From Flanders fields, warnings about Europe’s crisis
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
These closing lines of John McCrae’s poem have haunted many a student of literature. History, too: Voices from the graves in Flanders fields, where “poppies blow/Between the crosses, row by row,” seem to admonish us about the human cost of war McCrae saw 97 years ago, in the tragically misnamed “war to end all wars.”
They are more haunting still for a visitor to the cemeteries in Flanders fields, in the Ardennes, at Normandy. And these are just the American memorials, just a few of them.
“Never again” is the feeling that overcomes a visitor to these gravesites. It is also the mantra that for 55 years has led the peoples of Belgium, France, Germany and beyond to band together and extricate themselves from millennia of war. World War I did not “end all wars” in Western Europe, but economic cooperation, beginning with the free trade of coal and steel in 1957, has. So far.
As another Memorial Day approaches, though, it is with haunting memories that a visitor to those gravesites might look back across the pond, and see creeping reasons for worry.
The first glance is to Greece, whose fiscal profligacy has brought it again to the brink of default and, perhaps, an exit from the euro currency. Bailouts from more sound nations, chiefly Germany, are all that have kept these developments at bay the past 27 months.
Now, there’s anger. The Greeks feel betrayed by their government for agreeing to the bailouts, and resentful of the austerity the Germans demanded in exchange. This month they voted in large numbers against the two centrist parties, and for a collection of radicals, Communists and neo-Nazis who speak with a nationalist tone — anathema to the European Union.
The Germans also feel betrayed: It’s well-documented that Athens lied about its finances when applying to join the euro. And they are resentful of being handed the check after spending a decade getting their own finances in order.
Just as there is the threat of financial contagion spreading from Greece to more consequential economies — Italy, Spain, even France — there is the risk these nations will also point the finger at Berlin. Voters in these countries have already lashed out at their political establishments and are not unfamiliar with nationalism.
History suggests the prospect of an isolated, indignant Germany is not to be relished.
There may also be some inauspicious timing on America’s part. Seventy years of guarding against remilitarization in Europe may wind down as Washington grapples with the realities of its own profligacy and, perhaps, looks to withdraw finally from the theater. A subsequent rearmament in Europe, even if in the name of defense, would seem only natural.
For now, there is reason to believe the worst scenarios can still be avoided. It is a long march from a Greek exit from the euro to a divided, rearmed Europe. And for all the dark clouds on the horizon, many here and there still hear those voices in Flanders fields.
But do not forget that the admonition preceding the warning not to “break faith with us who die” reflects a different sentiment, one that exists yet in human nature:
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you with failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
Even in Flanders fields.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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223 comments Add your comment
JDW
May 25th, 2012
4:41 pm
It would probably do the lot of them a world of good if we took the White House Staff, Congress and Supreme Court to Flanders Field and locked them in with the ghosts for week…maybe then the could find the humanity that seems to escape them.
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
4:42 pm
I wish you would have stated for the record that the Nazis were FASCIST SOCIALIST, Kyle. Unfortunately the resident Marxist you have on your blog never studied world history beyond the second grade level. As surely as this post was made there will be some dullard leftwinger ignorantly claim or parrot Marxist democrat false propaganda that the Nazis were rightwingers.
Nazi Germany
The Third Reich, also Nazi Germany, is the common name for Germany when it was a totalitarian state ruled by Adolf Hitler and the National “Socialist” German Workers’ Party (NSDAP).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany
Footnote: Never forget Hitler was elected!
Rafe Hollister
May 25th, 2012
4:47 pm
Kyle, you had a column the other day where you pointed out how Greece never embraced Austerity. All the libs/Oblama were apoplectic that yes they did and that was their problem. Too much austerity in Europe according to Oblama and the libs.
Then one morning someone woke Oblamer from his restless sleep and told him some columnist had an printed an article in the Wash Post that proclaimed him to be frugal. He jumps from bed, runs to the nearest microphone and says, “Hey, I’m frugal, very frugal. implying that what we need is austerity. The Carney barker of a Press Officer runs to the mike and criticizes the press for not broadcasting this lie from the rooftops, He is Frugal! You can’t make this stuff up, hilarious!!!!!!
MM
May 25th, 2012
4:48 pm
More than a bit melodramatic but there’s definitely a problem in Europe.
Unfortunately you want to demonize the Greeks because they are a cultural “other” that Americans like to look down there noses on. Too bad we can’t blame the French for the mess. Yes, the Greek government lied but all governments, and the big banks, lie including ours. The Bush years was so dense on “big lies” that we’ll be at least another decade in paying the cost. Lets blame Obama; he’s an “other” too.
The root of the European problem is the financial exploitation of Southern Europe by the North, led by Germany, which occurred when the Southern countries were admitted into the European Union. Northern greed and Southern vanity drove that decision. The Northern banks had a field day in speculation in the South that eventually went bust. Mostly a housing bubble just as the US had/has. Instead of laying the blame on a private sector gone wild where it belongs the media instructs us to blame the South only and demand that the middle and working classes pay for the excess of the 1 percent.
Now where have we heard that before?
JDW
May 25th, 2012
4:51 pm
@Michael H. Smith…I think some time in Flanders Field would do you a world of good as well.
BTW, with logic like that, maybe we should not let you negotiate with the The Democratic Peoples Republic in Korea. I guessing you think they are our friends.
JDW
May 25th, 2012
4:52 pm
@Michael K Smith…BTW Flanders Field is from WW 1…that was a bit before any of that other German unpleasantness.
md
May 25th, 2012
4:59 pm
Rearmament? With what?
They are already talking about boasting tax rates to 75% just to fund their entitlements……50 years of sucking off the US defense teet has left them ill prepared to fend for themselves……and now we can no longer afford it either.
md
May 25th, 2012
5:00 pm
Boosting tax rates would make more sense md…..
Dusty
May 25th, 2012
5:01 pm
Ohh Memorial Day!!! How good it is to be all patriotic and honor our troops and all those fine things. We can drop the Poltical Correctness Manual and actually be proud of our country and all the people who died fighting for it.
When I was young enough to be a Girl Scout, we passed out little red paper poppies to everyone who passed at this holiday.. We were proud. Little patriots!!
I hope we can get that spirit to last all year as we honor those who lie in Flanders Fields and around the world, they who fought for the country they believed in.
Now, going to be some good parades around Atlanta. Let’s see. Which one???? Gotta be one with a big band..(Can’t worry about Europe right this minute, Kyle.)
DAVETV
May 25th, 2012
5:03 pm
John McCrae is my great, great uncle on my mothers side. No big deal, just sayin’ it’s pretty to cool for me.
Hillbilly D
May 25th, 2012
5:24 pm
I never thought the idea of a European Union would last and I still don’t. It goes a lot deeper than economics.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 25th, 2012
5:26 pm
The only war Europe has in it’s near future is with it’s own muslim population.
And right now, my monies on the terrorists.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
5:33 pm
This will be Obozo’s fourth Memorial Day since infesting Our White House. Think his handlers have been able to teach him what it is that Americans celebrate on that day?
Obozo, 2008: “On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”
Idiot.
Thomas Heyward Jr.
May 25th, 2012
5:35 pm
Happy Memorial Day.
.
You Flander Field guys………………fertilyzing the poppies…………………………………..you lost the fight of freedom.
Thanks for trying.
.
Now everyone else………….buckle your dang seat-belts, pay your taxes, buy WHAT the government tells you to..and WHEN it tells you to. ..And report every aspect of your life every April 15. Also….do not so much as LOOK at a TSA Agent or any other State-Costumed Employee when they order you to do something…Keep your eyes downcast…Do want your’re TOLD to.
.
You may remember SuperBowls or World Series from 100 years ago.
Just DON’T remember anything pre-September. 2001.
.
Carry on.
.
Thomas Heyward Jr.
May 25th, 2012
5:37 pm
And maybe lose some weight too.
.
Obesity is NOT good for the collective.
.
Just remember……………Obama/Romney will save us all.
.
Carry on.
xdog
May 25th, 2012
5:43 pm
Greece citizens don’t believe in paying their taxes and they don’t want to change that longstanding habit.
German bankers feel paying one’s taxes is a duty and they want Greeks to change their culture to embrace that view.
My belief is that Greeks won’t change and Germans are foolish for expecting them to change. German bankers should find a way to gently and gradually toss them from Euroland.
xdog
May 25th, 2012
5:45 pm
“John McCrae is my great, great uncle on my mothers side. No big deal, just sayin’ it’s pretty to cool for me.”
DAVETV, I agree, very cool.
MarkV
May 25th, 2012
5:49 pm
“History suggests the prospect of an isolated, indignant Germany is not to be relished.”
Sounds unduly alarmist. The lessons of history give no indication that the problems of Europe might lead to any general armed conflict. While there is a fair amount of enmity in places like Greece towards Germany based on history, how and why would that lead to an effort of a military solution? Surely Greece would not want to attack Germany and what would Germany want to do with Greece?
The current problems of EU are economic/political, and the danger to us is economic. It is almost inevitable that the very complex problems will be trivialized in the posts here. The economic crisis in Europe has not happened because of “socialist” policies, except in a few individual cases, such as Greece.
Rafe Hollister
May 25th, 2012
5:49 pm
Thomas Heyward
Those guys died giving us freedom, they can’t help that we are trying to vote it away. Happy Memorial Day, and as Benjamin Franklin once said, “We gave you a Republic, if you can keep it”.
md
May 25th, 2012
5:57 pm
“The economic crisis in Europe has not happened because of “socialist” policies, except in a few individual cases, such as Greece.”
Must explain why france is talking about 75% tax rates………..the 50+ isn’t quite covering their entitlements…..and just think, they have no defense spending for the most part……none of them.
Rafe Hollister
May 25th, 2012
6:01 pm
MarkV
The economic crisis in Europe has not happened because of “socialist” policies, except in a few individual cases, such as Greece.
Well unfettered capitalism and individual responsibility have not been practiced in Europe in generations, so the problem was caused by….?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
6:16 pm
It’s Bush’s fault. Again.
MarkV
May 25th, 2012
6:17 pm
Rafe Hollister @6:01 pm: “Well unfettered capitalism and individual responsibility have not been practiced in Europe in generations, so the problem was caused by….?”
As I predicted, you want to trivialize the issue, as if the complexity of it could be reduced to a few sentences. In addition, you have started with a ridiculous assertion that “individual responsibility have not been practiced in Europe in generations.” That may be your opinion, but is has no relation any rational thought. True, unfettered capitalism has been rejected in Europe (just as in the USA), and many countries have been doing quite well before the financial crisis, which hit Europe as much as the US.
ragnar danneskjold
May 25th, 2012
6:21 pm
Nice reminder that, as screwed up as we are in ObAmerica, Europe, as always, is worse.
Dusty
May 25th, 2012
6:23 pm
MarkV
It seems that your heart does lie somewhere in Europe as your homesickness is hard to miss. But to not understand the thought that “an unhappy indignant Germany is not to be relished” is not….well…understandable.
