Disqus - Latest Comments for Slamfu

Re: The Town Where “Death Panels” Started

Slamfu — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:40:11 -0000

This death panel bs is so typical of conservative PR machines. Take a decent idea(end of life planning in this case), strip it of all context, take the worst possible interpretation of whats left and present that to the public as an example of liberal ideology. I swear every regular FOX news listener I know is convinced there will literally be a group of gov't functionaries deciding your fate if "Obamacare" gets pushed through. The right does this with great frequency and with more gusto than the left by far.

Re: Is the Stimulus Working?

Slamfu — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:20:37 -0000

Well, considering our financial institutions were hair's breadth away from going insolvent and they are still around I would say its working. I mean, a depression was looming there, our banks almost went out. So yea, I would say its pretty obvious its working.

Re: Coming Consensus on Afghanistan

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:56:21 -0000

Well unlike Iraq, this country actually was tied into the GWOT and was the training ground for Al-Queda. Now that Pakistan is finally putting pressure on the tribes from their side, we need to maintain the pressure from our side. Giving up now when we are finally able to devote the resources that were being uselessly tied up in Iraq seems like a bad idea.

Re: Sarah Palin’s Imagery Management Is About To Get Harder

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:19:22 -0000

This is news? Someone beating up on Sarah Palin again, oh joy.

Re: Obama’s Health Care Reform Will Decimate Our Population

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:29:42 -0000

In Elroy's defence there was so much repetitive drivel it was sorta hard to make it all the way to the bottom.

Re: The Truth About Charles Grassley (and Health-Care Reform)

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:17:02 -0000

My god, can you imagine what would have happened if the SS money had been put on the stock market. I'd actually kinda forgotten about that. The Dems should be touting that as a major victory if they were the ones that stoopped it. .

Re: Why Americans are Up in Arms (Guest Voice)

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:08:24 -0000

Zzzzz, you just don't get it. Sure, Bush might have been abolishing habeus corpus and spying on us with gov't resources and no warrants, but Obama is trying to give us free healthcare! Surely you can see the difference, the clear and present danger that Obama presents to the founding principles of this country. Obama = Hitler. There, I said it.

Re: Harry Reid in Local Feud

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:13:11 -0000

Good, Harry Reid is a jackass. While I thought Bush and his crew were just short of criminally negligent in the running of this nation for 8 years, I knew as much as I liked Obama the dems would only screw up in different, hopefully less destructive and less expensives ways. And I've known for years that the dem who would most likely be out in front doing his best to drop the ball would be Harry Reid.

Re: Arizona Pastor Repeats Wish For Barack Obama’s Death

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:08:18 -0000

How big is this guy's following? Maybe he's a crackpot and maybe he's got a 10,000 strong flock. Knowing the uber conservatives that lap up this kind of thing it could be a sizable group that listens to him. I used to thing Mike Savage and Rush were too far out there to be taken seriously and yet they have huge followings.

Re: The Moral Question (Guest Voice)

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:43:29 -0000

Putting it in terms like "is killing one to save many worth it" is wrong. First, we are not talking about apples here, and second, you are not even stating what is you are in fact trading. Its not the life of one killer for the life of x amount of innocents. What are are trading is your ideals, for an unsure payoff. My understanding is we as a nation put those ideals forward because they are the greater good. That in fact those ideas are more important that the lives that would be saved preventing a bomb going off on a subway car. Ideals are what separate us from the bad guys. They are hard to live by if they are worthy, that's why they are referred to as noble ideals instead of ignoble ones. The idea of noble is one of sacrifice and burden.

Fear is what happens when you realize you might die now, and all of a sudden you have an out by forsaking those ideals. Especially when the cost is so cheap, the life and comfort of a proven killer in exchange for the hopeful insurance of my own life and comfort. Even though it is the act itself that needs to be considered not the relative worth of the person its being done to. Because, we have always seen in history the act will be applied eventually to the innocent as well as the guilty. So what you need to ask yourself is not is it worth it to do this to a killer to save lives, but is it worth it to torture one of my own loved ones to do save these lives. If you think it is still worth the sacrifice, then perhaps you are right.

Re: Why are Jews liberals?

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:38:05 -0000

They are liberals I believe because the core of the conservative ideal is for a white christian America. You can hear it every time Hannity, Rush, Coulter, talk about minorities, immigrants or folk with a different religion. Its the fear of losing what they consider to be their rightful place in the world. That their way of things must not only be considered equal it must be dominant or it is under attack and in danger. That's why the liberals will always have the larger share of the demographics in all non white, non christian groups.

Re: Rhetoric Is Now Dangerously Beneath Contempt

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:33:43 -0000

Well, buchanans "We Need 'Rough Men' at the CIA" sounds a lot like the grandmother eating one.

Re: Bernanke Does A Cheney

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:23:07 -0000

Transparency anyone? Jesus I thought we were going to get some with a new president.

Re: We Are A Culture Of Liars

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:20:24 -0000

What I never understood is public acceptance of lies, how as long as they are stuck to they are truth, a joke almost. The example of the tobacco company was a great one. Everyone knew nicotine was addictive, but i wasn't until the companies themselves admitted it was that they were liable. Bill Clinton "Didn't inhale", I mean give me a break. But until the lie is owned up to, it is in every measurable way and for all intents and purposes, the truth. Its really a weird phenomenon.

Re: Health Reform is Not the End of America as We Know It

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:25:42 -0000

I got your Social Security fix, its easy and fun! START HAVING BABIES PEOPLE!! Oh, and make sure they get an education and jobs.

Re: G.W. Bush: The Real Jimmy Doolitle of ‘Nam?

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:07:17 -0000

Thats hardly fair expecting someone to remember something from decades past. But that's why they make you sign a document, so no one has to wonder.

