Oh my fucksticks. Um sweetiepie? That is the single most gobsmackingly scientifically moronic / clueless comment that I have ever borne witness to anywhere on the entire world wide interwebs.....Ever. It is PAINFULLY obvious that you haven't the slightest clue as to how scientific inquiry actually functions and your sciency buzzword bingo game betrays such an incredible depth of fuzzyheaded woo that it made my eyes water. Deepak Chopra is that YOUUU??! lol. Seriously someone get this man 50cc's of Carl Sagan, STAT!

>> ^Duffman:
Saw this watching Futurama today. Was a pretty cool ad. Don't understand why they used cats though. "Packed with a lil' action" doesn't really tie it all up.


Isn't it a case of the advertising people going
"What things are popular with the 'kids' today? Anyone? Anyone"
"Um, people seem to like cats a lot sir, they have those lolcats things"
"Excellent, yeah, cats... now, what else?"
"Um, well, they talk about ninjas a lot too, ask a ninja, pirates vs ninjas... always popular"
"Bingo, we'll put them together... fine work boys, now, let's go to lunch"

Reading jwray's stuff makes me want to hurl.

Absolute capitalism without any welfare, inheritance/gift tax, or income tax would become practically indistinguishable from the worst sort of absolute monarchy as the vasy majority of the wealth is concentrated in a smaller and smaller percentage of the population.

Actually, socialist policies have done nothing but increase, and the problems you describe have gotten worse. Still waiting for that socialist idea that actually increases the wealth of the bottom. Prior to 1913 we never had an income tax. Special tax credits as a form of anti-competitive subsidy were thus impossible, and charity was at its highest in American history. Actually, the funniest part is just the idea that increases taxes on the rich helps in some way. All it does is incentivize those people to sit on their money, or move it into a tax haven, or leave the country altogether. Precisely what happened when Hoover raised marginal rates to 63% and FDR to 90% succeeding him. Would you go through the trouble of running a business if government is taking 90% of what you make if you make anything? Didn't think so.

Whoever owns all the means of living could dictate the terms of their use down to every detail such as what you're allowed to read in your apartment.

Epic fail. In a republic, a constitution prevents rights from being infringed, regardless of how much money one person has over the other. You can't even vote it away with a majority, that's the difference between a republic and a democracy. Who is responsible for electing politicians who follow it and punishing those who don't? You. You are the regulator for the regulators. 98% of the public didn't vote for Ron Paul, therefore 98% of the people don't believe the supreme law is important or should be followed. The end. You have no one but yourself to blame. You've chosen the benevolent dictator route, no law, no concept of barring certain powers under any circumstances. Good luck with that.

Ayn Rand fails to consider that if her pure capitalist system were followed absolutely, someone with enough money could have the same power over everyone as a fascist police state via owning all the media, owning all the land upon which the food is grown, etc.

In order to make that kind of money in a free market system that protects rights, the person to whom you're referring would essentially have to create every product and service with the utmost quality and awesomeness. Remember, with small government, he can't bribe a politician for forcibly appropriated money because the politician doesn't have it. He can't get an anti-competitive tax credit, because income taxes don't even exist for anyone, just like pre-1913. Fraud isn't an option because he would be taken to government courts and lose. False advertising either. Theft either. Rights are protected. What the hell does this person do to get wads and wads of money? Well... they essentially have to create a product or service that millions and millions of people will buy. Need workers for that. No problem, let's hire some workers for a penny a piece. What? They won't work for a penny because someone else is offering them a nickel? Shit, we'll offer them a quarter and still make money! WHAT YOU SAY, HE OUTBID ME ON THAT SKILLED LABOR AGAIN. CHRIST, THIS IS GOING TO TAKE FOREVER, MY PROFIT MARGINS ARE GETTING KILLED BY GODDAMN COMPETITORS TRYING TO DO WHAT I'M DOING AND BIDDING UP WAGES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUFdj103G60

Anyway, Ayn Rand's brand of libertarianism is not the popular brand. You're dreadfully confused to be building up this kind of strawman in your fearmongering of capitalism. I think this Milton Friedman link ought to clear it up for you, as well as some other things, such as how dirty technology invariably contributes to its cleaner successor, and how government cannot possibly spend other people's money with as much thrift as people would spend their own. This stuff seems so obvious once you hear it, but you'd be amazed at how clueless most people are at these basic fundamental behaviors. They assume that because 100% capitalism doesn't work, that the optimal system must be 50% or even less capitalism. In reality, just a little bit of government force is necessary and it should require no more than 10% of a people's capital in order to exercise the functions of defending rights and offering courts. It was never intended to appropriate 50% of our money for undeclared wars like Vietnam and Iraq, or subsidize industries in exchange for campaign financing, or fund pet projects, or forcibly manage retirement and health care via unsustainable ponzi schemes.

