Orogun01

No. Again, nobody "rules", except for perhaps judges, in some cases, and more often than not at the behest of the people. The Prez can't just write any legislation (in fact, he can only sign things into law, the legislative power is Congress), he is constrained by the Constitution AND the judiciary which is, again on paper, supposed to be independent. I'm not sure exactly what you are complaining about. Is it about democracy as a concept? Maybe how the system works in practice? What? Because if it's the former, I'm always happy to discuss possible alternatives. And if it's the latter... shouldn't you be doing something about it like, I don't know, running for office yourself? As for the other points you made, I think your mind is made up on how corrupt politicians are and how little power they have in comparison to corporations. Not much to discuss there. I could ask for PROOF! but that never ends well. So meh. Power doesn't rest at any particular person's head but there is a ruling body, which in fact rules. The president can write up a bill and bring up to a congress member with whom he is friendly and introduce it. This is in fact a lot of what goes on in Washington, back room deals. I'm complaining not for a leak that will harm our government and their ability to operate, not all information should be free. But the fact is that a lot of information is and we don't have the means to operate on it. Let's rewind the clock back a bit, there were a lot of 9/11 conspiracy theory nuts who thought that it was inside job to give an excuse to go in for the oil. Let's say for argument sake that they could had been right; what would the average person could do before they reach the limits of their resources? We have given the power of oversight to organizations we can't trust, whilst the founding fathers believed in the idea of an open government to the people. With them having concerns and a voiced opinion on the white house.

Master race!

You sow the console you reap the butthurt. PC gaming master race!

ITT: Sex while driving.

Not personal gain, their political career. I can point a few fingers to companies that have screwed this country and remain immune, who have backed political candidates to pursue their interests. Since the presidents need money to run for the election its in their interest to accept, thus a lot of promises are made to the companies. Companies who also have a lot of clout on Washington. Major contributions are usually made by companies from the same sector, it's not their donations but their continued donations. Basically, they fund the presidential run in exchange of their interests on Washington. Yeah, funny thing about that; I need to be registered with a party in order to vote for their candidate for president. Meaning that I have to pick my poison and stick to it or refrain from voting. I don't think that the president should help only his homies over the bankers with the hats. I think he should help the majority who voted for him, which is most definitively not the bankers who funded him. So the means by which they rule us are the ruler? The President writes the legislation, the Senators approve it and they don't rule us how? Which brings us back to the beginning, our ruling body not only is very far from the influence of the public but unable to sort itself out. Is a problem when the safeguards work against us because of the people we elected being inept or self serving.

My problem with rational self interest in politicians is that they pursue their career before the needs of the people. While the two may be interrelated, it doesn't translate as such in execution. Fairly to say that whomever funds the race has bought the interest of the president or an assurance. Also the main fault with representative democracy is the differences in social strata. I doubt Obama is really one from the hood, who could understand and change their problems. When whoever is at the helm becomes more trouble for whom? The safeguards that prevent a president from becoming a tyrant can't be enacted by the public, in that manner you have a king who isn't as powerful as a king should be because he answers to his "court". Which in turn should answer to us, but they don't. If democracy happens is the result of humans being unfit to rule, then democracy by it's own cause its flawed. They do rule us, after all.

These people and their faulty cellphone detonators. sorry, what I meant to say was "good save"

I know that's a way that a lot of free MMO sustain themselves.

The problem that its permeating is that; to follow your analogy, your cup of tea it's being pushed over by your cup of coffee. It's not just about democratic behavior, is mostly about self interest, one of the great faults of representative democracy. The organizations, the senators and even the president have all their own goals that are sometimes at odds with each other or the public well being. With this vie for power and constant struggle the system cannot rightly operate, so the question remains of how do you make sure that your representatives are fair?

You mean like those squids that live on the bottom of the ocean feeding from bacteria living in the exhaust of underwater volcanoes?

Even with freedom of information the public needs to be actively seeking the sources; specially since media outlets are also biased towards a political position or just in search of ratings. Which in modern age is not viable means for many people, so it's through the filters of the media outlets that information is massively distributed and how public perception is dictated. So in a place where people relinquish their freedom to choose thought for themselves, what good will do; to democracy, freedom of information? But I digress from the point; Joseph Bloggs MP/ Representative/ Senator/ President/ Prime Minister is also a person with a right to privacy. What concerns us is strictly in regards to the government position he runs, not the personal details of their lives. Which has been the main focus of the WikiLeaks debate on the media, and has been the only information we have scrutinized in the last 20 years from our public servants. You make all information available and its bound to be abused by people with the means to propagate it.

One of the tenets of the Bill of Rights was the right to privacy, it seems at odds with absolute freedom of information. Executive oversight should really care over matters of what information is allowed to the public. I don't believe that Asange with his anti-american agenda cares one bit about democracy, I may be wrong but the guy seems a little on the extreme. We are talking about a guy who didn't have second thoughts about this leak and what damage it could do and the least that they could do is be objective about it; which they are not.

So? Maybe it's part of a national effort to promote procreativity in the population. I hear they are having massive problems with the couples department. I thought it was the opposite given that their apartment complexes have been given the unoffical name of "rabbit warrens".. On average the age of marriage is 30 and there are a lot of women who go into it being virgins. I'm not sure about the numbers but last I heard they were having trouble with national sex drive. If you know what I mean

By itself it's hard to guess, with our backing it is a certainty. We can basically do the Bay of Pigs thing, promise support encouraging them to start a revolt and back out as soon as the wind blows the wrong way. Just the promise of American backing would be enough for an organized resistance to act.

Because he is referring to unknown indie games which need to be promoted. One of piracy pros is that it reaches a wide audience and it's a risk free way for games to reach them, for indie developers this means recognition and a chance to be picked by one of the big publishers.

tsk tsk, hair of the dog in the morning mate. Best cure. so true my friend...but only if I had some. I'm beginning to think I must be getting old. My hangovers last all day now, and I keep forgetting what I'm doing. Idea: have tattoo which reads "Reminder: be awesome." and underneath it: "P.S: stretch me."

Anyone else going to the Neocon rally?

Speaking of which, don't you think it's weird that they are taking tough action on D&D, but not the endemic violence in the US system? Violence it's as American as apple pie on the other hand comics, rock & roll, PnP and video games are commie pastimes. Really, whenever you talk about the US system you must remember that its the US system, rationale its not what we do best. Deflecting and keeping the public's attention on new threats while they become desensitized to the real problems, is our forte.

Plot thickens, mayhap we are watching a revolution in the making.

So? Maybe it's part of a national effort to promote procreativity in the population. I hear they are having massive problems with the couples department.

Sorry I'm a Yank, but it's this one Marcus Mumford Please tell me there's a prize involved So there is an actual Mumford and the rest are his sons? PS. I'll send you a coupon or something.

It's Japan, tentacle rape is pretty tame over there. I'm glad they are doing something close to normal Edit: What is it with this woman and shower scenes, all sexified and moving her hand slowly across her glistening wet skin. Can't she bathe like normal people?

Been playing frequently here in the States BTW any brit here knows which one is Mumford?

tsk tsk, hair of the dog in the morning mate. Best cure.

It's for the best, playing D&D on prison ranks just below dropping the soap on the "things that get you raped" list.