Moonlight Graham

I'd think moderates/swing voters might be turned off of Romney from it. I think it's kind of ridiculous this whole phenomenon of "firing up the base". Weird how apparently these people who aren't "fired up" are just content to sit at home on election day.

Started playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a few weeks ago. Been playing this series since Daggerfall (the one on PC-only before Morrowind). It's fairly similar to Oblivion, with some streamlining to the RPG elements (good & bad). Glad the annoying Oblivion gates are gone, replaced with somewhat annoying dragons. Still a great game, very addicting. Wish they added more changes though. Graphics on Xbox 360 are starting to look a bit dated, not a massive upgrade from Oblivion... can't wait to see this series on next-gen consoles.

Saw this scroll across the bottom of theTV screen on CNN while watching the Republican Convention. Somehow I missed this: link Wow, just wow. Good luck getting this one through Mitt!

Borderline mental illness. People with anger issues or insecurities, or just generally hate their own life. People who have some kind of pent up psychological issues and they don't know how to release it in a healthy way in the real world so they do it online. They're kinda like bullies, but at least bullies have the guts to pick on people in real life. Trolls are cowardly passive-aggressive losers who hide in the anonymity of the web.

sure. Have fun!

The title of this thread is ridiculous. Where's the thread on Shady's suffering of acute Obama Derangement Syndrome?

I agree. I'm in favour of enforcing patents. Patent laws enoucage innovation, because without them why spend the money on R&D? Why not just wait around until someone else makes a good idea and then steal it for free? The problem isn't the decision that samsung stole the patented ideas, the porblem i think is the billion+ in damages they have to pay Apple. These patents mean something to samsung products, but were they worth over a billion dollars in revenue? If samsung had not use these patented features and replaced them with something else would they have lost a billion+ in business? Not likely. The touch features are many the most significant patents here.

I think he's a tool in some things, then a good guy in others. He has a massive ego and is a bit of baby, as seen in the Some Kind of Monster film, he would have a tantrum when Hetfield could only work half a day because he was still recovering from alcoholism...kind of an ass. Plus the Napster thing. He is a major money-monger, it's more like Metallica Inc. now. But when I see him interact with fans, like videos of backstage meet/greets, he's a very nice guy, gives people all the attention in the world & is very engaged. One things for sure, after reading the Metallica biography "Enter Night" by Mick Wall, I realized how vital Lars was to their success. He had a hige hand behind the scenes, he was insanely ambitious, he got them to the top early on, & also wanted Metallica to be the biggest band in the world and there would have been no Black Album success without him. He also contributed a lot arrangement-wise with the songs. Most songs were composed with James/Lars stuck in a room banging things out, then presenting the songs to the rest of the band.

I haven't been keeping with this discussion. So why do you not believe SSM is right, and how is this decision informed by your Christian beliefs in God?

Agree St. Anger was crap, as was most of Re-Load. I love Load though, it's not thrash metal but it's a great album based on its own merits IMO. I like Death Magnetic, it doesn't quite has the same angry edge as their early stuff, I think you get softer when you get older, have a family, go through therapy/rehab. James doesn't hate the world anymore, and he permanently damaged his voice toward the end of the Black Album tour. Their live shows haven't been the same since. His voice live from 1988-1993 was incredible. I worship their "Live Shit: Binge & Purge" 3-disc CD from 1993. They should have re-recorded a few of their hit songs from the shitty-produced early albums because they sounded so much better 88-93', rerecord stuff like Four Horsemen, Creeping Death, Fade To Black.

James was an alcoholic, but not a drunk douchebag like Dave. Dave would get very violent, get in fist-fights with people, once broke a guy's leg he said in the Some Kind of Monster documentary. Cliff was amazing, the Hendrix of bass players IMO. But I really like the album "...And Justice For All" after he died, but it still had the classical/acoustic parts inspired by him like "To Live Is To Die". It would be a wonder where Metallica would have been had Cliff lived. Maybe they wouldn't have sold out so much.

Meh, he wrote The Four Horsmen (great song) but that's about all the great stuff he did on the first record writing-wise. He was really good with them though, he's a great guitarist and could shred on their early demos even faster than Kirk Hammett. Always hated Mustaine's vocals with Megadeth though, sounds like an idiot lol. Could never totally get into that band. Prefer Metallica and Slayer for trash metal.

