My husband is in Bangkok for the weekend. He reports that the protests are more party-atmosphere than dangerous, but I still worry. And I'm still envious, too!
No thanksgiving here. I guess we choose to not set a day aside to give thanks for friends and family and/or commiserate about the moral fuck ups of our ancestors. A pity on both counts.
We do have a government working to bring back some of the fascist good old days, which is worrying me personally. Nothing like watching a truck drive slowly by, playing 1930's right-wing music and exhorting all the foreigners to leave Japan for the Japanese...Handsum might enjoy the irony. I am not worried in public but I would definitely not want to meet these guys in an alley.
At least we don't have the crazy sales.
@Donna, hope Brian stays safe and enjoys his time. Bangkok is great city and with great people so I wouldn't worry. Asia culture is flip a switch kind of culture though. Good that he has friends to let him know when its not good to be out...and what not to say in public.
Husband safely back in the third world after a long weekend of first world problems (mall closures due to protests). It's shocking how little the US news media tells us about what is happening elsewhere in the world, and yet every European I meet seems to know more about US politics than most of the USians I deal with on a daily basis.
A Facebook friend of mine posted a totally gnarly picture of his finger in the midst of a nail gun accident. He's got a good sense of humor about it. Construction is *dangerous*, you all! Respect your craftspeople!!
Dec 2, 13 9:16 am ·
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Japan's future looks qutie scary. Aside from hte Fukushima mess, the abe-nomics poicy is hgihly risky. crashing the currency may help exports and juice the stok market which can look nice in the short term. But in hte bigger picture, the bond market is far more important and Japan already has crushing debt. growht is needed to overwhelm the debt but the demographics of old age are workng against that.
even worse, japan has very little natural energy sources. they need imports and devaluing the currency only makes it more expensive. an isolated island of old people & radiation? those rightwingers have little to worry about, japan will likely be only for japanese. flygin indeed.
Oddly the Japanese banks are all flush with cash - people still save a lot (and lose value due to inflation, even at their rates of inflation).
Sometimes I want to go back there, raise the old family banner and put a smack down on the right-wing sissies. Apparently they don't like to fight face to face, you're more likely to get clocked from behind even while spouting the strengths of old Japan.
If they weren't so culturally hell bent on conformity and risk aversion they wouldn't be so badly off. I get the feeling that sooner or later they'll get out of their funk and take a few islands in the south and north to get at some of the oil/ng below the ocean floor.
Since Will did not chime in, it's largely a harvest celebration, and that's why it's timed for the 1st or 2nd Monday of October, since winter encroaches on them more rapidly than it does on us (U.S.).
Had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday minus the 11 hours stuck in a car yesterday coming home...
@observant re: Myers-Briggs I have taken the tests a number of time through HR with various teams at work (as team building exercise) a few years ago i was a ENTP now ENTJ. not sure what changed..
re: enneagram test i was a bit confused as I found that in some cases both answers applied. however my top three Types were
Type 1: The Reformer. The rational, idealistic type.
Type 2: The Helper. The caring, nurturing type.
Type 3: The Motivator. The adaptable, success-oriented type..
given generation/countercultural nature of my parents I was raised in an anti-flouride household. however now i use flouride toothpaste/mouthwash and my teeth have never been better.
I find this stuff mildly interesting. What is said is that the ENTJ is the executive type. It's something about that 'N' where they are intuitive, as opposed to sensing (scanning). Maybe that intuition is a "killer instinct" of sorts. I'm sure getting to the corner office involves some blood on one's hands, a la "Mad Men," which is not the sort of thing I'd watch.
The ESTJs and ISTJs are their soldiers or minions they choose to carry out their tasks.
In a work environment where everyone was already on board, we did a thing called Emergenetics (sp). It's 4 components were: social, structural, conceptual, and analytical. They were diagrammed for us as a pie shape. The results for various people were eye-opening, in that they corroborated what they really were like.
Miles, coffee only once per day? Either you drink too little coffee or you have one helluva large cup require-ring it to be filled in the morning. I hope it's the second one and thus am jealous.
i can't recall when thanksgiving is in canada. I think quite a it earlier than in the usa. I guess we have as much to be guilty about but it was always a loving time as far as i can remember with awesome scones and roasted pig flesh and lots of family around a massive table. Nothing but good memories. We failed to worry or talk about the oppressed people we were grinding our boots into somehow...maybe we were waiting for america to say something first.
Anyway, we don't celebrate any Western holidays except christmas in our ex-pat life. makes little sense to try.
