Hiro Protagonist

We have similar problems in Australia with the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). There are games, books, magazines as well as over 250 movies banned in Australia. Online petitions rarely work if ever. The only way in getting around the ban is to download the game.

^^ You're certainly right in that it's geographic, but it's also cultural. Most of my friends don't get the whole Christmas idea. It's not being scrooge or anything like that. Do you celebrate Chinese New Year? If no, then why not? Most of my friends do. It's probably because it's not relevant to you, just as Christmas isn't relevant to other people. It comes down to more than just Christmas being Christmas and everybody celebrating it whetehr relisgious or otherwise.

I read comic books. Batman, Punisher, Y The Last Man, Star Wars, Grimm's Fairy Tales, etc.

Christmas isn't religious to me in the least as I'm not a christian. It's a nice paid day off from work. If anything I find it an inconvenince. I've been invited to friends places for lunch and as most of my friends aren't anglo-saxon, they've said to me in the past like saying something, 'oh, you celebrate christmas don't you?' and I say 'no, I'm not a christian'. I have quite a few asian friends and they're buddhist. It was also good going out on Christmas day in the city (Sydney) and watch a movie, get something to eat, etc. There were always asians everywhere.

I thought it might have something to do with ego and some people will just argue to death so they can claim they're 'right'. I find it a waste of time imo.

Other things in my life have had more of an impact and changed my views on many issues, than a forum on the internet like WOT. If there has been an internet forum that has changed my views, then I would credit the old BIS and IPLY political forums.

I have no sympathy for people who intentionally break the law and get caught.

I've never liked much of the new animation that's come out in recent years. I like to see characters in proportion. It's why I like old Disney instead of new Disney (except Pixar), old 70/80's cartoons, Miyazaki, etc.

The worse parts for me were the whole spiderman goes emo and him strutting down the street. I thought WTF??!!11?

I liked how they used the same guy who did the voice of Optimus Prime in the cartoon. And there were plenty of references to the original series and comics.

It doesn't cost that much at all. You might only have to pay 1.5% of your taxable income (not necessarily your full income) which is what most taxpayers pay in Australia and this can be absorbed by your tax refund. So in effect, you are never out of pocket. edit: I just checked my tax records from last year and my tax refund was $6143.56 less $1738.54 medicare levy = $4405.02. So I never actually 'paid' anything out of my bank account and I got a nice refund from the Govt. Also, most people wouldn't be paying the sort of medicare levy I pay and the medicare levy I paid was on my taxable income, not my gross income.

Some of my experiences with a socialised health care system in Australia: 1986 - Dental braces, 1988 - Contact lens left eye, 1991 - Intraocular lens implant left eye, 1997 - Retinal detachment left eye, 1999 - Left arm in cast (rollerblading accident), 2002 - Start Bullous Keratophy treatment left eye (corneal damage from an accidental intrusion of my left eye), 2004 - Finished Bullous Keratophy treatment left eye (including laser surgery) All this didn't cost me a cent and I didn't have health insurance throughout all this. This also doesn't include all the free (atleast a hundred) medical visits to doctors and hospitals over the last 25 years or so. If you see a doctor atleats 5 times a year, over 25 years, it's going to be well over a hundred. Unfortunately, the Australian system is going down the road that America has gone and the current government for the last 10 years has been dismantling Medicare to force people onto private health insurance. Many people I know including people at my current work can't afford the private health insurance. Yeah, social health care is just plain wrong. I mean, you wouldn't want people who can't afford treatment to put up with this and go blind, deaf, etc, ... or even die. I want to live in France now. :sad:

^^ I saw Transformers today as well.

*unnecessarily lewd haiku edited by Walsingham* I think I'll leave the haiku's for now. but they're so addictive!!! now that I know how to write them

I have a co-worker who sneezes about 10 sneezes one after the other and can't stop. It's a wonder she can breathe while she does these repetitive sneezes. It's like a machine gun.

Sneezed on the dog's face Dog did a Cujo on me. Won't do that again.

I sneezed on my cat It went berzerk and flipped out Next will be the dog.

You'll have to forgive me, I have a weird sense of humour. :sad: Also, this is the first time I've done haiku's before. I had to look up on wikipedia to find out how to do them. I had heard there was a rule with them. they're quite interesting.

Sneezed when drinking milk I Held my mouth closed and prayed Milk shot from my nose.

I sneezed really hard across from a Christmas tree Tree now has tingle

Take care when you sneeze Dad says to cover my mouth I sneezed on my dad.

Two things are certain Sneezing can make your eyes close Wonder which comes first

I'm really looking forward to see the new Three Investigators and the Secret of Skeleton Island movie coming out later this year. It's a shame they didn't start with the first book. This movie is based on the 6th book in the series. But then I can understand why they didn't start with the first book, as you would have to have Alfred Hitch**** in it or atleast someone playing Alfred Hitch****. Depending on how well this is received, there could be more Three Investigator movies.

I'd like to be able to sneeze with my eyes open. When I sneeze, I always close my eyes.

I think religion should stay out of science classes. It doesn't belong. Even Genesis has contradictions with the time when trees were created. In Genesis, one part says trees were created first before humans(1:12-31), another part says trees were created after Adam (2:5-9). Science can correct itself with new facts and we have a better understanding of things. Religion can't correct itself with its many contradictions (eg.the bible). Religion was a good tool to keep the masses in line for hundreds of years because most people didn't have the understanding we have now. BTW, I'm not an athiest. I'm just looking at this at all angles. The problem I see with the bible is that when the bible was put together by men, all the stories were taken from different sources (I would say different cults of christianity) and anything that they didn't like, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Truth, The dialogue of the Saviour, The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles, On the Origin of the World, (there are over 50 texts), they kept out. There doesn't seem to be any checks which is why you have all these contradictions. I actually like these other texts.