Oy_the_Great

What I think about Reagan's policy concerning taxes? That his words are opium for the people so that they are too blurred to see what's actually happening. I know that it sounds fantastic, but it really doesn't work that way, otherwise you people wouldn't have such a deficit, would you? The marginal surplus the rich get because they don't have to pay as many taxes as here in Europe is a source of more investments, on which they have to pay taxes, true. But these taxes aren't (nearly) as much as when they didn't have that surplus and just had to pay more tax. a simple example: And I'm sure that every Mr. Rich with a bit of common sense and sympathy for the poorer will pay that little more to solve any budgetary problem, after all, they will still be a lot richer. My uncle in the US now is chief engineer in Molex (http://www.molex.com) and he earns more than the tenfold my mother earns, and she's a GP (that's a doctor, but in English ;)). He too says that taxes are ridiculously low for the rich, he'd be glad to pay more taxes to get a better education system. Of course he doesn't really want to pay a lot for the unemployed people, but he does care about the general education his kids get, even though they go to private schools. The public education in the US is pretty horrible, especially compared to some of the western European and Japanese education and please don't try to say that it's not true. The universities however, are amongst the most promient universities in the world, but they also are incredilbly expensive. How much does an average university year cost? About $50,000 if you mind costs for living and housing?And subscribing only is like $30,000 in a good uni? In Belgium the government pays a large percentage of that; that's where our taxes go to. University subscriptions cost about $500... The only true costs here are housing and food. Housing is about 200-300ÃÆââââ¬Ã¡Ãâì per month, a friend of mine in Philly paid $600 a month, and it wasn't even that expensive. Food is about the same price. Belgian taxes may be a lot higher, perhaps even 15-20% higher, I still am more comfortable with the idea that when I have to go to hospital, my parents don't have to work another year. Or the uni stuff; lots cheaper.

Bah, what's so fun about running in circles whilst waving with your arms anyway? It's not dangerous if you're 6'ft high and heavy build, but if you're not, you shouldn't be there. But this is of course a very sad thing; two stoners with too much agression beating up a man without obvious reasons. Stupid drugs.

Ouch :mrgreen: Naa, Piano has started an interesting topic, let's not do this religion thing all over again.

Bach: Air on a G-String Carl Orff: Carmina Burana: O Fortuna! Enjoy! I have to go to eat, so no time to type any description; they're both very famous classical pieces, I hope you'll appreciate them!

It seems as though you get scared a lot (or at least do those smilies...). Why are you so scared about the deficit? If you're not even a little bit scared, you don't know the full brevity of the situation. Let me reiterate. We have at least a $9 trillion defeciet. That's not just goint to go away. Each and every american citizen is going to have to pay, most likely through the nose. Like I said, if you're not scared, you should be. $9 tril ($9,000,000,000,000) is quite a lot of money, probably even more than I'll earn in a few years :mrgreen: BUT Belgium, a nation with a little over 10 million inhabitants, has a debt of ÃÆââââ¬Ã¡Ãâì250,000,000,000 or $300 bill. If you calculate the per capita debt, we're nothing different: Belgium: $300,000,000,000 / 10,000,000=$30,000 per capita USA: $9 tril / 300 mill inhabitants = $30,000 per capita. This means every inhabitant of both the US and Belgium ought to pay this amount to completely lift its deficits, which is never gonna happen, a country always has better purposes for money than to get rid of their debts. But right now, Belgium and the US need to spend a certain percentage of their taxes to paying (at least) the interests on this pile of money. Perhaps decrease the military spendings with 20% will do in the US :wink: :wink: (just kidding Piano or am I?) Yes, Belgium's dificit is quite big for a country as small as that, but it is there for a reason; the institutions we borrowed money from had to be pretty sure that they got their money back, otherwise they'd never lend us anything. Same for the US. I just hope the tax system will be heavier for the upper classes, just the way it is in Belgium and acuatlly most of Europe. Then no grave problems should occur for any of the Americans.

Let's just say the US is the land of extremes; NY is probably the city with the most healthy people in the world, but Houston is most likely the world's fattest city. And as for the two fronts in politics; that's everywhere where there's a 2 (or 3 or 4) party system people, it's obvious half of the Americans think Bush is a complete ignoramus (I love that word) yet for many others he's a 'blessing'.

