DeathBug

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comics sans ms]Heh, my keychain is a USB port for my Compaq tablet. But that wasn't an option... I can just plug it into a computer at school or work and get started on whatever work I need to do. Very handy. ^__^[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]As a Christian, I can't let you leave my faith thinking we're all a bunch of jerks. ^^; Anyway, the thing about your mom is, if she's a Christian, she's more than likely taking the (flawed) view that, if you're not a Christian, you're going to Hell. I don't think my God would really be that petty. ("Sorry, Mr. Ghandi, but we have to damn you now.") And, the problem, with that is, you can't convince her otherwise, for two reasons: she's not going to think that you're smarter than her, and, after all, you did decide to leave the faith, so it's not like your interpretation of Christianity is uber-valid. So, what should you do? Humor her. Don't try to force her hand in anything. Perform all of your religious activities in a non-obtrusive way, and don't don't *don't* speak poorly of her religion. More than likely, she thinks this is just a phase, and that you're not really that serious. If you can show that you are, but also be respectful, she'll more than likely come around. I'd considered recommending that you talk to your former minister for advice, but since this is the church that left you feeling spieritually empty for so many years, I don't really think s/he'd be any help. i hope you find fulfillment in your new faith. ^__^[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Well, I'll give it a shot. And if no one wants to be evil, I guess I'll have to. :demon: Name: Kiyoshi Age: 17 Description: Somewhat tall, pale, with black hair. Grey eyes. Wears entirely black. Bio: Kiyoshi was an isolated and quiet young man who enjoyed reading, studying, and playing Duel Monsters, naturally. He lived with his father and older sister, and generally lead a quiet, shy life, with few friends. That all changed when his passing interest in Egyptology caused him to purchase a strange pendent with the Eye of Horus on it. Now, Kiyoshi finds himself blacking out at the oddest times, and running with a far different crowd... Favorite Card: The Vampire Lord Millennium Item: Millenium Pendent Millennium Item?s Power: Immunity to other items, as well as the ability to create terror in others, exposing their deepest fears. Side: Card Raider (As the first Card Raider, can I be their leader?) Your Yami?s Information Name: Set Description: While in control of Kiyoshi's body, Set's hair is snow white, and his eyes are red. Short Bio: Set was a skilled and arrogant brigand who made the mistake of attempting to rob Anubis' tomb for an easy score. Anubis' spirit sealed Set's soul into a Millenium Item, and forced him into servitude for all eternity. Set's dueling technique mirrors the psychological tactics he used while on bandit raids: use the opponent's fear and paranoia against them, causing them to defeat themselves. He modifies Kiyoshi's deck into an Undead zombie deck; his strategy is to fill his cemetary with his zombies, then use cards to allow them to rise from the dead. That good?[/color][/size][/font]

[quote name='ScirosDarkblade']Har. Seeing as no-one's been able to create peace, where's your evidence? Peace is by no means an obstacle to any scientific progress (unless you're talking about weapon development). I don't see war-torn countries probing Mars any time soon, lol. Are you talking about technological progress, anyway? What is "progress"?[/quote] [color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]There are very few instances in history where progress, by whatever defenition you use, wasn't bred from discourse. The Space Race was a wartime effort, (Well, a Cold-wartime effort), hundreds of technological advancements were created as a result of WWII, and America emerged from oine of the greatest periods of social upheaval in its history with vastly increased rights for minorities. For better or worse, discourse (although not necessarily war) breeds progress.[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Why, of course it's The Cheat. The Cheat pwns. ^__^[/color][/size][/font]

[QUOTE=CaiSter21]the ignorrant politicians in this world just cant seem to get along and create peace! Damn Politics :mad: It always seems to ruin everything[/QUOTE] [color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]You do realize that, in thirty-five hundred years of human existance, no one's been able to "create peace". Don't see why they'd want to, anyway; peace is the antithesis to progress.[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Do I really need to reply to this, or can we just assume that my opinions are pretty much the same they've been in every single Bush V. Kerry that we seem to have every month? BTW, CHW, if you consider your husband serving the military in the way he agreed to "taking him away", then you really don't know the first thing about military service.[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]L&O: CI just rocks. The original series is solid as well, but the detective in CI is just such a cool character to watch. ^__^ Don't like SVI, though. They have Ice Cube as a cop, for God's sake! Didn't he write Cop Killer? That's why I try to avoid watching things with him in them.[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]The original Mobile Suit Gundam is garbage, in my opinion, as is Blue Gender. They started okay, but then quickly turned into a masochistic drudge fest to make their characters and viewers suffer as much as possible in a downward spiral of depression, desperation, poor plot points and unlikeable characters, until at last it lumbers towards its stupid and illogical conclusion. But, that's just my view.[/color][/size][/font]

