more fucking annoying shit.

[elpollodiablo]

I'm like 90% convinced that all Mormons should be herded into centralized relocation camps where the gawking masses can file by and point and laugh at them. Some of this has to do with Mitt Romney, but most of it has to do with reading about Mormons. Maybe it's because their religion is so young and its absurdities not yet obscured by the mists of time, maybe it's because they're all fucking crazy as shit--either way, Mormonism is hilarious.

[YojimboMonkey]

No, I meant that by God's Divine Will it's been predestined that he'll take that back.

God love a Calvinist




Well, some of them.

[elpollodiablo]

God hate a Mormon

[jebreject]

I had some inserts made for the Dark Forest EP, 'cause I was out of 'em, and THEY FUCKING CUT THEM TOO SMALL, SO NOW THE CD STICKS OUT OF THEM. FUCKING MORONS.

[YojimboMonkey]

FUCKING MORMONS.

[Maaik]

I'm like 90% convinced that all Mormons should be herded into centralized relocation camps where the gawking masses can file by and point and laugh at them. Some of this has to do with Mitt Romney, but most of it has to do with reading about Mormons. Maybe it's because their religion is so young and its absurdities not yet obscured by the mists of time, maybe it's because they're all fucking crazy as shit--either way, Mormonism is hilarious.

Anyone else seen the trailer for that John Voight Mormon's Historically Suck movie?  That oughta stir some shit up.

[nonotyet]

Ladies and dudes,
you can major in homemaking now.

"We have rampant divorce in our society, literally hundreds of thousands of children who are bereft of one of their parents. We have abusive situations ... We have women who are trying to make homes without the basic skills they need. We have young women who are going to the ends of the Earth (on foreign missions) for Christ and the church and find themselves in situations where the ability to be a good homemaker is a survival technique."[...]"I am wary of the crusade against mothers ... who choose not to have a career but to devote themselves entirely to their homes. That's noble and our society is worse for not maintaining it as a noble cause."

I should not be shocked, because it is a Baptist theological university in Texas, but goddamn. I saw a thing on this on TV and the interview with the head of the department was conducted in front of a statue of Mary Magdalene washing Jesus's feet.

[dieblucasdie]

hey!!  don't forget blucas and i's parents intentionally paid lots of money for us to go to a nice private catholic school in the middle of nowhere indiana, just so the quasi-superstition and moral compass of years of going to church on sunday and religious ed classes wouldn't dissipate in our college years.  (okay if i speak for you blucas?)

You kinda blew my mind with this. For about ten minutes, I was sitting here thinking, "What the fuck? Have slow west vultures and Freddy actually been the same person all along?! How is this possible?"

Then I realised we're probably talking seperate sets of parents, here.

Anyway, I'm down with Max Weber, but I'm not sure how much sense it makes to bring him up in this context - the gist of his 'Protestant Ethic', after all (as far as I remember, anyway - it's been a while), is not about the display of luxury goods and indulgence, but rather about  the Calvinist hard-working, ascetic ethos, which led people to work hard all their lives, make lotsa money, but then not be able to spend it in luxury goods because that was not allowed - and thus re-invest, re-invest, re-invest. So I wouldn't really conflate the historical sociological study of early capitalism with the consumerist-capitalist culture we have now. The funny thing about protestantism (and religions in general) is precisely that conflicting ethical systems exist within, all of which lay claim to being derived from the tenets of the religion, whether it's the show-off-you-riches-to-prove-that-God-loves-you school of thought (which obviously does exist too) or the work-hard-and-allow-yourself-no-luxury one.

it's just a completely different way of looking at things than the catholic method.

Andrew, I am not sure I am reading you right, but were you equating Catholicism with asceticism and saying that Protestants were more likely to go down the luxury-route? Because, uh, that won't work, at least not in countries where Catholicism has any kind of power at all. I mean, one of the very things that led to the development of various strands of Protestantism in the first place was the corrupt, lavish ways of the Catholic church. Although I guess you could argue that in Catholicism, the indulgence in luxury is limited to the high clerus. Heh.

As I understand it (and it's been a while since I read it), Weber felt that the Protestant Ethic was a function of people looking for an outward sign that they were among the "elect" ie, worldly success = "God likes me!" which is why I brought it up.  Whether they were allowed to keep the spoils or not is kinda beside the point.  As I said before, the main difference with the current situation is that the singular conversion experience has replaced predestination in popularity.  This gives the believer a greater sense of agency, which is good and bad.  But I consistently hear American evangelicals talk about their worldly success in a way that reminds me of Weber, which I why I brought it up.


IIRC Weber *does* contrast this with (medieval) Catholicism, where the focus was on constant striving to meet salvation (the sacraments, indulgences, day-to-day morality).

[nonotyet]

I hate my friends.

I have just been informed that my friend who was supposed to see Biz Markie DJ tonight with me is probably not going because his upstairs neighbor is "having people over." and there may or may not be a $10 cover charge to get in and I can't get a straight answer from the internet and that was enough to scare off my other friends who I asked about it and I really don't want to go to this alone, and I really don't want to spend tonight watching Conan O'Brien or some shit, and I hate my friends.

[Swimmy]

I'm like 90% convinced that all Mormons should be herded into centralized relocation camps where the gawking masses can file by and point and laugh at them. Some of this has to do with Mitt Romney, but most of it has to do with reading about Mormons. Maybe it's because their religion is so young and its absurdities not yet obscured by the mists of time, maybe it's because they're all fucking crazy as shit--either way, Mormonism is hilarious.

