Hurlshort

I don't disagree that the vast majority of the Media™ are liberal, but I don't see it as some great conspiracy. Rather the kind of person that is going to go to college and get a degree in journalism is already leaning towards liberalism. Journalistic integrity is only going to so far when you are naturally predisposed to one type of thinking.

I borrowed about $15k to get through graduate school, and I don't regret it. It is my lowest interest rate debt, I deferred it once when I was just starting out in teaching, and it is a simple $120 payment every month. I could pay it off faster, but my cars have higher interest rates and get my extra monies instead. Pretty manageable with a job.

Bravo!

I don't care when the game gets released, as long as it is good and runs well. InXile already has the benefit of the doubt from me, Wasteland 2 was great and the director's cut was even better. I'd say they more than delivered on what I was looking for as a backer, which is simply a good game. Larian, HBC, and Obsidian have all done the same, and I'll back them until they give me a lousy game. It hasn't happened yet.

Ah, I may be mixing up the numbers for PC and console. Still, that doesn't mean the console releases bombed. We have no idea what the overhead is and no idea what they pull in for each sale. It's safe to say that if Wasteland 2 really was a money pit on consoles, they would not bother with another attempt. So it must have done well enough to warrant it. Plus we also have no idea how this is being handled in house currently, jumping to conclusions and assuming they are using a bunch of backer money to fund a console game is unwarranted. They might have a team of people that are currently doing nothing and need a project. We have no idea.

After the flops of Wasteland and Divinity on consoles that's very surprising. Where did you get that information? These games don't need to sell a huge amount of units to make it profitable, they just need to cover the costs of porting. Divinity apparently moved 900k units on the consoles.

Just got back from Vegas. Our last day was crazy. We started out with a morning at the spa, very relaxing. Then we went to lunch with some friends that we've made in the area. The husband is a brewer, so he decided we should go around to a few different breweries for the afternoon. We started in Henderson at a place called Lovelady that was fantastic, then we hit up Tenaya Creek a bit closer to the strip. We ate dinner at a Thai place in Chinatown, then went back to the hotel and passed out from all the food and drink. It was a fun adventure and nice to get away from the usual tourist areas. I was hurting a bit in the morning, but nothing I couldn't shake off with a good morning run on the strip.

Huh, activity seems pretty normal to me. We are all in WoT discussing the election.

Tomorrowland was better than I expected.

We have people pimping Trump and Clinton here, not sure why GD can't share his Libertarian stuff. To be more accurate, we have a lot of people complaining about Trump and Clinton. I actually prefer to see a few positive posts about who is a good candidate and why.

I feel somewhat obliged to clarify a thing here; because I come from a place that most of you would readily admit to be a tyrannical regime. The government stretches as far as what it can influence, the notion that because it is not done directly by the government nothing has been violated is ridiculous. Firstly, the bill of rights is not granted by the government, but recognized by it. They couldn't stop me from speaking my free mind within the confines of my own home and making it illegal would just be overzealous. Secondly, the fact is that government protects the rights of some while denies those of others based on the politics of the day. EG: Facebook has a right to deny their service to people they don't agree with but a bakery is punished because they don't want to serve gay weddings. Which of course the government does nothing about because of politics, neglecting their duty to uphold these God given rights. The fact is that the government influences other institutions and enforces a political view, and that is how it operated on the tyrannical regime where I come from. Not through direct action, not by sending people to a gulag, just by making sure that the detractors where declared persona non grata and that the institutions made sure to enforce the right political views. I see the same thing done by the US and just because i'm not the afflicted party doesn't mean that I can simply turn a blind eye to it. If I was capable of doing so at would at least be honest with myself and stop pretending that it was a about a better world, when it really is about fulfilling my self interest. But that might the last vestige of morality in me talking. Your example with the bakery is one of discrimination. If facebook started banning people who posted gay wedding pics, you would see public outcry and eventual government intervention as the banned would likely take it to court. Although facebook is also a company that gives into public pressure. They came under fire for deleting breastfeeding pics awhile back, and they changed their policy. If the bakery did something like that, the court case would fall apart.

Melk, make sure you take those back. It is not good for your back, knees, or feet to be running in two different shoes, they will have different pressure points.

Satellites will be reigned in by me soon. Excited to play when I get back from Vegas.

Yeah, that seems weird to me because we've had these discussions for years. My big beliefs all line up pretty well with the Libertarian party: 1. Get rid of Patriot Act and its big brother offspring. 2. Stop freaking out about immigration. 3. Gay marriage is cool. Only thing I get nervous about is lack of corporate oversight, but considering they control the government now, I'm not really worried it wil get worse.

Huh. Kind of a waste of time to talk to you about this stuff. You are just going to look for the most negative way to spin it. We've been down that road enough times at this stage in our relationship.

The Libertarian party wants you to be able to opt out of Social Security, and I think you might be surprised about what they say about healthcare: https://www.lp.org/issues/healthcare The goal is to move away from the insane medical costs that we currently have, which have been outpacing inflation for decades. I'm all for that. edit: Most teacher's don't put money into Social Security, btw. The reason behind that is the unions and school districts are supposed to cut a better deal with the state for a pension. Some states are good, some are terrible when it comes to this.

For Hastur's list: 1. Voted in every presidential election. Missed a couple of the other ones. 2 & 3 - The only campaigning I've done, both on the phone and on the streets, has been for parcel taxes to help schools. 4. Never gave money, but this year I'm leaning hard towards helping the libertarian party in some way. I would never donate to the democrats or republicans. They are responsible for driving these campaigns into ludicrous spending sprees, why would I support them continuing that? They don't need my middle class dollars.

Brilliant.

I can't believe you are in your 40's.

Leaving for Vegas tomorrow for a little getaway.

Snowden has to look at the current presidential race and regret giving up his entire life to shine a light on stuff like Prism. Has it made a difference? We all know what Clinton will do, and Trump seems likely to ramp it up.

We get a guy selling bee on the corner right next to where he has all the hives. We also have a local grocery store that lets you pour it into containers. No idea if Costco is cheaper, they probably are, but it's also not going to be the same quality.

Hey, whatever is convenient for your narrative.

And yet the immigration numbers have levelled off... http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/19/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/

Immigration police? So, just a reminder, being in the US without proper documentation is not a criminal offense. It is a civil offense. BEING in the US without proper documentation is a civil offense, true. ENTERING the US illegally is both criminal AND civil. See Title 8, Section 1325 of the U.S. Code (U.S.C.), or Section 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (I.N.A.) for the exact statutory language http://www.uscis.gov/laws/immigration-and-nationality-act Yes, but not everyone enters illegally.