Zennie

Answer: N I didn't interpret the question to include things clearly out of bounds such as kiddie porn or snuff. The acts taking place within such things are themselves illegal and, more importantly, do not take place between consenting adults. Answer: N This is all part of that whole "end taxation" thing. Well, actually, the govt DOES need revenue, I'd just shift to strictly a use (i.e. sales) tax system. Answer: M This was one of my "Maybe"s. The current tariff system restricts open & free trade. Now if Japan subsidizes it's companies to come and dump dramatically undervalued chips onto our market in order to obtain a monopoly (which they have done)... at that point they're not playing fair so I think some targeted surtaxes to level the playing field would be appropriate. Answer: Y Cutting spending means cutting spending. Now, I'm personally a big believer in the importance of education, so I believe we COULD cut overall govt spending by 50% and maintain a very healthy education budget. If we got the military out of the business of taking over countries overseas and into the business of strictly protecting our borders... again yes I think we COULD cut the budget in half. Medicare would be unnecessary under a privatized health care system. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I don't care if it's burned forever or 5 months. Or, in the case of the Potato Bridge, just bad publicity which may get us shut out later. The long & short of it is... don't fuck over your fellow jumpers. What part of that is lost on you? For the record, I don't have as big of a hangup with Felix' Christ jump... unless there were locals or other folks jumping (or wanting to jump) it as well. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Space, you're missing my point. And you're being slightly disingenuous to say you're neutral. You're very close friends with at least one RB sponsored athlete (i.e. Felix) and have come out defending him on numerous occasions. This isn't about publicity or popularity... at least not on my end (though it sure DOES seem to be about publicity on the RB side). It isn't about how well or poorly RB treats it's jumpers... I'm sure it treats them very well. It's about site preservation and respect for your fellow jumpers. And I've heard too many reports now from BASE jumpers in the know of RB sponsored jumpers having a total lack of respect for other jumpers and their objects. BASE is about community. And some folks seem to be flipping the bird at the BASE community. Sorry if I flip back. Huh? So now if I have video of my jumps where I play by the rules I can't be upset with other folks who don't? That makes absolutely no sense. For the record, I have a TON of very cool video, some of us day-blazing sites. The difference here is that the sites that we have day-blazed are all local sites, low profile, and I know for a fact we're the only ones jumping them. Those sites are very select and very few and we know them and the surrounding area intimately. All of them, save a B that we do locally, are EXTREMELY remote. We day jump them specifically because we know we won't be seen. This is not what the RB athletes have been doing. If they were burning their own objects that nobody else was jumping, I could give a rip. But they're not... they're jeopardizing objects that others have a far greater interest in preserving. And worse, they don't seem to care that they are. I have yet to hear the RB people come in and say "We're sorry..." (excepting maybe Shane)... all they've done is get belligerant and take on a "screw the rest of you" attitude. THAT'S when I got pissed and THAT'S when I decided to boycott RB.... and I'm still boycotting them. Ahhhhhhh...... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Arrgh!! What version of what fragfest are we playing? - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

The line is basically when I interfere with other folks' rights to live as they choose. Children is a toughie... because they don't have the life experience to make educated decisions. Still, I fall back that it is the parents'/families' role to raise children ... not the governments'. Our society is too entitlement-oriented. We've been lulled into believeing that the government can enforce financial and social equality. The fact is it can't... and never will. True morality and ethics come from within. The best we can do is try to teach people that there is a world which does not revolve around yourself. Be who you are and let others be who they are (within sane limits of course). The rest will take care of itself... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

None of y'all have done it in an elevator heading to the top of a 2000 foot TV tower. Unfortunately, neither have I... but I can still dream. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

What's even more fucked up is I wish I had been there with a nice grill and some good BBQ sauce. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

OK... which version of what are people playing. I wanna school all of you punks. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Jeff, I wrote a very long and detailed paper on the Second Amendment while in law school. I think you would like it. I got an excellent grade on it, even though my instructor was very anti-gun. PM me if you're interested in reading it. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

The drug legalization issue does seem to be a lightning rod of sorts. Drugs (and I include alcohol in that statement) have seriously messed up people's lives. There's no doubt about that. The question is, from a political perspective, do we want a government legislating what IT thinks is best for us. Libertarians say "no". If you want to fuck your life up, that's your choice. It may sound harsh at times, but that's what individual responsibility & accountability are all about. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I found a copy of the original Doom and have been playing it for the past 3 hours. The graphics & controls are laughable, but the game is still a blast! (No pun intended) I forgot that the original Doom didn't have 'wasd' as the default keyset. lol - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

