Hopefully in the next election, the people that though Obama would bring such great 'change' won't think that their new favorite choice will be bringing great 'change'.
Whatever happens, so long as we have asstards like yourself that deflect all the attention away from the debate and into a partisan hackfest, change is going to be damn hard to find. Don't you see this is how they're keeping you dumb?
Doesn't matter if something's a good idea, or a bad idea, or a decent idea that needs some more work. If it's our idea it's awesome, if it's theirs it's communism/fascism/fill in your favorite boogeyman.
Several assorted Socialists and Communists, I didn't vote for Obama largely because I think it likely he is a Communist, those guys are out of the closet. Then ya get the real cranks and kooks nobody has ever heard of, all of which make Obama's six months in the Senate before heading to Iowa look like vast experience.
Congratulations. It's sentences like this that make all us non-USians smile in amusement, right up to the point where we realize that folks like you get to vote as well.
Do you even know what communism is? What are all these retards doing on a site for nerds ffs? And with a 4-digit ID no less. What is it with Americans, do you all have some sort of genetic deficiency that makes you unable to see any colors between completely black and white(or red and blue, not that there's a difference in your case)?
Your once great country is seriously fucking itself up. Your political system is corrupt to the bone. And all the time the voters are being distracted by a constant barrage of "it's them!, no, it's them!, no, they did it, we're the good guys!". Your politicians, your news anchors, your teachers, your parents and everyone else are treating you as though you're in kindergarten. And you know what? Based on posts like yours I can see why, because damn, you gotta be seriously ignorant to write crap like that.
Well, there's a TON of positive effects. No noisy lawnmowers waking me up on the weekend, no need for me to use a lawnmower, that's a big plus. It's safer, especially if you have a hilly spot of land. Lawnmowers rolling and flipping on to people is serious business, but I can't think of any way a goat rolling over due to a steep hill has ever killed anyone, or even seriously disfigured a foot. Much safer.
The downside? Goats poop a lot, and have devil eyes.
They do taste pretty good, though. If you cook 'em right.
Having just watched 3 seasons worth of Weeds I now have an image in my head of an entire suburb full of identical houses, each with a couple of goats in the yard....and they all look just the same.
What the hell is wrong with you people? How is it OK to take someones' property and give it someone else? Dressing it up with some type of BS about poor health is just that,BS. Their health, their problem, not mine and damn sure not a moral reason to take my money to pay for her bad health. Unless you are a socialist or communist of some stripe. Because those two political systems both believe that taking from those who have and giving to those that don't, is a good thing. Of course they have both failed in the real world in their "pure" incarnations, but that should not stop you from beating the dead horse in this case.
Yeah man, life here in Western Europe is so much worse compared to the good ol' US of A. The Daily Show did a nice piece on it recently following some of the remarks by your press about turning the US into Sweden.
You know what? I'm glad my government takes some of my money to provide good education to everyone, independant of how privileged their parents happen to be. You know why? Because that means those underprivileged children will have good jobs when they're grown up instead of being pretty much forced into either crappy labor with no security whatsoever or a life of crime. Unfortunately that means there's less people for the whole "tough on crime" crowd to throw in prison, but we'll just have to live with that.
You know what else I'm glad about? That I live in a country that has more than 2 political parties, and that there's a gray area between "with us" and "against us". It means political parties have to somehow find compromises between socialism and laissez-faire capitalism, democratic process and fast hard leadership, being "green" and promoting industry etc.
The problems of your neighbour are also your problems. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but somewhere down the fucking road they are going to turn around and bite you in the ass. So you may as well fix them today, while they still cost 10 grand, rather than 10 years from now when it's going to take a 100 grand instead. We don't live on islands people, that's not how the real world works.
Really, all you foam at the mouth libertarians should all just move to one state, secede from the US and start your little theoretical utopia. Heck, I'd pay good money to see that happen.
As for the whole "taking money by force" part, that's part of the deal. You get to live there, and in return you have to pay. Like a number of other posters have mentioned already, there's countries that seem to fit your tax ideals better, like Somalia. Heck, you could rent your own little army with all the taxes you'll be saving.
