Hurlshort

I can't believe they are still working on bringing down the confederate flag in South Carolina. Talk about too much bureaucracy. It should be pretty simple to take down the flag. It doesn't represent the state or the US. What a waste of taxpayer dollars. The people elect a governor, it should be as simple as the governor telling a custodian to take it down.

Was curios how TOR is doing financially, and came up with this: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2014/07/22/star-wars-the-old-republic-makes-more-than/1 Geez, WoW is raking in a billion in profit every year. That's crazy. I was also surprised that LotRO is still bringing in 100 million. I'm not quite sure how far to trust these numbers, and they are a year old, but it gives you an interesting perspective on MMO's if they are true.

I am also pretty sure that even the most unoriginal and boring AAA title is still made by people working their tails off on art and programming. The people phoning it in are most likely in management.

If selling well is not your priority as a game developer, you might as well consider it a hobby.

If only there was some sort of place where we could educate young people about nutrition and physical exercise, so they can break free from the cycle. Maybe even dedicate an entire class to such a thing.

It's weird to me that people that guys that struggle with other addictions are treated so differently. He was a classic compulsive gambler. He was also way too competitive to ever gamble against himself. Now if he ever bet against his own team, or did anything like points shaving, I'd be quicker to condemn him.

What?!

Looks awesome, I'm excited for it.

Did you think I was arguing with you? I was pretty supportive of the idea that we have major issues with our criminal justice system in general. However I still don't see society being worse off than it was 50 years ago, not even close, and I don't see the point in looking back with rose tinted glasses. I find the whole idea that we are headed towards some Sodom and Gomorrah scenario fairly absurd, which is what Meshugger was putting forward. I'd rather focus on solving our societal problems, like prison system, than trying to restore a vague concept of social values.

Funny that you say you can, but you didn't. Because I can point to the absolutely insane rise in prison population (especially after the "War on Drugs" was launched in the 80s), the fact that there are more blacks under correctional control today than there were slaves in 1860, and that crime rates, while currently at a decades-low, are still higher across the board than they were in the 1960s. Lol, "feelz". Heh, clearly I've been reading too many of the ethics and journalism stuff, I feel silly that I used feelz. Prison reform is a huge problem in this country and I don't dispute that. I'd also argue that inner city schools are hardly at a place we should be proud of, despite 50 years of desegregation. I definitely do not see us as being over the rainbow, we still have plenty of issues to tackle. I would argue that comparing prison population to slave population is problematic if you don't adjust for the tremendous population boom since then. For an article that uses some frightening percentages to make their point, what is the percentage of black people enslaved in 1850 versus the percentage of black people in prison? But again, I completely agree that the rates regardless of that are terrible. I think you are seeing a shift away from the war on drugs in many states, and a softening on the Federal level, so I hope that is a positive trend. In California we just voted to drop most nonviolent felonies down to misdemeanors, which results in releasing about 40k more people from prison every year for the next decade or so. This does create a lot of other issues, but I see it as a step in the right direction. I wasn't sure what you wanted me to do with the last link. I looked up violent crime in California. While the 60's look great, the current numbers are just a bit higher than they were in the 70's. But factoring in the doubling of the population that seems pretty positive. It's also not going to take into account how much easier it is to report crimes (911 didn't exist until the late 60's), the increase in police departments, and other modern factors. For example, the stigma around sexual abuse has changed dramatically. If the number of reported sexual abuses cases has gone way up in recent years, does that mean there is more sexual abuse happening, or simply more reporting?

Historically speaking, the concept of a family structure is diverse and complex. While the biological basis of a man and a woman having a child is a constant, you have all sorts of variance in structure. Arranged marriages, dowry, polygamy, matrilineal and patrilineal societies, places where the man moves in with the wife's family, vice versa...etc. But I don't think you will find a single civilization that has crumbled because the family structure broke down. You might have an argument when inbreeding becomes detrimental to royal bloodlines. But that is about the closest I can think of.

