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Open thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted May 14, 2007 at 1:05 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
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80 Comments
Typical Muslim Answer – Kill the Girls.
Thank God the US Military found the bombs.
How anyone can defend these monsters is beyond me…and yet, Ed Friedman will certainly try.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/03/iraq.school.bomb/index.html
Yeah, remember the American no-bid contractor who allowed those bombs to be installed. Yet another surreal blunder in an unnecessary war, incompetantly managed, sold with a scam by morally bankrupt political theorists bent on returning the country to the dark ages.
Christopher Newsome and his girlfriend Channon Christian, were brutally tortured, beaten, savagely attacked and murdered in Knoxville, TN in February of this year. The horrific nature of the acts against them are enough to turn your stomach..yet there has been almost no coverage of this. Oh…maybe because the victims are white and the 5 suspects (who are combined charged with over 200 felonies) are black?
Where is the FBI investigation of a hate crime? Oh yeah..the victims were white.
Where was Jesse or Al? Oh…that is right..the victims were white.
Some overpaid DJ gets pages of front page news for some words about nappy heads…and these two young people were savagely brutalized…and not a word in the national press.
An alleged rape by Lacrosse players gets national news for months. This multiple rape, sodomy, torture and murder gets not a word.
Oh yeah. The victims were white.
OMGosh, you are so right, Rap.
Just look at the Carr Bros and how both local and national media swept that under the rug.
And how the suspects “got off” just ’cause they were . . . you know . . . not white.
Oh, wait, they got the death sentence. And they were front page news for so long, Eagle readers were writing letters of complaint.
Those lucky ducky Negroes just get all the breaks, don’t they, Rap.
Shoot, if only you’d been born black, you’d have it made in the shade, dude.
Kick back and let “affirmative action” take you to the top . . .
GS, now we can understand why you don’t want your daughters enlisting for military duty and deployment to Iraq. But why you believe that OTHER AMERICAN parents’ sons and daughters SHOULD be sent into that hellhole is beyond any ethical person’s comprehension. As the Bible informs us, Jesus’s strongest condemnations were against hypocrisy and those who practiced it.
Dick Cheney’s record of spew on Iraq–
“My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” – March 16, 2003
“We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” – March 16, 2003
“I think there’s overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government.” – January 22, 2004
“I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” – June 20, 2005
“We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan. We will stand up a new government under an Iraqi-drafted constitution. We will defeat that insurgency, and, in fact, it will be an enormous success story.” – June 24, 2005
“If you look at the general overall situation, they’re doing remarkably well.” – October 17, 2006
“We’ve all got challenges together,” he said. “We’ve got to pull together. We’ve got to get this work done. It’s game time.” -May 9, 2007
That was 7 years ago, Capn…got anything a little more recent to prove how it doesn’t matter that a couple innocent young adults were murdered?
Huge uproar over some words about nappy heads..but nothing about horrific torture/murder. Yep…the media is soooo even handed in reporting.
Or maybe it’s just that national celebrities are held to higher standards than common criminals . . .
GS The article said clearly it was the work of Al Qaida, so how did you determine that ALL muslims were the cause of this?
I dunno about higher standards, but you are right, Capn, that the nationally recognized names do get the press..regardless of how trivial the story. Sad that things like Brittany’s hair, or Paris’s arrest for minor traffic offenses get page after page after page of coverage…
Sad, isn’t it?
Capn = Ever so hopeful that the U.S. will fail in Iraq so “his side” can win talking points.
Capn about as patriotic as a Mexican flag made in China.
I heard on the news about that girls school but the part that GS conveniently left out was who was actually building the school? If it was an American-backed contractor, then where was the supervision of the workers?
Think about this – those homemade bombs and all that wiring had to be planned and it took time to install. If the US is in such control over in Iraq, then how did this school get boobey-trapped right under our noses?
Was there some underhanded things going on like money being exchanged for favors? Why isn’t there an investigation into this incident?
For GS to only blame the Muslims for this incident shows how little she actually absorbs the entire news report. Perhaps GS would like to volunteer to go to Iraq and share her expertise.
Here’s a nice little youtube video on one of the Iraq invastion sales pitches that said U.S. taxpayers wouldn’t have to fund the war in Iraq because Iraqi oil revenues would cover the costs.
