Nerds. Nerds EVERYWHERE...

[jet_lagg]

He is not on my ignore as of yet. If he really is suffering from delusions I feel very sad for him.

It can't be pleasant, and he is making an ass of himself across the web.

I was extremely hesitant about putting him on my ignore list. It's a feature I have never used before, because I think everyone should have their say. But Jasper is not having his say, he's trolling as hard as he can, and not in a funny way.

My thoughts as well. There are one or two people who I automatically scroll past, but they occasionally post something of worth. And at least Cunt is amusing.

[Jesper]

@Phil the jew lover.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha. You're pathetic. :mrgreen:

I told you guys to take care of him and yet you hand me his ass on a platter.

WTF is wrong with you lot? :evil: :evil:

NEO

[Southern]

Ed Brayton maybe could use the extra revenue, but Peez? He's very comfortable with his tenured life, I don't think he really craves for the money. What he wants is power, to have his voice relevant once again, since he screwed the chance he had.

Peez craves adulation. He failed to get it as a scientist, failed as the author of an orthodoxy-shattering treatise on evolution, failed as a leader of movement atheism. He is getting it (from his Horde at least) as a panderer of SJW agitprop and exhorter of cultish hatred. And he's addicted to it.

While I think you are both pretty spot-on in most respects, I wouldn't entirely discount the money. Didn't he mention once he made around $50k? That's not a lot of money.

It may not be "a lot", but I suppose it's "comfortable enough", specially for someone living in Morris. Unless the Tentacle Rape Hentai Network has increased the prices for subscriptions.

[windy]

...though I have to say that result looks a bit fishy. I'd like to see how they got "reproductive success" out of a questionnaire to "young urban adults" (who are probably still at the start of their reproductive careers).

Maybe a snippet from the transcript of an interview with one of the "young urban adults" will help explain it:

"No, bitch, I ain't wearing no condom!"

Heh- forgot about the euphemistic meaning. I don't know how that would play on the mean streets of Prague.

[Aneris]

So teach me about these card games, turbonerds. [...]

Steersman, the current crude topic "Beware the Bite of the Bum Snake!" and your quote made me do it ...

[youtube]LlWhKQ8IyFA[/youtube]

[Suet Cardigan]

Confirmed: Jesper is another Parsehole's sock cock.

FTFY

[Jesper]

Pit.

Ophelia Benson is irrelevant.

As I told you earlier.

PZ is done for.

He's becoming isolated.

Game over.

NEO

[Jesper]

Next target.

Ed Brayton.

What is his major weakness?

Mull it over, if you dare/can.

NEO

[Matt Cavanaugh]

He's got nothing? Vicious little cunts calling and harassing senior citizens in end-of-life care, because they think Franc might be there? And you make a decidedly stupid quip about going to church, and claim he's got nothing. No apologies, no "yeah, that was wrong, that was really fucked up."

You are profoundly disappointing.

Yeppers. That's why I really don't give two fucks what the little weasel says. I knew he was stupid from Twitter and the few places I'd run into him on the Internet in general. He's just doubled-down on the inability to be human and it's time for the gom jabbar.

Aratina: Avoids direct questions with misdirect, snark and tu quoque. Displays complete inability to apply logic & reason. Seems to enjoy hurting people just for shits & giggles. Adheres to maxim: It's OK When We Do itâ„¢. Fits in well with the rest of the FTBully sociopaths.

[Old_ones]

"This post was made by Jesper who is currently on your ignore list. Display this post."

http://img.pandawhale.com/87175-ice-cub ... r-tjvs.gif

[Dick Strawkins]

Ed Brayton maybe could use the extra revenue, but Peez? He's very comfortable with his tenured life, I don't think he really craves for the money. What he wants is power, to have his voice relevant once again, since he screwed the chance he had.

Peez craves adulation. He failed to get it as a scientist, failed as the author of an orthodoxy-shattering treatise on evolution, failed as a leader of movement atheism. He is getting it (from his Horde at least) as a panderer of SJW agitprop and exhorter of cultish hatred. And he's addicted to it.

While I think you are both pretty spot-on in most respects, I wouldn't entirely discount the money. Didn't he mention once he made around $50k? That's not a lot of money.

I think he gets a bit more than 50K, but probably not all that much. His blogging income (somewhere between 20 - 40K per year) is therefore a significant chunk of his overall income. His wife has a much better job than him in academic terms so she is most likely the main earner in their family.
Their combined income (~200K) is pretty good for a place like Cowtown Minnesota so there's plenty of privilege for his wings.

