JadedWolf

The BBC is featuring a piece about a report by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page on the influence citizens of the U.S. have on policy, based on income level. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746 In this report, the professors looked at answers to survey questions between 1981 and 2002 and broke down the answers according to income level. Then they looked at which income level had the most influence on policy decisions. http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf Abstract: "Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics – which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic Elite Domination, and two types of interest group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism – offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented. A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. This paper reports on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues. Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism." They conclude that the system as is strongly favours the economical elite compared to the average citizen, and that while citizens of the U.S. "do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if still contested) franchise [...] if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organisations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened."

This is what I imagine when I think of an egg battle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HSa2Y53zTSA#t=48

And then we can train them to be Sardaukar.

We don't throw eggs here. Which is a shame, because it sounds like fun. To me Easter doesn't really mean much, since I'm not religious. Where I live, Easter is celebrated pretty much the standard way, lots of chocolate eggs and bunnies (although strangely, over here it's hares, not bunnies) and painted eggshells. Bach's St Matthew Passion is a really big thing over here, churches all over the land are having performances of it. And there is a specific performance of it on Good Friday which is a big deal, and is attended by celebrities and politicians and broadcast on television. People really love their St Matthew Passion, to the point where talk shows are filled with people nearly crying while trying to explain why it's such a beautiful piece of music.

Some of those do look good. I liked the Lenin look best. http://www.xoxma.lv/uploads/posts/2013-04/1366178765_putin_moustache_11.jpg Edit: actually, he should grow a matching goatee. Mind you, some of the other mustaches make him look like an actor from a certain genre of movies. Shall we say, "nature documentaries".

I don't think he has the face to carry a mustache.

The article doesn't have an answer to the question whether this was actually carried out by anyone with authority, I'll refrain from judgment until that is clear. Hopefully it is just some fringe group, and not a sign of a broader sentiment among the East-Ukrainian militants.

Now, I haven't seen the show - and from the sound of it I wouldn't want to do that to my poor braincells anyway - but that family, and especially the mother, seems entitled to me. A "stay-at-home" mother with four different children from four different men. Oh, I will admit motherhood is daunting job, but let's admit it: she doesn't look like she is a very active mother. Or a good one. I found this gem on wikipedia "June Shannon herself has been criticized for her daughter's diet, which includes "Go Go Juice", a mixture of Red Bull and Mountain Dew that contains as much caffeine as two cups of coffee. The drink is used to get her daughter ready for pageants. Shannon has responded to this criticism, saying. "There are far worse things...I could be giving her alcohol."" Oh, that's alright then! Mam, you could even give her alcohol if you wanted to! Sure! If anyone would complain, you could just say there are worse things you could give her... Like rat poison! I feel sorry for the kid. She might be spoiled in some things, but she's pretty much growing up to be her mother's little mini-me. And would you want to grow up like that?

The Finnish people are in danger of not seeing Miley Cyrus and Justin Timberlake as well. Poor innocent bystanders are going to be the hardest hit by those tough sanctions on Russia. An aside: Is there a nation on earth where there aren't 'reality TV shows' and crap like 'blah blah has talent'? This cow diarrhea seems to be everywhere. I also don't understand the unhealthy fascination IMO around certain reality shows. Some are really interesting like the cooking reality shows, MasterChef and Iron Chef, and Survivor as they highlight the skills of people or how people interact in harsh environments but shows like "Here comes Honey Boo Boo " I just find obscene I watched 10 minutes of " Here comes Honey Boo Boo" and it made me nauseous, the fact that people are genuinely interested in the life of a spoilt and precocious 8 year old amazes me Our whole society seems to be build upon worshiping the entitled, so why should that amaze you?

I think it is counterproductive: they are playing right into Russia's hands. I wish all parties could sit around a table and come to a diplomatic settlement, but neither side seems to be willing to give.

And then you see an actually decent politician, one with his heart in the right place. One who has good factual knowledge, debates politely and doesn't desire to debase himself with cheap populism. And you know he's pretty much toast because he's clearly chosen the wrong profession.