I can't get archinect to work on my phone anymore so i only post when i have time to sit at desk, which is not so often lately. Abe nomics may be out of synch in a lot of ways, but we are somehow busier than we have been for quite awhile. The debt issue is not worrying me so much, and Fukushima is complicated, but my hope is that we will learn as a nation to build back a more resilient way of life, and that has nothing to do with the politicians, although it should. I would be very glad if we were able to get teh govt behind reconstruction and resilience in general, but instead all we have is flashy stadiums and flashier economic policies. It is an interesting time for Japan, and for the world. Feels like something interesting is brewing actually. These are certainly problems we are looking at on a daily basis and many others are doing a lo more.
I have such a hard time being as bleak as so many regulars here. Must be my coffee.
@Donna, Americans know shit about the rest of the world cuz it ain't necessary. You controllin it all. But if you want to see more about Bangkok its on the BBC every day. I been following it close as Bangkok hosts the HQ of a small program I run for my university. Compelling stuff.
Will, your iPhone is still giving you trouble with Archinect? That's frustrating.
I looooove Turkish coffee. A coworker of mine at my Kentucky gig (former, now - I resigned for this coming summer and it's really breaking my heart, still) would make Turkish coffee in the clay studio. Oh man. So good.
I've been following Bangkok via a US ex-pat's twitter feed. The nice thing about the internet is how much more info it makes available to us, in a truly amazing, immediate way. The nasty snark and filter-free tantrums (of which I am super guilty, too) is the down side of the internet.
My experience is, based on the news aired regarding my region of the world, BBC aint dependable. Neither are other 'respectable' sources such as der speigel or le figaro or le monde...they totally recycle their own version of the news derivative from the same intelligence bodies that harbour apriori aims. That is to say, eurocentric, nato-centric...and therefore, ironically, in the really important things, quite US centric. Europe is geopolotically an ally - even a client conglomeration of the US. Your best bet would be the thai themselves, thai intellectuals, independent (aka 'leftists'). Also there would definitely be western bridging intellectuals..., context must be understood, otherwise one is easily mislead. Its easy for one to consume news mindlessly thinking thinking it'll make them know more..but that falls prey to: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing .
As for canadian thanksgiving, i believe no they dont celebrate a genocide (although they had an infamous role to play, but thats besides the point of thanksgiving). They celebrate it here, historically, as a harvest thingy. And thankfully, they dont turn into a bunch of hooligan nationalists over thanksgiving like the americans. Canadians are definitely a milder bunch, américains au lait.
As for canadian thanksgiving, i believe no they dont celebrate a genocide (although they had an infamous role to play, but thats besides the point of thanksgiving). They celebrate it here, historically, as a harvest thingy. And thankfully, they dont turn into a bunch of hooligan nationalists over thanksgiving like the americans. Canadians are definitely a milder bunch, américains au lait.
Harvest thingy, eh? I said that exact same thing above. Canadians are milder bunch because many, not all, have those smug, cold-weather Anglo-British sensibilities, right down to "centre"and "harbour." They think all Americans are rowdy Texans, which is quite ignorant. Sometimes, I can't blame the more effervescent people of Quebec for wanting to secede, on a cultural level, though, economically, it wouldn't have been that smart.
I'll distill it this way: Vancouver is Canada's Miami. That's not good enough. We have a REAL Miami. Nous avons les plages de la Floride avec ses belles couleurs et l'eau chaud. Comprendez vous?
The british never struck me as being cold actually.are we talking manchester, devon, london...? The southeners are cute. The northeners are more austere, harsher lovin'. And they have a cannibalistic sense of humour. They're far more interesting. But that's to be expected.
I have not had any instruction in French since age 17, so it's even amazing to me I understand it at all, as all my classmates have forgotten it, save using it for a week of vacation in Quebec every 2 or so years.
Et quand je suis en vacance a la provence du Quebec, je n'ai pas des problemmes, et je parle avec les francophones en francais.
hah, my friends from french speaking europe say quebecois french is horrible and/or wonderful. My own french sucks hind teat, but French are more forgiving of my pronunciation than when I speak American Spanish in Spain. I think France has learned to chill a bit maybe...
BBC is better than FOX at least. And anyway, whatever you think about its level of truthiness, they are covering Asia...not gonna happen in USA cuz who gives a fuck...or whatever.
Al Jazeera is often quite good, but we don't get it as a channel only a limited chunk in the morning news roundup on Japanese National TV (where they broadcast world news from around the world just as it is for a couple hours - a cool thing to do actually).
canadian humor is awesome. SNL, Friday Night, SCTV, This Hour has 22 minutes, Kids in the Hall, Trailer Park boys...its all good stuff. OK, SNL is maybe not canadian but most of the cast are/were...all the best american entertainment comes from canada. canadian content is always slightly off though, i agree.
