Just sharing a pretty cool new trading site and blog I found yesterday. Looks like they have an interesting strategy of always being 100% long or short the market and never holding cash. The blog has a nice layout as well…
On the Tuscon murders Anything the left is against is now fair game, beause they ar in “Blame the right” mode. They must be histerical about the last election. This guilt by association has to stop, and hopefully this stuff will back fire on the purveyors. There is a good article on http://www.freemarketsfreepeople.net, “Breaking Political Guilt by Association”
Even though I always knew that Sarah Palin was a dumb cow. I still cannot believe that this dumb cow would inject words as pregnent with toxicity as the “Blood Libel” into this unfortuante incident.
Cursed, Extreme ideology has the upper hand lately due to its entertainment appeal which has been exploited by the media, and News Corp in particular via FoxNews. That is not to say that a majority of Americans accept extreme ideas as their own, but there are enough who relish the potential outcomes of those ideas and they are avid fans and purchasers of the ideology and its by-products. Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are probably the most visible recent manifestations of this phenomenon. They don’t need to appeal to a majority. They need only attract the avid attention of a die hard and dedicated minority. This is business. You don’t have to have the entire universe of buyers. You only have to have a smll, but dedicated, percentage to enjoy significant financial success. Political ideology has become a commodity in much the same manner as is love, fear, hatred and any other concept that people can feel passionately about. Those, like Palin, learn to play to their audience and that there is little limitation on what the crowd will find acceptable within the range of extreme ideas and inflammatory rhetoric. It’s very easy to excuse one’s own excesses and deny the affects of one’s words and actions even after amking every effort to incite the passions of one’s fans and adherents.
Fan adulation is not the equivalent to universal appeal or acceptance of a product, in this case political ideas. When widely held beliefs conflict with the extreme ideas of a passionate minority the media has an inclination to ride the waves and fan the flames of those passions. Again, a business doesn’t look for the universe of all potential buyers. Profitability is attained by coaxing and catering to a die hard core of adherents. This is the key to the popularity of our purveyors of radicalism. America has a love affair with corporatism and profitability. Where else can a religious ministry be based on financial success, as are some inn this country? Politics and religion are two forms of ideologies with a range of passionate adherents. The “leaders” of each sect plays to the crowd in politics or preaches to the choir in religion, but the affect is the same. Facts don’t count. Only the degree of emotion that can be packaged and marketed is important.
ilsm and cursed–I don’t think she knew the meaning and history of the use of this phrase. It just sounded neat and dramatic and so like the kind of thing a powerful Presidential class person would say. She clearly didn’t anticipate the reaction she got. So, one way or another, people around her were either in agreement or unable to deter her. Yeah, words matter. NO
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial was quite good.
I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was memorial for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds.
The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial was quite good.
I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial service. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was memorial for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds.
The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial was quite good.
I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial service. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was memorial service for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds. The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial service was quite good. I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial service. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was memorial service for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds. The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial service was quite good. I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial service. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was a memorial service for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds. The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
To add in a point that John Stewart tried to make in his rally it is good for business to spread fear, fear sells! How many times to we hear stories that a study has determined that this bad thing might happen? Do we ever hear studies that conclude good things might happen. For example do people know that there is now more forest in the Eastern US than in 1900? This could be spun as bad news because a lot of farms went bust, or as good news. But good news never gets air or paper time. If you listen to the news enough sometimes its easy to conclude that we are all doomed. Now perphaps this apocolypes fatigue is my own issue having heard about all these bad things since I went off to college in 1968.
I’m confident she didn’t write the material. Of course, by reading it (off of a teleprompter), she endorsed the words. By I doubt she could have even come up with the phrase “blood libel,” let alone use it in an essay.
This is a diary on DKos about (are you ready??) Nature. The person who wrote it is an evolutionary biologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. The reason I’m hoping you’ll click it up is because it contains beautiful pictures of the sky islands in the Chiricahua Mountains of NM and Arizona.
Whoosh! That will be a huge relief to President Obama, not being associated with acts by associates of Bill Ayers back when he (Obama) was not even a teen.
Why do I think this particular doctrine won’t extend to Reverend Wright and Prof Ayers? Just a hunch.
When the Right stops assuming that you can absorb anti-colonialism via your genetic code maybe we can revisit this particular topic.
I agree that mobs should never be fed red meat, and feeding mobs is a privleged, with which comes responsibilty.
The mob’s diet has become less balanced by acts of congress, which gave Rupert Murdock a bigger shovel to spread his unwholesomeness, and the supreme court ensured that during elections corporations have the biggest ladle of all.
For the sake of arguement I’ll agree that Rush Limbaugh does throw hunks of raw meat sprinkled with MSG that inflames the mob. OK we treat Rush like a modern Belisarius, and set him out the blind begger. What difference will it make? Clear channel comunications will just toss the golden eib microphone to the next ego, who will be roughly on the same message, about Americans bung holes not stinking, there fore we should smack the sons of Mohamad seven ways past Sunday, and make the world a better place. They will also say that Palin’s ignorance is her redemptive value becaue she obviously doesn’t know red meat from tofu.
