Or at least, between religion and woo-woo?
A couple of weeks ago I blogged on Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster and the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. He was calling for the BBC to be biased in favour of Christianity and to give unopposed air time to Christian voices, accusing secularists of being “Christophobic” and wishing to “close off every voice and contribution other than their own.” He later claimed that reason “leads to terror and oppression.”
This post isn’t about O’Connor. This is about his personal exorcist, Father Jeremy Davies . . . though I suppose, given O’Connor’s stance on reason, it makes sense that he would have a “personal exorcist.” Davies has joined the flea circus of apologist tomes published as a backlash against the “new atheists” with a new book, Exorcism: Understanding Exorcism in Scripture and Practice, in which (according to the National Secular Society) he maintains that
the “spirits inspiring atheism” were those who “hate God.” [. . .] Father Davies writes that Satan has blinded secular humanists from seeing the “dehumanising effects of contraception and abortion and IVF (in vitro fertilisation), of homosexual ‘marriages,’ of human cloning and the vivisection of human embryos in scientific research.
“The result, he said, was that Europe was drifting into a dangerous state of apostasy whereby “only (through) a genuine personal decision for Christ and the church can someone separate himself from it.”
Davies also blames atheism for “perversions” such as homosexuality and extra-marital sex. He condemns atheism, blasphemy, attacks on the Church and “resisting God’s grace” as “rebellions against God”; but, just to prove that he doesn’t go in for that woo-woo nonsense, he also warns against yoga and massages, which the former doctor regards as equally demonic as seances, astrology and acupuncture. Fortune-tellers and mediums are bad, he claims, because attempts to contact the spirits of the dead are “direct invitations to the devil which he readily accepts.”
As the good Father and official exorcist in the Diocese of Westminster reminds us, “Sanity depends on our relationship to reality.”
Richard Dawkins: rationalist Satanist
We non-theists will be interested to learn that Father Davies sees woo/the occult and science/atheism as two sides of the same coin:
Father Davies’ strongest condemnation, however, was reserved for the pride of modern atheistic scientists. “Pride is the specific trait of Satan,” he said. “There are two kinds of Satanism: ‘occultic,’ in which Satan is worshiped as a person; and what is said to be even more terrible and certainly is even more deceived, ‘rationalist,’ in which Satan is regarded as an impersonal force or symbol and the glory belongs to the Satanists. How close to rationalist Satanism, without realising it, is atheistic scientism – the hubris of science going beyond its proper sphere and moral boundaries – the tree of knowledge presently spreading its branches throughout our Western culture, which is rapidly becoming that of the whole world,” he said.
Have a good weekend, readers. I’m off to read me some Beelzebub.
My StumbleUpon Page
Five Public Opinions 
“…the “spirits inspiring atheism” were those who “hate God.” [. . .] Father Davies writes that Satan has blinded secular humanists from seeing the “dehumanising effects of contraception and abortion and IVF (in vitro fertilisation), of homosexual ‘marriages,’ of human cloning and the vivisection of human embryos in scientific research.”
Clearly prejudice facilitated by a willfully irrational mind along with a good helping of deficient character, is blinding Davies to the dehumanizing effect of dehumanizing atheists. This man needs an irony award.
We non-theists will be interested to learn that Father Davies sees woo/the occult and science/atheism as two sides of the same coin…
Which is a good thing, because it positions Davies’ particular religious views as having no currency. 😉
[…] ohne Sinn und Verstand – dann wähnt man die Welt irgendwie fucked up. five public opinions – Is there really much difference between religion and insanity? [↩]national secular society – I’m possessed by evil spirits – and so are you! [↩] […]
Won’t somebody rid us of these meddlesome priests.
this sounds like another GOD-hater, rebellious heathen blog wishing science was not sooo inconsisent and filled with holes, leaps of faith and assumptions..(oh yes it is)…
so they rail…”religion is insane,”…when they have nothing but arrogance and pride to lean on and call it the authority of science…and prove nothing to do with GOD one way or another…sheesh…read a little and get a life….
OK, wordsseldomsaid, that was even less coherent than Father Davies’ ramblings. So why don’t you take a few deep breaths, have a nice cup of tea, and come back when you actually have something sensible to contribute to the discussion.
One thing I am interested in learning from you is how it is possible to “hate” something one doesn’t believe exists.
Also, given that I’m a citizen of a liberal democracy without an established religion (see section 16 of the Australian Constitution), I’m curious as to who or what I’m “rebelling” against.
I might add that nobody actually uttered the words “religion is insane” here. The title of the post poses a question, “Is there really much difference between religion and insanity?”, and that question is itself an ironic reflection on Father Davies’ remark that “Sanity depends on our relationship to reality.” It’s ironic, you see, because this is a guy who believes demons are real.
Had you bothered to read a little, I wouldn’t have needed to explain that.
Oops! That was pretty funny. Yes, how do you hate something that you don’t believe exists?
I always hated Tom Bombadil.
[…] That and just the slightest temptation of schadenfreude at the slim possibility of the (whopping great) washing machine and I doing cartwheels down the (cement) stairs. “Interrupt him while he’s concentrating“, says a little devil sitting on their shoulder (presumably one of these ones). […]
[…] in England and Wales – hardly a marginal theist), The National Secular Society Reports (HT: AV); “The priest, who is based in Luton, said that key among the transgressions that have a […]
Believing a set of horrible stories written by men in the dark ages is true over what we’ve come to learn through science a few thousand years later IS insane.
Being moral because a book tells you to rather than just because it’s the right thing to do IS insane. And yes, we EVOLVED that way because it’s for the good of all civilization to live in peace. It wouldn’t do us any good to all be murders and thieves because then no one would have a good life. Morons who think atheists are horrible people think that BECAUSE they are morons.
Of course those who talk about an “ACTUAL GOD” are either not telling the truth and are afraid of loss, isolation, tribal rejection, and/or are just unthinking and stupid (IE Bush), or are children who tend to believe adults tell the truth. Or are perhaps sadly pathologically delusional; it happens. In any case there are no easy answers that I can think of. Just think of how hard it was to end slavery. One shimmer of light is the new realignment voting trends in America. Democracy is a mathematical hope. Just as is time and the human spirit.
RON
For those interested in hard science, google “brain research, nobel prize”.
For those interested in hard science, Google “nobel prize brain research’.
This is a link to youtube, Winston Churcill’s “finest hour” audio which I have on my wake up alarm. It IS ABOUT POWER and it’t use. Not a game. About real evil, about perverted tinking. About dealing with reality.
“Sharks only eat one person at a time” Billy Connolly
Ron
My wife, Carol, just reminded me that it hurts to lose her childhood thoughts. But her sadness is tempered by her work her work as a plastic surgeon, with burn patients, who often live, but not always.
Ron
Why I think this man this man is wrong. He should be talking to children.
This would works (cause it’t E flat major, music rules)
These ideas have been in atrtists thoughts for some time.
Angela GHEORGHIU – Vissi d’arte – Tosca – Puccini
Country music, very brave in the south. (people were ” missing in police reports”
Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit
Thank you You Tube, you are a national TREASURE
rON
Sorry for the typing mistakes, I’m to guick to hit enter. There are no edit options in reality. Like in Israel, all that counts is the tribe, (IE insanity).
Ron
Alexader The Great, according to expert historians, was a genious. There are many stories in (US) libraries. And actual documents in others( CIA ? , I just made that up because I know it will pop up on the NSI scan, and unemployment is so high There were no cameras etc. But there were people who put pen to paper. What he accomplished is unquestionable
Ron
Summary of Absurdism
Many writers have written on the Absurd, each with his or her own interpretation of what the Absurd actually is and their own ideas on the importance of the Absurd. For example, Sartre recognizes the absurdity of individual experience, while Kierkegaard explains that the absurdity of certain religious truths prevent us from reaching God rationally. Camus was not the originator of Absurdism and regretted the continued reference to him as a philosopher of the absurd. He shows less and less interest in the Absurd shortly after publishing Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus). To distinguish Camus’ ideas of the Absurd from those of other philosophers, people sometimes refer to the Paradox of the Absurd, when referring to Camus’ Absurd.
His early thoughts on the Absurd appeared in his first collection of essays, L’Envers et l’endroit (The Two Sides Of The Coin) in 1937. Absurd themes appeared with more sophistication in his second collection of essays, Noces (Nuptials), in 1938. In these essays Camus does not offer a philosophical account of the Absurd, or even a definition; rather he reflects on the experience of the Absurd. In 1942 he published the story of a man living an Absurd life as L’Étranger (The Stranger), and in the same year released Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), a literary essay on the Absurd. He had also written a play about a Roman Emperor, Caligula, pursuing an Absurd logic. However, the play was not performed until 1945. The turning point in Camus’ attitude to the Absurd occurs in a collection of four letters to an anonymous German friend, written between July 1943 and July 1944. The first was published in the Revue Libre in 1943, the second in the Cahiers de Libération in 1944, and the third in the newspaper Libertés, in 1945. All four letters have been published as Lettres à un ami allemand (Letters to a German Friend) in 1945, and have appeared in the collection Resistance, Rebellion, and Death.
Refering to the above comments and there issues There are easy solutions to these questions. Namely Za Zen (sitting meditation), and time. Newton, an actual genious, formulted that that force (physics) is equal to mass times acceleration (magically though empty space). And science proves this with machines, that move SLOWLY. You know where I am going. The closest star is farther away than repulican thought. So what I advocate is be to honest and let democracy sort it out. No tribes please.
Ron
It seems that actual problem is preaching to the tribe. They already know the rules. Asuming the are smart, and they are healthy, there are some things that get there attention.
Of course I am talking about real time, in person, not on TV.
Smells (next to lack of air the most powerfull)
Pain (seeing your family members die during Israli attacks)
No sanotation facilities
What is the deal with the code names?
Ron
After I got back from Viet Nam, in 1966, I used the GI Bill to go to Jr College in California, which was free of charge (maybe $100 and books, maybe $200 for other stuff, but essentialy free). I used the money for rent and food. This Jr College system was in no small part created by Jerry Brown, and his father Gov Pat Brown. The most amazing things I learned about were history (the Holocost-never once mentioned by my parents (a total shock to me and almost made me vomit reading detailed texts about Treblinka etc) I read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s work, and learned that the human spirit is very much a part of life. And many others. And I learned Calculus, wonderfull Calculus. The beauty of mathematics is not one of Rush Fatso’s money makers. Sorry for the anger.
Ron
Audio brain funtions are more powerfull than thought, they take immediate priorty, physiologicaly. So tell someone something nice.
Ron
The origanal issue in this talk (is and was) about insanity and religeon. Both of these terms, religion and insanity are very clear to no one. I personaly do not believe such ideas such as human mutilation, male and female, of children are insane. But there millions of people who will fight to the death to promote such pratices. It defies reason. Which is, is, I suspect insane.
Here is a bit of Sanity
The origanal issue in this talk (is and was) about insanity and religeon. Both of these terms, religion and insanity are very clear to no one. I personaly do not believe such ideas such as human mutilation, male and female, of children are insane. But there millions of people who will fight to the death to promote such pratices. It defies reason. Which is, is, I suspect insane.
Here is a bit of Sanity
For my students, at the risk of overload. here is an example perfect grammar.
December 14, 2009
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Disaster and Denial
By PAUL KRUGMAN
When I first began writing for The Times, I was naïve about many things. But my biggest misconception was this: I actually believed that influential people could be moved by evidence, that they would change their views if events completely refuted their beliefs.
And to be fair, it does happen now and then. I’ve been highly critical of Alan Greenspan over the years (since long before it was fashionable), but give the former Fed chairman credit: he has admitted that he was wrong about the ability of financial markets to police themselves.
But he’s a rare case. Just how rare was demonstrated by what happened last Friday in the House of Representatives, when — with the meltdown caused by a runaway financial system still fresh in our minds, and the mass unemployment that meltdown caused still very much in evidence — every single Republican and 27 Democrats voted against a quite modest effort to rein in Wall Street excesses.
Let’s recall how we got into our current mess.
America emerged from the Great Depression with a tightly regulated banking system. The regulations worked: the nation was spared major financial crises for almost four decades after World War II. But as the memory of the Depression faded, bankers began to chafe at the restrictions they faced. And politicians, increasingly under the influence of free-market ideology, showed a growing willingness to give bankers what they wanted.
The first big wave of deregulation took place under Ronald Reagan — and quickly led to disaster, in the form of the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s. Taxpayers ended up paying more than 2 percent of G.D.P., the equivalent of around $300 billion today, to clean up the mess.
But the proponents of deregulation were undaunted, and in the decade leading up to the current crisis politicians in both parties bought into the notion that New Deal-era restrictions on bankers were nothing but pointless red tape. In a memorable 2003 incident, top bank regulators staged a photo-op in which they used garden shears and a chainsaw to cut up stacks of paper representing regulations.
And the bankers — liberated both by legislation that removed traditional restrictions and by the hands-off attitude of regulators who didn’t believe in regulation — responded by dramatically loosening lending standards. The result was a credit boom and a monstrous real estate bubble, followed by the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Ironically, the effort to contain the crisis required government intervention on a much larger scale than would have been needed to prevent the crisis in the first place: government rescues of troubled institutions, large-scale lending by the Federal Reserve to the private sector, and so on.
Given this history, you might have expected the emergence of a national consensus in favor of restoring more-effective financial regulation, so as to avoid a repeat performance. But you would have been wrong.
Talk to conservatives about the financial crisis and you enter an alternative, bizarro universe in which government bureaucrats, not greedy bankers, caused the meltdown. It’s a universe in which government-sponsored lending agencies triggered the crisis, even though private lenders actually made the vast majority of subprime loans. It’s a universe in which regulators coerced bankers into making loans to unqualified borrowers, even though only one of the top 25 subprime lenders was subject to the regulations in question.
Oh, and conservatives simply ignore the catastrophe in commercial real estate: in their universe the only bad loans were those made to poor people and members of minority groups, because bad loans to developers of shopping malls and office towers don’t fit the narrative.
In part, the prevalence of this narrative reflects the principle enunciated by Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” As Democrats have pointed out, three days before the House vote on banking reform Republican leaders met with more than 100 financial-industry lobbyists to coordinate strategies. But it also reflects the extent to which the modern Republican Party is committed to a bankrupt ideology, one that won’t let it face up to the reality of what happened to the U.S. economy.
So it’s up to the Democrats — and more specifically, since the House has passed its bill, it’s up to “centrist” Democrats in the Senate. Are they willing to learn something from the disaster that has overtaken the U.S. economy, and get behind financial reform?
