come on winston!
anecdotal evidence does not an argument make and you should know better and whats with the name calling?
this is not a political ideology problem but a greed and corruption problem which is more a personal flavor than a political one.
leftie,rightie,neolib,spendocrat,rethuglican...
who cares? they are all paid whores for their corporate and wall street masters and by the looks of your previous comments you have bought their line of tripe hook,line and sinker.

the fact of the matter is that after WWII america became a manufacturing juggernaut (mainly due to other manufacturing countries being leveled from bombings).our government dealt with the public in a pretty straight forward manner (relatively speaking of course).the unionized american work force set the standard and helped usher in the middle class,a hard fought standard i might add.this was the first appearance of the "middle class" and it was not just handed over but fought for tooth and nail by our grandparents and their parents.

the 60's were a time of great changes,not only politically but socially and marked a definitive change how our government dealt with the people and thus began the slow march we find ourselves in today.
consider this:
1.in 1972 the dollar was worth .78 cents on the dollar (22 cents interest per dollar)
in 2011 the dollar is worth .03 cents on the dollar.that loaf of bread didnt increase in price but rather the purchasing power of your dollar decreased.
2.in 1968 the phrase "for the public good" was removed from the corporate charter.hows that been working out for us?
3.in the 60's the middle class was roughly 48% of the american population and controlled 72% of americas total wealth.this was unheard of on a global scale,this sharing of wealth and was one of the main reasons why so many wished to come to america and take a swing at opportunity.fast forward to the present the "middle class" is roughly 11% of population and controls less than 10%.
4.while america still outproduces the rest of the world,has the largest and richest economy (yes,we still are the biggest).now lets consider the fact that the american worker produces more,works longer hours (on avg),yet receives less benefits in the forms of health care and retirement and the wages have stagnated since the 80's and when you factor in inflation,american workers are actually making LESS than their counterparts from 40 years ago.

let us all be clear on one thing.
capitalism,socialism or communism are NOT political ideologies but rather ECONOMIC systems and right now the system is rigged.
lowest tax rates in 40 years right along with interest rates.
this is NOT a coincidence.
you are being robbed.
at least the blacks KNEW they were slaves.
you on the other hand...remain clueless.
the fox is in the henhouse and people waste their time waxing poetic about political perfunctory.

@marbles
right on man.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Could use less name-calling of the ladies. Otherwise brilliant.
If you could eat that entire loaf in one sitting without dying you'd gain almost 10 pounds.
Epic, indeed.


Thats not name calling, its foreplay.

Could use less name-calling of the ladies. Otherwise brilliant.

If you could eat that entire loaf in one sitting without dying you'd gain almost 10 pounds.

Epic, indeed.

>> ^blankfist:

>> ^direpickle:
Can you explain what makes bitcoins worth anything? Why can I trust that I will be able to trade a bitcoin for goods and/or services tomorrow, much less in five or ten or forty years? I really don't get it.
Also, what's peer-to-peer money? Money that one person give to another person? Like... any money that's not credit card debt?

It's a competing currency. What makes it worth something are the people willing to use it. You can't be sure it'll be around, so you could lose everything you invest into it. That's how currency works. You can't be sure the US dollar will be around in another ten years either.
You can read up on how it works in greater detail, but p2p means that your coins are stored anonymously across multiple user's machines. It's kind of like bittorrent. Here's their wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin


I concede that it is possible for the USD to stop being worth anything, too, but I think it's likely to be a smidge more stable. Even if the world goes nuts, *probably* the store down the street will still give me a loaf of bread for a dollar or two, at least for a little bit. I think that any event that makes the USD so worthless so quickly that it's worth drastically betting against it as a citizen (not a rich person) is also going to make bitcoins (and any currency, really) useless. Better off stockpiling whiskey and ammunition.

I don't know. I just don't buy it. I imagine a large portion of the current bitcoin users are just the equivalent of oil or real estate speculators, trying to make a buck on the run-up. How many have you bought?

@blankfist, no, I have it right.

Schiff: If the Stimulus passes, hyperinflation will destroy the country by 2010 at the latest.

Krugman: The economy will be stuck at high unemployment with low inflation for years, despite a 0% interest rate at the Fed.

I apparently just hit my NYT paywall limit for the month, so I don't have a link for Krugman but that's Krugman in a nutshell from the late 2008 through early 2009 period on what we'd see.

