1 poor DOOM kitteh looks awfully chilly

2 the president is a scoamf

3 Barack Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

4 I must say that the DOOM here this morning is excellent!  Perfectly condito with bitters and hemlock.  Exquisite!

5

Plenty of people in the world have it hell of a lot worse than you do. Quit yer whining and get your ass to work. Oh, and if you don’t feel “fulfilled” by your work? Join the club, pal. If it was fun they wouldn’t call it "work".

You sound like Red Foreman from That 70s Show.  His was the best character on the show, so that's a compliment!

6 Morning all! Comment registration is open at HotAir if anyone is interested. -- Of course Krugman doesn't like Hayek. What a maroon.

7 Would it be wrong to have sushi for lunch today?

8 yes dr. varno and it would be wrong to eat liver as well......

9 So, if the economy is going further into the crapper it seems there would be less f'n traffic on the roads in the mornings and evenings.

The past two days have been particularly bad. As in Christianity-damaging meltdowns bad.

10 Of course Krugman doesn't like Hayek. What a maroon.

Posted by: Joffen at December 07, 2011 09:11 AM (zLeKL)

I would eat his braaaaaaaains, if he had any...

11 the world doesnÂ’t owe you a living. Nor does Mimsie and Pater, come to that. If you have to subsist on mac-n-cheese and wear factory-second clothes and give up your cable TV or cellphone to pay the bills, so be it.

This, this, a million times this. 

I go nuts every spring and summer when local sports teams (some jr league or something) will stand out in the middle of the street like they're the Marines with Toys-for-Tots, or the Fire Department with whatever charity they collect for, with signs that say "Send us to Nationals!"

The problem is that I never see a parent around (they're always teenagers) so I can't yell at the true source of the problem: parents who have encouraged this "you owe me" attitude.  You want Jr to go to Nationals?  Send him.  You pay for it.  If he needs to pay for it: let him earn the money- don't let him stand by the side of the road like a beggar.  He can mow lawns, or wash cars or windows, or any number of other things- he can provide me with some kind of value- if he wants my money.

12 Who knew that the Eye of  Newt was drag thing?

13 The past two days have been particularly bad. As in Christianity-damaging meltdowns bad.

Are you sure the problem is the traffic, and not the destination?  I know I get much more touchy about traffic when I'm going somewhere (or have just been somewhere) I hate to be.

Of course Krugman doesn't like Hayek. What a maroon.

Posted by: Joffen at December 07, 2011 09:11 AM (zLeKL)

I would eat his braaaaaaaains, if he had any...

Posted by: Zombie Friedrich von Hayek at December 07, 2011 09:13 AM (DrWcr)

That would be a good way for a zombie to starve, alright.

14 Rudolph the Red Nose Kitteh.

15 Allen, destination is certainly part of it. But I have never done traffic well. I will go out of my way just to avoid it.

But this craphole building in this craphole location they moved us to 18 months ago has no good way to get to it.

16 The only eye-popping we're interested in comes at the end of teh pump.

17

You sound like Red Foreman from That 70s Show.  His was the best character on the show, so that's a compliment!

Posted by: Insomniac at December 07, 2011 09:10 AM (v+QvA)

After Robo-Cop all they had to do was knock off a few rough edges and you had the perfect character.  Plus Ashton Kutcher pretty much played the same dumbass role he lives on screen and "real life".

18 I will go out of my way just to avoid it.

I understand.  I go to work early and stay late just to avoid rush-hour.

Of course, living in DFW, it's more like rush-three-hundred-and-sixty-minutes.

19 Monty,
I've come to the conclusion that we will never pay off the debt.  It's just not realistic to believe we can climb out of a $15T and growing hole.  That's 10+ years of every penny of GDP, I believe.  So, what are the options for somehow hitting the reset button?  Are there any that don't involve complete calamity and revolution?


There will be blood.

20 But by all means, let's decide that the best person to fix the problems created/worsened by a statist president is the former Governor of a nanny state, who signed the country's first mandatory government healthcare plan, and thinks these problems can be solved by nibbling at the edges. Man, and people complain Perry is dumb.

21 DFW? You know I've thought about that place as a possible escape route but the mass of humanity there scares me a bit.

I loathe going to Atlanta and I think DFW has more.

Was thinking on the drive in I need to sneak out on Dice today and look for code slinger gigs in Wyoming. That would play to my misanthropy but I'd have to sell the wife on the Winters.

22 17, his character in Fortress was pretty much the same too.

23 Was thinking on the drive in I need to sneak out on Dice today and look for code slinger gigs in Wyoming.

I am a Wyoming boy born and raised. Let me tell you something about that state: it's cold, but it's windy, too. You've never experienced wind like you will in Wyoming. 250-300 days a year. You either get used to it, or you put a bullet in your skull, or you move away. I moved away.

I grew up in the eastern part of the state, where there is that one tree you can shelter behind....

24 allen wow.....kindred spirit....i don't let my kids fund raise AT ALL....my friends don't understand this.....for big things my kids have to contribute a portion by working for it.....i don't let them ask the grandparents....i don't let them ask the neighbors and i don't let them stand on the corner......

25 Monty,
I enjoyed reading your link to Rumpus about the entitled student loan brat.  While Sugar did a good job giving the beat down to the whiny petulant child, I couldn't help but be a bit dumbstruck by the fact that Sugar claims to be a self-admitted socialist.  How can someone simultaneously believe that, in her words, "[y]ou donÂ’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones youÂ’re holding", but at the same time, work to create a socialist system which only creates more dependency on others, more victim mentality class-warfare blame-shifting?  I don't get it.  These liberals, they are strange creatures.

26 the mass of humanity there scares me a bit.

I grew up just outside of the Metroplex, so I may be desensitized to it, but it's really not that bad.  As many people as are in the area (a few million), we're actually not very population-dense.  We've got a fair amount of geographic space, so it doesn't feel crowded (to me, anyway).

And Fort Worth and "The Mid-Cities" (basically, everything in the area that isn't Dallas) is much more Conservative, as I understand it, than Atlanta.  At my current employer, the boss and his secretary listen to Rush every day, and the preferred topic of conversation at our Thanksgiving luncheon was about how much of a SCOAMF (though not using that term- we are professionals, after all) Obama is, and how much we all wish Perry was doing better in the primary race.

27

After Robo-Cop all they had to do was knock off a few rough edges and you had the perfect character.  Plus Ashton Kutcher pretty much played the same dumbass role he lives on screen and "real life".

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 07, 2011 09:18 AM (UJYQt)

His character was one of the reasons I watched the show as long as I did.  Well, and the fact that Mila Kunis and Laura Prepon were teh hawt.

28 It's just not realistic to believe we can climb out of a $15T and growing hole.  That's 10+ years of every penny of GDP, I believe.

No, it is about 1 full year of GDP.

29

I go nuts every spring and summer when local sports teams (some jr league or something) will stand out in the middle of the street like they're the Marines with Toys-for-Tots, or the Fire Department with whatever charity they collect for, with signs that say "Send us to Nationals!"

I do have a weakness for cheerleader car washes.  Of course, the parents do all the work while Brandi and Marissa text how bored they are. 

30 Screw the internets, I'm the one who killed employment.

31 30 Screw the internets, I'm the one who killed employment.

Posted by: The ATM Machine at December 07, 2011 09:29 AM (7+pP9)

You're both pikers.

32 Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) says 'No' to RINO Romney at December 07, 2011 09:14 AM (8y9MW)

I don't get it.  They are doing exactly what I suspect a lot of conservatives would demand of them: instead of going to the school board and demanding that property taxes be raised so that they can get their sports trip to Nationals, they are raising the money themselves.  Are you objecting to the fundraising itself, or to the "Send Us To Nationals!" sign?  I agree, that sign isn't exactly a great marking sales pitch, but I don't begrudge them their effort.

33 Would it be wrong to have sushi for lunch today?

Posted by: Dr. Varno at December 07, 2011 09:11 AM (s3v99)

Not if you're at the Sidwell School of spoiled brats

34

He can mow lawns, or wash cars or windows, or any number of other things- he can provide me with some kind of value- if he wants my money.

There is hope.  The local H.S. Cross Country team (boys and girls) did a carwash for donations at the Ace Hardware store back in October.  With parents.  Wearing school name/logo gear and looking like normal kids (i.e. no skeezy factor)

Pulled up, left the keys in the truck (has school decal on it) and went inside to get a few things.  Came out, paid the man mom and chatted a bit.  Walked over to where they had moved the now clean&shiny truck and several of the kids thanked me for donating.

