Ok...this is "off the rails"

[trysail]

THIS IS GETTING DEPRESSING. I think that we should give this election a theme. Now I know that the politicians are all using the "change" word. That word was tested in front of focus groups around the country and really rang the bells. Hillary, Barack ... change, change, change. How pathetically stupid. If someone tells you they're going to "change" something, wouldn't you be just the least bit curious as to what in the hell they are going to change from and to? But wait .. that would take a sense of inquisitiveness, wouldn't it?

So..., we need another theme. May I propose that we call this the "What can my country do for me?" election?

Give me health care,
give me prescription drugs,
make them raise my salary,
make them bring my job back,
give me lifetime job security,
pay my heating bill,
make my gasoline cheaper,
pay for my kid's college education,
give me a comfortable retirement,
give me free transportation.

Just listen to these candidates. They never talk about freedom. They never talk about self-reliance. They only talk about all of the great and wonderful things that they will do for you if you just give them the power of government to get those things done. And do you know why this is? It's because that seems to be all we're interested in; what the government can do for us.

"Land of the free and the home of the brave?" Well, OK .. there's certainly some left. But more and more we're becoming the "Land of the secure and the home of the dependent." We're turning America into a giant assisted living center.

I'm really sorry to say this, but this nation is in trouble ... much like a beautiful home infested with mold. The mold just relentlessly spreads with no abatement in site. How long before we have to tear things down and rebuild? The mold? Government dependence. Mitt Romney referred to it as a sickness... government dependence is a sickness. Well, the sickness is spreading.

Just listen to the election rhetoric. Here's what I want the government to do for me. You'll certainly hear much more of that then you will any call for freedom and independence. It's sad.


On page 409 of Mencken:The American Iconoclast:, a biography of H.L. Mencken by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, the following appears:

"By the mid-1930's, thanks to the New Deal, all that self-reliance had changed, prompting Mencken to declare: 'There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them.' Despite the billions spent on an individual, 'he can be lifted transiently but always slips back again.'

Thus, the New Deal had been 'the most stupendous digenetic enterprise ever undertaken by man.... We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time. The effects of that doctrine are bound to be disastrous soon or late.'

When someone asked, 'And what, Mr. Mencken, would you do about the unemployed?' He looked up with a bland expression. 'We could start by taking away their vote,' he said, deadpan. Mencken was not surprised
when the majority disagreed. 'There can be nothing even remotely approaching a rational solution of the fundamental national problems until we face them in a realistic spirit,' he later reflected, and that was impossible so long as educated Americans remained responsive 'to the Roosevelt buncombe."​

 

[sr71plt]

Said it when you brought this up before, Trysail, and will repeat it here. What is the purpose of grouping together as a "country" if not because of what doing so can do for the individual in economies of scale in getting to a higher proficiency and balance of economy and services than individuals could possibly hack on their own as separate units. This is the whole of why you would form a "country" to begin with. The JFK quote sounded "nice" (just as "change" sounds nice to the voters in this election), but it's ass backwards.

 

[trysail]

Clinton is proposing tax credits for everything short of flossing your teeth.

The two candidates' plans- especially Clinton's- would further complicate a tax system that is already beyond Byzantine. Obama would tweak and augment current laws, while Clinton would introduce even more rules by adding at least nine new credits with complex qualification requirements, phase-outs and sliding scales.

The inevitable consequence is to complicate the process.

Both candidates would goof with current tax rates. Obama wants tax rates on capital gains and dividends to rise from the current 15 percent rate to perhaps as high as 28 percent. The stock market is just gonna LOVE that!

Hillary would also raise the rate on investment income, though she hasn't provided details (it's a secret and voters needn't be troubled by minor details). Clinton proposes credits and deductions targeting specific groups or activities.

Neither plan will be approved by Congress in current form, even if Democrats increase majorities in both houses.

There will be an opportunity to overhaul the tax code when many of Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire in 2010. The next president will face pressure to renew some of the breaks to avoid a sudden across-the-board tax increase that could disrupt the economy.

Clinton and Obama, however, haven't focused on streamlining the Federal Tax Code, which runs to more than 66,000 pages when regulations and rulings are counted.

