Due to health issues in my family I’d prefer not to disclose, I’ve hit a bit of a financial crisis.
If I have any good will left to draw on, I’d appreciate whatever help any of you who still frequent the site are able to provide.
Thanks so much,
Jeff
****
update: This has nothing to do with not having insurance. We are properly and well insured. This has more to do with out of pocket expenses and timing. So please: enough of the universal healthcare boilerplate.
Save that for the next Kennedy funeral.
****
update 2: Thanks to all who’ve contributed / sent kind words through email. I’ve tried to send out personal thank you notes to each of you, so if I somehow missed you, my sincere apologies.
I’ll leave this post up over the weekend. After that, I won’t bother you with this stuff for a while.
If there’s a way I can help with my professional services or advice, just let me know.
Sorry my friend, that’s the best i can do….Godspeed to you and yours. I don’t want to kknow? but i hope it’s nothiing too serious?
and any others out there? PLEASE pray for my typing classes?
Hey Jeff G,
You have plenty of goodwill left amongst the PW commentariat. I’ll send you something, only I’d prefer not to use paypal if you don’t mind.
Please e-mail me with an address I can send it to via snail-mail. It needn’t be yours; if you don’t have a PO box, then use the address of someone you trust. Or, there’s always Western Union…
I hope that whatever is wrong with whoever is afflicted clears up soon. In the meantime I’ll add you to my prayer list.
Buck up, me Bucko! This has come to pass and not to stay.
All the best to you and yours
Bob:
What’s the beef with PayPal? Not secure enough?
Hey Dicentra,
I have only a minor problem, mostly principle based. I tried to use it a couple of times over the years, and it seemed that they wanted way too much personal information from me. Granted, the last time I tried to use it was years ago. But, I put them on my “exxed” list, and with few exceptions have used businesses that made it on to that list!
I’ve also read of several accounts of paypal refusing to serve businesses over the years for what seemed like ideological reasons; the most recent was posted about here on PW some time ago by Dan I believe, and involved a Christian business. Also, I’d prefer to send the funds directly instead of using a credit card…
I’m sure that paypal is secure, I just have my own quirky reasons.
Take it easy
I’ll send you something, only I’d prefer not to use paypal if you don’t mind.
Right, same here. I liked the Amazon tip jar thingie — too bad Amazon discontinued that service.
An old-fashioned P.O. box for receiving donations might be a good idea.
Done.
Best of luck, Jeff. But that doesn’t extend to the Broncos. )
I’m in. Best wishes and good luck.
Done.
Thanks all.
Bob and SBP. Email me so that I have your email addresses and I’ll respond.
Also, anyone here collect baseball cards? I’m going to start selling mine off, and I’d rather they go where they are appreciated than to some jerk on eBay.
Bob and SBP. Email me so that I have your email addresses and I’ll respond.
Done.
Will do Jeff.
Also, for all interested members of the PW commentariat, check this out:
http://threesurethingsoflife.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/296/
Jeff G, I know you have other things on your mind, but a few of these points might interest and insoire you as well…
Best Wishes to all
You and your family will be in my prayers, dude. I hit the tip jar with a few pennies, too.
there you go and everyone needs to get better soon and then you really must do some bloggings I think.
Like Ted Kennedy’s just gonna up and die again when it’s a more convenient time for you? No. I think it unlikely.
Heh. ‘feets, there’s plenty more of the stalwart lefties left; hopefully, they will live a long time, just not in any Office where they can pick our pocketses and further ruin this nation.
God term-limited Ted Kennedy. A shame there weren’t enough opposition voters in Masshole to get him out sooner.
What ‘feets said.
hey boss,
this is my “short” week, but a chunk your way next Thursday.
I’m in, Jeff..
Interesting, a good friend of my was in a serious car wreck and was flown to Vanderbilt today. He has no insurance and will likely spend the rest of his life in medical debt due to the fact he couldn’t afford insurance. His bill will likely be about a quarter mil. Too bad he wasn’t Canadian or British or German or French or Swedish…etc…etc… Funny, more atheists in Sweden but they care for each other so much better than here.
He has no insurance and will likely spend the rest of his life in medical debt due to the fact he couldn’t afford insurance.
I’m bored so I took you out of the troll bin temporarily, Idiot Pedant.
Medical debts are, in general, fully dischargeable in bankruptcy, so you can spare us the “rest of his life” crapola, you fucking liebot. At worst your friend has jacked his credit rating for seven years, and something tells me it wasn’t all that great to begin with.
That’s assuming your imaginary friend even exists.
Your friend is in a serious wreck but instead of attending to him, you’re here instead, posting cheap anecdotes in support of universal health care?
Look closely at the situation. You’ll perhaps see the irony of your own position. As it stands, though, I have no desire to debate you. I wish your friend well.
But he shouldn’t have been driving without insurance.
Racist.
He’ll fit right into Medicaid. You should help him sign up if he’s incapable of doing it himself. What state does he live in?
ip
I’m sorry for your friend but vis a vis lack of insurance..poor planning on his part doesn’t constitute a gun to his neighbors’ heads.
and what Jeff says…why aren’t you at the hospital? Or writing a check to him?
“Interesting, a good friend of my was in a serious car wreck and was flown to Vanderbilt today. He has no insurance and will likely spend the rest of his life in medical debt due to the fact he couldn’t afford insurance. His bill will likely be about a quarter mil. Too bad he wasn’t Canadian or British or German or French or Swedish…etc…etc… Funny, more atheists in Sweden but they care for each other so much better than here.”
You’re a moron. Your pretend friend was flown to Vanderbilt and taken care of.
It’s not much, but there you go.
– A Mostly Lurking Anony Mouse
ip’s more worried about his friend’s future medical bills than that his friend’s life was saved. Tell me, ip, what’s the circumstances of the accident? I live right here in Middle Tennessee, and I’m curious as to the details.
If any.
serr8d,
What are the car insurance laws of Tennessee like? In Michigan everyone has to have coverage for this type of thing and in the event they don’t there is a State Uninsured driver fund that all insured drivers pay into to cover that event. Then again the accident could have been in another State. Google found several persons from Kentucky being flown to Vanderbilt Medical for treatment. Unfortunately it couldn’t seem to locate any accident victims being flown there today or yesterday or for the last 6 days except a 69 year old woman who died in a motorcycle accident. I guess the one ip talked off hasn’t made the news yet.
I hope his friend recovers and sues for his medical expenses if that is what it takes under the State law where he was injured.
Tennessee has mandatory insurance laws, but it pays to have Uninsured Motorist coverage (because there’s lots of deadbeats).
Vanderbilt normally receives several LifeFlights a day, and today was no exception. Vandy has the best trauma center around; it’s possible that the flight originated from another hospital, one that just couldn’t provide that sort of deep trauma care. Some of the ‘Mechanisms for Injury’ for Life Flight…
* High speed MVA
* Prolonged extrication
* Fatality within the same vehicle
* Ejection from the same vehicle
* Intrusion into the passenger compartment of vehicle by > 12 inches
* Mechanism of injury should accompany either a physiologic or anatomic criterion
Amputees, burn victims, puncture victims, all of those will fly into 21st Ave. S. Oh, and Vandy is also known for it’s Children’s Hospital, the best in the region. If ip’s friend made it there, he or she has an excellent chance of survival.
Done. G/d bless, and good luck.
I’ve done work at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and insurance or not, there is no place in the world I would rather be flown into after potentially life-threatening trauma injury.
For the liebot, please let me know which hospital in which other country gives better care than Vanderbilt.
I’d like to see a list of these scary wonderful super hospitals.
Jeff,
I followed the instructions given to Bob and SBP.
Good luck with the health issues.
He has no insurance and will likely spend the rest of his life in medical debt…
I guess it’s just so much better to spend your whole life in Gov’t debt.
He probably made his stupid friend up. Hey Ralph’s/Kroger’s has a line of ready to eat puddings that they branded with Jelly Belly and they’re kooky flavors and one of them is cotton candy. It looks really good and has this crazy color but I’m absolutely certain it’s a quintessentially white trash thing to buy so I just keep circling it. It’s the third thinger on this page. One of the other flavors is a green one called “Juicy Pear.” That sounds less good. Also watermelon. Watermelon pudding. It could very well be if I don’t get these thingers now I’ll regret it the rest of my life cause they could just go away and watermelon pudding would never ever exist anymore ever again ever. But also we’re on a not eating bad stuff kick here and there’s no way to put cotton candy pudding in the ok column even if it were a respectable purchase.
I’ll send a bit come this Tuesday. Won’t be much, but it should cover a get well card or two for the friend or friends.
The get well hugs you’ll have to deliver yourself. Good luck.
I have lived in Europe off-and-on for a while and I can tell you this: folks here aren’t agonizing about their health care systems—they like things just the way they are.
How very odd. People in America like it the way it is too. The Political Class less so.
Obama was voted in on a platform of Hate. Dirty socialist hate.
What dominates the dirty socialist media is ass.
He wasn’t. Strike one.
No, the reason the debate is dominating the news is that our Imperial Government is trying to ram reform down our throats without considering 1) any other options, or 2) whether it will even solve the problems it was purportedly designed to solve (even Obama himself now admits it won’t reduce costs).
Strike two.
Heeey, batta batta batta, sahh-wing, batta.
I saw the world’s largest pecan once. Well, a replica anyway. It was in Seguin, Texas. Damn that was a big pecan.
Oh, and World Class Slob, there is a whole world of difference between government handouts for life and asking your friends for help in emergencies.
Now, meet the TrollHammer.
Obama may have ran Health care as one of his priorities, but he was elected on Hope and Change. and people really liked the way the telepromter performed.
I came here to read the other side in America’s health care debate and, to be perfectly honest, I can’t understand people’s objection to socialized medicine—especially people middle class and below.
You are aware that the very poor are already covered, right? You do know that? You’re also aware that those who are unable to get/pay for insurance isn’t really 47 million, right?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. When the president on down is on the EXACT SAME INSURANCE I’ll support it. Not similar. Exact.
back to the topic at hand –
Sorry I couldn’t send more, Jeff. Also, thanks to Darleen (and others) for adding fresh content at PW.
I’ll keep you and yours in my prayers (no need for specifics, btw, the God I pray to has amazing, god-like powers.)
–
Darn, h.f, you’re just so….sophisticated!
Fuck you. Is there were we all trot out our anecdotes? I mean, given that your lying pedantic ass hasn’t the decency to get its facts straight.
I’ll die from a terminal illness well before my time. Said ailment was diagnosed as having been induced by way of the State and its legal system. We call it “legal abuse syndrome” and its the violating, thieving, ruinous stress that kills, in this case supporting a particularly vile and pernicious leftist ideology of statism and social collectivism that violates 200 years of court precedents, they in support of the Constitution. The old Soviet regime abandoned this practice over half a century ago, owing to its damage.
As to prolonging life, the State told me to get lost on four occasions — you make certain applications to the fucking bastards as a matter of course in order to qualify for actual aid from the private sector. Meanwhile the good nuns have unwritten some thousands of dollars in tests and a certain major pharmaceutical company gives me what would otherwise cost me $3000/mo. For four years this past August 9th. Free.
Maybe now you can, and that beside the obvious argument (made by your moral and intellectual betters 24/7) that you have no constitutional right to collectivize anything.
And what 45 said, you asshole. Move out of the US.
there = this
I hear no stories of folks dying in droves in the US because of no medical expenses. I hear no stories of folks dying in the US because of death panels or sheer fiscal incompetence.
Move there, you fraud.
Well, Middle Class Snob, I’ve been around the world. I’ve lived outside of your “red state” shitholes. I’ve seen socialism upfront and personal most of my life. And you know what? It tastes like ass. Socialism sucks. Collectivism sucks. Statism sucks. Dear Leader sucks.
And Jeff G., sorry to hear of your travails. Wish I could do more.
My problems have nothing to do with insurance. I’m covered, as is the rest of my family.
Thanks all for the help.
Incidentally, this is less “panhandling” than it is inviting friends and long-time acquaintances over to your house for cocktails, then asking them to sit through a two-hour Amway pitch. Add to that that the host happens to be deaf and blind, so he wouldn’t know if you decided simply to up and leave, and you have a much more precise description of the current situation.
— as long as we’re reaching for metaphors, I mean.
There’s a neat rhetorical trick involved in the “no bankruptcies in Europe due to medical reasons” – if the state pays for all medical treatment but taxes the bejesus out of you in the process, then you have less discetionary income to pay off all your debts.
In effect, every bankruptcy in Europe is due, to varying degrees, to medical costs.
–
Oh. And I got rid of that one asshole’s comments. When he sets up a place where I can go and crap all over his problems anonymously and in public, he’ll be invited back as part of a tit-for-tat exchange.
Until then he’s just a low rent demagogue without anything in the way of balls.
Where is this poor house exactly?
ip is a lying lying fucking liar.
Jeff G – Sent you an email. I will never ever ever ever never use paypal again.
Politicizing the personal. Never letting a crisis go to waste. Deriving emotional satisfaction from spouting off in ignorance of the facts. It sucks that this is real for Jeff and his family because as performance art it could not have been better calibrated to reveal the left for what it is.
You have earned a lot of goodwill here, Jeff.
Hang in there–I hope things will be looking up before long.
‘feets…
… just make sure that Kathy isn’t bringing it, eh?
When should medicine have been socialized, then? When should we have stopped allowing profits and used all our resources to provide the care we are currently capable of to any one who thinks they need it and stopped developing new techniques.
Because that is what socialized medicine does, it decides what we have now is good enough, it is more important to care for everybody alive today than to worry about tomorrow. So when should we have done that? The late nineteenth century? The early twentieth century when Progressivism and the Labor movement were beginning? Where would the money and incentive have come from to find the cure and vaccines for Polio and TB? To develop Penicillin? Insulin? Radiation and Chemotherapy for cancer?
If you pinheads had gotten your way back then, we would still be dying of consumption.
fwiw, Jeff, do you offer any fee-for-service help wiht editing/ proofreading?
I’ve written a variety of documents ranging from 800-5,000 words. If so, I’ll contact you offlist.
.
the misspelling in the above post was, mostly, intentional.
.
oh crap… I slept in and missed a new troll? It’s way to hot to exercise outside, giving out a good thumping here would have been fun.
Of course, from the few select quotes others have provided, it looks like it was one of the usual Leftcult bots who refuses to see a difference between voluntary interaction between people in the form of charity and government forced takings.
Oh…btw, collectivization also makes people amoral. The bigger the government the smaller the people.
Jeff still has posting privaleges here?
It would have been more but my buddy stopped by and we connected with some killer weed and after about an hour and a half or maybe two days he called his girlfriend who is really hot. Anyway she said she’d do a threesome if we got her some blow and Courvoisier, but I didn’t have enouh for the blow. So in a way you saved me from myself. It’s all good, bro.
B Moe: When should we have stopped allowing profits and used all our resources to provide the care we are currently capable of to any one who thinks they need it and stopped developing new techniques.
Along the lines of what Ric Locke said about ~ “every leftist initiative presuming the pre-existence of abundance”, the Left essentially tries very hard to assume that since wealth can’t be created, it must somehow just be there!
We know this kind of myopia and denial, or flat out stupidity, makes even rocks look like much better members of society, but that’s where the Left sits – right there in its degenerate, entropy-loving, anti-life hole, wanting to require everyone else to join it. But the term “homocidal suicidalism” also applies here, along with “deathwish/worship” as their supreme Moral Imperative, and of course good old “evil”.
And they act like they think no one will or should notice and respond, another strong sign of their actual intent.
[…] rather private, but he’s got some kind of health issue in his family right now, and is asking for […]
Sorry to hear of med troubles. You aren’t forgotten.
p.s. I recently re-viewed the hilarious Citizen Journalists report you put together with Dorkafork a couple of years back. You have a future in that sort of thing if you keep putting yourself out there, because you have a gift. The underlying topic wasn’t half as interesting as you.
Oh, here is the link for the CJ’ report Jeff and Dorkafork did for Hot Air:
http://tiny.cc/Bx9vx
[…] Donate to Jeff G., family health issue https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=15260 (via @vermontaigne) Posted on Sun 30 Aug 12:24 retweet 0 votes RT @collegepolitico: Donate to […]
no one goes bankrupt needing medical care.
No, they just die needing medical care.
How many people are begging the government for treatment in Canada?
and Albert you may want to work on that reading comp thing, Jeff G says it is health related but has nothing to do with lack of insurance
Albert
I also am interested in understanding your position that rather than people helping each other out on a voluntary basis, it is preferable to have the Government, under threat of force, take a person’s earnings and give them to another.
Please expand on that kind of “morality”.
Albert, you are an unbelieveable douche. Nobody will ever have to beg for money to cover medical care in Canada because, once denied there, they can come across the border and get it here in these USofA. And then skip out on the bill. However, since “necessary medical care” in Canada doesn’t include things like CT scans and MRIs, your statement has a tiny shred of truth to it. Now go play in traffic.
Values in the Bible! Ha!
I am totally convinced that one the root cause of leftism is functional illiteracy.
Wow, I can’t believe David Axelrod and I totally agree on something.
Albert sounds very familiar. I’m sure we wouldn’t see this idiot around if someone needed help due to excessive legal bills, getting screwed by the IRS, having their crops rot because water was diverted to protect a minnow or any of the million other reasons people can find themselves in a short-term bind. No, the world will be just perfect if we give in to morons like Albert and the rest of the delusional utopian creeps.
