...

That's a pretty black and white, unreasonable description of the world.

People will still call you a liberal or conservative, whatever.
When you get your information like that you will have many different opinions that dont fit one side. People will attack you even more, since youre now in the middle, between the extremists. Even if youre on their side on some things, they will still attack you because you dont go the whole way. On the other hand people from the other side will attack you because you have a trait of their "enemy" on one topic, so you must be a full blown "other sideling".
But people want to be accepted by the society, so they most of the time decide for one side. Thats why the world is getting more black and white and reason is becoming extinct.

Many of the new images have exaggerated colours, or are in black and white, and it might take a while before a colour correct set is available for comparison.

Greece accumulated debt in a foreign currency (Euro). Had they been using a free-floating currency with Greece as the sovereign issuer, it would have been much less of a problem. But that's a different discussion.

You brought up retirement benefits. These benefits have been a major talking point over here in mercantilistic Germany. Unfortunatly, a lot of inaccuracies crept into the debate over time. A closer look reveals that it's not as black and white as it is made out to be. One point at a time...

The effective retirement age, if we look at OECD stats, is basically the same for men in Greece and Germany. The age of 56 is often thrown around as the expected average retirement age for workers in Greece, but that's only for the totally messed up public sector. The average for the private sector is significantly higher, as the OECD numbers indicate.

Yet the size of retirement benefits is even more controversial. There are, in fact, some very dubious practices going on in Greece, which result in rediculous retirement benefits for a select group of people, even at very young ages. Decades of nepotism, that's what it produces. But even so, pension expenditure as a % of GDP was not significantly higher in Greece before the GFC than in Germany. When Greek GDP collapsed, expenditures as a % increased, naturally. Some have gotten absurd benefits, but the majority got a pittance. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Greece doesn't have a social safety net, unlike Germany. There is no welfare. Many people have to take early retirement at reduced benefits to have any income at all.
So I'll say it's bad in Germany. Last decade's changes to our retirement system have a metric fuckton of people (~40% of workers) heading straight into poverty when they retire. It's social security for them, and nothing else. Still, it's bliss compared to what the plebs in Greece now ended up with.

However, even all those beautiful OECD stats have to be taken with a grain of salt. Germany has a working bureaucracy. Everything is documented. Greece is a mess. Therefore, all comparisons are guesstimates at best.

Finally, as long as the Greek economy produces enough goods and services, it is for them to decide how to distribute their wealth. If they want a lavish retirement system, so be it. Our governments opted to create a true underclass of the working poor, and gutted a retirement system that made it through two world wars unscathed. If German retirees want to bitch about their benefits, it should be aimed squarely at our governments and their intentional deconstruction of our social welfare state.

The "backdrop of day-to-day violence" needs FAR more attention spent on it than these shocking aberrations. It's horrific. It's a tragedy. It is so "black and white" as to be able to be ignored as anything other than a true terrorist act.

It is also as completely unpreventable as a tornado or a hurricane.

More people died today in North America in horrific, tragic -racist or otherwise- but completely preventable ways. THAT is what needs changing. Talking about trying to prevent single assailant mass murder is stupid and wasteful.

This was also not the only man involved, and not the only concern that applied. This quote is his, not that of half a nation.

While I agree that the south had racist and white supremacist behaviors, I simply point out that the north was little better.

Both were plenty racist, and both cared a lot more about their money/power than they did about slaves. Rich white people in charge today don't give 2 shits about poor black people, I find it very unlikely that the rich white people in charge way back then cared any more.

Let me illustrate the 'champion of liberty' spin with an unrelated example :
Take the ww2 pacific theater for example. Japan teaches WW2 as a war to free Asia from western colonialism. U.S. teaches WW2 (pacific) as a war to free Asia from imperial expansion and oppression by Japan. Both are telling the truth, and both are full of crap. For neither was altruistic in their motivations, but both spin themselves as champions of liberty. For you will always have people on your side if you tell them you are standing up for liberty. (A concept well illustrated in The Prince - one of the earlier 'game theory' (from before it was called that) studies of governance.)

On a side note,

Keep in mind that slaves from Africa were usually purchased from black slavers.

And just a few generations ago, my own great grandparent's era, they and their peers were white peasant property of local white counts.

Things are not really all that 'black and white' (no pun intended).

-scheherazade

But what if the society norm is 'Don't be black'?
See, your country has a history of racism, stating very clearly the belief that people who aren't white are de facto Untermenschen. You know, like my country did with jews until we got ripped a new one and the world pressed our face into the awful, awful shit we did, like a dog who soiled his masters living room rug. Except that you guys never got that kind of treatment. To this day there's a large part of the white population in the US that actually celebrates the side that lost your civil war on slavery. They still fly those pro slavery flags and have their memorials for their 'heroes'. Seen from the perspective of a guy who made class trips to Buchenwald, that's really weird.
The norms of your society have changed somewhat but certainly not enough to make black and white equal in your country. Maybe there aren't laws to punish people for pigmentation anymore but the system is still rigged to their disadvantage. Centuries of targeted, intentional disadvanteges aren't wiped out by 50 years of not saying 'nigger' all the time anymore.

And what exactly are those privileges? Not getting shot in back by a cop you're running away from? Is that a privilege?

I think the black and white backup singer came in late on the 5th bar.

Upvote the vintage *time-shifting footage, delivered by a swell 7-stone-odd *gal. Side note: fan service @ 1.43. Vintage blushing (in black and white) ensues as all nearby gentlemen are obliged to sit down and cross their legs.

I think the differences in the way we see things are, I see the grey areas, and you see in black and white. Once someone is guilty in your eyes you come down 100% on them.
Me seeing the shades isn't always better, as I give everyone the benefit of doubt, sometimes when they don't deserve it, but I give it to them till I'm proven wrong.
That's maybe why you're better suited for your career, and I'm not.
Being able to make a solid judgement call and sticking with it is a solid attribute.

