In Chiba, where I live, they do have a recycling program but it could use improving. For example, you'd be amazed at how many types of plastics are considered "burnables" here. However, they do have clothing recycling which comes ones every two weeks. I'm told the clothes are given to needy folks in Japan or sent as donations overseas if they are still in good enough condition, which is pretty cool.

Second-hand stores here have gotten really big recently--two opened in my area in the four years I've lived here. Used book/manga/game stores have always been big but these new places stock everything you can think of including kitchen appliances, surfboards, etc. They pay utter crap and turn the items around for ridiculous mark-up, but given how stuffed from floor to ceiling with items they are, clearly people are using their services regularly. We actually have gotten lots of great children's toys for our daughter from them--stuff that retails for $40 (US) or more we've picked up for $5 or less in excellent condition. Also picked up a mini-fridge for the office for cheap.

Buy them here: http://www.oneworldfutbol.com/

Shipping is ridiculous though.
As much as the ball if you want it overseas.

In what way does any of that make me a hypocrite? Just because I'm a billionaire who got rich sending American jobs overseas... no, wait, if I were I sure as hell wouldn't buy a crappy GE product.

wow I'm very surprised that the same country that kills its own citizens with drones overseas conducted radiologic weapons testing in a St. Louis ghetto.

this can't be.

@renatojj I agree that the vilification of "profit" is also bad. I roll my eyes all the time at silly stuff I read that uses the word "profit" like the very word is sin incarnate. After all, wages are the "profit" of your labor, right?

Everyone wants theirs. I'm so tired of the finger pointing. It's always the other guy, for some people.

And. The pursuit of profit by shipping jobs overseas, @snoozedoctor, is short sighted pursuit of profit at the expensive of the health of our society. And our environment -- cheap goods means more crap in the landfill, more wasted resources.

It is a complex topic that cannot be solved in soundbites and protest banners. And the sooner we can step back from an "adversarial" relationship, the better, yeah?

No offence taken at these guys. I can understand the individual's desire to get the best wage they can. It's human nature. And therein lies the socialist principle. It's a philosophy contrary to human nature. I work in a field where Unions are illegal, and rightfully so, because it would lead to price fixing, monopolistic practices and it would be generally contrary to the public good. The same is true for labor unions. It's legalized monopoly and price fixing of labor and contrary to the public good as it either increases consumer prices, or makes US products less competitive, either forcing businesses to shut down (like Hostess), or ship jobs overseas. But, Unions aren't the greatest evil for US labor costs. Like I pointed out before, the cost to business of employing people here continues to escalate for the previously mentioned reasons. Healthcare in particular has to be reformed, and I don't mean the new healthcare legislation. It does nothing to rein in costs and, instead, will increase labor costs. Note the number of businesses that are already limiting worker's hours to make them ineligible. That's progress? Don't get me wrong, I'm for healthcare for all, but it has to be affordable. How can we justify spending double per capita on healthcare what the rest of the developed Nations of the World do? Unsustainable and it's growing leaps and bounds by the year.

How to Guide: Watch Netflix from Overseas with an Apple TV has been added as a related post - related requested by dag.

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

Me too. This is good stuff @ZappaDanMan. Also *related=http://videosift.com/talk/How-to-Guide-Watch-Netflix-from-Overseas-with-an-Apple-TV

Would you support the closing of such loopholes used by tax evaders?

>> ^quantumushroom:


Liberals think that raising tax rates = higher revenue. Nope. The wealthy simply put their money in tax-free investments with smaller returns or invest overseas.

Do you have any facts to back up your claim?

Liberals think that raising tax rates = higher revenue. Nope. The wealthy simply put their money in tax-free investments with smaller returns or invest overseas.

It's the middle class--whom liberals claim to support--who gets it in the ass. To wit, Obamacare.

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

Ben Stein may be a Right Wing ass, but he actually understands numbers (apparently unlike all the other Right Wing asses on Fox).
You cannot raise government revenues by lowering taxes! Real economics do not work by magical thinking.

As much as I would like to agree with you that the government doesn't feel sorry for spending tax money; we have been led to believe that tax breaks and loopholes for the rich specifically, did not and will create more jobs. After 11 years of practice, this proved to be a fruitless that only benefited the upper echelon. You want an example? Take Romney's money in Switzerland and The Cayman Island for example. I am sure he has the right to do with his money whatever he wants, but a show of good faith would be to invest that money back into the economy (tickle-down) instead of parking it overseas. That, I have a HUGE problem with.

I would be taxed more under a re-elected Obama, and I don't mind that because of the greater good. Today, he is the lesser of two evils. I would vote for Romney if he actually believed what he said, but his actions and his words don't go together - see previous paragraph.

It would be dishonest for anyone to think that lowering taxes alone, or cutting the deficit alone would stop the hemorrhaging.

>> ^quantumushroom:

When tax rates are lowered, government revenue increases.
When tax rates are raised, the wealthy scapegoats remove monies from the system, either by parking them in things like tax-exempt bonds or investing in countries with lower tax rates.
However Obama tries to explain away what we on the right have known and have empirical evidence to back it up, his results have been negative. Such failure should not be rewarded by punishing the rest of us with 4 more years of this rubbish!

Yo, Hi-Tek, you think you could fuck with something like this?

[Beatboxing]

Don't you mean something like this?

Yeah, that's perf. Yo-Landi, do that thing.

