Fat Boy Kyle

Abortion Discussion

I am, for the most part, pro-life. It's quite hard to put it all in one neat paragraph so I'll discuss my views from point-to-point, starting with why I believe in pro-life:

A popular argument is that in some cases (such as teen pregnancy or where substance misuse is involved) the parent(s) are simply not ready or suitable to take on the responsibility. However many people are ready and suitable, and may be looking to adopt. Surely it is better to let the child live and give it away? You might argue that they may end up in a home or in a bad family, but surely its still better than having never lived at all? I think that its worth me also pointing out that I consider myself to be fairly liberal and social orientated, and I believe that there should also be welfare and social services in place to help parents and their children, and to ensure that in certain cases that everything is done to protect the child including removing them from their parents (albeit as a last resort).

Some also argue that the circumstances surrounding the conception are rightful causes to have an abortion. The biggest example being rape. Some feminists arguments tie in here, for example the argument that humans have a right to control their own body, and that being forced to have a child is unethical and inhumane (much in the same way as rape). Whilst I am sympathetic to this point of view, preventing such breach of rights should be done through proactive measures (ie. stopping the rape in the first place) whereas an abortion is a reactive measure which does nothing to stop the breach from occurring. Again, I have the stance that it's better to give the baby away if the mother does not want the baby herself. It also attributes a level of blame and culpability onto the unborn child, which I believe is ethically wrong. There are some exceptions to this view however! For example if the baby was conceived through incest, and there would be potential physical and psychological problems for the child or parent; in these cases it might be more humane to have an abortion (this is more tied into the health point that I'll make in a moment).

To quickly break the seriousness of the topic there's also this point. I'm not religious myself, but Cyanide and Happiness illustrate an interesting point.

Whilst I appreciate that in terms of rights, abortion affects the mother's far more. It's her body. It's her pain. It's her life. I think that it is wrong to completely ignore the parental rights of the father. I think that in cases where the mother and father both consented, especially where there exists a strong relationship, that the father should have some right to argue against abortion. This is especially true of cases where a late-abortion is sought (20+ weeks), as the father may have already developed a loving attachment and because at this point there is a chance the baby could survive outside of the mother. Admittedly in some cases, like in rape cases, they morally loose any legitimate rights to parenthood.

And lastly because, especially in teenage cases, the mother might not be aware of the psychological issues that come with having an abortion. The feelings of guilt, depression and regret may be quite powerful, and may have very detrimental effects. In some cases would-be mothers might wish that someone had convinced them to keep the child, or that they had been more experienced/wiser/mature to make a better decision themselves.

Now! Other things I consider, including exceptions:

I do believe that in cases where the mother's health (physically) and/or the child's health (mentally or physically) is at high risk that an abortion should be an option.

I am not religious, and I do not believe that every sperm is sacred. However like I mentioned earlier I believe that whilst proactive measures are right (e.g. contraception), reactive measures are wrong. As an extension of this, I do believe that some people are clearly unsuitable to be parents and so proactive measures should be taken to avoid pregnancy in some cases. I'm not so austere or bigoted to say that certain people should be stopped entirely, just that their lives should ideally meet a certain standard. For example, if Mary and John were both drug users I would argue they shouldn't have children and should use contraception, however if Mary and John were to later be rehabilitated and live stable lives then they should have the right to have children.

Sanctuary

btw, sorry if the fight scene in my post was a bit messy. It was all a bit rushed so I might go back over and clean it up a bit if I get time.

Hows everyone's yet-to-be-posted posts coming along? :)

Star Wars: The Fall of the Jedi

DAMN IT! This rp better not be dying! Every god damn star wars rp dies! I will hunt each one of you down and make you post!

Sanctuary

Edward Vates – Present Time – In the old school
“He’s helped us out Jeff, we could at least do the same for him. You don’t want to cross us Monroe. Chiefs a nasty guy and a conduit, anyone we bring him he kills to make himself stronger or whatever it is they do. Do yourself a favour: take your friends and get away from here.” Came the voice of Marvin, one of the two men that Vates had been talking to. Vates had tracked a group of men from the market to an old derelict school and had approached them for answers. Vates had managed to confirm they were from the same gang that had caused him trouble months ago but that they were under a newer and much more hostile leadership. In return Vates, who was posing as ‘Monroe’, told the men where they could roughly find him. This way he would know where his hunters would be and prepare accordingly; and perhaps more importantly it meant he would know where they wouldn’t be.

Vates nodded and did his best to look taken back by the man’s comment and was about to reply when he was interrupted by another voice close by, “Jeff? Marvin? Where are you? The other building was a bust! Let’s regroup!” Vates was surprised at the close proximity of the voice and realised they would probably see and recognise him; although Marvin and Jeff had been new faces to him, the others were from the old group. Vates made the split second decision to take out the merciful Jeff and Marvin as they turned towards the call. Vates lightly pounced forward and placed his right hand on Marvin’s metal pipe and with his left hand dealt a kinetic jolt to his head, knocking him out (a move Vates has come to call the ‘Night-night Palm’). Jeff saw the movement in the corner of his eye and responded quickly… but not quickly enough, taking a pipe to his face as he spun round. Having dispatched of the two for the time being Vates quickly crossed the room to the door he estimated the others to come through. He pressed his back up against the wall and waited for the others to come in.

