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It really is the end of an era then. To any Paizo goons that might be reading, this is a travesty. I've been political online for a good 20 years and this is the least toxic, most intelligent community I've ever belonged to. These jerks are like family; yeah you argue about politics and things get heated, but in the end someone still carves the turkey.
Crows freaking OWN Yoyogi park. It's not even a competition; humans are just interlopers.
I don't think that science is fundamentally better for arriving at truth in all domains of knowledge. I think the scientific methodology is a very good way of dealing with material phenomena. In other words, reality. The existence of anything other than the material world cannot be taken as read, thus use of anything from said world as part of an argument invalidates the argument.
Well, it kind of makes sense to tie atheism to the "secular" part of that. :) Since secular means non-religious, and you can have religious atheists, I can't say I concur...
That's why I'm perplexed that Atheism+ faced such a backlash.On the other hand if this is the only life you have, than it should be that much more precious. It should give you that much more incentive to do it right. What you're talking about is irreligion, not atheism. Atheism is the lack of belief in a god. Period. Something that most Buddhists, and practitioners of a number of other religions share. Being an atheist doesn't even preclude belief in the supernatural, or that someone is a particularly rational thinker. It ONLY describes one's lack of belief in a god or gods. So yes, tying the term atheism to leftist principles, specifically progressive secular humanism (and I say this as a progressive secular humanist) is a perversion of the word atheist.
No. OK so there is no evidence for an afterlife, thus it is irrational to behave in this life as if there were another beyond it.
Weird. It's sort of feast or famine, either I'm so busy I barely have time to catch my breath, or I'm bored and lonely in my tiny apartment. I just got back from Taiwan 2 days ago, going to Kyoto in a week, but have no plans for NYE so I will probably drink heavily and catch up on my Steam library backlog. Maybe read some Vance. I haven't been able to find a steady RP group here, hence why I am so seldom on these boards (that and the kibosh on polititrolling) but I run the Tokyo Magic: The Gathering Meetup, so that's cool. I'm in the middle of deliberating on recontracting for a third year, my plans for after JET having been hopelessly complicated by decisions outside my control. I envy your kind of vacation though :)
I was quite impressed with Suntory's Yamazaki. However, the OP was very adamant about this thread being for Scotch ONLY. THIS THREAD is more inclusive. Whiskey is dirt cheap here in Japan. Like...750ml of very decent Suntory whiskey for about $5.
Hey what's happening, gobbo?
I miss this place. This is the only place I thought to come at this late hour to commiserate. I don't want to live on this planet any more.
I'm in no position to have voted, but I am an anglophile and keen follower of UK politics (nearly as much as US politics) and I would have been for remaining. At the same time, the brexit vote gave me an effective 5% pay raise overnight, and as an ESL teacher who wants to teach in Europe, Brits not having EU passports will make it easier for me to find gainful employment there.
I find the idea that mentally incompetent people are allowed to make decisions that affect others offensive. And disturbing.
I lie in Tokyo.
I will post more after I have digested some of these articles. But Scythia? The whole world or nearly all of it discarded the false gods for the real one. If the real one claims to have created us then we should accept that. If evolution was God's tool to craft us as it seems to be the case, then it does nothing to lessen God's majesty. Genuinely have no idea how that relates to what I said.
Remember, conspiracy theories almost never come in single doses. Conspiracy theory-oriented thought is systemic. If someone subscribes to one conspiracy theory, they almost certainly subscribe to many. (or will eventually subscribe to many, given time) Scott Betts is confirmed as Illuminati stooge!
I will post more after I have digested some of these articles. But Scythia? The whole world or nearly all of it discarded the false gods for the real one. If the real one claims to have created us then we should accept that. If evolution was God's tool to craft us as it seems to be the case, then it does nothing to lessen God's majesty. If by "whole world" you mean "barely half"... And that's only if you think that all Abrahamic religions worship the same god, which many do not believe.
I'm a huge proponent of singular "they," which never really left informal usage and is finally coming back into formal usage.I use "they" a lot in informal communication (see above, in fact). But, like any other substitute term, it doesn't always work in every instance. Can you give an example? I can't think of one that couldn't be worked out given context. Some languages don't even have pronouns and they seem to work out just fine.
Well yeah, I mean if you want to study the curvature of the earth you don't start with the assumption that the earth is flat. And then expect to be funded.
Well, it's derived from an ice core, so... :]That's actually a very cool graph.Remember the graph by Robert Simmon CO2 concentration at the top and temperature Anomoly at the bottom? An ice core BONG though?
