Kaymyth

Funny, I would think that a group that eschews government and is persecuted by it would be among the first to criticize it. That description sounds to me like what would happen if a harpy and a manticore got together and had babies. That's the thing about flowery language; it can be easily interpreted into a number of different directions. You could give that description to 100 different artists, and each one would come up with something completely different. In short, I can absolutely say it wasn't prophecy. Because I don't believe that it was.

They are boring. The only reason I even have diamonds in my wedding ring set is because James already had them lying around. We just re-set existing stones into customized jewelry. And I'm not even a Millennial. Gen X all the way. You truly are my long-lost sister. One of these days I'd like to upgrade my wedding ring from diamond to sapphire. Or maybe emerald. Or amethyst. Er, there are a lot of pretty-colored stones out there that I like.

Following is the replacement for friends here. Of course I'm following you! You were on my list of friends before. Of course, I missed a bunch of people 'cause my friendslist got lost in the forum switchover. Plz friend me. I am so lonely. Bahahahaha! "Something Blue" is one of my favorite Buffy eps, right up there with "Doppelgangland"

I, too, read Order of the Stick religiously. It's by far my favorite. Also, XKCD, QC, Erfworld, etc. Ooo. Do you read Skin Horse, too? Questionable Content is....borderline NSFW. It depends on your workplace. (I typically save it for home myself.) There's definitely a lot of strong language and adult themes. I would NOT recommend this comic for the younger readers on the board. But for the grownups, it's a good one. What I find fascinating about QC is how, even after binge-reading the whole thing, the art development progression is so gradual that I didn't even notice it. Until I pop back and look at the first strip and go, "Holy CRAP! The art has changed SO MUCH!"

I would be satisfied with this. Have all the guns you want, but you can't have anything to fire from them until you have demonstrated that you are not a moron. Mass shootings aside, an absurd number of people die every year due to accidental discharges. Things that could be prevented by taking a class in Firearms For Dummies.

Egads, yes, we need the mandatory training. Too many people in this country are complete rusting morons when it comes to anything that uses gunpowder. Last night, I was at a 4th of July party in one of the small enclaves in the metro area where shooting off your own fireworks is legal. They took it seriously; a large barrel for setting off things that shoot upwards (so that if something shoots sideways it's contained), flips over to a platform for fountains, all done on a large driveway that's nice and paved. Any small bits that made it into the neighbor's yard were immediately retrieved. Except there's always that one guy. "Snappers" are what we call little tiny things that you throw at the ground, and the concussion makes them explode. They're small and relatively innocuous, but they're still explosive. That One Dude was a younger guy who had previously demonstrated his complete inability to toss flashbangs into the barrel. His aim was, in a word, crap. He started tossing snappers at a spot about 20 feet away from the year-old baby on someone's lap. I beat the parents to it and invoked Teacher Voice: "Don't throw snappers in the general direction of the baby." Someone else, chuckling: "Dude, she's serious." Me: *seerious bizness face* Dude proceeded to slink off and stopped throwing snappers at all. In fact, I don't think I saw him light another single firework that night. Teacher Voice is a powerful tool.

You hate him and yet you love him, and you will keep going back for more pain. Because when times are good, they are SO GOOD. And when times are bad, they're still SO GOOD. I have seen entirely too many people in the KC metro who have found tarantulas in their houses. I DON'T WANT THERE TO BE TARANTULAS IN THE MIDWEST.

If only I were as good as my dog at making my face into the Look of Infinite Sadness. So much trial and error. I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually, but for now, just...meh.

And as bad as you can imagine the conspiracy theories - they're even worse than you think. There are people out there who actually believe that mass school shootings like Sandy Hook were made up so that the government has an excuse to take their guns. And these same people have actually spent years harassing the grieving parents of the victims of these shootings, telling them that their child never existed. Yeah. You read that right. There are some truly horrible people on this planet.

It's because of this little thing in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights called the Second Amendment. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." There are a number of different interpretations of this, but right now the "popular" one is, "Nobody better take mah gunz!" It's a huge deal over here right now, and the gun lobby (i.e. the NRA) pushes hard for this version because their preferred clients don't want their sales to drop. I tend to think that given the ridiculous hugeness of our standing army, a well regulated militia is pretty obsolete and the Founders had no way of predicting that when they wrote the Amendment in. But the current Supreme Court ruling ignores the "milita" part and just opens it up to All The Guns, and therein we have our problem.

