Soxbadger

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 5, 2013 -> 05:10 PM) One of the tricks leaders use in those types of countries is keeping any military leader from getting too much power so that no single person can take over. The brainwashing helps make sure many stay in line/loyal as well. But almost everyone of these countries was taken over by a military leader, so it really doesnt work well. If you look at Thailand they basically swapped military coups back and forth. The real reason is that NK has spent the last 60 years propping up Il-Sung as basically a deity, so it would be really difficult for any military commander to usurp that, unless they have their own origin story. Without any sort of military conflict, you cant really create the necessary history to prop up someone, without the threat of the entire country falling to shambles. (edit) Here is an article about his worship: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ked-so-far.html

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 5, 2013 -> 04:52 PM) Right, so why does anyone take that bozo seriously anyway? Why doesn't the head of the military take over? Its hard to explain but Asia countries seem to fall into "cult of personality" traps. In NK it derives from 1 man, Kim Il-Sung, the eternal president of NK. Basically many NKers would revolt against the Army if they went against the heir to Kim Il-Sung. The military at this point have no people to really prop up against them. If anything, they would need a war, to create a new "cultural hero", so maybe that is the reason we are here today. A general needs some victories to create his NK myth. Its just like Marcos in the Philippines where they create completely unsubstantiated myths to create a god like President that cant be questioned.

I think its possible McGary comes out this year.

A lot of the backdrop is that China is not 100% supporting NK anymore. So now NK has to act more insane to get leverage in negotiations, because they no longer have the universal backing of China.

Shack as long as you dont mind my unasked for opinion, I have no problem giving it.

Shack, Then instead of making it contingent on appraisal, just make it contingent on financing? Its basically the same thing, but sometimes they are more willing to agree to that. And theoretically you arent on the hook for the full contract, if you breach you are likely only on the hook for the earnest money. But that is a lot of risk if you dont have the actual ability to pay for it. The other option would be to get someone to appraise it before you make the offer.

Shack, Sometimes I hate having options. My advice would be, is this the house that you really want, no other house will ever make you as happy. If it is, you probably eat the $10k, skip the appraisal and make the deal. If it is not, then try and work it. Worst case scenario you are in the exact same position you were 2 days ago. If you dont need this house, you can try and work them. They are coming from a position of weakness.

Got Rolling Stones tickets, so hopefully that means I will get to see them 1 time in my life.

Fischer is an odd one as Wisconsin never even offered a scholarship and his coach (Steve Showalter) is one of Bo Ryan's good friends. http://www.postcrescent.com/article/201303...-s-Luke-Fischer A lot of speculation is that the Badgers have been really badly burned by offering tall white Wisconsin players so Bo Ryan was taking a wait and see approach. Regardless its extremely odd that Wisconsin never even offered a guy who went on to win Mr. Basketball. I think the other one was Jeronne Maymon, but that was because his father was insane.

I wasnt sure if there were or not. People were talking about things about John Snow and 2/3rd dragon, that I dont remember or recall at all being mentioned in the tv show. I have no frame of reference for it, so its not a terrible spoiler at this point. Now this could be just that I dont remember it, but I am pretty sure there has been no discussion whatsoever about this (even the idea of multiple dragons, etc?). Just more wanted to ask if people who read the books and are speaking about things that are from the future, could use spoiler tags.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 03:08 PM) It's a wildly popular television series connected to a popular and more encompassing book series. You're going to get cross conversation when stuff like that comes up. Just gonna have to deal with it It should be in spoiler then. Anything that is information that has not been in the tv show should be a spoiler. Its just common courtesy.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 11:13 PM) You bid the offer, they should take your money and run. Guess they should have hired me to be their attorney. They would already have the money in their pocket.

Kind of sucks that people post things about GOT books in a television thread. Maybe a books thread would be a better place?

Outside of spy agencies, no one likely has any clue what is going on in NK. You also are assuming that the people of NK will actually fight for NK. For all we know they just immediately surrender in hopes of a better life.

I know he was joking. Its just one of the few things that really gets under my skin. (Imo) Bo Ryan does good by every one of his players. He never takes away their scholarship, even if they suck and sit on the bench. Every other player who has wanted to transfer has been given a full release.

I wonder how many of their weapons actually work. Its great to have artillery, its another thing to have artillery that is actually in working condition.

