PlaneShift
Fan Area => The Hydlaa Plaza => Topic started by: Parallo on April 07, 2011, 08:31:30 pm
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Hey you guys!
So loads of shit is going down over the world. What is happening in your country? We've been relatively calm in Ireland, given the economic situation, that Omagh bomber chap aside.
I'm sure whereever you are is more interesting. Tell us about it!
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The economy here in the U.S is terrible.
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The Netherlands is still fine, but we are trying to get ourself down their by voting for a party of absolute morrons. (I would never regard someone a morron because of their oppinion, but they really say things just about anyone would find strange). So we're good but intend to join the depression soon! ;)
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Here in Norway, the Data Retention Directive just got passed. People didn't want it, the opposers called it a violation to the European Human Rights Convention, and the hackers of Anonymous are daily bringing down the official sites of the government parties that voted for it.
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The Western world is finished. I intend to leave Europe and move either to India or China, in order that I can still dream of the future.
Well... Don't you think that's kind of early? Sure, Europe and the US are loosing ground, but done for? I think the East will gain some ground on the Western world and the Western world will wake up and strenghen their position. The only question is if their reaction will come in time. If it does (which is not unlikely), this situation will probably, for a while, bring the people of Europe and the US together. The only thing I regret is that we always fail to stay together in times of (more absolute) peace. But it isn't like people to learn from their mistakes (at least not as a society).
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The government might shut down here (USA) because republicans are making a stand on planned parenthood (read: abortion). This is why I lose respect for anybody who votes republican...
The Metafilter article (http://www.metafilter.com/102334/S-that-D-Shut-it-down)
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Erm, Elkarway, I do hope you know that there's much more causing the potential shutdown over here than just that issue...
And also keep in mind that a shutdown requires a disagreement on both sides of the aisle ;)
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Canada is having a boring election, our 8th since '93 which is pretty sad considering a term is supposed to last 4+ years. The last few elections resulted in minority governments where the various opposition parties outnumber the governing party. These tend to be shorter because the governing party can be kicked out of power anytime enough of the other parties members vote an non-confidence measure to make it pass. Previous to this period of minority governments there was this useless Prime Minister that decided to take advantage of a split in the conservative parties to get into the record books as having the most consecutive majority governments, despite being able to stay in power for up to five years with no chance of losing power he chose to have elections every three years.
The end result of this election will likely be another minority government immediately shot down by the three loser parties in order to form a coalition government where members of all three parties can expect to be in Cabinet. We may yet have another election this year right after if the Governor General accepts the (likely Conservative) Prime Minister's advice to dissolve parliament instead of handing power to the coalition.
A big part of the problem is the presence of a party of petulant Quebecers who only run in Quebec and commonly win a considerable number of seats. This party, the Parti Quebecois was formed at the beginning of the Conservative Party split, included many Conservative MPs from Quebec and was dedicated to taking Quebec out of Canada. At the time their platform included the idea that if they did not succeed within 10-20 years they would pack it in but of course now it is just a cash cow for the members of the party. They no longer really stand for the breakup of the country but rather they claim they are just in it for the benefit of Quebecers ignoring completely that political stability in Canada is far more benefit to all Canadians than anything else they could hope to accomplish.
Oh well, I am sure not every Canadian would agree with my analysis and they are free to express their opinion. Aren't you glad you asked?
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Canada is having a boring election, our 8th since '93 which is pretty sad considering a term is supposed to last 4+ years. The last few elections resulted in minority governments where the various opposition parties outnumber the governing party. These tend to be shorter because the governing party can be kicked out of power anytime enough of the other parties members vote an non-confidence measure to make it pass. Previous to this period of minority governments there was this useless Prime Minister that decided to take advantage of a split in the conservative parties to get into the record books as having the most consecutive majority governments, despite being able to stay in power for up to five years with no chance of losing power he chose to have elections every three years.
