Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

I think this is the vid that BB was referring to: it is Megan McCain on Colbert.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... han-mccain

Baraka Bryan wrote:

Freakzilla wrote: Oh, and if they candidate has a female running mate or a hot wife/daughter, that counts in the female column.

It took 6 pages, but this topic finally proved it's worth

I'd put her on a plate and sop her up with a biscuit.

Freakzilla wrote:I'd put her on a plate and sop her up with a biscuit.

What a smooth talker!

I've been watching the results for the European Parliamentary election and honestly the results seem to be mixed.

First the bad news. My political preference is center-left but center-right parties have gaind many seats at the expense of the center-left and indeed the far-left. The left leaning parties lost a significant amount of seats. Even more terrible is that far-right nationalist fringe parties that I would label fascists and Nazis for their racist and anti-immigration policies have made gains.

Now the good news. The Green parties are the only parties on the left that have made gains. They started off with 43 seats. They now have 50! In France they won or held 8 seats. In the Netherlands there is also good news for me personally. Not only did the 2 incumbent greens (actually one incumbent was replaced by another green) keep their seats, but they also gained a third seat. I'm happy to know that I helped the Green parties of Europe maintain their block and even to grow it.

I don't know what to think overall though. I guess I should be happy that the greens that I voted for made good gains. Had I voted labor or socialist, all that would have accomplished would have been to soften the losses. I am slightly dissapointed that other left-leaning parties I would like to have seen win seats, lose seats. But I am disgusted at voters who voted those fascist far-right MPs into office.

My preference is center-left, too. I don't know, for me it just feels like the most natural fit.

Probably because the left one is lower, you know? I tried center-right for a while, but things always ended up irritating and there was often a degree of chaffing ... and who needs that, right? (I briefly considered a Prince Albert, but, seriously, eeeew!)

Problem solved (or perhaps just beginning?)

Ooh.

(Now put that thing away!)

I hang either to the right or the left, depending on whether I am half-erect or flaccid.

Hey, shouldn't this have its own thread?

No, this one is perfect.

I want to vote for keeping this topic in this thread.

The Pirate Party won one of Sweden's seats in the European Parliament. Arr, or whatever pirates say.

I never vote in the European elections as the European "Parliament" is just a hot-air machine, the Commission is the body which proposes legislation and no one gets to vote for Commissioners. Still, it's nice to see Labour being obliterated in the elections, it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of self-serving, lying, thieving scumbags. It serves Gordon Brown right for lying about the Lisbon 'Treaty'.

Baraka Bryan wrote:

SandChigger wrote:My preference is center-left, too. I don't know, for me it just feels like the most natural fit.

Probably because the left one is lower, you know? I tried center-right for a while, but things always ended up irritating and there was often a degree of chaffing ... and who needs that, right? (I briefly considered a Prince Albert, but, seriously, eeeew!)

on the topic of the EP elections, way to go europe! keep the righties running the show and this recession will be ending sooner. i'm glad this probably means the free trade negotiations Harper has started with the EU will have a greater chance of success.

Quiet you.

Baraka Bryan wrote:

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Baraka Bryan wrote:

SandChigger wrote:My preference is center-left, too. I don't know, for me it just feels like the most natural fit.

Probably because the left one is lower, you know? I tried center-right for a while, but things always ended up irritating and there was often a degree of chaffing ... and who needs that, right? (I briefly considered a Prince Albert, but, seriously, eeeew!)

on the topic of the EP elections, way to go europe! keep the righties running the show and this recession will be ending sooner. i'm glad this probably means the free trade negotiations Harper has started with the EU will have a greater chance of success.

Quiet you.

free trade will save us all!

Not really, it has many advantages, but many dissadvantages as well, any expert I've asked has said it helps the economy in some areas and damages it in others - and it's actually quite difficult to tell how much the overall improvement will be.It also leads to a lot of exploitation when it involves developing nations. I'm not against all free trade, but I think it should be limited to countries that are on a similar playing feild, for example Canada and the US. Experts (who know more than me obviously) should hash out some different systems for doing business with poor nations so that it doesn't destroy our manufacturing industry and exploit the hell out of the poor.

