BruceVC

Nice, well done

" hardcore moderate " ?...that just sounds like another name for a liberal..semantics What is the difference between that and a liberal ?

You make some excellent overall points. And just to add to my personal experiences, I have never said " my family is rich ". I have shared that my family owns property in London and Monte made that assumption. I think it is ostentatious and lacks class to be boastful about ones personal wealth considering the fact we live in a world with such an inimical gap between rich and poor . But in my case I had to be honest because it is an important part of what formulates my view and opinion on several subjects So I am not going to lie about the fact we are probably better off than many people, but what is missed from my view is the wrong questions get asked. Instead of Monte thinking " I wonder what he could share with us about what he and his family do for a living to achieve reasonable financial success " I basically get attacked with comments like "well what do you know about the trials and tribulations of the economic status of working class people ...your family is loaded ". And I am not going to apologize for working hard and being diligent and then seeing the success of that hard work. I could lie to make people feel better and make populist statements like " Capitalism is about the abuse of workers " or "free markets are wrong " or " certain EU governments don't need to make serious restructures in there public sectors " but why should I lie just to get people to believe a false narrative ? I believe in Capitalism and free markets and I firmly believe these systems offer the citizens of any country the best way to uplift themselves economically and socially. But I also believe in the state being involved in certain areas of the overall economy. So as I have mentioned before I believe that the Scandinavian countries have the best overall system of government which is a hybrid Capitalist\Socialist model And what does that mean? High taxes but a very efficient government public sector that provide excellent public institutions, like education and healthcare, and efficient service delivery. But the growth of the economy must be maintained by the private sector. This model does work but it requires a high employment rate as everyone needs to contribute towards the tax base or the system and the government contribution falls apart. This is the biggest issue with this type of economic model in Africa...we have far too many people on social grants or unemployed. So there is less money generated from tax revenue to make really meaningful changes in many cases

Yes which is why her view is wrong, she is generalizing. Its not that bad, her view is influenced by her troubling experience on reddit

Bu huu As long as those 'harassers' don't make threats and do anything IRL, aren't they virually indistinguishable from people you happen to disagree with on the internet. Are you really qualified to call them 'harassers' and are you being fair every time you decide to hand out that label. I have my doubts. For me the statement " Internet Trolls are Winning " is spurious because it needs context The more accurate statement is " Internet Trolls are winning on unmoderated Forums " Because there are many forums, like this one, where harassment is just not accepted...so I think we need to balance that statement against the forum or forums that people frequent

It sounds horrendous...you should wet a towel and use that over your pillow That will help you sleep as it keeps your face cool ?

Ah, well I definitely don't mean to belittle those who don't share personal stuff. Although really, if you hang around long enough, some of your secrets are bound to come out. I'd say it is tough to distinguish yourself from a one dimensional character if you don't share a little bit about where you are coming from. Some people like to put it all out there right away, like Bruce, and some people share bits and pieces over time. In time you will all assimilate. Hurlshot is right. What he is saying is that over time people who are part of an Internet community will naturally share details about there personal life. This is normal human nature as people feel relaxed about who they spend months if not years having debates with Barti you have already shared personal details, for example you have been honest about how you have battled depression and you mentioned stories about your grandfather Now of course we all have different degrees of openness and what we are prepared to share but the most important point about sharing stories is people must feel they can say something without fear of ridicule. And I think this forum does have a culture where people can be honest and get constructive feedback around personal issues...and that is something we should celebrate It makes the forum more real and not just some amorphous realm of names and threads where you don't know how people will respond or where you can't ask for honest advice about RL events

Malc it hurts my feelings when you say things like that

Yes he is actually in my top 3 list of " most dysfunctional posters " on these forums And we know what a racist he is so this whole " I care about Bill Cosby because he is a black man just being slandered for being a black man " almost makes me want to vomit its so patently hypocritical coming from him of all people

And I assume you remember how you consider me the most erudite, reasonable, admired and influential person on these forums...I always use to get a little embarrassed by this type of positive attention. But I have come to accept it...who am I to deny people there role models

What exactly was so appaling about a famous guy sleeping with many women? Oh that's right he is black. i'm sure a white south african sees nothing wrong with white guy Sheen doing exactly the same, but god forbid if it's a black guy. Right Mr. Apartheid? No...I'm sorry. I refuse to be believe anyone can be so unaware of what an issue is when people make posts? You think this is about about some " famous guy sleeping with women " or " some black famous guy sleeping with women " ...you think this is about his race? I still can't believe you could be that stupid and uninformed? You must be trolling

That is very interesting, what have you noticed are any subtle side effects from the meningitis ? Maybe just minor effects if any ?

