COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, December 01, 2012

How our rulers and masters have made us poorer


By The Daily Reckoning • December 1st, 2012 •

Behold a new damage assessment from the credit crisis: The net worth of the median American household plunged 47% from 2007-2010.



So concludes a study by New York University's Edward Wolff. 'The debt of the middle class exploded from 1983 to 2007,' he writes, 'already creating a very fragile middle class in the United States... [T]heir position deteriorated even more over the "Great Recession".
Remarkably, if you throw out housing, the picture is even worse: Median nonhome net worth dived 59% between 2007-2010 and is indeed substantially lower than it was in 1962 - which is as far back as Wolff dared to look.
In Washington, Wolff's study is prompting a thorough re-examination of policies that larded down the middle class with so much debt over the decades.
Just kidding: The Beltway class is latching on to the part of Wolff's study that noted median net worth among "the 1%" grew 71% between 1983-2010, measured in 2010 dollars.
'Inequality skyrocketed as a consequence of the Great Recession,' says the questionably named Center for American Progress, 'taking resources away from middle class, minority and young families while the wealthy made significant gains.'
The statistic is 'almost ready-made for an Occupy Wall Street banner,' notes a story at Salon.
Like it or not, here's another statistic of that ilk: Student loan delinquencies skyrocketed during the third quarter, according to new figures from the New York Fed.
As of June 30, less than 9% of loan balances were 90 days or more in arrears. As of Sept. 30, the number was 11%. That's bad enough. In the context of the last decade, it's frightening.


'Nearly all student loans - 93% of them last year - are made directly by the government,' The Wall Street Journal points out.
'The real fallout from the student loan crisis will hit in mid-2013, four years after the volume of government-funded student loans surged,' macro strategist Dan Amoss wrote in August. 'Like the infamous option ARMs (adjustable-rate mortgages) during the housing bubble, these loans have precisely timed fuses: Four years after the loans are made, borrowers must start making payments.'
'Within a handful of years,' he amends his forecast now, 'U.S. taxpayers will be on the hook for over $100 billion in student loan defaults.'
Then again, what's $100 billion in a "real" national debt of $86.8 trillion?
Officially, the national debt stands this morning at $16.3 trillion. That number does not include future liabilities for Social Security and Medicare.
Different people come up with different numbers when it comes to the true national debt: Former comptroller general and I.O.U.S.A. protagonist David Walker reckons it's $71 trillion. Boston University's Larry Kotlikoff's number crunching comes up with a figure three times as big, $222 trillion.
The $86.8 trillion figure comes from former congressmembers Christopher Cox and William Archer, writing in an Op-Ed posted yesterday at Yahoo Finance.
'Were American policy makers to have the benefit of transparent financial statements prepared the way public companies must report their pension liabilities,' the duo write, 'they would see clearly the magnitude of the future borrowing that these liabilities imply.'
Contra Messrs. Cox and Archer, they do: The Treasury Department issues an annual Financial Report of the United States Government - every year during the week between Christmas and New Year's, to make sure as few people as possible see it.
Regards,
Dave Gonigam
for The Daily Reckoning Australia
Why is the happening?






143 comments:

  1. My first take? Just skip all the rest of it, and go to the last chart.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That first chart, stopping at 2010 as it does, is pretty deceptive. Household net worth has risen by about 28% from the bottom.

    Coming Back

    The Biggest factor was the Stock Market.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I seem to be wrong about this. My link is to "average" net worth. The picture is probably much less sanguine when "Median" net worth is considered.

      Delete
  3. The only chance of getting out of our debt crisis is to grow our way out, reduce dependency on federal transfer payments and entitlements, and stop the insanity of US military actions in the Middle East.

    Immigration, legal and illegal, has depressed wages in manufacturing, construction and the services industry.

    Federal transfer payments and entitlements now give greater financial benefits to non-workers than the net pay of many workers.

    People are choosing not to take available jobs and those jobs are being filled with immigrants willing to work for less.

    So-called bright economists are scratching their heads as to why consumer spending is holding up. Here is a hint:

    * Pay someone 90% of their net pay for not working for two years.
    * Subsidize them further with food stamps, housing subsidies,
    * Free telephone service.
    * Free healthcare.
    * Free education.

    Add casual work for unreported cash and you have the perfect storm for increased government services and higher tax burdens on the productive part of society.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That Immigration chart is deceptive, also. I believe (net) immigration was, effectively, close to Zero in 2012.

      Delete
    2. "Productive part of Society" Would that be Bain Capital? The Company that shut down U.S. Manufacturers, moved the jobs to China, and put the employees on Unemployment benefits, Medicaid, and Food Stamps?

      THAT "productive part of Society?"

      Delete
    3. Now, here's the part that neither Democrat nor Republican wants to talk about: Most of those jobs weren't moved to China because of "Savings due to Cheap Labor." (I'll go more into this if requested, but I really don't want to type that much.)

      Those factories are moved to China as a Tax Dodge.

      Delete
    4. We're Not going to "grow our way out" until we fix our "China/Corp. tax" problem, and get off imported oil.

      And, no, we're not going to let the poor starve, live under bridges, or go without healthcare.

      Delete
    5. "tax dodge"? really? So would the fix be in reducing corporate taxes?

      What about, in addition to cheaper labor, factors such as being close to the supply chain and the fact that many factories weren't "moved" but rather they just were created there and were more productive driving the higher cost factories elsewhere out of business?

      Delete
    6. I was looking at that Sensata plant in Freeport, Il, that Bain moved to China. Their Labor Cost was so insignificant compared to their Profit that it wouldn't have been worth the move if the Chinese labor was absolutely Free.

      However, with the Chinese kicking in Sweethear Deals, and the company headquartered in the Caymans, the Tax Savings would have to be huge (probably, something like "0%" vs 25%.)

      That makes the move a no-brainer. Let's hear it for the "Productive" side of the economy!

      Delete
    7. Yeah, I'd say one of the things we, absolutely, need to do is significantly reduce Corp. Taxes. Also, something needs to be done with Tariffs as regards China.