As for those speculating on Ed Brayton and Myers business arrangement, nobody here is party to that contract. They are joint owners of FTB. I don't know how they divide up the ad revenue, whether it's purely on page views, or whether the owners take their cut first and the rest is divided by page views for each blog (it's good either way from Myers point of view since he makes up 90% of the traffic of FTB.)
I doubt that Brayton is making much money from FTB if that's the case but I don't think the intention was ever to create a collection of self financing blogs on that network. In my opinion the idea was to build up a brand - a collection of high quality leftist writers that could be sold as a single entity to a progressive media site like Mother Jones that wanted to build up a blog network without spending years collecting good writers.
Of course the intention hasn't particularly matched the reality. There are precious few decent writers on FTB.
The two with serious leftist credentials Maryam Namazie and Taslima Nasreen, don't write that much, and of the rest, those that do write a lot (Dana Hunter, Alex McGabriel) are pretty pathetic.
I think this idea of 'Brand FTB' explains why Brayton immediately dropped his cop-pie and flung Avicenna out the door when the plagiarism claims arose. He can't have FTB's brand publicly tarnished if he wants it to be seen as a serious network.
Myers and Brayton are aiming for something like scienceblogs for progressives, the sale of which would make them a fortune - if it ever came to pass.

Which it won't.

Because their ineptitude has resulted in FTB being known far and wide as a complete joke. :lol:

[Matt Cavanaugh]

I need some pointy tits and also some tips on playing this Magic game I hear the cool virgins play these days. I will play Black of course because I am a rough man. Demons because why not, Chaos is your master now.

So teach me about these card games, turbonerds. What is a "land" and how many do I need before I can own Park Place and Broadway and summon Satan? Maybe Raep can help with that last part.

If you play vs. a virgin neckbeard geek (and all Magick players are virgin neckbeard geeks) he'll have spent all their disposable income for the past seven years on acquiring "rare" killer cards for his killer deck.

So go asymmetrical warfare. Load up on cards that churn out 1/1 monsters, especially flying ones. Don't try to win the battles -- just block his attacks with sacrificial units. Then banzai his $110, 9/7 Acadelian Banthere Riders with expendable rats, zombies, spores and mosquitoes. A few will get through. Steadily whittle down his life points with pinpricks, then maybe save one unstoppable spell to the end to kill him off.

[Jesper]

Answer.

Ed Brayton doesn't mean shit.

His weakness is arrogance, but it is simply there to mask his general ignorance about SJW issues.

He doesn't give a shit.

And PZ Myers is dragging him down.

Connect the dots.

NEO

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Alex really had to work hard to reach those levels of stupidity.

Actually, a facility for stupidity seems to be Lil' Alex' lone natural talent.

[Wild Zontargs]

So go asymmetrical warfare. Load up on cards that churn out 1/1 monsters, especially flying ones. Don't try to win the battles -- just block his attacks with sacrificial units. Then banzai his $110, 9/7 Acadelian Banthere Riders with expendable rats, zombies, spores and mosquitoes. A few will get through. Steadily whittle down his life points with pinpricks, then maybe save one unstoppable spell to the end to kill him off.

Back when I used to play, I never bought a damned thing; I just "adopted" all the crappy cards my friends didn't want anymore. That's exactly how my decks worked: a zillion cheap critters, a few "gain life whenever your critters die" and "get a flying 1/1 spirit when your critters die" cards, and just annoy your opponents to death. It worked surprisingly often.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

There's healthy, all natural, organic stupid. Like folks that manage to garble the bible so much that they think god wants them to handle real rattlesnakes in church. That's fed by bad diet, no education, in-breeding and no exposure society beyond the line of the horizon of their hog farms. Alex MacGabriel grade stupid is way beyond that level. That is deliberately cultivated over years of highly disciplined brain cauterization. For those that have not had the pleasure, this is how punch-me-I-deserve-it face defines "freethought" -

http://greylining.com/2013/09/28/what-u ... -bollocks/

"Freethought", a neologism now in common currency among the baboons to describe their little movement, is disturbingly Orwellian. It reminds me of "Mindthink" the name of the parody scientology cult in BOWFINGER.

[Southern]

I need some pointy tits and also some tips on playing this Magic game I hear the cool virgins play these days. I will play Black of course because I am a rough man. Demons because why not, Chaos is your master now.

So teach me about these card games, turbonerds. What is a "land" and how many do I need before I can own Park Place and Broadway and summon Satan? Maybe Raep can help with that last part.

If you play vs. a virgin neckbeard geek (and all Magick players are virgin neckbeard geeks) he'll have spent all their disposable income for the past seven years on acquiring "rare" killer cards for his killer deck.

So go asymmetrical warfare. Load up on cards that churn out 1/1 monsters, especially flying ones. Don't try to win the battles -- just block his attacks with sacrificial units. Then banzai his $110, 9/7 Acadelian Banthere Riders with expendable rats, zombies, spores and mosquitoes. A few will get through. Steadily whittle down his life points with pinpricks, then maybe save one unstoppable spell to the end to kill him off.

