Lurker > red sox 777

....Republicans, are you trying to make me vote for Obama?

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90s games > 00s games

And the Yankees lost to the Orioles in our other extra innings day game. I do like how often the Yankees lose to the Orioles, they'd be pretty far ahead if not for that.

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90s games > 00s games

Also, Detroit is now on pace to win 91 games, which renders them much more deserving of a playoff berth than if they were to finish with less than 90 wins, as had seemed likely for much of the season. Sub-90 win teams making the playoffs over more deserving teams is usually sickening.

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90s games > 00s games

it's not like the AL matters anyway since the Phillies are gonna win it all again!

because as we all know the best record means the best team

As MWC would say, a .600 team in the NL is a .500 team in the AL. Though it's actually more like a .550 team in the NL is a .500 team in the AL, based on the last 8 years of interleague play. Looking forward to the Red Sox/Phillies Hitting vs. Pitching showdown in the WS (hopefully none of this small sample size playoff stuff gets in the way).

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90s games > 00s games

If you don't live on land you own yourself, you shouldn't be allowed to vote. That's right, even if you live in a multi-million dollar penthouse apartment in Manhattan, you shouldn't get to vote for lack of property. Even if you have a vacation home in the Hamptons. You'd have to move over there as your primary residence.

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90s games > 00s games

Ugh, that thing is disgusting.

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90s games > 00s games

It's a parody of LMS, guys.

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90s games > 00s games

Darn. There must be vengeance for this changed result. Down with Mario!

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90s games > 00s games

It got that close to Galaxy 1? Well that settles it then, Paper Mario > Galaxy 2.

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90s games > 00s games

Because Paper Mario > Galaxy 2? Maybe not, but they should be pretty close in strength, and I'm a Paper Mario fan.

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90s games > 00s games

November 23, 1998
August 22, 1995

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90s games > 00s games

November 1998 still looks like the most stacked to me, though this year could change that if the games live up to their hype.

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90s games > 00s games

That does seem pretty big. All we're missing is a main-line Final Fantasy title.

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90s games > 00s games

Also, this OOT hate from LMS has gotten really annoying. I guess it could be our just deserts for all the venom directed at Brawl over the years, but I've got to think that Brawl is objectively horrible, in the sense that everyone ought to find it subjectively horrible.

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90s games > 00s games

Yay, OOT and MVP Baseball won. If you want to start calling results abominable, well......*sees that CT hasn't lost yet*.........I guess there aren't any abominable results yet?

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90s games > 00s games

Nor are you entitled to an employee. You can't employ whomever you want whenever you want. To hire someone you've got to make a deal. That deal can contain provisions like, "you can't fire me because of x, y, and z."

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90s games > 00s games

#6 Super Mario World (Thousand-Year World of Sunshine Conference)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Smash Trigger Conference)
MVP Baseball 2005 (Metroid Eater Conference)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Patriot Time Portals Conference)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Nintendo Objections Conference)
Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal (Games of the Decades Conference)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Cult RPG Galaxy Conference)
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (Twilight Barrel Galaxy Conference)
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Thousand-Year World of Sunshine Conference)
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Tanooki Blitzball Conference)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Smackdown Hotel Conference)
#12 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Patriot Time Portals Conference)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (Thousand-Year World of Sunshine Conference)
#4 Super Mario Bros. 3 (Tanooki Blitzball Conference)

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90s games > 00s games

Well there isn't really much to discuss. We got a burst for Part 1000 of self-referential and nostalgic discussion.

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90s games > 00s games

Just post it. Someone will probably read it. And if not, it's not like you wasted space or anything by posting it. There's plenty of space on the internet.

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90s games > 00s games

If Brawl beat Melee in this contest, it would be expected and would probably not change my ballot. Brawl would still be unranked because it still can't beat the other games in the top 25, and Melee would stay where I have it at #2 because it still can beat them. Those probabilities wouldn't change much at all to me, so neither would my ranking.

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90s games > 00s games

Also, why would giving to churches be any less charitable than giving to any other charity? Don't even bother to answer that; it's simply no less charitable.

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90s games > 00s games

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

It is an interesting data set to go through, but I doubt that church donations have much to do with it. According to the IRS website (which this data is collected from, although I can't quite see how as they are not explicit in their methods), the majority of revenue from donations comes from corporations. What I would assume this is measuring is not an effect of "red states are more generous with their money than blue states", but rather "these states have a higher ratio of corporations to people than others." Lots of corporate HQs in Wyoming, but a low population density. Which is why it looks like a whole fifth of every persons income is going to charity.

