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[AnCap Dave]

He's a little late to the party, but he still makes good points.

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[tnu]

[evensgrey]

I was reading the Star Trek Wiki entry on money and found this gem from Picard in First Contact: "The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century... The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity." Um, just what does he think "the acquisition of wealth" MEANS? Wealth means bettering yourself and others. By definition, they're the same thing.

He's partially quoting a statement he made in the last episode of Season 1, as well.  Roddenberry was a bit of an idiot about a lot of things.  You can't not have some kind of rationing system, since desires are infinite and resources are finite, and price-wage-money systems have the advantage that people can prioritize on their own what they want to allocate their finite resources towards.

He made the same sort of error when he declared "Starfleet is NOT military!"  Starfleet goes and does the fighting when the Federation has fighting to do, which pretty much makes them the Federation's military by definition.

[Ibrahim90]

yeah, this guy is a Christian apologist, but I have to give credit where it's due:

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(it has some fail in the last 20 minutes, but overall, it's a complete massacre of the target).

[R.E.H.W.R.]

NGC: Medieval Fight Book
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh5aey_ngc-medieval-fight-book-part-1-3_shortfilms#.UOWvIeTomuo

A good documentary that stops a lot of misconceptions about the middle ages.

[VectorM]

NGC: Medieval Fight Book
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh5aey_ngc-medieval-fight-book-part-1-3_shortfilms#.UOWvIeTomuo

A good documentary that stops a lot of misconceptions about the middle ages.

And the Royal Library didn't allow the book to be filmed until this documentary, because?

[R.E.H.W.R.]

And the Royal Library didn't allow the book to be filmed until this documentary, because?

Governments are stupid.

[Lord T Hawkeye]

I try to be as patient as possible in most respects but damn, if I catch you seriously trying to defend social security on the sole basis of "it's the government, they can totally be trusted", you get no mercy from me.

"Ah yes, the "public sphere", a magical place where all the rules are reversed! Where monopolies are good, murder is heroism, more spending gets you out of debt and coercive ponzi schemes are valid investments!

Tell me the one about the troll who brings gifts to all the children next please!"

[tnu]

This story from NotAlwaysRight. First time in a long time that I've been impressed with a police officer.

(There are three customers outside on the patio: three men, one with long hair. The other two customers are friends and start volleying increasingly homophobic insults at him. I, as the hostess am closest and move to intervene.)

Me: "Gentlemen, please return to your meal. Abuse of the other patrons will not be tolerated and I do not want to have you thrown out."

Customer #1: "What the h*** are you talking about, are you dumb? That guy's a fucking f**. Look at his f***ing hair!"

Me: "You cannot discern another person's sexuality from a hairstyle, sir, and I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I already told you that I cannot allow you to insult the other patrons. I do not want to retrieve security."

Customer #2: "Screw that, b****! We're not going anywhere. I'm in the middle of eating."

(Surprisingly, a police man still in uniform walks up to us.)

Customer #1: "Hey, police man! This dumb f***ing c*** wants to throw us out instead of that d*** gay over there. Can you f***ing believe that?"

Policeman: "What I believe is that I should be very grateful to have a wonderful boyfriend who waited for me even though I was late and two idiots were heckling him. I believe that this young lady is quite commendable for standing up to those two idiots. I also believe you two want to pay for you lunches and leave."

(There's a bit of a stand off before the two get up and simply leave two twenty dollar bills. I turn to the remaining customer.)

Me: "I'm very, very sorry, sir. I'll tell your waiter that lunch for you and your partner is free."

Customer #3: "No need, miss."

(He pulls a ten dollar bill out of his wallet.)

Customer #3: "Hostesses don't get tipped, do they?"

Me: "That's really not necessary, sir. It's all just part of my job. I was happy to help."

Policeman: "And for that miss, I think it is necessary."

(He sits down across from his boyfriend and also hands me a ten. One of the men returned to complain to my manager ten minutes later and was summarily banned from the restaurant when the policeman and his partner explained what happened. I went to their wedding eight months later.)

[tnu]

A conversation I was having with D. I'll be in Red and D in blue. I couldn't stop laughing at his spot on response.

Hey D. do you have that one relative who is usually very smart and politically/economically savvy but has those moments that just frustrate you?
Define smart and politically and economically savy
I have people who think they are, but are just leftist socialist tools
My dad is complicated. He's a free market supporter and generally socially ambevilent but he still thinks that we live in a free market, that corporations and corporatism are a natural part of that, and that humanitarian wars are necessary.
So he's a Republican


I still can't stop laughing at his response. Nevermind the fact tht he guessed completely accuretly

[R.E.H.W.R.]

Is it just me or does this sound familiar?
Look at why the Japanese experts refused.
http://www.thearma.org/essays/knight-vs-samurai-experiences.html

[evensgrey]

Is it just me or does this sound familiar?
Look at why the Japanese experts refused.
http://www.thearma.org/essays/knight-vs-samurai-experiences.html

Sounds like what anyone with made-up bullshit does when confronted with having to prove it against the real thing.

Now, a properly made katana is a fearsome thing, perfectly able to cut a man in two from shoulder to opposite hip if you do it properly.  However, that man is an unarmored peasant who had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  While a katana may be effective against traditional Japanese armor, that armor is made of little more than cloth, bamboo and paint and is designed to protect the wearer from arrow strikes, not melee weapons, and isn't even really infantry armor at all but a relatively minor redesign of the armor for mounted archers from continental Asia (where mounted archers were the mainstay of armies for many centuries).  The Japanese even retained the bow design of mounted archers, which is why the largest Japanese bow, comparable in size to a European longbow, has the grip about half way between the middle and one end and is fired while kneeling with the arrow notched in a somewhat awkward position above the users head (and where the 'zen arrow' myth comes from).

Add the stylized and ritualistic nature of combat in internal wars in Japan, and you get a recipe for the kind of disaster they faced when the Mongols, who were really serious conquerors who knew how to use and how to beat the gear involved and didn't bother with silly rituals and just got on with the killing.  (Recall that over three generations, the Mongols managed to take over about half the land area of the planet, getting into middle Europe before internal conditions, mainly the death of their Emperor, caused them to go home and they never bothered coming back.  They also managed to exterminate the original cult of assassins, something the Muslim Caliphate had never been able to accomplish.)

[R.E.H.W.R.]

There were some plate armor among samurai. Usually for rich families or heavy calvary.

[AnCap Dave]

Mmmmm dat's good liberal parody.

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[tnu]

My friend Pink Peruvian Flying Bear gave this gem recently.

The Democrats are more than happy to lead the black race to freedom, but only behind their banner. God forbid they should step out of line.