More on Portugal and Spain in this vid, also filmed in Halifax: http://videosift.com/video/22-Minutes-EU-Bailout-of-Ireland
>> ^EMPIRE:

Can Portugal and Spain's situation really be compared to Ireland and Greece's? I mean, yes we are also in a bit of trouble, but I truly believe the whole situation has been amplified by fucking speculators, messing with our credit ratings.

Can Portugal and Spain's situation really be compared to Ireland and Greece's? I mean, yes we are also in a bit of trouble, but I truly believe the whole situation has been amplified by fucking speculators, messing with our credit ratings.

(Copypasta from reddit)

In text form for those that want it in its entirety:

Speech:

"And now I thought we might have a moment, however brief, for some sincerity, if that’s ok; I know there are boundaries for a comedian, pundit, talker guy, and I’m sure I’ll find out tomorrow how I have violated them.
I’m really happy you guys are here, even if none of us are really quite sure why we are here. Some of you may have seen today as a clarion call for action, or some of the hipper, more ironic cats as a clarion call for ‘action.’ Clearly, some of you just wanted to see the Air and Space Museum and got royally screwed. And I’m sure a lot of you are here to have a nice time, and I hope you did. I know that many of you made a great effort to be here today, and I want you to know that everyone involved with this project worked incredibly hard to make sure that we honor the effort that you put in and gave you the best show we could possibly do. We know your time is valuable, and we didn’t want to waste it. And we are all extremely honored to have had a chance to perform for you on this beautiful space, on The Mall in Washington, D.C.

So, uh, what exactly was this? I can’t control what people think this was, I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith, or people of activism, or to look down our noses at the heartland, or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies. But, unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country’s 24-hour, politico, pundit, perpetual, panic conflictanator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen. Or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected, dangerous flaming ant epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.

There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats, but those are titles that must earned; you must have the resume. Not being able to be able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people, but to the racists themselves, who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate. Just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more. The press is our immune system. If it overreacts to everything, we actually get sicker, and perhaps eczema. And yet, with that being said, I feel good: strangely, calmly good. Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a fun-house mirror, and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waist and maybe taller, but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass shaped like a month-old pumpkin with one eyeball.

So why would we work together? Why would you reach across the aisle to a pumpkin-assed, forehead, eyeball monster? If the picture of us were true, of course our inabilities to solve problems would actually be quite sane and reasonable. Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution, or racists and homophobes who see no one’s humanity but their own? We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is, on the brink of catastrophe torn by polarizing hate. And how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done. But the truth is, we do. We work together to get things done every damn day. The only place we don’t is here or on cable TV. But Americans don’t live here or on cable TV. Where we live, our values and principles form the foundation that sustains us while we get things done, not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done.

Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, or Conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do. Often, something they do not want to do, but they do it. Impossible things every day, that are only made possible through the little reasonable compromises we all make.

Look. Look on the screen. This is where we are; this is who we are: these cars. That’s a schoolteacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high. He’s going to work. There’s another car. A woman with two small kids, can’t really think about anything else right now. There’s another car, swaying, I don’t even know if you can see it. The lady’s in the NRA and loves Oprah. There’s another car. An investment banker: gay, also likes Oprah. Another car’s a Latino carpenter. Another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan. But this is us. Every one of the cars you see is filled with individuals of strong beliefs and principles they hold dear. Often, principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers. And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile-long, thirty-foot wide tunnel carved underneath a mighty river. Carved by people who by the way I’m sure had their differences. And they do it. Concession by concession. You go, then I’ll go. You go, then I’ll go. You go, then I’ll go. Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on your car? Ah, well that’s okay, you go, then I’ll go. And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute. But that individual is rare, and he is scorned not hired as an analyst.

Because we know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together. And the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land. Sometimes, it’s just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together. If you want to know why I’m here and what I want from you, I can only assure you this: you have already given it to me. Your presence was what I wanted. Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder. And to see you here today and the kind of people that you are has restored mine. Thank you.”