That seems unlikely to me, because big corporations are found in much greater numbers in blue states. Look at where big business happens- most of it is centered in big cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, etc. If you look at large corporate law firms for example, New York City firms alone might employ more corporate lawyers than all the red states combined, because of all the business activity that goes on in New York on Wall Street.

I haven't really looked into it myself but I've never seen any reason to question conservatives being more generous than liberals. It's something I would have expected even before seeing any stats.

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90s games > 00s games

Where do our last two contests fit in here?

The last two contests belong to the current period of totalitarian rule by Link, where no one seriously even hopes for any other result to occur because they know Link will win again.

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90s games > 00s games

Political Parties

There were 4 large parties in the Parliament of the Realm: The Tea Party, the Mario Party, the Monarchists, and the Corporatists. The Tea Party led the charge to take away wealth unfairly held by the middle and rich parts of capitalist class and give it to those who deserved it, the super rich of the capitalist class. The Mario Party was a regional party, serving the interest of the former Mushroom Kingdom. There was always some residual underlying tension between the Mario Party and the King, as the Mushroom Kingdom had formerly been as powerful as the Kingdom of Hyrule before the Great Union of Nintendo. The Monarchists favored expanding Link's influence; while Link theoretically had unlimited power, he rarely used it, and the Monarchists desired the King rule the people with a firmer hand. The Corporatists were the chief advocates of corporations, believing that it was better for wealth to be controlled by faceless large corporations than by wealthy individuals, however rich they might be.

The Terms of Surrender had dictated that the former Kingdom of Square, now the Proletariats, would have 5% of seats in Parliament in the Kingdom of Hyrule, and they regularly elected Communists to Parliament, although in many elections the proletariats would hand victory to members to one of the 4 main parties as well. The Communists thus usually held 2-3% of seats in Parliament, and in practice their role was mainly to sit there and suffer verbal abuse and condemnation from the other parties. Among the Communists there was a split between the Royal Communists, who wanted everything to be owned by Link, and the Socialist Communists, who advocated the end of the Monarchy and end of private property entirely. This was of course treason on its face, but Link never put them on trial for it, and the Socialist Communists were always a minority laughingstock even within their own party, getting a deputy elected to Parliament once in many years.

By the way, to clarify the timeline:

Great Union of Nintendo: June 2002, Kingdom of Hyrule and Mushroom Kingdom united under one king, Link.
The Great War: July-September 2002, Nintendo wins.
The Second War: July 2003-May 2004, Square wins, conquers Hyrule.
The Third War:
- The Reconquest: August 2004-October 2004, Nintendo retakes Hyrule.
- The Advance: November 2004-July 2006, Nintendo wins, Treaty of Midgar signed.
The Communist Revolution (Red October): October-November 2007, Communist rebels overthrow the Kingdoms of Hyrule and Square.
Civil War: September-November 2008, Link reconquers Kingdom of Hyrule, Cloud reconquers Kingdom of Square
The Fourth War: April 2009-June 2009: Nintendo conquers Midgar, Terms of Surrender signed annexing the Kingdom of Square to Hyrule.

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90s games > 00s games

Proletariats, on the other hand, were forbidden from owning land. Anything else they might purchase with the fruit of their labor, but not an inch of land could be owned by a proletariat in the kingdom. The exception was a small number of proletariats, who had formerly been high nobility in the Kingdom of Square. The final Terms of Surrender had permitted a small number of nobles to retain their land, and Link never broke his word.

Slaves could not own anything, not land nor goods nor services nor themselves. Capitalists owned slaves, but not all capitalists used them in labor, and even the ones who made their slaves work generally did not impose a heavy burden of work upon them. Work was seen as proletarian and thoroughly beneath the dignity of a capitalist, and within 5 years after the end of the war, a trend had started where capitalists began to view their slaves working as also beneath their dignity. Within a few years after that, only the poorest capitalists still made their slaves work, while the wealthy generally bought slaves for the purpose of reselling them later, at a higher price. Strange as it seemed to many people, the price of a slave soon exceeded the lifetime earnings of a proletariat, and ultimately went as high as 10 times the lifetime earnings of a proletariat.

The total income of the realm was divided as follows: 50% for the Crown, 25% for the top 1% of capitalists, 20% for the next 19% of capitalists, 4% for the last 80% of capitalists, and 1% for proletariats. Wealth was more equitably divided: 65% for the Crown, 30% for the top 1% of capitalists, 4% for the next 19% of capitalists, 0.9% for the last 80% of capitalists, and 0.1% for proletariats. Still, by Year 7 after the Reconquest, there was a large movement receiving support from many capitalists complaining that the bottom 99% of the population held too large a percentage of the income and wealth of the land, and that the top 1% should receive what they actually deserved but had not been getting. The success of this movement resulted in the election of Bowser to the post of 2nd Minister (Link was his own Prime Minister) on the platform of sending looters to all homes worth less than 2 million rupees every month to loot them, with the proceeds being split 1/3 for the looters, 1/3 for the Crown, and 1/3 to be divided among the top 1%.

