Bozz posted:

I'd like to get other's reactions to this before I post my own thoughts.

CDOR Gemini posted:

Here's one from a friend's boss, interestingly linking to an ACLU anti-national ID card effort.


Interestingly, computer interfaces in 2015 appear to have degraded significantly.

CombineThresher posted:

I'm laughing at the "flashy hybrid car" bit for reasons that are obvious to anybody who's seen one.

Be Depressive posted:

My mom is a pretty cool lady.

RagnarokAngel posted:

I'm sure the original author wrote it as pro gun "humor" but how dumb do you have to be to believe it.

Mooseontheloose posted:

Social Security won't be in "debt" for another 30 years. Tacked on to the fact that congress raids its funds year to year to cover budget gaps.

Medicare is liked by people who use it and do not want to go to a private system. http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/a...h-insurance.php

BangersInMyKnickers posted:

One of the major issues with for-profit insurance that you run in to is the direct conflict of the profit motive against the objective of keeping people healthy. Premiums are paid to the company before a service is actually derived by the customer, and any claims are then going to be cutting in to the profit margin. Because publicly traded companies are seeking to maximize profits, throwing in hurdles that prevent people from using the service is common. One manifestation of this is increasing the co-pays for doctor's visits and medication. It looks good on your quarterly earnings report because you've just deterred a bunch of people from going to the doctor or in to skipping medication, but long term you have hurt your bottom line because preventative treatment is cheaper by many orders of magnitude than having someone end up in the hospital. As a result, rates get jacked up further and you've created a retarded feedback loop and a broken system. Remove the profit motive and now you don't have an organization scrambling for short-term profits that hurt everyone in the long-term. Beyond that, as a general rule the larger your risk pool is the higher quality of service can be provided. With insurance, the healthy are subsidizing the poor with the idea that new healthy will enter the system as the others age and become more expensive, allowing for an individual to have a manageable health care cost across their whole life. Once again, the pursuit of quarterly profits stepped in which sought to lower the base premium cost (sometimes) while tacking on massive copays and deductibles to penalize the people who actually needed the service. Then there are attempts to drive out those higher-cost customers through qualification rules and exclusions for (often arbitrary and stupid) pre-existing conditions until all you're left with is a bunch of generally healthy cash-cows in your risk pool, and then if they do get sick the copays and deductibles are so high that they might be better off just buying their own health-care a la carte at that point.

The concept of free-market health insurance is terrible and will naturally seek to destroy itself through profit pursuit, which is why it is best left either highly regulated like how we handle utilities or straight-up government run.

Econosaurus posted:

Huge Liability posted:

The person who sent this is not Jewish, nor has he ever been to Israel in his life, but he sure wishes that it were more like ancient Rome

Cjones posted:

I thought everybody knew Darwin's theory stated that while evolution are simply (in layman's terms) genetic mutations, only the animals of the species that have advantageous mutations survive in the long run. You know, the fittest.

ThePeteEffect posted:

Or some mealy-mouthed complaining that "both parties are at fault" or "I'm not biased, I don't trust Republicans either."

Dirty Job posted:

Not exactly an email, but I think it fits in here.

RagnarokAngel posted:

This one is apparently true but it's so SUPPORT ARE TREWPZ as gently caress.

ljw1004 posted:

Why do you think that? I disagree...

York_M_Chan posted:

^^^^ I actually disagree. I think a vast majority of voters don't believe the hype. They may not be as well-informed as they should be, but for the bullet-points that matter to them, they do pay attention and do the research. They also don't send their relatives e-mail violently expressing their stance, either.

streetlamp posted:

This cant be right?

Saint Sputnik posted:

It's just some video using a table full of pennies to illustrate $trillions - $millions.

Mooseontheloose posted:

Is he calling for the assassination of a public official?

