Earth_Poet

If I had to guess, they are sociopathic, meaning that they probably don't care what they did. They're more concerned with how severe will they be punished. According to the article, this isn't the first time these boys have been grossly violent. I'd be interested in learning how they ended up in foster care in the first place. This isn't the first time it's ever happened, but it certainly isn't normal behavior for a 10 year old. It's incidents like this that give supporting evidence to favor the death penalty in my country, and I don't say this to be facetious. There's a strong possibility that these two kids will never be helped. I understand a strong desire to want to save and repair these damaged kids, but society also has an obligation to protect the other children around them.

Just finished up Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. Right now I just started Nigh[bleep]ch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Okay, I apologize. I did misunderstand what you meant. I am 31 though. I do understand where you are coming from as well. My father is a Libertarian, and I get tired of defending my beliefs against him. Neither one of us will ever convince the other he is right. Again, I owe you an apology. Politics do often become a circular argument.

Based on my posting style? Oh please, go ahead and tell me what you meant by that.

No offense kid, but I'm probably older than you are. Fair enough, though. Bye.

You've already picked a side! Yeah, he's the most unpopular president since...well, the last one we had. What's his tunnel vision on healthcare? He asked Congress to come up with a plan. Obama himself has been very vague on what he wants. He's said he wants a plan that will insure every citizen, and that he wants it to be deficit neutral. He shot down an early Dem plan of taxing employee benefits to cover the costs. The polls show him averaged out at about 50/50 approval. That's not "most of this country". You tell me what biased, skewed data is misinforming Americans. I wonder how hard it would be to google some up... But this is what I was talking about. Are you speaking for the American people now? I am an American. You're not speaking for me, nor a majority consensus. You are speaking your personal opinion. Some may agree with your opinion, but stop clouding it like you are speaking the foundation of truth here. Stop hiding behind "the American people" as if mage or I would be in some radical minority. Did you hear that we are in a recession? That's not due to socialism. But maybe we should back up here, because you're accusing Obama of being a socialist again. Obama never declared himself as a socialist, and I don't believe he is a socialist. Maybe I need to hear your definition of what socialism is, because I'm thinking your idea is way, way different than mine. And if you don't mind, could you point me to that unbiased, historical data? Because you "think". You don't know. You're making a prediction based not on expertise or experience, but on opinion. Every opinion is biased to some degree. I think Obama's plan to reform healthcare is a great idea for our country, and if we don't act soon then our nation will see that economic ruin. <~~ That's a biased opinion as well. Also, Obama's goal was a deficit neutral plan. The Congressional committees haven't figured out a way to come up with the extra trillion dollars without raising taxes. That's where this plan stinks. Obama campaigned saying he'd consider letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010, and I would be perfectly okay with that. It was a foolish policy by the last administration to cut tax revenue and increase spending. That's what's leading us to a lot of the problems we have now. If Obama does propose to increase taxes on top of this, then I believe that's a bad idea, but that's just an opinion.

It WILL. Not that this is on topic, but that kid's smart. Following your logic...Obama is a socialist and he's going to lead this country into ruin. That's not neutral, nor unbiased. You've been taking shots at the President all through this thread. It's a little too late to play neutral now.

It's being blown way out of proportion. The President of the United States wants to communicate with children in this country? That's not exactly a new concept. Do you remember what George W. Bush was doing at the time the World Trade Center was being attacked? He was reading to children. How about that good ol' slogan "Just Say No"? The Republican strategy has been to dial everything up to 11 whenever Obama farts, and make it look like a national crisis. Oppose everything he does, and hope one of these things sticks with the public.

That was Moses you idiot. That gets fixed in the bugfix the following week. Maybe. That's awesome haha. Classic =D> Agreed. I lol'd hard on that one. :lol:

I just heard on the news that some of the local Atlanta schools may choose not to air the speech, because they are afraid it's politically motivated. I fear the schools are making it a political issue by choosing not to air the speech.

You might even say the storms are...raging. MA was a leftover from '08 that was delayed and delayed. It may have been the biggest release content wise, but after a long setback. I think you're right. Jagex is more interested in seeing what we come up with than telling us what to do with them. I probably won't touch these tools 364 days out of the year, but it could be useful to plan social events with. The reason why they aren't "radically" popular is because players haven't found a use to incorporate it into their daily playing. There's no strategic advantage, and there's no reward that comes from using them. Until somebody comes up with a way to use them that fits that criteria, then you won't ever see them used widely. When do we consider the beginning of summer? Beginning with June we had: 1. The Hunt for Red Raktuber 2. The Curse of Arrav 3. Fur N' Seek That's 3 quests in 3 months. That's less than the two quests a month average they used to make, but I wouldn't say these three quests are evidence that we have sacrificed quantity for quality. The pet update was the most useful in helping to clear out some bank space. The familiar and butler updates were useful, but were more insignificant, minor patches in my opinion. They aren't worthy of this much praise. lol. When I first saw Personalized Shops, I thought it meant we were getting Player-Owned Shops. Oh well. I haven't noticed a big impact either, but Jagex's reasoning behind this seemed sound. The auto-cast option, and ordering of spells is wonderful. The new Slayer monster was decent, along with a really good drop. Agility desperately needed a new update, especially after they nerfed the Bandos course. Could you please clarify what you mean. Do you mean that they are running out of ideas, or that it is becoming too complex to update timely?

I believe Obama did it because it was the right thing to do.

