For Catholic_Cock, and anybody else that wants to know why I post in r/austin

rboland · 11 days

Dear racist liberal in denial,

You sound like you are arguing for nation-building as an excuse to invade Iraq. Are you a NeoCon? They are actually very liberal in ways, you know. You obviously don't support real solutions to improving poor neighborhoods as they already exist. Instead, it's convenient to let racist rich people do it their way while relying on groupthink to provide the facade behind which casualties are hidden and denied. I guess the Bush years got to you and so many others! They did it, and so will you!

Shall I point out the blatant contradictions in what you said, or let you rest comfortably numb?

rboland · 11 days

This is what happens when you try to bring a racist liberal to see through the layers of bullshit they pile on so that they can live with their cognitive dissonance. They aren't as overt about putting spin on an issue as compared to countless examples during the NeoCon years. They go for something almost like covert spin, trying to get you to overlook their way of dressing their position in a tone intended to make you think their status-quo view is the only possible reality. They don't always consciously do this, by any means. It's often just learned and conditioned.

Notice this guy is basically reacting as though only his way of seeing it could possibly be valid, even when he admitted that "Yes, the impoverished people are displaced" while purposefully avoiding the immediate implications involved in already-impoverished people having to meet the expenses of moving. Notice again, just before he admitted poor are displaced, he was sloppy, saying "When an area is gentrified, EVERYONE benefits." He doesn't know how to properly hide a contradiction in plain sight.

It's on the level of Orwellian mental gymnastics. He is a liberal supporting racism and the rich. He never even mentioned ways in which the poor people in those neighborhoods could have been helped and allowed to stay. What's funny is that his reasoning matches that of the people who supported the "nation-building" invasion of Iraq.

zh1nt0 · 14 days

I'm glad you have a job, but I'm sorry you have anything to do with DICE and EA making dickhead games.

UglySockPuppet · 14 days

That makes me and many others happy, you piece of trash.

apineda50 · 3 months

I order you to get out more.

apineda50 · 3 months

A little store called Say Hi, on Burnet. Not far from North Loop. My favorite business in Austin. Browse a while, be friendly and talk to the owner.

mynameishutch · 8 months

If you see someone throw cigarette butts out of their car, write down their license place, check the make and model of their car, and call the cops on them. Screw em.

paloduro · 8 months

Can anyone provide a link to live updates about evacuations?

houseoflove · 8 months

It came from me! And, I'd never experienced conditions like that before. It was a light rain after a drought, and it was a total and complete surprise. The person who stopped at the yellow light stopped too quick, too soon. It normally would have just been one of those things a timid driver would do to keep an extra edge of safety, but it can be an overreaction. I was stopping normally, wouldn't have been a problem at all to come to a quick stop while going around that curve - except that my brakes worked fine, but friction didn't. I wasn't even speeding. It was just one of those things.

I have no idea who to blame because everything was pretty normal except for the slick road. Having to brake on an oil-slicked curve in the road was what made my tires lose all traction due to my tires steering while braking. Something like four cars had to brake quickly, and they were on the straight section of road while I was on a curve, not right up behind them, keeping open space even though I thought road conditions weren't so bad. I do that anyway. The person who stopped quickly for the yellow light - not the last second of it, but most of the yellow light, which I saw and thought was lame, created a chain reaction that left me to react on the worst section of road in those conditions. It's just one of those not-so-likely things that happens. Several factors added together to make my normal reaction the surprising cause of the accident.

The police never stated I was at fault for the accident. It was just a total mess because of the oil build up. I liken that situation to black ice. I come from the Panhandle, and I know how to drive safely in icy conditions. I know how to react to black ice. Well, imagine if patches of black ice could happen during summer. That's what this was like. The key thing is, during icy conditions, you know you're going to drive over patches of ice.

If you don't know just how bad oil build up can be when combined with a little rain after a long dry spell - or a drought - it's like ice you can't see and easily might not expect at all, and it can be more slick in some spots.

Mark my words, there will be plenty of people almost sliding into intersections during this rain, and there will be wrecks. Hopefully just fender-benders. But, people who drive either too aggressively or too defensively both tend to cause people to have to react to their poor choices. By "too defensive", I especially mean people who sort of make their own traffic laws and live in their own world, and never consider that other people are trying to stay within the expectations of the actual traffic laws. The two clash.

paloduro · 8 months

I'm betting you lost a few pounds laughing at those messages. Especially the fourth. Very clever. Can't believe they fell for it so many times.

paloduro · 8 months

Thunder sounds a little different when it's that close, doesn't it? Nothing quite like it. No series of booms, just one big sky-tearing explosion.