- Jon Stewart at The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, October 30, 2010

I have a can of Corned Beef from a company called Hereford made in Brazil, seems most all canned Corned beef is from south America, that brought some form of suspicion to arise, the fact its meat in a tin, as well amplifies that and that it tells me to Chill it in the fridge for a hour or more to "firm up" for slicing.

I bought it when I was living in my car a couple months ago.. now I just look at it with a hint of exploration and a disdain for its being.

Still scared

to try it.

>> ^chicchorea:

Did you have anything to do with the video itself, productionwise?

No, I embedded the link from the girls YT channel(Jmijn92 is Jasmijn)

The girls are singing un-amplified, that's probably why the sound's off.

I'm convinced that we men feel colds worse than women do. Something at a genetic level that amplifies it. Though try explaining that to them? Pffft.

I don't know. We know global warming is real, but no one can accurately say it's man made. Over 95% of the carbon emissions are naturally made, the majority of emissions coming from volcanoes. These things were around long before the industrial age, and life on earth seems to have evolved just fine. We also know our earth has experienced global warming in the past, so this may be a cyclical event man has no influence over.

You really should read more about what climate scientists who study this say. For one, the massive climate changes in the past coincide with mass extinctions. For another, study of how the environment responds to differing levels of CO2 shows that small changes in total CO2 output can cause significant changes in climate (as in, the kind that causes mass extinctions). Then there's also the whole idea of multipliers, where small warming causes a change like the melting of permafrost, which makes that part of the earth less reflective (and also amounts to a change in climate).

In the 70s "they" said we were facing an ice age. Did we? Remember acid rain? Another 70s scare that turned out to be a red herring for environmentalists. Good science always prevails, and there's probably a good reason why Al Gore is being sued for fraud.

Did "they" say that? From what I've read on the supposed new ice age, there was a small minority scientists who said that, and the media amplified it completely out of proportion.

It's funny that you bring up acid rain though. You know why that went away? We implemented cap and trade for sulfur dioxide emissions, and it essentially eradicated the problem.

As for the "good reason" Al Gore is being sued for fraud, it's because there's a tremendous amount of right-wing political groups and corporations that want to discredit the entire environmental movement. A cost-effective way to do that is to try to tarnish the movement's most recognizable representative.

I can give you the Libertarian perspective: you solve it with lawsuits. If you pollute and it affects the health of others, then they have a right to sue for damages. There's no corporation limit to liability in a free market, and class actions would prove to be silly. People individually would sue the company and that would deter them from damaging the environment.

Ahh, so that's how you completely disguise all responsibility. If I get killed in a road accident during a freak snowstorm caused by global warming, mintbbb has to choose between using the life insurance money to settle affairs and pay off debts she may not be able to service without my income, or gamble it by trying to engage in a lawsuit against a coalition of oil, gas, coal, and power companies?

If we were talking about someone pissing in my water supply, would I really have to drink it, and then later prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it did some harm to me before I could expect law enforcement to get involved? Couldn't I just say "I don't consent to have pee put in my drinking water!" and get the police to stop people who wouldn't comply?

In reply to this comment by blankfist:

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

So, yeah @gwiz665 - per the below information - most definitely not bullshit. It's a quick trip from words to action. I think I may have mentioned this before- but the things we say and write have consequences and repercussions - and sometime amplify out into the wider world.
>> ^Hybrid:

She's been identified (
Sky News article). She's being offered police protection due to the amount of anger and death threats against her:
"A woman who was filmed putting a cat in a wheelie bin has been offered police protection after being identified by the RSPCA.
The grey-haired suspect was tracked down after she was caught on CCTV by the cat's owners, Daryll and Stephanie Mann, at their Coventry home.
Sky's Lisa Dowd said the woman was being offered police protection because of the "level of vitriol against her".
She said residents in Coventry were extremely angry, and death threats had been made against the woman on the internet.
"West Midlands Police are taking her safety extremely seriously," she said."

