You've probably heard this phrase used a lot in recent times. It's a favorite Republican strategy, even though they'll regularly deny they support it because of the negative connotation.
It's the idea that if you give tax cuts to the wealthy and businesses, they will turn around and spend that extra money either by investing it which creates jobs, or by stimulating businesses with their purchases. To some extent, it's probably true that giving the wealthy tax cuts does result in some increased investment and spending; but not all of those funds will be spent in a way that will help the United States.
Some will be saved/invested in foreign banks and business opportunities, some will be pocketed by shareholders and corporate suits, and even if the money is spent in the American economy, only a certain percent of cost actually goes into the pockets of employees and employers, a large percentage is already spent producing the product which was purchased.
All citizens can agree on what the goal should be: to get money to those who need it to survive, prevention dire of economic conditions, reduction of poverty, and generation of comfortable wealth for the average citizen.
Trickle down economics only provides possible additional employment opportunities and businesses a chance to spend more if they choose. It is essentially putting more money into the pockets of the wealthy and trusting them to spend it in a patriotic way; and even if they do, it only helps the poor and struggling by giving them a chance to serve the rich. I think an economic stimulus package needs to do more than give the poor a chance to serve the rich.
McCain is proposing a 10% tax cut for businesses, from 35% to 25%. How about instead we give 8% to families making under $100,000 dollars a year and invest the other 2% in assisting Americans with higher education. I can guarantee you the poor and the middle class won't sit on it, put it in a swiss bank, build a factory in China, or buy a solid gold swimming pool. And maybe if the rich get lucky some of it will "trickle up."
Trickle Down Economics is just a fancy argument for making the rich richer.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Conventions and Election 2008
Mike Hucabee accused the "elite media" of unfairness in reporting at the GoP Convention because they've been discussing Sarah Palin's inexperience, a topic Republicans in general have been hitting on for about 8 months now in relation to Obama. How is it unfair for the media to discuss a massively hypocritical move when Republicans have been doing it ever since it became possible they'd have to go up against Obama instead of Hillary?
The media didn't exactly give Joe Biden a break either when he was announced. It was discussed for days after if he was sending a mixed political message by choosing a Washington Insider in his "clean up the country, change is good" campaign.
The liberal media argument is getting old.
The media didn't exactly give Joe Biden a break either when he was announced. It was discussed for days after if he was sending a mixed political message by choosing a Washington Insider in his "clean up the country, change is good" campaign.
The liberal media argument is getting old.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The 11th Hour
After watching the film "The 11th Hour" and being unable to find any solid criticism of it on the internet, I've been motivated to write my own; which in turn inspired me to re-activate my blog. It just seriously bothered me that I couldn't find anyone saying what I was thinking on the matter, so here goes.
First, for a bit information. For those of you who don't know, the 11th Hour is a documentary glimpse into the mind of a certain sect of the environment movement. It is a presentation which showcases the beauty of the earth, the way mankind is destroying it, and then presents ideas on how to fix this problem.
However they commit all sorts of philosophical blunders, lazy thinking, and logical errors in the process of justifying their concerns. They propose the following ideological and philosophical claims without any evidence or argumentation whatsoever:
The film is very praising towards nature and demeaning towards humanity. It tries to place the blame of the destruction of the planet solely on the shortcomings of humanity, failing to recognize that we were destined to exist as a product of this environment and evolution. Furthermore, it mocks the splendor of humanity while talking up the beauty of nature. The film isn't very humanistic at all.
To make matters worse, many of the arguments or methods of presentation of evidence are simply emotional and circumstantial. I find it disturbing that many of the reviews I read said the exact opposite of this film. Some examples include...
First, for a bit information. For those of you who don't know, the 11th Hour is a documentary glimpse into the mind of a certain sect of the environment movement. It is a presentation which showcases the beauty of the earth, the way mankind is destroying it, and then presents ideas on how to fix this problem.
However they commit all sorts of philosophical blunders, lazy thinking, and logical errors in the process of justifying their concerns. They propose the following ideological and philosophical claims without any evidence or argumentation whatsoever:
- Nature is a divine entity.
- Nature has rights.
- Western Civilization's way of looking at property is immoral.
- Consumerism is the American way of life.
- Consumption and Materialism is the central tenet of American existence, eclipsing all other schools of thoughts and priorities in life.
The film is very praising towards nature and demeaning towards humanity. It tries to place the blame of the destruction of the planet solely on the shortcomings of humanity, failing to recognize that we were destined to exist as a product of this environment and evolution. Furthermore, it mocks the splendor of humanity while talking up the beauty of nature. The film isn't very humanistic at all.
To make matters worse, many of the arguments or methods of presentation of evidence are simply emotional and circumstantial. I find it disturbing that many of the reviews I read said the exact opposite of this film. Some examples include...
- The claim that nature's processes of construction are somehow superior to mankind's because they're less noisy or disruptive. The film contrasts the difference in making Kevlar in a factory and a spider making webs. The two have absolutely nothing in common; one you swat out of the way with your hand and the other stops bullets (or at least lessens their impact).
- It is argued that nowadays humanity derives all information from media as opposed to other traditional sources; one of which named is the earth itself. What knowledge was given to us from the earth in the past? I certainly do not remember gaia speaking to me.
