Just when you thought it was safe to eat at Taco Hell again…

Since the rule has been made noone has flipped the table… Yet.

It was flipped once after turn 3 of are second game of global.

I was Italy and taking over a poorly played Japan from a friend who had to go. The Allies were going really hard on the Pacific and after my turn 3 which was extremely good especially with dice rolls. They took there turns and flipped the table as they saw the writing on the wall. That is why the rule was in place.

Hello. And Bye.

Hello. And Bye.

I really wanted to walk out on this stupid ass movie, but I stayed till the end.  Dumbest movie since “Swing Kids”.

Did you know the Nazis didn’t like dancing?  They also hated Rainbows and kittens as well.

Ya know, it’s not fair.  The Holocaust gets all the publicity and no one ever remembers the poor swing kids who were not allowed to dance.  It is like the the “flash dance” of the 30s and 40s.

Perhaps this needs to be moved to political discussion after my comments:

Shanghai is quite nice, and, yes, Beijing needs a ton of work.  Although I don’t think when people say that they think that Beijing city authorities should kick out thousands of poor residents on the city outskirts in preparation for the 2008 Olympics.

Overall, though, China has some significant problems that it needs to work out if it’s going to overtake the U.S.  Their environmental policy is god-awful.  90% of their water is undrinkable, and the dust storms that roll off the northern border are large enough to create their own weather systems.  There was also that benzene spill that happened last year, the one that was 50 miles long.  Unfortunately, while that was a notable case, it’s not the only one.

Also, China is definitely benefitting from its cheap labor supply right now.  The problem, however, is that their current birth rate is not high enough to maintain the population (1.73 children/woman versus the 2.3 widely considered necessary to prevent population declien), and in about a decade or 15 years, they will have an elderly population that makes the baby boomers and the problems associated with it look like nothing.  The Chinese need to start shifting to service industries, like India has, in order to keep their economy rolling.  It’s fine for a time to develop manufacturing capacity, but they don’t necessarily have the supply of educated workers that can compete and perform the way the country needs.  Also, some estimates of public debt mark it as 85% of GDP.

This isn’t to say that the U.S. doesn’t have massive problems as well.  But the infrastructure in the U.S. is well-established, and the procedures time tested but still open to change and challenge.  I think that’s a significant advantage over China, and while I know you aren’t saying that China will overtake the U.S., I think these are all points in favor of caution.

This news sotry shows just how close the United States is to becoming just like Germany of the 1930’s.

We have always been a nation of the rule of law, and have prided ourselves on our Constitution to the point where we expected EVERYONE else to accept, adopt, and follow it.

Not anymore.  Now, 42% of Americans think that the Constitution is irrelevant and should be discarded in order to keep them “safe” from outside agression.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060108/ap_on_go_pr_wh/eavesdropping_ap_poll

WASHINGTON - A majority of Americans want the Bush administration to get court approval before eavesdropping on people inside the United States, even if those calls might involve suspected terrorists, an AP-Ipsos poll shows.

Over the past three weeks,
President Bush and top aides have defended the electronic monitoring program they secretly launched shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, as a vital tool to protect the nation from al-Qaida and its affiliates.

Yet 56 percent of respondents in an AP-Ipsos poll said the government should be required to first get a court warrant to eavesdrop on the overseas calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens when those communications are believed to be tied to terrorism.

Agreeing with the White House, some 42 percent of those surveyed do not believe the court approval is necessary.

“We’re at war,” Bush said during a New Year’s Day visit to San Antonio. “And as commander in chief, I’ve got to use the resources at my disposal, within the law, to protect the American people. … It’s a vital, necessary program.”

According to the poll, age matters in how people view the monitoring. Nearly two-thirds of those between age 18 to 29 believe warrants should be required, while people 65 and older are evenly divided.

Party affiliation is a factor, too. Almost three-fourths of Democrats and one-third of Republicans want to require court warrants.

Cynthia Ice-Bones, 32, a Republican from Sacramento, Calif., said knowing about the program made her feel a bit safer. “I think our security is so important that we don’t need warrants. If you’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing, then you ought to be caught,” she said.

But Peter Ahr of Caldwell, N.J., a religious studies professor at Seton Hall University, said he could not find a justification for skipping judicial approvals. Nor did he believe the administration’s argument that such a step would impair terrorism investigations.

“We’re a nation of laws. … That means that everybody has to live by the law, including the administration,” said Ahr, 64, a Democrat who argues for checks and balances. “For the administration to simply go after wiretaps on their own without anyone else’s say-so is a violation of that principle.”

The eavesdropping is run by the secretive National Security Agency, the government’s code-makers and code-breakers.

Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said most people think that the eavesdropping is aimed at foreign terrorists, even when the surveillance is conducted inside the country.

“They are willing to give the president quite a lot of leeway on this when it comes to the war on terror,” said Franklin, who closely follows public opinion.

Some members of Congress have raised concerns about the president’s actions, but none of those lawmakers who have been briefed on the program has called for its immediate halt.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, GOP Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, has promised hearings this year. Five members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, including GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, have called for immediate inquiries.

On top of that, a memorandum circulated Friday from two legal analysts at the Congressional Research Service concluded that the justification for the monitoring may not be as strong as the administration has argued.

The NSA’s activity “may present an exercise of presidential power at its lowest ebb,” the 44-page memo said.

Bush based his eavesdropping orders on his presidential powers under the Constitution and a September 2001 congressional resolution authorizing him to use military force in the fight against terrorism.

The administration says the program is reviewed every 45 days and that Bush personally reauthorizes it. His top legal advisers argue its justification is sound.

The issue is full of grays for some people interviewed for the poll, including homebuilder Harlon Bennett, 21, a political independent from Wellston, Okla. He does not think the government should need warrants for suspected terrorists.

“Of course,” he added, “we all could be suspected terrorists.”

good stuff, im not religious in any aspect, and i think christmas is a made up hoiliday (because, and this goes with most major hoilidays, it is in the middle of the worst part of the year, i think people invented christmas to have something to look forward to in the middle of winter, otherwise people go nuts. i can elaborate on this later, but in my wierd head it makes sence.) even when i feel like this i think if someone wants to throw a hollow plastic baby jesus with a light bulb up his @$$ on thier front lawn, then more power to them.

Actually I thought it was enjoyable. Really it depends on what your preferences are. Personally I’m in to the world of high tech computer hacking.