News Stories

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by aohige

I've never seen these imaginary "freeloaders" they speak of.

Minimum wage has increased by only like 2$ since the late 90s, yet cost of living has nearly doubled.
For the bottom line of poverty in US, it's so much harder to make a living than a decade ago.
The people I see on welfare and food stamps are struggling families trying to get by on day to day basis.

I'm sure these so-called freeloaders and welfare queens exist, but they are most certainly rarity, and not the majority.
I don't have a clue where in the hell these people are looking, because it's certainly not the realities of low-income households in America.

No seriously, what la-la-land are these GOP "I-make-six-figures" people freakin' living in?

They need money to buy another mansion obviously. Because they didn't rely on Government Handouts to get where they are (Oh wait, they did!)

[ganbaru]

US quietly releasing $1.6B in Pakistan assistance
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...10-19-11-28-34

AP source: Govt, JPMorgan reach tentative deal
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...10-19-18-33-49

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by aohige

I've never seen these imaginary "freeloaders" they speak of.

Minimum wage has increased by only like 2$ since the late 90s, yet cost of living has nearly doubled.
For the bottom line of poverty in US, it's so much harder to make a living than a decade ago.
The people I see on welfare and food stamps are struggling families trying to get by on day to day basis.

I'm sure these so-called freeloaders and welfare queens exist, but they are most certainly rarity, and not the majority.
I don't have a clue where in the hell these people are looking, because it's certainly not the realities of low-income households in America.

No seriously, what la-la-land are these GOP "I-make-six-figures" people freakin' living in?

I support welfare, food stamps, etc and completely acknowledge your very valid point about minimum wage vs cost of living imbalance... but having managed apartments in the ghetto, I've definitely seen a lot of freeloading. No idea on the statistics and it's anecdotal so it's entirely possible what I saw is just the exception to the norm, but there are people out there who have section 8 housing assistance, food stamps, etc and sit on their ass all day or even deal drugs on the side. They get to live for free, eat for free, and it definitely isn't a glamorous lifestyle, but it sure looks like taking advantage of the system to me.

I've also seen people with section 8 assistance who work hard and have to struggle to support families as single mothers (and one time there was a single father, though that's more rare to see).

There's two sides to this coin. I personally don't think the freeloaders are a near-zero, totally insignificant amount like bleeding heart liberals want to claim. I also don't think they're a majority like your right wing lunatics harp on about. No idea on percentage, but I do think it's a problem, and both sides should chill with the hyperbole so we can tackle this more sensibly instead of rushing to one side "the problem doesn't exist" or the other "the whole system of welfare should be abolished".

That being said... this whole debate pitting the poor against the middle class (upper middle and lower middle) is surely a nice distraction for the uber upper class 1% whose un-utilized wealth could easily ameliorate this issue if it were distributed more equitably in the first place. "I-make-six-figures" GOP guy is just as much of a microscopic ant as broke welfare guy to these 1%'ers in terms of sheer enormity of wealth.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

It just is hard to take the claim about how there are all those freeloaders, when coming from the mouths of those who also claim there is mass voter fraud.

We know voter fraud is near non-existent (And all KNOWN fraud cases ended up being committed by Republicans.), but the Tea Party still claim otherwise. So any other claims of statistics from these same people on other matters are just as likely to be suspect.

[monir]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

It just is hard to take the claim about how there are all those freeloaders, when coming from the mouths of those who also claim there is mass voter fraud.

We know voter fraud is near non-existent (And all KNOWN fraud cases ended up being committed by Republicans.), but the Tea Party still claim otherwise. So any other claims of statistics from these same people on other matters are just as likely to be suspect.

Voter fraud is a separate issue from welfare system. There is, without any doubt, a significant amount of abuse that is taking place to the welfare system. That said, however, people in need of assistance outnumbers those fraudulent practice by a huge margin. The welfare system can be improved to curve the frauds, but such improvement shouldn't come at the price of people who really need it.

With the voter fraud, the cry for it will increase in every presidential election if the GOP maintains its current path. The ethnic group which vote mostly Republican are losing in population count. It is said that by 2020, white population in the US will already be in the minority. While they may be able to control the House by commonly used tactics such as redrawing/gerrymandering district, national election will reflect the opinion of the majority rather than how a select group of people/ethnicity wants their government to be. Despite such prospect, GOP are doing everything they shouldn't to ensure diversity in their voters. And if this persist, GOP actually might split and we may even have a three party system in the US.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by monir

And if this persist, GOP actually might split and we may even have a three party system in the US.

My best case scenario is that both the GOP and the Democrats split. So we have two middles and one party on each end of the spectrum. It better represents a nation's opinions.

That's a pipe dream of course. But having the Tea Party splitting might be good enough on its own to make the Democrats go back to the left again.

[Urzu 7]

I love how many tea baggers blame Obama for EVERYTHING and in reality most of the things that they claim he's at fault for is just them imagining things.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

I love how many tea baggers blame Obama for EVERYTHING and in reality most of the things that they claim he's at fault for is just them imagining things.

The human brain at birth is not gifted with critical thinking; our instincts tell us to "believe in something, then find proof of it."

It takes many years of good education to reverse that programming, and learn to have the evidence before believing in it.

In the case of Tea Party, they believe Obama is the source of all evil, and then they find everything they don't like and say Obama did it. It makes sense... If you never learned how to think critically.

[monir]

lol.. VCV, Tea Party is not as bad as they are made out to be. If you want to get a glimpse of the thinking behind the ideology Tea Party operates on, it has mostly to do with fear of uncertainty. SeijiSensei has few very good posts that outlines some of those thinking.

