FMBI

In the case of Harvard, I didn't say we shouldn't tax it. I simply said that there's no reason to whine about that in every single post, on every single talk show, and on every TV appearance, when there are bigger fish to fry. Obviously Harvard shouldn't be getting away scot-free either, but crying about them while saying that we can't tax corporations is nothing but a convincing bait-and-switch. "Well, sure, corporations don't always pay taxes, but, hey, look at Harvard......" - great way to end a conversation and leave 50 million morons convinced.

Veg, I answered that point in my very first post. After prohibition, more people drank - so you decriminalise it without legalising it. Also, you're making some of the !@#$%^&*tiest posts I've seen in a while. You alternately agree with and disagree with every point Sever and doc are making.

It only happens when "we" have a falling out with "them." THEM, of course, is just the acronym for Those Having Extraordinary Mentalities, a group of supervillains with mind-altering powers. No one's sure how much power THEM has, but THEM has been launching ever-more-common attacks on the free world in the past weeks. Some even believe THEM is ready to strike and take over the universe. Only time will tell.

I think Putin and the Europeans too smart for that. I'm not so sure about the next US president - whether it's Obama or McCain, they're going to be under a lot of pressure to "look tough" in international relations, after Bush made us a laughingstock by threatening several countries, almost going to war, and then backing down at the last second. I'm especially worried about McCain's reaction, because he would, at the very least, force Georgia into NATO and give huge amounts of military aid.

Veg, I answered most of your arguments in my post. :\ Edit - also, the "illness" thing does work, because rehab, while not "the best," has been proven to be an extremely good investment. If you shift the mindset a little, you can have big results. Edit2 - Pot is (on the internet, in any case) universally recognized as a "special case" - shame on you for throwing that in the illness section.

Another article about Russia's potential geopolitical aims. It does a good job of looking at the situation in a balanced way, but it only brushes on one element - the fact that Russia needs neutral borders to survive, especially when McCain's determined to go to war with Russia if he gets elected and survives for a second term. In the past, Russia accomplished this by forcing the peripheral states into an empire, but today it can't do that for various reasons, so it's just making smart moves that will allow it to enhance its own security without destroying its economy or annexing hostile nations. In other words, all the paranoia about "39 / 56 / 68" and "LATVIA, GET READY TO RUMBLE!" is !@#$%^&*. I (and apparently, the author of this article and other analysts) see no need to panic about Russia installing puppet regimes in neighboring states. It doesn't need to worry about "democratic regimes threatening its political order" either, because more than half of the former states of the USSR - Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine - are nowhere near true democratic status. That, and the fact that most Russians don't really give a !@#$%^&* about Putin's authoritarianism - they're pissed off at him, but they aren't really being affected.

Cinammon buns.

True, but not simply because they "suck" - according to various studies, these sites have a harmful personal and social impact on the individuals and communities they affect. I, for one, don't want to become [any more of] a faceless zombie. I might be overdramatic, but I would say that anyone who had teenage years between 2000 and 2015 is probably going to have a really !@#$%^&*ed up time for the remainder of their lives. After that point, the anti-anonymity backlash will probably permanently cause a regulated cyber-police state for the internet, so we'll have bigger things to worry about. That reminds me, have any of the "ELECTRONIC BOMBARDMENT = MIND EFFECTZ" people done research into cancer and pyschological health problem rates in the Asian cities where they have universal Wi-Fi? It'd be interesting if they were right.. after all, cell phones turned out to be bad.

root, that movie sucked more than Ronco Showtime Six Star Knives.

Not true, Ail. Drug-related crime has paralyzed the "justice" system, led to a continually escalating arms race (to the point that many city criminals are carrying around military-grade weaponry), and is reaching the point of no return - I don't think there's a single person I know who hasn't either used, or considered using, drugs. I am against legalization, however, in the sense that libertarians argue for it. I favor decriminalisation, which focuses strictly on the self-victimisation aspects of it, rather than legalizing it, which could actually allow for boosted usage rates eventually - sure, prohibition caused massive crime, but there isn't a middle-aged man in the US who doesn't drink beer (and, usually, harder stuff) nowadays. Pretty much, the Netherlands have it right. Just allow soft drug use in special settings, and avoid hard drug use and drug crime as much as possible. But don't actually encourage the drug use itself, or else you'll get a fetishization of user society.

Wow, Ail, how many times have we heard that one before? The fact is, most multinats are paying zero taxes anywhere, and the conservative's best answer is to reduce the corporate tax, so they "won't mind paying" - of course, the question remains, if they aren't gonna pay less than 35%, why are they gonna pay 25%? Eventually you've got to stop sucking up and insist that they follow the laws like everyone else. You can't say "Ok, so the guy on the street is gonna pay, but a corporation with profits of several billion dollars doesn't have to," unless you want roughly the economic situation we've got right now. Also, corporations don't "distribute" wealth - government or social organizations distribute wealth. Corporations ac!@#$%^&*ulate wealth, and eventually, through sheer inertia, become as inefficient (or more, through corruption) as government. Therefore, it's good to "help them" avoid that point. Another thing is that corporations used to provide a much, much bigger share of the tax base in the US, allowing personal taxes to stay lower - I think people would prefer to pay 3% more if they're saving 15% on tax day. (Which, by the way, isn't much of an exaggeration - after all, old Ronald McDonald raised payroll taxes drastically over his term as President)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Evil_dead_03.jpg Surely there must be some good ideas for this somewhere, eh?

