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A) I don't mess with governmental affairs anymore. Before I left New England, I attended events for people who want to make a change starting in their community without bothering with writing to their uncaring congressperson. My brother tells me he's seen a community that's taken this so far they print and use their own paper money. Forget the government. They won't help. They don't care. Change needs to start in the people themselves, in the community.

as for B) check your own D). You've answered your own question.

C) My problem is that it's mandatory. But, since you can get out of it, simply by signing a waiver, that's not even really that big a deal. The main problem is all the people that will go along with it because it's mandatory, not thinking about being able to waive it, and having to spend... how much did you say? Up in the 300's? It's all a moneymaking scheme. And it doesn't affect me in any way, so I don't have anything more to say about it. I put up a bit of a fight, but in the long run I heartily agree with Becky and Snarky.

It's not a big issue, definitely not worth the argument, especially since it doesn't affect me. Nothing affects me, because I don't let it. I'm bothered that this is just a whole way for rich people to get even richer, but again: it has nothing to do with me. And if it did, alas: there are ways to get out of it. So...

Let it be...

And @ Snarky: I'm only joking now, so don't take offense, please...

The good of the many outweighs the good of the few.

No, the real hidden agenda is making you feel completely secure in that your government is serving you so you can feel secure in posting things like that.

EDIT: BTW, it's not a conspiracy theory when you can go and check through history and be sure of it. This country was founded by Masons, which is why all the good Christians run around saying "Oh, we're a Christian nation, and this country was founded on Christian principles." And check out how many of the people in power have been members of the Skull and Bones since it's inception in the early 1800's. I'm not saying it's some kind of occult conspiracy, and that they prance around in black robes sacrificing babies and brainwashing interns into having sex with them. The Skull and Bones is simply the Greek society at Yale where all the rich big wigs and their children go...

I used to bother with that crap. Then I experienced this firsthand:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/11/INGHT44JFQ1.DTL

And I still don't care if they say it's ready or not, or if they say it's safe or not. The simple fact is that it is not fully tested. I return your interest to the link I posted earlier: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/

What's the purpose of linking to the Phase IV article, that plainly says this:

Such adverse effects detected by Phase IV trials may result in the withdrawal or restriction of a drug - recent examples include cerivastatin (brand names Baycol and Lipobay), troglitazone (Rezulin) and rofecoxib (Vioxx).

Note that Vioxx was pulled AFTER several negligent death lawsuits!!!!

I bring your attention to this interview question with Paul Seligman, Director of the office of Drug Safety in the FDA:

What don't we know about a drug at the time it's approved?

There are a lot of things that we don't know about a drug at the time that it's approved. First of all, because of the limited number of people who were studied during the clinical trial phase, rare adverse events are often difficult to pick up during that phase.

For example, for a serious side effect that occurs once in every 10,000 prescriptions, if you have a clinical trial that only studies 350 individuals in three separate arms, it may be very difficult to understand or to pick out that piece of critical information.

Once a drug is marketed and used in tens [of thousands], hundreds of thousands, or even millions of individuals, it's more likely for that rare adverse event to occur.

There are also lots of other things that we don't know at the time a drug is approved. For example, it's hard to fully characterize the entire range of use of a particular medication, once it is on the market.

The general population is a complex one. People have many underlying illnesses. They use many different kinds of drugs. They have many different kinds of diets. They use different kinds of dietary supplements or herbal medicines. All of the potential interactions, underlying illnesses -- co-morbidities, as they are called -- can contribute to the underlying risk profile of the drug, and can result in an unintended or unpredicted adverse event. ...

Absolutely nothing. You try running for some high position. Unless you are A) Rich or famous, and B) a member of some clandestine organization like the Masons or the Skull and Bones, you will never get elected, even if you match all the qualifications and have a hundred and sixty years of significant collegiate experience under your belt. Furthermore, the United States Constitution, (speaking of presidential elections) says that you aren't voting for president... you're voting for an elector to elect the president.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College

Read the section about faithless electors. Furthermore, who's responsible for the nominations? Surely not you or I. Also note that there are only two parties. This country is one party away from being a dictatorship...

Every government has an agenda that has nothing to do with the people of said government. It's not conspiracy theory, it's simply the way things work. There are three types of people in the US: people who believe this and hate the government, people who believe this but just think it's the way things are and that it doesn't really effect them terribly and therefore are apathetic about it, and people who are uber-patriotic and won't hear a word against their "elected officials." The truth of the matter is, unless you can profit the people in power somehow, you don't matter.

@ Progzy: because I suck at pixel art. Either that, or it's some kind of Freudian/Jungian thing where I see special agent Dana Scully as being somewhat of a mother figure and looming precariously over my id (Mulder) and EGO (Roger).

...Which is why you release tech demos.

Steve, most of your list has been updated. I wasn't going to mess with the word balloons because I figured no one would notice. Nice call. The thickness of the balloons has been equalized and a new one has been made specifically for Chief Harris. The text fields inside the balloons have been resized.

I can't find a good font to use. I have one I'd like to import, but every time I try to import a TTF, AGS crashes. If someone can find me a good small, all-caps SCI font (because I played light 'n' loose with capitalization and don't feel like going back through the entire script to fix it) I'd be happy to use it. I changed D.R.I.F.T.E.R. to DRIFTER, although you can't tell it's an acronym now until Roger tells you what it stands for because of the all-caps font. The question marks will have to remain deformed until I can find a more suitable font.