Albert – Shove your head back into your chocolate starfish.
You know those Prophets, always yammering on about values, right? Look, there goes one now:
Albert –
when you account for the size and demographics, the US health care system is 175-200% more efficient that Canada’s. Lower wait times, better quality of outcomes, lower overall cost, et cetera.
.
Oh, so the governement has no say in things like how many diagnostic devices are available? And if they did, that wouldn’t drive care decisions? Sure thing, Albert.
Hey, what’s the mortality rate for heart attacks in Canada vs. in the US, Albert?
Sorry. Albert had to go. He was making everyone stupider.
I wonder if there’s a cure for that.
Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.
— Robert A. Heinlein
“I wonder if there,s a cure for that”
Unfortunately, no. Not the liberal kind anyway. It is contageous so keep your distance.
Fuck you meya, you lying dirty little socialist fascist anti-semetic twat.
Store your beer in a cool, dark place
Robert Heinlein, “Time Enough for Love”
meya
you don’t follow “Darwin awards”, do you?
and I could give you chapter and verse on how many people are in jail due to stupidity (and lucky to be alive)
Sorry. Albert had to go.
Sweet.
Jeff: I’ll see what I can do. Best wishes, and let us know–if/when you feel appropriate–a successful outcome.
The stupid think Obamacare is going to decrease the deficit.
They also think it’s going to lower costs.
the stupid do fear the DEATH PANEL.
No, the stupid remove the quotes from the words and give endless exposure to the contents of a Facebook post. Thanks dummies!
That and the urge to steal blind those perceived as having more than they. If it weren’t so spectacularly morally reprehensible, one would be tempted to suggest — under their breath, naturally — that such ignorant thieves kindly refrain from exercising their right to vote, i.e. to steal by other means.
There are other places they’d be so much happier.
You can tell how much Barack Obama hates white people when he spends all weekend holding up fast-ass perverted dead white trash like Ted Kennedy as an exemplar of one. This goes beyond soft bigotry of low expectations and straight to outright contempt I think.
oops. Sorry. That should be *fat*-ass perverted dead white trash like Ted Kennedy… for reals I’m not making it up … click you don’t believe me … what trailer park did this piece of shit crawl out of anyways?
Sorry. “DEATH PANEL.” But seriously now you’re telling me we should be trivializing her facebook posts? even when she doubles down with FOOTNOTES?
What I’m telling you, meya, is that you’re losing. And I don’t care what Sarah Palin thinks any more than I care what you think. For similar reasons, I might add. But I do enjoy it when the left puts death panels out into the ether because even when encased in juvenile snark it does inspire people to be a little more attentive with regard to the details. And that’s not a good thing for you.
Yup. Explaining that the government bureaucracy that determines who gets what health care isn’t really going to be called a “death panel” isn’t a particularly winning argument.
funny how “Death Panels” caused absolute, spittle-flinging, hysteria on the Left with attendant ad hominems about the “stooooopid snowbilly”
but suddenly all those “terrorist” seniors started taking the time to read the bills and showing up at townhalls and telling AARP what they could do with their membership and Pelosi started calling ObamaCare dissenters “Nazis” and Democrats screeched “astroturf” and demanding to see driver’s licenses before they’d answer questions and …
yeah, Palin was really stupid that way, wasn’t she?
AARP is same as the mafia I think. They aspire to be a protection racket.
Evil.
Yeah, when you’ve got the POTUS himself defending against a has-been chillybilly quitter’s Facebook posts, you just know she’s got to be a dumbkopf. Or he is, or something.
the government bureaucracy that determines who gets what health care isn’t really going to be called a “death panel”
Right. It’s like the “Committee of Public Safety” or the “People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs” that way.
Amazing how they just can’t seem to shut up about this has-been redneck, innit?
I know we spend hours and hours obsessing over the latest communiques from Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis, right?
Poor SFAG. Her communist fantasy world is crumbling around her ears, and she just doesn’t know which lie to tell next.
Pick a lie and stick to it, SFAG.
maya. I thought I told you to take your duplicitous lying white trash ass out of here. You don’t belong in polite company. You’re the turd in the punch bowl. Your the child molester at a childrens party. The only relationship between you and a real person is the fact we have the same number of chromasomes. Other than that you’re a boil, a tooth ache. You are a vacuous lying cunt and the only reason I don’t come over there and make your earholes contiguous is that I’m a better person than you and I always will be. Now beat it.
Especially about her Facebook posts.
Yes. Facebook. Really.
“How many people are begging the government for treatment in Canada?”
All th eones who can’t make it to the US.
Get well/better soon. My guess health care is only going to get a lot worse once Obama and his pals get their mits on it.
I’m having a PSU episode with PayPal right now, but I’ll try to fire off a little something later.
PSU = Program Superior to User
I had unkind words for Paypal during Jeff’s last fundraiser, but by accidentally reactivating a once-defunct e-mail address I found and was able to reactivate an old “lost” Paypal account.
I still wouldn’t risk leaving any of my money in Paypal after what they did a few years back to Kevin Aylward.
A colleague of mine has a stroke while conducting an orchestra in Brazil. He was afflicted with terrible double vision and couldn’t walk for weeks. He spent three weeks in a hospital in Sao Paulo, he had numerous MRI’s, therapy, thrice daily doctor visits and a private room with wonderful meals. Guess what his bill was for that three week stay and his emergency care? $15,000. That level of treatment in the US would have cost 10X that, easy. When he got back to the states, the soonest appointment he could get was 2 weeks. He’s now a believer, he got 100% better care in Brazil.
Last summer I was in a minor motorcycle accident. I was in the hospital for 6 hrs. 4 of the 6 hours, I waited to be attended to. It took them 2 hours just to simply dress my cut. They ordered an CT scan and x-rays. I had no more than 2 minutes face time with doctors and my bill was $3000. The insurance company was billed way too much and for services, some I never received. Good ole US health care. However, on the flip side, I had an excellent orthopedic surgeon at Baptist sports medicine group in Nashville.
I noticed that PayPal wanted me to allow it to have access to my bank account. That’s funny stuff, right there; on the same level of funny as that ex-Ugandan prince who would share his fortune with me.
Keep PayPal on a short leash, with a credit card that has a yearly expiration date. I use a debit card because I can monitor it’s activity daily if I wish. I dare ’em to fuck up. I have access to hammers.
william, you be sure to hit that tip jar.
Remember, I have access to hammers.
So the lesson from William is that middle-aged beta males shouldn’t ride motorcycles or engage in physical activities that have a high likelihood of ending with a visit to an orthopedic surgeon. Stick to the lute, leave the manliness to men and quit being a drain on our healthcare system, William.
Serr8d, glad to get some time at Centerhill, not that brown lake you go to.
He’s now a believer, he got 100% better care in Brazil.
Right. That’s why their mean life expectancy is six years less than ours.
Brazil is a great country if you’re a member of the elite, not so good if you’re living in one of the favelas.
Moron.
BTW, Williboi, you might want to look at how the “income inequality” crapola your type is always screeching about plays out in Brazil.
Brazil has had 7 constitutions; the latest has lasted since 1988.
Our constitution does not guarantee health care to citizens.
So they’re seven times better than us, serr8d? :-)
It’s like the way that France is such an ultra-advanced country, since they’re on their fifth republic and we’re still limping along on our first one.
And everybody in Brazil gets that exact same treatment.
And all the pie they can eat. For free.
Is willie the racist hilljack not a dumbfuck?
Did you know they have Christmas every other week in Brazil, JD? With a for real Santa Claus.
Plus, free wax jobs for all.
Once again, the knee-jerk reaction of the Left is to politicize the personal because, well, to them, everything is political.
I’m glad to see you here, Jeff, but I am sorry about the circumstances. I’ll help with what I can as soon as I am able.
(When I can get my clients to actually freaking PAY ME.)
Brazil can afford to pay for health care; they can cut down all those stupid carbon-sinkhole rain forests, clear the land and plant nice plots of ethanol-producing sugarcanes for AlGore’s fight against – scam for global warming (for to better line his pocketbooks, and whet his misanthropy).
Free nuts, too.
You know serr8d, william has convinced me to never set foot in Tennessee. Your ER service just sucks, big time. Here in a little old small town in Michigan I have not had any trouble with Emergency Rooms like that. Service here is great.
Our Governor is screwing up most everything but she hasn’t messed up the ERs or the outpatient surgery, the main hospitals or the doctors yet. Probably orders to let the O! do it.
So sorry you, william and that Reynolds couple have to live in that third world s*ithole. Oh yeah, I’ve got relatives in Knoxville. I better get them relocated before they die of the horrible witchdoctor level care. I hear Cuba is nice if you know the right people.
I’m convinced. If I get in an accident, rather than calling 911 I’m going to call a cab and ask him to take me to Rio.
Brazilian Healthcare.
I have an acquaintance who was struck with a terrible case of diarrhea whilst singing “Vesti la giubba” during the Pagliacci Fest in Chinatown. His clown suit, though washed thrice, was afflicted with horrible poop-stains that soon became the talk of better circles. He went to Ching Chong Magic Dry Cleaners and they got the splotch of sardine-and-Ritz-excrement that was like a black cloud hanging over his clown butt in one try.
Now he’s a 100% believer in Chinese laundry.
alp, I’ve just soiled myself. Thanks.
“The insurance company was billed way too much and for services,…”
So, you hae insurance?
Then quit whining.
” Guess what his bill was for that three week stay and his emergency care? $15,000.”
Who paid for the balance?
It took them 2 hours just to simply dress my cut.
what? mommy wasn’t around to dress your cut?
what a nasty fascist little bitch to wake up to. Worse than Bruce Bartlett even.
“And you couldn’t drop this on a different thread?”
It’s better than the rabbit pellets you drop all over the place.
@127 geoffb, william is anomaly. Tennessee (much to the left’s chagrin) is still a Red State; Tennesseans (like Texans) did not come out for Baracky. And, both houses of the TN State Legislature are now controlled by “R”‘s (weakly, but still…), for the first time since reconstruction.
William is just an unhappy nutty little guitar perfessor surrounded by people who, for the most part, look askance at his political bent.
I would have to have my arm severed before I went to the ER for treatment. Seriously, save that shit for when you are really hurt.
As for the long waits, excessive costs, and other negative ER experiences, you can thank those who absuse the system for that. Illegals and uninsured who use ERs as their primary care facilities. Those insanely high costs are used to pay for those who pay nothing.
Joe, Mrs. DarthRove sends you a big sloppy smooch and says, “Thank you for your support.”
And willie the racist hilljack, you went to the ER for a cut? You’re part of the problem, jacktard. You deserve to pay $3K for a band-aid.
this is just so very very deeply wrong
make it stop
can’t those homosocialist fascist disney fucktards create anything themselves anymores?
a couple of quick points –
When the conductor got back to the US from Brazil he was not in an emergency situation, so the fact that he waited for two weeks for an appointment is because he was a non-emergency patient. Put it this way – had the conductor called is doctor’s office and said “I’m seeing double, my hand is flopping around by my side, and I arghehe hehehahahreh, can’t seem to speak too good” they would have seen him at once.
Also, Brazil is about 40 years behind the times with regards to medical malpractice claims. The Brazillians are now learning about western-style legal processes. As a result malpractice insurance policies, errors and omissions policies, and the general cost of healthcare is going up.
As for your motorcycle accident- waiting around four hours is usually a good sign as they take the worst cases first. The “cleaning the wound” and the MRI and other tests were probably done by the hospital as a CYA incase you sued.
Hell, why didn’t you just go to Office Depot, buy a stapler and some hand sanitizer and fix yourself up in the parking lot? That’s what a man’d do.
–
I left off the /sarc tag but figured the Cuba reference would suffice.
The Poetry Wars, h/t to BD at Maggie’s Farm. Prof. Zelnick trudges the lonely field, trying to find freedom.
Or, you know, just go to an Urgent Care facility. They’re all over the place and they’re super easy to get into.
No, we need to socialize American health care because wee willie is a dunce. That way, his emergency room wait will only be 3 hours instead of 2.
“Hell, why didn’t you just go to Office Depot, buy a stapler and some hand sanitizer and fix yourself up in the parking lot? That’s what a man’d do.”
Priceless!
Hey Jeff & family,
I hope this finds all in better health. Sorry to be late to your assistance. Just dropped you a little something in the PP hole. If you need a lift, take the brass armadillo from its shrine, rub his belly, and pour cheap tequilla till the little bastard dances.
Prayers for you and family, Jeff. God bless.
#146: I’ve always preferred SuperGlue, myself.
For your next “accident”: Scrotum Self-repair by William A. Morton, Jr. MD.
By the way, this is the way health care was delivered before The Republic was defeated by socialism. My paternal great grandmother was a horse riding midwife in north Georgia in the 1920’s. My father told me about going with her after sundown to care for a local farmer who injured. As Grandma Nancy was caring for her patient, the sound of horses approaching the house became thunderous. The horses stopped by the house, the door opened and a line of men in “surgical gowns and masks” filed into the house, by the bed, and back out the door. They mounted and rode away without saying a word. The bed was covered in money when they left.
Before the “all good things come from government” crowd took over, charity was done by family, friends, houses of religion, and the local community. As the world has experienced from America repeatedly, we will band together to help in disasters of epic scale. We The People are, however, very tired of the victim culture, the cancerous growth of government that expands it, and the robber barons that have looted Our treasure.
He still had one left. I guess Darwin was feeling generous that day.
152- stupid or liar?
I could go either way.
Carin – TehAss lurvs beclowning he/she/itself. Performance art.
“Only in America…”
Theass,
The Demecrats have everything they need to make everything “perfect” so why are you here bitching and moaning?
Theas, your Depends are full again.
Only in America…
Not true. Leftists are human garbage pretty much everywhere.
Easy boys and girls. Theas is feeling nostalgic for the heady days of protest when all was the fault of Chimpy McHitlerBush and Stalin O’Cheneyfascist.
Try to feel his pain as he contemplates his shattered dreams.
As far as the proggs are concerned, all is NOT perfect, and won’t be until Barry O’Stalin wins “elections” with 99.999% of the vote. God help the 0.001%.
Gee BJ,
I’d never heard the Stalin O’CheneyFascist…
But you are correct about Teh-ass
<>
And the Crazy Glue. Don’t forget the Crazy Glue.
Carin,
I vote option 3–both.
I wish I were you, Jeff. Instead, I troll the WINGNUT!!1! sites and talk about people and their families from the safety of a proxy IP, using as many fake emails and names as I can think of.
Why? Because I’m a badasssss champion of the PEOPLE, fighting the FAT CATS and the BIBLE THUMPERS!
Still, all things considered, I’d rather have friends and a direction in life.
Help a brother out?
Gordo is back, huh?
Fuck you leftist douchenozzle.
So tell us your story Menary.
What responsibility do you hold or contribution (aside from mean spirited trolling) have your produced?
your = you
These types of Leftists are full of hate hate hate for anyone that does not service Teh Narrative. They are mean-spirited pathetic excuses for humans, having no soul.
These types of Leftists are full of hate hate hate for anyone that does not service Teh Narrative. They are mean-spirited pathetic excuses for humans while hiding on the internet, because in the real world they are fey little pussies who got wedgied in school and still can’t get over it.
FTFY
And would still get a wedgie or a swirlie were they to say something like that to someone’s face. But they are fucking cowards.
It still amazes me that our brain-addled Proggs can never seem to get their heads around the difference between asking friends and family for help, versus using the power of the State to coerce other people’s friends and family for help.
There is but one Armadillo, and Jeff is his Prophet. Pass the collection plate.
Anyone care to bet that its IP resolves to one of our asshat trolls from the past?
Squid – I am going to be up your way in a couple weeks. Could I buy Juicy Lucy’s again?
I hear ya JD.
What is funny is that the regulars and a few of the hatist trolls will be the only ones to read this thread’s comments. I would think that they would get more mileage from their hate at an MSM site. But strategy is obviously not their strong suit.
That’s so true Danger. I’ve never quite understood why these trolls waste their energies on a boutique blog where everyone laughs at them when they might be able to sway a mentally challenged reader at a site like USA Today by hanging around an article’s comments section.
#114
Well. William anyway.
#163
So. I guess that means we can count you out? Figures.
About three years ago I had a TIA. No lasting ill effects, but my vision went wonky – it would jump from side to side – and I was dizzy, had a little problem with the balance thing while walking. That was around noon. After work I drove to the hospital (Sparrow Hospital) in Lansing, went to the emergency room, was admitted, and sepnt about three days there. Had an MRI of the head and neck, an EKsomething (I was knocked out and a tube was put down my throat to check on the heart and its blood vessels). All came back clear. Food was decent, like a diner in quality; not stellar, but not bad.
Insurance took care of it. Really nothing to complain about.
Oh – and I saw doctors pretty regular and nurses also. And a gaggle of student docs came by.
I told mom and dad after it was all over; I didn’t want them to worry.
Glad to hear that your ok Mikey,
But please have someone else drive if the symptoms ever return 8^).
Menarche = instant TrollHammer.
Yeah, Danger – I shouldn’t have. But I’m stubborn. I don’t know if that is from mom’s side or dad’s side – both families are pretty mule-headed (as mom puts it), and I seem to take from both sides and compund it.
