‘Labor is the superior of capital’
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
– Abraham Lincoln,
Message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1861
I wonder what our first Republican president would say about laws that tax capital gains at a much lower rate than they tax a person’s labor.
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352 comments Add your comment
Mick
February 15th, 2010
7:08 pm
go baby go!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
February 15th, 2010
7:08 pm
Bush wasn’t a fiscal Conservative, just sayin….
They are out there, by the bushel full.
jt
February 15th, 2010
7:08 pm
“And since the ballot box obviously won’t work, we’re left with the cartridge box.”
“It is not who or how many votes that count, it is who counts the votes.”
Lenin. Or Steny Hoya. Possibly Obama. I get them confused.
getalife
February 15th, 2010
7:08 pm
” I have an even better idea: eliminate medicare altogether. It’s unsustainable and a drain on our system, just like Social Insecurity.”
There goes the senior vote.
TaxPayer
February 15th, 2010
7:09 pm
I have an even better idea: eliminate medicare altogether. It’s unsustainable and a drain on our system, just like Social Insecurity.
I say you got yourself one party plank. Two more and you will be able to stand on your own although most businesses (with fifty or more employees) have learned the hard way over the years to buy, for example, chairs with five legs, for the added stability. Darned that OSHA. Darned that FDIC. And don’t even get me going on that darned EPA and FDA. It just makes me sick to think about it.
@@
February 15th, 2010
7:10 pm
Just recently I heard tell, Obama is agnostic when it comes to tax increases. Passed it off to the deficit commission, he did. Didn’t wanna dirty his hands on the government’s “PIG”skin.
Will those making under $250,000 be paying higher taxes? It’s likely the case.
We’ll be paying for Obama to “stimulate us” though some of us never asked him to.
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:10 pm
Pitiful. The last refuge of the wannabe.
—————————————–
Jay I know you’ve never read the constitution but it’s our duty to defend the country by any means necessary.
And I would say that “pitiful” is a parasite who uses the government to steal money from others in order to live a responsible free life.
Even more pitiful are writers who use the platform of a large newspaper to defend them.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:10 pm
“How could it get more fair than that?”
A single, flat rate tax unfairly impacts those on the lower end of the economic scale. If you are only making $15,000 a year and you have to pay $1500 of it in taxes, that hurts a LOT more than it hurts someone who gets $15,000,000 a year and has to pay $1,500,000 in taxes.
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:11 pm
“Bush wasn’t a fiscal Conservative, just sayin….”
Neither were the congressional Republicans who kept sending him those budgets. If they’re out there by the bushelful, let’s see ‘em. Because so far all I’m seeing is a lot of silly blustering about cartridge boxes.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:12 pm
JAY
Earlier…the voices of reason…are you familiar with the Philip Phillips mission in which he identified them after having met with them…?
TaxPayer
February 15th, 2010
7:13 pm
the cartridge box
But, as soon as they let go of their walkers to take aim, they’ll fall and then they’ll all be crying in unison, “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get it up.” Where’s my Viagra.
getalife
February 15th, 2010
7:14 pm
“Bush wasn’t a fiscal Conservative, just sayin….
They are out there, by the bushel full.”
Until the lobbyists bribe them.
You should know that by now Andy and the SC decision made it worse.
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:14 pm
All I see is a lot of silly blustering about how the government spending less is a “seperate issue” from taxation.
Not it isn’t.
The government steals more than it needs, and spends more than it has.
If they get spending under control, and we slash the size of government by 2/3rds or more, than a 10% across the board flat tax (paid by lower, MIDDLEk, and upper income earners) will sustain the NECESSARY functions of government.
Note that I said NECESSARY.
This does not include social security, medicare, foreign aid, food stamps, and whatever other crap the government invented to justify the theft of money.
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:15 pm
The Constitution also has a thing or two to say about treason, NRB. You’re not proposing to “defend” the country, you’re proposing to hijack it by force because you can’t get your way.
But don’t worry, we all know that you’re nothing but bluster.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:16 pm
“Would you like that in GWhiz special — a soft, quilted 2-ply, slightly soiled.”
Even I have to cheer that from you!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
February 15th, 2010
7:16 pm
NRB2- At ease, soldier, seriously. Bullets are not for political disagreements, whether implied or not.
We are a civilized people.
~~~~~~
Bookman- How ya likin Chris Christie so far?
Wait till you get a load of Mitch Daniels on the national scene.
Check out the Tea Party candidates, Scott Brown, hint, hint, when you get a chance.