What else do you see wrong with the computer interface? I didn't actually change it in this version, because I'm not sure what all the problems are. I thought it was rather streamlined, myself. The search function works just fine for me. Click on the search button and then type in the first name, last name, full name, or nickname of anyone you know in the Alpha - X world. Currently, it supports Zadok Allen, Marshall Harris, Rhys Dryden, and Katherine (or Katie, or Kathy) Jackson. And the text doesn't go all the way to the right because pictures of the individuals come up when you search for them.

Also, the area of the energy shield around where Katie is has been removed, although imperfectly, so now there may be an area of nothing around her.

Take a look and provide any feedback, especially on the computer issue.

I had something ready to go. I think it was pretty cool. But I'm going to skip the whole entry phase and the whole waiting for the competition to end phase and just say "Screw it all, I vote for Nacho Libre."

...which in turn reminds me entirely too much of the movie "V For Vendetta..."

Vioxx has been too, but it's been at the helm of quite a few negligent death suits for Merck & Co.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/

Look further down at the explanation of the drug's testing phase. Nothing is known about it's long term effects yet, and it's not even a completely sure thing that it does any good... or doesn't do any harm, as it were.

Yeah. I'm kinda floating in the middle here. I'm not sure why you guys are so caught up in the STD issue... I understand and respect all the women agreeing with it. But the main issue for me, being a male and therefore exempt, is this: How is it a conspiracy theory that an UNTESTED drug is mandatory? I could see if it was "Miracle drug proven to ward against HPV!" But it's not. It's not even in any advanced stage of testing. From what I understand, it's not through the initial stages, and they're just now doing the drug/placebo test. It could be that any results the drug has shown has been purely psychosomatic, and it's also possible that long term effects could CAUSE cervical cancer, or something comparable. So then, why is it mandatory?

Because it can make people in certain echelons money. No conspiracy theory there...

All I'm saying is that I'd much rather be less likely to get cervical cancer than worry about who's paying who to make it mandatory.

Then go get the vaccine. Make your kids get it. But don't assume everyone wants it. I haven't examined the method of administration yet, but if it's subdermal: my 12-year-old niece, for one, has an actual clinical fear of needles.

And, for the record, I'm against it because A) it's the government forcing people to do something, and B) it's only mandatory because certain bigwigs stand to profit from it being so. Like I said earlier, lobby to have it become mandatory in your state. If no one profits, it won't happen.

Yeah, Becky was right when she said girls could get it from rape (then again, it was also true that the rapist could have any number of STD's)... I've been on this the whole time because the drug isn't GUARANTEED to vaccinate anything... It's still undergoing a test phase. No one has any idea what the long term side effects of the drugs will be. And, like I've said, Merck is less than reputable.

Look up Merck's history. Lawsuit after lawsuit for negligence involved in the death of users of almost all of their drugs. Look up Gardasil. It's still in the testing phases. So technically, the girls these drugs are being forced on are guinea pigs...

I'm willfully ignorant? Fine. Call Bush, the governor of Texas, and Merck's CEO so I can kiss all their asses and join the club of the informed.

Here's a quick lesson on how it REALLY works: Your government doesn't care whether or not you get cancer and die horribly... Actually no, let me rephrase that... they want you to get cancer and die slowly so they can get money from the hospitals that will bill you an arm and a leg for the rest of your (short) life. You go to your state representative and try to get them to make the vaccine mandatory in your area. If they have nothing to gain from it, they won't care.

and Raggit: start a company that makes such masks and work out some kind of monetary arrangement with Mr. Bush, and that won't be so farcical...

If you want the vaccination, go get it. If you want your children to have it, bring them in to get it. But don't tell me it's good to make it a compulsory vaccination, especially when the only reason they're even doing it is because the governor is in bed with the company. Do me a favor... Google "Merck lawsuits." You'll find hey have been guilty of a long stream of crap.

It's fine to be vaccinated against Meningitis, Hepatitis, childhood diseases, etc. etc. Isn't that a federal law? This is only in Texas, where Mr. Governor has something to gain... Don't you find any of this in the least bit suspect?

EDIT: That's the point, though, Becky. If he doesn't want to take medicine, he DOESN'T HAVE TO... Unless of course the government makes it mandatory...

Two words: Logan's Run 

Hot crap, man. This sickens me. Next it'll be mandatory abortions.

This is definitely not a country by the people, of the people, and for the people. Unless of course, you're a RICH people. Did you hear about how Paris Hilton got off completely scot free, barring a simple call from her lawyer, from a DUI?

Driving under the influence is a misdemeanor. If convicted, the defendant will not be jailed, will be given three months' probation, and will be ordered to enter an alcohol program and will have his or her license restricted for 90 days.

NOT if you're Paris Hilton...

TECH DEMO NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=852

I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet...

I must go hide from Esper

Which way did he go? Which way did he go?

Wait a minute? What did I say to prompt that?

EDIT: Aha! You're the mech gladiators guy!!! Get back here!

Be vewwy vewwy qwiet. I'm hunting Dan...