Lurker > Balrog0

it's not my wish at all, its just about what the market would produce absent so much subsidy and regulation

personally I like a little bit of open space and mid-rise density is about the most I can tolerate, there's a reason I live in Little Rock and not D.C. much less NYC

but what I want isnt what its all about, the public purse is straining under the cost of all this infrastructure
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Asherlee10 posted...

Because we had no zoning, the first thing I did was attempt to fix that situation with noise complaints. I even had officers come out with a decibel reader. The reader never registered high enough to issue an official warning. But because this was in a historic district, the houses were built in a way that certain noises would echo and 'leach' into places in such a way that you could hear it over a television in the middle of your house.

It was also difficult to have someone arrive while they were making noise. The really loud noises were modified cars that they were revving up. They would do it for only a 20 seconds or so at a time.

I assume you're talking about houston since I don't know of any other city without an official zoning code

I'm not an expert in every city obviously, but it seems like bad enforcement in other areas and not a problem of zoning, to me. Either that or you were one of the only people who were bothered by the noise. I know the way code enforcement works here is based on the number of complaints from unique individuals but I dont know about Houston
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

FLUFFYGERM posted...

I'm pretty sure no one would want to live in a sardine can. Check this out:

what you want and what you earn for yourself aren't always the same thing, though it is true that people are okay with using the heavy hand of government to get what they want but have not earned

Questionmarktarius posted...

Most of those things are utilities, that should be self-sustaining anyway.
if you're paying a bill for the service every month, there shouldn't be taxes going towards it.

most utility companies probably wouldn't survive without subsidy, the rates they charge sometimes recoup operating costs but not capital expenses which are often paid for through public investments like bond millages etc
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

The democratic socialists of America were also against that project
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

FLUFFYGERM posted...

fenderbender321 posted...

The cool thing about sales tax is that it punishes consumption, so it's self regulating. We should all be trying to consume less and less as a society, and a sales tax helps to acheive just that. Remember, the less we are consuming, the less money the government should need, because if we can limit our consumption of private goods/services, we can limit our consumption of public services as well.

I like the sales tax. It's the best one, yet the most misunderstood and hated. Businesses pay for a bunch of the cost of those taxes as well, but people don't realize that either because they don't learn about price shifts to maximize profit.

The problem is that there is a base level of public services that we'll always need the same amount of. Things like water, sewage, garbage pickup, utilities, roads, and potentially healthcare if we ever use tax dollars to fund that.

So if you tie the funding for those things to a sales tax...and if the economy slows down to the point where people can't buy as much shit anymore...then you run into a big problem where the services and infrastructure we all depend on suddenly collapse.

So ultimately some form of property tax is reasonable. If you acquire and maintain property, you can afford to contribute a reasonable amount of property tax each year. Especially if you're an investor who is using the property for investment rather than for a personal dwelling.

We may want to lower or eliminate property tax on personal dwellings, and just increase the property tax on investment property a bit.

We probably could fund most of those things through user fees, but not in our current built urban forms. Higher densities mean those things all cost less per unit (for the most part) but so much of America is big box and sprawl
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Asherlee10 posted...

fenderbender321 posted...

Asherlee10 posted...

Balrog0 posted...

It mostly occurs because of shitty government regulations around land use (i.e., zoning)

Wait...zoning is a bad thing?

It has it's benefits, but they do come at a cost.

People can build fully-functioning, efficient cities without zoning laws. In fact, it may actually be a better balance overall with everything considered.

I've just experienced the opposite scenario in several cities without zoning. Part of what made me leave a house I loved was because there were no zoning laws and a 'custom car shop' opened up in a house right next door to me. They decided that working on cars all hours of the night in the middle of a neighborhood was fine.

this isn't a zoning issue, but rather a noise ordinance issue

both are laws intended to address spillover effects like this, but zoning is overly burdensome in most places even if you think zoning as a concept is a good thing.

here I am referring to zoning ordinances that place arbitrary rules on things like the floor area ratio, the curb set back, the number of units allowed on a lot, the minimum lot sizes, etc. In general I think zoning that separates by use is much better than the kind of zoning where different residential areas are allowed different densities based on nothing that promotes the public good

Questionmarktarius posted...

The optimal solution is to ban property tax, as a concept.
It's essentially paying rent to a government, for one's own property.

I tend to disagree, since if you want more autonomy you can just live some where they don't make public investments into public goods that help increase your property values (like most unincorprated areas)
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

FLUFFYGERM posted...

Balrog0 posted...

fenderbender321 posted...

Gentrification is just part of supply and demand. It's a necessary occurrence as cities grow.

