Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on News/Talk 710-KIRO:
7PM: Eli Sanders goes boom.
We were going to have Eli Sanders joining us for The Stranger Hour, but instead we’ll be covering the big explosion in Tacoma, and asking eyewitnesses to call in with their personal accounts.
8PM: TBA
We’ll see how it goes. Maybe more Tacoma explosion coverage,
9PM: The Blogger Hour with Will
Fellow HA blogger Will Kelley-Kamp joins me in studio to discuss roads & transit, the city council races and other local issues. And maybe a little Tacoma explosion coverage too.
Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).
Mark the Redneck,
Did you soil your pants when you heard the explosion? Did you run into your basement and wrap yourself in plastic sheeting and duct tape?
Dumb fuck.
Here is a video of the explosion.
Here is an arial photo of the area (pre-explosion).
Hour 1: “Great balls o’ fire!”
Hour 2: “Great balls o’ fire!!”
Hour 3: “Great balls o’ fire!!!”
The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are comming!
I’ll light my SCHIP Tax free cigar on it and watch!
Holy global warming…. I wonder if this will cause the meteorologists to reconsider their snow advisory in the cascades??? I wonder if it will cause and early arrival of global warming season (summer to nonmoonbats).
@4…M…
New Yorkers take that stuff deadly serious…even LIBERAL New Yorkers. They might find your sarcasm juvenile to the point of vicious.
I’ve mentioned her before, but my very LIBERAL sister, an executive with the Catholic Archdiocese hospital system in New York, spent many days after 9/11 fielding desparate calls from people looking for help or information, none of which she could offer.
Her daughter went to school in the shadow of the Twin Towers, and had nightmares for a long time after 9/11.
Be a smart-ass all you want, but serious people take serious things seriously. Even Patty Murray takes the threat of terrorism very seriously, witness her efforts to secure contanarized shipping.
If you want to continue to mock the real threat of terrorism in the United States, why don’t you do it in the face of someone who lost a family member or friend…OR HAD ONE THREATENED…on 9/11.
Or do you think this is all one big 3,000 fatality joke?
The Piper
Ooo…. Check these out.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/6/8543/96468
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/
Dominionist Christians running amok in the pentagon (and else where)!
@7
Not quite sure how you think that my comment mocks 9/11. It doesn’t. I was mocking you.
Piper Scott,
“Or do you think this is all one big 3,000 fatality joke?”
No…what is a joke is the way you gullible cowards have allowed yourselves to become the frightened little tools of the Bush administration.
Nobody’s memory is honored by you chicken-shit cowards giving up the civil liberties that belong to all of us, assenting to reneging on our international treaties, passively allowing BushCo to bleed dry the national coffers, and sending thousands more young Americans to their death in a pointless invasion.
“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself,” so go change your underwear and quit wrecking my country, goddamn ya!
Good one Darryl.
@7
Hope you don’t plan on getting on I-5 any time soon. Car crashes kill around 40,000 Americans every year.
Now there’s something to be afraid of.
@7
Hope you don’t plan on getting on I-5 any time soon. Car crashes kill around 40,000 Americans every year.
Now there’s something to be afraid of.
Wow, that’s like 11 Iraqi wars a year!!!!! That is horrific. Did any of the 40,000 get drafted, or did they drive on their on free will? Just axing.
@7
“If you want to continue to mock the real threat of terrorism in the United States, why don’t you do it in the face of someone who lost a family member or friend…OR HAD ONE THREATENED…on 9/11.”
I had a few friends have a pretty close shave with death that day and they all lost friends.
Fuck off.
@13
You’re just being dumb. Please go away.
10
You tell em Daryl. The Bushies have no right to listen in on our phone calls to Iran. Flash those civil liberties right down the toilet, just like the soldiers did with that Quran. Flush…
@13
You’re just being dumb. Please go away.
Your right, it is only 10.4849279 Iraqi wars a year as of October 6, 2007. Sorry.
@10…D…
Frankly, I haven’t relinquished a single one of my civil liberties. I’ve been inconvenienced in airports, learned to become more watchful, and, frankly, had my previous open-borders opinion severely changed, but none of my civil liberties have been infringed upon.
