Now that everybody in the USA, from the janitors in their man-caves to the president addressing congress, has declared the "recession" over, is exactly the moment when what's left of the so-called economy is most likely to implode. If there were still shoeshine boys on Wall Street, they'd be starting their own hedge funds now, and CNBC's Larry Kudlow would be toasting them in the Grill Room of The Four Seasons. What we've seen in the vaunted rally for the last six months is the triumph of wishing over facts, combined with the most arrant market manipulation by floundering banks backstopped by a panicked government -- all pounding sand down a rat-hole of hopeless non-performing debt, while pretending that the machinery of capital finance still grinds on.
Despite what a few elderly Mr. Naturals may say about abolishing "capitalism," we're not going to have an advanced economy without a coherent banking system, and by advanced economy I mean one in which the lights stay on. By coherent I mean a system that is able to deploy accumulated wealth for productive purposes, in the service of continuing civilization. (And, yes, I know that the followers of Daniel Quinn are not so sure that civilization is worth the trouble, but unless you support the killing-off of about six billion humans right away, things on Earth are not favorably disposed just now for a return to hunting-and-gathering.)
I would hasten to cut through the fog of despair to reassert -- for the thousandth time -- that a true American perestroika is possible, if the public could overcome the plague of cognitive dissonance sweeping the land and form a consensus for action that comports with reality's agenda. But that is looking less and less likely. Instead, what we see is a rush into delusion, seasoned with grievance and gall. Spectacles like last weekend's march on Washington don't happen for no reason, of course. From where I sit, the uproar can be attributed to comprehensively bad American leadership, a crisis in authority and legitimacy that has left a functional vacuum in every executive office throughout the land -- from the White House to the state houses, to the lairs of the CEOs, to the towers of the deans and department chairs, to the glitzy sets of the nightly news deliverers, to the makeshift quarters of the NGO chiefs. In former times, clueless and impotent leaders stuck their heads in the sand. Nowadays, with pandemic narcissism abroad in the land, the heads are more usually inserted into the aperture that leads into the large bowel....
But I indulge in diverting objurgation when I should perhaps explain this American perestroika more clearly. The Russian word roughly translates to "restructuring." They flubbed it in 1989 because their system was too ossified and too far gone -- though history and circumstance eventually did it for them. A similar outcome is possible here, too, in which things just have to completely fall apart before emergent reorganization occurs. But you can be sure that if we allow this to happen, an awful lot of things will get smashed along the way, including lives, careers, families, property, and cherished institutions.
This monster we call the economy is not just an endless series of charts and graphs -- it's how we live, and that has to change, whether we like it or not. Now, it is obviously a huge problem that a majority of Americans don't like the idea. If they were true patriots, instead of overfed cowards and sado-masochists, they'd be inspired by the prospect. But something terrible has happened to our national character since the triumphal glow of World War Two wore off. I just hope that the Palinites and the myrmidons of Glen Beck don't destroy what's left of this country in a WWF-style "revolution." In the best societies, such idiots are marginalized by a kinder and sturdier consensus about justice. In America today, the center is not holding because there is no center.
American perestroika really boils down to this: we have to rescale the activities of daily life to a level consistent with the mandates of the future, especially the ones having to do with available energy and capital. We have to dismantle things that have no future and rebuild things that will allow daily life to function. We have to say goodbye to big box shopping and rebuild Main Street. More people will be needed to work in farming and fewer in tourism, public relations, gambling, and party planning. We have to make some basic useful products in this country again. We have to systematically decommission suburbia and reactivate our small towns and small cities. We have to prepare for the contraction of our large cities. We have to let the sun set on Happy Motoring and rebuild our trains, transit systems, harbors, and inland waterways. We have to reorganize schooling at a much more modest level. We have to close down most of the overseas military bases we're operating and conclude our wars in Asia. Mostly, we have to recover a national sense of common purpose and common decency. There is obviously a lot of work to do in the list above, which could translate into paychecks and careers -- but not if we direct all our resources into propping up the failing structures of yesterday.
The most dangerous illusion, of course, is a belief that we can return to a hyped up turbo debt "consumer" economy -- and perhaps the most disappointing thing about Barack Obama, is his incessant cheerleading for a "recovery" to what is already lost and unrecoverable. The man who ran for office on "change" doesn't really have the stomach for it. But, of course, events are in the driver's seat now, not personalities, even charming ones. I'd venture to say that if Mr. Obama thinks he's seen a crisis, and gotten through it, then he ain't seen nothin' yet. We are for sure not returning to the kind of credit orgy that made the last twenty years such a nauseating spectacle -- of which, by the way, the misfeasances and wretched excesses of Wall Street were just one manifestation.
Some theorists out there say that economy follows mood, not vice-versa, and that the anger and sourness on display around the USA, in events like the weekend Washington march, is a clear sign that tectonic shifts in the structures of everyday life are sure to follow. There are too many truly good and intelligent people in this country, to leave our fate to the Palins and the Glen Becks. But the good people had better man up and start telling the truth with some conviction that the truth matters.
Read about Goldman Sachs as the blower of bubbles to steal your money:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29127316/the_great_american_bubble_machine
The mass delusional disorder that plagues the US citizenry is operating full bore. Most everyone thinks that housing will be back to "normal" by late fall, that the stock market is headed back to the 14k region, and that the banks will be all just fine in a few months. People believe this with surprising conviction. In fact, they become angry if the assumption of the resumption of "normality" is questioned at all.
When a psychotic person is confronted with information that directly and definitively squashes their delusion, then they often react with a "psychotic break," becoming disorganized and sometimes violent. That's what we are about to see on a national basis. It should be interesting to say the least.
Wardoc
Today Obama will address Wall Street and shake his finger and scold them for over leveraging themselves and producing questionable mortgaged backed securities, extortion, general corruption and fraud; all the things that helped get us into this mess. He will say 'you guys had better not do this again.' He will announce several minor and ineffective measures to stop a future crisis, all designed to make us feel better about the financial world.
Instead of making a bunch of dumb announcements, what Obama should do is place the whole room of Wall Streeter's immediately under arrest for looting this country. How about some law and order Mr. Obama? When are you going to start prosecuting the whole real estate people, corrupt builders, extorting investment bankers, useless ratings agencies, the Federal Reserve all for starting this mess, encouraging it, and worst of all profiting from it?
No matter what your political persuasion, we should be encouraged by the recent march on Washington. It shows that the "people" still have some fire in their bellies and won't always just roll over and do what the banksters/politicos want.
All of what you say makes sense in light of peak oil and just the sheer unsustainability of a system with $40+ trillion in looming and unfunded liabilities (social security / Medicare / Medicaid / federal pensions) that presumes upon the continued enthusiastic largesse of overseas US Treasury Security purchasers.
Anyone who believes that the happy horseshit make-believe cycle of "the world sends us stuff / we send the world I.O.U.'s" can last indefinitely is delusional or at least truly ignorant.
Nevertheless,just as no empire ever willingly gave up power, no people will ever willingly sacrifice what they believe to be their ordained way of life -- it is tragic perhaps, but it is almost too much to ask otherwise. Humans are just not wired that way -- look at the Norse in Greenland -- despite every indication that the cooling climate was rendering their pastoral agricultural society unsustainable, they simply could not view themselves as anything other than European farmers -- at a basic existential level they could not accept abandoning their turf houses and sheep for a life of hunting seals. And they are only one example.
The loon who lost in VA's last governor's race, Jim "Happy" Gilmore, had signs that read "Drill Here! Drill Now!" Our current democrat cannot run for a second term, and he's done precious little on energy issues.
Rural VA's Nascar Morons (thanks for that term, Jim) will probably blame the Dems for the recession, and that leaves the field clear for the next GOP loon, a devotee of Pat Robertson who wants to...you got it.."Drill Here! Drill Now!"
We need more Americans like Robert Hirsch out there...but the Glenn Becks instead are winning the war of words and perceptions.
Thanks for the Monday morning "wake up call", JHK! My neighbors are beginning to think something might be wrong!
It all comes down to some of what you've said in the past Jim; the whole "we'll keep doing what we're doing until we can't" bit and the notion of continuing to try to prop up the infrastructure of what we've already got even if it has outlived its usefulness rather than abandon it to forge something new. We are still in those modes and I'm not sure what has to happen to extract us from them- perhaps collapse of a sort?
Meanwhile the babble on the "jobless-recovery" continues and I'm not sure when Americans will realize that the Emperor indeed has no clothes....
Speaking truth to the media gets you banned.
The cowards and shills at my local paper considered factual refutations of liars to be too controversial.
~Ruff
Jimbo, I swear you type with a thesaurus on your lap. Sent me to the dictionary more than a time or two on this one. I call it my Monday morning word-building exercise. Anyhow, good post as usual, and it got me to thinking about two events here in town on the same day this weekend. One was Obama's visit to the Target Center, a visit to friendly territory to cheerlead on behalf of his health care plan. The other was the grand opening of the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium (yes, we're even naming college stadiums after banks now), the first new stadium for a Big Ten school since 1960. What an extravaganza...biggest locker rooms of any college football stadium in the country, a huge electronic scoreboard that puts the new Yankee Stadium to shame, and on and on. It's obvious no one who had a part in design of this baby believes in "Small is Beautiful". I couldn't help but think what this extravaganza will be like in a few short decades as energy depletion kicks in. It is indeed ironic that some of the best alternative energy research in the country is happening at this university. As Jim has mentioned before in his posts, the ability of huge academic institutions to function in the future in is peril, even as significant research on alternatives to our current predicament goes on quietly behind their ivy-covered walls. Oh well, we've got that new stadium now to urge those "student-athletes" on. BTW, Gophers 20, Air Force 13.
Here in CT where I live it's business as usual for the "Happy Daze" people. Although the State's budget is in big trouble, we have an unemployment rate well over 8%, and the Fees and taxes on many things are going up, we are still in dream world. Despite stalled building projects and empty stores we in CT haven't been hit nearly as hard by this recession/depression as many other States have. And in my neighborhood folks are buying new cars, installing new swimming pools,hot tubs,etc, etc.totally oblivious to what's happened and what's gonna happen. It's not a return to "Happy daze", no sir! It's more like "Happy Daze" has never stopped. What a show this is gonna be when TSHTF. I've got my popcorn ready.
Lordy, lordy, lordy, another Monday, another rant. And a pretty good one - as rants go - maybe it rates a "7" on the top ten scale......
Problem is most people have a pretty good idea that something needs to be done, but they can't trust the government, any government to do it for them. That collection patriots, or nut-jobs that marched in Washington over the weekend are accidentally way ahead of the curve.
You see Jim, for all your insightful visionary comments - you continue to write about solutions that can never be - as long as current government machinery is controlled by short-term profiteers.
And these "lobbies" are not stupid, as you seen to suggest so often. And they will continue to go about their greedy little ways up until as you say - "the lights go out" for their particular enterprise.
And as you know so well, there's not a lot of hope that we could five or six billion people to "go off the grid." So "lobby-based-leadership" is in essence the Clusterfuck your column purports to expose.
Lordy, lordy, lordy whatever can we do? Well a starting point would be "calling out" public officials by detailing, excruciatingly accurate accounting(s) of their incredible avarice and corruption.
We need to be creating Internet American Idols out of the people who speak truth to power. And in doing so give the death-panel mobs something worth marching about.........
Claiming happy-motoring is dead - doesn't cut it.
Yes, excellent... Not exactly new, but should be understood by all. Here's another must read -- Taleb's recent testimony to congress:
http://democrats.science.house.gov/Media/file/Commdocs/hearings/2009/Oversight/10sep/Taleb_Testimony.pdf
(Think "Black Swan" if this name doesn't ring a bell)
can anyone out in kunstlerland tell us how our "government" really works? i.e., if money talks--and the dirtier the louder, is the real power in the few dirtiest hands? are there mongers pulling the puppet-with-the-pretty-face obama's strings and if so, who are they? am i way off base or is there truly a dark and dirty game that makes the italian and mexican mafias look like playground bullies?
Americans are overcome with self-centered contentedness with the status-quo and no evident conscience towards the suffering of those less fortunate in their midst.
I hear more passion on sports talk radio stations than on so called "talk or hate radio". What is someone in the US more likely to get seriously upset over, political disputes or sports championship outcomes?
It will take forced hunger and homelessness with no relief in sight before this changes. That's what it took to get our grandparents militant during the Great Depression. Then there will be riots and the lliquidation of tangible assets along with the deaths of those deemed on both sides of the dispute to be responsible for it.
The rest of the world will have to intervene in order to keep us from destroying ourselves and the rest of life on the [planet with our own WMD's and predatory economic practices.
Hello to all readers, in particular "Andrew".
"Wardoc" is one such, and he starts out saying, "Once a psychotic person hears something which conflicts with his delusion, ..." No, sir. Most ppl can deny that they are insane. Some can be pinned down on it pretty well, but that requires a third party to agree that the argument is being made in a courtroom, or we are standing in a nuthouse, or the person is in a straitjacket, something along those lines. The actual, non-prejudicial, and Kunstler-like way to say it is in COGNITIVE DISSONANCE, a thing you can look up on Wiki, that Kunstler uses today, and which is about ppl who believe two conflicting things.
The "other one", because I had two, that is, I already came to the comment section here with 'cognitive dissonance', was the TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS, the problem of having good come out of it personally, and bad for everybody, and the example is a shepherd who grazes one extra sheep in there with everyone's sheep.
Those two, the second from 1968, must be how Kunstler thinks. They are too close to his message. I thought he was psychic. I am a little ashamed. I was also wrong about LE. She was fd stuffed in the attic. I said she was a runaway bride. I also lost a ring at the beach. I could not divine its location, and the lifeguards said they did not have a metal detector.
Andrew, I abused you. As it turns out, I was "right"-but, how can a man be right when he treats others like dogshit he has to scrape off his shoe? And then, now, I've been reading this blog five years. There are no problems with it, but look at the tremendous problems described in it. I want to stay in the loop, and some guy comes along and probably pitied you and said for James Kunstler to start nailing ppl. Hey!
Anyway, I jumped the gun. I had to check the WSJ article itself to realize where the bullshit was. You can't be blamed (oh, this is rotten and you can). You do not know chemistry. The WSJ said "rare earths like Lanthanum, Scandium, and Yttrium," but, Sc and Y are not rare earths. They are like rare earths. On this flimsy pretext we are going after China? I do not think we have any business going after anybody, but that is going to require some "restructuring" in order to adjust the American attitude.
Of course, I am a fat target myself. Look at what I call my blog:
http://sbillinghurst.wordpress.com
HOW TO MAKE METHAMPHETAMINE
None of us are covering entropy today, but with "the tragedy of the commons" in the mix, it is almost moot. I wish Kunstler could force some scientists to defend their alt.fuels ideas. Not that they would win, but that they would lose the debate.
Rare earths is the kind of thing that only goes into a formula in trace amounts, as in superconductors. The SSC was cancelled, and yes, maglev trains would use it. I looked at a bus last week, and it is just a terrible loss of status to ride buses. Are you going to bus me? And a train is a bus; it is mass transit. And, the type of worker I am requires me to get up much to early to catch the first bus or train.
They (society) would always (and is, just check the subtext on Wardoc's "psychos"), insist upon removing 'rabble' to fill the jails. That is what it has done. Prisoners do not commit crimes as such. They are undesirables. That is in a source somewhere. a final source is Derrick Jensen. What I get from it is that you get nowhere trying to follow the rules. Kunstler could have predicted that about Obabma. He needn't act disappointed.
Finally, someone like Van Johnson, who had to quit the administration, merely succumbed to the influence of Internet, something Kunstler avoids like poison. And, all those journalists have tried to create a world which breaks down into journalist-created reality when it is actually scientist-created. Kunstler says "lede" last week. That's just because they can't pronounce lead since it is what typeface is made of.
If you have already made a bunch of money and kept most of it through the crash then you are fine and think the system will return to "normal"
If you have been struggling for the last 20 years to make a meager living you hope the system will change for the better.
I am in the latter group.
I was hoping for the public option health care reform to get traction. It is amazing to me that more people do not support it.. just an indication that the way something is spun makes all the difference in perception.
My first time to comment, though I am an avid long-time reader in Japan. I don't know how much longer Japan is going to be able to prop up its ailing friend by buying US treasuries, but once they fail to, there are going to be big changes underway in America.
To make the budget work the Japanese government "accidentally" shredded a lot of its workers' pension premium payment records. The Japanese have been awfully stoical in the face of this and there is an unacknowledged but widely felt realization that the current system is unsustainable. Unhappiness with the current course manifested recently in the ouster of the Liberal Democratic Party from power which it held for most of the last fifty years. I think it would be fair to say, however, that the CIA or other powerful American interests dominate a lot of things in Japan, such as the press, and we have the sense that Japan will be forced into bankruptcy prior to America's collapse. It will be interesting to see how they adapt. You suggested some time back that they would likely shrug off western ties and revert to feudalism. That would be lucky for them. It is hard for me to gauge their degree of awareness of the situation, because such unpleasant topics are taboo here, but they strike me as having far too much faith in a technological solution that will allow them to live luxurious lives as they have even in a recession that has dragged on for nearly twenty years. They have lost self-sufficiency in food production. However, they do have certain advantages. They are more likely to create a consensus in a crisis, drawing on rich traditions and Eastern philosphy. There is a lot of arable land that has gone to waste that can be put back into productive use again (with a lot of work). They do not lack for water. They have a large group of elderly citizens who remember very hard times and how to get by in them. And so far they have not really gotten as fat as Americans, although they are working on it and have a huge number of diabetics to show for it.
"There are too many truly good and intelligent people in this country, to leave our fate to the Palins and the Glen Becks. But the good people had better man up and start telling the truth with some conviction that the truth matters."
WTF??? The good people had better, "start telling the truth?" What do you think Beck has been doing? He is exposing the corruption (on both sides of the aisle, I might add) and how current spending is completely divorced from the realities that the fucking cupboard is fucking bare. What fucking "truth" are you seeking?
You know, it's finally hit me....after reading your blog for a few years now, there's only one thing that's really consistent through it all: how wrong you are. I can't count how many "Dow predicitons" and "predictions of mass anarchy" and "Predictions of wall street CEOs being burned at the stake" and all the other gloom and doom bullshit you write to keep people reading.
You're full of shit, Jim. Completely.
And this whole "Change" argument with Barack Obama is going to go down as one of the largest misnomers in history. Between the influence of lobbyists watering down any attempts at redistributive policies to the genius of the markets in finding ways to work around any new regulations or taxes to the simple axiomatic math that in good times and bad, capital creates more capital and those without it stagnate or sink, there's going to be very little "Change." Just a great big reset. We've shifted from a time of "hyper-capitalism" to a time of "hyper-consolidation." With the new regulatory environment and lack of appetite for leverage, the elements that would have crafted deals with up-front cash-outs will shift to a buy and hold posture, gobbling all sorts of assets and businesses with any eye toward huge longer term margins from inevitable, eventual appreciation. Sounds prudent, right? It is. It's also a recipe for a prolonged economic malaise and wicked wealth disparity. When the price of assets, from real estate to securities to businesses themselves, falls so far that the private money waiting in the wings thinks it can't lose and starts buying en masse at vulture discounts the Democrats are going to find themselves presiding over the biggest consolidation of wealth among the top 5% of the population in history. A full on retrenchment of society into a two caste system - lifetime creditors and lifetime debtors.
Another thing that isn't going to change: gloom and doom reporters playing the same fear card they chastised Rumsfeld for using on a regular basis in order to keep their audience. I.e. YOU!
WHat's the matter, anyway buddy? Wall STreet Journal never hired you, huh?
Oh, that nasty Glenn Beck!! Telling the truth again on us! Loved that David Gergen tape explaining how that lovely fella Van Jones was really screwed by the Republicans that he called A+++++holes! If you are a Democrat, you fear the truth, obviously. Anything to show the truth you are not interested in.
We are tremendously polarized these days, more so than I've ever seen in my 66 years. But, as a non-believer in the Obama horseshit administration, I've made it my task to point out little discrepancies I see from time to time, just my gift to you who voted for this narcissistic charlatan. Hell, if Van Jones is a choirboy, Hitler was just your typical paperhanger.
