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Swingtime

    A lot of things started shaking loose last week, and not just in Haiti.  The Scott Brown senate seat victory in Massachussetts shook loose a Democratic “super-majority” that only had to be constructed because the US Senate stupidly turned the filibuster into standard operating procedure where it once was a seldom-used procedural dodge employed strictly by villains seeking to paralyze the chamber.  Thanks to the new system, the senate is now in a continual state of paralysis. 
     The election in Massachusetts prompted President Obama to understand that the voters were pissed off — among other things — about the special privileges of banks and bankers, after a year of force-feeding them taxpayer money like Strasbourg geese. So he outlined a bank discipline offensive that sounded an awful lot like the return of the Glass-Steagall Act — which several of his top advisors (Summers, Rubin…) had a direct hand in repealing a decade ago — only without proposing to reinstate Glass Steagall. Go figure. Note: for all the bluster, Mr. Obama did not mention activating the moribund Department of Justice, where Attorney General Eric Holder has been in a coma all year. Somebody ought to inform the president that he has an entire criminal investigation division there, and that a little brisk leadership could gin them up into action as they were following the Savings and Loan scandals of the 1980s (when Republicans were in power, by the way).
     Now, one big question is how come the president waited until after the Massachusetts election debacle to man up with the banks? Did it only just come to him that they were looting the nation — with government assistance? Pretty obviously nobody will believe that Mr. Obama is sincere about reining in fraud-ridden Wall Street until he issues pink slips to the Goldman Sachs alumni who have been running him like a radio-controlled monster truck: Summers, Geithner, Rubin, et al.  There was a hint of that last week, when the president made his statement with “the big guy,” Paul Volker, standing right behind him. Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner have both claimed more than once that they are “not regulators.” That must partly explain the absence of meaningful regulation all year.  My guess is that Geithner is about to be tossed overboard like a feculent weiner, and that the president is praying for the senate to vote against Bernanke’s reconfirmation this week.
      The underlying reality is that the financial sector of the economy has got to shrink. It ballooned from about five percent of the US economy to about 22 percent over the last two decades — mainly as a way to compensate for our declining real productive activity as we off-shored and outsourced and disassembled US industrial capacity. Capitalism only works when it operates in the service of productive activity. Trading mere paper certificates (or digital simulacra of them) in ever more “innovative” (i.e. abstract and  incomprehensible) ways is not a substitute for making goods. These practices reached such a grotesque level of unreality that they eventually poisoned what remained of our economic prospects. Now that their operations have been revealed as perfidious, these institutions have to be sliced and diced and, in some cases, punished, perhaps with extinction. It will happen anyway. The only question is whether civilian leadership can guide the process within the rule of law. In the meantime, the derivatives rackets that made up so much of the fraud — especially the trillions of dollars vested in credit default swaps contracts — are ticking out there like bombs placed by madmen, and may bring down the entire global money system before an orderly downsizing of finance can occur.
    The larger underlying reality is that the United States as an entire, integral organism, has got to contract, downscale, and reorganize. The mandates of energy resource reality demand it. We can’t maintain our way of life at its current scale and we have to severely rearrange and rebuild the infrastructure of it if we expect to continue being civilized. We have to get the hell out of suburbia, shrink our hypertrophic metroplexes, re-activate our small towns and small cities, reorganize the way we grow our food, phase out the big box retail (and phase in the rehabilitated Main Streets), start making some of our own household goods, and hook up the far-flung reaches of this continental nation with a public transit system probably in the form of railroads. By the way, there are plenty of “jobs” in this process, only not the kind of work we’ve been used to… sitting in cubicles or assigning tanning booths.
     No amount of wishing for techno rescue remedies, or techno-triumphal fantasies, will overcome this basic reality. This is change you have to believe in whether you like it or not. Most of America doesn’t like it and doesn’t want to think about it and is doing everything possible to prop up the old arrangements. Bailing out the banks is just a lame attempt to keep banking oversized. Bailing out the automobile companies was just a way to avoid the recognition that Happy Motoring will soon be over. Bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was just a way to avoid understanding that suburbia is finished. The “green economy” that so many people idly blather about — imagining that it will just mean running WalMart by other means than oil — is actually an economy of awesome stringency. It’s nothing like they imagine. It’s a world made by hand.
     We should be turning our efforts and our remaining resources toward the task of becoming  that differently-organized, finer-scaled society.The money that went into propping up the automobile companies could have been used to rebuild the entire railroad system between Boston and the Great Lakes, and the capital squandered on AIG and its offshoot claimants could have rebuilt everything else the rest of the way to Seattle. Is it really so hard to imagine what history requires of you?
      Apparently so. That’s why movements like Naziism start. If there ever was another nation beautifully primed for an explosion of deadly irrational politics, it’s us. And it looks to me as if that’s exactly what we’re going to get — especially now that the Supreme Court has made it possible for corporations to buy elections lock, stock, and barrel. I hope our constitutional law professor president turns his attention to proposing a legislative act that will sharply reign in the putative “personhood” prerogatives of corporations. They are relatively new entities in legal history, and their supposed “rights,” duties, obligations, and limits have been regularly subject to re-definition over the past hundred years.  There’s no reason to believe that the court’s current ideas are definitive. In fact, they are completely crazy — given the fact that the fundamental character of corporations is sociopathic, insofar as their only express allegiance is to their shareholders, meaning they are devoid of any sense of the public interest, meaning they are unfit to participate in electoral politics.
     Finally, I note the sad untimely death last week of the great Kate McGarrigle, 63, who with her sister Anna produced some of the finest music of a generation that was transcendentally saturated by music. They were folkies at the height of the rock and roll era, but their beautiful harmonies and lyrics rose above the din. 

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About James Howard Kunstler

View all posts by James Howard Kunstler
James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency and the four-book series of World Made By Hand novels, set in a post economic crash American future. His most recent book is Living in the Long Emergency; Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward. Jim lives on a homestead in Washington County, New. York, where he tends his garden and communes with his chickens.

451 Responses to “Swingtime”

  1. suburbanempire January 25, 2010 at 9:14 am #

    Yes, it is still all about oil!
    Take a tour of where your oil comes from…. and where your money goes!
    http://www.suburbanempire.com
    suburban critical, empire chronicle

  2. Puzzler January 25, 2010 at 9:25 am #

    The Scott Brown senate seat victory in Massachussetts is just the start of a voter revolt against BOTH parties. The coming elections will see incumbents on both sides thrown out, as they should be. Strict terms limits are part of the answer to break the professional politician class.

  3. Chris Lawrence January 25, 2010 at 9:29 am #

    I agree we need to downscale, reorganize, and grow more food locally, as you say. Peak oil will mean the end of suburbia and our excessive overconsumption, but it is not coming fast enough. And even as oil use declines, we are expanding our use of coal, which is even worse for global warming.
    I think the only way Americans (and Canadians) will change is when we are forced to do so. It may in fact be the fight against global warming by the rest of the world that could force us to make these changes we desperately need. As third world countries see the environment getting worse and worse, and the failure of international negotiations to do anything about it, they may eventually band together and force us to reduce emissions through the use of embargoes and sanctions. That might finally give us the incentive needed to do the reorganization that is needed.
    http://www.selfdestructivebastards.com/2009/12/beyond-copenhagen.html

  4. suburbanempire January 25, 2010 at 9:36 am #

    I have been thinking long and hard about the Republican/Democrat “thing”…. and have decided that (although it will bother me greatly to do so, as I am quite liberal) it is time to vote for the Republicans.
    Reason being that the “system” is incapable of reform, best course of action is to put the drunkest driver behind the wheel (give them enough rope) and let it do it’s self in.
    It will happen within a decade… no matter who wins… the price structure of oil will not support the “drill baby, drill” actions, and we are still in a very deep energy crisis (now forgotten for the decieveingly lower prices)
    A tour of where that oil comes from (and where the money goes)
    http://www.suburbanempire.com/front

  5. nothing January 25, 2010 at 9:38 am #

    Yes Jim, it’s Swingtime alright, with change coming faster all the time. Let’s hope the dollar is not completely destroyed by government in bed with Wall Street. Oh well, we can always print our own. See the latest currency at http://thenothingstore.com

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  6. upstatebob January 25, 2010 at 9:38 am #

    The most immediate problem is that the “economy” is a structural
    mess and there is no need for any more employees than are now at work, if even that many. -Not as long as the majority of stuff we buy comes from offshore. This really exposes the hoax of the service economy, made up of (as JHK notes) of tanning parlors and dog groomers. The army of guys hauling trailers with
    commercial lawnmowers through suburbia with their pickups has
    already shrunk by half. The “infrastructure building” that we saw last summer turned out to be miles of new blacktop resurfacing
    over crumbling roadbeds. What a shame. They should have at least armed the able- bodied with chipping hammers and buckets
    of paint and put them to work on the rusty bridges. A few masons with pointing trowels patching the pediments below.

  7. Lynn Shwadchuck January 25, 2010 at 9:43 am #

    And here in Canada our conservative Prime Minister has everyone pissed off because he prorogued Parliament until further notice. Gave them a two-or-three-month coffee break, closing out all discussions of bills that were in progress. Apparently there are a couple of Liberal senators who will time out during that period and Harper will be able to appoint cronies (yes, our senators are appointed!) before Parliament’s work resumes. Our progressives who think protesting works, are.
    Jim, I like your list of what needs to happen. We can all brush up on living like poor students, starting with eating more like the rest of the world and I don’t mean eating in ethnic restaurants.
    Lynn
    http://www.10in10diet.com/
    Diet for a small footprint and a small grocery bill

  8. Karen January 25, 2010 at 9:51 am #

    You’ve inspired me. I appreciate all that you do to wake America up! Here’s a blog post inspired in part by reading your blog:
    http://tinyurl.com/ybnejbf

  9. Fouad Khan January 25, 2010 at 9:53 am #

    Downsizing and humanizing modern industrial societies is necessary; it’s a change that’ll be gavaged down our throats by causality whether we can believe in it or not. Human civilization is about to enter a “death phase” similar to that experienced by micorganic populations in lab experiments. This death phase will be irreversible because entropy is a one way street only.
    But if we give in to these ideas do we give up on the millions of human lives that’ll be lost in the process of downsizing? What to do of the thousands of Haitis and Katrinas that’ll have to be in order to us to downsize? There’ll be blood. And pain.
    Human society moves forward by jumping paradigms and the time for another paradigm shift has come. We’d have to get by on alt energy (mostly nuclear) for the next three to four decades, minimizing the pain of resource poverty as we master the language of biology. When genomics will allow us to manipulate biology like physics allowed us to meld metal at the start of the last century, we’d have a new language to shape our world with. That’s when the new age of man will dawn.
    I wait for fourth generation biofuels.

  10. carh8tr January 25, 2010 at 9:54 am #

    Do you have to shill for that nothing website every week?

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  11. Steve Knox January 25, 2010 at 9:57 am #

    Do we have a future, not the way we’re going? Paul Krugman is the lead spokesperson for bigger deficits to stimulate the economy. How do you stimulate a corpse? He proves once and for all that he does not read or listen to JHK. rising debt service will require a faster growing economy, and that economy will require more resources, especially oil. If we don’t have the oil, then this fantasy comes crashing down. What was it Einstein said, the thinking that got us into this situation, is not the thinking to get us out of it. Put another way, when you’re in a hole, the first thing to do, is stop digging. Why is it that the liberal voters of Massachusetts get this, and our elite in Washington don’t? I agree with Jim that Obama will make motions to calm the crowd, but he won’t deliver.

  12. thomas99 January 25, 2010 at 9:59 am #

    Jimbo…thanks for mentioning Haiti once more. As long as Pat (Haiti made a pact with the devil) Robertson and Rush (Don’t give, it’ll raise your taxes) Limbaugh spew their venom, there is a need to emphasize what one CAN do to help. The web site is http://www.hopeforhaitinow.org. And thanks for the nod to Katie McGarrigle. I wasn’t aware of her passing. She and her sister produced a beautiful body of music.

  13. empirestatebuilding January 25, 2010 at 10:05 am #

    Thanks for turning me on me to the music of Kate McGarrigle
    I found this wonderful video on youtube and wanted to share it with all.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YrfLnlrquo
    Hard Times Come Again No More indeed.

  14. keny January 25, 2010 at 10:06 am #

    good column today. Calm and to the point. I miss the salad shooter references, however. And will miss the plaintive voice of kate McGarrigle.

  15. Desertrat January 25, 2010 at 10:09 am #

    Okay, we went from producing to shuffling paper. So? In this hand-made world, what are we going to produce and export, trying to have some positive balance of payments?
    We priced our labor out of international competitiveness for our products. It was only natural that we “exported jobs”. I see no way back except via lower wages.
    Given our present legal structure, how do we get those who are now living off tax dollars back into this hand-made production of whatever?
    There may be some window-dressing by Obama, but he’s not going to dump the folks who brought him to power. That would take a 180-degree reversal from everything he’s espoused. And the monetary policy course of Obama and the Congress was predicted in mid-2008, so I doubt that will change.
    Jim, I won’t argue at all with your overall view of this future world, but I really do believe we won’t see much movement in that direction until there’s just no escape visible to both the “leadership” and the public at large. Soccer Mama is gonna try to drive her Suburban to the mall until the last mall is gone…
    ‘Rat

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  16. out to lunch January 25, 2010 at 10:10 am #

    Regarding the decline of the suburbs, this new study shows that by 2008, for the first time, the suburbs were home the largest share of the nation’s poor; http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2010/0120_poverty_kneebone/0120_poverty_paper.pdf

  17. messianicdruid January 25, 2010 at 10:11 am #

    a must see video:
    State of the Republic – Ron Paul
    “Great Danger Lies Ahead”
    http://cryptogon.com/?p=13253

  18. bronorb January 25, 2010 at 10:13 am #

    Puzzler’s comment about “throwing the bums out” in the coming election is cute. Like that will change anything.
    I, for one, have given up on politics in this country because the system is corrupt beyond belief. I will not vote anymore and will no longer pay attention to anything that happens in Washington because it makes no difference one way or the other.
    The shit is about to hit the fan and nobody there even knows that there IS a fan.

  19. kw1941 January 25, 2010 at 10:14 am #

    Yup! We simple must transform our cities and towns into WALKING communities once again not unlike the still existing medieval cities such as Schwabisch Hall, Germany, Strassbourg, France etc, etc. There, one can still walked to buy bread (really GOOD bread at that!) veggies, and most other needs as well, and enjoy the stroll!
    All of this without burning fuel adding to the problem.
    First it’s necessay to replace your 5000 sq.ft. Mc manison for a liveable 1100 sq.ft. flat!
    This is tough to do for many folks because of high up-front costs associated with home sales and not be beholden to a realitor and an almost impossible market!!

  20. ELI316 January 25, 2010 at 10:15 am #

    This country is now on it’s downward slide and nothing will be able to stop it. What is really funny when I always ask someone what are you going to do when social security and medicare go away what are you going to do? The response “that will never go away the government would not allow it” This is the denial that Americans are in that you mentioned Jim. My only concern now is will I be able to catch a flight out of this country when the sh*t hits the fan considering the condition the airlines and airports are in. As far as Bernanke he will be elected again by his butt buddies but that will be a good thing because it will hasten the demise of our finacial elite.

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  21. Pangolin January 25, 2010 at 10:15 am #

    The bitch about all fantasy role playing is that while you are having fun with your buddies the real world moves on without you. Sometimes in ways dangerous to your well being. Wall Street and Washington have been getting free pizza delivery, cocaine and hookers for so long they can’t recognize a wolf when it’s biting them in the ass.
    Nature bats last. She does not care what you think when she lays it down. You are prepared, alert, fit and flexible or you’re road kill. The U.S. is headed into the road kill category. TPTB need a hard jolt and the Mass. election was not hard enough. Serve up some pain people.

  22. trav777 January 25, 2010 at 10:25 am #

    Bama trotted out Volcker to try to appear tough.
    He only bothered to pay attention to the voter anger once it threatened his party or his own position. Shameless self-centeredness, he reflects.
    Nazism reflected a lashing out at all the actors and factors that had contributed to a starving and despondent Germany. It was a party of war and conquest reflecting a popular sentiment that the German people had had ENOUGH.
    The banker clan really never went back to Germany. The German people learnt to mostly abhor war, moneychangers, and a whole lot of stuff that we and the UK revel in. The US could use such a transformation, but such a thing rarely comes except from a crushing defeat.

  23. retiredcurmudgon January 25, 2010 at 10:33 am #

    have “ABANDON HOPE” prominently posted inside my front door.
    rereading 1491 ( a book on the state of native populations in what came to be known as the Americas on that date by Charles Mann) I am astounded by the population densities reached by numerous empires over the centuries with hand tool agriculture.
    Meanwhile I cut big pieces of wood into little.

  24. not mommy January 25, 2010 at 10:39 am #

    Jimmy sez:
    “…the president is praying for the senate to vote against Bernanke’s reconfirmation this week.”
    Jeesus, Jimmy you are not serious. You actually think that Obama dares to even THINK that world markets wouldn’t go straight down the crapper if he pulls the chain on Mr. B? Just last week when asked his opinion on whether or not Bernanke would be confirmed Warren Buffett replied, ”
    “If he’s not confirmed, tell me ahead of time, so I can sell some stocks.”
    Then you say:
    “We have to get the hell out of suburbia.”
    Riiiiight. Over half of the U.S. population has to “get out” from where they live. And go where? You think abandoning what already exists and heading to where ever you think people should head makes any sort of economic sense or would accomplish anything other than destroying the already tattered social fabric of our nation?
    Where do you suggest that people who abandon the suburbs will be housed? Where will THAT money come from?
    Suburbia will have to be retrofitted. In every third cul-de-sac there will one day be a small mom and pop store that people actually walk to. Schools? Ditto. Kids walking a few blocks to what used to be a house but now schools 15 or so students, supplemented by the interconnectivity that our current internet provides. Auto access will be rerouted or eliminated to make way for bikes and people on foot. Three wheeled scooters, the type commonly found in Asia will help distribute goods and services as private auto ownership wanes. But abandon structurally sound shelters? Absurd in its very suggestion.
    And finally you say:
    “The money that went into propping up the automobile companies could have been used to rebuild the entire railroad system between Boston and the Great Lakes…”
    And why is that? So the retrofitted trains can sit and rot as riders continue to not use them? When it is time for the trains to be built or improved they will be. For now, outside some very limited east coast corridors, the riders do not exist. Go check out some of the passenger train data on ridership capacity. The numbers suck. Your proposed efforts at this time would be a black hole, dollar sucking boondoggle.
    And this whole train thingy is a bit ill thought. Think busses. They can actually go where people live and conduct their daily comings and goings rather than some damn train depot where the deposited travelers have to sit scratching their collective asses wondering, “How do I complete the next leg of my journey?”

  25. Steve January 25, 2010 at 10:42 am #

    The “green economy” that so many people idly blather about — imagining that it will just mean running WalMart by other means than oil —
    Blather – I love that word – read the Oxford English Dictionary definition.

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  26. Ziggy January 25, 2010 at 10:49 am #

    Long emergency or not, the near term future is going to focus on “Market Wars” — the struggle over who gets to control our Federal governments immense, market-making prowess.
    Right now, the government, through policy and direct investment, favors those in the upper one percent income bracket. But globalism and the off shoring of good paying jobs were not inevitable. They were founded in large part through government market making policy decisions.
    Similarly, the growth in the financial industry has been facilitated by government market making decisions like the repeal of the Glass Steagall.
    Where the government chooses to park its resources over the next two decades may be what determines how painful the transformations wrought by peak oil are going to be. If we don’t want the benefits to continue flowing to the Upper One Percenters, then Main Street better get busy figuring out how to get its place back at the table where our Federal government’s policy and investment decisions are being made.

  27. diogen January 25, 2010 at 10:50 am #

    JHK says “We have to get the hell out of suburbia”
    Get out of suburbia and go where? Cities? But wait, in the same sentence JHK says “shrink our hypertrophic metroplexes”.
    “re-activate our small towns and small cities,”
    Does that mean a new building boom of homes to accomodate the refugees from suburbia and metroplexes? Wouldn’t THAT turn small cities and towns into a new problem? And where would the money come from for all that building? And what would they do to survive once they are there, the local economies mostly ruined?
    I think the suburbs are here to stay, as regrettable as it is. I think it was in one of JHK books that he said 80% of everything that was built in America was built since the invention of the automobile. Are we going to abandoned 80% of our world. Ain’t happening.
    Suburbs have one advantage over cities: people own the land that can be used to grow some food when fossil fuel grown food will become too expensive. Inequity of land ownership was the key factor on social inequality and resulting strife most of human history. Suburban lawns may become the new breadbasket (or spinach basket) of America in the world made by hand…
    History has shown us that (other than SIGNIFICANT threat of vioence) when the times get tough, people don’t abandon their homes and property and go to places where they will have nothing to keep them alive. Abandoning suburbia is a utopian delusion. We have to find solutions in the world we have, not in the world we wish we had. As JHK says, history is pityless and our moment of wealth and glory may be irretrieavably gone, and the future belongs to places built on the human scale like Eastern and Western Europe, once again.
    In my travels thru Eastern Europe I saw small towns and villages where people grow food instead of lawn grass, and have rail connections to take it to markets in bigger towns and cities. Perhaps out suburbs can be converted into these more organic and wholesome ways to inhabit the landscape…

  28. hugho January 25, 2010 at 10:53 am #

    Thanks Jim for one of your best columns yet in which you laid out the utter unsustainability of the current work distribution of the US economy.Let me provide a few figures, some of which are from memory. In the late 50’s finance in broad terms(the FIRE economy) was about 14% of GDP and now it is (or until recently) was 37%. In 1960 8 million workers were on the government payroll(excluding the military) and today it is over 22 million with an average salary in the mid to late $70’s/per annum. We had 22.5 million workers in the US who made “stuff” in 1960 which has now declined to 18 million despite the large increase in population. The amount of real workers and government workers hit parity about the time of Bush’s second term. The rise of Barak was impressive and it led to a lot of false hope. His fall looks to be just as impressive which could be ominous. Of course to maintain some perspective, where would we be under a palin/Mccain reign?

  29. not mommy January 25, 2010 at 11:07 am #

    “Of course to maintain some perspective, where would we be under a palin/Mccain reign?”
    Well we probably would not have wasted the past year trying to spread enough pork around to ram a health care fiasco down the throats of an electorate that does not WANT this steaming pile of corrupt feces. And I don’t think we would have, for all practical purposes, nationalized the automobile industry.
    Would the creepy union heads with their locked voting bloc had as many private meetings at the White House as Mr. Obama has hosted? Me no think so.
    Need we go into a few too many acolytes of the Saul Alinsky school of governance, currently surrounding our Commander in Chief? I mean the type that never want to let a good disaster “go to waste”? I thought not.

  30. Chad M January 25, 2010 at 11:08 am #

    Along similar lines, David Stockman writes: “Behind the worthless loans stands a vast assembly of redundant housing units, shopping malls, office buildings, warehouses, tanning salons and fast food restaurants. These superfluous fixed assets had, over the past decade, given rise to a hothouse economy of jobs that have now vanished. Obviously, the legions of brokers, developers, appraisers, contractors, tradesmen and decorators who created the bad investments are long gone. But now the waitresses, yoga instructors, gardeners, repairmen, sales clerks, inventory managers, office workers and lift-truck operators once thought needed to work at these places are disappearing into the unemployment statistics as well.”
    “The baleful reality is that the big banks, the freakish offspring of the Fed’s easy money, are dangerous institutions, deeply embedded in a bull market culture of entitlement and greed.”
    David Stockman is a former director of the Office of Management and Budget.
    NY Times Editorial page, “Taxing Wall Street Down to Size” Jan. 20, 2010.

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  31. JED January 25, 2010 at 11:11 am #

    Some folks have a real rail system on their minds but I am doubtful they’ll get the policy, financial, or general public support to put the program in place anytime soon in the US. There’s even a big get together in FL:
    http://www.ushsr.com/events/florida2010.html
    Living in Germany now, down to one car in our family and doing fine. We get around on foot or rail or bicycle as needed for the most part. We can get around Europe comfortably via train and not have to worry about gas or parking or vehicle maintenance. It’s pretty great. The locals’ cars are very small by US standards.
    Germans really aren’t consumers the way Americans are. Everything is closed on Sundays, and the markets and some shops close early on Saturdays too.
    Paper or plastic? They don’t offer either here. You want a bag, you bring your own bag or box or backpack or kids to haul your stuff out of the store.
    They also recycle pretty much everything and it’s mandatory. They provide a bins for biodegradables, paper, and restmulle (the stuff that can’t be recycled) and bags for plastics, metal and coated paper. Glass must be taken to a special drop off point. There are places to drop batteries and light bulbs too. If you don’t sort your stuff right and they scan your can or bag, you get to pay extra to dispose of it or re-sort it for next month’s pickup.
    Solar panels are common on even modest homes. Oh and the wind farms that we say can’t be done in America? They’re all over the place here. It’s just fascinating to see.
    German housing is built to last – not cheap production housing we had in the states. The sad thing though is that suburban-style neighborhoods with golf courses(ack!)are sprouting here. Locals know the houses are crap and only foreigners looking to replace their suburban homes and lifestyles buy them.
    It’s been fascinating for me to see how things that we say can’t be done or won’t work in America are working quite well elsewhere. I think we have a people and policy problem in the States and things are going to have to get really bad before Americans wake up and collectively get on the bandwagon to make serious changes.

  32. The Mook January 25, 2010 at 11:13 am #

    What is so horrible about selling your stocks? Grab the cash and buy anything that can be used for trade when this thing is finally allowed to blow-up. Do you actually think any of these financial reports that are coming out are legitimate? Hey buddy, how about ten shares of GE for that pack of carrots? No, but I will take that TruValue rake you have over there.

  33. Winfield January 25, 2010 at 11:14 am #

    Someone shut up the nothing store fella. Every freaking week you segue your website so clumsily, pitiful.
    Also, after what Wall Street has done to real estate, I can’t wait to see what the derivative cap and trade scheme will do to our air. Toxic land and air, next up are derivatives for the seas? Just came up with that, but would not be surprised.

  34. 3rd Generation January 25, 2010 at 11:17 am #

    ‘Chemical Ali’ executed, Iraqi government spokesman saysJanuary 25, 2010 10:42 a.m. EST
    Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) — Saddam Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed — also known as Chemical Ali — was executed Monday, an Iraqi government spokesman said.
    He was hanged after having been convicted on 13 counts of killings and genocide, Ali al-Dabagh said.
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    An Idea whose time has come for failed American Politicians both past and present. I believe every living American has a few candidates…
    Enjoy the Day!

  35. Jim E. January 25, 2010 at 11:21 am #

    When a party controls both houses of congress and the Presidency, hubris creates an atmosphere of excess. The filibuster is the last line of defense against a reckless majority. If the majority is really representing the people then the proponents of the filibuster will be swept out at midterm.

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  36. bill goodridge January 25, 2010 at 11:22 am #

    Jim, Im sorry to hear you think its ok for unions to soak their members and give their money to candidates they may not even care about and these candidates pass legislation to run big biz and small biz out of biz. These companies should be able to try and protect themselves with pro biz candidates . This new decision from the Supreme Court will hopefully level the playing field again.The fact that you are on the same side with chuck u schumer should be enough to raise flags on this issue. Thanks,Bill Goodridge

  37. Pangolin January 25, 2010 at 11:26 am #

    Suburbs have the advantage of dirt, labor and water supply in close proximity. A hose bib allows you to grow a LOT more than waiting for the rain does. Unfortunately the average balloon framed house is a pile of polluted, drafty junk that will require massive retrofitting to function on low-energy budgets. Simply turning the heat off while continuing to cook and shower as normal grows mold. A shocking percentage of our current housing stock is going to simply rot and fall down when the HVAC gets turned off.
    Personal Rapid Transit could replace much of the road system and small freight delivery by simply overshooting it. Any other ultra-light rail system could do the same but we got in the nasty habit of putting infrastructure under roads and it doesn’t agree with rail beds. Asphalt is too expensive NOW for bankrupt localities to keep up with. Better get a sturdy cargo bike while you can still afford one.

  38. Puzzler January 25, 2010 at 11:28 am #

    No, I don’t think it will fix anything to throw the bums out. They all need to be thrown out because they so deserve it — and then throw the next batch out. I gave up on politics in this country many years ago. Since I pay for it, I revel in the immense entertainment value of Washington et al — it’s worthless for anything else.

  39. insanity shelter January 25, 2010 at 11:33 am #

    >given the fact that the fundamental character of corporations is sociopathic…
    This is dead on correct. And check out this fascinating and well written piece about sociopaths, and how shockingly common they are in our society.
    http://www.amazon.com/Sociopath-Next-Door-Martha-Stout/dp/0767915828/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264436882&sr=8-1#reader_0767915828

  40. Puzzler January 25, 2010 at 11:37 am #

    Wow, insight and thoughtful comments from Not Mommy and Diogen about Kunstler’s pie-in-the-sky notions. I really enjoy Kunstler’s word-smithing, but his grasp of economics fails horribly. He’s good at pointing out problems, but seems to think the solution is command economics, with the properly selected people issuing the commands. Ask Russians or North Koreans how that worked out.

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  41. ELI316 January 25, 2010 at 11:41 am #

    When it was announced last week that Ben Bernanke may not be appointed Fed Reserve Chairman the stock market tanked for 3 days in a row. When it was announced this morning that he now had enough votes again to be reappointed the stock market went up. Now tell his financial elite butt buddies on wall street do not control this country.

  42. jerry January 25, 2010 at 12:07 pm #

    Just because Obama has Volker standing behind him means little unless he acts upon those recommendations given him by Volker.
    Geithner is still around but planning a mutiny. He must be tossed overboard, along with Bennie the Beard Bernanke.
    There is a war against working Americans and it has been confirmed by the latest Supreme Court ruling.
    A major paradigm shift has yet to come, the revolt has just begun.
    http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

  43. Cash January 25, 2010 at 12:18 pm #

    All those years of easy money. All this financial wreckage. How did it come to this?
    I have a half baked theory: it happened because the high school social order is recreated in the business world.
    So the high school elite, the guys with square jaws, easy smiles do in the business world what they did in high school. They run the show. They are dominant, they are good talkers, they are convincing, they are listened to, everyone does what they say. In high school they got the chicks, in the business world they get the executive suite and the high paying jobs.
    Whereas the geeks ie the awkward, skinny guys with glasses and buck teeth, who, when they were told to pick a topic for an essay out of a list of three topics, did all three, who could not get girls to spit at them, who never went to school dances, who got slammed into lockers, well, they went into accounting.
    So what does a geek crave more than anything besides the busty blonde cheerleader? It’s social approval, specifically acceptance by the high school jock elite. So when the geek goes into the business world what does he find? The high school jock elite are in control.
    Maybe that explains how we got a situation where a geek, Greenspan, inflated and inflated and inflated the money supply for all those years. It’s what the high school jock elite, now running Wall Street and the business world, wanted. The geek, Greenspan, finally got the social approval he craved. The jocks toasted him, lauded him and egged him on, Greenspan was the Maestro, he could do no wrong. Greenspan gloried in the attention and adulation and, I’ll bet, behind his back, the jocks laughed at him. So now we have this horrible mess.
    Maybe that’s also how you end up with accounting scandals. The geeks running the corporate accounting dept. meekly do what the jocks in the executive suite tell them to do. If the command is just make the damn numbers, the geeks, in a vain attempt to gain approval, cook the books until they bear no resemblance to reality so the jocks can make their bonuses. Geek bean counters, held in contempt in the business world just as they were as geeks in high school, gain no approval, ironically the more they try to please the jocks in the C-suites, the more they’re held in contempt. And so the geeks try even harder.
    Just a theory.

  44. Al Klein January 25, 2010 at 12:31 pm #

    When Moses left Egypt with the Hebrews he ran them around the desert for 40 years before they entered the promised land. Why? Tradition tells us that he did that to allow two generations to die off. Despite their following Moses as the leader, they just couldn’t get the lure of the cesspits of Egypt out of their blood. They pined for it, despite knowing that it was no good for them. So after 40 years, the youngsters had no memory of Egypt and were not burdened with it prohibited allure.
    I suspect the message in this tale applies to us as well. Most Americans, even those who “get” what JHK is saying will still yearn for the free-wheeling, consumerist and fraudulent days of old. It’s in their blood, no matter what they may say. Only the most disciplined will be able to control their doppelganger who pines for the past, unsustainable excesses. I would hope to count myself among this latter group.

  45. Puzzler January 25, 2010 at 12:33 pm #

    And your point is? It’s always been this way and always will. Or do you suppose putting the geeks, bean counters or even the cheerleaders in charge is possible or even desireable?
    What’s needed is for Kunstler to be Emperor of the World and he can wave his magic fairy wand and the suburbs will disappear, trains will appear and the world will be right. Don’t worry about the 5 billion people that will have to die to reach sustainability.

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  46. Bergmann January 25, 2010 at 12:34 pm #

    KW1941,
    I wholehaertedly agree with you! We need manageable communities such as you and JimK are always advocating. I sold my home on
    http://www.forsalecallowner.com/aboutus.aspx AT NO COST FOR FREE! and simplyfied my life. Also have been to Strassbourg and other cities in Europe and don’t understand why we refuse to live in a similar fashion.

  47. Phil Gannon January 25, 2010 at 12:36 pm #

    Well it’s another Monday here on the astroid belt somewhere north of the wasteland known as Toledo, OH. The weather, 34F and cloudy & damp is almost as warm and fuzzy as this weeks good news from JHK. In the backround the shit fountains on CNBC, FOXFN & Bloomberg are spuing their best drivel. Some heart felt hand wringing over the fate of Fed head, Wall Street Ben. Yepper, we just have to keep this good ol’ boy in there. What would Wall Street do if they lost Ben ? God forbid that their yesman be replaced by a real banker, ya right ! We’ve trashed ourselves to save the very weasels who created all this worthless paper. Offshored our industrial base, and speculated the price of oil up to bleed out what was left and somehow it’s the fault of the millions of Union workers whose good paying,economy blostering jobs where offshored. The minions of Glenn Beck, I believe we were called. Well for those out there who have no clue, try this. Look in the mirror and ask who’s next ? We are going to win the Race to the Bottom ! Problem is, it’s not NASCAR. It’s LIFE ! The very core of our once decent standard of living has been taken without so much as anything more then a drunken grown or rant. When soberity comes a calling to the reminents of organized labor, those who dare to continue to piss on the legs of the workers better watch out. Some of them know the difference between rain and pee. Like my favorite lawyer Denny Crane sez: LOCK & LOAD !!!!!! Up to the north of me in what’s refered to as the Motor Ciyt you can buy t-shirts proclaiming “Detroit ! Where the weak are killed and eaten !” Maybe so in the bleak future portrayed on this blog.
    See you next week Jim.

  48. Nicho January 25, 2010 at 12:38 pm #

    IMHO — mostly everyone is over-interpreting the Massachusetts election and, naturally, refracting it through their own prism.
    Let’s just start with an Occam’s Razor approach — the simplest explanation to fit the phenomenon.
    Marthy Coakley didn’t want the job bad enough, had a sense of entitlement, and didn’t do the hard work of campaigning. She was disconnected from the voters and was arrogant. In other words, she was a crappy candidate.
    Scott Brown, on the other hand, really wanted the job and did the hard work of campaigning. He connected with the people.
    That is what wins (and loses) elections. As Tip O’Neill said “All politics is local.”
    The millions of words that have been laid over that simple fact of political life, trying to explain the results in broader terms, are just speculation and a way to enhance one’s own agenda.

  49. wagelaborer January 25, 2010 at 12:56 pm #

    What filibusters? JHK falls for the propaganda again. The Republicans haven’t actually filibustered yet. It is an elaborate charade, Kabuki theater, where the Democrats, who overwhelmingly control Wash, DC. use the Republicans to avoid actually doing what Americans elected them to do.
    Let the Republicans filibuster! It’s hard work, ask Mike Gravel. There is no way in hell that lazy, privileged, over-indulged Republicans will actually get up there for 24 hours a day and work.
    It’s a scam. Some Senator pretends to introduce a bill would actually help Americans, Republicans threaten a filibuster, Democrats swoon in pretended fear, and the bill is withdrawn.
    Also, financial speculation is what capitalism does when productive investment is less profitable. Marx pointed this out long before the Federal Reserve, or Bernacke, or Glass-Steagall, or any of the other scapegoats we so happily chastise, decade after decade.
    http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html
    We either quit thinking that we are slaves to our corporate gods, and must sacrifice to them so that they will provide us with jobs, or kiss our lives and ecosystems good-bye.
    We live in a human manufactured system and we can remake it for the good of all, including the other beings on this planet. Or not.
    As long as we persist in thinking that the social system is untouchable, we get people thinking that a big reform is banking regulation, and a big revolt is voting for a Republican!!

