Jingus

It's not a case of rigging per se. Our presidential election is set up under the Electoral College system, which is kinda weird and allows for various loopholes. The people don't actually directly vote for the president. In each state, the citizens vote for which candidate they want their state's electoral votes to go to; each state has a number of electoral votes equal to their number of Congressmen, which is roughly based on population count. This sets up a situation where more people can vote for one candidate, but the electoral votes happen to add up so that the other guy wins. It's happened four times, three in the 1800s and most recently in 2000, when half a million more people voted for Gore but the wonky rules still had Bush win. Though only once in our history has it really been a case of blatant cheating, in 1876 when backroom political deals basically stole the election and led to the nickname "RutheFraud B. Hayes".

Some have tried. Part of it is the general apathy of the citizens here; less than 50% usually vote. But still, the parties in power have pretty clearly indicated that they're not at all interested in changing our current electoral system. Even though in the year 2000, the guy fewer people voted for still technically won according to the rules. Even though that's the fourth time that's happened in a presidential election. If THAT doesn't get the rules changed, nothing else will, not anytime soon.

Well, both of our parties frequently accuse each other of racism, since in this country a politician would much rather be caught embezzling money than be publicly known as being racist. No, we don't really have our own fascist new party which is worrisomely popular. Like I said, we've pretty much got the same old familiar faces that we've had for decades. This gets covered under the "All Politicians Are Crooks" cliche which is mostly believed by voters. We actually expect these guys to all turn out to be total bastards. There's very little confidence in America that any honest people will ever get into office in the first place. There's often a feeling of "even if we throw out this crook, the next guy might be worse". Hell, that's kind of how Ron Paul got such a bizarre level of support, just because he appealled to those people who were so frustrated and felt disenfranchised with the whole process. In every election a lot of people make empty promises about campaign finance reform, but not much ever comes from it once they actually take office. I dunno, guess it's just an American individualism thing. This country has been founded on the lie principle that One Person Can Make A Difference, and individual personality is often considered to be more important than your party or your platform. Plus, the Clintons are like the world's greatest character assassins, they could write entire sets of encyclopedias on dirty pool. Obama fired back a little bit every now and then, but chose the High Road method and it seemed to work for him. Well, yeah, coulda worded that better, technically they were the second party. They were primarily facing the Democratic-Republican party and then a bunch of little feuding factions, and not two equally big machines. But they were a newly formed party, different from what had come before (though of course the National Republicans and a bit of the Federalists combined forces together to start it) and wasn't just the same two opponents over and over again. It seems like the only thing the Reps and Dems agree on is that they'd prefer to be the only games in town and quietly try to discourage any other competition.

I somehow missed this. You know what my very favorite part of this match is? If you're even vaguely smart to the business, the lineup alone gives away who's going over and who he's pinning to do it. Alright, we got six former world champions, Piper might as well have made it seven, DDP has gotten a few PPV main events, and then Stevie Ray... wait, what the fuck? Stevie Ray?! NWO Hollywood could've stuck in plenty of other higher-profile guys there. Yeah, Steiner, Hennig, and Hall already had other matches on the card, but not important ones. Hell, another member, The Giant, wasn't even on the show. So when you wonder why a guy as low on the totem pole as Stevie was in a match this big, it all becomes clear: he's only there to do the job. And wait a minute, why do all these guys need Stevie Fruitbooty Ray to lay down for them? Hell, that's embarassing for all these guys who have main evented countless big shows. A closer look at the roster reveals one more guy who doesn't quite fit in with the rest: DDP. Sure, he had the feuds with Savage and Hogan, but he'd never been a world champ and just wasn't nearly as big a star as the others. Now it all makes sense. They wanted a match which was overstuffed with big stars, but they wanted DDP to go over, and since it's WCW of course a top guy isn't allowed to elevate a younger one. Diamond cutter, slapjack down, 123.

We have had a few, even relatively successful ones (like the Whigs), just not any in a long time which challenged the standard Donkey Vs Elephant battle of power. One big problem imho with the current Other Parties is that the same ones have been around too long, failing over and over again. Nader running for president again? Who cares, we all know he's got zero shot of winning. Same thing with the Libertarians, the Greens, and all the other also-rans who are always on the ballot but never get even one electoral vote. And all of the newly formed parties tend to be small, poorly funded, and based around causes which aren't popular with the mass public. (As much as I wish we would Legalize It, no candidate is going to be taken too seriously if he runs with that plank firmly in his platform.) I could see a powerful third party forming, and could see it happening very soon if our current trend of crappy government continues into the next presidency. But for it to make a real impact, it would take a large number of important and powerful people from the established parties to defect to the new organization, and a sense among the voting populace that these guys aren't just going to continue doing the same old shit we're used to.

Well maestro, show us all how it's done then.

Come on, you can't serve up a fat slow softball like that and expect nobody to take a swing.

Har har. Although their encounters did sometimes look similar, I really liked the RVD/Lynn series. They did incorporate a bit more psychology than some give them credit for; both guys tend to counter more of the other's offense and spots as time went on. I didn't know that the Holyfield deal was the inspiration for that dumb "ref awards the title" thing, it makes a teeny bit more sense now. Taz/Sabu is always a fun match, same with Tajiri/Crazy, although I wouldn't say either offering here was their best encounter. Corino's PPV debut was a good start for him, even though he got murderized by Balls, he still got his character over. New Jack/Mustafa... it's a New Jack match, what do you expect? Although needing the security guys to carry them back to ringside was just sad, if they're in that bad shape just stop the fuckin' match. I don't remember much of the Dudleys wrestling, mostly just remember Bubba Ray cursing a lot on the mike. And Guido/Antifaz... allegedly happened on this show, even though I don't remember a damn thing about it. The Dreamer/Douglas vs. Impact Players match is... not so good. I'd understand if it was a standard tag match that turned into a big brawl for the second half, but... to do it backwards? They do crazy no-dq Tornado Stylez brawling all over the building for the first half, but then patiently sit in their corner and obey tag wrestling rules about who's the legal man and whatnot afterwards? Ugh. People can bitch about the ECW crowd being a bunch of smarks who always shit over everything which wasn't a chairshot or moonsault, but just remember: when old stars showed up, whether it was Dusty or Hall or like here SID, they still popped like drunken monkeys.