It's going to get wild in this country before it gets better. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz says our economy is in very, very dire straits. The media says we be doin' real great now, the recession is over. My ass.. if Democrats are so bullish on Obama, why are they issuing free passes to the media? I see no particular rage against the media, is what they are doing just peachy keen?
You would never know it in New Castle County, Delaware, and I'm trying to make sense of it all. I just attended a DOT 6-year transportation planning meeting, and one huge display board showed approved, pending, and existing housing developments. What little space there was NOT subdivided for something was set aside for big box, malls, etc.
With few exceptions, all our farms and fields will be gone within the next 20 years, and most of the county (and much of the state for that matter) will be an asphalt jungle with little or no local crop production. The idea of this meeting was public comments on how best to address transportation needs. About the only positive was some bike/ped facilities in areas south of the C&D Canal.
I go on hoping Jim is right, but at least here, it's business as usual, our quality of life being sold to the highest bidder.
Nice writing, Slapstick. Jim has been as right and wrong as any and all of us, Slap. We have all had our ups and downs, where we looked great and where we stunk up the joint.
We come in all shapes and sizes. Some of us are firebrands, others are milquetoasts who think green algae is the highest life form on the planet. In this age of enormous polarization, I find it discouraging to note that some folks can look at our situation and not utter "fuck" at least 74 times. If you can't be polarized, you can only be ambivalent about things. Laissez faire, or just plain lazy. It's the prerogative of all writers to present things in a manner that depicts the nature of their personality and perspective. If David Gergen can say Van Jones got screwed by the A++hole republicans, I can say water runs uphill.
These are vicious times, I want to see some goddam snarling incisors right quick. I live to see Jim absolutely lose it....I want to see Jim lose it. I want to see everybody lose it, too. Obama inspires either fanaticism or total hatred. I think we all need to take a deep breath and vent. Yeah, we don't have the votes to quell the House and Senate from voting in some health care bill, but 2010 is coming soon and we can vote some of these fucking career politicians out, out, out. Lifetime fucking political careers at our expense. Contempt shoved up our butts. Power kingdoms that result from these squatters being around so long, making so many dirty deals, at our expense.
Time to fucking rumble,guys and gals
The economy is dying at its own pace and everyone should expect that the decline will be interrupted by brief periods of optimism, however misplaced, and that in some cases these might represent market manipulations and propaganda.
Gold is over $1000 an ounce and the US dollar is declining. The writing is on the walls for the US economy.
Peak Oil hasn't manifested itself and there is a horse race between civilization's collapse and Peak Oil that I suppose will be won by civilization's collapse, rendering Peak Oil nothing more than a footnote in history (assuming that anyone will be writing history centuries from now).
Climate change is the real world-changer. Whereas civilization's collapse will significantly reduce humankind's domination over the planet, climate change will deliver the knock-out blow which will guarantee that the human way of life won't continue any longer.
Extinction is forever.
As for myself, the living world remains beautiful and this world will keep on living long after humankind is gone:
http://www.flickr.com/dmathew1
Nature is in control. The future will take care of itself.
"... the living world remains beautiful and this world will keep on living long after humankind is gone..."
How the fuck can you say this when there will be no humans to verify your claim? Try and get out a buy a snow cone or something Davey. What a fucking broken record, record, record, record, record...
The best way to understand the phenomenon of guys like Rush, Olbermann and Beck is to keep in mind the Latin phrase “sui bono” --who benefits? These unfortunate screamers have recognized that rationality and careful analysis is just “sooo boring” in the media age. So scream....scream about anything, look like your head will explode, make shit up.....it will always get an audience of impressionable folks to boost your ratings and buy your books. Not so different from JHK in a way, is it?
Slap happy, that is...obviously written by someone who has only ever dealt in matters of skim while shuffling the money of the day and never involved in the creation of wealth. There are millions of you out there........some self-describe liberals with education and credentials, and some hardened conservative bootstrap tuggers who have got this market and banking thing "figured out"........who move through life unconsciously beleiving that money stands for something on it's own and will ocntinue to indefinitely. The degree to which the deriviates have been leveraged was an evolutionary function, not so arbitrary as some would be saying as they scream for heads to roll, after the fact. It moved to the point, or better, the factor that it needed to move to keep the goose full, the methane from her poop and not her golden eggs being the gas for the bubble.
What will those 5% do with all of those bargain basement assets? How will they profit off of them when they obviuously weren't profitable or they wouldn't have been available, discounted or no. What would those in the 95% borrow for to become enslved debtors? We'll become feral long before we attain the point that you presume.
People would be best advised to be cultivating any relationships that they may have with acquaintances and family that could create mutual beneifits in. There are probably enough beds in the country for everybody...just gotta get the living together thing ironed out.
Energy consumption has dropped off considerably. Some to be credited to a cooler summer across most of North America...but more to less chasing around, and at lesser distances when doing so. Which, while depressing economies of waste, validates a more desirable model.
Jim: Good article, as usual. However, I agree with some of the gist of other posters -- we need to be crystal clear about the well-oiled machine undermining our demise: the incestuous political-financial-industrial cabal, writing laws and funding itself through an infinite loop, an elaborate and unproductive industrial-level scam. And just suggesting this puts me in the marginalized crackpot camp, thus perpetuating the deception.
Delusion is hard enough to deal with, and we must. But, when it's methodically encouraged and reinforced by every "legitimate" system around, very few have a chance! I touched on some of the big players, etc., in some of my comments last week.
You really want to help? Honestly?* Then use your soapbox to clearly highlight the thoroughly corrupt players looting the most, exactly how they are doing it, who is really paying the costs & what these costs are, plus options for unraveling this twisted mess and the consequences (pro/con) of each option.
This is a tall order, yes! But, if even marginally successful, better than the bloody alternative we're rapidly approaching, on a ballistic trajectory.
*I volunteer to help if you're interested...
I used to be a repair tech for robotic assembly machines for a long time, and I developed a theory about fixing things:
Sometimes you have to just have to smash it first.
Starting with a heap of 'band aids' is a recipe for failure.
I think the same thing is going to happen with our current form of world society.
People are in such strong denial and/or fear of change, that they are going crazy. The Republicans are just SO bummed out about losing the last series of elections at every level that they just want to have a temper tantrum about everything. The Democrats are hoping that they can keep everything from crashing down for a while longer. No one really wants to change anything. The wealthy don't give a shit who's in charge - they own them both. You WILL pay, rest assured.
Until we get a French style revolution, where the fuckers loose their heads, nothing really will change. I'm not really looking forward to that, but living with this broken mess sucks, too. Time to smash it!
Some of the posters here are blogging from prison.
Would you please state your crime, how long you're in for, and how often you have access to the computer.
Did you READ the Rolling Stone artical???? It details the dirty tricks WS is playing on You and your children, stealing from pension plans (CALPERS??) and cities.
Want your country back? JHK said it last week. I'll say it this week. No one in elected office accepts anything from anybody other than a vote.
Since Corporations can't vote, we get our country and our leadership back.
Public financed elections now. I believe most politicians would appreciate not having to sell their souls to the highest bidder.
The orange suit jail house shuffle to those who don't play.
made money, kept it thru crash
vs
struggled 20 yrs for meager living
It is not so simple. In the cognitive dissonance, which is just mental, the first group has the cg of being unable to incorporate new knowledge into their scheme. The newer type of knowledge must then increase until it beats down the old knowledge, if you want to know how ppl's prejudice finally kills them, and not just other ppl.
Over the past five years, even with Kunstler's warnings, I made every mistake possible. It amazes me. There was never a system chugging along. It was a bubble which then burst. To ride that thing was to have the net result indistinguishable from being among the working poor, however, you do not actually default on your mortgage or get your car repossessed and return to poverty. As soon as no one can deny he has money, he has a kid. A child does not go back where it came.
I could offer examples of other ppl, but to see first-hand the looming sacrifice of America's future generations is quite compelling. It even amuses me. Now I see how one little shrapnel wound at the wrong time can cost you your life.
The health care system is so egotistical that it is mind-boggling. It boasts about how many diseases it can cure, forgetting that the prospect of millions of ppl terminated is nothing for them to be proud of. Maybe that's what Obama was getting at. But, I shudder to hear the tenor and tone of the oppopstion's comments. And, notice, those ppl were not the ones who should be marching on Washington. Those were conservatives.
I'd really like to know what the plan is for civil disturbance; not stopping it.
If we were still White America, with Blacks sequestered in the deep South, we might have a chance at peaceful transition. But the Blacks are everywhere, along with the Hispanics. We have then three nations in one-not a viable condition in any case. Add to that countless other smaller minorities and the hatred of Liberals against traditional America and you have a recipe for madness, chaos, and disaster. Glen Beck and the Tea Party people are the only thing that could possibly save America as it stands-for a few months maybe. But for what-just more of the same? Affirmative Action? Spectator Sport addiction? No, America doesn't deserve to survive as it stands. Mr Kunstler is right in that these people have no real vision of the future. He's wrong when he asserts that they are bad people or just barbarians. True Conservatives want to preserve the good that was-that's not wrong just incomplete. The Liberal vision of America's past is one of hate and their vision of the future is a nightmare of minority triumph. No the conservatives are at least half right and therefore superior. But they can't imagine an America radically different so they cannot lead us now. We have no leaders so save yourself and your family. Get out of the cities and prepare for the worst with like minded people.
It seems to me that in spite of how much some of us would like a planned and orderly restructuring of our society, the unthinking masses will not allow that to happen.
Right now in our mostly rural area of Ontario, the sheeple are frantically fighting provincial level planning efforts to avoid paving over our farmland. They WANT to build surburbia in our cornfields and are furious at "Big Brother" for telling them it's a dumb idea and they can't do it. Cries of creeping socialism can be heard among the rolling hills and they are angry.
Imagine how angry they would be if we tell them the truth and what it will take for us to save ourselves. One poster talked about how psychotics often suffer meltdowns when confronted with the truth, our sheeple are no different.
No, the marchers in Washington are not a hopeful sign - just wait til they're coming after us!
WS "Wall Street"
WS "William Shakespeare"
Is there a connection?
Well, in order to read JHK's blog today, you get a set of definitions, and in those definitions other definitions are hyperlinked, and to follow those out we wonder, fuck, is this going to mushroom forever? Why am I stupid?
What did I start out saying?
Okay. It is EPONOMOUS, to have things named after ppl, so, say about the ants of the myrmidons.
Okay, here. I will put this here. Now in my collection there is room to add perestroika, esp. the part STROI. I already had DESTROY. I use that word so much (JHK uses "smash" today, I had SMASHMOUTH; I like that), but ppl will tune out if you say that all they do is destroy. I should say that she burns through money like there's no tomorrow. Spending money, is that destruction?
There is DECONSTRUCTION, reverse engineering, but there is no DECONDESTRUCTION. There is CONUNDRUM, when you see a girl who is too young to fuck, but what is it when you see a dude with long hair, from the back, until he turns around and you see it's a dude? I mean, you got a little horny there for a second?
There is DECONDOLEEZA Rice. What's the worst you could say? That she looks like an angry Yorkshire Terrier?
Didn't Obama give her a job?
Nothing will change until people get really hungry and figure out that voting is how you change things. I respect Glen Beck. At least he is putting his ass on the line and standing for something. If I could've been in DC, I would have. I am not a rep or dem, just a guy who wants his government to stop spending so much money. I would like to see them operate a budget much as I do. When the money gets low you can't buy that item or in their case take care of EVERYBODY!
Why doesn't Mr. Kuntsler run for office? Maybe then we would see if the general public would embrace his idea(l)s
(spelling)
EPONYMOUS
I must have meant hippoponomous.
By some estimates, George Soros gave Obama half a billion in campaign contribtuions. Such funding is not free. He is basically an employee of Soros, Goldman Sachs (another very big contributor) and Sassoon. They are Jewish Zionists all. So what does this mean? That America is not the top priority-the Middle East is. In other words, don't expect the war in Asia to end. Israel wants Islam defanged and "America" is the golem to do it. If Obama plays ball, then maybe he'll get some of the things he wants-aid for Africa, amnesty for illegals, etc. Again, none of this is good for America. To be giving aid to other countries when we are broke is insane. As is fighting a war that has nothing to do with us. Another insane/criminal action is the continued import of 150,000 foreign workers into this country every month while millions of Amerians have lost their jobs.
Think outside the box. If this is really our country, why don't they solve the unemployment problem by kicking out the illegals? Answer: it's not our country anymore. The elite have no loyalty whatsoever to us. And therefore we owe them none either.
alan static said:
"Instead of making a bunch of dumb announcements, what Obama should do is place the whole room of Wall Streeter's immediately under arrest for looting this country. How about some law and order Mr. Obama?"
Problem is, we have something called "rule of law" in this country.
Rampant fraud by banks and the federal government is legal. You can't throw someone in prison if they have not broken the law.
Look at some of the frauds that are legal within our system:
1). A government-created banking cartel (the Federal Reserve) accountable to no one (it's wonderful "independence" whose sacrosanctness the politicians all lavish with praise) that creates faith-based counterfeit money known as US Dollars out of thin air in any amount it chooses to.
2). Banks operating under "fractional reserve" banking policies that allow the banks to manufacture "money" out of thin air at a multiple of the reserves they hold. (reserves which are themselves largely counterfeit assets)
3). Financial services companies that issue insurance policies (CDO's) on mortgage bonds on the assumption that it would be impossible that they would ever have to make good on them, and on which they have no legal obligation to maintain reserves to pay claims like normal insurance companies are required to.
the list goes on and on.
Now, if we had a free market financial system, and if the things that are going on right now were going on, then indeed all the politicians and bankers would be guilty of crimes that would allow for them to be locked up in prison.
But we don't have such a system. You can't retroactively throw people in prison for violating laws that you WISH were on the books.
By the way, in case it is unclear why all these crooked activities would be subject to criminal prosecution under a free market financial system:
The Libertarian economists who advocate a free-market economic system emphasize that under their philosophy, the government should have one and only one role and that is to prosecute fraud.
That is why under a free-market system, all the stuff the bankers and politicians are doing now would in fact be subject to criminal prosecution.
Consider the 1840's. After the financial meltdown of 1837, banks collapsed and credit dried up. The response, on the part of several thousand Americans, was to pull up stakes and resettle in (what today we would call) intentional communities.
These were places like the Shaker villages, Ceresco (in Wisconsin), Brook Farm (in Massachusetts), the United Order (Kirtland, Ohio), and the North American Phalanx in New Jersey. All in all there were probably close to a hundred. There, people tried to find an alternative to the rapidly industrializing, but financially vulnerable, big cities. One of the biggest backers of the new movement -- called "Associtionaism" -- was Horace Greeley.
When Mr. Kunstler calls for a re-invigoration of the small towns, he is right. When he says we need to re-localize and transition to a more sustainable economy, he hits the nail on the head. But, hey, some of us are already doing this! I've said it before, and at the risk of repeating myself, please do take a look at the COHOUSING and ECOVILLAGE movement in this country (www.cohousing.org).
I think you'll like what you see.
Warm regards,
Charles W. Nuckolls
Utah Valley Commons
-- a cohousing community --
www.utahvalleycommons.com
keep in mind the SPANISH? phrase “sui bono” --who benefits?
IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS?
well after the ACORN incident and the Van jones incident...both of which NBC/CBS didnt cover!!
I thought there were 2 big news stories last week
1..the conviction in Uk of the Uk born muslims who wanted to kill 1000+ in 7 airlanes on the same day
and the ACORN story..acorn being one of Obamas fav organizations...which NBC/CBS etc didnt bother with
from the web:
According to Fox news, "Kenya" told the two ACORN employees that she wanted to get help in securing housing, so that she could continue to run her prostitution business. Now, instead of telling "Kenya" that her plans were not only wrong, but illegal, these women began the process of helping her secure a house so she could run her brothel. Disguised as "Kenya," Hannah went on to tell the ACORN employees that she and her "pimp" wanted to bring over 13 illegal young girls from El Salvador that they planned on importing over to the U.S. so that they could work for "Kenya" as prostitutes.
According to Fox News, "An ACORN official told the couple how to falsify tax forms and seek illegal benefits for 13 'very young' girls from El Salvador that they said they wanted to import as prostitutes." Now, while Hannah and her male friend were playing a part and making up a story, they are heroes because the have further exposed an organization that should no longer be allowed to open its doors to the public. How could a group that is obviously performing illegal activities continue to receive funding from the government? Wake up Washington! You were elected to serve the people, but in not investigating ACORN, you are doing us a HUGE disservice! According to Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst, "Though no tax forms were filed and the child prostitutes didn't exist, the ACORN official engaged in 'numerous acts of criminal facilitation.'" You think? While the good news is that the two ACORN employees involved in this incident will most likely face charges, the bigger, underlying issue has to do with the way in which ACORN continues to be an open door for more criminal activity. How many more situations like the one above have existed? How many illegals has ACORN helped into this country? How many others have they helped with tax evasion? I agree with Glenn Beck when he discussed the serious implications that this mock event may have on America as a whole.
Napolitano went on to say in the filed Fox News story:
"Criminal facilitation occurs whenever a person encourages, enables, entices, or explains to another how to commit crimes with the real purpose of helping that person to commit those crimes" — a violation the ACORN employee 'committed in full.'"
Not only did these women clearly break the law, but they have given us even more proof of an organization that simply says it "just wants to help people." Yeah, I bet they do- they've just given a whole new meaning to the word "help." It is important to note that at least one good, brave congressman is speaking out on this issue. Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) said,
"Taxpayers should be outraged that their money has gone to an organization that, in addition to facing charges of voter fraud and tax violations, is willing to facilitate prostitution.... As this video confirms, ACORN continues to operate as a criminal enterprise."
The good congressman couldn't be more right. Instead of funding reputable organizations, our government continues to fund fringe groups, yes I said fringe groups. We, Americans, should be outraged that an organization that insists it wants to fight on the side of social justice is doing no such thing, which makes me wonder why we are continuing to find this corrupt organization? Why isn't our government ordering a full-on investigation of ACORN and all its business practices? Is Acorn the only fringe group that we funding, or are there other so-called community organizing groups that are also performing illegal activities?
You all need to watch the video! I couldn't believe what I was watching. Throughout the entire tape, you will see the ACORN workers tell "Kenya" and her "pimp" that their secret is safe with them, that they will help them find housing, and that the 13 illegal, underage girls will be brought over to the United States. According to the Fox News story, one of the ACORN employees, who identifies herself as an accountant said, regarding "Kenya" and her pimp's intentions,
"It's illegal. So I am not hearing this, I am not hearing this.... You talk too much. Don't give up no information you're not asked."
This made-up-story of sorts has made me question just who is looking out for me and you as well. If these two workers were so fast to help "Kenya" and her "pimp," just how much illegal activity have other employees gone to in their goal of "working for social justice and stronger communities"?
This group rakes in millions in federal grants each year (They could receive as much as $8.5 billion in stimulus money.), so WE as Americans have EVERY RIGHT to know what this business is doing behind closed doors, but instead of urging those to investigate this group, our commander in chief, a former community organizer, has not even issued a statement regarding ACORN and its practices. As a concerned citizen, this makes me wonder if a) does the president really care? And b) as a former community organizer himself, if he really doesn't care because he already knows this is REALLY what community organizing is about. I'm sorry, but unethical, illegal practices are not the criteria for enacting social justice. I guarantee the information that brave Hannah and her friend have uncovered is just the tip of the iceberg. As citizen journalists, it is up to us to find out the truth. The only media outlets reporting this story are Fox News, Glenn Beck, "The Weekly Standard," and a couple other conservative online news agencies. While the media are too busy mocking Sarah Palin or reporting on the congressman who yelled "you lie" at the president (Representative Joe Wilson was correct in his assessment by the way), they are blinded to the REAL NEWS. This should not surprise you one bit. The journalism of the Obama era is the most biased, corrupt, in-the-tank bunch of bumbling idiots I have ever seen in my 28 years on earth. The fair, honest, objective journalism I studied in college is dead. It is hard to think that, just a four years ago, when I was in college the honorable journalism I studied would be in extinction come the 2008 presidential election.
