And If Women Stopped Voting, Winguts Would Rule

Shorter Jeremy Egerer, The American Genius:
How the Dual Income Destroys the Lower Classes

    • If women would just stop working, there would be no poverty.

  • ‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. We are aware of all Internet traditions.™


     

    Comments: 430

     
     
     

    Good lord, I got out of the boat. That is the biggest stinking pile of economic bullshit I have read since the 2008 Republican platform.

    Magical thinking. If wives stay home than the husband’s pay magically doubles, provided through the kind ministrations of the invisible hand.

    Yeah, that’s going to happen.

     
     

    O.M.G.

    I would have brought back mangoes, but those mangoes cause diarrhea, as you can see smeared all over the page at the link.

    Word, American Stinkers: when the morons who read your blog on a regular basis are pushing back on what you write in the first page of comments, whatever source of butthurt animated your screed is already a lost cause.

    Of course, smarter people recognized the war on feminism as a lost cause 20 years ago. Do try to catch up to the last century, dears.

     
     

    Trust the shorter, people. The other way lies madness.

     
     

    Never underestimate the power of wingnut delusions to invert causality and misplace responsibility onto the victims. Two-earner households have risen as a percentage of the population because of declining wages over the past 30 years so that it now routinely requires two jobs to maintain the same standard of living that one income supported in my youth in the 50s and 60s.

     
     

    Trust the shorter, people. The other way lies madness.

    Always. And, as Jennifer observes, potentially fatal diarrhea.

     
     

    I would have brought back mangoes, but those mangoes cause diarrhea, as you can see smeared all over the page at the link.

    The farce is strong in this one.

     
     

    That shit is utterly unreadable. How’s this for a shorter: the rightwing overlords and their lickspittle followers will not be satisfied until workers are paid nothing. The Bible and the invisible hand have decreed it. Suck it libs.

     
     

    Two-income families are bad and cause poverty. Paying people to stay home and not to work is bad and causes poverty. I guess mandating that the wife stay home for no pay and the family make do with one salary(or none, in the case of single parent families) is the way to universal prosperity? Also too, Adam Smith never heard of company stores. Or feudalism or debt peonage, apparently, though those must’ve been harder to miss.

    Final thought: correlation not only doesn’t equal causation, it also doesn’t negate the possibility that if there is a causal relation the direction might be the other way…

     
     

    I not only got out of the boat, I went to its web site. This one’s a keeper. Besides opposing freedom of speech and civil rights as discriminatory against our Galtian overlords, he gilds the worst homophobia with Philosophy 101 filigrees of bullshit, and even supports the bullying of homosexual children as proper shaming, and that it’s the anti-homosexual bully who’s being persecuted. I shit you not.

     
     

    I shit you not.

    You’ve obviously not eaten the mangoes.

     
     

    Wait, what? The families of “lower classes” – the ranks from which, for centuries, nannies, charwomen, maids, cooks, shopgirls and mill factory workers typically come – are in jeopardy because 20th century feminism has lured women out of the home to work?

    Seriously, when has the “lower class” (i.e., POOR) woman NOT worked?

     
     

    Properly prepared, mango chutney is very versatile and can liven up your diet. Of course it all comes out the same in the end. That’s what wing nuts come in.

     
     

    Where, dammit. I need a proof reader.

     
     

    Let’s play another round of our game, “Where did that come from?”
    For each item below, please enter either:
    a) “deep-seated irrational fear,” or b) “obnoxious rhetorical device”

    1. Penis Power abridgment.
    “…a deteriorating financial and reproductive state…”
    “…replacing the missing American children with desperate foreigners…”
    “…the man laboring as the breadwinner and the giver of law..’
    “This structure is intended by God.”

    2. Wise Men.
    “everyone knows”
    “…enough has been written, by practically every conservative think-tank…”
    “But the wise know — not just with their minds, but also with their hearts…”
    “…welfare programs well-known by all studious men to destroy the household further…”
    “The wise know another method of restoring household stability…”

    3. Worthless, Shiftless Peons.
    “lower classes”
    “…those with poor moral constitutions…”
    “..even the lowest classes..”
    “..unfathered children of the most criminal classes..”

    The correct answer in each case is of course c) “both!”

     
     

    But enough has been written, by practically every conservative think-tank, about how the welfare state and anti-discrimination legislation destroy neighborhoods and promote the business interests of those with poor moral constitutions

    But enough has been written, by practically every Big Bad Wolf, about how the establishment of brickworks destroys neighborhoods and promote the interests of those with poor moral constitutions like little pigs.

     
     

    “The wise know another method of restoring household stability, and it is a restoration of the traditional, biblical nuclear family.”

    So true. I would be able to afford to Biggie Size every order if I start beating the shit out of my wife. Yup. Going with God on this one.

     
     

    Oh dear me. The bot that wrote this needs more raw text, waaaaaaay more iterations & a better (as in working) word-filter … if not a total rebuild.

    Shit gets seven kinds of ooky fast as soon as you translate it into Reality-Speak:

    “The welfare state and anti-discrimination legislation destroy neighborhoods and promote the business interests of those with poor moral constitutions (leftists, primarily) by providing layabouts with an arsenal of unreasonable lawsuits” = “Mutual aid, progress, equality & social justice make my pee-pee unhappy.”

    “Conservatives complain of the unfathered children of the most criminal classes, yet they often neglect to propose that a missing mother could harm the family as well.” = “I fail both semantics & semiotics, I’m moronic enough to think that with generic eat-the-poor hatefulness I can taint-lick my way into the elite, & girls smell WEIRD.”

    “A restoration of the traditional, biblical nuclear family” = “I am historically illiterate.”

     
     

    thanks for making moms who work outside the home feel even more guilty about…not only are we made to feel like shit for not being june cleaver, but now we’ve destroyed an entire class of people, and most likely, the american dream…fuck you!

     
     

    Biblical nuclear family…some have theorized that Sodom and Gommorah were destroyed by a nuclear blast which killed Lot’s wife when she turned to look back. There’s something we can aspire to at the hands of the Xrazy Xristians.

     
     

    well now that i am full of irritation and a bit of anger, imma get back to my project-filled weekend…i have had a number of household projects that have been languishing for months and it is absofuckinglutely beautiful outside, so catch y’all later…

     
     

    oh, and the anger and irritation i feel right now? from the link so kindly supplied by r porrofatto…grrrrrrr…do not go there!

     
     

    Elizabeth Warren wrote a book about that, actually.

     
     

    I unwisely checked the link R Porofotto posted. This Jeremy Egerer creep really must be using his penis to fap, fap, fap against his Bible.

     
     

    Many years ago, I encountered a statement from a feminist writer that was ver much like the following:

    Conservatives think all our problems are caused by two groups of women. Rich women who have jobs are at fault for not staying home with their kids. And poor women on welfare are at fault for staying home with their kids.

    .

    The linked article just restates this aphorism in many, many more words.

     
     

    Ya know, I started reading then stopped. Because I really don’t think I can handle another piece of shit thought-fart that blames everything on feminism.

    Listen, I’m totally down with women staying home to tend house or take care of children. Because that’s what I do. But I think asking women to stay at home rather than exploring the world around them or teach or create or strive (for…whatever) is not just wrong, it’s profoundly cruel.

     
     

    thanks for making moms who work outside the home feel even more guilty about…not only are we made to feel like shit for not being june cleaver, but now we’ve destroyed an entire class of people, and most likely, the american dream…fuck you!

    Exactly. Not to mention many women work outside the home because they HAVE to. But, shit, even if they didn’t… What? Are are women default house-slaves? BULLSHIT!

     
     

    I not only got out of the boat, I went to its web site. This one’s a keeper. Besides opposing freedom of speech and civil rights as discriminatory against our Galtian overlords, he gilds the worst homophobia with Philosophy 101 filigrees of bullshit, and even supports the bullying of homosexual children as proper shaming, and that it’s the anti-homosexual bully who’s being persecuted. I shit you not.

    Oh god, I got out of the boat, and now I feel sick. I have a special degree of loathing reserved for bullies. Oh, an the text is littered with links to his own posts.

    That’s some bad mangoes, R. Porrofatto.

     
     

    even supports the bullying of homosexual children as proper shaming, and that it’s the anti-homosexual bully who’s being persecuted. I shit you not.

    That’s not even a little bit surprising. They skirt around the issue a bit, but you can tell that a lot of them think it’s bad that kids cannot be pressured out of faggotdom.

     
     

    Ya know, I started reading then stopped. Because I really don’t think I can handle another piece of shit thought-fart that blames everything on feminism.

    Agreed, you would be much better served by working on another piece of art.

     
     

    Jeremy Egerer is a recent convert to Christian conservatism from radical liberalism and the editor of the Seattle website http://www.americanclarity.com.

    A few Google clicks reveal that a) this specimen was never a liberal, radical or otherwise, and b) his wife works.

    Are we surprised?

     
     

    Jeremy Egerer is a recent convert to Christian conservatism from radical liberalism and the editor of the Seattle website

    Bullshit. If was anything on the left it was a Trotskyite or some other thought-free moron who doesn’t “get” consent, equality, justice, self-determination, etc, but I doubt he was ever anything but what he is now. And what’s with the tiger suit?

     
     

    Agreed, you would be much better served by working on another piece of art.

    I always do what zombies tell me to do. This time, happily.

     
     

    Yes, cutting the labor force in half would absolutely improve the economy, which is dependent on people spending money they earned through their labor! This man’s a genius! Aaagh, I think I just shit myself.

     
     

    R. Porrofatto said,

    September 25, 2011 at 17:57 (kill)

    I not only got out of the boat, I went to its web site. This one’s a keeper. Besides opposing freedom of speech and civil rights as discriminatory against our Galtian overlords, he gilds the worst homophobia with Philosophy 101 filigrees of bullshit, and even supports the bullying of homosexual children as proper shaming, and that it’s the anti-homosexual bully who’s being persecuted. I shit you not.

    TRecentlyIL there’s a name for that typical reichwing behavior, DARVO.

     
     

    They skirt around the issue a bit, but you can tell that a lot of them think it’s bad that kids cannot be pressured out of faggotdom.

    Also remember, bullying teh gheys is a wonderful *cough* way for closet cases to over-compensate for their own hidden (and forbidden) urges.

     
     

    there’s a name for that typical reichwing behavior, DARVO.

    Yep, though I was previously unfamiliar.

    DARVO refers to a reaction perpetrators of wrong doing, particularly sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior. DARVO stands for “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.” The perpetrator or offender may Deny the behavior, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role and turns the true victim into an alleged offender. This occurs, for instance, when an actually guilty perpetrator assumes the role of “falsely accused” and attacks the accuser’s credibility or even blames the accuser of being the perpetrator of a false accusation.

    Another variation of Projection, or Innoculation. pretty much the extent of the Republican playbook.
    .
    Sprinkle liberally (not in a bad way) with “Rules are for thee, yet not for me”.

    .My Wetsuits are at their shrink, and then need some time at a resort I cant afford, so I’ll just be bathing in a tub of gin on the Poop deck with Fenwick thank you very much.
    .

     
     

    A mint julep sir.

     
     

    “Winguts”, Tintin?

    But enough has been written, by practically every conservative think-tank
    Interesting blog-post here, by Adam Curtis. It’s a short history of the rise of the Think Tank in the modern age. Or rather how ‘think tanks’ changed from the likes of the RAND corporation, tasked with looking for creative solutions and alternatives and possible futures, but “a branch of the PR industry whose aim is to do the very opposite – to endlessly prop up and reinforce today’s accepted political wisdom.” I.e. the proliferation of Wingnut Welfare institutions tasked with narrowing the field of choice by promoting one existing solution (There Is No Alternative).

    … to the point where even this American Thinker nimrod has noticed that “conservative think-tanks” only exist to all say the same thing in slightly different wording.

    Bonus usual suspects!

    Hayek told Fisher to set up what he called a “scholarly institute” that would operate as a dealer in second-hand ideas.

     
     

    There’s a name for that typical reichwing behavior, DARVO.”

    You misspelled Davros.

     
     

    Hey, it’s that old standby, something is going wrong in the economy, it must be the chicks’ fault.

    It figures since they’ve been able to stymie much other political progress on women’s issues since women being allowed to the workforce that they would try and resume shaming on that. Already, our kindly cultural edifice has been sending plenty of signals that our frivolous experiment with letting women think they are anything other than house-slaves is just unsupportable in the current economy.

    Not only does it miss the point, but it really shows how conservatives think the world work.

    In short, they think if they can get a good enough image then the reality will follow. As such, if they just bring back a suburb full of white people with june cleaver stepford wives then that will bring back the booming middle class of the 50s and force the darkies to retreat into the shadows and disappear. Similarly, they believe that if they present a happy home, then that will erase all the problems in it of abuse and alcoholism, and kids on drugs.

    You also see it in their candidates, if they can just create the right Ronald Reagan soundbite spewing candidate, then they will automatically be a beloved champion for their way of life and a wise and true leader who will instantly fix the economy and so on.