Right here. This'll provide you with way more specific, unbiased information than anyone on a message board. It even has all those wacky third-party candidates in case you want to throw your vote away.

I say "animals", and your mind naturally jumps to Jews, eh? Well now we all know something new about you.

Alright, it was Ravenbomb's turn, but it's been twelve hours, so it went to Jorge. And then it was twelve more hours, so it's also gone to CM Funk. Someone go already.

clearly someone does not understand the implications of

Seriously? That's fucked up. I mean, sacrificing the blood of virgins on the ancient granite altar in tribute to Ba'al, that's one thing. But trying to kidnap a kitty? That's just wrong. You should wait out for them with a semiauto paintgun, loaded with pellets full of glow-in-the-dark paint, in a variety of colors, of the non-washable variety. Let's all have a laugh as the goth kids try to committ their souls to the eldritch forces of the night while they've been splattered into the color of a Randy Savage outfit circa 1995.

Hey, it is getting closer to Halloween again, isn't it? I need to buy smaller needles this year, I've almost perfected my process so the injection marks on the candies are nearly invisible.

People sometimes do questionable shit on the 4th. I remember when I was a kid, one of our neighbors wasn't home that night, and a roman candle or something had gone awry and landed on a pile of wood on their back porch. I glimpsed it out of the corner of my bedroom window, thought they had a campfire going on or something. Wasn't until I told my dad about it that he went over and found out what was up and put it out himself. If I hadn't seen it or hadn't said anything, their whole house coulda gone up. Same kind of situation, a couple years ago I was partying with a bunch of people in this sort of old white ghetto. Small houses, smaller yards, and no driveways so everyone parked on the street. But people were still launching fireworks up and down the street, they were zooming underneath parked cars and exploding there, shit like that. It's a wonder nothing serious either blew up or burned down.

Really? Holy shit, I'm gonna watch the hell out of that. Looks better than Big Money Hustlas, at least. And I've always thought that Raven could actually be an interesting actor. A good star doesn't automatically equal a good movie. I loved Crank and the Guy Ritchie flicks too, but Statham's been in plenty of crap. With Death Race, do keep in mind that this is being made by the same director who did Mortal Kombat, Soldier, and Alien vs Predator and wrote all three of the Resident Evil trilogy. This is a guy who has his PHD in making bullshit. EDIT: and doing a little research, yes, they changed the plot so that it's no longer "a bunch of celebrities run over innocent pedestrians while the world cheers along", it's now "a bunch of convicts are forced into a race where they kill each other". Bravo Hollywood, way to take the one original and unique part from the original movie and puss out on it. Just in case you came out of The Condemned thinking "ya know, this movie would've been perfect if they'd just had some car chases and ripped off Mad Max a lot", this appears to be the film for you.

What is this Asylum of which you speak, and do they often make fake trailers like this? I don't have a real high opinion on Anderson, and don't see how this could be anything but a letdown compared to the original. I mean, the original Death Race 2000 was so twisted brilliant, and so amoral in its violence, I don't think you could get away with stuff like that today. Like, the one chick who was the virgin sacrifice, rolling all the old people in wheelchairs out for Euthenasia Day, a certain political assassination... no way any Hollywood studio would do shit that ballsy in an action flick today. I have zero confidence in the director who made Aliens vs Predator to do anything even half that evil. I have this sinking feeling that it'll probably end up more like Twisted Metal: The Motion Picture with the drivers all killing each other more than killing innocent passengers.

Between the pressing need for tort reform and the insurance industry's Always Say No general policy, this is truthfully one of the more pressing issues facing this country today. Of course, trying to explain why doctors' malpractice insurance costs are fucking over the entire medical industry is nowhere near as sexy as just screaming about how gas prices jumped another dollar, so it rarely gets any coverage in the news. Political candidates often say they want to fix the insurance problem, but they rarely have even the tiniest bit specific mention of an actual plan to do so.

Openly anti-Semitic Muslim rap?! What will they think of next. And considering that right there on his webpage he's got a bunch of Fuck Israel stuff, you'd hope TNA wouldn't take a chance with someone like that. Of course, this is the same bunch of morons who thought hiring Pacman Jones was a brilliant idea.

It is kinda natural. We got our primary language and the majority of our legal tradition from there. Plus, I can't offhand think of any other major countries whom we both fought multiple wars against as enemies and with as allies, and god knows that history class sometimes seems like nothing so much as one long list of wars.

These days? Narnia, easily. Countless millions of people have seen the movies or read the books, who have never even heard of Pilgrim's Progress.

So... big crystal meth problem in your town, eh?

I'm still in shock and awe over the amazing spasm of overacting from Vickie at the end there. Anyone else expect her to suddenly start babbling about how she was so excited, so exciiited, so... so scared? Can someone please explain to me the constant praise and markism which many on the internet regularly bukkake all over Festus? Yeah, the gimmick is kinda cute, but every time I've seen him he's not a terribly good wrestler. His shudderingly godawful "punches" always stand out to me as being particularly business-exposing.

yet ironically in American high school they tend to teach nothing about Canadian history past the French-Indian war

yet ironically in American high school they tend to teach more about English history than any other foreign country