The commentator, Greg Palast is an American who works for BBC. He attended neo-con central, U Chicago, and is a NYT best-selling author. He recently spoke at a panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, co-hosted by the Times and UCLA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jlv4YRKnHc
also see Palasts website:
http://www.gregpalast.com/index.php
Finally a “Good News” story about the schools we’re getting built in Iraq! Where’s the stories of the schools we built that weren’t infiltrated by terrorist construction workers?
And to think we have only spent how many billions of dollars in Iraq and we are still being presented with homemade bombs inside a school that was being built?
Where oh where is the logic in all this madness?
Market forces, supply and demand, with oil only (only?)) at 62$ pb. why are we already at record gas prices, when oil has been up to 78 pb in the last couple of years?
Steve
Look at the gallons of gas consumed versus gallons of gas refined.
Supply vs demand.
Steve, you cannot use logic with Bush loyalists who are profiting from this war. No matter what, Bush and his oil buddies will get their profits at any cost. But, of course, they will call anyone that dares to disagree with them unpatriotic traitors.
No cat! You’re just uninformed and naïve.
If oil costs less to buy, then no matter how much demand, it still costs less to buy the oil.
How hard is that to understand?
So if it costs more to refine the gas, and supply is up, then why all the record-breaking profits for each oil company?
No matter what you Bushies say to try to defend the oil companies gouging the Americans, the average American knows exactly who to blame.
For all you oil company haters, I have but one simple question: What percentage profit is acceptable?
I keep hearing/reading that no new US refineries have been built in 30 years. Why not? Is there legislation banning this? Have there been lawsuits, or specific actions taken by EPA or its state counterparts?
I’m looking for specifics here, not Rush Limbaugh or Greg Palast talking points.
I want oil companies to make reasonable profits but to make record-breaking profits each quarter when we are at war is not acceptable.
Fortunately, I believe the 70% of Americans who disapprove of Bush might just feel the same way.
And why is it okay for oil companies not to be patriotic and ’sacrifice’ like the rest of us are expected to do?
Cat,
How have you sacrificed??……….
Didn’t answer the question. Please define what percentage profit is “reasonable”
Supply vs demand. Like the oil companies have closed down old refineries over the last 20 years, while not building equal-capacity new ones.
Reportedly, the big companies tend to cluster major-maintenancing, with refining-output reduction all at the same time in late winter/early spring, and so as reserves go down, while demand remains constant, the prices go up just before Memorial Day. Then demand goes way up for summer vacation time, and the back-on-line refineries can barely catch up. How convenient to be getting high prices coincident with the high gas-usage period. Ca-ching.
Now, we can apply bobble-head logic and say this is how the free market works. But it isn’t a free market. The vast majority of imported oil is owned by governments. Anglo-Dutch-American companies can not do what they did a century ago, which was to roam the planet, pay local leaders miniscule bribes, and get the oil “free for the taking”. Mexico first rejected this practice seven decades ago in nationalizing its Veracruz field, following the Soviet Communists’ lead; after WWII Third World nation after nation either nationalized, or demanded and got majority ownership and income distribution.
States now set output levels, collusively through OPEC and independently, to wit governments dictate supply of the vast majority of oil.
Oil is a strategic resource. Without it, our military is nonfunctional. Taxpayers have spent over a half-trillion dollars in the last 4 years to try, so far ineffectually, to capture the world’s second largest oil reserve (possibly largest).
We have to go to work, using our cars. Some of us can trade in / sell our gas-hog SUV’s, albeit receiving far less than we would if gas was under $2.00/gal, and buy little fuel misers. But many owners are “upside down” in their remaining loan obligations vs. the tradeable values of their hogs.So they HAVE to continue driving the hogs.
In some places, mass-transit isn’t necessarily as convenient as self-driving, but it’s at least available. (In some cities it’s quite a bit cheaper to take mass-transit, given downtown parking costs exceeding $30/day.) But consider smaller communities without buses. Take Wichita, with dysfunctionally inadequate mass transit. Take farmers who can’t just say, “Diesel’s unaffordable, we’ll just have to halt production of America’s food supply until fuel prices come down.”
This is a matter of national security. Energy usage has limited short-term consumer-discretionary elasticity.It is feasible to develop non-emergency strategic storage reserves to lessen fuel cost gyrations. e.g. store more fuel to accommodate refinery maintenance and maintain consistent supply (and increased supply for predictable periods such as summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas when American families hit the road).
