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#3801 Re: The Garden » The United Kingdom General Election, 2nd May 2024 » 516 weeks ago

Not my fight, but I see an opportunity for England to return to economic glory through leaving.  If it's out of the EU, it can try to rival NYC as the economic capital of the world.  Obviously its strongest partners are going to still be the US and a couple EU countries, but it can become the world bank and through trade deals, establish the pound as the standard over the US Dollar. 

I'm sorry, but if you dispatched some bobbies to put to work all your chavs and other free loaders, you wouldn't need to bring in eastern european immigrants who are only interested in your high welfare rate.  The income you'd made on banking could fund your NHS and other system.  Just so many opportunities to make England a world power again and increase the quality of life of your people by leaving, versus the status quo in the EU.  The EU will never be on the same level as the US, China or Russia.  The social welfare is absurd and the bureaucracy prevents real ingenuity.  What was the last cool product you heard of being designed in the EU?  Let mainland Europe keep it's 60 different countries and languages and squabble about how enlightened they are while Britain is free to seek out deals that solely benefit it.

#3802 Re: The Sunset Strip » HBO's A Game of Thrones » 516 weeks ago

My only reason for not thinking Mel dies next week is she hasn't met Arya again. When Mel found Gendry in season 3, she told Arya they'd meet again.

And while what Melisandre did to Shireen was horrible, Stannis ordered her to do it. She was following her King.  I know the show and books have little left in common, but her role in the books against the others seems much larger, and knowing that, I don't think she'll die. Jon doesn't have Dragons. Jon doesn't have Bran. The only magic he has is his sword and Mel. He needs everything he has against the coming battle.

#3803 Re: The Sunset Strip » HBO's A Game of Thrones » 516 weeks ago

Sansa's story is over.  Regardless of how much the show runners want to shove "Girl power!" down our throats, Sansa will never rule the North.  She needs to have a child to carry on her family and as soon as she marries, her husband becomes the ruler.  I know it's been a while, but look at how useless Cersei was when Robert was alive.  Hell, when Tywin was in King's Landing.  I don't want to say for certain that Littlefinger wants to marry Sansa, but that's how it's looking.  And in that relationship, he will be in charge.

So whether Bran returns or Sansa marries some Northern Lord next season to unite the North, her power wanes.

#3804 Re: The Sunset Strip » HBO's A Game of Thrones » 516 weeks ago

I'm sorry, I thought it was shit.  Entirely predictable and they're making these characters super heroes, completely removing the danger that they could die at any minute.  Thousands die taking arrows, but Jon is able to ride through the onslaught without a scratch.  Just like Arya last week suffering incredible abdominal wounds, falling into a cesspool, and then running away 12 hours later.  At least with Dany, there was the weak excuse that Targaryen's are immune to fire.

If Jon doesn't scream at Sansa next week for keeping him in the dark, the show has truly gone off the rails.  I try not to be one those douches who thinks the show has to match the books perfectly.  But when you have amazing plot and story in front of you, and disregard it to make illogical and impossible shit just to keep the mouth breathers entertained for a few moments, you're doing it wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I liked seeing the events transpire as well as anyone.  But Jon Snow is probably the most battle hardened out of any main character still living.  He spends the first part of the show talking tactics, they work in a scene for Sansa to offer no advice other than "watch out for traps.  I know how he thinks, but I can't give you one unique example, but be careful and you should listen to me."  Then as soon as Rickon dies, Jon just forgets his years of battle experience and charges like Leeroy Jenkins.

#3805 Re: The Garden » 2016 Presidential Election Thread » 517 weeks ago

TheMole wrote:
Randall Flagg wrote:

Maybe because it's a bonafide mental illness?  Maybe because ideas like "gender fluidity"  are complete bullshit and not based on science.

You'll have to make up your mind, it can't be both at the same time! And even if you're right those are still not issues for anyone except the person him/herself...

Also... science: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic … der-brain/
Not conclusive, but hints strongly at a biological difference.

For what it's worth, I think everyone deserves their privacy and I'm also not saying transgenders should be swinging their dicks in other people's faces either (if they're biologically male). I hate using mens rooms where there's no dividers between urinals too. But I'm not opposed to unisex bathrooms myself. I'd just prefer them to be all stalls then. As a matter of fact, in many countries around the world bars and restaurants do this already.