Trolls like Menary (why do they always use screen names of obscure cognitive scientists and the like? It’s as if even at their worst, they want to pretend toward a sophistication that they simply don’t have, and an intellect they will never actually possess) come here hoping to wound.
The attacks are personal. They go after families. And they are able to rationalize such things away because They Are Good and people like me are Evil.
Funny how they smirk at the idea of evil when it manifests itself in a barbaric religious fundamentalism bent on the destruction of western decadence, and yet they find it in those who advocate for individual freedom and a distrust of government.
This makes them feel somehow worldly. When in fact, what they are are pussies who troll websites using fake names to attack ordinary people whose opinions they don’t share. It’s a primitive form of cathartic transference and scapegoating. Which is what we see in a lot of rudimentary religious cults.
— Alternately, maybe he’s just one of the “conservative” tools who’s still smarting over the spanking I gave to one of the more “pragmatic” right wingers here in the blogosphere.
Potato, po-tah-to.
Menary is the typical anaonymous internet superman, who is so pitifully uninformed that he can only recite cartoon narratives, and personally insult people, their families, and impute an ill will to their every word and deed…
Regardless of which side of the political spectrum he identifies with…
Mostly just pathetic little intellectual proto-sapiens lashing out at that they will never understand.
America is getting meaner the more the dirty socialists wreck on it. It’s going to get worser and worser and I just don’t know what to tell you. Especially after this weekend’s dirty socialist celebration of corpulent white trash. That was so… definitive.
He’s now a believer, he got 100% better care in Brazil.
I lived in S.A. for awhile on $200 a month. I was also well-fed, well-sheletered, and well-clothed. But the living conditions were still way inferior to conditions in the U.S.
The American Dollar goes much farther in Brazil than it does here. Apples and avocados, yo.
The insurance company was billed way too much and for services, some I never received.
Because they’re making up for all the money they lose with Medicare, Medicaid, and the illegals.
Or, you know, just go to an Urgent Care facility.
Them’s illegal in Wisconsin. My bro had to take his kid into the ER for a broken arm, and they soaked him for $4K.
For those keeping score, that’s incident #40692 wherein gubmint intervention screws us all.
I’m sorry you’re hurting for cash, Jeff (and I’ll give more if they call me this week and tell me I have the job), but…
..if a bleg is what gets you back online, even to grind trolls under your heel, then it’s almost worth it.
I’m sure Mary Jo Kopechne would have wanted it that way. Or was it D. Frisch?
Them’s illegal in Wisconsin
what the hell??
I threw you what I could Jeff. I hope it helps. Why? Of course it was because you sent an army of super human “tax” collectors and threatened my property via state coercion. Or was it because, I wanted to help, of my own free will and volition, a kindred spirit and fellow traveler in this existence we call life? Yeah, it was the second one. It really has to be frustrating to be so fucking stupid to not know the difference between those two things. I mean, really and truly frustrating.
Aieee… SWMNBN! Even got herself banned from the political scene in Youjean…and has a new complaint against her for death threats… the stoopid is great with this one.
From Thea’s article
Baha ahha haaa
Watch, now that Jeff has mentioned “troll” and “spanking,” there’ll be an influx of trolls salivating at the thought of a well administered Spanking by Jeff.
And you felt the same way about Bush, theass. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, there are assholes the world over. We already know that.
Carin
TheAss is like Mike Malloy..the radio hack who says right-wingers killed JFK and RFK.
Like using the Fairness Doctrine and Community Standards Boards to silence right wing pundits? Or campaign finance reform to bar advocacy groups from the media? Or using hate speech legislation to criminalize opposing views?
Which sock-puppet troll is TehAss, Darleen?
I once fucked a frog. Only cost me $5 and a couple of flies, so I figured what the hell, right?
Neiwert? That guy is to political commentary what Trekkie conventioneers are to astronomy.
Diefenbaker, who is this “us” you are talking about?
Friends don’t have to put on a show and Friends don’t demand one in order to help.
But that’s why Leftcult twatwaffles are so bound and determined to stamp out people relying on each other… they don’t have real friends they can rely on, just other parasites like themselves.
JD
I don’t have access to the IP’s on this thread so I don’t know if TheAss is just one IP or is bouncing around proxies.
in favor of the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through suppression, exile, and eviction, or extermination
OMG! They’re planning suppression, exile, eviction, and extermination!
Look at what they’re projecting to see what they’re up to, ya know.
I think he means like killing people. Like with a death panel.
Poor meya got Facebook’d by Sarah Palin.
That “death panel” thing was like a stake through your tiny little fascist heart, wasn’t it, SFAG?
meya
oh…like Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Hitler, Castro, Che and Kim Il Jong? All those collectivist (left) totalitarians?
sdferr:
That Poetry Wars article is really good, but before I could post a comment, I lost contact with the site. Anyone else able to access mindingthecampus.com?
It’s not coming up for me either, dicentra.
As they say, there’s an app for that.
Say whaaaaa? Which one’s dummerer, that one or this one? You know what we need is more government intervention in the delivery of care. That way we’ll be able to give everyone, not just the 40 some odd million, less options. Unless they need some post-coital family planning.
Leftist projection in print, no less.
I’m doin’ some of my eliminationist stuff righ’cheer in the comments. Bad wingnut!
Golly, that was quick. You might want to delete my #206, since it refers to a comment that no longer exists.
Ah, isn’t that a beauty. California may be “the land of fruits and nuts”, but we got nothin’ on New York in the field of redundent, contradictory and outright ridiculous regulation.
Huh, and here I thought the Churchland’s had it bad.
Dicentra, it appears that mindingthecampus is back, at least it loaded just now for me.
Theas, conservatives don’t delete comments, we delete stupidity.
You qualify.
Easily.
“Comment” implies something with a non-null semantic content.
TheAss
take it to Markos or Amanda
Well, I know that whenever some raving lunatic wanders into my home and takes a big ol’ steamin’ dump on my living room floor, I immediately remove it.
Partially because, as a conservative, I’m apparently given to bouts of cowardice.
But mostly, I just don’t like the smell.
B Moe,
Or, Billy Ayres and Bernadine Dohrn, the current President’s mentors who figured they’d need to “eliminate” about 25 million of us “die-hard capitalists”.
There he goes with the projection again.
You are a simple one, aren’t you?
Sure, Theas. That’s a good little boy. Have a cookie.
Apparently this one is unaware of the practices of all of the blogs on its side. And, it is a fucking liar.
I’m William, and this comment was a performative.
Flipped in $20. It’s been slim pickin’s out there for a while (for me, since March 08).
*sigh* I miss so much lately.
It’s nice to see Jeff for a bit, though.
Yeah, pw is exactly like the Liberty University student newspaper. Thanks, william. It’s all so clear now. Here’s a pudding cup for you.
Pablo, is it Cotton Candy pudding? I’m just curious.
Actually Theas is right. I can prove it. You go to any conservative evangelical Christian college website and look up their student run newspaper. (Liberty, Bob Jones, Bryan College, etc…) You will find they they don’t allow the public to post opinions on their articles. Nearly all major college newspapers invite opinion.
Did you develop these reasoning skills at the Berklee College of Music or when getting your “advanced degrees” in mucical performance? What do you actually think you’ve “proven” here? This is almost as funny as when you tried to argue that MSNBC is a more legitimate news organization than FOX on the basis of their having an anchor who won an EMMY and a regular contributor who won a Pulitzer. This quality of thought is a recurring theme with you . You’re a dog with a bone who takes himself rather seriously, but you’re not very bright and certainly not well educated.
mucical = musical.
William, they don’t allow the public to post at their newspaper website because they don’t want the dregs of society posting vulgar and degrading things on their bandwidth. They have donors who would see those things and threaten to pull their support.
‘A marketplace of ideas’ is seen as dangerous to conservatives.
That old argument again? William, remember when you said I was well educated? I got that way at BYU, whose library is in the top 10 university libraries in the country, with over 6 million volumes.
Couldn’t get that way with just “religulous” writings, could it.
It’s really frustrating that you keep coming back to those old canards after we bust them open.
Or does “bubble” only apply to Jesus freaks?
No, seriously, William. What up?
Why is it necessary to come to a blog full of college-educated religious and otherwise conservatives and tell us how stoooopid we are?
That is SUCH an intellectual cop-out! If you can label your opponents as bigoted or stupid, then their arguments aren’t worth considering and their humanity is diminished to the point that they DESERVE to be insulted.
Is that who you are, William? Is that what being an oh-so-educated liberal makes you? Someone who despises his fellow men to the point that he can’t see the good in those who are different from him? Are you so insecure in your beliefs that you HAVE to stuff the opposition into dark little boxes before you can feel OK about your beliefs?
Come on! Let’s have a real conversation. For starters, given the text of the Tenth Amendment,
please describe the conservative and progressive positions on said amendment.
Can you do it? I can! Most of the people who read this blog can. Even most of Glenn Beck’s audience can, as can the truckers who call in to the Midnight Trucking Network.
Bonus points if you can describe the implications of each position.
But you can’t, can you? You derive satisfaction not from bending your mind around something that you don’t believe but from taunting people you believe to be inferior.
And you wonder why we don’t like lefties around here!
These students are the most sheltered individuals I’ve ever seen
Dude, I taught lots of Long Island kids and other East Cost privileged-class liberals at Cornell, and I taught at BYU, and I can tell you right now that the BYU kids understand the Cornell kids better than vice-versa.
It’s similar to the way Canadians and Australians know all about us but we know nothing about them. The East Coast is all they know and all they care about. One kid was surprised that the Olympics were going to be held in Utah (what? mountains?)
It’s easy for the blind to decide that the sighted are talking nonsense, but they’re wrong. So are you.
“I’m doin’ some of my eliminationist stuff righ’cheer in the comments. Bad wingnut!”
Well played sir (especially #162).
I’ve gotten a lot more “eliminationalist” over the last 8 years. And it’s mostly my encounters with the thors, williams, and Theasses of the world that have done it. For the first time, I understand what led to the Civil War, and it’s the same group of Copperheads taking us to the same place. From the Plantation to the Collective to the madrassa, Democrats are the best friends slavery ever had.
Well, not me or anyone I care about (which includes people like Jeff, and Darleen, and dicentra, and Danger, and N.O’Brain and his son, and….too many to list). Not without a fight.
“If they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
SDN, Conservatives consider “1984” and “Animal Farm” to be cautionary tales. Leftists think they’re blueprints.
That’s me! Christian conservative uneducated fearmongering godbotherer.
Billy’s got me pegged. Now, back to Guitar Hero with you, Billy. There’s a good widdle genius.
By the way, there’s a difference between progressive sites removing conservative arguments that run counter to the posted topic’s argument and conservative sites removing off-topic posts, advertisements for the books of kooks, and personal attacks on the writer: in the case of the former, the moderators are simply removing the noise and distraction of unserious minds so that earnest progressives can fully flesh out their ideas in a climate that is conducive to deeper thinking and discussion; in the case of the latter, the wingnuts are circling the wagons because they FEAR THE TRUTH BEING BROUGHT BY THEIR BETTERS!
It’s a question of ontology, really.
Off topic — or maybe not, since Jeff’s introduced ontology to the discussion — those of you who aren’t familiar with Norm Geras should be. Norm is a retired British professor (of Marxism, no less!) and a member of a distinctly endangered species: the good-hearted Leftist who is prepared to actually discuss things.
Check out this post of his, and see if you can figure out what amuses/enrages me about it.
Regards,
Ric
Did wee willie wanker the skin lute player try to wax the weasel in public again?
Ric:
Well, the fact that he’s allergic to the concept of private property ab initio is pretty annoying, though he gets some points for recognizing that there is a difference between sculpting something and startling a herd of deer.
On the other hand, he’s still persuaded that “need” can stand on the same plane as “effort,” and so enters into that same conundrum wherein being needy is more profitable than being able.
And around we go again…
Ric:
Would some of your problems with Mr. Geras’ post involve his idea that property rights are assigned on merit (or “desert” to use his term) rather than by natural law or trade? Natural law says that I own myself; I own my computer because I traded Best Buy three hundo for it. Mr. Geras seems to say that if there were one computer and I and one other wanted to buy it, it should go to whomever expended the most “effort” to get the 3 bills to trade for it because they deserve it more.
Since I have not studied philosophy or the thinking behind “what is property and how does it become such”, I’m sure there are aspects to this that I have not thought deeply enough about. His post did leave me with a sense of disquiet, like something wasn’t quite right but I couldn’t pinpoint where or why.
Why, yes. Neiwert makes me pee a little in my pants whenever he brings the truthiness into my cloistered little existence. All wee weed up, I get.
Disposes is a funny word.
Same will grind you under its feet.
dicentra, Darth, no, all those are things to argue and/or think about, but it isn’t what I see as central.
The founders of the Left were concerned to enraged, depending on temperament, that the people who produced to support the society (“the workers”, as Marx formulated it) were being robbed. In their view, the “capitalists” were taking away the workers’ “excess value” — the increased value of raw materials, etc., that came from their labor input, and which, in the original Leftist view, was “fairly” theirs — and using it to increase the concentration of wealth.
And to be “fair” about it, they had something of a point, although Rule #1 (It ain’t that simple!) applies in spades, dealer vulnerable.
Now look back at the post, and the essay it discusses. They’re Leftists — and they have totally inverted the original premise of the Left! I don’t see how anyone could interpret Marx’s formulation as anything other than a “property right” held by the workers to the “fruits of their labor” — but these guys are arguing that nobody has a “right” to anything even if he or she worked for it.
Regards,
Ric
Ric:
Hoo! I’ve been around too many contemporary Marxists then, because all I’ve heard is “private property is theft.”
You’re right: they’ve inverted the original thesis. But as someone said recently (blamed if I can remember), “consistency, foolish or otherwise, is not a hobgoblin of the Leftist mind.”
Basically, you’re saying that today’s leftist/progg has replaced Proletariat as godhead with State as godhead? Sorry if I’m not getting this; new baby has me on short sleep supply and caffeine is a poor substitute.
New bebe? Cuuuute!
Sorry about the other less-cute aspects of an infant (barfpoopee), but that’s why other people’s kids are so fun. No responsibility!
william,
Fear, bigotry, misinformation, and a lack of tolerance for diversity seem to be a cartoon in your head about this blog and the kind of people who post here. The only places I’ve ever had my comments deleted were at DU, Kos, and HuffPo; and the first two sites revoked my memberships all together. Intolerance of ideas and the need for an echo-chamber are hallmarks of leftwing ideology and nutroot sites…
I’m sure you never had to delete any comments at your blog because the same person showed up to write them all; whatever sock you were operating under at the time!
Now do us all a favor, have some integrity for a change, walk the talk you talk, and don’t ever darken the portal to this site again!
So, as with woman’s rights, gay rights, civil rights, world peace, universal healthcare, et al, even Marxism can be said to be only a means. To be used, abused and twisted in pursuit of the actual, hidden, and unstated goal of power over all of mankind. In this one thing they are consistent.
So fancy that, william has set me straight! All those years in the Navy where I imagined I was flying were just a dream!
That sounds vaugley like a twist on a movie story line…
william, you don’t know a thing about anyone on this site, with the exception of serr8d maybe. Just who are you to pronounce that we are all fakes and poseurs?
Thanks, dicentra. This is our second, so I’m now immune to the less-cute baby features. We are in the process of adopting this baby, so at least Mrs. DarthRove doesn’t have C-section recovery or bi-hourly pumping/nursing to deal with this time, but we have the new challenge of dealing with a 3.5yo on top of the baby. It’s easy to spend an entire day not giving one thought to Teh One or the gummint, which is actually the nicest aspect of the day. Sad that leftards like willie hilljack want me to expend daily thought, treasure, and obeisance toward Our Betters in gO!vernment.
That is why documented facts that disagree are deleted and dangerous.
Strange. You never believe OUR documented facts, either.
I wonder why that is.
William —
I’ve allowed more disgusting commentary to stand on this site over 8 years than you had total commentary on whatever tiny little political blog you ran. I delete your posts because I just don’t like you.
If it makes you feel better to think you’re being deleted because I somehow fear your prodigious intellect or the fiery righteousness of your truthiness, by all means, harbor that delusion. Whatever gets you through the day, you know?
Nono, dicentra. What you’ve been hanging around with is what you might call “Episcopalian Marxists”, people who will declare that they accept the dogma and are prepared to repeat it, but don’t think about it much, don’t really apply it to their personal lives, and are mostly in The Movement® for the chance to “hook up” with others.
The founders of the Left were concerned with what modern economists call rent-seeking — maneuvering to gain a position in which the rent-seeker gets income without any corresponding effort; the landlord who demands his monthly but refuses to fix the leaky roof is the eponym. The modern definition is much narrower than what Marx&Co. were on about, but remember that they lived in the era of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens heroes and heroines, whose ideal was an “income” or at worst a “position” that didn’t require direct involvement to preserve, and who sneered at people “in trade” and thought the lower orders were beneath their notice. Mr. Bennet receives a middle-class income despite being “quite at leisure”, and Mrs. Bennet finds it embarrassing that her brother is “in trade”; Mr. Micawber is confident that Something Will Turn Up, and David Copperfield is quite put out that he has to not only work but associate with those who find it their daily measure of life.
That last was the Left’s original focus. They were concerned, at least, that the other workers in the printing plant where David Copperfield objected to laboring were not receiving their fair share of the produce, of the fruits of their labor, and built an entire philosophy around an attempt to see that that situation was corrected.
