LikeTheDew - Latest Comments

Re: The Wrong Horse

Hannah — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:57:05 -0000

In the dualistic mind of the instinct-driven, two-part nouns always represent antagonistic concepts which cancel each other out, not to achieve union, but conquest. So, for example, "free market" refers to acquiring free goods (resources) and taking them to market for a profit. If the acquisition requires work, then a subsidy is wanted to compensate for that effort. Indeed, in the case of oil, a supposedly limited resource (which means it's not a resource at all), the acquisitors demanded compensation for using it up (depletion allowance).
The underlying assumption is that man is entitled to exploit what he can. Stewardship is not a concept instinct-driven humans understand.
Indeed, the absence of understanding seems characteristic. The instinct-driven human does not understand the consequences of accumulation, particularly obsessive accumulation, either. And that, in essence, is the problem with uranium and its derivatives. Man has brought together particles that are naturally dispersed without fully understanding the consequence of that behavior.
Accumulation is an instinctive behavior. All sorts of organisms do it. Fortunately, most don't have memory. So, they soon forget what they've collected and some other organism comes along to take it apart. The problem with humans accumulating isn't just that they don't forget and obsessively increase the store, but that their accumulants are frequently deadly to all of organic existence.
Mindless accumulation doesn't have to be antagonistic to be deadly.

Re: Bill Downs on the Recent Elections in Europe

Hannah — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:38:34 -0000

Getting people hooked on a common currency can be seen as a Trojan horse, designed to gain control over how people sustain themselves without them noticing how it's done. Blaming an immigrant population, whose migration is largely prompted by the deprivation they experience in their home country as a result of natural resource exploitation my moneyed interest, is an easy out, especially if the immigrants are easy to identify visually or linguistically.
The European Union was held out as a strategy for increased efficiency and prosperity, a potential that's not being realized because the power structure, concentrated in the banks, is mainly interested in its own prosperity the efficiencies of scale promised by monopolies simply can't be realized. Monopoly = too big. And too big fails. Success everywhere depends on diversity and redundancy. Variety is not the spice of life; it is its essence.
A common currency would be fine, if it weren't being used as a tool to manipulate and dominate the populace. The charge against the Greeks, for example, is that as much as 40% of their exchange and trade is in the shadow economy -- i.e. untracked by the state and un-taxed. This is particularly worrisome to the banksters because it means that their ability to garner a "living" by lending money to the state instead of doing any productive work is in jeopardy. Because, if the state doesn't collect taxes, it can't pay interest on the debts. The idea that people are going to be more inclined to be taxed in the face of reduced services (austerity) is ludicrous.
At some point, the banksters are going to have to accept that paper money is only worth something as long as people are willing to use it -- i.e. spend. Hoarding worthless paper simply does not a vibrant economy make.

Re: A Draperesque Vision of America

Drill_baby — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:33:34 -0000

The project of progressive liberal Democrat leftism is failing all around you and this is what you're writing about. Really?

Re: A Draperesque Vision of America

Lee Leslie — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:48:55 -0000

My point precisely.

Re: How Liberals Think

Lee Leslie — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:47:28 -0000

Sarcasm? Yes. But not all of it. The first year Obama was in office, he was managing Bush's budget and Bush's deficit - including the $700 billion left on tarp, Bush's wars and the Medicare prescription drug plan - none of which were budgeted. Much of the deficit in all of the years continue (wars, medicaid prescription) to lie squarely on Bush - because of the damaged economy, tax receipts were way down and expenses for unemployment, food stamps, etc. spiked. But some of it is Obama's: the $425 billion in tax cuts; the $711 billion in stimulus (1/2 of which went directly to the states)

The New York Times has a handy graphic:

Re: A Draperesque Vision of America

Hannah — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:04:53 -0000

In the bifurcated instinct-driven mind, to be for something is to be against its opposite and vice versa. This has the additional advantage of confusing your enemies, of which there are multitudes. It's my considerate opinion that, if they're real, it's actually the duplicity that creates them.
What logical people expect is that people will change and the appearance of consistency must be a mistake. But, fact seems to be that creatures of habit simply do the same thing over and over, regardless of the results, because results is not something they even think about. People, who don't think, cannot expect and vice versa.