[b]7/9, 07:09[/b] [size=1][font=comic sans ms][color=indigo]Kiyoshi sat up suddenly in his bed, eyes wide open. "Gasp! Feeling change in...time space continuim! Fabric of space...warping! Must talk like...William Shatner!" Something had to be done, of course, Tampering with the fabric of time itself was an incredibly dangerous procedure, not to mention the personal inconvieniences caused by missing The Simpsons yesterday. A carefully planned and expertly executed response was needed, designed to cut directly to the heart of the problem and create harmony within the local temporal sphere. So, Kiyoshi ate a bowel of ceral for breakfast. In his underwear. There; all was now at peace. Quickly showering and dressing in his school uniform, Kiyoshi was out the door like a flash, leaving and indistinguishable blurr to any passing students. For you see, he had places to go. First, the costume shop, to leave a deposit. Then, the local Super Fun Party Time Wearhouse, to reserve a stero system and some good Party Fun Music. (TM) Then, to the park, to patrol for pigeons. Three pigeons and two grenades later, Kiyoshi was back on campus, dashing to make it to class before the final bell. "Villain Ethics? Isn't that an oxy moron? or at least a hydro moron? If I fail this class, is that a bad thing, or a good thing? I'll shoot for a 'C' and hedge my bets." Three minutes before the bell rang, Kiyoshi slid into a seat in the last row, looking all together inconspicuous, and almost normal, save the smell of gun powder and grilled fowl on him. The first class should be very intersting, he thought as he waited for the professior to begin.[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][font=comic sans ms]I don't think I could date an anime character, comic character, or any fictional drawing. Sure, it'd be cool for a while, but after I got some paper cuts in a few embarassing places, things would get weird. Or is this hypothetical? I'd date Aisha ClanClan from Outlat Star; she's sassy, and a neko, and neko's are inherantly cute. I'll avoid the obvious joke about her being a tiger in bed... I'd also date Mihoshi from Tenchi Muyo, simply because of her kindness and sheer optimism. Plus, she be so cute.[/color][/font]

[color=indigo][font=comic sans ms]What a completely perfect example of human ingenuity and the inherant beuaty of the free market system. Within five years, Shamael will be a very wealthy man, as opposed to being a perpetually poor man living under despotic rule. Granted, I still think tatoos are stupid, but why ruin a great story?[/color][/font]

[quote name='Rei_Man']And it was probably cruel to blame it on the human race as a whole, since it's the corporations and businesses that sell it to us who tell us it's safe in the first place. And its corporations and businesses that chop down forests, etc, etc.[/quote] My response to this point is simple: so what? Again, I only care about the enviornment as it pertains to the healthy survival of humans. You see, we don't destroy the enviornment, we change it into something else. Now, here's the big point that many people miss: there is no such thing as a "good" enviornment or a "bad" enviornment. Enviornments aren't good or bad, they're just states of beings. An enviornment can be good for us, or bad for us, good for birds or bad for birds, good for deer or bad for deer, etc. However, an enviornment in and of itself has no value. It is our human predisposition that causes us to judge and humanize states of nature. Humans do what every successful species should/must do: change the enviornment to suit themselves. If we didn't, we'd be dead. Simple as that.

[quote name='Chaos']As soon as the recognizable Homo genus appeared, their first action was to hunt down the animals around them, eventually forcing several species into extinction. I'd say that changed the environment.[/quote] So we hunted things and ate them. So what? Again, human beings aren't the first creatures to hunt critters to extinction. [QUOTE]What kind of logic is that? Forgive my disbelief but I can't understand WHERE you got that notion. It may help us now, or even for the next five thousand years, but if it changed the face of the Earth and killed most local wildlife, then yes, it has defaced the planet.[/QUOTE] To deface something is to destroy it without reason. If what we've done has helped us, then that's a good enough reason for me. [QUOTE]I can't blame you for saying that. I'd much rather live in an air conditioned house than a baking straw hut that burns every summer because of heat. [/QUOTE] If only the state of California would take the same point of view. Alas. [QUOTE]I'm guessing Jurassic Park, when Ian Malcolm is in the lodge with his injured leg and is ranting to Hammond and Sattler.[/QUOTE] I think it might have been [i]Sphere[/i]. I've read a bunch of his books, so I can't really remember. [QUOTE=Godelsensei][COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New] The world's gonna be demolished to make room for a hyperspace bypass, anyway, so everything's purely hypothetical.[/FONT] [/COLOR][/QUOTE] see? We just have to keep everything in perspective. 42. ^__^