The history of WWI & WW2 almost always starts with Germany, the Kaiser, Hitler. Those two both used the unhappiness of Germans in their reach for sovereignty. Therefore it is not unusual to be somewhat leary when Germans are unhappy.
That does not mean that Germany or Greece are planning any kind of war. It just means, don’t ever forget. It seem you have already forgotten past history..
grated
May 25th, 2012
6:31 pm
This is why war should always be a last resort. And proof that W and the Republicans nearly ruined not just this country, but the entire world with their Iraq War.
We weren’t supposed to intervene in Iraq. Big Mistake. No remedy. The Mayan Prophecy begins in five minutes.
“….I see a flash in the sky, a bright light…..EEEEEEEEEEEIEIEIEIEIIEEIEIEIGGHHHHTTT!!!!!”
MarkV
May 25th, 2012
6:34 pm
Dusty @6:23 pm
“It seems that your heart does lie somewhere in Europe as your homesickness is hard to miss.”
Are you accusing everybody who knows more of the world than you do to have his/her heart elsewhere?
“But to not understand the thought that “an unhappy indignant Germany is not to be relished” is not….well…understandable.”
With all due respect, I know much more about “unhappy indignant Germany” more than you do. Please do not try to give me history lessons.
“That does not mean that Germany or Greece are planning any kind of war.”
If they are not, what is the point of the article? That they might plan in the future? The point I was making was – what for?
Rafe Hollister
May 25th, 2012
6:37 pm
MarkV
You are the one who made the simplistic statement attributed to you in my post. To say, well its complicated, but it wasn’t socialistic policies that caused it, implies that you know something that the rest of us (rubes-to you I’m sure) don’t know. All I was asking was, for you to share you knowledge with the rest of us. There are no facts just your opinion, is what you throw out frequently on these pages.. Well, where are the facts and the rest of your story?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
6:39 pm
Without the Iraq war, Egypt would not have been conducting free, fair elections for new leadership today.
Our President Bush knew exactly what he was doing and the world is more free and democratic as a result.
Thank you, President George Walker Bush.
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 25th, 2012
6:50 pm
Dusty
We need to get those Braves turned around tonight!
MarkV
May 25th, 2012
6:51 pm
Rafe Hollister @6:37 pm: “To say, well its complicated, but it wasn’t socialistic policies that caused it, implies that you know something that the rest of us (rubes-to you I’m sure) don’t know.”
These kinds of stupid comments do not help anything. I did not claim that only I knew something more than simplistic assertions that socialist policies were to blame. There are plenty of thoughtful analyses, if you want to read them. My point is that this is not a place for going into those details, because if would get bogged down by people with simplistic opinions like yours. There are obvious problems in EU of a common currency without the underlying financial structure, the effect of financial deregulation affecting both US and Europe, yes, some irresponsible financial policies in places like Greece, and the foolish and failed austerity attempts..
Just saying..
May 25th, 2012
6:57 pm
JDW
May 25th, 2012
4:51 pm
Amen.
Shaniqua
May 25th, 2012
7:17 pm
The average German worker/taxpayer must be wondering ‘what have we gotten ourselves into’ right about now. The spendthrift Greeks will never change their ways, and they’ll ride the handout gravy train long as they can get away with it. I am surprised that Frau Merkel etal have let it run this far.
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
7:18 pm
JDW,
Yeah brucie you worthless windbag, tell me all about how much good your grandiose socialism… oops… social democracy has done for humanity. Especially that part of it labeled Democrat, okay? You know, Democrat, as in that political party that has took this country to war every time but once during the last century, which includes and begins your beloved progressive-marxistWoodrow Wilson? Oh does he fit in your Flanders field slobbering? Seems history fails you on that point doesn’t it now?
Oh and BTW, brucie wilcox , if you read, or if you can comprehend what you try to read, you dummy, Kyle brought up the Nazis in his article, which led to my statement that you and your stupidity tried to spin into something other than what I pointed out that had nothing to do with your WWI misleading crap meant to deflect attention away from my comment about you and your leftwing ignorant ilk always claiming the NAZSI were rightwingers.
PS. Double down on all the above to your amen, just saying…
Dusty
May 25th, 2012
7:19 pm
Rafe,
I’m counting on Hudson to pull “us” through tonight. I hope everybody is in good shape but I haven’t heard. The Braves have such a good team. Go BRAVES!! I’ll be keeping an eye on them,
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
7:26 pm
Chipper’s out, McCann is out.
Toast.
david green
May 25th, 2012
7:32 pm
WW1 started when France and England declared war on Germany after sending in its army into Serbia after a terrorist who murdered a member of the Austrian royal family. Sound familiar after the bombing of the world trade center the US sent its might against Afghanistan in order to get Osama; an action which failed in its mission and has needlessly cost thousands of American lives as well as wasted tax payer dollars. All so that Bush and Chenny could funnel money to corporations like Haliburton in return for campaign contributions.
If Germany was wrong then so was the US of A. That’s what I’ll be thinking about Kyle while you and your fellow republicans wave the flag in the pretense of being patriotic on Memorial Day and on election day in November.
Hillbilly D
May 25th, 2012
7:32 pm
The beautiful thing about baseball is every game starts out 0-0 and every day is a new day.
@@
May 25th, 2012
7:33 pm
It’s been interesting to watch this unfold at STRATFOR.
The Europe that is taking shape is one with Germany in the lead and Russia hovering — ever more influential — to its immediate east.–STRATFOR
md
May 25th, 2012
7:34 pm
“and the foolish and failed austerity attempts..”
Out of curiosity, what option is left when the money has all dried up?
Who exactly would they be borrowing from in order to spend their way out of their problem? Which by the way was created from doing the exact same thing…….
md
May 25th, 2012
7:36 pm
“The beautiful thing about baseball is every game starts out 0-0 and every day is a new day.”
Which is why #8 seed GT is the only 2-0 team in the 8 team ACC tourney right now…..it’s why they play the games.
@@
May 25th, 2012
7:37 pm
Europe is short of funds and short on time. They’re caught in a “perfect” storm.
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 25th, 2012
7:37 pm
Mark
So, you make a simplistic statement with nothing whatsoever to back it up, and when challenged you accuse me of having simplistic opinions.
Gotta go watch those Braves, doesn’t look good for the home nine.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
7:38 pm
If there is any real austerity in Europe, it’s caused by governments taking too much of a country’s production for itself, rather than leaving it with the people who earned it–their taxpayers.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
7:40 pm
“All so that Bush and Chenny could funnel money to corporations like Haliburton in return for campaign contributions.”
——————————
Hello, zero credibility.
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
7:41 pm
Shaniqua
Perhaps it is a surprise to some in Germany. To those who know what the eventual outcome of what a complete national financial collapse could mean, will go a long way before conceding to that type of failure. Personally I’ll be amazed if they can pull this thing off but for the good of all, including the U.S., I hope they can perform capitalist magic, because European Socialism has been the proverbial rabbit in the hat promised utopia .
Dusty
May 25th, 2012
7:48 pm
MarkV
So it’s Germany you are missing. And no, you are the only one I know at the moment who is homesick for Europe. And I am sure you know more history of Germany than I do. I reminded you of the most simple historical facts of WWII & WWII. You can write a book about it if you like. But bragging about your great knowledge is not a sure way of convincing people that is true.
As usual, you have drawn the wrong inference from what is posted. Kyle simply said that “inhappy Germans are not to be relished”. That is simply a reminder of history and nothing else. Most of us are quite pleased that there is one financially stable country in Europe and that seems to be Germany.
You miss a lot. This is Memorial Day on Monday and Kyle had that in mind. He included parts of a fine poem related to those we remember, some of them buried in Flanders field.
Now that is in Europe and is part of a past war. Therefore Kyle was considering the status of Europe at this time. It was as simple as that. Nothing undercover. He has lived there you know.
Now you know that no one was downgrading your beloved Germany. But you downgrade yourself with your rude and unnecessary accusations.
Don’t forget to celebrate Memorial Day. It is an American custom (in case you did not know.)
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
7:49 pm
Huddy…come on man.
MarkV
May 25th, 2012
7:50 pm
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang @7:37 pm: “So, you make a simplistic statement with nothing whatsoever to back it up, and when challenged you accuse me of having simplistic opinions.”
Apparently you do not even understand what a simplistic statement means. I have rejected a simplistic idea that “socialist” policies are the cause of the problems in Europe, and suggested an outline of some of the causes. You have not offered anything.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
7:51 pm
There are several European countries that are doing well, but they’re mostly not members of the EU.
stranger in a strange land
May 25th, 2012
7:51 pm
Ragnar @ 621 – always appreciate your comments, and I’m still trying to make myself feel better that Europe is worse off than the US (but it ain’t happening so far)
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
7:52 pm
lbb,
When governments are preoccupied with creating entitlements through income and wealth redistribution rather than focusing its attention on creating opportunities that allows an economic climate to occur which is conducive to the private sector creating jobs the result is always a zero sum game where all become equally poor and living in austerity.
I’ll take my chances on a liberated capitalist market distributing the wealth and incomes without a fascist government picking the winners and losers by means of anti-business anti-competitive regulations.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
7:58 pm
As would any thinking person, MHS. Well said.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
7:59 pm
Any thinking person who doesn’t mind working a little bit, that it. That would exclude Obozo’s base.
Hillbilly D
May 25th, 2012
8:00 pm
Since the subject of WW I has come up, this is an interesting talk by Adam Hochschild about his book “To End All Wars”. It’s about 45 minutes.
Like a lot of wars, it could’ve been prevented and without it and its aftermath, there likely would’ve been no WW II.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ToEndA
md
May 25th, 2012
8:10 pm
“Like a lot of wars, it could’ve been prevented and without it and its aftermath, there likely would’ve been no WW II.”
Maybe not the WW2 that we know, but quite possibly one anyway…..it takes a lot less to start them than it does to end them.
The little kookoo in North Korea or some stray group in Pakistan have the means to get things started…….we just have to hope they don’t.
Not to mention the ME radicals that have no problem whatsoever strapping little bombs on themselves and going boom…….one can only imagine what a few of those guys would do with a bigger boom……….
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
8:14 pm
World War I did not “end all wars” in Western Europe, but economic cooperation, beginning with the free trade of coal and steel in 1957, has. So far.
Another interesting item is how or what was said to have actually ended WWI: Influenza.
One other point you’ve brought up Kyle is economic cooperation by means of steel and coal trade. What happened about that same time-frame in this country that has been attributed to destroying the U.S. steel industry’s former greatness?
Boortz done a wonderful job in laying out the cause of this calamity.
md
May 25th, 2012
8:31 pm
Looks like the Bravos decided not to wait till Sept to collapse this year……..
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
8:33 pm
This one is for you brucie wilcox a.k.a. JWD…
Steel strike of 1959
The steel strike of 1959 was a 1959 labor union strike by the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) against major steel-making companies in the United States.
