Well, if more people like you stopped saying "it's impossible" maybe some of your countrymen would stop thinking it was. Some might even start thinking about how to change it.

I've noticed many Americans seem to have a strange habit of dismissing or often completely ignoring (as you just did) anything that happens outside of the US. Clearly representative democracy must invariably result in two parties with an unshakeable grip on power! Except that most of the time it doesn't. Just in the USA.

Do what people in other places in the world have done. Get off your ass, stop saying it's impossible, and work for change. Go find a third party you can support and volunteer for them. Or run yourself. Sure you'll lose, today. Maybe not tomorrow.

Interferes with someone in the lawful use of data would seem to cover it.

You are engaging in learned helplessness.

Ireland didn't exactly have a war of secession (not a successful one, anyway). The modern republic of Ireland was created through negotiation. India's independence was mostly peaceful as well, with some early agitators giving way to peaceful civil disobedience a la Gandhi, transition to a dominion in 1947, then independence in 1950. Likewise, Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Morocco, all gained their independence diplomatically. The US is the only country I can think of at the moment that's had a war of independence and become a successful democracy afterward.

Giving him change to buy cigarettes or alcohol with doesn't help him eat either. Neither does giving him cigarettes to feed his addiction. You can afford to be an addict. He can't.

Donating (or volunteering) at the local soup kitchen, THAT helps him eat.

Actually, nothing says disposable income like smoking. Ear phones are nothing in comparison, unless you've got them plugged into one of those diamond encrusted bling phones. I can't afford to smoke, there's no way I'm going to give money to someone who can.

Many of the genuinely homeless are that way because they have addictions or other mental disorders that make them waste money on drugs or other bad decisions. If you want to help, vote for social treatment and rehabilitation programs. If you can't do that, donate to a decent charity that has a low administrative overhead.

People are continuous, you insensitive clod!

It is hard when your job as a "submitter" consists of copying and pasting the first paragraph of the article. At least they usually remember to put quotes around it.

Why yes, I have been to Iceland.

Coverity: Hey you, proprietary software developer with the deep pockets. Yeah, you. We've got this great tool for finding software defects. You should buy it.

Proprietary software developer: get lost.

Coverity: Hey, open source dudes, we've got this great defect scanner. Want to use it? Free of course!

Open source dudes: Meh, why not?

Coverity: Hey proprietary software developer, did we mention those dirty hippie neck beards are beating the stuffing out of you in defect (that we detect)-free code?

PSD: Fine, how much?

Except that the "impossible" happens every day outside the US. Actually, IIRC, even in the US there are states that frequently have independents, third parties or non-partisan candidates in their legislatures, aren't there? Local governments may be even more diverse.

There seems to be something peculiar about either the US federal system, the American people, or both.

It's your cynicism and tendency to wild generalizations with little to no evidence. Also gratuitous capitalization.

One example? Really? I have no trouble believing that the powers in the US are unhealthily interested in maintaining those powers, but one example (and kind of an iffy one at that) doesn't mean much. It's also irrelevant to the point: the reason there aren't third parties in the US (and the reason the two ruling parties get away with things they shouldn't) is that Americans don't vote for third parties.

True, the US presidency is kind of a strange setup that's not seen much elsewhere, and it's the most extreme possible example of representative voting, where you're electing just one representative.

Most people mean a literal democrat when they refer to it. A democracy is a system in which all eligible citizens participate equally, either directly or through elected representatives.

When the US was founded "democracy" was usually used to mean direct democracy specifically. That's no longer the case.

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