    Which to be fair, is closely tied to their religion which demands obstentious displays of tribal belonging and “faith” which are supposed to convince God to change the universe and improve ones life or make life worse for one’s enemies.

    As such, we get exactly the type of people designed to sacrifice people to the volcano on the first solar eclipse or who decide that the solution to the plague of bodies that is making your landscape sick is more sacrifices of the few healthy people that remain.

     
     

    Also the mango that is the perfect summation of what is wrong with our dear friend the fuckwad:

    It is in the need for statesmen, constantly informed and rooted in wisdom and character, that we deride childish men who fill their time with beer and football. It is in the need for caring and delicate women, the essence of motherhood and the heart of the home, that we frown upon the girl in steel toed boots with a shaved head. And we cannot hold people to a flexible standard, saying that a man may either choose to act in duty as a man or a woman. If man may honorably act as a woman, or woman as a man, then aspiring to either quality cannot ever be considered dishonorable.

    Toxic masculinity and the Patriarchy perfectly presented and wrapped with a bow. Men must be men and women must be women and never the twain shall meet, except what is defined as a man is rather flexible and changing, always usually defined by how one is lacking and needs to be more manly. You’re not disrespecting women enough, you’re not being randomly beligerant enough, you aren’t hating fags enough. Join in or be our next victim. And of course, there has been book after book about the house-slave trap that has been the “traditional”, “natural” role for women. Which I’ll note is always 1950s TV shows. Not actual women at the time, women, especially poor women have been in the factories, helping raise the barn, running side businesses as herbalists and healers until they were burned as witches, and so on for a long time. Women have been “working outside the home” since there was a home the women were supposed to be working in.

    Of course, the reason that feminism has been “relaxing” these standards is because no one fits into them. Even your self-parodies of masculine maleness and feminine femaleness are made to feel lacking in the constricting roles set out for them. Allowing people to spread out and define their own style, acknowledge their attractions, and be themselves even if that someone else is of the opposite sex that one is born to, or no sex, or both sexes.

    Cause that’s who we are naturally. That is the true “way God created us” as they often like to bandy around as they defend a lifestyle more unnatural than polyester clothing and sleeping in houses.

    And that must be stopped in the eyes of the people who already sacrificed everything (love, happiness, a chance his wife wasn’t regularly sleeping with the pool boy instead of him) in the name of toxic masculinity.

    It also serves as a nice illustration to something that has been obvious to many. That is that the resistance to homosexuality and especially the whining about “traditional marriage” isn’t even really about the fags. It’s about trying to defend a view of marriage and relationships as a system of ownership over the woman. A system where man and woman remain trapped by the singular paths their lives can lead and where women are to be house-slaves and white men are to be given middle class jobs like the TV shows of their youth promised.

    And if men can marry men and women can marry women, then what does that mean for the importance of the “roles”? They can pretend that the gays practice those roles in private, but the wingnuts now that that rationalization will feel completely unpalatable and false.

    It’d be time to finally let that toxic and destructive archaic view of relationships as prisons rather than celebrations of love die and evolve into the 20th century (yeah, they have some catching up to do).

    In the meantime, bullying is their only recourse to try and keep back the tide of history a little longer.

     
     

    “If man may honorably…” blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

    Southern honor culture. See the movie “Winter’s Bone” for how well that works.

     
     

    Sheesh, Cerberus, that passage is nuts: men are wise, informed, and have character, women are caring. A caring man or wise and informed women is not only “unnatural”, it’s actually dishonorable.

     
     

    Also this mango.

    Most people know a real bully when they see one. It is the person too insecure and pathetic to keep from deriding a person with coke bottle glasses, to refrain from laughing at those with a speech impediment, or too dishonorable to secure his wife’s respect without striking her. Yet in recent years, the concept of bullying has been extended beyond its natural boundaries, not to protect those who cannot help their circumstances, but to defend lifestyle decisions which are unacceptable and immoral, or the behaviors indicative of such debasement.

    Anti-bullying mechanisms were okay when they were trying to prevent football players from turning my insides into my outsides, but when they try and protect the victims of my bullying then they have taken a step too fair.

    I love also the self-condemnation he leaves in unwittingly. Yes. They are pathetic and insecure, much like your obsession that accepting gay people as anything other than marauding demons would mean that you have to actually treat your wife as a full person rather than glorified help.

    And yeah, the only way that even remotely parses is if you believe that gay people aren’t just humans, but a pack of marauding demons that one must exorcise in blood and death.

    Also, forgotten?

    The kid in the coke-bottle glasses is often bullied for being a “fag”. The weak male is targeted not because football players are contracturally obligated to be stereotypes, but because the easiest way for an insecure man to shore up his cred as a manly male who totally isn’t a fag is to target someone weaker and attack them for being a feminine “wuss” who probably likes dick. This way no one looks askance at your obsession with hanging around in sweaty gyms, only hanging out with other men, who you run around a field with playing grab-ass with.

    So yeah, the reason that the kid with the coke-bottle glasses is because the bullies are thinking they are guiding “behaviors indicative of debasement” usually because their fathers are trying to verbally beat the fag out of them.

     
     

    It is in the need for statesmen, constantly informed and rooted in wisdom and character, that we deride childish men who fill their time with beer and football. It is in the need for caring and delicate women, the essence of motherhood and the heart of the home, that we frown upon the girl in steel toed boots with a shaved head.
    Goodness me, the man writes like a second Cicero. Or like a self-important git with a stick up his butt. You be the judge!

     
     

    It may be a crappy boat filled with stinking bilge, but no way am I getting out of it. Not here.

     
     

    Goodness me, the man writes like a second Cicero. Or like a self-important git with a stick up his butt. You be the judge!

    It’s funny, when it comes to conservative politicians, it’s all “guy you could have a beer with,” “regular average Joe,” “so folksy!” and all that. When it comes to conservative intellectuals, though, there aren’t any more pompous, long-winded jackasses in creation. I can almost forgive the conservative voter for being as anti-intellectual as he is, if this is what he reads.

    I got out of the boat and quit reading after a few paragraphs too. Not because I couldn’t handle it, just because I couldn’t be arsed to follow his convoluted sentences.

     
     

    You misspelled Davros.

    Or Darvon.

     
     

    there aren’t any more pompous, long-winded jackasses in creation

    But I try so hard! Nurtz.

     
     

    That’s settles it: shaved head and steel-toed boots for me.

     
     

    When it comes to conservative intellectuals, though, there aren’t any more pompous, long-winded jackasses in creation.

    I suspect that Jeremy Egerer literally dresses up in a toga when he writes his columns, and has a supply of reed pens for authenticity.

     
     

    I suspect that Jeremy Egerer literally dresses up in a toga when he writes his columns

    Not if his Facebook profile pic is any indication…

     
     

    I suspect that Jeremy Egerer literally dresses up in a toga when he writes his columns, and has a supply of reed pens for authenticity.

    Perhaps it makes more sense in the original LInear B. Wouldn’t bet on it.

     
     

    Compared with the bracket with the highest percentage of dual income households, the lowest quintile is somewhere around eleven times less likely to have a second income. If this is the case, then poverty and the number of incomes are absolutely correlated.

    For someone who claims to be a Thinker, he doesn’t really understand causality.

     
     

    I suspect that Jeremy Egerer literally dresses up in a toga when he writes his columns,

    The carefree and imaginative dress-up games chez Clyde lead to incorrect extrapolations of other folks’ situations.

     
     

    That’s settles it: shaved head and steel-toed boots for me.

    You and BBBB can ride motorcycles together.
    ~

     
     

    Smart money says he’s against the mandatory minimum wage.

     
     

    The carefree and imaginative dress-up games chez Clyde

    I will have you know that the manatee costume is both comfortable and practical for working at the computer.

     
     

    caring and delicate women Most of the women I have met in my lifetime could be described as caring. They have people, friends, relatives and cats, that they care about. but delicate, that’s a toughy since it brings to mind bone china and I know no one who is bone china fragile.
    Even the Stepford wives had a certain white-ware resilience.
    What a drooling idiot this man is.

     
     

    How pixilated this man would be to know that my two sons have the example of married parents, one of who works, the other of whom stays home to take care of the home and kids.

    Of course, the fact that both parents are men, one white and one black, would probably spoil the pleasure for him.

     
     

    I will have you know that the manatee costume is both comfortable and practical for working at the computer.

    Shades of the Matt Taibbi story about his dad’s Fudgie the Whale costume.

     
     

    So I skimmed to the end. He takes and awful long time say “BECAUSE GAWD SAID SO.”

     
     

    Imagine an “an” and “to” in there.

     
     

    Imagine an “an” and “to” in there.

    That’s the second worst cover of John Lennon’s Imagine I’ve ever heard.

     
     

    I will have you know that the manatee costume is both comfortable and practical for working at the computer.

    Who was that flasked man? Atee.

    Also: someone once said he had a nice tail, but I think it was just a fluke.

     
     

    Oh, the huge manatee!

     
     

    How does one type with those huge flippers?

     
     

    Tigris has stolen my ‘fluke accident’ joke.

     
     

    I shit you not.> what a fuckwad. I don’t consider myself as having been bullied but I was definitely picked on so this really pisses me off. I was in high school around the time that Animal House came out and it always amused me that the “cool” kids didn’t realize that they weren’t the Animal house guys

     
     

    Tigris has stolen my ‘fluke accident’ joke.

    We can’t wait all day for you to catch up.

     
     

    Got off the boat, and it kills me how bad this is even if you somehow manage not to disagree with the basic premise.

    I mean, here’s a summary for you:

    Problem: Women have flooded the labor market, thus driving wages down to the point where it is impossible for most people to raise a family on a single income.

    Solution: Raise your family on a single income.

    I think there are some hidden flaws in your solution there, champ.

    Also:

    The lowest classes, those most likely to be touted by left-wing organizations as oppressed…

    But… like half his article is about how the lower class IS systemically oppressed by an overfilled labor market. Why would you spend hundreds of words doing that and then still act like it’s only the LIEberals who would ever agree with, well, you?

     
     

    It’s funny, when it comes to conservative politicians, it’s all “guy you could have a beer with,” “regular average Joe,” “so folksy!” and all that. When it comes to conservative intellectuals, though, there aren’t any more pompous, long-winded jackasses in creation. I can almost forgive the conservative voter for being as anti-intellectual as he is, if this is what he reads.

    I got out of the boat and quit reading after a few paragraphs too. Not because I couldn’t handle it, just because I couldn’t be arsed to follow his convoluted sentences.

    I’m feelin’ ya … my calling him a buggy bot above was NOT ad hom.

    Anti-intellectual culture – not much of a hotbed of brainiacs.

    It’s sadly so that you can go to these long “epic” posts & know before you’ve read the first sentence that you have to go fish out your unused air-sickness bag, because “conservative wisdom” – once it’s more fully extrapolated & explicated by its prosyletizers – reveals itself as a schizoid circus of anachronism & faith-based failure.

    Though its arguably tacky, writing just to enjoy your own voice in print is still shareworthy, if you have new or meaningful or interesting or lulzy things for it to chirp. These qualities are AWOL on the right, which is why their unintelligentsia are trapped in the optics of forever being NEW & REVOLUTIONARY. What that means for actual content is “Brazil is a land of many contrasts” syndrome up the wazoo, & not much else. Sound-bitey, bumper-stickery mode always looks like Confucius next to the ocean of mental mud that has replaced rigor with faith, to the detriment of both.

    “We need to go back to the high moral standards of yesteryear” + “we need to think outside the box about trivial quibbles like evidence, causality, prior experiences, cause & effect, ethics or those many other obsolete liberal sacred cows” = COGINITIVE DISSONANCE / 0.

    Self-inflicted mindfucking as a driver for academic prodigality more or less worked for James Joyce, but we are not dealing with blind dead Irish genius handjob-lovers here.

     
     

    *AROO BREAKING NEWS AROO*

    Metafilter comment proves conclusively once & for all that truth is beauty!

     
     

    I decided to become a “sacktivist” where I would use the shock value of my openly displayed testicles to further my chosen political causes.

    But no-one would take me seriously. They dismissed me as nuts.

    i hope it wasn’t this comment…cuz sacks are not beautiful…but that is a pretty funny joke…

     
    Pat Buchcanan, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity
     

    we are not dealing with blind dead Irish genius handjob-lovers here.

    Two out of five ain’t bad, boyo.

     
     

    Tigris has stolen my ‘fluke accident’ joke.
    We can’t wait all day for you to catch up.

    My priority for the joke. Let me show you it.

     
     

    Smut flounders to claim sole possession of fluke joke.

     
     

    Shorterer Jeremy:

    JUST SHUP UP, BITCHES!

     
     

    Smut’s having a hake of a time with this.

     
     

    *AROO BREAKING NEWS AROO*

    Isn’t Aroo the leader of the evil vampires in Twilight?

     
     

    Aroo bin Adam was the subject of a famous poem.

     
     

    How did the snails get here? I bet somebody dumped out a pet. That and careless boaters are why many lakes are chock full of milfoil.

