Why the EU is a waste of time
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I was when I was about 13. Then when I returned from the summer hols at the end of that year I discovered I was taller than the bullies. The first one who tried it got his face smashed into a desk, breaking his nose and elevating me to the ranks of the 'Not Bullied Any Longer'. They say violence is not the answer. Bollocks, occasionally violence is precisely the answer. Even today I dislike bullying, and I will stand up against anyone I see doing it. (They are usually ill educated and inadequate little people).
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]
Dalek Dave wrote:
They say violence is not the answer.
THat's actually correct. "Violence?" is the question. The answer is "Yes!".
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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Slacker007 wrote:
We have an anti-bully movement going on here in the United States. Where the f*** was this movement when I was ten?
You apparently haven't been seriously bullied, then.
I was never bullied and made sure that no one else was either. Hate bullies and my dad taught me very early to hit first and hard. Still can't abide bullies: they are covering their own weakness and fear and the best way to tackle them is head on: trust me, they'll back down pdq.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Dalek Dave wrote:
The first one who tried it got his face smashed into a desk, breaking his nose and elevating me to the ranks of the 'Not Bullied Any Longer'.
They say violence is not the answer.Ever read? Ender's Game, by Francis Scott Card
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Dalek Dave wrote:
They say violence is not the answer.
THat's actually correct. "Violence?" is the question. The answer is "Yes!".
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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I was never bullied and made sure that no one else was either. Hate bullies and my dad taught me very early to hit first and hard. Still can't abide bullies: they are covering their own weakness and fear and the best way to tackle them is head on: trust me, they'll back down pdq.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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:thumbsup: For the good story and :thumbsup: for this:
Chris C-B wrote:
I put my unbroken pot back on the bar, the barman nodded towards the back door, and I made my self extraordinarily scarce.
:-D
There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
Kind of you to say so, Sir! Truth is, when training to serve Her Majesty, I had a highly decorated Welsh Guards weapons training instructor*, whose principal military dictum was "Whenever conflict becomes inevitable, escalate immediately to the highest method available". Sound advice, but I guess it's just as well I am not in charge of the big red button on the lap of a marine just outside the oval office. :laugh: * This is the fellow I mentioned some time ago, who, when deputised to take over from the unarmed training instructor opened with the memorable phrase "Gen'l'men - why the f**k are you unarmed?" :cool:
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Children to be banned from blowing up balloons, under EU safety rules [^] Clearly an important issue that needs urgent attention, and some new laws no doubt... Meanwhile, LPG adapters across Europe: Assortment of LPG adapters needed across Europe[^] Clearly an issue of standardisation that is so utterly unimportant that it can be totally ignored leaving individual countries to come up with all sorts of different fittings.... What the fuck do we pay these clowns for!
============================== Nothing to say.
We haven't had any wars in the EU zone since the founding. That was the purpose, and it has been successful. If you have an open market you have removed the major economical reason for war. And most wars have an economical reason in the bottom. To say that it is a waste of time shows that you are either badly informed or narrowminded, or just didn't think all the way through. There are of course a lot of room for improvement. (Understatement of the year?) But to say it's a waste of time... Nope, atleast not yet!
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Thanks.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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We haven't had any wars in the EU zone since the founding. That was the purpose, and it has been successful. If you have an open market you have removed the major economical reason for war. And most wars have an economical reason in the bottom. To say that it is a waste of time shows that you are either badly informed or narrowminded, or just didn't think all the way through. There are of course a lot of room for improvement. (Understatement of the year?) But to say it's a waste of time... Nope, atleast not yet!
I don’t think the “war” reason is valid anymore. Do you think if the EU doesn’t exist we will start killing each other again? Don’t think so. And don’t get me wrong, I’m pro-EU like you, just don’t think that the existing EU structures are up to the task. The parliament is kind of okay, but the so called “government” is a joke IMO. After all the head of the government is from the only EU country without a government and the foreign minister is from the most hated (outside the EU) country. :-D
There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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We haven't had any wars in the EU zone since the founding. That was the purpose, and it has been successful. If you have an open market you have removed the major economical reason for war. And most wars have an economical reason in the bottom. To say that it is a waste of time shows that you are either badly informed or narrowminded, or just didn't think all the way through. There are of course a lot of room for improvement. (Understatement of the year?) But to say it's a waste of time... Nope, atleast not yet!
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
We haven't had any wars in the EU zone since the founding.
That was the purpose, and it has been successful.Quite. And now that purpose has been served don't you think it is time it was scraped, or at least started again, on a footing relevant to the 21st century?
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
To say that it is a waste of time shows that you are either badly informed or narrowminded
Did you understand WHY I said that? The EU has completely failed to bring in a pan european standard for a technology that only came into existence a decade ago. What IS its role if not to do things like that? Straight bananas and kids blowing up baloons! Banning Hedgehog flavoured crisps, making fishermen wear hair nets! Are you seriously telling me that the EU is an efficient body that serves Europe? Apart for being utterly corrupt, it cant balance its books, and its members dont pay income tax, it acchieves little. Its only high points have been Shengen and the Euro!
============================== Nothing to say.
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Jörgen Andersson wrote:
We haven't had any wars in the EU zone since the founding.