It is important to note that while "Kenya" and her "pimp (her cameraman)" didn't actually fill out tax forms with false information, the workers still performed illegal acts in giving them a plan to go about securing a house and bringing over the illegal, young girls. The two employees also collected a $50 fee, for services, which at least brings about a conspiracy charge, according to a defense attorney who spoke with Fox News. Perhaps the central issue should be if ACORN will finally be investigated for this unethical incident because, it is very possible that, this incident may lead to many other similar, incidents that have actually happened. Unless the government cuts off the funding to ACORN and investigates this organization, ACORN will continue its illegal practices, and whether we like it or not, we
A previous poster wrote:
"No, the marchers in Washington are not a hopeful sign - just wait til they're coming after us!"
Those people who went to Washington this past weekend are NOT the ones who will be coming after you. Obviously, you don't get it, but those are the people who are trying to HELP you. You should be helping them.
The people who will be coming after you are the ones who are becoming desparate. Jobless. Hungry. Homeless. Hopeless. And as their desparation deepens, your safety will likely dwindle.
Are you aware of what the T E A in TEA Party stands for? It is Taxed Enough Already. Who among you Kunstler readers don't think that you are Taxed Enough Already? If not, then, I suppose that you want to pay more taxes, right? Then you should learn more about it and consider supporting a group near you who IS trying to improve things for all of us.
Government run health care is NOT the answer. To improve health care and associated costs:
1 - Nationalize options by eliminating the state boundary limitations
2 - Eliminate denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions
3 - Enact meaningful tort reform
4 - Make all health care costs tax deductible
Very simple. But won't happen.
By the way, have you seen the video of the ACORN employees HELPNG the prostitute and her pimp who want to bring 13 UNDER AGE girls from San Salvador to use as prostitutes find a house to do it in? You can see it at the link below. It is right there. And these are the very people who also helped Obama get elected AND who are sent to disrupt the Tea Parties.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK3vmcA4hKc&feature=PlayList&p=150AEA2DA1995E4F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=22
Probably have to copy and paste the above link into your browser.
Good Luck to us all,
Cowboy
THANKS
and Obama supposedly call the demonstrations
'UNHEALTHY'
the power elites want submissive dumbed down taxpayers....eh dale?
acorn
Now, we know why Obama wanted control over census.. ACORN - U.S ...15 posts - 9 authors - Last post: Mar 19
ACORN to Play Role in 2010 Census The US Census Bureau is working with several national organizations to help recruit 1.4 million workers to ...
www.uspoliticsonline.com/.../52641-now-we-know-why-obama-wanted-control-over-census-acorn.html
and
census data
Obama is using ACORN to do census collection data for 2010, and now your kids too! Obama is also specifically targeting bilingual children for the obviously important Hispanic vote. More from USA today:
The White House is also joining with Sesame Street to help preschoolers evangelize about the Census to their parents.he government has launched Census in Schools, an all-out campaign targeting superintendents, principals, teachers, students and, indirectly, parents, as schools open across the nation this month and next. The message: The Census is coming and here’s why everyone should care. More from USA today:
The goal is to send posters, teaching guides, maps and lesson plans to every school in the nation, Puerto Rico and U.S. island territories to encourage everyone to participate in the national count. The materials will land in more than 118,000 schools and reach 56 million students.
“It’s great to reach the children because children are such strong voices in their homes,” says Renee Jefferson-Copeland, chief of the Census schools program. “In households that are linguistically isolated, they can express the information to their parents.”
Jaego, you and I probably have a lot to disagree about but I will say that you are absolutely right about Obama having sold us out. It looks like he is in cohoots with the Wall Street boys and is just a suave cheerleader for their ilk.
In addition, I agree that there is an elite cabal in charge of this country. I believe that Larry Flynt said it best by stating that the American government isn't controlled by corporations; the American government is corporations.
Heh Cowboy, I have to agree with you 100% that it won't be the Tea Party folks who will be coming after you and me. They may revolt against the state and federal governments but that's an entirely different thing.
Back in the 90's during the first night of the Los Angeles riots, my wife and kids were with me driving on the Harbor Freeway in downtown L.A. We got a chance to see whole neighborhoods in flames. It scared the bejeesus out of all of us. We finally got home and thought things were under control. Then the next afternoon, I got a chance to see a bunch of thugs break into a shoe store about a block from my house. Believe me, these guys weren't Tea Party people. They may well have been some of the estimated 100,000 gang members that inhabit Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Obama is becoming a laugh riot. Check out his latest routine at www.thenothingstore.com
Print out some money while you're there; it may soon be worth more than what's in your pocket.
Exxon Mobil named "Green Company of the Year" by Forbes!
http://www.suburbanempire.com
Daily postings about the sad state of our empire
James,
I've been reading your stuff for some time now, admire you, your insight, and opinion. This post kind of summarized it all quite nicely too and actually got me to comment here for the first time.
You see now that I'm wide awake and extracting myself from the clusterfuck itself I've been focused on answering one question:
So now what? I suspect the answer has two parts.
1. Take the country back by waking people up to making better choices and;
2. Make plans in case not enough people listen.
I'm no survivalist and I suspect you're not either but I'm dead certain you'd have some good things to say about next steps.
So now what James? ...or should I just read World Made By Hand? :-) I think I will anyway.
SEB, your post is time stamped 12:20 PM. I'm guessing, therefore, that at approximately 12:10 you smoked or snorted some really good shit. I'd love to get my hands on some. How can we work this out?
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
Let's dissect the statement you made that you are surprised more folks don't back the public option in health care. I am hoping you are not one to think the health care option is merely about health care. Are you? If so, I can see that you want the public health care option because you are not aware, purposefully or otherwise, of the multiple other facts and vicissitudes involved in this bear trap of a bill. Can you imagine turning over 16% of the American economy to a prick like Obama? Can you imagine the many other health related things Obama could control as a corollary to the original health care bill, like abortion, speed limits, diets, etc etc? Obama is about control. Controlling you, me, the country,everything. Oh, silly me, you think this America hating Prez would never, ever do such a thing, right? If so, you are in for some severe repercussions. What people are protesting these days is the control factor, not exclusively the health care public option. People just have horrible feelings toward letting this affirmative action racist take over the country. Stupid fucking idiots who watch nincompoops like Bill Maher and Letterman the Cretin probably love Obama and if you are one of these androids, you have my sympathy. Where's Sean Penn when you need him? How about the numbskull Oliver Stone? All America haters, just like the pseudo-Christian Obama.
More soap bubbles from the guy who owns all the Lawrence Welk re-runs. When will we all realize green pond slime is at the top of the real food chain?
My, my...all those NASCAR morons and teabag dickhead dupes pouring into Washington to demonstrate against Obama's creeping socialism. You have to wonder how they could afford to make the trip in these hard economic times when even a six-pack of Bud Light and a bag of Cheetos can put a strain on the family budget. Maybe that socialist SS check helped? Or the socialist unemployment benefits? And you also have to wonder how many are there only because socialist Medicare made it possible for them to get out of bed in the first place. And all the while the health insurance industry and the GOP were laughing their asses off at how easily the fools can be manipulated.
It's all about deficits and socialism, isn't it? No, it isn't. As far as that 99-percent white mob of storm troopers was concerned it was all about the outrage of having a nigger in the White House. That's their real gripe.
I really do not understand why anyone that advocates for change and progress gets labeled an "America Hater" by the far right. Our quest to create a more perfect Union is not over - not by a long shot.
Guys like you were screaming at the tops of their ignorant lungs when progressives fought for the abolition of slavery and for woman's suffrage. We, though, can not afford to accept the status quo. Guys like you fought us tooth and nail when we struggled to put a stop to child labor. Your ignorant bleating didn't stop us then either. Guys like you went nuts over our fight against Jim Crow, affirmative action, desegregation and red-lining. Guess what? we won.
Our nation will move forward with or without you and History will prove me correct. This leap forward may come with a bit of struggle but anything worth having is worth fighting for.
Watch, you'll see.
'BAHMI
'Oliver Stone? All America haters...'
Ollie went to Cuba with Yoko Ono to talk to his hero , the mass murderer , about making a movie of fidels life
On a very separate note today on Public radio the secretary of dept of energy spoke...and JK is right again..
Our energy use is = to having 100 servants each!
He didnt mention carter created the dept of energy to lessen our dependence on foriegn oil
30 years and 17000 employees later we are far more dependent on foriegn black gold!
So Nickel thrower id have to say im very un trusting of govt AND our govt is broke!..any comments?
solari.com
C. Fitts
she talks on radio shows regularly
someone asked her bout govt...she said ' it doesnt exist...obamas handing $/power to those who financed his election'
...SINCE SHE WORKED HIGH UP IN KING GEORGE 1 CABINET SHE SHOULD KNOW!
Beck....hes the Am guy who called Obama a rrr racist?
I looked at one of his books...at least he was warning about 'free' trade
for whatever reasons JHK dislikes palin/ nascar alot more than he does barak and Michelle!
rosebud
Orlov's latest
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/09/times-up.html
(hopefully not a duplicate...)
There are so many good ideas on this blog, from posters with radically different perspectives. Some seem "earnestly" interested in a solution short of genocide, while others are reminiscent of Bush -- "my answer is bring them on." Some are logically consistent, some are not.
Some can even find intersecting interests...
Yet most are responding as programmed -- so the curtain remains.
I say "NASCAR Moron," and deep inside someone the neurons fire, provoking a conditioned reflex (thoughtless), "you Socialist Pig." I say "Obama is disappointing" and someone who believes himself Democratic first, or even racially-tolerant-&-ethically-sensitive, joins the battle, blindly defending a politician without analyzing the context of the comment. Never mind all the prudish (or worse), but otherwise potentially reasonable citizens who will never engage here, warded off by all these fucking invocations of the fuck word; I mean, fuck, look at the name of this place!
Yes, I do have a point. There are always decisions/actions available to each one of us, until death removes that option. And every decision you make has a cost and consequences. Now I know there are a few who truly don't care about any life... but, for those who do, consider this thought...
The next decision you make should probably involve some actual conscious thinking, e.g...
Should I think, or just bark & drool like Pavlov's dog?
Who benefits the most when I just bark & drool?
Who taught me to bark & drool when I hear that fucking bell?
Maybe there are more important issues than that fucking bell?
Just because every other dog barks at the bell, should I?
Why isn't the bell-ringer eating dog biscuits, also?
I don't even like these damn dog biscuits... why eat them?
If the bell-ringer threw a genocide, would I be invited?
After you start thinking again, I've got some more. Good Luck.
Yes, quite a rant...but it's the same old, same old isn't it? Preaching to he choir, plucking the same string. We all KNOW this stuff by now...
Try Joe Bageant's awesome rant on overpopulation/climate change/peak oil here:
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/02/nine-billion-li.html
The folks who marched on Washington were the same types who cheered on Dubya when he spent his billions on his wars and laughed in the faces of the people who talked about paying off the deficits and the cost of the war. Heck, when Ann Coulter called for the self-abolition of the Democratic Party in 2004, they were cheering. Now these idiots are being called the best this nation has to offer? I don't buy it (That Includes You As Well, Kunstler).
This don't mean I'm slavishly behind Obama. He's been a disappointment from day one, and I do fear his final "attempt at health reform" will end up being worse than the status quo. That don't mean I have to give the Tea Party types a free pass when their blind hatred actually gets them a moment's correctness...after all, a broken clock is right twice a day.
And as for the so-called "ACORN" story: Don't you guys think the film may have been scripted? There's good reason the non-lobotomized call America's fourth network "Faux News." When ABC, CBS or NPR covers it during their news periods I'll pay attention, until then I'll give it (and those who talk about it...likely the same people saying there were no planes during 9/11) its proper ignorance.
Here's something the United States can be proud of--and presented in a way that's not dull or boring, too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVgOl3cETb4
And while I'm at it, here's another:
http://www.sickforprofit.com
"According to Fox news," ROTFLMAO!
JHK you are receeding from reality: reality is nonlinear, meaning that it often doesn't operate according to a clear cut cause and effect, it is random, contradictory, unpredictable because the number of forces and the play of forces are so contorted, unique, random, chaotic (as in chaos theory in physics) that it is useless to predict anything. Add in millions of human brains with their crappy "free will", meaning everyone chooses whatever they want no matter how absurd and illogical and you have essentially a reality that doesn't even really exist, is just a ghost in our minds, an imaginary model that we think reality follows where in truth it follows absolutely and totally no possible model at all.
Hence your "predictions" and those of any other person, no matter how smart or educated or no matter how many years they have studied, will always be contradicted and refuted by a reality that will never allow any mind to encompass it. Because reality isn't even there in the first place, it isn't even delimited. So the stock market keeps on going up, it can easily hit 20,000, equivalent to trillions of dollars of fake - imaginary money that pops into existence for no possible reason at all, except that a group of clowns playing the stock market casino think that all the companies and their "capitalizations" are now worth trillions of dollars more. Totally insane but true. Of course you can say that that money will never really do anything useful at all, will in no possible way improve society or solve any problems because the clowns that manage it don't know what to do with it. It is not that they will invest in thousands of simple BUSES to create a modern mass transit system, or invest in simple housing having cheap rents in the USA, EU and JAPAN, or in a simple social salary of 1,000 dollars a month to everyone just to keep the "consumer" economy running.
Maybe the technological singularity will occur, but not because technology has advanced to a point of computers smarter than man, but because scientists will start manipulating the neural circuits of brains and minds directly creating any reality possible, or simulating any possible reality, or designing any possible reality. By sticking wires in the ball of meat called the brain and pouring drugs in it, you can create anything imaginable. They don't even need to know what works or what doesn't just manipulate randomly, the sky is the limit, who knows what universes could appear.
Up until now the world has always been decoded by keeping the mind - brain as an invariant, the organization of the mind with its sense organs, memory system, emotional system and connections to the way information is organized in minds, etc. as a constant. By manipulating all this, or only by simulating other worlds and making the minds perceive them, you create completely different realities. Anyways the way evolution created us is always a simulation, a make believe world, always an arbitrary quirk of circuits and connections in the mind that give rise to reality. So by directly manipulating this we can create any reality, that is just as "real" (since real is undefined and there is no reference system with which to define or compare it to, except the pleasure - pain circuits, that are themselves completely and totally arbitrary)
as the one we percieve and have essentially invented.
Your post has some accurate facts but it is snide. According to Toynbee the empire is going down. I do suppose there were many Romans who didn't go completely bust around 300 AD but when Rome was sacked precious few ended up with anything. But on the ride down some probably still had a lot.
If there is anything wrong with JHK analysis, it is timing. It takes a long time for an empire to disintegrate and even tho things move faster now it will still take a lot of time.
The above could come straight out of Toynbee. It is the necessary and sufficient condition for an empire's ruin. And no one can say we haven't got it. Your analysis might be true, but we are now in a world economy. The Asians are in ascendancy and they will be calling the shots.
The mass delusion that JHK speaks of is hardly limited to the American public. Here in Canada, the Harper government has a large part of the body politic convinced that the "recession" is over and that Canadians can happily continue their drive-in civilization without any fear that the whole stinking edifice will one day collapse in a sea of bad debt and foreclosure. To make matters even worse, all of the Canadian government's $50 billion stimulus package has gone to "shovel-ready" road and highway projects while dearly needed improvements to Canada's mass transit and passenger rail services wait for another day. Maybe JHK is right and we are an evil people worthy only of being lied to and deceived by our leaders.
News flash.........the world population will hit 7 billion in 1 1/2 years and is growing at the rate of 220,000 every 24 hours.
Interesting comment and of course you're correct; the future is not and the chaotic randomness (redundant?) makes prediction impossible. The more I read this blog the less I'm inclined to comment. JHK does write very well but generally writes as though people will actually act. The recent past proves otherwise. Some noted economists (White for one) think we're headed for a W shaped recession with an L shape the best scenario. Here in Asia things have leveled out. We're probably going to precede the west (most notably America) in a recovery. It will not be a rapid recovery here, however. I am not optimistic the west (America) will correct it's corrupt financial system which begs the question; why don't people bail and relocate to healthier environs? There is probably no single answer to that question.
I love that. Violent and pshycotic on a national level. I can see Jim you have been outside the workforce for 2 long. The reason America is not rising up is that all the heroes have been squashed, crushed under the collective weight of I don't care how productive you are if we don't like you we'll fire you, it's not what it is it's what we say it is, if you're not one of us you can't lead we'll sabotage your efforts becasue only people like me shall succeed. Remember that movie where Nikita Kruschev was berating his command and asking "What do I have to do to make you stop sh*tting your pants. What is it that you need? " and from the back a small voice answer "Heroes. We need heroes. " We can't be heroes just for one day. It's one of the central tennants of my book. When as a society you evolve or devolve if you will to the point where your heroes chase little balls around and pretend to be someone they are not in front of a camera for the amusement of others, your society is ripe for destruction.
"And as for the so-called "ACORN" story: "
So-fucking-called?
"According to Fox news," ROTFLMAO!"
How about this, fucktard....The piece run on Fox regarding ACORN had nothing to do with "according to Fox." It was raw fucking footage with criminal activity being conducted on the part of Acorn employees. These employees were later fired by Acorn. Acorn later tried to mumble something about doctored tapes. They fired people for doctored tapes? You can ROTFLMAO all you like regarding Fox news but this story is not going away. It has only begun to break. You want to ROTFLMAO, you be my guest but you will look like a complete jackass in short order.
Acorn has lost access to the 2010 census due to widespread corruption and scandal. It wasn't just the videotape, but that may have been the straw that broke it. Guess Obama is going to try harder finding his army of Black Thugs. Eric Holder is holding up the investigation of the Black Panthers who terrorized White Voters. Fine, by me. Keep it coming boys. More and more Whites are waking up to the real situation in this country.
"More and more Whites are waking up to the real situation in this country."
Hey, simplefuck. It has nothing to do with Whites waking up. There is a whole rainbow of people, from both parties, who are involved in corrupt activities. Stay tuned, to see where this leads. Try not to weep when "Whites" are led away in handcuffs along with the rest of the bunch.
And just what are those factors of decay? Those deficits in National Character? Obviously feminism is a big one. White Women have aborted 40 million babies in the last fifty years. A whole generation. So we replace those people with aliens. Brilliant. Not even the Romans hated themselves that much. Even late in their history, they still love themsevles and had vicories against the barbarians. And remember, they lasted almost another thousand years in the East and even longer in the West as an ideal or aspiration. No-our descent will much quicker due to conscious sabotage as well as the incredible corruption.
The most dangerous environmet in the modern world is the mother's womb. Yet we feel superior and want to spread this evil culture. You yourself said we have to give up utopianism but in the next sentence implied support for the jihad against Islam. And had the gall to talk about "women and children".
You're just mad at me because you were wrong about Acorn. Whites are America. The Tea Party is in still denial about that. But as they continue to get called racists hopefully they will realize that it is about race. Blacks aren't interested in self sufficiency-that's a White ideal. They are interested in maintaining the status quo in which we slave away for them and they get all kinds of goodies and special treatmetn. Wake up Z.
"We have to dismantle things that have no future and rebuild things that will allow daily life to function."
Unfortunately, this is what we thought we were doing when we started gutting our railroads and minimizing our small towns. It was labeled 'progress' and the masses approved it. The masses still approve it. The inertia of the economy has slowed to a crawl the inertia of the 'consensus trance' public marches ever 'forward'.
charles,
You wouldn't happen to be a Mormon recruiting converts to your crazy little religion here at CFN, would you?
I think that's "Enemy at the Gates."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215750/
As much as I was primed to dislike his character, I enjoyed Bob Hoskins' performance as Nikita Khrushchev.
And now for something from the Daily Mail (which, according to "Yes, Minister," is read by the wives of the people who run the country):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1212013/Revealed-The-ghost-fleet-recession.html
Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession
By Simon Parry
And that's just the teaser.
If the article didn't have photos, I wouldn't have believed it.
and Obama supposedly call the demonstrations
'UNHEALTHY'
-----------------------------------
Oh really, I just shocked! What else did he "supposedly" do? Did he "supposedly" meet with communist agents on his last trip to europe? Did he "supposedly" sneak into the country from Kenya?
Sorry....what you regard as "news" is nothing but a pants load of bullshit I find highly dubious on a factual basis and completely irrelevant on any account.
Did you see this "shocking" news about your hero, why isn't he denying these thunderous claims, he must have something to hide!!!
http://glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com/
This is what is known as being "hoist on your own petard"
Exxon Mobil named "Green Company of the Year" by Forbes!
-------------------------------
Thanks for that! the kind of irony you just have to love.
