I find this really amusing. A scandal arose yesterday because the Portuguese government spent 1 million to create an application for the Ministry of Justice that is not even being used. Lots of people jumped in to accuse the Portuguese of being lax, lazy and corrupt.

In the end, we're not different from other populations, it's just a matter of proportions: While a Portuguese sends 1 Euro down the toilet, an American does the same with 600. I would risk saying the very same shit happens in all other developed countries, regardless how much "disciplined" they claim to be.

I like the quote I saw on someones sig.
"It's pitch black, you are likely to be shot by Vin Diesel."
Combining the Zork statement of the VD movie.

I always think a movie should be made out of Zork.
I don't know how it would be done but it sounds cool.
Even though it is based on a game I might like it.
Ominous red eyes staring out from darkness just waiting for the light on your torch to flicker out.
Plus it wouldn't need much action, more cerebral.

No, it's not. Saboteurs break machines and bring them to a halt. Check the etymology.

Tell me something I didn't know years ago.

If you are really so concerned about the Syrian people, stop arming foreign terrorists and sending them there. Haven't you learned anything from all the fuck-ups you did before?

Before anyone calls me an anti-American, that goes for France and UK, too.

I'm European. As far as I'm concerned you can keep your troops and guns at home, thank you very much.

I'm pretty sure most of my fellow Europeans feel the same.

But then, where would you spend all those shiny weapons your military-industrial complex keeps making and selling you?

Dude, do you live in Portugal? That's exactly what they've been doing over here.

As a screaming example, our few transportation companies that are still public: Every time there's strike, there's hate stories in every media about how they should be privatised and all those workers fired, because they are leeches, they make too much money, don't want to work, etc. etc. etc. All those companies are technically bankrupt and the workers are blamed for running the company into the ground with too many benefits, bla, bla, bla.

However the story is pretty different. Our governments in the latest decades, being right-wing or Socialists (which is right transvestite as left), have been holding the transfers of money from ticketing, forcing the companies to make bank loans to keep operations running. After all these years, the companies are spending a lot more in loan interests than wages.

The solution to this? Easy. The government will take over all those companies' debt and privatise them really cheap (because nobody wants an "unprofitable" company full of "lazy" employees). The private groups that buy them will fire half of the staff, treat the remaining staff like cattle, increase tariffs to sky high levels, reduce the service to ridiculous minimums and then demand huge subsidies from the government because they are running such a "ingrate and unprofitable" public service.

Supreme irony, the privatised companies receive money from the state for every passenger they carry and also for the others they've lost due to their shitty service and excruciating tariffs.

That pretty much describes it. Every public service that was privatised here in Portugal followed the same route. They used to be public services, now they're huge private monopolies that make gigantic profits, bully customers like they're shit and crush any shred of competition that may arise.

We have the most fanatic neoliberal government of all times. They should hang pictures of Rand, Hayek and Friedman over their desks and salute them when they enter the office every morning, in the (not so unfamiliar) Fascist style.

The supreme irony: They recently privatised what was left of our state electricity company. Guess who bought it? A state-owned Chinese company! So, according to the Supreme Dogma of the Holy Free Market, our state can't have a presence in our economy, but the Chinese state can!

Try wiping your hands between eating a donut and using your phone.

Take it easy, just kidding...