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I don't know if this will be useful to anyone but it's helped me explain the debt ceiling to people. Throughout the year, Congress had authorized spending, they've debated and compromised, they've made cuts and changes and were eventually able to agree to spend a certain amount. Now that it's time to actually pay, Republicans in the House won't agree unless they get a do-over on Obamacare. This is like getting a new job, they offered you $8.00 an hour but you were able to get them to agree to $9.00, let's say you agreed to work weekends or graveyard shifts as part of that deal. Now it's payday and your boss doesn't want to write you a check. He wants you to agree to $7.75 and then he'll make a deal. Do you and your boss share the blame in this "negotiation?" No. The time to negotiate was back when the funding was authorized, not on Payday, not when you've got a bill due in 14 days that will ruin you financially if you don't pay. If this happened to you, you'd be saying "no changes to the deal, no negotiations, no conference. Write me a clean check to pay for what we already agreed to." And when you looked in the mirror, you'd realize that your name is Albert Einstein.
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# ? Oct 1, 2013 20:48 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:40 |
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I flipped poo poo at the office today because one of the office managers handed out this to several employees asking about the health exchanges. She apparently received it as an email forward with "IRS" in the title and thought it was legit, not reading the parts where it blatantly asks "Are you an illegal immigrant?" warns you of "severe financial penalties and interest against your personal property" and says that you can disregard the form if Romney is elected. Oh and something else... the huge "NOT AN IRS FORM" watermark in the background.
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# ? Oct 1, 2013 21:39 |
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Knight posted:I flipped poo poo at the office today because one of the office managers handed out this to several employees asking about the health exchanges. She apparently received it as an email forward with "IRS" in the title and thought it was legit, not reading the parts where it blatantly asks "Are you an illegal immigrant?" warns you of "severe financial penalties and interest against your personal property" and says that you can disregard the form if Romney is elected. That's either hilarious or sad. I'm not sure. All I have had at work today is a huge dose of "both sides are wrong". It makes me sad.
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# ? Oct 1, 2013 21:44 |
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Ratmtattat posted:I've got a guy doing the "Democrats had 6 years to pass a budget and couldn't" line. Any references I could use to point out to them the filibustering that went on and how many times it went on? They haven't passed an omnibus bill in years, true. But they have passed appropriations bills since then (as we haven't shut down until now). The Omnibus Budgets are just lots of appropriations bills wrapped up in one big one. Plus all the filibustering, etc etc...the point is the government has been funded as normal; just not as conveniently wrapped up in a single bill as it has been due to the most obstructionist senate minority in national history.
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# ? Oct 1, 2013 22:02 |
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Knight posted:I flipped poo poo at the office today because one of the office managers handed out this to several employees asking about the health exchanges. She apparently received it as an email forward with "IRS" in the title and thought it was legit, not reading the parts where it blatantly asks "Are you an illegal immigrant?" warns you of "severe financial penalties and interest against your personal property" and says that you can disregard the form if Romney is elected. Literally every person at work today asked me "What the hell is wrong with your country?". Sometimes being the only American around sucks. I hope at least some of the people who post this sort of thing are bitter and angry when the American people don't magically realize that they don't need government and throw off their statist chains.
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# ? Oct 1, 2013 22:10 |
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Got the latest sent at me as a response to me saying that people are going to starve due to lack of foodstamps due to the government shutdown. Rebuttals? On the surface, an anecdote about one fraudster is not fraud statistics, most programs have work requirements/deal with kids/the disabled/the elderly. I started engaging with this person when they referred to the government shutdown as "withdrawal". The latest gem from this person is that even better than the government shutdown is the refusal to raise the debt ceiling. Yes. You read that right. Even better. This is an Israeli commenting about it. Israel has many bad points, but turns out that unicameral parliamentary democracy gets things done, even if they're terrible! So.. it's kind of jarring seeing apologetics for the US system in Hebrew. Meanwhile, the Americans in my feed only raise this issue to complain about how the results will affect them. My personal opinion is that both Republicans and Democrats are terrible for various reasons, but in this case it's a basic governance issue. Why should anyone involved with the US government take any decision Congress makes seriously if they are liable to defund it at the last moment over bullshit? This is why they don't do the cutting-edge high-energy physics here anymore. Republicans are just bad at government, period. If I were an accelerationist Marxist, I would salute them. ETA: Someone from the same thread linked to this: Israeli Freedom Movement posted:America: The Federal Government has been shut down. For more than an hour. Absurd Alhazred fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Oct 2, 2013 |
# ? Oct 1, 2013 23:30 |
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My biggest crush from Jr. High posted this. Looks like I dodged a bullet. Comes from a Facebook page called "Barack Obama's Dead Fly" which is filled with all sorts of hilariously awful poo poo.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 02:14 |
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Was there ever a "Slavery Law" passed? Didn't the Gag Rule prevent any Legislative Discussion on Slavery? I'm pretty sure that the majority of slavery was an "Unspoken Law" of the land. Of course that's dismissing the Elephant in the room that idiots are comparing cheaper Healthcare to Slavery.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 03:01 |
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I just wanna call the dude out for the dogwhistle racism, but I dont think he would get it.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 04:01 |
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Dirt posted:That's either hilarious or sad. I'm not sure. There's wrong, and then there's WRONG. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 04:01 |
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AShamefulDisplay posted:
There was a great edit of this earlier in the thread that replaced the bottom silhouette with one of an elderly person with a walker. It was great, I hope somebody reports it.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 04:12 |