Somebody's doing something right.

35 I don't want to live in an America where everyone has a fair shake, and the middle class is allowed to save money or have a decent wage. This is not the America I love.

36 Posted by: phoenixgirl at December 07, 2011 09:24 AM (SH3gZ)

I plan to let my kids raise funds, just not as though their trip to wherever is charity.  If they want to go to Nationals with their sports team, that's great.  If it's an actual honor to go (instead of, as so many are now, just you get to go if you can pay for a space), then I'll probably cover anything they can't.  But, in either case, they're going to cut grass, or wash windows, or have a bake-sale, or something.

They will bear the cost (either through earning the money, or sacrificing money they had received in gifts) of doing those things.

I also agree with them not being able to ask grandparents, friends at church, or anything like that.  You can offer them the same service you do to strangers (mowing the lawn or whatever).

37 28...you are correct, ChemJeff.  I was thinking tax receipts, I think.  Which are about $1.7T, correct?

Anyway, my point still is the same...we'll implode first.  Paying it off isn't even remotely possible, IMO.  So, what options are there?




There will be blood.

38

Posted by: The Hammer at December 07, 2011 09:32 AM (5tuNM)

yup it would take about 10 years' worth of current level tax receipts to pay off all the debt

39 Maybe we can do a car wash to help pay off the Federal Debt. 

40 Are you objecting to the fundraising itself, or to the "Send Us To Nationals!" sign?

These aren't school teams.  The schools have official fund-raisers for the teams they don't just subsidize- but most teams they subsidize (at least in our area, they do.  I never had to pay one penny to go to competition with the Band, except for the one a year we would go to which was an "invitational"- that is, private).

I object to the method of fundraising: just sticking their hand out and expecting me to fill it with cash.

I wouldn't have a problem at all if they worked for the money, but standing there demanding money is the prerogative of actual charities.

41 I am a Wyoming boy born and raised. Let me tell you something about that state: it's cold, but it's windy, too.

We experienced this right after Christmas 2004 as we were driving back from visiting the in-laws stationed at Mountain Home, ID.

We stopped for fuel at one point and when I got out I thought the wind was going to take the car door off its hinges.

42 Ecce homo! Indeed.*

43 39 Maybe we can do a car wash to help pay off the Federal Debt. 

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at December 07, 2011 09:35 AM (Ec6wH)

Great idea!  You soft, fat, weak Americans need more exercise anyway!  Let's mooooove, America!

44 *I hate that Hot Air "indeed" shit like crazy. Every time I see it I want to punch Allah in the smooth patch where his balls used to be before he sold out to The Malkin.

45 42 Ecce homo!


Indeed.*

Posted by: Empire of Jeff at December 07, 2011 09:38 AM (0yt4x)

You can say that again!

46 Hayek understood that economics is not mathematics (however much its practitioners love to put on the mantle of the hard sciences).

THANK. YOU.

All of the sciences like to disdain mathematics as "impractical" while running to embrace our metaphysical certainty to legitimize their own subject.

47

Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) says 'No' to RINO Romney at December 07, 2011 09:35 AM (8y9MW)

Okay, so they aren't school teams.  Nevertheless, they aren't running to the government to get some sweet gov't gravy to fund their little adventure.  That for me is enough of a victory.  If they want to stick their hands out and expect *voluntary* donations, that's fine.  If they want to rake leaves or wash cars instead, that's fine.  If they want to do both, that's fine.  If they want to do neither (and not go on their trip), that's fine.

48 This doom post is awesome and deserves to be on the front page of every news paper.

49 The government should let the poor, elderly, and children die in the streets and starve. All so the richest billionaires get tax cuts. None of this 1% shit neither, the top 1% of the 1%. Because we all know children and the elderly will die without government intervention.

50 Monty, did you see the Drudge headline yesterday about the Greeks emptying their banks?

51 Awesome Monty!
OT just saw Mrs Romney on Steve Doucheys show and she was lovely, gracious, soft spoken, well spoken and I could envision her as very good replace ment for the Mooch we now have as first lady.

Which dredged up the image of my current favs spouse Colista.Somehow I imagine her striding onto Doucheys set in tight leather pants, black knee high boots and black half mask, hair pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail and a Cruella de Ville white with black spots half jacket made out of 15 Dalmatian puppies.
Also adorned with a black flogger and a red ball gag for Steve and guaranteed to turn him into a John Boehner bawling , shaking uncontrollably mess of a former wrestler.
Why do I envision Moochells suggested menus turning into mandatory twice a day feeding of gagula for the peasants while her and newt dine on caviar and fine wines the peasants pay for?
Has me rethinking my current pick.

52 Paul Krugman is a leftwing hack laughing stock.

53 If they want to stick their hands out and expect *voluntary* donations, that's fine

No, that's not "fine."  It teaches them to count on charity: that people will just give them things.

I don't even mind them doing it so much as I mind that their parents let them think that's a legitimate way to raise funds to do something fun.  We're not talking 12 year olds, here.  We're certainly not talking about little kids of 6.  We're talking High School kids.  They're at the age where they should be learning some facts of life- one of which is that if I want something of yours, I should offer something in exchange.  In this case, if they want my money, they should be offering me a good or service.

I don't even mind highly-over-priced cookies, or a mediocre job for a $5.00 "car wash."  Just show me that you understand you have to earn that money.

54 amen!!!

55 Because we all know children and the elderly will die without government intervention. Are there no prisons? And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation? The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour then?

56 Monty, did you see the Drudge headline yesterday about the Greeks emptying their banks?

Oh, hell, there's been a slow-motion run on the Greek banks for several months now. At this point, anyone who has the wherewithal to move their liquid wealth out of the country has already done so; those who can't are taking their savings out in cash and putting the money in their mattresses. And if I were them? I'd be doing the same thing. (Or mugging elderly pensioners for their gold teeth.)

57 Heck, the Boy Scouts sell popcorn (and it's good popcorn, too), and the Girl Scouts sell cookies- and I do consider them to be charitable organizations (not for the kids involved, but the stuff they do for their communities), so I would just donate to them.

If the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts understand that they should be earning their keep, and not asking for hand-outs, the parents of some League team in (football, basketball, soccer, whatever) should be able to figure it out, too.

58

Today's Christmas Music selections come from many different places:

My Advent Calendar of Music – Day #7: Around the World: http://wp.me/p1ipEz-Yv

Hope you like them!

59 I'd be doing the same thing. (Or mugging elderly pensioners for their gold teeth.)

Heck, why does it have to be an "either/or" proposition?

60 (Or mugging elderly pensioners for their gold teeth.)

Only the elderly?  Age discrimination!

61 (ItÂ’s a fair point about Karl Marx, by the way. You can accept that Marx was an important figure in the history of economics while still believing that he was a morally corrupt and deeply misguided man.)

Don't forget stupid.  Marx got everything wrong.  Everything. Part of science is the ability to predict the future.

62

Democrats just sit around an think about new things to fuck over, ruin and tax.

Funny how when Carter and Obama are president-- homelessness, joblessness, and poverty RISE.

Must tax tax tax. That will fix it! Tax the productive job producers.

If you take every dime away from the top 1%, the government will have enough money for about 8 months. btw- the only way tax hikes work for dems is to tax the middle class. But this must be a hidden endeavor.

63 If you have to subsist on mac-n-cheese and wear factory-second clothes and give up your cable TV or cellphone to pay the bills, so be it. Plenty of people in the world have it hell of a lot worse than you do. Quit yer whining and get your ass to work. Oh, and if you don’t feel “fulfilled” by your work? Join the club, pal. If it was fun they wouldn’t call it "work". Yes, as long as suicide is a (legal, and non-interfered with) right for all people. No one should be forced to abide in a situation they find intolerable to themselves, for whatever reason. Otherwise, if society does not allow them at least that one out - the free and autonomous control of their own lives, at least to the extent of having the right to forefeiting their lives without coercive interference - they surely retain the right to complain about their lot, however unseemly others may find the complaint. I simply don't believe a society that uses force to keep people alive against their will has any rational basis for insisting people do anything in particular - not from an individual liberty perspective. Classical and Barbarian societies were much more moral in this respect and since Christianity and other monotheistic Theisms where a God owns your life, our societies' morality has gone right off the rails in this crucial respect. Suicide is the ultimate human right.

