ivan

-as humans have evolved, they have become both better at killing each other and in preparing themselves to kill each other On the contrary, Steven Pinker argues eloquently in his latest NYT bestseller book that at the moment we, as a species, are the least violent we've ever been. i didn't say that we're killing each other more, just that, when we decide we want to kill someone, we're really, really goddamn good at doing it and yes, historically, by many standards, we're living in the most peaceful era ever - not exactly a glowing recommendation for hopping in the delorean, gunning it up to 88 mph, and going backwards now is it?

no bitching out of season!

you wasted your chance to show off your preternatural skill at haiku, grasshopper.

no, i'm not saying that. obviously our soldiers are good at killing people and have been for a long time. the sick fucks at sand creek in 1864 oughta be a fine example of that. more like saying that it's not the military so much as society in general that prepares people to kill. obviously the military builds on that burgeoning skill, and for good reasons - soldiers who won't shoot straight are just as useless as ones who can't, no?

- humans have been killing each other since caine and abel -humans have been desenstizing themselves to kill since then too -as humans have evolved, they have become both better at killing each other and in preparing themselves to kill each other -therefore, complaining about violent video games, a product of human evolution, is pretty much just complaining about the weather or any other natural phenomena that said, we are to some extent masters of our own evolution, and we have worked out some reasonable restraints on our primal instincts: sports, international treaties, internet porn, rule of law, etc. sure, banning violent video games might fall into that category, but you're still fighting an uphill battle.

It appears that you are not appreciating the role of repetition and ever more graphic images in desensitization. more like pointing out that it's evolution in action - sure, you can bitch about it, but that's the nature of life. it's not rose water flowing through our veins...

"Indeed, today many video games are actually replicating military training and conditioning kids to kill" manufacturing contempt what about the kids in the 50s playing cowboys n' indians? i don't think the modern game industry is doing much more than making a buck stoking a fire that was already burning...

planets come in 3 sizes: wee not so wee and fucking huuuuuuuge!

hmm - gotta think that somelke 85% of the teenage guys i teach are playing "call of duty" and fantasizing about zombie-apocalypses and not too far away from pissing on their own first kill...

interesting - wouldn't have though that - got any beta on it?

agreed there, jay, and why i said this on page 1

yes yes, we should leave it to presidents and other such leaders instead. ha! you might also point out that taking a frenchman's advice on how to make war is like taking a catholic priest's advice on how to babysit little boys.

Does anyone who is too dumb to spell a word in the title of their own thread still have a right to use it? ain't you a cunning linguist!

a fine illustration of clemenceau's observation that "war is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers."

quite possibly his best role (either that or chet from wierd science)

I hear ya. KKK asked me to climb with him once, but the caveat was he wanted me to pee in his mouth. Suddenly...my calendar was full. Gee, that's almost as funny as your threats to rape FW and his family. You're a barrel off laughs, you fat, worthless fuck. you sound like you got some stress to work out - hey man, the afghan war ain't quite done yet if'n you hustle down to the recruiters!

shit, throw in 5$ and you can automatically increase yer post count to 100,000!

indeed, little bitty drink of water like that! all 250+ of my bubble gum ass took a good long fall onto a smaller nut than that this summer and made me a True Believer must be nice to float like a butterfly so innocently like that - sigh....

i heard god was a civil engineer?

bernard fall was badass! i was raised on "hell in a small place" and "street w/o joy."

it's a well known that, from the beginning, engineers were a bunch of dreary fucks

indeed, let's leave 10 years ago already! i'm certainly no holier than these guys - i wouldn't be suprised at all if, in some parallel dimension, i was doing the same things as these dudes - the serene placidness i enjoy daily is undoubtedly the result of a conscious daily routine of long naps and tall glasses of burgundy, both of which seem in short supply in the typical war-zone...

what seems lost here is that this video is fucking peanuts compared to many other pearls of the past decade - jesus christ, the kids up at ft lewis just pled or were found guilty of doing far, far more sinister shit than pissing on some dead dudes who very likely deserved their untimely demise. g-bay-prison-sex-fuck-fest-ice-cube-dead-dudes-stacked-in-cheerleader-pyramid-redneck-bitches-pointing-their-fingers-at-yer-little-naked-prick-pix ring a bell? as for the sense in taking the video, uh, they're, ya know, called jarheads, right?

you said "trim" [video:youtube]