link=http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=NW_1-T&oldflok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20030909%2F182063086.htm&sc=1110
Can't put that as a link. But that's RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD from where I work. Ventura Boulevard. Damn.
Knaa'mean?
Well, I've graduated, and I'm in a good mood. The weather's good, the Red Sox are ahead, this job search stuff is going well, feeling healthy. Being happy can be kind of boring, though - at times I feel like I need a new problem, something to focus on. I just got an interview with a fucking investment bank, which is the shit.
I went to Rudy's last night with Lio and Calliander, and I got a girl's number, which I then promptly lost. I still have her e-mail address, though. Anyways, that's new to me - I didn't know how I'd meet people outside of the college environment, so, renewed hope.
So, I've been thinking about taxes and deflation recently - it's pretty interesting stuff.
Right now, the economy is threatened by deflation - a fall in the prices of goods. People aren't buying, so stuff becomes less expensive. Goods produced in America will begin to become cheaper relative to foreign goods, too, I think. The reason deflation is bad is because the job market stagnates (I think). However, I guess it's not entirely bad, right - if prices are lower, I can consume more. Some economists don't think there's anything wrong with deflation. However, I think deflation deters investment because it forces people to wait before buying long-lasting goods.
Say you're planning on buying a$300,000 house - however, you know that deflation is going on, and that the house will be worth $290k next month. Why buy now? You're always going to be waiting for the deflationary period to end, always waiting to see how low prices are going to go before you commit to the house purchase.
What produces deflation? From what I can understand, deflation happens when there isn't enough cash in the economy to buy the stuff people want (I think). If there isn't enough cashbeing shifted around, then the value of a dollar drops (not enough money to buy the stuff we want, so the stuff we want becomes less expensive). I'm not entirely sure howcash enters the economy, but I think it involves the government buying bonds from banks and giving them cash in return.
Anyways, how does our government deal with deflation, try to correct it?It usually tries to end deflation by having the fed lowering interest rates. Interest rates basically tell you the value of holding on to money - not spending it. The Fed Interest rate is therisk-free rate, the rate you can get by investing money in a source that offers absolutely no risk of loss. If interest rates are really low, like they are now, then there's no reason to hold on to money, and no reason not to borrow. The goal, I think, is to force people to shift money around - which will even out prices again.
However, what if we're at an interest rate of virtually zero, and people still aren't spending? That's what people seem to think is happening right now.
There's the idea of something called a "liquidity trap". What I think this is is a situation where the economy is so bad that people aren't willing to spend or borrow money - even if the interest rate is zero, and there's no benefit to keeping money or penalty for taking it. John Maynard Keynes, the big liberal economist, is the one who came up with this idea. I don't know what people who believe in the idea of a "liquidity trap" think the solution is to deflation.
I think one solution would be to create artificial jobs - for the government to put tons of money into the economy by hiring people, basically forcing money into the hands of the people. I don't understand why the government couldn't just spend itself into debt (Deficits), and in doing so act as the investor. The treasury presses start printing bills. The government cuts taxes, starts to lose money, invests in itself, and the economy starts again.
I dunno. I wish I knew more about economics. I think of myself as a pretty educated guy, but I don't really understand much about this inflation/deflation issue, even though it seems to be completely crucial to the way our economy works. The economy is sucha huge part of our lives, and the way it works is a mystery to most people, which is strange. It'd be like living in a world where most people didn't understand gravity, and where there was constant debate over how exactly gravity worked.
Stone
That's a funny picture. It'd be funny if they had a series of them showing something like Saddam stealing Dubya's woman and that being the fuel for Bush's intense want to remove him from power. That would be cool. Heh.
Why do they let this woman keep writing editorials? Unlike William Safire, Thomas Friedman, or Nicholas Kristof, everything the damned woman writes is short and (at best) juvenile. I mean, I agree that we shouldn't get war-crazy, but at least write something meaningful instead of some quotes from a movie and smartass remarks! Sheesh.
Knaa'mean?
http://nytimes.com/2003/03/10/international/africa/10BANT.html
Check that out it s an article talking about how a tribe of 1200 Somali Bantus are being let into the US, wholesale, as refugees. The article talks about how they ve been enslaved by Arabs in Somalia and denied access to education and jobs in Somalia. The article also mentions how the lighter-skinned majority rejected the Somali Bantus because of their slave origins and dark skin and wide features .
So, good for the US, we re helping these people, right, yay for America? Not so much.
The writer, describing their transition to American life, here then contrasts the benefits of our society with its negative aspects:
The refugees watch snippets of American life on videos in class, and they marvel at the images of supermarkets filled with peppers and tomatoes and of tall buildings that reach for the clouds. But they know little about racism, poverty, the bone-chilling cold or the cities that will be chosen for them by refugee resettlement agencies.
They know little about racism or poverty? What the fuck? The writer s just been detailing the slavery and oppression they ve been put through in Somalia, many of them hardly had homes, they couldn t own land and he s saying that they re going to be learning about racism and poverty when they come to the US?