Let’s hope so. For one thing is clear: if politicians refuse to learn from the history of the recent financial crisis, they will condemn all of us to repeat it.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Privacy Policy Terms of Service Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map
The dangers of electing incompentent people to important gonvenment positions is demontrated here,
This man is responsible the for the death of ??? inocent people, in the name of the GOP
Ron
I posted a link to “Boots of Spanish Leather – Nanci Griffith” created by Bob Dylan above. I think Dylan is a wonderful poet.
Here are the lyrics to that poem
Oh I’m sailing away, my own true love
I’m sailing away in the morning
Is there something I can send you from across the sea?
From the place where I’ll be landing?
There’s nothing you can send me, my own true love
There’s nothing I’m wishing to be owning
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled
From across that lonesome ocean
Oh, but I just thought you might want something fine
Maybe silver or of golden
Either from the mountains of Madrid
Or from the coast of Barcelona
If I had the stars of the darkest night
And the diamonds from the deepest ocean
I’d forsake them all for your sweet kiss
That’s all I wish to be owning
Oh, I might be gone a long ol’ time
And it’s only that I’m asking
Is there something I can send you to remember me by?
To make your time more easy passing?
How can, how can you ask me again?
Well it only brings me sorrow
Oh, the same thing I would want today
I would want again tomorrow
Oh, I got a letter on a lonesome day
It was from his ship a-sailing
Saying, I don’t know when I’ll be coming back again
It depends on how I’m feeling
If you, my love, must think that away
I’m sure your mind is a-roaming
I’m sure your thoughts are not with me
But with the country where you’re going
So take heed, take heed of the western wind
Take heed of stormy weather
And yes, there is something you can send back to me
Spanish boots of Spanish leather
Thank you for this website, it’s no small thing
Ron
A difficult issue is termination of pregnancy. Abortion. I suggest that physicians who deal with life and death every day, with real patients, are best qualified to to answer these difficult questions. Not politicians. To deny the possibility of rational intervention and help to patients in need is insane.
Ron
Here is a link to a surgeon who has saved hundreds of third world chilren, free of charge.
http://www.levinmd.com/?gclid=CIeknYST654CFRgYagod5Xs0Kw
Truth in Talk. And just to be truthful, Dr Levin (plastic surgeon) repaired my serious facial cancer damage, 10 years ago. The point I would like to make is this: the other doctors in my case, to a man, praised him as an artist. Again my point these Dr’s are not at all like Rush Fatso, liar and traitor, disgusting american GOP fox pimp money maker.
Ron
I don’t know If I said it already but …Cool site, love the info. I do a lot of research online on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks
http://www.learningquranonline.com
I clicked the above link and found that it is a strange site asking for money?
Ron
The above link I mentioned is a religious sect collecting money online, in return for Muslim stuff.
Ron
Just in case, I will forward this to the FBI
Ron
We can not help the Iran situation to find a solution by thumping our chests and saying “those crazy religious people in power”. We can help them by them by enpowering the many expert political scientists in Iran and in this country and others, and using expert reason. For God’s sake not idiots like Bush and Lieberman. My own sugestion for them find ways to assinate there leaders–just kidding.
Ron
Re above.
It just occured to me that is exactly what the BBC has tried to do, not the kidding part. I wish my country has a national news system that was not a bunch of pimps’
Ron
ron
Re above
Here is an example of our national news system
Just a idea that I had. I just purchased a computer hard drive that has 1.5 trillion bits of memory for $125. I record over the air TV 24 hrs a day. Free of charge. Do you think free broadcast has any future? I think it is the only future, Because sponsors with quality products are the only ones who will survive. The key word here is quality. Over the air transmissions can now operate at 5 billion bits per second. Much, much higher that fiber. Do you think someone is blowing smoke up your wahoo. I do. What’s this got to to with religion and insanity. Ask your local congressman about the speed of light and if he (or she) has any idea how fast it is. (186,280 miles per second). And if they still believe the creation was just a couple of thousand years ago.
Ron
Ron
By the the way, I read that some people get special priority treatment for heart pains, if there name is Rush Fatso.
Ron
Just one more idea, in science. Light from a star passing behind the sun was measured to deviate in its path, apparently by the suns gravitational field.
As predicted by Albert Einstein .
Ron
Money grubbing ( a religion in America ) is alive in the auto industry.
Subject:
PC’S in cars.
From the New York Time
“Awareness of that issue is growing. Even in 2003, when fewer people were multitasking in cars, researchers at Harvard estimated that motorists talking on cellphones caused 2,600 fatal accidents and 570,000 accidents involving injuries a year.” That was 2003, wait tell you see what’s coming to your local car dealer in 2010
Ron
till not tell
I don’t have any idea if anyone is is reading this, but it seems important to me–the PC’S in cars thing–. Most of the deaths caused by distracted drvers using cell phones were innocent people who were just living there lives, Men with children, Wives with children. Children walking to school. We are talking about accidents in the thousands. Where is the outrage. Notice that responsible companies like Apple and Google are not selling there souls, like Ford and others.
Ron
It can be accurately stated that more american citizens have been killed by distracted cell phone user drivers than terrorist bombers.
Ron
According to newspaper accounts the banker pigs are going to give themselves reocrd bonuses
Ron
I can’t help, but I just keep thinking how much gOD worship f-cks up the world.
Ron
By the way. Gravity is considered in physics to weak force. A simple magnet can pin your grocery list to your refrigerator, even through paint. 10 milliion Americans giving $100 to the Red Cross would be a nice thing.
Ron
HERE IS HOW TO GIVE
http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.d8aaecf214c576bf971e4cfe43181aa0/?vgnextoid=46f51a53f1c37110VgnVCM1000003481a10aRCRD
I love things that ring true; Monet, Rembrant, Billy Holliday; Dr King
Ron
Actualy, late night night comedy is my only source of honesty these days, especially JKL, who has never insulted my inteligence.
Ron
Leno is a nice guy, but he is not using our airspace with with anything usefull. I suggest interviews with medical school trachers from around world would be a money maker. I mean these are very interesting people. It would be real. These are modern realists.
Ron
teachers not trachers
Sorry
By the way, the host should not be a pimp repulican
Ron
My choice would be PAUL KRUGMAN
Ron
I hate to admit it, but I think we are back in the days when slavery was actually a debated in the Senate as legal or not.
Ron
Some ideas for the US senators and the courts to keep in mind:
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)
1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
I think there are some good ideas here, but number 10 is very strange;
Ron
Just for the record, here a common practice among tribal cultures.
Female genital cutting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), female circumcision or female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), is any procedure involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs “whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons.”[1] The term is almost exclusively used to describe traditional or religious procedures on a minor, which requires the parents’ consent because of the age of the girl.
When the procedure is performed on and with the consent of an adult it is generally called clitoridectomy, or it may be part of labiaplasty or vaginoplasty.[2][3][4] It also generally does not refer to procedures used in gender reassignment surgery, and the genital modification of intersexuals.[5][6][7]
FGC is practiced throughout the world, with the practice concentrated most heavily in Asia and Africa. Opposition is motivated by concerns regarding the consent (or lack thereof, in most cases) of the patient, and subsequently the safety and long-term consequences of the procedures. In the past several decades, there have been many concentrated efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) to end the practice of FGC. The United Nations has also declared February 6 as “International Day Against Female Genital Mutilation”.[8][9]
Ron
When was the last time you heard Rush complain about this.
Ron
There are more slaves. mostly forced child prostitutes in Thailand today than there were when Bush got elected, the socond time.
Ron
http://www.trbq.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=18&Itemid=45
Some modern ideas can be researched, listened to, and read at this site.
THE REALLY BIG QUESTIONS ie TRBQ.com (free)
Ron
Sorry, TBRQ.ORG not COM
Ron
When the New York Times said they will now charge for content, I looked around and found REUTERS, which I find is more current and professional, and timely. I like the “Times”, but if they can’t find a sugar daddy, then there management is out to lunch.
Ron
I’d do it again – Blair on Iraq
Ron
hubris
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.
Hubris means extreme haughtiness or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of touch with reality and overestimating one’s own competence or capabilities, especially for people in positions of power.
Hubris derives the terms “act of hubris”, and “hubristic”.
Ron
Around 2002, before the invasion, I was talking to some engineers at Motorola about Bush and his frequent “God bless America” endings to his news conferences. I said ” what about God bless everyone”. All I got was silence.
I noticed that president Obama ended with ” God bless you. and America.
Ron
In world war II the French hosted Hitler in Paris, the UK had their finest hour, the US had D Day, the Italians had Mussolini, the Russians had Stalin, and in the US, in the South we had the KKK.
Maybe we should think about having a real debate in the Senate.
Ron
I forgot about Japan, I have no info why they did what they did.
Ron
Listening to The News Hour is like eating oatmeal for breakfast.
Talk about entrenched good old boys, here it is.
Ron
By the way, NPR wants your money, just like CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX. So why pretend otherwise. Did you watch the game. I did. I had the same feeling when I went to Hong Kong in 1966 on leave from Viet Nam, in uniform, and learned what a pimp is.
Ron
Here are some thoughts from Bill Gates, who has asked some of the smartest people around for some answeres to real problems. In this talk he addresses global warming and how serious it is.
Long Beach, California (CNN) — Microsoft Corp. founder and philanthropist Bill Gates on Friday called on the world’s tech community to find a way to turn spent nuclear fuel into cheap, clean energy.
“What we’re going to have to do at a global scale is create a new system,” Gates said in a speech at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. “So we need energy miracles.”
Gates called climate change the world’s most vexing problem, and added that finding a cheap and clean energy source is more important than creating new vaccines and improving farming techniques, causes into which he has invested billion of dollars.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last month pledged $10 billion to help deploy and develop vaccines for children in the developing world.
The world must eliminate all of its carbon emissions and cut energy costs in half in order to prevent a climate catastrophe, which will hit the world’s poor hardest, he said.
“We have to drive full speed and get a miracle in a pretty tight timeline,” he said.
Gates said the deadline for the world to cut all of its carbon emissions is 2050. He suggested that researchers spend the next 20 years inventing and perfecting clean-energy technologies, and then the next 20 years implementing them.
The world’s energy portfolio should not include coal or natural gas, he said, and must include carbon capture and storage technology as well as nuclear, wind and both solar photovoltaics and solar thermal power.
“We’re going to have to work on each of these five [areas] and we can’t give up on any of them because they look daunting,” he said. “They all have significant challenges.”
Gates spent a significant portion of his speech highlighting nuclear technology that would turn spent uranium — the 99 percent of uranium rods that aren’t burned in current nuclear power plants — into electricity.
That technology could power the world indefinitely; spent uranium supplies in the U.S. alone could power the country for 100 years, he said.
A “traveling wave reactor” would burn uranium waste slowly, meaning a 60-year supply could be added to a reactor at once and then not touched for decades, he said.
Gates also called for innovation in battery technology.
“All the batteries we make now could store less than 10 minutes of all the energy [in the world],” he said. “So, in fact, we need a big breakthrough here. Something that’s going to be of a factor of 100 better than what we have now.”
Gates called for more investment in climate-related technology. He said he is backing a company called TerraPower, which is working on an alternate form of nuclear technology that uses spent fuel.
Money that goes into research and development will pay bigger returns than other investments, he said, especially if money goes into energy sources that will be cheap enough for the developing world to afford.
Clean energy technologies must be installed in poorer countries as they develop, he said.
“You’d be stunned at the ridiculously low costs of innovation,” said Gates, who received a standing ovation for his remarks.
If he could wish for anything in the world, Gates said he would not pick the next 50 years’ worth of presidents or wish for a miracle vaccine.
He would choose energy that is half as expensive as coal and doesn’t warm the planet.
Ron
The word “transformation” is a word I like. Lets imagine an artist, say Rembrandt, taking a blank canvas and painting a self image. He did this when he was young, and old. What is this that captures my attention. I think he was addicted to honesty.
Ron
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
This is an example of brain dead.
Ron
Here a drunk Senator giving a speech.
Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)
Ron
Sorry. I screwed up. Boehner is not a Senator, he is the House minority whip. But he is still brain dead.
Ron
It gave me pleasure to see Bob Dylan get a standing ovation in a White House music event last week.
I don’t that would have happened in Richard Nixon’s White House.
Ron
The Tea Party people say this is Christian Nation. Just like the Romans had slave separate toilets.
Ron
Don’t listen to the pundits about our CIA at this crucial time about national security efforts. I am confident that this team does not claim to talk to God.
Ron
This story about the assassin in Dubai (spelling ?) is better than “The Spy who came out of the dark” . I did a “Google Reader” collection of world wide news accounts. I found that small town newspapers copy ” word for word” without giving credit to their sources. I could give examples, but that is not the point. The point, for me, Newspapers are for profit, pay the rent, enterprises. In the mean time, time is wasted in finding real solutions and votes are casted without any goals.
Ron
The answers to the above question, how to get real news, is a combination of “not free, transparency, and choice”
Ron
Some ideas I learned in Physics class.
Scientific method
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series on Science
Natural sciences[show]
Social and
behavioral sciences[show]
Applied sciences[show]
Formal sciences[show]
Related topics[show]
v • d • e
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.[1] A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.[2]
Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features distinguish scientific inquiry from other methodologies of knowledge. Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses. These steps must be repeatable in order to dependably predict any future results. Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many independently-derived hypotheses together in a coherent, supportive structure. This in turn may help form new hypotheses or place groups of hypotheses into context.
Among other facets shared by the various fields of inquiry is the conviction that the process be objective to reduce biased interpretations of the results. Another basic expectation is to document, archive and share all data and methodology so they are available for careful scrutiny by other scientists, thereby allowing other researchers the opportunity to verify results by attempting to reproduce them. This practice, called full disclosure, also allows statistical measures of the reliability of these data to be established.
Ron
I love Resident Obama, but I think he should put some range into his talks, musically speaking. Tempo, variances. pauses, are not appealing.
Ron
Here is Marlon Brando talking about war.
Ron
Just be honest I think male homosexual sex to be disgusting.
But thats only me.
Ron
It is also true that male homosexual personalities have been some of our popular artists. It is also true the homosexual males created the global aids death toll.
Ron
It is also true that Gays have power, not unlike Israel.
Ron
I can say these things because I am an old man who will die soon.
Ron
Disease. It is important to put to put things relative terms. A guy gets snuffed in Dubai. So what. The HIV death toll is measured in the millions.
http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm
Ron
There was nothing on ABC, NBC, FOX, CNN, CABLE, or BBC last night about this.
