• 5Nov 08

  The Failings of Democracy

  While the following quotation is often accredited to Alexander Tyler, its true origins are unknown and was most likely written by several authors over a span of many years. Nevertheless, this bit of wisdom has been around for over 100 years and I believe it still holds true in our societies today. Enjoy.

  "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.
  
  The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years.
  
  These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

  • Posted Nov 5, 2008 3:29 pm PT
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• 19Sep 08

  The scammer

  For your reading pleasure, here is a short conversation I had with someone on Gamespot through the messaging system.

  Jaclyn35iy wrote:

  "hi there.
  
  i wuz going around for ppl like me, & I stumbled on your place. u look like you're a pretty remarkable person, but I'm sort of new at this site, & don't know what's with this site. Can't they have a chatting program here? i can't stand sending messages to people, and potentially never getting a responce! Well, if you wanna chatting with me, you could check me over at http://www.datingcentrale.net/?id=3592&mypics , my name there is wild_kitty.
  
  So, ya, maybe we'll talk. always looking to meet more people.
  Alexus Harris"

  Now for my response:

  "I am curious, how many people did you just spam that message to? Listen, I am all for have fun chats, but refering me to datecentral.com?! Get real. Gamespot is a website devoted to video gaming, not about finding more guys to bang. (Actually, when you think about it, video games is almost diametrically opposed to f***ing!) I would not mind having some conversations regarding a variety of topics, but if you are here just looking for more guys to nail, move on! Even worse, if you are just some sort of scammer, don't even bother contacting me again. Thank you.

  Darth Tyrranus"

  She still hasn't written back yet. I wonder why?

  • Posted Sep 19, 2008 7:29 am PT
  • Category: Humor
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• 7Apr 08

  An essay on the "correlation does not imply causation" argument

  Well, I have not previously done any blogging on this website, but my Mechanics of Materials class was canceled, so I have a bit of free time now.

  Amidst all the hassles and lawsuits with Rockstar games and gaming laws, I have noticed a particular trend among users commenting on the respective articles. It always goes something like this: "Video games do not make people more violent. Correlation does not imply causation. This is a parenting issue!" Proponents of this idea seem to think that this "correlation does not imply causation" statement effectively shifts the blame onto the parents, but after some careful thinking on this subject, I must disagree.

  First of all, if you have ever taken a sociology class, you will learn that people are influenced by everything around them, including video games. Although the extent of that influence cannot be determined definitely, the influence is there none-the-less. Therefore, if a person tends to play violent video games, it should not be surprising if that person becomes at least a little more violent than before the were exposed to the games. Those who claim that media does not exert some sort of influence on their lives clearly oppose the academic community.

  Second of all, advocates of this "correlation does not imply causation" clause fail to apply this statement to their own argument. If correlation does not imply causation, then bad parents have absolutely nothing to do with the behaviors of their children! You cannot shift all the blame onto parents if you are going to use a statement like that. Indeed, I know several people who did not have very good parents, yet turned out to be outstanding individuals. Conversely, I have know other people whose parents gave them all the opportunities in the world, yet they still turned out to be bad apples.

  I think it is readily apparent that users of the "correlation does not imply causation" argument cannot blame violence among children upon any one thing if their initial statement is to be sustained. If correlation never implies causation you cannot prove that ANYTHING causes something else. Therefore, users of this all too often used phrase are essentially writing filler, as their statement does not lead to conflict resolution in any way.

  • Posted Apr 7, 2008 3:52 pm PT
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