Recent Comments

1. almost 12 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   @Little Green MenWell. I guess some of us find it harder than others to read all those big words, right? Just kidding…

   Just a quick essay on discourse…

   Discourse between thoughful people IS a good thing. The only place I hope for extreme partisanship is in Congress. The fewer laws the better. Those idiots should have to work for every law they saddle us with. Bipartisanship-ness scares the willies out of me. Between folks like you and me, however, the discourse should be full and robust and friendly!

   :)

2. almost 12 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   @ReasonsVentriloquistInteresting point… However, just so you know, I do believe that there may be a wolf -

   The problem I have is understanding why the decision was made to truck the wolf in and stake him out in the middle of the playground. The difference is that in one case, you have no choice – the wolf shows up and spoils your day without your consent. I guess I’m just cynical enough to believe that in this case, the wolf was intentionally carted into the square and poked with sticks until it was all mean and ugly so the people would rise up and ask the same folks that brought the wolf into town to please take more of their money to get rid of wolves. Really, it’s kind of a protection racket: Give us your money and we’ll make sure your house doesn’t burn down (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

   See the difference? This is a wolf we could have avoided.

3. almost 12 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   @RocknGolferI don’t know about you, buddy, but I wish interest rates WOULD go up. Until they do, our ability to save in ANY safe way is gone. I remember teaching my kids about the wonders of compound interest – if they’d just save a little bit each month, someday, they could live off of the interest. Yeah. Don’t know about you, but I can’t get 1% on my money at the bank anymore. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d almost say it was intentional – gotta destroy the wealth of the little people…

   By the by, I do agree with you about the national debt. I wasn’t advocating any more debt. My point was simply that I just didn’t see why this little ‘chunk’ is so special. We shouldn’t be borrowing ANY. If we take in $2.9 trillion, we shouldn’t even be able to submit a $3.6 trillion budget. We have to learn to live within that amount. If we can’t at our current size, then shrink. Give the powers back to the states where they belong. Let the states decide if they need those programs or if the people of that state just would prefer to not spend money on those programs. The debt is sucking the life out of our beautiful country… My heart breaks when I think of what we’re wasting.

4. almost 12 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   I guess I righteously give a s##t. I have grandchildren and all I see is a future filled with this kind of petty BS that steals from them. I’m not a real big fan of theft. Now there is talk that they may want to seize… er… nationalize all IRA’s, 401K’s and Pension Plans. Does anyone believe that if they do that, that it will only impact conservatives in a negative way? The government is eyeing that 19 Trillion just sitting there, pre-tax, and salivating over the idea of taking it. I don’t care how you try to play it back to those of us who’ve worked all their lives. What’s being proposed, and what’s happening right now is theft. We are being stolen from. Not just the conservatives, but the liberals as well. If we can get past this idiocy of having to be right even if it means we destroy everything we have, we might be able to give our grandchildren a fighting chance. As it stands right now… I don’t have much hope. All I have is my oath: I solemly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foriegn and domestic and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. I consider nearly everyone who currently occupies federal elected office complicit in violating that oath (which every federal official has to take). I’m disgusted by the whole lot of them. It truly doesn’t matter if you’re a liberal or a conservative – we are all being hoisted on the petard of political stupidity. Absolutely nothing would make the political elite happier than to have Dems and Repubs fighting over how much more of our money to steal and getting us so frustrated that we, the people, stop paying attention!

   I guess I just don’t have the stomach for apathy. Our grandkiddies deserve better from all of us.

5. almost 12 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   @JimathaiI think you missed the point. It would be VERY easy, in a 3.6 Trillion dollar budget, to find $85 Billion to cut. The reality is that neither side really WANTS cuts. That’s why they make them so painful. Do you really believe that we just HAVE to take half the cuts from the defense department? Quite frankly, we’d be better off cutting things like the EPA, FDA, DHS, NSA, BATFE, State Department, IRS and the like. Do you REALLY believe we can’t do without most of those folks for a few days?

   One other thought here… if we’re borrowing $800 billion this year to make up the budget shortfall, it seems to me that we’re already up to our eyeballs… What is so special about THIS $85 Billion versus the other $800 Billion we’re borrowing? Why isn’t this sequester about $850+ Billion in borrowing instead?

   Just askin… everybody is so wrapped up in the left versus right discussion that we’re missing that we are ALL being played like a cheap fiddle.

6. almost 12 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   Um – hey – anybody ever wonder why it’s only the DIRE consequences that they come up with? You’d think that really smart politicians (oxymoron?) would be able to find places to take the money from that wouldn’t create such bad consequences. But then I guess if they said, “Hey, we’ll have to raise your taxes if we don’t cut the waste and fraud in government programs”, that we’d all say no to tax increases and yes to cuts in fraud and waste. It’s a much easier sell if you can say that armageddon will ensue if we politicians don’t get our way.

   And, hey, it seems self-evident to me that if this tiny little cut will hurt us all this much, that we should do EVERYTHING we can to get the government OUT of so many things. They are obviously in too many places. Problems at the federal level should NEVER impact at levels like police and firefighters and teachers and airport security. To me, this just proves they are too danged big.

   One other thought – this is not even a 2% cut. The budget is going UP 15% over last year… so this is a reduction in the increase from around 18% to an increase of 15%. I gotta know: if this is really so dire, HOW THE HELL DID WE MAKE IT LAST YEAR???? How did we pay for all that stuff then???

   Sheesh – all we like sheep, have gone astray…

7. over 13 years ago on Non Sequitur

   You know, I really wish someone would help me understand: How is it that if some guy (whether I work for him or not) gets lots of money (whether through a job or through Wall Street), that somehow that makes me earn less? Does that mean if I get a pay raise, that somewhere, someone has to get a pay cut? When I started my own company and became successful, did someone else have to go out of business for that to happen? Coversely, if a middle-class worker quits or is fired, does that suddenly put a nice little pile of money into someone elses pocket? More than likely, it will cost the company MORE money to recruit, hire, train and advance a new employee, so I’m sorry – I just don’t buy it.

   This is the real joke of OWS: The banks are corporations, and corporations must make a profit for their shareholders (in many cases, those are middle-class folks with 401K’s or money socked away in funds that are made up of banking stocks). By beating up on the banks and corporations, we are ultimately committing suicide – these are the folks that HIRE us!

   The truth is that a CEO making a million bucks a year is either doing something right or, in a capitalist society, that company will suffer (and should!). Without question, punishment by the purchasing public is the absolute BEST motivator to any company. Part of the problem we have is not that companies make a profit, but that for many companies, the Government is the primary source of income, and the government doesn’t CARE if the company is well run, or if it produces a good product at a good price (i.e. – G.E.).

   The real truth here is that if you eliminate the ability of companies to make a profit and put them under government control, you also limit the possibility of failure. You haven’t improved the lot of anyone. More likely, you just lower everyone to the level of the lowest worker, not raise everyone to the level of the highest. The elites will just become MORE elite since we are rapidly via government regulation and control making it impossible for the average guy to BE wealthy.

   One last thought: Wouldn’t it be better if EVERYONE could succeed and become wealthy, instead of everyone wanting to DESTROY those who HAVE become wealthy? OWS is beating up on the wrong group of folks. I say Occupy Washington would make more sense – the Tea Party had it right.