There was actually a fair amount of news yesterday, even if it will all be forgotten by noon in the avalanche blatherthon of New Hampshire’s primary. It’s hard, channel-surfing, not to get sick to your stomach with the ignorant-to-buffoonish analysis that is supposed to pass for punditry. If we’ve learned anything from the ludicrously bipolar coverage — Hillary’s a lock, no wait, she’s dead! … ‘New Populism’ reigns supreme, er, McCain is King! and on and on — it’s that the pop generalizations just don’t work. No wonder The New York Times ran Sunday’s op-ed piece observing that the news media and TV advertising simply aren’t factoring into electoral decisions any more. It’s word on the street, baby…take it to the bank.
OK, this was supposed to be about yesterday’s headlines, and we’ve got some good ones, even if the material beneath them could use some word off the street as well. Housing prices, as you’ve been reading here on HA since the Fall 2007 days of “can’t happen here” local headlines, have been verified statistically to have hit the wall. Both papers have lead stories, The Times being the better reported while still relying on the impeccably unbiased, rock-solid reliable Windermere Services Co. for the upside. The P-I has a hilarious quote about the market having bottomed out and prices actually on the rise. Maybe they should interview these realtors about the benefits of relaxed marijuana laws. Reality-check that quote with The Times piece: “He wants to sell his Granite Falls home of four years. But he’s feeling ‘very unsure, just like most’ about whether the local residential real-estate market has hit bottom.’
I for one would hereby like to say I am not unsure: PUT DOWN THAT DOOBIE! IT HASN’T HIT BOTTOM! OK????
One clue comes from a conversation I had last week with a Seattle realtor about a North End property:
Realtor: “It’s been sold on contingency.”
Me: “Contingency? Now there’s a term I haven’t heard in awhile.”
Realtor: “Oh yes, it’s coming back.”
I checked a couple of days later. The house is back on the market, guess that contingency didn’t work out (wink wink).
You learn a lot walking the street and talking with folks. It does require passing on the budget meetings and getting out of the damn office.
If more reporters did that, we might not have to rely on state audits to uncover Port corruption. In a world of an aggressive press, there would be daily stories about the need for heads to roll at the Port. Instead a passive media sits on its hands and waits for the Justice Department to do something, so they will have some official source to quote.
What else… With Starbucks stock slowly sinking in the West, the coffee giant canned its CEO and is bringing back none other than icon Howard Schultz to run the operation. With the Sonics no longer a pother, Schultz can now focus on doing for Starbucks what he did for Seattle basketball…no wait, that doesn’t read right. Howard we luv ya! But bringing you back isn’t going to make Peet’s and Herkimer and Zoka and the whole new “greening” slash localization of coffee go away, to say nothing of jittery aging boomer nerves. One word: Tea. It’s the new espresso.
There’s other stuff too, including the Zoo’s insemination of Chai in a story that misspells Alyne Fortgang’s name and could use a hard-nosed followup, but tell you what. I’ll leave them for tomorrow’s headlines, make that headline, reporter. Once again I dodged the elections bullet, but for tomorrow there will always be jaw-droppers like this.
While I lke thematic analysis as much as the next guy, isn’t this carrying it a bit far? Compare:
“One word: Tea. It’s the new espresso.”
to
“…the Zoo’s insemination of Chai…”
With only a nano-second of contemplation, you come to the realization that there’s something vaguely creepy about pregnant tea.
That’s what you get when you keep screwing around with Mother Nature in an effort to short circuit the process.
The Piper
Fox News won’t allow Ron Paul into a debate despite his relatively good poll numbers and some of his supporters catch Sean Hannity in public. This is an entertaining video.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....80352.html
Paul, you skipped over the church news. Kirkland Christians to lead jihad against Microsoft. All those nutty family values folks drinking Ken Hutcherson’s cool aid and lining his pockets. Mencken said something like, “church is where folks who have never been to heaven brag about it to folks who are never going to get there.” Fits the Kirkland bozos to a T.
Please, enough with the sky is falling real estate news. Buying real estate as a get rich quick scheme is definitely a no-go. But people are still buying homes to live in. And since Seattle is creating jobs and there’s a net inflow of new residents, they gotta live somewhere. We may be running out of people willing to buy $700K one bedroom condos downtown, but there are still a lot of people looking for reasonably priced condos or houses. The number of condo sales closing in Dec 07 was only 2.5% below Dec 06, and the median condo price of those closings was 2.7% higher than in Dec 06.
@2…FSN…
Entertaining? Looked more like a mob to me.
The Piper
@2 Fox News Sucks,
I don’t consider polling in single digits, in most polls, to be “relatively good poll numbers.”
Pooper @ 5
That video is evidence of how your party is tearing itself to shreds – the fringie ideologues (Paul supporters) vs the greedheads (Hannity, Faux News).
I’M TOTALLY LOVIN’ IT!
This is news:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ts08m.html
I can’t see how it is possible with all those assault weapons being legal to offer now (serious bayonet danger), gun show loopholes, and Washingtonians able to carry concealed pistols. My goodness.
@7…YLB…
Oh? Does that explain why the Dem answer to Nurse Ratched is doing her best Rosa Kleb imitation, aided by Bad Bill the Boy Wonder, to slime her numero uno opponent?
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.....vilrights/
http://www.abcnews.go.com/vide.....id=4102345
If I were Barack Obama, I’d keep a close eye on whatever might pop out of the toe of HRC’s shoe.
Ordinarily, rattlesnakes don’t commit suicide, but there are exceptions to every rule.