- When giving "evidence" that the amount of natural disasters that are occurring is increasing as a result of global climate change, the film simply shows media footage covering disasters for emotional appeal. Instead of trying to bombard us with fearful images why don't they come up with some concrete data on how much the incidence of disasters is rising and then present that? I understand that scary words and panicked music makes for better theatrics, but if we're trying to convince people can't we employ more sophisticated tactics than pre-election political advertisements?
- Very little evidence is presented in the film. The few graphs and charts they show are poorly labeled and explained. There are many jumps in logic throughout the movie to save the passive listener the trouble of actually thinking for themself.
- At one point the film is critical of how much TV Americans watch...while they are watching a TV displaying that very film.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Goodbye
Thank you to everyone who listened to me... I appreciate it. I won't be posting here anymore.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
I think i've reached a new low
Bad day.
Go up stairs to get something to eat and use the restroom at around 1 a.m.. On the way to the bathroom, I slip on something, fall, and hit my head on the floor in the process. It hurt. What's worse is I woke everyone up. Then I realize what I slipped on was a pile of dog vomit. Everyone comes out of their room expecting an intruder or some other spookey night occurance, and instead it is me laying in a pile of dog vomit which I have slipped on during my way to the bathroom.
For waking up everyone up the task of cleaning it up is delegated to me.
I realize this is a pointless self-serving post that none of you care about. I'm making it anyway. I hate dog vomit.
Go up stairs to get something to eat and use the restroom at around 1 a.m.. On the way to the bathroom, I slip on something, fall, and hit my head on the floor in the process. It hurt. What's worse is I woke everyone up. Then I realize what I slipped on was a pile of dog vomit. Everyone comes out of their room expecting an intruder or some other spookey night occurance, and instead it is me laying in a pile of dog vomit which I have slipped on during my way to the bathroom.
For waking up everyone up the task of cleaning it up is delegated to me.
I realize this is a pointless self-serving post that none of you care about. I'm making it anyway. I hate dog vomit.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Truth
Beliefs can be absolute in our minds. But our faith in them does not speak of their validity, only of our commitment to them.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Republican Talk Show Host
I've heard some of the most ridiculous things today with the election coming up.
One host invited liberals to call in and talk with him about "the issues" (I use that term loosely) in an effect to make liberals look bad for his listeners so that they are motivated to vote Tuesday.
A typical call went something like this.
Caller: "Hello."
Host: "Well hello there. You say your name is david?"
Caller: "Yes?"
Host: "Can you prove that's your real name?"
David: "I could if necessary..."
Host: "Well, alright, go ahead."
David: "First of all, I don't think it's right to judge the entire democratic party by John Kerry's comments. That's horrible generalization."
Host: "WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA."
David: "Um...um... I don't...?"
Host: "Answer the question!"
David: "I don't hate America. I love my country!"
Host: "You hate everything about us! The military, the culture, WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA!"
David: "I...don't hate the military."
Host hangs up on the caller.
Host: "You see these crazy libs? Never willing to answer the question."
And I'm not kidding either. That's paraphrased.
One host invited liberals to call in and talk with him about "the issues" (I use that term loosely) in an effect to make liberals look bad for his listeners so that they are motivated to vote Tuesday.
A typical call went something like this.
Caller: "Hello."
Host: "Well hello there. You say your name is david?"
Caller: "Yes?"
Host: "Can you prove that's your real name?"
David: "I could if necessary..."
Host: "Well, alright, go ahead."
David: "First of all, I don't think it's right to judge the entire democratic party by John Kerry's comments. That's horrible generalization."
Host: "WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA."
David: "Um...um... I don't...?"
Host: "Answer the question!"
David: "I don't hate America. I love my country!"
Host: "You hate everything about us! The military, the culture, WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA!"
David: "I...don't hate the military."
Host hangs up on the caller.
Host: "You see these crazy libs? Never willing to answer the question."
And I'm not kidding either. That's paraphrased.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Hi.
We wish you a merry Christmas.
We wish you a merry Christmas.
We wish you a merry Christmas.
And a Happy New [orefise].
We wish you a merry Christmas.
We wish you a merry Christmas.
And a Happy New [orefise].
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Torture?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdPyTFvJDfc&NR
This video is ridiculous. O'Reilly completely ingores the being stripped and put in a freezing room component of the story. Not to mention he completely ignores the woman's point.
This video is ridiculous. O'Reilly completely ingores the being stripped and put in a freezing room component of the story. Not to mention he completely ignores the woman's point.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Fight Club Quote
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off. - Fight Club
Yeah, I guess that's one way of looking at modern reality. An endless spiral of consumerism in which we work tirelessly to chase after material possessions which are only temporary. We exist in perpetual debt. We owe money til the day we die. Our houses, cars, college loans, anything and everything worth having and significant is bought on credit. We're up to our eyes in debt and it's NECESSARY on a societal level. Infact it's normal to take a part of this. If you refuse to, you're the abnormal one.
And while I guess that's all good and valid, there's another way to look at it entirely. The system of debt, is an intricate economic dynamic. In which we all help each other off of good faith. Everyone owes everyone, in that way we're all helping each other. And then I remember that the banking community is making money off of the interest of it all. And so it still goes back to exploitation. But it's fun to dream that in some way Modern America isn't about leeching, but symbiotic existence.