Actually, I agree with Thing here. Free trade can do a lot of damage. Look at the jobs that have been lost in the US because of companies closing businesses here and shipping them overseas or south of the boarder because not only can they get cheaper labor, but also they know they can ship the stuff back without having to worry about tariffs and they don't reduce the price all that much so therefore they make a bigger profit while the hard working citizen struggles to make ends meet.


Now for me personally I tried several years ago to stick to buying stuff that was made in my own country and soon found that it was difficult to find products that were not made in another country. And I'm not talking about Canada. I would have bought product made in Canada if I could have found them. However, all I was finding were: "Made in China“, “Made in Taiwan“, "Made in Indonesia" and so on and so forth. There were companies in my state that were shutting down and laying people off who had been working there for decades, and I could not even find the products made in the US to purchase in order to support them.

When we the citizens fail to support the companies in our own country we will be the one to suffer in the end. Yes, it is important to save money, especially in times like these, but when all the companies move to other countries and import good that once were made in our country, where will we work in order to have the money to buy the ‘cheaper’ product?

It's not over yet. Austria and Portugal are having issues with mail in ballots and Ireland has yet to declare the winners of three more seats. As some past elections have shown, this could last for several months.

Sounds good on paper but doesn't work so well in the real world.

We have lost textile industries, tool companies, and such. Not everyone can work in the 'service' industry. Which I do agree that has become too broad a catagory. My mother work most of her life in one sewing factory or another, even if she were still alive she would not be able to continue the job that she was qualified for because there are no more sewing factories in this area.

I have a neighbor who has had over twenty years in one company. The company is moving overseas. As of this time he doesn't even know if he will be able to take early retirement. If he can't then he will have to eventually kiss his insurance good bye, because at his age, no other company will hire him and with his wife's health promblems she will be pre-excluded from most insurance plans that he might be lucky to get. That is if he could find a job that offered insurance or paid enough to allow him to purchase his own insurance. Which would be hard because of his age (as I alluded to earlier.)

A few things stats fail to mention are the age catagories for those higher paying 'service' jobs, the location of those jobs, after all not everone lives in big cities as we all know, and the turn over rates in some of those fields.

Free trade can be good, I'll admit that, especially when it is done between equals; however, freetrade can be a death sentence to the "middle class." Maybe not everwhere, but it does happen. I see the results. Empty building with grass growning in the paved parking lots, where hundreds or even thousands use to work. How can there not be a negative affect?

You don't think that business owners might be seeking labor overseas because of the OUTRAGEOUS taxes?

fuck, did I just stumble into FED2K or something ?

I think my links are scrambled ....

If peak oil is for real we'll soon be kissing over-seas manufacturing goodbye, and returning to much more self sufficient economies. That'll make this whole discussion pretty much moot.

oh so sweet the dream

Eyes High wrote:oh so sweet the dream

And I think avocados will be 10$ piece... which makes me sad. There's a down side to everything.

Would it help if I grew my own pot?

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Eyes High wrote:oh so sweet the dream

And I think avocados will be 10$ piece... which makes me sad. There's a down side to everything.

I don't think you would have ANY fruit or vegetables in the winter, unless they were grown indoors.

Freakzilla wrote:

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Eyes High wrote:oh so sweet the dream

And I think avocados will be 10$ piece... which makes me sad. There's a down side to everything.

I don't think you would have ANY fruit or vegetables in the winter, unless they were grown indoors.

Stockpiles my friend, stock piles and frozen. That's definitely what we'll be back to soon unless we find some good alt energy. We'll also truck vegitables that keep well up from the US in the winter, trucking doesn't use so much fuel, it's the really fresh fruit that has to be flown in that we'll be kissing goodbye in the winter.

And yes, growing your own weed will help. Everyone can make a difference!

It's all "homegrown", it just depends on where you live.