The Piper
@5 Piper, have you ever seen Hannity in action. The guy is a bully. This was HIS kind of crowd! Does everything have to be explained to you Piper?
”
@6 Upton Thompson is invited to the debate.
From http://www.roryoconnor.org/blo.....ey-decide/
“Ron Paul actually is ahead of Thompson (6 percent to 4 percent) among all New Hampshire voters in the most recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, or that the two were tied with the support of 4 percent of likely voters… Forget as well the fact that Paul recently shattered the record for online fundraising in a single day, raising nearly $6 million in 24 hours – a little more than a month after he amazed the pollsters, pundits and political professionals by hauling in $4.3 million during the same time span.”
It’s lookin’ like Hillary is going to lose to Obama for the nomination. Oh well…
#2: If I remember right Paul had poll in the double digits before the debate. He was at the 8-9% level Did Paul poll double digits?
I guess the fact that you suck is precious!
@10…FNS…
I watch Hannity & Colmes nearly every evening. Sean is a tough, New York Irish Catholic commentator in a tradition going back many score years. But he routinely has on and engages in friendly banter with any number of “the opposition,” Al Sharpton being a prime example.
That he’s two-fisted means what exactly? You regard him as a bully because he doesn’t kowtow to your B.S. Tough noogies! New York is a rough town where politics and political commentary is a take-no-prisoners contact sport. Claiming someone is a “bully” tells the world that you’re not up to the task since you’re too chicken to mix it up.
Ask HRC how well the “bully card” played for her.
The Piper
3 The really fun part about this one is that the good Rev. Hutcherson wants each and every loyal believer to buy three shares of Microsoft, and then turn one of them over to him!
@3
Thank you, ratcityreprobate, for helping to put the eyes on this blog on the antics of HUTCH.
This clown gets way too much respect from way too many people, and his negative side demands thinking people to be aware. He digs his own grave, but the there is a danger that gravy that he floats in will obscure this fact.
WATCH HUTCH!!!!!
Read more here:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....sft08.html
But Fox News (sic) is a respectable news organization:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/.....-ap-story/
9 – I sense a note of desperation Pooper.
Your wretched corrupt party has nothing to bring to the American people except more of the same failed policies.
David Frum called it right on the money – you are morally and intellectually exhausted.
You’re running on fumes and tearing yourselves to pieces. This couldn’t have happened to nicer people.
In the internet age, the sharp knives and elbows, the robocalls, the push-polls, the dirty tricks are all out there for everyone to see. The MSM is starting to live off the net – after getting the spin from the pols and their people, they turn to the bloggers. It’s a whole new world.
And it sure doesn’t look good for your corrupt, wretched party.
New York is a rough town where politics and political commentary is a take-no-prisoners contact sport.
We don’t mind rough Pooper.
We despise liars, cheats, thieves and cowards.
Those are the people that signs Hannity’s paycheck.
We despise liars, cheats, thieves and cowards.
Those are the people that signs Hannity’s paycheck.
And the one who cashes it.
@13 Piper
So you criticize the Paul supporters as a “mob” for exhibiting the “two-fisted” characteristics you so admire in Hannity.
Piper you and Puddy and Fox News are great examples of why the Republican Party will be out of power for the next 12 years at least. Go to wikepedia Piper and look up ass and hole in the ground and study how to tell one from the other.
@13 Piper
So you criticize the Paul supporters as a “mob” for exhibiting the “two-fisted” characteristics you so admire in Hannity.
Piper you and Puddy and Fox News are great examples of why the Republican Party will be out of power for the next 12 years at least. Go to wikepedia Piper and look up ass and hole in the ground and study how to tell one from the other.
Hey Pooper,
The surge is working!
Baghdad:
#1: The same day, gunmen kidnapped eight Awakening members at a checkpoint in Shaab, a mainly-Shiite neighbourhood in northeastern Baghdad where Awakening members have taken control of security, an Iraqi official said. “Gunmen in five cars arrived in Shaab neighbourhood on Monday evening and abducted eight Shiite Awakening members who were controlling a checkpoint,” the interior ministry official said on Tuesday.
#2: Ismael Abbas, the Awakening leader in Shaab, was shot dead in the street by gunmen using silencers, he added.
#3: In other violence in the capital on Tuesday, a police colonel was shot dead by unknown attackers in the mainly-Shiite Zafaraniyah neighbourhood in southeastern Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.
Around 7 a.m., gunmen assassinated an officer of the ministry of interior “ Mohammad Aziz Al-Gatia in his car in Zafrania neighborhood ( east Baghdad) .
#4: In the western Mansour neighbourhood, a tax department official was shot dead by gunmen as he left his home.
Gunmen using weapons with silencers killed the deputy manager of the Mansour district tax office in western Baghdad, police said.
#5: A roadside bomb killed the chief of the Yarmouk District Council, Salih Mansour Hussein, and wounded two of his bodyguards in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad, police said.
#6: Around 3 p.m., two mortars hit Medain district ( south of Baghdad ) injuring 2 people.
#7: Around 3 .30 p.m., a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Rashid camp neighborhood ( south east Baghdad) . No casualties reported.
#8: Police found 5 unidentified dead bodies in the following neighborhood in Baghdad: ( 3 ) dead bodies were found in west Baghdad ( Karkh bank ) ; 1 in Doura , 1 in Bayaa and Amil . While ( 2 ) were found in east Baghdad ( Risafa bank) ; 1 in Ubaidi and 1 in Fudhailiyah.
And that’s just Baghdad.