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 15th, 2010
7:20 pm
The “voices of reason” in the South had no standing among their own people, Josef.
Yet, there were 7 Confederate states before Ft. Sumter. That pushed 4 more into the fold.
Dave R.
February 15th, 2010
7:21 pm
Jay, re: your 7:15?
Declaration if Independence, baby!
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government”.
If anything needed to be completely abolished, it is this Government.
jt
February 15th, 2010
7:21 pm
Josef-
What is the Wa-uh?
Should I know this?
I know what uh in the language is.
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:22 pm
The Constitution also has a thing or two to say about treason, NRB. You’re not proposing to “defend” the country, you’re proposing to hijack it by force because you can’t get your way.
—————————————————
Not hijacking, but I think our politicians need to be intimidated and reminded of who’s in charge. It certainly isn’t them. And why do you keep dodging the issue of spending, besides the fact that you know I’m right..
jt
February 15th, 2010
7:22 pm
“it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, ”
INDEED, it is their DUTY.
Tories never understood this.
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:23 pm
Then Dave R., go do your patriotic duty as an American.
Or is this just some romantic notion you like to play in your head?
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:24 pm
It certainly isn’t you that’s in charge, NRB.
Never was, never will be. You just like to puff yourself up with this talk. Timothy McVeigh indeed.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:24 pm
mike
as per your 6:42 roster–
Vaderbilt gave the USS Vanderbilt to the Union Navy got a lot of nice contracts from his friends in high places…
Carnegie was an Assistant Secretary of War. He invested one $40,000 in an enterprise that returned him $1,000,000 at the end of the year courtesy his coziness with his boss Stanton
The Rockefellers owe their initial profits to the contracts in furnishing war materiel courtesy their relationship with Chase
Jay Gould was responsible for consolidating the small railroads to war transportation under the direction of Cameron and Chase
Jim Fisk made his fortune smuggling cotton out of the South, Cameron and Chase turning a blind eye, and manufacturing shoddy textiles for the war effort
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:24 pm
JT, then step up and do your duty.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
February 15th, 2010
7:25 pm
Fiscal Conservative Meetup Groups
http://fiscal-conservative.meetup.com/
We are a non-partisan tea party grassroots organization promoting individual freedoms and liberties.
Now that’s what I’m sayin….
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:26 pm
Anyways Jay, enough about me.
Agree or disagree: cut out wasteful government spending and entitlements, and everyone can be taxed at a 10% flat rate and the government will have enough money to run it’s legit functions.
Why is this not fair.
Brakeman
February 15th, 2010
7:26 pm
It’s that time again as I used to be at a very young age (18) a member of the “Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen” ………. an organization that worked very hard to “not work” and to “screw” management and the Railroad Corporation :
Let’s all sing together now ………..
Everybody stand up and holler for the Union,
Let’s give the brotherhood a cheer.
Everybody stand up and holler for the Union,
We ain’t hit a lick all year !
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:27 pm
Go ahead and sell it NRB.
Call Michael Steele and John Boehner and sell them on your idea. Tell them it’s a guaranteed ballot box winner.
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 15th, 2010
7:28 pm
Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and to form one that suits them better. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may make their own of such territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority intermingling with or near them who oppose their movement.
Lincoln on the floor of Congress, 13 January 1848
Congressional Globe, Appendix
1st Session 30th Congress, page 94
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
February 15th, 2010
7:29 pm
North Georgia 9-12 is a grassroots organization dedicated to the Nine Principles and Twelve Values, inspired by Glenn Beck’s 9-12 Project. We are a non-partisan group based in Northern Metro Atlanta. Our goals are to regain the Federal Government through peaceful means and to restore the values of our Founding Fathers.
We are ramping-up and growing in numbers and strength daily. If you love your country and want to work for conservative principles, join us.
Now watch Bookman pen a column about skinheads, that’s their only answer.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:29 pm
jt
Wa-uh is just my sarcastic reference to the Civil War…whenever I’m poking at those who like to make fun of the Southern dialect (that’s not you, incidentally!)
Hillbilly–
Those four and three others which sent representatives to Richmond…
Dave R.
February 15th, 2010
7:30 pm
And NRB didn’t have the FairTax figures quite correct.
The rich will probably pay about the same or a bit more than they do, because there will no longer be deductions and tax shelters for their money, and they consume more than the middle class and lower classes, especially since they buy more new things than the rest of us do.
The middle class will pay about the same, and the lower class will pay less because they will have the prebate to offset their basic needs.