    This comment bugged me: “(without honeybees, there would be no food that requires pollination)”

    Um, no, we actually have native bees that pollinate stuff just fine, they just don’t produce honey.

     
     

    Aroo bin Adam was the subject of a famous poem.

    And Aroo Gah was a famous Irish poet. Small world.

     
     

    This comment bugged me: “(without honeybees, there would be no food that requires pollination)”

    FTF the asshat who wrote that.

    Because literally, no bees, no food. Period.

     
     

    Prof. Richard Wolff traces the decline of American wages in part…and I stress, in part…to the addition of women to the workforce.

    And from a classical economic standpoint, he’s right (to an extent): if you double the supply of anything without doubling the demand for it, the price of that item will decline.

    What’s interesting is that rather than take the next logical step, which is to test just how much wages have declined from women entering the workforce (something Wolff actually does), he just assumes, well, there’s the whole story in a nutshell!

    Nevermind that there has actually been some job growth over the past forty years. Nevermind that there has been explosive growth of profits over the past forty years which would enable employers to increase wages across the board. Nevermind that technology and the productivity gains from that have been far more responsible for the depression in wages than if we even doubled the number of working women.

    Nope. It’s the bitches!

     
     

    he* just assumes, well, there’s the whole story in a nutshell!

    * I mean, of course, Jeremy, who spoke in class today, and not Dr Wolff.

     
     

    He’s talking about European honeybees, which were brought here by the settlers, as an example of a “good” invasive species. My point was we already had bees here, and pollination had gone on for millennia before the European bees were brought.

     
     

    He’s talking about European honeybees, which were brought here by the settlers, as an example of a “good” invasive species.

    True, except the genetic breakdown of the American bee shows that all four strains of honeybee are present, with the three European strains only “recently” introduced.

    Bees originated in Asia. It’s likely they followed the land bridge here originally.

     
     

    Here I go! [Splash!]

    But enough has been written, by practically every conservative think-tank, about how the welfare state and anti-discrimination legislation destroy neighborhoods and promote the business interests of those with poor moral constitutions (leftists, primarily) by providing layabouts with an arsenal of unreasonable lawsuits. This article, recognizing the above socioeconomic maxims, will seek instead to show how two-income households have played an equal, if not greater role in impoverishing American lower classes.

    If Jon Swift were still with us I’d think he’d infiltrated A.S.

     
     

    providing layabouts with an arsenal of unreasonable lawsuits

    *shaking head*

    So this asshat really thinks that there are a class of people who sit at home, waiting to slap a lawsuit on someone?

    “Oh, the new Lexus is out! I simply must have one. Where’s my lawyer?”

     
     

    Green Aroo is my least favorite superhero.

    Felipe, Matty and Jesus Aroo used to play for the San Francisco Giants.

     
     

    And Aroo Gah was a famous Irish poet.

    I thought “Aroo Gah!” was the sound a Model-T horn makes.

     
     

    And Aroo Gah was a famous Irish poet.

    I thought “Aroo Gah!” was the sound a Model-T horn makes.

    And who, pray tell, d’ye think it were modeled after, boy-o?

     
     

    the addition of women to the workforce.

    Women have always been in the workforce. Unless I’m mistaken, and all those chambermaids, scullery workers, cooks and charwomen going back centuries were really men in drag.

    What he’s got his panties in a twist about is that women were added to the ranks of white collar workers.

     
     

    And Aroo Gah was a famous Irish poet.

    I always attend the annual Aroo Gala held in his honor.

     
     

    Women have always been in the workforce. Unless I’m mistaken, and all those chambermaids, scullery workers, cooks and charwomen going back centuries were really men in drag.

    They don’t count, because they aren’t trying to take jobs away from white men.

     
     

    I always attend the annual Aroo Gala held in his honor.

    Where they read the Aroodessy?

     
     

    You show the most support for the lower classes by sneering at them and doing all you can to make things worse for them. Also, by referring to them as “lower classes.”

     
     

    Where they read the Aroodessy?

    Mostly it’s where we consume large quantities of socialest green leafy vegetables with a liberal helping of Dijon mustard.

     
     

    Mostly it’s where we consume large quantities of socialest green leafy vegetables with a liberal helping of Dijon mustard.

    Aroogala?

    Oh. Of course.

     
     

    You show the most support for the lower classes by sneering at them and doing all you can to make things worse for them. Also, by referring to them as “lower classes.”

    i watched ‘les mis’ this morning…maybe that’s just clouding my mindset, but this type of thing never seems to work out well…

     
     

    Mostly it’s where we consume large quantities of socialest green leafy vegetables with a liberal helping of Dijon mustard.

    what about a little aroobarb?

     
     

    i watched ‘les mis’ this morning

    I saw that on HBO After Dark a few years back. Except you misspelt it, it’s “Lez Miss”

     
     

    Ummm, try to use the subjunctive principle on a couple RW memes:

    Any woman not pregnant, nekkid, and in a kitchen making a sammich causes Satan.

    There would be no unempolyment if the workforce consisted only of pale men.

    Pale good christians are doing their godly duty by shooting at brown people, who are terrorists, and unchristian, if they take offense to being shot at.

    The bible specifically addresses Keynes in Matthew Chapter II: A New Moon, and said “It should be known, My brethren, that in 1800 a dude will come up with an economic theory, that while it consistently worked, is wrong and made Me as a Baby cry.” Also proving the theory of prophecy.

    You can make big bucks on welfare, to whit, AlinskyGunwalkerMatthewLesko.

    …Carry the one…

    Profit? I’m stumped.

     
     

    Are you sure that’s in Matthew Chapter II?

    I’m pretty sure it’s Rand 5:36

     
     

    g:

    Women have always been in the workforce. Unless I’m mistaken, and all those chambermaids, scullery workers, cooks and charwomen going back centuries were really men in drag.

    Yup, you are completely right. About that and the fact that what they are really complaining about is women in the white collar workforce and with positions higher than service industry worker occasionally molested by the owner (she had to pay in ass if she wanted to be out on her ass).

    So yeah, the same lower class he disingenuously pretends to give a fuck about long enough to misinterpret causality and blame teh wimmen for all of Earth’s evil (like Eve! or Pandora! It’s a proud historic tradition), has always needed that double income to make ends meet.

    So if they were barred out of factories and white collar offices, they had to find work somewhere else, usually as maids, sex workers, or genuine seamstresses. If they were lucky they could work as teachers.

    What greater freedom for women has allowed is the possibility of the woman to get a better job and that I’m sure has saved a large number of straight families from poverty when the MAYUN! can’t get a job and so the filthy wimmin’s job is what keeps the family from falling into poverty.

    And yeah, anyone with a lick of sense (so no wingnuts) knows that the real kick in the pants has been the fact that the minimum wage in this country is nowhere near a living wage and also isn’t minimum. In that there are a number of jobs that get away with paying less and that many of the minimum wage jobs work you only a few hours so you’re not making nearly enough to survive if the minimum wage was a living wage and it’s not the guaranteed salary if you are unemployed like how the minimum wage works in civilized countries like Denmark (it is the minimum you can earn, when you are laid low, because it’s just what you and your family need to survive and little more).

    This means people are working multiple jobs and staying in the job market longer, which is far greater impact than wimmin working. Not to mention that companies could easily hire all of America right now if they were incentivized to long-term success, rather than short-term. Maximizing profits has been about trying to run giant corporations on skeleton crews and screwing the workers for every last penny for a long time, which is the real thing ensuring perpetual poverty for a growing number of Americans, which is why the paid flaks are trying to direct anger anywhere but where it belongs. If they can keep the Idiot America distracted on blacks and wimminfolk long enough for them to settle their accounts and get out, then they won’t have to face the comeuppance for their crimes against the American workforce.

     
     

    paleotectonics:

    Ah yeah, I see where you went wrong, looking for some form of coherent ideology or thought process.

    It’s because whatever they cite as arguments and ideology is basically all just post hoc justifications for the system as is. They want filthy n***ers and poor people punished for not loving Jesus enough and escaping slavery and so they rationalize their hatred of anything that takes care of the poor as a scam that gives free money. They don’t believe a word or else they would quit their well-paying jobs and get the “more” money they would make on welfare, letting all of us unemployed take their jobs in honest exchange.

    And so on.

    It’s about hating for a base reason, realizing that would make you sound like a lunatic in general culture and coming with some poorly reasoned out dog whistles to make it sound somehow “noble” or at least considered.

    But it’s all about “nuh uh, not my fault, it’s your fault, and besides, it is you who are the stinky pants, and MOMMEEEE, the mean liberals are attacking me just because I stole their drink box, make them give me their sandwiches as well!”

    Maybe we should handle wingnuts like we do actual 6-year-olds and send them off to primary school.

     
     

    Saw a story that my fellow commuters were absorbing in their Pravda Völkischer Beobachter Kodos Bulletin 24/Metro fishrap: seems some lady has a new book out that confronts the gripping controversy – “Is Sarah Palin A Bad Mom?”

    Hmm. One kid a reality-show teen mom who made a small fortune from giving pro-abstinence speeches & another with a fondness for slashing schoolbus brake cables … yep, gonna go way way out on a limb here & give an “affirmative” on that one.

    this type of thing never seems to work out well…

    You shake what your Mama & Papa gave you to the tune of a tiny magical violin in the Kropotkin Village Economy that you HAVE, not the Kropotkin Village Economy you WISH you had.

     
     

    Assuming that a household were to have a second source of income, the worker was likely to compete for employment at a lower price than his neighbors, bringing wages below standards of maintenance.

    The lowest classes, those most likely to be touted by left-wing organizations as oppressed, are the least likely to be dual-income families, while those in wealthier middle-class categories are a minimum of close to four times more likely to have dual incomes.

    Oh, fer fuck’s sake, dude can’t even remember what his argument IS from one paragraph to the next.

     
     

    If they can keep the Idiot America distracted on blacks and wimminfolk long enough for them to settle their accounts and get out, then they won’t have to face the comeuppance for their crimes against the American workforce.

    TO THE BARRICADES!!!

     
     

    Humble Suggestion/s:

    The design integrity of a cliffotine might be signally improved were it to include a moat (nooo-oooooo, NOT the obvious shopworn kind) for the containment of the inevitable pesky stray drops … perhaps even one conveniently stocked with crash-dieting* crocodiles, its bottom prowled by robots equipped with the mighty Unterwasserkettensägen!
    _________________
    *I see what I did there!

     
     

    Any woman not pregnant, nekkid, and in a kitchen making a sammich causes Satan.

    They make me touch myself

     
     

    Any woman not pregnant, nekkid, and in a kitchen making a sammich causes Satan.

    They make me touch myself

    The Touch of Satan!

     
     

    Now everyone will know where fish lives.

     
     

    The lowest classes, those most likely to be touted by left-wing organizations as oppressed, are the least likely to be dual-income families, while those in wealthier middle-class categories are a minimum of close to four times more likely to have dual incomes.

    He’s right and he’s wrong: of the top 20% of income earners in America, 77% of those families hold two or more jobs. That’s indisputable fact.

    Where he’s wrong is in certain fallacies:

    1) Of the top five percent, that percent drops to less than one in five families.

    2) That means, the bulk of those families are middle class families earning $80,000 a year. Let’s assume that those salaries are earned equally (they aren’t, usually it’s one full time, one part time worker). That means $40,000 each. That would drop those families into the the third quintile (middle 20%) of wage earners. Therefore these are the families making house payments and saving for college.

    In other words, these are people FORCED to have a second income, less they become lower-to-middle class.

    3) The other bit the fuckhead misses is, those percentages include ALL families, whether two parent or not. When 20% of your population has to be immediately discounted because, you know, a person can only hold so many jobs AND raise children as a single parent, you’ve blown your argument.

     
     

    Sorry, that was DS.

     
     

    TO THE BARRICADES!!!

    Les MBAs à la lanterne!

     
     

    ds.å?? ?n?????

    Sorry, that was DS.

    Made more sense than any of the trolls we’ve been getting lately.

     
     

    If they can keep the Idiot America distracted on blacks and wimminfolk long enough for them to settle their accounts and get out, then they won’t have to face the comeuppance for their crimes against the American workforce.

    Who are you trying to kid? There will be no settling of the account. They are just waiting for the waiter to head back in to the kitchen before they do the old loot and scoot leaving the rest of us on the hook for the check.

     
     

    That true was for TB, but I works for HM Too.

     
     

    TO THE BARRICADES!!!

    Les MBAs à la lanterne!

    Allons enfants de la Patrie
    Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
    Contre nous des pauvres
    L’étendard sanglant est levé

     
    What Dudeskull meant to say
     

    1. Take wimmins out of the workforce
    2. Keep wimmins away from the voting booth
    3. ds.å?? ?n?????
    4. Profit!

     
     

    Sorry, that was DS.

    Made more sense than any of the trolls we’ve been getting lately.

    Possibly because his diaper gets changed regularly.

     
     

    Actor 212: Troll proclaimed “Sadly, No.1”

     
     

    Although, I must say that No.2 is far more popular around these parts.

