OK, champ, you've convinced me. Let's put this slogan, er... concept into action. But, before we get started, I do have a couple of nagging questions that I'd like you and your exceedingly thoughtful brain to answer.

1) How do we get everyone to stop buying sweatshop products?

2) How does throwing away a paid-for Nintendo Wii impact Foxcomm in the slightest?

3) Why do greedy and abusive entities like Wal*Mart, Monsanto and Foxcomm seem to thrive in a wallet democracy? Is that what the people want?

4) There don't seem to be any examples of wallet democracy making the world a better place. Why is this? Is the liberal media covering it up?

5) Aren't there less abstract ways of stopping corporations from hurting people? Regulation perhaps? Revoking of corporate charters and whatnot?

6) Were the underpants gnomes involved in creating this concept somehow?

Thanks in advance for what is sure to be a brilliant, witty and thoroughly satisfying response.

Choggie - Chaotic Evil, Level 18, Gnome Fighter

First things first: Beer tasty. Bipartisan agreement at last!

Second thing is, Firedoglake is pretty much off its rocker at the moment. They're following the underpants gnome philosophy of political activism:

1. Demand single-payer health care
   
2. Oppose all Democratic reform plans for being too moderate
   
3. ???
   
4. Strongly progressive health care passes
   

I can see why you find this appealing, since you yourself follow the underpants gnome philosophy of political activism.

I wanted more from the bill too, and I'm annoyed Democrats didn't pass something more left wing. However, I never expected to win all the battles all the way all at once.

This is about as maximally market based as it can be without utterly tossing out the goal of increasing coverage and making things better for the poor. From here, the only way we're going to go is more and more left, so be careful what you wish for when it comes to problems with this bill.

The mandate is only going to get firmer if too many people cheat the system. If premiums keep going up, we're going to be talking about more stringent price controls, not a return to denying people with preexisting conditions. Your choice from here on out is privately managed socialism, or government managed socialism -- and if privately managed keeps being a total boondoggle, we're going to wind up with Medicare for all (yay!).

Oh, and the FDL myth thing is a mixed bag of true statements that merely mean the bill isn't perfect (e.g. "the bill isn't universal", it only brings us up from 82% coverage to 92%, and the bulk of the remainder are undocumented immigrants), and things where they are at best being misleading.

For example, under #4 they say: "it will impose a hardship on most middle-class Americans." They say this because their choices will go from paying $13,100 for health care or $0 for nothing to potentially facing a penalty of $2,085 if there is a qualifying plan available on the market for less than $5,243/yr and they still don't buy insurance. However, they fail to mention that if there isn't a qualifying plan available that cheap they don't have to pay a penalty at all. For there to be a plan that cheap, prices would have to drop 60% from where they are now -- and no one thinks they will -- which means this bill puts no "burden" on them at all.

In fact, if this family chooses to buy insurance of their own accord, they'll find their choices are vastly improved. Thanks to subsidies, the most they'll have to pay in premiums is $6305/yr (9.5% of income), compared to $13,100 they'd be paying without reform, and they will still pay no penalty if they decide not to buy insurance.

>> ^choggie:
"corporate think tanks, blogs, public relations firms" are the same places that fuel both sides dystop....you have made no point, you simply react to a nay-sayer with the same bullshit script-This is NOT an issue about anything else BUT, "follow the money"....Al Gore would have been the same brand of turd as any of them, creating empire and wealth and consolidating it for those who run the show.
Global Warming....Climate Change, no matter what the fuck you call it, it's obvious on this site and many others that there are still folks who think they have a clue as to what the fuck is going on based on the so-called findings of so-called experts.....Why not ask yourselves the questions instead of parroting answers. Could the nuclear furnace that appears on the horizon everyday have anything to do with climate change?? Could it be possible that pumping megawatts of energy into the ionosphere by the Dept of Defense have anything to do with erratic weather conditions? Could it all be a fucking hoax designed to further enslave the gullible populace(s) worldwide with the burden of so-called, carbon emission taxes?
There's a reason why carbon is not taxed yet....because people with a clue stand against the absolute absurdity of it. Want to eliminate the carbon footprints you leave??? STOP BUYING WORTHLESS PLASTIC SHIT, STOP EATING NON-NUTRITIVE FUCKING FOODS, AND FILLING YOUR HEADS WITH FUCKING INFOTAINMENT!!


There is consensus on this, regardless of how it fits into your world view. No internationally recognized scientific body holds a dissenting view on the reality of climate change. Not that there aren't exaggerated claims, politics and falsehoods from those who support the science side of the argument, but their actions do not discredit any of the standing research or the overwhelming consensus that climate change is real.