Aside from Brandon Mayfield, can you identify anyone whose rights have been adjudicated by a court to have been infringed?
My POV post-911? No more international benefit of the doubt. If someone threatens the U.S., take that threat at face value, then deal with it. Sometimes hardball diplomacy works, sometimes not. Sometimes military force is appropriate, sometimes not.
My opinion? No matter who is elected president in 2008, the fundamental policies in place in the War Against Terror, e.g., The Patriot Act, will remain in place and in force. Why? Because the primary responsibility of POTUS is the protection of the American people, not catering to unestablished, unproven hysterical hypotheticals.
President Obama will go to sleep every night thankful that today wasn’t the day and hopeful that tomorrow won’t be either. And the tools in the Patriot Act will help him get a good night’s sleep.
When the Patriot Act was re-authorized in March of last year, the vote in both houses of Congress wasn’t close. In fact, the Senate voted 89 – 10 in favor. See http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITI.....triot.act/
Now, some provisions of the Patriot Act have been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge in Portland. Let the appeals process handle that with a final adjudication before SCOTUS.
And you can bitch and moan about Bush, etc., but it’s pretty telling to me that while al-Quida or affiliates have conducted any number of successful terrorist attacks (Madrid, The Phillippines, Bali) with several close calls (Scotland, Germany), there’ve been no successful attacks against the United States since 9/11.
Who is responsible for that? You?
New Yorker’s have adopted a phrase: “See something, say something,” and that’s good policy. We can no longer take things for granted, and that means less leisurely lifestyle and more vigilance.
Now, as to @9…M…
You’re back peddling yourself off the table.
I had yet to post on this thread, and your comment made no mention of me at all, so you flunk in trying to slime your way out from under that one!
You stand condemned out of your own mouth. Your own words, which you admit were mocking, were general in nature, not directed specifically toward anyone. As general comments, then, they’re seen as mocking any who might have concerns about terrorism in a situation such as what happened today in Tacoma.
I’ll tell you…the New Yorkers I know don’t think this stuff is funny, that it’s not the grist of which jokes are to cracked, and they take it seriously.
You were too cute by half, and your smart-ass attitude betrays you.
Live with it…
The Piper
Piper Scott,
“Frankly, I haven’t relinquished a single one of my civil liberties.”
Yes…you have. You just aren’t bright enough to realize it. Either way, it isn’t about you. It is about all Americans, our Constitution, and our American values.
“Aside from Brandon Mayfield, can you identify anyone whose rights have been adjudicated by a court to have been infringed?”
Anyone who has been spied on without a court order (e.g. documented FBI abuses). Anyone whose library records have been taken without permission. Anyone whose financial records have been taken without a court order. Anyone whose emails and other electronic communications have been intercepted without a court order. Many mosques. And almost everyone on the no-fly list.
The government even prohibits us from doing things like going to Pakistan and undergoing militia training. Why should such a thing be illegal? Are we doing thoughtcrimes now?
“…there’ve been no successful attacks against the United States since 9/11.”
You mean, aside from the anthrax attacks?
Piper Scott,
“I’ll tell you…the New Yorkers I know don’t think this stuff is funny, that it’s not the grist of which jokes are to cracked, and they take it seriously.”
You really are a fucking moron if you
(1) don’t recognize that Michael @ 4 was MOCKING bedwetting pussies like you
and
(2) when he said he was “mocking you” @ 9 it meant he was mocking bedwetting pussies like you.
But…to respond to your prattle…
The New Yorkers I know find the abuses of power by the Bush Administration by exploiting the 11 Sept 2001 attack to be, frankly, revolting.
In fact, I have a hunch that most NYers believe that the Bush Administration has, overall, done far more harm to the U.S. than the sum total of all terrorists (including domestic terrorists like McVeigh).
Good, the Phillies lost.
“Piper Scott says:
@10…D…
Frankly, I haven’t relinquished a single one of my civil liberties.”
Mr. Scott, regarding the videos you have been renting:
We are watching you, Mr Scott.
Shape up you unAmerican pervert.
