thought no. 50

America is like a giant Union created to protect its workers from the Aristocracy Company. Unfortunately, like so many unions, it's been corrupted, and taken over by people who do not have the best interest of the members at heart. Question is, do we let this union collapse and hope that eventually a better one arises, or do we work to get rid of the rot at the top? And how messy will that work turn out to be?

thought no. 48

An artist's job is to see the world. Once upon a time, life was hard, and mere survival was utmost, so the seeing was simple - hunting, animals, people. As life got easier and more varied, so did the art. People today complain about the decadence of art, but it merely goes hand in hand with the ease of life. The more varied life becomes, the more the artist(s) needs to see, and then tell us about. If you wish to make art less decadent, then you must make life harder, and less rich with knowledge and experience. Eliminate the ease of survival and the quality and quantity of knowledge, and you will achieve a tighter focus in art.

thought no. 47

Do Republicans start out assuming that people are basically bad? Do Democrats assume that people are basically good? Because it kind of seems that way to me.

thought no. 46

Imagine if no one cared about whether someone was gay or not, but instead left-handedness was considered an abomination before God.

Both are about 10% of the population.

thought no. 45

I am Man! I use tools!

Seriously, think about it. We use tools for everything. There is almost nothing we actually do with our hands anymore, except manipulate tools.

thought no. 44

There's a difference between thinking you're qualified for a job and thinking you deserve it.

thought no. 43

I thought of yet another reason not to buy an electronic book, such as the Kindle and such: At some point in the future, those books will receive advertising on them. At some slightly further point in the future, you will have to wait while those ads play out.
Not if. When.

thought no. 42

Republicans identify generally as Christians. Lately I've been wondering just what they intend to tell God when it comes time for them to be Judged: "I was denying health care for old people and children for their own good, God. Especially the children, who learned an important lesson in the value of hard work". I wonder how well that'll go over?

thought no. 41

Power comes from somewhere, and the Tea Party's is outsized compared to its popularity. So who, or what, adds to its power?

thought no. 40

Here's a thought: Conservatives like to describe America in terms of a business. Well, if your business lowers the price (i.e., taxes) on the product (i.e., America) it sells to (way) below the actual cost of the product, one of two things will happen: either that company will go deep in debt, perhaps leading to bankruptcy, or that company will have to slash costs resulting in a cheaper, crappier product.

Guess we're gonna get both.

thought no. 39

The above cars are three of the classic European automobiles for the masses. The were cheap cars built for the working class. All three have been revived in recent years, and all three revisions have been larger and, more importantly, more expensive. Now I realize that there is big money to be made in nostalgia, but a paranoid part of me cant help but wonder if there is also some sort of desire there to take an iconic thing belonging to the People, and turn it into an overpriced toy.

Crazy? Yeah, probably. Still, the originals were workaday, barebones automobiles, built cheap to be sold cheap to people who probably couldn't afford much else (they certainly couldn't afford the new versions). We have lots of these still, of course, but none so beloved. At least not yet. Perhaps someday, we'll see the return of the "classic" Aveo or Versa. Bigger of course. And unaffordable to working people, but still back.
Right now, I'm waiting for the new 2-CV...

oh crap.

thought no. 38

Have you got a major sports team in your town? No doubt, the stadium (built with public money) has a lot of luxury skyboxes. Most of those boxes will be corporate owned. All of those corporate owned boxes will be tax-deductible.
Forget private jets, how about we go after those? How many billions of tax revenue are lost so that corporate guys can sports in isolated luxury? If it's more than ten bucks, it's too much.

thought no. 37

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana

As far as I can tell, a lot of those who do remember (or study or whatever) think they are smart enough to to it right this time.

But aren't.

thought no. 36

Proposal: a new clothing line for men; "John Galt for Men".
Tagline: "Watch the Nation burn."

thought no. 35

The sad thing about the whole debt ceiling debacle (and indeed about pretty much everything since Obama took office) is that the public (at least according to polls) knows what it wants and that ain't what the Republicans are offering. But in the chest-thumping branch-waving milieu that is politics, no one is interested in the Left's cowering submission, and so keep voting for the stronger GOP silverbacks despite the fact that they have nothing to offer but more pain.

