>> ^deathcow:

promote can we break 40 votes for BF's comment?


Phew! Thanks! I ran out of power points.
I was hoping I could break 42 so I'd have the highest rated comment when the contest is over. Then after the winners were announced I could explain to the group how capitalism works. "See? I invested capital, in this instance those were power points, to increase my comment's visibility. It went from 20 something votes to 39 and it only cost me 10 power points. Now I am the best. So, remember kids, next time you want to be the best, invest!"

Something like that. How am I doing?

Crap, ran out of power points. Don't have enough to *promote!

Thank goodness you can spot the fakes, Gun.

BTW, my real name is Nabongo, I am a humble aid to his Nigerian Majesty Prince Titibobika who was driven out of power by rebels. I have US 8 million dollars to send to your account but I need US$500 to unlock it...

From what I've gathered, the US's policy has been to only support nascent revolutions when they reach critical mass implicitly (or in this case where there is violent suppression, explicitly).

Diplomatically this is smart. If a country's people don't have the will to follow through with a revolution on their and the US actively plays a part in stirring one and fails, the dictatorship in power will likely become highly isolated. That will lock it away from modernization, insulate it from western investment/democracy and cause the country to stagnate politically and economically. Perhaps not to the extent of North Korea but suffering from the same problems.

Whether anyone would like to admit it or not, I would bet anything that the relations that the US had with Egypt's military was utterly instrumental in throwing Mubarak out of power. The civil institutions that it has being able to support on the taxes of foreign investment and tourism will probably help it from falling back into dictatorship.

Not to mention, the specter of intervention could cripple either a country's attempts at revolution or the entire movement. Obviously, Africa has a history of colonialism. The Middle East has much more recent and current interventions. If there was genuine intervention and US/European involvement beyond simply behind the scenes diplomacy and preventing violence against civilians and rebels, it would give the dictators a huge amount of credulity and a mandate for their strongman rule.

As far as it being a European idea, let's face it, even if European leaders led the charge, US involvement by way of it's military spending being greater than the rest of the world combined is pretty much a requisite for involvement.

For non charters, it would be easy to do it this way.

As soon as you hit 0 power points, the recharge timer is set and when it is completed, it pays out 1 power point regardless of how many points you have.

For charters, with a 2 power point top it would likely be prudent to have two recharge timers, one for each "normal" power point that triggered when at 1 and 0 respectively.

Obviously, if a timer is already running, then a new one would not be set.

Just admit it Quantum. Democrats and Republicans are all the same.

In some ways they are, in others they ain't. There's enough differences to vote.

Do you sincerely think all these Republicans are just gonna give up their power and stop funneling tax dollars toward corporations that "donate" to re-elect them?

No. But why would you assume that only Republicans are in bed with corporations, and only taxocrats care about the "working man?" Corruption is the grease of democracy.

If you're gonna be angry about the left you HAVE to be equally as angry about the right.

That's where the Tea Party originated; anger about both sides being corrupt in their own ways. A few States should threaten to secede. The federal mafia is too big and too stupid to correct course, assuming they're even trying.

Dems are playing minor league ball compared to the GOP.

No, they're probably about the same. I've observed that there's more prosperity when taxocrats are out of power than in power. I'm disappointed when republicans fail to live up to expectations, but livid when taxocrats exceed theirs.

"The comforts and safety that you describe, are exactly the kinds of suburban trapping that give us the illusion that ours is the ideal life. Take away electricity, transport, water service and supermarket food supply and like the majority of suburban dwelling people on this planet, we're up the creek. That's not freedom-it's a thinly veiled dependence on a system that is in the throws of downfall. }

Naturally (no pun intended), I disagree with you on this assessment. A civilized society is far more resilient and able to recover from all types of disasters (man-made and natural) than a nomadic civilization has ever been at any time in history. Do you have any idea of the kind of destructive effort it would take to completely wipe out the power grid, uproot every road that has been paved, root out the entire plumbing network buried underground? The only point that I agree with you on is the far larger dependence upon food that massive (and they are truly massive compared to hunter-gatherers) civilizations have. But as I pointed out in my first post food is now a global industry, so again you are limited to world ending catastrophes when it comes finding enough firepower to bring down modern civilizations.

"As far as freedom to move goes, I think the fact that if you step outside your door and walk into your neighbor's yard without permission, you're considered trespassing, shows how hemmed-in we really are. So long as we are paid customers, we have a right to be somewhere, otherwise we'd better stick to public places, or face the consequences."

Personally, I think that literal direction freedom is a paltry definition of what true freedom really is. I will gladly take the paved road and all those "restrictions" for all the benefits that I get from having that taken space actively and productively contributing to the advancement and well-being of humanity. I will drive around a massive hospital that's blocking me from going "as the crow flies" quicker than a crow can fly.

Every inch of space that is denied to me is in some way indirectly or directly contributing. Can you say that a plain of scrubs and rocks is providing the same amount of benefits to nomads as they walk in whatever direction they want over it? What about cumulatively?