Manhattan
Democratic Kerry
526,765 82%
Republican Bush
(Incumbent)
107,405 17%
The people closest to the WTC voted by a huge margin for Kerry. So, I guess Manhattan is on Michael’s side on this one.
@22…Will…
So NYC went for Kerry…So?
Does that prove that New Yorkers, like Michael, think the issue of terrorism and the deaths caused by it is a laughing matter? And that those who take it seriously because of personal experience ought to be mocked as…what did he say? Oops…sorry…I don’t use that language.
Really…you’re reaching and reaching deep.
Mock me all you want, if that’s how you get your jollies. But understand that your very narrow view of truth, justice, and the American way is seen by many – including many on the left – as base perversion and rhetorical diarrhea.
Not even John Kerry – no slouch in the stupid statements department; ask members of the Minnesota National Guard – would say something so crass.
Spoiled, petty brat that he is, Michael’s comments betray an indifference and smarminess all too common among those of his specie. Also…he’s just not clever!
The Piper
@19…D…
You are also reaching…
I took issue specifically with Michael’s “neener, neener” attiude on terrorism, which he then, in a desparate attempt to cover his stinky scat, sought to fob off as comment on the order of H.L Mencken.
With him, my argument was restricted to the issue of his attitude and how it was a complete diss on the reality of terrorism. You and others brought up all the extraneous and, for these purposes, irrelevent issues in a desparate and vain attempt to both defend the indefensable and cover for Michael who obviously can’t stand on his own two feet.
A review of his posts in this string reveals shallowness, banality, and the usual resort to toilet epithets that too often pass for witty repartee at HA.
With friends like Michael, you don’t need enemies.
The Piper
@2: It must be the way the human brain is wired that something like this so easily brings to mind the words, “holy shit!!!” Would be interested to know what the equivalent expression is in Swahili or Chinese.
@2…D…
But I gotta tell ya…that was SOME explosion!
A few years ago, a gasoline tanker did that on I-90 between Bellevue and Issaquah after getting rear-ended. Literally melted the freeway, and from nearly every point in Bellevue you could see a massive plume of black smoke.
But both pale in comparison to Mt. St. Helens and the May 18, 1980 explosion, which I experienced. Living in Longview at the time, I saw it and felt it (raining ash) first hand.
In the first and biggest eruption, the entire sky as far as the eye could see from left to right was consumed with the volcanic plume. We’ve all seen lightening before, but always vertically. In that plume, I saw horizontal lightening zapping through it like a light show.
Still…Tacoma’s was spectacular.
The Piper
This Man Must Be Doing Something Right
There’s a headline in today’s fishwrapper that says,
“Republicans Tear Into Pope”
Unfortunately, I can’t access the story (their server must be down) — but I don’t need to. The headline says it all: If Pope is getting under Republicans’ skins, he’s a FRIENDLY — so don’t fire on him for God’s sake!!! The old adage,
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”
applies here.
Meanwhile, in the better newspaper, cartoonist Dave Horsey scores: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....sp?id=1650
@18
See #19
Plus, you seem to be reading a whole lot of shit into my comment that simply isn’t there.
@28…RR…
Gee, Rog, it seems that the “better” the P-I gets, the more its circulation tanks.
Read http://www.bizjournals.com/sea.....ory11.html and especially the following excerpt:
“Paid circulation at the P-I fell 2.9 percent to a new low of 128,012 copies in the six months ending March 31, (2007) from the same prior-year period. That follows a 9 percent drop in 2006 from 2005. The Seattle Times’ circulation slipped 0.5 percent to 219,722 through March from a year earlier.”
Were it not for Dilbert, would there be any reason to read the P-I???
The Piper
@30: What’s your point?
@29…M…
Can’t defend yourself, eh? Have to get Darryl to do it for you?
Your out-in-the-open-bell-once-rung words speak for themselves. You want to retract them or “clarify your remarks” then have at it, but the initial damage is done; you’re outed for what you are.
I’m not reading anything into your words…You didn’t use enough words to make a coherent statement other than to deride the legitimate threat of terrorism. Then you started making stuff up after the fact.
