I've always thought people should have at least one job in some kind of service industry, just to help them realize they shouldn't be pricks to these people when they grow up. But yeah, I don't really get the anti-tip sentiment as well; I understand the cultural differences between countries and wages, but people should respect whatever culture they are visiting, not impose their values (or tipping preferences) on the host country.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
My first job was as a bus boy/dishwasher at a Western Steer restaurant in North Carolina. I hated it. I, too, tip at least 20% and typically more depending on what I order. It figures the ones everyone else would want to label as heartless libertarians would be the ones who tip the greatest.

I'm not sure why everyone else on that post hates tipping waitresses so much.

In reply to this comment by imstellar28:
My first job was as a bus boy/dishwasher, and the waitresses I worked with made $2.13 an hour - three dollars less than minimum wage at the time. Waitresses don't just keep their tips...they have to "tip out" other people like the bus boy, etc. So as a bus boy, sometimes I would bring home $50 a night in tips from what the waitresses would give me - outside of my regular wages which were above minimum wage.

To this day, as a rule I tip 25-30% on all bills, usually with a minimum of 20%. If the person gives really lousy service - aka - charges me for extra bread etc. I subtract that out of the tip sometimes; otherwise I always tip at least 20% even if they are mediocre. For really good service (especially on low-priced bills) sometimes I'll tip upwards of 50%.

Worst tip I ever gave was -$1.00 yes I actually subtracted money from the bill and signed it on a credit card. The restaurant had a deal "$5 pitchers for domestic drafts" and I had ordered Yuengling...ended up being charged like $9.50 a pitcher when there was a sign at the very bar "Yuengling...America's oldest brewery"

It should be noted that a lot of times people penalize the waitress for problems with the cook. If the food is bad, or wrong, or late - that could be the cook's fault; many times it has nothing to do with the waitress. And if its busy, and/or the restaurant is under-staffed, how is that her fault and why should she be penalized? If it takes one hour to get your food, eat somewhere else don't be a dick to the waitress.

My first job was as a bus boy/dishwasher at a Western Steer restaurant in North Carolina. I hated it. I, too, tip at least 20% and typically more depending on what I order. It figures the ones everyone else would want to label as heartless libertarians would be the ones who tip the greatest.

I'm not sure why everyone else on that post hates tipping waitresses so much.

In reply to this comment by imstellar28:
My first job was as a bus boy/dishwasher, and the waitresses I worked with made $2.13 an hour - three dollars less than minimum wage at the time. Waitresses don't just keep their tips...they have to "tip out" other people like the bus boy, etc. So as a bus boy, sometimes I would bring home $50 a night in tips from what the waitresses would give me - outside of my regular wages which were above minimum wage.

To this day, as a rule I tip 25-30% on all bills, usually with a minimum of 20%. If the person gives really lousy service - aka - charges me for extra bread etc. I subtract that out of the tip sometimes; otherwise I always tip at least 20% even if they are mediocre. For really good service (especially on low-priced bills) sometimes I'll tip upwards of 50%.

Worst tip I ever gave was -$1.00 yes I actually subtracted money from the bill and signed it on a credit card. The restaurant had a deal "$5 pitchers for domestic drafts" and I had ordered Yuengling...ended up being charged like $9.50 a pitcher when there was a sign at the very bar "Yuengling...America's oldest brewery"

It should be noted that a lot of times people penalize the waitress for problems with the cook. If the food is bad, or wrong, or late - that could be the cook's fault; many times it has nothing to do with the waitress. And if its busy, and/or the restaurant is under-staffed, how is that her fault and why should she be penalized? If it takes one hour to get your food, eat somewhere else don't be a dick to the waitress.

I live in North Carolina... I would stay away from here too, if I had the choice.

Yes, universal health care is clearly much more terrifying and horrific than terrorist attack. Shame on you, North Carolina.

>> ^rebuilder:
>> ^KnivesOut:
Got fired because... they couldn't tell me why. When I asked why I was being fired, they told me "the fact that you don't know is why."
Is that legal over there? Were you on a trial period or something? At least over here, once you're past the two-month (or thereabouts) trial period where either party can terminate the employment contract without advance notice or a reason, they have to give a valid reason for firing you. Or did you just not feel like pressing the matter?


North Carolina is an "At Will" to work state, meaning they can terminate you without cause.

I did get a nice severance, and technically I "resigned" so my resume doesn't look bad, but in return had to sign a 1 year no-compete so I wouldn't run off and start coding for their competitor. Fuck 'em, who needs 14-hour days anyway?