“Clear channel comunications will just toss the golden eib microphone to the next ego,” Cursed
I’m sure that that is true. The problem is not only the purveyors of deceit and deception. The national press corps is satisfied to let the hyenas roam unfettered and feed upon the passions of the mob. Note the lead post cioncerningg the fecklessness of the NY Times as it presents a bogus equivalency between the lies of the Republican leadeership and the facts as presented by the CBO. Imagine a US political landscape wherein the headline of the day reads, “Republican Estimates Are Grossly Misleading.” “According to thhe latest estimates and projections of the nonpartisan CBO cost estimates presented by the Republican leadership in their efforts to tear up the Health Care legislation have been grossly misleading and have no basis in fact.” Imagine a political news story that foccuses on facts rather than ideological rhetoric.
Regaurding the sad fate that befell those poor people in Arizona, and your parcing of the second amendment.
The bits about; freedom to assemble, petition the government keep, right to bear arms, a well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, tell me that it is the patriotic obligation for neighborhood Jethro Bodines to gather for chug and shoots with some supervison, and that guns for hunting and self defense are of secondary import.
Now Jethro Bodines like the parts about being “well regulated”, about as much as you like the idea of chug and shoots, or buffs likes the thought of trying to sell Jethro on forgoing beer long enough for a central Asian campaingn. But this was to be Americans national defense, and I say the world would be a better place if we adhered to it.
I live in Tucson, and have the same feelings I had when Martin King and Bob kennedy were killed.
The shootist seems to be suffering from schizophrenia. What can we do ? Gabby Gifford is a good example of the people from Tucson. Where I live, Jan Brewer, Jon Kyle, and John McCain are not.
Sometimes I think that Tucson is like Florida, politically dominated by a wealthy generation that has forgotten where they came from. Cut benefits, don’t worry current recipients aren’t included.
Is the incendiary screaming and disinformation of Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, Glenn Beck, etc implicated ? Absolutely.
Regaurding the sad fate that befell those poor people in Arizona, and your parcing of the second amendment.
The bits about; freedom to assemble, petition the government, right to keep and bear arms, a well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, tell me that it is the patriotic obligation for neighborhood Jethro Bodines to gather for chug and shoots with some supervison, and that guns for hunting and self defense are of secondary import.
Now Jethro Bodines like the parts about being “well regulated”, about as much as you like the idea of chug and shoots, or buffs likes the thought of trying to sell Jethro on forgoing beer long enough for a central Asian campaingn. But this was to be Americans national defense, and I say the world would be a better place if we adhered to it.
Regaurding the sad fate that befell those poor people in Arizona, and your parcing of the second amendment.
The bits about; freedom to assemble, petition the government, right to keep and bear arms, a well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, tell me that it is the patriotic obligation for neighborhood Jethro Bodines to gather for chug and shoots with some supervison, and that guns for hunting and self defense are of secondary import.
Now Jethro Bodines like the parts about being “well regulated”, about as much as you like the idea of chug and shoots, or buffs likes the thought of trying to sell Jethro on forgoing beer long enough for a central Asian campaingn. But this was to be Americans national defense, and I say the world would be a better place if we adhered to it.
Will the Tucson killer knock Sarah Palin off the Presidential path ? From the perspective of the weakest Democratic president since Billy Clinton, I don’t think so. Sarah Palin is the dream candidate, from the perspective of the so called Demorats. Just a big enough mouth to get herself heard, dumb enough to make sense to a quorum of the Republican base (the Rush Limbaugh quorum), and a pair of legs that seem to make themselves into a nice …
Anyway. The Republican tendencies of the BO in the WH would love to have the Sarah to debate.
The American Ivy League would like to have Sarah run against their boy, very much.
Gun Control Policies. One has to consider the doomsday scenario (DDS), which thankfully, is not yet illegal (thinking about it).
In the event of an illegal assault of America by the military at the behest of the Government, I guess I would like to have an assault rifle, a bazooka, and, perhaps, a cruise missle. I absolutely refuse to board military personell in my home, like the Kent State provacatueurs, had they needed a place to stay.
Who was the greatest threat to the US: Osama Bin Laden or George Bush. Can my Marlin 22 protect me from the US military ?
A bigger question is: Does the enormous US military establishment actually protect the US ? Or are they like the local police force who would rather fight JQ Citizen than the bad guys ?
The simple answers can be found in the writings, and warnings, of the founders. Keep the banks and the Aristocracy at bay. Too late ?
“Imagine a political news story that foccuses on facts rather than ideological rhetoric.”
What bothers me more than the predictable like Fox, Limbaugh, etc. is the unpredictable. As “facts” have been trumped by misleading and false claims, reputable (or thought to be) news treatment has decided that they must “balance” the two. So a news mediator will invite both sides and lead a discussion which, for all intense purposes, tells the audience that “facts” are equal to misinformation.