In psychology they might refer to it as "approach-avoidance conflict". - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Eh, what the heck, I'm drunk... I'll jump in on this fray as well. I'm not totally convinced of this. I was a vegetarian for two years. Primarily for health & spiritual reasons. During that time I had very severe fatigue problems. A good friend of mine who is a surgeon told me he knew of several surgeons who will NOT operate on vegetarians. Why? Because their tissues are so fragile that it's often extremely difficult to suture them. Since then I eat mainly seafood & poultry. And you know what? When I went back to just seafood my energy came back. Humans are omnivores biologically. The difference between us and other animals is that we have a conscience. But still, the fact is, we were designed to eat meat. We have canines (i.e. fangs for tearing) & incisors (for cutting flesh). Our eyes are centered forward on our head... the same as with most other predators. Given just our tooth configuration I think we're probably designed 75%/25% veg/meat since we also have a pretty hefty set of molars. But that's totally unscientific. I just personally know I don't need much meat to keep going. But I *do* need it. BTW... You wanna see some REALLY nasty arguments over vegetarianism vs. non-vegetarianism? Check out some of the Buddhist bulletin boards. Watching pissed-off Buddhists argue is good, wholesome family entertainment. That said, I DO believe that the conditions many commercially raised animals are subjected to is abominable. Animals don't have rights, but as a higher species with a conscience I do believe we have an ethical duty to treat them humanely. Well, I never felt particularly threatened in my 20' blind shooting deer with a high-powered rifle at 200+ yards. I also bowhunted for a few years. And every time I killed something I felt like an asshole. I'm NOT saying hunters are assholes... I'm just saying I always felt guilty when I killed something. So I decided hunting wasn't for me. I freely admit to being a bit of a hippy in that respect... that's just who I am. Now I just huck myself off of stuff. If I burn in maybe I'll make a good dinner for some lizard or something. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Here's the text of the editorial... "Think of how many rights would be trampled by just boycotting theaters... The owner would be denied his/her right to make a living. The workers would be denied their right to make a living and theatergoers would be denied their right to see the movie. That's an awful lot of people whose rights would be stepped on." WHAT???? So now I have to go watch a flick so that the theater owner can charge me $9.00 to see the film, $3.00 for nasty popcorn and another $3.00 for a Coke? That way (s)he and his rude concession staff can continue to treat me like crap? Using this logic I should have also seen "Gigli" and now "Catwoman" (though Halle Berry is hot ). "Freedom is about choice, and that is why we live in a democracy and not a dictatorship." Exactly numb-nuts. You have the right to go see it and others have the right to not go see it. BTW. I guess I should end my boycott of Red Bull because otherwise I'll be infringing on certain sponsored people's rights to burn my favorite objects. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Not to mention we're shut out of the televised presidential debates. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I honestly believe that if you look at the average American's political view across the spectrum, it will be more Libertarian than anything else. Most folks want a government that's fiscally conservative. They also want a government that stays out of their personal lives (so long as they're not interfering with the rights of others). That's Libertarianism in a nutshell. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Talk about "entitlement" thinking taken to a whole new level. This is a nice example of left-wing silliness run amok. If you wanna boycott F-9/11, hey, that's you're right and what makes this country great. If MM wants to make F-9/11, hey, that's his right and what makes this country great. I admire the ACLU if for no other reason than that they're consistent. Yes they take on some off-the-wall lefty causes, but they'll also turn right around and defend an off-the-wall right winger's right to THEIR opinion as well. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Hmmm.... maybe *I* need the laxatives. Now where did I put that Ex-Lax... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I knew we'd find some common ground eventually. A judge's job is to interpret, not rewrite, the law. The law is what it is. And it is what it says. If you don't like it, put pressure on your politician to change it. Yes. Now, if a law is unclear, you can sometimes look to the legislative record to see if there may be some clarification via debate. But debates aren't law, so it's dicey. Here's one that will probably ruffle a lot of feathers... Somebody please show me where the Constitution explicitly grants a right to "privacy". Hint: It ain't there. It was invented by the Supreme Court several years ago in Griswold v. Connecticut. Essentially, the court said that our Constitution has "penumbras" and "emanations" which infer certain rights which aren't actually there. The ruling in Griswold was heavily relied upon in... you guessed it... Roe v. Wade. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I saw this and immediately thought of China. You do know there is a "right" to protest in China, right? But, the protests must only take place in one small section of Beijing and comply with other guidelines. I'm not particularly thrilled when our free speech starts looking more & more like Communist "free speech". BTW... there's only one form of free speech that really matters... and that's BOOBIES! (Had to sneak "boobies" into Speaker's Corner somehow) - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

And I think you're missing the point... it's called "The World's Smallest Political Quiz" for a reason. Nobody's ordering you to take it. If you don't like it, don't take it. And if you know of a better quiz out there, by all means post a link. My God some people here need a serious dose of laxatives... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Dang... got in on this one late! Shows you how often I'm in the Bonfire. I know me & Ramon will be camping out to get D3. I'm feeling nostalgic... forget all the Quakes... I wanna play the original Doom! - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

The FAQ addresses "framing bias" a bit. As with many tests (like any personality test, for example) wording is often intentionally vague to allow the person to answer subject to their interpretation of the language. This in & of itself can be informative. It may not be perfect, but it at least allows folks to see/show where they stand on various issues. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

So are our nicks. If you shave your head, then I've found my long lost twin! - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Answer it however you interpret it. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon