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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
 Posted - 04/25/2002 : 10:20:01 [Permalink]
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Shouldn't you be in school?
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 04/25/2002 : 10:24:11 [Permalink]
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BTW Megan, did you check out the sky last night? Beautiful!! Couldn't see anything from the deck, since the display was "mountain-side". We were going to pack up the scope and go to Pactola, but we were way-laid at the Tavern. Maybe the weather will co-operate tomorrow. Should be dark by the time we're back from Murphy's.
Lisa
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. |
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Megan
Skeptic Friend
USA
163 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2002 : 19:28:34 [Permalink]
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I was supposed to be in school but I was sick. That really sucked!!
~Megan~
BTW, I'm a 15 year old that never stops asking questions(=P). |
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Computer Org
Skeptic Friend
392 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2002 : 07:08:32 [Permalink]
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quote:
I was supposed to be in school but I was sick. That really sucked!!
~Megan~
BTW, I'm a 15 year old that never stops asking questions(=P).
Megan: Hope that when you're 51 that you still never stop asking questions. 
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2002 : 10:52:36 [Permalink]
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No chance of that happening. She asks questions faster than I can look up references for the answers. Living next door to Megan can be intellectually exhausting at times.
Lisa
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. |
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Megan
Skeptic Friend
USA
163 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2002 : 14:54:10 [Permalink]
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Of course I ask questions...where would I be without having the knowledge you guys have given me, and I would of never have known without asking so yeah. I'm sure that makes sense...
~Megan~
Questions: never leave home without them. |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2002 : 00:00:48 [Permalink]
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Wow, you're probably gonna be really pissed when I tell you the BA was on PalTalk tonight. Sorry you missed it.
I get a little pissed when people diss us for living in SD. Okay, Megan and I are probably the only two skeptics in the state. So what? There's almost no light pollution here, and you would not believe the starry scenes we get just by stepping outside.
During the summer (Aug 3-5) we make a game as to who can find the coolest view in the scope.
Lisa
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. |
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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2002 : 06:17:44 [Permalink]
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I've been lurking around the BABB again recently, but, quite frankly, I just can't bring myself to post there anymore. My patience has snapped. I have become a bit obsessive about authority issues lately. Pseudoscience, from moon hoax to the obnoxious weirdness at "logic-news" (LOL), positively reeks of presumed authority. This is not a device for advancing pseudoscience claims, it is the whole reason those claims exist in the first place. I think these people are fascists, they are part of a worldwide fascist onslaught, and I just don't have the forbearance anymore to be polite to them. I can't continue to pretend that these are legitimate debates or that these pseudoscience/conspiracy wackos are anything but a gang of power-mad totalitarians, and therefore enemies of humanity. Refuting their arguments is necessary only for clarifying our own position, it is useless as far as the wackos themselves are concerned. Their real agenda, the assertion of presumed authority, has nothing to do with the truth or falsehood of their claims.
The moon hoaxers and tide denialists and gravity wackos are not idiots, they know that their claims are crap. They believe that the road to power is paved with lies, the more outrageous the better, a principle well illuminated by Goebbels and Streicher. Jay Utah was not over the line at all when he invoked Hitler and the nazis in a recent string. The comparison is valid, and crucial, for it speaks to the central issue.
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
-Robert Lindner
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2002 : 12:24:41 [Permalink]
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My goodness Piltdown, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.
Seriously, the most dangerous denialists are those with access to the public school system. Did you read the thread about the science teacher who's going around showing the FOX moon hoax video? Everyone over at BA is trying to be polite. Screw polite. Sack this fraud. He claims he's teaching critical thinking skills. What a load of crap. I wish Megan was in his class, she'd rip him a new one. Sounds to me like the guy has an axe to grind, so he's doing his best to indoctrinate the next generation of conspira-whacks.
Lisa
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. |
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2002 : 02:14:41 [Permalink]
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Careful, Piltdown. It seems your frustration may be driving you close to imagining conspiracies of the conspiracists.
quote:
I think these people are fascists, they are part of a worldwide fascist onslaught, and I just don't have the forbearance anymore to be polite to them.
