The Gaming Den

The Vigilante wrote:I tried searching but couldn't come up with any result, and I didn't want to start a new thread just for this so I'm posting this here :

I remember reading here about some guy who wrote a program to optimize unit lists for some wargaming tournament. It was all about how the lists, while valid, were against the conventions, stuff like fleets entirely made out of transports and so on. I'd be grateful if anyone could help me find it.

It was more like the strategies were counter-intuitive to how things were normally played. I started the thread here.

Orion wrote:Wow, Tzor, credit where credit's due, your post is interesting, on-topic, and not bigoted. High five. I don't understand your reference to digitally censored nudity "causing problems." What do you mean by that? (Also, are you saying you wanted Westboro Baptist to lose the case? I mean, I certainly sympathize, but I can't agree.)

OK, the first part is going to real hard to explain. I'll wrap myself in medical lingo to keep the naughty police away. You might want to call it the half Barbie effect. Now Barbie is clearly not anatomically correct, and her genital region is non existant. But in some countries, you can get away with showing some level of genital detail but not all. This results in soft porn mags deliberately airbrushing out genetial details, especially the inner labia.

Girls grow up, they see these models with a complete lack of inner labia; they see that they might have a significant inner labia and thus think that they are not as good as the models. The result is a rise of labiaplasy for women whose inner labias are perfectly normal and fine.

...

OK the second part. The Westboro Baptist case is basically the overturning of a civil lawsuit. You know the old saying "sticks and stones can break my bones but names can never hurt me?" Fuck it. I've seen words breaking the spirit of a person, literally killing their spirit. It doesn't even happen to be on purpose, but death fucking sucks; it plants IEDs in your soul just waiting for them to go off.

To deliberately provoke these things to a greiving person to make some half assed crappy political point is so dispicable that I cannot even attempt to defend such a person. If there is any argument for the "right to privacy" then a grieving person should have that in spades.

When your right to speech interferes with his right to privacy and grief, he does have a good reason to sue the pants off of you in civil court. Apparently the Supreme Court didn't think so, and our political conversation is only going to go downhill from here.

Well there's any number of civil and criminal reasons you can't storm into someone's funeral and insult people to their face. Trespassing, verbal assault, etc. etc. That's why the Westboro protest took place off the grounds and out of sight, and the grieving family only found out about the protest after the fact.

As long as the Westboro assholes stay outside of the Cemetery, i don't particularly care about what they do. That being said, I'm not going to cry if a group of vets take offense and beat the crap out of them.

The Supreme Court is right. It is constitutionally protected Free Speech.

sabs wrote:As long as the Westboro assholes stay outside of the Cemetery, i don't particularly care about what they do. That being said, I'm not going to cry if a group of vets take offense and beat the crap out of them.

The Supreme Court is right. It is constitutionally protected Free Speech.

I pretty much fully agree with Sabs, here. Of course the grieving family is also within their rights to sue Phelps for emotional distress, etc etc.

They tried, and it was overturned, IIRC.

In fact that was what the SC overturned, the civil court judgement.

Prak_Anima wrote:

sabs wrote:As long as the Westboro assholes stay outside of the Cemetery, i don't particularly care about what they do. That being said, I'm not going to cry if a group of vets take offense and beat the crap out of them.

The Supreme Court is right. It is constitutionally protected Free Speech.

I pretty much fully agree with Sabs, here. Of course the grieving family is also within their rights to sue Phelps for emotional distress, etc etc.

I don't really have the energy to explain what is required for lawsuits for emotional distress since I work a ridiculous amount of hours right now, but under no circumstances is such a claim going to override a person's right to freedom of political speech in the US. Most other western democracies would have thrown the lot of the Westboro crowd in jail by now, by the way.

I don't get why the Westboro people can protest funerals of fallen soldiers but if I call my employer a boogerface on my facebook account I would be fired. My theory is "freedom of speech" is dead.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:I don't get why the Westboro people can protest funerals of fallen soldiers but if I call my employer a boogerface on my facebook account I would be fired. My theory is "freedom of speech" is dead.

