ParanoiA

So why don't we start protesting Muslims coming into this country? We want an apology for being called the great satan. We want a heartfelt apology, complete with remorse and some kind of rehabilitation program - like a 'Western Tolerance and Sensitivity' class or some kind of therapy that Muslim leaders can go through.

Well I just figured you guys would know what he's talking about since all of it is over my head. Apparently I took up for the wrong guy. I'm just mindful of scientists and romance and their oil and water relationship. If a scientist has a big name, then he can be all fluffy or artsy with his writing on something, but if nobody knows who he is then scientists get all stuffy and pissy with them. Scientists like their world to be dark, exact, logical, unfeeling, unemotional - anything more than that gets them bent out of shape. At least that's been my experience.

I would probably agree with this, except I'm more of the mind to FIX the crappy schools, unacceptable learning environments. We could dedicate an entire forum to just education. I'm so disgusted with our current system, our goals or lack thereof, the structure, teacher salaries, everything. There's a ton of money spent on education and we're getting squat for it. It is unacceptable. It deserves the attention that Michael Richards is getting - that ought to tell you something about America's priorities.

Well it is interesting that all them have tried their own shows or projects since Seinfeld and all have flopped miserably. Although, I'm not sure how Julia's show is doing. In my mind, they're all irreplacable. But Kramer was so good at being a nutcase - a docile nutcase at that.

The christian right may have a foothold in the republican party, but they don't represent the ideology of all republicans. The only two republicans I know are also atheist or agnostic and despise the christian hypocrisy as much as I. Though you may be right, since most people associate republicans with religion just as they associate democrats without religion - both are incorrect of course.

I know, that really sucks. I love that show. Kramer was my favorite character too. Now I just see him as a bigot. I want to believe he was in some kind of character when he pulled this crap, but it doesn't appear so. There goes my secret hope of a reunion show...

It helps nothing to convince them they need your help. The liberal approach to this enables the victim status, the anti-intellectualism. It's also to blame for the poverty situation experienced by all races. Those that do well, didn't get it by affirmative action or other government sactioned racism. It is not beneficial to create an entitlement driven class of victims. If you want folks to be productive members of society, you have to expect something out of them. You have to expect folks to do work hard and attempt to succeed despite the unfairness or unequal footing they perceive in life. The fact is, they are on equal footing. But who is not going to use their victim status to their advantage? I certainly would. Like all animals, we use every available opportunity to advance, and no one is going to give up such a noble position. You can't really be blamed for anything when you have the race card in your deck, and everyone feels sorry for you and guilty for what their great grandparents did to your great grandparents.

Exactly, which is why I agree with Mokele in straightening out their perspective by procescuting them for murder - not manslaughter. That's the point YT was hitting on as well with the bumper comparison. Everyone thinks they don't mean to. The drunks claim they don't get behind the wheel and look to kill someone. But we claim that they do - that by being drunk and driving a potential weapon, that they are purposefully looking to kill someone. Maybe when a few drunk drivers spend some serious time in prison, and some get the death penalty even, then perhaps others will take notice and make better decisions when drinking. I did have a friend that was killed by a drunk driver at an intersection waiting to turn left. She was killed by a drunk driving head on - she wasn't even in motion. She died, he lived. She was 17. Her brother was a drunk and had his own drunk driving incident years earlier that left him comatosed for a few months before waking back up with irreversable brain damage. Imagine her parents' misery to this day dealing with both of their children being victims of the same thing - each on different sides of it. Maybe I'm a little biased, but maybe it's ok.

I don't know if they are his true feelings or not, but why does it matter? He said some offensive words. I hear offensive words everyday. It's like people go out of their way to be offended. They want this to bother them. They want this to matter. The outrage is justified, but this BS injury and healing and therapy is too much. It's just so plastic and shallow. Everything that has happened since the story hit. It's like the liberals favorite moment and reason for being - the chance to demonstrate how racist they are not, by exaggerating the impact, the injury and the healing. It sounds so stupid to even say it out loud, let alone in front of media cameras with a serious look on your face. If I were black, I would be far more offended by the political capitalization of this "event" than anything Richards said.

