pfff - 19 October 2009 06:06 PM

So yeah, thanks for informing me that homelessness is on the rise in Europe. But how exactly does that contradict my point again?

Because you described poverty and homelessness as being “virtually nonexistent’ in Western Europe, and I was taking exception with such a broad statement.

There are plenty of numbers in available at your fingertips that will show you that plenty of people, per capita, were still homeless and living in levels of poverty in the regions you mention prior to the recent global financial whateverjusthappened. I actually searched for an extra few minutes to provide you with the most recent examples above, lest you claim the initial numbers from 2003 or so were ‘too old’. 

I am not taking aim at “Globalism” or “Liberlasm” or whateverism, i’m just saying that your statement was very off-the-cuff and anecdotal and not really supported by the facts as strongly as you seem to want to think.

again, just because you didnt see it doesnt mean it wasnt there.

So I guess all those homeless Europeans I didn’t see in 2006-7 possessed a remarkable ninja-like talent for stealth sorely lacking in our ubiquitous Asheville homeless, huh?

BTW, doesn’t it dramatically reduce your effectiveness as a beggar if no one knows you’re there? Kinda hard to get all that spare change from the rich tourists if they can’t see you, dontcha think?

So I guess all those homeless Europeans I didn’t see in 2006-7 possessed a remarkable ninja-like talent for stealth sorely lacking in our ubiquitous Asheville homeless, huh?

BTW, doesn’t it dramatically reduce your effectiveness as a beggar if no one knows you’re there? Kinda hard to get all that spare change from the rich tourists if they can’t see you, dontcha think?

I have no idea why you did or didn’t see homeless and people living under the poverty line. i could certainly speculate about the nature of tourism, and it’s general tendency to lead one away from the less-than-chipper sides of society, but that’s really neither here nor there.

All over: Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, even poorer eastern countries like Poland and Lithuania. I never saw anyone begging on the street. And I spent several months there.
So I’ll reverse your question: In what part of Western Europe did you find all this homelessness?

I’m just saying they are and were not ‘virtually nonexistent’<—Your words. You just didnt see them. I’ve shown you a few links showing numbers of poor folk in europe. You rejected them as being too recent. Show me the numbers to back up your anecdotal evidence.

I’m sure many europen countries have social programs that are far superior to our more-or-less non-existent system here in the states. I just dont think it’s nearly as rosy as you want to think. didnt i already say that?

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 05:36 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 05:24 PM

So, which part of this is “news?”

The parts at the beginning, the middle, and end that all deal with our economy and job market.

Besides, which other sub-forum was this supposed to go in?

I don’t know. I don’t think there is a sub-forum for “shit I cut-and-pasted from my band’s shitty myspace page.”

other than the music section, you mean. the “vast majority” of threads there fit that description. Other kinds are virtually nonexistent. or at least they were back in 2003.

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 07:09 PM

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 05:36 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 05:24 PM

So, which part of this is “news?”

The parts at the beginning, the middle, and end that all deal with our economy and job market.

Besides, which other sub-forum was this supposed to go in?

I don’t know. I don’t think there is a sub-forum for “shit I cut-and-pasted from my band’s shitty myspace page.”

You have a problem with posting things on multiple sites?

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 09:29 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 07:09 PM

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 05:36 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 05:24 PM

So, which part of this is “news?”

The parts at the beginning, the middle, and end that all deal with our economy and job market.

Besides, which other sub-forum was this supposed to go in?

I don’t know. I don’t think there is a sub-forum for “shit I cut-and-pasted from my band’s shitty myspace page.”

You have a problem with posting things on multiple sites?

Not for people who have mastered line breaks.

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 09:32 PM

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 09:29 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 07:09 PM

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 05:36 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 05:24 PM

So, which part of this is “news?”

The parts at the beginning, the middle, and end that all deal with our economy and job market.

Besides, which other sub-forum was this supposed to go in?

I don’t know. I don’t think there is a sub-forum for “shit I cut-and-pasted from my band’s shitty myspace page.”

You have a problem with posting things on multiple sites?