>> ^NetRunner:
The Tea Party has come to life because big money interests need to try to make their desired policy preferences look like they're an outgrowth of an authentic populist movement. Not to mention, without them it just wouldn't make sense that people would already be looking for Republicans to be in the driver's seat again already. I mean, Republicans have zero credibility on all issues, and the only reason for them to have any political future at all would be if they had some way of making it look like there's a popular, vociferous and energized grassroots backlash towards Democrats to point to.
If it weren't for the conservative media amplifying the tea party's visibility, and constantly spinning their positions as reasonable, people would realize how small, disorganized, incoherent, and batshit insane they really are.


True, but they could have been such a great party in concept. Instead they are baahd sheep...

The Tea Party has come to life because big money interests need to try to make their desired policy preferences look like they're an outgrowth of an authentic populist movement. Not to mention, without them it just wouldn't make sense that people would already be looking for Republicans to be in the driver's seat again already. I mean, Republicans have zero credibility on all issues, and the only reason for them to have any political future at all would be if they had some way of making it look like there's a popular, vociferous and energized grassroots backlash towards Democrats to point to.

If it weren't for the conservative media amplifying the tea party's visibility, and constantly spinning their positions as reasonable, people would realize how small, disorganized, incoherent, and batshit insane they really are.

>> ^MaxWilder:

I appreciate what Colbert is doing, but his shtick just reminds me of all the a-holes who really believe what he is parodying, such as the subject of this story. It just makes me too depressed to enjoy.


Which is exactly the effect he is striving for - to be a caricature of the right, he amplifies what they tout at a volume so loud it makes those of us capable of logic laugh.

I just want people to hear it , get what I did out of it. I dont generally care if something gets sifted, although if that happens the initial thought is amplified.

Feast the grey matter upon these cycles of fluctuating air pressures.

http://videosift.com/video/Paramore-CrushCrushCrush-Slof-Man-Dubstep-Remix

great mix but its an audiosift not much chance of it getting sifted.

What's up with the echo on her end? Could it be that she finally lost the last brain cell and her empty skull is acting as the amplifier?

Interesting. I guess I assumed the fact that he was soaking wet would cause the charge to be amplified somehow, but now that I actually think about it, I suppose water only helps conduct the charge. Since he already is his own conductor, the water doesn't make it any worse. Science...it works, bitches.

Like I said, I fully expect and deserve to catch flak over the douchebag comment. I'm not going to argue over that.

As to your points...
1) Yes, there clearly is. I was responding to one of them, actually.
2) Absolutely, I would, if they were funny.
3) Wasn't going for a coup de grace.
4) I understand you may have a different perspective, but I disagree that my comment was flippant. Rude and immature, yes, but not flippant. I was completely serious though not well spoken.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
There's no vendetta, I just thought your comment was dumb. I find many comments dumb and I usually keep it to myself, but your rudeness made me feel justified in saying it aloud.

As for why I find this comment dumb:
1) Stating the obvious: Do you think there is a person in the world that doesn't understand the concept of using laughter as a way of dealing with grief?
2) Good taste: Would you chuckle at jokes about eating the corpse of your dead friend? Probably not.
3) A very poor point followed up by an unearned coup de grace. If you want to smack someone down at the end of your comment, you have to earn it.
4) Contributing personal factors: Beyond this, I've encountered some painful deaths over the past couple of years, which probably amplifies my annoyance factor when it comes to flippant, rude comments like the one in question.

Why no intellectual debate? Because it didn't seem worth it. But you've asked, and I've explained it now.

I can't remember what I said to you about Milton Friedman, so send me the link if you want elaboration.

I think you are an OK guy, and definitely no moron, but you do have this way of stating the obvious in a really self-righteous tone that annoys the crap out of me.

Just being honest.