The strike occurred over management’s demand that the union give up a contract clause which limited management’s ability to change the number of workers assigned to a task or to introduce new work rules or machinery which would result in reduced hours or numbers of employees. The strike’s effects persuaded President Dwight D. Eisenhower to invoke the back-to-work provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act. The union sued to have the Act declared unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court upheld the law.[1]
The union eventually retained the contract clause and won minimal wage increases. On the other hand, the strike led to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in U.S. history, which replaced the domestic steel industry in the long run.[2]….
Impact of the strike
In the long run, the strike devastated the American steel industry. More than 85 percent of U.S. steel production had been shut down for almost four months. Hungry for steel, American industries began importing steel from foreign sources. Steel imports had been negligible prior to 1959. But during the strike, basic U.S. industries found Japanese and Korean steel to be less costly than American steel, even after accounting for importation costs. The sudden shift toward imported steel set in motion a series of events which led to the gradual decline of the American steel industry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_strike_of_1959
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 25th, 2012
8:56 pm
obozo thinks he’s a spendthrift and the Eurotrash think they’ve tried austerity, one must wonder who feeds and bathes them in their hollowed out, clueless little world.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
9:14 pm
“The strike occurred over management’s demand that the union give up a contract clause which limited management’s ability to change the number of workers assigned to a task or to introduce new work rules or machinery”
———————————–
Just another example of Democrats standing in the way of real progress.
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
9:15 pm
One more CORRECTION for you brucie, as to your claim about the WWI non-existent unpleasantness of the Socialist Democratic Party of Germany.
Causes of World War I…
Domestic political factors:
German domestic politics
Left wing parties, especially the “Social Democratic Party of Germany” (SPD) made large gains in the 1912 German election. German government at the time was still dominated by the Prussian Junkers who feared the rise of these left wing parties. Fritz Fischer famously argued that they deliberately sought an external war to distract the population and whip up patriotic support for the government.[15] Russia was in the midst of a large scale military build-up and reform that they completed in 1916-17.
Other authors argue that German conservatives were ambivalent about a war, worrying that losing a war would have disastrous consequences, and even a successful war might alienate the population if it were lengthy or difficult.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_World_War_I
~
Yeah those old rightwing conservatives were ambivalent about getting involved in a war the leftwing Socialist Democratic Party of Germany wanted to pursue.
Where’s a real NAZI when you need one, right?
Dusty
May 25th, 2012
9:26 pm
Come on, Braves. It is getting late. We love you. Keep going”!!!
janet
May 25th, 2012
9:30 pm
The Bush/ Cheney war in Iraq didnot give the Egyptians their free elections. The internet, an educated but underemployed youth, the inspiration of Tunisia and the election of Barack Obama in 2008 sent a loud and clear message to every nation where there was no freedom, that if America the richest, most powerful nation on Earth can elect a black man against all odds, then anything is possible in any country. I have travelled to many of these countries and I can tell you that is what I hear even 4 years later. It is quite remarkable to me how absolutely ignorant Americans are of the international importance and impact the election of President Obama has had around the globe. Obama 2012.
You libs
May 25th, 2012
9:32 pm
I’m so scared I’m going to vote for someone who says they’ll protect me from that scary old future. Let’s go back to those good old (for a very few among us) Reagan years.
I don’t want to think about what we COULD accomplish, I want to think about what bad stuff COULD happen.
Kyle has helped me a lot in that respect.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 25th, 2012
9:37 pm
I’m so scared I’m going to vote for someone who says they’ll protect me from that scary old future.
—————————–
Yep, the America-hating Marxist who is running against capitalism is your guy since you need someone to guarantee you a “fair shot”, whatever that is. Folks who can cut it in the real economy will be voting for Romney, however.
td
May 25th, 2012
9:43 pm
You libs
May 25th, 2012
9:32 pm
Your entire post makes absolutely no sense at all. What are you talking about?
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
9:46 pm
What I’m hearing in America is, NoMo’Years! NoMo’bama!
Return America to prosperity – Romney 2012
Dusty
May 25th, 2012
9:52 pm
Janet,
American are pleased that citizens around the glode have discovered that Americans are as open minded and equal as we claim to be.
Besides being open minded and equal, we can also tell the difference between good leadership and mediocre. I think “world citizens” will see more American clarity in the next election. We demand good leadership and will go about getting it the next time we vote.
Dusty
May 25th, 2012
10:28 pm
Uh oh…..I think the Braves are in trouble. They have a CHRISTHIAN pitching against JESUS!
Well, to be exact, it is Christhian Martinez pitching against Jesus Flores.
Hmm had me worried there for a moment. Not to mention the score! Go Braves!!
yuzeyurbrane
May 25th, 2012
10:40 pm
Kyle, nice try at trying to convey big thoughts. It shot right over the heads of most of your regular bloggers. Are you sure you want to keep company with these intellectually challenged pseudo-conservatives?
Michael H. Smith
May 25th, 2012
11:34 pm
Good job broaching many subject areas of importance Kyle , without being consumed or constrained by the cellophane of a “mere poetic wrapping”. Most of your intelligent blog followers, which just happen to be conservatives, possess the ability to focus on the entirety of your writings and not entirely on a wordsmiths’ embellishment as these leftwingers do, for their myopic biased perspective that they would like impose upon the rest of us to avoid any public talk about the real issues by attempting to limit the depth and breadth of your actual blog content.
Whoosh… these mental midgets… Kyle, we really do need better hecklers.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 26th, 2012
12:46 am
“and the foolish and failed austerity attempts..”
I see MaryV is continuing the already discredited “Europe tried austerity and it failed” meme.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
6:31 am
World English Dictionary
carny or carney 1 (ˈkɑːnɪ)
— vb , -nies , -nying , -nied , -neys , -neying , -neyed
informal ( Brit ) to coax or cajole or act in a wheedling manner
— n , pl -nies
1. short for carnival
2. a person who works in a carnival
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
6:52 am
Economic meltdowns, global warming, and no end to Guantanamo: How the world is disappointed in Obama’s performance (and his broken promises)
Obama reached zenith of popularity at 2008 Berlin rally
However, other countries now disappointed after expectations not met in President’s first term
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a world weary of war and economic crises, and concerned about global climate change, the consensus is that President Obama has not lived up to the lofty expectations that surrounded his 2008 election and Nobel Peace Prize a year later.
Many in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America were also taken aback by his support for gay marriage, a taboo subject among religious conservatives.
In Europe, where more than 200,000 people thronged a Berlin rally in 2008 to hear Obama speak, there’s disappointment that he hasn’t kept his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay
———————————–
The Middle East and northern Africa are looking to newly democratic Iraq and wondering why they have (or had) to put up with their own authoritarian regimes. Egypt and others decided to do something about it, and are now freeing themselves.
Thank you, President George Walker Bush, for making this all possible.
Michael H. Smith
May 26th, 2012
7:50 am
Europe hasn’t begun to undergo genuine austerity. When they do honestly try austerity we in the U.S. will not escape their fiscal difficulties unscathed.
However, we do have one get out of Marxist/Socialist Hell card left that we can play to trump the worst of European austerity’s financial dealings. But we will require a new card dealer at the card table in the oval office who knows how to play the game of Capitalist Hold’em and where&when to go all in!
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 26th, 2012
8:08 am
janet
May 25th, 2012
9:30 pm
Janet,
I’m sure the Germans felt the same way about Hitler. Keep drinking the cool-aid.
DawgDad
May 26th, 2012
8:25 am
Everyone in the Western world is telling Germany what Germany should be doing to solve everyone else’s economic woes. Fortunately, Germany is too mature and responsible to just tell the leeches to take a hike, but patience may be wearing thin.
A few years back (around 2005) I had the opportunity to visit Germany and speak with some people in the heartland. They were of a conservative economic mind the Tea Party here would be proud to embrace. Greece today, Spain tomorrow, California on the horizon. Who will pay the bill? Not the free spenders.
Did anyone notice Illinois just cut $1.6 BILLION from medicaid? Causing quite a stir up there.
marko
May 26th, 2012
8:35 am
Benito Mussolini once stated that Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is the merger of government and corporate powers. Fascism is a right wing philosophy. Communism is a left wing philosophy. Both are fairly harmless ideas until the government decides that they are the only correct ideas a person should be allowed to possess. At that point you wind up with a totalitarian state. Totalitarian states are always corrupt and abusive. Ideas on the other hand are harmless. We should be allowed to believe any damn fool thing we like. The harm comes when we insist that our fool ideas are the only correct ideas. No one should be allowed to take away another man’s ice cream simply because God told you he selected an evil flavor. God hates chocolate ice cream. That’s why he turned it brown.
My ice cream example may seem silly to some, but is it really that much different than amending the constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. A government with the power to define marriage could just as easily define it as the union of one man and one man. or one woman and and another woman. How would you like if an all powerful government decided to tell you who you could or could not marry? Isn’t that Reverend Moon’s job?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
8:52 am
Interesting thought from a WSJ letter to the editor…Germany should be the country to withdraw from the Eurozone–then the debtor nations that are left would have no choice but austerity, since the folks currently paying the bills would be gone.
DawgDad
May 26th, 2012
8:56 am
marko: Whoa. “A government with the power to define marriage could just as easily define it as . . .”
OUR government DOES have the power to define marriage, at least in a legal sense. It has done so, and up to this point it’s been one man and one woman, with some emerging exceptions on a State-by-State basis. I know when I got married I was required to have a license from the State, and a blood test.
Connecting Fascism and Right Wing is totally unimportant and misses the point (it’s not all that important to distinguish Communism is Left Wing, either), which is ANY system whereby Government directs enterprise is inherently an infringment on liberty and extremely dangerous. There are no absolutes in the real world; sensible regulation is often warranted and in times of war or extreme duress liberty may necessarily need to be infringed. The whole point of America is to establish and preserve Liberty and Freedom, a concept we seem to be losing sight of.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
9:08 am
Whether it’s communism or fascism, the common thread is more and more government control over people.
There is one political party in America that seeks more government, that shares the goals of both the communists and the fascists.
Democrats.
jconservative
May 26th, 2012
9:14 am
Here is a list of the EU countries. To me the most notable absences are Norway and Switzerland.
Austria -Belgium- Bulgaria -Cyprus -Czech Republic -Denmark -Estonia -Finland -France -Germany
Greece -Hungary- Ireland -Italy- Latvia -Lithuania -Luxembourg- Malta – Netherlands -Poland Portugal -Romania -Slovakia – Slovenia – Spain -Sweden -United Kingdom
Michael H. Smith
May 26th, 2012
9:26 am
Fascism, Socialism and Communism all share the same Marxist root.
Marxism is the evil root that grew a wicked tree bearing the evil fruits of Fascism, Socialism and Communism.
marko
May 26th, 2012
10:02 am
Most families at one time or another face hard times. The job that used to easily make car, and house payments, suddenly got out sourced. Now forget the house note and the car payment. You have to figure out how to put food on the table.
Over the years, I’ve experienced a couple bouts of vanishing paycheck. There is a silver lining. You get a crash course in what’s really important. What’s really important? Air comes to mind. Most of would die in a couple of minutes without it. After air, consider water, most folks go room temperature in three to five day’s without it. Next, food, food is good. you can live a month or more without food, but I don’t think you’ll enjoy it.
