Mattie Is A Progressive In The Same Way A Dinner Party Might Be

Shorter Mattie Yglesias, Think Progress:
Beyond the Top One Percent

  • The fact that really rich people have an overwhelmingly larger percentage of national income than anyone else doesn’t bother me at all, because the really rich people in return get shitty lives where they are forced to play golf and live in mansions in Dallas.

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

Pic courtesy of the awesome people at 3Bulls. Thanks!


 

Comments: 353

 
 
 

You gotta be fucking kidding me.

 
 

Also, has Matt ever been to Dallas? I have. Its a pretty neat, sophisticate city with lots going on.

 
 

Also, has Matt ever been to Dallas? I have. Its a pretty neat, sophisticated city with lots going on.

 
 

Whose life you’d prefer really has to do with your tastes and preferences.

It has nothing to do with the point of the article he purports to discuss, though.

 
Spearhafoc, who will not mention Christina Hendricks' breasts in this post
 

Plus, rich people spend all their time putting on costumes and fighting crime. It’s true. I read it in a comic book.

 
 

I don’t understand the headline Tintin. Shouldn’t that be “MATTIE IS A PROGRESSIVE IN THE SAME WAY AS AN INSURANCE COMPANY WITH AN ANNOYING SPOKESPERSON THAT ADVERTISES NON STOP MIGHT BE.”?

 
 

@gocart mozart: That’s a much better headline. Particularly because I hate Flo even more than I hate Pomplamoose.

 
 

Where would you be getting all of your Soros bucks from if there were no rich people? Answer me that Tintin, if that’s even your real name.

 
Jek Porkins Junior
 

As the son of a combat veteran, I take exception to the photoshop. There is a difference between trying really hard and missing the target, and pretending to try hard and deliberately missing so as to curry favor with perceived superiors. I’m sure Yggie thinks he will be considered when Wolf Blitzer retires.

 
 

Thanks Tintin.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

I don’t understand the headline Tintin. Shouldn’t that be “MATTIE IS A PROGRESSIVE IN THE SAME WAY AS AN INSURANCE COMPANY WITH AN ANNOYING SPOKESPERSON THAT ADVERTISES NON STOP MIGHT BE.”?

You diss the Progressive Insurance girl when the other guys have a lizard?

 
 

“Plus, rich people spend all their time putting on costumes and fighting crime. It’s true. I read it in a comic book.”

Thanks for the shout out, but that towel I tie around my neck isn’t much of a costume. And yelling at solicitors isn’t really fighting crime.

 
 

I think the progressive girl is adorbs. Guilty.

 
 

Plus, rich people spend all their time putting on costumes and fighting crime.

To be fair, an equal proportion of rich people puts on costumes and commits crimes.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

WTF? I mean, really Matt, really.

 
Jek Porkins Junior
 

As the son of a combat veteran, its my duty to inform you that Pomplamoose performed at the Kennedy Center just the other night. No kidding.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

Don’t you be mean to Flo, bitch. Me ‘n Flo, we’re tight, see?

 
 

I think the progressive girl is adorbs. Guilty.

I’m just waiting for the gecko to eat her.

 
 

EvenTheLiberalMatt sucks up to rich people? Next you will tell me that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.

 
 

What else would you expect from a guy who gets beat up while walking home from dinner with the McSudermans?

 
 

Hey, golf is boring! And Dallas is hot in the summer! So the rich totally deserve to control 90% of the country’s wealth!

 
 

“You diss the Progressive Insurance girl when the other guys have a lizard?”

True, the lizard is irritating but these commercials are awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncTieEDY54c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcZd-ql7t1I

Also, “PROGRESSIVE IN THE SAME WAY AS A TALKING LIZARD” doesn’t make much sense does it?

 
 

“Pomplamoose is the musical duo–Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn–whose viral covers on YouTube have netted them Internet fame, a record deal, and a Hyundai commercial . . . Their new cover is none other than the “Angry Birds” theme song–and Jack and Nataly sure look angry.”

I have nothing to say.

 
 

Flo? Meatspace cartoon character, one of the annoying ones.

 
 

I weep for the rich and the terrible trials they must endure. have you ever had to hire a maid or keepon maintenance for five luxury vehicles or find a dock for your yacht? you don’t hardship then!

 
 

I have nothing to say.

I know. It’s difficult to speak while projectile vomiting.

 
Spearhafoc, who will not mention Christina Hendricks' breasts in this post
 

Thanks for the shout out, but that towel I tie around my neck isn’t much of a costume. And yelling at solicitors isn’t really fighting crime.

Yes it absolutely is. Don’t sell yourself short.

I think the progressive girl is adorbs.

I’ve managed to avoid the Progressive commercials (as I tend to watch most of my TV on the computer) but from what I can see from Google images, the “Progressive girl” looks pretty cute.

To be fair, an equal proportion of rich people puts on costumes and commits crimes.

Of course. There need to be supervillains for the heroes to fight. It would be boring if they spent all their time beating up street thugs.

Where would Batman be without the Joker? Superman without Lex Luthor? Glenn Beck without George Soros?

 
 

To be fair, an equal proportion of rich people puts on costumes and commits crimes.

You are misinformed. Rich people do not commit crimes. On the contrary, every action they take, regardless of the consequences, entitles them to bonuses.

 
 

the “Progressive girl” looks pretty cute.

Given your current nym: in the first season of Mad Men, she was the switchboard operator with cats-eye glasses.

 
 

Where would Batman be without the Joker?

The Joker was not rich before he became a villain. The best version of his origin story (The Killing Joke) has him as dirt-poor, unfunny stand-up comic forced by poverty into a life of crime.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

I’ve managed to avoid the Progressive commercials (as I tend to watch most of my TV on the computer) but from what I can see from Google images, the “Progressive girl” looks pretty cute.

I agree, but it’s just a matter of taste that there’s no point arguing about. Some people—like me—are suckers for “cute”, other people have an allergic reaction to it. Oh well, more cute girls for the rest of us!

 
Spearhafoc, who will not mention Christina Hendricks' breasts in this post
 

As the Joker says in that very book, “Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another; if I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

unfunny stand-up comic

Ah, a conservative then.

 
Jek Porkins Junior
 

As the son of a combat veteran, I’ve gotta say I hate that fuckin’ Darth Vader. When I heard he was dead, me and some Alderanian-Americans danced in Times Square until dawn.
And when it comes to putting on a Banker Suit and committing antisocial acts, where’s the link to the japanese “Salaryman” song?
Flo looks high maintenance.

 
 

unfunny stand-up comic

Ah, a conservative then.

He certainly is against gun control.

 
 

Hey, does anyone else remember when Ken Lay’s wife was interviewed about all the hardships her family went through when her husband pile-drived Enron into the ground? Most touching was her lament about how they were down to only one mansion.

 
 

“The Joker was not rich before he became a villain.”

True, The joker was a self made man like Soros while Batman inherited his wealth like the Koch brothers.

Flo is kinda cute but after the 7th billion time you see the ad you might want to blow your brains out.

 
 

” Most touching was her lament about how they were down to only one mansion.’

Most people get foreclosed on only one house. They lost like six which means they have suffered six times worse. The rich truely have it tougher than the average Joe.

 
guitarist manqué
 

after the 7th billion time you see the ad you might want to blow your brains out.

Protip: Shoot the television first. See how that works out.

 
 

I am shockedSHOCKED to see Yggie shilling for the status quo. When the status is so…NOT…quo!

I can’t begrudge the comedian who plays Flo her day job. And she gets more dramatic variety than the poor “Can you hear me now?” guy. Ten years on and that’s all the dialog he gets. Teh sad.

 
sham - low sodium hunchback
 

The comments at TP are excellent.
In their honor, and because I suspect that using the words DICK or SACK-OF-SHIT is not allowed, I offer them

POOP!!!!!!!
and
PENIS!!!!!!!

SOLIDARITY !!! Brothers and Sisters!!!!

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

The only commercials that had me ready to shoot the TV were the ones for Breyer’s ice cream with that albino going: “car-a-ghee-nan…?”

Yes, you imbecile, the other brands have carageenan. That’s why you don’t need a hammer and chisel to get them out of the carton till they suddenly melt—like Breyer’s!

 
 

whenever Progressive commercials come on, I get up and make myself another drink.

So I blame my shambling on that goddam Flo.

 
 

You know what else sucks being really rich?
They have to give up all their privacy.
The personal assistants, who know every little thing about theIr daily life.The maids, who smell every odor and wash out the poopstains. The chefs, who know when you order up some cheetos and whipped cream at 3 am.

It’s hard out there being rich.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

“So I blame my shambling on that goddam Flo.”

Oh. I thought it came naturally to your type.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

Let us not forget the tribulations of whatshisname, “I want my life back.”

 
 

it seems to me that if you’re a waitress or a cab driver or a security guard or a carpenter or a cashier you’re perfectly entitled to regard “the elites” as encompassing the CEO and the professor and the blogger too

WOO HOO! Via the magic of semantic bullshit-shovelling, since I have a blog I’m officially 3L1T3 now! Suck it, proles!

The diminishing marginal utility of money means there’s a strong case for redistributing funds from people who have a lot of it to people who’ll get more use from it. But that very same diminishing marginal utility of money means that there’s little reason to believe that inequality in real living standards among the elite is nearly as big as the inequality in income.

There’s actually no reason whatsoever to believe it – because it’s patently fucking obvious. With ten million you can get away with double-parking. With ten billion you can get away with mass-murder. That’s some rather stark inequality – especially if you’re one of the poor buggers the billionaire decides to cull from the herd.

“The diminishing marginal utility of money” sounds like the sort of thing you’d need a LOT of years at uni to learn yourself stupid enough to swallow whole. Yglesias must go through a serious fuckton of BEAN-O.

 
 

Props for my congressman. Just promise me you will stay away from the twitter O.K. Murphy.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/06/24/252981/exclusive-murphy-thomas/

“In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress, Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) — the lead sponsor of a bill which would strip Supreme Court justices of their immunity from a code of ethical conduct that applies to other federal judges — suggests that an investigation may be necessary to determine whether Justice Clarence Thomas’ many ethics scandals rise to the level where Thomas is no longer fit to serve on the nation’s highest Court:”

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

When has Thomas ever been fit to serve on the SCOTUS? <— purely rhetorical question.

I was chatting with John Dean, that little weasel, at a book signing. He said he knew for a fact that Biden, who chaired the Senate Judiciary committee at the time of Thomas' nomination hearings, had solid evidence confirming Anita Hill's accusations but refused to allow it to be presented. Something about "the process" being more important than whether Thomas was a sack of shit.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

Vettel took the pole in Valencia.

I’ll be in my bunk.

 
 

Yglesias was also really understanding about all the workers to be displaced by some ‘free’ trade agreement*

‘No problem. We just need a stronger safety net and some re-training or some other shit I’ll never have to worry about.’

In other words, we’ve got no idea about how to shape the economy in such a way that decent future jobs will actually be available to get people off of that ‘safety net’, or that there will be an economy strong enough to pay for all that.

But, you know, fuck, that’s for some other people somewhere and some time to work out; I’ll just assume it will all work out, and if it takes a really, really long time, then I’ll assume it’ll right itself eventually.

You know, just like how we were promised that anyone displaced by NAFTA would get great jobs by being retrained for some new economy, such as high tech jobs which those 3rd world monkeys could never do, and of course, financial innovations.

How’d that all work out?

Meanwhile, he can keep doing his nice sympathetic progressive blogging like so many, as well as being able to buy really cool shit cheaper. And not being bothered by all these troglodytes with their big meaty clumsy fingers whining about how they want the gubmit to be all communist and keep them working at the steamship factory or the horse-drawn carriage industry.

