Discussion about hot topics trending today

[SoulReaver]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/boots-rec...180728333.html

guess what Trump supporters will be wearing next friday

[Gatefan1976]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/boots-rec...180728333.html

guess what Trump supporters will be wearing next friday

*SNORT*
Hang on a second.........

"As a Nordic Heathen, I am deeply offended by this reaction to a holy symbol of my faith, all they were showing is that with arctic boots, you need good traction, and as a symbol of good luck and protection, I don't see what the problem is"
"Would you get the same reaction from crescent moons or crosses from the General public? Why is there a war on my religious faith?"

[Gatefan1976]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...nalists-putins

[Annoyed]

what do you expect she's 70 ffs. obviously she looks 70
ever seen a 70y/o look 50? no more than a 50y/o look 30 or a 30y/o look 15 etc

Oh, I don't expect her to look like a 30 year old. But the fact remains is that at the current time I wouldn't say she is "pretty".
She's not the only aging performer to face this issue.
One of my all-time favorite bands is KISS. I recently purchased their "Live in Vegas" BD.
My first reaction to it was "Oh, well, these guys are getting too old to carry this off." Simmons just couldn't carry his "Demon" persona anymore, neither could Stanley pull his role off any more. In a way, it was kind of sad to watch.

This is just conjecture, but I think they are moving in a direction to try to keep the band going with different musicians playing the roles. Their stage show had a new piece of artwork, sort of a line drawing of their facial images:



Unless I miss my guess, Simmons & Stanley are setting things up so the band can go on, switching players in and out whenever needed.

I'll give 'em points for tenacity and creativity, but I don't know if they'll hold on to the older fans like myself, but they will still appeal to newcomers.

[Gatefan1976]

You just learned an important lesson.
Hanging on to the past rarely works out well.

[Womble]

German court rules that firebombing a synagogue is not anti-Semitic

A synagogue burning in Germany is perhaps among the most literal illustrations of anti-Semitism imaginable.

But apparently, not all synagogue burnings are equal.

This week a German regional court ruled that the 2014 firebombing of a synagogue in Wuppertal, a region just east of Düsseldorf, was an act of criminal arson, but not anti-Semitic. Instead, the court found it was a protest against Israel, even though the synagogue was obviously not in Israel and those who worship there are Jews, not Israelis.

The decision upheld that of a lower court, which stated the perpetrators, a trio of Palestinian-born German residents, wanted to “call attention to the Gaza conflict” when they prepared and then lobbed Molotov cocktails at the synagogue one July night in 2014. No one was injured, but the attack caused €800 in damages. The men were ultimately given suspended sentences.

The court’s decision is baffling — and deeply troubling. The men didn’t target the Israeli Embassy or one of its consulates. They attacked a Jewish institution. To conflate Israelis with Jews — and to say that a disagreement with the policies of the former somehow justifies attacking the latter — is by definition anti-Semitic. And if there is a line between anti-Israel sentiments and anti-Semitic ones, this attack definitely crossed it.

“The ruling judges ... found that it was somehow logical that if you were angry with the state of Israel you would choose [to attack] a synagogue, because there are no objects of the state of Israel to protest,” Deidre Berger, the director of the AJC Berlin Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations, told me Friday. “It’s very difficult for us to get a sense of the dimensions of the problems of anti-Semitism in Europe when cases of anti-Semitism are not characterized as such.”

I have no words for it.

Wait, I do have words for it. But they would violate Gateworld TOS.

[Falcon Horus]

I'd say it qualifies as a hate crime, but I'm no German court.

A violent protest against a group of people -- that's not some random crime. That's an attack on a certain group, in this case jews -- definitely grounds for a hate crime. Or so I would think.

[Annoyed]

You just learned an important lesson.
Hanging on to the past rarely works out well.

Even if the old way works better?
Consider telephones. 40+ years ago, it was all wired, analog devices. But they almost always worked, and you could hear people as clear as a bell on them. Nowadays, everyone has all this digital, wireless crap, and half the time you can't even make out what the party on the other end is saying.

[jelgate]

I want to know what cell phone Annoyed is using. Those rotary phones my grandfather used had way worse reception

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

You use your phone... .as a phone?

You really are old

I want to know what cell phone Annoyed is using. Those rotary phones my grandfather used had way worse reception

Indeed.. crackly, analogue wired connections. And you had to stay near where it was plugged in to use it. Not to mention. people had to call the building where they thought you were most likely to be..

I thought he would like them less.. So easy to tap an analogue phone.

[Gatefan1976]

I'd say it qualifies as a hate crime, but I'm no German court.

A violent protest against a group of people -- that's not some random crime. That's an attack on a certain group, in this case jews -- definitely grounds for a hate crime. Or so I would think.

Agreed.

[Gatefan1976]

Even if the old way works better?
Consider telephones. 40+ years ago, it was all wired, analog devices. But they almost always worked, and you could hear people as clear as a bell on them. Nowadays, everyone has all this digital, wireless crap, and half the time you can't even make out what the party on the other end is saying.

That's your ears, not the phone.

[Falcon Horus]

That's your ears, not the phone.

His hearing aid needs repairing.

[Annoyed]

Maybe I grew up in a better than average area?
When I was growing up, the telephone service here was top notch. Was a locally run telco, and they did an excellent job of it. The only major outage in about 40 years was an ice storm which devastated the power & telco infrastructure here. Some folks were without power for 3 weeks or more. And you could hear clear as a bell on that system, too.
Maybe that was the exception to the rule?

[Coco Pops]

Even if the old way works better?
Consider telephones. 40+ years ago, it was all wired, analog devices. But they almost always worked, and you could hear people as clear as a bell on them. Nowadays, everyone has all this digital, wireless crap, and half the time you can't even make out what the party on the other end is saying.

I kind of find myself agreeing. Digital GSM phones are fine for a convenience factor but when they start dropping out you can't here an intelligible word from the other party. Analog cellphones were way better.