I'm just wondering... I've never been in a woman's bathroom in the US... do they not have stalls in there? Do the ladies just hang their asses over a trough with all their kibbles 'n bits out in the open? I highly doubt it...

Gender dysphoria is a very real, observed and documented mental illness. People who think they change between man and women or some made up 3rd option at will have no basis in science, and even they did have an established disorder, it doesn't make their belief true.

You can't change your sex. It's in your DNA. You can mutilate your body and take hormones to help you pretend you're the opposite sex, but you'll never change. Those who think you can change your sex by taking a pill and having surgery are entertaining fantasy. I can no more become a woman than I can become a Jedi or a dragon.

I don't even know what gender means. Again, pseudo science. Sex is binary. You either have an X or Y chromosome. End of story. But I've yet to find anyone who can tell me what gender means objectively, and when we use common sense to explain it, the progressives flip out.  Tell me something that is unique to one gender? Something that only a "man" has or can do.  If you said functioning testes, you just removed all your transgender friends and anyone who suffered an accident or was born sterile/deformed. So because no one can define what gender means, how can a "man" feel like a "woman"? Seems like gender is just another bullshit word crafted by sociologist to pretend they're just aren't a lot of really weird and fucked up people out there.

That doesn't mean that someone who is different should be harmed, abused or treated differently under the law. It just means we shouldn't legalize the tooth fairy so a bunch of mentally ill people can pretend they're no longer ill. Would you support a law that says Ebola  patients who don't identify as having Ebola should be treated as free from Ebola and require everyone else to play along?  The emperor's not wearing any clothing, but the DNC is trying to pass laws that require we all pretend he's clothed.

#3806 Re: The Garden » 2016 Presidential Election Thread » 517 weeks ago

TheMole wrote:
TheMole wrote:

And... has anyone come up with a real issue with transgender bathroom usage yet? Something a bit more solid than "it makes me uncomfortable"?

...

Maybe because it's a bonafide mental illness?  Maybe because ideas like "gender fluidity"  are complete bullshit and not based on science. Maybe someone should need more than their word before they walk into a locker room filled with women.

I can play this game too, but I have science and medicine on my side. If you want to argue that all bathrooms should be unisex and people have no expectation of privacy or safety, make that argument. Just be prepared to have your ass handed to you. When your argument literally relies on magic and fantasy, you've already lost.

#3807 Re: The Sunset Strip » HBO's A Game of Thrones » 517 weeks ago

So how do you guys think this season will end?

My guess is Cersei will burn down part of King's Landing with wild fire, killing Tommen by mistake.

The town will turn to chaos as the King is dead an no successor is apparent. This would be a good time for Varys to fulfill his book plot when he returned to King's Landing, adding to the Chaos.

I don't think Dany will return to King's Landing this season, as I believe she'll get there after the event I think will happen during the last scene. I believe her first time in King's Landing will be just like in her vision.

Jon and Sansa will be at Winterfell, having defeated Ramsay. The Northern Houses will quickly support Sansa's role as Lady of the North, as I think Rickon dies. Little finger will be there to influence Sansa, having obtained influence in the North and East.  Jon will have to decide what's next, realizing the Others are marching South. This will separate him from Sansa, concluding their time together. Jon will make a statement to the fact he's just a bastard, his place is out there.

We'll break to Bran who will for some reason will complete the Tower of Joy scene, revealing Jon's true parentage and answering the question who should be king, giving the audience the answer to who Jon is and where he should be. The show's wonky on travel time, but I can't see Bran making it any further than the Wall this season. While there, Bran will sense the Nights King who will have his entire Army glaring at the Wall. The season will end with The Wall crashing down and all of Westeros exposed.

#3808 Re: The Sunset Strip » HBO's A Game of Thrones » 517 weeks ago

misterID wrote:

I've heard the Tyrion theory about being the Mad Kings kid, but I didn't even consider the twincest duo.


