J-William

Not quite sure what you would have found disturbing about it. If you're doing something that doesn't accomplish your stated goal and you keep doing it, then you must be accomplishing some goal other than the stated goal. In Israels' case they say they want peace and security. They frequently bombard and kill Palestinians to teach them a lesson, or something. So then what are they accomplishing? Bloodshed, suffering and destruction and the inculcation of hate in another generation of Arabs. Their current actions will ensure that the conflict will not end. The troubles in Northern Ireland lasted twenty years after Britain stopped heavy handed tactics to teach the Irish a "lesson". The IDF knows where civilians are located. Especially if they're in hospitals, mosques or UN shelters. If they wanted to not kill civilians they could. They are not interested in peace and harmony, but punishment and murder. Also... hey if someone swings a chainsaw around in a crowded room they can claim all day that they were going after some murderer or something, but that has no relevance to the people they kill and maim. Ergo the human shield line is propaganda. oops, looks like Israel rejected a temporary peace deal. I guess that means Hamas will now be justified in killing several hundred Israeli civilians.

It could be that it has a lot to do with industrialization. that at least would explain South Korea, japan, taiwan, and China... and then in Europe certainly Germany, Italy and the UK are more industrialized than much of the rest of Europe. Industrialization would explain being further from the equator, and at the same time the east asian countries that aren't far from the equator. The fact that map looks alot like a map of economic prosperity as well as education... seems unsurprising, but which came first the IQ or the prosperity and education? I don't know.

I'm using Gamemaker Studio. It's made for 2D games, and simplifies much of the process of making games. It's also not limited to android, so I can make the game and release it for almost any platform out there. I really like it. It's simple enough that a kid can make a game, but powerful enough that many successful games have been made on it.

