W_L

How much is a life worth?

Can't find it, the car model was left out. If you want a new car Banger, you will need to give Santa more than just cookies and milk. Personally, I want a Maserati:

We need some humor in this thread of death and injustice Thought you would know as it is in your neck of the woods, probably an expensive truck with plenty of room in the trunk for you

Well, Sale of indulgences comes to mind (Along with the Borgias, talk about wealth, power, and corruption). Modern justice is still plagued with corruption, no less than in the past. However, wealth is more subversive in legal proceedings than the old bribe a judge or jury. For example, High priced jury and jurisdiction experts can sway an entire case for or against the defendant.

New Gay Holiday movie just came out! I might rent it and could potentially buy if the reviews pan out to be as good as it sounds (Nice gay Rom Com/Drama with a Christmas theme): Perfect Wedding

He was also in the Tudors, RIP Peter O'Toole

Umm....(Bostonian call it something else, but it'd be far too political to say it) Let's be honest here, if the legal system were equal and fair, then we'd do away with lawyers, juries, and judges. Without going into politics or social commentary, the simple truth is that any form of legal system based on arbitration can be manipulated by wealth or power. A truly fair and equal system of justice would apply the laws in a manner that is straightforward without exceptions or mitigating influences without a need for Democratic representation, Defenders of public or personal interest, nor a state sanctioned magistrate to execute open ended laws. In ancient times, the wealthy were held by noble obligations that would keep them in check with a fear of God/gods being the hallmark of balancing things off. When you remove the power of eternal damnation, justice and truth will erode over time to anarchy. (Not going into religious aspects of justice either, but just stating a fact about how eastern and western systems of justice held divine elements in past) There are many reasons why Justice and Fairness does not really work in the US or in many areas around the world.

I think GA writers will get a good amount of inspiration from this factoid, it also shows one very interesting truth about human beings. We are in many ways conditioned and controlled despite our own beliefs in individuality:

Well, not all dogs like squirrels, but I do. Especially if you have a green ring

Or in the AC series he would have had hay to land on, if he were an Assassin jumping from the top of the mall instead of just a few stories

"Fires a Broadside at iSimba" Open it

Hey Other Mike, been a long time I haven't change much, except I was a tabby once upon a time, then became a lab

Barman??? Hmmm....Sounds like Batman finally hit the bottle

A world without a mail system, isn't that far fetched. Most businesses in the last few years have been switching over to UPS and Fedex more and more over time rather than USPS, because necessity and economy of scales are actually making them competitive. If Amazon ever gets their flying drone delivery system up, we can say good bye to the mail carrier and the post office. Automation can take over the job of a federal employee, cut costs down to hours of battery charges, and drones have no need for any kind of benefits except some maintenance. We just have to make sure the AI's all have Asimovian laws encoded and a kill switch in case they rebel

You just made Pikachu cry:

Yup, I need to finish mine and get it to Kitt Also, post your story links here and I will sort through them for the final judging thread

Blink 182- Won't Be Home for Christmas was one of my favorites for a long time; irreverent, edgy, and real It's a good song for all the opposite reasons that Christmas Shoes is good song to me. I like Music that is deep and emotional or Irreverent and satirical. It complements my personality traits; I am very traditional conservative guy, but I also have extremely Socially Liberal views and aggressive opinions. I'm not Bipolar, just a quirky guy with a taste for opposition. Here's a funny thing about this song, it was never charted in the US, but Canadians seem to love this Blink 182 Christmas Song.

Guys, put your egos back in your pants Some people are growers and some people are showers, Not everyone can be pro-active with their feelings, nor can everyone really live by any standard. Thorn, just don't let Banger's life define your own if your choices are what you think are or were the best for you. Banger, judge people like the old chinese ladies that talk trash about their relatives during games Mahjong (I've learned a few fun secrets, criminal records, adulterous scandals, and other things from that old fashioned Chinese game ). I probably have been mentioned over in Texas at one of those games. I find there is a load of hypocrisy in how Chinese families actually work; on the outside we are very much together and aligned as a clan and group, but within it, we're gossipy and filled with innuendos about sexual preferences. Relatives snipe one another all the time at the first sign of familial weakness. Then at New Years, we all sit a big table and eat dinner together with the knowledge of who is backstabbing who, who is cheating with who, and how cheap that family is versus the others. There's an old Idiom about Chinese feasts, "It is the deadliest times of one's life", social and familial struggles can tarnish you to the family and ruin you.

Love begins with your parents' family and ends with your own family. I would take banger's point further and say we learn to love first with people we are closest to, if we are missing that then it becomes much harder to love anyone else.

Dickens is coming back into style wirhe high amount of poor and underemployed people in the world. I guess I feel resonance in this song that despite a world of despaie, small miracles are still possible.

For sibling love and fights, my sister and I have one of the weirdest dynamics. She hates staying in anyone place, so travels everywhere her heart is set on. I love to travel, but I prefer stability and sort of settle into things. She's very impractical about money and spends it like she is an heiress. I prefer to save my money and cut down my personal expenses to the things I need. She works in random sales jobs and can make more in commission than I can on my bi-weekly salary (extremely great at sweat talking), but she sucks at money management and keeping her jobs, expecting her performance to give her higher authority and lecturing her own managers. I am a professional, who works with numbers and really suck at selling things, because I prefer showing reality in numbers over fiction in brands or marketing and I am given authority when I don't want it. When people meet us together, they are shocked that we can be so polar opposite. We get into violent fights a lot; she and I have tried to strangle each other and we bitch slapped each other more than once during the holidays. Despite all our animosity and opposition, we do love each other and are fiercely protective.

?think you do Banger- Yoda Think about this on another level, there's a very old fashioned Chinese mode of thinking that if you have a girl, you are supposed to take care of her needs. If she goes on a shopping spree beyond your ability to pay, you still have to satisfy her and show her that you are able to support her. If she keeps shopping and you realize that you are never going to be able to support her needs, so on some level you can't actually be with her. Imagine the American breadwinner concept taken to an extreme and you will probably understand this mode of thought, more and its logic that leads to suicide. Personally, I think the entire thought process is rubbish and a throwback due to Confucian philosophy trying to reassert itself, but that opens a bigger discussion on defining eastern sexism vs. western sexism, which I would rather not touch in the lounge as it is a prohibited subject.

Happy Birthday Benji

Did the same thing until 9th Grade, then I joined the Bible Thumpers They were nicer than a lot of other kids, ironically enough. Later, I sat with the Anime kids and eventually just skipped lunch and joined the geeks in the computer lab playing LAN games. (I was always a geek at heart, so I am proud to be among people that enjoy the sound of a hardworking internal fan ) Loneliness is a hard thing to deal with, it is even harder to come to grips with. Eventually kids will find their own group of friends or cobble together enough outsiders to form their own group.

I'll be shopping on amazon thank you This is good reason why online shopping is better than traditional retail.