FuzzzWuzzz · 8 months

You and me both! This is amazing. I didn't know all that footage in Dinosaur! came from this, or that it was made in a garage. And, seeing this just now makes me realize it's a real classic.

I still pity that monoceratops! Tippett really did something. Every little bit of detail still has the same drama. Someone should have funded him to make a lot more of this because all these years later, only the most highly-funded CGI tops this, and not all of it is so engrossing.

I probably still have Dinosaur! on the VHS tape I used to record it way back when. Christopher Reeve narrating. Man, it was good! His voice drew me right in, all right - the voice of Superman for our generation. Hit me on a deep level because who knows how many times I'd watched the Superman movies by then. Only Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, or the guy who voiced Optimus Prime could have equaled that. I'm pretty sure if I heard the voice of Optimus Prime commanding me to do things, I'd obey without question lol!

But, did you watch PBS' Nature back in the 80's, too? There was the ultimate narrator of all time to me - George Page. They need to re-release those old episodes. Close enough to a time machine for me.

pseudoanonymity · 8 months

Say Hi is the best asian market in town and do not try to argue, but, it's probably not what you're looking for unless you want meet an awesome Thai gentleman with a chill sense of humor who learned muay thai a long time ago and will talk to you as you shop. Great guy. Go buy things there, forever.

So tempted to tell the story he told me. Muay thai + UT + the 60's. So tempted.

artificialwinter · 8 months

Ah ken mate, ah whid nae fuckin bloody go thir less thir's a load eh the hepster foodie lasses roond evry fuckin table an they dinnae fuckin mind aw the likes of yir man Begbie takin 'is choicest ay the choice likesay, an fir likes ay the auld chef boy ah fuckin ken eh's gaunnae dae ehs yellin shite but ehs nae gaunnae look Begbie fuckin eye to eye mate, fucks sakes ah fuckin bloody well roond him oot but ah dinnae fuckin care, mah fuckin puff it's a lass each on Begbie's arms or nowt thir all fuckin gadges, ken.

sgamer · 8 months

Three of them are decent sized places, >4 or 5 bedrooms or so, all with swimming pools and hot tubs.

houseoflove · 8 months

BE ADVISED: When it rains, the roads are going to be slick as hell due to oil built up on the road during the drought! It rises to the surface of the water, creating an oil slick. Drive very carefully, keep your distance, decelerate before braking if you can at all, and brake gently over a longer distance than normal. If you ride a motorcycle but have a car, choose the car.

Again, why is that?

Motor oil and grease builds up on the road surface, and the longer it hasn't rained, the less has been washed away.

Then, when it rains, and especially when it's warm, the oil rises to the surface of the water on the road, and the danger of sliding out of control is second only to icy conditions.

Count on slick sections of road for a few days during the rain, and be cautious. It's not a time to be distracted by your phones.

Please upvote this comment.

Take it from me, if someone several cars ahead of you decides
to stop for a yellow light without regard to everyone behind them 
having to come to a sudden stop, you don't want to know the 
feeling of your tires sliding over wet, oiled pavement as the curve 
in the road leaves you gliding into oncoming traffic. The other lady
was fine (thankyouthankyouthankyou), but through a gash just 
below my knee I got to see my shin bone, and the paramedics 
looked at me funny when I said I had no idea how that little circular
cracked spot happened on the windshield. Also, when you don't 
have an airbag, and the steering wheel impacts your torso like the
fist of a giant, bruising the joints where your ribs meet your sternum
and spine, and you then foolishly decide to stand up to check on 
the other driver out of fear for them, it's almost as if everything 
turns gray and you feel sort of disconnected.

subsequent · 8 months

Okay, I thought you were from another country. I thought you were coming from the viewpoint of someone who was judging the U.S. from the exterior. You know how it is. Some people say things like that and, when questioned, just show that it was a bunch of insults. Glad that's not the case here.

So, your perspective is far different than what I thought it was. That makes your previous comment not an uninformed judgment, but an informed one. I thought the generalizing was nothing more than generalizing, but, I get it, when talking informally on here, if we don't want to say so much we put people to sleep, we can cover the basics and the elaborate if questioned.

I actually agree with you on most everything you said. Thought I was dealing with someone totally different, and you had just been here to throw insults, my comment would actually apply. Now, knowing how you actually think, I can't make the same sort of response at all.

