Baron Samedi

[size=1]I'm straight. The idea of homosexuality has never...appealed to me. In any way shape or form. But by the same measure, everyone deserves the right to love whoever they may.[/size]

[size=1]Japan, remember that not everybody has someone who cares about them. There are truly some people out there who [b]nobody gives a **** about[/b]. It's sad, and it's horrible, but it's true. When these people look around, they see no reason to live. They don't feel like they can improve their lives, get away from their miserable existence. And nobody cares. You cannot help but feel for these kinds of people; and you cannot denounce them as being selfish. They truly feel that they have no other alternative. Rather, isn't it more selfish of you in this case to sweep aside their woes and proclaim that they just need to 'keep their chin up'? It's disregarding the situation that some people find themselves in. I am no supporter of suicide, and I've always felt that it was selfish. But you do need to realise that you can't judge suicide as a whole. It has many sub-categories ~_^[/size]

[size=1]Sennen... o__O; Woah. I am blown away by this. Did you use stock photos to model off when you made this, or was it created from scratch? This is really amazing. Great work.[/size]

[size=1]I have Metallica's S&M album, but I'm afraid that doesn't do too much for me...although I've admittedly never listened to much of it. The closest outside of that, that I would have come to Symphonic Metal, would be listening to some Hammerfall on a friends mp3 player, or Kyuss' "Screaming Eagle", which has very orchestraic [is that even a word, lol?] undertones to it. Yet that would probably fall more within the realm of 'Symphonic Rock' seeing as we're making all these genre distinctions.[/size]

[size=1]When you continue to value the life of a murderer, you are placing his life above his past victim's, his future victim's, and maybe your own. By not taking decisive action against repeat, violent murderers, you are saying that they have a greater right to life than their victims. A system that gives people too many chances is a willing accomplice to murder. When you allow a rapist to go free, and rape once more, and then repeat the whole cycle again, you are saying that his life is more vlauable than the lives of the people he abuses. A serial murderer or rapist is someone who has made the conscious decision to forfeit any right they have to a free life, or indeed, any life at all. You cannot say that a murderer has a right to their life. Perhaps forms of incarceration would be better...but the public view of incarceration is a lot harsher than the reality often is.[/size]

[size=1]Well, I'm logged in fine now. Thanks :)[/size]

[size=1]Trying to compare all suicides on some level playing field is like pretending that women get a fair go in the workplace. It just won't work. A lot of the time, suicide is people being pushed to the edge of their limits, and they see no other way to overcome their woes. But sometimes people become so ego-centric that they focus too much on their own issues, and blow them out of proportion. When somebody has someone who cares about them, and they suicide, then yeah, it is selfish. But you cannot automatically assume that all those who suicide did it for the same reason.[/size]

[size=1]I've been logged out and cannot log back in. When I try to retrieve password it says that my username is jblessing, and gives me a password that doesn't work on my name or Justin's. Bit annoying =\ As a side note, I got logged off of [url=http://www.dead-seraphim.net/forum]Alan's forums[/url] too, but logged back on there.[/size]

[size=1]gaarasgirl90, calm down. Ask yourself what kind of life it is to not know anything. Or to have no control over yourself. Actually, don't do that. Because Terri Schiavo can't. She can't do anything. But of course, I suppose she'd rather be some feeble mushroom plugged into a dozen machines than to succumb to the release of death, and allow her and her family some release and closure.[/size]

[SIZE=1]I wasn't sure how many people knew about this. I've never really been a big fan of the show [only seen a few episodes], and I know that it stopped in [1998?] but most fans would probably want to know about this.[/SIZE] [quote=Ninemsn News]08:13 AEDT Fri Mar 25 2005 AP - Barney Martin, a former New York City detective who went into show business and became best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld's father Morty on the comedian's hit television series, has died. He was 82. Martin died of cancer Monday at his Studio City home, according to his publicist, Jennifer Glassman. Born March 3, 1923, in the New York City borough of Queens, Martin served as a navigator in the Air Force during World War II before starting a 20-year career as a New York City police detective. Martin showed a talent for making deputy police commissioners laugh during presentations. In the 1950s, he began writing on the side for comedy shows such as Name That Tune and The Steve Allen Show. Martin got his start in film when Mel Brooks featured him in The Producers in 1968. That role launched Martin into Broadway theatre, where he appeared in several musicals, including South Pacific, The Fantasticks, All American and How Now Dow Jones. He is credited with creating the role of Roxy's unappreciated husband, Amos Hart, in the musical Chicago. Martin also appeared in several television series in the 1990s, including The Tony Randall Show, US, Sydney and Zorro and Son. In Seinfeld, Martin was the third actor to play the part of Seinfeld's father and became the one most identified with the role of the Florida retiree. He said at the show's wrap party in 1998: "Playing Jerry's dad was like having whipped cream on top of a mountain of ice cream." He is survived by his wife and son. A daughter died in 2002 of cancer.[/quote]

