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Comment Re:The meaning of random (Score 1) 654

Society did not disintegrate,,

Hi. Louisianaian here. Some areas of it did, actually. Large areas that had strong cultural traditions did, in fact, disintergrate.

economy did not implode,

Your extreme ignorance is showing quite strongly. The fact that you were actually able to type that shows how very, very little you know. You speak of things you do not know at all, kid. Grow up, and speak only when you have knowledge.

people did not even die (except those subjected to immediate impact and flooding, so there were no deathly riots due to migrants from NO area for instance).

Actually violent crime shot the hell up. There were no riots, true, but the working poor were no longer working, they were moved to cities where they had nowhere to stay, no jobs, little money (You try and keep a family of 4 alive on $2000 of FEMA money for 6 months) and humanatarian aid was stretched thin, even with the massive efforts put forth by some very good people.

So yeah, roving bands of broke and broken people became common sighs all through the SE USA and muggings, burgalry, shoplifting and the like shot up.

These were not bad people, mind you. They were desprate and afraid, and do not think for even a moment that if you were in the same situation you woulde do much different.

Comment Re:meh (Score 1) 320

but I think the consensus was that Civ IV was a flop. The game got rid of some nice gameplay elements and expanded on others (diplomacy). That may be your kind of game-- after all, I loved the original Railroad Tycoon and intensely disliked the follow-up, but my opinion runs contrary to the masses there. But hopefully they've learned from their mistakes in Civ IV.

You could not be more wrong, actually. That's like saying 'I heard that Google project those guys were working on was a flop'

Ever been to CivFanatics?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/index.php

Anyway, there are a few people out there who liked Civ3 more, but

Comment Re:It was wierd. (Score 1) 327

I could never figure out what the hell I was supposed to do with it. I played with it for hours, got a few people to join, but it was basically just a weird hybrid IM/Forum thing with some document handling. Thing is I didn't need any of that crap, so we all just stopped using it.

Comment Re:Whew (Score 1) 601

Haha I wish.

Signed,
The rest of the world

Dear the rest of the world;

BP & others are selling refined gasoline at significantly less than $3/gallon.
Speak to your government about the enormous taxes they pile on top of that price.

Signed,
The USA

P.S. Since I'm in the USA, here's the NY spot price for gasoline

Actually, it's because the USA heavily, heavily subsidizes gasoline, whereas other countries do not, to the tune of (Conservatively) $9.1 billion dollars a year.

Comment Re:Why? (Score 3, Insightful) 197

No shit. The only thing they want is to keep people in jail longer, without having to prove as much. Proving premeditation is hard, and just because you looked up someone's address doesn't automatically make it premeditation. This makes them 'hard on crime' that the conservatives down here get such hard dicks for. I hate my state sometimes.

Comment Re:Not so fast there... (Score 1) 611

I was told by one of my old girlfriends who works for Schlumberger (she has her own sources) that this isn't a permanent fix. They are doing a top fill because it is faster than waiting for the relief well to do a bottom fill. This top fill is likely a temporary measure, and they are still going to have to drill a relief well to intercept the main well which is going to take time.

We can only pray that once they cap this, it sticks till they can get the relief well fully drilled.

Sources? Like what? Every major news agency?
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1990767,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

Comment Re:Marine Life Kicks Ass (Score 2, Insightful) 131

No, we need an Environmental Protection Agency that actually protects the environment instead of business interests. Non-mandatory pollution reduction programs instead of regulations - who knew only 2 businesses in the country would sign up for them and reduce pollution on their own without being legally obligated to do so?

People with functioning brains?

Comment Re:For a price of course (Score 2, Insightful) 240

The real issue is that it literally costs the Telecos nothing at all to provide texting services. There's some extra space in the overhead with the cell phones communications with the towers. That's where they put the text messages (And thus the reason for the limit of the text messages length)

So yeah, they could provide it for free. Easily. And eyah, they could charge for it. And do so.

Issue is that if you don't have a plan, it can cost you, the consumer, up to $.50 a text message, and outrageously more for texting between countries.

Why has the price gone from $0.00 up to these rates? Because no one can stop them. All the telecos raise their rates to match each other.

This is why the tea partiers/free market fanatics are so very much misguided.

In their ideal world, a service costing companies nothing at all and providing a good service to their customers would be free. Lambs would jump though meadows and butterflies would fly and the laughter of children could be heard.

However, such utopias can never exist. In the real world, what happens is all the telecos raise their rates together, and screw the consumers. Do they get together and plan it out? No. They don't have to. There needs to be no communication. They observe each other, get the idea, and cooperate to fuck over the working man. People are basically cattle, and don't resist.

The free market they envision would simply lead to tyranny by corporations. Oh, sure, some say 'Well there would be some government reglation to stop that sort of thing'. But in the flowery pictures of their little utopias they present, the government would be too small, too weak, and too dependent on these companies to actually have any meaningful authority over them.

The massive overcharging for texting is simply an example of this.

Comment Re:Hmmmm (Score 1) 698

Have you lived without access to news for the last few decades? Have you missed every instance of atheists and agnostics filing lawsuits saying they were "offended" by Christian displays and the resulting court verdicts restricting the right to the free expression of religion? Did you miss the entire controversy about the cross honoring WWI veterans? Do you live in a black hole where news is concerned?

No, I simply do not have the same persecution complex you do. In the only specific case you mentioned, it was regarding using federal lands for promotion of religion. Which is specifically prohibited in the constitution. The same way restriction of free speech is specifically prohibited. My reading comprehension is fine. Your comprehension of life in general is poor.

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