64 Does nayone know what the Commie in Chief is doing today for Pearl Harbor day?? I have not heard anything ..........

65 It often strikes me how much Barack Obama looks, talks, behaves, and (apparently) believes like a character out of an Ayn Rand novel.

LOL, I remarked on this a few weeks ago when I was re-reading Atlas Shrugged. It is though the Dems used that book and 1984 as a manual for how to govern. It is uncanny in the parallels.

It made me remember the first time I read Atlas Shrugged and thinking how much she had exaggerated the actions of the government to get her point across. And I thought, the American public would never put up with this kind of shit.

Little did I know.

66 conference on WW2 tix here http://www.ww2conference.com/ should be pretty cool.

67

Barack Obama is, in short, the end product of the grand "progressive" experiment since the early 1900's. Ecce homo!

Alas, the time is coming when man will no longer give birth to a star. Alas, the time of the most despicable man is coming, he that is no longer able to despise himself. Behold, I show you the last man.

'What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?' thus asks the last man, and blinks.
The earth has become small, and on it hops the last man, who makes everything small. His race is as ineradicable as the flea; the last man lives longest.

'We have invented happiness,'say the last men, and they blink. They have left the regions where it was hard to live, for one needs warmth. One still loves one's neighbor and rubs against him, for one needs warmth...

One still works, for work is a form of entertainment. But one is careful lest the entertainment be too harrowing. One no longer becomes poor or rich: both require too much exertion. Who still wants to rule? Who obey? Both require too much exertion.

No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.
'Formerly, all the world was mad,' say the most refined, and they blink...

One has one's little pleasure for the day and one's little pleasure for the night: but one has a regard for health.

'We have invented happiness,' say the last men, and they blink."

68 62, what makes me cringe is the "pay for tax cuts" mantra. As if the money isn't ours to begin with.

It also points out the zero-sum mentality of the collectivist. There is no such thing as wealth creation, only distribution. You don't get more without someone else getting less.

69 Marx got everything wrong.

Well...he understood human nature. As an economist or philosopher he was worthless, but as a sociologist or ethnologist, he made some good points. Part of his insight was that you can always convince people that there really is such a thing as a free lunch...even given eons worth of proof to the contrary.

But P. T. Barnum said it more succinctly (if apocryphally): "There's a sucker born every minute."

70 If you have to subsist on mac-n-cheese and wear factory-second clothes and give up your cable TV or cellphone to pay the bills, so be it. Ahhhh my good old college days... as shitty as they may have been they were still some of my most memorable. *sniff. That was almost 10 years ago. The beta-max collection I had got me through those really shitty days. That and Diablo 2.

71 The double edged sword of DOOM is that on one edge, we are informed, but on the other we're... well... DOOMed.  The left is obviously intent on going down this social road yet a bit further by, to borrow a bit of Monty's DOOM theme, imitating the art of Atlas Shrugged in real life; They intend to severely damage, if not destroy the wealthy by attributing to them source of all miseries of those who are not wealthy and making that destruction the source of the cures of those miseries.  To them, this, unbelievably, is not only the "fair" thing to do, but workable. 
In truth, I believe in my heart that socialists, even Marx himself, weren't, and aren't driven in their ideology by any noble sense of "fairness" or "equity", but instead are driven in large part by their internalization of most if not all, of what are commonly known as the seven deadly sins - wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony.  By demonizing and destroying the wealthy who unfortunately for most of us, are also the most productive, the socialists will likely reap for a short while the fruits of their fraudulent quest for fairness, but gratifying their urges to bring the lofty down to the level of the paltry, they will grit the gears of prosperity for generations and will finally, thoroughly and completely, destroy this country. 

And that's why I'm pissed.

72 The poor, children, and the elderly are there to be exploited by big corporations and Republicans. What about that does Obama not get? No billionaire would get rich without first stealing all those billions from poor children. I especially like taking their oversize lollipops, yes those are tasty and on the open market sell for a couple million if you sell them with pictures and video of the kid crying after you take it.

73

Posted by: Thus Spoke Entropy at December 07, 2011 09:53 AM (UmXRO)

 

Well, that was easy to read.

74 64Does nayone know what the Commie in Chief is doing today for Pearl Harbor day?? I have not heard anything ..........

Posted by: Wall-E at December 07, 2011 09:52 AM (48wze)

 

Sending a billion or two to Japan after he gets done watching Samuri Sammy cartoons?

75 This is an age where the concept of “moral hazard” has become very debased: the prudent and wise are punished for the sins of the spendthrift and improvident, and told it is all for their own good.

That has been the cornerstone of the Obamanite housing policy. With CRA it is what created the damn mess to begin with.

76 Suicide is the ultimate human right.

Lighten up, Francis.

77

Oh, and @21 (Scott?) - what AllenG said.

Fort Worth is MUCH more conservative than Dallas is - we've been here since 1984, and love it (I'm a native Texan, raised a NASA brat in the Houston area)!

The secret is to live on the opposite side of the traffic - we just happened to luck into that (it was totally unplanned, believe me!).  We live close to downtown FTW, and hubs drives "out" each morning to get to work.  I don't think he's ever been caught in traffic (unless there's a wreck on the freeway).

That may be changing soon, though - there is a LOT of new development in the near downtown area.....

78 I predict that the stimulus will have the same general success there that it has had here and in Japan: zero, or near enough.
_______

Yeah, well, according to Alan Colmes just a few minutes ago, the stimulus failed because evil Republicans would not allow Obama to do a *real* stimulus.

79 64 Does nayone know what the Commie in Chief is doing today for Pearl Harbor day?? I have not heard anything ..........

Posted by: Wall-E at December 07, 2011 09:52 AM (48wze)

That's because he's not doing anything....well....he does have a fundraiser I think.

80

Because we all know children and the elderly will die without government intervention.

Are there no prisons? And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation? The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour then?

How about an array of bicycle-generators ala OWS, in the public square?  Every 100 watts generated earns a token that can be used towards food, medical care, clothing , housing, etc.  Token dispenser can be hooked to the meter and automated like getting your quarter back at the airport cart rental.

81

Teh Krugman: “Friedrich Hayek is not an important figure in the history of macroeconomics.”

Me: “Teh Krugman is not an important figure"

82 FA Hayek wrote a famous essay "Why I am Not a Conservative".  He might not be the best standard bearer for the right.

83

How about an array of bicycle-generators ala OWS, in the public square? Every 100 watts generated earns a token that can be used towards food, medical care, clothing , housing, etc. Token dispenser can be hooked to the meter and automated like getting your quarter back at the airport cart rental.

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 07, 2011 09:58 AM (4q5tP)

 

Or hook their fat, spoiled asses, along with those of the professional baby makers, sucking off the taxpayer teat, up to rickshaws and have em be taxis for the working class who pay their way.

 GREEN ENERGY at no cost baby, now that right there is economics and yes I am a major in it.

84 He might not be the best standard bearer for the right.

You obviously did not actually read the essay you refer to. So that's your homework for today: I want you to read the essay, and then come back tomorrow and explain to me why Hayek's philosophy does not dovetail pretty much exactly with what the Tea Party's principles are.

Spelling and penmanship count, by the way.

85

“Suicide is the ultimate human right.”

 

You think we could use this line with OWS people and democrats in general after they lose the 2012 election?  It might be a better alternative for them than moving to Canada.

86

Or hook their fat, spoiled asses, along with those of the professional baby makers, sucking off the taxpayer teat, up to rickshaws and have em be taxis for the working class who pay their way.

Franchise opportunities available.  Reasonable terms.  Get rich today!  Call us.

87 I would defitely pay $5.00 a mile to have some bloated, entitled, whinny student or some skinny, drug addled, professional baby maker with pants around their knees pull me to work in a rickshaw as long as I had some reigns and a whip to kept em movin and from whinnin.

88

Seventy years ago today, the residents of Hawaii looked up into the cool morning sky and said "There's a little nip in the air this morning."

89

Teh Krugman: “Friedrich Hayek is not an important figure in the history of macroeconomics.”

Me: “Teh Krugman is not an important figure"

Posted by: rickb223 at December 07, 2011 09:59 AM (zji3t)

After Arafat, I think that history will attribute to both Krugman and Obama, the cause the Nobel Prize became meaningless and gaudy indulgence of mediocrity.

90 Classical and Barbarian societies were much more moral in this respect and since Christianity and other monotheistic Theisms where a God owns your life, our societies' morality has gone right off the rails in this crucial respect.

Christoph, is that you?

Good thing for you that church membership is optional in America.