Also, you'll need something to refill you hand unless you deck is so fast you can kill the guy on turn 5. If you don't care about making a deck tournament legal, Skullclamp is perfect for that - better yet, since it's banned, you can find it cheap online.

[dogen]

It probably explains why so many blokes in their late 20's to mid 40's have said fuck that and instead get stoned and spend their days on their games consoles, or go get "swole".

Sorry, you rang?

[JackSkeptic]

FtB complaints hotline. Bwhahahah


http://web.archive.org/web/201501281104 ... epartment/

They are having a laugh as well as wasting Nugent's time by suggesting he will have to resend his emails, thereby resetting the clock.

Myers and Brayton are like a couple of silly kids. It's about time they grew up.

I don't know if Myers realises what is going to happen but if he does he is supremely stupid by acting the way he is. If he does not care that simply reflects on his complete lack of basic empathy and social skills. Not the sort of person I would ever want to go into business with. If I were Brayton I would be looking for the exit door as Myers will drag him down with him, you can be sure of that.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

http://web.randi.org/home/an-amazng-adv ... -continued

Phrasing at end of Randi's letter suggests this could be the last TAM. (Alternatively, could just mean the last one for him.)

I'm still predicting that the TAM! corporate identity will soon be sold off to an ancient aliens / assorted woo convention.

[bhoytony]

I think he gets a bit more than 50K, but probably not all that much. His blogging income (somewhere between 20 - 40K per year) is therefore a significant chunk of his overall income. His wife has a much better job than him in academic terms so she is most likely the main earner in their family.
Their combined income (~200K) is pretty good for a place like Cowtown Minnesota so there's plenty of privilege for his wings.

As for those speculating on Ed Brayton and Myers business arrangement, nobody here is party to that contract. They are joint owners of FTB. I don't know how they divide up the ad revenue, whether it's purely on page views, or whether the owners take their cut first and the rest is divided by page views for each blog (it's good either way from Myers point of view since he makes up 90% of the traffic of FTB.)
I doubt that Brayton is making much money from FTB if that's the case but I don't think the intention was ever to create a collection of self financing blogs on that network. In my opinion the idea was to build up a brand - a collection of high quality leftist writers that could be sold as a single entity to a progressive media site like Mother Jones that wanted to build up a blog network without spending years collecting good writers.
Of course the intention hasn't particularly matched the reality. There are precious few decent writers on FTB.
The two with serious leftist credentials Maryam Namazie and Taslima Nasreen, don't write that much, and of the rest, those that do write a lot (Dana Hunter, Alex McGabriel) are pretty pathetic.
I think this idea of 'Brand FTB' explains why Brayton immediately dropped his cop-pie and flung Avicenna out the door when the plagiarism claims arose. He can't have FTB's brand publicly tarnished if he wants it to be seen as a serious network.
Myers and Brayton are aiming for something like scienceblogs for progressives, the sale of which would make them a fortune - if it ever came to pass.

Which it won't.

Because their ineptitude has resulted in FTB being known far and wide as a complete joke. :lol:

If you want to know how the money is divvied up on FTB why not ask Thunderf00t? I'm sure he has some relevant info on this.

[Billie from Ockham]

Back when I used to play, I never bought a damned thing; I just "adopted" all the crappy cards my friends didn't want anymore. That's exactly how my decks worked: a zillion cheap critters, a few "gain life whenever your critters die" and "get a flying 1/1 spirit when your critters die" cards, and just annoy your opponents to death. It worked surprisingly often.

Crappy decks often work, but it helps to have a decent idea of what's current. For example, most people who aren't running a fast deck themselves have Drown in Sorrows, Scouring Sands, etc, in at least their side-deck, so your 1/1 swarm won't fly, as it were. Plus, since two weeks ago - i.e., the release of Fate Reforged - just about everyone is flying. Thus, due to Shredding Winds and Plummet, green is the new blue.

I usually run aggro Mardu or a Phenax-based mill, but will be building a green-biased Sultai for this week.

[bhoytony]

Is that his real appearance?

In all honesty, I thought it was a fake picture, to hide his real identity, or as a bit of an in-joke.

Sadly, it seems to be, from the multiple pictures of him I've seen. It's not even funny anymore.


http://freethoughtblogs.com/godlessness ... /07/01.jpg


Well, ok, still a bit funny.

http://i.imgur.com/JRiz9EG.png

[Billie from Ockham]

I haven't been paying much attention. Who is the Beeker-like guy, please?

[Southern]

They are having a laugh as well as wasting Nugent's time by suggesting he will have to resend his emails, thereby resetting the clock.

