Bay 12 Games Forum

It's kind of funny, since I'm making so little money that I'd have to live on the street if I were suddenly kicked out of my house.  I wonder if living in my car would be considered "homelessness", though.  It's not technically a "home", but I'd sure save on commuting to work!

In either case, I'm glad I live in America.  Dang English and their incredibly awesome accents...

Or they could do the same to the teachers.

I think that's what they should do to teachers in the first place, but I'm biased, 'cause I'm young.

The nuclear stuff doesn't surprise me much.  I immediately got suspicious once "Chernobyl" was through around.

Good news, for those who care: my brother is alive and well.

My dad's actually over on Korea, right now, and his brother was in Japan up to a few months or so ago (Supposedly).  They're both somewhat near Seoul, though, so I doubt anything bad's happened to them.

Still, lots of bad stuff going down.  I hope it's not as bad as the media's chirping.

Well, if you listen to Sigmund Freud, basically any dream that you have means you want to have sex.

At least, that's what I learned from a college psychology book.


On a serious note, try taking notes about your dreams and they'll occur (Or you'll remember them) more frequently.  I've had plenty of odd dreams, ranging from getting married on the telephone to receiving advice from a gigantic owl (Odd for me, since animals very rarely appear in my dreams, but they're usually sentient when they do).  I'll pull up my dream journal and share some of the stranger ones when/if I get a chance.

The problem with an aristocracy is that, inevitably, corruption will occur as the aristocrats desire more and more power.  The only thing that would keep them from doing that is fear of the law and/or fear of the people.  If they own the law and the armies, the people would have no say in what's going on.  Education and "merits" are not sufficient to make one person or a group of people morally and emotionally able to hand large amounts of power.

There is no "magical" government that solves everything, since the government is basically inept at a lot of what it does (With very notable exceptions).  It would take a lot more than your essay to convince me of that.  The problem is that there is no competition: They get their taxes whether or not their services are adequate, and are only happy to tax you more in spite of whether you think they're doing a good job or not.

The only thing that will make a better government is a better people - As education and needed information are increasingly available, people can be taught to make their own decisions.  The problem is, most people want others to make the decisions for them, resulting in idolization of individuals who have more charisma than everyone else, even among the educated.  Knowing what's going on and being critical about everything, even if it's coming from your favorite politician/celebrity, and having sound moral qualities is key to having a better country, not a different way of running things, since, in theory, everything works.  In practice, though, hardly anything stands up to what ingenuity mankind can come up with to screw it up.


Also, assuming this is written for a class, unless your teacher is a hard-core liberal, you may run into some problems with the one-sided example of a dictator doing several conservative things.  It doesn't bug me, since I figured that you were just providing an example (That may or may not have expressed your views), but the commentary would be torn apart by a teacher with moderate or conservative leanings, especially after the claims made in the first paragraph.  Be careful with choosing hot political items and associating them with dictators, since it could go either way with your teacher, even if they agree.

I hope that helped.  Again, I kind of assumed that you were writing this for a class.  Your teacher will probably be softer on you than this forum, since you can gear your essay towards a specific person.

USA, this is a formal request: STOP THIS SHIT NOW. Thank you.

I think that's what we're doing right now: We stopped him, and we're working on a trial to make sure he won't do it again.  Be patient.

One of the biggest factors about the leaked documents is that people that once confided and trusted in the US will no longer do so, thus stalling efforts to help provide a peaceful environment over there.  It's already pretty hard to connect with the people there (Most people in Afghanistan don't know why troops are there.  It's a horrible situation that's not really anyone's fault besides Al Qaeda and Bush's decision to invade and prevent further attacks.  He's succeeded in making a shaky position unsustainable, putting efforts to correct damages done in the Middle East back to where they were before.  Some hero.

As much as we want to know everything going on in the world, we often have no need or right to know most of the stuff that goes on.  If you want to be upset at something and be productive, take a long look at most Middle Eastern and African countries and tell them to stop being evil.  The US certainly isn't perfect, but at least some/most people are trying to make things right.  The fact that collateral damages were hidden attests to that: Most dictators want people to know about the atrocities they've committed so that people don't rise up against them.  In the US, if something were done like that, then people would rise up.

I know a lot of soldiers, including family members, and I can guarantee that there isn't any "mass-slaughtering of civilians" going on in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Most or all of it is the result of inhumane tactics on part of the opposing forces, not because soldiers are specifically targeting civilians.  Focus your hate more on the people using children as human shields and suicide bomb bait.  It'd be more productive.


Back to Manning: Honestly, I hope they don't kill the guy - He's obviously not very stable - And last I heard, prosecutors won't be seeking the death penalty.  He's obviously made some very poor decisions and broken the law.  Regardless, I hope he receives a fair trial and, if he does, I'm sure the verdict will carry out the consequences of his actions.  It will probably take at least a year to wrap everything up and convict him, though, so don't get too excited quite yet.  If they do execute him, I'll have to agree that it's a tasteless attempt to discourage a repeat of the situation, but it's also the law.

I wanna play!

Looks awesome.  Posting to follow.