      Delete
    8. Just finished reading this in my local rag over morning coffee:

      "How the U.S. can win back mega-billions in offshore corporate cash"

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/how-the-us-can-win-back-mega-billions-in-offshore-corporate-cash/article5859978/

      Delete
  4. Taxes are just another cost to business as is labor and materials. Business will exploit whatever benefit gives them the least cost. On an individual basis all is well in the garden. The problem is with the manure pile. It keeps growing and who is there to clean it up? Business won’ t do it, so who is left?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm Not anti-business (I'm also not particularly "pro-"business.) I kind of figure that if we don't squat on business too badly, it will take care of itself.

      BUT, we can't keep taking "the worst of it" from our China Trade. Any semi-street savvy 12 yr old can tell you that that can't last. And, yes, Milton Friedman, and the Austrians, are absolutely, totally wrong about this.

      Ivory Tower "theories" are one thing; running a country is something altogether different.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  5. What's Happening i am new to this, I stumbled upon this I've found It absolutely useful and it has aided me out loads.
    I'm hoping to give a contribution & assist other customers like its helped me. Great job.
    Stop by my web page Work from home

    ReplyDelete
  6. We need to get real. Americans are not exceptional as we wish. In fact, the thing we are most exceptionally at is getting fat and being docile.

    We believe what we are told, chumps and suckers for media and bereft of free thinkers that count for much. We allow government to arrest 700,000 people of year for growing a plant and smoking the leaves of the plant. They are jailed in a prison system that is about as inhumane as any on the planet, yet the last three presidents,
    living and flying large all, could and should have been imprisoned for the same leafy “crimes”.

    Corzine scams billions and he is free. Some desperate fool writes a bad check for $128.72 and goes to jail.

    The system is corrupt and broken but not quite corrupt and broken enough and the majority prefer the status quo to the status quo served up by Mitt Romney.

    An asteroid hit on the Potomac would bring temporary relief but only until the next bunch of crooks, ego maniacs and thieves with bright teeth and nice hair once again prove to us how stupid we really are.

    You want liberty and freedom, buy the video or read the book. Smoke a big fat badly wrapped joint and listen to Janis Joplin. Take a walk and leave your smart phone behind. Rent and lease, bob and weave and enjoy the farce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :)

      You know what would happen. The damned asteroid would miss DC, and hit Mississip One More Time. :)

      Delete
    2. "Freedom's just another word for Nothing Left to Lose."

      Damn, I've always loved that gal.

      Delete
    3. .

      I share you're despondancy, Deuce. I usually quote 1984 all the time as a marker of our times. However, there are probably a lot better examples that reflect the dystopic future we are headed for, novels that reflect the coursening of culture among other trends we see here.

      A good example is Huxley's The Brave New World (subtitled Rufus World) written in 1932. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. A consumer society designed to support "The State". No worry of a theocracy. There is no religion. No worries about sexual freedom. It is encouraged. In fact, women wear special belts holding their contraceptives as fashion assessories. And of course, everyone is happy with their state. They are conditioned to be so. In addition, they are given their daily dose of Soma. Even their caste system mirrors ours, theirs manufactured through genetic manipulation and our through government action.

      In other words, all the freedom in the world. All you have to do is give up is your freedom.

      We are becoming a nation of Eloi willing to give up whatever as long as the Morlocks of the State 'take care' of us.

      Any negative effects? Well, it's just too distasteful and/or uncomfortable to think about those.

      .

      Delete
    4. Huxley also showed a possible way out in The Perennial Philosophy.

      Delete
  7. Don't buy lottery tickets. Save 58 billion a year, or something.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Krugman is obviously right. We didn't stimulate nearly enough.

    And, what we really need is a real outside threat that demands a defense buildup that amounts to something -

    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6c2_1313330572


    What we need is a real space alien threat to get us out of our doldrums in 18 months, Paul says.

    This is the guy Rufus has become fond of quoting.

    ReplyDelete
  9. African girls come up with perfect solution to the Rufus Energy Problem, or, turning Budweiser into Power --

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/dont_pooh-pooh_pee-powered_generators.html

    I call this a modern marvel on the scale of walking on water.

    Pee Power!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Think of it! We don't really need all these windmills, solar panels and such. A normal family of four could easily keep the household going endlessly.

    ReplyDelete
  11. . . . the strong consensus I've found is that regardless of their political stripes, there is virtually no recognition of a lot of positive stuff that's actually occurred (and by "positive," I mean stuff they like -- not necessary stuff that I like).

    For this post, I'll focus on the safety net, but many of the people I talked to want the government to spend less. Putting aside the whole austerity-in-recession problem, when you point out to them that, in fact, we have very significantly cut spending -- $1.7 trillion over ten years (including interest savings) -- they refuse to believe it.

    When you tell them that health care costs are actually growing more slowly in recent years, and that this may be an early sign that cost controls of the type in the Affordable Care Act will actually work, they are incredulous (though at this point, to be fair, it's hard to separate out recessionary effects).

    The fact that the President's budget -- which is basically what he's working from on the cliff negotiations -- will stabilize the debt as a share of GDP, as scored by the CBO, is simply unacceptable to people.

    As is the fact that the safety net worked. The figure below is an update of one I've used before showing the trend in poverty rates as officially measured and as correctly measured. The Census Bureau has . . . . . .

    from the "not always as it seems" dept.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. When you tell them that health care costs are actually growing more slowly in recent years, and that this may be an early sign that cost controls of the type in the Affordable Care Act will actually work, they are incredulous ****(though at this point, to be fair, it's hard to separate out recessionary effects)****

      Yup, nobody has any money. Really ought to factor that in someway. And ObamaCare hasn't really kicked in yet.

      So, the man has said, actually, nothing at all.

      Delete
    2. Jared, my man.

      And Neel Kashkari.

      Good good people.

      Delete
    3. .

      Yet, when cost issues are raised, the libs yell "Hey, it hasn't kicked in yet.

      I have cited the numerous reasons why Obamacare will never meet it's cost containment goals. As they eventually surface, I have been pointing them out. The latest, worth billions, Obama has called for the 'Doc Fix' to be delayed for another year as part of the budget negotiations. Forget how long this practice has been going on, probably four or five years, at least; yet they still write it in as a savings for Obamacare.

      The Doc Fix

      .

      .

      Delete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Come on, Bob, let's not try to hominify a couple lumps of cells and ganglia.

      .

      Delete
    2. If you watch the video closely, one of the little tykes yawns.

