>> ^MarineGunrock:
nadabu is absolutely right. Christians don't do the things at Christmas that corporate America wants to worship God. It is possible to partake in an even that isn't specifically forbidden and still worship God. Just because some traditions may have pagan roots [citaion really fucking needed] does not mean they are being done as worship.
Way to pull a Palin an totally skirt the question, though.


some day around the end of december, and some day about 6 monts before are very celebrated days in many cultures and traditions. peoples noticed that the sun "turned" around these days and have some sort of festivity/religious arrangement attached to those days.

the swedes, they stick a big penis (with testicles and all) into the ground and dance around it on the summers longest day. a fertility rite.

we still call christmas Jul (yule), the germanic pagan name for the uhmm.. event. not Christ Mass like english hurches.

The christmas three, if i remember corretly, it is something green and shiny we bring into our homes on the years darkest day as a symbol of lighter and greener times (spring) that are coming.

This stupid thing still going on? If you haven't noticed, rasch187 ain't this important. He's Norwegian, remember? No one cares for the Norwegians. They're the turd-like residue left over after the Swedes left.

I'm glad to see thinker247 is here having a lot of fun with his 'First!' jokes. Those are so fresh. Thinker is like that guy that shows up at the high school reunion still making the jokes people didn't laugh at in high school. This clown had the misfortune to name himself 'thinker247', as if after a single comment post we wouldn't realize that was absolutely the opposite of what he should've named himself.

I'm glad they got Crosswords to MC this. That's a lot fun. Who's MCing the next roast? Anagrams? Nothing spells good times like a word puzzle with a knife welding raccoon avatar. I could not think of a more unremarkable person to host this, to be honest. Well, there is one: nibiyabi. "I'll put a pilgrim hat on Darwin and give him some googly eyes. That'll make me the life of the party!" No, nibiyabi, that makes you unfunny. Though, his profile claims he likes cat fart videos, so he can't be all bad, can he?

Who let rougy in here? Isn't there a warrant out for him yet? He's a forty something year old man with an avatar of a naked boy. Rougy fancies himself a poet. I normally like to encourage artists, but after reading his most recent poem Doorways & Beginnings I think encouraging him to continue would be like encouraging choggie to become a linguistics professor.

Good to see laura and alien_concept in here. Two of the resident women on the Sift. I'm not sure what good the two of you will do on here, though, because last I checked Dag and Lucky hadn't installed a kitchen. But, you're two progressive and self-actualized women, right? That's really great. Now, put a @$*# in that mouth and fetch me a ham and cheese sandwich.

Speaking of phallic items in mouths, I almost forgot this roast was about rasch. Rasch is an ugly guy. He is. I don't have a joke for that... he's just an ugly guy. I'm not saying he's the ugliest guy in the world, but his mom had to get drunk to breast feed him. When he was born, his mom tried to take home the placenta instead. Janet Reno is a handsomer man than he is.

Claims to be a fan of Rock n' Roll and even heads the channel, yet lists his favorite artist as "this guy" as opposed to "this band" called "Lead [sic] Zeplin [sic]". Sounds like he just wanted to hoard all the videos for himself once he knew he could play the part and trick the admins into handing it over to him. For shame, you hairy-backed, knuckle-scraping Norwegian (everyone knows Swedes are the civilized ones).

Love icehockey. The "Forsberg" didnt originate from Lemiux though, but from another Swede, Kenta Nilsson, who did it vs USA in '89. Link -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QobAlzxDdXc

wtf!!!??? what a weird video. strangely i couldn't stop watching. crazy swedes!

SWEDEN??????????????hahahaha......this is a joke. whats wrong with sweden? the average swede is wealthier there than the average american. everyone has free healthcare and they got a lot of hot chicks.

Those silly Swedes.

I like how the basket gets stuck on the probe, so when he lands, everyone will know exactly who cocked up.

What is this "sweded" thing?

For balance, from the PhoenixNewTimes story:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1999-03-25/news/is-john-mccain-a-war-hero/

To say that Earl and Patty Hopper devote all of their waking hours to the POW/MIA issue would be just short of an overstatement. They travel the country in an RV, visiting other POW/MIA-niks, attending conferences, badgering government officials for more information about Earl Jr.

The Hoppers have located two former POWs who claim they were senior ranking officers at the time McCain says he was tortured in solitary confinement. Ted Guy and Gordon "Swede" Larson both tell New Times that while they could not guarantee that McCain was not physically harmed, they doubted it.
"Between the two of us, it's our belief, and to the best of our knowledge, that no prisoner was beaten or harmed physically in that camp [known as "The Plantation"]," Larson says. ". . . My only contention with the McCain deal is that while he was at The Plantation, to the best of my knowledge and Ted's knowledge, he was not physically abused in any way. No one was in that camp. It was the camp that people were released from."

Lol Swedes. Not word for word, but she's saying:

"Aww com'mon, it was just a joke! I won't do it again. I promise!" THRRRRRR
How exactly would one type a fart?

Ahah. Yay for being nerdy. And poke fun at the Swedes, most of the blondes there are fake too!

In reply to this comment by MrFisk:
I'm a nerd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingpin_(comics)
And Swedes do poke fun at me from time to time.