Sure sucks to be you Pooper!
http://warnewstoday.blogspot.c.....-2008.html
The Bushies and Maliki are sure into “democracy”:
http://www.alternet.org/story/71144/
@2
The video isn’t up anymore, but you can find it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p9uBLqz958
Looked like Republicans acting like Republicans to me!
@2
The video isn’t up anymore, but you can find it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p9uBLqz958
Looked like Republicans acting like Republicans to me!
@2
The video isn’t up anymore, but you can find it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p9uBLqz958
Looked like Republicans acting like Republicans to me!
@2
The video isn’t up anymore, but you can find it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p9uBLqz958
Looked like Republicans acting like Republicans to me!
“That’s what you get when you keep screwing around with Mother Nature in an effort to short circuit the process.”
The Piper
Does this insight of yours extend to global warming — or just Panda sex?
@22: YLB
The level of violence in Iraq is down because Al Sadr and the Mahdi army have a truce with US forces and elsewhere we are buying sunnis to fight al qaida BUT:
1. Gen. Petreus said that the surge was just an opportunity for a political solution – there has been little or no progress on oil splits, political splits etc. – by the definition of the General – the surge is a failure.
2. 2007: the most US military deaths yet.
3. Political solutions: None – except that idiot McCain saying we will be in Iraq for 100 years.
The bottom line – by Petreus’ own definition, the surge is a failure. Yet every republican candidate (except looney Paul) has claimed the surge is working.
re 13: Hannity’s no Jimmy Breslin. He’s a corporate pimp — nothing more.
His real surname is “Hansky”.
Think Progress: Isn’t this the site that had to eat the Phony Soldiers comment?
I went to RonPaul2008.com and I didn’t see any mention of him visiting Wyoming after September.
I went to Billings Montana and they only said this:”The exception is Paul, a Texas congressman who has been buying newspaper ads.” http://www.billingsgazette.net.....18-gop.txt
Maybe you Moonbat!s drink too much of the Stink NoProgress white sticky kool-aid!
Not saying dismissed with prejudice just yet but find me a site that said he visited. Looks like the Trib took this and ran with it.
@20…FNS…
Huge difference between spirited debate that takes place behind a news desk and a bunch of shouting, sign banging, angry people chasing someone down the street.
That you don’t know the difference isn’t surprising. The Ron Paul supporters’ style of debate is how libs and the tolerance crowd treat anyone with whom they disagree who tries to speak on a college campus.
http://www.city-journal.org/ht.....peech.html
Just how clean are your hands? Will I see you defend the right of, say, David Horowitz to speak on a college campus rather than be physically assaulted by leftist thugs and criminals who violently seek to censor what others wish to hear?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....over_x.htm
Who’s your First Amendment Daddy now, sucks?
Don’t like Fox News, don’t watch! I con’t care to watch the Clinton News Network or MSNothingButCrazies where Keith Olbermann foams at the mouth like a rabid dog.
In the meantime, exault a mob all you want; it only shows your try lynch-leaning colors.
The Piper
re 31: “Think Progress: Isn’t this the site that had to eat the Phony Soldiers comment?”
This sentence of yours contains three lies (or, for Republicans, ‘misstatements’). In it’s own way, this is quite an achievement.
@30…HL…
And your real name is? Besides Hate-Monger, that is.
Snarky attempts to sneer at ethnic derivations using the old, “…his real name is…” evidence just how bigoted you are.
The Piper
Okay mr 24/7 lucy: What are the “three lies”? Since you want to go there again…
So why won’t you answer how you feel if OBAMA is the POTUS?
Would you buy an economic system from this man?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi
Capitalism is a chain letter, a pyramid scheme, a phony get-rich-quick scheme of the sort they sell on late-night infomercials. It used to take 40 workers to support 1 CEO, but now it takes 550 workers to support a CEO, and it will soon take trillions of workers to support a single CEO!! Clearly, this doesn’t work and isn’t sustainable. The whole fraud of pirate capitalism is collapsing on itself. Then you humans will disappear, rabbits will run this place — and I’ll be their king!!!
re 32: How did you feel about this angry mob, Piper?
“This angry mob, which successfully stopped the recount in Miami-Dade County during the 2000 election standoff, was portrayed by the media as an uprising by Florida voters.”
http://politicalhumor.about.co.....gopmob.htm
Here are the identities of the protesters:
1. Tom Pyle, policy analyst, office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).
2. Garry Malphrus, majority chief counsel and staff director, House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice.
3. Rory Cooper, political division staff member at the National Republican Congressional Committee.
4. Kevin Smith, former House Republican conference analyst and more recently of Voter.com.
5. Steven Brophy, former aide to Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.), now working at the consulting firm KPMG.
6. Matt Schlapp, former chief of staff for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), now on the Bush campaign staff in Austin.
7. Roger Morse, aide to Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.).
8. Duane Gibson, aide to Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) of the House Resources Committee.
9. Chuck Royal, legislative assistant to Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
10. Layna McConkey, former legislative assistant to former Rep. Jim Ross Lightfoot (R-Iowa) now at Steelman Health Strategies.”
Piper I do watch that liberal crap. How else does one know? I post their horseshit (direct from the horsesass)! The beauty of a multi-split screen TV is you can have then all on, zero in on the ticker or what subject and visit L-N later to catch the transcript.
But Pelletizer@36 you recently said:
http://www.horsesass.org/?p=4069#comment-725944, so how can this be?
“It does require passing on the budget meetings and getting out of the damn office.”
A rash thing to do, Paul. They always cut your job at the meeting you didn’t attend.
The people who run workplaces are cowards. They always do dirt to you behind your back, never to your face.
