There is NO evidence that violent video games cause real life violence, and there is at least a correlation between video games and lower violence
There's also no evidence that guns cause real life violence. Gun ownership has been steadily increasing for decades. Violent crime peaked over 20 years ago.
It's my impression that Police culture, much like Military culture, heavily frowns on ratting out another member of your group, even if you know they did something wrong... especially if they do something wrong.
Which is the same thing as saying that nearly all cops are liars, bullies, and thugs. If they were decent human beings, there would be no such expectation.
Perhaps having a collective group whose mission is to take out bad guys, and seeing bad guys constantly, creates a very stong "us" and "them" driven ethos.
That might explain it, but in no way does it excuse it.
Whether he was arrested at the scene or not is irrelevant. He was unlawfully deprived of his property. He was charged with crimes out of spite. And the police deleted the video, committing obstruction of justice themselves.
A) The longer civilians can hold out without the military, the more likely it is the military will switch sides.
B) You ignore the trouble the US military has had dealing with insurgents over the past decade.
C) See the first American Revolution. Hunters and trappers fought side by side with trained military, and Washington was able to capitalizeon both of their strengths.
So when can we expect the officer in question to be arrested by his fine, upstanding fellow officers for false arrest? This arrest is clearly illegal, and yet no one is going to arrest him for it. Every officer that fails to make that arrest is a thug, plain and simple.
Cops are thugs. That's not a blind belief, it's a hypothesis that's well supported by the available evidence.
All cops are either bullies, liars, or thugs. They are required to be bullies by the existance of sumptuary laws like those against cannabis. If they enforce those laws they are bullies. If they refuse to enforce those laws, they are liars. QED.
As long as there are bad laws, police will be bad people.
Allowing the police to avoid being observed and recorded has consequences that affect society as a whole. That's really bad.
Allowing the police to enforce the privacy of someone they're arresting only really affects those few who are arrested. Arrest being an offical duty by a public official, should not really carry any sort of reasonable expectation of privacy. And whatever is captured on video actually happened, so there are no legitimate concerns of libel or slander. On the whole, this is not that bad.
I think it's clear where the balance lies. I would rather have a 100% chance of any future interaction between myself and law enforcement to be recorded and distributed on the internet than risk the slightest chance of police getting away with brutality. Allowing video might reveal some crazy shit I actually did. Prohibiting video might conceal some crazy shit the police actually did.
Yeah it pretty much is. Complexity and difficulty are two defining characteristics of hardcore games. Dragon Quest has neither. Any Dragon Quest game can be completed without much thought at all, by simply logging hours in game grinding. Any two people who play Dragon Quest will have much the same experience, with little room for skill to differentiate between them. Even Zynga games provide for a more personalized experience than Dragon Quest.
I'm not saying I don't like Dragon Quest. It's a great game for what it is. But what it is is an interactive anime, it's not a game that excels based on rich and nuanced gameplay.
Consider Retroshare. It's an encrypted friend to friend network, with chat, filesharing, and a VOIP plugin. It uses the PGP web of trust model, so a little user education is necessary. But it's got a nice clicky gui and works pretty well. The more people who use it, the better it will get, so give it a look.
There are so many deficencies with console hardware it's not funny.
What makes you think you need powerful hardware to make a good game?
This is why there still isn't a successful strategy game on consoles.
Played Advance Wars? It may not be everyones favorite game, but it's one of the best turn based strategy games I've played. Strategy RPGs like Tactics Ogre or Fire Emblem work very well on consoles too.
Yes. Just because it takes 90 hours to complete a dragon quest game doesn't mean there's anything complex about it. There's nothing about dragon quest that even comes close to Pool of Radiance or Baldur's Gate.
And every one of those console ports of DOOM sucks. I've played them all. Console gamers got their first decent FPS (goldeneye) in 1997, 4 years after DOOM released and just 1 year before Half-Life.
Libya, for which he violated the war powers act, something even GWB didn't do. So on that matter he's worse than Bush. And concerning Iraq, Obama got us out of Iraq on the date set by Bush, but he was trying to get extensions from the Iraqis to let us stay even longer. So on that matter, he's definitely not any better than Bush.
Concerning Iran, Obama's administration is just as full of chicken-hawks as Bush's was. There's already been a big propaganda push against Iran. I see no reason to believe that Obama is any less interested in invading Iran than McCain would have been.
For real? You think Bush and Obama are extremely different?
Yes.
OK, what are the significant differences? Something that affects more than a tiny percentage of the population(e.g. not don't ask don't tell)
Most of which would have happened no matter who was in office. Hence, my point.
