Politics

[NoCry]

Without doubt though - foreign policy under Obama is a joke. I agree wholeheartedly with broin that America is at greater risk than before. Your enemies simply love the "reset buttons" and policies of appeasement. leopards can't change their spots and Romney (whom personally I do not care for that much) would have, I am sure, been a better deterrent than your incumbent president.. Your military is the greatest (apart from obviously the Brits') but they will lose the ability to inflict fear into your lunatic enemies - that is a terrifying thing.

[Broin]

Christ this is why people hate your boss and the rest of the politicians up there. You say something you know not to be true and expect people to take it as truth.  Then when the truth comes out you obviscate the facts about the truth.  

This is very simple.  The Democratic party has not proposed a budget (.) <----- PERIOD

You can throw out an admendment that one of their members put forth and claim that it is but it is not.  There is no proposed budget by the Dems/their leaders/their party as a whole that you can point to (.) <----- PERIOD

You know the way that it works Khronik.  It starts in the House.  It passes.  It goes to the Senate.  They amend and pass.  It goes to committe.  

This is the whole problem with what has been going on.  YOU claim something to be true when it is not.  YOU present it as truth when it is not.  The problem that people like T and these other dolts have is they believe it because the foolish retarded media and crap they listen/watch doesn't report the facts or truth of the matter.  They do not question the liars that put out the falsehoods and half truths.  

And yes I am lumping in with the obviscators and liars because that is what you have done here.  I congratulate your boss... He has taught you well.

[likwidtek]

As I am a Brit, from the nation that is far superior than yours (except in the race of the most clogged arteries; however, we are closing down), I feel as if you should all personally read a letter from Her Majesty.

A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

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1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

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2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'

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3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

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4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

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5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

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6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

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7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

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8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

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9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

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10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

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11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

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12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

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13.. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

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14. An internal revenue agent (I.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

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15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

This was fucking genius.  LOL!, awesome.

[Da6onet]

Allow me to enlarge that last part for you





Now go read

[Broin]

LOL... No such thing as voter fraud or manipulation of vote counts.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20121112_In_59_Philadelphia_voting_wards__Mitt_Romney_got_zero_votes.html

http://www.punditpress.com/2012/11/what-luck-obama-won-dozens-of-cleveland.html

http://www.infowars.com/fraud-obama-won-more-than-99-percent-of-the-vote-in-more-than-100-ohio-precincts-2/

[Sared]

[Lithium]

The young degenerate liberal generation:

http://www.fox19.com/story/20161054/woman-could-lose-job-over-disrespectful-picture-taken-at-arlington-national-cemetery?=#WNPoll124859

[Da6onet]

Obama appointee.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/us-patent-chief-to-software-patent-critics-give-it-a-rest-already/

Yay for litigation! Boo for little guys coming up with cool ideas!

On a related thought. If politicians are a representation of the people, and I have no faith in our politicians, should I also have no faith in the people?

[Da6onet]

Now I'm sure all of you smart folks here have a basic understanding of macroeconomics, but just the same, I had an argument this morning with an friend who believes that the jobs situation is getting better in America. So in case anyone needs a lesson in terminology:

From Wikipedia (yes I'm being lazy):

Unemployment Rate - The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed persons by the size of the workforce and multiplying that number by 100, where an unemployed person is defined as a person not currently employed but actively seeking work (meaning still receiving unemployment insurance, in most states this lasts ~26 weeks). The size of the workforce is defined as those employed plus those unemployed.

Labor Participation Rate - The ratio between the labor force and the overall size of their cohort (national population of the same age range).

Just remember this every time the "unemployment" numbers come out each month, you should go look up what the labor rate is to get a real picture. My favorite quote from an economist so far is "if you replace full time jobs with part time jobs, you get half the participation."

Pretty graph:



Note: "Retiring" baby boomers are not to blame --> http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/word-labor-participation-rates

[Longboard]

Can we have a real discussion about guns in America? I'm really tried of all the bandwagon people since this last tragic event. Where do you stand?

[Sared]

2nd Amendment should stand unscathed in my opinion. Require licensing for individuals that wish to be armed in public places (via CCL) and revoke the license of firearm retailers that fail to do background checks as required with varying degrees of scrutiny by different state laws.

If you ban swords, then your citizens will practice Kung-Fu.

[Heironymus]

Can we have a real discussion about guns in America? I'm really tried of all the bandwagon people since this last tragic event. Where do you stand?

Every time I see someone post "the 2nd amendment was intended for Muskets and Single loaded pistols" I laugh and laugh and laugh at how stupid they think our founding fathers were. They honestly believe in their little limited world that the founding fathers who were hailed as the geniuses of that generation could create a creedance for governing a whole government and limitations for said government thinking of the future and problems we could possibly run in to but couldnt predict advancement in firearms? Especially since before the start of the American revolution and through the end of it the advancement in cannons and other arms took drastic changes.. Some people realllllly need to learn how to read and where to read from instead of spewing everything they hear from some news anchor that speaks for two minutes and doesnt actually do any research him or herself.