Guys like Darryl, Lee, RR, Seattle Jew and others are very worthy opponents. They may be consistently wrong on some issues (although RR’s comments on Prop 1 are often quite insightful), but they research, reason, argue, and respond to points presented.
What do you do? Flush the toilet that’s your mouth? The spirit of Eddie Haskell is alive and well in you.
Too bad…
The Piper
@30…YD…
The P-I’s circulation continues to nose dive, and the more it becomes “better” in the eyes of RR, et al, the deeper and steeper the dive.
How soon before Hearst buggers the whole thing and gives the P-I globe to MOHI?
The Piper
@23
Does that prove that New Yorkers, like Michael, think the issue of terrorism and the deaths caused by it is a laughing matter? And that those who take it seriously because of personal experience ought to be mocked as…what did he say?
Look at how their former mayor does in polling among New York residents. In head-to-head against Hillary Clinton, he gets his ass handed to him. 9/11 bedwetting syndrome is actually LESS common in New York City than in the rest of the country. Not everyone is as much of a gigantic pussy as you, crackpiper. Most of us have balls and can handle the fact that it’s a dangerous world out there.
I AGREE WITH YOU PIPER!!! THE TERRAISTS ARE SO EVIL!!! THEY CAN SWIM ACROSS THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS!!! THEY CAN WALK OVER THE POLAR ICE CAPS!!! THEY CAN GET PHONY VISAS AND GET THROUGH AIRPORT SECURITY!!! THEY CAN HIDE AMONG THE ILLEGALS AND WALK PAST THE MINUTMEN ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER!!!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!! I’M SO SCARED PIPER!!
THEY ALSO CARRY WITH THEM SADDAM’S WMD HE HID IN SYRIA!!! THEY’RE PLANNING A TERRAIST ATTACK!!! I KNOW IT!! SO THE GOOD PREZNIT HAS TO LISTEN TO ALL THE PHONE CALLS!!!! HE HAS TO READ ALL THE E-MAIL!!! HE CAN’T BOTHER WITH ANY FISA COURTS TO GET A WARRANT THREE DAYS AFTER THE FACT!! THERE’S NO TIME!!!
THE PREZNIT HAS TO USE ENHANCED INTERROGATION ON THE TERRAISTS TOO!!! THERE’S A TICKING TIME BOMB JUST LIKE ON 24!!! BESIDES THOSE TERRAISTS ARE SO EVIL AND MEAN!!! THEY DESERVE IT!!!!
I’M VOTING FOR MITT ROMNEY BY THE WAY!! HE HAS A ROCK SOLID JAW AND HE’S DOUBLING THE SIZE OF GITMO TO HOUSE MORE TERRAISTS AND USE ENHANCED INTERROGATION BEFORE THE TICKING TIME BOMB RUNS OUT!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
@35
LOL. Nice.
AND YOU MEAN LIBERALS STOP CRITICIZING THE PREZNIT FOR LISTENING TO YOUR PHONE CALLS AND READING YOUR E-MAIL!!! YOU DESERVE IT!! YOUR SO MEAN TO HIM!!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
@34…Lee…
Glad you acknowledge it’s a dangerous world out there.
The question then becomes: what are you going to do about it?
The Piper
@35 & 37…IS…
You should be…I’m the one assigned to moniter your phone calls, read your mail, and assemble a list of your downloads from http://www.skankybagsforU.com.
I must say, that last assignment has been…rough! Might want to check into a 12-step program before your entire paycheck and your mother’s Social Security get eaten up by your addiction.
The Piper
Glad you acknowledge it’s a dangerous world out there.
The question then becomes: what are you going to do about it?
You deal with the world rationally, using facts, logic, and common sense, rather than allowing fear to dictate your behavior. That’s the difference between you and me, and why you’re a complete laughingstock.
Since this blog has turned into Piper Scott’s personal forum where anything of meaning is totally inundated by his unceasing trumpeting of wingnut talking points, does anyone have suggestions for blogs worth reading that aren’t populated by huge, fatuous, monomaniacal gasbags?
I’m tired of this unceasing verbal diarrhea from an asshole who thinks that everyone hangs on his every utterance as much as he does, and is enthralled by his history, musical tastes, familial attachments, and general exposition of his grand superiority to the rest of us.
