With his book, Capital in the 21st Century, Thomas Piketty has engendered a series of dueling op-eds in The New York Times (The Piketty Panic and The Piketty Phenomenon), the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The National Review, and so on.
The basic thrust of the book is that capital grows faster than the economy: examining historical data, Piketty found that return on capital is historically about 5%, while economies grow at less than half that rate. That means that the rich will get richer much faster than people who actually have to work for a living, because salaries are limited to the growth of the economy. It also means that, in today's global economy, middle-class and poor Americans will get poorer.
I haven't read the book, but I understood its core message back in the 1980s with two simple calculations: 50,000 x 20 = 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 x 0.05 = 50,000.
That is, if you saved $50,000 a year you could have a million bucks in 20 years -- not even counting compounded returns. If you get a modest return on a million bucks -- I picked 5% back then, which happens to be Piketty's historical average -- you could make enough to live on through investment returns alone: you can retire in 20 years. In reality you wind up with $2 or $3 million because you're earning returns on your investments the whole time, even considering the ups and downs in the markets.
Let's call this "The Piketty Plan."
I made this calculation during the Reagan administration when IRA accounts were being debated. Later, laws were passed to allow companies to set up 401Ks. I was wondering whether these accounts were a good deal, because they had three serious limitations: you weren't taxed when you put the money in, but when you took it out; you were limited to contributing a few thousand a year; and you couldn't get at that money until you were old (unless you paid the taxes, plus a stiff penalty).
Since I planned on being rich when I took the money out, the tax rate "feature" was just a dumb gimmick -- returns on some investments are taxed at a lower rate (zero for tax-free bonds). Also, during the Bush II administration taxes on capital gains were drastically lowered, but money withdrawn from IRAs is still taxed as regular income, at the much higher rate. Which means that since we avoided IRAs and 401Ks, investing like rich people, we pay much lower taxes on our investment income than if we had socked all our cash in those programs, which we still wouldn't be able to get at yet. Thank you, George Bush!
All these "investment" vehicles for the common man were pushed by the finance industry, who wanted to get their hands on more of our money. Company pensions disappeared almost overnight. Instead of investing in their employees' retirements, companies outsourced the management of retirement funds to Wall Street, which took hefty fees for "managing" everyone's retirement accounts.
Companies like Enron put their employees' 401Ks into their own company stock, with disastrous results. Other companies raided employee 401K funds, or played tricks with employee contributions, hanging on to the money for months before transferring it, "legally" stealing millions of dollars of interest from their employees. Over time, companies have cut back or stopped contributing to employee 401Ks, leaving most Americans up to their own devices -- and Social Security -- for retirement.
IRAs and 401Ks were sucker bets. Rich people would almost never use them: they diversified, put their money in T bills, stock, tax-free bonds, real estate, and so on. And it only got better for rich people during the Bush years, when taxes on capital gains were reduced to less than half the tax rate of people who do real work.
Because my wife and I both worked and had no kids, we were able to follow the Piketty Plan. We invested the way rich people do. We eschewed debt and all the trappings of wealth -- no boat, no vacation home, no ostentatious jewelry or fancy clothes. After the house we didn't buy anything we couldn't pay for outright. Then we paid off our mortgage years early. We never paid a nickel of interest on our credit cards. Still, we regularly bought new (never used) cars, took regular vacations, bought TVs and VCRs and computers and horses, and other Stuff. But we always saved one of our salaries (the "two can live as cheaply as one" trope). We were therefore able to retire in our forties, after putting up with corporate BS for 20 years.
The vast majority of middle-class Americans simply cannot do this, mostly because they have kids. They have to house and feed and clothe them, and pay for their daycare. They have to pay back student loans. They have to save for their kids' college. They bow to nattering children, social pressures and advertising, buying houses that are too big for them and too far from their jobs, and expensive cars that waste gas, and cell phones and cars for all the kids. They waste hours a day idling their cars in long lines waiting to drop off and pick up their kids from school and shuttling them to soccer practice and music lessons and the mall. They eat fattening fast-food and pizza instead of cooking their own food, because they have no time.
I mean no insult to these people: that's just the way life is here. Most people cannot do what my wife and I did, because the country needs people to have kids. And the fact is, our economy depends on that mass consumption. If everyone followed the Piketty Plan, the American economy would collapse. The problem is, that lifestyle never leaves any money for the future: it's all going into the pockets of the rich heirs who are selling us Stuff at Walmart, or the rich heirs who drill the oil that fills our gas tanks, or the rich Wall Street bankers who mortgage our houses and fondle the money in 401Ks and IRAs.
Six of the ten richest Americans got their wealth from daddy (the Waltons and Kochs). Most of the richest Americans are elderly and will be leaving their money to their heirs any day now. A lot of them are in the oil and pipeline business (I can't imagine why they're denying climate change...).
I don't have it in for rich people in general, because I'm one of them. But the kids of today deserve the same shot that I had. Fighting against them are the Kochs and Waltons and Adelsons, who are using their vast fortunes to buy laws and regulations that entrench inherited wealth, enhance capital formation and denigrate labor.
Everyone should have a shot at the Piketty Plan. Every kid in America should be able to start at the same point: a good education, college if they can hack it, and clear of debt, regardless of how rich their parents are. We should be working to secure the economic futures of all American kids, not just the heirs of the wealthy few.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Getting Behind the ACA
It looks like Democrats are taking my advice and getting behind the ACA. Check out this ad from "imperiled" Democratic Senator Mark Begich of Alaska.
The Times has a piece on how more Democrats are jumping on board with the ACA.
The Times has a piece on how more Democrats are jumping on board with the ACA.
Real Men!
I look at the photo below and have to wonder...just how much of an inferiority complex to conservatives have?
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Cliven Bundy, Revealed
Why is it that so many people who claim to be real Americans and true patriots, who clothe themselves in the American flag and spend their every waking moment railing against the injustices of big government, just turn out to be crooks and racists?I'm talking about Cliven Bundy, the darling of Sean Hannity. In an interview with the New York Times Bundy had the following to say:
“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.If Bundy doesn't believe that the US government doesn't exist, why is he hiding behind the US flag? As Jon Stewart pointed out in last night's episode of The Daily Show, the Founding Fathers would approve of going after Bundy with armed federal agents for non-payment of grazing fees: they sent 13,000 militiamen against farmers who failed to pay excise taxes on whiskey they distilled during the 1791 Whiskey Rebellion.
“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
Bundy doesn't have a leg to stand on. Thousands of ranchers pay fees to graze their cattle on federal land in the West, including Glenn Beck. Even people like Raymond Yowell, a Shoshone Indian, can't skip out on the fees, according to Fox News. If anyone has a legitimate claim to "ancestral grazing rights" it's Yowell, whose ancestors made treaties with the federal government over land use more than a century and a half ago. Where was Bundy when the BLM took Yowell's cattle? And I wonder, in light of what Bundy said about "the Negro," what he would say about Yowell's people?
Cliven Bundy is just a thief and a racist. He's using the guise of patriotism to clothe his greed in the finery of "principle" and his racism with the magic words of "states rights."
I also noticed that Bundy's got a lot of guys just sitting around on his ranch with nothing to do buy play with their guns. Don't they have jobs? Or can they afford to diddle away the days playing rebel because they're on government assistance? Does Bundy, who's 67, draw Social Security checks?
But since they're white, I guess it's all good.
Republican Victory in 2014?
The recent New York Times Kaiser Family Foundation Poll illustrates that the Republican "victory" seven months ahead of the 2014 elections may be a bit premature. It looks like Mark Pryor isn't as much on the hot seat anymore. And Kay Hagan is holding her own in North Carolina. As expected, Mitch McConnell is on the hot seat in Kentucky and it will be interesting to see if this race stays as deadlocked into the fall.
So, why is this happening? I thought that the GOP was going to be able to cruise to victory on the evils of Obamacare. The numbers from Arkansas and Kentucky, where two Democratic governors embraced Medicaid expansion, say otherwise. Kentucky also ran its own exchange which did very, very well so if I were ol' Mitchie, I'd lay off the anti-Obamacare talk. Does he (and other Republicans, for that matter) really want to stand for taking away people's health care?
The key for the Democrats, as Dan Balz notes, is to get the same level of turnout in a presidential year. It's helpful that the president's approval ratings are on the rise to the mid 40s from the lower 40s where they have been stuck for quite some time. But his good news isn't getting across and that needs to happen ASAP. Oddly, he seems to be doing a better job with the ACA than with the economy.
Democrats need to take heart that some of the worst nightmares for the Republicans are coming true. The ACA is working and will help the Democratic vote in the tossup states. The economy is growing at a 3 percent rate. Even if just these two issues coalesce in November, nothing will change in the Senate and the Democrats may surprise a few people in the House.
So, why is this happening? I thought that the GOP was going to be able to cruise to victory on the evils of Obamacare. The numbers from Arkansas and Kentucky, where two Democratic governors embraced Medicaid expansion, say otherwise. Kentucky also ran its own exchange which did very, very well so if I were ol' Mitchie, I'd lay off the anti-Obamacare talk. Does he (and other Republicans, for that matter) really want to stand for taking away people's health care?
The key for the Democrats, as Dan Balz notes, is to get the same level of turnout in a presidential year. It's helpful that the president's approval ratings are on the rise to the mid 40s from the lower 40s where they have been stuck for quite some time. But his good news isn't getting across and that needs to happen ASAP. Oddly, he seems to be doing a better job with the ACA than with the economy.
Democrats need to take heart that some of the worst nightmares for the Republicans are coming true. The ACA is working and will help the Democratic vote in the tossup states. The economy is growing at a 3 percent rate. Even if just these two issues coalesce in November, nothing will change in the Senate and the Democrats may surprise a few people in the House.
Thinking Beyond Keystone
The anti-Keystone people need to think beyond the TransCanada pipeline they are so vehemently against. Take a look at this graphic from a recent piece in the Times. Honestly, what Keystone would represent in terms of carbon emissions is a sliver compared to everything else. So, what does this mean and what is being done about it?
Experts say that to make a serious dent in American carbon emissions, Mr. Obama’s administration would have to enact policies that would force the two most polluting sectors of the nation’s economy — cars and coal plants — to slash their emissions. Mr. Obama has already signed a United Nations accord pledging that the United States will cut its greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050; there is simply no way to hit those targets, experts say, other than by going after cars and coal. And he then would have to make the case to other nations that the United States had taken action — and that they must, too.
He is making some headway on those fronts.
In his first term, Mr. Obama’s E.P.A. used the authority of the Clean Air Act to issue tough new vehicle fuel-economy standards of 54.5 miles a gallon by 2025. The regulations forced automakers to build fleets of fuel-sippers, and according to the E.P.A. they will lead to a cut of about 180 million tons of carbon a year by 2020, rising to 580 million tons by 2030 and 1.1 billion tons annually by 2050.
