Disqus - Friends of SissyWillis

Re: End the Fed's Dual Mandate And Focus on Prices: John B. Taylor - Bloomberg

BrianB — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 10:58:00 -0000

Ogemaniac,

Re: End the Fed's Dual Mandate And Focus on Prices: John B. Taylor - Bloomberg

BrianB — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:07:00 -0000

Ogemaniac,

That is not "it".
Inflation destroys the buying power of those on fixed incomes and it devastates the middle class because commodities [gasoline, food, etc] inevitably surge in an inflationary environment and it increases the price of all imports as the currency weakens and it introduces misallocations of resources and other imbalances into the economy and on top of all that it produces great tension between the inflator and those foreign creditors who are being forced to eat a de facto default, said tensions sometimes resulting in kinetic military actions or other unforeseen political dislocations.
And of course it kills millions of people in very poor countries who can no longer afford to eat.
That's the real "it" of inflation.

Re: Watch Bernanke’s ‘Little’ Inflation Capsize U.S.: Amity Shlaes

BrianB — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:02:07 -0000

You do know that Fed spending has increased from around 18% of GDP in 2000 to about 25% today right?

Re: Katherine Jenkins hasn't got the voice or the technique to sing opera – so why does she pretend that she can?

BrianB — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:25:13 -0000

What I find even more laughable than wannabe opera singers is the elevation of performers to artists. Actors and singers used to be quite properly classified as craftsmen plying their trade from job to job, much like a carpenters or plumbers.
Somehow these working stiffs reading or bleating the creations of others have been transformed into members of the performing "arts", itself an oxymoronic term.
Oh for the days when after the performance the actors got to take down the props, sweep up the floor and schlub it over to the next town on the back of a mule.

Re: Georgia-Pacific West v NEDC: a good case for certiorari

BrianB — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:31:05 -0000

Re: Georgia-Pacific West v NEDC: a good case for certiorari

BrianB — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:36:09 -0000

Oops that didn't work quite the way it was supposed to. Anyway, in response this;
If EPA has to comply, why would they not make the process as painless as possible?

Have you much experience in dealing with EPA or any other environmental regulatory body?
We have a much less onerous but still meddlesome Water Resources Control Board to deal with in California logging permitting and it can be an absolute nightmare. With the EPA involved, even with a cooperative and sensible EPA it would open the door to endless harassment suits of both the EPA and logging.

Re: ‘Hot War’ Erupting With Iran, Top Terror-Watchers Warn

BrianB — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 16:59:15 -0000

Presumably you're a human so why should I or anyone else listen to the opinion of a being barely evolved beyond a chimp?

Re: The Startling Accuracy of Referring to Politicians as 'Psychopaths'

BrianB — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 10:51:33 -0000

--Raising the top tax rate would stimulate the economy--

Speaking of delusional.

Re: Supreme Court Unexpectedly Upholds Regulatory Elimination of Down Syndrome

BrianB — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:03:32 -0000

Did you actually read the article? It pretty much says exactly what you're complaining it doesn't say and points out that because parents are not "provided with up to date information" free testing is problematical, not that free testing itself is.

Re: BUSTED: PETA’s Person of the Year Caught Shopping for Crocodile Bags in Switzerland

BrianB — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 23:58:08 -0000

Small correction; I believe that bag lady pictured is the owner of the store not the clerk who waited on Okra.

Re: Some Political and Constitutional Questions Raised by Tim Draper’s “Six Californias” Plan to Split Up California

BrianB — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 12:27:55 -0000

Seems to me the only logical and possibly workable way is to allow the coastal counties from say, Marin south, to form one state and the balance of the state to form another.
The coastal, urban population centers are coalesced into a cohesive unit and the more rural inland and north coast counties are no longer dominated by the urban centers, yet still have Fresno and Sacramento.
Of course it's quite difficult to see why the urban population centers would ever vote to set free an area which they depend on for water, recreation, etc, when they presently completely dominate and control it. Where's the incentive to split for the large majority of Californians?

Re: Maddow embarrasses herself with Koch bros accusation

BrianB — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 19:54:28 -0000

"Which you now have is two totally irrelevant very large "news," stations..."

Actually, you have one very large one and one very small one.

Re: Nobel Laureate: I Don't Know Much About the Market, But I Know It Needs More Regulation

BrianB — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 12:35:26 -0000

Markets don't succeed or fail; they function or are prevented from functioning.
A bank that makes bad loans and then goes bankrupt is an example of a functioning market.
It is a business or management failure but the market has worked exactly as it should.
The problem comes about when the government saves a bank that should fail and conceals or distorts information and/or prevents actions the market needs to function.

