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SwagJerryRice's comments
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SwagJerryRice  ·  4053 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Slogans for Hubski?

Hubski: It's Free of Fuckwits*

*the asterisk can be anything

Hell no, they don't. Your religious beliefs, with very few exceptions, do not grant blanket exemptions from laws. If you let a corporation say "Contraception in my health care plans? Nuh-uh, religious exemption," what's to stop them from saying "Minimum wage contradicts my view of the Bible" or "Jesus says I don't have to follow building codes"?

Didn't Employment Division v. Smith settle this over two decades ago?

SwagJerryRice  ·  4063 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: California raises minimum wage to $10

I would guess that while there would be a slight price bump, the GDP growth and increase in purchasing power from a minwage hike would outpace that, leading to a net benefit. The only way that a minwage hike would cause a 1:1 price increase would be if labor were 100% of a business's costs, 100% of the jobs involved were minimum wage jobs, and 100% of the workforce worked at minimum wage. For reference, compare Australia's PPP to the United States. Their minimum wage is more than twice ours, but the cost of goods in Australia is only about 30% more expensive than in the United States.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4127 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Dear White People (great satire)

That's on some A Modest Proposal-level shit. I like it! I think that the media helps to perpetuate the racist myth that black crime is the byproduct of some inherent deficiencies in black social structure; you certainly see it anytime you see a right-wing reporter talk about Chicago's overexaggerated "crime wave."

SwagJerryRice  ·  4129 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Thirtieth Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Marvin Gaye's first posthumous album Dream of a Lifetime (1985) has a couple interesting career outtakes from him. I really love the early hip hop thing they did to Symphony, a mid-70's outtake that never made its way onto an album (save for a different version on the What's Going On reissues) and Life's Opera, which was sampled in an excellent Cam'ron song, is another great addition. There's a fair amount of raunchy music, as evidenced by Sanctified Lady. It's a good-ass piece of music.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4135 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: “Ground control to Major Tom” sung from the International Space Station

Oh, come on! That has to be tempting fate. They know how that song ends, right?

SwagJerryRice  ·  4141 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: McDonald's can't figure out how its workers survive on minimum wage

There's been a trend lately of minimum wage employers playing scheduling games with employees to prevent them from finding a second job, where an employer might give you four morning shifts then an evening to throw a wrench into job 2's schedule. It's actually pretty sickening.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4063 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Forms of Government

I'm personally in favor of governance by lottery, especially for the City of Chicago--six month terms for aldermen and two year terms for the mayorship by random people, you can't serve more than twice in five years, and you're guaranteed employment contingency when your term's up. It's like jury duty.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4070 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are your favorite lesser-known televised comedies and dramas?

Gravity Falls is one of the best things on TV right now. It just finished its first season, with intermittent shorts tiding over until season two begins late in 2014. Damn. Anyway, it has Kristen Schaal and Chris Parnell in it, making it one step away from being a 30 Rock reunion. Also, the guy who wrote the Homestar Runner cartoons writes on it as well. I wholeheartedly suggest y'all check it out.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4120 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Thirty-First Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Just like my man AlderaanDuran, I'm a huge proponent of Lil B music. This week, he released two singles from his upcoming mixtape, 05 Fuck Em.

Lil B--05 Fuck Em

Lil B--BGYCFMB

Based God can fuck my bitch and drive my Honda.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4126 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Welcome to Post-Constitution America

I guess I was a bit too hard on you, my apologies. On of the reasons I came to Hubski was to escape the unproductive hyperbole around the NSA's activities that were on Reddit. No idiotic comparisons to 1984 (yep, you can openly badmouth your government with no immediate repercussions but you're TOTALLY living in a police state), no nonsense claims of "don't say that, or Obama gunna put you on the list!" (from the noxious crowd of Republicans pretending to be libertarians pretending to be Republicans that have brigaded their way into the major subreddits), and no hyperbolic scare phrases like "post-Constitution America."

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1791 when the Washington government put down the Whiskey Rebellion?

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1798 when the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed?

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1832 when John Calhoun said "Nuh-uh, South Carolina doesn't have to follow your laws!"

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1836 when Andrew Jackson ended the Second Bank of the United States because he personally didn't like it?

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1860 when South Carolina basically said "fuck it, we're out of here" and we fought a war over that?

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1866 when we sent troops down to monitor Southern state governments during Reconstruction?

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1918 when we started jailing people for making Revolutionary War films because it made the British, our wartime allies, look bad?

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1942 when we put Japanese- and German-Americans in concentration camps then dragged our feet for four decades to apologize to them?

Were we in "post-Constitution America" in 1950 when we executed the Rosenbergs?