      Delete
  13. Sibling rivalry starts early --

    http://wtvr.com/2012/11/30/sibling-rivalry-video-shows-twins-fighting-in-the-womb/

    Think Jacob and Esau.

    video

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jacob and Esau's birth

      Jacob and his twin brother, Esau, were born to Isaac and Rebekah after 20 years of marriage, when Isaac was 60 (Genesis 25:20, 25:26). Rebekah was uncomfortable during her pregnancy and went to inquire of God why she was suffering. She received the prophecy that the twins were fighting in her womb and would continue to fight all their lives, even after they became two separate nations. The prophecy also said that "the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger;"

      Delete
    2. the elder shall serve the younger

      I take it this is a way of saying things can be, or ought to be, evened up, and the elder sibs don't have to always beat on the younger, who they are pissed at for taking mum mums attention away.

      May say a bunch of other things too.

      Delete
  14. Egyptian women protests -

    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/12/01/video-egyptian-women-protest-morsi-muslim-brotherhood-in-cairo/

    Out in force.

    ReplyDelete


  15. How our rulers and masters have made us poorer -and less secure

    Here we were told Obama's foreign policy expertise was a reason to vote for him. Still no report from Obama on what really took place in Libya. He may work on that during his Hawaiian vacation. Who knows?



    IBD Editorials

    Egypt Is Collapsing Thanks To Obama Foreign Policy


    Mideast: The democratic "New Beginning" President Obama announced in Cairo in 2009 becomes a new, bold Egyptian tyranny. An imperfect ally was swept away by what has generated into an Islamist perfect storm.

    Apparently confident that an eloquent mea culpa would prompt an abundant supply of Islamic goodwill, Barack Obama in his first year as president appeared at Cairo University before an audience that included leaders of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and gave a speech meant to shake the world.

    He apologized for the "overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government" during the Cold War and sought "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world" based on "common principles — principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

    Just as the left seeks to use government to transform economic behavior domestically, it also naively believes U.S. geopolitical power can jam square pegs into round holes in foreign societies.

    Instead of the "government of the people and by the people" that maintains "power through consent, not coercion," and respects "the rights of minorities ... with a spirit of tolerance and compromise," Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, speaking at a mosque Friday, claimed dictatorial powers.

    Those attending shouted "No to tyranny!" and "Morsi Void!" Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators — an opposition once divided — converged upon Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand Morsi's overthrow, along with tens of thousands in Alexandria and other cities.

    They were protesting a new Shariah-friendly constitution, its 234 articles approved in 19 hours in a surprise move by the Islamist-dominated parliament, from which non-Islamists left in protest weeks ago. The document gives Egyptian clerics legislative oversight, suppresses speech and imposes inferior status on women.

    Even Egypt's highest court seems powerless, since the draft is set for a mid-December referendum, and Morsi has nullified the judiciary's powers. Meanwhile, Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and influential clerics are demanding that the people submit to his power grab.

    Can the U.S. tame the monster Obama created? The fact that the day before his power grab Morsi helped craft a U.S.-mediated cease-fire between Israel and Hamas terrorists, plus his being a product of the "Arab Spring," may keep Obama from turning against him.

    Obama's Cairo outreach repeatedly stressed that "violent extremists" were exploiting "a small but potent minority of Muslims." But under Obama the admittedly undemocratic U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak is gone, and now that extreme is consolidating power in one of the globe's most strategically important Muslim nations.



    Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/113012-635389-former-us-ally-egypt-consolidating-islamic-extremism.htm#ixzz2DpJqxxnG

    ReplyDelete
  16. So far, it seems, the status que continues to rule in Egypt.
    Lots of thunder, little lightning ...

    No Fires

    ReplyDelete
  17. By: Patrick J. Buchanan
    11/30/2012 01:30 AM


    “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another …”

    So begins the Declaration of Independence of the 13 colonies from the king and country to which they had given allegiance since the settlers first came to Jamestown and Plymouth Rock.

    The declaration was signed by 56 angry old white guys who had had enough of what the Cousins were doing to them. In seceding from the mother country, these patriots put their lives, fortunes and honor on the line.

    Four score and five years later, 11 states invoked the same right “to dissolve the political bands” of the Union and form a new nation. After 620,000 had perished, the issue of a state’s right to secede was settled at Appomattox. If that right had existed, it no longer did.

    What are we to make, then, of petitions from 25,000 citizens of each of seven Southern states — 116,000 from Texas alone — to secede?

    While no one takes this movement as seriously as men took secession in 1861, the sentiments behind it ought not to be minimized. For they bespeak a bristling hostility to the federal government and a dislike bordering on detestation of some Americans for other Americans, as deep as it was on the day Beauregard’s guns fired on Fort Sumter.

    Our Pledge of Allegiance still speaks of “one nation under God, indivisible,” but that is far from the reality in the America of 2012.

    The social, cultural, moral and political revolutions of the 1960s, against which Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan inveighed to win their 49-state triumphs, have now captured half of the country.

    One America believes our history is a catalog of crimes against people of color, that women have an inviolable right to abortions, that condoms should be handed out to sexually active teens in schools where Darwinism should be taught as revealed truth, while Bibles, prayers and religious symbols should be permanently expelled.

    The other America sees all this as unpatriotic, godless and decadent.

    One America believes in equality of rights; the other demands equality of results brought about through the redistribution of income and wealth, affirmative action, racial and gender set-asides, and quotas.

    One America believes in gun control; the other in gun rights.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Now that Christmas and Easter have been expunged from public schools and the public square and the popular culture has been thoroughly de-Christianized, we Americans seem to have but one holy day of obligation that brings us all together: Super Bowl Sunday.

    Where one America divinizes diversity, the other seeks out our lost unity and community. Half the country pays no federal income taxes, but half depends on federal benefits.

    The occasions when we come together as one, as after 9/11 and during natural disasters such as Katrina and Sandy, seem few and farther between, and the resurrected unity rarely lasts.

    Could today’s America come together to build an interstate highway system or send astronauts to the moon, as we did just seven years after John Glenn first orbited the Earth?

    Environmentalists would have killed Ike’s highway system and the Hoover and Grand Coulee dams, as today they seek to stop the fracking for oil and natural gas and block the Keystone XL pipeline.