Those weren't white people. :lol:

How are all religions a scam? I'm Christian, and I follow the moral guidelines of the Bible. I didn't pay a cent to do so. On Topic: Scientology is a joke in my opinion. Don't they pass around that thing, where you pay for the Churches renovations and such? And don't Muslims have to give up 10% of their earnings? I'm Catholic, and they pass that collection thing around in my religion too, but you don't HAVE to pay, it's just if you want to donate. Most people do pay, but not everyone. Most of it either goes to donations or to fixing up the church and buying new equipment (it's a really modern place), and priests don't get paid, so the church really keeps very little, if any. It's not donations. It's called tithing, and according to doctrine you are supposed to do it.

As much of a joke as any other religion.

Well, when I was a kid it was offensive. I'm interested in seeing what today's kids think.

When we talk about racism, we are also including racial discrimination and racial prejudices. It's common knowledge, so there's really no need to split hairs here. Bigotry is not towards race specifically. Bigotry is more of an irrational intolerance of anybody who has a different opinion/belief/ideology from yours. There's racial bigotry, religious bigotry, political bigotry, etc. "All Indians are nothing but drunks." "All black people are lazy." ^ Those would be bigoted statements, but they'd also be racially prejudiced comments. "Democrats are homosexual crybabies who are envious of success." "Republicans are fear mongering xenophobes who practice social darwinism." ^ Those are bigoted statements, too, but have nothing to do with race. If I open a restaurant and hang a sign outside that says, "No Coloreds Allowed", then that's racial discrimination i.e. racism.

It was more about how the KKK saw themselves. Protecting the sanctity of the white woman, driving carpetbaggers out of the South, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... It's true though, after President Wilson viewed and endorsed the film it grew in popularity, along with the KKK. There's a rumor that President Harding took his oath to the KKK on the White House lawn the day of his inauguration. No, you're just a troublemaker, Das. :P

It's a symbol that represents beliefs. There are plenty of symbols that represent beliefs: the peace sign, the swastika, the olive branch, the black panther, etc. The flag didn't start out as a representation of hate, but it evolved to incorporate it. You're right. Racism doesn't stop at the Mason-Dixon line, and neither does the flag. The Civil Rights movement didn't just take place in the South either, but that's where the center of it was, and along with the movement came a resurgence in the Confederate flag we see flying today, and there was no great mystery as to why southern states started flying the flag during this time period. It's this very reason why I say the flag represents racism and intolerance. The KKK has grown into a national organization, but it was born out of the Confederacy's loss in the Civil War. There's a monument of Nathan Forrest sitting in my home town, about a mile from my house today, honoring him as a Confederate soldier. I guess it's only a coincidence that he's also looked at as a father of the KKK. And I bet if anybody even suggested at tearing it down, it would stir up a hornet's nest just like it did to remove the "Stars and Bars" from our state flag, which was put there in the 1950s to protest the Civil Rights movement by the way.

His opening sentence was to define addiction, including physiological symptoms. I believe that was the author's intent, to make a case for gaming addiction through his own story.

If the preseason is a prelude to what we'll see in the regular season, then Brees and the Saints could be deadly. Is Thomas Jones playing with the Packers this season? Either Jets or Packers, I don't expect him to do much this season. Stewart from the Panthers is a great pick though. Jennings success will depend greatly on if Rodgers can throw the ball well again like he did last season. I don't like the pick of Roy Williams. I think he was a bust in Dallas last year. Boldin....what can you say....wish it was Fitzgerald, but you still have to be happy with this pick. I don't know much about your TE, but anybody Peyton is throwing to is worth having on the list. Giants Defense is a solid pick, but they'll have to carry the team this year. I've never played Fantasy Football before, so I'm not an expert. I'm a Vikings fan though, so I wouldn't pick a team without "All Day" Peterson and the Vikes D. Call me bias. :D

Barihawk, this is very misleading. The KKK originated and flourished in the South after the Civil War. It was predominantly used by southern officials covertly as a terrorist organization to prevent African-Americans from voting. After Congress passed laws against the KKK in order to protect voting rights, the organization went largely underground. There was a time when the clan was probably slightly stronger in the Midwest, around the time when a famous Klansman raped and murdered a woman, and was tried and convicted. But now, I'd like to know where you are getting your information. Even if there is a stronger presence in the North today (and I'd only imagine that happening if they are linking up with neo-nazi groups), the Klan has very deep southern roots, and is always associated with the South.

The fact of the matter is, they have earned it. Physical labor is not automatically hard work. CEOs either worked hard in school and quickly moved through the ranks of a large company, or had a great idea and worked hard to make it real. And haha at the bolded part. Yeah, he also forgot pedigree and cronyism as a couple of more reasons.

When/if you graduate with a medical degree, I hope I don't have the misfortune of you as my doctor with a philosophy like this. Will you be turning down patients based on a preexisting income? We can muddy this hypothetical with even more hypotheticals. What if the CEO was involved in a criminal fraud, and spent his life drinking, abusing prescription pills, and eating fatty foods? What if low-waged man is a clergyman, or a college student trying to work to become that next CEO? The point is, none of that matters, and neither should income. Unfortunately, as great as capitalism is, this is one of the byproducts: an attitude of get the hell out of my way and stay the hell off my property...even from our aspiring doctors apparently.

Our problem is not the tax system. It's the out-of-control spending our government does. We can't have a system like a flat tax unless the government learns how to be fiscally responsible. Edit: Are we talking about Canadian system? If so, ignore my comment. I don't know much about Canada's system.