Humodour

I fall head-first for broads with auburn hair every time. It's that perfect mix of red and brown.

You might not agree with Labour unions for some reason or another, but there's nothing Stalinist about them. Perhaps this is an area you need to do some research on. Taking away the secret ballot is what's Stalinist, you're the one who needs to do some research. "In the American democratic tradition the principle of the secret ballot is not simply the fact that you go into a voting booth and pull a curtain and nobody sees what you do. It is your right to keep your political opinion private to yourself before, during and after the act of voting; that you can't be lured or coerced into a conversation that is designed to make you reveal your political preferences. In the NLRB, while the vote does take place in a booth where nobody sees what you're doing, management is allowed to engage in a series of behaviors in the lead up to the vote that force the vast majority of workers to reveal how they're going to vote long before they ever step into the booth." Also, you still haven't explained to me how secret ballots have anything to do with Stalin's strain of Communism. Cloture used to be a last a resort, the 'nuclear option' and the ultimate threat to force compromise on bills. No longer. Again, where are you getting your info, the filibuster is a long standing tradition in the Senate, it is the primary reason why change takes a long time in the US. Um, Cloture was introduced in 1917 and between then and 1962 was used only 11 times, all of which failed. in 1975, the supermajority required was reduced from 67 senators to 60 senators. Yeah, what a "long-standing tradition" that is. Frequency of Cloture use since 1947: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e...947_to_2008.jpg Where do you get YOUR information? Enoch is right: if you think Specter is going to vote for EFCA in its current form you're dreaming. The Dems want him for other things, namely healthcare and budgets.

I could conversely say it's the non-US market that makes the research profitable and I'd be no less correct than you.

South-East Asian women in general can be pretty gorgeous. Actually, to generalise to the point of triviality: women in general can be pretty gorgeous.

The United States population also accounts for almost half of the Western world's population (excluding Eastern Europe). Who woulda thunk it. But don't divert the subject at hand, now. Your point was that the US does all the drug research and that the rest of the West rides off it, well that's patently false, no pun intended.

That's not correct. America has the largest number of drug makers of any Western country, but, and this might shock you, America also has the largest number of people of any Western country. The drug industries in the EU, Australia, and Canada, are far more vibrant than you presume. It may be correct to say that disturbing pharmaceutical industry political lobbying is less rife in the rest of the West, if that's what you were going for. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutica...erms_of_revenue Please note the countries of origin. It's likely that without the rest of the Western world around to buy your so-called 'subsidised' drugs, they would be too expensive to develop in the first place. Perhaps you should be thanking us.

You also noticed this? We Australians have a little thing called 'sunlight'. The British should try it one day. Wouldn't that only make the ugly British people easier to see? I concede your point.

You might not agree with Labour unions for some reason or another, but there's nothing Stalinist about them. Perhaps this is an area you need to do some research on. Cloture used to be a last a resort, the 'nuclear option' and the ultimate threat to force compromise on bills. No longer. The Democratic fundraiser thingy (DSCC?) and Obama have both stated they'll back him in the primary.

You also noticed this? We Australians have a little thing called 'sunlight'. The British should try it one day.

Indeed they are, which is why both have public welfare programs in place to ensure there a no gaps left by the free market (namely work for the the dole and public housing). It wouldn't surprise me if these programmes are also inadequate in America, but you're certainly right.

The free market should not be invoked when the item being competed for is a person's life, Gfted.

Since I figured a lot of you guys follow American politics, or at least followed the American election, you might be interested to know that the Democrats (Obama's party) just got their 60th Senate seat. In America, over the years, the senate has evolved such that you need not just a majority (50%) but a supermajority (60%) in order to pass legislation (cloture used to be a rare move, but since around Bush senior's term its been used willy nilly). The Republicans were trying extremely hard to prevent Dem cloture, but now a Republican has defected to the Democrats, so for the next two years the Dems will be able to pass subject only to their own party discipline (which isn't a sure thing - there's lots of moderate and conservative Democrat senators, Arlen Spector for one). http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...sg0VpgD97RKDNO1 Al Franken is waiting to be seated after being certified by his state as a Senator. He can't beat seated until the Senator he beat - Republican Coleman - stops trying to sue him for winning, however. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews

I bookmark lots of links for "future reference" and the only time I ever use them is on a forum to prove a point. It's really not worth it, though as something to show your kids or comment on culture years from now I'm sure it has validity. P.S.: how do you live without Firefox? Or specifically how do you live with IE.

How else would it be financed? Thats why countries with socialist programs pay upwards of 60% taxes. Point a) Americans spends as much tax money per capita on healthcare as the 'socialist' (lol) democracies (mainly Scandinavia) anyway,so moot point. Point b) Australia spends less tax money per capita on healthcare than America and has roughly the same taxation level, so again, moot point. a UHS implementation in the US will result in a dramatic increase in my taxes to pay for it. No it won't.

Pretty sure DHTML doesn't work on the forums. And I can't believe you didn't score.

****, I forgot to buy this on the cheap.

Didya read my info post? Obviously not. Liar.

The CDC in America has confirmed this flu has 4 different strains in it: avian flu, North American swine flu, Asian swine flu, human flu. Apparently that's extremely rare; it's the maximum number of strain combinations possible (because flu has 8 RNA strands, which is part of what makes it so viral - it mutates and accepts new RNA so easily). Have you even read the thread? Notably, this flu will be PART of the flu season. For example, the Spanish flu was very mild when it first hit in summer, then come flu season in winter, it mutated and mixed with normal human flu and killed millions.

How else would it be financed? Thats why countries with socialist programs pay upwards of 60% taxes. Point a) Americans spends as much tax money per capita on healthcare as the 'socialist' (lol) democracies (mainly Scandinavia) anyway,so moot point. Point b) Australia spends less tax money per capita on healthcare than America and has roughly the same taxation level, so again, moot point. The majority of Americans most certainly do want healthcare. More Americans want healthcare than even voted for Obama (in percentage terms). Roughly 60% to 80% or so, depending on the wording of the poll question.

Lost Coast? I dunno. It's not exactly got bad graphics.

You're right: universal healthcare is a pipe dream. Why did all those silly countries-that-aren't-America bother implementing it? The fact that's it's been working for decades now is an illusion. Soon the debt fairy will come to collect all in one lump sum! Of course you think this is untouchable. What aspect of 'working for decades' says sustainability to anyone in todays climate? The unavoidable fact is that an ounce of prevention(responsibility) while free to begin with is worth a pound of cure. Why meet the demand for free pounds of cure except to capture the vote of the irresponsible. Another 'obama promise' to dig people out of the hole they dug themselves while piling on ever more debt. If I recall, every single country with universal healthcare is in less government debt than America is, per capita, and also their governments spend the same amount of money on healthcare as America, per capita. So much for that, mate.

Windmills do not work that way.

It doesn't sound nefarious, it sounds comedic. Um, SARS never made the leap to human transmission (it was always avian-human, not human-human). This has. SARS was a concern because if it ever did make the leap, it'd be a very deadly virus. Not unfounded given that viruses mutate thousands of times each day. And this ones mortality rate is as high as the Spanish flu. How is that 'not high enough'? :S

HL2 was fun but it was missing the soul that made HL1 great. But that's neither here nor there.

Well I was hoping I could rely on Australian isolation to get me through, but New Zealand was one of the first countries to get infected and we have open borders with them, so scratch that theory.