Ron
But that is the GOP’s point. Why should people with money worry about the poor. They should work harder.
Ron
Here is Bob Kennedy, JFK’s brother, in a debate, before he was assassinated.
Ron
I think I have lost track with the original point of this talk. Let me say it now. Teaching children ideas ideas about life after death causes insanity.
Ron
Again, I would like to thank this Site and YouTube as international treasures of reality.
Ron
An earlier post of ” Boots of Spanish Leather” is blocked.
Here is Bob Dylan himself.
http://popup.lala.com/popup/504684663603373474
Ron
Sorry, that did not work. But I still love this poetry.
Ron
I think Leno is a closet teaparty guy
Ron
Here is Stevie Ray, my fav quitarist.
Ron
The BBC is doing coverage of birth defects in Iraq. This takes real courage. There is concept called “Karma” in some eastern thought, as I understand it, being a novice, that more or less says “if you see it, you own it”
Ron
There is some very exciting brain research at some of our medical research centers here in the US. But these doctors are scientists, not politicians,
Ron
Fantasy, The pres called me and said what should I do?, I said learn music and science.
Rob
World Focus, a TV news org, in case you have not seen it, is a global treasure, here is a link to one of there shows about wind power and some free thinkers.
http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/11/16/everyday-danes-profit-from-pioneering-wind-power/8431/
Ron
Where in the US Constitution does it say that it takes more than 51% of votes to pass Senate law?
Articles of the Constitution
When it was written in 1787, the Constitution had a preamble and seven main parts, called articles.
[change]Preamble
The Preamble says:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The Preamble is not a law. It gives the reasons for writing the Constitution. The Preamble is one of the best known parts of the Constitution. The first three words, “We the people,” are used very often. There are six intentions-they are the goals of the constitution.
[change]Legislative power
Article One: says that the U.S. Congress (the legislative branch) will make the laws for the United States. Congress has two parts, called “Houses,” the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Article says who can be elected to each part of Congress, and how they are elected.
The House of Representatives has members elected by the people in each state. The number of members from each state depends on how many people live there. Each member of the House of Representatives is elected for two years. The Senate has two members, called Senators, for each state, no matter how many people live there. Each Senator is elected for six years. The original Constitution says that Senators should be elected by the state legislatures, but this was changed later.
Article One also says how the Congress will do its business and what kinds of laws it can make. It lists some kinds of laws the Congress and the states cannot make. Article One also makes rules for Congress to impeach and remove from office the President, Vice President, judges, and other government officers.
[change]Executive power
Article Two says that the President (the executive branch) will carry out the laws made by Congress. This article says how the President and Vice President are elected, and who can be elected to these offices. The President and Vice President are elected by a special Electoral College chosen by the states, for four years. The Vice President takes over as President if the President dies, or resigns, or is unable to serve. Article Two also says that the President is in charge of the army and navy. He can make treaties with other countries, but these must be approved by two-thirds of the Senate. He appoints judges, ambassadors, and other officers, but the Senate also must approve these appointments. The President can also veto bills. However Congress can over ride the veto
[change]Judicial power
Article Three says there will be a court system (the judicial branch), including the Supreme Court. The article says that Congress can decide which courts, besides the Supreme Court, are needed. It says what kinds of “cases and controversies” these courts can decide. Article Three also requires trial by jury in all criminal cases, and defines the crime of treason.
[change]States’ powers and limits
Article Four is about the states. It says that all states must give “full faith and credit” to the laws of the other states. It also says that state governments must treat citizens of other states as fairly as they treat their own citizens, and must send arrested people back to another state if they have been charged with a crime.
Article Four also says that Congress can make new states. There were only 13 states in 1787. Now there are 50 states in the United States. It says Congress can make rules for Federal property and can govern territories that have not yet been made into states. Article Four says the United States must make sure that each state has a republican form of government, and protect the states from invasion and violence.
[change]Process of amendment
Article Five says how to amend, or change, the Constitution. Congress can write a change, if two-thirds of the members in each House agree. The state governments can call a convention to write changes, although this has not happened since 1787. Any change that is written by Congress or by a convention must be sent to the state legislatures or to state conventions for their approval. Congress decides whether to send a change to the legislatures or to conventions. Three-fourths of the states must approve a change for it to become part of the Constitution.
An amendment can change any part of the Constitution, except one — no amendment can change the rule that each state has the same number of seats in the Senate.
[change]Federal power
Article Six says that the Constitution, and the laws and treaties of the United States, are higher than any other laws. It also says that all federal and state officers must swear to “support” the Constitution.
[change]Ratification
Article Seven says that the new government under the Constitution would not start until conventions in at least nine states approved the Constitution.
[change]Amendments
Since 1787, Congress has written 33 amendments to change the Constitution, but the states have ratified only 27 of them.
The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights. They were made in 1791. All of these changes limited the power of the federal government. They were:
Number Year Description
1st 1791 Congress must protect the rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of petition, and freedom of religion. Congress cannot promote any one religion more than others.
2nd 1791 “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” – People have the right to have weapons, for example guns.
3rd 1791 The government cannot send soldiers to live in private homes without the permission of the owners.
4th 1791 The government cannot get a warrant to arrest a person or search their property unless there is “probable cause” to believe a crime has been committed.
5th 1791 The government cannot put a person on trial for a crime until a grand jury has written an indictment. That a person cannot be put on trial twice for the same crime. The government must follow due process of law before punishing a person or taking their property. A person on trial for a crime does not have to testify against himself in court.
6th 1791 Any person who is accused of a crime should get a speedy trial by a jury. That person can have a lawyer during the trial. They must be told what they are charged with. The person can question the witnesses against them, and can get their own witnesses to testify.
7th 1791 A jury trial is needed for civil cases.
8th 1791 The government cannot require excessive bail or fines, or any cruel and unusual punishment.
9th 1791 The listing of individual rights in the Constitution and Bill of Rights does not include all of the rights of the people and the states.
10th 1791 Anything that the Constitution doesn’t say that Congress can do should be left up to the states, or to the people.
After the Bill of Rights, there are 17 more changes to the Constitution that were made at different times.
Number Year Description
11th 1795 Citizens cannot sue states in federal courts. There are some exceptions.
12th 1804 Changed the way the President and Vice President are elected.
13th 1865 Ended slavery in the United States.
14th 1868 Every person born in the United States is a citizen. States must follow due process of law before taking away any citizen’s rights or property.
15th 1870 A citizen’s right to vote cannot be taken away because of race or the color of their skin.
16th 1913 Congress can put a tax on income.
17th 1913 The people will elect Senators. Before this, Senators were elected by state legislatures.
18th 1919 Made a law against drinking alcohol, called Prohibition.
19th 1920 Gave women the right to vote.
20th 1933 Changed the days for meetings of Congress and for the start of the President’s term of office.
21st 1933 Ended the Prohibition law of the Eighteenth Amendment. States can make laws about how alcohol is used in each state.
22nd 1951 A person may not be elected President more than two times.
23rd 1961 Gave the people in the District of Columbia the right to vote for President.
24th 1964 Made it illegal to make anyone pay a tax to have the right to vote.
25th 1967 Changes what happens if a President dies, resigns, or is not able to do the job. Says what happens if a Vice President dies or resigns.
26th 1971 Makes 18 years old the minimum age for people to be allowed to vote
27th 1992 Limits how Congress can increase how much its members are paid.
[change]Other pages
Ron
Insanity in Israel, Rabis have to OK divorce, by current law. There is no separation of church and state.
http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/11/18/israels-orthodox-women-clamor-for-the-right-to-divorce/8481/
Ron
I hate to say it, for as long as I can remember, and as I read history Judaism is associated with death and killing. Why is this?
Ron
At the present time US tax laws are so complicated that only corporate CEO’S have any power to pass laws in the US senate,
Not my idea, but that of noble prize economists winners, in private quotes.
Ron
When was the last time you listened to a politician say I’m an atheist. And then how many ideas have resulted free thought;
Hitler
Stalin
Mao
It takes that much evil to overcome religion
Ron
I think that all this “stuff” leads me to choose music to study. Music tickles my brain and makes me alive (in a Zen way). Miles Davis never made a political statement in his life, except that he loved women, often.
Ron
I love artists. Christiane Amanpour has agreed to host ABC’s sunday talking heads show. I love this artist.
Ron
Lest we forget, there are about 300 million people in the US, and only a small percentage know that gravity is still a mystery, because science is that hard, and they did ask.
Ron
I would like to remind the GOP to remenber the 9th commandment:
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”
Ron
In texts from ancient Buddist manuscripts, the word “Compassion” is a cenral theme. There is no mention of heaven.
Ron
central not “cenral” sorry
Ron
It seems that molesting children is defensible to the Catholic church. They never call in the cops.
Ron
But then the Israeli cops call in themselves, and then lie.
Ron
I think it take many many years to make this a safe world, free of Popes, Imams, Soothsayers, Bigots, and Wall Street liars.
Ron
MC CAIN SAYS HE NEVER CLAIMED TO BE A MAVERICK
RON
I am curious to know if Catholic priests study, in there graduate schools; medicine, history, science, physics, the arts, mathematics, engineering, business, etc.
I really don’t know
Ron
their not there
sorry
Ron
If A is equal to B, and B is equal to C, then A is equal to C.
Ron
Is is OK to tell children that there realy is a God
Ron
In THE church, one must be a believer to go to heaven. This apparently includes boys and girls born 3000 years ago.
Ron
Are there creatures in heaven, susch as pets.
Ron
Do you have to clean your bathtube in heaven.
Ron
Aliens? A metephore for bankers, as Jesus pointed out.
Ron
In heaven do you get to choose your age, and century?
Ron
In Heaven, can one argue philosophy?
Ron
Animals don’t write poetry, or write like prose Eudora Welty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudora_Welty
Ron
Sorry. “prose like”
Ron
My point is, is heaven a collection of Gods pets. he did create all.
Ron
I forget the question mark? No, I was repeating THE gospel.
Ron
I noticed that priests wear strange clothes, especially 16th century from pre printing press days’
Ron
I said earlier that this man was wrong. That was before the Tea Party revealed that this country is in danger. So here he is again, with a different post. Before he died.
Ron
GOP plan. There are all stupid.
Ron
Sorry
They are stupid
Ron
Sorry
Them guys are wrong
Ron
Sorry
Some could be OK
Some could wright
Some could be miss told
Some could not be educated
But most would be honest if given the truth. The truth is a function (a mathematical term)
Air to breath
And someone to love
Ron
Ron
A famous Zen question is ” what is the color of the wind” ?
Ron
Metaphor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphore
Ron
I noticed today, that President Obama is not at all stupid,
as Rush Fatso says
Ron
Oil, decomposed plants, formed over many thousands of years and geological events ago, predate religion. And man.
Ron
When male bombers get their 76 virgins, do female bombers get something too?
Are children born in heaven still genitally mutilated? Are children born in heaven?
Do they have time machines in heaven. Is there time in heaven?
Ron
Genghis Khan
Religion
Genghis Khan’s religion is widely speculated to be Shamanism or Tengriism, which was very likely among nomadic Mongol-Turkic tribes of Central Asia. But he was very tolerant religiously, and interested to learn philosophical and moral lessons from other religions. To do so, he consulted Christian missionaries, Muslim merchants, and the Taoist monk Qiu Chuji.
from Wiki
Ron
History
In 1219 Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol empire and the greatest of Asiatic conquerors, invited Chang Chun to visit him. Genghis’ letter of invitation, dated 15 May 1219 (by present reckoning), has been preserved, one of the great curiosities of history. Here the formidable Mongol warrior appears as a meek disciple of wisdom, modest and simple, almost Socratic in his self-examination, alive to many of the deepest truths of life and government.
Chang Chun obeyed the summons and left his home in Shandong (February 1220) journeyed to Beijing. Learning that Genghis had gone further west upon fresh conquests, the sage stayed the winter there. In February 1221 Chang Chun started off again, traversing eastern Mongolia to the camp of Genghis’ brother Ujughen, near Lake Bbr, or Buyur, in the upper Kherlen-Amur basin. From there he traveled south-westward up the Kherlen, crossing the Karakorum region in north-central Mongolia, and arrived at the Altai Mountains, probably passing near the present Uliastai. After traversing the Altai he visited Bishbalig, the modern Urumqi, and moved along the north side of the Tian Shan range to Lake Sairam, Almalik (or Kuija), and the rich valley of the Ili.
We then trace him to Balasagun and the Chu and across this river to Talas and the Tashkent region, and then over the Jaxartes (or Syr Dana) to Samarkand, where he halted for some months. Finally, through the Iron Gates of Termit, over the Oxus, and by way of Balkh and northern Afghanistan, Chang Chun reached Genghis’ camp near the Hindu Kush. It was in Samarkand in the year 1221 where Chang Chun met with Muslim imams who viewed Chang Chun with disdain. He returned their contempt with the comment, “Why do you make the pilgrimage to Mecca? Do you not know that God is everywhere?”[citation needed]
Returning home he largely followed his outward route, with certain deviations, such as a visit to Kuku-khoto. He was back in Beijing by the end of January 1224. From the narrative of his expedition (the Hsi Yu Ki, written by his pupil and companion Li Chi Chang) we derive some of the most vivid pictures ever drawn of nature and man between the Great Wall of China and Kabul, between the Aral and Yellow Sea. Of particular interest are the sketches of the Mongols and the people of Samarkand and its vicinity, the account of the land and products of Samarkand in the Ili valley at or near Almalig-Kulja, and the description of various great mountain ranges, peaks and defiles, such as the Chinese Altay, the Tian Shan, Mt Bogdo-ola (?), and the Iron Gates of Termit. There is, moreover, a noteworthy reference to a land apparently identical with the uppermost valley of the Yenisei.
After his return, Chang Chun lived in Beijing until his death on 23 July 1227. By order of Genghis Khan some of the former imperial garden grounds were given to him for the foundation of a Daoist monastery, the White Cloud Monastery that exists to this day.
Authorship of Journey to the West (Xi You Ji) has sometimes been attributed to Chang Chun, but this is incorrect. The Xi You Ji was probably written by Wu Cheng’en. Such confusion may have arisen from its similarity to the title of Chang Chun’s travel description, Qiu Chang Chun Xi You Ji.