I know that is not your intention, but it sounds an awful lot like what the conspiracists say about main stream science.
"The Constitution ..., is a marvelous document for self-government by Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society." P. Robertson |
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Computer Org
Skeptic Friend
392 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2002 : 13:25:17 [Permalink]
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quote:
Quote from Piltdown's post:
"I think these people are fascists, they are part of a worldwide fascist onslaught, and I just don't have the forbearance anymore to be polite to them."
quote:
Response-quote by Tim:
"Careful, Piltdown. It seems your frustration may be driving you close to imagining conspiracies of the conspiracists."
I don't know, Tim. Really big social movements tend to be cyclic over time--dampened cyclic, like a spring. In this sense, it wouldn't be surprising that fascism, a very powerful movement 50-80 years ago, would--perhaps even should--rise again and again, in a [dampened] cyclic fashion.
I think that the cycles of a social movement would be dampened if the movement showed itself to have real, or severe, problems--as fascism did. (Thank goodness for dampening! )
Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life. --Falstaff |
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James
SFN Regular
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2002 : 18:45:11 [Permalink]
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quote:
quote:
Quote from Piltdown's post:
"I think these people are fascists, they are part of a worldwide fascist onslaught, and I just don't have the forbearance anymore to be polite to them."
quote:
Response-quote by Tim:
"Careful, Piltdown. It seems your frustration may be driving you close to imagining conspiracies of the conspiracists."
I don't know, Tim. Really big social movements tend to be cyclic over time--dampened cyclic, like a spring. In this sense, it wouldn't be surprising that fascism, a very powerful movement 50-80 years ago, would--perhaps even should--rise again and again, in a [dampened] cyclic fashion.
I think that the cycles of a social movement would be dampened if the movement showed itself to have real, or severe, problems--as fascism did. (Thank goodness for dampening! )
So how long do you think before fascism is almost nothing? Three - four millenia?
________________________
Two more years...Two more years...Two more years...Two more years...Two more years...
*whine* |
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Computer Org
Skeptic Friend
392 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2002 : 09:45:51 [Permalink]
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My guess is that it will depend on the problems (--and their severity--) that the movement produces.
Fascism in the 1930's (the horrors in Ethiopia and Manchuria) and the 1940's (world-wide horror) would seem to indicate a pretty big (--nay!: HUGE--) dampening factor. There is a growing rise in Fascism nowadays, as Piltdown noted, ranging from the White House and 10 Dowing/WhiteHall to the bitty stuff like the likes of ultra-authoritarians on the BABB (--I'm taking Piltdown's word for that: I haven't visited the BABB in many months  ).
Anyway--that would be my guess.
Unlike the spring analogy, big social movements are really complex;--I think that a word like "dynamic" would be much too mild. If the next "cycle" of Fascism raises anywhere near as many problems as the last one (1920's - 1950's), it may well be the very last of the Fascist cycles. 
Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life. --Falstaff |
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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2002 : 06:57:24 [Permalink]
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quote:
Careful, Piltdown. It seems your frustration may be driving you close to imagining conspiracies of the conspiracists.
Oh, I don't know. I make a regular practice of conspiring against conspircists, so they are perfectly capable of conspiring together for some nefarious purpose of their own. Actually, a widespread movement, based on widely disseminated attitudes, is not a conspiracy, but it can take on some of the characteristics of one. The current popularity of authoritarian rhetoric is a good example. I believe that this trend is rooted in the sound bite rhetorical requirements of television advertising and, by extension, of the presentations that provide a platform for those ads. Its tremendous power and influence are having very real, but entirely unintended, effects. The overlords of Madison Avenue are not trying to destroy the world, but they might as well be.
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
-Robert Lindner
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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2002 : 15:33:41 [Permalink]
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Well, I did it, unloaded on "rusty lander" in the "Why didn't NASA have better responses" thread at BABB. Turns out JayUtah was preparing his own response at the same time. As usual, he did a better job and caught a number of things I should have, the insanity of RL's "scientists are being miseducated" claim was the most glaring. Jay is still the champ at HB skinning.
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
-Robert Lindner
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