I am a millionaire. In Yen
Psh. Berkeley lab. Bunch of hippies, probably mixed up ice cores with bongwater. Or something.
Highest- Int. I'd probably give myself a 17.
If I were to guess, Str 10, Dex 13, and Wisdom 12. I am human, and clearly I put my +2 in Intelligence. So 0,3,-2,7,2,-2. 8 point buy?
Fair enough, but there's quite a bit of false equivalence built into that. It's like saying Galactic Empire bad, people who tear the little tags off of pillows also bad!
See, I think that the gridlock is SO bad, and so ingrained in the system that the only way to change anything is to do what the Republicans have been doing for the past 2 decades: fight at the state level. Once you control state houses you can gerrymander and voter suppress and all that other stuff that is CREATING this gridlock. I think Sanders has a better chance of actually getting voters excited for once, getting youth to go vote in droves, and once they're in the ballot boxes, vote for him for president AND vote the right way on the state level. Democrats have a massive advantage in presidential election years, and I think EVEN Bernie could roundly defeat any of the current stock of Republicans, with the possible exception of Bush or Rubio. TL;DR- I'm living in Japan right now. If it's Bush v. Clinton in 2016, I'm not f!!+ing coming back!
And a shout out to Comrade Meatrace. Had no idea you had transplanted across the globe. Yup. I graduated back in May and I got the job I interviewed for in February (and applied for last November) with the JET program, working as an assistant language teacher in Japan. Hachioji, to be precise.
Yeah, I'll be happy to hold my nose and vote Hillary if she gets the nomination, which is apparently already decided if you look at the actions of DWS.
I think Clinton is a strong candidate. I don't think she is a GOOD candidate.
The definition of philosophy I'm using is that its investigation of the universe done chiefly by speculative means. So, yes, a pejorative rhetorical definition. Heck, let's just wiki it: "Philosophy is the study of the general and fundamental nature of reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language." "As a method, philosophy is often distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its questioning, critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument" I think the link between philosophy and all the useful fruits of such in our life (Democracy, skepticism, science, social sciences, reason, intellectual curiosity, formalized argumenation, logic and computer sciences, etc.) but it's no use arguing with someone who just poo-poos these things and sticks his head in the sand.
HEY!
Damn. I was totally there up until that last one. <.<>.>
They are from Arkansas.
Her husband of course is not elligible. Is he not eligible to run for VP? He can't run for a third term as president, sure...
Also, the rhetorical argument "humans never learn from history" is flawed. While we may not consciously make changes in our behavior, in aggregate, due to past missteps, humanity responds to incentives, both individually and in aggregate. When we discovered that living together, creating edifices, and cultivating certain crops worked better and made for a lower mortality than hunting and gathering, we started to do that. And thus civilization and agriculture were born. The fact that there are notable exceptions to this rule doesn't invalidate that we are, almost universally, a city-living species where once we were not. The point is "learn from history" is a fundamentally flawed argument because it misses the point on how we, as a species, operate in aggregate. Here endeth the lesson. :P
And this is where you lose me. You continue to insist on a rhetorical definition of philosophy which does not fit the standard definition. Your rhetorical definition that philosophy=bad and discarded philosophy is precisely as disingenuous as if I were to define science as only bad and discarded science (phrenology, alchemy, spontaneous generation, Brontosauri, etc.) When you say "what has it done for me lately" you expose your ignorance. Science has done nothing for you or I. It is technology that has improved our lives, which is the principles of science applied by humans to improve our quality of life. At least ostensibly, much of technological progress has instead been a burden on us. Similarly, philosophy has done nothing for you or I because philosophy isn't a physical thing capable of manifesting in the world without human actors to implement the ideas therein. You could argue for the value of scientific knowledge merely existing, and I would concur, but then you would have to acknowledge the value of philosophical wisdom existing, even if they are not perfectly implemented (i.e. the legal system and its system of argumentation, our political system which was the result of a centuries-long argument about how best to govern, and so on). P.S. Yes, I'm alive and well, and living in Tokyo!