     
     

    Allow me to relieve myself from that position…

    There, the way is clear, all things may pass.

     
     

    There, the way is clear, all things may pass.

    And everybody must get stoned.

     
     

    So, I was heretofore unacquainted with the Marseillaise. But Wikipedia hooked me up, and now I think the French are itching for a fight. Given the history of their 20th century military adventures, they may want to moderate the vitriol a bit, maybe follow finland’s example

    Finland, Finland, Finland
    The country where I want to be
    Pony trekking or camping
    Or just watching TV
    Finland, Finland, Finland
    It’s the country for me

    You’re so near to Russia
    So far from Japan
    Quite a long way from Cairo
    Lots of miles from Vietnam

    Finland, Finland, Finland
    The country where I want to be
    Eating breakfast or dinner
    Or snack lunch in the hall
    Finland, Finland, Finland
    Finland has it all

    You’re so sadly neglected
    And often ignored
    A poor second to Belgium
    When going abroad

    Finland, Finland, Finland
    The country where I quite want to be
    Your mountains so lofty
    Your treetops so tall
    Finland, Finland, Finland
    Finland has it all

    Finland, Finland, Finland
    The country where I quite want to be
    Your mountains so lofty
    Your treetops so tall
    Finland, Finland, Finland
    Finland has it all

    Finland has it all

    Music and lyrics copyright Monty Python (of course)

     
     

    There, the way is clear, all things may pass.

    And everybody must get stoned.

    Why am I thinking of kidney stones?

     
     

    Because literally, no bees, no food. Period.
    The interests of actor212-related pedantry oblige me to point out that grain crops are wind-pollinated.

     
    your brand-new leopard-skin pillbox hat
     

    I balance on your head just like a mattress on a bottle of wine

     
     

    Smut’s interjection concerning pedantry over pollination oblige me to point out that even DKW’s mom wouldn’t do Dennis.

     
     

    Why am I thinking of kidney stones?

    Because this is the post racial era?

     
     

    HA! Poop deck. That’s hilarious. Sailors.

     
     

    Ok, it was DEAD WHEN I GOT HERE. I can’t claim this one.

     
     

    Hilarity!
    Failed Republican Pawlenty assumes that the combination of “republican” and “failure” is his qualification for a well-paid news-analyst job at Fox.
    Is turned down.

     
     

    Music and lyrics copyright Monty Python (of course)

    It was funnier in the original Finnish.

     
    Crime Scene Investigators
     

    Ok, it was DEAD WHEN I GOT HERE. I can’t claim this one.

    Yeah, right. That’s what they all say. Do you have an alibi? Where were you on September 26th between 2045 and 2130 Sadly Time?

     
     

    There, the way is clear, all things may pass.

    And everybody must get stoned.

    Why am I thinking of kidney stones

    Urine the ballpark

     
     

    The interests of actor212-related pedantry oblige me to point out that grain crops are wind-pollinated.

    Do I really need to say it?

    *sigh*

    Man does not live by bread alone.

     
     

    Very much on the topic, if you haven’t seen it yet you should check out Elizabeth Warren’s lecture titled “The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class.” It’s long but worth it and directly addresses two-worker households and why it’s unavoidable these days.

    Better yet, she gave this in 2007 which shows just how bright she is.

     
     

    Man does not live by bread alone.

    Bananas are propagated with cutting, strawberries put out runners, there are other pollinators like lepidopterans, various flies, beetles, and the like.

    Losing honeybees would suck, but it wouldn’t be the apocalyptic scenario many writers portray.

    Pedantic bastard is pedantic.

     
     

    Bananas are propagated with cutting,

    If there ain’t food, there ain’t anyone to cut

    strawberries put out runners

    But do require an assist from pollination.

    there are other pollinators like lepidopterans, various flies, beetles, and the like.

    Yea, but none as ubiquitous or effective as a swarm of bees.

     
     

    Man does not live by bread alone.

    Well obviously we need beer too.

     
     

    Well obviously we need beer too.

    I knew I could count on you to hop to it.

     
     

    Beer and pollination: Hops are propagated by runners. “Seedless hop, which is considered more desirable by brewers, is produced by preventing pollination.”
    BITE IT, BEES.

     
     

    A huge amount of the chatter about colony collapse disorder is crap. It’s a complex thing, but it looks like bees will be just fine if only we got rid of the beekeepers. A limited gene pool of queens, stressful forced migration of hives, the mite that’s killing the hives, and the pesticides used to kill those mites (an insecticide) are all problems caused by beekeepers.

    Of course, we need the beekeepers to manage the bees and pollination in an industrial-style agricultural system, so there’s not a great solution handy. Still doesn’t look to be the “OMG teh world is ending!!!!one!” problem it’s made out to be.

     
     

    Beer and pollination: Hops are propagated by runners. “Seedless hop, which is considered more desirable by brewers, is produced by preventing pollination.”
    BITE IT, BEES.

    Well, at least we’d die with a smile on our faces, a stein in our hands and urine in our bladders.

     
     

    It’s a complex thing, but it looks like bees will be just fine if only we got rid of the beekeepers

    Yea, and then you’d have Illegal immigrant bees, wearing tats and gang colours and raping the white women:

    As an invasive species, feral honey bees have become a significant environmental problem in places where they are not native. Imported bees may compete with and displace native bees and birds, and may also promote the reproduction of invasive plants that native pollinators do not visit. Also, unlike native bees, they do not properly extract or transfer pollen from plants with poricidal anthers (anthers that only release pollen through tiny apical pores), as this requires buzz pollination, a behavior which honey bees rarely exhibit. For example, honey bees reduce fruiting in Melastoma affine (a plant with poricidal anthers) by robbing stigmas of previously deposited pollen

     
     

    Smut Clyde said,

    September 26, 2011 at 21:55 (kill)

    Beer and pollination: Hops are propagated by runners. “Seedless hop, which is considered more desirable by brewers, is produced by preventing pollination.”
    BITE IT, BEES.

    And further we brewers only plant and propagate the female plants. OMG, more MALE OPPRESSION, alert teh MRAs!

     
     

    And further we brewers only plant and propagate the female plants. OMG, more MALE OPPRESSION, alert teh MRAs!

    So the males are drones?

     
     

    Yeah, right. That’s what they all say. Do you have an alibi? Where were you on September 26th between 2045 and 2130 Sadly Time?

    At home, in bed, alone. Bring the black light if you wish to verify that.

     
     

    At home, in bed, alone. Bring the black light if you wish to verify that.

    Oversharing!

     
     

    Oversharing the alibi.

    Also too.

     
     

    Oversharing the alibi.

    Immanetizing the eschaton

    Demagnetizing the Etch-A-Sketch

     
     

    Yea, and then you’d have Illegal immigrant bees, wearing tats and gang colours and raping the white women:

    I heard the other day about the use of beehive fences to keep elephants out of crops in Kenya. Apparently the bees are unsporting and sting the elephants inside their trunks, under their eyes, and around their eyes. Also the little meanies go for the babbies. SO the mother elephants hear the buzzing and they lead the group in some other direction.

    It’s only a matter of time before some dingbat seriously proposes building a beehive-boobytrapped fence along the Mexican border as a cheap option for keeping out immigrants. A band of African beehives, 3000 km. long… what could go wrong?

     
     

    Of course, we need the beekeepers to manage the bees and pollination in an industrial-style agricultural system, so there’s not a great solution handy. Still doesn’t look to be the “OMG teh world is ending!!!!one!” problem it’s made out to be.

    my local former bee keeper would prolly argue that one with you…colony collapse was only one of the reasons he sold his honeybee business that had been in teh family for over 60 years…while we miss having a business in town, we sure don’t miss the smell…and swatting renegade bees…

     
     

    Apparently the bees are unsporting and sting the elephants inside their trunks, under their eyes, and around their eyes. Also the little meanies go for the babbies. SO the mother elephants hear the buzzing and they lead the group in some other direction.

    it’s a well known fact that bees are jerks…

     
     

    A band of African beehives, 3000 km. long… what could go wrong?

    Hooker birds distract them for sex?

     
     

    Oh my god, I’m sorry I brought it up. My ONLY objection was the guy saying there’d be no pollination without imported honey bees, that we rely upon imported honey bees for our food, and that’s just false. If he’d said we’d have no domestic honey, sure, but like I said there were already bees here when the European settlers brought honey bees, and my understanding is that native bees like the gorgeous orchard mason bee are actually better pollinators than honey bees.

     
     

    swatting renegade bees

    Bet they used to swill beer and ride Harleys.

    BREAKIN’ THE LAW! BREAKIN’ THE LAW!

     
     

    orchard mason bee

    He attended a college in the Colonial Athletic Association????

     
     

    my local former bee keeper would prolly argue that one with you…

    Prolly. I’ll just note that a noticeable chunk of the beekeeper’s problems are caused by a prevailing “this is the way we’ve done it forever, why change?” attitude…

     
     

    tigris said,

    September 26, 2011 at 22:14 (kill)

    Oh my god, I’m sorry I brought it up.

    Why? I mean we could be talking about Blue Öyster Cult…

     
     

    One major factor in colony collapse disorder is the use of transported bees, which tend to get stressed out and prone to illness.

     
     

    Prolly. I’ll just note that a noticeable chunk of the beekeeper’s problems are caused by a prevailing “this is the way we’ve done it forever, why change?” attitude…

    and you would prolly be correct, sir…he did start importing furriners to help take care of the bees tho…he started off with nicaraguans, but spanish speakers are pretty scarce in these parts (i helped where i could with what i learned in texas from the illegals and one year of college spanish) so he switched to south africans…omg…we had some fun times…

     
     

    He attended a college in the Colonial Athletic Association????

    No, silly, he builds walls around apple trees. Also: secret foreleg shake.

     
     

    transported bees, which tend to get stressed out and prone to illness.

    OMG, using the taxpayer’s medical system.

     
     

    Oversharing!

    Oh, don’t make me explain what an overshare would look like.

     
     

    I’ll quit talking about bees.

    Anybody have a good recipe for falafel, that doesn’t involve Bill O’Reilly?

    I haven’t made it in a while and can’t find my notes for the proportions of ingredients I used last time. And damn are the recipe sites on the intartrons useless!?! It’s like a million youtube comments, in recipe form.

     
     

    Man does not live by bread alone.

    That’s true, but you can use the grains to make whiskey too.

     
     

    So there are mason bees, carpenter bees, but no bricklayer bees. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.
    Let’s see the Big Bad Wolf get into this hive!

     
     

    Imagine if there was someone around here that knew something about commercial beekeeping!

     
     

    Imagine if there was someone around here that knew something about commercial beekeeping!

    Boy, that’d bog EVERYTHING down.

     
     

    That’s true, but you can use the grains to make whiskey too.

    We’ll need lots of whiskey and guns for the impending zombie apocalypse.

     
     

    Boy, that’d bog EVERYTHING down.

    Too true.

     
     

    Imagine if there was someone around here that knew something about commercial beekeeping!

    As if? You’d have more luck asking for a New York finance type, or a Photoshop expert and accomplished artist, event manager for charity fundraising events or even commercial airline pilot. Beekeepers are rare, and so is the arcane and obscure lore of their vanishing art.

     
     

    I haven’t made it in a while and can’t find my notes for the proportions of ingredients I used last time.

    I just soak a one pound chickpeas (or hulled fava beans, or a mixture of the two) overnight, grind them in the food processor, throw in a good-sized onion and a whole head of garlic, grind the mixture again, then throw in leaves from a whole bunch of flat-leaf parsely, grind it again, and add spices (cumin, coriander, dried chile, and whatever else tickles my fancy- paprika, black pepper, what-have-you) and (if you like) a pinch of baking powder and grind everything again. The mixture should be moist, and about the consistency of coarse cornmeal- you need to make sure the oil (I use a mixture of olive oil and generic vegetable oil) is hot when you drop the “balls” in, so they don’t fall apart. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve made falafel (if I made it regularly, I’d weigh 300 lbs).

    If you can find Claudia Roden’s Book of Middle Eastern Food, it’s a wonderful cookbook.

     
     

    Beekeepers are rare, and so is the arcane and obscure lore of their vanishing art.

    I hear that there is a secret cabal of rich people who will pay to eat the meat of the rare and elusive beekeeper.

     
     

    I hear that there is a secret cabal of rich people who will pay to eat the meat of the rare and elusive beekeeper.

    hmmmmmmm…early retirement just might be in the cards for me after all…oh, perhaps i’ve said too much…

     
     

    I hear that there is a secret cabal of rich people who will pay to eat the meat of the rare and elusive beekeeper.

    It’s 100% true. They had to look elsewhere after they ate the last reasonable republican.

     
     

    It’s 100% true. They had to look elsewhere after they ate the last reasonable republican.

    You sure you’re not getting them confused with Chris Christie?

     
     

    Dirty, filthy Orchard Mason Bees:

    The first thing the females do is mate.

    Disgusting! They probably voted for Obama.