Re: Racism by affiliation: in certain circles I have to go far out of my way to prove that I'm not a bigoted redneck because I live in North Carolina. I deal with it.

>> ^thepinky:
^I accept your apology, but I'm not offended. I just think that a little bit of opposition is healthy on this site. When I saw people saying things about how "spot on" this rant is, I thought to myself, "How do they know that something is spot on if they haven't a clue about the other side of this argument?"
Okay, okay, yes, I can see why you object to QM's comments. I don't quite agree with him myself. In fact, I think that many if not most people who oppose gay marriage don't really understand why they do it. But don't you think that it is hypocritical to call for reasons, and then dismiss every word that QM says as utter nonsense and drivel beneath your attention?
Another hypocritical practice is the call for sources and stats. I'm not singling you out on this; everybody does it. When someone agrees with you, you let them spew generalizations and shoddy facts all over the place, but when they disagree, all of a sudden you call for a research paper. For instance, the guy in this video did not cite the sources of all of his quotes (most of them are probably from anti-Mormon websites), but most of you seem to accept his statements as absolute fact. It's easy to believe every negative thing that you hear about a religion that you dislike, and it's also easy to hold them to a higher standard (i.e. being outraged by any reference to the civil rights movement from them, but not from the U.S. government, when both abolished racist practices years ago).
I can't say, "This organization may have been racist in the past, but it isn't now, and neither am I?" Ummm...why not? That's like Brits calling Americans racist because we abolished slavery after they did. It may have been a racist country in the past, but it isn't now, and neither am I.

Welcome to North Carolina.

This video is like Viagra to blankfist (Ron Paul, North Carolina, etc). Or maybe booze (the legal-ese limp dick at the end). Or maybe both. On one hand, this guy got away with it. At the same time, the lawyer is stating (and probably correctly) that the case of Lt. Col. Sullivan (Ret.) does NOT establish a precedent. He states (quite correctly) that the state can NOT deny your right to *travel. However, they can regulate how you travel. In other words, Lt. Col. Sullivan better not travel far and think that he's immune from prosecution.

Me? I tend to agree with the state on this one: In all 50 states of the republic, driving is a privilege, not a right. No one is saying that you are forbidden from going from Point A to Point B. However, you can't go there while driving a motor vehicle, unless you demonstrate the ability to safely do so. I don't think it's unfair of the state, i.e., the people, to demand that you demonstrate the ability to safely navigate its (our) roads without killing a hapless motherfucker or two because of your reckless ass.

I've been driving for over 25 years, and have received numerous traffic citations, almost all of them for speeding. Now I'm no fan of bad cops, but I will submit to you that bad drivers are a genuine menace. If there is a single person here who has never been genuinely put in danger of life or limb because of a bad driver, now is your time to speak up. Otherwise, I refuse to accept the philosophy of "No harm, no foul" when it comes to traffic violations. Now I am NOT defending excessive fines for traffic violations. However I will defend the enforcement of traffic laws. So help me, imaginary Jesus.

>> ^blankfist: Exactly, so limiting someone's ability to travel is infringing on this right.

This claim is demonstrably false. My 60 year old neighbor has lived in Pittsburgh all her life and never learned to drive. Last month she called a cab, went to the airport and flew to Ireland. She has elected to not sign the contract. She has traveled across state and national boundaries without difficulty. She has, at the same time, not demanding the right to do whatever she wants with somebody else's (the state's) property.

If I decided to move my entire home from Los Angeles back to North Carolina and loaded everything onto
a horse drawn buggy...

If you decide to do something absurd, expect absurd results, hire a moving company next time, let them sign a contract with the state for the use of it's roads, so that you don't have to.

Specifically giving you permission (which is what a driving permit is) is not the same as not giving you something you didn't necessarily earn.

You, and video asshat, have not been given permission to drive over the speed limit, therefor misusing the state's property constitutes non-contracted use, which is indistinguishable from theft.

driving is the most accessible personal mode of transportation.

So you are not arguing for a right, you are arguing for means of expression. That was my point for the cash/NY skyline comment. You don't have a right to a means of expression, only to the right to express. You have abjectly failed to demonstrate that not having a license makes use of the right functionally impractical, and I have supplied a counter example.

You mean "right of free ingress into other States, and egress from them." ? It has to do with crossing state lines, read you own link.

Exactly, so limiting someone's ability to travel is infringing on this right. Gwiz mentioned walking as an example of a way to freely move without driving. In Gwiz's world you are free to walk and carry all of your worldly possessions on your back if you choose to move out of state. But, that's not practical.

