I disagree Petey. I'm often a dick, and it's usually justified. See rule #4 in my above post. Some people just wont listen to reason, and for them you just better hope you have a bigger club than they do.

@YJ - that extra y' earns you dick status. And it is possible to deal with a dick without being one yourself

Sure, it's POSSIBLE. But why would you want to?. There are people who exist only to act like an idiot. You could be gentle with him, or avoid him, but instead, why not take advantage of his idiocy to bring entertainment to yourself and others? You're turning a bad into a good, and providing education while you do it. Sure, an idiot could respond to deep deprogramming over the course of years, but I don't have time for that. Better to make a mockery of him so impressionable people don't make the mistake of listening.

bo-sox -- interesting that your reply is "the law of competition". This is not meant as an insult - but as a true question to you: You tend to be a far-left winger, who thinks that government should nurture and provide. You tend to be an anti-capitalist, and seem to express a belief on most occasions that equality (earned or forced by authorities) is the just and noble goal....in other words, everything I have ever seen you stand for most often indicates that you abhor competition. Is this statement here a tacit and unintended admission that your general philosophy of living flies in the face of the reality as you see it: i.e. competition is reality, all else is imposed (by those who won the fight, as it were...)?

Remember that there was a time when you didn't know what you now know. Don't mock or belitle those that haven't yet learnt what you know.

Rule #6: Never apologize — Its a sign of weakness.

;-)

I live by two combined.

From Auric Goldfinger - First time is happenstance, second is coincidence, third is enemy action.
Rule #39: There is no such thing as coincidence.

Also Rule #45: Clean up your own mess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI

Blocked in the US, believe it or not. "Blocked by Lionsgate in your country" it says.

Two that I like,
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
"Man plans, God laughs"

@ ashleygirl

I've never liked that one. It implies evil just larks about all day without a care in the world, expecting life to be handed to it on a plate, when in reality evil works really hard. Credit where credit's due.

Actually, it says nothing of the sort. What it actually says, if you read ir properly, is that if good men do nothing, evil *will* triumph. It says nothing about what will happen if good men attempt to stop evil. Evil may still triumph. But evil will triumph if good men do nothing. It is a very apt quote which interpretted as written.

Now I am not a fan of her second quote as it implies we should never plan. God calls upon us to plan all the time and He is not a malicious God. If our plans are within His will (and they will be if we pray about them) then he will not be malicious or mischevious and knock us for a loop. It is when man plans without first seeking His counsel that God laughs, knowing that those plans are destined to fail.

"Those who fail to plan, plan to fail" is a much better quote but remember to seek His counsel in all that you do.

"Clean up your own mess" is also an excellent precept.

@ Draug

Nah, you're just looking it it from the good perspective. Look at it from the side of evil. "ALL that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". That's all it takes. It doesn't matter how hard evil works, how many late nights evil puts in, how evil's parent's sacrificed to put evil through college. None of that counts. The only decisive factor, apparently, is if good happens to be arsed to get off its fat backside or not.

Frankly it's insulting. Evil doesn't just make itself. It needs time and effort.

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission"

But that is because good *is* arsed to get off its fat backside. If good were not, then it is true, evil could run rampant and noone would try to stop it. Hitler (Godwin's law time) is the perfect example. He ran roughshod over Europe. Had Britain not stood up to him and just rolled over after the first bombings, the US and Russia would have been powerless to stop him. It took a good man (Winston Churchill) and a good people (the Brits, damn them for actually being good people :-) ) to care to stop him.

True to some extent, but without getting overly Putin on you one of the major factors in stopping Hitler was Stalin. Evil did arguably far more to stop Evil than good did. And Stalin aside, was it Good or Evil that nuked Japanese civilians into glass to stop the war? Was it Good or Evil that decided to carpet bomb Dresden?

It is the story of History. Evil does all the heavy lifting, Good takes all the credit.

So getting back to the thread topic. I try to live by do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

@ Draugnar

That was deep. I hope I didn't offend the deeply religious. I just think it is a humorous quote meant to imply there are many speed bumps in the grand adventure we call life.

Oh no offense taken. I talk an offended talk, but rarely am I ever actually offended. Worry not, ashleygirl.

ashleygirl if you aren't offending the deeply religious then you are doing it wrong.

Well, intent determines good or evil. A single act is neither good nor evil but the intent of it's executor determines whether it will be judged as such.

Hogwash, Draugnar. History remembers the result, not the intent.

I've written myself a lot of rules. I break a lot of them a lot of the time. But I try my best.

One rule I try to live by is to think of myself last. That's the most important one to me. Or more precisely to think of myself no higher than anyone else.

This is also not so much a rule as it is a saying I try to keep in the front of my mind:

"What a lot of things there are a man can do without!"

My rules?

1. Life is an open challenge to every person. You can roll over and wait around to die or you can punch back at life at every possible opportunity.

2. Trust no one.

3. A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

4. With self-discipline most anything is possible.

5. (Continuation of rule number two) Never entrust your life to a firearm that has not been in service for less than 50 years

+10 to gunfighter's #3