    Speaking of bees, would one of you nerds, I mean beexperts, be able to id the bees that live under my house? I spend a lot of time outdoors but I’d never seen these little dudes until about three years ago. Aside from being smaller than a honeybee, brown (not striped) and fuzzy like bumblebees, all I can tell you is they’re not aggressive, I only see them in the first few weeks of warmish weather and they whine if we accidentally put the trash cans in the wrong place so they can’t get back under the porch.

     
     

    You sure you’re not getting them confused with Chris Christie?

    Not unless he’s been coasting on stored fat since Eisenhower went to his dijon-slathered cold-cutted club-sandwiched demise.

     
     

    and they whine if we accidentally put the trash cans in the wrong place so they can’t get back under the porch.

    sounds like they might have a touch of agoraphobee-a…

     
     

    “I hear that there is a secret cabal of rich people who will pay to eat the meat of the rare and elusive beekeeper.”

    That’s a funny way to say “Koch brothers”

     
     

    Well, at least we’d die with a smile on our faces, a stein in our hands and urine in our bladders.

    Urine r bladders pwning r kidneys!

     
     

    Not unless he’s been coasting on stored fat since Eisenhower went to his dijon-slathered cold-cutted club-sandwiched demise.

    Did you never wonder why Jim Jeffords jumped ship in 2001?

     
     

    Urine r bladders pwning r kidneys!

    I can’t believe I had to read that twice.

     
     

    “I hear that there is a secret cabal of rich people who will pay to eat the meat of the rare and elusive beekeeper.”

    That’s a funny way to say “Koch brothers”

    You’re getting your sinister cabals mixed up. The extinction gourmands at least enjoy their meals. The Koch Brothers haven’t eaten anything but the tears of the innocent since 1967.

     
    All the other Sadly,Naughts!
     

    I can’t believe I had to read that twice.

    We’re a little put out that we had to read it once.

     
     

    “The Koch Brothers haven’t eaten anything but the tears of the innocent since 1967.”

    Don’t forget the kitten blood.

     
     

    Thanks BBBB!

    I live to serve, and seriously, get your hands on Claudia Roden’s book.

    Aside from being smaller than a honeybee, brown (not striped) and fuzzy like bumblebees, all I can tell you is they’re not aggressive

    They may be sweat bees.

     
     

    As if? You’d have more luck asking for a New York finance type, or a Photoshop expert and accomplished artist, event manager for charity fundraising events or even commercial airline pilot. Beekeepers are rare, and so is the arcane and obscure lore of their vanishing art.

    You forgot loudmouthed asshole who threatens to kill concern trolls.

     
     

    You forgot loudmouthed asshole who threatens to kill concern trolls.

    Well, to be fair, that’s only if the concern troll starts poking at the economically-disadvantaged, is it not?
    .

     
     

    Well, to be fair, that’s only if the concern troll starts poking at the economically-disadvantaged, is it not?

    YES!

    Or if I’m drunk.

     
     

    Don’t forget the kitten blood.

    How could I? It’s what I use to boil my rice.

    yum.

     
     

    Not aggressive? Must be fagz. And I bet the queen has a shaved head and wears steel-toed boots.

     
     

    I applied for 14 jobs, today, including one I’d really like to get in Franklin, TN.

    Fingers crossed.
    .

     
     

    They may be sweat bees.

    Or maybe leaf-cutter bees or mining bees.

     
     

    I applied for 14 jobs, today, including one I’d really like to get in Franklin, TN.

    Fingers crossed.

    yowza…talk about hitting the pavement…good luck, dude!

    also, too…i think my sister and i were lost one time and we went through franklin…i remember thinking it was one of the cutest little towns i’ve ever seen…

     
     

    carpenter bees…pretty sure…

     
     

    They may be sweat bees.

    Their honey must be really salty.

     
     

    Let’s see the Big Bad Wolf get into this hive!

    Aw man. I was all set to make a joke about the disappearing bees subplot in Doctor Who, and then you had to say “Bad Wolf”. Now I don’t know what to do.

    Um…

    Cracks in Time! Medusa Cascade! The chess motif leading up to The Curse of Fenric! Or something.

    Meh. I’m tired.

     
     

    They may be yoosta bees.

     
     

    I bet the queen has a shaved head and wears steel-toed boots.

    From your lips to Elizabeth II’s ears. Time to relaunch the Royalty brand.

     
     

    They may be yoosta bees.

    this was so ridiculously bad…but still, i almost blew yogurt out my nose…and it has fruit and granola in it so that would have been pretty painful…

    are you sure? maybe they’re wanna bees…

     
     

    maybe they’re wanna bees…

    They could be too bees. Or knottoo bees. That is the question.

     
     

    They sound like free bees to me.

     
     

    shoooobee shoobee do….

     
     

    Don’t bee cruel….

     
     

    Two bees, or not two bees — that is the question.

     
     

    I hear Don’t Bee Afraid of the Dark is getting negative buzz.

     
     

    these puns are starting to bug me…

     
     

    Yeah, it’s starting to sting.

     
     

    R3LE4SE THE KRACKEN.

     
     

    R3LE4SE THE KRACKEN.

    HEY, BUZZ OFF!!! or i’ll…

    actually, i have some kracken at home…number one son brought it last he was home…i have yet to try it…maybe tonight after writer’s group…

     
     

    also, too…

    Yeah, it’s starting to stin g k.

     
     

    If they are covered with tightly-curled hair, they could be frizz bees.

     
     

    Is this the same Dennis? Because that was actually pretty funny.

     
     

    OT: reading Yahoo News’ story on how “shutdown was averted.” Find this one guy trolling in the comments section, with this posted three times just in the last minute:

    We all know (whether you admit it or not) that the country is in deep debt and the way to get the country out of debt is to raise taxes and reduce spending. Because of the enormity of the debt, we must take drastic measures. This is going to be bitter medicine for you. This is what needs to happen.

    1. Eliminate all government entitlement programs, and services that mainly benefit the poor and middle class, such as: Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, welfare, unemployment/disability ins., military pensions, Obama care, etc.
    2. Eliminate laws that mainly benefit the poor and middle class and that have created a burden on businesses and corporations, such as: organized labor, the federally mandated 40 hour work week, pension laws, minimum wage, health and safety laws, environmental protection laws, etc. Allow businesses to operate in a laissez-faire environment.
    3. Eliminate all government departments and agencies except for Defense, which should be cut to the bone.
    4. Privatize all essential government services such as Military, Police, Prisons, Education, Postal Service, Air Traffic Control, highway and public roads system, etc.
    5. Eliminate taxes and fees on businesses and the wealthy because we are the job creators.
    6. Increase taxes and fees on the middle class and the poor.
    7. Deport all illegal immigrants and their families.
    8. Remove all restrictions on political campaign contributions.

    We need to do these things to get out of debt and put you people back to work.
    The truth can be a bitter pill to swallow, but this is what needs to happen and to make it happen you need to suck it up and vote for the only party that will make it happen.

    Vote straight ticket Republican.

    The next itself might be Poe’s Law in action… but besides that – do conservative institutions and parties actually PAY people to troll like this? The political, digital version of posting fliers everywhere? That would explain a lot…

     
     

    The *text* itself might be Poe’s Law in action… *text*

     
     

    You know what’s tricky? Beestiality.

     
     

    Yeah…is it the same Dennis who implied that I was a bad mother?

     
     

    I call Poe.

    He doesnt answer because he’s dead.

     
     

    Thanks for that, Dennis.

    Edgar Allan POOP

    This place has got me giggling at scatological humor, something I never thought I’d do. I’ve been corrupted!

     
     

    What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a-happenin’?

     
     

    Those bees that come out only when it starts turning warm are probably “early miner bees”, according to my bee-ter half.

     
     
    Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs!
     

    The bee is such a busy soul
    He has no time for birth control
    Perhaps that’s why, in times like these
    You meet so many sons of bees.

     
     

    also, too…i think my sister and i were lost one time and we went through franklin…i remember thinking it was one of the cutest little towns i’ve ever seen…

    Generally populated with Republicans and other richies, of course (including many “retired” and semi-retired musicians like Peter Frampton and Adrian Belew) and everyone who draws a salary from HCA and the Tennessee Titans.
    .

     
     

    Oh, and Nicole Kidman, of course. She’s married to that country fucker, and they live down there, too.

    Well, I think I will go to bed early, get up, mturk a while (until they make me stop), go knock over a liquor store for the rent, visit the landlord, turn myself into the police and see y’all in 5-10 years.
    .

     
     

    okay, sadlies…after you are done reading my first ever POOP link at 0:50 and then laffing at that and the edgar allen poop link, i need some help…i am working on a novel in which the main character needs to undergo a psychological evaluation pending plastic surgery…it’s not a major surgery physically, but mentally…anyone know any plastic surgeons or professionals (or students) in the mental health field? i’ve written one of my former professors, but have yet to hear back. i’ve also asked two locals here…one’s a counselor who gave me a half assed answer, the other was a psychiatrist who told me my plot was UNPOSSIBLE!

    so…any advice would be awesome…

     
     

    Generally populated with Republicans and other richies, of course (including many “retired” and semi-retired musicians like Peter Frampton and Adrian Belew) and everyone who draws a salary from HCA and the Tennessee Titans.

    Oh, and Nicole Kidman, of course. She’s married to that country fucker, and they live down there, too.

    ewwwww…now i don’t ever want to go back there….thanks…

    and i mean that sincerely…i’ll go back to my plan of moving to ireland…
    .

     
     

    ewwwww…now i don’t ever want to go back there….thanks…

    Well if it helps, I think “that country fucker” is a Kiwi or an Aussie. He’s not from Kentucky, like me, or anything.
    .

     
     

    She should write for worldnetdaily.

    http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/bachmann-warns-hezbollah-missile-sites-cuba
    Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Monday that it would be “foolish” to normalize trade with Cuba because Hezbollah could soon have “missile sites” there.
    “Why would you normalize trade with a country that sponsors terror?” the candidate asked a crowd of supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “There is reports that have come out that Cuba has been working with another terrorist organization called Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is looking at wanting to be part of missile sites in Iran and, of course, when you are 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don’t want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hezbollah could have training camps or perhaps have missile sites or weapons sites in Cuba. “

     
     

    Well if it helps, I think “that country fucker” is a Kiwi or an Aussie. He’s not from Kentucky, like me, or anything.

    that would be keith urban…and he’s an aussie…and he creeps me out…

     
     

    He’s not from Kentucky, like me, or anything

    so are you saying he’s not normal?

     
     

    Oh, and Nicole Kidman, of course.

    That Nicole Kidman is so swell she’s in the Murdoch family.

    Oh, and this guy too.

     
     

    *hipster paramedic* is pretty funny…

     
     

    A note about the very funny M. Bouffant.

    r we taking up a collection?

     
     

    Oh, and this guy too.

    Good God Almighty.

    Tony Blair godfather to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter

    Mr. Blair is described as “one of Murdoch’s closest friends”.

    Etc. etc.

    I don’t know whether to laugh or puke. This was the head of the “Labor” party.

    Then again I don’t know why I’m surprised either.

    Cliff-o-tinis, anyone?

     
     

    Cliff-o-tinis, anyone?

    make mine a double…

     
     

    More defense of the long suffering millionaire.

    You guys remember Terrill Owens choking back tears, saying “That’s my quarterback!” in defense of a then not-so-great Tony Romo? This guy stole that whole shtick.

     
     

    Here’s how it works, see?

    “Rich,” like “poor,” is a relative term. A family living on the American median income of $50,000 a year might think that one living on $500,000 is rich. But that second family, which probably knows families far better off than they are, thinks that you need $5 million a year to be truly rich, and so on.

     
     

    “Rich,” like “poor,” is a relative term.

    Fixxxed for my relatives.

     
     

    I am way, way behind the threads, these bastards insist I work for a living.

    However, I must say you girls and boys have put together a sterling performance over the last couple of days.

    One question though, when do I get the invite to the SN hottub party, and whats the dress code?

    Other question, since Actor is now the self styled leader of SN, how do we address you, sir?

     
     

    Thanks for the mentionshout-out, Mr. McG, but not to worry, it is just a cash-flow deal, & will be rectified soon enough. (Well, not soon enough, but it’s amazing how rapidly time passes when one has experienced so much of it.) And I found a wireless network whose log-in is the network’s name (Sucka!!) so I have the Internet in my bunker again. Broadcast telebision really does suck though.

    Currently worrying about the bombus crotchii that #1 Sadly linked, which apparently wanders throughout California. Eeep.

     
     

    ‘Cause, you know, I don’t need a scrotum swollen from stings or anything else.

    Good thing about really abject poverty, I’ve been losing a few lbs. w/o resorting to this. Maybe Amazon had some around for their underpaid & abused workers.

     
     

    i am working on a novel in which the main character needs to undergo a psychological evaluation pending plastic surgery…

    Do you have a transgender surgery facility nearby? You’re in Minnesota. If I’m not mistaken, there’s one in Rochester.

    Usually, a candidate has to undergo an evaluation before he goes into surgery. They might be able to give you some pointers.

