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213374U

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Everything posted by 213374U

  1. 213374U
    The distinction you are making is false: there is no difference between "wrongdoers should pay" and "wrongdoers must pay" in this context because the framework that will make them pay is man-made. It is not fair for wrongdoers to hurt others without consequence, so we punish them. There is a conscious decision to act on that unfairness of life. Gfted1 simply considers that's as far as people should go trying to correct the unfairness of life, but no further. His reasoning: "life is unfair". It's plain that this is not a reason, but rather a statement of fact. Why bother having laws at all, if some wrongdoers are going to get away? Life is unfair regardless, you know. The fact that some wrongdoers will get away with murder is irrelevant. They are not getting away with it because we let them, they get away because man-made systems are not perfect. This imperfection is not a valid excuse not to try and make life as fair as possible for everyone with the means we have. Again, why expect wrongdoers, including yourself, to pay, if "life isn't fair"? Life is as fair as we make it. Why would you regret getting involved, anyway?
  2. 213374U
    Oh, I get it now. You have me pictured as one of those frapuccino-sipping, lumberjack beard-toting Twitter "liberals", right? Your constant tilting at windmills makes sense considering that. For the record, I find both practices barbaric. What does that have to do with anything, again?
  3. 213374U
    You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means: >"life is not fair" >wrongdoers must pay because IT IS FAIR DOES NOT COMPUTE I would understand if you said you intend to get away with murder, because life isn't fair, and all that matters is what you can get away with. At least that would be internally consistent. But fairly punishing wrongdoers based on the premise that life is unavoidably unfair and therefore it constitutes no defense makes zero sense, sorry.
  4. 213374U
    Er, no, rational is not in the eye of the beholder, like, at all. In fact, the scenario you are describing very much describes you acting irrationally -- out of rage and a desire for revenge, not based on any remotely logical reasoning. Logic would dictate that, if your children's welfare is your top priority (as it should be), depriving them of their father to fulfill your desire to off the guy out is the worst path to take, both for you and your children. Especially since you admit you'd gladly accept your due punishment! I'm having trouble understanding your position. You literally say "life isn't fair". And then you consistently claim that wrongdoers must be punished for their deeds, even in extreme cases like the one you described, and even when other solutions beside punishment may exist. Because... it's only fair that they pay. So which one is it? Life is not fair except when it is...? I'm all for an orderly society, but revenge isn't a requirement for order. And it also doesn't redress past offenses.
  5. 213374U
    The only one pontificating here is you, "unforgivable" is an absolute term. I'm looking at the issue from an utilitarian pov. Fairness is irrelevant, but I get the feeling you haven't experienced exactly how unfair life can be, despite happily pontificating about how immutable this sad fact is. You're proud in your selfishness, we get it, idgaf personally. At least be consistent in your selfishness and admit that confining people and throwing away the key is wasteful of your precious tax dollars.
  6. 213374U
    Uh-huh. I hope you don't use that magic 8-ball to help you guide your financial decisions. If only because you are probably playing with someone else's money.
  7. 213374U
    I dunno, maybe? I couldn't honestly say NEVER. Perhaps in some future, circumstances would "force" me to commit robberies to feed/support me and mine? I can only hope that if that day ever comes that there are people that pat me on the back and tell me its not my fault. I'm a victim of circumstance and am not accountable. If that's your thing. I'd rather have someone like the victim try to understand and perhaps help me out of a criminal lifestyle, preferably without any falsely ingratiating back-patting. Accountability has nothing to do with it, and unlike physical goods, empathy isn't in limited supply. Yes, technically it may be possible to turn your life around without anyone's help. It's also technically possible to deadlift 1000 lbs - doesn't mean it's easy. If only because it's cheaper in the long run to have a criminal rehabilitated into a well-adjusted member of society than indefinitely imprisoned and/or bouncing around the judicial system, everyone who pays taxes should be for this stuff in principle. Again, it's one of those ridiculous strawmen in the shape of "but the left would have you think that..." without actually anyone on "the left" seriously suggesting that accountability doesn't exist, that the perpetrators are in fact the victims, and any number of other absurd, misattributed exaggerations. Is it right? Is it even possible? That's a much more interesting and, *GASP!* constructive discussion than yet another rehash of the same worn-out clichés.
