薔薇語

PatternGhost, in response to the mall shooting: those were two very different situation. In the case of the mall shooting, the guy had a gun. It was known - not suspected. The man also had the gun drawn and ready - not stuffed away somewhere. So, even on the face of it it is inappropriate to compare the two instances. Cops are taking a "Shoot first and never question" stance when it comes to these incidents. Too many people give police too wide a berth when it comes to murdering us. A cop is suppose to de-escalate a situation, not escalate it. And always resorting to maximum force to achieve a goal is what is leading to us having so many death by cop situations. Worse yet, cops think they are above the law. Be it cops who steal personal photos of naked (semi-naked) women. Sexually harass and rape people. Gun down little children. Or the countless other incidents. And those are only the major ones. We still have police using their powers to steal from us (legally!!), harass exes, drink and drive, etc. The whole system is messed up. And too many of us are still gong to defend to the death absolutely any cop just because he wears a badge. That is sick. It is like a cow defending the butcher who is about to kill him. La Rose.

You are more generous than I if you think this is the worst case scenario. To me it just seems like the most plausible. Too many police like being able to kill too many people with impunity. La Rose.

Silly Hermit, Jails are for the folks like you and me. (^^) La Rose.

Superman gets hit for the same reason the WonderWoman I posted above struggled with Aquaman - the writer's simply wanted that. Given the power level Superman is reported to have, there is no reason for him to ever get hit by anyone not moving at those speed. I am reminded of the Doomsday arch with the alternate world Justice Lords. Their Superman came in and made quick work of the creature the reportedly killed Superman - how? Because he didn't forget he was superman and actually fought with a real portion of his strength. We have also seen Superman (the good one, not the Lord's version) lobotomize someone in mere seconds by shooting his heat vision through their eyes. Last I checked, Thor's brain isn't lobotomy proof. It is perfectly possible for Superman to have a knockdown and drag out fight with Thor, if the writer's wanted it to be the case. It is also possible for him to have such a fight with Cyborg, Nightwing, or even Bat-Cow if the writer's wanted it. But we aren't limiting ourselves to writer's fiat. If we actually look at what these characters are actually capable of doing and not deliberately handycapping one to create a good fight, we all should realize that it is like a pigeon fighting against a hurricane. La Rose.

So, instead of a casual squashing, Superman would have to deliberately put his heel down to crush the Thor-Bug? Thor is powerful - that is without doubt. But he ain't going to keep up with Superman. Thor doesn't move at light speed - much less faster. Thor doesn't think at light speed, either. Thor doesn't bench press planets in his free time. Thor doesn't take the hits that Superman does. Thor can't recover the way Superman can. Thor's only advantage is that he might have some experience - but Superman is hardly lacking in that. Superman has faced Galaxy ending threats on a weekly basis. Any difference in experience with Thor is negligible at best and most likely favoring Superman. Again, there is no shame in accepting that Superman is an overpowered god. It isn't an interesting character because of that. And the only reason why he ever loses is because he forgets he is superman. Or Batman. Batman is the trump to everyone. ^-^ La Rose.

Also, on the Pro-She-Hulk side of things, we have a good example of how not amazing WW can be, too. Here she is struggling against aquaman. And not just that, Aquaman outside of water. Come on, can we really expect her to tangle with the Cutest Muscle Woman in the universe? I think not. La Rose.

So, Thor beats up on lesser gods. Okay. I accept that Thor is powerful. And a tarantula must seem like an unstoppable force to a mere fly. But Thor would go slap beneath the heel of Superman much the same way that godlike tarantula would succumb to my heel if I so chose. Thor's only chance would be if the writer drank far too much and forgot exactly how powerful Superman was. There is no shame in that. It is true for everyone. ^^ La Rose.

Can we just accept that superman is an uninteresting god (real god, not just comicbook Thor god) like character who can't be beaten unless the writer wants that? The man can move planets, fly at light speed (faster?), survive actual supernova level explosions, heal to full as long as he has access to sunlight, think at the same speed as the flash, see at the telescopic and atomic level, hear things hundreds of miles away, shoot out laser eye beams that rival Darkseide's omega beams, and is immortal. No one in any comic verse short of death itself has an actual chance of beating him. I couldn't even see Dr. Fate actually beating him if it wasn't for writers needing someway of slowing down their god character. Thor stands as much chance of winning as an ant does against an MMA fighter. La Rose.