No, none of that would have happened if e.g. Ralph Nader (or Dennis Kucinich, or Robert Reich or Russ Feingold or Bernie Sanders) was president.
What you are saying is that no one who significantly differs from those policies can get elected president. Which is the same thing as saying no elected president can differ significantly. QED.
There's more than one way to kill people. Mortality and poverty are highly associated, causing poverty causes deaths. By helping to cause the 2008 financial crisis, Greenberg et. al killed people. You cannot take a man's livelihood and have clean hands when he takes his own life. My proposed punishment fits the crime very well.
It's not cute and funny at all. These people have literally caused more human suffering than any spree shooter could possibly hope to. They are not people like you and me. They are evil.
No, the problem is well understood. Read Bill Black's book. He's the guy that got all those S&L bankers convicted in the 1980s. We have laws against fraud, we have laws against perjury, we have laws against racketeering. They're just not being enforced. They could be, if Obama wanted his justice department to enforce the law. But he doesn't want that.
On the contrary, the example of the French Revolution has supported the spread of Enlightenment ideals. Those in power seem to have forgotten what happens when they substitute the rule of man for the rule of law. They need to be reminded. The fear of revolution is the only thing that keeps the powerful in check.
We may have laws, but we have no rule of law. The 2008 financial crisis is proof of that. We already have the laws we need to put these people away, Reagan imprisoned nearly 1000 bankers for much less egregious crimes during the S&L crisis. Fraud is illegal, perjury is illegal, and running a business that profits from such activity is illegal.
No, this is not a problem with our laws. It's a problem with our government being incapable of enforcing the law against the powerful. Vigilante justice is the only solution. Put a few bullets through a few CEOs and they'll be begging to see federal court instead.
Slashdot Mirror
There is NO evidence that violent video games cause real life violence, and there is at least a correlation between video games and lower violence
There's also no evidence that guns cause real life violence. Gun ownership has been steadily increasing for decades. Violent crime peaked over 20 years ago.
It's my impression that Police culture, much like Military culture, heavily frowns on ratting out another member of your group, even if you know they did something wrong... especially if they do something wrong.
Which is the same thing as saying that nearly all cops are liars, bullies, and thugs. If they were decent human beings, there would be no such expectation.
Perhaps having a collective group whose mission is to take out bad guys, and seeing bad guys constantly, creates a very stong "us" and "them" driven ethos.
That might explain it, but in no way does it excuse it.
Whether he was arrested at the scene or not is irrelevant. He was unlawfully deprived of his property. He was charged with crimes out of spite. And the police deleted the video, committing obstruction of justice themselves.
A) The longer civilians can hold out without the military, the more likely it is the military will switch sides.
B) You ignore the trouble the US military has had dealing with insurgents over the past decade.
C) See the first American Revolution. Hunters and trappers fought side by side with trained military, and Washington was able to capitalizeon both of their strengths.
How are we supposed to secure a free state if the tyrant can wirelessly disable our arms?
So when can we expect the officer in question to be arrested by his fine, upstanding fellow officers for false arrest? This arrest is clearly illegal, and yet no one is going to arrest him for it. Every officer that fails to make that arrest is a thug, plain and simple.
Cops are thugs. That's not a blind belief, it's a hypothesis that's well supported by the available evidence.
All cops are either bullies, liars, or thugs. They are required to be bullies by the existance of sumptuary laws like those against cannabis. If they enforce those laws they are bullies. If they refuse to enforce those laws, they are liars. QED.
As long as there are bad laws, police will be bad people.
Allowing the police to avoid being observed and recorded has consequences that affect society as a whole. That's really bad.
Allowing the police to enforce the privacy of someone they're arresting only really affects those few who are arrested. Arrest being an offical duty by a public official, should not really carry any sort of reasonable expectation of privacy. And whatever is captured on video actually happened, so there are no legitimate concerns of libel or slander. On the whole, this is not that bad.
I think it's clear where the balance lies. I would rather have a 100% chance of any future interaction between myself and law enforcement to be recorded and distributed on the internet than risk the slightest chance of police getting away with brutality. Allowing video might reveal some crazy shit I actually did. Prohibiting video might conceal some crazy shit the police actually did.
Of course, in some jurisdictions a police officer can be caught on tape sodomizing a prisoner with a tazer and suffer nothing but "additional training". So YMMV.
Not news, but always worth reminding people.
