Lurker > Mr Lasastryke

Sure, people make mistakes. But I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't let the people who've made mistakes rot on the streets.

No wonder the lazy and incompetent are so drawn to socialism. It's the only way they can get their participation trophy.

That, and they realize they'll ****ing die when capitalism is in effect and people don't feel like giving money to charity anymore.

I'm still not convinced that the message of Obama's speech was actually: "If you're successful, that has 0% to do with your own talents."

"If you've got a business, you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen."

Got to see the context in which that quote was said before I can judge it.

I hope red sox' "he didn't achieve anything" comment was a bad attempt at a joke.

So, I'm curious... does Obama's "whatever you achieved isn't because of you, it's because of stuff other people did" logic apply to HIM?

Contrary to your belief, leftists, including Obama, don't actually deny the existence of talent or believe success is 100% the result of stuff other people did. What we do deny, however, is your belief that success of a person is always 100% the result of the achievements of that person and that circumstances have nothing to do with it.

bump

Dear to the Heart
World Drowned by Fireworks
The Planet's Crisis

On the "monopoly" definition: fair enough.

And yet only about 40% of people in the US use it (according to this study which seems relatively legit http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/04/23/current-status-of-the-browser-wars/).

"Only" 40% of people in the US use it? Why does even 4% use it? Free market logic is "the company that makes the best product destroys the companies that make awful products," but as far as browsers go it seems the situation, rather, is "good products exist alongside awful products" and ironically the worst product is actually doing the best, according to the link you posted.

Microsoft is TRYING to create a monopoly with IE by forcing it on all of their users (there was actually a lawsuit back in the day about this)

How is Microsoft forcing IE on their users? By having it installed on computers? That's like saying they're forcing Solitaire on me because I have it installed. You have the choice to not use IE and it literally takes one minute to install another browser.

There really just is no such thing as a "natural" monopoly. Now, it's obviously true that many industries benefit from brand awareness, economies of scale, and other factors that make it very difficult for competitors to enter, but not impossible, and CERTAINLY not impossible if the entrenched companies did something idiotic like censoring the Internet.

This seems like semantics. An example I've used before: I'd definitely say Microsoft has the monopoly on the operating system market, considering how many people use Windows in comparison to Linux. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but to say monopolies can only exist when the government forces them to exist seems like a stretch.

This is also why I don't believe "the free market automatically makes the best product emerge via competition" logic always applies - do you seriously think every person with a computer tried both Windows and Linux and decided Windows was better? I know I didn't - I don't care that much about OS's and Windows works fine for me. Hell, just look at how many people still use IE, even though Firefox, Chrome and probably a number of other browsers are far superior.

bump

I'm not sure how, in principle, the government censoring the Internet is worse than corporations doing the same. You can argue "corporations don't force you to use the Internet so they aren't infringing your liberties there" (of course in quite a few jobs you are forced to use the Internet but bear with me), but... the government doesn't force you to use the Internet either.

Psy-Chorus
Mystic Forest

bump

It's pretty difficult to meet fellow B8'ers when you don't live in the States. I sort of planned to meet Ermine when he was in Amsterdam for a few days, but that never transpired :-(

wizards more like wizatheists

I take it the topic title is a totally empirical observation.

The reason I keep coming back to B8, despite being in the "it's not really enjoyable anymore" camp, is because at least on GameFAQs it's easily the lesser of several evils - there are plenty of intelligent users here and the level of activity is still reasonably high. Other boards are either completely dead or they have users posting on them who... yeah. The thought of hanging out on Current Events or something every day is pretty depressing.

TIME Magazine literally gave Hitler the Man of the Year award.

TIME Magazine also literally gave George W. Bush the Man of the Year award. No need to go back to the '30s to show how horrible that magazine is!

... Wait there are people out there who don't want actual magic powers?
Might as well call that a zombie because I refuse to accept any living being would reject that.

Having magic powers is great in principle, I'm just saying having magic powers or superpowers can have serious negative repercussions on your life. Just ask the X-Men.

I wouldn't want to be the only wizard on the planet. I guess if everyone else were a wizard too I'd have no problem with being one.

I used to react more strongly against feminism until all this Twilight/Fifty Shades of Grey stuff started. Now I'm not so sure. It's like so many women want their lives to revolve around a man. Lol beta females.

At the risk of going into alpha/beta debate territory, I'm always skeptical about extrapolating feelings people have from preferences in fiction. I love Harry Potter, but that doesn't mean I want to be a wizard.

Don't see how this is different from huffington post links.

Who's saying Huffington Post links are better?

I think we're all in agreement that "radical feminism" or whatever you want to call it sucks, but feminism is the reason women have the right to vote. This is why you look so stupid when you say "feminism is bad."

What happened to nuance here guys?

Alpha/beta topics happened.

wasting your time trying to get across how bad feminism is on this board, WJ.

1) Nobody's said feminism isn't bad. I've only seen people say that
1a) the Daily Mail is an unreliable source.
1b) that one woman saying feminism is bad =! women rejecting feminism. But I haven't read the article, so I don't know if it does state that a majority of "women" are rejecting feminism now.
2) If WalrusJump is trying to get across how bad feminism is, he's doing a horrible job. I'm supposed to think feminism is bad because... some woman says so? Would've been better if he made a topic called "feminism sucks" and explained why it sucks.

Ruriair
Battlefield

bump

bump

She's Charlie Sheen's ex!

sorry.

I thought this was a badly done Sess topic at first.

"Badly done Sess topic" is redundant.

zing

"If children can have 4 parents, a man should be allowed to have 3 spouses" is not a logical conclusion.

Wait, is that guy seriously arguing racism is completely OK?

The Sin
Towering Cloud in Summer

It took 68 posts? Really, B8?

I think Ebert pointed out that many people can't stand the slow pace of 2001 because we've grown so accustomed to fast paced movies.

Save My contests were introduced in 2003.

Eternity
Fishy Aroma

I agree that 2001's story isn't great (though it's better than people give it credit for), but the movie has an atmosphere that really appeals to me, created by the really slow pace, the sparse use of dialogue and the music, among other things. I realize that sounds pretty vague - I'm trying to explain why I disagree with the "2001 has amazing visuals and nothing else" sentiment (I'd reserve that statement for a Michael Bay film or something). It's definitely a love/hate film, I think.

There's been a digitally remastered version, I don't know which version you are watching. But the visual effects are amazing in any version!

And yeah, 2001 was probably the biggest influence on the first Star Wars film. But like Citizen Kane, it was also hugely influential on movies period.

The Phantom Menace pays homage to 2001 by having one of the 2001 capsules in Watto's junkyard.