bruins4ever

It's ok I suppose. I like electronic music, so listening to something a bit more aggressive from time to time isn't so bad. I dunno, it's not really my thing, but the whole MDMA scene around it is pretty pathetic.

ALL of it is retarded. The whole situation is, and the terrible political situation it highlights is pathetic. I was reading something the other day comparing it to the situation leading up to Shay's Rebellion and that in some political circumstances (the rebellion, slavery around the Civil War), there just isn't a possible way to compromise and one side in fact does have to just beat the other. This person said today's shithole seems like one of those situations. Compromising on some half-assed bill doesn't get us anywhere but back in the same place, so either we raise it and dramatically fix the problem, or don't raise it, crash ourselves and rebuild, we have to do one or the other.

Now what would your idea for fixing the problem be? I'm a huge proponent of cutting spending and raising taxes. It HAS to be a two pronged approach. You kinda can't have one without the other, as I don't think either will make a sizable dent in the problem. It's quite pathetic with the amount of political posturing and unwillingness to compromise. It honestly seems as though there's no room to work with one another because both sides are so brazenly stubborn, it's completely destroyed any chance of a compromise.

I hate that the Republicans are so against tax increases. It's become a total squeeze on the middle class. When you've got something like 5% of the population holding 90% of the wealth and paying zero taxes, there's a severe problem.

In theory yes, until a country decides that they want to get paid and decides to call in the payment and the USA can't pay it. But yes, Boehner is an absolute idiot. He's dragged his feet on this entire thing. Hasn't it already been proven that the tax cuts didn't actually increase employment? Company's don't immediately head out and hire a shit ton of people because they owe less money, most of the time it's saved as someone in this thread said earlier. The potential downgrade of the credit rating is somewhat scary as the economy see's the American bond as the safest investment you can make, so while there likely wouldn't be a massive depression or hit to the economy because of it, it would definitely shatter some confidence in what is a weak market.

Which is precisely why I think the concept of a perpetually growing economy is bullshit. The economy is an idea, it's not a tangible thing, and it's constricted because of the nature of our world. It's not infinite, so in what way would it make sense that the economy (which is a social construct) could just continue to grow unimpeded? I dunno, the whole situation is laughable.

Read up on Fareed Zakaria. He argues that China isn't out to fuck the US because the Chinese economy relies so heavily on it. Also, like we've shown in this thread, we owe ourselves most of the money, so if the UK called in it's 2% that we owe them, we could probably do that without destroying ourselves. But why would the UK do that? It would ruin economic ties between the two nations. But back to China, they rely on our purchasing of their goods so much that they actually adjust their exchange rates based on how our dollar floats. Most nations have a floating currency and China does not, they artificially value their dollar based on other currencies, and mostly want to make their goods attractive to us.

I'm getting lost in my own thoughts, but the point is that while the "American Century" is probably nearing it's end, we're not disappearing, even if we can't get out of our own way politically. We're still the largest economy, so the rest of the world benefits from our economic activity. That's why only idiots are actually rooting for us to tank.

There's no way China would just pull the rug out. It would cause ripples far across the global economy that I don't think anyone could possibly predict. A strong US economy means a strong Chinese economy. I was more thinking along the lines of a hypothetical situation if someone decided to call back debt. I actually enjoy reading Fareed on CNN when I see his articles.

It's just a very strange situation, and I think if anything it's helping a lot of people to at least pay attention to a thing they may not have ever thought about, even though most of the rhetoric is completely retarded.

the economy is a lie.

the government will always take it from you, regardless of what it's "worth".

how can we be in debt when we're the ones that print the money? who do we owe?

shit's a joke.

Well, you can't just print money on a whim like that (even though that is what is happening) forever. It leads to hyperinflation which is a problem. Money only has value if people believe that it has value, and since it's not commodity money or backed by a commodity (ie. gold standard or money in the form of something that isn't paper or plastic) and if you continue to print money to pay off debts, suddenly the concept of it's value falls apart. Debt is owed to a wide number of places, a lot of it is held by the American public (mortgages) and some is owed to other countries (China, Japan, etc.) It's all quite convoluted.