The end result of this election will likely be another minority government immediately shot down by the three loser parties in order to form a coalition government where members of all three parties can expect to be in Cabinet. We may yet have another election this year right after if the Governor General accepts the (likely Conservative) Prime Minister's advice to dissolve parliament instead of handing power to the coalition.
A big part of the problem is the presence of a party of petulant Quebecers who only run in Quebec and commonly win a considerable number of seats. This party, the Parti Quebecois was formed at the beginning of the Conservative Party split, included many Conservative MPs from Quebec and was dedicated to taking Quebec out of Canada. At the time their platform included the idea that if they did not succeed within 10-20 years they would pack it in but of course now it is just a cash cow for the members of the party. They no longer really stand for the breakup of the country but rather they claim they are just in it for the benefit of Quebecers ignoring completely that political stability in Canada is far more benefit to all Canadians than anything else they could hope to accomplish.
Oh well, I am sure not every Canadian would agree with my analysis and they are free to express their opinion. Aren't you glad you asked?
Great analysis. The parti Quebecois really is annoying. Imagine if the other provinces followed suit :P
Erm, Elkarway, I do hope you know that there's much more causing the potential shutdown over here than just that issue...
And also keep in mind that a shutdown requires a disagreement on both sides of the aisle ;)
If republicans drop the abortion topic, the budget would be passed in a second. What else is there? Some environmental stuff they're squabbling over. And sure both sides disagree, that doesn't mean one isn't right. Risking hundreds of thousands of jobs and reducing funding to clinics that provide abortion services over some idiotic "pro-life" ideal makes you wrong in my book. Not to mention a group of republicans tried to change the meaning of rape so that it required physical force. Why? So that women who were drugged and got pregnant wouldn't be eligible to get abortions.
Don't get me wrong, I think the democratic party is horrible as well. They're just quite obviously the lesser of two evils.
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In The Netherlands we are allready solving our differences by cutting in our militairy budget. Now that might seem a bit silly but we might as well. This way we will be easilly taken over by an evil dictator. This will give us stability (since there is nog discussion anymore) and a big advantage on the rest of the world. Seriously though: I think the Western governments are all spending to much time on details. Wouldn't it be nice if a negotiating party would just say: "We will try to get this through someday, but for now it will just slow down the process way to much to discuss it." Not that I say parties should just drop every statement they made during their campaign. (Our party of idiots did that and I find it immorale).
(Bit of topic:) If all of the governments are this way at the moment I'll just vote for one world leader. If everyone who plays Planeshift votes for me we'll probably win because the rest is to divided anyway. Vote for me and I will make a law that makes every developer help with planeshift. :)
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love the thread, Elkarway could not agree more with you...here in California the budget is perhaps the worst in the states, and I'm at a university of california school where we are feeling it heavily, state taxes are extremely high, salaries for grad students are low (but our union just fought for and won a cost of living increase of 2% per years, we used to have this then it was cut, now it is reinstalled at least on the books)....
I love the poem too, really a lot, and saying that you'll move to India or China is the perfect example of "the best have lost all conviction" ....but you guys, Fox news just kicked Beck to the curb (I found this out from the Daily Show, my news source, sadly I'm not kidding!!)....anyway, my point is the west coast of the states is hurting economically, but at least we haven't been taken over by madmen as other states have been (yes I realize our governor was the terminator, but you have to think relatively here)....
Love to hear what's happening elsewhere, very surprised about Norway passing the data law....strange days indeed.... :detective:
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I should point out that the reason that the Parti Quebecois is so influential is a legacy of how Canada came into being, they (Quebec) are guaranteed something like 25% of the seats in the house of commons as a sop to them for joining with Upper Canada (Ontario) and the Maritime provinces when the British consolidated their dominions in North America (British North America Act.) Their share of the population has been dwindling ever since compounded by the addition of new territories west of Ontario and Newfoundland and (maybe) Prince Edward Island. They got a pretty raw deal historically but that was between France and England. Still the natives got treated far worse.
If Ontario took the same tack the national parties could be devastated as Ontario has about 1/3 of the seats. It hasn't happened because there is no real appetite for it.
