Fiery_penguin_of_doom Posts

Yeah, Damn those people for expecting others to obey the law. How dare those artists expect people to not steal their creations and spread them around. Such dicks...

If you didn't produce the thing yourself, own the rights to it or get permission specifically from the creator. You aren't allowed to post doujin, images, movies, games, music, art,etc.

They just took it down, be thankful you didn't get slapped with a real punishment. The stuff doesn't belong to you. Never did.

I don't recall supporting that. The only secrets should be things of national security. Presidents travel plans, names of active CIA agents,etc. Also larger governments are harder to keep transparent. The larger a government the more power it holds over it's citizens. The more power it holds over it's citizens the more that power can be abused. Also there is an obvious problem with letting the people who rule you, teach you. If you wish to change the conversation to me proving that the American system of government education and the agenda of the proponents of that system is NOT in the best interest of a intelligent society then I'll show you some proof.

The rich don't rule America. The days of the robber barons are gone, when will people understand this? Not every person who has money is some evil stinking, puppy kicking, baby eating bastard. All this really is just a thought forced into peoples heads. Instead of "Hey, the guy has a nice house and a nice car, I'll work hard to achieve the same success using my skills" we've become "That guy has a nice house and a nice car. He doesn't deserve that. I deserve it more than he does". We should work in competition with one another in order to improve ourselves and our society. Not use force to take from one group to give to another group.

Anybody who plays the lottery instead of saving and investing that money properly deserves to remain dirt poor. Every person who wins the lottery actually ends up worse than they were before they won. They suddenly have all this money and don't know what to do with it then suddenly go out and buy cars, houses, give money away like blow jobs in a crack house. They over spend their money and end up in debt. I agree that cutting education only perpetuates a cycle which is why I advocate private schools with subsidies to schools that take in poor family students or even scholarships for student who maintain high grades. Competition between schools drives up wages. More people become teachers for good wages (as the government currently, suppresses wages). On top of that the competition drives up the education value as parents will send their children to schools that are better than the rest. Different "class styles" would develop instead of this warehousing that they use now.

The rich aren't "powerful", they don't "rule" us in any way. If the rich were powerful then Bill Gates, Steve Jobs,and Mike Duke could make the government bend to their will and last time I check. Gates got his ass handed to him by the Clinton administration by having his company broken up and Duke's company gets about 1,000 lawsuits a day.


State control over "information" is even worse than biased information. You criticize governments spewing propaganda, yet socialist (and to some extent communists) advocate state control over all forms of media from internet companies, news, radio, t.v,etc. Something that is worse than the government educating people is the government telling people what is going on. This leads to Doublethink and Newspeak. Government is the problem, not the answer but, it is a necessary evil in order to keep society together. To me a massive government to "help" the people is as big of an oxymoron as shackling a man and calling him free.

If you were here during the presidential race you would have heard me accuse the news companies being biased towards Obama for treating him like a rock star instead of some inexperienced douche that he was. I get my news from everywhere, left and right wing alike. I listen to Rush, Hannity, Boortz, Beck, Bender (I know it seems a little right wing but, it's the only names I can remember at the moment). Fox news, Air America, CNN, Atlanta Journal, USA Today,etc. Amongst all of these I can get a central idea and from there I use my own critical thinking and research to come to my own conclusion. I take nothing at face value and I take time to learn about anything. I've read extensively on socialism, communism (true and faux), Libertarianism (socialist, conservative), Liberalism (Old and new) and a few other forms of government.

Accept nothing as the truth, unless you take the time to know it's the truth.

Walk to the nearest nearest store, buy some rope, fashion a noose, then hang myself

It's an uphill battle mate but, pure hard work (with a little cunning and luck) can beat raw talent.

I play Magic:the gathering and one of my friends is a "control" player. All day, every day he plays control. He has a talent for it, while I'm not as good as he is I make up for it by hard work to give me a fighting chance. I learn more about the nooks and crannies of the rules, learning the weakness to whatever he plays,etc. This may be an over simplified example but, I think it does the job.