No austerity can be and is effective Its also about countries making structural reforms like reducing government debt, selling assets and reducing bloated staff counts from departments. So by making some difficult but not egregious reforms a country can gets its economy working again. Ireland and Spain are successfully doing it It's not that I necessarily disagree with you, and your point has some merit to it. But I also think it's worth pointing out you've happily revealed your considerable family wealth on this forum: you are, to be frank, loaded. So it's worth considering your robust defence of the status quo in that context. I'd have more respect for you if you'd ever held an opinion you couldn't afford, or if you offered a muscular Gordon Gekko / Randian-style defence of capitalism. Instead you come across as the worst sort of middle class, libtard SJW. I find this post disingenuous and unhelpful for a number of reasons So my family have been " successful " by understanding financial markets. Do we now attack investment bankers and traders because they do well? Lets not drag this discussion down to the lowest common denominator Monte where we only consider the opinions of people relevant who are impoverished or actually don't understand how financial markets work. It reminds me of the OWS (Occupy Wall Street ) movement..." down with the banks and the bankers ". Yet they can offer no viable, realistic or sustainable alternative to the banking system that most countries use and are a critical part of the economy of countries

This is a very good article because it accurately highlights the plight and views of moderate Iranians. And its the moderate Iranians that these negotiations and future with the West resonate the most with. The best part of the article is at the end IMO " I am so, so happy,” she wrote me. “Thank you President Obama. You stopped a war. . . . I hope your people understand it and appreciate it as we do. . . . Now we are a part of the world. " For me most of us want the same thing as members of humanity. We want peace and a prosperous future for our families. So these negotiations are part of those objectives. Yes I can understand the risks and concerns but I still am firmly convinced this is the right decision considering the geo-political reality of the region and what continued sanctions and or a military campaign against Iran would mean To aptly quote John Donne "Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee "

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/arts/bill-cosby-deposition-reveals-calculated-pursuit-of-young-women-using-fame-drugs-and-deceit.html?_r=0 For those interested more information about the appalling antics of Cosby through the decades

Yeah for me I have found any smoked cheese seems to have an artificial taste, which is unfair because its just smoke that flavors it ? Yet I am not a fan and generally prefer unsmoked cheese which always has that " authentic " cheese taste which I prefer

Direct quote when I was trying to get electricity for my construction site: "Look, since you are young and don't get it: I'd love to sign your permit, but nobody will believe I did it without getting paid off. So since they are going to say it ayway, I might as well take the money, right?" Geez, is it really that bad ? Did this happen to you personally or is this an exaggeration to enforce a point ?

Paul Krugman thinks you are full of it. Yes and I can also name equally credible economists who will agree that austerity can and does work Plus I saw an interview with Krugman on CNN where he discusses this point and his view on Greece's economic future and the impact of austerity is much more complex than just " austerity cannot work for Greece "

Hyperbole anyone? Your post is an egregious exaggeration my fine feathered friend Obama had to deal with a broken USA economy, 2 military ground occupations and loads of global animosity. Obama will be handing over a recovered USA economy, no more military ground occupations, an aerial military campaign and less animosity. Bush trumped him by far

Sure but anything can just be " fun " if you set your expectation bar low For me gaming is about entertainment and fun is just part of that. I would prefer a mature narrative and mature game choices. And mature for me means choices with real consequences, sex, racism, drugs etc. etc.

Yeah that made me laugh, it may seem relevant but the two countries aren't the same

No austerity can be and is effective Its also about countries making structural reforms like reducing government debt, selling assets and reducing bloated staff counts from departments. So by making some difficult but not egregious reforms a country can gets its economy working again. Ireland and Spain are successfully doing it

Okay fair enough so what was the purpose of the referendum and all the other theatrics like the trip to Russia?I think this was just part of the overall brinkmanship to make the Troika think he was serious about leaving the EU and to hopefully get better terms around the loans ? I

The Euro is politically popular in Greece. They want the incompatible combination of no austerity and euro membership, but of the two they apparently prefer Euro membership, something like 70% (?) want to accept the current deal despite it being stupid. That makes it politically untenable for Greece to leave without being (or appearing to be) forced out. Christine Lagarde is neither an armchair economist nor american, and her organisation is saying that they cannot lend to Greece under the current circumstances because the debt is odious and it would be illegal for them to contribute further to that. The European negotiators knew this before making the deal that relies on the IMF contributing. It's not so much disagreement about whether they'll achieve their goal, it's that they know that this deal won't get Greece back on track and that, as it stands, the deal is already dead as they've been told that one of their contributors cannot contribute under the conditions of their deal. Yet they still made the deal saying that the IMF would contribute, presumably not thinking that the IMF would leak then publicly say they won't contribute. That's a refusal to accept reality, it's very easy to insist that Greece must stay if you simply deny reality and decide that everything will work out fine in the end. Zora don't you feel betrayed and disappointed by Tsipras decision to suddenly acquiesce to harsher austerity. He fooled us all and created loads of resentment and consternation between certain member states. I didn't think he would fold so quick, I assumed the new austerity measures would have been much less severe than the Troika ones as I thought he was vindicated by the NO vote .....thats what the Greek people expected, they feel understandably betrayed. I would be seriously angry if I was Greek