I spend way too much time reading this shit.  Johanna Lannister was top hand maiden to Queen Rhaella (The Mad King's wife).  It is no secret that Aerys lusted after Johanna, commenting to Tywin as much.  Queen Rhaella dismissed Johanna saying "She was tired of Aerys using her hand maidens like whores" or something to that effect.  Johanna leaves King's Landing and heads to Casterly Rock, with Tywin shortly behind her.  Several months later, Cersei and Jamie are born.  Guess who shows up a short time later to see "Tywin's" children?  You guessed it, the Mad King.

That's the whole irony in this.  Tywin loved Jamie and Cersei, but loathed Tyrion.  Tyrion was his only true son, and as watchers and characters alike acknowledge, Tyrion is the most like Tywin.  So while Tyrion killed his father, so did Jamie when he killed the Mad King.  Others have done the math, and the Mad King was never near The Rock anytime preceding Tyrion's birth, and Johanna never returned to King's Landing.


If you guys are fans of the show/books and really want to go down the rabbit hole, I can't recommend enough the YouTuber Preston Jacobs.  I don't agree with everything he says (He thinks Dany is the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna, not Jon), but god damn if they aren't very well researched and entertaining videos.

#3809 Re: The Sunset Strip » HBO's A Game of Thrones » 517 weeks ago

misterID wrote:
Randall Flagg wrote:

Varys is by no means a "good guy", he cuts out the tongues of his little birds.  But outside of Ned, Jon and Robb, I don't know if there are any good characters in the books/show.  And the 3 I just mentioned could certainly be called "bad guys" from other characters point of view.  That's what is so compelling about Martin's story, and why I get so irritated when the show fucks it up for reasons I can't understand.  Like why has the show refused to follow Jamie's character arc?

I don't think the Targaryen's are the good people, so I fully expect Dany to become a villain of sorts.  The First Men and Starks defeated the Others long before Valyria existed.

Wow, you need to post here more.

I'm going to start reading the series after this season. But yeah, I think Dany will be a villain.


Unless Dany turns out to be the daughter of Rhaegar and Lyanna, Jon is the center of the story.  He's the only one who has the blood of ice and fire running through his veins.  Everyone feels bad for Dany because her family was murdered and exiled from Westeros, but her ancestors were the villains.  The Starks have ruled Winterfell  and the North for over 8k years, and while the Arryns and Lannisters have Andal blood, they trace their ancestry to just as far back as the Starks.  300 years ago, Aegon Targaryen shows up with his 2 sister wives and 3 dragons and fucks up the continent.  The Targaryen's were a lower house in Valyria and no one paid them any attention when they fled to Westeros and settled on Dragonstone. 

It was through the Targaryen's that houses like the Tyrell's, Baratheon's and Tully's came to be the lords of their respective areas.  So to view the Targaryen dynasty as some kind of joyous time, completely misses out on the destruction and harm they caused.

The theory I subscribe too more than others, is that Jamie and Cersei are the bastards of Johanna Lannister (Tywin's wife) and Aerys Targaryen.  Cersei's obsession with wild fire, desire to burn down King's Landing and continual fall into madness are clear signs of this to me.  She is the mad king's daughter.   Ironically, if this is true, that would give their children a legitimate claim to the Iron Throne rather than pawning them off as Robert's.

I also think Varys is a Blackfyre/Targaryen not because of his support for Aegon/Dany (though that is certainly a good reason) but because we know that in the books and show, King's blood means something.  The Red Priest Kinvara recently made mention of Varys being cut and his manhood being tossed into the fire and hearing the voice of a god.  If Varys was just a normal bloke, would his blood have had any magical properties?  Maekar the Cruel (I probably misspelled that) killed all the masons and carpenters who built the Red Keep, so that only the Targaryen's would know of all the secret passages in King's Landing.  And who knows more about these passages than anyone?

#3810 Re: The Sunset Strip » HBO's A Game of Thrones » 517 weeks ago

Varys is by no means a "good guy", he cuts out the tongues of his little birds.  But outside of Ned, Jon and Robb, I don't know if there are any good characters in the books/show.  And the 3 I just mentioned could certainly be called "bad guys" from other characters point of view.  That's what is so compelling about Martin's story, and why I get so irritated when the show fucks it up for reasons I can't understand.  Like why has the show refused to follow Jamie's character arc?

I don't think the Targaryen's are the good people, so I fully expect Dany to become a villain of sorts.  The First Men and Starks defeated the Others long before Valyria existed.

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