I dunno about you, but I don't remember having to take wheelbarrows of cash to buy a loaf of bread last year.

SO incomplete... this absolutely needed the sandwich that Thorton Mellon makes at the beginning of Back to School where he hollows out a whole loaf of bead and stuffs it with appetizers and fingerfood...

Loaf of Bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter

Uh, loaf of bread can shoot arrows? I'm scared!

Fun facts for the scientifically casual:

Up until recently I had only heard about fusion occasionally, and always as if it had never been accomplished. It turns out that scientists in laboratories have produced nuclear fusion using a verity of methods for over 50 years, and have made fusion devices as small as a loaf of bread. The real quest is not JUST fusion but the sort of fusion that produces more energy than was put into the system. And producing a net gain of energy is what "Ignition" means in this case. Unlike formerly proven methods, they're trying to fuse hydrogen, which is the same fuel used by stars like our sun.

Religious doctrine? Cults? Market research? Corporate policy? Economic policy by banks, hedge funds, Wall St.? Big Pharma? Big Agro? Big Oil?

These are all excellent points, and in my zeal I have to admit that it was rather hyperbolic to say government is the “only” institution that creates the “I was following orders” mentality. In that I stand corrected. However, I stand by the substance of the idea that government is the primary violator, and that history’s most egregious examples are government created.

If you are down on government save us all the time and just denounce humanity and go live in a cave somewhere.

I’m down on big central governments. Limited, small government at the municipal, county, and state level which are held to a high standard of culpability and performance by voters is fine. Big federal government that implements one-size policies on nations for social engineering are lousy. Federal government is for national defense and some intra/inter state trade regulations. That’s it. The constitution was designed to keep federal powers limited. It is no surprise that one of our man-child president’s great irritations with the country he runs is that the constitution doesn’t allow him to do more “TO” the public.

Build your own running water system, police, and fire dept. while you're at it.

Feds don’t do those things. Those are city, state, and county functions.

Maybe instead of bitching about the TSA you could suggest an alternative?

I have. Profile the likely offenders and stop hassling people who are low statistical risks. It will decrease the workload, reduce costs, and speed up the process a hundred-fold.

I'm not going to sit here and scream… even though I don't like them either. … The kid will be just fine. He'll get over it. … It's a brave new world.

Brave New World. Oh, what fools these mortals be. I’d suggest brushing up on your Huxley and Shakespeare. I doubt Huxley would be applauding your, “bend over and take it” sentiment. You might think it is admirable. History suggests that such a docile attitude towards central government is profoundly unwise. Government is meant to be questioned, held to account, challenged, and regarded with suspicion.

The problem, of course, is that the TSA procedures do not work, and using them to only inconvenience a demographic that does not happen to include you, will not make them any more effective.

Well – very true – this is a good point. What the TSA is doing is security theatre. It is not effective at preventing terrorist acts from succeeding. So why are we doing this? If the object is increased SECURITY then the procedure needs to change radically. But if we aren’t willing to do the things that will actually provide security then we’d be better off just abandoning the whole effort as a fruitless exercise.

Allan stole a loaf of bread. Allan is a thief. Allan is black. All blacks are thieves.

Except that’s not what I said or even anything remotely close to it. I’m saying…

“Over 95% of all air travel terrorism has been committed by foreign-born Muslim males between 17-40. The TSA should focus its efforts on this population to increase efficiency.” That isn’t saying “all Muslims are terrorists”. It is only saying, “This population sector is the highest risk”. Correlation does not equal causation but it does tell you where to weight your cases and analysis. Right now, even a basic statistical model would heavily weight the probability of a terrorist act towards foreign-born Muslim males.

