Dupin

I would trade my mining light for pretty much any hat. It's too similar to the normal hat, and I don't play engie very often any more. For techies: Halp. My quest into the world of code was a failure. You may remember I had a wierd problem with graphics when I first started. I solved it by putting -dxlevel 81 into the launch options. My dxdiag says it's capable of DX11, and my graphics card is supposedly capable of DX9.0c. I tried changing to -dxlevel 90 so I could use paints, but the problem returned. I'm back in 8.1, but I'd like to be able to use DX9. Anyone know what's up? I also have -novid, and added +mat_bumpmap 0 +mat_picmip 2 as it's supposed to improve the framerate for intel cards. Anyone who hasn't yet should prevent their antivirus from scanning the TF2 stats thing via SPUF. Just be a noob like me and open the file and take a screenshot, then save in paint.

#-o I have been bombarded with these same responses ever since I had my own thread on this topic Short answer is no, the government isnt the sole force that solves these problems and a society can figure these out without a government doing so. Im not going into specifics at this moment as I litterally expained this on every page of my old thread Monopolies do not naturally form, either its a force - of a state - saying you are granted sole right to produce this, or in the case of a cartel where they aim to kill their competition. However on a true free market in a geographical monopoly it would cost an astronomical price to buyout every one of your competitors to have that monopoly. With a technological monopoly it costs a lot of money to produce a product that would be extremely difficult for a competitor to reproduce and make their own copycat product to put on the market. With any monopoly I am saying it takes astronomical sums of money to make it one, and even more to drive out the inevitable competitors that will spring up. I will visit your thread at some point to see the long version of your argument on "litterally" every page. I have tended to avoid it because the videos turned me off. I understand if they express your point better, but I don't have hours to waste on some monologue, especially when I would have to turn off my music. First of all, who's to say corporations will not form a "cartel where they aim to kill their competition"? Large corporations can mass-produce their products, allowing them to sell these products at a lower price. If price is the only significant factor, competition is eliminated because small businesses cannot compete. Therefore, large corporations dominate free-market economies because they can undercut their competitors. This is a slippery slope fallacy. The argument is valid if supported by a chain of logical events. To simplify it, the possibility that a corporation could easily take control of the economy makes a free market dangerous. Ring World, perhaps if you have been recieving the same argument repetitively, your reasoning is incorrect. Is Mexico not a good enough example of the results of anarchy?

US doesn't censor information, my ass. [bleep] censorship.

I went out for Mexican tonight. Chips and salsa + higaditos + enchiladas verdes + black beans and rice + Mexican cheesecake = heaven.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK2HANwsUWg The guy at the Mexican restaurant I went to got it stuck in my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mycNvDcyjEA

What if the monopoly does not raise its prices and provides quality goods? Self-interest and other less greed-oriented motives explain that a monopoly will normally result in raising prices and/or poor goods, simply because it can. Sure, it's possible that the steak manufacturers will provide good steak at a good price, but the steak sauce manufacturers may have other ideas. Corruption is a result of human nature, not of a specific system of government.

This makes me wonder what he would do if elected after a terrorist attack. "I didn't catch the last one, but my people have been ordering me plane tickets like crazy. I will spend the next 24 hours in the air above your heads, covering your asses. Thank you."

Yeah, I hate it when all of my parents' friend are so homosexual.

A bad politicians thread? Well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0 lawl

When there is no legal government (or it is ineffective), and illegal one will form. Also: 1) You have money. 2) You go to the store, and see two products. One costs more, but fits your standards. The other is cheap but doesn't. 3) You buy the former. 4) The majority of people who enter the store either do not have those standards or do not have that money. Your product goes out of business. 5) You now have no option but to buy the latter product, which now has a monopoly on sales and can raise its prices however it likes. 6) You now have little money. You must sacrifice your standards to buy any new products which are cheaper. 7) Monopolies riegn and the low prices are the best prices. Large corporations take control of the economy. 8) Eventually, a corporation with no limits would be powerful enough to control your life. This is illegal government.

I can see why you would say DH is for people who are good at soldier, but I still disagree. For example, one of my favorite maps: Egypt. Rocket jump to the balcony around the first command point, then from there to the top of the stone pillars. From there, you can target both doorways and get massive splash kills, especially on crits. The DH would do nowhere close to as much damage. Maybe it's newbish to not be targeting specific players and sort of "spraying and praying", but that's a large part of the soldier class, and it's a huge benefit for your team to keep the opponents pinned into their spawn for as long as possible.

This just in: New top-secret Wikileaks documents reveal that Andvari is some sort of dwarf that can turn into a fish. That, or a troll ;)

This is awesome. I don't normally wear band shirts, but I would wear this.

