:: SuperTopo Rock Climbing Discussion Topic

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 7321 - 7340 of total 9765 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Aug 21, 2011 - 09:54pm PT

Basic training is usually for 18 - 25 year olds. It seems likely that Obama would have had little difficulty getting through it. Even chickenhawk Bush probably could have. Despite the myths, relatively few fail basic training, even in the marines, once they're accepted.

In a time of increased (federal) military and homeland security spending, with rapidly increasing oil and gas prices, with a president (Shrub) nominally from Texas, is it any wonder that Texas did OK over the last while? Notwithstanding Enron, and its premonition of corporate excess.

Someone should ask Romney which of his wives insisted on tripling the size of his house.

Ken M

Mountain climber

Los Angeles, Ca

Aug 21, 2011 - 09:55pm PT

Huh, turns out you can get rid of dictators without spending trillions of US dollars and getting thousands of US soldiers killed. It just takes a competent president using a wise strategy. Who would have guessed? Definitely not the loyal Bushies.

apogee

climber

Aug 21, 2011 - 10:07pm PT

President Obama got Osama bin-Laden.

And now President Obama is about to bring Qaddafi down.

And President Obama did it without putting American boots on the ground and without placing our soldiers in harm's way.

Now, if he could only figure out a way to politicize it properly, it just might benefit his campaign.

Ken M

Mountain climber

Los Angeles, Ca

Aug 21, 2011 - 10:18pm PT

American aerial surveillance in and around Tripoli proved to be a major factor in helping to tilt the balance of power.
. Through Saturday, NATO and its allies had flown 7,459 missions to attack targets.

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Aug 21, 2011 - 10:33pm PT

The rabid right will no doubt soon be saying that Obama shouldn't get any credit for what's happening in Libya, because the force is commanded by a non-American - in fact, by a Canadian. And is a NATO force, with Arab League backing.

Bob D'A

Trad climber

Taos, NM

Aug 21, 2011 - 11:04pm PT

I said it before I'll say it again. I'm so proud of our president. Fighting terrorist aboard and at home...and he is winning.

Ken M

Mountain climber

Los Angeles, Ca

Aug 22, 2011 - 02:40am PT

Just for you, MH!
Posted in the comment section of the NY Times:

Stephen Davis Key Largo, FL
August 21st, 20119:26 pm
Why is America being mentioned in this?

It was Britain that did all of the heavy lifting. It should be Britain that works out the contingency plans.

Obama, strap on a set and stop taking credit for the actions of others when you were too cowardly to commit in the first place.

bookworm

Social climber

Falls Church, VA

Aug 22, 2011 - 08:11am PT

"A GOP candidate might feel a need to please creationist voters and say a few nice things about intelligent design. That is politics as usual; it gins up the base and drive the opposition insane with fury and rage. No harm, really, and no foul.

But if that same politician then proposed to base federal health policy on a hunt for the historical Garden of Eden so that we could replace Medicare by feeding old people on fruit from the Tree of Life, he would have gone from quackery-as-usual to raving incompetence. True, the Tree of Life approach polls well in GOP focus groups: no cuts to Medicare benefits, massive tax savings, no death panels, Biblical values on display. Its only flaw is that there won’t be any magic free fruit that lets us live forever, and sooner or later people will notice that and be unhappy.

Green jobs are the Democratic equivalent of Tree of Life Medicare; they scratch every itch of every important segment of the base and if they actually existed they would be an excellent policy choice. But since they are no more available to solve our jobs problem than the Tree of Life stands ready to make health care affordable, a green jobs policy boils down to a promise to feed the masses on tasty unicorn ribs from the Great Invisible Unicorn Herd that only the greens can see.

Here in particular Senator Obama as he then was would have benefited from a less gushing, more skeptical press. If his first couple of speeches on this topic had been met with the incredulous and even mocking response they deserved, he probably would not have married himself so publicly to so vain and so empty a cause.

The cost is not simply the stimulus funds wasted on “investments” that don’t produce any jobs. It’s not just the opportunity cost as more practical and reasonable job creation agendas were shoved aside to make room for the unicorn hunt. It’s the credibility cost. The President cannot successfully make the case for stimulus so many of his supporters would like him to make when the opposition can cite figures like $2 million a job, or point to jobs shipped overseas and companies shut down. Worse, the failed unicorn barbecue undermines the President’s ability to convince the American people that he knows how to create jobs. Thirty months of poor job numbers while the White House was off chasing unicorns and hyping green jobs as a national strategy means that the administration has forfeited public confidence on the jobs issue. That is no small handicap in times like the present."