As rational as we'd like to believe we are, at the center we're just stupid primates, impressed by feats of strength and shows of teeth.

thought no. 34

We probably should have known that the banking industry and the congress was in collusion and out of control when regulations made it possible to raise interest rates on things already purchased. I mean, how much sense does this make: you are obviously having trouble paying off the money we lent you, so we will raise the interest rate making it that much harder for you to pay off. It strikes me a bit like debtors prison, but with bars made of paper statements rather than iron.

thought no. 33

I was just party to one of those discussions where some conservative countered complaints about rich guys like the Koch Brothers with the usual garbage about Union and their money influencing political races, too.
Bullshit.
Equating the Koch Brothers to Unions is a bit like saying that a fight between two armored guys with automatic weapons and rocket launchers based in an M1 tank against 1000 naked men with sticks is a fair one. Sure, the thousand guys might win, but at what cost even if they do?

thought no. 32

So, people like to describe taxing the very wealthy as "punishing success". Honestly, when it comes to some of our very wealthiest citizens, I'm not sure that their successes have been particularly good for the nation. Maybe they ought to be "punished". Perhaps had someone "punished" hedge fund managers, sub-prime loan officers, and derivative bond dealers into pursuing their businesses less vigorously, we could have avoid our current financial clusterfuck.

thought no. 31

Man, I wish I had thought of this one, but I didn't, so I've got to give credit to Ed, while the only credit I can give myself is the ability to recognize the validity of the thought (which, considering American politics these days, is actually still at a much higher intellectual level than most of my fellow citizens).
Here's the thought: basically, ask most people, including conservatives, why the Soviet Union fell and, after singing the praises of Saint Ronnie for a while, will eventually tell you that it was because our arms race bankrupted Russia*. Huzzah!
Then we turn to the U.S. where one quarter of our nation's budget goes towards the military and we're cutting money for infrastructure, services and health and welfare for the sick and old, all in an effort to let our wealthiest citizens maintain private jets and multiple homes to fly those jets between**.
Anyway, I just love the irony of us destroying ourselves in the same manner which our old enemies did, right down to a costly and soul-destroying war in Afghanistan. It'd be funnier if I didn't have children.



* Oh, and because capitalism rawks, dude, and socialism blows, doncha know.
** very handily encapsulating soviet history both before and after the collapse of the Union.

thought no. 30

I'm thinking I should move to Canada or Europe or South America or Iran or somewhere, because I'd like to see what it's like living in a country with an opposition party.

thought no. 29

As long as Republicans, and a significant segment of the American voting population, continue to act like the rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor, America will continue its decline.

thought no. 28

Hedge Fund guys make all their money by betting on the failure of some venture or another, right? And, lately at least, they have been doing pretty darn well. Like any American, it is their right, perhaps even their duty to contribute towards the election campaigns of the candidate of their choice.
But I had a thought: When they choose a candidate, do they choose one who'll make things better, which will help the nation, or one who will make things worse, which will help their bets on failure pan out profitably?

thought no. 27

Until someone figures out a way combat the "taxes punish success" meme, the GOP will continue to hold legislatures hostage and budgets will continue to starve.

thought no. 26

"Guns don't kill people. People kill people."
"But guns make it so much easier".

Jonathan L. Howard, from Johannes Cabal The Detective


Not my thought, but I plan to keep this one in my head for future use.

thought no. 25

Republicans are always going on about how they need to shrink the government. They often imagine doing this through the process of privatizing government services. But one of the primary requirements for a successful capitalist venture, at least in the modern world, is growth. So what that means is that conservatives want to shrink government by giving its duties over to organizations who by their very nature require becoming larger.

Imagine the implications of that for something like privatizations of prisons.

We already know the effects of it in war, don't we?