The agency is now drafting a regulation, expected in June, to slash pollution from existing coal-fired power plants. Details aren’t yet available, but experts estimate that it will cut an average of 200 million to 500 million tons of carbon emissions annually within a decade. And the E.P.A. estimated that regulations on building and appliance efficiency have cut or prevented the annual emission of 350 million tons of carbon. That means the combined impact of the current and forthcoming E.P.A. regulations could lead to cuts of over one billion tons of emissions annually.
So, if the anti-Keystone people really want to make a dent in carbon emissions, they should support and help the president to reach his goal. I'm very tired of liberals who say the president has done nothing for the environment. His actions speak for themselves.
Experts say that to make a serious dent in American carbon emissions, Mr. Obama’s administration would have to enact policies that would force the two most polluting sectors of the nation’s economy — cars and coal plants — to slash their emissions. Mr. Obama has already signed a United Nations accord pledging that the United States will cut its greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050; there is simply no way to hit those targets, experts say, other than by going after cars and coal. And he then would have to make the case to other nations that the United States had taken action — and that they must, too.
He is making some headway on those fronts.
In his first term, Mr. Obama’s E.P.A. used the authority of the Clean Air Act to issue tough new vehicle fuel-economy standards of 54.5 miles a gallon by 2025. The regulations forced automakers to build fleets of fuel-sippers, and according to the E.P.A. they will lead to a cut of about 180 million tons of carbon a year by 2020, rising to 580 million tons by 2030 and 1.1 billion tons annually by 2050.
The agency is now drafting a regulation, expected in June, to slash pollution from existing coal-fired power plants. Details aren’t yet available, but experts estimate that it will cut an average of 200 million to 500 million tons of carbon emissions annually within a decade. And the E.P.A. estimated that regulations on building and appliance efficiency have cut or prevented the annual emission of 350 million tons of carbon. That means the combined impact of the current and forthcoming E.P.A. regulations could lead to cuts of over one billion tons of emissions annually.
So, if the anti-Keystone people really want to make a dent in carbon emissions, they should support and help the president to reach his goal. I'm very tired of liberals who say the president has done nothing for the environment. His actions speak for themselves.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
The Heart and Soul of Russia
I always have a copy of Roberts and Westad's History of the World handy whenever I need it. It's a great source for a basic overview of...well...everything in human history. I was thumbing through it yesterday for some information on the crusades when I came across this on page 378.
Half a century or so after the legendary Rurik, Rus was a reality: a sort of river-federation centered on Kiev and linking the Baltic to the Black Sea. It was pagan, but when civilization and Christianity came to it, it would be because of the easy access to Byzantium which water gave to the young principality, which was first designated as Rus in 945. Its unity was still very loose. An incoherent structure was made even less rigid by the Vikings adoption of Slav principle which divided an inheritance. Rus princes tended to move around rulers among the centres of the principality, of which Kiev and Novgorod were the main ones. Nevertheless, the family of Kiev became the most important.
This summarizes why Ukraine is so vital to Russian interests. It is their origin point as a culture and the very foundation of their identity in the world. Beyond mere economic reasons, it is their heart and soul and they will fight for as much of it as possible.
Half a century or so after the legendary Rurik, Rus was a reality: a sort of river-federation centered on Kiev and linking the Baltic to the Black Sea. It was pagan, but when civilization and Christianity came to it, it would be because of the easy access to Byzantium which water gave to the young principality, which was first designated as Rus in 945. Its unity was still very loose. An incoherent structure was made even less rigid by the Vikings adoption of Slav principle which divided an inheritance. Rus princes tended to move around rulers among the centres of the principality, of which Kiev and Novgorod were the main ones. Nevertheless, the family of Kiev became the most important.
This summarizes why Ukraine is so vital to Russian interests. It is their origin point as a culture and the very foundation of their identity in the world. Beyond mere economic reasons, it is their heart and soul and they will fight for as much of it as possible.
Humanism From Stephen Fry
Some interesting ideas here but is he really anti-God or is he anti-organized religion? Humanists seem to always pick the wrong enemy...
The NRA Finally Backs Off
It looks as though the NRA is finally backing off domestic abusers right to carry guns. Whew! I, for one, am very relieved that people that beat the shit out of their wives. But why?
Bassett and Wilkie speculate that the change may in part be a reaction to the involvement of a former NRA official, Richard D’Alauro, in a domestic abuse case; a judge ordered the seizure of all 39 of D’Alauro’s innocent guns. Needless to say, the NRA had no comment on that. Bassett and Wilkie also cite polling that shows 80 percent of respondents favor judges removing weapons from those involved in domestic violence, but we’re not terribly persuaded that the NRA would find that very convincing, considering that similar percentages of Americans support universal background checks.
Because if affected them personally. Hmm...:)
Bassett and Wilkie speculate that the change may in part be a reaction to the involvement of a former NRA official, Richard D’Alauro, in a domestic abuse case; a judge ordered the seizure of all 39 of D’Alauro’s innocent guns. Needless to say, the NRA had no comment on that. Bassett and Wilkie also cite polling that shows 80 percent of respondents favor judges removing weapons from those involved in domestic violence, but we’re not terribly persuaded that the NRA would find that very convincing, considering that similar percentages of Americans support universal background checks.
Because if affected them personally. Hmm...:)
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
John Paul Stevens v The Gun Cult
Well, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens went and done did it. He has taken on the Gun Cult. Here is how he would change the 2nd Amendment.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the militia shall not be infringed.
Holy SHEEEIT! Look out!!! Here comes that boiling pit of sewage frothed with a fresh set of bowels blown!!!
Props out to him for having the guts to go that far and shine a spotlight on the people in this country who have very serious control and authority issues. The link above should also be noted for this passage.
He recalls a colorful remark on the topic by the late Warren Burger, who served as chief justice from 1969 to 1986. Responding to the NRA’s lobbying campaign opposing gun control laws in the name of Second Amendment rights, Burger, a lifelong conservative, remarked during a television interview in 1991 that the amendment “has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud—I repeat, fraud—on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”
Completely agree. I would not go as far as to ban private ownership of guns as Stevens suggests but I do think it is way past time in allowing the assholes of the Gun Cult free reign on the 2nd Amendment. Just like Republican Jesus believers, they are not the sole interpreter of the Constitution simply because they act like the biggest dicks.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the militia shall not be infringed.
Holy SHEEEIT! Look out!!! Here comes that boiling pit of sewage frothed with a fresh set of bowels blown!!!
Props out to him for having the guts to go that far and shine a spotlight on the people in this country who have very serious control and authority issues. The link above should also be noted for this passage.
He recalls a colorful remark on the topic by the late Warren Burger, who served as chief justice from 1969 to 1986. Responding to the NRA’s lobbying campaign opposing gun control laws in the name of Second Amendment rights, Burger, a lifelong conservative, remarked during a television interview in 1991 that the amendment “has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud—I repeat, fraud—on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”
Completely agree. I would not go as far as to ban private ownership of guns as Stevens suggests but I do think it is way past time in allowing the assholes of the Gun Cult free reign on the 2nd Amendment. Just like Republican Jesus believers, they are not the sole interpreter of the Constitution simply because they act like the biggest dicks.
We All End Up In The Same Place
There has been some talk over the years that the reason I talk so much about inequality is that I am really envious of the wealthy. Some of it is clearly projection by those who believe in the "haves and soon to haves" lie. There's also the adolescent chiding angle as well.
The photo below sums up exactly how I feel about money and there is honestly no need to comment on it further.
The photo below sums up exactly how I feel about money and there is honestly no need to comment on it further.
Monday, April 21, 2014
The President's Victory Lap
Last week, the president announced that 8 million people had enrolled in the online exchange during the open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act. Juxtaposed with the CBO's data which details how the ACA will be $100 billion dollars lower than expected and that 35 percent of the enrollees are under 35 this is remarkably good news that no one thought was possible after the botched roll out of the web site.
So, it's understandable that the president took a victory lap and wondered, “I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. They still can’t bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working. They said nobody would sign up; they were wrong about that. They said it would be unaffordable for the country; they were wrong about that.”
Well, Mr. President, it's because they are 12 year old boys who can't stand to be wrong. Worse for them, we are starting to see stories like this.
And even bolder ones like this.
Of course, these are the same folks who predicted just a few weeks ago that the Senate would fall to the GOP so take it all with a boulder of salt. It's going to all depend who the candidates are and we don't know that yet. If the GOP can't dampen the far right fervor of the base that decides the candidates in the primaries, they will lose their chances at the Senate.
In addition, I think there has been sufficient warning given to the Democrats to use the same get out the vote mechanisms that helped the president win in 2012. Combine this with the realities of millions of newly insured people who will vote this fall and all the doom predicted for the Democrats washes away. I think it's time to ask a serious question of the Republicans.
Are they really going to run on a platform of taking away people's health care?
So, it's understandable that the president took a victory lap and wondered, “I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. They still can’t bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working. They said nobody would sign up; they were wrong about that. They said it would be unaffordable for the country; they were wrong about that.”
Well, Mr. President, it's because they are 12 year old boys who can't stand to be wrong. Worse for them, we are starting to see stories like this.
And even bolder ones like this.
Of course, these are the same folks who predicted just a few weeks ago that the Senate would fall to the GOP so take it all with a boulder of salt. It's going to all depend who the candidates are and we don't know that yet. If the GOP can't dampen the far right fervor of the base that decides the candidates in the primaries, they will lose their chances at the Senate.
In addition, I think there has been sufficient warning given to the Democrats to use the same get out the vote mechanisms that helped the president win in 2012. Combine this with the realities of millions of newly insured people who will vote this fall and all the doom predicted for the Democrats washes away. I think it's time to ask a serious question of the Republicans.
Are they really going to run on a platform of taking away people's health care?
Common Core Kerfuffle
Only conservatives could take voluntary guidelines passed by the Governor's Association with plenty of Republican support and turn it into the federal government coming to gin' ya! Sadly, that's just what they've done with Common Core State Standards for public schools and this link clears up all the absolute fucking lies that are being told about this policy.
I don't get it. For years, all we here about is how our schools are failing and the states and local school districts (not the federal government) need to set better and more rigorous guidelines for students. Common Core does that. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. All they can do is criticize. It's second nature to them now. And they've gotten themselves so hysterical over anyone else solving problems better than they can that there first reaction is to hate, vilify, and appeal to fear.
I don't get it. For years, all we here about is how our schools are failing and the states and local school districts (not the federal government) need to set better and more rigorous guidelines for students. Common Core does that. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. All they can do is criticize. It's second nature to them now. And they've gotten themselves so hysterical over anyone else solving problems better than they can that there first reaction is to hate, vilify, and appeal to fear.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
There God Dwells Among Men
Take a look at the photo below.
Compelling, isn't it?
This actually a sculpture at St. Alban's Episcopal, in Davidson, N.C titled "Jesus the Homeless." It's caused quite a bit of controversy, particularly due to the fact that St. Alban's is in such an affluent area and people either think it's a real person scumming up their town or they believe in Republican Jesus who worshiped money.