Yeah, I guess that's one way of looking at modern reality. An endless spiral of consumerism in which we work tirelessly to chase after material possessions which are only temporary. We exist in perpetual debt. We owe money til the day we die. Our houses, cars, college loans, anything and everything worth having and significant is bought on credit. We're up to our eyes in debt and it's NECESSARY on a societal level. Infact it's normal to take a part of this. If you refuse to, you're the abnormal one.
And while I guess that's all good and valid, there's another way to look at it entirely. The system of debt, is an intricate economic dynamic. In which we all help each other off of good faith. Everyone owes everyone, in that way we're all helping each other. And then I remember that the banking community is making money off of the interest of it all. And so it still goes back to exploitation. But it's fun to dream that in some way Modern America isn't about leeching, but symbiotic existence.
Law of Large Numbers
Hang in there. I know you saw the title and thought, oh dear god, he's gonna math geek on us. And thought about surfing away immediately. Hold on. I promise you there's something entertaining and rewarding at the end of this.
(That reminds me of a sub-story. In Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History of the Universe" he describes the Big Bang theory, black holes, singularities, and all of the other odd physical phenomenons theorized by modern-day cosmologists. He does so with only 1 equation throughout the entire book, e=mc^2, because he claims that for every equation he includes within the book, the number of people who read it will half.)
Back to the topic at hand. The Law of Large numbers states that with enough chances, any event with a possibility of occuring will. Lets say there's a... .00002% chance that something will happen, and there's about 6 billion chances of it occuring. That means 6 billion instances where it could occur. 6 billion * .00002% is equal to 1200. That means on average about 1200 of those 6 billion chances, that thing will happen. There's 6 1/2 billion humans on the planet.
No matter how rare or odd an opinion or circumstance may be, out of the six and a half BILLION people on planet earth, chances are that there are a few people who resemble it. It's fun to think about some of the more ridiculous scenarios. Here's a few for you.
There's someone out there who...
- Finds Giraffes sexy (guess there's hope for Elvaan after all)
- Thinks the world is still flat (probably a lot of them)
- Lost their virginity in a nursing home (I won't specify what age they are, it's funny no matter how you look at it)
- Is convinced that Elves live under their dwelling
- Enjoys Carrot Top
- Believes they are an alien
- Thinks they can cast magic
- Lost their genitals in a tragic nude-cooking accident (possibly involving a meat grinder)
- Finds this funny.
(That reminds me of a sub-story. In Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History of the Universe" he describes the Big Bang theory, black holes, singularities, and all of the other odd physical phenomenons theorized by modern-day cosmologists. He does so with only 1 equation throughout the entire book, e=mc^2, because he claims that for every equation he includes within the book, the number of people who read it will half.)
Back to the topic at hand. The Law of Large numbers states that with enough chances, any event with a possibility of occuring will. Lets say there's a... .00002% chance that something will happen, and there's about 6 billion chances of it occuring. That means 6 billion instances where it could occur. 6 billion * .00002% is equal to 1200. That means on average about 1200 of those 6 billion chances, that thing will happen. There's 6 1/2 billion humans on the planet.
No matter how rare or odd an opinion or circumstance may be, out of the six and a half BILLION people on planet earth, chances are that there are a few people who resemble it. It's fun to think about some of the more ridiculous scenarios. Here's a few for you.
There's someone out there who...
- Finds Giraffes sexy (guess there's hope for Elvaan after all)
- Thinks the world is still flat (probably a lot of them)
- Lost their virginity in a nursing home (I won't specify what age they are, it's funny no matter how you look at it)
- Is convinced that Elves live under their dwelling
- Enjoys Carrot Top
- Believes they are an alien
- Thinks they can cast magic
- Lost their genitals in a tragic nude-cooking accident (possibly involving a meat grinder)
- Finds this funny.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Life is short
No it's not. I want you to stare at the clock now. Stare for a minute. Good. Now if you still think life is short, I want you to go back and stare for five minutes. And if you still think life is short, shoot yourself in the face. Then it might've actually been for you.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Omega/Ultima talk + cool ways to die
Warning, this is a typical self-involved vaccuous blog post full of details that you don't want to hear about my existence. Read no further if you aren't interested in the mundane pointless details of this hopelessly self-important moron's life.
(Or it was until I decided to take it in another direction. Kept the header cause it's a message to all of my friendly blog-neighbors.)
Listening to music at 2:35 EST. School early tomorrow. Can't sleep, drepssed, never can when I am. Just kinda lay there in a bed for a long time tossing and turning, comtemplating all of the things that're bothering me. So I decided instead of wasting my time in bed, I'll waste my time here.
Beat Ultima & Omega today with Xenedra, Sabriel, Alveen (on Lyre), me (on Alveen), Muirnin, and Kiyoumi. RDM, BLM, PLD, WHM, WAR, WAR. People say you can't beat O/U with a Paladin but we did well enough and didn't shell out for ridiculously expensive medicines like Vile Elixers. Fights basically went like this.
Mammets were easy. Sabriel tanked all of them while we pulled off 1 by 1, initial hate setup. I think we got out of that with 37 minutes to spare, no deaths. Transmogrification is a pain in the ass. We handled ourselves well there, I think.
