Zeropoint

One time in the Navy I walked into a low-hanging fire sprinkler valve. It hurt so bad I wound up down on one knee, and I don't remember actually GOING down to the knee. For a few seconds, I couldn't do anything else and for several seconds more I didn't do anything except pull myself together. Afterward, I analyzed in HERO terms and found that the game is pretty accurate:
 
Assuming that all my stats were baseline, I figured that what happened is that I did a move-through on the ship (and failed to do any knockback, of course). That does STR damage plus a velocity bonus that I wasn't moving fast enough to get, so I did 2d6 Physical to the ship and got the same damage in return. Assuming average results, I took 2 Body and 7 Stun, reduced to 0 Body and 5 Stun by my natural 2 PD. After applying x2 Stun for the hit location and another x2 Stun for taking damage out of combat, my total damage taken was 0 Body and 20 Stun. With my CON of 10, I was Stunned but not unconscious. My "next phase" was consumed by recovering from being stunned, and then I voluntarily "took a recovery" on all my actions until I had my Stun back.
 
TL;DR: head injuries hurt and I'm a nerd.

One time in the Navy I walked into a low-hanging fire sprinkler valve. It hurt so bad I wound up down on one knee, and I don't remember actually GOING down to the knee. For a few seconds, I couldn't do anything else and for several seconds more I didn't do anything except pull myself together. Afterward, I analyzed in HERO terms and found that the game is pretty accurate:
 
Assuming that all my stats were baseline, I figured that what happened is that I did a move-through on the ship (and failed to do any knockback, of course). That does STR damage plus a velocity bonus that I wasn't moving fast enough to get, so I did 2d6 Physical to the ship and got the same damage in return. Assuming average results, I took 2 Body and 7 Stun, reduced to 0 Body and 5 Stun by my natural 2 PD. After applying x2 Stun for the hit location and another x2 Stun for taking damage out of combat, my total damage taken was 0 Body and 20 Stun. With my CON of 10, I was Stunned but not unconscious. My "next phase" was consumed by recovering from being stunned, and then I voluntarily "took a recovery" on all my actions until I had my Stun back.
 
TL;DR: head injuries hurt and I'm a nerd.

That's what white phosphorus munitions are for.

The other half would be a problem for centaurs. You know, you spend a minute or two admiring the shapely hindquarters of a fine filly with one of your centaur buddies and then something stops blocking your view and you find out you've been perving on a horse.

"There's a compromise bill to keep the notification bar but at least charge the battery."

In the US, people of the Nazi-esque varieties tend to be the WASP types as well, so I guess it fits.

I tried to read it in Chris Hemsworth's voice, but the diction is all wrong.

I tried to read it in Chris Hemsworth's voice, but the diction is all wrong.

As your Heresy stat goes up, you get bonuses to interacting with xenos, technology skills, and generally everything involving creativity and unorthodox solutions, but you get penalties to interacting with any of the Imperial orders. Maybe you become more visible/accessible to Warp beings? I'm not really up on 40K fluff.
 
If you switch from calling the stat "Heresy" to "Orthodoxy", then the CoC "Sanity" model works really well. Learning things reduces your Orthodoxy stat. Your Orthodoxy stat is what you roll against to avoid losing Orthodoxy. Exposure to evidence that the world doesn't work the way that the official Imperium doctrine says it does calls for an Orthodoxy roll. When you talk to Inquisitors you have to make an Orthodoxy roll to avoid inadvertently saying something heretical, etc.

You're right, I could have put that a lot less abrasively. We all deserve better than that here. Vondy, I appologize.

You're right, I could have put that a lot less abrasively. We all deserve better than that here. Vondy, I appologize.

Well, I watched the video, and now I understand what you mean by "finite" and "infinite" in this context, at least.
 
I want to keep America going (infinite), partly because it's my country, partly because I live here, partly because of how America affects the rest of humanity, and partly because of the values ensconced in its system of government. Right now the Democrats don't really seem like they're much of a net gain in those areas, but once again, the Republicans seem like they're rapidly moving the country in the wrong direction.
 
Vondy, I went back and looked at your list of libertarian values. With the exception of "friendliness and good faith across the aisle", they look like standard Republican/Tea Party points; right-wing ideas very carefully couched in polite terms; what they call "dog whistles". I hope I'm misreading your intent.
 

You're right, I could have put that a lot less abrasively. We all deserve better than that here. Vondy, I appologize.

You misunderstand, or misrepresent. I'm not voting Democrat to spite the Republicans; I'm voting Democrat to stop the Republicans. If you can't see a meaningful difference between the policies and goals of the two parties, then your understanding of the world is so different from mine that I don't see how we can have a meaningful conversation on this subject.

You misunderstand, or misrepresent. I'm not voting Democrat to spite the Republicans; I'm voting Democrat to stop the Republicans. If you can't see a meaningful difference between the policies and goals of the two parties, then your understanding of the world is so different from mine that I don't see how we can have a meaningful conversation on this subject.

You know, I completely agree with Vondy that thinking about the long term is very important, and that preventing fires is better than putting out fires, metaphorically speaking. The problem is that we are currently on fire. The Republicans are running actual Nazi candidates in some places, FFS.
 
I don't care much for the Democrats. They're too hawkish, too much in the pocket of big business, and too afraid to push for significant fixes. The republicans, on the other hand, are actively opposing everything Vondy says he's for. Anyone who values "maximizing personal liberty and opportunity and prosperity for every single American" needs to be opposing the Republicans wherever they can. Help us put this fire out, and then we can talk about fire prevention.