Examples: He printed lies in an article about 'Benno Baksteen', a pilot and serial-liar who promotes the air travel industry. Examples of Baksteen's lies that Rozendaal puts in that article without checking:
Aw come, on. You can't mention Mr. Baksteen on a non-dutch forum without at the very least explaining that his last name is the dutch word for "brick". Yes, those rectangular objects both known for their great qualities in being part of houses and total lack thereof when it comes to aeronautical endeavors.
I don't know how it'll all play out in the end. What I know is that I do own Demigod, and I do not own Spore.
As someone who pirated Spore, decided it was overhyped crap and thus didn't buy it, would you recommend I'd spend my cash on Demigod? I'm getting mixed signals as to how much fun it is.
Might be a neighbourhood amplifier not being able to handle the peak load. Used to have the same issue a few years back(cable) and the ISP put something a little heavier in. Problem hasn't been seen since.
The cops can locate grow-ops FAR easier by tracking electrical usage and using infrared detectors(the heat detected is outside the house, so no warrant needed).
Ehmm, how do you suggest we find them based on tracking electrical usage since:
- the electrical meter is located inside the residence most of the time, and even it isn't the authorities can't obtain its readings without a warrant - most of the time the electrical meter is (illegally) bypassed anyway
As to the legality of growing weed, one of the big issues is that people do it in attics, connecting several megawatts worth of electrical equipment in really haphazard ways, often bypassing the electrical meter. This in turn is a massive fire hazard.
In the winter it's pretty easy to spot the growers though. If all the roofs in a street are covered with snow except for one, it might be time to get a warrant(or send this toy for a flyby).
5 generations later, the Rolling Stones are ordered by law never to get within 500 feet of each other again, for fear of attracting a swarm of killer krikkits.
Since I'm at it: why desperately try to pay back those people, who are obviously rather content with *not* being paid? Why fix it, if it's not broken? Is it because you're somehow feeling guilty that somebody is solving your problems, and you wish return the favor? Well, if you genuinely want to return the favor: help somebody yourself. They'll appreciate it, and eventually, they'll also help somebody else, in the end *maybe* reaching your original helper (the one you were trying to reward, remember?:)
But even if your original helper won't feel the traces of your good deeds: I can assure you, if you're helping somebody without expecting to get a reward, it will enable you to be able to accept help from somebody without feeling the urgent need to reward the helper with anything beyond a "thank you":-) You're going to be happy, the original helper was happy all along, and other people along the way got happy too.
One. Big. Happy. Family.:-)
Why desperately trying to bring money to the game?
Because otherwise the entire world will turn into Sweden?
Then free-market idealists are living in a fantasy world.
In reality, even if you start with a free-market utopia, eventually some players consolidate power and then use it to stifle competition. We've seen it over and over again.
Yes, sometimes the government is the player that has too much power and quashes the free-market. But at least (in theory) governments are beholden to the people.
Really, these libertarian types remind me of old-school communists: their ideas sound cool but fail to take human nature into account.
Ah, so I'm not the only one who noticed the link with communism, only all the way to the other side of the spectrum.
That's the whole issue with idealism...
Anyway, to get back on topic, over here the utilities companies are owned by the municipalities in the form of shares. Dividends are paid, shareholder meetings are held etc. etc. The only difference between this and a publically held company is that in these cases the customers of the company are the people that elect the shareholders. Seems to make for a nice balance between profitability, service etc.
However, while you're busy spending hours gaining virtual achievements you're not completing your next assignment, so you fall into a loop of confidence highs and lows. It all comes down to self discipline and good time management. I speak from experience as someone who spent 3 years between the ages of 16 and 19 putting in 35+ hours a week to World of Warcraft and EVE Online, having to retake my A level exams and still ending doing on a foundation year. I don't use games as an excuse of my failure because it's down to lack of self discipline, but I'm sure that the nature of the games I played compounded the situation.