One important thing most folks forget is memory. How do you forget memory? We evolved from creatures that remembered where the leopard hid on the way to the water hole. If we forgot that simple fact, we didn’t evolve. we deposited our defective genes in petrified leopard poop to be discovered by modern anthropologist eons latter.
This brings me to budget battle part two. Speaker Boehner has promised us a thrilling sequel to the last budget debate. Some of you may remember that the president promised to exchange ten dollars in spending cuts for a dollar of new revenue. At the time , Boehner seemed receptive to the idea, but the Tea Party faithful shot the idea down. Anyone remember the debt crisis? Rember our credit rating being down graded? Looking forward to asininely stupid part two? If we’re really lucky, the Tea Party bunch will take the short cut to the water hole.
Old Timer
May 26th, 2012
10:05 am
If you are old enough to remember when Memorial Day was Decoration Day and the reason, you will also remember that history repeats itself. Unfortunately our current government leadership doesn’t remember.
marko
May 26th, 2012
10:08 am
Dawgdad, isn’t that pretty much what i said?
md
May 26th, 2012
10:47 am
“Most families at one time or another face hard times. The job that used to easily make car, and house payments, suddenly got out sourced. Now forget the house note and the car payment. You have to figure out how to put food on the table. ”
Except in days gone by, folks knew what they could afford and saved up to buy what they couldn’t…..that house and that car are part of the problem today……..all borrowed money.
Jeremy
May 26th, 2012
11:31 am
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/sen-majority-leader-once-regular-sports-handicappi/nPFLc/
Can you please out these hypocrites? I am a conservative but the GA House and Senate is a toilet boil. Time to flush
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 26th, 2012
11:32 am
marko
Some of you may remember that the president promised to exchange ten dollars in spending cuts for a dollar of new revenue.
The leopard has tricked us before, Marko, hence our reluctance to fall for the same trap again. Libs can’t seem to get it through their head that if you want revenue enhancement, first prove you are serious about cutting the insane spending. Once, we see some results, then if the money is DEDICATED to the debt alone, maybe. But, giving more revenue for Oblama to give to Solyndra like boondoogles is not going to happen.
It is the same scenario as immigration reform. Close the dang borders before you open your mouth about doing anything else with immigration reform.
Libs want to make everything complicated and obtuse like the 1700 pages Oblamacare bill, so they can hide their dirty work in the reams of paper. Do the obvious stuff first then go from there.
@@
May 26th, 2012
11:44 am
An excellent read for anyone willing to take the time.
At the time of the Wilson presidency, progressives did not view the exercise of state power and the violation of individual rights as a war-time exception to be set aside in times of peace. To the contrary, Herbert Croly (founding editor of the New Republic), John Dewey (father of progressive education), Walter Lippman (perhaps the century’s most influential political writer), Richard Ely (founder of the American Economic Association) and many others saw war as an opportunity to rid the country of classical liberalism and the doctrine of laissez faire.
In fact, the primary domestic objective of progressives was to create in peacetime what Wilson had accomplished during war. They were able to do so a little more than a decade later. Franklin Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Wilson, and when he led Democrats back to the White House in 1932 he brought with him an army of intellectuals and bureaucrats who shared the progressive-era vision. Indeed, most of the “alphabet soup” of agencies set up during the Great Depression were continuations of various boards and committees set up during World War I.
Perhaps because of World War II, the revelations of all the gory details of the Nazi Holocaust, and the subsequent Cold War, it quickly became inconvenient, if not acutely embarrassing, for historians and other commentators to remind people of the state of intellectual relations before hostilities broke out. At that time, it was commonplace for intellectuals on the left to be enamored of Lenin’s communist regime in Russia. And almost everyone who was enamored of Lenin was also an admirer of Mussolini’s Fascist government in Italy. For example, General Hugh “Iron Pants” Johnson, who ran Roosevelt’s National Recovery Administration (NRA) kept a picture of Mussolini hanging on his wall. The admiration was often mutual. Some writers for publications in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy wrote of their fascination with Roosevelt’s New Deal.
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/classical-liberalism-vs-modern-liberalism-and-modern-conservatism
Never should’ve let progressives into our midst. Are liberals sure they wanna be called progressives now? I’m convinced they keep changing their labels to throw those who would oppose them off their guard.
Among the many things I did not know….Joe McCarthy was originally a Democrat from Wisconsin….the home of America’s Progressive Movement?
Interesting.
tiredofIT
May 26th, 2012
12:11 pm
“Thank you, President George Walker Bush.” I doubt the injured solders and families of the dead agree!
@@
May 26th, 2012
12:22 pm
Or maybe they’re just ignorant of the history behind their chosen ideology.
Kindly giving them the benefit of a doubt.
schnirt
snoqualmiefalls
May 26th, 2012
12:50 pm
Uhhh, MarkV, you make great points, however you are not abiding by the rules TBan has set up, therfore your thoughts are insignificant in his view. And of course I am deflecting, as TBan continually points out because , as you know, he knows and you don’t. It would all be very simple to adapt TBan’s world view, and it would all be much simplier if TBan were “our Dear Leader”… but I deflect.
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
May 26th, 2012
1:47 pm
Marko, sadly you don’t remember much about the last debt ceiling go around. Obama didn’t do the $10 in cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. That was a moderator at a GOP debate.
Facts are such troublesome things, aren’t they?
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
May 26th, 2012
1:49 pm
MaryV would make better points if he just tried to stop lying so much, sno.
Tundra Dude
May 26th, 2012
2:25 pm
It’s well-documented that Athens lied about its finances when applying to join the euro.
Would have been useful to include the name of the Wall Street firm responsible for “helping”
Greece (and other sub-prime countries) conceal their true debtload.
At least one German economist predicted this outcome years ago. He thought then, this was being
orchestrated by the bankers. I agree.
snoqualmiefalls
May 26th, 2012
2:42 pm
Hey TBan… As our Dear Leader, St. Reagan used to say “there you go again” A pithy remark is always expected from you…never disappoint us do you?
Joe the Prophet
May 26th, 2012
2:52 pm
CULT – people devoted to a person, idea, or thing, based entirely on faith; without regard to fact, proof, or evidence……
Conservatives are now a CULT……
The NRA gun cult, the birther cult, the Grover Norquist tax cut cult, the Paul Broun spending cut cult, the pro-life/terrorist cult…not to mention their numerous religious cult……
All led by their cultist leader..Mitt Romney..! The association is just to obvious to ignore..!!!!
david green
May 26th, 2012
3:55 pm
Yes Michael Hitler was elected which was made possible by the treaty of Versailles that Germany was forced to sign after losing a police action against Serbia that had been expanded into a world war by both Britain and France. The harsh reparations demanded by President Woodrow Wilson did just as they were intended to do: which was to punish the Germans by destroying their national economy which then brought about the very social conditions that gave rise to Hitler.
The National “Socialist” German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) headed by Hitler was in reality a forerunner of today’s conservative movement. Hitler hated the communists and used his power to destroy the communist party in Germany – one of the first things that Hitler did when he came to power was to abolish the labor unions and enslaved the German worker to their employers who financially supported Hitler’s political campaign.
Just as Hitler intentionally deceived German workers into voting for the Nazi party by labeling his political organization National “Socialist” German Workers’ Party – his actions after coming to power make it clear that he was in reality a Corporate Socialist just as are modern day American Conservatives. Today’s American Conservatives have worked tirelessly since the days of Ronald Reagan to socialize the unreasonable risks the big banks and wall street takes onto the American taxpayer while they reap the profits made before the resulting bubble bursts in the stock market which leads to massive layoffs and recessions.
Indeed with their incessant war against labor unions – the cover conservatives give medial insurance companies that allow them to rip off their clients while withholding promised medical care – the deceptive language used to take advantage of the average Americans ignorance in how big business and our political system really work in order to get the average voter to vote against their own interests and the defense of wall streets socialization of risk on the taxpayer. Today’s conservative party have far more in common with Hitler’s Nazi party then they do with the Christian religion many conservatives profess.
david green
May 26th, 2012
4:07 pm
Lil Barry Bailout wrote: Whether it’s communism or fascism, the common thread is more and more government control over people.
_______________________________
The opposition supported by conservatives to abortion, gay rights – gay marriage and the war on drugs all require direct intervention by the government which imposes itself between a woman and her doctor – the right of association in an individual own home and seeks to tell that same individual what he can and can not put into their own body.
But that is precisely what I’d expect from today’s American conservative socialist party known as the GOP.
Dusty
May 26th, 2012
4:07 pm
david green 3:55
I classify your post as union propaganda and the usual blame on the USA for anything bad that happens. Whoever is feeding you this material should be less obvious. In the meantime, it’s dash this item to trash classification. .
david green
May 26th, 2012
4:13 pm
DawgDad wrote: I know when I got married I was required to have a license from the State, and a blood test.
_______________________
Which is in itself a government intervention in the natural rights of the individual granted by nature.
Dusty
May 26th, 2012
4:16 pm
david green @4:07
More party trash. “Socialist party known as the GOP”!! HO hum….That’s about as true as saying “Mickey Mouse known as the president!”
Come on, david. This is a nice holiday weekend. Try to write something honest for a change.
And….the BRAVES should be playing about NOW!! Go BRAVES!!
david green
May 26th, 2012
4:23 pm
Dusty Jesus once said: If the blind lead the blind both will fall into he ditch.
The GOP lead the nation into the stock market crash of 1929 and under Hoover’s leadership created the great depression that required massive government programs during ww II to resolve and again in 2008 under the leadership of George Bush II.
In other words the willfully blind GOP leadership continues to lead their willfully blind supporters such as yourself into the very same ditch without leaning anything in the process.
@@
May 26th, 2012
4:25 pm
As reflected on the editorial pages of The New York Times, in the New Republic, and in Slate and other forums, contemporary liberals tend to believe in an almost unrestricted right to abortion and actively encourage stem cell research and sometimes even euthanasia. Yet they think the state should never execute someone, not even a vicious serial killer. As reflected in National Review, the Weekly Standard and other forums, contemporary conservatives tend to hold the opposite views.
Liberals tend to believe that marijuana consumption should be legal, even for recreational use. Yet they are quite content to have the government deny terminal cancer patients access to experimental drugs. Conservatives tend to hold the opposite opinion.
In elections, most liberals support restricting the role of financial capital (money); but they want no restrictions on real capital (printing presses, radio and TV broadcast facilities) or organizational capital (labor union get-out-the-vote resources). Most conservatives are at least consistent in opposing almost any restriction other than mandatory disclosure.
By and large, conservatives believe in punishment, liberals in rehabilitation. Conservatives believe in tough love; liberals are more likely to coddle. Conservatives tend to favor school choice; liberals tend to oppose it. Many anti-war liberals support the military draft; many pro-war conservatives oppose conscription.
An interesting read, indeed.
david green
May 26th, 2012
4:25 pm
Dusty I have yet to meet a conservative who wasn’t an outright lair or a repeater of a lie.