[size=1]There are a few questions you need to ask before condemning this man, and before deciding on Terri Schiavo's right to live. 1) What kind of strain must the continued struggle of Terri be having on her husband? I know that this could be taken the wrong way, but the fact that she isn't dead, and can be continually sustained on life support, [b]with no hope of recovery[/b] must really be terrible. Imagine getting to the stage where you [b]resent[/b] someone you once loved. Try to understand how he feels. 2) She's been in this kind of state for what, 15 years? If she was going to make some kind of fantastic recovery, you'd think it would have happened by now. Considering she can't actually rspond in any helpful manner, this next part is purely hypothetical, but is it really in her best interests to leave the tubes in? I knew a family who had a son who had cerebral palsy. He lived until 16, and then died because his body couldn't take it any more. Obviously, his death caused a lot of sadness for his family, but they recovered, and the strain was gone. I'm not saying that Terri is something to be just disposed of, but look at the facts: 15 years so far, and with no hope of recovery. Is there any reason to do this to her, or her family?[/size]

[SIZE=1]Because we all want to know how... [color=red]Link edited out.[/color]

[size=1][quote name='Deathbug']My use of the phrase "dilly-dally" was from the octopus' perspective: from its point of view, the researchers' activities are useless and just odd; I was trying to avoid a conversational tone.[/quote] I still say that there are better words or phrases than 'dilly-dally'. Conversational mightn't have been the right word to use... but you do write in a very 'open' feeling manner. Which is fine. But the word 'dilly-dally' really stands out like a sore thumb. I'd still advocate a replacement to maintain the integrity of the report.[/size]

[size=1]Yeah, I kinda thought the link was obvious, lol. If you read all the way through the tutorial you'll find that there is an unblemished and unnumbered picture in there too.[/size]

[size=1]Thats interesting, and an amusing and entertaining read. My one critical recommendation is to substitute something else for 'dilly-dally'. Depsite the conversational approach to your report, you should stick to professional or semi-professional vocabulary.[/size]

[SIZE=1]The question is, why?[/SIZE] [quote=Ninemsn News][B]Ten die in US shooting rampage 21:44 AEDT Tue Mar 22 2005[/B] [B]AP[/B] - A teenage boy went on a shooting rampage on a US Indian reservation and killed 10 people, including his grandparents, seven victims at his high school and then himself. Traumatised witnesses said the teenager was "grinning and waving" as he fired. As many as 15 people were wounded. It was the worst school shooting in the United States since the Columbine massacre in Colorado in 1999. Terrified students sheltered under desks and pleaded with the young gunman to stop. "You could hear a girl saying, 'No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?" Sondra Hegstrom said using the first name of the shooter. The dead suspect, whose full name has not been released, fatally shot his grandparents at their home on the reservation. He then moved on to the nearby Red Lake High School. Six students, including the gunman, were killed at the school, along with a teacher and a security guard, FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said at a news conference in Minneapolis. Hegstrom described how the gunman smiled and gestured at one student and then swivelled to shoot someone else. "I looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that's when I hid," she said. An local official identified the shooter's grandfather as Daryl Lussier, a longtime officer with the Red Lake Police Department. He said Lussier's guns might have been used in the shootings. The shooter had two handguns and a shotgun. "After he shot a security guard, he walked down the hallway shooting and went into a classroom where he shot a teacher and more students," said Roman Stately of the Red Lake Fire Department. Students and a teacher at the scene, Diane Schwanz, said the shooter tried to break down a door to get into a room where some students were. "I just got on the floor and called the cops," Schwanz said. "I was still just half believing it." Ashley Morrison, another student, took refuge in a classroom. With the shooter banging on the door, she dialled her mother on her mobile phone as shot rang out. "'Mom, he's trying to get in here and I'm scared'," the girl's mother quoted her daughter as saying. Schwanz was the teacher in that room. She said, "I just got down on the floor and (said), 'Kids, down on the ground, under the benches!'" She said she called police on her mobile phone. All of the dead students were found in one room. One of them was a boy believed to be the shooter, McCabe said. He said it was too early to speculate on a motive. "It will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together," he said. It was America's worst school shooting since two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves on April 20, 1999. The last fatal school shootings that had involved a student also happened in the state of Minnesota in September 2003, when two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring. Classmate John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, awaits trial in the case. Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in far northern Minnesota, has about 300 students. The reservation is about 390km north of Minneapolis. It is home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, one of the poorest in the state.[/quote]

