Survey posted 2004-06-06 20:44 by Jon.

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yes, it /does/ keep me busy on trips, but that's only becasue I have nothing else to do other than play around with my calculator. oh yeah, and join the ticalc google group2! link above

Weird. Signing up didn't work for me. Anyone happen to know why? :)

It didn't like my passwords or something...

Now it works for me, though. Weird.

Whoa, that's weird. I got an e-mail about this earlier. It didn't work before, but now it does. I didn't even know Google had "groups."

Google has always had groups, they've just always been really unorganized. Now it looks like they're changing it, though.

no, they've had usenet groups for a while, but this "yahoo-groups" clone is relatively new. I hope they develop a poll system befor it's de-beta-ed.

yeah, i looked for all the names i recognized, like Morgan, W, and Kerm... and you, and added them to the invite list.

Are you the one that sent me that e-mail, then? Thanks!!! :-)

Nope, no time for that! But i did in fact spend the plane ride to japan programming my 83 4 years ago. The day before i had spent algebra class writing my first good game, a snake game where you avoid the dots, in basic, and then on the plane i rewrote the program so you collected the dots, it was fun. And i didnt have a link cable, so i had to type it into my friends calculator by hand. Anyways, the Japanese were very confused about me playing games on my calculator...

That's a good idea for when I finally go to Japan...and if anyone asks, I'll just give them a link for ticalc and then they'll understand : )

The Japanese have technology a couple years before we (meaning people in the US) get it so I guess it would be like us looking at Iraqie (is that how you spell it?) kids playing on a NES or maybe PS1.

it's spelled Iraqi, and they would be MUCH better off if it wasn't for this !@%@$^#%^&% idiot in the White House. Click the link above for the right vote in November!! (If you don't live in the US, I apologize for the actions, speech, and mannerisms of out Supreme Commander. Both my parents voted against him in 2000 and will do so again.)

Dude, I know what you mean. Check out the ^link^ and select "Real quotes from a real moron". You can look at the other flyers, too.

I will chose not to mention the hundreds of lives that were taken so that their leader whom they were "better off with" could stay in control.

I read a quote a while ago, "The Kerry campaign is unstoppable, but that's only because you can't stop something that's not going anywhere"

My thoughts exactly.

I have three points to make:

We need a moderate Republican in the White House. Theresa Kerry is a moderate Republican.

I am more scared of Ashcroft than Osama bin Laden, even if bin Laden had thermonuclear weapons.

I would vote for Stalin, Lenin, or Saddam before I voted for Bush. If the race was between Bush and bin Laden, there is a 51% chance I would vote for "shrub".

I also have some points to make however mine are based on facts.

bin Laden leveled two building and maimed another with a few box cutters, to say you don't care if he gets thermonuclear weapons is just plan ignorant.

Stalin and Saddam where two of the most evil people in the 20th century. Lenin was a communist reformist, good cause (in theory), bad outcome. In my oppinion Stalin is already burning in hell and can't wait until Saddam comes to join him. To elect either of Stalin or Saddam instead of Bush because he made political desions that you don't agree with is proof that minors should not vote.

No, Ashcroft would take all our liberties away if he could. Actually, I don't have as much against Bush as I did: Ashcroft won't be Secretary-General if Bush is elected. Another (admittedly rare) smart move from Bush.

another rare? that's either an exxageration on the rare part or an oxymoron, when speaking about something within the timeframe of only four years.

Rare because they only happen about twice annually.

If you find an adult with the same sentiments, will you say that nobody should vote?

(continued)

Who gives a damn if Theresa Kerry is republican? I don't support people because of their party, I support them because I believe in what they do and in saying that, I fully support the current war in Iraq and President Bush's role in it. Bush has not made the Iraqi's lifes miserable, he has elimanated an murder that was posing as a leader and is working on setting up a new government. As in any reform there is a period of anarchy that must be endured before a firm government can take its place. For example the United States of America. During the first few years during and after the Revolutionary War the state of the government was shaky. The Articles of Confederation (pre-Constitution) were inadiquate and Congress to weak. However after a bit of thinking and a few riots the Constitution was drafted and America has grown since.