Re: G.W. Bush: The Real Jimmy Doolitle of ‘Nam?

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:04:18 -0000

Flipping their respective VN war records was perhaps the greatest PR accomplishment of all time. It was a testament to the gullibility of the American public and what you can do by repeating absolute BS long enough and loud enough.

Bush dodged combat via connections, Kerry actually served in combat, was shot at and killed people, end of story. There is no right or left side to this, that's what happened.

Re: What Secrets Lie Behind Redacted Portions of CIA Report?

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:39:28 -0000

Gotta wonder the the point is of the FOIA sometimes. We can't tell you we did that because its really, really bad and um, would compromise national security, yea, thats it.

Re: Health Reform is Not the End of America as We Know It

Slamfu — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:27:49 -0000

"Except that costs are skyrocketing in all the government run programs as well as in the private non-profit medical sector. How do you explain that?"

Because they are all buying from the same trough. And those programs are getting gouged from the private sector as well. Basic fact is prices are rising way faster than inflation and everyone just accepts it. No one want to take a look at the industry to fix things. For instance, the AMA decides how many types of how many of each specialty they will allow into a field every year. This is their mechanism to keep salaries up. They are the ones in effect who are rationing healthcare. As well as say Pfizer, who sells pills here for $25 that they sell to countries like France, with its socialized medicine and consquent purchasing power, for $6. Why? Because the system is currently structured in a way that this price fixing can go on and most people will never notice. They will simply look at the rising costs and shrug their shoulders as if nothing can be done.

Re: Health Reform is Not the End of America as We Know It

Slamfu — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:21:14 -0000

You want to reform healthcare, get the related industries to stop gouging the public. Costs in healthcare are skyrocketing even while pharma companies are showing record profits. When costs go up and manufacturers pockets are bulging, guess what? People are getting screwed. I hate to sound like some sort of anti corporate lefty, but sometimes that's the case.

I love big business, its what makes the economy go. But I don't TRUST big business any farther than I can throw it. Time and again they have shown that profit comes even before human lives. Hell, the most spectacular stories in the last decade come in the form of companies putting short term profit above the health of their own organizations. Companies like Enron, Arthur Anderson, and recently the entire financial sector, can't even be trusted to look after their own best interests if it conflicts with making the next quarterly report look good. You want these guys to run our healthcare?

Re: 5 Myths About Health Care Around the World

Slamfu — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:05:51 -0000

I just don't get this clinging attitude towards the greatness of our heathcare system. Its not working, its dying, and millions don't have coverage. Some things the free market system doesn't do well, and this is one of them. Free market is based around the idea that consumers have choices. You don't have a choice about healthcare, when your leg is broke, you need to see a doctor. Food is not an option, it is subsidized by the gov't and as a result, even though we all pay farmers in taxes, we don't have to worry about a famine. How is medical care any different?

Anti reform folks seem to mostly be scared of a faceless gov't bureaucrat pulling the plug on grandma. Newsflash, thats already happening. Except that faceless bureaucrat works for the insurance company and gets a bonus check for it. Been to the hospital lately guys? Know what a "wallet biopsy" is? You will excuse me if I am not willing to give a shot to a system that seems to work fine in so many other countries. Pharma companies are charging americans up to 10x as much for products than they do in other countries because they know with the current system they can stick it to us. The numbers are right out in the open, look at them and ask why.

Re: The Importance of Geothermal Power

Slamfu — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:47:19 -0000

"The potential for EGS in the U.S. is enormous. A 2006 MIT report concluded it could provide 100,000 MW of power by 2050."

The US currently consumes about 4 Trillion watts as of 2008. So even if this hypothetical value does get reached by 2050 and our consumption stays the same, your looking at an answer to 2.5% of our power needs. Geothermal is clean, and it certainly should be used where it can be, but overall it is not an answer to our needs. There just aren't enough locations to provide enough energy to make it one. The same can be said of tidal energy. Both solutions are side dishes to the clean energy problem, not the main course.

Re: Guns and Tourism

Slamfu — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:57:06 -0000

"How does a tourist without a gun protect him/herself from people who are carrying guns?"

Tell them to try Washington DC if it makes them feel safer, no one is allowed to carry guns there. Fact is places like this are safer as a result of open gun laws. People worry about responsible gun owners going nuts and randomly shooting people but does anyone know of a case where someone with a non-violent background carrying a piece is actually caught doing that? I

Re: Barney Frank Bats Down “Nazi” Charge At Town Hall

Slamfu — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:30:00 -0000

Obama wants to bring about a national healthcare system. That's what Hitler did right? I see nothing wrong with this comparison.

Re: “Sensible Conservative” Is Not an Oxymoron

Slamfu — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:32:10 -0000

"It is the direct result of government intervention into the normal balance between what something (in this case houses) costs and what people are wiling and able to pay."

Oh you are mistaken there. Lack of government oversight is what made this mess. Loaning institutions being in bed with investment institutions and both of them throwing safe business practices to the wind caused this catastrophe. No one forced banks to stop checking peoples' credit rating and start cutting loans to anyone. No one forced investment institutions to make the resulting billions of dollars of bad paper, turn them into bonds, then rate them AAA instead of the high risk crap that they were. That was pure unmoderated capitalism and one of the strongest arguments ever for gov't oversight and anti-trust legislation.

The whole point of anti-trust law is that institutions don't become so important to the day to day of this country that we can't afford to let them go out. That the citizens of this country are not financially liable for the malfeasance of greedy bastards if they screw things up so bad they go out of business. Wrap your anti-government interference mind around that concept: Government interference PREVENTS Socialism. Because thats what it is when the government has to use TRILLIONS of dollars in taxes to prevent a full scale economic meltdown caused by private sector incompetence.