91 So I got the thought in my head last night while asleep that there was some connection between Newt and SCHIP.

Yup. Brought to us by Newt, back when he was the Speaker, to give Hillary a fig-leaf, face-saving legacy.

That's a Real, True Conservative there.

'Cause all Real, True Conservatives have a history of working with the far left to help them with their causes.

92 Comment registration is open at HotAir if anyone is interested. Posted by: Joffen at December 07, 2011 09:11 AM (zLeKL) Heh, registered, posted twice. Neither got through. Don't think me and Hot Air are gonna be buddies.

93

I love that Other People's Money speech.

 

It's a shame characters like that aren't in more Hollywood movies.

 

It's also obvious why they are not.

94

FA Hayek wrote a famous essay "Why I am Not a Conservative". He might not be the best standard bearer for the right.

"Conservatism proper is a legitimate, probably necessary, and certainly widespread attitude of opposition to drastic change. It has, since the French Revolution, for a century and a half played an important role in European politics. Until the rise of socialism its opposite was liberalism. There is nothing corresponding to this conflict in the history of the United States, because what in Europe was called "liberalism" was here the common tradition on which the American polity had been built: thus the defender of the American tradition was a liberal in the European sense. This already existing confusion was made worse by the recent attempt to transplant to America the European type of conservatism, which, being alien to the American tradition, has acquired a somewhat odd character. And some time before this, American radicals and socialists began calling themselves "liberals." I will nevertheless continue for the moment to describe as liberal the position which I hold and which I believe differs as much from true conservatism as from socialism. Let me say at once, however, that I do so with increasing misgivings, and I shall later have to consider what would be the appropriate name for the party of liberty. The reason for this is not only that the term "liberal" in the United States is the cause of constant misunderstandings today, but also that in Europe the predominant type of rationalistic liberalism has long been one of the pacemakers of socialism.

Let me now state what seems to me the decisive objection to any conservatism which deserves to be called such. It is that by its very nature it cannot offer an alternative to the direction in which we are moving. It may succeed by its resistance to current tendencies in slowing down undesirable developments, but, since it does not indicate another direction, it cannot prevent their continuance. It has, for this reason, invariably been the fate of conservatism to be dragged along a path not of its own choosing. The tug of war between conservatives and progressives can only affect the speed, not the direction, of contemporary developments. But, though there is a need for a "brake on the vehicle of progress," I personally cannot be content with simply helping to apply the brake. What the liberal must ask, first of all, is not how fast or how far we should move, but where we should move. In fact, he differs much more from the collectivist radical of today than does the conservative. While the last generally holds merely a mild and moderate version of the prejudices of his time, the liberal today must more positively oppose some of the basic conceptions which most conservatives share with the socialists. "

95

68. me cringe is the "pay for tax cuts" mantra. As if the money isn't ours to begin with.

It also points out the zero-sum mentality of the collectivist. There is no such thing as wealth creation, only distribution. You don't get more without someone else getting less.

Exactly.
 The left refuse to understand that tax cuts act as a real stimulus to the economy.  Tax cuts = more money pouring into the treasury.

Obama himself has said he doesn't care if tax rate cuts  raise revenue.

Democrats only want revenue from tax hikes.

 According to Obama, Tax cuts are not "fair". He thinks people should burdened with punitive tax rate hikes because "at some point you have made enough money".  Except of course,  Bill Clinton, Hollywood pedophile moguls, George Soros, Warren Buffet, Bing, Jon Corzine, Nancy Pelosi and her family etc...

Again, even if tax rate cuts increase revenue to the government, Obama doesn't want that. Obama and the democrats only want to confiscate more private property and funnel it through and inefficient government sieve that for the most part rewards democrat cronies and forces our economy into the inevitable shit can.

96

FYI: The Post seems to have pulled this FactChecker item:

123 30 Even WaPo's FactChecker chokes on Obama's Kansas speech. Three Pinocchios.
Posted by: Gabriel Malor at December 07, 2011 07:28 AM (XVaFd)

97 The ultimate human right is to steal from the poor and pocket huge profits on the backs of children. What else is there? Vote for me for President and no billionaire will go without a new diamond encrusted toilet seat and golden whip in which to flay the skin off the poor!

98

According to Obama, Tax cuts are not "fair". He thinks people should BE burdened with punitive tax rate hikes because "at some point you have made enough money".  Except of course,  Bill Clinton, Hollywood pedophile moguls, George Soros, Warren Buffet, Bing, Jon Corzine, Nancy Pelosi and her family etc...

fixed...

99 Here is a link to Hayek's "Why I Am Not A Conservative" piece. Note that Hayek would probably call himself a "classical liberal" in the modern parlance, much as people like e.g. Victor Davis Hanson or Jonah Goldberg or David P. Goldman ("Spengler"). Hayek was European (he gave the so-called "Austrian School" of economics the name, after all), but his thinking was probably more Libertarian than anything. He was a founder, not a follower, so his political leanings are hard to box into any modern movement.

100

“(Hayek) might not be the best standard bearer for the right.”

 

Hayek did advocate that it was the proper role of government to provide (or facilitate) healthcare for “truly insurable risks” (not every day, foreseeable healthcare needs).

 

This is also my position, so apparently Hayek was a very wise person.

101 'Cause all Real, True Conservatives have a history of working with the far left to help them with their causes.

Well, it was better than Hillary Care.
Really, that started out pretty popular, Newt probably thought that was about the best deal he was going to get (we know he was wrong, but that doesn't change his perception).

I laughed this morning when I heard Mittens' new strategy: "We're going to contrast on Leadership!"

So, we're going to compare a man who was either: a) liberal enough to be voted to State-wide office in Massachusetts, or b) railroaded by a liberal congress despite sweeping into said State-wide office as a Conservative to the man who brought us the Republican Wave of the 90s, got major (and important) welfare reforms passed and signed, and got a balanced budget (even if they used some trickery to do so).

Note that Mittens is not using the opportunity to tack to the Right on any of his positions.

102
President Enemy Within

Obama, on December 7, 2011, is more of a threat to the United States of America than the Japanese on December 7, 1941.

103 61 Part of science is the ability to predict the future.
_________

But first, you have to predict the past. Then you have to paste in the present. And *then* you're ready to predict the future.

104 It's a shame characters like that aren't in more Hollywood movies.

Remember that he was the badguy.

105 Register at hotair. I can spread the joy of not romneyism

106 Suicide is the ultimate human right Until someone challenges you to put your pistol where your mouth is.

107 FA Hayek wrote a famous essay "Why I am Not a Conservative".  He might not be the best standard bearer for the right. You can be on the right without being a conservative. Being a conservative generally means going with tried and true traditional solutions for things, including self-reliance. And generally this works very well. The fact is most conservative traditions persist because they are the best mankind has found over a very long time. But this isn't a law of physics or something. Sometimes new solutions are better, and we are - gasp - a social species. Which means we're at least somewhat collective. So I do think there is a place for a non-conservative on the right. Someone who supports conservative policies for the most part as they've stood the test of time ... but who doesn't hold them sacred. For example, I think freedom and respect (and non-stoning) for homosexuals and bisexuals is a good thing. And so was the abolition of slavery. But they were hardly conservative positions, they were new ones.

108

Oh my stars and garters I couldn't get through the first bit of the whiny whiny why won't they paaaaaayyy for me to go to schoooool thing without going all something something.  At no point at all have I ever, ever, ever dreamed of asking my parents to cosign for anything.  They've done too much for me now, I would not put their credit and finances at risk.  I.  That.  It.  No one owes you anything jackass! stompystompystompy

109 Wow, I really need to calm down.

One of the craptastic things about this building is the coffee room is a tiny little closet one person can barely turn around in.

Well, all I want to do is go get some hot water for my cup of oatmeal and there's a freaking herd congregated around the coffee pot.

This went on for about 10 minutes until I flung the packet of oatmeal at my desk in disgust to wait it out. But since we sit in an open office environment I overdid it and hit the Accenture consultant in the next chair.

I could rant for hours and hours about how much I hate the open office plan.

110

Uh 94 - Today's conservatives are not aligned with socialists. Progressive democrats are aligned with socialists. You know that, right?

 

A modern "conservative" in modern vernacular, is a classical liberal.

A modern progressive is a regressive who clings to the failed ideologies of the past; Socialism.

111 From Hayek: "Let me now state what seems to me the decisive objection to any conservatism which deserves to be called such. It is that by its very nature it cannot offer an alternative to the direction in which we are moving." Quite.