  8. 213374U
    Then I guess you are pointing and laughing at the victim, too: Good thing you're not a criminal and will never be, right?
  9. 213374U
    Seriously, stop. At this point it's abundantly clear you aren't even remotely interested in facts, not even those from the sources you provide yourself: IBTimes: The Newsweek piece: The article also discusses harsher measures by Canada and Australia but that doesn't matter because they aren't Yurop. It also mentions the cluster**** that is the EU due to having a million different laws, security services and watchlists. Nothing new here. The only fact-based argument remotely resembling the picture you've been painting is with the "Aarhus approach", but that's a) in Denmark, not Netherlands and b) only for people who haven't committed crimes, as per the IBTimes link which you obviously didn't bother reading completely. Yeah, enforcing laws is usually a priority of governments. At least with the small fish and blue-collar criminals. Besides, the guy in Netherlands has been released, even though he has to report to the judge weekly and cannot leave the country. You blew this out of proportion to make it a sort of cultural priority across all of Europe, which is ridiculous. But hey, at least you've made me waste a good 30 minutes on your links (bonus points for including some behind a paywall) and writing the reply, and it's not the first time. That was the goal, wasn't it?
  10. 213374U
    Are we talking about Finland or Netherlands now? Are you aware that different countries have different laws? You tell me how many native European IS fighters have returned to their respective countries and are living the high life off the teat of the gov't instead of facing prosecution, since it's you making that claim. Perhaps if you have concrete evidence that Finns have been indeed fighting with IS you should contact the Finnish police. Evidence, mate. Not "speculation". edit: "contintents", lol
  11. 213374U
    Apples and oranges much? Fighting foreign wars unless you are integrated in a foreign country's military is hairy business. If you are a national of a country where it's illegal to get involved in a conflict your country isn't a party in, you are obviously going to face consequences. Not to mention that the PKK is a terrorist organization according to the EU. On the other hand, generally you cannot try foreigners for fighting in a civil war in their own country, though in some cases they may be charged with war crimes, being part of terrorist organizations, etc. Netherlands is a part of the US-led coalition to take out IS, but there has been no declaration of war, and therefore its status as a party in the Syrian civil war is unclear, though I'm guessing the government would say they aren't. Hypocrisy in foreign affairs, news at 11. BTW, who are these former IS fighters that are being "rehabilitated" instead of facing prosecution? Where was this discussed and by whom? Or is this also "speculation"? Seriously, you are playing so fast and loose it's not even funny.
  12. 213374U
    You aren't alone. And I suspect their "metrics" on the matter are the real reason they are pushing another overhaul of crew skills (and crafting) less than four months after the whole system was revised.
  13. 213374U
    AFAIK, bug reports aren't handled by CS, proper. If your ticket was reclassified as a bug report by a CS rep, it's basically CS saying "we can't (be arsed to) fix it, hope for a future patch that addresses the problem". Considering the huge bug backlog, and the conspicuous lack of comment on the matter in yesterday's stream, I wouldn't hold my breath. Sorry.
  14. 213374U
    Reporter confuses Star Wars' Rebel Alliance with al-Qaeda
  15. 213374U
    Been trying to find data on 2015 immigration for Germany; breakdown by age, country of origin and sex. No dice, my Google-Fu is weak. Care to share the data you used to "speculate"? By the way, your projections rest on a million immigrants arriving per year, constantly for 14 years, with 100% of asylum seekers obtaining permanent resident status. You are also comparing somewhat different demographic groups (ages 15-24 vs 18-30). At any rate, I'm fairly certain that demographic forces don't obey (y = mx + n) over any significant period. But hey, what do I know...
