The Gaming Den

DSMatticus wrote:Well, there's that, but I suspect it also has something to do with whipping the conservative fundamental crazies into a frothing mass that will show up and vote out Obama. The Republicans don't know how to appeal to anyone but their hardcore base anymore, so "Democrats are baby-murderers, women can't be trusted to make decisions; Christian values are the best!"

Pretty much this.

sabs wrote:Sometimes I wonder what bizaro universe Santorum is from.

Sometimes I wonder what bizaro universe I live in, where Santorum can actually win primaries with that shit.

sabs wrote:
A Georgetown Law student sat before congress and testified that the cost of birth control for students was too expensive, at 3k per year. Now, I think that birthcontrol should be covered by health insurance. But really, you're paying 100+k for law school, but the cost that's going to break your back is the 3k of birthcontrol?

A law student's non-tuition-and-books budget for a year is roughly 16k a year if they are receiving financial aid. So, yeah, 3k is huge.

Wait, $3K in birth control? They need like 300 ten-packs of condoms per year, each?

Where do they have time for study amongst all that sex? Also, which uni is this again, and are they taking applications any time soon?

Never mind, I should have realised they meant things like the pill, which over here is cheaper than condoms due to universal health care (and also not widely taken, to my knowledge, due to the health risks - usually it's for relief for those who bleed way too much).

Quiet you. Don't let on about the cheap and effective public health care. They're Americans, they don't believe it exists.

Remember, keep the international anti-American communist atheist muslim conspiracy to all be vindictively healthy a secret.

This SHOULD have been covered at your French homosexual agenda indoctrinations.

Sorry, I had to miss it as it was double-booked with my Satanic Dutch Communist classes.

Americans have a weird hard-on for screwing the poor in favor of the vastly wealthy.

I mean fuck, the Republicans actually said:
We are a Nation of Haves, and Soon to Haves

Santorum wants to bring about the New Christian States of America.
Romney seems to be a caricature of Richie Rich

Koumei wrote:Wait, $3K in birth control? They need like 300 ten-packs of condoms per year, each?

Where do they have time for study amongst all that sex? Also, which uni is this again, and are they taking applications any time soon?

Never mind, I should have realised they meant things like the pill, which over here is cheaper than condoms due to universal health care (and also not widely taken, to my knowledge, due to the health risks - usually it's for relief for those who bleed way too much).

Still, how much does an IUD cost? It can't be that bad, can it?

IUD's cost anywhere from $500 to $1000 according to Planned Parenthood, and are good for 5-12 years.
They also say that Birth Control Pills can cost $15-$50 a month.

Condoms cost $1 each.
I wonder where that girl @ georgetown got $3000 from.

IUDs are not the best choice for everyone, and in some cases cause severe problems. Lots of people have to use specific kinds of birth control pills that are more important because of bad reactions to some of them for a variety of reasons, but mostly dosage.

I personally don't think that $3000 a year is particularly accurate for an average, but frankly, I'd be advocating for inclusion if it cost $12 a year, so I don't care what the accurate number is, whether it really is $3000 or not.

Well, Yes. It should be inclusion even if it's $1 a year. But the Republicans are really good at Slut Shaming. It's like an art form to them. So, it's nice to have the right ammo. To limit their ability to slut-shame things, and turn them into a "aspirin between the knees is cheap"

Heh, the old "keep your legs together you stupid whore". Because it feels better, eh. Not sure how it helps with birth control, but.

http://notsosecret.com/2012-02-17/how-t ... our-knees/

PhoneLobster wrote:Quiet you. Don't let on about the cheap and effective public health care. They're Americans, they don't believe it exists.

Remember, keep the international anti-American communist atheist muslim conspiracy to all be vindictively healthy a secret.

This SHOULD have been covered at your French homosexual agenda indoctrinations.

This really once again prompts the question I have, which I really don't feel like asking on most largely American message boards. The question is, and I really, seriously hope you don't lose your shit over this (and with tzor out, I think it's possible you won't,) but do modern Americans, like urban, internet-connected, somewhat educated ones understand that Europeans consider the US a third world country? Like that most of us read news from the US with this troubled condescension, pretty much exactly like we read news about the Republic of Congo or Afghanistan?

Kaelik wrote:but frankly, I'd be advocating for inclusion if it cost $12 a year, so I don't care what the accurate number is, whether it really is $3000 or not.

No actual argument here, I was simply puzzled by the $3000 price before realising "Derp, they mean stuff that is actually expensive over in the US". It clearly should be covered regardless of cost.

