nathanm

And lo did the kindly Kevin Rose emerge from from his home with flowing white beard and robe, riding atop a mighty stallion. Young girls scattered rose petals on the path before him. He greeted the protesters with a wave of his hand and all fell silent. Four servants then came bearing an oversized novelty check bearing the sum of three billion dollars, payable to the poor and downtrodden childen whom he had so regrettably neglected. As Kevin spoke his earnest apologies to the teeming crowd, their tears soon gave way to cheers as they realized that work was now a thing of the past and eternal prosperity was their future. Kevin dismounted his horse and shook their hands, caressed their heads and hugged them all. Just then the clouds parted and beams of sunlight shone down upon them, heralding a new day for all the goodly people of San Francisco.

It's For The Greater Good.

She's a lesbian, a lesbian!

Pro tip: Don't give money to insane people.

That depends, is it a Good Fire, controlled by the mighty Constitution; or is it a Bad Fire, that totally burns your foot?

I think the answer is never. They will never realize they are living in a fascist society. Not even when everyone has been issued a rat face cage. The input of information will have no effect on the output of their thoughts. It's frustrating because you can't even convince people to recognize evil, nevermind trying to resist it. You don't have to break the law in order to think the law is wrong and evil. You don't have to go to jail if you accept the fact that taxation is theft. We ask people to make the smallest baby step in their thinking and it still doesn't work. That's why I think so many people will not change their minds even when the boot is mashing their face. Gee, I guess it was just One Bad Apple that's stomping me to death.

There's no single trick to being successful, but to my way of thinking you have to make the presentation attractive enough that people will stick around for the content. Just like physical beauty. You'll listen to something that looks or sounds good longer regardless of its core appeal to you. (up to a point of course…) So I'm saying your videos need metaphorical boobs. Which are: 1. Sound quality - get a good mic and eliminate the room tone. It's all about talking, so the talking has to sound pleasing. 2. Video image quality - nobody wants to see 4:3 480p anymore. Gotta be HD. 3. Lighting - Get a nice soft key light on your face and maybe some rim light to show off the wild mane. A good background. The hair is great, it's a selling point. You look like a creation of Jim Henson studios, and I mean that as a compliment.

It's a common mistake, you mean to write "crony" and write "free market" instead. Happens a lot, too bad the editor did not catch it.

Awww yeah, I made it long enough to hear COHERSION. Yessss!!!

Remember, if you ever debate with someone who is totally full of biosolids, just plasma gas their argument.

I've always wanted to get called upon. Precisely for the scenario Prarie describes. I'm assuming that if you are able to hide your personal convictions you can act as a true moral arbiter of another person. It's not perfect of course, but it's about the only time you get to do that. But am I in the ballpark if I assume that most victimless crimes like pot possession do not ever get as far as a jury trial? I would assume that most of the time you're not going to be in that juicy jury nullification area and are more than likely ruling over folks who have done actual wrong things. However, if my brief experience with the legal system over a stupid license plate is any indication, getting roped into jury duty may be far more unplesant than I imagine and perhaps that's why there's such a strong "get out of…" impulse in people.

So there's a comic book, a TV series AND a game series for this, and it's all generally the same thing? Do I have that right? I watched one Let's Play of the game and it did grab me, but was also annoying. One group of humans infiltrated another group, killed a couple of folks and then kidnapped them at gunpoint with a foreshadowing to the next episode with Stockholm syndrome-ish living in this cult community. Grrr. Forming hierarchies every fucking time, nobody learns shit from the past. Always gotta be some asshole that's the leader. I'm sick of that shit. The whole conceit of every zombie movie seems to be that hardly anyone acts civil in apocalyptic circumstance, and it all deteriorates into violence. It's cynical as hell if you ask me. The world needs a good non-dystopian fantasy where an anarchistic society is portrayed as normal. Every other movie about a possible future involves shit hitting the fan, or massive governmentevil corporation. For artsy zombie film you want Dellamore Delamorte a.k.a. Cemetary Man. Because Anna Falchi. Oh, and it's still good besides that.