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Portugal is well as far as Political Stability is concerned. We've consistently kept the same people in charge from 3 decades back. The general plan has been the slow but sure descent into debt.
This strategy has been competently carried out, since public debt has been coherently enhanced throughout the decades. The lack of focus on transactional goods and Research & Development added to the participation in the "Euro" currency have been factors that we've brought upon to ensure this. And we're in the brink of attaining our objective: some good pity sex from the European Union.
We can't fail. We make sure our productivity keeps low and uninteresting. The current Government decided to have some new elections too, to send out a clear signal that we're hopeless, rather than conscious of our situation. I can smell the European Union's bosoms already.
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Our taxes are to be raised in a few years here in the U.S.
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Our president is an idiot that is already resigning from his job. Out third vice-president is corrupt, giving information to terrorists. A lot of politicians, including the president of our Congress, have lands all over Spain. Spain is a country ruled by liars, thieves, b**ches, queers (the bad kind of them, not that I have anything against homosexuals) and a lovely bunch of
coconuts d***heads and a**holes. All combined with 5 millions of people without job, illegal inmigrants, street crime, mafia and more, and more, and more…
Yea, Spain is a good place to live :D
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Our president is an idiot that is already resigning from his job. Out third vice-president is corrupt, giving information to terrorists. A lot of politicians, including the president of our Congress, have lands all over Spain. Spain is a country ruled by liars, thieves, b**ches, queers (the bad kind of them, not that I have anything against homosexuals) and a lovely bunch of coconuts d***heads and a**holes. All combined with 5 millions of people without job, illegal inmigrants, street crime, mafia and more, and more, and more…
Yea, Spain is a good place to live :D
I hear the weather is nice....
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Sarcasti laugh.Visit Hellas=Hell.
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Can't complain about the weather. Ours is a bit similar to Spain's. In fact, I just had a wonderful time at the Adamastor (http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/9574221.jpg).
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:( Please. Please. Please. Do not let me start to talk. I'm from Italy. I think my country is always able to make people from other countries (Spain included) smile (or laugh loudly) a lot. :(
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Our taxes are to be raised in a few years here in the U.S.
Well, that's actually not that bad. It would kind of help the U.S. be more stable in the future.
From what I've heard at least, the taxes are currently kind of low in the U.S. because they have been lowered to stimulate the economy. This is good for a short amount of time because people will have more money to spend and will be motivated to just buy things and not save the little bit they have, helping the economy through a diffecult time. This is also the reason why the U.S. have lowered the Interest on lowns from the central bank a couple of times in the recent past. This should however always be a temporate sollution. Both the taxes and the Interest rate should be raised as soon as reasonably possible. This makes sure that it is possible to lower it again once the country hits economic harder times again. This seems to have been forgotten by U.S. presidents lately. This created a problem you witnessed lately: in times of crisis the government is not able to lower taxes and interest rates much further and will thus not be able to motivate people to buy things.
So... Sucks for a short time, is good for you and your country on the long run ;)
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Not sure I'd agree that tax rates are all that low in the United States. Our corporate tax rates are in the highest in the world, part of the reason so many companies are taking their jobs to other countries with lower corporate tax rates.
On the individual side sure the Federal rate topes out at 35% but then most states have state income taxes that in some places top out in the 10% range. IN some places you even have city income taxes on top of the state and federal. Now add in your sales taxes ( up to 10% in some parts of my state), property taxes, gas taxes, Social security tax, vehicle taxes. By the time you add up all the different taxes many people are paying well over 50% of what they make to various taxes. In some places with city income taxes this can go to over 60%+ of all income going out in various forms of taxes.
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The bit about increased taxes being helpful implies that the machinery of government is without corruption and rampant waste. LOL
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Not sure I'd agree that tax rates are all that low in the United States. Our corporate tax rates are in the highest in the world, part of the reason so many companies are taking their jobs to other countries with lower corporate tax rates.