Al jazeera is bad when it comes to its own region of expertise. It has played very biased roles in egypyt where it was kicked out by the egyptian people who got rid of the muslim brotherhood), syria where they try to misrepresent al qaeda factions as freedom fighters and fabricating events to counter the syrian regime), libya, tunis...etc. at one point, jazeera turned expressedly to repdesent the politics of its owners, the pro-moslemobrotherhood nondemocratic monarchy of qatar. I could go on.
Anyway, al jazeera's role as an independent station has long been over in the arab world. Its best employees had massed resigned due to its increasing conservatism and its bias. It is reviled now by many. It has been usurped by the beirut based al-Mayadeen. Unfortunately, the latter has not started to air in english.
tammuz, i'm seeing that you are saying al jazeera is biased. i'm not sure about that, since i haven't watched their coverage in a while. when i did watch them, i thought they were doing a lot better than many of the other media outlets i had access to, including fox or cnn.
when you make a claim of bias like that, am i supposed to assume you're speaking without bias? you've made a lot of claims that kind of make me think you hate white people. i'm not really interested in a news station that is going to demand sharia law in canada. hypothetically, is that the sort of news station you would consider unbiased?
all of these big media corporations (and with consolidaton over past 30 odd years there is only a handful of them now) are controlled by secret societies dedicated to abusing children & protecting the pedophiles & theri reptile masters.
this is how they protect the lies. they control the narrative. And why wouldn't you believer it if it is what you've always been told?
curtkram; you've chosen to interpret my concerns expewssed previously as hatred towards "white people" (whatever that means). that is unfortunate. if someone says the germans commited atrocities during the WW2 that is not to condemn germans for being germans and neither to express hatred towards them. that is an interperative fallacy. and neither is the intention to make each and every german feel guilty as an individual and nor for that guilt complex to be used against them . but a tragedy perpetrated against a people or a race to found a country, or established on a national level, should be addressed appropriately, not regressed into a mock-celebration you call thanksgiving for instance. and not in a continuation of denigration and mockery. its quite simple. in fact, it is you (and many others) who disclosed regressive hatred by lashing out so irrationally to stated concerns. that means the topic is a sensitive one and that your country, and its national psyche, has not yet resolved it.
by the way, canadians have their share of historical nastiness towards the native people but it just happens that their thanksgiving - as far as i am able to tell- is not as badly timed as the american's. i havent found sub
as for al jazeera, i have explained to you the reasons for their bias. I am able to follow them in arabic and in english and i am able to tell you that they are complicit in the wars waged against syria, libya, egypt (by the muslim brotherhood) and were proactively used to misrepresent reality, the arabic-language Jazeera is far more overt in its virulence, the english language one is more covert but delivers the same message.
this is very well known now in the arab world: the two major dirty media players (followed by many other lesser ones) were/are Saudi Arabia's Al Arabiya and Qatar's Al Jazeera. I have already mentioned that their were mass resignations from Al Jazeera due to increasing religious conservatism and restricting the freedom of its employees from representing the truth on ground.
Dec 3, 13 12:22 pm ·
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15 cups per day?? good lord, i have maybe 1-2 coffees per week & it makes me feel wired out o fmy mind.
that'd be some serious withdrawal symptoms too if yu ever detox.
indeed,HandsumCa$hMoneyYo, it is not merely CIA behind Al Jazeera. Note that the Emir of Qatar's (Al Jazeera being the country's media venture) abdication coincides with the turn-around of the american policy towards Syria and Iran. Within very limited limits, the GCC monarchs are subservient to the US foreign policy.
All right, since this has gotten political and religious, I will throw in my observations and stereotypes, which are hopefully humorous, about the idiosyncracies of the major religions of which I am aware:
Catholicism and Christian Orthodoxy(with ancestral ties to Southern Europe): (1) a veneer of tradition for many today, with abysmal participation rates, (2) tell rude or off-color jokes about nuns and/or priests, some of which are somewhat valid and even deserved, (3) an attitude that you can party, drink, cuss, talk about sex, have sex, cat call, and have a side dish in addition to your spouse, just as long as you recite a prayer or two with the priest on your deathbed in order to see the pearly gates, (4) priests in Greece dressed in long black outfits when it's hot outside, jovially smiling at everyone, townie and tourist alike, despite a nude beach 500 meters behind their backs, because he knows what side the town's bread is buttered on.