And then of course, there’s no need for any finger-crossing that our political system would keep that ‘social safety net’ in place, because he’d like to imagine we’d suddenly be a bit more like Sweden and less like Mississippi.

* There is no such thing as a “free trade agreement”, just other trade agreements which favor various producers against other producers and are meant to permanently eliminate democratic involvement either in trade regulation or labor protections. Freedom.

 
 

… & then it hit me:

Oh fuck, that’s right – I work in security.

… if you’re a waitress or a cab driver or a security guard or a carpenter or a cashier …

BRB, PROTESTING AGAINST MYSELF

 
 

Barbara Ehrenreich actually went out and worked some minimum-wage jobs. Time for young Matthew to get off his honorarium-fattened ass and do likewise.

 
 

One thing forcibly forgotten about the whole Anita Hill thing is that she did not ‘come forward’ with these claims.

It came up when she was being interviewed by the FBI / inspector general’s office in the thorough background check.

Similar comments were made from other women so interviewed.

But both Republicans and Democrats (since then) allow (or in R’s, scream) it to seem like Hill rushed out to the paparazzi yelling that she had an exciting story to sell them!

Fuck all these people.

 
 

You diss the Progressive Insurance girl when the other guys have a lizard?

I like the lizard better than I like the “Law & Order: SVU” reject who now goes around not impersonating various people for Allstate.

 
Shell Goddamnit
 

There’s a metric fuckton of people who believe that the corporatic/1%er status quo is both inevitable and, to an extent, desirable. Change therefrom being ruled out all they have is tiny corrections to the course. Because SOCIALISM! The SOVIET UNION! UK National Health!! etc. etc.

 
 

So I blame my shambling on that goddam Flo.

Yeah, I also kinda walk funny when I see Flo, if you know what I mean and I think that you do.

 
Shell Goddamnit
 

Just noting that I think the 1%er tag is appropriately set on both the economic 1% *and* the American Motorcycle Association “one percent who don’t fit and don’t care.”

 
 

Whose life you’d prefer really has to do with your tastes and preferences.

I think most people’s tastes and preferences run toward “not having to worry where next month’s rent will come from”.

The diminishing marginal utility of money means there’s a strong case for redistributing funds from people who have a lot of it to people who’ll get more use from it. But that very same diminishing marginal utility of money means that there’s little reason to believe that inequality in real living standards among the elite is nearly as big as the inequality in income.

What the fuck? No really, what the fuck?

 
 

Other economists told me to pull up, but I can hold it!

 
the conspiratist
 

Mattie teh Kochsucker.

Credit default swaps and Mortgage fraud? Land grants and tax havens?

Tell us again how they’ve earned it?

 
 

Tell us again how they’ve earned it?

They’ve earned it by being Randian supermen, unfettered by the petty concerns of the moochers and parasites. Next question?

 
the conspiratist
 

…unfettered by the petty concerns…

Not what you know but who ya blow?

 
Spearhafoc, who will not mention Christina Hendricks' breasts in this post
 

“Danny, court cases are decided by a series of blowjobs!”

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

ooh, tingly!

 
 

Indulge me but, as they say on Law & Order, you opened the door:

In the parody of Atlas Shrugged (Atlas Slugged AGAIN), a blowhard in Glatt’s Gulch gives Dragnie Tagbord a long speech–aren’t they all–about why he declined to re-join civilization. It was because rich people are so victimized, and part of it goes like this:

They are forced to live in segregated communities surrounded only by people of their own kind. They are forced to vacation in remote areas, on distant islands under the glare of a tropical sun, or sliding down snow-covered mountain tops, which are costly to reach. They are forced to eat in restaurants unfrequented by and unfamiliar to the common man. They are compelled to pay five, ten, a hundred, a thousand times what ordinary men pay for such basic necessities as wristwatches, automobiles, and three-piece suits. They are required to spend millions of dollars to influence a political system merely in order to manipulate it into giving them what they want.

Of course, this is a parody.

Cf. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/54707

 
Spearhafoc, who is a deviated prevert
 

ooh, tingly!

Hi, I’m a big fan.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

Hi, I’m a big fan.

I imagine you’re really busy this time of year?

 
 

B^4 sed “What the fuck? No really, what the fuck?”

I would ahem you but that really is the only response, ain’t it?

PS: Picked out your attire for our upcoming nuptials?

 
 

But that very same diminishing marginal utility of money means that there’s little reason to believe that inequality in real living standards among the elite is nearly as big as the inequality in income.

Translation: they have such a fuckton of money that they can’t spend it all. Once they’ve bought the biggest house they can find, the most expensive cars and jets and boats, clothing, electronic toys, food & etc. there’s really nothing else left for them to spend their money on. The rest of us also live indoors, get around in mechanized modes of transport, wear clothes, have TVs & eat food, so there’s very little difference between us and them.

Go fuck yourself with McMegan’s KitchenAid, MattY.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

Prolly got an entirely different take on Global warming I bet.

 
 

BTW, B^4, I wasn’t aware until yesterday’s thread that you had so many stalkers admirers around here. I thought I was the only one.

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

I imagine you’re really busy this time of year?

Ah yes, trouble with synonyms. I meant I’ve masturbated while thinking about you.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

So really really busy.

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

Quite.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

It’s nice you have found a career.

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

No, only a hobby. I’m not good enough to go pro, unfortunately.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

It’s when it starts being your livelihood that all the fun goes away.

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

I just noticed that this is a strange conversation.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

Baby, this is tame…

 
 

BTW, B^4, I wasn’t aware until yesterday’s thread that you had so many stalkers admirers around here. I thought I was the only one.

In person, he’s like a depilated teddy bear.

 
 

Having a bitter mocha (w/ orange and cinnamon) waiting for the streetcar. Got a big bunch of green garlic, some new potatoes, gorgeous fava beans. And a stunning head of frisee which prompted me ti pick up some duck eggs and Tails-n-Trotters hazelnut-fed slab bacon which will make aost excellent salad (poach the eggs, fry lardons, place on frisee lightly dressed with vinaigrette).

Also a tub of fab rillettes from TnT. Some Rogue Creamery bleu, Hood strawbs, organic, pastured lamb loin chops… let’s see, … arugula, stick of very nice chorizo (the dry, salami type. Ohhhh my I love Portland!

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

Baby, this is tame…

I guess all the conversations with your co-star, Alison Brie’s breasts, must be a little more…interesting.

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

Also, Jon Hamm’s chest hair.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

Oh Pup, there ya go talking about what you’re putting in your mouth.

;-]

 
 

“In person, he’s like a depilated teddy bear.”

DO go on please.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

No time for idle chit chat I’m afraid.

 
 

DO go on please.

We didn’t drink enough for the fixed glassy stare, of course.

 
 

No time for idle chit chat I’m afraid.

Places to go, people to meet?

 
 

I just had to get out of the boat for this one.

The diminishing marginal utility of money means there’s a strong case for redistributing funds from people who have a lot of it to people who’ll get more use from it. But that very same diminishing marginal utility of money means that there’s little reason to believe that inequality in real living standards among the elite is nearly as big as the inequality in income.

What the fuck does that even mean?

Is he saying that the rich don’t live better than the poor? Really, dude?

 
 

“No time for idle chit chat I’m afraid.”

telling us about Jon Hamm’s chest is NOT idle chit chat. Puhleeeezzz!

 
 

In person, he’s like a depilated teddy bear.

I had one of those when I was little; my dad’s best friend got it for me.

Well, it wasn’t depilated when I got it…but apparently I liked to pluck the fuzz off it. After 5 or 6 years, it was mostly bald.

 
 

Seriously are you guys deliberately misconstruing his point. He’s talking about conspicuous consumption. It makes little difference between rich and superrich, a big difference between rich and middle class, and a HUGE difference between poor and middle class. That’s what diminishing marginal utility of money means. It means if you redistribute wealth you can increase happiness even if overall output falls.

The blogpost still misses the point because the 1%ers have all the power as compared to the regular rich, and since were talking about elites, that’s the actual measure, not whether or not you’re frigging happy with your life.

 
 

If MattY were to lose his sinecure at WaPo, not only would he have a better understanding of how the rest of us live, we’d also be able to change the title on that pic by just re-arranging the letters and swapping one word, as so:

Ygleasias
He Is Getting It From Behind

 
 

The diminishing marginal utility of money means there’s a strong case for redistributing funds from people who have a lot of it to people who’ll get more use from it. But that very same diminishing marginal utility of money means that there’s little reason to believe that inequality in real living standards among the elite is nearly as big as the inequality in income.

Ah, the eternal paradox of Matthew Yglesias. He takes incredibly defensible positions and then fails utterly to defend them.

A couple of you seem pissed about him claiming a diminishing marginal utility of money, but I think it’s a pretty sensible claim, myself.

If I’m reading him right in this case, he’s making the following claims:

1) The gap between the lifestyle of a person who makes $20,000 a year and a person who makes $10 million a year is astronomical, almost incomprehensible.

Meanwhile, the gap between a person who makes $10 million a year and a person who makes $20 million a year is miniscule, even though the difference in incomes is actually larger then in the previous example.

At some point, you hit a saturation level, and you’re just rich. This is why progressive taxation makes sense; the $20 million guy could lose, say, 50% of his income and still be sitting pretty, whereas the $20,000 guy would be crippled if he lost half his income.

So far, I can’t disagree.

2) The saturation point at which you become rich, and lifestyle changes become minimal, is actually very low in dollar terms.

In other words, someone like, oh, say Megan McArdle, who I vaguely remember makes about $200K a year, is already at the point where she takes on both a lifestyle and political interests very similar to much, much richer people.

Well, at this point I’d want more hard data on where this saturation point is, but this still seems like a pretty defensible position.

3) Because of all of the above, a person who makes a good living as a professor and public speaker and a jet-setting corporate CEO are both equally distant from Joe Sixpack, who has a job bagging groceries at Walmart. In fact, Mr. Sixpack might well find the lifestyle of the former to be MORE desirable, and thus “elite”, so it makes sense to lump professor and CEO together into one political unit.

This is your “for fuck’s sake” moment right here. The theory “People who aren’t like me all have exactly the same political goals” is obviously deeply stupid, and the whole point of the Post article is that in fact the economic super-elite are distant and distinct from people who simply have satisfying, well-paid jobs.

It’s official; Matthew Yglesias is the Megan McArdle of the left. He has the same weird, condescending yet ignorant Patrician attitude, and the same inability to even vaguely grasp what people are talking about. The both of them frequently say shit that just makes you want to go, “Okay honey, hush, the adults are talking now”.

 
 

¿Los Yglelias también llorar?

 
 

Anthony:

Thanks for making the same point as me in about a hundredth of the length.

That’ll teach me to refresh before I post.

 
 

Plucking the fuzz off it.

 
 

people who simply have satisfying, well-paid jobs

Who in all of history has ever had such a job? They do not exist.

 
 

In person, he’s like a depilated teddy bear.

*SWOON*

 
 

M. Bouffant – perhaps this explains why I had such an extreme reaction to the Hummer with the ad for Brazilian waxing.

 
guitarist manqué
 

Much as I’d like to join in the swoon fest over 4B, that maté fueled love muffin, I have to go to a birthday party with a bunch of the rich and super rich. Not my thing but I need to protect Mrs M from all these jerks suffering from hotness delusional syndrome. I will glare my revolutionary feelings at them.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

Power to the Peepers!

 
 

I had expected comments made by CH’s breasts to be in bold, or a larger font. I suspect a masquerade!

 
 

Back for more abuse? I thought yer mommy told you to go outside and play.

 
 

You are thoroughly corrupt and unpaid even. WTF

Does someone pay you to run your idiot pukehole here?

 
 

Yeah Obama sure has gotten tons of support on his Libya decision.

