Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

[Taskmage]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”

I wanted to propagate this awesome-sounding quote on facebook, but for some reason I decided to check it's authenticity first. Turns out it's almost certainly apocryphal.
The Volokh Conspiracy � “Government Is Not Reason, It Is Not Eloquence — It Is Force”
There's no record of him ever saying this in speech or writing, and the earliest attribution of it isn't until 1902. I agree with whoever said it and it was well said, but probably not by Washington.

The thing about quotes on the internet is that you cannot confirm their validity.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

Let's put it this way: Everyone wants people to do well, but not everyone recognizes everyone else as a person.

Which is why the two-party system blows ass because all it really ever succeeds in doing is getting two polarities to dehumanize each other.

I mean, you can even look at a group like the Log Cabin Republicans who are still republican despite being gay, a group that would like to change this part of the GOP and then you have someone like Rachel Maddow who should be sympathetic to that in concept, that's progress for everyone after all. But since she believes "gay" and "republican" can't mingle, they're a bunch of self destructive nimrods who will remain such until they repent and become liberal like her.

Politics really is a spectrum or beliefs. We can't boil it down to two options and continue to believe this will pave the way to a brighter future. Its no longer so much two sides of the same coin as one wrecking ball.

Hell this is why i hate video games that subscribe to a moral binary. Its cute for Star Wars, but even that world has more to it than good or bad. If it didn't Han Solo and Boba Fett wouldn't be all that interesting. DX, Fallout and SMT at least make me feel like I have a real choice in how I not only play the game but affect its world and story. Maybe I don't want to side with the NCR or the Legion, so its good FNV gave me a couple more choices to go on there.

[Taskmage]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

The Shred of Truth in Romney’s “47 Percent” Gaffe | Praxis | Big Think

This article makes a fair point in Romney's defense at the beginning (though a small one given the scope of his fuckup) and then made me LOL with Venn diagrams illustrating his twisted logic.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

I've been rolling the M:tG:O idea around, but if nobody I know is playing I might as well play strangers at the local card shop. If a few DiV people were playing, I'd be in too.

If you wana play, I'll consider signing up. Lemme make a thread about it and see what other interest we can spark (and rerail this thread away from M:TG in the process)

[Taskmage]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

@Mal - While I accept it to a degree as a necessary evil, I don't believe in taking away the wealth of someone who has rightfully earned it. That's their own property, and while I'd obviously rather they spent it making more Gates Foundations rather than building bigass golf courses, making joke runs at the presidency and generally being a giant prick, if that's how they want to live, it's their right to choose. Obviously I would prefer to live in a society that places a higher value on charity and leaving a positive legacy then avarice and personal glorification, that's not a situation that I believe can or should be brought about through government. Humanity will make that decision of its own free will over time, and the best way I can support that is being the change I want to see.

On a tangent, you can live comfortably from the interest of 1M dollars invested properly, and in relative affluence from as little as 3M. My grandparents had some friends who made a small fortune in entrepreneurial business and then rode out the interest like that for the rest of their lives. Multiple homes, yachts and luxury cruises, the works. Nobody in the world needs 10x or 100x that.

@YM - I always blew off digital cards vs real ones I could hold, but ultimately they're worth what you can do with them, so if some can be used to play with you guys and some can't, it's the latter that are a raw deal.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

To reiterate the fact that I've been only playing Commander with physical cards as of late, I am uncertain as to how worthwhile a venture MTGO would be.

Of course I might just bandwagon if several people here joined, but only because that would imply that digital cards were worth my time after all.

[Malacite]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

I doubt you'd see a decrease of innovation. It's what TM said. Higher wages only increase productivity in creative jobs up until you have enough money to no longer worry it. After that, how much you produce is a function of how much you enjoy what you're doing.

Besides, if your theory were right everyone in this forum would be chasing a career in medicine or law. But people try to strike a balance between making a living and enjoying what they do for a living. I don't want to be lawyer even if they earn twice my salary. If every job in the world paid exactly the same, you'd do the one you enjoy the most or hate the least.

Oh of course, I'm a firm believer that the most important thing above all else is that you enjoy your work - making loads of cash is meaningless if you're completely miserable. I was just making a point about communism and forcing everyone to earn the same pay - it doesn't work and it can have a negative impact on incentive. Could have worded it better I suppose.

