News that makes us laugh, cry, or both

[Orion]

She was actually a borderline socialist who skimmed all the philosophy rants to get to the rape porn.

[Username17]

She was actually a borderline socialist who skimmed all the philosophy rants to get to the rape porn.

You know, that almost makes sense. And is actually way more healthy than what I thought you were describing... which was people masturbating to the 57 page monologue about not paying taxes. If it's just jerking off to the rape fantasies then I at least understand where that is coming from.

However, I still think that is misplaced effort. The internet is wide and deep. And full of porn of varying quality. If rape fantasies is what you are looking for, then there are videos, still images, and fiction available of just that. I mean, it's not really that long ago that someone posted up a rape fantasy tactical dice rolling game on the IMOI board here, based on the rape fantasy niche genre of mind control sex stories (which turned out to be connected to an archive of just that).

If what you want is stories about men borderline raping their hot female bosses, there turns out to be an entire genre for that. Just to bring attention how full of porn the internet really is: that's not a joke. The genre is called "Office Sex" and there are archives available just of that (NSFW). That particular archive has 1077 stories - almost as many stories as Atlas Shrugged has pages. Other archives have even more. The "office sex" genre has entire sites dedicated to pictures and videos of the concept. A quick google search reveals such video series as "big tits at work" and "pornstar punishment" that appear to be exactly that.

As far as I can tell, you could rub your vagina to work-related rape fantasies all year with a different story every session and never repeat and never pick up an Ayn Rand book.

-Username17

[Crissa]

I tuned in to Michael Krasny's show on NPR this morning and had to listen to Jed Babbin. This guy constantly used words he didn't know what they meant, or if he did, he was being far more insulting than anyone else on the show. He said we should deal with terrorism by defeating Islamism Kinetically, among other things, like saying 9/11 was an existential problem.

-Crissa

[Clutch9800]

like saying 9/11 was an existential problem.

There are a lot of people in very powerful positions who firmly believe that it's exactly that.

Clutch

[Maj]

As far as I can tell, you could rub your vagina to work-related rape fantasies all year with a different story every session and never repeat and never pick up an Ayn Rand book.

True. But then you couldn't say you got off to Atlas Shrugged. That's talent.

[Ganbare Gincun]

But perhaps more tellingly, when the Tea Party protests were at their height, the Bush budget was still in effect. Obama's budget included significant tax relief, and taxes are still as low as they've ever been in 50 years. So... what are they protesting again?

[EDITED] Presidents, duh.

[Josh_Kablack]

nobody knows how our current tax system works, not even the people who wrote it.

This being the Gaming Den, I'm gonna use the D&D role playing game, but you could just as easily use criminal law or english grammar among other options to show why that's a line of outright manure.

Is the tax code really long (longer than anyone can confirm) and subject to change on a more-often-than-annual basis? Heck yeah.
Are there more sub-editions of D&D than most fans on a fansite can even list? Did the various publishers release supplemental material and new rule for the game multiple times per year for each of those editions - with so much material nobody could even guesstimate a word count? Hecks yeah.

So how can anyone understand D&D?

Does the IRS get tax questions wrong more often than they should? Yes
Did the various designers and sages of D&D blatantly contradict the game rules and then claim they didn't? Hecks yes

So how can anyone understand D&D?

Is the federal tax code further modified by state, regional, local and sin taxes? Yup.
Do third-party publishers make material that influences D&D. yup.

So how can anyone understand D&D?


Tell your seditious buddies to quit getting their info from Jack Chick, the 700 Club and Tom Hanks and to do some actual reading instead of just bashing the game they don't want to even try to understand:

Here's the SRD

here's the errata

Here's the Sage

[angelfromanotherpin]

It's not news exactly, but it seems relevant to the matters of the day:
Money Is Not Real

[Gelare]

Tell your seditious buddies to quit getting their info from Jack Chick, the 700 Club and Tom Hanks and to do some actual reading instead of just bashing the game they don't want to even try to understand:

Um...you sound insane. And not just because you're screaming about sedition (which I never even mentioned) and still failed to disprove my claim. No one cares if you don't understand the rules to D&D. You make up something that works and move on with your life. People care if you don't understand the rules to the Tax Code. Because the consolation prize is being audited with meat hooks and put in prison.

I get that on the order of a hundred million people every year file taxes and manage to avoid any violations egregious enough to call down the wrath of the IRS. But that is because the IRS has a limited budget (which Congress has a tendency to inexplicably cut, even when it demonstrably brings in more revenue than it costs), not because the Tax Code is even a little bit comprehensible.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

nobody knows how our current tax system works, not even the people who wrote it.

This being the Gaming Den, I'm gonna use the D&D role playing game, but you could just as easily use criminal law or english grammar among other options to show why that's a line of outright manure.

Is the tax code really long (longer than anyone can confirm) and subject to change on a more-often-than-annual basis? Heck yeah.
Are there more sub-editions of D&D than most fans on a fansite can even list? Did the various publishers release supplemental material and new rule for the game multiple times per year for each of those editions - with so much material nobody could even guesstimate a word count? Hecks yeah.