From CBC News: I'm normally against torture. It's unethical and illegal. Why should our government be able to use info obtained through illegal means when our courts can't do the same? However, I would permit info obtained from torture to be used in the above mentioned "exceptional circumstances". If there is a major security threat ie: terrorism to Canada and info obtained by torture could possibly mitigate the threat then I would be okay in allowing use of that info in those very special cases. However, there's always the chance of this kind of power being abused. More if a black eye for Toews!

His death was sad & his public health decline was tragic to watch. But to speak frankly, I never really liked the guy as a politician. He was a typical liar and snake-oil salesman. So far I like Thomas Mulcair much more, seems more genuine and grounded.

To be fair to Huckabee, he didn't say "rape isn't all that bad", he was clear to say rape was in every way a horrible act, but his position that some "extraordinary people" came as a result of rape is just to support his argument against abortion. Doesn't mean I support his position though. Akin is an idiot. This whole thing just proves how dumb a lot of people are.

100% agree with this. You can only pick and choose things to believe/not believe from the Bible if you use it only as source of philosophical/moral inspiration as you would any book of philosophy, not as the divine word/will of God. If you take anything in the Bible as the actual divine word/will of God which cannot be questioned, then you can't pick and choose the parts you like/dislike. You must follow every message in that book as its meaning is best understood, like or dislike them, otherwise your beliefs fall apart in a hypocritical, illogical mess.

Post of the month. Congrats Shakey!

You made a "typo" in your thread title. Please fix it. LOL ahh the irony.

There are plenty of white-majority nations with Jewish minority populations. "American" is a fake nationality anyways. Native Americans say GTFO. Pretty sure jbg wouldn't budge.

Political leaders who go to church on Sunday, torture and drop bombs on people on Monday.

That global issues site is not an NGO, it's just a website. Also, the Oxfam link underneath that quote says "Trade generates incredible wealth, and links the lives of everyone on the planet. However, millions of people in poor countries are losing out because the rules controlling trade heavily favour the rich nations that set the rules". Generally, I agree with this. Liberalized economies tends to increase income inequality. See the US over the last 30 years, where the top 1% have had their incomes (after-tax and adjusted for inflation) rise greatly while the bottom 99% have have had minimal to almost no growth: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/05/lindsay-tracking-the-one-percent/. Income inequality has also increased in most OECD countries: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/05/income-inequality-around-the-world-is-a-failure-of-capitalism/238837/. The same is true in most developing countries, and developing countries have the by far the biggest income inequality gap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality. So while GDP growth & GDP-per-capita has gone up in most countries over the last 30 years, this growth has greatly benefited the rich with minimal benefits to the majority in most countries. What I'm getting at is maybe these NGO's who claim poverty is getting worse due to trade liberalization are referring to not the overall GDP of countries, but of the incomes of the poorest in most countries. It may or may not be true that in many or some developing countries, income for the poorest people over the last 30 years or so may have not just stagnated as in the US but may have actually decreased (adjusted for inflation). Would be interesting to see some stats, since this is the crux of the argument IMO. On a quick look I couldn't find any, maybe you can. That Oxfam page you linked has a case study in Chile: http://www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/trade/real_lives/chile Only specific statistics on the income of the lower classes in Chile will prove if this claim is true/false. Anyways, I agree with you in that NGO's shouldn't brush trade liberalization with such a broad negative stroke. Every free trade agreement is different, and will have different effects on different countries and different income groups & sectors within these countries, good and bad.

Mustaine can shred. But he's pretty much an idiot. A hardcore born-again Christian too. Will liberal metalheads burn his CD's etc. since he doesn't support the president?

I never said nationality = race. How does one determine what constitutes another "race"? Are East Indians a "race". Italians look different than Swedes, so are Italians a race? Are this Indo-Canadian soccer league actually concerned with race or ethnicity?

People have freedom of association, but then people also have a right not to be discriminated based on race. Which right triumphs? Not sure. What I'm most concerned about are ethnic/national minority groups segregating themselves and not mixing with each other. I don't think it's healthy for Canadian society. You look at Toronto and there many are communities separated by ethnicity. A sizeable community like Woodbridge, ON, has something like 95% Italians living there. I have a good friend from there who grew up there. I'm sure you could come up with a dozen other examples similar for different racial/ethnic/national groups. Most of the people in Woodbridge have their kids go to virtually Italian-only schools. For my friend, until she went to university all of her best friends were Italian and most of them still are. She only dated Italians. This is because these are the people who happened to be in her school and in her neighbourhood. I think this isn't very healthy for a supposedly multicultural society. I see the appeal for people to want to be with their own kind, but I think people should be encouraged (though not necessarily forced) to mix.