Catholicism (with ancestral ties to Northern Europe): (1) a son becoming a priest is a blessing for them (i.e. the Irish) whereas for the Med types, it would be a curse, (2) need to have booze in the system to kick up the revelry, back slapping, and include some Lampanelli talk because, without it, the latter would cause them to turn as red as a tomato and be offended, (3) historically made more babies than their Med counterparts (you might have seen the Monty Python film where the woman drops a fetus while she's doing the dishes, as if it was nothing)
Judaism: (1) intelligent, with a dose of neurosis a la Woody Allen, thanks to castration anxiety promulgated by Philip Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" and overbearing mothers who are training their sons to handle a wife just like them and their daughters to be just like them, (2) oh, the guilt, illustrated by the light bulb jokes ... as in Q: How many Californians does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Ten. One to do it, and nine to "share" in the experience .... so Q: How does a Jewish mother change a light bulb? A: She tells her son (insert intonation): "That's ok, don't vorry about me ... I can sit in the dark."
Mormonism: (1) don't plan on being invited to a wedding since, if not LDS, you can't get into the temple, something Ann Romney's parents had to contend with, (2) those in "good standing" dutifully part with 10% of their income right off the top, (3) experts at procreating and they try to keep up with Joneses in this department, with many owning minivans, (4) pushier at the door than JWs
Jehovah's Witnesses: (1) their leaflet "The Watchtower" had quality illustrations I enjoyed as a kid, (2) their HQ sits on some seriously prime real estate in Brooklyn Heights, near the Brooklyn Bridge, (3) one wonders if showing up nude to the door will cause you to forever be removed from their "do not solicit" list, though it is not something I would do, (4) you will never hear "Happy Birthday" being sung to a JW at the Olive Garden
Islam: (1) the guys love to major in engineering, (2) often rich, at least in the U.S., (3) often smoke a lot and drink a lot of coffee, (4) tried to buy a pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni for lunch for an observant Iranian guy doing some work on a condo and learned the pepperoni were a no-go (5) when newly arrived to the U.S., they import their grammatical constructs over to English, such as: "Hey, blonde girl, I give you ride in new Trans Am," whereas, when assimilated or first gen, they graduate from consumption of Firebirds, and it reverts to "Hey, Mindy (that's a dumb blonde name, right?), how about going for a spin in my new BMW 7 series?" (It's all good, Hispanics import their grammatical constructs as well, such as eschool, eskiing, and Esteve McQueen).
Hinduism: (1) exotic, (2) far away, (3) Siddhartha, (4) something about not hitting a cow with a car, and (5) Mother Theresa trying to snag a few of them for the Catholics
Bhuddism: (1) elaborate pagodas with splayed eaves, (2) very silent when making their very divine and solemn looking moves when praying or meditating, (3) karma will in fact run over your dogma, (4) popularized by Richard Gere
Protestantism: (1) country club membership is a must if rich and educated, (2) many rednecks if in the South, (3) many hicks if in small towns in the flyover zone, and (4) last but not least, the bridegroom's parents on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," who probably really lived in Minneapolis more so than multi-ethnic Chicago, and epitomized the word insufferable.
So, since I no longer practice my religion all that much (one of the above listed), and don't care all that much for organized religion, this is my tongue and cheek view of the personal traits often accompanying some major religions. Have I missed anyone?
I don't know. I had to read "Siddhartha" in grammar school. I don't remember the content. I forgot one for Hindusim: (6) seem to own many small hotels, gas stations, and convenience stores if in the U.S. and Canada.
Thread Central
Black Friday. Patrik Schumaker's 'market forces' at work.
Consumerism, the white plague. We're doomed.
White snow, black pit...
I like the Onion's take on it: 42 Million Dead in Bloodiest Black Friday Weekend On Record.
Maybe that's what we need, actually.*
*I say this sarcastically and with trepidation that karma will now turn Bangkok into a bloody battle zone. They have malls there, too, of course.
Wow TC is updating madly. I can't keep up.
No thanksgiving here. I guess we choose to not set a day aside to give thanks for friends and family and/or commiserate about the moral fuck ups of our ancestors. A pity on both counts.
We do have a government working to bring back some of the fascist good old days, which is worrying me personally. Nothing like watching a truck drive slowly by, playing 1930's right-wing music and exhorting all the foreigners to leave Japan for the Japanese...Handsum might enjoy the irony. I am not worried in public but I would definitely not want to meet these guys in an alley.
At least we don't have the crazy sales.
@Donna, hope Brian stays safe and enjoys his time. Bangkok is great city and with great people so I wouldn't worry. Asia culture is flip a switch kind of culture though. Good that he has friends to let him know when its not good to be out...and what not to say in public.
I have to go back to work tomorrow. I've been off for a week. Bah.
Sarah, Will can answer as to what the Canadians celebrate on their Thanksgiving.
