Zierro

I'm actually trying to put on a few pounds. Your sexiness has inspired me. With your sexiness and my cunning, I could achieve supreme lordship over the Off Topic forum.

A vegetative person lacks intelligence/perception but they can have a past, an established relationship with family or friends, and a will. If they have a past, all of those experiences have been culminated throughout that being's life. Their current state does not negate that. A fetus has no experience other than staring at the inside of the womb - which is relatable to a blank piece of paper. They have yet to form an identity or "personality". If they have an established relationship with other humans, it could be considered wrong to take that vegetative person away from them, as that would be going against their self-conscious right to happiness. Lastly, while they were in their conscious state of mind, they could have claimed their right to life. To go against that would be to go against the will of the person who consciously made the claim. That being said, a vegetative person being an actual 'person' is a gray area. I think there would be nothing unethical about taking them off of life support if the family chose to and it did not go against their will. However, they still cannot be put on the same level as a fetus as there is a vast difference when it comes down to their entities. A sleeping person will more than likely wake up and has just been conscious a few hours ago (or is currently dreaming). Their temporary non-intelligence says nothing about their entity or "being". Actually, I would say that having a need for normal sleep is a great implication of being a bit more than organic mass.

We're at the top of the food chain, our technology is far more advanced than that of any other living organism, and we have the ability to [bleep] up the world on such a great magnitude. Sounds an awful lot like we have overthrown nature - for the time being at least, because you are right about the ultimate entropy thing. At the time being, humans hold the largest influence on the world. Whether it was deserved or not is another story. And also, no matter how efficient or well-planned-out we are, we're still all going to die. Of course we could elongate our stay, but you can't really blame humans for their inevitable demise. Taking an opportunity and working with it however you possibly can is a key element of humanity, and when possibility doesn't allow it, nature has taken its title back. We're not there yet. Right now we're alive and kicking.

Tool - You Lied I just found out how tall Danny Carey and Maynard are. :shock:

Yikes, new age trolling. I miss the good old days when we would just get called fat and stupid. As for vegetarianism, is it immoral that I feel empowered when eating meat off the bone? I see a lot of people claim that the idea of it would/has made them feel awful, but personally I get an endorphin rush because it's symbolic of man conquering nature so much so that we now are the nature. Admittedly though, I am a bit speciest at heart.

Last night I had a Hungry-Man. Beer battered chicken with cheese fries. It's the only enjoyable frozen dinner I've come across.

We're crossing over into the realm of philosophy and cognitive thinking when we use the term "right" - it's an artificial ideal. I have the right to life because I desire it and because it is well within reasonability. A fetus does not desire the right and sometimes it is unreasonable regardless, such as the scenario where the woman is forced to endure the mental anguish of a rape child. You could even say that animals are more entitled to moral treatment than a fetus, because they have a higher level of cognitive function. After all, this is the very reason why we discriminate against sperm by masturbating and chickens by eating them and germs by washing our hands - because we see them as intellectually inferior with less potentiality of "suffering" or "wronging" than you and I have. (Before animal abuse or the likes are brought up, I must stress that killing is inherently a bad idea but also that there are circumstances where it is justifiable, beneficial towards the big picture, and simply an inherent part of life. So even if animals don't possess the "right" to live, it is still in bad taste to painfully kill an animal for fun because the incentive is a twisted one.)

I can't find a specific article regarding what I said, but I have found sites stating you can get up to life in prison for drug possession/trafficking: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] That being said, I have personally heard of someone going to court and witnessing a rapist getting a few year sentence and a pill seller getting life during the same court day. Maybe that specific story was not true, but the links prove it's very possible and it does reflect how backwards the current system is running. --------------- As far as the death sentence arguments go, I've been doing my research. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_McDuff#Broomstick_murders Murderer sentenced to death gets out of jail because prisons were becoming too populated. Days after his release, he continues murdering people. Since we're all about the statistics here, it has also been shown to work: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6802314.html http://www.wesleylowe.com/cp.html#deter During the temporary suspension on capital punishment from 1972-1976, researchers gathered murder statistics across the country. In 1960, there were 56 executions in the USA and 9,140 murders. By 1964, when there were only 15 executions, the number of murders had risen to 9,250. In 1969, there were no executions and 14,590 murders, and 1975, after six more years without executions, 20,510 murders occurred rising to 23,040 in 1980 after only two executions since 1976. In summary, between 1965 and 1980, the number of annual murders in the United States skyrocketed from 9,960 to 23,040, a 131 percent increase. The murder rate -- homicides per 100,000 persons -- doubled from 5.1 to 10.2. So the number of murders grew as the number of executions shrank. Researcher Karl Spence of Texas A&M University said: "While some [death penalty] abolitionists try to face down the results of their disastrous experiment and still argue to the contrary, the...[data] concludes that a substantial deterrent effect has been observed...In six months, more Americans are murdered than have killed by execution in this entire century...Until we begin to fight crime in earnest [by using the death penalty], every person who dies at a criminal's hands is a victim of our inaction." Notes Dudley Sharp of the criminal-justice reform group Justice For All: "From 1995 to 2000," "executions averaged 71 per year, a 21,000 percent increase over the 1966-1980 period. The murder rate dropped from a high of 10.2 (per 100,000) in 1980 to 5.7 in 1999 -- a 44 percent reduction. The murder rate is now at its lowest level since 1966. " The most striking protection of innocent life has been seen in Texas, which executes more murderers than any other state. According to JFA (Justice for All), the Texas murder rate in 1991 was 15.3 per 100,000. By 1999, it had fallen to 6.1 -- a drop of 60 percent. Within Texas, the most aggressive death penalty prosecutions are in Harris County (the Houston area). Since the resumption of executions in 1982, the annual number of Harris County murders has plummeted from 701 to 241 -- a 72 percent decrease The issue of saving lives should come before saving money. Also, there are cases where an execution would be cheaper than life in prison. Anyway... this is why I don't like arguments of credibility and statistics. We all know how easily it can become a stalemate. I'd prefer if it came down to a battle of witty remarks:

