Sorry dude, but people who routinely pirate content aren't going to pay to anonymize themselves. It runs counter to the whole idea of getting everything for free.
Just a few weeks ago, Memphis police director Larry Godwin announced in a press conference that red light cameras will be going up at the city's most dangerous intersections.
Now, since Larry Godwin is as dumb as a bag of hammers, he probably believes in some small way they're really doing something to make the city safer. But since Larry is also as sly as a fox, he knows that someone is going to get rich off of this, and he might as well take his piece of the action while he can.
I can guarantee that none of the dolts in the mayor's office, the city council, or the police director's office have any idea of the overwhelming evidence that these things don't save lives or reduce accidents, and they don't want to know.
When you've got a nutbag like Barney Franks on, and the guy just won't answer any questions, and won't come clean on his lack of oversight on Fannie Mae, then yes, the only thing that can be done in response is to call BS and scream right back at the raving lunatic. I suppose O'Reilly could have told his producers to cut the live feed and be done with it, but Franks showed everyone who watched that he's a dishonest coward who isn't interested in what's best for the country. So even with the screaming, the viewers got the message.
Now, insert your favorite nutcase into the above scenario and you can see why sometimes the conversation devolves.
Nutcases don't care about facts, only pushing their agenda. When that happens, no amount of facts will dissuade them.
The first time I watched O'Reilly, I hated it. He was constantly interrupting his guests and seemed overly rude. I wondered why anyone would want to watch this guy beat people up every night.
But then I found a pattern. He lets people talk when they aren't blowing smoke, but as soon as they start to drift, he stops them. I guess that pisses a lot of people off, but since his is the highest rated program on Fox News and regularly beats every other news channel in his time slot, I guess a lot of people have figured him out and enjoy what he's doing.
I've been watching now for about 5 years, and I don't agree with everything he says and does, but for the most part, he reflects my social and fiscal conservative leanings. Funny, but the only people I can find who absolutely don't like him are liberal loons who only want to hear that Obambi is the savior, abortion is a good and noble practice, illegal aliens should be granted full and complete amnesty and citizenship, and appeasing terrorists will protect us.
Don't worry, John, you're not at the wrong blog. AC can't distinguish between news commentary, i.e. O'Reilly, Hannity, etc. and news reporting, i.e. the Fox Report. Commentary isn't supposed to look or sound like normal reporting. That's why it's so popular, both on Fox and talk radio.
Of course, put the shoe on the other foot, and try watching any NBC outlet, or perhaps NPR, etc. and you won't get any hard hitting news at all, unless it will hurt conservatives.
But I don't think AC will like me pointing that out.
I think you've got it wrong. I say I know best how to spend the money I earn, and the government should get out of the way as much as possible. That's capitalism, and although it makes some people filthy rich, it's fair because gains are limited only by how hard you want to work.
To paraphrase Churchill, capitalism guarantees unequal sharing of wealth, but socialism guarantees equal sharing of misery. I'll take capitalism, thanks very much. If that's voodoo, then please pass the chicken bones.
Hey, you can't say slick Willie had no talent. He was pretty good at inserting cigars and his joint into the various orifices of a certain chubby intern.
So, Harold, you don't like Bush and you don't like Obama. Just who does it for the weird one?
Campaign: I will not employ lobbyists in my administration.
Now: I will employ lobbyists, lots of them. I only promised that to get elected.
Campaign: I will not sign any legislation until it's had 5 days of public review.
Now: Sorry about signing all of these things with no review, I only made that promise to get elected.
Campaign: I will use a scalpel to remove all earmarks from any spending bills.
Now: You know the drill. I only said that to get elected.
Hail Xenu and the Lord Almighty Obambi (praise be unto Him)!
As the only and original Big Mook, I take offense at the improper use of the name Mook in violation of my personal wishes. Please consider this message as your cease and desist notification.
So, while you were there, did you take advantage of everybody else to stay home and collect sick pay, as is common practice in Sweden, where fully 20% of the workforce can be found home sick every business day of the year?
Hey, who wouldn't love that life? Stay home from work 1 day a week, get free health care and housing, subsidized prescription drugs, etc. Too bad that there are shortages of doctors and long waiting lists for most major surgeries, but hey, you'll be much healthier because of all that rest you get on your sick days. And since the government is taking more than half of your pay off the top, maybe you won't have enough left over to engage in many extra-curricular activities that might cause you great bodily harm.
Of course, there is also the cost in self-esteem and pride in accomplishment. Scandinavia is like a huge college frat party, except the professors don't make you attend class or even do a fair share of work to get a grade.