Now Professor Geras and his fellow-thinkers have discarded that ideal entirely. There is no such thing as “fruits” of the individual’s labor, and therefore no injustice is involved in depriving the workers of such “fruits” — all products are products of society, not of individual effort; and there is, as others have pointed out, “need”, and the necessity for “fair distribution” of the products of society according to need.
Shorn of the redefined Marxist terminology, it is an attitude that the fattest of fatcats of the early Industrial Revolution would have heartily endorsed — and a total inversion of the original concepts. Amusing, in a way.
Regards,
Ric
william, you are as ideologically blinded in your assumptions about conservatives as any commentator I’ve ever seen.
Jeff deleted posts that either attacked him personally or were so horrifically off target that they were circling a planet across the galaxy. If you want to see opposing opinions on topics deleted, take some time and wander through Pandagon or HuffPo or KOS or, most egregiously, DU. Those sorts of blog erasures are not the least bit limited to “conservative” blogs.
Your hypocrisy about deletions is paramount:
No, william, take a moment and go back and look at all of the comments that you have dumped on this site (I have neither the inclination nor the time to do so.) I’ll bet you a Grande Cappuccino that 90% of what you deposited consisted of Google splatter about how historically dumb, uneducated, ignorant and racist Republicans/conservatives are without in any way addressing the specific topic of the post!
You, sir, are an opinion narcissist. You said as much on your site in your last post. You cannot abide by an opposing opinion and engage in insult, derision and off topic historical slander to convey the firmly entrenched self centered belief that you are better and smarter and more aware than us poor yokels as well as the idea that you are, in some way, demeaning yourself by appearing in this place and we should just all be grateful to be lectured by our betters. Debate is something you don’t care about because you are just too damn smart and just, well, know better.
You, sir, are a topical paint baller.
The first half reflects your transcendent narcissism. The second half is the one true thing that you have ever posted here. Buh Bye!
Bu-u-u-u-ut, wasn’t that one of Marx’s own positions?
I don’t think he equated the worker’s entitlement (see what I did there?) to the “surplus value” instilled through their labor, with “property” as we understand it. Because I think Marx did recognize that capitalists actually do bring something necessary to the means of production. I think he also recognized that conceding such out loud was bad politics for his Party.
It’s always been my point of view that Marx was more a rhetorician than an economic theorist — and one with an irrational nostalgia for the feudal past.
Hey! william will be coming to Philadelphia for a solo concert on October 11. As an amateur guitarist, maybe I’ll take a peak! Anybody else want to go?
No, McGehee, that’s wrong (except maybe the “rhetoritician” part), and holding that attitude makes it difficult or impossible for you to debate with the Left.
My own comparison is with the physicians of the time; remember this was before the “germ theory of disease”, let alone anaesthesia, and Harvey’s work on blood circulation was still new and somewhat controversial. Doctors then could, and often did, recognize and diagnose medical problems with great accuracy, give or take the absence of proper terminology; it is their prescriptions that we, today, find horrifying, being based on misunderstandings of physiology and what can only be called “magic theory”, especially the Law of Similarity.
The injustices that Marx, and others, railed against were real and pervasive, and one of the reasons one should read Austen, Dickens, and the other novelists of that time is to see what they looked like from the other side — and see them for what they were. The most brilliantly-conceived character in David Copperfield is Mr. Micawber. He confidently expects that Something Will Turn Up to give him an income, but makes no move to develop any skill or ability that would render him useful to an employer, and indeed rejects the very notion! His direct opposite is Traddles, who works hard and makes great sacrifices in order to develop himself into something of value who can expect value in return.
It is the prescriptions of the Left that are directly counterproductive to their stated aims. Marx eventually realized the role of capital in creating prosperity, but very late; the result was “the greatest good of the greatest number”, which was tacked on at the last minute (so to speak) and is at least as horrifying as anything else he proposed, requiring as it does that people literally starve to death to finance the capital needs of society.
But dismissing Leftist concerns as of no moment is the wrong approach. If you are to succeed at all, you have to concentrate on the proposals and prescriptions — not the complaints of injustice, but the clauses that come after “therefore”. Those are almost entirely not only wrong but wrongheaded and destructive, and that’s the point you have to make.
Regards,
Ric
Ric,
I’ve never had the impression from reading Norm for the last 3-4 years that he was opposed to property per se. The thing that gets me about that post is what is missing – the origin of that piece of wood, as per DarthRove. I have to imagine Norm would grant you if you bought the piece of wood and carved it, it’s status would be rather different than if you came upon it on common ground. But then, Norm is usually so very explicit about what he means, I can’t imagine why he would have omitted that qualification.
Oh, and William Yelverton – you give academia a bad name.
Silver Whistle,
No, Norm’s position on property is much more nuanced than a simple rejection of the concept. He was even able to agree with me (in private email) that the distinction between an industrial society and its predecessors is that in an industrial society the “means of production” must themselves be produced — the foundation assumption of modern capitalism. (With six and a half billion people on the planet, it’s capitalism or starvation. Pick one.)
What Norm rejects or deprecates is the concept of earning. (This is another case of Ayn Rand was right.) In Norm’s view, the producer of a good or service has no better claim to it than anyone else, and in fact the producer’s claim is inferior to that of a person who needs it. He justifies this, believe it or not, on capitalist grounds, or a distortion thereof — in an industrial society the individual producer is dependent upon means of production taken from the overall society, and can produce little or nothing without them; he therefore has a very limited or nonexistent claim to have produced “by his own effort”, and thus little right to the produce. It’s much more subtle than a simple rejection of property rights.
Regards,
Ric
Hey Ric,
By your description it sounds like Geras looks upon all things produced, and the wealth associated with the commerce of those same products, in the same way that the Catholic church looks upon all manner of things on this Earth; that they are all part of a larger bounty of which we are all merely stewards of…
In Catholic dogma, it is our duty as individuals to use the bounty that’s been bestowed upon us by God to best serve His will through individual service to our fellow man; through charity, good works, etc. This principle is often spoken of in the vein of being “good stewards” of the gifts and graces we’re given.
I don’t know much about Geras’ philosophy, but you seem to. He seems to have replaced the notion of the Almighty with something different altogether. But, he still implies a large scale collective ownership of all societal wealth and products. Just who does he think is responsible for deciding on it’s distribution? And, who is responsible for it coming into being in the first place? Is he a secular humanist of some sort?
I confess that I don’t get it, and can’t doscerne it from your link; but maybe I’m just thick or haven’t considered it enough…
And, I’m not trying to necessarily equate Catholicism with Geras’ philosophies or Marxism for that matter. As I mentioned, the church stresses the individual natire of the responsibility of stewardship. It is only the most radical Catholics, most often whom embrace the Herasy of Liberation Theology and the right to select which teachings to believe and practice, that believe government should either enforce, or otherwise act as middleman, in stewardship…
It is interesting that they have twisted Marx’s philosophy to a point where he himself would disagree with them to suit their own collectivist visions of utopia…
Best Wishes
Bob,
You have the right of it. Note that Geras is emblematic, not just an individual. It’s a line of thinking that’s pervasive on the modern Left.
What’s amusing, to me, is that it’s identical to the reasoning of the Nineteenth Century fatcat capitalists Norm’s precursors railed against (with some reason): the input of capital to the production process is so overwhelmingly important, and the input of mere grunt labor so insignificant, that speaking of “the fruits of labor” is simple foolishness. The only real difference is that modern Left thinking replaces the individual capitalist with “society”, which they take as a term identical to and interchangeable with “Government” in the same way that (some, radical) Catholics speak of “the Church”. That particular error is a distortion of the tenets of the American Founding Fathers; I leave it as an exercise for the student to determine just which tenet, and extend the line of thinking.
Regards,
Ric
I’m pretty sure that was not my intent. What in my comment made you conclude it was?
I know that the realities of the time were horrific for many, and I have no doubt most who subscribed to leftist politics back then were genuinely concerned about them.
I just have my doubts about Marx being one of them.
…which, that’s why I spoke of Marx by name, and not of the contemporary left generally.
Ric,
Where Norm wins my undying admiration is, as you note, his willingness to engage in discussion. His writing style is like an avuncular uncle, and he always engages in good faith. Coupled that with an extremely logical mind, he has my respect. Politics apart; his humanity is his attraction. Post 9/11, he was a stalwart friend to the US and I will always remember that.
I don’t know that you did, McGehee.
When I address people by name, I’m more using that as a springboard for my thoughts than a direct reply. It’s one of the main reasons I don’t blog (besides laziness): I find it very difficult to come up with topics without somebody else’s comments as a trigger.
Regards,
Ric
Silver Whistle,
All that, yes, plus: any Brit who likes Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, and Randy Travis can’t be all bad. I’m even prepared to forgive him the cricket :-)
Regards,
Ric
Well, pardner, that’s just crazy talk!
Cricket, my friends, is the finest way ever conceived of wasting five days by drinking beer. You have much to learn.
Granted — no, heartily endorsed. But I don’t even try to keep track of who the quarterback is; the minutiae of runs and wickets and bowlers and half-overs go ‘way beyond my tolerance for such.
Regards,
Ric
Hey! william will be coming to Philadelphia for a solo concert on October 11. As an amateur guitarist, maybe I’ll take a peak! Anybody else want to go?
I’ll pick some tomatoes and set them out in the sun
Oh, yes, al. My Boston Lettuce should be good and overripe by then….
We had better warm up before we go in. And no sax the night before.
Now Gentlemen and Gentlepersons-who-have-assigned-themselves-the-(superior)-female-gender-role…
NO violins either…
Ric, glad you’re here to set things straight. I’ve never been terribly good at teasing out the threads of Marxist thought, but your Dickens examples help me understand the society that Marx critiqued.
But given that the U.S. doesn’t have that class structure at all, and no respect for sinecures (except among the hard Left ::michelleobama::) I wonder what he’d say about today’s American capitalism.
dicentra,
One of the problems is that what you might call “the American way” has never been codified and set down in anything equivalent to das Kapital. Overall, it’s been a real advantage. It meant that it was flexible and adaptable, rather than rigid dogma. The downside is that since it “just growed”, like any other organic entity it’s full of intricacies and seeming contradictions that the more dogmatic can point to in criticism.
You’re wrong about one thing: we do have a class structure. What we haven’t had until recently was a rigid class structure — a person’s prospects in life weren’t for the most part totally controlled by heredity. That’s going away, and it’s a sad loss.
As for Marx, he was a bright guy. If he were alive today, he would agree with me, of course.
Regards,
Ric
I cannot wait to get home and give this thread a proper reading.
B Moe:
It’s especially fun in the first half to reconstruct the deleted troll droppings by their responses.
:D
That was the first thing that crossed my mind. I am so fucking common.
Pretty much. Which is why it is hard to tell if it is more socialist or fascist.
8. Comment by BJTexs on 9/1 @ 1:09 pm #
At least he is interested in something outside of politics. So to speak.
15. Comment by dicentra on 9/1 @ 2:05 pm #
There was much to criticize about men like Pullman and Frick. They did not see their employees as humans; their employees were just parts of the machine, to be thrown out when their use was over. The problem is that the Marxists, the Communists, did exactly the same thing with people. The point that the Marxists then and now do not understand is that unbridled unbalanced power over people always results in the same thing, be it Pharoah or Capitalist or Commissar: other people are reduced to problems or tools. Problems are solved, and worn-out tools become problems.
Mr. Geras seems to say that if there were one computer and I and one other wanted to buy it, it should go to whomever expended the most “effort” to get the 3 bills to trade for it
Mr. Heinlein demolished that argument decisively in 1959, in a book originally intended as a juvenile, no less.
1) Apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, other ingredients.
2) Incompetent cook, competent cook, gourmet chef.
3) Results: inedible mess (value: $0), standard apple pie (value: $8.00), ambrosial treat (value: $16.00).
4) Incompetent cook spent twice as much effort to produce his pie as the chef did. According to Marx, his pie is worth twice as much as the chef’s. According to anyone who isn’t clinically insane, it isn’t.
Maybe WetWillie’s institution of higher learning should pick out whichever novice guitar player is “expending the most effort” and give him WilliBoi’s job.
It’s especially fun in the first half to reconstruct the deleted troll droppings by their responses.
Yeah, it’s sorta like trying to extrapolate the content of an ancient tablet of which you only have a few fragments.
I would like to see him try to make a living doing something other than teaching or playing government subsidized recitals.
I’ll pay you 2.50 if you’ll slap me with your cock.
3. Comment by SBP on 9/1 @ 5:05 pm #
Not to be a wet blanket, but the example given works with craft-work; not industrial work. The point of the industrial revolution – such as Eli Whitney and the muskets – was to remove the craftsman as much as possible from a manufactured good and make it so that a barely trained worker (even one without knowledge of the local language) could turn out a complex manufacured good that worked.
Craft work was removed from the actual manufacture and back to making the tools and dies and patterns that the industrial worker used.
Mr. Up North seems to know certain things from many years ago.
An old turd returning to be flushed.
I thought that might be it. I just didn’t want anyone else misunderstanding what I’d been trying to say based on your response. Otherwise, NHNF.
I was warped by several credits’ worth of undergrad pre-law, see.
That won’t get you what you want. Offer him a Klondike bar instead.
Oh my
I LOVE when I drop into threads like this and it feels like I’m auditing a class.
I gotta go dig my Dickens’ books out.
Ric, correct me if I’m wrong, but I recall another constriction of that era in Britain (and one America to its entrepenuerial credit did away with) was very strict inheritance laws … everything to the first born son…which created all sorts of mischief, intrigue and restriction of capital and innovation.
I dropped a few shiny coppers in the box. Best of luck to you, Prof. Goldstein.
Up North thinks he’s clever. He probably thinks he’s smart as well. Delusion is a powerful thing.
Darleen – you mean entailment of property. The eldest son got everything and (in a land/farming based society) the youger sons got nothing. Women were to be married off for alliances.
Britain eventually got rid of that, because farming isn’t a high-return business and other investments gave a better return. There are other stories where the land rich cash poor nobility was wooing the heiresses of manufacurers in order to restore things. Those who own a house in a wet environment know the work entailed to keep things up – imagine you have a triple barn of a house with leaky roofs, bad plumbing, and you can’t sell it. Or any part of the estate.
It is one thing to inhierit a fortune and a name; it is another to inheirit a series of mortgages and a name.
Mikey NTH,
You mean “prima genitor”?
Primogeniture. The Taliban knuckleheads are basically the result of similar traditions in Afghanistan. Though by our standards it doesn’t seem like there’s anything much worth inheriting there.
Primogeniture is part of it, that is the first born inherits the enitre estate. Entailment is a way of holding real property, where the estate is directed to one person. Much real property was entailed, that is, it could not be sold or transferred for any term longer than the life of the current holder. (As opposed to a fee simple absolute, where the property holder can transfer as much title as he wants.)
I admit it has been over a dozen years since I seriously studied these obsolete forms of holding real property
William only teaches guitar, he is not a luthier.
Not to be a wet blanket, but the example given works with craft-work; not industrial work.
Sure it does. The skill set is simply switched from cooking to raising capital, organizing production, marketing, distribution…. but the example still holds, as we’re about to find out with ObamaMotors.
but the example still holds, as we’re about to find out with ObamaMotors.
While I’m not the biggest Rand fan in the world, there are several examples of this in Atlas Shrugged. Orrin Boyle comes to mind.
Here is a song it has lots of colours and also a vaguely pretty girl and it gets stuck in my head when I listen to it.
I thought it might help.
God bless, Jeff. I hope everything works out.
Remember reading that Class Structure, in America, is usually pretty important in advertising and motivational rewards. (I am terrible at both, which is why I am an engineer and not an entrepreneur/manager.)
The case study was a locally produced beer commercial. Sales dropped when the advertising changed the models used (from “All around guy types” to “Upper Class types”). The usual patrons did not identify with the upper class models and the more wealthy beer buyers stuck with status beers – such as imported brands.
Adriane, there’s a lovely rant by Harlan Ellison (from the Left’s perspective, but still….) in one of his TV books(either “The Glass Teat” or “The Other Glass Teat”) riffing off the old Winston cigarette line (“What do you want, Good Grammar or Good Taste?).
“As though one has anything to do with the other or are mutually exclusive!”
Jeeze, this couldn’t have happened at a worse time. For both of us, probably worse for you. Gimme a week or two, I’ll see what I can do. Things are squeeky tight at the cookie jar.
> Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.
Excellent quote, Darleen. My favourite quote on stupidity is from Philip Dick:
“Stupidity is wilfully cultivated ignorance.”
I think I missed the last go ’round. Hope things are better soon.
#302
The important thing about Class in America is that it can be self-selected. You can decide that you’re a sophisticate or a regular guy if you want, though most people stay with their comfort zone, which is determined by their experiences and upbringing.
But people relate to the images in commercials that they imagine themselves to be. If you’re living in a trailer park but want to affect sophistication, you will make your choices based on what you think the other sophisticated people do. Ads affect what you think in the absence of personal experience.
Darrel. My mother had one which I think she got from Minnie Pearl of Grand ole Oprey fame;
: “That boy ain’t stupid. He’s just vigorously backward.”
watching tmc w/mr deeds goes to dc: dialogue “we don’t read these bills” REALLY?
Ads which show only their makers’ one-notch-up aspirational affectations, or mockeries of the (imagined, lower) audience’s (imagined, lower) aspirations.
Because no one (rhetorical “no one”) in a trailer park will ever actually cross paths with anyone actually “sophisticated,” and vice versa — not really, not unanthropologically, not enough to be surprised at how they didn’t understand the other guy until they really got crossed. That shit’s only in the movies.
Because of the rigidity.
I had an odd and messy enough first couple-three decades to have crossed almost everybody (except for the statistically average American), and one lesson hit me more than any other: Worlds don’t meet anywhere. What any world knows about any other is only its own mockeries (both kinds) of it, and how it might get one over on it. Or get under it.
On that note, sort of, or at least of interest to you guys who were on this subject, offered with only some terminological quibbles that are obvious without me actually bitching, here’s a good thing:
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2009/09/ann_boleyn_is_d.html
Yeah Theass,
The LA Times is the resource I look to for insightful red state reporting.
By the way, what part of ” So please: enough of the universal healthcare boilerplate.”
was confusing to you?
Here is a suggestion: Start your own blog and feel free to employ as many strawmen, non-sequitors and red state stereotypes as you desire.
Willfully cultivated ignorance is the electorate rejecting a 1000 page bill that not one of their legislators have read? I’ll take that kind of ignorance every day over yours, cretin.
SW – that was not very nice. At least not towards cretins.
Sorry, JD. I denounce myself.
“They’re Leftists — and they have totally inverted the original premise of the Left! I don’t see how anyone could interpret Marx’s formulation as anything other than a “property right” held by the workers to the “fruits of their labor” — but these guys are arguing that nobody has a “right” to anything even if he or she worked for it.”
Ric, Marx believed in wealth. Today’s reactionary left doesn’t.
(and I’ll be darned if I can remember where I heard that)
“…in an industrial society the individual producer is dependent upon means of production taken from the overall society….”
So creativity, hard work and wealth creation have nothing to do with it?
It’s the same ol’ tired zero sum game the reactionary left revels in.
“Death Panels” Hmmmmm?
[…] Goldstein could use ahelping hand. Pitch in if you can. Submit to Stumbled Upon! -Bill Quick comment on this […]
Worlds don’t meet anywhere.
Yup. People meet and occasionally, given the right set of circumstances, these individuals may forge a new world.
Identity politics holds the primacy of group over the individual, forever locking people in their assigned world. This is as rigid a caste system as anything before.
Nono, O’Brain, don’t take that tack. It’s a direct course for rocks and shoals, because it denies a flat truth. (Your conclusion is correct; your argument doesn’t lead there.)
A factory costs money (I am taking “factory” as emblematic of “means of production” for brevity). Every dollar spent on, say, a stamping-machine for car fenders is a dollar that could buy a starving child a hot meal — and, in that sense, the money to buy the factory comes from the society.
Socialists who know what they’re talking about (a minority) know this. The theoretical Socialist society is at equilibrium — everyone produces as much as they can (“according to their ability”) and everyone consumes just what they need — there’s no surplus in the system. That’s where “the greatest good for the greatest number” comes in. If something occurs to disturb the equilibrium, say the factory gets hit by lightning and burns, some people literally have to starve — to give up things they need — in order to get the wherewithal to rebuild it.
Now, you and I know that a capitalist industrial society produces lots of surplus. It is the task of the “capitalist” (modern definition) to find people who have surplus to need (perhaps only a little), convince them to give up that surplus, and assemble those small bits of surplus into enough money to build the factory. In return, the investor gets an ownership interest in the factory, and hopefully over time the investor’s share in the factory’s output will return the investment (many times, perhaps); the investor will then have a surplus again, and can be tapped for the next round.
Amusing aside: Thanks to the work of an economist called Hernando de Soto, we have now confirmed that the bulk of the wealth of any society belongs to The People — the aggregate value of houses, small business, personal possessions, and the like dwarfs the wealth of The Rich by orders of magnitude. The modern capitalist thus needs to seek out the small surpluses of workers and the bourgeoisie, in order to get enough money to build the factory. And, since the donors of surplus get an ownership interest, the modern “capitalist” is the only person in the world trying to achieve Marx’s stated goal: the workers should own the means of production!
Anyway, your Leftist cannot understand this process; it doesn’t fit the hunter-gatherer-scavenger economic assumptions. For the Left, everything is in equilibrium, or would be if it were “fair”, so any return anyone gets from “investing” in the “means of production” takes away the bread from others’ mouths. Unthinking supporters of the Left are so emotionally involved in the Fate of the Downtrodden, and so focussed on the starving children, that they easily take that argument as TRVTH.
Hard to combat, and you won’t do it by violating the basic conditions of the system.
Regards,
Ric
Ric:
Was Hernando de Soto the same economist who postulated that the biggest impediment for Third World countries achieving a higher standard of living was the lack of a nationwide mechanism of property ownership? As I recall he saw land/home ownership as the foundation for increased wealth across a broad spectrum of society in a developing nation and the lack thereof severely concentrated wealth in the politically dominant class with no way to extend the “surplus” to the masses except what the bureaucrats deemed as “government largess.”
Great discussion, by the way. I almost feel as though I should pay tuition or something.
BJ,
Yup. That’s the one. The argument is a trifle more subtle than the summary you gave, but what you have is correct; it just doesn’t take in the corollaries.
Regards,
Ric
“The theoretical Socialist society is at equilibrium — everyone produces as much as they can (”according to their ability”) and everyone consumes just what they need — there’s no surplus in the system. That’s where “the greatest good for the greatest number” comes in. If something occurs to disturb the equilibrium, say the factory gets hit by lightning and burns, some people literally have to starve — to give up things they need — in order to get the wherewithal to rebuild it.”
You’re absolutely right except for the parts where you’re absolutely wrong, which is all of them. “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need” doesn’t mean there’s no surplus in the system, because production may (obviously) outweigh needs. Marx assumed that this would be the case, and that a communist society would be more productive than a capitalist society; he may have been wrong, but you are not even wrong, unless you’re accusing Karl Marx of being one of the many Socialists who don’t know what they’re talking about.
And the “greatest good for the greatest number” has nothing to do with socialism; it’s an ethical position rather than a political one.
Funny, it looks more like an unethical position to me, and as such, most likely a very useful political one.
Ethically, “greatest good for the greatest number” lacks nuance. The devil is always in the details. As for this,
…that’s me, not Ric.
merkur, I’m sixty-one years old and first read Capital from my father’s best friend’s bookshelf at about age eight. To take your post in reverse order:
1. “The greatest good for the greatest number” is an ethical position that pre-dates Marx by approximately the length of human history, which was adopted by Marx as a way to overcome the single greatest deficiency of the system he described and argued for after he realized, very late in the process, that the deficiency existed. It was, and indeed remains, the foundation-stone tactic of any Socialist or quasi-socialist society when trying to establish factories or public facilities, absent subsidies from surrounding non-Socialist societies. It was the specific argument presented by Ulyanov to support stamping out the kulaks and taking their produce — the society as a whole would benefit, even though a minority suffered. As a societal ideal it is an ethical position; as a Marxist or Socialist ideal it has a specific socioeconomic meaning and impact.
2. What impelled Marx to adopt the policy was his discovery, as he worked out the full implications of his system in the later volumes, that there was an inherent contradiction: if the workers own the means of production and realize the benefits of that ownership, they have become capitalists and must suffer the same condemnation as any other fatcat receives. The way out of that was to invent the concept of the Proletariat, comprising not just the “workers” but all of society except the (now absent, because put up against the wall) “capitalist class”. Unfortunately that makes “the means of production” a commons, and Marx was well aware of the problems that causes — it leads, in the absolute best case, to the equilibrium I mentioned, in which any notional surplus is absorbed into self-declared “need”. The society then must have some method of collecting the resources necessary to maintain the means of production and building new as needed — hence “the greatest good”.
3. One of the problems Marx faced was the same one you are staring at: no society organized along Socialist lines has ever fed itself without outside aid, let alone produced a surplus. The clearest example is that of the Puritans, to whom sufficient outside aid was absolutely unavailable because of geographic isolation and the poverty of the (Amerind) societies surrounding them. They came close to starving before Gouverneur Morris rebuilt the society along entrepreneurial capitalist lines, complete with private ownership of capital goods (land, mostly, in that case). The later parts of Capital, especially Vol. III, are an attempt to work around that evidence, and the structural problems that logically must give rise to that effect.
Reading the Manifesto and skimming Vol. I is not sufficient preparation for you.
Regards,
Ric
Great link, psycho.
I prefer to call it stagnation.
What if I don’t need a car with 450 HP, I just want one?
What if I don’t need a gun in the Benevolent Protective Order of Social Justice, I just want one?
What if I don’t need to report to work on Sunday, I just want to go worship a deity of my choice instead?
Darth, I’m guessing that’s why it’s theoretical. ;D
Per Ace, because SHUT UP WINGERZ!!!1!!
Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Frank O’Hanlon says about 100 people demonstrating in favor of health care reforms rallied Wednesday night on a street corner. One protester walked across the street to confront about 25 counter-demonstrators.
O’Hanlon says the man got into an argument and fist fight, during which he bit off the left pinky of a 65-year-old man who opposed health care reform.
Thye further adventures of pinky and the brain.
According to AP, the guy who lost the finger had Medicare (as if this has any bearing on the crime committed).
Apparantly AP thinks that any sense of indignation we may have over the MoveOn.org zombie who did the biting is nullified by Teh Irony that the stoopid wingnutter who got his pinky chopped gets gummint healthcare!!!11!!1!!!
Naturally they pointed out that the elderly victim of leftist moonbat rage has medicare! It’s the only way to be consistent with how they rationalized the last incident of leftist moonbat violence when a black guy wasn’t the victim of a vicious bias crime but of the irony that he was protesting without health insurance!!!!
Us wingerz just can’t grasp nuance.
DarthRove, that’s the basis of a zinger I once astonished a Trotskyite with.
Socialism is based on need. Capitalism is based on want, which can have two meanings: “lack” or “need”, and “desire”.
Capitalism is thus fundamentally superior because it accounts for more cases :-)
Regards,
Ric
I am just going to say thank you to Ric.
Oh, and I will say that merkur is a gibbering idiot.
One of the many problems with “each according to his need” is that the implication is someone else gets to decide what your needs are. This has already been said in other ways here, of course.
I’m not sure how your age, the age at which you first read Capital, or whose copy you read are relevant to the discussion.
““The greatest good for the greatest number” is an ethical position that pre-dates Marx by approximately the length of human history, which was adopted by Marx as a way to overcome the single greatest deficiency of the system he described”
That’s fascinating. You’re arguing that Marx adopted wholesale the foundational position of utilitarianism? Here’s what Marx had to say:
“Bentham is a purely English phenomenon… in no time and in no country has the most homespun commonplace ever strutted about in so self-satisfied a way… Applying [the principle of utility] to man, he that would criticise all human acts, movements, relations, etc., by the principle of utility, must first deal with human nature in general, and then with human nature as modified in each historical epoch… Had I the courage of my friend, Heinrich Heine, I should call Mr. Jeremy a genius in the way of bourgeois stupidity.”
Endnotes of Chapter 24 of Capital, but the short version: Karl Marx thought Bentham was a tool, and utilitarianism a dead-end. Feel free to provide me with material from your extensive library to demonstrate that Marx was a fully paid-up utilitarian, of the Benthamite or any other kind.
Amusing aside: Jeremy Bentham was of course a keen correspondent with Adam Smith – whose work was the cornerstone of capitalism rather than socialism, in case you didn’t read An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations at the age of 3. It was Adam Smith’s tutor Frances Hutcheson who first coined the phrase “the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers”, of course, and Adam Smith himself who wrote:
“Servants, labourers, and workmen of different kinds, make up the far greater part of every great political society. But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole.”
Wealth of Nations Book 1, in case you were wondering. A fairly similar statement to the one you’re accusing Marx of, admitting of course that Smith felt a tension regarding full-blown utilitarianism; it would seem that the main differences between the godfather of capitalism and the godfather of communism is how that end is defined and how it would would be achieved.
“It was the specific argument presented by Ulyanov to support stamping out the kulaks and taking their produce — the society as a whole would benefit, even though a minority suffered. As a societal ideal it is an ethical position; as a Marxist or Socialist ideal it has a specific socioeconomic meaning and impact.”
Hey, I see what you did there! “Ulyanov” was Lenin’s real name, thus demonstrating the breadth of your erudition for reasons best known to yourself. I’m not sure that was specifically what he said, though, and I could quite easily point out that Margaret Thatcher used exactly the same logic when she broke the unions in the 1980s. Why you think this argument is exclusive to communists is mysterious.
“Unfortunately that makes “the means of production” a commons, and Marx was well aware of the problems that causes — it leads, in the absolute best case, to the equilibrium I mentioned, in which any notional surplus is absorbed into self-declared “need”.”
Perhaps if you actually made an argument rather than just rolling out an assertion, this might be more convincing. Why does a commons lead to equilibrium?
“The society then must have some method of collecting the resources necessary to maintain the means of production and building new as needed — hence “the greatest good”.”
Okay, it looks like you’re going to stick with the assertions.
“One of the problems Marx faced was the same one you are staring at: no society organized along Socialist lines has ever fed itself without outside aid, let alone produced a surplus.”
No society organized along modern capitalist lines has ever been self-sufficient either (“fed itself without outside aid” being an insufficient metric regarding growth – a subsistence farmer can feed his family without outside aid) unless you’d like to ignore the external trade that enabled modern capitalism.
Intereswting discussion, and interesting times we live in right now…
am I the only one thinking there’s a difference between aid and trade?
#338: Yawn.
One of the many problems with “each according to his need” is that the implication is someone else gets to decide what your needs are.
The other problem is that “need” tends to expand to encompass all available resources.
And further, in that formulation, “needing” is an asset, whereas “ability” is a liability. Nobody wants to be the only one pulling the cart while everyone else rides.
No society organized along modern capitalist lines has ever been self-sufficient either
Does it need to be? Or does it just need to prosper, the way we have?
I don’t give a rip about the theories of economics because they’re just that: theories. Our organically grown free-market (except where it isn’t) system is like the weather or the climate: you can describe the phenomena and sometimes you can predict that when X, the result is Y, but you’ll be wrong often as not because it is a chaotic system.
A healthy economy cannot be planned or mandated; otherwise, you get the same result as Biosphere 2, which worked just fine in theory but in practice was an epic FAIL. (Not that it wasn’t useful as a scientific exercise, mind.) That’s what happened to the Soviet Union: they tried to enclose themselves in a controlled biosphere, and instead of flourishing, it stagnated.
am I the only one thinking there’s a difference between aid and trade?
Yo, over here.
I’ll bet we both also wonder why Obama is actively sanctioning Honduras on Zelaya’s behalf.
338 was feeble, sad, kind of pathetic.
whatayaknow, dicentra? we are!
Yep, but you can mandate an unhealthy economy. Of course, very few congresscritters understand this.
In other news, Jim Geraghty cracks wise:
“am I the only one thinking there’s a difference between aid and trade?”
Yep, but they both constitute external inputs into any given type of political economy.
So far, I’m a “gibbering idiot”, “feeble, sad, kind of pathetic” and “Yawn”.
I might disagree with Ric, but at least he can formulate a passably intelligible argument.
Kulaks = Unions? I hardly think so. Stalin declared Kulaks enemies of the state and actively set out to murder them. Margret Thatcher hardly murdered any union members.
Communism uses the efforts of the collective to obtain their money to obtain outside assistance.The collective having no say in how that money is spent. Capitalism tends to buy their outside assistance with created wealth. The capitalism way kulaks don’t die.
I might disagree with Ric, but at least he can formulate a passably intelligible argument.
Which you can’t. Hint: regurgitating cant isn’t an “argument”. It’s a religious ritual.
Me, I tend toward the pragmatic end: there must have been upwards of 100 soi disant Marxist governments by this stage in human history. Every single one of them devolved into slavery, starvation, and mass murder. No exceptions.
Now, what would a rational person conclude vis-a-vis the likely sequelae of adopting a Marxist economy?
Take your time.
Here’s what Joseph Stalin had to say:
“One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.”
“I might disagree with Ric, but at least he can formulate a passably intelligible argument.”
Where as you can’t.
Got it.
That none of those governments did it right? Oh, wait, you said rational, not irrational. My mistake.
#351 was outstanding. merkur’s thinking? not so much.
regurgitating cant isn’t an “argument”. It’s a religious ritual.
SBP wins.
One major problem regarding needs and wants is who gets to make the determination of which is which? Under capitalism that decision is left to the individual to figure out for themselves, but under communism the decision is made by someone else. According to the theory of communism, this is supposed to be a temporary situation and once the proper balance has been achieved everyone would be free to make these sort of decisions. In practice it is the makeup of human beings that prevents the supposed next step because people always act in their own interest; power is an actual human motivator; some will always disagree, no matter what.
So far, I’m a “gibbering idiot”, “feeble, sad, kind of pathetic” and “Yawn”.
You should go fuck a goat. Creating man-goat offspring isn’t impossible, it’s just never been tried in the right conditions. And if you work hard enough at it you may well create the world’s first mangoatopia!