Because the former requires a government action to stop and the latter doesn't. All "freedom of speech" grants is freedom from government interference. It doesn't protect you from the consequences of your speech. Your complaint actually is an attempt to restrain the freedom of speech of your employer.

Firing is not freedom of speech, Neeeek. You know that it isn't, and you insult me by making that shitty argument.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Firing is not freedom of speech, Neeeek. You know that it isn't, and you insult me by making that shitty argument.

You are asking from freedom from the consequences of your actions. All freedom of speech guarantees is the government won't stop you from saying things. You insult yourself if you think posting insulting things about your boss in public forums means you aren't deserving to be fired.

Neeeek, I honestly don't care what you think. I see everyone around me acting like spoiled [EDITED] and getting away with it while making a federal case because I just farted sideways. I have given up any illusion that life is fair, but I still think it would be nice if I could get away with something just one time in my life.

Neeeek wrote:

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Firing is not freedom of speech, Neeeek. You know that it isn't, and you insult me by making that shitty argument.

You are asking from freedom from the consequences of your actions. All freedom of speech guarantees is the government won't stop you from saying things. You insult yourself if you think posting insulting things about your boss in public forums means you aren't deserving to be fired.

I think that getting fired for personally saying that you didn't like the boss while not at work is very solidly wrongful termination. If your opinions outside work can get you fired from your job, you don't have freedom of expression at all.

Or to put it another way: how would you respond if the opinion expressed on the Facebook page was agreement/disagreement with the president, pro-/anti-union sentiments, religious affiliation, or identification as a member of a political party?

-Username17

FrankTrollman wrote:

Neeeek wrote:

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Firing is not freedom of speech, Neeeek. You know that it isn't, and you insult me by making that shitty argument.

You are asking from freedom from the consequences of your actions. All freedom of speech guarantees is the government won't stop you from saying things. You insult yourself if you think posting insulting things about your boss in public forums means you aren't deserving to be fired.

I think that getting fired for personally saying that you didn't like the boss while not at work is very solidly wrongful termination. If your opinions outside work can get you fired from your job, you don't have freedom of expression at all.

Or to put it another way: how would you respond if the opinion expressed on the Facebook page was agreement/disagreement with the president, pro-/anti-union sentiments, religious affiliation, or identification as a member of a political party?

-Username17

Also to add to that: My employer isn't a actual human being. It's a corporate entity.

FrankTrollman wrote:
I think that getting fired for personally saying that you didn't like the boss while not at work is very solidly wrongful termination. If your opinions outside work can get you fired from your job, you don't have freedom of expression at all.

Or to put it another way: how would you respond if the opinion expressed on the Facebook page was agreement/disagreement with the president, pro-/anti-union sentiments, religious affiliation, or identification as a member of a political party?

It's not remotely the same thing. Saying bad things publicly about a company you work for (or person you work for) is damaging to the company's image. Instant grounds for termination, unless the information you are sharing is regarding illegal practices, which are covered under whistle blower protection laws.

Neeeek wrote:

FrankTrollman wrote:
I think that getting fired for personally saying that you didn't like the boss while not at work is very solidly wrongful termination. If your opinions outside work can get you fired from your job, you don't have freedom of expression at all.

Or to put it another way: how would you respond if the opinion expressed on the Facebook page was agreement/disagreement with the president, pro-/anti-union sentiments, religious affiliation, or identification as a member of a political party?

It's not remotely the same thing. Saying bad things publicly about a company you work for (or person you work for) is damaging to the company's image. Instant grounds for termination, unless the information you are sharing is regarding illegal practices, which are covered under whistle blower protection laws.

So is publicly saying good or bad things about a political party. If you can lose your livelihood because you acknowledge to the world that you don't like something, then you have no freedom. At all.

Unless and until the government starts guaranteeing all of us food and shelter, allowing corporations to fire people based on their personal preferences stated while not at work is allowing our corporate overlords to determine whether we live or die based on thought crimes that they make up. That is an Orwellian Dystopia that I do not want to live in.

