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 Mannahnin wrote:
He was being paid, of course. But I guess he didn't know it would be hard, and we should feel sorry for him.

I like that you went there. It clarifies a lot of things I've been wondering.

Bromsy wrote:

 Mannahnin wrote:
I'm fine. I'm concerned about other people.

If you're not; okay, message received loud and clear.

That is some porous moral high ground you are attempting to build there.

I don't think I have ever seen Bromay get a case of the ass. WTF did you do to him?

The Sovereign state of Texas has decided...NO.

Elections and election observation are regulated by state law. The Texas Election Code governs anyone who participates in Texas elections—including representatives of the OSCE. The OSCE’s representatives are not authorized by Texas law to enter a polling place. It may be a criminal offense for OSCE’s representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place’s entrance. Failure to comply with these requirements could subject the OSCE’s representatives to criminal prosecution for violating state law.

Sincerely,
Greg Abbott
Attorney General of Texas

 AustonT wrote:
I don't think I have ever seen Bromay get a case of the ass. WTF did you do to him?

When I read his post it came off as…

A) Expressing a lack of sympathy for unpleasant or unjust things others experience, based on his having experienced hardship.
B) Possibly an attempt to use his service as a shield to deflect criticism of his statements. Statements which were at best ill-expressed and at worst indefensible.

I don’t think he can legitimately dismiss the obstacles and long waits some voters experience by invoking his having long waits in Kuwait. My point was that he volunteered for a job with a reasonable expectation of some hardship and a lot of inconvenience. No one trying to exercise their constitutional right to vote should experience hardship or substantial inconvenience to do so; he was making an invalid comparison. I was rude about it, and that wasn’t okay. I’m sorry for that. There's no excuse for being a dick.

His choices to dismiss complaints that some voters are being actively discouraged and/or disenfranchised as “whining”, and to disregard any efforts on behalf of voters short of “throwing tea in the harbor” were his bad arguments. When he comes into a thread about how election monitors are being asked for because of issues of voter suppression and says “there is really no issue when it comes to voting for one of the two major parties”, and starts throwing rape comments around about the UN, he’s acting like someone looking for a fight, rather than a respectful discussion. Despite that I responded to his first and second argumentative and inflammatory posts respectfully. He then decided to accuse me of talking down to him because I tried to explain issues to him which he was claiming don’t exist or don’t matter. I tried again and he made another bad and dismissive argument, at which point I got sick of it and made a couple of bad posts myself. Getting angry and making those posts was my own fault and my own responsibility, and I apologized for doing so. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

I do believe that standing up for the rights of people who are worse off than you is a good thing to do. I don’t think that should be particularly controversial or provocative. I know dogma considers all this junk fair in politics, but I can’t get behind that. I think it’s scummy and that we should object to it. I don’t think it’s “whining” to do so.

-------------------------------------

I do think it’s clear that there is (and has been a new surge of in the last dozen years) a record of voter suppression here and there across the US directed primarily at poor and minority voters. It hasn’t been a massive or common thing, but it’s certainly had an impact, and it’s been spreading. I first noticed it mostly in battleground states. Like when Katherine Harris in 2000 was both the Secretary of State for FL and the head of Bush’s election committee, and her voter suppression efforts were pretty blatant. Other states had similar issues, with voter purges originally being the weapon of choice, stripping legal voters of their rights to advance the chances of success for one party.
http://www.salon.com/2000/12/04/voter_file/
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/10/us/florida-list-for-purge-of-voters-proves-flawed.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/30/eveningnews/main4490682.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4490682

Since then it’s progressed (with the help of organizations like ALEC coming up with model legislation for voter ID laws nationally) into a nationwide campaign. In the last couple of years voter ID laws have been the new tactic…
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Many_states_voter-ID_laws_including_Pennsylvanias_appear_to_have_tie_to_same_US_group.html

But those two kinds of clearly deliberate actions aren’t the only issues. Localized shortages in voting machines have led to waits of sometimes four plus hours in Ohio in 2004; in one location up to ten. And six or more hours in some places in 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/opinion/26tue4.html?_r=0
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/03/voting-lines-stretch-to-e_n_140401.html

I don’t think that’s acceptable. Certainly not in the US, where we pride ourselves on being the EXAMPLE of how democracy should work. We like to think of ourselves as the gold standard in this department; but anyone can tell you that you can’t be great at something by resting on your laurels and just asserting your superiority. You have to actually work at it. And right now some folks are clearly working to sabotage it for their own partisan interests.

