January 31, 2013

Pro gun article by david mamet

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/01/28/gun-laws-and-the-fools-of-chelm-by-david-mamet.html

This article is frankly, awful.

here are some gems:

"Karl Marx summed up Communism as “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This is a good, pithy saying, which, in practice, has succeeded in bringing, upon those under its sway, misery, poverty, rape, torture, slavery, and death."

"It is not the constitutional prerogative of the Government to determine needs. One person may need (or want) more leisure, another more work; one more adventure, another more security, and so on. It is this diversity that makes a country, indeed a state, a city, a church, or a family, healthy. “One-size-fits-all,” and that size determined by the State has a name, and that name is “slavery.”"

how did this guy get so right wing?

January 31, 2013

David Mamet and the Irrelevance of the Actual Meanings of Words

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/david-mamet-and-the-irrelevance-of-the-actual-meanings-of-words/272675/?google_editors_picks=true

From the article:
"The Founding Fathers, far from being ideologues, were not even politicians. They were an assortment of businessmen, writers, teachers, planters; men, in short, who knew something of the world, which is to say, of Human Nature. Their struggle to draft a set of rules acceptable to each other was based on the assumption that we human beings, in the mass, are no damned good -- that we are biddable, easily confused, and that we may easily be motivated by a Politician, which is to say, a huckster, mounting a soapbox and inflaming our passions."

The author says in response:

"Which is also to say the Founding Fathers were also slaves, and by slaves I mean white guys who wore wigs. All jest aside, I find the process that produces this sort of work to be utterly amoral."

January 26, 2013

Muslim Duers, I come to ask a question

inspired by this thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/121865616

What I am interested in is hearing Muslims refute the point of view in this, and I am sure there are plenty here that can. How off is the point of view of the person?

January 25, 2013

Of presidents, policy and cave ins (i.e the filibuster f-up)

Now, I want Obama to grow spine, and his speech seems to say he is starting to, but once again, Congress wants to keep being paid their fat paychecks for not having to do anything, all the while pointing at those mean old GOP.

The fact is, Reid caved in, because he knew that in a serious rush to the left, he would be washed out.
Just like Nancy when she told W. that "impeachment as off the table."

So, go ahead and blame Obama, but the truth is, our congressional leaders are scum. Let us call it out, both Pelosi and Reid need to go.

January 24, 2013

OK, about the idea of Hillary 2016

I know that many people will say it is too early, but let's face it, the same inevitability meme is up and going, so trying not to adress it will leave us looking like ostriches trying to hide our heads in the sand.

I will cut to the chase:
Yes, if she is the democratic nominee in 2016, I will work hard to get her in, as hard if not harder than I did for Obama.

Yes, I think she can be a good president, though I have reservations,

Yes, I do not care if the GOP gets so desperate that they nominate fox news commentator Dennis Kucinich, I will not vote for a GOP, period!

Yes, i do think she can help set up a new generation of democrats, the Hildebrands, the Castros, etc

However, here is where I get very antsy,.

The fact is Clinton got to where she is by helping her husband Bill punch hippies. This is an age where even we Obamabots realize that we need to SHIFT TOWARDS THE LEFT. How do you expect people who want actual progress...aw screw it...LIBERAL policies to not see Hillary as a step back? She is not going to reduce military spending, as she managed to get us involved with the war in Libya, and will NOT rein in Bibi Netanyahu. How are we supposed to think she will do spending when Bill and her still pat themselves on the back for "welfare reform', which, as it turned out, was proven to be bad for the country?

In short, if she is the one, how do we keep what meager progressiv...LIBERAL gains we have from going down the commode?

January 22, 2013

Inauguration: the sweet and the bitter

Now, just to clear things up, as I am called an Obama bot/cheerleader whatever.

Has Obama fallen short on some promises?, yes.

Is there a need to keep genuine, constant pressure on him?, yes

Did he, and many others in the DLC, underestimate the need to look leftward, to actually use the left and ignore many who were pulling towards the center.
YES.

And was the inauguration a bit of overkill,especially as religious types tried to make a slice of history into a loaf of cultural domination? YES.

And can we finally use an actual commitment to peace,with an acknowledgement that we cannot, nor should not, continue to be the world's cop, yes

However, with all of that, we do have a right to celebrate this day. Not because Obama does speeches well, we all know that, but because, very simply, we did not allow the country to put the GOP back in the White House.

The first black president will indeed be a two term president, not a fluke, , This happened despite many on the right who want him killed, in the center that wanted him replaced with Hillary, and yes, even some (note I say some) some fringes on the far left who wanted him punished because he did not whip up a 12 course dinner of revolution like it was a big mac.

In short, the country has changed, and will keep changing. The center is finally moving,despite whatever the HUFFPos say.

January 18, 2013

This is what is wrong with Dennis working for Fox.

OK, disclaimer, I understand that to many here, Dennis is a hero. However,there are reasons why this move cannot be approved of, even with a ton of sauce poured over it:

Let's say Dennis really thinks he is going to go on Fox news, and sneak in the true "liberal" point of view. No BS, he really thinks he can somehow move Fox a little to the left, and therefore inspire others to do the same with other news. OK...if he thinks that, his judgement is seriously twisted. There is NO combat or struggle over what Fox broadcasts, it has decided, and if someone steps out of line, it is edited.