States have strong identities in the US, no ? Definitely. They all have their own flags.

Not at all, I'm having tremendous fun talking this over with you. I'm just not sure how you expected an institution to deal with Dolezal here. Should they investigate everyone's racial background? Just the light skinned ones? Should they only hire the ones that look the part? It just seems like it is a scenario laced with traps and you are being a bit simplistic about it. Also Dolezal by most definitions was raised in a nuclear family. Sure, they adopted, but she was raised by a married couple and they even homeschooled her, which fits right into the social conservative criteria of not undermining parental authority by relying on outside education. Personally I see nothing wrong with a nuclear family, my wife and I would fit that definition, but I hardly see it as the only possible scenario for successfully raising a child. Again, show me the statistics that point towards ruin. The nuclear family has been on decline decades, and yet society is still chugging along.

Seems more like laziness than propaganda. It's a sad result of the 24/7 news cycle. You get the same thing with plagiarism all over the internet.

So these institutions should implement some sort of racial purity test to weed out the bad ones?

There is a big difference between the government flying the confederate flag and some guy with an orange Dodge Charger. It makes zero sense for a government building to fly a flag that is representative of both racial and governmental strife.

Divorce rates have actually steadily dropped since the highs of the late 70's and early 80's. Now you can argue that the rate of marriage has slowed considerably, but those that do tie the knot are divorcing less and less. Here is a decent article on it: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/upshot/the-divorce-surge-is-over-but-the-myth-lives-on.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1 I'm not sure how Dolezal symbolizes hedonism. What, exactly, are you blaming for her issues? Society in general? Why don't you try the parents, who home schooled her, moved her around the world, etc. She hardly fits the mold of a typical part of her generation. There are pros and cons with every generation. But the whole 'grass is greener in my grandparents day' is simply an illusion, and rarely holds up to scrutiny.

My grandpa fought in World War 2, I doubt he would side with you. So did mine. I am not talking about technological progress, material wealth or political stability (which are all much better of course). I am talking about values. Narcissism, indulgence and hedonism are celebrated as virtues. How to you measure hedonism, exactly? I can point to clear gains in the rights of minorities and drastically better crime rates across the country, and you are talking about the feelz. In terms of indulgence, my grandparents generation drank like fishes and smoked like chimneys.

I am really of the opinion that terrorism is a tactic of an organized group, while a hate crime is individuals lashing out. But these are just semantics, and shouldn't undercut the tragedy of any unprovoked attack on innocent people.

Really, it doesn't take a whole lot of historical context to see that the world (or at least the US) has changed predominately for the better. We are only 50 years removed from a decade where schools were segregated, a president was assassinated and his presidential hopeful brother shortly after, two major civil rights leaders were gunned down, we were on the brink of nuclear war, we were losing soldiers in Vietnam...etc. Our big complaints today seem to be about gay people, Obamacare, and phone records.

DNA testing isn't quite as easy as they make it seem in CSI. It's also pricey, most departments can't afford to run DNA unless it is a high profile crime and the labs tend to be backed up for months. Today I'm setting up for a garage sale. Yesterday I put the signs up, which was a bit of a kerfuffle. I had to return to the house twice for better sign hanging supplies. I started out with duct tape, but realized that was going to be a bad idea. I returned with zip ties and a staple gun, but my staple gun is cheap and wouldn't penetrate both the poster board and post well enough. So I ended up using a hammer and nails. They better stay up.

Are you talking about quality or success? The two are not the same. I believe that PoE has been more profitable than South Park for Obsidian. But without clear numbers, it is definitely just conjecture.

My grandpa fought in World War 2, I doubt he would side with you.

Just because your unpatriotic state wants out of the Union, doesn't mean every other state wants out. So you won't watch his reality show, but you will back him for president?

I nodded off about halfway through the second paragraph. I hope that is just some marketing talking head and not a head writer or anything.