This is why people say that left-wingers hate America - you understand?
This chick is suggesting that their lot in America is going to be racism and poverty so much, in fact, that their horrific experiences in Somalia have still only taught them little by comparison.
Lets just assume the existence of all the difficulties that will probably come from their being black and uneducated: they have little savings, will be living on welfare, may have their welfare cut off if they don't find jobs, may not have complete medical care, they won't have enough Affirmative Action to benefit them, won't be receive the same cash-equivalent benefit from a tax cut that someone paying $20 million a year in taxes will, they'll recite a Pledge of Allegiance that may impinge on their right to be atheists, blah blah blah, so on.
Even taking all of that bullshit into consideration, the idea that whatever sort of poverty and racism these people will know in the US could be even comparable to the life they had in Somalia is fucking insane. How could anyone not ridden with anti-patriotic self-hatred be so blind as to think that?
The structure of those two sentences above necessarily sets up a negative comparison between aspects of American life: (good) "supermarkets" and "tall buildings" and (bad) "racism", "poverty", and "bone-chilling cold". If we're to assume that these 1200 Bantus "know little" about the American levels of "racism" and "poverty", then American racism and poverty has to be really, really, really fucking bad - the lot of someone undergoing racism/poverty in the US will necessarily (according to this woman's statements) be worse on average than the lot of an ENSLAVED BANTU IN FUCKING SOMALIA.
This is the dream world that many of these upper-middle-class-fuck-ups live in - one where they assume the faceless masses of the American poor live a life so torturous that America is no better than, say, Somalia, or Iraq. Given that our poor know far more about racism and poverty than the average Bantu in Somalia, who are we to criticize Saddam Hussein? Shame on us, right? Fuck them.
I want to retch.
Stone
The "legally recognized, official" pledge does have "under God" in it, Calliander - Congress putthose words in there, notstupid religious people (not necessarily). I don't think "under God"should necessarily be in there, but removing it might set a bad precedent - are there other words that will then be removed or altered? The words "to the flag of the United States of America" used to be "to my flag", which I like, maybe "to our Flag".
Someone told me that donating eggs can be painful- it always seemed like a great deal to me.
Stone
Heya folks! I'm in a great mood today, thinking about the prospect of moving and all, and just being able to breathe still. It occurred to me that it's been quite a while since I've pissed anyone off with a left-field comment or been berated so I wanted to let you all know that I'm still thinking of you. Today I opened up the New York Times and two wonderful sites revealed themselves to my eyes: The federal appeals court is standing firm on keeping those asshole Christians out of MY Pledge of Allegiance and Iraq destroyed four of their Al Samoud 2 missiles (for those of you not in the know, those are the ones that exceed the range limit). Now, I'm all for the war in spirit, but we all know that a war has a 99% chance of helping the economy, which will raise our Commander in Chief's approval from the middle back up to where it was before the Frogs and the Krauts started giving us trouble. So I felt like pissing off some Christians and some Republicans today. Here are two fantastic images for ya:
Have you ever eaten a six pound lobster...
... off the chest of a seven pound lobster?
No matter what your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming war, this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. Just a word of background for those of you who aren't familiar with the UK's Daily Mirror. This is a notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive of the Colonials across the Atlantic.
Tony Parsons ... Daily Mirror ... September 11, 2002
If i stand alone, ill fight for you!
948 out
"Whose penis is that?" Is that a question you really want answered, Levres? About Kevin's girls, I don't think they're all that attractive, they just happen to have their clothes off, and a palette of makeup on. And no, I'm not a girl-hater, as some close-minded people would immediately like to label me as. I appreciate other girls, especially if they're beautiful in the natural sense. I'm the girl who turns to whoever she's with and says (be it watching TV or in public),"I think she's pretty," or, "Wow she looks great in "whatever whatever."" Not to say that I've never viewed or previously appreciated porn. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't. Kevin, I know you're advertising your product and you believe these girls are hot (as many other guys might also think) and want to share them w/ us, especially of Ciera with a guy's dick in her mouth. But there was a reason I turned the autoposter off. I didn't want to catch a tit or a clit in the eye, or cock even, when I sign on to see what everyone's currently posted or just to post.
Anyway, "because the President appeared increasingly close to making a final decision about taking military action", to quote from the NYT: "The administration has suggested that it will put off a decision at least until Feb. 14, when United Nations weapons inspectors are to submit their next report to the Security Council, but not much beyond that." So...Valentines Day can NOW "also" be remembered for being the day that we announced WWIII, AND the Valentines Day Massacre? Great...*And do they really believe that Saddam, even if he "voluntarily" goes into exile...won't make anymore trouble, because he was yelled at by the big ol' U.S. of A. and sent to sit with his face in the corner, like a bad little boy?* Bullshit, I agree w/ Caniprokis...and further say, the millisecond we get him in our sights: "Shoot tha bastid and shoot'em good."