Last time I check $1.86 before we threw a rod in the economic engine we were paying $4.00 and we were on the low side of the scale. Average tax on a gallon of Gasoline is roughly 13-20 cents.



Disagree with me as much as you wish. Doesn't change the fact that if people are given a choice between getting something by working hard vs getting the same thing by sitting on their ass watching t.v. They'll choose to sit on their ass and watch t.v. Sorry but, social science has you pegged there.

Again human nature. We are all competing for the same space and resources. Every species does it, humans are no different.

Yes, because I'm a murderer. I obviously kill anybody who says I can't say "Fuck" in public. You weren't paying attention to what I had typed.

Scenario: The "president" suspends the constitution, declares martial law, orders troops to patrol to "maintain law & order". Aion Flux, 1984, V for Vendetta style. The very definition of an Orwellian society. That is what I was speaking about. Fuck, pay attention.



Simply, Capitalism with a safety net. Freedom IS for everybody, anybody can say what they want, protest what they want, vote how they want,etc,etc,etc. Freedom and money are clearly two separate entities. You want to vote for Nader? Go for it. You want to own a firearm? Go for it. You want to protest Scientology? Go for it. Want to live in a hippie commune in Southern California? Go for it. Want to kill yourself by smoking? Go for it. Want to own a nice house? Work hard, save and go for it. Want to volunteer at a homeless shelter? Go for it.

I like that system better a little better but, it's quite clear I want to keep politicians on a tight leash. A politician steps out of line and there would be an angry mob waiting to lynch him. I keep a pretty close tab on American politics and every administration and every state has some jack-off(s) who abused their power or was just can't be trusted. At the end of the Bush Administration I was three degrees away from leading an angry mob to the white house. Just like now, I'm three degrees away from leading an angry mob at the white house. I'm fed up with morbidly obese governments, rampant unchecked spending, abuse of power at all levels of government, blatant lying, cover ups, inability to be transparent, fraud, the list goes on. The American government has been acting like a spoiled teenager with a no limit credit card. It's time to ground the ungrateful little bastard. These politicians are supposed to represent us, not fuck us! I've been fucked by the government so many times, somebody owes me dinner.

From what I have heard they haven't figured out what to do yet. The rep won't disappear as there would be huge uproar. Nobody has ever gotten a rep and lost it. Since if they remove the Utah rep then D.C. will probably lose it's or another state will lose their rep.

In a nutshell; you took my words and phrased them better (thanks). I agree with the idea of inherent value, my life is worth the same as yours which is the same as Shaggy's which is the same as Waar's. While our abilities at birth may be different. We'll all still have the ability to succeed/fail by using our abilities. It's my firm belief that if somebody works hard and smart enough they can improve their standing in life despite massive odds against them. Many ex cons and drug addicts make something out of themselves even though they squandered their chances earlier in life. As long as we instill the same values into our children and work so we can give them the things we didn't have they can improve their standing.





I was just pointing out that the tax system is hostile towards economic growth and that increasing taxes increases this hostility. Increasing taxes you would obviously close those loopholes which further makes the tax code even more hostile.

How much you want to weigh is your own choice. You can be obese or stick thin is your own choice and you should accept the consequences of your decision. Recently, I have put on some extra weight. I find it unattractive and I have made a conscious decision to eat less (while maintain proper nutrition) by cutting down on my intake of fatty foods, soda,etc. I am also going to exercise to reduce my weight to within 10lbs of my proper BMI.

As RBZ already said it's "Okay" to be fat. Your decision; accept the consequences.

Note: The actual "line" for me is when you see the fat affect your life. I had a co-worker who was obese. He had sausage fingers, would lean on things to hold himself up and generally was too lazy do anything because he would tired from carrying around all his weight. I also had an ex who looked better than I did at 170 when she was 180lbs. She was fine even though she was "overweight" according to her BMI

You haven't read a lot of my posts it seems. Repealing the 16th means that the FairTax can be implemented which is the only tax system I approve of. I left out mentioning it so I wouldn't derail the topic.