Does this not directly contradict that MMO's are the problem? Watching tv is more fun that taking out the trash, doing homework or cleaning the kitchen. So is reading a good book.
Lack of (self)-discipline is the problem. And in the case of children, said discipline needs to be enforced by the parents. Once you're grown up, short of a significant other you have to do it your damn self or face the music. Blaming MMO's or any other activity for being so "addictive" is just a lame excuse.
As for your flunking your exams because of EVE/WoW, your parents/caretakers should have kept better track of your progress in school and given you a good kicking. If that fails to instill the proper amount of discipline, out goes the internet connection. Either a child is grown up enough to make the right decisions, or those decisions will be made for him/her, it's really not that hard.
The differences between a mmorpg, a fps with no artificial progress indicator, and a puzzle game need to be noted.
As an avid Eve Online player who's been playing Puzzle Quest marathon sessions due to lack of internet...care to enlighten me on the differences? All of them sure beat taking the damn trash out;-)
Were your political view very much an exception to the norm? was it a much more even mix than the media portrays? or is politics something soldiers just don't talk about.
Come on man, you know the drill...don't ask, don't tell.
Slashdot Mirror
Now if you'll excuse me I need to catch my plane to Holland, got some dams standing in the way of Mother Nature that need to be take care of.
Some of us live 3 meters below sea level you insensitive clod!
Oh well, it's not like we never break our own damn dams... :P We may not have a big army, but any invading force is sure going to get...their feet wet.
Hopefully in the next election, the people that though Obama would bring such great 'change' won't think that their new favorite choice will be bringing great 'change'.
Whatever happens, so long as we have asstards like yourself that deflect all the attention away from the debate and into a partisan hackfest, change is going to be damn hard to find. Don't you see this is how they're keeping you dumb?
Doesn't matter if something's a good idea, or a bad idea, or a decent idea that needs some more work. If it's our idea it's awesome, if it's theirs it's communism/fascism/fill in your favorite boogeyman.
Several assorted Socialists and Communists, I didn't vote for Obama largely because I think it likely he is a Communist, those guys are out of the closet. Then ya get the real cranks and kooks nobody has ever heard of, all of which make Obama's six months in the Senate before heading to Iowa look like vast experience.
Congratulations. It's sentences like this that make all us non-USians smile in amusement, right up to the point where we realize that folks like you get to vote as well.
Do you even know what communism is? What are all these retards doing on a site for nerds ffs? And with a 4-digit ID no less. What is it with Americans, do you all have some sort of genetic deficiency that makes you unable to see any colors between completely black and white(or red and blue, not that there's a difference in your case)?
Your once great country is seriously fucking itself up. Your political system is corrupt to the bone. And all the time the voters are being distracted by a constant barrage of "it's them!, no, it's them!, no, they did it, we're the good guys!". Your politicians, your news anchors, your teachers, your parents and everyone else are treating you as though you're in kindergarten. And you know what? Based on posts like yours I can see why, because damn, you gotta be seriously ignorant to write crap like that.
Now EVE players are a cult, they're always trying to convert everyone
Don't forget to mention that once we've converted you, we'll tell you to gb2wow 3 days later :-)
Well, there's a TON of positive effects. No noisy lawnmowers waking me up on the weekend, no need for me to use a lawnmower, that's a big plus. It's safer, especially if you have a hilly spot of land. Lawnmowers rolling and flipping on to people is serious business, but I can't think of any way a goat rolling over due to a steep hill has ever killed anyone, or even seriously disfigured a foot. Much safer.
The downside? Goats poop a lot, and have devil eyes.
They do taste pretty good, though. If you cook 'em right.
Having just watched 3 seasons worth of Weeds I now have an image in my head of an entire suburb full of identical houses, each with a couple of goats in the yard....and they all look just the same.
