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Jackethan

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Everything posted by Jackethan

  1. Spoilers ahead. I loved how the movie made a point of shoving aside the silly deterministic idea of a 'time paradox' if a past person meets his future self. The movie also seemed to be less about attempting to keep in with 'the rules' of your typical time travel story and they just did whatever they needed to do to get the job done. I liked it.
  2. To the argument that the crime in Child Pornography is 'viewing it with intent to derive sexual satisfaction from it.' Some people get sexual satisfaction when watching other people die, some get it from watching people do drugs, in fact some get it just from watching people do -anything-. Are we going to question every cop and criminal lawyer about their own personal intent when they watch a video of a crime happening? If they watch it with the intent of going home to masturbate about it, then obviously they are a criminal and should be put in jail and should get the DEATH PENALTY because there is no worse crime in the entire world than watching a video. <---hyperbole A person's sexual desires are parallel to his thoughts, and having thoughts can never ever be a crime. It is possible to prove that possessing Child Pornography is a crime, however not through 'the person's intent when viewing it.' Neither is it going to be proven if your argument consists of attempts at guilt-throwing and emotionalism like 'Child Pornography is so amazingly absolutely evil that I don't even see how it's possible for anyone to -not- see how absolutely unquantifiably evil it is, and I'm frightened of you because you don't agree with me.'
  3. What's with all the use of words like 'disgusting' and 'vile'? Emotionalism has no place in this situation.
  4. You know, I had forgotten about "Ideal" but I still stick with Ragnar, though Kay Gonda was very attractive, both the actress and the character.
  5. Can a person watch another naked person without wanting to get into his/her pants? Yes. It is no more immoral to go to a strip club than it is to go to an art museum with sculptures and paintings of naked people. In both cases you may admire the human body for what it is. What if a man and a woman who were married went to a strip club together? They might have an enjoyable time drinking and watching the dancers. (depending on the quality of the club) There is absolutely nothing immoral about being a stripper, nor does being a stripper implicitly carry with it a tendency for psychological problems. Similarly, I believe it is immoral to be a pornstar and have sex with many people I'm not in love with, however, it would not be immoral to be in a relationship and model for porn as a couple. SHOWING sexual behavior for other people to enjoy is not immoral, nor does it de-value the relationship. In some cases it causes even more sexual fulfillment in a couple.
  6. My favorites have already been mentioned, Questionable Content, Better Days, and XKCD. I did run across another that I really like too: http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/bonobo-conspiracy/
  7. I have so little emotion about this woman and this video. Nothing about her personality or looks made me think she'd be bad at singing, and the audience's preconception of her seemed rather silly to me. I disagree with what you posted here for, and I was calling it as I saw it. As far as argument by intimidation, thanks for showing me that, I hadn't heard of it before, but I'd come across the concept. Still, I don't see why you're here. It's like going to a concert for a band you don't like just to make fun of the fans and talk about how bad the band is.
  8. Jake. You came here to this thread with the purpose of knocking down an idol. Regardless of whether the video garnered more value to some people simply because it included a bunch of people clapping and a starry-eyed Simon Cowell, you came here to try and destroy that value, and thus you are in the wrong. Kicking a stuffed animal into the mud, even though it is a fake animal, and it has no emotional value other than what people assign to it, still seems pretty malicious to me. What's your point? You don't find her heroic? Great, say that. You took it further though, you decided to deride her, and say she hasn't done anything worthy of praise. It does not matter whether a person is a janitor, a waitress, or a diva, what matters is how well she does her job and how much love she has for her own life. On the subject of the vanity fair article. If you had read Kainscalia's post, you might've seen that the article claimed that 'there are no more fatties in opera.' Thus, the point that the industry is choosing the good-lookers over the good-singers is entirely valid. "Confirming that you were indeed attacking them for valuing looks, not just for not selecting the best singers." Kainscalia's point was that Opera is valuing looks over singing ability, not Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair could've made an article with the title "Look at all these hot opera singers." And had it, then there'd be no issue, however that was not the title nor the subject of the article.
  9. By your definitions of slavery and justice, Jake, we should immediately cease trade with China. I am not being pragmatic, I am simply pointing out that there is no way to make an Objective law dictating when and how a nation's economy becomes a 'slavery.' The principle which guides my thoughts in this matter is the one San cited in post 22. A government has an obligation to protect the rights of its own people, what other governments do to other people is #1. not our problem and #2. not our business. If the government of another country violates the rights of its people then the people of that country should revolt, and provided that our government has not been silly enough to embargo that country, the revolutionaries might be able to buy the weapons and supplies needed from us in order to affect change in their country. If you are of the opinion that it -is- our responsibility to prevent other countries from violating the individual rights of its people then, we would declare that that foreign government is no longer a legitimate government, and then invade.