I think it sums up this verse perfectly..
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Compelling, isn't it?
This actually a sculpture at St. Alban's Episcopal, in Davidson, N.C titled "Jesus the Homeless." It's caused quite a bit of controversy, particularly due to the fact that St. Alban's is in such an affluent area and people either think it's a real person scumming up their town or they believe in Republican Jesus who worshiped money.
I think it sums up this verse perfectly..
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Stronger Capital Required
Liberals can't seem to let go of the "Obama is really a corportist" meme just in the same way that conservatives can't let go of the "Obama is a commie" meme. Neither are right, of course, which means the president is doing exactly what he should be doing.
Yet this recent story on FDIC and the Treasury Department's new rule on capital should torpedo the idea that the president is secretly doing the bidding of our financial sector.
Regulators are acting to require U.S. banks to build a sturdier financial base to lessen the risk that they could collapse and cause a global meltdown. The eight biggest banks will have to meet stricter measures for holding capital – money that provides a cushion against unexpected losses – under a rule that regulators are adopting Tuesday.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency voted to require those banks to raise their minimum ratio of capital to loans to 5 percent from the current 3 percent. The Federal Reserve will vote at a public meeting later Tuesday. The banks’ deposit-holding subsidiaries will have to achieve a ratio of 6 percent. Because the deposits are insured by the government, the subsidiaries are subject to a stricter ratio requirement.
The new regulation won't take effect until 2018 but it is progress. More importantly, it is exactly what I wanted to see in terms of a return to Glass Steagal-type regulation on the financial sector. The banks should not be gambling with my fucking money. Period.
Yet this recent story on FDIC and the Treasury Department's new rule on capital should torpedo the idea that the president is secretly doing the bidding of our financial sector.
Regulators are acting to require U.S. banks to build a sturdier financial base to lessen the risk that they could collapse and cause a global meltdown. The eight biggest banks will have to meet stricter measures for holding capital – money that provides a cushion against unexpected losses – under a rule that regulators are adopting Tuesday.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency voted to require those banks to raise their minimum ratio of capital to loans to 5 percent from the current 3 percent. The Federal Reserve will vote at a public meeting later Tuesday. The banks’ deposit-holding subsidiaries will have to achieve a ratio of 6 percent. Because the deposits are insured by the government, the subsidiaries are subject to a stricter ratio requirement.
The new regulation won't take effect until 2018 but it is progress. More importantly, it is exactly what I wanted to see in terms of a return to Glass Steagal-type regulation on the financial sector. The banks should not be gambling with my fucking money. Period.
Friday, April 18, 2014
A Handy List of Lies
Here's an interesting piece on our Age of Ignorance. It contains a nice and concise list of the lies that people believe in this country.
#6 is a big one as this is how the Right perpetuates these lies. In all too typical Cult like behavior, they accuse teachers of brainwashing their kids and attempts to prevent them from being critical thinkers. This is exactly where logical fallacies like misleading vividness, appeal to fear enter the mix.
So when you here one of these or some sort of combination, ask to see the unbiased evidence based on peer reviewed study to support their assertion. The response will undoubtedly be anecdata.
- Christians are persecuted in this country.
- The government is coming to get your guns.
- Obama is a Muslim.
- Global Warming is a hoax.
- The president is forcing open homosexuality on the military.
- Schools push a left-wing agenda.
- Social Security is an entitlement, no different from welfare.
- Obama hates white people.
- The life on earth is 10,000 years old and so is the universe.
- The safety net contributes to poverty.
- The government is taking money from you and giving it to sex-crazed college women to pay for their birth control.
#6 is a big one as this is how the Right perpetuates these lies. In all too typical Cult like behavior, they accuse teachers of brainwashing their kids and attempts to prevent them from being critical thinkers. This is exactly where logical fallacies like misleading vividness, appeal to fear enter the mix.
So when you here one of these or some sort of combination, ask to see the unbiased evidence based on peer reviewed study to support their assertion. The response will undoubtedly be anecdata.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
1974 All Over Again
Say something about President Obama's critics and race and it's like 1974 all over again for Hall of Fame baseball player Hank Aaron.
"We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated. We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go. The bigger difference is back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts."
After the interview?
"Hank Aaron is a scumbag piece of (expletive) (racial slur)'' read an email from a man named Edward, according to USA Today.
Well, it's a good thing we have no more racism in this country and that was simply the retort of some mentally deranged time traveler from the 1950s!
Conservatives love to whine about how they can't make a critical comment about the president without race being brought into the mix but do you know what's worse than people that play the race card? People that fucking whine about people playing the race card. Like shrill old ladies in a nursing home that shriek when their oxygen tank gets stuck making a turn around a corner, the Right sure does love themselves playing the anti race card. No one is allowed to play the race card any longer because racism is over. Everything said about racially based blah blah blah is wrong forever and ever amen, fuckers! Even people who talk about "Jew run banks" get a pass these days. Why?
Because like all their other peachy personality traits, their frozen in time adolescence won't allow them to admit fault. It doesn't occur to them that they are being racially insensitive and, well, damnit...THEY DON'T WANNA!!!
Change, that is...:)
"We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated. We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go. The bigger difference is back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts."
After the interview?
"Hank Aaron is a scumbag piece of (expletive) (racial slur)'' read an email from a man named Edward, according to USA Today.
Well, it's a good thing we have no more racism in this country and that was simply the retort of some mentally deranged time traveler from the 1950s!
Conservatives love to whine about how they can't make a critical comment about the president without race being brought into the mix but do you know what's worse than people that play the race card? People that fucking whine about people playing the race card. Like shrill old ladies in a nursing home that shriek when their oxygen tank gets stuck making a turn around a corner, the Right sure does love themselves playing the anti race card. No one is allowed to play the race card any longer because racism is over. Everything said about racially based blah blah blah is wrong forever and ever amen, fuckers! Even people who talk about "Jew run banks" get a pass these days. Why?
Because like all their other peachy personality traits, their frozen in time adolescence won't allow them to admit fault. It doesn't occur to them that they are being racially insensitive and, well, damnit...THEY DON'T WANNA!!!
Change, that is...:)
Increase The Wage Gap?
Oh, look, Phyllis Schlafly's tired old white ass is trying to sound relevant.
The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap.
Hey Phyllis, 1952 called and they want you back in the kitchen slaving away for your man...
The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap.
Hey Phyllis, 1952 called and they want you back in the kitchen slaving away for your man...
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Voices In My Head (Anti Semitic Edition)
So, Frazier Glenn Miller is Jew hater and shot up two Jewish community centers in Kansas over the weekend, killing two people neither of whom was Jewish. I was willing to let it go because neo Nazis are sadly always going to be around but then I read that the Mayor of Marionville, Dan Clevenger, agreed with Miller but not his actions. In fact, Clevenger has said all sorts of things over the years...
He also spoke of the "Jew-run government backed banking industry turned the U.S into the world's largest debtor nation." Years later, Clevenger's views haven't seemed to change. "There some things that are going on in this country that are destroying us. We've got a false economy and it's, some of those corporations are run by Jews because the names are there," he said. "The fact that the Federal Reserve prints up phony money and freely hands it out, I think that's completely wrong. The people that run the Federal Reserve, they're Jewish."
No racism here, folks. That's all over with in our country, Please move along...
I wonder if Clevenger is an Obama voter:)
He also spoke of the "Jew-run government backed banking industry turned the U.S into the world's largest debtor nation." Years later, Clevenger's views haven't seemed to change. "There some things that are going on in this country that are destroying us. We've got a false economy and it's, some of those corporations are run by Jews because the names are there," he said. "The fact that the Federal Reserve prints up phony money and freely hands it out, I think that's completely wrong. The people that run the Federal Reserve, they're Jewish."
No racism here, folks. That's all over with in our country, Please move along...
I wonder if Clevenger is an Obama voter:)
Good Words
But the thing that is really killing Mitch McConnell, I think, is the incredible success of Kentucky Kynect. They don't call it Obamacare, very smartly. But this is probably the best run state exchange in the country. Governor Beshear, a Democrat. And the fact that these people have health care after all this time and Mitch McConnell did everything he could to stop them from getting health care. That's got to be a factor here.
You are going to see this all over the country, in fact you already are seeing this all over the country. There's a poll today, the folks suggested that we ought to be on the offensive on Obamacare. We ought to be supporting it. We ought to be proud that we supported it because it is in fact providing people with health care. And nobody knows that better than the people of Kentucky. This is a poor state. A lot of people uninsured. A lot of those people have insurance [now]. That's not going to help Mitch McConnell.
(Howard Dean April 15, 2014)
You are going to see this all over the country, in fact you already are seeing this all over the country. There's a poll today, the folks suggested that we ought to be on the offensive on Obamacare. We ought to be supporting it. We ought to be proud that we supported it because it is in fact providing people with health care. And nobody knows that better than the people of Kentucky. This is a poor state. A lot of people uninsured. A lot of those people have insurance [now]. That's not going to help Mitch McConnell.
(Howard Dean April 15, 2014)
Turning Seawater Into Fuel
Mention the Defense Department these days and you'll get shit from both the left and the right. The left hates everything they do and fails to recognize how they are leaders in non military activity such as breast cancer research. The right complains about how much money they spend and how they are in a constant state of intervention around the world.
Yet, it's stories like this that show that they are of enormous benefit to our society.
After decades of experiments, U.S. Navy scientists believe they may have solved one of the world’s great challenges: how to turn seawater into fuel.The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel could one day relieve the military’s dependence on oil-based fuels and is being heralded as a “game changer” because it could allow military ships to develop their own fuel and stay operational 100 percent of the time, rather than having to refuel at sea.
Consider the implications of this as related to climate change. Obviously, seawater is in ample supply and this technology could massively reduce carbon emissions and put us on a path for renewable and sustainable energy for quite a long time.
Way to go, US Military!
Yet, it's stories like this that show that they are of enormous benefit to our society.
After decades of experiments, U.S. Navy scientists believe they may have solved one of the world’s great challenges: how to turn seawater into fuel.The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel could one day relieve the military’s dependence on oil-based fuels and is being heralded as a “game changer” because it could allow military ships to develop their own fuel and stay operational 100 percent of the time, rather than having to refuel at sea.
Consider the implications of this as related to climate change. Obviously, seawater is in ample supply and this technology could massively reduce carbon emissions and put us on a path for renewable and sustainable energy for quite a long time.
Way to go, US Military!
A Disgraceful Opportunist and Moral Coward
I miss Christopher Hitchens. I didn't always agree with him but man, he said some very accurate and funny shit. Take, for example, this quote from 2010 regarding Sarah Palin.
