Here is a video of the state of the union address. I would recommend checking it out!
link

I think that the state of the union could be quite quickly summed up by the fact that the link you posted has the same content in 3 proprietory linux-unfriendly formats (quicktime, realplayer and wmv) and 0 linux-friendly formats (eg...mpeg)

While I understand your point (sort of):

RealOne for Linux
MPlayer, which can view WMV, Real 8 & 9, and Sorenson QT, I believe, although perhaps only under x86 Linux for Sorenson or for all.

Pretty hilarious, even for a bush supporter.

For those who need a version in mpeg format, I provided one here, as it's pretty trivial for me to host that kind of conversion.

John

I'm not entirely sure you were logically responding to me (even though you actually were), but, nonetheless, I would like to go on official record and say that I am not a Bush supporter. Unless this is one of those puns like ``athletic supporter'', in which case, I am.

Edit: Oh. I think you meant to say to a Bush supporter. See? This is why I harp on grammar.

Edit: Oh. I think you meant to say to a Bush supporter. See? This is why I harp on grammar.

Ah, yes. That is indeed what I intended.

Thanks for the grammar-heads-up. (Seriously.)

So I started watching this video, laughing and commenting on the great video editing. A friend walks in (who happens to be a Bush supporter) sits down and says "hey start it over" he watched the whole thing, not cracking a smile, then stood up after it finished saying "whoever did that should be shot, I can't believe you think thats funny" and stormed out of the office. Wow... Conservatives need to lighten up...

After seeing a tee shirt proclaiming ``Mao More Than Ever'', a friend of mine proclaimed that the biggest difference between right-wing radicals and left-wing radicals is that left-wingers have a sense of humor.

Personally, I've always felt that it more of a circle than anything. People that get too far to the left start sounding just like the people too far to the right.

A matter of symantecs, Wfaulk:
This terminology is widely thought to have been started after the French revolution. People would sit in their legislature with other people with similar viewpoints. The people who wanted change would sit on the left, while people who wanted to keep things the way they were would sit on the right. Every year, it seemed as if the people who sat on the left previously had moved over to the right.

These terms historically meant little except "desiring change" or "not desiring change." Nowadays, they seem to refer to specific political platforms which do not always correspond to their definitions.

Heres how the terminology goes from left to right:
Radical (far-left: drastic change)
Liberal (left: change)
Moderate (center)
Conservative (right: no change)
Reactionary (far-right: back to the way things used to be)

Thus, those right-wing people you refer to should be called Reactionaries, not Radicals. I thought someone who calls himself the Grammar Police would know this

-Biscuits

Personally, I've always felt that it more of a circle than anything. People that get too far to the left start sounding just like the people too far to the right.

...snip...

Thus, those right-wing people you refer to should be called Reactionaries, not Radicals. I thought someone who calls himself the Grammar Police would know this

Your first statement regarding the political spectrum being more of a "circle" is pretty much saying exactly what Bitt said, in reverse. You say that people who get too far to the left (radicals) start sounding like the reactionaries. How can the reverse (calling the reactionaries "radicals") not also be true? That'd be a funny-looking circle...

Well.... errrr..... ummm...
D'oh!

Maybe it is a spiral going out into oblivion?

Maybe it is a spiral going out into oblivion?

You'll hear no argument from me on that one. Especially with the way the country is alienating even our allies with this vendetta against Iraq. I'm not saying that military operations in Iraq aren't eventually going to be necessary, but GWB is putting the cart way, way before the horse on this one.

People that get too far to the left start sounding just like the people too far to the right.

I'd noticed that, too. I think the first example of it I can remember is a guy on Los Angeles television many years ago who had a show called "Hot Seat". I don't remember his name, I think it was Wally George. He was the perfect example of that: He was so far left, he'd practically wrapped around to the extreme right.

My high school friends told me he was Rebecca DeMornay's father. (You know Rebecca: "Have you ever made love on a train, Joel?") Dunno if that was true or not.

People that get too far to the left start sounding just like the people too far to the right.

Whether left or right, I think this is usually at the point that Principles have turned into I-DE-OL-O-GY.

Hey, if you're going to correct me on semantics, you should at least spell it right!

I understand your point, and while I'm certainly aware of the history involved in the terminology of rightist and leftist politics, I'd have to also agree with your following statement that those terms have been mutated and bastardized so that they no longer have even remotely the same meanings that they did then, despite people's efforts to try to convince the rabble that they do.

We actually had a big discussion on here before you joined about what said terms actually represent now, but no one came to any good conclusion. I don't think that there really is a good definition now. They've long since become moving targets and any shot that gets one is likely to get the other, too (to extend a metaphor beyond its breaking point).

If only we could modify our voting system to use more mathematically accurate methods we could avoid having the two-party systems that prevent many of the voting irregularities inherent in the plurality voting methods we use now, and get rid of all this party and left/right nonsense. I have similar views on movie ratings, too, but that's an argument for another day.

Wally George is on the right, not left. Really far right. He has nothing in common with the left. Trust me, I have despised the guy for a long long time. And yes, he is Rebecca DeMornay's father.

And yes, all zealots, regardless of ideology, sound a bit alike. I think it is silly to say they end up all being the same or wrap around or such though. Their motives and reasons are completely different. Even when they both advocate the same kind of ideas they are coming at it from different angles. Take censorship for instance; both the far right and left have advocated censoring speech, but the reasons and targets for them are completely different. Even if methods become similar, the motives are radically different.

both the far right and left have advocated censoring speech

The far left advocates censoring speech? Examples please?

Far left censoring: See Communist Russia, China, and Cuba.

Censoring "hate" speech mainly, such as attempting to censor racist wesbites on the Internet or censoring porn because it is offensive to women (and not because of the moral reasons that the right claims when they want to censor it).

I think it could be argued that the left is more pro-censorship than the right nowadays. And this is coming from a proud liberal and card carrying ACLU member.

I was kinda talking about the far left in America... Ninti came up with a few good examples, though I think that depending on who you ask on the extreme left in this country, you might get different opinions on censorship. I think many liberals, even extreme ones, would be against hate speech and against being offensive to women, but would probably also be for one's right to express their views, even though they differ.

I do not think you can compare Communist oligarchy goverments to what the far left means in American or European politics.

Nice new title you got there Bitt.

And PVP did a comic on the subject:

http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20021003

Okay. In addition, the PMRC that got the music labels put on CDs, etc., was largely from the liberal segment. In addition, one of Gore/Lieberman's planks, IIRC, was restricting violent and sexual movies (mostly from kids, but it's still censorship).

Wally George is on the right, not left. Really far right. He has nothing in common with the left. Trust me, I have despised the guy for a long long time. And yes, he is Rebecca DeMornay's father.

Argh, you're right (er, correct). I get my lefts and rights mixed up all the time.

That's interesting about RDM. I wonder if they get along?

I get my lefts and rights mixed up all the time.

Is that why you're running gpsapp on your empeg?

tanstaafl.

Is that why you're running gpsapp on your empeg?

It may be the other way around. GPSApp gets them mixed up, too.

don't forget See: Gore, Tipper.

Hey - ever notice how when Clinton won the prez, she disappeared off the face?

"OK, honey, now that Bill's driving the bus, I don't want you making noise and causing havoc with the other children in the back seats."

-Ben