If he is a weapon of the Republicans to kill left wing blogs by sheer mass of sewage, it’s a strategy that is, regrettable, amazingly effective. He’s calling all the shots as to what the topics of discussion are. No matter how a thread starts, it quickly devolves to refutations of points that Gasbag introduces, and when he’s bested, he Puddy’s out by claiming his own victory and introducing an unrelated tidbit that restarts the cycle. If that doesn’t work, he trots out his kids in the military or family in New York to prove that any criticism of his points is due to our unpatriotic symapthy for the terrorists.
He has diluted the joint to chaos by siezing control of it.
seizing
@41
Chad,
It’s not anything to worry too much about. Trolls like crackpiper come and go. They hang around thinking that they’re going to be some voice of reason until they figure out that everyone is just laughing at them. Every political movement, left or right, has its useful idiots like him. They’re often very motivated, but before long, the cognitive dissonance becomes like an annoying itch and they stop coming back.
chadt,
Here’s a couple of my favorites…I’d just blow it if I provided links, so google these:
Glen Greenwald (Salon)–ongoing and sharp criticism of the Bush admin. and the media from a civil rights attorney.
Rick Perlstein–the disasterous consequences of conservative failure presented for all to see. Gruesome.
Hullabloo (Digby)–incomparable always.
Antiwar.com–good articles, no comments.
Juan Cole’s Informed Comment
Lawyers, Guns & Money
James Howard Kunstler’s “Clusterfuck Nation”–Should be required reading every Monday morning right after Krugman’s column.
There are plenty more. You might list some of your favorites, too.
As for the wimpy Piper, I note he has also infected David Postman’s blog. Sharkansky probably banned him. However, I would not be suprised to see him disappear back to Little Green Footballs (where he belongs) shortly after November 6.
Hang in there.
chadt,
almost forgot Dean Baker for economics (Max Sawicky closed up shop, but still archived).
Think of The Wimpy Piper as a kidney stone. They are painful, but they pass.
@41…C…
Thanks for validating my life’s work: causing you to lose sleep because of what I do. Yours is a low threshold of frustration, isn’t it? Did you struggle in the “plays well with others” department in Kindergarten?
It amazes me how all you seem to want to do is agree and be agreed with. What’s the fun in that?
You live in an intellectual cloister evidenced by the stale sameness of your rhetoric and stuck-record nature of your idea…That’s right, singular…
I don’t trot out my sons or my sister and her daughters to prove your sympathy for terrorists, you do that all on your own. When was the last time you balanced your Bush-bile with a scintilla of equivalent vehemance against beheaders, suicide bombers, IED planters, the Taliban, al-Quida, et al.
Or are they a matter of complete indifference to you?
The only person for whom I speak is me. I come here by myself, and I’m willing to expose my opinions, reasoning, and overall POV to some pretty vicious HA gang-tacklinig. You must admit, I maintain my sense of humor (correctly spelled this time) over it all.
And you got your knickers all knoted over lil’ ol’ mois??? Wow! You must have real insecurity issues!
I thought your side was all for tolerance? Or is that only tolerance of your own narrow perspective?
Is it true that yours really doesn’t stink? Just checking…
The Piper
@43…Lee…
So…who are the idiots on your side? Which HA regulars would you put in that category? Aside from Richard Pope, that is.
The Piper
Piper: “The question then becomes: what are you going to do about it?”
Certainly not contribute to the spendthrift evaporation of our nation’s wealth and good name, nor piddle my pants in abject fear like most Bush lickspittle on the right.
Go to your room and clean yourself up.
@48…PTBAA…
Thank you for telling me what I should do…Now, would you be so good as to tell me what you do?
Very truly yours,
The Piper
Piper,
When was the last time you balanced your Bush-bile with a scintilla of equivalent vehemance against beheaders, suicide bombers, IED planters, the Taliban, al-Quida, et al.
First, there’s little point in profering up any “balance” regarding Islamic militants, because there’s no controversy as to their evilness.
