Don't put words in the parent's mouth. He said nothing against the buying and selling of goods across state borders. Just the import/export of workers and cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Personally, I'm still a bit unsure where I stand on these issues, but as I continue to see silly responses like yours, I know where I'm leaning.

-Jeff

Make a game based around tanks, rogues, and wizards, each countering the other, each with limited self-healing capabilities and very limited AOEs. Blur the lines by allowing tanks to use crossbows, rogues to use bows, and wizards get to create awesome light-swords that cut through everything.

That's just one approach. Another is to allow some classes to deploy "mines" or create temporary "walls" (think necro from diablo creating a wall of bone).

Anyways, that's a couple off the top of my head that don't involve being just one in the crowd.

-Jeff

How about we look at military history? Infantry, cavalry, artillery? Pikes, Muskets, Cavalry? And so on. There are many models we could use that provide interesting tactical arrangements without forcing groups to spend hours waiting for a healer.

-Jeff

Violence is natural. You may not think it civilized, or appropriate behavior (I sure don't), but it is most certainly natural.

-Jeff

Sorry, but forwarding an email and deleting it take the same amount of energy. Coordinating the deletion among a few people takes a lot more. Snake oil.

Also, you didn't touch the boycotting issue. I get "let's ignore them". I get "let's write a rebuttal". But "let's boycott them"? Again, snake oil.

-Jeff

Yes, but the emails show that the preexisting bias is on the climate-scientists side, not the skeptic's side.

Look, we have a group of people discussing the deletion of emails in response to a FOI request. They also discuss boycotting forums that publish an opposing point of view. That these items were even considered is all the sign we need that something is not kosher. Sure, the science may remain legitamite, but these particular scientists are not to be trusted. They are snake-oil salesman who at best may have lucked into the correct side of a debate.

-Jeff

No, not at all.

It is *impossible* for the school to teach a student who is either a) not self-motivated, or b) motivated by a parent. IMPOSSIBLE.

If the schools get in the way of parents, then parents will be even less likely to do their jobs. Thus, I believe the schools should deliberately give back the reigns, teach the kids just like normal, and fail the kids who don't pass muster.

-Jeff

P.S. Parent writing this, in case the perspective matters.

"...and if parents can't be bothered, then schools must take up the slack."

No, they shouldn't. In fact, they absolutely should avoid taking up the slack, for the sake of the country. The problme is that the parents should be bothered, and bothered again until they retake the slack.

-Jeff

I wonder if Virgil had these problems when he continued Homer's stories. :-)

I expect you are thinking far too deeply about the matter. Someone said "hey, this guy's a real joker", and made a picture. They weren't doing a deep political analysis, just messing with photoshop. :-)

As someone said, COMMIE!

Seriously, we have a huge problem with illegal immigration in this country. They don't have that issue in the EU or in Japan. Asking me to pay taxes to support illegal immigrants is wrong.

To be clear, I don't agree with a socialist health care system. However, I recognize that this is a difference of degrees, and thinking people can agree to disagree. But going the next step of paying for someone who is here illegally is just wrong, as in "free speech" wrong, not "speeding ticket" wrong.

-Jeff

I'm not sure how you got modded "insightful". There's nothing in libertarianism that says corporations should be allowed to operate unhindered.

I have no problem with wealthy individuals exercising greater influence *legally*, e.g. they can run ads to voice an opinion (something I can' really compete with). That doesn't bother me.

However, that has nothing to do with the corporatism. Corporations are not real - they are legal fictions, nothing more. As a libertarian, I have no ethical or other issues with restricting "corporate rights". Personally, I think corporations should be completely forbidden from operating in politics. Absolutely no voice, no opinion, no say.

So please stop kicking my libertarian horse - it's not a fascist horse. :-)

-Jeff

"The massive government spending that occurred to produce all the crap for WWII is the only thing that got us out of the depression."

What a load of crap. People say that all the time, some of them people with degrees, and it's still a load of crap.

Ok, I'm wrong you say? Fine. Let's get out of our recession the WWII way. We'll build tens of thousands of sherman tanks, p51 mustangs (corsair was better!), and assorted other vehicles. Another 70 aircraft carriers of various sizes, and supporting battleships, cruisers, destroyers. Add in lots of m1 rifles, 155mm howitzers, 40mm anti-tank guns, etc, and millions of tons of ammunition for all of it.

Oh, and let's take a bunch of boys and men aged 17-35 out of the workforce and send them to concentration camps for many months, forcing them to diet and exercise. Then we'll take a small percentage of them and shoot them.

There, the world war II plan to cure a depression. You people need to learn to employ basic thinking skills once in awhile.

-Jeff

The cop left the premises, the Prof followed him outside and put his hand on the cop. Big difference.

The professor was simply being immature:

a) he should have been delighted that a cop showed-up to protect his property. I would have been.

b) He was in full control. All he had to do was produce a license and the cop would have went on his way. There never would have been a situation.

Instead the professor postured, took it too far, and a situation that should never have happened occured. The professor was simply immature and should grow up.

-Jeff

Define "unemployed" in scandinavia.

The reason I ask is that I recently looked this up in some other countries, and found that people who simply did not get a job for a period of time (say, 2 years) were removed from the category "unemployed" and placed in a new category "unemployable". It really helps the numbers when you do that.

-Jeff