  16. 213374U
    No need for that. It was mostly solved with more international cooperation in law enforcement matters, and better laws that targeted specific practices and allowed judges to do their jobs more effectively. See? We didn't need to hang anybody, and no mass deportations were required. We call this "civilization". In fact, we consider it barbaric when countries hang offenders at the drop of a hat and inflict collective punishments on minorities. But that wouldn't make us barbarians, right? It is baffling and yet not really surprising, however, how your stance has changed immediately. Now only those "connected to organized crime" should have been punished (with which I agree), instead of flat out kicking everyone out, as you suggested previously. Care to explain why? Can't be because they are your countrymen, no siree. I'm not going to bother addressing the rest of your post — it's just your typical übermenschen wankery. All rhetorics and no substance.
  17. 213374U
    No, that's not how the argument goes. It's rather "they are scum because they come from XYZ or worship XYZ", ergo, automatic deportation of everyone from <random geographical area>. The reason why this **** is bad is because it violates due process, presumption of innocence *and* is also collective punishment. They are all violations of basic human rights. What you folks seem to be incapable of wrapping your minds around is that you cannot be for human rights and the rule of law "sometimes". It's an either/or thing, 100% of the time. No exceptions. If only because tomorrow it could be you being taken to the gallows pole because some mouth-breathing hillbilly decided that your entire ethnic group is today's blight of the earth. What is an acceptable threshold for "filtering scum out", anyway? There are occurrences of EU citizens committing crimes in other EU countries, but that is generally acceptable because reasons. You reckon that level is acceptable or we should settle for nothing less than a 100% perfect record?
  18. 213374U
    The real solution is mass deportation and a barrier to immigration from certain countries and economic segments in general. Requiring knowledge of the native tongue is a simple and very good barrier (for everyone except the english speaking countries). Everything else takes too long, is too expensive and uncertain. Haha. In the late 90's and early 2000's we had a "problem" over here with Eastern European and especially former Yugoslavs basically taking over organized crime. Assaults, extortion, drug and arms trade, women trafficking, murder for hire, you name it. These guys did it all. The level of violence they employed was unheard of back then (given that many of them were ex-military) and they were significant enough that law enforcement had to be reorganized to deal with them. Many, especially in the media, were quick to jump on the xenophobia bandwagon. Total amount was less than 200k back then, imagine the "overrepresentation" in crime statistics. Guess we should have deported everyone originating from beyond the Stettin-Trieste line en masse, right? Go on, explain to me why folks from your (former) country are fundamentally different and don't deserve such treatment. And don't forget, always warm up properly before performing mental gymnastics.
  19. 213374U
    I think you forgot: 0. What is the problem? The title of this thread: THE RAPE OF EUROPE* *two actual occurrences of rape, to be investigated http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/08/cologne-violence-suspects-include-asylum-seekers Seriously, what is up with this clickbait bull****? Can we please elevate the level here by, I don't know, maybe going back to discussing squat toilets? Rationalize away!
  20. 213374U
    Alpha Protocol sequel. Spiritual or "proper". Preferably with SIE and Heck cameos. Yes. YES!
  21. 213374U
    They could have never done anything with the loans they received. The loans weren't for "Greece", they were to protect Greek -and French, and German- banks from bankruptcy. It was either let them fall, or nationalize them. Either choice would have set a very bad precedent in the EU (the reds are coming!), so they were forced to give more money to people like our very own BruceVC to cover the losses they had incurred during more than a decade of financial piracy, corruption, and plain old bad business calls. In order to pay back these "loans", they had to push austerity reforms that left a lot of people unprotected and destroyed the ability of the economy to grow and eventually pay back the debt. But who cares, it ain't my daughter or sister whoring herself out for a sandwich, it ain't my mother who can't pay rent and is being kicked out of her house at the ripe young age of 80, and it ain't me working two jobs and still struggling to make ends meet. So **** those dirty hippies in Greece, and MAKE THEM PAY UP. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9376938/Fraud-trial-for-Rodrigo-Rato-over-Bankia-collapse.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7d9b9140-a4d9-11e5-a91e-162b86790c58.html#axzz3ubjO7ffF http://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-piraeus-idUSBRE83107P20120402 Enjoy paying your taxes. edit: herp derp prepositions are hard
  22. 213374U
    Yeah, classes that rely on backstab-like abilities got the shaft with tank companions not being able to hold aggro to save their your lives. At 65 it gets better, not only they cannot produce sufficient threat, their mitigation also tanks *cough* so they look like they are made of wet tissue paper. But I digress. If tank companion/backstab isn't doing it for you, maybe respec Hatred as it doesn't depend on being physically behind the target and has better defenses. An insta-60 Inquisitor does indeed come with a maxed Synthweaving skill... which includes a grand total of ~4 schematics learned. The trainer only teaches adaptive blue (non-moddable) schematics post 4.0, and the old orange schematics are only available as world drops, at ridiculous asking prices from GTN, or not at all, so I wouldn't advise that course of action. You could always buy the absolute cheapest adaptive pieces you can find on GTN and use the appearance designer to avoid looking like a hungover clown late for work. Outside of the level 8 vendor, that's probably the most convenient way to go about it.
