Michael Archer

Who cares if the debt ceiling is raised? The real issue is that they spend that much in the first place.

I've never seen objective evidence that one processor is better than the other. Some people say Intel is good, while other people swear by their lives AMD is better.

I'm watching the newest season and I have to say that Red vs. Blue has entered the Uncanny Valley. I can clearly see their faces and they look very human, but not human enough. This freaks me out.

BTGBullseye, I'm interested to see how this society would work. Would you care to discribe an average day in the life of a person living in Anarchy?

Arguments against abortion get stronger as the pregnancy matures, but they can easily be refuted if we start on a fundamental issue: In the first trimester, the fetus is clearly not a human. To call it a baby and ascribe rights to it is ridiculous. For all intents and purposes, it is part of the mother. A fertilized egg is not a person--it's a clump of cells subsisting off of a host; a baby is a physical separate entity. Simply put, the reason why there's a difference between an abortion and a woman killing her baby is that an embryo =/= a baby. If you ascribe to notion that "A is A' and "Existence Exists," then by corollary, your consciousness exists independent of reality. Just because you think that an embryo is a baby doesn't matter. I agree one hundred percent: it is absolutely selfish. But let's sink a little deeper into your accusation. What is selfish? The literal definition of it is concern for one's own interest. That means when you eat, you're being selfish since you're sustaining your own life. When you work and pursue your own values that make you happy, you're being selfish. If evil is that which destroys man's life and good is that which supports and flourish it, how can you condemn selfishness as a bad thing? Or when you said "selfish", did you mean "putting your own wants and needs above other people's wants and needs"? In that case, you just contradicted yourself. Aren't you being selfish because other people aren't doing what you want them to do? The opposite of selfishness is altruism, which holds that your actions are only moral if they benefit someone else. According to this moral code any time you eat or keep something for yourself, you're being evil. Altruism means self-sacrifice; in this case, altruism would involve a pregnant woman setting aside her own values, her own hopes and dreams, in order to benefit something she doesn't want--that's self destruction. If you don't spend every penny on something that you don't want to spend it on, by your logic, you're being "selfish" and therefore "evil". The fetus is not a baby. I will say this for the one hundredth time: the potential is not the actual. Metaphysically, they're very different things. It doesn't matter if you want them to be the same thing; try to build a log cabin out of an oak seed. No matter how much you think that it's the same thing as an oak tree, you won't be able to build that cabin. By your logic, we're committing murder every time we're not in bed trying to make babies.

I disagree. Hate (like all other thoughts) is never a crime; it's an emotional response. If you think hate is wrong, then you're eschewing all forms of judging values and moral codes since a moral code is a spectrum of "good" and "bad" i.e. we hate things that are bad and we love things that are good; to damn one is to damn the code itself.

Am I the only one who noticed that the OP spelled "Team Fortress 2" incorrectly?

I try to avoid reading fan fiction, since most of it is not worth my time. This doesn't mean people shouldn't write it; I'm firmly of the opinion that the fact that one's writing may not be that great should not deter them from writing if they enjoy it. On the topic of best ponies, I think one of the reasons I don't like Applejack is that she's basically Annie Oakley from Annie Get Your Gun except she doesn't sing as well. Twilight is too superficial, IMO. She pretends to be perfect and has this smug sense of superiority over all the other ponies; on the other hand, everyone has their flaws. At least Rainbow Dash will admit she thinks she's better than everyone else in things at which she's generally good. Rainbow Dash is the most honest and candid pony--that's something I respect e.g. when Rarity presented all the dresses, Rainbow Dash was the only one honest enough to say anything (even if she was wrong); she said what they were all to scared and "polite" to say.

Sorry about the spoiler; I'll edit the post. You're going to have to explain that picture to me, though. God dammit, is it really that hard to spell?! Oh well. You weren't the first person to misspell it and you certainly won't be the last.

Alyxx, this is the critical question: Did the quality of the game warrant the fourteen-year development time? Is that what you expected after fourteen years? I've not played the game, but in my eyes there's nothing they could do to make up for that time; I would expect nothing but sheer perfection from a game that took that long to make. You said that it's "what you expected from a Duke game" but I think that people were expecting something more than a Duke game after all those years. I think that's why it got slaughtered by reviewers.

I love my accent; it's that generic Western one people associate with the United States. You know: Caught and cot, are pronounced identically. As are "don" and "dawn", "collar" and "caller"; "Mary", "merry" and "marry". In the "ou" in "about" sounds like the "ou" in "loud" The "r" is pronounced in "car" Oil is "Oy-ull" (rhymes with "boy-ull") Jarate is Ja-rah-tee Fun fact: that's because you sound like a 40 year old Justin Bieber. When an individual speaks, it vibrates your skull, making it sound a lot different than it actually is. To hear what your voice actually sounds like, record your voice and then play it back. It's ok, Username. We're all disappointed when we hear how we actually sound.

Srake, I didn't open it, like you requested. Just out of curiosity, is that the fanfic where Pinkie makes the cupcakes with a controversial and interesting recipe? I read about that on Know Your Meme. Bravetriforcer, "who's the best pony" really depends on what values you see as desirable. I think Rainbow Dash is the best pony because the values she personifies is egoism, the strive to be great, the will to express that greatness (pride), and selfishness (the good kind!). I think, Fluttershy: Kindness, giving to others, self-sacrifice, modesty Pinkie: Hedonism, relaxation Twilight: The strive for knowledge, modesty, sagacity Rarity: Conformity, levity, salience Applejack: Fuck, I don't know. Applejack is my least favorite pony. Does anyone want to help me out here?

