Thanks for everything CP had fun while it lasted

[Red Slinger]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I generally find Aussies to be scummy.

Yeah, there are a lot of bogans, mullets, ferals, hooligans, drunkards and noerdowells. They're fun to drink with though.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

Yeah, there are a lot of bogans, mullets, ferals, hooligans, drunkards and noerdowells. They're fun to drink with though.

Well what do you expect from a country that is nothing more than a glorified penal colony?

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Well what do you expect from a country that is nothing more than a glorified penal colony?

I am detecting some penal envy.

[WilderPegasus]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I am detecting some penal envy.

jhunt part deux?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

Sounds like you do the same thing as me, but you explained it a bit different.

I do? I have a variety of friends that all have different opinions.

Just the other day I had a debate with one of them on gun control. A different political opinion doesn't mean you can't get along with someone. You're just like all the people in the US who have turned into partisan hacks.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Daradon

I seriously couldn't hang around with people that ignorant. That would be the beginning of me phasing them out. (If we had already had the conversation and debate as it seems you have).

And it has nothing to do with the politics or the US presidency or anything like that. These people, at least from this example, seem easily led, ignorant, unable to think for themselves, and borderline racist. Even if he was Muslim (assuming he was still American citizen, course that is probably part of their thinking too...) what would it matter?

I guess different people have different values of importance to them when they choose and stick with friends. Not to say this is a bad thing, just that people do choose their friends for different reasons.

It also has nothing to do with, 'you only hang around with people you agree with?' There could be lots of other things we disagree on. Just in this example it seems to hint at pretty awful attitudes which I don't like.

You can't exactly pick your family members.

People have all kinds of different outlooks. Obviously I lose a little respect for them if they have stupid opinions, but I think we're becoming a bit too partisan. They think Obama is a Muslim? Screw them. What if they think Obama is a moron? Screw them too? And suddenly you have an extremely partisan country, since they do it too.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I generally find Aussies to be scummy.

Italians are only slightly better.

Only slightly.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Azure

You can't exactly pick your family members.

People have all kinds of different outlooks. Obviously I lose a little respect for them if they have stupid opinions, but I think we're becoming a bit too partisan. They think Obama is a Muslim? Screw them. What if they think Obama is a moron? Screw them too? And suddenly you have an extremely partisan country, since they do it too.

Well family is obviously a different story.

As far as friends, there are some circumstances why I might work around it. Maybe he saved my kid from a car accident once. Maybe she's a friend with benefit and gives great head. Maybe some weird circumstance sometime just brought us together and it was stronger than that.

But it's less about them having that specific opinion and more that I know I'd feel myself drifting apart from them because that opinion would probably lead to other views and values that I just don't jive with. It's unlikely that, that would be the only time I found them easily led, or racist.

As far as friends go, well we all have had great friends, life friends, best friends that we have grown apart from or parted ways with. Besides just distance and time, if often happens because the values (one side or another) start changing, and you have less and less in common. It happens. A lot. Just a part of life. If I had a great friend that started talking like that, I am just being honest in saying we would probably drift apart. Cause our values are different.

As far as toning it down a bit, and just thinking Obama is a moron? Yeah, that I can live with, even have no problem with. I'm not hugely happy with the guy either. And that is more of a opinion that a set of values (which the first comment would indicate more). I have several friends that are more conservative than me, and even some that are, believe it or not, more liberal than me. I just don't like ignorance, and when people don't even attempt to look for the truth or let in an idea.

There is a huge difference between having different opinions, even different shades of values, and the first example you made and how it relates to my values. Miles of difference.

Lastly, I've met a few Obama is a Muslim people. And I have not gotten along with any of them yet. And no, it wasn't because I was using that to make a pre-judgement. Often it came out later after I already knew they weren't going to be my favorite person to hang out with.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Wormius

^^ pretty much my reaction as soon as I hear anybody sputter the words, "peak oil" and how the world will revert back to caveman times.

I have a really good friend who jumped on the peak oil thing, we keep him around because watching him explain himself and twist himself into a ball of frustration over our questions is incredibly entertaining. He's also great in pretty much every way so that helps.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I generally find Aussies to be scummy.

I know very few but those I do know are genuine nice people. I think they're much like Canadians.

[HOOT]

I don't have a ton to say besides who cares what people on the interwebz say about anything? And why do people feel the need to announce they are leaving/taking a break?

