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Messages - Necroben

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586
Everything Else / Re: Check this out....
« on: September 20, 2008, 03:34:14 AM »
Quote from: GorgontheWonderCow on September 19, 2008, 06:58:37 PM
And yet, somehow under Clinton's rule (and this was not all, and very likely not even mostly, his doing), we still had the highest period of economic expansion.  So, I'm sure you can see how I'm willing to say, "In the beginning it might have been a slump, but he had to work with what he was given" (just as you are doing with Bush and the terrorism).  Also, I'm sure you can see how I look at Clinton handing over a country with the highest surplus in American history (at least so is what I have been told), and getting from Bush the biggest deficit in American history.


I could be wrong, but what I remember happening is that Clinton and Congress dead-locked on the budget for several months.  Resulting in the shutdown of all non-essential government services, that is unfortunately the only time our government have shown a profit.  I not to sure on the deficit though.  All I know is that it has been a problem since the 70's.  On the other hand this book I'm reading, Founding Brothers, actually puts the date at about 1790 and that we have never paid off our debt since.

587
Rants and Stuff / Re: Seven years later...
« on: September 20, 2008, 03:12:18 AM »
Quote from: GorgontheWonderCow on September 19, 2008, 11:22:28 PM
I guess we could go ahead and say there are no such things as facts, if evidence towards something doesn't make it a fact.  I'm okay with that.  In that case, I'll word it a different way.  The probability of humans not being born with a moral compass as a race is, according to the evidence currently know, extraordinarily low--to the point of being null.

And while I would agree with the morality issue, to a point.  Every thing we do or don't, is always a choice.  Good or bad, that individual made a choice to commit a crime or do a good deed, inspite or because of the consequences.  All to often there is more attention/pity attributed to the victimizer rather than the victim.  How many remember the names of those murdered by serial killers?

588
Writing Group / Re: Writing Prompts!
« on: September 20, 2008, 02:48:20 AM »
Quote from: elmandr1 on September 18, 2008, 05:15:35 PM
Quote from: Necroben on August 22, 2008, 08:55:20 PM
Flowers for Algernon was a story about someone who was severely retarded going through an experimental treatment to cure him.  The main point of the reference was that the reader followed along from the patients POV.  (The Dr. had him keep a journal.)  We got to see him as he progressed through the treatments, and get smarter as he went along.

Doesn't he fall in love with the girl doctor? then they see that the mouse, who was treated just before him, was receding. He knew, being smart then, that the same would happen to him, and watched himself grow less capable--mentally. He fell out of love with her eventually--i don't know that the gifted aren't capable of falling in love...

True.  Though the POV was what I had been referencing.

589
Everything Else / Re: Check this out....
« on: September 18, 2008, 03:22:15 AM »
Quote from: elmandr1 on September 17, 2008, 04:46:12 AM
Quote from: Necroben on September 17, 2008, 03:27:40 AM
Quote from: elmandr1 on September 17, 2008, 02:18:02 AM
If Palin were president, i can imagine us declaring wore on...i dont know....Italy, for them not accepting her Suit 'n skirt designs she made in the sixth grade.

Declarations of War come from the Legislative Branch.

Want some barbaque?

since your devouring my joke!

lol.

hows your character coming along?

Haha! ;)  Yeah... I do that.  He's coming along, I'm working on the plotting for this story at the moment.

590
Everything Else / Re: Check this out....
« on: September 17, 2008, 03:27:40 AM »
Quote from: elmandr1 on September 17, 2008, 02:18:02 AM
If Palin were president, i can imagine us declaring wore on...i dont know....Italy, for them not accepting her Suit 'n skirt designs she made in the sixth grade.

Declarations of War come from the Legislative Branch.

591
Everything Else / Re: Observe the hilarity!
« on: September 17, 2008, 03:10:58 AM »
Quote from: UtopiaGreen02 on September 17, 2008, 02:45:46 AM
I find it repulsive you people talk about people behind their backs.

Why?  It happens.  Get over it.  Especially if you deserve it.

592
Rants and Stuff / Re: Seven years later...
« on: September 16, 2008, 03:24:00 AM »
miyabi, I would like to add my apologies if I sounded harsh.  It was not meant to be.  While we may not agree I would never fault you or anyone else simply for disagreement.  Once again my apologies.

593
Writing Group / Re: Character Help
« on: September 16, 2008, 03:14:40 AM »
Quote from: mbarker on September 16, 2008, 02:35:52 AM
Two quick comments. First, how does he make a living? Drinking and plane travel cost. Is he independently wealthy? Second, you might recast this in third person. I sometimes think the reason we all like first person is that it lets us get away with so much. Third person limited forces us to think more about how to show things, just because we know darn well we aren't supposed to be doing it all with interior monologue.

I have been thinking about rewriting in 3rd person, at first the story screamed at me to do it in 1st though.  Also, at the beginning at least, I wanted it to be seen though the eyes of someone drunk, someone not paying attention to the world around them.  The main purpose was to... well, grow his character.  I am constantly reminding myself that this is a First Draft, and that nothing is set in stone yet.  Oh, as to money, his trust from the wrongful death of his wife's settlement pretty much takes care of it all.  That comes a little later, as he "remembers" his past.