Making it harder for certain populations and groups to vote is an effort with a clearly partisan political purpose, as the Majority Leader in the PA House made even more blatant with his recent comments about how the voter ID law would allow Romney to win PA. It doesn’t just hit minorities, of course. It hits working poor people of all ethnicities, and it’s also aimed to block college kids and the poor among the elderly. In my own state of NH, Republicans in the legislature have been trying to forbid college kids from out of state from voting here while they’re living here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/10/AR2011031002875.html

Beyond THAT, we’ve also had instances of Republican-paid voter registration groups refusing to register people as Democrats, or taking their registrations and then dumping them. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-voter-registration-gop-arrest-20121018,0,5352175.story

It’s not enough for these folks to try to win debates on policy, or to motivate their own voters, it also has come down to them trying to physically and legislatively prevent legally-eligible voters from exercising their rights.

I get passionate about this issue for a few reasons. I’ll admit right up front that one is partisan interest. Another is having a bit of an obsession with justice and fairness. A third is the remaining shreds of idealism from my childhood, as a kid who grew up idolizing the ACLU and the Libertarian party. I love this country. I think the American form of government is pretty awesome. And not in a jingoistic jackass Hannity “greatest-and-best-country-god-has-ever-given-us-on-the-face-of-the-Earth” way. I think other countries are pretty great too, and I’m aware that some countries do some things better than we do. But I believe in our potential to take the best and rise the highest, to improve on the past and to make the best possible future. In that idealism I take our Constitutional rights and freedoms pretty seriously. Voter suppression and messing with the democratic process in these ways are deplorable and unconscionable. And IMO too many people are ignoring and dismissing it. I do think there is a moral dimension to debating with people when they do that, as I think they’re enabling and excusing injustice, and obstructing America’s ability to be the shining example of democracy that it should be.

That was a really good post, Mannahnin.

Thats a wall of text Manny.

My rights were infringed! Their system said I had moved (er not in the last decade). I had to sign an affadavit! Voter suppression! Help I'm being surpressed!

On the positive it only took about fifteen minutes. Are we the only state with the weird dial like electronic machine? I keep trying to touch the buttons like a real screen. I miss the days of punch cards. You could cathunk them with manly patriotic pride and in a very satisfying manner. When done, you dropped them in the box, and when you did a tiny AMERICA HURR! light came on, and the Star Spangled Banner started playing in the background.

Mmmm victory.

 Mannahnin wrote:

 AustonT wrote:
I don't think I have ever seen Bromay get a case of the ass. WTF did you do to him?

When I read his post it came off as…

A) Expressing a lack of sympathy for unpleasant or unjust things others experience, based on his having experienced hardship.
B) Possibly an attempt to use his service as a shield to deflect criticism of his statements. Statements which were at best ill-expressed and at worst indefensible.

I don’t think he can legitimately dismiss the obstacles and long waits some voters experience by invoking his having long waits in Kuwait. My point was that he volunteered for a job with a reasonable expectation of some hardship and a lot of inconvenience. No one trying to exercise their constitutional right to vote should experience hardship or substantial inconvenience to do so; he was making an invalid comparison. I was rude about it, and that wasn’t okay. I’m sorry for that. There's no excuse for being a dick.