 
 

Here, take this nugget of wisdom back to the trailer park with you and share with your neighbors.

We criticize Obama ALL THE FUCKING TIME. The difference is that we’re smart enough to do it correctly, and about things that actually matter instead of stupid shit like lapel pins and birth certficates.

He’s not a very good president, he’s actually pretty easy to criticize on actual facts and stuff. You people are apparently to fucking dumb to figure that out.

And shove the glibertarian “they’re all corrupt so we should have a Tea Party” shit.

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

I had expected comments made by CH’s breasts to be in bold, or a larger font. I suspect a masquerade!

Yes, they are lacking in the grandeur I’ve come to expect from them.

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

HAPPY NOW?

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge, Who will not mention Bianca Kajlich's ass in this post
 

Am I just stupid or does this whole “marginal utility” argument say the exact opposite of what he wants it to? The top 1% (the top 10%, really) have so much money that it makes no difference to their lifestyle, so why not redistribute it to the people to whom it makes the difference between life and death?

Imagine money was edible—there’s a famine, 20% of the population is starving, and the top 1% of the population have enormous stockpiles of food they could never eat in a million years themselves. Sounds a little more selfish that way, doesn’t it? Sometimes I wish the Lydians had never invented money.

 
 

BLOGWHORE ALERT!!!!!!!

Check out my new blog. Be the third to comment after some bald bastard and the missus. I welcome any thoughts, criticism, or poop. Bonus points for anyone who can explain to me how to set up a fuckin’ blogroll?!

http://gocart-mozart.blogspot.com/

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

HAPPY NOW?

Not until you come out in the open where I can see you…all of you.

Man, I’m even pervier than usual today.

 
 

WOO HOO! Via the magic of semantic bullshit-shovelling, since I have a blog I’m officially 3L1T3 now! Suck it, proles!

jim, I clicked on your name. But no blog showed up???
~

 
Christina Hendricks' breasts
 

()()

 
 

We criticize Obama ALL THE FUCKING TIME. The difference is that we’re smart enough to do it correctly, and about things that actually matter instead of stupid shit like lapel pins and birth certficates.

So true. I spent quality hours today working up a response to someone whose “shut up Obama critics” routine finally wore out my last nerve.

P.S. (It’s actually too long, will take up maybe 3 comments at another blog, and no one will read it. But still!)
~

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

Praise the truck farmer!

 
 

The diminishing marginal utility of money means there’s a strong case for redistributing funds from people who have a lot of it to people who’ll get more use from it.

This part is a classic point: the “marginal utility” of money is what you can do with money after the real basics are satisfied — housing, food, other necessities, and various ordinary expenditure on entertainment and socialization.

As you have more and more money, it doesn’t actually become more *useful* for those things. The amount by which the real enjoyment of such things increases declines as money goes up. As is always said, you can only eat so many meals, even fine ones. It’s also an assumption that going from a nice sailboat to a $200 million yacht is not a gigantic leap in actually satisfying real needs or enjoyment.

Billionaires do some lavish things, but mostly seem to be in it for power and the domination of rivals. Money becomes a goal in itself, as well as changing the world in such a way as to keep what they have and get more. Okay, so the Sultan of Brunei has (if he still does) hundreds and hundreds of the world’s most exotic cars; but it doesn’t take up some large portion of his wealth.

Or some super-rich star has a $10 million house, but if he or she is a billionaire, that’s not that much.

So this part says that since after some point the people who get more and more and more don’t actually use that in such a way as to arguably (especially from other peoples’ analysis and observations) truly improve some enjoyment of life by improving on the necessities, they don’t really need all that as much as much poorer people do.

It’s a fancy way of saying that ‘jeebus cripes, you have shit-tons of money, by this point you can just lavish it on crap that really doesn’t lead to any sane arguments that it’s importantly more enjoyable and thus necessary…

‘…So you really don’t have some morally justified whining that you’ll suffer if we take a higher proportion of that out in taxes (than is currently), because when we apply that in ways to help people with far, far less money, it really will make their lives better.’

I would be much better off being able to buy groceries (let’s say for myself and one other) valuing $400 per month than if I were to be able to purchase $20 a month. You can get a lot, and you can get lots of really nice stuff. Even when shopping at one of the local eco-yuppie stores with a can of french-style beans for $9.

But from the point of view of any reasonable observer, there’s not much added by spending (for the same two people) $10,000 per month in groceries. If all the beef I bought was kyobe / wagyu, and all the poultry French bluefoot, well, nice, but there’s still only so much you can get and other than psychological fixation, the added enjoyment is a lot less significant than between the $20/mo budget and the $400/mo budget.

So when you have a person who has enough money to spend on $10,000 or $100,000 worth of groceries each month, increasing taxes on them to help out the person with the $20/mo budget is not just moral in terms of the needs of that poorer person.

By this argument, it’s increasing the net level of societal reward and satisfaction, when people decide to use these weird measures which make such concepts sound like economically calculable and philosophically grounded actual quantities.

In the real world, people say this sort of thing all the time, especially when some rich person (particularly celebrities or pro athletes, because those upper classes it’s okay to resent rather than the generational power-elite super-rich) whines that if they have to pay more taxes then it just takes away so much that they can’t enjoy the rewards of their success.

‘How much more can you enjoy some $30,000 bottle of champagne than a $200 bottle?’

On the other hand, most of my fellow Southern white and especially male regional inhabitoids still think that taxes made on that basis are hideously immoral thievery, while slashing the contracts on them greedy basketball / football / baseball players will sure teach them a thing or two!

 
 

Holy fuck, I gotta start looking to see how god-damned long these meanderings of mine get. No one reads those things. Maybe it helps reduce my own likelihood of brain explosion.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

I’ve been poking John Aravosis in the eye with a sharp stick today. In truth, he’s been doing most of the poking all by himself. At another site, and figuratively but still, it’s fun.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

“‘How much more can you enjoy some $30,000 bottle of champagne than a $200 bottle?’”

Most of the enjoyment comes from enjoying it quite conspicuously, in front of people who can’t do such things, and telling everyone how much it cost.

 
Jek Porkins Junior
 

As the son of a combat veteran, I interpret Yggie as saying the downtrodden should (and therefore do) have as much resentment towards the established tenured professor who may use pink himalayan salt around the rim of his/her margarita glass and Cointreau rather than triple sec, as against the truly fabulously wealthy, who have their maragaritas served by Margarita. Living the good life is the same a living the golden life as seen by the bloke on his uppers. The lower class resentment is meant to trickle down onto the ‘merely’ rich. This is his explanation for his personally identifying with the very rich rather than the middle class. I once was the guest of an invited guest to a party of a scion of the very wealthy. I saw his very wealthy parents…watching ‘The Love Boat’. The point is not that the extremely rich may also do things that are ordinary to the middle class, but that they have the capability, and experience, to have situations their way to the exclusion of everybody else’s wishes. And only a DFH would attempt to change it. Yggie resents DFHs.

 
 

Most of the enjoyment comes from enjoying it quite conspicuously, in front of people who can’t do such things, and telling everyone how much it cost.

I know, I get it. That’s why there’s an emphasis on having a reasonable observer or set of observers take a look — anyone can say that their life would be horrible if their bedsheets weren’t 10 million thread count from Egyptian cotton grown in the richest organic soil on hanging gardens built on the sides of the Great Pyramids and attended to and hand cut by so on and so forth…

But an observer would have little appreciation for such a claim of this comfort urgency.

 
 

gocart, try “Design” —> “Page Elements” —> then click “Add a Gadget” under ‘About Me.” Should be E-Z from there.

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

(?)(?)

Hmmm. Your nipples are larger and more square-shaped than I fantasi–er, imagined…

 
Spearhafoc, who continues to be a deviated prevert
 

Now they appear to have turned into question marks. Even less appealing.

 
 

Wow, I leave for a few hours, and I find that a whole lotta people want to sex me down… the line forms on the left, people!

 
 

In person, he’s like a depilated teddy bear.

I first read this as “dilapidated”.

 
 

Hey, everyone!

Huckabee has the Obama impersonator on now. Fox News continues to be a mystery.

 
 

Whose life you’d prefer really has to do with your tastes and preferences.

Rich people would choose a life of food anxiety and hustling for rent, AMIRITE?!

 
 

…I find that a whole lotta people want to sex me down…

This never happens to me.

In truth though, it happened often enough between the ages of 13 and 40 that it’s kind of a relief for it to be over.

 
 

Christopher’s point is a little different than Anthony’s, and I would say a little bit closer. Consider the amount of free time and excess money for comfortable expenditures of the average university professor, and while upper class, they are still astronomically different from the uberrich. And most well-off progressives aren’t arguing that the super rich shouldn’t be rich because they are better off than regular “elites” they are arguing that they shouldn’t be super rich because it would allow the poor to be a lot closer to true middle/upper-middle class. If we live in a country where an average university professor is economically elite, doesn’t that suggest something should be changed? And the answer is not to make university professors poor.

 
 

Maggie Gallagher sez you can’t refuse us now! You HAFTA get gaymarried. Let’s have fetus cake at the reception.

 
 

The problem with the argument is that the superrich have just as much leisure time as the university professor. Does MattY really think that the CEO of the dairy company actually sits at his desk 10-12 hours a day?

 
St. Pupienus, patron saint of nymfail
 

“the answer is not to make university professors poor.”

SHHHSHH! Criminy, you know they’re watching. Countdown to the whingers crying about overpaid profs in 3…2…

 
 

And the answer is not to make university professors poor.

Pinko hates the free market system and America™.
~

 
 

Also, too: a fairly large chunk of the superrich aren’t CEOs and many do not even have jobs, unless investing is a job, which if you’re only doing it for yourself it isn’t. And for those who ARE CEOs or have jobs, the type of job they’re likely to have (positions on corporate boards, etc.) doesn’t compare with the 9 – 5 most of us deal with – most of their time is their own.

 
Spearhafoc, who is tired and also bored, too.
 

Entertain me! Dance monkeys, dance!

 
St. Pupienus, patron saint of nymfail
 

Christina’s breasts couldn’t sustain you, eh? Such a fickle child.

 
St. Pupienus, patron saint of nymfail
 

The riches in my life have no monetary value. I mean that most sincerely, alas and alack too also. And such as.

 
 

I first read this as “dilapidated”.

Crap, me too so UNSWOON.

 
 

So, shall we talk some more of Vettel taking pole in Valencia?

Dang, did it again … brb

 
Spearhafoc, who is tired and also bored, too.
 

Christina’s breasts couldn’t sustain you, eh? Such a fickle child.

Breasts aren’t the only thing on my mind. There’s also Doctor Who. And Batman. And 19th century vampire literature. And breasts, as well.

 
 

Hey El Cid,

Don’t sweat it, I read every one of your posts! (Here and at b-juice.)

 
 

I am very dilapidated, & teddy bear is as good a description as any. Or hairless pig.

 
 

jim, I clicked on your name. But no blog showed up???
~

OMG! WTF? Damn hackers! They’re just jealous.

PS – Does this mean I can get finally get my SorosBux™ now? My pants are becoming a bit TOO broken-in & have developed this rather, er, embarrassing hole.

 
Even more Patriotic Douchebag
 

Bullshit! Everybody knows Obama has subquetaykneeus hypodermik needles that he uses to drug everyone into a fawning stupor!

 
 

UNSWOON.

A swoon, once swone, cannot be unswooned.

 
 

Hey Ittdgy,

Those are a lot of good words! But also, the pic at the top of that Wonkette post is hilarious. So win-win for us.

 
 

VS: I think the progressive girl is adorbs. Guilty.

N_B: I’m just waiting for the gecko to eat her.

