Online Debate Rules

Some people blog about rather controversial subjects from time to time. Sometimes the comment thread of these posts turn into very heated, name calling debates, in which case they should be shut down immediately by whoever runs the place (and probably go ahead and delete all of the grossly offensive comments). Other times a polite discussion (rare for the internets I know) occurs discussing both sides of the topic.

I was recently involved very briefly in one of these regarding gay marriage laws in California. We won't be debating the issue here on this blog today (comments regarding gay marriage specifically will be deleted*). Instead we'll discuss a rule of such a debate. If you choose to take the point that all laws should be based on logic (would be hard to argue against that would it not?) and not religion (or lack thereof), you cannot later result to vulgarities and closing of such a discussion when faced with overwhelming logic against you. That's just the way it goes. Put up or concede defeat.




*First I have not made my viewpoint about the subject clear on this blog, and you would have a hard time tracking my movements on the internet to pin it down. Also, over the years I've had the gay and lesbian argument a number of times, and there is always right around the same point to my logical bombardment that the conversation get's shut down. Don't think you are somehow smarter or have a different reasoning than the countless others that have tried. Someday I may make the whole post here, and give you an opportunity then, to come up with something truly clever.

Spore Creature Creator

For those of you who've heard of Spore and have been waiting for it, you already know that the creature creator is available, and there is even a free trial you can download. For the rest of you spore is supposed to be kind of like the next sims. Made by the same guy at the same company.

I tried out the creature creator last night and have mixed feelings. Character creation is not something I'm in to, so it holds very limited appeal. There are a ton of people who love that sort of thing though, so it's not like this thing is not going to be successful, it will be. The tool itself is remarkable. We are talking jaw dropping technological possibilities. There is no game there though. After I make a critter, I can make him dance/sit/play/whatever, but that's it. Bores me to tears in just a couple of minutes.

When the full game releases there will be a game portion to this critter maker thing, but from what I've seen that game is not very interesting to me. What I want is to be able to make a handful of different critters to be used as my army in a full fledged RTS. Imagine playing warcraft where there isn't a set range of possible units you'll face.

The technology behind Spore aught to get licensed and used for custom design in many different games. If they built it right (odds are not good that this is what happened), they should have a really awesome character generator and AI module they could sell.

Dear Spike Lee

Dear Spike Lee,

I'm writing to inquire why you failed to cast a white male in the title role of your little film "Malcolm X". I feel this is a racist oversight on your part. There were plenty of white males alive during the events portrayed in the film, were there not? As you well know, it is close-minded to allow historical accuracy to get in the way of a film based on historical events.

Sincerely,

Clint Eastwood

p.s. You are a tool.

Happy Birthday Dear

I know I've never found myself in this position before. It's... difficult to find the words. Mrs. Smith, my feelings for you... are very strong...allow me to tell you how much I ardently admire and love you.





(I'm sure Gaskell and Austin will forgive me for mashing their words together like that.)

Al Osama Sharpton

Speaking of racists. This guy is the real deal. The Rev. Wright, and Obama have nothing on Sharpton. Sure Wright, and Obama hate white people, but Sharpton takes it to the terrorist level. After the aquittal of 3 police officers (only one of which was white) involved in shooting a few black men, one of which was a known criminal who was thought to be going for his gun, Al Sharpton threatened to "close this city down." (speaking of NYC). Now if I were to go out and say something like that to the press, I'd find homeland security breathing down my neck so fast, you'd think I carried nail clippers into the airport.

Al Sharpton is a terrorist, it's a simple as that. He's crossed the line from activist, to full on terrorist.

Now Sharpton finds himself on the wrong end of the IRS, owing $1.5 million in back taxes (boy do I ever feel bad for how "oppressed" this guy is...$1.5 million!!! just in owed taxes). There was another criminal named Al who got locked up for tax problems too. If there is any justice we won't be hearing from Sharpton for a very long time.

Professional Wrestling *ahem* I Mean Basketball

If you are a gambler there has been a couple of things lately that are as close to a sure thing as you can get. One was the Kentucky Derby. If the owner and trainer are betting that kind of money on a horse it's almost as close to a sure thing as you can find.