    As for states seceding, however, is that really a solution to national disintegration? Tens of millions with Blue State mindsets live in Red State America, and vice versa. While folks in Texas may talk of seceding from the Union, folks in Austin talk of seceding from Texas.

    Yet we should take seriously what is behind this desire to separate and sever ties, for it mirrors what is happening across our civilization.

    The West is decomposing.

    British Tories seek to cut ties to the European Union. Scots want to leave Britain. Catalans vote to divorce from Spain, to which they have been wedded since the 15th century. Flemish talk of leaving Walloons behind in Belgium. Northern Europeans are weary of carrying their profligate southern brethren and muse about cutting Greece adrift and letting it float out into the Mediterranean.

    And Americans are already seceding from one another — ethnically, culturally, politically. Middle-class folks flee high-tax California, as Third World immigrants, legal and illegal, pour in to partake of the cornucopia of social welfare benefits the Golden Land dispenses.

    High-tax states like New York now send tens of thousands of pension checks to Empire State retirees in tax-free Florida. Communities of seniors are rising that look like replicas of the suburbs of the 1950s. People gravitate toward their own kind. Call it divorce, American-style.

    What author William Bishop called “The Big Sort” — the sorting out of people by political beliefs — proceeds. Eighteen states have gone Democratic in six straight presidential elections. A similar number have gone Republican.

    “Can we all just get along?” asked Rodney King during the Los Angeles riot of 1992. Well, if we can’t, we can at least dwell apart.

    After all, it’s a big country.

    ReplyDelete
  19. That about sums it up and for the record it will never get back to one united states.

    ReplyDelete
  20. …and I did read that Jeb Bush thinks he would be perfect for the next Republican candidate. He really doesn’t think he will be chosen for President does he?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      He may.

      It's unlikely, but from what I've seen of him (little enough I suppose) he appears far superior to anything we have got, or for that matter anything we have been offerred, in quite a while.

      He's moderate, not afraid to take on the extremists in his own party, and would have more appeal to the Spanish vote than most in the GOP.

      "What's in a name?"

      .

      Delete
    2. His mama called him the smart one of the family.

      Delete
  21. In its penny-pinching quest to erase the national deficit, the U.S. government could turn to coins.

    The Government Accountability Office says the United States should replace $1 dollar bills with coins to save money, according to the Associated Press. The GAO released its latest study on the benefits of replacing $1 bills with coins and found doing so could save the government $4.4 billion over the next 30 years. Some of the savings can be attributed to coins' superior longevity — a dollar bill lasts about 4.7 years, while a coin would last 30 years, according to the GAO. The rest is due to increased seigniorage, which is the difference between the cost of making coins and their face values.


    Whatever happened to the 50 cent piece? I can’t remember the last time I used one. May as well get rid of that one, dump the penny and while were at it get rid of the nickel. May as well get rid of the paper dollar and the paper $5. That gets rid of two Lincoln’s :) . Leaves us with four coins, $5, $1, $.25, and $.10.

    That would make it fun to find a coin again and save the post office by forcing the dopes to make a $.50 minimum on a stamp and when they need more more, bump it up a dime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      $150 million a year in savings, the spending cuts the Dems plan on offering up in the sequestration negotiations.

      .

      Delete
    2. I like the dollar bill. You can fold them up and put them in your breast pocket. Noiseless too. Whatever happened to the Sacajawea dollar? Never see those anymore.

      Delete
  22. More likely that we'll see George Prescott (eldest son) or John Ellis (Jebby) Bush. Both have political aspirations. Both carry their mother's Hispanic looks.

    ReplyDelete
  23. At any rate, the previous discussion about WMD and "Curveball" (yikes) provide a backdrop for the current (and conflicting) allegations of Iran's nuclear capacity.

    ReplyDelete
  24. While we are gazing at our navel, I keep thinking about Deuce’s comment about Petraeus in uniform looking like a Pakistani taxi. There is a photo of Petraeus attending a dinner party in uniform with all his medals on.

    Now, is that a level of narcissism on display or a sign of something more troubling?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      In uniform?

      The man takes it way beyond that.

      He recently showed up to speak at a dinner in Washington wearing a row of military medals on the lapel of his suit jacket. The brass prompted a few double takes from a crowd in which only uniformed military men had donned their medals.

      The man in the blue suit and the wha...?

      This won't hurt him. Most of America's public today is fascinated by bright shiny things.

      .

      Delete
    2. Something much more troubling. Sitting there like a peacock on display, trying to attract the Broadwells of the world. Just looking for trouble, begging for it.

      Delete
    3. Even women out here like bright shiny things. Belt buckles, spurs, silver saddles, you wouldn't believe.

      Buck

      Delete
    4. An' fine leather. They love soft well worked fine leather.



      Buck

      Delete
    5. .

      Cut it out, Bob.

      I can see you are working yourself up.

      Go take a cold shower. I'm sorry I brought up the issue of bright shiny things.

      .

      Delete
  25. December 1, 2012
    Anna Karenina: A Conservative Morality Tale
    Rick Moran

    The new movie version of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina might be a bit stagy for some tastes, but any movie that--a) stars Keira Knightley and b) advances Leo Tolstoy's worldview--is surely worth watching.

    I will leave the story itself to the moviegoer, but in the novel of the same name Tolstoy describes liberalism in terms that are entirely recognizable 140 years later. In the following passages he speaks to the character of Anna's philandering, self-important brother, Stepan Arkadyevitch, a landau liberal because it suited his life style. Indeed, writes Tolstoy wryly, liberalism had become something of a habit for him, like smoking his cigar, "for the slight fog it diffused in
 his brain."

    The 
liberal party said that in Russia everything is wrong, and
 certainly Stepan Arkadyevitch had many debts and was decidedly 
short of money. The liberal party said that marriage is an 
institution quite out of date, and that it needs reconstruction;
 and family life certainly afforded Stepan Arkadyevitch little
 gratification, and forced him into lying and hypocrisy, which was
 so repulsive to his nature.

    The liberal party said, or rather
 allowed it to be understood, that religion is only a curb to keep 
in check the barbarous classes of the people; and Stepan
 Arkadyevitch could not get through even a short service without 
his legs aching from standing up, and could never make out what
 was the object of all the terrible and high-flown language about 
another world when life might be so very amusing in this world.