4Chan: Rule 34 invocation in 3… 2… 1…

 
 

While Rule 34 covers all situations, I think most internet forums would prefer her eating the gecko.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

“While Rule 34 covers all situations, I think most internet forums would prefer her eating using the gecko in ways heretofore not captured on film except in Japan.

F’d for obviousness.

 
Illuminati Lizardman
 

I don’t care what you think of me, the Geiko Geko is hot.

 
Spearhafoc, who is tired and also bored, too.
 

As a secret Reptilian Illuminati guy, I would very much like to see some hot gecko on Progressive girl cunnilingus action.

I’ll have to ask the higher-ups in the Brotherhood to make this happen.

 
 

BAcksss offf Bitschhs!

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

So, the frisee, poached duck egg and Larson salad as discussed earlier. Think I’ll add some sauteed green garlic. Sole “meuniere” by which I mean sole fillets dredged in Wondra flour (and properly seasoned), pan fired in clarified butter. Diced shallots go into the pan after removing the fish, a tad more beurre if needed, a bit of minced garlic. Saute. Add dry French vermouth, reduce. Whisk in a knob of unsalted butter (have you ever made your own butter? It’s easy, fun and fab). Minced parsley goes in to finsh then drizzle over the fish. The new, leetle baby, gold spuds will have been roasted with finely minced Rosemary, grey salt and excellent olive oyl. Some cheap Willammette Pinot Noir (yeah, oxymoron but …, ya know?).

Ice cream, crumbled orange pistachio biscotti (I was bored the other day, needed to do something) and Hood streebleberries macerated in Grand Marnier should finish it off well.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

FY autocorrect: lardon.

 
 

Hey, OT, but does anyone remember that anti same-sex marriage ad that read like a NSA sex ad on Craiglist? It was something like M4M…

AFAF.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge, Who will not mention the Progressive Insurance Girl's blowjob lips in this post, or Drew Barrymore's or Janeane Garofalo's, either
 

Ruling the Gecko

 
 

Now they appear to have turned into question marks. Even less appealing.

I just figured that was smoke coming off of em.

 
 

This “diminishing marginal utility” bullshit only works if you insist that said utility can only apply to individuals’ standards of living, & if you restrict the phrase “goods & services” to retail goodies or generic consumer services. But if you use the word “utility” correctly, it’s quite easy to see that the real utility of money actually INCREASES once you go over the event-horizon between rich & ultra-rich.

The real elite can accomplish a hell of a lot more than people who’re technically worth a mere million. Their set of available services is much broader, to put it mildly.

Want to change the law or get a new one passed? Want to lobby your government into a shiny new war so you can milk it for MOAR billions? Want to use price-fixing or ratfucking to destroy your competition? Want to get off scott-free for scamming millions of peons out of their life-savings? Or most importantly: want to jerry-rig the whole society to keep all the other primates from ever being able to either join your exclusive club or dummy up enough to corner you & throw you off a cliffotine?

This stuff is all more or less meaningless to someone who doesn’t have the billions to do it, but to the billionaires it’s absolutely essential (& probably also a hell of a lot of fun – which would also torpedo the “oh, sure, they can swim around in a pool of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, but they don’t enjoy their life that much more than a professor or an endocrinologist or a plumber does” hokum).

People like Thomas Jefferson were fearful of excessive concentration of wealth & knew it was anathema to democracy. Their blind-spot about this (& that whole “standing armies are the death of liberty” thing) is the tell as to just what a bunch of schmucks the Teabaggers are.

tl;dr = Real utility of moolah: not marginal, doesn’t diminish.

 
 

I was going to make a very considered and serious post about how the marginal utility of money can actually increase depending on the utility you’re talking about, as you can’t even begin to buy Senators and Presidents until you have quite the fuckton, but then I thought better of it.

POOP

 
 

And, of course, had I refreshed before posting, I wouldn’t have to AHEM myself for jim.

Ahem.

 
 

BLOGWHORE ALERT #2

Check out my weather chart. I have a new post up whereby I take Jimmy Treacher to task for his crimes against humor. Yes, I am Treacher Troll baiting.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

Oh. I seem to be out of lemon. No worry, I have preserved lemons, of which I shall avail myself to properly finish the “meuniere.”

 
 

Holy fuck, I gotta start looking to see how god-damned long these meanderings of mine get. No one reads those things. Maybe it helps reduce my own likelihood of brain explosion.

I read them all, Cid. The rants were righteous and the reasoning was rigorous.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

Just had a truly evil, Satanic even, idea. Capers! I’ll add capers! BWAHAHAHAHAHA

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

Naw, capers would be overkill. I was jes jestin.

 
 

killer bees, I keep forgetting to mention… the orange glow, the hologram. (they chase me! The narrator! Can you believe it!) sari.

 
 

nooooo, I’m the narrator, now. or something. it’s about that time. Or I’m just a good guesser? Now, time for syrup.

 
 

SSSssome sgood sWeedsss?

 
 

SSSssome sgood sWeedsss?

Some are bound to turnip!

 
 

I’m glad El Cid got out the serious part about marginal utility (in the pre-iPod days we’d always say a thousand dollar stereo is ten times better than a hundred dollar stereo, but a hundred thousand dollar stereo is only one percent better than a ten thousand dollar stereo). People are unfairly dissing matt (and no, I’m not matt). He said inequality does bother him and he favors redistributing the wealth; he was just making the point that a super-uber-rich person doesn’t live all that much better than a moderately rich person, so it must be something other than quality of life that drives people to want to be super-uber-rich.

 
Non-Existent Patricia
 

Much like anything else, there is marginal utility of money, because hey, there is only so much shit you can buy. The inherent problem for me is rich people bitching about their marginal tax rates.

 
Non-Existent Patricia
 

And the Bentley driving guru is putting up his price…..

 
Non-Existent Patricia
 

And, much like everything else, I show after the party’s over.

 
 

Republican war on women escalates.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/24/america-pregnant-women-murder-charges
“Gibbs became pregnant aged 15, but lost the baby in December 2006 in a stillbirth when she was 36 weeks into the pregnancy. When prosecutors discovered that she had a cocaine habit – though there is no evidence that drug abuse had anything to do with the baby’s death – they charged her with the “depraved-heart murder” of her child, which carries a mandatory life sentence.”

 
Non-Existent Patricia
 

Because stillbirths never just happen http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20053880-10391704.html

 
 

How about not letting them acquire it in the first place, so we don’t have to ask for it back. Things such as mandatory living wages, monopoly-busting, real regulations. Anyone?

 
 

The both of them frequently say shit that just makes you want to go, “Okay honey, hush, the adults are talking now”.

way up thread, but so right. Yglesias, should write for Slate. Its the kind of weak arsed, self opinionated arguments they love over there… i.e. “The country is fucked, heres some nice pictures of flowers…”

 
 

“mandatory living wages, monopoly-busting, real regulations.”

What are these strange things you speak of sir? Are they anything like the fylgja and the hamingja spirits of ancient Norse mythology?

 
 

Like everything else in America, Sadly,No! now leans to the right.

 
 

Much like anything else, there is marginal utility of money, because hey, there is only so much shit you can buy.

Right, but as we’ve touched on in this thread, that’s only true in the barest sense that “we don’t recognize property beyond what we know of in the extant universe.” The crazy rich or uberrich or hyper-rich or whatever it is we are calling them now aren’t out of stuff to buy yet (e.g., they haven’t bought me or the bulk of the Earth). What, the frameworks don’t exist for the rich to buy me or the rest of the Earth, the Moon, etc.? Don’t worry, see, the utility in their crazy-uber-hyper-wealth is the purchase of such frameworks. Blah blah blah. There’s always something bigger to buy up to the physical limitations of the universe and the mindshare that can be bought to allow it, I guess.

The marginal utility of wealth argument for redistribution only holds if you narrowly define utility in terms discussed: work-load, groceries, stereos. (Don’t get me wrong, those are all reasonable definitions as far as they go, e.g. the marginal utility of food.) What happens when the utility-definition includes policy, legislation, military influence or military control? (Or the more outlandish: countries, planets, bodies, body parts, collateralized-body-part-obligation-based securities, etc.)

Hopefully the pitchforks come out first.

I think there’s a better argument — the moral, humanist argument. Life can be a lot less shitty for a lot more people if we decide as a society to limit the wealth a single person earns or holds for — as cliche as this sounds — the greater good.

I’m willing to be wrong though, if ‘marginal utility of wealth’ as discussed actually does have a discrete limit. I don’t know a lot about economic theory (I’m not rich, after all). Economic arguments for justice all seem kinda stupid.

Tell me if I’m being dumb.

 
 

Halp! Lobbey broke the thread!

 
 

But Matt used silly examples to make his point. His example of the U. prof- why didn’t he just say pointed-headed, out-of-touch ivory tower liberal academic good-for-nothing?

That’s what I would have said.

 
 

I agree, it’s stupid because professors actually do real work, especially when compared to trust-fund assholes that “sit on boards”. And I mean “real work” doing research and teaching students and writing books, not showing up to vote on how you want your money grown.

 
 

Like everything else in America, Sadly,No! now leans to the right.

only after drinking good right wing drinks like whiskey, usually fall over to the left on wine

 
 

Halp! Lobbey broke the thread!

again, three times this last week, must be the time difference…..

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

lobbey—well, and everybody else; I don’t want to single you out in particular. I may be the next one to make some idiotic mistake, after all—IIRC, the thing that always causes this kind of problem is, when you close a tag, getting the slash and the less-than bracket switched around. That’s why I use BBCodeXtra—it’s not really any quicker than typing the tag, but hopefully, it’s less likely to make a mistake than I am.

I remember once everything was italicized, hotlinked, and struckout. That was pretty illegible!

 
 

getting the slash and the less-than bracket switched around

Ohhh, thaaaaat’s how you do it. Very interesting.

 
 

Y’all have already made some great points so I will just point out that you people who drive on the wrong side of the road can be very confusing. It’s positively un-American!

 
 

Thread is broke? Scroll-up looks okay to me.

Test … TestTestTest

Looks okay to me in preview, too Now I’ll toss it up on SN, iand see what shows up on the screen.

Mr. Stoned Diagnostics Man told me to use this procedure.

 
 

uninspired dullards laconically dredge up tired old stories, worn-out ploys. This is boring. I repeat, this is a repeat. This is boring.

 
 

Worth reading again

I think there’s a better argument — the moral, humanist argument. Life can be a lot less shitty for a lot more people if we decide as a society to limit the wealth a single person earns or holds for — as cliche as this sounds — the greater good.

…I don’t know a lot about economic theory (I’m not rich, after all). Economic arguments for justice all seem kinda stupid. — Sheesh

Solidarity. And with this, too:

Hopefully the pitchforks come out first.

 
 

< : [

 
 

define humanist? benefits to said moralistic humanism? Why won’t anyone answer my questions? Was that a good question? Oooohhhhh, we’re arguing now.

 
 

they charged her with the “depraved-heart murder” of her child, which carries a mandatory life sentence.”

They missed their chance for cartoon-like supervillainy by not putting her on death row.

 
Spearhafoc, who is making a really obscure Doctor Who reference
 

Depraved-heart, Tegan.

 
 

define humanist? benefits to said moralistic humanism? Why won’t anyone answer my questions? Was that a good question? Oooohhhhh, we’re arguing now.

Is this a troll I see before me,
The handle butt toward my hand? Come, let me spank thee.
Art thou not, sad troll, sensible
To thinking as to shite? Or art thou but
A troll of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain?

 
 

If you let the hyper-rich define the marginal utility of money to purchase real goods & services, then you just chuck out the entire notion, because it’s silly.

It’s supposed to sound like a measurable abstract, not a psychological viewpoint.