Wow, check out this poll: link Younger american, non-whites, are less likely to support Israel.. also more educated people and people who watch more news are more likely to support Israels' actions. aka propaganda works! I think it's worth having a look at some comments from NYT readers. Even if the main stream media is unfailing in its loyalty to Israel, the average americans are starting to get it. MM Danville, CA 9 hours ago Enough Israel, enough. As a father of 2 small kids, seeing these pictures is beyond heartbreaking. This is not going to win you any hearts or minds. You are fast losing the respect of the entire international community whatever is left of it. Yes you have a right to self defense but your actions are leading to indiscriminate killing and maiming of 100's of innocent children - and that is beyond the pale. You simply cannot claim a moral high ground now. What have you unleashed? Do you have any sense of humanity left? And please do not equate your actions to the thuggishness of Hamas and their tunnels and rockets that have caused far, far less damage than the lasting damage you are causing to an entire population of innocent children. Please, at least for the sake of children stop this madness and figure out a way to more effective self defense. [*]Reply [*] [*]927Recommend NYT Pick Chris Canada 9 hours agoThese children don't know the difference between Palestinian and Jew. This conflict is not their fault, yet, they are the ones paying the price. This is horrifying. I am disgusted. [*]Reply [*] [*]717Recommend NYT Pick viola boston 9 hours agoHow much blood on Netanyahu's hands is necessary before he feels that it is enough!? How many children must die before he is satisfied? Yes Hamas has brought it on to themselves but enough is enough! What Israel is accomplishing now is to create the next generation of terrorists fueled by the hatred that he is creating anew. This will solve nothing. It only proves that Israel has more weapons and is willing to use them. More tunnels will be built. An ultimately impotent strategy! [*]Reply [*] [*]552Recommend Midwest Guy Milwaukee, WI 9 hours agoI think it's time for war crimes to be charged against Israel. [*]Reply [*] [*]537Recommend NYT Pick amaBern Brooklyn, NY 8 hours agoIt pains me to say this, but I'm grateful my father, grandparents, great-grandparents and other relatives - Jews who fought tirelessly for social justice, peace and helping those less fortunate than themselves - are not alive to see this. I feel ashamed. [*]Reply [*] [*]523Recommend nilesh balitmore, md 9 hours agoTo see so many children suffering is painful. Not only is Israel responsible but the US is as well as we have supplied so many of the arms. I'm so tired of hearing that Hamas is responsible. The people that pull the triggers or push the buttons to drop these bombs are responsible. Enough. [*]Reply [*] [*]453Recommend ESH NY 9 hours agoJust because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD. Since ISR alleges that Hamas puts "human shields" schools and mosques -- and weapons -- doesn't mean the 800 pound gorilla should crush out innocent Palestinian civilians like gnats. Hamas/PA/Gazans/WB Palestinians will never win the "hot" war -- but ISR will never win the PR struggle. The fundamental cause of the problem is Israel's continuing occupation and subjugation of Palestinians/Gazans. How can Israel -- of all countries -- pursue a policy that subjugates the population of Gaza in what amounts to an open-air prison. Where were the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto supposed to go? Where are Gazans supposed to go now? [*]Reply [*] [*]438Recommend David Colorado 9 hours agoIt's time for America to end our blind support for Israel. It's time for America to end the billions in U.S. aid to Israel. [*]Reply [*] [*]386Recommend jim arizona 9 hours agoFrom what I understand Israel is a member of the UN, and the only member nation that actively occupies foreign lands. Israel continues to eat away at Palestine's lands, consuming more and more all the time. They build settlements in Palestine, and when Palestine protests, and brings up arms against Israel, throwing stones and lobbing low-tech missiles, the western media labels that "terrorism", instead of "war", in an attempt to reduce those actions to something less than human. This is the way poor people fight wars, and the only way this poor nation can afford to fight. I am tired of how here in the U.S. we are not allowed to question Israel in any way, as any non pro-Israel speak is somehow defined as "anti semitic". It is time we have an open, honest, and objective debate about the Israel/Palestine conflict here in America. [*]Reply [*] [*]384Recommend Lee Atlanta, GA 9 hours ago Shame on the Israeli government. We expect better from a state filled with so many gifted and wonderful people. And shame on the US for enabling this nonsense. As bad as Hamas's leadership is, and make no mistake it is horrible, collective punishment of the residents of Gaza only strengthens the position of Hamas. That much is clear to anyone who has been following this tragedy over the last decade. It's time for a new strategy. [*]Reply [*] [*]315Recommend brooklynforchange New York City 9 hours agoThis is absolutely horrific, and I have no words to express my feelings. However hard pro-Israeli voices and organizations and corporations want to justify the genocide under Netanyahu and his brutality government, it's absolutely clear to the rest of the world that they're committing war crimes. ... But what Netanyahu and his government have been doing deserves a war crimes tribunal -- the Nuremberg way. Janice Southwest Virginia 9 hours ago Why is the United States still in bed with Israel? Why is our tax money going to make carnage of this sort possible? [*]Reply [*] We need to separate ourselves, finally. We've been in league with bullies before, and it did not turn out well. [*]Reply [*] [*]204Recommend Ben Chomsky 9 hours agoThis is OUR doing. We equipped the monster that has been unleashed on a defenseless people. Netanyahu should be prosecuted for war crimes. [*]Reply [*] [*]196Recommend Ben Chomsky 9 hours agoIsraelis living in "perpetual threat" is no excuse to kill women and kids. This is a crude and cruel justification for Israel's war crimes... even for an Israeli apologizer. [*]In Reply to clownsaround [*] [*]Reply [*] [*]185Recommend Alex Canada 9 hours agoThis is outrageous. Civilans are being slaughtered and the western media and their masters offer nothing of substance to the public. Compare the reporting on the Ukrainian crisis with what is going on in Gaza. Where is the outrage and condemnation. The hypocrisy is appalling and little wonder that the Russians ignore western moralizing. [*]Reply [*] [*]179Recommend Richard Huber New York City 9 hours agoIt's worse than that; not only are we supplying them the arms but we are doing it free of charge! Our "foreign aid" to Israel totals over $3 billion per annum, most of it spent on US produced arms. [*]In Reply to nilesh [*] [*]Reply [*] [*]173Recommend Anonymous CT 9 hours agoWould you have the same response if it were your kid's school that was attacked? I think not. There is NO excuse for bombing schools and places of safe refuge for people that have nothing to do with this endless tit for tat conflict among irresponsible parties [*]In Reply to clownsaround [*] [*]Reply [*] [*]168Recommend John S new york, NY 9 hours agoIsrael tries to absolve the responsibility for their crimes by stating they warn Palestinians to flee. But when they do they still get bombed-this time in schools. It does not seem that Israel is taking any strong measures to discriminate their targets. To them every Palestinians is a target, even children. This is a campaign of ethnic cleansing. And Israel claims they have the " right to defend themselves ". This is called defending? [*]Reply [*] [*]167Recommend The conscience of a Mexican phd student Monterrey 9 hours agoThe opinion outside de US is broadly against Israel and the slow genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza, after analysing the evidence, and without a lobby group in Mexico that is telling us lies, this is clearly a genocide, no decent human being can say otherwise [*]Reply [*] [*]165Recommend Sara New York 9 hours agoHow can you refer to this mass slaughter of innocents as "proportionate"? Israel has to own these deaths and stop blaming everything on Hamas. Every day this is becoming more of a tragedy. John Kerry was right when he questioned these "pinpoint" attacks. Israel should be held accountable for this huge number of civilian deaths. Proportionate? I don't think so.