  10. Jake, does the government then have the right to force Wal-mart to close, because it is said that Wal-mart uses foreign slave labor to make their products? Who decides what slave labor is? Does Pakistan use slave labor, or is it confined only to South American communisms? At what point does it become simply labor and not slavery? Cutting off trade with a country is not a function of a proper government. If you as a citizen can't stand the idea of utilizing Cuban labor for cigar manufacture then organize a boycott of companies that use them, otherwise the government has no business in business.
  11. Starbuck disappearing brought me back to my childhood when my mom would watch 'Touched By An Angel' a title whose innuendo could literally apply to Kara Thrace's storyline. They could have VERY easily said that the man at the piano was 'Daniel' the 13th cylon and said that Kara was his daughter, and Kara and Lee could've gone off and had a loving relationship in their happy flower child 'we grow our own crops' land. I find it very very VERY unlikely that the remnants of the human race would choose a life devoid of toilet paper. Of course a possible explanation for why everyone was so willing to leave the ships was related to that. The stall doors in the head in Galactica didn't work, they were having contests to see who gets the last tube of toothpaste in the whole fleet, people were starving, I think they tried to make it obvious that it's not fun to be on the fleet anymore. Still, it all sounds very hippie-ish. Roslin's death bugged me. Up until that point she had been angry and mean when close to dieing, she should've been telling Adama to shoot those gazelle, not wanting to see them up close. Perhaps she felt her 'journey' was at an end, but why? Her journey ended a few episodes ago when she gave up being president. After her role in quelling the mutiny she has essentially become pretty useless. Her job in that episode was to be a foil for Dr. Coddle's emotional side, and then to show compassion for dieing pilots and marines all around her. I think her death could've had much more emotional depth. The only thing I liked about it was that I wasn't expecting a 'happy' ending. I expected for all the main characters to die, somehow because of Kara Thrace, and that to be the ending. I was happy to see all those characters I had followed for so long finally get a restful peaceful ending.
  12. The record companies always had the ability to keep up with the current technologies and provide a safer, more easily accessible means of music download. The huge gap of time between the advent of pre-war Napster and the advent of the Apple Music store and Amazon just demonstrates their keenly sharpened unwillingness to adapt to a changing industry. Regardless of the fact that downloading unlicensed music is unethical, I still think those companies should've been left to go bankrupt after the huge struggle it took to get them onto a legitimate music downloading venue. I think the rise in AMS and Amazon sales shows that the everyday person, even the everyday teenager, would rather have a legitimate copy of a product they own. They may not see it themselves, but the recognize that stolen property has less value than earned property.
  13. I agree that people have very loving connections with their pets, this is not uncommon or unhealthy. Some people have loving connections to inanimate objects, at least to a memory that that object might be connected to. However as to the phenomenon of getting worked up about movies and not at real life there are two very plain differences when watching a movie: 1) It is not real, this means your mind is not struggling against your emotional response so that you can react calmly to the situation, you're not forced to accept the reality, and there is no need to try and hide the emotion. 2) There is nearly always music playing, or in a movie where there usually has been music playing, when the music stops can be equally dramatic. If you watched the scene on mute you likely wouldn't have any response, but when the beautiful music plays, already illiciting an emotional response, and you think of a symbolic situation which you may or may not have even experienced, it is very easy to want to cry. That's the magic of movies.
  14. Are laws meant to punish the irrational or the criminal? No, I am not implying that a baby is a punishment. There are many countless ways for a woman to trick a man into having a baby, especially if it guarantees her 18 years of child support payments, as the US system currently does. The act of sex itself is not implicitly a contractual agreement to have a child. The state of modern contraceptives is such that pregnancy is 99% improbable when they are used correctly. If I went to a used car lot, and found a great car that I liked, and the seller told me that it was a great car with low miles that ran smooth. It even did well in a test drive, so I bought it, and I took it to my favorite mechanic after the first 1000 miles or so, and he said that the mileage had been tampered with, the engine parts are 10 years old, and it's amazing that the car hasn't already stalled on me. Am I forced to keep this car, and bear the cost of its maintenance, while the seller counts his cash? Or should he be held financially responsible for defrauding me? The situation is similar in the case of a woman deceiving a man about using contraceptives. Should I have checked the dealer out before I bought, and researched the car? Yes, but that is not a legal issue, that is just a mistake, that hopefully I will learn from. I can think of countless different contexts in which a pregnancy could be the result of stupidity, or malicious intent on either the man's part, the woman's part, or both. As such it is impossible for an objective law dictating any obligation of the man towards a child, which he didn't want in the first place, to be established, beyond contractual obligations.