Piper, #1 was a classic!
As for Paul’s exclusion from the FNC debates, you’d think that the guy that’s generally polling in third or fourth place this early in the season would be on the debate. But FNC (let’s face it, they are the unofficial media outlet for the RNC) sees Paul pretty much the same way as their masters – as dangerous challengers to the Republican (Rovian) orthodoxy. However, considering the extremism of many of Paul views, is it necessarily such a bad idea in keeping him out of the mainstream? And let’s face it, the only reason Paul gets any love from the Left is because of the headache he’s given the GOP base.
I don’t think Paul is that bad a guy. To be quite honest, I don’t think any of the candidates from either party are necessarily bad people (though if I had to put a bass player in the White House, it wouldn’t be Huckabee – how ’bout Bootsy Collins?). But Paul’s skeletons are just too big and ugly to ignore. But I’m still convinced that with all that money he’s raised, and with as loyal a bunch as he has (chasing Hannity – that was a hoot!), Paul will bolt, perhaps going back to the Libertarian Party, and stage a third-party candidacy that will drain votes from both sides, albeit more from the right than left.
And as for the rest of the post, do we need any more reason to stop media consolidation? That crap would never see the light of day with a dedicated, OBJECTIVE news corps that actually was allowed to, y’know, report on important local stories? But since that isn’t profitable, you know that was the first thing they cut back on……..
@37…HL…
Know why you’re such a loser? You can’t get over 2000.
That you fixate on it even today, and probably will until you die a bitter and very lonely death, proves how pathetically worthless and shallow your POV is.
Everything must revolve around 2000, even if it has nothing to do with 2000. Being stuck in the past replaying grievances over and over and over and over and over…is how we got violence in the Middle East, Ireland, the Balkans and all the other places around th world where one faction butchers members of another all in memory of age old feuds.
If what happened in 2000 was mob-like as you allege, then why don’t you condemn the clear, cogent, and convincing evidence that you can see with your own eyes of a mob chasing Sean Hannity down a New Hampshire street?
No…and that exposes just how un-democratic and facist at heart you are: selective morality and anything goes, even violence, is permissable if it advances your POV.
Have a lot of brown shirts, do you?
The Piper
A Tale of Two Economic Systems
This is a story of two economic systems. One is called the “Worker” system and we’ll say the other is the “Owner” system.
In the “Worker” system, you get up early in the morning, jerk yourself away with a pot of joe, fight through traffic, empty your pockets for a high-priced parking spot (if you can find one), then sit in a cubicle all day worrying about what’s going on in the managers’ meeting behind closed doors — will your job be eliminated today? And at the end of the month, all your money goes to pay creditors, because you’ve spent your entire adult life living beyond your means because you thought it was necessary to keep buying “stuff” driven by the fear that other drones like you would look down on you if you didn’t.
In the “Owner” system, you sleep until noon, hop to the kitchen when you feel like it and spike your coffee with Jim Beam if you want to, don’t bother to get dressed, don’t go anywhere, never worry about what other people are doing in meetings, never attend any meetings, then sit all day on your fat rabbit ass in front of a computer screen getting paid for doing no work and producing nothing! And pay 1/3 the tax rate that workers do.
Well, such a system exists, and right here on this planet! Clearly, we live in a class society, and there’s two classes: Workers and Owners. And let me tell you — being an Owner beats the shit out of being a worker!! I’ll never work again. Why should I? I live under an economic system that rewards people for living off the work of others, and punishes people for working, so where’s the incentive to work? The less you produce in this country, the more you get paid, and the better you live! I know it sounds crazy, but that’s the way it is.
I hope you enjoyed today’s story.
jerk yourself awake
@41…RR…
Didn’t you write the book on that? And typify it daily by hiding behind a pseudonym?
The Piper
And while I can’t stand Hannity, well……can any guy really front on him that much after they see this?
http://www.bunnyranch.com/phpA.....038;var2=0
@40…RR…
You should have skipped more meetings.
The Piper
Pelletizer@45: That’s what Clueless Gooberfool does when he watches his favorite Fox News videos.
@47…BJ…
Odd, since Dennis Hof, owner of the Bunny Ranch, is a Ron Paul supporter.
BTW…how long have you had this thing for Air Force Amy?
The Piper
“Howard we luv ya! But bringing you back isn’t going to make Peet’s and Herkimer and Zoka and the whole new ‘greening’ slash localization of coffee go away, to say nothing of jittery aging boomer nerves. One word: Tea. It’s the new espresso.”
I gotta say you don’t know much about the coffee business, Paul. It’s clear there’s 2 things you haven’t done lately: Look at a Peets financial statement, and go into a Starbucks. Bottom line: Peets isn’t making money, and Starbucks has been selling tea for years.
At one time, the $1,500 I put into Starbucks was worth over $30,000. Sure, SBUX has dropped 50% in the last year — but I’ve still got a 10-bagger. And with the stock price this depressed and with Howard coming back on boad, this seems like a good time to buy more of it.
Peets? I’ll let you put your money in Peets. I’ve got better things to do with my capital.
After the Republican Party expires in November, what would be the most appropriate means by which to dispose of the fetid, rotting corpse? Should we do nothing and simply let vermin and maggots pick the bones clean? Should we send it to the Bush compound in Kennebunkport and let them figure out what to do (not that that family has ever cleaned up after anyone)? Or, perhaps we should mummify the corpse and display it as a monument to what happens when greed, corruption, and cynicism take over a political body? I don’t think it’s too early to start considering this important issue.
