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Top, L-R: Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney), Shane (Stardew Valley), Sissel (Ghost Trick) Middle: Nico Collard (Broken Sword), Lukas (Fire Emblem), Garrus Vakarian (Mass Effect) Bottom: Apollo Justice (Ace Attorney), Takumi (Fire Emblem), Jimmy Hopkins (Bully)

Political correctedness is politeness, respect. It's actually not hard to modify one's language. And yes, it's easy to screw up - but never known anyone to mind if one just apologizes and moves on.

I just let the kids have a piece of Halloween candy with breakfast so I'm either terrible or great

How so? I've seen nothing to support this and a google search brings up nothing but how the wealthiest will benefit. Meanwhile the tax proposals are going to hurt a lot of marginalized people: - disabled people are screwed in two major ways; one is that low income households with high healthcare costs will see their ability to deduct healthcare costs above 10% of their income go away. Many disabled people have a low income as a result of either not being able to work, or finding their working capacity to be limited. The other way they're screwed is that currently small businesses can claim a 50% credit towards accessibility costs for providing disabled access; that is going away under the new tax proposals. - people who want to adopt are going to find it a lot more expensive, and it will discourage many people altogether.

Baldur's Gate 2: The romanceable characters (and a few of the other characters, too) are pretty terrible. Otherwise this game comes pretty close to perfection for me. Ace Attorney series: Keeps dragging out and convoluting Apollo's backstory (tell him the truth, already!). Introduced new characters without wrapping up existing characters' plots. Dragon Quest 8: Sudden spike in difficulty that really requires some grinding and killed a little of my enthusiasm at a key point in the plot. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines: Gives me motion sickness. :P

...this all checks out Yeah, I'm bracing myself for those, too. (I'm so sorry).

Do people make jokes about it once they know? My kid is also a 4/20 baby and I'm bracing myself for the jokes... I'm sorry it happened to you, too! It is good to hear it's happened to others, though. I know so many people who've had zero problems or for whom it's actually been helpful. And yeah, I'm always coming across weed, you can quite frequently smell it around here, too. I *am* in California, though... Never seen any other non-medical drug, however.

Ate a tiny amount once. Teeny-tiny. Was still enough to ensure I will never, ever touch the stuff again. The paranoia was intense.

It isn't as if no innovation happens in other countries, though. In the meantime capitalism isn't working for the U.S. healthcare system (it isn't and hasn't ever grown cheaper for the patient) and we have millions of U.S. people receiving inadequate healthcare; the NY Times article you linked you quoted the 'these problems should be addressed' sentence but not what the actual problems are which are: "American health care has many problems. Health insurance is linked too tightly to employment, and too many people cannot afford insurance. Insurance companies put too much energy into avoiding payments. Personal medical records are kept on paper rather than in accessible electronic fashion. Emergency rooms are not always well suited to serve as last-resort health care for the poor. Most fundamentally, the lack of good measures of health care quality makes it hard to identify and eliminate waste." At some point all the innovation doesn't mean anything if the people aren't benefitting, which was the part of Lord Raven's post you didn't address. What's the point in one U.S. city having more CT scanners than the whole of Canada if a significant portion of the population can't access them?

Illegal immigrants also commit fewer crimes, percentage-wise, than U.S citizens. They only bypass the initial requirements; it's really not 'bypassing the system'. They still have to submit a clean police report. To pass an interview. To prove they have access to an income while in the U.S. (which is pretty high, by the way). To be educated. To know English at a passable level. Literally all it means is they might not have a degree and they might not be related or engaged to a U.S. citizen. If anything, the easiest path to U.S. immigration for most people is to date a U.S. citizen.

Immigrants ARE vetted extensively before entering the U.S. Immigration crime rates are lower than U.S. citizen crime rates; so it would actually be ineffective to more heavily scrutinize immigrant populations than other populations. Merit-based-only immigration isn't controversial but it's also not in line with the historical values of the U.S. Conveniently there wasn't merit-based-only immigration when the majority of immigrants were white and European (and within the history of the U.S., it's been white Europeans who have committed the genocides, the mass-murders and the colonization of states). In Europe, too, the majority of terrorist attacks are committed by natural-born citizens. The dangers in Europe are also massively exaggerated by the U.S. press in general.