[Longboard]

A LITTLE GUN HISTORY
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. >From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total
of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated
Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.
You won't see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.
Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.
Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late!
The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.
With guns, we are 'citizens'. Without them, we are 'subjects'.
During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!
If you value your freedom, please spread this antigun-control message to all of your friends.
SWITZERLAND ISSUES EVERY HOUSEHOLD A GUN!
SWITZERLAND'S GOVERNMENT TRAINS EVERY ADULT THEY ISSUE A RIFLE.
SWITZERLAND HAS THE LOWEST GUN RELATED CRIME RATE OF ANY CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!

Copied from someone on Facebook...

There is so much ignorance out there, it makes my blood boil. When did "crazy" stop being just "crazy"?

Look at the UK, they have had similar events and they have gun control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_school_massacre
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-20123158

How about China......?

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12/19/security-video-stabbing-spree-at-chinese-school-shows-pupils-fleeing-in-panic/

No one is immune to crazy ass fools!

[Subb]

Let me say this first; the Newtown shooting (which is scary as my home town is called 'Newtown', too) was because of a guy who had a severe mental illness - no one willingly kills children if they are healthy and sane. It was not a gun-control issue. However, this is when I rant: it's the question of how a guy with severe mental disabilities managed to get his hands on the weapons. I haven't looked this up, so I'm not sure if he used his mother's (who, I'm pretty sure was mentally ill herself) or bought them. Gun control needs to be in place and heavily vetted, so nutjobs don't get their hands on them as easily.

Switzerland's firearm policy is due to the fact that it has no real military - the citizens are the military and are called up if it gets invaded. Britain has more of a knife-crime problem at the moment, not gun crime - gun crime is very, very low with the odd peak here and there. Plus, we are not the nation with metal detectors and police/security in schools.

I am anti-firearms in households (strange, as I'm military) - why do you even need them? For protection? Kids use that excuse nowadays over here for knives, yet they become the problem. It's just stupid. People are stupid and get power-blind when they hold weapons - Hell, I still do from time to time - and rational thinking flies right out the window unless you are subject to intense training (I have personal experience); you do very, very stupid things.

As for those dates; if you gave guns to each of those who were killed to 'defend' themselves they'd either A) still die as they most probably wouldn't hit shit B) kill a fuck load of people themselves.

Guns are bad, m'kay? Also, this assault rifle shit - why the Hell do you guys need assault rifles?! Handguns I can, partially, understand but those things were made for one reason only (clue is in the name).

Read this article's first sentence - food for thought. Whilst whats happened is a tradegy, it shouldn't of happened so easily and steps could've been taken to minimalise the risk.

To be fair, your gun-crime stats have improved a lot over the years, which is brilliant.

(I love this thread)

[NoCry]

I have wanted to raise the gun issue in this thread but wanted to wait until a US person did so first.

Crazy will always be crazy and you can not stop it.

Why however ought a crazy person (or anyone) have access to assault rifles? Now, all jolly good fun to fire these things at a range but if anyone had actually seen the damage that these things do to living, breathing things I can not see how they can argue, in good conscience that they should be freely (or even on a licence) available - forget about "your rights" what about the equal right for people to be able to go to school and not have some lunatic with (freely available) automatic weapons break in.

I also find it odd, personally, that people can talk of their second amendment rights with authority when your country's leading judges and legal commentators have wrestled with these issues over the past years - surely you can see that the judges, being political appointees, will by their very nature side with the party which nominated/ picked them? Further, if the right is so enshrined in your constitution why are surface to air missiles not freely available? the founding fathers must have thought that someday man would harness the power of flight, they must have surely considered that flying machines could be used to oppress a population - why not argue therefore that people can have missiles? take it one step further (or actually a hell of a lot of steps) - what about nuclear weapons - they are an arm, why don't these second amendment people claim their right to have nuclear weapons as well as missiles to shoot down evil flying machines.... I'll tell you because you ought be locked up if you truly believe that something written hundreds of years ago gives you the right to have modern weapons which inflict inconceivable (at that time) damage.

No law or legal system (or indeed constitution) can keep up with technological advances or can properly legislate for them unless and until the actual advance exists or is imminent - that is where judges and lawmakers need to step in and surely what we are seeing now (or at least, as a parent I hope to see) that really there is no need whatsoever in a modern and developed society with an armed and trained security apparatus to allow normal citizens to purchase and keep fully automatic weapons - their role is offensive, not defensive.

Anyway, am following this issue closely and hope that a solution is found, albeit I doubt a solution is possible as the genie is well and truly out of the bottle. In the meantime obviously my thoughts are with the community ripped apart by this, crazy person's act.