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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Lois wrote: he only reason who can even speculate (and incorrectly so) about me is that you read every word I write and monitor my every activity on ST with a rabid interest like a dog after a bone. Talk about getting a life.
Lois..your game is getting old. Your dumb ass doesn't even realized when it is getting reel in.
Over 18,000 posts and still counting. A lonely little woman/man/child looking for any type of attention.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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No one can know another's mind. Eff off, Dumb Leb. I zing around.
So what. Obsession is for lesser types like you. Try biting again.
I've got my pliers.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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AC wrote: Jefferson had a definite distrust for the clergy Bob, and openly dismissed Christianity and the Christian Bible, but he was a believer in God, and can safely be described as a deist.
Which back in his his day when over the heads of most of the people of time...if he didn't believe in the christian god, he must be a savage.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Lois wrote: Honey-pie, if my husband spent as much time monitoring another woman and her activities - speculating his head off - as you do with me, I'd be damn annoyed and pissed at him. You need to find something else to do with your time - online or otherwise.
Sweetie pie...if my wife spend her time making over 18,000 posts the last four years on a rock climbing site directed at men I would be a little piss off, but she doesn't.
She is quite content with her life, family and man.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Lois wrote: Well perhaps then my husband is more secure in himself and his relationship with me than you are with your situation. We talk about ST all the time and the libs found therein. He is not threatened by my participation here. For your information, he is even here now and then not that I would ever tell you his avatar. You can just speculate your little head over it. Seems like you can't do much else with your time but speculate about me so knock yourself out.
I can only imagine what both of your keyboards look like.
Lois...you are out of your league.
Lois..do you understand you are the one posting 18,000 times, not me, not my wife.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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bite.
I don't give a rat's ass what YOU think, rok. I know who & what I'm about.
So do as you will. Wreck yer bike on the sidewalk, or somethin'. Again.
If I was out there, I'd be just fine. As Always.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Rox wrote: Im entering the New Year with the flu, and the arthritis in my hands and the big joints of my big toes are acting up. Too many miles of jamcracks back when we didn't hang on cams.
Rox, I don't have the flu or arthritis, I have great job, great family and wife. You and Lois preach and condescend.
Don't talk about what you don't know..like me and restaurants.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Sheesh, not another wolf.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Lois wrote: Here you are Bob - huffing and puffing. Fraid you haven't blown any houses down yet.
From the minds of babes.
Rox...being a customer does not make you an expert on the what it takes to run a successful restaurant.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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Learn the MEANING of words, dammit.
Really. Not just their definitions. There's more there. More! Much more. Oh, yes.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Here is a rather long column repost from Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning economist, from today's New York Times. I post it in it's entirety, because it is rather amazing in it's putting together a number of factors, that have been issues of debate here. I bold a few areas as has been requested.
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Op-Ed Columnist
The New VoodooBy PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 30, 2010
Hypocrisy never goes out of style, but, even so, 2010 was something special. For it was the year of budget doubletalk — the year of arsonists posing as firemen, of people railing against deficits while doing everything they could to make those deficits bigger.
And I don’t just mean politicians. Did you notice the U-turn many political commentators and other Serious People made when the Obama-McConnell tax-cut deal was announced? One day deficits were the great evil and we needed fiscal austerity now now now, never mind the state of the economy. The next day $800 billion in debt-financed tax cuts, with the prospect of more to come, was the greatest thing since sliced bread, a triumph of bipartisanship.
Still, it was the politicians — and, yes, that mainly meant Republicans — who took the lead on the hypocrisy front.
In the first half of 2010, impassioned speeches denouncing federal red ink were the G.O.P. norm. And concerns about the deficit were the stated reason for Republican opposition to extension of unemployment benefits, or for that matter any proposal to help Americans cope with economic hardship.
But the tone changed during the summer, as B-day — the day when the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy were scheduled to expire — began to approach. My nomination for headline of the year comes from the newspaper Roll Call, on July 18: “McConnell Blasts Deficit Spending, Urges Extension of Tax Cuts.”
How did Republican leaders reconcile their purported deep concern about budget deficits with their advocacy of large tax cuts? Was it that old voodoo economics — the belief, refuted by study after study, that tax cuts pay for themselves — making a comeback? No, it was something new and worse.
To be sure, there were renewed claims that tax cuts lead to higher revenue. But 2010 marked the emergence of a new, even more profound level of magical thinking: the belief that deficits created by tax cuts just don’t matter. For example, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona — who had denounced President Obama for running deficits — declared that “you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.”
It’s an easy position to ridicule. After all, if you never have to offset the cost of tax cuts, why not just eliminate taxes altogether? But the joke’s on us because while this kind of magical thinking may not yet be the law of the land, it’s about to become part of the rules governing legislation in the House of Representatives.
As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, the incoming House majority plans to make changes in the “pay-as-you-go” rules — rules that are supposed to enforce responsible budgeting — that effectively implement Mr. Kyl’s principle. Spending increases will have to be offset, but revenue losses from tax cuts won’t. Oh, and revenue increases, even if they come from the elimination of tax loopholes, won’t count either: any spending increase must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere; it can’t be paid for with additional taxes.
So if taxes don’t matter, does the incoming majority have a realistic plan to cut spending? Of course not. Republicans say that they want to cut $100 billion in spending, which is itself small change in a $3.6 trillion federal budget. But they also say that defense, Medicare and Social Security — all the big-ticket items — are off the table. So they’re talking about a 20 percent cut in what’s left, which includes things like running the judicial system and operating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; they have offered no specifics about where the cuts will fall.
