I must say, out of all the contrary, maverick opinions I have, to be pitted on something as pedestrian as stereotypes, and by someone as off-the-wall as Maeglin is a bit off-putting. I’m sure Gobear, judging by his pretentious zen comments could do a much more capable job.
This is quite the snoozer – and haven’t we already done the stereotype discussion to death?
So thank you all for your hard work. A few mentions, let me find my notes. Ah, here we are. ::coughs::
I’d like to thank Maeglin, without whose inane perceptions of racism and leftism, all this would not be possible. I’d like to nominate him for Crank-of-the-month. There he is! [Waves] Don’t bet against him, he’ll crush you like egg!
Ok, and I’d like to thank the French, could the French please stand up? Yes! Thanks for treating Oxy like an ass – I know it’s our fault because of our nasty stereotype. And I personally resolve to change the history books so that people stop calling you “surrender monkeys.” You’re on your own about the cheese, though!
[Pause for laughter]
I’d like to mention Gobear, who really should have been hosting – it would have been a lot more lively. GOB, remember when you said this?
Ah, good times, good times. Well, I sent this over to the truth-o-meter labs and it came back “Wrong. And wrong. And are you insane?!” Yes, I’d like to award you this golden sombrero for going 0 for 3! Ha, you kidder. You’re next on the dias, ya goofball!
Ok, who else. Jurhael! You are eminently correct; Pucette You are as lovely as… – oops, wrong notes – …indeed, a stereotype does not apply to an individual; Abe_Babe, don’t change an iota, yaz perfect.
And I’m sure I’ve forgotten a ton of people, but trust me, I can feel the love from here, and I’m truly touched. You shouldn’t have bothered, but thanks. Next time, squirming!
Now, both this thread and I are going back to sleep.
Well, I speak both languages (more accurately, I speak Koprean and I can get around in Japanese), and your language class is accurate up to a point. In Korean, there is one letter to express both /r/ and /l/ sounds. Pronounced “riyul,” it looks kinda like a backward Z and is supposed to resemble the tongue as it makes the /r/ and /l/. Koreans definitely have trouble with distinguishing the two. They also have trouble with /f/ and /p/ and with /th/ and /s/ because Korean lacks F and TH sounds. As you learned, whether “riyul” takes the /r/ or /l/ depends on its placement in the word.
Japanese, on the other hand, clearly delineates the two sounds in its two syllabaries, hiragana and katakana. (and they also yuse Chinese characters called “kanji,” but those must be memorised or read with the help of kana printed over the character.") Each kana has a specific consonant and vowel combination, so there’s none of the confusionm between the sounds that bedevils Koreans. The trouble with Japanese pronounciation is that their R sound sounds like an English /d/, and they have difficulty saying our pirate-like “arr.”
Well… no, it doesn’t, because Japanese only has one consonant that is somewhere between then English /r/ and /l/. You find it in the 36th through 40th syllables (or 8th row) of the kana.
When learning English they (native Japanese speakers) have much trouble distinguishing minimal pairs contrasting /r/ and /l/. For example, my (native) Japanese professor saw my Lush t-shirt one day and started talking about how much she liked them too. Only she was talking about Rush, not Lush. Textbook example from real life.
It’s also used in a lot of linguistic research on speech perception. I think the latest Scientific American describes an experiment that concerns it. Maybe you’re thinking of some kind of Chinese?
If stereotypes are wrong, does this mean that Americans are not obese war-mongering racist energy-guzzling child-molesting sexually repressed pro-Israeli muslim-hating fundamentalist unilateralist bullies?
Of course Bizzwire, because thats REALLY the impression us non americans have of americans. They teach us in “Lets Hate the Americans” class.
And Happyheathen? go fuck yourself. Why the fuck do you feel that you have to RATE a post? It’s not like your own ability to debate is particularly exemplorary.