Hey Gang. Been away for awhile. Glad to see a Jeff post still gets traction. Much like a white voter in North Philly. HEYO!
merkur:
*yawn* In future please do not assume that the most extreme possible interpretation is what I “meant”, and then attempt to demolish it. It depicts my position with considerable inaccuracy (a nice way of saying “don’t put words in my f*ing mouth) and makes you look like an agenda-driven extremist — which you very likely are, but it doesn’t play well here.
If ownership of “the means of production” is a commons, which it is under Marx’s proposals, then the Tragedy of the Commons is inevitable, and he knew it. He therefore cribbed from utilitarianism to find a way to overcome the problems, and attempted to cover it up by ringing denunciations of the literal expressions employed by Bentham, et. al. Consider, for instance, the grafting of “utility value” onto the “labor value” theory once the limitations of the latter became apparent — the R. A. Heinlein “apple tart” example applies.
Don’t get me wrong. I think Marx was a bright guy who described some very real problems. It’s just that I equate him with his contemporaries who were physicians — diagnosis spot on give or take some modern terminology, prognosis reasonable within the limitations of current knowledge, prescriptions — leeches? bleeding? cigars for asthmatics? arsenic?
Your observation that entrepreneurial capitalist societies don’t feed themselves, either, is technically correct but wrong in the absolute. EC societies engage in trade, where the deficiencies of one are made up by the surpluses of the other — what one lacks the other provides, and they end up in rough balance. No Socialist society does that. They exist entirely upon subsidies, with no corresponding output for balance. If it hadn’t been for the United States selling them cut-price wheat and other grains for the entire span of its existence, the USSR would’ve starved to death — and the only thing they exported was weapons and commissars (it’s hard to say which is more damaging in the long run).
As for the “Ulyanov” bit, I reckon anybody I want to have any discussion with at all knows the name, and I refuse to give the murderous, tyrannical SOB the credit of his moniker.
Regards,
Ric
RD, you don’t have to make excuses. If emerging periodically from under your rock to insult people personally and freely, owing to your status as another anonymous internet toughguy, because you can’t actually, you know, craft a cogent argument nor defend Obama’s indefensible policies and proposals that’s OK. You’re still a legend in your own mind…
And no need to worry. When you get spanked soundly at whatever lame talking point you try to lay down, you can run back to the sagtey of the echo chamber at DU, Kos, of HuffPo; ‘cuz I hear there everybody who believes the correct set of truths gets a trophy just for trying!
Mangoatopia? Epic, Abe.
Benedick – Great to see you!
I hope to do some Citizen Reporting during the G-20, being a Pittsburgher and all. Anyone with a solid pinkie-protecter design is encouraged to email me.
That would be a rather tame use of a customized, inflatable Glenn Beck doll — you know, all things considered.
No need to worry. With the right connections, I heard wingnut welfare is exactly like the Endless Pasta Bowl at Olive Garden.
If there’s one thing I’m sure of about cultural markers it’s that people who throw them out as taunts are mindless followers. Watch it. One day some lefty will decide to ironize eating at teh Olive Garden and you won’t even realize it’s the reason you’re eating there. You’ll just think “who doesn’t?” and “why wouldn’t anyone?” because you’re an idiot.
More Abe, less asshattery is always a good thing.
Winning elections after 8 years of uninterrupted grievence peddling, and gratuitously attacking people like you did Jeff G, with the MSM assist nationally doesn’t translate in capable governing nor guarantee public satisfaction with the same…
The polls are showing so right now in fact; the mask has slipped, the folks all know what this crowd is really all about, the jig is up, and I guarantee that you will be shocked, Shocked! by the results of the mid-term election…
As for a trophy, I don’t need one RD. I’m a winner in the most important game there is, life! I enjoy my success daily and concentrate on using the talents I’ve been graced with to serve others. I don’t do it with others money, labor, or skill set nor by using any authority to order anyone else to do it.
The best revenge is in living well, and I get mine every day…
Now your Mom says come upstairs and load the dishwasher before you start playing on the computer again…
Jig ? Are you kidding me? How fucking racist can you be?!?! ;-)
Unless, of course, those cultural markers relate to arugula, Dijon mustard and bowling scores.
Well what do you expect JD, from a knuckle dragging, mysoginistic, running-dog capitalistic, RethugliKKKan h8ter RAAAAAAACIST! anyway…
That’s probably why I had to wear that patch on my uniform with the skull-n-bones…
Unless, of course, those cultural markers relate to arugula, Dijon mustard and bowling scores.
Nice job of doubling down on the mindless follower bit. Not much difference with the things you mentioned, but I don’t need to defend people on my “team” when I’m specifically observing your stupidity.
Fuck. merkur is bright and I just happen to disagree. RD is fucking absolutely dumb as a box of really dumb rocks. RD go troll a sports forum somewhere. You are not worthy.
OI, South Carolina isn’t beating NC State by that much. He ought to take some time off here to chant “SEC! SEC! SEC!” at the teevee.
Nice dig at the SEC, Darth. Although, being a fan of Ohio State and having a bro-in-law who is an Auburn grad, I have been much humbled recently. BTW, I get the distinct impression that RD has never played a sport in it’s lifetime. Something about being afraid of its shadow.
Jeff-
I’ve appreciated proteinwisdom.com for some time. When you posted “Help Wanted?” I answered your call with a hit to your tip jar… it would be nice if you took the time to thank those of us who did contribute to you. You have a great site. You asked for help. I gave it. Be gracious. Say thanks.
Fuck. merkur is bright
No. Merkur is good at memorizing and playing back cant. There’s a difference.
SBP, the fact that he can at least memorize cant, puts him at the head of this horrendous class. Maybe bright was a bit hyperbolic. But come on. Compared to RD, theass, snowcone et al, the guy/gal seems like a genius. I guess my extremely low expectations of the trolls got the better of me. I am indeed corrected.
kevin…Jeff always has made a point of thanking people. Be patient (or not) and he will. Plus, the point of helping isn’t to look for a thank you.
Proud to lurk tonight. Ps Happyfeet that video was fab.
I want Jeff to know that not everyone named Kevin who has contributed is in it for the overt displays of gratitude.
There are some sick SOB’s in this world. Kind of a shame.
I wish you the best Jeff. Let it be known and I’ll keep giving as I can.
It depicts my position with considerable inaccuracy (a nice way of saying “don’t put words in my f*ing mouth) and makes you look like an agenda-driven extremist — which you very likely are, but it doesn’t play well here.
I haven’t put any words into your mouth, and you are free to correct any inaccuracies, although I notice that you don’t actually specify where the inaccuracies are. Your grounds for believing that I am an “agenda-driven extremist” are opaque, since I am not arguing for the success of communism as an economic system.
If ownership of “the means of production” is a commons, which it is under Marx’s proposals, then the Tragedy of the Commons is inevitable, and he knew it.
The basic concept of the tragedy of the commons is contested, but even if it is an accurate depiction, it relies entirely on the commons in question being a finite resource – and the means of production is not a finite resource.
He therefore cribbed from utilitarianism to find a way to overcome the problems, and attempted to cover it up by ringing denunciations of the literal expressions employed by Bentham, et. al.
So ringing denunciations of something are actually a cover for adopting it? You’ll forgive me if I don’t take this seriously; try presenting some actual evidence that Marx cribbed from utilitarianism, rather than setting up an unfalsifiable position.
Your observation that entrepreneurial capitalist societies don’t feed themselves, either, is technically correct but wrong in the absolute. EC societies engage in trade, where the deficiencies of one are made up by the surpluses of the other — what one lacks the other provides, and they end up in rough balance. No Socialist society does that. They exist entirely upon subsidies, with no corresponding output for balance. If it hadn’t been for the United States selling them cut-price wheat and other grains for the entire span of its existence, the USSR would’ve starved to death
So capitalist societies exist in “rough balance” – also known as equilibrium – yet earlier you were condemning the ideal socialist society for existing in equilibrium. Make up your mind – either equilibrium is a good thing or a bad thing.
On top of that, your contention that the ideal socialist society exists in equilibrium looks extremely weak when your other contention – as applied here to the USSR – is that actual socialist societies are not in equilibrium, but deteriorate from conception. Again, make up your mind – which is it?
Finally, grain exports to the USSR were possible due to the massive surplus of grain produced by the US. That surplus is at least partially due not to entrepreneurial capitalism but government subsidy – exactly what you condemn socialist societies for. Once again – make up your mind.
As for the “Ulyanov” bit, I reckon anybody I want to have any discussion with at all knows the name, and I refuse to give the murderous, tyrannical SOB the credit of his moniker.
How does referring to somebody by the name they’re most commonly known as give them “credit”, exactly?
The bottom line is this: if the ideal socialist economy sits in equilibrium, then it should be incredibly easy for you to find a written statement by Marx that the ideal socialist economy sits in equilibrium, since he wasn’t shy about making quite detailed proclamations about the future path of communism. Unless you can find a statement to that effect, you’re just making it up.
merkur just takes a lot of words to state that it is a statist douchenozzle.
Hope all is well Jeff. Your wit and wisdom are missed.
Socialists are like alchemists, constant, obsessive, arguments about the exact incantations, compounds, that will make the “elixir of life” or transmute lead into gold. Round and round spinning the tangled web of their words.
Meanwhile, as per SBP in #351, the results of they weaving are plain to see and all their words lead to ashes and splintered bones.
Slavery, starvation and cruel death are their legacy though they are blinded by all those pretty, pretty, words slathered over the corpse of their festering theories.
They were also made possible by the USSR being unable to grow enough grain for its own use. Despite owning and operating the Ukrane, which is supposed to rival our own mid-west for good climate and soil.
You should read this for one person’s experiences about it.
(In 2008, the former USSR produced 115.5 million metric tons of wheat. The US produced 65.7 million metric tons of wheat. The second link is to a pdf file.)
Even better…
It’s both, since such a stance is not a contradiction. Unless, of course, one believes that the USSR was an ideal socialist society. I rather doubt that to be Mr. Locke’s belief, but he can clear that up as he wishes.
Or drawing obvious conclusions. Obvious to those of us who don’t live in a binary world, anyhoo.
“- and the means of production is not a finite resource.”
And there’s an INFINITE supply of unicorn farts.
For those of us missing Jeff G.’s style of writing, here’s a paragraph-long sentence that’s pretty hilarious. Downside: it’s a pro-football forum written by a West Virginia lawyer. But, some Jerry Jones-bashing in the background, so there’s that.
Damn. And right on cue, Doctor Zero comes in and ripples the philosophical waters, touches on language and intent, but just doesn’t have the deep-stroke technique that would propel a post to greatness.
you know what I personally find amazing when talking to Leftist/statists? It’s the sheer quantity of words (accompanied by appeals to authority) they spread out, like an obnoxious fog, that really amounts to justifying stealing.
No, SBP: the Infidel is right — merkur is above-average bright. What you’re seeing here isn’t, or isn’t solely, playback of cant. It’s reasoning based on cant, and on instruction received from people who were mainly interested in covering up the deficiencies.
No, Marx never said that that a communist society would be in equilibrium. That’s because he didn’t believe it — as you yourself have said, he thought such a society would produce a larger surplus than capitalism did. The conclusion comes from applying reasoning and observation of the real world to the principles Marx elucidated.
As for utilitarianism, no theory or ideology springs full-grown from the brow of Zeus; every one, without exception, is a synthesis of what has been known before. Utilitarianism, taken to the limit of the principles, is a destructive (and in many ways evil) philosophy, but the basic ideas it springs from are commonplaces. Marx used those basic ideas — as he had to — while railing against the extremes, hoping that the noise would cover the rasp, rasp of filing the serial numbers off the stuff he’d cribbed. This style of “argument” pervades Capital, and has become the signature of the devout Marxist in “debate”.
As for the bit about subsidies — you appear to have confused me with the Libertarians. Subsidies of any kind are ultimately destructive, but a modest amount of State intervention can in fact produce temporary gains, with “temporary” being loosely interpreted depending on the time scale. The point you are trying to deflect is that the US, at root an entrepreneurial capitalist economy that paid a relatively small subsidy to farmers, outproduced the USSR, in which all farmers were not just subsidized but paid entirely by the State.
I’m aware that there are kooks and the occasional loon who argue that the tragedy of the commons isn’t inevitable. Have a look at this picture and tell me anything available to us is in infinite supply!
And for Vladimir Ilych, I’ve forgotten what “Lenin” means in Russian, but it’s self-congratulatory on the same level as “Bolshevik”. I prefer to remember Ulyanov, the two-bit lawyer who found a way to aggrandize himself into mass murderer territory.
Regards,
Ric
tell me(if) anything available to us is in infinite supply!() are mine
The ability of the market place to adapt.Better. The ability to imagine and then execute a better way.
No, Rusty.
A PIC16x microprocessor doesn’t have an instruction for indexed table reads. You can approximate (“kluge”) one in a circuitous and clumsy fashion, but a program that depends on the existence of such an instruction can’t be written for that particular microprocessor.
The human brain is much more complex and capable, but there are still thoughts it cannot think because the hardware to do it isn’t there. It isn’t even possible to give an example, because that would mean thinking of it!
Regards,
Ric
Jeff-
I’ve appreciated proteinwisdom.com for some time. When you posted “Help Wanted?” I answered your call with a hit to your tip jar… it would be nice if you took the time to thank those of us who did contribute to you. You have a great site. You asked for help. I gave it. Be gracious. Say thanks.
Yeah. He gave.
Someone has a stage-Mom.
I hope things turn around for you Jeff. I am sorry what you are going through.
Jeff, please don’t hesitate to bother us when you need to. It’s money well spent for what you have given and will give us through this site.
for the Kevins of the world: I received a nice, but-not-necessary thank-you note from Jeff.
Jeff, you’re quite welcome.
Kevin, your grandmother IM’d me. You never sent a thank-you card for the turtlenecks she sent you five years ago.
That’s what bugs me about people who think we’ve got everything all figured out. Even for stuff we can observe and measure, our interpretation changes with time. Our collective knowledge of physics increases as the years go by, but I believe there are things about the universe we will never understand, let alone perceive. Too many foolish people believe that since they cannot conceive something, it cannot exist. That’s the ultimate conceit.
I got my thank you card! I am so much cooler than kevin. kevin sux compared to me. Hahahahahahahaha!
I got my thank you. I’ll bet kevin got one, too, even though he’s a Tooly McToolmeister.
Jeff. Perhaps you can find an older man; a “sugar daddy” who will reward you for slapping him in the face with your cock. It beats working, but you knew that.
I see fear in this one’s eye.
Reverse “understand” and “perceive”, and I agree very strongly.
Regards,
Ric
I’m not certain an older man would enjoy it as much as you, Loudon.
Darn! Are all of these trolls fixiated on the past like Loudon or what?
Yeah, you’re right, Ric. IT should’ve been the other way around.
I was present at CW/PW at the time of the “Cockslap Heard ‘Round the Blogosphere”.
For the Loudons (and whateverthehell the RenFaire looking guy who wrote really bad poetry who changed his online nick a while back, you know, that guy) of the world – Jeff was responding to a person, presumably male, who was questioning Jeff’s masculinity. Ergo, Jeff offered to meet IRL and establish a pecking order.
One which was determined by means of an actual pecker.
That would be Jeff’s.
The funniest part of that whole “cockslapping” episode at the time was the immediate pussyflight of the suddenly aggrieved party back to the welcoming bosom of his home comment community.
–
Jeff G. you have never been a “bother”. You are the host that kindly set up this playground of words and language. For that I am eternally grateful and in debt to you.
I pray that the problems you are resolved to the good soonest.
Be well.
are having are, arrgghh.
are having are, arrgghh.
You’d make a good pirate, geoffb.
Caribbean though.
Not Somali.
I don’t think the Somali ones have rum & wenches.
What the hell good is treasure without rum & wenches?
[…] a reminder that our pal Jeff Goldstein is currently experiencing family health issues, which are by far the worst! As Dan mentioned previously, he is a very private person and would […]
Did you ever see a priate typewriter?
One letter.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Some want a preview function. I figure without it you have to own your mistakes. I make plenty especially when on my laptop as now.
Caribbean, the “Gold Standard” of pirates.
I believe that human stupidity is in infinite supply. At least until the dragons awake from their 500 year slumber or the north face of Hawaii falls into the sea for the upmteenth time, which ever comes first.
“…until the dragons awake from their 500 year slumber…”
Um, Adriane, are you fererring to a fantasy novel, or is there somethig we need to know…
I believe that human stupidity is in infinite supply.
Whew! I was afraid I might run out. Is human alcohol in infinite supply?…cause I’m about to start the weekend & stuff.
Just asking.
And, pardon me… but there were fucking dragons 500 years ago?!
Why am I just now hearing about this?
I soooo went to the wrong college.
Better hurry up and carve my name into Hawaii’s North Face before it falls into the sea.
“Lamont was here baby”!
Take that Poseidon!!!
Stupid Greek sea god.
Loudon Wainwright doesn’t sound like he’s very serious.
Loudon Wainwright doesn’t sound like he’s very serious.
There is only one Loudo[e]n and that’s Louden Swain.
Journey will get played this weekend.
Yes it will.
Vision Quest: one of the most underrated of all 80s coming-of-age, wrestling-infused, Linda Fiorentino- and-fake Indian-heavy gems to feature a youngish Madonna ever!
Great flick.
And yeah, yeah, I know that was a Red Rider song in the clip, not Journey. But this was the first clip I found.