Additional revenue will come from visitors to this country who will pay taxes on the things they buy, as will illegal aliens who don’t pay taxes today. Thus, revenues will probably go up slightly in the beginning before they can get the rate stabilized.
But NRB is right that spending needs to get under control as well, or this whole exercise is futile.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:30 pm
“I think our politicians need to be intimidated ”
It always comes down to fear, doesn’t it?
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:31 pm
Note that Jay crumples up when faced with this issue. He cannot stand the fact that the rich won’t be punished.
Further proof that our tax system is punitive, and people like Jay would rather keep it that way than improve the country and help it’s citizens.
Perhaps it’s white guilt on the part of Jay, who hates America and wants to see it economically punished for it’s past transgressions, like conquering Indians and slavery.
But we’ll never know since he folds like a lawnchair whenever presented with a workable alternative.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:31 pm
I do think in our discussions here we should be clear on the distinction between the government and the state…
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:32 pm
It always comes down to fear, doesn’t it?
—————————————–
You mean fear like….pay your taxes or we’ll take your house? Pay your taxes or we’ll throw you in jail? That kinda fear?
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:34 pm
NRB2
Jay does suffer from white guilt from time to time, in my opinion, but he does NOT hate America. In fact, I have found him to be a patriot of the old school…
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:34 pm
I guess the critical phrase there is “having the power,” Hillbilly.
The Confederacy lacked it.
TaxPayer
February 15th, 2010
7:34 pm
If anything needed to be completely abolished, it is this Government.
Come to think of it, Georgia’s “government has gone pretty far down in the ditch (although certainly not as low as South Carolina’s top two have sunk) and a few hundred DOT bulldozers might be just what is needed to clean up babe alley and make room for some real ethics reform and such.
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 15th, 2010
7:35 pm
So the strong shall enforce their will on the weak?
jt
February 15th, 2010
7:35 pm
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:24 pm
JT, then step up and do your duty.
I do everyday.
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:36 pm
Dave R. that is incorrect. A while back I ran some numbers using the calculator at the FairTax website. From a 2007 column:
As it happens, I also had access to the 2006 tax return of a rather wealthy couple who reported an adjusted gross income of $765,801 and paid $203,021 in federal taxes. What would this couple, a certain George and Laura Bush, pay under the Fair Tax?
Plugging their data into the calculator, I learned that the Fair Tax woud cut their federal tax burden by $74,596.
I then began to punch invented numbers into the model, determined to find somebody, even a theoretical somebody, who would pay more. A family with $1.5 million in income, with a $4.5 million mortgage? Nope. Under the Fair Tax, they would save $436,624.”
Somebody else would be paying their share.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:36 pm
“That kinda fear?”
Nope, the kind of fear that says “think like me or I’ll kill you” – that kind of fear. The kind of fear based on the threat of violence. The kind of fear that makes it easier to understand why southern “conservatives” clung to slavery for so long. Because they don’t know how to deal with people they can’t intimidate into a fearful state. THAT kind of fear.
Dave R.
February 15th, 2010
7:36 pm
And no, Jay, no romantic notions. I’m just hoping that you and your fellow libs keep up your smug complacency about the upcoming elections.
And we all have the abolish option if you don’t.
Kamchak
February 15th, 2010
7:37 pm
Since the FairTax has yet to emerge from committee much less be subject to the changes that bills undergo during the process, the only thing the FairTax concept has done is generate money for Kneel Boortz.
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:37 pm
Well, that’s a strange argument to bring up regarding the Confederacy, Hillbilly. They were pretty seriously invested in that whole “strong controlling the weak” idea.
Dave R.
February 15th, 2010
7:38 pm
Sorry, Jay, but the model has a few holes in it. Nothing is perfect, especially in the government world, but the FairTax is a far better solution than what we have now.
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:39 pm
You have the election option, Dave R, and are more than welcome to it.
You have the “abolish option” only in your most whacked out fantasies.
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:40 pm
Nope, the kind of fear that says “think like me or I’ll kill you” – that kind of fear.
—————————-
Your words, not mine.
As I stated, the country will not be allowed to be hijacked by parasites and driven to a third world status, just so people like Jay can feel good about themselves knowing that certain people paid more in taxes.
This isn’t even a class issue, but it always comes to that with the libtards.
This is an issue of too much government control in our lives, and government stealing too much from us.
I have yet to hear a legit reason for leaving the current tax system in place, other than some whining about how anything else would be “unfair”.
