Youtube videos that make us Laugh, Cry, or Both

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:19 am

TarkisFlux wrote:So you want to get a PHD in humanities?

That reminds me of this.

"There is a fracture, I need to fix it."

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 6:30 am

My dad sends out a mass email daily (sometimes multiple times daily) with compilations from various blogs (mostly financial) that he reads, along with other nerdy type fare. I guess it keeps him out of trouble since he's retired.

Anywho, I thought this link he sent was somewhat interesting.

Changing Education Paradigms

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 12:26 am

Yes, it is interesting, and I will be passing that along to my parents.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 5:19 am

Psychic Robot wrote:Chris Christie is awesome.

1 billion minus 820 million does not equal 280 million.

If inside 3 minutes the dude fails at 3rd grade math, why the hell should anyone let him anywhere near a budget for anything?

Unsurprisingly he goes on to misrepresent inflation rates and then segue his denial of math and data into the party-line rant about the evils of unions and how rough it is having to pay the serfs actual wages.

erik · Post by **erik** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 2:32 pm

Yeah, I noticed he did some math errors but attributed those to him speaking on the fly. I know that I'd be making all sorts of mistakes if I spoke without notes.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Nov 01, 2010 5:35 pm

Unions are useless now that a factory can pick up and move to Mexico or India or China.

Let me give a relevant real-world example. Before Miller bought them out, Coors did their brewing in Golden, Colorado, and had another brewery somewhere else (I want to say Kentucky, but I'm not 100% sure). Both factories were union factories.

Well, what Coors did was expand a distribution center located in Elkton, Virginia to contain a brewery (Elkton plant was of course non-union). Coors then shut down production at both Golden and in Kentucky while starting brewing in Elkton.

The only way a Union could be effective is if everyone on the planet was unionized. In the current world economy, unions are counter-productive.

(Note: I have heard that Elkton plant is being phased out now that Miller owns the Coors brands.)

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 6:39 pm

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:The only way a Union could be effective is if everyone on the planet was unionized. In the current world economy, unions are counter-productive.

For the Win, Cory Doctorow's YA book, is exactly about that.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:05 am

Josh_Kablack wrote:
Psychic Robot wrote:Chris Christie is awesome.
1 billion minus 820 million does not equal 280 million.

If inside 3 minutes the dude fails at 3rd grade math, why the hell should anyone let him anywhere near a budget for anything?

Because in dealing with the budget, he would have a calculator in hand and not be subtracting off the top of his head.

Unsurprisingly he goes on to misrepresent inflation rates and then segue his denial of math and data into the party-line rant about the evils of unions and how rough it is having to pay the serfs actual wages.

Teacher's unions are corrupt, greedy, and shitty. Cry more. Their benefits more than make up for their deceptively low wages.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 9:08 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BSfIvYV2Qs

Memes! They're what's for breakfast!

MfA · Post by **MfA** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:40 am

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:The only way a Union could be effective is if everyone on the planet was unionized. In the current world economy, unions are counter-productive.

The unfortunate thing is that the same thing which is making unions ineffective is making capitalism itself ineffective (if we see global and local median wage inflation as the standard of effectiveness).

Parthenon · Post by **Parthenon** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 12:23 am

This is extremely awesome: Complete History Of The Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris

Also, these adverts, probably made as publicity for the advert company, are pretty cool: Elder Signs and the Necronomicon.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:57 am

Swan Lake via Chinese Acrobats

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:33 am

Squirrel Metal!.

apparently less awesome if you actually speak Finnish

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:30 am

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Unions are useless now that a factory can pick up and move to Mexico or India or China.

...

The only way a Union could be effective is if everyone on the planet was unionized. In the current world economy, unions are counter-productive.

Care to explain Germany then?

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:45 pm

Teacher's unions are corrupt, greedy, and shitty.

And so are the school boards that pay them.

Lengthier rant spoilered as it has nothing to do with cool YouTube videos

The existence of unions allows for consolidation of monopoly power on both sides of the bargain between greedy employers and greedy employees, instead of just consolidation on one side. Without collective bargaining, concentration of power amongst larger employers distorts the market so as to lower wages below what the equilibrium wage prices would be in a free and open market where all participants had access to perfect information in realtime.