So, I guess if you're lazy, Scandinavia is the right place for you. Why aren't you still there?
I don't need a month to tell you that these states have been in decline since the 70's. This is another trick employed by supporters of socialism, but it's been debunked so many times there's no need to even go there.
But I don't think you knew that. Somewhere, long ago, someone told you that Scandinavia has it going on, and socialism has triumphed. But quite the opposite is true. They have tax rates in line with what Obambi wants to give us here in America, but their governments are cash-poor because no one has any incentive to start up a business or invest where the government is going to take the lion's share away. Can you say Stagflation?
If you want a good economic model for taxation, look no further than Ireland, which has the 2nd lowest tax burden, yet has very high tax revenue. Wonder how that happened? There was this guy named Reagan...you'll never get it.
When you figure it out, please let Obambi in on the secret.
Just to add one more thought to this already too long thread:
AC says if he thought I was benefiting from capitalism, he would have told me to polish my throne. (At my house, the throne is this little white, porcelain stool used for the disposal of excrement).
What he fails to realize, is that I, and every other citizen of this country including him, are benefiting from it. Without it, we would be another Cuba, Venezuela, "name the socialist country", with the majority of the population living in filth and poverty, while the "party" members live a life of luxury and ease.
America is in trouble, but if we could make it past the gigantic blunders of some past presidents, including Bush, then we can make it through the Obama years, too. It will just take a lot longer to recover, probably a decade or more, just as FDR's failed policies sunk the country deeper in depression while creating make-work jobs for the short term.
Hail Xenu and The Lord Almighty Obama (praise be unto Him)!
That's it? You're giving up so easily? And it was just getting to be fun.
The point is that left-wingers like to say how evil successful people are just for the fact that they are successful, but the affluent among the left-wingers who can afford to be generous seldom are, while conservatives tend to give much more of their money to worthy causes.
It's simple really. I believe that with great wealth comes great responsibility; giving to charities, churches, and other worthy causes is a moral responsibility. That would be a conservative viewpoint.
The opposite viewpoint, which is true of Obama and his ilk, would be that with great wealth comes great evil, and only the government should decide how much to take and to whom it should be given. It becomes a government-mandated responsibility, and the freedom to choose has been taken away.
If you want to polish something, try to polish up Obambi for me. Oh, that's right: You can't polish a turd; it only gets you covered in shit and smells really bad.
Choice in abortion, you say? Bullshit, plain and simple. Nobody asked me if I want my money to fund abortions. I'm less free because of the supposed freedom you espouse? I would expect nothing less from a left-wing wingnut, though.
I suppose you believe it was Carter's policies finally coming to fruition that brought the country back into prosperity in the 80's, not Reagan's polar shift from Carter's failed social agenda. That's cool. Revisionist history is also necessary for the left wing.
Obama is tanking this nation, and I guarantee his policies won't work. Socialism/Collectivism/Communism, whatever you'd like to call it, it doesn't work and never has in the history of mankind. Just because Obambi can read a teleprompter real good doesn't mean it will work this time.
Let's talk again in a few years when we have double-digit inflation, unemployment and interest rates.
O'Reilly gives a ton of money to charity, but I guess you missed that. Let's see how some of the Democrats fared...
From USA Today:
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife gave an average of $369 a year to charity during the past decade, his tax records show.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign today released 10 years' worth of tax returns for Biden, a senator from Delaware, and his wife Jill, a community college instructor. The Bidens reported earning $319,853 last year, including $71,000 in royalties for his memoir, Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.
The Bidens reported giving $995 in charitable donations last year — about 0.3% of their income and the highest amount in the past decade. The low was $120 in 1999, about 0.1% of yearly income.
Over the decade, the Bidens reported a total of $3,690 in charitable donations, or 0.2% of their income.
Biden spokesman David Wade said in an e-mail that the Bidens "also contribute to their favorite causes with their time as well as their checkbooks."
How nice. From the same article:
Then-Vice President Al Gore came under fire when his 1997 tax return showed only $353 in donations to charity; he and his wife, Tipper, gave $15,000 to charity, or nearly 7% of their income, in each of the following two years.
A little further down:
John McCain reported giving more than $202,000 — a quarter of his income — to charity in 2006 and 2007, the only years for which his campaign released his tax returns. His campaign didn't release information about his wife's charitable contributions, however. In 2006, her total itemized tax deductions, a category which includes charitable contributions and other deductible items such as mortgage interest, was $569,737, or 9.3% of her income.
