tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post6492237271406462923..comments2023-10-17T08:19:58.196-04:00Comments on FreeThinke: FreeThinkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-83018884367876662372013-04-01T23:00:40.399-04:002013-04-01T23:00:40.399-04:00Old liberals are really pathetic. That is all.
A...Old liberals are really pathetic. That is all.<br /><br />Andie<br /><br />I hope you had a lovely Easter, my friend!<br /><br />Divine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-7239181425353463522013-03-30T16:23:18.404-04:002013-03-30T16:23:18.404-04:00Shaw Kenawes real name is Soledad O'brien.Shaw Kenawes real name is Soledad O'brien.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-59590974572958189292013-03-30T12:40:16.729-04:002013-03-30T12:40:16.729-04:00Jez: San Fran, NY and other liberal enclaves such...Jez: San Fran, NY and other liberal enclaves such as Boulder, Colorado are constrained by rent control and land use that restricts new development while squeezing out the working middle class the tony progressive oligarchs profess to care so much about.<br /><br />"Yes, you may clean my toilets, but you may not live here..."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00534344221575644836noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-45882222320320719812013-03-30T04:11:17.394-04:002013-03-30T04:11:17.394-04:00Your cities mostly have room to sprawl. The except...Your cities mostly have room to sprawl. The exceptions such as sf and ny which are constrained by geography are, surprise surprise, as expensive as Paris (guess).jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-3010914873016621222013-03-30T00:11:08.457-04:002013-03-30T00:11:08.457-04:00Do the verbal wars to nowhere ever grow tiring? It...Do the verbal wars to nowhere ever grow tiring? It is no wonder why our problems continue to grow.<br /><br />With no end in sight I'm wondering what our progeny will say about us.Les Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01120280762698472496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-53980968006049619552013-03-30T00:02:01.147-04:002013-03-30T00:02:01.147-04:00I truly wish GWB could have presided over the afte...I truly wish GWB could have presided over the aftermath of his two terms. Why you may ask. Well I suppose it is because it would have been quite an eye opener for most I'm sure.<br /><br />We would probably be about where we're at. Of course this is just hunch. Can anybody say Oligarchs.Les Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01120280762698472496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-80435739597882999072013-03-28T15:59:52.306-04:002013-03-28T15:59:52.306-04:00"The Washington Bureaucrazy!"
Sometimes..."The Washington Bureaucrazy!"<br /><br />Sometimes you're just too funny, FT. You got a belly laugh out of me when I saw that, and believe me it happens rarely these days.<br /><br />----------> Katharine HeartburnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-83089169531447447162013-03-28T14:59:36.411-04:002013-03-28T14:59:36.411-04:00The trouble with our wide open spaces, Jez, is tha...The trouble with our wide open spaces, Jez, is that given the choice few-if-any would live there. They've long been regarded as places bright, ambitious young people flee in droves.<br /><br />America is really two -- maybe three -- countries united primarily by the the temporary Emperor in the White House, the Imperial Supreme Court, and the Washington Bureaucrazy.<br /><br />It's much cheaper to live in the "provinces" and prohibitively expensive to live <i>well</i> in places like New York and San Francisco, but ... <br /><br />In this land people are still permitted to exercise freedom of choice, even if the decisions they make are often unwise. How much longer that freedom may continue to exists depends solely on how successful we may be in defeating the Marxicrats, the Interventionists and the Pseudo-Egalitarians who currently infest the land like a plague of locusts.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-65090443915437456942013-03-28T13:57:19.952-04:002013-03-28T13:57:19.952-04:00Jez,