They released plans for the Natascha changes in the little thing about the upcoming beta version. Arggh noooooo :( Direct hit is great for soldier as is buff banner. Demo is fine with defaults but i like the axe as well. Sandwich is crucial for heavy, and the swift gloves can be great if used properly. For a medic the blutslaugher is great if you know how to use it and the kritz is crucial on defensive. Gotta have jarate on sniper as well. Backburner isn't good for pyros at all unless you want to play an individual game - you're far more useful as a team player with the default thrower or even the degreaser. Direct hit is crap. The point of soldier is to be able to fire rockets (especially crits) into tight areas and scatter/destroy enemies with splash damage, DH reduces splash damage. Buff banner - maybe, if you're feeling selfless. I had it when I asked for those gunboats from you, and I've been using them since. It was game-changing for me to be able to rocket jump without worrying about the damage. I have the axe on demo (two actually) and I don't really use it for melee. It's much better to use pipes or stickies at close range. Medics normally heal heavies, and if you can get out of firing range to eat then you can take a minute to find a dispenser or health pack. I don't have GRU or kritz, so I can't judge those, but I haven't used my blutsaugher because I rarely play offensively as a medic, it's much better as a support class. Jarate as sniper is not that great, I crafted two of mine into scrap. I use the razorback instead, as it pretty much prevents backstabs. Backburner on pyro is awesome, with the damage boost and the crit from behind. Since pyro's relatively fast, you can run around behind, especially if it's a group of enemies. With the crits, you can take down a heavy in a few seconds. I scrapped my degreaser, because who wants faster weapon switching and some air thing if it comes with a severe damage reduction?

I ate some wierd coconut bars (they tasted more like chocolate than coconut) that my mom made. I can't stand coconut and it used to give me migraines. I have the beginnings of a headache right now :wall: How do people feel about coconut in desserts?

A friend of mine went to China and said the food was pretty much the same, but worse. And he actually likes American Chinese food to begin with. wat is wow

And hanged. Honestly, it's cases like these that make me wonder why we ever outlawed drawing and quartering.

Someone reccommend me some good Modest Mouse songs. E: Started a new Pandora station. First three songs: Dashboard, something by Radiohead, and Lisztomania by Pheonix. Do like.

Oh cool, any recommendations on what I should ask for? It depends which class you like. The only non-default weapon I found useful was Your Eternal Reward, but I got a few weapons from drops and achievements that were really helpful. I wouldn't get anything for the soldier or demoman (the scottish resistance is decent, but not really necessary). Heavy really depends on your playstyle, sniper, medic, and engie are fine with defaults. Scout would be a good one, but you might not enjoy playing as him, and I can't reccommend a weapon because multiple combinations work well. The spy stuff can mostly be gotten from achievements. Backburner is great for pyro. Max's head is awesome. But what's wrong with the Pillar? I sort of like it, even if it makes you more visible. And update was just a wierd paint patch or something. It's made all my hats look white, but I think they're fixing that.

Fix'd

You're both wrong, it's change it to a nostalgia-inducing image, and I refuse to participate. You could put a cartoon or a pokemon, but only if you like hopping on random Facebook bandwagons.

Preceded by: Cuban Missile Crisis, in which JFK neglected to mention to the world the benefits the USSR got from the solution, making it seem like a massive defeat for Kruschev Context: McCarthyism, during which the press did very little other than talk up the "Communist Threat" and the evils of godlessness Succeeded by: The Pentagon Papers (and the political environment that made them necessary) Oops.

Furah, is there an update coming out? Does Valve release update schedules beforehand? Yay! What's your steam ID? Just using Gandorf until I can think of something better. =p Be sure to hit up the threads below to fully abuse your noob status. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1587152 there was a free hat thread for noobs but now I can't find it.

The problem with your idea is that it isn't possible for no-one to have power. In a society powered purely by competition, the large corporations dominate, and eventually become government. You also face the possiblity of mob rule. Drugs are an excellent way to make money and drug trade naturally leads to the formation of cartels focused around self-government and led by one especially powerful rich guy. Humans also have a tendency to form government. If there is no legal, open gov't, an illegal one will be created. Mexico is the perfect example. Parts of it are essentially ruled by the cartels, which, contrary to what the US gov't would like you to think, fulfilled many of the positive aspects of goverment. Its only mob rule if the people are not able to escape their leadership. If the leadership isnt geographically based you can simply join another police protection agency that has its own sets of laws if the one near you is oppresive, and you have to be allowed to do so even if you are a renter and the land owner supports one agency. This system worked in both medieval ireland and iceland. That would not be mob rule and the natural elite would have power ~ only if they please their customers. A cartel does not need to please its customers and it can simply tell them fight for me or I will kill your family. Well, no. It is now a government by the "natural elite" who would have power, regardless of whether or not they please their customers. Democracy ensures that the gov't pleases its customers. Democracy is the epitome of mob absolutism. 50.000000001% of the population can vote to fleece 49.999999999% of the population. Democracys are a terrible form of government so much so that even the founding fathers of America said they would rather have a king then a democracy, ideally a republic is supposed to solve the problems of democracies however the problem with a republic is that elections are expensive to win so the rich who can pay for a politicians election has more power then the poor. The checks and balances and the limits on government expansion (the constitution) did not take into account issues 100's of years later and are nearly impossible to change, thus giving the government more power to vote itself more power - which it has been doing from day 1. How these agencies are different is they are depending on their subscribers to have power and without a geographic monopoly they are dependent on pleasing their custom to keep them. The only accountability a politician of a republic has is he could be voted out if he is unpopular, and replaced by someone else who is likely very similar to he is. Well, sure. Sometimes. But in a society dominated by "competition", the rich rule without regulation. Also, people can't just get up and leave if they don't like a certain government. Neither figuratively nor literally.