Disqus - Latest Comments for autodidact

Re: Don McLean: Why You Should Follow Your Instincts

autodidact — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 13:37:52 -0000

Have been a Don McLean fan since the beginning -- his Tapestry album. He's still going strong. Great to hear him on the show.

Re: The Nine Surefire Ways To Fail At Anything

autodidact — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 10:03:38 -0000

So glad you are going to focus on the podcast. It is truly worthwhile and an encouragement to all of us striving to be better.

Re: The March Goes On

autodidact — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:02:08 -0000

Thank you for the obligatory red herrings to attempt to justify an immoral position. You know as well as I that many pro-life Christians are doing the very things you say they do not care about -- clothing, feeding, educating people. They do it in America, and they do it in foreign lands. Of course, no group is monolithic. I'm sure there are many pro-lifers who do not seem to care. But the ultimate in indifference to life is not to care whether a child even HAS a life, can be discarded at another's whim, or -- like our President Obama voted when he was in the Illinois legislature -- may be allowed to die even if they survive the abortionist's attempt to exterminate him or her. This is the greater evil. I do not cower before your accusations. I donate to help educate people in the third world. What, if I may ask, are *you* doing sir? If you are likewise involved in helping the poor and needy, I salute you. It does not however have anything to do with the immorality of abortion. It either is or is not immoral, and the question of whether pro-lifers are sufficiently charitable (according to your standards) is a separate issue.

Re: Jon Stewart Destroys Media Over Inauguration Coverage

autodidact — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:14:28 -0000

Sir, I think satire, and therefore Colbert, is redundant. This government has reached such a point of ridiculousness, it is self-satirizing. But then, your stereotyping of conservatives is pretty silly too.

Re: This Week in Dark Money: August 24, 2012

autodidact — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 22:52:36 -0000

Check your addition. We're talking billions, not trillions. That's the kind of money people in Washington would call "pencil dust on the ledger." What's sad is how such a relatively small amount can lead to such huge political favors in return -- bailouts, tax breaks, aborted prosecutions of fraudulent activity, regulatory laxness. It's sick.

Re: Hey, Rick Perry: Printing Money Is Patriotic - James Kwak - Business - The Atlantic

autodidact — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 23:13:15 -0000

"Some ideas are so stupid, only an intellectual could believe them." This Orwell quote comes to mind whenever I hear the "prosperity through printing" argument.

In the flavour of rhetoric the Vice President and Democratic Party leadership have been using of late, I would say Usama Bin Bernanke is a monetary terrorist. He's holding savers (like grandmothers and widows) hostage with artificially low interest rates on their savings accounts and CDs.

There is always a cost to money printing. Inflation is not always the immediate result, but it is a slow and sure silent thief of wealth. We may even be seeing deflation in things we want, but unfortunately the inflation in things we need has been damaging to those on fixed incomes and Social Security recipients. (With no COLAs for two years, we could count those who depend on SS in the fixed income category.)

While the elites make their academic arguments, the middle classes suffer from monetary theories run amok. If Bernanke, Krugman, Geithner and other Keynesian clowns had been able to foresee the economic crash, if they had not told us the sub-prime debacle would be just a momentary blip in our ever-upward expansion, and made numerous other false calls, perhaps we could have a modicum of faith in their prescriptions for our economic ills. As Buffett is fond of relating, when the tide goes out, we find out who has been swimming naked. To say the inflationistas record is tarnished would be an understatement.

The fact is that debt growth (under the watchful regulation of the Fed) -- which is the usual means of expanding money supply, i.e. printing -- has exceeded GDP growth for over 30 years. Anyone doubtful of this should peruse Karl Denninger's Market Ticker blog, for he touts these numbers repreatedly. Total debt now sits at approximately 350% of GDP, a greater level than that which preceded the Great Depression. We can only expect that the coming convulsions as debt reverts to the mean will be similarly devastating. If Governor Perry can warn off Bernanke from further destruction of our dollar wealth, he serves a useful purpose. I will ignore the attempted vilification of his justifiably harsh comments from a class of journalists and economists who have thus far not demonstrated any success in predicting the disease or prescribing an effective cure. To them, our current malaise is, to read the daily economic reports, "unexpected." Of course it is unexpected. They haven't a clue.