Here’s a new video from the incredible Robert Greenwald on Obama and the hideous obscenity that is the Faux Noise Channel:
http://foxattacks.com/obama
Faux Noise sucks indeed!
52 – cremate the corpse and aim the ashes at the farthest star out there.
We don’t want those atoms reaching back here if we can possibly help it.
We can mummify the corpse and display it for educational purposes but some agent of the devil might revive it.
We can’t afford to take that chance.
Latest Zogby New Hampshire Poll
Obama leads Clinton, 42% to 29%, with Edwards a distant third at 17%.
McCain leads Romney, 36% to 27%, with Huckabee at 10% way back in the pack with Giuliani and Ron Paul at 9% each.
The first two contests don’t tell the whole story, of course, but I get the feeling the Democratic race is almost over, and on the GOP side Giuliani will soon founder, Romney is faltering, and Huckabee is going nowhere. From where I sit, at this moment, it looks like it might be an Obama – McCain matchup in November. Obama would win easily, because the hard-core conservatives hate McCain, and with no one to vote for, they’ll stay home and pout.
Think Progress: Isn’t this the site that had to eat the Phony Soldiers comment?
No, that was Lush.
If those numbers hold up, I think it’ll seal Edwards’ fate, because he did campaign hard in New Hampshire and this result, coupled with his showing in Iowa, would demonstrate that his brand isn’t selling. And I do believe the handwriting is on the wall for Hillary. I’m pretty sure the Democratic side is rapidly becoming a one-person race, although it’ll take a couple more states to validate that conclusion.
@46 I certainly hope so, piper. Doing dirt to Republicans is my stock in trade … in the same fashion that a stern jail guard makes prison life miserable for a child rapist. Do I detect some whining on your part? http://tinyurl.com/2tt6mb I suppose it doesn’t occur to you that you and your GOP cohorts having it coming.
@48 Hard to argue with you there, crackpiper, but I learned my lesson and haven’t attended a work meeting for several years now. And I’m trying hard to stay on the wagon! No more employment for me … I live like a Republican now!
@49 You have personal knowledge of this?
@52 “After the Republican Party expires in November, what would be the most appropriate means by which to dispose of the fetid, rotting corpse?”
Send it to China to remove the toxic components and process the rest into pig feed, of course.
@46 “hiding behind a pseudonym”
Actually, there’s some history you don’t know about. There used to be a strident troll on this board who called himself “prr” and challenged me to meet him at Drinking Liberally. I told him (on this board) that I would, and he responded, “I’ll be there.”
DL meets from 8 PM to 10 PM. I showed up at 7:30 PM and stayed until the bartender locked the doors. At frequent intervals throughout the evening, I went around to all the people I didn’t recognized and asked, “Are you prr?” No takers. Knowing what kind of person I was dealing with, I lined up some eyewitnesses to verify the fact I was at DL and prr wasn’t.
The next day, sure enough, prr was back on this board claiming he had showed up at DL. Well, piper, as an ex-lawyer you know what witnesses are for — exposing liars.
It didn’t matter that prr doesn’t know my real name. He didn’t have to find me; I went to the appointed time and place, and gave him the opportunity to make good on his boast. I was there, he wasn’t. ‘Nuff said.
The moral of this tale, piper, is that I’m not hiding from you rightwing freaks, and the pseudonym is irrelevant, because the only thing that prevented prr from testing his mettle against the rabbit was his own cowardice.
Of course, it goes without saying that the devoted adherents of the Party of Draft Dodgers and Deferments are all talk and bluster, and when push comes to shove they’re nowhere to be found.
ATJ@57: Wrong silly little man!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....9199.shtml
You must mean: Tom Harkin boasted that he had flown F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions in Vietnam. Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Robert Sorensen was a Connecticut state representative running for reelection in 1984 boasted he served in Vietnam. Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis apologized (sort of) for his imaginary service in Vietnam Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Major Gary Probst, a popular chaplain with the 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington, claimed he’d served in Vietnam as a Green Beret and an Army Ranger Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Californian William Gehris became known as America’s most decorated war hero after telling the San Bernardino Sun that he’d been awarded 54 decorations for his heroics as an Army sergeant, including the Distinguished Service Cross, six Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars, a Legion of Merit, a Soldier’s Medal, and the Distinguished Service Medal. Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Dan Rather has been known to brag about his “career” in the Marines. Rather signed up with the Marines only once, and never got through Marine recruit training because he couldn’t do the physical activity. Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Sgt. Andrew Isbell Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Sgt. Thomas Larez Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey Dismissed with Prejudice
You must mean: Jesse MacBeth Dismissed with Prejudice
You ATJ are Dismissed with Prejudice.
Nuff SAID!
Jesse MacBeth was the phony soldier Rush talked about ATJ.
You ATJ are Dismissed with Prejudice.
@42…BJ…
We do our best to keep it light!
“Paul’s skeletons are just too big and ugly to ignore.” I agree.
The thing about capital-L Libertarians that seems to escape most HA Happy Hooligan small-l faux (not Fox!) libertarians is that personal liberty in all spheres of life is absolutely paramount to them. Whether it’s speech, thought, sexual issues, economic, or whatever, they believe that government restriction of any type is morally evil and always and equally bad.
That’s why they loath any form of governmental regulation; who has the right to tell anyone what to do with their property?
They solve these issues by negotiating in the marketplace and using the Common Law. That some negotiate from differing points of strength is a matter of complete indifference to them; make do with what you have, and if you don’t like your lot in life, it’s your problem and your responsibility to do something about it.
Re-distribution of wealth is an ultimate sin: that you have less doesn’t give you the right to any of mine because I have more. After all, I can always find someone in India to use that theory on you!