(continued)

A further bit of interesting history. Andrew Jackson was overall a fairly good president but he was not perfect. For example he was extremely untrusting of the national bank. In attempts to solve what he thought of as a problem, near the end of his presidency he decided to withdraw all the money from the naitonal bank and put in several private banks. The banks soon printed off to much money and inflation soared to unthinkable hights. The american public was naturaly mad and got angry with their current president, who was not Jefferson. My point being Bush is having to deal with problems that Clinton left behind, and is also taking the blame for them. If you think that bin Ladin decided to attack the US only when Bush became president then you are terribly mistaken, the threat has been very real for a while, including when Clinton was in office. Clinton did nothing, the US gets attacked barely a year after Bush is elected, and yet almost no one even mentions Clinton.

People should analyze a situation before critiquing it, the situation is usually much diffrent then what the media presents.

Yes I know it is long. If the staff thinks that it is a waste of space then please at least wait until cajunLuke can read it, then by all means, delete it.

I've read it, and you amde some good (and valid) points.

Sorry, made. I forgot to proofread.

Very little of the problems that Bush is dealing with Clinton caused.
And I was in a bad mood when I wrote the thing about Saddam and Stalin, so I got a little carried away. Yes, the economy was starting to go down before Bush got into office, but his tax cuts for the wealthy (which Bill Gates, who got the most money, thought they were stupid and useless) and his war on Iraq made the economic downturn that much worse.

For the sake of the sanity of the readers, we won't get into abortion.

Bush also tried to prevent Congressional investigation into Sept. 11. this reminded me of Nixon and the White House tapes. I started to think "What did he do that helped this come about?'

Also, his truancy from the military. Kerry may have burned his honors, but at least he got honors. Bush was in the 'champagne division' and did nothing but be AWOL, probably at his ranch. He is pulling the same thing during his presidency (being AWOL at his ranch). Well, techically he can give himself leave, since he doesn't have a commanding officer.

More later, maybe.

Clinton note have directly caused any problems but he certainly did not prevent problems that he could have. In fact, Clinton did very little to prevent terrorism. I suppose it was a good thing Clinton stayed out of that stuff though, he messed up well enough in Somalia, the whole "not wanting to invest heavy equipment business." Not to mention he gave the US a bad image with the whole adultry thing, hell even the French were laughing at us.

I'm not blaming Sept. 11 on Clinton, I just don't think Bush is at fault as much as he is said to be.

No, Bush isn't as much at fault as the media says, but the rest of it isn't Clinton. And Bush certainly made a much larger portion of the world hate us than anyone else. At least the French were laughing, not shooting.

if he had frozen all airline traffic and nothing happened because he prevented it, the reporters would have been all over him about destroying the economy and causing chaos. He isn't at fault at all, the media's just trying to find some way to blame him. ... I just realized that I'm trolling :)

heres some humor i think everyone can appreciate, click link above...

That is true. Imagine how popular he would be if he had stoped attacks that no one ever knew about. They would say that he is a paranoid moron.

I would never give Clinton credit for doing all of anything. In reality it was just a bunch of little things done by many people that went wrong, since the media can't blame everyone they have to pick a scapgoat.

seems like you aren't pro-kerry, you're anti-bush and you're kind of hoping that kerry will be better...

Yup, you hit the nail on the head. ABBA: Anyone But Bush Again.

Disclaimer: these messages are intended to insult George W. Bush, not anyone else. If you feel insulted and you are not George W. Bush, I apologize.

"Please be constructive and keep comment topics relevant to the article you are replying to.
...
Don't insult or flame other people in your comments."

Wonder how long how it will take for these posts to disintegrate.

well, it should take about the same amount of time as it takes to integrate them with my ti-89...

nice flamebreaker... something actually on topic usually does the trick :)

Those people's lives are being made miserable by the US, but is this anything new? Ten years ago, the US was giving aid to Saddam. Sure, some of this was going to fighting Iran, but much of it when to keeping the people under control. I would say that Saddam was always just a pawn of the west, and removing him means nothing.

When you think about, this is not a new war that Bush has started -- it is the same war that has been raging for a thousand years.

MWM

Ten years ago, we under the under the rule of an idiot: Bill Clinton. I rest my case.

-TrumpetMan

This big huge conversation has really inspired some great writing (like Lewk's up above). A note to the staff members of ticalc.org - there should be a forum where you let us get off-topic and talk about stuff like this. Not only would it solve the problem of the big paragraph in red in the rules, it would also make it so you could just say "Post that on the off-topic forum" instead of just deleting it. Come on, we need conversations like this sometimes. It may be off-topic, but it's a good conversation.

Thank you. Now if only my english teacher thought so...

I agree: how often do you see anyone make grammar mistakes on this this site? (I mean other than "custom" grammar that just makes more sense anyway) Most of us are excellent spellers; personally I haven't learned a thing in english class all year.

apparently there's some kind of issue binding the staff so they can't offer a free forum... that's what the group2 is supposed to be for (see link).

or maybe his comment was meaning "oh there already is one". Morgan chose to give a nasty little teaser... "if you guys only knew".

Great, now I'll be looking for it all summer.

Not an idiot: just not as liberal as he and many others would have liked.

I must disagree there. He was certainly an idiot.

yup, idiot

What war for a thousand years?

Closer to a couple thousand years, Middle-easter people fighting just about everyone else.

Like the crusades.

The Crusades are among the stupidest actions taken by a goup of people in history, and certainly the stupidest thing Christians have ever done. That's a lot of why the Muslims are fighting us now: bin Laden stirs up memories and stories of the Crusades.

i dont know about the stupidest thing christians have ever done... how about the corinthian church? most of them pretty much abandoned their faith within a very short time of Paul's leaving.

*many of them
trying to stay noncommital... that's legal speach for flame-safe. you could technichally defend yourself by arguing that 3 is many :) I really have no idea how many, I think it was over 50%, but gotta stay noncommital.

"Middle-easter"... is that like halfway through the resurrection, or is that when the easter bunny comes...

Eastern. You know what I meant.

it wouldnt be mid-resurrection, it would be saturday... and only if you could argue that the resurrection was taking place all weekend, or was it instantaneous on sunday morning? mid-easter would be noon on easter.

That's only because they are in the middle of the Old World. Where does Kublai Khan go after Asia? The Middle East. Countless other despots, warlords, and other rulers have attacked the Middle East at various times in history because it is the gateway to everywhere. Sometimes it was the Muslims, as under Muhammad in the 400s CE, when they swept out from Mecca and Medina and took over the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, etc, creating the greatest culture ever. Sometimes it was the Christians, sometimes barbarian tribes from Asia, Africa, or Europe.

The Muslim culture and libraries kept the great Greek and Roman literature and science until the Europeans got out of their pigskin huts and realized that the wind wasn't created by the king. Then they went to the Muslims in peace and began to trade ideas and technologies. Al-jabr, a Muslim, had invented Algebra, and the maths flourished. Then Europe took their old technology back and ran with it. Now, Muslim civilization is in shambles because they were left behind, and now Muslim fundamentalists are stirring this up as hate toward the West.

and then after algebra, they found the need for calculators and texans made the TI graphing calcs...

Hooray for the Texans!

You have a point about so much fighting going on in the Middle-east because it is the "center of the world". After all that is the historical reason why the battle of Troy was supposably fought (by the way, has anyone seen that movie and is it worth seeing?). But how does someone run away with a technology?

The Europeans had the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, and left the rest of the world behind.

The Chinese were starting an industrial revolution in the 2000s BC. They began to smelt steel in quantities never again until Coalsbrookdale in England in the 1700s. Then the Chinese government got scared of the middle class and shut the whole thing down.

(continued)

Don't get me wrong: the Muslim fundamentalists aren't the only ones causing problems. Every religion has its fundamentalists, and it is these people that are screwing up the world today. Christian, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalists are all following their self-appointed paths. In all fairness, I'm sure there are plenty of people who describe themselves as fundamentalists and aren't helping end the world as we know it. They simply aren't the big, famous ones who have their own TV programs. Also, to not be unfair to the Judeo-Christian-Islam religious tradition, I'm sure that any Bhuddist or Hindu fundamentalists are doing their utmost best to screw up the world.

since when are Christian fundamentals causing trouble? the fundamentals of Christianity is goodness... now if you mean /radicals/...

Yes. Thanks for clarifiying throughout this rant/dissertation when I say "fundamentalist", I mean "radical fundamentalist".