On the individual side sure the Federal rate topes out at 35% but then most states have state income taxes that in some places top out in the 10% range. IN some places you even have city income taxes on top of the state and federal. Now add in your sales taxes ( up to 10% in some parts of my state), property taxes, gas taxes, Social security tax, vehicle taxes. By the time you add up all the different taxes many people are paying well over 50% of what they make to various taxes. In some places with city income taxes this can go to over 60%+ of all income going out in various forms of taxes.
Well that could be true ;) I don't live in the U.S. myself. But I think that pretty much goes for every Western country. At the end of the day you just pay a lot of taxes. In the Netherlands we have 19 (going to 20)% taxes on pretty much any product. 33% incometax over the first 18.628 you earn (42% over up till 30,000 you earn above that, and for everything above 55.000 52%). And that's just on products you buy and incometaxes. With us you can also contribute more to your governments. People pretty much have two options when they want to do this: driving or smoking. On both of those we have extra high taxes. ;)
The bit about increased taxes being helpful implies that the machinery of government is without corruption and rampant waste. LOL
Well it's also about economics. And Western countries at the very least have a lot less corruption the for instance some African ones. You don't know what corruption is till you've seen that ;) For everything you need from the government you just pay double so they will not be extremely slow in arranging it. At least in Western countries you pay the extra money to the government, not to some random desk clerk. ;)
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this thread is in direct violation of the forum rules. just wait until a forum moderator signs on. everyone posting in this thread could get reprimanded!
also: http://youtu.be/q0i9acHS_zQ
:whistling:
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dear talad I :love: :love: :love: the southern Europeans...no sugar coating, dark as the day is long, honest as can be...thanks Mishka Toltha Catlemur :love: It's just as bad here, but this is the land of "Hi! How are you! Great! How are you! Great too? Great!!!" even as we all sink together, or 98% of us do...hushing now....
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No, many countries have more obvious and predictable levels of corruption. In Western countries the corruption is more widespread and institutionalized by people who delude themselves and others as to what actually constitutes corruption. It is a romantic notion that Western governments are somehow less corrupt, but it is simply not true. Corruption is the trump card that plays against Democracy or Communism, it works just as well in either system and renders both ineffectual. Until the actual people who constitute these systems decide to quit trying to get whatever they can out of the systems, it will always be this way. And it is the fault of *all* of the individual people who comprise those systems.
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Australia has always been stable in their economy, they never went into a recession, however household budgets were tightened. Julia Gillard is a ginga, comb-over, beak-nose, mono-tone, head shaky, Prime Minister, that is going to get voted out at next election. Money wise Australia is good, however the people are pretty stupid. If you come live here I warn you to be careful at the supermarket, your trolley seriously has a mind of it's own it has steering wheels at the back and front... I mean how stupid can that get?
In New Zealand, things are getting worse money wise, the country is going more into debt, and taxes are increasing = in petrol rises = in everything else rising. However NZ is a beautiful county worth visiting!
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dear talad I :love: :love: :love: the southern Europeans...no sugar coating, dark as the day is long, honest as can be...thanks Mishka Toltha Catlemur :love: It's just as bad here, but this is the land of "Hi! How are you! Great! How are you! Great too? Great!!!" even as we all sink together, or 98% of us do...hushing now....
Great, Portugal gets forgotten one more time. These Europeans are always the same thing. Neko, its time to bring this down.
/me is about to hula dance... But then doesn't. He just looks around suspiciously.
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If Sangwa hula dances one more time, I'm moving to Portugal. :love:
I live in the southern US, and the biggest issues I've seen in the past few years have been centered around the educational system. Cuts to funding for higher education are making it really hard for people to get the education they need for careers, but if you get a mid level degree, say a master's, you still can't get a job because you're either over qualified or not qualified enough. The academic community is outraged, especially at our state governor.
Oh yeah... and did I mention the Oil Spill and all the ramifications of that mess? The best thing to happen last year was for once, a lack of major hurricanes or tropical storms to mess that up even more. They shut down the clean-up flights into the gulf so the President could fly in his helicopter over the spill. Am I the only one who doesn't think a couple hundred extra gallons of oil leaked that day was worth a political fly by?