Went into Omega with 35-33 minutes left, I don't remember exactly. I got hit with a guided missile crit for like... 800 damage or something obscene like that, managed to live though. DDs chipped away at Omega well while balancing hate. We got him down to 4% before wiping. Screwed up on the CCBs though, Sab went right after the first CCB'r went, so we lost some time there. If that hadn't happened, we might've won on omega without wiping at all. Muir went down before she could get much use out of her 2 hour too. Not quite sure what happened there, I think that tied into the CCB mistake.
Got up to kill Omega, waited off weakness, and charged in. That was on the verge of disasterous, because he got magic-shield up right in time for Xene's burst so that did 0 damage. The wars managed to bring it down without anyone dying, and we went onto Ultima with, I think, 22-18 minutes left, I don't remember exactly.
Here we did really well for the first 60% or so again. Then we had more trouble with getting CCBs out at a good time. So we wiped around 33% or so. The last bit was fairly easy, we had enough CCBs to immobile it and it dropped very quickly. Muirnin got the killshot. I just wanted to say a bit about individual performances here, for the hell of it.
Sab (pld) - Kinda rough on the CCBs (but it wasn't entirely his fault), but he was tanking this BC as a Paladin which admittedly much harder. He did very well. Used blinding potions on Omega and straight-tanked Ultima. He made the mammets a cinche too. Omega was a bit rougher than it was for my group that had a NIN, but I think he took Ultima easier than I did on NIN.
Muirnin (war) - Did very good with sharing hate with me. Between the two of us we took quite a few blows from Ultima & Omega to give Sabriel time to catch his breath. Her rampages kicked ass which help us take down Ultima quickly at the end, and like I said, she got the killshot.
Alveen (on Lyre as WHM) - She did a very good job healing on the last attempt. Attempt before she kinda messed up a bit on Ultima which resulted in us wiping cause Sab got 1 hit. Can't blame her though, her connection goes wild sometimes, and her performance was flawless other than that. Very good with the status healing for certain, considering she kept a PLD alive (which is supposed to be extremely difficult for this fight), I'd say she deserves some praise.
Kiyoumi (RDM) - Very prompt with dispel. I don't know how well he did keeping refresh up cause I was a melee and never got it, far too busy doing my own thing. Good with the backup heals (at first he was a bit stingy with them, but he adjusted on the subsequent attempts) and debuffing. The manaburn patch with magic resistance really hurt his 2 houring though, chainspell now is more of a detriment than a help.
Xenedra - (BLM) Good timing on the stuns on Ultima's nuclear waste to breath attack. Don't think she ever once pulled hate while doing constant damage. That's incredibly important, especially on Omega considering that if she pulled hate and a guided missile was fired, it would've taken out all of our mages in 1 hit. She displayed a lot of restraint and at the same time really helped our forward momentum. Good with CCBs too, no mistakes.
Me (losing runs on SAM) - During the losing runs I kinda felt like SAM wasn't doing that hot. It really wasn't, Muirnin was definitely outdamaging me on the Weapons. Yuki never broke 300 damage, whereas rampages could do from 300-700. The one place SAM really shined though was during the mammets, I had hate for good on those. Meikyo was very disappointing. Don't think I made any real "mistakes" SAM just isn't any good for this one because /nin gimps us pretty bad at that level.
Me (winning run as WAR) - Granted I have no experience playing war/nin past level 37 or so, I think I did pretty well. I didn't bother keeping ichi up during the mammets, cause mages had plenty of MP and our goal was to just take stuff down asap there without having anyone die. Kinda sucked not having a Haubergeon, but it's on my account which I can't access right now so there's nothing I could do. Sipahi body sufficed well enough.
Rampage did crazy damage, but that's not really anything related to my skill, but Alv's gear she put on her for the run and her 6 axe merits. I put myself at the end of the CCB order so I didn't really have a chance to screw that up. I feel I could've done better if I had more experience with the job.
Overall it was a good run, but it just goes to show that O/U isn't as hard as people make it out to be. Many mistakes were made on our winning won and we still won with 8 minutes left on the clock. It's pretty hard, but I think SE could still make a harder and still "fair" BC for ToAU.
Kind of sucked for me though, didn't really get to Rp after like everyone else and we had to cancel the weekly RP event just to do it. But I don't even have access to my account right now so I guess it doesn't really matter.
Wanna sleep, wish I could sleep. I'd say something trite like, "depression sucks" here but it'd be an obvious attention grab seeing as how the statement is self-evident.
For some reason the topic of coolest ways to die comes to me. Here's 10 in no particular order. Here's a homework assignment for you guys, YOU number from best to worst. I'm too lazy to copy & paste all of that.
1) Like I was talking to someone earlier about, I often think about randomly running my car off the road for seemingly no reason. It amuses me, police officers trying to determine cause of death or just what was going through my head when I did it. They'd never figure out that I just randomly decided to run my car off the road for absolutely no reason. That amuses me.
2) Suicide in school. I don't think it'd actually bother any of the other people in your class. Do it right before finals too. People can claim to be mentally stressed out as a result or psychological damaged. Who knows, maybe your death will help someone pass a class they would've otherwise failed. There's some meaning.
3) Kill yourself in any way you want and leave a cryptic suicide note and a trail of clues that links you to a political scandal and makes the police question whether it was suicide or an orchastrated murder. I've always wanted my own conspiracy theory.
4) Human experiments. Grab a bunch of household products and start doing what the labels tell you not to. For the domestic rebel in you.