@@
May 26th, 2012
4:45 pm
We really should get rid of the FDA.
The Senate voted Thursday to expand the number of drug companies that must pay the Food and Drug Administration to review new products and gave the agency new powers to regulate drug supplies.
The renewal of an existing law would require drug and medical device companies to pay about $6 billion over five years to help cover the agency’s cost of reviewing their products.
The 96-1 Senate vote marked a rare bipartisan agreement, with only Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) voting against the renewal. Mr. Sanders said the bill does too little to lower the cost of drugs for ordinary Americans.
Waddyaknow! I’m in agreement with Bernie the Socialist.
@@
May 26th, 2012
4:47 pm
And John McCain, the moderate Conservative.
Senators defeated, 54-43, an attempt by Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) to allow Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada, where they often are less expensive than in the U.S. That prompted him to accuse the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America of using its influence to damage the interests of Americans. The industry group declined to comment.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 26th, 2012
5:01 pm
The likes of Biden never explain what they’d have preferred to happen to the troubled businesses that attracted the attention of Bain. Simply go out of business without any attempt at a turnaround?
Well, that would require thought and we wouldn’t want to stress our little liberal friends.
@@
May 26th, 2012
5:05 pm
Letters asked judge for leniency in Rutgers webcam case
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) – The letters came from a man who was once beaten with a baseball bat in a racially motivated attack, the widow of a Minnesota judge, a group representing lesbian, gay and transgendered people from South Asia, a gay member of the Navy, and the father of a woman who committed suicide, among others.
There were more than 100 in all, and nearly all had the same theme: telling the judge it would be unjust to put former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi in prison for using a webcam to see roommate Tyler Clementi kissing another man in 2010, just days before Clementi killed himself.
“I learned a lot about bias crimes and bullying through this case,” said a writer named Louise. “The bullying and bias acts occurred when the legal system and media got involved. Ravi is not to blame for the hardships endured by the gay community nor should he be tied to the whipping post because of it. If Tyler was not gay, this would have been just a prank gone wrong and no one would have rushed to incarcerate.”
The media gets its comeuppance. Trying people in the court of public opinion encourages a rush to judgment.
Kewl!
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
5:09 pm
“Some of you may remember that the president promised to exchange ten dollars in spending cuts for a dollar of new revenue. At the time , Boehner seemed receptive to the idea, but the Tea Party faithful shot the idea down. Anyone remember the debt crisis? Rember our credit rating being down graded?”
———————–
Wrong. Obozo got greedy and moved the goalposts after agreeing to a deal with Speaker Boehner. Seems Obozo’s libtard friends in Congress didn’t like the deal and Obozo caved.
The S&P stated that the credit rating downgrade was due to the government not being serious about cutting spending, which is higher than at any point since WWII.
It’s the spending, stupid.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
5:11 pm
Enter your comments hereNumber of the Week: Half of U.S. Lives in Household Getting Benefits
Article
Comments (557)
REAL TIME ECONOMICS HOME PAGE »
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By Phil Izzo
49.1%: Percent of the population that lives in a household where at least one member received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2011.
Cutting government spending is no easy task, and it’s made more complicated by recent Census Bureau data showing that nearly half of the people in the U.S. live in a household that receives at least one government benefit, and many likely received more than one.
————————–
Welcome to Obozo’s Parasite Nation.
Welcome to the decline.
MM
May 26th, 2012
5:22 pm
@ You Whine 5:01
I agree that some way to remake failing businesses is needed. The fair solution for workers is not to tuen it over to a profit-maximizing bunch of bloodsuckers however. There should be (probably already are) firms that come in, do a stem-to-stern internal and external analysis, provide interim management services, and then leave making a reasonable profit. In a public company the stockholders and workers should this rather than go under. In a privately held company the workers should demand it. The option to decapitate the firm Bain-style should not be on the table unless under the control of a bankruptcy court in which case the above profit-limited management firm should help do the dirty deed. Above all, the private equity Bain-bloodsucker management should never be allowed in.
Why isn’t this type of intervention the most prominently discussed in the corporate-owned media? The anser tells you who’s really in charge here.
The debate needs to center on whether Bain-type players should be allowed in the firm repair game. It’s not that some marginal/failing firms don’t need help but whether they should be preyed on by vulture capitalists with the goal of lining their own pockets paramount. The workers are not a commodity to be moved around on the chessboard like pawns. The American economy is the most extreme example of putting workers at the mercy of capital. That’s a dangerous game that ultimately must reply on suppression of human rights by any means necessary. I still hope that’s not the kind of country we are though I see much proof to the contrary.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
5:39 pm
MM:
Why isn’t this type of intervention the most prominently discussed in the corporate-owned media?
The debate needs to center on whether Bain-type players should be allowed in the firm repair game.
———————————
That type of intervention doesn’t happen because the purpose of businesses is to maximize profit for the owners. Maximizing profit also means maximizing benefit for the public, because firms that make high profits are doing so by providing something that people want to purchase, and the business provides these things at the lowest cost possible.
And I would hate to live in a country where the government gets to decide which “players should be allowed” to participate in the marketplace. That’s pretty much the definition of fascism.
America won’t survive long if folks who think like you vote in any significant numbers.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 26th, 2012
5:44 pm
Hey, this is a first! We actually got the liberals caring about the health of a capitalist venture instead of wanting to break all of it’s windows and smear their feces on it’s doors. Whoa.
Can tax cuts be far behind?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 26th, 2012
5:45 pm
I shouldn’t be so harsh, the libs do care deeply about their drug dealers.
Andy
May 26th, 2012
6:01 pm
Kyle, I wish you wouldn’t mix that economic mess over there with Memorial Day. I have listened to one too many misguided choir directors (who never served) water down its meaning, and believe me, it deserves a humbled and bowed knee on the part of every American to those who have served and bear the weight.
Let me quote from “Company Aytch”, a compilation of the narratives of participant, (Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, 100 Days Battles, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin and Nashville) Sam Watkins, in the War Between the States:
“Out of the original 3,150 men who formed the Army of Tennessee, and the 1950 recruits and conscripts who joined them, ONLY 125 officers and men remained when the war was concluded in 1865. Out of the 120 men who enlisted with Watkins in Company H in 1861, he was one of ONLY 7 survivors.”
These men (and later women) and those in Flanders Field and those buried and still coming home are THE object of Memorial Day. Nothing else.
You will never understand the sacrifice until you’ve served. One of the fears of a soldier is that he will not be remembered. Got it? That’s the purpose of Memorial Day.
Pick up a free poppy (please give a donation) from any of the VFW members standing outside stores this weekend.
Andy
MM
May 26th, 2012
6:02 pm
My point is that financial regulation is necessary to protect workers (and stockholders) from the excesses of the free market gone wild. In a democracy this should be a political choice not dictated by ruinous dog-eat-dog law of the jungle masquerading as political theory. Truth is we don’t live in a democracy but a plutocracy run by the tenth of percenters.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
6:11 pm
Why aren’t there any private equity firms operating as charities?
Because that would be effing stupid.
MarkV
May 26th, 2012
6:38 pm
david green’s post @3:55 pm and Dusty’s @ 4:07 pm are, in my view, two of the more interesting’s and on-subject posts so far. Dusty’s response was completely predictable. Any suggestion that our country might have had some imperfect past apparently is an anathema to her fervent beliefs, and must be rejected as propaganda.
It would be hard to find something obviously false in david green’s summary of the history. On the other hand, personally I view history as much more complex. Decisions made, such as “the harsh reparations demanded by President Woodrow Wilson” and their consequences sound different when stated this way then when one considers all the reasons, circumstances and alternatives as well as the general inability of politicians to see the future. Similarly, while I see some truth in the harsh david’s denunciation of the GOP, I think it is unwise to draw too stark parallels between the past and the present. Still it is a much more justifiable view than the insane babbling of some other people about the Marxism of Hitler and Mussolini.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 26th, 2012
7:39 pm
“It would be hard to find something obviously false in david green’s summary of the history. ”
Thinking while living in reality is always hard, MaryV.
But in reality, it is rather hard to find much actually true in david green’s summary of history.
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 26th, 2012
7:51 pm
On the other hand, personally I view history as much more complex.
Not surprising Mark; to you, a potato is complex.
david green
May 26th, 2012
7:58 pm
MarkV
The average conservative such as Dusty reminds of the rich man burning hell in the parable of the rich man and Iazarus. In which the rich man was plainly told that if his brothers refused to believe Moses and the Prophets; neither would they believe someone who had been raised from the dead and sent to warn them. Even more tragic is that most of today’s conservative Christians will find themselves consigned to the lake of fire at the end of time not because they were deceived by a lie but because they failed to believe the truth when it was revealed to them.
The simple fact is that the Christian religion and modern day conservatism are incompatible with and opposed to each other. An individual can be one or the other but not both for as Christ made it perfectly clear no one can serve two masters.
david green
May 26th, 2012
8:06 pm
Tiberius wrote: But in reality, it is rather hard to find much actually true in david green’s summary of history.
__________________
The above comment by Tiberius aptly demonstrates the willful ignorance of history that is all too common in conservative circles today; which is the reason that Republicans can get away with making the same economic mistakes over and over again without being taken to task by their supporters for their failures.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
8:15 pm
Yeah, david green, Christianity is clearly more compatible with murdering unborn children, homosexuals pretending to be married, folks preferring to live off the labor of others rather than working, and forcing priests to purchase condoms for rich liberal women attending posh private law schools.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 26th, 2012
8:15 pm
david green, your so-called “history” is nothing but your opinion; misguided and uninformed, but opinion nevertheless.
Your desire and willingness to assign blame to one political party alone shows the intellectual mind of a 4-year old.
david green
May 26th, 2012
9:50 pm
Lil Barry Bailout
Christians have the right to speak out and call abortion and same sex marriage sinful as long as they can back up those viewpoints from the Word of God – the Bible. However, When Christians seek to petition the government and/or pervert/subvert the political process in order to use the power of the state to impose their religious beliefs and doctrine upon the nation at large. As conservatives who falsely claim to be Christians actively seek to do then they have stepped over the line and become a movement promoting religious Totalitarianism.
In other words just as the proof is in the pudding and Christ declared: “By their fruits [actions] ye shall know them.” Today’s two faced Christian conservatives claim to be against government interference in the lives of individuals yet actively seek to use the power of the state impose their religion upon the nation at large through the political process.
By any definition that is saying one thing while doing the direct opposite of what they preach.
MarkV
May 26th, 2012
9:59 pm
david green @8:06 pm
What Tiberius’s comment aptly demonstrates is not just the willful ignorance of history, but also his pathetic inability to make an argument other than “you are wrong.”
david green
May 26th, 2012
10:03 pm
MarkV
LOL I couldn’t help but notice that too.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
11:29 pm
Any Christians force you to buy health insurance lately?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 26th, 2012
11:32 pm
Any Christians demanding in their god’s name that you “pay your fair share”?
bluecoat
May 26th, 2012
11:39 pm
David just ignore same as others.May be it will go away.
ld
May 27th, 2012
12:58 am
Some things ARE worth fighting and, if need be, dying for; however, the wars subsequent to WWII have NOT been for those objectives — like freedom and self defense against an agressor.
