JediMaster

Naturally those who lose don't see themselves as losers, but I think luck plays a far larger part than anyone really wants to admit. People want to believe that hard work and big ideas will get you ahead, but it doesn't work that way an alarmingly large percentage of the time. Also, how often do you read about "successful" people that kill themselves either deliberately or accidentally by not being careful? On paper, they made the "correct" choices and yet they obviously still felt like a failure or they wouldn't be dead! How many so-called "unsuccessful" people are actually living in a happy home with a good family but simply lack financial stability and security? Money doesn't bring happiness, nor will happiness bring money. The problem with the extremist philosophies is they both ignore the fundamental rules of human behavior. People don't WANT to be the same as all their neighbors and those even further away. They WANT to be at least slightly ahead, if not in finances then in some other way. Just look at the American South 150-50 years ago, where lower-class whites decided that if their lives were miserable, well, at least they're not black! Only by making a "them" inferior to their "us" could they feel like they weren't losers, so they did it with a great zeal. However, people also feel for their fellows and therefore those who are utterly ruthless and cutthroat in getting ahead, even if they need not step on others but merely leave them without assisting them, are demonized for being ahead. The whole "the strong deserve to be on top and the weak to be on the bottom" idea is seen as a mark of a less-civilized era. So once again, the majority sit in the middle. This is why both pure socialism and pure capitalism never last and get replaced by some mix of the two. Of course, if one country is 2/3 one and another country is only 1/3, well, to some it might as well be 100% and 0%.

The ice over the North Pole is on water, so yes, it can all disappear and the sea levels won't change. Most glaciers are so small they would have little effect (other than many are the sources of rivers that life and people and crops depend on). However, the ice on Greenland and Antarctica is actually on land, and if it melts will add to the volume of water in the ocean. Especially when it's over a mile thick in places. As an aside, during the last ice age sea level was several feet lower than it is now thanks to the ice over northern Europe, Asia, and North America.

That's odd, when I called the suicide hotline, I got a guy who asked if I'd tried going to sleep and waking up again. If that didn't work, I was asked to restore my brain to its birth state as that fixes 99% of mental issues. Should that fail, I might have to mail myself in for 6-8 weeks.

Of course, the reason for the test is so that people who are worthy but simply disliked by a superior don't get the shaft while those that are worthless but liked by the guy in charge get an undeserved promotion. That inevitably means that people who aren't worthy but know how to take the test can advance and those who are worthy but can't take tests well get screwed, because no system is perfect.

So not agreeing with the extremists that now control both "sides" is fence riding now? It used to be called "the center," but oh no, you're not allowed that anymore. In America, you're either on the left or the right, NO EXCEPTIONS!! Sorry, you're not allowed to be against abortion and for gay marriage. You can't be pro-gun and also pro-universal health care. You can't despise the hold religion has while also despising those who crusade against it. Nope. The sides have been predetermined long before and you must pick one set of stupid ideals or the other, you're not allowed to pick and choose. If you do, you'll be accused of being "wishy washy" or basically have your opinion dismissed because you aren't on the side that they agree with or the side they can happily demonize. It's not "honorable" or some such crap to not throw your lot totally in with one of these ready-to-bake parties. It has been decided that since there are 2 parties, the world can be black or white and to hell with those that think it's in shades of gray...oh, except during the elections when you have to appeal to them since they constitute over a THIRD of the population. After that, though, to hell with them. See, it's really easy to "ride the fence" when you'd happily see everyone who supports either party drop dead for their stupidity and let the intelligent ones who realize that things aren't black and white take over. Donkeys and elephants are animals and I don't think either one is capable of running a country of PEOPLE.

No, my point was simply the cost of something like a war is prohibitive if your only goal is "if we can't make it, they can't have it either." If it can be taken, then the war is easier to justify. "We must ensure the enemy loses their preventative health care option!!" "Um...yeah?"

I always find it amusing how both sides claim the simultaneous danger and lack of intelligence and capability by the other side. "The other guys are running a conspiracy...and they're dumb!" Mutually exclusive, but whatever fits the needs of their specious argument at the time... The truth is for every passionate "believer" on one side, there's 9 others that claim to believe but are only in it for the money or power or both, and if saying XYZ will get them that, that's what they'll espouse, regardless of what they truly believe. Since politicians spend 99% of their time lying anyway, I'd just as soon believe that half of both parties are actually closet supporters of the other side! Just look at all the gay-bashing politicians that are caught in gay scandals! All this talk of containing the cost of healthcare, but no talk about holding down a major cause of costs--high insurance rates caused by large payouts in lawsuits! Talk about "defending marriage" from a so-called threat of gay marriage, when the REAL enemy of marriage gets NO talk at all...divorce! Want to "preserve marriage"? Outlaw divorce! Then you'll see how many people want to get married if they think they can't just see a lawyer and reverse it. I don't see how 2 gay people getting married affects my life at all, but if I ask someone to marry me and they're thinking "well, if it doesn't work I'll just get a divorce and take half his stuff, it's easy"...that DOES. Sure you'll see the number of people getting married dropping, but frankly the "sanctity of marriage" was already destroyed 20 years ago by divorce attorneys, no gays needed. Well, unless they were gay divorce attorneys I guess.