I only suggest that you see the possibility that sometimes honest people make poor judgement calls.
Where you see someone purposely ramming a truck, I see someone who made a poor decision in switching lanes and then proceeds to think she's good to go, and maybe is concentrating to much on the truck ahead and not seeing the truck beside her.
Poor driving, absolutely, but I can't believe her judgement said purposely hit the truck.

On the flip side. The truck driver is driving well within his limits, and maybe is tired of people cutting him off. So this time he doesn't let her in, not expecting that she may not notice him closing her out.

He could have avoided the collision, or at least tried, as he saw it coming and made no effort. She didn't. I don't dispute her bad driving decision or skill in this matter. On the flip side, his driving choices are not any better.

Have a great day. Keep on keeping on

Wrong white balance. Is it a white and gold dress in blue lighting or a black and blue dress in yellow lighting? Depending on the ambient lighting, the monitor (and the current settings) and the person watching, you'll get different result.

Just look to the white and black blotchy fabric to the left, and force yourself to see that it is black and white in yellow lighting - and you'll (probably) see the dress as the correct black and blue.

Here's my own adjusted picture, after a quick adjustment in Adobe Camera Raw. The only changes are the white balance and one stop darkening to the left version (the original picture is severely overexposed).
Left: Temperature -30 / Tint +18 / Exposure -1.00
Middle: original
Right: Temperature +65

As usual, any sense of nuance is completely lost on you. Things are all black and white in your world, and blacks are all bad. I honestly can't understand how you survive with that mindset.

No, of course the video doesn't tell the whole story, they shut it off so we wouldn't know the whole story. That's the point. Duh.

All cops that beat up non-violent 'suspects' are bad. All cops that shoot unarmed, controlled civilians are bad. All cops that punt people in the head are bad. All cops that steal from victims are bad. All cops that lie or trick people are bad. All cops that hide their criminal activity, or that of other officers, are bad. If all cops do those things, then yes, all cops are bad. Are you now saying that's the case? You should know.

It's incredibly sad to me that so many like you have adopted the 'you're either (100%) with us or your (100%) against us' mindset. That's why anyone not goose stepping along with you must be a 'leftie', a dirty word in your mind. That's going to end up leaving you pretty lonely.

Um...so now you're whining about what being a cop entails?! Sorry, you actually have to do something for that paycheck. Jesus Christ!

Try thinking about what you whine about before writing it publicly...or you could just do what lantern53 does and snidely write a bunch of ridiculous whining BS, insults and lies over and over until everyone knows you're a troll.
Stop wasting our time. ;-)

You can tell he is smart because it's filmed in black and white.

Here, take as long as you want. All the info and sources are exactly where he says they are, in the YouTube description. I've copied them here for you. If he hadn't provided all of these I might be inclined to agree with you. But he did provide the evidence, so you don't just have to believe the buzz words, you can actually check it out for yourself.

SOURCES

On average, black men's prison sentences are 20% longer than white men's for comparable crimes: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1000142...

Black people and white people use illegal drugs at similar rates, but black people are far more likely to be arrested for drug use: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5850830/w...

African Americans are far more likely to be stopped and searched (although the contraband hit rate is higher among white people) in California: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/...

And in New York (where the data isn't quite as good but appears to be comparable to CA): http://www.nyclu.org/content/nypd-qua...

Those wrongfully convicted and later exonerated by DNA are disproportionately African American: http://www.innocenceproject.org/Conte...

Black kids are far more likely to be tried as adults and more likely to receive life sentences: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/...

Black former convicts get fewer employer callbacks than white former convicts: http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/...

Emily and Brendan are more hirable than Lakisha and Jamal: http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/...

On that front, this study is also interesting: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/apl/9... and similar results have been found in the UK: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2009... and also in Australia: http://ftp.iza.org/dp4947.pdf

Also, this news story has some great analysis: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/bus...

High schools with mostly African American and Latino students are less likely to offer courses in Algebra II or Chemistry than high schools with mostly white students: https://www.documentcloud.org/documen...

This article explores many of the other ways that increasingly segregated schools have negatively affected African American students: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/sun...

And this story discusses the fact that African American students are more than twice as likely to be suspended as white students--even in preschool. http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2...

The ACP report on racial disparities in U.S. health care: http://www.acponline.org/advocacy/cur...
This (dated) study is also damning: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36... and there's lot of good info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and...

More info on increasing disparities in life expectancy between black and white people in the US: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...

The most recent polls show fewer white people thinking racism is not a problem than the ones I used in this video (although still a huge divide): http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/22/politic... and http://www.washingtonpost.com/politic... and http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2014/12...

Racial wealth disparity and the role that inheritance plays: http://iasp.brandeis.edu/pdfs/Author/...
Related wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_i...

The widening of the wealth gap: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/...

Nonvideo recommendations: I really like Roxane Gay's work in Slate and The Butter; this story in the NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/bus... Chris Rock's recent interview at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news..., and Ashley Ford's commentary and analysis: https://twitter.com/ismashfizzle. Also Kiese Laymon's wriitng is great, including http://gawker.com/my-vassar-college-faculty-id-makes-everything-ok-1664133077

Are you a Christian Engels? In what way do you interpret the scriptures? The scriptures are not vague about who Jesus said He was, why He came, and what our response to that should be. It's all there in black and white and it's not a secret. Regarding the exclusivity of Jesus, It's hard to misinterpret scriptures like this:

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Luke 13:2 And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
Luke 13:3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

It's not just one or two scriptures, it is the whole measure of Christ and His mission on Earth. What do you believe He came here to do?