  50. Cash January 25, 2010 at 1:09 pm #

    My point is that it’s time for geeks to develop a backbone and a sense of dignity and honour. Only a total goof would commit financial fraud and go to jail because someone who considers himself his social superior told him to do it. And God forbid that geeks run the show.
    Have you ever seen a new CFO come into a job? What’s the first thing he says? He says he has to downsize the corporate accounting group, the group he leads, for the sake of setting a good example for the rest of the company. Have you ever seen any other department head offering up his dept or staff for layoffs to set a good example? I never have. Only an idiot geek would do that. Other company functions, be they production, marketing or what have you have a sense of self worth. Not so accountant geeks.
    What’s the next thing the CFO says? He says zero pay increases to the accounting group because, after all, accountants are not a revenue producing function. That, for me, was always a forehead slapper. Only a goof/geek would make a cack brained argument like that. The navigator on a naval vessel doesn’t fire the weapons but try and run a battle cruiser without a navigation system. BTW this also is the excuse for why the accounting dept works till ten pm every night: they can’t hire more bodies because they are not a revenue producing dept.
    Anyway, this is the root of why financial reports are worthless piles of crap, why you have massive accounting scandals and why Sarbanes Oxley came into force: a totally messed up culture in the accounting profession. But the geeks in it made it so.

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  51. casscomplex January 25, 2010 at 1:10 pm #

    Almost spit out my coffee reading the dumb union bashing post by goodridge above. What planet is he living on? Oh sure lets all hope the ginormous corporations will now be able to compete on a level playing field! hahaha! They’re the very ones that have got us into this sorry state along with the coma-induced public who have let the bought off politicians drive the country into such a cavernous ditch. Forget it if you think either of the corporate bought political parties are going to save us now bro. Anyway I’d place a better bet with the Unions and their supporters who have at least a history of fighting for decent wages and working conditions instead of shipping all industry offshore and paying their executives multi billion salaries.
    It won’t take but one second for corporations to pull out their private blackwater armies to keep the rabble from storming the gates when the shit does hit the fan.

  52. km4 January 25, 2010 at 1:37 pm #

    My Net Net:
    1950’s to 2005 – increasing prosperity for most Americans
    2005 to ? – decreasing prosperity for more and more Americans
    the US economy can no longer be driven by consumer spending, asset bubbles, ponzi schemes or Financial capitalism which doesn’t generate any real value for the rest of the economy.

  53. Steve M. January 25, 2010 at 1:38 pm #

    Obama is Sawhili for Hindenburg, as in the German prseident who appointed Hitler chancellor. Might Obama bring Palin into a unity government?

  54. george January 25, 2010 at 1:47 pm #

    You’ve hit another home run in your latest blog, JHK, but I have to take umbrage with your characterization of the GM and Chrysler bailouts as “just a way to avoid the recognition that Happy Motoring will soon be over.” Living in the Detroit area, I can tell you that the loss of two of the former Big Three would have been a Hurricane-Katrina for the national economy. We will need all the manufacturing capacity and expertise America can muster in the years ahead if we are ever to get a revived passenger rail network off the ground. For all their managerial blundering, the domestic automakers have over 200 years of combined manufacturing experience, helped America win two world wars and can quickly retool their factories to make locomotives. GM might make bad cars, but from what I read they make world-class locomotives.

  55. pluton January 25, 2010 at 1:53 pm #

    “Strict terms limits are part of the answer to break the professional politician class.”
    This has been tried for, what, twenty years now, and it hasn’t helped. I’ll tell you what would: No Political Ads On Television. After all, that’s what the pols need the money for. The broadcasters will fight it…mainly by blacking-out any coverage of any discussion about it.

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  56. sneezer2 January 25, 2010 at 1:57 pm #

    Obama is just a bald-faced liar and his so-called “policies” and “goals” nothing but an old, empty suit, instantly available to be nipped and tucked as the political winds dictate, then re-marketed to whichever damnfool customer happens to wander into the shop.
    I see in Sunday’s paper that he is “not backing down”. So now, will someone give me an explanation of all the backing down he has already done?
    And I see that he is “calling back” the team that got him elected. This does not explain why he sloughed them off when it became convenient to do so or why it is now convenient to have them around again.
    Be careful folks and remember:
    Once bitten, twice shy.
    and
    Fool me once, it’s your fault;
    Fool me again, it’s my fault.
    Do not trust this SOB and his minions any farther than you could throw them.

  57. asia January 25, 2010 at 2:09 pm #

    Jim: 2 things!
    1…what no mention of WALMART/ SAMS jettisoning 11,000? 9% of sams workforce?
    2…Haiti, papers say 150,000 already buried.
    Newsweek used haiti to put Obama on the cover:
    1.25.10 ‘WHY HAITI MATTERS’
    …with horrific pictures of the dead, a dead child. horrible stuff.
    YET TIME/ NEWSWEEK ETC SHOW NO PHOTOS OF THE DEAD IN THE 2 WARS THE USA IS FIGHTING AND LOSING.
    clearly theres an agenda here.

  58. asia January 25, 2010 at 2:11 pm #

    Is it 4 million registered voters in Mass or registered dems? and 40% are indi voters?
    OR may explain it but not to the dems..ahahhaha.

  59. Puzzler January 25, 2010 at 2:13 pm #

    Where in the US have term limits been tried, other than the Presidency? (By the way that’s been for about 60 years, since 1951.)
    Forget the President — he’s just a sockpuppet for the real power, the talking head for a corrupt system.

  60. ozone January 25, 2010 at 2:18 pm #

    I’m noticing that JHK is getting more and more succinct as the crash approaches. The same themes appear, because they DO bear repeating! Although no one is listening now, the denial will be crushed soon. (I’m predicting ’round about June/July the actual “general public” is going to find out the jig is up, and no amount of B.S. is going to cover up the fact of total institutional bankruptcy. The numbers for the 4th quarter 2009 will shamble forth this March, and then it’ll take 3 or 4 months for “the folks” to finally lay down their false hope and face the awful truth. It’s gonna take 3 or 4 months of privations for this to sink in. By then, those that have the resources and the “inside scoops” will have long made away with their ill-gotten gains… and left the rest of us to sink or swim.)
    This part kinda gets the ol’ snort-of-the-cynic:
    “I hope our constitutional law professor president turns his attention to proposing a legislative act that will sharply reign in the putative “personhood” prerogatives of corporations.” -JHK
    Now hooooold on there Baba-looey: Mr. Obama was specifically installed to let these kind of things flow under the bridge, and give away the entirety of “the store” (the Treasury) to the sociopaths (then feign outrage after-the-fact). One can easily identify the villians by the campaign contributors listing. I was greatly puzzled why people thought he was going to do anything other then let the robberies continue apace. It has already been accomplished; it must run its’ inevitable path of depraved destruction and self-immolation. There really isn’t much to do but stand aside and get VERY local. Political activism, as well as charity, begins at home. Those in the swamp of the Potomac are gonna have to find out the hard way that their hubris and blather (I like that one too ;o) ) are no longer required by people who’ve got the survival of their children foremost on their minds.

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  61. Puzzler January 25, 2010 at 2:45 pm #

    Nicely stated, but the “numbers” don’t mean diddly to the “folks” — most people don’t read or write more than a handful, if that. They don’t balance their checkbooks and a financial statement might be useful to them as toilet paper (what a minute, that’s about what they really are worth).
    Most folks won’t figured out the jig is up until there are supply line interruptions — some grocery store shelves are bare and lines form at gas stations.
    You’re right, time to get VERY local.

  62. asia January 25, 2010 at 2:59 pm #

    Is this true? found it online:
    OBAMA’S CZARS
    Richard Holbrooke
    AfghanistanCzar
    Ultra liberal anti gun former Gov. of New Mexico. Pro Abortion and legal drug use. Dissolve the 2nd Amendment
    Ed Montgomery
    Auto recovery Czar
    Black radical anti business activist. Affirmative Action and Job Preference for blacks. Univ of Maryland Business School Dean teaches US business has caused world poverty. ACORN board member. Communist DuBois Club member.
    Jeffrey Crowley
    AIDS Czar
    Radical Homosexual.. A Gay Rights activist.. Believes in Gay Marriage and especially, a Special Status for homosexuals only, including complete free health care for gays.
    Alan Bersin
    Border Czar
    The former failed superintendent of San Diego . Ultra Liberal friend of Hilary Clinton. Served as Border Czar under Janet Reno to keep borders open to illegals without interference from US
    David J. Hayes
    California Water Czar
    Sr. Fellow of radical environmentalist group, Progress Policy. No training or experience in water management whatsoever.
    Ron Bloom
    Car Czar
    Auto Union worker. Anti business & anti nuclear. Has worked hard to force US auto makers out of business. Sits on the Board of Chrysler which is now Auto Union owned. How did this happen?
    Dennis Ross
    Central Region Czar
    Believes US policy has caused Mid East wars. Obama apologist to the world. Anti gun and completely pro abortion.
    Lynn Rosenthal
    Domestic Violence Czar
    Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Vicious anti male feminist. Supported male castration. Imagine?
    Gil Kerlikowske
    Drug Czar
    devoted lobbyist for every restrictive gun law proposal, Former Chief of Police in Liberal Seattle. Believes no American should own a firearm. Supports legalization of all drugs
    E conomicCzar
    Head of Fed Reserve under Jimmy Carter when US economy nearly failed. Obama appointed head of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board which engineered the Obama economic disaster to US economy.. Member of anti business Progressive Policy organization
    Carol Brower
    Energy and Environment Czar
    Political Radical Former head of EPA – known for anti-business activism. Strong anti-gun ownership.
    Joshua DuBois
    Faith Based Czar
    Political Black activist-Degree in Black Nationalism. Anti gun ownership lobbyist.
    Cameron Davis
    Great LakesCzar
    Chicago radical anti business environmentalist. Blames George Bush for Poisoning the water that minorities have to drink. No experience or training in water management. Former ACORN Board member (what does that tell us?)
    Van Jones
    Green Jobs Czar
    (since resigned).. Black activist Member of American communist Party and San Francisco Communist Party who said Geo Bush caused the 911 attack and wanted Bush investigated by the World Court for war crimes. Black activist with strong anti-white views.
    Daniel Fried
    Guantanamo Closure Czar
    Human Rights activist for Foreign Terrorists. Believes America has caused the war on terrorism. Believes terrorists have rights above and beyond Americans.
    Nancy-Ann DeParle.
    Health Czar
    Former head of Medicare / Medicaid. Strong Health Care Rationing proponent. She is married to reporter for The New York Times.

  63. Puzzler January 25, 2010 at 3:08 pm #

    “Obama is losing the confidence of the nation. His health care reform plan is a rat’s nest of corruption and confusion. His handling of the wars against the Iraqis and the Afghans is a disgraceful mixture of claptrap and cupidity. And his treatment of the banks is one half publicity stunt and the other half relatively unimportant.
    “Too bad. He seems like a likeable fellow. He just didn’t realize that he came into the presidency on the downside of the credit cycle. Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. And credit cycles gotta correct. That’s why the stock market – at present – is unfinished business. It is a work in progress. A bear market began at the beginning of the ’00s. It was held off by a final, reckless increase in cash and credit from the feds, following the pseudo recession of 2001. Then, after a spectacular bubble in the financial industry and in residential real estate, the bear market resumed in 2007. In 2009, stock prices reached a temporary bottom and bounced. And now the end stage for the bear market may be beginning.
    “None of this is Obama’s fault. He didn’t create the credit bubble. And he can’t be faulted for not fixing it. It’s not a fixable thing; at least, not by politicians. Markets have to do their work. They have to take prices down to levels where it makes sense – considering the risk of loss – to buy assets again. They have to get rid of the mistakes. They need to punish stupid…arrogant…and imprudent investors. They need to move money from weak hands to strong ones. All of that takes time. Offering the market more phony money only blurs the picture…making the decisions more difficult.
    “You can’t really fault Mr. Obama for doing the silly things he has done, either. He’s been too busy to think deeply about how an economy works. That’s why he has advisors. Unfortunately, his financial team is made up of mostly jackasses, fools and opportunists – such as Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner, not necessarily in that order.”
    from Bill Bonner
    http://dailyreckoning.com/

  64. Dark Fired Tobacco January 25, 2010 at 3:21 pm #

    Very few civil engineering departments in this country even offer a course in railroad engineering any more, and few consultants or contractors have rail experience. Only Amtrak employees have any experience in customer service for passenger rail. The plans for high speed rail in eleven corridors across the country will take decades to complete, even if we fully funded them. Add to that the need for new intercity bus service to link other cities to the routes, and the project scope really becomes Interstate 2.0. Even with these eleven corridors being built, huge gaps will exist in a very basic passenger rail network.
    Meanwhile, air seat capacity is down 17 percent from the summer of 2007 and still dropping. Airlines continue to lose large amounts of cash while buying expensive hedges on future fuel costs.
    Greyhound is the lone intercity bus transport service, and it has cut routes to the bone. Its service to a community of 50,000 may be a brief stop at a remote Interstate interchange, not a trip to the downtown of that city.
    Eighty percent of all intercity travel is 500 miles or less. We can address that short-term with a more conventional rail and bus system by making strategic upgrades to rail corridors and implementing “managed lanes” (toll, HOV, or other restrictions) on urban Interstates to make the most strategic use of our highway capacity.
    What I don’t see is a will to do it at the legislative or administrative level of our political class.

  65. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:21 pm #

    “an economy of awesome stringency”
    One of the best uses of the word “awesome” that I have ever seen. And it sent a chill down my spine.

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  66. peakinterest January 25, 2010 at 3:23 pm #

    We have term limits in Michigan, Puzzler. It hasn’t turned out as well as one might think, as the sorry state of things here bear out.
    I think the only way to defeat the rampant corruption in the governmental system is probably a constitutional amendment that completely bans corporate money from entering the political arena at all levels of government, period.
    As for the supreme court ruling that took place earlier this week, I regard it as the final nail in the coffin of any notion of “democracy” in America. We’ve had a plutocracy here for some time, and this ruling confirms it.
    In my opinion, the social contract has been broken, and this government is now illegitimate. Of course, I’ll still continue to pay my taxes and obey the law, because I’m not terribly fond of prison.
    That might be why I don’t regard a financial collapse as a bad thing. I’m still going to continue living in my own little world, though that world may change, and get by as best I can. In times like these, it’s about the best one can hope to do.

  67. Headless January 25, 2010 at 3:24 pm #

    @Desertrat
    Re: “We priced our labor out of international competitiveness for our products. It was only natural that we “exported jobs”. I see no way back except via lower wages.”
    Agree heartily; I call it IW3E(Invevitable World-Wide Wage Equilibrium).
    Although here’s a guy who thinks otherwise:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYuLjGQQ-jg (Jeff Rubin on oil and the end of globalization).
    He assumes that we will relocalize and that we will somehow find a more equitable allocation of the income generated by local (range of “local”ness) production, such that our wages don’t have to plummet to the level of the average Chinese slave. Of course, for that to be possible, we’d have to assume the thieves of Wall Street will not exist in that future…
    He comes from Wall Street, by the way.
    Lots of stories out there say IW3E is coming; for example:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold-union25-2010jan25,0,97945,full.story

  68. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:25 pm #

    “I wait for fourth generation biofuels.”
    Don’t hold your breath. Of course, with the amount of coal that is going to be burned, breathing won’t exactly 100% safe, either.

  69. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:27 pm #

    “I miss the salad shooter references”
    I miss those, too, but I miss the “tattooed minions of Glen Beck” references even more.

  70. TCAnderson January 25, 2010 at 3:28 pm #

    I had heard about that ruling on my local public radio. I then was polled about it on face book after say I didn’t believe it was a good idea. I commented that this country is soon going to find itself in the throes of a revolution. It is unfortunate that the Constitution has just become another piece of paper at the Library of Congress.

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  71. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:32 pm #

    “We priced our labor out of international competitiveness for our products. It was only natural that we “exported jobs”. I see no way back except via lower wages.”
    There is a second option: steep import tariffs. Sure, the rest of the world would complain*, but they are going to complain anyway. Might as well earn the complaints by rebuilding out manufacturing sector.
    * In part because a more independent United States would scare the hell out of China and OPEC. Going further and switching to a World War Two level of austerity and conservation would cause mass panic in the world financial markets.

  72. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:34 pm #

    “You are prepared, alert, fit and flexible or you’re road kill.”
    Sometimes you are both.

  73. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:39 pm #

    “And this whole train thingy is a bit ill thought. Think busses. They can actually go where people live and conduct their daily comings and goings rather than some damn train depot where the deposited travelers have to sit scratching their collective asses wondering, “How do I complete the next leg of my journey?” ”
    I think a combination of the two would be good. Well, combination of the three, if you include the part of the equation you left out: walking. There would be three levels of transit:
    1. Neighborhood: you walk there. The bus stop is there.
    2. Town: the bus system moves you across the larger distances between neighborhoods. The train station is there.
    3. Regional: the train takes you from town to town. If you need to go further, you are rich and/or desperate.

  74. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:44 pm #

    Unless you are being sarcastic, I would refrain from using the words* “Federal government” and “prowess” in the same sentence, unless you also include “lack of”. ;^)
    * OK, some of these are phrases, but not all: any better ideas? (seriously, I’m curious)

  75. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:52 pm #

    “Ask Russians or North Koreans how that worked out.”
    The North Koreans would probably agree with your position, assuming that any of them would speak freely. The Russians, on the other hand, seem to be pretty happy with Putin running the show.

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  76. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 3:55 pm #

    “Just a theory.”
    One that makes a lot of sense to me.

  77. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 4:05 pm #

    “a totally messed up culture in the accounting profession”
    Talk about messed up: once upon a time when I worked as a part-time janitor, one of the offices I cleaned was an accounting firm. I was always amazed at the number of empty alcohol containers in the trash*, far more than at all the other places I cleaned put together. There weren’t more than a dozen employees at this firm. And these were beer, wine and hard liquor bottles. Empty and in the trash. Every week for as long as I was cleaning there, which was past tax season.
    *A few years before recycling caught on in the area.

  78. DeeJones January 25, 2010 at 4:22 pm #

    My only concern now is will I be able to catch a flight out of this country when the sh*t hits the fan….
    Well, if you don’t get out now, chances are you wont make it latter when an airline ticket is $10k or something like that. At some point soon, air travel will only be for the rich.
    So get out while the going is good, and still affordable.
    I did.

  79. earthman January 25, 2010 at 5:12 pm #

    Some Random Thoughts-
    I just saw a survey(CNN Money) of the highest paying firms in the country. Six out of the top ten were law firms. They create alot of value in the economy and society–not.
    What is the background of most of our so called leaders in DC? Lawyers–They create alot value there too–not
    Total liabilities of US taxpayers
    65 trillion dollars. The Emperor has no clothes…
    Why don’t the idiots have the balls to just say, we have to stop spending money we don’t have.

  80. Nicho January 25, 2010 at 5:13 pm #

    We need very strict term limits — for lobbyists — as in getting them the hell out of Washington.
    Setting term limits on members of Congress would be a disaster — as would the “throw them all out” approach.
    The corporations would love nothing better than to have 535 greenhorn members of Congress trying to figure out where the bathrooms are — being steamrollered by 14,000 well-heeled and well-financed lobbyists who know exactly how the system works.
    It would be like shooting fish in a barrel — or Colin Farrell trying to pick up girls at a freshman mixer.
    Until we get corporate money out of politics, nothing is going to change.
    Even the phony Teabagger organization is a corporatist front. it is run by stealth corporatists and populated by useful idiots who think they are in a grassroots organization. They are participating in their own destruction.

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  81. Steve Knox January 25, 2010 at 5:19 pm #

    As if future energy supply wasn’t murkey enough, we now know that the Chinese are trying to corner the global oil market with long term contracts. Its got our State Department worried. Supposedly China’s economy is growing in the 8-10% range annually. At that rate it won’t be long before they suck up any spare capacity. And if or when, the global economy does recover, the price of oil will go through the roof, killing the recovery. As Jim has repeatedly stated, downsizing is our only option, and it’s better if we do it, rather than have it forced on us, which it will.

  82. Qshtik January 25, 2010 at 5:23 pm #

    “I have a half baked theory:”
    =======================
    Speaking from 40 years in the bean-counting trenches, your theory has an element of truth to it. It’s also funny as hell.
    It reminds me of a favorite cartoon I’ve had stuck to my bulletin board for a couple of decades: There is an industrial sized waste container sitting outside an office door. The door is labeled Meeting Room B. Sticking out of the waste bin, pointing straight up, are the lower halves of two legs with the shoe laces dangling down from the shoes. Overflowing from the barrel are computer printout sheets and various lengths of adding machine tape. On the floor around the bin are more papers, a crumpled pair of glasses and an adding machine lying on its side. The caption of the cartoon reads: The committee, as a whole, chose to overlook the concerns of finance.

  83. Nickelthrower January 25, 2010 at 5:52 pm #

    But abandon structurally sound shelters? Absurd in its very suggestion.
    Um, I do not want to rain on your parade but I lived in Phoenix during the construction boom and I can say without any doubt that the majority of the homes built during the last decade will crumble to dust before this new decade is finished.
    See, these homes were made of Styrofoam and Chickenwire and little else. The minimum possible foundations were poured (3 inches) and on top of that some particle board, chicken wire and styrofoam. The entire piece of crap is then hidden behind some inexpensive stucco that will crack once it gets beyond a year or two old.
    The suburban Mc. Mansion was never designed to last and they were not built with walkable neighborhoods in mind. Hell, most do not even have sidewalks.

  84. Funzel January 25, 2010 at 6:03 pm #

    High speed trains?
    For who?
    The masses that can hardly afford the rent now and put food on the table?
    The disappearing middle class?
    For the rich minority,which will be severely culled once TSHTF ?
    I can only see one justification for high speed rail.
    That is to get the 20 million or so breeding hordes of illegal aliens out of here,pronto,including Asshoka.

  85. earthman January 25, 2010 at 6:05 pm #

    Obama unveils plans to help the middleclass–
    pay their bills, save for retirement,care for their kids and aging parents…Are they in touch with reality at all. Where is the money coming from Barack, America is bankrupt now… Do people actual beleive this.. We are turning into a pus-y society. Take care of me, ohhh they will….

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  86. Puzzler January 25, 2010 at 6:32 pm #

    Life in Russia has been a crapfest, unless you grabbed assets when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 — I’ve been there several times before and during the breakup and talked with Russians since. For most people it’s been one dictator after the other, from Czarist times until today. Think of the Post Office with heavy weapons.

  87. Rick January 25, 2010 at 8:02 pm #

    Obama, is not going to save us from our stupidity. I voted for him, thinking he was different, he’s not. I’m a progressive, a liberal, and a Dem. Dem’s over the past decades have done far more for this country (before they sold out to big money, like the Repubs), then Repubs, including those people who call themselves Independents. Now that the corporations have taken over this country (actually it started with Reagan), no President can make the kind of changes we need in the country. The only way for change to occur in this country is by the people, and for this country to collapse – maybe that will wake of the brain dead in this country. Because, quite frankly, most Americans despite the fact were in a Depression, are quite happy. I guess the revolution will take awhile to assemble, because we’re so happy. Where is the outrage? In the streets of this country. Screw the Blogs / Internet! – meaning stop typing, and take it to the streets! Until that happens, nothing will change.

  88. schizoid January 25, 2010 at 8:37 pm #

    Jim:
    I have no argument with your analysis of just how bad things have become nor with your contention that the entire American way of life is unsustainable. We are about to hit a brick wall.

    We have to get the hell out of suburbia, shrink our hypertrophic metroplexes, re-activate our small towns and small cities, reorganize the way we grow our food, phase out the big box retail (and phase in the rehabilitated Main Streets), start making some of our own household goods, and hook up the far-flung reaches of this continental nation with a public transit system probably in the form of railroads.

    Yes indeed! If only we could turn the clock back 150 years to a time when the United States was largely a virgin frontier with a population of around 30 million people.

    The larger underlying reality is that the United States… has got to contract, downscale…

    The problem with your idealistic scenario is that it does not explain how to dispose of the superfluous 300 million people who currently inhabit the country. Unfortunately, a solution to this problem will soon manifest itself and it won’t be pleasant.

  89. Ziggy January 25, 2010 at 8:41 pm #

    When our government cuts a trillion dollar check to save our banking industry, that’s market making prowess.
    When our government underwrites billions of dollars annually in roadway improvements at the expense of public transportation, that’s market making prowess.
    When our government facilitates the off shoring of jobs that pay a living wage, via trade policies, that’s market making prowess.
    When our government, through direct investments and policies, helps enable a 30 year run of wealth accruing to those in the upper one percent income bracket, that’s market making prowess.
    We don’t need less government — just one that focuses its market making prowess on our those in the bottom 99 percent of country’s income brackets, not the top one percent.

  90. Mike Hicks January 25, 2010 at 9:01 pm #

    Very, Very well said.

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  91. Mike Hicks January 25, 2010 at 9:13 pm #

    What gets me is that the little talk there is about expanding rail goes right to High Speed rail. This is foolish thinking when we have Amtrak system that is barely operating. We have walk before we can run.

  92. Mike Hicks January 25, 2010 at 9:47 pm #

    Wednesday is State of The Union night. Everyone gather around the old tooby and listen as Mr. O gives a rebel rousing talk about how he’s going to fix this and fix that. We’ll all be feeling good and excited. The Dem’s will sit and clap and act all giddy like a bunch of school children about to get milk and cookies. The Repub’s will sit with their nose’s turned up, not clapping, maybe even a hoot or two, waiting for someone call recess so they can outside and play.
    It all makes for good TV, but we all know nothing will come of it. It just makes you sick to watch our elected leaders.
    God I Love our Government!

  93. asia January 25, 2010 at 9:53 pm #

    10,000 Trees:
    who was planting them? hows this possible?

  94. asia January 25, 2010 at 9:56 pm #

    thanks!
    and DEE JONES..where ya gonna go?

  95. Bill Simpson January 25, 2010 at 9:56 pm #

    Every time I read one of Jim’s articles, two things happen. First, I learn how limited my vocabulary is. Second, I get an irresistible urge to buy some stock of several of the international oil companies (Examples being: BP [Don’t you just love the way they changed their name from ‘British Petroleum’ to the sanitized ‘BP’, Beyond Petroleum, what a bunch of crap.], Royal Dutch Shell, or Eni S.p.A.[Keep your fingers crossed that Eni can stay in Venezuela, because the heavy oil in the Orinoco oil sands is worth trillions. And Chavez can’t keep the electricity on!]) that are now paying over 5% dividend yields. That is sweet, while you wait for peak oil. Spread your risk among several companies in case something blows up and kills a big bunch of people, or they get nationalized in a country where they have a lot of investments. That oil stuff ain’t cheap!
    Google Finance their stock prices and see what the stock prices did when oil was selling for only $147 a barrel in 2008. I say, ‘only $147’ because, do you think those 1,300,000,000 Chinese might be using more oil in the future? And the 1,000,000,000 Indians? They may just drive the oil price up a little in the next five years. Or will they let us have it all, and stay on their bikes in the rain and snow?
    Just FYI, I don’t own, or sell any stocks. Never invest in anything without doing your own study. A huge amount of information can be found on the Internet on sites like Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance. Never rely on only company sites. Scam artists are everywhere. And, although oil stocks can (and do) go down in value, you won’t lose your money UNLESS you sell them at a lower share price than you bought them, or the oil company goes bankrupt.
    If any of the large, multi-national private oil companies goes bankrupt within the next few years, the world ecomomy will probably be in a state of total collapse. Finding something to eat will then be your big problem. You can’t even trade gold coins for food that doesn’t exist. And what do you need to grow and move food? For quite a while, we will need oil. I wouldn’t be at all shocked, if Jim didn’t own some. (Sorry, Jim) Draft animals are in short supply, and will be for a few more decades.
    If any of my fellow Jim readers get really rich, remember to give some of it to charity.

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  96. Patz January 25, 2010 at 10:21 pm #

    Thanks for mentioning Kate McGarrigle Jim. She was a treasure. The story of how their career began is as unique as they are. Anna wrote Heart Like A Wheel and they preformed it in small venues in the Northeast. Somehow it came to the attention of Linda Ronstadt who decided to record it.
    The session pianist had problems with the song so they flew Kate to LA for the session. But Kate couldn’t get it quite right either. The producer asked her what the problem was. Kate said, “It’s not my song; Anna wrote it.” So it being an LA production they flew Anna down. The production team heard their harmonies; saw them perform together and immediately signed them to their first album.
    One last thing. They never became celebrity singers and could have produced more had they been driven to do so. They wanted a fuller life with family, privacy and friends and they got it. Kate died too young but lived well and authentically.

  97. diogen January 25, 2010 at 10:38 pm #

    Leonard Cohen knew it:
    Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
    Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
    Everybody knows that the war is over
    Everybody knows the good guys lost
    Everybody knows the fight was fixed
    The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
    That’s how it goes
    Everybody knows
    Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
    Everybody knows that the captain lied
    Everybody got this broken feeling
    Like their father or their dog just died
    And everybody knows that it’s now or never
    Everybody knows that it’s me or you
    And everybody knows that you live forever
    Ah when you’ve done a line or two
    Everybody knows the deal is rotten
    Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
    For your ribbons and bows
    And everybody knows
    And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
    Everybody knows that it’s moving fast
    And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
    Everybody knows what you’ve been through
    From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
    To the beach of Malibu
    Everybody knows it’s coming apart
    Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
    Before it blows
    And everybody knows
    Everybody knows, everybody knows
    That’s how it goes
    Everybody knows

  98. diogen January 25, 2010 at 10:41 pm #

    Everybody Knows:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h27HRNm_r4U

  99. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 10:51 pm #

    A couple links to Gary Hart’s blog:
    The End of Big Government
    and
    The Shrinking
    If you’ve read those, you’re probably wondering if JHK is ghost-writing for him… or if TS is about to HTF.

  100. Mr. Purple January 25, 2010 at 10:53 pm #

    Sorry, that second one should have been The Shrinking State… though anyone who clicked on it probably knows that by now.

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  101. diogen January 25, 2010 at 10:57 pm #

    High speed rail to interconnect American cities? I’ve ridden High speed rail in Europe and Japan, and it was great! When you arrive, there are public transport connections to take you any place you want to go, usually timed to leave 5 minutes after your train arrives. And urban public transport to take you to your destination within the city. But think about the proposed 3C rail linking Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland — once I arrive by rail to any of these, what next? I’d have to rent a car to leave the station. Who ARE the genius who are thinking this up? Are they crazy, stupid or crazy like a fox? This couldn’t be more backward! We need viable urban public transport first!!! Think new SUBWAYS!!! Happy dreaming. Although there’s money to wage wars and pay banks and lawyers, there’s no money for subways… OK, i’m taking my medication and I’ll calm down in a minute.

  102. TomOfTheNorth January 25, 2010 at 11:20 pm #

    Jim,
    Awesome. Simply awesome. Now I can’t wait for The State of the Union Address! It’s gonna be GRRRRRREAT!
    – TOTN

  103. Vlad Krandz January 25, 2010 at 11:28 pm #

    That’s not how it works in the Jewish World. They’re not really into jocks. Their Alpha Males are the guys with smarts – especially if they can use them to make money or rise high. The dichotomy in their world is between a Dark Master like Alan Greenspan and a bumbling nebbish like Bernake who doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. Now Greenspan got us into this – but he must have known what he was doing – he’s brilliant, a fit heir to Bernard Baruch, the real power that ruled America during WW2. But such was his gravitas that he was able to look Dignified as he brought us to ruin. Bernake doesn’t seem comfortable in his position of working for the Big Business and the Bankers. He looks almost guilty or something. Greenspan never looked guilty and probably never felt guilty. He knows who he is and who he’s working for – and it aint us. Bernake is a nicer man who is conflicted – that makes him a nebbish or a shcmendrick or something like that. Maybe Al can give us the proper Yiddish Word.
    There is no American “us” anymore. It’s us and them. They live, we sleep.

  104. Qshtik January 25, 2010 at 11:52 pm #

    “Their Alpha Males are the guys with smarts”
    ========================
    Years ago the Black journalist/commentator, Stanley Crouch was being interviewed for, I forget, The New Yorker(?) and the discussion was about the driving force behind Blacks vs Jews. He said “cool” was mandatory for blacks while for Jews it was OK to be “just smart.”

  105. Gulf Old Timer January 25, 2010 at 11:59 pm #

    You will be surprised at how many Americans have already left the country.
    And it’s not the South America they chose but the Arabian Gulf. I am Canadian myself but understand why someone would want to leave the US, Canada or the UK for the Gulf. Tax-free life is addictive.
    I have been here for almost a decade. No plans to go back.
    http://www.gulfspecific.com/Start-Winning-Get-a-Lucrative-Tax-Free-Job-in-the-Gulf-03.htm

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  106. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 12:18 am #

    Disagree. America First. Economics is only part of the life of an individual – or an individual nation. Both Capitalism and Communism are both economic philosphies that subordinate all politics and morality to economics. It doesn’t have to be this way. Let America provide all its own necessities. Now that will provide jobs. As for luxuries or things that we need but don’t have – sure let’s trade, but not trades that benefit companies but hurt America. And if other countries play rough, we play rough. Bring back the tariff. It is an instrument that grows civilizations, one that other countries are still using against us although they may call it something different.
    Note: If companies don’t like this “third way”, they are free to leave. It’s a free country. By their own admission, they have no special loyalty to the United States. So why on Earth should we have any loyalty to them? With wealth comes power, and with power comes responsibility. If they don’t want to act responsibly, they can get the hell out. If they leave nicely, we’ll even let them keep most of their ill gotten gains – at the least the ones they got “honestly” in terms of the old dishonest system. Don’t worry, there’s no honor among thieves. The same crooks will be begging to be let back in once we are prospering. If we need their trade, it’ll be there.

  107. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 12:24 am #

    Can you tell us more about your life in Costa Rica? What the conditions are, job possibilites, how the locals see Americans, and what you like about it the most.

  108. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 12:35 am #

    Say on prophet. Remember the old slogan “Doing the jobs White People wont do”. Boy they dropped that one in a hurry now that we need those jobs. We could solve the unemployment crisis in six months. Send them out. But of course, that would empower the White Middle Class and that’s the last thing these traitors want. They want us miserable, penniless, homeless, and broken. Then we are in no position to demand real change instead of Obama change.
    It would be good for Blacks too: they’ve been hit even harder the illegal Mexican swarm.

  109. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 12:50 am #

    Has there ever been a non-Jew at the head of the Federal Reserve? What up with that? Just coincidence? Sing little bird.

  110. asoka January 26, 2010 at 2:42 am #

    Vlad, one of the nicest things about Costa Rica is they allow you to become a resident in two ways:
    1) Show you have $600 per month pension income.
    2) Show you have $1000 per month investments income.
    Back in the 80s, when the USA was at war with Nicaragua, Costa Rica was the third largest recipient of USA foreign aid. They used that money to develop infrastructure, for education, health, etc., so Costa Rica has a very low illiteracy rate and a good public health system (better than USA)

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  111. amphibious January 26, 2010 at 4:10 am #

    I forget when but, many years ago, the SCoUS ordained that corporations have the same rights as a “natural born person”, surely one of the most bizarre concepts to slither across a legal bench. Thus they may sue for slander/defamation and injury and now they have the right to free (hardly free when one thinks how much they’ll be paying) speech.
    Goodnight amerika.

  112. Martin Hayes January 26, 2010 at 6:43 am #

    Has there ever been a non-Jew at the head of the Federal Reserve?
    Yes. William Harding. Marriner Eccles. William McChesney Martin, Jr.