However, since it's in October, it coincides with peak fall color in Eastern Canada and Quebec kicks ass when it looks like that. Breathtaking.
Husband safely back in the third world after a long weekend of first world problems (mall closures due to protests). It's shocking how little the US news media tells us about what is happening elsewhere in the world, and yet every European I meet seems to know more about US politics than most of the USians I deal with on a daily basis.
A Facebook friend of mine posted a totally gnarly picture of his finger in the midst of a nail gun accident. He's got a good sense of humor about it. Construction is *dangerous*, you all! Respect your craftspeople!!
Japan's future looks qutie scary. Aside from hte Fukushima mess, the abe-nomics poicy is hgihly risky. crashing the currency may help exports and juice the stok market which can look nice in the short term. But in hte bigger picture, the bond market is far more important and Japan already has crushing debt. growht is needed to overwhelm the debt but the demographics of old age are workng against that.
even worse, japan has very little natural energy sources. they need imports and devaluing the currency only makes it more expensive. an isolated island of old people & radiation? those rightwingers have little to worry about, japan will likely be only for japanese. flygin indeed.
Oddly the Japanese banks are all flush with cash - people still save a lot (and lose value due to inflation, even at their rates of inflation).
Sometimes I want to go back there, raise the old family banner and put a smack down on the right-wing sissies. Apparently they don't like to fight face to face, you're more likely to get clocked from behind even while spouting the strengths of old Japan.
If they weren't so culturally hell bent on conformity and risk aversion they wouldn't be so badly off. I get the feeling that sooner or later they'll get out of their funk and take a few islands in the south and north to get at some of the oil/ng below the ocean floor.
Yaaaaa, Donna, althout it is interesting to think about the safety of the third world.
Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving by giving thanks that they are not Americans.
Since Will did not chime in, it's largely a harvest celebration, and that's why it's timed for the 1st or 2nd Monday of October, since winter encroaches on them more rapidly than it does on us (U.S.).
hey TC!
Had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday minus the 11 hours stuck in a car yesterday coming home...
@observant re: Myers-Briggs I have taken the tests a number of time through HR with various teams at work (as team building exercise) a few years ago i was a ENTP now ENTJ. not sure what changed..
re: enneagram test i was a bit confused as I found that in some cases both answers applied. however my top three Types were
Type 1: The Reformer. The rational, idealistic type.
Type 2: The Helper. The caring, nurturing type.
Type 3: The Motivator. The adaptable, success-oriented type..
given generation/countercultural nature of my parents I was raised in an anti-flouride household. however now i use flouride toothpaste/mouthwash and my teeth have never been better.
Nam:
I find this stuff mildly interesting. What is said is that the ENTJ is the executive type. It's something about that 'N' where they are intuitive, as opposed to sensing (scanning). Maybe that intuition is a "killer instinct" of sorts. I'm sure getting to the corner office involves some blood on one's hands, a la "Mad Men," which is not the sort of thing I'd watch.
The ESTJs and ISTJs are their soldiers or minions they choose to carry out their tasks.
In a work environment where everyone was already on board, we did a thing called Emergenetics (sp). It's 4 components were: social, structural, conceptual, and analytical. They were diagrammed for us as a pie shape. The results for various people were eye-opening, in that they corroborated what they really were like.
not sure what changed..
not to belabor the point or anything, but what changed was probably your answers on the test?
that's really why astrology is so much more useful. your birthdate does not change.
Turkish coffee reading is much more reliable. Your birthday is only one day a year. I drink coffee every day - what's more consistent than that?
Miles, coffee only once per day? Either you drink too little coffee or you have one helluva large cup require-ring it to be filled in the morning. I hope it's the second one and thus am jealous.
Who said anything about once a day?
I use the drip method, IV drip that is.
i can't recall when thanksgiving is in canada. I think quite a it earlier than in the usa. I guess we have as much to be guilty about but it was always a loving time as far as i can remember with awesome scones and roasted pig flesh and lots of family around a massive table. Nothing but good memories. We failed to worry or talk about the oppressed people we were grinding our boots into somehow...maybe we were waiting for america to say something first.
Anyway, we don't celebrate any Western holidays except christmas in our ex-pat life. makes little sense to try.
I can't get archinect to work on my phone anymore so i only post when i have time to sit at desk, which is not so often lately. Abe nomics may be out of synch in a lot of ways, but we are somehow busier than we have been for quite awhile. The debt issue is not worrying me so much, and Fukushima is complicated, but my hope is that we will learn as a nation to build back a more resilient way of life, and that has nothing to do with the politicians, although it should. I would be very glad if we were able to get teh govt behind reconstruction and resilience in general, but instead all we have is flashy stadiums and flashier economic policies. It is an interesting time for Japan, and for the world. Feels like something interesting is brewing actually. These are certainly problems we are looking at on a daily basis and many others are doing a lo more.
I have such a hard time being as bleak as so many regulars here. Must be my coffee.
@Donna, Americans know shit about the rest of the world cuz it ain't necessary. You controllin it all. But if you want to see more about Bangkok its on the BBC every day. I been following it close as Bangkok hosts the HQ of a small program I run for my university. Compelling stuff.
ah coffee is ready, back to work!
Will, your iPhone is still giving you trouble with Archinect? That's frustrating.
I looooove Turkish coffee. A coworker of mine at my Kentucky gig (former, now - I resigned for this coming summer and it's really breaking my heart, still) would make Turkish coffee in the clay studio. Oh man. So good.
I've been following Bangkok via a US ex-pat's twitter feed. The nice thing about the internet is how much more info it makes available to us, in a truly amazing, immediate way. The nasty snark and filter-free tantrums (of which I am super guilty, too) is the down side of the internet.
My experience is, based on the news aired regarding my region of the world, BBC aint dependable. Neither are other 'respectable' sources such as der speigel or le figaro or le monde...they totally recycle their own version of the news derivative from the same intelligence bodies that harbour apriori aims. That is to say, eurocentric, nato-centric...and therefore, ironically, in the really important things, quite US centric. Europe is geopolotically an ally - even a client conglomeration of the US. Your best bet would be the thai themselves, thai intellectuals, independent (aka 'leftists'). Also there would definitely be western bridging intellectuals..., context must be understood, otherwise one is easily mislead. Its easy for one to consume news mindlessly thinking thinking it'll make them know more..but that falls prey to: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing .
As for canadian thanksgiving, i believe no they dont celebrate a genocide (although they had an infamous role to play, but thats besides the point of thanksgiving). They celebrate it here, historically, as a harvest thingy. And thankfully, they dont turn into a bunch of hooligan nationalists over thanksgiving like the americans. Canadians are definitely a milder bunch, américains au lait.
But god does their humour suck.
As for canadian thanksgiving, i believe no they dont celebrate a genocide (although they had an infamous role to play, but thats besides the point of thanksgiving). They celebrate it here, historically, as a harvest thingy. And thankfully, they dont turn into a bunch of hooligan nationalists over thanksgiving like the americans. Canadians are definitely a milder bunch, américains au lait.
Harvest thingy, eh? I said that exact same thing above. Canadians are milder bunch because many, not all, have those smug, cold-weather Anglo-British sensibilities, right down to "centre"and "harbour." They think all Americans are rowdy Texans, which is quite ignorant. Sometimes, I can't blame the more effervescent people of Quebec for wanting to secede, on a cultural level, though, economically, it wouldn't have been that smart.
I'll distill it this way: Vancouver is Canada's Miami. That's not good enough. We have a REAL Miami. Nous avons les plages de la Floride avec ses belles couleurs et l'eau chaud. Comprendez vous?
The british never struck me as being cold actually.are we talking manchester, devon, london...? The southeners are cute. The northeners are more austere, harsher lovin'. And they have a cannibalistic sense of humour. They're far more interesting. But that's to be expected.
Not to mention the welsh, scots, irish. The welsh are adorable. Such sweet natured friendly people.
(note,c'est plutôt comprenez-vous ( ressamblant la conjugaison du verbe prendre)
(et en suite il faur ramplacer "ses" par "leurs" )
le fardeau d'un m'as tu vu
yeah, those dirty Americans, errr...Europeans; Spanish, Dutch, French, British, Belgians, Italians...all those genocidal fucks.
^^
I have not had any instruction in French since age 17, so it's even amazing to me I understand it at all, as all my classmates have forgotten it, save using it for a week of vacation in Quebec every 2 or so years.
Et quand je suis en vacance a la provence du Quebec, je n'ai pas des problemmes, et je parle avec les francophones en francais.
in that case, its very good. i was not undermining, merely suggesting corrections.
i struggle with understanding the quebec accent/s. it is jarring, but so is the ottawawawainas.
( je n'ai aucun problème (dans le sens absolut) / Je n'ai pas de problème)
(ainsi que: Je n'ai pas de problèmes
mais "des problèmes" .... avec la négation, "des" devient "de")
no, not jarring, jarring suggests being consonantal ...rather its tangy, dipthongy. when mild, its cute, when extreme...its something else
hah, my friends from french speaking europe say quebecois french is horrible and/or wonderful. My own french sucks hind teat, but French are more forgiving of my pronunciation than when I speak American Spanish in Spain. I think France has learned to chill a bit maybe...