[edit]Popular culture
A fictionalized version of the historical figure appears in Jinyong’s Condor Trilogy. In it, Qiu is an expert practitioner of martial arts. He is not a very good Daoist in the strictly religious sense of the term as he does not abide by the laissez-faire precepts of Daoism for which he has been repeatedly berated by his senior Ma Yu. Qiu Chuji involved himself in matters of society extensively, assassinating corrupt officials, collaborators and traitors.
from Wiki
Ron
Here in Californian, I turn on the TV, and see political ads saying ” he is a liberal”
Is a pretty face, a nice smile, lots of money, a nice voice, acceptable, without any reason
Ron
Or is this Pretty face a tribal member?
ron
Has this pretty face read “The Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad? Read the works of philosopher William James? Passed a class is calculus? Listened to Dr King? Or read the commandment ” 9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Ron
In the mean time, it is still a common practice to sell children to wealthy men in Thailand.
Ron
Here is a artist from Vietnam
Ron
I did it again, I should have said ” here is AN artist” thinking about my lovely english teacher at Chaffey Junior College in 1966
Ron
Here is wonderful video that all can enjoy
Ron
YouTube, an amazing thing
Ron
If scientists and physisits discover how gravity works through absoute empty space, then then I will say “yahoo”.
Ron
Don’t look at the wonderfull photography in this video, listen to the music.
Ron
Another lovely artist from Vietnam
Ron
Hearing GOP congressmen talk about “Shakedowns” reminds me of Vietnam, and 50,000 US solders killed in action, and Senators saying God Bless America.
Ron
One thing I like about this site that is no one will quote the source ( a common practice on ABC, CBS, NBC, NYT, WSJ, NPR, etc. The BBC is as good as it gets, which is a treasure. Some ideas are just so neat that they become obvious. And hopefully, defended. Peacefully.
Ron.
Sorry, I forgot the end paren after etc.
Ron
I heard a piece on BBC (available in the BBC archives online) that that French and German educators are concerned that high school kids are not ready for graduation exams. In the US, 30% drop out before they get to high school.
Ron
The stats, very hard to read
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/index.asp?HasSearched=1&searchcat2=subjectindex&L1=251&L2=1
Ron
But don’t worry, there some Americans who, and most kids who know that Rush Fatso is a pimp.
Ron
there ARE some kids
Ron
For smart kids who like to read about history and thought, try William James , and his family. It’s Ok for late learners too, if you have lots of time and are a speed reader.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James
Ron
After all, there are kids who can quote word for word Harry Potter novels.
Ron
I have a bad habit of gritting my teeth, clenching my jaws, when I watch TV over our airwaves, a limited resource. The FCC is (has been) bought and paid for by special interests and big money. Some of the wealthiest people is this country know this is not working for our society. Check out some thoughts. As Bogart’s paramour (and wife) said in the movie ” just whistle , just Google FCC”. If you care.
Ron
I looked up “paramour” and discovered I should not have used this word. I thought it meant sexy lady.
Paramour rights refers to a pre-Civil War Southern practice that gave white men the right to take black women, married or not, as concubines
Sorry
Ron
But Rush Fatso knows about buying wives. This don’t make no sense, just like Rush Fatso and the GOP.
Ron
(any resemblance to Rush Spineless is not accurrraate and Senator McLain is not a wife hater)
Ron
Conservative means “It’s mine, and you can’t have it”
Ron
Conservative means “my Daddy gave it to me”
Ron
Conservative means you can’t prove I’m a liar, maybe I’m just stupid.
Ron
Conservative means “If I lie, so what, it works for me”
Ron
The best one I heard is “prove there is no God”. This from Alexander the Great to a Buddhist monk, several years ago, several hundred years ago, actually 356–323 BC
Ron
The above statement is from historical archives, from ancient manuscripts, as recorded on my fantasies.
Ron
fantasies. I mean I don’t read ancient Greek, and have to take the word of PHD historians from England, USA, and Russia.
Ron
Alexander the Great personally fought in hand to hand combat, and was an expert swordsman, horseman, and diplomat.
Ron
Historians say that his greatest skill was diplomat.
Ron
I have been doing some looking around about my favorite mystery ” how does gravity work though empty space” and find no answers. My guess is there is a 4th demenstion.
Ron
Here is an American poet, song writer, arranger, band leader, maverick, award winer and performer Lucinda Williams
Ron
Intolerance and insanity in Tibet, preserving history and working cultures. A sad result of communism.
Gone
For those who are easily entertained and like Rush Fatso and
Fox, try Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler
Gone
For some silly comedy relief try “Blah Blah Taxi” from the UK.
[audio src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/pepperstock/blahblahtaxi01.mp3" /]
Gone
God help me, I love woman.
Gone
A tech note, the reason you can enjoy a hand held smartphone is the result of
chemistry, and a chemical known as Galium Arsinide, which is used is high speed amplifiers. This is the result of clear thinking scientists. Not priests.
Gone
sorry, grammar is weak. “used in ”
Gone
Some folks pray for this or that, which focuses ones mind. I love this idea.
Gone
There have been many Gods that men have thought about. But there are only a few that are popular now, not surprisingly there are all called God (monotheism) but these people have no qualms about cutting the penis of of little boys, and in Muslim cultures cutting young girls outer labia. Perhaps you think I’m making this up. Think again. Do some research. What does Karma (Zen literal “to see”) mean to me? I saw it, and will do all that I can to end insanity.
Gone
We live in time where idiots like Rush Fatso gets air time, and surgeons work 14 hour days, 6 days a week, and take off three months for more training. If you think I’m making this up, think again, Something is wrong here.
Gone
It is reassuring to know we a president who has read classic literature. “Thin gruel”.
In the Western world, gruel is remembered as the food of the child workhouse inmates in Charles Dickens’ Industrial Revolution novel, Oliver Twist (1838); the workhouse was supplied with “an unlimited supply of water” and “small quantities of oatmeal”.[4] When Oliver asks the master of the workhouse for some more, he is struck a blow to the head for it. The “small saucepan of gruel” waiting upon Ebenezer Scrooge’s hob in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol emphasizes how miserly Scrooge is. References to gruel in popular culture today continue to refer to miserly or starvation conditions.[5]
Gone
From Wiki
Gone
Murphy’s Law. “If it can happen, then it will happen”.
This is an abbreviated form of the German physicist Werner Heisenberg’s postulation called the “uncertainty principle “. Which baffled Alfred Einstein till the end of his life. The variables in this equation are: unimaginable numbers, random events. and all is real. Nuclear weapons are real. By the way the word is “Nuclear, not Nucular” Mr bush.
Gone
Which brings up the question of choice, choosing. Think of beautiful birds flashing feathers, lions growling, poets writing, painters painting. and bigots bigoting. Choose
Gone
Unimaginable numbers: There are cells in your body than GOP lies.
Gone
Slave owners apparently slept well at night, and went to church on Sunday.
Gone
” all is real ” is a difficult concept to grasp if you don’t understand differential calculus.
Gone
Sir Isaac Newton invented Calculus (1643 – 31 )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton
Rob
Sadly, I can’t find any good videos about the beauty of calculus, but they may be out there somewhere.
Gone
When I listen to NPR in the morning, I get the feeling they are talking to grammar students, emphasizing grammar rather than content.
Gone
John Boehner, a carbon copy of Jo McCarthy
Fake
When I studied geometry in the 7th grade at John Marshall Jr High, all I could think of was girls
Gone
I spent 4 years learning Calculus and basic physics at a free California state College, along with history, chemistry, etc. Now we have the Silicon valley. Do you suppose there is any connection?
Me
This is a personal message for John Boehner. Since you have complete confidence in your speeches on the floor, and know history so well, please give me an lesson of king Leopold II of Belgium’s conservative ideas. For reference here is link to wiki’s history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium
Just
Conservative thought in history. The Congo
Just
I am tempted to show photos of mutilated genitals of girls in some Muslim cultures in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Africa, happening today. But there is the chance that someone will knock on my door tomorrow, and say are you “Just Me”.
Just
I forgot Iran
Just
When I was taking a class in electromagnetic fields in college. trying to answer questions in each chapter, I always knew there were answers in the professors answer’s book. The math is is very defined. But like a new language, have to be learned.
Just
I meant to say “like a new language, has to be learned”
grammar is not my strong point. Even though I love to read artists like Eudora Welty
Just
I suggest that Steve, who I love, have someone explain what makes an apple red, mathematically. Electromagnetically
Just.
Here I am giving a guy with some money to spare advice. It’s because I know he is an artist
Just
So I plan to buy the Droid X, because I love Chrome, and trust YouTube and things that work
Just Me
I did it again, lost the thread. Sorry
Just Me
The Tea Party people say they are “losing their freedoms”, and that this country is a “Christian Nation”. I beg to differ. Some people are and were actual Christians. Case in point; Slavery and Southern Churches.
Just Me
Mass insanity was common, if you consider slavery insane, which I do. To bad there were no You Tubes back then. Today we have Congressmen like John Boehner, very scary.
Just Me
Too bad
Just Me
I found a video that combines lovely music and a class is wave motion.
Just ME
I don’t even want to think about slavery now, just great new music. New to me.
Just Me
Boots of Spanish Leather
JM
In Tampa, Florida, in 1964, before I left for Vietnam, at a party, a woman asked me if I would make love with her. I was speechless. I was 19 and a virgin. She was about 26, and tall, brown haired, and had an adult womans voice. She was a grammar school teacher, single and frequently laughed, but did not drink, and I was speechless. I could not say anything. I was speechless. When we got to her place, she put on a record, (Johnny Cash) took off her clothes, and showed me what she liked to do before sex. Shower, Massage, condom, and slow sex.
Just Me
Entitlement, an interesting word. One could spend a lifetime thinking about this word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entitlement
JM
When I was taking a course in differential calculus at a free California State College, I soon learned that it often took several attempts to find a path to a solution in homework assignments, and that this was part of the intention of the professor who wrote the text book. The point, for me, was evolution is a mathematical fact. I suspect that Sara Palm has not taken a class in ethics, and that intellectual discipline is unimportant to her. My last episode at my dentist amazed me, I thought IPads were hot. Check out dental science today, amazing.
JM
By the way, dental health is considered a global epidemic, and often leads to death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_hygiene
JM
“Fact” is an interesting word. This English word is not often used in science. Actually I have never seen it used in science texts. Sara Palm often speaks in terms of facts in here talks, with confidence and reassurance.
RF
“her talks” sorry I type too fast.
RF
Putting things in relative terms:
Afghanistan: 900 billion dollars per year
Employment extension 34 billion dollars. 20 million people.
Rf
:
Math students who try to solve problems learn what it is to alive.
RF
“it is to be alive”
need an editor Ap; hint hint Google
EF
I try to to read the read the “New Your Times” op ed columns and get lost in 500 word show of cleverness, but no content. These guys and gals are trying to keep their jobs, just like every one is.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/are-tea-parties-racist-is-al-qaeda/
RF
I just watched Jimmy on my TiVO
mocking Senator Byrd. Shame on you Jimmy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd
RF
Racism is an interesting word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism
JM
Correction
Employment extension 34 billion dollars. 2.0 million people
the decimal was wrong
JM
I keep forgetting that this blog is in Australia. I love Australia and honest people.
Just Me in the USA
I learned a new dental health trick that is so neat, that I have to share it.
Water Pik, Dial antibacterial soap (one squirt), hydrogen peroxide 1 oz, very hot water. I have no commercial interests. Brand names are unimportant. My dentist showed this idea.
You get the idea
JM
Bush (former US president) . in public videos, said he believes in the Bible as the literal word of God.
Science news:
By Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press
SYDNEY — Scientists have discovered a cave filled with 15-million-year-old fossils of prehistoric marsupials in the Outback, a rare find that has revealed some surprising similarities between the creatures and modern-day kangaroos and koalas.
The cave includes several well preserved fossils, including 26 skulls from an extinct, wombat-like marsupial called Nimbadon lavarackorum, an odd sheep-sized creature with giant claws.
The findings were described this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
“It’s extraordinarily exciting for us,” said Mike Archer, paleontologist atUniversity of New South Wales and co-author of the article.
“It’s given us a window into the past of Australia that we simply didn’t even have a pigeonhole into before. It’s an extra insight into some of the strangest animals you could possibly imagine,” he said.
Researchers have been digging at the site, in the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil field in northwest Queensland state, since 1990 and discovered the first of the Nimbadon skulls in 1993.
The scientists were amazed at how well preserved the fossils were — and by how many they found.
Discovering such a large cluster suggests the animals may have traveled in mobs or herds like modern-day kangaroos, said paleontologist Karen Black, who led the research team.
How the animals all ended up there is a mystery.
One theory is that they accidentally plunged into the cave through an opening obscured by vegetation and either died from the fall, or became trapped and later perished.
The Nimbadon skulls included those of babies still in their mothers’ pouches, allowing the researchers to study how the animals developed.
The skulls revealed that bones at the front of the face developed quite quickly, which would have allowed the baby to suckle from its mother at an extremely young age.
Those findings suggest the Nimbadon babies developed very similarly to how kangaroos develop today — likely being born after a month’s gestation and crawling into their mother’s pouch for the rest of development, Black said.
The Nimbadon also may have something in common with another marsupial.
The fossils revealed the creatures had large claws, which may have been used to climb trees, as koalas do, Black said.
The discovery of the fossils is very significant, said paleontologist Liz Reed of Flinders University in South Australia.
“To find a complete specimen like that and so many from an age range is quite unique,” said Reed, who was not affiliated with the study.
“It allows us to say something about behavior and growth and a whole bunch of things that we wouldn’t normally be able to do,” Reed said.
Bush has the Bible, I have Rachel Maddow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Maddow
JM
Physicists try to imagine elementary stuff, like electrons, electric fields, heat, vacuum, light waves, but don’t wear funny hats and molest kids.
JM
Here is some math that led to “hydrogen bomb”, perfected by the US and the USSR some years ago, and “God forbid” must be included in preventative thinking. The Schrödinger equation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger_equation
The reason I mention this “Equation” is
1. It’s beauty
2. And obviously, and hydrogen bombs are not cool ideas, in bad Nations. First A bombs, then H Bomb. Not cool.
If you think nuclear weapons in the hands of irrational people is an academic exercise, think again.
JM
If Iran, an irrational God state, can get nukes, then the chances that it will use them is scary. This is why Israel is our friend. Have a nice day.
JM
This is why all why all options must be on the table, including tactical nukes.
JM
I don’t know why I make such typing errors “why all why”, just happens.