I blame the southern colonies. They were steadfast about keeping their slaves when the colonies only had a couple months to scrape together their militias into a formidable army. The Continental congress decided to just put the topic off until after the revolution. A majority of the founding fathers recognized the hypocrisy in fighting for freedom while denying other men theirs.

I know I'm a bit of a "constitution worshiper" but, people throw "rights" around too freely. "I have a right to drive a vehicle!" "I have a right to own a house (regardless if they can afford or maintain it). "I have a right to free health care at the expense of others" instead of "I have a right to receive medical care". This is why I choose to just "stay" with the original ten. People don't understand what is really means to have "rights". To me, a right is something you are willing to die to protect. I'll gladly trade my life to ensure everybody rights to assemble, speech, etc.

If you said that to me in person. I would probably pause for a good moment as my brain would try to come up with something to say. Seriously, how to you respond to a comment like that IRL?

Also good to hear G-money is alive..and "well"

[Minor detail]The Roman empire conquered lands of the Gauls, Spanish, Germanic tribes and even Carthage, Jerusalem,etc) thus making them a bad comparison for this discussion. Might as well try to argue that Egypt, Israel, Palestine,etc should belong to Greece since Alexander the Great conquered those lands[/minor detail]

Lets just take the region. Split it in half. Tell everybody to shut their whore mouths. If they bitch, then they'll have to share the same country. If they still don't get along. Fuck'em and put a new Disney World there. Turn the entire region into a parking lot for a Super, Mega, Awesomely huge theme park.

Agreed?

Agreed, It would be an interesting read.



Just out of curiosity which part or parts did you not agree with?

Yes, the same social Darwinism that capitalism is founded on. The better (faster, stronger, smarter,etc) workers will be sought after more and offered more. Hence why people with college degrees are paid more than their non-college educated counterparts. This encourages people to invest in themselves more. The system you have laid out is rather impractical and doesn't take human nature into account. Why would I both spending 10 years in college to become a doctor (general or specialized) or a lawyer or any career that takes more than four years of education to acquiree? The money is gone so the only reasons left are 1) because of a fiery passion for the job (doctors who want to help people) or a love for the job (lawyers, teachers). So if I can just graduate high school and go work in a warehouse stacking boxes and make the same amount why would I bother? Humans are lazy on top of being selfish. In order to counter this trend you have to move away from Socialism/True Communism into Stalin communism or Dictatorship "Work or don't eat" or "work or die".



I believe all people are created equal. Just like the declaration of independence of my country states. When we're born we are at the same starting point. It's up to us to achieve success or failure. Trying to force everybody to be "equal" is counter productive to society as there is less incentive to be productive since you don't reap any rewards from your labor, everybody else does.

Your system requires massive government control over everybody which restricts individual freedom and incentives. Progress would almost stagnate as the only incentive to work is "because it's the right thing to do" and for a species that is as self centered as us, that's not a good start. Not to mention you have to worry about resources. Who gets how much of what and when. We'd literally go back into Stalin's U.S.S.R. where we'd have to wait in line for our daily rations. The collective misery wouldn't matter because we'd all be "equal".

In a nutshell; it'd be like watching a plane crash in slow motion. You know it won't end well.

My system while everybody wouldn't be "equal" in your sense would be the better option

Currently, the average middle class American pays 1/3rd of their paycheck in taxes before they ever get their check Then why they do to spend their money they are taxes on every dollar spent by roughly 7% since it varies from state to state I"ll just use my sales tax. For every dollar earned and spent the average middle class American pays 41 cents out of every dollars. We lost 41% of our income in taxes just to meet our basic necessities of food and shelter. You'd increase that tax burden which would only force middle class people to become dependent on the government and stagnate economic growth as businesses will just move to countries with lower taxes. America already has a tax rate of 40% which is second to only Japan. Here are the corporate tax rates for the top 30 countries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world



The problem with increasing tax rates on companies is that the smaller businesses are forced to lay off workers or drop potential jobs. The people who are kept around won't get paid as much since companies wouldn't be able to afford to give them raises and may be forced to drop things like 401k, health and other benefits.

