Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: mainiac on July 31, 2011, 08:43:52 am

Quote from: Lysabild on July 31, 2011, 08:39:35 am

Sounds like if America could handle more than two parties these things wouldn't happen.

Our political mechanics are parliamentary, thus that's a no go.  3rd parties would just split the vote.

Then reform. Unless you want a system that keeps failing to continue in the hope that MAGIX happens someday to save you.

We can't even get a routine thing like raising the debt ceiling passed because of the reactionaries holding the government hostage. How are we supposed to reform anything? Well, anything that isn't cutting social programs for poor people and giving the money to the rich in the form of tax cuts.

Democrats can't beat the Republicans in this kind of fight because a) they're nutless and b) they're convinced that behaving reasonably will eventually bring everyone else in Congress around to also behave reasonably. In this case, behaving reasonably consisted of trying to compromise, which the Teabaggers saw as weakness so they hardened their positions and made them even more extreme. And now nobody can apparently do anything without them.

I'm still confused though. Aren't there enough sane Republicans in the House that one of the Democrats' compromise-plans could pass?

Going back a few pages, I'd love to know what zombat's proposed "civilized" solution to ghettos is, since judging by his other posts I'm willing to bet money it involves ethnic cleansing or just straight up genocide.

Not surprising considering, didn't the attack happen on an island somewhere? If it was a remote area it could have easily been that long before someone found cell phone service, managed to get a hold of someone, and police were able to get out there, etc. Also kind of scary that someone can pick a remote location like that knowing that help will be far away. Hell the guy could have killed people for 45 minutes, then slipped off into the wilderness and vanished!

Do you think it'll go anywhere?

I for one sure hope he fixes up his diet habits, basically because I've experienced the difference between eating well and not eating well and I know how much better the first one feels. And the idea of "hydrating" with soda (which I didn't even know was possible) makes me cringe. I can't stomach more than a 12 oz can of even Sprite, anymore. I hope all this stuff not because Dwarf Fortress depends on it (though it does) but because it makes me unhappy to think about another person being unhappy especially for a reason within their control, like that.

But the (apparently) isolated, nocturnal lifestyle also horrifies me, but the thing is, for that, I have to admit I don't really know what's best for him. To me, living like that would be a nightmare. For most people too, I think. But there's exceptions to most rules, and if he really is an exception to the rule that people need to be part of what we'd call normal society to be happy, then I'm really not in a position to assume he's not happy doing whatever he's doing.

Which leads to questioning the assumption that all the soda and poor diet means he's less happy, functional and healthy than he would be otherwise. They almost certainly are - but chain-smoking cigarettes for 80 years almost certainly will give you cancer, unless it doesn't. There's somebody out there for whom it hasn't. Toady probably isn't that one guy with regards to caffeine addiction, the godawful stuff in soda, and lack of a balanced diet with lots of fresh produce, but he could be.

If he wants to spend all his waking hours focusing on the project, fantastic. For me, devoting my time to one thing can be a temporary affair at best, like when I spent two months doing (in the big picture) nothing but backpacking a hiking trail. I have to mix it up and even my dream career is going to have to leave room for stuff like idly hanging out with friends, raising kids, messing around with bikes and riding them across countries and continents, and so on, or else I'd lose my mind. That's me. I don't see singleminded devotion to one project as a problem in itself, especially when that project is unambiguously a work of genius like DF is.


Still, I'm totally anti-caffeine (I love drinking my black tea and coffee, but it's just not worth the withdrawal I start to get after even minor exposure) and pro-healthy diet and pro-lots of exercise and I have to say, I sure hope he decides to start living a healthier lifestyle. You can always be happier, and being healthier is a way for most people, especially in sedentary first-world lifestyles, to get in that direction.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/24/norwegian-suspect-wanted-european-anti-muslim-crusade/

I can't seem to find any mention of Obama or video games. Its almost as if some folks were treating Fox like the bogeyman. Weird. 

Well if you really want to see Fox's atrocities against sanity, you need to look more at the TV broadcasts and, especially, anytime they offer any sort of commentary or, God forbid, interviews with...well, anyone. Don't count them out yet.