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thinkahol *

Credibility, Chutzpah and Debt - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ibility-chutzpah-and-debt.html

Credibility Chutzpah and Debt - NYTimes.com

shared by thinkahol * on 08 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • It’s true that an aging population and rising health care costs will, under current policies, push spending up faster than tax receipts. But the United States has far higher health costs than any other advanced country, and very low taxes by international standards. If we could move even part way toward international norms on both these fronts, our budget problems would be solved.
  • thinkahol * on 08 Aug 11
     
    These problems have very little to do with short-term or even medium-term budget arithmetic. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its current deficit. It's true that we're building up debt, on which we'll eventually have to pay interest. But if you actually do the math, instead of intoning big numbers in your best Dr. Evil voice, you discover that even very large deficits over the next few years will have remarkably little impact on U.S. fiscal sustainability. No, what makes America look unreliable isn't budget math, it's politics. And please, let's not have the usual declarations that both sides are at fault. Our problems are almost entirely one-sided - specifically, they're caused by the rise of an extremist right that is prepared to create repeated crises rather than give an inch on its demands.
David Corking

Replace Police With Spin Doctors « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG - 0 views

inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/...place-police-with-spin-doctors

Culture

shared by David Corking on 16 Apr 09 - Cached
  • testing an age old theory about what happens when you approach a 6ft riot cop and tell him to fuck off repeatedly?
  • I blame Globalisation. Lets test this theory by choosing six other countries in the world, going over to each country one at a time, walking up to a riot cop and telling him to fuck off repeatedly. Compare injuries on return to UK. If you return to UK.
  • Will this person now be arrested for verbally abusing a Police Officer? If not, why not?
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • canteen culture of the mindless violence of the few backed up by the silence of the many.
  • As an A+E nurse would it be right for me to strike each and every member of the public if and when the became aggressive?
  • The Police should be held to a higher standard than other services, surely you are trained professionals and as such should be able to deal with the provacation in a much more proportional way?
  • it was against their clients human rights to be filmed with out their consent
  • When it’s not practical for you to be arrested because it would take police resources away from the lines then you deserve to get a shove. If you come back, then you deserve to be struck (something home office approved).
  • You ARE PROFESSIONALS and this kind of insta-agression is something that the public could gain at a fraction of the cost from a security guard. No one is denying that being a police officer is a difficult job at times
  • Sadly people are people, maybe he was wrong to hit her, she was maybe wrong for confronting him in the first place. All I can say that is if a uniformed officer tells me not to do something I don’t do it. Full stop.
  • David Corking on 16 Apr 09
     
    Other countries are worse. So? The rest of us would be jailed for assault if we hit someone with a stick in response to extreme provocation.
Bakari Chavanu

Skepticblog » Capitalism-A Propaganda Story - 0 views

skepticblog.org/...capitalism-a-propaganda-story

comment politics micheal moore micheal shermer

shared by Bakari Chavanu on 16 Oct 09 - Cached
  • When Michael Moore said that capitalism should be replaced by democracy, it didn’t make the most sense, I agree. However, it is well known that the economic system of socialism change how effective a political system works. Captialism, when allowed to go to extremes can also interfere with our political system.
  • Suggestion #1 Shermer should stay out of politics and economics. #2 He and all of you should read this: How the Servant Became a Predator, Finance’s Five Fatal Flaws By William K. Black Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City
  • Michael Moore is a fantastic skeptic. He doesn’t fall for the cultural mythologies of our age. The fervor that some people hold for their favorite economic systems is much akin to that held for religions. People get bent all out of shape when someone is sacrilegious enough to point out the problems and disconnects within their worshipped system. Some people think that there is some kind of magical something or other to their economic system that makes it function automatically. When you go looking for the “man behind the curtain”, you find out how frail the system really is.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • The microeconomics that drive the lives of ordinary people and businessmen do not necessarily coordinate with the macroeconomic needs of a nation.
  • In this latest installment in his continuing series of what’s wrong with America, Michael Moore takes aim at his biggest target to date, and the result is a disaster. The documentary is not nearly as funny as his previous films, the music selections seem contrived and flat, and the edits and transitions are clumsy, wooden, and not nearly as effective as what we’ve come to expect from the premiere documentarian (Ken Burns notwithstanding) of our time. And, most importantly, the film’s central thesis is so bad that it’s not even wrong.
  • Even if people were more educated individual behavior is determined by the structure of society.
  • I fail to see how businesses only operate without coercion. Businesses only operate without coercion if they have been coerced to do so. There are many examples in history of businesses taking as much control of their employees’ lives as possible. It is only due to government regulation that we do not have more businesses treating employess as property as some coal mines once did.
  • If we ask which economic system produces the greatest human well-being, the overwhelming evidence is already in: we know economic libertarianism doesn’t work. The only serious question, the only question for critical thinkers, is what balance between state and market (assuming we can even make a meaningful distinction between them in some cases) is ideal?
  • Both are idealistic, purist and pseudo-rational systems of belief that were the basis of the greatest ideological divide of the 20th century. I think it’s time we grew up from both and set about the hard task of finding out how to really make an economic system work for us, and not the other way around.
  • In general, libertarians seem to have a blindspot when it comes to noticing the self-serving aspects of their beliefs. They often spout words like “liberty” and “freedom” without even considering that they might be truly wanting “liberty” from responsibility toward others and “freedom” from paying back the society that has often served their interests quite well.
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