Let's Not Be Civil

Starting off with Krugman and Stiglitz today.

FINALLY! Damn right.

Let’s Not Be Civil - NYTimes.com:

"So let’s not be civil. Instead, let’s have a frank discussion of our differences. In particular, if Democrats believe that Republicans are talking cruel nonsense, they should say so — and take their case to the voters."

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Look up the etymology of the term 'heads will roll'.

Society | Vanity Fair:

"Alexis de Tocqueville once described what he saw as a chief part of the peculiar genius of American society—something he called “self-interest properly understood.” The last two words were the key. Everyone possesses self-interest in a narrow sense: I want what’s good for me right now! Self-interest “properly understood” is different. It means appreciating that paying attention to everyone else’s self-interest—in other words, the common welfare—is in fact a precondition for one’s own ultimate well-being. Tocqueville was not suggesting that there was anything noble or idealistic about this outlook—in fact, he was suggesting the opposite. It was a mark of American pragmatism. Those canny Americans understood a basic fact: looking out for the other guy isn’t just good for the soul—it’s good for business.

The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late."

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The real parasites, indeed.

When Alan Met Ayn: "Atlas Shrugged" And Our Tanked Economy | The Awl:

"For those who are inclined to find such ideas ludicrous, the book will fail, and utterly; its premises betray a bottomless ignorance of the deep interconnectedness of humankind, and the needs—economic, social, emotional, intellectual—of one human being for another. In the real world, someone is growing lettuce, someone else is writing a book or feeding a baby, yet another is designing the rails of a high-speed train. Someone else is teaching six-year-olds to read. All of us benefit from all of these activities—sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. Each life can and does touch many thousands of others. The idea of the Nietszchean Superman who acts against his fellows (whom Rand called 'the mob' and 'looters' and whatnot) is consequently fatally flawed. Not even the Superest Superman can grow all his own food, make all his own paper, design and build his own cars and airplanes, etc. (Hadn't Rand ever read Robinson Crusoe?) Humanity is a collaborative project, as well as a project of individuals."
.....
"The real parasites, it turns out, are not the looting masses but the Objectivist elites (what is it that these hedge fund managers 'create' again?), rabidly pursuing their own 'happiness' at the cost of our social safety net, our environment and the prosperity and well-being of the world's people. So much for the triumph of individualism."

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AMERICAblog News: Conservative David Frum: Two cheers for the welfare state:

"If food stamps and unemployment insurance, and Medicaid'--an Axis of Not-Evil!--'mitigated those disasters, then two cheers for food stamps, unemployment insurance, and Medicaid.'"

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Wait for it...

The scariest car crash ever caught on video was real

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Duh.

Cursing makes you feel better when hurt: study | The Raw Story

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Executing Acorn

A public execution of an innocent organization that helps the poor. Republicans and Democrats both complicit in the murder.

And nobody gives a damn.

Exclusive: ACORN leader says critics mounted ‘McCarthy-era war against the poor’ after report clears organization of wrongdoing:

"“This was a McCarthy-era style war against the poor and minorities, nothing more,” the group's former leader told Raw Story.

“This proves the right will resort to anything to maintain power to continue the war on poor black and brown people,” she added."

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Congressional report clears ACORN of wrongdoing — after group forced to disband:

The report found no evidence of fraud, lax oversight or misuse of federal funds."

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Daily Kos: Reagan Revolution Home To Roost -- In Charts

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Take off the oxy...

Sam Bennett: The Oxymoron of the Sarah Palin "Conservative Feminism" Brand:

"Sarah Palin calling herself a conservative feminist is like BP calling themselves a corporate environmentalist. You don't get to just pick up that word and use it the way you want it.

I think we can all agree that feminism is about equality. Where we disagree is whether or not 'equality' extends to all aspects of a woman's life—including reproductive health choices.

To me and the many other women's rights activists who have spoken out on this subject, claiming to support equality for women—without trusting them to make the most important and personal life decisions—is both absurd and insulting."

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Stupid reality.

Rand Paul's ideas crash into reality - Editorial - Kentucky.com: "

There's the time that Paul, an eye doctor, wanted board certification but didn't like the new rules for earning it. So he created his own medical board. He's now certified by the National Board of Ophthalmology of which he's president, his wife is vice president and his father-in-law is secretary.

At the the junction of principle and pragmatism, Paul denounces big government and its costs and intrusiveness, but depends on the little things that big government does for him. Paul's campaign told reporter John Cheves that about half of his medical income comes from payments by Medicaid and Medicare, entitlement programs for the elderly, poor and disabled."