This will not prevent or even slow the long-term rise in fuel costs, as China and India’s thirst enlarges, but at least it can give consumers here time to plan, and adjust, rather than suddenly having an additional $50/month household cost on an already tight family budget.
Maybe we need tax-reduction for ordinary Americans, in the form of credits that cover the difference between what people owe on their gas hogs, versus what they can get for them, when they want to buy fuel-efficient vehicles.
Y’all keep spouting off about how much you support and back our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Watch this video – turn up your sound.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1
Then go here and put your damn money where your mouths are.
http://www.operationusocarepackage.org/site/pp.asp?c=ikLVJ7MSKvH&b=569653
I would say historical profit margins are completely acceptable for the oil commodity. When supply can be manipulated, and demand remain constant or little changed, you see the ‘market forces’ at work!
Steve-
Again, and I am not trying to be obnoxious, you answer doesn;t really answer the question, although “historical profit margins” comes close. And supply of any product or commodity can be “manipulated”
Sol,
The site I give through is http://soldiersangels.org/ I’m very pleased with the different options they have.
Sol and Tom
Thanks for linking both “giving” sites
Another one to check out is http://www.anysoldier.com/
Thanx Tom, I’ll check them out too.
Daimler-Benz is selling off Chrysler to a private-equity group. Since D-B knows how to efficiently design, built and market cars, but its Chrysler division is losing money, the only way for Chrysler to get back into the black is to cut wages, healthcare and pension benefits.
http://www.ft.com/home/europe
Let’s look at oil profits this way: not as a percentage of sales (which benefits oil companies any time the price at the pump goes up) but as a per-unit formula.
Republic Party lackeys vilified Jimmy Carter because, they said, his policies would lead to dollar-a-gallon gasoline.
So, as a hypothetical, let’s assume that Exxon-Mobil made a 10% profit on dollar-a-gallon gasoline. They made a fine profit making and distributing gasoline with a dime-a-gallon profit.
But when the price of crude oil went up, they continued to apply their 10% profit mark-up so when gasoline reached $2 a gallon, they were making two dimes a gallon in profit. The cost of refining didn’t go up. The cost of labor didn’t double. The cost of distribution (since they were buying fuel for tanker trucks, etc., fromo themselves) was merely an accounting adjustment.
And then gasoline became $3 a gallon, and the same gallon of gasoline that gave them a fine profit at a dime-per- gallon was churning out three-dimes-per-gallon in profits; record-high profits for oil companies.
The percentage-per-gallon formula rewards oil companies for jacking up the price-per-gallon at the pump.
Okay, so it’s been a lot of years since Republic Party demogauges threatened dollar-a-gallon gasoline.
Maybe today it costs 20 cents to refine, distribute, and market a gallon of gasoline and earn a return on the investment. But the only real variable is the cost of crude oil. Tacking on a 10% mark-up results in price-gouging.
So, to answer a previous poster’s question, “What is an acceptable profit or oil companies?” let me ask “How much does it take to manufacture, distribute, and market a gallon of gas, regardless of the cost of raw material?” That’s the business.
Just tacking on an arbitray percentage is not relevant to the cost of processing and distributing the final product.
Maybe today it costs Phillips-Conoco 20 cents a gallon to refine crude and get it to the pump and generate comparable profits oil companies enjoyed in 1976. But arbitrarily assigning a 10%-per-gallon mark-up only encourages oil companies to raise the price of a gallon to $4 (to get 4 dimes-per-gallon), or $5 (for 5 dimes-per-gallon).
Why not answer directly? What profit percentage is reasonable? What profit percentage for any business is reasonable? The rest is all smoke and mirrors. If I invest in a product, whether directly, or buying a cd, or money fund, I want tooknow: What is the return on my money? So, as I understand your log, then since cost of raw goods is higher, then I should accept a Lower percentage of profit? How much lower? And how will that attract stockholders? It is not arbirtary, and it certainly is relevant. If I can get 5% on a cd, and only 4 percent on my business (whatever the business) why bother? Maybe I misunderstood your post?
Littlejohn,
There are many ways to measure profitability besides gross or net margins on specific products sold. There’s Return On Investment, percentage based on market capitalization, etc. I’m not sure, but I think that’s the point LTP was making.