[size=1]To tell the truth, the idea of branding amuses me. I'd put my support behind it.[/size]

[SIZE=1]I found a link to this on another forum, and y'know, it is really impressive. Stunningly so. I thought everyone could do with seeing this. Enjoy, and maybe one day try to create your own masterpiece. [url=http://www.wade.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial1.htm][img]http://www.wade.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/Finaldiagram.png[/img][/url][/SIZE]

[size=1]Envision this: A 14 page thread, full of mature and sensible posts... deleted by a member upset at the fact they lost their argument. Thats not what you want happening. Rather, I think they should be able to edit Thread titles...but that's all. If posting a double-thread makes you feel bad in some way, then you really need to get out some more.[/size]

[size=1]The whole "Sign up and reserve your name" thing got to me. I signed up, and didn't even do anything with it for several months I believe. And then I started posting...and from there, it has increased exponentially. I don't really post every day...I don't have enough time for that, nor enough inclination. I post reasonably regularly though. Primarily it's just something for me to do. I don't get any particular therapeutic aid from posting in it, nor do I feel much of a need to. If anything I post in it due to some misplaced sense of duty. I normally talk about whatever I've been doing on there... I'm not amusing enough to write articles for it :p[/size]

[size=1]The extent to which many American teens [yes, many, [b]not[/b] all] seem to judge based upon various discriminating factors is HUGE. If you ever get the chance, read "Branded: The Buying And Selling Of Teenagers". It will open your eyes to the sheer ridiculousness of much stereotyping [despite the main theme being advertising]. I think I'll stay out of this discussion from now on. Obviously, it is much easier for people outside a country [in some ways] to judge the common stereotypes and images we see in another.[/size]

[size=1][quote name='Generic']The idea of a typical "goth" is a pretty global stereotype. I don't know why people are continuously pinning it simply on American youth. There are just as many stereotypes in ever single area of the world, even if they happen to be different ones. The idea of a majority of American teens buying into these ideas unquestionably is an assumed stereotype itself.[/quote] Yeah, but I'd wager that the whole 'goth' stereotype probably started in America. And spread. As things from America usually do. I admitted in my post that the stereotypical American kid was a stereotype in itself, but I stand by the fact that [stereotypically] Americans take it to the extremes, full on discriminating against people not in their own special, tiny niche.[/size]

[size=1]I only have one small comment on this. You say that the Arabs wouldn't have written it. Yet you also say that Muhammed had scribes [Arab scribes] translate his 'teachings' into Arabic, and write them down. So, there were some like-minded Arabs who also felt disgusted by the state of Arabic society? Doesn't that ruin your argument, to a degree?[/size]

[size=1][b]Greedy Soldier[/b]: Ooh, two bucks![/size]

[size=1] [b]Album[/b]: Tyrannosaurus Hives [b]Artist[/b]: The Hives A fun thrash rock album. If you've heard the Hives, then you should like this. They're something not everyone can get into, but I reckon if you like the style, you'll [b]love[/b] the band. [b]Fav tracks[/b]: Love In Plaster, Dead Quote Olympics ---------- [b]Album[/b]: Contraband [b]Artist[/b]: Velvet Revolver I only have four songs from this album...but I listen to them so often, it deserves a mention. ---------- Sadly, that is all I have to mention. I have so many bands I'd recommend, but I don't buy many albums...and I commonly only have four or five songs from each band.[/size]