  113. Jim from Watkins Glen January 26, 2010 at 8:43 am #

    The world of smaller, fewer, and closer is coming. Is the model New Orleans in September 2005, or something less precipitous and violent? Is the soundtrack by the McGarrigle sisters or neonazi heavy-metal head-bashers?
    Note to not mommy: you make your case better here without the distraction of rock throwing.

  114. diogen January 26, 2010 at 9:06 am #

    “Has there ever been a non-Jew at the head of the Federal Reserve?”
    Vlad, I was beginning to believe you, but checking Wikipedia and a few other websites,
    of the 14 Fed. Reserve Chairmen, apparently only 5 were jews: Meyer, Black, Burns, Greenspan and Bernanke. Last week you said Volker was a jew, but it appears he was a Lutheran. It doesn’t help your credibility when you make easily refuted claims…

  115. diogen January 26, 2010 at 9:11 am #

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chairmen_of_the_Federal_Reserve

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  116. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 9:35 am #

    Thank you for the correction. They were no doubt Masons working for the Rothschilds – who are Jews.

  117. Al Klein January 26, 2010 at 9:48 am #

    Vlad, your remarks about bring back tariffs is quite interesting. I remember back when I was in grade school many decades ago (the 1950’s) there was discussion of the economic relationship between the US and the rest of the world. Us chillen’ were told that one of the main reasons for the Revolutionary war with England was that they would not allow the colonials (us) to manufacture goods: we were supposed to supply raw materials and buy all finished product from England. We were also told that in the early years of the nation, the US used tariffs to aggressively bolster American industries, otherwise they would be smothered in the cradle by foreign imports (they didn’t use the word “dumping” back then).
    So you see, Vlad, none of this logic applies any more here in the US. We have entered a new reality, the age of aquarius where we have hands across the oceans and we’re all friends now. No need to protect our backs or our interests. No need to care about our own people and the ability for them to earn a livelihood. Those fuddy-duddies back in the early republic, their logic is utterly anachronistic. You’ve got to learn to embrace Globalism even if it kills you. Sure you’ll be dead – but you’ll be philosophically “pure” and part of the avante-garde.

  118. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 9:57 am #

    Thank you, I needed that. As Herbert Spencer said, nothing destroys a beautiful theory like an ugly fact. Unfortunately, my theory is correct despite this fact. The Jews use gentile frontmen like these WASPS – Henry Paulson is a good recent example. Then they can point to them and say, “See, we’re nothing special”. But they are. Bernake said on camera that billions of the Bailout Money has been sent to European Bankers. When asked to specify which ones, he said he didn’t know. He looked mighty uncomfortable, Greenspan would have pulled it off with shameless aplomb. The Rothschilds are sucking America dry.
    The Fed must be dismantled and the vampires and their agents exposed.
    You have revealed your acumen. Dio meaning God and gen meaning man. Godman. Did you see my response to your response on Sunday night? I clarified my statement about the Turks.
    A meditation: You said there were good in bad in all Nations. Of course you’re right. But what’s good and bad? If a gang of grifters have a good day’s take, are they good or bad? They’re deemed good by their fellow grifters. If gypsies have a good day’s take, are they deemed good or bad by their tribesmen? People are given a powerful tool in their college Sociology Class — which of course they forget and never use namely the idea of in group/out group morality. All groups do this to some degree, but some specialize in it. Gypsies are one. Irish Travelers are another. And yes, traditionally the Jews are a third. It’s good to take the Gentiles, not bad. They are only now BEGINING to develop a universal morality. Reform Judaism is a big step in this direction. But traditionally, they were all for themselves and that’s it. And the Orthodox are still this way. Tragically, this extreme ethnocentrism stuck to large sectors of the Jews even after the Enlightenment. If it was just the Orthodox it would be one thing. But it infects the very, very rich and powerful as well. Zionism is just one of its manifestations. Banking another. Destroying Western Civilization through Communism and Capitalism is another. Mind control through the Media is another. They have us so dumbed down and deracinated now that they don’t even need the Gentile Frontmen anymore, but they will continue to allow in Gentiles willing to betray their own people.

  119. Qshtik January 26, 2010 at 10:02 am #

    “Has there ever been a non-Jew at the head of the Federal Reserve?”
    =====================
    Not sure I see the connection between my comment and your reply to it.

  120. Cash January 26, 2010 at 10:43 am #

    That’s a scream. I can see it in my mind.

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  121. budizwiser January 26, 2010 at 11:02 am #

    Well – I guess JK and crew have solved the world’s problems again. Whooh! And its only Tuesday!
    I’ve often attempted to steer discussion of our Clusterfuck toward theory rather than get bogged down in specific details that may or may not actually reflect behaviors that benefit or denigrate the collective human condition. It hasn’t worked yet – although at least I’ve obtained the status of an ignorant pompous bore among some of you.
    And for the umpteenth time – here again, some reminders of what’s wrong with the world.
    Point #1 – People generally respond well to comfort and wealth. This is why our government officials seldom act with the common welfare or any sort of “logic” as their decision making metrics.
    If we can’t remove wealth, comfort, and in some cases power away from influencing our elected officials governing process there is no point in claiming the “government” can fix or improve anything in the name of logic or the common welfare. So please, no more cracks about “government.”
    Point #2 – The single most critical issue facing the course of human events (and quality of life) in our lifetime is the continuing use of petroleum products. And the single most important discretionary aspect of petroleum consumption is the use of gasoline and diesel fuel for single-person passenger-vehicle transport.
    The solutions are simple and impossible. Remove money from influencing public policy. Remove money from being the only deciding factor in discretionary petroleum consumption for single-passenger-vehicle use.
    When these two problems are solved, perhaps humanity will buy enough time to realize the limits of all of Earth’s resources.

  122. diogen January 26, 2010 at 11:26 am #

    “The solutions are simple and impossible”
    Paradoxically, true. In addition to the 2 fundamental problems you mentioned (money influencing governing, and reliance on fossil energy), I’d like to add one more: misspent/misallocated capital. As Kunstler keeps pointing out, we as a society have wasted vast resources, and got heavily indebted to boot. I hope I’m wrong, but it looks to me like we invested the capital of the nation accumulated during the good years into “florida swamplands” of all kinds of unproductive investments: vast amounts of real estate built in the wrong places for the wrong reasons, transporation philosophy with limited future and impossibly high cost, an economy that is predicated on individual consumption and unsustainable growth rather than one based on sustainable development and quality life. Look at Ireland — the Capital of the Irish Nation is now tied up in half-finished homes scattered all around the coastline, sitting and decaying in the rain, doing no good to anyone. We keep dumping our National Trasure into the black holes of wars to prolong our access to oil and prop-up “friends” who should swim or sink on their own… Is there a politician out there who’s willing and capable to set us on a REAL course of re-building and re-investment into America? We have 4 young sons, so this topic is of great relecance to us…

  123. Martin Hayes January 26, 2010 at 11:27 am #

    Freemasons? Well, the Archdruid, one of our honored peak-oilers, in his most recent post has confessed that he is one such. He makes the point, one that I pretty much worked out independently, that latter day attacks on this fraternity amount to kicking a man when he’s down.
    Freemasonry’s on its last legs. Young men don’t want to join any more. They’d rather watch teevee or something. I have a mind to join myself, but I suffer from the Groucho Marx complex.
    C’mon, Vlad, be serious. On the exoteric level Freemasonry is, at worst, a bunch of guys who have a readymade excuse to get away from the wife once a week. The whole thing is soaked in booze. My local Masonic hall has a beer logo emblazoned on the notice board. Sign up for a bit of ballroom dancing! Women optional!
    On the esoteric level, it’s the last gasp of the mystery religions, and only for a tiny number of the sad remnant still going to their lodge. A distant echo of a time when we didn’t depend on Walt Disney to tell us what import great literature (Notre Dame de Paris) or legend (Heracles) or folk wisdom (Beauty and the Beast) held for us.

  124. diogen January 26, 2010 at 11:44 am #

    jews smart? give me a break. They had once-in-a-millenia chance to have a homeland, and they chose the worst possible piece of real estate in the world, other than possibly the middle of soviet union or china. Would you bet your family’s future on a patch of downtown Detroit?
    There may be some smart individuals among them as in every ethnic group, but collectively they have a dismal record of success. Other than throw-back religions fanatics among them who dress like medeaval monks, they are dissapearing thru assimilation and intermarriage to gentiles anyway.
    Freemasons? If they really wanted to take over the world, they have miserably failed over the past 400 years, and now they’re headed to the history’s exit door, just like the jews.

  125. Martin Hayes January 26, 2010 at 11:59 am #

    Taking my cue from Derrick “we are sofucked” Jensen, there’s this book review of James Hansen’s Storms of my Grandchildren: the Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity over on Slate.
    http://www.slate.com/id/2242201/

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  126. Cash January 26, 2010 at 12:01 pm #

    There should be more drunks in the accounting profession. As it is accountants are grimly serious, insufferably sanctimonious, consider anyone who offers up a witticism an out of control wildman, are only seen smiling when they hear news that their mother in law has died, are unparalled in their ability to think inside the box. Alcohol can only help. As a general rule drinking on the job should be discouraged but not with accountants.
    Of course none of this applies to Qshtik, a bean counter of long duration, who judging by his posts, is a fine human being with a rich and refined sense of humour and who doesn’t need to drink to be perceptive, interesting and funny.

  127. CaptSpaulding January 26, 2010 at 12:12 pm #

    Hi Nickelthrower. My son works (worked) in commercial carpentry and he told me that the average commercial building such as a CVS Pharmacy, etc., is built to last for no more than 20 years. I don’t know about regular housing, but there is no reason to think that it isn’t the case there as well. Regards, Capt. Spaulding

  128. diogen January 26, 2010 at 12:15 pm #

    “the Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance ”
    I read it last fall, very compelling and credible, and yet i don’t believe the humanity will do anything about it. We all live according to “Apres nous, le Deluge” which means who cares what happens after us. We fear the threats of today and tomorrow much more than the threats of 2030 and 2050, because the threats of today may make the threats of 2030 irrelevant. Yeah, myopia, but myopia is the constant companion of the human condition. We will not give up the comforts of today for tomorrow’s survival.
    Besides, we can’t even all agree about what todays and tomorows threats are. Some here think its freemasons and jews and liberals and the government and capitalism (communism being an almost extinct failed experiment)… How’s fishing over the North Pole, it’s the next big thing, i’m booking my tour now 🙂

  129. not mommy January 26, 2010 at 12:17 pm #

    Nicho sez:
    “We need very strict term limits — for lobbyists — as in getting them the hell out of Washington.”
    Well than start a lobby group to get rid of lobby groups cause that is how things get done in Washington.
    Everybody wants to ascribe “evilness” to lobbies. There is a lobby for any and every cause you can possibly imagine. Some actually have good motives (think charities). And you want to limit them? Why? A lobby is nothing more than a group of like minded individuals that get together to further their chosen cause. As long as there is transparency as to which candidates a lobby supports financially, I don’t see a problem. I think the common term that is used is “freedom of speech.” Its like kind of protected in the Constitution.

  130. ozone January 26, 2010 at 12:17 pm #

    “Most folks won’t [have] figured out the jig is up until there are supply line interruptions — some grocery store shelves are bare and lines form at gas stations.” -Puzzler
    Eggs-actly! (That’s why I added that 3-4 months of “privations” in my comments.) I totally agree with everyone who thinks that a big bunch o’ nothing will happen until real, physical danger interrupts the lethargy. (Lack of food, shelter, security, transport?) Apathy is certainly a threat to our collective well-being, but, there again, who will awaken without the removal/loss of luxury and comfort?

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  131. Cash January 26, 2010 at 12:27 pm #

    I’m amazed by some of the things coming out of the Fed. I saw an interview with Alice Rivlin who was Vice Chairman of the Fed. She said that nobody on the Fed saw the housing fiasco coming. WTF? I’m a nobody and I saw it coming. I mean, how can there not be a vicious downdraft when house prices double, household incomes stay flat and other household debts skyrocket?
    Greenspan and the others on the Fed are supposed to be the intellectual cream of the crop, the best of the financial world and academia. So how can this happen? Maybe for all their vaunted intelligence they really ain’t so bright, they might have some extraordinary intellectual capacities but in other respects they are just as dense as the average joe on the street which may account for their spectacular lack or lapse in judgement. It’s either that or they had another agenda but what? What do you suggest?
    I was kidding about Greenspan and the others on the Fed being just low-down geeks, craving social acceptance, scarred by adolescent rejection, bitter about their teenage appearance as flailing, pimply, no-ass dorks who only saw the ball when it hit them between the eyes. But right now, unless somebody can come up with a better idea as to how they got us into this mess it’s as good a theory as any.

  132. earthman January 26, 2010 at 12:28 pm #

    More Random Thoughts–
    Practical Steps to being Self-Sufficient
    Grow some vegetables & plant fruit trees
    Build a cistern to catch water off your roof
    Start your own small business that actually provides a useful products or service
    Learn to fix things and build things
    Get out of debt–don’t waste your resources on bullshit stuff you don’t really need.
    Learn to use a firearm
    Help your neighbor

  133. not mommy January 26, 2010 at 12:30 pm #

    Jim from Watkins Glen sez:
    “Note to not mommy: you make your case better here without the distraction of rock throwing.”
    Note to Jim from W.G.: Blow me. All too often rocks are necessary. When the fucktards start pontificating rocks are a fucking MUST.

  134. Puzzler January 26, 2010 at 12:46 pm #

    Thanks for choosing the theme song for the Long Emergency. Leonard Cohen has been one of my favorite singers for more than 40 years and Everybody Knows is one of his best.

  135. Fredric Lorenzen January 26, 2010 at 1:00 pm #

    If after finding pig manure(incriminating emails) in the holy of holies(global warming) and not being distressed about it i.e. discounting the whole obviously unscientific notion; I suppose one could easily also believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Both are also equally taken on faith by small chidren and adult idiots. Also both have about as much scientific wherewithall as the global warming hoax. How could anyone with higher than room temp I.Q. believe something without any substaining proof i.e. numbers and method purporting thereby to have arrived at said conclusions? How can any theory be accepted without the legitimate proof of vigorous examination and debate? And,how can anyone deem this obviously money grubbing charade as scientific? Has the doyen and high priest of this faux religion, AlGore ever told the truth? Perhaps that is the most important question. Before we hurry off down the road to complete submission to the wishes of the Ubergangsters should’t we demand and expect a full and complete open book on this. One that is open to the dissenting views of those who until such time are being considered as inconvenient cockroaches in the King’s dogma marmalade. Go not easy into that dark reeducation cell!

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  136. Cash January 26, 2010 at 1:03 pm #

    You say:
    “We’ve had a plutocracy here for some time, and this ruling confirms it.”
    “In my opinion, the social contract has been broken”
    Agreed, the story for over a generation is to offshore industries to the detriment of the vast majority. Sixty years ago my father was a semi-literate farmer in the old country but when he came here he was able to get good paying work as a labourer and support a family of four in middle class comfort. Nowadays that would be impossible.
    What the plutocracy is forgetting is that if you want to have mayhem just make sure you have a large group of unemployed, hungry, frustrated, unmarried young men just like Hitler or Lenin had. So while the plutocrats get the goodies now they are sowing the seeds of their own demise.

  137. not mommy January 26, 2010 at 1:03 pm #

    Nickelsworth said,
    “Um, I do not want to rain on your parade but I lived in Phoenix during the construction boom and I can say without any doubt that the majority of the homes built during the last decade will crumble to dust before this new decade is finished.”
    Hogwash. I live in a home built in the 70’s utilizing the same methods you cite. Particleboard is longer lasting than many conventional woods. The stucco on my house is fine. The house is 35 years old and as long as the roof is maintained and the elements kept out I have no doubt it will last at least another 100 years.
    You statement that “… without any doubt that the majority of the homes built during the last decade will crumble to dust before this new decade is finished.” is the typical over-dramatization of a FUCKTARD that doesn’t have a clue what they are talking about.

  138. Puzzler January 26, 2010 at 1:17 pm #

    Well stated, but realize that Peak Oil is taking on some similar “faith”-based dogma and claptrap. Some used to think that stringing telegraph lines would use up all the copper, never dreaming that one day electronic communication would stream through tiny glass filaments.

  139. Semper Infidel January 26, 2010 at 1:19 pm #

    BASIC DECENCY 101: Please, no name-calling.

  140. Cash January 26, 2010 at 1:31 pm #

    Been discussed at length previous weeks with many indicating distaste for this. Detracts from many good discussions. Best to ignore the offenders. But it’s hard to do. When they throw stones you want to throw back.

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  141. diogen January 26, 2010 at 1:35 pm #

    “Dio meaning God and gen meaning man. Godman. ”
    As you said Vlad, nothing destroys a beautiful theory like an ugly fact 🙂 Diogen is a derivative on Diogenis, the inventor of skepticism and simple living, the two things that appeal to me 🙂
    Are you surprised that what appears to be a fact to you is actually a mirage? 🙂 Do you ever question your other theories?
    I’m reading the history of the Byzantine Empire, and I see many interesting parallels to today and to the human condition in general, one of which I think applies to you. During the first iconoclastic period between 700 and 800 A.D. the Arab/Muslim armies were rading the Byzantine territories, conquering long-held Christian possessions, killing Christians all over the Eastern Roman Empire. The Christian Byzantine rulers decided the cause of all those military defeats was the widespread use of Icons in religious worship, so they began a brutal persecution of their brothers Christians who insisted on the use of the Icons, diverting focus, attention, money and manpower from the real cause and enemy — strong Arab/Muslim armies – to the imagined enemy of their brothers who liked their Icons. For many decades these poor misguided souls were killing each other while the Muslims were enslaving their brothers and sisters (literally selling the captives into slavery), and paying huge ransoms/tributes to the Arabs to keep them from invading Constatinople. The parallell to you? Your imagined enemy (blacks, jews, liberals, freemasons, the gov’t) are blinding you and distracting you from the real enemy, which is our addiction to the imported fossil energy and to living high on the hog using borrowed money. Everything else is the consequence…

  142. diogen January 26, 2010 at 1:43 pm #

    Not mommy, you do make good points about lobbies, but as you yourself said “groups of individuals” can and do put their lobbying to good ends. The problem is that “groups of individuals” cannot compete with corporations and other extremely powerfull groups with vast wealth. If lobbies cannot be kept out of politics, perhaps the playing field should be made more level by an imposition of limits of some kind (i.e. spending limits)… Thanks for your constructive comments.

  143. diogen January 26, 2010 at 1:59 pm #

    He appeared to have reformed in some posts this week, will it last? He has interesting things to say when he chooses discussion instead of pointless insults…

  144. not mommy January 26, 2010 at 2:06 pm #

    He has interesting things to say when he chooses discussion instead of pointless insults…”
    Pointless? When one claims that a home built will be dust within 20 years that deserves an insult. You claim that my insult is pointless is an insult. How dare you.

  145. not mommy January 26, 2010 at 2:08 pm #

    ” The problem is that “groups of individuals” cannot compete with corporations and other extremely powerfull groups with vast wealth. ”
    Really? Well the lobby that got behind Scott Brown defeated one of the richest and most powerful machines in the country. Stick around pal, the meek are about to inherit the earth.

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  146. earthman January 26, 2010 at 2:17 pm #

    Cannot is a useless word. Epidemic in our society of cry babies.

  147. Bobby January 26, 2010 at 2:19 pm #

    Meaning no disrespect, but you, Sir, are a moron.
    There is more than 25 years of scientific literature in the Earth Science Journals detailing careful experiments, with an equal amount of debate at conferences and symposia. I know this because 25 year ago as a graduate student we were discussing the record from the Mauna Kea observatory that had established the rise in CO2. 25 years, and an increasing amount of science every year.
    You say ,”How could anyone with higher than room temp I.Q. believe something without any substaining proof i.e. numbers and method purporting thereby to have arrived at said conclusions?”
    I say, go the nearest University Library and begin looking up references in Atmospheric, Oceanographic, Geochemical, Geophysical, and Geological literature before you go making your unsubstantiated statements. If you can’t say that there is substantiated proof after reviewing this body of science, then STFU, and go away.

  148. diogen January 26, 2010 at 2:20 pm #

    “When one claims that a home built will be dust within 20 years that deserves an insult. ”
    Are you for real? I’m sure it’s your way to be humorous. How about when one makes a claim you disgree with, that deserves a refutation with facts, or at least a statement of your point of view. What’s the point of being here if congenial discourse isn’t your goal? What other goal would you have for being here?
    Peace,
    Diogen

  149. asia January 26, 2010 at 2:30 pm #

    ComeOn!!!
    When Bushy/greenspan said ‘ the economy is strong’ it was bold lies but lies none the less. these kinda folks get paid to lie.
    ‘ nobody on the Fed saw the housing fiasco coming’
    Nobody is a code word for ‘ if yr stupid enuff to listen to these lies well keep telluing them’

  150. not mommy January 26, 2010 at 2:32 pm #

    “Are you for real?”
    Yes, I’m real. A new home that will be dust in 20 years is an absurd lie. It is not an opinion. It is balderdash.
    “What’s the point of being here if congenial discourse isn’t your goal?”
    To bring the light of truth to so much of the fucktardedness that exists on this forum. What is your reason MORON, to get along? At any cost? Hey, there is a fortress on which to make a stand. (NOT!)

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  151. diogen January 26, 2010 at 2:38 pm #

    I suppose one can’t help being a sociopath.
    Goodbye, we shall never speak again.

  152. asoka January 26, 2010 at 2:46 pm #

    Swingtime Reports from Cabinet Members of the Obama Administration
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/2010-Cabinet-Reports/?e=27&ref=text
    Looks like somebody knows how to use the internet… which Al Gore helped develop with his support for DARPA.

  153. earthman January 26, 2010 at 2:52 pm #

    Just a thought–
    Is this global warming bs a way for the taxing gov’t powers to get more of our hard earned income to save the world and line their pockets… Hum… What working Joe wouldn’t want to pay to save the planet… Just a thought…

  154. economicminor January 26, 2010 at 2:53 pm #

    This country is addicted to debt. Addicts never want to quit their addiction. They deny. They steal. They lie and in the end, when they finally run into the wall of reality, get caught doing something illegal to support their addiction, they go into rehab or prison.
    This country has been in rehab a couple of times only to come out and go right back to its addiction of borrowing against future income to support consumption today… Reminds me of J. Wellington Wimpy of Popeye fame…
    If you want to understand the cycle better read/watch Steve Keen. Here is a link
    The Economic Case against Bernanke by Steve Keen
    The next phase of this grand cycle will be deflation as Kasriel at Northern Trust wrote about recently, M2 and the velocity of money are contracting… goes hand in hand with Keen

  155. not mommy January 26, 2010 at 2:55 pm #

    “…we shall never speak again.”
    Damn, how will I get by?

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  156. not mommy January 26, 2010 at 2:57 pm #

    “Hum… What working Joe wouldn’t want to pay to save the planet… ”
    None if it were possible but this crap and trade nonsense won’t save the planet its just a scam for income redistribution. Nothing more…nothing less.

  157. earthman January 26, 2010 at 3:06 pm #

    Hate those words income resistribution.
    Pride, grace, and dignity of doing it for yourself is much better.
    Keep the faith.

  158. Martin Hayes January 26, 2010 at 3:20 pm #

    It’s après moi le déluge which I mention in fear and trembling of annoying you.
    I happened to use these very words when a French-speaking co-worker (from Mauritius) got into a wrangle with me a couple weeks before I was due to leave the ad agency where I worked. She (Pascale was her name) thought fit to tell me I needed to straighten up all the paperwork before I made myself scarce, when I knew perfectly well that no one would look at it. She got the message.
    And it turned out to be true. They couldn’t find a replacement for me because no one was willing to do my job at the salary they were paying me. In fact, no one was willing to do the job period because it was OBSOLETE. There’s nothing like a big fat goodbye.

  159. diogen January 26, 2010 at 3:24 pm #

    Hmm, deflation will result from the decreased demand, and inflation will result from higher energy and resource costs. The two will balance each other out, and the currency will keep its prsent value. What doyou think, Economicsminor?

  160. diogen January 26, 2010 at 3:31 pm #

    Hey Martin, good story (and it’s VERY difficult to annoy me, just ask my kids 🙂 I wonder if different people are quoted to have said the same profound thing about what may happened after their watch is over 🙂

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  161. Jimini January 26, 2010 at 3:35 pm #

    I channeled this from a seer named “disaffected” over the weekend. While I can’t vouch for the accuracy, it sure makes you stop and think. Sorry for the lengthy post.
    Future Shock 2018 – A Cautionary Tale
    The final wave of U.S. financial shocks began in 2011, in the run up to the election that would signal the end of what remained of the Democratic “opposition” party, even as it foretold the end of the Republican ruling party, and, indeed, the Republic itself, as well. It began a nauseating descending spiral of political and economic lunacy, as the U.S. government tried to maintain the illusion of control by continued monetization of the debt, until, thankfully, the military coup of 2018 temporarily returned a small sense of order to things. At that point, with American military and Foreign Service people virtually stranded in overseas locations with no economic lifeline, the military simply stepped in and did what it does best; forcefully restore order to failing third world nation-states. After suspending the constitution and imposing martial law, the Chinese and a consortium of wealthy world interests came to the economic rescue and made us “an offer we couldn’t refuse.”
    The Constitution, along with the House of Representatives (to much applause both at home and abroad, as neither had been functional for quite some time), were both scrapped in entirety. The executive branch was expanded to a become a 3-way “Executive Committee” presidency, one to be elected by the Senate, one to be appointed by the Chinese government, and one to be appointed by the consortium, with the Chinese member having ultimate decision making authority. The Senate was reduced to 50 members, appointed by a joint resolution of the Chinese and Consortium members of the Executive Committee, with the people no longer being trusted with the vote after the Palin fiascoes of 2012 and 2016. Senate parliamentary rules were also now decided by the Executive Committee, with the Senate being pretty much openly viewed as a ceremonial vestige of the once proud U.S. past. Although Senate votes were largely “advisory” with respect to the Executive Committee, the Chinese thought it important to maintain the illusion of a “democracy,” at least in the short term, even as most political insiders had long viewed the notion as quaint, even before the final collapse. The Judicial branch remained mostly intact, with the following seminal changes: all higher court rulings were now to be reviewed and approved by the Executive Committee, all federal appointments were to be made by the Executive Committee and subject to review at any time, and the scope and authority of unilateral Executive Committee Orders were greatly expanded – without judicial review – as well.
    All other government functions were streamlined across the board as well, with the elimination of nearly all the cabinet level administrative agencies – most notably the IRS and the State Department. A flat rate national sales tax was imposed in lieu of the income tax, as the previous tax system had been completely discredited as corrupt and inefficient, while the words “foreign policy” simply no longer existed within the bailiwick of what remained of the U.S. government, having been blamed for nearly all the ills that had brought the world to the brink of collapse, especially during the previous six years of the Palin administration. For her part, Palin remained as popular as ever in her continuing role as media pundit and demagogue, having largely abandoned her Presidential post after her 2016 reelection in favor of continued media stardom on the various enormously popular FOX News media outlets, which had gradually become the de facto media arm of the U.S. government in its waning days. Interestingly enough, many of the new Chinese regime found her to be extremely entertaining and not at all threatening, realizing that her effect on the masses was mostly palliative, and would help ease the pain and anguish that was likely to continue, especially for the now aging baby-boomers, many of whom still held on to delusions of “American exceptionalism,” during the difficult transition years ahead.
    The military was sold off to a multi-national consortium, which had already absorbed Halliburton and its associated business interests, greatly expanded, and became the first truly global multi-national military enterprise in world history. Its scope was greatly expanded as well, now officially encompassing peacekeeping, nation-building, maritime patrolling, corrections (prisons), civilian law enforcement, private security services, and general governmental administration duties of all types as well. The nuclear arsenal was located, secured, and for the most part, disassembled for storage in what remained of the U.S. national laboratories. The Chinese wisely recognized a once in a lifetime opportunity to walk the world back from the nuclear precipice, and, with the help of a truly multi-national professional military service, convinced the rest of the nuclear powers to do the same. All were allowed to keep a token number of weapons at the ready just to demonstrate the capability, but without the U.S. nuclear elephant in the room, most were more than happy to get the nuclear monkey off their backs.
    The benefits of a demilitarized U.S. continued from there. With the U.S. no longer whimsically and unilaterally flexing its military muscle across the globe, terrorist groups found themselves for the first time in nearly a century without a major oppressive power to resist, most notably in the middle-east oil producing regions. Israel, finding itself without its military ace in the hole for the first time in its history, was finally forced to sit down with the Palestinians and negotiate a just, meaningful, and lasting peace. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran all had similar stories to tell. After a small amount of localized blood letting, all settled back to a relatively peaceful status quo, at least as measured by their own unique historical standards. With Halliburton exercising a world-wide, truly multi-national military and police presence, terrorist groups soon found the going too tough for their liking. Local populations no longer gave them shelter in favor of an oppressive foreign occupier, as many of the faces in the local Halliburton forces were from the local population. As the number of terrorist incidents continued to fall, they began to once again be rightly treated as the local law enforcement problems that they in truth had always been. Finally, as Halliburton gradually became more and more respected as the world’s law enforcement arm and international disputes no longer dominating the daily news, the need for the United Nations began to wither, and it was formally disbanded shortly thereafter, officially acknowledging the new world order.
    The Chinese voluntarily assumed, and even expanded, all US entitlement obligations, realizing that by doing so they were preventing the implosion of their symbiotic “trading partner”, and essentially just indirectly subsidizing their own export industry. Payments were made in the new world currency, which had been officially adopted in 2015 in official recognizance (by world markets at least) that the dollar was now little more than worthless paper. In any case, the baby-boom “entitlement generation” would be gone soon enough anyway, after which such costly non-sense would be phased out for good.
    In one of the first acts of the new government, the new executive branch officially repealed (and subsequently approved its repeal) all existing drug laws within the U.S., and freed all prisoners convicted under those laws. Surprisingly, this was an immediate boon to economic activity and overall law and order. Aging baby-boomers with new found wealth and leisure (but little else), re-explored the pleasures of various now legal opium based products of their youth. And with the war on drugs now officially history, Mexico to the south now found unimagined prosperity, unofficially becoming a US territory, as aging US boomers moved south to live out their remaining years in the sun, while many impoverished Mexicans simply joined up with Halliburton and left town altogether.
    Terrorism, which had been an exponential growth industry during the twenty-teens, virtually dried up overnight world-wide. With opium and coca products now legal in the U.S. (which had always been far and away the world’s main consumer), prices immediately dropped, and narco-terrorists simply had no one left to terrorize or the means to do it. Although prices fell precipitously, they soon found an equilibrium that allowed farmers to make a decent living, and demand among the aging U.S. population skyrocketed to previously unimagined levels. Health care professionals and religious leaders had long predicted that legalization would lead to the end of society as we know it, but once again, reality proved to be another story, as once the stigma was removed from recreational drug use (especially among the elderly who were the prime consumers), the overall effects were judged to be no worse than alcohol legalization before it. Likewise the long standing DEA supply or demand argument was settled once and for all, as with the supply system now able to work efficiently, U.S. demand for narcotics almost immediately, albeit temporarily, exceeded world supply, keeping prices high enough for the now legal producers to make a comfortable living, although not so high that the criminal element could profitably return.
    Although rising sea levels were to be a worldwide problem in the years shortly thereafter, the U.S. enjoyed the fact it was simply able to abandon so much of its already crumbling infrastructure (the day Wall Street officially went under was commemorated world wide with a multi-media extravaganza) without economic penalty, an area where China, with its newly constructed special economic zones along its coast, was not nearly so fortunate. This forced some localized crowding issues in the Midwest, but once again, the U.S. was very fortunate in that so many of its working class had joined Halliburton and moved overseas, many never to return, after experiencing the pleasures of often more enlightened foreign cultures.
    This was eventually partially offset however, when the continued rise in sea levels forced mass evacuations of most of the world’s island nations. As the U.S. was rather sparsely populated in its western states (and was in no position to argue anyway), the lion’s share of the refugees were relocated to the U.S. and Mexico, under the rationale that the infrastructure and climatic conditions were at least as good or better than sub-Saharan Africa. Many were able to find work immediately, albeit torturous and for subsistence wages, in the burgeoning industrial agriculture industry. With the dissolution of the Environmental Protection Agency and world population numbers continuing to rise unabated, the Chinese abandoned any pretense of environmentally friendly/sustainable farming practices, as every drop of available water was diverted to farming the deserts west of central Nebraska. Eventually, even the mighty Mississippi ran nearly dry, and as the sediments stopped flowing to the delta, the gulf finally reclaimed New Orleans and most of the surrounding real estate south of I-10, this time for good.
    Surprisingly, the few remaining universities (nearly all top-flight research institutions, most private) flourished more than ever. What remained of the U.S. tech industry quickly reinforced existing corporate partnerships and began attracting research dollars and foreign intellectual talent in unprecedented numbers, largely due to the complete dissolution of immigration restrictions (and the agencies to enforce them). Although it had long been feared that uncontrolled immigration would ruin the U.S. standard of living (ironically, something the U.S. had managed to do of its own accord), the Chinese maintained tight control over social services, even mandating that privately run hospitals turn away the indigent from emergency care if they couldn’t pay the freight. With the U.S. rapidly seeking its place economically with the rest of the third world anyway – at least among average blue/no collar workers – the immigration issue at long last simply faded away of its own accord.
    In time, the U.S. assumed the role of a sort of quarantined multi-cultural free-trade zone, where many of the more insidious aspects of capitalism and free trade were exported from countries wanting to enjoy the economic benefits, but not wanting to suffer the social ills. As such, tourism and the associated gambling, professional sports, and entertainment industries boomed, with mini (as well as bigger and better!) Las Vegas’s and Atlantic City’s popping up all over the country and the population itself morphing into a much more diverse, albeit transient, and decidedly less affluent one than ever before. Although never again threatening to regain its status as a world power, the U.S. finally truly achieved its dream of becoming the “engine of world economic growth,” as every hair-brained (and not) scheme was first exported to and tried out in the relative safety of the “wild west cowboy U.S.”, before it was approved to be safely implemented elsewhere.

  162. abbeysbooks January 26, 2010 at 3:36 pm #

    Doug Casey has tyermed this phenomenon an Inflationary Depression

  163. abbeysbooks January 26, 2010 at 3:42 pm #

    Toynbee as well as JHK talks about the poor construction as the empire disintegrates. In the heydays it is lavish, solid,and beautiful for its design (in keeping with present taste that is) and gradually it gets lousier and lousier. Not Toynbee’s adjective.

  164. Fredric Lorenzen January 26, 2010 at 3:43 pm #

    Hey smart fella,
    With all due respect. Sorry, I began thinking with out the benefit of fake statist /socialist quasi-legitimate documentations that proved to be rankest bullshit per the purloined and numererous emails showing all sorts of manipulation of the facts leaving out conflicting data. Why do that if your stuff is genuine?
    Carbon Footprints stepping all over the commonly accepted scientific provable proceedures with an obvious agenda. Actually a very good ploy to suck money from developed countries to third world countries, and to make a fortune selling carbon indulgences by a few environmental racket gangsters.
    Some of the blindest zealots reside in collegiate isolation while vieing politically for governmental subsidies and brazenly pretending to be doing pure, unbiased research. Sorry the whole thing stinks to high heaven. Some may be too educated to detect the rank odor. Could sun cycles change world temperatures? Did dinosuar flatulence raise global Co2 levels thereby raising temperatures during those ages? Now repeat after me…Co2 must go…Co2 must go…Co2 must go. and oh yeah, if you have something to say don’t use acronyms. What happened to the global warming cohesion in Copenhagen? Melted would be my guess. Buy some down filled clothes now as things cool..that is unless you’re against plucking geese. Boy, Orwell was right on the mark only he didn’t account enough for the total amorality of our would-be leaders in all sectors of our society. Good luck with your theory.

  165. abbeysbooks January 26, 2010 at 3:47 pm #

    Actually Vlad is more in tune with H.P. Lovecraft and Nietzsche in his theories.
    He is not all wrong but certainly not all right either. In times like these racial prejudice flowers. It has been latent for awhile for many but is rising to the surface again.
    I am ashamed at what I say to myself about Obama. But I haven’t stopped talking to myself that way either.

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  166. Puzzler January 26, 2010 at 3:53 pm #

    Interesting — what’s the source?

