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

As some of you may know I'm an Apple Fanboy so take this with a grain of salt.

-- was she advertising her services on the Apple Support forums? I can see where that would get you banned.
-- the responses she received on the forum were from other users - not official statements
-- for several years now data on iPhones has been encrypted with the secure enclave. Even Apple can't unencrypt. Depending on the type of damage, it could be very difficult and sometimes impossible to retrieve the data.

With those bits out of the way - I do support right to repair, and I don't like Apple's stance on this type of stuff. I recognise that Apple isn't the company I loved from the 80s - but I still enjoy their products.

I just don't think that Russians are going to require passports in Trump's Authoritarian Dictatorship.

I'm expecting an official Russian enclave in the US. Maybe just cede Virginia to them. Or any State they want really. Anything to keep the pee pee tapes and free loans under wraps.

Italy:
Renzi is creating the conditons for a new bubble? Through deficit spending on... what? Unless they start building highways in the middle of nowhere like they did in Spain, I don't see any form of bubble coming out of deficit spending in Italy. The country's been in a major recession for quite some time now, with no light at the end of the tunnel and a massive shortfall in private spending. But meaningful deficit spending requires Renzi to tell Germany and the Eurogroup to pound sand -- not sure his balls have descended far enough for that just yet.

Referendum in Switzerland:
"Vollgeld". That's the German term for what the initiators of this referendum are aiming for: 100% reserve banking. It's monetarism in disguise, and they are adament to not be called monetarists. But that's what it is. Pure old-fashioned monetarism. Even if you don't give a jar of cold piss about all these fancy economic terms and theories, let me ask you this: the currency you use is quite an important part of all your daily life, isn't it? So why would anyone in his or her right mind remove it entirely from democratic control (even constitutionally)?
If you want to get into the economic nightmares of it, here are a few bullet points:
- no Overt Monetary Financing (printing money for deficit spending) means no lender of last resort and complete dependence on the market, S&P can tell you to fuck off and die as they did with PIIGS
- notion that the "right amount of money in circulation" will enable the market to keep itself in balance -- as if that ever worked
- notion that a bunch of technocrats can empirically determine this very amount in regular intervalls
- central bank is supposed to maintain price stability, nothing else -- single mandate, works beautifully for the ECB, at least if you like 25% unemployment
- concept is founded in the notion that the financial economy is the source of (almost) all problems of the "real" economy, thereby completely ignoring the fact that decades of wage suppression have simply killed widescale purchasing power of the masses, aka demand

Visegrad nations:
From a German perspective, they are walking on thin ice as it is. The conflict with Russia never had much support of the public to begin with, but even the establishment is becoming more divided on this issue. Given the authoritarian policies put in place in Poland recently and the utter refusal to take in their share of refugees, support might fade even more. If the Visegrad governments then decide to push for further conflict with Russia, Brussels and Berlin might tell them, very discreetly, to pipe the fuck down.

Turkey:
Wildcard. He mentioned how they will mess with Syria, the Kurds and Russia, but forgot to mention the conflict between Turkey and the EU. As of now, it seems as if Brussels is ready to pay Ankara in hard cash if they keep refugees away from Greece. Very similar to the deal with Morocco vis-a-vis the Spanish enclave. As long as they die out of sight, all is good for Brussels.

I would add France as a point of interest:
They recently announced that the state of emergency will be extended until ISIS is beaten. In other words, it'll be permanent, just like the Patriot Act in the US. A lof of attention has been given to the authoritarian shift of politics in Poland, all the while ignoring the equally disturbing shift in France. Those emergency measures basically suspend the rule of law in favour of a covert police state. Add the economic situation (abysmal), the Socialist President who avoids socialist policies, and the still ongoing rise of Front National... well, you get the picture.

Regarding the EU, I'll say this: between the refugee crisis (border controls, domestic problems, etc) and the economic crisis, they finally managed to convince me that this whole thing might come apart at the seams after all. Not this year, though, even if the Brits decide to distance themselves from this rotten creation.

The mixture of valid points, exaggerations, ignorance of context and completely false information makes it a bit... difficult to digest.

Generally speaking, a lot of errors were made regarding Cologne.

The police fucked up entirely and basically was unable to maintain control of the square in front of the central train station where shitloads of theft, sexual harassment and even a few rapes were committed.