At which point is the moral line crossed when a business chooses to employ lobbyists to either shield or benefit their business? I'm having trouble figuring out what could be described as proactive verses reactive behavior in this realm. Obviously the state itself is evil, but is the business also evil or just being a dick, or perhaps just throwing up their arms in response to the beatdown?

Since there's no Private violence committed using grenades and rocket launchers now but lots of Public violence committed using grenades and rocket launchers, we can assume that in the absence of the Public group the amount of violence committed using grenades and rocket launchers would be zero.

Wow, without pay; that's serious! Sorry Kelly Thomas, you aren't as important as a dog.

Alternate reply: Slowly put on a cowboy hat, adjust the toothpick in your mouth and in your best Clint Eastwood impression say, "I discipline adults…with philosophy." But seriously, it sounds like you did a good job, Joel. I was almost ready to throw down a couple of weeks ago at Wal-Mart. I heard a kid screaming about 6 aisles away and I started to prepare. Could not hear the adults clearly. I could no longer concentrate on my groceries, I just tuned my hearing into them and began moving closer. It did not escalate luckily and there was no further protest from the kid. It was a young-ish, well-dressed couple and a young kid seated in the cart. I paused for a moment and watched, but they did not notice me. I was trying to be as calm as possible and was running simulations in my head at 5GHz. There wasn't enough fight to call for intervening, but I was ready. It's like that everytime I shop now, I wonder "Is today the day?" I don't even care too much about causing a scene because I know I am in the right. Having the philosophical backing floating around in your head makes the having-a-public-argument plan seem not as terrifying. A little Triumph musical backing doesn't hurt either. But potted down, just underneath the philosophy stuff. Still, I am not 100% uncertain if I will be able to run confront.exe when the time comes, so I could be full of hot air. I hope not.

Excellent work.

Yeah, the bulletproof coffee part was a reference to that coffee, but not the upgraded part. Upgraded is just a reference to my own geographiststereotyped reaction to the video. An I.T. redneck, it was so strange.

It's just laws on top of laws on top of laws. You should be able to do business or not do business with whoever you want, and face the social and market consequences of that decision. Instead, we live in the world of insanity where everybody and their brother gets to riff on some uneventful issue between a small group of people. I mean, hell maybe all the anarchists should be wearing masks and holding signs and protesting the fucking Purge movie. Cause you know, it's not good enough to just not see it, you have to make a ruckus about it!

I don't follow…

The personalities are certainly realistic, but the dialog strains credulity. People just don't give long philosophical tracts in normal conversation. However, courtroom scenes do allow for such things. But it's still cool overall, just because it's the opposite of what you normally find. Most stories hide their messages in metaphors and symbolism, but Rand delivers it to your doorstep with trumpet fanfare.

I write poems all the time, but it's not usually anything I feel has public relevance. Here's one exception, if a bit dated. Modified to only have ONE Skyclad reference. -------------- Upgraded redneck with opposable thumbsKnows the technologyHow to get things donePublish his outburst for the public to seeMost call him messiahSome call him pariahThe wind Mariah blows his hot air 'cross the seaDaughter dear my throat is parchedFetch me my coffee lest your backside besmirchedThis as paternal overlord doth I imploreGet thee back in your cinders and crawl towards your chores Unsavory protest did I break in and spyNow the doors of my armory are flung open wideThough my coffee is bulletproof this laptop falls shortHigh caliber vengeance my only retortRespect never earned can never be regainedArtillery trumps philosophy with dead precision aim

Rand's stories are about big ideas crammed into cartoonish, often unrealistic characters. Which is a nice contrast to unrealistic characters with NO big ideas. If you are feeling the philosophy you can deal with the weird people, but it's still frustrating. Whenever I read her books it feels like a 3XL fat guy of pure ideology is trying to squeeze into a Medium-size t-shirt of plot.