So how can anyone understand D&D?

Does the IRS get tax questions wrong more often than they should? Yes
Did the various designers and sages of D&D blatantly contradict the game rules and then claim they didn't? Hecks yes

So how can anyone understand D&D?

Is the federal tax code further modified by state, regional, local and sin taxes? Yup.
Do third-party publishers make material that influences D&D. yup.

So how can anyone understand D&D?


Tell your seditious buddies to quit getting their info from Jack Chick, the 700 Club and Tom Hanks and to do some actual reading instead of just bashing the game they don't want to even try to understand:

Here's the SRD

here's the errata

Here's the Sage

Dude, chill. And for the record, no one understands D&D either. All of us have thought the D&D rules said something stupid when they didn't say anything like that. Except instead of getting made fun of on the internet, misunderstanding a tax rule means your life is over.

I have had several friends look into moving to the US. All of them pointed at America's tax codes being too complex as the reason why they didn't. One person was an international business lawyer whose job was to understand that sort of thing and he said that America's tax code was too complex.

You are arguing a false dichotomy. You can say "the tax code is too complex and needs to be streamlined" without agreeing with anything the baggers say about it. Calm down, you've been a real dick lately.

[Crissa]

I think Josh had a salient point - that in complex systems, it's often tossed up that no one knows how it works. But that's not true. Nor is that mistakes mean that the system isn't understandable.

The tax code is far simpler than any biologic system, and yet we still have biology and medicine as sciences and practices.

The US tax code is massive. But so is our economy - it's the largest there is. There's no need for any one person to know it all, anyhow. If you take it piece by piece as you go, it's hardly that complex.

-Crissa

[virgil]

And it's obviously understandable; just look at the people abusing the hell out of it like you could with polymorph.

[Lago PARANOIA]

which was people masturbating to the 57 page monologue about not paying taxes. If it's just jerking off to the rape fantasies then I at least understand where that is coming from.

How long have you been under the impression that these are fundamentally different fetishes, Frank?

[Lago PARANOIA]

Frank is not exaggerating about the whole 'tax everyone equally and throw them in jail if they don't pay' thing, either.

Ask about Margaret Thatcher and the Poll Tax sometime.

[Crissa]

And it's obviously understandable; just look at the people abusing the hell out of it like you could with polymorph.

Josh's analogy even covers this: People abusing it either haven't been caught or have someone higher up covering for them.

You don't think corporations double-dipping or the carried interest loopholes would exist without some friends in high places, to you? The arguments for these loopholes are absolutely ridiculous, and yet they are allowed.

-Crissa

[The Lunatic Fringe]

There's really no reason for the tax code to be complex for the end user aside from lack of will*. The government could seriously put out a program like Turbotax every year for free dowload, and then you wouldn't have to understand the weird math and syntax, you'd just fill in the blanks.

*Or the people in charge might be beholden to tax-evaders.

[Psychic Robot]

*Or the people in charge might be beholden to tax-evaders.

NEVER!

[PoliteNewb]

Tell your seditious buddies to quit getting their info from Jack Chick, the 700 Club and Tom Hanks and to do some actual reading instead of just bashing the game they don't want to even try to understand:

Um...you sound insane. And not just because you're screaming about sedition (which I never even mentioned) and still failed to disprove my claim. No one cares if you don't understand the rules to D&D. You make up something that works and move on with your life. People care if you don't understand the rules to the Tax Code. Because the consolation prize is being audited with meat hooks and put in prison.

Man, I wish I could houserule the Tax Code. So much simpler...

[Orion]

Frank, you sell Atlast Shrugged short. Sure, it's not worth reading the 60 page speech-- I sure didn't--but the sexual violence seethes from most of the speeches and a good bit of the action as well. It all builds up to a rapetastic atmosphere that few short pieces can conjure.

[angelfromanotherpin]

The Last Airbender is sitting at 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's not just a bad adaptation, it appears to be genuinely terrible all round.

[Lago PARANOIA]

Looks like this is the end of the Avatar franchise, for now.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Frank, you sell Atlast Shrugged short. Sure, it's not worth reading the 60 page speech-- I sure didn't--but the sexual violence seethes from most of the speeches and a good bit of the action as well. It all builds up to a rapetastic atmosphere that few short pieces can conjure.

Is this something that TGD is saying because Atlas Shrugged sucks, or does the book have actual rape in it? If it's true, that's monstrous, but I am having trouble believing that the book would have that.

[angelfromanotherpin]

The Fountainhead has actual rape. Atlas Shrugged merely has rape-fantasy; it's violent, but at no point is permission actually withheld that I'm aware of.

[Username17]

Yeah, Atlas Shrugged sex is creepy fantasy rape, not actual rape. The male does violent sexual things to the female protagonist without discussing it first or having a safe word. But it's OK because she likes it or something. Ayn Rand's shorter book The Fountainhead has just plain ordinary rape. Which is also OK for some reason that I don't actually understand.

-Username17

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Yeah, I think I will reaffirm my previous assertion that I will never read anything Ayn Rand wrote, because that just makes me feel ill.