Michael Archer

Only in situations that the phrase, "Ugh...you dumbasses!" applies.

Terrible title--EVERYPONY knows that Rainbow Dash is the most badass pony.

People Eating Nachos in New York OMGWTFBBQ

Oh god! Is that a pony?! It kind of looks like Pinkie Pie giggling at the ghostly. Either way, it's creepy.

216 Man oh man, is this fun.

"Great episode, Ross and whoever else helped! Extremely atmospheric and I loved it from beginning to end. I can't wait for you to put in on your website so I can download it." My second post was an argumentative one. See, I joined the form to congratulate achievement; I only secondarily joined it to promote freedom.

Cats, no question. Well, my pet of choice in an Eastern Red Bat, but those aren't easily obtainable. First of all, cats are much smarter than dogs; though, I think a reasonable counter-argument against that is "I don't want a smart pet that will question my authority." Most importantly, cats are incredibly self-sufficient and low maintenance. You don't have to take them outside for walks and most of the time they're content when you ignore them. Occasionally, they'll sit right down on the textbook you're reading on the table and rub against your face: that's a nice plus.

I'm beginning to think "gaming laptop" is an oxy moron. Aside from the fact that my 2008 Macbook Pro huffs and puffs when trying to run Source games on the lowest settings, laptops are meant for business-associated work when travelling--not gaming.

I've seen a lot of tasteful "Steve Jobs is Dead" jokes on the internet e.g. "the doctors don't know what killed him, all they know is that it wasn't a virus" That being said, it's really a loss. Steve Jobs was motivated only by his own vision and effort. He was proud of every dollar he created and never denounced capitalism: the system that allowed him to create all of Apple's amazing products. As opposed to Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. In terms of virtue, Steve Jobs is a superior man to both those guys combined.

FUCKING, THIS. The only amendment I would make to your post is that self-sacrifice means "sacrifice" as in "giving up a higher value for a lower one"; this can mean doing something for no benefit to yourself. In fact, it's self-destruction. If you "give up" one thing for something greater, than that's selfish--I wouldn't call that self-sacrifice.

The only extent on gun control I can think of is: any firearm that's sole purpose to murder (murder, not self-defense) other human beings should be banned. You have no right to own an RPG or an atomic bomb--the very fact of ownership of these weapons is a violation of other people's rights. You defend yourself with a pistol, not with an RPG. Also, shotguns are very effective hunting weapons, I'm told.

Dalipose, what do you mean by "work"? Do you mean to ask "can happiness and prosperity occur with communism?" Answer: no, and there's a very simple reason why. I could point you to where it's been tried, (e.g. North Korea, Soviet Union) but I'll try to explain why. Communism is the theory that an individual has no right to exist for himself or his own sake; rather, the individual exists as a means to an end for the government or "the people" to dispose of him in any way he sees fit. In communism, the individual isn't seen a human or an individual: he's seen as a tool. Because he's not an individual--but a tool--he can't really own anything. He can't own property, he can't own his body, and he can't own his mind. All these things belong to something else to dispose of when it's not needed any more. In practice, this means that the communists make people try to believe that there are negative consequences for everyone else is one person becomes successful. The communists orchestrate a purge--a "genocide" if you will--of all the men of talent. Marx wrote that the capitalist achieves success at the expense of the working man; it's easy to see why people of ability would be murdered in mind, if not in body. A communist government is not a body guard, but a ruthless gang that initiates force on people for subjective--and therefore immoral--reasons on defenseless citizens. The only virtue of anarchy I can think of is that an individual makes the tools he needs in order to defend himself; in communism, not only is that virtue gone, the individual is forced to make the tools for the robber. That's why communism can never achieve prosperity: all the creators and the producers have no reason to work, because slaves have no ambition other than from the point of a gun. P.S. Communism doesn't work in practice, because it doesn't work in theory. Anyone who says it works in theory is guilty of context-dropping, as demonstrated above.

I disagree. This isn't 4chan--I think this community is a lot more mature and we can carry on pleasant conversations. Actually, I think NASA are still using the same computers from the moon landing days (could be wrong about this). They had less computing power than a cell phone and were much more expensive than privately made computers. Granted, low-quality junk comes from everywhere, but those places lose out to those who make high-quality junk. If something government-run is bad, it doesn't necessarily die--unlike bad corporations in capitalism. IT'S ON, BITCH. No, just kidding. This thread isn't about capitalism--I just gave the capitalist response. That's because there's no such thing as a truly private school. Private schools still have to teach what the government says to teach; they only difference between the education content of a public school and the educational content of a private school is that you have to pay for the latter. This is another example of anti-capitalism context-dropping. Grades (like everything else) do not exist outside a context. In this context, it's class average. In private schools, if everyone gets 90-100 percent in every course, if you get a ninety, you're bottom of your class. And this is one of the many reasons democracy is evil. Your argument rests on the premise, "the majority says that public school is good, therefore it's good!". (argument ad populum) See, I believe that individual rights are an absolute and can never be morally abridged. Democracy says they can be morally abridged, if the majority says it's ok. I don't know about you, but I think murder is bad even if everyone on the planet said it was good.