And Obama isn't as squeaky clean as he is made out to be. Under his presidency civil liberty has taken some serious blow. He has utilized and extended Patriot Act to a new height. His vision also doesn't answer legit question such as how a country can keep spending while piling on its ever growing debt.

It's a matter of two vision colliding with two sets of ideology.

[Sumeragi]

Civil liberty is overrated. Most of the time all I'm seeing is hypocritical selfishness packaged as being a liberal idea.

Frankly, I say Obama is the best thing to happen to the United States: He's curbing the excess of all extremist views that having tearing America apart.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

I am well aware that Obama wasn't who we wanted him to be.

However, what he ended up being, was what we hoped a good Republican president would be. Now I am still mad that he is a Republican at heart, but that's still a better deal than what the NEW Republicans have in mind.

The only reason Obama did all those things with surveillance and drone strikes, and get away with it,is because the GOP supports it. Sadly bipartisan issues are never gonna be challenged. However that doesn't make the Tea Party right to oppose him. Because the Tea Party are NOT against the surveillance OR the Drone strikes.

[Sumeragi]

More like Obama seems to be fixing the reversal that Nixon started with his absorption of the Dixiecrats.

[monir]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Civil liberty is overrated. Most of the time all I'm seeing is hypocritical selfishness packaged as being a liberal idea.

Not to veer off too far off-topic, in a way it is true. Time, place, and circumstance. One of the wider phenomenon to dwindling crime rate in the US can be contributed to the increased amount of surveillance, whether it's public or private. That said the liberal hypocritical selfish in me still notes a silent protest at how quickly civil-liberty is becoming an ancient phrase. Heck, at this rate the ideas highlighted in The Light of Other Days may become a reality very soon. I may need not wear pants anymore even when I'm not inside my house.

[ganbaru]

Analysis: Despite budget win, Obama has weak hand with Congress
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/to...31020?irpc=932

Insight: Hard work, long hours: French find Chinese recipe sour
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/to...31020?irpc=932

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

My best case scenario is that both the GOP and the Democrats split. So we have two middles and one party on each end of the spectrum. It better represents a nation's opinions.

The WCS would be that the Tea party gets full control of the GOP and ramps up the radicalization and this whole mess ends in a civil war. Reading several previous comments a draw the parallel with the Spanish civil war fought just before WWII; conservatives (from the country and suburban area) fought against liberals (mostly from cities) because they thought the liberal government was driving the nation into ruin. After that came several decades of repression that ended by sheer luck (Franco's successor was assassinated and he was too old and senile to choose another one and had centralized all political power in his hands so no one else could do it).

[Solafighter]

Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex?


http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ped-having-sex

[SeijiSensei]

Uehara Koji named MVP of the American League Championship Series

He entered in the top of the ninth inning Saturday with a three-run lead. Before getting down to business, he paused for a moment in the grass behind the mound.

“To tell you the truth, I almost threw up,” he admitted after the 5-2 ALCS-clinching victory.

I've watched Uehara pitch all season, and I still cannot figure out why he is so unhittable. His fastball rarely exceeds 90-91 mph, and he rarely throws anything but strikes. Yet he still can make the best major league batters look like chumps. Something about his delivery must confuse the heck out of the guys at the plate, but I sure cannot tell what it is.

Some telling statistics: In the regular season, Uehara struck out 101 batters in 74 1/3 innings pitched and threw just nine walks. In the two postseason series, Uehara gave up a solo home run to Tampa Bay, but otherwise struck out 13 batters and walked no one in nine games.

I love how he and David Ortiz now have this ritual where Ortiz lifts the much smaller pitcher over his shoulder, and Koji pats Papi's butt.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Solafighter

Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ped-having-sex

It's a bit surprising that what has become a well-known characteristic of young Japanese appears hardly at all in anime. (I'm not a manga reader, so that world may be different.) Hataraki Man did portray the patriarchy of the Japanese workplace and the problems of maintaining a relationship in the face of highly-demanding jobs, but it's really the only show that comes to mind. You'd think that other shows, especially ones on noitaminA, might touch on these issues more. Maybe they are just propaganda targeting teenagers with constant messages about the value of romance in hopes of turning around an obviously difficult long-term problem for Japanese society.

[Shyni]

Update about Harmony Gold's lawsuit I posted some pages back.

Hasbro and Harmony Gold reportedly settle lawsuit over SDCC Exclusive Jetfire

I’m certainly not a legal expert, but thankfully some folks who are more well versed in law have passed along word of an official judgement that appears to involve an out of court settlement between Hasbro and Harmony Gold over the controversial ComicCon exclusive Jetfire Skystriker repaint released this past summer.

Seems that whatever settlement there was remains private. But, judging by the fact that Hasbro's store website also got around to selling the set this lawsuit was about, (and that I haven't heard any reports of the product getting forcibly recalled like HG demanded) looks like HG didn't win, at least.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

It's a bit surprising that what has become a well-known characteristic of young Japanese appears hardly at all in anime. (I'm not a manga reader, so that world may be different.) Hataraki Man did portray the patriarchy of the Japanese workplace and the problems of maintaining a relationship in the face of highly-demanding jobs, but it's really the only show that comes to mind. You'd think that other shows, especially ones on noitaminA, might touch on these issues more. Maybe they are just propaganda targeting teenagers with constant messages about the value of romance in hopes of turning around an obviously difficult long-term problem for Japanese society.

Maybe they don't want to alienate their audience... That might touch a nerve in a way the usual otaku comedy stereotypes don't.