Kaylee: Captain seem a little funny to you at breakfast this morning? Wash: Come on, Kaylee. We all know I'm the funny one.

'Heart Of Gold'


Natter 58: Let's call Venezuela!  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Trudy Booth - Apr 09, 2008 10:18:41 am PDT #675 of 10001
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

Exactly. I mean, I'm sure it was very traumatic for any kid in that situation. No, in any situation where they're being taken out of their homes and away from their families. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing to do, in this and any number of other cases.

But it might have been a bad thing here -- at least that was the response of the public. You had dozens of clean, well fed, (and white, to be sure) children thrown into foster care.

It wasn't the sympathy for the children that weirded me out, it was the lack of so much as a mention of any reason the authorities might have acted other than being mustache-twirling villians.

Sure, well that's just fucking creepy -- though I can see "we weren't hurting anybody" making a person very indignant.


Trudy Booth - Apr 09, 2008 10:23:04 am PDT #676 of 10001
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

I think the idea that the abuses common to these set-ups is a result of having been forced underground is a huge leap to make.

I don't think it is. It's the same premise behind legalizing prostitution and certain drugs and any other number of vices -- you have that bright light of law shining on you and its harder to marry a teenager. When you HAVE to hide everything you GET to hide everything.

Or to be married off at 13 to a man five times their age, etc. Again, I'm not sure the five-year-old's perspective on all this is all that illuminating.

But it appears that wasn't so common then. There is considerable assertion that things didn't get really freaky until one leader died and his son took over.


Nutty - Apr 09, 2008 10:23:30 am PDT #677 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

But it might have been a bad thing here -- at least that was the response of the public.

In general, the response of the public to a news story is probably not the most informed response. The Wikipedia article doesn't say one way or the other whether, e.g., age-of-consent laws were being respected or not.


Trudy Booth - Apr 09, 2008 10:27:07 am PDT #678 of 10001
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

The Wikipedia article doesn't say one way or the other whether, e.g., age-of-consent laws were being respected or not.

It doesn't. A lot of what I'm half-remembering is from Jon Krakaur's "Under The Banner of Heaven". Like I said, I'm pretty sure that the age of consent and discarded boys [link] began with more recent leadership and wasn't the case at Short Creek.


brenda m - Apr 09, 2008 10:37:42 am PDT #679 of 10001
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

You had dozens of clean, well fed, (and white, to be sure) children thrown into foster care.

Actually (and my knowledge here is sketchy at best, so grain of salt) from the women they were talking to it sounded like the fathers were more or less exiled but otherwise the families were more or less intact. Just from this broadcast, though.


P.M. Marc - Apr 09, 2008 10:38:49 am PDT #680 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

But it appears that wasn't so common then. There is considerable assertion that things didn't get really freaky until one leader died and his son took over.

One article linked to in Wikipedia's entry, interviewing some of the lawmen who were involved in the raid, contradicts that notion, as apparently you still had a fair number of seriously underaged "wives" in the situation.


brenda m - Apr 09, 2008 10:40:00 am PDT #681 of 10001
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

ION, I need a two-headed dog. Or rather, my dog needs two headedness, since there are cats (!) in the yard to the left and workmen (!) in the yard to the right and it's apparently very hard to keep on top of the barkiness level in each direction.


Allyson - Apr 09, 2008 10:42:42 am PDT #682 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica

I need math help!

I need to find out how many pounds are in one cu ft of hydrogen.

One pound of H will occupy 10,160.2608 liters, or 358.806 cubic feet.


Frankenbuddha - Apr 09, 2008 10:46:14 am PDT #683 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

I need to find out how many pounds are in one cu ft of hydrogen.

One pound of H will occupy 10,160.2608 liters, or 358.806 cubic feet.

Wouldn't that be 1/358.806 lbs. per cu ft? If one pound is 300+ of cu ft, then one cu ft is going to substantially smaller than a pound. Or am I missing something.


tommyrot - Apr 09, 2008 10:47:39 am PDT #684 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

One pound of H will occupy 10,160.2608 liters, or 358.806 cubic feet.

You can just take the multiplicative inverse - ie: 1/358.806

x-posty