Actually IME pre-internet youth *were* a lot less boastful. When I grew up in the 70s and 80s people who boasted about themselves would tend to become friendless in a very short time. And there was much talk about "conceited" people which was considered a *bad* thing. Imagine that! And the term "self-esteem" wasn't even used let alone worshipped as it is now.

I think you are missing the point. I believe the argument is not that narcissism is a new phenomenon, but that more people are narcissists as a percentage of the general population than before.

She was a hell of a lot more popular in the 60s actually. Libertarianism is not exactly new. It has been around for quite a while. Hell the founding fathers of the US were basically Libertarians. If anything it has become less popular in the new millenium. Libertarianism doesn't mean "looking out for number one". Although it may be convenient for you to believe that. Saves you from having to think too much I suppose, but it does make you look stupid.

Uh. We are talking about the US here. Are you sure you are thinking of the right country?

No, but it seems doable. Although it wouldn't be easy to do it in such a way that the NSA couldn't decrypt it. Maybe with something like the playing card cipher Neal Stephenson wrote about in Cryptonomicon. Of course there really isn't any reason to do things that way when you can just type in the dead tree text, encrypt it with software, and then burn the originals.

This will be a good deal when prices drop below the MSRP of $549 if you are going to water cool it. It still uses 50%+ more power at idle and quite a bit more power when gaming though. It also runs hotter and will stress a water cooling system that much more, especially in crossfire mode. Nevertheless it seems like a good card for a water cooling setup.

What bothers me is that you pretty much *have to* water cool it if you don't want it to sound like a vaccuum cleaner. The Nvidia cards are usable with stock air cooling or water cooling.

Keep in mind that a water block for the 290x

will set you back around 100 euros or $140. So that brings the price from $549 to $689 or about $40 *more* than the GTX780. Of course for $40 more you get a card that is somewhat faster than the 780 at least at stock clocks.

That's very true. If I buy this I'll be running it with a 1600x1200 20" monitor.

For some problems violence is the only solution. The only way to 'resist' bullying is with violence. I chose not to go down that path, but sometimes I regret it. Sometimes I think it would have been better for me if I had met bullying head on with a weapon in my hand. Being a bully's victim changes you somehow. It is more difficult to respect yourself when you chose to submit and obey instead of fighting. I believe it had a deep effect on my psychology. If I could go back and do it again I think I would opt for using a weapon to even the odds and striking back at the bully. Trying to badly injury him without killing him and then facing the consequences.

Determining physical harm is easy. Determining emotional harm is not. How does one know what will or will not hurt another person? You cannot get inside their head to determing what the "emotional damage" is.

I could imagine some kind of benevolent dictator like Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew passing a law against insults or teasing or saying mean things to people. In a way it would seem to make a better society. A happier society. I've lived in some countries that have nicer people who don't seem to insult or tease each other as much and I far prefer life there for that reason. I cannot even begin to imagine how I would be different as a person if I had grown up in a country where most people are nice to each other. It would be great. I just don't think it is practical and would just lead to most people being in jail.

The freedom to communicate ideas without worrying about the Thought Police listening to everything we say vs. people having their feelings hurt when people say mean things to them. For me the freedom to communicate trumps the right of people not to get their feelings hurt. I just wouldn't want to live in such a world. Things like this always start with such good intentions. You could say "Well just don't insult or tease people. Just don't be mean. Once people start going to jail for it people will learn to be nicer to each other." The problem is I think it would result in a society where people are afraid to speak to each other for fear of accidentally saying something the listener finds offensive and going to jail or getting fined.

Yeah. That can happen, but it's not always the case. When I was a kid, at least where I lived, it was considered dishonorable to gang up on someone. You'd be considered kind of a pussy if you couldn't fight one on one. So it could work some of the time if the bully has a sense of pride in showing that he can best you in a fair fight and not just with a group of friends helping him. Not that there is much you can do without a weapon and once you pull out a weapon you raise the stakes and all bets are off and you are again faced with defending yourself against everyone with him.