Re: Movie Review: 'The Best Of Me,' Starring Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden

BrianB — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:37:01 -0000

He was just riffing on the drudgery of PC-feminist-studies-crap we have to listen to whenever a guy compliments a woman.
He wasn't ripping your comment personally or specifically.

Re: Elbert Guillory strikes again!

BrianB — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 12:55:43 -0000

His opponent? Out of touch?
Did you read or listen to anything presented?
He's campaigning on behalf of Tillis who is Hagan's opponent. Moreover he declared the Dem party the new plantation and the Great Society a failed prog experiemnt which has destroyed the black family. Getting rid of the disease that is killing you first seems like a pretty decent plan of action.

Re: Rogue pastors endorse candidates, but IRS looks away - Rachael Bade - POLITICO.com

BrianB — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 11:15:42 -0000

The article doesn't address the fact that the IRS acknowledges churches do not need to apply for 501(c)3 status to be tax exempt; they are exempt already as a matter of law as a church due to the first amendment.
The IRS is rightly concerned that asking SCOTUS to rule on "free exercise" will likely result in a ruling gutting the constraints already in place that most churches and pastors mistakenly and unnecessarily follow.

Re: U.S. Army Issues Apology For Use Of “Negro” In Official Document « | Bossip

BrianB — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 11:55:21 -0000

United Negro College Fund Hardest Hit

NAACP Calls For Army to Substitute "Colored" For "Negro" In Effort to Stem Rising Tide of Racism

Re: Canadian mother's million dollar medical bill: Whopper bill for giving birth

BrianB — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 15:50:22 -0000

Um, Canadians pay a large sum for care we are told makes ours pale in comparison and yet it doesn't even cover them when going across the US border? If they'd had evil American Blue Cross to begin with it would have.

Re: Another Day Another Religious Gaffe By Scott Walker

BrianB — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 12:55:32 -0000

In that quote Walker doesn't say that proverb is in the bible. He says there are plenty of reminders that the saying is true.

Regardless,I'm confident the same people here noting how stupid and ignorant conservatives are because of this perceived gaffe applied the same standard to President Obama's recent indisputable reference to the "Good Book" referring to people in glass houses not throwing stones and have concluded progressives are also stupid and ignorant, right?

It's especially funny to read down the string of self-congratulatory, lockstep comments descending from "The box they think in is extremely small" line.

Re: One of Us: My Voyage of Self-Discovery with Jonathan Coulton and 800 Sea Monkeys

BrianB — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 16:00:45 -0000

This article make me smile just thinking about wading into a sea of shipbound, self congratulatory, pencil neck Sea Monkeys and knocking their heads together.

In reality I spent not a small amount of time smacking the bullies around who used to torment the geeks and nerds, but the celebration of the unserious and adolescent by both crews was equally repulsive and this article reinforces that widespread reaction of the normal to the tormented and their tormenters.
Apparently neither end of the spectrum outgrows the grade school traumas.

Re: Brilliant! Leftists Lay Out “Six Ideas for Cop-Free World”

BrianB — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 11:48:01 -0000

It's always amusing to listen to conflicted leftists, who believe in essentially unlimited state power in many areas but who also believe, through the power of magical thinking, they can limit Leviathan in others.
The Gulag and Mao's graveyards were absolutely brimming with similarly conflicted leftists who never learned being a lefty means getting with the program in ALL areas the state decides to take an interest in, which is all areas that threaten its power which is pretty much all areas.
Cherry picking is not a collectivist approved activity.

Re: JUST CAME IN: The Last Words Of The Pilot Of The Crashed AirAsia Plane Was “Allahu Akbar!”

BrianB — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 15:04:13 -0000

The cockpit voice recorder was recovered yesterday.

Re: The Charleston Shooter Bought His Gun in A Store

BrianB — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 12:33:56 -0000

You in fact cannot legally purchase (or presumably possess) a gun if you are merely under indictment for a felony punishable by a year or more in prison or if you are an "unlawful user" of or addicted to controlled substances, with ot without a conviction.

Re: Supreme Court Throws Out Arizona, Kansas Voter ID Appeal

BrianB — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 15:42:31 -0000

I have a constitutional right to buy a gun, but to buy one I have to swear I'm not an illegal alien, a drug addict, etc, and show proper photo ID, under severe criminal penalties if I lie Not cool.
Good enough analogy for you?

Re: Supreme Court Throws Out Arizona, Kansas Voter ID Appeal

BrianB — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 15:46:01 -0000

And those protesting voter id laws are attempting to change that and make all transactions subject to background checks and photo ID, no?