comment listing type:
Top New Videos by Vote
Subscribe
Top 15 Sifters of All Time
Top 15 Sifters of the Past Week
VideoSift Links
comment listing type: Top New Videos by Vote Subscribe Top 15 Sifters of All Time Top 15 Sifters of the Past Week VideoSift Links |
blankfist
In reply to this comment by blankfist:
By the way, you never upvoted this gem: http://www.videosift.com/video/Challenge-of-the-SUPER-DUPER-FRIENDS-Dems-v-Repubs
Federal Income Tax And What You Get Back From It!
As for my analogy, it seems like you missed my point. Government exists to enact and enforce laws, yes? Can we agree on that definition? Assuming we can agree on that, why should you put someone in charge of a Government that's averse to enacting and enforcing laws?
We're not talking about a repeal of the laws forbidding murder, but we are talking about the repeal of laws that forbid the use of substances with health risks, or the repeal of laws that might have safeguarded us from some of this credit silliness, and the absolute opposition to laws that might have encouraged the free market to proactively seek alternatives to oil.
Maybe it's not like a president of GM who's philosophically opposed to the existence of cars, maybe it's more like a president of GM who thinks cars shouldn't have doors, or seatbelts, or airbags, because this will encourage people to drive more safely.
You're right, Reagan won the election -- I never said tapping into people's dissatisfaction with government wouldn't be popular. Winning the election isn't proof that Reagan's philosophy was right, though. That's just silly.
Universal Health Care? Illegal aliens get it, why not us?
Would it be fair then to characterize your position as not having a specific desire to tighten enforcement of immigration law, but instead a general desire to abolish all government programs?
@QM:
We're doing a pretty good job of assimilating the world, in countries much farther away than Mexico. Do you really believe that Mexicans who're here now, refusing to assimilate, won't end up assimilating in the long run? On the really long scale, don't you think their kids will assimilate?
We've assimilated several different minority communities that were initially resistant, I don't see what makes Mexicans more threatening. We are the precursor to the Borg after all.
@videosiftbannedme:
That system is painfully difficult, even for well-educated Europeans who follow the process to the letter. My wife is from Finland, and it took years to get all the paperwork done, and that was before 9/11...these days it's nearly impossible to legally immigrate to the U.S.
Also, there's no method available at all to unskilled Mexicans who want to come here to work. The only avenue for them to come here at all is through winning a spot in the "ethnic diversity lottery", which hands out something like 1200 visas for entering the country, out of hundreds of thousands of applications.
Illegal entry is the only way for them to get here, and given our lack of enforcement on companies who hire them, there's still plenty of incentive for them to come.
HYPE - The Obama Effect Movie Trailer
Federal Income Tax And What You Get Back From It!
You read it as a tautology, and I disagree. If we elected the president of GM, and I ran on a platform of "I don't like cars, I think they're bad for everyone, so put me in charge of the largest maker of cars in the world", I'd get what, 1% of the vote?
Same sort of silliness comes from people like Reagan saying "Government isn't the solution to the problem, government is the problem"...so vote for me so I can run the government and prove myself right by making government a problem!
It's okay to say "I think government influence should be reduced", but this outright declaration that all government does is fuck things up should disqualify the person from government service, because it'll be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
As to me having to justify the existence of the government programs, personally I think the burden of proof lies with you -- name a country without those types of institutions where private organizations successfully self-regulate themselves more effectively than what's being done in the U.S.
I have quite a few countries to back up my side of the argument...name one that can back up yours.
Verdict: McCain Screwups and Perceived Media Bias 7-22-08
in the words of Antonin Scalia - "Get over it"
Well said, and more deeply ironic than it might appear.
*news
Universal Health Care? Illegal aliens get it, why not us?
I know this is heavily generalized here, but to say "they're illegal and need to be sent back" pisses off people who do not think in terms of individual right to property. This is just my opinion on the matter, so I could be completely off base here.
You're completely off base here.
What pisses American liberals off is a) thinking we're not in favor of private property, b) saying "they're illegal and need to be sent back", because I don't see what problems their staying causes as long as they pay taxes, and obey the laws.
To me, the "problem" with immigration is that it provides companies with a way to break labor laws (primarily minimum wage laws). I'm not so worried about people coming here for that kind of work -- they're just looking for a day's work for a day's pay, and if they think they can do well by coming here for that...they don't sound like a danger to me.
There aren't too many illegal immigrants where I live, so it's all academic to me -- there may be something I don't get about the threats illegal immigrants pose, but it always winds up sounding like thinly veiled racism to me.
I mean, if you found out Charlize Theron was here illegally, would you really want to put her on a plane back to South Africa? If not, why not?
Ron Paul on Homeschooling
Here's the thing -- I want schools that are the same quality as the good private ones available to everyone, paid from public funds.
I don't think there's some magical aura about a private school that makes it good -- it's the ability to charge more, and spend more to maintain a higher standard for the teachers, to have a good teacher/student ratio, and generally have ways of getting more funds to improve their facilities, pay for supplies, etc.
