The Current Events Thread

[Lambeth]

Well yeah, but that has nothing to do with Iraq. Iraq was invaded because intelligence thought A) the president Saddam was working with Al-Qaeda and B) they thought Saddamn was creating weapons of mass destruction(AKA nukes). There was never any meaningful connection with Al-Qaeda and no evidence of nukes were ever found.

[Madican]

Not nukes, weapons of mass destruction. And yeah they did find them. Chemical ones, long since banned by the Geneva Convention. Remember Wikileaks? It was documented that they not only found those weapons, but they decided to keep it quiet lest Americans panic at the knowledge of what they'd discovered.

[Lambeth]

[citation needed]

I know they found chemical weapons, but I thought they were old and hadn't been used since the last iraq war.

edit: and I remember the search for nukes because I very clearly remember hearing Condoleezza Rice saying "We do not want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." The white house had a propaganda arm for this and everything.

[[Citation Needed]]

[citation needed]

LEAVE ME OUT OF THIS

SAN FRANCISCO —
A study arousing interest online has found that checking Facebook or Twitter is more alluring than sex for those immersed in Internet Age lifestyles.

The week-long poll conducted in Germany by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business classified checking social network tweets, pictures, comments and other posts as stronger than sex and cigarettes in terms of temptation.

“Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not cost much to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist,” Wilhelm Hofmann, the study’s lead author, told the Los Angeles Times.

People ranging in age from 18 to 85 took part in the poll by using smartphones to regularly update researchers regarding their cravings to check in with online communities.

Study participants were also asked to track hankerings for sex, alcohol, cigarettes, or other gratification.

Yearnings for fixes of Facebook, Twitter or other social networks were ranked as the hardest desires to resist, according to reports about the findings.

The study also revealed that work was a fierce addiction.

People able to stave off urges for sex, shopping sprees, or other temptations tended to cave when it came to working, the study showed.

honey I CAN'T sex I have to check my Facebook

[Tetrunes]

Hispanic Vote is OP, nerf now.

[Syobon]

I am unsure of how Gore would have taken 9/11 if he won, which if not for the Electoral college, he would have...

I think he would have handled it way better. The attacks might still have happened but Gore should as hell wouldn't invade fucking iraq

It must be working. I don't hear stories about European politicians being stupid. They might be mean, have bad policies... but it feels like only in the United States of America can an idiot be president.
Perhaps it's because there are less uneducated people in Europe? (I'm thinking this in relation to how Romney reckons he'll cut school funding.)

Funny you say that, Belgium was without an official government for a while recently

That had more to do with aforementioned political clusterfuck. The reason we didn't have a government is basically because people are starting to think we shouldn't even be a country. The fact that Belgium still exists is like a living testament to compromise.

[wordNumber]

Why don't people think Belgium should be a country?
I've never really heard of an issue like that before. I mean, there's the whole Yugoslavia thing, but that still seems different from what you're talking about.

[Syobon]

There are two big parts of Belgium, a French-speaking and a Dutch-speaking part. They don't always get along so well, and there are complicated issues that just won't get resolved.

[wordNumber]

Oh, it's more of an issue of two groups wanting to succeed from each other. I thought it was more like some other nation thought Belgium's land shouldn't technically belong to Belgium, or something. That's much more understandable.

[[Citation Needed]]

Two wedding parties have an all-out brawl in hotel, police from all over Philadelphia called in to end to fight, tasers and batons used.

An uncle of one of the brides died of a heart attack.

The best part is that there was really no reason for the fight at all.

[Mr. Mander]

The Humble Bundle program has now expanded to e-Books as well as Video Games and Music.

Do you think the Humble Bundle's methods of "Pay What You Want" are going to catch on to a broader audience? I ask because it would probably radically reshape capitalism if it were to be so.

[D-vid]

No it won't, CEOs like cheddar too much to let people decide how much things are worth to them.
I could see smaller developers or new developers who want to publish themselves jumping on it though, especially if it's together with kickstarter.
Kickstarter to finance it, pay-what-you-want to sell and promote it.

It would help getting quality games, since only things many people are interested in would get financed.

[Syobon]

It's way too risky a strategy to ever be implemented on a large scale. Maybe with a safety net built in like a minimum price, but corporations generally dislike unpredictable sales income.

[wordNumber]

If you think about it, the idea of costumer-set prices would ruin the "Stock Futures" market.

[Guyperson]

Oh boy vice-presidential debate.
God I love how every time Ryan says a complete lie Biden just starts laughing.