Progressives in this country argue just the o...Jez,<br />Progressives in this country argue just the opposite: <br /><br />That if we would all pack ourselves into crowded city centers, everything would be cheaper.<br /><br />I am not making you responsible for their arguments, just pointing that out.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-87366539079962940112013-03-28T13:27:05.730-04:002013-03-28T13:27:05.730-04:00To clarify my earlier remark, if the cost of livin...To clarify my earlier remark, if the cost of living is higher in Europe is higher than America, might that be partly explained by the fact that over 3 times as many people occupy roughly the same land area over here? Particularly so in England, where over 1000 people share each square mile. I'd guess this is more significant than whatever difference their might be in our economics or politics.jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-65971974443890740842013-03-28T12:53:52.763-04:002013-03-28T12:53:52.763-04:00Yeah, FT. You'll have to go a long way to fin...Yeah, FT. You'll have to go a long way to find a truer true believer than Ducky.<br /><br />@ FreeThinke: <i>I live in a beautiful, well-appointed 4,500-square-foot home. I admit I am very fortunate, but for what I've paid to live here I am I could not afford to purchase anything much bigger than a glorified broom closet on the fourth floor of a walkup in any of the more desirable cities in England and the continent.</i><br /><br />I can verify this, and everything he said after it. I have lived, not just vacationed, in many other countries, and his description of living in Europe is dead on. <br /><br />I get the feeling that liberals in this country who wax rhapsodic over European living have never done it for any length of time. Utilities cost and gasoline alone are outrageous.<br /><br />And Duckster, you mention Australia, and good for you. They are #3 on <a href="http://www.heritage.org/index/" rel="nofollow">Heritage's Index of Economic Freedom</a><br /><br />Only Singapore and Hong Kong beat them out, but who wants to live under a communist regime where smog or free speech can kill you, or where you get your ass caned for chewing gum in public.<br /><br />So Australia is the gold standard. Unlike our creaking, bloated behemoth that eats everything everything in its path and leave nothing but giant clods of shit in its wake, their government is efficient and people are happy with it. Their social services actually work.<br /><br />If you whiny progressives who worship at the altar of Big Mommy and Big Daddy Government would actually study Australia, and deliver government efficiently like they do, the argument would be over. In your favor.<br /><br />But sneering and screaming about how horrible those nasty wepubwicans are is so much more rewarding.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-78138863075064651462013-03-28T10:06:37.673-04:002013-03-28T10:06:37.673-04:00Typical leftist stink-bomb throwing from Canardo. ...Typical leftist stink-bomb throwing from Canardo. Either these people really do live in a parallel universe, or, they are bald-faced liars who disseminate falsehood with incredible persistence and fanatical zeal.<br /><br />And they say that Marxism is not a "religion!" <br /><br />HAH!FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-49460159539704090442013-03-28T09:54:17.979-04:002013-03-28T09:54:17.979-04:00I guess the Beantown Bolshevik hasn't been rea...I guess the Beantown Bolshevik hasn't been reading the news:<br /><br /><a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/27/health-care-law-will-raise-insurers-costs-actuaries-say/" rel="nofollow">CNN: Obama Care Costs Continue to Skyrocket</a><br /><br />Obamacare is a nuclear stinkbomb on steroids. But what could we expect from dictatorial progressives who are ignorant of basic economics and human nature?<br /><br />Education and health, two markets suffering the greatest government penetration, also suffer skyrocketing inflation.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-61445598912974284322013-03-28T09:38:47.166-04:002013-03-28T09:38:47.166-04:00Pick up the nation? You're serious?
Go study...Pick up the nation? You're serious?<br /><br />Go study economic data on Venezuela, and read the regional papers.<br /><br />The poor are poored and crime is worse under the Chavez Boligarqia.<br /><br />One gang of criminals replaced another, but at least the old gang kept the petroleum infrastructure up to date.<br /><br />Medicare enjoys an apparent cost advantage because it has not competition and much of its cost is hidden in the federal government, so your comparison is false.<br /><br />What is that you always snidely say?<br /><br />Pitch till you win, Beantown Quacker.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-69596836298228302132013-03-28T00:37:32.384-04:002013-03-28T00:37:32.384-04:00Large-scale government social-insurance programs a...Large-scale government social-insurance programs are the best way we have found to achieve major and important public purposes.<br />In health care, despite extraordinary administrative inefficiencies and little ability to improve quality and cost-effectiveness, the private insurance marketplace works—unless you are old, sick (and happen to be out of a job), or poor. Yet it is the old, the sick, and the poor who need health insurance most—hence, Medicare and Medicaid. Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-86083928147745228412013-03-28T00:26:44.242-04:002013-03-28T00:26:44.242-04:00I said Medicare. Don't straw man.
