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StevieOzark
Trad climber
Little Rock, Arkansas
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Jun 29, 2005 - 10:18am PT
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Pro-Life and Pro-War ????????
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dirtbag
climber
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Jun 29, 2005 - 10:53am PT
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That is a flattering picture of Ann but when you see her up close--yack.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Jun 29, 2005 - 01:14pm PT
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All politicians are crooks. Republicans represent one group of thieves; Democrats another. But it sounds as though this little happy time we've been having in the US since WWII (what Gore Vidal once called 'the Fun House') is going to come crashing down when the price of gas at the pumps hits $8 per gallon. Who's going to put a little bit more into R&D to resolve this fundamental issue before we consume our way back to the stone age? I don't hear anyone from any political party saying anything meanful about solving this problem. In fact, they all seem to be saying the same thing: "Elect me and I'll rip off your imaginary enemies and give the money back to you, John Q. Public. Then, you can really party and breed."
"No scientist, no engineer, get that BSer out of here!"
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MikeL
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Jun 29, 2005 - 01:55pm PT
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Lois, and friends:
Abraham Lincoln once began a letter with, “I’m sorry if this is a long letter, but I didn’t have time to write a short one.”
Looking back on my posting, it could have been shorter without the quips (me trying to be clever, but stupid). The redundancies and examples are needed though.
Some ideas or thoughts are complex and cannot be shortly or simply expressed: The Constitution, The Bible, Othello, quantum mechanics, Picasso’s “Guernica.” You have to study them to really “get” them. Other times you have to study and get one thing before you can get another: algebra before calculus, meditation and the dharma before Nirvana or Samadhi; a lot of practice before 5.11s; and so on. Sometimes you need to earn that entry ticket to get into the game.
DMT’s complaint is right . . . sort of. Rather than “too many words,” I think he meant too many thoughts / ideas, and that he shouldn’t / couldn’t / didn’t want to / didn’t need to keep up with them. (Don’t know which is the right interpretation, but I get the message: “Not here, pal.”)
It’s been said that some people like to talk about ideas, others about events, and the rest about people. I like ideas. Taken out of context and without the situational detail obscuring them, they can be seen clearly and argued for what they are. It can’t help but get a little abstract.
As for ideas, there is scarcely a truly new one on the planet today. Almost every idea has been considered at length and argued cogently and with heart by some old dead guy who lived a long time ago. For the most part, all those old dead guys talked about what they thought were the most important ideas in life: what is the good, the true, the beautiful, and the good life (and what do I / we have to do to get it)? I see those here in every posting. It’s possible to stand on those old guys' shoulders to see even farther or better than they did. This was really all I was really saying, Lois.
Sorry about all the words, again, DMT.
ml
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Forest
Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
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Jun 29, 2005 - 02:37pm PT
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We will likely have to put a fixed dollar cap on medical spending after age 70, of course an inflation adjustment will be attached for future years.
Now who's being unrealistic! Unless you're also going to somehow revoke voting rights at 65, I would say this will happen when it's a cold day in hell.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Jun 29, 2005 - 03:04pm PT
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"We will likely have to put a fixed dollar cap on medical spending after age 70, of course an inflation adjustment will be attached for future years." Quoth 'Fatrad'
Well, let me tell you, Fatty: Young people were put on earth by God to pay for my Social Security and Medicare & I pay off a lot of politicians to make sure it stays that way. (That's my personal version of Christianity.) Overweight accountants (& migrants) are going to have to pay a lot more taxes to maintain my standard of living during the fast approaching twilight years. They better not mess with Prop. 13 either. You pay big taxes - I don't (& won't).
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Forest
Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
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Jun 29, 2005 - 03:10pm PT
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Past success does not guarantee future returns. Lois, you cannot have an entire market of winners. It's great that your dad was able to be successful in his investments, but jsut because he was does not mean that the average wage earner will be able to be so skillful in his or herown investments. Indeed, the average investor is far less sucessful than the "return" on an individual's "investment" in social security. At least according to the political propaganda.
Personally, I think this is just GWB's way of tearing down the entitlement of social security. Social Security is currently so extremely popular because it applies to everyone. But if you go about separating it out like this. Then the next thing you know, somewhow wall st brokers have eaten up all the little folks' growth with nickel and dime fees. And only the rich folks end up coming out with a profit.
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Forest
Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
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Jun 29, 2005 - 05:20pm PT
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you are confusing short term trading with a diversified investment portfolio.
And just what makes you think that Joe Blow Investor is going to intelligently diversify their portfolio?
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Jun 29, 2005 - 05:35pm PT
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Gee whiz, I'm sure glad my mom and dad ran a gambling establishment in SF during WWII where they used loaded dice and fixed slot machines. That way, they took it off the top, cheated the little sailors who went out and got their heads blown off at Guadalcanal, and turned it all into gold. My uncle Stanley (the war hero - Silver Star, Purple Hearts, etc.) worked for the mafia, too. All my dad's old pals from the South of Market formed a union and ripped off the fiduciary fund and built themselves big houses with huge redwood decks and swimming pools. Drunk on Sunday morning, lots of hookers. They didn't care if the widows and orphans howled. Stay away from fat accountants - in America you want to stick with organized crime. At least, they're more honest than the pols with their privatized accounts.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Jun 29, 2005 - 08:23pm PT
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And just what makes you think that Joe Blow Investor is going to intelligently diversify their portfolio?
An other example of the leftist mind set that the great unwashed need the anointed, (themselves of course) to control their lives for them.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Jun 29, 2005 - 09:09pm PT
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What you guys do not get is that Social Security is not a retirement plan. It is insurance. It is a guaranteed return. Can Wall Street offer that? The stock market may not go broke over a forty year period, but it might 2 years before you retire.
