Awesome - great choice of music too.
Kudos to him for his abilities - I just dropped my car off at the dealership this morning - died on my way in to work. I let the pros handle that stuff.

That hurts.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love the Gallardo. It's one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen. And it's a crappy Lambo that's been redesigned by German engineers, so like they put it on Top Gear: "It's like a Lamborghini, but the air-conditioning works."

However, I love the fact that it's properly pronounced: "gay-ardo." I just picture all these macho dicks, driving around in their yellow sports car, showing off, yet trying desperately to ignore the fact that when they were at the dealership, everyone kept saying how great they would look, "In your new 'Gay-ardo!' That 'Gay-ardo' looks great on you! It's like the 'Gay-ardo' was made for you!"

In fact, I'd bet that at dealerships here in America, they're probably forbidden from using the proper pronunciation. Can't you just picture it? "I know guys, but if we pronounce it that way, we're never going to attract the macho-dickhead customers that keep us in business..."

Some guys will argue to the death about the proper pronunciation of "Jaguar", but there seems to be an unspoken agreement among most Lambo fans that a Gallardo is a "Gall-ardo".

I would've given anything if they drove by the accident in the video and said: "Man, that's a shame, it's such a beautiful 'Gay-ardo'." Of course, for all I know, the guy is comfortable in his sexuality, but I doubt it.

At first I frankly wasn't terribly impressed with his efforts, but in the end I think he did an admirable job.

Also Nissan, not Suzuki.

edit: My mistake. The car being used as a battering ram is in fact a Suzuki though the dealership is Nissan. Maybe that's the problem right there... why would a Nissan dealership replace Suzuki parts under warranty? Just askin'.

I went to dealerships instead of doing this...I should've done this it would've saved me a lot of time. I went back and forth pitting the dealers against eachother, until I got a price less than I was expecting and more for my trade in. It wasn't perfect and I maybe could've gotta a bit better by using this guys system, maybe next time I'll try it.

Kind of interesting. Basically forcing the dealers into a bidding war by letting them know there is a game in play. This would only work for non-unique goods that are the same from each dealership - like this wouldn't work with houses.

"We need a new spin on our Kia Dealership ads boys, what have you got?"

"What if we bring in a raging psychopath as a spokesperson?"

>> ^rgnjc:

Health insurance is clearly not the same as college. With higher education you volunteer to pay X amount of dollars to get an education per year that is optional. Considering there are literally thousands of options in this country to choose from, CHOOSE ONE THAT WORKS FOR YOUR BUDGET! Consider buying a car, certainly we all don't go out and buy lamborghini's...instead we buy Toyota Corolla's and Ford Focus's...something that is more fiscally realistic. I wouldn't go buy a lamborghini and have the gall to sit here and complain about the price when there are better options.
Health insurance is different, and I don't care to talk about that, that's not the point of this thread.

>> ^Fletch:
>> ^rgnjc:
IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE TUITION DON'T GO THERE! Find another school that fits your fiscal requirements, moron.

THIS! So succinct!
Hey, while I got ya here... It doesn't look like my medical insurance will pay even a third what they payed the first time, should I relapse. I'm not rich and, admittedly, I'm kind of a moron, so what should I do if that happens? Find another insurance company, or find another disease? Two seemingly impossible solutions... should I desire to live, but I just bet you can help me.



Except at some point, writing your degree on a paper napkin probably carries more weight that the low budget degrees. Or, I have 2 grand, my car options would be something that needs a lot of work and additional money invested or an extreme high mileage vehicle that has a good maintenance record but let's face it after some point on mileage maintenance or not something is going to happen...severity dependant. Or I borrow or otherwise go beyond my means in hopes that it will give me a reliable car that will get me to where I want to go but have no warranty, and then the transmission goes out and the dealership wants nearly what the car is worth to fix it. So I face having no car or going even further beyond my means to hopefully continue to keep my reliable car on track and get my invested money back out of it. I think that more accurately represents the school situation for that guy. You can't just go to another school and hope they transfer every credit 1:1....depending on where you are in your degree you might get boned out of many credits you otherwise would have kept had you not switched schools/programs.

And I'd argue the "optional" portion of a higher education when jobs that SHOULDNT require them, do. It's either tradeschool or college unless you like digging ditches, collecting trash or some other unskilled workforce area. And that's not a bash on those jobs, in fact I think most of those unskilled jobs should pay more than a teachers salary...because a lifetime of those utterly destroys your body. Be lucky if you don't need back surgery by 50 if you do hard manual labor from 18 on up.

Just wait until car dealerships get a hold of this.

It wasn't 'the bank's' idea any more than the Internet was Al Gore's 'idea'. Computer records were just a natural evolution. Computers came along. Magnetic card readers came along. Banks didn't 'invent' them. They just used them like everyone else to simplify their work. Secretaries didn't invent word processors, but they use them to improve performance.