Yeah, guess what? I'm also on the FDR board arguing against traumatizing and murdering children. So I feel pretty good about that. Even Lefty places that like HuffPo that usually stand behind Obama and Israel are getting in on being against murdering children. I never saw Stef having a problem with world opinion being against slavery, even if it wasn't terribly philosophical. So, being opposed to harming children would be something that most Israelis could stand to learn a thing or two about... unfortunately that's to "controversial".

World opinion continues to shift away from supporting Israel. Seems that only government willing to shield Israel from a UN human rights commission inquiry is the old faithful lapdog the US. Even Europe is to ashamed to help Israel.

Err... Poland didn't do a lot of fighting. but yeah, self defense doesn't exist for a state because rights don't exist, and states doubly so. Besides you can tell when something the state does is self defense because they get near universal support. Take for instance the German siege of St. Petersburg in WWII, almost every person in that city supported the fight against the germans. Thanks for the post. I think our Israel fanatic friend has clearly shown he is not here for facts and figures, but I agree that paints a pretty clear picture.

You go ahead and wear a shirt saying "proud whitey" in a black neighborhood, and a shirt saying "Die motherfucking crackers!" in a white neighborhood. Does it make the black people terrorists for punching you in the face? Does it make the white people magnanimous saints for merely crossing the street to avoid you in case you're dangerous? I'm back with more lies!!!! Looks like they just bombed a UN school and killed 30 and wounded more than 200. That damn dirty UN with their human shields. Israael will teach them a lesson or two! Honestly no one has to argue with you, the headlines are killing any argument you might make. they are murdering ever more civilians at the same time as Israelis are sipping tea and saying "there's a war on?"

Yes... lies and I'm a Palestinian and... what? I'm sorry that you are wasting the valuable time of myself and people on this board with your shenanigans. I'm sure it must rub you the wrong way to see so many people turning against Israel. But it's awfully hard to look at the facts and continue supporting the wholesale slaughter of a caged population. I mean it was pretty bad when the Nazis did it. I seem to recall there were trials after all that. I guess Netanyahu is banking on western governments not considering Palestinians people while he's still alive. If I were a young man in Gaza who saw his family torn apart by Israeli bombs I would be on my way to the nearest place I could find a gun to kill as many IDF members as I could. The fact you don't see more is a testament to how peaceful the Palestinians are. Not terribly "barbaric" of them to sift through the rubble of their houses and go to the hospital to identify their dead children without once picking up a weapon to seek revenge. and if I were in Israel I would move to somewhere else because I'd rather not be around people who hate me. I'll say it again; if Israel were in Arizona they would have no problem with anybody. It's merely crazy religious BS that makes any of this possible. You are not going to solve the violence with abstract theorizing about how many human shields can dance on the head of a pin.

I absolutely relate! I first dealt with a therapist at university I went to learn about the counseling they offered. I was terrified just walking in there and asking questions. I thought they'd think I was a fraud and tell me I wasn't really depressed or anxious, or that I was over-reacting... It was seriously tough, but I was just tired of being so anxious and being shit on by so many people. I went through with it because I didn't really have any other choice. What do you imagine will happen when you see the therapist? Why haven't you talked to this therapist to get a sense about him and to figure out whether he's competent and qualified to deal with your trauma? I think if you did that you'd feel a lot less anxious. and if you've done that and you still feel this way... maybe you should make an appointment with someone else! Try giving Stef a call, if he's got time available before your appointment I'm sure he could help.