Finally, for years I have touted The Atlantic Magazine to anyone who would listen as perhaps the finest periodical in the country. The inaccuracy and lack of historical perspective demonstrated by this opinion piece is disillusioning. I may have to rethink my endorsement of the magazine.

Re: Thoughts On A Hostage Crisis

autodidact — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:33:48 -0000

How much income is expected at the Treasury Dept. in August? Let's call that number A. How much is required to pay interest on US bonds and cut Social Security checks in August? Let's call that number B. Since A is obviously much larger than B, why would there be a need to default on either of these obligations? As for the rest, obviously there is a shortfall, and there must be some prioritization. Somehow, we are at the point where living within our means is suddenly a '"crisis." Many in this country do not subscribe to that point of view. Many of them voted in the last election. Elections have consequences.

Obama promised much, delivered little, and has left $3.6 trillion of debt in his wake, in less than three years. Much of this was delivered to bankers who at best took stupid risks and bankrupted their banks, at worst were crooks who should be in jail. Instead, they were bailed out, and paid themselves extra bonuses. With our money. Obama voted for this as a Senator. He carried it out as President. And we wonder why there is no money to pay all our bills?

As the estimable Reverend Wright might have said, "The CHICKENS have come HOME to ROOST! God DAMN this Administration's spending!"

I might add that the debt ceiling was a known quantity, given the level of spending established in the first two years of the Obama regime. Democrats had control of both houses of Congress until early this year. Are they so poor at planning that they could not forsee the need to raise the debt ceiling before the last hour? I wonder why they didn't. These clowns couldn't even pass a budget, let alone provide for the debt funding of the massive spending they desired. Massive fail.

I refuse to take the kabuki show the Administration is putting on at face value. The rich of the world, who own trillions of our bonds, seem unconcerned. Interest rates on government bonds are lower now than at the start of the year. There is little indication of an increased risk premium (i.e. fear of non-payment) for holding government bonds -- which would be evidenced by a spike in interest rates (or to put it another way, a drop in the price of these bonds on the open market). As a non-rich holder of government bonds, savings bonds actually, I think it is more likely I will be repaid if the government stops taking on new debt at the Obama-established rate of 1.5 trillion annually. If the government keeps loading on debt, I'm sure I will be repaid --but it will be payment in more printed money, meaning my inflated dollars will not buy enough to make up for the return in interest. Obamaflation is already hurting the little people the hardest.

So, there are two ways to look at this crisis. I see no reason why America held hostage by those who want to restore fiscal balance is worse than the next generation held hostage by a burgeoning debt that will eat away more of their tax dollars in interest payments and require greatly increased taxes on everyone to maintain programs and promises that appear to be needed. To continue at present rates of spending -- at the rates Obama endorsed in the budget he delivered in February -- is a form of fiscal child abuse. It is really time we face up to the spending problem and stop the metastasis of government.

An appeal to the reality-based faction: Take a look at the 6 month or 1 year chart of the ten year bond here: http://www.marketwatch.com/...

In January, the interest rate was about 3.5% on the 10Y Treasury bond. Now the interest rate is 3.0%. Does this look like the "smart money" is concerned about default on their bonds? Concern about the "full faith and credit" of the government? Hardly. Now will people stop running around like their hair is on fire, and constructively bring forth real solutions to reducing government wisely? The people have spoken.

