Distractify has a cool article up on the 38 most haunting abandoned places on Earth. They’ve found some spooky and strange stuff.
For an above-ground bunker, this is pretty good, but I wouldn’t go with grey. Who wants to live in a grey house?
Remember, Facebook in now a publicly-traded stock:
Facebook is “dead and buried” to older European teenagers, who’ve all been fleeing the Facebook galleon for Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. Since European teens are ahead of the curve on everything, it’s only a matter of time before their parochial, arithmetic-challenged American counterparts also set fire to the desiccated corpse of Facebook and perform a ritual dance around it (metaphorically).
Less interesting than it might seem, the Guardian does a piece on (OMG!) Muslims living near Las Vegas.
…a couple of miles in the opposite direction lies what one would imagine to be the worst place in the world for an even halfway-strict Muslim – something, indeed, not unlike hell.
Masjid-e-Tawheed [mosque] is a 10-minute drive from Las Vegas Boulevard, the famous Strip – undisputed world capital of gambling, fornication, adultery, prostitution, immodesty, licentiousness, drinking, gluttony, vanity, ostentation and not a little taking God’s name in vain when visitors’ luck runs out in the gambling halls. The sheer amount of sin, as measured by any religion, is unfeasibly high in Las Vegas; for Muslims, it is off the scale.
One wonders if the author has been to “the famous Strip” in the last 20 years, because it’s a lot more like DisneyWorld these days than Dodge City, Kansas in Wyatt Earp’s day. Suburban Vegas doesn’t seem to present any problem for Mormons, so this article is stupid. It is interesting, however, to learn that the suburban Muslim population is 10,000-strong. In a normal world, they would take their conservative beliefs about family, marriage, child-rearing, etc., and (along with most Mormons) side with the Republican Party. But, for now, the Democrats are the only welcoming and tolerant party, so the GOP loses a lot of votes in Nevada that they cannot afford to lose. It’s a trend with them, see: evangelical blacks, Latinos, Asians, gays, women.
Remember those bumper stickers that said, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention”? Well, now it seems that “If you’re outraged, you must be mentally ill.”
Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.
Yes, you’re “odd” if you argue and demonstrate defiance against authority. Nice. Half the people I know are argumentative and easily annoyed. It’s called “being from Jersey.”
Want to see 100 year old long-lost Antarctic photographs? Go here.
Lastly, after having a night to reflect on the difference between the truth about the Benghazi attacks and what the Republicans have said about them, I am left to wonder whether our political discourse is so idiotic that we should just give up on discourse and conduct our politics strictly by voting. After all, trying to correct the Republicans on Benghazi is the equivalent of howling into a hurricane (of stupid).
What do you think?
The Republicans (and, perhaps by contagion, some number of Democrats as well) gave up on discourse long ago; rather, their mode of discourse is literary, consisting entirely of fables, allegories, and Schlagwoerter (e.g. “Benghazi”). This is why every “debate” is a moving target, because nothing is about what to purports to be about.
The insight from Robert Kennedy Jr into JFK & Robert Kennedy’s fights not to be drawn into wars vs the Military Machine, from Rolling Stone reads like a John Grisham/Tom Clancy movie. It gives insight into the turmoil Obama must be faced with and why we’ll never know until we’re using our walkers.
It depends on what you are trying to achieve by political discourse. If, by “political discourse”, you mean coming to a mutual understanding and respect for each others positions in order to form a more perfect union then I would say yes, give up on the ponies and rainbows. The Republicans are in almost every way equivalent to the Sith – they loathe mercy and only respect strength; they believe peace is an illusion unless it is achieved by proving their superiority over their (potential) enemies. When told that there was a mounting insurrection in the House caucus and that he would be challenged for his leadership position Dick Armey’s response was, “If they think they can take my head then let them come for it.” It is the way of the Sith, constant conflict, postmodern Social Darwinism.
They are evil, in every sense of the word, and you don’t come to a common understanding with evil – you vanquish it.
They are evil, in every sense of the word, and you don’t come to a common understanding with evil – you vanquish it.
The Sith totally agree Oscar.
True, but the point is that you don’t hold a conversation with someone who is in the process of shooting you and who will not stop shooting until you dislodge his gun from his cold, dead fingers. I’m saying that the gun must be dislodged and that cannot be done without killing the holder of the gun.
I totally understand Oscar.
And agree, but the snark in me couldn’t resist.
“howling into a hurricane (of stupid)”
Sadly, that’s about right. I was explaining to my sister about why we don’t have background checks for guns. I explained what the positions were and who supported what. I said that 90% of the country wanted background checks but the Republicans refused to hold a vote in the House and Filibustered in the Senate.
My other sister – the Republican – said not to listen to me – I was just pushing my agenda.
They are fact immune!