I'm pretty sure that the topic is of no interest to the OP... as he has clearly demonstrated that he's not here for the reason and evidence, but more here for some sort of emotional thing to do with his religion. Edit: oh I see you noticed that too... silly me well anyhow, lovely weather we're having in this thread... seeing as it's not raining bombs in here

Thanks for the feedback! I hadn't thought about it in terms of fireflies or a flyswatter, but I see how that makes sense. I could see multiplying when they hit as being a very interesting game mechanic, and it would literally be a single line of code... You can actually see when they meet because they give off an extra burst of light, and there's a glitch where they get stuck inside eachother. I'm trying to walk the line between too little and too much. It reminds me of play writing. :-P I wrote a play in college that was really funny when the cast did a seated reading, but by the time we actually staged the thing it was a hot mess! I rewrote some stuff with the "help" of a friend and added some slap-stick bits and the director had done plenty of messing of her own. It's very hard to tell when you've gone too far.

Hey I loved rage too... because I was a very angry young man. Angry music is certainly appealing to angry young men. I wasn't into outlaw country, but I certainly was into the other genres of angry young man music. :-D In my experience there were some pretty toxic people who were also into the angry young man music. Obviously angry young men are abused young men who don't have a close connection with their parents. I got into Rage after I'd already read Rand, so I understood that their comminess was total BS. In some ways they are like Emma Goldman (who could be called an anarcho-communist) I can really get on board with the analysis and anger at the government and injustice. On the other hand they are way into communism which has killed well more people than nazism and I'm not a fan of many neo-nazi bands even though they may have something interesting to say.... and unlike Emma Goldman who was writing before communism killed millions, Rage was making music in the 90s with full knowledge of the millions communism massacred.

I feel like I should stay out of this... but what the hell. You do know that this "human shield" thing is just propaganda, right? What's the difference between "human shields" and the Israeli state is recklessly bombing a civilian population? How would you tell the difference between the two? Also, you're getting deep into the weeds with trying to call what the Israeli state does "self defense". first off it's not a person and so cannot practice "self defense"... and anyway if any of this was about "self defense" then they would have located Israel in Arizona, not the middle east where they continually get into wars with everyone.

Here we are, a little demo video. Have a look

That's great they may as well just draw a big target on their back and say bitcoin not allowed in New York. I mean how many small innovative startups are going to start in New York using bitcoins? I know the answer! not a single single one.

Venezuela sounds like Russia in 1925... They're busy blaming all the problem on the bourgeois or China in ... anytime from 48-76 when they were busy blaming the capitalist-roaders for everything. Maduro is from the wrong century... I just hope he doesn't get too many more Venezuelans killed.

Yes I'll post the video when I've made it :-D I am trying to get things sorted and actually start promoting my game to get people to buy it. It's a lot of work and I'm still working on this "being a self-starter" thing. It's a lot to learn, I mean for instance I can improve the game I just released, or I could work on selling it, or I could work on the next project which is a very exciting project, but if I do that I won't make any money from the already released game and I'll feel lousy that no one bought my game... and I haven't done any journaling today! oh goodness what will I do? anyway you get the gist, just managing my tasks in a sensible way without getting overwhelmed and turning to the internet for some distraction is something I'm still learning to do.