Don’t be too hard on her. She didn’t write that piece and she probably hasn’t read it. I doubt she could either read or write it. Everything she does is for effect, she’s, and is always deniable. She could switch back in a minute. At the moment she thinks her tea party crowd wants to hear this kind of thing so she’ll say that. She’s been out to say, ‘well, I don’t know but I think the President ought to produce his birth certificate. I’m not saying it isn’t a good question. Then later, cause she’s got to go to the Gridiron dinner in Washington, and learn how to use a knife and fork and be taught by Fred Malek. She takes it back. She’s a disgraceful opportunist and a real moral coward.
I'd say that last line pretty much sums up most conservatives these days. I wonder if we'll see one that has fucking spine any time soon...
Don’t be too hard on her. She didn’t write that piece and she probably hasn’t read it. I doubt she could either read or write it. Everything she does is for effect, she’s, and is always deniable. She could switch back in a minute. At the moment she thinks her tea party crowd wants to hear this kind of thing so she’ll say that. She’s been out to say, ‘well, I don’t know but I think the President ought to produce his birth certificate. I’m not saying it isn’t a good question. Then later, cause she’s got to go to the Gridiron dinner in Washington, and learn how to use a knife and fork and be taught by Fred Malek. She takes it back. She’s a disgraceful opportunist and a real moral coward.
I'd say that last line pretty much sums up most conservatives these days. I wonder if we'll see one that has fucking spine any time soon...
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
NCAA Athletes: Employees, Amateurs, Volunteers, Indentured Servants or Slaves?
A couple of weeks ago the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Northwestern football players were employees and could form a union.
A common sentiment is that NCAA players have an easy ride and that they don't deserve monetary compensation or unionization. The NCAA sells a fiction that amateur "student athletes" should play for the love of the game while delivering professional levels of performance. Meanwhile, their "non-profit" monopoly pays no taxes on the tens of billions of dollars it hauls in TV contracts and licensing fees. The NCAA's president Jack Emmert makes almost $2 million annually. In 2012 66 NCAA Division I football coaches made more than $1 million (13 made more than $3 million, with a top salary of $5.47 million). In 40 states the highest-paid public employee is a football coach.
Why do so many highly paid individuals insist that the players who do all the real work get nothing for their efforts? And just how easy do these players have it?
For 20 years I've had a peripheral connection to NCAA women's volleyball, and I've seen firsthand the demands of an NCAA sport. For the most part, volleyball players are like regular college students: most of them have real majors (nursing, engineering, speech pathology, etc.), though some have typical "sports" majors like sports marketing, communications or kinesiology. Unlike football and basketball players, most volleyball players have no false expectations of a professional sports career. They therefore take their classes seriously and most get decent grades despite having real majors.
So, the NCAA's fairy tale about student athletes might be true for volleyball, and many other "minor" NCAA sports like wrestling, track and field, soccer, gymnastics, softball, swimming, and so on. But it's a joke when it comes to the "major" sports.
NCAA football and basketball programs are notorious for phony majors, phony classes, grade rigging, "tutoring" and outright cheating. This is because the only reason these players are enrolled in college is to play sports; the degree is just annoying requirement that keeps getting in the way. In basketball this is completely obvious, with many kids ditching college after a year or two to go pro, or jumping into the NBA directly from high school.
What's it like to play an NCAA sport? College athletes have very little control over their lives for four full years -- often five years for redshirts. Their entire lives revolve around training, practices, travel and matches. The NCAA and coaches step directly into the personal lives of recruits and players, often while they're still in middle school. The NCAA imposes restrictions on who athletes can associate with and how they can interact. Coaches monitor players' Facebook and Twitter accounts. At many colleges players can't even choose what they eat: their diet is dictated by the coaching staff, sometimes all year round. Coaches dictate what time players get up, when they go to bed, how much they should weigh, how fast they should run, how much they should be able to lift, and literally how high they should jump.
Many football players are told to put on weight simply to increase their inertia so that when they tackle opponents they do more damage. The amount of lean muscle you can gain quickly is extremely limited, which means many players are encouraged to pack on the pounds in fat. This kind of weight gain is not easily shed after a football career is over, and has serious consequences for long-term health.
Players are subjected to hazardous training and practice regimes that push their endurance and strength to the limit. Injuries are expected: sprained ankles, broken wrists and fingers, torn rotator cuffs and ripped ACLs are common in volleyball; football players suffer those and far worse injuries, including frequent concussions and spinal injuries. Worse, players are expected to continue playing while injured. Many injured players lose their scholarships. Over a five-year period ending in 2009 NCAA football players suffered 318 ACL tears. That means every weekend four or five NCAA football players were out for at least the season, and for many their careers are ended.
These injuries stay with the players, often causing pain and disability for the rest of their lives. Football players in their 20s and 30s have the arthritic knees of a 70-year-old. Some football players have hidden injuries that could suddenly paralyze them if they get hit the wrong way. Some volleyball players and baseball pitchers can barely lift their arms above their heads. And many football and hockey players suffer brain trauma that can cause debilitating cognitive diseases later in life.
Then there are the coaches. Some of them are are great guys, but too many of them are thugs and crooks. Coaches regularly assault players without repercussions.
So, yes: playing an NCAA sport isn't a job. It's four years of boot camp.
Those who are argue that NCAA athletes aren't employees note that they don't receive monetary compensation. They do, however, receive college tuition, room and board. For some schools this can be worth several hundred thousand dollars over the course of a four-year career. Most NCAA programs also have non-scholarship players, called walk-ons, who don't get their tuition paid but who go through all the same rigors of training as the rest of the team.
All players receive training, coaching and medical care, the exact value of which is difficult to calculate: a small percentage of players go on to professional careers in major league football, baseball or basketball where they can make millions of dollars a year. Even in the case of volleyball, there are European and Asian leagues that pay anywhere from a few thousand to a million dollars a season, or lead to a handful of spots on the national team, which could mean a medal at the Olympics.
But the vast majority of NCAA athletes will have no career in professional sports. There are far more college players than there are positions in professional leagues and national teams.
If, despite the compensation that athletes receive, they aren't employees, what are they? Dedicated amateurs? Well-trained volunteers? Indentured servants? Slaves?
NCAA sports is a multibillion dollar industry that pumps up the profits of television networks like CBS and Fox, cable companies like Comcast, satellite TV companies like Dish Network, apparel and shoe companies like Nike and Reebok, sports equipment companies like Wilson and Spalding, bookmakers and betting parlors in Las Vegas. A hel of a lot of money is made off the blood, sweat and tears of these kids.
NCAA conferences are essentially farm teams for the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB. A very good argument could be made for spinning them out of colleges into local semi-pro club teams, which is how it's done in Europe. Club teams are already where the real action is in many high-school sports. But the thought of all that money drying up makes administrators at Division I schools heartsick.
The best thing that could come from the NLRB decision would be medical pensions for all NCAA players (including walkons) -- the NCAA's cost of business shouldn't be offloaded onto our already overburdened health care system. Too many athletes are stuck with huge medical bills ten years down the road for injuries they suffered playing in games the NCAA got paid billions in broadcast rights for.
A minimum standard of professionalism for coaching staff should also be guaranteed, to protect players from abusive coaches.
The American system of collegiate sports makes no sense whatsoever: college is where you should go for an degree in economics, medicine or engineering, not train for the NFL. But this is the system we're stuck with; the NCAA should do right by the kids who are making them bucketloads of money.
[Peter Ohr, the regional NLRB director,] ruled that Northwestern’s scholarship football players should be eligible to form a union based on a number of factors, including the time they devote to football (as many as 50 hours some weeks), the control exerted by coaches and their scholarships, which Mr. Ohr deemed a contract for compensation.The decision started a firestorm of debate.
“It cannot be said that the employer’s scholarship players are ‘primarily students,’ ” the decision said.
A common sentiment is that NCAA players have an easy ride and that they don't deserve monetary compensation or unionization. The NCAA sells a fiction that amateur "student athletes" should play for the love of the game while delivering professional levels of performance. Meanwhile, their "non-profit" monopoly pays no taxes on the tens of billions of dollars it hauls in TV contracts and licensing fees. The NCAA's president Jack Emmert makes almost $2 million annually. In 2012 66 NCAA Division I football coaches made more than $1 million (13 made more than $3 million, with a top salary of $5.47 million). In 40 states the highest-paid public employee is a football coach.
Why do so many highly paid individuals insist that the players who do all the real work get nothing for their efforts? And just how easy do these players have it?
For 20 years I've had a peripheral connection to NCAA women's volleyball, and I've seen firsthand the demands of an NCAA sport. For the most part, volleyball players are like regular college students: most of them have real majors (nursing, engineering, speech pathology, etc.), though some have typical "sports" majors like sports marketing, communications or kinesiology. Unlike football and basketball players, most volleyball players have no false expectations of a professional sports career. They therefore take their classes seriously and most get decent grades despite having real majors.
So, the NCAA's fairy tale about student athletes might be true for volleyball, and many other "minor" NCAA sports like wrestling, track and field, soccer, gymnastics, softball, swimming, and so on. But it's a joke when it comes to the "major" sports.
NCAA football and basketball programs are notorious for phony majors, phony classes, grade rigging, "tutoring" and outright cheating. This is because the only reason these players are enrolled in college is to play sports; the degree is just annoying requirement that keeps getting in the way. In basketball this is completely obvious, with many kids ditching college after a year or two to go pro, or jumping into the NBA directly from high school.
What's it like to play an NCAA sport? College athletes have very little control over their lives for four full years -- often five years for redshirts. Their entire lives revolve around training, practices, travel and matches. The NCAA and coaches step directly into the personal lives of recruits and players, often while they're still in middle school. The NCAA imposes restrictions on who athletes can associate with and how they can interact. Coaches monitor players' Facebook and Twitter accounts. At many colleges players can't even choose what they eat: their diet is dictated by the coaching staff, sometimes all year round. Coaches dictate what time players get up, when they go to bed, how much they should weigh, how fast they should run, how much they should be able to lift, and literally how high they should jump.
Many football players are told to put on weight simply to increase their inertia so that when they tackle opponents they do more damage. The amount of lean muscle you can gain quickly is extremely limited, which means many players are encouraged to pack on the pounds in fat. This kind of weight gain is not easily shed after a football career is over, and has serious consequences for long-term health.
Players are subjected to hazardous training and practice regimes that push their endurance and strength to the limit. Injuries are expected: sprained ankles, broken wrists and fingers, torn rotator cuffs and ripped ACLs are common in volleyball; football players suffer those and far worse injuries, including frequent concussions and spinal injuries. Worse, players are expected to continue playing while injured. Many injured players lose their scholarships. Over a five-year period ending in 2009 NCAA football players suffered 318 ACL tears. That means every weekend four or five NCAA football players were out for at least the season, and for many their careers are ended.
These injuries stay with the players, often causing pain and disability for the rest of their lives. Football players in their 20s and 30s have the arthritic knees of a 70-year-old. Some football players have hidden injuries that could suddenly paralyze them if they get hit the wrong way. Some volleyball players and baseball pitchers can barely lift their arms above their heads. And many football and hockey players suffer brain trauma that can cause debilitating cognitive diseases later in life.