I don't follow sports much, especially not basketball. Yesterday I saw the last half of a game between the Utah Jazz, and the LA Lakers (Is that spelled right? Looks wrong). Bet on the Lakers to win this series. This is a sure thing. Let me break it down for you. I was pretty adamant last year about which series the Jazz would lose in the playoffs...I was right. This year, they will lose the Lakers series. No ifs ands or buts about it. I'll tell you how I know this, and how I knew it last year as well. The NBA doesn't make as much money if the Jazz continue in the playoffs instead of the Lakers. It's as simple as that. The NBA is a business, don't ever forget that. It's good business to influence a series to go to 7 games, and it's good business to have the money draw team win.

The sad part is that this isn't conspiracy theory stuff. There are stats that prove this. There are statistics logged for which refs call the most fouls against which players and which teams. If the NBA would kindly hand over a data dump I'd point out where the refs are encouraged to shut down certain teams, and to let certain players slide by on a rediculous amount of fouls. There is also the racism factor. Someone already ran the numbers on refs calling fouls against players of the opposite race, conclusively proving the NBA refs are racist.

Dealers in Horse Flesh

Let's catch people up on the goings on in my life these days. This is personal life stuff and not my usual vitriol, so please feel free to skip this if you aren't in to that kind of thing.

Mila, the dog, got into another fight today. She doesn't like any animals that can't walk upright on two legs, so this wasn't a surprise. The owner of the other dog gave Mila a good kick, so Mila backed down...first time for everything. We aren't bad dog owners, Mila is almost always inside. She only goes outside a few times a day, for walks, potty breaks, and the like. The only time she is outside and not supervised, is when she's going potty. This is only an issue if there happens to be a dog right near our house, during the 1 minute she is outside. That happened to be the case today. She might have hurt her leg...again, but maybe she learned her lesson finally too.

Dylan, the first born, is doing great at 4 months old. He is in the 95th % for height, 90th % for weight, and 75th % for head circumference. So, he's kind of big, but deceptively skinny because of how much longer he is than heavy. He's really got into mumbling at the air about nothing, which is pretty silly to watch.

We're getting a horse. I hope that sounds as weird to hear/read, as it does to say/type.
How it came about:
Andrea has been involved in a horse related Physical Therapy program for a while. Once a week a bunch of kids with various ailments, usually muscular from what I know, go to a horse ranch to receive physical therapy while riding horses. There is something about horses that helps these kids relax, so they can make some progress...or something like that.

A few weeks back there was a fund-raiser for this program, because horses, horse arenas, horse food, horse travel, and all of that is not free. The fund-raiser included things like a team penning competition, bake sale, and silent auction. One part of the silent auction was studding rights to these 3 very valuable quarter horses. No one bid on them, even though the minimum bid was only $250, when I'm told that it should really cost thousands. I didn't understand what stud fees were, so I asked what you really get for bidding on one of these 3 horses. In my head I'm thinking I pay $250 for one horse to knock-up another horse, then 11 months later I get a baby horse. That isn't exactly right, because there has to be a mommy horse, which I would have to provide. Turns out that a stud fee is much like buying horse sperm...OK, it's exactly like buying horse sperm. I don't have a mare (that's what you call a mommy horse) so I dropped the idea...kind of.

I did some poking about the intertubes about horses for a couple of weeks. Maybe I could get some cheap mare (losing a lot of the value of the expensive sperm in the process), or rent a good one or something. Turns out that I could rent a very good mare from the same horse ranch that the stud comes from, only that costs about $10,000. Ha!

Last Thursday one of the women Andrea does this horse therapy with is talking to Andrea about this mare she has, named Muffins. Tiffany, the owner of Muffins, just can't afford to keep her anymore and is forced to sell her. This is unfortunate because Muffins has some good bloodlines herself, and could be a decently valuable horse too. So, Tiffany wants to keep Muffins, but can't keep her for various, and probably temporary reasons. If only there was someone who could take care of Muffins for a while. Meanwhile, wouldn't it be convenient if there was some high quality Mare somewhere that we could just borrow for a while.

If all went as planned Muffins got knocked-up yesterday with some very expensive sperm. Muffins will be spending the next year or more at Andrea's grandparents house (where there is an acre+ of pasture, a couple of stables and a very nice, if old, Arabian that would like some company. Next April we'll find a new foal that Andrea will learn how to train over the next few years.

Interesting things about our horses pedigree:
Muffins bloodlines include some famous horses. Including Doc Bar, Three Bars, and Poco Bueno. There is also the smallest little bit of Man o War in Muffins (Man o Ware should be familiar to everyone).
The stud's name is Isles Cool Chance. He's got some Three Bars, and Poco Bueno in him too. He was also the 2001 world champion reiner.