1742 replies to this topic

[Ganon]

Stick to doing good in your own country.

While everything you said was very meaningful, the above quote is my favorite. My damned government is always too effing busy thinking about what's going on somewhere else in the world. I agree that we should mind our own business sometimes.

Quick recap: turned up late to both World Wars and have since been claiming credit for winning both (while I admit the USA played a massive role in WW2, WW1 was basically over by the time American troops showed up in May 1918.

I agree with this too, except for the part where we claim all credit. The fact of the matter is that back then our foregin policy was basically, Let the world do as it will, and not get involved. We said, that's Europe's war, let them handle it.

I don't know what the hell's going on now. It seems like we're trying to make up for that now, since we get invovled in everyone's damned business whether they like it or not.

Edited by Ganon2020, 11 December 2010 - 03:08 PM.

[Vortigern]

Well, I admit I'm largely basing the 'taking all the credit' part on the last time I went to America when some dickhead heard my English accent and promptly started jabbering away with some meaningless drivel which culminated in "we saved your ass in two world wars, you owe me" but that may have just been some wanker in the street hoping I'd go all Alfred the Butler for him.

I preferred America in the days of isolationism.

[Ganon]

Uhm...yea, definitely a wanker.

I vent that, for some reason, Sarah Palin has any supporters at all.
She's an idiot. Period.

I believe she is the biggest reason why McCain lost. I would NOT want some 70 somethin year old man's heart to be the only thing between Her and the Oval Office.

Edited by Ganon2020, 11 December 2010 - 03:11 PM.

[Vortigern]

I just found out something even more infuriating about the whole damn fees debate. Under the new law, Welsh students will pay no more than the current cap, wherever they study. Why? Why do the Welsh get subsidised education in England when the English don't? And you can bet for those English students who go to Welsh universities, fees will be just as high as if they were still in England.

[Puppeteer]

Do they not know that preferential treatment is averse to equality?

[{IRS}Athos]

Oh, no, it's not averse to equality at all. Welsh people are just more equal than the others.

[Puppeteer]

And Scots beat us all hands down in equality.

[Rafv Nin IV]

I hate to break it to the Brits, but Mr. Cameron slashed a bunch of your services because, very shortly, he wasn't going to be able to pay for all of them. We in the US are going to be where you are in a few years; we just aren't there yet. Your education is just one victim of having to do orthopedic surgery with a chainsaw.

Somewhere along the lines, all our politicians missed that bit of their macroeconomics classes that says, "run a deficit in a recession to stimulate the economy, then save money in the boom times so that you can deficit-spend in the next recession" and just decided to run deficits every year. Then somebody told them that it's a bad idea to just keep printing money to finance more services, so they had to cut back. A lot. It hurts, but at some point it has to be done. First-world nations can't afford to just default on debts, or raise taxes to the point of insanity necessary to pay for all the debts they don't default on.

[Vortigern]

You seem to have forgotten the part where David Cameron could afford to offer Ireland £7 billion as a bailout for their banks, money which could keep the education system running as is for two more years, at least.

Politicians and understanding things don't really seem to mix.

[Puppeteer]

Or that he could force companies to pay their taxes that they owe. Or in terms of education that he could equalise university conditions across the UK so that it doesn't hit the poorer students as hard. But you know, yeah, cuts are vital in the national interest...

[Vortigern]

Guess what else? The government is set to announce tomorrow that they will improve education standards by adding to the budget for school lunches for the poorest kids by, among other things, freezing pay for teachers but telling schools to focus on one-to-one tuition. So, for the prospect of nothing more for the duration of this government, teachers will have to try much harder and spend more time with the problem kids. I can see this going really well.

'Pupil premiums', as this policy is called, has been one of the Lib Dems' key policies for years, which is fine. What's not fine is that this will penalise the people they need to be supporting, after the Lib Dems have turned their backs on their two other key policies, scrapping tuition fees and electoral reform.

What makes me really angry is that this government was a chance for Nick Clegg to pave the way for the Liberal Democrat party to be a genuine third party, or maybe even second or first party in the coming years, but instead he has shafted his people for the foreseeable future. After this the Lib Dems will be as likely to get elected as the BNP. This not only screws over their party, but anyone wishing to refer to themselves as liberal.

[Mathijs]

Governments telling teachers what to do is generally a bad idea.

[Baki]

Don't know where to write this, but the new layout of the forum sucks.

[Phil]

New layout?

[Vortigern]

You've probably changed the skin by accident, or something. Some of the skins have different layouts, right? Anyway, from where I'm sitting nothing's changed.

However, I do have an essay due in at noon tomorrow which makes as little sense now as it did when first I looked at it nearly three weeks ago. Basically, my lecturer is a lazy douchebag who has set us work that will be easy for him to mark. He is unimpressive; I am unimpressed. If only the goddamn essay were that easy to explain.

[Devon]

Vort, I don't think it's a given that Obama will lose next election. Clinton's party lost his midterm, but he was still reelected. The problem is that our media is so right-wing while shouting left-wing the whole time.

[Rob38]

Vort, I don't think it's a given that Obama will lose next election. Clinton's party lost his midterm, but he was still reelected. The problem is that our media is so right-wing while shouting left-wing the whole time.

Funny... the right-wing says the media is too liberal

[Devon]

Like I said, "while shouting left-wing the whole time."

[{IRS}Athos]

There's too much party bias from either wing in the American media. Either you get Newsweek and the infallible Democrat Party or... Glenn Beck.

Blah.

[Devon]

This whole election season, I did not see one single ad out of the hundreds that were running where a democrat was running on the platform that the health care bill is a good thing. It seems to be accepted fact in the media that it's terrible and will only raise costs long term.