  167. Martin Hayes January 26, 2010 at 3:55 pm #

    “With all due respect.”
    The many fine minds that frequent this blog have investigated the meaning of this phrase.
    Apparently it means “dickwad”.

  168. Puzzler January 26, 2010 at 3:56 pm #

    The warmists don’t need real science when they’ve got faith. Global Warming is becoming a religion.

  169. earthman January 26, 2010 at 3:59 pm #

    Boys and Girls we have to be our own leaders.
    Don’t let the flim flam few bastards fool you.
    The best in the human spirit can’t be squashed.
    It’s my day off… Usually, I don’t have time to do this sort of thing:)

  170. Jimini January 26, 2010 at 4:00 pm #

    Me.

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  171. Qshtik January 26, 2010 at 4:19 pm #

    “That’s a scream. I can see it in my mind.”
    =========================
    That’s great Cash. I’m glad the description worked for you. I worried that it might not. And if you think the description is funny you’d fall out of your chair if you saw the cartoon.

  172. economicminor January 26, 2010 at 4:22 pm #

    Not hardly. Deflation destroys debt as the value of assets used as collateral drop below the current selling price. The difference and the cost of writing down or foreclosing on this debt is a negative against M2 and the velocity of money. Because when the process is completed, there is less money in circulation.
    The process of deflating the debt is most harmful to existing pension funds and annuities who rely upon both growth and income from the interest. This process destroys their asset base which they rely upon to continue distribution.
    As for higher energy prices and rising inflation from commodities. This is also a negative, especially when a large portion of our energy and raw materials and even food are imported. The higher cost of transportation and the rising cost of imported goods in the end reduces the disposable incomes of our workers, thus reducing the amount of M2 and the velocity of money in this country.
    Both of these events, in reducing the velocity of money, contract the cycle and reduce overall economic activity.
    So there is no upside to either deflation nor inflation with an overly indebted nation. Both will continue the cycle of lower M2 and a slower circulation of what cash is in the system. Then add human nature to hoard and things slow down even faster.
    Just watch as this year and next play out.

  173. Mr. Purple January 26, 2010 at 4:28 pm #

    “the internet… which Al Gore helped develop with his support for DARPA”
    Thanks to your post, I realized something: since DARPA is taxpayer-supported, anyone who paid federal taxes during the mid-to-late 20th Century can claim partial credit for developing the Internet.

  174. Bobby January 26, 2010 at 4:33 pm #

    Again, your diatribe proves my original statement.
    I commented on the fact that you’re apparently unaware that there’s a body of peer-reviewed science that was underway long before the political class grabbed onto “climate change” and the CO2/fossil fuel link for their social engineering agendae.
    It’s passe to say “global warming,” because it may very well cool, which you really should worry about. The scientists that, long ago, began to recognize that climate is an ever changing thing – for whatever reason (including “forcing” by burning fossil fuels)- developed methods to investigate the mechanisms that might contribute to the processes of change. The literature describing it, including “substaining (sic) proof i.e. numbers and method” – your words – is there, in plain view, whether you like it or not.
    Go check it out if you really want to learn something, or else pick another topic to post about that won’t make you sound so stoopid.

  175. Qshtik January 26, 2010 at 4:34 pm #

    “Of course none of this applies to Qshtik, a bean counter of long duration, who judging by his posts, is a fine human being with a rich and refined sense of humour and who doesn’t need to drink to be perceptive, interesting and funny.”
    ============================
    Well Cash … you’ve made my day. I see myself as having a dual role here at CFN: getting a chuckle and refuting every word that leaves Asoka’s keyboard 😉
    So that no one should miss what you said I’ve taken the liberty of copying the kudo above in its entirety. And how perceptive of you to notice these qualities 😉

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  176. asoka January 26, 2010 at 4:40 pm #

    OBAMA BUYS INTO CONSERVATIVE BUDGET CUTTING HOGWASH
    Obama’s decision to implement a budget freeze cedes to the right-wing both the idea that blanket cuts are necessary and the notion that cuts should be focused on domestic programs while defense spending goes untouched.
    And already, the right-wing is claiming the freeze as a victory, with the National Review’s Jim Geraghty writing, “if the arguments in the coming years are between spending freezes and spending cuts, then we’ve already won.
    OBAMA IS A FISCAL CONSERVATIVE, MORE BUSH THAN BUSH WAS.
    On CFN anything and everything Obama does is criticized as Kabuki theater, so I am sure there will be an outcry over Obama’s budget freeze on domestic entitlement programs. (except, of course, no freeze for DoD, not freeze for VA, and no freeze for anything military: more war, mo’ better, right?)

  177. Martin Hayes January 26, 2010 at 4:40 pm #

    Don’t knock opiates.
    Ever heard the expression “You can’t go home again”?
    Well, with opiates, you can.

  178. asoka January 26, 2010 at 4:44 pm #

    “Former vice president Al Gore gets a lot of flak for supposedly claiming to have ‘invented’ the Internet; actually, he said he took [the] initiative in creating the Internet, and in fact he did introduce legislation in Congress that helped spur its creation.” –Washington Post, June 29, 2006

  179. Qshtik January 26, 2010 at 4:53 pm #

    “Sorry for the lengthy post.”
    ========================
    No problem with the lengthy post … I screen all posts with a scroll-wheel spin-count. Ten spins and I skip the comment.

  180. economicminor January 26, 2010 at 5:19 pm #

    as for currency values… against what measure.. against gold? Probably but depends on what actually transpires and how that transportation comes to fruition.
    Judging the value of the dollar is a tough one as deflation actually makes real dollars more valuable. Actually saved ones or earned from productive enterprise. Not fantasy dollarss on the balance sheets of already dead corporations, Why? Because as M2 contracts, the demand for dollars should increase.
    Then the other side is the FED monetizing debt. Creating more dollars out of air. As for the FED’s printing press, it has to get them into circulation to turn deflation into inflation. What they have been doing so far has been to monetize and pass the dollares to their masters/handlers who have been gaming commodities. This drives up the cost of raw materials while the real economy contracts. Not a good long term play. This will accelerate the down turn and force any real recovery further out on the time line.
    What I see happening is that the real economy continues to decline while the financial economy is still gaming the system. These are shown in Kasriel’s piece and Keen’s. Eventually health care spending and driving and travel will also decline along with other sectors.
    The way the Banksters are doing it. They win and we lose at every step. Until they lose and when that happens they will lose big. That is when things really change.
    They are killing and eating the geese that had been laying all those golden eggs. Leaving the remaining flock rather angry, afraid and pissed off. Have you ever been around a mad goose? Just let me say, they make great watch dogs. Not just the kind that make noise either… Those who rule, are playing a fools game IMO. Hitchcock didn’t even know how scary birds could be as he must never have been around pissed off geese.
    In the mean time Main Street has pain. In the end we will re-evaluate what is important and the country will be much different in ten years. How different? No one knows for sure and we can hope it is much better with much more equity and justice but I just don’t know for sure.. I can imagine lots of scenarios at this point but when Chaos rules, anything can happen.

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  181. asoka January 26, 2010 at 5:20 pm #

    Swingtime humor: Maxine on the economy:
    * The economy is so bad, I got a ‘pre-declined’ credit card in the mail.
    * The economy is so bad, if the bank returns your check marked “insufficient funds” you call and ask if they meant you or them.
    * The economy is so bad, I ordered a burger at McDonalds, and the kid behind the counter asked, “Can you afford fries with that?”
    * The economy is so bad, Motel 6 won’t leave the light on anymore.
    * The economy is so bad, a truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.
    * The economy is so bad, Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
    * The economy is so bad, parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.
    * The economy is so bad, McDonalds is selling the “Quarter-ouncer.”
    * The economy is so bad, Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than Chrysler and GM.
    * The economy is so bad, CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.
    * Congress says they are looking deeper into the Bernie Madoff scandal. Well ain’t that just great. The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear.

  182. DeeJones January 26, 2010 at 5:21 pm #

    Can you tell us more about your life in Costa Rica? What the conditions are, job possibilites, how the locals see Americans, and what you like about it the most.
    Well, the conditions, weather wise, are great, not too hot (80’s), not too cold (60’s).
    Cant get a job here until you have permanent residency, they seem to frown on extrajaneros taking jobs from local people. Unlike the US.
    Locals see us as being rich, how else could we afford to live here & not work.
    In 1949 they abolished the military, and now spend the money on universal health care and education. Seems to be working just fine. Wonder why we cant do the same? Oh, thats right, a Military+Industrial Complex. Didn’t somebody warn us about that? Guess we didn’t listen.
    The food is fresh, anything imported is expensive, but we don’t need it anyway.
    WE are renting a 3 bedroom house for less than a studio apartment would cost in Nor CAl.
    Wake up at 6am every morning because there are hundreds of G-D parrots in the trees outside our home. They are a bit loud.
    The people are friendly and helpful.
    Whats not to like? Oh, dont have a TV, dont miss it either.
    Seems the US could learn from CR, but it won’t, and will probably go down the tube taking a lot of good people with it, but since the US is like a huge leach on the face of the world, nobody will really miss it.
    Its cervesa time.

  183. asoka January 26, 2010 at 5:25 pm #

    ANTI-ACORN ACTIVISTS ARRESTED
    Bout time we had some law n order. ACORN is the target of a conservative witch hunt and has not engaged in a single instance of voter fraud.
    The real “crime” ACORN is guilty of is empowering poor folk to vote through legitimate voter registration.

  184. asoka January 26, 2010 at 5:26 pm #

    NEW ORLEANS — A conservative activist who posed as a pimp to target the community-organizing group ACORN and the son of a federal prosecutor were among four people arrested by the FBI and accused of trying to interfere with phones at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office.

  185. asoka January 26, 2010 at 5:36 pm #

    An independent investigation of ACORN by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger found no criminal wrongdoing by the organization, and a report released by the Congressional Research Service shortly before Christmas 2009 says it couldn’t find any instances in which questionable people registered to vote by ACORN showed up at the polls on Election Day.
    Let me say that again: not a single instance in which questionable people registered to vote by ACORN showed up at the polls on Election Day.
    TRANSLATION: NO VOTER FRAUD
    ACORN triple-checked, separated out, and flagged questionable registrations, before turning them in as required by law. You cannot legally destroy a voter registration form even if Donald Duck is on the form. By law you have to submit it. But ACORN did flag the ones they thought were bogus.
    No voter fraud by ACORN. Not one instance.

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  186. asoka January 26, 2010 at 5:42 pm #

    Thanks DeeJones, for the Costa Rica info.
    What about crime by immigrants (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, etc.)? What about “el secuestro express”? Bars on your windows?
    What about Costa Rica apartments listed in Craigslist for $2,000 (are they talking dollars or colones?) Can an apartment in San Jose really cost US$2,000 a month?

  187. Jimini January 26, 2010 at 7:22 pm #

    Don’t knock opiates? Hell, I’m one of the geezers that’s going to be demanding them! Here’s to the brave new world, whoever’s in charge!

  188. wagelaborer January 26, 2010 at 7:35 pm #

    The Federal Reserve spokesperson is lying. They knew that the bubble wouldn’t last.
    Here’s a counterpunch article from 2006 talking about a Financial Times article-
    http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11102006.html
    My favorite part:
    This has negative implications for lenders, purchasers of the debt, orderly markets and conceivably, in extreme circumstances, financial stability and elements of the UK economy.”
    Translation: It’s about to blow!

  189. DeeJones January 26, 2010 at 7:36 pm #

    What about crime by immigrants (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, etc.)? What about “el secuestro express”? Bars on your windows?
    What about Costa Rica apartments listed in Craigslist for $2,000 (are they talking dollars or colones?) Can an apartment in San Jose really cost US$2,000 a month?
    Asoka, yes, there is crime by those you mentioned. But have you been to those countries? A friends son went surfing in El Salvador, the place where he stayed (not a hi-end hotel) had guards with M-16s patrolling the grounds, and they were accompanied at all times. Kidnapping is big. By comparison, CR is much safer, but not totally crime free. Yes, we all have “ornamental” grates on the windows, and a metal gate on the door.
    As for those $2000/mo apts, those are for tourists. If you want to live here long term, you can find much cheaper ones. If you have excellent Spanish, or know a Tico, you can get one just over the Tico price. We pay about $500 (C275,000).
    Um, fresh fish and starfruit for dinner.
    Bye.

  190. Mr. Purple January 26, 2010 at 7:36 pm #

    I am aware of what Gore did. Without taxpayers to fund DARPA, it would have been meaningless.

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  191. DeeJones January 26, 2010 at 7:54 pm #

    Oh, Asoka:
    More than 75% of Costa Rican electricity is produced via hydropower or wind power. These environmentally-friendly methods provide not only guilt-free power, but fair electricity prices. To make prices even more accessible, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE, pronounced ee-say) prices electricity on a sliding scale – the more you consume, the higher your per-KWh rate. Rates are also determined by time of day.
    To keep consumption down, Costa Ricans and budget-conscious expats use on-demand water heaters, electric shower heads and low-consumption appliances. In addition, neither heat nor air conditioning is necessary in the Central Valley, which greatly helps to reduce electricity consumption.

  192. wagelaborer January 26, 2010 at 7:54 pm #

    Is it possible that two things could be true?
    Is it possible that the earth is really warming?
    And also that the ruling class wants to make money exploiting it?
    Are they really mutually exclusive?

  193. piltdownman January 26, 2010 at 8:01 pm #

    Jim –
    What a solid piece. Yes, the President is apparently a putz. I’m ready to admit it. I voted for the guy (was there any choice) and I expected something at least A LITTLE BETTER, but he seems to be no more a leader or a man than Scott Brown is. They are both creations of a media-soaked political class. I know from what I speak, because for quite some time I was working in that sector. Candidate marketing is no different (and not perceived as any different…) than the marketing of soap or douche, though it certainly shares more with the later.
    Obama could get his train back on track if he gave the sack (love that Brit usage) to the Wall Street insiders, but I don’t think it will happen. In fact, it may be a day late and a dollar short….
    Since Obama is indeed just a “brand,” he has done the one thing you can’t do, and that’s to make the consumer realize you’re a lousy brand…..

  194. CaptSpaulding January 26, 2010 at 8:13 pm #

    Hi Diogen, you’ll never get anywhere responding to the pissant. Let me refer you once again to the slang dictionary definition. pissant: an epithet for an inconsequential, irrelevant, or worthless person, especially one who is irritating or contemptible out of proportion to his or her significance. Regards to you, Capt. Spaulding

  195. Jimini January 26, 2010 at 8:14 pm #

    Wagelaborer,
    Who in the world ever convinced you that they were (mutually exclusive)?
    Indeed, you’d have to have your head buried in the sand to NOT beleive that the ruling class wants to make money exploiting ANYTHING.
    The rest of these numb-nuts arguing about the ability of this technical solution or that to solve our ills are all entertaining, but, in the end, just so much background noise.
    As Jim points out weekly, the reason for our current conundrum is simply our inability to deal with current reality. It’s all understandable really, in that techno-solutions have been our salvation thus far. In fact, it might not even be lack of theoretical technological capability that proves to be our undoing.
    That said, we’re a selfish bunch at heart, and we’re stuck on our current paradigm of fossil fuel dependence. Weaning ourselves off with so many lives hanging in the balance would be a monumental job under the BEST of conditions, and rest assured, we don’t have those. Giving up the remaining riches to be gained by exploitation of known energy resources will, I predict, be simply too much to ask of the world’s financial elite. That, in the end, will be our collective downfall.

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  196. diogen January 26, 2010 at 8:57 pm #

    Yes, Capt’n, he made himself irrelevant. Well, we tried, every human being is worth giving a second chance to, but some are lost for good 🙂

  197. wagelaborer January 26, 2010 at 9:04 pm #

    I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. Your question made it sound as if you did.
    That’s why I asked my question.

  198. wagelaborer January 26, 2010 at 9:12 pm #

    The insistence that no one saw this crash coming is such a brazen lie, it’s right up there with the
    “We all loved Reagan” lie, and the “We all thought that there were weapons of mass destruction” lie.
    Americans are used to having their reality handed to them by the talking heads, but the internet makes it more likely that we can communicate in a lateral way.
    For instance. I hate Reagan. I always hated Reagan. There is not one day when I didn’t hate Reagan. I still hate Reagan. And when the smiley faces tell me that “we all loved Reagan” I scream at them.
    Also. I knew there were no WMD. Scott Ritter, Hans Blitz and others said so. Millions of people knew there were no WMD. So when the talking heads tell us different, they are lying.
    I remember reading a matter of fact article in Harper’s looking beyond the housing bubble bust and wondering what would take its place.
    http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/02/0081908
    Interesting that the article, less than 2 years old, assumes that the next bubble should actually be based on productive activity in the real economy.
    We are so beyond that now. They don’t want to actually invest in anything. They just want to reinflate the lost money in the last bubble.
    We are so beyond reality now that it’s hard to believe.

  199. CaptSpaulding January 26, 2010 at 9:38 pm #

    Hello Wagelaborer. I agree with you. As soon as you see that the government is now owned by the corporations, the question of Democrats or Republicans is irrelevant. The corporations own congress, and the Supreme Court just gave them more influence with their latest decision. If you couple that with the fact that the jobs are NEVER coming back, the outlook becomes pretty grim. History shows that when formerly well off citizens become suddenly poor, there is a backlash, usually resulting in a totalitarian government. Right wing or left wing doesn’t matter. My money is on the right wing including Cheney and the boys. Waterboards for everybody. Regards Capt. Spaulding

  200. Jimini January 26, 2010 at 9:39 pm #

    WageLaborer,
    Got ya. You’re right, I’m wrong. My bad. Good posts. I’m a Harper’s subscriber as well, I read the same article, and your points are well taken. Bubbles (of whatever sort) are in themselves a financial phenomenon of the new world order. One that (not surpisingly) belongs to the nouveau capitalist rich. Simply goes with the territory, as those without the means, simply don’t have the means to contribute. Not hard to figure out really.

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  201. oiligarch January 26, 2010 at 9:50 pm #

    Mr K.
    Sir, with all due respect; I do not share your neo-romantic view of the world to come. I am in the “Road Warrior” camp for the following reasons:
    I am of the opinion that the “USA” will never return to a localized, main street type arrangement (with rail service) because this “country” has devolved into a completely different animal. Gone are the days of the yeoman farmer, artisan class and gentleman merchant. “We” have been so tyrannized by the petro-hegemoney that “our” entire culture is entirely distorted beyond any holistic form of redemption. “We” have regressed into a cute, flaccid, hollow mono-culture with none of the robustness left from the previous centuries.
    “We” are a culture that quaintly thinks nothing of leaving giant piles of plastic garbage bags full of good compostable biomass at the curbside for equally giant diesel trucks to cart off 10 miles to a landfill for “disposal”. “We” think nothing of climbing into a wallowing, fuel guzzling, Ford Execution and driving 10 miles for a pack of cigarettes and a coke.
    “Our” children are sallow-skinned waifs who have never even seen a shovel much less know how to use one. I feel really sorry for them because everything they are being taught is for a world which will soon cease to exist. “They” will in no way be prepared for what is coming in the years ahead. “They” will learn the true value of things when “they” have to hump everything they use on foot for miles.
    You mentioned the “corporation as psychopath” theme. If corpserations are psychopaths then “we”
    don’t factor into the plan at all. In fact, “we” will be just another “resource” to be mined, extracted, used-up and discarded. “They” have done such a good job on the North American continent and elsewhere around the world of extracting the wealth then leaving “us” fighting over the scraps. Soilent green anyone?
    Personally, I think that this is the pinnacle for humanity; “our” apogee. Sad to see us trash such a beauty of a planet. “We” might have been able to have had more fun if we had stretched it out a bit more and not had such a propensity for wastefulness and greed.
    Me? I hope I am in the first wave to “go” cause
    I’m a spoiled petro-baby. I just couldn’t imagine not having hot and cold running water, AC, supermarkets and a cute little car to zoom long distances in really, really fast. Effortlessly!

  202. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 10:17 pm #

    Pretty much as I had already heard…great if you have a trust fund or are well invested but not practical for other people. How long does it take to become a citizen? And are there many jobs available, or in other words, how’s their economy?
    We are probably protecting them against their neighbors or homegrown communists. If we disarmed, who would protect us?
    I can’t help but wonder how safe Costa Rica will be for Americans if the world economy collapses. It takes a very long time and probably marriage to a local to overcome being a gringo.
    I’d say enjoy it while you can but be ready to decamp back to Des Moines.

  203. wagelaborer January 26, 2010 at 10:28 pm #

    Vlad. Why would you even want to leave the country to go live in a Hispanic culture?
    Shouldn’t you stay here and try to organize your people?
    Hint: they hang out at WalMart.
    http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
    And really, after looking at our tribe, my heart swells with pride.
    Truly, white people are the most advanced on the planet.

  204. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 10:30 pm #

    Well that was mostly a joke…I’ve heard of this gent Diogenes – a Cynic very respected by the Stoics whom I’ve studied a little. They thought their goals were the same except that his path of asceticism was for the few while their path of duty and self analysis was fit for the many. But I’ve never seen him in a bookstore. Can you reccomend a translation of his teachings? There was another Diogenes or two also, but I assume you’re talking about the Ascetic.
    I’m glad you cared enough to research what I said and find that I was wrong. Now how about you look up the Black IQ and tell us what you find? But forget about Wikepedia. They are controlled by Political Correctness and cannot be trusted on questions like this. And then look up the work of Laurence Kohlberg who found that IQ is roughly proportional to the level of moral development. To be more exact, a high IQ is necessary but not sufficient to be good. The mad scientist type or Dick Cheney type is a distinct possibility. Someone mentioned Sociopaths. Yes they flourish in an impersonal society such as our’s.
    So once you realize the low Black IQ and then realize what that means morally, then you may begin to be properly alarmed at what is going to happen in almost every large and middle size city when the things fall apart.

  205. rocco January 26, 2010 at 10:31 pm #

    Greetings:
    Jim, your play the big slide is still giving me bad dreams, thanks again for coming to good olde Rochester. BUT, I must disagree move out of the burbs? Where, just like the other posters,the inner city of Rochester is empty buildings, the inner neighborhoods lead us in crime. We can try to live a more connected life, grow more of our own food, community gardens,greenhouses,more bike mechanics,etc. If people could feed themselves, and have some heat during the winter(solar panels) we could keep the mad max world at bay. The Erie canal and lake have polluted fish,so we would still need imports by rail,but I fear the national parties have no reason or planning left in their ranks. I am asking my neighbors with empty lawns if I could plant nut, and fruit trees, and am encouraging the rest, but most people think that a Star Trek invention will save us,but we must try, whats that poem, rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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  206. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 10:47 pm #

    Well their work is pretty much accomplished. The Grand Orient of Europe helped to organzie the French Revolution – among others. And their teachings of universalism and rationality helped to pave the way for Liberalism and the utterly disastrous leveling that has lead to Democracy and universal suffrage.
    A meditation: I don’t know about Europe, but the American Lodges have always denied Blacks entrance. Blacks were finally given their own Lodges, called The Prince Hall. Now with the Liberal Media ferreting out every trace of racism high and low in American Life, how did this massive example of it escape notice? Obviously it didn’t – the controllers and owners of media chose not to report it. In other words, the Jews did not want to offend their WASP friends and fellow travelers.
    Albert Pike gave the Jews their own accredited form of Masonry, Bnai Brith. The full name of the ADL is Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith. Bnai Brith means Sons of the Covenant. No gentiles allowed even though Jews are welcome in all forms of Masonry. Sounds like business as usual, eh? The ideology of Universalism is the ultimate weapon against fair minded Whites. It works great as long as you remember it doesn’t apply to your own group. The Jews never do forget that. It’s just like Capitalism: the free market is something you make the other guy do. The big boys don’t believe in it once they reach the top. I think it was J.P. Morgan who said competition was a sin.

  207. Jimini January 26, 2010 at 10:59 pm #

    oligarch,
    I’m with you. Death is, in the end, the end of us all. No need to get all melodramatic about it.

  208. Vlad Krandz January 26, 2010 at 11:03 pm #

    What wrong with Detroit Diogen? It used to be a nice place…Why did the Whites flee? Were they all “racists”?
    About the Jews, I agree. The World Community offered them Uganda and then Madagascar. That place is huge. There would have been room for every Jew in the world who wanted to go there. And they would have made short work of the primitive inhabitants. Stalin offered them a huge tract of Land in southern Siberia I believe. But they Soviet Jews became enamoured of Israel and Stalin’s small store of patience ran out.
    Basically, their egos got the best of them. They wanted to be right in the center of things. And of course they fancy Palestine as their ancient homeland – even though the Arabs are much closer genetically to the people who lived there long ago in Bibical Times. It’s like Irish Catholics wanting to retake Asia Minor because some Celts, (St Paul’s Galatians) lived there long ago.
    Do you know any Jews? I do. They love being in the spotlight – even if it’s bad. They’re the most everything in their own mind, oh yeah, the most moral too! When told that all but one of the famous Russian Oligarch were Jews, their attitude was, “Yeah, so? Who’s the other guy?” Of course they are an amzazing people, but a tragic one – for themselves and those who have to deal with them.

  209. Jimini January 26, 2010 at 11:18 pm #

    Vlad,
    A meditation: how about you give it a rest? The .38/.45c retirement plan. Have you considered it? Have an assistant standing by in case all does not go as planned. It’s the least we can do.
    Cheers!

  210. Qshtik January 26, 2010 at 11:55 pm #

    “I always hated Reagan.”
    ==================
    Fascinating … the vehemency of your hatred. How far back does “always” go? To before his election as President? Before Gov. of CA? Before Bedtime for Bonzo? Before birth? Is it political or does his head just look a little too small for his body? Did “The Great Communicator” label drive you over the edge?
    I disliked Bill Clinton but I couldn’t say I hated him and it wasn’t “always.” It was only from the first time I ever saw him speak … with that lower lip bite. I saw a complete phony and never wavered in that view.
    I had a very liberal co-worker 10-15 years ago who felt the same as you. He was so far left, Marx was to his right. “The Nation” was his bible. He detested Reagan. When he tired of political diatribes he’d launch personal attacks like a tale about RR having a disgusting case of dandruff.
    So tell me about your hatred … does it go beyond the merely political? Who did you hate more — Reagan or Wm. Buckely?

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  211. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 12:26 am #

    Same to you libtard. Real Free Thinker here – wants to kill people who don’t agree with him.

  212. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 12:30 am #

    Anyone invested in Toyota? My condolences if so. Does anyone know if the problem was confined to the US plants or if Japan was making the flawed cars as well?
    Mr Kunstler is, I imagine, happy. This is a victory for Greens and Bicyclists and all those who hate the machine.

  213. Qshtik January 27, 2010 at 1:07 am #

    “Does anyone know if the problem was confined to the US plants”
    ===================
    All in North America – some in Canada. Faulty accelerator was designed by Jews and assembled exclusively by Blacks, Mexicans and other misc swarthy people 😉

  214. sancho-2 January 27, 2010 at 1:45 am #

    another useful blog. i liked how it also touched on, “big box” and walmart – these have done more to destroy our way of life and have dehumanized this country than just about anything. I truly, truly, hope Mr. Kunstler can please do more expository writing and essays explaining this horrible scurge on our country. the sad thing is that many leftists – those that should be most passionatly against these superstores in fact stick up for them with a “victim” mentality. for example, they say (esp union workers no less), “can’t afford not to got to walmart.” whine whine. so in other words others must sacrafice, pay more taxes, they can take from others but when it comes to their own sacrafice they just wont put themselves out – and then think you are a bad guy. ive learned not to talk about wal mark at parties b/c many just vehamently switch to “victim” mode. but this is the very cycle that perpetuates this maddness. help James!

  215. Patrizia January 27, 2010 at 6:54 am #

    The problem I see is mainly in the cost of a campaign to be elected.
    When we talk about millions then we talk about big players.
    Every president is nothing else than a puppet put there to be on the side of the ones who gave him the money.
    As long as this system will go on you and we (European) cannot hope in a future where “everybody is represented” especially the ones who do not own millions.
    We say “it always rains on the wet” and this will go on and on, as long as the system doesn’t change.
    Obama is no exception.

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  216. Fredric Lorenzen January 27, 2010 at 7:49 am #

    Hi Bobby,
    Golly gee, I wish I had your intellect. Your avoidance of the question of the purloined toxic emails puzzles me however. How could you confuse those twisted and obvious evasions of truth with any sort of real conclusion that carries any modicum of scientific weight and veracity at all?
    Eat the government issued pablum as they slowly steal your liberty. As they trample the Constitution underfoot dismissing it as an archaic inconvenience. “Global warming” is a big lucrative power grab. Only one of the first in a well thought out progression of grabs that will lead to our diminishment to third world status, so that the Ubermenschen can have their one world government. Wake up! It’s not ineptitude at the helm it’s a purposeful destuction of the one last superpower, our country. I’m sorry I used the archaic term global warming. I suppose I’d want to change the name of my agenda too if it implied exactly the opposite. Keep a stiff upper lip and a flexible monicker I always say. And just one thing about your otherwise noteworty and well considered posts is your propensity to use invective against your opponent when all else is bullshit. Good luck with that $10 dollar gas and a roller skate disguised as a car. But, don’t complain because the complience nazis don’t like that from their subjects. And, oh yeah do take the blue pill. Don’t go away mad..just go away.

  217. Jim from Watkins Glen January 27, 2010 at 9:19 am #

    Not mommy.
    Now you want sex? Sorry, you’re not my type. Let me guess: you’re a pudgy lump living at your parents’ house where you spend your days staring at a big, fifteen-inch screen to compensate for your small, two-inch penis. You have no marketable talent, and you wouldn’t know which end of a garden tool to use if you were starving to death (which, by the way, you will be soon). You are road kill and you know it and you’re taking your anger out on anyone in range. Go fart in another elevator, punk.
    Hey,that was kind of fun. As pointless as sending a text message to a carp, but I must confess, it’s cathartic. I think I’m starting to get the hang of this new medium.

  218. diogen January 27, 2010 at 9:25 am #

    Vlad, “What’s wrong with Detroit”? I understand that you think the problem with Detroit is a very high concentration of Blacks. It would appear that the problems of Detroit are the effect of that, but I think it’s something else: poverty, lack of education, and self-defeating culture.
    When you look at middle-class black/hispanic neighborhoods, especially if there are many people with education/training, they are indistingishable from white neighborhoods. Middle-class black/brown/yellow people are NOT walking around looking for someone to mug, rob or murder, or a house to break into or a car to steal. When you look at poverty-stricken areas of white people, in the U.S. and other countries, you see the same problems as in Detroit: violence, hopelessness, family breakdown, etc. I’m NOT a multiculturalist or a liberal, I’m very partial to the Western Culture, but I don’t buy your ideas of white superiority, we were very lucky to be formed as a people and a culture in the right piece of geography, Europe. My understanding of history tells me that geography is probably the biggest single factor that shaped history (who said “geography is destiny”?)
    Regarding IQ and morality, I just don’t buy the idea that higher IQ leads to more ethical behavior as you state, both from my personal experiences and from looking at history. The Kohlberg stages are relevant to individuals, not groups, I think.
    And to answer your question, I do know a few jews, and they aren’t much different from any other people I know, they range from assholes to nice guys, just like everyone else; some of them are Democrats, some Republicans, some independents, some of them despise Israel and its policies, some think Israel can do no wrong — these guys are nutty.
    It’s tempting to believe conspiracy theories, otherwise you have to accept the irrationality and random stupidity of the people who rule us, not to mention greed and short-sightedness of the elites who come in all stripes … just my opinion.

  219. diogen January 27, 2010 at 9:55 am #

    Vlad, one more thing. I didn’t mean to oversimplify that violence is solely the function of poverty, there are certainly many examples of poor people living peacefully, white people or other races. Violence and anti-social behavior has many different causes, I’m sure. When the SHTF, I wonder how all of us will behave… Do you think that desperate and angry white people will be much nicer than desperate and angry blacks/mexicans? Let’s hope that our “middle-class” Western Culture will compell us to cooperate and build, rather than kill/rob and destroy…

  220. Martin Hayes January 27, 2010 at 10:07 am #

    Perhaps Prince Hall Grand Lodges have escaped censure by the liberal media for the simple reason that Prince Hall Grand Lodges have no bar based on race.

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  221. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 10:39 am #

    asoka-himself sez:
    “Obama’s decision to implement a budget freeze cedes to the right-wing both the idea that blanket cuts are necessary…”
    Hey FUCKTARD do you even read your own posts? When you first jack-up spending 28% and then declare a freeze you have not made “blanket cuts.” What you have done is locked in a 28% increase (over 2008 expenditures) for the next THREE FUCKING YEARS. You are dumber and less comprehending of all earthly activities (save flatulence) than a box of hammers. Now crawl back under you rock and STFU, MORON.

  222. diogen January 27, 2010 at 10:40 am #

    Oiligarch, your assessment of what we’ve become is very realistic, but I’m somewhat optimistic that when pressed, we’ll learn very quickly how to adapt, survival is a pretty good motivator.
    There’s this theory that living organisms undergo very rapid adaptive changes in response to drastic environmental change. I think it applies both in terms of Biology and behavior. It’s pretty amazing, it seems that the genetic code can trigger rapid change in response to environmental stress. Good engineering, whoever/whatever designed us.
    So, which of us TV watching, SUV driving, pampered and plump, entitled, cubicle dwelling, soft-handed Americans won’t till their lawns and plant beans and squash, raise backyard chickens, etc. when faced with impending food shortages? I read somewhere (I wish I had the source) that Hong Kong (or Singapore?) produces something like 60-70% of its poultry and greens right in the city. Much preferrable to “Road Warrior” prospect, do you think? We just need a good evangelizer to show us the way…

  223. DeeJones January 27, 2010 at 10:41 am #

    “Pretty much as I had already heard…great if you have a trust fund or are well invested but not practical for other people. How long does it take to become a citizen? And are there many jobs available, or in other words, how’s their economy?
    We are probably protecting them against their neighbors or homegrown communists. If we disarmed, who would protect us?
    I can’t help but wonder how safe Costa Rica will be for Americans if the world economy collapses. It takes a very long time and probably marriage to a local to overcome being a gringo.
    I’d say enjoy it while you can but be ready to decamp back to Des Moines.” Vlad the Inhaler
    great if you have a trust fund or are well invested but not practical for other people…- Not true, sure, I cashed out my IRA to move here, still have some safe(?) investments back home, sold the house, but with the right planning, anyone can make it here. Don’t have to become a citizen if you don’t want to, keep US citizenship, takes about 3 years to get permanent residency tho, so one can LEGALLY work here, but there are plenty of ‘jobs’ under the table if one looks. For Cent America, the economy is one of the best.
    As for protecting them from others, no, the US has a very small DEA presence here, but that is about it. They have seen the trouble we have caused in other countries by “protecting” them.
    From what I know, I feel that CR will be pretty safe for us, vs countries to the north & south of here where we were involved in “protection”.
    Move to Des Moins, what the hell for? I’m from Nor Cal, if, for some reason I was forced to go back, it sure the hell wouldnt be Des Moins. Of course if I was forced to return, it would probably be to some Happy Fun Forced Labor camp, where not doubt you will be the Komandant.
    See ya later, Kol. Klink.

  224. Jim from Watkins Glen January 27, 2010 at 10:45 am #

    Diogen recognizes compassion as the key. My limited disaster experience (flood of 1972, mass murder in the 1990s at a local office building) proves people are inclined to (1) collapse, (2) panic, or (3) offer aid and comfort. The third group emerges as leaders. Weakness withers, bluster fades, love endures.

  225. Martin Hayes January 27, 2010 at 10:46 am #

    The notion that Albert Pike signed an agreement with the ADL comes from a single primary source, Occult Theocrasy (sic)by Edith Starr Miller, author of Common Sense in the Kitchen.

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  226. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 10:47 am #

    “The real “crime” ACORN is guilty of is empowering poor folk to vote through legitimate voter registration.”
    All the “poor folk” need do (if they choose to) is to walk into the appropriate door and register. They don’t need no stinkin’ ACORN (twisting their fucking arms and telling them how to vote).

  227. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 10:51 am #

    ” Bubbles (of whatever sort) are in themselves a financial phenomenon of the new world order.”
    Wrong. The Dutch. Tulips. 1600’s. Big bubble. Single bulb worth more than house. Nothing new about bubbles.