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90s games > 00s games

An Excerpt from the History of the Kingdom of Hyrule, Part IX

In the Kingdom of Hyrule, there were 3 classes: Nintendo, Square, and Non-Aligned, which had been renamed respecitvely to Conquerors, Conquered, and Slaves. Alternatively, they were called Capitalists, Proletariats, and Slaves. Capitalists did no work, but owned things, and prospered greatly through their ownership and investments. Proletariats worked all their lives, and earned enough to survive, but no more, for that is the total possible worth of a man's labor. Slaves were owned by capitalists, and existed principally to grant dignity to the defeated proletariats who had once been proud capitalists in the Kingdom of Square. His Imperial Majesty Link, ever magnanimous, had granted at least this much to his enemies in defeat.

Taxes were set to encourage high productivity: The tax rate on the first 100 rupees of income was 90%, falling to 80% for the second 100 rupees, 60% for the next 201st through 400th rupees, 40% for the 401st through 800th rupees, 30% for the 800th through 2000th rupees, 20% for the 2001st through 4000th rupees, 10% for the 4001st through 10,000th rupees, 5% for the 10,001st through 1 millionth rupees, and 0% for all income above 1 million rupees. Anyone who made less than 50 rupees in a year had to pay a bonus tax of 100 rupees.

Capitalists were encouraged to own as much property as possible. The state granted each male citizen of the capitalist class an acre of land at birth, another acre on his 16th birthday, and two acres plus a house on his 18th birthday. Experience and history had shown that risky investments were the most profitable investments on average, so they were encouraged. If a citizen ever went bankrupt, he only had to visit the Palace of Prosperity, where he would be reimbursed for his losses by the Crown.

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90s games > 00s games

You are and should be free to eject people from your property if they say things you dislike. That's legal right now and we don't need an amendment for it, because the First Amendment just applies to Congress (and through the 14th Amendment, to the states). I think the way the Supreme Court has interpreted free speech is basically that it only has to be protected if it advances a substantive opinion, which is why obscenity is not protected. Also, when you can speak can be regulated as long as it doesn't suppress the substantive content of what you are saying (i.e. you can't go into a courtroom and give a poltical speech about the national debt during a murder trial). Jury nullification is illegal, so it's fair to arrest those people for conspiring to commit a crime, and it's not an issue of free speech.

It's important that free speech be protected in public spaces as much as possible. I'm pretty happy with it's application in the US generally- for example the Supreme Court recently stuck down that California law about selling violent video games to kids.

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90s games > 00s games

You probably were top 5 in word count, and definitely top 5 in quality content. I think most of Albion's posts were one-liners.

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90s games > 00s games

The whole point of freedom of speech is to be free to speak what you want in a public setting. Freedom of speech on your own property.....well it's very rare (especially back then) for governments to be authoritarian enough to try to control speech within one's own home. Taking that away would be even more chilling a loss of rights, but I'd call that more freedom of thought or freedom of conscience than freedom of speech. Speech is inherently public (you need someone to speak to).

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90s games > 00s games

I found TRE's numbers for topics 801-850:

LeonhartFour - 2775
Lightslayer987, MyWorldIsCrono, Cyclo_Reaper - 1677 total
KamikazePotato - 1554
red sox 777 - 1331
charmander6000 - 1191
PartOfYourWorld - 896
UltimaterializerX - 855
voltch - 687
HaRRicH - 506
Fayt_Esteed - 469
EternalxCourage - 344
RPGuy96 - 293
KleenexTissue50 - 283
creativename - 249
paulg235 - 236
TheCodeisBosco - 229
XxSoulxX - 190
ZenOfThunder - 181
Hochiminster - 70
BlAcK TuRtLe - 217
Team Rocket Elite - 183
Lopen - 115

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90s games > 00s games

It could be that my memory is just worse now. Probably if I don't know who you are I just assume you've posted here at least sporadically since 2005 and I just forgot.

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90s games > 00s games

If anything, I'd say it's actually harder for someone to come into the stats topic and post nowadays. It's not that we're unfriendly or anything, it's just that there's so much in the way of facts about contests that someone who hasn't been here wouldn't know. I don't think we've had any new posters in the last couple of years, except for people like Curt and LMS who were criticized sharply by almost the entire topic.

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90s games > 00s games

Yes, he wrote a script to count posts back in.....2009? He gave us figures for a recent period at that time. Leon was first, and IIRC KP was 2nd. I had a fairly high number of posts too, while Yoblazer and Ulti were in the middle of the pack (despite Ulti making almost every topic). I think Albion was pretty high up there when you combined all his alts.