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:40 pm
Those weren’t “holes”, Dave R. Every upper income situation you can punch into their model reports huge tax savings for the rich. It is impossible to concoct a scenario in which it isn’t true.
Captain USA
February 15th, 2010
7:40 pm
Instead of the FairyTailTax, how about only taxing money people DON’T spend. Only tax the money people have leftover after expenses, like corporations only get taxed on their profit. And if you spend more than you make this year, you can carry that “loss” over to use against future income. If it’s fair for corporate citizens, then it should be fair for us human citizens to benefit from the same tax system.
Unshackled Loyalty
February 15th, 2010
7:41 pm
The Confederacy was doomed from the start. I mean, after all, did they really think that they could convince their slaves to get out there and give it their all in a fight to the death so that if they won they could go back to being slaves. I mean, really! Exactly who was it that was telling themselves how great life as a slave was.
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:41 pm
The kind of fear that makes it easier to understand why southern “conservatives” clung to slavery for so long.
————————–
I wouldnt know, I’m from Mass.
Jay
February 15th, 2010
7:41 pm
The Republicans had Congress for six years and the FairTax never even got a subcommittee hearing.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:43 pm
“I wouldnt know, I’m from Mass”
You would have fit right in.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:45 pm
Hillbilly
That’s one to add to my arsenal! Thanks…I had never read it…imagine!
JAY
Power…yes, you’re quite right and if we had listened to Judah P. Benjamin, and Generals Forrest and Cleburne we might be whistling Dixie in a different tune tonight….
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:45 pm
Every upper income situation you can punch into their model reports huge tax savings for the rich. It is impossible to concoct a scenario in which it isn’t true.
————————————-
It also doesn’t matter, because the money doesn’t belong to anyone else other than the person who earned it anyways.
Stop being such a sucker for the pigs in government, you sell out.
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
7:46 pm
You would have fit right in.
——————————–
Oh right, because wanting low taxes and small government is racist. I forgot.
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 15th, 2010
7:46 pm
They were pretty seriously invested in that whole “strong controlling the weak” idea.
So were Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware but Lincoln didn’t do anything about that.
Dave R.
February 15th, 2010
7:46 pm
Yes, Jay, and that was John Linder’s fault for being too cautious.
And the calculator doesn’t take into consideration spending in the real world, just income. That is why t has holes in it. Of course, it takes knowledge and objectivity of the FairTax, something you don’t have on this subject.
Unshackled Loyalty
February 15th, 2010
7:47 pm
And we all have the abolish option if you don’t.
I think someone’s rollers have run off his walker.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
February 15th, 2010
7:47 pm
Bush OWED and then paid $186,378 in 2006, not $205,739, why must I be the fact checker for the AJC this evening?
Dave R.
February 15th, 2010
7:48 pm
Hey, NRB, so am I. From a little town called Tewksbury.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:49 pm
“It also doesn’t matter, because the money doesn’t belong to anyone else other than the person who earned it anyways”
Quite right. Our form of government depends on the voluntary paying of taxes for the defence and constitutional obligations. You don’t think you volunteer to pay taxes? Well, you do…because it’s perfectly possible to live a legal life in the USA and pay NO taxes whatsoever. And you don’t even have to go on welfare to do it, either.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:50 pm
Unshackled Loyalty
A minimum of 80,000 African Confederates served with honor and distinction in the C*federate forces. Gen. Forrest freed 40 of his who fought with him throughout the war. The first units of African American soldiers mustered into national service were the Corps d’Afrique and Native Guards of New Orleans, officered by African C*nfederates and paid equally to their white counterparts.
Do not confuse the Richmond goverment slavocracy with the Southern people and why they fought.
Dave R.
February 15th, 2010
7:51 pm
Not if you earn income, Doggone. There is NOTHING voluntary about the income tax.
Nice try, though.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:51 pm
“Oh right, because wanting low taxes and small government is racist. I forgot”
No, doll. The subject was FEAR. You’re threats of inducing fear would have fit you right in.
Brakeman
February 15th, 2010
7:52 pm
Unshackled Loyalty:
Our Revolution in 1776 was doomed from the start without the French.
The Confederacy “almost” got British support but alas, history is history.
Just think, if France had not come to our aid …………. we would be celebrating the Winter Olympics as Commonwealth citizens !
Interesting ……………….. as with that combined strength, WWI and WWII might have never even happened ……….. nipped in the bud so to speak.
Unshackled Loyalty
February 15th, 2010
7:52 pm
So were Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware but Lincoln didn’t do anything about that
So, the winners got to keep their slaves and all the spoils of war from the losers as well?