What the hell is wrong with you people? How is it OK to take someones' property and give it someone else? Dressing it up with some type of BS about poor health is just that,BS. Their health, their problem, not mine and damn sure not a moral reason to take my money to pay for her bad health. Unless you are a socialist or communist of some stripe. Because those two political systems both believe that taking from those who have and giving to those that don't, is a good thing. Of course they have both failed in the real world in their "pure" incarnations, but that should not stop you from beating the dead horse in this case.
Yeah man, life here in Western Europe is so much worse compared to the good ol' US of A. The Daily Show did a nice piece on it recently following some of the remarks by your press about turning the US into Sweden.
You know what? I'm glad my government takes some of my money to provide good education to everyone, independant of how privileged their parents happen to be. You know why? Because that means those underprivileged children will have good jobs when they're grown up instead of being pretty much forced into either crappy labor with no security whatsoever or a life of crime. Unfortunately that means there's less people for the whole "tough on crime" crowd to throw in prison, but we'll just have to live with that.
You know what else I'm glad about? That I live in a country that has more than 2 political parties, and that there's a gray area between "with us" and "against us". It means political parties have to somehow find compromises between socialism and laissez-faire capitalism, democratic process and fast hard leadership, being "green" and promoting industry etc.
The problems of your neighbour are also your problems. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but somewhere down the fucking road they are going to turn around and bite you in the ass. So you may as well fix them today, while they still cost 10 grand, rather than 10 years from now when it's going to take a 100 grand instead. We don't live on islands people, that's not how the real world works.
Really, all you foam at the mouth libertarians should all just move to one state, secede from the US and start your little theoretical utopia. Heck, I'd pay good money to see that happen.
As for the whole "taking money by force" part, that's part of the deal. You get to live there, and in return you have to pay. Like a number of other posters have mentioned already, there's countries that seem to fit your tax ideals better, like Somalia. Heck, you could rent your own little army with all the taxes you'll be saving.
50% more Gold and Hammers in Washington... For the love of $deity, move the capital before the revolution? :-)
Hey, don't get in the way of his Fox-fueled "Obama is leading us all to Communism" trip!
Don't you know better than to stand in front of a vehicle while the driver is wearing a blindfold?
Examples:
He printed lies in an article about 'Benno Baksteen', a pilot and serial-liar who promotes the air travel industry. Examples of Baksteen's lies that Rozendaal puts in that article without checking:
Aw come, on. You can't mention Mr. Baksteen on a non-dutch forum without at the very least explaining that his last name is the dutch word for "brick". Yes, those rectangular objects both known for their great qualities in being part of houses and total lack thereof when it comes to aeronautical endeavors.
I don't know how it'll all play out in the end. What I know is that I do own Demigod, and I do not own Spore.
As someone who pirated Spore, decided it was overhyped crap and thus didn't buy it, would you recommend I'd spend my cash on Demigod? I'm getting mixed signals as to how much fun it is.
Might be a neighbourhood amplifier not being able to handle the peak load. Used to have the same issue a few years back(cable) and the ISP put something a little heavier in. Problem hasn't been seen since.
The cops can locate grow-ops FAR easier by tracking electrical usage and using infrared detectors(the heat detected is outside the house, so no warrant needed).
Ehmm, how do you suggest we find them based on tracking electrical usage since:
- the electrical meter is located inside the residence most of the time, and even it isn't the authorities can't obtain its readings without a warrant
- most of the time the electrical meter is (illegally) bypassed anyway
5 plants in a household, to my knowledge.
As to the legality of growing weed, one of the big issues is that people do it in attics, connecting several megawatts worth of electrical equipment in really haphazard ways, often bypassing the electrical meter. This in turn is a massive fire hazard.
In the winter it's pretty easy to spot the growers though. If all the roofs in a street are covered with snow except for one, it might be time to get a warrant(or send this toy for a flyby).
5 generations later, the Rolling Stones are ordered by law never to get within 500 feet of each other again, for fear of attracting a swarm of killer krikkits.
Benchmarking your computer against Crysis is like seeing how much feces your new blender can handle.
Well? Don't leave us hanging like that! Will it blend?
We are dangerously close to the point that the rest of the world will say enough is enough and stop buying our debt.