Then there are the coaches. Some of them are are great guys, but too many of them are thugs and crooks. Coaches regularly assault players without repercussions.
So, yes: playing an NCAA sport isn't a job. It's four years of boot camp.
Those who are argue that NCAA athletes aren't employees note that they don't receive monetary compensation. They do, however, receive college tuition, room and board. For some schools this can be worth several hundred thousand dollars over the course of a four-year career. Most NCAA programs also have non-scholarship players, called walk-ons, who don't get their tuition paid but who go through all the same rigors of training as the rest of the team.
All players receive training, coaching and medical care, the exact value of which is difficult to calculate: a small percentage of players go on to professional careers in major league football, baseball or basketball where they can make millions of dollars a year. Even in the case of volleyball, there are European and Asian leagues that pay anywhere from a few thousand to a million dollars a season, or lead to a handful of spots on the national team, which could mean a medal at the Olympics.
But the vast majority of NCAA athletes will have no career in professional sports. There are far more college players than there are positions in professional leagues and national teams.
If, despite the compensation that athletes receive, they aren't employees, what are they? Dedicated amateurs? Well-trained volunteers? Indentured servants? Slaves?
NCAA sports is a multibillion dollar industry that pumps up the profits of television networks like CBS and Fox, cable companies like Comcast, satellite TV companies like Dish Network, apparel and shoe companies like Nike and Reebok, sports equipment companies like Wilson and Spalding, bookmakers and betting parlors in Las Vegas. A hel of a lot of money is made off the blood, sweat and tears of these kids.
NCAA conferences are essentially farm teams for the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB. A very good argument could be made for spinning them out of colleges into local semi-pro club teams, which is how it's done in Europe. Club teams are already where the real action is in many high-school sports. But the thought of all that money drying up makes administrators at Division I schools heartsick.
The best thing that could come from the NLRB decision would be medical pensions for all NCAA players (including walkons) -- the NCAA's cost of business shouldn't be offloaded onto our already overburdened health care system. Too many athletes are stuck with huge medical bills ten years down the road for injuries they suffered playing in games the NCAA got paid billions in broadcast rights for.
A minimum standard of professionalism for coaching staff should also be guaranteed, to protect players from abusive coaches.
The American system of collegiate sports makes no sense whatsoever: college is where you should go for an degree in economics, medicine or engineering, not train for the NFL. But this is the system we're stuck with; the NCAA should do right by the kids who are making them bucketloads of money.
Still No Obamacare Boiling Pit of Sewage In Which We Will All Roil and Scream
The CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation released a series of new estimates Monday on the law’s costs and the number of people it will cover. Here are the numbers and main points:
SMALLER premium rises? Really? That's not what the folks are telling me inside the bubble.
- Insurance premiums under Obamacare are projected to rise less than 3 percent in 2015, a smaller-than-expected jump as the health insurance exchanges enter their second year.
- 12 million more Americans will have health coverage in 2014 than would have been the case without the ACA
- Coverage through the law will cost the federal government about $5 billion less than expected this year.
- The law’s 10-year cost for the coverage provisions is pegged at $1.383 trillion — $104 billion less than prior calculations. Both figures are lower than prior estimates mostly because the CBO and JCT anticipate premium subsidies being smaller.
- The budget estimates now project premiums to be about 15 percent lower in 2016 than initial projections four years ago.
SMALLER premium rises? Really? That's not what the folks are telling me inside the bubble.
Name Changed to Protect the Guilty
Samuel Warde has a piece up about political discussions on digital media that is fucking hilarious. It looks like it's been up for awhile but has just now been making the rounds in my social media circles. Check out some of the lines from "Name Changed to Protect the Guilty."
Well, first you commie fucktards would have to change the law and that is not likely to happen, but if you somehow manage it, I and many others will fight.
I can barely tolerate you leftist/statists as it stands.
Hillary doesn’t stand a chance, not now. You are stuck on stupid, Sam, and you deserve whatever insults are thrown your way. You have ignored the truth and support Statism. It’s your religion. You are as bad as a Muslim in my opinion.
Diversity causes division. America was once the melting pot of the world but the leftist trumpets diversity and division, not unity. I do respect the American way of life, you’re the one that hates it and wants to change it into a socialist State. The wheels are coming off the administration and this will be the year of scandal. I’ll be pretty happy if we see some resignations and an impeachment proceeding. Hopefully we will drive a stake through the heart of statism forever.
Don’t act like the Democrats are any better than Republicans because they have pretty much helped bring this country down. The slide has not stopped. Freedom will soon be a thing of the past.
Seems awfully familiar, doesn't it? :)
Well, first you commie fucktards would have to change the law and that is not likely to happen, but if you somehow manage it, I and many others will fight.
I can barely tolerate you leftist/statists as it stands.
Hillary doesn’t stand a chance, not now. You are stuck on stupid, Sam, and you deserve whatever insults are thrown your way. You have ignored the truth and support Statism. It’s your religion. You are as bad as a Muslim in my opinion.
Diversity causes division. America was once the melting pot of the world but the leftist trumpets diversity and division, not unity. I do respect the American way of life, you’re the one that hates it and wants to change it into a socialist State. The wheels are coming off the administration and this will be the year of scandal. I’ll be pretty happy if we see some resignations and an impeachment proceeding. Hopefully we will drive a stake through the heart of statism forever.
Don’t act like the Democrats are any better than Republicans because they have pretty much helped bring this country down. The slide has not stopped. Freedom will soon be a thing of the past.
Seems awfully familiar, doesn't it? :)
Rand Paul's Party of Justice
A very interesting speech from a man obviously trying to broaden his base in a run for the presidency in 2016. There's a lot of the usual libertarian nonsense but how much of it is just what he has to say?
Pay attention to what he says starting at about the 10 minute, 30 second mark regarding the institutional racism in the criminal justice system. More importantly, note how is trying to get a crowd of old, white people to understand that they have to change their message and broaden their appeal.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Racist or Not Racist
Question for my readers...I was recently engaged in a discussion about the racism in our judicial and criminal justice system (see this link for one of the many studies that show this to be factual) with someone who said, "Maybe black people commit more crimes."
Racist or not racist?
I ask the question because it seems that there seems to be so many bowels blown over "playing the race card" and I want to be sensitive to those folks who, like black people in this country, are under near constant attack for their inability to reflect and admit fault.
Hey, they are people too!!
Racist or not racist?
I ask the question because it seems that there seems to be so many bowels blown over "playing the race card" and I want to be sensitive to those folks who, like black people in this country, are under near constant attack for their inability to reflect and admit fault.
Hey, they are people too!!
We Are Less Free Than North Korea
At least that's what Mike Huckabee thinks.
How many times can "freedom die" tonight before we stop listening to these infants?
How many times can "freedom die" tonight before we stop listening to these infants?
Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia
A very hopeful piece which I found illustrates that it's best to leave behind stereotypes.
Mr. Awda, alone among Saudi clerics, openly welcomed the Arab uprisings of 2011, and even published a book called “Questions of Revolution.” Promptly banned here but widely disseminated on the Internet, the book drew on Islamic texts and history to reach some very unorthodox conclusions: that democracy is the only legitimate form of government; that Islam does not permit theocracy; that separation of powers is required; that the worst despotism is that practiced in the name of religion.
I've come a long way with my horrible bias and prejudice towards Muslims. I let my anger over the 9-11 attacks cloud my judgment and that was very short sighted and fundamentally flawed. Most of what changed me I don't write about much on here. The general reason are the students that I have had the absolute honor to know in the last few years that are of the Islamic faith. These young men and women have showed me that there is always hope for a strong bridge between the East and the West.
Of course, the hope extends beyond me. The conservatives of the Islamic world (like our own conservatives here) aren't going to last if they don't change.
Mr. Awda, alone among Saudi clerics, openly welcomed the Arab uprisings of 2011, and even published a book called “Questions of Revolution.” Promptly banned here but widely disseminated on the Internet, the book drew on Islamic texts and history to reach some very unorthodox conclusions: that democracy is the only legitimate form of government; that Islam does not permit theocracy; that separation of powers is required; that the worst despotism is that practiced in the name of religion.
I've come a long way with my horrible bias and prejudice towards Muslims. I let my anger over the 9-11 attacks cloud my judgment and that was very short sighted and fundamentally flawed. Most of what changed me I don't write about much on here. The general reason are the students that I have had the absolute honor to know in the last few years that are of the Islamic faith. These young men and women have showed me that there is always hope for a strong bridge between the East and the West.
Of course, the hope extends beyond me. The conservatives of the Islamic world (like our own conservatives here) aren't going to last if they don't change.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Jesus Was Married
A fragment of an ancient Egyptian papyrus known as the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," unveiled in 2012, shows no evidence of being a modern forgery, as some critics had charged, according to an article published in the Harvard Theological Review. Certainly, this will cause millions of bowels to be blown around our nation and indeed the world but I don't see how this changes anything.
Does it make Him less of the Son of God if He was married? No. He was a rabbi and there were no priests during that time that took vows of celibacy. He and His wife would stand as shining examples of a loving, committed relationship that should be emulated. After all, He spoke frequently of the evil of adultery and how couples should stay committed to one another. It seems now that He not only talked the talk but walked the walk and that illustrates just how perfect and deep his integrity ran.
Does it make Him less of the Son of God if He was married? No. He was a rabbi and there were no priests during that time that took vows of celibacy. He and His wife would stand as shining examples of a loving, committed relationship that should be emulated. After all, He spoke frequently of the evil of adultery and how couples should stay committed to one another. It seems now that He not only talked the talk but walked the walk and that illustrates just how perfect and deep his integrity ran.
A Nation of Laws
Here's a handy chronology of the history of United States immigration laws. A few points to take note of...
Chinese Exclusion Acts / Immigration Exclusion Act (1882): prohibited citizenship for Chinese immigrants. Subsequent acts reinforcing the exclusion of Chinese immigrant were passed in 1884, 1886 and 1888. "In 1882, 1884, 1886, and 1888, Congress passed Chinese exclusion acts, suspending immigration of Chinese laborers and barring reentry of all Chinese laborers who departed and did not return before the passage of the Act" (Lowe 180-81fn14).
and...
Immigration Act of 1917: Exclusion of Asian Indians (1917) "A geographical criterion was used to exclude Asian Indians, because their racial or ethnic status was unclear" (Lowe, 180-81fn14).
I bring both of these laws to light because they were, at one time, the law of the land and then they were changed. It's not the fucking end of all that is holy if we change immigration law (or any law for that matter) that isn't working and/or not applicable to the times.
Our current system of immigration isn't working. We have over 11 million undocumented workers that are effectively being given amnesty. We are not going to deport the vast majority of them. 40% of them didn't sneak across the border. They stayed beyond their work visas which means that all the border securing mouth foaming isn't applicable. It's time for the House to pass Marco Rubio's bill so we can finally have immigration law that fits the time.
