There was an entertaining comment along those lines in a recent Jalopnik article, tell us about the worst car you ever owned, user bandi53 talking about a 1987 Volkswagen Fox that was a bit of a lemon:

[...]
Next was the ignition lock cylinder, which just entirely froze up one morning when I went to start the car. After that was the starter, which left me stranded at the gas station. The day after (Christmas Eve) I was heading back to visit my parents, the alternator light came on... So I figured I’d limp the car home. This would have been a great plan but unfortunately the car caught on fire.

I left it in a mall parking lot with the ownership on the seat, signed, and the keys in the ignition. I hoped I'd never see it again, but driving past two weeks later, it was still there. I came back that night with a trailer and scrapped it myself.

Huh, never thought of that. So true...and I will add to this. In the past jobs in service have been able to absorb people into it to take up the loss of jobs (Say in agriculture and such.) So when Henry Ford made his assembly line, jobs were created pretty much everywhere. Restaurants are but one great example of this.

But with the techno revolution, the service sector was already pretty full. Now it is saturated. If I see one more new gas station down here in Florida, or another restaurant open, it will be too soon. I remember TWO, TWO Starbucks in the same mall. Such a false economy...

Now add automation and boom...

They won't have jobs because the automization of this country will leave them jobless. When Google makes truck drivers, taxi drivers, uber drivers obsolete, that's a few million jobs dead and gone forever. When every grocery store, fast food place, gas station and so forth are automated 100%, that's millions more. The ripple effect of 10 million + jobs gone in a few decades will cost millions more, the type that is higher paying.

So in other words @bobnight33 the economy is crashing under the free market 100%, so what is your solution?

parenting lesson, class 403



This is a great way to teach your boys about some of life. Go to your nearest gas station/restaurant with a couple arcade games.. this time of the century it might be going to a spot with WIFI.... but you could do it, competition your kid(s) against a stranger and learn them life lessons of perseverance etc. etc.

I have to admit that I'm partially on the "wrong" side of this one.

Housing, not being fired for being gay, that kind of stuff, I'm with John Oliver 100%.

But restaurants, bakers, etc. ... I dunno, I'm a little torn.

Places like Big Earl's in the clip put up a sign that says "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason". I tend to think that is a right that we should allow private businesses (NOT things that are set up for the public good like utilities, gas stations, govt. agencies, whatever) to have.

That is NOT to say that I approve of the way that these clowns exercise that right. Dude doesn't want to make cakes for same-sex weddings ... fine. You're a retard, passing up potential customers for a really stupid reason, and also possibly discouraging business from other people that empathize with those that you are denying service to, but ... hey, it is your goddamn business. If you don't want to make a cake for people who's name starts with a Q, I'd support your right to make that (equally dumbass) decision.

Kinda the same thing goes for Big Earl's. That might even be one of the cases where the comfort of your standard clientele (redneck bigots) is potentially more important/beneficial to your bottom line than the potential lost business that your discriminating policy causes. In other words, from a purely capitalistic viewpoint, the policy might be a net positive to the business. Maybe.


The one thing that gives me pause on those more private businesses being allowed to "deny service to anyone for any reason" is shifting from LGBT equality to race equality. If that cake maker refused to make cakes for a black wedding, I'd be more accepting that we need some government intervention. I know that my opinion should be the same in both instances, but I can only honestly admit that at the gut level, I have a different reaction to those 2 scenarios.

I sorta think that even the racist cake-maker should be allowed to continue to be racist (so long as we're talking cakes, and not something more *necessary* to public good), because a racist cake maker will probably put themselves out of business without the need for any government intervention. BUT, I'm sure there are places in the US where that wouldn't have been true (and where it wouldn't be true today), and we needed the push of federal mandate to force such people to remove heads from asses. Maybe the same thing is true for LGBT discrimination.

But I do still feel conflicted about it. Even though I know I shouldn't.