May play some Outfield this weekend too.
Also, Linda Fiorentino back then…OMG. Walking, talking sex.
JeffG beat me to it (without the HTML fail).
Here’s a clip from that movie Jeff G mentions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmpGyT-FTws
It’s been a long time since I saw it, but I believe it’s the climactic wrestling match…
Enjoy!
Suddenly everywhere I look there is a Loudon mentioned. Not an everyday word, not an every year word even.
My apologies. You are correct, I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.
my thank you note was sort of perfunctory I thought. If you want to do it over I would understand.
I’ll return your money, happyfeet.
jeez I was just kidding to try and make Mr. kevin feel better you better not be returning nuffin
Jeff,
Gotcha! is among my favorite films featuring Linda Fiorentino.
“I like weergins”
Anthony Edwards: “I’m a weergin”
Also, “After Hours” … but, you’ve seen that already, I think.
hf –
Too late. Returned to your Yahoo account. Sorry, but this is a touchy subject with me. I hate to feel beholden.
BS —
Love After Hours. Gotcha was okay, but I’m more a Last Seduction guy. Just watched that the other night, in fact.
that’s ok I sometimes say things what are insensitive. I should have thought more. Feeling beholden sucks which is not to say I don’t demand your prompt return to regular bloggings in a very demandy and imperious tone because I do.
I don’t think the Somali ones have rum & wenches.
Right. Why would you want to put up with the risks of battle, hanging, scurvy, and shipwreck unless rum and wenches were on the table?
Those people have a way of taking the fun out of everything, don’t they? That must be why they’re always so angry.
Check your Yahoo email account. You should have received payment notification.
I’ve been a pimp for this movie for a loooong time – but “The Soldier” starring Ken Wahl is a popcorn 80s political/action thriller that happens to have, for me, the exactly perfect mix of middle-brow tastes.
It’s the ur-Mission Impossible with none of the Cruisean dumbassedness.
Plus a hot Mossad chick.
Highly recommended, et cetera.
I already boomeranged it – I’m gonna bookmark The Soldier cause I haven’t seen that one and it sounds kind of my speed.
I picture Ric Locke with his computer on a podium, speaking in a booming, amplified voice that reverberates across the internets until it settles quietly across the vast beaches of the distracted online masses, who wonder: “Do I pick up that shell or not?”
in my role as “a giver” – “Rustler’s Rhapsody” is also one of those underappreciated movies. It features Tom Berenger plus a smokin’ hot Marilu Henner and an impossibly pretty Sela Ward, plus about a half-dozen quote-worthy lines. It’s a parody, so like all parodies it works best if you’ve seen a lot of westerns.
One thing about “The Soldier” that helps make it a classic (in my view) is that Tangerine Dream does the sound track. It works. By contrast, a similar tier movie “Night Hawks” featuring Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer, has a sound track by Keith Emerson of “Emerson Lake and Palmer” and that soundtrack, frankly, sucks – and I say this as one of four people who actually owned the ELP AquaTarkus LP (kids, an LP is a “long playing record made out of vinyl, a black waxy substance that was cut into circular shapes and played on a phonograph).
If there were one movie that I could commission a different soundtrack for, it’d be “Night Hawks” – great movie nearly ruined by bad keyboarding.
.
I watched about a third of the 300 last night. Yawn. I like the wife. She’s nice. I already have the ending pretty well reckoned though. This I finally saw and I liked it better than the first one. It’s called Daywatch and it has a great cast of very easy to watch ferners and very original pieces in it. Just read the first paragraph of that what I linked cause it’s all spoilers after that.
oh. *Day Watch* it’s called.
I’ve never seen a western before. Unless you count Giant maybe. I was gonna start with The Unforgiven cause I think it won an Oscar but I never seem to get around to it. Wait a minute. I’m lying. I saw one… last year I think. brb. 3:10 to Yuma it was called. It was a story of redemption. It was ok I guess.
HF: The Unforgiven made me put up an actual Clint Eastwood poster.
hf
I’ve never seen a western before Huh?
No Searchers? Sons of Katie Elder? Rio Bravo? How the West was Won?
Rustler’s Rhapsody works on its own. For example, Blazing Saddles is funny, even if you haven’t seen a western.
If you’re interested in Westerns, in a kind of particular order –
Silverado
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Magnificent Seven
High Plains Drifter
The Wild Bunch
If you want to get all purist – then you can add Shane, The Treasure of the Sierra Madres, a couple of John Wayne westerns, Gene Autry and Randolph Scott flicks, and such.
Thinking back, you could enjoy Rustler’s Rhapsody purely on the basis of 1) funny, witty dialogue and 2) Marilu Henner is smokin’ hot.
RR clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OaA3LZHbQs
This is funnier if you’ve seen “Shane”, but it’s funny on its own merits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCasdCghhvQ
I should see it. At one point I wanted to see Ron Howard’s The Missing but I think later I decided I may have just thought the trailer was cool. Also I’ve thought of watching Deadwood but I figure that’ll keep awhile.
oh. None of those Darleen. I’m really trying to think. I haven’t even watched Blazing Saddles except for some YouTube clips.
I haven’t even watched Blazing Saddles except for some YouTube clips.
Which, honestly, I’m not sure that movie really holds up all that well.
oops – just that first line was meant to be italics
happyfeet,
I reccomend highly:
“Once upon a time in the west“-Henry Fonda as a villain, it is among the best he ever played, plus Charles Bronson, and a whole cast of character acters you’d recognize
“Fistful of Dollars”, “A Few Dollars more”, and “The Godd the Bad and the Ugly”-These are the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns that gave Clint Eastwood his start…
And add in just about any John Wayne western directed by John Ford, such as; “Stagecoach”, “Fort Apache”, “They were expendable”, “She wore a yellow ribbon”, and “The Searchers”. Oh, and definately “True Grit”…
I could go on, but I don’t wanna overwhelm you…
Happy Viewing!
Bob
I remember the freshfaced Clint from Rawhide before he filmed the Leone westerns.
Deadwood is excellent. And I concur with all the flicks mentioned thus far, and would add to the list Open Range, Pale Rider, Django, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Jeremiah Johnson.
I’m bookmarking this and I’ll see what I can accomplish this weekend.
Darleen, Clint looks real young in those, eh?
Jeff G, all excellent suggestion. Which portrayal of Wyatt Earp, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, or Burt Lancaster?
God yes. Bad, bad girl. I even bought the movie poster. Was into them for a while in the late 80’s and 90’s.
Westerns have to agree with all mentioned. Favorites, “The Good the Bad and the Ugly”, Outlaw Josey Wales, Jeremiah Johnson. Also a close to Western set in the same time frame as “The Wild Bunch” but in the Yukon, “Death Hunt”.
Kevin Costner is one of those I’ve seen all I ever need to. He’s like Tom Cruise. Christian Bale is on the list after I found out he was a five year old rage monkey. He makes Robert Downey Jr. seem downright stable.
I like the Costner Wyatt Earp (and the Quaid Doc Holliday) — even though I think Tombstone is good (if slightly more campy). But Costner is especially good in Open Range.
Death Hunt with Bronson and Marvin is worth a look, yes.
In the Western comedy subgenre, I’ve always liked Support Your Local Sherrif, with James Garner (and many great character actors). It’s fluff, but really GOOD fluff.
#451
Will Penny, Monte Walsh(Both),McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Cowboys with John Wayne,The Unforgiven with Burt Landcaster. The later ‘Stagecoach’ just to watch Slim Pickens out act the others.
I’m afraid that due to my age every time the name Wyatt Earp comes up the only actor that comes to mind is Hugh O’Brian. Growing up it seemed that all the best shows on were Westerns. Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Branded, The Rifleman etc. Only things that could compete were Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and The Three Stooges shorts.
Oh. And “Ride The High Country” With Randolf Scott and Joel Mcrea.
Concur on Rusty’s list, esp. McCabe and Mrs Miller and Will Penny. Forgot to mention The Shootist and The Shooting.
And like SBP, I like both the Garner “Support” films.
Mrs. Wife rented a couple new flicks we just finished watching. Between The Code and Taken, I’ll recommend Taken, because I’ve always liked Liam Neeson’s work. And I’m fed up with the cop – burglar theme; that’s well-burned out I’d say.
Oh, and ‘feets, remedify your non-watching of Unforgiven ASAP. That’s one gritty western featuring Morgan Freeman, with a much better role than he’s given in The Code.
Ikes. Taken I thought was bad bad bad – the Liam person was old to where it was comical that he was doing the things he was doing. And also the more realistic ending would be that the daughter is never seen again in spite of his best efforts cause that’s what would happen in real life I think. My favorite part was when he shot that guy’s wife. That was so rude.
I may have a copy of Unforgiven somewhere. I will look.
oops
*spoilers*
High Plains Drifter is … in my opinion … a Gothic set in the West. NTTAWWT.
The Big Fire Breathing Dragon-less Sky – Kirk Douglas.
Rio Lobo … sort of a little brother to Rio Bravo …
If you’re going to watch The Magnificent Seven, you really should make the effort to watch Seven Samurai.
And finally, germane only as it is a movie, a favorite almost 20 years later,
Delicatessen:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101700/
If you are going that route for late night then there is this black comedy, Eating Raoul.
oh, I remember movies…
(actually, watched American Psycho tonight. WTF? I think maybe I have seen enough of CB now.)
Thought I was the only one who loves Rustlers Rhapsody.
Tell me Bumper, are you familiar with The Best of Times? Not a western, but one of my favorite comedies.
I liked Best of Times, despite my concern about Robin Williams’s involvement. I don’t recall lines from it like I do RR – e.g.
A glass of warm gin with a human hair in it.
Root’s kicking in.
A confident heterosexual?
A prostitute, someone who exchanges her services to anyone with the financial wherewithal ..
… and so forth.
.
Sorry I’m late to the tip jar. I was waiting for my Megamillions ticket to pay off, so I could underwrite the whole PW site. Only missed by 5 numbers.
Lonesome Dove — the original miniseries, not the TV series: the quintessential Western. (The Searchers and Red River have to be on the list, too.
Is it true somebody once panned that movie by saying, “I tried to watch 300 but I could only sit through the first 20″?
Jeff: do we still get to hit the tipjar even if you don’t ask?
Appaloosa is a fantastic western if y’all haven’t seen it. Adapted from Robert Parker’s book. Ed Harris & Viggo Mortensen. Ed Harris directed. The books are a trilogy, so here’s hoping Harris does Resolution & Brimstone as well.
Here’s the trailer..
@463 ‘feets, Taken I give a score in the somewhere-range of 4.5 to 5.3. But Liam Neeson, too old to fit the part? Hadn’t considered that; because you have to allow a large amouht of willing disbelief (say, add +4 Willing Disbeliefs)to any of these modern action flicks (when you do watch Unforgiven, you’ll understand when I say it’s much closer to absolving human frailties…you might need only add +.5 to your Willing Disbelieving scale) (oh, that’s my geeky invention of the morning, putting to use some of that worthless D & D crap I absorbed as a freshman).
Yeah, that scene, but shooting the sheik gave me much satisfaction. Evil sheiks with too much of my monies anyways.
We went 100% cockney last night and watched Layer Cake & RocknRolla.
Layer Cake has got to be in my top 10. RocknRolla was pretty good. At least Guy Ritchie has gotten some of his mojo back.
I think Madonna is a succubus.
Great scene from Support Your Local Sheriff with Garner, Walter Brennan, and Bruce Dern.
SBP, your mention of Bruce Dern brings back memories of Silent Running, that ’72 SF Ecoflick that (at the time) messed with my socially-wrongheaded mind (a victim of post-Rachel Carson absorption, obviously).
Unbelievably campy by today’s standards (the ‘robots’ especially: R2D2 probably evolved from those), at least it’s wholly watchable on YouTube.
“Just maintain the forest.”
OT: International Bacon Day today.
I’m going to add another Western of a different type. Since it was released in 1970 it has that 60s (in)sensibility about it but is still funny and has Chief Dan George who is always good. “Little Big Man”, which stared Dustin Hoffman.
“I haven’t even watched Blazing Saddles ”
WHAT????
“MONGO LIKE CANDY!”
Extra “r” is here, add as needed.
IMHO, Sam Elliott is the quissential cowboy actor.
serr8d: I remember seeing an interview with Laura Dern in which she said that all her grade school classmates were afraid to spend the night at her place. They’d seen some of her dad’s movies, you see.
geoffb: Classic! I’m cracking up remembering the part where the gay Indian wanted to be the Hoffman character’s “wife”.
er….quintessential
Oh, and hf?
They’re going to be making a kinder, gentler version of The 300.
It’s going to be called Brokeback Mount Olympus.
I liked Sam Eliott in “Gettysburg” as John Buford.
Wish I could do more, friend. Good luck!
OT blog-pimping: My first substantive post is up. Tell me about it, willya? (Click on the orange name).
Regards,
Ric
Subscribed and blogrolled, Ric.
Tell me about it, willya?
Great! and KEEP WRITING
Great news, Ric.
Got ya marked.
I love American Psycho! Except… what a waste of Reese I thought.
Taken suffered also cause on the Netflix I watched this hot teens in danger movie called Shuttle which was terrible but not awful and at the end it brought home a point very very effectively and Taken didn’t do that.
RocknRolla is on my list. I like Madonna’s new song she’s very nifty I think and this seems like her little take on tecktonik I guess. Jey Jey is a pc and he dances tektonic. Jey Jey will go far.
I finished the 300 and it was snooze all the way to the end. I didn’t like how Spartans talk like retarded shortbus kids with paste in their moufs except for the wife and she almost made the whole movie cause she was pretty and had cool clothes not just weird vinyl underwear with a cape.
I’m with Darleen on Sam Eliot. I can watch him in just about anything. No one mentioned the western “Connager” with Sam and his wife playing the title roles. It was made for teevee, but it’s still a very good movie. “Pale Rider” is another Clint Eastwood movie you might consider. Also, if you are going to watch “A Fistful of Dollars” you might consider watching Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo.” If you’re a Bruce Willis fan at all, you could watch “Yojimbo,” “A Fistful of Dollars,” and “Last Man Standing” and see the same basic story three times over.
The wife in 300 was of course Sarah Conner in the Terminator teevee series. But everyone already knew that.
I haven’t watched 300 yet. I’m still recovering from Last of the Mohicans.
I thoroughly enjoyed 300. It’s a matter of taste, or perhaps I have a high threshold for suspension of disbelief in the service of being entertained.
BTW, I recommend “Up,” which I just saw a few days ago. Pixar knows that the writing is very important when making an animated movie, which is something other studios often forget.
I actually liked Last of the Mohicans; of course, it suffered from the same problem as any book to movie deal: you have to assume that there wasn’t enough time to show everything…
Ric, perused, commented, bookmarked.
I liked the game theory post.
I want to see Up. 300 just underwhelmed. Mostly cause I know Warner Bros. doesn’t really believe in all that freedom and honor shit so it felt like the movie was mocking me and saying people what are into freedom and honor are just homoerotic twists what we can take their monies from easy.
Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorites, from the scenery, to the details like covering the touch holes of the siege guns with sheepskin, to the fight between Chingachcook and Muqua. Never cared for Russell Means’ politics, but he made a bad-assed Mohican.
I was a “Background Artist” in Gettysburg and got to meet Sam Elliott. Great guy. Tom Berenger? Not so much.
Yeah, 500 replies. Those are some powerful fumes, hoot.
Thanks for showing up so I can TrollHammer you once again, by the way.
DOH! D= well, i am glad that you did leave this up and sticky, mister. or i might have missed it. i’m still sort of on a break from the internets, except for working on an art project, upon which i’ve been overfocused and within which i’ve been immersed. otherwise mostly having a RL readjustment break these days. anyway, i’m glad that i did see this, before it disappeared to the ‘next’ page. and a donation shall be forthcoming. and *huggles* mr. JG, and prayers and warm regards for you and your kith and kin, and may whatever it is pass or be solved swiftly and with minimal suffering for all involved. and i mean that in the nicest, most non-stalkerish way possible. <333
Glad you’re still out there, louchette.
Ric Locke with a site, now? Um, yeah. Now, if we can only get psycho to get his own digs (and Jeff getting back to business) the internet may be a great place to visit again. And absolutely great to see louchette still hanging around. Where da hell you been girlfriend? I’m glad I didn’t get to see hoot’s stupidity. Thanks again, Jeff.
Sam Elliott. Perfect in The Quick and the Dead.
Kate Capshaw peaked right there. A little bit sublime.
$10.00 minus PayPal fees headed your way. Go ahead and spend it in one place, I don’t mind. :)
I love cattails. You never see them in real life. Not in Studio City or Manhattan neither I bet except maybe in the park. Good luck I hope you win.
The real one, based on Louis L’Amour’s book — not the pomo pseudo-Western starring Sharon Stone.
JG? Thank you for the TY…and if you had any replies on the baseball card question? Let me know. I’d like to sell some off also, to folks that will appreciate them.
ty and *hugs* mr. feets. :) and i love those cattails too. tho, i am not completely happy with how i placed them. but too late to move em around now, during the judging period. oh wells. and i know that when i tell people that i do game home decor most folks think that’s pretty damn lame. until they see the things i’ve built. and i shall return to regular writing and commenting in due time. right now tho, getting my real life right is the priority. that and making some ingame art while i’m super motivated. it’s good for the soul and spirit.
i just hope our host is okay. <3 and i stlll need to hit the paypal button, but waiting till i see my hubby tonight to do so.