I quote “facts” here remembering Roberts post about the CBO vs. GOP on health care repeal. The fact is that the CBO has the call even though the call is a best estimate/evaluation of the data. Why would anyone expect CBO to be equivalent to GOP in this case? GOP can ask CBO to explain how they produced the numbers; they can ask CBO to recompute the numbers (for example, using different somewhat possible assumptions); but, they shouldn’t substitute their own (fabrications) without giving CBO the data to reproduce or correct the (fabrications). If CBO can ethically use the GOP analysis, then fabrications become alternative competing projections. At that point it makes sense to “debate” the differences that give rise to the two alternatives.
At least that’s the way I see it. I think it is dangerous to debate when the validity of one side of the argument is known and documented and the other side is merely an undocumented result. Yet this is done every day as though the two are competing claims with equal validity of documentation. That is irresponsible.
Good thing Al Johnston, Bobby Lee and Jeff Davis decided to do prototypes of the von Schleiffen plan. If they had figured on using militia, in depth, it would have been like Vietnam 100 years earlier.
Good thing for Federals the plantation owners did not want blue uniforms taking over the cotton trade.
Well, we have our choices, don’t we? We can put mental patients on the street to self-monitor or we can pay to house them where they can be monitored. Quite frankly I am tired of a society that expects 100% safety from someone (government) when they are unwilling to pay to provide (try to provide) that 100% safety. Where people get it wrong is that American people are not greedy; they are just cowards unwilling to balance two risk levels, that of safety and that of personal wealth. Since 100% utopia is not a reasonable or achievable goal, there should be a reasonable balance.
As I have seen the discussion of the events in Arizona unfold, I am struck by how many people know as a certainty the path not taken. If we had leaders that promoted a civil society, how would this affect the behavior of the population? Would people with mental illness act out in less violent ways and/or would people without mental illnesses recognize and provide for the mentally ill around us? Would nine people in Arizona have had a little meet-up and gone home healthy? For that matter, would inner city homicide be rare? How valid are comparisons to other developed countries that seem to have a less violent population or comparisons to yesterday America?
I don’t know about the path not taken so I have avoided commenting on the leadership questions. But, what I do know, is the path taken doesn’t particularly work and, maybe, it is time to create another fork in the road and try a different direction. But this takes leadership and sacrifice. We, as a society, seem to lack prospects for leaders and are unwilling to sacrifice. In my exhaustion, I conclude that we need to increase our risk level for acceptable personal safety to be in line with our desire for this funny form of “freedom”/”personal responsibility” that we say we want.
In the current case all we did was decide that it is OK to increase the risk for people at that particular event and, perhaps, politicians in general, so we can go away feeling unharmed personally. People need to quit shaking their head and talking about tragedy or they need to at least consider there might be another way we can try. That won’t happen so we shouldn’t talk about the path not taken when we don’t have a clue what it brings.
I don’t think the von Scheiffen plan was ever seen. Schleiffen who would have had the entire German army used for the encirclement of Paris wanted the grenadiers on the right flank to all the way to the English Channel. Von Moltke the younger was too timid to risk it all on the roll of a single die so he keep forces in reserve and made no attempt to envelpe areas close to the channel.
As I understand the battle of Manassas it was the Union Army which tried to envelope Beauregards left flank only to be meet by a stone wall named Jackson. I never thought that the South had an organized or coherent battle plan. Bobby Lee only had command of the Armies of northern Virginia was never able to attempt to implement something on so grand of scale as Schleiffen would have had.
Had the Union fielded a militia of Jethro Bodines, they never have been able to sustain a 100 year effort. Think if you will about efficacy of the Russian soldier historically. They are tough in defense of their mother land, but suck when operating abroad. This is similar to militias. Militia’s would seldom have the logistical ability to wage an offensive war far from home, but stiffen considerable in defense of home and hearth. If you want offensive potential you need a professional army, but if your only concern is defensive then a militia will suffice.
Thaddeus Stevens was probably the least magnanimous individual sense Tamerlane. His bung hole stunk to high heaven and sanctimonious Republicans are blissfully unaware of what a total a hole he was. The unions treatment of the South was totally deplorable.
Devil’s advocate here. I wouldn’t be too sure. The violence rhetoric in America may have grown organically, with the repubs only taking advantage of it. Rush may not be much more than Dirty Harry without a plot… oh, the other kind of plot.
People I know are convinced they have been harmed by idiot government and by criminals and lazy people. Probably they have. Democrats don’t help themselves by denying that “experienced fact.” They could help themselves by working very hard to make government less arrogant, and defining clearly the difference between people suffering bad luck and those (few) gaming the system, and those criminals not dangerous, and those who are.
This would be hard with the bad guys constantly yelling that all government is “the problem” and all welfare feeds laziness, and “social security is welfare,” and that all “crime” deserves the harshest punishment you can work yourself up to inflicting.
but in general you can’t affect the other side’s rhetoric. you might be able to do something about your own.