here's the whole essay: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/08/19/feeding-the-masses-on-unicorn-ribs/

the author misses the most unicorn-esque aspect of the green-jobs hype: HISTORY! spain had already revealed the emptiness of the green jobs promise ( http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a2PHwqAs7BS0 ) just as history has already (and repeatedly) proven the inherent corruption and inevitable failure of socialist policies

we can at least say this for those who "cling" to religion: nobody has yet proven that god does not exist

Norton

Social climber

the Wastelands

Aug 22, 2011 - 09:01am PT

bookworm

Social climber

Falls Church, VA

Aug 22, 2011 - 02:21pm PT

hope: a week ago, barry promised to make a "major speech" in which he would present "a very specific plan to boost the economy, to create jobs and to control our deficit"

and change: yesterday axelrod downgraded that "specific plan" to an "outline" for "a short-term plan to accelerate the economy"...gibbs reiterated, "The president is going to outline some ideas, the president has outlined ideas every day he's been in the White House"

but don't worry libs; barry will still make a "major speech" so you can get that thrill up your leg

apogee

climber

Aug 22, 2011 - 03:00pm PT

Well, at least you Repugs are consistent. Even if you're consistently wrong.

Ghaddafi & bin Laden go down under Obama's watch, and he's still wrong in your books. Bet I can guess what your response would have been if McLame was in office while these guys went down.

apogee

climber

Aug 22, 2011 - 03:03pm PT

"...but don't worry libs; barry will still make a "major speech" so you can get that thrill up your leg"

Know what would give me a thrill up my leg? Watching certain Repugs wear a bear suit on Cragman's deck late at night....

bookworm

Social climber

Falls Church, VA

Aug 22, 2011 - 08:50pm PT

they told me if i voted for mccain i'd get a moron for a vice president...they were right:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/joe-biden-i-fully-understand-chinas-one-child-policy_590513.html

Stewart

Trad climber

Courtenay, B.C.

Aug 22, 2011 - 11:52pm PT

Hey, Donald Thompson - someone bought you safety goggles so you could finally safely use your crayons again?

I'm pretty sure that if you trace the U.S. deficit and the loss of jobs to its source you would find that NAFTA and the fairy tale promises made to sell it were the beginning of the end of secure employment for the average citizen. If you can get workers in third world countries (and slip some cash to the despots who run most of them) to perform jobs for a fraction of the wages that once supported U.S. families, then it doesn't take advanced math skills to figure out how billionaires are made. Furthermore, isn't it just basic economics that you can't just print more money when you start running out, and isn't that where deficits come from?

Here's the next fairy tale: trickle-down economics. The idea here is that if the guys at the top who are stealing all of this cash get their hands on it, then, being public-spirited citizens, they go out and actually SPEND it, thus creating jobs for the people of the nation they stole it from. The logical hole in this fantasy is that if they actually DID such a thing, then they wouldn't be billionaires for long. Unfortunately, plutocrats are now more powerful than the U.S. government, so they get to keep the money and blame the resulting mess on Obama.

Bookworm - I'm still waiting for you to apologize for the outright lie you told us about how everyone in the U.S. has a house, car and steak on the table. I'm also waiting for you to retract that sick comment you made about murdering your opponents, but I won't hold my breath awaiting any display of integrity on your part, since Fascist ideology involves ignoring information or criticism that doesn't support its twisted agenda - in the hope that truth will give up and go away.

So, Bookworm, who's pulling your strings? Somehow, I don't see you earning a living digging ditches.

corniss chopper

climber

breaking the speed of gravity

Aug 23, 2011 - 01:34pm PT

What job should Barry Obama look for when he becomes unemployed in January 2013?

Obama the comedian.
Obama the community organizer.
Obama the janitor.
Obama the golf caddy.
Obama the burger flipper.
Obama the circus clown.
Obama the U.S. Border Patrol Agent.
Obama the dog-catcher.
Obama the basketball player.
Obama the used car salesman.
Obama the unemployed welfare recipient.
Obama the walmart greeter.
Obama the war correspondent
Obama the pizza delivery guy
Obama the CNN spin master.

Gary

climber

Desolation Basin, Calif.

Aug 23, 2011 - 01:38pm PT

Obama, the Ignorant Cracker Ass Kicker

Ken M

Mountain climber

Los Angeles, Ca

Aug 23, 2011 - 02:04pm PT

In what could become a defining image, footage on Al Jazeera showed fighters scrambling to topple one of Colonel Qaddafi’s favorite sculptures: a giant fist crushing an American jet fighter. Colonel Qaddafi had installed the sculpture in front of a house on the compound that was bombed on orders of President Reagan in 1986, when Libya was considered a pariah state. The wrecked building became Colonel Qaddafi’s backdrop for major speeches, including his defiant challenge to the rebels at the start of their uprising six months ago.

Ironic that the image of Quaddafi's image of defiance against Saint Reagan is now the image that defines the demise of his regime.