What's funny is that no one can actually say with certainty what the protest is about. I've seen lots of posts on the subject--some say that they're protesting corporations taking advantage of workers, some say they're protesting the corporations buying out the government, some say they're protesting the lack of regulation, some say they're protesting corporate greed, others say they don't like the tax breaks on the big corporations. What's clear though is that they're clearly anti-capitalist in some way, but it's hard to say what form of statism they're for. In short, I'm opposed to the protest--or rather, opposed to what I can understand what the protest is about. The "separation of state and economics" is a cause I can get behind if that's truly their cause, but if it is: why are they occupying Wall Street and not Capitol Hill?

Stop making fun of me.

People play Spore? I thought it was pirated so many times that there was barely any return on it. Anyway, EDIT: Also, don't visit the front page of Know Your Meme before seeing the episode because:

Xkcd, Cyanide and Happiness, Dinosaur Comics, A Softer World and Romantically Apocalyptic is what I read. I ashamed to admit that I used to read Ctrl-Alt-Del. After the miscarriage subplot, I came to a startling epiphany: the comic was never funny, nor was it clever. The artist had no idea how to write a proper joke and relied on incredibly bad slapstick and unnecessary swearing. And then it tried to take itself seriously and write a serious sub-plot... I want those years of my life back.

This should be in the serious topic board.

By the same logic, computers made for profit wouldn't be as good as computers made by the government through taxation. By the same logic, search engines and online retail stores wouldn't be as good government made search engines and retail stores. Haven't you noticed that the profit-motive is responsible for everything good in your life? People are always complaining about the US education system about how far we are behind other countries. I think they're even talking about abolishing the "No Child Left Behind" policies. That's because the government does everything in a half-assed way. Hell, look at legitimate government services like the police and military: it takes the police about half an hour to respond to a house alarm going off in my area, while it takes private security two minutes (it's part of their "guarantee" to their customers). With the military, everyone knows how good "military intelligence" is. The profit-motive make sure everything is top-quality; if it's not, no profit. Just look at the least regulated industries: automobiles, computers and technology, and online shopping. It would be blasphemy if it took Apple more than a few days to ship an iPod across the country vs. it's expected that it will take the government a month to ship your renewed driver's license next door. Alright, alright, alright. I gladly explain, I just didn't think it was the time or place. Basically, the reason why public education is immoral is that it forces people at the point of a gun to pay for another person's child even if they don't agree with it. It's the government declaring, "you don't have a right to the money you've made"; it's initiating force. And worse, it's all done in the name of "need". Somehow, a child's need is a claim on the life and effort of someone else according to their logic. That's why the only moral alternative to education is schools run for profit--where all transactions are through voluntary consent and not through the use of force. It's called "lassiez-faire", by the way.

Exactly. That's why I advocate capitalism.

I didn't believe you for a second. Oh my god. This is a sad day. He really was the John Galt of our world; he a visionary who created wealth from nothing. He was one of the few productive billionaires who took pride in the money he made and never denounced capitalism. Excuse me while I cry into my Apple pillow.

I made the mistake of googling "Rainbow Dash" with SafeSearch completley off... Thanks for the explanation of vectors (I think I would like that geeky explanation, Rarity), but how do these guys get vectors of the pony characters? They look too official. Do they make them from scratch or do they somehow capture it from the show and vectorize it? How?

It's important to to fix our class roles; we need to be able to change to fit the situation. Sometimes we'll need two Medics, sometimes we'll need three Heavies or two Spies. I can headshot pretty well, actually. My bodyshots are quite lethal as well. I can use the Sydney Sleeper if you want me to. Would you prefer for me to use the regular rifle?

Unless you reproduce by splitting in two and making a genetically identical copy of yourself, that's not what "asexual" means.

If a school requires you to wear uniforms, either you wear the uniform or you don't attend the school. This does bring up one of the problems with government-run and funded education: if you don't like the policies, you can't simply switch to a better school. That's one of the many reasons schools should be run by the profit-making industry.