Second, and this is not hyperbole, GWB and Co. have taken evilness to a whole new level. They, and you by proxy, have used the most tragic terrorist event to be inflicted on this country for personal and political gain. By comparison, Islamic militants are but a pimple on my (horse’s) ass.
Piper Scott
“You live in an intellectual cloister evidenced by the stale sameness of your rhetoric and stuck-record nature of your idea…That’s right, singular…”
Whatever.
I think most commenters here actually enjoy sparing, but with people who are based in reality and can evaluate evidence. The “gang tackles” come about when the fantasy-based Little-Green-Wingnut talking points are being expelled. We’ve been through lots of them. “Terry Schaivo’s Was Responsive™,” “The Democrats Committed Election Fraud™,” “Valerie Plame was Not NOC™”, “There Really Were WMD When We Invaded Iraq™,” and so on and so on and so on.
And then there are the lunatic statements like Puddybud is infamous for, and you are, more and more, slipping into. For example….
“I don’t trot out my sons or my sister and her daughters to prove your sympathy for terrorists, you do that all on your own.”
Uh-huh. Please try to get in touch with reality. Do you REALLY believe that any of us have “sympathy for terrorists”? I mean…really? Because to us, such claims make it look like you have left planet earth. Yeah…you might get gang tackled for such nonsense.
“When was the last time you balanced your Bush-bile with a scintilla of equivalent vehemance against beheaders, suicide bombers, IED planters, the Taliban, al-Quida, et al.”
This is more nonsense. Expressing vehemence against those other criminals doesn’t “balance” anything. Many of us feel that in a Democracy, it is a good thing for the people to scrutinize their government. We have done so and are outraged by the observation that Bush has serious failures. We call for the Government to be held accountable for their actions and inactions. Such a call is in a completely different domain than expressing outrage about things that all Americans are outraged about (IED Bombers, al Qaeda, etc.).
“Or are they a matter of complete indifference to you?”
There you go again…slipping the bounds of reality.
“I come here by myself, and I’m willing to expose my opinions, reasoning, and overall POV to some pretty vicious HA gang-tacklinig. You must admit, I maintain my sense of humor (correctly spelled this time) over it all.”
Well…I’ll admit that YOU think you maintain your sense of humor.
“I thought your side was all for tolerance? Or is that only tolerance of your own narrow perspective?”
The word “tolerance” can be used in many domains. Many of us espouse tolerance in many domains. But this is a LIBERAL BLOG, which inherently means that the posts are going to be taking liberal positions, most of the readers are liberals, and most of the commenters are liberals. As debate arises, whether among liberals or between a liberal and a non-liberal, both sides inherently exhibit intolerance. (That is, debate itself, inherently includes the suspension of tolerance between two parties.) If you believe that debate is healthy, than this is good intolerance.
There is another type of intolerance exhibited by the liberal commenters here—an intolerance of ignorance. When a commenter presents easily disproved assertions (frequently these are right-wing talking points that have been discredited long ago), and when a commenter refuses to evaluate clear evidence objectively, many of us will exhibit intolerance. I won’t judge whether that is good or bad, but it isn’t going to go away.
This does leave me with some practical advice for you…if you want credibility here (even while disagreeing), offer an analysis that is evidence-based and reality-based. Don’t argue unsupportable or lunatic “your side loves beheading American soldiers while praying to Allah with Bill Clinton” positions. Argue things you can back it up with facts. Real, preferably quantitative, facts.
We used to have a commenter by the name Marks who was a Republican, yet was highly admired for his clarity of thought, and the quality of his arguments. (I sure miss Marks.)
One other thing…as Goldy has pointed out a number of times, the comment threads here are “edgy.” That’s the way they are, and you will not change it. People will thrown insults around for a little flourish (especially at you…Wingnut! :-) but, it is the quality of the argument that is really important in establishing credibility.
“Is it true that yours really doesn’t stink? Just checking…”
“Just checking????” Ewwww…keep your nose away from my shit!
@50: What do I do? Why? But OK: I am gainfully employed as a hard bid commercial construction project manager (projects $1m-$6m) for a Seattle based general contractor.
Sorry to disabuse you of the notion that I am a public school teacher, or some other kind of public employee, thus reinforcing your (as usual) unwarranted predjudices.