Myers and Brayton are like a couple of silly kids. It's about time they grew up.

I don't know if Myers realises what is going to happen but if he does he is supremely stupid by acting the way he is. If he does not care that simply reflects on his complete lack of basic empathy and social skills. Not the sort of person I would ever want to go into business with. If I were Brayton I would be looking for the exit door as Myers will drag him down with him, you can be sure of that.

My point exactly. Peezus doesn't care, since his enemies are either too classy (Dawkins, Nugent, Shermer, etc.) or have no real power (The Slymepit). Two Cows probably doesn't care either, as long as he gets his money to keep on being useless. They know they won't lose that if all Nugent does is send them polite emails askimg Peezus to apologize and show their hypocrisy.

You know what would make them cry? DDOS'ing their site. That would hurt the cash cow. But Nugent will never do (or even condone) that. It's admirable that he's keeping this up, but it's a lost cause. The only non-illegal weapon that works against Myers is treating him like the unimportant shit he is.

[James Caruthers]

Again, the prick did that to himself. No appearance-shaming here. If I start walking around with a traffic cone on my head, a giant bow-tie and huge baggy pants, you can mock me as well.

And meter-long shoes.

Dear Pit.

There's your problem.

People like phil are too afraid to be controversial even when faced with truth.

And of course he can't stand me because I treat Jews and Judaism as any other religion.

To him it's something special. Namely his future wife.

So , dear pit. Treat him with care.

He's going to need it.

NEO

I'll meet you halfway, Jewsper, and admit that your Semitic religious is awful and must be abolished like all oppressive, theocratic institutions.

[James Caruthers]

assburglars is one of the great misunderstood conditions of our time

Especially when they break and enter before stealing, sending Lsuoma to the emergency room.

They need to be gentler, it's obvious he's had a few too guests up in that neighborhood in the past. Gotta go slow!

[James Caruthers]

Back to work, guys'n gals.

Ophelia.

What is her weakness?

Take a guess and I'll return with the answer shortly.

NEO

Probably time, although it looks like she's been mummified already, so she'll age slower than the rest of us.

[Southern]

I'll meet you halfway, Jewsper, and admit that your Semitic religious is awful and must be abolished like all oppressive, theocratic institutions.

Speaking of anti-semitism, are you following the Creepy Day Care drama over fullchan?

[free thoughtpolice]

assburglars is one of the great misunderstood conditions of our time

Especially when they break and enter before stealing, sending Lsuoma to the emergency room.

They need to be gentler, it's obvious he's had a few too guests up in that neighborhood in the past. Gotta go slow!

I think the rotting porcupine up there is the worst problem.

[Brive1987]

Peez has another hard day at the office.

http://i.imgur.com/OB5DqlK.jpg

[Brive1987]

I also think there will be a fire sale of the JREF brand while it still has some value.

Another lesson on not using your name in the name of your small business.

[Jesper]

Back to work, guys'n gals.

Ophelia.

What is her weakness?

Take a guess and I'll return with the answer shortly.

NEO

Probably time, although it looks like she's been mummified already, so she'll age slower than the rest of us.

Piss off.

You're a waste of time, essentially.

Follow me on twitter and see how deep this rabbit hole is.

We're working SJW's in general, right now.

So, dear pit.

Move on from FTB, they're done.

https://twitter.com/JesperBothPede1

If you have the balls and honesty, tag along.

Other than that, the pit is now irrelevant.

And Dawkins is mine.

I'll deal with him in due time.

NEO

[feathers]

He is not on my ignore as of yet. If he really is suffering from delusions I feel very sad for him.

It can't be pleasant, and he is making an ass of himself across the web.

By his own admission, he's suffering from some sort of depression or psychosis, and it's virtually impossible to have meaningful discussion with him. And this all started mid-January, almost overnight. Before that he was a highly regular regular on WEIT.

[Jesper]

He is not on my ignore as of yet. If he really is suffering from delusions I feel very sad for him.

It can't be pleasant, and he is making an ass of himself across the web.

By his own admission, he's suffering from some sort of depression or psychosis, and it's virtually impossible to have meaningful discussion with him. And this all started mid-January, almost overnight. Before that he was a highly regular regular on WEIT.

You do know Jerry is a dirty Jew, right.

Israel first, USA second.

Oh, and inbred, too.

That's probably why he's always been an asshole to me.

NEO

[Tribble]

He is not on my ignore as of yet. If he really is suffering from delusions I feel very sad for him.

It can't be pleasant, and he is making an ass of himself across the web.

I was extremely hesitant about putting him on my ignore list. It's a feature I have never used before, because I think everyone should have their say. But Jasper is not having his say, he's trolling as hard as he can, and not in a funny way. His "ahahaha, I am so great, you're all dead, PZ is gone, Benson comes next" bullshit is really borderline Mabuse/Markuze.