BBC is better than FOX at least. And anyway, whatever you think about its level of truthiness, they are covering Asia...not gonna happen in USA cuz who gives a fuck...or whatever.
Al Jazeera is often quite good, but we don't get it as a channel only a limited chunk in the morning news roundup on Japanese National TV (where they broadcast world news from around the world just as it is for a couple hours - a cool thing to do actually).
canadian humor is awesome. SNL, Friday Night, SCTV, This Hour has 22 minutes, Kids in the Hall, Trailer Park boys...its all good stuff. OK, SNL is maybe not canadian but most of the cast are/were...all the best american entertainment comes from canada. canadian content is always slightly off though, i agree.
Al jazeera is bad when it comes to its own region of expertise. It has played very biased roles in egypyt where it was kicked out by the egyptian people who got rid of the muslim brotherhood), syria where they try to misrepresent al qaeda factions as freedom fighters and fabricating events to counter the syrian regime), libya, tunis...etc. at one point, jazeera turned expressedly to repdesent the politics of its owners, the pro-moslemobrotherhood nondemocratic monarchy of qatar. I could go on. Anyway, al jazeera's role as an independent station has long been over in the arab world. Its best employees had massed resigned due to its increasing conservatism and its bias. It is reviled now by many. It has been usurped by the beirut based al-Mayadeen. Unfortunately, the latter has not started to air in english.
Oh..and to add...their (jazeera) best x-employees now work at almayadeen. So, word of caution..
tammuz, i'm seeing that you are saying al jazeera is biased. i'm not sure about that, since i haven't watched their coverage in a while. when i did watch them, i thought they were doing a lot better than many of the other media outlets i had access to, including fox or cnn.
when you make a claim of bias like that, am i supposed to assume you're speaking without bias? you've made a lot of claims that kind of make me think you hate white people. i'm not really interested in a news station that is going to demand sharia law in canada. hypothetically, is that the sort of news station you would consider unbiased?
aljezera is cia controlled.
bbc is full of child abusers.and also controlled by spy influences.
all of these big media corporations (and with consolidaton over past 30 odd years there is only a handful of them now) are controlled by secret societies dedicated to abusing children & protecting the pedophiles & theri reptile masters.
this is how they protect the lies. they control the narrative. And why wouldn't you believer it if it is what you've always been told?
and how the fuck do the cancadians get a pass on genocide just cause they hold their "thanksgiving celebrations" a month earlier?
more good news from japan, melt-through of fukushima containment vessels.
I'll bet car rides with you are a blast.
curtkram; you've chosen to interpret my concerns expewssed previously as hatred towards "white people" (whatever that means). that is unfortunate. if someone says the germans commited atrocities during the WW2 that is not to condemn germans for being germans and neither to express hatred towards them. that is an interperative fallacy. and neither is the intention to make each and every german feel guilty as an individual and nor for that guilt complex to be used against them . but a tragedy perpetrated against a people or a race to found a country, or established on a national level, should be addressed appropriately, not regressed into a mock-celebration you call thanksgiving for instance. and not in a continuation of denigration and mockery. its quite simple. in fact, it is you (and many others) who disclosed regressive hatred by lashing out so irrationally to stated concerns. that means the topic is a sensitive one and that your country, and its national psyche, has not yet resolved it.
by the way, canadians have their share of historical nastiness towards the native people but it just happens that their thanksgiving - as far as i am able to tell- is not as badly timed as the american's. i havent found sub
as for al jazeera, i have explained to you the reasons for their bias. I am able to follow them in arabic and in english and i am able to tell you that they are complicit in the wars waged against syria, libya, egypt (by the muslim brotherhood) and were proactively used to misrepresent reality, the arabic-language Jazeera is far more overt in its virulence, the english language one is more covert but delivers the same message.
this is very well known now in the arab world: the two major dirty media players (followed by many other lesser ones) were/are Saudi Arabia's Al Arabiya and Qatar's Al Jazeera. I have already mentioned that their were mass resignations from Al Jazeera due to increasing religious conservatism and restricting the freedom of its employees from representing the truth on ground.
15 cups per day?? good lord, i have maybe 1-2 coffees per week & it makes me feel wired out o fmy mind.
that'd be some serious withdrawal symptoms too if yu ever detox.
indeed,HandsumCa$hMoneyYo, it is not merely CIA behind Al Jazeera. Note that the Emir of Qatar's (Al Jazeera being the country's media venture) abdication coincides with the turn-around of the american policy towards Syria and Iran. Within very limited limits, the GCC monarchs are subservient to the US foreign policy.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article178893.html
http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/16303
after new emir:
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/qatar-opens-hezbollah-and-damascus-after-hostage-deal
ancient cave finds human interbreeding with mystery species. perhaps the origins of the alien repiles???