Regards,
@53…PTBAA…
No, no, no…What I meant was what do you or what should you do in re terrorism?
BTW…Glad you have a real job and don’t work for the government; you create wealth, not just consume it.
The Piper
Piper Scott @54
“No, no, no…What I meant was what do you or what should you do in re terrorism?”
I’m doing just like Georgie told me to do. (1) I’m shopping. (2) I’ve stocked up on plastic sheeting and duct tape to keep my family and me SAFE!!! (3) I am being frightened…very frightened. Hell some days I have to change my shorts 3 or 4 times!
“BTW…Glad you have a real job and don’t work for the government; you create wealth, not just consume it.”
You know…this kind of bullshit pops up now and then (like from Mark the Redneck), but I always suspect the person saying it doesn’t REALLY believe it. Do you REALLY believe this? Or is this your legendary (in your own mind) sense of humor?
@54:
First, declaring war on a tactic is simply asking for failure or is simply just a means to other ends such as political gain. The entire premise is faulty. Furthermore, the thrust arguing this is an ‘existential’ struggle is also deluded…that’s the same kind of logic Bin Laden (crackpot) uses. Why copy him? If that were truly the case, Bush should have raised taxes, put the nation on a total war footing, restarted the draft, rationing, etc., etc. We should have invaded Saudi Arabia, the funding and ideological source of the insane religious fundamentalism we oppose. We did none of these things. We were asked to ‘go shopping’ instead. This is laughable and pathetic…the policy of an idiot or a lunatic.
The heart of ‘why they hate us’ is our policies in the ME (support of dictatorships in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.) and our one sided approach to the Israeli-Palastinian question. A change in these policies and support for real democrats in the ME, a policy of engagement with regimes we may not get along with so well (Iran), real trade reform (See Dean Baker and others), expanded aid and true multi-national efforts would reduce “terrorism” to the status of the criminal problem which it actually deserves.
But most importantly, we need to change our own behavior with respect to deluded belief that we can extend our extravagant debt and oil based lifestyle into the infinite future. If your looking for an ‘existential’ struggle to engage your overheated emotions, well, this is it.
The Bush policies are an abject failure, and he hasn’t even the courage to admit it. Rather he wishes simply to pass it on to his successor in the vain hope that history will absolve him. His delusions will continue no doubt, but I am sorry to state that he will most likely go down in history as a total failure and a borderline war criminal. Faced with our greatest crisis since the end of the Cold War, he resolutely took this nation down the wrong path. There is a great deal of evidence he did so (especially with respect to the Iraq invasion) for political gain. The jury is still out, but if so, it was reprehensible.
As for what constitutes a ‘real job’, your disparagement of public service (comprising some 25% of our GNP) betrays only further your total ignorance of the workings of a modern economy, and not the least exhibits a snide, intellectually shallow, condescending, and discourteous insult to our armed forces, our police, our firefighters, and yes, our public school teachers.
Why don’t you try fucking growing up, wimp?
@33
Dude, check the time stamps. I was sleeping.
@56…PTBAA
Thank you for clarifying…I was simply curious.
My opinion is that they hate us not for what we do, don’t do, or ever will do; they hate us because we’re different. It’s just good old-fashioned bigotry carried to its logical extreme.
Literally, there’s nothing we can do to dull the hatred of those who seek to kill us. Well…maybe not. If we submit to them, adopt their religion, impose Sharia, and all the rest, I suppose we’d be OK…if that’s your definition of OK.
A lot of what you said about Bush? Was also said of Lincoln (he got assasinated, he was so hated), FDR, and other presidents. Never fear, though, in just a few months, you’ll have a new prexy with whom to become supremely angry.
I have no kick with the military (two sons, remember?) police and firefighters; I’ve always supported them since they perform the essential services governments are instituted among men (and women) to perform.
Teachers often irritate me with their obdurate insistence on marching lock-step with the neanderthal WEA.
Many other bureaucrats, however, do frustrate that crap out of me. Unlke you, they do nothing to create wealth, but they sure do a lot to waste it.