Ok, I lied. I'm still reading TechDirt. I rationalized that it only requires sitting on my ass, and typing a little if necessary/desired. And there aren't any poor people handy just now that I can steal something from.
You're illustrating exactly what I find reprehensible about the liberal mindset. You've assumed that I'm some rich capitalist who is only whining because I might have to sell my yacht or vacation home.
In reality, I'm firmly a lower-middle-class, working stiff, struggling to feed and clothe a family of 4 and pay the mortgage and car note, who has just lost over 40% of his retirement savings in this financial mess. Thank goodness I still have a job.
I'm just not blind to the fact that destroying the businesses and people who create the jobs and prosperity for the rest of us, will hurt us all in the end. I'm not blind to the fact that corporations DON'T PAY TAXES, they just pass them on to the consumer. I'm not blind to the fact that the types of entitlements that Obambi is enacting are the same old failed social experiments of Johnson and Carter. They don't work, and they never will.
I'm old enough to remember the Carter years, and Obama has started up the time machine and we're headed right back there again. Only this time, it'll be much worse, and there won't be any nice photo ops between Isreali and Arab countries trying to work out peace. But by God, the poor are going to have their handouts restored to them. Forget personal responsibility, Obama will take care of it. Can't pay your mortgage (because you bought a home you couldn't afford)? No problem, He'll take care of that for you. Can't pay your student loans? See above.
And please don't talk about ethics and morality. Democrats are the party that holds nothing sacred. Marriage, family and even human life must hold no special place if you want to align yourself with them. Destruction of the nuclear family and abortion with no restrictions must be your preferences if you want to have a conversation with the likes of Pelosi or Obama.
I don't need to dig a hole, Obama is doing that already quite well, and when he's done, quite possibly the entire country will fit inside it. I'll keep the gun handy, though. I might need it when the revolution starts, and for squirrels and such.
Not if Obambi keeps running this country into the ground. Oh well, I've got a couple of guns laying around like any good right-winger, so I guess I can hunt squirrels and other small vermin after the new tax code starts really squeezing the life out of me.
Sorry, gotta run, I've no more time to read TechDirt, I've got to get busy sitting on my ass and trying to get my hands on the hard-earned money of those poor, wretched souls that are poor and wretched because of me. Uh-oh, I think I just soiled myself.
In defense of Rich Fat Porcine, please know that we are Democrats who digest Princess Pelosi, Dingy Harry, The Lord Almighty Obambi, the NY Times, SF Chronicle, CNN, MSNBC, and any other left-wing, nutbag source of info-memos every day, and we remember the talking points. We are the left-wing, benevolent, charitable angelic creatures who give other people's money to those poor unfortunate souls left sitting on their asses (because of the greedy bastards), bringing innovation to everything we do, while we dream up new methods of getting our hairy palms on the profit of the hard work of every successful person we find.
We know the facts, we just choose to ignore them, because it's much easier to keep the voting block happy by giving them a few crumbs now and then rather than real solutions to their problems.
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
"Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon."
Problem is, the MSM didn't want anyone to know who was responsible, so they pretty much buried it after a few initial forays into the subject. Bush was too busy protecting us from Islamo-fascist nutbags who want to kill us.
The MSM would like us to believe that the only bad things Clinton ever did was dip cigars and his member in the various orifices of an intern (and any other skirt who grabbed his attention). The truth is that the economy under Clinton would have been a total bust if it wasn't for the Internet and technology boom that fueled the 90's.
Re: Wow
Next idea, please.
Hail Xenu (and Seth)!
Memphis is going down this road
Now, since Larry Godwin is as dumb as a bag of hammers, he probably believes in some small way they're really doing something to make the city safer. But since Larry is also as sly as a fox, he knows that someone is going to get rich off of this, and he might as well take his piece of the action while he can.
I can guarantee that none of the dolts in the mayor's office, the city council, or the police director's office have any idea of the overwhelming evidence that these things don't save lives or reduce accidents, and they don't want to know.
Re:
Now, insert your favorite nutcase into the above scenario and you can see why sometimes the conversation devolves.
Nutcases don't care about facts, only pushing their agenda. When that happens, no amount of facts will dissuade them.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: reporters opinions
But then I found a pattern. He lets people talk when they aren't blowing smoke, but as soon as they start to drift, he stops them. I guess that pisses a lot of people off, but since his is the highest rated program on Fox News and regularly beats every other news channel in his time slot, I guess a lot of people have figured him out and enjoy what he's doing.