The public media did not report on it properly. They did, in fact, refuse to report it at all at first. But that doesn't stem from an obession with PC nor is it special treatment for refugees/immigrants -- it's good old-fashioned pro-government bias. A few days later, they were all playing the same tune again: bad immigrants, bad muslims, need more law-and-order, close the borders, need new laws, etc. Same shit as always.

And yes, you cannot expect all these refugees to be model citizens from the get-go. Different culture, different language, segregation, no work permit, no familiy, maybe first-hand experience with war -- they are bound to commit crimes, assuming otherwise would be naive.

And accepting a million refugees might have been a bad idea after cutting down public personnel and services for two decades straight. But what's done is done. The question now is what can be done to improve the situation for everyone involved. What doesn't help is further segregation (refugee camps), private security (aka mobs hunting brown people, happened in Cologne already) or downplaying the massive problems.

As for that wierd tirade from 1:07 onwards about true Germans: except for all the people from Bohemia, Prussia and Silesia, aka Poland; or the millions of immigrants from Italy and Turkey; or the folks from former Yugoslavia; etc. Two thirds of the bloody country has family names that mark them as n-th generation immigrant. Half of my extended family is from what is now Russia (Kaliningrad) while my family name is distinctively Dutch. "Paid German taxes" gives a hint to his motivations. Folks in East Germany didn't pay German taxes: do they count? Refugees from former German enclaves ("Russlanddeutsche") didn't pay German taxes, nor did they speak proper German: do they count?

All in all a very misguided rant, too eager to abuse real fuck-ups for his own ideology. Rape culture, SJW, PC -- doesn't apply in this case. It's small government, media with establishment bias, a general inability for open discussion of problems, and a shitload of incompetent arseholes in positions of power (e.g.: chief of police in Cologne, gone now).

By the way, he forgot to mention the hundreds(!) of refugee shelters that were set on fire during the last few months. Bands of immigrants committing crimes are a problem, bands of Germans committing crimes are a problem.

We had a six digit number of prime suspects for trouble already: young, male, unemployed, un(der)educated, no fucking hope. It's the main cause for the persisting problems with Nazis in East Germany: no hope. Adding a million additional people, lots of them with equally bad prospects, without any serious effort to integrate them is bound to blow up in our faces eventually.

The best thing that can happen for the entire Eurozone would be a massive integration program in Germany. And by massive I don't mean a meagre billion Euros. We're talking 15-20 billion a year, for at least five years. The more the better. Even in the current economic regime, it would be much cheaper than the repercussions from staying the current course: doing fuck all.

I don't mean to detract or lessen this, but the only philosophical material here was the last 20 seconds where he basically said "Don't blame and don't hold grudges." Otherwise, the entire video was like a wide-eyed kid in a candy store. It was not really all that stark, and kind of reminds me of an Amish that decides to leave his enclave. Perhaps the quality people see is the dreaming they believe they experience? Perhaps it is the fact that free people waste more on hate and frivolous, benign shit than this guy did locked up. Perhaps the video is really just pointless without our injection of a point.

Experience. There are enclaves where they behave as it comes naturally to them, but many of their marches take them to more civilized places. And faced with counter-protests 3-6 times their numbers, even these people are smart enough to keep their aggression in check.

Actually, this is true, but it's also only one of the recall items that GM has issued Recalls for this year.

"It recalled 8,208 of its 2014 cars on May 7, for example, because they might have rear brakes on the front wheels."

"GM says it has informed regulators about two more recalls imminent but not yet announced. The latest batch includes safety belt, air bag, transmission and electrical issues in a range of midsize sedans, full-size crossovers and SUVs, and pickups."


GM's U.S. recalls this year

Below are General Motors' recall of vehicles in the U.S. since Jan. 1

Date, no. of U.S. vehicles, models affected, recall defect

- Jan. 13: 324,970 of the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and 2014 GMC Sierra for overheated exhaust parts

- Feb. 7 and 25: 1,367,146 of the 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2006-07 Chevrolet HHR, 2005-07 Pontiac G5, 2006-07 Pontiac Solstice, 2003-07 Saturn ION, 2007 Saturn Sky, 2007 Opel GT, 2007 Daewoo G2X for ignition switch

- Feb 20: 355 of the 2014 Buick Enclave, LaCrosse, Regal and Verano; 2014 Chevrolet Cruze, Impala, Malibu and Travers; 2014 GMC Acadia for transmission shift cable adjuster