At 3.22 a gallon, something needs to be done right flipping now. It’s like the damn gas companies drop the price just as everyone gets bent out of shape, then when everything quiets down they jack it up again.
What happened to the last congress inquiry? Did they ever go through with it?
I called this a year ago…people would shut up and nothing else would come of it once the price went back down. Now look at it.
They haven’t built more gasoline refineries because they make more profit when running near 100% capacity. And they get price spikes when demand exceeds supply.
Shell even dismantled a functioning refinery, to prevent competitors from buying it.http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/fs
And it’s cheaper to expand, and improve efficiencies of existing refineries, than to build new ones.
Oh gee, I see cat, Steve, and some of the other libbie moonbats here are quick to blame anyone BUT the people who planted the bombs in the girl’s school.
Do you feel the same way when a nut tries to blow up an abortion clinic? Blame the clinic?
I mean….really.
Sheesh, you guys. This is a novel thought, but perhaps one day you could actually lay blame where it belongs – on the folks who commit the crime….
Co-enable much?
Yup, no doubt about it.
Terrorist bombings are really, really bad, GSheridan.
Now, do you do something that reduces the risk or raises it?
Bush and his enablers and supporters–like you–do what raises the risk.
Dumb.
Tom-
I understand there are different ways of measuring profit, though percentage of sales is probably the easiest to understand. Return on investment is another solid measure of productivity of a business. I just want those who wail and whine about gas companies to be honest, and tell me how much profit they should be allowed to have, and what should be done to keep them from getting any more than that?
“littlejohn,” re-read my original post.
A percent profit-per-gallon has nothing to do with what the refiner/distributor/marketer contributes to the final product.
If I am a jewler and diamond-cutter, the value-added I provide to my customer should be determined on how well I cut the diamond and set it in a ring. If the price of diamonds goes up, there’s nothing my contribution to the final product has anything to do with how much I should be paid.
Buying diamond rings, though, is an option. In 21st Century America, buying gasoline is not.
I’m all for Big Oil making a profit based on their contribution to their final product. But a percentage mark-up based on the raw product’s cost is a formula for windfall profits for oil companies and price gouging of consumers.
And this is the basic flaw of capitalism. In theory, some company could choose to make a decent profit by charging a dime or twenty-cents (whatever) over their cost of refining, distributing, and marketing a gallon of gas. But because the “industry standard” is a percentage mark-up, every oil company gets an inflated profit every time the price at the pump goes up.
Perhaps you saw the piece on last Sunday’s “60 Minutes” about the on-line business that sells real estate for a fraction of the cost traditional realtors charge. A 6% commission is standard for realtors; this on-line operation typically can refund 2/3rds of that money to sellers as it makes a fine profit. So what do the realtors do? They lobby state governments to outlaw their competition.
The libertarian fantasy of a totally free markets has been tried. It resulted in child labor, tainted meat, over-the-counter heroin, the Triangle Building sweatshop fire, horribly-maimed coal-miners ending up selling pencils on the street… you know: the “Gilded” Age.
LTP-
Fine, tell me what you think the allowable return on investment (not a percentage of sales) should be, and how it should be regulaed?
Your statement that this is the basic flaw of capitalism leads me to believe you have a different agenda.
After rereading my last post, the tone seems harsh. My apologies.
Littlejohn–
There are a lot of ways to even out the swings of the market economy without resorting to the fairly radical measure of wage and price controls.
For instance, the government could subsidize mass transit, give massive tax rebates for fuel efficient cars, or tax the hell out of oil profits.
All of these things would drive down spiking oil prices.
And speaking of American terrorism–like Tim McVeigh and David Koresh, check out the latest RIGHT-WING bomb maker:
Police say that on Tuesday, Froatz, was counter protesting at an immigration rally in Meridian Hill Park when he became embroiled in a fight with immigration rally organizer. According to police, Froatz bent the organizer’s left arm and scratched her hand, before leaving the area to don dark camouflage clothing. Police arrived and arrested Froatz and found a host of weapons on him including a hammer, taser, and a loaded flare gun. In addition, Detective Robert Freeman of the U.S. Park Police testified that Froatz was carrying two knives including a “12 inch dagger-style knife.”
A search of Froatz’s nearby Jeep recovered a loaded M-1 rifle and ammunition. A map of a local embassy and a detailed, hand-drawn sketch of the park with lines pointing towards the center of the protest was found in the front seat of the Jeep, Freeman said.