Jeff:
A small hit in the tip jar. Thanks for all you do, and I haven’t forgotten our project, I still have a couple of “feeler” out there. I go up for tenure in a month, however, and everything has to be on the back burner until then.
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I did some studying on home decorators last week. Turns out they are a lot piss-poor at incorporating squiggly bulbs into their work.
This is a tragedy and an opportunity. Powerpoint to follow.
I hate my life.
Also it’s so third worldy where I live already and that’s before Barack Obama do his bidness.
When people don’t read the fucking post, I think you’re justified in telling them to read the fucking post. Read the fucking post, Ralph.
Health care reform is gay.
I don’t care if Ralph wants to be a government dependent homo but I hate how he tries to make me into one and also I don’t think he even owns any cds except pet shop boys. I mean I like some pet shop boys sometimes but all the time is weird especially in 2009 I don’t get that.
Ralph? RE read the fucking post….and all the comments. Don’t worry about your lips getting tired. Nobody said a WORD about insolvency. Yes, some reform is necessary, in my mind that would be tort reform and open competition. What would YOUR idea of reform be?
One of these days Happy?….I GOTTA meet you…
I’m getting a kick out of this song there’s a whole backstory and the video is sort of stupid so just listen to her song and she’s cute as chockit covered gummi bears I think.
Not much else new on the playlist this week.
oh. Hey. Yes – meeting … we used to talk about doing those more but since Jeff has been away it doesn’t come up as much. 2009 seems like such a grim year for making things like that happen, at least the rest of it. 2010 will be different.
I’m 3000 miles away, but i figure if I start walking NOW?….By the time I get there I figure the dirty socialist will be a lame duck…
also? our buddy Ralph hasn’t re-ralphed in the comments….
Ralphie could not read the post because he got his wanker stuck in an underaged goat.
AGAIN???
Did he say anything about insolvency, Ralph? Or are you making shit up?
When conservatives have got their hands out to help with health care expenses I think you might be justified in saying that they’ve lost the rhetorical edge in their opposition to reform.
Yes, because getting voluntary donations from your friends is EXACTLY the same as stealing money from strangers at gunpoint.
Buh-bye.
Oh, and Ralphie?
“Begs the question” doesn’t mean what you think it does.
I don’t think he even owns any cds except pet shop boys
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Thanks, happyfeet. I needed a laugh like that.
Although I suspect he might have a Wham! CD or two in the collection as well.
Ralphie? when you’re finished with the comments, I strongly suggest you RE READ the fucking POST….get your dick out of the goat and stop making assumptions that you can neither prove nor should be attempting to make. You’re new here, so I’m being nice.
See up there? JG would prefer not to disclose. Does it say CRISIS?… NO….does it say insolvency? Hmmmm….I can’t see that word….
Do yourself a favor. Learn about where you are before fucking the goat? OK?
#523
I think that might ruin the whole effect. I think the concept of happy may be what is most appealing about happy. Or not. I’m going to Trader Joes for a baguette.
I’ll leave this for YOU here….why the assumption that it’s solely caused by medical problems? Go back and study this site, There are well known facts amongst the regs here that you may not be aware of, that out of respect for our proprietor? I will not list here.
What other kinds of financial crises are there? Which of those require quick infusions of cash? Shall we list them?
You’re kidding, right?
And the ‘dillo?….I fear the ‘dillo…
What other kinds of financial crises are there? Which of those require quick infusions of cash? Shall we list them?
Ok….I needed a new brake lathe for the shop last month….without it? I couldn’t turn rotors….Now THAT was a crisis that needed a quick infusion of cash….moron
“Ralph” kept using my bandwidth without paying for it, so I kicked the deadbeat out.
I’m not running a soup kitchen here.
But JEFF!!!….I like soup
To meet happyfeet is to appreciate his humor, his writing even more. Of course YMMV
Oh God….I’ll leave THIS baby goat raper (TY JD!!) to my better
That’s it! We demand Comprehensive Brake Lathe Reform!
For the children.
And cock, too… apparently.
LOL!!!!….I’m being sockpuppeted!!!…I AM SOMEONE now!!
Why is it the let loons ALWAYS use the gay thingy?….doesn’t bother us one bit, AND has the benefit of being able to point and laugh.
Maybe it’s just me? But I just don’t see the point. Sorry I invited that JG, I’ll go back to lurking for a bit.
Hmm… looks like Mr. Trolly is really into cocks and faggotry.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Jeff: it’d be keen to have something along the lines of Ace’s little visible magic IP hashcodes, for exactly these sorts of situations.
Can’t just have random douchnozzles taking a dump on your living room floor all while claiming to be Happyfeet. It’s an outrage, an outrage I tell ya’!
Why is it the let loons ALWAYS use the gay thingy?
Because according to the cartoon in their heads, we’re all crazed Bible-thumping Jerry Falwell types.
Nothing more homophobic than a “progressive”.
Nothing more sexist than a “progressive”.
Nothing more racist than a “progressive”.
Meh. This guy is spending a holiday weekend sockpuppeting blog commenters.
I can’t even get angry, that’s so fucking sad.
This one has the Yin of “You’re a faggot” down but hasn’t gotten to the next class yet about the use of “racist” to make the argument go easier. A single note sockpuppeting troll. Is this the Greenwald puppet tryouts? The one note works well for that contest.
thanks Mr. geoff!
It always comes back to cock with these ones. Always. Not sometimes. Every single time.
I wonder why that is exactly?
Here is my favorite Pet Shop Boys song Ralph can click and have some special Ralph time with the video.
Huh. So they actually did another song besides “West End Girls”?
Who knew?
I for one WELCOME my new sockpuppet master….
i like this:
http://thestar.com/news/insight/article/691563
50 years of hate america 1st is tough to shake
no for reals they did neat stuff I always thought but at some point they just went away in America for some reason
Yes, you’d figure that he’d be spending the holiday weekend visiting Fire Island, Provincetown, Key West, or some similar cock-intensive region.
ASCII text can’t be all that helpful in satisfying a craving for cock, or so I would be speculate.
I’ll check back later to see what new trollery — behind the next proxy server veil — our brave internet warrior “Ralph” posts next. Anonymously.
Meantime, I have stuff to do. What with having friends and family and the like.
Seriously, SBP. It’s like a 4-year-long infatuation with the logistics of my cock.
It would be flattering, if it weren’t so…well, creepy...
I kind of enjoy it when trolls go that far off the deep end. The air seems so much crisper after a violent thunderstorm of stupid.
I am not happyfeet. Though I aspire to such erudition.
Be well Jeff.Your voice is missed during these interesting times.
I think, at bottom, some people just get off on saying “cock.”
what!? no way! and I certainly didn’t giggle along with everyone else in the dressing room about “cock pockets” today. nope. never happened…
*snerk*
I certainly didn’t giggle
Me neither.
Or me.
Or me.
I did, but only a little.
Why do the Leftists fear teh cock?
Have you ever seen a leftist liberal male? They’re only allowed to have a cock when their strong uber feminist wymen allow it.
Since that doesn’t happen very often, it leads to cock envy and fascination with dicks.
Just remember to wash your hands, Obama says so.
Wash your feet too, before prayers five times a day and because they stink.
Why do the Leftists fear teh cock?
They both fear it and crave it, JD.
They piss themselves like poorly-disciplined puppies when they envision the Omnipotent Organ of Goldstein Procreation, then fall to the ground in paroxysms of epileptic ecstasy when they imagine being slapped in the face by it.
SBP, there’s a set of images I could have gone the rest of my life without…….
I’m off to Purex my eyeballs now.
Jeff G,
Folks are talking you up over at “The Hostages”; http://thehostages.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/john-jacob-jingleheimer-stfu/#comment-129827
It seems that many there enjoyed your special flair too…
Always great to hear how you used to be funny before you stopped being funny.
Gee I thought it sounded like more of a fond rememberance kind of thing. But I admit it’s hared to be funny when things are weighing on you.
I don’t think you stopped being funny so much as it has been a while since you were trying for pure comedy.
Take it easy…
While most bloggers are adept at one particular style of post: essays, summaries, original reporting, humor, et cetera, Jeff’s manage(s)d to do well with whatever style he thought appropriate.
Having watched other, imo lesser bloggers on the right and the left score book deals and good-paying blogging-type gigs based on their internet work, I imagine it would become intensely frustrating for a talented writer like Jeff. There’s only so many ‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me …’ moments a person can take before the urge to chuck in one thing and find something else that gives one pleasure – which could be something as simple and easy as tapping out guys that look like either Amanda Marcotte or Roger Simon.
btw, one of my favorite quotes for “earlier, funnier” situations comes from an editor of the now-defunct British humor magazine “Punch”:
” Punch is not as funny as it used to be –
but then again it never was ”
–
I’ve found it’s hard to be funny when I’m not saying anything.
Sometimes it’s even harder when I am, but…
Messed up my shoulder and got fat. Shoulder is still messed up, but I’m working out again in order to keep from wanting to shoot myself in the head every time I pass a mirror shirtless.
That’s not funny.
Watch your shoulders man. It took me five years to get my shoulder back to where it didn’t hurt all day. I had one good year, then threw batting practice for my 8 year old and that was it.
I hope to get some good guilt mileage out of this when he gets older. “You want to borrow the car? I want to play tennis again…but someone was stepping out of the box…”
I’ve had 3 cortizone shots. I need surgery to shave off a bit of bone near my AC joint. But it’s a catch-22: I aint getting into a hospital gown until I get my gut back under control. 8 months ago, I had developed my abs to the point where I was willing to let people hit me in the stomach with a baseball bat for demo purposes. Now, I have a nice layer of fat on top of that muscle, and I need that gone.
A couple years ao, before my back surgery, a nurse gave me a cortisone shot in my ass. I don’t know why, I’m guessing it was a mistake, but it ate a nice dimple in the fat on my right buttcheek. It took two years of work for me to build up enough ass muscle to get it looking somewhat normal. I was thinking about asking them to shoot me in the love handles before my high school reunion last year, but never did. Just as weel, everyone I went to school with is a fat, bald, old, guy. Except for me.
I’m awesome. I have a hareem of thousands willing to sip Jameson’s out of the dimple on my right ass cheek.I’m not bald.Jeff G,
I that the shoulder problem you spoke of last winter? Did you suffer a shoulder separation back then?
I put on weight when I quit smoking. It goes away. No worries. You have to not eat certain things is the deal.
Pringles, for example.
Same shoulder issue, Bob. Not sure what it is exactly. Just know that I’ll need to get it taken care of if I want to continue lifting heavy stuff.
anything involving blue cheese dressing
oh for reals what did help at first was drinking incredibly large quantities of green tea … mostly these ones – I would always try and have one waiting in the freezer – they have another diet one called mixed berry which is also very good –
next year I’ll probably make my own but I can’t find a sun tea jar out here cause of California is stupid. My sister is gonna bring me a couple from Texas at Christmas. Also she’s putting together a full bar for me cause all the liquor I moved out here with is gone except for a bottle of Seagram’s. She travels a lot so she gets stuff in customs at very good prices.
I’m supposed to remember to ask her if she ever sees Tito’s in duty-free. It’s vodka made in Austin. How neat is that? Apparently it’s getting kind of famous. Y’all have all probably heard of it already but no one tells me anything. I don’t drink very much but vodka is my favorite.
[…] help him out; it might get him to write some […]
oh. Those Lipton’s people also make a raspberry white tea. It’s pretty gack I think. Too sweet. Charlotte likes it though.
Jeff have you considered accupuncture? It helped my compressed neck disk that was causing C-7 nerve pain in my left shoulder and arm.
Just curious, because last winter I suffered a torn rotator cuff (although I never could pinpoint the exact moment when it occurred) which in turn led to a bizarre condition called “frozen shoulder”. Now I went to see a leading Long Island sports medicine specialist who shot it with cortisone and reccommended light PT for the tear itself. But, after verifying that the tears were healed through MRI I still suffered extreme pain and limited range of motion…
This orthopedist went on to tell me that there was noting that could really be done, and that it would pass on it’s own in 6 to 18 months!, during which time I could do little to speed the process along save for stretching exercises. While I sense it getting more flexible and a bit stronger it is still in the healing process, it has been one heck of road to hoe, so to speak…
Did your doctor discuss this possibility with you, or did he directly diagnose the bone problem you speak of?
The reason I ask is that I was told that stretching was good, but heavier exertion might be counterproductive.
Best of luck with the weight loss program; it’ll be a challange to do that and maintain all your musclature, without the weight lifting component…
Jeff,
Well, there’s always worse…me..I’m tall, 6’3″ and thin (170#) Now, put an extra 10lbs in the stomach.
A big guy with a belly, eh, it’s okay. A tall thin guy with a pot belly…looks really stupid. Not that I look bright to begin with, either.
Fortunately, it was winter weight (mass quantities of Guinness will put weight on anyone) and I was able to remove the weight in about 6 weeks, after cycling season started.
Happyfeet,
I second your recommendation of the Lipton Green Tea w/citrus flavor.
Great tasting and no aftertaste (plus a caffeine kick;) I used to buy it at Sams in bulk.
you know they make the to go thingers you can put in water, yes? You could have some of that sent over maybe?
I did a quick check on Denvr’s Craigslist. You might ought to consider a TENS unit to help with pain management. Your insurance might cover the cost. If not you can get one for fairly cheap on CL. EMPI makes a good brand. You can get the electrode pads online as well.
Also, OT may be a good change of pace from PT. Especially with shoulder issues. Ask your doctor for a referral.
.
Meh. I can fight through it. The X-rays haven’t shown any worsening in the shoulder, so it’s really all about pain management until I have the surgery. The cortizone shots work well for about 2 months. I haven’t had one since December, though.
Lost My Cookies got a cortizone shot in his ass and he got all dimpled up and I can’t unknow that can I? It’s like Sandy Duncan’s eye or how Tom Cruise likes to eat his kids’ afterbirth.
‘feets:
We have Tito’s here in Indiana–but it’s too expensive for me. I love dirty martinis, so really good vodka is kind of wasted on me, because the olive juice covers up most of the vodka flavor.
By the way, if you like a dirty martini–or an extra dirty–try Dirty Sue olive brine. Yum. And, you don’t have to buy jars of olives just to get the juice.
D= what has been seen cannot be unseen, even if you didn’t actually see it.
me i’m buying some new skates (the quad wheel kind) and taking some pro lessons, so i can learn how to fall down properly without breaking a hip or wrist, to get back to my ‘fighting’ weight now that i’m close. i like going to the gym, and doing yoga and stuff, but mostly i do like having a fun activity that can travel. which reminds me i need to finish researching wheels and ball bearings and stuff.
this was what inspired me to take up skating again, and i’m leaving it here like a refreshing sorbet, to cleanse mr. feet’s mental palate. it’s much less unpleasant than ‘brain bleach,’ i think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLJ5a6aJOb8
and if that doesn’t work there’s always more pet shop boys.
Dirty Sue olive brine. That’s good to know cause I like dirty martinis sometimes.
omg. That TransVan in louchette’s video’s been parked down teh street for like five years.
At the end it looks like they’re flying that’s so neat.
oh. also here’s a video … your garden reminded me of it kind of
funny story, RTO bought some the other day thinking it was tequila. (we hosted a cast party this weekend and stocked up. They drank all the Skyy, but there still quite a bit of the Tito’s left. I don’t know what vodka is supposed to taste like, you’d have to ask RTO)
I’ve never understood the vodka thing. Near as I can tell, the better it is, the less taste it’s supposed to have. If that’s the case, why not just buy a bottle of Everclear and cut it with distilled water? It’s gotta be cheaper than the “super-premium” vodka.
Sorry if I mentioned this before, but some of the engineering students here discovered that you could turn cheap vodka into the good stuff by running it through a Brita pitcher.
“Yeah, mom, please send more of those Brita filter cartridges. The water here is TERRIBLE!”
Heh.
hmmm, RTO’s telling me you can refill the Brita cartridges. There’s some drilling and purchasing of activated charcoal from the aquarium store.
involved.
We won’t even go into the abomination of calling anything with vodka in it a “martini”. :-)
Interesting, maggie.
Google turns up this.
fwiw, MythBusters did the “Brita Filtered Vodka” thing.
The most salient discovery is that Kari Byron is a self-admitted cheap date. She ranked the unfiltered vodka ahead of the premium stuff. They also pointed out that it’d be cheaper, once you incorporated the cost of the charcoal filtering, to buy better vodka or better mixers.
They also pointed out that it’d be cheaper, once you incorporated the cost of the charcoal filtering, to buy better vodka or better mixers.
Ah, but that ignores the fact, alluded to above, that it’s a lot easier to convince Mom to buy Brita cartridges than vodka.
There’s a lot to think about here.
Like Sandy Duncan’s afterbirth? Filtered through a Brita, it tastes like chicken. If chicken were vodka.
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thank you feets. i’d never seen that video and it’s lovely.
Hey Jeff,
I am a little late to the game here. I’ll whip up a blog posting and inform the masses that read my little blog of the need. Sound good?
…and I’d give a little. But I’m in a similar boat as you. Sans best selling novels and a blog that does as well as yours.
..and no, I am NOT sucking up….much. ;)
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