The way I see generalization is, damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's useful to a limited extent, and used all the time. You know how it is. I was just wondering if there was substance behind those generalizations. Turns out there is and I'm right there with you. Gotta be proud of your brother.

aynrandfan · 9 months

She came up with a philosophy that hasn't ever been tested as a basis for a nation/society/culture. We can sort of see how institutionalized selfishness is working out. It's pissing people off in a truly major way.

To simplify it, I think she wanted to be different more or less to get attention. People in America with no sense of civic responsibility or respect for the world around them often parade faults, weaknesses, and shortcomings as virtues and qualities worthy of praise.

If you can get enough people to think that way, then you can have entire groups of people who make it easy for each other to lower their standards and support each other in taking the easy, weak ways out. Group acceptance becomes an excuse for one's faults. They make it easy for each other because they don't want to do what it takes to actually be good. And, by "good" I mean many things, including self-reliance and selflessness.

I'd say she's relevant for certain types of suckers who lack fortitude and principles and desperately want to find a place where they can pretend faults are virtues.

I think her philosophy would ensure libertarianism would fail and be castigated because she just plays right into a major weakness of human nature.

i_am_splattered · 9 months

He took good measures to ensure his gift wouldn't be wasted. Did you read his other comments?

Why do you say "you've been to some countries that aren't so well off"? He was in Cambodia. It is very poor and corrupt, and it is still suffering the aftereffects of Pol Pot's communist regime and slaughter of several million people. If you could read, you were executed.

So, he was in a very poor country - why did he not get hardcore raped? Where was that? Oh, maybe he can take care of himself and still be generous? It's not weakness. It's strength.

Look, doing good things involves risk and making oneself vulnerable. That's why doing good takes more strength and courage than doing bad.

His reaction to poverty and suffering wasn't senseless, either. It made good sense - he hasn't hardened his heart, which tends to make people into a special sort of fool. His reaction is actually a sign that he met the experience head on, opening himself to it with strength and compassion, instead of ignoring it or being indifferent for his own comfort, which hardens one's heart.

Have you ever heard about the life of the Buddha? He was a prince whose father kept him entirely sheltered and cut off from all experiences of suffering, poverty, disease, and death. When he finally saw it all, though, he was so disturbed he was overcome by it and it changed his life. He then renounced his wealth and comfortable position in life, and went on to change the course of an entire civilization.

i_am_splattered · 9 months

This is quite rare and simply great. You, sir, are made of gold, but I am sure you are too modest to acknowledge that and let it get to your head. I have to say it anyway, but don't let it get to your head! You're doing too well for that. I guess you know how it is to think of your own good fortune in life and regard it as an undeserved gift that makes generosity essential to respecting what you are given. You must be very grateful for having the family you do. Not everyone is taught the principles by which you have done these things.

Keep being a champion.

i_am_splattered · 9 months

You can't be serious. Get real.

i_am_splattered · 9 months

You are petty and misguided if you regard charity as a problem. Are you the second coming of J.P. Morgan? Do you work for Goldman Sachs? Did you model your life after the character of Ebenezar Scrooge?

I'm calling you out - attempt to justify your comment and tell us all why generosity and sacrifice for the poor is a sign of mental illness.

Or, are you just a bitter cynic threatened by those who have qualities you allow yourself to ignore? It's easy to be selfish. It takes heart to be as generous as the OP.

I also challenge you to cite any reference about mental health disorders and tell us what mental illness includes symptoms of charity and generosity.

I await your justification, though I think you will take the easy way out and refuse to answer me or anyone else.

Personally, by your comment, I don't think you are even fit to be the OP's doormat. Some people reach pinnacles of athleticism, or academia, or creativity. The OP is a champion at generosity and deserves the greatest respect.

If you never give to others with no expectation that you will get something in return, you are poisoning your own life and depriving yourself of something sublime. Stand up and take a risk. Doing good things nearly always involves risk, and that's why good people are brave.

subsequent · 9 months

Hey, you want to see a movie right up your alley?

Watch The Natural. You will see. Promise me you will watch it. I'm telling you.

Here's a story about a penny for you.

My hometown isn't a big city, just a mid-sized town of about 100,000 at the time. The year was 1990. We had a baseball stadium that was there since the 30's, and it had been unused for about 5 to 7 years. My father was hired to re-wire the phone and public address systems, and I got to help him. I was 11. I got to goof off all over that stadium, run around in the field, poke around behind the wall, the dugouts, the bleachers, even got to go up a little terrifying spiral staircase and over the big roof canopy of the stadium to the announcer's box, overlooking the field. My dad got season tickets as part of his compensation.

