Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

Get a Japanese car, it will last and work great for many years to come. Don't get an American car, it will break down.

The Japanese have taken not stopping too far... Can't even get the buggers to stop when you want them to!

To add to previous advice, don't buy a car because of the nation it is made in or the mileage, every car is individual. My grandma had a new Lexus with more issues than the 19 year old Oldsmobile Cutlass I got for free.

If it is in good condition, and running fine, it probably will continue to if you take good care of it. Which considering the forum we are in, I would hope you do.

All things considered, I wish I would have had that as a first car, instead of the crap heap I got. I don't know what other options you have, but that doesn't seem like too bad a choice to me.

So so very excited for this... there are so many things that no one can predict, so much speculation, mind games and build-up, it will be great to finally be able to see how it all plays out.

Quote from Intrepid :

Would I advocate guns here? Non freakin' way! Without the historical respect as to why you have the right to bare arms it would be chaos...

well, maybe in Scotland or Ireland, but certainly not England.
Though I think you will find you are close to your roots... all these British people are trying to tell me how to live my life, sound familiar?

Quote from Crashgate3 :

And that's why there's not, and never has been any oppression, crime or corruption in the USA. Ever. All thanks to guns.

missing the point completely... it's not to stop crime, or corruption. It's not meant as a law force at all. Intrepid was pretty much right on when he said:"It's designed so that the people have a power. That power being... 'don't **** with us'." That may be a bit more blunt than I would have put it, but it is essentially correct.
Opression, not enough to make the people rise up against the state with guns...if you don't count the Native Americans, they did. Yes, they were wiped out, but they did give the US troops a lot of trouble. I can only think of one other case where people maybe should have defended themselves in such a manner, but they didn't. (Japanese Americans during WW2) What I'm talking out is only reserved for extreme cases.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Straw poll: Out of all the gun-obsessed Americans in here, who are just DYING for that day when someone breaks into their house so they can FINALLY point their ****ing gun at someone; how many of you have actually had to defend your property with a gun?
And if any of you have been in that situation: Have you not considered moving your family to a neighbourhood that isn't overrun with burglars?

I lived in a very nice neighborhood before I moved away to college... I never had a problem, but my next-door neighbor's house was broken into one night when they were there. They don't have a gun, but luckily the person was unarmed and scared off. There have been other robberies in the neighborhood too. My mom and sisters have been forced to lie down in Centennial Park in Atlanta because some psycho was waving a gun around. Also at my college, my friends' house WAS robbed at gun-point, again he didn't have a gun. He does now. My college is in the middle of a major city, there are certainly enough poor, desperate people around, willing to do anything to better themselves.

I also should point out that I am not what you would call a gun activist. Never owned a gun, and I'm for stronger regulation of guns...but against guns totally? no way, never gonna happen. it should be harder to get them maybe, but I wish someone in that park had had a concealed weapon and just shot the bastard. Like it or not, we can't get rid of guns all the way, because there are already so many...the bad guys will always have guns, so the good guys should too.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Most military employees are right-wing. We've seen this in the UK too, when the BNP membership list got leaked last year and there was a disproportionately high number of soldiers (both serving and retired) and policemen on there.

If your government decided to be more authoritarian, do you think the military - who are employees specifically trained to obey orders without thinking and indeed to kill on command, and are typically extremely right-wing - would decide to side with the general populace?

The commander-in-chief is left wing at the moment
they wouldn't follow, they can't even agree on simple matters, let alone killing American citizens.

But yes, even if the leadership was right-wing, there would be some soldiers who wouldn't follow.

and to come full circle, it is precisely because many soldiers WOULD follow orders that we have the right to have guns.

Last edited by RiseAgainstMe!, Wed 10 Mar 2010, 03:44.

Quote from NigelY :

RiseAgainstMe! , I thought your constitution said you could hold arms as long as you didn't have a standing army? I might be wrong.

Nigel.

The second amendment:
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

It says nothing about a standing army in reference to this to the best of my knowledge.

However, It can be argued that because of our standing army, that there is no need for this amendment anymore. But then there is no protection from our own military.

Last edited by RiseAgainstMe!, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 21:36.

Quote from matijapkc :

It looks like that's USA. House full of weapons. In a year or two, everyone will have a rocket launcher, and in few more years, everyone will have nuclear missile...

no, there are restrictions on what type of weapons you can own. Rocket launchers are certainly illegal for civilians. There is a ban on weapons classified as 'assault weapons' too, just look up the US assault weapon ban if you are interested in it's contents.

The house full of weapons bit, yes. It is our culture from the very beginning of our nation. The reasoning being that if civilians own weapons, they are not subject to oppression via someone who has a gun. It stems from that little Revolution thing we had from the British government and it's soldiers. The vast majority of our soldiers were civilians who had guns, and were able to throw off the oppressor. It is written in our Constitution as a fundamental right for civilians to have guns, and is seen as a defense of freedom, whether from criminals, a foreign power, or even our own government.

Quote from morpha :

How exactly would an orange tip on the wii-gun prevent the father from putting a loaded gun on a table in reach of the 3yr old? It's not the companies fault.

And as I said before, there is no game suitable for a 3yr old that requires a gun controller, there is absolutely no reason why a 3yr old would play with any gun, real or toy.

sorry, I misread what he had said, i fixed it.

Quote from Shotglass :

as of yet stupidity while contagious isnt criminal
i suppose you could find some charge of negligence but i dont think any of those are criminal charges unless youre actively doing something that leads to someones death

I would argue that this is negligence, they failed to take adequate safety precautions, and someone who is supposed to be in their care got injured. That falls under negligence in US law to the best of my understanding. The problem with negligence is there is a lot of grey area though, it might be very tough to get a conviction in court. I believe it could fall under murder charges possibly too, but I'm not sure exactly what degree and whether they would be able to make the charges stick.

