The Dark Lord

Here are some books that I have read recently (from what I can remember off the top of my head): -The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho -Brave New World - Aldous Huxley -Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein -Children of Odin: Nordic Gods and Heroes - Padraic Colum -Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw Previous readings that I particularly enjoyed: -Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell -War of the Worlds - George Orwell -Contact - Carl Sagan Books that I started reading and stopped temporarily: -The Prince - Machiavelli Books that I plan to read: -A Modest Proposal - Thomas Swift -Common Sense - Thomas Paine -A History of the English-Speaking Peoples - Winston Churchill -------------- I look for other things to read, but I think that I need to read what I have planned before moving on to another book. I strongly recommend reading Brave New World and Starship Troopers if you are into science fiction combined with philosophy and political theory. They're both really great novels, even if you aren't into philosophy or politics. Although, I should warn you that Brave New World is a very strange novel, but it is still something that will keep you interested and entertained. From reading Starship Troopers, I became particularly interested in a poem titled Danny Deever by Rudyard Kipling.

How are you fat? I was around your weight at that age and was 5'5", and I was pretty skinny. Are you just trying to gain strength by turning fat into muscle?

I finished the event with 12 turns. I would also say that it was a fun event. They usually are for me since I don't really play that much, so I always look forward to the holiday events. Anyway, as soon as I left and summoned the squirrels, they were sniped by arrows by some people camping around the rabbit hole. It's stupid that you can only summon every 30 minutes.

Ford bless our Corporations. He would be so pleased if He were around today.

To be fair, you can't really blanket every family with this statement. There's a legitimate concern about over-taxation. There are thousands of other families across America with the financial problems. I wouldn't call them all greedy. Of course, corporations WILL always argue against social bills and spread their propaganda, but you can't blanket everyone by saying only the corporations or rich snobs do it. ----------- Concerning the above argument, it would be responsible to require everyone above the age of 17 (with no medical problems that can contaminate the blood) to donate their blood to the local Red Cross center. Would it be fair to expect everyone to donate their blood? It would certainly save thousands of lives, but how would a person feel when they are required by law to donate their blood? It's just a little argument that I thought should be thrown out there. EDIT: We've been pretty off-topic. Anyway, I'm not necessarily against social programs such as those in Canada and the UK (NHS, universal healthcare, etc), but there is a legitimate concern among many individuals. A lot of it may very well be unfounded fears spread through the corporatist propaganda machine, but something that works in one country probably won't work in ours. Due to mass immigration and population growth, we have between 300-400 million people living in the United States. If we implemented universal healthcare, waiting lists for vital treatments may be a lot longer than they are in Canada or the UK. We have a population several times larger than the aforementioned countries. It might very well turn out to be a nightmare for US citizens. I also can't really say that the NHS or Canadian healthcare system are very great since I have never dealt with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O5rCjTa6v4 It's still a term that's used in my area to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole. I used to think that people were just being ignorant and didn't realize that there were other nations that made up the UK, but I found out that the term is just used due to England's overwhelming influence over the entirety of Britain. Of course, this isn't to say that it is "politically-incorrect", but it has been a "correct" term for centuries, so... People will still use it, despite it being offensive to Scottish, Welsh, and Irish nationalists, even though they don't mean to offend. I'm not sure how accurate you could say that applies to today's America, but there are indeed a lot of families that came to America decades ago in pursuit of a better quality of life, whether it be due to overcrowding in Europe or something else. I think that you are right when you say that this is one of the reasons why social reforms are a touchy subject. You would think that it would be the other way around, but a lot of families say "My family came from Ireland in pursuit of a better quality of life during the Potato Famine. I don't see why the government should force me to give my family's hard-earned money to just anybody. We were expected to earn mere cents an hour at a New York factory when we came over here; I don't see why they can't do the same!" It's an argument that I hear very often. Other than that, people are afraid of over-taxation because the money has to come from somewhere in order to fund the social welfare programs... It may seem selfish (mostly referring to my example about an Irish family), but I believe that it is a legitimate concern for some families.

