America

Generally used to describe the United States of America, since just saying "America" is shorter. If I lived in Brazil, I'd classify myself as Brazilian, not American.

A country frequently bashed by pseudointellectuals who condemn the average American 13-year old for not knowing the exact political climate of Romania, because of course their country is an intellectual utopia. Run by George W. Bush, whose approval rate is 20-something percent. In the 2000 election, the Supreme Court ruled that vote counting be stopped while GWB was ahead, although it was obvious that Gore had more votes. In 2004, faulty voting machines made by Diebold, a company in the Bush family's pocket, took over the counting. Even with Kerry votes counting backwards, not counting at all, counting as Bush votes, the machines being easier to hack in to than a matchbox, Bush won by 2%.

America is currently suffering from one-party government; all three branches have a majority of conservative Republicans. The Supreme Court is packed with conservative idiots who just won't die. The political climate is one of extremism; one can be either a gunslinging Republican shithead or a conspiracy theorist Democrat shithead.

The Bush administration is botching the job quite noticably. Financially America is in deep debt to China and other countries, a war in Iraq was started on false pretenses, we are fucking up the environment beyond belief with our idiotic energy policies and the education system is absolute shit.

While the typical picture an outsider would have of an American is an obese moron who bathes his $200,000 Hummervalance (-50 miles to the gallon!) in champagne and thinks that Iraq is somewhere around New Zealand, this is not true. There are plenty of extremist American idiots. However, they're the only ones that get the news coverage. There are idiots outside of America. Plenty of Americans are level-headed, intelligent people who aren't religious fundamentalists with four shotguns a person and a Colt for the cat.

The American media is one-sided, one-dimensional, and devotes huge amounts of time to pointless stories. Rarely is anything outside of OHMYGODTHISCANKILLYOU...More at 12:30, only on FOX. The outside world is rarely portrayed, so most Americans who have to hold down three jobs and get 4 hours of sleep and consequently don't have the time to search through every international news station's website have no access to the big picture.

America may change for the better in 2008; however, if the choice is a hot turd sandwich or a cold turd sandwich, you can't really blame them for doing the best they can.

I love the American take on our skyrocketing gas prices. Not, "How can we make the cars America drives run better," but "Hey, now we're almost paying as much as the UK does for gas! That's not fair...we're Americans."

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psp

Sony's handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Portable. Unfairly put on the same playing field as the Nintendo DS.

The PSP is a fairly good, albeit expensive, portable gaming system. The graphics quality is quite good, the LCD screen is simply beautiful and the games are getting better.

Pros:
Huge LCD screen
Great games coming out
Adaptablity -it can play music, you can watch videos, play games, get RSS feeds, connect to any wireless hotspot, and more-
Feels solid without being heavy
Pretty much idiotproof.

Cons:
Battery life can be a bit irritating at times; having the battery die while you are, say, in the car driving through Montana at 4 in the morning is most unappreciated. The battery lasts about 3-6 hours depending on the graphics of the game; however the battery life can be significantly lengthened by lowering the sound.

According to many people, it scratches easily although I've had mine since launch and only have one scratch.

It requires more care than many people want to give it: it must be kept in its case while not played, screen protectors are a necessity lest the beautiful field of LCD goodness be marred, it absolutely must not be dropped, etc.

The analog nub is placed the best it could be, but for those of us with longer fingers it gets a bit painful after a while.

The PSP is often unfairly compared to the Nintendo DS. The PSP is intended to deliver a wide range of services moderately well to an older audience, whereas the DS can be given to an average 5-year old and survive. The PSP is a more sophisticated, precise piece of hardware and also had to come out on the market earlier than SONY would have liked due to pressures for the release. The PSP is SONY's first handheld system and is pretty damn good all things considered. What killed its potential as an even-field competitor to the DS was pricing, but in the end it's worth it.

People often put unfair demands on their PSP; it is not intended to replace your laptop, mp3 player, DVD player or whatever other gaming systems you have at home. I use my PSP to play music and it does that fine. The layout isn't ideal for an mp3 player, but it works.

There is an odd quality to many DS vs PSP debates in that someone is either the hugest fan or despises the console with all their heart. One either composes romantic haiku for the PSP or sneaks up in the dead of night with a beaker of poison. One is either engaged to their DS, or would like to see the lot of them thrown in to a pit of scalding vegetable oil. Few people can see the middle ground.

PSP dude: PSP IS GOD. PSP IS GOD. PSP IS GOD.

DS dude: DS IS GOD. DS IS GOD. DS IS GOD.

*carnage*

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vegans

Vegans: The plural of vegan.

A vegan is someone who, for political, moral, or health reasons, does not eat meat or any animal products such as milk, eggs or cheese.

Vegan: Eggs are chicken abortions!

Omnivore at the next table: I'll have a bacon and cheese omelette and a buttered bagel, please.

Vegan: *faint*

Vegans can get a bit overexcited at times.

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