You are correct in saying I am ignorant of the specifics (as are you), which is why I choose take my 'bullshit script' from the 'so called experts' who have dedicated their lives to the study of climate change. You are free to take your 'bullshit script' from 'non experts' if you like, but it comes at the cost of your credibility, and doubly so when you make goofball AlexJonesian claims about ENSLAVING THE WORLD!!!!1!!

On the surface, a phony global climate change scare would seem to be a pretty complicated and esoteric means of enslaving the world. Don't you think there might be better, more efficient ways of putting us all in bondage? Buying governments? Building high tech mercenary armies? Destroying economies and then offering aid at a large premium? Destroying democracy under the banner of 'individual rights' and then picking off those powerless 'individuals' one by one? Creating massive unemployment to exploit the existing labor force via supply and demand? Creating some kind of deadly plague with an expensive proprietary antidote? These are just off the top of my head, but all of them would seem to be simpler, more logical, more direct avenues for world enslavement. I don't know, I'm no expert on world slaving.

I've got some logical issues with the conspiracy theorists that maybe you can help me clear up:

-How can you 'follow the money' and end up siding with industrialist polluters who stand to lose a lot of money if they are forced to clean up their act?

-How were the masterminds of this nefarious plot able to coordinate and control the research of many thousands of scientists from all over the world over many decades?

-How do you get from 'climate change' to world enslavement?

-Are the underpants gnomes somehow involved in this conspiracy?

1) Create a global climate change scare
2) ??????
3) Enslave the world

These conspiracy theories are vague, illogical and contradictory. In your response you throw out several possibilities a) It's real and caused solely by the sun (which is like saying tornadoes are caused solely by wind and have nothing to do with weather fronts) b) It's real and was intentionally created by the military (for some mysterious reason) c) It's a hoax to enslave the world through carbon taxes (but only polluting corporations pay these taxes).

It all comes out like a bunch of hastily though out nonsense, especially coming from someone who seems to think he has a monopoly on the truth. I'd love to hear an attempt to fashion these random bits into something vaguely plausible. Who might have engineered such a plot? How did they get the ball rolling? What was their overall plan from start to finish? How specifically might they parlay this into mass slavery? What do they intend to do with this massive slave force?

"Yet just when you think you're out for good, it pulls you back in."

i'm paul and i'm a wowaholic.

i'm afraid i still have a lvl 80 gnome warlock on aerie peak (Gwenovier), but i've haven't played for almost a year.

>> ^mizila:
Increase mount speed by 3%!!


My raptor prefers a gnome on a stick.

>> ^shole:
oh man, bill looks like there's gnomes gnawing at his skull
like he's being forced to this at gunpoint


I completely disagree, he was laughing quite a lot at anderson's asides (which were, let's be honest, quite funny.. assuming you can see past the fact that it is clive anderson), he seemed quite relaxed. They got on really well, so i don't really see where you're coming from at all. There were a few chatty unscripted jokes that went well.

Checked all the boxes for me. He seemed a little quiet and/or shy, but it was clear to me they enjoyed each other's company. Perhaps he did it as a favour to anderson (as they seem to know each other) but didn't really want to.

Americans just don't see enough of clive anderson to get over the fact that he's an instantly annoying tit. Once you're past the Clive-Annoyance-Threshhold as it's known in mathematical circles, you start to be able to laugh at his jokes, which are often very witty.

oh man, bill looks like there's gnomes gnawing at his skull
like he's being forced to this at gunpoint

>> ^gwiz665:
Pink gnome lost my vote.


Hahaha!

Pink gnome lost my vote.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Plants, Vegetables, Garden' to 'how to, Plants, Vegetables, home, Garden, outdoor, bed, seeds, flowers, gnome' - edited by SlipperyPete

The Gnome Project near Carlsbad NM is interesting to read about. Set off a bomb in a salt bed to generate medical isotopes and steam for electricity. Didn't quite go as planned (imagine that).

Yeah, the Cern gnome was awesome! Took it much better than the swedish politiican in the TDS socialism expose.

As for the highschool teacher, those guys are in DEMAND over in the U.S of A. The ability to accept such terrible logic is necessary in order to be able to say creationism, I mean I.D. can hold a candle to the body of evidence supporting our current understanding of life and the universe. Fortunately, such people are not in short supply.

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

James Randi is turning into a mountain gnome or an aged gelfling.

I wanted to try Mint. But there a huge advantages to sticking with Ubuntu / Debian install base.

What about Foresight? I really want to try out a Conary based package distro.


(you do know you can move the taskbar to the bottom in all gnome/kde etc???)