JM
Poo, you know, Poo, that stuff in your aft end, contains a virtual restaurant for potential harmful stuff. This is why I find anal sex disgusting, and dangerous for humanity, and the spread of HIV, hepatitis, herpes and Thousands of people dying, men and women, kids, and no one seems to notice this elephant is the room. Gay men will say I am a bigot. Health officials tell us to wash our hands in restaurants, and with laws. I am sorry, but it seems to be a joke to behave this way (Late Late CBS, USA), while thousands die. In the military trust is key. This issue was mentioned in the Bible. It the behavior that is the problem. Not the men. I personally had men make passes at me when I was in the Air Force, in Vietnam and outed them.
JM
The “Judgment of King Solomon”
The Judgment of Solomon refers to a story from the Hebrew Bible in which Solomon ruled between two women both claiming to be the mother of a child. It has become a metaphor referring to a wise judge who uses a stratagem to determine the truth, tricking the parties into revealing their true feelings. Specifically, the judge pretends that he will destroy the subject matter of a dispute, rather than allowing either disputing party to win at the expense of the other.
I hope, the GOP understands metaphor.
from wiki
“Prison Camp”. A breath of honesty, clearly spoken in Turkey, with clear agendas, not “Bush like”, promising.
JM
Google has changed the world.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/07/27/2740242/britains-cameron-calls-gaza-prison-camp
JM
Google wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
JM
But Adolf Hitler was real, and evil exists.
Power is scary.
JM
Demagogy
An interesting word
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogy
JM
Stress and control, combat, noise, and blood flowing.
JM
This WikiLeak thing scares me. Security file? The first thing that popped into my mind was “1984”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
JM
For a resbit, try “Erik Satie “Nocturne No.4”
JM
More rest “Erik “Satie “Trois Gymnopédies””
JM
I have a suspicion that Mile Davis liked Erik Satie.
Blue in Green by. Miles Davis
JM
I love solo piano, and love share
Erik Satie – “Caresse”
JM
Fox, a US for profit History channel, reminds us of Constitutional wrights, and how to make money in a free society, protected by law. For further details read Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_hitler
JM
Sociopath. word I heard somewhere? It popped into my head watching one of those guys on Fox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder
JM
Just in case there are those who have never solved a problem, on their own, for example teens, try the free online knowledge pool, not guaranteed to be accurate, but I have never been disappointed.
http://www.wikipedia.org/
JM
Fox guys do use this resource. Just like slave owners did not provide education for their slaves.
JM
Fox NOT Use sorry I type too fast
JM
Glogal Warming? Rush says
JM
In case there are those who are just living their lives, tunning out insanity, there are important elections soon. Please tune in.
JM
In desperation, Dr King marched, spoke, and ………
JM
Some fun. My favorite mystery. Gravity through empty space. Dark matter, mathematically present, but not detectable.
JM
Note to Rush Fatso, “Dark” is a color. often used in art.
MJ
“unless it’s used in Congress”, best line I’ve heard in years. Thank you Jimmy
JM
Al frankin, enternet, my new artist, look it yourself.
JM
US elections are surprisingly close, + or – 5%. I suspect that Rupert Murdoch, David and Charles Koch, know this.
JM
I spent the last week in India talking to a Hindi Master, and he said “Obtain truth by Seeing the Present”. So I went online, got inline, to get an eReader, with free Wiki.
Ron Garvey
I sugest that Bill Maher would be better than Colbert at the Lincoln Memorial.
JM
It is clear that “suggest” is spelled with 2 G’s, not one.
JM
The reason I can say that word “suggest” has 2 g’s is because Google tells me AMEEDIATELY WHEN I TYPE IT.
THIS SERVICE IS NOT AVAILIBLE ON FOX
JM
God I love this blog, I love Australia.
JM
There is a diagnosis in psychiarty called “Narcissistic Entitlement”. I first heard this term listening to the late radio shrink Dr David Viscott about 15 years ago. He died in 1989 from diebeties complications sadly. It sruck a nerve in me, because I have always wondered how slavery could be tolerated among feeling people. Wiki gives some answeres. I have not found an Online midical text for this term, but Wiki is always a good place to start’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism
JM
Israeli leaders are willing to block progress, hope, and justice, in the name of “Narcissistic Entitlement”
JM
Correction, Dr Viscott died in 1996, not 1989. Sorry.
David Viscott (May 24, 1938 – October 10, 1996) wiki
MJ
One doesn’t often get to enjoy a real time genious (in my view, and the Nobel Prize Committee’s view), especially in economics. In real time Pual Krugman writes for the New York Times. As a serious amature math nut, and a guy who remembers QED in geometry, and a guy who sees John Boehner on The House floor, all I can say is
Thank You Mr Krugman
MJ
Dr Pual Krugman
PHD MIT
John Bates Clark Medal (1991)
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (2008)
MJ
John Boehner, often slurs speach, plays golf with rich people, has a strange color of skin, is always argry, never speaks in complete sentences, has an aggressive impartial voice often associated with a dissociative complex by medical psyhiatrists, and is always wrong. But gets big money from big money people. He is my Guy.
This is My diagnosis
Dr S. Palin
US Congressmen are legal to take campain money from corporations, indirectly, though shodow methods, for elections. It’s the law.
MJ
This is why Republicans hate regulation. Narcissistic Entitlement. As Ronald Reagon said
MJ
The GOP is lagging in contribtions to the RNC compared to the DNC (don’t make me prove it, I can). BUT these are on the record stats. Off the record funding is soaring. Who do you thinks pays for (to be blunt) FOX guys like &^^%$, of coarse it’s :”LOPPOOOJJ
MJ
Note to Rachel Madow, “Ideas have to digested one at time” Sōkrátēs; c. 469 BC–399 , slow down.
MJ
“to be”, sorry, I should slow down
MJ
Note for Rachel Madow, start with Hellow. Can the sarcasim. Start with a table on contents, and state your purpose. This from my speach coach 40 years ago.
MJ
“I’m just the messenger” and a smile. Quote from President Obama. I think President Obama read they story of Julias Ceaser.
Stories from the past.
“While the enemy was thus employed, Pothinus, tutor to the young king, and regent of the kingdom, who was in Caesar’s part of the town, sent a messenger to Achillas, and encouraged him not to desist from his enterprise, nor to despair of success; but his messenger being discovered and apprehended, he was put to death by Caesar.
Listening to the GOP guys like John Boehner, I feel that education in the leberal arts is very important.
JM
Sorry, I forgot the end quote ” and space bar.
MJ
Just for a reseach project, compare John Boehner
Boehnerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boehner
to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy
MJ
To save you time, and my opinion, these guys are/were not our finest hour. Most people don’t have the time review Boehner. So if in doubt, take my word, Boehner
‘the ??? de?vil in real ?ime.
Scary, very scary, happy HALOWEEN
MJ
Just to real for moment, I love President Obama, I hope he gets our love, all of us.
MJ
Just an Idea, I hope the new management at NBC will hire some people with talent for “Saturday Night Live”.
MJ
I noticed that Meg Whitman used booth hands to shake hands with Mr Brown in the latest debate, with a nice smile. When I was kid I loved animals, but was always afraid of reptiles.
MJ
One could say, taking on the challenge of the Mayor of Oakland had no prospects of personal gain. Mr Brown did it anyway.
JM
All this silliness about witches, John Boehner was elected square and fair.
MJ
Jo Phlem, Fox enthusiat, said he prefers soft nose bullets, but is anrgy that they have been a difficult to buy, because of federal law.
MJ
I suspect that Mr Bush used Google to learn how to spell elitist.
JM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elitism
JM
The AP (Associated Press) has an article about today, in opinion, about O’Donnel.
A single vote change in the US Senate has the potential of ending sanity.
O’Donnell still a mystery to voters despite fame
By BEN EVANS (AP) – 6 hours ago
WILMINGTON, Del. — Senate hopeful Christine O’Donnell has a simple message in her campaign ads — “I’m you.”
With three weeks to the election, many Delaware voters have their doubts.
While O’Donnell’s quirky past has made her famous, she remains something of an enigma at home — a talented public speaker and occasional television pundit with a thin resume and a long list of unanswered questions. Her ability to overcome the doubts could determine whether Republicans can take back the Senate on Election Day.
“I just don’t know anything about her,” said Sallie Wilson, a 71-year-old Wilmington retiree and registered Republican who wants to vote with her party but is having a hard time supporting O’Donnell. “I can’t believe that half the stuff they say about her is true because if it was she’d probably be in jail … but I just don’t know what she’s all about.”
O’Donnell, a New Jersey native who moved to Delaware in 2003, stunned the state last month by defeating GOP congressman and former governor Mike Castle in the Republican primary. She previously had run two shoestring campaigns for Senate that went nowhere. Few paid her much attention this time until the tea party embraced her and she won an endorsement from Sarah Palin.
Her win, despite unusually strong opposition from the GOP establishment, set up a clear test of tea party strength in a general election. Castle, a moderate, was heavily favored to beat Democrat Chris Coons in November and put Republicans one seat closer to the majority. O’Donnell is an underdog, struggling to gain appeal beyond her conservative base.
In a small, Democratic-leaning state, O’Donnell, 41, is known mostly for the conservative social positions and evangelical religious views she espoused as a television commentator, objecting to homosexuality, abortion, premarital sex and even masturbation. She used the broadcast experience to win mostly part-time work over the years as a public relations consultant or spokeswoman for a handful of small, loosely organized advocacy groups. She has briefly held a few full-time jobs since college.
But that’s the extent of her resume, and that’s where the questions begin.
She hasn’t provided such basic information as how she makes a living and pays her rent. In Senate financial disclosures filed in July, she reported earning just $5,800 in 2009 and 2010, and said she had no bank accounts, retirement accounts or other savings.
She hasn’t explained why she spent years of energy and resources running for Senate while leaving behind a trail of debt, including a home foreclosure proceeding, lawsuits over unpaid college expenses, a federal tax lien and staffer complaints of unpaid wages.
She also hasn’t explained how it was legal for her to use campaign donations to help pay the rent on her town house. She has said she did so because her house was doubling as a campaign headquarters, but federal regulations clearly state that candidates can’t use campaign money for their mortgage or rent “even if part of the residence is being used by the campaign.”
On issues, O’Donnell’s views are often just as murky, with little more than one-liners on her website.
She won’t answer whether she believes in evolution, which she has called a myth, or in climate change. She says the United States has a socialist economy with far too much government spending but is short on details about where she would cut.
She won’t explain past comments suggesting that she would support invading Iran, or that she has classified information indicating that China is plotting to take over the United States.
Her campaign has not responded to repeated inquiries from The Associated Press, and O’Donnell has tightly controlled her public appearances.
In her first ads, which aired this week, she acknowledges some of her difficulties and seeks to define herself as someone who would take her life experiences, financial problems and all, to Washington and do what most Delawareans would do — tax cuts, the budget, health care and more.
“None of us are perfect,” she says, “but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us.”
She also tries to clear the air about past comments that have drawn national attention and earned her a parody on Saturday Night Live.
“I’m not a witch,” she says smiling, referencing remarks about teenage dabbling in witchcraft. “I’m nothing you’ve heard. I’m you.”
Recent polls, however, show O’Donnell has a long way to go to convince voters. Thanks to Delaware’s late primary, she doesn’t have much time.
A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released this week found her trailing Coons by 17 percentage points — with about two-thirds of independents and one-third of Republicans opposing her.
Among those is Ken Melvin, 67, from Wilmington, who described himself as a conservative tea party supporter who would have backed Castle but is now planning to vote for Coons. He said he’s attracted to O’Donnell emotionally and likes her youthful energy. But he wants to see more substance.
“What I’ve seen is she seems to be very naive,” he said. “I think she’s learning fast … but it’s like Sarah Palin: I just get the impression that she’s a wannabe that just can’t quite make it.”
Republican strategists say O’Donnell must win over such “Castle voters” to have any chance.
At least one longtime GOP consultant said people shouldn’t count her out.
“Her campaign is breaking all the traditional rules,” said Washington strategist John Feehery, noting that she just set up a formal campaign office last week. “We’ll see. She didn’t need a campaign office to beat Mike Castle.”
Yuk, WTF
JM
Do a Google search for Carl Rove, and you will find hundreds of thousand dead, similar polio.
JM
When Mr Bush talks elites being surprised that he wrote a book, I think of guys like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman
JM
Richard Feynman had a habit of being completely honest.
Nobel Prize in Physics (1965)
JM
When I think of elected government leaders, in my fantasies, I think of guys like Ben Franklin, not Bush.
JM
My best advise for the GOP is to do a switcharo and call the DEMs liars. After all honesty(reality) not is on the GOP’s list of skill priority’s
JM
“GIVE YOUR SELF TO LOVE” by Kate Wolf
ALL Terrorists live on Planet Earth, therefore, according to FOX logic,
ALL people on Planet Earth are Terrorists.
JM
I’m currently reading “The Big Sleep”. by Chandler. It is something that Bush should read, in my hopeful thoughts.
LM
One could say that physicians are elitists.
JM
Slave owners prohibited marriage
JM
Before the elections, one could say mournings are cooler than afternoons.
Socrates
JM
Hitler feared British radio, payed for by the British government.
JM
There are many things to do, daily. Here in California, I think studying the Ballot, with many resources available, online, and with friends and family, it would be fun. And important.
JM
“Don’t tell the reader what they already know”,
Ernest Hemingway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway
JM
sorry, readers, plural.
JM
“be kind to people, but don’t expect them to be kind to you” from one of Ernest Hemingway’s novels, I can’t remember which.
JM
Get it Rachel? Your fans are not stupid. Say it slowly, and move on.
JM
A friend called me and said that she saw a guy watching Fox guys telling lies, and mailing a check to those guys. I said ” don’t worry, FOX has billionaires and that this was approved by Supreme Court.
JM
Here again, I lost track. Sorry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity
JM
Just in case you don’t know it, CEO’s (chief executive officers) don’t run companies, the chairman of the board of directors runs companies.
JM
Carli what’s her name was fired from HP by the board, with loud applause from this great company’s artists. In case of legal action, I now state that the previous statement is total BS AND NOT TRUE.
JM
This is very similar to Bush and his VP, who as a team, gave us
Sara Palm, strange logic, the Tea Party, Just say NO in government, and “Narcissistic Entitlement”
JM
Carli (for legal reasons call candidateho is well known is this valley (did I say that I have worked in this valley for 30 yrs? It’s true). You can not know how much HP has meant to quality in engineering test, design, and manufacturing here. She cashed it in, for herself.
JM
By the way, the current “people” at HP bought the Palm Pre, and the company. Sell your stock in HP.
JM
I listened to a mental health professional on NPR, (weekdays at 9 am), say that at any given time, there is about 5% of the population with serious mental problems, in the US.
5/100 X 300,000,000 = 15,000,000 people.