     
     

    Other question, since Actor is now the self troll styled leader of SN, how do we address you, sir?

    Fixed yer post

     
     

    actor, apologies, was speed reading this morning….. “……troll styled leader”, in which I assume the troll is that Dennis character? I’ll say it again, I miss Gary Rupert.

    Because literally, no bees, no food. Period.

    Douglas Coupland’s most recent novel, Generation A, is about that very thing, search for the last bee and all (combined with the usual Coupland stuff, implausible characters, exotic locations meandering tales, happy ending)……

     
     

    Do you have a transgender surgery facility nearby? You’re in Minnesota. If I’m not mistaken, there’s one in Rochester.

    i’m not doing transgender…although that would be a veddy interesting twist…and DERP! now that you mention it, i have a classmate who works at the mayo…

    gosh, actor, you’re the greatest!

     
     

    S’ok, Lobbey. It’s actually both flattering and embarassing. I like to think this is a group dynamic to which I contribute my fair share. On the other hand, well, I am pretty dynamic in my own right.

     
     

    gosh, actor, you’re the greatest!

    ::blush::

    Now you’ve gone and made my thong wet.

     
    St. Trotsky, Pope-in-Avignon
     

    If was anything on the left it was a Trotskyite or some other thought-free moron who doesn’t “get” consent, equality, justice, self-determination, etc, but I doubt he was ever anything but what he is now.

    Just to be clear, we’re not out to tar any potential Trotskyites still in the boat because some neoconservative assholes hung out with us when they were trying to have sex with someone in the 70s and then proved to be a complete cock bite?

     
     

    BREAKING: New York City is now under Sharia Law!

    oh my…the shrieking harpy’s head must be asploding…

     
     

    oh my…the shrieking harpy’s head must be asploding…

    So something good can come from Sharia Law.

     
     

    oh my…the shrieking harpy’s head must be asploding…

    You really think so? My guess is she stopped caring as soon as the final FOX News check cleared.

     
     

    Well, it’s nice to see the right has moved beyond the Birthers.

    oh, good dog! people really scare me nowadays…

     
     

    Well, if the Left Behind books are anything to go by, the Antichrist is actually a pretty nice guy. Certainly more pleasant to be around than the Real True Christian protagonists.

     
    All the other Sadly,Naughts!
     

    More defense of the long suffering millionaire.

    The article is saying that millionaires are not rich. The good news is that that should end all the “class warfare” rhetoric. The bad news is that this idiot is completely off base. Having a million dollars does not make you a target of Obama’s tax increases. It’s earning more than a million dollars in annual income that does the trick. People who have enough money to invest to earn that much are much closer to being billionaires than millionaires.

     
     

    bbkf,

    That McCain ad back in 2008? The commercial that called Obama “The One”?

    It was a dogwhistle. I’m surprised this trope went away for as long as it did.

     
     

    The bad news is that this idiot is completely off base

    In more ways than one. He even trots out (by implication) the whole “millionaires won’t invest if their taxes are raised” nonsense.

    Here’s the thing: Obama’s proposal is to flatten the tax rates. In other words, the 15% that a hedge fund manager pays on his non-capital gains (it’s only by some weird loophole they’re even considered capital gains) would rise to 15%.

    That’s a flattening. Not the flattening the corporatists want, but a flattening nonetheless. And it’s not going to stop any prudent millionaire from investing. They still keep 65% of what they earned, and 100% of their investment.

    That’s still better than they’d get under their mattress, or in any CD.

     
     

    That McCain ad back in 2008? The commercial that called Obama “The One”?

    It was a dogwhistle. I’m surprised this trope went away for as long as it did.

    how do these kinds of people function in every day life? especially the ones who are convinced the obamas are lizard people? i dunno…maybe that kind of *reality* is the way to go…no pesky real life problems to worry about and all that…

     
     

    One would think the Antichrist would be professional enough to avoid the birth certificate and citizenship issues.

     
     

    In more ways than one. He even trots out (by implication) the whole “millionaires won’t invest if their taxes are raised” nonsense.

    if lower taxes mean *the rich* can *create jobs* then where are all the jobs?

     
     

    One would think the Antichrist would be professional enough to avoid the birth certificate and citizenship issues.

    Excellent point.

     
     

    if lower taxes mean *the rich* can *create jobs* then where are all the jobs?

    i mean, didn’t they have eight years under dubya to create them? then why did the economy go in the crapper? is there something about high finance i don’t get?

     
     

    the whole “millionaires won’t invest if their taxes are raised” nonsense.

    well, since they are not investing now, it seems like raising taxes is a reasonable move.

     
     

    if lower taxes mean *the rich* can *create jobs* then where are all the jobs?

    The Messicans took them!

     
     

    Excellent point.

    one would think the antichrist would have some sort of mind melding powers so those types of questions would never have even been asked…

     
     

    If we contain the Antichrist and Jeebus in a magnetic bottle, we can get free power AND run the engines of the starshio Enterprise.

     
     

    Dammit, bbkf, I only took a minute to comment on the Antichrist thing.

     
     

    The Messicans took them!

    oh, that’s right…i forgot…ANCHOR BABBIES!!!111!!

     
     

    i mean, didn’t they have eight years under dubya to create them?

    They did! They created exactly 1.2 million jobs over that eight years!

    About as many as Obama created in the first eighteen months of his administration.

    8 is smaller than 18!

     
     

    If we contain the Antichrist and Jeebus in a magnetic bottle, we can get free power AND run the engines of the starshio Enterprise.

    Data, can we create a static warp shell to contain the Christ-Antichrist field?

     
     

    Dammit, bbkf, I only took a minute to comment on the Antichrist thing.

    hey now!

     
     

    so what’s the deal? did all this talk of the antichrist bring about some sort of rapture and i didn’t make the cut?

     
     

    did all this talk of the antichrist bring about some sort of rapture and i didn’t make the cut?

    I’ve been doing calculations on the static warp shell

     
     

    This whole right wing trope about “women destroying jobs” while the “rich create jobs” ignores a major point: the dual phenomena of the rich getting lower taxes and the growth in jobs (and wages) stagnating have paralleled each other over the past thirty years.

    Yet for some reason, conservatives don’t want to even run a thought experiment on them together.

     
     

    The rich are investing; they just aren’t investing here.

    See, back around the 1980s it was decided that earning annual profits wasn’t enough; you had to earn annual profits of 25, 30, 50% for an investment to be worthwhile. And you just can’t earn that kind of return on an investment in a place where wages are reasonably high enough to allow people to live in luxury with things like running water, electricity, and sanitary sewers.

    So the rich invested all their money in other places, places where people would work for food and hadn’t been spoiled by things like modern sanitation.

    The only problem is, that after 30 years of moving production – and jobs – elsewhere, the people who were making enough to buy the stuff made elsewhere are no longer able to buy the stuff, because they don’t have jobs. So then you get to a point like the one we reached around 2000, where the rich can’t make as much as they think they should make by investing in production overseas. But they’ve got all this money laying around, and they need a place to put it. So…they put it into home mortgage finance. We all know how that worked out.

    So where are they “investing” now? Mainly, in things like oil speculation, which is why we’re paying over $3 per gallon for gas, even though it’s no more scarce or costly to produce than it was a year ago, when it was about $1 less per gallon.

    They’ll get their pound of flesh, one way or another. But notice how the more things devolve, the more cannibalistic their “investing” behavior becomes. We need to tax the living shit out of these people; otherwise, they’ll soon be skimming profit off turning corpses into food.

    So now you know how Soylent Green came about in the first place.

     
     

    Why conservatives may be quiet for a few days

    They haven’t let shame slow them down or shut them up for the last 30 years, why should the next few days be any different?

     
    Food pron obsessed Emperor of Portland Pupienus Maximus
     

    I suspect that people are starting to catch on to the tax cuts = jobs scam. I have this suspicion because the Rethuglican kleptocrats seem to be moving the goalposts. Now the “job creators” aren’t creating jobs because JOB KILLING REGULATIONS.

     
    Food pron obsessed Emperor of Portland Pupienus Maximus
     

    Data, can we create a static warp shell to contain the Christ-Antichrist field?

    Some hypertechnojumbo usually takes care of it.

     
     

    why should the next few days be any different?

    Counting pennies to place a bid. They’ll need fingers and toes.

     
     

    That red Buckley room looks like a hoor-house.

    (A friend advises me how a hoor-house looks.)

     
     

    Hey, you know why we’re 38th in the world in longevity? 56th (I think) in child mortality? #1 in obesity?

    It’s all that healthcare. Our doctors say we get too much. It cuts into their tee times.

    Also, counting their money. Too.

     
     

    So now you know how Soylent Green came about in the first place.

    I thought it was because old people are so damned tasty. mmmmm…pre-dried jerky…..

     
     

    I thought it was because old people are so damned tasty. mmmmm…pre-dried jerky…..

    Great! Now I have an image of eating D-KW’s mom. And not in the fun way.

     
     

    The mangoes may be rotten, but you just gotta check out the third comment, from the guy whining about “the child support crusade.”

    Behind on the payments much?

     
     

    Behind on the payments much?

    I bet it’s Congressman Joe Walsh.

     
     

    “if lower taxes mean *the rich* can *create jobs* then where are all the jobs?”

    Duh…they can’t create jobs until they feel…certain…about stuff.

     
     

    “The Buckley’s two-story, 5,000 square foot maisonette at 73rd and Park Avenue and their country house in Stamford, Connecticut served as unique and stylish settings for their remarkable lives. Pat Buckley had a very clear sense of her own decorating style and never feared taking an unorthodox approach to interior design. The interiors of the Park Avenue apartment were both exotic and comfortable. Both houses offered spaces for a range of types of entertaining, from the twice-monthly dinners for the staff of the National Review, to election parties with important politicians, journalists, and pundits, Pat’s legendary card group, and a revolving group of elite New Yorkers and international figures.

    For two months out of every year, the Buckley’s would move to a Medieval chateau in Rougemont, Switzerland, just outside of Gstaad. This was the epicenter of their lives from February to March where they mixed with key figures of international society.”

    How nice for them!

     
     

    Bringing back a mango from “the five myths about millionaires” article:

    On Thursday, 44 percent of people voting in an online survey as part of the GOP debate coverage said that a $1 million annual income made a person “rich.” In a 2008 survey of affluent Chicago households, only 22 percent thought a nest egg of $1 million was rich.

    Nice bit of misdirection there, Bubba. Tell me, what’s the difference between “$1 million annual income” and “a nest egg of $1 million?” Oh that’s right, you mentioned it above: “Today, $1 million in the bank generates only about $50,000 per year in interest.”

    Apparently the author can’t remember what he wrote just a couple paragraphs before. Either that or he’s counting on his readers to be innumerate enough to miss the card trick and that isn’t possible, is it?

     
     

    There’s something still not right: an income of a million a year does make a person rich, but a person who has a million dollar nest egg (that used to include equity in a house, but now, I’d like to see their definition) is not a qualifier under many circumstances.

    And yet, Republicans somehow manage to miss that distinction.

     
     

    And yet, Republicans somehow manage to miss that distinction.

    That’s because it’s in their interest not to understand this distinction.

     
     

    That commercial that called Obama “The One” was a snark from Oprah calling Obama “The One”.

    And as we all know, context does not matter. Of course. You mealy-mouthed whiny piece of maggot shit*

    * your mom said that to you lovingly. Hey, I’m just quoting!

     
    Non-Existent Patricia
     

    “Today, $1 million in the bank generates only about $50,000 per year in interest.”

    But that’s “earning” the median annual US household income without having to work a day.

     
     

    I thought it was because old people are so damned tasty. mmmmm…pre-dried jerky…..

    hey now. Work your own side of the street.

     
     

    There’s something still not right: an income of a million a year does make a person rich, but a person who has a million dollar nest egg (that used to include equity in a house, but now, I’d like to see their definition) is not a qualifier under many circumstances.

    My uncle and his son run a farm together. They have 300 acres including two houses. I am sure that the value of the farm plus the farm machinery and livestock is over a million dollars. It may be over 5 million. I would not say my uncle is rich. His wife works full time, His son works 50-60 hours a week at an implement dealership, and he gets all the hours he can at a call center around christmas time and bumping lift chairs at a local ski resort the rest of the winter. Once he makes his loan payments, I doubt he is making much more than my dad who is a retired public employee. I think he is just squeaking by, and even if he were to sell the farm and associated equipment, I doubt he would have enough left over after repaying loans and taxes to be called rich. Oh and at that point he would be homeless too.

     
     

    How nice for them!

    just plain ol’ middle class folks, struggling with their tax burden.

     
     

    Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, MUSHROOM!

