Precisely. Imagine if a gay couple formally registers their partnership in Germany, effectively forming a marriage. If they then moved to Poland, it wouldn't be recognised. While they are resident in Poland, they have none of the rights of a de facto married couple. When they move back to Germany, they do.

Same principle.

Until DOMA is repealed, this is how the situation will remain. DOMA basically hands the reins regarding the legality of same-sex marriage to individual states.

It can work, but not in a multi-pass decision-making system where one party controls one pass and another controls the other.

I think our systems in NA are bad, because they discourage multiple parties which are the bread and butter of democracy.

The best thing for democracy is a system where you have several minority parties voting ONCE to make a decision.

Then, the multiple parties need to make deal and compromises with one another until there is enough overall support to pass a proposition.

It works in Europe.

What we need is a lick of common sense.

The drug war problem could be greatly mitigated by legalizing and regulating a lot of the lighter drugs that are out there (marijuana being the poster child for this).

This would funnel a lot of money away from organized crime and into our governments' coffers.

I consider it pure hypocrisy that alcohol is legal, yet light drugs like marijuana aren't.

And this is coming from someone who doesn't do drugs.

Why do you think it was called "The Reign of Terror"?
They all sat around and ate cake and drank bad wine?

Damn, it took 7 pages for me to actually agree with someone. More on point, i definitely agree Krypsyn, America is heading down a dark road i believe. Sooner or later shit is going to hit the fan on a monumental scale. For my daughters sake i hope to god im wrong, and that, even though i really cant stand the man, he is able to pull us out of this shit laced hole we dug ourselves into with Bush . But i really dont believe its going to happen. Oh well. No sense in dragging on about it. Guess all we can do now i hope and pray.

I was half teasing, half being serious. If you want to know a little more about it, check Wikipedia for a starting point. Then start to imagine how that plus people like Lysander Spooner campaigning for jury nullification to abolitionists and their sympathizers plus the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 might all tie together.

If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to go into politics?

Minus the one unit helping each other (I'm not sure what you mean by that), I totally agree! :P

i am going to study politics in college as my major along with history :)

Something a lot of commentary is missing here (and everywhere):

Obama should have lost.

With the economy what it is, the opinion of his health care law and a general lack of getting anything done he would have normally lost. Romney was a classic US candidate built to appeal broadly. The reason none of this worked out is the demographics.

People are focusing on the slim popular vote victory and the fact less people voted for Obama as a sign it's just about having a better candidate next time. These are falsehoods, because Obama should have lost handily. The fact he won is all rooted in these demographic issues the GOP need to face immediately.

Adapt or die.

I've seen you post that before. I seem to remember that you want to get into the UN. I'm just curious why you want to.

I realized I think I was going ahead of myself back then that I decided mabye not the UN.

But what do you think about working in the UN?

I would hate it! I just wouldn't be able to stomach politics.

Why I'm curious is because people that want to go make their mark on history scare me. IMO, the best candidates for politics are people that don't want anything to do with it. Not that I think that way about you, it's just how I generally feel about it and why it sickens me when I'm surrounded by ads for presidential campaigns that scream "Vote for me!" I always wonder why do they want to be president so badly? Is it self-interest? Many state senators that I know get shit pay but they are in a position to pass laws that benefit their businesses or harms any competition they might have. They make their money this way.

the question is, will obama win the NEXT election? dun dun dunnnnnn

two things destroy a country faster then you can say cheese doodle:

corrupt poloticians, and corrupt law officers.

There was a saying that went something along the lines of, "The very last people that should be given power are those that want it.".

Yeah, poloticians sure are a dangerous breed..

Quote by Formalhaut30: There was a saying that went something along the lines of, "The very last people that should be given power are those that want it."

I've heard that before and while it's amusing it's quite wrong. After all, who the hell wants a politician who doesn't want to rule, make policies or pass laws? I don't. Someone who doesn't want their job shouldn't have their job.

It's not that. It's the people that actively seek out positions of power (for the sake of power) that shouldn't be given such positions. If a person truly doesn't want the job, then he shouldn't be forced into it.

Convincing someone that they are the best for the job even though they might disagree? That's different than the guy running for office because he can get laws passed that benefit him or his sponsors.

I have a feeling you need to be in a very specific subset of people to really want to be in a position of power. There's likely quite a bit of slogging through paperwork and learning tricks of the trade in how to get things done on a bureaucratic level, and all in all I suspect it's just not as exciting as people think it is.

But this is just pure speculation on my part. I just figure that if you're gonna run things properly you can't just make speeches and give people important-sounding orders - you have to know what the channels are, what forms to fill, stuff like that. Feeling powerful is probably not something you do all the time.