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Hey guys, I caught a live one! One of my girlfriend's Facebook friends posted this to her wall.quote:Sharing from another source......But agree 100%
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 04:30 |
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Sigh.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 05:54 |
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"OBAMACARE SUCKS SO MUCH THAT THE IDIOT THAT CREATED IT DOESN'T WANT IT" Wow, I've seen some disingenuous lines of argument before, but that's taking it to a new level.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 06:01 |
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miscellaneous14 posted:"OBAMACARE SUCKS SO MUCH THAT THE IDIOT THAT CREATED IT DOESN'T WANT IT" I'm sure the guy at the Heritage Foundation who proposed it in the mid-90s is feeling pretty bad right now.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 06:11 |
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Talking to my father today, it's strange to see him take his usual "All politicians are crooked, but also I vote straight Republican" stance. Primarily because he works for federal law enforcement and is now doing so without pay indefinitely, and my sister who is in the same field is now on unpaid leave. She has two kids and suddenly no way to pay her bills. But yeah, no, please continue supporting the party that has now actively hindered you and your family's livelihood, and who I'm just sure will willingly approve backpay after their gently caress-up gets fixed some days or weeks from now. This poo poo is too loving depressing
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 09:12 |
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What is the "sneaky abortion clause"? Is that like something where if you can get into a clinic/doctors office/hospital without being detected that you get a free abortion? Didn't Republicans (and a bunch of Democrats) make double sure that abortions wouldn't be part of it? Or something with insurance had to offer it but are precious tax dollars wouldn't cover it?
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 10:06 |
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myron cope posted:What is the "sneaky abortion clause"? Is that like something where if you can get into a clinic/doctors office/hospital without being detected that you get a free abortion? The Hyde amendment is still law. No federal dollars can go towards abortions. Even gay abortions, much to the chagrin of smart elephants everywhere.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 10:40 |
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Welp this is what we're up against. I don't even know what some of those words are. Two posts down she says "Sorry, autocorrect changed my words". I'm sorry but autocorrect doesn't make non-words. Edit: FEMA Region 3!!!! SOME TRUCKERS SAW THINGS! WHY WERE THEY DELIVERING EMERGENCY SUPPLIES TO FEMA!?> THE UN!! Laranzu fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Oct 2, 2013 |
# ? Oct 2, 2013 13:32 |
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God dammit UN, hurry up and take over already, I'm tired of waiting.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 14:15 |
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VideoTapir posted:God dammit UN, hurry up and take over already, I'm tired of waiting. Your state or local government needs to be on board with Agenda 21 first, so that they can accommodate the UN troops.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 14:18 |
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seiferguy posted:Comes from a Facebook page called "Barack Obama's Dead Fly" which is filled with all sorts of hilariously awful poo poo.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 14:22 |
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seiferguy posted:
Slavery was legal ... in the CSA's Constitution Anyway, what's the 'joke' in the name "Barack Obama's Dead Fly"? I don't get it.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 14:29 |
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gradenko_2000 posted:Slavery was legal ... in the CSA's Constitution It's a reference to the time he slap-killed a fly on some daytime talk show. I don't get why it's funny either though, aside from unintentionally.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 14:34 |
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Neptr posted:Your state or local government needs to be on board with Agenda 21 first, so that they can accommodate the UN troops. UN troops need walkable cities because their electric humvees don't have much range.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 15:18 |
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From a Patriot/civics expert on my FB feed I keep hearing people talking about the members of the house that have taken the GOP caucus "hostage." I guess that this is really the fundamental difference between a pure Democracy and a Republic. If 30-40 reps in the house have a constituency that agrees enough with them that they were sent to congress, then those 30-40 reps aren't just the whining minority who should shut up and sit down. They're the voice of the people who they represent who aren't happy with the status quo. The Republic that we have, with our bi-cameral legilsature, was designed to give certain powers to the people and certain powers to the states. Thus the devision between the House and Senate. Any resolution that pertains to finance has to originate from the House, and as much, has to be acceptable to "the people." If the States (the Senate) are filled with such hatred for the people that they won't even consider the Continuing Resolutions that keep being put in front of them, how can the 30-40 reps that are the voice of the people be blamed for the problem that we're having? Our system was designed so that gridlock would ensue when the majority refuses to consider the voice of the minority. The minority HAS A VOICE! THIS IS A REPUBLIC! It's the responsibility of the Senate to take up a CR passed in the house and bring it to the floor for a vote! Take it to a conference committee with the House and come to a compromise! You can't negotiate when the other side is completely petulant and refuses to take their fingers out of their ears until they get exactly what they want, and not a drop less, regardless of who is silenced or disenfranchised as a result of it. The failure here lies with the majority. Not with the vocal minority who refuse to be silenced. This IS the way that our government was designed. It is our leaders decision, at this point, to govern by crisis.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 16:14 |
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JakBauer posted:You can't negotiate when the other side is completely petulant and refuses to take their fingers out of their ears until they get exactly what they want, and not a drop less, regardless of who is silenced or disenfranchised as a result of it. Yes, that does seem to a problem we're having right now, doesn't it
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 16:19 |
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I've seen a number of people pull that "The Senate won't even consider the House CRs" line, but isn't that uh...completely false. I mean yeah Reid is immediately moving to table them as they come but that still requires a vote, correct? If the Senate wanted to consider the CRs they could vote against tabling them, but they're not. Do I have that about right?
