tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post5256704308752505582..comments2023-10-30T09:23:42.803-05:00Comments on Some Assembly Required: SAR #10228Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-36680484027467815752010-08-16T21:18:25.832-05:002010-08-16T21:18:25.832-05:00Anon 12.28/9.09 hits it pretty squarely: "th...Anon 12.28/9.09 hits it pretty squarely: "this common experience we find ourselves sharing" is mostly beyond blame and comprehension.<br /><br />Most of the steps that got us here - even the ones that some thought were a bad idea at the time - were not taken with evil intent. Sure, the rich want to get richer. So do the poor. And most of us get pretty narrow visioned when we start doing for ourselves and our families and find it easy not to consider the effects of our actions three steps down history's lane.<br /><br />And even when we 'know' we are pretty good at not carrying it in the forefront of our mind constantly.<br /><br />I would have responded sooner, but I'd run down to Walmart to get some stuff... for example.<br /><br />ckm.Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-65897156415574885252010-08-16T21:09:11.853-05:002010-08-16T21:09:11.853-05:00Anon 12:28 here. Thanks for the reply CKM. Unlike ...Anon 12:28 here. Thanks for the reply CKM. Unlike Anon 6:40, I liked your response. That's all the acknowledgment I was looking for, that this common experience we find ourselves sharing, is beyond comprehension and blame most of the time. Whether fate or chance, we are all of us, along for the ride. Cheers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-58702872746364925902010-08-16T20:58:44.271-05:002010-08-16T20:58:44.271-05:00On war...
All wars should require a 100% particip...On war...<br /><br />All wars should require a 100% participation vote. If you vote YES, then you pack your bags that night and leave for the frontline.john patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00620564826238745895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-9239688947359607252010-08-16T20:50:37.269-05:002010-08-16T20:50:37.269-05:00Hey, CK. Thanks again for the blog/story.
JohnHey, CK. Thanks again for the blog/story.<br /><br />JohnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-59877795494842706712010-08-16T18:46:02.522-05:002010-08-16T18:46:02.522-05:00Anon 6.40 Those who do not appreciate sarcasm an...Anon 6.40 Those who do not appreciate sarcasm and cannot smell false modesty at 50 paces may leave the room.<br /><br />ckmCharles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-39028175011517154012010-08-16T18:40:30.231-05:002010-08-16T18:40:30.231-05:00"... my mind's barely competent to constr..."... my mind's barely competent to construct these little pin-pricks, much less undertake a 300 year survey of how we got here."<br /><br />Are we're expected to take this seriously? To paraphrase: I'm incompetent to weigh and judge, but please accept my whines and grumbles as valid criticism of the status quo.<br /><br />Invertebrates cannot complain much about the lack of backbone.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-42343595008010350062010-08-16T14:43:57.446-05:002010-08-16T14:43:57.446-05:00Unprejudiced: ....
In addition, these "soldi...Unprejudiced: ....<br /><br />In addition, these "soldiers" think that in a War the other side should not shoot back! Creampuffs all!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-30667902288210440412010-08-16T12:41:10.250-05:002010-08-16T12:41:10.250-05:00Anon 12.28 I'd not complain about a history ...Anon 12.28 I'd not complain about a history that went further back - certainly to some of the decisions made at the end of WWII - but the free market fever & the deregulation & the idea that the government is the enemy are very large in our current problems. <br /><br />So, too, is the entire history of The American Dream (the foolishness of home ownership for all as the holy grail).<br /><br />Perhaps the real roots are back in the transformation (due to the industrial revolution?) from the Christian (& Muslim) worldview that one's reward for a 'good life' (with all its varried definition) was in the next life, to the capitalist & communist world view that the rewards were to be had here and now.<br /><br />And the only way to accomplish that was through debt created money (instead of production created consumption) which lead to banking and credit and the land of plenty... and eventual collapse.<br /><br />Yes, the world is much, much more complex than a two or three line sardonic comment can convey. But my mind's barely competent to construct these little pin-pricks, much less undertake a 300 year survey of how we got here.