridiculous! If I can't draw someone because it says so in a book someplace, and that book doesn't happen to be a federal or state statute, then I don't really care. People always expect others to follow the rules they place on themselves, and that isn't how it really works.

To be fair, the first amendment is on its last legs these days anyway. The quote that comes to mind first is "The right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins." There are things I can't say in public. If I do, I could be charged with hate crimes. Now, I'm generally not the type of person to say things like that in the first place, but the thought that I could get be committing a crime just by SPEAKING strikes me as absurd, even though I understand the reasons behind it.

Dietcoke - I get the disparity between Qu'ran burning vs Flag burning, but in a way it all depends on your frame of reference. Yeah, standard foreign policy (both above and below board) hasn't always (ever?) gone hand in hand with morality, and we've gotten more then a few black eyes over the years, but try looking at it another way. I'm not supporting the burning or the idiots who are behind it, but maybe to them they are destroying the symbol of something that threatens them/their way of life. They feel just as justified as anyone else in their actions.

The main reason I used the flag example is that since I don't really have a religion, there aren't a lot of things that move me at that level, and that does. To me, the only reason my flag should be burned is to retire it. It should only be done out of respect, not out of contempt. But that is my opinion, and I can't really expect anyone else to adhere to that. The best I can do, and have done, is to strongly advise others not to attempt it in my presence, but that makes me just as much a part of the problem as anyone else.

The flaw isn't with us vs them, it is me vs you. The best that people can hope for is to control themselves. Instead of getting upset that someone drew your prophet, do something positive. Instead of organizing your congregation to burn a book, build some houses. Or write songs to bitch about it, as I, admittedly, have done.

"In a free speech zone designated by authority, you can say whatever you want, just don't say it to me."

"We try to deceive with all our achievements that it means something more than nothing, but its all pointless. How long have we known this? No matter what we try the end is still coming. It's not my job to make you feel any better about the things you will never complete. If you could open your eyes, stapled shut, then maybe you could actually see."

Also, I wouldn't worry about the last line of your post too much there, Alec. The day I deign to refer to anything as "a soft, smooth fuck to the senses." is the day I'll have to seriously contemplate the advantages of shaving with a shotgun.