  228. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 10:57 am #

    Recent Fraud
    State Year Details
    AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.
    CO 2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.
    2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.
    CT 2008 The New York Post reported that ACORN submitted a voter registration card for a 7-year-old Bridgeport girl. Another 8,000 cards from the same city will be scrutinized for possible fraud.
    FL 2009 In September, 11 ACORN workers were accused of forging voter registration applications in Miami-Dade County during the last election. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorney’s office scoured hundreds of suspicious applications provided by ACORN and found 197 of 260 contained personal ID information that did not match any living person.
    2008 Election officials in Brevard County have given prosecutors more than 23 suspect registrations from ACORN. The state’s Division of Elections is also investigating complaints in Orange and Broward Counties.
    2004 A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said ACORN was “singled out” among suspected voter registration groups for a 2004 wage initiative because it was “the common thread” in the agency’s fraud investigations.
    IN 2008 Election officials in Indiana have thrown out more than 4,000 ACORN-submitted voter registrations after finding they had identical handwriting and included the names of many deceased Indianans, and even the name of a fast food restaurant.
    MI 2008 Clerks in Detroit found a “sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent [voter] applications” from the Michigan branch of ACORN. Those applications have been turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s office for investigation.
    2004 The Detroit Free Press reported that “overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters.” ACORN-affiliate Project Vote was one of two groups suspected of turning in the documents.
    MO 2008 Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.
    2007 Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.
    2006 Eight ACORN employees in St. Louis were indicted on federal election fraud charges. Each of the eight faces up to five years in prison for forging signatures and submitting false information.
    2003 Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally.
    MN 2004 During a traffic stop, police found more than 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of a former ACORN employee, who had violated a legal requirements that registration cards be submitted to the Secretary of State within 10 days of being filled out and signed.
    NC 2008 County elections officials have sent suspicious voter registration applications to the state Board of Elections. Many of the applications had similar or identical names, but with different addresses or dates of birth.
    2004 North Carolina officials investigated ACORN for submitting fake voter registration cards.
    NM 2008 Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,100 ACORN-submitted voter registration cards after a county clerk found them to be fraudulent. Many of the cards included duplicate names and slightly altered personal information.
    2005 Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.”
    2004 An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote. Citing this and other examples, New Mexico State Representative Joe Thompson stated that ACORN was “manufacturing voters” throughout New Mexico.
    NV 2009 Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.
    2008 Nevada state authorities raided ACORN’s Las Vegas headquarters as part of a task force investigation of election fraud. Fraudulent registrations included players from the Dallas Cowboys.
    OH 2008 ACORN activists gave Ohio residents cash and cigarettes in exchange for filling out voter registration card, according to the New York Post. Some voters claim to have registered dozens of times, and one man says he signed up on 72 cards.
    2007 A man in Reynoldsburg was indicted on two felony counts of illegal voting and false registration, after being registered by ACORN to vote in two separate counties.
    2004 A grand jury indicted a Columbus ACORN worker for submitting a false signature and false voter registration form. In Franklin County, two ACORN workers submitted what the director of the board of election supervisors called “blatantly false” forms. In Cuyahoga County, ACORN and its affiliate Project Vote submitted registration cards that had the highest rate of errors for any voter registration group.
    PA 2009 Seven ACORN workers in the Pittsburgh area were indicted for submitting falsified voter registration forms. Six of the seven were also indicted for registering voters under an illegal quota system.
    2008 State election officials have thrown out 57,435 voter registrations, the majority of which were submitted by ACORN. The registrations were thrown out after officials found “clearly fraudulent” signatures, vacant lots listed as addresses, and other signs of fraud.
    2008 An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
    2004 Reading’s Director of Elections received calls from numerous individuals complaining that ACORN employees deliberately put inaccurate information on their voter registration forms. The Berks County director of elections said voter fraud was “absolutely out of hand,” and added: “Not only do we have unintentional duplication of voter registration but we have blatant duplicate voter registrations.” The Berks County deputy director of elections added that ACORN was under investigation by the Department of Justice.
    TX 2008 In Harris County, nearly 10,000 ACORN-submitted registrations were found to be invalid, including many with clearly fraudulent addresses or other personal information.
    2008 ACORN turned in the voter registration form of David Young, who told reporters “The signature is not my signature. It’s not even close.” His social security number and date of birth were also incorrect.
    VA 2005 In 2005, the Virginia State Board of Elections admonished Project Vote and ACORN for turning in a significant number of faulty voter registrations. An audit revealed that 83% of sampled registrations that were rejected for carrying false or questionable information were submitted by Project Vote. Many of these registrations carried social security numbers that exist for other people, listed non-existent or commercial addresses, or were for convicted felons in violation of state and federal election law.
    In a letter to ACORN, the State Board of Elections reported that 56% of the voter registration applications ACORN turned in were ineligible. Further, a full 35% were not submitted in a timely manner, as required by law. The State Board of Elections also commented on what appeared to be evidence of intentional voter fraud. “Additionally,” they wrote, “information appears to have been altered on some applications where information given by the applicant in one color ink has been scratched through and re-entered in another color ink. Any alteration of a voter registration application is a Class 5 Felony in accordance with § 24.2-1009 of the Code of Virginia.”
    WA 2007 Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.
    WI 2008 At least 33,000 ACORN-submitted registrations in Milwaukee have been called into question after it was found that the organizations had been using felons as registration workers, in violation of state election rules. Two people involved in the ongoing Wisconsin voter fraud investigation have been charged with felonies.
    2004 The district attorney’s office investigated seven voter registration applications Project Vote employees filed in the names of people who said the group never contacted them. Former Project Vote employee Robert Marquise Blakely told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had not met with any of the people whose voter registration applications he signed, “an apparent violation of state law,” according to the paper.

  229. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 11:05 am #

    Jim From W.G. sez:
    “You are road kill and you know it and you’re taking your anger out on anyone in range. Go fart in another elevator, punk.”
    Pot to kettle….black. So, ah JImmy…can I take it that you didn’t like my previous post? Just wonderin’.

  230. Frank Warnock January 27, 2010 at 11:20 am #

    Lorenzen, explain how hundreds of millions of vehicles (never mind industry/other sources), each spewing about 20 lbs of carbon per mile (about 160M lbs/avg lifespan) has no impact on our relatively paper thin atmosphere? Are you even aware of the record fast meltdown going on in the polar regions, or the damage caused to the world’s ecosystems? Do you read? Maybe you’re invested in oil companies or own a new SUV.
    The effects of climate change are transparent to anyone with a thinking brain, can breath, or knows anything about the outdoors. I might agree that worrying about it now is like calling 911 after the house burns down. It’s probably too late to have any meaningful impact on what lies ahead. But even so, what harm can possibly come of investment in clean, green, renewable technologies that reduce our dependence on that powder keg known as the middle east?
    Your drivel is meaningless; you’re driven by conspiracy. You would fail miserably in a debate. Future generations will look back and realize the science was abundantly clear back when real action could have been taken, and will wonder why on earth it wasn’t. And they will know it was those like you who stood in the way.

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  231. Cash January 27, 2010 at 11:48 am #

    Fascinating stuff.
    Here’s another thought: suppose that Greenspan and the other tall foreheads at the Fed and similar organizations saw a long way back (ie in the 1980s) that the US was embarked on a course of economic madness. Suppose they thought that there was nothing to be done, that the average American, the managerial class as well as Wall Street was blind to logic, deaf to reason.
    So maybe Greenspan saw that Americans were following the logic of the lemming: one CEO would aggressively downsize and the others would follow, another CEO would offshore to China and the rest would do the same, a few banks would invest in high risk derivatives and the rest pile in, a few suburban couples would wildly overbid on giant houses, then a daisy chain of dozens, then hundreds, then thousands, then millions, then tens of millions would do likewise, one lemming goes over the edge and the rest blindly follow.
    So what does Greenspan do? He figures there’s nothing stopping this, eventually the US would go off the cliff ie he knew what so many of us knew: that offshoring would gut the US economy, that mindless aggressive downsizing would kill the US consumer etc. Let’s say he knew that you couldn’t tell people to be sensible, that you’d just get chimp-like grins in reply and they’d continue on the course of economic suicide.
    But maybe he could buy some time and levitate the economy for a while by pumping huge wads of money into the system before financial gravity and economic logic inevitably take hold (ie think Wile E Coyote as he steps off the precipice). What for? Maybe so he and some of his associates in the financial world could keep siphoning off cash for a while longer through the various ponzi mechanisms that the economy had become. This way they could save their own asses at least. Just speculating. The more I think about it the more incomprehensible the whole thing is.

  232. Jim from Watkins Glen January 27, 2010 at 12:04 pm #

    Not mommy,
    I find you mildly amusing. My prodding was to see if there was a worthwhile intellect behind all the bluster. Thanks for clearing that up.

  233. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 12:21 pm #

    “My prodding was to see if there was a worthwhile intellect behind all the bluster.”
    Ah shucks, you mean I passed your test?
    Kind of like being crowned prince on the planet FUCKTARD. No thanks, you can wear that crown.

  234. Cash January 27, 2010 at 1:25 pm #

    That’s what I’m saying, that it can’t be that they didn’t see it coming. If you and I could see it they could see it.
    One other possibility is groupthink. It’s amazing how many stupid ideas are incubated by supposedly intelligent people especially when you get them in a meeting room.
    An example: executives at a US based company (that will remain un-named) decided that they would recruit planeloads of Indian IT workers at Indian level wages and bring them to work on projects in Canada. Supposedly a cost saving scheme.
    Now, these execs weren’t just off the turnip truck, they were highly educated, had years and years of experience doing business internationally. But you had to wonder what misfired in this case.
    Firstly anybody would know that Indian level wages can’t support anybody when they have to pay Canadian level prices to live. Unless, that is, the intent was to drop them off at the edge of the city dump where they could build their own shanty town. These workers would have to be provided with reasonable accomodation, food, medical care, flights back home to see their families etc. A very expensive proposition. Nobody did the numbers.
    Secondly, people can’t just come and go in this country as if the border didn’t exist. Under Canadian immigration law this scheme was as illegal as can be. But apparently nobody checked.
    Thirdly, the scheme, even if it were possible, would creat a multitude of tax issues. Nobody thought of this.
    The idiot scheme got shot down at a meeting by a lowly HR clerk. He said that the plan would contravene Canadian immigration law ie importing foreign labour at far below market prices. This caused a lot of consternation.
    If something as dumb as this can get floated, you have to wonder, groupthink might also explain the Iraq war. Somebody brings it up in a meeting of administration heavyweights, Bush makes sypathetic noise, others in the room see Bush’s favourable body language, pretty soon they’re talkin’ shootin’ war. So maybe groupthink might explain Fed monetary and regulatory policy too. I’m groping for answers here.

  235. asia January 27, 2010 at 1:29 pm #

    Thanks
    we see a pattern here! too bad ‘THE TIMES’ doesnt!
    Dale, you still on here?

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  236. asia January 27, 2010 at 1:31 pm #

    ‘people can’t just come and go in this country as if the border didn’t exist.’
    REALLY? ask when not if!
    thers a joke that goes:
    in the US they are mexican americans
    in canada theyll be mexi canuks
    when they invade alska theyll be a new breed the ESMEXIMOS

  237. asia January 27, 2010 at 1:34 pm #

    ‘ I’m groping for answers here’
    Clearly there must be an agenda! Someone must be making $ somehow with these machinations. Never let a crisis go to waste! Right now US troops are in 100+ nations and haiti. why haiti ? why did the prez send troops when he said hed send aid?

  238. diogen January 27, 2010 at 1:43 pm #

    Cash/Wage, I think it was arrogance and disconnect from reality, these people (the elites who rule us) are living in a universe which only has a tenuous connection with our universe. The economy, people’s savings, jobs, the lives of the soldiers — it’s a laboratory to them where they can play out their theories on economics and politics. In addition, don’t discount the stupidity of very smart people (Bill Clinton, need I say more?) I recommend a book by Barbara Tuchman “The March of Folly”. From Amazon:
    “Twice a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author Barbara Tuchman now tackles the pervasive presence of folly in governments through the ages. Defining folly as the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interersts, despite the availability of feasible alternatives, Tuchman details four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly in government: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance Popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain’s George III, and the United States’ persistent folly in Vietnam. ”
    Also, check out the idea of Blindspot Analysis:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindspots_analysis

  239. Frank Warnock January 27, 2010 at 1:53 pm #

    >
    Ooops, the little dot didn’t fire. Should read “1.6 Million lbs/avg lifespan”.

  240. diogen January 27, 2010 at 1:57 pm #

    Another book I recommend is “Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization ” by Brownsworth. I’m reading it with morbid fascination at and a complete disbelief in the utter stupidity of the ruling elites that caused massive deaths, destruction, impoverishment, suffering of millions of peoples over the centuries (the biggest recurring folly by far — the pursuit of conquest, sending TENS of THOUSANDS of men into battles where there was no other outcome than defeat, wholesale slaughter of one’s own army and the inevitable fall from power and bankrupting of the treasury.) And what’s most amazing? THEY NEVER LEARNED!!! How is it possible????? I think such power renders outherwise rational people into another species of irrational creatures (I’m only half-joking here). Examples are everywhere (the funniest one: Larry Craig — how can someone with such lack of judgement be entrusted with governing us?)

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  241. Cash January 27, 2010 at 2:01 pm #

    That was a gas, especially the part about the Palin presidency. If Dubya and Obama can do it with their thin resumes, why not Palin?
    A lot of it sounds crazy but I’ll bet that the future as it actually comes to pass will be orders of magnitude crazier. After all, if someone alive in the year 1910 were to hear predictions of events as they actually came to pass in the next 100 years, the prediction would sound wild and fantastical. World wars, naziism, atomic weapons, globe spanning communism would all sound like science fiction to someone in 1910, yet they all happened.

  242. diogen January 27, 2010 at 2:14 pm #

    “World wars, naziism, atomic weapons, globe spanning communism would all sound like science ”
    Not to mention Vietname and now Afghanistan. This reminds me of two guys in a bar watching on TV a guy standing on the roof of a tall building threatening to jump. The two guys make a bet whether the jumper will jump, which he does. The winner says “I can’t take your money, I saw the guy jump on the morning newscast”. The loser sais “Well, I saw him jump too, I just didn’t think he’d do it again”. Mr. Obama, r u reading this?

  243. Cash January 27, 2010 at 2:36 pm #

    No doubt there’s an agenda. As you say follow the money. My take on it is it has to be a stew of ego, greed, blindness, stupidity ie like what I used to see in corporate meeting rooms except with globe spanning and economy wrecking consequences.
    Like Diogen says above, you look at history with utter disbelief at the complete stupidity. People haven’t changed all that much over the ages. Plus like Dio says, people never learn. It may sound trite but it’s really true. Will anyone learn anything from this fiasco? I doubt it. In ten years the Fed will be run again by a Wall Street lapdog, the bullshit artists will be re-inflating the next real estate and stock bubble.

  244. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 2:42 pm #

    Ah, you know me so well Mein Herr. Not for nut-hing did we make the Bonzes honorary Aryans. Seriously, we should get together and throw back a schnapps or two. I liked your comment to Wage: do any of her patients suspect that behind her winsome, smiling face lurks such incredible hatred? Uncle Joe’s revenge – we helped Stalin win the war and he helped spread the virus of Communism into our Country. Bella Dodd’s biography has just been reprinted. As a high level American Communist she helped place thousands of comrades into the Seminary. And who can forget Pitts O’Dell, one of MLK’s main handlers? Communism is a brotherhood and a religion. It’ adherents flinch not from incredbile hardships and sacrafices. Poor, flabby Americans are no match against them.

  245. Cash January 27, 2010 at 2:43 pm #

    That’s funny. No, Obama is too busy taking advice from the idiots that got us into this fix. The guy’s a lawyer, what the hell does he know.

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  246. asoka January 27, 2010 at 2:44 pm #

    not mommy, you forgot to mention the source of your ACORN data, none of which is referenced. No links provided. No names of actual persons who supposedly committed fraud. No names of any ACORN persons convicted of fraud. Strange, that…
    Not mommy, your source is http://RottenAcorn.com
    And who is behind Rotten Acorn? The Employment Policies Institute.
    And who is behind the Employment Policies Institute? Richard Berman of Berman and Company.
    And who is Richard Berman?
    Richard Berman is a Washington-based lobbyist and ad man who specializes in deception.
    Through his public affairs firm Berman and Company, Berman runs several industry-funded non-profit organizations such as the Center for Consumer Freedom and the Center for Union Facts.
    Berman’s companies have run numerous media campaigns downplaying the dangers of obesity, smoking, mad cow disease and drunk driving, as well as criticizing the minimum wage.

  247. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 2:52 pm #

    “Berman’s companies have run numerous media campaigns downplaying the dangers of obesity, smoking, mad cow disease and drunk driving, as well as criticizing the minimum wage.”
    And where is your proof of this? Please post some facts.

  248. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 2:59 pm #

    Ok, you reversed the meaning of my paragraph. Maybe the fault it mine – but maybe you should have been able to follow my drift better. Again: Why did the race baiting liberal media (overwhelmingly owned or controlled by Jews) ignore the denial of Blacks into Regular American Masony? Now, I was just reading last night that about half of America’s Lodges recognize Prince Hall as valid. But I don’t know if that means Blacks are allowed to join or if Black applicants are still directed to Prince Hall instead.
    As for the Albert Pike/ADL connection: that’s not where I got it from. I’ll check my books if you like and get back to you. In any case, we wont learn much more. Jews keep their secrets very well. Lots of people ascond from regular Masonry and tell all. A Jew might leave Bnai Brith for some ideological or spiritual reason, but you will seldom find him talking out of school. They have an incredible loyalty to their own people that I can only gasp at and admire. We have little or none and now that we are in direct competition with other Ethnes and Races, we will pass away. You see it wasn’t an issue before, when the West was homogenous. And during those periods of invasion, the Folk responded correctly with insularity, loyalty, and contempt for the invader. But now! Weakened by decades of propaganda, we are sitting ducks for every normal, insular loyal to themselves Non-White Ethne that descends upon us.

  249. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 3:00 pm #

    Furthermore if you travel to: http://RottenAcorn.com/ and click on the PDF in the upper corner box there is an extensive paper on ACORN’s shenanigans. There are some 117 references listed at the end of the paper of various publications that were used as the sourcing of the paper. I welcome you to run all 117 of them down. Hurry up now asoka-your-pants, times a-wasting.
    And finally, what is amusing is that the paper was written in 2006…3 years before ACORN’s 2009 exposure hit the big time. ACORN’s corrupt, deceptive b.s. runs long and deep…mmm…mmm…mmm!

  250. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 3:04 pm #

    And asoka, when you are criticizing for not sourcing information please remember to source you own information. Your paragraph:
    “Berman’s companies have run numerous media campaigns downplaying the dangers of obesity, smoking, mad cow disease and drunk driving, as well as criticizing the minimum wage.”
    was a direct lifting from wikipedia, you fucking MORON.

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  251. Qshtik January 27, 2010 at 3:07 pm #

    Ooops, the little dot didn’t fire. Should read “1.6 Million lbs/avg lifespan”.
    ========================
    Yeah … and what about each auto “spewing about 20 lbs of carbon per mile.” That sounds a mite excessive.

  252. Qshtik January 27, 2010 at 3:23 pm #

    Let’s say my car gets 20 mpg. If I drive one mile I burn .05 gals. A gallon of reg unleaded weighs 6.2 lbs (I googled it). So the weight of the gas I burn is .05 x 6.2 = .31 lbs. So, Warnock, are you saying that burning less than a third of a pound of fuel produces 20 lbs of carbon? I think this violates some law of physics doesn’t it?

  253. diogen January 27, 2010 at 3:43 pm #

    “A Jew might leave Bnai Brith ”
    At least of the guys in my biking group is a jew, possibly 2, i’ll ask him/them about that, let’s see if he squirms 🙂

  254. asoka January 27, 2010 at 4:19 pm #

    And where is your proof of this? Please post some facts.

    Got a Nasty Fight? Here’s Your Man
    http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2006-07-31-lobbyist-usat_x.htm

  255. asoka January 27, 2010 at 4:34 pm #

    And finally, what is amusing is that the paper was written in 2006…3 years before ACORN’s 2009 exposure hit the big time. ACORN’s corrupt, deceptive b.s. runs long and deep…mmm…mmm…mmm!

    The accusations run deep. The misinformation campaign continues.
    Can you name one person who was improperly registered by ACORN who then attempted to vote at
    the polls. (That would be voter fraud.) Cite your source. Get to work, pissant.
    If you can’t name anyone, then STFU.

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  256. earthman January 27, 2010 at 4:51 pm #

    Mr.Obama is promising to solve Americans economic worries and become the transformative leader the sheep thought they were getting… I am holding my breath…
    1. The country is bankrupt. No money except money we owe to others.
    2. Heathcare is bullshit–we can’t afford it.
    I suggest eating well and excerise. Another scam to grap money for the working man.
    3. The majority of American’s can’t handle the truth, so we get slick liars as leaders.
    4. Our freedom isn’t free.

  257. Martin Hayes January 27, 2010 at 5:15 pm #

    “As for the Albert Pike/ADL connection: that’s not where I got it from. I’ll check my books if you like and get back to you.”
    I would like. See, nothing short of well-attested historical documentation qualifies as evidence that Pike struck some kind of deal with the ADL. He didn’t have the jurisdiction to do any such thing in any case.
    I’m sorry if I sound like a bonehead skeptic who will only be convinced by solid evidence, but I’m trying to preserve my mental equilibrium. This “we won’t learn much more, secrets well kept, etc” is one rabbit hole I’m not jumping down.
    With some notable exceptions (Antony C. Sutton comes to mind), this kind of writing is a vexation to the spirit. I made a rule to myself that I would not read anything about Masonry unless it was properly annotated and indexed scholarship, that is, responsible writing by someone who has the intellectual tools to negotiate the minefield of history.
    Miller (Lady Queenborough) is not such a person. She couldn’t even write a cookery book without indulging in paranoid fantasies that her cook was stealing her blind.

  258. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 5:21 pm #

    Oh wow asoka-yourself. Here are some of the “radical” and “deceptive” things that Richard Berman is credited as having said from the article you referenced. I can’t say I (or any non-bed wetting, resaonable person) can disagree with any of these statements. Nice try panty-waste.
    “Some activists and academics want to “regulate food” to deal with obesity. “Even if you aren’t worried about the implications for personal responsibility, it’s easy to see that these proposals won’t take a real bite out of our waistlines. You can eliminate supersizing and subsidize broccoli all day long, but if I can hit the all-you-can-eat buffet and then buy chocolate syrup for less than a dollar a pound on the way home, it won’t make a lick of difference.”
    “Raising the minimum wage or forcing employers to pay increased health care benefits (equivalent to forcing them to raise wages) is counterproductive, inevitably leading to job displacement as employers scale back hours, cut jobs and turn to automation in order to maintain a profit margin.” Among others, he cites the University of Georgia’s Joseph Sabia, who says a 10% increase in the minimum wage is associated with about a 1% decline in both retail and small-business employment.”
    “Like most food scares before it (remember Alar?), mad cow fear seems to be slowly dying out. … It seems like the public is finally catching on to the concept of risk, including the fact that the size of a threat is modified by its likelihood.” He cites Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns’ statement in April that mad cow is found in “less than one case per 1 million adult cattle.”
    “Unions are “of course free to organize as they will under law,” but he says the “secret-ballot elections” that they are abandoning are “the only method for ensuring a fair outcome.” Instead, unions are using “card checks, in which employees are urged (and frequently harassed) into signing a piece of paper declaring them to be in favor or unionization.”

  259. asia January 27, 2010 at 5:22 pm #

    20 ? maybe .2

  260. asia January 27, 2010 at 5:25 pm #

    what seminary?
    this is sounding like the UN and ‘diplomatic’ immunity!

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  261. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 5:26 pm #

    Asoaka-herself sez:
    “Can you name one person who was improperly registered by ACORN who then attempted to vote at
    the polls.”
    Fuck no, you IDIOT. I don’t know anyone who would get within 10 feet of an ACORNIAN much less be registered by one but I’m certain you do.

  262. asia January 27, 2010 at 5:28 pm #

    ‘Last year, after Berman openly criticized the government’s numbers, the Centers for Disease Control lowered the estimate of the annual number of deaths attributable to obesity from 400,000 to less than 26,000.’
    So..laws to seal fat folks jaws shut?
    nanny laws? what ashok? obesity is voluntary!

  263. Bobby January 27, 2010 at 5:29 pm #

    It’s not intellect, but a doctorate and 26 years of experience in the geological sciences, the same amount of time as a member of the American Geophysical Union, two state licenses, and more than a few bruises from the process of science, which those emails are just a minor blip. But a major one to the uninformed or conspiracy-minded.
    Yes, you heard it here first, science is by definition a conspiracy.

  264. not mommy January 27, 2010 at 5:39 pm #

    Ooops. Here’s a guy (?) that seems to fit asoka-himself’s criteria:
    “That’s because a cross-dressing Ohio male escort whom ACORN registered multiple times to vote was convicted of full-fledged vote fraud in addition to the lesser crime of voter registration fraud. A spokesman for Cleveland prosecutor Bill Mason confirmed yesterday that a local investigation of ACORN remains wide open.”
    Story here:
    http://spectator.org/archives/2009/10/08/the-nine-voting-lives-of-darne

  265. Puzzler January 27, 2010 at 5:49 pm #

    “Nice try panty-waste.”
    The phrase is panty-waist.
    Panty-waste would be a skidmark, so your mistake is actually funnier than what you meant to say.

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  266. asoka January 27, 2010 at 5:58 pm #

    Ooops. Here’s a guy (?) that seems to fit asoka-himself’s criteria:

    not mommy, from the same source you cite (but you conveniently did not mention):
    “We investigated the activities involving ACORN and at this point we have found no criminal conduct by ACORN.
    ACORN has to submit fraudulent registrations by law. Anyone who votes as a result of a fraudulent registration should be imprisoned, as happened in this case. The law is working beautifully.
    But ACORN has done nothing wrong.
    One guy in six years of the lying campaign about ACORN, one fraudulent vote, not even of ACORN’s doing.
    Get a grip, not mommy!

  267. earthman January 27, 2010 at 6:12 pm #

    Neither Bush or Obama are fiscal conservatives.
    Just take a realistic sober look at our debt.
    Just more of the same…
    There is no free lunch…

  268. asoka January 27, 2010 at 6:29 pm #

    Yes, I noticed that Bush ran up 12 TRILLION dollars of debt (after Clinton left him a surplus) and Obama has run up 1 TRILLION dollars debt. So you are correct that neither is a fiscal conservative.

  269. earthman January 27, 2010 at 6:51 pm #

    And spending our way out is a sane solution to
    financial health. According to Hank Paulson the financial world as we know it almost ended last year. The people in charge didn’t see it coming.
    Anybody can see if you owe trillions the pain is on the way. Make sure you plant lots of bananas, carambola, sweet potatoes, and take on few gaginas down in Costa Rica…

  270. Funzel January 27, 2010 at 7:51 pm #

    Talk about pissing away money we don’t have.
    Obama just decided to shovel one Billion dollars to Florida to build of all things a high speed rail from Tampa to Orlando,while AMTRACk rumbles around on track,that spills your coffee in the dining car.Some area around Jacksonville are so bad,they have to slow down to 25mph to prevent the train from jumping the rails.
    This boondoggle has the support of our not very smart Governor and his cronies,who are more than happy to accommodate the moneylenders waiting in the wings.
    What in the hell is wrong with these people?

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  271. Qshtik January 27, 2010 at 8:10 pm #

    “spewing about 20 lbs of carbon per mile.”
    ========================
    Further reseaech shows that the above should read “20 lbs of carbon per gallon.” Even this figure is astonishing but the reason is that most of the CO2 comes from the oxygen in the burning process, not the gasoline. See link below for details … if anyone is so disposed … which I’m sure you’re not.
    http://www.fueleconomy.gov/Feg/co2.shtml

  272. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 8:25 pm #

    Yeah Al, it’s not rocket science but you would think so given how few understand it now. All intentional: the intellectual whores in Academia turned against it as their Master told them to. And they would crush any graduate student who had the termerity to question why something so logical and with such historical precedent as the tariff is now “off the table”.
    The most famous case was Argentina. They were just begining to develop industry when British ships of line showed up. You don’t have to trade with us, the soothingly reasoned, but we’ll blow Buenos Aires out of the water if you don’t. The Argentines took the valiant path of discretion and British goods flooded their markets. They remained as a purely Agricultural Country for another hundred years or so. In the begining, goods are always more expensive and thus you cannot compete at that point with an established manufacturer. Europe was able to have a few years of grace because Napoleon blockaded all the ports against British goods. And of course America faced these same merchant/pirates, defeated them, and then became a much larger and a little bit more subtle version of them.
    And the trumped up whores known as professors will continue to dance for their dinners from the Department Heads who take their cute from the Regents and Trustees who take their cue from the Federal Goverment and the Great Foundations who take their cue (if they have any questions) from the Bilderbergers and the CFR.

  273. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 8:52 pm #

    I’m surprised at you Wage: coloreds love Walmart just as much or more than Whites. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were prejudiced. Seriously though girl – like I told the other fella, you have to learn to love yourself and your people as an extension of that. As of now, you hate yourself and you try to go absolution from your guilt by hating other Whites. It wont work, you’ll never overcome your guilt and they wont ever stop hating us. You’ll always be walking on eggshells.
    People do what works. Look at all the things that White Guilt has delivered to Blacks and Browns. What is their incentive to stop? No, they’re just going to up the pressure in the years to come. All you enablers are extremely harmful to the peace between the races. Pernicious.
    Or are you just mad at me because my economic ideas make sense and would spare us the incredible bloodshed and probable tyranny of your’s? My America First has all the benefits of Socialism but without the multi-cultural crap, seizure of assets, and the punishing of creativity and prudence.
    Or are you just mad at me because I haven’t written you any love letters lately. Life’s at two way steet Wage. Justify my love.
    I’m very interested in all of Latin America and would like to travel there but probably not live there. As you said, my duty is here. The whole Continent and Isthmus is a vast experiment in White Nationalism. And White Nationalism is confirmed by it. The most prosperous and peaceful countries are the ones populated by Whites. The second most are those ruled by Whites. Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay – Great. The White parts of Brazil – very good. The rest of Brazil is a mess with the worse being Rio and the Negro North. The Andean Countries are ruled by Whites but now being challenged by the Indians. The future looks grim. Central America is also a mess with an incredibe confusion of races. Costa Rica is the best with a strong White upperclass. Mexico is a tinderbox relieved the reconqista. The beleagured White Rulers war against the Mestizo Drug Lords. The Aztec Religion seems to be making a comeback under the guise of Catholicism. The Church recently condemned the Cult of Saint Death. And all popular mythology in Mexico has to do with outlaws. They are the heroes.
    I know Argentina is an economic basket case. Being White doesn’t mean immunity from disasters like Globalism.

  274. diogen January 27, 2010 at 9:57 pm #

    “I’m surprised at you Wage: coloreds love Walmart just as much or more than Whites. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were prejudiced. ”
    Vlad, I agree, Wage took a narrow sampling of a particular socio-economic sub-group within a population, and made wide-ranging conclusions about an entire race of people, really unfair, eh?
    Two things about that:
    1. I think she may have meant it tongue-in-cheek
    2. This is what you do though with respect to non-whites and other ethnic groups: you zero in on particular negative traits or objectionable behaviors practiced by particular socio-economic or occupational subgroup and make sweeping generalizations about ALL of the people in those groups. Don’t you think this is as unfair as what Wage did?
    Alles Beste, mein Freund 🙂

  275. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 10:44 pm #

    Thanks for info Dee – any websites or books you can recommend about moving there?
    As far as the Col Klink stuff – you take a tangent away from reality. Democratic and Republican Gangsters control the US, my kind are the hunted. Despite the many sins of Fascists and National Socialists, they were the only ones to have the balls to take on the International Bankers – the very people sucking America dry. So until Americans grows a pair, they should bear this in mind when they criticize the European Far Right.
    The Des Moines was just a goof, a literary device, a rhetorical flourish – how am I supposed to know where you come from. Despite your macabre sense of humor, your girl next door feminine literalism has betrayed you.

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  276. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 11:09 pm #

    You have to do the leg work Dio. Research the FBI crime stats. Asoka began last week but no one picked up on it but me. I’m not stereotyping just interpreting data. If you tell me not to generalize you are telling me not to think. A concept is a generalization. I know I do go for the big picture and can be wrong on details. I’m compensating for the American tendency to focus on details and ignore the 800 pink gorilla.
    Kohlberg’s work deals with individuals, yes. But individuals one by one comprise the population. Not to see this is getting lost in the words, sophistry in a word. It’s like saying the forest isn’t sick just all these individual trees. In any case, my case is made without Kohlberg by looking at crime records and school records. And the state of all Black Nations of course. Personal expericence would be helpful too but most liberals lack it. They love Blacks but they’ve never really known any. Not really, just gushed and genuflected to them.
    Overall my case is very strong. Don’t use my failings as a defence against the truth of it. Another avenue of thought is of course, the model minority, the East Asians. They come here not speaking English and outperform Whites within a couple of years. And you call me a Supremacist! Very low crime rates too – much lower than Whites. Again this is world wide. Now when I speak of East Asians, I mean the Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese primarily. The East Asians themselves look down on the Southeast Asians of Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malayasia, and the Phillipines. These groups are much dumber and more violent. Again, be careful to distinguish the true Southeast Asian from the Chinese immigrants. They have kept themselves aloof for centuries and consider mixing shameful.
    So the East Asians are in many ways superior to us, so should they be let in? Of course not, they would supplant us. What’s our’s is our’s. Only we can be us. Get busy living or get busy dying.
    It’s the quality of the individual man which determines the quality of the group or average. And that determines the quality of the Civilization. Whites are high and East Asians are high. But they are very different and will not mix without compromising each other’s strengths.

  277. Vlad Krandz January 27, 2010 at 11:25 pm #

    Obama said he will try to repeal the “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy in the military. This will be an utter disaster as he would know if was a normal man. Some of the closest relationships heterosexual men will ever have is with the soldiers in their unit. Ideology and patriotism become abstractions compared to fighting beside their buddies and keeping them alive. To introduce homosexuality into this will ruin the heterosexual bonding which is so crucial to military life – and to society in general.
    But hey, fine by me. America is finished and the sooner everyone knows, the better.

  278. asoka January 27, 2010 at 11:40 pm #

    Twenty-six Percent of United States Citizens Are Denied Representation
    Children represent 26% of the United States population. They participate in school and community activities and are responsible for over $170 billion a year in purchases. Despite this they are denied the right to vote or have meaningful representation in government.
    Children can provide the adults with help… fixing the mess the adults have made.

  279. Qshtik January 28, 2010 at 12:19 am #

    “Children ……… are denied the right to vote”
    ====================
    This is one of those stir-up-the-shit type comments that Asoka is able to pull out of his ass from nowhere totally unprovoked to, I guess, juice the conversation. It is, of course, outrageous so all I can suggest is that you don’t forget Safire’s Rule #4.

  280. Shane January 28, 2010 at 1:01 am #

    “1. The country is bankrupt….
    2. Heathcare is bullshit–we can’t afford it…
    3. The majority of Americans can’t handle the truth, so we get slick liars as leaders.
    4. Our freedom isn’t free.”
    All good points earthman. Your analysis and mine correlate almost perfectly. The entire healthcare debate is occuring in the realm of psychotic delusion. The US at this point is effectively BANKRUPT! The only reason, our debts have not been called in, is because our creditors are afraid of bringing down the entire world economy if they jerk our chain too hard. But they know, China, Japan, the Euros, the Arabs… they all know. The US is the deadbeat of the planet at this point. Which is why the healthcare debate is so frikkin crazy….
    Bankrupt countries do not have national healthcare systems. They also don’t have expensive foreign wars so the whole Afstan debate is more raving nonsense. The same logic discredits almost everything else the talking heads in Washington prattle about. We cannot afford NASA, the Pentagon, the “War on Terror” or the “War on Drugs”. We cannot afford 12-16 years of state-funded education, let alone 4-7 more of state-funded higher education. We cannot afford the social safety net we already have, at anything like the level we have.
    How this is all going to play out, God only knows. Clearly at some point, somebody is going to have to break the news to the vast herd of clueless sheeple that we’re deeply, totally fucked. Nobody in either party wants to do the honors, because the idiot masses will predictably go crazy. And then, when they calm down, they will expect the people in authority to have
    A Solution, and there isn’t one. So our brave and far-seeing leaders are putting off telling them as long as possible, which is unfortunate because the longer it’s put off, the worse the damage is going to be. And the damage is already well nigh terminal….
    As for what our wise and caring leaders really intend to do, did you know there’s been a boom in the shelter business in the last few years? That would be the last few years that the regular construction industry has been in the toilet? Did you even know there was such a thing as the “shelter business”? Check it out:
    http://www.hardenedstructures.com/2050727/default.aspx

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  281. Shane January 28, 2010 at 1:21 am #

    “This is one of those stir-up-the-shit type comments that Asoka is able to pull out of his ass from nowhere… It is, of course, outrageous so… don’t forget Safire’s Rule #4.”
    I started reading this blog again about a month ago. Soak and the Fucktardator are the only two posters I regularly skip over. If this blog ever upgrades to having an Ignore button, they’re both disappearing into the Void as far as I’m concerned.

