Agent Zako

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Posts posted by Agent Zako

  2. Posted

    I think Kill la Kill could make a great fighting game if it was designed purposefully imbalanced like All-Star Battle. A hack 'n slash could work too. One-star grunts would work, yeah, and perodic boss battles with people with higher-star uniforms.

  3. Posted · Edited by Agent Zako (see edit history)

    Kill la Kill 22

     

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    I was sold on the Gundam reference in the first 5 minutes :3 Also, this show knows how to make me feel good and the feels just keep piling up. I've really liked the show before now, but I think I outright loved this episode. Also, I don't think it is physically possible to be more hyped for next episode.

  5. Posted

    Kill la Kill 21

    The emotions are running so high it's hard not to get swept away to feels land. I really liked Ryuko's Junketsu look  but all good things come to an end. Also, Satsuki seeing right through Nui's continued use of the scissor blade was probably my favorite part of an episode full of great scenes.

     

     

    Oh, and in Space Dandy this week we got a Jaicro Empire combining robot that soooo purposefully looked like the Ideon (with some Guncannon bits and a lion head from Gaogaigar) and a Gogol Empire super secret weapon that, at first at least, looked just like a super weapon used in Space Runaway Ideon. And then

    the mysterious device Meow's family makes is the Gundam component from the Side 6 arc of Mobile Suit Gundam. That was beautiful.

    It's like this episode was made for me.

  7. Posted

    Did anyone here by any chance ever watch bubblegum crisis? I've heard a lot about it and how famous and inspirational it was, yet I tried watching it and I never got past I think four episodes or so. Same with Welcome to the NHK. They just didn't rope me in.

    I started Bubblegum Crisis ( we actually showed the first episode in anime club), but never finished. More so because of other things on my to-watch list than a lack of interest. I really liked all the Blade Runner references and general late 80's cyberpunk feel. Not sure that will keep me interested through the whole thing, though.

    pheonix561 likes this

  9. Posted

    also, i was thinking of waiting for zako to post it so i could make a joke about it, but i am too impatient for that

    I'm nowhere near as on top of things as it may seem v_v anyhow, mostly footage of Joseph but that's all I need to jump off my slow steam-powered hype train and onto a fancy new bullet one.

    T1g likes this

  10. Posted

    Yeah, I was even less forum savvy back in December and didn't know how. Oh well. I've been reading through Stardust Crusaders and am super hyped for the anime.

  13. Posted

    I think this is a good stopping point for me in this thread, unless someone brings up a new topic. Glad we've been able to discuss without things getting too heated or personal.

  14. Posted · Edited by Agent Zako (see edit history)

    That Jesus delivered a sick diss to the Pharisees isn't going to get any debate from me, it's the idea that Jesus was inciting hopeless open rebellion, which is what not paying taxes to the people who've conquered you absolutely is. I've never once doubted that Chase has done extensive homework and has multiple sources, but the thing is you can find a decently well-written article to defend just about any point of view on the internet. Yes, I haven't done more than skim those articles, but I don't feel any need to dive in any deeper than that because, as the wiki pages clearly shows, there are multiple interpretations on the matter. And there are tons and tons of semantic arguments to be made as to what this means or what that means in whichever context. My personal beliefs about Christianity may be less informed by virtue of not looking up a million articles to back up my beliefs, but I've seen enough televangelists who pick and chose which bible verses they site and are capable of making just about any point they want to make me wary. Beyond the very basics of the faith, life has taught me to take everything I hear and read with a healthy dose of salt.

  15. Posted

    I've only ever heard that quote used in the senses that Necro and Sahaqiel brought up, but never as a sly way of saying that no, one shouldn't pay taxes. I just read the passage myself, and while I see what Chase is getting at, I don't find the same subtext there, and have never seen anyone else promote a similar view. Sure, Jesus was in a tricky situation, but he also had a habit of quoting old testament scripture himself, not leaving that to the memory of whoever is listening/reading. Sure, you could argue the Pharisees would totally know what he was talking about in this roundabout situation Chase proposes, but I don't know how one would prove that. Also, if the entire Jewish population stopped paying taxes to Rome they'd be ruthlessly crushed by the Roman military until they once again gave in, which is exactly what happened when disputes over taxation led to the First Jewish-Roman War from 66-73 AD/CE, which cost anywhere between 250,000 to over a million lives, with tens of thousands of Jews enslaved.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_War

     

    Basically, I'm not convinced and don't think another few paragraphs of speculation will clear that up.

  17. Posted · Edited by Agent Zako (see edit history)

    This 'S' phenomenon is quite disturbing. I propose the creation of a formal investigative party from Hnet's most scientifically capable members. Their mission: To discover, by any means necessary/within-the-budget, how and why the 'S' came to be, and, should it in fact be a cultural vanguard for a full-scale alien invasion, how to stop the dirty, little grays from stepping foot on terra firma. Earth for the earthnoids, I say.

  18. Posted

    Sorry, I lied last night so I could get out of this as quickly as possible. I don't actually feel as unsure of my stance as I said, but engaging in this debate, at this time, was a very poor decision on my part. I'd be happy to continue discussion later. Again, sorry about that :(

  19. Posted

    Actually, Saha, I think I have a pretty weak argument here and don't want to cause meaningless friction. You seem to feel very strongly about this. I do too, but since I've grown up in a church environment and don't regret it I think this is probably irreconcilable no matter how bad my argument is. I'm done.