Anyone else seen the trailer for that John Voight Mormon's Historically Suck movie?  That oughta stir some shit up.

Ebert gave it zero stars. I sent the link to my friend, who got frothingly angry that he only spent a paragraph actually talking about the movie and called the review "bullshit," which only further convinces me that he's the best critic ever.

[slow west vultures]

hey!!  don't forget blucas and i's parents intentionally paid lots of money for us to go to a nice private catholic school in the middle of nowhere indiana, just so the quasi-superstition and moral compass of years of going to church on sunday and religious ed classes wouldn't dissipate in our college years.  (okay if i speak for you blucas?)

You kinda blew my mind with this. For about ten minutes, I was sitting here thinking, "What the fuck? Have slow west vultures and Freddy actually been the same person all along?! How is this possible?"

Then I realised we're probably talking seperate sets of parents, here.

heh, yeah.  it was only last year that i realized that blucas went to notre dame too, and then a couple months later that we graduated in the same exact year too, but we've never met.  i wasn't really that much of a religious rebel, but if i even mentioned in a casual manner "i'm not sure i believe in christianity" my dad would be like "well then we're yanking you out of that school.  what do you think i'm sending you there for."  and my dad's not even the most rah-rah strict catholic guy, i think he just resented the idea that i would become areligious at a school who's main appeals is that it still a catholic university.  i don't think i was either strengthened or lessened in my religiousness or belief in catholic ideas while i was there, but i guess compared to half of my friends who i went to church with in high school, i still would be considered 'catholic'  and unusual in a sense to them that i haven't explicity rebelled or that i still  go to church. 

also i don't know if that mormon movie is about the 'mountain meadows massacre' or not, but there's a pretty good segment on ken burn's series 'The West' about that whole episode, and how the government in the 1850s saw restraining mormonism as a distraction from the major problems concerning slavery and the fighting going on in kansas and elsewhere.  i think it took a pretty balanced look at what happened, if you can call anything about what happened balanced. 

[Andrew_TSKS]

Also, I don't think TSKS was hating on Catholics per se, just saying that this particular girl might have an anti-Protestant bias.

correct, sir.

it's just a completely different way of looking at things than the catholic method.

Andrew, I am not sure I am reading you right, but were you equating Catholicism with asceticism and saying that Protestants were more likely to go down the luxury-route? Because, uh, that won't work, at least not in countries where Catholicism has any kind of power at all. I mean, one of the very things that led to the development of various strands of Protestantism in the first place was the corrupt, lavish ways of the Catholic church. Although I guess you could argue that in Catholicism, the indulgence in luxury is limited to the high clerus. Heh.

i see your point there, and maybe the reason i have the view of catholic congregations that i do is because i live in america, where catholics are a minority compared to protestants, but in my experience, a lot of catholics do have very ascetic views and do a lot of charity work. granted, they're still not selling everything they have and giving all the proceeds to the poor or anything, but in comparison to the blinged-out megachurch lifestyle, they're way less likely to flaunt personal wealth and way more likely to do charity work in the community.

[cool banana]

They may have been cannibals, but at least they were nondenominational.

I like Ebert.

[hannah]

I am in such a bad mood right now that I could devour raw any creature that next crosses my path, be it man or ant.

[hannah]

I may be inclined, even, to rip open my skull and munch on what I find there.

[alex]

blucas - I'm quite certain that it was the specific combination of predetermination and ascetic ideals that Weber highlighted. But, you know, whatever. I'm (thankfully) not very familiar with American evangelists, so maybe there's a parallel there indeed.

i see your point there, and maybe the reason i have the view of catholic congregations that i do is because i live in america, where catholics are a minority compared to protestants, but in my experience, a lot of catholics do have very ascetic views and do a lot of charity work. granted, they're still not selling everything they have and giving all the proceeds to the poor or anything, but in comparison to the blinged-out megachurch lifestyle, they're way less likely to flaunt personal wealth and way more likely to do charity work in the community.

Yeah, I think Catholicism as a majority religion vs. Catholicism as a minority religion really is the key here (hence my disclaimer that this certainly won't hold in countries where the Catholic church is actually powerful). Living in a country where 70% of the population are members of the Catholic church, I can't quite say I share your experience. On the other hand, here Protestantism is actually generally associated with liberal values and cosmopolitanism, which probably makes little sense to you.

[alex]

Also now I'm fucking annoyed at the fact that I still feature as part of those 70%. I need to get my shit together and resign from that club.

[cool banana]

soulseek has my computer's pants around its ankles.

also, there seems to be like nobody online. what happen :[

[SPACERACE]

soulseek doesn't even have pants anymore. it fell off.

[cool banana]

:[

so how to download music? all sharing programs are broken

[SPACERACE]

torrents, like a regular person


you download azureus and then find websites with torrent files. download the torrent file and azureus will open and download it from other people.

[cool banana]

i do that but it goes oh so slow :[

but yeah i've been doing that of late and it's nigh on impossible to find any new zealand music torrents. soulseek was fun times for that. oh well. that's annoying

[SPACERACE]

that's because you're downloading torrents from crappy sites and your ports probably aren't forwarded.

i'm not going to give a walkthrough, sorry. i know i'm a douchebag.

[El_Josharino]

torrents, like a regular person


you download utorrent and then find websites with torrent files. download the torrent file and azureus will open and download it from other people.

[Swimmy]

Word. Azureus has some niceness to it, but it is a RAM killer.