I know absolutely nothing about these things; so I'm actually asking here. Why does the city, I'm not saying every city, but I am saying any city, need to support infinite growth? There's water, there're hills, maybe that's as many people as can fit. Period. You're welcome to live anywhere you like where there's room. I'm sorry, there's no more room here at the inn. Find another.

I've zero interest in my city becoming a huge metropolitan core. I left the one that I was in to find fresh air, less traffic, country driving roads, and farm fresh food. I don't want another 5 million people to move into my city. Quite frankly, if they do, I'll leave, but that's a different issue.

My appologies, I don't read anonymous replies. Without knowing if it's the same anonymous or a different anonymous, I simply cannot carry on a conversation with some unknown quantity of persons.

Yes, seriously, and in all honesty, I pay taxes under "holophrastic". Every year, for the past 15 years. As for the country, I wouldn't expect any country to deny you selection of your own name. Any sequence of letters within any of the official languages ought to suffice, especially if they are linguistically pronouncible.

What country does not allow this?

Actually, technically it's all a lie. I pay taxes under a nine-digit number, like everyone else in my country. But "holophrastic" appears elsewhere on the form too, and that nine-digit number also maps to holophrastic in some database somewhere.

Wow. Ok, first: parents give most first names first. There are countless ways to change one's official name without parental consent. I'm older than 18, and have been for a while.

Second, not all names are "official" in the sense of government-record. They are still names. Any name, by which one is known by most people, and consistently differentiated as so, is a name. The problem with "Anonymous Coward" is that it does not distinguish between individuals. For example, if everyone were named "qbast", I wouldn't know if your last two replies were both from the same one you, or different people. I can't carry on a conversation without knowing if each sentence is coming from a different person.

In my particular case "holophrastic" is my name under both of the above scenarios. Most of the people in my life know me as holophrastic (yes I also mean real-world people), it most certainly distinguishes me from others as there are very few other holophrastic's, and I pay my provincial taxes under the name holophrastic as well, so it's as government-record as it gets.

Does that answer your question?

umm...yes? Says I?

I don't understand you reply.

Not that it's at all relevant to this conversation, but why would you think that my parents gave me that name? Names come from many places. Seems rather narrow-minded of you to assume any single source.

I don't read anonymous replies. Introduce yourself, or you're not worth any conversation.

I don't read anonymous replies. Put your name to your argument or neither the argument nor the name has any value.

I don't read anonymous replies.

Still anonymous, still not reading. Don't know if you're the same anonymous or a different one.

Not true. I can't tell the difference between 1 anonymous coward, and 8. So I can't have a conversation with words coming from random directions.

And what kind of crap is that "usually"? Bullshit you know why people do anything.

I don't read anonymous posts. I simply can't have a conversation with someone when I can't tell if it's the same someone. If you don't feel that your argument is worth your name, then I don't feel that it's worth reading.

I don't read anonymous comments. If you don't value them enough to put your name to your arguments, then they aren't worth reading.

I've said it before, so I'll say it again. These murder counts are totally useless for anyone who doesn't work in a morgue.

I really don't worry about *all* of the murders. The vast majority of them can't possibly affect me. I want the real number of murders -- the ones of which I ought to be frightened.

I don't care about gang-on-gang violence, I'm not in a gang. I do care about caught-in-crossfire gang-shooting victims.
I don't care about spouses killing spouses nor parents killing children. I don't fear my spouse nor my children.

What's left is a very small miniscule number, at least in my country, of intentional killings from random shootings, caught-in-crossfire, crazy co-workers, mistaken identities, and the like. But no one has ever presented those numbers.

Welcome to abstraction layers. You've forgotten what you're doing. The goal here is not to verify the portfolio. The portfolio wasn't the goal. You weren't buying the portfolio. The portfolio was a sales tool -- to help you discuss what you want. So stop seeing the portfolio as anything more than that.

Now, sit back, relax, take more than ten minutes, and think of what it was that you were actually trying to accomplish. If you can explain what you actually want, you'll have stated what you need to do.