  15. My friend played a prank on me, no virus. I apologize for the accusation.
  16. The problem in my mind with setting realistic goals that you know you can achieve is it seems to limit one's self. What about setting unrealistic, nearly impossible goals, recognizing them as nearly impossible, and going for them relentlessly anyway? I think a good start is in recognizing when your goal falls into a certain category, like: 1. This is something I'll be able to do without a problem. (learn time management, get promoted, save for a vacation) 2. This is something that I haven't done before, or is difficult, but I have evidence that I'll probably be able to do it. (overcome a fear, overcome an addiction) 3. This is something it is highly unlikely that I will ever do, but I would like to/I dream of doing it anyway. (become famous, be in a movie, become professional at a sport) The last one, I think, is very important in -feeding- the self esteem. We need to have goals and dreams that are unhindered by their practical necessities. The key is to recognize that failing or not achieving, or even not working toward these dreams is not a reflection of self worth. For some people these goals remain a personal fantasy, for some they don't want to actively pursue it, but if the opportunity to do it arose, they would take it. Still others will chase the dream, actively work toward achieving it. The thing for the latter people to keep in mind is A) obviously, continue to do the normal everyday things, do well at whatever job you have to pay the bills and eat, and also not to allow failure to become an obstacle in and of itself, and to remember the reality that if you don't get to become an olympic swimmer or conquer a small African country, at least you tried, and if it was really your dream or passion in life, you had some fun trying.
  17. Heh, this makes it sound like the Frankfurt school caused the rise of marx, hegel, kant, etc. in America, in other words, formed modern american politics. I wonder how accurate that assertion is.
  18. Don't you have problems here, in this life you have right now, that need fixing? Is going to Africa really about wanting to try and change the world, or is it about running away from the problems you have here?
  19. Memory leaks caused by previous code fries customers' computers. Should've waited till after beta testing finished before release.
  20. Open Source causes widespread cultural change causing votes against patenting and intellectual property rights in the UK.
  21. I think a kid is perfectly capable of grasping and articulating the particular complexities of the philosophies involved in both political parties, the reason most don't is that they choose not to; they are given no reason to want to. When it comes down to it, understanding conservativism (I believe he makes a spelling error calling it conservatism, I could be wrong) is not a very complex task, no more complex than attempting to understand and manipulate video game mechanics or ways to get out of doing work at home and school. If this kid had a radio show talking about Objectivist philosophy, or even seemed to have an understanding of a good philosophy, beyond politics, I would be impressed. As such, I don't find this kid very impressive.
  22. The entirety of the beginning montage showing historical scenes was designed to show you how these historical events happened in this alternate universe. Remember that Watchmen takes place in a universe where the United States wins the cold war because of a real genuine superhero with god-like powers. Note: the Kennedy assassination showed the Comedian after demonstrating that in this universe (it is likely that moore goes with the CIA conspiracy story) the CIA had Kennedy assassinated by the Comedian. Later, in the scene showing the college students being shot by a national guard unit, this is supposed to be a recreation of the events at Kent State university, wherein a national guard unit was called to quell a riot of college students. The students in fact were throwing rocks and being unnecessarily hostile toward the national guard, not walking up and putting flowers in their barrels. The guard unit put on their gas masks and threw tear gas into the crowd, and the crowd began to throw the tear gas back at the guard unit. As the riot escalated one of the national guard gave the order to fire into the crowd. The purpose of this scene in the movie was either: A. a faithful representation of the author's opinion of what this event actually was or B. a device intended to show the reader that this event happened differently in this alternate universe, to also help the reader recognize the degree of fascism rampant in the government in this AU. The 'point' of this is essentially liberal propaganda. The story seems to say 'look how terrible and nazi-ish the world would be like if the conservatives had had their way all the time.' Which may actually be true, but I don't think it is portrayed quite correctly in the setting of this story. However, that said, I enjoyed the book and the movie very much. Rorshach is my favorite character in it, and my opinion of him was summed up well by TheEgoist. I think that the author kind of failed in his mission with this story, I think he intended for the story to be offputting to Objectivists and conservatives, and affirming for liberals and the liberal worldview. He failed on all counts here, the story resonates with many Objectivists, and liberals generally don't understand it, or they also identify more with the Rorshach character than with the villain. As far as the conservatives...I don't think they read comic books.
  23. My dad is way way way into Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. I used to like them, and on occasion I like the things they say. However, most of the time, when not espousing religious faith as the only source of morality for mankind, Limbaugh and Coulter can be found sniping at fishy things the political left does. Is this good? Yeah, but every time I find myself thinking, 'Who's watching the watchmen?' The republican party is sorely bereft of real principles. They yell and scream about free markets and individual rights for now, but when Limbaugh is dead, and the party begins to evolve, future generations of republicans will realize that the foundation for all their ideals is basically the same as the left.
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