Now where d...I said Medicare. Don't straw man.<br /><br />Now where do you get the specs for the so called "Obamacare bureaucracy" and are they paid more than private insurer management or are you blowing smoke out of your ass again? Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-81328567830250948302013-03-28T00:12:16.534-04:002013-03-28T00:12:16.534-04:00"Well. Silverfiddle, when for profit takes ne..."Well. Silverfiddle, when for profit takes nearly 20% of the top for administrative costs and Medicare is at 5% I say that 5 is less than 20"<br /><br />But Ducky, the Obamacare bureaucracy is still in its infancy. The government workers that will be performing the functions of those minimum wage clerks are not volunteers and will soon be GS-11's, 12's, and 13's, not to mention the WG's who will soon be reaping coin with the AFGE.<br /><br />Yeah, government is more efficient than the private sector (ROFLMAO).<br /><br />Cheers!Finntannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09234170229108668040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-12492544949245224412013-03-27T19:12:39.560-04:002013-03-27T19:12:39.560-04:00Well. Silverfiddle, when for profit takes nearly 2...Well. Silverfiddle, when for profit takes nearly 20% of the top for administrative costs and Medicare is at 5% I say that 5 is less than 20. Works the same in whatever number system you use, binary, octal, hex ... Medicare is more efficient.<br /><br />My, my, a couple hundred words in Investors Business Daily and you've settled the matter of Chavez. Was that meant as a joke?<br />Pick up this weeks Nation and read the featured article. Get some in depth knowledge. I'm sorry that online it's a subscriber only article.<br /><br />Yeah, but two hundred words in a IBD opinion column and it's settled. Please stop.<br /><br /> Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-42087180056346316372013-03-27T18:28:14.121-04:002013-03-27T18:28:14.121-04:00I understand coastal real estate can be had for a ...I understand coastal real estate can be had for a song in Somalia. <br /><br />Doubtless bargains abound in Bangladesh too, and I understand the Penguins in Antarctica welcome colonization with open wings.<br /><br />Everything on Baffin Island is up for grabs -- dirt cheap tundra. Yurts may be imported from Siberia. Sanitation facilities are still primitive.<br /><br />From what I've seen the real estate available in Australia is architecturally undistinguished and much too expensive for what it is. FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-85507480580727286952013-03-27T18:26:53.991-04:002013-03-27T18:26:53.991-04:00Free market capitalism and the economic growth and...Free market capitalism and the economic growth and opportunity it brings has raised people out of poverty than any socialist program.<br /><br />Socialism has done the opposite, miring people in sickness and misery.<br /><br />http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2013/03/26/friends_of_the_poor_are_their_greatest_enemies_100220.html<br /><br /><br />http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/030613-647020-hugo-chavez-created-poverty-in-a-false-model-of-help-for-the-poor.htm <br /><br />FT's got the best of the argument, Ducky. You traffic in tired dogma and piles of shibboleths.<br /><br />@ Ducky: <i>"So if we pay taxes to finance a more efficient medical insurance program than the inefficient system offered by a for profit insurer, that's a bad choice Free?Thinker?"</i><br /><br />Your first task is to prove that Obama care is in any way efficient.<br /><br />Your posit is also incomplete. Maybe we should give the free market a try.<br />Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-23646146352063144072013-03-27T17:42:25.186-04:002013-03-27T17:42:25.186-04:00@FT --- If you've studied foreign real estat...@FT --- If you've studied foreign real estate markets, as I have via the internet and on several trips abroad, in just about any country you could name in comparison to what is STILL available to the average person HERE, you would see immediately that not only is our country STILL exceptional, it is vastly -- and I mean VASTLY -- superior.<br />-----<br />Visit Australia often?Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-26103405814571660452013-03-27T17:25:54.697-04:002013-03-27T17:25:54.697-04:00"[Capitalism and Socialism] co-exist alongsid...<i>"[Capitalism and Socialism] co-exist alongside each other, as they have done in every economic system since the beginning of time."</i><br /><br /><b>PIFFLE, Ms Shaw!</b> First we had primitive tribalism ruled by by brutal warlords. Greece and Rome developed highly advanced societies, but, despite the high intellectual and artistic achievements of the Athenians, and the establishment of democratic-republican forms of government -- for the upper classes -- both these ancient societies depended on SLAVE LABOR to survive and prosper. Rome became a morally bankrupt, degenerate society known for its wanton cruelty, ruthless aggression, brutal subjugation and acquisition of other peoples' lands.<br /><br />The Huns, the Goths and the Visigoths who eventually conquered Rome were primitive barbarians who ushered in The Dark Ages, which gave us Feudalism, where "nobles" were privileged to warm their feet on cold winter days in the steaming guts of the slashed-open bellies of helpless serfs, and every maidenhead was a potential prize for the Suzerain.<br /><br />It was only the CHRISTIAN CHURCH that enabled literacy and what-we-know-of the learning of the ancient world to survive. The Church also fostered the Music, Art and Architecture that became the foundation for Western Civilization.<br /><br />Capitalism is a relatively new phenomenon that began wth the emergence of a middle class. <br /><br />Communism I see as a reaction to the admitted abuses of the Industrial Revolution, which came upon us much too suddenly to enable us to cope with the social and economic ramifications that came with it.