"If you want to know how free you really are, try doing something really outrageous or subversive and see how many people are ready to block you. Try walking 10,000 km across your country, camping out where there's a drinkable water supply, for starters..."

Let me ask you a question then, why did you walk 10,000km in any direction? What was your goal? Did you need food, water, because you could? What tangible benefit have you derived from the endeavor you just undertook?

If you are so "truly" free why can't you walk to the Moon?

@NetRunner


•"Right and left neurological arrangements are genetic"

-This doesn't really seem that controversial anymore.
-http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/11/02/born_to_party/
-In our 2nd to last conversation, you seemed to be using genetics as an argument for income redistibution. (We can't expect people asking for our money to stop drinking, drug-use, laziness, irrationalism, and sports-watching and start reading and being economically savvy because of their genetics.)


•"Right and left can't live together under one polity"

-We can be sure the Right and Left will always hate each other and seek to dominate each other, but that doesn't mean a single polity isn't viable.


•"Our government gives unchecked power to the party with 50% + 1 support (domination)"

-The party which is out of power tends to behave pretty upset, regularly comparing the party in power to fascists, so "domination" seems within the acceptal range of descriptors.
-They would tend to prefer unchecked political power, rather than the kinds of compromises that characterize things like the handling of Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and the recent healthcare bill, but the political parties always have to compromise in the end.
-(And they scream bloody murder about it.)

Canada uses socialized health care... and I haven't had a single issue with it.
Long waits? Mostly propoganda from health insurance companies
Quality of care? No problem with that either... and if we did have issue with that, there is nothing stopping us from going to another Canadian hospital or even going the privatized route

What does it get us?
- cheaper prescriptions
- never turned away due to lack of insurance

Is it perfect? No, of course not... thats why we work on it and try to improve it...
But to assume free market economics will mean you aren't getting swindled is naive... I'd rather have to deal with a government whom i can vote in and out of power, than a corporation who's MAIN goal is to turn a profit, who's got its finger into government, and can hide behind the law (which is slanted to favor them)

The government wouldn't try to give me the least amount of health care possible... because in our system, our people still hold our government accountable... sorta like the US says it does but never follows through on...

Unless of course it involves a president, aide, and a cigar.

The problem is the average American doesn't see their government as themselves... but as a separate entity. No oversight and no control over. We don't see it that way. Sure we have corrupt officials, but for some reason we seem to hold them accountable more than our friends south of the border.

Would you want privatized police... Blackwater would probably be interested in that.
How about fire departments? "We'll need a deposit before we show up. Hope your insurance covers more than just the cost of the fire department showing up."

>> ^undefined:

It's the 2010 Doritos world "toss-your balls" bowling ball throwing semi-finals. I missed the championship round last year when a concrete truck took out the power line to my trailer last August


I'm not sure if you just made that up or not, but it's hilarious either way.

It's the 2010 Doritos world "toss-your balls" bowling ball throwing semi-finals. I missed the championship round last year when a concrete truck took out the power line to my trailer last August

its a prity shit sculpture concidering he is using power tools.

not that using power tools invalidates what you do at all , just i was exspecting something realy nice at the end not a realy average carving.

i mean evan the realy basic African carvings of elephants and people are miles better than this , and that's with out any power tools.

There's an element of this that I keep finding interesting. The supposed problem with a minority government is that the out-of-power parties get an effective veto on policies the plurality party tries to present.

Most people present this as a situation that wouldn't last long, and that the new PM would just call for another election, rather than try to muddle through.

Well, since we seem to have decided in our country that any party with fewer than 60 seats in the Senate (or doesn't hold the White House) is effectively a "minority government" due to it being vetoed by the opposition party, this seems like a permanent condition here in the US.

Simple question -- if this is considered untenable in the UK, why do we act like it's a good thing in the US?

Or am I missing some fundamental difference between our systems?

In the middle of this clip, the line "turn this record over..." makes me think about how significant an impact records had on culture. Records have been around for over 100 years, their popularity growing again now that the compact disc is emitting a death rattle. CDs have only be in existence for 30 years and they're on their way out already? Is this a trend? If so, what will it mean for digital files? What comes after digital files?

Are there songs out there today that make reference to the medium like Roy Brown did with "turn this record over?" And what would it be? "Listen to the next queued song before you run out of power, baby." "Push mah shuffle button harder!" Meh, it's not the same.

>> ^antimatter:

blahblahblah
"i'm honored to be a guest in your country" ...eeeemmm yea... idk about that one
"something something 9-11, thousands dead..."
"confident on afghanistan..." eeem... history... maybe some doubt..
anyway..
so one guy says war is good for the economy, so I could see Afghanistan making sense that way...
and then it seems like it's a money pit ala roman doom...
i voted for him, and maybe the war machine is just totally out his power ala nixon...
or maybe he's an evil fuck killing shit in the desert..
that bomber jacket/bush flashback didn't help...
anyway.. let's see what happens next.


Choggie?