    Writing more than 40 years before the Russian Revolution, Tolstoy noted the myopia of one-percenters like Stepan Arkadyevitch who believed that the real danger to Russia lay "not in that fantastic
 revolutionary hydra, but in the obstinacy of traditionalism 
clogging progress."

    Curiously, the 100 or so million lives lost to that revolutionary hydra have not wised up our friends on the left. As one prominent Kansan said famously in the pages of the New York Times, today's religious right poses a "far greater threat than the old threat of communism." In his best court French Tolstoy just might have replied, Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.



    hmmm. I think it's a little more complicated than this. I don't see mention of any of the several causes of Anna's dismemberment here.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. .

      More importantly, I just can't stand Kiera Knightly.

      .

      Delete
    2. I of course don't have a clue who that might be.

      Delete
    3. She looks ok, might make a good Anna.

      Delete
    4. You just need to get over your fascination with Barbara Walters, Quirk. Its gone on too long.

      Delete
  26. AAA says E-85 will ruin the motor in your car.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/new_government_mandated_ethanol_blend_damages_engines_says_aaa.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a wonderful gift this all has been to farmers everywhere. I cannot remember the last time Willie Nelson put on a Farm Aid concert, it has been so long ago.

      Delete
  27. The "Blue" States ought to buy the Red States a Bus Ticket.

    They could balance their budget, immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Conservative vs. Liberal--A Debate

    By ARTHUR SCHLESINGER JR.

    Granting the existence of these darkest spots - as even some conservatives might - can we usefully do anything about them? Or will not attempts at reform only make matters worse? Of course, conservatism has always used such arguments to avert reform, from the fights over abolition of imprisonment for debt and the legalization of trade unions to social security and farm price supports. It has solemnly declared that each proposed change would bring in its wake incalculable consequences which could only end by destroying the Republic.

    Yet the Republic always turns out to be stronger than the conservatives think; and on the record, even conservatism comes in time to cherish most of the reform it has so bitterly fought. It is preposterous to suppose that we cannot continue to improve the conditions of American life in sectors of weakness - and to argue this is not to argue that man or society is perfectible, only that degrees of happiness and security are important.

    I am a liberal because I think our society must be made better, and because I think we can in the future, as we have in the past, work out practical ways of bringing about improvement. In so far as I am an idealist, I acknowledge in myself an uneasy conscience, which keeps me from sleeping in perfect tranquillity while others suffer or starve or are denied opportunities proportionate to vigor and talent within the existing social framework. Both idealism and realism - both conscience and calculation - would seem to demand a recognition of the indispensability of reasoned change and thus to commend liberalism over conservatism.

    Both liberalism and conservatism, I would repeat, have their necessary functions in a balanced society. But in the long run - and of this I am sure - the spur, imagination and sacrifice which may give human dignity, freedom and humility a fighting chance for survival are more likely to come from liberalism. In a world changing as fast as our own, courage will probably be more necessary than caution, reason more useful than reverence. So long as the essential contest remains between the past and the future, liberalism will continue to persuade men's minds and fire men's hearts.

    Russel Kirk provides the conservative rebuttal.

    ReplyDelete
  29. From the earliest writings it's the same thing - Old men bitching about Godless, amoral youth.

    Boiled down, it goes something like this,

    "Hep, Hep!

    The Slaves is escapin', the slaves is escapin'!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      True enough, from Aesop for example

      And the ant said to the grasshgopper, "Beware winter is coming. You best prepare."

      But the canny old grasshopper said, "Phish tosh, its summertime and the living is easy. Plenty of time to worry about winter. The rich can kick in a little more and if that's not enough, just print up a few more trillions. I got's to get me one of them nifty new 4G Samsung Galaxy phones with appropriate apps."


      .

      Delete
    2. :)

      There is some truth to this.

      Delete
  30. From the DRR link, Ralph Waldo E. pretty much sums up my thinking; to wit,

    "Each is a great half," wrote Emerson, "but an impossible whole. Each exposes the abuses of the other, but in a true society, in a true man, both must combine."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rufus is becoming a changed being, an androgynous being almost, and philosophical, now quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson.


      http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/voices-in-time/platos-other-half.php?page=all

      Plato's Other Half

      Which is where Emerson probably got the idea.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, I found RWE to be readable - when I was in the 6th grade, I think it was. Never could warm up to the old bore, Plato.

      Delete
  31. The “American” in American Petroleum Institute, the country’s largest oil lobby group, is a misnomer. As I reported for The Nation in August, the group has changed over the years, and is now led by men like Tofiq Al-Gabsani, a Saudi Arabian national who heads a Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) subsidiary, the state-run oil company that also helps finance the American Petroleum Institute. Al-Gabsani is also a registered foreign agent for the Saudi government.

    New disclosures retrieved today, showing some of API’s spending over the course of last year, reveal that API used its membership dues (from the world’s largest oil companies like Chevron and Aramco) to finance several dark money groups airing attack ads in the most recent election cycle.

    Last year, API gave nearly half a million to the following dark money groups running political ads against Democrats and in support of Republicans:

    • $50,000 to Americans for Prosperity’s 501(c)(4) group, which ran ads against President Obama and congressional Democrats.

    • $412,969 to Coalition for American Jobs’ 501(c)(6) group, a front set up by API lobbyists to air ads for industry-friendly politicians, including soon to be former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA).

    • $25,000 to the Sixty Plus Association’s 501(c)(4), which ran ads against congressional Democrats.

    Jack Gerard, the president of API, was a close ally to the Mitt Romney campaign. Like the US Chamber of Commerce, API is one of several large trade associations that has spent heavily in support of Republican candidates.

    The disclosures also show that in 2011, API spent over $68 million for public relations/advertising with the firm . . . . . . .

    The word "American" don't make it so

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder, now, about the "American Automobile Assoc.," don't you?

      Delete
    2. .

      Good heavens, I am metagrabolized.

      Imagine interest groups actually kicking in funds to support candidates that they believe will support their positions.

      Luckily, we wouldn't see that on the Dems side.

      .