- March 17: 63,903 of the 2013-14 Cadillac XTS for brake vacuum booster

- March 17: 303,013 of the 2009 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana for airbag

- March 17: 1,178,407 of the 2008-13 Buick Enclave, 2008-13 Chevrolet Traverse, 2008-13 GMC Acadia, 2008-10 Saturn Outlook for airbag

- March 17: 656 of the Cadillac ELR for electronic brake control

- March 28: 823,788 of the 2008-11 Chevrolet HHR, 2008-10 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2008-10 Pontiac G5, 2008-10 Pontiac Solstice, 2008-10 Saturn Sky, 2008-10 Opel GT, 2008-09 Daewoo G2X for ignition switch

- March 28: 174,046 of the 2013-14 Chevrolet Cruze for front axle shaft

- March 28: 489, 936 of the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado, 2014 GMC Sierra, 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, 2014 GMC Yukon and Yukon XL for oil cooler fitting.

- March 31: 1,340,447 of the 2004-06 Chevrolet Malibu and Malibu Maxx, 2004-06 Pontiac G6, 2004-07 Saturn Ion, 2008-09 Chevrolet Malibu, 2008-09 Pontiac G6, 2008-09 Saturn Aura, 2010 Cobalt, 2009-10 Chevrolet HHR for electric power steering

- April 9: 2,191,014 of the 2005-10 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2006-11 Chevrolet HHR, 2007-10 Pontiac G5, 2006-10 Pontiac Solstice, 2003-07 Saturn ION, 2007-10 Saturn Sky for ignition key cylinder

- April 24: 50,571 of the 2013 Cadillac SRX for acceleration lag

- April 19: 23,249 of the 2009-10 Pontiac Vibe (built by Toyota) for air bags

- April 24: 51 of the 2015 Chevrolet Silverado HD and 2014 GMC Sierra HD for diesel transfer pump

- April 29: 51,640 of the 2014 Chevrolet Traverse, 2014 GMC Acadia and 2014 Buick Enclave for inaccurate fuel gauge

- April 29: 56,214 of the 2007-08 Saturn Aura for shift cable

- May 7: 8,208 of the 2014 Chevrolet Malibu and 2104 Buick Lacrosse for brake rotors

- May 14: 111,889 of the 2005-07 Corvette for headlight low beams

- May 14: 19,225 of the 2014 Cadillac CTS for windshield wipers

- May 14: 140,067 of the 2014 Malibu for brake boost

- May 14: 2,440,524 of the 2004-12 Chevrolet Malibu, 2004-07 Malibu Maxx, 2005-10 Pontiac G6 and 2007-10 Saturn Aura for brake lamps

- May 14: 477 of the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe for steering tie-rod

- May 16: 1,402 of the 2015 Cadillac Escalade for passenger air bag

- May 19: 1,339,355 of the 2009-10 Saturn Outlook, 2009-14 Chevrolet Traverse, 2009-14 GMC Acadia and 2009-14 Buick Enclave for front seat belts

- May 19: 58 of the 2015 Chevrolet Silverado HD and 2015 GMC Sierra HD for loose fuse block

- May 19: 1,075,102 of the 2004-08 Chevrolet Malibu and 2005-08 Pontiac G6 for shift cable (expands April 29 Saturn Aura recall)

Total 18,666,842
( http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/05/20/gm-recalls-fine-goverment/9329481/ )

No one important that's for damn sure. I would actually LOVE it if the CEOs and owners of really huge companies and corporations fucked off to live in their own little enclave.

We've got very smart people who can take their place, such as the workers that can run their own factories. There is no such thing as these genius CEOs that understand things better than the rest of us. There is definitely no such fucking thing as a Magic Metal that saves all of society!

Ah. I see.

I'm not telling religious folks that their religion is wrong. They can do what they want within their homes and their churches.

But when their personal religious beliefs are foisted onto the general public, THAT I have a problem with. Stay out of the law of the land. Do what you want within your church walls. (Well, no human sacrifice, but you know what I mean. And it can prove difficult -- where do you draw the line at being outraged? The Mormon Church has abhorrent views towards homosexuality, as far as I am concerned. Do I have the right to legislate them out of existence? I say there are other ways.)