In reply to this comment by karkarlee:
Why did you choose Mr. Fisk?
Keeps making me think of Swedish Fish. I miss that candy.

I'm a nerd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingpin_(comics)
And Swedes do poke fun at me from time to time.


In reply to this comment by karkarlee:
Why did you choose Mr. Fisk?
Keeps making me think of Swedish Fish. I miss that candy.

One of the many reasons it rules to be Swedish? Probably. *Swede*

...Swede.

My friend keeps asking me why I don't save my money (I don't even have a bank account.) I tell her that I don't need to save a lot of money, because (as your friend said), what am I going to do with it while it's just sitting in the bank? Her answer was this:

"What if you hurt yourself at work? You have no health insurance, and an injury would take away your financial security for years to come."

And that's where I would like to interject my hatred for this country and its healthcare system. People want lower taxes, and they want a well-maintained healthcare system, as you said. But because they aren't willing to pay taxes for healthcare, it isn't national. And yet, they're perfectly willing to spend billions of dollars on our military. And if you say a derogatory comment about that military, soldiers' families and general "patriotic" Americans will rip your face off. Especially today, of all days. I'm afraid to go outside today, because I don't want to see everybody clad in our flag's colors. But anyway...

So I'm supposed to save my money in case I am hurt, when I'd rather have paid that money earlier to taxes that fund a national health system. However, it is odd where my tax dollars go. True, my federal money goes to the war machine, but that's about 10 dollars every two weeks. The two major tax burdens in this country are Social Security and Medicare, or "I'm going to help old people and poor, sick people." And that idea is great, except those two programs are sinking fast. I pay about 150 dollars every two weeks for those programs, and they're failing miserably. And they're programs that I don't receive if I am hurt. So it's not like I'm paying for myself. I'm paying for the elderly and the ill, but when it comes time for me to break my leg, I'm forced to pay for my own medical bills. My head hurts now. I hope it's not a tumor, because then I'm screwed.

--
I expected the answer that you gave me. It doesn't surprise me that some countries with higher taxes can feel more communal than my country. I feel so alienated here, and I've lived here for my entire life. The only days people feel communal are days like today, when we're supposed to feel like a big, happy family. But we're that family who acts cordial at the Thanksgiving dinner table, then an hour later we're fighting over the TV remote control.

I'm actually not against the level of taxes that are levied in this country. I just hate the way they're spent. If we could stop paying for the war machine, maybe we'd progress further and the world wouldn't have a reason to hate us so much anymore.

How does one become a citizen of Sweden, anyway?

In reply to this comment by Kreegath:
Haven't really had time to think this through, so you'll have to take what I say with a grain of salt. Been trying to come up with some stuff Sweden's doing better than the US and why, and as it stands we'd both agree I think that the US is doing slightly worse in education at the moment.
This is more of a rant than a coherent argument, but let's see where it goes.

I think it could very well boil down to taxes, both when it comes to having them and the general mentality among citizens about paying them.
There seems to be a problem in the US with the second issue, where (judging from online news videos) people appear to have great difficulty connecting sociopolitical issues with each other and applying them in real life.
Taxes and welfare issues in particular, to take an example for discussion's sake. To tie back to Sweden, it's probably safe to say that nobody really enjoys paying taxes like they would enjoy going to the movies or going out for dinner, but the fundamental understanding that the quality of our social benefits, schooling, infrastructure and healthcare are directly connected to the amount of cash the government takes makes it a natural thing in the public mind. The discussion isn't whether we should have them or not, but rather what education and healthcare standards we can live with before starting to discuss lowering taxes.
To tie back even further, to a few posts back when we talked about abortion, there seems to be a similar detachment from the issues of how the government is supposed to help take care of all the babies that the people who are against abortion want to save, when many of the same people are for lower taxes and taxcuts to a system which doesn't even have national healthcare, where the vast majority of cash goes to the military and where the military is the only branch the tax cuts won't ever touch. It doesn't make any sense, but when you look at the status of some states and the policies they're pursuing, it's becoming more clear that increasing taxcuts and lower taxes are linked to the failing public school system, crumbling infrastructure and lack of public healthcare. Kind of like wanting to have the cake and eat it up too, where people don't want to pay for the state/federal service but still expect it to maintain its quality.
In that aspect I think Sweden's doing much better than the US. Even though people on a personal level probably don't feel any different towards each other in respective country, I think Swedes as a community feel more strongly connected and are more focused on helping each other out than hoarding personal fortunes.

After all, even if I didn't have any kids or intend to get any, there'd still be several good reasons for me to pay for our public education and feel great about it. I'd know people with kids, who'd get kids or who knew people with kids, and I'd also like to be able to walk the streets at night without having to fear for my life.
A friend of mine who works at an eldercare clinic said, when asked about this, "I'm only sitting at home with my comp six days a week except for saturdays when I go out and party. What am I supposed to do with all of my salary?"

In reply to this comment by thinker247:
I was hoping you'd raise some issue about which I could argue, but I agree with you completely. Damnit. ha!

So what is your opinion of Sweden versus America? I always see Sweden at the top of the list when it comes to social issues, and I'm jealous. Are the lists an accurate portrayal of Swedish society?