I've been watching now for about 5 years, and I don't agree with everything he says and does, but for the most part, he reflects my social and fiscal conservative leanings. Funny, but the only people I can find who absolutely don't like him are liberal loons who only want to hear that Obambi is the savior, abortion is a good and noble practice, illegal aliens should be granted full and complete amnesty and citizenship, and appeasing terrorists will protect us.
Obligatory: What say you?
Re: Re: Re: reporters opinions
Of course, put the shoe on the other foot, and try watching any NBC outlet, or perhaps NPR, etc. and you won't get any hard hitting news at all, unless it will hurt conservatives.
But I don't think AC will like me pointing that out.
Hail Xenu (and Seth)!!
Re: I have only three words
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
To paraphrase Churchill, capitalism guarantees unequal sharing of wealth, but socialism guarantees equal sharing of misery. I'll take capitalism, thanks very much. If that's voodoo, then please pass the chicken bones.
BM
Re: Re: Re:
So, Harold, you don't like Bush and you don't like Obama. Just who does it for the weird one?
BM
Re:
Now: I will employ lobbyists, lots of them. I only promised that to get elected.
Campaign: I will not sign any legislation until it's had 5 days of public review.
Now: Sorry about signing all of these things with no review, I only made that promise to get elected.
Campaign: I will use a scalpel to remove all earmarks from any spending bills.
Now: You know the drill. I only said that to get elected.
Hail Xenu and the Lord Almighty Obambi (praise be unto Him)!
Big Mook
Re: Re:
Hail Xenu!
Big Mook
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: weird harold
Hey, who wouldn't love that life? Stay home from work 1 day a week, get free health care and housing, subsidized prescription drugs, etc. Too bad that there are shortages of doctors and long waiting lists for most major surgeries, but hey, you'll be much healthier because of all that rest you get on your sick days. And since the government is taking more than half of your pay off the top, maybe you won't have enough left over to engage in many extra-curricular activities that might cause you great bodily harm.
Of course, there is also the cost in self-esteem and pride in accomplishment. Scandinavia is like a huge college frat party, except the professors don't make you attend class or even do a fair share of work to get a grade.
So, I guess if you're lazy, Scandinavia is the right place for you. Why aren't you still there?
From the forbidden zone of conservatism,
Big Mook
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: weird harold
But I don't think you knew that. Somewhere, long ago, someone told you that Scandinavia has it going on, and socialism has triumphed. But quite the opposite is true. They have tax rates in line with what Obambi wants to give us here in America, but their governments are cash-poor because no one has any incentive to start up a business or invest where the government is going to take the lion's share away. Can you say Stagflation?
If you want a good economic model for taxation, look no further than Ireland, which has the 2nd lowest tax burden, yet has very high tax revenue. Wonder how that happened? There was this guy named Reagan...you'll never get it.
When you figure it out, please let Obambi in on the secret.
Big Mook
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: weird harold
AC says if he thought I was benefiting from capitalism, he would have told me to polish my throne. (At my house, the throne is this little white, porcelain stool used for the disposal of excrement).
What he fails to realize, is that I, and every other citizen of this country including him, are benefiting from it. Without it, we would be another Cuba, Venezuela, "name the socialist country", with the majority of the population living in filth and poverty, while the "party" members live a life of luxury and ease.
America is in trouble, but if we could make it past the gigantic blunders of some past presidents, including Bush, then we can make it through the Obama years, too. It will just take a lot longer to recover, probably a decade or more, just as FDR's failed policies sunk the country deeper in depression while creating make-work jobs for the short term.
Hail Xenu and The Lord Almighty Obama (praise be unto Him)!
From the bottomless pit,
Big Mook
Re: Re: Re: I don't care anymore
The point is that left-wingers like to say how evil successful people are just for the fact that they are successful, but the affluent among the left-wingers who can afford to be generous seldom are, while conservatives tend to give much more of their money to worthy causes.
It's simple really. I believe that with great wealth comes great responsibility; giving to charities, churches, and other worthy causes is a moral responsibility. That would be a conservative viewpoint.
The opposite viewpoint, which is true of Obama and his ilk, would be that with great wealth comes great evil, and only the government should decide how much to take and to whom it should be given. It becomes a government-mandated responsibility, and the freedom to choose has been taken away.
Hope that clears it up for you.
From way down in Obama's bottomless pit,
Big Mook
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: weird harold
Choice in abortion, you say? Bullshit, plain and simple. Nobody asked me if I want my money to fund abortions. I'm less free because of the supposed freedom you espouse? I would expect nothing less from a left-wing wingnut, though.