      Delete
    3. Despite its work promoting environmental responsibility in the automotive and transportation arenas, AAA's lobbying positions are perceived by some as hostile to mass transit and environmental interests.
      In 2006 the Automobile Club of Southern California worked against Prop. 87. The proposition would have established a "$4 billion program to reduce petroleum consumption (in California) by 25 percent, with research and production incentives for alternative energy, alternative energy vehicles, energy efficient technologies, and for education and training."

      Daniel Becker, director of Sierra Club's global warming and energy program, described AAA as "a lobbyist for more roads, more pollution, and more gas guzzling." He observed that among other lobbying activities, AAA issued a press release critical of the Clean Air Act, stating that it would "threaten the personal mobility of millions of Americans and jeopardize needed funds for new highway construction and safety improvements." "AAA spokespeople have criticized open-space measures and opposed U.S. EPA restrictions on smog, soot, and tailpipe emissions." "The club spent years battling stricter vehicle-emissions standards in Maryland, whose air, because of emissions and pollution from states upwind, is among the nation's worst."

      Same Old, Same Old

      Delete
    4. The problem is, when the Saudis run these ads under the name of some organization with the word "American" in the moniker, some of the more unenlightened (not to mention any names) take it all as "gospel."

      Delete
    5. When we bought out new Nissan we were told to stay away from E-85 as much as possible. Says so in the owner's manual too.

      This car has a transmission that never shifts, a belt just moving up and down a cone, I think.

      Delete
    6. Of course it does; it's not a flexfuel engine (wrong computer map.)

      Delete
    7. O where o where did I just see an article saying how people were turning against the flex-fuel cars.

      Delete
    8. Can't seem to find it now but there was one.

      Delete
    9. The problem is, when the Saudis run these ads under the name of some organization with the word "American" in the moniker, some of the more unenlightened (not to mention any names) take it all as "gospel."


      How about, as in The American Communist Party? They seem well pleased these days, supported Obama all the way, just like the American New Black Panthers Party.


      Delete
    10. .

      Those are considered merely apocryphal.

      They are not even mentioned in the gospels of the true Bible, Clean Technica Edition, rev. copywrite 2012, Big Corn Press.

      :)

      .



      .

      Delete
  32. We've gotten more out of AAA than they have gotten out of us. Besides, the maps are free. And sometimes there are motel discounts. I believe them implicitly. And you should too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AAA has been fighting Ethanol with lies, and misinformation from the start.

      As for E85, it's not a good deal right now.

      When corn gets back to $4.00 or $5.00/bu, and gas gets back to $3.50+ it'll be a good buy, again.

      Delete
    2. Everyone that doesn't like ethanol for any reason uses lies and misinformation, according to you.

      Delete
    3. Just the ones that use "lies and disinformation."

      Delete
  33. "Everyone in town meaning Washington DC really Knew"

    (h/t)

    Therefore I am a conservative. Very possibly I am on the losing side; I often think so. But, out of a curious perversity, I had rather lose with Socrates, let us say, than win with Lenin. - Russell Kirk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well me too. I'd rather go out with Socrates.

      Delete
    2. God Almighty, another crazy.


      In March 2007, Reynolds filed a Request For Correction (RFC) with NIST citing (((his belief that real commercial jets (Boeings) did not hit the WTC towers))) and making claims of faulty physics in NIST's computer animations of planes impacting the WTC Twin Towers on 9/11. Reynolds is one of three filers of RFCs to NIST who filed together, including Judy Wood. All three are represented by attorney Jerry Leaphart. NIST responded to the claims and rejected them.[1][2] Another group also filed a Request For Correction with NIST and cited the Reynolds RFC as "a nonsense submission," which was "likely to undermine the legitimate work of others" and to "inoculate people against any other legitimate challenges to the NIST Report."[3]

      Delete
    3. Washington is full of them.

      Delete
    4. It's all one big set-up.

      Delete
    5. A giant blow job for the "low-information content" citizen-voter.

      Delete
    6. What the poor fellow misses is that those weren't real WTC Twin Towers. They were actually cardboard mockups and were hit by paper planes, with reinforced paper clips on the wings, filmed in some underground movie studio at Langley with the CIA asset Atta directing.

      Silly us, we fell for it.

      Delete
    7. I can think of only (hell, there IS only one) organization in the world that could have pulled off what most of the truthers seem to believe (that the hijackings, and crashes, were real, but that the terrorists "had help" in bringing down the buildings.)

      As I said, there's Only One - and it ain't the CIA.

      Delete
    8. A giant blow job for the "low-information content" citizen-voter.

      A giant enema. Who is friend, who is enema?

      A giant barf in a paper sack, horse manure on the shoe, bird droppings on one's cap......

      Delete
    9. As I said, there's Only One - and it ain't the CIA.


      The Republican Central Committee!


      whoowhoowhooooooo.....

      Delete
    10. Yeah, I think we can safey rule out the pubs.

      Delete
    11. I do think Flight 800 may have been brought down by a missile.
      So many witnesses.

      Delete
    12. .

      As I said, there's Only One - and it ain't the CIA.


      Of course, Big Oil.

      It's all so obvious now.

      .

      Delete
    13. hmmm,

      come to think of it, maybe there's Two.

      Delete

    14. As I said, there's Only One - and it ain't the CIA.

      hmmm,

      come to think of it, maybe there's Two.



      Mossad/Big Oil combo!


      Ding,ding,ding - Winner! Winner!

      Delete
    15. As I said, there's Only One

      Now there's a clue. Right in black and white.

      The One!

      Obama!!

      Let's face it, he's liar enough and unethical to boot.

      Delete
    16. I didn't think of the "Mafia."

      Okay, that makes Two outfits that we know couldn't have dunnit.

      :)

      Delete
    17. The FBI couldn't have done it; all their agents were playing golf that day (trust me, this is one you Don't have to bother verifying.)

      And, I swear, I was at a tournament at the Four Queens (a couple of hundred witnesses.)

      I'm stumped; maybe the terrorists really did do it. :)

      Delete
  34. Here 'tis. Was about hybrids though.

    http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/141147-why-hybrids-are-dying-gas-engines-are-good-enough-on-mpg-plug-ins-are-sexier

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did they mention that the Prius is the number one selling car in California? And, Japan, also, I believe.

      Delete
    2. The Volt, btw, was named "best car" by its owners for the second year in a row. It wouldn't "pencil out" for me, but for those that it does, it's certainly beloved.