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Enough with the hula, Everybody Limbo
How Low Can You Go?
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noooooooooooooo....can't believe I forgot Portugal, when that was the first reply I thought was great...so dance Sangwa, dance, and thanks for posting... :sweatdrop:
wish we had middle eastern players who would post here, there are a few candles shining over there....
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stuff about education, mexicans, whatever... :(
DAMN SWIMMER'S EAR! >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
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Is it just me or everyone here is ignoring Neko?
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Is it just me or everyone here is ignoring Neko?
even neko is ignoring neko.
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That neko.
:) ;) :D ;D >:( :( :o :innocent: :whistling: :woot:
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O--) for neko...
Let us see what happens in 2013 with Italia, it will be nice to stop hearing the name Berlusconi...Alfano sounds almost as disgusting...honestly, you could just look as some of these people's faces, without knowing a thing about them, and understand everything that is important about them.
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p.s. Parallo, Ireland is not at all boring, I still am in awe of the country that gave us James Joyce, many things must simmer underneath the gorgeous cold countryside....
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As I am in my 4th country in two years I say as long as I have my research funding things can fall apart around me and I shall still be content :D .
I think we should just take something from good old Belgium. They had some of the most productive times when they had no national government. It is obvious as resources shrink, populations grow, and the cost of life ever rises vast changes to the current structures of Nations, developed or not will have to take place. Of course places like the US and parts of Europe that are so set on how they organize and execute as a whole will face the worse repercussions than other areas that take a progressive approach to the problems at hand
I guess as I plan to try and stay in France, UK, Germany, Switzerland, or The Netherlands and I hope they can be smart enough about things and retain some stability in times to come, or at the very least keep funding the most important things, such as Nuclear Fusion research :whistling: .
@Tesh : You should really escape that dirty south nonsense and move up North or better yet to the EU, :love: haha. Cheers.
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You all think you got it bad. Here in the UK fish and chips are soggy due to Greeny Health Police, Decent Single Malt is way to expensive, Tobacco is over taxed, London is over rated, and the guinness tastes as if it really was made from Liffey Water.
Oh! Something about whinging students and arming Lybians? Where's the justice?
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You all think you got it bad. Here in the UK fish and chips are soggy due to Greeny Health Police, Decent Single Malt is way to expensive, Tobacco is over taxed, London is over rated, and the guinness tastes as if it really was made from Liffey Water.
Oh! Something about whinging students and arming Lybians? Where's the justice?
What about gas prices!? Here it's terrible.
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old
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You all think you got it bad. Here in the UK fish and chips are soggy due to Greeny Health Police, Decent Single Malt is way to expensive, Tobacco is over taxed, London is over rated, and the guinness tastes as if it really was made from Liffey Water.
Oh! Something about whinging students and arming Lybians? Where's the justice?
What about gas prices!? Here it's terrible.
1.77 euros per l.
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You all think you got it bad. Here in the UK fish and chips are soggy due to Greeny Health Police, Decent Single Malt is way to expensive, Tobacco is over taxed, London is over rated, and the guinness tastes as if it really was made from Liffey Water.
Oh! Something about whinging students and arming Lybians? Where's the justice?
What about gas prices!? Here it's terrible.
1.77 euros per l.
3.45 dollars here.
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This is very strange, gas prices higher here than Greece...maybe it was only the UK that had high gas prices (and I thought it was not a bad thing, discouraged driving)....gas prices in the states are fluctuating in a really weird way, seems to have no correlation to the price we are paying per barrel for our Saudi/Venezuelan oil (I checked this some years ago when we first hit $4 per gallon)...ah, this is the problem!!! Catlemur, the price you quote is euro per what volume??? I'm sure it is not a gallon...
p.s. Saaaaarrraasss, you are sounding much less like a sassy young girl, and much more like a crabby old man pretending to be a sassy young girl....lighten up babe, go away from threads you don't like, it's easy, I do it all the time!!! Ciao and love from ninas :devil:
EDIT: Right, it is per liter, so..../me converts quickly....ok, 1 gallon/3.785 L...and $1/1.4435 euro...gives us...
