Humodour

I always heard that having tightly controlled reqs is actually a boon to game makers. One major reason consoles are appealing. The reason not to produce games for Mac pretty much went completely out the window when they switched to x86 architecture, no? WINE works pretty well, but some testing on the dev side before shipping (or a patch afterwards) would do a world of good.

Healthcare in America really isn't that spectacular. It's about equal to that of Cuba. That ought to really rile you. Although admittedly Cuba has excellent healthcare - about the only thing it does well. What needs to be reformed is the socioeconomic gaps present in America's health insurance.

It's not really terribly important what we think in the West. It's what they think in Kashmir, Pakistan and India that's important. And unfortunately, we don't have much of a say in that. And unfortunately, Muslims don't do anywhere near as much as they could to stand up and denounce these type of people. It's usually a once-off tentative speech about how things like this are 'un-Islamic' and then nothing till the next attack where they do it all over again. They need to be actively campaigning in some capacity against terrorism, and aggressively teaching their youth the evils of it, instead of all too often silently and passively supporting it in the home or church as some sort of 'resistance fighting'. I am rather disheartened though, when I see left-wing nutters in Australia, who support Hamas and Hezbollah through some twisted and misguided form of pity, who are claiming these attacks are a 'justified form of resistance against oppression'. Total arseholes.

Coulter and Limbaugh are fairly bat**** and I'm frankly (ehe) surprised to see Aristes try and tie Franken to them.

I suppose if I looked at it as a comic superhero series it'd be a little different, but they really don't bill the series like that (those weird weekly cartoons aside). I wasn't a comic fan though. Comics are a wee bit old for my time.

Fair enough Tep. But wtf, a solar eclipse gives people genetic mutations now? Oh geez, I'm glad I dumped this POS.

Harper is totally boned. The Greens just backed the Liberal-NDP Coalition and the Governor General just cut short her Europe trip to return to Canada: "The prime minister and myself need to have a conversation... I have to see what the prime minister has to say to me and what he is actually thinking of doing."

Hey, Solo. I made a thread here asking the devs about this, but nobody responded. I sincerely hope at least somebody at Obsidian gives it some thought, even if it's just a bored junior programmer who does some retrofitting, because there's probably at least 10 people there who use Linux in some form. Edit: In other news, Microsoft's market share continues to fall - now 1 in 10 people don't use any form of Windows. http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/12/02/1857253.shtml

Is this show now less crap than it was in season 1 and early season 2 (I stopped at like episode 6 or something)?

Canada and Australia are de facto republics anyway. Perhaps the one real change that has some validity is making the Governor General elected by a 2/3rds majority of parliament rather than appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. But until a crisis arises where the Governor General acts undemocratically, a change like that isn't going to happen. Canadians and Australians like their status quo.

that's what he said while he was running. now that it's this close, pressure will be on to conform to his party. either way, "corruption reform" is immaterial, immigration reform won't go over with voters, and, as the dems learned in '94, healthcare reform may be a priority, but not if it requires tax increases. Nah, McCain met Obama after the election and talked to him about what he would work with the Democrats on. Meshugger: Franken's a Democrat many Republicans dislike because he's conspicuously left-wing rather than centrist. I'm fairly neutral on him. I don't like Norm Coleman though. He wants to make it so all US states ban gay marriage at a federal level.

He didn't really. Cloture doesn't require a Democrat supermajority; it requires a Senate supermajority. John McCain has already said he'll vote with the Democrats on a bunch of things like corruption reform, immigration reform, and from memory healthcare reform. Obviously he'll also have significant input into shaping these policies (relative to the fact he's just one senator), but it just goes to show that 60 Senate seats isn't as hard as some people think. The far more interesting race is Franken vs whatshisface. That's pretty much a dead tie right now (due to so many frivolously challenged ballots).

Let me put it this way: The Governor General only acts when the democratically elected parliament democratically votes to democratically dissolve the government (via no confidence). Then, the Governor General elects the majority party or coalition to form government (the hallmark of democracy) or calls a new democratic election. The Governor General might not be democratically elected, but he's also more of a political process than an independent agent. I imagine it's similar in Canada. Now, if you think this is undemocratic, Volo, you should start a grassroots effort to call a referendum to get Canadian citizens to democratically decide to become a Republic and abolish the monarchy.

I've already explained previously why it most certainly is democratic, if slightly annoying for those who voted just 6 months ago. Anyway, that quote was a reference to your rants about being slaves to the British Monarch, not the vote of no confidence.