If someone claims that their life is significantly made more enjoyable and more healthful by the act of acquiring more and more money or property for itself, either you respond (a) shut the fuck up, you’re not even talking about the same damn shit we are, fucktard spoiled shit-wad, or (b) my god you’re a fucked up sociopath and we’ve got to do something about you lunatics before you drive us completely over the cliff right now versus what we’re doing right now which is heading toward the cliff and the brakes are nearly all give-out.

 
 

before you drive us completely over the cliff right now versus what we’re doing right now which is heading toward the cliff and the brakes are nearly all give-out.

Always relevant.

 
 

Economic arguments for justice all seem kinda stupid.

Well, but, they aren’t, you see, at least not if I’m reading you correctly. I touched on why in a piece at my blog quite some time ago, but didn’t hit all of them.

The biggest one, as I pointed out, is that our current “no limits on wealth” policy assumes something we know cannot be true – there are limits on EVERYTHING else and it’s only through Laffer-curve mumbo-jumbo bullshitese that anyone has ever been convinced that MONEY is the one object which can defy the “no limits” rule. It can’t. Everything is finite. So what we’re left with is a decision about whether it’s preferable to have a setup where one guy can, theoretically, OWN IT ALL. And what we find is that it would be impossible, unless one guy can police the entire world at all times to make sure no one takes any of his stuff. So why do we maintain this pretense that it IS possible? And more to the point, why aren’t we examining if it would be DESIRABLE?

A little factoid that those who favor wealth distribution (so long as it always moves more wealth into the hands of the few who already control most of it) and oppose it (whenever it involves more equitable distribution) like to avoid is this: back in the 90s, when rich people were paying a marginal tax rate that was, unconscienably, 3% higher than what it is now…they made more money. That is, even after paying the higher taxes, at the end of they day their wealth increased more than it did under the Bush free-for-all. Why? Because economic gains were distributed across all income levels, and people who have money can spend money. Under Bush and since, the only people who have had money are the wealthy, and conservative fantasy to the contrary, they only spend so much (that marginal utility thingy). Overall, less money is changing hands throughout the economy, which equals less jobs, less tax revenues, etc etc. So the paradox is that by clinging to this notion that one guy CAN own it all, and that our democratic government’s primary focus should be to remove all impediments and whenever possible offer an assist to one guy owning it all, even the one guy ends up with less.

So there’s the justice argument: an over-concentration of wealth leads to less wealth for EVERYONE, including the guys who have all of whatever wealth there is. Looking at it from this perspective, it becomes clear that it’s not about NEEDING more wealth, or the desirablity of unfettered wealth accumulation, or even what’s “fair” – those who seek to continue accumulating even after they’ve amassed far more than they can ever spend have a different objective, that being the control of other people. Example A: the Koch brothers, for whom public (or private) sector unions would make absolutely no difference in terms of the level of wealth they have that is actually USEFUL to them for meeting their needs for living. They pursue destruction of the unions because it’s not enough for them to have more money than they could spend in 10 lifetimes; they must also reduce others to serfdom so they can control them too.

In a nutshell, the GOP’s mania for setting up, maintaining, and protecting an aristocracy of wealth is a desire to re-instate slavery. Which, when you consider their authoritarian bent, makes perfect sense. They’ve found themselves unable to control everyone by legislating morality, by locking up people for victimless crimes, or by any other means…what’s left is to put us all into indentured servitude so they can enforce us knowing our place and keeping in line.

Is it nuts? Yeah. Then again, no one’s out there arguing that today’s Republican party is a haven of sanity. But it sure would be nice if anyone was allowed to lay out what I’ve just laid out above to a television or newspaper audience.

 
 

By the way PM, big plus for a proper frisée salad. Capers would be OK too, also. You can’t blame Mac for not knowing what lardons are, nobody else does either.

 
 

Geez. Sorry I killed the thread, folks.

 
Spearhafoc, who can't think of anything to write here at the moment
 

Geez. Sorry I killed the thread, folks.

You should be put away for your depraved-heart murder of the thread.

It was so young and innocent! It had so much more life to live!

 
 

In a nutshell, the GOP’s mania for setting up, maintaining, and protecting an aristocracy of wealth is a desire to re-instate slavery. Which, when you consider their authoritarian bent, makes perfect sense. They’ve found themselves unable to control everyone by legislating morality, by locking up people for victimless crimes, or by any other means…what’s left is to put us all into indentured servitude so they can enforce us knowing our place and keeping in line.

Yes, it would be nice if this were spoken of more broadly. It’s The Plan.

 
 

You should be put away for your depraved-heart murder of the thread.

It was so young and innocent! It had so much more life to live!

Nah, fuck it. The thread was out of the womb. If it wanted to live, it should’ve pulled itself up by its bootstraps.

 
 

As for the thread killing post and its point about money changing hands in the economy, sounds like Henry Ford’s principle (or its opposite) in action – if you pay your workers well enough, they’ll be able to afford and buy your products. The rich have been paying (and hiring) less and less, therefore, fewer and fewer people are buying their goods.

I suppose they’re expecting to keep this going forever by just trading with each other. One rich man builds yachts and sells them to all the other rich men, all of whom are producing a high-end product of that nature. Or something.

 
 

i thought it was a righteous rant, Jennifer.

There have been some fine extended comments in this thread.

*slips back into the shadows*

 
 

Shorter Jennifer: concentration of wealth is not about wealth, it’s about power. Absolutely true, and statements like Yglesias’s about lifestyle preferences miss this point, which is also that of the article, by so much it smacks of deceit and purposeful distraction.

 
Spearhafoc, who can't think of anything to write here at the moment
 

*slips back into the shadows*

Do you know what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

‘Cause that’s the clue on the crossword I’m doing. 12 letters. Starts with M, ends with N.

 
 

Do you know what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

Images of Christina Hendricks’s breasts.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

I know. I’ll give you a hint: there are ten letters between the ‘m’ and the ‘n’.

 
Pupienus Maximus
 

Mommafuckinn

 
 

i.e. “The country is fucked, heres some nice pictures of flowers…”

Lobbey, that’s my blog!
~

 
sham - low sodium hunchback
 

Throat Warbler Mangrove

 
 

Karl Rove, shiteater:

Mr. Obama also has problems with his base. For example, Jewish voters are upset with his policy toward Israel, and left-wing bloggers at last week’s NetRoots conference were angry over Mr. Obama’s failure to deliver a leftist utopia. Weak Jewish support could significantly narrow Mr. Obama’s margin in states like Florida, while a disappointed left could deprive him of the volunteers so critical to his success in 2008.

Keep it classy, WSJ.

 
 

Number two: The Larch.

 
sham - low sodium hunchback
 

The Larch.
I laughed hysterically whenever they put that photo up. I may have been high.

 
 

Again, this:

Life can be a lot less shitty for a lot more people if we decide as a society to limit the wealth a single person earns or holds for — as cliche as this sounds — the greater good.

FACT: Limit individual capital & the howls of “FASCISM” will be swift.
FACT: Hard limits on individual capital are one sure-fire vaccine against fascism.

Could this mean that now I’m going to drop relevant Godwin into this bitch?

Awwwwww yeeeeeah. In terms of their cultural heritage, from pagan genuflecting toward the Black Forest to pure-blood law gobbledegook (to maybe even the Hollow Earther folly too for all I know), teh Nazis were Junkers on steroids – aristocracies NEED total rule to maintain their extreeeEme™ lifestyles, & it’s a right hard bitch shoving a mob of peasants aound to do your bidding without a fat war-chest. The Little Corporal & his henchcreatures were driven dead-broke by their own ambition & financial stupidity many times, & the aristos & merchant elite kept throwing buku piles of mad-money at them like a long convoy of huge delicious chocolate liferafts. If the Junkers & industro-pimps hadn’t’ve felt an intimately sympatico & useful vibe from the Nazis, they wouldn’t have had to “endure” a few years of Klub Fed treatment after 1923 – they would’ve had firing-squads the day after their trial.

Ergo, PENIS!
*_*

Ironically, modern liberalism & utilitarianism were sort of born out of each other’s foreheads (mostly out of John “Boy-Genius/Mindfuck-Jedi” Stuart Mills’ forehead, to be exact) … it’s ironic because utiltarianism’s dictum of the greatest good of the greatest number was instantly co-opted by industrialist shitheads to use as memetic Shinola with which to polish over their breathtakingly inhuman treatment of workers, more & more of whom were children.

{ p00p}

 
 

Shorter jim:

Industrialists luvs them some fascism.

 
 

This lefty is angry that President Obama failed to bring Karl Rove to justice (along with the rest of the Bush-Cheney criminals).
~

 
sham - low sodium hunchback
 

Gus Cannon

MyMoneyNeverRunsout

 
Spearhafoc, who can't think of anything to write here at the moment
 

Images of Christina Hendricks’s breasts.

That goes without saying.

 
 

This lefty is angry that President Obama failed to bring Karl Rove to justice (along with the rest of the Bush-Cheney criminals).
~

Now he’ll NEVER get re-elected because I’m sure you’ll be voting Repig this time, right?

Yeah?

Hello?

 
 

Anyone?

Thanks, Jennifer.

 
 

No, that’s not what he said at all.

He said that due to marginal utility, from someone who makes the median income, 100K is the same as 1,000K. And to someone with 100K, someone who makes 1,000K and 100,000K are the same.

It’s perspective.

Personally, my spouse makes just 100K, and yet I see many people who do less work with less know-how making far more than she does. Do you think the carpenter that makes 20K thinks the general contractor that makes 200K is doing more work with more skill?

 
 

tsam, I have no plans currently to vote for Obama in 2012.

If the election were tomorrow I’d write in Bernie Sanders.
~

 
 

The Little Corporal & his henchcreatures were driven dead-broke by their own ambition & financial stupidity many times, & the aristos & merchant elite kept throwing buku piles of mad-money at them like a long convoy of huge delicious chocolate liferafts

As per the old saying, “you can always hire half the poor to kill the other half”? The Little Corporal and his henchcreatures were that first half.

Only after the combined WW1/Great Depression slaps in the face, instead of obediently supporting the system, they actually went into politics for themselves, and the Junkers kind of rode that train (what else were they going to do?) right off the cliff. Not the first time or the last. You’d think they’d learn.

 
 

“If the election were tomorrow I’d write in Bernie Sanders.”

Why don’t you just write in ifthethunderdontgetya for president instead. It will do about as much good.

By the way, I put you on my blogroll along with a bunch of other Sadly, No’ers.

 
 

Was tintin born in the USA?

 
 

Do you think the carpenter that makes 20K thinks the general contractor that makes 200K is doing more work with more skill?

He must be! He’s making more money, ergo capitalism cough cough invisible hand cough cough free markets. Or something.

 
 

Yer on the list too, gocart.

My votes in 2010 and 2008 also did little good, as it turns out.

But the GOP doesn’t want us to vote, so I keep doing it (out of spite, if nothing more).
~

 
 

Its a lot like playing the lottery I suppose. They say “You can’t win if you don’t play.” which is misleading because in actuality, you have about the same chance of winning whether you play or not.

 
 

Here in Ohio no one stops you from playing the lottery.

But the GOP wants to make it harder to vote (as always, everywhere).
~

 
 

“If the election were tomorrow I’d write in Bernie Sanders.”
Karl Rove thinks that’s an excellent idea.

 
 

Karl Rove should be thinking that from a prison cell.

Instead Obama’s DOJ is going after Bush-era whistleblowers.

But I do appreciate your concern, Jethro.
~

 
 

“just 100K”

*Just* 100K.

If I made “just” that much, my spouse and I would have practically no financial worries at all, and we would have nearly everything we could reasonably desire.

“It’s perspective.”

Yeah, it sure is.

 
 

But the GOP wants to make it harder to vote (as always, everywhere).

I hear they want to protect the “integrity” of the process. They are strangely silent on the “integrity” questions with Justice Thomas.