How will this all end? I have seen the future, and it’s on Long Island, where I grew up.
Nassau County — the part of Long Island that directly abuts New York City — is one of the wealthiest counties in America and has an unemployment rate well below the national average. So it should be weathering the economic storm better than most places.
But a year ago, in one of the first major Tea Party victories, the county elected a new executive who railed against budget deficits and promised both to cut taxes and to balance the budget. The tax cuts happened; the promised spending cuts didn’t. And now the county is in fiscal crisis.
Now the federal government has a lot more flexibility than a county government: it needn’t, and shouldn’t, balance its budget each year. The deficits of the past two years have actually been a good thing, helping to support the economy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
But Nassau County shows how easily responsible government can collapse in this country, now that one of our major parties believes in budget magic. All it takes is disgruntled voters who don’t know what’s at stake — and we have plenty of those. Banana republic, here we come.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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I want to emphasis what the previous article mentioned: the republicans continuously run on tax cuts and budget cuts, deliver tax cuts but never cut the budgets, and produce huge deficits and fiscal messes.
They rail against democrats as "tax and spend" politicians, but ignore the fact that they are FAR worse "BORROW AND SPEND" politicians, who are too cowardly to admit what they are doing.
GW Bush didn't cut
GHW Bush didn't cut
Ford didn't cut
Nixon didn't cut
Reagan didn't cut
How much more proof do you need?
The GOP believes in an aristocracy of wealthy landowners and other wealthpossessors, and their job is to protect that class. Some of that wealth must be allowed to "trickle down" to prevent revolution, but the trick is to make that at as little as possible, and to require as much struggle to obtain as possible, which the members of the aristocracy require NO struggle whatsoever to obtain their privileges (think Paris Hilton) An "illusion" of upward mobility must be maintained, to allow the middle class to think that it can ascend into the aristocracy, but that can essentially never happen. Money does not = breeding in the equation.
Bill Gates may be the richest man in the the US, but he is NOT part of the aristocracy, nor are a lot of other wealthy people. The enlightened ones understand this, and understand the equation of exclusion, and that is why they are democrats.
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jstan
climber
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For thirty years statements have been common to the effect that the Federal government must be starved into submission. None seem to deal with the possible consequences. As the country slides into bankruptcy decreased entitlements will not necessarily be the topic of discussion. Civil War and trusting to a "Unitary Presidency" (dictator) may well head the list.
A true Banana Republic
The only Super Banana Republic in the World.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Comrade F (we are Comrades, aren't we?, I think that title of Fattrads is funny), I think I only score 13 on the quiz, but I'm more of a mountaineer than a rock climber, and only 1 FA under my belt. :( I hope you'll not think less of me. My injuries have caught up with me.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Swimming in LEB tears.
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LEB said Neither party is esp good at spending cuts. Both are guilty. I do believe, however, you over simplify and fall prey to a certain amount of propaganda which has been put forth. The major differences are far more fundamental in terms of ideology that what you have offered.
Because people don't actually want spending cuts. Every single person that cuts spending for something gets attacked for it, and people vote for the other guy. There is no difference in ideology, that's a bunch of crap. People want to get reelected which means they need to bring home the bacon for their constituents and also not cut spending for whatever projects their party generally supports. The only "ideology" is "reelection."
Also the idea of you complaining of someone else "oversimplifying and falling prey to a certain amount of propaganda" is hilarious.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Swimming in LEB tears.
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You're right, let's keep hoping. It's not like the post-election Republicans just voted for 800 billion dollars in spending or anything. Keep hope alive, Fatty! Change is coming! Perpetually!
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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LEB, I have thought about how to respond to your rather....interesting....suppostion about my heritage, based upon my response to your blanket antagonistic postings against muslims. I find that your suppositions are the common assumptions that people make, rather than actually trying to find out the facts. Most people would go to a little bother to find out, before making such a statement in a public forum. You go to somewhat great lengths to explain why you think that is my heritage, due to my response to your intolerant postings.
In fact, you could be right. However, let me offer another possibility.
It is possible that I might be an adherant of the philosophy of Martin Niemöller and Hermann Maas. Niemöller wrote:
"They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up"
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Ken M...you will never get a straight anwser on the "facts" you posted about the republican leadership and their "Do as I say, not as I do" agenda.
You will just get more "smoke and mirrors" from the likes of Lois, bookworm and SUAP.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Bob, I doubt that I'll convince them of much of anything. However, as THX says "The Audience is Listening". There are many independents, even democrats, that are suseptible to cleverly worded propagada. I think that when the lies come out, when we don't stand against them, we give them the impression of being supported. I know you understand that.
And who knows? Over time, well reasoned arguments, seeped in logic, probably do have some effect. There were a lot of hard core conservatives that voted for Obama. They recognized exceptional intellectual ability. The fact of the matter is that the most reviled action that he has taken is the passing of a Republican health care proposal. Wonder what they are so pissed off about?
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Ken...I asked SUAP to anwser a simple question (did Ronald Reagan raise taxes twice, double spending and tripled the deficit) at least 10 times...not a peep out of him.
Just emotional tirades/lies about Micheal Vick and Obama spending 200 million a day in India.
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