Chinese Exclusion Acts / Immigration Exclusion Act (1882): prohibited citizenship for Chinese immigrants. Subsequent acts reinforcing the exclusion of Chinese immigrant were passed in 1884, 1886 and 1888. "In 1882, 1884, 1886, and 1888, Congress passed Chinese exclusion acts, suspending immigration of Chinese laborers and barring reentry of all Chinese laborers who departed and did not return before the passage of the Act" (Lowe 180-81fn14).
and...
Immigration Act of 1917: Exclusion of Asian Indians (1917) "A geographical criterion was used to exclude Asian Indians, because their racial or ethnic status was unclear" (Lowe, 180-81fn14).
I bring both of these laws to light because they were, at one time, the law of the land and then they were changed. It's not the fucking end of all that is holy if we change immigration law (or any law for that matter) that isn't working and/or not applicable to the times.
Our current system of immigration isn't working. We have over 11 million undocumented workers that are effectively being given amnesty. We are not going to deport the vast majority of them. 40% of them didn't sneak across the border. They stayed beyond their work visas which means that all the border securing mouth foaming isn't applicable. It's time for the House to pass Marco Rubio's bill so we can finally have immigration law that fits the time.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Good Words (Bill Maher)
“The GOP has kind of become talk radio, an echo chamber where people are not interested in actually legislating or compromising or fixing America, just in screeching about how liberals have ruined it."
---Bill Maher, 11 April 2014.
Check out the whole video, folks, as it is an excellent summation of the Right today. There's also a mention of "voices in their heads" which I fond amusing.
Yet it was his brief mention of why conservatives bitch about people that don't work and yet still seem to have so much time during the day to listen to talk radio got me wondering. Don't they have jobs? It reminds me of this time I had to go downtown for a meeting. I parked my car in a underground ramp and when I got out, I could here Rush Limbaugh's voice blaring out of a car. Some dude was sitting in his car, staring straight ahead with an ultra angry look on his face, fervently glued to his radio and hanging on every word Rush said. What a miserable life that fellow must have had...
---Bill Maher, 11 April 2014.
Check out the whole video, folks, as it is an excellent summation of the Right today. There's also a mention of "voices in their heads" which I fond amusing.
Yet it was his brief mention of why conservatives bitch about people that don't work and yet still seem to have so much time during the day to listen to talk radio got me wondering. Don't they have jobs? It reminds me of this time I had to go downtown for a meeting. I parked my car in a underground ramp and when I got out, I could here Rush Limbaugh's voice blaring out of a car. Some dude was sitting in his car, staring straight ahead with an ultra angry look on his face, fervently glued to his radio and hanging on every word Rush said. What a miserable life that fellow must have had...
The End of the Benghazi Mouthfoam
GOP Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, the Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee, says he’s satisfied with how the US military and the Obama administration responded to the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya.The news also exonerates expected Democratic presidential nominee, and then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
“I think I’ve pretty well been satisfied that given where the troops were, how quickly the thing all happened and how quickly it dissipated, we probably couldn’t have done more than we did,” McKeon said to reporters today, as quoted by AP.
Will they finally leave it alone? Personally, I hope they keep talking about it for the next two years through both election cycles. Between their obsession with the ACA and the IRS, they are like this...
“I think I’ve pretty well been satisfied that given where the troops were, how quickly the thing all happened and how quickly it dissipated, we probably couldn’t have done more than we did,” McKeon said to reporters today, as quoted by AP.
Will they finally leave it alone? Personally, I hope they keep talking about it for the next two years through both election cycles. Between their obsession with the ACA and the IRS, they are like this...
The Only Health Care Nightmare? Pure Spite
Paul Krugman's recent piece on the Affordable Care Act pretty much sums everything up to current status. Some choice cuts...
But wait: What about all the people who lost their policies thanks to Obamacare? The answer is that this looks more than ever like a relatively small issue hyped by right-wing propaganda. RAND finds that fewer than a million people who previously had individual insurance became uninsured — and many of those transitions, one guesses, had nothing to do with Obamacare. It’s worth noting that, so far, not one of the supposed horror stories touted in Koch-backed anti-reform advertisements has stood up to scrutiny, suggesting that real horror stories are rare.
Rare indeed. So much so that you really don't here about them much except for in the right wing blogsphere with the sole intention of increasing mouth foam.
Republicans clearly have no idea how to respond to these developments. They can’t offer any real alternative to Obamacare, because you can’t achieve the good stuff in the Affordable Care Act, like coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions, without also including the stuff they hate, the requirement that everyone buy insurance and the subsidies that make that requirement possible. Their political strategy has been to talk vaguely about replacing reform while waiting for its inevitable collapse. And what if reform doesn’t collapse? They have no idea what to do.
This is especially true since it was their idea to begin with!
What’s amazing about this wave of rejection is that it appears to be motivated by pure spite. The federal government is prepared to pay for Medicaid expansion, so it would cost the states nothing, and would, in fact, provide an inflow of dollars. The health economist Jonathan Gruber, one of the principal architects of health reform — and normally a very mild-mannered guy — recently summed it up: The Medicaid-rejection states “are willing to sacrifice billions of dollars of injections into their economy in order to punish poor people. It really is just almost awesome in its evilness.” Indeed.
Motivated by pure spite...one could extend that to pretty much every issue the Right whines about. They really don't have any there there...
Gruber's point really drives home how this issue ties into all the other ones that will part of this year's election. Last Wednesday, in a single committee meeting, Republicans voted against the Minimum Wage, Equal Pay, LGBT Rights, and Mine Safety. Add in a decided lack of movement on the immigration issue and the Republican party is pretty much the same one that ran behind Mitt Romney in 2012. Have they learned anything?
More importantly, do they honestly think voters aren't paying attention to this?
But wait: What about all the people who lost their policies thanks to Obamacare? The answer is that this looks more than ever like a relatively small issue hyped by right-wing propaganda. RAND finds that fewer than a million people who previously had individual insurance became uninsured — and many of those transitions, one guesses, had nothing to do with Obamacare. It’s worth noting that, so far, not one of the supposed horror stories touted in Koch-backed anti-reform advertisements has stood up to scrutiny, suggesting that real horror stories are rare.
Rare indeed. So much so that you really don't here about them much except for in the right wing blogsphere with the sole intention of increasing mouth foam.
Republicans clearly have no idea how to respond to these developments. They can’t offer any real alternative to Obamacare, because you can’t achieve the good stuff in the Affordable Care Act, like coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions, without also including the stuff they hate, the requirement that everyone buy insurance and the subsidies that make that requirement possible. Their political strategy has been to talk vaguely about replacing reform while waiting for its inevitable collapse. And what if reform doesn’t collapse? They have no idea what to do.
This is especially true since it was their idea to begin with!
What’s amazing about this wave of rejection is that it appears to be motivated by pure spite. The federal government is prepared to pay for Medicaid expansion, so it would cost the states nothing, and would, in fact, provide an inflow of dollars. The health economist Jonathan Gruber, one of the principal architects of health reform — and normally a very mild-mannered guy — recently summed it up: The Medicaid-rejection states “are willing to sacrifice billions of dollars of injections into their economy in order to punish poor people. It really is just almost awesome in its evilness.” Indeed.
Motivated by pure spite...one could extend that to pretty much every issue the Right whines about. They really don't have any there there...
Gruber's point really drives home how this issue ties into all the other ones that will part of this year's election. Last Wednesday, in a single committee meeting, Republicans voted against the Minimum Wage, Equal Pay, LGBT Rights, and Mine Safety. Add in a decided lack of movement on the immigration issue and the Republican party is pretty much the same one that ran behind Mitt Romney in 2012. Have they learned anything?
More importantly, do they honestly think voters aren't paying attention to this?
Friday, April 11, 2014
Gun Shows Are Gun Free Zones?
From Ohio Gun, Knife, and Military Shows...
LOADED FIREARMS ARE NOT PERMITTED ON THE GUN SHOW PREMISES. EXHIBITORS AND PATRONS ARE REQUIRED TO EXAMINE EACH FIREARM, REMOVE CLIPS AND BE POSITIVE THAT THE FIREARM IS NOT LOADED BEFORE ENTERING THE GUN SHOW PREMISES.
From Gunshow.net
Because attendees will be handling their weapons inside the show, we ask that for your safety, please ensure all clips and weapons are empty before entering the show. Double check inside the chamber of all weapons! Patrons who bring loaded clips or weapons into the show may be refused entry. Purchase your ticket, get your hand stamped, and then proceed to the Gun Check table. Always point your weapon in a safe direction (up or down) and never put your finger on the trigger. Remove all clips first and show the attendant that they are empty. Open the chamber on your weapons so the attendant can verify that the chambers are clear. If you do not know how to open your weapon please inform the attendant and they will assist you. Never try to operate a weapon you are not familiar with. Never try to reload your weapon while inside the show. You must be 18 or over to enter or be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. You must be 21 or older to purchase, sell or handle a handgun and 18 or older to purchase, sell or handle a rifle or shotgun inside the show. No exceptions. Class 3 weapons must be accompanied with the proper documentation.
So, gun shows are actually gun free zones? Seems to me like my prediction about someone losing it at a gun show is even more possible than I thought with all these defenseless people. I do love the part about possibly not knowing how to open your weapon, though:)
LOADED FIREARMS ARE NOT PERMITTED ON THE GUN SHOW PREMISES. EXHIBITORS AND PATRONS ARE REQUIRED TO EXAMINE EACH FIREARM, REMOVE CLIPS AND BE POSITIVE THAT THE FIREARM IS NOT LOADED BEFORE ENTERING THE GUN SHOW PREMISES.
From Gunshow.net
Because attendees will be handling their weapons inside the show, we ask that for your safety, please ensure all clips and weapons are empty before entering the show. Double check inside the chamber of all weapons! Patrons who bring loaded clips or weapons into the show may be refused entry. Purchase your ticket, get your hand stamped, and then proceed to the Gun Check table. Always point your weapon in a safe direction (up or down) and never put your finger on the trigger. Remove all clips first and show the attendant that they are empty. Open the chamber on your weapons so the attendant can verify that the chambers are clear. If you do not know how to open your weapon please inform the attendant and they will assist you. Never try to operate a weapon you are not familiar with. Never try to reload your weapon while inside the show. You must be 18 or over to enter or be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. You must be 21 or older to purchase, sell or handle a handgun and 18 or older to purchase, sell or handle a rifle or shotgun inside the show. No exceptions. Class 3 weapons must be accompanied with the proper documentation.
So, gun shows are actually gun free zones? Seems to me like my prediction about someone losing it at a gun show is even more possible than I thought with all these defenseless people. I do love the part about possibly not knowing how to open your weapon, though:)
Thursday, April 10, 2014
#CancelColbert Succeeds!
A few weeks ago one of the web guys for The Colbert Report posted a dumb Asian joke that flopped. That raised calls for the cancellation of The Colbert Report.