5) In some way that hurts American Idol (god I hate that show).
6) Write Maddox a horribly contrived and sensitive piece of mail claiming to be his biggest fan while poking each and every pet peeve you can. When he rips you a new one in response, kill yourself, make sure you state that you're doing it for him so that he no longer has to suffer your existence. Seeing his website get shut-down would amuse me.
7) Lighting yourself on fire in public. Yeah, I know, this one isn't original, but I have to admit those Buddhist monks had the right idea.
8) Ebay Auction. Though I don't know if it'd be legal. Say you're going to kill yourself if someone doesn't buy your continued existence. I guess you'd have to make sure to clarify that
it's not slavery. If someone buys your continued existence you won't become a slave or owe them anything. You win both ways with this. If someone pays you, you're rich. If you don't get the money, you're dead so it doesn't matter anyway.
9) In someone's house who you hate. Just think of how complicated their life is about to get.
10) Pick someone and see if you can goade them into murdering you. Might take awhile, but imagine all of the fun you'll have. Make sure you leave some documents in your room or somewhere you know people will find them explaining that's what you planned all along.
Man I'm feeling morbid tonight.
Listening to:
Nothing you care about.
(Or it was until I decided to take it in another direction. Kept the header cause it's a message to all of my friendly blog-neighbors.)
Listening to music at 2:35 EST. School early tomorrow. Can't sleep, drepssed, never can when I am. Just kinda lay there in a bed for a long time tossing and turning, comtemplating all of the things that're bothering me. So I decided instead of wasting my time in bed, I'll waste my time here.
Beat Ultima & Omega today with Xenedra, Sabriel, Alveen (on Lyre), me (on Alveen), Muirnin, and Kiyoumi. RDM, BLM, PLD, WHM, WAR, WAR. People say you can't beat O/U with a Paladin but we did well enough and didn't shell out for ridiculously expensive medicines like Vile Elixers. Fights basically went like this.
Mammets were easy. Sabriel tanked all of them while we pulled off 1 by 1, initial hate setup. I think we got out of that with 37 minutes to spare, no deaths. Transmogrification is a pain in the ass. We handled ourselves well there, I think.
Went into Omega with 35-33 minutes left, I don't remember exactly. I got hit with a guided missile crit for like... 800 damage or something obscene like that, managed to live though. DDs chipped away at Omega well while balancing hate. We got him down to 4% before wiping. Screwed up on the CCBs though, Sab went right after the first CCB'r went, so we lost some time there. If that hadn't happened, we might've won on omega without wiping at all. Muir went down before she could get much use out of her 2 hour too. Not quite sure what happened there, I think that tied into the CCB mistake.
Got up to kill Omega, waited off weakness, and charged in. That was on the verge of disasterous, because he got magic-shield up right in time for Xene's burst so that did 0 damage. The wars managed to bring it down without anyone dying, and we went onto Ultima with, I think, 22-18 minutes left, I don't remember exactly.
Here we did really well for the first 60% or so again. Then we had more trouble with getting CCBs out at a good time. So we wiped around 33% or so. The last bit was fairly easy, we had enough CCBs to immobile it and it dropped very quickly. Muirnin got the killshot. I just wanted to say a bit about individual performances here, for the hell of it.
Sab (pld) - Kinda rough on the CCBs (but it wasn't entirely his fault), but he was tanking this BC as a Paladin which admittedly much harder. He did very well. Used blinding potions on Omega and straight-tanked Ultima. He made the mammets a cinche too. Omega was a bit rougher than it was for my group that had a NIN, but I think he took Ultima easier than I did on NIN.
Muirnin (war) - Did very good with sharing hate with me. Between the two of us we took quite a few blows from Ultima & Omega to give Sabriel time to catch his breath. Her rampages kicked ass which help us take down Ultima quickly at the end, and like I said, she got the killshot.
Alveen (on Lyre as WHM) - She did a very good job healing on the last attempt. Attempt before she kinda messed up a bit on Ultima which resulted in us wiping cause Sab got 1 hit. Can't blame her though, her connection goes wild sometimes, and her performance was flawless other than that. Very good with the status healing for certain, considering she kept a PLD alive (which is supposed to be extremely difficult for this fight), I'd say she deserves some praise.
Kiyoumi (RDM) - Very prompt with dispel. I don't know how well he did keeping refresh up cause I was a melee and never got it, far too busy doing my own thing. Good with the backup heals (at first he was a bit stingy with them, but he adjusted on the subsequent attempts) and debuffing. The manaburn patch with magic resistance really hurt his 2 houring though, chainspell now is more of a detriment than a help.
Xenedra - (BLM) Good timing on the stuns on Ultima's nuclear waste to breath attack. Don't think she ever once pulled hate while doing constant damage. That's incredibly important, especially on Omega considering that if she pulled hate and a guided missile was fired, it would've taken out all of our mages in 1 hit. She displayed a lot of restraint and at the same time really helped our forward momentum. Good with CCBs too, no mistakes.
Me (losing runs on SAM) - During the losing runs I kinda felt like SAM wasn't doing that hot. It really wasn't, Muirnin was definitely outdamaging me on the Weapons. Yuki never broke 300 damage, whereas rampages could do from 300-700. The one place SAM really shined though was during the mammets, I had hate for good on those. Meikyo was very disappointing. Don't think I made any real "mistakes" SAM just isn't any good for this one because /nin gimps us pretty bad at that level.