$4.64/gallon for gas in Greece...that makes more sense, the US is known for cheaper gas, because we drive all over creation and back (stereotype but mainly true).
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It is not per gallon it is per litre.We also have a 1100 euros average salary.
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Everywhere gas prices are going up. Makes ya want to move to Canada and change your name Polaski, live in a hut in the wilderness of toronto, and eat bear meat for the rest of your life.
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They seem to eat mostly bacon, not bear: http://youtu.be/_NMyAbFmsb4
Unless that was bear bacon?
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They seem to eat mostly bacon, not bear: http://youtu.be/_NMyAbFmsb4
Unless that was bear bacon?
There's bears in canada... I might as well eat em.
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Ah the famous wilderness of Toronto, You are talking about the Don Valley Parkway's gully aren't you? Maybe up around Temagami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temagami)
I suppose you might be talking about Queen street but that is a whole different kettling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettling#Canada) of fish!
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My dad went to Canada to hunt. It's a good vacation place.
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As I am in my 4th country in two years I say as long as I have my research funding things can fall apart around me and I shall still be content :D .
@Tesh : You should really escape that dirty south nonsense and move up North or better yet to the EU, :love: haha. Cheers.
To the first... I would have been happy too, but they yanked my funding down here, and won't give it back! The turds. :'(
To the second... I'm coming! Save me a cookie. :love:
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... Funny how I live in Toronto, just drove down the Don Valley Parkway today, camped in Temagami a couple years ago, and hate Queen's street mostly because... Well let's not get into that. Anyways, I find my true home in Casa Loma.
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As I am in my 4th country in two years I say as long as I have my research funding things can fall apart around me and I shall still be content :D .
@Tesh : You should really escape that dirty south nonsense and move up North or better yet to the EU, :love: haha. Cheers.
To the first... I would have been happy too, but they yanked my funding down here, and won't give it back! The turds. :'(
To the second... I'm coming! Save me a cookie. :love:
The southern part of the U.S. is a pretty good place. Just avoid the trailer parks. :D
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I think we should just take something from good old Belgium. They had some of the most productive times when they had no national government.
Had? Last time I checked we still didn't have a government over here:p And honestly, a big part of me stopped caring a while ago too, only annoying thing is that we have to go vote every year for no reason at all. Since nothing ever seems to change.
Myeah Belgium is annoying... Life isn't bad here though, it just rolls on, but I'm out of here as soon as I'm able to:p
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For the uniformed: http://youtu.be/dSrEPsFYKO4
oh, there's a few choice words used. so cover your sensitive eras if you can't handle it.
also, in similar news, Guile's theme song continues to go with everything: http://youtu.be/6ghmcyzmn7M
Everything.
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The cucumbers have been proven innocent!
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it was minks' pure fat ;D
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p.s. Parallo, Ireland is not at all boring, I still am in awe of the country that gave us James Joyce, many things must simmer underneath the gorgeous cold countryside....
I'm the only person I know that has read more than the Dubliners. Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave.
Seriously, there are no more Shaws, Wildes, na nGopaleens, Kavanaghs, Yeats'. Well, we have Heaney but he is senile. Everyone seems to think we're this island full of little scholars when we are still just an island full of west British peasants.
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What about Bono and The Edge? Van the Man?
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well who knows what Yeats would have produced had he had to sing for his supper.
Anyway I was only slightly serious about U2. Van Morrison does have more literary pretensions.
I have to say though that comparing the best of somebodies work with the worst of someone else's is not really fair. Also my comparing
musicians with poets wasn't really on the nose either as they are quite different
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I'm a pub musician. I 'sing for my supper', but with an instrument. I'd sooner choke on my own vomit than stoop to performing U2. I wouldn't be quite as adverse to doing a little of Mr. Van, but as I said, I'm singing for my supper and it is a thin line we must tread; then I'd probably not be paid.