      Delete
  35. Susan Lindauer told an interesting tale. However, her story of her "negotiations" with the Iraqis seemed, to me, to be mostly "fantastical."

    Let me give you an example. The story that Saddam was willing to buy (and, she repeated this number Several times) 1,000,000 Automobiles/Yr was nonsensical on several levels.

    For instance: The Iraqis had the capacity to produce, approx. 2.5 million bbl/day, and oil was selling for, IIRC, a little less than $25.00/bbl.

    2,500,000 X $25.00 X 365 = $22,812,500,000.00

    $22.8 Billion

    Meanwhile 1,000,000 autos @ $25,000.00 = $25 Billion.

    Impossible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well hell Rufus maybe Saddam planned to buy over time with some help from the Credit Union. Never thought of that, didja?

      Delete
    2. I noticed that number too.

      I am done with it now, but the "new information" for me is the size of the community of skeptics ("nearly everyone in Washington") and their relative sobriety. These people aren't screamers (witness the meticulous investigative journalist I posted previous thread.) I recall thinking at the time, how could our intel agencies miss something like this? The intent vs stupidity debate has been the near universal response, in spite of Building 7, which is the most credible piece of evidence. A lot of fairly sober people have issues with the official version and they are being uniformly discredited - in degrees as required - damned with amused acknowledgement or jailed and threatened with drug therapy.

      As I wrote in the previous thread, like the Kennedy assassination, this one is ugly and will forever remain buried: Not Fit for Public Consumption.

      Delete
    3. Back to that number. (I checked your math :) It's pretty good but the cost of new car back then could be lowered to $20K I think.)

      I saw that offer as an indication of Iraq desire for peace and commerce - and end of sanctions (which work.) In that context, the Iraqi counter party may have exaggerated, out of enthusiasm for moving forward. Given that any of it is true. So the number itself isn't a deal-killer for me.

      As I say, I am done with it. But this country is well past the age where ideological purity distinguishes the political parties, as commentary at sites like BC have deluded themselves into thinking. If only the State would just go away and Who needs policy? Things and life and stuff just magically self-correct and find their own path.

      Delete
    4. If the Iraqis offered such a thing the whole "negotiation" would have to be considered non-serious.

      I think the gal is just, as we would have called it in the old days, Windy. :)

      Delete
    5. Also missing was the time frame - say over five years. Don't believe that was mentioned.

      Delete
    6. Back in the old days, the docs didn't prescribe Haldol for "windy."

      Delete
    7. Although I did find this graph showing Iraq GDP (PPP) around $50 billion in 2001.

      Delete
    8. I remember that it was 1,000,000/Yr. for an unspecified, but more than one, number of years.

      :) Doris, let me guess; you weren't in sales?

      I don't want to be understood as coming across as condescending, here (really, honestly, I don't,) but in a certain type of sales you run across people like she "appears" to be. They don't tend to stick around long, but they sure does creates them some excitement for awhile. :)

      Just my take on it, anyway. YMMV. :)

      Delete
    9. $50 Billion would be, what, about $2,000.00 per capita? Now, take away the oil sales (they go to fund State operations,) and you're dow to $1,000.00/per capita.

      So, who's gonna "buy" the cars?

      Delete
    10. Saddam demanded special air cleaners for desert conditions, is what I heard, and the deal fell through.

      Delete
    11. Doris, let me guess; you weren't in sales?

      's OK and I appreciate your courtesy.

      Which is why I quickly, without too much comment, posted links to the investigative reporter, the Madison, WI academic (I know Commieland) and the FBI veteran from LA. The obvious implosion of WT7, the vans, the CIA admission that Atta was an "asset," the airport stuff out of Florida, and the PNAC "longing" for a catastrophic event like Pearl Harbor - it's enough to make a reasonable person pause and reflect.

      One thing I left out, perhaps of marginal importance, is that my winding road to Lindauer went from the Israeli facility to Yamatou to secret sites around the world to the new NSA site in Bluffdale, UT, with an accompanying blurb that stated NSA intel operations dwarfed whatever functional objectives/capacities remain with CIA. IOW, they're the new kids in town.

      And I started to wonder - anew - how the hell that attack was missed.

      Delete
    12. Well, I can understand that. I mean, after all, I'm the guy that, if left to live a thousand years, would never believe Lee Harvey Oswald, single-handedly, with that old piece of shit rifle, killed JFK.

      But, in this deal, I just keep coming down on the side of "the CIA, and FBI, fucked up in absolutely spectacular fashion, but that's probably about as far as it goes (from the standpoint of "Our" Government, anyway.)

      Delete
    13. I should have finished with this last night but one more comment for the record.

      If the intel response is an "absolutely spectacular fuck-up" then why the tightening of "homeland security"? What we saw first decade of the new century was an intel watchdog community as incompetent as the financial watchdog agencies. The average person has trouble with that level of incompetence. At the very least, average people can be forgiven for considering "other explanations." The institutional cold shoulder (legal and journalistic) becomes part of the story when enough lines get crossed, as it seems to me they were with Ms Windy. I remain privately suspicious (I won't be picketing) but I'm moving on. GWB and Cheney were the worst thing to happen to this country. I do not think an Al Gore administration would have been so anxious to go to war.

      Delete
    14. (A "windy" way saying I understand - now - why the Democratic establishment was "screeching" in "shrill" objection to the GWB election of 2000 and the PNAC buddies he brought into the administration. It was a "writing on the wall" moment for those who know Washington. And to have the kind of Arthur Schlesinger vs Russell Kirk debate in this context seems ludicrous to me. Wretchard is swinging his bat under tutelage gained in the Philippines. Bringing that mindset to USA is dangerous, at worst, and postpones the necessary repair work while ideologues defend their imaginary hills.)

      Delete
  36. Revenge of the Reality-Based Community: My life on the Republican right—and how I saw it all go wrong.

    All during the summer of that year, an expansion of Medicare to pay for prescription drugs for seniors was under discussion. I thought this was a dreadful idea since Medicare was already broke, but I understood that it was very popular politically. I talked myself into believing that Karl Rove was so smart that he had concocted an extremely clever plan—Bush would endorse the new benefit but do nothing to bring competing House and Senate versions of the legislation together. That way he could get credit for supporting a popular new spending program, but it would never actually be enacted.