75k eh? I would have thought it closer to maybe 100k (or 200 if living with a partner). Personally, I'd love to be able to live entirely off passive income - my Dad and I are still trying to find ways of making that work, just haven't really been able to make it happen yet. Does anyone really need more than 100k a year? If you can pay the bills, have free time to take a vacation etc. how much more do you need? I can't understand the mentality of wanting millions and millions of dollars. For one thing, I know a lot of retired people can become bored, to the point of actually missing work. I don't really see that as an issue to me though, I love having free time XD

But there is a limit to how much happiness money can buy. Personally, if I don't have to work and am free to spend time with family & friends, maybe give a little to charity, that's more than enough. Like with these crazy lotteries... who the hell needs to win 200+ million dollars? You know how many people's lives even a fraction of that money could make a dramatic difference in if it were split up more evenly? It's why I'm glad Obama believes in wealth redistribution, at least to the degree of giving everyone a fair shake. It's not about hand outs, it's about making sure everyone has a shot at living a decent life. I can't stand it when assholes like Trump go on TV going on about how they're such a huge success & they're better than everyone else etc - or Romney himself, saying that he wants to create an economy so strong that everyone can strike it big.

That's a fucking pipe dream and he knows it. Not everyone can make it big, and I personally believe it's the responsibility of those who do well to give back.I don't give a rat's ass how smart you are or how great your product is, the fact is you wouldn't have gotten rich without the people working under you and the people who actually bought your product. This whole mentality of "I got mine and screw the rest of you" just sickens me to the core. It's too bad John Edwards turned out to be such a piece of shit, he's the only guy who's ever really championed the cause for equality and to put an end to poverty.

[Taskmage]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

I've been rolling the M:tG:O idea around, but if nobody I know is playing I might as well play strangers at the local card shop. If a few DiV people were playing, I'd be in too.

I have Duels of the Planeswalkers on Steam as well as DotP 2012, but I didn't bother buying the 2013 edition. Not being able to build your own decks takes way too much out of the game for me, and it doesn't help that most of the decks suck, fewer are interesting, and the ones that are decent aren't necessarily the ones that are interesting.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

true.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

Im getting the itch to play again... but im suffering the same problem as always. Nobody to play with. We should all just play M:TG Online. Problem solved.

It's just not the same if I can't hold two mountains in my hand and waggle my eyebrows at my opponent and spook them into thinking I'm holding two lightning bolts. Half the fun is seeing the other players react.

[Firewind]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

I play the MTG games on steam is anyone is interested in playing.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

Im getting the itch to play again... but im suffering the same problem as always. Nobody to play with. We should all just play M:TG Online. Problem solved.

[Taskmage]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

Although it's worth mentioning that just because money stops having any utility for increasing happiness after some point, that doesn't mean it stops being a motivator. People will irrationally continue to pursue money even after it stops making them happier because they've developed an expectation that it will and continue to believe it. It's culturally ingrained as well. So economics says one thing about rational behavior, and psychology and sociology says another about what humans will actually do.

Everything else I agree with.

[Armando]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

You can't have everyone making the same money for different jobs, that just kills incentive and innovation - it also just doesn't work either lol.

I doubt you'd see a decrease of innovation. It's what TM said. Higher wages only increase productivity in creative jobs up until you have enough money to no longer worry it. After that, how much you produce is a function of how much you enjoy what you're doing.

Besides, if your theory were right everyone in this forum would be chasing a career in medicine or law. But people try to strike a balance between making a living and enjoying what they do for a living. I don't want to be lawyer even if they earn twice my salary. If every job in the world paid exactly the same, you'd do the one you enjoy the most or hate the least.

[Taskmage]

Re: Melody's Melodramatic Meltdown on Mitt Romney (Tounge Twister?)

I heard a little more of the clip was released than was available yesterday, and in the extended cut he goes on about how Palestine has no interest in peace. Way to screw that up before the word Go.

There was a Princeton study a few years ago that showed that money stops buying happiness above $75k/year. That is, there's a correlation between a person's level of income and their level of happiness up to that point, but every extra dollar earned after $75k has a zero or negligible effect on personal happiness. I think that number should inform tax policy, and sharply increase tax rates on take-home income after that point. I still believe in small government and that the tax burden "pie" should be small, but it makes sense to me that the bulk of that pie should be paid over the happiness cap.