That reminds me of when I was in college. Instead of requiring students to read a book that had become the standard in the field, professors wrote their own and required all of their students to buy it. Most of them also changed a couple minor details here or there each year as well so you could not sell your book back to the bookstore for a portion what you paid at the start of the class year any more than new students could pay a little less for a used one. Buying a new edition for $100+ every year was the only way. It almost felt like a scam.

Regardless of what the original constitution said on roads only going to post offices in the early days, I don't think the founding fathers had tractor trailers loaded with goods to deliver or cars that could drive vast distances across the country in mind when they wrote it. Times change. Technology changes. And I don't even think the founding fathers thought the constitution stipulations were so timeless that they would always be relevant without need for amending. Some things like rights are timeless. But other things like infrastructure are not. But all of this is beside the point. I'm not for all government being run by the federal level, but I still recognize it has it's place in some situations.

The 20th century came. The founding fathers had no idea the kind of shoes the world would rely on America to fill. Jews being massacred, entire nations like France and Britain poised to be ruled from Germany. I don't believe the Allies could have singled highhandedly conquered their foes on their enemies own home turfs without America behind them with the biggest war machine in history. That could not have been made possible by dozens of separate states all fighting their own war their own way individually. It was only when ALL of the States of America pooled their combined resources, came together as one and coordinated as a single unstoppable unit that America was able to stand with the kind of needle like focus necessary to stop one or the worst tyrannies the world had ever known and play a crucial role in liberating an entire continent.

The founding fathers never could have imagined us ever doing any of these things. In another life, maybe America just always stayed in it's little corner of the world with every state going in their own separate directions under a banner of neutrality when the powerless were pulverized by a fanatic or over grown bully. But whether they would have liked it or not, America became a world force in a way they never imagined and we had to adapt accordingly. That sometimes means having a Federal government, to offer a single, coordinated voice for some things, not all, that we all invest a portion of our pay checks into. Some things no one state can accomplish alone.

For Ziming.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twH93a4JYgI[/youtube]

Why is it when people talk gun control everyone always thinks in terms of two extremes? Why does it have to be guns of any shape and size are freely available for all or impossible to have by any? Surely there is a way to allow private citizens to own their hunting rifle their dad gave them when they were younger or a hand gun for self defense without letting them have high powered assault rifles and magazines designed to kill dozens of people in seconds. What do private citizens need with assault rifles anyway? I can't imagine this is what the founding fathers had in mind when they penned the second amendment.

Here in America once you've been convicted of a crime worse than traffic ticket you're pretty much screwed. When every application asks if you're a convict and there are 7 applicants to every job it stands to reason it doesn't take much to be put in the discard pile. Our prison system does more to debilitate it's inmates than rehabilitate them for functioning in normal society, but even among those that can survive it with a clear head, trying to make an honest living is practically impossible if they tried.

Of even more concern to me personally however is how America has a growing trend of making prisons into slave labor. It gives the system too much incentive to lock up innocent people for the lucrative business of putting them to work for profit seeking companies looking to cut cuts by laying off regular employees.

I saw the first 9 minutes of it. It opens with a little girl dying in a hospital and the villain telling the father he has the power to save her life. That says to me if you're curious of the plot that the villain will probably have some depth beyond typical trek RAWWR I R EVILZ fair. Then it cuts to a scene of Kirk running from face painted primitives that is so unbelievably cheesy, it feels like the kind of campy corniness you would see in the 60's show. Then Spock is trapped in this erupting volcano surrounded by flames while the crew debate exposing the enterprise to the local primitives and violating the prime directive to save him before the clip ends. Did the guy they brought back as Spock come all the way to do a sequel just to die in the first 9 minutes?! (uhhhhh yeah, no.) See star trek into darkness in May to find out!! :lol:

Duel of the rednecks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MqiFM7AB78[/youtube]

http://www.rollcall.com/news/house_gop_boosts_funds_for_doma_legal_defense-219963-1.html?pos=oplyh

Fiscal responsibility party indeed. There's always enough tax payer money laying around to bank roll the people trying to keep marriage out of the hands of gays. Even if there isn't enough for education, retirements or anything else. My unique position may grant me a reprieve if I wanted to marry a guy, but it still sucks in my opinion none the less.