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by HOOT

And why do people feel the need to announce they are leaving/taking a break?

Spoiler!

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I generally find Aussies to be scummy.

Scummy racists is what my grandfather never used to say.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Well family is obviously a different story.

As far as friends, there are some circumstances why I might work around it. Maybe he saved my kid from a car accident once. Maybe she's a friend with benefit and gives great head. Maybe some weird circumstance sometime just brought us together and it was stronger than that.

But it's less about them having that specific opinion and more that I know I'd feel myself drifting apart from them because that opinion would probably lead to other views and values that I just don't jive with. It's unlikely that, that would be the only time I found them easily led, or racist.

As far as friends go, well we all have had great friends, life friends, best friends that we have grown apart from or parted ways with. Besides just distance and time, if often happens because the values (one side or another) start changing, and you have less and less in common. It happens. A lot. Just a part of life. If I had a great friend that started talking like that, I am just being honest in saying we would probably drift apart. Cause our values are different.

As far as toning it down a bit, and just thinking Obama is a moron? Yeah, that I can live with, even have no problem with. I'm not hugely happy with the guy either. And that is more of a opinion that a set of values (which the first comment would indicate more). I have several friends that are more conservative than me, and even some that are, believe it or not, more liberal than me. I just don't like ignorance, and when people don't even attempt to look for the truth or let in an idea.

There is a huge difference between having different opinions, even different shades of values, and the first example you made and how it relates to my values. Miles of difference.

Lastly, I've met a few Obama is a Muslim people. And I have not gotten along with any of them yet. And no, it wasn't because I was using that to make a pre-judgement. Often it came out later after I already knew they weren't going to be my favorite person to hang out with.

You also have to remember that Obama has only been around for a few years, and most friendships can predate that. Are you going to tell somebody off because of a political difference?

Some of the people I know who think Obama is a Muslim are also people I would love to work with. Its just that the US is at a stage right now where everything is partisan. There is no more disagreeing with Obama because of actual issues. Either you love him or you think he's a Muslim and hate him.

[Daradon]

^^^ Well yeah, but like I was saying, if they had had that idea or attitude it's almost a certainty that I would have been having trouble with other values of theirs even before Obama came around.

It really has nothing to do with Obama, (or any specific person, singular idea, etc.) as you said, he's been around only for a little while and most friendships would have predated that, just like you said. But it's also probably a certainty that I didn't cultivate any friendships with people who would have had that attitude when he busted on the scene, cause the values that leads to believe and caring about that idea are not values that I would have been hanging around with to begin with.

If that makes any sense. Hard to talk in two different tenses at one time.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Azure

You also have to remember that Obama has only been around for a few years, and most friendships can predate that. Are you going to tell somebody off because of a political difference?

Some of the people I know who think Obama is a Muslim are also people I would love to work with. Its just that the US is at a stage right now where everything is partisan. There is no more disagreeing with Obama because of actual issues. Either you love him or you think he's a Muslim and hate him.

Umm what? First, that's not true at all, the majority of people are able to disagree with policies without having to go off the deep end. Second, there's a massive area between those two places, one where you will find 95% of the population. People who are so deranged, and let's be honest also bigoted, that they subscribe to the belief that Obama is Muslim (and that this would somehow make him evil) are scum as far as I'm concerned. I don't know what kind of work you're in, but if people who hold those type of warped beliefs are people you'd love to work with it sounds like a pretty miserable place, unless of course you're studying them, in which case it would be rather interesting.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I generally find Aussies to be scummy.

I think they have the highest national ratio of d bags in the male population.
The women on the other hand, fantastic!

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

Yeah, there are a lot of bogans, mullets, ferals, hooligans, drunkards and noerdowells. They're fun to drink with though.

They are rookies. They told Aeneas and I to "settle down" at a campground in Germany.

[gargamel]

I'm probably the only one, but I appreciate the goodbye threads or at least the goodbye posts. Maybe we need an Ongoing Goodbye Mega-Thread? Without a goodbye, I always think the worst when a regular poster just vanishes. I remember a lot of people speculating about whether something terrible had happened to Dion a few years ago when he temporarily stopped posting, and I still wonder whether Chris Lindberg is among the living every time that I see a ridiculous hypothetical lineup.

[DuffMan]

maybe a form people can fill out with dates leaving and possible return date and reason leaving.


Otherwise

stop

being

a