Yeah im not sure how much damage NK can really do. You have to expect that every other country has NK sites lined up to start.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:51 PM) Yes, exactly, and that's why I'm b****ing here. I hate that they're "competitors" that don't really do much to compete. Oh well, that model will eventually die...and there is nothing they can do about it. Just like the billion dollar movie rental industry changed, so will this, eventually. Well actually there is something they can do. They can give millions to politicians to make sure that more tv licenses arent granted, thus making it so there are only limited providers. Oh you congress. Thats the difference here. You have govt sponsored collusion. But this isnt new either, its the reason why marijuana is illegal

We negotiate with terrorists. It just depends on leverage. If a terrorist had a nuke hidden in NY, you better believe that the US is going to try and negotiate that situation.

Right you are arguing about collusion and that can only occur in certain markets, one of them being where it is very difficult to produce the product. It occurs in the auto industry because it is generally price prohibitive to build your own car. It occurs in the television industry because only X companies can supply television, so it dramatically reduces the options thus allowing for easier market collusion. But market collusion is old. Cable companies are basically OPEC. They are the only ones with the material, thus they can set whatever price they want and restrict the supply how they want.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:33 PM) Wonder if that asshole Bo Ryan restricted his release... lol Not even going to respond. I just hope that an Illinois recruit wants to transfer after his first year to Indiana. Because Illinois fans were never mad about Eric Gordon, and were so supportive of his decision.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:19 PM) Save yourself some time and money and just stick with Madden 12. I already own it QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:37 PM) You sure this is right? It was my understanding that the feature was always there, it was just hidden behind the "coach career" mode. In essence, EA called "franchise mode" something different and people freaked out for no reason. It never actually went away, you just had to play the role of a coach to get there. If I am correct, you couldnt have multiple coaches. My friends and I create a franchise with each of us owning a team. We then would draft, sim seasons, play championships when we were together. It was my understanding you could no longer do this in madden 13. I tried when it first came out, but I never tried in the last 6 months.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:29 PM) They offer arbitrary variation to skirt the law. Also, they'd have to actively be caught colluding together. So long as DirecTV doesn't call Comcast to set their prices, they're NOT price fixing. Here IS what they do, however. Comcast package 1 includes : HBO, SHO, History, Disney and AMC for 25$. DirecTV package 1 includes : HBO, STARZ, History, Disney and AMC for 25$. They're "not the same", thus not illegal. But in reality, they're almost exactly the same. They know exactly how to skirt the law, and they're doing exactly that. Just like a 6 pack of Bud, Miller and Coors Or a 12 pack or a case. Its nothing new, this is an old model. Its an oligopoly.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 03:53 PM) In relation to what you said about almost every product you buy makes you pay for something you don't want, this isn't really true. Alternatives surly exist where you can get exactly what you want. In this specific case, no other option exists, because all of the other options do it exactly the same, with the same packages, at nearly the same costs. This doesn't apply to most consumer products, however. QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:27 PM) This is the only argument I'm making. So I'm not sure what you're talking about anymore. I'm talking specifically about the content delivery system employed by the cable/dish companies. They're identical across the board. While they're not "in on it together" in some sort of grand price fixing scheme, they're not really working against each other, either. The same can be said of Verizon and AT&T. Same packages, same prices in almost every regard, with just enough variance between them that they can't be considered non-competitive. I already said in my first post that applying models from different industries to every other industry wouldn't work. You said you can't get 20 minutes of a ski lesson, maybe you can't from instructor 1, but you could from instructor 153,324. Specifically, you CANNOT do that with Comcast, Cox, Dish, DTV, etc. They all sell the SAME packages of channels for the same prices, again, with little variance. If you look at the first quote, you werent really saying that. You may have meant to say it, but you were arguing that in most consumer products, you arent being forced to buy something you dont want, which is just not true. When you buy a tv, it has a mute button, even if you never intend on using it. In fact 90% of tvs have almost identical features, so that you are almost always paying for something you dont want. When you buy a car, it has a radio, even if you dont want it, to my knowledge, no new cars are made without radios. Computer (pre-made) it has an operating system, even if I dont want it. Im not sure I can list a product that I have bought that did not have something I did not want in it, mainly because that thing was "industry standard".

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:23 PM) They'd have to actively price fix for that to be illegal. What they're doing could be called price fixing, but you'd have to prove they actually worked together in order for it to be illegal. isnt that what you are suggesting? If every cable company is offering the exact same packages, with no variation, isnt that colluding to artificially drive up price? As soon as 1 company offered an alternative it would drive prices down for everyone...