Yeah it pretty much is. Complexity and difficulty are two defining characteristics of hardcore games. Dragon Quest has neither. Any Dragon Quest game can be completed without much thought at all, by simply logging hours in game grinding. Any two people who play Dragon Quest will have much the same experience, with little room for skill to differentiate between them. Even Zynga games provide for a more personalized experience than Dragon Quest.
I'm not saying I don't like Dragon Quest. It's a great game for what it is. But what it is is an interactive anime, it's not a game that excels based on rich and nuanced gameplay.
Consider Retroshare. It's an encrypted friend to friend network, with chat, filesharing, and a VOIP plugin. It uses the PGP web of trust model, so a little user education is necessary. But it's got a nice clicky gui and works pretty well. The more people who use it, the better it will get, so give it a look.
There are so many deficencies with console hardware it's not funny.
What makes you think you need powerful hardware to make a good game?
This is why there still isn't a successful strategy game on consoles.
Played Advance Wars? It may not be everyones favorite game, but it's one of the best turn based strategy games I've played. Strategy RPGs like Tactics Ogre or Fire Emblem work very well on consoles too.
Dragon Quest is a casual game series? Get real.
Yes. Just because it takes 90 hours to complete a dragon quest game doesn't mean there's anything complex about it. There's nothing about dragon quest that even comes close to Pool of Radiance or Baldur's Gate.
the arcade is where you played casual games before the home console became popular
Who says arcade games are casual? Go play Robotron 2084 and come back and tell me that's a casual game.
No, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have no depth. I love both series, but there is nothing complex about them whatsoever.
And every one of those console ports of DOOM sucks. I've played them all. Console gamers got their first decent FPS (goldeneye) in 1997, 4 years after DOOM released and just 1 year before Half-Life.
After enough tags go poof, the school administration will probably give up on having you wear one.
Or expel you. Yes, school administrators will expel a student over something this petty.
Pick up ANYTHING APPLE. It does not feel like a cheap piece of shit.
You're right, it feels like an incredibly overpriced piece of shit.
Obama hasn't invaded any nations. ...so far.
Libya, for which he violated the war powers act, something even GWB didn't do. So on that matter he's worse than Bush. And concerning Iraq, Obama got us out of Iraq on the date set by Bush, but he was trying to get extensions from the Iraqis to let us stay even longer. So on that matter, he's definitely not any better than Bush.
Concerning Iran, Obama's administration is just as full of chicken-hawks as Bush's was. There's already been a big propaganda push against Iran. I see no reason to believe that Obama is any less interested in invading Iran than McCain would have been.
For real? You think Bush and Obama are extremely different?
Yes.
OK, what are the significant differences? Something that affects more than a tiny percentage of the population(e.g. not don't ask don't tell)
Most of which would have happened no matter who was in office. Hence, my point.
No, none of that would have happened if e.g. Ralph Nader (or Dennis Kucinich, or Robert Reich or Russ Feingold or Bernie Sanders) was president.
What you are saying is that no one who significantly differs from those policies can get elected president. Which is the same thing as saying no elected president can differ significantly. QED.
There's more than one way to kill people. Mortality and poverty are highly associated, causing poverty causes deaths. By helping to cause the 2008 financial crisis, Greenberg et. al killed people. You cannot take a man's livelihood and have clean hands when he takes his own life. My proposed punishment fits the crime very well.
It's not cute and funny at all. These people have literally caused more human suffering than any spree shooter could possibly hope to. They are not people like you and me. They are evil.
No, the problem is well understood. Read Bill Black's book. He's the guy that got all those S&L bankers convicted in the 1980s. We have laws against fraud, we have laws against perjury, we have laws against racketeering. They're just not being enforced. They could be, if Obama wanted his justice department to enforce the law. But he doesn't want that.
On the contrary, the example of the French Revolution has supported the spread of Enlightenment ideals. Those in power seem to have forgotten what happens when they substitute the rule of man for the rule of law. They need to be reminded. The fear of revolution is the only thing that keeps the powerful in check.
We may have laws, but we have no rule of law. The 2008 financial crisis is proof of that. We already have the laws we need to put these people away, Reagan imprisoned nearly 1000 bankers for much less egregious crimes during the S&L crisis. Fraud is illegal, perjury is illegal, and running a business that profits from such activity is illegal.
No, this is not a problem with our laws. It's a problem with our government being incapable of enforcing the law against the powerful. Vigilante justice is the only solution. Put a few bullets through a few CEOs and they'll be begging to see federal court instead.
Will someone put these motherfuckers against the wall and shoot them already?