His choices to dismiss complaints that some voters are being actively discouraged and/or disenfranchised as “whining”, and to disregard any efforts on behalf of voters short of “throwing tea in the harbor” were his bad arguments. When he comes into a thread about how election monitors are being asked for because of issues of voter suppression and says “there is really no issue when it comes to voting for one of the two major parties”, and starts throwing rape comments around about the UN, he’s acting like someone looking for a fight, rather than a respectful discussion. Despite that I responded to his first and second argumentative and inflammatory posts respectfully. He then decided to accuse me of talking down to him because I tried to explain issues to him which he was claiming don’t exist or don’t matter. I tried again and he made another bad and dismissive argument, at which point I got sick of it and made a couple of bad posts myself. Getting angry and making those posts was my own fault and my own responsibility, and I apologized for doing so. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

I do believe that standing up for the rights of people who are worse off than you is a good thing to do. I don’t think that should be particularly controversial or provocative. I know dogma considers all this junk fair in politics, but I can’t get behind that. I think it’s scummy and that we should object to it. I don’t think it’s “whining” to do so.

Thank you for taking the time to explain that Manny.

Thanks, guys. Once again, I'm sorry I got overheated and was a dick about it. Bromsy, if we're ever at a 40k event or something I'll happily stand you a beer.

 Mannahnin wrote:
Thanks, guys. Once again, I'm sorry I got overheated and was a dick about it. Bromsy, if we're ever at a 40k event or something I'll happily stand you a beer.

With rat poison in it of course.

 Cheesecat wrote:

 Mannahnin wrote:
Thanks, guys. Once again, I'm sorry I got overheated and was a dick about it. Bromsy, if we're ever at a 40k event or something I'll happily stand you a beer.

With rat poison in it of course.

You know that's a blood thinner... right...

Hmmm, so does alcohol in the bloodstreams...

Uh... how DRUNK are you trying to get these guys? Do you really need to win 40k that badly?

Whembly, at some of the more serious events we do the drinking AFTER the games. At many of them we drink during, too, of course. Doing shots with the Swedes at the Adepticon Team Tourney this year was pretty epic. The "Four Wise Men" Da Boyz from Rochester brought the year before also hit me pretty hard.

A few years ago one club I was in started a club showdown with another club with a line-chug for first turn. We arranged a half dozen Warhammer tables in a row, had all the guys from one club on one side, and the other on the other side, and lined up the drinks.

I don't remember any drinking at Adepticon...

I was so hurting Friday morning after Lorek and I saw that bottle of Highland Park on sale at Binny's on Thursday, and we were both filling our flasks from it. I drank way too much in my Thursday night grudge match with Daniel from Team Sweden.

I don't know half the stuff I drank. If a dakkanaut passes you a bottle you don't ask any questions, you just take a drink..

 Mannahnin wrote:


I was so hurting Friday morning after Lorek and I saw that bottle of Highland Park on sale at Binny's on Thursday, and we were both filling our flasks from it. I drank way too much in my Thursday night grudge match with Daniel from Team Sweden.

Awesome... epically awesome... If I go, I'll let you know.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 d-usa wrote:
I don't know half the stuff I drank. If a dakkanaut passes you a bottle you don't ask any questions, you just take a drink..

Awesome!

Big regional, national, and international tournaments aren't just a showcase for competitive gaming and lots of nice miniatures and armies. They're also a great chance to get away and hang out with other gamers. The kind of guys who travel to these events are mostly grownups, a large percentage of whom (like yours truly) have good taste in alcohol and are inclined to share them in furtherence of bonding with our fellow gamers.

 Mannahnin wrote:
Big regional, national, and international tournaments aren't just a showcase for competitive gaming and lots of nice miniatures and armies. They're also a great chance to get away and hang out with other gamers. The kind of guys who travel to these events are mostly grownups, a large percentage of whom (like yours truly) have good taste in alcohol and are inclined to share them in furtherence of bonding with our fellow gamers.

Yeah... I'm definately planning on traveling more...

I'm going to Memphis for the grand re-opening of their new store on the weekend of Nov 2nd.

Manny...I'm sorry.....I can't shake a image of you being a groupie following a band....Lyta Ford...Vixen..