^ The original Plato's Retreat.
All right, since this has gotten political and religious, I will throw in my observations and stereotypes, which are hopefully humorous, about the idiosyncracies of the major religions of which I am aware:
Catholicism and Christian Orthodoxy (with ancestral ties to Southern Europe): (1) a veneer of tradition for many today, with abysmal participation rates, (2) tell rude or off-color jokes about nuns and/or priests, some of which are somewhat valid and even deserved, (3) an attitude that you can party, drink, cuss, talk about sex, have sex, cat call, and have a side dish in addition to your spouse, just as long as you recite a prayer or two with the priest on your deathbed in order to see the pearly gates, (4) priests in Greece dressed in long black outfits when it's hot outside, jovially smiling at everyone, townie and tourist alike, despite a nude beach 500 meters behind their backs, because he knows what side the town's bread is buttered on.
Catholicism (with ancestral ties to Northern Europe): (1) a son becoming a priest is a blessing for them (i.e. the Irish) whereas for the Med types, it would be a curse, (2) need to have booze in the system to kick up the revelry, back slapping, and include some Lampanelli talk because, without it, the latter would cause them to turn as red as a tomato and be offended, (3) historically made more babies than their Med counterparts (you might have seen the Monty Python film where the woman drops a fetus while she's doing the dishes, as if it was nothing)
Judaism: (1) intelligent, with a dose of neurosis a la Woody Allen, thanks to castration anxiety promulgated by Philip Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" and overbearing mothers who are training their sons to handle a wife just like them and their daughters to be just like them, (2) oh, the guilt, illustrated by the light bulb jokes ... as in Q: How many Californians does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Ten. One to do it, and nine to "share" in the experience .... so Q: How does a Jewish mother change a light bulb? A: She tells her son (insert intonation): "That's ok, don't vorry about me ... I can sit in the dark."
Mormonism: (1) don't plan on being invited to a wedding since, if not LDS, you can't get into the temple, something Ann Romney's parents had to contend with, (2) those in "good standing" dutifully part with 10% of their income right off the top, (3) experts at procreating and they try to keep up with Joneses in this department, with many owning minivans, (4) pushier at the door than JWs
Jehovah's Witnesses: (1) their leaflet "The Watchtower" had quality illustrations I enjoyed as a kid, (2) their HQ sits on some seriously prime real estate in Brooklyn Heights, near the Brooklyn Bridge, (3) one wonders if showing up nude to the door will cause you to forever be removed from their "do not solicit" list, though it is not something I would do, (4) you will never hear "Happy Birthday" being sung to a JW at the Olive Garden
Islam: (1) the guys love to major in engineering, (2) often rich, at least in the U.S., (3) often smoke a lot and drink a lot of coffee, (4) tried to buy a pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni for lunch for an observant Iranian guy doing some work on a condo and learned the pepperoni were a no-go (5) when newly arrived to the U.S., they import their grammatical constructs over to English, such as: "Hey, blonde girl, I give you ride in new Trans Am," whereas, when assimilated or first gen, they graduate from consumption of Firebirds, and it reverts to "Hey, Mindy (that's a dumb blonde name, right?), how about going for a spin in my new BMW 7 series?" (It's all good, Hispanics import their grammatical constructs as well, such as eschool, eskiing, and Esteve McQueen).
Hinduism: (1) exotic, (2) far away, (3) Siddhartha, (4) something about not hitting a cow with a car, and (5) Mother Theresa trying to snag a few of them for the Catholics
Bhuddism: (1) elaborate pagodas with splayed eaves, (2) very silent when making their very divine and solemn looking moves when praying or meditating, (3) karma will in fact run over your dogma, (4) popularized by Richard Gere
Protestantism: (1) country club membership is a must if rich and educated, (2) many rednecks if in the South, (3) many hicks if in small towns in the flyover zone, and (4) last but not least, the bridegroom's parents on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," who probably really lived in Minneapolis more so than multi-ethnic Chicago, and epitomized the word insufferable.
So, since I no longer practice my religion all that much (one of the above listed), and don't care all that much for organized religion, this is my tongue and cheek view of the personal traits often accompanying some major religions. Have I missed anyone?
didn't siddhartha switch to buddhism?
you should listen to prairie home companion more to learn about northern protestantism.
^
I don't know. I had to read "Siddhartha" in grammar school. I don't remember the content. I forgot one for Hindusim: (6) seem to own many small hotels, gas stations, and convenience stores if in the U.S. and Canada.
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