I really can't comment on your specific mistrust of government. What I can say is that government is about the only institution I have any chance to reform. Government is a tool. It isn't really any different than a chainsaw. It all depends on who wields it. Frankly, I can use a chainsaw to prune trees and clear brush or I can create my own Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Saying you mistrust government is no different than saying you mistrust hammers. The problem is that we've given this tool to multinational corporations and they are doing what they do best which is to maximize profits.
This is just a phase. In the past, we've given the tool of government to Religion and we know that that didn't work out all that well. We've given this tool to dictators which, depending on the attitude of the dictator, sometimes worked out well for the people.
Maybe a Direct Democracy will be the answer - I don't know but I'm not afraid.
I'm also not afraid of the changes that are headed our way. I'm excited to see what this new society will look like. Life might be a bit harder but difficult challenges produce innovation. There may be shortages but that will finally force us to collectively work with our neighbors.
What is the worst thing that can happen? death? So many of us, especially those that live in the Suburbs and Exurbs are already dead.
It is time to wake the dead. Watch, you'll see.
Interesting bit on the fleet, thanks for posting. It's always a pleasure to see something here other than completely pointless political bullshit.
What good is a job if you have no way to get there or can't afford to get there? With nearly one in five working age adults unemployed here in the combined Detroit/Windsor metropolitan areas, even a part time, minimum wage job is better than nothing at all. You are scaring the shit out of me JHK, not because your predictions are off the mark, but because you are hitting the mark at least 9 times out of 10. Don't even bother taking mass transit if you live here because there's a good chance you'll end up robbed and beaten up. That's how bad things have gotten in the Detroit clusterfuck.
I've read nearly every post at CFN over the past 3 months and I have a pretty good feel for the message you are likely to hear from certain frequent commenters. If you don't have the amount of free time to plough through these posts as I have (I'm retired) let me help you out. Summarized below are the thoughts of six commenters. Anything they've written beyond my summary is pure superfluous fluff:
EIGHTM: There should be cheap rents in the USA, EU and JAPAN, and a simple social salary of 1,000 dollars a month for everyone.
Damon: Cannot actually be summarized ... but for people turned off by pills, his posts may be used to induce sleep.
Abbeysbooks: (a) Women are good, men are bad; (b) Read Toynbee; (c) All bad things are the result of grand conspiracies.
ZZZZZZ: Everybody (except Zzz) is a duche-lipped moronic FUCKTARD numbnut simpleton.
Jaego Scorzne: Whites are smart, browns are dumb.
Asoka: Big government, excluding military spending, is good.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
yes...you put a number on the daily increase
almost 2 million a week! thats a whole city to be built!
ALSO GEORGE IN CANADA:
'Here in Canada'...what JHK speaks of ...the disease of unsustainablity is thru the industrial world
and china and india see more suburbanizing as they industrialize and there more realty speculating there!
Dale....if yr sayin becks my hero how wrong you are!
JHK...was Obama yr hero?
'hopefully not a duplicate...'
Just hit the submit button once and only once and open the blog in another browser while it processes yr post in the first window
that being said jims blog acted funny for me yday
once again thank you
who was this in reply to?
it doesnt say in yr post
its not fer nothin that Obama wanted millions or billions of $ to go to acorn
and ZZZZZZ since you are so up on FACTS..
has any of the 850 billion give away been repaid?
Blacks 1600 to 1800 were brought here as slaves and most died on the journey
so no not every white who ever lived is so wonderful
the black underclass has to do with legal slavery which was sharecropping
the reason i said ' supposedly' is because i didnt see / hear the footage with my own ears
maybe yr angry cause ACORNS getting so much deserved publicity...ALL OF IT BAD
AND I HEARD IT WAS OPRAH ..
'By some estimates, George Soros gave Obama half a billion in campaign contribtuions. Such funding is not '
is this true?
did you know about the soros bill in california
opposed by every Da in the state?
CTHULHU observes that many here (this blog, and CFN, aka UPL, America, etc. ) simultaneously hold the opinion that most problems we face can be sourced to over-population, and mass immigration is to tolerated, if not encouraged. Cognitive dissonance, anyone?
How is this rationalized?
Is the USA not overpopulated? We import much of the resources we consume. The ecology is collapsing around us. More than half the population growth is due to immigration.
A lower population growth rate results in a lower destruction rate. Anyone that can explain this double-think to me is welcome to do so.
Love you guys. Comments are excellent. Til "fucktard".
maybe yr angry cause ACORNS getting so much deserved publicity...ALL OF IT BAD
-----------------
No, I'm not angry at all, just annoyed by people who seem to think we should find such irrelevant political crap "news". To the extent that people from the left are here spouting similar bullshit I would be just as annoyed by them. Truth is, most of this kind of crap does come from the right and is constantly repeated by people who seem to think Fox News is actually a source of news.
In case you hadn't noticed about 90% of cable "news" is nothing but political commentary. It is almost completely inconsequential to both your and my life, the difference is you have been so brain washed by this garbage, you actually have started to buy into it's importance. I'm doing my best not to be similarly entralled, so "NO" if you are expecting me to argue the "substance" of your comments with you, there simply is no substance. It's a puppet show and you're the puppet.
Reality Recedng is a hopeful upbeat piece compared to what I see;
Let me put it in a Devil's Advocate suit. Pretend that this whole financial crisis was a complete set up. To check the reality of this seemingly intellectual game, what would the likely financial senario be if it were a set-up?
You got it! It would look like what we have world-wide today. Al-Jazeera will show more realty based news of today world wide. Take a look, do.
Let me net it out for you Asia.....you, like many people, are almost entirely “reactive”. It's clear from reading just a few of your posts (because mostly I don't) that you are actively searching for something to be reactive too, not looking to find the truth about anything. Mostly, you just want to be angry or outraged about something, so anything that fits that bill will meet with your general approval, providing it “feels” right to you.
Now, it should come as no surprise to anyone that people who have access to power, and an agenda to go with it, would know all about this human tendency and be prepared to exploit it. Let's take for example the Iraq War. If Dick Cheney and his friends decided that the attack on New York was an excellent opportunity to further expand the empire and protect the energy sources of that empire, they would not be likely to explain their desires to you in those terms. Instead they would want you, and the lower middle class kids who would be used as cannon fodder in this effort, to react without thinking. Hence, the fraudulent depiction of Iraq as the source of the attack on NY and the subsequent ginning up of patriotism around that issue. Issues like the bank bailouts are probably another good example of this exploitation.
This sort of thing is hardly new, nor is it by any means, restricted to Dick Cheney and the Republican Party. What has changed is how effective the 24 hour news cycle has been in exploiting this type of reactivity and how completely committed many of these “news” outlets and their “stars” are to doing just that. “Sui bono” again....who benefits?
Since the media outlets have been increasingly owned over the years by fewer and larger corporate entities it isn't too difficult to imagine why companies like G.E., Murdoch Etc. have been willing to become part of this ownership group, in spite of the fact their initial corporate business (at least in GE's case) would seem to have little to do with media. In many cases, it isn't even that companies like GE are actively involved in furthering the empire, just that they do profit from it, and have little real reason or interest in providing close examination of what is really going on behind the curtain.
The point is, the more we are reactive, the less we are thinking and the more likely it is we will accept the simple explanation and “solution” offered to us without close examination. Most of what you are seeing on cable news (especially Fox) is geared to exactly that conclusion. “Reactivity” not only furthers the vested interests of the owners, but also keeps you tuned in and bobbling at the end of your puppet strings.
i say ALMOST ALL the population growth of the usa post 1965 is from the third world dumping its unwanted and unemployed on the USA
and the population of the usa is skyrocketing
50 million increase in 20 years
and thats a fact
no..
maybe you are the puppet
'In case you hadn't noticed about 90% of cable "news'
NO DALE I HAVENT NOTICED BECAUSE I DONT WATCH TV
cept if its on at the gym and im on a bike!
YES DALE it is a show, one i avoid
i trust the news here more
now theres more illegally obtained video:
ACORN DC Prostitution Investigation Part II - Video - YouTube“Stimulus” money at work, first Baltimore, now in DC: Second Video Shows ACORN Officials Helping 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' in Washington Office One day after two ..etc
Bullshit.....if you are not watching Fox, then you are definitely visiting the websites harping on the same trash news those bottom feeders thrive on. You aren't even a very good puppet, more like an echo. Acorn?...who gives a fuck?
" Acorn?...who gives a fuck?"
Obviously you don't because you are too fucking stooopid to realize the danger. They are a completely political animal that has received over 31 million in government monies since 1998. They are currently under investigation in 5 separate states for voter fraud. Recent, breaking stories indicate that ACORN employees have participated in criminal acts in meting out information as to how to cheat the government out of tax money and to perpetrate fraud in applying for federally backed mortgage applications.
Due to the recent breaking news ACORN has been dropped by the Census Bureau as a community partner. Had they not been dropped these assholes would have most likely perpetrated census fraud, which can change Congressional districting.
If we are not supposed to "give a fuck" about tax cheats, voter fraud, tax evasion, census fraud and adults encouraging the enterprise of prostitution by minors, WHAT the FUCK are we supposed to "give a fuck about", you imbecilic, syphilitic, FUCKTARD?
"you imbecilic, syphilitic, FUCKTARD?"
------------------------------
Whew! Zzz has added some nuance to his insults.
Dale might be a "FUCKTARD." That is open to debate. He might even be "imbecilic" and, if so, it would be right to point it out. However, whether Dale is "syphilitic" or not is, in my opinion, a red herring and use of that adjective, an ad hominem.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
bahmi are you aware that thered is such a thing as medicare and that it is run by the govt. Senior citizens, us old people, like it very much. Finally many of us can get some, not all, preventive care done at last.
It isn't perfect but then private insurance coverage isn't either. I lke my medicare better than any private insurance I have ever had except my Blue Cross Blue Shield in the 50's when I paid about $2.62 a month out of my teacher's salary.
Our libraries are govt run. the private one in my neon red town censors books like crazy. They buy a lot of bodice rippers for the old lady Christians who want to dream now they are old, and a lot of westerns for the guys who walk around in run dow cowboy boots.
NASCAR MORONS because they go around and around and around to win a race, use up all that gas, hurt and sometimes kill themselves, and for what? How is this different from gladiator games in the Colosseum? Just entertainment for the mindless masses. O wemt to one once in 1966 and after awhile I returned to the car, took a nap,read a book and waited for my friends.
You might just as well be quoting Toynbee. His wisdom is fast becoming mainstream.
Ignorant, stupid, lying, and a lot of other negative adjectives for Americans. The ones of integrity and honor cannot be heard.
Calm down o ignorant one. Cohousing and intentional communities is an ongoing and ever growing phenomenon. One near me is EastWind an intentional community where I have had friends. It's in Tecumseh MO. They grow their own food, put it up, grow herbs, made medicine out of their herbs, have a better library than any of the small towns around, raise animals, fruit trees, have a daycare place,a cafeteria, housing, and much much more. They make hammocks and rope sandals that you see at Pier One all over the country. Someone got the idea of starting a nut butter business so they allowed some money for that and it grew and grew, doubling every year until now it is a multi million dollar business that was never intended or planned. So they are flush with money. Not bad for a group from Boston who pooled their money, bought some land in the 70's to start an idealistic community, came and lived in tents and sleeping bags and started to build. You should see it now. And they ask each other if they could have had what it took to start it from scratch. Go visit.
If you ask I will tell you about Dancing Rabbit (an eco village) north of Columbia MO where I tool a workshop in straw bale building and Dreamtime in WI where I saw art being done as a way of life. Absolutely incredible stuff and I am the world's worse critic.
There are thousands more all over the world. They beat those gated communities with mini golf courses, cut lawns with sprinklers, and guards at the gates who couldn't stop a rabbit.
BTW for single mothers there is no better place than an intentional community. The children who have grown up in them are awesome. Really awesome.
Oh come on, try a little harder. Whites have developed a universal morality over the last few centuries. We ended slavery, cured the sick, etc. It is emergent-we only had it in Christian precept before 1800 or so. Then we started to actually live it. Unfortunately, we now think that we are the scum of the earth and that all other races are morally superior to us and have always been so. This is suicidal to say the least. Clever people use this irrationality to make lots of money via illegal immigration. We are so guilty we feel we have to let in everyone. We are so guilty we feel we deserve to die. Marxists recognized this tendency and played it up to the hilt. Jews have as well. They feel no such guilt even though they were major players in the slave trade. The Blacks Muslims put out a good book that even White Nationalists read: "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews".
Look Asia, we will do right by these people. It's too late to send them back to Africa the way Lincoln wanted. So when America comes apart, we'll deal them a nice piece of the pie in the deep South with Atlanta as the capital. It'll be up to them if any Whites who want to can stay. And it'll be up to them if they sink or swim.
Just because the Blacks practiced genocide against us in Santa Domingo after they defeated Napoleon and just because they are genociding the Whites of South Africa today-none of that means that we are going to do that to them. We're better than that-now. Our universal morality has emerged-no other race's has. Only a few individuals like Akbar, Asoka, Isiah-of other races has attained this-not the people or culture as a whole. It is a remarkable achievment on our part-tragically marred by a psychic sickness of gargantuan proportions. Perhaps we went too fast...
Sorry you think I think that about women. I don't. Feminism has become a blight. It has reduced poor women while empowering those who would be corporate men and they are often just idiots. As for abortion, I would rather the ones I see had aborted than raise another sad, dysfunctional child.
It is pretty awful when you think a totally insane raping beast can keep a captive in a tent in his backyard maze, for 18 fucking years, and she turns out better than most girls her age living a regular normal life. A little 11 year old child with only that much education manages to raise two girls, teach them math and reading and the rudiments of social interaction. What the fuck does that say about our society and our government. And don't you feel safer now that you know officials are watching out over us because of paroled criminals?
I am aware of Medicare, signed up for it today. However, do you congratulate yourself for wanting to turn over 16% of the country's economy to the fool on the hill? Are you aware of all the peripheral areas with some connection to "health"? Obama could control the abortion debate, highway speeds, you name it. Anything remotely connected to "health" would be under the domain of the Feds. Perhaps you like Obama and voted for him. Well, I didn't and I think he's pathetic and disgusting. Imagine our President calling dissidents unAmerican...differ from this affirmative action Ivy League fathead and you are either racist or un American...your kind of guy? If so, you have my deepest sympathy. Obama is a bonafide racist along with his wife. Plays the race card or blames W for when things go wrong. You voted for him? Check into a mental health clinic real soon and try to save yourself before it's too late.
No all bad things are the result of people who either can't or refuse to think and make wild generalizations. Oh, that's you isn't it? Take a bow.
Hey Cthulhu since you carry this name you damn will know exactly why what's wrong is wrong. If you don't then change your ID.
Very nice Dale. Very very nice.
Only Machiavelli said it in the 16th century. I read where the Bush Rove people were seriously studying Machiavelli. He is always worth rereading. and don't forget Sun Tzu.
"NASCAR ... entertainment for the mindless masses"
------------------------------
Mindlessness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Everything after food, clothing and shelter is pretty much optional.
George Carlin did a great rant on the idiocy of Golf. My wife can't understand the attraction of football ... all those screaming fans watching "a bunch of sweaty guys jumping on one another" ... 110,000 or so attended the Ohio State game on the weekend and who knows how many million on TV. Kunstler is disgusted at the sight of parents in plastic power boats dragging their fatass kids on inner tubes back and forth across the lake.
Ya know what I think is mindless? Women on a Sunday outing in some quaint village walking into one jewelry store after another. When my wife does it, I wait outside reading a newspaper. I'll bet you own 50 each of bracelets, necklaces and earrings. Don't try to deny it!!
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
Oh please stop about ACORN. You are just nit picking on pimple. They have many volunteers that work for them and probably have a good percentage of ethically challenged people. I am supposing that they don't spend their time and money doing serious background checks.
Unfortunately since Jaycee Dugard surfaced everyone is seeing the need for doing this wherever they live and work. Garrido worked for a recycling place and he did business with a child safety program and with a salvage yard. I bet those salvage people never do business with anyone until they do a background check. Look at what they have put themselves through by showing some photos voluntarily.
And the officials are going overboard whoing how tough they are wi8th everyone to over compensate for their stooopid stooopid behavior over 18 years.
Oh please.Obama and Michelle are whiter than I am and I could be a bona fide member of the DAR if I wished to join.
They are both so hopelessly middle class in every way that I am appalled. I came from that ghetto and I don't want to go back. I would appreciate some of the comforts, but that is not enough of a temptation for me.
Her clothes are the same as what I wore in the 1950's for crissakes and they are being heralded as cutting edge and fashion setting. I can't believe anything in the media anymore. She is wearing what was then called the "paper doll look". Awful. And she is always frowning because she is onto Obama and has been for a long time.
All of us who have taught know this woman. She was the little black girl in class who did all her homework, never asked interesting questions, and sulked when she didn't get an A++++. And all you could fault her for was not being able to think herself out of a wet paper bag. Yes she is pure affirmative action. He is pure image perfected. The same type as the evangelists.
Yes I voted for him and I even worked for him. Sucked in by a different rhetoric. Also I felt he was the only one who could win.
Your full blown paranoia about health care is just that: full blown paranoia.
As for jewelry I used to have a lot of it and all of it was very good. I did have a lot of it stolen before I realized that when yu have anything of value you had better spend a lot of time and money protecting and safeguarding it.
My motto now is to check the dumpsters when I happen to go where they are. I like to see what the universe wants me to have or to salvage and give away. You can't imagine what good things I find and rescue.
I also rescue dogs and cats.
As for football Leslie Fiedler wrote an essay on the dark skinned homoeroticism inherent in the great classic American novels (Moby Dick, Huck Finn, Deerslayer novels) and then he went on to see it for us in American football. All those guys tumbling on top of one another, patting each other's ass, putting their arms around each other, hugging, well, you get it. It's just sublimated homoerotic phantasy. I guess you enjoy it. It keeps you from acknowledging your own erotic impulses. A gay male friend of mine once said, I never met a man who wasn't gay.
And I forgot to mention all those who watch the games, see them at home with a crowd of friends, or at a sports bar drinking beer and betting, a great male-male pastime,eh?
A man came up to Fiedler at an airport bookstand and said, You're Leslie Fiedler, aren't you? When he got a yes, he said, Why did you ever write that essay?/
We are heading for a civil war, there is no doubt in my mind. The racist right-wingers will do their best to regain power through assassination of political leaders and murdering their fellow Americans who do not believe every word Glenn Beck spews.
JHK
are you against nascar because the culture of the car is ending and nscr glorifies cars/ noise/ wasting gas?
THANKS
On the radio i heard that Obama wants to give them yet more millions or billions
some think of acorn as a ' wonderful organization'
apolitical, helping the downtrodden
WHEN THEY ARENT HELPING CHILD SEX SLAVE RINGS
how bout the web , youtube and radio you moron
point of fact:
last few riots here in LA were blacks/ browns looting
whens this race war gonna start?
This is a reply to the comment about how stupid and bad it is for women not to produce babies for the fatherland.
When you grow up being raped and abused and watching your mother and all the other women around you being treated horribly, where is the incentive to make babies for the men folk to rape and beat?
Why should I have made babies for some man to make a "sex with baby" video with?
Maybe if there were fewer monsters in the world, there would be more women happier to have babies.
I think it might have started when that old dude walked into the Holocaust museum and killed the guard because he was a black man.
"Our universal morality has emerged-no other race's has."
What were WWI, WII, and the Holocaust then, just little blips on the ole white moral radar?
LOL When I was raped repeatedly as a small child, all my rapists were white. And I am white, too. But of course, all white people are perfect and never commit any crimes, dontchaknow. Glenn Beck says so!
Q: reasonable summary, but here's a revision:
Damon: The next decision you make should involve some deliberate thought, instead of conditioned reflex.
// elaboration for the sleepy...
1. For the Code Warriors
1.a Implement this function, optimized for run-time efficiency:
void malignantAngerKills(int nHumans)
1.b Would it make sense if it returned a value?
2. For the Pavlov's Dogs
(see previous post...)
2.a I prefer: [] Barking? [] Drooling?
2.b Does the bell bother you? How?
3. For the Professionals
3.a Deterministic method: Create a realistic scenario-based model of key attributes for US over next ten years.
3.b Stochastic method: Construct a Monte Carlo simulation of key attributes for US over next ten years.