But those items were overshadowed by what investigators discovered in Froatz’s apartment in the 5300 block of 8 th St. NW. Freeman described a home bristling with a variety of bladed weapons, 13 guns and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Froatz did not have a permit for the guns which include a fully-loaded 12-gauge shotgun and a .45-caliber pistol.
Police also discovered an explosive resembling a Molotov cocktail. The cocktail was found in a Welch’s grape juice bottle wrapped in a t-shirt and appeared to be a mix of gasoline with a jelly-like substance which if it exploded would stick to a person “like napalm,” Freeman explained.
http://www.examiner.com/a-711301~Judge_refuses_bail_to_armed_protester.html
*****
C’mon, wing-nuts, tell us again how the biggest danger in this country are “terrorist loving liberals” . . .
LTP makes the mistake of crediting the end of the list of bad things to government.
And capitalism — where people own themselves, their property, and what they produce with these — has no flaws.
For instance, the government could subsidize mass transit, give massive tax rebates for fuel efficient cars, or tax the hell out of oil profits.
All of these things would drive down spiking oil prices.
Posted by: CapnAmerica | May 14, 2007 at 03:37 PM
i could agree to subsidizing mass transit, possibly agree to rebatesfor fuel efficient cars (though I would have to think long on that one), but I could not agree to a high tax on profits. I think that is just poor policy in general.Already government gets more on a gallon of gas than the retailer
But those items were overshadowed by what investigators discovered in Froatz’s apartment in the 5300 block of 8 th St. NW. Freeman described a home bristling with a variety of bladed weapons, 13 guns and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Froatz did not have a permit for the guns which include a fully-loaded 12-gauge shotgun and a .45-caliber pistol.
Police also discovered an explosive resembling a Molotov cocktail. The cocktail was found in a Welch’s grape juice bottle wrapped in a t-shirt and appeared to be a mix of gasoline with a jelly-like substance which if it exploded would stick to a person “like napalm,” Freeman explained.
http://www.examiner.com/a-711301~Judge_refuses_bail_to_armed_protester.html
None of these bother me except for the “bomb” type apparatus. So he had knives, so he had 13 guns and 2000 rounds of ammunition? I know several gun enthusiasts that have many more. They are no terrorist threat.However, his actions make you (an me) believe that his intentions were probably less than honorable, and maybe deadly. if he violated the law, he should be prosecuted.
GS,
I don’t discredit good ideas.
But, on WEBlog, you don’t express any.
Such as, you’re fraudulently in support of War in Iraq, but fighting in Iraq isn’t appropriate for YOUR OWN children. This makes you a hypotritical empty blatherer. Big talker, no walker. Join the chicken hawks, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gates. . Of course, you’re just a chicken hen, so let’s hear you. “buc, buc,buc”. Say it as loud as you want, Mrs. Chicken.”
“Such as, you’re fraudulently in support of War in Iraq, but fighting in Iraq isn’t appropriate for YOUR OWN children.”————-
LOL – so now you read crystal balls, too?
I would support any of my children should they choose to go to Iraq. My daughter has considered joining the Marines now and again – and I’ll be supportive if that’s what she does.
You might want to get your money back for that crystal ball. So far, you’re batting zero with it.
Now who’s the chicken? lol
Capn – you’re STILL enabling. Place the blame squarely where it belongs. Don’t beat around the bush, don’t try to pass the buck.
The folks who planted the bombs – they, and they alone, are the scum responsible.
Capn,
“give massive tax rebates for fuel efficient cars”
A better way is feebates. Charge fees on gas-guzzlers that funds rebates for fuel efficient vehicles.
Advantages:* It’s tax-neutral.* Discourages purchase of gas-guzzlers.* Encourages auto-makers to improve mpg of ALL of their vehicles, guzzlers thru high-mpg models.* Eliminates argument and gridlock in Congress re arbitrary fuel standards.* Helps educate consumers about fuel costs during lifetime of vehicle.
While not a “feebate”, it seems to me there was a “gas guzzler” tax in place once upon a time, which did not yield the expected results. Part of that was due to some of the exceptions, IIRC.
GS – obviously my point of how could terrorists plant those bombs in the school while the building was being built? Do you not comprehend what is being posted or do you just choose to read the postings as you see fit and then try to spin it to make Republicans and Bush look good?