Re: CD Review: Weird Al Yankovic, “Alpocalypse”

autodidact — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:28:35 -0000

Another problem I noticed was that some songs he parodied were so musically shitty -- no melody, dumb metronomic beats -- that it does not really allow his artistry to shine, except in the lyrics. Yes, that may be the point, but American Pie is a great song and makes a great parody (My, my, here's this Anakin guy, may be Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry...). A great parody of a poor song is at best mediocre. Well, I bought the amazon download on the first day for $4, which is almost worth it for CNR. No complaints. There are good original songs, too. The Devil will use Polka Face to torment sinners by putting it on infinite repeat on hell's iPod. And I do mean infinite. :)

Re: Dw. Dunphy On… ICBM

autodidact — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 01:35:43 -0000

Our municipality has concocted a plan by which we will close down our own sewage treatment facilities (which are actually turning the city a small profit), build a pipeline, and send all our waste down the valley to Des Moines. It's not as high tech as the ICBM, but sort of the same principle. I'm certain our monthly water/sewage bills will rise, but it's a small price to pay for the illusion that our town has no poop to process. I mean, if we don't have a treatment plant... must be there's nothing to treat, right?

Re: Political Culture: A “Permanent Majority,” or Totalitarianism?

autodidact — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:34:54 -0000

I don't think teachers and bureaucrats are villains. My problem is that a lot of them are doing jobs that don't need to be done in the first place. Second, many of them do their jobs poorly. (I guess I didn't mention that half of the HS graduates in Iowa need to take remedial classes when they enter college. This is after education spending increases year after year here. And only 39% of Wisconsin 8th graders are deemed proficient in math -- that's DOE stats.) Third, I object to taxing people with no health care and no pension to fund the health insurance and retirement of public employees. If they want it, let them buy it themselves. Fourth, if Wisconsin teachers don't like what's offered them, let them find another occupation.

You said, "Unions don't organize when things are hunky-dory for workers. They organize when conditions aren't sustainable, when pay and benefits aren't liveable." But this is just my point. If Wisconsin teacher salaries and bennies are truly "unlivable," I would invite them to move to North Dakota where unemployment is only 3.9%, and they may do something else for a "livable" living. Should we somehow subsidize their desire to teach at salaries above what taxpayers are willing to pay just because they claim some "right?"

And my fifth point is to repeat my question -- whose taxes would you increase, and by how much, to pay these people what YOU think they "deserve?" Or, what programs would you cut? We have to stop pretending there is money for everything the Democrats want to do. In fact there is only money to do about half of it.

Finally, with FDR, you miss my point in quoting him. FDR was not anti-labor. Not anti-working man. He gave sound reasons for the conclusion that he drew. And he understood that rights are not absolute. There are competing rights in a society like ours, in the case of the public sector, some of those rights must be subordinated to greater rights and interests of the nation. That's what is happening in Wisconsin (and in Iowa, too), and it is the right thing to do.

Rights are very important. This country was born out of a war about the right of a colony to be represented in decisions made about that colony. You might think the teachers have a similar beef, but no one is forcing them to be public school teachers. They may be private teachers or join some other workforce, where they can choose to be represented by a union. Or not. Michael Moore declared this battle over rights perceived to be an entitlement a war. So be it. But if he wins, the nation loses.

Re: Political Culture: A “Permanent Majority,” or Totalitarianism?

autodidact — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 09:27:55 -0000

You know, instead of your usual hurling of invective, it might be nice to see your budget plan for a state like Illinois. Or Wisconsin. Or California. Whose taxes would have to be increased to continue to pay for these state workers' increasing salaries, health care, and pension bennies? And by how much?

Your anger with Republicans seems to me more like anger with reality itself. The public will not accept the level of taxation required to pay these salaries and extras. A for instance. The athletic director of schools in our town. They're looking for a new guy. He starts at $95K plus health care and pension. What's the total cost of that going to be, annualized? I figure $125K is a modest estimate. Most of us can only dream of that kind of take home swag. We feel increased taxation to pay this compensation is oppression, especially given the cost of living in Iowa, which is modest.

"You must be f-ing kidding me" http://market-ticker.org/ak...

To keep things as they are is unsustainable. To attack the Republicans for attempts to stop us from financial suicide is just a kill the messenger mentality. And if I might borrow from Goldwater, with reference to the Washington DC budget battle, extremism in the pursuit of cutting 6% of a $1.6 trillion deficit is no vice. Neither is taking back the rights public employees never should have had in the first place. That evil Republican FDR agrees with me.