"It ain't easy being green." ~Kermit the Frog
"Aziz said Monday that the only remaining issues between weapons inspectors and Iraq are overflights by U-2 spy planes and the private interviewing of Iraq scientists by inspectors.
But in a letter released Thursday from science adviser Gen. Amer al-Saadi inviting the monitoring chiefs to return, Iraq said it wants to "jointly study means of verification in disarmament issues" and to re-establish a "consolidated monitoring system." (yeah sure you lying cum gargling cunt)
Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri delivered the letter to Blix personally Thursday evening, and spent about an hour inside Blix's office. Afterward, Aldouri said he hoped Blix and ElBaradei would return to Iraq.
"It's a question of war," Aldouri said. "We want them to come to Iraq to resolve differences."(Eat my ass you lying sack of donkey piss)
But Blix said Thursday there had been no movement on the issues of the scientist interviews or U-2 flights." - from cnn.com see full story here: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/30/sprj.irq.wrap/index.html
What the fuck? we need more time? there fucking stalling now man, something bad is in the works something very bad, and its going to really suck. oh were going to be at war alright, and were going to have the smoking gun, sooner than all you liberal democrat fuckjobs think. and ill bet its some kind of crazy shit too, death like we havent seen since WWII, and Vietnam. Why? because we waited thats fucking why. jesus man how plain do saddam need to make this. ill bet hes sitting in some bunkerd palace somewhere in iraq "laughing his sick fucking ass off" to quote al pachino from the devils advocate. i hope that when im dead because saddam blows up Los Angeles with a nuke that your all very fucking happy you waited for the smoking gun. assholes!
P.S. when you read this after im dead and im right i hope you fucking cry!
if i stand alone, ill fight for you
948 out
"conservatism is dead," - are you sure you aren't quoting George Will? Buckley has written things to the effect of saying that paleoconservatism (conservatism minus most but not all government, very old-school John Birch Pat Buchanan style conservatism) is dead... but as far as I know, he hasn't pronounced a death sentence on the whole thing. Why would he, considering that Junior is acting like Reagan's true successor. You do know that Buckley is against the war on drugs, right? Rightly so, I don't know - over the past 20 years illegal drug use has decreased by about 60 percent, violent crime by 30 percent, welfare by 50 percent. The 'war' has a lot of problems, but the last 22 years have seen a remarkable period of American success, so I wouldn't toss out any major policy element of the last few presidents, Clinton included, without looking at it carefully.
Like I said before, being against abortion is a completely defendable stance, and of course the Republican party is appointing anti-abortion judges, for the same reasons that the Democrats would appoint pro-abortion judges. Given 2000's results, it was wise for Bush not to push through any major anti-abortion appointments (honestly no mandate for sweeping change like that, even if the judges had no business making that decision in the first place). However, the colossal Republican victories in 2002 seem to me to justify more proactive appointments on Bush's part.
Admittedly, I don't know all that much about anti-pornography efforts on the behalf of the Republican party. So, maybe you're right about most of what you said - suggesting that ALL Republicans are against even the most mild forms of pornography is absurd, though. It's an element inside the party, fine. Anti-pornography freak feminists are part of the Democratic party, so on.
"I don't want any Christian group in bed with any party." - we live in a country where over half of our population defines themselves as Christian. This is how party politics work - Christians are going to find representation somewhere.
"Also there is no oil in Korea. Iraq is far more important, because of that wonderful black liquid." - well, Calliander, I guess we know one person gullible enough to fall for that war-for-oil bullshit. Would you take a look at my 1/27/03 https://insult.org/?action=view&id=3711 post, where I've already given a bunch of good reasons why the theory that we're attacking Iraq because of primarily oil-related reasons is absurd.
We aren't going to ignore, Korea, damn, man - we'll be containing them diplomatically. We can't engage North Korea without seriously endangering South Korea and Japan. Israel is willing to be at risk when we engage Iraq, considering that Iraq's probably just waiting to attack Israel, anyways. We're dealing with the options in front of us in the most effective way.
And, as far as the porn goes - I'm a huge fan of naked women, preferably real ones physically near me. And, sure, those women aren't bad looking - but they're nothing special, and I wouldn't be interested in them in reality. There are more than enough genuinely attractive women out there, and I've got a healthy enough imagination that I can usually fill in the blanks on my own. Most Republicans (and most Democrats) don't really care whether you want to look at pictures of naked women having sex, or not.
Man, I just turned on the television, and the first thing that I heard was Alec Baldwin's voice over a GE/General Electric commercial. Do you understand how absurdly hypocritical of Baldwin this is? Alec Baldwin's one of the most outspoken liberal Democrats in Hollywood - he bitches about the Republicans all the time, and he even said that he was going to leave the country if Bush got elected. GE, on the other hand, is a massive corporation that for years has represented everything mighty about American capitalism and the politics and philosophies that support it. This is the left wing equivalent of Charlton Heston doing a print ad for the Nation, or, I dunno, CNN.
Stun