I don't know specifically, but we can just decide that the debt ceiling means nothing and keep racking up debt.

In theory yes, until a country decides that they want to get paid and decides to call in the payment and the USA can't pay it. But yes, Boehner is an absolute idiot. He's dragged his feet on this entire thing. Hasn't it already been proven that the tax cuts didn't actually increase employment? Company's don't immediately head out and hire a shit ton of people because they owe less money, most of the time it's saved as someone in this thread said earlier. The potential downgrade of the credit rating is somewhat scary as the economy see's the American bond as the safest investment you can make, so while there likely wouldn't be a massive depression or hit to the economy because of it, it would definitely shatter some confidence in what is a weak market.

Which is precisely why I think the concept of a perpetually growing economy is bullshit. The economy is an idea, it's not a tangible thing, and it's constricted because of the nature of our world. It's not infinite, so in what way would it make sense that the economy (which is a social construct) could just continue to grow unimpeded? I dunno, the whole situation is laughable.

I had fajitas last night. Let's just say today was like Cinco de Mayo!

Awesome... this is a sweet list. I'll definitely check out a bunch of these. There's sooooo many great investigative documentaries out there, and even though I always get kinda depressed after watching them, I find them infinitely fascinating. Thanks for the recommendations ladies and gents!

I just finished up school last week and I've got a week before my job starts, so I've got a week to kill. Probably chill around the house and watch some documentaries during this time... any suggestions?

Seriously though, i find OFWGKTA pretty entertaining. It's pretty refreshing to hear something different than the money, cars, etc. thing. While the lyrical content is pretty shocking, it's literally no different at all than old Eminem... at all. They've signaled a directional change in rap I think, and it'll be interesting to see what happens in that scene. I'm gonna try to make it to the Toronto show.

I'm about to eat a taco and have a beer. Do I win?

Not available in Canada. Super cool Android/Amazon!

I'm actually not very familiar with this guy... I know the Riverdales and Screeching Weasel but never really looked into Ben. Has he always been a douchebag? Honest question from someone that hadn't really cared about this guy until this point.

I don't approve of this thread. So here's a picture of cleavage:

Drinking/masturbating/crying, using the tears as lubrication.

this album is terrible.

False. It's really, really good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X7kBVvqU_o&hl=en&fs=1

Dude, I don't check these boards at all, you should have emailed me. I shipped out your records on Dec 9th by airmail (7-10 days). So you'll probably get them Monday... See the receipt below:

I have been selling records for 10 years now and I haven't had any issues. If you need to get a hold of me, email me at [email protected] I hate the PM system here...

-Joe

Haha awesome. I love threads like these.

The Emeralds album is flat out beautiful. Such good headphone music.

Hey man, you've got a pretty killer voice. I checked out your old band To Russia... you guys shredded. Damn. It's nice to hear this kind of music done well again.

Working out or taking a nice walk works for me when I get some anxiety building up. I don't have anxiety as a constant problem (like some of the people posting in here, whom I feel horrible for) but I definitely have it to a certain degree. I've just tried to keep myself occupied, and working out helps to relieve stress. Anything that makes you feel good. Watching a funny movie and eating a slice of pizza or something. The more you try to get out of the mindset of being anxious or depressed and do something that you legitimately enjoy, I find the quicker it'll pass.

Already posted in here, but PS I Love You's "Meet Me At the Muster Station" is awesome.

Boston Bruins... +1 for having an excellent taste in hockey.

-1

Syphon Filter... for sure.

I had the massive red mountain castle thing. It was fucking amazing!

I'll say.

Oh my god I miss that toy! I wonder if I can still find it somewhere in my basement haha. So badass.