@ChaosEngine

I hope I don't have to be the one to point out the multitude of studies which have shown where crowds, group think or subjugation of one's opinion's to someone's authority results in terrible consensual decisions being made:

Stanford Prison Experiment
Milgram Experiment
Asch Conformity Experiment
Bystander Effect

In a situation like this, it's likely no one in the crowd has ever dealt with a serious fire. They may not recognise the risks of unexpected suffocation. They may not recognise how fast fire can travel or the risks of being trapped.

Earthquakes are somewhat different (and living in Oz I have no experience with them), but I would imagine that they can go from mild to serious very unexpectedly. California sits on multiple major fault lines. A serious earthquake is very plausible, it is in fact 'expected and long overdue' to happen:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/16/us-japan-quake-california-idUSTRE72F5KG20110316

Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, U.S. boxer famous in folk song, dies at 76

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/08/eu-data-ruling-idUSL6N0N00YJ20140408

Booyah!

Are you jealous @siftbot?

Fixed. A longer, non-reuters clip.

Whassup with the 1/5th size players on these old Reuters embedz anyhoos??

He's a traitor because he's given away state secrets to Russia and China in exchange for asylum and celebrity. He's a coward because he doesn't want to adhere to civil disobedience; I don't remember MLK or Ghandi fleeing to Russia. He's a narcissist because he could have easily revealed the misconduct of the NSA to the public anonymously instead of showboating like the second coming.

Fuck him, and I hope he suffers the fate of other Russian defectors:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113757/snowden-case-unhappy-history-american-defectors-moscow
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/02/us-usa-security-snowden-russia-idUSBRE97114O20130802

I guess I must be out of the loop as far as how the Republicans see things. This is just me talking. I am bi-vocational. I work as a substance abuse and marital counselor and I also own my own business, These are just things I have thought through, not been told about.

I am wondering if there will be enough money to fund the ACA without the employer mandate.

I am wondering if there isn't going to be civil disobedience on a massive scale with our young people who don't yet have insurance but now must buy it.

I read the article from Forbes and also the one from Reuters on a Google search because I was having so much trouble trying to navigate the healthcare.gov website. After repeated unsuccessful attempts and some strange pages popping up I began to think it was more than just overloaded servers causing the problem.

Until you mentioned the Republicans wanting to delay the mandate for a political advantage in 2014 I hadn't really given it much thought. Honestly, I really don't care why the Republicans want to delay the mandate. You wrote that there is absolutely no reason that the current admin may want to delay. I thought of a few scenarios that might end up being good reasons to delay it.

And just an FYI, I need to sign up for this. So the delay is hurting me. I'm not for delaying it. But the delay for me isn't coming from the the Tea Party. It's coming from the freaking website.

I can think of several scenarios why our President may decide to delay the individual mandate. One: The employer mandate won't be in effect this year. Some of those dollars will be lost. Two: The sign-ups from the youngest eligible group is suspect. While the program may have been successfully sold to them, the outcome is in doubt. If that group decides for a bit of civil disobedience - trouble. Three: There is this real possibility: http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottlieb/2013/10/04/president-obama-will-delay-his-health-insurance-mandate/

While I wish this were running more smoothly, there are other reasons outside of the Tea Party, to think that more trouble is coming.

I remember when the government tried to get this country to go on the metric system. I see something similar in play here right now. Hopefully it will get straightened out. It needs to.

EDIT: Reuters had an article on this as well:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/05/us-usa-healthcare-technology-analysis-idUSBRE99407T20131005

I wish this conflict were as simple as the courageous young woman reporter in this video portrays it but it doesn't take much research to discover that the FSA is increasingly being co-opted by anything BUT pro-democracy elements, namely Islamic jihadists allied with al-Qaeda.

For example:

"Hundreds of fighters under the command of the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) have reportedly switched allegiance to al-Qaeda-aligned groups, in a move described as a huge blow to moderate rebel forces.

Activists and military sources have told Al Jazeera that the 11th Division - one of the biggest FSA brigades - has switched allegiance to the al-Nusra Front in Raqqah province, a border province with Turkey.

A video was uploaded to YouTube on Thursday purporting to show members of the 11th Division parading through Raqqah with Nusra fighters.

In the video clip, a voice can be heard saying in Arabic, "Raqqah ... September 19, 2013 ... The convoy of Nusra ... God is great ... Nusra in Raqqah province."

The switch, if confirmed, tightens Nusra's control of Raqqah just days after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) attacked members of the Free Syrian Army in Azaz, on the border with Turkey.

The Reuters news agency, citing sources inside Syria, also reported that entire units of the FSA had joined Nusra and the ISIS in recent days.

The Raqqah Revolutionaries - which is part of the 11th Division - has about 750 fighters in total, according to a source close to al-Qaeda linked forces.

Abdulhamid Zakarya, military spokesman of Chiefs of Staff of the FSA, denied that Division 11 had joined Nusra. However, he said it had signed an agreement to collaborate in military operations.

In a separate statement, the FSA also condemned the ISIS for its actions in Azaz, saying it was going against the principles of the Syrian revolution.