I disagree. It mostly occurs because of shitty government regulations around land use (i.e., zoning)

No, it occurs because people with money want to acquire and remodel property. So they look for areas that have property available at a low cost.

This isn't usually wealthy people, since the wealthy are fine with building and remodeling in established areas. It's usually the small investor who is looking to get started, or someone who wants to buy a home but doesn't have a lot of cash saved.

Repeat that over the years and you end up with gentrification.

It is wealthy people, because they can't build in wealthy areas, due to zoning and neighborhood home voters

Incremental development, small investors, largely doesn't happen in gentrifying areas until after they reach a tipping point
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

FLUFFYGERM posted...

The point is that we need to be pragmatic. There's never going to be a perfect way to fix a problem. If the overwhelming net gain is that a community thrives and benefits from gentrification, then it is a good thing.

so what if the majority of folks in the area are disadvantaged and wouldn't benefit from gentrification?

FLUFFYGERM posted...

I guarantee you that the people in Englewood who are benefiting from what is happening before our very eyes are not going to call gentrification a bad thing, even if some of the people who refuse to work/embrace change are going to call it bad.

yeah and the disadvantaged people who got priced out and became more debt burdened without anything to show for it will complain about it

FLUFFYGERM posted...

If you're ever in the Chicago area let me know and I'll gladly drive you around Englewood so you can see a real example of what gentrification is doing. We can drive to the areas even worse than Englewood so you can see what the alternative is to inconveniencing a fraction of the population that'll have to relocate if they don't land a job at the new businesses.

bro if you think gentrification is exclusive to chicago idk what to tell you, you can see it in literally every city from detroit to san jose to new york to miami
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

fenderbender321 posted...

Gentrification is just part of supply and demand. It's a necessary occurrence as cities grow.

I disagree. It mostly occurs because of shitty government regulations around land use (i.e., zoning)
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

FLUFFYGERM posted...

Balrog0 posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

nothing is 100% effective, but gentrification does reduce poverty and bring cash and jobs into the community. a community that would otherwise remain in poverty.

its not that it isn't 100% effective, it is that it has different impacts on different people depending on how precarious their financial situation is

in a topic that deserves nuance, it doesn't make sense to me to be just as or even more deliberately obtuse than 'teh liherals'

choosing to leave an area in its delapidated and violent state because of the tiny outlier of people who have it worse after gentrification is not reasonable

I dunno that it is a tiny outlier of people, for one thing, but even if it was there's no reason to pretend they don't exist. I never said we shouldn't 'gentrify' just pointing out the tradeoffs involved
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

FLUFFYGERM posted...

nothing is 100% effective, but gentrification does reduce poverty and bring cash and jobs into the community. a community that would otherwise remain in poverty.

its not that it isn't 100% effective, it is that it has different impacts on different people depending on how precarious their financial situation is

in a topic that deserves nuance, it doesn't make sense to me to be just as or even more deliberately obtuse than 'teh liherals'
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

Is anyone surprised?

A rising tide lifts all ships.

that is quite literally untrue, per the research cited in this very article, though
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

King Rial posted...

Jiggy101011 posted...

And what year was this where we were getting 2 to 3 great games from them in a single year?

I see some years with 3+ games, but not any years with 3+ good games, much less great ones
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

looked posted...

Mixed race people chose to exclude themselves when they chose to identify as black instead of mixed race. Race is a social construct, and people are allowed to self identify, so its no one else fault.

lmao wut
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

YOUHAVENOHOPE posted...

EmaIdon7 posted...

often ignore the declining crime rate and increased wages and availability of services

>the problem is going away as long as we just push it somewhere else

except it doesn't increase out-movement from the neighborhood, so the dispersion of criminal activity (assuming this is how crime works) that occurs would have occurred anyway. So the lower rate of crime in the neighborhood represents a 'true' reduction

again assuming that is how crime works
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

I wonder if goof troop held up at all, im kind of scared to actually watch it and risk ruining the nostalgia. Loved that show.
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Literally over 30 years and ppl are still buying into Sega marketing gimmicks about graphics basically
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Eh, that same team at the fed that did that study in Philadelphia also found that gentrification, while not directly displacing people, caused a differential impact between renters and owners. Renters became more debt burdened and, while not more likely to move, were more likely to move to an even lower income area than similar residents of non gentrifying areas
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

NES: Mario 3
SNES: Donkey Kong Country 2 at the time, I think my favorite today is Mario Kart
GB: Mario Land 2
GBC: Links Awakening DX
N64: Banjo Kazooie
GBA: one of the Fire Emblems
PS1: hardest pick, probably Soul Reaver but I like a ton of games on this system
PS2: probably had the most fun with Marvel vs Capcom 2, but another tough choice
GCN: Super Smash Bros Melee
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

DarthAragorn posted...