Yet, you’ll find Libertarians to be among the most generous people in the world…just so long as they can do it voluntarily. The freedom to give, not government extortion.
Small-l libertarians fall more into the license category. They’re comfortable engaging in all forms of personal, even self-destructive or deviant, behavior, and they justify it in the name of freedom. And they demand the right to publicly funded immunization from the consequences of this behavior.
But when someone wants the freedom to make the most amount of money possible and keep it, they’re quick to dismiss his right to economic liberty. After all, how can they continue to engage in license unless someone else pays the bill?
Yet Libertarians, all in the name of absolute liberty of “conscience,” will say and allow others to say some of the most outrageous stuff in the world. Free speech must always be unquestioned to the point of never questioning anything said. In other words, there’s no such thing as calling B.S. except on those who seek to restrict liberty.
Nevertheless, the Civil War was not unnecessary, Dr. Paul notwithstanding.
What we can learn from Libertarians is the value of liberty. You can’t pick and choose categories in which to tolerate it; you either believe in it, or you don’t. It’s patently absurd to demand it for yourself in your categories while decrying it for another in his.
While you can argue all you wish where to draw the line between liberty and lawlessness, unless you agree first that somewhere the line exists, the discussion is pointless. Frankly, that’s a pretty large issue in American life and culture these days, and the HA Happy Hooligans exemplify this.
Screaming loud and long that their’s is the only POV worthy of consideration while all others, especially evildirtybadnastyfatherrapersmotherkillers who are Republicans must be exterminated, jailed, euthanized, or whatever, adds as much to the conversation as so many fingernails on a chalk board.
There are several thoughtful regular commentators here with whom I have profound philosophical disagreements and with whom I spar regularly and vigorously. I learn from those encounters, and I hope they do to. Too bad there aren’t more of them and less of the other kind.
That we agree to disagree is understood and respected; a world where all are of one mind would be a dull place indeed.
I come from the right, and I make no bones about it. Ideologically beholden to Libertarians, I believe in maximizing personal liberty. But I hold other personal beliefs that severely temper the notion of license with responsibility. And still others that tip economic scales toward the caveatt that, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
I am my brother’s keeper, and, on that score, Ayn Rand and I part company.
I’ve likened blogging to professional wrestling, and the comparison becomes more apt over time. A lot of hot air, preening and posing behavior, fake names, and dirty pool. If you get in the blogging ring, don’t be surprised when you get hit in the back of the head with a rhetorical folding chair. It’s then up to you whether you wish to grab a chair of your own and fight in kind or keep to the point.
Most of the time, it’s a mixed bag.
Now, I expect a lot of chairs to be swung my way for this post. Not unusual, esepcially since a goodly number of the cretins out there will take this personally, which they should since liberty and a diligent search for the truth ain’t all that high up on their agenda.
Tough!
As for me? I’m having a great time!
The Piper
Lambchop @ 65
Wrong. Try again.
@62…RR…
I saw that move: “You’ve Got Mail,” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Were you there with a copy of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and a single red rose?
Had he shown up, would you have revealed your true name? If so, why not cut to the chase and do it here for the assembled masses yearning to learn thee?
If not…I won’t be surprised.
The Piper
Piper: “I am my brother’s keeper, and, on that score, Ayn Rand and I part company.”
Reasonable, measured post, for the most part. I admire a consistent, principled Libertarian, especially with regard to civil liberties positions. With regard to economic positions, not so much. Concerning your quote above, I have difficulty reconciling contemporary GOP policies with the concept of a community, and many of your brethren on the right (many who post here) seem to take positions directly antithetical to any notion that there is an American community, let alone a broader human community. The anti-tax, anti-safety net, anti-anything-that-doesn’t-help-me wing of your party comes to mind. Rovian political strategies aimed at dividing Americans also come to mind.
ATJ: I’ll wait while you visit all your liberal web sites and make an ass of your self.
I see you are joinging Dull Knife Clueless Gooberfool and drinking the white sticky kool-aid!
Good luck with the throat action and non-prejudically dismissed.
Nuff SAID!
paul…on real estate, i can remember when my husband and i bought our first home [with great credit too] and the interest rate we got was 13%!!! and we considered ourselves really lucky to get it. and the jobless rate was at about 10%….it does put some perspective on things.
i agree with you though….the bottom hasn’t even been sighted yet, especially in places like washington “boom or bust” state.and since there are so many newcomers to the state, they don’t realize that boom or bust has been the states’ real motto for a very long time. geez, since my husband’s father was a kid.
71: Ah, the Glorious Carter Legacy: Double-digit interest rates and inflation, double-digit unemployment, triple-digit misery.
Since fat-cat Democrats (all that unearned booty from playing plutocrat by flipping houses and pumping portfolios) seem poised to nominate another cipher in the Carter mold, maybe it’s time to remember just how bad things can get with a cipher as president.
PL….oh please…this crap again?
“The anti-tax, anti-safety net, anti-anything”
now i see why you don’t like it when other people are happy. you are not. you are afraid of the future and what it holds if you think you need a safety net.
a safety net is not real. there is always something that can get around it.the only real safety net is you working hard and saving and not getting taxed to death. that’s how anyone can tell who works hard for their money and who [for whatever reason] is sitting back and not working. those poeple want a “safety net” which is just “code” that means you want to put your hand in everyone else’s pocket. you just sound like another person that doesn’t want to do the risk/reward dance for your dinner….but you still want your dinner.
life doesn’t work that way.
jimmy peanut…..EXACTLY!!!!
ghost
You haven’t a clue how life works. Bad things happen to good people everyday. The tired rightwing mantra that hard work will overcome any setback is simply delusional. I know far too many people who have worked hard their entire lives, played by the rules, and been productive members of society, but who due to injury, illness, natural disaster, etc. lose most everything. That’s where the community needs to step in. I don’t want to live in the world you masturbate about. And, by the way, you don’t have a clue who I am. You know nothing about me. So, don’t venture guesses as to my relative happiness. Of course, when did lack of information stop a nutjob from forming an opinion?