JM
Around 40 billion dollars, could end starvation on this planet, if given directly to the hungry. Wars, currently in progress, cost roughly 100 billion dollars, yearly.
JM
Sara Palm said said our President should apologize to the unemployed.
Demagogy
An interesting word
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogy
I think the rally pundits have missed the point, in my view. Incomplete grammar is traitorous.
lm
Why do I think this is treason? Because it is.
LM
Sorry, I forgot the news people have to say something quickly, or get fired. But readers are measured in the millions, and November 2 is the midterm election day that can set us up for more Bush stuff like Landing on an aircraft carrier.
JM
If only ALL PEOPLE VOTE, can we say this a this a mathematical tool, and that some say
“Socrates lived during the time of the transition from the height of the Athenian hegemony to its decline with the defeat by Sparta and its allies in the Peloponnesian War. At a time when Athens sought to stabilize and recover from its humiliating defeat, the Athenian public may have been entertaining doubts about democracy as an efficient form of government. Socrates appears to have been a critic of democracy, and some scholars interpret his trial as an expression of political infighting.”
JM
Of coarse Socretes may have wished for more time to argue his point of view. But the votes, in the Supreme Court, said that Rush Fatso is a person, and not controlled by Fox guys.
LM
Jack and Jill, went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down, and people went thirsty
JM
When one is busy, (there are only 24 hrs is a day), distractions from the tasks at hand, (global warming, nuclear proliferation, unemployment, 2 wars, education, wars in Mexico, organized crime, health, aging population, diplomacy in the Middle East, growing the economy, Wall Street sociopaths…), one could say “Just say no is an act of treason.
JM
But, GW wrote a book, and went on Youtube, to say he quit drinking when he was 40 years old, (Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC)
JM
Required reading for Sara Palm, before she gets sworn in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton
JM
Lately, when I hear the word “Rich” I think of Frank Rich, writer for the New York Times.
By FRANK RICH
Published: October 30, 2010
The Grand Old Plot Against the Tea Party
ONE dirty little secret of the 2010 election is that it won’t be a political tragedy for Democrats if a Tea Party icon like Sharron Angle or Joe Miller ends up in the United States Senate. Angle, now synonymous with racist ads sliming Hispanics, and Miller, already on record threatening a government shutdown, are fired up and ready to go as symbols of G.O.P. extremism for 2012 and beyond.
What’s not so secret is that some Republicans will be just as happy if some of these characters lose, and for the same reason.
But whatever Tuesday’s results, this much is certain: The Tea Party’s hopes for actually effecting change in Washington will start being dashed the morning after. The ordinary Americans in this movement lack the numbers and financial clout to muscle their way into the back rooms of Republican power no matter how well their candidates perform.
Trent Lott, the former Senate leader and current top-dog lobbyist, gave away the game in July. “We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples,” he said, referring to the South Carolina senator who is the Tea Party’s Capitol Hill patron saint. “As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.” It’s the players who wrote the checks for the G.O.P. surge, not those earnest folk in tri-corner hats, who plan to run the table in the next corporate takeover of Washington. Though Tom DeLay may now be on trial for corruption in Texas, the spirit of his K Street lives on in a Lott client list that includes Northrop Grumman and Goldman Sachs.
Karl Rove outed the Republican elites’ contempt for Tea Partiers in the campaign’s final stretch. Much as Barack Obama thought he was safe soliloquizing about angry white Middle Americans clinging to “guns or religion” at a San Francisco fund-raiser in 2008, so Rove now parades his disdain for the same constituency when speaking to the European press. This month he told Der Spiegel that Tea Partiers are “not sophisticated,” and then scoffed, “It’s not like these people have read the economist Friedrich August von Hayek.” Given that Glenn Beck has made a cause of putting Hayek’s dense 1944 antigovernment treatise “The Road to Serfdom” on the best-seller list and Tea Partiers widely claim to have read it, Rove could hardly have been more condescending to “these people.” Last week, for added insult, he mocked Sarah Palin’s imminent Discovery Channel reality show to London’s Daily Telegraph.
This animus has not gone unnoticed among those supposedly less sophisticated conservatives back home. Mike Huckabee, still steamed about Rove’s previous put-down of Christine O’Donnell, publicly lamented the Republican establishment’s “elitism” and “country club attitude.” This country club elite, he said, is happy for Tea Partiers to put up signs, work the phones and make “those pesky little trips” door-to-door that it finds a frightful inconvenience. But the members won’t let the hoi polloi dine with them in the club’s “main dining room” — any more than David H. Koch, the billionaire sugar daddy of the Republican right, will invite O’Donnell into his box at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center to take in “The Nutcracker.”
The main dining room remains reserved for Koch’s fellow oil barons, Lott’s clients, the corporate contributors (known and anonymous) to groups like Rove’s American Crossroads, and, of course, the large coterie of special interests underwriting John Boehner, the presumptive next speaker of the House. Boehner is the largest House recipient of Wall Street money this year — much of it from financial institutions bailed out by TARP.
His Senate counterpart, Mitch McConnell, will be certain to stop any Tea Party hillbillies from disrupting his chapter of the club (as he tried to stop Rand Paul in his own state’s G.O.P. primary). McConnell’s pets in his chamber’s freshman G.O.P. class will instead be old-school conservatives like Dan Coats (of Indiana), Rob Portman (of Ohio) and, if he squeaks in, Pat Toomey (of Pennsylvania). The first two are former lobbyists; Toomey ran the corporate interest group, the Club for Growth. They can be counted on to execute an efficient distribution of corporate favors and pork after they make their latest swing through Capitol Hill’s revolving door.
What the Tea Party ostensibly wants most — less government spending and smaller federal deficits — is not remotely happening on the country club G.O.P.’s watch. The elites have no serious plans to cut anything except taxes and regulation of their favored industries. The party’s principal 2010 campaign document, its “Pledge to America,” doesn’t vow to cut even earmarks — which barely amount to a rounding error in the federal budget anyway. Boehner has also proposed a return to pre-crash 2008 levels in “nonsecurity” discretionary spending — another mere bagatelle ($105 billion) next to the current $1.3 trillion deficit. And that won’t be happening either, once the actual cuts in departments like Education, Transportation and Interior are specified to their constituencies.
Perhaps the campaign’s most telling exchange took place on Fox News two weeks ago, when the Tea Party-embracing Senate candidate in California, Carly Fiorina, was asked seven times by Chris Wallace to name “one single entitlement expenditure you’re willing to cut” in order “to extend all the Bush tax cuts, which would add 4 trillion to the deficit.” She never did. At least Angle and Paul have been honest about what they’d slash if in power — respectively Social Security and defense, where the big government spending actually resides.
That’s not happening either. McConnell has explained his only real priority for the new Congress with admirable candor. “The single most important thing we want to achieve,” he said, “is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Any assault on Social Security would defeat that goal, and a serious shake-up of the Pentagon budget would alienate the neoconservative ideologues and military contractors who are far more important to the G.O.P. establishment than the “don’t tread on me” crowd.
For sure, the Republican elites found the Tea Party invaluable on the way to this Election Day. And not merely, as Huckabee has it, because they wanted its foot soldiers. What made the Tea Party most useful was that its loud populist message gave the G.O.P. just the cover it needed both to camouflage its corporate patrons and to rebrand itself as a party miraculously antithetical to the despised G.O.P. that gave us George W. Bush and record deficits only yesterday.
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and Wall Street Journal have been arduous in promoting and inflating Tea Party events and celebrities to this propagandistic end. The more the Tea Party looks as if it’s calling the shots in the G.O.P., the easier it is to distract attention from those who are actually calling them — namely, those who’ve cashed in and cashed out as ordinary Americans lost their jobs, homes and 401(k)’s. Typical of this smokescreen is a new book titled “Mad as Hell,” published this fall by a Murdoch imprint. In it, the pollsters Scott Rasmussen and Douglas Schoen make the case, as they recently put it in Politico, that the Tea Party is “the most powerful and potent force in America.”
They are expert at producing poll numbers to bear that out. By counting those with friends and family in the movement, Rasmussen has calculated that 29 percent of Americans are “tied to” the Tea Party. (If you factor in six degrees of Kevin Bacon, the number would surely double.) But cooler empirical data reveal the truth known by the G.O.P. establishment: An August CNN poll found that 2 percent of Americans consider themselves active members of the Tea Party.
That result was confirmed last weekend by The Washington Post, which published the fruits of its months-long effort to contact every Tea Party group in the country. To this end, it enlisted the help of Tea Party Patriots, the only Tea Party umbrella group that actually can claim to be a spontaneous, bottom-up, grass roots organization rather than a front for the same old fat cats of the Republican right, from the Koch brothers to Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. Tea Party Patriots has claimed anywhere from 2,300 to nearly 3,000 local affiliates, but even with its assistance, The Post could verify a total of only 647 Tea Party groups nationwide. Most had fewer than 50 members. The median amount of money each group had raised in 2010 was $800, nowhere near the entry fee for the country club.
But those Americans, like all the others on the short end of the 2008 crash, have reason to be mad as hell. And their numbers will surely grow once the Republican establishment’s panacea of tax cuts proves as ineffectual at creating jobs, saving homes and cutting deficits as the half-measures of the Obama White House and the Democratic Congress. The tempest, however, will not be contained within the tiny Tea Party but will instead overrun the Republican Party itself, where Palin, with Murdoch and Beck at her back, waits in the wings to “take back America” not just from Obama but from the G.O.P. country club elites now mocking her. By then — after another two years of political gridlock and economic sclerosis — the equally disillusioned right and left may have a showdown that makes this election year look as benign as Woodstock.
iReader
Actually, Justin Bieber is a very good vocalist.
JM
Jon Boner, the new mouse leader, needs support: So send him a case of schotch, a carton of smokes, and a copy of the “Peter Principle”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle
JM
Perhaps, in the house, which elects their leader, the reps will choose someone else. Not impossible. Someone who does not have frequent mood swings.
JM
One could say that the US Congress leadership has global implications, and that bad guys, and students, and kids, and idealists, watch very closely.
JM
What has this got to do with insanity? Think Supreme Court.
JM
My answer, the thought that the end is only the beginning, is serious lie, when done consciously. With global implications.
JM
When one is trying to do difficult things, and people around your say your skin is dark, it’s hard to feel loved. (Sorry, my father used the words Nigger and Japs until the day he died, but had no idea where he learned these words, and was a world war II vet, who fought Guadalcanal, got Malaria, and had mental problems for the rest of his life)
JM
So, Jon Boner will say “no compromise”
JM
Plural
In the English language, nouns are inflected for grammatical number—that is, singular or plural.
JM
Here is a good example of the use of English grammar
PAUL KRUGMAN, the NYT op ed writer
The Focus Hocus-Pocus
Democrats, declared Evan Bayh in an Op-Ed article on Wednesday in The Times, “overreached by focusing on health care rather than job creation during a severe recession.” Many others have been saying the same thing: the notion that the Obama administration erred by not focusing on the economy is hardening into conventional wisdom.
But I have no idea what, if anything, people mean when they say that. The whole focus on “focus” is, as I see it, an act of intellectual cowardice — a way to criticize President Obama’s record without explaining what you would have done differently.
After all, are people who say that Mr. Obama should have focused on the economy saying that he should have pursued a bigger stimulus package? Are they saying that he should have taken a tougher line with the banks? If not, what are they saying? That he should have walked around with furrowed brow muttering, “I’m focused, I’m focused”?
Mr. Obama’s problem wasn’t lack of focus; it was lack of audacity. At the start of his administration he settled for an economic plan that was far too weak. He compounded this original sin both by pretending that everything was on track and by adopting the rhetoric of his enemies.
The aftermath of major financial crises is almost always terrible: severe crises are typically followed by multiple years of very high unemployment. And when Mr. Obama took office, America had just suffered its worst financial crisis since the 1930s. What the nation needed, given this grim prospect, was a really ambitious recovery plan.
Could Mr. Obama actually have offered such a plan? He might not have been able to get a big plan through Congress, or at least not without using extraordinary political tactics. Still, he could have chosen to be bold — to make Plan A the passage of a truly adequate economic plan, with Plan B being to place blame for the economy’s troubles on Republicans if they succeeded in blocking such a plan.
But he chose a seemingly safer course: a medium-size stimulus package that was clearly not up to the task. And that’s not 20/20 hindsight. In early 2009, many economists, yours truly included, were more or less frantically warning that the administration’s proposals were nowhere near bold enough.
Worse, there was no Plan B. By late 2009, it was already obvious that the worriers had been right, that the program was much too small. Mr. Obama could have gone to the nation and said, “My predecessor left the economy in even worse shape than we realized, and we need further action.” But he didn’t. Instead, he and his officials continued to claim that their original plan was just right, damaging their credibility even further as the economy continued to fall short.
Meanwhile, the administration’s bank-friendly policies and rhetoric — dictated by fear of hurting financial confidence — ended up fueling populist anger, to the benefit of even more bank-friendly Republicans. Mr. Obama added to his problems by effectively conceding the argument over the role of government in a depressed economy.
I felt a sense of despair during Mr. Obama’s first State of the Union address, in which he declared that “families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same.” Not only was this bad economics — right now the government must spend, because the private sector can’t or won’t — it was almost a verbatim repeat of what John Boehner, the soon-to-be House speaker, said when attacking the original stimulus. If the president won’t speak up for his own economic philosophy, who will?
So where, in this story, does “focus” come in? Lack of nerve? Yes. Lack of courage in one’s own convictions? Definitely. Lack of focus? No.
And why would failing to tackle health care have produced a better outcome? The focus people never explain.
Of course, there’s a subtext to the whole line that health reform was a mistake: namely, that Democrats should stop acting like Democrats and go back to being Republicans-lite. Parse what people like Mr. Bayh are saying, and it amounts to demanding that Mr. Obama spend the next two years cringing and admitting that conservatives were right.
There is an alternative: Mr. Obama can take a stand.
For one thing, he still has the ability to engineer significant relief to homeowners, one area where his administration completely dropped the ball during its first two years. Beyond that, Plan B is still available. He can propose real measures to create jobs and aid the unemployed and put Republicans on the spot for standing in the way of the help Americans need.
Would taking such a stand be politically risky? Yes, of course. But Mr. Obama’s economic policy ended up being a political disaster precisely because he tried to play it safe. It’s time for him to try something different.
iReader
The wonder of Fox News
Fox News, and News Corp in general provide quite the amusing slant on World events. We in the UK find it an endless source of hilarity and bullshit all rolled into one. We understand that much of America actually takes Fox News seriously, which amuses us even further.
