English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Faheem Mitha

16:03

@Cerberus I'd like a handful of those peanuts, please.

@Cerberus That's the low estimate just for the installation and doesn't include manpower for watching the wall nor does it include upkeep. Compounded by the fact that republicans and democrats along the border already agree that the current system is adequate and that further wall-building is pointless.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox There's a net unimmigration of Mexicans to the US (more are repatriating than coming to the US) in the past couple years. in the hundreds of thousands/about a million.

hmm...I'm having trouble finding numbers for the past few years so maybe that's bullshit, I don't know.

Faheem Mitha

@Mitch Oh, I imagine there are more coming in than going out. But illegal immigration at least it hard to quantify.

Mitch

16:19

@FaheemMitha That's what I would imagine but the news story I half payed attention to in a crowded room with the game on was saying that there's been a reversal, more are leaving than coming in. Something something economy something US intolerance somethety mexico better now something.

Faheem Mitha

@Mitch Huh. Well, it's hard to get firm numbers about this sort of thing.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Power plants require maintenance, too.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Power plants do something useful.

Cerberus

So the direct financial cost of the wall would not be prohibitive.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Indeed.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus You don't think billions of dollars is prohibitive?!

Cerberus

16:28

No?

The country can afford it.

Do it from the defence budget.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Even in the defense budget they sometimes balk at wasting tens of billions of dollars.

Cerberus

Sometimes, but usually not!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

It'd be like building planes that can't fly. Or, they can technically fly, but they don't have enough range to do anything useful.

Cerberus

Yeah, they can do that, can't they?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anyway I think I've said all that needs saying. Nobody but Trump thinks a wall is a reasonable thing to do.

It makes. no. sense.

Faheem Mitha

16:32

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes, supposedly that is not uncommon.

Building planes that can't fly, that is.

Cerberus

Reasonable and affordable are unrelated!

Giving every American a free gun is also affordable.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@FaheemMitha Sometimes projects fail. But nobody sets out to build a plane that can't fly when they know from the start that it won't be able to fly.

Faheem Mitha

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 One hopes that is true. But with the Pentagon, it's hard to be sure.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@FaheemMitha So the nicest thing to say about this wall idea is that the US already wastes tons of money on stupid stuff that can't possibly work, so why not keep doing it?

Faheem Mitha

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I wasn't talking about a wall, at all. Just commenting on the plane thing.

I don't know anything about the wall. Is this some idiot idea some politician came up with?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

16:36

@FaheemMitha Oh my goodness... you haven't heard about Donald Trump?! You're better off. Run away!

Faheem Mitha

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh, it's Trump's idea, is it? Why am I not surprised?

To keep out immigrants, I suppose.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

anyway I think this topic is exhausted.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I think Cerb is proposing a reapportionment of wasted dollars. Instead of wasting X+Y=Z dollars on school lunch dietary ketchup and planes that can't land, we should waste U+V=Z dollars on continuous Trump hotels along the Rio Grande and a gun in every pocket.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It probably already was at the beginning of our discussion!

@Mitch Especially the guns.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Which is why I'm confused about why you kept arguing that it was possible considering from the start I argued it was pointless

Mitch

16:40

@Cerberus I'll miss the ketchup sandwiches

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Because I was at first unaware of the fact that that was what you were arguing.

Besides, I didn't think we were really arguing.

Mitch

Yay! argument! You're wrong!

No You're wrong

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch ugh. Trump already argued ("just saying," he said) that if, say, everyone in Paris were armed, things would be better there.

Cerberus

We haven't really disagreed about a single thing yet. Except about the previous sentence.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 just saying = QED

Cerberus

16:41

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Hilarious.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Holy crap, the police in Paris have always been armed, more than you average school teacher in Israel.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anyway I must be off for an appointment. Try not to burn the place down while I'm gone.

Mitch

They had terrorist problems way longer than the US.

slowly puts away matches

Cerberus

Adios!

Mitch

soaks the rug in kerosene for when you get back

Cerberus

16:43

You know what I always wonder about?

Mitch

No. I don't. What do you always wonder about?

Cerberus

Why isn't the Brevik act done more often in the West, dressing up as a policeman.

I know it is often done in e.g. Afghanistan.

It would seem to be quite effective.

Mitch

What's the Brevik act? Those guys that paint themselves in silver and stay motionelss until some kid gives them money?

Cerberus

Very scary.

2011 Norway attacks

The 2011 Norway attacks were two sequential lone wolf terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League (AUF)-run summer camp in Norway on 22 July 2011. The attacks claimed a total of 77 lives. The first attack was a car bomb explosion in Oslo within Regjeringskvartalet, the executive government quarter of Norway, at 15:25:22 (CEST). The bomb was made from a mixture of fertiliser and fuel oil and placed in the back of a van. The van was placed in front of the office block housing the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg...

> When Breivik arrived on the island, he presented himself as a police officer who had come over for a routine check following the bombing in Oslo. He was met by Monica Bøsei, the camp leader and island hostess. Bøsei probably became suspicious and contacted Trond Berntsen, the security officer on the island, before Breivik killed them both.[80]
He then signalled and asked people to gather around him[81] before pulling weapons and ammunition from a bag and indiscriminately firing his weapons,[82][83][84] killing and wounding numerous people.

