Comments on: America’s Leaders Are Pathetic

By: nigv methlb

nigv methlb — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:53:44 +0000

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By: nigv methlb

nigv methlb — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:52:37 +0000

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By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:02:24 +0000

Maybe if either has to rebuild it out of their pockets, they ll look after it better next time.

OK, I can comprehend the logic of “Don’t build your city below sea level in the path of hurricanes,” but I don’t think the Iraqis knowingly put their city (6,000 years ago) where they knew we might someday want to drop some bombs.

By: Dugger

Dugger — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:02:32 +0000

Quaker,

I’d rather rebuild neither. Let the Narleanionians rebuild Narleans and the Baghdadaddys’ rebuild Baghdad. Maybe if either has to rebuild it out of their pockets, they ‘ll look after it better next time.

Dugger

By: Frank_D

Frank_D — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 11:02:09 +0000

White Whale, you’re right about one thing — I shouldn’t try to correct you. You are obviously deeply involved in addressing an issue I have not raised — actually, more than one.
Your lack of understanding is not my problem, just as whether or not I “care” about the people of New Orleans is not yours.
Whine to your left wing pals; they feed off that crap.

By: frameone

frameone — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 06:02:17 +0000

“You would have the govrnemnt force other citizens to relinquish sweat equity to support the rebuilding of a faulty city.”

Dugger you would dissolve the very social compact that holds this society together. If a farmer in Iowa shouldn’t have to help his fellow citizens in New Orleans, why the hell should I have to pay for his farm subsidies, it’s not my fault he chose a line of work that doesn’t pay. Hell, why should anyone who doesn’t live in New York City have to pay for rebuilding the nation’s most important metropolis? I didn’t tell any of those people to work and live near a symbol of Western financial power and influence. This is typical of conservative thinking. For the Right Wing it’s every person for themselves. WE on the left recognize that WE, no matter who WE are or where WE come from, are all in this together.

By: frameone

frameone — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 06:02:08 +0000

Oh and by the way, I don’t think I should have to pay for rebuilding Iraq. Bush broke it, make him pay for it. Who can I call to make sure my tax money doesn’t go to Baghdad?

By: White Whale

White Whale — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 04:02:38 +0000

Frank,
Wrong quote, but please by all means keep up the invective. Please keep making jokes about the situation and also presume that I am trying to prove something.LOL! Your tax-money spent doesn’t float with me period. I know it steams conservatives, but not me in particular. I will submit to you that I do not want money going directly to a party, but again you miss the issue, because your political gripe is like you said– Filling a Girl Scout thermometer? Just sit on the sidelines and “count” pennies and go back to what you seem to do best: Not give a shit. I am absolutely ok with this fact now, aren’t you? I won’t quote Melville anymore in this post, but will reinterate: You are obviously butt-hurt and a grown man like yourself could conduct himself better than say… a hysterical old woman.
Have a nice day Frank the Tank,
White Whale

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 03:02:22 +0000

you endorse the state s control over individual conscious unless it goes contrary to what you happen to believe.

You’re making stuff up. Nothing I have written provides a basis to reach your conclusion.

By: Frank_D

Frank_D — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 03:02:09 +0000

Yeah, White Whale, did you have money invested in this year’s Mardi Gras? What do you think, you care more than me? So what, if we were having a “Who cares most about New Orleans?” contest you might win. Big deal.
But that is not what it’s about. We’re not trying to fill in the thermometer outside Girl Scout Troop HQ. This is a multi – billion dollar emergency restoration project — it goes well beyond disaster and well beyond repair.
I don’t need any instructions or hoary (and that is spelled properly) quotations from Wilkie Collins’ “Woman in White” [I can read, too] to help me understand or appreciate that.
You think you “called me out”? Get over yourself, Moby, you’re just another lefty with an “I care so much, I must be special” attitude. Well, I don’t think you’re special. And I don’t think it proves anything to anybody to risk wasting hard – earned tax money on such a massive undertaking without taking care and watching every penny closely. How would you feel if hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent all around you, but not for you and your problems? Would that change your tune?
And the fact that “building up the Democratic Party inadvertently” bothers you not one whit, only tells me that you are not thinking about this problem, not at all, but are responding more like a hysterical old woman, “Somebody do something! Somebody do something!”

By: stick

stick — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 01:02:05 +0000

Quaker wrote-
“I was responding to stick s assertion that the government is not we, but is an external entity that acts contrary to the will of the people.”
And this conflicts with my reprentation of your views how? You’re no kind of Quaker I’ve ever heard of — you endorse the state’s control over individual conscious unless it goes contrary to what you happen to believe.