-Username17

Frank is right about not having any freedom at all if you can't complain about your boss at places which aren't work. Not a first amendment issue though. Its an industrial relations issue.

Also, whistleblower laws don't do shit in any country I'm aware of. "Integrity is a laudable trait, as long as you keep it away from me." Nobody is without skeletons, good luck getting hired with a rep for exposing them.

OK. So weigh in on the highly a propos case of Gilbert Gottfried:

[url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/03/14/georgia.aflac.duck/ wrote:CNN[/url] {OK, CNN, Fire}]Comedian Gilbert Gottfried fired as voice of Aflac duck

The Aflac duck lost its voice Monday after the insurance giant fired the comedian behind the commercial quack for tweeting jokes about the earthquake and tsunami that has devastated Japan.

The Columbus, Georgia-based company fired Gilbert Gottfried less than an hour after discovering the tweets, according to a news release from Aflac.

"Gilbert's recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac," Michael Zunda, the company's senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

Most of the tweets attributed to Gottfried make light of the natural disaster in either a flippant or sexual manner.

The tweets include this, posted at 12:33 p.m. Saturday:

"Japan called me. They said 'maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they're all sinking.'"

Another tweet, posted at 11:06 a.m. the same day, said:

"I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said 'is there a school in this area.' She said 'not now, but just wait.'"

Zuna said, "Aflac Japan -- and, by extension, Japan itself -- is part of the Aflac family, and there is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times." He added that the company was giving the International Red Cross 100 million yen (U.S. $1.2 million) to aid in disaster relief.

...

Gilbert Gottfried wrote:"Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."

"What do the japanese have in common with @howardstern? They're both radio active."

"Japan had put out this urgent plea...." PLEASE SEND US A FEW BIlLION RUBBER DUCKIES!!!!!"

"Japan called me. They said "maybe those jokes are a hit in the US, but over here, they're all sinking."

"I fucked a girl in japan. She screamed "I feel the earth move and I'm getting wet."

"My book #rubberBallsAndLiquor was released in japan. It's making quite a splash."

"What does every Japanese person have in their apartment? Flood lights."

"I asked a girl in Japan to have sex with me. She said "okay, but you'll have to sleep in the wet spot.""

"What do Japanese Jews like to eat? Hebrew National Tsunami."

"I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said "is there a school in this area." She said "not now, but just wait.""

"My Japanese doctor advised me to stay healthy I need 50 million gallons of water a day."

"I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, "They'll be another one floating by any minute now.""

I am now going to follow Gilbert Gottfried. Aflac's gotta mind their image, but to me, those are funny. As Carlin said, you can joke about anything.

Draco_Argentum wrote:Also, whistleblower laws don't do shit in any country I'm aware of. "Integrity is a laudable trait, as long as you keep it away from me." Nobody is without skeletons, good luck getting hired with a rep for exposing them.

Yeah. My brother in law basically got fired for reporting an OSHA violation. He tried to get them to fix it and they ignored him. After he reported it, they sent him home, then realized how bad that looked, so they had him come back. After that, they basically made his job worse and worse until he would quit. When he gave them two weeks notice, they fired him.

They also tried to change it to laying him off for lack of work to screw him for unemployment, but at least they were too late to do that. He can still collect UI.

But I thought that Corporations only had the best intentions? Free Market will self regulate and it's great for everything!

That's what Fox News told me.


Those jokes aren't necessarily funny, but they're not that bad.
Are they worse than all the NASA jokes after Discovery blew up?

Why do NASA Engineers only drink sprite?
Because they couldn't get 7 up.

and there were more. Humor, even bad humor, is an acceptable way to deal with Tragedy.

How do I start a union? I believe my co workers and I at Panera are in need of a body to fight for their fair treatment and freedom from immoral hatchet man managers. So how do I start one? What do I need to do? How do I do it?

TBH you're better off going to an already existing union. Unless you have a large employee base to work off, starting your own will just mean that when legal bills come in, you have to pay more each.

Also, I'm not sure how it works for franchises. Can a single location be unionized while others are not, or would all of Panera need to join?