Political discussions and other rants about useless things like culture

[La Rocque]

Are you serious? You prove your point with a random quote found with google? Just because that guy/woman thinks so, does not mean anyone agrees with him or that he is even right. Discussions are about thinking and making others think, not about quoting other people's opinions.

*not about quoting other people's opinions*

You take my post/idea/opinion and start this thread
I'm thinking you're not thinking
@matse "Why So Serious?"
:danceboy:

 

[hexwind]

Problems usually start discussions....

 

[Siren]

from the Google ...
"Outside of the United States, blue jeans were and are fashionable, symbolizing American culture and the good life"

Are you serious? You prove your point with a random quote found with google?

(please ignore the greek babbling and aim straight for the poetry between 1:03 and 1:23, thank you)

bonus gift for boys may also be viewed at 1:50. happy new year everyone!

 

[La Rocque]

I don't wear blue jeans only black ones -

 

[Maxim1110]

Well just to get back to the topic of politicians, anyone here ever heard of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders?

 

[Matse]

Isn't he that really tolerant black homosexual muslim?

 

[Maxim1110]

Kinda the opposite, he's kinda ultra ultra ultra conservative, and even wants to limit things like freedom of speech and freedom of religion, here's some things he wants to do:
-Ban freedom of speech and freedom of religion for certain groups(see the pure discrimination here)
-Stop any immigration
-Throw any strangers out after 3 crimes(just ban them, another freedom taken away).
-He plans on going to Turkey to say that they can never join the European Union, since they have enough "violent ideology and ridiculous culture" here.
-And of the 4 million muslims in the EU, about 20 million are criminal, according to him.
-Taxes for any muslim who wears a headkerchief.

He's basically just an idiot who's really scared and has some problems in communication. Here's a link to the English wiki article(oh, and have a look at the haircut!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Wilders

 

[Defiance]

Isn't he that really tolerant black homosexual muslim?

Ah I love sarcasm .

Kinda the opposite, he's kinda ultra ultra ultra conservative, and even wants to limit things like freedom of speech and freedom of religion, here's some things he wants to do:
-Ban freedom of speech and freedom of religion for certain groups(see the pure discrimination here)
-Stop any immigration
-Throw any strangers out after 3 crimes(just ban them, another freedom taken away).
-He plans on going to Turkey to say that they can never join the European Union, since they have enough "violent ideology and ridiculous culture" here.
-And of the 4 million muslims in the EU, about 20 million are criminal, according to him.
-Taxes for any muslim who wears a headkerchief.

He's basically just an idiot who's really scared and has some problems in communication. Here's a link to the English wiki article(oh, and have a look at the haircut!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Wilders

Hahaha what a funny guy, he can't really be taken seriously, specially with that hair cut .

 

[Maxim1110]

Exactly, my society teacher usually calls him "blond monkey". But the scary thing is that he actually gets quite a lot of votes

 

[Siren]

But the scary thing is that he actually gets quite a lot of votes

Some monkeys never evolved.

 

[Defiance]

Exactly, my society teacher usually calls him "blond monkey". But the scary thing is that he actually gets quite a lot of votes

Yeah that happens a lot everywhere. I wonder who's more ignorant/stupid, the guy who says those things, or the people that believe them and vote for him? Probably the latter.

Some monkeys never evolved.

Ah ha yeah.

 

[stizzleomnibus]

Our supreme court just issued a decision today removing a 103 year old ban on corporate and union campaign contributions. The reasoning makes sense: if a corporation has all the rights of an individual (which is another mistake that we made a long time ago), then they shouldn't be subject to censorship (because the US's first amendment rawks).

The thing is, America has been falling under corporate control for decades now. We've nearly destroyed all of our neighbors in the western hemisphere to protect our domestic lobbies. Maybe south and central America would like to sell us some sugar. Unfortunately, we got a corn lobby to protect, so we had to set up some raw trade deals. Despite the massive gobs of evidence that ever-increasing, super-strict copyright actually harms artistic and economic innovation, we're still trying to ratchet up our own clusterfuck of protection at the same time we try to push it on the rest of the world (via ACTA, coming soon to a town near you!).

As bad as all that was, it was held somewhat in check by limits on campaign contributions. This ruling basically makes it possible for a corporation with money to spare to flat-out buy a politician. Seriously, think of the millions donated to Haiti by corporations. What's more valuable? A million dollars to look good to your customers, or a few million more to buy the government and own your customers? These people have the will and the money to do this. In fact, this even applies to foreign corporations; there's nothing stopping China and Saudi Arabia from becoming partners in the American government.