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90s games > 00s games

I tried to go through the stats topics once to see how many topics each person had created, but gave up somewhere short of topic 50. I'm guessing it would be something like:

Ulti - 700
Solarshadow - 20

Probably no one else has more than 15.

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90s games > 00s games

The Declaration wasn't actually such a great document, in my opinion. They threw the book at King George III, accusing him of every evil they could imagine. I think he was criticized for permitting the slave trade and supporting slave insurrection in the same document. Also, we hold these truths to be self-evident......truths they were, but self-evident? Not to 99%+ of the people in the history of the world up to that point!

But anyway, I do think there's a difference between freedom and property. For example, the right to free speech is an exercise of freedom, not property, because you have to right to speak in public places, and you do not own public spaces.

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90s games > 00s games

The ends of freedom, not the ends of property. Wasn't the land all the property of the king? The people lived on his land at his pleasure, which could be taken away at any time for any reason or no reason at all. It's his land.

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90s games > 00s games

All of our founding documents answer that question with a pretty resounding "NO!"

All except the Constitution, which says that our rights and powers derive from the people, instead of God (God isn't mentioned, but the people are). And if the source of all legitimate power is the people, then yes, the people do have the right to elect representatives who take away rights. Even for the rights in the Bill of Rights, all it takes is 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the states to take them away.

The Constitution also gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. I think this power is abused to a huge degree, but this case actually does involve interstate commerce- what is more like interstate commerce than truck drivers who drive freight between states?

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90s games > 00s games

Interest, probably.

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90s games > 00s games

Cheap housing prices are something communists like you should LOVE! They benefit poor non-property owners at the expense of richer property-owners. What kind of Marxist doesn't love that?

That's why everyone needs to own property. If you don't own property, you're a proletariat, and if you're not trying to stop being a proletariat, you're a communist.

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90s games > 00s games

Yes, it should. Prohibiting such implies that you do not own you own body. For the record, such contracts DO exist and are perfectly legal. I signed one myself ;)

You don't have control of your body in perpetuity? If you did sign such a contract, it would violate the 13th Amendment, but I seriously doubt you did when you went into the military. But anyways, for me....

Freedom > Property > Order > Equality, but Freedom > Property + Order + Equality combined.

If you have Property > Freedom, I can see why you'd disagree about the selling yourself into slavery example.

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90s games > 00s games

If the law infringes on people's god-given right to private property, then yes. A business is private property. For the government to claim the authority to decide who the company can or must hire or fire is to basically claim that the business belongs to the government. How can you own something if you don't have the authority to use it as you see fit.

But it doesn't infringe on the right to property, just on the right to make contracts. The company didn't have to hire the driver, or any driver, in the first place. By hiring him, they agreed not to fire him for a disability that does not impact his work.

In my opinion, restrictions on the freedom to contract can actually expand freedom. For example, should it be okay to enter a contract selling yourself into slavery? How about indentured servitude? Such a contract IMO decreases the total amount of freedom in the country, because although you are increasing freedom at one point (the freedom to decide to sell yourself into slavery), you are destroying all the freedom that person would have had for the rest of his life.

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90s games > 00s games

It ends with a free market in which people are free to hire and fire who they please without having to receive permission from government bureaucrats.

So you're saying the elected representatives of the people shouldn't be able to pass laws regulating contract-making?

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90s games > 00s games

But what upsets me is that the media presents "housing prices fell" as universally bad news. Without even DISCUSSING the fact that when housing prices fall, that makes it easier for those currently without houses to buy them.

That's perfectly normal. When you buy a house, you want to buy when house prices are going up, so you can make money on your investment. You don't want to buy when prices are going down, because then you're just throwing money away.

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90s games > 00s games

*Aside from mortgage issues, which I personally think should be adjusted to the current market rate for the house in question. Within reason of course.

It's already sort of the case, as you can just default on the mortgage and let the bank take the house. But if you made that the law, mortgage interest rates would probably go way up, which is bad for the people. Price fixing is bad.

I'm actually somewhat open to the government trying to get as many people to own land as possible. I think a large part of the population owning property is good for the country, in a similar way to how people being educated about civics is good for the country.

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90s games > 00s games

It's really simple why people celebrate when home prices rise and don't when gas, food, etc. prices rise. You consume those things, you don't consume your house and you definitely don't consume your land. So, yeah, homes are principally investments for most people, and the fact that they might live in it doesn't make it not an investment.

Also, the reason more people celebrate when stocks go up is that a lot more people are long stock than short stock.

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90s games > 00s games