112 I overdid it and hit the Accenture consultant in the next chair

If he's like some other Accenture folks I've had dealings with in the past, he deserved it.

113 stompystompystompy

Speaking of, AtC:  My daughter (2) got her first pair of stompy-boots recently.  I thought of you as I put them on her this morning.

114

 For example, I think freedom and respect (and non-stoning) for homosexuals and bisexuals is a good thing.

Yeah, I'll pretty much settle for the non-stoning and non-imprisonment part and the rest is up to me to earn. 

 

115 If he's like some other Accenture folks I've had dealings with in the past, he deserved it

I best not say openly what I think Accenture folks deserve lest I get pinched for making terroristic threats.

I'm still kicking myself for not starting a balls out job search the moment I realized we'd contracted with them.

I talked to some at a job fair way back in 1995 when I was a senior in college (known as Arthur Anderson then). I could tell then they were useless. Nothing I've seen in the past two years has changed that view.

116 Well, surely the freedom part you would wish, alexthechick, even if earning respect was up to you.

117 Total US WWII veterans still alive:  2,079,000.

Total active duty US military today: 1,445,000.

118 Better question for ATC, how do I get my wife to wear a pair of stompy boots for me? She doesn't do boots. Sandals and flip flops mostly.

I really want to see her in a pair of Ugg boots (and I've told her how sexy I think they'd make her). No dice.

All I get is "they'll make my legs look fat".

119

82

FA Hayek wrote a famous essay "Why I am Not a Conservative". He might not be the best standard bearer for the right.

Um, Hayek was a liberal in the classical sense; not the current one that the progressives have twisted in order to hide their objectives.  Conservatism in the European tradition means something different that what we consider American conservative thought - which is essentially classic liberalism.

Thanks for playing.

120 Is Hot Air still stuffed with viruses? Just curious; never going to visit that garbage can site again.

121

Yeah, I'll pretty much settle for the non-stoning and non-imprisonment part and the rest is up to me to earn. 

 

Posted by: alexthechick - love and despair bitches! at December 07, 2011 10:17 AM (VtjlW)

 

When will you hardliners learn to compromise?  If we simply agree to limit the size of the stones and reduce prison sentences, everyone wins.

122 On Hayek:  It's a bit of a stretch to attempt to torture early-to-mid 20th century language by claiming a scholarly work would try to use it in the same way a 21st century person would use those same words in common speech.

"Conservative" has meant many things through the years, and will probably take on more connotations as the years progress.

Hayek's ideas were much more in line with the modern Republican Party than they are with the modern Democrat party.  To say otherwise is take his words far, far out of context.

123 Hayek was not a conservative, by the way; that's not the argument I'm trying to make. His concept of "liberty", though, is completely simpatico with the Tea Party movement. It's a small-"l" libertarianism in modern terms. He gets some of Conservative thought wrong, I think -- Conservative "opposition" to progress is simply an understanding that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Not all that is "old" is bad; not all that is "new" is good. Hayek tended to have that same naive midcentury confidence in the redemptive power of scientific "progress" -- even given the slaughter that technology had made possible in the 20th century. His belief was not in "progressivism" as  a political ideology, but in "progress" as a social force -- and only to the extent that it protected and advanced the cause of individual liberty.

I do recommend reading the whole book from which this essay came, "The Constitution of Liberty". If nothing else, it will give you a very sharp knife with which to stab liberals when they trot out the "Why I Am Not A Conservative" essay. It is an excellent book, though a difficult one.

124 Total US WWII veterans still alive: 2,079,000. Total active duty US military today: 1,445,000. Posted by: comatus at December 07, 2011 10:20 AM (N0OTq) Interesting fact... makes me more appreciative we don't have to have a draft these days. SCOAMF is working on that though I'm sure.

125 Is Hot Air still stuffed with viruses? Just curious; never going to visit that garbage can site again. Posted by: eman at December 07, 2011 10:22 AM (HUEsn) Every since I found this sight I've been going to Hot Air less and less.

126

I would defitely pay $5.00 a mile to have some bloated, entitled, whinny student or some skinny, drug addled, professional baby maker with pants around their knees pull me to work in a rickshaw as long as I had some reigns and a whip to kept em movin and from whinnin.

Mind your pace. Chop, chop!

127 124 RE: Sidebar  My 4 cases of light bulbs arrived yesterday. Fuck you, Algore, and fuck you, W; and fuck you DC. And, if I missed anyone: fuck them, too!

Posted by: Beefy Meatball at December 07, 2011 10:23 AM (yn6XZ)

This is good to know.  I ordered a bunch last night.

I am worried, however, that some will arrive broken. Do you know yet if any of yours are?

128 Allen @110,
That's the thing though, we had, by that time, several decades of experience that no matter what the left proposes, they will always expand it and it will always have negative consequences that far exceed any good the program intended. Social Security, the War on Poverty, etc.

Recall the Col. David Crockett "Not Yours To Give" essay. That's the conservative position--although the Federal Government may have the resources to fund this or that, it is not their money to give away no matter how popular the idea is.

Newt, however, has consistently taken the position that, so long as the Federal Government has the money, it's ok to dole it out so long as we paint a conservative-sounding veneer on it. From his work on SCHIP to the work for Freddie: Newt says, "Spend the money!"

In fact, (and I'd be happy to be proven wrong) but is there any recent statements by Newt about cutting the size of government? All I seem to recall is various rephrased formulations of old bromides about how we need to spend the money smarter, that we need to--using his own words--engage in a sort of "right-wing social engineering" and spend the money in a conservative way.

129 Speaking of, AtC:  My daughter (2) got her first pair of stompy-boots recently.  I thought of you as I put them on her this morning.

See, I knew you were raising them right. 

130
Obama will not acknowledge Pearl Harbor because The White Man wasn't the aggressor.

Can't allow people to contemplate that fact. The White Man is always the aggressor.

131 Idiot comment on the sugar thread:

Just as an aside, why is it logical to charge people who make less more to borrow money?

Um, because it is riskier to loan money to people who are less likely to pay it back than other people?

132

Uh 94 - Today's conservatives are not aligned with socialists. Progressive democrats are aligned with socialists. You know that, right?

No, I cannot.

First of all, I'm dead.

Second of all, read it again.

133

 Better question for ATC, how do I get my wife to wear a pair of stompy boots for me?

Bribery.  Given the strictures put in place re: the ONT the other night, I shall refrain from giving further helpful suggestions. 

134 Posted by: jimmuy at December 07, 2011 10:28 AM (/JzSK)

Oh, I completely agree.  Remember: I'm a Perry guy to the bitter end.  He's far better (on substance) than anyone else in the race.

But, if my comparisons are Newt and Mittens, and if Mittens wants me to focus on "leadership," I have to give that contest to Newt.

135

It was so refreshing to see the OWS crowd holding signs promoting socialism. Finally! Show progressivism for what it is - an old march towards an old and failed ideology.

136
This is the most regressive administration in our nation's history.

We're going in reverse; God help us.

137 the ONT the other night

OK, what did I miss?

This having to pretend to be a morning person sucks.

138

125. This.

 

139 Its good to see some vigorous discussion on Hayek.  He was a philosopher first, in my opinion.

His contemporary counterpart would be the capitalist Soros as they both fought collectivism in earnest.  Soros has poured hundreds of millions into anti-communist campaigns in Easter Europe (Orange, Rose, Velvet revolutions) and has written seven books on the modern state of capitalism. 

Soros traces his roots back to Hayek and Popper at the Mont-Pelerin Society.   Open Society is the closest relative to it today.

140

That's the thing though, we had, by that time, several decades of experience that no matter what the left proposes, they will always expand it and it will always have negative consequences that far exceed any good the program intended. Social Security, the War on Poverty, etc.

Hayek wrote that bit I quoted about why he's not a conservative like 40 years ago.

He was right.

Pity so few - relatively, I guess - have caught on to it.

141 doh

142
meanwhile...

we have candidates who won't go to a debate because it might insult their sensibilities

143 Um, because it is riskier to loan money to people who are less likely to pay it back than other people?

Yes, but doesn't that make it yet less likely they'll pay you back?  Say, if they could have afforded a payment of $300/mo, but (because of the risk) you're asking them for $325/mo?

And the answer (since this is a misleading argument- but it's one that appears to make sense, if you don't pay enough attention) is two-fold: 1) it encourages them to be more frugal- to borrow less money, and only to borrow at all when they absolutely must (that is: it encourages them to prove they are less risky).  2) When aggregated over the whole segment of the population that gets those worse interest rates, the higher interest successfully paid back by some helps negate the loss incurred when others default.