Admittedly there isn't much you can do against 7 or 8 assailants. At least without a real weapon like a gun and even that might not be enough. It's easy to forget how shitty life can be when you're a kid.

Where I lived if you were considered "tough" you would mostly be left alone by the bullies. The way to be seen as tough was to get into actual one-on-one fights and prove that you can win.

It may take courage for only a moment, but during that moment it takes far more courage than anything else most people will ever do. People who think ending ones life is easy have never tried it. It is anything but easy. If I hadn't been such a coward I would have killed myself by the age of 13, but it is very, very difficult to do. I have a friend who has been dying to kill himself for years, but he just doesn't have the iron will and steel courage necessary.

Obviously this 12 year old girl did have that courage. I can only admire such people. They are braver than I am. I can only hope that I will one day have the courage to end my life. It's easy to say that you are planning to kill yourself but actually doing it is something else entirely. I think most of us are too wimpy to actually go through with it.

Yeah. In my case it was my older stepbrother who used to hit me and physically intimidate me into obeying him. Man, I still hate him for it to this day and needless to say we maintained no contact with each other whatsoever when we were older. He was a natural born bully and quite cruel. I'm surprised he didn't become a cop. Well some people grow out of that. The rest get jobs in law enforcement.

Yup. Me too. There's no reason to take other people's opinions so seriously. When people tell me I'm ugly for instance I just agree with them. They don't seem to get that. I am ugly. I know it. It's just a fact. Did they think I didn't realize it? How can you hurt someone by just telling them something they already know? Or just by reciting a list of unpleasant facts?

How? If someone is older than you and bigger and stronger than you how do you make that clear? The only way I know to even the odds is with a weapon, but using a weapon tends to have serious consequences. Of course there are martial arts, but that takes years to get good enough at and as a child you don't necessarily have the choice to study them and besides many of the moves in martial arts are intended to kill so that may be just as bad as using a weapon.

How did they force her to listen to their teasing? Last time I checked you can turn down a friend request on Facebook and make your page private so that only your friends can read it. You can even block people.

If someone is communicating to you and saying things that you don't like how about, I don't know, stop fucking listening to them? No. That would make too much sense. Those two girls had the right to speak their minds, to say whatever they wanted. They weren't forcing SuicideGirl to listen to them. They certainly committed no real crime and no SuicideGirl's freedom was in no way being trampled.

Those are negative rights. The right to be left alone from people who would take your life, lock you in a cage or physically force you to do or not do certain things, and seize your property. Notice that it says you have the right to pursue happiness. You don't have the right to force others to make you happy. You don't have the right to prevent me from telling you to kill yourself, which is of course something I would highly recommend. It is much nicer on the other side. Oops. Did I just break the speech laws again?

My freedom to express myself through physical violence ends where your right not to be physically hurt by others begins. There is no contradiction there. All real rights are negative rights. We both have the right to be left alone to do what we wish. That includes the right to say mean things to you so long as I don't force you to listen.

Freedom of speech applies to all forms of communication. That is what speech is. A form of communication. Using the term 'expression' is probably not such a good idea because it can also refer to emotions. A person has the natural right to communicate with anyone who cares to listen so long as the speaker is not interfering with anyone else's rights. And I do believe that as a natural right we all are free to communicate anything. Without limit. I believe that is also what the founders of this country intended.

To say that punching someone in the face is a form of communication is quite a stretch. It isn't really a form of communication and even if it were it would violate the rights of the other person not to be physically harmed.

The right to elminate another person would be a violation of that other person's right to exist. As a right that would be nonsensical.

Speak for yourself. I don't have a Facebook account or a cell phone. It actually is possible to live without those things. Of course if you are going to kill yourself every time someone says something mean to you then I don't think it would matter. People say mean things IRL too.