If you buy a dozen apples from a farmer, does she have the right to dictate how you consume the apples? Can she sue you for telling others where and from whom you bought the apples?

You're a fucking airline. You're going where I need to go and I bought a ticket. If I'm not on the plane for the second half of the trip, you've saved that much on fuel. Fuck off.

I disagree. The restaurant lobby is immesely influential. We're all smart enough here at /. to know that the restaurant markup on liquor is huge, even bigger at concerts and sporting events. Given their unique success in flouting federal minimum wage laws, do you honestly think they wouldn't do everything in their power (including drafting bogus laws) to make sure that their cash cow liquor revenue isn't disrupted? Come to think of it, we're seeing this exact thing play out with Tesla as we speak.

I'm just curious if that includes the entire swath of the adult population who is 18-21 years-old. Because they're doing beer bongs in the parking lot instead of buying in the stadium. And, what difference does it make to you if someone brings a packet of this "Palcohol", or an airplane bottle of Captain Morgan's, or even a packet of Koolaid into a show/concert/game/whatever? You can't legislate morality, friend.

Infrastructure is "boring", but somebody's gotta build and maintain those old roads. Go Civil Engineering!

For the love of spaghetti, this! And for that matter, why not have a voting week?

According to Obama, "The people who tend not to vote are young, they're lower income, they're skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups."

Well, guess what? That encompasses the entire working class of the USA. Most of whom do not have the means to take hours off on a tuesday. Sure, employers are required by law to allow their employees to vote, but the employers are under no obligation to pay folks for that time off.

But mostly, what I came here to say is that I'm really disappointed in what a pussy Obama has turned out to be. It's like he's campaigning for hope and change all over again. He's had 6 years to do the right thing!

Yea you're right about that. I misspoke about being indispensable -- I was actually laid off suddenly from my position at a fortune 500 about 2 years ago. Two weeks later I got a text from my ex-supervisor asking me for the macro passcode to the spreadsheet I used daily to hook into SQL Server, run SQL scripts and email dashboard reports to 30 people (including accounting and warehouse managers). I got a kick out of that one!

Injuries and sometimes death do occur in all sports. I've torn my ACL twice on the field and had to have surgery to repair it. It fucking hurt, but I would hardly call that violent, insofar as it wasn't torn by some guy trying to rip my leg off. You can't possibly watch UFC and declare that those two aren't trying to annihilate each other by any means necessary (yes, within the rules). That's what it takes to win right?

It's not my intention to gloss over anything, and I realize how hard those fighters train and how much skill they possess. There are varying degrees of skill, and the UFC fighters are the best in the world. However, it's still violent. I simply don't understand why fans can't admit that they're into violence. You seem to enjoy the tactics, which I can respect. Much like some (American) football fans actually pay attention to the plays and formations. But I think that far more fans tune in simply to watch somebody get slammed. If either sport were all about tactics, then wouldn't flag football and wrestling be at least marginally more popular sports to watch?

I can also agree that there is probably less long term brain damage done to a MMA fighter than a boxer, simply because he's not getting smacked in the temple thousands of times. Again, that doesn't make the sport any less (or more) violent than cage fighting. Perhaps statistically safer which may indeed be more to your point.

Anyway, I think we've reached an impasse on the point. I'm not advocating a ban on anything. To each, their own. I appreciate your elaboration and best of luck to you!

Those are all completely irrelevant, and I won't get into them. You're sliding off onto tangents.

That's what you said. And I countered with this:

Case closed, friend! I think my point was quite clear. If you're trying to convince me that cage-fighting has any virtue besides feeding the gambling industry, then bring some verifiable facts to the conversation. Your pontificating on the inherent dangers of life in general says nothing about cage-fighting being unnecessarily violent and barbaric.

Ah, but that's a red herring. I've already stated my point.

Well, technically if there is no blood shed, then I suppose I can't call it a "blood sport".

But is hitting somebody else with a stick puerile violence? Fuck yea it is.

I've seen that movie. I've also seen Sidekicks with Chuck Norris, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MacGyver, and the Power Rangers Movie. All of which revolve around the same trope -- the wise martial artist, who only uses his skills for self-defense, which conveniently occurs every 15-20 minutes.

Thing is, that's just not what cage-fighting or boxing are about. Those sports are about going on the offensive and pummeling your opponent as hard as you can until he goes limp. And when he does go limp, you never see the "winner" on the ground offering first aid. Nope, he's jumping around the ring in celebration for his victory, while the crowd goes wild.

Yes -- valuable to the gambling industry. Martial arts might have virtue in that they can teach discipline and even self-defense. But the UFC is about making money from pure violence.

Who said anything about golf or cancer? People clobbering each other in a cage for the sole purpose of entertainment is a blood sport. I don't have to spell out the obvious differences between the rules of boxing and cage-fighting to make the point that both are equally and unnecessarily violent.

Totally with you on this one. The thing about VBA is that every business manager uses Excel + Outlook. Work smarter, not harder. Automate the tedious drudgery in Excel and you become indispensable.

So ... you enjoy watching UFC fights because its somehow less barbaric than boxing? Every time I'm at a bar, there is at least one television showing UFC. The only difference I observe from boxing is that it's two barbarians trying to kill each other on the ground, vs standing up.

But please, do continue parroting Sports Center about the virtues of one blood sport over another.

This sounds like almost every free-lance "music" teacher I've ever come across.

Just because you can play some chords on a guitar doesn't make you qualified to teach music. These folks are either naive about how much work and expertise it actually takes to be a true teacher, or they're charlatans attempting to prey off the naivete of others. I mean, there's a reason why we have education accreditation boards, right?