I saw a Wii U in person for the first time today at a game demo kiosk. What first struck me was how much longer the unit was than what I had pictured in my head from looking at all the box art/adverts for the thing since it's release. It was so long, big and black that I had to suppress the urge to get on my knees in it's presence. :shock:

I can just imagine the kind of hilarity that would ensure if there was a cure for mortality and with it all healthcare woes. :lol: Politicians would lament no one on social security dying, ever . The powerful pharmaceutical industry would call in their campaign donation favors to make such a thing illegal to preserve their business model of making drugs people have to take every day to keep their illnesses temporarily at bay. Fox News would call the cure "anti-business" and punishing of the success of job creators. It would turn life as we know it upside down. :P

Ryudo knows what he's talking about. I bought the Orange box back in the day thinking I couldn't lose with so much value, yet I had numerous problems with Steam. Once I tried booting up one of the games to beat it as I was in the home stretch, yet Steam dictated that I not play until I downloaded some big nvidia update for my AMD system. On dial up at the time, that basically meant I was out for days trying to get an update I had absolutely no use for. I tried enabling offline mode, but by that point, it was too late. It was dead set on downloading patches and would not allow me to start up the game I owned until it got it's way. I don't need Valve telling me when I can and can not play the games I paid for.

The problem is we've created a business of trying to make people feel inadequate enough that they have to spend money on a variety of products and take measures to change their appearance to be more in line with what the media bombards us with as the target look constantly. Yet, the girls you see on magazine covers don't even really exist themselves. They're all the products of photoshop and editing software. Living up to these false idols is an impossible carrot on the stick climb to buy and kill yourself into making yourself into something you're not.

really pissed off by the german government since 4 years ](*,)
shhh go back to work so that you can bail out other European countries, it's a cheaper way of building the 4th reich than another world war at least ;-)

Fools! We are already at a World War! The same as with America and China! Instead of it being fought with nuclear weapons however, it is fought with a new weapon.

http://i.imgur.com/d5B95.jpg

Economics.

I remember going to Blockbuster all the time. I still remember the day they first opened in my town, because Sonic the fucking hedgehog would be there to herald the day personally. Being the dope I was, I couldn't bring myself to walk up to him and shake his hand. One of my many life regrets. :sad: I did notice they had a rare copy of FF4 that had long since gone out of print and was never seen at retail anymore when I would rent it over and over. I asked the rep if I just never returned it what would the fee be and he said it would be full price, which was about $80. For a used game with no box and no manual. :mad: I just didn't have that kind of scratch back then. Then Square announced they were bringing over FF Anthology for the Playstation that had 4, 5 and 6 in it. :D But, being the assholes they were, they figured why not strip down the US version of Anthology to just be 5 and 6. :sad: But I digress.

If I wasn't going to Blockbuster video for the video game rentals, I was going to play the Super Mario 64 kiosk. I remember the tv was so high up from the ground and I was so young and short at the time that my neck seriously felt out of whack by the time other kids had finally mustered up the strength to tear away the controller from my righteous dinosaur tossing finger tips. I also recall scooping up old Robotech VHS tapes when they were clearing them all out. TWO episodes a tape. >.<

Those were the days.

What's everyone's problem with Sonic 4? I reckon they're better than the Mega Drive installments (which btw, haven't aged nearly aa gracefully as Super Mario World)

I disagree. I found myself booting up the original Sonic the other night just to smack around some badniks and run through loop de loops before heading to bed. I might be more inclined to agree that games like Sonic Adventure have not aged as well, but the 2D ones still retain a distinctive charm. :)

I'm sorry to hear adam, that must have seriously sucked for you and your mom. :sad: Thankfully, I don't think killing you was anything he seriously considered for a second. He sounds like a wind bag and likely grasped nothing but lint in his pocket. A threat as empty as the words leaving his very lips. I've met people like that before that indulge in having a bloated sense of ego and expect everyone to bow to them. Most people like that are likely compensating for being insecure and are often the first to shrivel when confronted directly.

I can sympathize, at least somewhat. I'm not disabled, but I'm not as strong as I once was in getting someone off of me if a brawl were to break out. I know what it is like to feel more vulnerable than in the past. But I think meeting him in the eyes was the right move on your part and in your place I would have done the same. Not caving to aggressors is usually not about having the biggest muscles but in having the quiet strength to say in one voice I am not going to curl up into a fetal position. I'm not going to back down.

I would steer clear of any going out of business sales. The sales are usually sour. Often what ends up happening is all the items in the store are reset back from the going rate they were going for under normal circumstances up to their original MSRP. That is the price point they take the meager 10-20% off of. I remember when Borders was going under you had to wait until the 4th or so week when the sales hit 30-40% off before you could buy something for prices they were going for before the "sale". :P The only time you tend to get good value is when they hit the 60%+ price point, but by then the ignorant masses thinking they were getting a steal have likely cleaned out everything worth having. It probably isn't worth the feeling of being a shark swooping in on injured prey to take advantage, though I can always only speak for myself.