The efforts worthy of the tragedy of war — efforts to defend our nation and the individual liberty of our citizens from agressor nations — would meet the challenge of convincing members of Congress to have the stones to DECLARE war and to back the effort to DESTROY the enemy and force their defeat and/or surrender.
Recent wars have been about global bu$ine$$ interests and their profit, about political pandering and maneuvering in pursuit of power, about fear-mongering and war-mongering to justify stripping away the individual liberties that make this nation worth fighting for, and it’s been about polititions strengthing the military industrial complex via pork barrell politics with the objective of securing their own personal interests.
Even the protracted tragedies of Korea and Vietnam were not declared wars. They were in no small part religious/political wars against the “godless commies”. The more recent mid-east wars have been about oil and the profitteering while in pursuit of revenge and the grabbing of political power.
Sadly, while the men and women of our military, guard and reserve are valiently still fighting for freedom they are dying for the “nation building” benefit of a greedy, self-serving few and their bought-and-paid-for polititions.
david green
May 27th, 2012
3:16 am
Lil Barry Bailout wrote: Any Christians demanding in their god’s name that you “pay your fair share”?
______________________________
Here’s what the Father Above said through the Apostle Paul in regards to taxes in Romans 13: 1-7:
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordaineda of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.”
The Holy Bible : King James Version. electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. Bellingham WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995, S. Ro 13:1-7
According to the Strongs Enhanced Lexicon the word tribute means: 5411 φόρος [phoros /for·os/] n m. From 5342; TDNT 9:78; TDNTA 1252; GK 5843; Five occurrences; AV translates as “tribute” five times. 1 tribute, esp. the annual tax levied upon houses, lands, and persons.
Strong, James: The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed. Ontario : Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996, S. G5411
david green
May 27th, 2012
3:27 am
Lil Barry Bailout wrote: Any Christians force you to buy health insurance lately?
__________________
The mandate to buy health insurance was first proposed by none other than Newt Gingrich the serial adulterer whom Kyle endorsed not so long ago for president. And in was W who signed into law a bill while Governor of Texas that legalized and created the Death Panels {feared by Conservatives} that allows Texas hospitals to deny terminal patients medical care.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 27th, 2012
5:57 am
david green and MaryV, I simply didn’t want to write 50 words when just a few will do. Sometimes you libs like to try to baffle us with your bullsh*t by writing paragraph after paragraph when all you really mean is “Bush did it”, or “Republicans bad – Democrats good”.
We get it that your thought processes don’t run deep enough to move past the 4-word accusation level.
I was just responding in a way you are capable of understanding without boring you to tears with reams of actual facts you couldn’t possibly comprehend.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 27th, 2012
7:35 am
So you can’t come up with anything, david green?
You made a pretty bold claim earlier about Christians desiring to “use the power of the state to impose their religious beliefs and doctrine upon the nation” but it looks like it’s the libtards doing it. Nice projection.
Yes, Christians do tend to oppose killing the unborn and do tend to oppose perverting the meaning of “marriage”. Pretty awful stuff.
But it is the libtards who do most of the imposing, forcing, requiring, and mandating. Pay your fair share (as if the productive class isn’t already). Buy your health insurance as a condition of breathing. Give the government your property so private developers can build shopping malls. No, your bar cannot allow smoking. No, your restaurant can’t put salt shakers on your tables.
Libtards can’t decide which the like better, communism or fascism, so they draw the worst ideas from both.
MarkV
May 27th, 2012
7:47 am
MarkV@9:59 pm; ‘What Tiberius’s comment aptly demonstrates is not just the willful ignorance of history, but also his pathetic inability to make an argument other than “you are wrong.”
Tiberius @5:57 am: Confirms the above.
@@
May 27th, 2012
8:05 am
Kinda funny when I see a liberal “preaching” about how conservatives shouldn’t preach.
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 27th, 2012
8:36 am
david greene
Is Woodruff Park short one street preacher this Sunday morning?
MarkV
May 27th, 2012
9:10 am
Dusty @ May 25th, 7:48 pm
I do not know how I missed Dusty’s post, but I did until now. The Memorial Day is supposed to be a somber occasion of reflection, and I now am forced to laugh at Dusty’s hilarious misinterpretation of what I have written. “My beloved Germany?” “Rude and unnecessary accusation?” Show me one, Dusty. You have reminded me of ”the most simple historical facts of WWII & WWII?” I challenge you to repeat a single one you reminded me of that makes sense.
I did not brag about my great knowledge, I merely suggested that I knew the history of Europe better than you, and you have not shown so far anything that would make me think otherwise. All your writings about this subject have been banal platitudes.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 27th, 2012
9:22 am
Woodruff Park is missing its street preacher, and a village in Indonesia is missing its idiot.
MarkV
May 27th, 2012
9:35 am
When david green wrote the following @May 26th, 3:55 pm,
“The harsh reparations demanded by President Woodrow Wilson did just as they were intended to do: which was to punish the Germans by destroying their national economy which then brought about the very social conditions that gave rise to Hitler,”
which apparently raised the ire of Dusty and perhaps others, he merely repeated what most historians consider to be undeniable facts, in the sense that the victors of WWI by their actions set into motion events that resulted in the rise of Hitler and WWII. As I suggested in my post @May 26th, 2012. 6:38 pm, however, such statements fail to consider “all the reasons, circumstances and alternatives as well as the general inability of politicians to see the future.”
More to the point, it would be a mistake, in my view, to view those facts of “setting events into motion” as a reason to blame Wilson, the US and others on their side for the events that followed. They were quite justified in what they did. There was nothing inevitable in what followed. With different players than Hitler and his followers and sympathizers, WWII would not have happened, and only they are the guilty party. With different actions of Wilson and other, WWII could still have happened. There is a world of difference between acknowledging the conditions that existed, and assigning blame for a lack of clairvoyance and events that followed.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 27th, 2012
9:44 am
Take up our bills for which we owe
To you with the money a tax we throw
The thorns; remove them from our sides
If ye do not submit to us who recline
We will not only wail, we will eat your poppies
And defecate in your fields
Just thought I’d include the liberals in our Memorial Day celebration…
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 27th, 2012
9:54 am
Dusty- Do you receive community service credits for your attempts to educate MarkV?
MarkV
May 27th, 2012
10:11 am
I Report @9:54 am
What credit Dusty receives I cannot say, but you sure to do no get any credit for your idiocy.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 27th, 2012
10:34 am
Aahhh, fact free Marky, once again peddling his hollow and empty keystrokes in an ill fated attempt to impress his betters.
Didn’t work, same as always girlfriend.
MarkV
May 27th, 2012
10:39 am
I Report @10:34 am
More idiocy from a known idiotic source.
Fartavious
May 27th, 2012
10:45 am
All politicians are crooks and liars.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 27th, 2012
11:47 am
I Report, your 9:44 was sad and humorous at the same time, and unfortunately all too real.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 27th, 2012
11:48 am
Seeing as how this is a three day weekend centered around remembering and thanking those who died defending our country and democracy worldwide, this might be a good time for Democrats to study up on what it means to be an American.
It’s clear they’ve forgotten.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 27th, 2012
11:58 am
I love it when I see libs like david green quoting the Bible to tell others that their belief in a particular faith makes them lousy people from a political standpoint, as if faith and politics are seriously intertwined, which they are not.
Broad, accusatory brushstrokes are all people like him have to argue with.
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 27th, 2012
11:59 am
LBB
Dems have been too busy picking nits, parsing words, redefining definitions, and standing by their man to have time to study.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 27th, 2012
12:07 pm
David Green
In other words the willfully blind GOP leadership continues to lead their willfully blind supporters such as yourself into the very same ditch without leaning anything in the process.
Go ahead and drink the Dem coolaid. Pretend that its austerity that is screwing up Europe, not the largesse of government to the non working. How does most of Europe compete with the “Global Economy” when countries like France give workers 2 plus months off a year to force companies to hire more people to cover the paid time off? They’ve lost their edge in the global economy and are running out of other peoples money to prop up the largess.
Margeret Thatcher: The problem with Socialism is eventually that you run out of other peoples money.
Yet this is what you dumb-a## libs long for.
Dusty
May 27th, 2012
12:42 pm
Well, good afternoon in this merry month of May….
This is a fine day. Enjoying worship at church is always refresing and the good news is always there. I urge all of your to go and enjoy the shared love of that occasion, as many of you already know.
Ah but, questions, questions! Many learned folks here with questions. (MarkV, I suggest you read my posts again. ) As to history, I don’t claim to be a “historian” so I defer such question to those who enjoy it. But some histories are fascinating.
Right now, I am truly enjoying an old book I recently purchased at a book sale. It was published in1957. The title: “Three hundred Years of American Painting” written by Alexander Eliot. I thought I would enjoy the beautiful pictures in the big book and I do.. But the writing is so well done that it is a real treat every time I pick it up. That’s my present claim to the study of HISTORY. Art, honey, art!
Now, let us depart in peace (as I go to eat lunch and that always helps!). Today is good!!
Halftrack
May 27th, 2012
4:28 pm
Take up the “Quarrel” – - – and the “Torch”. The quarrel is evil. The torch is freedom. Evil still exists in the world. Memorial day tells us that “freedom” is what our generation still has to hold onto. The cost of freedom is high as the field of Flanders attest to us by history and those who gave it all of their devotion. The torch has been passed to us and how shall we confront the current evils? Do we have any devotion and to what ideals and morals?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 27th, 2012
5:12 pm
Half the country’s ideals are only related to keeping the government handouts coming.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 27th, 2012
5:17 pm
Panetta: U.S. is Ready to Stop Iran from Creating Nuclear Weapons
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Sunday indirectly confirmed recent remarks by the Ambassador to Israel that the U.S. is “ready from a military perspective’’ to stop Iran from making a nuclear weapon if international pressure fails.
————————–
The bombing commences when Obozo falls behind Romney by 5%.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 27th, 2012
6:03 pm
NASCAR on Fox; Does it get anymore cheesy than this?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 27th, 2012
6:05 pm
Has our attention span fallen or was it destroyed?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 27th, 2012
6:09 pm
Yep, that last round of commercials answered my question.
I wonder when the last time it was Fox broadcast anything cerebral?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 27th, 2012
6:13 pm
Your average stock car has over 4000 parts intrinsically working together as one but your average Fox viewer only knows dat Danica Patrick is a duhriver, drool, drool.
MarkV
May 27th, 2012
6:17 pm
The Kyle’s thoughtful article could have been an impetus for an equally thoughtful, civil discussion on this Memorial weekend. That does not mean that one had to agree with everything that Kyle wrote. His message was clear. “A visitor to those gravesites [WWI battlefield] might look back across the pond, and see creeping reasons for worry.” “The prospect of an isolated, indignant Germany is not to be relished.”” A subsequent rearmament in Europe, even if in the name of defense, would seem only natural.” “For now, there is reason to believe the worst scenarios CAN still be avoided.” (My emphasis) Only a blind and deaf person would see in those words “simply a reminder of history and nothing else.” Kyle clearly wrote a warning about an avoidable, but possible armed conflict as a result of the economic turmoil in Europe, with Germany again in the center of it.