I still want to know who was in charge of the building of the school and why was it so easy for all those homemade bombs to be placed inside that building?
this is just another incident of total incompetence in this insane war.
“littlejohn” –
Your brief replies to my previous posts (and I apologize for them being length; these issues aren’t dealt with one-liners), tells me you’ve got nothin’.
Unrestrained capitalism has been tried. And it failed. Read up about the financial panics throughout the last half of the 19th Century; financial catastrophes that culminated in the *Great* Depression of the 1930s.
For sure, the “free” market of the 1800s resulted in huge fortunes — the Rockefellers, the Astors, the “cottages” in Newport, Rhode Island, etc. — but Americans have been there, done that. Those fortunes were based on unrestrained capitalism which led to monoplies, child labor, company stores, etc…. and were based on a society that made all minority races and all women second-class citizens.
The best theory in the world (and let’s assume for a moment that “Captialism” is a good theory) eventually has to deal with reality.
America was doing pretty good in the 1950s when CEOs at General Motors were earning 10-times the average income of the typical line-worker. Today the CEO of GM collects something like 500-times more than the typical line-worker.
Doesn’t that seem a bit odd to you?
What’s wrong with this picture?
We are too great a people and enterprise is too good a system to be brought down by greed from the top.
Corporations have devolved into a system that does not produce goods and services that can profitably be delivered to consumers; they’ve been turned into accounting tricks and market manipulations designed to generate “better-than-average” returns for coupon-clippers.
It’s turned into a race to the bottom line.
To create a good quarterly report, corporations will systematically kill off the very people their businesses depend on.
Perhaps the SEC, the FDIC, the FTC, the FDA, and assorted alphabet contrivances of the New Deal have merely slowed down the financial panics of the 1800s; softened the blow.
Perhaps the Law of Unintened Results has kicked in and somebody’s univeral cure for cancer is blocked by FDA approval. But, in the process, crap remedies such as peach-pits-for-cancer and bee pollen for whatever it was… are not giving charletons the right to fleece the ignorant.
Today, thanks (or in spite of) certain govenmental regulations, you have a reasonable expectation to think the Big Mac you order in the Drive-Thru lane has less than 2% rat meat.
Convince me that wiping all government controls would somehow prevent my kitty from insiting on accompanying me next time I get a Big Mac attack.
Interesting.
Did you know that from 1870 to 1897 — the time that Rockefeller was building his empire — kerosene fell from 26 cents per gallon to about 6 cents?
Who do you suppose was happy with that: Rockefeller’s customers, or his competitors?
GS, you’re the empty blatherer.
I’ve got a son who’s going to Iraq in six months. My father served in Germany in WWII. After the war, he worked on the concentration camp Holocaust survey. I didn’t serve in Vietnam, because I had a high enough draft number to not get picked. I never sought a deferment. I didn’t enlist, but if I had gotten drafted, I would have gone.
What’s your history, honey bun? “Let’s go go gung-ho for war in Iraq. I’d support my children going to Iraq, but they don’t want to go. They’ve decided it’s BETTER FOR OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE.”
You rode a horse in high school. I had a girlfriend who did too. She had a beautiful thoroughbred. Her parents took her to weekend dressage competitions. She slept with her parents during these weekendds. Stayed at home with them during the week. Trained in Laguna Seca, California, under trainers who were far more expert in dressage than your second-rate Arizona boarding-school trainers. Her parents didn’t ditch her.
Your parents ditched you. Wake up and get real. Are you saying you couldn’t have gotten execellent dressage lessons while living in your parents’ house? Riiight, Honey Bun.
So, the question you don’t want to address is Why did your parents (natural or adoptive) send you away?
Today you want other parents’ children, but not yours, to fight in an unwinnable Third World civil war. Why do you hold this position?
When your daughters sign up and go to Iraq, let everybody know here. Until you do do, you’re making yourself an empty blathering hypocrite.
“GS – obviously my point of how could terrorists plant those bombs in the school while the building was being built?”—————–
LOL – you obviously know VERY little about construction.
How do you suppose bodies have wound up in the the foundations of projects? Do you REALLY think a construction site warrants enough soldiers patrolling it CONSTANTLY that no one can ever sneak in at night? We’re going to need a MUCH bigger Surge to put all the guys in place YOU want.