Not for people who have mastered line breaks.

Anal-retentive much?

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 09:40 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 09:32 PM

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 09:29 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 07:09 PM

Andy Palast - 19 October 2009 05:36 PM

mat catastrophe - 19 October 2009 05:24 PM

So, which part of this is “news?”

The parts at the beginning, the middle, and end that all deal with our economy and job market.

Besides, which other sub-forum was this supposed to go in?

I don’t know. I don’t think there is a sub-forum for “shit I cut-and-pasted from my band’s shitty myspace page.”

You have a problem with posting things on multiple sites?

Not for people who have mastered line breaks.

Anal-retentive much?

See, that won’t work with me. I am anal-retentive. I know I am anal-retentive. I also know the difference between when it is appropriate to text-bomb a post and when it is time to break up paragraphs.

Then again, I like people to actually read what I write instead of just look at it and think, “Wow, if that were a blanket I bet it would be warm. Just look how thick and cozy it looks!”

For all I know, you just wrote the manifesto that ends world hunger but no one is going to read it (outside pff, but he’s easily amused) because it looks like it would induce a giant goddamn headache somewhere around what would be the fourth or fifth paragraph, assuming that is where the paragraphs would be if there were any ####### line breaks in your goddamn wall of text!

So, you can choose to continue pretending that by calling me anal-retentive that I will somehow see the errors of my ways and go back and read your entire post the way it is (or suffer through the horrors of myspace and read it there) or you could just admit that what you posted looks like an Asperger’s sufferer’s idea of avant-garde and/or post-modern textualization of an idea wrapped up in a festive garlic-rosemary pita and served with a side order of white liberal guilt and go back to the “edit” button on your OP and add ####### line breaks to your post and then you can rest assured that I will read it and then I will eat a bowl of alphabet soup and shit out a response for you and it will likely still make more sense and smell better than whatever poop you come up with.

Anal-retentive? Please.

hey, looks like he was right, tho.

see:—-> 

Officially they do not exist.

The numbers of homeless in Germany are not registered in any governmental statistics

I guess thats why he didnt see them. because they dont officially exist. all 3/4 of a million of them. “virtually nonexistent”.

http://www.share-international.org/archives/homelessness/hl-abGermany.htm

Oh, i get it now. You meant there werent any homeless people visible in the online “virtual” world. makes sense. do the asheville homeless do multi-player ona regular basis?

Mat:

Andy’s band is fabulous.  I have pity for you and your negative perspective.  Your attempt at a pithy put-down really is embarrassing, for you.  If only you knew what an intellect Andy Palast is, you would never toss around such drivel towards him.

You know why you are drowning on this board with pathetic content?  Because when someone like Andy appears, you boil over with schlock posts, like those you abhor from others.

JRM

Jason Ross Martin - 19 October 2009 10:44 PM

Mat:

Andy’s band is fabulous.  I have pity for you and your negative perspective.  Your attempt at a pithy put-down really is embarrassing, for you.  If only you knew what an intellect Andy Palast is, you would never toss around such drivel towards him.

You know why you are drowning on this board with pathetic content?  Because when someone like Andy appears, you boil over with schlock posts, like those you abhor from others.

JRM

in regard to yr buddyy’s “intellect”, based on his participation here in this thread, i really am not seeing too many examples in his favor. he has made vague assertions and avoided directly addressing any specific question searching for specifics to back up these assertions.

maybe hes a nice guy, and maybe he’s a genuis, but your standard has been known to be, er, fairly low.

mat, on the other hand, is a pretty sharp guy. “schlock posts”? i think you dont know the meaning of the term.

also, i’m glad you like his music, but i too found it blandly predictable and certainly not my cup of tea.

In regard to the notion that mat and others being snarky and pushy and wanting, you know, a modicum of intellect is ‘driving people away’, i have to chuckle. not too long ago mat was dog piled by mr bugg and others when he first appeared, but he stuck around instead of running off like a hurt puppy. It’s amazing how knowing what the #### you’re talking about and being able to take your lumps when your wrong can make a little poking and prodding not serious business.

perhaps you and others might learn a bit from this example. unless, of course, you’re back here just to tell us how no one cares about these stupid forums anyway as soon as someone calls you out on your bullshit.

