OT: Super Bowl Losers: Colts, Advertisements

That’s my may over there.
I was watching through the glory of justinTV.com, or somethin’.

Somethin’ that quit feeding about three times, two near the end of the game.
Somethin’ that had me watching “ESPN America”, and missing a lot of the ads.

I’m always interested in what clever ways people can come up with to spend a gazillion dollars per five minute segment, but this time I was pretty much shut out of the fun…or, from the sound of things here, the lack of fun.

I did manage to catch the GoDaddy.com ad, which I – a perv of an unusual degree – thought pretty damned tasteless.

Ms. Patrick, I suppose, has no scruples past the rubles.
What a guy!

+1. I know Ramah says he knows English, Arabic, and Spanish already though, so whatever.

You can take your pick. One would be utilitarian and pragmatic, the other a little more in the “end in itself” variety. I prefer the second, but both have their uses.

On the pragmatic side, anyone who takes a foreign language ( and learns it – key distinction, there) will get better grades in other classes. Take your pick. It gives benefits to abstract thinking, vocabulary, appreciation of literature, memorization, the works. There’s almost nothing in education that learning a second language doesn’t benefit. Latin provides more benefit to English speakers than pretty much any other language, due to the sheer volume of English vocabulary drawn from Latin, and the fact that the grammar is different enough to require a fair bit of adjustment on the student’s part, but still pretty familiar. You come out of it knowing English far, far better, as well as now having the ability to easily learn any of the Romance languages with far less effort. A simpler answer, also pragmatic: you are just about guaranteed to raise your SAT by a significant amount, and it looks great on college transcripts.

I like it better as an end in itself. Many of the best books in Western history were written in Latin. If I really want to experience them, I should learn Latin. Obviously, this applies less to people outside of Western civilization. They would have other languages that are more important.

I think it was written that way to satirize the “wholesome” American family. They even have Homer working at the nuclear plant (as in nuclear family). And how many other families are there besides the Flanders, who are set up to be the anti-Simpsons?

Also, you could kind of point to Edna Krabapple as an exception to what you were talking about with Patty and Selma… she works and is portrayed as desirable (“you only get ONE CHANCE with Edna Krabapple”).

Does Milhouse’s mom have a job? I know they’re not married anymore, but she might have been an exception?

I’m glad to say that I’ve never seen it.

Well, she is smarter than him, and she doesn’t a job or a social life, or anything. Do you mean because it’s supposed to be a parody?

jponry was nagging me just the other day about turning the tables. I said that I would turn them once I finished my beer.

Well that does it. You’ve completely fucked your chances of landing a lucrative job as a writer for sitcoms and wacky commercials.

I am politically correct, but I also think there is a widespread misunderstanding of the issue of political correctness. Many people I know who are “un”-PC are that way because they recognize the major flaw with political correctness as it is popularly recognized. The predominate idea of “political correctness” is not saying something out of fear of being offensive. The “un”-PC people I know correctly recognize that the “fear” of being offensive demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about what actually is offensive. If you have to be afraid that you may or may not be saying or doing something offensive, then you clearly don’t know whether something is or isn’t offensive.

The problem that I have with many of these “un”-PC people is that they take a reactionary approach to this problem. Having identified the problem, they try to “solve” it by occupying the other side of the spectrum, which is a total disregard for the issue of offense. These are the people who will say something obscenely offensive, and then wipe it away with some kind of blanket like “Oh, don’t be so PC – I don’t mean anything by it!”

The mistake here is one of intention. These people are reacting to a phenomenon they have identified rather than simply correcting the phenomenon in themselves. Instead of saying, “I don’t want to be offensive, so I won’t say anything that might be offensive,” they say “I can only be offensive if I actually mean to cause offense, so I’ll say fuck all to everyone.”

I was that way for a long time as a teenager. I only realized what an ass I was being when I lost a good friend over it.

The problem is that reacting to a lack lack of understanding (the “fear” indicates a lack of understanding) doesn’t actually signify that you understand the issue yourself. You understand that there is a misunderstanding going on, but you’re flipping the method of dealing with a misunderstanding instead of actually solving the problem. You still don’t actually understand what’s offensive. You’ve just made a pact with yourself not to be afraid of it.

The problem still remains: this person doesn’t understand what is actually offensive.

So my approach to being PC is this: take a few minutes to fucking use your brain. If you think something MIGHT be offensive, give it some fucking thought to understand whether it actually is offensive. If it is, then don’t fucking say it. If it isn’t, then go nuts.

And once you understand what makes something offensive, you can use that knowledge to your advantage. Which is the beauty of great comedy. It’s what made George Carlin so great, for instance. And more recently, comics like Chris Rock.

Yes, there are grains of truth in stereotypes. That’s how stereotypes get started.

I also think that this is a very dangerous way to think. Some stereotypes get started this way, but some are much, much, much worse.

For instance, there was – and to some small extent remains – the stereotype that black people are intellectually inferior to whites.

This wasn’t started from a grain of truth. It’s absolutely ridiculous. It may have been started from systemic perception. Black people weren’t allowed education for a long time. Naturally, the perception would be a lower level of general intelligence. Today, even, more black people live in low-income areas, where access to education is much less available. So a lower percentage of black people are still getting quality education, and the perception may still therefore be that intelligence is naturally lower among blacks. It doesn’t make it remotely true. But it can start or perpetuate a particularly ugly stereotype.

Very

That doesn’t necessarily mean anything…

I think Goofus is a woman too.

Clearly a Dodge Charger is the only thing keeping thehavenot from becoming a misogynistic serial killer.

There’s a possessive in there somewhere, too.

I had to be on my friends asses ALL THE TIME

And that’s why we’re not friends anymore. Can’t we just talk sometimes?

When I moved in with my ex and son and evaluated the bill situation the packaged DVR was the first thing to go.

And, of course, I immediately suffered withdrawal pains.

It’s MLB Network, it’ll be on 20 more times.

I have a cable that lets me hook up my laptop to the TV. Handy!

well i’m on the Blagoblag!

Ill show you not approvableness!

/rips off shirt

I understand the chances were low of getting an onside kick and then after that driving for the touchdown, but they weren’t out of the realm of possibility. Stranger things have happened.

Yes, it was a longshot. No, the game was not essentially over.

YOU SUCK, OPTIMUS PRIME!!

But more specifically, everything outside of my Optimus Prime hate

Hot Springs = Obligatory Anime Bathhouse Episode!

:D

The best time to do it is always: NOW