Dakoth

While I agree with all your points Taks there is one thing that bothers me about American economics. That one thing is the greed that prevades the system. Whether it was the cut throat nature in which the Enron execuateives treated their employees, or the moving of jobs to Mexico and China with the half hearted promise of cheaper goods the only thing big buisness is worried about is money. I have yet to see a CEO take a pay cut in a company going bankrupt even though he asks maybe thousands of employees too. Now maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if CEOs were not making rediculas amounts of money, it just seems hypicriticle for a man/woman that makes 6 million a year to tell 3000 people who make 20000 a year that they cost the company to much money. There are other things too, don't forget the government regulates most all the utilities, why because they have a monopoly in the areas they are in and if not regulated could ask for what ever amount of money they thought they needed. If you need proof why monopolies are bad just look at microsoft. We are still paying a hundred dollars for a product that has been out since the early 80's, have they improved on it, yes is some thing 20 years old still worth 100 dollars? Capitalism is great unfortunatly just like goverment systems it is only as good as the people who run it.

Quarterback has always been a weak position for the bears so they are trying something new even McMahon was not a superstar as far as quarterbacks go. Their defense is usually good, unfortunatly better than average quarterbacks tend to pick their secondary apart.(a guy named Bret Farve comes to mind, dang cheese heads.)

All I have to say is Da Bears. Their are gonna suck again this year but they have always been my team. I also think its great that the last few training camps were right in my back yard in a figurative sort of way. :D

Alanschu it is quite simple no matter who we vote in we are subjct to what he believes we should do. To often I see people from other countries and even our own who say we as americans went to war in Iraq. While I am a supporter of the war none of my beliefs, or reasons are why we went to war, we went to war because our government decided it was the thing to do. Just because we vote our officials in does not equate control of our governmet that is all I am trying to say. So a terroist act against the common man does nothing to truly sway our government, because we have no direct control over what is done and not done in our country. Edit: I will through this in to show I know what monte is saying. If we are speaking only on influence then yes we differ greatly from the Chinese, the liberties we have in America make it very easy for us to try and influence our government, but in the end it is still our government making the decisions and not us.

Taks I am not arguing with you I don't necessarily think we need direct control but there are those people who think because we elect our officials we have direct control over our government and we do not. May be a better exapmle is this I think all North Koreans are bad because they develpoed nuclear weapons in secret to gain an advantage. Now did the average NK know their goverment was doing this. No just like we as Americans do not know all the secret actions our government takes part in around the world.

but if you had control, then the voices of everyone else would be lost. that's the point of the republic... our voices join together to elect certain officials, and they speak for us. when they stop speaking for us, we elect new officials. control is NOT the goal of a democracy, only influence. in spite of the notion put forth by several in here, it really does work even at a national level. legislators regularly get voted out, and replacements step up from the crowd. also, just because most of us don't have the means or wherewithal to become an elected official does not mean we can't do our bit. MC points out many valid options. rather than sitting about whining about how bad things are, why not try to make a difference? if you do, at least then you can say you tried. how do you think the national review got started? moveon.org? people and their ideas started all of these things. not all from excessive wealth, either (bill clinton was not rich by any means, one of the poorest presidents in our history, actually). dissenting opinion, btw, does not label somebody an unreliable dissident or cause them to be ostracized. even fanatics such as michael moore or rush limbaugh (one on the left, the other on the right) still command a large audience when they speak... learn a little about our system and you'll be surprised at how much influence the common man can actually have. sitting back and complaining without action is not the answer. taks <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That is not my argument. I agree monte had valid points but it still shows no control. The thing I am most railing against is most people in and outside of the US think we have direct control over our government because we vote officials in and out of office. That is far from the truth, once they are in they are there till voted out or impeached, the later being something very difficult to do. We only have influential control we can try to get Bush or Kerry for that matter to do as we want, but we can not make them. So if Kerry is elected and deems it nescesarry to stay in Iraq guess what that is where our armed forces will be until he sees it other wise and no amout of protesting can change that. The problem you have with my post is you don't see how I see the difference between control and influence. Bush, congress, and the supreme court have the control, all we the people have is influence.

Agreed.

1996 ford ranger 1995 Chevy s 10 1997 Ford Explorer Next purchase if it makes it past concept is a Ford Bronco with a deisel engine. You Europeans had the right idea putting deisels in cars.

Uh it is stamped as unobjectionable because he never mentioned how the democratic candidate is married to a Hienze and directly influenced by the money of that corporation. Both sides are suspect when it comes to buisnesses they had their hands in. The thing that is so agrivating is that people tend to over look the bad portions of the side they are on.