I don’t think the von Scheiffen plan was ever seen. Schleiffen who would have had the entire German army used for the encirclement of Paris wanted the grenadiers on the right flank to all the way to the English Channel. Von Moltke the younger was too timid to risk it all on the roll of a single dice so he keep forces in reserve and made no attempt to envelpe areas close to the channel.
As I understand the battle of Manassas it was the Union Army which tried to envelope Beauregards left flank only to be meet by a stone wall named Jackson. I never thought that the South had an organized or coherent battle plan. Bobby Lee only had command of the Armies of northern Virginia was never able to attempt to implement something on so grand of scale as Schleiffen would have had.
Had the Union fielded a militia of Jethro Bodines, they never have been able to sustain a 100 year effort. Think if you will about efficacy of the Russian soldier historically. They are tough in defense of their mother land, but suck when operating abroad. This is similar to militias. Militia’s would seldom have the logistical ability to wage an offensive war far from home, but stiffen considerable in defense of home and hearth. If you want offensive potential you need a professional army, but if your only concern is defensive then a militia will suffice.
Thaddeus Stevens was probably the least magnanimous individual sense Tamerlane. His bung hole stunk to high heaven and sanctimonious Republicans are blissfully unaware of what a total a hole he was. The unions treatment of the South was totally deplorable.
oh, yes, in case it’s not clear. a “culture” of violence will certainly affect the behavior of people on the margins of sanity, which i learned in school was about 20% of the population.
Hey Tergent, using Alexander Hamilton as your avatar is, in your case, an oxymoron and an insult to the man”s ideas and accomplishments. No, Hamilton was not a free market capitalist. He was a strenuous defender of liberty and his fellow man.
Other choices have been tried. Hitler would have had that nut job locked up and probably euthanized, long before he got so violent. He also only allowed broadcasters to follow a carefully tailored script, which promoted the social good. That gambit did not play out to well for him or Germany.
What assurences do I have that I will not be the target of a government hug if we expand the nanny state and allow it to institutionalize troubled people.
When the government moves to control desidence, they will focus on bombasitic ignoramouses like me rather then unctious villians like Willaim Crystal who can advocate genocide with a smile.
I can see that my comment isn’t clear. I never said that the fork go to a nanny state or anything else. I wasn’t thinking of nanny states but of civility and role models. All I did was wonder and CONCLUDE we are the way we are because we seem to want it that way. So why insist our safety, happiness, etc. be guaranteed when we don’t want to invest in the organization we look to to give us a guarantee.
What I have noticed is that everyone is talking about what happens as if they know the underlying causal factors when I can’t deduce that they do. So hells-bells, we can’t be “responsible” when it something we want to control and not be “responsible” when we want someone else in control (think “to blame”). I’ve been seeing people wanting everything both ways depending….
If it’s not clear now, forget it. If you think this says the same as your response implies my first post said, then I think I won’t be able to get anyone on my page.
We could go back to the mental health policies of the 1950s i.e. lock them away and forget about them. It did not cost a lot back then to run the insane asylums, but… Of course you would had better change the attitude about the nature of cruel and unusual. Think of it if you were homeless they put you away, out of sight out of mind, as all the disabled where at that time. (Recall that FDR did not make public his disability, and worked to hide it as much as possible). Now the question is do we want to go back then, I doubt it, but it worked. Under the definition of a threat to themselves and others, we could also put terrorists away, they are a threat to others so… No crime involved just say that a desire to kill for god is a mental disease end of story. Now I am not pushing these suggestions, but point out that history does supply ways of coping, many of which modern ideas are inconsistent with.
Lyle, Reverting to institutionalization of the mentally ill isn’t going to solve the “loose cannon” problem. First, it costs a fortune to keep people locked up, fed and clothed. Someone has to be there to watch and hold. Second, those locked into the “asylums” are only the one’s that have been identified. Most of the loose nuts and bolts are bouncing around free to be what ever their twisted world allows them to be. Worse yet, Lougher is described as having exhibited behaviors that would most likely lead to a diagnosis of some form of psychosis, detachment from reality, lack of slef control, delusional thinking. What do we do with the socio/psychopaths? They seem normal in every respect. They just like to take what they want and the rest of the world can just screw off. They’re mean and hurtful in the extreme. What do we do about them before they kill some one?
Just sharing a pretty cool new trading site and blog I found yesterday. Looks like they have an interesting strategy of always being 100% long or short the market and never holding cash. The blog has a nice layout as well…
http://www.precisiontradingsolutions.com
http://www.precisiontradingsolutions.blogspot.com
On the Tuscon murders
Anything the left is against is now fair game, beause they ar in “Blame the right” mode. They must be histerical about the last election. This guilt by association has to stop, and hopefully this stuff will back fire on the purveyors. There is a good article on http://www.freemarketsfreepeople.net, “Breaking Political Guilt by Association”
Even though I always knew that Sarah Palin was a dumb cow. I still cannot believe that this dumb cow would inject words as pregnent with toxicity as the “Blood Libel” into this unfortuante incident.