Agree with this 100%. Sure, abortion isn't necessarily an easy decision to be made and should always be well thought out, but there are plenty of justifications that I think people are overlooking and straight up disregarding. The biggest one being that a fetus =/= you and I. And if the dictionary really does say that a fetus = you and I, then perhaps it ought to be changed. The thing about rights is that they can conflict with other rights. A fetus does not have the ability to claim their right, whereas a woman can. Therefore, a woman being forced to endure the mental anguish of birthing a rape baby would be disproportionate to the fetus's suffering of being terminated whilst not even being aware of it - which is exactly on par with a sperm or egg's suffering (the very two supplementary proponents to a "human life"). Can we even call it a "right" if it cannot be fought for?

Aliens.

Metallica - Fuel: GIMME FU GIMME FAI GIMME DABAJABAZA Legit metal right there kids.

The reason I quit Runescape was because it would take me years and years to achieve what I wanted - maxed skills. The effort didn't turn me off at all - it's the amount of time I'd have to spend that I would rather spread out through other life experiences and other video games. Maybe if I had a hyperbolic time chamber or something, but I do agree that life is too short for me to worry about maxing out every skill. Runescape isn't that great.

Windows.

Dogs that bark at people walking by on the sidewalk. [bleep] you, insecure bigot.

wut? hypocrisy much? Actually, the correct word would be "logic". High levels can be rude. Low levels can be rude. Therefore, your level does not necessarily reflect your personality.

I've been playing games since I was physically able to, which was around 4-years-old. I don't intend on stopping. Nope, I'll be owning in future MMORPG's when I'm 60. Games can appeal to all audiences, just as music and television do.

I don't know much about architecture, but one thing is for certain - the US has far better eating utensils.

James Blunt offends me more than Slayer offends most Christians.

Roasted chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes with corn in the middle - all smothered in gravy, salt, and pepper. =P~

Which specie do the living organisms belong in then? Personhood is far too complicated to just be a question of science alone. It needs the aid of philosophy.

Social relations (girlfriend, friends, family) Entertainment (games, music, internet, drugs) Making the world a better place (doing my chores)

I don't see any point to it - unless you want to appease to that certain crowd that exalts accessories as symbols of rebellion/coolness/sexiness/etc. So my humble opinion is that it's pretty gay. Especially surgical modifications like sex-change or implants - which really seem like a kick in the face to your natural self. No, but I do have my ear pierced. I don't have anything in it though, and I don't think I would say that I regret it because at least it's an experience to talk about. Not surprised. It is their right and they can do as they like, but piercings for the most part look rather feminine to me, and tattoos look masculine. All in all, when it comes to aesthetic appearance, I think hairstyle and clothing are perfectly fine to worry about (to a point). Anything more than that just makes you seem like you purposely want to come off as eccentric for social attention rather than just feeling comfortable in your own skin. I would also argue that it devalues personality - you are expressing yourself through a materialistic medium and giving people more personality-indicators to focus on other than what you are saying or how you are acting. In other words, I see it as a distraction of your true self and I've never been a fan of bells and whistles. Fashion should be more generic, people should be less generic.

And you weigh how much now? One bite of that and I think my tin foil attire would become two sizes too small. 138 lbs, 6'1''. Do the maff Iron Man 2.

CoD is the most overrated game of all time next to Mario. Right now I'm playing way too many games at once: God of War - Hard mode Zelda: Twilight Princess - getting all hearts and items Shining Force 2 - Super mode and maxing out all characters Bioshock - going for 1000/1000 Oblivion - going for 1250/1250 Alan Wake - simply trying to beat it Gears of War 2 - in the middle of Act 3 on Insane mode Final Fantasy 9 - fun play through (getting used to treasure locations, battles, and mini games before I go for Excalibur 2) Final Fantasy 7 - in the process of maxing out everyone's stats Final Fantasy 10 - in the process of maxing out everyone's stats EDIT: Oh yeah, and I'm trying to beat all of Starcraft's campaign and leveling up a level 32 Tauren Warrior in WoW.

Bloody imbecile. :evil: I cooked a pot pie at 3:00 am. I tried cooking as stealthily as possible so I wouldn't wake anyone, but the damn oven has to beep when you turn it on and off. Now everyone's gonna think I'm a fatty. :(