Yes, we can.

[Fab]

They can make all the money they want.

But they shouldn't be getting handouts and tax breaks from the government. They are making their profits on the backs of Joe Average, who doesn't get anywhere near as much of a tax break. It's not right.

[innerSpaceman]

And frankly, since - as scaeagles rightly alludes to - every entity from oil companies to your local dentist passes on their tax burden to their customers, I say more than just the tax breaks should end for certain industries. I'm ashamed to be an end user consumer who can't pass on my taxes to the next lower toad on the toadempole ... and all the lowly citizens of my ilk pay the taxes of everyone above us in the American food chain.

Fine. I'll pay my barber's taxes. And I'll pay my shoe seller's taxes. All in addition to the one-third of my own income I pay in taxes ... meaning I likely pay something near a 50% tax rate in total.


And so I support anything deemed a life necessity to be NATIONALIZED and included in the 30% income tax I already pay. That means ENERGY, FOOD, and HEALTHCARE. My dentist can stuff it, and so can the oil companies. I don't care if this creates a huge government bureacracy less efficient that Exxon Mobil or my DDS. I'm tired of paying their taxes.



I'll pay Amazon's taxes, because I have a choice to shop there or not. You cold-hearted bastards who will say fixing my teeth, using electricity and eating breakfast are choices also can go fucyourself.



And thus ends my sunday morning rant.

[flippyshark]

Good rant, iSm. I don't contribute to political discussions much owing to my own ignorance, and the fact that no matter how much one reads up, there is always someone there with a contradictory fact, quote, document or theory, and it would take a year or two to get caught up enough to reply. It's all I can do to scan the daily barrage of media crap and try to decide who makes the most sense on any given day. That said, what iSm said above is very close to how I feel. (emphasis - how I feel versus what I know, which is exactly nothing.)

Carry on, y'all. This thread has been chock full of interesting tidbits.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Once again, Garrison Keillor puts things in perspective in his own colorful and inimitable way.

And it's an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.

Good luck with that, sir.

Meanwhile, the casual revelation last month that Mr. McCain has never figured out how to use a computer and has never sent e-mail or Googled is rather startling. It's like admitting that you've never clipped your own toenails or that you didn't know that toothpaste comes out of a tube because your valet always did that for you. It's like being amazed at the sight of a supermarket scanner. What world does Mr. McCain live in? Where does he keep his sense of curiosity? My 94-year-old mother has sent e-mail. Does somebody plan to show him how it's done and will they explain to him what "LOL" means?

[scaeagles]

Elitism isn't all about money. I know many middle class elitists who simply think they are better than everyone else. Whenever you say that you are the one the world has been waiting for or that you have become the symbol of all the greatness of America's past (or however exactly it was worded), you come across as elitist.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Elitism isn't all about money. I know many middle class elitists who simply think they are better than everyone else. Whenever you say that you are the one the world has been waiting for or that you have become the symbol of all the greatness of America's past (or however exactly it was worded), you come across as elitist.

I think it is safe to say that you are reading far more into what he actually said than what was intended.

For the record, these are his words -

"this is the moment, as Nancy [Pelosi] noted, that the world is waiting for."
"It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign -- that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have just become a symbol. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions"

[Fab]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Elitism isn't all about money. I know many middle class elitists who simply think they are better than everyone else. Whenever you say that you are the one the world has been waiting for or that you have become the symbol of all the greatness of America's past (or however exactly it was worded), you come across as elitist.

Owning nine houses and dumping your wife and kids for a zillionaire blonde?

[Tenigma]

Originally Posted by Fab

Owning nine houses and dumping your wife and kids for a zillionaire blonde?

McCain's own Wikipedia page kind of glosses it over, but reading the main page for his ex-wife sure is enlightening.

In the years that McCain was a POW, his wife had a catastrophic car accident that left her broken in many places (and interestingly enough, her hospital bills were paid for by Ross Perot, who I think some folks know has done a lot to help POWs and releasing captives). She was faithful to McCain all the years he was in captivity, sending him letters and packages (a few of which actually made it through), and she actually kept the accident information and all of her own suffering hidden from him so as to not add to his stress.

She came out of it shorter (she'd broken her legs in places) and gained some weight.

He came home and found out his wife was dumpy lumpy (even his first marriage was to a trophy wife--she was a swimsuit model), he apparently couldn't handle such homeliness. He started having affairs pretty much right away.

The guy is just an asshole (oops, can I say that here?).

It tells me a lot when a man keeps trying to marry trophy wives. It tells me he is superficial, cares more about looks, and doesn't believe that his marriage is a true partnership. No, it's more a showcase to show other people what a catch he got. When his first catch got a defective, he cast her aside.

Disgusting.

How can conservatives want to vote for him? Obama has a wife whom it seems to me is more a partner than a trophy, and they have two kids in an intact home.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Tenigma

McCain's own Wikipedia page kind of glosses it over, but reading the main page for his ex-wife sure is enlightening.

In the years that McCain was a POW, his wife had a catastrophic car accident that left her broken in many places (and interestingly enough, her hospital bills were paid for by Ross Perot, who I think some folks know has done a lot to help POWs and releasing captives). She was faithful to McCain all the years he was in captivity, sending him letters and packages (a few of which actually made it through), and she actually kept the accident information and all of her own suffering hidden from him so as to not add to his stress.

She came out of it shorter (she'd broken her legs in places) and gained some weight.

He came home and found out his wife was dumpy lumpy (even his first marriage was to a trophy wife--she was a swimsuit model), he apparently couldn't handle such homeliness. He started having affairs pretty much right away.

The guy is just an asshole (oops, can I say that here?).

It tells me a lot when a man keeps trying to marry trophy wives. It tells me he is superficial, cares more about looks, and doesn't believe that his marriage is a true partnership. No, it's more a showcase to show other people what a catch he got. When his first catch got a defective, he cast her aside.

Disgusting.

And Republicans want this person running the country...

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Tenigma

How can conservatives want to vote for him? Obama has a wife whom it seems to me is more a partner than a trophy, and they have two kids in an intact home.

This is just one of many reasons that it is not an easy vote for me. I am again thinking of sitting it out or at least not voting for either because McCain is going to win AZ in a landslide anyway.