<br /><br />ckmCharles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-48897785120795407262010-08-16T12:28:39.254-05:002010-08-16T12:28:39.254-05:00Re: Warm & Fuzzy; The seeds of the current dif...Re: Warm & Fuzzy; The seeds of the current difficulties were planted long before the Reagan years. Your partisanship makes you look like a mushroom. (In the dark and fed.....) Alas, I'm sure your fellow travelers worship and admire you. As an adept wordsmith though, I find you entertaining. Keep up the party line comrade, you're a fine tool.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-5252930255886877402010-08-16T10:40:31.235-05:002010-08-16T10:40:31.235-05:00Anony 9.28 I maintain that if the columnist want...Anony 9.28 I maintain that if the columnist wanted to talk about state, sales, and property taxes, in addition to the Federal Income Tax and FICA, he should have said so, instead of citing the 35% tax rate.<br /><br />ckmCharles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-69145977724634101772010-08-16T10:28:30.498-05:002010-08-16T10:28:30.498-05:00I meant to say Rundgren's most-often heard son...I meant to say Rundgren's most-often <b>heard</b> song might be "Bang on the Drum All Day" - "I don't want to work, I want to bang on the drum all day"<br /><br />To unpack my argument a bit more, I am contrasting<br /><br />a)organisms which are "free" to do what they damn well please WHEN CONFRONTED BY CAREFULLY CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS <br /><br />with<br /><br />b)sentient beings which are able to understand, evaluate and respond to the circumstances in which they find themselves, in order to promote their own immediate and long-term goals<br /><br /><br />It is my contention that the purpose of the Military Industrial Congressional Financial Corporate Media Complex (MICFiC) to carefully control the experimental conditions in order to use, abuse, and confuse the people - to "milk, shear, and slaughter the sheeple", metaphorically speaking<br /><br /><br />- except that the SLAUGHTER is not metaphorical, of coursemistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-87580969774691717542010-08-16T10:17:08.859-05:002010-08-16T10:17:08.859-05:00re the "wisdom of the masses"
Madison A...re the "wisdom of the masses"<br /><br />Madison Avenue has studied well the Harvard Law of Behavior:<br /><br /><b>Under carefully controlled experimental conditions, the animal does what it damn well pleases</b><br /><br />When one sees "consumer" or "customer" used about those they deal with even by government agencies, when "citizen" might have been appropriate, one sees the triumph of the other-directed marketing orientation to the manipulation of potentially sentient beings<br /><br />To quote the songwriter Todd Rundgren, whose most-often composition might be "Bang on the Drum All Day":<br /><br /><i>I got a free will<br />and I ain't gonna use it till I know what I'm doing</i><br /><br />And, I would argue, on very many issues most people lack the degree of knowledge and self-knowledge required to exercise free willmistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-61446554321516440862010-08-16T09:28:45.027-05:002010-08-16T09:28:45.027-05:00Responding to your section 'simpleton math'...Responding to your section 'simpleton math', I think that the column in question is not that simplistic. On the face, it looks like you did not take into account state taxes, so being generous, let's assume that's what the columnist forgot.<br />However the main point that nobody discusses is that lower taxes on certain segments of the population (like the stock option crowd) are a large factor in creating unaffordable urban areas for the upper middle class.<br />In the absence of government allocation of resources, we are witnessing the 'wisdom of the masses' that has created bubble after bubble. <br /> In fact, the $250,000/year household that feels poor is a fact of life in Silicon Valley. In such an area of underfunded schools, overpriced houses, and conspicuous consumption of baubles, a family that does understand real wealth (health care, education, savings) will be outbid for every resource they need.<br />As a nation we have bought into this nonsense that the consumer knows better than our government. Hmmm... so is that why our Canadian cousins have avoided so many bubbles like: <br />-education bubble <br />-housing bubble (eh, maybe they caught that one)<br />- health care bubble<br />- automobile bubble (remember hummers)<br /><br />Could it, could it really be because the government actually controls and manages much of their economic activity, whereas our effectively laissez-faire strategy allowed an auction of ...everything?<br /><br />To finish, we really do have to take care of our upper middle class (hey I'm one). They actually do provide good value to society by being educated, staying out of trouble, saving money, etc. That does not mean low taxes. However it does mean providing this declining group the services they paid for: education, health care, financial security.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com