Izzy

Because I need your help, online petition style. What I've typed up below is some reasoning for why the pledge, in schools, is just entirely wrong. It's an edited version of what I'm handing my school administrators when I have enough signatures. So please, if you agree, sign the online petition. It takes two seconds. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/say-no-to-the-pledge/index.html --- As a student, I am led to believe that schools are institutions which exist to instill education and good moral conduct into their students, without swaying or impacting their political or religious affiliations. While the schools I attended, including Seminole, did an excellent job of maintaining a neutral atmosphere in regards to politics, it has come to my attention that some students are much less than satisfied with how the Pledge of Allegiance is administered. This has nothing to do with anti-American, anti-government, anti-justice-for-all, etc. feelings.Schools are meant to strive to be impartial on matters which can influence the opinions of their students. Therefore we feel that the mandatory Pledge of Allegiance means that the views of the government are being unfairly forced upon us. Certain aspects of life, such as beliefs and allegiances, should be determined within the household and with one's parents, not taught and practiced within schools. By all means, TEACH the pledge, its meaning, and its importance to American history/culture/society. However, demanding students actively participate (even respectfully declining, in essence, is still participation, just by presence) is in all respects, unconstitutional. Again, it is not the actual content of the pledge we take issue with, it's the fact that the school openly chooses one side. This is akin to the school defining itself as liberal or conservative, and results in children before they can comprehend the meaning of the pledge. It is unfair and quite unjustified. With all due respect, the pledge is inappropriate in schools in the same sense that instructional time set aside for coordinated group prayer is. Religious instruction is already deemed unsuitable, and we believe there is some commonality for the same reasons. For example, rather than setting class time aside for the pledge, students who wish to take the pledge can, for the twenty seconds it takes to say it, meet up before school much the same way the faith-based student group we have meets and prays in the mornings.By doing so, everyone is treated equitably, and those wishing to opt out no longer have to feel awkward about it because it will no longer be a classroom issue.

One race related issue I take with schools in my county is their acceptance of students into their programs (IB, CIS, HA, etc.) based on certain demographics they are required to fill rather than the students' academic achievements. It's supposedly done to keep racism out of schools, but it's totally unfair that a smart kid who has worked hard might not get in because an underachiever of a less represented race happened to apply, just to appear politically correct. (What really happens is by senior year the minority kids who are there just to be there flunk out anyway, so if anything, the schools are harming them. Don't get me wrong, diversity is a good thing, but it should be a diversity of students on the same level.) I'm not racist so much as anti-theistic.. but that's a different sort of prejudice. I'm going to dislike someone based on bad decisions, not an arbitrary chance of birth (though, that comes with religions, so I'm sort of contradicting myself here..).

..What do you call black people in the UK then? As far as I'm aware, it's just "black". It's not a racist slur. Not all black people come from Africa, and if they do, it could have been centuries ago. To resort to "African American" is to imply that they aren't really American because of the difference in name that can easily be distinguished. Which is way more offensive. African isn't a color. European isn't a color. Asian isn't a color. If your goal is to describe someone based on skin color, then by all means use the adjectives (black, white, brown, yellowish, etc.) designed to do so. If you're trying to give the history of a person, then maybe "African" is more appropriate. However, I could have African ancestors (I could be related to one of the Christians who stayed in Africa after starting a missionary) and describe myself as African, but I'm still very much white. Anyway. I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. Throughout history, people have attempted to justify what they perceive as their superiority by singling out people noticeably different from themselves. Typically, people guilty of this can easily gain followers because these people make up the majority, using the argumentum ad populum (logical fallacy where something appeals to the majority and is claimed true purely because of its appeal). An example of this would be homosexuals. Roughly 10% of the population is estimated to be gay. Just because the majority of people are frustratingly moronic, maybe a little over half of the straight people will (at least maybe 50 years ago) find this horribly strange and unacceptable because they can't understand it (and things they can't understand scare them ). So, we're left with an ignorant and scared majority, quite capable of rallying up, making a55es of themselves, and being jerks to people different from themselves. So, essentially, racism stems from ignorance. Orr.. Maybe it's just human instinct? I mean, through out history we as people (specifically people of one color) have conquered, slaughtered, and enslaved people different from us for our own selfish gain. I don't really know. Are you asking if I think racism is okay? No, not real racism. Definitely not violent racism. Family Guy is still funny though.