  282. Nickelthrower January 28, 2010 at 2:13 am #

    Greetings,
    I always wonder why people immediately begin name calling when faced with a comment that they do not agree with. It is this childish behavior that got us, as a nation, in to this mess in the first place.
    Next, I never assume that the person I’m responding to is an idiot just because I do not agree with him or her. I suspect that the people that post on this site run the gamut from PH.D to G.E.D. Some, most likely, have very real specialized knowledge with regards to what they are discussing while others could be nothing more than trolls looking for a fight.
    I firmly stand by my statement that the homes built during the housing bubble will crumble to dust within 20 years. Google “Class Action Law Suit Home Construction Phoenix” or something similar. You’ll see that every single home builder has been sued multiple times for building homes that began falling apart within months of being sold.
    Who in their right mind could possibly believe that a large profit maximizing corporation utilizing the cheapest materials possible and following the minimum of building standards and employing undocumented and unskilled illegal immigrants could ever possibly build something that would last longer than 20 years? Who?
    Do you think that it was just Real Estate agents and appraisers that were on the take? Maybe you believe that only the bankers were at fault for being so greedy? Anyway, I know for a fact that building inspectors turned a blind eye to the most egregious of defects. Money talks and building inspectors that didn’t want to play along found out that they were not building inspectors for very long. This is a fact.
    Finally, you should learn some manners. Not in 1000 years would you speak to me in this manner were you in the same room with me. That, too, is a fact.

  283. earthman January 28, 2010 at 5:41 am #

    I agree Shane, the masses will be looking for a savior to give them a solution. Look at the Obamamania and t-shirts (more $$$ than the shelters) that were sold when he was elected… Some nut job will probably step forward like other times in history. When people owned land, and produced their living from the land they were more independent. They actually had skills that are useful like building, farming, and some time to think about life. People were connected to nature and their community. Now many are just unhappy doing worthless tasks at the mercy of the company. They have been brainwashed by our consumer society to think they need all the crap that keeps their nose to the grindstone. That is no way for a man to live. In the words of Adolph Hitler “How fortunate for the government that the people don’t think”

  284. earthman January 28, 2010 at 6:05 am #

    Remember the day when toilet seats lasted for 15-20 years? Those damn plastic bolts and nuts have it slipping and sliding after a couple of weeks.
    Your refrigerator and toaster was the same from age 5 to age 25…

  285. Jim from Watkins Glen January 28, 2010 at 7:44 am #

    The comments about deteriorating quality of products highlight an important sea change in American life. I worked at a huge company in the late 1970s and witnessed a shift from loyalty to every man for himself. We went from pride in doing the best work in the world to get what you can before the company sheds you like so much inventory. The language changed from “personnel” to “human resources,” as people’s lives became budget lines on the same level as nuts and bolts. Today, when you get your hands on a high-quality product it’s and exception and you notice. Same goes for being treated well.
    Some very interesting viewpoints here. Apologies to anyone offended by this newbie’s brief foray into mud throwing. Lesson learned about virtual dead-ends.

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  286. diogen January 28, 2010 at 7:57 am #

    “Lesson learned about virtual dead-ends”
    Don’t feel bad Jim, looks like almost everyone falls into the same trap. The individual in question is obviously a little crazy, better he spends his time on this forum rather than shooting people from his rooftop 🙂
    I hear you on the decline of almost everything, my theory is that the two main factors for that are:
    1. huge population increase — each individual is devalued as our numbers are growing, there are many replacements for you and me
    2. the growth model of economic prosperity — since infinite growth is not possible in the finite world, something has to decrease to keep it going, and decreased quality is one such thing.

  287. Jim from Watkins Glen January 28, 2010 at 8:20 am #

    Diogen,
    Spot on. There are too many of us to do things well. I’ve recently spoken to school classrooms about career exploration. The kids are adrift in an anachronistic factory system and no one knows how to help them see a productive future. The game has changed and we don’t seem to know how to play.
    Is there a way to work smaller without sacking legions of people? That would take a leader who could say to stockholders that we are planning to reduce the return on your investment so we can reduce volumes and keep quality up without laying off workers. That exec would be gone in a heartbeat. Even smart pundits like Krugman talk about getting back to more of the same. Looking for that new model.

  288. diogen January 28, 2010 at 8:25 am #

    “Research the FBI crime stats. I’m not stereotyping just interpreting data. ”
    No argument there, Vlad. I agree with you that certain populations are more crime-prone than others. You and I disagree on two things:
    1. Causes. You attribute a high crime rate among blacks to their fundamental flaws at the genetic level. I attribute it to several different factors: poverty (both economic and cultural), age profile (young people committ more crimes), government policies (e.g. welfare, war on drugs, equal opportunity, etc.), and history. Do I excuse them for it? Heck no, each individual is responsible for the decisions he makes.
    2. Implications. You believe that the behaviors of a sub-group, no matter what size, implicate ALL individuals in the entire group. I am inclined to recognize the individuals who do not follow their predominant or stereotyped culture and choose behaviors and culture consistent with the wider social norms.
    I agree with you on many things, just NOT on the inherent inferiority of some groups and superiority of others. We white people have been a violent lot most of European history, it’s been nothing less of continous warfare (against each other much of the time), with cultural and social/humanistic progress in the background (incredibly). Don’t forget that the peaceful Danes were the most blood-thirsty killers not long ago. The word DANES used to strike mortal fear into the hearts of the inhabitants of the British Isles and beyond.
    I do agree with you on many other things, e.g. the perils of mindless immigration policies, and the dangers that poses to our and European cultures. No argument there. Wonder if the French/Brits/Dutch/Danes ever ask themselves, “why exactly did we let in the people who hate/despise us and want to destroy our culture?”
    I have many experiences I could tell you about when the people I’ve known and who you believe are inferior or evil (blacks or jews) have behaved in the most admirable ways. And I have other experiences as well (being mugged at gun point by a black man, my 78 (at the time) y.o father being knocked down to the sidewalk by a black man who then stole his wallet.) So, I’m no Polyanna, I just believe in being fair to individuals.

  289. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 9:30 am #

    “The phrase is panty-waist.”
    Are you fucking crazy? I’ll use whatever fucking phrase I wish. My phrase means that the panties are being wasted because a man is wearing them. Panties are meant for women, hence wasted on a man.

  290. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 9:43 am #

    “That would take a leader who could say to stockholders that we are planning to reduce the return on your investment so we can reduce volumes and keep quality up without laying off workers. That exec would be gone in a heartbeat. ”
    As he should be. Stockholders supply the lifeblood (money) for the enterprise. They invest in a company with the belief that they will reap a return for their investment. When a “leader” tells stockholders differently, they vote with their feet. If enough feel that profitability is a thing of the past a “leader” runs the risk of sinking the entire enterprise.
    The economy always was and alway will be cyclical. It suffers from the whims of human nature. Sometimes you gotta hire and sometimes you gotta fire.

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  291. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 9:47 am #

    “I firmly stand by my statement that the homes built during the housing bubble will crumble to dust within 20 years.”
    Well of course you do because you are an idiot and even an idiot knows that he has the right to stand by that which he believes…even when he is wrong. That is what makes him an idiot.

  292. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 9:54 am #

    asoka-yourself,
    Your question was:
    “Can you name one person who was improperly registered by ACORN who then attempted to vote at the polls.”
    I provided the following from the American Spectator:
    “..a cross-dressing Ohio male escort whom ACORN registered multiple times to vote was convicted of full-fledged vote fraud in addition to the lesser crime of voter registration fraud. A spokesman for Cleveland prosecutor Bill Mason confirmed yesterday that a local investigation of ACORN remains wide open.”
    Then you whine:
    “But ACORN has done nothing wrong.”
    That wasn’t your original question. Your original question was:
    “”Can you name one person who was improperly registered by ACORN who then attempted to vote at the polls.”
    Now…SHUT…THE…FUCK…UP! (Thank you.)

  293. CaptSpaulding January 28, 2010 at 10:04 am #

    Ahhh the mighty roar of the pissant.

  294. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 10:07 am #

    “Ahhh the mighty roar of the pissant.”
    Ahhh he that consumes the piss after the pissant drinks the piss and pisses.

  295. Martin Hayes January 28, 2010 at 11:33 am #

    Diogen, I follow your points and I salute you for taking an interest in this vexed subject. Most people reflexively back away from the subject of race. Who can blame them? In these days when bad faith prevails, when the presumption is that anyone who takes an interest in the subject is ipso facto a “racist”, it’s hardly unexpected that few will stick their neck out.
    But (you knew there was a but, didn’t you?), excuse-making for blacks belongs back in the Sixties and Seventies. Poverty. That’s the reason they’re always fucking up. Classic liberal bullshit, IMO. The reason, Diogen, that I can’t be a liberal, is not because I’m in a hurry to run out of excuses for the inexcusable, but because I’ve realized that I’m a nobody. I don’t have any power. And I know it.
    What bugs me about liberalism is that it is predicated on privilege. Tenured professors pootling around in some or other humanities faculty, limousine liberals on the Beltway who never have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, precious daddy’s girls on university campuses doing a liberal arts degree before they marry their jock, shit like that, all of which have this in common: I can afford to take pity from the heights on those less fortunate, and the unspoken assumption is that I’ll never end my days in a tent city (when I’ll have to deal with blacks as actual people, whom I’ll quite possibly not like for reasons entirely unrelated to their race).
    Ya think? Stick around. You might soon find yourself living in a tent city. Then it’s gonna be one on one and liberal sentiments be damned.
    My recommendation to you? Go to India. Lots of poverty. Little crime. There’s a lesson in there somewhere, but if I reach for it, I’ll be accused of racism.

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  296. diogen January 28, 2010 at 11:51 am #

    Martin, you make good points. I never said the poverty is an excuse for crime. Poverty is an incubator for crime. And I didn’t just mean economic poverty, I also meant cultural impoverishment which is the failing of the impoverished themselves. So, no excuses.
    I agree with you on liberalism, it’s a very flawed way of looking at social dynamics. In my opinion 🙂

  297. diogen January 28, 2010 at 11:53 am #

    “There’s a lesson in there somewhere, but if I reach for it, I’ll be accused of racism.”
    Come on, reach for it and let us know what your thoughts are. All thoughts are welcome here, just disregard the thugs 🙂

  298. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 11:55 am #

    Hacker breaks into 49 House sites, insults Obama – The attacker used an obscenity* in referring to the president, who gave his state of the union address from the House chamber Wednesday night.
    *Wonder if it was ‘fucktard’?

  299. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm #

    Martin,
    The “race” thing, to a large degree, is generational. I know kids who talk about their friends and never mention their friends race.
    It just never seems pertinent to them to bother to bring it up. I think as time passes this trend will continue to grow.
    For those who have always made a point out of stressing all things racial I’m guessing this trend could be viewed as threatening or negative. I for one think its a good trend.

  300. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 12:02 pm #

    “*Wonder if it was ‘fucktard’?”
    Well after hearing the speech, I think “fucktard” might apply.;>}

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  301. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 12:06 pm #

    Vlad, you wonder about why I moved to CR.
    Look at it this way, a lot of people are looking at the US e-con-omy much like some people looked at the bow of the Titanic – a ship too big to fail – and are wondering why the bow is going under water. If they then take a gander about, they will notice that, except for a few, most of the rich and powerful are leaving the ship in life boats.
    Having decided that logically, since the rest of the ship will undoubtedly follow the bow, and those in the know appear to be abandoning ship, it also behooves me to make my departure to perhaps sunnier climes.
    I have also decided since reading this and other blogs that the prevailing mentality there in the US is anticipatory of a Road Warrior future, of which I do not wish to participate, that relocation to a sunnier clime makes perfect sense.
    So have at it, no doubt you and others there look forward with deep relish to the upcoming ethnic and racial cleansing. Hope you have fun.
    Bye now.

  302. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 12:21 pm #

    “Bye now.”
    Buh-bye.

  303. diogen January 28, 2010 at 12:22 pm #

    Dee, I’m afraid your lifeboat is tethered to the Titanic and will go down with it. If your income/assets are in any major currency, not just the $$$, you’re as vulnerable as the rest of us. Besides, if/when the SHTF and the CR locals (not to mention various other groups around) are in dire shape, you and your ex-pat neighbors may end up being the first target. If you have barred windows and doors in good times, what would you need in bad times? 20′ fences?
    Come back here and help us rebuild the damage so the Ship stays afloat, or else you’re in the same boat 🙂

  304. diogen January 28, 2010 at 12:30 pm #

    “rich and powerful are leaving the ship in life boats. ”
    Where are they going?
    That’s probably a good thing, they got us into this disaster, let’s pull up the ladders to keep them from coming back. Wherever they’re going, I hope the natives will roast them and serve them on skewers with coconut/papaya sauce.
    🙂

  305. anglo January 28, 2010 at 12:37 pm #

    Not mum,
    Which trend is admirable ??
    It just never seems pertinent to them to bother to bring it up. I think as time passes this trend will continue to grow.
    For those who have always made a point out of stressing all things racial I’m guessing this trend could be viewed as threatening or negative. I for one think its a good trend.

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  306. Martin Hayes January 28, 2010 at 12:44 pm #

    Okay, I’ll take the bait. First, let me say that I regard anecdotes as vital evidence: I’m not going to try to erect this as uncontested in defiance of entrenched interests such as the medical establishment, say, that habitually regards anecdotal evidence as irrelevant, I’ll just say:
    IN MY EXPERIENCE. The thing about “in my experience”, is that you’ve made it incontestable. Who will presume to argue against your experience? If you have had the experience you say you’ve had, there’s not a damn thing anyone can do about it.
    IN MY EXPERIENCE, having lived in Africa for nearly half a century, blacks are always on the take. Eventually, when you’ve run out of patience, you’ll start to test them (keeping in mind that any altruism that matters is based on reciprocity).
    Do you have a cigarette for me? How about 50 cents? When you ask them for something, as opposed to the normal state of affairs, when they ask you for something, your request is met with incomprehension and prevarication. IN MY EXPERIENCE, they won’t want to give you anything. And if they do, it is with the utmost resentment.
    IN MY EXPERIENCE, taking a taxi loaded with blacks to town, dropped off on Joubert Street in Johannesburg, I’m chased down the street by a gang of black muggers. What do the blacks do? Nothing. I walk into the railway station after they’ve taken my money, within reaching distance of black stall owners. What did they do? Nothing. Can I ask any of the many blacks milling about on the concourse for help? No. Who helps me? A Greek café owner.
    See? Try to understand something. It’s not about scoring points. Until you have felt the terrible loneliness that comes from realizing you are surrounded by a sea of (black-faced) humanity that knows nothing about you, about the fights you’ve fought, about the principles you hold, about the hopes you have for the future – and yet is utterly hostile to it, in fact is always ready to accept whatever excuse comes along to not having to care about you – you really don’t know why the races can’t co-exist in the same place that has any chance for a future.
    When the money stops changing hands, it will be total war.

  307. diogen January 28, 2010 at 1:05 pm #

    Martin, a friend had similar experiences in Nigeria, once almost killed (his company had to air-lift him to the U.K. for an emergency surgery).
    Yeah, a brutal world out there. I’ve had somewhat similar experiences to your’s in Eastern Europe.
    And travelling in parts of Russia you risk your life (not just your wallet).
    So, what do you think causes individuals to behave they way they did to you in Africa? Their genetic pre-disposition for violence and lack of caring, or their culture? Vlad would say that culture is the effect of genetics, but I think it’s a great over-simplification. Culture is a function of hundreds of factors. From what i understand, genetics has an effect on temperament, personality, even intelligence, but culture? Not sure. Not sure that genetic variation between races has an effect on our basic humanity. I used to read a lot of travel and discovery adventures, and there are literally thousands of stories of non-white natives helping and saving the lives of white explorers. Vlad’s belief that blacks are genetically more violent conveniently overlooks the history of white violence. I think that all races/ethnicities have a potential for violence given the right context.
    What do you think about your treatment in Africa, what caused the natives to act the way they did? Genetics?

  308. CaptSpaulding January 28, 2010 at 1:26 pm #

    It’s gratifying to see that you finally respond to your name, little pissant.

  309. anglo January 28, 2010 at 1:37 pm #

    Martin Hayes.
    Are you serious ?
    Picture this. You are living quite happily in a society that has developed over centuries. Alright, you have your ups and downs but on balance things have sorted themselves out.
    Then, suddenly, a large bunch of marauding folks come knocking. Are they looking to be your friends ?
    Do they have your best interests at heart ? Is their first instinct to come and visit you and offer their expertise in “improving” your life style.
    Is it bollocks.
    They have one thing in mind, to rape and pillage matey. Consequently, after centuries of abuse and cruelty you are not best pleased with the white folks.
    And you have the stupidity and gall to complain when you are treated like shit by these people.
    Jeeezuz.

  310. diogen January 28, 2010 at 1:39 pm #

    Hey Cap’n, looks like he took his medication this morning, but in my experience it doesn’t last long, I’m betting by 2 p.m. he’ll be straining his chain trying to sink his canines in the passer-by’s legs
    🙂

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  311. CaptSpaulding January 28, 2010 at 1:42 pm #

    Hi diogen. I see him more like a chihuahua humping someone’s leg. Regards to you, The Captain

  312. Martin Hayes January 28, 2010 at 1:46 pm #

    No, I think that Vlad’s contention is too neat and much too convenient. But I do think that it’s a matter of culture, rather than race. In fact, I don’t think that race is a useful construct: as I like to say, it’s an operational nullity: the gears don’t mesh; nothing computes. But culture, that’s a different story, and let there be no mistake: Africa exerts a very particular influence on whoever lives there, be they black or white. You’d have to experience it yourself to understand it. It is extremely liberating, but at the same time the openness that it offers gives license to all manner of things that North Americans (or Europeans) would find intolerable. I’ve lived in North America, Britain and Europe, and Africa is by far the place I most feel at home. If, like me, you’re a bit of a renegade, getting out of the US (in my case, Canada) will come as a relief. But there’s a price to pay: wherever you are in Africa, people look at you; you will not be ignored. You have to find your place among people, whether you like it or not. I like blacks; I feel totally comfortable with them, even if the womenfolk press on you, which they do, or the menfolk test you, which they do.
    In the end, though, I had to choose, and I chose to get away. It’s just that I’m English. My parents are English, and, being English, I’m a private person and just want to be left alone. But I have nothing bad to say about Africans. In fact, I miss Africa. I just can’t live there.

  313. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 2:04 pm #

    “Come back here and help us rebuild the damage so the Ship stays afloat, or else you’re in the same boat :)” Dio
    Seems like stuffing rags in the cracks in the hull of the Titanic.
    But have at it, no one is stopping you from putting your fingers & toes, & nose in the holes.
    Just when you look up, is if from under water?
    I just feel its too little, too late, and will take my chances out here in the little life boat.
    I don’t think that we will have to resort to eating each other here, unlike there.
    Like I said, I’ll take my chances here.

  314. diogen January 28, 2010 at 2:12 pm #

    OK, so here’s the scenario: the value of the dollar and most other currencies is wiped out by (take your pick: hyperinflation, u.s. debt default, etc.). Your 401K and whatever income stream you had will now buy you nothing. The economies are ruined, no jobs in CR.
    1. What are your plans for rent and food?
    2. Do you have weapons (are they legal in CR) to defend your family?

  315. Martin Hayes January 28, 2010 at 2:20 pm #

    Thanks phlegm. At least, I think that’s what your name signifies.
    First off: lifestyle. The word is bollocks and you shouldn’t be using it. It’s an artefact of sociology, invented by Max Weber and his school.
    No, the life I’ve lived hasn’t been in isolation. Raggedy-arsed people (always blacks) have collected my rubbish, stocked my supermarkets, driven the lorries of the supply chain and generally made themselves available for a shitty wage to maintain the illusion of order.
    Suppose they rebel?
    Where did you get the idea that I take it for granted that they won’t rebel or that, as you said, I would be surprised if they did and go for me? Not at all.

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  316. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 2:30 pm #

    Oh, Dio I am so tired of the doom scenarios. I just didn’t pack my bags over nite and catch the first flight in the morning, I have been planning this for several years. Even if the US goes toes-up, I will be ok here.
    Lets all assume, a la Asoka, that Cap’n Obama manages to sail the half submerged ship of state into port by the end of his term(s).
    I’m still better off where I am now.
    And if not, cest’ la vie.

  317. earthman January 28, 2010 at 2:36 pm #

    Good thing about Costa Rica is you can grow food all year round… A little cinder block, and little wood, a little piece of land in the bush and you are all set. The guy who is screwed is the Manhattan Lawyer who can’t change a flat tire:)but knows how to order take out from all the best spots…:)

  318. anglo January 28, 2010 at 2:37 pm #

    Hello Martin,
    Quote
    “No, the life I’ve lived hasn’t been in isolation. Raggedy-arsed people (always blacks) have collected my rubbish, stocked my supermarkets, driven the lorries of the supply chain and generally made themselves available for a shitty wage to maintain the illusion of order.”
    Says it all really. And this in their own country !!
    p.s.
    It means “Fuck me gently” and signifies the emotion I feel when reading posts such as yours.

  319. Cash January 28, 2010 at 3:24 pm #

    I think the idea of race is useful only insofar as it tells you where an individual’s ancestors came from but that’s about it.
    I agree with you that culture (ie learned behaviour) is what is most relevant. I think that people cook up stupid ideas and transmit them much as they would a virus. Look at our present day “equities culture”. Not much in the way of rational underpinnings yet people line up to but stocks and mutual funds. Why? Because everyone else is doing it. Millions of people can’t be wrong can they? Yes they can actually. Same story with real estate. You can make a lot of money off white folks’ idiocy.
    To me, blacks are just as smart or as stupid as us white folks, they’re just as prone to do imbecilic things. For whatever reason many blacks latched onto some really bad behaviours and, like with white folks, once these behaviours are learned they’re hard to unlearn.
    As for Africa’s present state of dysfunction, let’s not forget that white folks haven’t been civilized all that long compared to other races.
    Ten thousand years ago the city of Jericho (on the West Bank) had stone walls and forty foot guard towers and from what I’ve read it wasn’t that unusual in that neck of the woods. While non white people in the Middle east, Egypt, India, China and S. America were busy farming, building colossal monuments, laying down the foundations for law, trade, governance and engineering what were white people doing? Living in twig huts, scratching their asses around camp fires.
    When Rome and Constantinople were teaching barbarian tribesmen in Europe the rudiments, non whites had been civiized for thousands of years. Who looked superior and who looked inferior back then? Hard to argue that white people had the genetic advantage.
    So the clock hasn’t stopped ticking, we don’t know what the future holds. Maybe in the next three thousand years Africa will be the centre of learning and civilzation while the rest of the world descends into barbarism.

  320. asoka January 28, 2010 at 4:03 pm #

    DeeJones said:

    Oh, Dio I am so tired of the doom scenarios. I just didn’t pack my bags over nite and catch the first flight in the morning, I have been planning this for several years.

    Did you pretty much sell everything and go with a few storage trunks, or did you have a professional mover pack everything into a wooden crate and have it shipped via air or via boat to… where?
    I am seriously considering becoming an emigrant to Costa Rica, where I can have health care without buying private “plans” that nickle and dime you with co-pays or simply don’t pay at all in time of need … but they want the monthly payments on time to them or they cut you loose.
    I also like the idea of a country that abolished its army and has a president (Oscar Arias) who won the Nobel Peace Prize … for peace … not while waging war.
    So, help me out here on the details of the physical move to Costa Rica. (I am assuming I can find an apartment for US$500 a month or less, which is what I can afford.)
    I just heard today that the average annual wage in Costa Rica is US$8,000 … and they are able to provide public option health care. I am not going to wait any longer here in the USA … and now that the SOTUS has given the green light for corporations to buy senators there is even less chance of change possible in the USA.
    By the way, I am fluent in Spanish. I have ATA certification (Spanish-English).

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  321. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 4:14 pm #

    Cappy Spaulding sez
    “It’s gratifying to see that you finally respond to your name, little pissant.”
    Well little Dung-Beetle is gratified. Must have found a “fresh deposit.” Enjoy!

  322. wagelaborer January 28, 2010 at 4:50 pm #

    To clarify to those so offended, not only do I hate Reagan with a passion, I hate Bush just as much and Cheney much more.
    Don’t worry about my patients, Vlad. At least I don’t hate them. At least not as much as my co-workers do-
    http://www.nursinghumor.com/humor/you.might.be.an.emergency.room.er.nurse.if.htm
    And I’ve had black people in my face, screaming at me that I’m a racist cause I didn’t provide whatever it was they demanded. Am I allowed to say what I want to say “I’m not a racist. I just don’t like you”.? No. Not because of political correctness. Because I don’t want to get fired.
    As a whole, though, I think that black people are remarkably tolerant and patient, considering that, as the designated scapegoat population, their living conditions are inevitably worse than whites.
    My old next door neighbor was from South Central. He was from Scottish immigrant parents. He was pretty rowdy, but very nice. What kept him out of trouble? A full time job. And even at that, he got drunk on the weekends and into the occasional fight.
    Why is Detroit in such bad shape? Of course, it’s the unemployment. The only reason people would argue otherwise is the brainwashing we all go through.
    My only mugging was a tag team. It was in New Orleans in 2003 and I was walking down Bourbon Street and I felt someone remove my wallet. I reached around and grabbed the arm of the nearest person. It was a black teenaged boy. I started screaming to my husband that my wallet was stolen, but he was his usual oblivious self and was far ahead of me by that time.
    I kept yelling for him, and a crowd gathered. The kid looked at me and held his hands out to show me that there was nothing in them, proclaiming his innocence disarmingly.
    Well, that was a dilemma. It had to be him, cause I grabbed him immediately, yet I could see that he didn’t have my wallet. I confess that I didn’t want to look like a racist and I was about to let him go, when a white teenaged girl came up to me (from ahead) and handed me my wallet.
    I said, thank you, and let the kid go, and they took off together. That’s when I realized that they were a team, and that he had handed my wallet to her. That would be why she came from ahead, where I hadn’t even been yet, and had my wallet.
    So, no violence, no attitude. Just two young kids working on their moves. One black, one white.

  323. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 4:52 pm #

    Asoka: Did you pretty much sell everything and go with a few storage trunks, or did you have a professional mover pack everything into a wooden crate and have it shipped via air or via boat to… where?
    > A little of both, you can take up to 2 large suit cases on TACA, up to 50lbs each, and 1 carry on (a laptop?) Then you can ship what ever else you think you need, or put it in storage here and come back and get what you really need.
    I am seriously considering becoming an emigrant to Costa Rica, where I can have health care without buying private “plans” that nickle and dime you with co-pays or simply don’t pay at all in time of need … but they want the monthly payments on time to them or they cut you loose.
    > Until you you have LEGAL residency, you can’t join the CAJA, but you can buy the private INS insurance. You will probably pay less than $100 a month, or so. Much cheaper than US insurance.
    So, help me out here on the details of the physical move to Costa Rica. (I am assuming I can find an apartment for US$500 a month or less, which is what I can afford.)
    > We took a place that was readily available, but in 6mo to a year, a friends family will have a small finca for rent for about $300/mo.
    The process for getting LEGAL residency is pretty straight foward: You need to get Original copies of your birth cert, marriage cert (if applicable), and a local police letter of good conduct. They then all have to be authenticated by the respective secretaries of state that issued them. Then they have to be authenticated by the CR Consul that has jurisdiction over your state (see the CR Embassy website).
    Now days you also have to show a certain amount of income: If you are coming in as retired (pensionado) you have to show $1000/monthly income. If you come in under another classification (rentista) you have to show slightly more income for a certain number of years (5 I think) while your residency application is in process. Once your residency is approved, you no longer have to meet the income requirements.
    Since you speak fluent Spanish, you can probably go to Migracion and handle the whole process your self, with out involving an lawyer.
    Of course you can try not-legal residency, just fly down and over stay your 90 day visa, but since CAFTA, they are really starting (in their own way) to crack down on the so-called perpetual tourist. If you are caught and deported, you can’t come back into CR for 10 years.
    There ARE many here that have come and gotten “lost in paradise”, but at their own risk, if they are deported, they lose everything they have here.
    (Then there are those who go to Puerto Rico and take a boat here and slip in under the radar on the coast, not that I’m advocating that…)
    DJ

  324. asoka January 28, 2010 at 4:59 pm #

    DeeJones,
    Thanks, that’s exactly the kind of information I was looking for.
    I’m going to start getting rid of stuff now to lighten up cause I don’t want to take a lot of stuff to CR that I don’t really use or need.
    Muchas gracias por su ayuda…
    Costa Rica… pura vida!

  325. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 5:10 pm #

    “Muchas gracias por su ayuda…
    Costa Rica… pura vida!”
    Good lord. They’ll probably throw your parasitic ass right out of the country about ten minutes after you depart the banana boat.

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  326. Qshtik January 28, 2010 at 6:48 pm #

    “I’m going to start getting rid of stuff now to lighten up cause I don’t want to take a lot of stuff to CR”
    =====================
    Wow, whata bitch …. and you were soooo close to finishing that adobe house. And then, just last weekend, you bought that shovel and bag of seeds to start your permaculture garden. Now you’re gonna chuck it all and move to CR. And your main man … only one year into his first term. Man, whata bummer.
    At least you’ll be covered healthwise. It’s amazing what they can do with crystals, candles, eye of newt and dried bat wing using the proper rituals. Colon cancer – a broken leg – no pro-blay-mo.

  327. Vlad Krandz January 28, 2010 at 7:41 pm #

    Ok, the classic criminal type (there are others) is high testosterone, low IQ male. The Black Race produceds an incredible abundance of these just as we produce far more than the East Asians. I haven’t touched on T in a while but it is crucial and it can be measure. Blacks on average are significantly higher than Whites. Besides outright violence, another characteristic of a high T is impulsivity. And that ties right in to criminality in terms of lack of delayed gratification; and into a prediliction for violence in terms of a lack of forbearance.
    Read The Bell Cure – it’s written for laymen. Once you absorb that you’ll be ready for the works of Arthur Jensen and Phillipe Rushton.
    Bear with me, this is important. The dynamic of crime is totally different than the dynamic of war. East Asians are typically not dangerous one on one. But in terms of the group, they become most formidable. So if a Tong is told by his superior to do something, he will. Organized Crime has a different dynamic than ordinary muggings and rapes. It’s tribal. Mexico is in danger of splitting into Narco Tribes.
    I’ve worked with many Africans. I’ve often liked them and found things to admire. Did I feel awkward about my inner beliefs? Yes. Guilty? Not quite: I didn’t make this world and I’m not responsible for the way it is. I just call it the way I see it and respond accordingly. And oh yes, the Africans are much nicer than African-Americans. Blacks desperately need a traditonal culture to ground them. The falling apart of the Family has hit Blacks harder than anyone, as has the general American Nihilism.
    I can take people as they come. Statistics show that 15% of Blacks are at or above the White Average IQ of 100. I’ve met some bright Blacks and I had no problem admitting it and treating them that way. But even these Blacks have a significantly higher crime rate than Whites at comparable 1Q’s. The Testosterone again. It’s why Black Women do so much better in the work place. Black Men are warriors and are usually unsuited for the office even if they are smart. But as you will find out in The Bell Curve, Black IQ peters out at about 120 level except for an extraordinary few – not enough to fill the quota for Ivy League Law Schools. To function at the top of Engineering, IT, Law, Medicine etc, one needs an IQ above 130. The tale of the tape. Civilization depends on the few people who have these smarts. Blacks just don’t. As Galton said, they produce many men of fair ability but first rate? No.
    I admit East Asians are above us in IQ so don’t call me a supremacist again please. I’m a separatist.

  328. diogen January 28, 2010 at 8:05 pm #

    Wage, sure, unemployment is another reason for all kinds of social ills. Since we told our tales of being mugged by black guys, in all fairness I have to tell the Kunstler-reading world about the other kinds of experiences with the people who Vlad thinks are inferior, violent and evil.
    1. I was about 19, driving home after midnight from my shift at Burger King in a blinding snowstorm, went off the road on a deserted stretch of road. No cell phones back then. A truck comes down the road, slowly, stopped when saw me. A *black* guy comes out and asks me if I need help. Obviously, I did. He hooked up the cable to my little Datsun 210, pulled me out of the ditch, and then asked me where I was going. He then drove in front of me for about 5 miles so I could follow in his tracks. I offered him some money, he refused it and asked me to donate to a charity of my choice instead. He said he did it all winter in bad weather, driving around and helping people having problems in the snow.
    2. A young woman I worked with back in the late 1970’s told me this story: she ran out of gas in a bad (black) part of Indianapolis late at night. A *black* guy walked up to her car, scared her to half-death by tapping on the window. She rolled down 1″, he told her this was a dangerous part of town, could he help her? Finding out her problem, he told her to lock the doors and wait for him. He walked to a gas station down the road, borrowed a 1 gal gas can from them, filled it up, carried it to Christie’s car, poured in her tank, refused the payment, and advised her to be careful, wouldn’t even tell he his name.
    3. Another co-worker many years ago had a house fire, unfortunately he overlooked (so he said) paying his insurance bill, no coverage. One of the people living on another street, same neighborhood, a *jew*, helped my co-worker re-build his house, working every evening and weekend with him for many months, and solicited donations from his co-congregants/co-religionists to donate money for building materials.
    These are the most notable examples of generosity from my experiences, there are some others less noteworthy of non-white people just being good human beings. Vlad will probably say “anecdotal evidence”.

  329. asoka January 28, 2010 at 8:11 pm #

    LIFE EXPECTANCY RANKING
    29 … Ireland … 78.9
    30 … Costa Rica … 78.8
    35 … Chile … 78.6
    36 … Denmark … 78.3
    37 … Cuba … 78.3
    38 … United States 78.2
    39 … Portugal … 78.1
    40 … Slovenia … 77.9
    Qshtik said:

    At least you’ll be covered healthwise. It’s amazing what they can do with crystals, candles, eye of newt and dried bat wing using the proper rituals. Colon cancer – a broken leg – no pro-blay-mo.

    Yeah, and live in a country with a superior health system, as indicated by superior life expectancy longevity. As it says in the CIA Factbook:

    Life expectancy at birth is also a measure of overall quality of life in a country

    Because I refused a military career I don’t have a socialist VA health care system.
    Costa Rica will do just fine. … and no more dependence on petroleum for home heating/cooling.
    Adobe passive solar will work fine in Costa Rica. Pura vida.
    https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2102.html

  330. diogen January 28, 2010 at 8:28 pm #

    Vlad, BELL CURVE may be correct, although it appears that other scientists found problems with it (I googled it just now):
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve#Criticisms
    But so what? People with higher IQ are not necessarily better human beings. In fact one of my former bosses, a complete scoundrel (not just to us, his family as well) was a totally brilliant guy.
    Yes, the world needs extremely bright people, but the world needs good people who aren’t Einsteins.
    I don’t know enough about your points regarding Testosterone, but for some reason educated middle-class black people I’ve known didn’t seem violent or similar to their ghetto brethern, they were more like me and probably you: they care about their work, their community and their families. Other than that, I don’t know.
    Separatism? Thomas Jefferson would not approve. Do you really expect our white brothers and sisters from the North-East and the South giving up their homes and property to move to Idaho? Hey, what plans do you have for Ohio? I’m about to plant an orchard, don’t tell me I’ll have to give it up 🙂

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  331. asoka January 28, 2010 at 8:35 pm #

    Physical health isn’t everything. When you look at mental health, Costa Rica is number one in the world in the happy planet index (HPI 2.0, an objective measure dividing life expectancy by ecological footprint).
    United States?
    Not so happy.
    From the report:

    More dramatic is the difference between Costa Rica and the USA. Costa Ricans also live slightly longer than Americans, and report much higher levels of life satisfaction, and yet have a footprint which is less than a quarter the size.