During our UK election, they announced that the result was the UK’s total rejection of Socialism. Which of course was nonsense. Our Conservative Party, whom Fox News supporter, told the electorate that they would look after and protect our single payer Health Service, making the Conservatives evil Socialists in the eyes of right winged America. Fox News also failed to point out that more people in the UK voted for Parties on the Left and Centre-Left than they did for those on the Right. So actually, it was far from a rejection of Socialism. I blogged on Fox News calling the UK election, here.
But the stupidity doesn’t surprise me. In the past two years they have labelled President Obama a Marxist, Communist, Fascist, American hating Muslim, Foreigner with terrorist sympathies who hates White people. I give it a week before they ask if he is actually a homosexual transvestite. It stinks of bitterness. A torrent of hate and bullshit. They labelled the anti-Iraq war protesters as ‘un-American’ whilst those who protested the Health Care Bill were labelled Patriots. But they assure us that they are not bias. They assure us they are in no way a rallying point for all single brain celled racists Right wingers across America.
On The Daily Show two nights ago, Jon Stewart, once again, made Fox News appear fools. For weeks Fox has been drawing weak links between the Muslim Centre near Ground Zero with funding from shady characters with Terrorist ties. The guy they point to as helping to fund the project is a man named Al-Waleed bin Talal. He is a member of the Saudi Royal Family. He has invested more than $300,000 in projects for Feisal Abdul Rauf, the principle planner of the Muslim Centre near Ground Zero. This is one of the guys that Fox refer to as a shady character. What Fox failed to point out is; Al-Waleed bin Talal owns 7% of News Corp and so owns 7% of Fox News. News Corp (Fox News) owns 9% of Al-Waleed bin Talal’s entertainment company Rotana. Al-Waleed bin Talal is part of the Carlyle Group, which has business deals with the Bin Laden family. So, by association, Jon Stewart pointed out that Fox News is funded by those linked to terrorism, if we are to use their logic. Stewart ended quite brilliantly, by saying that if “We want to stop funding terror, we must as a Nation, together………… stop watching Fox. IT’S THE ONLY WAY!!”. The stupidity of Fox is outstanding.
It is almost as ridiculous a situation, as the time that The Simpsons ran a mock Fox News on one of it’s episodes with the news ticker running along the bottom, proclaiming; “Do Democrats cause cancer? …………… Rupert Murdoch: terrific dancer……………. Study: 92% of Democrats are gay………… Bible says Jesus favoured Capital Gains cut.” Fox News took exception to this, and threatened The Simpsons with legal action. The problem is, that The Simpsons is owned by Fox. So effectively, Fox were threatening to sue Fox. Fox backed down and didn’t sue Fox for mocking Fox. Fox now has a new rule stating that The Simpsons cannot do the news ticker any more, (I promise I am not making this up) because it might confuse viewers into believing it is the real news.
I will leave you with that thought. I don’t think much more can be said. Fox News is an embarrassment all by itself, it doesn’t need those of us on the Left point it out, although it’s much fun to do.
DC
I forgot to give credit for the above
DC
Who are your friends?, Fox guys? Priests? Scientists? Politicians? Artists? Painters? Musicians? Poets? Jon Boner? Drunks? Liars? Republicans? ……
KA
Deciding what to do is hard. I drank until I was 40, and my family encouraged me to think I was special, and so I listened to the philosopher who said “you can not know what you do not know” and got Religion. I may not speak in terms of reality, no one can, but I am totally convinced that I am wright. I had a nightmare that hundreds of thousands of people died in a war, caused by faulty thinking. But Mr Walter Board, business man, said Don’t worry, Fox Guys are making tons of money, and these people have strange religions any way. So I wrote a memoir, and feel no guilt.
JW
A guy actually threw a shoe at Me; He must been have crazy!
JW
“When I traveled across the fields, gaining great territory, and wining support for my troops, I was concerned that the cost was too high. According to spies, it was costing 200 million camels, each day of the campaign to conquer the known world”
Facts from History
Al died when he was 36 yrs old. Jorge Weed quit drinking when he was 40.
XN
Can you Imagine the logistics of graves for thousands of men, women, and children, interfering with My life long dream of house rule? (blow nose here)
JB
Boner enlisted in the United States Navy but was honorably discharged after eight weeks for medical reasons.
News
During the Viet Nam war
News
Boner says he is not a drunk. For further details, see YouTube archives. Many CSpan archives have been deleted.
News
Dr Kling, moralist, hung onto the Constitution, thus giving birth to reason, in his mind.
XN
I love camera angles that show the performer on stage, camera located so that the it captures the performer’s visual point of view. I think this is what Truman Capote did ” IN COLD BLOOD”
AC
Scientists are like guys using metal detectors on the beach. They get a buzz, and say AHA.
Statistically, if several primates are locked in a room with sturdy typewriters, nothing will happen, academically. If given a chance, and hundreds of millions of dollars, it is possible to buy pets that will parrot your point of view.
BF
Government, in the SU, allows the use of mass spending for clever pets, and encourages distortion mirrors for business amusement.
FB
Here a link to this famouse phillosofers photo.
Xof News
Jorge Weed looks at times like Alfred. It would be funny, if it wasn’t so sad.
The ungrateful departed.
Tax cuts, stay tuned
Who Will Stand Up to the Superrich?
IN the aftermath of the Great Democratic Shellacking of 2010, one election night subplot quickly receded into the footnotes: the drubbing received by very wealthy Americans, most of them Republican, who tried to buy Senate seats and governor’s mansions. Americans don’t hate rich people. They admire and often idolize success. But Californians took a hearty dislike to Meg Whitman, who sacrificed $143 million of her eBay fortune — not to mention her undocumented former housekeeper — to a gubernatorial race she lost by double digits. Connecticut voters K.O.’d the World Wrestling groin-kicker, Linda McMahon, and West Virginians did likewise to the limestone-and-steel magnate John Raese, the senatorial hopeful who told an interviewer without apparent irony, “I made my money the old-fashioned way — I inherited it.”
To my mind, these losers deserve a salute nonetheless. They all had run businesses that actually created jobs (Raese included). They all wanted to enter public service to give back to the country that allowed them to prosper. And by losing so decisively, they gave us a ray of hope in dark times. Their defeats reminded us that despite much recent evidence to the contrary the inmates don’t always end up running the asylum of American politics.
The wealthy Americans we should worry about instead are the ones who implicitly won the election — those who take far more from America than they give back. They were not on the ballot, and most of them are not household names. Unlike Whitman and the other defeated self-financing candidates, they are all but certain to cash in on the Nov. 2 results. There’s no one in Washington in either party with the fortitude to try to stop them from grabbing anything that’s not nailed down.
The Americans I’m talking about are not just those shadowy anonymous corporate campaign contributors who flooded this campaign. No less triumphant were those individuals at the apex of the economic pyramid — the superrich who have gotten spectacularly richer over the last four decades while their fellow citizens either treaded water or lost ground. The top 1 percent of American earners took in 23.5 percent of the nation’s pretax income in 2007 — up from less than 9 percent in 1976. During the boom years of 2002 to 2007, that top 1 percent’s pretax income increased an extraordinary 10 percent every year. But the boom proved an exclusive affair: in that same period, the median income for non-elderly American households went down and the poverty rate rose.
It’s the very top earners, not your garden variety, entrepreneurial multimillionaires, who will be by far the biggest beneficiaries if there’s an extension of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts for income over $200,000 a year (for individuals) and $250,000 (for couples). The resurgent G.O.P. has vowed to fight to the end to award this bonanza, but that may hardly be necessary given the timid opposition of President Obama and the lame-duck Democratic Congress.
On last Sunday’s “60 Minutes,” Obama was already wobbling toward another “compromise” in which he does most of the compromising. It’s a measure of how far he’s off his game now that a leader who once had the audacity to speak at length on the red-hot subject of race doesn’t even make the most forceful case for his own long-held position on an issue where most Americans still agree with him. (Only 40 percent of those in the Nov. 2 exit poll approved of an extension of all Bush tax cuts.) The president’s argument against extending the cuts for the wealthiest has now been reduced to the dry accounting of what the cost would add to the federal deficit. As he put it to CBS’s Steve Kroft, “the question is — can we afford to borrow $700 billion?”
That’s a good question, all right, but it’s not the question. The bigger issue is whether the country can afford the systemic damage being done by the ever-growing income inequality between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else, whether poor, middle class or even rich. That burden is inflicted not just on the debt but on the very idea of America — our Horatio Alger faith in social mobility over plutocracy, our belief that our brand of can-do capitalism brings about innovation and growth, and our fundamental sense of fairness. Incredibly, the top 1 percent of Americans now have tax rates a third lower than the same top percentile had in 1970.
“How can hedge-fund managers who are pulling down billions sometimes pay a lower tax rate than do their secretaries?” ask the political scientists Jacob S. Hacker (of Yale) and Paul Pierson (University of California, Berkeley) in their deservedly lauded new book, “Winner-Take-All Politics.” If you want to cry real tears about the American dream — as opposed to the self-canonizing tears of John Boehner — read this book and weep. The authors’ answer to that question and others amounts to a devastating indictment of both parties.
Their ample empirical evidence, some of which I’m citing here, proves that America’s ever-widening income inequality was not an inevitable by-product of the modern megacorporation, or of globalization, or of the advent of the new tech-driven economy, or of a growing education gap. (Yes, the very rich often have fancy degrees, but so do those in many income levels below them.) Inequality is instead the result of specific policies, including tax policies, championed by Washington Democrats and Republicans alike as they conducted a bidding war for high-rolling donors in election after election.
2 of 2
(Page 2 of 2)
The book deflates much of the conventional wisdom. Hacker and Pierson date the dawn of the collusion between the political system and the superrich not to the Reagan revolution, but to the preceding Carter presidency and its Democratic Congress. They also write that contrary to the popular perception, America’s superhigh earners are not mostly “superstars and celebrities in the arts, entertainment and sports” or the stars of law, medicine and real estate. They are instead corporate executives and managers — increasingly (and less surprisingly) financial company executives and managers, including those who escaped with outrageous fortunes as their companies imploded during the housing bubble.
The G.O.P.’s arguments for extending the Bush tax cuts to this crowd, usually wrapped in laughably hypocritical whining about “class warfare,” are easily batted down. The most constant refrain is that small-business owners who file in this bracket would be hit so hard they could no longer hire new employees. But the Tax Policy Center found in 2008, when checking out similar campaign claims by “Joe the Plumber,” that only 2 percent of all Americans reporting small-business income, regardless of tax bracket, would see tax increases if Obama fulfilled his pledge to let the Bush tax cuts lapse for the top earners. The economist Dean Baker calculated that the yearly tax increase at the lower end of that bracket, for those with earnings between $200,000 and $500,000, would amount to $700 — which “isn’t enough to hire anyone.”
Those in the higher reaches aren’t investing in creating new jobs even now, when the full Bush tax cuts remain in effect, so why would extending them change that equation? American companies seem intent on sitting on trillions in cash until the economy reboots. Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office ranks the extension of any Bush tax cuts, let alone those to the wealthiest Americans, as the least effective of 11 possible policy options for increasing employment.
Nor are the superrich helping to further the traditional American business culture that inspires and encourages those with big ideas and drive to believe they can climb to the top. Robert Frank, the writer who chronicled the superrich in the book “Richistan,” recently analyzed the new Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans for The Wall Street Journal and found a “hardening of the plutocracy” and scant mobility. Only 16 of the 400 were newcomers — as opposed to an average of 40 to 50 in recent years — and they tended to be in industries like coal, natural gas, chemicals and casinos rather than forward-looking businesses involving the Green Economy, tech or biotechnology. This is “not exactly the formula for America’s vaunted entrepreneurial wealth machine,” Frank wrote.
As “Winner-Take-All Politics” documents, America has been busy “building a bridge to the 19th century” — that is, to a new Gilded Age. To dislodge the country from this stagnant rut will require all kinds of effort from Americans in and out of politics. That includes some patriotic selflessness from those at the very top who still might emulate Warren Buffett and the few others in the Forbes 400 who dare say publicly that it’s not in America’s best interests to stack the tax and regulatory decks in their favor.
Many of the countless tasks that need to be addressed to start rebuilding an equitable America are formidable, but surely few, if any, are easier than eliminating a tax break that was destined to expire anyway and that most Americans want to see expire. Two years ago, Obama campaigned on this issue far more strenuously than he did on, say, reforming health care. Now he and what remains of his Congressional caucus are poised to retreat from even this clear-cut battle. You know things are grim when you start wishing that the president might summon his inner Linda McMahon.
iReader
When you scold your child, you can hug her quickly. When you lie to your child, all is changed, and it is hard to recapture the garden.
MM
The above is a translation from a Buddhist monk around 4000 years ago, in China, in my fantasies.
MM
When one invokes the word elite in political rhetoric, keep in mind that in the US there are 300,000,000 people. Race car drivers are very good at racing cars. Surgeons are very good doctors. Unfortunately, there is no test that will detect liars in Jon Boners circus.
MM
In case you have not figured it out, I’m trying to write opening lines for David, Jimmy, and Maher.
MM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire
MS
Baned in surgery
CR
Why isn’t Congress streamed live, in free TV, over the air? In my view, lies requires rehearsal, and cash.
CH
Some things for George Bush to enjoy.. science
JM
There is much more science for George Bush to enjoy, if he can get past the smell, and pain, and hate of of hundreds of thousands of next of kin out of his mind.
Mr Bush said I’m just protecting the American People.
JM
A guy tossed a shoe, and GW says his father is proud of him, and now we have Sara Slut
WTF
Remember those speed reading courses ? Evelyn Wood. It turns out that they where BS, for profit. See Jon Boner? Same deal
JH
Jon Boner said “The People have Spoken”. He must be talking about the 2% who made the difference. I listened to a mental health professional on NPR, (weekdays at 9 am), say that at any given time, there is about 5% of the population with serious mental problems, in the US.
5/100 X 300,000,000 = 15,000,000 people.
US elections are surprisingly close, + or – 5%. I suspect that Rupert Murdoch, David and Charles Koch, know this.
It is true that a small change in history, with chance and bigotry, can create things like slavery, and Church on Sunday
It just occurred to me that word bigot is a word that many many folk do not what means.
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, irrationality, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs. The predominant usage in modern American English refers to persons hostile to those of differing race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, various mental disorders, or religion.
JM
From Wiki
Thief
what means = understand my English teacher, who I love, will still smile at me, even though she is a FOREIGNER! Who speaks with French tingle in her voice.