Re: How Liberals Think

Dr. Roberts — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:59:26 -0000

That was sarcasm right? Obama has spent more money in 3 years than Bush spent in his whole term! Bush's highest deficit was under 600 billion all 8 years except for his last year which includes TARP. Obama's lowest deficit to date is 1.2 trillion. This whole article has many holes and nonfactual statements. I suggest more research being done before making outrageous claims on the opposing party. First off, you seem to forget that Eisenhower was a republican, not a liberal democrat. Secondly, democrats seem to forget the patriot act was extended with a democratically controlled Senate, House, and Presidency. I could keep going but I digress. If you're going to write comparing opposing view points at least be correct on your facts.

Re: How Willard Creates Jobs

Lee Leslie — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:54:16 -0000

Willard Mitt Romney

Re: A Draperesque Vision of America

Trevor Irvin — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:04:53 -0000

The republican base is now ignorant enough that they don't realize,
or possibly don't mind, that they are being "trickled on."

Like my Momma used to say, "You can't do a damned thing
with stupid."

Good piece Lee,

Re: How Willard Creates Jobs

Moving on — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:59:35 -0000

I have no idea what this story is about. Who, or what, is Willard? Where is this rack behind which Ms. Tilton was standing, and why is she wearing a gown or having her cleavage plumped up? This article makes no sense, I learned nothing, and now I'm just irritated by the terrible writing.

Re: How Willard Creates Jobs

Frank Povah — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:16:34 -0000

Forgive me, Monica - but is this a joke?

Re: Do South Carolinians Hate Government?

Tony Phillips — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:29:37 -0000

I assume it's in an effort to address popular misconceptions about South Carolinian sensibility that the state's law enforcement have, eveidently, decided to rid their highways and by-ways of those highest symbols of culture - truck nuts. Read more:

www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-ph...

Re: A Draperesque Vision of America

Lee Leslie — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:41:26 -0000

And to think that I didn't even mention the bullying or the corporate raid and pillaging.

Re: A Draperesque Vision of America

John Hickman — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:08:15 -0000

Lee takes no prisoners!

Re: What happened in NC? Lessons from the amendment battle

Hannah — Sat, 12 May 2012 19:11:58 -0000

Government by the people is not the same as majority rule. That's why we have guiding principles encapsulated in a constitution or charter. That the first Constitution violated the principle of equal treatment was an error that has to be corrected piecemeal. Also, the principle that individual behavior is presumed to be good, unless and until it is proven harmful to another person, does not seem to be universally appreciated. There's a belief in some quarters that "innocence" is just a hypothetical -- a convenient starting point for a trial to prove guilt. That innocence is the default does not compute with the belief that man is basically evil (original sin) and society is organized to make him good.
Man's sinfulness is a necessary predicate to justify other men extorting obedience.

Re: The Seat Of Power

Marietta Mary — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:58:13 -0000

My favorite Georgia courthouse is in Lowdnes County (Valdosta). My former husband and I had to stop for gas and drove into Valdosta while en route to Daytona from Atlanta. I fell in love with it -- we drove all around it. Gas was much cheaper then (under $1 a gallon), so it didn't much make any difference where you got it.

Re: What happened in NC? Lessons from the amendment battle

Tom Poland — Sat, 12 May 2012 09:11:31 -0000

Democracy: control of an organization or group by the majority of its members. The people spoke, they continue to speak, and they speak consistently.

Re: What happened in NC? Lessons from the amendment battle

Hannah — Sat, 12 May 2012 05:42:56 -0000

Well, if that one sentence is all there is, there's nothing to worry about. Constitutions are directives to agents of government. When it says something MUST (shall) be done, it doesn't preclude that other things MAY be done.
Presumably, there was previously no directive that any marriages or domestic partnerships had to be recognized and recorded by the state. Now there is. And now that there is, other persons can insist on equal treatment by the record keepers.
We need to remember that domestic unions or partnerships are entered into by the participants. Whether they are recorded in public records is another matter. A couple of hundred years ago that was only done for the elite. Common law unions existed without benefit of official certification and still do.

Re: Hippies in Atlanta! However did they get in?