Allow me another impractical example. If I decided to move my entire home from Los Angeles back to North Carolina and loaded everything onto a horse drawn buggy and headed down the roadways, how far do you think I'd get before I was stopped by men with guns?

By not giving you piles of money the government is limiting your right to own half the skyline of New York

I think you're grasping at straws with that one. Specifically giving you permission (which is what a driving permit is) is not the same as not giving you something you didn't necessarily earn. Not "giving" you something (i.e., money) isn't taking a right away. Having a right to something (i.e., movement, expression, press, etc.), then having a government give you specific permission to that right is the issue.

The freedom of movement is as important as freedom of speech and can be seen to work together hand-in-hand. If you were to protest the war, would it be fair for the government to restrict your movement on public property in front of the federal building because you didn't have a proper permit to protest? In cities, I understand why people prefer loads and loads of laws and regulations and government given permissions, but in rural areas those municipal laws tend to be dangerously out of place. But, that's a whole other conversation.

Yes [the DMV] will [negotiate the terms of the driver's license contract], just not to anything you want.

Oh really? I'm not sure you're telling the truth. I'm pretty sure NO ONE at the DMV has the "authority" to modify the terms of that contract. And if you asked, they'd probably look at you strange. A government contract is never negotiable when it comes to social services. Name one that is. Name one.


And, gwiz, right to free mobility isn't specifically a right to drive. It's a right to move, and driving is the most accessible personal mode of transportation. Are you just trying to mess with me.

OK. I did "learn more". Patients United Now was launched by a conservative group called American for Prosperity.

From wiki:
In 2003, an internal rift between Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) and its affiliated Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation led to a split in which the latter organization was renamed as a separate organization, called Americans for Prosperity.

Its foundation's chair and founder is David Koch of Koch Industries, which runs oil refining and pipeline companies. Another Americans for Prosperity Foundation board member is Richard Fink, a Koch executive who serves as a director of the refining subsidiary. Fink helps control AFP's purse strings. He is president of the Koch-affiliated Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, which gave AFP's foundation $2.2 million from 2005-06, according to the Foundation Center.

On February 27, 2009, in collaboration with others, the organization sponsored a Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C. Tea party protest.

AFP aims to promote a sound economic policy that supports business and regulatory restraint by government, according to its literature. This organization leans conservative. AFP opposed the $787 billion stimulus package for economic recovery.

The organization has chapters in 22 of the 50 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Americans for Prosperity is led by Tim Phillips, who was a former partner with Ralph Reed's Century Strategies. That organization became well-known when it was revealed in a Senate investigation that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff was laundering money through Century Strategies and Americans for Tax Reform to oppose legislation that his Indian tribe clients wanted to defeat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Prosperity#Patients_United_Now

HEAVY emphasis on the LIES channel!

Oh sorry, I copied that whole discription from YouTube - Now that I look into it, it probably wasn't too clear to see that it was somebody else's description. I, thank God, do not live anywhere near hurricane/typhoon/ areas. The closest I have gotten was one vacation in North Carolina when a hurricane hit less than a week after me and hubby finished a vacation there. But even tornadoes here in Ohio scare the crap out of me.. Comiung from Finland where the biggest storm might blow down a few trees.

I can't imagine how it would be to actually experience a storm like that! And I so envy you for having a chance to live there, typhoon or not! The whole culture must be so fascinating, the nature.. Asia just seems to magical to me!

In reply to this comment by RhesusMonk:
Hey, Mint! I just posted a vid about yet another disastrous typhoon in Taiwan, and I noticed your vid from last year about Jangmi. I had no idea you were there for that storm. I was living in Taipei at the time (I even landed into Jangmi on a flight back from Okinawa). Do you live in the area? Did you get to check out Taroko after the winds calmed? In what capacity were you covering the storm? I just came back to the US after a year in Taipei, and this connection to my "old" life is tickling me.

I know you're not an atheist, but do they have hookers in North Carolina?

North Carolina was a blue state in the last election, so I appreciate what she was saying.

>> ^dag:
It feels to me like things are really going nuts in the US lately. The race thing has caught fire. Jon Stewart jokes about civil war - there's a little truth in that.


Honestly, the only time I ever hear anything about racism is when I turn on the news. I doubt there will be a civil war over it (or anything close).

The media likes to take specific instances of people making an issue of race (or anything really) and talk about it for days on end. I have no idea how that looks from other countries... my guess is that only the most extreme ends of such issues make the news elsewhere. Supposedly North Carolina (where I live) is part of the "South" and is a haven for racism, but I never see it outside of specific people over age 60. None of the people I know, of any race, have ever had problems with it.