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[Loud Whispers]

don't you people think you might be over reacting just a tad? I honestly doubt there's going to be a civil war...

I was making a joke.  I thought it was rather obvious.

Civil wa-OH SHI

[lordcooper]

What we need is a big social movement for believers and activists to actually join the police force, I would think... or would that just beat them down and turn them into the same type of person?

I was a police officer for just under two months.  Went in bright eyed and full of the need to be a positive influence on my community.  I couldn't stand being forced to focus on arresting pot smokers while violent crime skyrocketed.  Most of the other coppers took little bribes on a pretty much daily basis and I was constantly urged to do the same.  If my conscience hadn't kicked in and pretty much forced me to quit, there's a fairly good chance I'd be bashing protesters right now rather than joining them.

[kaijyuu]

A friend of mine was a police officer for a few months. He didn't have any of those problems, but he did hate the mountains of paperwork he had to do.

[ChairmanPoo]

TBH after having slept it over I'm more optimistic about this. Sure, the conservatives won with an absolute majority, but they were getting to  do  whatever they wanted in regards to neocon economic reforms anyway, voting together with the other major party.

On the other hand, many minor parties went up quite a bit, including the one I voted for.  In fact, they were likely the ones that went up the most, almost doubling their votes from the 2008 elections.

I hope they get to keep it, too. They lost votes over time because the labor party (one of the two major parties) kept making propaganda during campaigns advising people to do "useful voting" (meaning vote for them instead of other left-oriented parties because this way there'd be less of a chance for the conservatives to win). This quickly turned them into "useless votes", because they're not that different from the consies, deep down. All in all this policy was part of a greater campaign of theirs to push for a two-party system (which in a way is already there. Representation is nowhere near proportional to the obtained votes with the d'Hont law), and at least this part of it blew in their face.

Shame about gay marriage, though. The conservatives promised they'd remove it if they went into power, and they might well follow this one particular promise through.

[Dutchling]

Shame about gay marriage, though. The conservatives promised they'd remove it if they went into power, and they might well follow this one particular promise through.

I doubt Europe would allow tbh. The EU has a no-discrimination fetish in case you forgot. Although you probably know more about your politics than I do.

[mainiac]

I don't know anything about the conservative party in Spain, but if they implement the sort of economic policies that the conservative parties in the US and UK have pushed for, they will probably deepen the slump.  And because Spain is part of the Euro currency zone, that could easily lead to an interest rate death spiral.  Say what you will about the left wing in Spain, but they have managed to keep interest rates steady (albeit steady at an elevated level) during their time in power.

So just in case Italy doesn't cause Eurogeddon, Spain can do the trick now.  Global chaos, here we come!

[Nadaka]

I missed some discussion earlier this weekend.

One of the OWS ideas is to forgive student loans. My brother is one of the people REALLY pushing for this.

I don't agree with it personally. Those loans are federally guaranteed. Forgiving them means handing a trillion dollars over to the banks, some of the very institutions that the OWS people are protesting. And unlike tarp funds, it would be a gift instead of the low/no interest loans that made up most of the previous bailout. I understand it would help a lot of people out, it would help me out a great deal. But a trillion dollars could be much more useful elsewhere.

[Sheb]

mainiac: The socialist were pushing for austerity anyway. It's the same that happened in Portigal, where a center-left governement got really unpopular due to austerity measure, and people turned to the alternative, the center-right party...

Dutchling, many EU countries have banned mariage for gays. Actually, except Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Norway and Sweden, all the EU countries ban it.

[Dutchling]

That actually kinda surprises me. Well, I guess I'm happy to live in a country where you'll one day be surprised that there are other (western) countries than ban gay marriage.

This makes me curious on the EU's vision on gay rights. But that doesn't belong in this topic at all.

[Sheb]

Well, you're not supposed to be able to discriminate between gays, but I guess they consider it's okay because gays got the right to marry a woman (and lesbians the right to marry a man) like everyone else.

[Truean]

I missed some discussion earlier this weekend.

One of the OWS ideas is to forgive student loans. My brother is one of the people REALLY pushing for this.

I don't agree with it personally. Those loans are federally guaranteed. Forgiving them means handing a trillion dollars over to the banks, some of the very institutions that the OWS people are protesting. And unlike tarp funds, it would be a gift instead of the low/no interest loans that made up most of the previous bailout. I understand it would help a lot of people out, it would help me out a great deal. But a trillion dollars could be much more useful elsewhere.

Not necessarily. They could declare a moratorium if only for a limited time, on stupid student loans. That doesn't mean the bank would necessarily get jack. They did it with foreclosures, officially and unofficially (sheriffs refused to do shit).

I assure you, if I didn't have to pay $15,000 a year to the government, I'd stimulate the hell out of the economy and found a business or three. Same goes for other doctors and lawyers.

[BigD145]

http://www.xkcd.com/980/
OWS is all over this chart. How about starting in the bottom right of the green "Dollars" section and then go immediately under it to the top right of the orange section?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Truean]

Yeah, that looks about right. Sad but true....

[Itnetlolor]

http://www.xkcd.com/980/
OWS is all over this chart. How about starting in the bottom right of the green "Dollars" section and then go immediately under it to the top right of the orange section?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I wonder if they've composed the whole image as a single downloadable file, instead of a Google maps alike tiling setup?

[BigD145]

http://www.xkcd.com/980/
OWS is all over this chart. How about starting in the bottom right of the green "Dollars" section and then go immediately under it to the top right of the orange section?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I wonder if they've composed the whole image as a single downloadable file, instead of a Google maps alike tiling setup?

I want a friggin wall mural. OWS needs to project it on the side of every building in New York.