Displaying 31 To 60 Of 955 Comments Bageant and Webb: Virginia Will Miss’Em I am appalled. This is one big ad hominem attack after another generalization after another. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 30, 2011 @ 2:50 am How many doctors and nurses drive donor-cycles? » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 7:42 pm KT, I am referring to how the mental health sector has become over-run by 12-step evangelistas. Consider how this quote from the Cult has changed mental health practices: “Alcoholism is the only disease where the biggest symptom is thinking you don’t have the disease.” I have seen a number of mental health programs simply assume you are an alcoholic. If you admit it, then fine. If you say no, then you are an denial, therefore you are an alcoholic. In fact, this extends to virtually any diagnosis made by a mental health professional (and in one frightening case, a diagnosis made by a layman, in the presence of a professional). Once the diagnosis is on your record, it stays there. If you disagree, it’s because you are in denial, which proves it’s true. There are other problems caused by the Cult. If you really want a fun read, check out the Synanon model of treatment. It’s one of the most psychologically abusive “treatment” models out there. Many professionals have spoken out about it, some treatment centers based on it have been closed down because of abuses, yet the model is still used. I call it mental chemotherapy, and I think most people here are aware of my attitude towards chemotherapy. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 7:41 pm Don’t get me started on the real facts of alcoholism. The Cult of Alcoholism has done huge damage to the mental health field, that I fear will never be repaired. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 7:19 pm So, you would rather they stay at home and suffocate? » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 7:16 pm I didn’t say every hospital should run a treatment program. I know better than to even suggest it. I was a substance abuse counselor in the late 80’s, when every idiot with a business plan was trying to open up a treatment center. But you would refer an addict to a treatment program, or a clinic, or to a detox elsewhere in the city. What the smoker gets is a flimsy business card, printed with a toll free number and the promise to help him or her quit. State-run programs do *not* furnish patches, chantix, or anything else, Kes. And I suspect you already knew that. Go ahead, call the toll-free number that is supposedly paid for with those cigarette tax dollars. Tell them you want to quit smoking. See what you get. Weigh the envelope of useless literature. There is not a single valid coping mechanism in the whole pile of sugar-coated bullshit. I have seen virtually every kind of detox, spin-dry, in-patient and out-patient treatment program out there. I have seen methadone clinics. I know how much they cost to run. I also know how often an ER nurse hands out a referral to those programs. I know how often those programs get called, in the middle of the night, to come do an “emergency assessment”. Yes, health professionals do treat smokers different than other addicts. You said as much. You look at the others as addicts. You look at smokers as the cause of their own problems. And addicts have, at least, a chance to get better, don’t they? Smokers will always be guilty of having been smokers. It’s okay, nobody ever promised me forgiveness for the sin of smoking. I just came from my partner’s doctor appointment. The “behavioral health” consultant asked us if we had any addiction issues, and then if we smoked. If I had said I was a meth addict, she would have cuddled in me in her lap. When I said I was a smoker, she treated me as being unworthy of being stepped on. She too, repeated the same lie that the state program would pay for nicotine patches. I hear this in every state I go to. Washington no longer provides eye glasses, no longer pays for health services received as part of a school special education program, or any form of hospice care. But they pay for nicotine patches? No, Washington doesn’t. They send a $2 coupon with the usual pile of useless literature (which, by the way, is often donated by firms hired by the tobacco companies). The health professions will always need scapegoats to sneer at. I’ve been part of that group before, being part of a different group this time is no big deal for me. I just wish it didn’t remind me of sitting on a bust stop bench at 2:30 a.m., doing a substance abuse assessment on a young man the ER was too afraid to help. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 7:14 pm Pepe, why should KT say anything at all to the widow? Did KT get the widow’s late husband smoking? did KT prevent the widow from asking her husband to quit? There’s a lot of false equivalency going on in here tonight, and I am getting seriously annoyed. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 6:26 pm KT, from my reading of the comments from the “smokers are the tool of Satan” lobby, it sure seems like that’s what they are telling us. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 6:24 pm No, Adonai, they’d rather just treat us like that. If they made the accusation outright, then we’d be able to refute the accusation, and that would be inconvenient. I’d like to start my own brand of cigarettes, completely unadulterated, and call it something appropriate. “Axe Murderer”, “Genocide”, maybe, or perhaps “Rwanda”. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 6:21 pm KT, the next time DDT and pesticides comes up, I am going to start talking about people who garden are killing children and killing our planet. I get the impression from the conversation here that the point will be lost, but at least *I* will have a good time. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 6:17 pm No, Pepe. Answer the question I asked. “I would like to see a definitive study that show how many lung cells, blood cells, or other body structures are killed with every cigarette, from day one.” » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 6:11 pm Pepe, stop changing the subject. The topic of your article is obviously about how smokers are single-handedly bringing down Western civilization. Stay on topic. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 6:10 pm Every pediatrician in the world has been repeating the old saw about 6 to 8 glasses of water per day, but there’s no basis for it. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 6:08 pm kes, on the subject of tobacco and nicotine addiction, hospitals and other health care organizations have to be the biggest hypocrites in history. Let me show you how this works. You are a nurse, working in the admissions area or the emergency room. First patient you greet is a heroin addict. You assess his or her health, get him or her medical attention, and do an assessment for admission or referral into a treatment program. Depending on a few factors, you would expedite admission into a detox program, give the addict loads of referrals, and even possibly call the hospital chaplain in to talk to him or her. Second patient is an alcoholic in medical distress. You assess his or her health, get him or her medical attention, and do an assessment for admission or referral into a treatment program. Depending on a few factors, you would expedite admission into a detox program, give the addict loads of referrals, and even possibly call the hospital chaplain in to talk to him or her. Third patient is a smoker in medical distress, directly related to their smoking habit…. So, and I am being as charitable as possible here, you get the patient breathing treatments, possibly oxygen and anti-inflammatories, etc. If you are like most hospitals, you’ll refer the patient to a state-run “smoking cessation program” which is little more than business envelope filled with a bunch of crap literature, a local “group therapy” session that has never been shown to offer any real benefit at all, and, if the patient is really lucky, a $5 coupon off a $80 box of nicotine patches (which is only the first week of a six-week course of nicotine patches). Really? Do you really want to go with that? Do you realize that nicotine addiction is currently treated *worse* than crack addiction? If a crack addict comes into an ER, they are treated like someone with an addiction. If a smoker comes in, they are treated like they are the *origin* of the problem, shut the hell up, and don’t smoke within 20 feet of the building. Meth, heroin, crack, cocaine, etc., those are *real* addictions. Smokers? The way smokers, even ex-smokers sometimes, are treated by health professionals is disgusting and reprehensible. Health professionals don’t look at smokers at addicts. They look at smokers as criminals. How much taxes are states taking in right now off tobacco taxes? I can tell you, it’s a lot. I watched California raise the per-pack tax on cigarettes four times in three weeks. Supposedly, that tax is paying for health care, to offset the health care issues caused by smoking. Yeah, right. Tell me another fairy story. I do not know of a single state whose “stop smoking assistance” programs offer any real chance of quitting smoking. Support groups? Bull shit. Been there, done that. The most the state will spring for is printing off useless literature that would put Pollyanna into a diabetic coma. As far as offering Chantix, Welbutrin, the patch, or anything that might offer a better chance of actually quitting, that’s not worth it. yet we can give Methadone to heroin addicts (and what’s the recidivism rate, even with Methadone?), we can offer addicts and alcoholics de-tox and residential treatment centers. Yeah, I am really impressed. Great “standard of care” there. I am very disappointed in you, Kes. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 6:05 pm Kes, I will give you 30 minutes to back track on this. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 5:37 pm Adonai, thank you. I too am a smoker. It’s required of me as a writer, I either have to smoke, or write romance novels (EWWWW). I would like to see a definitive study that show how many lung cells, blood cells, or other body structures are killed with every cigarette, from day one. Here’s a fact: one ounce of alcohol kills brain cells, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, every time you drink, even if you have never drank alcohol before. Alcohol causes more deaths per year than lung cancer, through traffic fatalities, “wet brain”, increased risk of heart attack, diabetes, and stroke. Whenever the subject of the tobacco companies gets started, for some reason, the discussion turns to how disgusting smoking is. Why? Are people that afraid of challenging the tobacco companies? When discussing DDT, I don’t hear discussions of how disgusting the gardening habit is. Nobody is afraid to lay the blame on the pesticide companies (or falsified government studies, for that matter). But when it comes to tobacco, it’s the smokers’ fault. We have so much propaganda in the media against smoking. I see more against smoking than any other behavior or habit. (In fact, one of the worst addictions, compulsive shopping, is encouraged by the media) And I am tired of people talking about how disgusting it is. We have kids drinking recycled bull urine, we have adults swapping body fluids on the street in broad daylight, and we have a growing problem with abuse of dihydrogen monoxide in every level of our society. Yet, nobody talks about that. Don’t tell me that kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray. One, I am not responsible for people’s urges to lick ashtrays. Second, most of the people who say this are not folks I would allow to kiss me anyway. Third, these people have obviously never kissed a romance novelist. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 29, 2011 @ 5:33 pm I am not impressed with the CGI films where living people are computer-generated. The facial expressions are far too rigid, and I get tired of far too much luminance or reflectivity of human eyes. However, not all CGI is like that. CGI can bring things to life that otherwise we would not be able to see. I am a big fan of animation, claymation, and CGI, because of everything else it can bring to life. I seriously doubt that Monsters, Inc., could have been done any other way, and the animation was impressive. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 28, 2011 @ 4:13 pm When does a preference for style and excellence equal censorship? If I refuse to be led around by the nose and be forced to subscribe to every little flash-mob fad, am I encouraging censorship? News flash. There is more than one definition of the word “discriminate”. Yes, I will discriminate on the side of intelligence, style, creativity, and art every time. There is more than one definition of the word “art” as well. Drawing is considered art, but if the drawing is amateurish, badly executed, and depicts things that repulse me, I am not going to consider it a piece of art. And my refusal to purchase or subscribe to a particular art form is not censorship. It isn’t hate either. I just have higher standards. I am not a visual artist. I have no talent for drawing or painting. I do not claim any of the graphics that I make are “Art”, I leave that up to the individual viewing it. I get tired of people telling me what I “should” like. I get tired of people saying things like “But it’s great!” No. *You* like it. That doesn’t make it great for everyone. Your opinion in no way dictates mine. Your personal taste has no bearing on mine. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 28, 2011 @ 4:09 pm I am not sure that it is possible to be a fan of something that has no value. What is it supposed to teach? One can neither dislike or like something with no value. And this crap has no value to me at all. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 28, 2011 @ 2:39 pm Caru, sorry, that doesn’t match up. I didn’t say I have no interest in animation or film because of “Ninja Scrolls”. I said I have no interest in anime. And on that subject, “Ninja Scrolls” was just the last straw. There are plenty of writers that I have put on my “do not bother insulting myself” list. I haven’t abandoned those genres, or that medium. But anime isn’t made by artists or by writers. Anime is made by a large block of studios who all seem ready to push the envelope a bit further along the racist and misogynist tracks. There has not been, in my opinion, anything new or interesting done by the anime studio-factories in years. “Ghost in the Shell” and “Cowboy Bepop” might have had a chance, but those same studios seemed intent on making sure nobody understood the story by releasing episodes out of order. The story is unimportant in anime, and it has been like that for a long time. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 28, 2011 @ 2:34 pm I looked at Spirited Away. It’s a formula plot written by substandard writers. Anime has, at most, five stock characters. And that is giving anime more credit than it deserves. The old Punch and Judy shows, the old comedia del’arte, with the classical character archetypes, had more creativity and characterization than anime. Anime plots are so formula, so cliche, that most writers could write the entire movie script after watching five minutes of it – and their script would still be better than the movie was. Anime is juvenile. Characters are cliche, plots are worse than cliche, dialogue is worse than the most fake Madison Avenue ad copy… I have seen more respect for science (especially anatomy and physics) in the super-hero genre. I don’t find any anime “art”. It’s a waste of talent of the few real artists they get to work on the projects. I have yet to see any anime that has a writer worth a damn, Hollywood uses better writers (and ain’t that saying something!) As far as manga and hentai, I find them more honest than the root anime genre. Note I say “honest”, not “worth my time”. Manga and hentai are more honest in that they allow the values that anime tries to disguise out in the full light of day: rampant misogyny and bitter racism. I’ve seen quite a bit of anime. “Ninja Scrolls” was simply the last straw. It really depresses me that children are being fed this substandard crap propaganda on a daily basis. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 28, 2011 @ 2:28 pm At one of my past jobs, my supervisor would often invite members of his team to his home, either on days off or after work, for a party or BBQ. For his own birthday, he made that invitation something more like an order. Once we were all there, he put a movie on to play as we were enjoying drinks and snacks and chatting. In the first five minutes of the movie, I watched three different women get beaten and raped. One of them was raped with tentacles. This movie, which is anime or manga, or hentai, whatever you want to call it, is considered appropriate for teenagers. My supervisor obviously thought it was appropriate for an audience of mixed genders and orientations. It’s called “Ninja Scrolls”, and I no longer have any interest in any anime at all. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 28, 2011 @ 1:45 pm KQ: As long as gays are restricted from marriage equality, my relationship can not be watered down by straight people who cheat on their “spouse” or 55-hour “marriages”. I do not want my relationship to be considered “equal” to *that*. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 26, 2011 @ 12:37 pm Kalamama: I’m just waiting for Feinstein to backtrack on repeal the next time she sees a gay man or lesbian wearing leather. That woman has some serious mental issues. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 26, 2011 @ 12:33 pm Wow. Hard to fathom. She was the first person I voted for, for Vice-President. Ever. The same day, I entered the Navy. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 26, 2011 @ 12:29 pm Friday Music Thread – Amazing Voice, How Sweet The Sound Not as funny as seeing the director of the music program stuffed into a Boy Scout uniform many sizes too small, playing for a rousing version of “Be Prepared”. Which began with an anguished cry from near the back of “Oh my god, that’s my dad!” » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 25, 2011 @ 5:42 pm One of the best voices I have ever heard. Seriously, does anyone who is attracted to men *not* get that “something something” feeling when he sings?
And he seems to have a good sense of humor as well. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 25, 2011 @ 5:36 pm A group of nuns from my old college did something like this for a faculty talent show, with a popular piece of music that is often used (but I can’t think of the name of – I know it was used in The Zoo Club often). They were able to keep straight faces through it all, though. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 25, 2011 @ 5:03 pm Not rickrolling anyone, but his voice always belw me away, especially coming from a guy that was “only” 5’9″ and a bit skinny.
» Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 25, 2011 @ 4:23 pm What, no Karen??? You heretic! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exyPDIQhN_M While she had a great voice (and I always thought she was beautiful), I think her brother never really got the credit he deserved for his writing and composition. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On March 25, 2011 @ 4:17 pmComments Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit
In what way are rape, subjugation, bigotry, wanton violence, large-scale criminal enterprises, etc., entertaining?
In what way does it advance art (considering a great deal of it is devoid of art)?
In what way does it advance even the technical presentation of art?
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