You're confusing 1st degree murder with 2nd degree murder - or maybe I am. Whatever, only one of them is premeditated, the other is the one we'd like to use against drunk drivers. Of course, premeditated is plausible, since you knew you were going to drive home and knew you were getting drunk ahead of time. Manslaughter implies you didn't mean to, or wasn't your idea. If you're driving drunk, how could you not mean to?

Since we've got the 'White Scholarship' discussion going, I thought this might be a good one to compliment it. Personally, I see this whole thing blown out of proportion and this "apology" as an empty, hollow act on the part of Richards, Jesse Jackson, Sharpton and etc.. And of course, they're using the good ole buzz words and phrases - "healing", "injury", "psychiatric help" and blah blah blah. Does anyone else see this whole thing as a shallow, phoney act on the part of all involved? I hear cracker used all the time but I don't feel injured or in need of "healing". I realize that I nor my ancestors have been through the oppression and the dehumanization suffered by african americans, but how can you allow a word to hurt someone? I think they're letting themselves be bothered by it for no good reason. Richards is a jerk and is true feelings came out, so boycott him and allow his career to plumet and let him suffer for it. Why accept an apology? Why pretend like him saying the same word most of the black youth says, somehow "injures" and requires "healing"? That's ridiculous and just feeds the victimologists. I know a racist when I see and hear one and they come in all colors and I don't accept an apology from any of them. I also don't let it bother me since everyone in the world is judgemental and prejudice of someone, of some race, or some minority, or some majority, or some class of citizen, or some behavior, or a thousand other things that people use to elevate themselves over others.

Zyncod - If white guilt is valid and I'm guilty of being white then black people are guilty of being black aren't they? By your logic, they are guilty of being a person who's ancestors were oppressed. That must mean they want to be in that position. I have to question someone who willingly chooses a victim status. That's stupid isn't it? So think things through a little more before you start slinging guilt and blame around with obvious anti-white bias. You apply logic to one race and not the other. Your racism is showing a little much. I suggest giving "Winning The Race" a good read, amazon link below - give the description a glance over. It will open your eyes to some legitimate problems with the black race. And since it is written by a black man, you won't be able to dismiss it with thoughtless racial prejudice - you'll have to actually have logic behind your convictions. You'll also see how your precious democrats have used them and held them down for decades, using victimology and empowering racial epithets and stereotypes. http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000HEYVHM/ref=pd_rvi_gw_1/102-1771214-7486525 I think you suffer from white guilt. To the point you feel the need to argue in their favor so as to "prove" you are not racist. You can disagree with black people without being prejudice or racist...but not if you're carrying white guilt baggage around with you. And you still haven't acknowledged that everyone on this planet is guilty of prospering from the raping and killing of others by their ancestors. You just want to concentrate on the most recent. You also haven't acknowledged that every minority in every country on the globe always thinks they're being oppressed. They're the minority - of course they're going to think that. To a large degree that would be true, in that the majority gets what it wants. And that's to be expected...

I agree 100%. It is attempted murder to drink and drive. If you kill someone, then that's a successful attempt at murder.

I completely disagree. You don't interchangeably use knowledge and intelligence. That's a ridiculous statement. You obviously don't understand the difference between the two. You use them both at the same time. It is impossible to do otherwise. You have some thinking to do. Quit reacting to my posts, trying to win something - think about what is being said. Remember, you brought this up. I said I was more impressed with Hawking's resolve dealing with his condition than I was with his intelligence. And I said nothing of his knowledge, nor yours. This is why people take digs at your age. You're coming off as a typical teenager. You're fighting with every piece of wisdom gained from experience. Of course everyone has intelligence, but not the same level of intelligence. That's where you're missing the point. And I really don't understand why you're missing it. I thought you were smart, but you seem to be unable to grasp such a simple concept.

What the hell is this about? MLK was an idiot? MLK probably saved everyone's ass from a racial meltdown. His speeches were emotional and delivered with conviction and faith you can feel in his words. Have you ever actually heard this speech? He managed to advance civil rights and inspire millions to do the same, with peace and dignity. You should only hope to matter a fraction as much to the world. And while history reminds us Lincoln's primary reason for civil war was preservation of the union, I'm also reminded of Bush's primary reason for Iraq was WMD's...Lincoln was sympathetic to the plight of african american slaves, a morality developed over the course of his life. I doubt he saw african americans as equals, that's true, but he saw something wrong with enslaving people no matter their judgement of them.

Your intelligence is your ability to process information. Two people can be told the same thing, but one understands it better than the other. One requires less explanation, or grasps the subject matter at a deeper level - comes easier to them. This is intelligence. It's the result of your physiological makeup. Your brain chemistry and design by virtue of mom and dad. Knowledge is the information you are processing with your intelligence. Knowing the speed of light, or the time dilation equation. These are things you use your intelligence to obtain and understand. Intelligence can be looked at as potential knowledge if you want. Someone can have awesome potential - a brilliant brain - but know nothing. Someone else can have a terrible noggin - but work hard and attain some knowledge. And then some, like Hawking, have a brilliant brain and the drive to work hard to attain incredible knowledge.

You are confused. Knowledge is earned. Intelligence is given. When you understand the difference, you'll stop being so judgemental of stupid people...

I prefer it this way. Just my two-cents...

Oh, that's actually what I meant. Three states under the centralized title of Iraq. Are there any of the three factions that don't agree with this? If not, what exactly are they fighting for?

Sounds reasonable to me. Why not let them each have their own territory? I don't know about the media not using the term 'civil war' for political reasons as it would benefit them and their political cause to use such terms. So far it has remained an insurgent's fight, so to label it a civil war would be incorrect and misleading.

Well that's not any fun at all. Couldn't you at least add some zang to it?

Well I have a follow up... Light has no mass yet carries energy. Does this energy have weight? Quarks or anything? I don't really understand energy.

I've always thought of the soul as an electrical signature. With death comes the termination of electrical activity in our bodies. What I've been trying to figure out then, is what would happen to your electrical self, if that is true. Would it be that without an organic interface into this temporal existence that we would no longer be traveling through time? And neither through space? Could we all then exist with other "souls" in the same reference frame, regardless of when we died? Or would we just blend in with the rest of electromagnetic energy? combined with others as a collective? Or something else...?

Not to mention a repeated betrayal.

I don't remember being treated the same as a black person by another black person. Do you honestly believe that any black person treats white people like other black persons? Why do you expect the animals of this world to so easily act against their ingroup / outgroup psychological programming? I mean, it isn't acceptable to practice prejudice, but you expect our society to eliminate any and all traces of mannerisms that are quite literally hardwired in our design? Can I expect the same from the rest of the races or is that just a white thing? Did you also pay attention when they did this to white folks too or do you just observe when it happens to you? I've seen folks do this a lot in similar circumstances without a single black person or minority in the vicinity. I never thought about the fact they might be "long hairists". I just thought they didn't know me and I don't know them so why in the hell should either one of us trust each other? Well that goes for the whole frickin' world there shirlock. There isn't a speck of land on this rock that wasn't stolen and re-stolen and murdered over. Everyone on this planet is living off of the raping, killing, theft, of their ancestors. You just want to concentrate on recent murder and theft because it will benefit you, or because you are white and want to appear remorseful and fair. While that's noble, it's shallow. If you want to feel guilty for your granddad's actions, go right ahead but don't expect the rest of us to be so trendy and thoughtless. And now your racism comes out. You people?? Get to watch us die a little inside? It's great? A lot of pent up hatred in that last paragraph. I guess you do know first hand what it's like to judge and stereotype and blanketly blame an entire race for the actions of a few. Just like the racist bigots before you, they all thought they were righteous.