[citation needed]
Don't worry, we'll keep it up a bit longer, we want Manhattan back.
Hey, sometimes you gotta put that science slider down a few notches to keep your civilization in the black, you know? :-)
Since I'm at it: why desperately try to pay back those people, who are obviously rather content with *not* being paid? Why fix it, if it's not broken? Is it because you're somehow feeling guilty that somebody is solving your problems, and you wish return the favor? Well, if you genuinely want to return the favor: help somebody yourself. They'll appreciate it, and eventually, they'll also help somebody else, in the end *maybe* reaching your original helper (the one you were trying to reward, remember? :)
But even if your original helper won't feel the traces of your good deeds: I can assure you, if you're helping somebody without expecting to get a reward, it will enable you to be able to accept help from somebody without feeling the urgent need to reward the helper with anything beyond a "thank you" :-) You're going to be happy, the original helper was happy all along, and other people along the way got happy too.
One. Big. Happy. Family. :-)
Why desperately trying to bring money to the game?
Because otherwise the entire world will turn into Sweden?
Then free-market idealists are living in a fantasy world.
In reality, even if you start with a free-market utopia, eventually some players consolidate power and then use it to stifle competition. We've seen it over and over again.
Yes, sometimes the government is the player that has too much power and quashes the free-market. But at least (in theory) governments are beholden to the people.
Really, these libertarian types remind me of old-school communists: their ideas sound cool but fail to take human nature into account.
Ah, so I'm not the only one who noticed the link with communism, only all the way to the other side of the spectrum.
That's the whole issue with idealism...
Anyway, to get back on topic, over here the utilities companies are owned by the municipalities in the form of shares. Dividends are paid, shareholder meetings are held etc. etc. The only difference between this and a publically held company is that in these cases the customers of the company are the people that elect the shareholders. Seems to make for a nice balance between profitability, service etc.
However, while you're busy spending hours gaining virtual achievements you're not completing your next assignment, so you fall into a loop of confidence highs and lows. It all comes down to self discipline and good time management. I speak from experience as someone who spent 3 years between the ages of 16 and 19 putting in 35+ hours a week to World of Warcraft and EVE Online, having to retake my A level exams and still ending doing on a foundation year. I don't use games as an excuse of my failure because it's down to lack of self discipline, but I'm sure that the nature of the games I played compounded the situation.
Does this not directly contradict that MMO's are the problem? Watching tv is more fun that taking out the trash, doing homework or cleaning the kitchen. So is reading a good book.
Lack of (self)-discipline is the problem. And in the case of children, said discipline needs to be enforced by the parents. Once you're grown up, short of a significant other you have to do it your damn self or face the music. Blaming MMO's or any other activity for being so "addictive" is just a lame excuse.
As for your flunking your exams because of EVE/WoW, your parents/caretakers should have kept better track of your progress in school and given you a good kicking. If that fails to instill the proper amount of discipline, out goes the internet connection. Either a child is grown up enough to make the right decisions, or those decisions will be made for him/her, it's really not that hard.
The differences between a mmorpg, a fps with no artificial progress indicator, and a puzzle game need to be noted.
As an avid Eve Online player who's been playing Puzzle Quest marathon sessions due to lack of internet...care to enlighten me on the differences? All of them sure beat taking the damn trash out ;-)
The chances of an individual ever owning a nuke are so small as to be nearly zero.
Quite frankly, I doubt it's really hard for one of those russian fat cats to get their hands on a couple to use as decoration in the back yard.
So can we say they've won the war on privacy, declare the war over, and thereby rescind the powers it used to wage such a war?
Taking away those powers would clearly be...an act of war, hence starting the whole thing all over again.
How's the head? :-)
Were your political view very much an exception to the norm? was it a much more even mix than the media portrays? or is politics something soldiers just don't talk about.
Come on man, you know the drill...don't ask, don't tell.
Exactly! We're in it for the submarines...I mean spaceships!
(Inside joke, EVE spaceships behave as though they're flying in a fluid)