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And the population of the red states growing will not matter as their Hispanic populations increase. Hispanics might be socially conservative, but that is not the main issue they vote on.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Young people have always voted liberal; they become more conservative as they get older.

The conservative moment is much older now then it was back in the 60's. Youth groups were a large part of the conservative upswing in the 1960's. The same can not be said for the Tea Party. Obama's share of the youth vote was also much larger than Kerry's was, and larger than Clinton's was as well.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

While I see your point, I don't think it would happen, and I think you give the American public too much credit. The younger generation seems much more liberal though, for what it's worth, and they are the ones who will finally say "Enough is enough." Even in the past midterms, the numbers for Democrats amongst 18-25 year old stayed the same, which is a pretty good sign (albeit their numbers sunk amongst 25-35 year olds). All of the future demographic trends favor liberals/Democrats, albeit we face huge issues in terms of apathy amongst progressive groups.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Soy sauce makes dead octopi dance apparently. Dance into my nightmares that is!

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

The internet does AMAZING things for random discovery, look at things like Netflix and Pandora and Google for that matter. You don't even need to be looking for a movie or song to find something new.

The Internet is not online shopping, which is what I'm talking about. Of course there's good aspects to the Internet when it comes to exposing people to media. That doesn't mean that Amazon's doing that. How many people even use Pandora? Compared to the amount of people that shop online instead of in brick and mortar stores.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

This happened with music, and is happening with ebooks. Genre sales for unestablished authors take up a significant portion of all ebook sales.

But how many of those genre sales are from people who are now limiting themselves from any other genres?

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

I remember walking out of Blockbuster with scratched copies of DVDs and games and wanting online media as soon as possible to not have to deal with that sort of nonsense anymore.

Yay for online media!

Blame the media then. I never had a consistent problem with VHS tapes. And the same basic thing would happen in bookstores/libraries/video stores as well that didn't deal with reusing such flimsy materials.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Then you can do a google search for, say, "good 80's horror movies" or "70's blaxploitation" and get a wide selection of titles, with much more information than you'd get just by checking out the box covers and synopsis on the back.

That doesn't have anything to do with directly buying the movies though. And not limiting oneself to a particular genre gives people more opportunity anyway.

Couldn't the argument go the other way? Since there is expanded selection, and it's easier to obtain, aren't people MORE likely to try obscure releases?

Imagine someone hearing about a interesting movie on Wikipedia, or talking to a friend online. Instead of thinking, "I might want to check that out" and then completely forgetting about it the next time they visited a store (even if the store managed to have it), they can now immediately look it up and buy it quicker than ever. I don't think convenience would limit people's choices, quite the opposite.

But the chances of that happening for an obscure movie aren't really out of proportion as they would be with a mainstream movie. If someone really wanted to see the movie, I'm sure they could have gotten it somehow pre-Internet. The chances of someone not being able to find a movie they wanted pre-Internet, post-home video, don't seem particularly high to me.Sure there's a chance that someone would have gone to the video store and not been able to get the obscure movie they wanted, but I feel that that's greatly outweighed by the lowered curiosity that people have when they choose movies themselves.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

People talk about how much more selection you have online, and yeah sure it's great that I'm able to buy some B-movie from the 70's off of Amazon, but what about those "not in the know." People don't browse Amazon the same way they browse in a brick and mortar store. People who are shopping online know what they are going for and they expect to get it instantly. They're not likely to go through the racks and stumble upon something they hadn't heard of before, but which looks pretty interesting, and which they end up enjoying. I would gladly give up my ability to buy some obscure Erich Romer film if it meant that more people in their local video would come across Chinatown by accident.


I remember going to Blockbuster when I was younger and not always coming out with the movie or game that I came in for. That wasn't a bad thing! I was exposed to a lot of good movies/video games that way, but that opportunity is gone the more and more people move towards online sales and digital distribution. People just expect instant gratification, which is not healthy mentally/socially, and also doesn't lead to good cultural exposure. Most film/book/music buffs in the 90's probably had access to the resources to get themselves 90%+ of the various products they wanted, whether through catalogs/stores/libraries/etc, so in exchange for getting access to that extra 10%, and to make life more convenient, we've given up the ability to expose great culture to others. There's a lot of products for sale on Amazon, but most people aren't going to take advantage of that opportunity. They're just going to go after what's most popular.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Yes

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Aside from music I'm also amazed whenever I play Cranium with people at school, how ignorant some people are of pop culture in general. Like, barely anyone knew who Barbara Walters was! What kind of bubble do people live in nowadays? Do people just sit at their computer watching Naruto on Youtube and eating Hot Pockets 24/7?