It was not surprising when the usual polluters of this blog – most of them easily recognizable by their ridiculous monikers – used my comment that there was no evidence or logical reason for such an alarmist notion, and david green’s brief summary of the events between the wars, with insults, digressions and attacks rather than arguments. It was more disappointing, however, when it was used by someone like Dusty for personal attacks, unfounded accusations and ridiculous insinuations.
david green
May 27th, 2012
6:24 pm
MarkV
The justified police action Germany took against Serbia for protecting the terrorist who murdered two members of the Austrian royal family. Didn’t become a world war until France and Britain declared war on Germany so the harsh reparations forced upon the German people after their government surrendered were not in the least justified. Indeed the actions America took with the help of Britain against the Taliban after 9/11 for harboring Osama fully justify the German governments police action against Serbia for harboring a terrorist. Consequently President Wilson and the leaders of Britain and France all stand condemned by history for creating the social conditions in Germany that led directly to the rise of Hitler, the murder of six million Jews and World War II.
david green
May 27th, 2012
6:32 pm
Lil Barry Bailout and Tiberius what Kyle won’t tell you is that the ultimate goal of the conservative movement is to recreate the very same economic conditions the Allies forced upon Germany after World War I ended. Right here in the USA in the midst of which the leaders of the conservative movement will then convince Congress to nullify the Constitution and the Bill of Rights while imposing religious totalitarianism upon the nation at large.
MarkV
May 27th, 2012
7:17 pm
david green @6:24 pm
I part with you in this matter. I do not think those events (assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and 9/11) are comparable, and I do not think a discussion of the events that led to WWI is either fruitful or relevant. Mainly, I have already explained my views regarding the “blame” for the rise of the Nazis in my post @ 9:35 am.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 27th, 2012
7:25 pm
Get a grip, david green. It is the conservative movement that is working to “conserve” what’s left of our constitution and republic. It is Obozo, the Democrat party, and the moocher class that is attempting to subvert the Constitution (Obozocare…GM/Chrysler thievery…cronyism…”environmentalism” as the latest vehicle for communism…ad nauseum).
Americans (and some patriotic Democrats) will deal with Obozo’s subversion of everything good and decent about this country.
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 27th, 2012
7:32 pm
david greene
Right here in the USA in the midst of which the leaders of the conservative movement will then convince Congress to nullify the Constitution and the Bill of Rights while imposing religious totalitarianism upon the nation at large.
————————————————————–
I don’t think even your bud MarkV believes this bilge. You are one disturbed individual. BTW, you can believe whatever you want; it is America after all, but you can’t rewrite history.
Germany after their “police action” in Serbia, caused Russia to declare war on Germany. Germany then declared war on France. Britain did not enter the war until Germany invaded France. It took Britain a long time to get there and come to the aid of France. France was overrun with the German Army. The USA entered much later.
The version you presented was neo nazi like, terribly slanted.
@@
May 27th, 2012
7:55 pm
Right here in the USA in the midst of which the leaders of the conservative movement will then convince Congress to nullify the Constitution and the Bill of Rights while imposing religious totalitarianism upon the nation at large.
Impossible since the U.S. embraces a wide assortment of religions.
Dusty
May 27th, 2012
8:01 pm
Well, as I wait for the Braves to start their WINNING game against the Nationals , I see some nice comments. As surely as one can tell, we have a lot of patriots here but with different views.
Different views are fine but when one wanders from a reasonable path into the brambles of a confused mind, it does no good to say it is good thinking. I can’t be diplomatic when it is a detriment to our country. So my definition of such thinking is to name it “trash” for trash is something you throw away.
The weekend with all its patriotic decorations and declarations is a fine time to remember how we treasure our country as did the people who died fighting for it. Those old patriotic songs are still tear jerkers and we remember once again we really love this place.
So how many of you are going to BAR BE Q tomorrow? Will the smoke of your grill make you dream of spareribs? A beautifully browned perfect poulet!! Lotsa potato salad off side? Gonna be good! (Just in case……Keep the Pepto-Bismol handy!)
@@
May 27th, 2012
8:14 pm
When it comes to the war, is david green a Buchannanite?
Dusty
May 27th, 2012
8:21 pm
@@ 8:14
A Buchannanite? Huh? (is that termite, midnite, Israelite,cephlapodite, inconsequetial-like?) ???
AmVet
May 27th, 2012
8:22 pm
Half the country’s ideals are only related to keeping the government handouts coming.
It really its a travesty.
But corporations are people, my friend…
@@
May 27th, 2012
8:34 pm
Dusty:
Pat Buchanan.
Is Pat Buchanan a Crank?
Going after Churchill on British soil — and apologizing for Hitler.
Dusty
May 27th, 2012
8:45 pm
AmVet,
We are celebrating Memorial Day over here, ny friend.
No need for you to start another battle in your usual pugnacious proclamations..
Let the BRAVES fight tonight. I predict a winning game for them (and Republicans. Yes!).
Dusty
May 27th, 2012
8:50 pm
@@
“Going after Churchill on British soil! Apologizing for Hitler!”
That’s beyond cranky! That’s suicidal!
AmVet
May 27th, 2012
9:09 pm
Good old Dusty,
As always, she learned nothing remotely Christian from her church service this morning.
She gives a free pass to the insult laden posts at 5:57, 7:35, 9:22, 9:44, 10:34 and 7:25 and what does the woman do?
Insult me.
Too funny…
@@
May 27th, 2012
9:23 pm
AmVet:
You call this: No need for you to start another battle in your usual pugnacious proclamations.. an insult!!??!!
Are you looking for one? I’ll be happy to oblige.
schnirt
AmVet
May 27th, 2012
9:28 pm
My obsessed one, I figured you would make some Pavlovian reply before Dusty.
But with you two women, it’s always a toss up as to who will strike out in selectively misplaced anger first!
I think both of you should take up Islam. Christianity, even on your Sabbath, is not working well for you!
Enjoy your enmity towards me though…
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 27th, 2012
9:42 pm
But corporations are people, my friend…
——————–
Corporations produce things that people want or need. Well, except for GM and the Volt.
The Democrat moocher class produces nothing but sloth, crime, and more mouths to feed.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 27th, 2012
9:43 pm
And you are correct, corporations are people, in the same way that unions are people.
@@
May 27th, 2012
9:44 pm
Anger? Hardly.
Irritated? Not even.
Someone referred to you as a one-note wonder the other day. An apt description of you.
david green
May 27th, 2012
10:05 pm
MarkV wrote: I do not think those events (assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and 9/11) are comparable, and I do not think a discussion of the events that led to WWI is either fruitful or relevant.
______________________
It is this failure to learn from the events of the past upon the part of the American people that allows our political leaders to make the exact same mistakes with disastrous results in each succeeding generation without being held accountable.
MarkV
May 27th, 2012
10:52 pm
david green @10:05 pm
You simplistic view of history is demonstrated by your use of words: “It is this failure to learn from the events of the past upon the part of the American people that allows our political leaders to make THE EXACT SAME MISTAKES with disastrous results in each succeeding generation without being held accountable.” (My emphasis).
There are no EXACT SAME events in history.
@@
May 28th, 2012
8:09 am
There are no EXACT SAME events in history.
So true!
A change in weather can alter historical outcomes.
Rightwing Troll
May 28th, 2012
8:19 am
I see the wingnut hatred takes no holidays…sad and pathetic.. This is a day to honor those who died for your right to anonymously spout your racism and hatred for 364 other days of the year… Please put on your flag lapel pins and do so.
AmVet
May 28th, 2012
8:25 am
Someone referred to you as a one-note wonder the other day. An apt description of you.
“Great people talk about ideas. Average people talk about things. Small people talk about other people.”
We walked among the crosses
Where our fallen soldiers lay.
And listened to the bugle
As taps began to play.
The Chaplin led a prayer
We stood with heads bowed low.
And I thought of fallen comrades
I had known so long ago.
They came from every city
Across this fertile land.
That we might live in freedom.
They lie here ‘neath the sand.
I felt a little guilty
My sacrifice was small.
I only lost a little time
But these men lost their all.
Now the services are over
For this Memorial Day.
To the names upon these crosses
I just want to say,
Thanks for what you’ve given
No one could ask for more.
May you rest with God in heaven
From now through evermore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38wx8C7VmB4
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 28th, 2012
9:30 am
Rightwing Troll: I can’t think, so I just yell “RACISM!”
—————
Fixed.
Rankin Fyle
May 28th, 2012
9:48 am
European history is bathed in blood.
Two world wars in the 20th century is the icing on the European cake.
Could it hasppen again?
Absolutely.
Will it?
Not likely but nothing is impossible given the underlyoing animosities of that continent.
You are correct for pointing out the tragedy that is Europe.
The EU is the path to European stability and it is time for Germany to attone for those two world wars it started by subsidizing its “profligate” neighbors.
Lets move forward.
PS the Nazi’s were a right wing fascist party. stop re-wriing history.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 28th, 2012
10:00 am
Oh yeah, I’ll bet our soldiers are fighting each and every day for the rights of left wing lunatics to dictate how every body else should live their lives.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 28th, 2012
10:01 am
Veterans Give Romney Big Lead Over Obama
Veterans responsible for Romney’s advantage among men overall
by Frank Newport
PRINCETON, NJ — U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 58% to 34%, while nonveterans give Obama a four-percentage-point edge.
———-
It’s no surprise that those who are more patriotic and selfless support Romney.
GT
May 28th, 2012
10:14 am
Nothing socialistic about killing six million Jews. It is the bigotry of the Nazi and the rigntwing nuts that remind us of each other. The superiority and the manifest destiny, the lack of humility and grace.
In truth this country can never be a socialistic country as long as there is a democracy and voting. It may wind a little left or right but the misuse of the kind of government we serve under is more to the use of political misdirection and a lack of understanding purposefully or blindly believed by our population. All men being created equal does not mean God was a communist, no more that blue skies make Him a Tar Heel.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
May 28th, 2012
10:37 am
Nothing socialistic about killing six million Jews.
——–
It is the Democrat left and global Eurotrash that represent the biggest threat to Israel today. Conservatives are Israel’s best friend.
Stalin and Mao killed tens or hundreds of millions, and they’re heroes to the party of Obozo.
GT
May 28th, 2012
10:45 am
You see a picture forming here? I hope all have a happy MD and that our loose interpretations of reality never put us in harms way again. God bless the right and left that defended this country and made it great.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 28th, 2012
11:12 am
Only insensitive jerks wish anyone a “happy MD”.