Red Archon wrote:

PhoneLobster wrote:Quiet you. Don't let on about the cheap and effective public health care. They're Americans, they don't believe it exists.

Remember, keep the international anti-American communist atheist muslim conspiracy to all be vindictively healthy a secret.

This SHOULD have been covered at your French homosexual agenda indoctrinations.

This really once again prompts the question I have, which I really don't feel like asking on most largely American message boards. The question is, and I really, seriously hope you don't lose your shit over this (and with tzor out, I think it's possible you won't,) but do modern Americans, like urban, internet-connected, somewhat educated ones understand that Europeans consider the US a third world country? Like that most of us read news from the US with this troubled condescension, pretty much exactly like we read news about the Republic of Congo or Afghanistan?

A number of us do. But entirely too many are too wrapped up in their lives to even look at other places in the internet to know of such, or are indoctrinated enough to still argue vehemently against reason. Tzor really is a good example of this.

Red Archon wrote:The question is, and I really, seriously hope you don't lose your shit over this (and with tzor out, I think it's possible you won't,) but do modern Americans, like urban, internet-connected, somewhat educated ones understand that Europeans consider the US a third world country? Like that most of us read news from the US with this troubled condescension, pretty much exactly like we read news about the Republic of Congo or Afghanistan?

Don't worry, when Americans and Japanese read about the goings-on in Greece or Spain, they feel exactly the same way. Cultural chauvinism is not unique to any group.

Well educated Americans are fairly cognizant of the fact that we're like the 11th best place to live by objective measures (even making the top ten in a recent OECD index). But you know what? That's still in the top 20, and we have a population nearly equal to that of the rest of the top 20 combined. And if Europe was forced to count their shitty countries like Albania and Moldova against their standards of living, the US is nicer than Europe.

Basically any non Scandinavian European who says that they view the US like a third world country is exactly as pig ignorant and backward as the stereotypical Americans they think they are better than. Denmark's people are the happiest, Norway's people are the wealthiest, Sweden's are the healthiest, and so on and so on. But if Portugal was a state, it would be a shitty one like Mississippi. And Europe gets way shittier than Portugal. The EU has Bulgaria and Romania in it. Non-EU Europe has Transnistria and Abkhaz in it.

Americans literally cannot comprehend the number of Europeans who live without access to indoor flush toilets. That level of filth and poverty isn't even something that Americans can wrap their minds around an industrialized society having. 41 percent, almost half of Romanians live in homes with no baths or showers. That is the kind of reality we expect from undeveloped African countries. One sixth of people in the EU live in overcrowded housing, which is about 50% higher than the comparable statistic for Americans (11% in the US).

-Username17

I mean, We make fun of West Virginia and Kentucky. But they /do/ usually have indoor plumbing.

FrankTrollman wrote:Denmark's people are the happiest,

Is there a link for this? I thought they were the most pessimistic and miserable. My sample base (1) certainly suggests as much, but I would be less than surprised to learn that the "they are the most miserable" is some kind of meme or joke or something.

I'm not making an argument as to what part of the world is the best, mind you, I'm just asking if regular Americans realize that most of the world don't think very highly of the US. As in, I know the folks over there often believe for whatever reason that they live in The Greatest Nation on Earth, but is it common knowledge that not many in the rest of the world think the US is that great?

Koumei wrote:

Kaelik wrote:but frankly, I'd be advocating for inclusion if it cost $12 a year, so I don't care what the accurate number is, whether it really is $3000 or not.

No actual argument here, I was simply puzzled by the $3000 price before realising "Derp, they mean stuff that is actually expensive over in the US". It clearly should be covered regardless of cost.

All I remember is college = free condoms EVERYWHERE. If you can't find free condoms in the U.S., particularly at a school, you're fucking blind. Most universities hand out condoms at their health services section because of course everyone is having sex with everyone else. Even if your school won't provide there are plenty of Planned Parenthood spots around that will give you bushels of condoms for free.

This is a Good Thing.

Birth control pills are a bit expensive, but is $15-$20 a month really breaking the bank? The $3,000 sounds like it was pulled directly out of somebody's ass. Even if you need specialty condoms they're much cheaper than that even if you're fucking four times a day.




Time to let some fucking PATRIOTISM out in this bitch.

I don't quite mind if people in Europe consider the US to be third-world. Frank laid it down pretty well, but I feel like it's worth adding a "fuck you" in as well. At least we acknowledge the shitty parts of our country exist, and we still rock out as a place to live while we ruin other places.

We are so awesome we actually let people move here and continue to be awesome. We steal smart people because they know they can make it big here. We steal talented people for the same reason. Even with all these smart and talented people there are folks like Snooki, who deserve nothing but the worst in life, that make it big because we are the United States of America, and we just don't give a fuck. That's right, we're so awesome that complete tools can live the good life with a job that can best be described as "being a complete tool, but on camera."

The best part? You can't stop talking about us. We're too big, too powerful and too insane (unless all these liberal hippies come to power and start screwing everything up, don't ruin our reputation!) to ignore. You can bet that whatever happens in the future the U.S. will be there and either fuck it up or make it 20% cooler.

Yippee ki yay, motherfucker.

Edit: We know people think we suck, that's what makes us rule. That's what makes an attitude like the one above such as awesome attitude.

Koumei wrote:

FrankTrollman wrote:Denmark's people are the happiest,

Is there a link for this? I thought they were the most pessimistic and miserable. My sample base (1) certainly suggests as much, but I would be less than surprised to learn that the "they are the most miserable" is some kind of meme or joke or something.

Denmark: Happiest Place on Earth.

Sometime talk to a Danish person about the bullshit they are complaining about in their life, it's epic lulz. It's like the time my mother was talking to me from California and she was complaining that in the middle of winter it had gotten so cold because it was seven degrees outside. Note: at the time it was minus fifteen here in Prague and I genuinely couldn't stop myself from laughing. At my mother.

When people have it super good, they still kvetch. They just do it about stupid crap like "how come hot dogs come in packages of 8, when hot dog buns come in packages of six?" instead of things like "My child has parasitic worms in her eyeballs and will probably go completely blind".

-Username17

Red Archon wrote:I'm not making an argument as to what part of the world is the best, mind you, I'm just asking if regular Americans realize that most of the world don't think very highly of the US. As in, I know the folks over there often believe for whatever reason that they live in The Greatest Nation on Earth, but is it common knowledge that not many in the rest of the world think the US is that great?

Depends. I have European friends that remind me of that fairly regularly. I point out that statistically, they are usually living in worse places. That makes them angry to learn that I consider places like Paris and Glasgow too dangerous to want to visit.

I'm not saying that there's not stupid shit that I'd rather not happen here, but I don't believe a lot of it is as bad as a lot of people bitch about.

You probably think of NYC or LA as too dangerous to visit too?
Definitely Detroit.

Paris and Glasgow's crime rates are on par, if not better than the crime rates in NYC. And NYC is basically the Safest city in the US, on a per capita ranking.

The overall crime rate in the United States is considerably lower than that of non-Scandinavian Europe. Here are the Interpol Crime Rates (per 100,000) for the big countries:

Interpol, 2001 wrote:4161 – US
7736 – Germany
6941 – France
9927 – England and Wales

Now the US does have a higher murder rate than Europe does. Our murder rate is 4.8 per 100,000, while Europe's is only 3.5 overall. Our overall murder rate is pretty similar to Lithuania. But if you part out the US, it looks similar to that of Europe - there are states like Iowa and New Hampshire that have a murder rate of about 1 (like a Scandinavian country), and then we have shit holes like Louisiana that have a murder rate north of 11 (still lower than Russia).

If you told me that visiting Rural Louisiana is not something you were willing to risk, I would understand. That place is nuts.

Still, it's important to note that unlike the European stereotype, US crime isn't totally out of control. Actually, Crime in the US is less of a problem than it is in Europe. Our big problem is that with our generally more armed population, what fights we have are more likely to end in deaths.

-Username17

Heh, being very nearly in rural La (I'm in the empty spot between B.R. and N.O.), I don't know if I'd exactly call it nuts....but, hell, it's nuts.

We had a small alligator in our retention pond (happens nigh every spring); some students took it upon themselves to roll up their blue jeans and start wading in to catch the thing.

Finally, Admin goes out to tell them to get the hell out of the pond.

One student understands what they were doing was nuts. "Yeah, you're right," he says, "I'll just get the gun out of my truck and shoot it."

PurpleXVI wrote: Uhhhhh.
Germany: One of the healthiest economies in the western sphere.
Austria and Switzerland: Pretty boss, too.
France might bitch a lot, but they have it pretty alright.
Italy? They're being rescued by the new guy in charge before they really had a chance to collapse.
Belarus? Not part of the EU.
And East/West Europe are pretty separate both in culture and economy.
Oh, and hey, America is pretty much the only properly first-world nation where the cops act like they've got the carte blanche they'd have in a police state.

I'm assuming you were being facetious and using hyperbole with the "Only Scandinavia is good Europe, the rest of it is a toilet". But that's the feedback I got from the Dane I speak to.