As i don't live in the UK I don't know what there interests are but this implies to me that is has happened recently or is happening now. Also out of curiosity what brings up this statement? Europe and america have completely different ideologies. The american ideology is not appealing to the citizens of europe because it seems morally bankrupt to those of us over here. Human rights stand strong in Europe, self-determination stands strong in america. Therefore you have social security nets in europe, and not in america, because that's what the people of america don't want. America moved away from isolationism in the 1950s in favour of open-door policy. Especially after 9/11, this policy has become, what I (as a european) would call aggressive. especially the UK has a strong history for isolationism, and the attitude remains with the people, as can be seen in their immigration debate, and common opinion that Britain is becoming less british every day. Further, many americans are missing the bigger picture of a global world. Their understanding of the world and their position in it is diestored. Lacking knowledge about the rest of the world is off-putting to Europeans who wish to seem progressive. Europe also needs the image of being progressive to hold a global position of significance, which we obviously want, as we view ourselves as a highground for moral responsibility and accountability. It's ironic because our government (which I would describe as having a large Hawk lobby) is constantly trying to interfere in the politics of other nations, which is blatantly against the doctrine of Self-Determination. Of course, they argue that we're only carrying out the wishes of the foreign masses by toppling their dictatorships; regardless, it's destroying our nation. Likewise, there are still a lot of people that don't support the Open-Door policy. All it is doing is contributing to an eventual over-population of the continental US, and with our 'Hawks', I am worried about the future of Canada. We're not what we used to be; we used to be an intellectual, great nation.

KFC is an American company, yes. Now that I think about it, they're also struggling to survive in the United States; many branches have closed down. I have only seen a KFC franchise operating inside another franchise such as Taco Bell in the past few years, although there are some independent branches still operating. They probably just assume that if they cater to Muslims in pockets around England, they can get more customers. It's still ridiculous, though. As for the BNP comment, I do not support them nor do I believe that they should be voted for due to their shady past. Although I do think that English Nationalism is the only thing that will save England at this point in time. The UK needs to immediately withdraw from the EUSSR (as it is jokingly called) and focus on taking care of its problems. Otherwise, England is doomed (which would make the entire UK doomed since England is the most influential nation). I was trying to grasp just how crowded England is, so I compared it to the size of my home state and got a pretty close match. England has about 40-50 million people, and my home state (Arkansas) only has about 3 million people. It's hard for me to imagine 50 million people living here!

GTFO. You have waaay much money to spend for stuff like that. :( You don't happen to have it linked to some kind of hidden surveillance system so you can watch people get dressed in the morning, do you? *shudders* Haha. I'm just kidding.

White folks that are scared of "the ghetto" make me laugh. It's gonna be confusing when I move and I'm not part of the minority in my everyday life. I love big cities, though. I've spent my life in small towns or tiny cities, and I'm tired of them. Everything's sluggish and people are too resistant to change. Nothing ever really happens here. I intend to live in Austin, LA, Seattle, New York, the major players in our world, you know? Those are the places where history will happen. The DFW area might be nice as well. I used to live there as a child. I'm not sure what it's like now.... I just remember it being like one continuous city. You could see the skylines of both Dallas AND Fort Worth from Oil Derrick.

Well, it should. The British government still describes the US-UK relationship as 'unique', but they're just pointing out that the 'Special Relationship' is an outdated term that was coined by Winston Churchill. The United Kingdom seems to have dwindling influence on the United States. The USA, for the most part, has replaced the now defunct British Empire. Likewise, the US government could easily twist the 'Special Relationship' around and use it to con the British into fighting American-led wars. They did it with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I could not imagine a future in which the US and the Brits were enemies again. The Anglo-American alliance is too valuable, not to mention that the United States shares too much history with England.

It's kind of off-topic, but the UK is too submissive to the wills of immigrants, in my opinion. A KFC restaurant in Burton-on-Trent stopped serving bacon because it offended Muslims. You would think that it would be as simple as people just ordering something else that doesn't have bacon, but apparently bacon has to be banned altogether. :rolleyes:

Cities aren't dangerous. Dangerous mino--- Sorry. It's not that I feel in danger, i just don't like the atomsphere. Well, cities with the things that you just described usually have high crime rates. Who would feel comfortable? Although, there are some pretty nice areas in some cities. I always feel comfortable in those areas. It's just the ghetto regions that I'm afraid of.