As I said in an earlier thread, it is like some famous Boxer joining the WWE, who has no idea that the whole thing is a performance, as opposed to an athletic contest. The difference is, Dennis does know better, so there are only two choice left...he thinks he can impose his will on Fox, or he knows he cannot, and wants the paycheck.

He also cannot be naive about the fact that they will take anything he says about Obama, and yes, about Hillary, and put THAT STUFF IN ALLCAPS. Fox has looked at how Arianna Huffington and Jane Hamsher whipped a part of the left against Obama, and how tricking people into staying home paid of in 2010. If you think their decision to hire Dennis has nothing to do with 2014, I have a bridge to sell you. Indeed, mark my words, but when Dennis gives an Obama sucks rant, Fox will very likely invite either Hamsher or Huffington in on the chorus, after all they give time to Ron Paul and Grover Norquist on their sites.

Some here have said that Dennis needs the money. Now, that is a line of BULL I will give no quarter to, and here is why? As much as I may dislike Hamsher and Huffington, do you think those two would not offer to pay him? Are people going to say that the only place this guy can get a paycheck is Fox News? Is there no college that needs a professor? Is there no network that requires a talk show host, no room on so called "progressive radio?"

So,there is what I think,and here is a PS: As someone who gets called an "obama-bot" I am very amused at seeing the mental gymnastics of some of Dennis K's fans. We all know that if any other Democratic senator offered to work for Fox, the rotten tomatoes and hand grenades would be thrown without a hint of mercy! Yet some people are not content with merely saying there is nothing wrong, but they act like, all of a sudden, they should watch Fox. With all due respect,this goes beyond mental gymnastics to outright biting oneself on the ass! I would say do not watch Fox, because if Dennis really says anything good on Fox, TYT, Rachel Maddow and even Huffpo will have all the footage and much better analysis of it.

January 15, 2013

in other words

You said
t doesn't really help that a lot of those rural gun-owning Southerners and Midwesterners and Westerners are the descendants of violent Scots-Irish rednecks who've inherited a cultural distrust of government reinforced over generations in sparsely populated areas with weak government and police protection

I humbly offer a translation"
England always treated the Celts like shit, and used the idea of Empire to placate them instead of actually integrating them into society.

"hey you annoying prats, quit bothering us in London! We already gave you Canada, Australia, North America, Africa, and India to colonize, all you have to do is kill the native brown people and remember to send us most of the bloody profits!"

Add to this that when America became independent, the colonization germ remained intact. In places like Canada and Australia, it died off, not because they were any less eager or able to do genocide, but because England let them become commonwealths, places that were still part of the Empire, but just had to bow to the Empire rather than kowtow to it the way the brown subjects do. Also,to their credit, many of them, though sadly not all, (as Stephen Harper proves) realized that Empire was a racket, and they really did not want to grow up like their old, bitter Mother England. Also, because their governments were younger, they were able to let a lot of British Colonial ideas simply walk out to pasture.

America did not break with Empire, and indeed, it's problem was that many of the "founding fathers" were people that were actually better at the Empire game than King George, the guy who died in the looney bin. George Washington started the French and Indian war, which is the only reason Le Quebecois are considered "Canadian." His reward was a tax on his tea, for which he said "Screw London, why should they get the profits when we do the work?" And of course, to this day, Imperialist still put on the wigs and funny hats, as if to claim kinship with the secular saints.

January 14, 2013

There are many

Who want to embrace the darkness, who want civilization to die off, to crawl back to the hunter gatherer days where wise men and women determined who lived and died, and where in ingrown hair or tooth was enough to kill you at 15, as opposed to the ripe old age of 30.

No, I will not sugarcoat the trouble we are in, though a lot of it is caused by the fact that we have not embraced modernity as we should have. A lot of that excess population is because of Religious institutions trying to keep their numbers up, banning birth control. Some of that is also because merchants have gotten in the way of cleaner technologies; Diesel was meant for peanut oil, and it could easily run biodiesel,especially if we started growing lovely industrial hemp (the drug free kind that cannot get anyone high.) WE may not be able to heal everything completely, but there is much to do that can give us a fighting chance to survive, and eventually overcome. But some, like some Goth kids that relish suicide because it is like "oh so cool" want to see humanity go, as some retirbution, despite the fact that nature itself is just another machine. To quote George Carlin "Maybe the only reason Earth made is is because it wanted plastic."

But yes, "nature does bat last", though why anyone should cheer her is a mystery. She may be our mother, but she is an abusive one. You can have a relationship with an abusive parent, but you can never allow your guard to go down too far, or ever believe that the relationship you want and deserve to have will be anything but the fantasy your mind concocted because it thinks you deserve it.

January 13, 2013

What is the VAT?

I heave heard this bandied about as a tax solution. From what i know, it involves adding a price to everything, making the taxes based on consumption.

My worry is, how does it not become regressive, making items like a loaf of bread harder to buy?