They pulled it from the schedule and are airing leftover episodes in June

It's basically guaranteed cancelled

What reason do they have for holding their decision? They can burn the episodes either way. Fox has been pretty unpredictable this season, too, especially with their comedies

I'd still be surprised to see another season but yeah
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Is thst seriously still around
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Good, I'm glad these things are happening
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

I never watched it, I might some day, but it might not get canceled. It started with alright ratings that quickly faded, but Fox has shown some interest in it. They replaced the original showrunner with Toby from the office mid season and it still hasn't been canceled.
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Lol I'm not a politician, but extended recess is on our legislative agenda for 2019
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Dude I'd fully support two hour recess
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Asherlee10 posted...

Annihilated posted...

No, because we CAN'T pay for it. The government would be bankrupt within a few years because no one is addressing why healthcare is so expensive in the first place.

@Balrog0 is this a true statement?

No, health care costs in America are driven by high prices relative to other countries. You can get UHC without single payer, but stuff like medicare for all would deal with this by negotiating down prices.

It's not a silver bullet, but it is actually designed to deal with the exact problem we have with healthcare in this country tbh.

One thing to mention is that IMO it would require a tax increase. The reason is, our healthcare system currently is balkanized and states and localities pick up a lot of the slack with respect to paying for emergency care that goes uncompensated to providers. UHC would drive down costs for those entities, but it would cost more for the federal government.
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

Same.
Obamacare with a public option would be great, and then expand medicare to cover minors. That would be perfect imo.

CHIP and Medicaid are better for kids than Medicare. Medicare is pretty tailored to the elderly, kids have unique medical needs.

Also Medicare in general is kinda garbage IMO but that's another story
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

FLUFFYGERM posted...

Balrog0 posted...

it's more like, if someone steals your $50 beater bike and get caught, should they only be fined or go to jail?

personally if it was up to me I'm saying neither. neither helps me, and the adjudication process would certainly take more than $500 in public resources even he just plead guilty which we can't assume

r a d i c a l c e n t r i s m

so no punishment?

If it was up to me, basically.

If we levied fines based in ability to pay or something that'd be okay.
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

DarthGravid posted...

Balrog0 posted...

DarthGravid posted...

I'm just going to leave these here:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-generic-ballot-polls/?ex_cid=rrpromo

confirms the numbers used in the OP

I agree. This was to show that the GOP is closing the gap across all polls, and to break down the numbers and patterns for everyone to see. There is tons of information in these two links.

Fivethirtyeight.com also predicted a 12.5% probability of Trump winning in 2016 while losing the popular vote, IIRC. I didn't see that prediction anywhere else.

Gotcha bud

They did indeed say that. They were, in general, pretty good at predicting which states trump needed to win, as well
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

DarthGravid posted...

I'm just going to leave these here:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-generic-ballot-polls/?ex_cid=rrpromo

confirms the numbers used in the OP

Fuparulez posted...

Second of all, the Democrats keep the focus on Trump BECAUSE they don't want the focus on their platforms. More taxes, more illegals, more refugees, more gun control and more unemployment is a pretty weak starting point for winning anything in mid term elections.

they should talk about health care and immigration according to the pew numbers
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Fuparulez posted...

I find the funniest part to be that they actually paid somebody to investigate whether telling people it's OK to be fat results in more people being fat or not.

they actually did not do anything like that
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Fuparulez posted...

Sega at this point is that creepy uncle who still wears his varsity football jacket and talks about the glory days in high school.

'I remember when arcades were bi-... what's an arcade?'
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

huh so sega is still making shitty decisions about hardware after all this time?
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

you know that they didnt
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Anteaterking posted...

Question for you Balrog: If the Dems win the House by 8 points but don't gain control of it, is that a failure on the part of Democrats or just a reflection of how skewed the House is?

at +8 it is very hard for me to imagine the problem being the democrats, though to be 100% fair the democratic base has a clustering problem so I suppose I can imagine a strategy emphasizing turning out the base (at the expense of winning over suburban whites) that could sort of lay the blame at the democrats feet

DarkTransient posted...

Just beause Trump's haters are more vocal than previous presidents' haters, doesn't mean they're greater in quantity

I don't think they are more vocal, but I think maybe the media is more vocal about them. If you don't remember 2006, a lot of people were very angry at Bush for the simultaneous wars, especially Iraq.

Trump hasn't done anything that bad.

darkjedilink posted...