I'm not a lawyer, though, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Last edited by RiseAgainstMe!, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 19:59.

Quote from samforey12345 :

Lmao it's not the companies fault that the father left a loaded gun on the living room table..

well, no, not that bit...but...

it IS their fault. Airsoft guns for instance carry this label:

"As required by Federal Law this Airsoft gun is sold with at least a 1/4 orange tip. It is illegal to remove the orange tip. Removing or painting over the orange tip will void your warranty."

unless it was removed by the parents, the company broke a law. if the parents removed it, they broke a law.

that orange tip is there specifically to stop accidents like this from happening. it's so you can tell the difference between a real gun and a fake one.

Last edited by RiseAgainstMe!, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 19:42.

Whatever company (maybe not Nintendo) that made that controller should get their pants sued off them. It didn't need to be black, and it certainly needed an orange tip. I remember being small, and that was the first thing I always looked for on my friend's fake guns.

Still, I don't know about a three year-old...that's kind of in the grey area for being able to understand what a gun actually is, and what the orange tip means. 2, certainly not. at 4 or 5, I would expect the children to know the difference.

accidental deaths will happen every so often when there are guns in households, usually because people are stupid. like these parents. They probably should get some kind of punishment for negligence, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is some legal loophole they slide through.

Guns will never be abolished in the USA, the only way to cut down on deaths like this is to somehow make sure people follow appropriate safety procedures. These can vary based upon who is in household and how trained in the use of guns they are.

I'm more excited about this than F1. And I'm extremely excited about F1.

What you said doesn't really make sense when taken that way either.

On topic: one of the best on-board videos I have ever seen. Wheel-to-wheel racing for the entire 15 minutes (2 parts) between some very, very fast drivers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5khlaTXyM80&NR=1

Just why does Ford being based in America have anything to do with it's popularity in the world? and I thought being American-made was a "bad thing" these days...

they've completely remover USGP and not changed prices at all that means I have to reconfigure my lineup

Quote from piggy501 :

Sadly, this.

The original song... I actually kinda like it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... EmXac&feature=related

Does anyone else find Lada sponsoring a F1 car to be somewhat ironic?

F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport; no cost is spared in the pursuit of a ridiculously complex technological marvel. Lada is...well, it's Lada. need I say more?

but that driver doesn't even exist anymore? will they be fixing that?

yes, it really forces you to start at the bottom... some very interesting choices that have to be made. Reliability vs. speed of the bottom teams.

I'm in with RAMGP.

Quote from The Very End :

System Of A Down - B.Y.O.P

B.Y.O.B.

(Bring Your Own Bombs)

well, I'm crushed after that game... sat there watching the medals get handed out frozen in disbelief...except every time Crosby came on I gave him the finger. Which was approximately 17 times a minute.

note: I don't hate that Canada won so much, they would be my second choice to win gold after USA. But coming off the stick of Crosby, well, it just can't get any worse than that.

at least it was an awesome game.

I hope McLaren made that guy run around with those screens all day long.

Quote from OneTreeHill :

You're retarded.

Up yours.

relax man, it was all a joke.

EDIT: :clapclap: Great first post!
EDIT2: That was more sarcasm. I just realized you won't get it on your own.

Last edited by RiseAgainstMe!, Mon 22 Feb 2010, 04:47.

Quote from mrodgers :

I'm sort of torn. I know you should be for your country, but Sydney is also our local guy. I'd really like to see Syd with a gold medal, but I didn't think at the time the US would be as good as they are playing. Tonight's game is a bit of a shock for me.

well I hate Sydney and I love US hockey, so I'm on top of the world!!!!! This is truly a great day!!!

All hail Brian Rafalski and Ryan Miller, two local heros who stepped up in a big way!
:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

Quote from Yuri Laszlo :

Am I a sad person for thinking that curling is the best Olympic sport ever?

curling is awesome, I'm watching it right now

I'll give it second best Olympic sport, right after short track speed skating.

actually, most Olympic sports kick ass, except figure skating.

that too could become great though, if they implement this series of changes that I have drafted: 1) all of the competitors shall take to the ice at the same time. 2) There will be no more judging 3) Everyone will get a list of tricks they have to perform, the first one to complete the list wins. 4) The Benny Hill theme will be the song played at all competitions. 5) two zambonis will be driven on the ice during competition, with the goal of running down the competitors. 6) The zambonis will not smooth the ice, rather they will make it worse. 7) random objects will be put on the ice to make it harder, and some of the tricks on the list require the use of the objects. i.e. Triple Salchow over the soccer ball. 8) fans may throw things on the ice or at competitors, but for the competitors safety, the objects must not be hard. octopuses are highly encouraged.

wow, that's a great site. I'll have use of that myself, as I've moved recently

Quote from tiagolapa :

You don't know the tracks near your home?

Why is it hard to believe that someone with no previous experience doesn't know the tracks near their home?

@ logitekg25: I doubt that many of us will be able to find tracks near you better than you yourself. I suspect that some time with a phonebook and google will turn up a few options, and once you find one or two, ask for more recommendations from drivers. The drivers will know the good tracks in the area, and have recommendations for a good class for you to begin in, based on what is raced at what tracks.

local drivers are usually very knowledgeable about the local scene, as opposed to us who can only give general advice, because we live so far away. They will know where legends are raced and where karts are raced.

you can still get very good advice from people on the forum, but I would get yourself involved in the local scene at some level asap... go to an indoor karting track (as it's winter) and ask around.

http://www.motorsport-total.co ... i_mach_eins_10021611.html

translate it...

is this for real, or is this just a load of bs made up to get some attention? I'm unsure.