"The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. ...[a] strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable.” -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

My sentiments entirely. It's intolerable.

Re: Dw. Dunphy On… Absolute Double-Dip — We Are Going There

autodidact — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:52:46 -0000

The short term fate of the economy is dependent on the government NOT doing any real cutting (and the Republicans have proposed some cuts, but in percentage terms it amounts to pencil dust on the ledger).

However, their ability spend at current levels IS tied to the willingness of those with capital to still lend to the government at today's low interest rates, and the market's tolerance for the Fed's money printing (scheduled to end in June, but another round of printing press financing coul be in the offing). Today, the markets are running to the dollar and government debt. Tomorrow? Who knows?

Re: Dw. Dunphy On… Absolute Double-Dip — We Are Going There

autodidact — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:47:07 -0000

Forgive me if I introduce a little mathematics to the discussion. Obama's proposed budget, released February 5, estimated the 2011 budget deficit at $1.56 Trillion. The "austere" cuts of $61 billion proposed by the House Republicans amounts to a mere 3.9 percent reduction in the deficit. Harry Reid claimed that $41 billion has already been cut. Taking him at his word, and adding the Republicans $61 billion in spending reductions brings us to $102 billion, which is still only 6.5% of the cuts needed to balance the budget. It will hardly make a dent.

There will be no double dip. That is because there was never a recovery. There was an illusion of recovery -- a near-jobless recovery at that -- an illusion sustained only by maxing out the nation's credit card for two years, in addition to printing approximately $2.5 Trillion.

They can argue all day about how mean and terrible the GOP's cuts are, but the spreadsheet does not lie. Where is the money going to come from if we do not reduce spending much more than even the Republicans have proposed?

There is no magical solution. We can continue to borrow until those with money to lend demand so much interest that our federal budget becomes eaten up with interest payments. You may look at Greece for an example of this. The alternative is to print money. We already see the side effects of that, with higher food and energy costs. We will soon be seeing higher prices even on junk from Walmart, as the price of raw materials to manufacture goods in foreign nations has risen. We cannot counterfeit our way to wealth.

We could raise taxes. Good idea? The biggest businesses will move their operations overseas. They will filter profits through different countries until, like Google, they will pay tax of about 3% on overseas earnings. Many of the rich may just decide to "go Galt" and reduce their income, get out of the rat race, and thus reduce their tax liabilities. Many will simply leave for countries with lower taxes, just as the rich fled the high tax state of New Jersey. I submit that if you taxed every dollar of income from millionaires, you could not close the hole that Democrats have blown in the federal budget. (Yes Republicans blew big holes in the budget prior to 2008, so credit where credit is due, but they used .22 rifles, and Obama/Pelosi/Reid used larger caliber weapons.)

So finally we are left with one option. Cut spending. The spending cuts that must eventually come will make the current GOP proposals look like a birthday party. Churchill once said, "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities." Right now we are looking at pretend budget responsibility, on both sides of the aisle, as they desperately try to exhaust the possibilities for avoiding that which we must do.

Notice I'm not even talking about how the bankers got away with fraud and stole about $3 trillion from us, with Bush's, McCain's, Obama's, Reid's, Pelosi's, and the Republican establishment's blessings? Nobody wants to talk about that. I'm about ready to throw in the towel.

Remember this. The income coming in this year to the US Treasury in taxes will pay for the following: Interest on previous debt, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, various "mandatory" programs, and a fraction of the Defense Department. Most of defense and every other function of the federal government is running on the national credit card. Education, public broadcasting, agriculture, OSHA, you name it. All on the credit card. Look in the Battlestar Galactica dictionary under "frakked" and you will find the taxpayers of the United States.

Re: Political Culture: We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are Us

autodidact — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:24:27 -0000

Update for anyone who happens to read this... New York Times reported a day or two ago that the Arizona shooter suffered from Bush Derangement Syndrome -- would go into a rage at the sight of him.

Won't you please send your tax deductible donation to help find a cure for Bush Derangement Syndrome today?

