CubeMage128

Like many people, I like the fundamental ideals of socialism and communism. Who wouldn't want an economy in which nobody suffers from poverty or illness? However, neither Socialism nor Communism in their purest forms stand a chance of actually working in a real-world society unless the entire public is selflessly dedicated to the good of the whole. Obviously, this isn't the case, and it never will be the case. I've noticed that this thread has been focusing on the outrageously rich and the hopelessly poor, rather than the middle class. I find it pretty absurd, seeing as the middle class is the largest social class in the United States. Though the lower class benefits from Socialism, and the upper class makes an acceptable sacrifice for Socialism, the middle class takes quite a hit from Socialism. First of all, the true bane of middle class is tax brackets. http://taxes.about.com/od/2008taxes/qt/2008_tax_rates.htm If you'll notice, the bottom three tax brackets have the steepest increases on the entire chart. Advancing from the bottom tax bracket to the second lowest will increase a working single's taxes by 5%, and advancing from the second lowest bracket to the next bracket will increase their taxes by a whopping 10%! The lower middle class is more adversely affected than any other bracket. Here's how: Say a person has a salary of $32,000, placing them in the 15% tax bracket. After paying their taxes, the person walks away with a total income of $27,200. Let's say the same person is offered an increased salary of $33,000. This would place them in the 25% tax bracket, meaning they'd now walk away with $24,750, rather than $27,200. The person would require a new salary of over $36,000 in order to pocket the same amount of money he was making with a salary of $32,000. My example may have been a bit situational, but tax brackets are the greatest opposition to the advancement of the lower class. Why would anybody want to work harder if it means they make less money in the long run? Socialism would only exacerbate this barrier. Universal Healthcare, contrary to popular belief, is not free. It is funded by public funds, meaning higher taxes for everybody. Sure, we could increase the tax rates for other brackets, but that would only discourage advancement for other social levels. Discouraging advancement encourages laziness, and a lazy lower class leads to the collapse of the economy. The main enemy here is the system of tax brackets. I really wish we could do away with them entirely. However, graduated income tax and proportional tax systems aren't much better. America needs a system which encourages personal economic advancement in order to recover from its economic crisis, and Socialism delivers anything but.

When I have to do a research report about a topic, I usually start out by reading the Wikipedia article for ideas, then confirm information by checking out the links at the bottom as well as other websites. When I have to cite my sources, I'll cite the links at the bottom of the wikipedia article, NOT the article itself. The best part about this method is that Wikipedia usually cites the best sources available on the web, so I don't have to trawl through a bunch of junk google gives me.

For anybody who had any doubt: Shadow is being completely sarcastic. I used to be a fairly strong fan of Nintendo. However, after reading this list (In Nintendo Power), some part of me just died inside.... Then again, I guess this was expected, since Nintendo has already exhausted all of its major franchises for the Wii....

Yeah, sorry to be critical, but the voices and the transitions in between were either too slow or too fast. Also, a lot of the male voices were stuck in one pitch. Overall..... I didn't like it very much/as much as I wanted to. :( However, I know how hard it is for a group of people to collaborate over long distances, and how hard it is to work with what you have in terms of video and audio clips. The effort that went into this video was amazing.

I noticed that too. Also, "Guilty Spark" is some kind of reference to Halo, but I forget exactly what it is. (I don't actually own any Halo games, or even an Xbox) There are probably more references that I'm missing, as well.

OBJECTION! How could that first picture be from 2004, when Barrows was released in May of 2005?

I don't watch the show, but I think I found what you're talking about on Youtube: The song you hear is actually a remix of some song from the 80's (I can't remember its name). It's quite a common song to be used in slow motion sequences, but Disney Channel was probably too cheap to pay to use the real song, so they had to write their own version.

That's terrible advice :| All that will do is make his parents frustrated and angry, worsening his situation.

Well there's your problem. When parents catch their children smoking/doing drugs/having sex, especially in Junior High School, they lose faith in both their parenting skills and their children. This usually means they will become more strict and overbearing to compensate for the lack of attention they paid to you in the past. You're just going to have to earn back their trust, one step at a time. Trust me, your situation will get even worse if you get angry or lie to them when they ask you questions, or if they find out you disobey them when you're alone. The more you struggle, the tighter their grip will be. When I was younger, my parents were definately a large presence in my life. However, since I never lied to them when I went out, and I always followed their guidelines, they continually cut me more slack. By the time I was in High school, I could stay up as late as I wanted, go almost anywhere freely (As long as I told them where) and go about my life inside the house without being disturbed too often. Trust is something you have to earn. Just be honest with your parents, do the right things, keep your temper down, and they'll gradually back off. It might take a while, since you've already made a mistake, but you'll definately start to see results if you keep at it.

Yup, delayed until the 9th of March.... :cry:

Perhaps after summoning has come out, he'll see what clues were fake, which ones were real, how hard the competition for level 99 in a new skill is, etc... Only then will you have a chance of having a reasonable conversation with him. Who knows? He might realize that you were right, calm down about the hype, and then apologize to you. At the moment, keep your distance, because it seems as if he's only listening to the things he wants to hear right now.

Of course F2P Players will want more money: They are new to the game and thus poor by default. There also may be a maturity issue, but it isn't a result of the player being F2P, it's a result of the world being F2P. To put it in more coherant terms, since virtually anybody has access to F2P, the F2P game takes in a lot of garbage for its player base. Of course, there will always be honest and polite players, but they will always be outnumbered by trolls who don't care about other people in the game, or people who take advantage of the anonymity of the internet to use Runescape as their personal toilet.

The case he's referring to is the first case of Justice for all. After playing the first and third games, you're going too be very disappointed with the second game. In my opinion, it's the worst game of the series. However, the series on the whole is very good, and the last case of the third game does an excellent job of bringing the storyline to an end. I can't wait for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney to come out this Febuary!

Ignoring the pointless flame war above me.... I'll tell you how Runescape players will have to cope: With the trade limit commencing in January, players will be forced to fall back on their skills as a source of income instead of player interaction. Think about it: No more begging, no more gifts, no more loaning of items.... It will be impossible for anybody to make money without earning it themselves. The game will become a single player experience, which may be good or bad, depending on your opinion of the Runescape community.

I think he means the implementation of three separate prayer books, sort of like the three spellbooks we have for magic. Just as ancients is combat based, Lunar is skill based, and the default falls in between, Saradomin could be defensive, Zamorak offensive, and Guthix moderate. However, in opposition to this idea, the current prayer set we have now is both offensive and defensive, and would have to be split up or modified in order to fit a multiple prayer book system.