There's no reason for politicians to serve their people, or their international neighbors if they have corporate masters. Why destroy the legal haven of the old, useless parts of the recording industry? If it functions as an extra tax collector, and shares it's kills like a good pet, they'll just empower it. Why not start a few more wars? Black Water would love the business, and it'll be just so happy to share the cash with the people making the declaration.

For those outside the US, I want you to know how this happened: Supreme Court justices are appointed for life by the president. Bush had a chance to appoint two, and it was those appointees who shifted the balance to 5-4. This had nothing to do with the president, congress, or anyone who is personally accountable to voters. This was the death of a longstanding precedent that was holding back the floodgates of corporate shit in America. If this is bad as I think it will be, I'd just like to apologize, as an American, to all the citizens of the world. This is the last thing that any of us needed.

 

[Defiance]

I think this is an article everyone should read. I am specially interested in Zack Zang's opinions.

 

[Defiance]

Defiance is going to vote later today (Sunday) for Costa Rica's new president. Not that Defiance thinks that his vote really matters, since he thinks presidents are not really elected by people. And his candidate is not going to win anyhow .

Ahhhh let's see how it goes.

 

[Siren]

Defiance is going to vote later today (Sunday) for Costa Rica's new president. Not that Defiance thinks that his vote really matters, since he thinks presidents are not really elected by people. And his candidate is not going to win anyhow .

I know the feeling, but imo voting is very important. Not-voting means giving up your right to vote, and making it easier for those who pull the strings.

I'm proud of you.

 

[Defiance]

I know the feeling, but imo voting is very important. Not-voting means giving up your right to vote, and making it easier for those who pull the strings.

I'm proud of you.

Yes, I agree voting is very important. I am definitely contradicting myself, since I don't really believe that one chooses one's government. However, the idealist inside of me thinks that one can make a difference, so I'll go vote. If I didn't vote today my mom (and grandma, aunt, sister… i.e. family) would kill me . And thanks .

If you want to, you can follow the elections here http://www.nacion.com/.

Some info in English here (I don't know how reliable these sources are though, better just translate the stuff from the other site):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123456113

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/elections-held-costa-rica

 

[Siren]

Thanks for the links.

I don't expect you to write here who you support (unless of course you want to), but is there some insight you can give us on the elections and the situation there?

 

[stizzleomnibus]

For the record, democracy is not the grand unified future that some people make it out to be. That said, democracy is a way to insert the direct will of the people into the old fashioned game of king style politics. No, you won't get what you want, and yes, corrupt political and business interests will still have way more say than they should. But democracy means that people will have some pull.

 

[Defiance]

I just voted, but I highly doubt that my candidate will win. Voting is very interesting here, since it's very different compared to other Central-American countries. In here we consider voting like a party ('fiesta electoral'), and when we do there're no people with AKs watching everyone. That's something that makes me very happy, to be able to vote and under 'peaceful circumstances' .

 

[Defiance]

Thanks for the links.

I don't expect you to write here who you support (unless of course you want to), but is there some insight you can give us on the elections and the situation there?

I voted for the P.A.C., just like in the previous elections. I highly doubt they'll win though.

Well these have certainly been some interesting elections. A former president of the P.U.S.C. (Calderón) was declared guilty of corruption about four months ago, so that really affected the party. Because of that, a lot of people went to the Movimiento Libertario, the worst current party. These are the guys who want to privatise everything and give further benefits to the oligarchy (e.g. no taxes for casinos —which the candidate owns— and $180K houses). But people here, as happens in most countries, are ignorant and will just vote for a 'pretty face'. This guy is very smart, he went to Harvard, but I'd never vote for him. If he wins, I'm moving to Canada.

The P.L.N. (Laura Chinchilla), will probably win today. It's the same party as the one of Oscar Arias, i.e. the same rubbish of the past four years. Oh wait, C.R. hasn't had a decent government since 1982 or something like that. The country is going from bad to worse (this 'bad' is a lot better than most Central and Latin American countries, though), but people just keep voting for the same major parties that existed fifty years ago.

The P.A.C. isn't a great party (that doesn't exist IMO), but it'd be a lot better than the P.L.N.

For the record, democracy is not the grand unified future that some people make it out to be. That said, democracy is a way to insert the direct will of the people into the old fashioned game of king style politics. No, you won't get what you want, and yes, corrupt political and business interests will still have way more say than they should. But democracy means that people will have some pull.

Indeed, I'd like to believe that I've some influence on the country's future, but I don't think that's the case.

If you want me to write more I'll gladly do so, I love talking about politics .