I tried to have a calm discussion with M/M once. It didn't end well.

Anyway, I like the little band that states he's posted something. I can even click on it to see his comments, but at least I don't have to withstand his bullshit if I don't want to. Way better than scrolling.

When I used to blog back in the mid '00s, I ran into Mabus. He'd post these bizarre screeds... I just ignored him and one day, maybe a year before I gave up blogging, he stopped. Have no idea what happened or why. Really don't care, either.

Funny thing is, from where I sit I don't see much difference between Mabus, Myers, Aratnia, et.al. None of them can deal with anything outside their delusional world-view. And if Mabus is a bit more crazy than the other two, it's only by degrees.

[John Greg]

I am going to repost, here, one of my comments from Michael Nugent's blog, because I think it is relevant.

One of Aratina’s argumentary (argumentive? argument?) strategies, or perhaps one should call it a rhetorical tool, is similar to that used by Brony, and both LousyCanuck and oolon, though Canuck and oolon use it far less than either Aratina or, in particular, Brony. That rhetorical tool is bafflegab and, to a lesser extent, its relative, BullshitBafflesBrains (BBB).

Aratina’s favourite tool is bafflegab — as in the imbecilic paragraph quoted in post 255 :arrow: (http://www.michaelnugent.com/2015/01/13 ... nt-1563060).

Aratina uses BBB much less than Brony. BBB is Brony’s all-time favourite rhetorical weapon (lest we forget Brony’s League of Rhetorical Assassins), and sometimes approaches truly operatic levels of bombast and opacity and hilarity of purist idiocy and meaninglessness.

Though, as I sort of implicitly implied over at the Pit, I am beginning to think that Aratina is a sort of nihilist, in the sense that nobody’s points of interest, ethical standards, morals, beliefs, ideologies, and so on, matter at all to Aratina unless they fall in line with Aratina’s own particular, and particularily odd, belief system or idoelogical/philosophical stance.

:hand:

So, Aratina, even though it is a given that you do not like to answer direct questions with direct answers that are free of misdirection and miscomprehension, or even any answer at all, I will ask again: Are you a nihilist?

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Ed Brayton maybe could use the extra revenue, but Peez? He's very comfortable with his tenured life, I don't think he really craves for the money. What he wants is power, to have his voice relevant once again, since he screwed the chance he had.

Peez craves adulation. He failed to get it as a scientist, failed as the author of an orthodoxy-shattering treatise on evolution, failed as a leader of movement atheism. He is getting it (from his Horde at least) as a panderer of SJW agitprop and exhorter of cultish hatred. And he's addicted to it.

While I think you are both pretty spot-on in most respects, I wouldn't entirely discount the money. Didn't he mention once he made around $50k? That's not a lot of money.

Trophy wives don't run cheap.

[John Greg]

Oh, ya, and as far as all the Pitters who love Vindaloo go, and who have, one must assume, travelled frequently to India to try the many and various ways and varieties that said dish is prepared and are therefore well eloquent to claim knowledge of best vs. everything else, I, last night, tried some vindaloo from a local Indian restaurant from which I often order a range of very good takeout/delivery Indian dishes, and I nearly barffed. I had forgotten a well earned lesson from a few decades ago: I cannot, for some reason, handle any Indian dishes made with vinegar. It makes me ill for some reason. Oh well; live and learn, and using the Pit vindaloo fans as a template, I can now authoritatively say that no Indian restaurant in Canada makes edible vindaloo. Because vinegary reasons.

:whistle:

[Matt Cavanaugh]

His blogging income (somewhere between 20 - 40K per year)

May I ask how you arrived at that figure?

[Steersman]

Aratina displays this in spades; false accusations of rape, innocents doxxed instead of their real target, libellous insults don't bother him. He has no real compassion or empathy, just a vacuous morally bankrupt philosophy of "intersectional" feminism. This gives him the comfort of fooling himself into believing he is a moral agent, despite repeated actions proving otherwise.

Blah blah blah. Strut around on your high-horse some more. You're as bad as they are.

Hiya, cunt! Scrapped enough dried shit off your fingers to reply, and to me of all people! I always knew I was your favorite. Oh, others will be jealous, but I will simply bask in your bleary gaze.