Remember, outside of nominal appropriations (taxes), the government inflates with a non-market determined money that it is capable of duplicating at no labor or material cost. Even a poor family not paying any income tax and getting welfare payments is having their wages and purchasing power diminished by the inflation tax. This is the key. This is the root cause, it's how despite everything they are getting with the left hand, government is taking more from the right via inflation. This is how our economy came to be in shambles, how markets distorted, how wealth started to transfer from the bottom to the top, like every fiat economy before it. Because those who use the money the Fed is creating increase their bidding power with it while those who have no money can't get their themselves because their wages and savings are being perpetually debased by it. How do you accumulate so much money that you can live off interest on stock for a living when your cost of living continues to rise faster than your wages? Bingo, you've figured it out. Congrats. Inflation is how government finances most of its activities today and this is how our economy has been destroyed. We let go of the gold limit in 71, we had one decent Fed chairman that took away the punch bowl to wipe the slate for another bull run, and that was it, the inevitable collapse of our fiat money is assured from the current hole we've dug. We now abuse our reserve currency status of the world gained under gold to export our inflation worldwide, which is why the problems today are so global. 10 trillion national debt, 70 billion a month trade deficit, 60 trillion in unfunded liabilities, a negative savings rate, two income households barely making ends meet, and an economy that since the early 90s has depended on perpetual credit extensions from the savings of the world to consume imported products that those creditors make in exchange for paper interest that they can recycle back into us or lock in a vault. They get paper, we get products. Yay for them. Yeah, don't delink from the dollar, don't use those savings to invest in production, keep loaning it to us to consume products you can't afford because of it.

These, of course, are policies you support. Libertarians don't want government to have the ability to inflate, because it makes no sense. You can't give government instant access to every person's purchasing power and expect them not to mortgage it. That's precisely what fiat money enables. And chances are that some lawyer spending millions of dollars to get in a low-paying position of legislating and distributing other people's forcibly appropriated money isn't going to be a very honest or incorruptible individual. Not sure why you haven't figured this out yet or why you think this is more efficient or moral than an individual trying to convince you give him your money in exchange for a product or service you want and think might improve your life.

The threat of starvation is just as effective as the threat of violence.

Where are people most starving today and throughout history? Exactly in the types of places where people are least able to keep and spend their own money as they see fit. Did China have to build walls to keep people from going into Hong Kong, or did Hong Kong have to build walls to keep people from going into China?

Bingo to what Kerotan said. This is a brilliant piece of dark satire. This really points out the 'blinkers on' way in which both those running for office and the media look at the world during election time.

EVERYTHING seems to be tinted by how it'll affect the election, everything. So, this isn't actually THAT much of a stretch from reality.

And that's what scary.

This makes you think, doesn't necessarily make you laugh out loud, but makes you somewhat laugh at the ridiculousness of the current world.

He invoked Regan! OMG OMG! Say Pre-Condition for my Bingo!

BINGO!

Pork Barrel! So close to Bingo! SAY MAVERICK!

It was a coincidence I swear! Could have been worse, I could have written FIRST! OK seriously... onto the debate... I'm excited.

Grab your bingo card:

http://www.buzzwordbingogame.com/cards/mccain/

Quick! FIND ME A MCCAIN BINGO CARD!

FOUND:

http://www.buzzwordbingogame.com/cards/mccain/

I played it on Thursday. I got a diagonal bingo with Alaska, Special Needs, Air Space, Hockey Mom, and Terrorists.

^bingo. except the number is actually around 94%

>> ^pro:
It is probably best to pull the punches regarding Palin's family, her Christian values, anything that may vaguely come across as sexist, any comments about the irrelevancy of her experience as a mom, PTA member, TV reporter, etc. The same goes for joking about McCain's overuse of his time spent in the prison camp. All these points while valid don't seem to be helping.


BINGO! Couldn't agree more. Obama and Biden are doing a great job at steering clear of this trap, but the GOP will still SAY they are beating up on her about this stuff... and it won't matter if someone calls them on it because it never matters when they stretch the truth to people too busy to check the facts.

Not 88. That doesn't exist. It's a non-bingo number

>> ^doogle:
There is no 88 in Bingo.
Max number 75.
I object to that Bingo number called.


Other numbers have got rights too you know.

There is no 88 in Bingo.
Max number 75.

I object to that Bingo number called.