Well, it’s not like the courts decide elections.

 
 

Also, if a team is using the same play on you again and again, and winning, you might consider figuring out how to stop it.

1) Upcoming debate, you take a completely psychotic position–ie. Ryan budget plan

2) Blame the other side for being “extremist” and raise lots of concerns about things that aren’t happening but seem likely if you’re a stupid asshole.

3) Sit back and huff down a phat stogie while you watch idiot Democrats saying things like “We have to have everything on the table for discussion–EXCEPT ending the wars”.

Now you have complete immunity for the wars, and still giving scumbag baby boomers everything they want while taking benefits away from the younger generation.

Another disturbing element–the jarring number of young, male Paulbots. WTF is that about? Must be about the weed.

 
 

Instead Obama’s DOJ is going after Bush-era whistleblowers

Well yeah, man. We wouldn’t want an “extremist” DOJ and prosecutes crimes and stuff.

 
 

I guess Karl doesn’t want Michele to win.

 
 

“tsam, I have no plans currently to vote for Obama in 2012.”

SPLITTER!

 
 

tsam, I have no plans currently to vote for Obama in 2012.

I probably will, despite my growing hatred for him.

I guess I’m looking at a choice between letting all the dumbfuck assholes in this country have their retarded repig in office now that the economy has been permanently damaged and will forever walk with a limp. We’ll see how this “cut taxes and kill the whole world” crap works for them when they get elected on balancing the budget they destroyed in the first place.

On the other hand, I have 3 teenage daughters. What will happen to them? They’re white, but shit, even whitey isn’t getting the good jobs today without the sweet hookups like Pedro’s cousins.

I don’t know. Tough call. I know my voice in the grand scheme of things means jack shit, but it is my voice, and I’m terribly proud of it.

 
 

tsam – your concerns about your daughters are why I have, for the past several years, decided I’m very glad I didn’t have children. There was a time where I was a little sad about it. Now I’m not, because for all the joy they bring to your life, they also bring a lot of anxiety. Not having kids means not having to give much of a fuck about most everything.

 
 

Now I’m not, because for all the joy they bring to your life, they also bring a lot of anxiety. Not having kids means not having to give much of a fuck about most everything.

I can testify to this. Without The Rotten Little Perisher, life (and anxiety) would be very different. I am thrilled to have him but life would be very, very different without him.

I do worry about his future in this insane asylum. Maybe he will be good enough to play some hockey in Europe. I can only hope.

 
 

I get the luxury of making any sort of protest/write-in vote I want, as the likelihood of Kali going for the Feudalist Reactionary Party is pretty low. Denizens of other states may have to be responsible, however.

On the other hand, especially if the Reactionaries run an actual loon, I am tempted to put him or her in, & see if the lesson has (Finally, you fucking sheep!) sunk in by 2016.

 
 

Sit back and huff down a phat stogie

Recovering smoker projection?

 
 

Now I’m not, because for all the joy they bring to your life, they also bring a lot of anxiety. Not having kids means not having to give much of a fuck about most everything.

Jenn, I like the way you think. We should get married & reproduce.

 
 

On the other hand, especially if the Reactionaries run an actual loon, I am tempted to put him or her in, & see if the lesson has (Finally, you fucking sheep!) sunk in by 2016.

Dunno– that has the same logic as “The people in this apartment complex I live in are annoying dumbshits. Why don’t I set it on fire?”

 
 

On the other hand, especially if the Reactionaries run an actual loon, I am tempted to put him or her in, & see if the lesson has (Finally, you fucking sheep!) sunk in by 2016.

Insanity is electing another Bush-like president and expecting the electorate to respond differently this time.

 
 

On the other hand, especially if the Reactionaries run an actual loon, I am tempted to put him or her in, & see if the lesson has (Finally, you fucking sheep!) sunk in by 2016.

Yeah, this Weimar Republic really sucks. I know! Let’s give these new guys a try! What could possibly go wrong?

 
 

Jennifer;

I know what you’re saying, but I can sincerely tell you wouldn’t change a thing. If I could go back and make the choice to have them or not, I wouldn’t even have to think about it. We’re not the first generation of people worried about what we’re leaving behind for them. Imagine what it must have been like having children in the 1930’s and 40’s. Or the 14th century, when 1/3 of the known world was wiped out by the plague and famine was common–along with all of the diseases to go along with it.

I look at things now and wonder why the big ’60s groundswell isn’t happening. I guess because these wars aren’t producing nearly the number of dead soldiers that Vietnam did. All volunteer military and such.

One advantage I have over you: Three young, intellectually curious minds to teach critical thinking to. Indoctrination, if you will. They will have a tougher road to travel, but they will be better armed than I. Sooner or later the pendulum has to swing back the other direction, and perhaps they’ll play a role in making that happen. I guess it’s just going to take a much larger catastrophe than the ones we’re currently dealing with, and it appears that we’re not going to be satisfied until we break all of our cool stuff before we clean house.

 
 

Recovering smoker projection?

That or a Freudian dick sucking projection. I can’t tell which anymore.

 
 

Hey–not fucking cool, man.

Gearchange;

Funniest thing about arguments: You can always tell you’re listening to the dumbfuck side of the argument when they admonish you THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

The History Channel has a pretty good documentary on the history of marijuana, focusing on the attempts to stop its use by Americans. Of course they paraded the usual string of hand-wringers whose only argument was “your kids will DIE if we legalize pot!”. I’d recommend it for those of you who haven’t killed your televisions, and those of you who lie about having done so.

 
Helmut Monotreme
 

Major Kong, I have some questions about becoming a pilot. If you have time, I’d like to ask you them via email. Is there an email address I can reach you at?

 
 

By the way, I put you on my blogroll along with a bunch of other Sadly, No’ers.

yeah, once you link to teh Empire, your blog is doomed.

Also, expect Zardoz.

 
 

Not having kids means not having to give much of a fuck about most everything.

Testify. I just got back from a week with my parents. Momma had a new kneecap put in – the surgery went phenomenally, she’s recovering with the speed one would expect from a tough stump jumper like her – and I had to help out with my mentally challenged uncle as well as my dad, who has some serious health issues that must be monitored as well. Part of the time was spent in Memphis with two of cousins’ off-spring. I like these kids even though the toddler is terrified of me and even though kids in general terrify me.

I am back in New Orleans, where I will now get on my knees and thank the Baby Jesus that my biggest concern and responsibility is making sure I get up in time for work in the morning.

 
 

I am back in New Orleans, where I will now get on my knees and thank the Baby Jesus that my biggest concern and responsibility is making sure I get up in time for work in the morning.

From my short time there (and thx for the recommendations) this is a pretty flexible requirement.

 
 

yeah, once you link to teh Empire, your blog is doomed.

Oh, so that’s what happened to my joint!

 
 

Oh, so that’s what happened to my joint!

yeah. zombies. we do what we do.

 
 

“The people in this apartment complex I live in are annoying dumbshits. Why don’t I set it on fire?”

Story of my life. Please don’t give me any more ideas.

 
 

Insanity is electing another Bush-like president and expecting the electorate to respond differently this time.

Astute diagnosis there, darn you to heck.

 
Guerrilla Voters Cadre 18
 

I have no plans currently to vote for Obama in 2012.

If the election were tomorrow I’d write in Bernie Sanders.

Solidarity !!! Guerrilla Voters Cadre 18 applauds with enthusiasm! (I wrote in Bernie in 2008, btw. Gonna write him in again in 2012.)

The two-party system is a fatal disease. Refuse to cast any vote for Leprosy or for Plague….for ANY office. Select from other parties and/or use write-ins up and down the ballot.

*Cadre vanishes into the hills again*

Instead, select other parties and/or write-ins up and down the ballot.

 
Guerrilla Voters Cadre 18
 

Wuups. Comrade Fenwick did a crappy editing job. Forgot to erase the last, redundant sentence.

 
Fenwick, who dares to Win the Future!
 

I know my voice in the grand scheme of things means jack shit, but it is my voice, and I’m terribly proud of it.

Double-down on that. The vote is the most powerful expression of your political will.

 
 

This thread has had some excellent lengthy discussions of Yglesias. What I’ve noticed is that there seem to be multiple ways of interpreting what he wrote.

Which tells me it was a crappy, muddy piece of writing, whatever its contents.

((Remember, I never ever leave the boat, so I have only the mangoes to go on.))

 
 

The vote is the most powerful expression of your political will.

If our vote is the best we’ve got, we’re completely & totally screwed.

 
 

Haz I kilt the thread?

*slinks away burdened with guilt*

 
 

MB: Yup.

 
 

Major Kong, I have some questions about becoming a pilot. If you have time, I’d like to ask you them via email. Is there an email address I can reach you at?

kes@ix.netcom.com

 
 

The vote is the most powerful expression of your political will.

If our vote is the best we’ve got, we’re completely & totally screwed.

I don’t think so. The 1930s are a pretty powerful testimony to what can happen when enough of the public finally says “all right! That’s enough of this kleptocracy shit.” The 1980s to the present day are what happens when the voters stop holding that line.

Love to hate the robber barons, love to read other people doing the same, but at the end of the day, they didn’t screw the public, the public screwed itself.

 
 

At least you’re not as crazy as Michael Moriarty.

Sarah Palin is America.

America at her most beautiful, her most honest, her most simply eloquent and her most resilient.

Resilience is what America needs now.

Without Sarah Palin as President, America cannot bounce back.

Many might call a President Palin “bold medicine”.

With America on the edge of suicide, Sarah Palin is the “shock treatment” needed by the entirely moribund, self-defeated and suicidally depressed world.

 
 

The 1980s to the present day are what happens when the voters stop holding that line.

Voters did a damned fine job in 2006 and 2008 of turning the Republicans out.

But what did we get for it (shafted), and what are we going to do about it now?

Meekly voting for the lesser evil isn’t working. I’m sure not going to vote for a rethug. Here lies the problem.
~

 
Helmut Monotreme
 

Major Kong: email sent.

 
 

With America on the edge of suicide, Sarah Palin is the “shock treatment” needed by the entirely moribund, self-defeated and suicidally depressed world.

This is totally NOT projection.

 
 

But what did we get for it (shafted), and what are we going to do about it now?

My dad’s words:

Obama is proof that the system can’t be changed from within.

 
 

Without Sarah Palin as President, America cannot bounce back.

Fuhrerprinzip at its FINEST.

She’s got wonderful plans for Minehead.

 
 

The vote ability & willingness to change policy is the most powerful expression of your political will.

Voting is very important, but the vast majority of votes are cast on autopilot – “I’ve always voted Brand X & I always will” is commonplace sentiment. Votes are things that a pol can gerrymander away or even suppress completely if they’re sneaky enough. A huge pissed-off mob blocking your motorcade can’t be gerrymandered away or made to disappear with a few mouse-clicks.

( /still kind of shocked that Goldman Sachs HQ & similar dens of iniquity aren’t three-year-old piles of cold dead ashes right now )

 
 

This is totally NOT projection.

Needs a link.

 
 

I don’t think so. The 1930s are a pretty powerful testimony to what can happen when enough of the public finally says “all right! That’s enough of this kleptocracy shit.” The 1980s to the present day are what happens when the voters stop holding that line.

Where’s the tipping point now? 25% unemployment again? A fourth war? The executive branch using yet another constitutional amendment to wipe it’s ass? How far do they have to go? Maybe actually making people write a direct check to Goldman? WTF?

 
 

Needs a link.

Holy crap!

 
 

Where’s the tipping point now? 25% unemployment again? A fourth war? The executive branch using yet another constitutional amendment to wipe it’s ass? How far do they have to go? Maybe actually making people write a direct check to Goldman? WTF?