3.c Using any valid approach to determine a quantitative result,
is US survival risk acceptable over next decade? Present results graphically if possible, noting confidence level, alpha risk, & beta risk, as appropriate.
3.d Should these results be communicated to the common person?
4. For the Moralist (abbreviated version)
A gambler fails to earn a regular income from a casino, while the casino thrives on a steady stream of gambling fools.
4.a Can either gambler or casino operator be moral? Christian?
4.b Both claim to be devout Christians. Does this matter?
4.c Which one provides more benefit to society? How?
4.d Can God help either to improve their respective career?
4.e Which is better: Gambling or Incarceration? Explain.
(advanced)
4.f Write the theorem relating moral certitude to oppression.
4.g Prove oppressive moral certitude theorem without resorting to magic.
no...you can do better or i wont repond to you!
how about this...
will this make you angry or happy or ' i told you so"
The American Thinker may have posted now what is officially a disgusting, biased story in the history of liberal bias (and theres a long list and history).
Forget ignoring the Van Jones story, the ACORN story, the tea parties, etc. The cover of the latest Newsweek has a close up of a (white baby), with the caption: IS YOUR BABY RACIST on the baby picture’s forehead. Welcome to Obama’s “post racial” America
o...and yet more muslim immigrants have been arrested on terorism charges...in dominican republic ny,,,i mean queens ny
Monsters come in all colors and all religious affiliations.
I am so sorry. Could you please write about Jaycee. I'd appreciate your comments here: http://www.focusfree.blogspot.com
Thank you, Abbeysbooks. I don't have a google account so I was unable to post. I'm not sure I would know what to write. I am not surprised nor shocked at what happened to her. This is the real world, the one populated primarily by monsters, the one that we see through the cracks when our pretend world is not obscuring our vision.
I decided as a young child I would not be part of reproducing the human race, as I thought it would be a better thing if we all just died off with this generation. But most do not share my convictions, and so the population of the planet keeps growing. I guess that means other people have hope that this can be a better world. I do not believe there is hope.
UPDATE ON MY ACORN POST:
Looks like those videos WERE real, if edited and such. Three of the Acorn offices went with the help while other offices told them where to go (To Hell) or even called the police on them. The people representing Acorn (assuming they weren't plants themselves) have been fired, and it almost sounds as if Acorn is about to be dismantled by the government for this.
Link below is from a real news organization in America, not Faux News.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1091
So yeah, there was some fire there. How much (and who put it there) is questionable, but there is some fire...enough to cause action and be noticed by the real news sources.
"Q: reasonable summary, but here's a revision:"
---------------------------------
Damon, your revision validates my point more than the original itself. It is too long, too complex and visually ugly, what with all the numbered paragraphs and sub-paragraphs, parentetical asides, odd punctuations and references to prior posts that place a lookup burden on the reader.
Let me tell you a story. I'll try to keep it brief*:
In the middle of my career as a financial analyst I was approached by a Director who informed me I was getting a promotion to a position within his group. By way of explanation he said "You write a good white paper." (Till I looked it up I had no idea what a "white paper" was.)
This compliment put me on cloud nine so when my first major analysis of a multi-million dollar subcontract proposal came along I was anxious to live up to the reputation he had given me.
I wrote a 5 page report that I proofread and edited obsessively until I was certain it was flawless. I turned it in, the Director read it and said it was brilliant ...... except for one thing. "You have to shrink it from 5 pages to one." He said there isn't an executive in the company who will sit still long enough to read 5 pages. I was angry. I told him it was "impossible." He said "give it a shot." Somehow I managed it and from that day forward I always aimed for single page analyses when my audience was upper management. I also learned that visual appearance was important to clarity and to holding the readers attention.
* Speaking of brevity, have you ever read The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. If not, you should. Its greatest message is the need for brevity.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
Lovecraft spent his entire life writing about his degeneration of humanity. I too decided not to have children. But I have dogs and cats, all rescued.
I do love cats, too. All animals.
I was trying to go to sleep just now, and I couldn't stop thinking about what I could possibly say about Jaycee's case.
And then I realized, I'll bet I know what she daydreamed about sometimes.
I used to daydream all the time as a child about a safe place, a place I could hide where no one would find me, where no one could hurt me. I used to take great joy in daydreaming about hearing the footsteps of the people who were coming to hurt me, and they were looking for me, but I was safely hidden, and they would never find me. I was hidden with enough to eat, and warm blankets, and I was happy and cozy and most of all safe.
I read that abused children often daydream of survival, like my daydreams that I had. So I was thinking, I'll bet she daydreamed of safe places too sometimes.
I think when the worst hits, when peak oil really socks us in the stomach, we will all be doing a lot of daydreaming about survival. We will be dreaming of a place where the civil war or the riots won't reach us, a place where we have enough power/energy, enough food, enough of everything we need to survive and be happy.
I was just thinking, the people who hate based on race or religion or gender, are really only dabbling in hate. You see, I hate so deeply that I don't want only one race or gender to cease to exist, I want all of humanity to cease to exist. I won't take any action to achieve those ends beyond not having any children of my own, but if enough of us came to that conclusion, if enough of us hated that deeply, we might just cease to exist.
Jimmy is channeling Jerry Springer with this blog. Jimmy throws it out there in black and white, uncensored and completely lacking in political correctness.
Then the comment bus pulls up and disgorges all manner of uninhibited, full spectrum USDA Grade A bloviation*.
The emporer has no clothes, and Jimmy has no bouncer. But, it beats being on the wrong end of naked shorts. And no toga.
But, but I'm not the type to hack and tell.
*not to be confused with bovinity, a form of sacred cow
Woot! I misspelled "emporer". Bad sock puppet.
My sympathies to you-if you are for real that is. The problem with anecdotal (personal experience) evidence is that is intrinsically very limited and skewed. The fact is that Blacks rape women at five times the rate White Men do. That people don't know that is a tribute to the controlled media. White Men rape more than Asian Men. Why the differences? Because the races are different. And it's not just cultural: Blacks have more testosterone than Whites and Whites more than Asians. Now of course the respective cultures reflect these differences. So sure, it's cultural-because it's genetic first.
Thank you. I would never have thought of that. Please get a google account and post it for me. I spent all last week obsessing on her story.
I once had a beautiful black giurl as a patient. She saw me for awhile and then told me she had been raped by everyone when she was a child. Father, step-father,brothers,friends,uncles, all of them had me she said. Then one day she said she had something to tell me that she was so ashamed about she had never told anyone.
I can't read she said. (Oh my broken heart.)
I told her of course she couldn't have learned how to read. Look at all those beginning words:
father brother friend, jump (rhymes with hump) see look no (meant nothing to her abusers) oh,look
I said all of them were loaded words for her. How could she learn to read. I gave her Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye which is about a black girl who is sexually abused by her father and gets pregnant while still a child. The first paragraph is a run on from the beginning reading book. SeeJanerunlookDickseeSpot She is in class trying to learn how to read and she cannot.
I wish I had a happy ending for her. But she had a darling little boy and I got her to read simple stuff to him. She was determined he would have it better, and she wasn't having any more children.
Really time to read Lovecraft. Get the one on him by Houellebecq with two of his major stories in it. Such a beautiful man and such a sad life. Doomed from early on and he knew it. He knew just at that moment in his life when childhood was ending that there was no happiness for him.
He hated humanity. and he wa unfailingly kind, considerate, helpful and encouraging to every single person he came in contact with in person or in letters.
Oh read him, read him.
Very inspiring stuff. Well you see Abbey, she makes my case. Feminism is a Death Cult based on hatred of Life. It usually begins with a profound envy of the masculine leading to a hatred of the feminine. Women become competitor's with men, desperately hoping to force them into the hated feminine role. And as for traditional women who love staying home and having children-they are parasites. That is a the exact word Simone De Beauvior used. Any culture with people like her and Steinem as the role models is doomed.
The Jaycee Duggard cult which you are trying to get started is a variation on a theme. Jaycee was a victim whom you identify with; all women are victims; men are the victimizers; men should disappear/die and let women take over. The road is different but the goal is the same: sterility and death. It might be interesting for women to have a land of their own to rule like that old novel "Herland". I think it would be a very boring place that the second gereration of women would want to get away from. Polarity is life! Men are bad, but so are women. What choice do we have? Two mature feminine minds, Doris Lessing and Camille Paglia came to the same conclusion: women by themselves become very self indulgent. It gets sloppy and ultimately boring.
And me by themselves? Yuck.
Rape is a horrible crime and should incur the death penalty-if the victim wishes it. Again my sympathy Lori. Please don't give up on life-there are many decent men even if you can't see or don't want to. Some people are abused as children and go on to have happy, married lives. Everyone is different-the mystery of what psychologists call resilience. Even if you can't do this or don't want to-it would be good for you if you could realize that your injury is distorting your view of life. Counseling might help in the long term.
Nice post Max. Great metaphores. Close to poetic.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
james, you stated many points that I believe are true to the core.
We cannot leave this nation to the Palins and the Becks. But what we saw in DC was just that. The insurance industry using front groups (41 sponsors), third party advocates and ideological allies to send out the zombies who don't know the real issues to hold signs and sing a mantra of be afraid of government run health care, when many might be one layoff away from no insurance or under-insurance or a denied claim. The industry paid for the event and the Kool-Aid.
Obama appears from his actions to be totally on board to enrich the oligarchs, and embrace the incompetent actions of the FED.
Americans are boiling over. They cannot be fooled, unless they are the soldiers in the Kook d'e'-tat movement. But, it is true that we have dismantle the useless part of our society, such as dead malls, and exburbia, to rebuild Main Streets in our self-contained communities.
To hear Obama speak his "Recovery Chicanery" turns me against the very person I voted for. He pretends, as Bush did.
Did he forget he spoke about uncovering the layers of lies to reveal truth? I guess so!
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
Thank you. One doesn't have to wear a tinfoil hat while reading this blog, although some people do, and even think it helps. They're wrong.
Yes I knew about it and I'm going to pick it up. They have come out of the closet now and no sane person can doubt that there is a conspiracy against the White Race. All of our borders have been opened and all of our lands are being invaded by dark skinned savages. To use a metaphor from Lord of the Rings: shall the swarthy men feast in the White Tower? I say no. Let's be clear folks: we're only 8 percent of the population world wide and dropping fast. We're only 60 or 65 percent of the population in America and dropping fast. Look at how they treat us already. Imagine the fate of our grandchildren. Is anyone insane enough to believe that Blacks or Brown will love us as we have loved them?
But again it comes back to you. With knowledge comes responsibility: why aren't you a White Nationalist then? The Indian Blood? To be mixed is a heavy burden; never to be one thing or another. Most White Nationalists wont hold a little Indian blood against you btw.
Interesting; is it possible to love the earth so much that one would like to see its main destroyer thus destroyed, so the earth might be healthy? The same result from another angle.
Jerry. Jeerrrryyyy. Please do tell; elucidate the "real issues" and edify, if you will, the "correct" path of rectification to said "real issues".
Enquiring minds and all that.
In the interim:
You are under an illusion and in denial*.
You have the right to see the real (albeit unpleasant and likely distasteful) reality.
Anything you say, do, think or believe can and will be used against you to prevent you from seeing the real reality.
If you cannot find the real reality, one will chosen for you by the state.
Do you understand how screwed you are?
*see Bobmatized & steroids
Charlie Foxtrot. Say, wasn't that the house band at that Stew bar in Bangkok? Ah yes, the old days. Staring into the bloodshot eyes of #23 under the orange glow of low pressure sodium street lights. Really bad Creedence covers. The Golden Triangle. Sorties by the numbers.
Ahh. To be compiled in Fortran again.
JHK said: "Now that everybody in the USA, from the janitors in their man-caves to the president addressing congress, has declared the "recession" over, is exactly the moment when what's left of the so-called economy is most likely to implode."
Besides being an incorrectly formed sentence (from a grammatical point of view the final phrase lacks a subject), the sentence is also factually incorrect. Not "everybody in the USA" has declared the recession over... but it is technically over.
What's more, Obama's economic policy decisions have change the psychology of the country. Obama should receive credit for ending the recession.
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Sales at U.S. retailers surged in August by the most in three years, showing unexpected strength in consumer demand that extended beyond auto purchases spurred by the government’s “cash-for-clunkers” program.
The 2.7 percent increase exceeded economists’ forecasts
Correction:
Obama's economic policy decisions have changed the psychology of the country. It is a change we can believe in given the mess Obama inherited from Bush.
I don't know why I come here... the polarization appalls me, the racism, anti-semitism, fear of socialism (or anything that might improve the lot of the lower 99 percent of the population that you all belong to) and, in fact, fear of EVERYTHING, just depresses me, and the sheer volume of crap to wade through, and the resulting unlikleyhood of anyone actually getting to my comment, make me wonder why I bother.
And yet...
Both sides and the lunatic fringe(s) come here to do battle and/or just slag each other for the hell of it. It's not just preaching to the faithful. Of course, the probability of changing the minds of the people who either offer no statistics, or get all their, uh, "facts" from Fox news, fringe websites and tent show preachers, and have the manners of a drunken stevedore to boot, is slim, but, as Browning said, "a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" (Heaven, in my case, being the Heaven of the God physicists use in an ironic way).
So I thought I'd throw some meat in here with the slathering hyenas, re your healthcare debate, which comes up in several posts.
If you had had a Canadian-style single payer, Government-run system in 2006, (or more exactly for this analogy, if you were a very large Canadian Province connected to the various Canadian Medical and Government systems that provide us with our health care services, and that system was fully instituted and balanced) you would have saved $910,800,000,000. More than 900 Billion dollars. (I've put the math at the bottom of this comment).
Even for the United States, that's quite a chunk of change. That money is going to the shareholders of the insurance companies and their bloated, over-paid bureaucracies.
That 900 billion could easily pay for coverage for the 50 million uninsured Americans, and improved coverage for the rest. A national drug program. Dental and optical care. It could even be returned to the customer, kind of like a tax cut.
Instead, psychotic ideologues fight it out on TV, the population goes to political meetings with firearms, elected officials call the President a liar and the posters here, practically to a man, say they are disappointed with Obama.
I got news for you: you don't want Obama? We'll take him. You guys don't deserve Obama. The citizens are the problem with America, not the President. What happened to the spirit of "Ask not what your country can do for you?" What happened to having some kind of patience, of not expecting a miracle to occur? Of the bipartisanship Obama is trying to engender? He is, after all, the President of all of you. He has to prop up the ludicrous Ponzi scheme that is American capitalism in order to avoid a global depression, he has to get some kind of healthcare changes through (he does have a base to serve, after all), and yes, I'm sure there are political favours to be passed out. But hey- so far he's kept it in his pants (at least when he's out of the residential wing). Isn't that what the right wingers are mostly concerned about? Because if they were about saving money, competent management, and global competitiveness (not to mention the health of the citizens), you'd think they'd be for socialized medicine.
FOOTNOTE: According to Wikipedia: "In 2006, per-capita spending for health care in Canada was US$3,678; in the U.S., US$6,714, or 82.5% higher. The U.S. spent 15.3% of GDP on health care in that year; Canada spent 10.0%." Subtract the Canadian figure from the American figure and multiply by 300 million. This assumes a mature single payer system like Canada has (we've had socialized medicine for a long time), and yes, your mileage would probably vary. But consider: we live longer than you and have better infant mortality, we're all covered, and that coverage can't be taken away.
I will have to read him, thank you. :) I have enjoyed movies based on his books.
I have found a more than decent man, and have been married nearly 20 years. I am physically too old to have babies now, and glad of that fact. I am glad I never brought any children into this world. I would never be so cruel, as to bring a child into this world as it exists right now.
Ben Bernake has declared the recession over.
In late 2007 he also declared the United States would avoid a recession -- http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=4295226&page=1.
So there never was a recession, hence it hasn't ended.
Ben Bernake also says intravenous drug use is good for your veins.
Canuckistani: Hey, Obama is better than Bush, no doubt. He can speak English after all. But Obama had an unprecidented opportunity to reform the system while the bankster crooks were down and wounded. He had a mandate and all the laws he needs: anti-trust laws and laws against fraud.
The need to use anti-trust powers is illustrated by the number of times Obama and his crew have used the term "to big to fail." If that's the case, bust them up.
Secondly, fraud can easily be proven. For instance, while Goldman Sacks was hocking huge securitized debt bundles to pension funds etc., saying they were the best deal ever, the company was secretly buying en masse credit-default swaps to cover its crooked ass when the bubble that the company deliberately helped create blew up.
Bust 'em up and put them in jail, Mr. President. Don't give us pretty little speeches while distracting us with bogus reform proposals.
Obama has the power and he still has somewhat of a mandate. He needs to do the right thing if he wants his name to be salvaged in the history books.
Bush created the monster, sure, but that doesn't give Obama the right to avoid the dirty duty of killing it when he has the chance.
I don't think Daniel Quinn was necessarily arguing for a return to hunting and gathering, nor does his position imply the deaths of 5 billion people. I think you need to read Ishmael again, JHK, and think about how it fits into the world we now have. It certainly means living more locally, as you advocate, and connecting more with nature. Theoretically, techniques like permaculture and bio-intensive can feed the people alive today and connect us back to nature, so don't be so quick to denigrate Quinn's work.
Exactly.
Plus, he's stoking the war machine, blind to the fact it's the fiscal black hole of death...
" But of course, all white people are perfect and never commit any crimes, dontchaknow. Glenn Beck says so!"
Yes, you are absolutely right. I heard Beck just last night claim that whites can do no wrong, even when raping PeakOilLori. (Fucking idiot.)
No, let's leave the country to Van Jones, racist Obama and his racist wife, the main street media and their exhortations whether or not your white baby is racist or not. We are going back in our race relations progress, we are regressing to days of hatred and guess who is behind this? Marcus Garvey. NO Angela Davis. NO. Right boys and girls, it's Barry Soetoro Hussein Obama. We should turn everything over to Obama, health is just the beginning. That blithering idiot Charlie Gibson who skewered Palin in the interview pre-election pretended he was not aware of the Belleville, Illinois schoolbus incident. Not aware! Had it been some white boys beating up a black boy, Charlie would be blaring out to America how the racism was rampant.
And, don't forget one thing. Obama supported Van Jones to the max. He has not mentioned the schoolbus incident as of this morning. Were the kid black who was beat up, would Obama have mentioned it, or Charlie Gibson? White America is in the crosshairs of Obama, Holder, and the liberal freaks and you worry about Palin and Beck? My bet is that Obama et al. won't get away with this shit much longer. Those that think this White House has any answers for this country are sadly mistaken. Obama is not smart enough to orchestrate this, either. He's a manifestation of hidden money and power, not his. Yeah, the tea drinkers are all assholes, right? You aren't, right? You have the answers, just like the media, Eric Holder, the 32 czars who have control without having ever been vetted, a neato Obama trick. That's what you want? Yet, people like Beck, who exposed the freak Van Jones, is bad in your eyes? Why are you so allergic to reality? You don't see anything strange with the way the country is getting so polarized? So angry?
Friend, you need some Florida swampland and I think I know just the place for you.
You are one real dipshit. Perhaps you won the annual Charlie Gibson scholarship award in liberal journalism, where facts are irrelevant. You jackass, you refer to Lake Woebegon, where all kids are exceptional, and all women are beautiful, not Beck. You must be in journalism training already.
Jim, you should not have used WWF to designate that fake narcissistic wrestling group. WWF means the World Wide Fund for Nature, and I think it was formerly World Wildlife Foundation, or something like it. I think the wrestlers call themselves WWE now. World Wild Fund is doing its best to preserve the environment and there is nothing fake or narcissistic about it.
"Perhaps you won the annual Charlie Gibson scholarship award in liberal journalism, where facts are irrelevant."
Not even certain to what this is in reference to but try and have a really shitty day and go fuck yourself.
I'm sure he was replying to the comment I made, mistakenly thinking YOU had made the original comment. I'm certain the vitriol he spewed was directed at me.
What I was trying to say was that there is a race war brewing here, and the white people (of which I am one, ashamed to say) are becoming more and more prejudiced and hateful every day.
They are a completely political animal that has received over 31 million in government monies since 1998.
----------------------------
or roughly what a small time trader on Wall St. makes in one year as a bonus.....and that is what ACORN received from the government over an 11 year period. Thanks for making my point.
Have you ever:
Met an ACORN empolyee?