She hulk. Diana can take on big brutes but they ussually aren't on She Hulk's level. Just look at that fight with demois. He is a lumbering hulk and most certainly not as strong as She Hulk but Diana struggle to just subdue him. Now slim him down, increase his strength, give him better fighting skills and look at how outmatched Dianna would be. That is She Hulk. La Rose.

Come on, it is the police. That isn't a rock of salt. La Rose.

I could be wrong here, but as I recall the Borg have stated that they are not a perfect species. Indeed, it is that imperfection that leads them to assimilation of others. Through assimilation they achieve greater awareness of the universe and of themselves. And as such they help move themselves towards a possibly ever changing goal post for perfection. And their strong dislike of diplomacy probably has to do with the fact that few species will simply allow themselves to be assimilated. But if the Borg don't assimilate people then the true and deepest thoughts of that species will remain out of reach. No matter how eloquent you or I may be at speaking and expressing ourselves, it pales in comparison to the original thoughts themselves. Those thoughts, that distinctiveness, is what the Borg seems to be after. As to the Borg passing over humans, I believe they make that clear in their first appearance. Originally the Borg only sought after the tech that they could steal from the Federation. Assimilating the population was a second thought that came later. I don't really recall the impetus for that change, though. ---- Moving onto the subject of the Borg in general, though, I know that some of my knowledge is going to be out of date since it has been some time since I watched the shows but I think we are missing a few things here. First, I think the shows (after the first movie) tried their best to imply that there are actually several queens and that while the Borg is governed by one voice, that voice isn't necessarily singular in form or opinion. Even we the queen's form is cut off and destroyed, it doesn't destroy the queen, it just destroys a single avatar. Next up, the queens existence is actually just an emergent property of the 'collective'. Indeed, it operates much the same way these boards and other much larger social media sites wherein access to all content is open to all (as opposed to FB wherein your access to content is limited to your social circles). When everyone has access certain basic governing rules. Certain basic rules are able to be agreed upon widely and decisions are made. The way the various Super Draft games are conducted is a good sign of that on these forums. The queen is the emergent thoughts of the collective given the base framework they are told to operate under. That is to say, that whoever created the Borg probably dictated what issues and methods of conflict resolution were given weight but that from that framework the collective created an avatar of its basic will. Next, I think it is fair to say that the Borg should have actually conquered all of the known universe (minus things like the Q) long ago. They have access to Time Travel and are not limited in their ability to span the universe, so there was never really anything that should have stopped them from going back 100,000 years and just assimilating everything in the Delta Quadrant before it could ever pose a threat. Then, after they caught back up, go back in time again and assimilate the Beta quad. Then The Gamma, and then the Alpha. Each time they go back they go back to a past that supports even great levels of expansion as they are able to maintain the collective over extreme distances. And they could inform their previous selves of any obstacles that got in the way the last time they went back. Indeed, given the McGuffin of time travel in Trek, the Borg should be just about the only living species in existence. I do agree that the Borg are really quite foolish to allow intruders onto their ships ever given that they know what happens as a result. Also, when it comes to adapting to weapons and such, why must they? They are bound to have assimilated at least one Star Fleet Engineer who could easily inform them of the total range of possibilities that any phaser could operate under. It isn't like the weapon has infinite capacity. So shouldn't they be protected from everything possible long before the Federation could change things up? And heck, it isn't like they aren't being hit with similar tech from all around the known universe all at once anyway. There is no reason to assume that they aren't able to adapt. Indeed, the only plausible reason would seem to be if the collective does undergo thought-strain and thus they self regulate into cells wherein each one has a defined avatar queen that acts as both boss and conduit for info exchange. But given the task of controlling the borg is massive, the ability to communicate with the other queens is limited and thus trivial matters such as "The Fed started to use Frequency xyz today to kill us" might get left out. As to other species teaming up to overthrow the Borg - that is unlikely. While there are tons of civilizations that border the Borg, there are probably very few that actually border each other. And while those civilizations may have a common enemy, there could be countless reasons for them to not trust each other. And then taking all of that shared knowledge they do work on together and getting it out to every other civ posses such a logistical nightmare. Especially since it doesn't take but one bad encounter with the Borg in order to cause all your efforts to be in vain. --- The thing that annoys me most about the Borg is the Federation. The Fed has a true and dire threat on their border. One that has made it to Sol at least once. Yet they still cling to stupid treaties with other groups that prevent them from developing tech to stop such threats. One full cloak phasing battleship would be able to fend off a lot of Borg and Dominion threats. It would also give the other empires something to rally behind. But the Fed is too stuck up to use what they have to actually, you know, survive. La Rose.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound I guess: Off Duty Boston Cop Assaults Uber driver and then steals his car. Oh, and when he is tracked down, he proceeds to assault the Uber driver again. Because, ya know, it takes a couple beatings before people learn to respect 'authoritah!' On the good side, though, this jerk has been arrested. On the bad side, I am willing to bet he will only be asked to refrain from publicly beating other people in the future. I mean, we wouldn't want him to stop beating people, just do it when there is plausible deniability like all the other 'good' cops do. La Rose.

