JadedWolf

Brexit would be a huge gamble, and anyone claiming to know what would follow it is lying through their teeth. I mean, sure, it could end very well for the U.K. If all parties stay rational, and there is an amicable split where there are no hard feelings. Favourable trade agreements between the U.K. and the E.U., and indeed other countries outside the E.U. framework, could undo any potential economic damage from leaving the E.U. framework. Scotland could be convinced not to hold another referendum as leaving the U.K. would be too much of a risk and Scottish oil isn't worth what it used to. Relations with commonwealth nations could intensify and lead to more trade. Etc. Etc. Or trade could take a hit, as the E.U. is forced to make sure that the U.K. does not get any favourable trading position in Europe as they are forced to make an example out of the U..K. for fear of the U.K. doing so well that other countries want to leave the E.U. Or it could start the collapse of the E.U., and a global economic recession from which the whole of Europe would never recover. Once one country leaves, another might. Then the Euro fails. Stock markets crash. People become even more nationalistic and paranoid and vote in autocratic leaders with rather funny ideas. One good from the last scenario though. No more immigration. The immigrants wouldn't want to be here anymore.

Yeah, what I learned from video games is that if you're driving in your stolen car and you see a Hare Krishna procession you have to try to drive over all of them for bonus points.

Bruce may just be young at heart. To be honest, judging from his posts I would never have guessed he is 41. But you are quite right, at age 41 you should be doing things like playing golf with other near-pensioners while discussing what fine wines you've added to the collection, not smoking weed with teenage girls in car parks. That sort of thing is simply not done! /nod nod

http://Robot monk blends science and Buddhism at Chinese temple

I laughed. I guess I'm going to hell...

I can only throw one person overboard? Come on man, me and Doggie will have a much better chance with just the two of us.

Oby is a girl...surly not, he posts pictures of girls ? That's such a heterosexual-cisgender-male remark of you! I expected better of you, Bruce. I really did.

Map of parts of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany that Belgium wanted to annex after WW 1:

Jaded can I ask you a question and please be serious when you respond Do you not think the EU is significant and what do you think about the sustainability of the EU? Okay, serious face on. I am actually very much in favour of European countries uniting in terms of working together economically and working together on defense issues (much more so than we are doing currently). I am in favour of open internal borders, and I wish people here could move from country to country as easily as United Statians can move from state to state, with the caveat that they have to work for local wages - not for way under minimum wage like Polish truck drivers do. In practice it is much more limited here though because this is only easy to do for jobs that do not require native language skills. When it comes to the EU, I'd like to quote myself (yay, narcissism) from something I wrote somewhere else (no really, I'm actually just being lazy): "I would first like to state that I voted in favour of the trade agreement, and that I am far from the sort of Eurosceptic that froths at the mouth at the mere mention of Brussels. The truth is that this referendum was never about Ukraine to start with, and as such it is completely inappropriate that the people in the Ukraine should have to suffer because of it. However, I feel quite strongly that the blame for this sort of thing happening is that there is no other outlet for people to engage in dialogue with the people who make the decisions within the EU. Many people feel that the EU is like an unstoppable train that they have no influence over. And as much as the media would like to focus on the Dutch at this moment, this a feeling that is shared throughout much of Europe. Frankly, it isn’t helped by the national governments who vote in agreement with every EU decision every single time, yet when they stand for national elections pretend that all the EU decisions were forced upon them, thus cleverly avoiding having to answer to the public. As such, there is a definite democratic deficit in the EU that has to be addressed somehow, or else things like this will keep happening and eventually enough people may be disgruntled enough to press their governments to leave the EU, as may happen soon in the U.K." Thanks for responding, so its fair to say you are more happy with the EU than unhappy? More like, like the ideals, hate the institutions.

Jaded can I ask you a question and please be serious when you respond Do you not think the EU is significant and what do you think about the sustainability of the EU? Okay, serious face on. I am actually very much in favour of European countries uniting in terms of working together economically and working together on defense issues (much more so than we are doing currently). I am in favour of open internal borders, and I wish people here could move from country to country as easily as United Statians can move from state to state, with the caveat that they have to work for local wages - not for way under minimum wage like Polish truck drivers do. In practice it is much more limited here though because this is only easy to do for jobs that do not require native language skills. When it comes to the EU, I'd like to quote myself (yay, narcissism) from something I wrote somewhere else (no really, I'm actually just being lazy): "I would first like to state that I voted in favour of the trade agreement, and that I am far from the sort of Eurosceptic that froths at the mouth at the mere mention of Brussels. The truth is that this referendum was never about Ukraine to start with, and as such it is completely inappropriate that the people in the Ukraine should have to suffer because of it. However, I feel quite strongly that the blame for this sort of thing happening is that there is no other outlet for people to engage in dialogue with the people who make the decisions within the EU. Many people feel that the EU is like an unstoppable train that they have no influence over. And as much as the media would like to focus on the Dutch at this moment, this a feeling that is shared throughout much of Europe. Frankly, it isn’t helped by the national governments who vote in agreement with every EU decision every single time, yet when they stand for national elections pretend that all the EU decisions were forced upon them, thus cleverly avoiding having to answer to the public. As such, there is a definite democratic deficit in the EU that has to be addressed somehow, or else things like this will keep happening and eventually enough people may be disgruntled enough to press their governments to leave the EU, as may happen soon in the U.K."

Yesterday some nobody on television said that this would only be the first of many referendums, listing a whole number of subjects he would like to see one on. I bet those politicians are really kicking themselves thinking this sort of thing was a good idea.

Now this is a cool dude: Wim Hof, the iceman. Well known around the world for being cool with going naked even in the coldest of circumstances. You know, almost like what normal Finns do for fun on a typical winter day.

Stop posting here. Go find ye a nice lady of European heritage and have some kids, many of them. Make sure you're relevant in the future! Kids? Eh, no thanks. Hate the little buggers.

Guys, guys. There really is no reason to show any interest in this. We Europeans are irrelevant in the world, and becoming more irrelevant every day. Better to shower other, more important regions of the world with your attention. China, for example. I hear the state of democracy over there is almost as bad as over here in Europe.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/common-mythconceptions/