And you've hit the nail on the head.

A lesson to the studios:
If you want to deter pirating, make the official and legal copy MORE CONVENIENT than the pirated version.
Yes, 20 seconds isn't a lot of time. But every time someone puts in a DVD and has to watch it for the 100th time, they're going to get annoyed. And maybe next time they WON'T buy your product because they feel insulted.
We could sit here and argue all night about whether pirating a copy to spite a studio is okay morally (and I'm very, very certain that's what will happen) but at the end of the day it boils down to this, right or wrong: Annoy your customers, and they'll go someplace else, legal or not.

I'm not exactly fond of my memories in public school, but having met a number of homeschooled kids, I'm so very, very thankful I was not among them.

You hit it right on the head with the religious indoctrination. Most of these kids aren't taught by parents who, let's face it, are even LESS qualified than normal, public teachers. And they're not taught at home because public schools teach to the test, don't give all the resources and attention to students in trouble, or because of the lack of proper coverage of fields such as law (for at least a basic understanding of it).

It's because the science class covers the EVIL science of evolution. And because if there is, miraculously, a class on ethics and philosophy, it doesn't consist entirely of "God said this, therefore it is so."

I'm not trying to pick on anyone who considers themselves religious. You can believe in whatever deity or spirit or whatever as you please. But when you deny a child a standard-if-flawed education because it doesn't cater to YOUR beliefs (and let's face it, these people don't care that OTHER faiths aren't covered, just theirs), well, I don't quite have the words to express my horror here.

The problem is that this kind of dialogue is common not just here on the Internet but EVERYWHERE.

I have an uncle and every god damn problem in this country is the fault of those evil, liberal teachers brain washing our kids. All liberals want to make everyone step in line to their creed, you know. Because there was once this story about a really stupid liberal guy who said something like that.

Similarly I've met people who know that Conservatives want to elect Jesus as president, know that He supports their right to carry an M-60 in their local supermarket and shoot anyone who's skin looks Islamic. They know this because of that story from last year where that crazy guy did that thing.

We need to stop this.
There are stupid, opinionated liberals. There are also well-informed, open-minded liberals.
There are stupid, opinionated conservatives. There are also well-informed, open-minded conservatives.
Beginning a statement by saying ALL members of group X are such and such isn't just wrong, it hurts actual discussion. No, that story in the paper about that one liberal/conservative group/politician/whatever being an idiot or an asshole does not, in fact, discredit everyone on that side of the political spectrum. People on the opposite side of the aisle are never going to listen a word you say if the first words out of your mouth are insulting to their entire group.

Problems can't get fixed until we actually discuss what needs to be fixed and how, and we can't have a decent discussion until we learn to stop insulting everyone.

Well, uh, no.

American law isn't a simple democracy. If tomorrow a state decided to ban a religion (let's not list any states/religions to avoid a flame war), and the majority of that state (hypothetically say 100% of legal voters went to the polls) voted for that ban, that law would STILL be unconstitutional and would be struck down in court.

There is, in any government, a fine balance between accommodating the desires of the average person and making sure what they desire is: a. legal b. responsible c. not merely a bullying practice against the undesired minority of the moment.

I'm with you on this. As an avid gamer, I'm used to getting more bang for my buck. A lot of my favorite games could easily go 100+ hours in a single playthrough. Granted, RPGs tend to be longer, in general, but even some of my favorite shooters, like No One Lives Forever, were quite long.

This just goes along with how developers are trading in single player experiences to focus solely on multiplayer. I feel like a part of a dying breed.

And as one of the 10% that actually DID beat Red Dead Redemption, I've got to say the other 90% missed out.

Creationism really isn't science because it cannot be disproven. That's the fundamental flaw of the field and why you could, theoretically, be a creationist and a scientist, but not a creationist scientist.

You trolls are just so cute!

I think you hit the nail on the head. It's not that people who (in theory) get power say "I'm stronger! Now, let's go tie some poor damsel to the train tracks! Mua ha ha ha ha!" It's that people say "I know doing X is wrong, buuuuuuuuut... well, in this case, it's a bit of an exception because..."

I can even sort of understand the way they think. For example, what if I were invulnerable, or at least skilled enough that I might as well be? I thought, "Well, I could attack and kill evil people in far off lands. Heroine dealers, warlords, terrorists, etc." But in person, I'm actually against the death penalty. Pretty funny how quickly our own ideals change the second we even pretend we have power, huh?

Anarchy has been tried. It usually results in, after some time, a government popping up in one form or another because people get sick and tired of the things people get away with.

That, my friend, is the nature of political parties anywhere. "We want all of the benefits, but none of the drawbacks."

These people want to have full access to the Internet but don't want to have to come across things that they don't like or things they disagree with or have to monitor their children's surfing habits.