I have a 2wire modem, and this just started happening to me as well. Do you happen to have AT&T? I notice that it happens in the mornings and at nighttime the most. It will happen continuously for like 5 hours (constant disconnects/reconnects). I know that I'm not being DDoS'd. Likewise, it just started happening. It didn't do this a couple months ago. It is also becoming more frequent. I remember about 4 months ago I had to call Customer Support because the Internet wouldn't work at all. They told me that I needed a new modem and that they were "100% sure". After spending $100 at a local AT&T store purchasing a new modem and opening it (thus not being able to return it, I think), I found, much to my chagrin, that I only had to replace the wires connecting the computer to the modem. The other modem was useless, although I decided to keep it incase something actually happened to my current modem. It also seems to only happen to my computer (although the modem wire issue affected all computers in the house); the other computers seem to work fine, but my computer loses signal and says "local area only" or just disconnects. It might be a problem with my/your BlueTooth. EDIT: This is all wireless, by the way. All of the computers in my household are laptops.

That's awesome. Unfortunately, I only have my laptop to play on. I don't play RuneScape much anymore, but I usually have Firefox running RuneScape (with Tip.it and Youtube in other tabs). Kind of a modest setup, I suppose.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8590767.stm Kudos to the United Kingdom for standing up for itself and not constantly saying 'yes' to our government's [wagon] shenanigans. Now if only the United Kingdom would reassert its position as a world power or (better yet) bring back the British Empire.

For all we know, the Military could have spent millions of dollars funding research for a fancy new remote-controlled car for George W. Bush in order to entertain him.

Cities aren't dangerous. Dangerous mino--- Sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29oUc8Czdic Haha. That robot can't get us because we're behind this big fence. We're perfectly safe. ... Wait. WHAT THE [bleep]?! Run for your lives! It jumped the fence!

It would be interesting to see someone argue in favor of a laissez-faire economy (basically the traditional American economy circa 1800s). However, I guess that my upbringing makes me inclined to favor a mixed economy where the government has some control. However, I'm not supportive of the type of economy that fascists and communists advocate: a government-controlled economy with very limited or no private ownership. This is a stance that most people will probably take. Although I do not have a good argument other than this is what I have been conditioned to believe and have trouble advocating a government-controlled or laisez-faire economy, I do see how a welfare state can be horribly inefficient and costly. There are good arguments from both sides, so I'm sure that someone could pose these two arguments. In terms of what is best for the government, the abolition of the welfare state would be best since it saves the government money and allows it to fund other projects. However, one could argue that the government's main job is to take care of its own citizens, which is a fairly good argument. Sorry for the lack of thought in my post (if you think that there's a lack of thought).

Dating a German-American or ...?

Believe it or not, but most white people in America are European...oh...You mean they live in Europe. You like Germans? Go pick a German-American. They lack both the accent and the language, but they still have the heritage! I'm just joking with you. Yeah, I've had that feeling before. It sucks, but if you believe that people are thinking that about you, then you will act strangely. In effect, you become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Be a little bit more bold and act like you are confident. Stand up straight and keep your chin high. Posture has a lot to do with confidence as well. If you have your chin low and your back hunched, then you look submissive or depressed. I have this really cool plan for my life. Basically, I go to pharmacy school and earn a nice, high-paying job (in like a hospital or something) that is relatively not that stressful. I will also get a PhD in history. When I decide to retire from pharmacology, I can move (maybe to England or some really nice place in the US) and then become a history professor and teach until I die. I would be well off from the high-paying job as a pharmacist, so I wouldn't have to worry as much about my finances when I work a relatively lower-paying job as a professor at a university. I might decide to scrap the idea altogether and pursue something completely different, but it seems to be a good start. I thought about politics, but it is a very stressful and uncertain career. I may or may not be elected, and if I am elected, I could become very stressed. Likewise, my ideology would prevent me from running as a Democrat or Republican, which would effectively guarantee that I wouldn't be elected. I would lack both the campaign money, and it's a fact that people only vote Democrat or Republican in the United States because people are idiots.

Senator Snyder (one of our Senators in our state, Democrat) received a death threat because he voted in favor of the new bill. The bill may very well be horrible, but it's a little bit of an overreaction. :unsure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YIl9dPCxXQ Hehe.

Hmm... I foresee a caste system if that happens. Daughter: I'm marrying Fred, father. May we have your blessing? Father: Fred! That Finback?! I'll be damned if you destroy our blood line by marrying that mongrel! Daughter: But why...... Father: No buts. If you marry that slimy mongrel, I will disown you. MY WORD'S FINAL!