How are we doin? :D New president that everyone's happy about. (most people) plus the ever growing list of Frosties*. Have we become cool again?
promising,but we're not out of the woods yet. We got a couple more months to go.
I'm hopeful though ;)
James Dean, Steve McQueen, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and now Barack. America has always led the curve on cool. ;)
Hate to say it boys, but we've still one thing missing: full-length episodes of Doctor Who.
Oh, that isn't too far-fetched. Doctor Who has gotten a constant repping here on the boards, but I must admit the exact nature of its referencings eludes me. I can't tell if it's a popular British punching bag or if everybody across America's lesser ocean absolutely loves it. A total mystery. I might pick it up some day. It would be easier if there weren't 750 episodes, maybe.
Quote from: "Liquid"....Buffy the Vampire Slayer..... America has always led the curve on cool. ;)
Well, since the coolest/funniest guy in the Buffy-verse was Spike, and he was played by a Californian pretending to be a Brit, I think we can wrap that one up at least.
Cool is, clearly, trying to appear more like a leatherbound peroxided '80s British pop musician ;)
Ah Buffy :D
I'm feeling positive that Obama won. But as others point out we're not through the woods.
I'll wait before reserving judgement on the effect his presidency has. His attitude will hopefully be different but there are always things that could happen to change it.
Meh on Dr Who. I like the old ones with Baker, Pertwee et al but I can't stand the current ones apart from the odd few like Blink. Steven Moffat is taking over producer though so it may get much better under his stewardship.
Yeah, We cool.
But seriously, as a politics major who took a holiday to go to America to watch the election, it's a great thing to see.
And no, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
President Obama has a lot of potential, I'm very pleased with his victory. Now of course it's time for him to live up to his tremendous promises.
Considering i'm theamerican here, i'd say we aren't cool enough yet... our prog is lacking (aside from few spectacular exceptions) and we give money to fall out boy...
But, i think we have it in us, like a lion in the cage of our proggy hearts.
(i must admit to not actually being very american, but i was in an odd mood when i chose my name, so there you are)
I spent many a Saturday late-afternoon watching Tom Baker. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.
Quote from: "rogerg"I spent many a Saturday late-afternoon watching Tom Baker.
....until he saw the sun reflected by your binoculars....?
Quote from: "Pedro"Quote from: "rogerg"I spent many a Saturday late-afternoon watching Tom Baker.
....until he saw the sun reflected by your binoculars....?
haha
those would have been damn good binoculars since I was in South Dakota....
I'm a Liverpool Supporter... so that makes two americans very very unpopular with me!
and the sooner they dissapear the better...
but i guess the rest of you are..... okay :D
Quote from: "TheAmerican"(i must admit to not actually being very american, but i was in an odd mood when i chose my name, so there you are)
And you are actually......?
Quote from: "TheAmerican"Considering i'm theamerican here, i'd say we aren't cool enough yet... our prog is lacking (aside from few spectacular exceptions) and we give money to fall out boy...
But, i think we have it in us, like a lion in the cage of our proggy hearts.
(i must admit to not actually being very american, but i was in an odd mood when i chose my name, so there you are)
Yeah, i'd have to agree. Whenever we get more prog, maybe.
America is the source, however, of Frank Zappa and Mike Patton, two of probably my top five men of music.
I can't think of a single new music trend I've liked that was American-born since 2001-2004.
Quote from: "Liquid"America is the source, however, of Frank Zappa and Mike Patton, two of probably my top five men of music.
ah yes, two big fans of Varese and Cardiacs. ;)
Quote from: "sephiroth198777"How are we doin? :D New president that everyone's happy about. (most people) plus the ever growing list of Frosties*. Have we become cool again?
Probably not the best topic to hit on this site....but since you broke the seal......I wouldn't say "most people" are happy with this choice.....52% of the vote. That leaves millions who are NOT happy with the pick. I suspect his popularity is as high as it will ever be right now, because once he puts in some of his policies and starts stifling the economy further, the same people who put this guy on a pedestal will be the ones calling for his head. I must admit, I am going to THOROUGHLY enjoy that!
My take....how in the world we "hired" a 47 year old man with very little experience, (4 years in the Senate, 3 of which he spent running for his next job), no experience ever running a business, questionable associations, and extremely radical ideas is beyond me. My guess is that he is going to have his hands full paying back the people who donated $640M to his campaign....up to 40% of which are from outside the US.
