sexual_chocolate

you seem to know enough of the cuban people to speak for them? wow. same to all you armchair qb's who are so intimately knowledgeable about another country. Is someone channeling the "If you aren't a Muslim..." argument? One can formulate an opinion on a particular regime without presuming to speak for the inhabitants living under the regime, no? Any ideas why it may be more difficult to discern the true sentiments of Cubans on this topic than it would be for say, the Dutch? the last question of your post would be the germane question, and the one that seems to be without an answer (except for FW's fair and objective take). there is of course opposition to the castro regime in cuba, fairly obvious, but there is also widespread support within cuba, which is way less obvious to consumers of exclusively domestic US news. now, do i believe in a single party dictatorship? no. do i think castro was a really bad guy? no. contradiction? no.

you seem to know enough of the cuban people to speak for them? wow. same to all you armchair qb's who are so intimately knowledgeable about another country.

yeah the lewd comments, the request to take it down; pretty simple really, i thought. jeez, i won't post pics of friends without letting them know, or asking first. but that's me.

overhang it 45 to 60 degrees. core strength.

jeez, where to start? Dead Calm Cape Fear (Original) Streetcar Named Desire Matchstick Factory Girl Dead Man Ghost Dog On the Waterfront Last Tango in Paris Knife in the Water (awesome) K-Pax (I liked it!) Lawrence of Arabia Mulholland Drive Jaws Querelle The Man Who Fell to Earth The Wave Walkabout Harold and Maude well that's a couple at least.

what are the specific constitutional references to private property rights?

thanks i'll check some of those out. i heard once of something called "6 feet under" or something that was supposta be good. have not seen it around though....

but the most important in solidifying christianity's grip.

it's kinda funny that the first four listed are potentially the least important, in terms of living a humanistically ethical life.

Hey i've been watching The Office on dvd, all the way from the first episodes to now, and man, it's really funny at times. carrell is brilliant, the writing's pretty damn clever, and dwight! so i'm almost done, and wondering if there are other tv shows that are worth checking out. we rarely watch tv, so i don't get any exposure to what's happening out there, so recommendations, old and new, are appreciated.

what do you think?

i know. i addressed the aspect i specifically disagreed with, since it was lumped in with these subjects. i don't think honor killings and forced marriages are directly driven by poverty and desperation. i would tend to think that poverty and desperation can make people cling to traditions though, making "progress" more difficult.... remember too that both of these occur in other countries and cultures also, with india coming to mind (hindu traditions). and, no i don't support these traditions. my own set of values contradict these traditions, since i tend to support the growth of the individual to his or her greatest potential (enlightenment perhaps). what would the relevance of this be? i don't quite understand.... the japanese suicide bombers, the hero who sacrifices his own life for a cause (from our own culture).... i would also bet that if the people in question had the weapons to respond in what you consider a conventional fashion, doubtlessly they would. tell me what the point you are trying to make with this line of questioning is? is it that the muslim tradition rewards suicide bombers, or is it something else? were they plotting a suicide mission? yes it is clear that there is religious zealotry. this isn't new. what's your thinking on this? i don't think, first of all, the brazilian kids have been very politicized. is their anger towards the US extreme? how about the haitians?

added note: it seems as though you spend a bit of time in the lab, so your understanding of chemical processees gives you the knowledge to note that certain chemical reactions are predictable, step by step. step one happens, catalyses step two, etc etc. my point is that in general, violence begets violence. it has been called a universal law by some. while suicide bombings are "barbaric", they don't happen in a vacuum. they tend to happen in environments where people feel themselves to have no other choice with which to respond to the difficult conditions they face. morally condemning anyone doesn't change the situation.

I don't see these as being so conveniently separable at all. do you label the invasion as an "inexcusable barbarism"? if you don't, then this is where many have serious issues with your duplicity and lack of ability to see context. the rest of your post seemed reasonable.

tried it a few times. v7'ish (for me) boulder problem (i seem unable to use the finger crack as a jam), into what seems like 5.12 crack climbing. we just bouldered our way up through the start, protecting as we went. yeah kinda hard to protect, and a toprope would be really hard cuz of the steepness. ben g. is pretty psyched on the line, and has worked it out. i imagine he'll be out there soon to redpoint, along with others perhaps.

(it's easy to label soemthing as "extremism" from the comforts of your safe and secure arm-chair).

or maybe it is. i do think it's important to understand what a particular group's beliefs are, and what they are based on. i don't think it's intellectually honest to overlook aspects of codified religious dogma and its influence on people simply because it's "not nice" to do so; we seemingly hold up christianity to a more critical reading here than we do islam. i think it's this "hypocrisy" that one might have a problem with. there are aspects of islam, and mohammed's teachings, that seem terribly violence condoning and barbaric, just as there are in christianity. havng said this, i think it's important to understand the political context of so called religious extremism, and the role this plays in shaping people's relationship to their religious and cultural heritage.

there's a sweet little gem of a route called Cosmic Trigger in vantage of all places that hasn't, to my knowledge, seen a repeat.

And what about a second Free ascent of Liberty Crack?

you want the terrorists to win dont you.

Ha! I went back and read the thread from the beginning, thinking about the Baring route as I went along, and scrolled down to find this post. if yer thinking of vanishing point, yah been done at least a coupla times. anyone ever herd of never never crack bein reppeat?

you obviously have not heard the story of sunshine and storm, have you? little boy is in it too.

yes, any thoughtful person has a problem with this. i personally am more curious about the ones you consider "essentialized", and what their take on current events is. I would suspect the breakdown is much akin to the breakdown of the "western" "christian" "group", with thought processees representing various levels of enlightenment (and this level of enlightenment has nothing to do with one's group identification, since to me, "enlightenment" naturally matures to a loss of such identification....) i don't think there is a discrete differentiation between the two; the concept of "metaphysics" is entirely a "historical phenomenon" in the sense that ALL concepts have a history and are intimately enmeshed within this historical context (using a word as somehow devoid of its historicity i think belies the actual conditionality of the word). Further, it elides the connections between political islam and islam itself. the movements you mention have ALL identified with the core "teachings" of Muhammed, interpreting them as they see fit. We can talk about actual conditions, and justifications for one's positions etc etc, but i think it's important to understand what kind of world a proponent of particular ideas may wish for. again, any thoughtful person would have a problem with this. are there any here that don't?

so with that in mind, bin laden (or, insert your chosen variable representing some form of intolerant fundamentalist idiocy) is about all you'd need to know on the subject of islam. actually, this is a rather poor example, since bin laden has a somewhat sophisticated thought process....

Never Never Crack?