  23. 213374U
    Switch your companion to healer if you are having the slightest trouble. Khem Val as healer may look stupid but tank stance for companions doesn't work too well — it's either heal or dps. For gearing, you either run heroics which reward two random level appropriate pieces, or buy mods with the data crystals you get from quests. If you cannot craft moddable light armor yourself, you can buy a set cheap from the level 8 vendor on fleet. I could craft whatever you need but you're not on TRE, right? Technically, the game is pretty ****, is what it is. Building a MMO on an engine that doesn't support multiple cores and only comes in 32-bit is... interesting. As you have probably noticed, in order to circumvent these limitations, the game actually runs two swtor.exe processes simultaneously; from what I read one is the game proper and the other is the UI. Messing around with processor affinity for each may or may not improve your performance. There are tons of posts in the swtor boards dealing with performance issues and possible solutions, some of them quite detailed and in-depth. Unfortunately, in yet another incredibly bone-headed decision, the CS forum was made read-only and all queries redirected to "EA Answers". Moderators couldn't be arsed to collate and sticky these helpful guides in general discussion so you have to hunt them down. Really, many of the core issues with this game stem from the terrible decision to use Hero Engine in the first place. Ah, look at me. Already drifting into MMO burnout mode. You have fun now, signing off..
  24. 213374U
    The XP awards currently are insane, but that's mostly due to the event, yes. "Mostly", because they already streamlined the leveling so you would be at level just by doing planetary arcs and story missions. If on top of that you do PVP, FPs, or Heroics, you will be overleveled quite a bit, double XP or not. Not that it really matters. Regarding class, pick the one that appeals to you the most, is the foremost criteria you should use to decide, because leveling is not the way you remember it — post 4.0 the game basically plays itself outside of group content. Jugg is quite a bit sturdier (heavy armor), has good defensive tools, can taunt in a pinch should you need to, and affords you the opportunity to dabble into tanking, which is my favorite role personally. It's a bit low on the damage department currently, but outside of progression raiding teams, that is irrelevant. All three specs are fairly easy to learn. If you want to switch roles, you will need two sets of gear, though. Marauder on the other hand is the quintessential glass cannon. Awesome damage, top-notch utility, fast-paced gameplay (as far as the engine allows anyway), and... two glowing sticks, if you are into that kind of thing. On the other hand it is, imo, the class with the highest skill ceiling. It can also be seriously frustrating to play in PVP unless you queue with a pocket healer and/or roll Fury.
  25. 213374U
    I may be misremembering things, but isn't it implied when they are explaining why Luke decided to take a Sabbatical that Kylo is the one student of his that lost it and "destroyed everything"? That would mean he does have at least basic training. Either that, or we have another failed student and maybe Luke coming back and training more Jedi isn't such a good idea after all. It didn't bother me at all that Rey could kick his ass 1v1 me irl m9. But the whole "oh I can use the force lolol" was... out of the blue. Sure, have you felt the awakening and stuff, but leaving the explanation for the sequels (if at all) is, I think, a ham-fisted way to foreshadow the obligatory [PLOT TWIST!]. Still, no Jar Jar, Ewoks, or disquisitions on the nature of disintegrated rock, so I'm fairly happy overall.
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