JM
Jon Boner = Jo Bigot traitor today, to half the population, +or- 5% of the people.
JM
When I was reading Ernest Hemingway’s novels and short stories, I don’t think I even owned a dictionary.
JM
I was talking to my sister, who felt good about sending missionaries to India. Can you imagine how sad I felt.
JM
Superman, Supergal, Superthis, Superthat, Superfriends, Super quite, Super Zen, Super Est, Super”””’…..
Love is what your after Kate Wolf
When I was a kid, we never locked the door.
Our town, Iris Dement
The Pope says he is ok with condoms, now.
The Ungrateful dead.
Leno likes Bush
The Ungrateful dead.
Mea culpa
Seldom heard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mea_culpa
The Ungrateful dead.
The EU says, today, to the GOP, “it is to dangerous to play games with Nuke agreements.
The Ungrateful dead.
The FED said today that Paul Krugam is(was) right. Prime the pump! Jon Boner does not have PHD in economics, nor a Noble prize. Bush quit drinking when was 40, did the invasion, and smiles on Leno. Go figure.
The Ungrateful dead.
In mathematics, there is an idea called a “function”. Now commonly called “equal to (=). Bush speaks to God. Now we have our stuff.
Is this a nightmare
If people don’t see stuff, they won’t know its there
Socrates
Just me. Saturday Night Live, had, in the past, talent. In my view, sad today.
JM
QED, some stuff for serous people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q.E.D.
JM
The Pope is Very serious leader. I think what he is saying is: Mutual hand jobs are better than oral or anal sex, and that telling lies to your wife, and kids, or future kids, is a sin.
Just Me
A medical truth, Lindsey Graham: ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Is Not Going Anywhere’
WASHINGTON — Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted on Sunday that the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy would not be repealed during the remaining weeks Congress is in session this calendar year.
The South Carolina Republican, a proponent of the law banning openly gay service in the armed forces, said definitively that there was no support for repeal on the Republican side of the aisle. He called for an additional study to determine whether the military itself favored overturning the 17-year-old legislation.
“This is a political promise made by Senator Obama when he was running for president,” said Graham, during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. “There is no groundswell of opposition to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell coming from our military. This is all politics. I don’t believe there is anywhere near the votes to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. On the Republican side, I think we will be united in the lame duck [session] and the study I would be looking for is asking military members: Should it be repealed, not how to implement it once you as a politician decide to repeal it. So I think in a lame duck setting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is not going anywhere.”
Graham is, by virtue of the fact that he has served in the military (as a JAG lawyer), widely considered a leading GOP spokesman on defense matters. With respect to DADT, however, it’s unclear to what extent his concerns reflect those of his colleagues. While Graham’s top ally in the chamber — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — has also moved the goalposts for DADT repeal, others have been more sympathetic to revising or overturning the law. That list includes Sens. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and even Jon Ensign (R-Nev.).
Get HuffPost Politics On Twitter and Facebook!
Subscribe to the HuffPost Hill newsletter!
Know something we don’t? E-mail us at huffpolitics@huffingtonpost.com
iReader
I agree, having had experience in combat, with gays.
Me
In my opinion, this issue is why Our President, lost. Narcissistic Entitlement. Gay male sex caused world wide death. Do the research.
Ron
Nuance, being gay does not mean sex, it means personality actualizations.
Reality is Reality. Compassion is compassion.
“be kind to people, but don’t expect them to be kind to you”
from one of Ernest Hemingway’s novels,
I can’t remember which.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), actually speaks in complete sentences, watch out Jon Boner!
YO
Nuance, in the above arguments, many senators will find many errors in recent actions by this forum
Socrates
Ron
It is revealing how quick Fox is to call for execution.
WW
Any volunteers, Fox guys, for executioner? How about you O’Riley?
WW
Martyrs get what they want, by definition.
In its original meaning, the word martyr, meaning witness, was used in the secular sphere as well as in the New Testament of the Bible.[1] The process of bearing witness was not intended to lead to the death of the witness, although it is known from ancient writers (e.g. Josephus) and from the New Testament that witnesses often died for their testimonies.
During the early Christian centuries, the term acquired the extended meaning of a believer who is called to witness for their religious belief, and on account of this witness, endures suffering and/or death. The term, in this later sense, entered the English language as a loanword. The death of a martyr or the value attributed to it is called martyrdom.
[edit]
from wiki
WW
O’Riley, how about you going to Haiti and geting a job putting the dead in graves: someone has to do it, to reduce spreading disease.
WW
The pay will not pay for the hurt of the men who do this work, or their families. But Fox guys don’t have to smell open toilets, see lovely kids dealing with death in the streets.
WW
So, a quick solution is execution, according to Fox
WW
Did I say that GW is afraid of horses? But not afraid of history.
Hey, O’Riley, did you ever notice how Picasso did strange things with art? Perhaps you think of yourself as an artist. Maybe thats why RB hired you?
WW
Sorry, typo, not RB, RM (Rupert Murdoch) don’t tell anyone, very scary.
WW
When one has the privilege of a mass forum, over public domain (our airwaves) one would hope that the gene for sociopath was a deterrent, not a requirement for hire.
WW
Strange Art, nobody hired Picasso, Fox owner hired O’Riley
They had picnics in the French revolution, at be headings
No control
Let them eat cake, we want cavciar. The GOP needs “God”, and slaves. Just 150 years ago people were proud of General Lee. The GOP want’s tax breaks for Henry, in return for nonstreet life for Jo, and family, the Unemployed.
Pathetic
Did you notice how ugly the US Senate’s minority leader’s ties are, just below his chin?
General Lee Proud
Get what you can
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war. However, in modern days, it means someone who is seized by a criminal abductor in order to compel another party such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government to act, or refrain from acting, in a particular way, often under threat of serious physical harm to the hostage(s) after expiration of an ultimatum.
A person or party which seize(s) (a) hostage(s) is/are known as (a) hostage-taker(s); if the hostages are present(ed) voluntarily, then the receiver is known rather as a host.
Lost the House
Slaves were aware that their kin would be treated harshly if their masters felt
threatened. The G.O.P has the same idea today. And use God, for justification. God, a useful tool.
Al Hostage
Pay ME or hurt your Kin, the Tax Deal.
Hostage
The best things in life are free.
Miles Davis
“So What – Jonh Coltrane and Miles Davis”
The best things in life are free.
Ella “Cry Me a River”
The last shall be first
Matthew 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Some music I suspect not heard boardrooms
Minor Swing – Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli
The Huff Post has no leadership, in my view
Wrong
The Huff Post has only anger to sell, not ideas for real action.
KN
I have watched Richard Holbrooke for decades. I avoided news for days, knowing that I would cry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holbrooke
VS
When I was 16, a hint of nipple though dress was exquisite. When I was 18 a lovely warm voice was all it took. I discovered sexuality which has nothing to do with sex. I love women. Thats just me.
Not Sad
Jo McCarthy was very popular
VS
Jo McCarthy was a US. Republican senator, just like John Boehner
VS real sad
Many people had reason to cry in Jo McCarthy’s days, but not about playing golf with rich guys.
VS
Paul Krugman, shave that beard, I want more people to love you!
Don’t itch
On a serious note, priests teach children that God is real.
A good topic for the US supreme court to argue: Child Abuse or Not?
VS
When Sara Palm killed a deer, she said “Wa Hoo” . When a native American brave killed a deer, he said a prayer.
VS
“Threshold of shame”
read Socrates
DI
It is instructive to listen to John McLains comments on DADT today on the floor of the the US Senate. Instructive in the sense that his grammatic usage was very poor. No complete sentences. I give him an F for English 101.
P
FOX NEWS and History
Mein Kampf (English: My Struggle) is a book written by Austrian Nazi politician Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler’s political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926.[1] The book was edited by the former Hieronymite friar Bernhard Stempfle who later perished during the Night of the Long Knives.[2][3][4]
Hitler began the dictation of the book while imprisoned for what he considered to be “political crimes” after his failed Putsch in Munich in November 1923. Though Hitler received many visitors earlier on, he soon devoted himself entirely to the book. As he continued, Hitler realized that it would have to be a two-volume work, with the first volume scheduled for release in early 1925. The prison governor of Landsberg noted at the time that “he [Hitler] hopes the book will run into many editions, thus enabling him to fulfill his financial obligations and to defray the expenses incurred at the time of his trial.”
Fox Money Makers
wiki
“He knows when you are naughty, and tells all, too everyone. Don’t fart in bed, all is very tight to live now.
Hero
Fresh Water
Treatment
Cholera patient being treated by medical staff in 1992.
[edit]Fluids
In most cases, cholera can be successfully treated with oral rehydration therapy (ORT), which is highly effective, safe, and simple to administer.[4] Rice-based solutions are preferred to glucose-based ones due to greater efficacy.[4] In severe cases with significant dehydration, intravenous rehydration may be necessary. Ringer’s lactate is the preferred solution.[1] Large volumes and continued replacement until diarrhea has subsided may be needed.[1] Ten percent of a person’s body weight in fluid may need to be given in the first two to four hours.[1]
If commercially produced oral rehydration solutions are too expensive or difficult to obtain, solutions can be made. One such recipe calls for 1 liter of boiled water, 1 teaspoon of salt, 8 teaspoons of sugar, and added mashed banana for potassium and to improve taste.[21]
Not on the GOP’s agenda
[edit]Electrolytes
Rich people prefer Russian caviar, but don’t complain about Chinese caviar, grown northern China. A small percentage of cash on hand.
GOP
There are a lot of defense arguments in legal cases about “who is the victim”
This word “Victim” is a very complicated word.
For people who have lots of time to spare, a thirst great literature, I suggest
Saul Bellow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Victim_(novel)
The sun also rises (I’m a thief)
Leaving our children with a huge debt.
Hundreds of thousands dead, in wars. People have memories.
Sad
Deciding what to do is hard. I drank until I was 40, and my family encouraged me to think I was special, and so I listened to the philosopher who said “you can not know what you do not know” and got Religion. I may not speak in terms of reality, no one can, but I am totally convinced that I am wright. I had a nightmare that hundreds of thousands of people died in a war, caused by faulty thinking. But Mr Walter Board, business man, said Don’t worry, Fox Guys are making tons of money, and these people have strange religions any way. So I wrote a memoir, and feel no guilt.
GG
General Lee was a proud man, and of coarse insane. Just like Slobodan Milošević
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slobodan_Milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87
Republican Guys
The Bluff. My take. End all military exercises, and announce targeted Reconnaissance of wartalkers.
Hide and Seek
Coal mine owners court House Leaders, and Caviar salesmen.
Out of mind, out of sight.
Imagine you and a Kid. You say “God wants you to go to heaven”. No shame?
GOP
It is a common fact that Priests sexually abuse kids. Not so clear is that priests steal their minds.
That is so sad.
Of course you (one) can only choose among available choices. If it’s not there, how can you choose it? This is why Fox does what it does. And now have the US Supreme Court on its payroll.
No Shame
I have to admit that Russian women are lovely. Perhaps this is because Russia has a history mass extinctions.
Caviar rules
In Moscow, nukes and oil put them at the table.
Sad
No wonder that Iran wants nukes.
Sad
Does the repeal of DADT mean that anal and oral sex is OK? HIV is real.
CM
Paleontology, my favorite reading subject. That and Darwin science. Nowhere in the animal kingdom, has HIV been so deadly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleontology
Be Real, male gay sex sucks
CM
The death toll from AIDS, HIV, is in the millions. The death toll on 9-11 was 3000. Perhaps Julian has a point.
CM
Wall Street guys profit from the sale of drugs, given that there are “billions” of people in the market place. Big Brother likes HIV.
FOX news
Sadly, HIV can be transmitted to children in child birth. This topic is rarely discussed on our national news.
CM
Sadly, slavery, forced prostitution, and the spread of HIV, in the Congo, India, Thailand, has never been discussed on Opra’s show. I did a search, thanks to Google (my gOD).
CM
Before AIDs, anal and oral male sex was just disgusting, now they (male gays) have killed millions of people. Obama is wrong.
Very Sad
Nice poetry, clever garments, lovely music, paintings, just not justify poor health choices.
CM
Rachel Maddow, who I love, is not old enough to sit at the side of her father while he dies. I did.
Sad
Although I am a atheist, this does not mean I am not aware cave men (women) painted lovely art. Men are prone to strong sexual urges. In the religious texts male male sex was forbidden. Now have HIV, There is no excuse for deviant sex. Laws are designed to best deal against anarchy. Not perfect. Education is the answer, in my opinion.
Some facts, from serious people.
Click to access FastFacts-MSM-FINAL508COMP.pdf
CM
CM
It is a common myth that Native Americans killed animals for meat. Not true. They killed them for warm clothing, bones, shoes, and meat.
HS
Sara Palm kills to make money.
Sad
Vegies, grains, herbs, legumes. Common diet today in Hindi cultures. They are very healthy people.
Where is the Beef?
HS
I watched John Wayne movies when kid, landed in DaNang in 19xx, and saw that napalm bombs filled several acres, on my base.
I live with this today, in nightmares.
Me
The death toll today, from HIV, is quit high. Why does CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, the White House not cover this? 30 people in Pakistan. Big deal.
Mathematics
The war against against HIV is as simple as all national leaders saying “stop it”. OF COURSE I MEAN MALE GAY SEX.
HS
Jon Boners
Disgusting
Leader John Boehner
Unbelievers will go hell
GASP
It’s actually a nice and helpful piece of info. I’m glad that you shared this useful info with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
Anybody can find and hold up an example of someone whose publicly stated thinking appears irrational or even insane when viewed from another point of view. And often our ideas can be viewed as equally insane by the others.
There are three broad categories of consistency that are required: consistency with ones own thinking, which is necessary not to be insane, but which is not sufficient not to appear insane to others; consistency with empirical observation, which is necessary to seem in touch with the world, but not sufficient to appear crazy to others; and consistency with the views and opinions of others. Those with this last consistency are merely following the crowd, wherever that leads. Unfortunately those who follow crowds often think it insane to do otherwise. Thus it is here reading a piece written by one follow the atheist rationalist crowd raising objections to some rantings of a different crowd which, in turn, do the same to rational secularists.
Madness is extreme freedom of mind; insanity is inability to discriminate and discern; religion is another beast entirely, neither the cause of nor result of either madness or insanity,but is a natural consequence of our social nature.
whoah this weblog is excellent i like reading your articles.
Stay up the good work! You know, a lot of persons are looking
round for this information, you can help them greatly.
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your blog.
It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for
me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to
create your theme? Exceptional work!