     
     

    And yet, Republicans somehow manage to miss that distinction

    A note on wingnut persistence:
    Way back at the time of the 2000 election I spent time on an archaic blog that I had been a part of for many years. It was set up so that threads would “time off”after a set time span and disappear with no archive. It was not a political blog, but wingnuts seem to get into everything, and there was one in particular who started ranting on the blog the bull dejour from Faux News that Algore was making up new laws when he asked for a recount in Florida. So I went to the official Florida state website and looked up the pertinent election laws. They showed that Al Gore was following the proper procedure and that Katherine Harris was the one making things up. I then copy-pastaed these laws direct from the state website to the blog to make this point. The wingnut replied “Oh, oops, my mistake” and then shut up. Until, that is, that paticular thread timed out. Then he started his rant right back up again. I copied and pasted again and he shut up again until the post timed out again. We did this little dance at least a half a dozen times. I finally just gave up, I’m sorry to say the wingnut outlasted me. I have since learned that this “blue-in-the-face method” is the stalwart of wingnut strategy. You can prove a wingnut wrong over and over and over again, but the moment you stop he feels he has proven himself right.

     
     

    kingubu: Great song — a VPR also too. [hipster]I liked CPD before the “Swing Revival”[/hipster]

    Not related: The new (to me) Decemberists album sounds like Neil Young.

     
     

    On to the next crisis!! there are Mambo Missles in Havana!

     
     

    [hipster]I liked CPD before the “Swing Revival”[/hipster]

    <moar:hipster>Yep, they played our little burgh pretty often, early on. Nice guys. Got drunk with the horn section once.</moar:hipster>

     
     

    A million bucks in NW with your equity in your house is not rich. It’s also not all a broker needs to say about his customer as to why he sold him a lousy POS private placement like it used to be a few years ago, claiming grandpa’s million dollar net worth made him somehow sophisticated enough to know better.

    Bullshit. A million dollars in net worth makes you an “accredited investor” and opens up all kinds of investment options not available to the “little people.”

    Not to mention that having a net worth over a million dollars puts you in the 90th percentile of all Americans. According to the Federal Reserve, “A rare survey of U.S. households, first performed in 2007 but repeated in 2009 in order to gauge the effects of the recession, reveals the median net worth of households fell from $125,000 in 2007 to $96,000 in 2009.” In my book, having a net worth over ten times the median makes you rich.

    Dumbass.

     
     

    Dammit Whale Chowder, the badgers are supposed to keep me from seeing that crap. You’re not helping.

    Let them keep spouting this “millionaire’s aren’t rich” crap. The vast majority of Americans, dumb as they are, don’t care whether you have a million dollar “nest egg” or earn a million a year and spend it all on braces for your seventeen children. People know you’re still rich. But yeah, keep telling them that while they’re trying to decide between buying food or their prescription and wondering how they’re going to come up with money for rent.

     
     

    You can prove a wingnut wrong over and over and over again, but the moment you stop he feels he has proven himself right.

    The blog of my favorite newspaper columnist is now practically unusable/unreadable because it’s being swarmed by wingnuts and “libertarians” who simply cannot let anyone else have the last word, and apparently have nothing better to do all day than make sure that never happens.

    One guy quit posting after the columnist compared one of his comments to monkey shit, but the others just keep on comin’.

     
    Marion in Savannah
     

    the columnist compared one of his comments to monkey shit

    I think I’m in love with your columnist. Who is it?

     
     

    Good lord, that Scarborough is a fucking idiot.

    Crazy never wins, but inappropriate venom aimed at the largest city in the nation is NOT CRAZY!

     
     

    The blog of my favorite newspaper columnist is now practically unusable/unreadable because it’s being swarmed by wingnuts and “libertarians” who simply cannot let anyone else have the last word, and apparently have nothing better to do all day than make sure that never happens.

    That reminds me: I made the mistake of watching The Daily Show last night, and it made me want to destroy my TV (so I started blowing up zombies with my PS3 instead, sorry ZRM).

    Jon Stewart is just so enamored with Ron Paul’s “consistency” that he can’t actually take him to task for being completely fucking bat-shit insane and an utter sociopath. Thanks Jon, we can’t find the libertarian viewpoint anywhere in the media these days, so you providing a platform for such politicians is so refreshing.

     
     

    Dammit Whale Chowder…You’re not helping.

    Sorry about that, OBS. I know I’m not supposed to feed the trolls but sometimes the two-by-four is right there and the temptation is too strong.

    I’ll try to remember to use the “St. <blah>” moniker so you and your badgers can dance unmolested.

     
     

    Let them keep spouting this “millionaire’s aren’t rich” crap.

    But millionaires ARE rich. So you can’t tax them because of class warfare! You also can’t tax them because they aren’t rich! You should tax the poor because they have so little that they will hardly notice it’s gone.

     
     

    Best joke I’ve heard all week:

    Buckley would later criticize George W. Bush’s utopian foreign policy by telling The Wall Street Journal that “conservatism implies a certain submission to reality.”

    HAR HAR. No, conservatism requires the unquestioning abandonment of reality. Conservatism is a submission tool, designed specifically to control the undereducated. It has absolutely nothing to do with reality whatsoever. Guys like Lee Attwater readily admitted that.

     
     

    Maybe we should call it class defense? The middle class is being exsanguinated, and this tax is like a silver bullet?

    People like vampire allegories.

     
     

    (so I started blowing up zombies with my PS3 instead, sorry ZRM).

    Unlike wingnuts, I recognize that video games are not real life.

    Unless you were actually rigging your PS3 as an IED, then blowing them up when they started playing Dead Rising? In which case, NOT FAIR.

     
     

    Unless you were actually rigging your PS3 as an IED, then blowing them up when they started playing Dead Rising? In which case, NOT FAIR.

    Nope, this was isometric-view zombies in “Dead Nation” — good game, especially after Sony let me get it free to apologize for their security breach fuckup.

     
     

    A million bucks in NW with your equity in your house is not rich.

    Oh really? So you’re suggesting that YOU’RE ACTUALLY FUCKING AGREEING WITH ME, YOU SUBHUMAN MORON!!?!?!?!?!?!?

     
     

    Why aren’t you down there, actor, instead of saying what idiots they are on your blog?

    Concern troll is concerned.

    Hey, Danni? Grow a set, will ya?

     
     

    Oh really? So you’re suggesting that YOU’RE ACTUALLY FUCKING AGREEING WITH ME, YOU SUBHUMAN MORON!!?!?!?!?!?!?

    Shush, actor. It’s much funnier when he doesn’t realize it.

     
     

    Why aren’t you down there, actor, instead of saying what idiots they are on your blog?

    Wait, Sadly, No is actor’s blog?

    Why doesn’t anyone TELL me these things?

     
     

    I doubt he would have enough left over after repaying loans and taxes to be called rich. Oh and at that point he would be homeless too.

    That’s why the qualification is usually equity and not value. Many people have valued homes into the mid to even high six figures, but with their mortgages, they couldn’t possibly be called millionaires.

    And now, thanks to Republicans, they likely never will.

     
     

    Wait, Sadly, No is actor’s blog?

    It was an act of piracy.

    You know, like a hostile takeover only without all the messy paperwork.

     
     

    It was an act of piracy.

    You know, like a hostile takeover only without all the messy paperwork.

    The Crimson Permanent Assurance?

     
     

    Nope, this was isometric-view zombies in “Dead Nation”

    This is why us Wii owners can’t have nice things. The last good zombie game was ResEvil 4

     
     

    You know, like a hostile takeover only without all the messy paperwork.

    You’re talking to a zombie, remember? Try this analogy: “Like brain acquisition only without all the screaming and blood.”

     
     

    The Crimson Permanent Assurance?

    Like them, aye.

    I mean, arrr.

     
     

    You do realize this might hurt your sales of Young and Hung thongs to some them, ya know?

    So you’ll have plenty to buy, Danni.

     
     

    Unless you were actually rigging your PS3 as an IED, then blowing them up when they started playing Dead Rising? In which case, NOT FAIR.

    I’ve just had an idea of a video game where a guy goes of on a Galtian style quest for freedom…

     
     

    “Like brain acquisition only without all the screaming and blood.”

    He might mistake that for creeping them in their sleep.

     
     

    I dunno, if a lot of the million is inflated home equity you could only get free and clear if you sold your home, or business equity you could only get by selling your job, or retirement savings you can’t touch, I can see how that wouldn’t feel rich. I can’t see how making that amount in oh so liquid income each and every year doesn’t feel pretty damn sweet, though. I also can’t see why they think those two things are equivalent.

     
     

    I will continue to buy thongs until the zombie apocalypse.

     
     

    Exactly, Tig. And everyone here, even the resident closeted troll, agrees. They are not the same thing.

     
     

    I think I’m in love with your columnist. Who is it?

    This guy.

     
     

    I will continue to buy thongs until the zombie apocalypse.

    Are you kidding? I have an emergency stash FOR the zombie apocalypse!

     
     

    This guy.

    Cool, a Chicago thug! I should have known.

     
     

    Hey! That private health insurance thing….it’s really working!

    Not.

     
     

    I don’t know why we’re discussing equity/assets. The tax is an income tax. Not a tax on net worth. If they still taxed capital gains like the income they are, then we wouldn’t have gotten into a whole bunch of this mess in the first place.

    How much your home is worth is irrelevant when you’re talking about an income tax.

     
     

    You can’t have too many thongs.

     
     

    The tax is an income tax. Not a tax on net worth.

    The article linked to….errr, above? This one

    It gets sidetracked in deciding that millionaires aren’t millionaires.

     
     

    You can’t have too many thongs.

    Rick Perry Signature Footwear!

     
     

    “Like brain acquisition only without all the screaming and blood.”

    Sure, take all the fun out of it.

     
     

    I dunno, if a lot of the million is inflated home equity you could only get free and clear if you sold your home, or business equity you could only get by selling your job, or retirement savings you can’t touch, I can see how that wouldn’t feel rich.

    Right, that wouldn’t feel rich, I agree with that. Still, it’s ten times what the average American has to their name. At some point, a person or couple with a million bucks can at least contemplate living (albeit modestly, if they don’t want to tap the principal) after retirement, whereas the average person must plan on being in harness until they drop.

    I know which I’d prefer.

     
     

    Speaking of zombies, they are making Resident Evil 5…and Michelle Rodriguez is returning.

     
     

    The tax is an income tax. Not a tax on net worth.

    You’re absolutely right but the author of the original article conflates a million dollar income with a million dollar nest egg which are two completely different things (as you said). Then the trool asserted that having a million bucks isn’t being rich. Then I jumped in with an overly pedantic rebuttal. Then the zombie started talking about the wii and I got confused.

    What does peeing have to do with anything?

     
     

    Latest NewsBusters expose: David Gergen goes swimming in his underwear.

    Somehow, this excited them more than angered them.

     
     

    You’re absolutely right but the author of the original article conflates a million dollar income with a million dollar nest egg which are two completely different things (as you said). Then the trool asserted that having a million bucks isn’t being rich. Then I jumped in with an overly pedantic rebuttal. Then the zombie started talking about the wii and I got confused.

    What does peeing have to do with anything?

    So the thread’s shopworn. Again.

     
     

    Better yet, she gave this in 2007 which shows just how bright she is.

    She was talking about this stuff before then, as I recall. I remember her being on the Newshour talking about The Two Income Trap in the early 2000s. I think that book came out a few years before this lecture. I seriously don’t know how she’s escaped conservative attention until now, other than the fact that she mostly was on NPR and PBS and that faggy shit.

    You know what’s tricky? Beestiality.

    I told you I wanted to fuck a bee, not a woman dressed as a bee!

     
     

    I remember her being on the Newshour talking about The Two Income Trap in the early 2000s.

    I know when bankruptcy reform was passed she was all over the airwaves…at least of progressive teevee, fuck the right wing mainstream media….talking about how unfair the bill was. That would have been early 2005.

     
     

    At some point, a person or couple with a million bucks can at least contemplate living (albeit modestly, if they don’t want to tap the principal) after retirement, whereas the average person must plan on being in harness until they drop.

    Yeah, but those people think they’re as poor as the rest of us.

     
     

    Sarah Palin used to joke “You know, they say, the difference between a Hockey Mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”

    Apparently, she was right.

    It sure would explain the Glen Rice episode…

     
     

    Yeah, but those people think they’re as poor as the rest of us.

    Y’know what I can’t figure out?

    If you survery people, consistently about 20% believe they are among the top 1% wealthiest Americans.

    Yet 80% of Americans believe they are middle class.

    Someone has…dissonance issues.

     
     

    That would have been early 2005.

    Yeah, I remember a time when she was everywhere. That sounds right.

     
     

    Warren does a good job of providing the facts to back up what most of us, I think, already knew intuitively.

    For example, I knew just from being alive the past 30 years that while consumer goods like hair dryers and dishes and flatware and etc. had either stayed the same price or actually declined in cost, that the price of a home had skyrocketed by 5 – 6 times or more in the same time period. For why? Because, all the consumer goods were being made by slave labor overseas, so they could sell for the same or a lower price while still increasing the profit the “job creators” got to pocket. Meanwhile, houses are built here in place by people that have to earn a certain amount to survive.

