Here's My Tea Party Sign:

Where were we during the George W. Bush Administration?!

harry ashburn,

Wow --- that almond anti-cancer thing sounds great. As a cancer survivor, I have since eaten almonds and apricots almost every day (tho I didn't know there might be a palliative connection.)

However, I have recently been undergoing some major tests and am under observation. (I am keeping my fingers crossed.) Eat many more almonds?

Reagan and Congress enacted the largest set of tax breaks (aimed almost purely at the wealthy) in history THEN shifted the burden of paying for crap onto the middle class by doubling wage-based taxes. Reagan suspended Anti-Trust enforcement to further concentrate wealth. This created an ever growing rift between the classes.

Bush43 largely wiped out taxation of MNE and focused IRS enforcement onto middle and lower classes . . . AND let's not forget the "Paris Hilton NEEDs to just sit by the poolside when Grandpa finally kicks it" tax exemption crap.

Clinton and Reagan worked fervently to dismantle the tariff system design by Alexander Hamilton to protect our economy and our ability to protect ourselves.

The Investor Class burns the largest the large portion of our nation's resources . . . Our Commons . . . AND refuses to pay for it. The largess . . . The corporate welfare and tax breaks for folk who build nothing and horde wealth have created REAL "welfare kings and queens". Yes, they and YOU have built the economic royalty that FDR warned us about by using our portion of our tax dollars.

The real reason you should feel anger is they astroturfed you into doing it for them.

Happy tax day.

Harry Ashburn,

This is as much as I can tell you, from the study:

""The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth," Pereira said in a statement.

Insulin, which helps the body metabolize sugar, is made in the pancreas.

Tea-Party sign:

If ignorance is bliss, this would be Disneyland...

@quark, I'm not say people don't do with less than they can possible have, but few rarely will operate at a cost to their own personal welfare. In your first example, think about it, did your father ever go so far that he was not paying essential household bills, or not putting food on the table for his family. I'm not saying that not being that selfless is wrong, in fact I would consider it foolish for people to be that giving (even most parasites won't take so much from its host that it kills the host and as a result kills itself... sorry for the crude metaphor, not trying to be offensive, just writing this off the top of my head). In my example I was saying a farmer would happily take a higher price for his produce than he needed to pay his overhead. I realize that the same farmer would do so rationally, because who knows how well his next harvest will pay, he may need that surplus cash in the next year or so.. but I digress.

In your second example you talk about business that run as co-ops, again do the co-ops charge the minimal, maximum or a somewhere in between price for their product. Minimal price would cover their overhead and raw material expenses (enough to stay and business and make payroll), a maximum price would get them the best return on their investment (a healthy profit) a somewhat in between price would get the company would pay expenses, re-investment of funds in the company, perhaps afford raises for all employees, not harming their community, but certainly making a profit off the community.

But regardless, I'm not trying to argue for what are the best/worst economic practices for individuals. I was merely presenting a simple model to make my point. I believe its human nature to provide basic essentials, food, shelter etc.. on top of that it is also human nature to want just a bit more, not because we're all greedy, self-interested bastards, but in reality I think its kind of a hardwired instinct to "save for a rainy day", however since we no longer live in caves and roam the plains, we store up way more than we could possibly need, without really thinking about it. Rather its food, cash, or funny cat lamps. Self preservation is human nature, and preparation for the future calamities I think is ingrained, but more often than not individuals allow that instinct to override all rational concept of their needs vs. wants. I don't think its intelligence based, perhaps social evolution is a major part of it, whichever, it's a major underlying issue. If we don't recognize it or try to understand it, how will we ever be able to work with it?

BTW, I'm in no way trying to make any allusion to your father not being noble or selfless. I truly believe that he is, please look at my comments subjectively, academically. I'm trying to be as emotionless as possible in my thought process, but not callous.

Ghost of 'Total Information Awareness'

By Coleen Rowley
April 15, 2010

Since we all tend to reflexively cringe whenever someone mentions the ideological “F” topic, I’m going to try and minimize some of the natural revulsion and denial by writing the full word that we usually fear to name only once: fascism.

The very easy answer to why and how "F" is presently developing was actually answered in 1795 by “the Father of the U.S. Constitution” and our fourth president, James Madison, who observed:

Tease....click on the link, and remember who the author is...

"HATRED IS NOT A FAMILY VALUE!"

Golly . . . You never met my Mom . . .

Maxrot,

Please forgive me for my personal anecdote about my father. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable about commenting about it (if I did.) I just wanted to point out that people can live together and NOT take advantage of others. I wanted to do more than generalize.

I think Thom didn't get the Birkenfeld reference, to wit:

Jailed UBS Whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld Makes Tax Day Clemency Request to President Obama

A former banker for the Swiss giant UBS who blew the whistle on the biggest tax evasion scheme in US history is asking President Obama today for clemency to coincide with Tax Day, the day US income tax returns are due for most people. In January, Bradley Birkenfeld began serving a forty-month sentence despite playing a key role in uncovering the bank scandal. He first came forward to US authorities in 2007 and began providing inside information on how UBS was helping thousands of Americans evade taxes by hiding billions of dollars in secret Swiss accounts.

@quark, no no, I wasn't uncomfortable about you using a personal anecdote. I just didn't want you to think I was even coming close to degrading your father in my response. Here, I'll give you an anecdote in reply. My dad volunteered for the Marines in WWII, fought in the Pacific. I knew all my life that he was a WWII Marine corporal that fought in the Pacific. He was a radio man. It was only recently that I asked him if he was drafted, he replied, "Oh no I volunteered for the Marines, I didn't want to go to Europe, since I had problems with frost bite." My dad was raised in Minnesota, so I guess he knows what cold is. Now then, this anecdote is spot on to my point, he selflessly, noblely volunteered to put himself in harms way, up to a point, the defining line for him, don't want to freeze. Would I say that obviously he was just being selfish? Would you? Would I say that he didn't have some sort of pure self interest in his decision? Would you?

Its hard to divorce even our best actions from our self interest completely. That's what I'm trying to get at.

Tea Party sign or bumper sticker -

The Tea Party: Any color, as long as it's white!

The New Republicrat Pledge of Allegiance - by harry ashburn:

I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag;

Of the United Corporation of America;

and to the Profit Statement for which It Stands.

One Corporation, Under GATT, Unassailable;

With Dividends and Stock Options for All ..Major Shareholders.

..void in Vermont, Oregon and 3 Mideast Nations.

@fsaronson,

To my knowledge, tea comes in green or black or orange pekoe, but white?

@Robert S. that s why you add cream.

I find Tea-Baggers hard to swallow

"Mottos Are US! - Mottos for All Caucasians"

T-Sign

Side 1: United We Stand

Side 2: Divided We Fall

I'm Tea-Bagging 'cause I don't have Bush anymore.

(Need to send one of these shirts to Cheney)

@quark, I think that our society is producing more sociopaths (by percentage) all the time. Its becoming easier and easier for us to detach and isolate ourselves, from there its just a downward spiral into lack of empathy. Watching TV, sitting in front of a computer, drinking or doing drugs are some of the more common vices that serve as a catalyst to this. There are a lot of ways people slip into this stupor these days, in a lot of ways they first stop caring about themselves, making the step to stop caring about others is almost inevitable.

My sign would say, "Obama doesn't upset you, you upset yourself"

People just don't get it. It's not what other people say and do that makes us mad. What they say or do is just an EVENT. It's what we choose to think about it that does. Like what we focus on, compare things to, how we look at it, and what meaning we attach to it. And that's assuming we're dealing with real instead of just our imagination. Perception is NOT reality, especially when it's being provided to you by people like Limbaught, Hannity, Beck and Savage.

Furthermore, it's also their choice what they want to imagine. Anxiety is a figment of imagination. It's about things that haven't happened yet, and may never happen. So much of what they are getting upset about is about what they IMAGINE is going to happen instead of what actually has. The tea party is suffering from a mass anxiety disorder.

Last, how they end up feeling is a function of what they expect in the first place. They have a right to want whatever they want, including for everything to be the way THEY want it to be. The mistake they make is to go from wanting it to DEMANDING it, which is exactly what they're doing. Again, they're being encouraged to be DEMANDING by conservative talkers on the radio, and TV. Dr. Albert Ellis used to call anger a TEMPER TANTRUM because people were being demanding like a 2, 3, or 4 year old. And the most demanding of all is El Rushbo.

They should be called the PEE Party because they're always pissing themselves off about every little thing.

If I went to a teabag meeting, the sign I would bring would have the words, GIVE ME SOCIALISM OR GIVE ME DEATH!!!

In the late 1700s patriotic Americans wanted liberty. In the early twenty-first century we are not a democracy and so we must push for socialism. Give me socialism or give me death!!!

Israel is a rogue state. Is Israel matching the United States of Hell for collateral murders?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Accelerating-Fascism-in-Is-by-Stephen-Lendman-100415-101.html

@ charell, The REALLY funny thing is that Paul Revere never even made that ride!! He fell off his horse broke his leg and was captured by the British. Samuel Dawes and William Prescott were the 2 that actually made it. But, there names aren't sexy either, sorta like Breeds Hill (not Bunker Hill).

@ Thom,
PLEASE post that link to the high fructose corn syrup studies you mentioned on your show. I REALLY need to see them.

Thanks,
Gr8