Cursed,
Extreme ideology has the upper hand lately due to its entertainment appeal which has been exploited by the media, and News Corp in particular via FoxNews. That is not to say that a majority of Americans accept extreme ideas as their own, but there are enough who relish the potential outcomes of those ideas and they are avid fans and purchasers of the ideology and its by-products. Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are probably the most visible recent manifestations of this phenomenon. They don’t need to appeal to a majority. They need only attract the avid attention of a die hard and dedicated minority. This is business. You don’t have to have the entire universe of buyers. You only have to have a smll, but dedicated, percentage to enjoy significant financial success. Political ideology has become a commodity in much the same manner as is love, fear, hatred and any other concept that people can feel passionately about. Those, like Palin, learn to play to their audience and that there is little limitation on what the crowd will find acceptable within the range of extreme ideas and inflammatory rhetoric. It’s very easy to excuse one’s own excesses and deny the affects of one’s words and actions even after amking every effort to incite the passions of one’s fans and adherents.
Fan adulation is not the equivalent to universal appeal or acceptance of a product, in this case political ideas. When widely held beliefs conflict with the extreme ideas of a passionate minority the media has an inclination to ride the waves and fan the flames of those passions. Again, a business doesn’t look for the universe of all potential buyers. Profitability is attained by coaxing and catering to a die hard core of adherents. This is the key to the popularity of our purveyors of radicalism. America has a love affair with corporatism and profitability. Where else can a religious ministry be based on financial success, as are some inn this country? Politics and religion are two forms of ideologies with a range of passionate adherents. The “leaders” of each sect plays to the crowd in politics or preaches to the choir in religion, but the affect is the same. Facts don’t count. Only the degree of emotion that can be packaged and marketed is important.
Great story on Tom Brady’s guru at Michigan. This guy was also mentor to Desmond Howard and other notables. Good read.
http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201101/tom-bradys-guru
After I pulled my jaw off my chest I decided Palin is not worth the attention.
ilsm and cursed–I don’t think she knew the meaning and history of the use of this phrase. It just sounded neat and dramatic and so like the kind of thing a powerful Presidential class person would say. She clearly didn’t anticipate the reaction she got. So, one way or another, people around her were either in agreement or unable to deter her. Yeah, words matter. NO
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial was quite good.
I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was memorial for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds.
The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial was quite good.
I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial service. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was memorial for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds.
The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial was quite good.
I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial service. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was memorial service for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds.
The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial service was quite good.
I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial service. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was memorial service for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds.
The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
I thought that President Obama’s speech at the Tuscon, Arizona memorial service was quite good.
I didn’t understand the conduct of some of the university students who attended the memorial service. It appeared that the President and First Lady were uncomfortable with their conduct. This wasn’t a campaign rally, rather it was a memorial service for those who were killed and those who are still recovering from their wounds.
The President set the right tone for the nation…and, in particular, the news media and political commentators.
To add in a point that John Stewart tried to make in his rally it is good for business to spread fear, fear sells! How many times to we hear stories that a study has determined that this bad thing might happen? Do we ever hear studies that conclude good things might happen. For example do people know that there is now more forest in the Eastern US than in 1900? This could be spun as bad news because a lot of farms went bust, or as good news. But good news never gets air or paper time. If you listen to the news enough sometimes its easy to conclude that we are all doomed. Now perphaps this apocolypes fatigue is my own issue having heard about all these bad things since I went off to college in 1968.
I’m confident she didn’t write the material. Of course, by reading it (off of a teleprompter), she endorsed the words. By I doubt she could have even come up with the phrase “blood libel,” let alone use it in an essay.
This is a diary on DKos about (are you ready??) Nature. The person who wrote it is an evolutionary biologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. The reason I’m hoping you’ll click it up is because it contains beautiful pictures of the sky islands in the Chiricahua Mountains of NM and Arizona.
It’s not about economics. Politics. Conservatives versus libruls or any of that stuff. This is just to look at. If you like mountains, you’ll like this. http://www.dailykosbeta.com/story/2011/01/09/888297/-A-More-Ancient-World:-Sky-Islands-and-Desert-Seas-Revisited Enjoy your evening. NancyO
Whoosh! That will be a huge relief to President Obama, not being associated with acts by associates of Bill Ayers back when he (Obama) was not even a teen.
Why do I think this particular doctrine won’t extend to Reverend Wright and Prof Ayers? Just a hunch.
When the Right stops assuming that you can absorb anti-colonialism via your genetic code maybe we can revisit this particular topic.
Jack.
I agree that mobs should never be fed red meat, and feeding mobs is a privleged, with which comes responsibilty.
The mob’s diet has become less balanced by acts of congress, which gave Rupert Murdock a bigger shovel to spread his unwholesomeness, and the supreme court ensured that during elections corporations have the biggest ladle of all.
For the sake of arguement I’ll agree that Rush Limbaugh does throw hunks of raw meat sprinkled with MSG that inflames the mob. OK we treat Rush like a modern Belisarius, and set him out the blind begger. What difference will it make? Clear channel comunications will just toss the golden eib microphone to the next ego, who will be roughly on the same message, about Americans bung holes not stinking, there fore we should smack the sons of Mohamad seven ways past Sunday, and make the world a better place. They will also say that Palin’s ignorance is her redemptive value becaue she obviously doesn’t know red meat from tofu.