Really? Where's the burning bull in your front yard?

(coninued)

And, to respond to the general who commented that "our God is stronger thatn their God": that simply isn't possible. Our (the Christian) "God" is no stronger or weaker than the Muslim's "Allah". The names are simply references to the same God. The Jewish "Yaweh" is the same as the other two.
A religious history lesson: Abraham had two sons by different mothers. Sarah (or Sarai) begot Isaac. The other woman (I've forgotten her name) had Ishmael. Isaac went on to form the Jewish tradition. Ishmael went on to form Islam, which stayed dormant until Muhammad in the 400s CE. From the Jewish tradition came Jesus, who inspired Christianity. If you look at the three religions, the first four or so books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers) are more or less identical between the three. Islam (the Koran or Qua'ran) has more books, most written by Muhammad. Judaism (the Torah) adds the rest of what Christians call the Old Testament, and Christianity adds the new Testament to the Torah. Jesus actually is featured in all three religions. Christianity regards him as the Savior of mankind, Judaism regards him as a prophet, and Islam regards him as a _very important_ prophet. Thus, the three religions are far more closely related than anyone seems to realize.

P.S.: In case anyone was wondering, I am Presbyterian (a Christian denomination).

they are not references to the same god. allah and the judeo-christian God said some pretty opposite things, and since both believe that God cannot be wrong, they must be different.

oh and the woman's name was Hagar. and at least almost everyone at /my/ church realizes their similarities. You can't say at all that people don't seem to realize that, unless you mean that most people aren't educated about multiple religions, which is true.

Well, mose people aren't (as you said) educated in multiple religions. I certainly wasn't until I got interested and made sure I knew evertyhing about comparative religions.

Sorry for being off topic, even though we already are, but I just read your bio... Can you really download streaming music from the internet? More specificly Yahoo LAUNCH?

The Muslim fundamentalists take quotes out of context from the Koran, just as Christian fundamentalists do out of the Bible. Many mainstream Muslims simply ignore those parts, just as many mainstream Christians ignore parts of the Bible that are obfuscated or wrong. An example (on the Christian) side is Revelation: IT'S METAPHORICAL, PEOPLE!!! GET OVER IT!!! THE END OF THE WORLD WILL ABSOLUTELY **NOT** HAPPEN THE SAME WAY.

It probably is just a metaphor but no one but God knows for sure.

And, to respond to the general who commented that "our God is stronger thatn their God": that simply isn't possible. Our (the Christian) "God" is no stronger or weaker than the Muslim's "Allah". The names are simply references to the same God. The Jewish "Yaweh" is the same as the other two.
A religious history lesson: Abraham had two sons by different mothers. Sarah (or Sarai) begot Isaac. The other woman (I've forgotten her name) had Ishmael. Isaac went on to form the Jewish tradition. Ishmael went on to form Islam, which stayed dormant until Muhammad in the 400s CE. From the Jewish tradition came Jesus, who inspired Christianity. If you look at the three religions, the first four or so books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers) are more or less identical between the three. Islam (the Koran or Qua'ran) has more books, most written by Muhammad. Judaism (the Torah) adds the rest of what Christians call the Old Testament, and Christianity adds the new Testament to the Torah. Jesus actually is featured in all three religions. Christianity regards him as the Savior of mankind, Judaism regards him as a prophet, and Islam regards him as a _very important_ prophet. Thus, the three religions are far more closely related than anyone seems to realize.

P.S.: In case anyone was wondering, I am Presbyterian (a Christian denomination).

My point is that there is no "thousand year war", and if there is, it is the fault of the Christians, and, most recently, the fundamentalists.

oh, that's low. That's like blaming the british for starting the revolutoinary war... they might have been wrong, but they felt some kind of duty to defend what they thought was their land... *gasp* that's EXACTLY like the crusades! well, almost.

AHH! I hate politics! LOOK WHAT YOU DID! THAT'S WORSE THAN SAYING "The TI-83+SE is better than the TI-86" because it starts a HUGE FLAME WAR! *dies*

*comes back to life* Okay, think I said all that needs to be said.

you know this will stop by the next poll. and did you know they took down the beloved "2004: Yes or No" poll? AAAH!

never mind about that last part, i was looking in news