I also have a concern people, especially children, who don't share the divine gene and are stuck in a household where they are surrounded by dogma and crazy beliefs. If they secretly think that the religion thing is bunk, it has to be crazy-making for them. Lies are being told to them and they can't say anything. They aren't even sure they are lies, they just think something is wrong and they are isolated in the silence around the topic. And that is where the billboards put up by atheists come in. In a public place, these trapped people can get the message that they are not alone. That there is a different way to think. Gay Mormons are a great example -- they are getting plenty of information lately that the Mormon Church is totally wrong in its stance towards homosexuals.

Does that make sense? Or is it still logically inconsistent to you?

Maybe the real issue is that I understand that the world isn't perfect and never will be perfect. We can only strive towards a better world. I can live with stupid things happening in the world because I understand that there is nothing I can do about it. Except to the extent that I CAN figure out something, however small. Like billboards. Like making it clear to religious folks the difference between their beliefs and their right to foist those beliefs on others.

It's slow and painful and I know that there will always be enclaves of uber-conservatives who will never ever change. I can live with that. I have no choice in the matter.

I read the comments before watching the vid.

I was so impressed with her reason and her presentation -- and then she blew it with the "idiot" word. Reason reason reason reason childishness.

Well, it's all well and good that this is being discussed publicly. That is my takeaway on all these vids -- I personally think that there are so many "believers" because they are in the closet as much as any gay person in the middle of the Bible Belt is.

All these vids are, at the minimum, the It Gets Better support network for unbelievers who don't realize that there is a bigger world out there than the small enclave in which they live.

A rather simplistic, populist bit of tripe.

To start with, if this guy thinks that things were so great back in the 1960s then maybe he should think again. The 'middle class' he talks about in the 60s was a far smaller entity than it is in 2011. In the 60s the country had a higher proportion of people in the 'lower' class. Since that time, the average american family has gotten proportionally wealthier - not poorer - and enjoys a higher standard of living, more property, and greater economic freedom than ever before. The entire premise of this video is nothing but an anachronistic fantasy.

The pap about families easily affording homes, cars, education, and retirement in the 60s on a single income is also a load of bull feathers. Middle class stiffs had to make tough choices back then too, and didn't have the dosh to just toss around money like that. His cutsey chalkboard claptrap cartoons of a smiling 'middle class' family easily affording any expense they wanted is stupidly wrong.

And this moron acts like people on a single income TODAY can't afford a home, car, college, and retirement. I am the lone wage-earner in my family. Not ONCE have I gotten government assistance or a handout on the dole. And I own a home, 2 cars, have $13,000 in savings for the kids, and I'm on track to be a millionaire when I retire. How did I do it? Because I'm not stupid. The middle class doesn't have to go into debt for these things - and this JERK'S premise that MC families have to rack up huge debt to live life is absolute specious.

And unions - yeesh. I noticed carefully that this obviously neolib goombah didn't bother mentioning that the over 26 TRILLION dollars in debt this nation has only exists because of private and public sector union unfunded liabilities. Corporations send world overseas because unions ARE making the cost of business in the U.S. (not to mention the fact that we're #1 in the world in corporate taxation) unfeasible for many industries. And he also doesn't mention the decrease in union size is only in the private sector, but that PUBLIC sector unions have swollen in size to gargantuan, slovenly, grotesque levels - and are (of course) literally breaking America's bank with thier costs. Of course companies outsource labor when paying a US employee costs them 100X as much money for only a fraction of the output. Only in the neolib Planet Fantasy does everyone get 100,000 a year for pushing brooms, assembling widgets, and other unskilled jobs that any reasonably trained lemming can perform.

He also doesn't mention that the top 50% of American taxpayers are paying 95% of the taxes, and that the "middle class" that he disingenously claims to speak for is actually paying almost NO INCOME TAXES at all. The bottom 50% of wage-earners (that's the middle class for you neolib idiots out there) only pay 5% of the taxes. How much more can the you burden the top 50% with before they pull up stakes and leave? That's the problem New York City, Chicago, LA, and many other neolib Meccas are facing. They have raised taxes so high on "the rich" (which Obama defines as anyone earning over 200K) that they are leaving these leftist enclaves, which in turn are literally dying on the vine under the weight of their own stupid policies and union debt.