“Clear channel comunications will just toss the golden eib microphone to the next ego,” Cursed
I’m sure that that is true. The problem is not only the purveyors of deceit and deception. The national press corps is satisfied to let the hyenas roam unfettered and feed upon the passions of the mob. Note the lead post cioncerningg the fecklessness of the NY Times as it presents a bogus equivalency between the lies of the Republican leadeership and the facts as presented by the CBO. Imagine a US political landscape wherein the headline of the day reads, “Republican Estimates Are Grossly Misleading.” “According to thhe latest estimates and projections of the nonpartisan CBO cost estimates presented by the Republican leadership in their efforts to tear up the Health Care legislation have been grossly misleading and have no basis in fact.” Imagine a political news story that foccuses on facts rather than ideological rhetoric.
Jack
Regaurding the sad fate that befell those poor people in Arizona, and your parcing of the second amendment.
The bits about; freedom to assemble, petition the government keep, right to bear arms, a well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, tell me that it is the patriotic obligation for neighborhood Jethro Bodines to gather for chug and shoots with some supervison, and that guns for hunting and self defense are of secondary import.
Now Jethro Bodines like the parts about being “well regulated”, about as much as you like the idea of chug and shoots, or buffs likes the thought of trying to sell Jethro on forgoing beer long enough for a central Asian campaingn. But this was to be Americans national defense, and I say the world would be a better place if we adhered to it.
I live in Tucson, and have the same feelings I had when Martin King and Bob kennedy were killed.
The shootist seems to be suffering from schizophrenia. What can we do ? Gabby Gifford is a good example of the people from Tucson. Where I live, Jan Brewer, Jon Kyle, and John McCain are not.
Sometimes I think that Tucson is like Florida, politically dominated by a wealthy generation that has forgotten where they came from. Cut benefits, don’t worry current recipients aren’t included.
Is the incendiary screaming and disinformation of Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, Glenn Beck, etc implicated ? Absolutely.
Regaurding the sad fate that befell those poor people in Arizona, and your parcing of the second amendment.
The bits about; freedom to assemble, petition the government, right to keep and bear arms, a well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, tell me that it is the patriotic obligation for neighborhood Jethro Bodines to gather for chug and shoots with some supervison, and that guns for hunting and self defense are of secondary import.
Now Jethro Bodines like the parts about being “well regulated”, about as much as you like the idea of chug and shoots, or buffs likes the thought of trying to sell Jethro on forgoing beer long enough for a central Asian campaingn. But this was to be Americans national defense, and I say the world would be a better place if we adhered to it.
Jack
Regaurding the sad fate that befell those poor people in Arizona, and your parcing of the second amendment.
The bits about; freedom to assemble, petition the government, right to keep and bear arms, a well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, tell me that it is the patriotic obligation for neighborhood Jethro Bodines to gather for chug and shoots with some supervison, and that guns for hunting and self defense are of secondary import.
Now Jethro Bodines like the parts about being “well regulated”, about as much as you like the idea of chug and shoots, or buffs likes the thought of trying to sell Jethro on forgoing beer long enough for a central Asian campaingn. But this was to be Americans national defense, and I say the world would be a better place if we adhered to it.
Will the Tucson killer knock Sarah Palin off the Presidential path ? From the perspective of the weakest Democratic president since Billy Clinton, I don’t think so. Sarah Palin is the dream candidate, from the perspective of the so called Demorats. Just a big enough mouth to get herself heard, dumb enough to make sense to a quorum of the Republican base (the Rush Limbaugh quorum), and a pair of legs that seem to make themselves into a nice …
Anyway. The Republican tendencies of the BO in the WH would love to have the Sarah to debate.
The American Ivy League would like to have Sarah run against their boy, very much.
Gun Control Policies. One has to consider the doomsday scenario (DDS), which thankfully, is not yet illegal (thinking about it).
In the event of an illegal assault of America by the military at the behest of the Government, I guess I would like to have an assault rifle, a bazooka, and, perhaps, a cruise missle. I absolutely refuse to board military personell in my home, like the Kent State provacatueurs, had they needed a place to stay.
Who was the greatest threat to the US: Osama Bin Laden or George Bush. Can my Marlin 22 protect me from the US military ?
A bigger question is: Does the enormous US military establishment actually protect the US ? Or are they like the local police force who would rather fight JQ Citizen than the bad guys ?
The simple answers can be found in the writings, and warnings, of the founders. Keep the banks and the Aristocracy at bay. Too late ?
Obviously, the problem is mental illness. Let’s ban mental illness.
“Imagine a political news story that foccuses on facts rather than ideological rhetoric.”