This isn’t the 4th of July, GT, where we celebrate our independence; Memorial Day is a time to honor our fallen heroes – NOT wish people a happy day.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 28th, 2012
11:16 am
Chris Hayes, PMSNBC: I’m ‘Uncomfortable’ Calling Fallen Military ‘Heroes’
And I’m completely comfortable calling you libs whackjobs.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 28th, 2012
11:20 am
Shows just how far MSNBC has degenerated, IRYW.
Dusty
May 28th, 2012
11:33 am
Well, a good day to all of you in this time of remembrance. Memorial Day is both sad and sweet, is it not? We look upon the fields of crosses and wonder with sadness how so many died for our country. How proud we are and yet so many to die, most in the early ages of life.
Shakespeare had nice lines about those who lie “sleeping” below the crosses and monuments of remembrance. In his writing of “Titus Andronicus” he wrote:
Secure from wordly chances and mishaps;
Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells,
Here grow no damned grudges; here are no storms,
No noise, but silence and eternal sleep,
In peace and honor rest you here.
Peace and honor. May we always have them.
Toms Aardvark
May 28th, 2012
1:10 pm
I hope Obama has a terrible day.
Toms Aardvark
May 28th, 2012
1:19 pm
Hopefully Germany/EU will find a way, without doing to much damage to the world economy, to run Greece into the ditch where they belong. Letting that be a lesson to the remaining EuroTrash States. France, Italy, Spain now being the next financial catalyst of hyperflation would do well to pay attention.
The french have always been a arrogant, lazy group of deadheads who believe their rear-ends carry the scent of rose pedals. Shame shame shame, this EuroTrash has been a constant problem with self-hatred and lowest common denominator beliefs. Spain vs France would kindba resemble a boxing match between 2 overblown hamsters with no one even vaguely interested in the outcome.
The US needs to cut and run EU in the ditch asap. It can be done but I wonder if the DC horse behinds have the courage, not to speak of the intelligence. *sigh*
sirwinston
May 28th, 2012
1:43 pm
Right back in the same old place. Done in by big banks; bailed out by the government; promise to help struggling homeowners….only if they can qualify. Look forward we need to stop being dragged in by problems that are made by these big businesses. We are paying to much to live on this place we called Earth. Businesses are trying to force so many things on us as consumers that we really don’t need. I have put these thing into my personal don’ts: Food, by only what you can afford and stay away from fast-food joints, it is not worth going broke for a mere soda or hamburger; cars, we are paying more that we should; all we need is a motor and transmission…the rest of that stuff is a way they add and add all to make the car more. You finance it over 5 or 6 years and it break’s down, you still have to make your montly payments and have it fix when the warranty goes off at a particular timeframe; it is not worth it. Cell phones; trash from the beginning, it make’s everyone think that they really need one. I am like Warren Buffet, I don’t need it why pay a big price for it when I know its won’t last. I love to eat good, therefore, I search for a particular place where they give you more on your plates verse fixing it up where you pay more but get less. That is my personal take on crisis here in America where we as tax payers are looked on as nothing and often time our taxes are raised to pay for this or that. We let the rich contine to be where we should but can’t afford it while they can using the tax dollors we are paying. We need to put our money into Credit uniton verse banks, they gamble up yours and find a way to make it up by charging you more and laughing at us for being such big fools.
grated
May 28th, 2012
3:04 pm
get a load of Luckovich’s depiction of a catholic woman in confession. Too funny.
Rankin Fyle
May 28th, 2012
3:10 pm
Eurotrash?
is that the latest buzzword from the Ayn Rand cultists?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 28th, 2012
3:14 pm
P.T. Barnum had something to say about suckers and the “war on women”.
Thogwummpy
May 28th, 2012
4:41 pm
“I am a Socialist.” Direct quote from Adolf Hitler. He was also VERY anti-Capitalist (called Capitalism “Jewish Economics”). Fascism was designed by Mussolini as the “Third Way”…he himself the editor of a Socialist magazine and prominent in the movement, constructed fascism as an intermediate step that would adopt the resources of commerce into use by the state; on a path to a Socialist construct. Ever wanna see a Libtard stammer? Ask ‘em what about fascism was “right wing” (answer, it was only “Right” in comparison to Communism…but fascim functions as center-Left)—and how in the world they reconcile the fact that the Right chooses to limit and restrict government, whereas fascism demands total government. Nazism technically speaking was NOT really Right wing—certainly not conservative; and was widely praised in it’s early days as (and by) Progressive(s).
Michael H. Smith
May 28th, 2012
5:49 pm
Nazism technically speaking was NOT really Right wing.
Nah, you can throw that “technically speaking” crap back on the dung heap as well. NAZI is not a word, it is an acronym, which literally – not technically – spells out The National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
The NAZIS were very much the Socialist but their fire brand of Marxist-Socialism only served a small select few, like those of the “master race”; and the German economy under their rein was controlled with a fascist iron regulatory fist.
NAZIS were anything and everything but part of the politically Republic supporting right of Germany.
The Socialist Democrat liars in this country never will own up to their genocidal authoritarian nature, if they ever do they will be scorned into political irrelevancy.No one would support them. So they continue on denying, attempt to change their true political identity to hide what history will never permit to go untold about them and their past leaders: Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Hồ Chí Minh, Pol Pot. With a history like that could you blame them for denying their very own political kindred?
MarkV
May 28th, 2012
6:04 pm
The notion that Nazism has anything in common with what we now call socialism, or with Marxism, is one of the insane fantasies of the ignorant right-wingers. Nazis were virulently anti-communist and anti-Marxist. That is an undeniably coumented historical fac.t Neither Nazism nor fascism fit well anywhere in the left-right political spectrum, because they were outside of it.
“how in the world they reconcile the fact that the Right chooses to limit and restrict government, whereas fascism demands total government.”
The above notion shows best the historical ignorance of the author. The “left” and “right” designation originates in the French revolution era, and those (sitting) on the right were the monarchists – hardly the people who wanted to limit and restrict the power of the government – the monarch; just the opposite.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
May 28th, 2012
6:17 pm
Socialists, communists, & Democrats: Dirtbags:
—————————–
Greeks Debate Anti-Austerity
Left-Wing Party Vows to Halt Cuts While Staying in the Euro, but Europe Isn’t Bending
ATHENS—Greece’s radical left party has upended the country’s politics with an idea as simple as it is seductive: Athens can renege on the deals it made in exchange for a bailout, and still remain in the euro.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, a 37-year-old former Communist youth activist, promises that despite its dire financial straits, Greece can halt austerity programs, restore social spending and nevertheless continue to receive the payments from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund that keep it from bankruptcy.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303395604577432291798185530.html?mod=WSJ_GoogleNews&mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1
Hillbilly D
May 28th, 2012
6:45 pm
Everybody ought to take a minute from their arguing to remember what today is about. November 11 is for all those who served but today is for those who never made it home. Some probably conservative, some probably liberal, some middle of the roaders and probably a whole lot of them were apolitical, just doing what was asked. They gave everything they had to give.
Dusty
May 28th, 2012
7:07 pm
I really do not see the point of violently arguing about what happened about 75 years ago. Some facts will never change. Hitler was evil and killed millions. Stalin was evil and killed millions. Both men were somehow able to obtain power. Those were terrible times and we don’t forget them but we should not use them as ammunition against people who have nothing to do with it now.
Calling our allies ” EuroTrash” is beyond intelligence or decency. We have fought along side our European friends against enemies with almost all of the larger countries in Europe. Some of them are now having difficulties with their economies. Are we any different? Only in the fact that we borrow money from China.
I hope that both economies will soon improve. Ours & theirs. In the meantime, let us act as partners for progress, not like alley cats fighting and snarling in the moonlight. We are made of better things.
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 28th, 2012
7:56 pm
Hillbilly D
Yes, Hanson gives hitters too good a look at the ball. There is a great deal wrong with his delivery and I hope I’m wrong, and he has a long career, but his mechanics do not appear to serve his arm and shoulder well.
I hope everyone did something today to remember the sacrifice of all our fallen giants. God Bless the USA.
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 28th, 2012
7:58 pm
Hillbilly D
Did you see my post the other day to you about the Hillbilly Firewall?
Hillbilly D
May 28th, 2012
8:31 pm
Rafe
You confused me amswering my Braves question over here.
No, I didn’t see the firewall post.
@@
May 28th, 2012
9:39 pm
Fred:
You miserable asshat Kyle. You use THIS day to push some weird assed political agenda? Not only that but you are so pathetic that you steal the theme from Jay?
Kyle wrote this column on the 25th.
You’re one weird fella, Fred.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 28th, 2012
9:45 pm
I see Fred didn’t take his meds today.
Fred, please read the date under the headline: “4:23 pm May 25, 2012, by Kyle Wingfield”
I suspect an apology to Kyle will NOT be forthcoming . . . ?
Rafe Hollister- trying to save the Choom Gang
May 29th, 2012
8:42 am
Hillbilly
I knew you would see the answer here, afraid it would get lost among the blather elsewhere. You weren’t getting any answers over there.
Fred, KMGrits!
@@
May 29th, 2012
9:11 am
Hopefully Fred will be too embarrassed to return.
schnirt
Kyle Wingfield
May 29th, 2012
9:52 am
Fred: You’re welcome to embarrass yourself with ignorant comments, but the language you used is unacceptable. Try to skirt our language filters again, and you’ll be banned for good.
grated
May 29th, 2012
10:17 am
Jim Cramer said today that he doesn’t understand why the Greek Banks exist. They are nothing but a collection of bad loan portfolios, and a Greek FDIC (which also doesn’t exist) would have ended them years ago.
1961_Xer
May 29th, 2012
10:57 am
Greece got Germany and the European banks to forgive over 70% of their debt…. and then voted in a new government that vowed to reneg on that deal. Europe was willing to write off 70% of the outrageous spending, entitlements, tax cheats of Greece’s last 10 years, and after agreeing, Greece just threw it all back at them demanding… essentially… no payback or austerity at all.
This is not Germany’s fault. This is Greece’s fault. Greece is betting that the EU will not let anyone go, and won’t throw anyone out. They are betting that they can do whatever they want, and the EU will keep them in order to preserve the EU. And what if they are correct? Then we can expect the same shenanigans from the other bailed out countries (Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy). And if Greece’s gamble doesn’t pay off? Well, then they get the austerity that they so hated anyway by becoming an outcast in Europe, left to their own bankrupt devices.
Greece’s best bet, for which they ought to be thankful to Germany, was giving their borrowers a 70% haircut and taking the bailout money. But they still can’t see past not getting their government pensions at age 55.
iggy
May 29th, 2012
11:58 am
For those interested. fb in breakdown mode…$30.03…
Dusty
May 29th, 2012
12:15 pm
Will it never end? Syrian forces came to the farming village of Houla and went from home to home shooting whole families point blank.. 108 people killed including 49 children and 34 women, a blatant massacre of people believed to be against President Assad.
Countries around the world including the USA have expelled Syrian ambassadors and diplomats in protest.
Other plans for more moves against the Syrian government are being planned. No word from Russia, a usual supporter of Syrian President Assad.
Read more on the home page of AJC .com.