To show all the similarities: here's a big picture of what I think is the cover: down in the right corner, you see a man crossing a zebra, the star represents the beatles, the guy with the red shirt a Liverpool fan (?) the snake and the tight black pants the costumes they wear, the mini cooper, well, the minis on the street :) the dock Liverpool again. Then there's the black and white building, representing the white album (???), the 4 old men, the 4 old men the Beatles thzat they could've been now (???), the girl I think is Chinese, so Yoko Ono and the rest, well err, Merc? :)

oo nice pic, someone told me i was here somewhere :3> Yeah, this was 2002 or 2003, when I still thought of marrying LKS or TKS :wink: Good ol' days.. so much fun!

You were on the Kill Bill set Kayla ;)

Yesterday I went to get a sandwich, but I forgot my keys. I come back and notice this, so I stand in front of my door with this delicious 1ft long sandwich and (since no one was at my place atm.) decide to climb over the 12 ft high wall by climbing onto my bycicle, then the roof of a parked bus, then finally I lifted me on the wall and jumped into my garden. Despite the fact about 20 people were staring at me, I had some fun. :mrgreen: Totally no adventure, but I don't feel like telling that story where I rescued 17 people from certain death in the Himalaya :wink: The first part really isn't the most adventurous thing that happened to me, I'm just not taking this post too serious.

That was not needed. Why do people enjoy bashing every American thing there is, up to its language?

the back room - album from the Editors

That was beautiful Necro. I silently wish that would happen to me as well :) It's so well written that I could all see it right there happening, as if I was the Lucky Guy with the impulsive girlfriend you described. Very well written indeed!

Yeah, I love that song. Its slow pace towards the amazing climax, fantastic. It also creates a mysterious atmosphere first; as if something evil is going to happen. And then of course it does. Perfect piece of music for the intro of the last Lotr movie trailer, of course. Thanks for the additional songs Necro! They're beautiful, though they're pretty hard, dead metal-alike:). Although a tripple post wasn't really needed :mrgreen: (but yeah, forum is really slow lately).

Oh! They've changed, now I think I'll go for: 1. HELL YES! :shock:

Oh, wow, I just discovered the paintings are from Jef Bertels, who live about a mile away from me :shock: I just sent him a mail that he got mentioned on an international forum, I bet he'll appreciate that :) His works really remind me of DalÃÆÃâÃâí's and of course Delvaux. I noticed he also gets his inspiration from what he experiences as his chaotic subconcious adventures in life. The few drawings I've made are also just lines that slowly evolve into something that can be considered as an object. Eventually it becomes a drawing, but don't ask me what it symbolises, unless it's obvious.

That was fast :shock: Gj Necro. And to give the people who don't know a ton about music a hint: I assume Magritte is the artist. edit: no, it's probably Paul Delvaux? Argh, I am making a fool of myself. Necro, help me out of this mess please :)

It doesn't make the French he spoke any less French ;)

Fall out Boy and Panic! At the disco aren't too bad, they're pretty OK actually. Though not 100% what I like about music.

Europop - eiffel 65 I though that hint was a giveaway :| This is one of the best bands ever, if you'd ask me to make a top 10 bands of all time, this band would be in it.

Isn't there, like in books, a date pressed on the covers? Thne it's easy to see if their first drafts or not.

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Weird, I have the film's soundtrack, but there's no 'adagio for strings' in it. Edit: I have an idea of what you mean; the titles on the score are just scenes from the movie :)

Vulgar Latin (the Latin that was spoken on the streets) originates from Faliscan, Osco-Umbrian and Venetic, 3 older Etruscian languages. Classical Latin that you find in books is based on what Roman writers developped based on this vulgar Latin, that they didn't want to use in official circumstances, like in books, in court or simply when the aristocracy spoke with eachother so that they could distinguish themselves from the 'plebs'. Every language orginates from another, there's no ancient primal language or something. It's like Darwin's evolution theory: some sounds were used to identify things, and eventually a primitive language was formed. Then the words that remained were the ones that were better in some way than other alternatives, survival of the fittest. Who now still uses the word ignoramus when you can just as well call him a fool?

Tsk tsk tsk. Bubs, you disappoint me =; . :wink: English is mainly a gathering of both Germanic and Romanic languages. The first roots of English were to be found in the period after the Romans left England and when the 'barbarians' settled in. These tribes, the Anglo-Saxons (from nothern Holland), the Jutes (from Denmark) and the Scandinavian Vikings eventually fought out many wars, and became more or less one people, that spoke a common language, which is the ancestor of modern English. But then the French had to meddle in, and when William the Conqueror conquered (what in a name? :P) England from these gathered tribes in 1066, the ol' English was mixed with traditional French and it became the English that sorta is what it is today. Thanks to those Dutch and Scandinavian tribes, English is a Germanic language, not a Romanic one, like Latin, French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese. Imagine the world speaking French all of the time. Ca sera dr̮̫̉̉le, n'est ce pas?