Like Darryl, you seem to be a realtively reasonable chap; I’ll bet you’d make a great next door neighbor (never fear…I don’t borrow tools…ladders, maybe, but never tools), and we’d probably enjoy summer BBQ’s (my specialties are brisket and pork ribs) and a couple cold ones.
Cheers, mate!
The Piper
@55…D…
I do believe that wealth is created by people such as PTBAA who work hard (I have no doubt that’s exactly what he does) to add value and build that which was not there before.
BTW…I never did the plastic sheeting thing…
When I was a kid, bomb shelters were all the rage; you were the coolest kid on the block when your folks had an underground bomb shelter installed. And nearly every public building had a fallout shelter stocked with those wretched rye-krisp-like crackers. School kids did duck and cover drills nearly every week, and we lived every day with the prospect of a third world war.
Thankfully, it never happened, deterrance worked, the USSR collapsed (although the historic insecurities and ambitions of Russia that have been there since the days of Catherine the Great continue to foment international tensions), and we moved on.
Now, though, the prospect of a nuclear device or a dirty bomb or whatever is real. I think even Patty Murray would agree with that. So, precautions are in order. What they are, who should do what, how far is far enough, and how far is too far are questions have to, as a national community, collectively discuss and decide.
That’s all…
The Piper
Piper @58: The logic of your first two paragraphs is one of extermination and genocide. Just like frontiersmen exterminated Indians because they ‘were savages’ and ‘hated us’. If you believe that, fine (it’s crazy though). What is infuriating is your apparent inability to take your logic to where it leads–genocide, mass murder (Conrad’s “exterminate the brutes!”). After all, if you kill them, then their kids will hate, and so you should kill them too…on and on. When you frame the issue the way you have, logic leads to immorality. That you are unwilling to take this logic to where is leads is cowardly–intellectually and (of course) politically.
Hence the oft heard complaint that conservatives are ‘hypocrites’. Conservatives are not hypocrites. They are a danger to society. But there is hope. Elections are won. Minds change.
As far as bureaucrats go, you must be unfamiliar with the Delbert comic strip. He is not mocking government employees. Such behavior is perhaps endemic in all large organizations, and is by no means limited to government, but that is not in line with your ideological blinders.
Sure, racists hated Lincoln; reactionaries and nazis hated FDR…what’s your point? None, it would seem, and it’s a pretty thin gruel if it provides you comfort in your abject love for George W. Bush. After all, pretty much everybody hates Hitler and Stalin. Are you saying George W. Bush will join them in some kind of historical pantheon? Even a die hard liberal-Democrat-pinko-commie like myself doesn’t wish that.
Teacher ARE the WEA. Just like reactionary corporatists ‘kowtow’ to the Chamber of Commerce (well, they, too, ARE the C of C). Again, it is a point that is not a point.
I’d never lend you my ladder. You’d probably fall off it and sue me. Conservatives file more lawsuits than any other demographic.
My neighbor is a person of deep and religiously predjudicial conservative beliefs. We get along well since we talk neighbor stuff mostly and politics is brought up between us only in rather elliptical terms, except in the fall when all my yard signs go up.
You, on the other hand, remind me of Ned Flanders without the comic innocence or simple naivety. You’re also a partisan hater. If we were neighbors, I’d move.
I’d also remind you that your propensity to say “I’ll bet” should be curbed. Your making a fool of yourself.
OOps: Last sentence change “your” to “you’re”. My apologies to the grammar police.
As far as “creating wealth” goes, conservatives just don’t get it. If I perform work as a contractor to build a post office or military barracks with our tax dollars–is this ‘government waste’ or ‘building wealth’? If the government project administrator does a good job to ensure I meet the terms of the contract, is this tax dollars wasted?
But no, most likely you are thinking of the poor overworked folks down at the Licencing Bureau, and you are ticked off that you (1.) have to stand in line since it is beneath you; and (2.) the line is too long.
To which I reply (1.) Too fucking bad. Go learn some manners; and (2.) If you actually supported government (and yes, taxes) there would perhaps be more employees in that office to serve you, and the lines would be shorter. And yes, they too contribute to “wealth creation”.
Conservatives: Dumb as a box of rocks.