By: White Whale

White Whale — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 23:02:58 +0000

Frank,
I thought Ian was the only 16 year old on this blog? You are proving my point with every post. Not only do you not give a shit, but you mock the tragedy this has caused my family and point out that my spelling errors are a travesty? I seriously don’t want to know what is reprehensible in your book, because you find this whole issue to be a joke. It is no struggle to point out how disconnected you are from reality, as seen by your petty reaction to my post. Not only were you being a smart-ass in your response, but your also butt-hurt because you don’t have the slightest clue and I called you out. Even in the face of tragedy the only thing you can worry about is building up the Democratic Party inadvertently. Face the fact that rather than demand action from EVERYONE, you would rather dismiss this issue because it is not of your concern

“…why the Life Insurance Companies pay death- forfeitures upon immortals; in what eternal, unstirring paralysis, and deadly, hopeless trance, yet lies antique Adam who died sixty round centuries ago; how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss; why all the living so strive to hush all the dead; wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city.”

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 23:02:54 +0000

What matters is: What is the money for? Who will have control of it? How will it be audited?

…vaguely familiar…can’t put my finger on why….

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 22:02:31 +0000

You would have the govrnemnt force other citizens to relinquish sweat equity to support the rebuilding of a faulty city.

Really?

I thought I was saying that if we follow your plan and disconnect ourselves from one another, “looking after ourselves” as you put it, then I want to opt out of our global adventures.

Personally, I’d rather rebuild New Orleans than rebuild Bagdad.

By: Dugger

Dugger — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 21:02:47 +0000

No, yours addresses the repsonsibility of fellow citizens to look after hteir fellow man – not themselves. You would have the govrnemnt force other citizens to relinquish sweat equity to support the rebuilding of a faulty city.

Dugger

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 19:02:39 +0000

My point addresses the moral responsibility of citizens to look after themselves and not force via government coercion, other citizens to support their, many times, poor and foolish decisions

As does mine.

By: Frank_D

Frank_D — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 18:02:44 +0000

From the article: “The Bush administration has pledged billions of dollars to Katrina victims but five months after the storm, New Orleans remains largely in ruins.”
Does this mean the money has not come to New Orleans, or does it mean that billions of dollars have come, but that is not enough?
It would help if we knew which, don’t you think?
The story is a non – starter of the “if we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we… ?” variety…
It wouldn’t matter if the budget were $2.7 quadrillion. What matters is: What is the money for? Who will have control of it? How will it be audited? How much money will be devoted to renovating the levee system, as opposed to how much rebuilds homes, and resupplies families that lost everything?
Your mental masturbation concerning Iowa corn farmers, and the “good guy” liberals vs. the “bad guy” conservatives is all b.s.
Nobody doesn’t want to help the people of New Orleans or restore one of the most beautiful cities in the world to its original splendor. What they don’t want to do is fill the coffers of the Louisiana Democratic Party, or keep incompetent incumbents in office.
{Aside to White Whale — save your righteous indignation for when Quincy makes a comeback. While you struggled mightily to insert “reprehensible” into your comment, it was a waste of time — the bit about the strip club came from the same issue of the Times – Picayune, and was an attempt at humor. BTW, it’s “citing” as in “mention: make reference to”; using “siteing” could be seen as despicable, or, perhaps even reprehensible.}

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 18:02:33 +0000

C mon Quaker do you really think that the collective overrules the moral vision of an individual? Isn t that one of the reasons the Friends fled Europe? When did Quakers begin to believe that the government in Washington had a more Christ like approach to solving social problems than people had themselves?

Wow.

You read a lot into my comment. Too bad that none of what you impute to me is included in what I wrote.

I was responding to stick’s assertion that the government is not “we,” but is an external entity that acts contrary to the will of the people. You got that much, right?

stick’s assertion contradicts Mr. Lincoln’s elegant hopes for the future of the nation.

Now then, are you really interested in discussing my opinions on the proper relationship of the collective and the individual? Or were you just straining to invent a point from which you could launch your rhetorical gambit?

By: Dugger

Dugger — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 18:02:30 +0000

Quaker, Unusually for you, that was devoid of logic.

My point addresses the moral responsibility of citizens to look after themselves and not force via government coercion, other citizens to support their, many times, poor and foolish decisions – i.e., the house built in an avalanche zone. Note the issue proposed here is the rebuilding of an entire city – a city that is very much disaster prone. Why shoulf d the Iowa farmer of the LA street kid delivering pizza have to pay for this. If Louisiana or those fabulous Frenchies (though with thousands of their citizens dying during heat waves, one would think….) wants to do it – have at it.

Dugger

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 18:02:23 +0000

Dugger, your logic can be extended beyond the realm of natural disasters and applied to any governmental endeavor.

If decided to build a million dollar house in an avalanche zone and it happens – should I expect other citizens to rebuild my house?

If I decided to stage an invasion predicated on a neocon fantasy of empire and it doesn’t, as promised, pay for itself – should I expect citizens to pay to clean up the mess?