But I do agree with some of the comments about lobbyists and the tax code. I do believe that is a problem, but it is a GOVERNMENT problem not a lobbyist problem. The government is the new "Robber Baron", when 100 years ago the government was protecting people from Robber barons. But of course this guy doesn't focus on the fact that it is GOVERNMENT making these stupid laws, and not companies. In fact, many companies hated the repeal of Glass-Steagall but government wanted it so Barney Frank could have is precious UFFODUBBLE HOWZING! Banks never wanted to be forced to give loans to people who they never would have touched in the 1960s - but Government played the Race Card with accusations of redlining and forced it through.

The problems with income disparity people whine about are largely a phantom. More people in the US are wealthier than they've ever been in the nation's history. Carping about how much MORE the uber-rich have than the middle class is pure sophistry.

I'm well aware of the generational difference.

Your generation grew up with an access to porn and a visually sexualised culture that has never been experienced before. It is a world whose images have been managed, airbrushed, corporatized for ease of consumption. It has shaped your view of the world.

And actually, yes, when a man loves a woman just as she was created, I do admire him more. And he is rare, you're right. I find it incredibly sexy that he loves every part of the human body, without judgment, without reserve, without prudishness. No limits, no restraints, it is incredibly joyous and freeing.

You know who you are, if you are reading this. You are sexy, sexy men!

Sex is better without inhibitions, yes? These poor young women who are bleaching their anuses to match the porn shots -- when will they ever be perfect enough? They can never match those airbrushed fantasies. And can they really relax and enjoy themselves -- and you -- if they so worried about what they look like?

The Australian super model Elle MacPherson has said that she doesn't go to the beach, because she doesn't want to be compared to her photographs. She knows she doesn't look like them. A super model is insecure. This is really really sad.

By the way, I live in a small town that might be the last little enclave of hippies. There are a disproportionate number of women here with hairy legs and armpits.

You're right, though, even here they are the exception.


>> ^rottenseed:

It's dependent on age. Most people my age prefer heavily trimmed genitalia.
I'm sure the "men you admire" like when a woman shaves her legs and her pits right? Assuming the answer is yes, then that right there is modification from how bodies "evolved to be". If they like hairy pits and legs, then they're an exception to the rule, not the rule.

@RedSky. Poverty and parental involvement are two of the biggest factors in student achievement. By implementing merit pay, teachers in rich neighborhoods would be rewarded; teachers in poor neighborhoods would be punished. This would serve as further disincentive for educators to teach in low income areas, and there are already plenty of disincentives to teaching in low income areas as it is. Merit pay would effectively punish teachers with the hardest jobs. Schools that don't perform well need more money, not less. It's not so much a 'dirty' idea, as much as it is a stupid, stupid, stupid idea.

Imagine if law enforcement had merit pay. Cops in high crime areas would get the least pay, and those who work in small towns and wealthy enclaves would get big bucks for sitting on their asses. Thus, the best cops would have a disincentive to work in areas where they are needed the most. This would be stupid, right? Imagine if firefighters had merit pay. It would serve as disincentive for firefighters to take jobs in dry brushy areas. Stupid.

Can you see how flawed this argument is?

NCLB was an abject failure. Obama's plan isn't any better. Look at the numbers, there is no sea change here. The point of education is not the memorization of arbitrary facts. The point of education is learning how to learn; learning how to think critically; learning how to figure things out for yourself post graduation. It's like the old Chinese saying about giving a person a fish vs. teaching a person how to fish.

The main premise of "Waiting for Superman" is that public schools are bad, and that charter schools are great. The data doesn't bear this out, in spite of the fact that charter schools can be exclusive in their selection process and can shun kids who are poor, kids with bad grades, kids that speak English as a second language and kids that are mentally or physically disabled. 46% percent of charter schools show no improvement over public schools. 37% are worse. 17% are better. This is from the CREDO study by Stanford economist Margaret Raymond.

Also, you need not rely on 'instincts' when facts are readily available. Here's a fish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Ravitch

One demerit for you.

How are schools exceptional? You didn't explain that in your comment.

Bernal's a great part of town -- Cortland's like its own little enclave in the City.

In reply to this comment by shagen454:
Well, until I moved to what I call the only slice of "Appalachia" on Bernal Heights.

kthnxbye! Don't come crying to daddy when Mexico decides to invade your backwater corporate enclave.