Me (winning run as WAR) - Granted I have no experience playing war/nin past level 37 or so, I think I did pretty well. I didn't bother keeping ichi up during the mammets, cause mages had plenty of MP and our goal was to just take stuff down asap there without having anyone die. Kinda sucked not having a Haubergeon, but it's on my account which I can't access right now so there's nothing I could do. Sipahi body sufficed well enough.
Rampage did crazy damage, but that's not really anything related to my skill, but Alv's gear she put on her for the run and her 6 axe merits. I put myself at the end of the CCB order so I didn't really have a chance to screw that up. I feel I could've done better if I had more experience with the job.
Overall it was a good run, but it just goes to show that O/U isn't as hard as people make it out to be. Many mistakes were made on our winning won and we still won with 8 minutes left on the clock. It's pretty hard, but I think SE could still make a harder and still "fair" BC for ToAU.
Kind of sucked for me though, didn't really get to Rp after like everyone else and we had to cancel the weekly RP event just to do it. But I don't even have access to my account right now so I guess it doesn't really matter.
Wanna sleep, wish I could sleep. I'd say something trite like, "depression sucks" here but it'd be an obvious attention grab seeing as how the statement is self-evident.
For some reason the topic of coolest ways to die comes to me. Here's 10 in no particular order. Here's a homework assignment for you guys, YOU number from best to worst. I'm too lazy to copy & paste all of that.
1) Like I was talking to someone earlier about, I often think about randomly running my car off the road for seemingly no reason. It amuses me, police officers trying to determine cause of death or just what was going through my head when I did it. They'd never figure out that I just randomly decided to run my car off the road for absolutely no reason. That amuses me.
2) Suicide in school. I don't think it'd actually bother any of the other people in your class. Do it right before finals too. People can claim to be mentally stressed out as a result or psychological damaged. Who knows, maybe your death will help someone pass a class they would've otherwise failed. There's some meaning.
3) Kill yourself in any way you want and leave a cryptic suicide note and a trail of clues that links you to a political scandal and makes the police question whether it was suicide or an orchastrated murder. I've always wanted my own conspiracy theory.
4) Human experiments. Grab a bunch of household products and start doing what the labels tell you not to. For the domestic rebel in you.
5) In some way that hurts American Idol (god I hate that show).
6) Write Maddox a horribly contrived and sensitive piece of mail claiming to be his biggest fan while poking each and every pet peeve you can. When he rips you a new one in response, kill yourself, make sure you state that you're doing it for him so that he no longer has to suffer your existence. Seeing his website get shut-down would amuse me.
7) Lighting yourself on fire in public. Yeah, I know, this one isn't original, but I have to admit those Buddhist monks had the right idea.
8) Ebay Auction. Though I don't know if it'd be legal. Say you're going to kill yourself if someone doesn't buy your continued existence. I guess you'd have to make sure to clarify that
it's not slavery. If someone buys your continued existence you won't become a slave or owe them anything. You win both ways with this. If someone pays you, you're rich. If you don't get the money, you're dead so it doesn't matter anyway.
9) In someone's house who you hate. Just think of how complicated their life is about to get.
10) Pick someone and see if you can goade them into murdering you. Might take awhile, but imagine all of the fun you'll have. Make sure you leave some documents in your room or somewhere you know people will find them explaining that's what you planned all along.
Man I'm feeling morbid tonight.
Listening to:
Nothing you care about.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Technology and Terrorism
Lets go back to 9/11. Roll back to right after the acts had been confirmed as terrorism and follow the thought process. Why did they attack us?
This was only asked briefly in passing. Immediately greeted with a response of, "They hate our freedoms." Or maybe it was the Infidel excuse, make it religious. Nevermind the fact that the Muslim religion is tolerant of Christians and Jews, infact they hold the position that all three religions worship the same god. Why would they attack a country out of sight and out of mind, responsible for pumping money into their region via oil sales, for absolutely no reason?
Well, I've already gone over that. It's a history of conflict between Westerners and Middle-Easterners. Even going back to the Crusades. It might've started religiously, with the Crusade's goal of retaking Jerusalem, but the most recent reason was political. We supported the creation of the Nation of Israel, causing a region of the world to erupt into violence for the last what, 50-60 years? Ever since then it's just gone back and forth and people have become more and more entrenched in the fighting.
We think we can defeat terrorism militarily, by killing anyone who wants to kill us. The whole concept is nonsense. Each and every time you kill a terrorist you polarize their friends and family against you. You create more terrorists with each one you kill. Iraq's been a shining example of that, whether you think they had WMDs or not, whether you think there were terrorists or not, we can certainly agree that after Iraq more terrorists exist in the world, not less.
So if we can't kill them, disarm them? Impossible. You cannot control every arms manufacturer, you can't keep them from making it themselves, and you can't patrol the world. It's simply not possible. No system is flawless, eventually weapons will fall through the cracks, and end up exploding in America. The problem with technology is that it is incredibly condensed power. In the past if you wanted to kill say, 500 people, you needed 500 people to do it. Technology enables the individual to commit acts of senseless brutality that only armies could in the past.