If the Great Depression’s any indication, pretty damn far. People were getting shafted and calling for reform for close to forty years before the welfare state thing finally got off the ground.

 
 

Meh. 50/50 bison and beef chuck burgers on the grill. Mix a bit of Worcestershire and a shitload of ground pepper in there. Tillamook sharp chedddar, romaine, rashers of red onion, heritage tomato on toasted brioche bun. Home made aioli-ish mayo. Fries. Baked beans.

Hood streebleberry shortcake.

Yo, OBS! Bridgeport something or other, not too fucking hoppy.

 
 

No, the baked beans kommt aus keine flasche (been a long time, ‘bottle’ is the best I can do right now).

 
 

Mrs.__B cooked up lamb stew, couscous, onion pie, and chocolate cake for me, a few cousins, and my ‘rents. I set the table and cleaned up.

From each according to his abilities…

 
 

Mmmmm, lamb stew.

 
 

Yeah. I’ve been picking lamb’s wool out of my teef all evening.

 
 

Many might call a President Palin “bold medicine”.

Yeah, and so’s syrup of ipecac.

 
 

I am back in New Orleans, where I will now get on my knees and thank the Baby Jesus that my biggest concern and responsibility is making sure I get up in time for work in the morning.

From my short time there (and thx for the recommendations) this is a pretty flexible requirement.

From my somewhat longer stint there, I remember it being no easier or more likely for its flexibility, regardless of the variable definition of “morning.”

 
 

Thanks anonymous… .

‘member when it said in the paper that there was a ‘black box’ invented…. similar to a microwave, agitating molecules without generating heat… that it destroyed cancer in something like 90% of people? Then there was an article about WHO, stating that it required further study… and then people seemed to forget… there’s a cure for cancer… I do have it on good authority though, that it really shrinks the cancer… not destroys it… and it’ll keep coming back, so chemo and radiation are still required… recently, in the paper, it stated that radiation from microwaves, radios and other electronics wasn’t harmful, and although it is in smaller quantities than at a nuclear reactor, radiation is radiation, it accumulates in our bodies, and my hair is falling out…

 
 

Moon-dust. That’s the one. The first artificial/natural lenses utililized the natural protective barrier on the eyes, that barrier that can develop into cataracts, the protective film that babies are born with. Ingestion of chemicals increa…sed the development. It was like a key hole at first, and foggy, until the advent of infrared… minute particles carried on a light wave length, refractors on the eyeball make it difficult to see the red lasers, which also functions as a sort of camera/ and/or an ultrasound… which is of course where the sound waves come in… it takes electricians and plumbers several months to set up this technology… a service van in a driveway isn’t suspicious to most people, plus targets are surrounded. Landlords, yeah. When the first um, recievers were invented, they were like the guy on Star Trek, with the eye thing. Ironically, these made the ‘watchers’ blind. Now, there is contact lenses that the Nazi’s wear. Some of those blind guys had their vision restored, but not before having many years to grow angrier…tangents… yeah, so anyway, the infrared compresses, hardens and gives shape to the lense, which makes the eyes denser, and can potentially change vision and eye shape. gaseous particles may also travel on a wavelength, and as far as the particles go… when did rare metallic elements from China come from anyway? They aren’t even on the periodic table. And synthetics has always bothered me a lot… it’s ki…nda funny how people discovered alchemy and made plastic instead of gold. What’s so great about gold anyway? good as salt. Salt was never in short supply… And diamonds, they piss me off… rainbows are ugly, that is if you were asking me… and people die for the rocks you want to show off. Crystalline is prettier… yellow diamonds? I thought they were blue… King Solomon, REDUNDANCY…People are bombed, people are displaced, and people suffer for diamonds. Yes, they do. And they’re ugly. That’s an expression of love?
VERBASSITY!

 
 

Whatever you do, don’t eat pork. Who remembers the pig farmer that slaughtered women and then fed it to the pigs… it was even in the paper, but I don’t think pork sales went down. How could a man with an IQ of 80 kill fifty women? And why do we say that everyone who goes missing has a transient lifestyle, and there is not much that can be done to find them? Why do the police have yellow decals on the cars now? Why is uniform not issue? Why don’t they respond to calls? Why would two separate police departments call me back when I report a crime? Why won’t they come to my home? Why when I hear gunfire do I hear an instant siren, that drives AWAY from the sound? Why are the sirens different now? Why do ambulances keep an eye out for the police? Why do we have so many doctors imported? Where are my health records? Why did I stay in the old nurses residence instead of the hospital? Why are there tunnels under Saskatoon?
…and elsewhere?

 
 

Although I have never believed in the Illuminati, it has always irked me… the sun is the illuminator in nature, and when hiding something, it is best to do so in the dark… if there was such a group they would be more like short men casting a long shadow… that is if I were using the simile of the sun… and shadows can be great, I like to chase my own shadow, ever sure I will catch it… and what is with people being afraid of the dark anyway? I love sunshine, but the dark can be so soothing, while it might be easier to conceal oneself in the dark, one still has ears, and a nose… and bad things can happen in the light of day… it would be easy for someone with a lockpicker to say, ring your doorbell while you were at work, and mosey in as though invited… less suspicious that way… so that’s one example… I didn’t enjoy this ramble, so I’m adding an extra sentence.

 
 

‘Gettting them started early.’ When life gives you lemons, make a profit? That’s a synonym by the way. Budding Enterpreneaurs, huh? and on the site it says:

‘Who we are

PotashCorp is the World’s Largest Fertilizer Company by capacity’

Looks like you had a few Freudian Slips there, PotashCorp. Incidentally, the nutrients where already in the ground and didn’t need to be removed… I guess I’d call them freudian slips if I thought the guy had ever had anything valid to say, he had no imperical data, manipulated results and encouraged and justified his own perversions, he didn’t conduct studies, he was a part of the long running Hitler Experiments. War is bad. Hitler and Freud used to enjoy playing dress-up together. Tickle trunks. Ick
PotashCorp Helps Budding Entrepreneurs Turn Lemons into Lemonade

 
 

Airplanes fly by creating massive sonic waves; creating a forcefield of pressure. Somehwere nearby I hear the distinctive whistle that’s somewhere between fireworks being launched and bombs dropping, the sound of chemicals being released into the air. The pipes rattle and shake the house, and grey-brown clouds flood the toilets and sinks. The furnace kicks in, although it is turned to its lowest setting.

Burnt toast. That commercial always bothered me. How could brain surgery be performed while the patient is awake? How could it be that the brain does not feel pain? there are approximately 100 billion nerve cells in the brain. Nerves are receptacles for registering stimulation. I know that my brain has hurt, and I’m fairly certain I h…ad a number of minor aneurisms. If the vaccuum between the brain and skull is compromised, then it creates a counter-pressure that supresses nerves, and gaseous substances begin to seep into the orifices of the ears, nose, mouth and eyes. So, an anesthetic directly in the skull cavity would Theoretically suffice as anesthetic.

 
 

Why are there tunnels under Saskatoon?

I blame society.

 
 

Speaking of polls (which can be useful in getting the general idea of things, but lacks accuracy)… here’s my ‘poll’ question… Do you believe gender identity issues are created by environmental dysfunction, or biological imperitative? Or is there a third factor to consider (science, you did you ‘forget’?) call it a soul, maybe, or a personality… and is it ethical for a doctor to perform such an operation? Does genetalia Define a Person? How would mutilation make a person more accepting of oneself? Comfortable in their skin? Does genetalia Define a person? Would you call someone born a man a woman? Does genetalia Define a person?

Polls. W.H.O., yer EVIL. Population control is an important issue, but I always thought that your main purpose was improving quality of life for THE human. Ramble out.

 
 

1.
Li’l Annie isn’t all that familiar with the concept of archives,
is she?

Or
search engines. Or caching.

I
suspect there are signs throughout her house:

“1)
Inhale

2) Exhale

3)Repeat (in that order)”

1.
There was a time when she was almost sharp,

approaching one of those intelligent conservatives of the sort that went

extinct in the 80s. But that was before she got signed to the Washington Post’s

editorial page. Apparently a prerequisite to working there is allowing editor

Fred Hiatt grab you by the jaw, pry open your mouth, and blow a cloud of

brain-eating spores up your sinuses. Because Anne Applebaum’s brain is

enveloped in a burqa of dingbat mold, and there ain’t a Lysol in the world that
can cure it.

The

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag, who shook her moral fist indignantly at

oppression (so long as the oppression was in Russia) and intolerance (in

Russia) is now reduced to churning out hack apologias on behalf of poor

misunderstood Switzerland, who for no good reason at all got unfairly singled

out just because they went ‘n’ banned minarets. According to Applebaum, the

only thing the Swiss are guilty of is fearing too much–which is the equivalent
of loving too much if you’re a fear-addicted neocon like Applebaum.

1.
“I’m listening hard, but I just can’t hear the “voices around
the world” …….”

Anne is

like the guy on the subway listening to his MP3, and singing at the top of his

lungs, except Anne isn’t singing the song she hears, she listening to this
and singing
something
stupid.

1.
Hey, I wonder if wingnuts will start eating Vegemite
just to spite Obama…

Vegespite?

Atala and collaborators took tissues

samples from each patient’s bladder or urethral area and then grew the cells in

culture. Researchers then used them to seed tubular scaffolds and implanted the

newly formed structure into patients. The reconstructed grafts looked and

functioned normally after just three months. They also continued to grow with
the patients…

1.
What
the FUCK is wrong with white people???

And since I’ve now got Groucho’s voice
echoing in my skull: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

1.
Unlike

the vagina, nature put a tight sphincter at the entrance of the anus. It’s
there for a reason. Keep out!
2.“‘This is not the Bible,’ he said. ‘This is science.’”

It may seem perverse to suggest that, at

the very moment the undertaker is filling my lifeless body with embalming

fluids, I am poised for a comeback. But don’t be astonished if that is the
case

 
 

oh, yeah, the last one was comments… I didn’t write that.

 
 

Years pass and the struggle continues on. The masses have been conditioned to turn the other cheek, and deny the cries of the displaced. Data is manipulated, in order to validate the perversions and biases of tyrants. Complacency becomes the norm, denial the result. Stereotypes cast people into cartoon characters of no substancce, and roles are clear and self-determination goes in the backseat. It becomes easy to look at others as two-dimensional, like a drawing on a page. The intent is dehumanization. Events such as radio contests placing bets on when an individual will commit suicide, or cheering in the streets after a bombing with casualities begins to seem normal, just a part of human nature. In grade school we were taught that great visionaries had paved the way for civil rights and peace, that humanity had become Enlightened. Sing-a-longs in school are replaced with chanting. “USA! USA!” rings in my ears. I’m instantly reminded of how, in the olden days, public executions in Town Square were a family event, where the spectators cheered, and people got what they deserved.

It is an act of will that keeps my faith in humanity intact. It is time for people to come together, and look for the solutions that our leaders are not finding. It is time to ask questions, demand answers and change. I see the power of oppressors growing daily, to astronomical proportions. Leaders aren’t addressing the larger issues, or are skirting the issues, dressing them up in another topic. It’s time to stand up, and fight for the rights of humankind. It’s time to say ‘The End’, and begin again.

 
 

gaseous substances begin to seep into the orifices of the ears, nose …

Out of my nose, gaseous substances!! No more breathing for you.

 
 

It’s good to see that nonny has decided to bring us the gift of words.
~

 
 

Dad?

 
 

Why are there tunnels under Saskatoon?

Rum-runners used them during Prohibition – Al Capone himself even hid out in Saskatoon & Moose Jaw for a while.
Tunnels under Vancouver were used for the same purpose.

 
 

anon said,
June 27, 2011 at 4:50

“Burnt toast. That commercial always bothered me.”

Preach it brother, preach it.

