Johnny

That is true. Though it's a huge time-waster and especially during winter (-30C (-22F) temperatures wooo \o/) it's not even close to worth the money you save.

I live in northern sweden, where everyone has a car and drives everywhere. We have public transportation in the form of buses, but most people don't use them because of inconvenience. Plus, it gets really cold during winter so everyone drives *everywhere* in the winter months. A five minute walk is far enough that they'd rather take the car.

4 dollars a gallon? Christ, that's nothing. Last I checked, it was roughly twice that much here.

I'd like to note that a very large percentage of every nation considers their nation the greatest. Personally, I think that's hubris on a national scale.

I was aware that it was the constitution, and I know the constitution is incredibly unbelievably hard to do anything about, but... While the constitution has a lot of power legally, I don't think that means it's automatically right about what should be done.

What's the politics like in my country? Well, the moderates that are currently in charge are moving the country away from my ideology but all the other parties are completely incapable of leading a country currently (Social democrats, who I am ideologically most aligned with, got complacent after being in power for a significant number of terms in a row) so we don't really have much choice. Very troubling to me is that we are slowly adopting the tax-hate that America is so famous for, which seems like idiocy to me when we have this actually working balance of socialism and capitalism in place. We don't even have the "our government is incapable of spending tax money well" excuse. =/ What really scares me though is the European Union. Not the concept of a European Union, but it's current implementation. Can something really be called a democracy if there is no easily available information on what's being done on the highest level?

@Yant: I believe Duke said he does not hate this person. Though even if he did, I am completely fine with hating people who hate unprovoked

Can not believe I'm actually responding to this post... If you'll notice, he didn't say every single thing Chris Christie has done is worse. It is entirely possible that Chris has done some good things while still doing some fairly horrible things. I would not know, because I don't really know who this guy is, but if that's the case then the good things do not make the bad things go away. Duke did not, in fact, wish death on Chris Christie. I don't even know where to begin. What "Seedy practices"? And why are you acting like being gay is something Duke has to fix? Oh, wait, I think I know why. There is so much wrong with this. Men can't care about women's rights? Also, you think the girl in a relationship is the only person who might be impacted by accidental pregnancies? This is one of the most baseless accusations I've seen in ages. Almost as ridiculous as claiming Obama hates America or something. Just because someone has a different idea of how to fix the problem than you, that does not mean that they are trying to make the problem worse. Sweden says hi. We're doing rather well and we're a far more socialistic country than the US. Yes, Greece is in deep shit, but quite frankly so is the US and I don't see how your "completely free and unregulated open market" dream has helped you. How is this possibly ignorance? Quite frankly, I find it amazing that your response to having an accusation you made criticized is to say "whatever" and post far more outlandish accusations than the first one. I'd be surprised if you could take part in any political discussion without devolving it into personal insults and accusations. The entire point of having the rich pay more taxes is that they have far more money and thus won't be as economically hurt by it as poor people. Everyone pays taxes according to ability. That the person who makes the argument does not pay a lot of taxes (as, of course, a student like Duke would be unable to do) does not disqualify the argument. See previous response. This is something that bugs me a lot about american politics. It'd be nice if people could support their views with an actual argument for why it is better, instead of pointing to the (oh so infallible) founding fathers. I get that you have a short, very recent, history, but should we not look towards the present for solutions, instead of asking ourselves what some people who lived hundreds of years ago would have to say on the subject? Battra: "You only care about one thing!" Duke: "No, I care about all these other things as well." Battra: "They do not count because they are things a democrat would care about!"

Everyone else was showing theirs.

Yeah I'm with Ethan on this. I'm actually amazed that people feel like the tax money are money that they should be able to spend on whatever they want. Tax money is you doing your part towards the better of the society. In return, you have the same safety net if and when you need it. What's that, you say you have enough money that you won't need it? Then what are you bitching about? If someone has enough money that they have no problem getting by without a societal safety net, then they are in an even better position to give back to society. And I think everyone does owe society. Even assuming someone was completely home-schooled, never used public services for anything, and made all of their money starting a private business... They still wouldn't have made the money without the rest of society buying their stuff. Looking at this, it's a bit of an unstructured rant, but... Basically, I just think everyone should do their part to help build up the society in which they have flourished.

