Comments Posted By Michael S.
Displaying 21 To 30 Of 32 Comments
Michael R. -
Would you please leave us poor drunken sailors out of the equation? That metaphor so poorly describes our current economic situation and it is being completely overused by all the talking heads, both left and right. Having been one for over 10 years, I know what of I speak. The drunken sailor has been and always will be limited by the cash he or she has in their pocket. Once spent, it's back to the ship to eagerly await the next payday to repeat the cycle yet again. The drunken sailor is about foolish spending choices (which does to apply to our current situation), but has never been about insane indebtedness and mortgaging our economic future and phantom fortunes. Although the drunken sailor may turn to their shipmates with the ever-classic request of "If you loan me $20 today, I'll pay you back $40 on payday", but they always make good on their debts or are held supremely accountable by their peers. And there's the real kicker ... accountability. Something so completely lacking in such a large part of our society today.
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 2.03.2009 @ 12:08
Michael R.
You know what they say ... If you can't beat them, join them. Guess we'll have to ask our current crop of Democratic (Cabinet) members what the best tax cheat strategies are ... or maybe we shouldn't as they did finally get caught.
Sorry, but 8 years of Republicanism didn't cause this mess alone. It's been a great many years of complete and total political crapulence from both sides of aisle, hand-in-hand with gross over-consumerism from every level of the population. Yet I only rarely hear anyone who is willing to really get down to the root of this whole disaster.
How in the world in the space of just one generation did we go from a society where in most cases a family could live comfortably on one income? Yes, prices have gone up, but so have wages so it is much, much more than just that. It's our relentless pursuit of the latest, latest everything. No longer is anyone content with simply keeping up with the Joneses, now we must one-up them in everything they do.
I don't often visit a mall anymore (gotta love online shopping), but did so recently and it was somewhat eye-opening. 100,000+ s.f. of our economy in a microcosm. Store after store selling stuff we really don't need to buy, mostly produced in some other country, all sucking up ungodly amounts of resources to be put on display.
A house is no longer a home, it's an investment. Something to be flipped for a huge profit in just a few years. Wall St. cheats because we want them to cheat. We throw them trillions of dollars looking to live large in an early retirement and look the other way and don't ask questions. None of it is real money ... how else could it simply all disappear overnight?
And that's the problem in a nutshell. Years and years of spending money we didn't have cannot be fixed by simply upping the ante and spending even more.
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 1.03.2009 @ 17:43
REFLECTIONS ON GOD, MAN, AND CPAC
Rick -
'Diversity' ... now there's a word that boggles my mind and gets on my nerves. While I would certainly agree that education is key, I would go one step further and argue that not only are conservative values and principles not being taught in the classroom, but, even worse, they are often demonized and completely misrepresented under the misnomer of diversity. If one's first real exposure to 'the right' is the talking heads of talk radio, how could anyone be anything but turned off if the only 'diverse, multi-sided perspective' being taught in the classroom is that they (the left) are correct and anything we (the right) think is incorrect. Diversity is anything but what is happening in our classrooms today particularly at the college level. Professors and classmates dismissal of opposing viewpoints; conformity at the risk of public humiliation or failing grades; allowing any 'left-wing' group on campus for rallies, demonstrations, or whatever while telling Christian, Republican or other 'right-wing' groups sorry, but you aren't allowed to use campus facilities. No you can't pray at school, but we are going to mandate that you must take courses in Muslim, Black, Minority, Diverse studies. Sorry, but most of what passes today under the guise of 'diversity' is anything but diverse.
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 26.02.2009 @ 09:47
BURRIS WHINES THAT 'MEDIA AND REPUBLICANS ARE ALMOST DESTROYING MY CHARACTER'
bsjones -
Sorry, but you cannot have it both ways. You start your argument by stating the bias has nothing to do with right or left, but then 'prove' your contention by asserting the MSM is willfully biased in their preaching to their respective choirs. You further support this by stating that they (the MSM) is being intentionally manipulated by both the right and the left and that journalists aren't even smart enough to realize that they have been manipulated into supporting one side or the other in their reporting. So, is their reporting biased (by right and left politics) or not? You have argued it both ways.
The bigger picture, in my opinion, is that mainstream journalism has become infotainment. The titillation and teasing that used to be the forte of such rags as the National Enquirer have now become completely accepted forms of journalism. Most every night anymore you get tweaked throughout prime time with such come-ons like 'Water, why is killing you' and 'Breathing and why you shouldn't do it'. Just tune it @ 11pm and we'll give you all the details. I put the blame as much (if not more) though on the audience and not the MSM itself. This is seemingly what the majority or our American Idol loving population wants to see. Oh please, do not try and educate me during the news, just give me more entertainment. War, don't want to hear no more ... but who is JLo dating this week, all the details please.
In regards to this specific thread, the reporting has been and will continue to be completely biased by politics. To make it worse race will also be a factor just as it was throughout the presidential election.
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 19.02.2009 @ 07:27
@bsjones
I agree this applies to American politics in general, but would contend that Chicago (amongst others) is politics on steroids. Yes there may be guilt by association in Mather's post, but I think you miss his bigger question. The question is not specifically why won't/didn't the MSM investigate his 'Chicago corruption', but why won't they investigate him at all. This despite the fact (to quote MSM's Tom Brokaw) "We don't know a lot about Barack Obama or what his world view is". Please tell why this is? The MSM was literally tripping over themselves to get any story about Sarah Palin to the presses, but was unusually silent about the utter dearth of information available about Mr Obama prior to his arrival on the national scene. To illustrate my point, do you know (and this is something that pretty much no one I ask knows the answer to) how many truly contested elections that Mr Obama won prior to be elected President?
