As an atheist this makes little sense to me. If god is in fact infallible and his will is inevitable then why pray? If anything it might piss him off that you are questioning his decisions. Furthermore why look both ways when you cross a street when you're going to "go" when it is your time anyways?
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
I just came across this video in response to Pascal's wager and was hoping it could catalyze a conversation. For anyone unfamiliar with Pascal's wager, it essentially states or argues that since the existence of God is possible, the rational person should operate under the assumption that such a proposition is true. Not accepting God yields an infinite loss if wrong and pays no dividends if correct. This is an argument based on probability theory.
Anyway, I only wish I could string my thoughts together as eloquently as this guy did in this video. His conclusion, of accepting infinite hell fire for his beliefs (or disbelief) because he couldn't stomach the fact of spending an eternity with a being whose "empathy would be so easily trumped by his vanity", pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly.
The issue with Pascal's wager is which god do I submit too? If I say ok christian god blah blah blah I may piss of Zeus if he is the real god. I mean the history of our species we have like 4000 gods. if i pray to the wrong one then I might just piss off the real one if it did in fact exist.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
As it says on the tin. What are the arguments in favor of veganism that are still left standing?
I am not a vegan or any form of said dietary guidelines, however it is true that eating meat and meat products can be bad for you. Some of the fats in meats are really bad for bodily systems.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
Honestly I don't see how it stayed this way for so long. The only argument I hear for DOMA is that this religious book says this which should in fact be invalid according to the separation of religion and state. I am no lawyer, but not recognizing marriages because the bible says no should be within these grounds.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
But that problem you just described is more because of pod's overpoweredness than SFM's...
This lol.
Its kinda sad that you have to run creatures.dec to even really be competitive in this format. I am an older player who enjoys player a variety of decks and this format just doesn't deliver. Way too many control enablers are on the ban list for it to be truly viable at the highest level of play. Sure a control deck can sneak a win here and there, but look at its portion of the meta....almost none unless you consider jund and junk decks control decks like some websites seem to do. No tempo decks are even good.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
The biggest problem an artifact land unban would do, is that it would turn Mox Opal into an alpha moxen that can tap for any color. That would cause a lot of problems in the format as a super easy to turn on fast mana source.
not really. It would be essentially the same speed in robots although slightly more consistent i guess. Outside of that it will really never tap for mana on turn one anyways. Maybe with eggs, but that is not longer viable anyways.(and artifact lands don't really change that IMO)
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
It is fairly clear, at this point, that Obama knew full well all of the traitorous violations that the NSA has been inflicting upon us. And beyond that, he has fully defended these actions, with statements to the effect of, "You can't have 100% security and 100% personal privacy."
This is a defilment of everything that it means to be an American. For one thing, we don't need 100% security. We have never had this, and never will. It is impossible. And the marginal increase that we receive in 'additional security' is not worth the cost of the government recording everything that we say and do.
I expected Obama to come out and filet the NSA for their behavior. That he condones it is troubling beyond my ability to put into words. I'm not sure that we actually have legal grounds to impeach him, but things have gotten to the point that I would like to see it happen. I feel like the US is at a tipping point that started with the Patriot Act, got worse with the federal wiretapping fiasco, and is now culminating. I feel like this is the last chance that the American public has to make it's voice heard. If this action goes completely unpunished, communism is inevitable.
except the fact that it is perfectly legal. And no not communism...fascism maybe. People completely misuse communism without understanding it.
it violates the 4th amendment. so no it isn't legal. it also violates several privacy laws. which right not the ACLU is actually doing their job for a change and sueing the government over.
Had they stuck to what they were doing and monitoring foriegn communications then yes it would be perfectly legal. Monitoring US citizens for no reason and no proof of wrong doing is clearly illegal.
The patriot act gives them a way around the 4th amendment. Its could be called a loophole, but its really not. It is written in black and white without having to read between the lines. I mean at the time(even though i was pretty young) I even realized that the patriot act was essentially a big middle finger to a large part of our rights. Its just now that apparently everyone else is starting to realize.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
Basic summary-
Alex Jones, a radio host, made a claim that the Boston terrorist attack was perpetuated by the FBI and organized by the Federal government in an attempt to establish more power for the Federal government.
Such conspiracy theories have been made previously after massacres (the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax/orchestrated by the Federal government to pass more gun laws for example), and seem to always occur after a tragedy.
And I just want to ask, why do people make such claims without a shred of evidence? Yes, it is true that the U.S. government has done horrible things, but it is also true that the government changes every time there is a new president. It is difficult to believe in an overarching conspiracy of such proportions unless you also believe that there is a power greater than the president at play in the U.S., which is a conspiracy theory in of itself.