    I guess money… and wasteful extravagance… don’t buy you happiness.
    http://www.happyplanetindex.org/public-data/files/happy-planet-index-2-0.pdf

  332. diogen January 28, 2010 at 8:38 pm #

    Ireland at the top of life expectancy? I’m switching from Warsteiner and Lowenbrau to Guinness and Smithwicks!!! Thanks Asoka!!!

  333. diogen January 28, 2010 at 8:48 pm #

    Live long and happy too! Hmm, do they have a war on drugs? Is pot legal there? If it is, it may explain things, you can grow your own pharmaceuticals, no wonder their health-care is cheap.
    On the other hand, Asoka, if the world is about to collapse and go insane (more insane than it already is), I don’t know about living in a country with no military, as nice as it sounds. It will be over-run by its more bellicose neighbors in no time, you will be easy prey for them I’m afraid. Dee didn’t answer my questions about what he/she would do if the currency lost value… Locals may be nice when they get income from you, but may very well turn on you when their own kids are hungry. I hope I’m wrong.

  334. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 8:55 pm #

    “Good lord. They’ll probably throw your parasitic ass right out of the country about ten minutes after you depart the banana boat.” Non-Mom
    Say, non-mom, sure would like to get your ass tied down to a bunch of bananas in the hold of a freighter – on a nice long run….see how many bananas we could shove up your ass until you were screaming. Oh yeah!!!
    Then we could bring down the goats and other barnyard animals to have a go at ya….
    then we’d sell your gaping ass into slavery in the Gulf…. Oh Yeah@@@@
    Sure, you’d like it, wouldn’t you…..
    Yeah…. you would…..bet your are all hot & wet reading this…..bet your gonna pound your sausage all nite long just thinking about it…
    Come on down….

  335. diogen January 28, 2010 at 8:59 pm #

    No one seems to like Non Mom, wonder why, such a pleasant gentleman 🙂

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  336. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 9:00 pm #

    “At least you’ll be covered healthwise. It’s amazing what they can do with crystals, candles, eye of newt and dried bat wing using the proper rituals. Colon cancer – a broken leg – no pro-blay-mo.” Q-less
    Um, most CR Drs are trained in the US or Europe. The have the most modern medical in Central America.
    The only difference is that they are paid by the state, and the costs are mucho lower.
    Prescriptions that cost $500 here cost $25 there.
    So you can shove the crystals, candles and bat wings up your ass.

  337. diogen January 28, 2010 at 9:05 pm #

    “United States? Not so happy.”
    This is because we’re reading Kunstler all the time.
    I used to be a lot happier before I discovered it a few weeks ago. Now i don’t know what will get us first — collapsed economy or peak oil. My wife’s worried that I’m spending so much time online, I used to help her around the house, so she’s unhappy too 🙂

  338. diogen January 28, 2010 at 9:12 pm #

    “Prescriptions that cost $500 here cost $25 there. ”
    Amazing what a country can do if it has no military budget. Unfortunately, we can’t reduce our military expenditures, as soon as we do surely Canada will invade, I’m sure Cash is on stand-by with the Royal Canadian something or other. And I heard those Canadians are vicious with their double-headed battle axes.. This is why we have to pay $500 for aspirin, it’s that or Cash with the battle axe.

  339. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 9:20 pm #

    “Amazing what a country can do if it has no military budget. Unfortunately, we can’t reduce our military expenditures, as soon as we do surely Canada will invade, I’m sure Cash is on stand-by with the Royal Canadian something or other. And I heard those Canadians are vicious with their double-headed battle axes.. This is why we have to pay $500 for aspirin, it’s that or Cash with the battle axe.”
    Aw, shit, you see, I, like most ‘Mericans was distracted by Vlad the Inhaler and was afraid that all the Mesicans were going to invade. So its the fucking Canadians, eh? Quick, I know how to distract them – line the border with plenty of back bacon & Moosehead beer, eh? We can then pick them off like chipmonks. Oh, and poster board cutouts of Mike Moore, they just fucking love him!!!

  340. oiligarch January 28, 2010 at 9:22 pm #

    It is difficult to get a word in edgewise from all the infighting between Mr. K’s sycophants day after day on this blog.
    I don’t understand why people think running away to some other part of the planet is going to “save” them in any way. The problem, as I see it, is that we all are benefiting from a relatively stable era of climactic stability. Humanity has flourished and expanded exponentially during the last 10,000 years but that is about to change in the near future. We are forcing the climate into a “tipping point” of instability which translates to something very big for the egotistical, narcissistic primate called “man”. Try: catastrophic collapse of entire ecosystems, millions of starving and displaced hungry, fanatical, freakin apes. The veneer of “civilization” is very thin under those circumstances. You are fools if you think you will be exempt from this disaster. It has already started. Also, the planetary system is so large that there is a 10 year time lag before the effects of today’s particulate density hit the system. Put your faith in what the highly paid corpse-orate “orators” are spinning at your own peril.
    Also, I’m thoroughly tired of all the website jamming blather about “white supremacy this…”
    and “Jewish and Black inferiority that…” Jeez people the Aryan Nations website is a few doors down; why don’t you take a day off and visit them for a change. Or, can’t we move on to another topic sometime? Why discuss this every day?

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  341. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 9:26 pm #

    Say, Oiligarch, come on down and hava bananana, got a bunch in my back yard, I’ll save a few of the biggest just for you.

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  343. snj January 28, 2010 at 9:36 pm #

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  344. diogen January 28, 2010 at 9:39 pm #

    Oilguy said “Also, I’m thoroughly tired of all the website jamming blather about “white supremacy this…” and “It is difficult to get a word in edgewise from all the infighting ”
    You’re right, friend, thanks for bringing up a non-controversial topic — global climate change. I’m sure this will stimulate a friendly and amicable exchange.
    Peace, white brother.

  345. oiligarch January 28, 2010 at 9:39 pm #

    I hit a nerve didn’t I.

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  346. oiligarch January 28, 2010 at 9:42 pm #

    Global climate change is way too mild a term for what this dear old planet has in store for us now that we are awakening her immune system.

  347. diogen January 28, 2010 at 9:43 pm #

    Oiligarch, know any good jokes about climate change?
    We need some relief here, Bulgarians are happier than us on Asoka’s scale, help out, will ya?

  348. rippedthunder January 28, 2010 at 9:53 pm #

    If You insist here is a cartoon: http://www.spiralpocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/polar.jpg

  349. diogen January 28, 2010 at 9:56 pm #

    Thanks Ripp, funny AND scary, you’re giving Kunstler a run for his money scaring me 🙂

  350. oiligarch January 28, 2010 at 10:08 pm #

    Sorry, but the last levity I tried on this site was sandwitched between and arguement between “Vlad” and “Tripp” about… You guessed it Whites, Blacks, and Jews.
    All this point by point refutation gets tiresome but, you know, there is something rather exciting about the anonimity of all this interaction. Tee Hee, it is raather fun don’t you think. Just checkin.

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  351. DeeJones January 28, 2010 at 10:13 pm #

    hit a nerve didn’t I. Oili
    Naw, just a few glasses of wine this eve.
    but really, hava banana on me.
    I bow before the sumting of sumting of o great world rulers.
    Nite.

  352. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 10:25 pm #

    asoka-her-pants sez:
    “.. and no more dependence on petroleum for home heating/cooling.”
    Hasta la vista, baby.

  353. asoka January 28, 2010 at 10:28 pm #

    Humanity has flourished and expanded exponentially during the last 10,000 years but that is about to change in the near future.

    By my calculations the tipping point is about 47 years away. I prefer to live among happy, relaxed, and peaceful people until then. To each his own.
    Catastrophic collapse of entire ecosystems is not happening everywhere yet and it is not “running away” to choose a more pleasant geographic location in which to live. It is sane.

    You are fools if you think you will be exempt from this disaster. It has already started.

    No, it about 47 years away.

    When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.

    — Cynthia Heimel

  354. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 10:29 pm #

    “I guess money… and wasteful extravagance… don’t buy you happiness.”
    No shit MORON. Neither does being a parasite and constantly running down your host country. But I can make you a wager that having money beats the absolute bejeesus out of having no money.

  355. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 10:33 pm #

    diogen sez:
    “I used to be a lot happier before I discovered it a few weeks ago.”
    Well if you recognize this all by yourself dial it back a bit before it becomes a problem.

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  356. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 10:41 pm #

    DeeJones sez:
    “Say, non-mom, sure would like to get your ass tied down to a bunch of bananas in the hold of a freighter – on a nice long run….see how many bananas we could shove up your ass until you were screaming. Oh yeah!!!”
    Dee baby, this is the funniest fucking thing I have ever read. You have given this little fantasy WAY too much thought. But thats okay deedee after all its your wet dream and far be it from me to tell you it might be time to change your underpants. Thanks for the yuks. This will keep me in good cheer for months.
    (By the way you say “…how many bananas WE could shove up your ass…” Who the fuck is we…your flaming gay partner? Just wondering ;.} )

  357. asoka January 28, 2010 at 10:53 pm #

    Obama said he will try to repeal the “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy in the military. This will be an utter disaster as he would know if was a normal man.

    Just the opposite Vlad. I know you are no stranger to discrimination, but in this case we cannot afford this discriminatory law that hurts military readiness by denying patriotic men and women the opportunity to serve.

    Some of the closest relationships heterosexual men will ever have is with the soldiers in their unit.

    How close? Homosexual soldiers may be able to teach heterosexuals a thing or two about closeness.

    To introduce homosexuality into this will ruin the heterosexual bonding which is so crucial to military life – and to society in general.

    Heterosexual bonding? Does that include exchange of fluids?

    But hey, fine by me. America is finished and the sooner everyone knows, the better.

    Vlad, why do you hate America so much? Are the armed forces too colored for you?
    America has the finest president ever right now. He is the best black USA president ever.
    Obama has a higher approval rating after one year than Ronald Reagan had at the one year mark. America is a long way from finished.
    You should just be thankful I am considering moving to Costa Rica… instead of haunting you in whatever white enclave in Washington State you end up in.

  358. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 10:59 pm #

    asoka-herself sez:
    “Homosexual soldiers may be able to teach heterosexuals a thing or two about closeness.”
    Isn’t that kind of like saying the sky is blue?

  359. Shane January 28, 2010 at 11:05 pm #

    “I agree Shane, the masses will be looking for a savior to give them a solution…. Some nut job will probably step forward like other times in history.”
    Well in a sense, that’s already happening. Don’t a lot of US politicians from both parties strike you as having something wrong with them? Something along the lines of Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder
    Freaks like these are as typical of this media-saturated age as nuts like Hitler and Stalin were of the Industrial Age. Probably every historical period has it’s characteristic insanity; if so, Narcissism is ours. I can’t see how that’s going to change unless the zeitgeist of this age, the entirety of it’s manners and mores, are altered. And what’s going to do that? Nothing within it will. Every sign I see from within mainstream society tells me the masses going deeper into the multi-media funhouse. The only large group who may be coming out the other side are the ones being spit out into tent cities. And even then, I wouldn’t die of shock if I heard the homeless were rigging up tvs in their camps to watch the next enlightening episode of “Jersey Shore”.
    No, what’s going to break the American addiction to narcissism in all it’s forms (including electing them) is Collapse.
    “In the words of Adolph Hitler “How fortunate for the government that the people don’t think” ”
    I thought Goering said that? Whatever, it’s a great line…

  360. messianicdruid January 28, 2010 at 11:09 pm #

    A little boy was eating his breakfast with his mother. He became very quite, which was unusual for him. His mother asked him what was the matter. He asked her, Why doesn’t daddy have any hair on top of his head? She said, Your dad thinks a lot {about global warming} and this {by overheating his brain} makes his hair fall out. The little boy got real quite again. Then after a minute, asked, Mommy why do you have so much hair? Then his mom says, shut up and eat!

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  361. not mommy January 28, 2010 at 11:26 pm #

    “And even then, I wouldn’t die of shock if I heard the homeless were rigging up tvs in their camps to watch the next enlightening episode of “Jersey Shore”.”
    So the homeless shouldn’t be able to watch a piece of shit like “Jersey Shore” while the homefull can? My how democratic of you.

  362. wagelaborer January 29, 2010 at 12:14 am #

    OK, Diogen, here’s one of mine.
    I was wandering around downtown Oakland on a Sunday morning and a group of young black men came by.
    One asked me what I was doing down there. I said I was looking for the BART station.
    He said BART was closed on Sunday, pointed me to the bus stop, and then warned me against being where I was. He said that gangs were around there and it was dangerous.
    I thought that was very sweet and kind of cute. Because his group kinda looked like a gang.

  363. asoka January 29, 2010 at 1:16 am #

    Brad Tuttle at Time’s It’s Your Money blog – January 28, 2010
    http://www.moveyourmoney.info
    If you haven’t already checked it out, take a look at Move Your Money movement. The mission is simple: Get people to take their money out of gargantuan, always-scheming banks and put it into a community bank or credit union.
    There’s a search engine at the site that can lay out some of the options near your home. The local banking option will probably earn you more interest, and it’ll certainly be a more reasonable business partner.

  364. Vlad Krandz January 29, 2010 at 1:45 am #

    Yeah, even Blacks know how dangerous other Blacks are. You should take a clue from those who know best.
    And what up with all these Whites adopting Haitians – as if there aren’t enough unwanted African babies already here. Why don’t they adopt those ones? More PC points. Haitian Babies are “hot” right now.
    And why aren’t American Blacks adopting Haitian Babies? Why should they? They know that those babies are just competition down the line for social services. As Albert Schweitzer said, the spirit of service is just not in them as a whole.
    Angelina Jolie feels closer to her adopted babies than she does to her biological one. What a freak. This freak is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

  365. Vlad Krandz January 29, 2010 at 1:55 am #

    Over reliance of Wikipedia is fatal to the human mind. One must read some things at least in their original and full length form. The Bell Curve is one such book. Don’t trust Wikipedia on things like this – they’re lefties over there. Nor must one trust Stephen Jay Gould, a red diaper doper baby. A paleontologist but not trained in statistics and psychometrics — even if he did have an open mind he wouldn’t be the best person ot read. He was a good popular science writer though.

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  366. earthman January 29, 2010 at 4:28 am #

    DNA of the our various races on this planet are pretty much the same as is our desires, emotions, good points, and bad points. The hater only destroys himself.

  367. Fredric Lorenzen January 29, 2010 at 9:12 am #

    Dear Bobby:
    Your adumbrations are only exceeded by you fatuousness. Yeah, in the world of the reality challenged you might suppose climategate does’nt really qualify as a conspiracy. Perhaps all those didactic accolades you mentioned in your resume did’nt help your powers of reasoning, let alone deduction. I’d get my money back. Did the bruises you mentioned include falling on your head?
    I repeat wake up and smell the bullshit. I cheer for all the relieved sherpas who were looking into other types of employment after your colleague’s wrong call on the Himalayan glaciers; but now don’t have to.
    Personally rescue a polar bear will ya.
    My condolences.
    Fredric Lorenzen

  368. ozone January 29, 2010 at 9:38 am #

    “…DNA of the our various races on this planet are pretty much the same…” -EM
    Yep. There’s less genetic diversity amongst the 6 3/4 BILLION humans on this planet than there is in one chimpanzee troop of about 30 individuals.
    C’mon, really let that sink in for a bit, eh?

  369. DeeJones January 29, 2010 at 10:18 am #

    Dee baby, this is the funniest fucking thing I have ever read. You have given this little fantasy WAY too much thought. But thats okay deedee after all its your wet dream and far be it from me to tell you it might be time to change your underpants. Thanks for the yuks. This will keep me in good cheer for months. Non-Mom
    Why, thank you Mr Non-Mom. But hardly a thought at all, it just came to me on the spur of the moment.
    Glad you liked it. Hope it gives you many hours & hours of cheer. (Good thing for washable keyboards, eh?)

  370. Fredric Lorenzen January 29, 2010 at 10:19 am #

    In reply to the knucle dragging observations of one Martin Hayes on January 26th:
    I also did some research on the phrase “in due respect”. The thesaurus (book of alternative word meanings) did’nt have any opinion as to the politic meanings…but it did have alot of synonyms. As per “dickwad challenged”, whereby those with this malady usually have monobrows, an unnatural propensity for cheap beer, an aversion to all but four to seven letter words, plus a need to try to disguise their room temp I.Q.’s behind an obduartely ignorant and impolite facade. Put down the beer bottle yahoo and crack a book. You may be able to keep up a cogent conversation in a few years.
    Here’s to the imminent rise of mouthbreathers to the ranks of humanity.
    Fredric Lorenzen

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  371. Fredric Lorenzen January 29, 2010 at 10:36 am #

    To all you out there decrying the forces arrayed against “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military.
    What’s wrong with one khaki clad male ferilizing the stools of another? Why with the miracles of modern (not to be confused with Obamacare) medicine who knows that accretion of k-ration byproducts plus some “shit on a shingle” which doesn’t require much conversion, and a pair of corn kernels for eyes might, with big doses of fertility drugs become a sentient being. Hurrah for anushood! Next problem though is how to turn this turd white.
    Fredric Lorenzen

  372. asoka January 29, 2010 at 10:44 am #

    How many years into the Long Emergency are we?
    The economy seems to be getting better and better… thanks to Obama.
    The Commerce Department said GDP grew at an annual rate of 5.7 percent during the fourth quarter, easily topping economists’ forecast of 4.5 percent.
    The strong GDP report could get the market back on track after a 10-month rally stalled earlier this month.

  373. oiligarch January 29, 2010 at 10:53 am #

    Dee, actually, you know, I am totally addicted to organically grown bananas! Really, I stop at the banana section every time I shop. As a matter of fact; I’ll have one right now. There is this big pile of bananas on my table and my hands are trembling in anticipation of my first bite of the delicious fruit. Mmmmmm, yummy!
    Look, I’m sorry okay? I totally support your decision. I’m not one of the CFN commentary sycophants that needs to argue minutiae and semantics to prove I’m right. I’ve contemplated leaving “USA” before too. I think I’d choose Norway; I’ve even renewed my passport for a possible exploratory visit.
    Unfortunately, due to a lifetime of hand-to-mouth poverty; I’ve no dinero saved. I’ve spent my entire life trying not to bite into the big shit enchilada of american bourgeois existence so, no retirement, no 401K. Other countries wisely block us from moving in but watch the doors swing wide for Mr. Mega-bucks.
    Alas, it always comes back to how much money one has. The old evaluation, devaluation, black and white, dualistic unconsciousness of dominator ideology (that is demolishing our little spaceship home here in the Milky Way galaxy) will continue to crank the garbage out.
    Humanity had such potential! Unfortunately, we cracked the code on hydro-carbon energy before we were evolved enough to deal with the blow-back. I think we needed about another 20,000 years of psycho-emotive evolution to really understand the implications of what we were discovering and how to rationally use such an amazing gift from the planetary goddess. Sadly, we are just too primitive to have “won the energy lottery” (as R. Heinberg states it) and now we are going to fry in our own stoopid juices. Have a nice day!

  374. diogen January 29, 2010 at 11:00 am #

    “The strong GDP report could get the market back on track”
    Asoka, this may be good, or this may be bad. Hard to tell. Things that contribute to GDP are militaty expenditures, prison expenditures, higher energy costs. Oil spills? Good for the GDP, the cleanup pushes it up. Natural disasters? Yep, you guessed it, good for GDP.
    I want to believe that we’re on the road to economic health and an enduring economic sanity, but with every special interest pulling the cart in a different direction, I’m rather pessimistic.
    I voted for Obama because the warmonger/imbecile team was even less acceptable, but he’s just not the man to inspire all to follow, as sorry as I am to say this. We need a new Teddy Roosevelt who can take on the powerful special interests and put them on the leash…

  375. diogen January 29, 2010 at 11:20 am #

    Oilgarch, here’s your ticket to happy life in Norway: become a Muslim, make your way to Somalia and get shipped to a refugee camp. If you survive, eventually one of the Scandinavian countries or Holland will give you a political asylum along with $3,000 a month for life, even more if you make 10 kids.
    I’ve been to Norway, nice place. $12 hamburgers.
    Lots of oil and nat. gas from the North Sea, and instead of spending the windfall like the U.K., they saved and invested it. But if the world economy collapses, so will their investments and petro income, so not sure how comfy it will be in the winter when the temps can drop to -40 in some places. And if it’s true that Global Climate Change will derail the Gulf Stream, you may see the same -40F in the summer too. Sorry.

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  376. Fredric Lorenzen January 29, 2010 at 12:04 pm #

    Reply to Frank Warnock, January 27
    I think we’d be up to our collective asses in carbon at 20 pounds per vehicle mile. I guess it just goes to show how cavalierly you guys throw around numbers, then claim a decimal mistake. Well how about a .000000000001% chance that your Quasi religious delusions come true. For a wearthered ball that has floated around in space with much more dramatic Co2 accumulations to maintain fora and fauna for millions of years without the stewartship of some sentient sphincter group, I think, speaks to the resiliency of our globe. To think that a pompous group of nitwit scientists and political schemers could believe that we could inflict even a rounding error’s worth of harm to these Divine clockworks speaks to your hubris. No wonder you can’t smell the bullshit–you’ve got your collective heads up your bungholes.
    As for drivel at least mine cotains some cogent questions about Global……. (you fill in the new everchanging pc title) litany and gospel according to the Algore.
    As for conspiracy you coudn’t possibly see it until it’s too late. Connect the dots. Follow the money. Don’t be so partisan at the expense of ordinary common sense. And how can I have a decent debate with a guy who can’t even get his math straight?
    Save a polar bear today. Put up a bird chopper in your backyard to light up those twisty flourescents that you have to call in hazmat to clean up when they break. Trade in your five passenger behemoth for a clownmobile or portajohn with twelve inch wheels and a windshield all in two tone. Boy, that’s progress
    Til later,
    Fredric Lorenzen

  377. Cash January 29, 2010 at 12:19 pm #

    Dio/Dee, not axes, hockey sticks. Shouldn’t be a problem. For us I mean. We’d be hoisting our flag over Washington in a week. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating but I don’t think by much and it pains me to say it.
    Firstly a thankyou: You guys gave us a nuclear umbrella (so dickhead dilletants like Pierre Trudeau and his idiot followers could dream up social experiments but I digress). Thanks for the protection. It worked and it kept the peace for a long time. But it’s not working anymore. Nobody’s afraid of it or you.
    And I hate to bring this up and there’s no disrespect intended but that’s the reason the US keeps getting poked in the eye. You guys have a huge military but it’s pretty much useless. I don’t mean to deride the fine people in your forces.
    It’s a problem of leadership. You have nukes up to here and 1.5 million servicemen but you can’t subdue a sorry assed little hole like Iraq that has about 1/10 your population and nothing remotely like your natural resources and human capital. So why blow so much on a military that’s not much more than a paper tiger.
    The US has 300 million people, yet, after 7 years in Iraq and after 60,000 dead and > 170,000 wounded. In one battle (Vimy Ridge) we had as many dead over 4 days as the US has had over 7 years in Iraq. In another battle over one week (Paschendaele) we had > 15,000 dead and wounded. In the last 100 days of WW1 we had 40,000 dead and wounded.
    Compared to this sacrifice the war in Iraq is small. I know it’s not small to people who lost someone or to servicemen that got wounded. But how can a country with your military resources manage to get beaten by such a ramshackle opponent? And, while I was kidding about hoisting our flag, if you can’t take on Iraq, who exactly can you beat?
    Right now Canada has a military of around 60,000. If you had a military proportional to this given that you have ten times our population you’d have 600,000 people in uniform. Big enough, I would say, you’d save massive amounts of money (the US is utterly bankrupt after all), and I think you wouldn’t undertake as many half assed foreign adventures.
    WRT Afghanistan, Canada has had 2,500 combat troops in Kandahar province for about the last three years, has suffered 140 dead and about 360 wounded. “Americanize” the numbers and you have 1,400 dead and 3,600 wounded.
    A sizable number of people here say with some justification that these were all for nothing. Why so? Because the US, who took the lead in this war, managed to fuck it up too. The Taliban are winning. So while most here see the war as a worthwhile endeavor ie for the sake of bettering lives of Afghans esp. women and girls, the fact that your leadership can’t get its ass in gear and is once again looking for a way to declare defeat and get out requires that we look after ourselves. No way to sugarcoat this debacle. So we are staying until 2011 and then it’s hasta la vista.
    So never mind the rest of the world. Look after yourselves because no matter what you try you’re always seen as the bad guys.
    Sorry about the long post.

  378. asia January 29, 2010 at 12:19 pm #

    ‘ This freak is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.’
    HUH?
    shes one of the 600? did she sleep her way there?
    I was at a party in bev hills about 4 years ago,a woman says to me..
    ‘hi im reille’….reille hunter introd herself to me!

  379. asia January 29, 2010 at 12:21 pm #

    A Swede told me ‘rotterdams a muslim shitpit’ !!
    how bad is it?
    Alla Hu…god is gracious..a christian god to a muslim eurabia!

  380. Cash January 29, 2010 at 12:24 pm #

    piece of the post got lost:
    The US has 300 million people, yet, after 7 years in Iraq and after

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  381. Cash January 29, 2010 at 12:40 pm #

    try again
    The US has 300 million people, yet, after 7 years in Iraq and after

  382. oiligarch January 29, 2010 at 12:43 pm #

    Asoka, dude, calm down. I think Costa Rica is a splendid idea for a place to retire. I can tell from your comments that you are a friendly fellow; I trust you will be happy with your decision to retire there. Have a good life there and ,no, this is not tongue-in-cheek cynicism; I’m really sincere. (see, no NOTS! at the end)
    I would like to point out that the Earth’s ecosystems are all interwoven into a complex, mysterious, (poorly-understood) seamless web of interaction where one area effects the whole and vise-versa. What occurs in the Arctic effects the entire planet including the equatorial regions where Costa Rica is located. Right now, all eyes are on the drastic changes that are happening in the Arctic region as what occurs there will most definitely impact the whole planetary biosphere.
    Personally, I hope you are correct with your 47 year assertion because I will already be dead by then so it won’t matter anyway. Adios muchacho.

  383. oiligarch January 29, 2010 at 12:56 pm #

    I’ll remember to pack my Koran and some long underwear.

  384. messianicdruid January 29, 2010 at 1:06 pm #

    “…if you can’t take on Iraq, who exactly can you beat?”
    It ain’t about beating anyone, it’s about occupation {preferably expensive occupation}. Limited Colonialization, ie: limited to grunts, contractors and visiting dignitaries.

  385. oiligarch January 29, 2010 at 1:06 pm #

    You, sir, actually have some interesting observations that are unwittingly obscured by your strange, discordant prose.

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  386. diogen January 29, 2010 at 1:20 pm #

    Fredric, why do you think it is that the climate debate on this forum provokes more bitterness, rancor and insults than any other topic??? (and if are going to say that the other side is all morons, then forget I asked and don’t bother replying).
    What are your credentials, and what’s your evidence for your very strong viewpoint? I suspect you’re right that various financial interests are seeking to gain from the claim of the Global Climate Change, but that doesn’t render the hypothesis invalid. People profiteer from wars too, it doesn’t change the facts that the wars are real, not imaginary. I also suspect that even in science circles there are vested interests whose careers are hitched to this hypothesis, and that some scientists enshroud (sp?) the hypothesis in religious aura, but once again it doesn’t render it invalid. If you argue that there NO evidence for it, then you’re as religious about it as they are. The evidence is there, but in my view no one yet knows what exactly it means. The tone of your style of argument detracts from its effectiveness, instead of convincing the hearts and the minds you alienate them. You, Sir, have no monopoly on the Universal Truth any more than the other side, and your rhetoric makes you look less than credible.
    Anyway, what were your credentials again (other than your dubious intelligence)?

  387. Qshtik January 29, 2010 at 1:21 pm #

    “What’s wrong with one khaki clad male ferilizing the stools of another?”
    =======================
    You’re funny. Good post.

  388. diogen January 29, 2010 at 1:28 pm #

    It’s difficult to come to any other conclusion: Iraq is about access to oil, and a way for war-profiteers to amass fortunes. Oh yeah, it was also a hope of Boy George Bush to attain the glory of a victorious emperor and show his dad that he wasn’t a boy… It’s bizarre though, because they knew they were going to empower Iran, so it’s tempting to think of conspiracies, but don’t discount the stupidity of the people who rule us — it’s always been that way, and always will be.

  389. DeeJones January 29, 2010 at 2:38 pm #

    Look, I’m sorry okay? I totally support your decision. I’m not one of the CFN commentary sycophants that needs to argue minutiae and semantics to prove I’m right. I’ve contemplated leaving “USA” before too. I think I’d choose Norway; I’ve even renewed my passport for a possible exploratory visit. Oili
    Well, Oili, if you are ever passing thru, send me an email from Juan Santamaria Aeropuerto, I’ll hop on a donkey and bring you a nice, ripe bunch of bananas ASAP! From my own back yard! No DDT, I promise.
    You know, the next best thing is Puerto Rico, well, except for the Puerto Ricans that is. But you don’t even need a passport. And the money is good ol’ US $$. Oh, and they have nice bananas there too, and that’s where they make all the rum for your Pina Colada’s and Peach Daiquiris.
    Plus, if you are ever bored, you can go and get drunk with the astrophysicists that hang out at the Aricebo Great Big Hole in the Ground thingy.
    Why not fire up the ol’ yacht and head on down…
    I’ll meet ya there, we can hava a nice Pina Colada and munch down some fried planetians while watching the sun set over the Great Big Hole in the Ground thingy. Watcha say? DEal?

  390. oiligarch January 29, 2010 at 3:00 pm #

    Although I know nothing about Economics; I am reading an informative book called: “Web of Debt” by Ellen Hodgson Brown in which she argues that taxpayer “USA” was, essentially, hitched to a conspiratorial wagon in 1913 by the passage of the “Federal Reserve Act” while most of the Senate was on Christmas vacation. This argument seems to be backed up by the book “Creature from Jekyll Island” by (persona-non-grata on CFN) WEB Griffin about a conspiratorial cabal of Euro-bankers meeting to carve up the “USA” financial pie.
    I would venture to say that since the end of
    WW 2, taxpayer “USA” has been rowing the trireme of the imperial, plutocratic petro-hegemoney to an ever increasing drum beat of war profiteering, resource extraction, and financial “ponzi-schemes” created to dupe the folks of their hard-earned wages.
    Mr K recently stated a belief, in an interview, that he presumed we stayed in Vietnam, and are staying in Afghanistan, to “save face” but I would submit that all warfare “USA” is involved in is nothing but an excuse to wring more profits from the taxpayer sponge. Our entire economy is built on this machination. It’s no secret; the smirking gargoyle “USA” had for a former “President” fairly oozed his smug hubris about serving up a good portion of pork to his crony friends. New one ain’t no change.
    Also, on the video “The Money Masters”, Bill Still offers a lengthy and exhaustive look at the
    problem of “conspiracy” in our economic infrastructure.
    These sources all suggest we abolish the private bank misleadingly called “Federal Reserve” and return to money issued directly by the Treasury as the answer to “USA” economic ills.
    As farcical as Alex Jones is; he and his buddies might be on to something.
    What think ye?

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  391. oiligarch January 29, 2010 at 3:03 pm #

    Deal.

  392. wagelaborer January 29, 2010 at 3:32 pm #

    I think that you should read the book more carefully.
    Ellen Brown traces the roots of our dependence of borrowing our currency from private banks to way before the 1913 establishment of the Federal Reserve.
    Return to currency issued by the Treasury? What return?
    I believe that Ellen Brown points out that its only been done by Abe Lincoln during the Civil War, and, very briefly, by JFKennedy. Weirdly enough, they were both assassinated and the US returned to borrowing its currency.
    Rich Whitney is running for Governor of Illinois with a platform that includes establishing a State Bank, like that of South (?) Dakota.
    http://www.whitneyforgov.org/
    Hopefully, he won’t get assassinated.

  393. Fredric Lorenzen January 29, 2010 at 3:53 pm #

    Reply to the hopefully humorous post of Qshtik.
    Are you serious or just pulling my leg as devil’s advocate?
    Can we say degenerate, deviant, and faux productive sexual activity, not to mention depraved, self degrading, fucked up, psychotic, and the source of AIDS. Or,do you just foster a desire to promote a truly ugly affront to “normal”
    (you guys always want to assign the meaning of normal, well pal that ain’t) sexual intercourse and if you are a shit pusher get help because down deep you know I’m right! Perverted is never normal as most people would define it, and dirtier than your dick when you extract it. Go pray you don’t get hit by a lightning bolt. If you were kidding get a new shtik, if not get a shrink.
    Put a bug bomb into either ear and pull the trigger.
    Fredric Lorenzen

  394. Fredric Lorenzen January 29, 2010 at 3:58 pm #

    Hey Qshtik,
    I hear Acorn is running a new course in alimentary education, yeah it’s called “communicating with your friends,or how to improve your portajohn wall scribble assignations. Hey go sign up while there’s room.
    Fredric Lorenzen

  395. wagelaborer January 29, 2010 at 4:20 pm #

    Hey, is notmommy allowed to post as fredric lorenzen also?
    Better link about the state bank idea
    http://www.whitneyforgov.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=96

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  396. Martin Hayes January 29, 2010 at 4:32 pm #

    You’ve misunderstood the comment. It was a reference to a point made earlier on this blog that when people use the phrase “with all due respect” if often presages a harangue that shows anything but respect.
    Whoever made this observation concluded that it might be more honest to abstain from using the phrase and insert some or other vulgar swear word in its place.
    The comment was not aimed at you in any way.

  397. diogen January 29, 2010 at 4:37 pm #

    “I am not the best qualified candidate because of my own personal qualifications. I am the best-qualified candidate because of you, the people fighting for social change.”
    By Rich Whitney, Green Party Candidate for Governor
    Hmm, what does it mean exactly… But regardless, fresh ideas and people may be our only hope of real reform. I hope it’s not the usual empty campaign rhetoric..
    Nothing to lose at this point, I wish him luck and let’s see how it works out. Sooner or later the business as usual has got to fail, and the people will be then forced to reconsider their long-held convictions, and someone has got to be the first one, let’s hope it’s him…

  398. Qshtik January 29, 2010 at 5:49 pm #

    At 10:36AM you (Fredric Lorenzen) began a post as follows: “To all you out there decrying the forces arrayed against “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military.” And then you went on to write an amusing take on gay male anal-sex in the military.
    At 1:21PM I replied “You’re funny. Good post.”
    Now in a 3:53PM post you are pissed off at something you think I said. You obviously have me confused with some other poster.
    Please tell me the date and time of the post that offends you.

  399. Qshtik January 29, 2010 at 5:55 pm #

    Fred sez:
    “Hey Qshtik,
    I hear Acorn is running a new course in alimentary education”
    =================
    Q inquires:
    alimentary?

  400. rippedthunder January 29, 2010 at 6:13 pm #

    I don’t have all the the facts or figures on hand, But to estimate the lbs. of carbon per mile your SUV emits you would have to include lots of sources. Mother earth took millions of years to lock this carbon down. Before you can burn it up going to soccer practice you would have to include the following. we use hydrocarbons to: explore for them, create infrastructure to mine them, transport them, refine them, transport them again, use them to find, mine, transport and refine other products to create your SUV.Iron , aluminum and plastic for example. Finally you fill up at the pump and get like 10 mpg from the average american Suv used for short trips. I can see that maybe 20 lbs. per mile could be possible.