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 18.02.2009 @ 08:19
I'm not a legal expert, but as far as I understand the situation there is no way for we the people to have any direct say in this matter. Unless there are some legal grounds which could be used to nullify or negate his appointment, once he has been accepted and seated he cannot be removed by any type of popular or (state) legislative means. The Congress, Vice Presidency and Presidenct are Constitutionally self-regulating. There is absolutely no means to conduct any type of recall vote and the only way to remove anyone from one of these positions is through the Congressional impeachment and conviction process. Given what potentially is at stake here ... loss of the 60-seat majority (barring the seating of Al Franken once the mess in Minnesota is ever decided) ... I cannot forsee this ever happening. Oh I fully expect a great deal of foo-fooing, but I have no doubt the final answer will be ... "We'll he did finally tell us himself all about this", and "He says he didn't actually give any money to Blago. He'll get a slap on the wrist and by the time he comes up for (re)election this will all convienently forgotten about.
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 17.02.2009 @ 19:57
CPAC AGENDA SHOWS CONSERVATIVES STILL IN DENIAL
And which side would that be Richard Chicago???
The side that is going to dictate which kind of light bulbs we use; how much carbon we're permitted to exhale with each breath or each item produced; what we can eat or drink if we want to be eligible for the state-mandated health coverage; or what we are even allowed to hear on the radio or read on the Internet. Those are all ideas coming from the side you claim isn't telling us how we MUST live our lives. The side that includes funding for smoking cessation in the stimulus, passes every smoking ban possible (even in your own car or house if they get their way) and then decides the way to raise funding for the S-CHIP expansion is to raise the cigarette tax.
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 16.02.2009 @ 18:36
HATE TO RUIN YOUR WEEKEND, BUT...
Sorry Moon, but government spending does not and cannot create jobs. At best it can be said to support jobs or, more specifically, it moves jobs from the private to the public sector. This is all done at the expense of the taxpayer using non-existent money that has to be printed or borrowed. The 2009 budget was $3.1 trillion and projected revenues were $2.7 trillion. This means we were already $400 billion in the hole before this whole spending spree even started. If government spending truly worked the way you claim, Japan would have never had their 'Lost Decade' and our Great Depression would not have dragged on for years. Despite the massive spending and the endless works programs of the New Deal (which we seem so desperate to repeat), unemployment remained relatively unchanged. There were ups and downs for sure, but overall it pretty much stayed at %18. For more information, check out:
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 15.02.2009 @ 08:07
http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg2208.cfm
Michael R. -
I have a quarter I'd love to send you so you could buy a clue. Regarding expenditures by the Bush government, I certainly don't agree with a lot of what he did. I know most true conservatives abhor a great deal what he and the current crop of 'Republican' politicians have done supposedly in the name of conservatism. But then again, you seem to be the overly simplistic type that automatically assumes that conservative = republican and vice versa. And even worse, that we (conservatives)blindly agree and support everything done by 'our' side. That said, how about we look at a few real numbers now. 2008 cost for the Medicare prescription program was $44 billion ($6 billion less than expected). Expenditures to date for the War on Terror to include Iraq and Afghanistan (2001-2008) ~860 billion total. So in one month in office and in just this one bill, President Obama pretty much equals that spending. And this does not include the unknown amount ($1 trillion or more) for Mr Geitner's completely clueless and unexplainable bank bailout plan nor any of the other back-door wheeling and dealing started by the Bush administation and continued and expanded by the Obama administration.My biggest grief is the current budget is already $3.1 Trillion and ALREADY includes funding for all these very same things. Having worked for and around the federal government for years, I KNOW untold billions are being wasted on a daily basis and now we are going to throw another trillion dollars into the mix. What happened to Obama's promise to make all his proposals spending neutral; his guarantee to go through the budget LINE by LINE and eliminate wasteful programs; his promise to post all legislation on the Internet for a minimum of five days for public examination and comment ... words (lies), just words (lies). I absolutely shudder thinking about what the Obama administration's first (2010) budget is going to be ... In fact, I have another quarter I'd like to bet that it is over 4 trillion dollars.
In the words of the immortal Forrest Gump .... stupid is as stupid does.
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 14.02.2009 @ 16:53
OBAMA GLIDES THROUGH PRESSER UNCHALLENGED
Don't know about you Chuck, but I cringe every time he goes on his 'this is a stimulus, no I mean a spending, no it's all the same thing' jag. And more so that he gets so obviously annoyed by the very question. In all seriousness though, what is all you guys take on his use of an obvious pre-selected list of journalist's to call on for questions. I'm have no doubt previous presidents all had their 'favorite' reporters that always seemed to get picked to ask questions ... is this any different? Is he really just such a rookie that he doesn't actually know the faces and names of the usual suspects in the White House reporter pool? Or is there something intentional going on here? Sure you already saw this Rick, but check out ...
Comment Posted By Michael S. On 10.02.2009 @ 12:31
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/10/black-reporters-unhappy-with-obama/