Re: Random Play: “Born This Way”

autodidact — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:15:30 -0000

I thought identical twin studies have shown that twins raised apart show a marked divergence in sexual preferences, whereas those raised together are much more congruent. This is not true of skin color, or eye color. So then environment plays a major role, while genetics may set up a predisposition to certain environmental triggers. Like cancer. But it is certainly not a "born with" proposition as with truly genetic traits.

There is no denying that homosexuality is natural. Violence seems to be natural -- we see it everywhere in the human and animal kingdoms. Many natural things are undesirable. Homosexual behavior is immoral, and people do have the choice not to engage in it, just as I have the choice to engage or not engage in immoral behaviors I am attracted to. One cannot choose not to have blue eyes. One can choose not to live this lifestyle.

The blog may make you feel good for some odd reason, but I believe it is based on a distortion of the scientific reality. Homosexuality goes against our traditional religious morals, which many of us believe are based on very sound and time-tested principles. As a Christian, I believe that God defined as sin those behaviors which would tend to harm us and/or harm society. This is our objection to homosexual behavior.

If you want to learn more about the very real harm that homosexuals do to themselves by putting their "orientation" (or compulsion or attraction) into action, as well as the scientific studies I alluded to, I suggest you look up the book Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, by Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, who as a brilliant scientist (he was mentored by Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman) details the scientific work that has been done, and as a psychiatrist can describe the medical and psychological side of this troubling problem. Well, you should look this up if you're not afraid of exposing yourself to a fact-based series of arguments that oppose your already well-established predispositions.

Re: Political Culture: We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are Us

autodidact — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:55:34 -0000

War is an all-purpose word. War on drugs. War on cancer. War on poverty. War against Christmas. War against secular humanism.

It is only natural that a certain kind of jargon will be part of the political discourse. In the broad sense, don't you feel that America genuinely is at war? I don't see any polls to indicate that the center is expanding. People are retreating to their natural corners. Wishing it wasn't so will not change it.

Either we must split the country and let each faction live in the jurisdiction they choose, with the philosophy most acceptable to them. Or one side must decisively overwhelm the opposition by politically defeating them.

There are too many issues on which there can be no compromise on either side. Each side believes it has truth, and the other side represents error. I don't want bloodshed, but sometimes I think it is unlikely that there will not eventually be a literal physical conflict.

Let me also add a bit of wisdom, for what it is worth. The right has suffered the slings and arrows of so many disrespectful and derogatory parodies, caricatures, and outright insults, that when you call us haters, it has completely lost it's sting. We don't care anymore, get it? Call us haters, bigots, people with single-digit IQs, bitter clingers. You build up callouses, and anything from spitballs to cannonballs bounce right off.

What we call exposing the truth of the opposition's agenda, you call demonization. When we defend traditional values, you call it bigotry. And so on. I don't see any cure for this. The well is poisoned. Again, I don't want any violence. A peaceful separation would be most preferred, but a nation cannot continue in a state of two opposing minds. The eventual collapse of our economy will probably be the final trigger for resolution of these irreconcilable differences. Am I contradicting what I wrote earlier about multilateral disarmament in the word war and raising the intellectual level of debate? No. That's what I wish would happen. I don't believe that is what will happen.

Re: Political Culture: We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are Us

autodidact — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:31:46 -0000

So, what are we going to do? Pass a law banning metaphors?

Re: Political Culture: We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are Us

autodidact — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:28:03 -0000

Left or right, people who want change intensely enough will resort to violent acts. Weather Underground, anyone?

KShane wants to implicate the Tea Party as far right, but there is a strong element of populism in that movement as well. I'm not sure the label fits. I'm sure it seems far right from out in left field. ;)

As one Tea Party candidate noted in the last election, this country was born out of violence. It would not exist without violence. Jefferson said the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Unpleasant or not, is this truth? Sad to say, this seems to be the way the world works in this present age. But the Arizona shooter was not a patriot, and the Congresswoman was not a tyrant. It is a mistake to attempt rational analysis of the motivations of irrational people. From what we have learned so far, it would seem a mistake to attribute left or right politics as a motive. He shot a Democratic Congresswoman and a Republican-appointed judge. Fair and balanced, I guess. To the extent we could put a label on it, it smacks of anarchism.

