If we take for granted the need for cost cutting, it would be only logical, if not an outright neccessity in a democracy, to leave the details up to the local representatives. Payment of X Euros expected by mm/dd/yy, figure it out yourselves.

Why do it any other way?

Well, you know the three most discussed possibilities as well as I do: shock doctrine, an attempt to force Syriza to commit political suicide, and bureaucratic automatisms.

During the first stages of this facade, I would have put my money square on shock doctrine. The measures are just too damn beneficial to the "there is no society" kind of thinking. It's horseshit, economically, and tremendously damaging, socially.

Replacing Syriza with the Old Guard seems quite appealing, given the behind-the-scenes deals with the nepotistic elite as a means to facilitate a smoother transitition once those pesky commies are out of the picture. The vitriol against Varoufakis is just staggering in this regard. News of the World got nothing compared to what our respectable media has hurled at Varoufakis and Tsipras.

My take on the automatisms on the other hand is rooted in how our politicians and our public has been arguing this entire time. Neoliberalism is the gospel, dissent is heresy. Privatisation is good, cutting wages is good, flexible labour market is good, taxation of wealth is bad, deficit is bad, surplus is good. They drank the kool aid, they are in it hook, line and sinker.

And as a result, the diagnosis is always the same, and so is the treatment. And fuck me for using this ass of a metaphor, given how the language used is the most subtle means of manipulation. "Rescue" the Greeks, "drowning" in debt, "tighten your belt". How about: food only on five days a week, grandma gets to croak on diabetes and your baby boy dies of diphtheria.

Yes, I had a fucked up day. The discussion in parliament about the "Greek problem" was a disgrace and high treason of the humanistic ideas that are supposed to be the foundation of the European Union.

Meh. Still kickin'.

I just tried slacklining for the first time yesterday. It was exciting, cool, & slightly painful.

It's basically like whooping yourself with a belt if you bail the wrong way.

Also.. core strength.

But yeah, World Juggling Day was this past Saturday.

Got drunk on tasty beer and played with glowing juggling equipment.

Pretty awesome weekend I guess.

Hope yer feelin' well too!

Put on the seat belts, you guys! I want to see them riding too!

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYu2oLkyzaA8tLKfq8KJkOQ/videos has more too!

I hope some day we'll see a woman champion beat the male champion and meld the belts, making one championship.
You're right, if women can't compete, it would be terrible, but I think they could, certainly if given a certain weight advantage. I know damn well that Ronda could tie me in knots and make me swallow my own buttocks.

I think he's through the center of a shoulder-style belt, probably from trying to use it as a lap-only belt and now it has retracted and won't let him loosen it.

They forgot to mention that "airport personnel" (read: TSA) are usually a combination of the worst aspects of the other two types ("idiots" and "jerks").

Welcome to the US, now drop your pants, turn your head to the side, and cough. Oh, and watch me delay an entire line for 5 minutes yelling at an elderly Korean man to take off his belt, when he clearly doesn't speak a word of English.

Since we`re all guessing; here is my guess: He was buckled up, but chose to put his right arm over the belt, so it didn`t cross his chest. When he unbuckled the seatbelt, the seatbelt went back, fastened around him, and when he started to move out of the seat, the retractor didn`t feed him any more belt, so he just thighten it.

And I guess he would have easily gotten out of there alone, but since he probably wouldn`t use it, he "blames" the one that forced him to buckle up.

@newtboy - whoops, good call on the belt NOT being buckled, I didn't see that clearly the first time. Yeah, leaning to his left sure seems like it should provide enough slack to get free... Now I'm wondering if alcohol may have been involved.

OK, then his elderly wife. That part wasn't important to my point.

Please note that it's NOT buckled at all. That's why I said it must be fake, he had to squeeze into it that way. it could be he put the belt around himself without fastening it, and the ratchet tightened on him, but who puts on a seat belt like that in the first place? If that's the case, he just needs to lean over a bit and it will come off.

By his age, he should know how to put on a seat belt, no?

Where I come from, it is pretty common in an older married couple for a husband to refer to his wife as "mom". He sounds like he's from Massachusetts to me, dunno if that convention is common there or not.

As for the seat belt, he's a large guy sitting in the back seat of a vehicle, where the width between belt and buckle can be pretty narrow. Could be that when he sat down with plenty of slack he could get the thing buckled, but then after riding the belt ratcheted down on him to such an extent that it placed him over the buckle so he can't just easily unbuckle it. The retractor that keeps the belt tight in modern cars often seems very overzealous to me, often making it hard to pull out some slack even when the car is parked and turned off.

...So, maybe you're right and the guy is just dumb as a post. To me, it sounded like a slightly grumpy/annoyed dude stuck under a seat belt that had locked in a very tight configuration that didn't allow for much movement. A situation made worse (to him) because it sounded to me like he didn't want to be in the car at all and the person who I interpreted to be his wife probably ordered him to wear his seat belt when he would have to just go without...

I dunno. I could certainly be wrong.

This MUST be fake. There's no way a person could live as long as he has and be this dumb. He would have drowned looking up at a rain storm by now.
It's looking like leaning slightly to the left would let him out of the situation which must have been difficult to get him into. I don't believe for a second that he's really 'stuck' in any way. How is his elderly mom supposed to have strapped him in without clicking the seat belt in the first place?

If this is real, it's a terrible concept.
For this to work, it needs a seriously powerful industrial robot arm, which cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. That means it's only feasible for amusement rides, if that. because it flips upside down and relies completely on seat belts to keep you in it, they'll never put it in a setting where they'll be liable if you fall out, so won't be in amusement parks. To me, that means they have no client that would purchase this device, if it even exists. Looks fun, but also looks unrealistic.

No matter how cute your little man is, putting him up on the conveyer belt in the grocery is not cool. People put their food there, while he just put his dirty feet and ass there.

Wait, so all you have to do to attract a lady is to have a belt with candies in them?