I think Maeglin’s a hunnerd and three percent right, here. His perceptions of racism and leftism are inane? Hardly. And for someone to believe so is pretty fucking hilarious–especially a certain someone who more aptly epitomizes, in his board history, the paranoid, unreasoning crypto-leftist jackass stereotype than anyone I’ve seen. Even a cursory glance will tell you who’s on the wall and who’s off- in this particular case.
Ace: Circular reasoning is bad, mmmkay? Ditto perpetuation of a tiresome status quo.
I used to live in Greece, and I look Greek and spoke pretty well. People didn’t believe I wasn’t Greek, so when they’d ask “Are you sure you don’t have a little Greek in you?” I’d answer “Well, my Greek boyfriend’s not that tall.”
By the way, it’s pronounced YEE-ros, OK? Not GIE-ro.
There is nothing quite like having an extremely pleasant weekend and a nice, warm pit thread to come back to on Monday morning. Thanks, this is gonna be a good week, I can just tell.
And thanks for all the kind words, by the way. You know who you are. And thanks for the unkind words, too. Few things so magnify my self-esteem as insults from the semi-literate and the banal.
It brings me great pleasure that a knee-jerking, theist-baiting sub-troll like HappyHeathen would accuse me of lacking a certain vigor. The lesson is, I don’t get all that upset when the issues are not major. This wasn’t a huge issue, but certainly enough to merit attention. No foul language was necessary, no creative insults.
That was Friday.
And RexDart chimes in with the banal, “Dahling, haven’t we been around this merry-go-round before?” You can just seem him reclining in his cafe, smoking his cig with a clip, and sipping chai.
Obviously if Ace, who has been around the SDMB for some time, hasn’t learned his fucking lesson yet, he deserves a pitting much more than some newbie. Who has only been around for four months or so.
Glad you think I raise some valid points, though. Sure, they’re nothing new, but since it is clear that certain troglodytes have not mastered them, they are worth rehashing.
I forgive you for your remarks, Abe, because you must still be sore from our last Diplomacy game. I’ll use lube next time, I promise. Or anaesthesia.
And finally we come to Ace0Spades. Where do I begin?
You flatter yourself, Ace. You are the very model of the reflexive Democratic ass. We have listened to you piss, jizz, and bray all over GD for months now.
You don’t have a maverick bone in your body. Your brain is a sponge of banality and credulousness, with a fair amount of Mother Jones soap solution. Your specious understanding both of current affairs and of major issues in American capitalism is consistently pointed out by your betters, especially DeweyCheatemUndhow, Sua, and many others.
You are GD’s left wing december, Ace, and you make me ashamed to be a liberal.
I find even Scylla’s politics more attractive than yours.
Let’s have a closer look, shall we?
In this thread you clutch to your truly staggering ignorance with respect to the relationship between Enron and the California energy crisis.
Kesagiri was perhaps the most eloquent, when he said:
Let me give you a hint. When you have SuaSponte, flowbark, and and two posters in the energy industry try to tell you that you don’t know your ass from the pustule between your ears, they are probably right.
If you honestly believe that truthout.com and consumerwatchdog.org, two out of three of your OP cites, are going to give you any modicum of unbiased reporting, then you are even more sorely lacking in critical skills than I suspected.
As you say yourself, Ace:
This thread speaks for itself. Only in a thread started by Ace0Spades do I actually agree with UncleBeer.
That takes a lot. Really.
Thanks, Ace, I graciously accept. I’ll award you the Golden Horse’s Ass for being one of the most socially detestable individuals I have ever had the misfortune to converse with both on the boards and in real life. You have truly mastered the art of unreflective buffoonery. Conversation with you is the social equivalent of root canal performed on the eyeballs. You’re loudmouthed, self-important, and monumentally ignorant.
And utterly lacking in wit.
We’d all be better off if you stayed there, too. No, actually, we’d all be better off if you were a load your mama had choked on and spit out.
Actually, I meant that as a compliment. We’re just on different sides of the fence, is all. That I prefer your politics to someone who is supposed to me on my team should speak volumes.