Seen an ACORN office?
Do you even know if there is an ACORN office in your city, county, state?
I can tell you the answer for me...."NO" except for the last question which I believe is NONE.
So why are you hearing so much about an organization which is so insignificant? You're hearing about it for one reason only, it's a right wing talking point (so convienient that it is perceived to be a "black" organization) The intention is to get you all ginned up and reactive, to stop you from thinking. In your case however, that may be moot.
Sui Bono.....remember? it's easy to sort out if you keep that in mind......Stop reacting and THINK.
My comment and question was not directed to co-housing in general but to Charles in particular. Mormons have a long history, both of servivalism and proselytizing, and Charles has been pretty relentless in his promotion of "Utah co-housing", so I think it was a fair question.
Now, if you are a Mormon and take offence to my calling LDS a "crazy little religion", I apologize, however true that may be, it was gratuitous.
Let me make the point about ACORN insignificance another way.
Let's assume you consider the securitization of mortgages and their continued purchase by the government an effort to prop up a bubble. Based on annualized data the FED will purchase about $1 trillion of securitized mortgage debt this year from Fannie Mae etc. Now, compare that to the roughly $3 million you say ACORN will receive from the government this year.
Turns out my computer won't even make calculations above ten billion, but I believe the mortgage problem, in dollar terms, is about 30,000+ times the size of ACORN's annual federal subsidy.
The point is, while you are focused on what makes you reactive, the real money is definitely elsewhere.
JHK could just rearrange the paragraphs in this latest post and never have to write another one because he just about says the same things over and over and over. I tend to agree with some of what he says, but talk about beating a dead horse. How many times must he evoke “Happy Motoring”? Jeez Louise. Besides, roads and trails were the very first transportation systems; they occur naturally, so to speak. JHK fetishizes rail transport to a point that totally ignores the rather limited mobility such systems provide.
One compromise could be an automated pod system that would use existing corridors. Hop in, punch in your destination, and off you go. Why on earth we let primates operate today’s vehicles is beyond me.
Ancient Israel, early Rome, and pioneering Americans sustained their communities in hard times with nothing more than charity and common brotherhood resulting from individual consent. The historical record and modern realities demonstrate that every nation that fails to respect the individuals right to choose will be brought down by that corruption, for they neglect of fundamental principles of love and liberty.
We cannot be free until we are willing to set our neighbor free from our own rapacious avarice. We will not get our rights back until we take back our responsibilities for ourselves, our families, and to our neighbor. Charity is the job of every man, but without the exercise of choice, there is no charity.
http://www.hisholychurch.info/news/articles/declinefreedom.php
The historical record and modern realities demonstrate that every nation that fails to respect the individuals right to choose will be brought down by that corruption, for they neglect of fundamental principles of love and liberty.
-----------------------------
It would be my understanding that every nation fails eventually. Hence, I'm not quite sure what the right to "choose" has to do with it, or what choice you are referring to.
I looked briefly at your website and would agree in general with the principle of generosity as being of critical importance to society, I would also remind you that there are many ways to skin a cat.
' I would hasten to cut through the fog of despair to reassert -- for the thousandth time -- that a true American perestroika is possible, if the public could overcome the plague of cognitive dissonance sweeping the land and form a consensus for action that comports with reality's agenda'
Nice Jim! But with the politicians and the media saying the recession is over and happy days are here agin it looks like very tough times ahead.
You don't think Blacks can be racists? Look how they treat our kids everyday in the gulags known as public high schools.
All Whites are racists automatically-inluding you therefore?
We are supposed to slave away for these people forever, while they get special rights and privledges? All to prove that "we are not racists"?
Is all this because you were raped by a White man or men? That's not logical Lori and you can't expect us to use your feelings and unfortunate experiences as a criterion of Truth. As I said, Blacks rape more. Much more. They are the enemies of White Women, if you could only look and see.
Lastly, what is a racist? People untrained in philosophy will discuss something for hours without ever defining their terms. I try not to let them get away with it because it is a waste of time.
Ashok
thought you had retired from posting here
i read the news yday..o boy!
LA Times.....forget retail sales..thats just making the red chinses richer!
The page 1 story was about get this...
for those of you who are unable to pay yr bills and get a call from a collection agency..
THE CALLER MAY HAVE A FAKE ACCENT AND BE CALLING YOU FROM PAKISTAN!
now the call centers arent in usa but pakistan
Well said. Christianity has always been utterly opposed to Communism for this reason-it robs the possiblility of true giving and greatful recieving. It mitigiates against individuality and therefore true brotherhood-a hideous simalacrum is raised up in its place. And they always create a false church like the Fake Orthodoxy they raised up in Russia. Our false religon is Political Correctness and its saviour the cofee colored clown Obama.
But the Christians should not have cut down the sacred Oaks and groves. They should have sanctified them to new uses. A whole other source of grace has been deinied us thereby. A more integated Christianity had arisen in Ireland that might have preserved the best of the ancient ways. Some of the Druids might have switched robes and come in. They were called Culdees. Tragically the Church of Rome conquered and imposed standardization.
'We cannot leave this nation to the Palins and the Becks'
we can not leave this country to the afghani immigrants
O Yes
just be part of the sheelp and be herded by the govt
time or newsweek just had a story that ' 10% unemployment is permanent'
to which id say 30% unemployment may be permanent!
Obama finally said something I agree with-he called Kanye West a jackass. It's been a good week for Whites: what with Kanye West, Serena Williams, Acorn, Michael Jordan, the Newsweek story, the beating on the school bus in East St Louis-Blacks are really showing what they're made of along with their evil Liberal Enablers. Many White will begin to wake up due to the events of the last several days. Always be armed with a cell phone camera so you can help prosecute criminals-even White ones! And police too.
I think I haven't made myself very clear. I do not think that any one group of people are particularly better than any other group. I think all people of all races and all religions are inherently and incurably evil. I wish nothing more than the complete extinction of the human race. Including myself.
Of course, that would make you a hypocrite for still being here, now wouldn't it? Not that I am suggesting you do anything stupid, just that, in reality, you are not as stupid as your comments.
LOL. I have not been successful in my suicide attempts so far, you are right. And that does make me a hypocrite. Actually it just makes me rather weak and unable to live up to my own ideals. But maybe that's what hypocracy is all about anyway.
"Besides being an incorrectly formed sentence (from a grammatical point of view"
--------------------------------
First off ... what the fuck are you doing back here? Is that work project over already?
Second: I confess to not knowing a subject from an object from the pluperfect subjunctive .......... however, if you cut out "that everybody in the USA, from the janitors in their man-caves to the president addressing congress, has declared the 'recession' over" from Kunstler's sentence you are left with "Now, is exactly the moment when what's left of the so-called economy is most likely to implode." That sounds correct to my ear. If so, does that make "Now" the object of the sentence?
Asoka, if you extend that one day gig changing garbage bag liners in the waste bins over at Micky D's I will continue leaving you off my delendus shit list ... as below.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
If you are having suicidal tendencies please get help, it is available and no matter how bad things seem, it is possible for you to do good things in this life. I wish you the best
"I would never be so cruel, as to bring a child into this world as it exists right now."
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Lori,
The sentiment you expressed (above) would be universal, from the big bang to the present, were it not for one thing ... sex feels sooo good.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
Here is an interesting contrast for you; Michael Moore filmmaker vs. Right wing film maker on ACORN.
Michael Moore – Does movie exposing the rampant collusion and corruption between American Corporations and US elected representatives costing taxpayers $100's of billions. Result: Media dismisses and calls him a communist, corporate representatives which he exposed get millions of dollars in bonuses funded by US taxpayers.
ACORN filmmakers – Do film exposing corruption and illegal conduct in organization receiving $2-3 million annually in federal subsidies. Result: media outlets can't get enough of showing the condemning footage, agency representatives they exposed get fired.
That about sums it up for you.
If you are thinking I care about MM, I don't. I didn't see his last film “Sicko” and I probably will not see this one either. He's a little too strident for me. As I said before, I don't care for attempts to get me to be reactive from either side of the aisle. He is however, not doing anything that different from what they do every damn day on Fox News.
"Some of the Druids might have switched robes and come in."
I think most of them did. They were expecting a teacher named Yehu. Many have observed the similarities between their laws and the ancient Israelites.
"while Goldman Sacks was hocking huge securitized debt bundles to pension funds"
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I'm fairly certain you didn't mean hocking, as in pawning, but rather hawking, as in peddling or offering for sale by calling aloud in public. Ref Dictionary.com
I realize the two spoken words are barely distinguisable to the ear but when written it is very important to get it right if you want to convey your meaning precisely.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
"Jim, you should not have used WWF to designate that fake narcissistic wrestling group."
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Perhaps Jim was designating, or perhaps he was denigrating, (either word fits) that old organization, the World Wrestling Federation.
Today, near the top of the wrestling world, we have a very well run outfit called World Wrestling Entertainment. I own 100 shrs of their stock (symbol is WWE). It pays a very hefty dividend and has for many years. Aside from that, I wouldn't watch Pro wrestling if you paid me. Talk about NASCAR MORONS ... what about WWRESTLING MORONS??
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
"if you are a Mormon and take offence to my calling LDS a "crazy little religion", I apologize"
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From what little I know of Mormanism/LDS I would say that "crazy little religion" is perfectly apt ... then again, I feel exactly the same about all religions ... and I don't apologize for saying it.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
Interesting. This is for peakoillori also. I once had a second grade child in my class in a free school. One morning she said I thought of a poem as I was going to sleep last night. My way of doing free school is that you stop everything for a communication like this. Let the roof fall in, yI will listen. Here is the poem. She was 7 years old.
Oh Atlas
With your glistening finger
Bore a hole through the earth
So man may die
And the animals live in peace.
Gulp I thought as I wrote down what she said. She also quit eating meat and her mother was supportive.
Now comes the really good part. She is a musician, living in Italy, playing the flute and recorder. She is with a group that plays on antique instruments music in the time of Dante. She has also done CD's and her name is Avery Gosfield.
A depression rather than recession is defined by 10% unemployment or more. The unemployement number is the necessary and sufficient condition.
10% or above = depression!
You are correct in saying the fault lies with the American people. We are afraid and have been brainwashed into being afraid for the last 8 years. I was never afraid before either. And I am 75. This is how govt controls people. Machiavelli is explicit on this. They know what they are doing. Break the middle class and you break all resistance. They never even want to come close to the 60's again. That generation had it all in the palm of their hands and they threw it away.
Canadians are not afraid as they have had health care all their lives now. You cannot longer imagine what it's like to fear for your health on a daily basis. It saps confidence and leaves you prey to evil influences.
From our POV Obama could have had it all. But he wants to walk the fine line of white/black the way he always has all his life. He is like Richard Cory in that beautiful poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, "he glitters when he walks" and he is beginning to look like depression is starting its suffocation process on him. Like a fine actor with no part to play. Watch his features carefully. He is angry nd he is stuffing it.
The fanatic right fringe is simply insane. It is "mass psychosis" as Freud called it. You cannot reason with religious fanatics and the Catholic church can tell you that. They gave up.
There is no such thing as bipartisanship in the US. Not now. Our melting pot has been filled with diverse people, most of whom have little interest in intellectual activities, and it will take generations for assimilation. The US has always opted for cheap labor, so they let cheap labor cross the borders. Constantly.
And you yourself know that it is not easy to immigrate to Canada. The Hong Kong Chinese know that fact well. They were desperate before the turnover, especially the older ones who had family in Canada. Canada does not want people crowding in to get free medical care and all the other goodies you have provided for your citizens so they can live as civilized people. You are fortunate. We hd a chance for what you have with Obama and he has thrown it away. That's why we are so angry at him.
I'm so glad you are here, Abbeysbooks. I really like reading your comments. They make sense to me.
People I meet in "real" life don't realize how pessimistic I am deep down. I play the role that I am supposed to play, and try to be pleasant.
And I do try to do small things when I can to make the world a better place. Right now I am involved in a project to help kids learn to love reading and books. It's something I can do even on the days when I'm not feeling well (poor health.)
But still deep down I don't think there is much hope for humanity. At least not for the U.S., not the direction we are going.
Things are worse now than I ever remember them being in my 50 years on this planet. I honestly do think we will end up having a civil war.
Just the same, it's nice to hear a sane voice now and again. Thanks for posting.
I started posting mostly to say to those who were saying forced breeding of white women was the way to go....that maybe if conditions were better in society, you would have women glad to have babies and you wouldn't need to discuss plans to force them into breeding slavery.
Here's a long comment I wrote about him elsewhere. His life was a disaster. His father went into a mental institution when he was 4. He lived in a beautiful old victorian house in Providence. When he was 10 I think the family fortune had been mishandled and he and his mother moved to a tiy one room apartment. She was crazy too. and she hated him. He was an intellectual adolescent and was on the path to go to Brown University but they became destitute and he remained in poverty the rest of his life. He was racist, felt humans were degenerating, and because of his personal history that was understandable. There is much more about him but Houellebecq gives the most sensitive and loving account.
Here's my link: http://tinyurl.com/nlw7q2
That is more than tasteless. You need to apologize and not do this sort of thing again. It makes people reluctant to say anything that would make them vulnerable and what you said was beyond cruel.
I don't know if anybody got a chance to listen to the comments made today on Tech Ticker by Michael Pento who is the chief economist at Delta Global Advisors. He blasted Bernanke as a political puppet of the Obama administration. In all fairness, we know that Bernanke was doing the same thing under W. Anyway, Pento thinks that oil will double in price by December. Are you reading this Jim? He also thinks we are headed for massive and runaway inflation and believes that the way to protect yourself is thru the purchase of precious metals investments.
I suppose I have to be supportive of this guy because I'm a gold/silver freak. Of course, you have guys like Bill Bonner of Agoura Investments who believe that we will have years of deflation and a severe economic depression followed by a final "Crackup Boom" of Weimar Republic style super-inflation. I have the greatest respect for Bonner since his writings convinced me to make some investment moves that saved me from financial extinction over the last decade. However, I think that Bill is really off course on this. I guess Gerald Celente probably also believes in massive deflation since he has projected an American economic crash by 2012. Heh, all these guys are much smarter than me but I'm putting my money on a Mega-Tsunami inflation wave that will drown millions of Americans.
But Dale, that is the purpose of the ACORN thing. Remember Trivial Pursuit is a national pastime along with Jeopardy shows.
On a teeny tiny level here it is: I am having a conversation here in my neon red town and someone interrupts to show a cat scratch on her arm. she gets oooohs and ahhhs about it and the thread of my conversation with the other woman has melted away.
You cannot talk with these people at length about anything at all. I mean anything at all. Anything. The art of conversation is just that. An art. as Henry James so wonderfully points out in novel after novel. What he found in company in Europe that he loved so much.
Palin is bad but Michelle Bachman in Congress? I mean she is straight out of a movie. Not even Woody Allen would have thought of her. Maybe Terry Gilliam.
I didthe math last night in my head and thought WTF are they yelling about? Yell about Blackwter you fools!
The Rove technique is to repeat, repeat, rinse and repeat repeat. I agree with you but it is necessary to repeat. Make Happy Motoring a buzz word allover. JHK did sound sappy talking like this on Colbert but it is ok here and necessary.
What is important here is to engage and support those who are aware. One never knows how that is going to work each week. Challenge the idiots with facts. It won't change them but it will defuse them for others reading here. Dale's breakdown of ACORN's 3 million a year as opposed to a Wall St trader's one year bonus is brilliant. I have contrasted ACORN's 3 million with Blackwater.
And keep on contrasting Health Care with 9 fucking billion a month for Iraq. And canuck's comparison with Canadian health care and ours by showing us how we could SAVE with single payer.
They will get their friends to disrupt here. But it is important to confront them or ignore them. Many read here who don't comment.
Serena has had some major bad calls from refs that have cost her championships. The Williams sisters are great players, but they are not ass kickers in any sense and they pay for that.
Just imagine that you are physically playing your heart out and then a really bad miscall. Since you are already hot and bothered, you are not in cool mode and to expect anyone to be under those circumstances is hypocritical.
Try it. I dare you.
May I take your post about dreaming of a safe place and turn it into a regular blog on my site? Would you like me to acknowledge you as peakoillori or another ID? Just say yes!
I have another site I have been very lazy about called http://readingteacher4u.com/ . I used to be a reading specialist and worked under Stauffer at the University of Delaware. He was amazing, also a terrible misogynist. I have lots of other experience too. I want to do click throughs to make some money on it also.
Just understanding reading readiness, instructional level, frustrational level, independent reading level, review level and understanding level will bring about a change in literacy. The teachers just don't have any real skills. And homeschooling is either exhausting or not so good.Parents usually don't have the skills either.
Do you want to think about this? Reading to children is the very best way to engage them. My fourth grade teacher read Mary Poppins to us at the end of most days. Then she read Lassie and I couldn't wait. I just had to own the book. Actually it is a very difficult reading book with all its dialect but I was motivated.
For reading aloud, it is necessary to assess their understanding level (a rough IQ test)and read to them at that level. And continue reading to them until there is no difference between independent level and understanding level.
This is not the only way to approach reading but it is a good one for the classroom teacher.
It makes a great deal of psychological difference to have just one person validate your reality. A great psy study on that was done by Asch in the 50's. Just one other person.
It took me a year to read Toynbee I was so depressed and it got worse and worse. When I finally discarded denial it was better for me. Just a little. There is no mistaking his signals of disintegration. It is upon us. We were in rout and rally for a long time but have left that phase. The best I had hoped from Obama was to establish the Universal State which emerges from an empire's disintegration. Not a best outcome but better than chaos, as Lovecraft saw it.
Or the one I love the most is Paul Goodman and especially his Growing Up Absurd which was a hippie bible for the more intelligent ones. In his stories, which are gems that no one wanted much to publish (controversial and lovely)he comes back over and over to the theme of rescue asw an alternative. That and art, since he was a great writer. The only one Susan Sontag took with her to Paris when she went there to write herself.
Lori, I find it completely understandable that you would feel the way you do about humanity considering the abuse that you suffered at the hands of others. I also understand why you would not want to have children. It makes perfect sense to me. Both my mom and dad were somewhat neurotic and my father eventually had a complete nervous breakdown which required years of recovery.
My deceased brother was a very talented musician but he really was quite neurotic and physically ill for most of his life. I have a son who suffered major physical problems including one so severe that he had to have surgeries on both legs. He also had a strange genetic abnormality with his mouth and teeth that required years of dental work and a whole lot of money to fix. My daughter has suffered thru years of emotional turmoil, finally having to take anti-psychotic medications. All of these problems seem to have been genetic. None of these problems were caused by abuse but we never know what is going to happen when we decide to bring children into the world. I wouldn't trade my kids for anything but I sure hope they recover physically and emotionally from all their problems. And I hope that you get the help that you need to work thru your problems too. There is no quick fix for the childhood trauma that you have talked about. But, I believe that there are lots of other folks who have suffered as you have and I'm pretty sure they would be willing to help you. And you are not a coward for failing to do away with yourself. You are simply fulfilling a basic natural desire for self preservation and in so doing, you are sparing the life of someone who I would probably like to have as a friend. You seem to be the kind of person who should remain on this planet for a long time. However, during the 60 years that I've been alive, I have met some people who should get sucked up in a tornado funnel (if life was fair). Maybe those are the kinds of folks you have been dealing with all your life.
Canuckistani says he/she? doesn't know why he/she? comes to this blog--and I wonder why I come, too--until I see a post like Canuckistani's, which makes it ALMOST worth wading thru the white supremacist dreck and the rest of the quicksand that sucks me down, down down to a place I don't want to be. Dale, Asoka, also worth the trouble. Stick around Canuck, we NEED you. And in case you missed it, I think you'll get a BANG out of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVgOl3cETb4
Well someone from my kakrass as Vonnegut would say. I have been expecting this since 1980, was positioned and ruined by betrayal. So I am in a new life.
I have been studying this for about 30 years now and you are doing the correct thing. Everything always costs exactly the same as it always did. It's just the dollar that depreciates. People talk about inflation, gas going up, food going up and they are wrong, wrong, wrong! Nothing is going up. The dollar and other currencies are going down.
Prices do not go up, the dollar goes down!
We may hit deflation but that will still be ok if you have precious metals. you will just be in a holding position. But to give all this money away the presses have been going 24/7 for overa year now. Inflation is like a coiled rope. You feed the supply into it and nothing changes, and you keep doing it and gradually the coils straighten out and when the rope becomes taut you have hyper inflation. The problem this time around is that there are no jobs. So people with cash will buy up at rock bottom prices and be stuck with hard stuff nobody wants. Right now china is selling our debt and buying hard assets (real estate) all over the world. They are no going to be holding the bag. They know their Marxist-Lenin stuff and they know Marx and Engels, who supported Marx investing in the market. Sorso is the only major one out there who understands. Even Buffet is taking a beating with his approach.
If you have precious metals then they should be in your own personal possession. Bury in your back yard the way Indians do to save for their kids medical school in the US. Smaller bars are more tradeable than large bars but non-numismatic coins pre 1965 are the best for bad times. It is very easy to get something with a silver dime than try to cash in a gold bar. Also dangerous. The coins have a high extra value added to them now as they are harder to get and very desirable.
If you already have precious metals you can "insure" them by buying put options to protect your investment just in case they go down. If the house doesn't burn down you will be out the money. But if it does you will be protected very well. Buy them "out of the money" and far away in time. It's called speculation if you don't have any precious metals.
You can put the dollar for a thousand or so. Or bet on the Swiss franc to go up. Many ways to play this.
Ass kissers was what I meant.
When he is talking about cohousing in Utah you are probably wrong. I said probably.
When he refers you to the site cohousing.org it has nothing to do with Mormons or LDS. My problem with the cohousing site is that it is very expensive now to buy your way in. Cohousing differs a lot from Intentional Communities. They are two different animals.
a little research and click through on hs link would have informed you but instead you want to react and attack him.
Learn a little cool.
Come Back to the Raft Agin, Huck, Honey by Leslie Fiedler is the name of the essay on dark skinned homoeroticism in the great American classic novels.
In response to the stone savages posting on this site who are advocating forced breeding of white women...
It was men (and women) who think like you who inspired this white woman to get her tubes tied at age of 28. I was going to be god-damned if I was going to forced into incubator service against my will.
You see, I was sure that I didn't have the temperament to have kids. But I was even more sure that I didn't want to be forced into being a human incubator for the benefit of affluent white people. This was the early 80s, and reproductive freedom was on the ropes with the election of Reagan. The religious fundamentalists and social conservatives were at high tide- a very scary time.
There are many, many reasons that a reasonably well-off person from the dominant social strata might not want to breed. You might have doubts about your financial future, or your emotional stability, or your health. For example, if you can see that every third person in your family develops a genetically based disease at the age of forty, or there is a lot of severe mental illness in your line, well, those are very good reasons for not breeding. While my family does not have these problems, I had my own good personal reasons for avoiding breeding, the chief consideration among them being the potential financial difficulties I could (and did) find myself in.
No culture will win by "outbreeding" its rivals. All that it will accomplish is to breed itself down into poverty and savagery. You might notice that societies tend to be dominated by people who are a numerical minority but have advantages of education, connection, and socialization the rest of us lack. You won't be able to confer those advantages on your offspring if you breed yourself into exhaustion, ill-health and financial destitution.
Those of you who believe that a particular group of people should be forced to breed should instead volunteer to foster-parent or adopt a child from among one of the hundreds of thousands of children whose parents can't or won't take care of them. There are over 25,000 of them in Illinois alone,and believe or not, a massive percentage of them are white, which won't help them one bit as they get passed from one crappy foster home to the next and get cast out of the system at age 18, with inferior educations, zilch social induction, and no ability to cope with life at all.
The fount of civilized values is the respect for individual rights, which is something we have yet to get a grip on and are now losing quickly.
Yes. :) Use any name you'd like. :)
Laura, good for you for tying your tubes! I tried in my 20's to get my tubes tied but was told by several (male) doctors that I would change my mind and have babies eventually. Now I'm 50 and I won. I didn't have any babies, in spite of those doctors insisting I must and would! I almost wish I could go back to them now, find them, and say to them, "see? I never changed my mind, never had any baybeezzzz...."
It's a wonderful feeling of triumph I have. I won. I refused to be anyone's incubator.
I do hope most doctors these days listen to young women and grant them their wishes to have their tubes tied. I hope things are better now than they were when I was in my 20's.
Thank you, Dolan. I'm okay. I just see things very clearly, and I don't deny my past. Nor do I deny what I see all around me. It sounds like you have suffered, too, seeing those around you struggle with problems. Life really isn't all that wonderful. I think that's why we all hope the afterlife will be wonderful.
"10% or above = depression!"
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Abbey, what does the above definition, that you saw fit to Bold in your post, have to do with what Asoka wrote? Asoka is gloating that the Recession is (supposedly) "technically over." He never mentions Depression. Tell us, if you will, how economists traditionally define the end of a recession.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
You've done some great things! The program I'm in just uses pen pals to encourage kids to read. The kids are excited to have some attention from an adult, and to receive letters. I just signed up for the program so I don't have my student yet but I'm looking forward to it. Reading is such a great thing because it's an escape hatch from this world.
Kudos to Dale...
Sui Bono.....remember? it's easy to sort out if you keep that in mind......Stop reacting and THINK.
The ACORN subsidy vs Fed-assisted Kleptocracy example is great. If the inputs are correct, the actual answer is 10x worse,
(soln w/exponents: 1x10^12 / 3x10^6 = 3.33x10^5)
with the Kleptocrats receiving ~333,333x more. Sadly, the real picture is worse still: $1 Trillion is optimistic lower bound.
Abbey, you are essentially correct about the value of the dollar going south as opposed to the term "inflation" but it's much more preferable for all the economists to use terms like "inflation" and "deflation" for psychological reasons. The minute that they start talking about the dollar (fiat currency) losing value, people may sit up and take notice and the ruling elite of this country don't want that to take place. Terms like "inflation" and "deflation" register with many people as just something very normal that happens all the time with no long term negative results. These folks don't understand what the term hyper-inflation means and I'm sure most of them have never even heard of the Weimar Republic.
As far as coins are concerned, I have long suggested that people have some silver coins in their possession. Gold coins are much too expensive and can you imagine taking them down to your 7-11 and asking the clerk there for change? But a new silver Liberty coin might just get you a bag of food while a soon-to-be worthless greenback might get you a blank stare from the same clerk.
If you read JHK's latest book, he touches upon this subject. However, he has his characters still using greenbacks but inflation is clearly up to the sky. One of his characters pulls out a huge wad of bills in an effort to purchase some freshly caught trout.
Of course, I could be wrong about all this and we might eventually start seeing thousand dollar bills show up at our favorite Quicky Mart or maybe even million dollar notes like they have in Zimbabwe. If that happens, I guess I'll have to take my silver dollars down to my favorite coin shop and ask them for some million dollar bills. That is, if the looters haven't burned down the coin shop and run off into the night.
I feel the same as you. I began teaching out of college, got married, but used birth control. I soon saw that complain about everything the school was doing. I did not know any free schools then, or about Waldorf schools, or The School in Rose Valley in Media. And my educational philosophy was not formed as yet.
I decided not to have children sort of by default. I didn't see any men that I thought would be wonderful fathers. So I knew I would soon be in a conflictual relationship about them.
I am not talking about the end of a recession because there isn't going to be any end to this one. Just possibly they can drag things out for a decade or so until everyone gets used to less and big changes. If it's gradual then maybe we won't notice we are boiling to death.
I have been watching this since the 1960's actually when I took an economics course with Alan Greenspan at the Ayn Rand 9objectivist lectures. When he went into the Fed Reserve I didn't know it at the time (don't watch TV) but when I found out he became chairman I thought that the shit would hit the fan. After all he went against everything he taught by going into the Fed and became an anti hero from one of her novels. and Rand went to his swearing in ceremony, so shit on her too for speaking with forked tongue.
An economic depression is defined by 10% unemployment or more. This is why they are not talking much about unemployment figures. They are sliding over it and talking about retail sales increasing. They always increase in September as people go back to school.
This is all smoke and mirrors. 10% unemployment is with us and no jobs as far as the eye can see.
Analogy is a powerful tool, if used correctly, observing the limits. I wrote the following about this site, but it's valid in larger context, too:
As a psychotic organism, its bouts of rationality are dwarfed by a mix of insanity and conditioned reflex.
Its hated world is dying, which is thrilling & frightening. Useless, powerless, it contemplates suicide, but hesitates... allowing itself yet one more day of existence, before disappearing into eternity.
"One morning she said I thought of a poem as I was going to sleep last night."
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Abbey, though you may not believe it, I take no particular pleasure in attacking the utterances of female septuagenarians* but I just can't let this slide.
You are a sucker for a warm and fuzzy story (especially if it's about girls or women) in the same fashion that you buy into crackpot grand conspiracy theories.
This seven year old girl did not think up this poem all on her own while dropping off to sleep one night. It came about in much the same way as those seventh grade "Science Fair" projects do: 75% parent effort. I'm a parent with 3 grown kids so been there, done that. What, almost certainly, happened is that there was much discussion around the dinner table amongst an animal-loving family and her parents helped her to formulate the poem to spring on you in class for an inevitable A+ grade. BTW, how does a 7-year old kid know who Atlas is ... from reading Atlas Shrugged?
And another thing, 7-year olds don't naturally become vegetarians. They eat what their parents put in front of them and they absorb the family culture, whether it's vegetables, T-Bone steaks or racism.
I challenge you to find this Gosfield prodigy and ask her point blank if she was the unassisted author of that poem. While you're at it, ask her if she still avoids meat and, if so, how her blood iron level is doing.
* I used a big word to avoid the pejorative "little old lady." Besides, I don't know how tall you are.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
I read that WWE is the most popular thing on cable
i dunno...must be a sign of the times
'soon-to-be worthless greenback ' HOW SOON ???
I notice price of food skyrocketing
dont have a car so i dont notice gas prices
In LA the only price decrease is in the half million dollar houses that once sold for 5k!
"Qshtik", how do you pronounce that name? Sounds like "squished dick"?
To those of us concerned about sanctuary cities judge has ruled that the bolognas..or whats left of them can sue SF!!!! Yayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!
Meanwhile clintons gone there to help gavin GRUESOME try to be governor
Hi Observer, and thanks for the kind words. The video was pretty funny...kinda Springsteen by way of Weird Al and Michael Moore.
There are too many truly good and intelligent people in this country, to leave our fate to the Palins and the Glen Becks. But the good people had better man up and start telling the truth with some conviction that the truth matters.
Poor Jim. His lips are wrapped so tightly around obama's dick that he can't think straight. Blaming Sarah Palin instead of the US Senate (including former senator obama, who gives jim kunstler a huge boner.)
You are a sexist shmuck, Jim. Stop taking pathetic swipes at hillary and sarah palin and admit that you were duped by michelle's man-meat.
And for god's sake, stop slurping on obama's dick!
There are too many truly good and intelligent people in this country, to leave our fate to the Palins and the Glen Becks. But the good people had better man up and start telling the truth with some conviction that the truth matters.
Poor Jim. His lips are wrapped so tightly around obama's dick that he can't think straight. Blaming Sarah Palin instead of the US Senate (including former senator obama, who gives jim kunstler a huge boner.)
You are a sexist shmuck, Jim. Stop taking pathetic swipes at hillary and sarah palin and admit that you were duped by michelle's man-meat.
And for god's sake, stop slurping on obama's dick!
Well you clearly trashed White People which doesn't make sense if you really hate everyone equally. Now when called on it, you shift your ground. Make up your mind what you believe or at least how you want to be percieved. They're not the same thing but most women really don't know the difference.
Most victims victimize other people. You have your pet hates-White Men in particular.
"Reading is such a great thing because it's an escape hatch from this world."
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Oh this is wonderful! You are going to be assigned a kid whose mind you can warp by telling her that reading is " an escape hatch from this world." If the kid happens to have an ounce of joy in her life you'll be sure to snuff it out real quick.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
"Forced Breeding of White Women was the way to go"-Oh really? Who said that? Go back and look at what was said. You're making shit up. What I said is that Feminism is a force of great evil. That's all.
"I am not talking about the end of a recession"
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I know your not but that is what Asoka is talking about. You're avoiding the question and changing the subject.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
The consensus is the recession is over and unemployment will continue to climb throughout next year.
JHK says about the economy that this moment is:
"exactly the moment when what's left of the so-called economy is most likely to implode."
I disagree. We are no longer sliding downward, and we are not in a depression like the Great Depression.
We have hit a bottom plateau, according to Buffet, though it may take two years to climb back up.
The important point is we are not sliding downward anymore thanks to Obama.
"The Federal Reserve last week said 11 of its 12 regional banks reported signs of a stable or improving economy in July and August. A measure of U.S. participants’ confidence in the world’s largest economy was unchanged at 47.3, the survey showed, after jumping from 29.5 the previous month.
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who last year called the financial crisis an “economic Pearl Harbor,” said Sept. 15 that the U.S. economy has “hit a plateau at bottom.”
http://tinyurl.com/p77lg3
"I decided not to have children sort of by default. I didn't see any men that I thought would be wonderful fathers."
--------------------------------
You've got me confused as hell Abbey. You "got married, but used birth control." Was the decision to avoid conception for economic reasons or did you realize from day one that you had made a lousy mate selection?
Later you say you "didn't see any men that I thought would be wonderful fathers." This includes the man you married and all the other males on the face of the earth, right? Were you divorced prior to the insight about "wonderful fathers?" If so, who dumped who (or is it "whom?"). Was it you who didn't see any wonderful fathers or men who did not think you'd make a wonderful mother?
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
Most Tennis Fans would disagree-they want the traditions of gentility to continue. She shouted, I want to shove this fucking ball down your fucking throat while waving her racket. The lines woman was very upset-as was everyone. Her bahavior was as bad or worse than anything ever done by Connors or McEnroe. And yes, it seems worse coming from a woman.
Making excuses because people are Black is a form of capitulation to barbarism. We are losing. They are dragging us down to their level if we let them get away with stuff like this. For a person of your education and intelligence not to see this is shameful. Toynbee would call it a challenge-do we raise them up or do they pull us down. You are on the wrong side-again. In its own way this is as crazy as you thinking that Blacks are going discover new forms of mathematics with their body movements.
Dummy comment again.
I can't think ofanyone who wouldn't want to say what she did. After all, around here, for really saying nothing, people are called far worse. fucktards, etc. all she did was use the word fuck as an adjective twice.
Good on her, black or white. The ref deserved it.
Been reading The Rude Pundit I see.
If not check him out for really vivid sexual metaphors of a political nature.
You just want to fight. Find someone else.
You are quoting all the people who never saw the meltdown coming. I guess some people never learn, do they? Go find out what Soros thinks. He made money on it and Buffet lost. Does that count?
"The important point is we are not sliding downward anymore thanks to Obama."
---------------------------------
Print out the above words, date it Sept 16, 2009, revisit it every 6 months and report back. Pray to earth-mother that you don't have to eat those words.
As to Buffett, I listen to every word he says because I know he has the power to move markets. And he knows he has the power to move markets. He speaks like he's in a mine field. You don't think for a minute that he's going to say "the economy is in terrible shape, it's bound to get worse and God only knows when it will end." He would cause himself to lose billions in a day ... in fact, in minutes, and trillions more would be lost by others around the world.
Do you remember back 20-30 years ago there was a market pundit named Joe Granville who, for whatever reason, developed quite a following? The market became very "overbought" according to his data and he published his market letter with the simple message "SELL EVERYTHING." It touched off a crash worldwide. Imagine if Warren, with all his legitimate credentials, said something really negative. He is not that stupid.
What's up with the "work project?"
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
You know, know, there is someting about those crazy Russians. First there's Dimitri Orlov and Reinventing Collapse and then there are those crazy Russians over at The Exiled (as in from Russia).
"...unlike that awful, terrible hillbilly Joe Wilson, the Dems sat politely in their seats, just as the rules say they should, while Bush convinced the country to drive the bus over the cliff. Because heckling Bush might have broken the rules, and god knows if there’s one thing today’s liberals fear, it’s when someone doesn’t adhere to grade school civics class rules.
This is what I mean when I say that the only true opposition in this country comes from the rightwing. It’s been this way for the past 25 years, and it’ll probably be this way for another 25."
Class dismissed.
Bailiff, where's my golf clubs?
Well CRAP. Forgot the link.
http://exiledonline.com/why-wasnt-there-a-single-democrat-willing-to-heckle-bush-like-joe-wilson-did/
I feel the same. They can protest, yell, and scream to high heaven and it's OK. Let Obama call Kanye a jackass and that's all the media wants to talk about. The media people are idiots. They aren't journalists. Tell them to go home and type. That's what they do best. Type.
The dems are just afraid to stand up and be counted to use an old old cliche. Why I can't imagine rules they are just conditioned to helplessness. That really could be it, you know.
Congress is filled with mediocre intelligences and spineless people. I think they are all afraid of losing their jobs. Where could they find another gig so good? Really where?
"Qshtik", how do you pronounce that name? Sounds like "squished dick"?
------------------------
I was an avid pool player from age 14 to my late 50s when my vision deteriorated badly (floaters in both eyes and could not hold my eyes steady to focus).
I dreamed up the handle "Q SHTIK" (think Cue Stick) and had it put on my license plates. For things like internet names, passwords, etc I removed the space between the Q and the S.
I played a pretty decent game of 8-Ball and was, if I may say so, a minor pool celebrity in the Tavern Pool League in Central Jersey. There were many others who were far better players but few if any had no tattoos, all their teeth, and an MBA in Finance. I think they just couldn't believe it. My cachet began to fade when a young Korean medical doctor came along who was actually a world-class player.
BTW, my wife and I love the "squished dick" handle Zzz laid on me. That's my new nickname around the house.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
"Print out the above words, date it Sept 16, 2009, revisit it every 6 months and report back. Pray to earth-mother that you don't have to eat those words."
Praying & all forms of wishful thinking are useless. The system is already dead, it just hasn't stopped twitching.
Buffet & Soros have unique power & responsibility in this endgame. It would be interesting to know what survival options they are exercising.
"Dummy comment again."
--------------------------
Is it really Abbey? Think about it.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
"You just want to fight."
--------------------------
You have been playing the "little old lady from hicksville" card far too long. As I've said numerous times, my role here is not to fight but to deconstruct bullshit when I see it. Jaego and I seem to be the only ones willing to step on your toes when you deserve it.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
Playin the man huh?
I don't mind criticism. Just be intelligent when you offer it and you aren't even with an MBA. But I am way ahead of you on that graduate degree stuff.
Q said: "Print out the above words, date it Sept 16, 2009, revisit it every 6 months and report back."
Not fair.
This blog, which I have been following for years now, has periodically predicted complete economic collapse, complete banking collapse, complete breakdown of social order, completely empty store shelves, completely empty WalMart parking lots, the end of suburbia, etc.
And it is always six months out. Maybe triggered by skyrocketing oil prices caused by war, cold weather, hot weather, etc.
None of it has come to pass.
Now you say come back in six months.
The shit never hits the fan so the goal posts keep getting moved out six months.
And Obama gets no credit. Not fair.
There were predictions the shit would hit the fan before the end of the Bush administration, then by the November election, then by the January inauguration, then by the end of the first 100 days, etc.
There has been no collapse, no blood running in the streets, no store shelves empty, no $100 a barrel oil, no bank crisis like the Panic of 1837 when EVERY bank stopped operating, etc.
Yet Obama gets no credit. Not fair.
How many six month reports do you want before you are willing to give the POTUS some credit his intervention, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which he successfully got through Congress, and which is a long term plan which has not yet been fully implemented?
Correction:
"How many six month reports do you want before you are willing to give the POTUSsome credit for his intervention..."
It's like Obama is driving the car.
The citizens are the passengers in the back seat... like whiny little kids.... who are constantly asking "are we there yet?" "are we there yet?" impatient, angry, bitter and clinging to their guns, because they don't have the long term vision the driver has.
Oil price breaks 140 dollar/barrel barrier!!!
Thu, 2008-06-26
And there were predictions here on CFN that, because of peak oil and increased demand from China and India, we were headed to $150 dollar a barrel crude.
And there were CFN predictions oil would never go back down to $100 a barrel.
All wrong.
Bad prediction after bad prediction.
All wrong.
Qshtik: Thanks for excellent entrée: commentary & self-referential explication of style, plus Strunk & White...