Creation is a metaphysically impossible theory that spits in the face of basic epistemological principles. No evidence has been presented to support creation simply because it's not possible to provide it; creationists postulate something that exists beyond reality: a realm that has no connection to man's thinking or way of observing reality (Bullseye doesn't like this word, but the word that describes this is "arbitrary."). The creationists are saying, "screw evidence, I have faith." If you accept that reason is man's only tool of gathering knowledge and by corollary, only accept reality as that which exists; there was no argument to begin with.

Now, now, let's not be too hard on the statists; unnecessary censorship has its merits.

I'm not into conspiracy theories, but how the hell does someone kill that many people with an M16? It holds thirty bullets, if I'm not mistaken. And now I and a lot of people who share similar views are now subject to the Guilt by Association fallacy for having well-reasoned and legitimate arguments against Islam and its adherents. Still, there are a lot of questions that need to be asked e.g. why did he attack Christian children and not Muslim children?

I would buy a T-shirt. Would that violate one of Valve's rules? You should probably send them an email first, Ross. I would also like to know how exactly Windows 7 is kicking your ass. Is having a problem running the Source engine? On a slightly unrelated note, later versions of Windows didn't like some of my games either. Silent Hill 2 kept crashing since it didn't like multi-core processors.

I'd really like to play with a couple of you guys; I can never seem to find a solid bunch of people to play with. If you'd like to hit me up for a game sometime, send me a PM. I'm trying to get through all the campaigns on Expert; send me a PM if you're willing to sink a couple hours into beating a campaign. Hard Rain sucks. I mean, it's a great atmospheric map and all; it's just very difficult and frustrating. I think I should go practice my cr0wning.

Off topic, but Rule 34 is why I disabled all sprays in all of Valve's multiplayer games.

I played a bit yesterday. It's a cute mod, but it needs more people and more updates. The actual Brown Bess musket was effective up to a maximum of one hundred yards. I get very frustrated when I'm standing thirty feet from a guy and my shot misses.

That's a very good question and I'll answer it if you read my post. Basically, humans cannot survive peacefully without a government (if the movie Black Hawk Down is any accurate representation of an Anarchy) Also, by definition, capitalism has a government. Asking how capitalism would work in a state-free system is like asking how would Grounded Aviation or Deep Sea Astronomy would work. (this is Ross' forum after all; we can't allow there to not be quotes!) This is a good question. the short answer is: The gold standard. The long answer: In a free society, men would choose what to trade with what they find valuable--this would usually be gold. In our current system, the government has pretty much thrown green pieces of paper at us and said "here, this is valuable because we say it's valuable." Those pieces of paper mean nothing--they're just paper that the government can print any time they feel like it. Gold has an objective value that's determined by supply and demand. This is the most rational and sane piece of currency I've ever seen in my entire life. Gold cannot be inflated nor it can be deflated at the government's whim; its value is purely objective. In your store owner scenario, both the store owner and the consumer would voluntarily choose their values they would trade. For the sake of convenience, it would probably be gold. If one party didn't like the terms of the trade, the trade wouldn't take place. If the store owner did not recognize the value of that piece of paper, he wouldn't make the trade; just like if you offered me some pocket lint and insisted it was worth an hour of my time, I'd decline. In honest disputes (e.g. Party A says that B broke their legally legitimate contract while B says he didn't) they would be settled objectively by the court of law. The weapon industry creates and innovates revolutionary machines; they make money because their machines are good. They don't kill people--governments do that. I took ten minutes out of my busy day to watch your video, so you better write in response something worth reading. So what? What's your point? I'm talking about capitalism, not ways to run a business. That's up to the businessmen. Steve Jobs wasn't primarily motivated by money; he only used money as a tool to achieve greatness. Is he too much of a capitalist for you? Fine, I'll think of another example. Ever hear of a guy named Jimmy Wales? He's an Objectvist: this means that he believes that the purpose of a man's life is to pursue his own happiness through his rational self-interest and that the only system that allows man to do this (and therefore the only moral system) is lassiez-faire capitalism. He created this completely charitable service. Sympathizing with captors? Oh, I think I get it; you're implying that since I live in Canada (a relatively capitalist nation) I must start sympathizing with the country's system. If by "hostage" you mean a man who trades with those he only finds worthy, he strives to find people who will only trade his value for an equal value, and most importantly that all his relationships are voluntary; then yes, he's a hostage. If by "hostage" you meant a man who works as a slave i.e. his life belongs to the country/state, he's not allowed to decide who he deals with under what conditions, he's not allowed to decide his own course of action since he's constantly under the threat of force; then I refer you to statist countries like the Soviet Union or North Korea. What do you mean by best? I think the best technologies in my life are the Apple computer, the Windows computer, the iPhone, the Google search engine, Wikipedia, and the air conditioner (we've been having heat waves in Toronto). All of those are a product of America and capitalism. I'll read this when you respond to my response to your Youtube video. I'll try, but since your attempts and mature discussions seem to consist entirely of juvenile insults, it'll be difficult. By the way, a second post-script is usually denoted by "P.P.S."

*facepalm* danielsangeo, it's one of the most basic laws of logic and epistemology that you're never called upon to prove a negative--it's not possible.

People who are using statistics to show that gun control doesn't work are really missing the crucial issue here: that is, the right to bear arms derives from the right to one's own life (like all other rights). If you have the right to life, you have the right to posses tools necessary for defending your life. Also, blaming guns in a shooting is like blaming cars in a crash.

To pony lovers: if you love ponies and you want to continue loving ponies, then do not read Know Your Meme's article on "Rule 34" and look at the images. SERIOUSLY, DON'T FUCKING DO IT

Ponies turn any mean-spirited thread into threads of sharing kindness; it's an easy feat.

Sorry, but I think that you're out of luck. You assume responsibility for all activities on your account, I'd assume. This is exactly the reason I don't let others play on my account.