I'd argue inheritance is the main reason a person gains and retains wealth; social connections also contribute, but generally you'll only have the social connections in the first place if you're born into at least *some* wealth. Anyway, you're right that money means you don't have to work hard and smart, and that's fine! I don't begrudge people who bask in their wealth at all. What I'm arguing is that working hard and smart are neither guarantees to success nor are they the only means by which success is measured. They're definitely not requirements to getting rich. Well, as a whole, immigration requirements have been tightened and made stricter and this affects the lottery winners, too. And if 50,000 people have been given entry every year since 1990 and this is the first major crime committed by a lottery winner, that's not exactly indicative of it failing in any way.

That's pretty close to my daughter's name! (Annaleah) and I hardly ever hear it mentioned. 1. Favourite literature genre? 2. What's a movie you recommend to everyone (may not be your favourite, might be an uncommon one not many people have heard of). 3. Which animal would be your patronus? 4. Have you ever met up in person with an online friend? 5. What's your dream holiday destination?

Uh, the Visa Diversity Lottery program began in 1990... its roots began in the 80s, it's been around for a considerable while. Edit: Also, all it does is encourage immigrants from areas of the world that normally don't see a high immigration to the U.S. Applicants are still expected to have a clean criminal record and provide a means of support. To enter the lottery, applicants must have been born in an eligible country. If selected, to qualify for the immigrant visa, they must have completed at least a high school education or at least two years of work experience in an occupation which requires at least two other years of training or experience. They must also satisfy general immigration requirements, such as means of support, no criminal background, and good health. Eligibility is determined by the applicant's country of birth. In some cases the applicant may use a parent's or spouse's country of birth instead. Immigration to the U.S. is tough; ordinarily it's hard to qualify unless a) you're extremely well-educated (and a place of employment can prove you're better suited than a U.S. citizen for the job), b) you're extremely wealthy or c) you have a familial connection to a U.S. citizen. The U.S. doesn't have reciprocal visa partnerships with countries in the way many other countries do. So all the lottery does is say 'okay, every year we'll give 50,000 people who aren't extremely well-educated, who aren't extremely rich, and who don't have a familial connection to a U.S. citizen a chance to apply for a visa'. The applicant still has to meet every other immigration requirement (which again, are pretty strict). If both working hard and working smart (or either...) were requirements to being rich, a good 80% of the wealthy people I've worked for should be incredibly poor.

I also liked it in terms of gameplay. I didn't like the explanation for it and at times its presence really ruined any narrative going on. It would've been a lot better had it been a mobile camp.

@Dragoncat ohhh haha, yes, she's a donut! At least you understand now why your mom made you be a clown! The other kid decided on being a T-Rex rainbow fairy.

Last year we just took a regular bag; this year of course we HAD to copy the blog. My kid'd have been very upset if I'd not done the accompanying coffee cup!

Rape and genocide were merely a product of Columbus's time, eh?

Thank you! (I wish I could claim originality but I did get the idea from a blog). I used a hot glue gun, and me being tired + trying to hot glue tiny scraps of felt = glue on my fingers several times!

I'm not dressing up, but I burned the skin off my fingers making this donut + trick-or-treating coffee cup bucket for my eldest. (Not sure what the youngest will go as yet; I'm going to see if I can find a dino head, otherwise he'll dress up in one of the old costumes we have lying around).

He's apparently an NPC in Radiant Dawn!

There are some fabulous fan artists out there and a couple in particular pay a lot of attention to the packages they create for their clients. Likewise the fan translators who've dedicated a lot of their free time to translating works that haven't been translated into English (or who translate the original conversations for comparison).

Favourite: Pineapple Takumi, mostly because I've always loved pineapples (and the tomato Leo/pineapple Takumi memes it's led to). Least favourite: Most of the rest.

It's also worth mentioning the characters and their supports make up a large chunk of the game - I spent 110 hrs in one save file and unlocked maybe 50% of the supports. There's such a huge cast that although you'll likely dislike many characters, you'll probably love quite a few, and the game has more to offer in terms of characterization than most other FE games.

Also I found a Nico, which is close to Niko(lai)!