144

Soros traces his roots back to Hayek and Popper at the Mont-Pelerin Society. Open Society is the closest relative to it today.

Says the guy who says Hayek sucks for the right.

Right.....

the capitalist Soros as they both fought collectivism in earnest

No, really! It's just sleeping... not dead!

145 Is anyone else having trouble with the site?

146 Big surge for Perry at Hot Air's snap poll.

147 #83, Bike generators are either 6v 3 watt or 12v 6 watt, not enough power to do jack squat.

#128, They are called pedicabs, in Boston they work for tips only after paying off a monthly rental fee to the cab company. Not a bad gig for the unskilled during events and peak tourist season. Except for the homicidal Massachusetts drivers, repeat drunk drivers, and illegal aliens sharing the road with them. That and most of the drivers are idiot hipsters or heroin addicts fired from bike messenger jobs. In other words, not the people you want to be trusting your life to in heavy traffic with only a cargo tricycle for collision protection.

148 Barack Obama is, in short, the end product of the grand "progressive" experiment since the early 1900's. Ecce homo!

Bingo!  He's the perfect embodiment of what government school seeks to create.

149 I have registered at Hot Air. My user account will remain dormant until activated by the trigger phrase, like those Soviet sleepers in that Charles Bronson movie.

150
Does Obama know a damn thing about the history of the America?
Or the history of the Western Hemisphere and the new system?

Does Obama know a lick about Jefferson? Or Madison? Or Monroe?

151 *I hate that Hot Air "indeed" shit like crazy.

*glowers*

152 THANK. YOU.

All of the sciences like to disdain mathematics as "impractical" while running to embrace our metaphysical certainty to legitimize their own subject.

Posted by: AmishDude at December 07, 2011 09:40 AM (T0NGe)

Physics stands alone in this respect. They get the math wrong and then swear by the results. The theory behind the incorrect math evidently is: "Its OK, God makes the same math errors we do."

Example:

F = m dv/dt

becomes F = d(mv)/dt

or F = dp/dt 

Newton did that because he assumed mass was a constant - it is legal in calculus to move a constant inside a differential operator when it started outside of it.

Unfortunately mass is not a constant, it varies with velocity, so F=dp/dt is simply wrong mathematically.

F=dp/dt also gives all the wrong answers to physics problems if you apply it to a case where the mass is changing, as in the case of a chemical rocket. Interestingly F=m dv/dt gives the correct answers in those same cases.

Physicists insist that F = dp/dt is the correct equation - even though it gives the wrong answers. They will tell you that you "lack sophistication" and are applying the formula "naively" if you attempt to use it directly in the cases where it fails.

Their "sophistication" consists of getting rid of the changing mass while you aren't watching so that the equation now becomes identical to F = m dv/dt - which - when applied without "sophistication" and directly and "naively"  does yield the correct answers.

Interestingly F = dp/dt is the only formula in physics where you have use "sophistication" and can't apply directly and "naively" to a problem.

153 It has to be tough for guys like Krugman, Gore, and Obama, winners of the coveted Nobel.  After aspiring to such lofty heights, what does a Nobel winner have to look forward to?  What goals might they have, besides "World's Greatest Mass Murderer?"

154 Wait...Ugg boots are considered stompy boots?

155

148 Is anyone else having trouble with the site?

Posted by: Tami at December 07, 2011 10:34 AM (X6akg)

 

The refresh rate seems rather slow.

156

... no matter what the left proposes, they will always expand it and it will always have negative consequences that far exceed any good the program intended.

Hayek wrote that bit I quoted about why he's not a conservative like 40 years ago.

He was right.

Posted by: Friedrich Von Entropy at December 07, 2011 10:32 AM (UmXRO)

 

Yes.  This is why mere conservatism is not enough.  What is called for is Reaction.  To turn back the tide is the true goal of anyone who wants to put the US back in order - to reverse the change that has so grievously harmed us.  80% or more of the social and political change of the past 100 years has been negative. 

157 Wait...Ugg boots are considered stompy boots

I don't think so. But they do something for me and I can't really understand why.

I'd rather those desires be directed at my wife so I want her to remember.

158 Bingo!  He's the perfect embodiment of what government school seeks to create.

Better: Barack Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

It communicates the same thought, but is much more viscerally satisfying.

159 Yes, as long as suicide is a (legal, and non-interfered with) right for all people.

I think you have a fantastical view of suicide and ancient life.

Before monotheism (really Judaism via Christianity) human life was cheap and disposable. The dignity of individual human beings was nonexistent.

Suicide was less an option to end agony rather than the opportunity to forestall a state-sanctioned murder.

160 What goals might they have, besides "World's Greatest Mass Murderer?"

How about: "Decent human being?"

161

The refresh rate seems rather slow.

Posted by: jwest at December 07, 2011 10:37 AM (8moZm)

I was having that problem and pixy rejecting one of my posts for spam.  Took me a few minutes to figure out it was because I was typing 'U g g s'.

162 We need more people with  Intergalactic Master's Program in Moonbattery and Thumb Sucking Degrees!

163 Posted by: An Observation at December 07, 2011 10:37 AM (ylhEn) Indeed.

164

Wait...Ugg boots are considered stompy boots?

No but I was trying to be polite. 

RE:  the ONT - it was suggested that, possibly, we should tone down the more, um, risque discussions. 

165

Surprised that Cavuto's interview w/Pat F'n Caddell hasn't made the rounds.  It was on Monday's show.

Caddell: He's going to bail out Europe.

Cavute: They're just talking about it.

Caddell:  Obama's been talking with European leaders for three days solid at the White House; Geithner has been in Europe talking to all the players for months.  It's a done deal.  If the American people were aware of  what they're going to have to pay for our own debt, they'd be outraged; if they could see what it will be when we bail out Europe, they'd be out in the streets. 

166 We need more people with  Intergalactic Master's Program in Moonbattery and Thumb Sucking Degrees!

Shorter Bloomberg: YMMV.

167
Goddamit.

If we give Europe one dime to prop up their failed system...

168 I'd rather those desires be directed at my wife so I want her to remember

OK, my train of thought derailed there.

I want her to wear them.

I'm hoping she'll remember what they make me do later on

169 #163, that's actually why it's popular amongst the growing middle class in China to become Christian, or at least study the Bible. A philosophical and spiritual revolt against a government which doesn't value life.

170 If we give Europe one dime to prop up their failed system...

It'll be Thursday?

171 Interestingly F = dp/dt is the only formula in physics where you have use "sophistication" and can't apply directly and "naively" to a problem.

Well, that's undergrad physics.  It's pretty easy to use the chain rule.

They're probably a little embarrassed that they got it so wrong when such an elementary counterexample (chemical rocket, not relativistic effects) existed.

But, yeah, even in advanced physics, they're not so fussed about stuff like that.

172 It often strikes me how much Barack Obama looks, talks, behaves, and (apparently) believes like a character out of an Ayn Rand novel.... Barack Obama is, in short, the end product of the grand "progressive" experiment since the early 1900's.

This paragraph is a brilliant summary, Monty.

173
President Muthafuck keeps talking about shared sacrifice and paying our fair share.

I wish someone in the GOP had the brains and the balls to make a national ad asking,

"Sacrifice for what???"

Sacrifice for Solyndra?

Sacrifice for Michelle Obama's vacations?

Sacrifice for Auntie Zetuni weekly stipend and free housing?

Sacrifice for ball-washing in Africa?

Sacrifice for aid for Pakistan?

Sacrifice to make federal buildings "green?"

Sacrifice for a new campaign bus for Obama?

174 Nazi collaborator and convicted felon George Soros.

175

If we give Europe one dime to prop up their failed system...

And not one word from our erstwhile "representatives."

176
Sacrifice for Barney Frank's pension?

177

We will end up bailing out Europe. The GOP surely won't stop Obama, because a European reckoning is coming either way, and the republicans will be scared of getting blaimed for it.

178

Sacrifice for Barney Frank's pension?

You don't think good wookin' guys come home with me solely for my good wooks, do ya?  Sometimes I have to buy 'em dwinks and stuff.

179
Sacrifice for NPR?

180

Given the strictures put in place re: the ONT the other night, I shall refrain from giving further helpful suggestions.

The curiosity is killing me.  Is there a Cliff's Notes version of what caused the strictures to be issued in the first place?

181

"Good Lord, this man is a buffoon!"