And consumer convenience via electronic records is very much something that banks want to 'do for thier customers'. They can use the convenience to attract customers and profits. Obviously such a thing is helpful to them both on the back end with their records, and on the front end in attracting potential clients. If a bank is more convenient than the other guy - it gets more business. That's making something for YOUR convenience that also helps them. Nothing wrong with that.

And so what if it is 'institutionalized'? Clothing is institutional. Should you tear them all off and go around naked because you're afraid of getting ripped off by the textile industry? Food is institutional. Should you die of starvation so you don't get ripped off by farmers and grocery stores? TV is an institution. So go throw your TV out the window so you don't get brainwashed by the 'free' TV progam ads? Money is an institution too. What's your point? That we should live in a cave and never partake of any human advance in civilization just because someone else is making a profit on it?

And everything you say you 'can't do' without a credit/debit card is bologna. You can walk to your HR department right now and demand your wages as a check, and then take that check to the bank and get cash. You can buy airline, bus, and train tickets with cash. You can buy food, clothing, utilities, and every other necessity with cash. You can pay your bills by mail. You can pay rent in cash. You can buy a house with cash. A bank account HELPS in all these transactions (IE convenience). But if you walk up to a business with with a wad of legal tender they WILL accept it - I promise you. I have never once walked into a car dealership with a pile of cash to buy a car and had them turn me away. Quite the opposite. They literally drool over me, and it gives me far more power to negotiate.

All I'm saying is that the things you SAY you can't do without a bank are easily doable if you apply a little elbow grease. If you find paying a measley $5 a month so horribly offensive and crippling to your finances, then do yourself a favor and stop whining about it. Take your money and go somewhere else.

I think it's both hilarious and insane that you think Wal-mart simply re-arranges a local economy. A lot of Mom & Pop stores are niche market but make a lot of their profit off your everyday Joe & Jane buying garbage. That is probably the majority of consumer product in America - garbage. I remember I was really good friends with the owner of a record store in a small town but he made most of his money from larger "indie" rock bands on Atlantic records or some shitty metal band. 98% of everything else was underground punk, pop-punk, grindcore, power-violence, thrash, straight-edge hardcore, emotive hardcore, gravity style, D-beat, black metal etc etc. But, he made most of his profits from garbage. Don't think about anything folks, just work your shitty job and hope your wife doesn't cheat on you. Remember to pay your taxes. BLEH!

The other problem in my eyes is that a lot of middle-class & lower-class people inevitably shop at Wal-mart because of cheaper prices. I remember reading an article about how Wal-mart lost revenue last year but luxury stores (Neiman Marcus, etc) finances skyrocketed. The rich are now uber rich and they burned up the middle-class as well as their jobs so we could get them to new heights of wealth. Wal-mart and a lot of shitty huge corporate stores are VERY much apart of this topic & apart of the problem America faces. As long as there are huge big-box stores stamping out local business and selling product cheaper because they are such a gigantic virus-like company - local economies across the entire country will never get "well". Make these stores into Co-ops and maybe we'll get somewhere, we have to snuff out at least some of these greedy fucks.

It's still stunning to me that people are able to stick up for such a piece of shit company.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

Wal-mart... crazy rant about how it kills your neighbors...
I've never quite understood this argument. Wal-Mart doesn't kill local businesses. It rearranges them and then creates more jobs. Every Wal-Mart that goes up has about 10 restaurants, 2 car dealerships, 1 Gamestop, a couple book stores, and a bunch of other ancillary businesses sprout up literally overnight right next to it once it opens. These places employ - that's right - your neighbors. It has been demonstrably proven over and over again that Wal-Marts increase employment and revenue in the communities they enter. Do they shake up the environment and force local shops to change it up? Of course. But for every guy that curses Wal-Mart because he had to close his Mom & Pop, there are 20 other guys who are cheering Wal-Mart as they take showers in new business money.

I'm sure that's a HUGE consolation to the other 40 people that lost their jobs.>> ^rychan:

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
Wal-mart... crazy rant about how it kills your neighbors...
I've never quite understood this argument. Wal-Mart doesn't kill local businesses. It rearranges them and then creates more jobs. Every Wal-Mart that goes up has about 10 restaurants, 2 car dealerships, 1 Gamestop, a couple book stores, and a bunch of other ancillary businesses sprout up literally overnight right next to it once it opens. These places employ - that's right - your neighbors. It has been demonstrably proven over and over again that Wal-Marts increase employment and revenue in the communities they enter. Do they shake up the environment and force local shops to change it up? Of course. But for every guy that curses Wal-Mart because he had to close his Mom & Pop, there are 20 other guys who are cheering Wal-Mart as they take showers in new business money.

