I've always been somewhat puzzled by how exactly one should approach music made "before one's time". On the one hand, Joy Division was responsible for creating an entirely new msuical aesthetic and their influence has been profound. On the other hand, like many other 'classic' bands, they were far from perfecting the very sound that they invented. I wouldn't go so far as the other commenters have in dismissing them, but, being that I did not grow up with these songs, I see no way to get past the shoddy production, incoherent melodies, and repetition. It's never possible to listen to music 'objectively' and entirely free from context, but I honestly can't see how anyone can like Joy Division better than The Cure or New Order. The former's music has visibly aged and seems to only be appreciated by those who still have a vivid memory of its novelty. The latter two, on the other hand, still sound fresh and relevant, as if their music could have been made yesterday (though this is helped by the fact that nearly every current 'indie' band is ripping them off). I think Joy Division had some amazing ideas, but it really took the death of Curtis and the reformation as New Order in order for them to really shine.

Read for yourself. Much more useful than the repetitive coverage of the 'controversy'.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR2007092401042.html

Hm, interesting strategy: post a bunch of unfounded claims after everyone else has stopped posting. Well, this is going to be fun! Let's begin, shall we?

"1) The Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, have been slaughtering Jews for centuries. It has never, ever been the other way around."

Ooh. Umm. Hmm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_crusades

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun

Idiot.

"2) Rabbi Meir Kahane and his ilk do not represent even the right-wing in Israel. They represent a crazy sect of people whose beliefs are regularly ridiculed and whose adherents are prosecuted. When Jews kill Arabs, they go to jail. When Arabs kill Jews, they're called martyrs."

Yes, but still undercuts your earlier point, doesn't it? I doubt it matters much to the people who get killed.

"The difference is that the Israeli public acknowledges and repudiates that kind of garbage."

This is the same Israeli public of which 60% would refuse to live in the same building as an Arab?

3) You've got a lot of nerve condemning a people you don't understand who are living under impossible circumstances. It's easy to be a pointy-nosed, liberal, airhead back here in the comfort of the US. It's harder to be an Israeli who lives with the constant threat and often actualized reality of daily bombardment and suicide bombings.

Please, tell me the last time you had to go to the grocery store and check to make sure that the bread you bought didn't have a bomb in it?

And please tell ME the last time you've been to the Palestinian refugee camps and had your entire family killed by an errant tank shell. Also I didn't know liberals had pointy noses. That could be construed as anti-semitic or something.

The fact that the Israelis have not used their massive firepower like the French, the Belgians, the British, the Germans, the Americans, and just about every other modern country in the world to annihilate people who are attacking them on a daily basis is a miracle.

No, I think it's just common fucking sense, because if they did that, then despite the excuses that people like you would undoubtedly make for it (and are probably secretly cheering for it right now), the same would happen to them.

5) Arab texts, poetry, art, and music is taught in Israeli schools to both Jews and Arabs. In the Arab world, and especially in the Palestinian territories, students are taught that Jews are descended from pigs and monkeys.

Aren't we all descended from monkeys? In any case, you don't have to prove that Arab countries are anti-semitic. What you have to prove is how that justifies the occupation of Palestine.

Which is really what this is all about and what I find appaling in pro-Israel arguments. Because without fail, every pro-Israel argument I've heard has focused extensively on Jewish history, the Holocaust, etc. without saying a SINGLE WORD about the plight of the Palestinians except perhaps maybe to lump them into a group with all Arabs or terrorists. It's as if you actually think that the only reason people are against Israel is because they don't like Jews and can't understand how it's possible to have sympathy for other 'nations' who suffer. This is moral solipcism and selfish entitlement at its worst.

Looks like you didn't get the memo. First you'll be called an anti-semite. Then when the warmongers realize you're Jewish, they'll apply their other favorite term - "self-hating Jew" -and move on. End of discussion, thanks for playing.

Just keep telling yourself that you're doing the 'morally right thing' by supporting megalomaniacal proprietary corporations like Apple or Amazon. Your taskmasters at the RIAA will be pleased.

I mean, just look at how hip and minimalist their design is! They've revolutionizing like...everything! I mean no company endorsed by Justin Long could be just another evil corporation. You must be a Microsoft spy!

The headline should be changed to "If you have a functioning brain, don't buy an iPhone". Everyone knew it from day one that it was locked in to AT&T's service and won't allow third party apps for any foreseeable future, not to mention that the storage is pathetically low for an mp3 player. Did you actually expect Apple to be ok with unlocking their $500 toy if they won't even let you unlock the 99 cent mp3s you bought from them like a total chump? The only people who bought it are the ones who wanted a new gadget to show off, and those deserve whatever they get.

Find more reasons here:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone