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Loren Bliss ~ I can't say I disagree with your assertion that Thom Hartmann "toadies" to the Administration in obvious ways. However, I can assure you that I have never witnessed him extending that tendency to stifle discussion on this blog. That being said, I agree that he does slant his show in favor of the President and I also agree that it can be quite annoying. I have always imagined that he probably does it out of a higher understanding of the issues, because of his natural optimism, and in order to cater to his sponsors. I guess it could be called the "necessary evil" that enables this blog to exist. In that light, I tolerate it. Sometimes you have to give a little to get a little.
Kend ~ When I said I don't want to own and manage a business I only gave you the main reasons for that decision. Paying higher taxes goes with the territory. I didn't mention it because higher wages also goes with the territory. I'm not particularly interested in either cofactor. However, if I were to work that much harder, and earn that much more, I certainly wouldn't complain about paying higher taxes.
As far as what you mean by "subsadise you" I can only guess. If you are talking about paying for the commons you are damn right you have to cough up that money. As a business owner you use a far greater percentage of the commons than I ever could. You pound the roads with huge trucks, you tear up railroad tracks with heavy trains, you drain the power grid with heavy equipment, you drain the reservoir with massive water demands, you use up government representatives valuable time negotiating your trade deals and regulating your commerce, and sometimes you benefit from the army's blood and equipment overturning foreign regimes for your benefit. In Canada the commons include universal health care that takes care of your employees so that you don't have to pay out of your pocket for rip-off insurance company premiums. You pay into public retirement programs so you save money on pensions. Yet you have the gall to complain about the pittance you pay for all these services and goods that if left up to you would leave you penniless, in dept, and out of business. You better get your priorities straight buddy and stop taking for granted the fortune you are allowed to have for all that hard work because the fact of the matter is that you would never have it if it wasn't for the benefits that the commons provide you--practically for free. Don't forget, no matter how much you are taxed for the commons, it is the private tax payer that shoulders the biggest burden. They owe you nothing! You owe them big!
Palindromedary ~ Same here. It is hard to believe race was the only motivating factor in this cold blooded murder. When I first read the story I wondered if the guy wasn't impaired myself. Of course, some white people are so out of touch with black people that I can see over reacting to one showing up on your doorstep at 4:30 in the morning. I've seen white people over reacting in line at the grocery store in broad day light. But with a gun behind a door--he must have been really out of touch? This guy must have either had a huge inferiority complex or a huge gun fetish; or, both. (Often they go hand in hand.) Either way I don't cut him any slack--even if it was some kind of an accident. He had no business pointing that gun at anyone behind a closed door. Common sense says that if you suspect the person is dangerous you don't open the door you call the police. The woman apparently wanted help anyway. Calling the police would have solved both their problems. The way I understand it he owned this weapon illegally. That means no license, no registration, and no basic operating safety proficiency test. Like Aliceinwonderland and I discussed before, those steps should be the basic lawful requirements for gun ownership in any responsible society. Of course, this case goes to show that even with those laws there will be some who get around them.
DAnne, you said a couple of days ago that you choose not to work 16 hours a day. You mention you would rather work for some one else and leave all your work problems at work. So why is it when I choose to take all that risk and do all that hard work you want me to share MY wealth with you. That is why we will never agree on anything. I believe what I earn is mine, of course I have to pay my fair share of taxes like you but I shouldn't have to subsadise you because you don't feel like keeping up to my work habits. Should I?
There are many points to be made on either side of this argument but lets not get into ACA here. What we would like you to consider (and I think this is Kend's point above) is that contrary to Obama's assertion that this would be an 'open' administration, they continually make key (critical) decisions in the shadows denying the people a right to input on such decisions. TPP is one issue where we agree that these secret negotiations are bad and given their intent on the earlier efforts to regulate the internet, our Government is not to be trusted - because they are hiding the process and information.
Lets stay focused and get this information out because very few know what is going on here.
Alice yes you are right they are completely different. What is the same is how they are implementing them.
Aliceinwonderland ~ Like you I don't watch much TV. I had the news on Friday trying to find out if it was going to rain Saturday and Sunday and Wallah! As far as I am can tell it may have indeed been racist, although with alcohol and drugs involved who knows what really happened? Again, the only eye witness who survived is the perpetrator. Also, as far as I am concerned you can take the redneck out and shoot him. NP! Supposedly he was the only sober person at the scene; and, there was a door between him and the girl. In my book that makes him responsible for anything that happened. What type of man pulls a gun on a woman anyway; especially, a drunk and injured one on the other side of a door? Give me a break! It was probably murder; and, likely may have had racist overtones. Nevertheless, all I'm saying is please don't make a bloody media circus out of this. It's not going to do any good. If anything it's just going to stir the pot of racism in this country and that is the last thing we need when we need to come together and address far more pressing problems. Lets face it, how many drunken black ladies get shot asking for help on the porch of white men every year in this country? Hummm? Hardly an epidemic. Besides you know and I know that the media craves anything they can turn into a white v black issue just to piss people off at each other and boost ratings. You also should also know that as long as people have different colored skin there will always be tensions that can be easily ignited along those lines. Like Loren Bliss said, the people of this nation have been so dumbed down and oppressed they are receptive to accepting any scapegoat the media wants to toss their way. The media doesn't give a crap about black people. They just want them to watch their channel, hate white people; and, visa versa. It's good for ratings! If this story took place in Harlem between two black people it never would have made any news. I'm still waiting to hear about the shooting that took the life of a 9 year old black girl, her mother, and two black male bystanders in my neighborhood over the summer. Chances are they were gunned down in cold blood by a black man. It may have even been an accident. They might have gotten in the way. That type of racial genocide happens every week where I live. Very real and very deliberate murder of black people. Although you will probably never hear a word about it where you live. Do you really think the media cares at all about black people?
While I disagree with Thom on most policy decisions, I recognize and give thanks for his dilligent efforts in finding critical information like that presented in this post. Very Well done! Please, in this, let us put aside our differences and do what needs be done to make the rest of America aware of this situation. (As well as communicating our displeasure directly to our representatives.)
Kend - Here you go again, putting the ACA in the same category as the TPP. Willful ignorance. If you read my looooong post the other day, describing the TPP in detail, you would know something about it. There's a big difference, Kend, between the ACA and the TPP. The ACA is something we're better off with, because it opens the door a crack for universal single-payer to eventually slip through. Meanwhile the TPP is part of a scheme to make this even more of a third world country, leaving us even more disempowered and impoverished. - AIW
I find it hard to comment on the TPP as like you I know nothing about it. We only see what is leaked and that might not be accurate. What happened? Governments seem to do what they want pushing things through without public consultation. just look at the ACA. Did anyone know what was in it when they signed it in to law.
50 years after the murder of JFK it is becoming clear who our real enemy is and that the war on terror is a sham meant to keep us off balance and off track. It will not stand.
Hello, Alice. Problem resolved, for which see DAnneMarc's #48 and my #49, complete with apology to Mr. Hartmann.
However, apropos Mr. Hartmann's toadying for Barack the Betrayer, see this: http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/272-39/20347-focus-the-right-win...
It is in fact the quintessence of toadying. It completely falsifies where and how the Affordable Care Act was written -- during Obama's secret meetings with health insurance executives, the contents of the law as dictated by the executives themselves. Note too Mr. Hartmann's decidedly curious refusal to use the term "capitalist," which -- perhaps at a Salon editor's insistance -- he replaced with the inappropriate and perplexing term "royalist," as if he were railing against British sympathizers during the American Revolution.
Indeed this piece of untruth and disinformation is the most outrageous piece of revisionist history I have ever seen disseminated by the USian Left. It is the very sort of Big Lie propaganda for which the Right is properly notorious. But now I guess the Democrats are so desperate about the probability they will lose the 2014 elections, they and their supporters will go to any imaginable length to cover up the infinity of Obamaniod betrayals that is prompting the angry Moron Nation voters to turn to the Teabaggers and their Christofascist allies as a last-chance-for-whatever (suicidal) alternative.
Google the title, and you will find the angry protests against the piece are many and growing far beyond the original harsh and fully justified criticism on the RSN thread.
Was Obamacare a wag-the-dog smoke-screen in the attempt to distract us from TPP? While we are all being scared to death (in some cases, I'm sure) over Obamacare...web site failures...etc..they may have been just trying to hide TPP while they secretly slip it into law. What's next invading Iran? Announcing that aliens have landed their space ship somewhere in an undisclosed area?
Loren, As DAnneMarc said this is a common problem and it has happened to almost all of us from time to time. That's why I have given up on clicking on the Reply button and just enter the Person's name I am replying to along with, perhaps a quote or partial quote to pin down the post you are responding to.
Another problem I've noticed...that sometimes, if you take too long to type a post...say if you start one and then half way in you decide to take a break and come back later to finish...it will disappear your post with a message asking you to log in. Funny thing is that you can see that you are already logged in...it says so at the top..but if you try to go back to your page with the post...or click on anything to get a log-in page...you will lose everything you typed.
It is a good idea to periodically copy everything you typed...especially if it is long...and then save it to notepad. That way you can recover your data. Of course, if you type your post in a text editor or a word processor before you paste it into the blog then you don't have to worry about this...except maybe with possible problems relating to the formatting characters in word processing programs that might be causing problems as AIW is experiencing.
DAnneMarc: Thanks for that link. That is the first time I've heard about this. I don't always listen to the news so I obviously missed that one. What a shame! Some racist clown, with a security clearance no-less, kills someone at his door. Big brave super-hero, huh? Chicken-sh!t coward, I'd say. Afraid of a woman on the other side of his door? What a wuss! Why didn't he just close the main door if he felt threatened? No, you just can't kill someone like that unless you are in imminent danger by that person. Self defense is a case. But that was no self-defense.
You can't even kill someone who actually manages to break into your home unless they are armed and/or there is an imminent threat that they will kill you. Now there could be a case whereby if the intruder was much bigger and more powerful than you...their superior strength could kill you..as in a man intruder of a woman living alone...and you might have a case.
Problem is that we hear of these rare occasions of misuse of guns and it gets all the press and that threatens gun ownership. And you can bet it won't stop with the more powerful high tech weapons. After all this was a low tech shotgun. So, where will the anti-gun people stop? When all guns are banned? Then where will it head after that? Ban knives? Cars? Gasoline? Bic lighters? (Some kid in SF on a bus was set afire because he was wearing a dress). Guns don't kill people...people (usually very deranged people) kill people. And that's true whether they are sporting a gun or a knife or can of gasoline and a lighter.
I wonder if Wafer was on some sort of psychotropic drug as all the other killers were? Maybe they need to ban psychotropic drugs! Or, at least screen people a lot better than they do now. And I agree with you, DAnneMarc, we need more psychiatric institutions to treat these people. But not just with psychotropic drugs...they need to be monitored and more carefully screened than what the current medical doctors are doing now.
Our medical doctors have long been gravitating to pill pushers who just want to get you in, then out, of their offices...hooked on dangerous...or perhaps ineffective, drugs that the pharmaceuticals strongly entice doctors to prescribe. Guns don't kill people....people on dangerous psychotropic drugs kill people.
Thanks, AIW, but I'm no expert...far from it..I just use the Google search to find things that fix my problems. I didn't know how much you knew about computers. Good luck!
Aliceinwonderland: I certainly agree #27! Those healthScare bandits have been the leaches that have been a big cause of unaffordable healthcare. They are merely blood-sucking middle-men death panels based on profit. And the medical-pharmaceutical mafia work hand-in-hand with the insurance bandits to ensure that we are milked dry of every last dollar. Stick em up! Your money or your life!
Careful with that "God bless America" phrase...one old soldier was chastised by his employer for that! ;-0 Now, if he had said "Allah bless America" or "Satan bless America" or then lots of people might have seen that as blasphemy and might get offended.
Bingo, PD!
For-profit "health" insurance companies should have gotten the death sentence decades ago. Instead their death panels have hastened the demise of multitudes of human beings whose only crime was being born in the USA before they got injured or sick.
God bless America. - AIW
Palindromedary, thank you for taking the time to offer all these suggestions. I'm copying & pasting them into a "tech support" file for future reference. However I'll confess, being not the slightest bit tech savvy, I can't understand most of what you are saying. However my husband is much more in tune with this stuff than I am, so your efforts are not wasted. He seems to understand enough of it to help me implement your advice. I had a vague sense that it was something like what you've described; an encoded something-or-other. Anyway, your response is much appreciated. From previous posts of yours, I'd already gathered that you are very skilled in this area. With luck, we'll nip this in the bud. Again, thanks! - AIW
Marc! I'm surprised at you! Forget the media circus; these murders are most definitely racist. How can you deny the obvious?! Don't you recognize a pattern here?!!! These stupid, paranoid white folks need to get a grip... on themselves, not their guns. The perpetrators always skate free, as if shooting unarmed black teenagers (for no reason!) was somehow justified. I am sickened and outraged by these murders and would love to see the killers punished, to the full extent of the law.
There is no justice in America. We live in a country where people can get life in prison with no parole for petty drug offenses. One such case involved a kid who stole a $150 jacket from Walmart! Life in prison without parole! (Heard about this tonight in fact, on Democracy Now.) Yet a schoolteacher who rapes a fourteen-year-old student serves only thirty days in the slammer, while these redneck hillbillies can use black teenagers for target practice without consequence. What in the hell's wrong with this picture?!
That story has been circulating for days now; maybe a week or longer. Yet you sound surprised, like it's new to you. Where ya been, my friend?! - AIW
Apropos to #20 ~ It does however demonstrate one thing... This is probably the only time Mr. Wafer ever used his gun. Look at all the hardship it has caused him and Renisha; and, for no reason. One life lost, the other changed forever. Makes you wonder how many people actually successfully protect themselves with gun ownership, versus those who become victims? One split second mistake and a life is taken. Is it really worth the risk?
Loren, are you kidding?! I certainly hope that, whatever the source of the problem, it will not "banish" you from Thom's blog. Considering what Facebook has done to you, I reckon your paranoia is justified, whether or not it is correct here and now.
The comments that got you banished from Facebook sound like something I could easily have said. For this reason I feel personally slighted by Facebook's actions against you. Unfortunately my new business venture necessitates getting on Facebook, which I'd never used until recently. Knowing of your banishment does not endear me to Facebook's "managers". I find it troubling, although I probably shouldn't be surprised. Corporate tyranny takes many forms. It is not above the petty sort of vindictiveness you've described.
However as far as Thom Hartmann is concerned, we'll simply have to agree to disagree. Thom Hartmann is not a malicious person, nor is he a control freak. Such deliberate action would be out-of-character for him. And "toadying" to Obama?!! I've listened to Thom a fair amount, Loren, and have heard no such thing. Thom has been critical of Obama enough times for me to be convinced otherwise. He might cut our president more slack than we do (at least on the air) but I've observed nothing that would comprise blind allegiance. Mr. Hartmann is way too bright for that. I'll confess to having been more than a little baffled by your comments about him. You're a long ways from being the only person on his blog to have criticized President Obama. His corporatist (in some cases, fascist!) policies have enraged and freaked out many of us, myself included, and we haven't been shy about expressing it. So why would Thom single you out? This makes no logical sense.
Anyway I sincerely hope to see you return. I have enjoyed your input (except for the swipes at TH!). You would be missed, by DAnneMarc as well as by me; and in all probability, by others as well. You've given thought-provoking input, are obviously well-read and are a very fine writer. If there's any way for me to post this on your site, I will be sure to do so. You are an interesting man. I enjoy reading your comments and observations even if I only agree with them 95% of the time.
Hopefully we can continue these discussions. Otherwise, hats off to you. I wish you well. - Aliceinwonderland
Oh no! It looks like some drunk young black lady knocked on the wrong rednecks door looking for help after she crashed her car at 4:00 am. One thing led to another and now guess what... George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin all over again. Oh no, say it isn't so!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/15/us-usa-crime-dearbornheights-idUSBRE9AE0I020131115
This is obviously an isolated tragic incident please, please don't try to put a racial spin on it again. Arggg! Enough already! NO MEDIA CIRCUS!!