Religion's no fun without metaphysics.

All that fucking substance theory, though. Drives me mad.

Could it be, perhaps, that there's no logical/rational reason at all? And you're just a scared child?

Yes.

The valuing of privacy is the rational response to the emotional distress that comes from the possibility of its violation.

But the right will demonize such a system as encouraging people to be poor, etc etc etc

Actually, it's one of the few systems both the Left and the Right seem to agree on. (Provided the Right in question aren't a bunch of spastic, uber-libertarian Austrian-schoolers). The way it works is that the government tops-up any extra earnings you make, so there's always an incentive to earn more.

Chill out, guys. Noelle only likes small tits because they're the most similar to her own.

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on April 06, 2015, 01:25:28 PM

Yeah, he should be a hero for leaking evidence of perfectly legal activities that have been known about, and reported on, since the PATRIOT Act was instituted, in addition to leaking information on active overseas surveillance programs that demonstrably aided the enemy, hindering intelligence operations and likely putting American and allied personnel at risk.

What a fucking joke.

You do know that the Patriot Act is illegal, right?

My, my, how lucky we are to have an associate justice grace the forum.

Financial Times.

Policy makers in Italy, Portugal and Spain say their economies and financial systems are strong enough to survive a Greek departure from the eurozone, but they acknowledge that Grexit might set a precedent replete with risks for Europe’s 60-year-old integration project.

Government officials and independent analysts in Lisbon, Madrid and Rome say a chaotic Greek abandonment of the euro, bringing widespread economic distress and social upheaval in its wake, would serve as a cautionary shock and probably weaken anti-euro political forces in countries exposed to possible contagion from Greece.

According to José Ignacio Torreblanca, head of the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, a Grexit would not be good for Podemos, Spain’s new radical leftist party, which has high hopes of success in national parliamentary elections due at the end of this year.

“I’m not saying this would destroy Podemos, but it would possibly spoil their plans to be the main force of the left,” he said. This explains why the party is already distancing itself from Syriza, the governing Greek party that is in some respects its ideological sister movement, he added.

On the other hand, a Grexit that was carefully managed and led to economic recovery in Greece, albeit after five to 10 years, might strengthen populist parties such as Italy’s Northern League and Five-Star Movement, which contend that eurozone membership has been little short of a national economic disaster.

The lessons to be drawn from Grexit would also depend on whether Greece was able to keep its EU membership, whether its democratic institutions and the rule of law remained intact, whether it aligned itself more closely with Russia or other foreign powers, and whether there were dangerous consequences for regional security in southeast Europe.

For government officials and foreign policy analysts in Rome, one big concern is that a Greek departure from Europe’s monetary union would weaken the push for a deeper political union that Italy has always supported.

For a Greek exit would not only show, for the first time since the 1950s, that European integration can break down and even go into reverse. It would also damage the EU’s image as a club that always looks after its weaker member states — no small matter for the 18 EU member states that have smaller populations than Greece’s 10.8m.

Cyprus, Ireland, Portugal and Spain each followed Greece in requiring emergency rescues from their European partners and the International Monetary Fund between 2010 and 2013. But, with the partial exception of Cyprus, each has emerged from its crisis with healthier public finances, more stable banks and better economic growth prospects.

The European Central Bank’s evolution in 2012 into a more credible “lender of last resort”, willing to buy vast amounts of government bonds in order to protect the eurozone’s unity, and the ECB’s current quantitative easing programme have increased the confidence of southern European governments in their ability to ride out storms originating in Greece.

In one typical comment, Rui Machete, Portugal’s foreign minister, said recently that a Greek exit from the eurozone would be “worrying” but “not tragic for Portugal”.

However, Portugal’s public debt peaked last year at 130 per cent of gross domestic product, and the combined level of corporate and household debt is even higher. Moody’s, the credit rating agency, said in a report last week that “Portugal’s external vulnerability remains high, given its high external debt levels, and the country would be susceptible” if investor confidence took a hit from a Greek exit.

Officials in Lisbon, Madrid and Rome point to their countries’ very low government bond yields as proof that there is no threat on the horizon. “The EU is much more solid than it was in 2011 and 2012,” one Italian official said.
However, such confidence begs the question of how solid the eurozone will look once the ECB withdraws its exceptional support measures — as is likely after two years or so — and in the event of a 2008-style financial maelstrom.

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former French president, is among those who say Greece ought to leave the eurozone, at least temporarily, in what he calls “a friendly exit”.

“It is absurd to say this would be a failure of Europe. Greece still has its place in the EU. By leaving the euro, it would only be joining countries such as the UK, Sweden, the Czech Republic and so on, which haven’t adopted it. Better still, this exit would permit Greece to return at a later date,” he told the financial newspaper Les Echos.

I really have no idea why people are blaming the EU for this crisis.

Do you mean the current depression in the Eurozone, or the actual debt crisis? Because if you mean the first, then the European Union (not to mention Germany specifically) kind of are to blame.

Back in the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson had to deal with Barbary pirates who used the Qur'an as justification for enslaving American sailors. The Muslim Brotherhood was set up on Islamist principles in the 1920s. Jews in Palestine had faced sporadic violence from Palestinians since at least 1929. And in the early 1900s General Pershing had to deal with Islamic terrorism in the Moro Province of the Philippines.

Hmmm, taxes based on an absolute figure, instead of a percentage, are usually highly regressive.

Just going to weigh in on the flat tax issue here.

It could work. It requires a few mitigating factors, though.

You could only really have a flat income tax if I) the rate was low (around 20pc), II) you make people below a certain threshold tax-exempt III) you have a fairly progressive consumption tax and IV) you heavily incentivise people to save, in order to contribute to Solow growth.

fixd

Jesus Christ. Who the fuck thought any of this was a good idea.

That's a sin, boyo.

bae, y we gotta fite

It might seem stupid, but since Greece is being hit with that then politically speaking it shouldn't just lower its head and take that whipping.

Maybe Greece shouldn't have lied to get into the European Union in the first place, then. . .

Actually, I'm just going to leave this here.