So, during the games I would always want to run around for a while with whatever other kids were doing the same. From the late 30's to the early 80's, that stadium was home to what was called a farm team - a team part of a major league team's association in which their new recruits could prove themselves and sharpen their skills enough to get to play in the majors. The team was the Amarillo Gold Sox, the farm team of one major league team or another throughout the decades.

So, one night during a game, I was at one end of the big, sloping concrete foundation of the bleachers, not far from the home team dugout. I jumped up to hang off a ledge about 6 or 7 feet up, and felt something under my finger. I pulled it off when I dropped down. It was a penny from 1946. It may have sat there undisturbed for 44 years since the Gold Sox started playing again after a shut-down for the duration of WW2.

I stood there daydreaming about all those decades, all the ballgames played, and just who may have dropped it. Just a penny, but it made me feel like Indiana Jones.

P.S. Several years after that, my father got season tickets right behind home plate. I'd almost die laughing when the ball would skip over the bat and smack the wire barrier right in front of us and he'd spill some of his beer. Oh, and there was some big fat guy named Lomax who was the major heckler of the crowd. He had a pretty low, gravelly voice, and he always had season tickets right behind the visiting team's dugout. He and his friends had brooms for when there was a sweep, at which time they would stand up and shake the brooms in the air to taunt the visitors, and he had red K's printed out, which he would hang on the fence right by the visiting team's dugout for every time they struck out. His crabby heckling voice was a fixture of every game. It was great.

Watch The Natural. Probably the best baseball movie ever. Better than Field of Dreams. I'm telling you. It's waiting for you.

subsequent · 9 months

Just for fun, think of what a glaring generalization is, and re-read your comment. Here is a chance to improve your critical thinking skills as applied to your own thoughts.

In order to have an actually reasonable opinion, don't resort to ignorant insults where you need to be thinking of details, causes of problems, and diversity.

According to your comment, you haven't said anything about a personal experience of being here. You are just making a sweeping judgment without considering the nuances of reality.

You say we are too stupid to save ourselves, yet you think people with families are ready to quit their jobs and put their families at risk to take up arms against the government and face the most advanced, most experienced military in the world that is actively preparing for unrest. You've got no idea what's going on over here. I think you pay attention to corporate-owned media and information you get strictly via the internet. I don't think you've even been here, or, if you did, you keep reality from tempering your negative opinions. That's a human thing, though. Taking comfort in negative opinions of others in order to have a target for general disdain.

You apparently have no idea how ideas and information are at play in our problems. Look at the media, and check out a documentary called "The Century of Self". The sort of thing illustrated in that film has great inertia.

I am wondering what country with 300+ million people you can point out to me that does not have persistent racism, prejudice, anger, hate, segregation, oppressive laws and lawmen, and general ignorance.

JBgreen · 10 months

Oklahoma is not the closest. The Texas Treasure is. It's only about a 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive from Austin.

It's a cruise ship built sometime in the 60's converted into a casino boat. And, it's hilarious. The captain is British, the crew are from all over the world, the security officers are large Eastern European guys with shaved heads. The clerk of the little store was an unamused German woman.

You buy a ticket, board, and while the boat is headed out to international waters about 10 miles offshore - where the Law of the Land ends and the Law of the Sea begins and gambling is legal - you're served a buffet meal which could be worse, could be better.

There are plenty of bars on the ship. There is a nicer room with a nicer bar where the higher stakes games are played. Throughout the ship are slot machines and your typical casino games.

You stay on the ship for about 6 or 7 hours. Gambling. There are bars all over the ship. People gamble, have fun, have a few drinks. Other people gamble, drink, lose too much money, get upset, drink more, try to win back what they lost, drink more - all on a ship rocking steadily, gently on the waves of the beautiful Gulf of Mexico!

There is both an infirmary and a brig on the ship. That is, Drunk Tank Light, and The Drunk Tank. Plus, Eastern European security personnel. I didn't get to see them in action, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how entertained one is by the entire concept of the business. But, I did see a few people, drunk and miserable and unable to escape the ceaseless rocking of the boat on the ocean waves, laying their heads down on the video poker games at a couple bars.

It's not really any seedier than any other casino, but if it sounds insane, well, I think it is. But, it's fun and entertaining just to experience the thing. It's like something out of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and the food is complimentary.

I like to call that boat proof that piracy can, in some way, be reconciled to civilized society and have a legal niche. Their mothers should be proud.

You actually pay the pirates to let you go on their boat, willingly, where you will put your money into their machines.

You know you want to drink and gamble with pirates. Don't deny it.

paloduro

TROPHY CASE

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