Nah, new puppy. She was only about 20, bless her. Just a bit naive, poor thing.
But yeah, I agree Sam. Having said that, my sister and her then-boyfriend used to do that, though they worked shifts (but most lasted for most of the day, especially his) as opposed to 9-5 and worked next door to their house, so they could nip back on breaks. I still think it's a very dangerous thing to do.
Its not like you can really train a brand new puppy at all. Thats like having a baby and expecting to be able to train it to work for you in the office.
Having not owned an animal since I was younger, I'd never thought about that, but that is a good point. I'd say cats would probably be alright though, especially an outdoor cat, they kinda do their own thing. Although I've heard that outdoor cats just kill everything...
(10-02-2014, 09:48 PM)Mr Maps Wrote: [ -> ]Having said that, my sister and her then-boyfriend used to do that, though they worked shifts (but most lasted for most of the day, especially his) as opposed to 9-5 and worked next door to their house, so they could nip back on breaks. I still think it's a very dangerous thing to do.
That's not as bad, but it's still kind of not ok.
My friend's mom gave the dog away because the only people who took care of it (the two sisters) started being home less often because of school.
Yeah if you live alone like that you shouldn't buy a dog. It's tragic when I see owners just chain their dogs in the backyard and basically ignore and neglect. Not that that girl is doing that.
blogpost: I can't challenge my family's views directly so I'll just mock it here. It's not real news of course but a popular opinion.
http://www.tpnn.com/2014/09/30/at-a-time...ith-shine/
Quote:Every day, it seems that the cultural norm in this country is to attack Christianity. From bakers being forced to choose between adhering to their faith or shutting down their business after being court-ordered to bake a cake for a gay wedding to Christians being constantly mocked and ridiculed on television and in movies, it seems like it is open season on Christianity on a daily basis.
lmfao. Every time someone tells me that Christians are oppressed I look for evidence of their claim and all I find stuff like this. The part where not being allowed to discriminate gays is considered oppressive is the best part.
What tempts me to rant isn't just the typical 'tr00 amurican image causes institutionalised discrimination in a variety of ways' thing though. It's common on the internet for 'sjw's to be dumb, but more common for everyone who disagrees with them to have this weird victim complex. Outside of a typical internet debate, people with similar attitudes use this to justify discrimination (while simultaneously denying having any prejudice towards anyone), and it's really insulting when people twist reality to victimise themselves. As dumb and easy as it is to 'lol' at things like these dumb Tea Party articles like this, I truly find it offensive that people will shit on any effort to establish an equal society to gain even more problems for themselves, while convincing people they are the victims through their propaganda. It might seem like just a harmless tea party article, but I'd argue that a majority (not necessarily
the majority, but
a majority) who actually feel 'threatened' by attempts at equality, so convince themselves they are right in their 'white/rich/straight/Christian' people are being oppressed bullshit.
I'm not expecting a response to this since this is more of a 'I can't say it anywhere else' post, but this is what I'd like to tell everyone with this attitude. It's a complete mockery of me and millions of other people. Since this is a common debate on this forum, I think we should waste less energy complaining about 'sjws' (accept when they are actually wrong) because it kind of leads into attitudes like this (granted there is only one person on this site like that #shotsfired). I'm sure we all know the people who claim to support equality when they are young but start to grow entitled as they get older, get 'professional' jobs, and become a part of that cycle of discrimination.
ps this isn't about the article that just inspired my latest rant.
I do kinda think the individual circumstances that inspired that Arizona religion freedom bill thing were kinda dumb. A privately owned small business declining to provide services for one particular occasion seems like it should be legal.
But yeah, I will agree that the victim mentality is dumb. I mean there is give and take, but thats what compromise is about.
Danjo, I feel like a prick because every time I post a rant, you respond and then I leave for a bit.
This time I'll respond for sure if anybody even reads this blogpost.
blogpost: lol local elections are so dumb. I try to tell myself that they are important but everything about them is cringe-inducing since they revolve around people screaming vote pro-life/vote to protect Christian values/etc. It's almost entirely aimed at upper-middle class white people too, but not the self aware type- just the type who pose as average middle class people so they can just talk about shit that doesn't matter. At least with federal elections people pay attention so at least a few actual issues get brief attention. It's also really hard to find actual information for smaller positions. I still don't even know everything I'm voting for yet but I hope you can all trust to me to be a responsible voter. There's so much to keep track of. :/
Moving on, I know I get annoyed when we gossip about other forums on here, but holy shit citydata.com is hilarious. This place is basically Babylon in forum form. All you need to do is look at the names of the subforums and maybe glance at thread titles and this is apparent. I know some of us have expressed annoyance towards 'liberals' who don't actually care about anything. My aunt is a realtor who claims she is a 'liberal' yet she champions gentrification and all that. She has literally said 'I don't care if people suffer as long as I make money', and half-jokingly said that she wants to move to a new neighbourhood because more black people have been showing up (she said it as a 'joke' but she meant it). 75% of this site is like her.