Whatever Piffy.  I’m not arguing with you about who’s a genius or what music is good.  I’m happy letting you think whatever you want and write whatever you want all over this forum for the rest of infinity.

Your disdain for my perspective is well documented. 

Now go argue with Richey or something.

Good to see you still feel your opinion is somehow pure, unadultered fact, regardless of the actual, you know, facts.

Jason Ross Martin - 19 October 2009 10:44 PM

Mat:

Andy’s band is fabulous.

Assuming this were true, it has no bearing on this thread. No one mentioned his band except you. If and when his band is covered in a thread, I will take that opportunity to discuss his band. This is not that time. Stay on topic.

I have pity for you and your negative perspective.

I love it when people say that. It is almost as amusing as “I am going to pray for you.”

I also enjoy how the assumption is always made that either:

A) someone who goes off on something like spelling, grammar or formatting is “negative,” and/or

B) telling someone that they are being negative is going to automatically shame them or make them have some sort of epiphany about their life.

Or maybe it is used just to simply say “I have nothing constructive to say, so I shall reach for a cliche.”

Your attempt at a pithy put-down really is embarrassing, for you.  If only you knew what an intellect Andy Palast is, you would never toss around such drivel towards him.

I am deeply and truly sorry. In the future, I will make sure my drivel is up to the standards of intellect that Mr. Palast deserves.

You, however, can still receive the standard drivel.

You know why you are drowning on this board with pathetic content?  Because when someone like Andy appears, you boil over with schlock posts, like those you abhor from others.

I don’t think you read this forum very much. If you did, you would realize that you pretty much just called Andy’s post “schlock.” I have never complained about the “pathetic content” on this board.

I can tolerate a lot of things. I can handle when certain men dressed as nuns go on a binge and post insane ramblings. I can handle it when four others go ape poop for three days about said ramblings. I can handle it when someone comes in with some half-baked notion of the “lives of quiet desperation” led by the grunts of the service industry, while failing completely to realize how utterly misplaced most of his angst is. I can handle it when the replies to me instantly wander into the field of “anal-retentive” and “negative” (again, I recognize that as a tactic to avoid addressing an issue by dressing up a participant in the conversation as having some sort of dysfunction - one which prevents them from seeing the intellect inherent in what they are saying: as though posting ten paragraphs of what appears to be a regurgitation of a discussion from a college humanities classroom in one single, unbroken wall of text isn’t doing that for them).

So, yes. When someone like Andy appears and wants to be taken seriously, I tend to demand a tiny bit of common sense to go with the “intellect.” If Andy wants me to take his posts seriously then Andy needs to learn how to format. Sure, he can spell and he seems to have a pretty good grasp of syntax and grammar but he apparently does not have an “enter” key on his keyboard. (Protip: There are two of them; if one breaks, try the other).

Now since we are still discussing walls of text and the inability or unwillingness to use the key that inserts line breaks into text, let’s go ahead and mention the fact that I, at times, have posted walls of text here. Are they serious essays on the nature of the dehumanizing effects of menial wage slavery jobs on workers? No. They are stream of consciousness bits of fluff. I don’t take them seriously and I don’t expect anyone else to.

Then again, I don’t take myself too seriously at all. If I did, I might go around monogramming my posts on a forum.

JRM

Did you seriously just monogram your post? I can’t handle that.

Mat:

Oh, so it’s Andy’s myspace page itself you called ‘shitty’, not his band/music.  As if there’s a difference.

My point is, you reveal an ugly side of yourself when you take your anger about his cut and pasting of his essay into this forum and use it as a cheap shot against either his myspace formatting techniques or his musical proclivities. 

If you wanted a great forum, you would want Andy Palast to post as much as possible.  You would want me to hang around here and occasionally engage you, or respond to you.  But clearly you want neither.  And so you will have the forum you want.

You’re right, I don’t read the forum much.  There’s not a whole lot on here worth reading.