[clue-talk] Wow, Card's a little political...

[Angelo Bertolli]

Collins Richey wrote:
> I just love the anti-Palin rhetoric. This competent witch has stuck a
> stake into the heart of all the left-wing loonies. They're practically
> wetting themselves to denounce her. She has more relevant executive
> experience than the Messiah. At least she has no need for fake Greek
> columns.
>   
And only the most blind Republicans defend her.  You know, the same 
people who think that the Democrats and Republicans are polar opposites, 
instead of what they really are:  both a little bit center and to the 
right in world politics.  But I'd like to know in what way Palin is 
competent.  I haven't seen anything that would convince me she's 
qualified for the position she's trying for.  She's also selling out 
McCain's campaign so that she can have her shot next time.

There must be a ton of relevant experience--more than any politician 
ever--to get you to overlook her personality and inability to lie.  
Yeah,  I'm calling the ability to lie convincingly a good thing:  it 
means you have at least a little bit of logic about what you're saying.  
I swear watching her feels like when Joe Millionaire tried to come up 
with a middle name for himself.

So yeah, I'm being kind of mean, but if you think you really do have 
something that you feel makes her overly qualified, please mention it.  
At least then I'd know a little bit more about the people who like her.  
(Right now I only have one friend who likes her and it's for her stance 
on abortion, but I'm guessing that's not your reason.)

>> Anyway, I don't think the people subscribing to disaster capitalist dogma
>> should fret too much about Obama getting into office. I seem to remember
>> that Naomi Klein said his economic advisers are of the Chicago School
>> variety, so we'll probably see more of the same old, same old disaster
>> capitalism neoliberal stuff we've had for the past 20+ years...
>>     
>
> Let's hope you're right, but I doubt it. If Obama implements even half
> of the garbage he has proposed, I fully anticipate a much longer
> recession if not depression. And when you couple that with absolute
> control of the legislature, it's even spookier - unless you happen to
> be one of the left-wing socialists who has been dreaming of and
> scheming for this opportunity for 40 years.
>   
You might be right about that.  Maybe it is better to go further into 
debt and pay an even bigger percentage of our taxes to interest on it.  
But I do think Obama is playing this card,  and I don't think McCain's 
tax plan is really enough to make much difference either.

By the way, the Democrats aren't socialist.  Neither am I, but this list 
has a lot of right wing campers so I know the things I pick to say make 
me sound differently.  We're all capitalists in this country, but some 
of us think that a different mix and balance of social programs are 
necessary for a good society.  (Well except for maybe you and Jed, who 
as far as I can tell don't think we should have any social programs or 
taxes.)  But at least admit that it's not as black and white as "the 
Republicans are Capitalists" and "the Democrats are Communists."  It's 
just not true.

> I don't know anything about disaster capitalism. The situation we're
> in now has little to do with capitalism and a lot more to do with
> blind idiocy (loaning money to people who have no hope of paying it
> back, all in the name of compassion) and.massive greed, fraud, and
> deception  (the fat cats who packaged lousy loans as a risk-free
> investment).
>   

Well I"m not so sure that greed, fraud, and deception are incongruent 
with capitalism ;)  That's kind of the point.  How do you get around 
that without regulation?  Someone tells you to spread your money as 
thinly as possible and buy 20 houses so that you can make the most 
profit.  They get their money,  while you've helped them to create a 
housing bubble where the supply is too high and the values are therefore 
not at the correct point.  People and banks think they have more value 
than they actually do,  and then suddenly it starts to fall.  But it 
doesn't just punish the people who screwed up.  Everyone falls 
together.  We're all interconnected.  What you do affects me, and what I 
do affects you.  Thats' the whole point.

Angelo