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Mean people asking questions and shit.

GOP Shields Angle And Paul To Avoid Making Them Face Of '10 | TPMDC:

"It's no accident or coincidence that Republicans in Washington are trying to shield Senate candidates Rand Paul and Sharron Angle from the national, and even local, press.

Remember the GOP establishment didn't want these far-right, insurgent candidates in the first place, and now Republicans fear that in the year of the tea party, Paul and Angle could become the face of the party for the midterm elections. That could present an image to voters that screams radical more than it does electable."

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Nice. Entitled assholes.

Billionaire Bad Boys Club: Meg Whitman's Son's Arrest for Beating Up a Girl

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Mighty white of them. Just now? Just getting around to this now?!?

Congressional leadership to acknowledge role of slave labor in Capitol construction - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

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The Shortest Possible Game of Monopoly: 21 Seconds � scatterplot

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Dirt Eaters

That Abe was a pretty astute fella.

Daily Kos: Abe Lincoln: when "Corporations have been enthroned" a chilling prediction coming true:

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.'

-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)"

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You are welcome, rest of the country. We've got more muscle than Texas, believe dat.

California passes bill to counteract ‘disturbing’ Texas curriculum | Raw Story

The California Senate on Friday approved legislation that sends a clear message to Texas and textbook publishers: don't mess with our kids' minds.

"My bill begins the process of ensuring that California students will not end up being taught with Texas standards," State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), who authored and sponsored the legislation, told Raw Story in an interview. Texas standards had better not "creep into our textbooks," he said.

The S.B. 1451 measure – approved on a bipartisan vote of 25-5 – requires California's Board of Education to examine and report any discrepancies between the new Texas standards and California's standards. "At that point," Yee told Raw Story, "we will make it very, very clear that we won't accept textbooks that minimize the contributions of minorities and propagate the close connection between church and state."

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That Kentucky's only black senator was able to get this resolution passed in response to Randy, well... doesn't portend too well for Ayn's boy.

A black man in Kentucky getting a bunch of old, white Republicans to do anything other than tase him, is quite the feat.

Rand Paul Remarks Lead Kentucky Legislature To Pass Civil Rights Legislation:

"AP) - The Kentucky Senate, reacting to a divisive comment by Republican Rand Paul, has adopted a resolution declaring any form of discrimination to be inconsistent with American values.

Louisville Democratic Sen. Gerald Neal introduced the resolution Friday during a special session on the state budget. It was adopted without objection in the predominantly Republican chamber.

Neal, Kentucky's only black state senator, said he took personal offense at the comment made last week by Paul, a U.S. Senate candidate, who was criticizing the 1964 Civil Rights Act."

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Update on Julio:

Julio Aparicio, Bullfighter Gored In Throat, Back In Intensive Care:

"MADRID — A Madrid hospital says Spanish bullfighter Julio Aparicio has returned to intensive care and is fighting an infection after a horrific goring in the throat by a bull.

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Libertarian T-Bag Paradise.

Ardi Rizal, Sumatran 2-Year Old, Smokes 40 Cigarettes A Day

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Dirt eaters unite!

Eat bacteria to boost brain power - life - 27 May 2010 - New Scientist

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20 Dollars to make you Holler

I watched the first one with John Muir and it was excellent.

We've had a corporate asshole problem in the U.S. since its inception. If it weren't for Muir, we'd have a damn roller coaster coming off of the falls in Yosemite and McDonald adverts plastered on El Capitan.

Daily Kos: Burns' National Park series PERFECTLY timed (Updated x3 w/more photos)

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Yeah, well, Lee Atwater recanted on his death bed but where did that get us.

Its a little to little, its a little too late.

Greenspan Backs Key Obama Wall Street Reform Effort:

"Greenspan has acknowledged that the collapse has led to a crisis of faith. 'I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,' Greenspan said at a House hearing last October under questioning from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).

'In other words,' said Waxman, moving in for the kill, 'you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working.'

'Absolutely, precisely,' said Greenspan. 'You know, that's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.'

It's one thing to reject a failed ideology, but another altogether to embrace the kind of regulation represented by the CFPA. 'He has already said that he erred in assuming that the market would take care of things--the Ayn Rand point of view--but this seems to go farther than he's gone before in calling for a new agency to protect consumers from financial products,' said Miller"

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Letter to the editor, Southern Style.