You’re right about the strip being like Disney. I was going to write “adult Disney” but in fact they have a ton of stuff for kids. They are aiming for family and most of the visitors these days go for shopping and shows (of which many admittedly have female nudity, but of the chaste variety). If you actually venture into the gambling dens of the big establishments you’ll find that they cater to a different, somewhat raunchier demographic. Most of them are still all smoking, for example.
You can still find the old Vegas if you try – start at the northern end of the Strip, then in neighborhoods and the little casinos on the various routes from the city. If you visit you’ll find that most of the clientele are locals.
Suburban Vegas, like Henderson, Nevada, could be any other modern American suburban town in a desert setting. Except for the slot machines in corners of grocery stores and gas stations there is no other clue that you are in Nevada.
After seeing Shicheng on that post, I need to dive Lake Qindao. I wasn’t even aware that was possible, and I was in Hangzhou two years ago.
The Benghazi story certainly doesn’t make the Demodrats, particularly the administration, look great either. It shows IMO that once again the anti-interventionists were correct, and everythig we feared has more or less come to pass. Libya is a dead-zone, and the president should have trusted his instincts.
Maybe it’s because my wife and father-in-law are both social workers, but ODD is something they’ve spoken about for years. I suppose it wasn’t in the DSM, but I am reasonably certain the idea that the classification is negatively branding outrage (and dissent?) somehow is ludicrous.
I was a teacher for years, and as a proudly defiant and outraged person I fully encouraged that behavior from students, and emphasized doing so in ways that benefitted them, as well as those they cared about as much as possible. With that in mind, coming across an oppositional-defiant, sociopathic, psychopathic or borderline personality is a whole other bag of hammers.
Someone who is pathologically oppositional is not (in my experience) someone who is likely to be coherently and productively question preexisting norms, usually they come with a cocktail of other issues and consistently self-destruct and cause enormous pain for those who try and care for them.
In short, please don’t make fun of mental illnesses. These are exactly the kind of people who we need to ensure have proper mental health care.
Republicans are like egg-sucking dogs and the only solution – I have tried them all, including tying a dead chicken round its neck till it rots off – to an egg-sucking dog is to take it out back of the barn and shoot it.
The overgrown section of the Great Wall — the Jiankou Great Wall is what appears in that picture — is totally worth visiting. Hire a guide. Don’t count on sunshine and/or good photos.
Facebook is already declining among younger Americans also. I learned that from my nephew at Christmas dinner.
Is it any wonder why FB bought Instagram, and why they tried to buy Snapchat?
As to facebook, it’s hard to see something as cool when your parents are posting there as well. And seeing everything their kids are posting.
So, being a teenager is a mental illness now?
Most any parent of a teenager on the planet will reply with a very tired but firm YES.
“THEIR” Sanity is this LIBERAL’S INsanity! !
“Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.”
This is how my boy Glenn Greenwald describes my INsanity:
http://www.salon.com/2010/11/24/tyner/
” he failed to submit meekly and quietly to Government orders like any Good, Patriotic “ordinary American” would and should do. That is what has created their “sense” that he’s something other than an “ordinary guy” — a “fake.” “
“And therein lies the most odious premise in this smear piece: anyone who doesn’t quietly, meekly and immediately submit to Government orders and invasions — or anyone who stands up to government power and challenges it — is inherently suspect.”
“I don’t really care what political label John Tyner applies to himself: we need far more of his civil resistance in our citizenry and far less of the mindless obedient drone behavior which these Nation writers seem to venerate.”
This is from a Glenn Greenwald article regarding the “Don’t grab my JUNK” person the TSA searched during the
Thanksgiving holiday in 2010.
I KNOW I am Being a good American, and now some shrink group( just read the quote) says I am CRAZY, oh so CRAZY!
It’s interesting to see what Fox News and the conservative movement is left with at this moment in the battle over Obamacare. They have to make the ACA look not just incompetent but actively dangerous and outrageously unaffordable, because the conservative position hinges on this: if uninsured Americans actually seek out their new options, they will be helped and the law will succeed. Thus, it’s all about “criminals are allowed to get your private information” and “people’s plans are canceled and they are forced into unaffordable ones.” It isn’t good enough to muddy the waters; they have to make Obamacare The Worst Ever.
It is hard to overstate how immoral the Republican position is. Again, their success here depends on them convincing people to remain uninsured, or convincing them to gain insurance outside their State’s health care insurance exchanges. Because almost all State exchanges have sufficient competition and clear consumer information and protections to bring more reasonable prices, the insurers are hiking charges for individual plans outside the exchanges because they are unhappy with the profit restraints of the exchange plans they sell. Plans outside the exchanges also are not required to meet the same standards and protections of ACA-compliant plans.
People will die and suffer needlessly because we have a whole movement which has successfully caused millions of people to be unwilling to rationally consider their own self-interests.