Lostinthe Burbs — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:59:09 -0000

Miss those times. I worked at Strawberry Fields and enjoyed many an outing in the Park. Those were the days of freedom, love, music (Allman Bros.) for FREE! Where have we all gone? To the burbs my friends....now a bunch of capitalist pigs.... ;(

Re: Huey P. Long is Re-Assassinated!

austin — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:49:03 -0000

The Williams Biography is tenfold more colorful than than Robert Penn Warren's "All th Kings Men". I often try to imagine the scenes in Washington D C , usually at formal dinners for Senators and such where Huey, uninvited, rattles a water glass, makes a speech, hurls humorous insults to several of the guests, and goes on and on all the while eating with a borrowed fork off anothers plate, punctuating his points by chewing and swallowing, and patting some of the unwitting dinner donors on the back to mind his manners and show gratitude. Think i'll dig my copy up and reread soon.
Oh, It is reputed that the real "Sugar Boy", the chauffer from Warrens novel, went on to become head of the graduate English Department at Penn. - I'll be glad to provide references in a more private communication for any serious Kingfish devotees- Thanks to John Hickman for the article and you for bringing up further references.

Re: How Liberals Think

Nettles_r_2000 — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:19:09 -0000

In this essay you seem to define conservatives as those who wish to maintain the status quo. If this your definition it doesn't apply to me or most "conservatives" I know. I don't want to maintain a tax system that punishes hard work. I don't want to maintain out-of-control regulatory agencies that cripple industry. I don't want to maintain a monetary policy that protects big banks at the expense of our currency's value. I don't want to maintain a Federal spending level that will have us in Greece's shoes within the decade. I don't want to maintain Social Security or Medicare without the reforms necessary to preserve them. I don't want to maintain a foreign policy afraid to stand up for human rights if it means pissing off the Chinese or Russians.

Just a few other points: The two biggest "liberal" Presidents in the last century were the only presidents in history to actually lock people in concentration camps.

The "Great Depression" was worsened and lengthened by FDR's policies.

The "Great Society" along with a healthy dose cultural rot has all but destroyed the nuclear family thereby impoverishing further those it was purported to benefit.

We have "progressed" past God and morality and we wonder why our schools are failing and our streets are not safe and no amount of money we throw at these problems seems to help.

I am not a progressive or your version of conservative. I'm just a guy who is going to think for himself not because you think it is ok but because it is my God given right. I want to be able to make a living and raise my kids without having to ask permission from Washington to do it. And because I believe there are many more like m out there, I still have hope for the United States.

Re: Does CSI undermine common sense in the jury box?

Hannah — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:18:29 -0000

Rather than instructing the jurors, how about insuring that the police collect and document as much evidence as they can and write up contemporaneous reports that are complete and logical? Relying on police to come into court and counting on their reputation for probity because they've taken an oath to uphold the law is not going to have much weight with people whose friends and relations have all had interactions with lazy cops, who don't seem to have a clue about the law.
Moreover, the assumption on the part of prosecutors that witness testimony will cover a bunch of sloppy investigation needs to be challenged. That witnesses are not only inherently unreliable because memories are flawed is compounded by the fact that it is now widely known that witnesses are prompted to tell stories that comport with a police scenario, but not necessarily the facts.
Habitual crooks have figured out that what the cops and the prosecutor want is compliance. So, excuses is what they use, sooner or later, to minimize the consequences of their acts. And that's why we have repeat offenders roaming the streets.

Re: Southern Road Names

Tompol — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:26:50 -0000

Sounds like a good story is in there somewhere Frank! Great pun too!

Re: Southern Road Names

Frank Povah — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:19:44 -0000

A mystery. It was called Jerusalem Plains in the 1830s, no doubt for the seven nearby hills, then a few years later renamed Colebrook Dale - my guess is by a homesick Yorkshireman. However the name persisted when a "Probation Station" was opened there and named Jerusalem Probation Station. The name Jerusalem was in common usage for the town and district up until the late 1960s at least, though the village name Colebrook became official in 1834. A bit like metrication in the US - officially proclaimed but no one uses it. Perhaps the good residents of Colebrook added the rider to the sign in the 70s or 80s to achieve gentrification. Much like a Billygoat Hill I know of that became Capricorn Rise when it was turned into a subdivision (I kid you not - and that is a ghastly pun). Jerusalem district also has a neighboring village named Bagdad and fortunately its residents were not so gung ho as to have that changed.

Re: Southern Road Names

Guest — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:30:18 -0000

Frank, good to hear from you. Long Lick road is interesting as is Chicken Bristle. Why the change from Jerusalem to Colebrook?