<br /><br />I believe we've been suffering from what-was-later-called "Future Shock" since the mid-nineteenth century.<br /><br /><br /><i>"Unless you want to make the postal service, police and fire departments, military, and education 100% private."</i><br /><br />The postal service is a looming disaster, public education is for the most part an abject failure. Police and Fire departments are usually handled by local communities not an over-arching Federal Government. Ergo, that leaves only the military -- and I would add development and maintenance of the infrastructure (water supply, sewage disposal and roads, bridges and tunnels, etc. -- to the forces of government.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-26516543111140634052013-03-27T17:08:58.289-04:002013-03-27T17:08:58.289-04:00The first thing you notice about capitalism is the...The first thing you notice about capitalism is the reduction in population density.jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-89608148882801882692013-03-27T16:26:29.657-04:002013-03-27T16:26:29.657-04:00Progressivism IS Socialism, Kurt. Marxism, Sociali...Progressivism IS Socialism, Kurt. Marxism, Socialism, Fabianism, Progressivism, Liberalism, Fascism, Statism are all arms of the same monstrous octopus -- or heads from the same hydra, if you prefer.<br /><br />The RESULTS of these things ALWAYS lead to diminished freedom, limited options, fewer choices, and OFTEN to grinding poverty, famine, violence and MEGADEATH.<br /><br />If you've studied foreign real estate markets, as I have via the internet and on several trips abroad, in just about any country you could name in comparison to what is STILL available to the average person HERE, you would see immediately that not only is our country STILL exceptional, it is vastly -- and I mean VASTLY -- superior.<br /><br />I don't know about Central and South America, because I would never consider living there, but the cost of extremely modest, cramped dwellings in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark is PROHIBITIVE -- and the TAXES in any of those places would EAT YOU ALIVE.<br /><br />Since I am a New Yorker by birth and conversant with a rich cosmopolitan culture, it stands to reason that I have known a great many European immigrants to this country, <i>and not ONE of them would even DREAM of going back</i>. They'd rather sweep floors, change linens in motels rooms, scrub toilets and change adult diapers in nursing homes than be a legal secretary, a school principal, a civil engineer, or own a bar and grill in any other country. <br /><br />Every career or job I mentioned is an actual fact. I have KNOWN these people, personally. Some of them were my relatives.<br /><br />Is living in the USA Heaven on Earth? Of course not, but it's vastly preferable to Russia, Hungary, Britain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway or any of the other places I could mention.<br /><br />I live in a beautiful, well-appointed 4,500-square-foot home. I admit I am very fortunate, but for what I've paid to live here I am I could not afford to purchase anything much bigger than a glorified broom closet on the fourth floor of a walkup in any of the more desirable cities in England and the continent.<br /><br />Also, I have two lifelong friends who live as expatriates in London and Paris respectively. They are committed Socialists dedicated to the establishment of the New World Order, of course, and as such would ever admit to me how painfully limited their living conditions really are, but I have eyes, and I have seen, and believe me compared to what I have, it stinks to high heaven.<br /><br />That said, from the TOURIST'S perspective, Britain and the continent are still magnificent repositories of scenic beauty, architectural wonders, art, music, incredibly good food and many wonderful people, BUT as the saying goes "It's a nice place to visit, but i wouldn't want to LIVE there.<br /><br />To be fair the French expatriate says he has had very satisfactory experience with French-style socialized medicine, but then he lives on a tiny government stipend bolstered by a significant inheritance from his American parents, and has for the most part been extremely healthy. At age 71 he's still working, because he MUST. I do not envy him.<br /><br />My London friends on the other hand have had truly dreadful experiences with the National Healthcare system in the Britain. The husband, now 72, has needed major surgery for several years ,and has been scheduled several times, then denied the procedure, and "put on hold" by this apparently overburdened, wholly inadequate system. <br /><br />My London friends were both top students in high school, both hold advanced degrees from Ivy League Schools by the way, but don't like to talk about it, because they'd have to admit they've been WRONG to embrace Socialism and to reject the land of their birth.<br /><br />Several British expatriate friends here -- from various walks of life -- have all said in effect, "Once you reach age sixty, the government encourages you to DIE as soon as possible."<br /><br />And so it goes ... <br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-50851209220935321652013-03-27T15:56:39.959-04:002013-03-27T15:56:39.959-04:00"Progressivism has the same problem as social..."Progressivism has the same problem as socialism: If fails once they run out of other people's money."<br /><br />Every economic system in the modern world has elements that are both capitalist (private ownership and / or administration) and socialist (public ownership and / or administration). <br /><br />The two co-exist alongside each other, as they have done in every economic system since the beginning of time. Unless you want to make the postal service, police and fire departments, military, and education 100% private. <br /><br />Shaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.com