Eh Fatty Boom Boom
Hit me with the Ching-ching
Not fokken thinking, dolla eye twinkling
Just a bit of junkie,
Let's not get too funky
Ohh ohhh ooh ohh

When I'm on the mic it's like murder murder murder!
Kill kill kill!
Wat se Suid-Afrika?
Suig my fokken piel.
Hier kom ek weer
Like a lekker a smack in the face
Rappers are fokking pouring into passenger planes
What happened to all the cool rappers from back in the day?
Now all these rappers sound exactly the same
It's like one big inbred fuck-fest
Sies
No, I do not want to stop, collaborate or listen

Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy hold on to your ching
I'm takin' over America, blowin' up everything
Physically fit, the Ninja very energetic
If you haven't got it by now, then you're never gonna get it
I whip my dick out and piss on all the hard-up 'n fokken rap
Got an offshore account for dollar bills in a stack
Fuck rap
I'm siding with China we not fokken related
Like a methfest, like the first time I ejaculated.

Eh Fatty Boom Boom
Hit me with the Ching-ching
Not fokken thinking, dolla eye twinkling
Just a bit of junkie,
Let's not get too funky
Ohh ohhh ohh ohh

Eh Fatty Boom Boom
Hit me with the Ching-ching
Not fokken thinking, dolla eye twinkling
Just a bit of junkie,
Let's not get too funky
Ohh ohhh
Hi! My name is Yo-Landi fuckin' Visser
Fight fight fight!
Kick you in the teeth, hit you on the head with the mic
There's a rumble in the jungle I'm (something) to beat em
Not looking for trouble but trouble's looking for me
M'uppercuts're fokken swollen with nothing just come for free
I used to think I'd always kill this to hustle something to eat
South Africa used to be a twangy'd, (y'know dat's me)

Suddenly you're interested 'cause we're blowing up overseas
Make you money money money
Yes yes yes
Zef side represent
You're fuckin' with the best

I'm a upper
Twangies get buffed like a sucka
Bokka Bokka
Yippie-ki-yay motherfucker!

I'm a big deal (wiv de seen my niggas rollin' me)?
Now I'm having so much fun I can't even go to sleep

Yo-landi!
What?
Where you at?
Here I am!

Spitting fokken lyrics like bam bam bam!

Eh Fatty Boom Boom
Hit me with the Ching-ching
Not fokken thinking, dolla eye twinkling
Just a bit of junkie,
Let's not get too funky
Ohh ohhh ohh ohh [x2]

We keep it lekker lekker lekker, zef zef zef
Spend all my fuckin' money til' there's nothing left
I'm a fat cat, keep the change I don't need the slip
With this fat sack of dagga I'm smoking a spliff
In my mat blacks are bottle-haters throwing a fit
Round the corner gooi'n fokken spiff Tokyo drift

My daddy told me there's a lot of fish in the sea
There's just a lotta motherfuckin' money bitches and weed

Ja, dagga dagga dagga, puff puff puff
Bring the beat back Hi-Tek!
Make it rough
We drop the type of beats that make you shut the fuck up and dance
We drop the type of beats so good you're fuckin' stuck in a trance
In the overseas they like to say you're stuck in a trance
We drop the type of beats that make you fuckin' cum in your pants

Pass it to left, like a zef, to the east, to the motherfucken left

Eh Fatty Boom Boom
Hit me with the Ching-ching
Not fokken thinking, dolla eye twinkling
Just a bit of junkie,
Let's not get too funky
Ohh ohhh ohh [x3]

Jesus

Romney could definitely spend some of that hard-earned money of his that's parked in The Cayman Islands to create some jobs over here. Him stowing away millions overseas instead of investing it at home, yes, I have a BIG problem with that!

>> ^quantumushroom:

Any evidence for any of this will be welcomed.

Idle corporate cash piles up
IRS data suggests that, globally, U.S. nonfinancial companies hold at least three times more cash and other liquid assets than the Federal Reserve reports, idle money that could be creating jobs, funding dividends or even paying a stiff federal penalty tax for hoarding corporate cash.
The Fed’s latest Flow of Funds report showed that U.S. nonfinancial companies held $1.7 trillion in liquid assets at the end of March. But newly released IRS figures show that in 2009 these companies held $4.8 trillion in liquid assets, which equals $5.1 trillion in today’s dollars, triple the Fed figure.
---------------------
“I’m afraid of the president,” said Wynn. “I have no idea what goofy idea, what crazy, anti-business program this administration will come up. I have no idea. And I have to tell you, Jon, that every business guy I know in the country is frightened of Barack Obama and the way he thinks.”
--Steven Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts

>> ^quantumushroom:

Smuguel Jackson should release his tax returns. Since he doesn't look like a b tch, I'm sure he has a team of lawyers serving up every tax break and loophole they can find.


Thank you for that fact-free speculation that Sam Jackson is a hypocrite.

Now explain why the vote should go so someone who definately has exploited said loopholes and has made his billions shipping jobs overseas and pays less taxes than the 47% of the country he dismisses as moochers.

Don't mind me since I have been drinking but most of this seems like personal conjecture.

Obama did not Veto NDAA when he said he would.

People where killed overseas without Due process.

I personal don't give two shits over mittens and Kock brothers.

Jackson didn't produce depth it just made it seem cool, but it is more like the anti drug commercial this is your brain on drugs commercials. Shock value.

Obama has promised many things and delivered on little.

I like Noam Chomsky and he has been highly critical of the administration.

He hasn't closed Gitmo and has given no timetable.

Fuck John McCain and his sanctimonious POW bullshit.

I know that it was a rider and his administration fights to keep that one part alive.

Obama is not going to save this country. That believing he will help the country is only prolonging its death. I don't vote for the lesser evil.