Balrog0 posted...

not sure about that family separation bit, but I'd be interested in seeing polling

http://m.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/immigration/june_2018/voters_blame_parents_not_feds_for_border_children_crisis

54% of 'likely voters' blame the parents of tue children in question, vs. 35% blaming the federal government.

Even the 3% margin of error works in favor of the results. As much as Dems cry about it, it won't help in November.

As a matter of fact, the leftist stance on illegal immigration has often harmed them.

Very interesting numbers. I see now why some Democrats/Leftists/Liberals were talking about how Likely Voter models were underestimating the chances for Democratic candidates
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

ThyCorndog posted...

almost all first generation americans are at least bilingual. it's rare your parents only teach you english if they're from another country that spoke another language

at least here in nyc

eh

it isn't that most kids didn't speak their parents language, it was more that they weren't encouraged to use it and definitely weren't going to [vietnamese/tagalog/whatever] classes, again just in my little bubble in San Jose growing up. Like most of my latino friends didn't take spanish lessons or get instructions from their parents, they learn the language the way we all did before going to school, by just being around it and being around people speaking it.

it was also pretty common for many of my friends to understand their native language but not be very good speakers of it for this reason
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Solid Snake07 posted...

This kid absolutely blew up in the past 2 years from some random rapper posting songs on sound cloud to having a #1 album. He's gained popularity a hell of a lot faster than 99.9999999% of rappers.

The only thing comical here is your delusional attempt to try and down play this kids career just because you don't like him

yeah, he had a lot of success with both of his first albums

it is easy to think of rappers that have good debuts(hell, Lil Dicky ascended to similar heights even faster than X, granted his album didn't debut at No. 1, I think it was only No. 7) but it's much harder to follow it up with an equal level of success which imo definitely would have bode well for his future
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Questionmarktarius posted...

Roughly a third of the senate is "in play" every other year.

yeah but this is an awful map for democrats
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

everyone in the house goes up for re-election every cycle

I do understand that apparnetly some people thought the senate was in play but I never thought that
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

yeah Im sure it is a loss leader type of deal where they want you to buy that and then get a couple drinks
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

I mean if the cook political report is enough to kill your blue wave, it is kinda hard to imagine it lasting another 6 months
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

darkjedilink posted...

Trump's popularity numbers are HIGHER than Obama's going into 2010, despite 90% negative press for Trump to 70% positive press for Obama. That's always going to help down the ballot, regardless of whether or not the party is as popular as the President.

so, I looked into this, and that doesn't seem to be true

at least according to Gallup, Trump is currently at 45/50 approve/disapprove, while Obama at this point was at 47/45 or 45/46 depending on how you want to compare the two

darkjedilink posted...

The fact is, despite all the economic doom and gloom from the left over Trump's policies, we're looking at some of the best economic numbers of the last 40 years. Despite the faux outrage over child separation at the border, most voters blame the parents and not Trump. Despite all the complaining about North Korea, most Americans approve if Trump's handling of it. Despite all the spin about the IG's report, it turns out Trump was right about Comey and his favorite agents.

Absolutely nothing that the Dems have been crying over since the election has actually worked out.

yeah this article notes that the better economic climate works in Trump's favor

not sure about that family separation bit, but I'd be interested in seeing polling
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

The proportion of individuals with overweight and obesity misperceiving their weight status increased over time between 1997 and 2015 (37% to 40% in men; 17% to 19% in women).
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

Solar_Crimson posted...

Just wait until Nintendo vs. Capcom is announced.

I thought that Nintendo had already done an arcade board with Capcom, known as the Triforce, but that was with Namco (and Sega)
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

yeah the last time I played D2 was probably like... damn... at least 7 years ago, and maybe more like 10

gat damn time passes
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

bump!
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

KamenRiderBlade posted...

Balrog0 posted...

it's more like, if someone steals your $50 beater bike and get caught, should they only be fined or go to jail?

Why not 'Fine them' & 'send them to Jail'?

Balrog0 posted...

personally if it was up to me I'm saying neither. neither helps me, and the adjudication process would certainly take more than $500 in public resources even he just plead guilty which we can't assume

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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

it's more like, if someone steals your $50 beater bike and get caught, should they only be fined or go to jail?

personally if it was up to me I'm saying neither. neither helps me, and the adjudication process would certainly take more than $500 in public resources even he just plead guilty which we can't assume

r a d i c a l c e n t r i s m
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives

southcoast09 posted...

Whats different about the Panhandle region?

it is basically oklahoma
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It's one more thing we do to the poor, the deprived: cut out their tongues . . . allow them a language as lousy as their lives