So...they're better funded.
Maybe instead of buying 50 B-2 stealth nuclear bombers, costing $110 billion (or more), we could pay for better schools.
To propose that de-funding education will help education is somewhat ludicrous. Private schools are only good now because if they're not better than the public schools, they can't justify their tuition costs. Eliminating public education will just let us get to experience the wonderful horrors of capitalism done at the low-margin end of the spectrum, only now our nation's children will get to bear the effects directly.
It'll help make sure that wealth is hereditary -- rich kids get educated, and get a good chance to become rich themselves, while the poor get little or no education, and live out their life working menial jobs...if they're lucky.
In my utopia, we educate everyone through college for free, we take care of their medical costs from conception to the grave, and we still get to have all that free market competition for goods and services. Being born to poor parents will still mean you have less advantages than being born to rich ones, but it won't be the epic uphill climb it is today.
You'll pay more taxes, but there won't be any shortage of well-educated healthy people in the workforce, and the economic and cultural benefits of that will far outweigh what tax increase (or defense spending cuts) done to pay for it.
Other industrialized nations have done that over the last 3 decades, and they're kicking our ass in the world market because of it.
Federal Income Tax And What You Get Back From It!
Yes, I want freedom from OSHA, because I want all safety to be viewed through the lens of cost-effectiveness, with the value of human life set by the free market.
Yes, I want freedom from corporate taxes, because I can fully expect companies to pass those savings on to me, every penny of it!
Yes, I want freedom from the EPA, because clean air is for pussies.
After all, who needs safe food, safe medicine, a safe work environment, and clean air, when you might get almost a 60% raise, because surely that will pay your healthcare costs when the unregulated insurance market cancels your policy for eating a burger at McDonalds, or breathing the air in any metro area.
This is lunacy, always has been, and always will be.
People who don't believe in government shouldn't ever ask people to put them in charge of it.
Age of Conan -- Zero Punctuation Review
The last one was what, GTA 4?
I'm thinking he'll get a kick out of Fallout 3's weapons and setting, but hate the gameplay to pieces.
He might like LittleBigPlanet, if they can convince him to review it at all.
Stairway to Heaven on Harp - full version
Done right: This is clearly a woman with tremendous passion for music, creatively blending a very unorthodox classical instrument with a powerful piece of classic rock music. You can see her perfect posture, the graceful movement of her hands across the instrument. You can see that faraway, wistful look on her beautiful face as she revels in the enjoyment of the piece...what man could resist her?
Done wrong: Dude, she's hot. I'd love to climb her Stairway to Heaven.
The US has doubled its national debt in one weekend
*politics
I like what Britain did with it's troubled banks -- it nationalized them, fired the management (no bonuses, no million-dollar salaries, no stock options, just shown the door), hired in responsible adults to run the thing, and then sold the company back to the shareholders.
If the company is too big to fail, go ahead and save the company, as long as you make sure the losers who screwed up the business lose their livelihood, rather than have taxpayers guarantee their salaries and bonuses, while the bank lays off workers at the bottom.
This is a bipartisan disease, though I imagine if Clinton tried this, they'd have impeached him...again.
CBS Edits McCain Gaffe Out of Broadcast (w/original video)
I will never know which one is messing up the facts.
They are all playing the game of propaganda.
Which news broadcast IS using real / true information without distorting it?
I'd like to know because this is all very messed up!
It's actually a fight for which was real, the CBS broadcast, or the CBS transcript of the interview, and the online video of the interview.
Whichever it was, they changed at least one version.
Start Spreadin' the *NEWS (News Talk Post)
Nice.
Is funny news stuff/bloopers allowed, or just serious stuff? For example there is my Not Necessarily the News playlist or Joedirt's This Just In
Absolutely. Jon Stewart (or anyone else) skewering the media is also welcome.
Clips from the movie "Network" would also qualify.
I'm going to say opinion pieces done by members of the "media" qualify too.
Consider "news" as a warning label about the source (or subject), not a seal of approval for the content's journalistic quality.
To Believe, or Not To Believe, that is the Question... (Religion Talk Post)
Do I believe that God watches over me and always takes care of me? No.
Do I believe that there's someone who listens when I pray to God that I'm going to survive when someone cuts me off on the road, or when I'm praying to the porcelain God with the stomach flu? No, but I do sincerely hope I'm wrong when I'm doing it.
Do I believe God has a cruel sense of irony about how he makes my life unfold? Absolutely.
Do I believe science and a concept of God are compatible? Hell yes.
Do I believe God wants us to ignore scientific research when it conflicts with the "history" in the bible? No, and I think he laughs at people who think we should ignore our gift of reason for what some other human wrote in a book.
Do I think religious people should be mocked? No, unless they think their religion legitimizes hatred towards others, in which case they can reap what they sow.
Do I think religion is just a parasitic meme floating through the consciousness of humanity? A big, fat, I don't know.