Quote-Unquote posted:

I know that when I have children I certainly want them to grow up in a world run by right-wing, conservative/neoliberal types.

Imagine how great it would be for them to have zero privacy, be completely unable to learn things in school that aren't directly related to getting jobs, taught be completely intolerant and distrustful of everybody, accept today's perverse bastardisation of Christianity as the One True Religion, to have no understanding of their own sexuality, to suffer entirely preventable and treatable illnesses because I can't afford their healthcare, prepare to be arrested and imprisoned for saying mean things on the Internet and to rack up massive amounts of debt before they even set foot in the workplace.

Then when they're old enough to work they can have all the joy of working for longer hours for lower pay and no benefits, and enjoying the freedom of being able to be sacked any time someone above them feels like it. That's if they can get a job. According to Our Glorious Leader David Cameron, young people should be prepared to live with mum and dad for longer so they can save money but simultaneously need to be looking for work further from home (despite transport being unfeasibly expensive).

And through all of these things they can learn to hate any of their fellow humans that happen to be disabled/gay/an immigrant/a muslim/on welfare/a single parent or whatever the scapegoat of the month is. Because it's obviously those people that are responsible for their present situation; it couldn't be the fault of those perfect 'Wealth Creators'.

I'm clearly just too stupid and naive to not want all this glorious Freedom right now, while I don't have children.

Nenonen posted:

According to a British study, becoming a father to a daughter turns your views more liberal than if you had a son.


So it seems like there is a connection between political outlook and parenthood - how and why, we don't know, but just having children doesn't automatically turn you into an rear end in a top hat.

Orange Devil posted:

I wonder if this is related to women being more left wing than men, on average.

dms666 posted:

The usual Facebook macro format

"This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" - Hitler 1935.

Me: So guns shouldn't have to be registered just because Hitler also did it?

Him: DMS666 I'm not arguing with you on Facebook anymore. You always play naive to the things going on. You and I both know you are much smarter than this... Act like it.

Me: What am I playing naive to? I just asked for an explanation about what I found out was a fake quote from Hitler about guns having to be registered. I'm not trying to argue, it just didnt make any sense to me, which is why I asked a question about it.


He is a big fan of posting fake image macros, mostly anything anti-Obama. One of the better ones was him defending the "All This for a drat Flag" Obama video to be 100% indisputable lip reading.

DarkHorse posted:

E: f,b

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1791/did-hitler-ban-gun-ownership

Oh well, this is another source, and quotes a pro-gun cite during the explanation that might be more palatable to a close-minded weirdo. Maybe. It's not like things like evidence actually matter to people like that

Nenonen posted:

According to a British study, becoming a father to a daughter turns your views more liberal than if you had a son.


So it seems like there is a connection between political outlook and parenthood - how and why, we don't know, but just having children doesn't automatically turn you into an rear end in a top hat.

dms666 posted:

The usual Facebook macro format

Soviet Commubot posted:

I'm so glad it's budget season again and my Facebook gets filled with stupid "imagine the US budget is a household budget..." crap.

quote:

"Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can’t figure out what country you are the president of.
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

” We’re no longer a Christian nation”
” America is arrogant”

– (Your wife even
announced to the world,” America is mean-spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our
war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)

I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue . You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.
You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.
And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle…

Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes

Ana Lucia Cortez posted:

'Angry Old Man Letter'

CommieGIR posted:

We're a Christian nation? That is news to me? You figure a veteran of World War 2 would have noticed the transition to the addition of 'Under God' to the pledge of Allegiance in 1951, or how most of the 'In God We Trust' stuff wasn't really settled until 1951 as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pledge_of_Allegiance

I wonder if he remember E Plurubus Unum?

quote:

You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

Soviet Commubot posted:

I'm so glad it's budget season again and my Facebook gets filled with stupid "imagine the US budget is a household budget..." crap.

Ana Lucia Cortez posted:

Text of angry old man letter

U.S. President Barack Obama posted:

Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

Old Man Yells at Cloud posted:

quote:

Bill Gates recently gave a Commencement speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes; learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

If you agree, pass it on.
If you can read this - Thank a teacher!
If you are reading it in English - Thank a soldier!!

Soviet Commubot posted:

I'm so glad it's budget season again and my Facebook gets filled with stupid "imagine the US budget is a household budget..." crap.

Defenestration posted:

An oldie but the photo really makes it

Defenestration posted:

An oldie but the photo really makes it

Leospeare posted:

I get that this is pretty old (only vice presidents get car phones!) but wow, that speech is so condescending that I'm sure it's as fake as the accompanying picture. I know there are some teenagers that need to learn a few life lessons, but most of them are not living in a world where "Daddy didn't buy me a new BMW this year" is their biggest problem. Pretty much everyone I knew as a teenager had it figured out that bosses can be mean and jobs don't have summer breaks. Because we all had jobs, all year round.

The one about how everyone on TV hangs out in coffee shops instead of working is getting weird. Friends was the biggest offender, and it hasn't had new episodes in over a decade. Most popular sitcoms these days are about people at work. I get that Parks and Recreation isn't always realistic, but at least they're at the office from 9-5.

AlliedBiscuit posted:

I was actually just talking about how shows like Happy Endings and How I Met Your Mother depict characters who spend a really large amount of time hanging out with their friends at bars/restaurants/doing fun things. My friends and I don't even have kids, and we don't have time to just hang at a bar every two weeks. I certainly wish we did.

Tharizdun posted:

I've done a line-by-line refutation of this, but it's mostly hateful vitriol from a fed-up liberal, rather than the usual tactic of "I'm sorry you feel that way, I hope you live a happy life even if you hate me." responses that actually work

Soviet Commubot posted:

I'm so glad it's budget season again and my Facebook gets filled with stupid "imagine the US budget is a household budget..." crap.

Sarion posted:

I think a much more apt analogy for the debt-ceiling issue would be if you decided that when one of your credit cards reached their limit, you were just going to stop paying all your debtors, utility bills, buying food, etc.

quote:

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Sarion posted:

I think a much more apt analogy for the debt-ceiling issue would be if you decided that when one of your credit cards reached their limit, you were just going to stop paying all your debtors, utility bills, buying food, etc.

quote:

Any normal person would say that such an income tax system is more than fair, or maybe that “the rich” pay more than their fair share. So why does President Obama keep saying that the rich do not pay their fair share? Is he ignorant? Wouldn’t somebody in his Administration whisper to him that he is peddling nonsense?

The answer is that to President Obama this is still not fair because he is a Marxist.

buttcoin smuggler posted:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/12/20/is-president-obama-really-a-socialist-lets-analyze-obamanomics/

Taerkar posted:

Or point out that if you have no real limit on your credit card and your interest rate is near-zero you'd be stupid to not spend it. It's literally cheaper than doing nothing.

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

This one pisses me off.
It's so frustrating to hear someone whine about how unemployed people think they're too good to work in fast food. But then when those fast food workers try to unionize they argue that if you're an adult and you're working in fast food then you've probably made some really bad life choices and should look in a mirror to find the real source of your problems in life.

buttcoin smuggler posted:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/12/20/is-president-obama-really-a-socialist-lets-analyze-obamanomics/

the article posted:

Moreover, the official data, as reported by CBO and the IRS, show that the bottom 40% of income earners, instead of paying some income taxes to support the federal government, were paid cash by the IRS equal to 10% of federal income taxes as a group on net.

quote:

To a Marxist, the fact that the top 1% earn more income than the bottom 99% is not fair, no matter how they earn it, fairly or not.

Orange Devil posted:

That's like how Al Bundy went from being a guy to look down upon to a guy to look up at.