I would say it's privilege blindness, though the western privilege is more subtle than male or white privilege. You take safety, political liberty, freedom of speech, and other rights for granted, to the point that they are not valued at all. I honestly think the best way to pay tribute to political liberty and freedom of speech is to remain critical of government, and to never blindly follow whatever the establishment says, but to demand answers when something doesn't seem right. In a world where there is free speech but no one dares to show dissent because it is "unpatriotic" democracy is dead. Of course, these are two extremes of the spectrum. There has to be a middle way where people can be critical of government without it crippling the health and safety of the state.

Amazingly people in Western countries are allowed to think differently than what their masters think, no ? I don't know why you can call one side narrative and the other is truth, given the penchant of both for lying through their teeth. But some of the comments are more than just disagreeing with there government, in fact we should raise reasonable and valid issues about our governments. What I see is that some think that there are governments just cannot be trusted to anything right and they never stand behind what there governments do, its always criticism and not enough support or recognition If your "government" is the E.U. though, you have every right to call it on its incompetence.

I fully admit being bitter and disillusioned toward the West. Or the East. Or humanity in general, if you prefer. I'm still on the fence about squirrels. Sometimes, when they look at you with their beady eyes... -Shudder- As for this topic... When you are painted as a stooge of the West for daring to say anything critical about Russia, what's the point of even trying to debate?

Seriously? Everyone agrees/knows what the NSA did what outside the law Really? Is that a professional goddamn opinion? Or are you retrospectively deciding that it ought to have been illegal? What Snowden did was violate the actual law in order to hand information directly to the Russian and Chinese security services, those paragon defenders of the little guy. Rather than do what he would have been told to do on day one: tell Congress. In the grown up world we don't just do whatever we happen to decide suits our personal need to feel awesome. We vote on laws then we obey the laws. Interesting take on things. I'm curious, how should he have gone about telling Congress, without being stopped and gagged in the name of national security in the process?

Oh great.

The writing in this show is just so bad. Case in point: Why am I even watching this trainwreck? Does it get better at any point?

I find the "we" bit here rather odd, because I don't think anyone here has any say in what the U.S. or E.U. does. You can live in a country (though the E.U. isn't even a country, and I really think some people here are really overestimating E.U. capabilities and foresight here - if anything, they've shown once again how incompetent they are at foreign policy) and still not actually be on board with or be responsible for what that country does. As for German trained snipers? ... I'm sorry, but can I have some of that stuff you've been smoking?

Saying that what Russia is doing is just the same as the U.S. and the E.U. were doing strikes me as rather simplistic. There's a difference in gradation. The latter did not march their armies to Ukraine's borders, did not invade parts of the Ukraine and did not send in their agents to incite unrest while disguising themselves as native Ukrainians.That's not to say I think that what the U.S. and the E.U. are doing is much better. Both sides are simply playing power politics, and in the end it is the people in the Ukraine that have to suffer for it. Yanukovich was a crook, but this new government doesn't seem much better. Not too bright, either. If they hadn't started off by curtaining the rights of the Russian speaking population it wouldn't have been so easy for Russia to feign being the champion of the poor oppressed Rus people.

The moves that you "learn" and the moves you actually have to perform in the game are actually different. In the game, all you need to do is face the object, hold the right stick down, then push the right stick up. You don't actually need to do anything with the left stick for the dragon shout.

Okay, not trying to be insensitive here, but that actually reminds me of a Law and Order episode. I believe the episode was called Gaijin. A Japanese couple goes on vacation to New York. The wife gets shot, and the husband is very vocally blaming New York for being an unsafe and violent city. In the end it turns out the husband himself paid for a hired killer to shoot her. And he specifically went to New York so he could make it believable that it was random violence. Which makes me wonder, did this guy see that episode? In any case, glad that he was found out and hope he spends the rest of his life behind bars. Sadly, that's probably not likely if sentences over there are anything like over here.

Also, it is quite obvious what the star of David with a lizard's eye in the middle of it represents. Anyone who thinks that Oby is showing off his Jewish pride raise your hand. Yeah, I didn't think so.

When you walked into the Off-Topic section, did you not notice how above the gate was carved: "Abandon all hope of moderation, ye who enter here"?

All that money spent, a whole 40 billion, and they couldn't even get the five rings right. But of course, if you're Russian, you would not have noticed, since you were actually watching footage of the rehearsal! http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/02/russian-tv-olympic-ring-cut-rehearsal/