Guess what?
It was the military that discovered the bombs – I guess that goes to show they DID their job – doesn’t it.
Any more whining from the anti-American peanut gallery?
Mark – not only are YOU the one blathering – but you’re blathering nothing but nonsense.
My father was also in the military, but that doesn’t make me (or YOU) a valuable voice for whether or NOT this country should go to war.
You might want to read something – it’s called the First Ammendment to our Constitution. That’s what makes both of us able to issue our opinion – not your silly childish, nanny-nanny-boo-boo reasoning.
Get a life.
Get a clue.
I am not anti-military. I am anti-stupidity invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and the total incompetence of managing the war in the last 4 years!
You cannot tell me that someone in the US military did not know that this school was being built. Come on GS, even you cannot be this gullible to believe otherwise.
This school was not built overnight and I don’t know what constructions sites you hang around where you find bodies in the foundation. But if this is normal life for you, no wonder you have the ideas that you have.
Gsheridan,
Slightly off topic…the other day, on the Hate Crimes thread, you asked me about gay stereotypes. I posted an answer for you, and want to make sure you’ve had a chance to read it. Sometimes old blog topics get lost in the shuffle.
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/05/hatecrime_laws_.html
Here’s something. In 1959, per capita disposal personal income in the USA was $9,685, as measured in 2000 dollars. In 2005, measured in the same 2000 dollars, the figure was $27,318.
Personal consumption expenditures, per capita, again measured in 2000 dollars, was $8,776 in 1959. In 2005, $26,430.
You can see this data in table B-31 of the Economic Report of the President.
What was it about the good ol’ 1950s? Do we want to go back to that?
What was it about the good ol’ 1950s?Posted by: anonymous | May 14, 2007 at 08:31 PM
Not as many things to personally consume in the 1950s, and consumer debt was unheard of. Hell, even mortgages were seen by many as spawn of the devil.
Allowing annual interest paid on non-mortgage loans to be deducted from gross income for tax purposes effectlvely, very effectively, changed American attitudes about personal debt.
And the 1950s weren’t “the good ol’ 1950s” to many Americans.
Do we want to go back to that?Posted by: anonymous | May 14, 2007 at 08:31 PM
LOL, as if we could.
Ok, assuming this isn’t a rhetorical question. No, never.
If you check the prices of houses, gas, food, cars and etc., it’s pretty much pro rata with today’s times. Actually, I think there is more disposable income now as people buy a lot of personal toy junk like they are necessities (computers, ipods, cell phones etc etc.)
Is McNulty getting ready to make his own amnesty deal? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070515/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors_resignation
Illegal Immigration – One Step at a Time
Did you know there are 7.3 million immigrants that use Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITIN) because they don’t have a Social Security Number? Many of these are here ILLEGALLY. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272061,00.html
Kansas is one state that is now refusing to send income tax refunds to anyone filing a tax return with an ITIN. I applaude this effort but we need to do more. If you agree, send the text below (or draft your own)to your Congressman, and here’s a link: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Dear Congressman:
Do you want to solve the illegal immigration problem? Why don’t you take action to pass a law to mandate the IRS share its resources with the department of Homeland Security and mandate that Homeland Security track down every illegal immigrant and export them from this country? You may say there are not enough resources to deport all, but surely there are enough resources to deport some. You must start somewhere, sometime, or you will not solve this problem. I see very little action taken today. When many are deported, others will be scared into going back to their home country. And if there are not enough resources, who’s job is it to get the resources?
The number of ITINs issued in the USA as of 2004 was 7.3 MILLION. http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=1230 You have a starting point on where to look – the tax return lists the address for the filer using the ITIN. They may also provide a bank account for the direct deposit of a tax refund. Follow the money and you can surely track them down. Why not get warrants for every one of these ITIN holders, show up at their door and demand documentation showing they are a legal resident of the USA? If they can’t document that, haul them off to the BCIS for further processing – either In or Out. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272061,00.html
As a US Citizen taxpayer, I demand that you take action to enforce our immigration laws. Many of these 7.3 million ITIN holders can be found, and many are here illegally. The laws should be enforced and illegal immigrants should be deported.
As my Congressman I expect you to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and to ensure all the Federal laws of this land are enforced equally for US Citizens and for illegal immigrants. If US Citizens must follow the law, then illegal immigrants must follow the law.