Ya know, maybe he has a bit of a point? You might give some thought to an old (very old) Pogo cartoon:
http://www.infowars.com/images/heisus.jpg

Which was largely the import of my last "wall of text" [WoT (tm)], largely if somewhat erroneously directed at "HunnyBunny" [mea culpa if that's the case; "birds of a feather" - "mammals of a mode of locomotion"] which was kind of directed at you, at least in part:

Not sure you, and many others, really understand or appreciate the fact that peddling lies & promoting falsehoods of one sort or another has any number of problematic consequences, that it is largely tantamount to shooting ourselves in the feet. Although I’m not so dogmatic as to insist that there can’t ever be any extenuating circumstances. But I think Philip Wylie, in his Generation of Vipers, put it more succinctly than most:

... man – individual man – ... should employ the scientific method for the purpose of studying himself …. He would find that truth cannot be escaped within, any more than it can be escaped without. He would learn that when he kids himself, or believes a lie, or deceives another man, he commits a crime as real and as destructive as the crime of deliberately running down a person with an automobile. (pg 21)

And I find it rather disconcerting, to say the least, that you apparently think that doing so – “deceive another man” – is “ok when we do it”.

[Dick Strawkins]

His blogging income (somewhere between 20 - 40K per year)

May I ask how you arrived at that figure?

It's a guess based on John Loftus estimate.
Loftus claimed he made a few hundred per month based on page views, and that his page views were about 10% those of Myers.
10 times a few hundred is several thousand per month, multiplied by 12 is in the range of 30,000 per year.
Thats for FTB.
Myers also still has a contract with scienceblogs.
He doesn't post much there but he still gets the hit for his old articles and any spillover from google searches that link him to scienceblogs rather than FTB.
So combine his FTB income with his scienceblog income and we are certainly between 30 -40k.

[Steersman]

So what you are suggesting is that Aratina is aware that Myers is a nasty piece of work and you shouldn't poke him with sticks? It isn't easy to tell through the excess verbiage.

That quote disaster was aimed at Steersman's latest Great Wall of Words.

No, I expect Aratina is too much of a Myers-apologist to actually blame him for anything - a case in point being his rather impressive mental gymnastics in refusing to admit that Myers actually accused some (at least two) of the Pitters commenting on Nugent's blog of being rapists - and that Nugent was "providing a haven" for them.

Seems more likely that Aratina has apparently kind of painted himself into the corner of characterizing Myers has having no more agency or self-control than a mad dog. Which I expect many would agree with.

[piero]

So, Aratina, even though it is a given that you do not like to answer direct questions with direct answers that are free of misdirection and miscomprehension, or even any answer at all, I will ask again: Are you a nihilist?

Oh, give the guy a break. He's probably still trying to understand the Wikipedia article on nihilism.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

So go asymmetrical warfare. Load up on cards that churn out 1/1 monsters, especially flying ones. Don't try to win the battles -- just block his attacks with sacrificial units. Then banzai his $110, 9/7 Acadelian Banthere Riders with expendable rats, zombies, spores and mosquitoes. A few will get through. Steadily whittle down his life points with pinpricks, then maybe save one unstoppable spell to the end to kill him off.

Back when I used to play, I never bought a damned thing; I just "adopted" all the crappy cards my friends didn't want anymore. That's exactly how my decks worked: a zillion cheap critters, a few "gain life whenever your critters die" and "get a flying 1/1 spirit when your critters die" cards, and just annoy your opponents to death. It worked surprisingly often.

The game can be quite stimulating tactically & strategically. But the allure to VNBs of buying esteem via killer decks kinda ruins the community. Last time I played was ages ago, in a friendly tournament vs. a bunch of geek fanatics. I worked from two standard packs and had three ? decks - "Death To All Flying Things" (recall a spider being a key element); a red-green that churned out masses of low level cannon fodder (plus the essential The Hive); a black-white that focused on healing my troops while poisoning/cursing the enemy's. I finished in second place.

I found the geek fanatics' strategies inflexible, overly reliant on massed superiority, and neglecting to factor in the enemy's responses. Hence, easily thrown off track. Think McClellan's Peninsular campaign.

I think it'd be a hoot to be handed a bunch of random cards minutes before play, and have to cobble together a deck as best you can.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

FtB complaints hotline. Bwhahahah


http://web.archive.org/web/201501281104 ... epartment/

They are having a laugh as well as wasting Nugent's time by suggesting he will have to resend his emails, thereby resetting the clock.

Myers and Brayton are like a couple of silly kids. It's about time they grew up.

I don't know if Myers realises what is going to happen but if he does he is supremely stupid by acting the way he is. If he does not care that simply reflects on his complete lack of basic empathy and social skills. Not the sort of person I would ever want to go into business with. If I were Brayton I would be looking for the exit door as Myers will drag him down with him, you can be sure of that.

Their childishness & petulance is truly astounding.

[Steersman]

So teach me about these card games, turbonerds. [...]

Steersman, the current crude topic "Beware the Bite of the Bum Snake!" and your quote made me do it ...