“What the fuck?!” gasped a figure rushing through the doorway. The man came in with a rapier held ahead of him and his side was left completely vulnerable to Vates who stepped in to him and delivered a night-night palm. Vates turned to face the next two men who stood on the other-side of the frame in a tight corridor. The first of the last two was about the same height as himself but far more muscular and he held in his hand a bowie knife. Vates had a glancing vision, seeing how the opponent would strike at him. Keeping a firm posture and good footing the man lunged forward with the knife in his right hand and aimed to stab Vates in the chest. Rotating to his right slightly, Vates chopped down on the attacking arm with his left hand, sending the thrust reeling off to the right of him where his right hand was able to quickly grasp the wrist. Keeping a hold of the attackers thrusting arm, Vates put his body weight behind a strong left elbow to the attacker’s straightened elbow snapping the bone and causing a vicious open fracture. The man attempted to scream in pain but Vates left hand then quickly swiped at the man’s throat, not quite collapsing it but causing the sound to come to an abrupt halt. Vates then shoulder barged the man backwards before running up his body and leaping off towards the attacker behind, using his light gauntlet to emit a quick series of disorienting flashes as he did so. The second man was not at all prepared for the unorthodox assault and dropped his hammer as Vates used the man’s blindness to tackle him to the ground. The man landed on his back with his legs open enough to allow Vates to deliver a bursting knee to the groin. As the man sat up and yelled in pain Vates fell into the man’s jaw fist first, knocking him out cold.

‘Well that was unpleasant. If only you could have dealt with than demonic child in the same way.’ commented Janus, whom believed and acted like he was above such violence (although secretly finding such encounters disturbingly thrilling).

Vates completely ignored Janus’ remark. Climbing to his feet he turned to the man whose arm he had broken. The man had passed out (possibly from the fall, but Vates couldn’t be sure which of the attacks had caused it) and was clearly in medical need. Fortunately the bleeding, although bad, could have been worse. Vates quickly cut off the man’s sleeve carefully and used most of it to restrict the blood flow at the top of the arm. With the little left he placed it carefully over the wound as best as he could and used the man’s other limp hand to apply a tiny bit of pressure. Having done this Vates quickly looked through the possessions of the others to find a radio or something similar to get help for the man. No radio could be found, but he did find a flare launcher on one of the others. Vates then went outside and fired it into the air, sending up a green trail of smoke. ‘If they didn’t already hate me enough they certainly will now’ thought Vates.

Sanctuary

AnriuSB said
I will post immediately following my recovery from the news that just crushed my soul....

?

A good Free to play MMO

mdk said
some guildmates were getting pretty extremely rapey with my female toon

I think it's slightly depressing when you reach the stage that these sort of comments are not surprising or unusual in the slightest.

mdk said
there was a big server-consolidation that rolled us in with a bunch of asshats and it just got lame all at once.

That's actually around the time I quit (the first time). I was so happy prior to that, having been like the second highest rank in the biggest guild on the server for the first time in my life (I usually end up in a guild with like three random dudes for no reason). Not only did the guild completely separate and disband, but I found my laptop struggled with the increased amount of people in high population zones :(

Some science fiction (?) based power/ability questions

The character having some sort of crazy-ass electromagnetic ability (that I cannot honestly be bothered to think too much about) that is able to alter the density of objects. By causing molecules to spread further apart, the object would take longer to heat up (or the reverse). This would cause the object's traits to alter though. It could also explain the levitation: the object could be made less dense, and the air beneath it more dense, therefore causing it to float (like a beach-ball in water). I've probably got this completely wrong, but it might be something to go on xP

A good Free to play MMO

The Old Republic is arguably lacking in some aspects when compared to other MMOs (e.g. amount of dungeons, arguably PvP, etc.). However is it still thoroughly enjoyable and does present you with nearly everything you would expect from an MMO. In my opinion it gains a massive advantage over its competition simply due to the dialogue system and story lines being amazing.

Sanctuary

boobs

Y'all need Jesus. It's probably worth toning down the level/standards of guns a little bit, but from what has been written it's not stayed to far off the lore and isn't worth editing out. It is a good point that weapons aren't supposed to be advanced and that certain gun components are quite difficult to get right (suggesting they take time to develop), however this is set in a world with flying shopping centres so to say that Flintock level tech is the pinnacle isn't too logical (I know that's not what Zeph said, I'm just using it as an example). Given that we've had guns since before the 17th century, I'd perhaps suggest that a good period to agree on would be pre-WWI standard weapons?

It's worth pointing out that we could of have new posts instead of this discussion to! ;P

EDIT: I didn't see Sage's response. So imma hide mine :P

Sanctuary

You'd need a plasma weapon to cut through the tension.