594
Rants and Stuff / Re: Seven years later...
« on: September 14, 2008, 04:56:14 PM »
Quote from: miyabi on September 14, 2008, 09:26:17 AM
  Read their history, their news, their blogs, their feeling and you'll find that they hated the U.S. for it and wanted us to pay, considering we supported Israel no matter what they did to the people in that area and told them if they retaliated we'd retaliate with a hundred thousand times the force, if they wanted justice they basically had to attack the U.S.

The thing is, while we supported Israel's founding, Israel has defended herself.  Most conflicts have been settled rather decisively by Israel.  There has been little or no outside interference in these few conflicts.  The thing that gets me though is: Did they get justice for their actions?  Are there people/nations rallying around feeling sorry for them?  And most anti-Americanism started when we stopped sending them money.  So is it that as long as we pay out, everythings alright, but stop, and now they hate us?  I find it very hard to pity extortionists.

While it seems that their motivations are political, these extremists then compound the issue by mixing religion into the whole conflagration.  Arabia has been a hot spot for ages as "schneb" said. The people as a whole don't seem to know or even care whats going on.

595
Writing Group / Re: How you handle WRITER'S BLOCK!
« on: September 14, 2008, 04:21:42 PM »
Well, I don't have any sure fire way to kick it, but I've been listening to writing excuses for awhile now.

http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/05/

This one in particular may give you some ideas.

596
Writing Group / Re: Character Help
« on: September 14, 2008, 04:15:04 PM »
Thanks Nessa!  I never really looked at it that way.  You make a great point with my being cliche, and after rereading it I agree.

Thank you one and all who have given great advice, keep it coming.

597
Writing Group / Re: Character Help
« on: September 13, 2008, 04:55:40 PM »
Quote from: elmandr1 on September 13, 2008, 09:32:18 AM
Your character seems inconsistent. At first i get the impression that he is blunt, matter-of-factly. I even read him with a new york accent, but then you have him say something like that...? Inconsistent. Your character, if done well enough will feel real from the get go. Here's how you can make a convincing character, from now on, whatever happens in your life, ask your self what would so and so do? say? think? buy? choose? and then why? justify your choice. My dad would buy a t-bone before a salsebury, because he says t-bone is the working man's steak. I't doesnt seem important but it is.....here's how.

Im arabic. Im Muslim. I know about perspective on character--it happens to me all the time. People already have ideas about me before speaking to me, the managed to salvage some ideas of me and mix it in with their imagination. TA-DAH! the secret to a Character. Stereotype, either feed into it or reject it, but whatever you do keep it in mind, because you reader will almost always have one about your character. So it is up to you, confirm there suspicions of what so and so is like, surprise them even, but never confuse them by mixing the two together.

I hope this helped.

Yes it did, thank you.  I can see other places now where I'm also being inconstant.  It's hard to see until its pointed out, sometimes.

598
Rants and Stuff / Re: QUESTION
« on: September 13, 2008, 04:08:07 AM »
Quote from: Ookla The Mok on September 13, 2008, 02:24:13 AM
Necroben, I am not going to argue against possible exceptions like rape. And I have never met anyone who believes a woman impregnated through rape should be forced to keep and love the baby.

It has never been about "telling women what they can and cannot do." It has always been about protecting the most defenseless of our human family. Indeed, you should protect the rights of any future children.

Unfortunately, I have met those who do believe, "a woman impregnated through rape should be forced to keep and love the baby."  There are far too many who would just make a blanket statement and say, "No, you may not do this,” period.  Heck, I've seen that in some of the posts here.  It's unfortunate that some of the people who take one stance or another, have never seen or spoken to a woman, or a girl, who has to agonize over this decision.

To the discussion on whether it would continue upon being abolished.  Yes, I think it would.  The practice has been around for thousands of years, why would it stop now?  Discounting alleyway practices, Herbs have been used in the past and would no doubt be used again.  Yeah, there would be risks as to dosage but, well, it never stopped anyone before.

599
Rants and Stuff / Re: QUESTION
« on: September 13, 2008, 01:41:15 AM »
I agree that abortion should not be a means of birth control.  That being said, I'm glad that it is available to all women who might need or want it.  When my 14-yro sister was raped, she was Not ready to have a child, nor by her words, could she have loved this child of violence.  If that could be true to this day or not, I cannot say, but she is doing wonderfully now.  So I do not want to see some law come to pass that tells the women in my life what they can and cannot do.  This is not out of any belief that I may have, but that it is my responsibility, to protect the rights of my daughter, wife, mother, or any future children or grandchildren.  It is their choice.

600
Rants and Stuff / Re: Seven years later...
« on: September 13, 2008, 01:23:10 AM »
I'm sorry, are you referring to Pearl Harbor?  Or maybe it was the U.S. blockade imposed upon Japan?  After, they had massacred --30 million-- Chinese.  No hears about that either.  Most don't know that the Japanese had reintroduced the Bubonic Plague, and through experiments "on human subjects" making it air-borne.  This is not the "Normal" Black Death, this was something new, and kept quiet so as to not cause panic, even now.

The thing is, if you really do your research, you find all sorts of things.  Many things have been done in the past, and by people, we hold in high regard now.  However, when everything has a first cause, how long can anyone hold a grudge?  If we judge by history, well, forever.  Nevertheless, to assume that most of us don't know, hmmm, well I cannot speak for anyone else but...  I am proud to be an American.

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