Akwat Kbrana

Quit yer bellyaching, ya lightweight. :P

xhonzi said:

Luke is shaping up to be something like Bill Murray in The Man Who Knew Too Little.

Apparently everyone knows what's going on but him.

Maybe in the course of TCW, Luke will also go on a zany space adventure and learn all about the Force, the Empire, and Vader being his father. But then, after he returns to Tatooine, Captain Antilles will have his memory wiped so that ANH sill works.

xhonzi said:

Are you suggesting that Phantom and Menace are both nouns?  Or perhaps it's just poor grammar and the title is meant to be "The Phatom [is] Menace[ing]" or "The Phantom Menace[s]".

Theoretically, they could both be nouns with "menace" standing in simple apposition to "phantom." But that construction is very uncommon in English. More likely, "menace" is the noun and "phantom" is the adjective qualitatively modifying the noun.

ChainsawAsh said:

Done.  (And in my case, it's definitely true.)

^Ditto.

Remember that the semantic range of the English word "apology" is significantly different than that of the Greek work απολογια, whence our English word is derived. Απολογια does not have the sense of "an expression of regret" or "the seeking of forgiveness," but rather "a strong defense." So an apologist is someone who defends a particular school of thought.

Classically, "apologetics" and "polemics" have been closely tied together, with apologetics being the defense of one's particular ideology, and polemics being an attack on contrary ideologies.

doubleofive said:

It's not suspicion if you practically admit you've been here for a while and have to change your DNS settings to get here. Frink already pointed out his large donation to Adywan, that he almost immediately started hanging over Ady's head as soon as he "joined", after we already knew that Janskeet had made a large donation.

The correlation is actually even tighter. Not only does the fact of donation indicate a possible identification with Janskeet, but also the intention behind donation matches perfectly. Ady mentioned that Janskeet's donation was made expressly with the purpose that he could upgrade his PC enough to produce ROTJ:R in 1080p. Then, when you came on the scene, you started complaining that your "substantial donation" was intended not for the purchasing of model materials, but for the purchasing of components to upgrade his machine.

In short, you fail at socking; we saw right through you.

Janskeet Ghostbusters said:

If and when I come back in September, can you guys forget about what happened in the past? Could you put all this sock suspecting and resentment towards me behind us? 

Here's the thing: If you're expecting some kind of reconciliation, it's going to be contingent on your behavior. Contrary to popular misconception, the regulars on OT.com are not a bunch of petty, cliquish, merciless elitists. While the stench of your belligerence and immaturity is difficult to overlook, I would imagine that most of us would be willing to forgive if you would be willing to reform. As I told JediTray, the only stardard of judgment that an online community can really go with is an individual's behavior. Start acting maturely and quit posting a bunch of crap, and maybe eventually your track record will become water under the bridge. But it's not going to happen overnight, and your behavior is going to have to change completely.

Which is probably impossible, since "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."

We should all be ashamed of ourselves. Ghostbusters is just a victim of society. Maybe he wouldn't have left if we hadn't been such a members-only club.*

JediTray, eat your heart out.

xhonzi said:

And as a seriously Christian, I am well aware that Christ's birth was not in the Winter, let alone on 25 Dec (since there wasn't such a thing at the time anyhow).  However, it doesn't bother me to celebrate Christ's birth that day or to use symbols lifted from the pagans to do it.

This is exactly how I feel about it. Granted, "Christmas" is essentially the Christianization of a pagan holiday necessitated by the Constantinian Shift and the Edict of Milan. But so what? As with Valentine's Day, Christmas means whatever you make of it. Want to engage in the crass commercialization for the sake of mere materialism? Be my guest. Want to use it as a time to be together with your friends and family and celebrate the passing of the year? No problem there either. Want to see it as a celebration of the birth of Christ? Again, feel free; that's what I do. As Bingo pointed out, no one really knows when He was born, so one date (Dec. 25) is as good as any other for memorial purposes.

Also, personally I think it's silly when certain ultra-conservative Christians refuse to use a Christmas tree because it "has pagan roots." I wonder if they realize that many of their cherished hymns are sung to the tunes of old bar songs...

Xhonzi, maybe you could change your Avatar to a picture of Tex Murphy. That might clear up some of the confusion.

Just to clarify, I wasn't saying that you did commit the fallacy, only that that's probably the one bkev was thinking of...

I think the logical fallacy you're looking for is slippery slope rather than red herring, bkev.

Do you need a special day to do that though?

Well, no, I don't really need one. But neither am I against the idea. I guess my point is this: if you don't like Valentine's Day and think that it's a vulgar over-commercialized contrivance, then you're certainly free not to celebrate it. But for those who do celebrate it, like I said before, it's as meaningful as they care to make it.

I'm not making any blanket-statement either for or against Valentine's Day. I'm just saying that choosing to participate doesn't automatically equal crass commercialization.

This thread is now about...

Darth Vader!!

Warbler said:

Valentine's Day is not about buying love, its about show love.   One way you show love is buying gifts.    Just about every holiday is commercialized, especially Christmas.    Should we hate every holiday?

Although I see what Bingo and Gaffer are getting at, and I definitely think there's some truth to the observation that Valentine's Day is over-commercialized, nonetheless I'm inclined to agree with Warb on this one. Valentine's Day is as meaningful as you want to make it. Personally, I choose to see it as a special occasion on which to buy my wife flowers and candy, not an artificial obligation to do so. Of course, I don't consider it a hassle to buy gifts for my wife in the first place...

Yeah. Damned photobucket took too long uploading Suspicious-look cat. :(

TV's Frink said:

How would I know?

What are you trying to say????

STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!!

Suspicious-look cat is suspicious of you.

Burn!!

So just out of curiosity, why has Ric Olie been permitted a permanent stay of execution?

Personally, I think we've just been witnesses to some Frink mischief. Not to be unkind, but Thermostat's spelling and grammar wasn't really ABC-ish.

Warbler said:

TV's Frink said:

And target a rich woman ;-)

a rich, snobby woman would only date rich men.

Fixed.

Sorry to hear about that, Gaffer. But I have great news!!

I just saved lots of money by switching to Geico!

I think the lasers should be green.

You mean you're a...?