I could go on and on, but my point is, using recent events as some proof that the government is overstepping its bounds in a never-before-seen way is foolish, shortsighted, and a blatant attempt at fearmongering.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4127 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Will A Hockey Arena Save Detroit?

Uh...no. Now that the conventional has failed, Detroit should start with the crazy ideas, like pulling a Jackson, MS and electing a far-left mayor. A transition to a more egalitarian, co-op-dominated economy would serve as a great laboratory for a new economic system.

Say what you want about drone strikes and their level of humaneness in comparison to conventional ground warfare, but this lack of accountability is infuriating and incredibly disappointing from a so-called liberal Democrat. Double tap strikes are a crime against humanity.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4130 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: AV Club: Gravity Falls--Gideon Rises (S1, E20) [A]

That'd be nice. GF is my favorite show on TV right now...until Breaking Bad comes back, of course.

Using union-inspired art at a business that's vehemently anti-union is poor form.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4135 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Twenty-Ninth Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

I am a huge fan of pop culture ephemera, and I have a particular interest in movie tie-ins that time has forgotten. I have discovered a 1998 single called Take Me There, a tie-in to The Rugrats Movie that managed to make it to #14 in the summer of 1998 with the hook from then C-lister Mýa, one of the worst verses I've ever heard from a then-not-retired-and-then-unretired Ma$e, some input from Blackstreet, and someone named Blinky Blink I've never heard of. It's not a good song by any means, but it's still a curious, interesting piece of pop culture history.

Also, there's the tie-in to Dr. Doolittle, the Timbaland-produced Are You That Somebody? by the late, great Aaliyah. It's a meandering, eerie, thoroughly fantastic Timbaland beat before he really got into his groove and started putting up megahits with The Neptunes.

What does it matter that the US economy is 'viewed' as a more innovative one? Also, I'm not buying the author's thesis that the heightened inequality in the United States drives innovation here. It sounds like the same old hackneyed libertarian talking points wrapped up in a bunch of 7 dollar words to make them sound more palatable. What's the point of a country being 'richer' if the wealth created immediately flows to and stops in the hands of a few hyperwealthy oligarchs?

SwagJerryRice  ·  4140 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Great Diamond Disc Experiment

Unrelated question: what's with the linked "st" character that the author uses, and why does it copy as one character but paste as two?

SwagJerryRice  ·  4140 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Twenty-Eighth Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Well, after attending Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago last Sunday, I've gotten more into the music of the artists there. Needless to say, the Lil B show was completely fantastic, but I've really been bumping Autre Ne Veut's most recent album, Anxiety. It's a haunting, electronic pop very reminiscent of what new wave and synthpop became in the dying years of the 80s, but with a massive rise in quality. It's everything music.

I was very surprised to find out that Blinded By The Light was originally a Bruce Springsteen song from his first album. Finding that out actually got me into Bruce, and that's always good.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4002 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Forty-Eighth Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

I have discovered My Dick. This is the greatest musical achievement in the history of mankind. Dancing in My Dick is the best, as is Dick in Heaven and Two Dicks.

Also, aivi & surasshu is fantastic. They mash together jazz piano and chiptune music into a highly intriguing combination. They also do the music for Steven Universe, the best show on television right now.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4044 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How much would you pay for a piece of art?

I saw one of Wesley Willis's Dan Ryan drawings up for about $2200 way back in the day. I would have paid for that.

I cannot stand the drooling mouthbreathers who characterize any attempts at social reform or pushes for an expansion of workers' rights as "liberals mad that they didn't get their pony."

SwagJerryRice  ·  4044 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Marx is Conquering America

Hooray, more folks calling literally everything they don't like Marxism. Words have meanings, guys.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4044 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Marketing Libertarianism [Reason Magazine 1977 PDF]

I'd be so much more likely to take the libertarians seriously if they weren't so fruitlessly dedicated to harboring the pronounced racist, neo-Confederate, conspiracy theorist, and mens rights advocate strains present in the movement. I've had to deal with so many libertarians trying to justify reallowing discrimination against minorities under the guise of "protecting individual liberties." Libertarianism just has nothing to offer to anyone who isn't a wealthy white male in a position of power.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4050 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Forty-First Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

In prep for my radio show, I found out that Together Again by Janet Jackson sampled Bridge Zone from the 8-bit version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Dat chorus...

SwagJerryRice  ·  4050 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Forty-First Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Komm susser Tod is one of my favorite songs ever. You da best.

SwagJerryRice  ·  4063 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are your favorite lesser-known televised comedies and dramas?

As the others mentioned, it's the latter, but it's on a classic Simpsons level on quotability. Girl, why you ackin' so cray cray?

SwagJerryRice  ·  4120 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Thirty-First Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

#TYBG

05 Fuck Em will shut down the rap game.