It's certainly going to be interesting.
and a damn sight better than the last 8 years of lies and treason.
look back on the last 50-100 years of American history and tell me which party was in power when the country was its most prosperous.
will it be paradise? of course not, but at least we will have someone in the White House that cares about people like me and the people I know.
I happen to vote with my heart instead of my brain... and frankly, it's my own personal business which body part I vote with. :lol:
I couldn't agree more.....excellent point! When Jimmy Carter was in office from 1976 to 1980 with a Dem controlled Senate and House, we had 12% unemployment, 24% mortgage rates, the top marginal tax rate was 70%, inflation was 12.46%, and we were on the verge of collapse. In 1980, Reagan was elected, and the House and Senate turned over to the Republicans...within one year, inflation was 1/3 of the previous 4 years, unemployment was under 5%, the top marginal tax rate was 28%, mortgage rates plummeted, and we had the greatest 8 year period of economic growth in US history.
During the Clinton administration, the Republicans controlled the house and senate, and they had balanced budgets in 5 of his 8 years. Once Bush took over....again with the Reps in the majority, the stock market was at an all-time high, inflation and interest rates at an all time low, unemployment low......and although he spent like a drunken sailor and drove up the national debt, overall things were quite good. TWO YEARS AGO....the Dems got control of the House and Senate....and things have been falling apart since.
Excellent point though!
But I AM looking forward to EIMA!
Quote from: "Mickdoo22"and although he spent like a drunken sailor and drove up the national debt, overall things were quite good.
Too bad one can't do that in real life. Get some loans, spend the money, and know that it's all going to be in someone else's hands when that very familiar sh*t hits the fan.
It's all fun and games until it's time to start paying.
And now half the country's trying to kill the president. We're certainly showing ourselves as the progressive nation... :?
Quote from: "Mickdoo22"My guess is that he is going to have his hands full paying back the people who donated $640M to his campaign....up to 40% of which are from outside the US.
Yeah, it was that Sarah Palin. She scared us all into getting involved. And not for the right reasons. ;)
Ha, I'm still in college, so you have no idea how scary some of the Obama support gets around here. I always laughed at intense conservative Christian types who labeled him the Antichrist, but I have literally heard half a dozen people in the last week call Obama the savior of the world. I find that creepy. He's a politician. They don't save anything. They all just muck stuff up.
As far as I go, I voted McCain partly to be rebellious, but I'm not disappointed with Obama. The only true tragedy that could have resulted from this election was Hilary in office. I'd take Palin over her any day. Mrs. Clinton is probably one of the scariest people I've ever seen, and I don't know why. She's like a dominatrix without the kinky sex and the bulging bosoms. We're talking a wicked little shrew with a whip and one terrifying grin. Between Obama and McCain, a lesser of two evils, whichever seemed the least likely to fail. Obama talks like I want a politician to talk, but the dude's kind of underprepared--not that McCain isn't perhaps overprepared...
Maybe Obama will help out. The economy takes care of itself for the most part, right? I mean, it's always cycling up and down, from what I remember from high school. Truth be told, in the end, I really have very little faith in the office of the president. I never really expect them to do all that much one way or the other. Just kind of a public face for the dusted, rusty bureaucracy of government, in my opinion. Just one step behind Zaphod Breeblebrox.
Quote from: "Liquid"The only true tragedy that could have resulted from this election was Hilary in office. I'd take Palin over her any day.
Uhm... well, I think it says enough when countries all over the world stepped in to try and prevent Palin from getting in office...
And apparently you don't even know why you find Hillary so scary, though the reasons for Palin being out of her mind are quite numerous and obvious :roll:
Certainly. Hillary may be more qualified, but I could never trust that woman. She is just scary. Forgive me, but if it came down to a vote between her and most anyone else, I'd pick anyone else. She and a few other major politicians just inspire the opposite of confidence in me. Capability means little if my president gives me nightmares, you know?
It's nothing rational, just an intense dislike for a creepy person. These kind of things happen all the time.
And for what it's worth, I certainly do not want Palin as president, either. At least not yet. Maybe some day, she'll balance out, but she's too underqualified and inexperienced at the moment. Well, Barack is too, but hey, he speaks in pretty generalities, and that makes people think he's neat.
Yeah, this talk of Obama being assassinated is just nuts. Personally, I would rather watch him crash and burn on the world stage...because frankly I think the guy is full of shite. Any man who is 47 years of age, has offered not ONE piece of substantial legislation, has only served 4 years in the senate.....yet he has already written TWO memoirs.....that is just frightening. People talk about Palen being inexperienced.....but she has far more executive experience than Obama....the difference is that the media made Obama the next American Idol.....much the same way as they did Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and on and on.