[.youtube]LlWhKQ8IyFA[/youtube]

"The Devil Made Me Do It" :-)
[youtube]0SLifea3NHQ[/youtube]


Although it seems a bit of a non-sequitur: "my quote"? "turbo-negro"? Maybe something in the lyrics? [Which I find impossible to follow]

[jimmy]

Aratina is here on a fishing expedition, I think.

He will probably try a few different types of bait, in the hope that he will stumble across someone having a bad day who will write something that he can represent as a threat that he can keep up his sleeve.

[Karmakin]

So go asymmetrical warfare. Load up on cards that churn out 1/1 monsters, especially flying ones. Don't try to win the battles -- just block his attacks with sacrificial units. Then banzai his $110, 9/7 Acadelian Banthere Riders with expendable rats, zombies, spores and mosquitoes. A few will get through. Steadily whittle down his life points with pinpricks, then maybe save one unstoppable spell to the end to kill him off.

Back when I used to play, I never bought a damned thing; I just "adopted" all the crappy cards my friends didn't want anymore. That's exactly how my decks worked: a zillion cheap critters, a few "gain life whenever your critters die" and "get a flying 1/1 spirit when your critters die" cards, and just annoy your opponents to death. It worked surprisingly often.

I'm a semi-serious Magic player and it doesn't cost me too much. I buy a box (100) every set release, pay tourney entry fees (5 for Constructed, 12 for Draft, which includes 3 packs) every week or so, and maybe a new pack of sleeves every few months and that's about it. I trade for the cards that I want and win a good amount to add to my collection. It's not cheap, but it's not horrifically expensive either as long as you're not going out and basically buying new decks retail (which some people do on a regular basis).

For comparison sake with that structure I have G/B Constellation Whip and Jeskai Tokens, two top-tier Standard decks. Best thing you can do if you want to play is going to your LGS and see if someone will lend you a deck. Chances are someone will have an extra. Or learn to play on the PC game then go draft. 10/15 bucks depending on your LGS and you don't need to own anything, and you can start to build your collection.

[Random Lurker]

So, Aratina, even though it is a given that you do not like to answer direct questions with direct answers that are free of misdirection and miscomprehension, or even any answer at all, I will ask again: Are you a nihilist?

Oh, give the guy a break. He's probably still trying to understand the Wikipedia article on nihilism.

Nothing to add (and the reference was made last time JG asked that question), but since we're also on the topic of collectible/trading cards :

Nihilists.JPG

(31.5 KiB) Downloaded 188 times

[piero]

Interesting article by Pinker on free speech:

Why free speech is fundamental

[...] as soon as you show up to a debate to argue against free speech, you’ve lost it.

[piero]

And another good read:

Not a very PC thing to say

Political correctness is a style of politics in which the more radical members of the left attempt to regulate political discourse by defining opposing views as bigoted and illegitimate. Two decades ago, the only communities where the left could exert such hegemonic control lay within academia, which gave it an influence on intellectual life far out of proportion to its numeric size. Today’s political correctness flourishes most consequentially on social media, where it enjoys a frisson of cool and vast new cultural reach. And since social media is also now the milieu that hosts most political debate, the new p.c. has attained an influence over mainstream journalism and commentary beyond that of the old.

[Stretchycheese]

And another good read:

Not a very PC thing to say

Political correctness is a style of politics in which the more radical members of the left attempt to regulate political discourse by defining opposing views as bigoted and illegitimate. Two decades ago, the only communities where the left could exert such hegemonic control lay within academia, which gave it an influence on intellectual life far out of proportion to its numeric size. Today’s political correctness flourishes most consequentially on social media, where it enjoys a frisson of cool and vast new cultural reach. And since social media is also now the milieu that hosts most political debate, the new p.c. has attained an influence over mainstream journalism and commentary beyond that of the old.

Good article. He also wrote:

The Marxist left has always dismissed liberalism’s commitment to protecting the rights of its political opponents — you know, the old line often misattributed to Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it” — as hopelessly naïve. If you maintain equal political rights for the oppressive capitalists and their proletarian victims, this will simply keep in place society’s unequal power relations. Why respect the rights of the class whose power you’re trying to smash? And so, according to Marxist thinking, your political rights depend entirely on what class you belong to.

The modern far left has borrowed the Marxist critique of liberalism and substituted race and gender identities for economic ones.

Similarly, Paula Kirby remarked that she observed "totalitarian thought" from SJWs from FTB/Skepchick crowd a few years ago. Not surprising to see Chait's observations of the SJW mentality elsewhere too.

[Charles MacGruder]

Commenters openly claiming Shermer is a rapist. I responded to a choice bit of irony:

“So what? All those positive bonds, other people, and academic association happily support and associate with a known rapist.”

You mean Pharyngula + Ogvorbis?