Quick, Martha, hand me my shotgun! I just spotted an epiphany!

182 Given the strictures put in place re: the ONT the other night, I shall refrain from giving further helpful suggestions.

Was that the legendary "Oral" episode?

183
We have lousy perspective. That's what our problem is.

184
133 Idiot comment on the sugar thread:

Just as an aside, why is it logical to charge people who make less more to borrow money?

Um, because it is riskier to loan money to people who are less likely to pay it back than other people?

Posted by: Gregory of Yardale at December 07, 2011 10:29 AM (AQD6a)

The idiot isn't asking why it's "logical", he/she/it is really asking why it's "legal". It just doesn't have the courage to come right out and say it.

185 Back off your wife, Scott J. You plant the suggestion, then you walk away. Hopefully, it takes root and you get the result you hoped for. Women dress for themselves, not for you. They may think they're dressing for you, but if it conflicts with their self image, then it's back to what they want. Here's an example of how these misunderstandings happen: "Honey, I just think you would look hot in the Princess Leia slave-girl metal bikini." "So you want to fuck Princess Leia? That's what you're saying?" "No! You're twisting my words! I want to fuck you - I just want to pretend you're Princess- No! Nothat'snotwhatI-" "You are SUCH an ASSHOLE!"

186 Bernanke won that exchange with the Bloomberg editors.  The $13 billion "profit" they falsely claim is preposterous.

187
We're wringing our hands over Trump while Obama gutting the country and enslaving us to China.

Fools we are.

188

Was that the legendary "Oral" episode?

I bet it still couldn't hold a candle to the legendary Memorial Day weekend ONT.

189 Dear Sugar,
 
You are much less of a socialist than you think you are. You are probably more of a libertarian than anything. You have taken to heart the concept of personal responsibility as a foremost trait. You understand the concept of TANSTAAFL.
 
Your advice to that pathetic whiny #owser was spot on. However, your plans to silver spoon your kids' education risks not passing on what you have learned. You wanted to punch you braggy friend in the gut for her free ride and smugness about it; yet, you want to do that exact thing for your children.

190 Good points, EOJ. The voice of experience there?

191

142

[Hayek's] contemporary counterpart would be the capitalist Soros as they both fought collectivism in earnest.

The stooopid, it burns.

Puzzle me this genius: why does the "anti-collectivist" Soros fund all these Progressive front groups and thinks that it's a bad thing that foreign nationals can't vote in American elections?

192 "So you want to fuck Princess Leia? That's what you're saying?"

Absolutely.

193 197,

My wife understands that my libido is more or less a separate entity. With a mind all its own.

She also understands that I took a vow to keep it on a leash that limits its acting on only her.

194
the rock n roll hall of fame is a joke, btw

195

It is just plain ol' ordinary mean, to mention "strictures", and then not pull back the sheet and show us the corpse, or even the murder weapon!

196 American Airlines has issues a statement:

Since an extremely vocal customer has publicly identified himself as being removed from an American Airlines flight on Tuesday, Dec. 6, we have elected to provide the actual facts of the matter as well as the FAA regulations which American, and all airlines, must enforce. Cell phones and electronic devices are allowed to be used while the aircraft is at the gate and the door is open for boarding. When the door is closed for departure and the seat belt light is turned on, all cell phones and electronic devices must be turned off for taxi-out and take-off. This passenger declined to turn off his cell phone when asked to do so at the appropriate time. The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the planeÂ’s lavatory. He slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked. They immediately contacted the cabin crew to check on the situation. The passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language. Given the facts above, the passenger was removed from the flight and denied boarding.

197 Women dress for themselves, not for you. They may think they're dressing for you, but if it conflicts with their self image, then it's back to what they want.

heh.  I look at how women dress (particularly the shoes right now, most of which are hideous) - and the ridiculous amount of money and time they spend getting their nails done (who gives a shit about nails?) - and I conclude that you're right, they dress for themselves.  Or for other women (but not in the way you'd like!). 

OTOH, my husband went through a phase of dressing like a slob after work and on weekends and it was a real bummer.  Makes it hard to be motivated to dress nicely for him if he's in a baggy t-shirt and sweats all the time.

So my advice to Scott J. is for him to ask his wife to take him shopping, buy a few outfits for himself that she likes, and then see if that motivates her. 


That said, although I have a bit of a shoe fetish myself (I am always trying to get the man to get sexier shoes), I am having a really hard time seeing the turn-on in those *UGG boots.  Are you attracted to Eskimos, Scott J?

198

The WaPo FactCheck of Obama's Kansas speech is back up (Three Pinocchios) and it's pretty good:

OBAMA: "Remember in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history."
Inserting the words “for the wealthy” was interesting phrasing by the president, since he suggests these tax cuts were intended to only benefit the rich.
The bulk of the 2001 tax cuts were marginal rate cuts, which extended to all taxpayers, while the 2003 tax cuts included a reduction in taxes on dividends and capital gains.
But the 2001 tax cuts also included tax changes that benefited the middle class, such as a reduced marriage penalty and expanded tax credits, along with an instant tax rebate. Still, it is correct that most of the benefits of the tax cuts flowed to the wealthy (who, letÂ’s not forget, pay the largest share of income taxes.)

Finally, Obama blames the Bush tax cuts for “massive deficits.” It is certainly true that the Bush tax cuts helped blow a hole in the budget. But they did not do it all by themselves. The data showed that the biggest contributor to the disappearance of projected surpluses was increased spending, which accounted for 36.5 percent of the decline in the nation’s fiscal position, followed by incorrect CBO estimates, which accounted for 28 percent. The Bush tax cuts (along with some Obama tax cuts) were responsible for just 24 percent.
Thus it is simply wrong to only blame the Bush tax cuts for the deficits now faced by the country, especially three years into another presidential term.

“Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1 percent -- 1 percent. That is the height of unfairness.”
This is a striking statistic. But the only evidence that the White House could offer for it was a TV clip of a conversation on Bloomberg TV, in which correspondent Gigi Stone made this assertion during a discussion about the tax strategies that the very wealthy use to avoid paying taxes.
...The most recent data that we can find on the top 400 taxpayers--all billionaires-- shows that in 2008, 30 billionaires paid an average tax rate of between zero and ten percent. Certainly “some” might have paid as little as one percent on income. But we are talking about a very tiny number. By contrast, 59 billionaires paid an average tax rate of 30 to 35 percent. And 238 faced a marginal tax rate of 35 percent and above; only 17 had a marginal rate of zero to 26 percent.
The average tax paid by the top 400 taxpayers was nearly $50 million. It is impossible to know the financial circumstances of the handful of billionaires who may have lowered their taxes to one percent, but there may be reasonable explanations.

199 Speaking of Pearl Harbor:

NEW FOOTAGE: Never-Before-Seen Video and Photos Discovered of Pearl Harbor Attack, 70 Years Later

200

I look at how women dress (particularly the shoes right now,

Women have feet?

201 I am having a really hard time seeing the turn-on in those *UGG boots.

They look like poorly drawn 1980's cartoon boots.

Not even cool "poorly drawn 1980's cartoon boots" like Mega-Man boots, but just really poorly drawn cartoon boots.

202
  Uninterested in discussions about the difference in progs, libs, or conservatives.

  All I want to see is the left reduced to flatulent impotence. Using the system, if possible. I don't care to attempt a conversion with any of them.

203

Was that the legendary "Oral" episode?

I bet it still couldn't hold a candle to the legendary Memorial Day weekend ONT.

Posted by: RushBabe at December 07, 2011 10:57 AM (tQHzJ)

And I'll never look at an ATM machine in the same way again......

204
"It’s a simple theory – one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work."

It doesn't, dummy?

Thirteen colonies turned into a thirteen-state republic. Thirteen states quickly became fifty states. How did that happen? With Obama's way, or with liberty and free enterprise and commerce and trade?

205 180
Sacrifice for Barney Frank's pension?


Posted by: soothsayer

I will not bend over and take it for that political pig.

206 I don't care to attempt a conversion with any of them.

The more of them I encounter, the more I come to believe they really are like the pigs in Animal Farm: they know it's all crap, but they think they'll be on top when all is said and done.

For those, there is no conversion: they have no logical reason to convert.

However, there are some who are just deluded- if they can be reached (some of them can, if you're lucky), they can become the best, most vociferous apologists for Conservatism.

Remember, CS Lewis was originally an Atheist.

207
Imagine Obama in 1783.

Imagine where we'd be if small-minded ninnies like him were in the new world.

