utemia

Reply to WAS IT PROVENCIALISM...OR IGNORANCE in Misc JoeUser Forums

Yeah that did help, thanks. My only experience with american lawenforcement was from my year in Iowa in the grand city of Sheffield, population 1 092, and comes down to zero. heh Sheffield didn't even have a police station, and no major crime. Interestingly though, Mason City, around 20 miles away and one of the bigger cities around, was said to have rough neighbourhoods. It's sort of hard to believe, because Mason City has only about 30 000 people or so - it is a provincial town in Iowa..</p

Reply to WAS IT PROVENCIALISM...OR IGNORANCE in Misc Stardock Forums

How different are the lawpractices of the cops from state to state and county to county? And can you explain to me the difference between the sheriff department and a police department?

Reply to Humor under Communism in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I am glad you like it, I found the jokes pretty funny and good myself. It is too bad that the proverb couldn't be translated into english more adequatly - it sounds pretty wooden here. There are hundreds of "farmers rules" in german, and most are humerous or satirical. Human spirit is an amazing thing.

Humor under Communism in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I was trolling Spiegel magazine and found this article and thought I'd share it. Enjoy East German Jokes Collected by West German Spies Did East Germans originate from apes? Impossible. Apes could never have survived on just two bananas a year. Such jokes were whispered in communist East Germany -- and West German spies recorded them dil

Reply to Block That Kick in Misc JoeUser Forums

haha touché. I didn't say that no contact happened during the game, but the overall goal isn't to jump the opposition and to wrestle them to the ground so that the quarterback can throw the ball to the runner in order to make ground or to touchdown (did I get the overall goal in football right?). Soccer can be pretty ruthless and you can get bad injuries, but it is not the main tactic of the game and hence players don't usually need protective pads. I never understood why soccer wasn't

Reply to Block That Kick in Misc JoeUser Forums

Yeah.. but soccer is not a contact sport and you don't have to wear protective gear for sensitive anatomy nor pads etc. in order to avoid injury during tackles. And we us a ball that is actually round and gets passed by rolling on the field. I can't wait for the next world cup.

Reply to Do you want transparency or do you want feel good? in Politics Stardock Forums

Well. Only nutballs have the same stance on every issue that comes up in life, so all in all you just described what is probably the norm for most with your oppinions being all over the place. Transperancy - and the thousands of different political views that exist, also makes it nearly impossible to have decisive statements from big international conferences of the UN, G-20 etc. The enddeclaration have to represent everybody and so it is dilluted until it so commonplace that one size

Reply to Block That Kick in Misc Stardock Forums

Even if that story is not true - and one almost hopes that it really is just a tale - it could very well happen just like that. I didn't grow up with american football and the plays and moves and tactics were just very confusing for me whenever I watched a game - not that that hindered the fun of watching a game any. My guestmom in Iowa loved the Packers, her boyfriend loved the Vikings - tensions were high when they played each other. We also did football parties where everybody dress

Reply to Running out of awards to give to Barack Obama in International JoeUser Forums

I think it is a great thing to be an idealist - the world always needed people with vision. I wasn't criticising that you are an idealist, just that your idealism is misplaced in this particular instance. Socialism will never work because humans don't tick like that - and it only ever works on a national level if you apply force. Look what happened in the chinese cultural revolution, how many people were killed or sent into labour camps to "reform" them - all in the name of communism and a b

Reply to Running out of awards to give to Barack Obama in International JoeUser Forums

[quote]What I said is pretty simply, but yet you, as well as others, just dont seem to get it.[/quote] There is nothing to get, and you don't want to accept that. Some Utopias are just unrealizable. Living in a socialist/truly communist way may work in small familylike communities where everybody involved invests personal belief and energy and hard work. I doubt the same thing works if you expand over a certain size. I KNOW that it does not work - and you said it even yourself. You're way too

Reply to Running out of awards to give to Barack Obama in International JoeUser Forums

[quote]I also think Stalin's Russia and Mao's China were efficiently run states, for the purposes of their masters. I still disagree with what they wanted to do. But I agree that communism was the best way to do it.[/quote] Millions of people died of starvation in both states because of politicy decisions made and mad ideas decided in despotic minds. You'd be correct that communistic dictatorship is the best way to achieve that. AJ, it is telling in itself that both countries, Russia

Reply to Running out of awards to give to Barack Obama in International JoeUser Forums

hey ChuckCS That is not what I meant nor said. [quote who="ChuckCS" reply="20" id="2401889"] You don't even want him to do something that turns out good in the end because that'd prove you all wrong lol - or so it seems at times. I can agree with just about everything you said before, but this makes no sense. You seem to be under the impression that something that Obama does will yield positive results as oppose to saying could turn out good. I have noticed how often people complain

Reply to Running out of awards to give to Barack Obama in International Stardock Forums

I think the award has long since lost its original special meaning and has turned into a politicum. People are almost randomly chosen, or so it seems. The same is true for the literature nobel price. I personally think that Obama hasn't really done anything that merits the award so far. And he is quite young and not even a year in office, so the decision looks weird. But it isn't his fault that Afghanistan and Iraq are violent and that it is difficult to make a lasting diff