I pray that Representative Giffords will fully recover and be soundly defeated in the next election.

I just read a piece linked from Drudge -- a conversation between Russell Simmons and Roger Ailes, who both agree we need a more intellectual and less visceral political debate. Both sides have gravitated toward sound bites as weapons that do more to raise the temperature than the knowledge level of the audience. We have sound bite simpleton philosophy on the left and the right. I shout at the radio when Limbaugh does it. I scowl and yell and strike things when Obama does it.

But rest assured Obama will "bring a gun to a knife fight." Right? Rest assured. Because to defeat those evil haters, you've got to become one. Remember when peace-loving liberal Alec Baldwin suggested that an appropriate response to Representative Henry Hyde would be to stone him and kill his wife and children? Very funny, that guy.

So, I agree. Multilateral disarmament. I think ridicule is fair game, but I don't want any physical harm to come to people in our government or politics, nor do I agree with any innuendo suggesting it. And let's raise the stakes by having real debates, Lincoln-Douglas style, instead of the glorified press conferences with pre-filtered questions and canned answers that they call debates. That would allow detailed examination and cross-examination of issues, perhaps exposing some of the genuine illogic of the rhetoric in both parties and increasing the intellectual content. Just a thought. I know, it has no hope in our era of the 15-second attention span. *sigh*

Re: Imagine

autodidact — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 13:03:05 -0000

My problem is that I don't imagine that it means something other than it actually says it means. The goals are correct, but the means proposed are faulty.

Re: Political Culture: Greetings, Fellow Hostages!

autodidact — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:45:21 -0000

I guess you don't know how frugal you can be, until you try. My dad never earned more than $38K a year. My mother did not work. The only use of credit our family had was to assume a loan on a very modest (less than 1000 square foot) home at 7% interest. (This was the 1970s.) This was paid off early. We continued to accumulate savings, even though Dad was only able to work part time. We paid taxes, and a full tithe to our church (pre tax) on earned income.

Save, invest, do without. One can do this if the central bank is not frakking the currency. Fed Clown Ben Bernanke must go. Paul Volker was USED by this administration for his gravitas, his image, but they ignored his advice.

I've heard this argument before. "The people of this country can't deny themselves." I'm sorry, but the rich have their escape plan, their special legal loopholes. And if you could confiscate all their wealth, it would not do much more than pay for a few more years of excess consumption. Run the numbers yourself. Show me how wealth confiscation is going to help us in the long run. It really isn't a matter of whether or not we want to deny ourselves. You can print dollars, but you cannot print value. You cannot print real wealth. I say this not because I love the rich. I say it because taxing them more does not offer a long term solution. Look at states which have raised taxes on the rich. Did they get as much revenue as projected? No. Look at New Jersey. The millionaires fled, taking jobs and capital with them. Rich can also flee to other nations. Google paid a 2% tax rate on their foreign profits last year. They could easily pack up and move their HQ elsewhere, wherever tax advantages are greatest.

Conservative, liberal, it doesn't matter. The disparity between production and consumption cannot continue. Senator Tom Coburn recently stated that in the next two or three years the borrowing requirements of various governments around the world to maintain current levels of spending exceed the total amount of free capital in the world! I look at this train wreck coming, and I don't know how any sane, aware person cannot admit that government spending must decline. Throughout history, the same things have happened to various empires, or even to individual city-states. There are economic laws that we cannot violate through some sort of fiscal magic.

I think voluntary frugality will be less destructive than involuntary frugality brought on by continuing to spend until we reach a debt crisis. But hey, take your pick, my friend. Prepare to lower your standard of living, unless you are very, very lucky.

