mdk

canadian fetch

cabbage thread

E3 Is In Seven Days!!

I'll be looking for Destiny I guess, probably. Mostly I wanna know what's coming down the pipe for PS4, and that's really the first thing I'm expecting to like.

What TMNT type are you?

quiz here

If you was to go back in time, and kill yourself.

I wonder if this is what a discussion of math was like, before the concept of zero was invented.

A paradox is a product of flawed perception. It's impossible to draw a triangle with three right angles, unless you do it in three dimensions -- why shouldn't time be any different? It's 'impossible,' incomprehensible, whatever -- to travel back in time and kill yourself..... so what? Is that supposed to stop you from doing it? Change the paradigm and anything becomes possible.

What D&D 3.5 type are you?

lawful good human cleric (4)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 11
Dexterity- 13
Constitution- 14
Intelligence- 16
Wisdom- 16
Charisma- 16

Answer violence with violence?

ShonHarris said Violence is not the cornerstone of legitimate authority. One can lead and gain trust through an assortment of avenues using intellect, experience, perceived power (ex. Claiming position granted by a deity, or the classic American 'God Wills It'), and so on. Violence is totally one way to gain authority, sure, but it's also a lazy way that opens numerous other issues. Like children who hold their resentment and learn to hide their undesirable habits for when authority looks away, so to do the people. A violent leader may well have a population that looks true on the surface, but is in fact quite dishonest behind their backs.

I'm not discounting the value of intellect, compassion, learning, merely accounting for the role of force (and it should be noted that up until now, we've been talking about 'over the line' criminal types). Prison walls can't be guarded by teachers. They can and should contain teachers! But they are built with hammers, lined with razor wire, manned with guns, dotted with floodlights. All of the beautiful things we've accomplished as a species are made possible largely by our capacity for violence. I don't see that as a flaw. All power is an exercise of force, compulsion. Many wonderful things are done by people without power, without the capacity to exert force upon others, and I think that's fantastic. Still, Rome was built of blood, not marble, and if it wasn't for the musket, New York would be longhouses. Maybe that would have been better. I think acknowledging the nature of authority is a crucial part of its just application -- one we too often miss, when we get caught up talking about how things ought to be.

Answer violence with violence?

scribz said
Prison presents both physical, mental and emotional punishment by exposing offenders to other offenders and having them live with each other in confined spaces. The only known way a man reforms in prison is through religion, which is by chance the only cultural norm within the prison that enforces values that aren't "power through conflict" based and criminal by our standards. To say Prison is humane because it's not outright official torture or capital punishment is saying a 2nd degree burn isn't painful because of the instance of a 3rd degree burn. It's still in the "punishment" direction.

I think you misunderstand. I'm arguing that violence is the cornerstone of legitimate authority. When I said 'Prison is the humane alternative,' I meant it sardonically. As in, 'Look what being nice got you.' It's a hellish cess-pool where stronger, more violent men seize powers that we, in our civil discretion, refused to take.

Me in a nutshell

Laconic phrase

I didn't realize there was a word for this.

ITT: Talk to unspecified people that aren't here.

RPG one:

You're so vain you probably think this post is about you.