By lowering taxes you give companies more money to play with. Soon, the backbone to capitalism will force that money to be spent. Either hiring more employees, investing in new technology, paying it's employees more to stay instead of jumping ship to another company with a better "offer". Lowering taxes on individual citizens also helps as the citizens have more money to spend on their basic needs and more to invest to themselves and their children.

While we aren't all "exactly equal". Giving a man a fishing rod and teaching him how to fish is better in the long run than giving the man a fish.

We'd lose our Casinos and those silly pale faces who spend their money in our casinos :P .

I think I pointed it before that the details kind of change the end result but, splitting the region of Palestine in two is a better alternative than evicting one group or the other.

More like companies have an obligation to be fast. Pissing off customers isn't exactly "good business". I was referring to...the DMV, the Social Security Office, Schools, along with similar bodies of the government. They have no competition, no real reason besides "doing their job" to be fast or efficient. I agree that the government needs exceptional individuals but, in order to maintain those "exceptional" people you would have to remove a democratic vote as well as term limits. If anybody could get in to run the country then you'll have less than exceptional people. You can't make everybody exceptional.



As if Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton or anybody else would want to give their children the exact same "edge" as your kids. Government education is a pathetic excuse for education in general. Colleges are much better at educating a person than the warehousing of children like they do in Government schools in America. Look at the average American. They are proof that government education doesn't work.

It's not the governments responsibility. It's the mans responsibility to get an education.




You advocate a massive government which requires massive spending. In order to pay for that spending the government would have to levy huge tax burdens on all of society in order to pay for the nanny welfare state. In order to maintain "equality" and "fairness" people can't earn paychecks as it would create "income inequality".

I say they shouldn't get a rep. Since they are not a state. Territories of the United States don't get Representative. Puerto Rico doesn't pay income taxes but, pays for that by not having a voice in the government. I think the answer is just easier to give D.C. residents an income tax "break" instead of giving all American territories that aren't states a rep (which they would want in D.C. got one). That or repealing that 16th amendment so D.C. wouldn't need a rep based on "We pay income tax".

I see the options as

Don't tax them on income (like puerto rico)

Remove income tax all together (constitutional amendment)

Give them a a voting rep (they already have one if I remember right but, isn't allowed to cast votes) which requires a constitutional Amendment.

Two of the three options require a constitutional amendment. We know how well those get through the meat grinder.

Yes, by trying to justify his trolling, he's obviously apologizing. Normally, I avoid the antics of some people on here but, I gotta go with StaticChange on this one.

Answer this then. Do you believe it is morally justifiable for any group to use force or fraud to take money or property from one group to give another?



I believe companies are more efficient and flexible when dealing with such matters. A Government is too big, too slow and too wrapped up in regulations and red tape in order to be effective at helping people in such conditions. Government entities are just mismanaged and have tons of overhead costs. People who really need the money are often turned away while criminals are able to bilk the system. A lot of politicians are also spending tax payer money on pet projects and useless things like the "bridge to nowhere". So yes, I trust the Federal government with spending money only on Police, Courts or the Military and not a cent anywhere else.

The tax system I advocate would put more money in the hands of the people so they could afford their own health care and those who choose to forgo health care can. I advocate cheap health care in the private sector (The citizens & companies) instead of granting the government permission to take money from every working man and woman at the point of a gun to give to other people. I equate that to theft. The tax system would basically give people a "free ride" up to the poverty level on the basic necessities of life. So it helps the poor meet their basic requirements.

The only question I don't have an answer for is the disabled.