So this is it then. Personally I am glad that it turned out as it did since obviously everonye is still alive. That being said, if you ask yourself the question above and then back down like he did, you are likely not cut out for civil service while wearing a gun.
High standards, but that's the price of authority.

... is that .... mooing?

This is so fucking weird for a number of reasons:

- Even the dudes handing out the masks don't seem to use them correctly - you need to cover your nose

- Arguably, wearing a mask on a beach or outside is not really that important as long as you stick to social distancing (1.5 to 2m). It's when you enter crowded or often-frequented places (stores, subways, etc) when they become a factor

Is this whole thing really that politicized atm? Scary...

dude. it's a bit ironic that you seem to display the same dark cynicism which you describe as being at fault for the situation you describe.
While I don't exactly disagree with your sentiment I sincerely hope it was just a spur of late night "bwah, world is grim".
Help someone if you can - don't underestimate the impact of leading by example - and if you wait for someone to define who needs to "logically begin" or what the implications of some obscure system are nothing's going to change,

From what I have been told many of the smaller county's budgets are directly tied to arrest and conviction statistics.

This creates a multitude of problems.
Officers literally have to score X convictions or their buddy might "loose his job".
Similarily, the only way out of traffic duty up the career ladder might be a high conviction rate.
The sick thing is that this just the tip of the iceberg. AFAIK departments have been doctoring their statistics for so long it has widely become accepted that you literally go "fishing" once the next review period comes up (usually its more like speeding/broken tail lights, etc) and is widely viewed as common practice.
However after 9/11 a lot of departments have inflated their expenses with more equipment/personel (go look how many redneck county police deparments have their own Special Tactics Squads...) - combine that with poor budgeting and you can see where this goes...
Not all the blame can be put on the police though - a lot of it comes down to the way the review process works (i.e. convictions vs crimes prevented - go figure which is the easier statistic to use/present).
This problem really isn't new unfortunately.

If this cop was 8 years in service i doubt this was the first time he has ever been spit on.

Not saying the child was an angel, and maybe he deserved it. But this is basically vigilante justice - sth which especially the police WILL FINALLY have to adjust to now that cameras are everywhere.

The police are so used to getting away with cerain things that they basically have to relearn their profession (which, again might be hard after 8 years, but is that a valid defense ?).

Be it as it may- there is still a certain entertainment value in some guy leaning out of a window to show someone the finger and then crashing his semi in the most embarassing way imaginable. The only thing more humilitiating would be if his tire had dropped off.

does that make it more or less weird?

They needed the heavy metal music and fake scream track because you can probably hear the hydraulics of the thing from a mile away ;-)

Unfortunately it is only interesting when condensed into a video of this length. The usual matches seem to consist of 50 minutes of people engaging in poser brawls - then somebody remembers that he can actually run over to the other team's goal.
The lack of athletic competitiveness means that neither the fights nor the ballplay end up particularily engaging :-(

if someone uses chemical weapons in an urban environment that is certainly something to bitch about. The same way people should bitch about a number of other conflicts worldwide. It is called bringing attention to something that is obviously fucked up.

Ideally politicians should both sound smart and not talk bullshit. The fact that it is Ron Paul, someone videosift (me included) has a thing for deserves taking his response seriously and analyzing it critically.
That is also called debate and not just bitching.

I like Ron Paul's stance on non-intervention. I like Ron Paul a lot.
But what he is saying on Syria and the convoluted power system there is simply not true. There are Al Kaida fighters on the sides of the rebels. However, there are also Hezbollah fighters on the side of the Assad Regime.
If America's stance on what asserts a terrorist group and what not holds true interpolitically they, by their own theory can not stand by passively and watch. America HAS to do something- they allready "invested" too much into the region to now sit back and not act. WHAT exactly this intervention should look like is the question and you can see the current adminsitration suffer with a good answer to it.
Don't listen to the currently popular theme of "Gas-weapons are just another way to kill people". If you think the deployment of poison gas weapons into a urban warzone is the same as just "regular" bombardment you have to seriously go and read up on how gas-weapons behave in an urban environment especially WHEN combined with regular bombardment.
The use of this weaponry is an absolute show stopper, which makes it a lot more painful to realize that the USA itself is using enriched Uranium munitions and clusterbombs) - Nonetheless- the USA not acting now would be like saying: "You might not be as powerful and omnipotent as we are, but go ahead since we take this so seriously that we trivialize it to start our own wars".

Does it have to be military intervention? Hell, no.
Can it be expensive? Hell, yes.

The Use of UEAE-weapons (undiscriminatory extended area effect weaponry- i.e. stuff which even gets into protection shelters and doesnt worry which ones) is like lining up and shooting an entire part of a town by principle. Kinda like a poor man's nuke and even if it was a ruse by the rebels- this certainly warrants the current drama.
The USA invaded Iraq because they thought that Sadam Hussein had these weapons (fabricated charges or not, thats what they started the war on) so what exactly would be the consequences now if America sits back?
John Steward said on the daily show that this is like 7 year old bullies fighting on the playground. The irony is that he is frightingly right.
Again, I am against military intervention but this is some serious stuff.

its water with vinegar afaik. Baking soda and sodium metabisulphate (Campden tablets etc) also supposedly work.

" What a cool you-tube video this will make - it will get like a million views! ...OUCH"

there is only so much fail I can take before the giggling starts to fade into cringing reflexes, then into empathy and feeling bad for the many videotube guys busting their balls and smashing their braincells for some bizarre reason or incident that is...
that is...
...except for the dude who flew into the house... that was just fucking hilarious.

Happy NY Videosift btw.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/42261786/Post-Porn-Politics just fyi- you might find this an interesting read.