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... ent-906782

[CaptainFluffyBunny]

Aratina displays this in spades; false accusations of rape, innocents doxxed instead of their real target, libellous insults don't bother him. He has no real compassion or empathy, just a vacuous morally bankrupt philosophy of "intersectional" feminism. This gives him the comfort of fooling himself into believing he is a moral agent, despite repeated actions proving otherwise snip shit
Ya know, maybe he has a bit of a point? You might give some thought to an old (very old) Pogo cartoon:
http://www.infowars.com/images/heisus.jpg

Which was largely the import of my last "wall of text" [WoT (tm)], largely if somewhat erroneously directed at "HunnyBunny" [mea culpa if that's the case; "birds of a feather" - "mammals of a mode of locomotion"] which was kind of directed at you, at least in part:

Not sure you, and many others, really understand or appreciate the fact that peddling lies & promoting falsehoods of one sort or another has any number of problematic consequences, that it is largely tantamount to shooting ourselves in the feet. Although I’m not so dogmatic as to insist that there can’t ever be any extenuating circumstances. But I think Philip Wylie, in his Generation of Vipers, put it more succinctly than most:

... man – individual man – ... should employ the scientific method for the purpose of studying himself …. He would find that truth cannot be escaped within, any more than it can be escaped without. He would learn that when he kids himself, or believes a lie, or deceives another man, he commits a crime as real and as destructive as the crime of deliberately running down a person with an automobile. (pg 21)

And I find it rather disconcerting, to say the least, that you apparently think that doing so – “deceive another man” – is “ok when we do it”.

Steers, you think dialog is still possible-that communication is still possible. You do this despite your repeated failure to make any headway in this regard. What does seem to motivate the other side is mockery, often cruel mockery. They retreat, they unwittingly reveal their agenda, they crawl away. This works.

Don't mistake my position for a lack of introspection. I am quite confident that a pit approach to dealing with the SJW position is necessary. Nugent's fine work is also necessary. A many pronged attack, as it were.

Suey Park didn't dissapear by a wall of words, nor has Shanley's star faded by conscientious dialog. They were mocked off the map. Please don't be condescending about the "mean approach " until you can point to a single success by your approach, thanks.

[Cliché Guevara]

Here you will find a sob sister who is being micro-oppressed by drop-down menu options that remind her how unloved she is. Check your normative defaults, shitlords!

Towards the end of a long and tiring day, I turned to an email asking that I set up an account with a client’s payroll processor. I was zipping through the digital template when I hit an unexpected obstacle: I could not answer the site’s required security questions.

In what city did you get engaged?

Name of the place where your wedding reception was held?

What high school did your significant other attend?

As it happens, I am single. What to do?  I looked for alternate questions but couldn’t locate any. I tried typing in N/A for all but still, no dice. By now, the clock was ticking, my exasperation levels rising. I invented responses, got a green light, and, finally: done and done.

When I followed up with the payroll company via Facebook, I received a polite apology with an offer of help to locate drop down menus featuring alternate questions. That might seem like a good resolution, but here’s the thing: What if the default questions had excluded all women, all blacks, all Jews? Would we be equally comfortable saying, “No problem,” and directing them to another drop down?

[Really?]

Commenters openly claiming Shermer is a rapist. I responded to a choice bit of irony:

“So what? All those positive bonds, other people, and academic association happily support and associate with a known rapist.”

You mean Pharyngula + Ogvorbis?

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... ent-906782

It's already gone...

[CaptainFluffyBunny]

Commenters openly claiming Shermer is a rapist. I responded to a choice bit of irony:

“So what? All those positive bonds, other people, and academic association happily support and associate with a known rapist.”

You mean Pharyngula + Ogvorbis?

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... ent-906782

Welcome, and fuck off. Has somebody given you your basket of links?

[CaptainFluffyBunny]

ss-130903-AT-19.ss_full.jpg

(148.14 KiB) Downloaded 148 times

Here, just in case...

[HunnyBunny]

Commenters openly claiming Shermer is a rapist. I responded to a choice bit of irony:

“So what? All those positive bonds, other people, and academic association happily support and associate with a known rapist.”

You mean Pharyngula + Ogvorbis?

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... ent-906782

Gone in 60 seconds..

But someone left this gem later on

http://i.imgur.com/PWxGB9K.png

Rebecca wouldn't, seeing as her current gig is working out so well, 1000 bucks for 3 mins of a video dump of whatever is on her mind. And the surfing...and the fact that she is the laziest ass, so JREF would vanish in a puff of patreon begging with not a whiff of scepticism at anything she did.

The moral courage would be to stand up to all the shit that is going on and say it's time to be sceptical of identity politics, 3rd wave feminism and all the associated garbage.