Obama ran on "change".....yet to this point, EVERY SINGLE PERSON he has appointed to his cabinet, or to his staff served in the Clinton white house.
I had many many reasons why I could never vote for Obama....not the least of which is the fact that he wants to take MORE of the money I earned, and hand it to someone who DIDN'T. History has proven time and time again that you do not build a healthy economy by taking from those who create jobs, and invest, and donate, and build wealth.......and give it to those who DON'T, and expect that to spur growth.
But for those who never bothered to learn the issues......didn't the fact that Oprah, Maddona, Lois Ferahkan, Paris Hilton, P-Diddy, Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Bruce Springsteen supported the guy be enough reason to vote for ANYONE else??
History has proven no such thing. Given the policy focus of Democrats and Republicans respectively, and their accompanying fiscal stances, if what you say were true, then this would be impossible:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archiv ... 006282.php (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_05/006282.php)
And yet, there it is. Actual analysis, instead of unlettered opinion.
Your earlier diatribe was similarly unhinged:
"overall things were quite good".
In all kindness, your handle on the roots of the current crisis and the period in which they originated could use a major overhaul. That, or you should stop engaging in sophistry.
On second thoughts, show us the strength of your case: as an exercise, parse for us the origins of the free market impulse, and dates of the enabling legislation, and the financial sector's commercial response to e.g. Blythe Masters' and William Winters' little piece of handywork back in 1997:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap)
I could cut this torture short for you by pointing out that this crisis took much longer than a decade to make. In truth, it's more like two to three decades of decreasing measures of capital adequacy and/or reserve requirements for all manner of financial institutions- all as a result of reformulation and dilution of regulatory authority requirements ( heavily lobbied for by- ooh, who'd have guessed it- the banking and near-banking sector ), and a geometric increase in securitization and off-balance sheet assets.
All this was in response to the ideological drive for free market solutions that really found their footing with the arrival of Reaganomics, though conceptually the banking deregulatory impulse predated Reagan considerably. Neo-classical economics was in the ascendant and banking sector deregulation was also under way in Thatcher's UK at the same time, as those with a memory longer than last week will attest. As for myself, I was trading interest and currency swaps ( some of the earlier derivatives ) on the London Market way back in '84-'85.
So-back to your starting premise- if we strip the more illusory components of growth from all the Western economies after nearly 30 years of expanding credit and derivatives in all their forms, and the inflation that inevitably resulted, how "good" do you think the economy really has been in percentage growth terms, and for just exactly how long?
I'm just pointing this out in case anyone reading this outside the US is inclined to take what you wrote as anything other than an intellectually impoverished and highly partisan damage limitation exercise ;)
As for what you just wrote, I can't even be bothered to comment further. Please take your bitterness - wishing that the President-elect would "crash and burn on the world stage", ignoring as you do the diminution of American pride, prestige and influence that would result from this- and exercise it somewhere else where you may find a more partial and interested audience.
Impressive, if not TOTALLY misguided post Geetar. I could spend DAYS posting links to counterpoint your opinionated and slanted "references".....and back and forth we go. But what is the point?? Your bitterness is obvious. I won't spend my time or energy defending my views or blowing holes in yours, although frankly, it wouldn't take that long.
Once you get in your head that the "haves" have because they either screwed someone out of it, or inherited it, and the "have nots" are "victims" of bad government, nothing will ever sway you. I choose to believe that the basic concept of hard work should be rewarded. I will keep it simple for you.....I don't believe greed applies when you are looking to keep what you earn.....I believe greed applies to when you want MORE of what you DIDN'T earn than you are ALREADY taking.
Forget that, did you guys know that Eduard Pons Prades, also known as Floreado Barsino, was a Spanish writer and historian, specializing in the 20th-century history of Spain? Pons Prades was also active in the Syndicalist Party of Ángel Pestaña, a member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), and after Francisco Franco's defeat of the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War, a maqui.
Pons Prades was born in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona. His father, a cabinetmaker, was a Valencian immigrant and a member of the Federal Party of Spain, and founder of a woodworkers' union. His mother, Gloria Prades Núñez, also an immigrant from Valencia, was a member of the Syndicalist Party, and became a member of the Generalitat de Catalunya through the friendship of Martí Barrera, a member of the government.