There is no law against investing money. You can put as much as you want into stocks,
I have a question for you fellows who are so eager to turn my money over to Wall Street. Remember the Savings and Loan crisis? Another Republican gift to the U.S. economy. Oh, and the Republican deregulation of California utilities? If those Texas energy companies hadn't stolen those billions, California would have no budget crisis today. A conveniently forgotten fact. Oh yeah, the Republican bankruptcy of Orange County. So much fiscal responsibility in the GOP.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Jun 29, 2005 - 09:28pm PT
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What you convinently ignore is that the proposed system mirrors the one that "the anointed" politicians and buearocrats have set up for themselves.
Social Security isn't good enough for them,
But!
You aren't smart enough to be trusted with the same system they've set up for themselves.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jun 29, 2005 - 10:10pm PT
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Fatty the insider is even willing to admit peak oil but then says it won't be a problem because smart people will think us out of it.
Problem is, smart people have thought about it and there's no solution that lets us preserve our lifestyle and capitalistic growth. Their solution, invade Iraq to keep the party oiled as long as possible.
But it's still going to run short and sink our ship. The guys at the top know this and are just trying keep the boat sailing as long as possible. One way, get every American invested in the stock market through Social Security private accounts. That way the richest guys can liquidate their positions without sinking the boat. That way, the market doesn't telegraph the sad state of affairs to anybody until it's too late. Hey, things haven't even got that bad yet but Kmart, Enron and WorldCom went bust along with some big, big airlines, and GM bonds acheive junk status. Ford isn't far behind.
Everything changes and the high become low. Greece, Rome, England, Russia, who's next? We love to be in denial of it because we believe what we want to believe, and want life to flower the way we expect. The real flowering of our life will be when the crap hits the fan and we reembrace our family and community and work together to get through it.
Standard disclaimer, I've been wrong plenty of times and there is always somebody prepared to tell you the world is coming to an end. What's new, it's possible to do the research, crunch the numbers, think it out, and come to your own conclusion. Don't just read "Karl admits he might be wrong" and use that as an excuse to go back to sleep.
Or sleep! Reality rears it's head sooner or later. I want folks to come climb with me and buy pictures and go on as if nothing will happen.
Peace
Karl
PS Ann reminds me of some sorority-pledging, future trophy wife that was smart enough to want a seat at the table instead of mooching along. Unfortunately, she didn't have a broad enough view from her limited experience to see real people and real problems and real lives, just ideas based on conservative culture.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Jun 29, 2005 - 10:49pm PT
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PS Ann reminds me of some sorority-pledging, future trophy wife that was smart enough to want a seat at the table instead of mooching along. Unfortunately, she didn't have a broad enough view from her limited experience to see real people and real problems and real lives, just ideas based on conservative culture.
"Coulter clerked for the Honorable Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was an attorney in the Department of Justice Honors Program for outstanding law school graduates.
After practicing law in private practice in New York City, Coulter worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan. From there, she became a litigator with the Center For Individual Rights in Washington, DC, a public interest law firm dedicated to the defense of individual rights with particular emphasis on freedom of speech, civil rights, and the free exercise of religion.
A Connecticut native, Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review."
Does the difference between your prejuduce and reality produce enough cognitive dissonance for ya?
I'm always amazed by the lefts' propensity to trash erudite authors who they haven't ever read. Her books are frankly, boring lawyerly treatises that are about one third footnotes and citations by volume. A far cry from the undocumented shrillness of a Molly Ivins et al.
PS
The sky is not falling Karl.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jun 29, 2005 - 11:00pm PT
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Hi TGT
I never said she wasn't smart, just saying what she reminded me of. Nothing in that bio told me she grew up poor, or interacted with grassroots America in any way. Just like Bush himself, it's easy to talk about personal responsibility when you've never been down and out.
PS. maybe the sky will fall, Sell sky!!! Maybe it won't, hedge with some options and straddles. In any case, you saying so won't make it true for false. I made a case, refute it or make yours.
Peace
karl
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Jun 29, 2005 - 11:08pm PT
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I'm one of howlin mad Dean's Republicans who has to get up at 5am tomorow because he, "hasn't worked a day in his life" so no more polemics.
You might try here for some enlightenment though.
[url]http://www.victorhanson.com/[/url]
A good bunch of writers with a clasical bent.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jun 29, 2005 - 11:29pm PT
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The cherry picking of right wing and left wing "Babes" is but a slight exaggeration of the way we cherry pick ideas to support our views.
Goes both ways but something to keep in mind. I have hope that beautiful liberal gals exist.
Peace
karl
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Ouch!
climber
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Jun 29, 2005 - 11:56pm PT
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The ten gallon tyrant couldn't wait to finish the job in Afghanistan before making his blunder into Iraq. Now, his blunders are starting to hurt badly. Time to impeach the scoundrel. Hard to believe people are so willing to give up their sons and daughters to such a corrupt enterprise.
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Ouch!
climber
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Jun 30, 2005 - 12:13am PT
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The truth hurts, doesn't it, Mr. Weird. That's the way it is when your path is based on lies. You just have to live with it and keep expanding the lies. Such is the lot of Repugnicants who
follow the two bit tyrant who has sold their lives and country. Hallelujah! Praise be to Virgin Mary on a cheese sandwich!
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jun 30, 2005 - 12:21am PT
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TGT wrote: "You might try here for some enlightenment though.
[url]http://www.victorhanson.com[/url]
A good bunch of writers with a clasical bent."
I checked it out a bit and bookmarked it. I was pleased that they have a space for letters from critics, and that they chose one that wasn't over-the-top idiotic. I've made that suggestion to right and left wing sites ,that they discuss opposing ideas.
Anyway, unfortunately, I have to wake up even earlier than you do tomorrow, so I'm outta here.
Peace
Karl
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