StrangeSox

Oh god, not that crap again. It was the private market that led the way on the s***ty mortgages, completely unforced by any sort of CRA or other requirements. Freddie and Fannie were late getting into the sub-prime game as well. And of course government regulations had nothing to do with all of the exotic gambling/financial products and banks leveraging themselves 40-1. The worst parts of the financial crisis were the unregulated parts--the NINA loans, the CDS's and MBS's, the leverage ratios, the mixing of investment and commercial banking. CRA loans performed better than private mortgage loans. This has been well-documented for years now. Why on earth do you think banks wouldn't be risky with their money? They over-leverage themselves and use bank funds like a casino all the time. If management takes big risks and produces huge (short-term) profits, they'll make themselves a small fortune every year. And, if they f*** it up, they'll ride to safety on their golden parachute.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 9, 2013 -> 12:34 PM) I don't know why I ever buy movies...I can probably count on 1 hand the number of movies I have ever watched more than once or twice. One of my friends has a huge "DVD Collection." Whoops.

BOOM http://yoisthisracist.com/post/47461263287...ure-dead-if-not

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 11:48 AM) Not just refused to serve them, but had them throw perfectly good food into the trash because of account balances that are entirely outside of their control. How could this ever cross an adult's mind as a reasonable thing to do? Related: “American Dream”: Food loaded into Dumpsters while Hundreds of Hungry Americans Restrained by Police

Time to make some calls, people http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_info...te&Sort=ASC http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Same here, we rarely went to BB. There's still a Family Video in Woodridge that still seems like it does okay, but I haven't been there in years now.

"Asking for permission" sounds creepy; it isn't theirs to give.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 10:08 PM) Am I the only one who thinks that calling Rose (or anyone for that matter) a vagina is really really insulting to women? Using "vagina" and "p****" as emasculating slurs are sexist

I'm too young/not English to have much of an opinion. My thoughts are basically just a protection of Reagan onto her image

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 05:09 PM) While I find history of literally needing permission outdated and disgusting, I think going over to parents before a proposal to let them know you are going to marry their daughter to be very worthwhile. It will probably be one of few times you will be alone with their parents and I think is a great start to what will be a crazy time. Pretty Much the same thoughts. Although it led to a funny situation on Christmas morning when my then-fiancée assumed her dad couldn't keep her mouth shut and walked up to her mom saying "well,i guess you know about this."

I told her father a week before when we were over there for dinner on a Saturday or Sunday night.

Not just refused to serve them, but had them throw perfectly good food into the trash because of account balances that are entirely outside of their control. How could this ever cross an adult's mind as a reasonable thing to do?

How does this even happen? Lunch denied to some Attleboro students Telling children to literally throw food away because their meals accounts didn't have enough money. WTF.

TNC has some thoughts as well: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archiv...l-kelly/274696/

A Stupid Death in a Stupid War: Remembering Michael Kelly

I dunno where exactly to put this, but Margaret Thatcher has died: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 6, 2013 -> 06:40 PM) Well yeah, a drop in workforce participation starting in the mid-late 2000's was predicted in what, the 1960's? This is also true of the increased disability claims. We are not to far off of the predictions made in the 90's, about 10% high thanks to this prolonged slump

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 6, 2013 -> 06:32 PM) It is also worth pointing out that just because you lose your job, doesn't move you from the workforce participation number. It just makes you unemployed. Really your government layoffs scenario has no bearing on this number. I think we are talking about different things. I was responding to bmags/cknolls/lostfan and the broader idea of austerity vs. stimulus, not saying that the government job cuts explain the work force participation numbers. To some extent, the drag all of these cuts has had on the economy is related, but i wasn't making that point.

What period are you referring to? I'm referring to the pattern for over more than two years now.

Yup. edit: that doesn't change the fact that we've still been cutting tens of thousands of government jobs over the past few years and that reduced federal spending has been a drag on the economy

Not really, but ok.

Yup. It was probably a really, really dumb idea to scale back government spending and let huge numbers of government employees get laid off, having the government be a huge drag on the economy instead of a booster for it.

we should probably have a clear and efficient way of making sure they don't get guns, then.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 5, 2013 -> 04:42 PM) Which is crap because we still don't do direct diplomacy and haven't for a long time. It's pretty simple - we talked and they balked, we stopped talking and they balked. At the end of the day they keep providing weapons/training to terrorist groups and continue building their nuclear capabilities and we don't do anything about it but give them MORE money/food/oil whatever. Well, we were in the 90's and it appeared to work very, very well into Bush came in with his terrible "axis of evil" stuff and, of course, the invasion of Iraq. After that sort of rhetoric and action, wouldn't you begin making it as costly as possible for the US to invade if you were the DPRK?

Why bother? They're doing fine right now without initiating a power struggle that could fracture the government, as Obama hoped would happen.