    The conservatives would argue that cheaper consumer goods are a unmitigated plus…but while it’s nice to be able to buy stuff more cheaply, there have been a few drawbacks. First, the offshoring of manufacturing means so many people earn so much less than they used to when they had manufacturing jobs that cheaper goods is the only way they’ve been able to continue consuming anything at all; for the most part, these folks can forget about buying homes or having health care or anything where the price has gone way up because it can’t be offshored. Second, the hair dryer I bought when I left to go to college cost $25 and they now cost $12…but that made-in-America hair dryer lasted from 1982 – about 1997. Since then, I’ve gone through 4 of those $12 hair dryers made in China. Somehow, they no longer seem like such a bargain.

    The issue here isn’t that no one can AFFORD to make anything here; the issue is greed – no one will make anything here for a mere 20% profit if they can make 40% by going overseas. That works for the investors, for a while…but in the long run, it will bite them in the ass as well.

     
     

    Warren does a good job of providing the facts to back up what most of us, I think, already knew intuitively.

    And yet, inevitably, a bankrupt will be chided for buying $100 sneakers or a flat screen TV. OK, yes, perhaps they could have skipped those and save $500 or $600.

    Which wouldn’t even be a month’s health insurance premium.

    That, no one ever seems to be upset about.

     
     

    Jennifer, it’s a total sleight-of-hand.

    The quality of housing has decreased substantially as well, and a large amount of the labor used to produce it comes from undocumented immigrants.

    Food is inexpensive (it still is, relatively) because it’s subsidized by petroleum and near slave labor.

    The existence (such as it is) of the middle class has only been sustained this long because of the availability of cheap credit (not so much anymore, of course), cheap oil, and cheap labor. There’s a breaking point, and I keep thinking we’ve reached it, but somehow the system still keeps going.

     
     

    Maybe we should call it class defense? The middle class is being exsanguinated, and this tax is like a silver bullet?
    People like vampire allegories.

    No, no, if that were so then vampires would traditionally be portrayed as members of the landed aristocracy.

    I don’t need a scrotum swollen from stings or anything else.
    M. Bouffant is not easy to buy presents for.

     
     

    There’s a breaking point, and I keep thinking we’ve reached it, but somehow the system still keeps going.

    Momentum, I think. The break hasn’t worked its way up the food chain.

    You see it all around you, but the people who can afford to keep the system going haven’t. They will, as the stock market keeps crashing despite the smart money’s best efforts to milk a little bit more out of the rubes.

     
     

    No, no, if that were so then vampires would traditionally be portrayed as members of the landed aristocracy.

    You mean like this?

     
     

    David Gergen is a journalist?

     
     

    somehow the system still keeps going.

    Momentum. It’s a big economy and it’s taking a while to wind down.

     
    Marion in Savannah
     

    David Gergen is a journalist?

    No. SASQ.

     
     

    No, no, if that were so then vampires would traditionally be portrayed as members of the landed aristocracy.

    COUNT Dracula was aristocracy before he got that gig on Sesame Street.

     
     

    vampires would traditionally be portrayed as members of the landed aristocracy.
    You mean like this?

    Any good pedant knows that Carmilla (with Countess Mircalla Karnstein) was written before Dracula.

     
     

    A little personal experience in how the mortgage companies are fucking over, not just all of us, but themselves as well:

    My next-door neighbor is getting his condo foreclosed on. I found out because I’m my building’s president and the condo association’s law firm notified me so I could, I dunno, lean on the guy to keep up with his fees or something (even though they weren’t delinquent).

    This is a former Marine who fought in Iraq and now has five kids, the oldest of whom isn’t yet eight. I approached him and discreetly offered a loan if he was having cash-flow problems.

    It turns out he’s just fine, and even has a much-needed house with a yard lined up for his family. The reason he’s in foreclosure is because he’s completely underwater on his mortgage and he has no alternative but to walk away from it.

    And here’s the punchline—why he has no alternative:

    This guy had a buyer lined up for his condo, but because she wouldn’t offer enough money to cover the mortgage (why should she?), the bank wasn’t interested.

    So now the bank has to do a short sale, which will probably come up at least 20K less than this buyer was offering. Assuming this is one of those agglomerations of financial geniuses who got saved by TARP, that’s 20K of our tax money they’re leaving on the table. Plus, the value of my condo and every other in the building will be dragged down.

    How much would it cost to hire a non-head-up-ass loan officer to ferret out cases like this? A half dozen a year, and they’d probably save the company at least double their salary.

    Please, financial geniuses, go Galt ASAP.

     
     

    Man, two *AHEM*mable posts in the last ten replies here….

     
     

    Any good pedant knows that Carmilla (with Countess Mircalla Karnstein) was written before Dracula.

    Please, brother, that’s a young’un

     
     

    FAUX Nooze: Blondes have more dumb.

    Such a shame these shills don’t care about the government spying on us in our War On Freedoms.
    ~

     
     

    Such a shame these shills don’t care about the government spying on us in our War On Freedoms

    Errr, which part of the phone-hacking scandal did you miss?

     
     

    Wait, the bank wouldn’t agree to a short sale, so now they’re forecosing and doing a short sale?

     
     

    Wait, the bank wouldn’t agree to a short sale, so now they’re forecosing and doing a short sale?

    Yes, but it’s THEIR short sale AND it’s a shorter short sale!

     
     

    The existence (such as it is) of the middle class has only been sustained this long because of the availability of cheap credit (not so much anymore, of course), cheap oil, and cheap labor. There’s a breaking point, and I keep thinking we’ve reached it, but somehow the system still keeps going.

    Also, this is not a recent development. This borrowed-time, borrowed wealth and status bullshit has been the norm since the 80s, when, coincindentally (or is it?), men wearing pony tails became fashionable.

    Borrowed time, borrowed money, a false sense of security and status…we had to roll that into credit cards, then into our homes…When they said “nobody could have seen this coming”, they were LYING.

     
     

    Actor212 is trying to upstage my “Vampires as allegories of a bloodsucking parasitical upper class” argument. This aggression will not stand!
    Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a literary figure since 1729.

     
     

    Man, two *AHEM*mable posts in the last ten replies here….

    UM, Sesame Street reference trumps all others.

     
     

    Yes, but it’s THEIR short sale AND it’s a shorter short sale!
    Clearly the first sale wasn’t short enough. Maybe, for some sinister reason, they wanted to lose more money on the transaction?

     
     

    “Vampires as allegories of a bloodsucking parasitical upper class” argument

    A H E M

     
     

    Also, this is not a recent development. This borrowed-time, borrowed wealth and status bullshit has been the norm since the 80s, when, coincindentally (or is it?), men wearing pony tails became fashionable.

    I think it might even predate that. Jimmy Carter once spoke of the materialism of Americans in the 1970s.

    For me, I’m thinking it began with the ubiquity of television (which would mean mid-to-late 1950s) and advertising. No longer was it enough to keep up with the Joneses next door, you had to keep up with the products being sold to you by Ronald Reagan or Orson Welles or…

    And while wages were going up in the 60s and early 70s, allowing you to buy a new Chevy every three years (like clockwork, whether it was broken or not), once wages stagnated…..damned chicks *ducking*…the only place you could go to satisfy your buying jones (no pun intended) was to the credit card companies.

    And I’m not sure it wasn’t planned that way. After all, I got one, only one, credit card solicitation when I first attended college back in 1974: from American Express who would not let you float purchases past the due date. You paid in full and that was it.

    Now, my daughter gets them weekly.

     
     

    Maybe, for some sinister reason, they wanted to lose more money on the transaction?

    I’m sure there is on tax loophole or other benefit to posting larger losses than necessary or writing down way more debt than you need to….

     
     

    Also, this is not a recent development. This borrowed-time, borrowed wealth and status bullshit has been the norm since the 80s

    Oh, totally. Our political and economic environment over the last thirty years made this shit fucking inevitable.

     
     

    itsam said,
    “Vampires as allegories of a bloodsucking parasitical upper class” argument
    A H E M

    Tsam provided NO CITATIONS and needed someone to spell it out for him.

     
     

    Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a literary figure since 1729.

    I’ll see your [air quote]1729[/air quote], and raise you 600 CE

     
     

    But I don’t think it’s simply materialism. I think it’s the idea of the American Dream coupled with the fact that if you can’t/don’t achieve that, you’re somehow broken and/or morally bankrupt. So you’ve got a system that’s working to make you poor and then blaming you for your poverty.

     
     

    I’m sure there is on tax loophole or other benefit to posting larger losses than necessary or writing down way more debt than you need to….

    Except that banks are subject to a capital/debt leverage ratio and writing off a larger loss means a smaller denominator to this ratio which means they basically have to replace those funds twice.

     
     

    Ooooo! If we’re gonna go Countess Bathory, I can recommend a book by a friend.

    *whew*

    I thought it would be one of those hideous “Ben Tripp” books

    *ducking*

     
     

    I think it might even predate that. Jimmy Carter once spoke of the materialism of Americans in the 1970s.

    For me, I’m thinking it began with the ubiquity of television (which would mean mid-to-late 1950s) and advertising. No longer was it enough to keep up with the Joneses next door, you had to keep up with the products being sold to you by Ronald Reagan or Orson Welles or…

    I’m sure it did start back then, but it took that new generation and that YUPPIE culture that the media invented to lure young people into mortgaging their futures away. It took that same generation coming into control of the banking industry (under the guise of visionary young talent rather than the aforementioned future vampyres) to open the floodgates of two way complicity in building this house of cards. They fucking knew that crippling debt was going to stop climing someday. They knew it would be catastrophic. You don’t need an economics degree to figure out that spending 10 years into your own future earnings (with the possible exception of a mortgage, assuming you have a career quality job) is not the brightest idea in the whole wide world.

    But consumers ate it up, and the banks were more than willing to throw as much fuel on the fire as the consumer demanded. As soon as they had enough to buy off Phil Gramm and a few of his buddies, then install the Walmart president, it didn’t take long to remove the last of the regulations that spelled terminal velocity for this whole situation.

    This is NOT going to improve until a new economy grows out of the carcass of the old one. (IF one actually does).

     
     

    But I don’t think it’s simply materialism. I think it’s the idea of the American Dream coupled with the fact that if you can’t/don’t achieve that, you’re somehow broken and/or morally bankrupt. So you’ve got a system that’s working to make you poor and then blaming you for your poverty.

    I can’t tell you how many arguments I’ve had over the idea of owning a home. People who rent (especially out West) are looked down upon–yes, broken somehow. I don’t actually view home ownership as a good investment, and I don’t think that added costs (which are significant) of owning a home are worth it. It’s your domicile, not a fucking symbol of who you are. That’s what art and decoration is for.

     
     

    Except that banks are subject to a capital/debt debt/capital leverage ratio and writing off a larger loss means a smaller denominator to this ratio which means they basically have to replace those funds twice.

    Fixed for more consistency

     
     

    At some point, a person or couple with a million bucks can at least contemplate living (albeit modestly, if they don’t want to tap the principal) after retirement, whereas the average person must plan on being in harness until they drop.

    Yes, but owning a house “worth” $450,000 plus a business “worth” $450,000 plus 100,000 bucks doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the same level of comfortable contemplation. I guess I’m just saying it depends on how net worth is figured, and how it’s configured in a particular household.

     
     

    I can’t tell you how many arguments I’ve had over the idea of owning a home.

    Owning a home used to be a smart strategy. It was a way of forcing yourself to save money, you usually got a good return on your investment, and guess what? You had your own place with (basically) your own rules for thirty years or until your kids were grown, and you sold it and took the equity out.

    But that was before people started to strateregize home ownership and turn it into speculation.

     
     

    I’m really not up on finance, but the idea of refusing a short sale in order to provoke an even shorter sale, seems dumb to me. That is why I wondered if there was some way the bank would find the shorter sale more advantageous. I guess I was hoping they were evil instead of just stupid.

     
     

    I’m really not up on finance, but the idea of refusing a short sale in order to provoke an even shorter sale, seems dumb to me.

    Well, there’s two possibilities that occur to me:

    1) The bank felt they could do better than a $20,000 loss (and got caught on the bet), or…

    2) If they wrote a loan off autonomously, there’d be less hassle from whichever home office loan officer was overseeing their wind-down than if they accepted an owner-initiated sale at a loss.

     
     

    contemplate living (albeit modestly)

    I contemplate living modestly but with pomposity. It’s my American birthright.

     
     

    tigris – well, I own my home, and in my case it’s been a wise choice, because at the time I bought, it was cheaper to buy in this neighborhood than to rent here. Then there was the tax benefit on top of that. So I’ve actually saved money on housing while at the same time built up a lot of equity. But situations differ according to the time and place…no way would I have been buying in Las Vegas or Florida ca. 2004.

     
     

    I contemplate living modestly but with pomposity. It’s my American birthright.

    I am proud at how humbly I live.

     
     

    I think you meant tsam; I’m all for owning if you can and want to, but I know it’s not the right thing for everyone.

     
     

    Looks like he’s taking a run at Jim Hoft’s Dumbest Man On The Internet title.

     
     

    Hi! i’m like you post: to my @lfrinuzi twitter

     
     

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