Monte the only problem is you show no control, you are just exerting influence. Nothing you said directly controls what is done in our government it just tries to leverage them in to doing as we see fit. That was my point you have no direct control of the direction of this country, just like the common person in china. Can we speak out about our government, hold protests, start petitions while the Chinese can not? Yes but they in no way directly effect the decisions of our government. Edit: As I stated there is no other place I would rather live but I do recognise the American democratic system as flawed.

Personal income? None. The system is awash with money, I see no reason to reinvent the wheel. I can't call bush but I can my harass local representatives. I personaly don't think he should be watching polls to make his decisions, there is something insincere about inacting policies you don't really belive in. Let really get to know the real bush before we kick the bum out. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I am also for Bush, but calling your local officials is the same as having no voice at all. Have you ever been in the minority on an issue and called your local rep? The only way to get things done is to threaten to vote them out which unfortunatly carries little weight till election day. As for the system being awash with money you are right if you are with the 2 biggest parties and partially tow the party line, how many 30000 dollar a year people run for office on the independant platform for federal government? Not many because the money they would raise would be to little to run a national campaign. The biggest difference between us and China is the personal liberties our government lets us have not the amount of say we have in our government. Case in point it is in the constitution that we have the right to bare arms, yet it is illegal to own a handgun in the city of chicago, Chicago police officers are not even allowed to carry handguns off duty. I dissagree with this yet I am a conservative republican in a state dominated by liberal Democrats. What voice do I truly have? No matter how much complaining to a representative I do very little gets changed. If I ran for office still very little would get changed as everything I brought about would more than likely get shot down. Now before this gets to out of hand I think the US is the greatest country to live in there is. I also understand that money is power and that is something most of us don't have in abundance. So until there is a government where money is not the over all determining factor in who gets elected our processes will be flawed.

That's just utter nonsense. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Really you think so? What is the biggest office you can attain with out the backing of large amounts of money? Do you call George W. and give him advice on a daily basis on how he should handle things? Yes we vote people in and out of office but when they are there they have the ability to do as they see fit. The war in Iraq right now is a perfect example.( no I don't want to argue about it but it illustrates a point.)

Parlamentarian democracy in a nutshell, just like Dakoth pointed out. We are all living in the illusion of democracy, the illusion that we have some kind of power over society and our lives, beyond deciding which party we vote for. All the systems mankind has created for itself- democracy, totalitarianism, capitalism, communism -are all severly crippled temporary solutions to a problem we may never find the real solution to. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Amen Kaftan. Through every government one thing remains consistant the few(rich people if you will) make the rules for the many. We in America have no more say in what our government does than the common people of China. <_<

Exactly pure democracy equals majority rules, period. Anyone can lead if the majority of the people think it should be that way. The problem comes in if you are in the minority on a consistent basis, your ideals are never given creedence.

Man didn't they teach you to double check your target before unloading flaming death on civilians?

I feel for you, the only thing that differentiates me from my father is a second middle name. I use it very little because my name ends up way to long. So I went through most of my life as little Jim.

Hence the problem with most governments, it is not the ideals the governmets were founded on but the people who impliment thenm. Need people be reminded America is not a true democracy.

Come come now B5 vs Farscape, you have it all wrong you can not compare the 2 if you had said B5 Vs Star Trek I would have happily debated. The biggest comparison of the 2 is how the main characters are so pivital to the shows there are no throw away characters. Farscapes basic premise is what would a normal(all be it an astronaught) do if thrust into an alien conflict with no way to get home and few allies. B5 is more what would a united earth do in a universe full of aliens with their own agendas. Anyways I can not wait it looks to be quite good.

I do also but only time will tell. I am sure they will expand on the tech if a lot of interest is shown.

Heh Illinois. USA I think most of fuss comes from you asking what continet, when it would have been better to ask what country. Much more labor in volved but more accuratr.

The problem is that as the technology is implemented today that simply isn't posible as for SLI to work you need two identical cards. So using your old card together with your new one to compensate for not haveing enough money to get the flashiest new card out at the moment simply wont work. Unless you just buy a duplicate of your old card. Which you can only do once and then will be stuck with the same dilema again. In other words SLI would be a realy cool feature if it worked like you sugested, but unfortunatly it doesn't.... at least not yet. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thats not what I was shooting for. Let me give you an example I buy a geforce 6800 ultra, as time goes on other faster geforce cards come out and it drops in price. Now wanting to increase performance but not spend 500.00 on the new card that comes out in 2 months I buy another 6800 and implament SLI. More power and still have all the hardware features but at 200.00 to 300.00 dollars less.

Teletubies vs. Boobas :ph34r:

Actually I meant in the form of Britan and the US opening up a second front.

In all fairness he did have help.

Heh Ren o the blade Vs. Drizzt. Dual classed fighter thief vs. Ranger.