@69…PL…
This may end up biting you in the you-know-where, but I regard you as one of those with whom I can spar respectfully.
As to this statement of yours:
“I have difficulty reconciling contemporary GOP policies with the concept of a community, and many of your brethren on the right (many who post here) seem to take positions directly antithetical to any notion that there is an American community, let alone a broader human community.”
My response is that, while I am my brother’s keeper, government isn’t. What is my personal responsibility, or the responsibility of the community (not to be confused with the government) as a whole isn’t something to be fobbed of on the taxpayer.
Government as an agent in the alleviation of human misery flops, because government, by our Constitutional definition, cannot have a soul. Genuine compassion for humanity isn’t something that is scientifically discovered or logically deduced, it’s driven by a sense in your gut that something must be done about human suffering, and that something has to be done by individual human beings, among whom I am one.
A huge reason I support every tax reduction/limitation measure that comes down the pike is that the more I have to pay in taxes, the less I can use for other things like support my church, feed the homeless, patronize the arts, contribute to scholarships, etc.
Government best serves when it enhances the liberty of its people and provides an external skeleton (the rule of law) of protection against external harm. When government involves itself in the minutest jot and tittle of our lives, it robs us of your dignity and ability to be free and independent. Because I firmly believe in the ability of every person to live well beyond what they think they’re capable of, I support policies that motivate people to live up to their potentil rather than down to the lowest common denominator.
Of course, there will always be some in society who, for reasons not of their making, cannot make it on their own. Society then has a responsibility to take care of them. First and foremost, IMHO, are children. It saddens me that the larger government as a whole gets, the more children fall into this category. There’s no doubt in my mind that a connection exists between the two.
But even then government fails miserably. In Washington there’s a huge problem with DSHS/CPS and the failure to protect children who are wards of the state. We the taxpayers are spending millions of dollars in legal judgments because of state negligence bordering on wilfull neglect of these children.
Here’s information barely one month old on the case of a seven-year old little boy: http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....on08m.html
Stories like this infuriate me! But nobody in state government will be disciplined, fired, or probably even reprimanded; the killing fields go on unabated.
So much for government!
And government increasingly seeks to hide its tracks as we discovered with a recent SCOW opinion that gutted much of the public disclosure laws.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsou....._case.html
Interesting that the facts of the case involved the death of a child, albeit not one in state care or custody.
As an agent of social change, government is inept. It’s costly, ineffective, wasteful, bureaucratic to the enth degree, and subject to purely political pressures that often run counter to what’s in the best interests of the people. Much, if not most, of what government involves itself in it shouldn’t.
I don’t have the distrust of the private sector that most on the left have. I much prefer individuals and companies who are free to act in their own self-interest making their own decisions. I trust them to factor in community and individual needs and interests, and most of them do. As for the others, well where is it written that I’m allowed to be anyone’s conscience?
Most of the time I shake my head in disbelief because these are, to borrow Jefferson’s words, “truths” that are “self-evident.”
The Piper
PL…..i agree with the fact that bad things do happen to good hardworking people everyday. did you not get my memo that i am one of those?
hey? haven’t we all been?
but only a parasite EXPECTS others to pay for them indefinitely.or expects the government [AKA….the american people] to fund someone’s lifestyle. think goldy here….as someday, if you work, you will be paying for him to eat.
i love how you tell me that i “haven’t a clue as to how life works” and then go on to make this stunningly stupid comment:
“And, by the way, you don’t have a clue who I am. You know nothing about me. So, don’t venture guesses as to my relative happiness.”
you do realize ,right, that you tell everyone on here all about yourself every time you write something. you did realize that, right?
and, honey, no one as negative and jealous of others as you are could possibly be happy.
so…change it.
#70, translated from wingnut into English:
I realize now I’m in over my head, so I’ll tuck tail and run.
So easy to manipulate. He he.
Dismissed… with prejudice.
Piper
While I do enjoy engaging in mudslinging from time to time here, I also enjoy sparring from afar with someone who can actually string coherent paragraphs together.
Your argument is reasonable enough, I simply disagree with some of its tenets. We probably agree that government is a necessary evil. Quantifying how much government is necessary is where our agreement frays. I would love to believe that charity and the good will of citizens could take care of all of our downtrodden, protect the environment, clean up my beloved fishing streams, keep our streets safe, etc. But, I don’t believe that, and I believe that those who do so believe permit ideology (sorry, m’lad) to interfere with reality. We need government to perform many of these services because the citizenry either won’t or can’t. I don’t want a caretaker government and I don’t want a government that stifles individuality or innovation, but we need more government than you would allow.
You write: “I don’t have the distrust of the private sector that most on the left have. I much prefer individuals and companies who are free to act in their own self-interest making their own decisions. I trust them to factor in community and individual needs and interests, and most of them do. As for the others, well where is it written that I’m allowed to be anyone’s conscience?”