Excellent Ass Whuppin.

Fair coverage | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL:

"In response to Perry Taylor's letter criticizing the limited space the TimesDaily devoted to the trek taken by himself and a few of the citizens to protest, whatever it was, and focus on 'Taking Back America,' I want to respond.

Mr. Taylor, you need to read the copies of the TimesDaily for Nov. 5 and Jan. 20. The TimesDaily gave fair and complete coverage of how our citizens already took back America. It was called the presidential election and the presidential inauguration."

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The world is watching... us make assholes of ourselves.

'World Leader' to Obama: Explain Why 'They're Putting a Hitler Moustache On You' - Political Punch:

"'I was up at the G20 -- just a little aside -- I was up at the G20, and some of you saw those big flags and all the world leaders come in and Michelle and I are shaking hands with them,' the president said. 'One of the leaders -- I won't mention who it was -- he comes up to me. We take the picture, we go behind.

'He says, 'Barack, explain to me this health care debate.'

'He says, 'We don't understand it. You're trying to make sure everybody has health care and they're putting a Hitler mustache on you -- I don't -- that doesn't make sense to me. Explain that to me.''"

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Huzzah, Palau! Now, if you can only survive the tropical storms pounding you at the moment.

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Palau pioneers 'shark sanctuary'

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This was posted on Kos last week. Old article, but a damn fine read.

The $20 Theory of the Universe - Esquire

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They're a Little (Ayn) Randy

Damn. He just came out and said it. Spoke the straight up truth.

He's too right. While it may no longer be acceptable to be overtly racist in the South, that doesn't mean that the racism has vanished. It still lives in many a Southern heart because it has never truly been dealt with. On a personal/family level. Not saying other regions of the country don't have the same issue, but most of these teabaggers are white, old, pissed off, and Southern.

This really is amazing stuff for a Southerner of Carter's stature to come right out and say it.

Not surprised that it didn't get much play in the media. Democrats talking sense rarely do.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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This is a hell of a read.

I've read both Atlas and Fountainhead 3 times a piece. The first time I read both, I had no clue of the political/social/economic aspirations of Rand or the books. The 2nd and 3rd time through I was very clear on which political beasts were clutching Ayn tight to their black bosoms.

I like both books. There's a kernal to be taken from each regarding individuality and taking care of yourself. But, and this is a big but, these two book's lessons are similar to the lessons offered by the Bible or Greek mythology. Literal interpretations of both are... well, stupid as fuck. The Bible justifies slavery and the beating of your wife. Greek mythology... we'll let's just say one shouldn't diddle their mommy.

The sales of these two books have exploded in the past year. I doubt very seriously that your average mom and pop are buying. Hell, no way they would ever be able to sit down and read both of these tomes. It would require too much focus and patience. The sales are due to bulk purchases by right wing groups, I'm almost positive.

I like the stories. A few nuggets worthy of applying to your life. But as a political/economic/social blue print, her work is utter bullshit.

She was bat-shit crazy and meaner than a snake, too.

And 'Cultism' it really is.

Daily Kos: Sociopathy on the Right: Ayn Rand and the Triumph of Conservative Cultism:

"Interestingly, despite her general disdain for humanity, there were people she seemed to admire greatly, such as William Edward Hickman, whose credo, 'What is good for me is right,' she described in her Journals as, 'The best and strongest expression of a real man's psychology I have heard.' But Hickman was no simple expositor of personal greed and self-interest; no mere modern day libertarian; no pedestrian practitioner of excessive self-love. No indeed. He was a sociopathic murderer. In 1927 he kidnapped a 12-year old girl from a school in Los Angeles by the name of Marian Parker, chopped off her legs, cut our her internal organs, drained all of her blood and then spread parts of her body all over the city."

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Like they could ever learn lessons.

10 Lessons for Tea Baggers | Crooks and Liars:

"Here, then, are 10 Lessons for Tea Baggers:

1. President Obama Cut Your Taxes
2. The Stimulus is Working
3. First Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt...
4. ...Then George W. Bush Doubled It Again
5. Republican States Have the Worst Health Care
6. Medicare is a Government Program
7. Barack Obama is Not a Muslim
8. Barack Obama was Born in the United States
9. 70,000 Does Not Equal 2,000,000
10. The Economy Almost Always Does Better Under Democrats"

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Yes. And you can tell them to fuck off too. If they want to arrest you for it, then, bingo! Pay Day!

Do You Have the Right to Flip Off a Cop? - Yahoo! News

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