208 I will not bend over and take it for that political pig.

Well, that was well thrust.  A good point.

209

Women have feet?

Posted by: CJ at December 07, 2011 11:07 AM (9KqcB)

You're damn right they do!

210 Imagine where we'd be if small-minded ninnies like him were in the new world.

There were plenty.  They were the Royalists.  Also a few who were just unwilling to pay the costs of Liberty, like Benedict Arnold.

211

211

AllenG, well said.  One minor quibble: I think the word you're looking for is "advocate", not "apologist" for conservatism.

212
nood post

213 I think the word you're looking for is "advocate", not "apologist" for conservatism.

No, I meant apologist.  One who explains conservatism.  Not just one who "advocates" for it.  Though to be the former, you must first be the latter.

Apologetics has become associated with Christianity specifically, but it really just means the art of providing a reasoned explanation.  Remember that "The Apology of Socrates" was not an "apology" in the modern sense, but an explanation of what he believed, and why he was willing to die rather than renounce those beliefs.

214 I've come to realize that Sanctuary was five minutes with Jenny Agutter.  Maybe seven.

215 Posted by: Empire of Jeff at December 07, 2011 10:57 AM (XE2Oo)

The only comeback is: "Would you rather I was making love with her and thinking of you?"

216 I've come to realize that Sanctuary was five minutes with Jenny Agutter.  Maybe seven.

Agutter? I don't even know her!

217

"It’s a simple theory – one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker."

'Member all those "Trickle Down Theory" bumper stickers? They were all the rage.

HereÂ’s the problem: It doesnÂ’t work."

It doesn't, dummy?

Thirteen colonies turned into a thirteen-state republic. Thirteen states quickly became fifty states. How did that happen? With Obama's way, or with liberty and free enterprise and commerce and trade?
Posted by: soothsayer at December 07, 2011 11:09 AM (sqkOB)

A candidate like Newt could have fun with this. Just sayin....

218 If you want to fuck Princess Leia in a metal bikini, just make sure it's not the Leia of 2011.

219

218

Thanks for explanation. I thought you meant "apologist" in the modern sense.

220 ``Before monotheism (really Judaism via Christianity) human life was cheap and disposable. The dignity of individual human beings was nonexistent."

Exaggerated slightly, but you're on the right track; you're essentially right.

How does this not better represent the true value of human life than Christianity and Judaism? I believe the latter have overvalued an individual human life, any individual human life, to a ridiculous extent.

In the end, we all die, and our true contribution, if any, is to the collective ... our family and kin ... and towards future evolution. For example, the technological evolution which is and will inevitably rapidly supplant biological evolution (which doctrines like Christianity have largely arrested due to our excessive focus on every individual, thus stymieing natural selection and kin-selective altruism).

221 Losers off themselves, winners go home and murder the people that bug them.

222 Are you attracted to Eskimos, Scott J

Scandis. Snow bunnies wear them.

223 They can't announce a euroland bailout until after the Trump debate

224 CJ, Obama thinks we did it by killing Indians

225 In the end, we all die, and our true contribution, if any, is to the collective ... our family and kin ... and towards future evolution.

You are a sad, strange little man. And you have my pity.

/Buzz Lightyear

226 196

Soros made it clear why he became politically active in 2002-04 after 30 years of staying out of US politics.  It was the budding fascism of the Bush/Cheney group.  The wars, torture, shitting on the 4th Amendment and FISA, the Patriot Spy on America Act, etc.  He would know having run from such once.

227

Obama tried to hide it all, when confronted by “Joe the Plumber” but now he has embraced it.

At least in 2012, America will have a choice, a very clear choice.

228 He would know having run from such once.

Hmm.

229

"It is - or should be - a study of human behavior and psychology more than anything else."

Paging Hari Seldon....

230 234 "It is - or should be - a study of human behavior and psychology more than anything else."

Paging Hari Seldon....
_________

Yeah, well, old Harry couldn't predict the Mule One, now could he?

231 231 Soros made it clear why he became politically active in 2002-04 after 30 years of staying out of US politics. It was the budding fascism of the Bush/Cheney group. The wars, torture, shitting on the 4th Amendment and FISA, the Patriot Spy on America Act, etc. He would know having run from collaborated with such once.
_________

FIFY

232

Posted by: Monty at December 07, 2011 11:40 AM (/0a60)

Also known as "reality". As opposed to the fantasy with which most people imbue themselves with.

I.e., (actual, real) mortality.

233 Well, that's undergrad physics.  It's pretty easy to use the chain rule.

They're probably a little embarrassed that they got it so wrong when such an elementary counterexample (chemical rocket, not relativistic effects) existed.

But, yeah, even in advanced physics, they're not so fussed about stuff like that.

Oh no, they insist they are correct - talk to any physics professor. Its worse than you might imagine. F = dp/dt is the cornerstone of most physics. That, and potential energy.

Most people don't know where the potential energy concept originated. In the 1800's the physicists were convinced they had discovered a key principle of physics; conservation of energy. They were all ready to enshrine it when it was pointed out that gravitational fields obviously didn't conserve energy; the more energy you got out of a gravitational field, the stronger it became, conversely the more work you did against a gravitational field the weaker it became. The physicists were sad, because conservation of energy looked like such a beautiful principle - just like F = dp/dt; they really, really wanted it to be true.

They were about ready to abandon the concept of conservation of energy when an engineer came up with a way to kludge a solution that would allow them to continue to delude themselves that they were correct after all; potential energy. 

The key to getting it accepted by the physics community was the scientific sounding name; "potential energy". Had he correctly named it "magical faerie dust" or "fudge factor kludge" I doubt the reception to the concept would have been so positive.

234 CJ, Obama thinks we did it by killing Indians

Posted by: Jean at December 07, 2011 11:34 AM (WnnBz)

America's Original Sin for which must always express regret, never able to remove the stain. That's the Left...America is morally inferior. Born out of hate. That's profoundly different from how most citizens view their county.

235 Justice doesn't prevail yet again!
http://tinyurl.com/c84z57q

236 "Obama thinks we did it by killing Indians."

This was a pretty big factor.

237 I don't think I've ever seen a Soros defender before?

238 One correction. Mark Dayton just squeeked by Tom Emmer, 43.6 to 43.2 percent, with Tom Horner, a third-party former Republican, drawing almost 12 percent. Republicans gained control of both houses of the legislature, so the election was not a big victory for liberalism in Minnesota.

239 I think he must mean Bubba Soros not George . Bubba runs the auto parts store off the interstate . George is a comsimp .

240 No doubt we will this week be on the hook for Europe. Funny how the only way out is capitalist economic growth, the very concept Proggs reject.

241

Seeing how this is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, everybody should check out Pat Buchanan's latest column.  Very interesting stuff.

http://tinyurl.com/7affnjn

242 December 7, 1941 - a date that will live in infamy. What? If it were special, we'd have a doodle for it.

243

This is good to know. I ordered a bunch last night.

I am worried, however, that some will arrive broken. Do you know yet if any of yours are?

Posted by: Tami at December 07, 2011 10:26 AM (X6akg)

 

If their incandesants who cares their a buck a piece and not full of mercury, if a few break it won,t equal the cost of won curley q and no hazmat team required.

mail the broken curly q's to your most unfave congress critter or presidente, sincve they are so fond of em.

Wrap in Ron Pauls tin foil hat first tho.

244 I think that the reason that self admitted Nazi collaborator George Soros kept out of politics in the US for so long is that he didn't think he had a chance of being effective. He smelled the winds of change coming so he saw a chance to brew up a storm. Soros has always made his fortunes by plunging countries into economic chaos. He really didn't think he stood a chance of doing that in the US.

With the presidency of his hand picked man - Barack Obama - he has gone a long way toward creating the chaos he needs in US to make his biggest financial killing ever.

While I wish the man no ill - were he to die a horrible wasting excruciatingly painful death of say S.C.A.G. (Syphilis Chlamydia Aids and Gonorrhea) for instance; I would happily dance a little jig in celebration. 

245

Also a few who were just unwilling to pay the costs of Liberty, like Benedict Arnold.

That had nothing to do with the cost of Liberty.

Arnold felt he had payed the proper price for Fame, but was gypped.

246 Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

247 Excellent blog, thanks for the share. I'll be a regular viewer.

248 Wow this is soo helpful I have been trying to figure this out on my own for a long time now. Hopefully making this change will help encourage discussion on my blog.

249
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250 I have been quite impressive with your posts, keep up the great work.