Post Your Random Thoughts Thread!

[m8son666]

now

[magma]

Any government that chooses not to provide healthcare to its citizens is essentially declaring war on them.

Discuss.

No. I mean, it's fucking obvious, but...

Declaring war would imply a change in circumstance - the U.S., for example, have never had nationalised healthcare. Has their government been in a perpetual state of war with the people that elected it (and as such, tacitly agreed to no nationalised healthcare) since the Declaration of Independence? Did Britain only stop its war against itself after WW2? Were we fighting the Germans AND the British until 1945?

What a daft notion.

I don't know if you know this, but the US was not, and still isn't based on electoral democracy. In the beginning, the only individuals with the ability, let alone right, to vote were land owning white males. And considering that most of the 13 colonies had been largely divided up by the british before the revolution, and only realistically split further after the revolution between successful, and powerful, generals (who in many cases were already part of the land owning elite), could you not say that when they made the decisions which lead to the formation of a new state, set in on and around land that people were already living on, which is after all what constitutes an invasion, wouldn't you at least consider that they were, in essence at least, declaring war?

And to your questions, perhaps.

Where do you draw the line and decide something is an act of war?

If not providing healthcare via the state is a declaration of war (despite it not being a change in the status quo for a country that's never had it) then what else is considered war? Profiting from allowing your citizens to get addicted to substances that are known to kill them (tobacco)? Making people buy their own houses in Alaska? I mean, they'd die in the cold...

Fairly basically, I think in order to "Declare War" you have to change something. If America introduced a policy tomorrow that required every retiree to give up their right to any healthcare, that might be a declaration of war or if they arbitrarily made healthcare to expensive for most people. At worst, keeping a 'bad' policy is negligence, but framing it as an act of war only confuses matters and gets everyone so riled up a solution is never reached.

I'm pretty comfortable on my history of American and British democracy... after WW2 Britain went the extra mile and, through a democratically elected government, introduced elements of socialism into its capitalist economy along with great swathes of Europe... that's got nothing to do with war and everything to do with a society setting it's own priorities during a period where it was forced to rebuild itself (Britain was ruined economically after WW2 and building the NHS was one of the biggest things to bring it from its knees). As a people we decided broadly during the 20th Century that the Welfare State was a good idea, the US at the same time decided it wasn't such a good idea - if you ask the average post-WW2 20th Century American a question about socialism, they will have a much more sceptical view than the average Brit, Swede or German... they're part of a very different society to us, go through an entirely different education system and have an entirely separate national ideology and that's reflected in their democracy - it's clear to see from debates that current arguments aren't consigned only to Congress and the White House, there are plenty of 'normal' Americans who consider it deeply "unAmerican" to force them into taking out health insurance, even if it's freely provided by the State. That's nothing to do with a declaration of war and everything to do with two societies being... different.

I personally believe incredibly strongly that all public services should be provided by the State and paid for by the taxpayer, but as Gene will happily tell you, that's not the only way to approach economics - depending on your outlook, forcing socialist tax and spend policies on the People can be seen as an equivalent declaration of war or, more likely, an attempt at holding a population to ransom... and we shouldn't assume that our democracy was hewn out of any better intentions than theirs.

If our Government scrapped the NHS without it having been on their election manifesto, that could be framed as a declaration of war. It's a change to the Status Quo that hasn't been mandated by the People... but if your people vote you in on a platform of privatisation, have at it... it's what the country wants.

[RKM]

crikey ^

really enjoying having decks but it's pretty hard. anyone got any tips for someone starting to learn mixing vinyl

[garethom]

pre-record a mix on a computer, then get it cut to vinyl, and just appear to be mixing.

[Terpit]

really enjoying having decks but it's pretty hard. anyone got any tips for someone starting to learn mixing vinyl

Can you actually beat match at all? if so, record when you mess around and listen carefully to your EQing and shit
if not, just keep playing around

[RKM]

pre-record a mix on a computer, then get it cut to vinyl, and just appear to be mixing.

aaa nice man. see up till now i've been playing rinse podcasts off my ipod and telling everyone i'm all vinyl but everyone keeps asking where sp:mc's voice is coming from

[Riddles]

crikey ^

really enjoying having decks but it's pretty hard. anyone got any tips for someone starting to learn mixing vinyl

practice is all you can do. recording yourself and hearing what you need to improve on can help but if it's just beatmatching you can tell when it's out, just keep going at it

[DiegoSapiens]

MAC users i need help! i have and external hard drive in the format Mac OS Plus. But windows computers can´t read it and is shit because i have all my music here, plus video games etc , my friends that have mac books don´t have this problem. Someone knows whats wrong?

[Terpit]

really enjoying having decks but it's pretty hard. anyone got any tips for someone starting to learn mixing vinyl

Can you actually beat match at all? if so, record when you mess around and listen carefully to your EQing and shit
if not, just keep playing around

also



skip to the chorus for inspiration

[garethom]

Doing some mandatory security course at work, can anybody help me with this one?

[Terpit]

Doing some mandatory security course at work, can anybody help me with this one?

[garethom]

Bear in mind that I work for a very large IT company as well.

[RKM]

keep working as though nothing has happened. don't tell a soul.

[garethom]

yeah tbf, that is probably what i'd do b2b sort it out myself

[ezza]

loool forward any suspicious attachment to ALL of your friends

[garethom]

FW: Yo colleagues, check out this weird attachment

[ezza]

crikey ^

really enjoying having decks but it's pretty hard. anyone got any tips for someone starting to learn mixing vinyl

practice is all you can do. recording yourself and hearing what you need to improve on can help but if it's just beatmatching you can tell when it's out, just keep going at it

yeah it as just all practice

i found the first bit was a pretty sudden tho, like i was shit and practising wasnt really doing much and then one day something clicked and you find a technique that works for you

then after that its just a case of gettin sick at blends and chops if u cba, but the beat matching bit becomes sorta second nature

mixing different genres takes practise as well, like im so use to mixing house/techno that if i go mix at someones house with dubstep or grime i end up doing 5 min blends

just smashing the fader up after 16 bars feels so weird lol

[Riddles]

Hahaha Eric, when you were mixing 2 tunes at hobsons and the tune you were bringing in started to run out before the one you mixed it in to

[RKM]

Hahaha Eric, when you were mixing 2 tunes at hobsons and the tune you were bringing in started to run out before the one you mixed it in to

this is the kind of level i'm on atm. one tune fading out nicely put the next one in sounds so legit haha, yeah practice seems to be the one, can get it in around the right place to put tracks in the intro or in those bits where it takes the drums and bass out (cannot remember the term i'm sure there is one) but there's always a few too many snares elsewhere.
is house easier? i assumed so, i really only have dubstep and some grime

[ezza]

oh shit yeah haha

"BRING IT IN FFS"

im use to mixing like 10 min tunes lol, all bout dem long blends. i need a rotary mixer