Thiago Cardozo's page

The United States is big on promoting democracy, but gets rather uncomfortable with countries that actually practise it.

Taken from a speech in support of Egypt's protestors:

Obama on Egypt's protests: "I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protestors. The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere. I also call upon the Egyptian government to reverse the actions that they’ve taken to interfere with access to the Internet, to cell phone service and to social networks that do so much to connect people in the twenty-first century…. This moment of volatility has to be turned into a moment of promise…"

Obama on OWS: "The most important thing we can do right now is those of us in leadership letting people know that we understand their struggles and we are on their side, and that we want to set up a system in which hard work, responsibility, doing what you’re supposed to do, is rewarded. And that people who are irresponsible, who are reckless, who don’t feel a sense of obligation to their communities and their companies and their workers that those folks aren’t rewarded."

That's a nice sentiment, but...

Where's the big speech telling the Mayors across America to stand down? Why is violence against Egyptian protestors frowned upon and speech worthy, but violence against our protestors seemingly not worth decrying and, well, since the guy is the leader of the nation, not worth disallowing?

It seems to me there are a number of posters in this thread who have decide that "philosophy" means what they think it means, and are ignoring the clear and unbroken line of thinking that established most of our world understanding back to antiquity.

There's a lot of talk about science. The standards that we now call "scientific thought" are not universal truths, they are human inventions. In addition to being a process, scientific thought as a a series of standards and behaviors is also a process! In fact, we are still refining it, and the tool used to guide the development of science as a whole is philosophy.

There are many outdated parts of philosophy that can be safely ignored or are barely relevant. But to discard the entire field of study belies a complete lack of understanding of what philosophy is.

There are countless people who make me sympathetic to BNW's knee-jerk reaction against "philosophy". However, they are only superficially philosophers. When you arrive at philosophy via computer science, you begin to realize just how pervasive and relevant it is to every other discipline.

In other words, it is not just some froophy liberal arts nonsense. Like many disciplines, the most batty proponents may give the illusion that it is, but there's some serious "crunch" there.

EDIT: It is very much like how psychology is an actual scientific discipline, but you'd never know it because 90% of "psychologists" are barely scientists and see value in Freud. There is an awesome ten percent off conducting experiments that teach us things about human thought, but you rarely hear from them because their not pretending to know stuff that can't be known.

Beast Shape I and Geas/Quest.

"A talking bird just told me that I'm the chosen one!"

Oh, it's Steven arguing. That explains it. I should check aliases more often.

Nonetheless, the Thread really got my attention and I've since been more honest on Saves for my monsters.

Players are not the only ones who can mature into a genuine enjoyment of risk. Your story sounds much like my own.

As a young GM, it was all about my story. My story was sacrosanct, and the dice were just smoke and mirrors to add a sense of risk.

As a less-young GM, I've decided that the ability of the dice to make me surprised by my own story is the most worthy aspect of the whole hobby.

Though honestly, in the context of homosexuality none of it really matters.
Whether it's genes or hormones or environmental exposure or even subconscious early childhood experiences doesn't really matter. It's still not a choice. It's just the way you are.

Not that, IMO, it should make any difference if it was a choice. People should be treated the same and it shouldn't make any difference who they choose to love.
And frankly, if God says any different, then God is wrong.

Me as likely as WizKids since WizKids' business is selling collectible miniature game figures.

Well, it was a good run, but I can't in good faith hold on to this award for the biggest ego on the Paizo forums. Here, good sir, treat it well. We all look forward to the launch of your Best Win Fun edition of d20 and the corresponding line of Super Awesome Everyone Wins Minis.

I'll start.

A Bard doesn't need the Perform skill. The only performances that require it are Countersong and Distraction. Inspire Courage et al don't mention it at all, and you don't even need to use your primary artform when using it. It was intentionally left ambiguous so bards didn't have to keep on playing their instrument while using the performances. It's a free action to continue the performance.