I'm downright sick of a political culture that says "Greed is good" for Wall Street, executives and shareholders and and then turns around and says "Down with those damn greedy unions" anytime some working stiff dares to agitate for wages and benefits that even keep up with the real inflation rate.. Either capitalism is good for both goods markets and labor markets or capitalism is shitty for both goods markets and labor markets. Claiming that greed is good for investors and evil for workers is a hypocritical defense of neo-feudalism and a declaration of open class warfare.

And the current tactics of the anti-union, anti-capitalism in labor markets, "wages are too damn high" party is to attack the only remaining bastion of unions in the US of A under the ruse that by lowering public sector employee compensation they can save private sector employees tax dollars.

That's a cool story line, but it's probably not true. I'm hardly an economist, but I can tell you that most of government revenues come from payroll and individual income and taxes at the federal level (and in my state). And I can tell you that the very existence of high-payin' government jobs means that private employers have to pay more to attract employees than they would if those government jobs did not exist nor pay so well (otherwise folks like myself would not have taken off from their regular job to work for the better-paying 2010 census). Furthermore, I can tell you that Unions generally exert an [url=uhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_wage_premium]upward influence on wages[/url]. So I can surmise from those facts that the existence of public sector unions raises wages in the private sector, and that raising wages raises taxable revenue available to the federal (and PA) government at existing tax rates.

So let me put those conclusions into a list to show what actually happens here:

Removing public sector unions will lower public sector wages
Lowering public sector wages will also lower private sector wages
Lowering wages means there is less taxable revenue for governments' major revenue stream.
Reduced taxable revenue means that governments need to compensate by either reducing services provided (police, roads, etc) or by raising tax rates to generate the same revenue from a reduced amount.

So, raise your hand if your for higher tax rates payed out of lower wages and or shittier roads and worse police response times? Because that's what the guy who can't do subtraction in his head is in favor of.

MfA · Post by **MfA** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 8:51 pm

cthulhu wrote:Care to explain Germany then?

Structural unemployment, lack of minimum wages and piss poor conditions for the unemployed keep unions on a leash.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 10:37 pm

Josh_Kablack wrote:Words.

You're attacking a strawman. When I say that I support the free market, I support the right of workers to unionize and use their labor as a bartering tool for higher wages, better benefits, and so on and so forth. However, when I see union greed, I'm going to call it out just as I will when I see corporate greed.

I hate greed in all its incarnations. (Greed, of course, should not be confused with "making a profit.") But, yes, when the CEO of Walmart makes $16,000 an hour while his hourly employees make $13,000 a year, something is wrong with the system. And that's where unions come in.

So, no, I'm not a union-buster or one of the Reaganites who thinks that giving tax breaks to the wealthiest 2% of Americans will meaningfully stimulate the economy. I'm someone who calls bullshit when he smells it.

Chris Christie gave the numbers in his response to the teacher's union shill, and your only retort is "lol he can't do math."

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 10:46 pm

Ironically, the government thinks public sector wages are too low for technical specialists and had to invent a complicated legal construct to get around that.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 6:07 am

Holy Crap, the ps22 chorus rocks!

Sabbath

Bon Jovi

The Cure

Journey

Jay-Z

Guest Starring Queen Latifah

you'll have to find the rest yourselves.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 6:14 am

Yeah. That's awesome! And when they grow up, they can go to college and become part of Straight No Chaser {OK, Christmas Music, Toto, Africa}.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:33 am

Let it be.{Lipsyncing, Celebrity smorgasbord, Norwegian commericlal}

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 10:28 pm

erik wrote:Let it be.{Lipsyncing, Celebrity smorgasbord, Norwegian commericlal}

Yeah, I have no idea. I thought it was kinda cool but it is strange.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:08 am

cthulhu wrote:
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Unions are useless now that a factory can pick up and move to Mexico or India or China.

...

The only way a Union could be effective is if everyone on the planet was unionized. In the current world economy, unions are counter-productive.
Care to explain Germany then?

I don't give a shit about Germany.

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:20 am

So you don't give a shit about facts that disprove your hyperbolic argument?

That makes you fucking retarded

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 5:09 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8WiyX21A1c

The Gaming Den

Youtube videos that make us Laugh, Cry, or Both

I probably shouldn't feed this troll,, but