Do rockin' shades count as a mask? If so, great choice.

That's a good assumption to make of a lot of otaku! Though, since they are showing up to a speed dating session, it's likely that they are neither lolicons nor only interested in 2D.

Seriously? A masked speed-dating session and no one showed up dressed as Char? Alpha otaku these are not.

I don't find Pikupikun remotely androgynous. Perhaps I have indulged in an excess of the anime culture.

Schools are not and should not be removed from free market principles. They reward effort with proportional grading, hire and fire teachers based on multiple factors, and have a generally competitive atmosphere. Many schools also exist themselves in the free market of education. Now, I admit that I am not entirely…

They should make one based on Lion King. Get it?

Got an idea for their theme song.

Louis is worse than Dexter because he is a douchebag. Also his game sucks.

Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the stable this morning.

You're forgetting something.

I love Twizzlers. The fact that they are harder than other liquorices is why. I also use them as soda straws, which tastes especially great with Coke and Barq's. Red Vines are disgusting, as are the non- straw type of Twizzlers (and the cherry-flavored ones in general). I haven't had Australian or European…

I don't think Hamilton and Adams were proven wrong. Today's United States is far closer to the vision of the monarchists than of the republicans or other anti-federalists of the time. The wisdom of the average voter is irrelevant to the fact that transitioning from a loose confederation to a strong central…

The use of military power during the Civil War itself was deplorable (to the extent in which it was used to subdue the South). That's because uprisings should not be quelled. An uprising implies that there exists a government against which to rise. The problem is the government, not those over whom it attempts to…

I said it was deplorable, not unconstitutional. But you're right, it was necessary if the central government's authority was to be established. Which was also deplorable. The government's powers can extend to the limits of the Constitution, but they don't have to go that far. They should not have then, now, or at…

It's not like federalization cannot be undone. We need to seriously consider, though in a manner less violent than that of Lincoln's day, the possibility of restoring the confederate model. I'm not content with speculation, except as a prelude to experimentation.

I should add that Washington's response to the Whiskey Rebellion was deplorable. They had just fought a revolution over taxes on tea, and he used the military to enforce taxes on whiskey (which benefited his own gin disproportionately).

Many disagreed with the First Bank, as it both concentrated lending power into the hands of a small subset of industrialists and also concentrated and magnified economic instabilities (as do all central banks). The vested interest you speak of largely came from British investors, which I'm not sure was the best idea.…

Arguments for monarchy were made during the Constitutional Convention, most notably a long speech by Hamilton. Most American monarchists didn't want a hereditary monarchy, but an elected King with a life term (think Julius Caesar's Dictator Perpetuo). They died down very quickly after the Madisonian Federalism…

I don't accept that conclusion. We fought the Revolutionary War as a confederation, and there were prior examples like the Dutch to draw on as an organizational model. I do not believe that federalizing was the insight that you claim it is. You say that we would not have survived as a nation without it. I don't…

I've never considered Washington a great President. Not because of any Masonic conspiracy, but because he pushed (or at least permitted) Federalist policies that I think are antithetical to the ethos of the very revolution he helped lead. It isn't that crazy to imagine him taking the throne, since his two closest…