Sports is a different animal. Teams make money by selling tickets and merchandise. How much you win or lose really has little bearing! In theory you'll sell more when winning vs losing, but in reality grand personalities and other drama can be more beneficial than a top record.

It would need to be "semisubmersible" with plenty of snorkels and areas above the water as well, because humans need sunlight. It has been proven that extended habitation with no sunlight causes mental and physical health problems.

You can patent anything. Almost literally. It proves nothing except "I thought of it first."

Calling the Democrats the Borg is like calling Kenny G a modern-day Mozart. The Borg are monolithic, of one mind, unstoppable, convinced they are always right, assimilate all they can and destroy what they can't. The Democrats basically are incapable of doing any of that. Pretty much their party for the last 10 years has been defined as "opposite of what the Republicans stand for." If they WERE the Borg, a far more ridiculous healthcare bill would've been passed 10 months ago with no problems because they had a sufficient majority in both houses to do it. The fact that they couldn't and now seem to acknowledge they can't (despite STILL having a larger majority than the Reps had when W was in office and he was able to get his stuff passed repeatedly) goes to show that they are ridiculously inept.

Well, Vancouver is where they filmed Stargate Atlantis, but I don't think it can become it.

The Slip - NIN

Funny you should mention that as my current campaign is also seemingly endless BARCAPs. I think it defaults to that when it doesn't know what else to do. According to the OrBat, we've decimated the NKAF and their ground and naval units seem to only be far in the rear, so...

I was LOL at the 2nd pic.

You can't take a country's standard of living or healthcare system from them. Unlike things like resources or land, while you can be envious of what they have, there's no way to take it for yourself other than moving there. You CAN destroy it, but that is a lot of expenditures for what is basically a petty act.

I'm sure it's a series I never watched. Besides, unless it's somewhere in Vancouver, I doubt I'd recognize it. Thanks to SFC and other SF series, though, I know Vancouver far too well...

Actually, I saw a bit where Rush Limbaugh was claiming how this was "going to play right into the Obama administration's hands." Something about how sending aid was going to add "legitimacy" or something. Of course, EVERY administration has done this for decades, but apparently these political commentators have a pretty horrible memory and can barely remember what any previous administration did, unless it was the opposite of a mistake the current one is making.

Like "Fat Albert", "Ugly Bob", and "Yo Momma."

The MiG-21 is one of the most widely produced and used light fighters of all time. Some variants got heavy during the end of the run, but lots of them are still in service despite being almost 2 decades older than the F-16.

That program is still underway. It will be quite awhile before they're all converted.

I tried the early stuff but the acting was too poor for me to bear it. I see the SFX are indeed quite good now, but I like good actors.

No...internet... Sorry, I see the words there, but they don't seem to form an idea that makes any sense. There WAS internet...it existed, I recall using it...your facts are uncoordinated...error...error...analyze...error...

The global meltdown can be directly traced to the dot com-meltdown at the end of the last century, but I'm not sure what that one can be pinned on. When the dot com bubble burst, with worthless yet overpriced stocks suddenly seen as truly worthless, things went into free fall that led to the 2001 recession. That began on 3/2001, BTW, well before 9/11. In fact, I believe economists see 11/2001 as the end of the recession itself, although the next couple of years recovery was slow. That's when the real estate bubble started, around 2003, when the Fed lowered interest rates so much that the only investment that was worthwhile was land. So everyone started buying it and then selling it again real fast to make money, and next thing you know MY house tripled in value in just 3 years! Of course that couldn't last, especially with banks making bad loans then selling them off so as to not have to be responsible for them, and that led to what has happened in the last couple of years. So, what caused the dot com bubble? Why was so much money invested into companies that offered nothing but ideas with no practical way of making money off them? Why was there so much money that people were trying to invest in anyone with a website, a catchy name, and a neat theory? I think the only things that successfully emerged from that time is ebay, PayPal, and Amazon. Everything else came later or is based on established companies that merely took their business online as well.

Well, we did so well with the War on Drugs, what were you expecting from this one? The difference is this time we've got a lot more people and money invested, and lost.