I'm an idiot? You have no basis for that conclusion.
I give money to child monsters and suicide bombers for believing that Freedom of Speech should be upheld.
I'm sorry you have to resort to name-calling and slander.
Not watching Ender's Game is not censorship, I agree, but that is not what is being discussed. Instead we have people calling for the absolute suppression of a film because they do not agree with Orson Scott Card's politics. If you make the personal choice not to watch the film, I support you. Getting online and telling people that civil rights will suddenly go away because of this film is an attempt at censorship and it is the reason why we have the Freedom of Speech in the first place. I do not support people making allegations that our way of life is under fire for a film about a kid who fights Space Bugs. "Any support of Ender's Game is an attack on civil rights." There is no option in this quote for anything but absolute suppression of the film. The comment's author leaves no room for other people to agree or disagree. To engage in the idea that watching a fictional film (which does not address the author's opinion on homosexuality) is an attack on civil rights is hyperbolic.
The GP talks about the financial relationship, not censorship.
Let me put it simply for you:
1. if you buy a ticket or rent a DVD, or do anything that financially supports this bigot, then you are an asshole.
2. if you pirate the fuck out of it, then you are okay.
#1 gives Orson Scott Card, a bigot, more money to attack people he doesn't like because his God tells him to do so. #2 doesn't do shit.
Your comment reveals a whole lot more about yourself than it disillusions OSC.
Being an "asshole" in no way intrudes on anyone civil rights, so call me one all you want to. I don't mind being the "bad guy" that sticks up for Freedom of Speech.
1. Means that someone who wrote a story is getting paid, not that it advances your evil Orson Scott Bond villain agenda. It also means that everyone else in the movie, from actors to the camera crew get paid. In fact, most of the money made is not going to the original creator.
2. Your morals and ethics are clear at this point. This is all a veneer for you to tell yourself that pirating is ok.
Actually no, its not.
Your civil rights will not dissolve the moment someone watches the film.
Your civil liberties will not be changed by this fictional story that never even mentions homosexuality, much less condemns it.
Being a member of an organization is not a hate crime.
Suppression of an author because you do not agree with said author's politics is censorship.
I'm not saying Orson Scott Card isn't bat sh$t crazy. I am saying that he has a right to free speech, and right now you look just as bat sh$t crazy for making hyperbolic arguments with absolutionism.
I'm quite interested in Dune not being sci-fi, because that's so ridiculous it should be on a meme.
Dune's setting is carefully constructed to enforce semi-medieval status, from Butlerian jihad banning computers to forcefields that force melee combat to the return of feudalism. This effectively weeds out any sci-fi tropes. At the same time it has a hearty dose of fantasy tropes, from witches to ghosts possessing their descendants to magical worm-juice that grants precognition.
Dune is high fantasy with spaceships (who's pilots need magical worm-juice to fly them). It's sci-fi in the same sense Spelljammer is.
1. Spaceships a future setting on other planets makes it sci-fi.
2. High Fantasy has nothing to do with the magic level. High fantasy instead refers to complete immersion into a fictional world. Examples include Tolkien and the Wheel of Time. Since Dune clearly refers back to actual human history with the genetic memories of Leto II, Dune cannot be High Fantasy.
3. Society degrading in feudalism and then spanning into a galactic empire is a trope of science fiction typically found in Planetary Romance and Space Opera. Examples include Foundation by Issac Asimov, John Carter stories, Star Wars, The Risen Empire etc. Typically, the galactic empire is a proxy for the Roman empire. Also, you see a societal change throughout the Dune series. What begins as feudalism due to fear of atomics is transformed into Leto II's empire where he takes possession of all the atomic bombs. Afterward, we see a the totalitarian government of the Bene Gesserit in Chapter House, and finally the militaristic society of the New Sisterhood.
4. The future belongs to sci-fi. Psychic powers too. Prescience is a combination of the two and is thus sci-fi, not fantasy (though it can be fantasy as well via magic). Mentats are human computers. Taking drugs is sci-fi too. A drug that grants prescience and access to ancestral history is sci-fi. Magic and high technology function exactly the same in a story. Please reference Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy. Examples of drugs in sci-fi include Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, and plenty of Philip K. Dick.
5. Robots and mankind's battle with them belongs to sci-fi. Examples include the Matrix and Terminator.
6. Spelljammer is a DND campaign setting where they made DND as sci-fi as possible. They just branded everything as fantasy because they made fantasy games. It was conceived of at a bar.
Yes. The institutional authority that perpetrates it is corrupt, by nature, especially for the lack of oversight.