So I just released a game, it's currently available on Amazon's android store, I will soon be launching iOS and Google play versions…It's a fairly simple game, and pretty fun. My daughter even likes it But that's not really what I wanted to talk about. I made this game after breaking off contact from my family of origin. I do not think I would have been able to make this game if I were still in contact with my family of origin. About December of last year, I had been doing a good deal of intense journaling and I finally finished the book "toxic parents" by Susan Forward. In the book she recommends writing letters to each parent. I wrote a letter to my father which was fairly easy because he was more obviously abusive angry and nasty. But I think it was after writing the letter to my mother that the decision finally became clear. About a year and a half before this point I had made an attempt at a direct confrontation and had gotten the usual bullshit and denials. My father who is a retired lawyer and otherwise has excellent memory couldn't remember any spanking that he did. They were also completely unwilling to take any responsibility for causing or failing to stop the bullying which I suffered for the first eight or nine years I was in school. Another important factor in the decision was my parents pressuring me to video call them on Skype so they could see my daughter. Everytime they would call or e-mail I would feel really annoyed. My daughter turned two in October. So as negative harmful parents would say she's in the terrible twos… But my daughter has been raised peacefully with two very loving parents (and a very large ocean separating her from my parents) , and so she has been a most delightful little girl. Now I think seeing my own daughter turn two was important in the de-FOO process. Because it was so clear the difference between my parents and my wife and I. I mean my parents thought it was hilarious to record me on video when I was just a few months old crying for like eight minutes straight. Anyhow I broke off contact in December. After that I felt very free and when people asked if I was going to see my parents or speak to them I said "no I don't feel like it". So after breaking off contact I felt great and eight months later still feel great. But in that time I was looking around and realizing that my current job is not satisfying and won't be in the future and I need to make a change. After some searching for ideas I decided that software development would be a good field. In the last few months I have regained the locus of control and have made significant progress in changing careers. I decided to learn to program, and have stuck with it through the hard patches... The first time I decided to learn to program was using BASIC on the commodore 64 in the 80s, then I tried qbasic on a PC and picked up a book on C in the 90s. In university I took an intro computer science for non-majors course and flunked it hard because the going got tough. and most recently I tried learning Python, and again when it got hard I just gave up. I was always told how smart I was and did not teach me about the merits of hard work. Most things came super easy to me in school so I didn't learn to work hard there, and later when things became harder (like calculus...) I didn't know where to start. On a recent podcast Stef is talking to a guy who feels like there's a secret that everyone knows about life that he doesn't know. Stef says that there is no such thing, but in that case he's wrong because there is something that these other people know about that the caller doesn't know. He doesn't know about asking other people for help. That's a secret that is only a secret to people who have been raised by unhelpful parents in a society where no one reaches out to them and tries to help them. I feel so much more able to do what I set my mind to even if it is challenging. I mean for instance it is a pain setting up the various developer accounts to distribute the game. especially with all the tax stuff and the fact I don't live in the US. And then of course there's all of the steps of learning how to program and learning how to use various applications that I needed to use to develop my game. And even though it is a very simple game it's amazing just how complicated all of those steps are for somebody who has never really completed anything more complicated than "Hello World!" The psychological state that I was in whenever I was in contact with my parents was different.I always felt this dread and had a constant need to distract myself. I didn't feel free to think or dream big. I didn't feel as free to do something that wasn't very good and fail. I don't really know but I just feel so much different now. In that same time that I've been learning to program and building apps I've also nearly finished a novel that I started working on when I was in seventh grade. Now maybe it's not worth finishing but it's been sticking in my mind for so long I just have to get it out. How has De-fooing changed your life and helped you psychologically? Oh yes, and the link to the game is http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LSH142W Please give it a look. I really think it's fun. Even if you don't I'd appreciate feedback on the presentation, I know the graphics aren't great, but I haven't stopped playing it since the earliest builds (and believe me the graphics were worse then). It should work on any android device.

Yeah it sucks to be the last one out that door. I'm sure he's getting all kinds of pressure from your mother and he doesn't want to have to deal with all that pressure by himself. I understand it and it puts him in a tough spot. On the other hand he is choosing to be in contact with negative abusive people so he can change that anytime he wants. This is just another example of bad behavior from your parents. What did they do to change or make the relationship better? They've done nothing they just guilt trip your brother and now he's putting some pressure on you because he's got nowhere to go. You don't have to tell him anything if you don't want, personally I think I would explain some about my reasoning and what I'm doing but then just see what his response is. See if he is curious, you don't have to push if he's not ready.

I wouldn't bother looking at dream journaling apps, but I have seen a number of plain old journaling apps which are fairly good and maybe even free. I think the most important feature for your app is that it has to load quickly and you have to be able to add a new entry very quickly so that you don't forget your dream.

It's disappointing me! I've been seeding for 5 hours and haven't uploaded a single bit... people done do need to get to torrentin!

I'm giving it a try right now. It downloaded very fast. I added the RSS feed to my torrents application, and unsubscribed in iTunes. I will give it a try for a while and come back here to complain if I don't like it

Yeah I guess you could say that. My sister has seemingly decided that she has no opinion on me not speaking with our parents. I have mentioned it a few times and she hasn't even asked a single question about my decision. She just said something like "that's too bad"and moved on. I don't even know what kind of response that is… I guess that's not a response. Needless to say our relationship has not gone anywhere lately. And that's a real pity, but like you said you can lead a horse to water… How has your brother been treating his children? That may be the more important question in this instance.

Attack those strawmen attack them long and hard!