What bothers me more than the predictable like Fox, Limbaugh, etc. is the unpredictable. As “facts” have been trumped by misleading and false claims, reputable (or thought to be) news treatment has decided that they must “balance” the two. So a news mediator will invite both sides and lead a discussion which, for all intense purposes, tells the audience that “facts” are equal to misinformation.
I quote “facts” here remembering Roberts post about the CBO vs. GOP on health care repeal. The fact is that the CBO has the call even though the call is a best estimate/evaluation of the data. Why would anyone expect CBO to be equivalent to GOP in this case? GOP can ask CBO to explain how they produced the numbers; they can ask CBO to recompute the numbers (for example, using different somewhat possible assumptions); but, they shouldn’t substitute their own (fabrications) without giving CBO the data to reproduce or correct the (fabrications). If CBO can ethically use the GOP analysis, then fabrications become alternative competing projections. At that point it makes sense to “debate” the differences that give rise to the two alternatives.
At least that’s the way I see it. I think it is dangerous to debate when the validity of one side of the argument is known and documented and the other side is merely an undocumented result. Yet this is done every day as though the two are competing claims with equal validity of documentation. That is irresponsible.
Good thing Al Johnston, Bobby Lee and Jeff Davis decided to do prototypes of the von Schleiffen plan.
If they had figured on using militia, in depth, it would have been like Vietnam 100 years earlier.
Good thing for Federals the plantation owners did not want blue uniforms taking over the cotton trade.
Thinking about the dealings 150 years ago.
Good thing Al Johnston, Bobby Lee and Jeff Davis decided to do prototypes of the von Schleiffen plan.
If they had figured on using militia, in depth, it would have been like Vietnam 100 years earlier.
Good thing for Federals the plantation owners did not want blue uniforms taking over the cotton trade.
Well, we have our choices, don’t we? We can put mental patients on the street to self-monitor or we can pay to house them where they can be monitored. Quite frankly I am tired of a society that expects 100% safety from someone (government) when they are unwilling to pay to provide (try to provide) that 100% safety. Where people get it wrong is that American people are not greedy; they are just cowards unwilling to balance two risk levels, that of safety and that of personal wealth. Since 100% utopia is not a reasonable or achievable goal, there should be a reasonable balance.
As I have seen the discussion of the events in Arizona unfold, I am struck by how many people know as a certainty the path not taken. If we had leaders that promoted a civil society, how would this affect the behavior of the population? Would people with mental illness act out in less violent ways and/or would people without mental illnesses recognize and provide for the mentally ill around us? Would nine people in Arizona have had a little meet-up and gone home healthy? For that matter, would inner city homicide be rare? How valid are comparisons to other developed countries that seem to have a less violent population or comparisons to yesterday America?
I don’t know about the path not taken so I have avoided commenting on the leadership questions. But, what I do know, is the path taken doesn’t particularly work and, maybe, it is time to create another fork in the road and try a different direction. But this takes leadership and sacrifice. We, as a society, seem to lack prospects for leaders and are unwilling to sacrifice. In my exhaustion, I conclude that we need to increase our risk level for acceptable personal safety to be in line with our desire for this funny form of “freedom”/”personal responsibility” that we say we want.
In the current case all we did was decide that it is OK to increase the risk for people at that particular event and, perhaps, politicians in general, so we can go away feeling unharmed personally. People need to quit shaking their head and talking about tragedy or they need to at least consider there might be another way we can try. That won’t happen so we shouldn’t talk about the path not taken when we don’t have a clue what it brings.
a simple raise of his hand and a calm down nod from barry would’ve been nice…
well,
i always thought anti colonialism was a good thing. “when in the course of human events…” and all.
it’s not obama’s genes i object to. it’s his advisers.
I don’t think the von Scheiffen plan was ever seen. Schleiffen who would have had the entire German army used for the encirclement of Paris wanted the grenadiers on the right flank to all the way to the English Channel. Von Moltke the younger was too timid to risk it all on the roll of a single die so he keep forces in reserve and made no attempt to envelpe areas close to the channel.
As I understand the battle of Manassas it was the Union Army which tried to envelope Beauregards left flank only to be meet by a stone wall named Jackson. I never thought that the South had an organized or coherent battle plan. Bobby Lee only had command of the Armies of northern Virginia was never able to attempt to implement something on so grand of scale as Schleiffen would have had.
Had the Union fielded a militia of Jethro Bodines, they never have been able to sustain a 100 year effort. Think if you will about efficacy of the Russian soldier historically. They are tough in defense of their mother land, but suck when operating abroad. This is similar to militias. Militia’s would seldom have the logistical ability to wage an offensive war far from home, but stiffen considerable in defense of home and hearth. If you want offensive potential you need a professional army, but if your only concern is defensive then a militia will suffice.
Thaddeus Stevens was probably the least magnanimous individual sense Tamerlane. His bung hole stunk to high heaven and sanctimonious Republicans are blissfully unaware of what a total a hole he was. The unions treatment of the South was totally deplorable.
Anna
Devil’s advocate here. I wouldn’t be too sure. The violence rhetoric in America may have grown organically, with the repubs only taking advantage of it. Rush may not be much more than Dirty Harry without a plot… oh, the other kind of plot.