Reply to NINETEEN YEARS !! in Misc JoeUser Forums

The revolution as it were had started before when people left the GDR en masse via the FRG embassy in Prague and Hungary, but the whole thing culminated in Berlin when people simply lifted the border barriers themselves and walked across and through the Brandenburg gates and started to pick at the wall. I have a friend who heard the news in the radio and thought it was a hoax. She was 19 at the time and simply couldn't fathom that this should be possible. Nobody thought it was possible becaus

Reply to NINETEEN YEARS !! in Misc Stardock Forums

The 3rd October 1990 was a randomly chosen date to sign the dotted line of the reunification process. The truly remarkable fall of the Berlin wall happened on 9th November 1989 and during the months before that. The communal elections in spring 1989 were so fraudulent in their endresults that the people started to protest and a peaceful revolution took place. The people challenged the regime and organized a demonstration every monday where one of the slogans was "We are the people" (Wir sind

Reply to Bikini's and sex bombs - for the benefit of mankind in Blogging JoeUser Forums

lol bfd. no pictures, but be sure to pick up a swimsuit edition to refresh your memories in case you forgot what it looks like :D Kingbee, true enough. but the bikini did liberate woman, sadly not around the world but in a lot of places where once very traditionalist patriarchical society structures existed and exist like South america, Europe, the US. To show off your body if you had it and walk basically "naked" was pretty radical, especially if you consider what sort of swimswear w

Bikini's and sex bombs - for the benefit of mankind in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Just a few weeks ago I watched a really cool documentary about the Bikini and its origin. The bikini was created in 1946 by a french designer. Coincidentally, the US had started a series of nuclear tests "for the benefit of mankind" on the Bikini atolls, and because it was a provocative isse the fashion designer named his invention after said atoll. Sexbomb refers to that insofar as the name bikini derives from the nuclear bomb tests, so a hot woman wearing a bikini became a sexbomb.. It libe

Reply to Sea Robbery and Terrorism around Somalia in World Trade Issues JoeUser Forums

[quote]Yeah, and a few years later people were fed up with living in Vespuccia and renamed the land "America". [/quote] well I heard a different anecdote, but I guess nobody really knows for sure. Your version is nice as well.

Reply to Sea Robbery and Terrorism around Somalia in World Trade Issues Stardock Forums

Facts I know about Kenia: Lots of tourisms and safaris (I see the adds in the papers from time to time), former british colony, pretty stable - otherwise there wouldn't be so much tourism, they have really fast runners, had some political uprisings due to an election about a year ago or more which I didn't really follow that much because it IS in africa and far away and doesn't really concern my daily life. You take some things too seriously, and also automatically assume that nobody k

Reply to The Afghan War in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]Oh, did I mention that Pakistan is a nuclear nation and once the Taliban gains full control of that country they are going to have a bunch of nuclear weapons they can use in the war on anti-terror? [/quote] Unless you would really prefer that option - and even if I am not a security expert by any means I can figure out by myself that Taleban + nuclear arsenal is bad - our national security interests (our - most democracies around the world and particularly the western industrialized na

Reply to Not Today in Blogging JoeUser Forums

[quote]You don't sleep on sheets? [/quote] haha of course we use bedsheets.. even though I don't own egyptian cotton ones. That's a luxury I can't afford yet.. Synthetic foam and latex isn't exactly the same material, and foam matresses can be very bad indeed. In the course of my parent's humanitarian aid for Croatia and Bosnia a lot of people donated their furniture and I picked up a lot of different sorts of matresses. Foam is very light and cheap and is often used by hospita

Reply to Not Today in Blogging Stardock Forums

[quote]Mattress shopping. Sucks. I would stop there but really, WHO KNEW? Ten years ago we bought a top of the line Simmons Beauty Rest. Each coil is individually wrapped, nice pillow top. You know its a good bed when 9 years later, every time you lay down at night you say, "Gah. I LOVE this bed." And just like that, the love perished. A few months ago we started waking up sore and stiff. Time for a new bed. We've tried/investigated them all. All foam? Too hard. Sleep number? A

Reply to Personal Identification Card in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Credit card, debt card, mobile phone, or an E-mail account if you have them they know who you are, where you live what you buy and where you buy it. From there they know what schools you went to, where you work, what you drive if you have a car, and the sum total of money you have.[/quote] Don't you personally think that this is just a little bit risky? People don't even know where their personel data is stored and who has access to it, and wether those that do have access to sensitive

Reply to Personal Identification Card in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]The answer to this question is Yes, about 20 jokers a year try it. They get banned from entering the USA.[/quote] hah.. I wouldn't really jokeanswer those, americans don't have a funnybone in that regard. How do you know how many people try to be funny and answer those questions with yes?

Reply to Personal Identification Card in Politics JoeUser Forums

Interesting, thanks. I don't know if the European Union passorts work the same, but it is pretty likely that they do. In any case, I didn't give them more information than I stated, and as far as I know there isn't some other file about me stored in some databases. I am a bit freaky about personal data and secure storage of thereof - and there I don't trust the government.