Yeah, this morning I logged on to the forums to see what reply Aileron made to my awe-inspiring post in the political forum, and I was like.. WTF. But what I don't get is why there was such a lag between deleted-posting time and forum downtime. It was a few hours or something, wasn't it?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Bush_and_Chirac.jpg "Will you marry me?"

From the same man who linked you to Satan's Rapture, comes the biggest coverup of the milennium. The Underground Empire reveals the truth about the dire fate awaiting California - and, indeed the whole world.

Link Wonderful, eh? All you have to do is lower tax rates, and they'll be happy to pay them! Yeah.. Oh well, someday people will figure out that the IRS routinely faces pressure to not go after corporations and the super-rich. Someday..

Get a used Toyota. Cheap, and they're the best you can find. Unlike American cars, which will cost you a couple times the original price over their lifetime if you get them used (as an extreme example, I remember my parents having a Blazer that cost them something like $3000 a year for maintenance when I was younger), they're fine except for the routine checkups. Right now, my inherited car is around 220k miles and it's running better than American cars at 50k. edit - Detail enhancement.

All of us poor liberal nuts who actually talk to people in Russia, get both sides of the story from international news (including, but not limited to, Russia), and read Georgian history. Yeah, it's a shame that Russia intervened when the Georgians were only invading to bring economic development and prosperity to South Ossetia. It's not like Georgia had serious plans to kill large parts of the population, after all. Look, you !@#$%^&*ers. Of course Russia is trying to expand its influence, what do you expect. But the South Ossetians also want broader connections with Russia, because, in case you hadn't heard, North Ossetia and South Ossetia prefer ties with each other to ties with an expansionist Georgia. I'd advise you to read up on some of Georgia's post-WW1 history, and see exactly who the expansionist is here. Edit - Aileron, I have almost never laughed as hard as when you called yourself a moderate. "Al-Qaeda taking over the US" is a possibility? Yeah, a few thousand guys with rapidly lessening support at home due to long-term social trends, whose only claim to fame is that a tiny number of their fighters are still taking on the US in Iraq are going to somehow take us over. Makes sense to me. As far as the "ISLAMOFASCISM TAKING OVER EUROPE" thing.. It's not true in the sense that it's usually used in. Everyone cries about European demographics, but the birth rates have been rising in most of the countries of late. Within a decade, the native (ie, white) populations could easily equalize b/d rate. And the only way Europe will actually go fascist is if more governments like Berlusconi's use the dual "time-bomb threat" of the Roma / !@#$%^&*orted small groups and the Islamic extremists to destroy the rights of their own people. Edit #2 - Did I mention that Russia offered a ceasefire much earlier than Georgia's which was refused, because the Georgian government realized it wouldn't be able to milk this for publicity if it accepted? Georgia's killing South Ossetian civilians and destroying their homes while playing for time, so it can paint Russia as the evil empire. Wonderful.

Well, the last few weeks have been interesting. McCain's been running a vicious, stupid, and lying campaign, and the media's still acting like he deserves respect. When will people learn that the kind of campaign you run is indicative of the kind of presidency you're going to hold? :\

Why couldn't this happen to MySpace instead?

Well, my dad isn't a necrophiliac, so I doubt the first part of your post applies, zebra zinger. Excuse me, I was under the impression that guzzle was a synonym of drink. Maybe I'm so confused that I've totally lost my grasp of the English language, and am therefore now operating at your level of coherence. Or maybe you just have no idea what you're talking about, and you ignored half of my post. Go stick your !@#$%^&* in that buzz saw I mentioned, will ya? Have you ever considered going to pre-school? I hear that it can help prepare one for kindergarten, so it oughta be useful for ya.

No need to worry, hog!@#$%^&*er, my finger will be fine. Unlike yours, which is stuck so far up your !@#$%^&* that an obstetrician with a buzz-saw couldn't find it. Why don't you go to !@#$%^&*, where you'll at least feel wanted? FYI, I don't drink !@#$%^&*. Know why? Because I'm not a vegetarian, and unless you're a vegetarian, your !@#$%^&* tastes like !@#$%^&*. Why do you assume I would go to the effort to have an orgasm, drink something that tastes bad, and then pretend to be straight?

I'll be honest. I don't give them one point at a time. I refresh the page. I do have a life. And you're wasting it. Little !@#$%^&*ing elephant !@#$%^&*er, I hope you get your !@#$%^&* !@#$%^&*ed by a couple of rabid lions who disembowel you with their claws while they !@#$%^&* your !@#$%^&* and then smash your head open at orgasm so you have a really mind splitting experience, !@#$%^&*er. Stupid !@#$%^&*.

2pac, what are you talking about? I'm hetero, I have a life, and I'm giving points because I love you.

While I have never had the pleasure of seeing (or feeling) rootbear's !@#$%^&*, he !@#$%^&*ures me that it is 7 inches long. Which puts him well above the average American's length.