People I know are convinced they have been harmed by idiot government and by criminals and lazy people. Probably they have. Democrats don’t help themselves by denying that “experienced fact.” They could help themselves by working very hard to make government less arrogant, and defining clearly the difference between people suffering bad luck and those (few) gaming the system, and those criminals not dangerous, and those who are.
This would be hard with the bad guys constantly yelling that all government is “the problem” and all welfare feeds laziness, and “social security is welfare,” and that all “crime” deserves the harshest punishment you can work yourself up to inflicting.
but in general you can’t affect the other side’s rhetoric. you might be able to do something about your own.
I don’t think the von Scheiffen plan was ever seen. Schleiffen who would have had the entire German army used for the encirclement of Paris wanted the grenadiers on the right flank to all the way to the English Channel. Von Moltke the younger was too timid to risk it all on the roll of a single dice so he keep forces in reserve and made no attempt to envelpe areas close to the channel.
As I understand the battle of Manassas it was the Union Army which tried to envelope Beauregards left flank only to be meet by a stone wall named Jackson. I never thought that the South had an organized or coherent battle plan. Bobby Lee only had command of the Armies of northern Virginia was never able to attempt to implement something on so grand of scale as Schleiffen would have had.
Had the Union fielded a militia of Jethro Bodines, they never have been able to sustain a 100 year effort. Think if you will about efficacy of the Russian soldier historically. They are tough in defense of their mother land, but suck when operating abroad. This is similar to militias. Militia’s would seldom have the logistical ability to wage an offensive war far from home, but stiffen considerable in defense of home and hearth. If you want offensive potential you need a professional army, but if your only concern is defensive then a militia will suffice.
Thaddeus Stevens was probably the least magnanimous individual sense Tamerlane. His bung hole stunk to high heaven and sanctimonious Republicans are blissfully unaware of what a total a hole he was. The unions treatment of the South was totally deplorable.
oh, yes, in case it’s not clear. a “culture” of violence will certainly affect the behavior of people on the margins of sanity, which i learned in school was about 20% of the population.
Hey Tergent, using Alexander Hamilton as your avatar is, in your case, an oxymoron and an insult to the man”s ideas and accomplishments. No, Hamilton was not a free market capitalist. He was a strenuous defender of liberty and his fellow man.
Don’t understand how your response relates to anything I said. Sorry.
Anna Lee
Other choices have been tried. Hitler would have had that nut job locked up and probably euthanized, long before he got so violent. He also only allowed broadcasters to follow a carefully tailored script, which promoted the social good. That gambit did not play out to well for him or Germany.
What assurences do I have that I will not be the target of a government hug if we expand the nanny state and allow it to institutionalize troubled people.
When the government moves to control desidence, they will focus on bombasitic ignoramouses like me rather then unctious villians like Willaim Crystal who can advocate genocide with a smile.
I can see that my comment isn’t clear. I never said that the fork go to a nanny state or anything else. I wasn’t thinking of nanny states but of civility and role models. All I did was wonder and CONCLUDE we are the way we are because we seem to want it that way. So why insist our safety, happiness, etc. be guaranteed when we don’t want to invest in the organization we look to to give us a guarantee.
What I have noticed is that everyone is talking about what happens as if they know the underlying causal factors when I can’t deduce that they do. So hells-bells, we can’t be “responsible” when it something we want to control and not be “responsible” when we want someone else in control (think “to blame”). I’ve been seeing people wanting everything both ways depending….
If it’s not clear now, forget it. If you think this says the same as your response implies my first post said, then I think I won’t be able to get anyone on my page.
We could go back to the mental health policies of the 1950s i.e. lock them away and forget about them. It did not cost a lot back then to run the insane asylums, but… Of course you would had better change the attitude about the nature of cruel and unusual. Think of it if you were homeless they put you away, out of sight out of mind, as all the disabled where at that time. (Recall that FDR did not make public his disability, and worked to hide it as much as possible). Now the question is do we want to go back then, I doubt it, but it worked. Under the definition of a threat to themselves and others, we could also put terrorists away, they are a threat to others so… No crime involved just say that a desire to kill for god is a mental disease end of story.
Now I am not pushing these suggestions, but point out that history does supply ways of coping, many of which modern ideas are inconsistent with.
Lyle,
Reverting to institutionalization of the mentally ill isn’t going to solve the “loose cannon”
problem. First, it costs a fortune to keep people locked up, fed and clothed. Someone has to be there to watch and hold. Second, those locked into the “asylums” are only the one’s that have been identified. Most of the loose nuts and bolts are bouncing around free to be what ever their twisted world allows them to be. Worse yet, Lougher is described as having exhibited behaviors that would most likely lead to a diagnosis of some form of psychosis, detachment from reality, lack of slef control, delusional thinking.
What do we do with the socio/psychopaths? They seem normal in every respect. They just like to take what they want and the rest of the world can just screw off. They’re mean and hurtful in the extreme. What do we do about them before they kill some one?