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  401. oiligarch January 29, 2010 at 7:12 pm #

    Wage, I must confess that I was so sickened by what I read in the first four chapters of Ellen’s book that I put it back on my shelf and have yet to return to reading it. Interesting book though.
    Historically though, wasn’t there a see-saw contest for control of the American money supply with the private Banksters; principally the Bank of England? I think Bill Still said ,in his video,
    that the revolution was fought because King George wasn’t happy about his cut of the colonies action because they were prospering with their own colonial scrip paper currency.
    Didn’t Andrew Jackson go to loggerheads with the bankers over the issuance of money?
    Interestingly enough someone did a chemical analysis of Jackson’s hair recently and found very high levels of arsenic in it. Perhaps he was another one of “their” victims ,along with Lincoln and Kennedy, for daring to oppose “them”.
    I found it highly suspicious when the chairman of the “Fed” Ben Bernanke refused to reveal the names of the banks to Bernie Sanders.

  402. diogen January 29, 2010 at 7:32 pm #

    The purpose of central banks is to remove the money supply/creation process from the hands of the politicians who would exploit/abuse it for personal advantage. How well it works in reality depends on the discipline and political independence. German Deutche Bundesbank was very disciplined and independent, the current European Central Bank — don’t know. The Fed is nominally independent, but I think our politicians found a way to control it, Greenspan and Bernandke are Republicans, and may be responsive to the interests of the Republican Party.
    If the Fed were truly independent, then it would serve a useful function. But there’s so much corruption in the system, I don’t know which institutions are trustworthy anymore…

  403. Vlad Krandz January 29, 2010 at 11:15 pm #

    That’s what I read. So is Diane Sawyer. Membership is by invitation and is extneded to people in many walks of life who can be helpful to them. Obviously her being a poster child for multi-racialism is a big plus for them. Not that she knows anything about their more nefarious schemes – the organization is a very steep pyramid with most members confined to the lower levels.

  404. Vlad Krandz January 29, 2010 at 11:24 pm #

    A very small, almost undetectble with our current science, difference at the level of the genotype can lead to big difference at the level of expression or phenotype. Wolves and Dogs are almost identical genetically, but the very small differences that exist make a big difference. The differences are mostly hormonal and of course wolves have a defined body type whereas dogs have been changed into many types.
    Blacks differ from Whites hormonally and of course in brain size. The cumulative differences lead to a definite difference in both behavior and IQ.

  405. Vlad Krandz January 30, 2010 at 2:15 am #

    I read a story written by an English journalist who had been gang raped by Blacks. At one point they demanded oral. After a certain point she couldn’t continue because her mouth was too dry. They allowed her to have a drink of water. She writes glowingly about their kindness in allowing this. She seemed to forget that they were raping her and gave her the water so she could finish servicing them.
    A large portion of the White Race is suffering from a version of The Stockholm Syndrom in which the victim identifies with their tormentor(s) and cooperates enthusiastically. The tale above is a very strong version of this. But the stories given above by the posters contain a whiff of it too. Martin Hayes begins his post by saying how relentlessly parasitical Africans are and how utterly indifferent to him as a human being they are. He ends his post saying how comfortable he is with them. How can one be comfortable with people who are parasitical or indifferent? Or both? It seems like psychological editing to me. It’s frightening to realize that your whole world view is fundamentally wrong in one or more essential ways.

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  406. Fredric Lorenzen January 30, 2010 at 5:03 am #

    I apologize to one and all for not reading all the posts and thereby getting a better feel for the spirit of those posts. I was pissed because I felt my posts were being derided as frumpish because of a common politic that I now realize offended you because it does indeed often come before an insult. It is better left out and I will leave it out in future posts before I become sarcastic or sadonic or irreverent or worse irrelevent. Thank you for showing me the errors of my ways. I will however strive to introduce to this forum an avoidance of the most vulgar and Gothic expressions of the ranker aspects of the human condition. I mean shit,let’s hold back on some of the grosser affectations of bath room humor or emphasis. Think of it as a painting over of the jejune scrawlings best found in portajohn scribblings and a return to intelligent and more literate insult and sarcasm. In the words of the great oracle one fuck goes a long way and the terminus of the alimentary canal though certainly as functional as it is ugly and derisive, also one asshole goes a long way as per our erstwile chief elected official. But, I dissemble…Go not quiet into that dark shit storm that besmirches our more nobel efforts but resides in that miasmic swamp by the Potomac.
    Here’s to bigger and better writing, Bye for now.
    Fredric Lorenzen

  407. Martin Hayes January 30, 2010 at 5:04 am #

    That’s a very perceptive comment, Vlad. I don’t really want to get into the race thing again, because commenters have expressed irritation with it, but I can easily explain the apparent contradiction.
    It is because blacks are not judging me in the way that my fellow South African whites are. Getting lost in a crowd of blacks affords existential relief. This was more true in the past, however. Naturally, as I have learned to become afraid of blacks, with good reason, I have ceased to feel comfortable in their presence.
    So, which group of people was I absolutely delighted to abandon forever when I got on that plane? Try to guess!

  408. earthman January 30, 2010 at 5:45 am #

    The simple point is spreading hate and fear about your follow human beings isn’t intelligent or productive. It won’t improve the quality of your life or others…
    It will do just the opposite destroy the person spreading their fear and hate.
    Kindness is the highest form of intelligence.

  409. diogen January 30, 2010 at 8:58 am #

    re: Stockholm Syndrome
    Vlad, how exactly was I and my friends victimized by the *individuals* who helped us? This is the point I have been stressing repeatedly and one which you have not responded to honestly. Individuals perpetrate crimes (yes, sometimes many of them), and individuals also act generously and kindly. It’s grossly unfair to ignore the good behavior of individuals who belong to a group where many behave badly. In fact, these “good guys” among “bad guys” are even more worthy of recognition than individuals from cultures where good behavior is a norm.
    Regarding genetic differences between races, I do believe there are some, but I don’t buy your conclusions. Look at this: Danes were brutally violent for centuries during the Viking Age, and now they are among the most peaceful people on Earth. Did they undergo a sudden genetic change? I’d bet not. Their culture changed, and so did their behavior. What do you think?
    Anyway, a belief that some races are irrevocably flawed is a very dangerous idea, it’s a slippery slope. It gives a rationalization to every race to claim it is more superior in some way, and engage in aggression against others who at the moment are weaker or less bellicose. It’s very un-Christian too.
    I do agree with you that some CULTURES are more consistent with the best ideas of humanity, and they promote better societies. I’m very partial to our Western culture, although god knows it isn’t perfect by any means, but there are certainly many cultures that are much less enlightened etc.

  410. earthman January 30, 2010 at 9:22 am #

    Well said Diogen.
    Clear thinking on all your points…

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  411. Puzzler January 30, 2010 at 1:49 pm #

    Fredric — no let’s not leave out the gross expressions of bodily functions and the various parts that make them possible, because what could more appropriate when discussing politics and other social constructs.
    I’ll take your artful language over a hundred bleatings of “fucktard” or “moron” any day.

  412. Vlad Krandz January 30, 2010 at 1:53 pm #

    Thank you for being candid, Martin. Yes, we have built an incredible Civilization, but at a high cost to our own psyches. We sometimes yearn for a simpler mode of being and way of life. Becoming a hermit has been the path for some. Becoming a mountain man the path for others. But for a man who still wants some society and some of the finer pleasures, going Native has been the way to go. Lawrence of Arabia described this need in his “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”. Later he found relief from the burden of class in the anonymity of being “Aircraftsman Shaw”. And of course Gaugain found it among the Tahitians. And Baudelaire with his Mulatto Mistress.
    But I think this path is mostly at an end. I don’t think the “Natives” care to accomodate us in this way any longer. We are to blame for everything now. From here on in, we’re going to have to create this for ourselves.

  413. Vlad Krandz January 30, 2010 at 2:51 pm #

    No, check back on my posts: I have alway spoken in terms of averages and I have often said that there were decent individuals in all races.
    On the contrary – the few stories given strengthen my point of view not your’s. Blacks know very well that they are more dangerous than Whites. These good Blacks were warning you about the dangers of their community. That’s why when Blacks become well to do, they get out of the Black Community. Rev Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s old Pastor, lives in a millionaire White Community.
    I have not answered you? No, you have not answered my repeated argument that memes follow genes. You seem to hold, unconsciously perhaps, to the idea that culture can created; that we are a proposition nation. No sir. Cultures are organic; they grow the bottom up. Culture is transmitted naturally via family unit in the normal course of socialization. We can’t make them be like us. It’s not in them. And even the ones who can acculturate due to a decent IQ, usally choose not to. Or at the very least, they work within the system to advance their barbarous brothers and sisters.
    So there are peaceful Black Cultures? If your “metaphysic” of everyone being equal is true, there must be – somewhere. But there isn’t. Go ahead and check worldwide crime figures. The Black Nations all have sky high level of crime. It could not be otherwise: their low AVERAGE IQ means a low AVERAGE level of morality. And the Good Blacks and the Smart Blacks can’t change the chaos, squalor, and violence of these societies – they are just to badly outnumbered by the average Black.
    You strain the gnat and swallow the camel of racial equality – as you will find out if you do any serious research. But you seem to be choosing the easy, well trodden path of illusion called Wikipedia.

  414. Cash January 30, 2010 at 3:13 pm #

    Messianic/ Dio,
    Just a thought: if the war in Iraq was about oil would it not have been easier just to leave Sadam in power? Wine him, dine him, bribe him, sell him arms and let him sell his oil. Would have been far, far cheaper. As Eric Margolies said, better to bribe your enemies than fight them. War is way too expensive. As far as getting him out of Kuwait, does anyone really give a damn as to who rules Kuwait? Even if he did control Kuwait’s oil he would still sell it. Sadam was a butcher, a real bad guy. But 80 percent of the world is a shithole run by butchers. Plain stupidity as the reason for the Iraq war is as good an explanation as any.

  415. cowswithguns January 30, 2010 at 4:22 pm #

    You’ve got to be fucking kidding me: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.
    Uhhhh — Do I have to be the one to break this to the president: I hate the BCS system, but there are $700 trillion in toxic derivatives out there. Shouldn’t they be addressed first.
    We are so fucked.

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  416. Puzzler January 30, 2010 at 4:45 pm #

    Cows, clearly your priorities are all out of whack. They have to distract the masses with bread and circuses.
    Speaking of the bread portion: Do you know what they do with what’s left of the corn when they extract the corn sweetener that ends up in most food products? It’s made into Cheese Doodles.

  417. cowswithguns January 30, 2010 at 4:57 pm #

    After reading some of Vlad’s posts, I have a simple comment: Racial hatred — even if it’s somehow backed up by science and statistical evidence — can only lead to pain and suffering and the punishment of the innocent.
    Even if every negative thing racists say about blacks is true, what kind of white person would want to be the one to bash in the skulls of black children? Seriously. Because, in the end, that’s what it would come down to if hate rules the day.
    Someone wisely posted earlier that kindness is the ultimate form of intelligence.

  418. diogen January 30, 2010 at 6:30 pm #

    Vlad, can you point me to any peer-reviewed research which shows that cultures are the results of genetics? Everything I know about history and human natures tells me that cultures are mostly the function of geography, influence of other cultures, sometimes a key philosophy or a key individual.
    Your argument that morality is proportional to IQ is nonsense. WWII-era Japanese and Germans, with their highest IQ’s in the world, showed a complete abandonment of morality. Plus, you claim that jews have very high IQ but are evil, a clear contradiction in your theory.
    Sure most black/african societies are torn by war and poverty, but you have to be intentionally ignorant of history to blame it exclusively on genetics.
    Before WWII, most white cultures engaged in continuous warfare. Look at the history of Byzantium, for example — 1,000 years of non-stop war. I believe it’s the development of the nukes which finally brought peace to Europe.
    I have to go now, but if we continue this dialog, I’ll show you that racism/separatism is not only bad science and bad ethics, it’s also a bad strategy for the Western Culture. Hint: Jihadist Islam and alliances. In fact, our culture’s survival I believe is predicated on our winning of hearts and minds of rational people no matter their skin color. Your beliefs will push vast parts of humanity right into the ranks of Islamofascists, and where will we be then?

  419. diogen January 30, 2010 at 6:35 pm #

    “f the war in Iraq was about oil would it not have been easier just to leave Sadam in power? ”
    Right, that would’ve been the intelligent thing to do. I was curious about various conspiracy theories about why we plunged in that war, Israel being one of them. But apparently the israelis were opposed to the war, and were brought along by Cheney and Co.
    I still think it was not merely access to oil, but control of oil they were after. Sure we could’ve bought oil from Saddam, but what if the Chinese made him an offer he could not refuse? Control is much better than access. This is my guess.

  420. messianicdruid January 30, 2010 at 7:46 pm #

    “Later he found relief from the burden of class in…”
    What part of western culture are you talking about when you say “burden of class”? Most people of other cultures would call this {desire for society and pleasures} “privilege”.

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  421. messianicdruid January 30, 2010 at 7:55 pm #

    “Saddam was a butcher, a real bad guy.”
    Yes, but he was our butcher, our real bad guy. He went rogue and had to be disciplined. All the other petty tyrants we propped up were watching.
    a personal request: md for short {no caps}

  422. DeeJones January 30, 2010 at 9:03 pm #

    I have to agree with Dio on the Iraq issue.
    Remember, we STILL have over 100,000 troops stationed in Iraq in about 5 huge bases. All we did last year was pull them out of the cities.
    If you want, you can Google Earth the bases, they are so big that they are easy to find.
    It is about control, physical control, not just remote control.
    We have over 100k troops stationed in Iraq indefinitely, so that we can control the oil there.
    In addition of course are all the materials that are there to support them. Plus the US Navy stationed continuously in the Gulf. Plus the US Air force stationed in the Gulf and at Diego Garcia.
    Its all about control, and we have got it in spades.
    Oh, and we will never leave as long as a Republican needs gas for thier Escalade.

  423. Vlad Krandz January 31, 2010 at 12:59 am #

    Lawrence was a very unusual man, in many ways an outsider wherever he went. It is often easier to be an outsider far away from where you are supposed to have fitted in. Less painful. But in fact, he came from an eminent family and came to know many of the great literary and political figures of his time. They found his quest for anonymity incomprehensible. But it brought him great peace.
    From all accounts he was a quiet, low key person yet he had a mysterious charm and charisma that people could never forget or ignore.
    Many of the lower and middle class men he served with recalled him with great affection and said that contact with him helped them to become finer men. All this was known to the great – who felt he was squandering his gifts. They felt he should do more great things like he did in Arabia.
    My thought: Lawrence was a secular mystic who found great meaning in simple things. Instead of a monastary, he chose an army barracks.

  424. Vlad Krandz January 31, 2010 at 1:08 am #

    What a bizarre conclusion. Where did I say anything like that? Bashing in children’s heads – like they did to our children at Blood River or to poor Reginald Denny, why that would make us no better than them.

  425. Vlad Krandz January 31, 2010 at 1:51 am #

    Let me approach it from another angle. There is a game called Civilization. With all its glory and depravity, comfort and excess. Tripp would say that the whole thing was a mistake and that we should have never gotten on the boat. I say not that it was good, but it was inevitable. Some men dream of building and creating – like the ape man at the begining of the movie 2001 who throws the stick up as high as he can. He dreams of flight and his descendants fufill that dream.
    Now what of the groups of men that never got on the boat, who never built cities, and who never had wars defending or attacking those cities? Tripp would say that they have chosen the better part. I would say no – they just didn’t have the wit to dream. Because when they see what we have, they want it. When they see who we are, they want to be like us. When they can’t be like us, they begin to resent us. In the Belgian Congo in the 1950’s, the Blacks were wearing camera cases around their neck in imitation of the tourists. Cases with no cameras inside. They had it bad.
    I agree with Tripp that we have to dismantle alot of what we have built. But we are forever changed for having built it. We will dream new dreams. Even if we come to look like the primitives to the superficial eye, we wont be.
    Men who have greater capacity for good have greater capacity for evil. The choice is their’s. I have said umpteenth times, high IQ is necessary but not sufficient for a high morality. The choice is not abrogated – things are not made automatic. Because he sees more and has more power, his morality must be greater. And as you say, we have often failed in this choice. And in their smaller ways, the primitives fail too. But their failing are just not as spectacular for the most part. Of course, cannibalism is pretty immoral and extreme. And it was very widespread. Don’t believe the lies of modern Anthropology.
    So to summarize: It’s not so much that I’m saying we’re better. I’m saying we’re greater and we could be better if we lived up to what we have been given. Like the parable of the talents: to whom much is given, much is asked.
    The other races now feel our fear, confusion, demoralization, and indecisiveness. This has emboldened them – they will take everything we have if we don’t come to our senses soon. Your idea of be nice and people will be nice to you is slave morality. And in general, Americans are slaves looking for Masters. The ideal of the yeoman or strong farmer is all but dead on the East and West Coasts. But such men are the backbone of our Civilization.
    IQ is at least 60% genetic. And since morality relates to IQ, it is to that extent genetic as well – with the caveat already given about choice. So certainly civilizations are partly based on genetics. We all agree on the importance of the environment. It’s you folks who deny genetics. Who is really open minded here?
    Toynbee believed that cold climates inclined men to prepare and think ahead thus stimulating civilizations. And we believe that the cold, especially the ice age, genetically selected for high IQ over the ages. But then again, there have civilizations in the tropics. But then again, they might have been created by people coming down from the north – in other words, already selected by the cold to be planners and thinkers who conquered and ruled the indolent lotus eaters. And then they are conqered by the lovely lotus eater women and squander their precious genes. A stiff prick knows no discrimination. Jungle Fever is the worse thing that can happen to a White or Asian Aryan. Aryan simply means “High One” here.
    A few years ago, primatologists saw a great chimp who brought a club into batttle against his enemies. A veritable Conan the Barbarian. The whole cycle might be on-going with the Chimps ready to replace us if we become extinct. Just a blink of eye and they’ll be where we are now. Just a few bends along the evolutionary river on the Boat called “Millions of Years”.

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  426. earthman January 31, 2010 at 6:15 am #

    The basic and flawed theme of I am above and superior to certain races of other humans that share this planet is short-sighted and destructive, therefore not intelligent. It is a virus in the mind more destructive to the person who beleives it than the ones they blame and fear.
    Your heritage and mine is that humans on this planet have killed over 100,000 million other humans in the 20th century alone. I guess that is something in our DNA we will have to overcome and improve if we want to improve life here.
    Seeing and treating each other as individuals rather than making broad statements about groups of people is a great leap forward in learning to live together. Humans respond to respect, and we actually like ourselves better and elevate ourselves by giving respect. The simple saying of you can’t build yourself up by tearing others down applys.

  427. diogen January 31, 2010 at 8:32 am #

    Vlad, I find many of the things you say to be reasonable, but your conclusions are what bothers me. The reality is we find ourselves living side-by-side with people of different ethnicities, cultures and races. Some will say it’s bad, others will say it’s good. I say good or bad doesn’t matter, this is the reality. How to live within this reality? Conflict does not appeal to me. I find peacemaking, finding common ground, building unity and common strength much more appealing. Islamofashism is the danger to our civilization, not Americans of various colors (unless they came here under false pretenses and seek to destroy our peace, law and order).
    I don’t buy your notion that ALL blacks are destructive and violent. Why is Haiti populated by blacks? The Spanish/French brought them from Africa to work on sugar plantations because the natives were too unruly, the Africans were much easier to manage — that doesn’t sound very violent. Actually, it’s amazing they were not MORE violent at the time considering they were enslaved and exploited. Violence has many causes, not just genetics as you say. And although we may have higher IQ than some other people, IQ isn’t the only measure of intelligence and merit.
    But we’re going in circles, so thanks for taking the trouble to share your viewpoints, you do have many interesting things to say, we don’t need to agree on everything.

  428. Al Klein January 31, 2010 at 10:19 am #

    Earthman, I think you’re missing Vlad’s point. Essentially, Vlad is saying that there are only two choices in this game we call Civilization. Either play the cards you’re dealt or fold. I think what really irks Vlad is that those who choose to fold arrogate virtue unto themselves for what he sees as a display of weakness. Frankly, he may well be spot on. Yes, I know that may not comport with our sense of morality, but Vlad would say (with some very good evidence) that our concept of morality is Western Man’s invention for himself and is not necessarily shared by others. So some of us are given to fool ourselves with our own fictions. Interestingly, this is parallel to what JHK asserts that we are doing with our American notion of the proper way of life, which, as we know, has been declared “non-negotiable” by our crackpot leaders. What we would like and how we would like the world to work is quite irrelevant. We need to start accepting and working within the framework which reality affords. We need to make decisions based on the dynamics of the real, not allure of unfounded hope.

  429. earthman January 31, 2010 at 11:24 am #

    What the hell does that mean in plain language Al Klein? Play the cards you dealt or fold??
    1. Spread hate and lies
    or
    2. You decide who is worthy and who is not.
    There was a guy in Germany who did that-it didn’t turn out well Al…
    What exactly is the framework that reality affords? The allure of unfounded hope… Sounds like you copied that out of book…
    You guys need to lighted up, meet some black people, and have a laugh…
    On a side note, I purchased some coconuts from a “blackman” with a machete today. He didn’t attack me with it.

  430. Vlad Krandz January 31, 2010 at 11:40 am #

    I laugh at Blacks all the time…and the White kids who imitate them. Ever see the ones whose pants are falling down? It’s a minstrel show out there! I feel very enriched.

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  431. not mommy January 31, 2010 at 11:41 am #

    “Its all about control, and we have got it in spades.
    Oh, and we will never leave as long as a Republican needs gas for thier Escalade.”
    Really? Well we have a Democrat President who could pull the plug tomorrow. By the way, his Presidential limo is also a Cadilac. Now, STFU.

  432. earthman January 31, 2010 at 11:44 am #

    Not as funny as some of the posts I see on this site.

  433. Vlad Krandz January 31, 2010 at 12:12 pm #

    Exactly Al. We’re fooling ourselves about the economy just as we are fooling ourselves about the intentions of other races. They are loyal to themselves and they come to take as much as they can. I’m an outsider stuck between the blue and the white collar. I’ve met many foreigners in my work but ulike many I think, I actually carefully observe them. They aren’t like us at all. They have a completely different head space. A traditional one. A colonizing one. And sometimes an overtly exploitative one. And I observe “well educated” Americans when they meet immigrants. How they gush. How they make all kinds of assumptions. How they feel inferior and want validation from the immigrant. It’s very strange and utterly unhealthy. And these are the people who are supposed to socialize the immigrants towards assimilation? A bunch of ass kissers who want to assuage their own guilt.
    As you say, we don’t really see what’s there. We don’t look but in fact, assume that these people hold our humanistic, politically correct viewpoints. We are drunks who think everyone likes us, who think everone is in the same state of consciousness as we are. Well drunks like that eventually meet the wrong guy and get bashed. Just like the Democrats are in California – who think that millions of traditional, Catholic Mexicans are going to vote in their pro-gay agenda. They can’t grasp that the Mexicans have their own agenda and are in fact playing them. Sure the Mexicans will take all the money you give them and then some. But that does not mean they will support your weird agenda. Hustlers have no loyalty. And Mexicans have no loyalty to Gringos who are trespassing in what they see as their country. They might have some gratitude towards an individual in terms of pay back. But not about something as fundamental as their values. And Gay marriage is a no go.
    Three monkeys have sticks. One throws it as high as he can dreaming of flight. The Promethean – and the West is the most Promethean of all cultures. The second monkey uses the stick to bash other monkeys. The third uses it to get fruit and scratch himself. Tripp extols the Third Monkey. I extoll the First. Unfortunately, the First Monkey needs the Monkey with the Stick in order to create Civilization. With Prometheus comes his brother Epimetheus – a heavy price to pay I agree. Hopefully we can begin to return to the Garden and leave Epimetheus behind. To become equal with the Third Monkey who never left? No, we’ve left him far behind. We now have spacecraft; the Third Monkey is still just scratching himself. To him a tree is just a tree. To us it’s a TREE. You only know and appreciate something after you’ve lost it. And sometimes you can only see something from a distance.

  434. earthman January 31, 2010 at 12:33 pm #

    This really is a strange and funny place.

  435. wagelaborer January 31, 2010 at 1:36 pm #

    I agree with Diogen and Al. While it would be a way more pleasant place if everyone was like me, unfortunately, they’re not.
    We can rail against those who we find morally contemptible, but they’re still there when we’re done.
    Personally, I don’t like people who waste fossil fuels. Those who use 4x4s to get the mail. I find them contemptibly lazy and wasteful. Those who wear T-shirts in the winter and put the thermostat at 85 degrees. Those who leave their SUVs running outside the stores, to keep them warm in the winter or cool in the summer.
    I don’t like right wing Christians, who salivate over my eminent tortures in the Tribulations. I don’t like that they’ve convinced white trash and ghetto black teenagers that if they don’t abort their babies, their job as mothers are complete at birth, thereby allowing those teenagers to dump the infants with friends, mama, grandma, great grandma or daddy while they party on. Why are the kids so stupid? They’ve never been nurtured or even talked to as infants.
    There’s a long list of people I find morally lacking, but I know that they have as much right to be here as I do, so my ideal society would allow them to contribute to and enjoy the fruits of labor, as much as me.
    Except, of course, without all the waste. And maybe an emphasis on child nurturing.

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  436. earthman January 31, 2010 at 2:03 pm #

    You can make a contribution to the Haiti relief effort by Credit Card by calling 1-800-REDCROSS.
    Good people taking real action to help their fellow humans and ease the suffering.

  437. Qshtik January 31, 2010 at 2:55 pm #

    “I know that may not comport with our sense of morality, but Vlad would say (with some very good evidence) that our concept of morality is Western Man’s invention for himself and is not necessarily shared by others.”
    ==========================
    I will speak the words which must not be spoken: Morality is a system of ideas of right and wrong conduct. But there are as many systems as there are people. All things are relative. Where there is no free will, there can be no morality and we are still debating man’s “free will.” As absolutes, right and wrong are illusions much as time is an illusion since nothing ever happens except in the present.

  438. Cash January 31, 2010 at 2:59 pm #

    Vlad, you say:
    “The ideal of the yeoman or strong farmer is all but dead on the East and West Coasts. But such men are the backbone of our Civilization.”
    I agree (but dead not only on the coasts) and I think for that reason our civilization is going to collapse. We, the descendants of those tough farmers, are disgusting, we’ve become obese, docile, ninnies, gorging on supersized chemically laced sludge, jacking off to internet porn, present company excepted of course. Tougher, smarter, more aggressive people will supplant us. But that’s the way it’s always been.
    WRT genetics: you are correct, if we weren’t being so squeamish about this issue, for various and good historical reasons like the holocaust and slavery, we would be open minded enough to scientifically study human genetics and the relative abilities of different races compared to one another and discuss the issue without cringing and without a variety of Human Rights Tribunals giving us a mountain of grief.
    A question: how much of your perceptions of white greatness and superiority are influenced by present day circumstances? European civilizations, including American, have been dominant but, I would argue, only lately.
    What if you were a Sumerian explorer (named Uruk)from the fifth millenium BC. Uruk, like his people, is short, dark and black haired. Let’s say Uruk travelled north of the Black Sea and into Europe. What would he have found in Europe?
    I would argue that Uruk would have seen tall, white skinned people who lived in semi permanent villages with nothing like the cities, temple complexes, irrigation systems, tools, technology and armies that the explorer left behind at home.
    How could Uruk not feel that he and his own kind weren’t superior to the crude, backward northerners who were just learning to farm? He and his kind had been farming for thousands of years already (to him since time immemorial) and were building over ruins already centuries old.
    Maybe you’re falling into the same trap ie not taking into account how times change. No matter how mighty and superior your kind seem now it wasn’t always so and might not be in the future. Nobody knows how the historical pendulum is going to swing.

  439. wagelaborer January 31, 2010 at 4:22 pm #

    Yeah, we live in an advanced civilization, but how many of us could replicate it if dropped onto an unpopulated planet?
    I remember reading a New Yorker article about some brilliant American who went deep into the New Guinea jungle and met a tribesman. He pointed to a plane going overhead and asked the tribesman what he thought about it.
    Turned out that the tribesman had never given a thought to what planes were. But, now that it was brought to his attention, he wanted to know all about it. How did it work?
    Whoops. Turned out the brilliant American had forgotten, if he ever knew, how planes worked. And he had no idea how his watch worked, and so on.
    After reading that article, I was humbled when I thought about all the things that I have that make my life so sweet, and how few of them I could manufacture or even fix on my own.
    We need each other. That is what society is all about. And to have a decent society, you can’t leave some people out.
    It makes for unpleasantness.

  440. asoka January 31, 2010 at 4:39 pm #

    Unfortunately, the First Monkey needs the Monkey with the Stick in order to create Civilization.

    Translation: Whites need to use violence to enslave, engage in genocide, colonize, exploit, torture, assassinate, and segregate themselves from others … and then call that process “civilization”.
    Gandhi said, when asked what he thought about Western civilization: “It would be a good idea.”
    Indian civilization (Ashoka’s empire, for example) was more morally advanced than today’s nuclear-armed White savages who commit mass murder.
    Those who believe might makes right are no better than uncivilized apes.
    http://www.newsfinder.org/site/more/ahimsa_non_violence/

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  441. asoka January 31, 2010 at 5:19 pm #

    According to an in-depth investigation by Money magazine, “250,000 Americans are leaving the country for good every year. And millions more are seriously considering it.”
    Why?
    Cost of living, health care coverage costs, and gas and utility bills…are all going through the roof. And the ever-shrinking dollar has just multiplied the pain.
    Like Dee Jones said: Many are choosing to get out now, while dollars still have some value.

  442. earthman January 31, 2010 at 6:43 pm #

    Good to know not everyone here is a third reich wannabe. The Russian pulls crap out of thin air and obviously hates American. Go back Vlad…

  443. DeeJones January 31, 2010 at 7:00 pm #

    You know, one thing that Vlad and others are forgetting is Evolution. Things & humans change. Even our genetics.
    Think about it. We came from gatherer/hunters.
    According to what I have read, the first great change was the use of advanced Tools. Some primates use simple tools, we were able, as Tim the Tool man says, to make them More Powerful.
    The next was the use of Fire. Almost all animals are afraid of fire. At some point one of our ancestors wasn’t. Since then we have used fire to warm the cold, light the night, defend ourselves from predators.
    The third and I think the greatest and most complex advance was Agriculture and all that is related to it. With out this latter development, we would still be gatherers/hunters with Fire.
    Agriculture allowed us to settle in one place, and led to the development of all the really advanced things that helped lead to civilization. With agriculture, we had to develop Irrigation and water storage. We had to develop ways to store the extra food until the next harvest, along with keeping enough extra seeds to make the next planting the following year.
    This also gave those not involved in the actual growing of the food some Leisure time, time to just sit and look at the world around them, to think, and to try to figure out why things were the way they were. It of course led to a great increase in the human population too, since more food could be grown to feed more people.
    It has recently been postulated that war is a recent development of human civilization, that occurred much later in our development. Who knows how it started, a drought and not enough food to go around, so some tribe just took it. Or perhaps there were those who were just to plain to lazy to work, but were big and strong, and could also kill those who stood up to them. So they started the whole taking by force, and keeping others in slaved so that they did not have to work.
    AS much as Vlad would like to think, war and fighting came much latter to human civilization, and were not the start or cause of it.
    So, yes, we have evolved, and perhaps we will continue to evolve, or not, perhaps we are just another evolutionary dead end, evolution will stop with us, we will eventually die out, and something else will take our place.
    But its not something that we really have that much control of now anyway.
    So, live long & prosper. Or Evolve or Die.

  444. Al Klein January 31, 2010 at 7:07 pm #

    Qshtik, I agree with your point about morality. Western Man’s notion of what’s moral is for him, and possibly him alone. I’m sure the Aztecs didn’t think tearing the beating heart out of a sacrificial victim was immoral. In their own context it was likely quite moral or at least morally neutral. What’s considered moral is determined by the culture. As an example, from what I understand, the classical Romans did not share our modern concept of mercy. For them, merciful behavior for the sake of mercy made no sense. Gladiators were not spared in the arena because of mercy: they were spared if and because they fought well.
    Actually, our assumption that our concept of morality has cross-cultural significance is quite arrogant. Vlad would add that it may be quite dangerous – to us.

  445. messianicdruid January 31, 2010 at 8:16 pm #

    The First Monkey is the Elitists {E}. The Second Monkey is the working class whites {P}. The Third Monkey is everybody else.
    As long as the elitists can make working class whites {both the poor and the so-called middle class} believe in the American Dream and be the soldiers, cops, managers leaders and guards of civilization with convictions that they are better {off} than the Third Monkey, the system works. The First Monkey is real good at keeping the other two fighting and competing for fake bananas.
    When we repent of being partners in oppression and realize classism is the real problem, either by “Going Galt” or just starting to follow the instructions {First Commandment = no other rulemakers} everybody but the First Monkey will be happier. “Hopefully we can begin to return to the Garden and leave Epimetheus behind.”

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  446. wagelaborer January 31, 2010 at 8:26 pm #

    You forgot language. Humans learning to communicate with each other.
    That was a biggie.
    Agriculture was big, but so was learning how to smelt things.

  447. rippedthunder January 31, 2010 at 9:19 pm #

    Here ya go with some monkey lingo. Bothe man and beast!
    http://www.monkeymania.co.uk/sounds/tarzan.wav

  448. Fredric Lorenzen February 1, 2010 at 12:24 am #

    A conjecture,
    All peoples are tribal. Whether that tribe be loin cloth clad in the jungles of the Amazon, or Armani suited in the stone and metal canyons of the megatropolis, or hymn singing in the red clay hills of the south. For In the heart of each tribe member closer or farther from conscious thought is the DNA credo “us agaist them”. That vestigal club bearing mentality is apparent in sports fans vociferously decrying their opponent teams, sometimes leading to violent confrontations. The abuse of one political party and it’s adherents against those of another. The tribal nature of the ghetto. It’s in man, and to try to put a nice face on it, or to try to PC it away is to deny that man is an animal ruled to a varying degree,depending on circumstance by the primitive reptilian portion of his brain.
    The “fight or flight” syndrome that so easily breaches the feeble veneer of societal norms in times of stress. That seeks company in the extremes of a lynch mob, or the hysteria of the mourners for a dead celebrity. Each of these is a tribe also, however briefly assembled. Or consider the familial “blood is thicker than water”. We can never TRULY be one with those TOO different in looks, beliefs, credos, circumstance or culture. To think that is to deny the real roots of racism. Or the white “spik” or “mick” or “wop” and on ad nauseum. The ugly but undeniable truth is that we want to own, take, kill if we have to or enslave (if only in economic terms) so that our tribe will survive and we shall have the spoils. So be polite, but don’t think the “others” are friends because they too have similar agendas. No Rodney, “we can’t just all get along”. We’re just not made that way. “Trust but verify” in all relationships. Nickolai M. would concur.
    Fredric Lorenzen

  449. messianicdruid February 1, 2010 at 3:37 am #

    “As absolutes, right and wrong are illusions much as time is an illusion since nothing ever happens except in the present.”
    Time is the fence around your pasture. You can call everything but the present an illusion, which seems to give you the ability to call other things illusions, but you are still looking over the fence.
    You are reading this in time.
    If you steal from someone you do it in time. If you lie to someone you do it in time. If you withold a blessing you do it in time. Deeds are recorded in time.
    This is the illusion: that we are separate from eternity {past and future} in our thoughts, intents or deeds.

  450. jonsmit February 24, 2010 at 1:02 am #

    This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
    =============
    jonsmit
    Best Mortgage Rate

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  451. Fredric Lorenzen March 3, 2010 at 11:42 am #

    Some questions:
    Does anyone with a functioning brain believe that a man who would vote to deny a child alive after an unsuccessful abortion attempt the right to medical care would give a shit about any one else? Why the mad rush to pass the immensely unpopular healthcare bill so far not completely written or read.? Why is “green energy” so important when it usually consumes more energy than it produces? Why aren’t the “global warming” extorsionists laughed into the dustbin of history after all the confessions of humbug science from it’s high priests and practitioners? Why don’t the Dems care that they will be routed in the next election… is it because martial law will be imposed and scheduled elections curtailed due to unrest among the dispossessed? How can a country spend(with counterfit dollars) it’s way to prosperity? Where did the “bailout money go…was it into a gigatic slush fund to, among other things, finance our president’s ambitions to secretly raise his own army to enforce the growing invasion of our rights and privacy? What happened to the Constitution? Was it shredded along with other embarrasing and/or hindering documents? So many questions, so little time..oh yeah one last question; Is this still America?
    Why did we let this happen?