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 16:23 |
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A cousin just posted an RIP Tom Clancy to facebook, effusive with praise. I feel like trolling the Texas conservative wing of my family by copy pasting the absolutely worst, most horribly racist and shitheaded Clancy quote possible. Any suggestions?
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 16:33 |
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I finally got one in the wild. Just appeared on Facebook. quote:POLICE INFORMATION It's clearly an American one (predator, store, tank, Ted Bundy) with UK places badly inserted (the Met don't work in Hants, what are London gangs doing in Newport?) and then someone has bizarrely referenced a 9 year old south african murder.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 16:46 |
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Keshik posted:A cousin just posted an RIP Tom Clancy to facebook, effusive with praise. I feel like trolling the Texas conservative wing of my family by copy pasting the absolutely worst, most horribly racist and shitheaded Clancy quote possible. Any suggestions? Just be aware the vast majority of his books are ghost-written. Could blow up in your face if you pick the wrong one.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 17:00 |
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Laranzu posted:
For a second, I thought it said, "My dad was killed by Doctor Who." Too much time in the tumblr thread. It seems like your friend is a lovely typist and hit the key next to the intended one in a lot of words. So I'm a bit worried about what reads, "My mom is a diabetic and I have taken her off 11 prescription drugs." Hope that's stdh.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 17:10 |
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Agents are GO! posted:There was a great edit of this earlier in the thread that replaced the bottom silhouette with one of an elderly person with a walker. It was great, I hope somebody reports it. smash all baby boomers:
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 17:11 |
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I was trying to catch up on this thread, but the shutdown got people making GBS threads on my wall, so have some stupid bullshit from the dregs of the country;A True Patriot posted:DID ANYONE SEE WHAT REPRESENTATIVE STEVEN PALAZZO DID TODAY AS MISSISSIPPI'S WWII VETS TOOK THEIR HONOR FLIGHT TO WASHINGTON DC IN THE MIDST OF THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN? Congressman Steven Palazzo was willing to go to jail. The representative from Mississippi’s Fourth Congressional District was standing on the Washington Mall Tuesday – outside a barricade that had been erected around the World War II Memorial. He was standing shoulder to shoulder with members of the Greatest Generation – 91 Mississippians who fought valiantly during World War II. Their families had also gathered along with eight members of Congress. They had traveled many miles only to be told the open-air memorial was closed – on account of the federal government shutdown. The memorial that had been built for the aging warriors was barricaded and roped off with yellow tape. The water features were turned off and the bathrooms were locked. Armed park police stood nearby. The congressman worked in vain to try to convince the National Park Service to open the memorial. He called the Department of Interior but they did not intervene. He even wrote to President Obama – pleading with him to open the memorial so that the elderly men could lay flowers and pay their respects to fallen brothers. But the president remained silent. “They did not lift one finger to help these veterans,” Palazzo told me. “It is sad that they would not even make an exception for our World War II veterans.” And so it was on a cool autumn day that the congressman from Mississippi stood alongside his constituents and he felt a stirring in his soul. “I was nervous but my number one priority was the safety and welfare of the veterans,” he said. “This is something they wanted to do. This is their memorial. It was built to honor them.” They even asked park officials on the mall to reconsider – but they would not budge. So Palazzo gathered together his colleagues. There was Sen. Roger Wicker from Mississippi and Rep. Louie Gohmert from Texas. Rep. Michele Bachmann from Minnesota was there along with Rep. Steve King from Iowa, Rep. Alan Nunnelee from Mississippi, Rep. Bill Huizenga from Michigan, Rep. Gregg Harper from Mississippi and Rep. Spencer Bachus from Alabama. Palazzo had decided to crash the gates and break through the barricades. And the United States being a constitutional republic – he decided to put his idea to a voice vote. It passed unanimously. Someone had a video camera and recorded the moment when the crowd applauded as Palazzo and Gohmert unhitched the barricades and opened the gates to the memorial. “These are people who were not stopped by the Nazis, not stopped by fascist, not stopped by kamikazis. It just didn’t seem right that some little bicycle racks should be able to stop them,” Gohmert told me. Bagpipes played "Amazing Grace" as the gentleman from Mississippi escorted his constituents to their memorial. They laid a wreath at a memorial for the Magnolia State. There were tears and smiles and memories – memories of a generation that changed the world. “It’s