How do we know if the person speculating is right? What you're asking there is a philosophical question. Not just any question, but a question that spawned at least one entire school of philosophical thought: empiricism.Empiricism is a school of philosophical thought that believes the nature of reality is best described through observation. The more observations you have of something, the more likely that it is true (as opposed to your fevered imaginings). More specifically, if you want to know the relationship between two phenomena, you create an experiment and observe that, in an environment controlled against outside factors. When you say you dislike string theorists, I imagine it is because their "theories" are not empirical. They are based on conjecture, and however mathematically sound their conjecture is it is not empirical i.e. based on direct observation. At the same time, I think we will both agree that once that evidence is observed (and published) we may change our minds, because we are rational folk. You and I are philosophers. Specifically, we are empiricists. We are also rational, in that we believe in the power of reason. As you say, when things are no longer of use (or sufficiently accurate) we discard them. This is also a philosophical argument. Many schools of philosophical thought are no longer useful or sufficiently accurate, and we have justly discarded them. Similarly, alchemy has been justly discarded, even though many practitioners were inarguably scientists. So, when I talk about science I don't talk about its missteps, its egregious errors, its laughable side-show offspring, I talk about the best things that it has brought us. Closer to understanding our universe. Therefore, when we talk about philosophy, shouldn't we talk about the best things that have come from it (science, the enlightenment, etc.) rather than its missteps? Furthermore, just as we learn from a failed experiment as much as a successful one, in part because we (hopefully) learn WHY it failed, we learn as much from demonstrably wrong philosophy because we are able to hone our minds into a sharp stick of reason by disassembling arrogant half-truths and anachronistic misapprehensions.
Probably because he had announced to his fans that he'd be live tweeting the debate. On the other hand most of us that were interested in the debate itself had no spare time to tweet it because unlike the clown show from the other side of the aisle, the debaters had content.On that note, I heard that the candidate who gained the most Twitter followers during the debate was actually... Trump.A variety of social media metrics – increase in twitter supporters... indicates Sanders clearly sparked the most interest last night. Lincoln Chaffee is clearly a master debater. And Clinton is a cunning linguist.
Of course. The online poll is little more than a popularity contest. But why did CNN run the poll and then take down the results? The only people I know of that are saying Clinton won the debate are media pundits and old-guard partisan hacks. Heck, I'd be more apt to give the point to Jim Webb who basically straight up said "I g$!&*$n smoked a guy in 'Nam!"
The weirdest outfall of all of this is hearing conservative republicans rail against judicial power and talk about overturning Marbury v. Madison (something I think might be a good idea; the power of judicial review ought to be more spelled out and a proper petition process in place) and lawmakers such as in Utah want to take their ball and go home, taking government out of the marriage game altogether. Which I also agree with. It's a personal and religious ceremony. The government has NO business saying who can and can't get married. Who enters into a civil union, on the other hand...
Dual-Cursed Life Oracle with Fey Foundling.
Loads of options for builds and it's got all that full-caster goodness. It's pretty nearly impossible to make an oracle that's actually bad, and only moderately difficult to make one good at a specific concept.Really? They're a spontaneous caster. All you have to do is not take the right spells and you're useless. There are a number of curses that will completely wreck your character if they're enforced. Pro Tip 1: Don't take the wrong spells. Pro Tip 2: Don't take the bad curses.I mean, this is like arguing that the fighter is awful at dealing damage because he could spend every feat on Skill Focus. Don't do that.
^^^What she said. But I dunno, man, Bruce Jenner was a weird looking old man. Caitlyn Jenner is a weird looking old lady.
*dramatic sting* Yeah I know, but those things aren't nearly as bad as the CV ones. If they had an AC of 24 and automatically paralyzed on a touch attack then maybe they'd be close. Also paralysis is 1d4 rounds and they hunt in packs of 2d6.
Those flying medusa heads from Castlevania.
(But, uh, peanut butter M&Ms are just about the best.) Ok, but what's better, Reese's Pieces or PB M&Ms?
Hey TL, it sure would be neat if you favorited all my posts.
The Italian deli I used to work at has buttered noodles on the menu, but it's REALLY garlicky garlic butter, and you typically put a ton of parmesan on it and eat it with a hot sausage. Good eats!
Damn dude, your dice suck!
out on bail, cops fire back regarding Gray's knife That's like epically missing the point. DA: "We contend that the police arrested Gray illegitimately then proceeded to beat him so severely it broke his spine which eventually lead to his death." COP: "That is a HORRIFIC, slanderous LIE. I did nothing of the sort!
You're being disingenuous. In all cases that I've seen, riots form from protests AFTER police are called in in riot gear. They escalate. Sure, maybe there's some excess littering or traffic is inconvenienced or even a rare car bashed up, but it doesn't warrant ESCALATING the situation with police violence.You'll note that the curfew doesn't just affect protesters. You're abridging individuals' rights because of what someone else has done. Unacceptable.
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