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman][color=darkviolet']Ooh boy DB, do I have a rebuttle for you. I'm afraid Godel's right (very afraid) You see it's much easier for the wealthy to get health care than the middle and lower classes. [/quote] Amazingly, wealthy successful people can get just about any commodity easier and quicker than less wealthy people. What's your point? [QUOTE]Hell my husband was a low income child way before Govenor Pataki finally attempted to make Child Health Plus avaiable to low income families in NYS. His mom was a lazy person who didn't work just soaked up welfare (I'm not saying that everyone one welfare is lazy, I just know for a fact that she is lazy) and got medicaide. However she didn't care enough about her son to try and get him anything. So Lincoln was pretty much SOL if he got some serious illness.[/QUOTE] So we should use socialized health care to suppliment people like your mother-in-law? Not that I'm saying all people in such situations are lazy, but we're raising a generation that can realistically believe that the government will bail them out of everything. That's not good any way you look at it. [QUOTE]Also health care is so expensive in the states that many companies only offer it to full time workers. And even then some full time workers don't even qualify for heath care benefits. My brother works full time at the Rochester Air Port, yet is denied because he's not a surpervisor.[/QUOTE] I'm not saying there's no problem; I'm saying that the solution is not to socialize everything, and the "crisis" is not as horrible as some folks would have us believe. I've yet to see people dropping dead in the streets because they couldn't get their crappy free healthcare. [QUOTE]So Godel's right you get health care if you have the money and people with more money are more likely to not only be able to afford better health care, but better treatment as well.[/QUOTE] Again, this applies to every commodity on the market; so what? [QUOTE]DeathBug, you mention you're a military brat? I'm a military spouse so I can understand why you don't care much for military health care. (especially since everyone in the military knows the joke about the Motrin)[/QUOTE] Ahh, Motrin.... [QUOTE]Don't just assume that since you had a bad experiance with socialized medicine that everyone has had a bad experiance.[/QUOTE] Fair enough; shall I make any assumptions based on the statements of Canadian organizations trying to get health care privitized again? [QUOTE]The military is probably the best and worst example to give. They cover quite a few things completely that other insurance companies won't touch like Birth Control (probably because they don't want to give anyone leave for giving birth or being there for the birth of their child). I don't think that the military health care system should be used as a sole base of information on why socialized medicine is a bad idea.[/QUOTE] It's the closest thing to socialized medicine that is availible on a large scale in the US, and since I have first-hand experience with it, I found it to be a good example. [QUOTE]Besides military doctors can be accomidating for the civilian spouses and their children...not to mention the fact that the health care is still valid 3 months after ETS. My friend down in Texas had to take her older daughter to an eye care specialist because the girl's vision (dammit I can't think of the word Coronary?) never developed in her left eye so the iris was just floating. Yes, my friend had to drive down to Austin to have the surgery performed, but Tricare covered it even though her husband was in the process of out processing.[/QUOTE] Of course you'll have the stories that point to the occassional good points of socialized health care, but I'm willing to bet that the bad stories far outweigh the good. You can guarentee that any socialized health care system will be inferior to the free market system because there is a limit to how much the government can afford to spend, effectivly putting a cap on the commodity. If you put a cap on the price of a commodity, you've guarenteed that you'll experience a lshortage. Remember the California energy crisis? [QUOTE]Of course, there's also the whole thing with the doctor my husband had to deal with in basic who made him walk around on a fractured hip and told him all he needed was some gloryfied Dr. Scholls for his boots. But there are good and bad sides to everything.[/QUOTE] Right, so let's ask the question: does the good outweigh the bad? Not at all. [QUOTE]Oh, completely off topic, but I think you should change your signature to: If Bush is re-elected we're screwed...again.[/QUOTE] I'll consider it if you'll consider pointing out in your signiture quote that [b]every[/b] major decision about abortion has been made by someone who won't ever be faced with that choice. ^__^ [QUOTE]Privatized medicine isn't as godly as you think it is, and to have a good HMO requires you to pay a lot. [/QUOTE] Again, I never said that the US medical system was 'godly', but privatized health care is and always will be infinatly superior to socialized health care. Just because the system needs an overhaul doesn't mean that you should throw the baby out with the bath water. [QUOTE]I really think we need to put a stop to these malpractice law suits, they are crippling the medical industry. Or atleast get rid of the retarded trial by jury in civil suits. [/QUOTE] Preach it. Today 12:42 AM