The_Rob posted:

I just don't understand how people are convinced by Zeitgeist. At least Loose Change pretends to have citations, and evidence to their claims. Zeitgeist just names bad things for an hour and expects you to believe everything. Even though they don't back poo poo up.

weedless nites posted:

ought ten posted:

And a Chargers fan.

quote:

This clown's [Obama] never hired or fired anybody, had to meet a weekly payroll, or even had a real private-sector job in his life.

quote:

Yeah, man, like, professors, senators and presidents totally don't have to worry about budgets constraints, staff turnover, owner/shareholder/voter/public opinion and pressure, funding, etc... This Clownbama guy is totally unqualified. Why, I bet he never even ran for president before 2008. Loooooooooseer.

Slaan posted:

Republican: Counterpoint - George Soros, Tides Foundation!

Pfirti86 posted:

This doesn't even try to hide the racism; it's literally spewing out of nearly every sentence. What a loving screed. Anyone who reads this and finds themselves nodding in agreement should take a long look at their face in a mirror.

Nuclearmonkee posted:

Just respond with excerpts of what the contras did and shame him. Shouldn't be terribly difficult.

dphrag posted:

So I just found out my friend died of cancer recently, though they passed four months ago. I posted on my facebook, and my friend who... homeschools his children, and doesn't vaccinate them, and has 3 so far... responds...

http://i.imgur.com/N1kxu.png

FFS. Can't I just post my quirky RIP status post without being told IT'S THE GUVMENTS FAULT?

Armyman25 posted:

What's really bizarre is how pervasive these memes are. I know plenty of Iraq war veterans, people who've spent years in Iraq, who still think that Saddam must have just buried the WMD's in the desert and that's why we didn't find them.

I've also heard people complain with a straight face about us still being in Kosovo due to Clinton "playing world police" while not saying a thing about how much OIF/OEF have cost us. It's like they literally can't see their own experiences.

Orange Devil posted:

This deal isn't as good as it sounds though because it only applies to suicide vests.

tek79 posted:

Even before the internet, when I was a kid my brother and I would watch TBN and just laugh hysterically at the programming for young people, 'Fire by Night' was particularly amusing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wcd-7EnmS0

Kubrick posted:

Musings on the State of Things by a Conservative former Republican Homeschool Dad

gowb posted:

There are funny conservatives. Drew Carey, for one. Dennis Miller. Rush Limbaugh was pretty funny back in the day, when he was less bitter and angry. There's not nearly as many funny conservatives, for sure, but they are there. I do agree that most blatantly political conservative humor tends to fall flat, but the same thing applies to blatantly liberal humor as well. It's hard to be funny with an agenda.

XyloJW posted:

Yeah, I got the same impression. I've actually seen some semi-reasonable Facebook petitions lately. Usually, the down-home solution petitions are just ridiculous, but asking the president and Congress to take a pay-cut during this recession is not an outrageous idea. I don't think there's any congressman who's actually not super-rich (I believe Biden used to be the poorest Senator?), and Obama himself is a millionaire.

evilweasel posted:

Pointless. They are all completely aware that the economy is the most significant factor in them keeping their job.

Crazy Letter posted:

But it seems no one cares about the


AMERICAN CITIZEN


that's being offended!



WAKE UP America !!!

crime fighting hog posted:

Today I got a letter, more of a postcard really, of a cartoon of Jesus being cruxified while being stomped on by an ostrich. The ostrich is looking at me saying "YOU MAY HAVE GOD ON YOUR SIDE, BUT WE HAVE JUDGES AND THE ACLU!!!"

The card led me to this site, and holy moly: http://leftistliberal.com/

EnsGDT posted:

I love this one. My grandfather came here in 1965 from Greece and still doesn't speak a word of English.

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

Counterpoint:


Although this would sorta be like Obama pissing off the side of a boat over the location where Bin Laden was buried, in 2013.

tek79 posted:

Edit: And everyone knows real men use pick-axes. Reagan's got a chisel. What kind of poo poo is that?

Boondock Saint posted:

I always love how these things are always signed by a "law student", because you know a law student is that much more credible than say, a lawyer maybe? That and the names are so clearly fake and made up.