I think I need to find an outlet where I can write actually good stuff and challenge current widely held beliefs that are holding us back.
on a side note, the type of 'liberal' who's number one complaint is that our vegetables are genetically modified are hilarious. People are getting shot every day yet this is what they want to talk about.
/end rant
(10-30-2014, 04:50 AM)carlcockatoo Wrote: [ -> ]blogpost: lol local elections are so dumb. I try to tell myself that they are important but everything about them is cringe-inducing since they revolve around people screaming vote pro-life/vote to protect Christian values/etc. It's almost entirely aimed at upper-middle class white people too, but not the self aware type- just the type who pose as average middle class people so they can just talk about shit that doesn't matter. At least with federal elections people pay attention so at least a few actual issues get brief attention. It's also really hard to find actual information for smaller positions.
Heh, I've been in California the last few months. Complete opposite end of the spectrum. The incumbent (who is a Democrat, as you'd expect in Cali) has been posting attack ads that paint the Republican candidate as a "Tea Party nut". The Republican candidate, who is (from what I can tell) running mostly on a platform of balancing the budget, has been attacking the Democrat incumbent's excesses paid for by the tax payer dollar. Of course, it's California, so the Democrat gets more airplay than the Republican.
Btw, why...oh why oh why oh why (*1000) do we have a fucking 2 party system in the US?! In Europe or the UK or something, there's a multiparty system. It's not impossible or unheard of for a new party to form and gain some actual power. In the US, the most power a 3rd party has gathered is one or two Green party candidates (who walk, talk, and shit like Republicans). I don't think that really counts for much. Fucking 2 party politics, man...
Outside of the fords our municipal elections are refreshingly moderate. You really see a disintegration of the party lines that usually define politics here and things become much more based on specific issues and the qualifications of candidates rather than what party line they are representing. Heck, I voted for multiple self-described conservative candidates because their policies best represented the need within the community based on the conversations I've had with neighbours who have kids going to the schools & such.
Of course this isn't the majority (the NDP supporting a a few sketchy, inexperienced candidates, Doug Ford coming in second for the mayoral race/Rob and Mike Ford getting elected in Ward 2, etc etc) but for the most part it is pretty healthy. The only big issue I see on that level is the lack of ranked ballots. Tory pretty much got in easily thanks to strategic voting. Of course this also applies to why we have a conservative prime minister so it is not limited to the municipal context. I've always had an inexplicable tolerance for Tory even though he is a bit of a conservative bastard. He's moderate and comes up with logical solutions to problems, even though these logical solutions have cost him a few elections heh.
The Fords campaign like Americans and it worked surprisingly well. Despite being born millionaires they talked to "the folks" and at the end were blatantly pandering to the working class with Dougie going on the radio talking about how management doesn't know what they are doing compared to "the folks on the floor". It was pretty hilarious until I saw how successful it was and realized if Robbie survives he'll come back in four years with the same strategy and the cancer credibility.
Unfortunately Grungie has disappeared so this new tangent is likely going to fall on deaf ears, but holy shit. A relatively big radio host from Canada is in the midst of some serious allegations of long-term sexual assault. Picking up young women and attempting to initiate incredibly violent sex with them. His name is Jian Ghomeshi and the toronto reddit has pretty much every detail on display right now if you are interested in this at all so I won't go on about the details. Apparently he has some teddy bear he has named that he would turn around before becoming violent because "the bear doesn't need to see this". Just grade A psycho stuff, absolutely crazy.
Anyways, he used to always go on about rape culture and feminism and something about the way he would approach these things felt a little fake to me. Hearing all of these things sort of affirms something I've talked about with Grungie (IIRC) here before about people who get on soapboxes to preach these issues as a way to hide their own bigotry, biases and general ugliness. Just something to watch for to the people here I know are pretty active in this stuff.
To directly respond to people now: Sam, getting rid of two party politics isn't a magical fix. It would be a start, sure. But there is a lot more that would need to be done to truly fix the toxic atmosphere of American politics. We essentially have a three party system (conservative, centrist, vaguely left). Unfortunately the party I support (which is the fourth biggest) can't even get into televised debates.
What I find truly crazy about American politics is that the two parties aren't even very far apart. Your "leftist" party is practically further to the right than our conservatives.
The key to everything is of course education. But this is never addressed in an age of short to mid term politics. The gains seen from drastically increasing funding and importance of education as a main point of policy doesn't have the immediacy to foster re-election and as a result is put aside as a lower priority issue. There's a reason countries like Norway are so much greater than North America. They are among the best educated in the world.
Yeah, well I think a major problem in American politics is that politicians are way more concerned about getting elected and staying in office than they are about actual policies. If people just came up with a platform of stances on issues based on their own feelings and then said "Hey, this is what I think, vote for me if you agree" we would have a very different system. Instead I think its more like "Hey, what do you guys think? Okay, I'll say I think that too, even if I totally don't believe it and won't fight for it at all." Where "you guys" are people who traditionally identify themselves as agreeing with whatever group the politician has been known to identify themselves with.
I don't feel like we ever really see politicians fighting FOR anything anymore. They'll fight against stuff all the time, but not so much standing up for what they believe in regardless of what people think.