As a young child, Pons enrolled in the Rationalist School, based on the philosophy of Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia. There he attended the lectures of the engineer and geologist Alberto Carsi. Pons' focus was always teaching, and attended the Industrial School of Barcelona for this purpose, but these studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
That year, Pons' father committed suicide. His uncle, a member of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica, lived to carry the coffin of Buenaventura Durruti in November that year.
Pons' joined the CNT in 1937 and participated in the collectivization of the Consejo Económico de la Madera Socializada and other locations such as the Santa Madrona Church in Poble Sec neighborhood of Barcelona.
Quote from: "Mickdoo22"Impressive, if not TOTALLY misguided post Geetar. I could spend DAYS posting links to counterpoint your opinionated and slanted "references".....and back and forth we go. But what is the point?? Your bitterness is obvious. I won't spend my time or energy defending my views or blowing holes in yours, although frankly, it wouldn't take that long.
Once you get in your head that the "haves" have because they either screwed someone out of it, or inherited it, and the "have nots" are "victims" of bad government, nothing will ever sway you. I chose to believe that the basic concept of hard work should be rewarded. I will keep it simple for you.....I don't believe greed applies when you are looking to keep what you earn.....I believe greed applies to when you want MORE of what you DIDN'T earn than you are ALREADY taking.
No, please do go ahead. You can only inform and educate, or crash and burn. And let us not forget, you're the one wishing ill on Obama's efforts to continue to make America a great nation. I think in terms of bitterness, you have the market cornered.
By the way, I'm a centrist, politically-speaking, with a degree in strictly neo-classical monetary economics. I'm a fan of some aspects of Hayek's work on a Libertarian approach to deregulation, but I'm aware that human nature often puts profit before principle, so I believe some regulation for ensuring stability and transparency in markets is vital.
What's your credo and qualification?
You are fairly transparent.....spouting your "qualifications" as if that gives your OPINION more weight than mine? My "qualifications" are that I am an American tax payer! Do I need more??
Oh.....and by the way......American's have always been "cool" in my opinion. ;)
Quote from: "Geetar"I'm a fan of some aspects of Hayek's work on a Libertarian approach to deregulation
(//http://www.drarok.com/Salma-Hayek1.jpg)
:?:
I can see two reasons why I am a fan now too! :shock:
Quote from: "Mickdoo22"You are fairly transparent.....spouting your "qualifications" as if that gives your OPINION more weight than mine?
"Spouting" ? I
have qualifications, but my point ( clearly lost on you ) was that I'm no bleeding heart, either by training or inclination; and your use of the word "spouting" sounds like you're all mouth and no trousers, matey boy. I'm a centrist (you've heard of centrists and know what they are, I trust.... :roll: ) with no axe to grind other than to make a half-decent attempt to crunch the numbers, instead of regurgitating someone else's bile.
And when you say: "My "qualifications" are that I am an American tax payer! Do I need more?" the answer is an emphatic yes; unless you actually enjoy looking like a blowhard on a public forum whose members clearly aren't a bunch of reactionary mouth-breathers.
Oh, and agreed Drarok- Selma Hayek is so much more interesting than Friedrich August von Hayek..... especially when she's demonstrating the virtues and efficiencies of liberating herself from artificial support systems.
Ok....so when all else fails, resort to name calling.......you are a fairly transparent, simple individual Geetar.
So since you are so intent on reciting your credentials.....out of curiousity, where are you from..(I am assuming UK), and with your oh so impressive education, what do you do for work??
for fuck's sake guys take it to email or pm :roll:
Quote from: "XeRocks81"for fuck's sake guys take it to email or pm :roll:
Yeah.....Wot the bloke with the Ugly Avatar said..... :D
Quote from: "sephiroth198777"How are we doin? :D New president that everyone's happy about. (most people) plus the ever growing list of Frosties*. Have we become cool again?
Were we ever uncool?
Just because our president had the IQ of a rock doesn't mean
I'm not cool.
Well damn I didn't expect this topic to get so serious :lol: I just felt that we've shown that we are progressive enough to elect someone who promises change from the last 8 horrible years despit his race and ethnicity. Many people got involved and it really seemed like the whole world was watching and was with us in our decision.
so I guess we can sit at the cool table at lunch?
Mmm. This has turned into an incredibly boring thread. I think this forum is about extraordinary music. Music to play whilst watching big intergalactic space ships take off, with warp drives and stuff, and biscuits.
B xx :P
Quote from: "Batchain"Music to play whilst watching big intergalactic space ships take off, with warp drives and stuff, and biscuits.
And hobbits! Don't forget the hobbits!
Too frosty :evil:
(//http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/biscuits/media/waggon_pk.jpg)