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
7:53 pm
Hillbilly
@ 7:46
And you claim I go poking the Bruin?
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:54 pm
“Gen. Forrest freed 40 of his who fought with him throughout the war”
Oh, goody. 80,000 people fought so that .0005 percent of them could be freed. Now there’s a return on your investment. Why am I not impressed? The service of intimidated people, while brave, brings no glory on those who exploited that courage.
Unshackled Loyalty
February 15th, 2010
7:54 pm
Brakeman,
I got some candy to go with that bag of nuts you’re pawning.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:55 pm
“Not if you earn income, Doggone. There is NOTHING voluntary about the income tax.”
Well, I didn’t say it would be easy…only that it could be done. If you choose to earn an income, you thereby volunteer to pay your share of the taxes.
Unshackled Loyalty
February 15th, 2010
7:56 pm
80,000 African Confederates served with honor and distinction in the C*federate forces. Gen. Forrest freed 40
Sounds a lot like our lottery. A whole lot of losers and a handful of weiners for show. Yep, there’s my motivation. I could be one of the lucky ones.
Jefferson
February 15th, 2010
7:58 pm
I proposed to Gingrey, that interest income and capital gains be taxes at the same rate as income, but not added to a person’s earned income and then taxed. Say you earn $5000 on bank interest, it is taxed at the same rate as a single person earning $5000. The same would be if you have a capital gain of $100000. You don’t add it to the earned income.
NRB2, get over it like you said “who said it had to be fair”, gov’t won’t stop spending and you have to get the money where the money is. If you don’t like it, move or don’t work, or try to hide it.
Unskilled labor is getting left far behind in the world today, one day they will fight back.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
7:59 pm
“we would be celebrating the Winter Olympics as Commonwealth citizens ! ”
Why do you think the South would not still have seceded from whatever union there was? Britain abolished slavery in most of it’s empire in 1834 (and with several other laws over the next 40 years.) There still would have been PLENTY of time for the South to secede.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
8:00 pm
“one day they will fight back.”
They have before.
Brakeman
February 15th, 2010
8:00 pm
Unshackled Loyalty :
You really should study up on it as it’s quite interesting to think about how history might have change. America and Canada become one huge Commonwealth. Slavery is ended without a Civil War. Our combined strength is so dominating that WWI or WWII may not even have occurred ……….. or at least the way they did.
There have been books written on the subject but alas our forefathers won and instead of being hung by the British for treason they became hero’s in our history books. If they hadn’t, you as a British subject probably woudn’t even know their names.
I assume you know that only 10% of American colonists actually put their fortunes and lives on the line. Another 30% were somewhat in favor of independence, another 30% (mostly west of the mountains) could have cared less and another 30% actually supported the British (thkey were known as Tories) and their Tory regiments actually fought against our troops. After the war, they fled to Canada. Check it out …………. you might be enlightened.
Bottom line …………. no French …………. no United States of America.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
8:01 pm
Doggone and Unshackeld…
How dare either of you have the chutzpah to question the integrity of men who would go to battle to protect their native land from an invading army which was burning everything, slave cabins, too, in their path? By your line of logic, those gay people serving now are worthy of no respect?
Bruno
February 15th, 2010
8:02 pm
Couple of quick questions for the gallery:
josef, HD, or any other Confederacy “romanticists” on board: Point blank, do you think the US would be better off today if the Confederacy had won the war?
Doggone–I’m curious to know how can a person live in the US legally and pay no taxes as you stated above? I’m assuming you have income.
Unshackled Loyalty
February 15th, 2010
8:03 pm
Come to think of it, the Georiga Lottery could just as easily be renamed the FairTax, Part Deux.
Brakeman
February 15th, 2010
8:03 pm
Doggone/GA:
No one can know for sure but the British at that time were much stonger than the American Army in 1861 and probably would have crushed the rebellion immediately as Lincoln thought he would.
But as I said before …………. no French ……….. no U.S.A.
NRB2
February 15th, 2010
8:06 pm
No, doll. The subject was FEAR. You’re threats of inducing fear would have fit you right in.
—————————————–
We need to live in a society where the government fears its citizens, and NOT the other way around. This is why the 2nd amendment is a good thing: it keeps the slime in Washington from getting too “cute”.
If you want to live in a society where the people are afraid of the government, you’re free to move to China or Cuba and see how you like it over there.