So in the world we live in, you cannot kill all of your enemies, you cannot stop them all, and technology enables the few that succeed to do massive damage. Lets face it, it's just a matter of time until a terrorist gets ahold of and detonates a Nuclear Weapon on U.S. soil. So what's the solution? How can we truly be safe? Simple...
Stop making enemies. It doesn't matter who's right and who's wrong. If we want to be safe, stop making people want to kill us. This goes back to "why"? Why do they want to kill us. Cause they hate who are? Nope. It's cause of Israel, our attitude towards the world, and our machoesque policies.
We *know* the world despises America. If we know that, how do we think we can possibly win the war on Terrorism?
This was only asked briefly in passing. Immediately greeted with a response of, "They hate our freedoms." Or maybe it was the Infidel excuse, make it religious. Nevermind the fact that the Muslim religion is tolerant of Christians and Jews, infact they hold the position that all three religions worship the same god. Why would they attack a country out of sight and out of mind, responsible for pumping money into their region via oil sales, for absolutely no reason?
Well, I've already gone over that. It's a history of conflict between Westerners and Middle-Easterners. Even going back to the Crusades. It might've started religiously, with the Crusade's goal of retaking Jerusalem, but the most recent reason was political. We supported the creation of the Nation of Israel, causing a region of the world to erupt into violence for the last what, 50-60 years? Ever since then it's just gone back and forth and people have become more and more entrenched in the fighting.
We think we can defeat terrorism militarily, by killing anyone who wants to kill us. The whole concept is nonsense. Each and every time you kill a terrorist you polarize their friends and family against you. You create more terrorists with each one you kill. Iraq's been a shining example of that, whether you think they had WMDs or not, whether you think there were terrorists or not, we can certainly agree that after Iraq more terrorists exist in the world, not less.
So if we can't kill them, disarm them? Impossible. You cannot control every arms manufacturer, you can't keep them from making it themselves, and you can't patrol the world. It's simply not possible. No system is flawless, eventually weapons will fall through the cracks, and end up exploding in America. The problem with technology is that it is incredibly condensed power. In the past if you wanted to kill say, 500 people, you needed 500 people to do it. Technology enables the individual to commit acts of senseless brutality that only armies could in the past.
So in the world we live in, you cannot kill all of your enemies, you cannot stop them all, and technology enables the few that succeed to do massive damage. Lets face it, it's just a matter of time until a terrorist gets ahold of and detonates a Nuclear Weapon on U.S. soil. So what's the solution? How can we truly be safe? Simple...
Stop making enemies. It doesn't matter who's right and who's wrong. If we want to be safe, stop making people want to kill us. This goes back to "why"? Why do they want to kill us. Cause they hate who are? Nope. It's cause of Israel, our attitude towards the world, and our machoesque policies.
We *know* the world despises America. If we know that, how do we think we can possibly win the war on Terrorism?
Sunday, August 06, 2006
This weekend in the news...
Here's a summary of the news for those of you two lazy or self important to actually pay attention to the workings of the world around you.
- The UN peace resolution
Rejected by Lebanon for silly reasons. All Israel wanted was to continue to leave troops in their country, is that too much to ask?!
- WMD
Half of the US still believes that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, despite any proof to support this claim, and dozens to support otherwise (like patrolling the entire countryside after we removed the "dangerous regime" and finding nothing). Why? Who friggin' knows.
- Iraq & Lebanon
For awhile, the war in Iraq was Iraqis killin' Iraqis. We can thank our friends in Israel for attacking Lebanon, now it's returned to Iraqis killin' Americas. Whatever would we do without you Israel?
- Less Oil
8% of US oil production comes from a field in Alaska called Prudhoe bay (what a name). Apparently she's sick of gettin' drilled so she ain't givin' anymore oil (I had to do that, but it's funnier than the real reason). So get ready for another increase in oil prices.
- Cindy Sheehan
Well, she started up again outside Bush's ranch. Who cares. One person protesting again and again, and...? Not interested in the opinion of one zealot. If protestors reached a record high in numbers, that I'd like to hear. We don't need semi-celebrity political zealots. Especialy those who don't even have their own radio show.
- Scholars for 9/11 Truth
A group, lead by academics, called Scholars for 9/11 Truth is aiming to expose a supposed conspiracy theory around the 9/11 incidents. The main arguing point is over whether or not the towers were brought down by demolition or the planes. What do I think? I dunno... I think that's the best position to adopt.
There you go you lazy bastards. Congratulations, you've avoided being responsible for your own political education yet again. The founders of this country weep at your failure of responsibility.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
"Those people including women and children who were killed in this horrible tragic incident may have been killed by Israeli fire but they are the victims of the Hezbollah," Gillerman the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. said. "They are the victims of terror. If there were no Hezbollah this would never have happened."
Qana, history in the making?
Sunday morning, while they were sleeping, Israeli missiles detonated in a village in southern Lebanon called "Qana" killing 56 people total, 34 of which were children. The Israeli Prime Minister's response is, of course, to blame Hezbollah for it. Hezbollah didn't fire the damn missiles.
Bush's commentary was on the same lines. Expressing "grief" over the losses, and then claiming its all the terrorist's fault that it is happening. Would there even be terrorists without Israel creating them by invading other countries and killing people enmasse? People don't grow to hate you completely irrationally, oftentimes, there's a reason, and Israel gives the world plenty of reasons. And by proxy, since we're Israel's lapdog, it gives the world reasons to hate us.