And this is why human intellect, will hopefully, always pwn programs.

..So, with round robin, we don't get to play everyone? Just the people above and below us?

..What's round robin? I checked Urban Dictionary but... I doubt that's what we're doing here.

I knew that would happen. *glares at person*

...If I die tonight, LIS did it. If I don't die tonight, LIS, I'm having trouble deciding what results you're trying to get with what you say, so I make sure the opposite happens. Little trust goin' on here dude. I'm convinced you're just trying to psyche me out.. and it's working.

Lmfao. That's hilarious.

Just pointing out that if the inactive was a baddie, an action would probably be in already. Chill dude, the paranoia is getting to you and there isn't even a night post yet.

Hmm, depends. Baddies can be power-played, right? Don't hang 'em, one of ours probably.

...That's not a paradox.. That's falsely calling something "you". Imagine your average dude on a Comedy Central LSD trip. "No, huge dragon flying in the middle of the road whilst I try to drive, YOU DON'T EXIST." ..The dragon probably doesn't exist. The dude's probably talking to a motorcycle. Not really a paradox..

Yeah... it really isn't all that. I was entertained for about 7 minutes tops.

Way to give the baddies/exile a fool-proof target, bro. I seriously don't understand how I last so long when I have killing roles, because my patterns of killing people are soo painfully obvious. >_> ...Because I fear people. >_> Can we assume, if LIS dies night 1, that it's *not* me? [ edit: Had to make "painful" an adverb. Please excuse crappy grammar at 5 am and my first day back at school? (Is it night 1 btw?)

It annoys me that I can't think of how to prove this. =/

Hmm.. You know, I'm sort of convinced that the random program will win this. To be known implies that it can be beaten. I can easily (have Unreality) program an algorithm that beats Unreality's Hawk, (1: random 2-all: use whatever beats the thing that beats the thing I've used most), this can be done for my algorithm, and really any other one that can be created - unless it's can't be predicted - random. Once we have are battle, and all program are known, programming one that beats all the ones we have so far shouldn't be *that* hard. Realistically speaking, what we're creating can be used in tournaments. But random, for it's 1/3 success rate, just can't be beaten. edit: Unless you always know who you're facing beforehand. Then you could use some sort of clone function (50%) victory, or just do the opposite of what they'll do (100%). Hmm. Unless we can trick other programs into doing what we want them to do? (Which is sort of like the beginning of mine..)

Got you covered, Marth. I'll try to find someone for the Riranor situation... 1. GMaster479 2. Riranor 3. JarZe 4. SG 5. Crazypainter 6. blackcat1313 7. woon 8. Sayalzah 9. tpaxatb 10. Medji 11. DudleyDude 12. Izzy 13.akaslickster 14. Framm 15. Lost in Space (LIS)

I'm trying to recall the algorithm I designed in my dream earlier.. so I'll get back to you on this, but count me in. (Sick people have wacky dreams, I'm evidence of this. If anyone wants to hear a story about gladiators, love and betrayal, running, a six year old freshman, and bizarre methods of breaking into Universal, hit me up. My dreams are... weird.)

Hahahahaha. Oh man, laughing hurts with headache. But LOL.

^ Try telling Ray "Bananaman" Comfort that, the douche that holds the opinion that if it ain't in the Bible, it ain't right. Rumor has it Ray Comfort is sending Richard Dawkins a copy of his book and a banana. One of my friends(ish)/an admin of RDF is sending Ray Comfort a copy of The God Delusion and a coconut. the debunked version of this dude's bull.

Bananaman... eugh... Dude, don't even give him the funds (wait, rumors are that it's free?). There was a huge band of college kids bashing that creotard. Celebrate by buying a real copy. Happy 150 years of scientific enlightenment.

Since Ye Olde Mafia II won't be starting until a week from now, perhaps it would be ideal if we just began now, with everyone making use of their adept mafia-flip-flopping abilities when the time comes? The games are going to over-lap eventually, we might as well just get them underway. Maybe an extended Thanksgiving day/night to compensate for the amount of 'Mericans playing? *edit* Wait a sec, did they already start? There's a (rather long) game thread.. but in the sign up Marth said they weren't starting for a while? 0.o *out of the Mafia loop*