Made up statistics? No, the official vote count. That's the best we can go by. 98.3% voted to maintain things as they are.
You can rationalize that any way you like, but there it is.
I agree that warrantless wiretapping is wrong. That is my opinion.
Governments are not corrupt by nature, nor is an entire government suddenly corrupt because an elected official supports warrantless wiretapping.
Again I ask what election and what candidates? Are you so crass as to base this futile opinion on a presidential election? We have two choices. I chose the one I believe in.
What are you hiding that an warrantless wiretap would reveal? You don't know who I vote for. I never said whom I vote for. You didn't define what candidates your referencing or even what election its from. You never even asked me if I support warrantless wiretapping. Now please explain to me how the guy I voted for is going to put you in prison. You cannot.
I won't be shy about attacking your line of thinking.
I've unravelled every argument you tried to make, and yes I found my slashdot login. You asked me where you said whom I should vote for and I quoted you and explained how to derive my interpretation from your words. Now you claim that I am deflecting things. I'm deflecting nothing. I am attacking your opinion that you disguise as an argument.
You have every right to post to this board and attempt to to sway public opinion. I have every right to publicly say you don't get to decide who anyone votes for but yourself. I have the right to reveal your use of an opinion as an argument.
No. Its not simple. Just saying its simple does not make it so. Using made up statistics doesn't make it so. Warrants and what the police are allowed to do in any nation is not simple. By attempting to reduce it to simplicity you are attempting to minimalism the actual argument that people need to discuss. Is warrantless wiretapping wrong?
I'm also an Austin Time Warner customer, I'm locked into them because of my apartment complex, and I recently had a really bad experience with their tech support, so I am not a fan at all.
What Time Warner is doing is similar to what AT&T Wireless did when I worked there. In cell phones all of your profit comes from about 10% of customers who do not buy new phones, don't call customer service, and do not upgrade their plans. Time Warner is trying to scare it's customers that do not make them a profit, but cost the company money.
Talking about the technical aspects on a forum like slashdot is great, but ultimately there is only one solution. This is a large company and large companies only respond to a large number of complaints. I plan to complain today, and I urge every Austin, if not nation-wide, customer to call and complain. We ARE their customer base and if we remain silent than they can bend us over.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm an idiot? You have no basis for that conclusion. I give money to child monsters and suicide bombers for believing that Freedom of Speech should be upheld. I'm sorry you have to resort to name-calling and slander.
I already did.
Not watching Ender's Game is not censorship, I agree, but that is not what is being discussed. Instead we have people calling for the absolute suppression of a film because they do not agree with Orson Scott Card's politics. If you make the personal choice not to watch the film, I support you. Getting online and telling people that civil rights will suddenly go away because of this film is an attempt at censorship and it is the reason why we have the Freedom of Speech in the first place. I do not support people making allegations that our way of life is under fire for a film about a kid who fights Space Bugs. "Any support of Ender's Game is an attack on civil rights." There is no option in this quote for anything but absolute suppression of the film. The comment's author leaves no room for other people to agree or disagree. To engage in the idea that watching a fictional film (which does not address the author's opinion on homosexuality) is an attack on civil rights is hyperbolic.
The GP talks about the financial relationship, not censorship.
Let me put it simply for you:
1. if you buy a ticket or rent a DVD, or do anything that financially supports this bigot, then you are an asshole. 2. if you pirate the fuck out of it, then you are okay.
#1 gives Orson Scott Card, a bigot, more money to attack people he doesn't like because his God tells him to do so. #2 doesn't do shit.
Your comment reveals a whole lot more about yourself than it disillusions OSC. Being an "asshole" in no way intrudes on anyone civil rights, so call me one all you want to. I don't mind being the "bad guy" that sticks up for Freedom of Speech. 1. Means that someone who wrote a story is getting paid, not that it advances your evil Orson Scott Bond villain agenda. It also means that everyone else in the movie, from actors to the camera crew get paid. In fact, most of the money made is not going to the original creator. 2. Your morals and ethics are clear at this point. This is all a veneer for you to tell yourself that pirating is ok.
I don't think anyone asked you to support him.
Actually no, its not. Your civil rights will not dissolve the moment someone watches the film. Your civil liberties will not be changed by this fictional story that never even mentions homosexuality, much less condemns it. Being a member of an organization is not a hate crime. Suppression of an author because you do not agree with said author's politics is censorship. I'm not saying Orson Scott Card isn't bat sh$t crazy. I am saying that he has a right to free speech, and right now you look just as bat sh$t crazy for making hyperbolic arguments with absolutionism.
