assassin_696

Desire - Ryan Adams Two hearts fading, like a flower. And all this waiting, for the power. For some answer, to this fire. Sinking slowly. The waters higher. Desire With no secrets. No obsession. This time I'm speeding with no direction. Without a reason. What is this fire? Burning slowly. My one and only. Desire You know me. You don't mind waiting. You just can't show me, but God I'm praying, That you'll find me, and that you'll see me, That you run and never tire. Desire

Such Great Heights - Iron & Wine I loved the original by The Postal Service, but this cover feels a little bit more personal.

As much as I like meat, all this macho crap about eating meat to justify your manliness gets a bit pathetic after a while. I enjoy meat, but I know that it's probably not particularly morally justifiable, I just don't have the strength of character to give it up for ethical reasons.

Your Protector - Fleet Foxes My favourite song off my second favourite album of the year. Fantastic stuff.

Sorry to say that I can't remember any specifics about you, just a vague kind of bluriness. But I definitely remember you. Good to see ya I guess.

Sodom, South Georgia - Iron & Wine

I guess the problem with global warming science is that because something has to be done about it at the individual level, it gets politicised and suddenly everyone's an expert and everyone knows that it's a myth. Online articles can look credible, professional scientists putting their names to alternative theories can be persuasive so it gets hard to weigh things up objectively. Take the Standard Model in physics. You get some lone wolf type physicists cooking up alternate explanations for it, saying it's wrong, providing "some evidence" against it and they can sound convincing. But you fail to realise that the Standard Model has been tested to an unbelievable degree of accuracy (not quite possible with climate change) and there's almost scientific consensus in it's validity. That doesn't mean it can't/won't be adjusted, modified or maybe even thrown out, it just means that the probability of this happening is low, very low. Naturally the Standard Model doesn't get the attention global warming does, but if it did you'd probably find people denying it, citing the lone wolves and giving their own reasons. But it's all about probabilities, not possibilities. Aspects of global warming might possibly be wrong, but not probably.

Sworddude, arguing that something is morally acceptable because it's traditional doesn't work. So what if they were brought up and still knew no different? That doesn't make it right. A culture might pass down cultures of human sacrifice, does that make it right? No, but it means the parents don't have the full burden of responsibility. That's why we're (rightly) mainly criticising their culture, but that doesn't make the parents blameless.

It's probably some kind of chemical suppressant that keeps the pain down while you're still active so that you don't notice it. I can imagine it evolving from our fight or flight days, your body telling you that you're in pain is no good when you're still in danger.

Your economy will bounce back better than Europe's, figures for late year growth rates have been revised for a more optimistic figure.

I'm almost as disgusted by this tip-toeing round of the issue because "it's their culture" than I am of the issue itself. I couldn't care less what their culture is, or traditions are, what happened is wrong and any attempt to justify it with moral relativist thinking is disturbing. She was 10 years old for christ's sake.

I'm not sure, but going by the groups you seem to be into check out Mr. Scruff if you haven't already. You'll recognise , but his other stuff's good as well.

I had a dream a while back, I killed a little gnome after it had been hitting my tent, I thought it was malicious but I realised afterwards it was just having a laugh, and I realised i'd upset the rabbits. I felt quite bad. Analyse that and tell me how messed up my brain is. :P I dream very vividly, which can be good or bad depending on my state of mind at the time. Recently i've quite enjoyed my dreams, but a few weeks ago they were probably quite troubled. It swings in roundabouts.

Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

"When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food." - Deciderius Erasmus

The Wolves Act I and II - Bon Iver Simply brilliant

The differences between the economics of the democrats and republicans are still very much contended, and so whilst you believe tax cuts might stimulate the economy in a recession (and I would agree), I would also contend that raising taxes during a boom period cools things off a bit, which Bush didn't seem to do. My point is it's not black and white (if you'll excuse the pun).

I've always found this to be an odd point when I hear people make it. You're definitely here, and that's all there is to it. If you weren't, you'd never know anything because you'd never be anything. You can't group nothingness into a collective like "everyone who'll never get a chance at living", so I don't think you owe them (and there's no "them" either, this is just quite difficult to articulate) anything. I know what you're saying, but I've had many an existentialist moment when considering whether or not i'd be conscious in some form or another if every causal event leading to my conception had been delayed by a second. Would I still be the same? Would I exist? I honestly don't know, and I agree it's almost an odd point to raise because clearly I do exist and "everyone else" never even did for a moment. So from a logical point of view, you're probably right, it's just i've always found the statistics so mind numbing that it does make me appreciate my life even more, whether that's right or wrong. Perhaps "oweing it to them" was the wrong choice of phrase, but it does make me appreciate the fragility of my existence.

Adam and Joe Astronomy Cast Best of YouTube CERN - Large Hadron Collider Podcast Experiment of the Week Hubblecast NASA's JPL Lab Video Podcast Philosophy: The Classics Point of Inquiry The Ricky Gervais Podcast Russell Brand Russell Howard and John Richardson Stephen Fry's Podgrams Wild Chronicles Digital Shorts A lot of them are just stacking up because I don't have time to listen to them, but I mean to.

So you're saying that because toddlers act on genetically pre-determined urges that this justifies them living in a world of suffering?

Strange, but probably inevitable in the world of art, which is inherently constantly pushing social norms and taboos.

As issy said, empirically you can assign and quantify values to humans lives, but I agree from a moral perspective it's a slippery slope which is probably best not trodden. Morally, you are certainly right, no one should ever be considered more important than another without good reason. But some people are going to have... an advantage... in how 'important' they are. Before I go any further I need to explain what I mean when I say 'important' - important in the sense that they are going to have more of an impact on the world, that after their death people will remember them more than someone else. It's certainly alot down to chance - I know this is an awful thing to say, but certain people are going to be catapaulted into 'importance' as soon as they're born, and will therefore have a massive advantage over others when it comes to making your mark on the world, changing other people's lives, etc. You're quite right, and I can see why you're tip-toeing round the issue a bit since it feels wrong to say it outright, but yes, certain people will simply add more value to the world simply by what country or family they're born into. Of course it's not a desirable situation, but sadly inevitable. As to my views on life, I regard this as my only shot at it. And considering the chances of me existing are statistically vanishing, I feel I owe it to everyone who'll never even get the chance at living to give it my absolute best shot.

Yeah reading it into it that's clear now, it's a shame, I thought that was one of his redeeming features.

Sorry, but that just seems like a bit of a leap of faith for me. Are you saying babies are born with inherited original sin? We all grow up in the world around us, i'm sure many children do "sin" but surely a newly born baby can't have sinned, yet they still enter into a world of death and imperfections.

I actually thought McCain was against waterboarding, what with being tortured himself. Edit: Actually, i'm not so sure. I know he regards it as torture, but I'm not sure if that actually means he's against it.