Here is a lovely story of our wonderful D**** in blue: Off Duty Officer Attempted to Flee after Choking a NYC Subway Conductor. For his punishment, I am going to guess he will have to work at his desk for a month or two - ya know, so that justice can be served. La Rose.

Kids aren't scared they will go to jail, they are scared the will go to a morgue. La Rose.

Grand juror in Missouri police shooting case sues prosecutor by Reuters. This is an interesting little article and situation. La Rose.

I think I started watching b5 with the start of season two. While there are going to be some things that might slip because you missed season one, most of it should be okay. Eventhough it does have a seriea long plot, each episode does its best to be self contained. La Rose.

While I would generally agree with you that we police a lot of minor issues we probably shouldn't, doing things like issuing summons isn't one of those things. And the fact the cops are using the tragic death of two of their officers as justification for this is seriously disrespectful. They want more money, plain and simple. They don't care about their lost comrades, they don't care about the citizens they police, and they don't care about showing some basic human decency. All they care about is cashing in all this tragedy for a quick buck. It is sickening. Pink slips should be flying out the door like donuts into cop cars. La Rose.

More K-Pop! Seriously, you need to watch this one for the music video alone. La Rose.

I don't blame you. Cenk and them really do become a repetitive and obnoxious fairly quickly. And that episode was them near their worst (not actually their worst but near it). La Rose.

From Vice News: The Ezell Ford Autopsy report has been released. And low and behold he was shot in the arm, the side and in the back at close range by uniformed officers. My guess is that the officers will get a free meal and promotion for their 'hard work'. Utah Police Fatally shoot a US Purple heart recipient who they claim was holding a shotgun. And what a coinkidink his body cam was 'off' the whole time. Body cams should be on at all times - Medical calls, disturbance calls, traffic citations, taking a piss. There should not be a single world unheard or bowel movement un-documented from the moment a cops clocks in to the moment he clocks out. And if there ever is, that person should be immediately put on probation until it can be determined that they did not do it to save their own arse. If it can't, fire them. Police spokesman insults Micheal Brown memorial and has been suspended. I am almost of the mind to say that is enough but a good part of me wants to see this man fired before the new years starts. La Rose.

Indeed, NuSoardGraphite, I perhaps went out too much into the extreme as to say I don't understand at all. I get the open world appeal** and how stunning it looks graphically. But I have also seen well mannered and good people get weird joy out of just harming random NPCs on screen and doing absolutely strange things. I get that not everyone is going to share my sensibilities but I still find it hard to grasp on a meaningful and emotional level why such things are fun. Then again, it took me until about a year ago to grasp on that same level why people are obsessed with professional sports. While I don't watch them and have no desire to, I have gotten into watching StarCraft II tournaments. I even have players and commentators I follow and want to support. Heck, the only time I get on twitter is to promote the games and talk about them as they are happening. Now I get, on an emotional level, that connection. But I still don't have that for GTA. Same goes for some other strange games like Goat Simulator. ** There were games before GTA that did the open world thing. And there have been many after it that have done a great job at it. But GTA does reportedly do a good job at it. La Rose.

On the upshot, though, since they are getting involved less in minor offenses, the likihood of one of them going off the hook (are they ever on it these days?) and murdering some innocent person is down. So, there is that. ^^ ♪ Always look on the bright side of life. ♪ La Rose.

Obviously you don't understand, Ragitsu. Police are the most sacrosanct people in this world. Conservatives are in bed with most any military-esc arm of the government and Liberals can't ever turn on their unions. Absolutely nothing negative will happen to these people for not doing their job - just like nothing happens to them when they 'do' their job. The lot of them ought to be receiving pink slips and we need to be getting in new blood. Preferably some people who know better than shoot first and never ask questions. La Rose.

So the NYPD in an act of defiance towards the Mayor have stopped doing their job. Why exactly are we paying these people again? This is a unique situation where I actually genuinely agree with Cenk. La Rose.

La Rose.