been a huge emotional roller coaster,” the congressman told me. “This morning we were heartbroken. We were mad. We were angry. We were uncertain. We didn’t know what to expect. It turned out great.” Gohmert called the decision to barricade the open-air memorial mean-spirited and beyond the pale. “This is an open-air memorial for heaven’s sake,” he said. “It’s beyond outrageous to say that people have to walk around the exterior instead of walking across the middle. You have to be pretty hard-hearted, pretty petty to say we’re going to keep these guys away from their own memorial.” Park police were on hand – but no one was arrested and they did not intervene. “They did the honorable thing and stood down,” Palazzo said. “We don’t fault them or the staff there one bit.” And while the Mississippi veterans were able to pay their respects, it’s unclear what will happen with other Honor Flight guests. A spokesperson for the organization tells me nearly 1,000 veterans are expected to visit the World War II Memorial this week. Some have been on a waiting list to visit the nation’s capitol for more than a year. “It’s very disheartening to know these veterans are flying across the country to see this memorial that they’ve waited for years to see and they’re being locked out of the memorial,” Executive Director Diane Gresse told me. She said for many this is a one-time, one-shot trip of a lifetime. A lot of these veterans will not be alive next year,” she said quite frankly. It’s unfortunate that President Obama did not respond to Palazzo’s reasonable request. But this president has a penchant for being petulant. Nevertheless, the good people of Mississippi’s Fourth Congressional District should hold their heads high. They were well served by their representative – a man willing to go to jail to defend the honor of the Greatest Generation. Rep. Palazzo – you are a great American. And should you need bail money, give me a call. - Todd Starnes – FOX News / Mike Graham - Pascagoula, Mississippi tl;dr: Steven Palazzo is a conservative shithead rep from Mississippi who is culpable in the loving government shutdown. He's getting billed as making the day "special" for these veterans after he made it loving worse but then slightly less bad. It's such a transparent loving PR move with no intention other than shifting the blame off him and I am going to be arguing about this on Facebook for days no doubt.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 17:20 |
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I finally got one in the wild. Just appeared on Facebook. I hate these fearmongering urban legends so much. Snopes has a pretty comprehensive breakdown here: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/backseat.asp. There's actually an entire section on incorrect gang legends: http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/gangs.asp. You could try talking about how this sort of nonsense promotes rape culture but that will probably be a little too sophisticated and you will get some sort of reply about common sense, and how it's better to be safe than sorry. You could try talking about how gangs absolutely do not operate this way also, but if the person you're talking to has a simplistic world view of CRIMINALS = BAD MEN you're not going to have much luck.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 17:24 |
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I finally got one in the wild. Just appeared on Facebook. This is literally an episode from the (excellent, a David Simon thing) 1990 cop show Homicide.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 17:29 |
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Mister Bates posted:Hey guys, I caught a live one! One of my girlfriend's Facebook friends posted this to her wall.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 17:55 |
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An Idiot posted:How the gently caress can you bitch about Obamacare but be ok with drones and NSA spying??? FOX is really no different then the other garbage news outlets. All socialist propaganda!! Thank god I found alternative news outlets and made the right choice in voting Libertarian!!!!! Holy poo poo. Holy poo poo. Fox News. Socialist propaganda.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 17:59 |
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I finally got one in the wild. Just appeared on Facebook. My aunt shared the American version of this one a while back. It also contained a bit about how if you're being mugged, you should take your wallet/purse and throw it as far away from you as you can. Since, apparently, the mugger will go after it and you can run away, preferably in a serpentine pattern, because you'll only MAYBE get shot in the back, and don't worry, it probably won't be a vital organ! That whole part reads like parody. And the really elaborate initiations people think gang members do is just bizarre. Street gangs aren't bands of "Gentlemen, to evil!" types.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 18:19 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:40 |
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People spreading these letters are so far from anything resembling poor that they can't conceive of any other reason to join a gang, like having food to eat, or your role models are in a gang too, etc.
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# ? Oct 2, 2013 18:40 |