We make these a lot in Sweden as well. Oven pancakes are what we call them.

We swedes make pancakes that are as thin as crepes.

Well the problem was that it started to look a whole lot like reddit.

I would argue that just because something is part of a religion, that doesn't mean the law should automatically bend to their preference. While you have a right to your religion, it should not trump the law, just like other personal beliefs don't. Here in Sweden, religion does not trump the law. For example, the newly recognized piracy religion does not get a free pass from IP law.

Gravity is a theory. It's the scientific theory explaining why stuff falls to the ground when dropped. Theory in science is way different from how the word theory is used in everyday language. The way you'd use theory in general is more close to what a scientist would probably call an "idea" or a "hunch."

I'm all for personal liberties until the point where you're doing tangible harm to other people. Can't speak for Europe as a whole though. To give a rough idea, I'm for heavy gun control but also heavily for freedom of speech. Though let's take this in the politics threads...

Sorry, wrong word. Yeah, you have the right, but I think it's silly to do so considering you're probabåy just as biased yourself.

In regards to bias: everyone is biased in these societal and moral matters. Every tv show is biased because it's written by people. And that's fine. We're not machines and never will be. The same imperfections which cause us to view the world differently from each others is at the very core of all the good things about humanity as well as the bad. /Ramblings What I'm trying to say is that that's ok. I think though that you don't have the right to point fingers and complain about how offensive these tv shows are unless they are doing something extreme like preaching oppression.

Miceo-evolution? For reals? Somehow, I kind of thought better of you, but I guess that's foolish. We have fossil records that show evolution over long time, nullifying the mico-evolution cop-out.

Dean, if you're referring to the news story where the Obsidian guy claimed he knew what was causing the ps3 issues, he never actually said that. It was made up by the site posting the news; If you checked the source you would have seen that he was not talking about any issues Skyrim is having, but rather the issues they had with New Vegas.

I expect if they're re-adding religion, they're doing it in a way that makes more sense than how it was in Civ IV

So, do you believe all the messed up stuff in the bible, or just the parts that suit you? I think it's worth noting that people don't often go after the people who believe the same things they do, which might be why Christians don't tend to be the ones that try to force a belief down your throat. Additionally, I think it's fairly likely that Christians don't assume you to be an atheist just because you haven't told them you're a Christian. There's plenty of people in my life who have tried to force their beliefs, or rather, their viewpoint in life upon me. Ranging from fellow atheists, both gnostic and agnostic, religious people of several faiths, people who believe in various paranormal entities and other pseudo-scientific stuff. Though truth be told the majority of such events have been related to the christian faith, and the second largest portion is the paranormal and pseudo-science. This is something I find rather odd considering how large a population of atheists and agnostics we have here in Sweden. I think everyone is perfectly entitled to their beliefs, and to discuss that belief with people on all sides of the fence as long as they, too, are voluntarily contributing to that debate. I have a few beliefs myself, that are not based in science or rationality, though they are very minor and not worth elaborating on here. I think the crucial part is that while it is fine to believe in whatever you want, and it is fine to discuss that belief, it is not fine to tell people that they need to live by your personal beliefs. When you enter that arena, you better have a damn good reason for trying to tell people what they can and can not do. And you better be able to back up your reasoning with some objectively verifiable evidence. In regards to what you call the liberal media: If so-called "liberal" movies, music and TV can be seen as trying to force their beliefs on you, then so is all conservative/religious movies, music and TV forcing it down everyon else's throats. Incidentally, I don't think is fair at all. People should certainly be able to write and publish fiction that is based on their viewpoint in life, and that is not the same as trying to force it upon other people. As an atheist, I can tell you that I find the cross, specifically the cross in the common christian variation, to be synonymous with strong religious belief.