The Democrats' proposals would add thousands more pages to a Tax Code that is already utterly impenetrable and completely incomprehensible.

 

[sr71plt]

There goes the thread--off in rabid tirades in "in-your-face" large, colored font. Such self-revved anger. Bye.

 

[rgraham666]

It keeps him warm at night.

 

[slyc_willie]

Yes, I heard both Obama and Clinton live--twice each--in my town. I get the same thing from Obama. A great possibility down the road when he finds out where the men's room is in the Longworth building.

Listening to both of them made me pine for someone calmer and less up front, like Edwards.

But voters are sheep.

Indeed. But aren't most?

A guy I work with has an interesting, though very "Art Bell" type theory: Given recent endorsements by the Kennedys (including Caroline, who is rarely seen or heard in the national media), it could be that Obama is being primed for election to the Presidency, with a Kennedy as his running mate. Given the fairly good chance that Obama could be assassinated, a Kennedy would, therefore, inherit the White House. Election by proxy.

Not very likely, but sort of fun to think about . . . or dread.

You know, for the first time since I was old enough to vote, I find myself at a complete loss. Ironically enough, during an election which will likely see the highest voter turnout in decades, I am actually contemplating not voting at all.

Too many evils to choose from.

 

[sr71plt]

Indeed. But aren't most?

A guy I work with has an interesting, though very "Art Bell" type theory: Given recent endorsements by the Kennedys (including Caroline, who is rarely seen or heard in the national media), it could be that Obama is being primed for election to the Presidency, with a Kennedy as his running mate. Given the fairly good chance that Obama could be assassinated, a Kennedy would, therefore, inherit the White House. Election by proxy.

Not very likely, but sort of fun to think about . . . or dread.

You know, for the first time since I was old enough to vote, I find myself at a complete loss. Ironically enough, during an election which will likely see the highest voter turnout in decades, I am actually contemplating not voting at all.

Too many evils to choose from.

lol. Historically speaking, doesn't a Kennedy have more probability of being assassinated than an Obama?

I think probably that I will never have heard of Obama's running mate, if it comes to there being an Obama running mate. Until a couple of weeks ago I would "Who?" on the name of Crist. I've studiously withdrawn from thinking political the last half decade. I've had my fill of it in my life.

I'm sort of at the opposite spectrum from you on being at a loss of who to vote for. For the first time in decades, I could live with "any of the above"--Obama, Clinton, or McCain. Even independent of the feeling that I could live with Betty Boop or the Boston Strangler as long they were replacing George the Lesser.

 

[slyc_willie]

lol. Historically speaking, doesn't a Kennedy have more probability of being assassinated than an Obama?

I think probably that I will never have heard of Obama's running mate, if it comes to there being an Obama running mate. Until a couple of weeks ago I would "Who?" on the name of Crist. I've studiously withdrawn from thinking political the last half decade. I've had my fill of it in my life.

I'm sort of at the opposite spectrum from you on being at a loss of who to vote for. For the first time in decades, I could live with "any of the above"--Obama, Clinton, or McCain. Even independent of the feeling that I could live with Betty Boop or the Boston Strangler as long they were replacing George the Lesser.

Philosophically speaking, neither of us would have any chocie in the matter of 'who we could live with' as President. The masses will speak for us.

And, yes, the irony of your statement about kennedy occured to me as well. Still, perhaps it is their due . . . .

Hell with it. Maybe I'll just write in Ron Paul . . . or Ted Nugent

 

[sr71plt]

Philosophically speaking, neither of us would have any chocie in the matter of 'who we could live with' as President. The masses will speak for us.

Speak for yourself. I went through sniper training. (But rest easy, I couldn't hit the side of barn--which should give hefty Ted Kennedy some feeling of relief).

 

[slyc_willie]

Speak for yourself. I went through sniper training. (But rest easy, I couldn't hit the side of barn--which should give hefty Ted Kennedy some feeling of relief).

I did too.

I could hit the gnat on Ted's ass

But I didn't really say that . . . .

ETA: I could hit the gnat on Ted's ass . . . but I haven't scoped a shot in over a decade.