Re: Political Culture: Greetings, Fellow Hostages!

autodidact — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:11:27 -0000

That "who benefits?" bar graph is pretty funny. Here's one that is decidedly not funny at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Receipts versus expenditures for the recent federal budget. As you can see, taxes and other revenues will pay for entitlements, interest on the debt, and a little bit of defense spending. The rest of defense spending and every other function of government is now being funded with BORROWED money.

This is the only truth that matters.

Re: Political Culture: Greetings, Fellow Hostages!

autodidact — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:04:03 -0000

The roots of the 1990s boom were the expansion of credit (debt) at a much greater rate than GDP. The credit was spent on consumption and speculation. Feels great, but it is phony prosperity.

Re: Political Culture: Greetings, Fellow Hostages!

autodidact — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:58:17 -0000

As an unreconstructed "hate-filled conservative" (aka Teafoxlican), I just want to say that I reject Obama's compromise as well. On this one, I'm on the side of all you socialists (aka commies). Actually, the cavalry has not yet arrived in Washington. The GOP is still saddled with its old guard, wheeling and dealing and lying and stealing. What the Republicans have agreed to with Obama (whether the other Dems will go along is an open question) is a mixture of fiscal irresponsibility mixed and more fiscal irresponsibility: tax cuts (the income taxes remain the same, but now a FICA tax cut has been thrown into the pork barrel) traded for spending increases (mainly the extension of unemployment benefits).

Obama told the truth when he said that if taxes were raised, we could go into another recession. With 9.8% headline unemployment, one wonders by what measure he thinks we have come out of the first one. The Bankers' bonus index? But with this new bipartisan "kick the can down the road" strategery, we can count on other nasty side effects, even as the economy limps along in neutral (if we're lucky). We edge closer and closer to a bond market crisis where interest rates rise and the deficit skyrockets from its current nosebleed zone. Print money, and the dollar tanks, making most of what we buy more expensive. All the while, the banking/Wall Street fraud machine rolls along, racking up more profits from speculating on the taxpayers' bailout money.

What's wrong with this picture? Everything. I hope this deal fails. Obama has already failed. There is no Plan B, and Obama doesn't understand how wealth is created. Therefore, the future holds only wealth destruction, until we finally put some adults in charge. Believe me, fiscal conservatives feel as much a hostage as any of the rest of you. We are hostage to idiots on both sides of the aisle who can't bring themselves to balance the national checkbook, or even make a feeble move in that direction. It will end in tears.

Re: Imagine

autodidact — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:36:50 -0000

"Embedding disabled by request..." Oh, well.

Imagine no possessions, Yoko, Inc. I wonder if you can. Lennon estate: $300+ million.

How seriously should we take this song? Obviously greed and war are things we'd love to do away with. But, no countries? Do countries serve no good purpose? Can man live without government? If no countries, then the alternative is one world government. What might be the consequences of an even greater concentration of power in universal government than we see in big national governments like the US? More power, more temptation, more corruption, more oppression.

No religion? What then is the basis of morality? Has science solved our problems? Can it explain the miracle of the first living cell? Because there are mysteries, there will be religions, some good and some bad. As Jesus said, by their fruits shall you know them. By that standard, many Christian sects will not fare well in judgment. Still, our founders said that a republic could stand only if the people were moral, honest, industrious, generous, thankful, and cognizant of the blessings of the Creator.

This is the song most people remember Lennon for. Because it expresses a dream that is unworkable, I prefer to remember Mr. Lennon for songs like "Woman," "Beautiful Boy," "Watching the Wheels," and great nonsense tunes he did with the Beatles... "Come Together," "I am the Walrus," etc. Lennon: a great talent. Not a great philosopher.

Re: The Fifth Day of Mellowmas: BoyleFinnmas

autodidact — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 12:20:45 -0000

I don't know why, but this arrangement conjures up in my head scenes from the end of Henry V, as King Harry (Kenneth Branagh) is making his way through the slop and corpses, surveying the destruction. It would almost fit as a soundtrack.

So far, nothing I've heard on Susan Boyle's recordings sound anything like the honesty and energy of her first TV performance -- the one with a hundred quadrillion YouTube views. They've homogenized her.