“ISIS no longer fights the Assad regime. Rather, it is strengthening its positions in liberated areas at the expense of the safety of civilians. ISIS is inflicting on the people the same suppression of the Baath party and the Assad regime.”

Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Antakya in neighbouring Turkey, said that if proved true, the switches of allegiance would be a serious blow to the FSA's strength, and could have significant implications outside of Syria.

The US State Department designated Al Nusrah Front a terrorist organisation on 11 December 2012. There are financial sanctions in place.

"This means that the FSA has suddenly lost serious amounts of loyal fighters ... it's basically being swallowed up by Nusra," she said, adding that it would be very difficult for the West to support a rebel army dominated and commanded by al-Qaeda linked groups."

Um, ok, fascinating except for the annoying FOX commentary... gawd, how can people listen to that shit and not go insane!? Or rather, how many insane Americans/westerners are there from listening to that crap? 100 million? 200 million? Do they have to put their angle on everything? Do they have to give their opinion on everything? Do they not know that the reality of this universe is to simply take things as they are and not as one paints it? That painting your reality so much and losing what is there is synonymous to sociopath tendencies and psychosis? Its just not healthy to have ALWAYS something to say. Reuters and other outlets have many "silent" reports. Can FOXniuwws please just shut up with the redundant brainwash commentary?

He certainly talked the talk, didn't he...

Then again, all this reminds me of the good old days (pre '68) when the Allied forces were still reading most of our (as in "German citizens'") mail and listening in to innumerable telephone calls, all by hand. Ahhh, those were the days...

To have all your communications analyzed and stored automatically by a bunch of algorithms running on a virtual machine in some remote basement is so awfully technocratic, don't you think? Desperatly needs a human touch.

On a more serious note: we've been fighting tooth and nail for almost a decade to get rid of telecom data retention over here, and to see the clandestine mirror image of it laid bare for all to see is... rejuvenating.

The Man will pay us a visit later this month. It'll be interesting to see if any of our officials have the balls to tell Obama how his NSA puts even the Stasi to shame, where surveillance is concerned.

I dig the whole, Reuters girls' uniform-theme with the purple and black.

Ask and you shall receive!

You said: "They have no intention of integrating into the society or the laws/practices of the host country."

That right there, sir, is what we call an opinion--by definition not a fact. You have condemned the entire Muslim population of Britain as not wanting to integrate based on the fact that Sharia courts exist. And that, good sir, is what we call "irrational." As in, it doesn't at all reasonably follow from the previously stated fact. Perhaps indeed the entire Muslim community doesn't intend to integrate into British society (doubtful), but the fact you cited doesn't support that claim in any way.

Next, you state: "A birth rate outstripping that of the indigenous populace of countries they have "settled" by so much, that it is estimated the whole of Europe will be muslim in 50-75 years."

Sorry, good sir, that's not a fact--it's a thoroughly well-debunked lie. See: http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2011/01/27/will-pew-muslim-birth-rate-study-finally-silence-the-eurabia-claim/

You go on to say: "As for "moderate" muslims; when was the last time they marched en-masse to denounce the barbaric practices carried out in their name?"

Muslims regularly protest the atrocities that are carried out in Islam's name--it just doesn't ever make the evening news (after all, they're supposed to be the bad guys!). This website will give you more than ample examples of Muslims protesting the atrocities committed in the name of Islam.

http://www.muhajabah.com/otherscondemn.php

So, is Islam to be feared? Perhaps. Not for any of the reasons you stated, though. And I hope you don't feel like I'm picking on you--again, I agree with the video that you're entitled to your opinion. I would just hope you base your opinion on fact and reason and not hearsay and emotion.

In the spirit of Godwin, I propose a new internet law that describes the inevitability of the MSNBC false equivalency whenever a comment or topic criticizes FOX news.

I love ya, choggie, and VS is way better and more interesting with you here, but this dog just don't hunt.

I think the days of intrepid journalism are largely over for most of the news sources you mentioned, but there still are pockets of resistance to the inanity that passes as news in America. Regardless of whichever political ideolgy you most identify with, you cannot dismiss MSNBC as opposite but equal to FOX. MSNBC is most definitely liberal/progressive, but they wear it on their sleeve, and their spin is backed by facts and reality. FOX spins everything, and completely misinforms it's viewers fans by simply making shit up, not to mention the ubiquitous fear-mongering, the subliminal programming of their crawl, the always-angry, paranoid, petty, spiteful, and shrill talking heads, and the daily memo'd bullet points that are regurgitated verbatim and hammered into the brains of their veiwers all day long from show to show. The dolts on FOX and Friends have got to be the three DUMBEST people ever to thousand-yard stare into a camera. FOX is "news entertainment" at best.

There are infinite shades of gray between black and white, and MSNBC is definitely biased, but you can't say it isn't factual (the vast majority of time). If there was a true "equal but opposite" version of MSNBC, I would watch it. Unfortunately, FOX serves only as a source of amusement for me. "No Spin Zone" makes me giggle every time Papa Bear says it. It's brilliant parody.

That said, we agree that Americans are largely low information because low information is exactly what we get from the news sources readily available. But the "truth" is out there if one cares enough to go look for it.

For starters...
Al Jazeera
CBC News
BBC News
Christian Science Monitor
Reuters