I, too, learned pithy concept while swimming up the stream of corporate life. But, one needs precision, also.
Concision v. Precision, a struggle, the issue, & a multifaceted metaphor for our predicament.
Concision highlights the innate rapid-response mode of thinking so critical to our survival. It is filtered, compressed, reflexive. Precision requires more effort, is slower, more deliberate. The latter is essential to any sort of knowledge-based expertise, but can't replace well-developed reflexes.
You need both. Concise isn't always better, & can be substantially worse, if it evokes wrong emotional response. I posit our compulsion to place Style over Substance has insidiously devalued deliberate cognition -- thinking -- and facilitated the corrupt, emotion-driven society we see today.
i.e., the Value of Concise Style is aiding & abetting Misdirection, a key issue I've been harping about. I'll not expound further on this fertile topic.
Finally, your advice presumes my motivation is a need to be read & understood. While this would be nice, I don't expect it from this community. I'm deriving other value from this exercise... primarily catharsis.
PPS - White papers, presentations, weekly reports...ah, yes.
PPS - it's metaphor, no e, unless you mean métaphore, the French root (re. a different post)
Chris Martenson's excellent analysis, with data, is worth reading...
The Recovery Cost Too Much
"Now that Bernanke is taking victory laps for electro-shocking the economy back into an upright position, inquiring minds want to know what this statistical recovery has cost us."
http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/recovery-cost-too-much/27731
Bottom line?
~$2.8T cash (bailout, stimulus) + $8T guarantees = $11 Trillion
Effect?
$420 billion of temporary incremental economic activity
"It recalls a quote by Benjamin Franklin which we might paraphrase into, “They who would give up future prosperity for temporary economic growth, deserve neither prosperity nor growth” "
Charlie Gibson omitting facts, the real news. Not fair?
Van Jones, self admitted Commie, anti-semite, racist. Not fair?
Jeremiah Wright, anti-semite, anti-Whitey, hate filled sermons with Obama listening for 20 years. Not fair?
Regression on race relations thanks to Obama. Not fair?
Ego driven narcissism by Obama. Not fair?
Lies, lies, more lies from Obama. Not fair?
Democrats realizing their jobs are on the line in their states and districts. Starting to defect from Obama. Not fair?
Loose ends by the dozen from Obamaites. Not fair?
Hand picked czars not being vetted by House and Senate. Not fair?
Business as usual, not change. Not fair?
Selective justice from Eric Holder. Not fair?
Asoka, you are a blowhard. You are selectively deaf and blind, also. Not fair?
You can OWN the Arizona State Capitol!
Just $780 Million, with lease back from state over 20 year term of lease you make $1.4 Billion!
http://www.suburbanempire.com
biting, caustic, fresh, daily... suburban empire
Looks like some of the peasants are revolting
Debt Revolts begin as credit card companies start raising rates unilaterally.
http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/09/youtube-debtors-revolt-begins-now.html
And Jefferson was amazed at how close Ancient Israeli Law was to the Ancient Germanic Law of his Saxon ancestors. Is this all just coicidence or could we BE the Ancient Israelis? Tuath De Dannan-Tribe of Dan? This is certainly a very attractive thought. It would explain why the Jews have developed a system-the Talmud-diametrically opposed to our's-because they are not the real Israelites but just the people who moved in after Israel was forcibly deported.
But of course, wishing doesn't make it so. The Truth is Universal and good men of all Cultures will say much the same thing. There are even good parts of the Talmud such as "Sayings of the Fathers". But there is a special reverence for individual freedom which we have that is not found in Confucius or Hammurabi or Mohammad. This trait has lead to our great Promethean undertakings and quests-for both good and ill.
See how it works? One person, PeakOilLori, makes something up, someone else likes it, and voila-a new falsehood is born. No one here said anything about forcing women to breed. We're not Muslims for God's sake. Millions of Wicca Women believe that millions of women were burned to death for being witches. Their own pundits like Margot Adler and Starhawk have told them that it never happened. Doesn't matter. They like it and they are going to believe it-no matter what. As Mark Twain said, a falsehood is half way around the world before a truth is even out of the gate.
But I am indebted to you neurotic ladies-you have taught me something about the world. This is how what Wilhelm Reich called emotional plague gets started. A mother cat is fiercely protective of her kittens. Abbey doesn't have any kittens, so she adopts lost ones. PeakOilLori is the new Jaycee Duggard. She is fiercely protective of everything her "lil sis" says and believes-even though Lori doesn't care to distinguish facts from her projections. You like what is going on, so you repeat it too-it has to be true, it was said by a womyn!
The classic case is of course, The Salem Withch Trial. Bored neurotic girls created a reign of terror against hated groups-in their case eccentric old women to begin with. They get more daring as time went on and went for more respectible targets. In the case of Lori, Abbey and you-the hated group is Heterosexual White Men. Of course, such things would end quickly in a sane society. But our's isn't sane any more than old Salem. White men are persecuted all the time by this kind of thing-thrown out of their homes, falsely accused of rape and the accuser then walks away scott free, and of course, accused of sexual harrassment at the drop of a pin.
These kind of people are dangerous-if you look at them, you are raping them with your eyes. If you happen to be behind them on the street, they think you are following them, etc. Learn the signs and stay away from them-which is what they want or think they want anyway. The Enemy has triumphed. Feminism has cast asunder the genders of the White Race. Divide and conquer. The Centre cannot hold and a House divided cannot stand.
Damon,
I intentionally WAS underestimating the case regarding the significance of ACORN funding vs. government largesse to corporate America.
The 1 trillion dollars of money used to buy mortgages (thus supporting zombie banks and artificially high RE prices) was my "non-partisan" example. If you want to be more accurate, add another trillion or so for purchasing existing bad bank debt and bailing out the rating agencies for their unregulated insurance schemes. Add to that the estimated 1 trillion in total eventual cost of the Iraq War and you have some real idea of the flow of funds from the taxpayers to corporate America either directly or indirectly.
ACORN = "look over here, not there, over here"
Sui bono.....all you need to know about where we are in terms of political reality.
Non PC Canadians say that Obama reminds them of Pierre Trudeau. An elegant, urbane man, he seemed at home in both the English and French culture and the perfect choice to bring Canada back together. But beneath that cultured exterior, he turned out to be a vicious French partisan. His reign helped drag Canada down and farther apart. Obama, they say, has proven to be the same and will do likewise to America.
I predicted here awhile ago that "health care reform" would constitute an interval of time where the politicians would extract all the money they could from the lobbyists, followed by passage of a bill which would reward insurance companies with even higher profits.
The past CEO of Cigna (one of the nations largest insurance companies) mentioned yesterday that if congress passes a health care bill without a public option, "they might as well title it the; Insurance Company Profit Protection and Agmentation Act".
Of course, that is almost surely exactly what they will do.
I wonder why Fox isn't all riled up about this one;
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-09-17-little-used-airports_N.htm
Here is an answer Daniel Quinn gave to the question--- "I think there are two issues we should focus on to begin our revolution: consumerism and personal debt. What do you think?" Quinn's Answer: "A great many people have written to me to say, "Here are the things we have to focus on." For some it's as obvious as the population explosion. For some it's as vague as teaching respect. For others it is as specific as equal rights for women. For some it's as utopian as ending injustice. You would have us start by focusing on consumerism and personal debt---both important issues to be sure.
You've seen that no recommendations are made in my books regarding what we should focus on. This is because these books are about VISION--- and vision doesn't focus, it looks everywhere at once. I keep returning to the excellent example of the industrial revolution. At the beginning of this revolution, it might have seemed like perfect sense for someone to say, "We must begin by focusing on energy production," or "We must begin by focusing on standardization issues," or "We must begin by focusing on mass-production techniques"--- but this revolution was driven by vision, so it didn't focus on ANYTHING. The whole thing happened at once on every front. And now once again the whole thing must happen at once on every front--- if we're going to manage to survive here at all. It's wasted effort for us to squabble over what should be done first or what should be focused on to the exclusion of everything else---it must ALL be done. Individually, we must NOT wait for a global consensus about priorities. If we do nothing while waiting for that consensus, then we're doomed. The house is in flames NOW. We can't wait for appropriate equipment to be ordered and delivered. We can't wait for instruction in fire- fighting techniques. We can't wait for leadership. And we certainly can't wait for everyone to agree about where to begin and how to proceed. Grab whatever tools are available to YOU and do what you can." Quinn has also stated-in his book Beyond Civilization "Given the realities of our situation, going back to the hunting-gathering life is as silly an idea as sprouting wings and flying off to heaven. We can walk away from the pyramid, but we can't melt away into the jungle. The Mayan solution is utterly gone for us, for the simple reason that the jungle itself is gone and there are six billion of us. Forget about going back. There is no back. Back is gone.
But we can still walk away from the pyramid."
"But I am way ahead of you on that graduate degree stuff."
-------------------------
Good for you Doctor ... I couldn't have tolerated another moment of schoolin.'
But, I'd like to change the subject for a moment. You mentioned having some rescued dogs and cats. How many of each and do you have any other animals, like birds, or fish, or whatever?
On Sunday we are picking up 3 young kittens from a shelter. Our last cat, Zeva, died in June. Prior to that we had Elfin and before him, Shalimar.
I built a pyrimid as a cenotaph in their memory. They are buried elsewhere on our property. The pyrimid is in exact proportion to the "Great Pyrimid of Kuhfu" in Egypt and is even aligned to true north. Each side at the base is 5 ft long. This makes all dimensions work out to about 66/100ths of 1% of the Great Pyrimid. The wife, kids and I all love cats. My daughter is bordering on obsessive. My eldest son has a picture of Elfin as wall paper on his home computer desktop. He won't use the picture on his computer at work 'cause he thinks it might look too girly girl. We have no other animals.
I think there is some faint line on love for animals beyond which a person might be considered to have "issues" and I wondered where you might see yourself relative to that line.
The cat-shelter lady from whom we are getting the 3 kittens has in her home 8 dogs, innumerable cats, 3 large parrots and god-knows what else. The house is a dirty mess ... how could it be otherwise. She herself just learned she has (probably terminal) lung cancer. She has a grossly overweight 19 yr old daughter who is also an obsessive animal lover. Not sure but I think the husband split years ago. This is a household with some serious animal issues.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
"None of it has come to pass. Now you say come back in six months. The shit never hits the fan so the goal posts keep getting moved out six months."
-------------------------
You make many valid points in the referenced post and those that followed. Predicting a scenario is difficult enough but the timing of it is nigh on impossible.
I have always thought JHK was way overboard with his predictions. When the visionary sees dire straits ahead it seems they will be reached next week at the latest. But, as someone pointed out at this blog, the fall of Rome played out over hundreds of years and some effects of that empire persist today.
My own prediction that the bear market would resume beginning Sept 8th was dead wrong. The market has gone straight up since that day. Nevertheless, I do not see the rosy future you see.
Soooooo, once again I ask ... what's up with the work project? The way you made it sound, I wasn't expecting to see you back here till 2010.
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
"Not fair."
---------------------
OK, I'll take the burden off your shoulders. I'll report back to you in six months - Mar 16, 2010. You can rest assured I'll be on the lookout for the slightest thing to turn sour ;-)
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
"That is more than tasteless. You need to apologize and not do this sort of thing again."
I answered an absurdity with an absurdity. Had the initial absurd statement not been made I would have had nothing to answer to.
"I built a pyrimid as a cenotaph in their memory."
Why am I not surprised? What a complete douche.
"What a complete douche."
----------------------------
WHAT? no -bag? ... no -lips?
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
It's really hard to say when people go over the line on dealing with their pets. I would probably be referred to as an animal nut because of some of the things I have done. I've rescued 3 or 4 dogs. I rescued a male cat and ended up spending about $2,000 on medical bills for him over a period of several years. An animal hater in my neighborhood poisoned a bunch of neighborhood pets and my cat died as a result. I buried him in my yard and my wife and I still have problems talking about him because his death really affected us so much.
I buried about 8 Golden Retriever puppies next to my cat. My nephew's female Golden had puppies at the same time his wife delivered their baby. The mother had buried the puppies in a hole she had dug. So, my wife and I went and got the puppies and bottle fed them about every 3 to 4 hours. We saved 2 puppies and one of them became one of the best dogs I ever owned. Our vet told us that we were lucky to save those two since their mother had rejected them.
Currently, I have two Golden Retriever females who are sisters (older and younger) and I kiss and hug them every day. Maybe somebody would think I was a crank for doing that. The thing is that I'm an animal lover.
However, there is always one of those "cat ladies" in any neighborhood. We had one who had about 30-40 in her house. Things finally fell apart when this woman wandered naked down our block. They ended up taking her away to a mental health facility and they took her cats to a shelter. Now, that's the kind of person who has definitely gone off the deep end on animals/pets.
It took 7-8 years for housing prices to recover after the Savings and Loan Fiasco (400 billion) of Bush #1 in the early nineties. It will take longer (if ever) for housing prices to recover after Bush #2 ran the same scam all term.
The Bush scams are basically this:
1. Get in office and look the other way while their donor/financial insiders loot the systems any way they can as long as they can.
2. Insiders make sure to throw some greed-bones to regular folks to keep them quiet and complicit in it.
3. The insiders off-shore all of the funds in the Caymans etc (example: http://www2.goldmansachs.com/worldwide/cayman-islands/index.html ) - to later swoop in and buy up all of the best assets for pennys on the dollar.
4. then it all crashes.
5. When things come back years later they then own even more of everything - and they made sure the tax code continues to give them their special loopholes so they pay almost no taxes!
6. the American people pick up that tab too.
As Jim says, we have peak oil and everything else to consider now. The last couple dozen years went by without a single monorail being installed in America. I always considered the monorail as the barometer of possible progress...
More evidence of the Great Unraveling. A tearful Pelosi has warned that the ongoing craziness could lead to 1960s-style violence.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/17/pelosi-warns-of-violence_n_289999.html
"More evidence of the Great Unraveling. A tearful Pelosi has warned that the ongoing craziness could lead to 1960s-style violence."
Can't wait.
Dale: in violation of tacit protocol, I agree and will add...
ACORN is contemptuous distraction. In a sense, it's a cleaver tool used by predators to incapacitate prey. As with any powerful tool, misuse can be quite dangerous.
If you also consider war costs, you get dangerously close to the paradoxical raison d'être. The USA and its War Machine are symbiotic tragedy. Existentially codependent, mutualism has morphed to parasitism, which is killing the host.
To be honest, I meant "clever" (ingenious), but "cleaver" works just as well, and illustrates the mode of action. Plus, they're from the same root.
I have two dogs and 4 cats who are insidcde/outside ones. I volunteer for a non-profit in St. Louis that holds adoptions at PetCo every sat and sun for 20 years. So I get them here in the Ozarks, take them to her where she has beautiful air-con and heated kennels, and she takes them to the adoptions on the weekends. So it's sort of like an underground railway.I couldn't do it without her. Darling dogs that are mistreated here are adopted for 126-275 in St. Louis after all the medical stuff is done, which my director does at the pet palace Webster Groves Animal Hospital in st louis. When enough people cooperate great things can happen. If I did it myself I could only do 2 dogs at most a year.Ths way I sometimes move 25-30 into homes with fenced in yards and vet references etc. Ad allour dogs are with us for life. If for any reason they can't keep them, no matter how long, they come back to us.
My friend in st louis does the cats and it seems like all she does is scoop littler boxes!
If they poisoned pets then on a rainy night, throw salt all over their lawn. I really feel that people like this will never stop until they find out they will get it back. They won't kow when or how, but it will deter them. It does in a city when you own property and can be retaliated against. I know how it feels to lose a pet under those conditions. I accidentally ran over my own dog once and beat myself up for almost a year as I adored him.
The problem with rescue is the same as this site. My director has personally neutered or spayed around 25,000 dogs and she says the problem gets worse all the time. Especially now with the economy. I remember my mother telling me horrible stories about horses before cars. But it is the mentality and character of the people that create these problems, and then there are those of us who are trying all the time to clean up. so you have 2 forces working aginst each other to create stalemate. When you see you are one of the cleaner uppers, it makes you start to think about how your energy is blocked.
As Mao said, all must rise together. Or else some will try to pull you under and others will rescue. Some will watch (like in Kitty Genovese's death) and others will take their money and play.
It works the same at this site. Now that the commenting has been going on for awhile, the forces are mobilizing for and against others. The bickering has turned into insults and the endless arguments have started. It won't stop. and no matter how much you try to explain why you said what you said, your response will simply up the ante for the next attack. And so the intelligent contributors here will leave. Hving your own blog seems to be the only way to deal with this. So lonely,all the lonely people, where do all they all .....Eleanor Rigby
JIM K
As you may know Mexico is in the worst drought in 60 years, mexico city is very very badly situated.
4 cities I know that are growing and ' water critical' are
MC
Singapore
LA
Beijing [ no surprise on that one]
Also..this i find very sick:
I went to an so cal electric co meeting about solar panels
In Montecito the city charges 4000$ for the permit to put the panel on a roof!
NO WONDER OPRAH HASNT GONE GREEN TO GO ALONG WITH HER NEW AGE SENTIMENTS!
Granville..yes I have his 125$ book on my shelf!
What does WBuffet say about americas future? stocks? capitalism?
I READ HE SAID THE USA WILL GET NUKED...100% CERTAINTY BY 2050...by muslims
i read that in a mainstream newspaper or mag
$4000 for a permit. Well put that on the huff post someone please.
No it will never get untangled. Too much greed and greasing of palms.
why isnt the la times/ fox/ etc all riled about this one:
Monday, September 7, 2009
John Murtha's Airport for No One
Tyler Grimm , research assistant for The Wall Street Journal, wrote an editorial reviewing Representative John Murtha's egregious earmarks:
If you hate the hubbub of crowded airports, you might want to consider flying out of Johnstown, Pa. The airport sees an average of fewer than 30 people per day, there is never a wait for security, you can park for free right outside the gate, and you are almost guaranteed a row to yourself on any flight. You might wonder how the region ever had the air traffic demand to justify such a facility. It didn't. But it is located in the district of one of Congress's most unapologetic earmarkers: Democrat John Murtha. In 20 years, Mr. Murtha has successfully doled out more than $150 million of federal payments to what is now being called the airport for no one. I took a trip to southwestern Pennsylvania to explore how this small town received so much money and whether the John Murtha Airport is a legitimate federal investment.
JAEGO,
The other day, in an "I told you so" type comment, you posted a list of blacks who had recently displayed some bad behavior, e.g. Serena Williams. On the list was Michael Jordan. This surprised me since I couldn't think of an instance in his career where he had appeared to be anything but a gentleman. I googled his name as it relates to his being named to the B-Ball Hall of Fame and I viewed 2 speeches he made, one under 3 mins in length and the other near 10 mins. Both were wonderful, gracious speeches where he paid tribute to all manner of people, black, white, family, you name it.
In one speech he used the word "shit" but in a funny way that got a big laugh from the audience. Surely this could not have been your reason for including him on your list. What did he do recently that I failed to pick up in the newspaper and internet sports coverage?
P.S. Rico/Zzz delendus est.
Thanks
shes so wwwworried of us people
..we might not all be sheeple
I really liked the description of the killer as an ' arch conservative' !!!!
that really was the cherry on top!
didnt say he was x military/fire/law enforcement
yet in other so cal cities its zero..they waive the fee !!!!
start at the top:
http://www.gods-kingdom-ministries.org/weblog/WebPosting.cfm?LogID=1692
start at the bottom:
http://www.stonekingdom.org/bible.htm
Abbey, I think there are 3 types of people in regard to animals. Some are like us who probably go overboard, some who hate them or horribly use them (Michael Vick) and some people who simply tolerate them. I would rather be the kind of person who loves them even if it goes too far. I spent part of my life on a farm and we had all kinds of farm animals and that's probably where I got started. My dad had horses, cows, dogs, pigs, chickens, and even goats. Don't ever deal with goats if you can help it. If you have to wrangle them like we did, you will stink to high heaven. And our one giant billy goat was always trying to butt me and my dad. Take my advice and stay away from goats.
you might enjoy..if you havent seen
amazon: Kevin Macdonald's "The Culture of Critique
"What does WBuffet say about americas future? stocks? capitalism?"
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I doubt that I could add anything about Buffett that you don't already know.
As to America being nuked by 2050, I could certa