Only 37% of the Canadian voters elected the Conservative party. That says to me that more than 60% of people did not want a Conservative government. As such, any coalition between those parties which 60% of people voted for seems quite fair, and specifically democratic, to me. The rest of your post devolved into incomprehensible ranting, so I can't understand it to respond to it, sorry.

This is probably the best $1 I will ever spend.

why do you always spell them with ks In Europe, Canada is written with a capital 'K'. Thus, Volo is simply tapping into his european ancestery. Aside from that, this situation looks really weak. These kinds of "hostile takeovers" should be illegal and punishable with treason. It's not a "hostile takeover", it's a vote of no confidence. It's not illegal, it's an enshrined right to protect the democratic nature of government. If the minority government could do whatever it wanted without fear of backlash for not consulting with the opposition, that wouldn't exactly be fair. It's a core concept in Westminster systems but I doubt it's unique to our governments. If the minority government is governing properly, and consulting the other parties instead of trying to bully them into submission, it would never happen - see New Zealand. There's always a power grab element to it (just like there was for the Conservatives when they called an election rather early), but the fact remains that the Conservatives were essentially ignoring opposition, trying to pass rather aggressive policies against them (strip their party funding to make them bankrupt), and not stimulating an economy heading into recession. That doesn't hold water when, as I said, they aren't even represented by 40% of the electorate. And a vote of no confidence certainly shouldn't be "punishable with treason".

Here's to an NDP/Liberal coalition! The Liberals are stagnant, and the NDP wouldn't be my first choice, but they're both better than the Conservatives, and most importantly actually represent the will of the people (i.e. democracy). Between the Liberals, NDP, BQ, and the Greens, you've got over 60% of the electorate voting for centrist or left-wing parties, and yet it's the right-wing party that forms government. If ever there was a reason for proportional representation or preferential voting, Canada is it. P.S. lol at Volourn ranting about being a slave to the Queen.

The US officially went into recession a year ago: http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/news/econo...sion=2008120115 That doesn't bode well for depression prospects.

Why do you Canadians have such problems forming government, anyway? It's like you call an election whenever you get bored.

Fortunately the three most likely vacancies between now and 2012 will be Stevens (who is 85 may drop dead at any minute) Ginsburg (who has been battling kidney disease) and Souter (who is apparently planning to retire to his home in NH and spend his time writing and teaching). If any or all three were to vacate anyone Obama picks would be no worse. No worse than 3 centrist judges? Really? I would have imagined you'd find 3 liberal judges to be 'worse', but who am I to speculate about the inner workings of your mind.

Actually, you seem to have Obama's opinion on the issue rather backwards. He is generally against using the law for redistributive change or judicial activism such as equality of human rights, unless social force is also behind such a change. If you think that's wrong, than I really don't mind. Universal enforcement of human rights (e.g. universal suffrage) isn't an issue that I care to debate with you on. Um, did you even bother to read the radio interview transcript you are quoting? If you did, you'd realise how uninformed you are sounding: http://mediamatters.org/items/200810280021 Here's a hint: Obama was being rather critical of using courts for judicial activism and redistributive change. Redistribution of wealth is actually a fairly American (and in general, Western) concept. Stop lying. Healthcare, progressive income tax, elderly pensions, war veteran allowances, taxes for roads/education/hospitals/medical research, public housing for the poor, etc. These are all redistributive policies. Now, I know you being a Libertarian and all think those things are somehow evil, but please recognise that your views are not held by the vast majority of the American electorate. Yeah, and so could have McCain. I actually do think a fair bit about what would be best not just for long-term civil rights and justice, but for day-to-day American citizens who have to actually wear whoever is elected. That's why I support Obama. Don't worry, I'm not speculating about why a staunch Libertarian didn't vote for Obama (I'd say it's obvious, but interestingly a lot of Libertarians did vote for Obama), merely responding to the overly-dramatised claims you guys have made.

Pretty sure Bloc Qu

Said the teenager from Australia. I think you'll find I'm not a teenager, mate. It's interesting that you imply youth have inferior political insight, though. Protip: 'other countries' are also electoral democracies with right-wing and left-wing parties as well as everything in-between. You can sit there feeling somehow unique if you like, but politics (and all its foibles) transcends cultural and geographic boundaries. Oh, he has? Well, clearly you've read something I haven't, so feel free to share your sources. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wa...0,7595409.story I bet Barack Obama is lying and it's really a trick so Americans would elect him and he could appoint radical liberal judges. Just like his cabinet will be full of radical liberals, and his vice-president is a radical liberal. And after all, we all know that liberalism and egalitarianism are un-American!