Well, now they will get their wish. The Colbert Report will be canceled because Steven Colbert will succeed David Letterman on the Late Show.
I've never been a big fan of the Colbert persona. Sure, he does some funny bits. But I'm so tired of bloviating right-wing egocentric nitwits like Bill O'Reilly, that even watching parodies of bloviating right-wing egocentric nitwits like Bill O'Reilly is tedious.
Some people are already mourning the end of Colbert's alter ego, but I for one will be glad to see him go. The Colbert character is a dead-on imitation of everything that is wrong with the likes of O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and, yes, Bill Maher.
O'Reilly and Fox News have had a long-standing feud with with Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. Whenever the comedians make fun of them Fox News hosts like O'Reilly feel the need to respond to Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart.
Which means that Fox News' real competition isn't MSNBC or CNN. It's Comedy Central.
Well, now they will get their wish. The Colbert Report will be canceled because Steven Colbert will succeed David Letterman on the Late Show.
I've never been a big fan of the Colbert persona. Sure, he does some funny bits. But I'm so tired of bloviating right-wing egocentric nitwits like Bill O'Reilly, that even watching parodies of bloviating right-wing egocentric nitwits like Bill O'Reilly is tedious.
Some people are already mourning the end of Colbert's alter ego, but I for one will be glad to see him go. The Colbert character is a dead-on imitation of everything that is wrong with the likes of O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and, yes, Bill Maher.
O'Reilly and Fox News have had a long-standing feud with with Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. Whenever the comedians make fun of them Fox News hosts like O'Reilly feel the need to respond to Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart.
Which means that Fox News' real competition isn't MSNBC or CNN. It's Comedy Central.
Yet Another Troubled Young Man
Alex Hribal went on a stabbing rampage yesterday at his high school in Murrsyville, Pennsylvania and sadly illustrated, once again, that we are failing the mental health of our nation's young men once again. I'm fairly certain that was more information comes to light we will discover that he had mental and emotional disabilities, was taking an SSRI, had divorced parents or a troubled home life, played violent video games, and had access to weapons.
Speaking of which, does anyone know if this school had a zero tolerance policy or not? I thought knives were just fine to carry around school, according to the Gun Cult. Well, at least this incident finally torpedoes the "good guy with a gun" lie as well as the "gun free zone" lie.
Assistant Principal Sam King finally tackled the boy and disarmed him, and a Murrysville police officer who is regularly assigned to the school handcuffed him, police said. In addition to the 22 stabbed or slashed, two people suffered other injuries, authorities said. The security guard, who was wounded after intervening early in the melee, was not seriously hurt.
So, there was a good guy with a gun, it was not a gun free zone, and someone with a "lesser" weapon did all that damage. Perhaps this problem of school violence is a lot more complicated than an 8 year old boy solution...
Speaking of which, does anyone know if this school had a zero tolerance policy or not? I thought knives were just fine to carry around school, according to the Gun Cult. Well, at least this incident finally torpedoes the "good guy with a gun" lie as well as the "gun free zone" lie.
Assistant Principal Sam King finally tackled the boy and disarmed him, and a Murrysville police officer who is regularly assigned to the school handcuffed him, police said. In addition to the 22 stabbed or slashed, two people suffered other injuries, authorities said. The security guard, who was wounded after intervening early in the melee, was not seriously hurt.
So, there was a good guy with a gun, it was not a gun free zone, and someone with a "lesser" weapon did all that damage. Perhaps this problem of school violence is a lot more complicated than an 8 year old boy solution...
An Act Of Love
Here is a longer version of the Jeb Bush comments on immigration which I think is more insightful.
Interesting to note that 40 percent of illegal immigrants are simply staying past their work visas. That makes the "secure the border" mouth foamers really seem like idiots. Wait, they are idiots...what am I saying? Take a look at the description below the video (appeal to fear) and some of the comments below this video on YouTube. Voices in my head indeed...
Interesting to note that 40 percent of illegal immigrants are simply staying past their work visas. That makes the "secure the border" mouth foamers really seem like idiots. Wait, they are idiots...what am I saying? Take a look at the description below the video (appeal to fear) and some of the comments below this video on YouTube. Voices in my head indeed...
Not Racist?
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
Our Version of Sharia Law=Good
Mississippi Approves Religious Freedom Bill, Governor Signs It Into Law
Hmm...let's see...their Sharia Law=BAD but our Sharia Law=GOOD. Got it!
Hmm...let's see...their Sharia Law=BAD but our Sharia Law=GOOD. Got it!
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Rule of Law Matters?
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas, speaking on Jeb Bush's recent remarks on immigration, said the following.
We’re a nation of immigrants, we need to celebrate that, but at the same time, rule of law matters.
Oh, really? Does that include the 16th amendment to the Constitution? Or are we going to stomp our feet and complain like a grump eight year old about force and fruits of labor?
Perhaps they should ignore reality (something they do so well) keep pretending that President Obama won't enforce immigration laws in a thinly veiled attempt to mask their own prejudice.
We’re a nation of immigrants, we need to celebrate that, but at the same time, rule of law matters.
Oh, really? Does that include the 16th amendment to the Constitution? Or are we going to stomp our feet and complain like a grump eight year old about force and fruits of labor?
Perhaps they should ignore reality (something they do so well) keep pretending that President Obama won't enforce immigration laws in a thinly veiled attempt to mask their own prejudice.
Kentucky Cuts Uninsured By 40%
The Affordable Care Act has cut Kentucky's uninsured population by more than 40 percent, signing up roughly 360,000 residents since enrollment opened up on Oct. 1. Some 75 percent of them -- 270,000 -- were previously uninsured. That means Kentucky's uninsured population of 640,000 has come down by 42 percent.
And the Democrats want to run away from this? I think we are going to see a whole lot of about faces over the next few months when candidates realize just how many voters are better off as a result of the ACA.
And the Democrats want to run away from this? I think we are going to see a whole lot of about faces over the next few months when candidates realize just how many voters are better off as a result of the ACA.
Monday, April 07, 2014
The Fort Hood Shooter Was Just Another Gun-Toting Hothead
Investigators now believe that the most recent shooting at Fort Hood was not due to mental illness, but rather an argument over the denial of leave requested by the shooter, Ivan Lopez.
That makes this shooting no different than the run-of-the-mill gun violence on the streets and in our homes. One person feels aggrieved and seeks to even the score with a gun. Some will still argue that PTSD or mental illness had a role, but since such shootings are so common among people who have no record of either condition, no such case can be made.
The real problem is that people like Lopez believe that violence is their first recourse whenever they feel angry or threatened. In other words, this guy was just a hothead with easy access to guns.
The NRA will probably try to spin Lopez as a man who was pushed to the brink by an unreasonable military bureaucracy that wouldn't give him enough time to attend to his mother's death. But it is the attitude that shooting people is a perfectly reasonable thing to do that's the cause of these deaths. The attitude espoused by the NRA.
In other words, Lopez was simply cut from the cloth as George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn.
That makes this shooting no different than the run-of-the-mill gun violence on the streets and in our homes. One person feels aggrieved and seeks to even the score with a gun. Some will still argue that PTSD or mental illness had a role, but since such shootings are so common among people who have no record of either condition, no such case can be made.
The real problem is that people like Lopez believe that violence is their first recourse whenever they feel angry or threatened. In other words, this guy was just a hothead with easy access to guns.
The NRA will probably try to spin Lopez as a man who was pushed to the brink by an unreasonable military bureaucracy that wouldn't give him enough time to attend to his mother's death. But it is the attitude that shooting people is a perfectly reasonable thing to do that's the cause of these deaths. The attitude espoused by the NRA.
In other words, Lopez was simply cut from the cloth as George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn.
Stupid People Want to Start a War with Russia
I'm always rather cynical about poll results, but this one was pretty funny: the less people know about where Ukraine is, the more they want to start a war with Russia.
On March 28-31, 2014, we asked a national sample of 2,066 Americans (fielded via Survey Sampling International Inc. (SSI), what action they wanted the U.S. to take in Ukraine, but with a twist: In addition to measuring standard demographic characteristics and general foreign policy attitudes, we also asked our survey respondents to locate Ukraine on a map as part of a larger, ongoing project to study foreign policy knowledge. We wanted to see where Americans think Ukraine is and to learn if this knowledge (or lack thereof) is related to their foreign policy views. We found that only one out of six Americans can find Ukraine on a map, and that this lack of knowledge is related to preferences: The farther their guesses were from Ukraine’s actual location, the more they wanted the U.S. to intervene with military force.I wonder how it correlates with how much Fox News they watch?
Jeb Bush Pwns Anti-Immigration Mouth Foamers
Well, there went every anti immigration reform argument down in flames. Very impressive, Mr. Bush...four words I thought I would never say. This will be a real test to see how the Republican base responds which is exactly why he did it:)
Welfare King and Queen Update
Colin and Andrea Chisholm, the welfare king and queen, were arrested in Florida after they were deported from the Bahamas.
They received hundreds of thousands of dollars in food stamps and welfare benefits in Florida and Minnesota, while living in an expensive lakefront home in Minnesota. They had $3 million in the bank and an 83-foot yacht.
Colin Chisholm is still listed as CEO and founder of TCN Networks. It's not clear what the company does, but the website is only half done. The "Social Responsibility" bullet point on the Philosophy page is rather ironic.
Justice may be served after all.
They received hundreds of thousands of dollars in food stamps and welfare benefits in Florida and Minnesota, while living in an expensive lakefront home in Minnesota. They had $3 million in the bank and an 83-foot yacht.
Colin Chisholm is still listed as CEO and founder of TCN Networks. It's not clear what the company does, but the website is only half done. The "Social Responsibility" bullet point on the Philosophy page is rather ironic.
Justice may be served after all.
Sunday, April 06, 2014
A Question For Reflection
As is usually the case on Sunday, I'm feeling reflective and have a question for my readers. Consider for a moment that you are president of the United States. Would you implement a policy that would likely solve a problem in our country if it was something you didn't like and, more importantly, was in conflict with your ideology?
My answer is yes. Being the president means you have to choose between something that is bad, awful and horrible. There are no good choices and I still contend that one cannot truly be a "good" president. You are either average, bad, or awful and that's entirely due to the broken down nature of reality. Our country is generally a mess and, in the final analysis, it's merely about damage control.
I realize this sounds pessimistic but I prefer to look at it as more realistic. I still maintain optimism through whatever comes our way because the other key element of our country is the devotion to Lockian principles of inherent liberty and freedom. From this springs innovation and prosperity. Despite our darker days and persistent problems, we somehow manage to rise to challenges and overcome them.
So, would you do what it took to overcome those challenges?
My answer is yes. Being the president means you have to choose between something that is bad, awful and horrible. There are no good choices and I still contend that one cannot truly be a "good" president. You are either average, bad, or awful and that's entirely due to the broken down nature of reality. Our country is generally a mess and, in the final analysis, it's merely about damage control.