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

I'm surprised whenever people act so ignorant of popular music. Even if you don't listen to it yourself, how do you go through life without hearing it in a store, in a commerical, in a movie/tv show, etc. There's so many places where music is played.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Just saw an interview with Ron Paul on PBS*. Paul talked up being opposed to corporatism, but when the interviewer asked him how this squares with his rejection of regulations and what would be there to stop corporations from running amuck, he just replied that "The free market would make sure that companies wouldn't be propped up by bailouts if they couldn't make money." which doesn't really have anything to do with the question at hand.



*Link if anyone's interested: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec11/ronpaul_07-20.html
Not anything particularly noteworthy though.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

But this obviously wasn't someone like that. He was a person raised in a democratic, wealthy country. How can someone go so wrong in such a good environment?

People are people. How is this surprising?

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

My favorite moment this week was Jordan's letter from home, where they announced Jordan's potential excitement at a gas station being opened in her home town.

Oh excuse me, gas station/barbecue pit.

Still <3 her though.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

I keep forgetting that Porsche's even on this show.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Is this in response to G+? Because inertia will probably keep Facebook in control. People don't want to make whole new networks.

I mean partly. I've thought it for a while now.

To be honest, I find this sort of "diagonal" integration where one company attempts to buy up major properties in different fields (the same way that media conglomerates try to own as many media platforms they can, having film studios/TV channels/record companies, etc.), a little more worrying than traditional vertical or horizontal intergration. In least in those cases you only have one specific industry to be concerned with.

Look at the media landscape. Almost all of the movies/music/tv, and a lot of print as well, that you consume is filtered through 7 companies essentially (Disney, GE, NewsCorp, Viacom, Time Warner, Sony and CBS), with Comcast now snapping at their heels. How does one even begin to untangle that?

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Bump

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

and all their supporters are lapping it up. "But guys, they said they're not evil."

Oh, OK. I'm sure this glib aphorism is a suitable explanation. It's not like a major corporation (one that barely pays anything in taxes mind you) has ever lied before.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

I'm assuming this is about George Lopez, in which case, yes you should.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

You went to see what is essentially an exploitation film. What did you expect?

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Chase says hello.

If Chase was not a (straight) man no one would criticize him. It's not his fault everyone wanted to be in an alliance with him.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Yes

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

The only really good movie is the 6th one. Haven't seen DH Pt. 1 though,

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Based on the way their campaigns will presumably be won, Jon Huntsman is the only Republican candidate with a real shot at beating Obama, IMO, as he's the only one with the potential to run a positive campaign.

Positive campaigns are way more effective than negative campaigns, at least on a national level. The last person (Clinton) to unseat the sitting president didn't win because he ran as the anti-Bush. He ran with his own message. I don't see why candidates nowadays attack each other as much as they do when they have enough proxies in the media/blogosphere to do it for them.

Ron Paul is the only other Republican candidate who would run not a mostly anti-Obama campaign, but I doubt he could win a general election.

The Paul > Obama > Romney people make no sense. Unless you're only voting on foreign affairs, or based on personality, this chain of preference makes no sense to me.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Any progressive that would support Ron Paul should just accept that they are apparently a one issue voter, apparently. Because if they think he would have any sort of positive effect on domestic issues they are certainly not progressive. That article talks about corporations cozying up to government now. How would deregulating everything the way Paul wants to solve that? The corporations would obviously just get even more powerful. Which is fine if you think that's the way things should work, but that doesn't make you a progressive.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Yep!

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Progress!!

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

I voted.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Good job!

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

I've never played FFXII, but I would say that the main character is the person from whose perspective the story is told, even if they are not the most important one.

Kate Winslet's character is the most important one in The Reader for example, but Ralph Fiennes's character is the main character, because the story is told from his perspective. As long as the game is "told" from Vaan's perspective I would consider him the main character.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Yeah, a title that says a guy fell and died is so misleading, when in reality he fell and died like 15-20 minutes later. Big difference

I think people's problem is that you phrased it so as to blame the baseball player.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Cassi/Shelly = Best couple. Of the newbies at least.

And Shelly actually has a personality. Not fair to compare her to Kathy.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

I don't think that voting for a third party over Obama for president is the right strategy for political change. Things have to start from the ground up. Electing someone like Ralph Nader to the presidency would be a waste, since he would not have that many people to work with in Congress. He would obviously propose much better ideas, but it's not like they would go anywhere.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Danielle looks kind of trashy.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

We have to get a Jordeff/Brenchel strategy session

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!

Why are you shifting the burden of proof on me

Because people claiming voter fraud is a problem are the people initiating these bills. The burden of proof lies on them.

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"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!