You know, I completely agree with Vondy that thinking about the long term is very important, and that preventing fires is better than putting out fires, metaphorically speaking. The problem is that we are currently on fire. The Republicans are running actual Nazi candidates in some places, FFS.
 
I don't care much for the Democrats. They're too hawkish, too much in the pocket of big business, and too afraid to push for significant fixes. The republicans, on the other hand, are actively opposing everything Vondy says he's for. Anyone who values "maximizing personal liberty and opportunity and prosperity for every single American" needs to be opposing the Republicans wherever they can. Help us put this fire out, and then we can talk about fire prevention.

You know, I completely agree with Vondy that thinking about the long term is very important, and that preventing fires is better than putting out fires, metaphorically speaking. The problem is that we are currently on fire. The Republicans are running actual Nazi candidates in some places, FFS.
 
I don't care much for the Democrats. They're too hawkish, too much in the pocket of big business, and too afraid to push for significant fixes. The republicans, on the other hand, are actively opposing everything Vondy says he's for. Anyone who values "maximizing personal liberty and opportunity and prosperity for every single American" needs to be opposing the Republicans wherever they can. Help us put this fire out, and then we can talk about fire prevention.

You know, I completely agree with Vondy that thinking about the long term is very important, and that preventing fires is better than putting out fires, metaphorically speaking. The problem is that we are currently on fire. The Republicans are running actual Nazi candidates in some places, FFS.
 
I don't care much for the Democrats. They're too hawkish, too much in the pocket of big business, and too afraid to push for significant fixes. The republicans, on the other hand, are actively opposing everything Vondy says he's for. Anyone who values "maximizing personal liberty and opportunity and prosperity for every single American" needs to be opposing the Republicans wherever they can. Help us put this fire out, and then we can talk about fire prevention.

I'd add a criterion . . . or rather, encapsulate some of his criteria a bit differently: An ordinary person should be able to draw the flag 1) with no special artistic ability, 2) from memory, 3) with just a single pen or pencil. This obviously includes the "works in black and white" requirement, sets a limit on the amount of detail, and sets a practical limit of three colors (blank, filled, and hatched). Equally obvious is that my criterion doesn't fit a lot of real world national flags; we've got way too many flags that are just a set of three stripes.

But these are not symmetrical positions. There is clear evidence that the republican policies are disenfranchising thousands, and likely tens of thousands, of minority voters. There is no evidence that the lack of those policies are causing tens, lets alone hundreds or thousands of cases of voter fraud.
 
 
You can promise that all you like, but their own actions and words say otherwise. The emails that have come out in the various lawsuits around the republican efforts document republicans specifically targeting black voters. The voter registration purges going on across the country in red states at least appear to be disproportionately affecting minority voters. The claims of voter fraud that get made to justify their policies are shown again and again to be baseless.  A bunch of republican voters may believe that voter fraud is a problem, and that their politicians are trying to fix it, but they are wrong.  
 
 
I admit that Republicans have done things in the name of religious freedom. But as far as I can see, that's just lip service. They have done nothing in actual service of religious freedom. A corporation is not a person and has no religion, so can not have religious objections to anything. If the owners don't want to comply with law, they shouldn't be in business. 
 
And why should discriminating against homosexuals be any different than discriminating against any other group. There are still churches that preach against the mixing of the races. Should a business run by a member of that church be able to discriminate against blacks? Should a business be able to refuse to hire a Mormon, or a catholic, if it's run by a Southern Baptist? Because those make just as much sense.
 
 
 
That's certainly something that's alleged, and should be looked into. But even if it is found to be true, that doesn't mean you scrap the whole idea of helping traditionally underrepresented minorities.
 
And in my original, I left out the biggest difference of all between the parties right now, at least in terms of long term effects.
 
The Democrats want to address global warming. 
The  Republicans claim that it doesn't exist, or that if it does, it has nothing to do with the actions of humanity, and there's nothing we can do about it.
 
Global warming is an existential threat to human civilization, and possibly human existence. By denying it, the Republicans are threatening the human race. I know it sounds melodramatic, but every day the Republicans stay in power, the more likely human civilization faces an early end. Okay, well, that may not be true. They may have already delayed action long enough that it's too late, and there's nothing we can do. So, there's that.
 
 
 
 

I believe in a large, robust and active government, because the government is us, the people, having a say and influence over the economic forces that otherwise harm the majority for the benefit of the extreme minority.
I believe no individual is more important than the social contract that binds us, that provides the stability necessary for advancement.
I believe equal opportunity requires limitations on those who have traditionally held privilege.
I believe fiscal responsibility involves a level of wealth redistribution that reduces the gap between the most wealthy and most poor, and incentivizes a bulging middle class. This includes highly funded public education through university levels.
I believe in a level of defense that is not beholden to, nor for the benefit of the military industrial complex.
I believe in active, dynamic regulation of the markets, because "free markets" never exist... they are either controlled by a wide body of government, or controlled by the economic interests who benefit the most from them.
I believe that good faith in the face of unbridled greed and corruption is foolish and treasonous. Strong defense starts with defending the majority from the minority that would enslave them.
 

I assume it's threatening to them to be put on equal footing with other kinds of "people with adjectives" instead of just being "people" by default.

Birds. Specifically corvids. They come in a variety of sizes for a variety of missions, they're smart, black goes with anything, and they're menacing enough to be cool and fit evil plans (would you take a supervillain with an army of parakeets seriously?) but not so menacing that they wouldn't fit for a hero. They leave options open.