Brakeman
February 15th, 2010
8:06 pm
Bruno:
There have been books written on that also. Most people believe that most or all of the Southern States would have come back into the Union on more equal terms, reconstruction (which haunts us to this day) would not have occurred and slavery would have been ended before too long without all of the rancor. Please know that there was a bill in Congress to end slavery by “buying them all”. The Northern contingent refused to do so and the cost of the war was three times what it would have cost to “buy” the slaves (not to mention the cost in life). Now that said, Congress buying slaves seems repugnant to us today but it was at the time “Constitutional”.
Unshackled Loyalty
February 15th, 2010
8:06 pm
Vive la France!
Unshackled Loyalty
February 15th, 2010
8:09 pm
it keeps the slime in Washington from getting too “cute”.
Look who’s trying to be “cute”.
Bruno
February 15th, 2010
8:09 pm
Also, don’t know if any of you historians on board would be interested, but the Teaching Company offers a course called “Big History” which is fascinating:
http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=8050
If any of you are unfamiliar with the Teaching Company, they put out college courses on video for home enjoyment. The prices generally run from $70 to $130 depending upon the length.
professional skeptic
February 15th, 2010
8:10 pm
“And I would say that “pitiful” is a parasite who uses the government to steal money from others in order to live a responsible free life.”
Yeah, and then there are the corporatist parasites, who live off of the (increasingly) productive working class and steal from future generations. They expect the country to borrow hand over fist to finance the infrastructure they enjoy, and to fight war after war to keep them safe from harm. And yet, when the bill comes due for all the spending, they howl and complain and demand tax cuts. You know, so they can create more jobs… especially the overseas kind, where, coincidentally, the cost of business is a lot lower. Because they love America.
Seems everybody feels entitled to something for free, be it food stamps, free use of infrastructure or free military protection. I know… let’s keep borrowing!
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 15th, 2010
8:11 pm
Bruno
My view is that the war was unnecessary. Many countries had slavery and as far as I know all the others ended it without killing 600,000 people.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
8:12 pm
“How dare either of you have the chutzpah to question the integrity of men who would go to battle to protect their native land from an invading army which was burning everything, slave cabins, too, in their path?”
Yeah, that’s one justification. Nevermind that it could ALL have been avoided entirely if they’d done they just thing and given their slaves the rights of citizens that they WERE entitle to, and then dealt with them fairly as employees. I have no sympathy for those who fought to maintain the enslavement of people they were willing to exploit to fight to KEEP that system. None. They asked for it, they got it.
getalife
February 15th, 2010
8:12 pm
NRB,
Yeah, I would call the SC con decision “too cute”.
Pay attention.
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
The corporate “parasites” have gone all in.
Go get em tough boy.
josef nix
February 15th, 2010
8:12 pm
Bruno–
To answer your question, the South, probably not. We’d be in the position of Brazil at the best and Cuba or the Dominican Republic at the other end…but we would be in control of our own affairs.
Had the C*nfederacy won its independence, the North would not have had the capital garnered from the rape and pillage to fund the massive industrial expansion of the late 19th Century, but would still have been a solid economic entity with the correlated political and social stability, more in line with Canada, say.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
8:13 pm
“I’m curious to know how can a person live in the US legally and pay no taxes as you stated above? I’m assuming you have income”
If you don’t have to buy anything, you don’t need an income. It’s called “self-sufficent farming” and you grow, raise, and make everything you need. And yes, I have an income…but I don’t complain about the taxes I pay.
Jack
February 15th, 2010
8:14 pm
There wouldn’t be any gainful labor without capital: it goes where it’s welcome & stays where it’s treated well.
Brakeman
February 15th, 2010
8:14 pm
Unshackled Loyalty: I’m happy to see you finally came around.
Hillbilly Deluxe: I hear you. One can argue the same about our Revolution. In an effort to prevent hostilities, King George finally offered the Colonists full representation in Parliament. You know the answer …………..
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
8:14 pm
“probably would have crushed the rebellion immediately as Lincoln thought he would”
But under that scenario there still would have been a war. It might have been shorter, but it still would have happened.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
8:16 pm
“We need to live in a society where the government fears its citizens, and NOT the other way around”
Always it comes down to fear. Personally, I don’t fear our government. It’s obvious that you do. But then those who fear can only see more fear as a way out. It isn’t, but it looks that way to those whose vision is tunneled by the fear they feel.
Jefferson
February 15th, 2010
8:17 pm
Money would have no value if no one would work for it.
DoggoneGA
February 15th, 2010
8:19 pm
“There wouldn’t be any gainful labor without capital:”
Completely backwards. There is no capital without the labor to produce it.