[quote name='ScirosDarkblade']Seems to me like they're funded to do their job and they'll do it as hardcore ridiculous as they can just to justify their existence and make sure they keep getting funded.[/quote] [color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]^__^ You just described every single political and social organization in the world.[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]On an off-topic note, did anyone see the Yu-Gi-Oh! movie? There's a scene where a clown [spoiler]stabs Yugi through the heart![/spoiler] Creepy, no? Anyway, it's totally clownist to say that all clowns are either stupid, scary or funny. Rather, a case-by-case assessment should be made of each clown you meet, mostly on the freeways or in your local congress.[/color][/size][/font]

[quote name='Godel']As an interesting little fact, most of the "illegal" drugs coming into America from Canada, are smuggled by old ladies who can't pay their medical bills... Heh. That's another tick on the "socialist bastards" side I guess.[/quote] [color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Nice try, GS, but you won't get an argument from me in this thread. =P ^__~ Anyway, I may be an old vestige in that I refuse to take any sort of pills unless to combat immediate medical problems. My mom's constantly trying to get me to take Vitamins, but I simply don't like the idea of being dependent on non-foodstuffs to be at my physical peak. You want to loose weight and feel good? Exercise. Your kid constantly acting like a little animal in public? Spank his arse a couple of times and he'll stop. You need a mood elevation? Eat a big tub of ice cream. (You can afford it, because of all of that good exercising and spanking you'll be doing.) The sad fact is, most folks today are too impatient to want to get results the old-fashioned way, and would rather try pills as a quick fix.[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Well, my Wife is Bandit Joeykuba, and I don't have any other official relationships. I have some dudes I chat with, and a long list of people I argue with. That's probably a bad thing....[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Nice try, Godel, but emotionally-charged statements don't stand up to reality. The assumption you are working under is that no doctors would do anything but cater to the wealthy. I can assure you that this is false, and not even under the assumption of any sort of altruism in the medical community. People will enter the medical profession to serve all types of communities and income brackets out of the simplest rule of successful business: find a need and fill it. A doctor (In America, anyway) doesn't have to overcharge and cater to the wealthy to become wealthy himself; all he has to do is provide reasonably-priced, efficient and popular service to a community that needs it. So, he will gladly provide affordable health care to the divorced woman with breast cancer, because not only will he ensure future patronage from her, but he will also be treating three women just like her at the same time. The great fallicy here (aside from the belief that you can only be successful by screwing over others) is that the medical community will only serve the wealthy. If the medical community ihn America only served the wealthy, there wouldn't be a medical community worth speaking of, because there simply aren't enough sick rich people to go around. To imagine a large group of professionals could sustain itself by fulfilling the needs of a niche market goes against the most basic concepts of economics. Meanwhile, the divorced woman with breast cancer in Canada gets her free treatment, but it's months after her initial complications. The cap of medical prices placed by the government creates a shortage of good technology, so her tumor isn't caught while it's still operable. By the time the inefficient medical system finds the problem, it's far too late to do anything about it. You see, a similar thing happened to me. i'm a military brat, and one of the "benefits" of military service is free health care. However, because the government can only afford to put so much into the health care system, it's inherantly limited in ability. It's cool for routine checkups and physicals, but if you actually get sick, you're up a creek. When I was a child, I got an ear infection, and was taken to the hospital for it several times. The inherant limitation of resources in the military hospitals interferred withmy diagnostic. By the time I was finally referenced to a civilian clinic, the infection was so bad that operation was necessary. Because of a system of socialized medicine, I have a hole in the center of my ear drum that will most likely never heal. When I had a life threatening asthma attack while stationed in Germany, the doctor went so far as to move me to a German hospital, to ensure quality care. Don't presume to preach the benefits of socialized health care to someone who's also lived under it, Godel. Besides, do you really want the same people that run the DMV to prescibe your drugs?[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]I gotta' say, I like the new TRUTH commericals much more that the ones they had several years ago, when they had grainy reels of lame prank phone calls. My favorites will always be the movie preview ones, and the musical. Anyway, to the point: if it's disturbing you enougfh that it's staying in your thoughts and getting you to discuss it, it's excellent advertising.[/color][/size][/font]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]The less the government has to do with any civilian avenue, the better. If Canada has taught us anything, it's that socialized health care is a bad thing. Canadians pay ridiculously high taxes to obtain sub-par health care they must wait months for. Not that the American health care system is in any way perfect, but the ,more of it that's privitized, the better.[/color][/size][/font]