Totally pointless and useless comment is totally pointless and useless.
In reply to this comment by Pprt:
Beyond reasoning with...
>> ^KnivesOut:

The end does not justify the means.
If we start forming special lines at airports for anyone that might be Muslim or Arab, who else should we be singling out for that treatment? What about Irishmen?
A very, very small % of the Arabs or Muslims in the world have actually blown up planes. There's 1.5 BILLION Muslims on the planet. How many have blown up planes? 20? Statistically speaking... how close is that to 0%?
>> ^Pprt:
Amazing that people like this can remember to breathe.. Just how far can we go into denying evident and verifiable facts so that we don't "offend" someone?
Half of AIDS infected Americans are Blacks, yet they are roughly 15% of the population.
White Europeans are more likely to be serial killers than any other ethnic group.
Muslims, mostly Arabs, are responsible for almost all transnational terrorist attacks in the past 20 years.
My guess is that most people are only "offended" by two of the last statements. Why must we completely ignore any racial data we have?
It's akin to directing half of breast cancer awareness efforts to men just because they're half the population. Yes, men CAN get breast cancer, but would it really be the most efficient prevention effort?
>> ^KnivesOut:
The logic goes like this:
Allan stole a loaf of bread.
Allan is a thief.
Allan is black.
All blacks are thieves.
>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:blah blah blah I'm a racist.

Beyond reasoning with...
>> ^KnivesOut:

The end does not justify the means.
If we start forming special lines at airports for anyone that might be Muslim or Arab, who else should we be singling out for that treatment? What about Irishmen?
A very, very small % of the Arabs or Muslims in the world have actually blown up planes. There's 1.5 BILLION Muslims on the planet. How many have blown up planes? 20? Statistically speaking... how close is that to 0%?
>> ^Pprt:
Amazing that people like this can remember to breathe.. Just how far can we go into denying evident and verifiable facts so that we don't "offend" someone?
Half of AIDS infected Americans are Blacks, yet they are roughly 15% of the population.
White Europeans are more likely to be serial killers than any other ethnic group.
Muslims, mostly Arabs, are responsible for almost all transnational terrorist attacks in the past 20 years.
My guess is that most people are only "offended" by two of the last statements. Why must we completely ignore any racial data we have?
It's akin to directing half of breast cancer awareness efforts to men just because they're half the population. Yes, men CAN get breast cancer, but would it really be the most efficient prevention effort?
>> ^KnivesOut:
The logic goes like this:
Allan stole a loaf of bread.
Allan is a thief.
Allan is black.
All blacks are thieves.
>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:blah blah blah I'm a racist.

The end does not justify the means.

If we start forming special lines at airports for anyone that might be Muslim or Arab, who else should we be singling out for that treatment? What about Irishmen?

A very, very small % of the Arabs or Muslims in the world have actually blown up planes. There's 1.5 BILLION Muslims on the planet. How many have blown up planes? 20? Statistically speaking... how close is that to 0%?

>> ^Pprt:

Amazing that people like this can remember to breathe.. Just how far can we go into denying evident and verifiable facts so that we don't "offend" someone?
Half of AIDS infected Americans are Blacks, yet they are roughly 15% of the population.
White Europeans are more likely to be serial killers than any other ethnic group.
Muslims, mostly Arabs, are responsible for almost all transnational terrorist attacks in the past 20 years.
My guess is that most people are only "offended" by two of the last statements. Why must we completely ignore any racial data we have?
It's akin to directing half of breast cancer awareness efforts to men just because they're half the population. Yes, men CAN get breast cancer, but would it really be the most efficient prevention effort?
>> ^KnivesOut:
The logic goes like this:
Allan stole a loaf of bread.
Allan is a thief.
Allan is black.
All blacks are thieves.
>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:blah blah blah I'm a racist.

Amazing that people like this can remember to breathe.. Just how far can we go into denying evident and verifiable facts so that we don't "offend" someone?

Half of AIDS infected Americans are Blacks, yet they are roughly 15% of the population.
White Europeans are more likely to be serial killers than any other ethnic group.
Muslims, mostly Arabs, are responsible for almost all transnational terrorist attacks in the past 20 years.

My guess is that most people are only "offended" by two of the last statements. Why must we completely ignore any racial data we have?

It's akin to directing half of breast cancer awareness efforts to men just because they're half the population. Yes, men CAN get breast cancer, but would it really be the most efficient prevention effort?
>> ^KnivesOut:

The logic goes like this:
Allan stole a loaf of bread.
Allan is a thief.
Allan is black.
All blacks are thieves.
>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:blah blah blah I'm a racist.

>> ^KnivesOut:

The logic goes like this:
Allan stole a loaf of bread.
Allan is a thief.
Allan is black.
All blacks are thieves.
>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:blah blah blah I'm a racist.


Haha. He did it for the lulz.