People in Lebanon are already blaming us. In response to the attack outraged citizens marched on the U.N. buildings in the area, breaking windows, slashing furniture, vast vandalizm. Protestors are carrying "Death to America" banners and the entire west is getting condemned.
Bush claims this is an important part in the war on terror, I agree, it's just I have to ask who won this battle? Sure as hell ain't us. This is just going to create more support for Hezbollah in the middle east and terrorism in general. We're fueling the fires of Western and Israeli hatred instead of taking the wind out of their sails. We're creating more terrorists faster than we're killing them, and committing acts of terror at the same time by killing innocent civilians in large numbers. Over 500 people have died since the Lebanese campaign started.
There's no telling what's going to happen now, Secretary Rice is cancelling her diplomatic visit to the region (I wonder if she's worried about getting hit by Israeli missiles) so hopes of a peaceful and swift resolution at this point are looking dim. If this keeps up, soon a real conflict will emerge. Maybe Qana will be the spark that ignites the entire region ablaze. Something your kids will read about in history textbooks many years down the road?
Bush's commentary was on the same lines. Expressing "grief" over the losses, and then claiming its all the terrorist's fault that it is happening. Would there even be terrorists without Israel creating them by invading other countries and killing people enmasse? People don't grow to hate you completely irrationally, oftentimes, there's a reason, and Israel gives the world plenty of reasons. And by proxy, since we're Israel's lapdog, it gives the world reasons to hate us.
People in Lebanon are already blaming us. In response to the attack outraged citizens marched on the U.N. buildings in the area, breaking windows, slashing furniture, vast vandalizm. Protestors are carrying "Death to America" banners and the entire west is getting condemned.
Bush claims this is an important part in the war on terror, I agree, it's just I have to ask who won this battle? Sure as hell ain't us. This is just going to create more support for Hezbollah in the middle east and terrorism in general. We're fueling the fires of Western and Israeli hatred instead of taking the wind out of their sails. We're creating more terrorists faster than we're killing them, and committing acts of terror at the same time by killing innocent civilians in large numbers. Over 500 people have died since the Lebanese campaign started.
There's no telling what's going to happen now, Secretary Rice is cancelling her diplomatic visit to the region (I wonder if she's worried about getting hit by Israeli missiles) so hopes of a peaceful and swift resolution at this point are looking dim. If this keeps up, soon a real conflict will emerge. Maybe Qana will be the spark that ignites the entire region ablaze. Something your kids will read about in history textbooks many years down the road?
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
What the Hezbollah?
I'm guessing a lot of people are wondering just what Hezbollah is. READ.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9155/
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9155/
Israel <3
"Israel was also under fire over the killing of four UN peacekeepers Tuesday in what UN chief Kofi Annan charged was an "apparently deliberate" targeting of their post." Yahoo News Article
To make matters worse Israel is still continuing their operations in the Gaza Strip and have killed 24 people today alone. At least 3 of which were children under the age of 10.
Gotta love our allies.
To make matters worse Israel is still continuing their operations in the Gaza Strip and have killed 24 people today alone. At least 3 of which were children under the age of 10.
Gotta love our allies.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Israel vs. Hizbollah
Simply put, it's not looking good.
Israel is bombing the hell out of Lebanon under grounds that Hizbollah has been shooting rockets at Israel over the border and has captured two Israeli soldiers. For those who don't know, Hizbollah is an Islamic Extremist organization, widely considered in the west to be a terrorist organization with power in the area.
Hizbollah rocket attacks have purportedly killed 15 people, whereas Israeli has killed over 300 already confirmed in the fighting.
The UN is urging that the fighting be stopped, claiming that it will cause a humanitarian crisis (and it will). At first the US's position was silence, but once they release an official statement they came out in full support of Israel. And it's only going to get worse. Israel is apparently planning ground-manuvers not just air strikes.
Just about every country in the middle east that's opened its mouth condemns Israel's actions. Mark my words, time will tell, that our support for Israel will be a bigger threat to national security than anything that's happened since 9/11.
I don't think anything exposes the true nature of Israel like this particular detail. A UN outpost on the border badly damaged in all of this. Israel claimed that Hizbollah attacked it with a rocket. But firsthand UN witnesses claim Israeli Artilery Fire is to blame.
Israel is bombing the hell out of Lebanon under grounds that Hizbollah has been shooting rockets at Israel over the border and has captured two Israeli soldiers. For those who don't know, Hizbollah is an Islamic Extremist organization, widely considered in the west to be a terrorist organization with power in the area.
Hizbollah rocket attacks have purportedly killed 15 people, whereas Israeli has killed over 300 already confirmed in the fighting.
The UN is urging that the fighting be stopped, claiming that it will cause a humanitarian crisis (and it will). At first the US's position was silence, but once they release an official statement they came out in full support of Israel. And it's only going to get worse. Israel is apparently planning ground-manuvers not just air strikes.
Just about every country in the middle east that's opened its mouth condemns Israel's actions. Mark my words, time will tell, that our support for Israel will be a bigger threat to national security than anything that's happened since 9/11.
I don't think anything exposes the true nature of Israel like this particular detail. A UN outpost on the border badly damaged in all of this. Israel claimed that Hizbollah attacked it with a rocket. But firsthand UN witnesses claim Israeli Artilery Fire is to blame.
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