I just watched Almost Famous again the other night, for what it's worth. Though I identify more with William than Penny. His mother is a lot like mine was. And I was using college textbooks when I was twelve.

Alternately, you might be overdoing the drugs a little.

 Mannahnin wrote:
I just watched Almost Famous again the other night, for what it's worth. Though I identify more with William than Penny. His mother is a lot like mine was. And I was using college textbooks when I was twelve.

Alternately, you might be overdoing the drugs a little.

But Ragnar... Jihadin+pain meds = great entertainment!

 Mannahnin wrote:
Thanks, guys. Once again, I'm sorry I got overheated and was a dick about it. Bromsy, if we're ever at a 40k event or something I'll happily stand you a beer.

No problem... as I explained I was fairly drunk at the start and became somewhat moreso as time went on for some mysterious reason - and drunk me absolutely hates being condescended to, which is what I started taking your posts as. I wasn't expressing my point as clearly as I felt I was - I was trying to get at how much worse anyone who wants to vote something other than democrat or republic has it moreso than saying it is easy to vote dem or repub in the current climate. As far as the whole Kuwait story thing, all I was trying to do was illustrate that spending time shouldn't be where people tap out of doing important things, nothing deeper. I was beyond the point of subtlety as far as using my service as some sort of defense - and I didn't really go off the deep end until

 Mannahnin wrote:
He was being paid, of course. But I guess he didn't know it would be hard, and we should feel sorry for him.

That was when I went from being somewhat frustrated and angry that you weren't getting my point into straight ragemonsterhood.

And for the whole UN thing, while a bit crass, it did serve to illustrate the sheer depth of my loathing.



And I'll obviously get the second round.

 Mannahnin wrote:


Alternately, you might be overdoing the drugs a little.

Actually, and interesting story, you can precipitate the acetaminophen out of vicodin provided that you chill it beforehand, resulting in surprisingly little organ damage when combined with alcohol.

Not that I, or Dakka, should condone such behaviour.

 Mannahnin wrote:
Big regional, national, and international tournaments aren't just a showcase for competitive gaming and lots of nice miniatures and armies. They're also a great chance to get away and hang out with other gamers. The kind of guys who travel to these events are mostly grownups, a large percentage of whom (like yours truly) have good taste in alcohol and are inclined to share them in furtherence of bonding with our fellow gamers.

It was my first time going to any event like this, and I have to say that I enjoyed the social aspect just as much, if not more, than the gaming.

 Mannahnin wrote:


I was so hurting Friday morning after Lorek and I saw that bottle of Highland Park on sale at Binny's on Thursday, and we were both filling our flasks from it. I drank way too much in my Thursday night grudge match with Daniel from Team Sweden.

I'm sipping some Highland Park right now as it happens. I'm more of an Irish Whiskey guy, but Scotch is damn good stuff.

I was pretty hungover at the Team Tournament on Saturday. Go figure that my team had to deal with Hulk's team round one. Needless to say, we didn't do too well.

KM: Much as it pains me as someone of proud Irish descent, I prefer Scotch. The less-peaty Islay malts are some of my true loves.

Daedalus- After struggling into a Draw round 1 Friday morning against an army and opponent I should have beaten, I had more sense Friday night. Good thing too, as I feel your matchup pain. Our TT round 1 opponents were the Sons of Shatner (champions from two years ago).

Oooh, I remember those guys. First place with Orks if I remember. Nasty stuff.

This year they had (absolutely gorgeously converted and painted) brutal GK armies, including Crowe and Coteaz, of course, so all their squads (including henchmen and Purifiers) were scoring. We had to play our asses off and get lucky to come out on top that round.

 Mannahnin wrote:
KM: Much as it pains me as someone of proud Irish descent, I prefer Scotch. The less-peaty Islay malts are some of my true loves.
.

Do your heritage proud and check out a bottle of Knappogue Castle when you get the time. I had the chance to enjoy a dram of it that was 22 years old, I wept tears of joy it was such a beautiful and moving experience.