BunWat 's comments (member since Feb 18, 2009)

BunWat 's comments from the Terminalcoffee group.

Oh yeah lets drill for gas. Also chocolate syrup. I am very much in favor of drilling for chocolate syrup.

Jim wrote: "I know people like this :-).
"

YEAH! They act like really annoying nosy co workers who are all over the cake in the breakroom or the latest gossip, but if anything actually work related happens they flee and pretend to be busy!

I like both Turkey the edible bird, and Turkey the nation. For, you know, totally different reasons. I must say however that turkey the edible bird is extremely odd looking in person. And it has kind of annoying mannerisms. Like, pokes its head at you and stares and then runs off in a waddling bandy legged fashion.

I am a fan of the hundred page rule too. I feel a hundred pages is enough of a chance to engage me, if it hasn't happened by then its probably not going to. Sometimes I can tell I'm just in the wrong mood and will set the book aside for another time. Maybe its very complex and I've got a lot of demands going on. Or maybe its a perfect beach read and I'm not at the beach. But if I don't like it, then I don't go back.

I'm okay with Oprah. Oprah's screaming devotees sometimes give me pause though.

RandomAnthony wrote: "I believe Jesus would smite this fucker..."

Thanks RA, that gave me a nice laugh. I agree, many viewpoints can be welcome without tolerating that kind of contempt for others.

To clarify. Of course I think that the Catholic church has every right to set whatever rules for their faith they wish to set. And if you are a member of that faith and you know what the rules are you don't have much of a leg to stand on if you are penalized for violating them.

However, I don't much like the rules of Catholicism. There are many with which I disagree quite fundamentally. Which is why I don't choose to place myself under those rules and therefore, am not a Catholic. So I recognise the right of priests to dictate terms to those who have placed themselves under the governance of the church and at the same time decline to do so myself.

That said, I'm not sure whether functioning as a legislator and voting for a bill that your priest doesn't approve of really does put you in a state of sin. I do think it falls into the area of judgement call.

The Church opposes abortion. But Kennedy didn't have one, he didn't perform one. He just wasn't "forceful enough" in his oppostion. That seems like Monday morning quarterbacking. He's got to make his own judgements about how he picks his battles if he stands any hope of being effective.

Planning to!

For a few months anyway.

I also disagree with this call.

Until two days ago Mapquest did not believe in the place I lived. It always said it could not find that address, but would start me from the center of the zipcode. Now I am in LA and it knows where I am. Which will be interesting.

Meep

Where was that other thread about taking compliments well? Ummm.....

Thank you very much its sweet of you to say so.

I heard a review of Christmas Carol that I liked a lot, basically it said why would you take Jim Carey, who has one of the most mobile and expressive faces around, and animate it so that you flatten all his facial expressions? Take away one of the things he does best? Its like hiring James Earl Jones for a silent film!

Oh okay.

Okay so we're firm. No cheese hats on airplanes or making kids stand for the pledge. Yes to throwing magazines and making your points without name calling.

:D

But only to a certain extent. I mean you have to respect authority to some extent for the sake of necessary order. Regardless of whether I actually like the stewardess, if she says its time to sit down because the plane is taking off, you know, fair enough. But there are also limits to the respect that authority should receive. The stewardess can ask me to sit down. She can't ask me to wear a cheese hat and throw magazines at the passenger on the other side of the aisle. Because one request makes sense to me and the other one doesn't.

Just as you have an obligation to respect some reasonable degree of authority for the sake of helping things to run smoothly you also have an obligation to challenge authority if it seems to be unreasonable or abusive or just silly. Otherwise you can end up in that very bad "I was just following orders," place.

It does make sense. Ideally, yes the student would speak respectfully to the teacher even if she was in fact an ass. As my grandmother used to tell me, respect the job even if you can't respect the person in the job.

At the same time the substitute used poor judgement. You don't confront kids and back them into a corner in front of their peers. That's a really good way to push them into flying off at the handle because they aren't mature enough yet to deal with that kind of confrontation without getting overwhelmed and angry. Nice classroom management skills... NOT!

Angie I don't read any criticism of the boy or his choice in the article. So I don't see that it was brought up for the benefit of people who are likely to be opposed or offended. People can just as easily read the article and think what a great kid to take a stand for what he believes in. In fact I think if the article takes any postion that's the position it takes.

I think his stance is a trifle legalistic, but he's a kid. Kids don't tend to see grey areas, they do tend to see things in all black and white. So he thinks - not all people have liberty and justice so the pledge is a lie and I'm not going to take it. Whereas I think, the pledge is a goal and an aspiration, so whether it is literally the case that all American's have liberty and justice - we can still affirm that its what we want.

However whether I agree with his conclusion I like that he's thinking about it, and trying to act on his principles. Isn't that what school should be? a place for learning to think about things and what they mean and whether we agree with them or not?

His teacher made what I would call at best an unwise choice to turn it into a confrontation in front of the whole class.