 
 

Pup, I have nothing that good to eat but I am enjoying a Bridgeport Hop Czar right now, and back during happy (hoppy) hour I had a couple of these: http://block15.com/beer/king-caspian-royalty-red

 
 

It’s so hot
looks like you have three beaks crow
the moon’s so full
white hat on a pumpkin
you know there’s something
the moon was a stone’s throw
stop the show
I need to say hello
to the crow
light the fire piano
the moon showed up
and it started to show
tonight there’d be ice cream
ice cream for crow

 
 

that’s the shit, yo. that’s the shit.

 
 

“Burnt toast. That commercial always bothered me.”

Preach it brother, preach it.

You know what chaps my ass? The spongemop refill conspiracy.

You can never find the kind of refill you need for the mop you have. So you end up with 3 or 4 different mops just so whatever brand of refill the store is carrying this month will hopefully fit one of them. Even then, you sometimes end up with one that won’t fit anything.

It’s this kind of abuse that has driven the consumer into the arms of the more expensive, more wasteful, and less-effective evil Swiffer Empire.

 
 

I AM NOT A MAN, nor a preacher, nor a teacher.

 
 

I’ll word press error you. I might.

 
 

Pup, if I was your boyfriend, I would weigh 1000 lbs.

 
 

It’s this kind of abuse that has driven the consumer into the arms of the more expensive, more wasteful, and less-effective evil Swiffer Empire

I used my Swiffer on the kitchen and bathroom today. Then I went back with a rag and bleach cleaner and actually cleaned the floor. I hate those damn things.

 
 

completely o/t, but the world shittiest website has pro gay marriage articles, and slagging off of K-Lo…. at the same time!!!

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/270515/re-stonewall-friday-night-jason-lee-steorts

THIS SHALL NOT STAND!!!!

 
 

The Swiffer wood floor cleaner SUH-HUH-HUCKS. You have to go back over it with water or it leaves a cloudy film all over the floor.

 
 

THIS SHALL NOT STAND!!!!

It didn’t. Little bitch caved.

 
 

The Swiffer wood floor cleaner SUH-HUH-HUCKS. You have to go back over it with water or it leaves a cloudy film all over the floor.

Also, I am NOT one of those creepy germophobes or a weirdo clean freak. As far as I’m concerned, if it looks clean, it pretty much is. The Swiffer doesn’t even meet that standard for me.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

I have just now realized that Michael Moriarty is not Michael Modine. I apologize to Michael Modine for having a mental picture of him when Moriarty comes out with these mental excreta.

 
 

tsam winz teh thread at 23:52…the comment about children and the future. Three paragraphs worth re-reading.

 
 

My fave from anon:

And since I’ve now got Groucho’s voice
echoing in my skull: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

I checked the SN Secret Identity Roster and discovered that anon is TinTin.

 
 

While it’s on my mind: Nice photoshop, TinTin!

 
 

The Swiffer wood floor cleaner SUH-HUH-HUCKS. You have to go back over it with water or it leaves a cloudy film all over the floor.

True, but it’s the fastest way to clean up the disaster area Mini__B leaves at mealtime.

 
 

Shorter John Hinderaker:

Jonah Goldberg may be brilliant, but while he says Game of Thrones has too much sex I say fapfapfapfapfapfapfap.

 
 

“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”

So awesome that it has its own wiki page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow;_fruit_flies_like_a_banana

And gocart learns a new word: Antanaclasis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanaclasis

[Spell check says WAHT? The bastard.]

 
 

And gocart learns a new word: Antanaclasis.

New to me too. Though I was familiar with the concept.

 
 

I stumbled across the Beefheart video for “Ice Cream for Crow” late last night and it is several shades of awesomeness but anon, please resist the urge to respond with a half a dozen 500 word posts explaining your thoughts on the matter O.K.?

 
 

I have just now realized that Michael Moriarty is not Michael Modine. I apologize to Michael Modine for having a mental picture of him when Moriarty comes out with these mental excreta.

I was picturing a Napoleon of Crime figure.

 
 

It should be noted that every study ever conducted on the subject has shown that parents make worse decisions than non-parents. Parents tend to make decisions based on their fears and insecurities, while non-parents usually make their decisions based on what is best for themselves… which is almost always also what is best for any people dependent on them.

It’s messed up, but so are people.

 
 

With America on the edge of suicide, Sarah Palin is the “shock treatment” needed by the entirely moribund, self-defeated and suicidally depressed world.

“Hand gun” is not spelled “shock treatment.”

Also, “resilient” doesn’t mean “will break when the going gets tough, will get bent out of shape when it’s just slightly less than easy.”

Though really, she is kind of like her and Moriarty’s America: believes self to be extraordinarily wonderful and deserving of blind adoration by its nature regardless of deed, and insulted by anything close to realistic assessments, which might include unquestioning, incurious, lazy, self-righteous, bullying, etc.

 
Love me some Flo
 

“MATTIE IS A PROGRESSIVE IN THE SAME WAY AS AN INSURANCE COMPANY WITH AN ANNOYING SPOKESPERSON THAT ADVERTISES NON STOP MIGHT BE.”?

Considering Progressive actually lives up to its name with huge donations to the ACLU and other liberal groups… maybe that comparison doesn’t work so well.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/peterlewis.asp

 
 

Considering Progressive actually lives up to its name with huge donations to the ACLU and other liberal groups…

That is swell. It’s nice when billionaires give money to a group that will defend both me and Nazis, thus proving that they are leftist billionaires.

 
Love me some Flo
 

That is swell. It’s nice when billionaires give money to a group that will defend both me and Nazis, thus proving that they are leftist billionaires.

That and millions to Moveon and millions more to push for pot legalization and… well that wasn’t really the point. The original comparison invoking Progressive didn’t hold water.

But hey, I guess Moveon doesn’t advocate for full on revolution, so they aren’t really on the “left”, so giving money to them doesn’t indicate that a person has progressive sympathies.

 
 

tsam, if you weighed 1000 lbs you would not be my boyfriend.

The ACLU doesn’t give a rat’s ass Sub, not for Canuckistanianers. It’s the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union PHTHRPHTHT

I think iT was way back around 1980 when GEICO made me a non-customer for life. They donated lots of radar guns to police departments where they had the highest subscriber concentration. Of course they raised the rates dramatically upon getting a speeding ticket.

 
 

Oh. Nu thred. K.

 
 

The original comparison invoking Progressive didn’t hold water.

How so? Because the non-union insurance company run by a billionaire supports liberal groups? So does Matthew Yglesias.

Look, if you wanna insist that weak tea has different flavours I’ll agree.

 
Love me some Flo
 

So a guy giving tens of millions of dollars to liberal groups (and also the ACLU, which apparently isn’t one bit liberal at all because they will defend a skinhead once in a blue moon) is weak tea?

 
 

So a guy giving tens of millions of dollars to liberal groups (and also the ACLU, which apparently isn’t one bit liberal at all because they will defend a skinhead once in a blue moon) is weak tea?

Absolutely, in the same sense that Matt is. If you want to argue that a billionaire is more liberal than Matthew Yglesias because the billionaire is able to give more money to progressive causes then I think you’ve lost the thread of what might be progressive.

Not that I wanna dissuade you from using Progressive over more evil companies – I have zero buying advice – but Progressive is a lesser evil, like Matt, not an organization to aspire to.

 
 

“Love me some Flo”, I promise that in the future I shall fact check my snark more judiciously.

 
 

Yo, OBS! Bridgeport something or other, not too fucking hoppy.

Was it their Kingpin double red? Had one of those at their tasting here last Thursday. Nice beer, pretty mellow, very drinkable, would go well with lots of different foods.

They accidentally poured me a full pint of the Old Knucklehead barleywine instead of the 10oz glass I was supposed to get. The evening got a bit blurry after that. I think there was a Hop Czar and a Stumptown Tart in there too, but that last one could’ve just been one of the waitresses.

[I know there’s a new thread, I just didn’t want to bring a zombie comment to the new thread, as much as I like zombies.]

 
 

dont have time to read comments so this is probably above, but anywho…why is there a drawing of A. Sullivan in the header of Matt’s TP blog?

 
 

there is a place in the revolution for the bourgeois liberal and that is court jester.

 
Turbine Yukon Palin
 

El Cid on the diets of the filthy rich and kobe beef:

but there’s still only so much you can get

Gout, for starters.

 
 

I thought the Shorter sounded ridiculous, and I’m willing to at least read Yglesias, so I got out of the boat.It’s actually worse, I think, and my take is:

Rich people don’t really have a disproportionately large share of wealth and power, because the really rich people get shitty lives where they are forced to play golf and live in mansions in Dallas.

Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard.

But the comments are great (it’s like the opposite of YouTube):

I think people should go through a more arduous registration process- maybe they should be forced to let Al Roker take a shit on their chests.

 
 

Hey Jennifer!

I know this is old, but I haven’t had a chance to get back.

So there’s the justice argument: an over-concentration of wealth leads to less wealth for EVERYONE, including the guys who have all of whatever wealth there is. Looking at it from this perspective, it becomes clear that it’s not about NEEDING more wealth, or the desirablity of unfettered wealth accumulation, or even what’s “fair” – those who seek to continue accumulating even after they’ve amassed far more than they can ever spend have a different objective, that being the control of other people. Example A: the Koch brothers, for whom public (or private) sector unions would make absolutely no difference in terms of the level of wealth they have that is actually USEFUL to them for meeting their needs for living. They pursue destruction of the unions because it’s not enough for them to have more money than they could spend in 10 lifetimes; they must also reduce others to serfdom so they can control them too.

The point I was trying to make is yes there is diminishing marginal utility for food (and other particulars, as I understand the concept). But is there diminishing marginal utility for *wealth*? (When we use a blanket term like wealth it opens up “utility” to be just about anything.) The quote above is to my point — The Koch Bros. get an awful lot of utility out of their wealth beyond how well they must eat and otherwise live: their political whims are played out daily by the actors they hire directly and indirectly. If cash is free speech (a means to shape society) there isn’t a limit on the utility of cash. There is no check on this behavior that I know of (after all, cash is free speech now and you can’t limit speech), so there is no meaningful cap on the utility of wealth for these dudes. Taxing them more will hurt how much money they can spend destroying society (and Maslow’s pyramid of needs etc. suggests they will stop destroying society before they will stop eating and living well). Rich people are buying a society where wealth makes their voice louder (i.e., where wealth is power) which only has a logical conclusion at a bad place (like jim was saying).

Limiting concentration of wealth may increase justice in some ways, it definitely makes life less shitty for more people while it grows everyone’s wealth (we hear that all the time, “a rising tide” and all), but the invisible hand isn’t assuring justice. You can tell rich dudes that discrimination shrinks their market, or permitting gay marriage is an economic windfall, but I think we should all get it now that people aren’t rational actors in the way that a lot of economics relies. I bet “diminishing marginal utility” as a rule relies on rational actors too. I.e., the diminishing marginal utility of food doesn’t rely on a rational actor, there’s an upper limit on how much foie gras you can stuff down your throat 3 times a day (but you can irrationally blow away all your cash on union-busting lobbies, even though it’s bad for you in the long run). But in view of Keynesianism (or at least from Krugman or Stiglitz(?)), it must be bullshit right? Again I don’t know much about economics but if the assumptions it’s based on are wrong, what the fuck can it tell us about how to act or define social policy (I think of taxes as social policy, “taxes are how we pay for society”).

 
Consumer Unit 5012
 

Well, I’ll probably be voting for Obama. Or Biden. On an antique wooden cigar-store Indian, if that’s who the Dems put up in 2012.

He’s been a horrible disappointment, but I’d rather be disappointed by the Democrats not living up to their promises than horrified by Republicans who ARE living up to theirs.

 
 

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