It was posted and then killed.
http://videosift.com/video/Gas-Station-Clerk-With-MMA-Training-Surprises-Thieves

Yeah, it must be in the deadpool somewhere... my googlefu is apparently unable to conjure it up.

EDIT: Found it. Killed by @blackfox42 so it's fair game.

Thanks for your "very scientific" definition (just like GenjiKilpatrick's "evidence" for global warming, saying "OMG, Global Warming is real because it was 70 degrees in Georgia!")

No, unlike you, I don't confuse partisanship with data... Nor do I look for arbitrary reasons to discount a person's entire argument because the rules of epistemology suddenly no longer apply. On the contrary, I choose to instead examine what the data actually shows before arriving at my own changing thoughts on the matter.

But I guess, for you, the data isn't as important as the source, so long as your pre-cooked distortions of reality aren't disrupted by something as pesky and difficult to conform to one's beliefs as the FACTS... (remember those?)

But, yes, you are absolutely right about fucking yourselves. Perhaps you should spend less time online and save some electricity. (Or maybe it's too much for you to actually Walk The Talk instead of just bloviating online.)

I went to a gas station recently. Lots of people were pumping gas... And none of them seemed to care very much about your ideas of oil company fellatio. They also didn't seem concerned at all about crackpot climate change "theories"... (Go figure.) You should get out there and yell at them for ruining the planet, ChaosEngine. I was also at an airport recently, too. There were lots of planes burning fuel. You're not making a single dent on oil consumption with your tirades... Perhaps you should try another strategy and see if anyone cares.

(Haha.. Of all the fictional "crises" you could choose to be an alarmist about, you've chosen one on which you have zero impact! But, hey, for all I know, you're just addicted to the adrenaline rush of faux outrage. Lucky for you, I'm here to feed it...

I'm confused....are you saying you feel if they THINK you have a gun, they can punt you in the face and break your jaw even if you are complying with their orders? Because he WAS complying with their orders and getting on the ground when he was kicked in the face, and cops can always say they THINK you had a gun, then act violently with impunity.
The radio repeatedly said the man with the gun has a yellow shirt and a hat, this guy has a white shirt and yellow hat, so he doesn't fit the multiple clear descriptions. Why would they think 'the dude had a gun'?
I also note, that was the SECOND time that officer kicked him, the first time was as he tells him for the first time to 'get on the ground' while kicking the suspects legs while the suspect is complying with the original 'get your hands up' command.

Also, they lied about the suspect and falsely charged him with multiple crimes, as noted here....
"The incident occurred at a gas station on U.S. 13. Lateef Dickerson, 30, of Dover, was originally charged with assault, theft and resisting arrest, but those charges later were dropped." Surprise, he apparently also did not have a gun at all!

On top of that, this is the official police statement where they are saying the officer did nothing wrong...
"As the man was in the process of getting on the ground he was kicked in the head once by Webster rendering him unconscious." I can't fathom how they think that's OK, they admit he was complying but kicked him in the face anyway, but that is their position.

They also said "that his actions regarding this incident were outside of Dover Police Department policy and acted accordingly," which seems to mean we know he didn't follow guidelines, and that's just fine (I don't know what else 'acted accordingly' could mean in this case). If they mean to say the department 'acted accordingly', it should be noted that their only reported actions were to give him a paid vacation and a pat on the back.

boring?
I'll upvote the classic dialog:
Sister asks, "Why does it smell like gasoline?"
To which Roman replies, "Because we're at a gas station."

Also, maybe the video is like Schadenfreude, we're all expecting something to fail in a horrible way. Too bad it was just "so annoying" for the sisters, and nobody died. Too dark?

They're from New jersey where self serves are illegal. I worked in a gas station on the Jersey/PA border and we got them all the time.

That's kinda the point. You'll get colossal douchebags in any gas station restroom. This one won't get trashed as well by the people that are less than colossal douchebags.

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