If you fail to take action on illegal immigration, I for one, will take action at the voting booth during your next election. And I will gather others in grass roots America to do the same.
LTP-In all you discussionabout the evils of unbridled capitolism, you forgot to answer my question, what is an acceptable return on investment and how would you regulate it? THAT is why my reply was short, not because “that’s all i got”. Just answer the question.
Tom – thanks for pointing me back to that thread. I looked for it before, but must have lost track of it.
I feel as though some folks were a little harsh on me there – I was repeating ONLY what I was told, and also what I have observed.
I didn’t mean to infer that gay men aren’t good in the military – I think they are. And they seem to be talented in almost all areas, I’m just saying they are better looking (in their group) than what I (and my gay male friend) have found in lesbian women. I have to say – my gay friend does NOT like lesbians, he says they give being gay a bad name. My friend could grace the cover of Abercrombie and Fitch, so that’s how our discussion on this began. And he has a LOT of trouble with females stalking him because of his looks. Have you found this to be normal?
Looks certainly are not everything – and for the most part, they’re not even important, except the shallow public DO make decisions based upon first impressions at times and in those cases – looks can sway a decision.
I’m just making conversation. I don’t believe in sweeping anything under the rug – if it’s true.
PM went on to say that she has a lesbian friend that is beautiful. So see..there are some.
Let me ask you a question. You may not even know the answer to this, but did your mother breastfeed you, or feed you formula? And if she fed you formula – was it Soy Formula?
You may not even know the answer to this, but did your mother breastfeed you, or feed you formula? And if she fed you formula – was it Soy Formula?Posted by: GSheridan | May 15, 2007 at 08:52 AM
Oh my – why would that matter?
And no, I don’t know the answer, and I have no way of getting the answer.
Tom she wants to know because there is a theory out there that feeding soy products to babies causes them to be gay.
I had to listen to this crap while I was protesting the protesters at Tiller’s Clinic back in January.
The fundies are all anti-soy…so if your child has a bad reaction to milk based formula…I guess you let them starve, since they’re the same ones freaking out about women breastfeeding in ‘gasp’ public.
Oh but Tippy isn’t a fundy. I was just saying.
I was born on a military base in 1961. Did they use soy-based formula then?
Tom, yes; I’ve a younger brother that due to a sensitivity had to be fed with soy based formula in 1957-1958. Its brand name was MulSoy. Came as a powder, had to be hydrated. It had an unforgettable odor (unpleasant). His being fed this concoction did not result in his being gay.
“Tom she wants to know because there is a theory out there that feeding soy products to babies causes them to be gay.”
Posted by: political_mom | May 16, 2007 at 04:47 PM
I couldn;t believe it but here it is
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327
Littlejohn,
I couldn’t get past the first few paragraphs of that one. It looks like the author is mixing pseudoscience with an anti-gay rant.
Vaughn,
I’m not lactose-intolerant, and grew up drinking dairy-fresh milk (a relative owned the local one, and they still had deliveries back then). If I was fed formula, I doubt it was soy-based.
Tom – no big deal, I’ve just been doing a little research of my own.
Out of 9 gay men I’ve asked – 6 were fed Soy Formula as babies. I’m counting you as one of the 3 who were not. If you find out differently – let me know.
That, by itself, means nothing, of course, but I became interested after my family doctor mentioned that he does not suggest soy-based formulas since soy is what is given women for hormone-replacement therapy.
It was sometime after that – I found the topic has been broached many times by many other folks.
Being gay (as a male) isn’t the only thing soy-based products are being questioned for – also – little girls are going into puberty much earlier – some as young as 6.
Soy – like many products – is big business, and it currently has the stamp of approval from the Food Police and other health groups.
But no matter how we slice it – it is STILL full of hormones.
If Soy can balance out a woman’s hot flashes – what can an entire diet do to a baby’s body?
I’m not making any claims, but I believe we will see a day when this is pursued further – by other scientists.
PM is wrong – I don’t think the fundies really want this – after all – it is thier contention that being gay is nothing more than a choice.
If soy is to blame (for even a very small percentage) then you can bet there will be a class action suit that would bring the soy industry to its knees.
Maybe you trust the FDA more than I do.
I’d appreciate it, however, if you let me know if you hear about any correlation with others. Or not, either way – I’d like to know.
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