But mostly I just wanted to say how disgusted I am by people who make such claims. While it may be difficult to have trust in the government, can't you at least try?
Because its easier to say everything is a hoax instead of accepting the truth. It is often a defense mechanism for less "aware" people.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
The one interaction that makes artifact lands really dangerous is Ravager + Desciple of the Vault. To be honest, Desciple of the Vault is probably more problematic than the artifact lands. Frogmite is comparable (and arguably worse) then Loam Lion and Kird Ape, and Myr Enforcer is worse than Tarmogoyf usually. Thoughtcast gets some love, sure, but not much more than before. I suppose Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas becomes scarier (and frankly, useable) as well.
honestly I forget disciple is even a card since it never saw the light of day. IMO ban him and plating give us back artifact lands. So many good cards(like tezz since you mentioned) are never going to see the light of day without them.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
The religious agenda has insane amounts of power over the united states. Looking at trends many of the religious people are actually getting further into fundamentalism instead of becoming more progressive. The holds religion has over our laws is astounding. Most lawmakers through their hats into this demographic.
I will say though while as a whole this seems accurate - I've been happily shocked with how rational and dare I say progressive the new Pope has been for Catholics though.
With how his brief start has been thusfar I expect him to progress the Catholic Church even further into modern times than Pope John Paul II did.
This progressiveness you see is a farce. At this point honestly the pope doesn't control the Vatican anymore. Look how they rescinded his last comments. Even then he is still out advocating against birth control.(which for some reason they throw stem cell research in with abortion and birth control)
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
Sword of the meek is possibly one of the most wtf cards on that list a lot more so than Chrome mox. Artifact lands are dangerous when legal and would likely lead to just as many bans to keep them balanced anyway.
Like what? What do artifact lands possibly break that isn't cranial plating? Need some example of this. If anything they add more diversity to the meta by making cards like thirst for knowledge possibly playable. Sword of the meek deserves to be looked at. I don't think the synergy with thopter foundry is too strong. It would need to be further tested. So far I have tested a UW gifts list that uses gifts to set it up. They deck still fails to tron decks, pod, and a few other decks. it is pretty strong against combo decks though.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
In an attempt to be more constructive, are there any number of cards that people agree should be the "core" of the banned list? To my mind there are several cards that fall under that category:
It's not a big list, but I think anyone who is trying to be taken seriously will agree that these cards should never be considered for an unban, for obvious reasons.
That being said, there are exactly three cards I feel have no business being on the banned list:
All other cards on the list constitute a "gray area" that shapes the format into what it is today. Their place on the banned list indicates what kind of cards need to be kept on a short leash to keep the format healthy. These effects include fast mana, cost effective tutors, exceptional engine cards, etc. Those 20 cards should be the genuine subject of discussion.
Honestly I don't feel the artifact lands need to be banned. If "affinity" gets broken just remove cranial plating. lets be honest its the only "broken" card in the deck. No "affinity for artifacts" or metalcraft cards are near that power level even with the artifact lands.(as a matter of fact no affinity cards are even seeing play in the current version AFAIK)
Clamp, shoal, hypergenesis. These cards honestly can't really be debated. They are fundamentally broken. A few other cards are in this category too.
Then you have cards that are edgy but most likely safe IMO like sword of the meek and chrome mox.(and a few others)
Then you have cards that you look at and ask yourself "wtf are they thinking."
I hate wild nactl and dredge as much as the next person, but really? GGT and wild nactl being banned is silly IMO.
Cards on my current "watch" list are pod and emrakul.(possible a few others)
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
In the light of the latest "scandal" with the NSA, I have pondered something over the last few days: is big government inevitable no matter how small a government starts out? Despite the best efforts of the US Constitution to limit the size of the US government, the government has become a massive monopoly on violence and coercion that ignores the Constitution whenever it feels like it. With the exception of maybe a handful of presidents, almost every president has increased the power of the government in some way. This increase in power has accumulated for over 200 years to result in the big government we have today.
This is one of the big reasons why I'm not a minarchist. If the size of government is shrunk even to its absolute smallest level, what's to say that the government won't just grow back in size again? It seems like no matter what is done to try to limit the state, the state always finds a way to increase in power.
depends on how you define "big government". I am not a fun of protrusion into my personal things, but I am a fan of a government who keeps it's populace stable and helps a higher number of people achieve "the American dream".