Dune's setting is carefully constructed to enforce semi-medieval status, from Butlerian jihad banning computers to forcefields that force melee combat to the return of feudalism. This effectively weeds out any sci-fi tropes. At the same time it has a hearty dose of fantasy tropes, from witches to ghosts possessing their descendants to magical worm-juice that grants precognition.
Dune is high fantasy with spaceships (who's pilots need magical worm-juice to fly them). It's sci-fi in the same sense Spelljammer is.
1. Spaceships a future setting on other planets makes it sci-fi. 2. High Fantasy has nothing to do with the magic level. High fantasy instead refers to complete immersion into a fictional world. Examples include Tolkien and the Wheel of Time. Since Dune clearly refers back to actual human history with the genetic memories of Leto II, Dune cannot be High Fantasy. 3. Society degrading in feudalism and then spanning into a galactic empire is a trope of science fiction typically found in Planetary Romance and Space Opera. Examples include Foundation by Issac Asimov, John Carter stories, Star Wars, The Risen Empire etc. Typically, the galactic empire is a proxy for the Roman empire. Also, you see a societal change throughout the Dune series. What begins as feudalism due to fear of atomics is transformed into Leto II's empire where he takes possession of all the atomic bombs. Afterward, we see a the totalitarian government of the Bene Gesserit in Chapter House, and finally the militaristic society of the New Sisterhood. 4. The future belongs to sci-fi. Psychic powers too. Prescience is a combination of the two and is thus sci-fi, not fantasy (though it can be fantasy as well via magic). Mentats are human computers. Taking drugs is sci-fi too. A drug that grants prescience and access to ancestral history is sci-fi. Magic and high technology function exactly the same in a story. Please reference Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy. Examples of drugs in sci-fi include Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, and plenty of Philip K. Dick. 5. Robots and mankind's battle with them belongs to sci-fi. Examples include the Matrix and Terminator. 6. Spelljammer is a DND campaign setting where they made DND as sci-fi as possible. They just branded everything as fantasy because they made fantasy games. It was conceived of at a bar.
I'm quite interested in Dune not being sci-fi, because that's so ridiculous it should be on a meme.
Is warrantless wiretapping wrong?
Yes. The institutional authority that perpetrates it is corrupt, by nature, especially for the lack of oversight.
Made up statistics? No, the official vote count. That's the best we can go by. 98.3% voted to maintain things as they are.
You can rationalize that any way you like, but there it is.
I agree that warrantless wiretapping is wrong. That is my opinion. Governments are not corrupt by nature, nor is an entire government suddenly corrupt because an elected official supports warrantless wiretapping. Again I ask what election and what candidates? Are you so crass as to base this futile opinion on a presidential election? We have two choices. I chose the one I believe in.
What are you hiding that an warrantless wiretap would reveal? You don't know who I vote for. I never said whom I vote for. You didn't define what candidates your referencing or even what election its from. You never even asked me if I support warrantless wiretapping. Now please explain to me how the guy I voted for is going to put you in prison. You cannot. I won't be shy about attacking your line of thinking.
I've unravelled every argument you tried to make, and yes I found my slashdot login. You asked me where you said whom I should vote for and I quoted you and explained how to derive my interpretation from your words. Now you claim that I am deflecting things. I'm deflecting nothing. I am attacking your opinion that you disguise as an argument. You have every right to post to this board and attempt to to sway public opinion. I have every right to publicly say you don't get to decide who anyone votes for but yourself. I have the right to reveal your use of an opinion as an argument. No. Its not simple. Just saying its simple does not make it so. Using made up statistics doesn't make it so. Warrants and what the police are allowed to do in any nation is not simple. By attempting to reduce it to simplicity you are attempting to minimalism the actual argument that people need to discuss. Is warrantless wiretapping wrong?
I'm also an Austin Time Warner customer, I'm locked into them because of my apartment complex, and I recently had a really bad experience with their tech support, so I am not a fan at all. What Time Warner is doing is similar to what AT&T Wireless did when I worked there. In cell phones all of your profit comes from about 10% of customers who do not buy new phones, don't call customer service, and do not upgrade their plans. Time Warner is trying to scare it's customers that do not make them a profit, but cost the company money. Talking about the technical aspects on a forum like slashdot is great, but ultimately there is only one solution. This is a large company and large companies only respond to a large number of complaints. I plan to complain today, and I urge every Austin, if not nation-wide, customer to call and complain. We ARE their customer base and if we remain silent than they can bend us over.