  20. Posted

    Yes, there are some religious organizations that are highly organized, and have many rich, dedicated members to contribute funds, but my point was that those are far from the majority and that all of the small churches, like the baptist church being run out of a small storefront in the strip mall down the road from where I live, don't have that luxury. It's not remotely fair in my mind to say that this small church, which likely has less than 100 regular members, and not rich ones (judging from the size and location), should have to pay for the excesses of some people who obviously have different priorities than you or I do.  I'm open to the idea of there being some way of setting apart the religious groups that have plenty of money to throw around, but I don't know what kind of legal process would lead to that.

     

    Also, it's not freedom from the law if the law grants said freedom. The tax exemption is exactly that, an exception, but it's a legal one despite how suspect some of the ways it's used are. There are people who take advantage of many well-meaning laws, and this is only just one example.

  21. Posted

    on children & religion

    ...ceiling so high it could be three stories tall and house the homeless I kept seeing everywhere, yet they still ask for money. She never provided me with a satisfactory answer. I still think churches should be required to pay taxes. There's no reason they should get special treatment.

    I forgot to say this, but just thought I'd point out that most churches aren't 3-story Megachurches with a capacity for thousands of people. For every huge, well-to-do church out there, there are many more small churches that still struggle to afford paying down the building/room they're in on top of monthly bills despite the tax-exemption. In our area especially, there are tons of small (mostly baptist) churches scattered around that I don't ever notice until I happen to get up close.

     

    Plus, now I might be overestimating the burden a loss of tax-exempt status would impose, but people have the right to worship or not however they chose, and part of many religions is an emphasis on inter-faith community. Now, if taxes were a factor, representation of different faiths/denominations would be further limited to those who could afford this new standard. The tax exempt status doesn't apply only to christian churches but religious organizations in general. I don't know the actual numbers of the situation, but it seems obvious to me the intent of the law is to make it so anybody can have a place to congregate with people of similar beliefs as long as they can afford what I'd expect is the fairly low monetary cieling to overcome. Maybe the law could use some tweaking, and I'm sure certain churches could get by fine with paying taxes, but I'm no lawmaker so I wouldn't know how to improve upon it.

  22. Posted

    Ah, I see what you mean about the creationism thing. I don't know off the top of my head if any countries have lawmakers pushing to adopt it.

     

    I don't have many strong feelings about patriotism, but I think that pride in one's country is a double-edged sword. Patriotism can be an inspiration for innovation as easily as it can be used to hold countries back. Much like how an artist can be proud of their past work but still feel the urge to improve, or loving a child but still teaching them what's right and wrong. Being proud of something doesn't necessarily mean being completely satisfied with it. But that's semantics I suppose. We should definitely be constantly striving to improve ourselves, our nation, our culture and the world.

  23. Posted

    Yeah, our education system in the U.S. is more than a bit screwed up, but pretending that an imperialist attitude is something exclusive to white eurpoean culture isn't right at all, from a historical perspective at least. People from all over the world have been conquering and influencing their neighbors for millenia. Look at the japanese conquest of southeast Asia in WWII, or the ancient Chinese or Mongolian empires, or the spread of Muslim empires in the middle-east when that religion was new on the block. It's just that in the modern, nuclear age very few countries have the ability to spread their influence through force, or at least very few want to try. I'm not saying an imperialist attitude is right, or that isolationism is wrong, just that it's no secret to anybody who's familiar with the last 100 or so years of world history how the United States became as imperialist as it is today, both militarily and culturally. Complaining about today's empires doesn't do any good. Influence is good if it's making a positive change in others. We should change the empire if we don't like it.

    - Again, is there any other nation that tries to push creationism onto the education system?

    Well, I'd think a number of theocracies, mostly, but not exclusively, located in the middle east, would have a creationist view taught in public education.

  24. Posted

    I started looking up the traditional Jewish concepts of the afterlife as well as the origins for the words that are translated as 'Hell' in modern bibles. Quickly coming closer to Chase's levels of certainty that the traditional Christian idea of a fiery, you-can-never-leave Hell has no basis in the text.

  25. Posted

    Like Chase, I'm also a Christian who's struggled, a lot, with aspects of my faith, particularly Hell and views on sexuality. Unlike Chase, I'm not Catholic and never have been. I was raised as a protestant without any particular denomination.

     

    So over the years I've been told, and believe, that the only thing that should define Christian views is the Bible, and nothing else. No extraneous documents, laws, or dogma that aren't found in there. But even still, there are so many different interpretations to go on. I suppose my feeling on the issue are that, as long as the basic thesis statements of the faith, about Jesus selflessly dying for us and how we should treat everyone with love, don't change, the minutia doesn't matter, or at least shouldn't condemn us.

     

    Anyhow, Hell has definitely been a big problem for me, especially with all of my non-christian friends. I'm definitely more pleased with the interpretation Chase brought up. And even more, the pastor of my regular church brought up not long ago the idea of the concept of Hell primarily being a form of seperation from God, as Ammonsa put it, so there is precedent in my life for accepting such a change of views. But on the other hand, I've known biblical/theological scholars for so long, including one of my uncles who has multiple very impressive degrees on the subject he's earned over the years, and so many of these people, who've also studied the original greek/hebrew and the translations from there, tell me that Hell is a literal fiery pit and that God absolutely 100% hates same-sex attraction/relationships. But then again, I've made up my own mind on religious subjects before and it'd be hypocritical for me to use that as an excuse to just "go with the flow."

     

    So, yeah. I'm glad Chase has found this alternative view that looks, at least to me, as legitimate as any other if not more so.

     

    Also, I agree with Sahaqiel that people need to experience suffering in order to become well-rounded individuals. But while It's necessary to go through trials to become a better person, history has shown those hardships don't always cause people to turn out better. I do like to think that most of the time, though, there's something to be gained from it all.

    Ammonsa likes this