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
I guess if you are bi there are more potential partners. IMO any benefit that would be achieved is quickly killed off because a high number of society are intolerant jerks who think their archaic belief system should be imposed on everyone else in our society.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
It is fairly clear, at this point, that Obama knew full well all of the traitorous violations that the NSA has been inflicting upon us. And beyond that, he has fully defended these actions, with statements to the effect of, "You can't have 100% security and 100% personal privacy."
This is a defilment of everything that it means to be an American. For one thing, we don't need 100% security. We have never had this, and never will. It is impossible. And the marginal increase that we receive in 'additional security' is not worth the cost of the government recording everything that we say and do.
I expected Obama to come out and filet the NSA for their behavior. That he condones it is troubling beyond my ability to put into words. I'm not sure that we actually have legal grounds to impeach him, but things have gotten to the point that I would like to see it happen. I feel like the US is at a tipping point that started with the Patriot Act, got worse with the federal wiretapping fiasco, and is now culminating. I feel like this is the last chance that the American public has to make it's voice heard. If this action goes completely unpunished, communism is inevitable.
except the fact that it is perfectly legal. And no not communism...fascism maybe. People completely misuse communism without understanding it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
Thomas Jefferson
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Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
The issue with Pascal's wager is which god do I submit too? If I say ok christian god blah blah blah I may piss of Zeus if he is the real god. I mean the history of our species we have like 4000 gods. if i pray to the wrong one then I might just piss off the real one if it did in fact exist.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
I am not a vegan or any form of said dietary guidelines, however it is true that eating meat and meat products can be bad for you. Some of the fats in meats are really bad for bodily systems.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
This lol.
Its kinda sad that you have to run creatures.dec to even really be competitive in this format. I am an older player who enjoys player a variety of decks and this format just doesn't deliver. Way too many control enablers are on the ban list for it to be truly viable at the highest level of play. Sure a control deck can sneak a win here and there, but look at its portion of the meta....almost none unless you consider jund and junk decks control decks like some websites seem to do. No tempo decks are even good.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
not really. It would be essentially the same speed in robots although slightly more consistent i guess. Outside of that it will really never tap for mana on turn one anyways. Maybe with eggs, but that is not longer viable anyways.(and artifact lands don't really change that IMO)
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
The patriot act gives them a way around the 4th amendment. Its could be called a loophole, but its really not. It is written in black and white without having to read between the lines. I mean at the time(even though i was pretty young) I even realized that the patriot act was essentially a big middle finger to a large part of our rights. Its just now that apparently everyone else is starting to realize.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Because its easier to say everything is a hoax instead of accepting the truth. It is often a defense mechanism for less "aware" people.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
honestly I forget disciple is even a card since it never saw the light of day. IMO ban him and plating give us back artifact lands. So many good cards(like tezz since you mentioned) are never going to see the light of day without them.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
This progressiveness you see is a farce. At this point honestly the pope doesn't control the Vatican anymore. Look how they rescinded his last comments. Even then he is still out advocating against birth control.(which for some reason they throw stem cell research in with abortion and birth control)
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Like what? What do artifact lands possibly break that isn't cranial plating? Need some example of this. If anything they add more diversity to the meta by making cards like thirst for knowledge possibly playable. Sword of the meek deserves to be looked at. I don't think the synergy with thopter foundry is too strong. It would need to be further tested. So far I have tested a UW gifts list that uses gifts to set it up. They deck still fails to tron decks, pod, and a few other decks. it is pretty strong against combo decks though.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Honestly I don't feel the artifact lands need to be banned. If "affinity" gets broken just remove cranial plating. lets be honest its the only "broken" card in the deck. No "affinity for artifacts" or metalcraft cards are near that power level even with the artifact lands.(as a matter of fact no affinity cards are even seeing play in the current version AFAIK)
Clamp, shoal, hypergenesis. These cards honestly can't really be debated. They are fundamentally broken. A few other cards are in this category too.
Then you have cards that are edgy but most likely safe IMO like sword of the meek and chrome mox.(and a few others)
Then you have cards that you look at and ask yourself "wtf are they thinking."
I hate wild nactl and dredge as much as the next person, but really? GGT and wild nactl being banned is silly IMO.
Cards on my current "watch" list are pod and emrakul.(possible a few others)
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
depends on how you define "big government". I am not a fun of protrusion into my personal things, but I am a fan of a government who keeps it's populace stable and helps a higher number of people achieve "the American dream".
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
except the fact that it is perfectly legal. And no not communism...fascism maybe. People completely misuse communism without understanding it.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson