I hope the gold investment people are paying Thom well. He sure sells it hard.

Dan Gainor is intellectually dishonest. Natural monopolies are not set up by "Gummint" but by the nature of reality itself.

This post is for Thom. I went to my cardiologist on Tuesday, November 16, 2009. He is the same person who shared with me the two kinds of capitalism in the world - predatory capitalism and responsibe capitalism.

On this visit to his office he said that one writer(I cannot remember the name)
mentioned that for society to move forward the very few at the top had a responsibility to help the many on the bottom. He does not see the few helping the many.

Civilizations succumb to greed. Personally, we are seeing the beginning of Nazi America destroying herself. I have only three letters to say for Nazi America on a positive note - R. I. P.

I am assuming that a “ghost” written book is one where an either lazy or untalented “author” without much useful to say puts together a jumble of thoughts and ideas for someone who is a competent writer to sort through and attempt to put into a coherent format. It is useful to keep this in mind when regarding Sarah Palin’s new book, written by a ghost writer. The book, apparently, is of little of interest other than to observe Palin engaging in a whine and attack fest, which according to her targets is based on fabrication or fictions of her imagination. Other than expressing rather broad policy ideas she borrowed from someone else, she offers nothing that suggests she has thought much about the problems the country faces, or what to do about them.

It is also interesting to note that she criticized the McCain campaign for being “PC” for not pursuing the Rev. Wright issue, or allowing her to make her racial “point”—although it should be pointed out that the “mainstream” media did the job in nauseating fashion for them. Yet Palin had no problem (as she did with Oprah Winfrey) to make herself, and Hillary Clinton, as “victims” of “sexism” during the campaign, based on anecdotal evidence. The cover of Newsweek magazine, featuring Palin in a jogging outfit, was apparently meant to bring focus on Palin’s lack of substance. But as might be expected, Palin hypocritically gave the “PC” response that this was an engagement in “sexism.” The cover photo originally appeared in Runners World this past summer; it was not “doctored” by Newsweek. If she now considers it “demeaning,” I wonder what she thinks of that wild-eyed, wild-haired Charles Manson look-alike on that cover of Vogue magazine.

In regard to Obama’s visit to China, it seems to have accomplish little concrete for American interests—not surprising considering China’s increasingly bullying posturing. A story in a local paper the other day made the point that the fortunate few American exporters to China are being “schooled” by Chinese “big shots” on the “top quality” demanded by Chinese consumers. Such demands seem odd, considering the lack of quality—not to mention safety—of many products produced by China, most notably toys, baby formulas and pet food. Yet despite the fact that U.S. exports to China are half of either that to Canada or Mexico (the U.S.’ two biggest export markets, sorry to say to the anti-NAFTA people), American producers are jumping through flaming hoops to outdo each other in groveling to Chinese buyers.

Obama may have been facing another obstacle beyond arrogance in dealing with the Chinese—racism. Chinese attitudes towards dark-skinned people (also true of the Japanese) can be said to be either patronizing (when condemning alleged U.S.’ human rights failures) or defined by the kind of base stereotypes and prejudices that most white Americans would cringe from enunciating in public. Many Chinese seem uncomprehending that the U.S. elected as president someone who is not white; the fact that Obama is “half-white” seems to be the most logical “explanation” for this strange phenomenon.

Mike - DemocraticUnderground has a link...If you sign up for out newsletter the daily stack has links to all the stories Thom talks about.

I think we need to suffer through Dan Gainor to meet Thom's goal of winning the water cooler wars (in my case lunch with retired conservative engineers). Dan does propose arguments very similar to my fellow lunch geezers, and Thom's responses help me answer those arguments.

I must admit Dan does make my head explode, and I wish for Thom to respond even more aggressively. Probably, if he did, Dan might not return.

s.b. "credit card interest rates have been jacked up to 31%"

Why don’t we here from someone doing good work like Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington?

NO MORE DAN GAINOR!!!! GRRRR . . .

Sigh. Thom, Thom, Thom . . . President Obama reads the Constitution: We, the Corporate and non-incorporated Entities . . .

@Richard L. Adlof -

Silly me - I've been keeping MY change in a coffee can. Guess I oughta run out to Wal-Mart and git myself one o' them "Yes We" cans!

Thanx, man - I gotta get with the program.

@mstaggerlee:

I don't understand . . . The 'Yes We' can is a good place to keep your change . . . Better the Chase Manhattan anyway . . .