I agree that it's a crazy rant, but I'll take it further. Any argument about making or killing jobs is a crazy rant.
Our goal, as a society, is to reduce the number of jobs needed in stupid stuff (like retail), so that we can put more of our collective resources into things that actually improve us as a society (research, education, health care).
If a WalMart meets the retail needs of a community with 40 jobs instead of 80 independent merchants, FANTASTIC. That means we all get to spend less money on equipping and feeding ourselves, and more money on schools and space programs. If you went out of business because a WalMart showed up, your job was not adding enough value to the product to be worthwhile. Sorry, the free market has spoken. But don't worry, we haven't reduced the productive output of the human race, this just means that we have more resources to spend on science instead of mom and pop shoe stores.
So stop bragging about your stupid government project "creating hundreds of jobs". Anyone can create make-work jobs. The only job the government should be creating are those that directly serve the public good and that can't be financed on an individual scale. Basic research falls into this category. So does policing and homeland security, although I think we've gone way overboard on security spending.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

Wal-mart... crazy rant about how it kills your neighbors...
I've never quite understood this argument. Wal-Mart doesn't kill local businesses. It rearranges them and then creates more jobs. Every Wal-Mart that goes up has about 10 restaurants, 2 car dealerships, 1 Gamestop, a couple book stores, and a bunch of other ancillary businesses sprout up literally overnight right next to it once it opens. These places employ - that's right - your neighbors. It has been demonstrably proven over and over again that Wal-Marts increase employment and revenue in the communities they enter. Do they shake up the environment and force local shops to change it up? Of course. But for every guy that curses Wal-Mart because he had to close his Mom & Pop, there are 20 other guys who are cheering Wal-Mart as they take showers in new business money.


I agree that it's a crazy rant, but I'll take it further. Any argument about making or killing jobs is a crazy rant.

Our goal, as a society, is to reduce the number of jobs needed in stupid stuff (like retail), so that we can put more of our collective resources into things that actually improve us as a society (research, education, health care).

If a WalMart meets the retail needs of a community with 40 jobs instead of 80 independent merchants, FANTASTIC. That means we all get to spend less money on equipping and feeding ourselves, and spend more money on schools and space programs. If you went out of business because a WalMart showed up, your job was not adding enough value to the product to be worthwhile. Sorry, the free market has spoken. But don't worry, we haven't reduced the productive output of the human race, this just means that we have more resources to spend on science instead of mom and pop shoe stores.

So stop bragging about your stupid government project "creating hundreds of jobs". Anyone can create make-work jobs. The only job the government should be creating are those that directly serve the public good and that can't be financed on an individual scale. Basic research falls into this category. So does policing and homeland security, although I think we've gone way overboard on security spending.

Wal-mart... crazy rant about how it kills your neighbors...

I've never quite understood this argument. Wal-Mart doesn't kill local businesses. It rearranges them and then creates more jobs. Every Wal-Mart that goes up has about 10 restaurants, 2 car dealerships, 1 Gamestop, a couple book stores, and a bunch of other ancillary businesses sprout up literally overnight right next to it once it opens. These places employ - that's right - your neighbors. It has been demonstrably proven over and over again that Wal-Marts increase employment and revenue in the communities they enter. Do they shake up the environment and force local shops to change it up? Of course. But for every guy that curses Wal-Mart because he had to close his Mom & Pop, there are 20 other guys who are cheering Wal-Mart as they take showers in new business money.

Want to know what it even worse? Laws like this are still on the books, and enforced.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law:

"In Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, car dealerships continue to operate under blue-law prohibitions in which an automobile may not be purchased or traded on a Sunday. Maryland permits Sunday automobile sales only in the counties of Prince George's, Montgomery, and Howard; similarly, Michigan restricts Sunday sales to only those counties with a population of less than 130,000. Texas and Utah prohibit car dealerships from operating over consecutive weekend days.

Many states still prohibit selling alcohol on Sunday, or at least before noon on Sunday, under the rationale that people should be in church on Sunday morning, or at least not drinking.

Blue laws may also prohibit retail activity on days other than Sunday. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example, blue laws dating to the Puritans of the 17th century still prohibit most retail stores, including grocery stores, from opening on Thanksgiving and Christmas."

I'm so glad these were ruled to be unconstitutional here in Canada in 1985.
>> ^kceaton1:

So sad that this is more or less true. It leaves me speechless.

Ah, here's a nice debunking of the dog vs SUV claim:
http://www.grist.org/article/dogs-vs.-suvs

Also, Peroxide, are you being intellectually honest with yourself when you list all of the collateral expenditures of dog food manufacturing and shipping and not do the same for cars? The environmental impact of roads, bridges, car dealerships, quickly lubes, parking garages, the auto insurance industry, hospitals and funeral homes for the 40 thousand that die in car accidents each year, etc...