Hunting is not only legal, but necessary to keeping certain animal populations healthy. Our ancestors did a fantastic job of wiping out most of the natural predators, so we're sort of it. And generally we pay a butcher to process the meat, and then we freeze and eat them. There are specific hunting seasons and strict quotas on how many deer a hunter can take. Around here, there is generally an early bow season (yes, people actually go out with a bow and arrows to hunt in this day and age) and a later firearm season. After they are shot, deer are taken to check-in stations to be verified and tagged. No butcher will take a deer that doesn't have its proper tag. Conservationists are serious about keeping the population under control, but still large enough to be healthy. See, there are two things you have to understand about white-tailed deer. 1. They are delicious. 2. They are stupid. For every hunter that takes a deer, that is one less deer that is going to try and sacrifice itself onto the altar of a speeding car. Some days, perhaps that car would be my car. One time, it was my car (or rather, my mom's car). I actually came to a dead stop, and the stupid thing ran into my hood. They really are that menacingly dumb. And they're everywhere. I've seen them causally crossing city streets. The NRA is pretty well-known at this point as being in the pocket of gun manufacturers. Once upon a time, they ran gun safety programs and such, but nowadays they just pour money into Congress on behalf of sellers. And no, they almost certainly wouldn't, which is tremendously disturbing. Please don't do that.

If you don't have a criminal record, you're allowed to own a gun. I think he might actually do some hunting. But deer hunting involves a lot of sitting in a tree and waiting for a deer to wander along. Slow movements, lots of waiting, no quick reactions involved at all. He's perfectly capable of aiming and squeezing a trigger. He just can't do it quickly, however much he might think he can.

I don't engage because I know exactly what kind of person my brother is - a macho dudebro. There is literally nothing I could say to him that would evoke any sort of response that didn't make ME want to punch him in the face. And I can't do that, because he's my brother. Also he has a spinal cord injury, and punching him in the face could actually cause significant damage if it hits at the wrong angle. As much as my brother infuriates me, I'd kind of prefer to not actually kill him. But...yeah. That. All of that. And the power fantasy is even more ridiculous in his case, 'cause while yeah, he has military training, he's also got an injury that pretty much destroyed all of the fine-control dexterity on his dominant side. He doesn't have the reflexes, reaction time, or fine motor control necessary for even having a prayer of pulling it off.

I know, I know. Photoshop is not circle-friendly. Resize an avatar to LJ-size 100x100 pixels? Easy peasy! Try and crop something into a circle? UNLEASH THE ELDRITCH ABOMINATION! SUMMON CTHULHU! THE MORTAL DARES TREAD IN THE UNHOLY SACRED REALM! Also, I feel like since our corners got cut off, our avatars should be made slightly bigger to make up for the lost real estate.

It'll require some futzing around in Photoshop. See, it's really easy to make perfect squares in there; making circles is a little trickier. Doable, but it's kind of a pain.

He posted a meme questioning the masculinity of any man who doesn't own a firearm, thus obliquely (and probably inadvertently) insulting my husband. It just isn't worth it to argue. I know this. But seriously, I have no idea how my brother and I came out of the same mother.

It cut off my hair and a bit of my horn! *throws self onto a chaise lounge, a la Rarity* "I used to be sooo beautiful!"

I think it's safe to say that you being sick has caused you more suffering than the rest of us. The site's fine. except for those danged round avatars

I will not respond to my brother's offensive Facebook memes...I will not respond to my brother's offensive Facebooks memes...I will not respond...

It's tempting. But I've already committed James and I to vacation in Florida this fall, and between that and all the conventions I did this year, my work vacation bank is completely claimed.

That's...true. And about 100 years ago, our two main parties actually traded sides of the aisle in a strange little political pirouette. Things change and evolve all the time. But some things drive my pedantic little brain crazy.

The sort of flowery text you get in Important Books like that, though, tend to be rich in imagery that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I'd also question the translators - how much is an accurate representation of the original text, and how much is colored by the translator's opinions? I think that's one of the biggest issues I've ever taken with the philosophy of taking the Bible (or any ancient religious book) literally. There is no such thing as a "perfect" translation. So unless you're fluent in and reading the original language, there are nuances of meaning that have been completely lost.

IT DOES HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. SO DECREES KAYMYTH. I console myself with the thought that Australia's right wing is still probably further left than the US's left wing these days...

But...but that's...that's the opposite of what "Liberal" means...

Prophecy is all in the eyes of the reader. I kind of think Nostradamus was full of crap, too, so it's not just the religion-based stuff.