That was the purpose, and it has been successful.Quite. And now that purpose has been served don't you think it is time it was scraped, or at least started again, on a footing relevant to the 21st century?
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
To say that it is a waste of time shows that you are either badly informed or narrowminded
Did you understand WHY I said that? The EU has completely failed to bring in a pan european standard for a technology that only came into existence a decade ago. What IS its role if not to do things like that? Straight bananas and kids blowing up baloons! Banning Hedgehog flavoured crisps, making fishermen wear hair nets! Are you seriously telling me that the EU is an efficient body that serves Europe? Apart for being utterly corrupt, it cant balance its books, and its members dont pay income tax, it acchieves little. Its only high points have been Shengen and the Euro!
============================== Nothing to say.
The problem with EU is that it has grown outside its original purpose without adjusting the structure for it. It's like a really old legacy software that's just having new functions added to it. But I'm staying with my opinion that the open market is a really good idea. And that should certainly not get scrapped.
Erudite__Eric wrote:
Did you understand WHY I said that?
To stir the pot?
Erudite__Eric wrote:
Are you seriously telling me that the EU is an efficient body that serves Europe
Only partly. But then again, how many efficent parts of your government can you mention? As an example, the Swedish Department of Fisheries have more employees than there are fishermen. Hobbyists not counted.
Erudite__Eric wrote:
Its only high points have been Shengen and the Euro!
Forgetting the Open market again are we? I'm not even sure about the Euro, the idea is great, but to make it properly functional we would need to have the same (or at least similar) taxation system over the whole euro zone, good luck with that. There's of course a whole other set of rules and laws that would need to be unified too. Good luck again to make people follow them. (Thinking about Greece here)
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The problem with EU is that it has grown outside its original purpose without adjusting the structure for it. It's like a really old legacy software that's just having new functions added to it. But I'm staying with my opinion that the open market is a really good idea. And that should certainly not get scrapped.
Erudite__Eric wrote:
Did you understand WHY I said that?
To stir the pot?
Erudite__Eric wrote:
Are you seriously telling me that the EU is an efficient body that serves Europe
Only partly. But then again, how many efficent parts of your government can you mention? As an example, the Swedish Department of Fisheries have more employees than there are fishermen. Hobbyists not counted.
Erudite__Eric wrote:
Its only high points have been Shengen and the Euro!
Forgetting the Open market again are we? I'm not even sure about the Euro, the idea is great, but to make it properly functional we would need to have the same (or at least similar) taxation system over the whole euro zone, good luck with that. There's of course a whole other set of rules and laws that would need to be unified too. Good luck again to make people follow them. (Thinking about Greece here)
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
to make it properly functional we would need to have the same (or at least similar) taxation system over the whole euro zone
This is a myth. It is what is stated by people who resent paying higher taxes and has no bearing at all on the validity of the currency. (By the way the principle obstacle to its real success is a common bond/debt system).
============================== Nothing to say.
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Jörgen Andersson wrote:
to make it properly functional we would need to have the same (or at least similar) taxation system over the whole euro zone
This is a myth. It is what is stated by people who resent paying higher taxes and has no bearing at all on the validity of the currency. (By the way the principle obstacle to its real success is a common bond/debt system).
============================== Nothing to say.
I'd say we need both.
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I'd say we need both.
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Look at the US. Each state has its own laws, own taxation. Yet as a single currency it is the most sucsesfull in the world. So how relevant is common taxation to a common currency?
============================== Nothing to say.
Federal taxes are the same. State taxes and county taxes are similar enough to use the same bookkeeping and taxation programs. Try that in the EU.
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Look at the US. Each state has its own laws, own taxation. Yet as a single currency it is the most sucsesfull in the world. So how relevant is common taxation to a common currency?
============================== Nothing to say.
Not quite. The state taxes are rather symbolic compared to the federal. And the federal are the same every ware.
There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Federal taxes are the same. State taxes and county taxes are similar enough to use the same bookkeeping and taxation programs. Try that in the EU.
Here is an example of a quite important tax, sales tax, AKA TVA, VTA, BTW etc:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States[^] You can see how much it vaires across the US. Like I said, comon taxation is not a barrier to the success of the Euro. In fact it has succeded very well, and only when faced with the worst ecconomic crisis ever seen has it come under pressure. Pressure priciply because debt rates across european countries vary. Without that, there would be little quesiton about its survival.
============================== Nothing to say.
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Not quite. The state taxes are rather symbolic compared to the federal. And the federal are the same every ware.
There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Here is an example of a quite important tax, sales tax, AKA TVA, VTA, BTW etc:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States[^] You can see how much it vaires across the US. Like I said, comon taxation is not a barrier to the success of the Euro. In fact it has succeded very well, and only when faced with the worst ecconomic crisis ever seen has it come under pressure. Pressure priciply because debt rates across european countries vary. Without that, there would be little quesiton about its survival.
============================== Nothing to say.
That's basically the same tax but with different numbers. No problems there. I'm thinking more about excise duty and similar that has the purpose of distorting competition. When it comes to common bond/debt system I agree with you.
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That's basically the same tax but with different numbers. No problems there. I'm thinking more about excise duty and similar that has the purpose of distorting competition. When it comes to common bond/debt system I agree with you.