[QUOTE=Chaos][size=1] No, wrong. We do not adapt to the environment. We adapt the environment to us. We go into a place and change it, clearing the land of structural barriers and wildlife. Even inhospitable places have been gutted and irrigated to make for villages in the middle of deserts and civilization in the midst of deadly rain forests.[/QUOTE] We change our enviornment [i]now[/i], but it wasn't always like that. After all, we weren't always in control of our eviornment enough to change it; we had to survive long enough to get to that point. [QUOTE]There is a very big line between us adapting and us defacing.[/QUOTE] It's not defacing if it helps us. [QUOTE]Two things will happen; 1) we will start some sort of disaster that will kill all humans and most wildlife on the planet,[/QUOTE] Yeah, I can see that. However, I highly doubt it'll be due to any reason that's thrown around today. Cultural trends show us that most disasters that can be predicted don't ocurr, because people act to change them. If we kill opurselves, it'll be in a way no one anticipated. [QUOTE] or 2) we will evolve out of this current state. And how does evolution occur? Through behavioral changes and physical necessity. Meaning we WILL eventually cause the downfall of ourselves. [/QUOTE] Evolution is progression; how is progression a downfall? [QUOTE]It nay not be for another three hundred years and it may not happen in a giant explosion, but it will happen.[/QUOTE] And the Circle of Life continues. [QUOTE]No, it's a pure fact.[/QUOTE] Of course we alter our enviornment; I never argued that. I'm for altering our enviornment to ways that suit us better. However, it is a fact that is constantly taken out of context. [QUOTE]While we are not so much as killing the Earth, we are physically [i]changing[/i] the content of items of Earth. [/QUOTE] Again, if it helps humans, I'm for it. [QUOTE]The sound of a passing train scares off two adult birds from their nests, and the eggs fall out from the sudden motion. The environment is then changed, however insignificantly, but enough to say that it happened. Like I said before, we have no power to destroy the planet, but we can affect it.[/QUOTE] A fox manages to climb a tree to the birds' nest, and kills and eats the parent birds. Their babies die. The fox passes this skill onto its' offspring, and within one generation, then bird population in that area rapidly declines. These sorts of scenario ocurr naturally in the wild all the time, because the enviornment is not the static postcard people tend to imagine it as. It's changing with or without us. [QUOTE]Yes, oxygen, and the scientific term is "metabolic poison." So, yes, people, we are slowly killing ourselves by inhaling an otherwise deadly gas. But if we do not take in oxygen [and nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, etc.], we die. Crappy situation, eh? :D[/QUOTE] Yeah; damn those algae. [QUOTE]PS It was a very simple version of algae that first released oxygen during cellular respiration and all that crap. The Krebs Cycle and that **** I forgot from Biology. =X[/QUOTE] I read it in a Micheal Crichton books. =P

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]I disagree with the assertion that humnans are frail. As individuals, yes, but as a species, we're highly adaptable; if there's a place humans can live, we've lived there. We're rather hardy for pink hairless monkies. It's for this reason that I'm not really sold on the whole "humanity kills itself" angle. Humanity can shoot itself in the foot, and we can easily destroy our civilization, but the fact is, the human survival instinct is very great; it's what got us where we are today. Oh, and if we're going to go down the old "humans alter our enviornment" path, I'd like to point out that we are far from the only species to alter the Earth and the enviornmemnt. The fact is, all this discussion on human damage to the enviornment is narrassistic, because it assumes that the enviornment is static in a state that is ideal for human life, and it only focuses on our actions. rather then taking the actions of other species into account. The most enviornmental damage ever committed by a species was done by a prehistoric species of plankton that excreted a poisonous, corrosive gas into the atmosphere, permanatly altering Earth's ecological makeup. That gas was oxygen. Interesting, neh?[/color][/size][/font]

[quote name='Baron Samedi][size=1']And by Earth ending, it is obviously not referring to the disintegration of the entire planet into smithereens, but the time where we cause so much damage to it and to ourselves that most of the population dies. Duh.[/size][/quote] [color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "We are the world", eh? Sorry, but i make distinctions between the Earth and Life on Earth and us. To Earth and it's Life, we're not that super special.[/color][/size][/font]