I don’t distrust the private sector any more than I distrust government. In my experience, big corporations are every bit as inefficient, wasteful, and unproductive as big government. Such characteristics are a function of humans in groups, not some reflection of the private sector v. the public sector. Limiting the size of both corporations and governments has some intrinsic value, in my humble opinion. Both also require constant monitoring and maintenance.
ghost: “honey, no one as negative and jealous of others as you are could possibly be happy.”
Whoa, you sure have me pegged. Have you ever considered a career in psychotherapy?
Sorry Piper, don’t have much of anything for Air Force Amy. That was just the pic I chose to link. If you ever watched HBO’s documentary series on the Bunny Ranch, you’d know that Amy’s a bit of a headcase. Too much so for my tastes. If I had my druthers (not to mention the cash on hand and permission from the missus), my choice of employee at the Ranch would’ve been Isabella Soprano, if she still worked there. From what my wife and I saw on HBO, she struck us as the most normal one of the bunch. Which still ain’t saying much. Look up her profile on Wikipedia and judge for yourself.
re 43: “Have a lot of brown shirts, do you?”
The Piper
Better watch your racism, Piper!
@81…BJ…
Uhm…no…no, thank you! Slithering through a Wikipedia entry about Isabella Soprano is the first step on the road to the depths of degradation. First, Isabella on my screen, then S&M sites where people throttle!
Besides…there’s only so much silicone that I can tolerate…even on TV.
While normal is as normal does, I’m hard pressed to categorize anybody at the Bunny Ranch as “normal.”
I had you pegged as a Sunset Thomas kind of guy!
The Piper
@82…HL…
Hey! You’re the one who gets all goosey in your step!
I can’t help it if such a pathetic and puny response is the best you’ve got!
You try to toss the race card on me without bothering to figure out…you’re not playing with a deck at all let alone one that’s not full!
The Piper
@79…PL…
Fair enough…
You make reasoned and reasonable arguments worth considering. While we yet disagree, I’m content that we both want essentially the same things: a fair shake for all Americans.
The Piper
78@: Retranslated using my Moonbat! Decoder Ring:
LRRLLRRRLLRRRLRLLRRLLRRLLRLRLRLRLRRLLRRLLRLRL:
Duh, where is that Media Morons URL again!
Dismissed due to idiot gene sighting
ATJ: That stupid argument made by you and others is like the one you all made on OBAMA The Magic Negro Comment – except it was from a black LA Times Columnist!
You’re killing me, Piper!
Wouldn’t know what Sunset’s been up to recently since she sold her share of the Men’s Club here in Reno. Probably went back to LA. Maybe I’m just more preferential to brunettes. Hef has the market for fake blondes pretty much on lockdown, y’know.
The port audit would never have happened without TIM EYEMAN and his I-900. NEVER. EVER.
Ok, little monkeys, continue throwing your pooh.
“I don’t have the distrust of the private sector that most on the left have.
You don’t have a clue what most on the left think because most on right live off Mega Ditto man and other right wing propaganda.
I consider myself just a bit to the left of an Eisenhower Republican – efficient defense spending, progressive income tax, robust education spending, balanced budget. Where do I go farther – to Harry Truman who advocated for national health insurance, for everyone not just the elderly.
That makes me a freaking Marxist to the Limbaugh – Insanity Hannity crowd.
PL@80……no, i haven’t really…too busy as i am.
i know that was your snarky retort but instead of that why not just tell me how happy you are. i guess i missed it.
actually, why not…instead of NOTHING but snarky retorts….how about you come up with a solution for something that you think is wrong in america? and it can’t be some vague and [neanderthal] concept like “kill all the republicans” okay?
i really am interested in what you have to say…the operative word being YOU………
re 91 — You are so analgesic.
re 84: You went ballistic when headless lucy pointed out that you could see the bad effects of messing to much with nature when it came to Panda sex, but you couldn’t think from that insight to global warming.( re comment #1)
You’ve got rocks in your head, and no amount of arch superiority and name-calling is going to change the fact that I’m bigger, better, richer, smarter, and stronger than you — and there is not a damn thing you can do about it.
ghost: ” . . . why not just tell me how happy you are . . . ”
You are unlikely to understand such a concept, but aspiring to “happiness” is a pursuit that no rational person undertakes. Pigs eager at the slop are happy. Happiness, whatever that might be, befalls some folks through no fault of their own. I am “happy” for them. Contentment, however, is a different matter. Contentment, or some relative thereof, is something that most of us can hope to acquire; something even to work toward. So, of course, your question, posed above, indicates you are not a serious thinker.
proud….are you serious? the fact that i asked you how happy you are makes me a non thinker?
wow…that’s sad. can you even mount a decent argument for ANY of your “points”???
you could learn something from those “pigs” you talk about.”serious thinkers” [and for YOU of all people to throw that one around is hysterical in it’s own right] KNOW that happiness comes not from large amounts of money or anything else. true happiness is learning to enjoy the little things everyday.a hot cup of tea, watching the clouds roll in for the next big storm, sitting by a fire with someone you love….and those are the big things. you cannot measure your life or happiness based on how much money you have [or don’t] but i have noticed that all the little “the rich are evil” people on here are just so pathetic and sad and grasping for someone else’s “stuff” that they can’t see what they have themselves……..
i’m sure even you can understand that, can’t you?
chimps can make money………but i have a feeling that no amount of money or anything else would make someone as vile and nasty as you actually happy. you want others to fail. you want them to be as miserable as you have made YOURSELF. and that’s exactly what you have done……..
you have a constant pity party. what you do is called “leveling”. you want to drag others down with you so you won’t feel so out of it. the old saying “misery loves company” brings you to mind……..
i actually feel sorry for you and anyone you come into contact with.