    I was shocked beyond belief when it turned out that Bush really wanted a massive, budget-busting new entitlement program after all, apparently to buy himself re-election in 2004. ...

    It’s worth remembering that Paul Ryan, among other so-called fiscal hawks, voted for this irresponsible, unfunded expansion of government.

    ...

    Finally, I started asking people about it. Not one person had read it or cared in the slightest what the New York Times had to say about anything. They all viewed it as having as much credibility as Pravda and a similar political philosophy as well. Some were indignant that I would even suspect them of reading a left-wing rag such as the New York Times.

    I was flabbergasted. Until that moment I had not realized how closed the right-wing mind had become. Even assuming that my friends’ view of the Times’ philosophy was correct, which it most certainly was not, why would they not want to know what their enemy was thinking? This was my first exposure to what has been called “epistemic closure” among conservatives—living in their own bubble where nonsensical ideas circulate with no contradiction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...

      As I wrote the book, however, my utter disdain for Bush grew, as I recalled forgotten screw-ups and researched topics that hadn’t crossed my radar screen. I grew to totally despise the man for his stupidity, cockiness, arrogance, ignorance, and general cluelessness. I also lost any respect for conservatives who continued to glorify Bush as the second coming of Ronald Reagan and as a man they would gladly follow to the gates of hell. This was either gross, willful ignorance or total insanity, I thought.

      My book, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, was published in February 2006. I had been summarily fired by the think tank I worked for back in October 2005. Although the book was then only in manuscript, my boss falsely claimed that it was already costing the organization contributions. He never detailed, nor has anyone, any factual or analytical error in the book.

      Among the interesting reactions to my book is that I was banned from Fox News....

      ...

      I am disinclined to think that Republicans are yet ready for a serious questioning of their philosophy or strategy. They comfort themselves with the fact that they held the House (due to gerrymandering) and think that just improving their get-out-the-vote system and throwing a few bones to the Latino community will fix their problem. There appears to be no recognition that their defects are far, far deeper and will require serious introspection and rethinking of how Republicans can win going forward. The alternative is permanent loss of the White House and probably the Senate as well, which means they can only temporarily block Democratic initiatives and never advance their own.

      I’ve paid a heavy price, both personal and financial, for my evolution from comfortably within the Republican Party and conservative movement to a less than comfortable position somewhere on the center-left. Honest to God, I am not a liberal or a Democrat. But these days, they are the only people who will listen to me. When Republicans and conservatives once again start asking my opinion, I will know they are on the road to recovery.

      Delete
    2. Honest to God, I am not a liberal or a Democrat.

      Oh heavens, hon, of course you're not.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  37. When Republicans and conservatives once again start asking my opinion, I will know they are on the road to recovery.

    Yes, sweetie, when times are tough the Republicans will turn to Thee.

    ReplyDelete
  38. You're adorable when you seethe.

    So steamy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See Bob seethe. See adorable Bob seethe.

      Seethe, Bob, seethe. :)

      Delete
    2. I'm steamy, Ruf. Adorable, seethey and steamy!

      Best compliment I had around here in a hell of a long time.

      Delete
    3. I think the lady jest misspelled "seedy." :)

      Delete
    4. Thank you, DRR. You are mysterious, deep, profound, seetheable, ineffable...

      Delete
  39. I think the lady jest misspelled "seedy." :)

    Seedy, steamed like a clam and a dodorabble is what she meant to say.

    ReplyDelete
  40. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/334549/kindly-note-impending-bankruptcy-mark-steyn

    Mark thinks we are, basically, good and screwed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, Steyn is wrong, as usual, but we DO have our work cut out for us.

      Delete

  41. grumpyKoz

    This is a true tragedy of the human experience. I cannot express my detest for this system.
    BUT, when individuals put, in the hands of the masses, the responsibility of care for themselves or their families, they cannot expect any more than this deviant behavior.

    when we, as individuals, say to our community, "Take Care of Me", we are giving up the right or care and handing it over to a group that may not see value in your life. They may also see, incorrectly, burden on them.

    So, their choice is to 'cut and run'. Save the hive. Sacrifice a limb to save the body.

    This IS the only action that could be taken when we give ourselves to the STATE.


    Avatar
    earlgrey

    The liberal "baby" blog I follow that has all updates on how PP is under attack and nasty things to say about Boy Scout policies doesn't seem to be aware of this story.
    As for the story itself I read it on the Daily Mail and couldn't get through it. Maybe it is because my kids are still kind of young.


    Avatar
    runner12

    This is disgusting. As a health care professional who works with children with disabilities it makes me angry when I read things like this. Why do the people of GB
    allow this barbarity to go on?


    Avatar
    CarolT

    This is sick! I have been sick since last Sunday and now I feel sick again.
    I know that Sarah Palin was right about the death panels, i read a large part of the bill in the summer of 2009. I had called my congressman and senators plenty of times, and my congressman had a woman returning my calls. I enameled her the parts of the bill and after the last one, she never responded. She tried to tell me they did not exist but I showed her that they most certainly do.


    Avatar
    greyeagle CarolT

    I am in the medical field. I read the law 3 times and you are correct. Sarah Palin was right about the death panels. The Democrats were in such a big hurry to jam this law down our throats, they used shenanigans to pass it, but also did NOT read it. The majority of the law is pretty vague in some areas, so they can write regulations to fit whatever they want. This has resulted in the so called contraceptive mandate, which was not in the law. Back to death panels. The population that is considered to be of no worth are the elderly, later it will likely be Medicaid, or the disabled. Obama and the Democrats are trying to get a UN treaty passed that essentially take away the rights of parents to care for their handicapped children. This should scare everyone.

    Avatar
    electconstitutionalists

    Remember, as a state senator Obama voted against banning infanticide. It is not ot of the realm in this country while he is President.


    http://www.redstate.com/2012/12/01/national-health-service-murder-bab/

    ReplyDelete
  42. Good ol' Sarah!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=G5Eez7LxQg0

    Talking about Benghazi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. First half about Benghazi, second half about 'the cliff'.

      "We went over the cliff a long time ago."

      Delete
    2. By God, isn't she something! And nice to look at and listen to as well.

      Delete