I realize this sounds pessimistic but I prefer to look at it as more realistic. I still maintain optimism through whatever comes our way because the other key element of our country is the devotion to Lockian principles of inherent liberty and freedom. From this springs innovation and prosperity. Despite our darker days and persistent problems, we somehow manage to rise to challenges and overcome them.
So, would you do what it took to overcome those challenges?
Saturday, April 05, 2014
Leadership On Gun Safety
Gander Mountain is a great example of the kind of leadership we need on gun safety from the private sector of our country. Given how many deaths occur reach year due to irresponsible adults, the idea of a gun lock giveaway is a welcome solution.
“When you start reading about them and you see that so many of them involve someone just leaving the firearm out and the wrong person gets it in their hand and it usually involves a child,” he said. “And if it was just either locked up in a safe or it was in a biometric safe in the case of a handgun or a trigger lock these accidents are all preventable,” said Steve Uline, Gander Mountain’s vice president for marketing.
This year they are adding hardware to the cause. Gander Mountain, which has 133 locations in 25 states, is giving away 50,000 gun locks until Sunday, April 6. The gun locks the company is giving away bar access to the gun’s trigger. Uline said the cost of gun locks, which start at $10, isn’t prohibitive considering most gun owners spend thousands on their guns. But gun owners fall into the mentality that accidents or tragedies won’t happen to them. “We felt that we were in a position to raise awareness to cut down on these accidents,” Uline said.
Way to go, Gander Mountain!
That's not all they are doing. They have also done admirable work raising firearm security awareness over the past year through social media and advertising; its leadership’s willingness to engage in a touchy debate is commendable. The retailer’s position — with rights come responsibilities — is something everyone should be able to agree on and, more important, act on.
“When you start reading about them and you see that so many of them involve someone just leaving the firearm out and the wrong person gets it in their hand and it usually involves a child,” he said. “And if it was just either locked up in a safe or it was in a biometric safe in the case of a handgun or a trigger lock these accidents are all preventable,” said Steve Uline, Gander Mountain’s vice president for marketing.
This year they are adding hardware to the cause. Gander Mountain, which has 133 locations in 25 states, is giving away 50,000 gun locks until Sunday, April 6. The gun locks the company is giving away bar access to the gun’s trigger. Uline said the cost of gun locks, which start at $10, isn’t prohibitive considering most gun owners spend thousands on their guns. But gun owners fall into the mentality that accidents or tragedies won’t happen to them. “We felt that we were in a position to raise awareness to cut down on these accidents,” Uline said.
Way to go, Gander Mountain!
That's not all they are doing. They have also done admirable work raising firearm security awareness over the past year through social media and advertising; its leadership’s willingness to engage in a touchy debate is commendable. The retailer’s position — with rights come responsibilities — is something everyone should be able to agree on and, more important, act on.
Friday, April 04, 2014
The American Bro
This piece by John Saward is simply a masterpiece. His details of the modern American male are dead on right. Example...
Being flagrantly offensive, irritating people, making noise, commanding an audience—this is what fuels him; this is his required voltage. He is on the phone with someone named Ryan or Tyler or Kyle; he is saying “cunt” or “nigger” or “slut” out loud, then half-apologizing to no one in particular. "I GOT NO FILTER, BRO." He tilts his head and neck back, cackling at the ceiling, electrified by the degree to which he does not give a fuck, by this ability to appall other people, to make your mouth hang wide open like you were witnessing a wildfire.
He is not saying words now but just grunting and ejecting "YOOOO" and "DUDE" in varying cadences, asking Ryan or Tyler or Kyle when they are getting there, what they brought, if they are pumped. He is pushing it to the limit, going hard, pouring Jäger into a plastic cup, making the conductor wait. All he can hear is his brain-engine humming, the bolts coming loose, people chanting his name. He is a renegade, he is looking women in the eyes for a period of time that blew past bold and is bordering on restraining order, but maybe this turns her on, he thinks; maybe he is dangerous, maybe he is going to walk over to her right now. He is alive to a degree that you will never be capable of, and he is scaring all the inhabitants of the universe back into their homes.
Far too many young men like this out there...
Being flagrantly offensive, irritating people, making noise, commanding an audience—this is what fuels him; this is his required voltage. He is on the phone with someone named Ryan or Tyler or Kyle; he is saying “cunt” or “nigger” or “slut” out loud, then half-apologizing to no one in particular. "I GOT NO FILTER, BRO." He tilts his head and neck back, cackling at the ceiling, electrified by the degree to which he does not give a fuck, by this ability to appall other people, to make your mouth hang wide open like you were witnessing a wildfire.
He is not saying words now but just grunting and ejecting "YOOOO" and "DUDE" in varying cadences, asking Ryan or Tyler or Kyle when they are getting there, what they brought, if they are pumped. He is pushing it to the limit, going hard, pouring Jäger into a plastic cup, making the conductor wait. All he can hear is his brain-engine humming, the bolts coming loose, people chanting his name. He is a renegade, he is looking women in the eyes for a period of time that blew past bold and is bordering on restraining order, but maybe this turns her on, he thinks; maybe he is dangerous, maybe he is going to walk over to her right now. He is alive to a degree that you will never be capable of, and he is scaring all the inhabitants of the universe back into their homes.
Far too many young men like this out there...
The Second Fort Hood Shooting
The silence from the Gun Cult after the SECOND Fort Hood shooting has been deafening and it's now clear why.
Military personnel who are not police officers are not allowed to carry privately owned weapons on Army bases. Soldiers on post must register their firearms, which Army officials said Specialist Lopez failed to do with the handgun he used in the attack. Fort Hood’s rules rely in large part on the honor system, and require all personnel bringing a privately owned firearm onto the base in a vehicle to declare that they are doing so and state why.
So, the idea of less regulation doesn't seem to be working well at all. In addition, this is yet another example of how the gun free zone lie is completely FUBAR. Obviously, there are plenty of guns on the base and no one is really checking for weapons. It is Texas, after all, so one would think this would deter psychos, right?
But it didn't and Specialist Ivan Antonio Lopez, 34, killed three people and wounded 16 others at Fort Hood before taking his own life on Wednesday. Lopez was being treated for mental health issues and was on SSRI medications. Ironically, he bought the gun that he used at the same gun store where Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan bought his weapon. He passed the background check just fine.
Once again, we are left with a clear illustration of how just how poorly our nation is dealing with the issue of mental health. Politico has an interesting piece about how the conversation about these incidents should shift from gun control to threat detection. I completely agree. If someone voluntarily submits themselves for psychiatric treatment, especially if they are suffering from PTSD and in the military, they should lose their ability to obtain a firearm.
Consider this horrible statistic: 22 veterans kill themselves every day. That's right around one death an hour. Clearly, we are not doing enough to help the mental health of our veterans. This is indeed a difficult task considering we have been at war for the last 13 years.
Mental health in our nation as a whole needs to be vastly improved. We have to begin by removing the stigma associated with it and encourage everyone to see a therapist on a regular basis. I have no doubt that if gains were made in this area, we would see less gun violence, especially in the arena of spree shootings.
Military personnel who are not police officers are not allowed to carry privately owned weapons on Army bases. Soldiers on post must register their firearms, which Army officials said Specialist Lopez failed to do with the handgun he used in the attack. Fort Hood’s rules rely in large part on the honor system, and require all personnel bringing a privately owned firearm onto the base in a vehicle to declare that they are doing so and state why.
So, the idea of less regulation doesn't seem to be working well at all. In addition, this is yet another example of how the gun free zone lie is completely FUBAR. Obviously, there are plenty of guns on the base and no one is really checking for weapons. It is Texas, after all, so one would think this would deter psychos, right?
But it didn't and Specialist Ivan Antonio Lopez, 34, killed three people and wounded 16 others at Fort Hood before taking his own life on Wednesday. Lopez was being treated for mental health issues and was on SSRI medications. Ironically, he bought the gun that he used at the same gun store where Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan bought his weapon. He passed the background check just fine.
Once again, we are left with a clear illustration of how just how poorly our nation is dealing with the issue of mental health. Politico has an interesting piece about how the conversation about these incidents should shift from gun control to threat detection. I completely agree. If someone voluntarily submits themselves for psychiatric treatment, especially if they are suffering from PTSD and in the military, they should lose their ability to obtain a firearm.
Consider this horrible statistic: 22 veterans kill themselves every day. That's right around one death an hour. Clearly, we are not doing enough to help the mental health of our veterans. This is indeed a difficult task considering we have been at war for the last 13 years.
Mental health in our nation as a whole needs to be vastly improved. We have to begin by removing the stigma associated with it and encourage everyone to see a therapist on a regular basis. I have no doubt that if gains were made in this area, we would see less gun violence, especially in the arena of spree shootings.
The CIA Program That Started with a Dead Ox
This is also how colonies of bees and ants appear to do quite intelligent things even though each individual insect is totally oblivious.
A few years ago the CIA started a program to use Galton's finding. "The Company" is infamous for weird and sinister programs. For example, MK Ultra, where they tried to use drugs like LSD to produce "Manchurian Candidates." Or Remote Viewing, where they had psychics using ESP and clairvoyance to spy on the Russians. Or waterboarding, where they tortured prisoners with simulated drowning, a tactic used by the Spanish and Flemish Inquisitions, the Gestapo and WWII Japanese war criminals, who were hanged for torturing Americans.
The program that came from the dead ox is not so sinister. Called the Good Judgment Project, it attempts to use the wisdom of the crowd to forecast world events. It's been running for three years now.
It consists of 3,000 ordinary people who answer questions on a website to estimate probabilities of future events. The astonishing thing is, this program is better at making forecasts than the professional CIA analysts who have access to classified documents.
Even more amazing, some of the individual participants are 30% better than the CIA at doing the CIA's job. How do they do it? Elaine Rich, a sixty-something pharmacist, says, "Usually I just do a Google search."
Even though that may sound impressive, it really isn't. The CIA -- and organizations in general -- are notorious for groupthink. They know what answers their bosses want to hear, because their bosses have already decided what they want to do, and they just want ammunition to back up the decision they've already made. This was especially true of the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war.
But there are less sinister reasons why a group of 3,000 folks from across the country might be better at doing this than the CIA.
First, they have no skin in the game, while the CIA is responsible for the safety of the American people. If a CIA analyst misses something a lot of people may die. Analysts feel that pressure, and will tend to perceive potential threats to be greater than they actually are. Also, the number of analysts devoted to each area at CIA is fairly small, and they all talk to and influence each other. It's only natural that they would drift toward a consensus, and all too often consensus is driven not by mutual agreement but by whoever shouts the loudest.
Sometimes there is just too much detail. With all those classified documents, analysts can get bogged down in minutiae that are much less important than they might seem. They can't see the forest for the trees.
Finally, no one cares if a CIA section predicts 10 doomsdays an hour and none of them ever happens, but everyone will be all over them if four guys die in an embassy attack that they failed to predict.
By the way, if you're interested the Good Judgment Project is accepting applications!
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