I suppose you believe it was Carter's policies finally coming to fruition that brought the country back into prosperity in the 80's, not Reagan's polar shift from Carter's failed social agenda. That's cool. Revisionist history is also necessary for the left wing.
Obama is tanking this nation, and I guarantee his policies won't work. Socialism/Collectivism/Communism, whatever you'd like to call it, it doesn't work and never has in the history of mankind. Just because Obambi can read a teleprompter real good doesn't mean it will work this time.
Let's talk again in a few years when we have double-digit inflation, unemployment and interest rates.
From the mud hole,
Big Mook
Re: I don't care anymore
From USA Today:
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife gave an average of $369 a year to charity during the past decade, his tax records show.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign today released 10 years' worth of tax returns for Biden, a senator from Delaware, and his wife Jill, a community college instructor. The Bidens reported earning $319,853 last year, including $71,000 in royalties for his memoir, Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.
The Bidens reported giving $995 in charitable donations last year — about 0.3% of their income and the highest amount in the past decade. The low was $120 in 1999, about 0.1% of yearly income.
Over the decade, the Bidens reported a total of $3,690 in charitable donations, or 0.2% of their income.
Biden spokesman David Wade said in an e-mail that the Bidens "also contribute to their favorite causes with their time as well as their checkbooks."
How nice. From the same article:
Then-Vice President Al Gore came under fire when his 1997 tax return showed only $353 in donations to charity; he and his wife, Tipper, gave $15,000 to charity, or nearly 7% of their income, in each of the following two years.
A little further down:
John McCain reported giving more than $202,000 — a quarter of his income — to charity in 2006 and 2007, the only years for which his campaign released his tax returns. His campaign didn't release information about his wife's charitable contributions, however. In 2006, her total itemized tax deductions, a category which includes charitable contributions and other deductible items such as mortgage interest, was $569,737, or 9.3% of her income.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: weird harold
You're illustrating exactly what I find reprehensible about the liberal mindset. You've assumed that I'm some rich capitalist who is only whining because I might have to sell my yacht or vacation home.
In reality, I'm firmly a lower-middle-class, working stiff, struggling to feed and clothe a family of 4 and pay the mortgage and car note, who has just lost over 40% of his retirement savings in this financial mess. Thank goodness I still have a job.
I'm just not blind to the fact that destroying the businesses and people who create the jobs and prosperity for the rest of us, will hurt us all in the end. I'm not blind to the fact that corporations DON'T PAY TAXES, they just pass them on to the consumer. I'm not blind to the fact that the types of entitlements that Obambi is enacting are the same old failed social experiments of Johnson and Carter. They don't work, and they never will.
I'm old enough to remember the Carter years, and Obama has started up the time machine and we're headed right back there again. Only this time, it'll be much worse, and there won't be any nice photo ops between Isreali and Arab countries trying to work out peace. But by God, the poor are going to have their handouts restored to them. Forget personal responsibility, Obama will take care of it. Can't pay your mortgage (because you bought a home you couldn't afford)? No problem, He'll take care of that for you. Can't pay your student loans? See above.
And please don't talk about ethics and morality. Democrats are the party that holds nothing sacred. Marriage, family and even human life must hold no special place if you want to align yourself with them. Destruction of the nuclear family and abortion with no restrictions must be your preferences if you want to have a conversation with the likes of Pelosi or Obama.
I don't need to dig a hole, Obama is doing that already quite well, and when he's done, quite possibly the entire country will fit inside it. I'll keep the gun handy, though. I might need it when the revolution starts, and for squirrels and such.
Hail Xenu and His Lordship, The Almighty Obambi!
Big Mook
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: weird harold
Sorry, gotta run, I've no more time to read TechDirt, I've got to get busy sitting on my ass and trying to get my hands on the hard-earned money of those poor, wretched souls that are poor and wretched because of me. Uh-oh, I think I just soiled myself.
Hail Xenu!
Big Mook
Re: Re: Re: weird harold
We know the facts, we just choose to ignore them, because it's much easier to keep the voting block happy by giving them a few crumbs now and then rather than real solutions to their problems.
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
"Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon."
Winston Churchill
Hail Xenu!
Big Mook
Re: Re: Failing because of dishonesty, perhaps?
The MSM would like us to believe that the only bad things Clinton ever did was dip cigars and his member in the various orifices of an intern (and any other skirt who grabbed his attention). The truth is that the economy under Clinton would have been a total bust if it wasn't for the Internet and technology boom that fueled the 90's.
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