Keakealani's Flamebate Posts

Are video games killing the music industry?

I think it’s more apt to say that the ease of obtaining pirated/downloaded music is killing the industry, more than any other particular group of products. On the one hand, yeah, kids are wasting their money on other things now, but that has almost always been the case. Even if perhaps the average teenager spends more on games than ten years ago, there were still plenty of other things they might have purchased instead of CDs – does anyone remember the trading card craze? (Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, Magic, etc.) That, along with the fact that given the economy kids today don’t even really have as much disposable income anyway. Also consider that, say, downloadable music is pretty much only possible with a broadband internet connection, which costs more money than no internet or dialup, which was the pre-downloadable-music option. So in a sense, you could blame increasingly fast internet connections for the music industry’s diminishing profit levels.

I guess, I don’t believe that video games are anywhere near the only culprit or even necessarily the main one, and I don’t really like it when things are generalized. At the same time, I definitely see that point, and it’s an interesting way of looking at things, but not without logical flaws.

Worst boyfriend ever?

Dunatis Posted:

I’d say that the thing about guys like these that ****es me off almost as much as how much of an bumhole they are, is how they keep managing to get chicks. Where the hell do you girls find these people and can you seriously not do any better?

Yeah… and why are these girls so complacent? I think that’s the thing that drives me insane, is that relationship-induced Stockholm syndrome described in the article… not only do these girls go to these guys, but they stay with them and justify it. Just mental, if you ask me. But not to get all feminazi, but I think this problem would be a lot less severe if society didn’t keep telling girls that on the one hand they’re exactly equal to guys (and are therefore expected to be equal in all relationships, even if there are income discrepancies and the like) but at the same time that it’s their job to fix their relationships and “make things work” D: It’s just not really a very good model.

Milk is a gateway drug to bourbon

I’m surprised nobody is pointing out that way more people are dying because of drug wars and trafficking in Mexico than who die of drug overdoses in the US – except apparently US politicians don’t care about the “foreigners” dying as long as they can still maintain their moralistic authority over the citizens. The entire thing is kind of stupid, though. There’s no reason why marijuana should be illegal while cigarettes are legal, since they’re about equally as deadly and marijuana is generally less addictive. As for the other drugs… it won’t be popular, but legalizing them probably would stop the vast majority of the drug wars and instability to our south… which would probably be overall better for us in terms of immigration and general foreign policy; and if the government can gain control of the drug industry it would be a pretty good source of revenue to tax those drugs and use the money for anti-drug education and rehabilitation/detox programs.

Post for a chance at 45 BPs

if I just post in every one of these contests, I’ll totally cancel myself out. But I’m gonna do it anyway.

The Official "I would like some free BP please" thread

yar, a newbie asking for some BP. Where? Hmm…

Hummer: Made In China

Oh, yeah, I would definitely not want to see our military capabilities reduced… but I think that’s probably not that big an issue. The model for a military jeep-type vehicle would certainly have specifications different than a consumer product, so offloading the consumer model shouldn’t have an impact anyway. Also good to know that it’s more a matter of being owned by a Chinese corporation, as I suppose that preserves jobs and whatnot… although I dunno. I think I’d still rather just not have them at all xD

Hummer: Made In China

Ugh, they should just discontinue Hummers altogether – it’s impossible not to look like a total douche when you’re driving that thing, even if you might not be. But hey, if they can downsize their line and make room for more fuel-efficient and innovative cars, I’m all for it, really. I wish we could do it in a way that just allowed for the natural death of these monstrosities, but if that’s not possible at least the Hummers are in China – and the pollution there is so bad a few Hummers probably won’t change a thing xD

The latest in CA - the Prop 8 debacle

Wow, I don’t check for a couple of days, and this thread explodes! I’m glad… it was nice to read this debate, even if I disagree with a couple of the points made.

One little thing I want to address is in regards to Cid’s post – you argue, if I am reading correctly, for the “nobody gets married in the legal sense” POV, right? But you say that religious groups can then call it marriage – however, I would argue that this still removes the right of every individual to call his or her union a marriage; something like 16% of the country does not identify with any organized religion, and I daresay there is at least one person in that group who would like to call his or her union a marriage. So are we saying that only religious people are allowed to get “married”? Even if the law doesn’t call it marriage, we’re saying that there are still separate rules about how things should be called in parlance, and as has been explained earlier, parlance is very powerful. Even if in an ideal world we think “marriage” and “civil union” and everything else should be the same, the nuance is different and you can’t legislate the way people view certain words.

Otherwise, I guess most of what I’ve wanted to say has been said, probably more eloquently than if I’d responded, anyway. I used to be a big proponent of the “nobody gets married in the legal sense” compromise, but as time goes by it’s more and more clear that separate is not equal, and it really can’t be.

Thank you all for making my first thread reasonably successful and more or less troll-free ^_^

What defines a country?

Amphitrite Posted:

I guess when China bascially controls the economy , no one in their right mind dares to irritate them in any degree.

Quoted for truth.

This is pretty much the reason Taiwan isn’t really going to be recognized as a separate country – that, and the fact that it’s not really completely united in whether or not its populous wants to be an independent nation; like you said, there are a lot of people from China there, as well as many Taiwanese who are “brainwashed” as you say it, or just who for whatever reason think they’d rather be part of China (and I’m not pbuming judgement as to whether or not it’s right or wrong)

The latest in CA - the Prop 8 debacle

It didn’t look like anyone had posted about this yet, and at risk of being trolled, I was actually wondering, what are your thoughts on the decision in California and generally same-sex marriage rights?

Personally, I think the decision they made in CA is just plain silly – so it’s illegal for same sex couples to get married now, but it was fine when the other people did it before Prop 8, and it’s a protection of people’s right to equal protection under the law to say that two legally indistinguishable relationships would have different rights? I’m not even sure how that makes sense, and I really can’t see how this makes either side happy. If you’re one of those “homosexuality is an abomination” people, wouldn’t having thousands of legal gay marriages still **** you off? And clearly it’s no win for those who support equality…

As for the general subject, I’m obviously very pro-gay-marriage… I see no reason why two consenting adults shouldn’t be able to have the exact same rights as two other consenting adults. The way I see it, telling someone they can’t do something solely because he is a man or because she is a woman – in any other context, that’s discrimination. I don’t see why it is not also discrimination in marriage. That being said, I think the original concept of marriage is somewhat obsolete, and that the state should divorce itself somewhat (pun intended) from the concept of marriage as it is portrayed in any religion or religious text, in order to greater emphasize the separation of Church and State.

So yeah. I know this is contentious and I fully expect people to disagree. But I would also like to contribute something to this forum, so here’s my first attempt? Please do be civil, though, as that little bar on top says.