Mitch

Oh. That Brevik. yeah it's surprising that all of it doesn't happen more often.

Cerberus

17:00

Yeah.

Kit Z. Fox

Maybe because it requires getting a convincing uniform, when really all you need is an AR-15, which is easier to obtain.

Mitch

Where do the police get their uniforms? Surely there isn't the same background checking there?

Kit Z. Fox

You could probably find convincing clothing, but you'd need the gear and the badge and stuff. Who needs all that?

When you can just pop in to KMart and buy a gun.

terdon

Bavarian Fire Drill.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox The last time this big gun stuff was in the news (Newtown, Connecticut?) I was in a gun store (big, like a grocery store) a couple weeks afterwards (it's a long story), and it was crowded, and all the aisles for ammunition were almost empty of ammunition with hand drawn signs saying there'd be more shipments soon.

The explanation was that people were buying up ammo because they were afraid Obama was going to pass a lot of gun restriction laws.

Cerberus

17:18

I read about how each new shooting incident in America increases gun sales.

So the big gun companies actually profit from all the shootings.

Most terrorists spend a lot of time and energy preparing for their attacks.

And even lots of money.

So I'm sure making a convincing police uniform would fit that approach.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

And I wouldn't even know what a police ID looks like.

Mitch

google for it?

Cerberus

Sure.

But so can a terrorist.

And we're standing at some random square in the city as a random policeman approaches an unsuspecting crowd.

Who would check his ID properly, and in time?

Mitch

plans to check every cops ID

plans not to carry out such plans in reality

Kit Z. Fox

Well, but why take the time to look like a cop?

Mitch

He's writing a screen play. Makes it more ominous, the trusted authority figure turning out to be the evil mastermind.

Kit Z. Fox

17:32

You can mow down 30 or 40 people in about 60 seconds. There's no need to try to convince them you're some kind of authority first.

shrugs It's not how I would do it. Just sayin'.

Mitch

17:50

initiates brain scan

Hm... your statements match your internal state. You are correct, you would not do it that way.

Kit Z. Fox

18:02

Can anybody explain what OnePlus is/does?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

18:41

they're a phone company

Kit Z. Fox

That's not obvious from their website, is it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

dunno never visited it

Kit Z. Fox

Or maybe it is. Looked like they were selling electronics?

I couldn't figure it out.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

well, they are selling electronics. But only their own brand.

Kit Z. Fox

OK. Thanks.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

18:44

someone you know looking for a phone?

Kit Z. Fox

No, I keep getting invites.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

19:16

@terdon darn you to heck

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Hey hey hey, watch your language.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

It's totes justified, he said something and I ended up on tvtropes.

Kit Z. Fox

Not cool.

goes to check out what that might be on tvtropes

Faheem Mitha

@KitZ.Fox You don't want to do that.

Mitch

Too late. She's gone. That's a couple hours at least

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

19:31

what is it about tvtropes

user174558

Hi @KitZ.Fox.

Mitch

@JasperLoy SHe's no longer conscious. She's been lost to tvtropes quicksand

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't think it's all that.... accurate?

user174558

@Mitch She left the chat.

Mitch

19:52

@JasperLoy that's how tvtropes does it. close all other tabs. stop eating. click link to link in tvtropes until two weeks later the police bust down the door (because a neighbor said there was a 'smell' coming from her place) and find her cats surviving on her rotting corpse.

I wonder if that's on tvtropes?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

god I almost searched. I had the tab open and everything.

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife

protocol removed for safety.

Cracked.com is another inexplicable browser narcotic. They could write a list of '17 worst haircuts in the Ottoman Empire' and I'd read through to the end, then click on all the links at the end.

user174558

I am now Superman.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

gods below, there are tvtropes pages about tvtropes tropes

closes tabs

Faheem Mitha

20:22

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes, that's how they get you. Fiendish, isn't it?

user174558

I have no interest in tropes. Tropes are silly.

Faheem Mitha

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That's actually a fairly accurate description of what happens. At least at first, before your immune system kicks in.

@JasperLoy Good for you.

user174558

@FaheemMitha What language is your name in? Is it Hindi?

Faheem Mitha

@JasperLoy So...do you miss your home planet? And how is your cousin doing?

@JasperLoy Which one, first or second?

user174558

@FaheemMitha Oh, I did not know it was so complicated. Never mind.

Mitch

20:57

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 "17 worst haircuts in the Ottoman Empire"

user174558

23:13

Hello @MattE.Эллен.

Matt E. Эллен

hi @JasperLoy

if you wear glasses, do people call you Clarke Kent?

user174558

You should be sleeping now.

Matt E. Эллен

should I?

user174558

Yes, they do. Yes, you should.

Matt E. Эллен

Well, bad news. I'm still awake

user174558

23:14

I think I will stick to Ubuntu MATE.

user174558

I think I will keep my SE account.

Matt E. Эллен

good, good

user174558

23:26

3 more weeks to 2016, I am excited.

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