StrangeSox

Because the WSJ has become absolutely terrible since Murdoch bought it.

Capitalism has saved the Chilean miners' lives! Conversly, does this mean capitalism killed the West Virginia miners? edit: saw this in a comment, had to include To capitalism: the cause of, and solution to, all life's problems!

QUOTE (lostfan @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 04:26 PM) Yeah, this is the part I couldn't get down with. But when you look at something like, say, wealth consolidation upwards/shrinking of the middle class, Marx probably already said something about it 150 years ago and he is saying "I told you so" from his grave. Stagnant real wages for most citizens for over a decade while the top tier saw their wealth sky-rocket. That's a big issue he was against, and you'd think most Americans would be too, but he's treated as equivalent to Hitler. Thanks a lot, Stalin, for making any criticism of capitalism equivalent to supporting mass murder. I didn't bother to verify, but I read recently that Marx himself had to bum money off of his friend regularly.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 04:13 PM) Your capitalization thing is just confusing now. I think the angry, socially conservative crowd, which we knew in the 90's and 2000's as the Christian Coalition, makes up PART of that crowd. The other major part is the Libertarian crowd. I'll try to find some polls tonight that ask self-identifying tea party supporters their positions on social issues. You may very well be correct.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 04:20 PM) Scott Brown kind of just used the Tea Party's wave and then when he actually won the election he did whatever the f*** he wanted to do. And good for him. Good example of a non-crazy candidate who got elected on the tea party wave. edit: the tea party has since turned on him, though.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) I actually read some Marx in high school and there is some stuff he said that can hardly be defined as "evil" and some of it we even do now. Some of his criticisms of capitalism were pretty hard to argue against - does anyone really think child labor should be allowed or that workers shouldn't be paid a living wage and the owners are the only ones rightfully entitled to the profits of that work? Marx also did his work when there were only a handful of democratic countries in the world and most people would be surprised to know that Marx believed democracy was the only legitimate, justifiable form of government. It was the Communist movement in the 20th century that really f***ed up his image as someone who says some things that should be taken seriously, now nobody bothers to try to tell the difference. Disclaimer: this comment shouldn't be read as me endorsing Communism or full-on Marxism Marx had some legitimate criticisms of capitalism. It's just that his prescription for the fix was so unworkable/unrealistic.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 04:03 PM) That's an interesting point. While the GOP has chosen to thoroughly co-opt the movement, because the alignment is better... the Dems have decided to mock it. To me, that makes no sense, especially since the more libertarian aspects of the general movement actually fits better witht he Dems than the GOP. Seems like the smart thing would be to try to wedge between the candidates and the partiers. Try to appeal to the movement in areas like social issues where they would agree with the Dems at least in part, and then try to illustrate NOT how the TP-endorsed candidates are crazy because they are conservative, but that the are just plain crazy, and not actually defending liberty at all. The overwhelming bulk of the tea party (lower case) movement seems to be socially conservative, not libertarian or liberal.

The aspects of the tea party that are led by the Palin/Beck crowd (Tea Party) are the relevant aspects because that's who's getting candidates nominated and who's pushing national discussion on policy. The pushback comes from the Tea Party trying to present itself as some new voting bloc or as something outside of standard far-right Republican policy. Whatever not-just-rebranded-Republicans tea party movement there was after the Democrat victories in 2008 has been completely subsumed by the Tea Party as of about January 2009. The Ron Paul libertarianism streak is barely detectable. So, there may be grassroots tea party movements. There may be people who consider themselves part of the tea party but distance themselves from the Tea Party. But that's not what's at play in the upcoming elections. When the Tea Party is talked about, the national Republican Rebranded version is what is on everyone's minds.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 02:21 PM) I defended nothing. I was just wondering how you somehow learned, apparently by osmosis, that this even occurred. If you didn't witness it, and you didn't see it in the press, how could you know about it? The "press" doesn't include blogs. See the previous page for a link to the relevant affidavit. It does seem to be lacking coverage in the press, but the story "broke" on the blogs only yesterday.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 02:14 PM) http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/more-disgrace...ilitary-voters/ http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/inept-pjm-rea...-but-doj-didnt/ There's a big lack of supporting evidence for the claims in those links, such as:

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 02:10 PM) How about their divorce records from 20 years ago. And her affadavit stating his wonderful behavior. Or maybe she was making it up ...Get real here would you guys... The press is a shill and you guys will find a way to defend their silence here too. For informational purposes, here's a link to the affidavit. (at least according to the Brietbart blog, link is blocked at my office).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 01:41 PM) Yeah, I do all my finances in Quicken, and have nearly everything I do financially, automated. Only two things are manual, each happens once a month: Pay the credit card bill, and sweep to savings or investments. We pay for as much as possible via the credit card, because we get the miles/points, its easier, it has better fraud protections, and we pay it off every month. Once a month, when I get the credit card bill amount, I project out all the predicted payment and cash flow events for the next month (Quicken does most of this for me), which gives me a surplus number at the end of the month in checking. Then at that time, I sweep the surplus to savings and/or investments, depending on the balance in the savings account (you always want a cushion in there, but you don't want TOO much in it either because you are wasting opportunity). This is pretty much exactly what I've been doing for a while now, except I automatically dump money into my money market after every pay check and, if the checking account balance climbs, dump in more money manually or pay down some debt. Things will be a bit tighter over the next six or seven months if we get this house, though, because we're a one-income household while my fiance finishes up student teaching to get her certificate. Quicken was great for making accurate spending and budget projections based on what we actually spent in the past. I use my debit card for just about everything, so every purchase is tracked and categorized.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 02:00 PM) Who enforces the MOVE ACT? What would you like for them to have done differently? They're not in charge of getting the ballots out. That falls on the individual state agencies. So, yeah, Jesse White deserves some flack for offices under him messing up, but attacking the DOJ and White directly (like the blog post) doesn't make much sense to me. They're investigating it. It actually did happen in inner city precincts (New York at least, we don't know what parts of Illinois).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 12:57 PM) I agree with this, but, that also begs a different question. If there is no cohesive set of beliefs or policy stances, no single movement, no party and nothing knitting them together... what purpose do they serve? Good, bad or otherwise, what are they going to accomplish if they don't stand for anything? In my view, the tea party is just that, a loose-knit group of mostly conservatives with some libertarianism thrown in who are dissatisfied with the President and with Democrats, but also with a lot of Republican incumbents. The Tea Party, on the other hand, is just modern right-wing conservatism repackaged with a lot of anger thrown in. This is the part that is winning primaries and dominating news cycles.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 12:53 PM) I'm not defining all Tea Party people as the same. That is the key difference between what is being portrayed here and in the media, and what I am trying to explain for the umpteenth time. There is no singular Tea Party movement. There isn't even anything knitting them together in any sort of a formal manner. This isn't like a national party. It is stereotyping at best to try to portray the Tea Party movement as some sort of defined group. I know what you're saying and sort of agree with it. That's how most movements on the left have been forever. However, with the Tea Party, the portion that is politically relevant is crazy as evidenced by their candidates. There's a reason I keep capitalizing the Tea Party. It's a large, ill-defined movement, but the strongest and loudest parts are pretty easily delineated. edit: re-worded, came across as snarky the first time

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 12:34 PM) http://www.theblaze.com/stories/military-b...nt-in-illinois/ First, let me say it's ridiculous that something like this could be overlooked. According to the original story, this has happened in NY and New Mexico as well. It seems like those cases have been settled, so that could give some indication to what this actually means and what the potential results are. The headline for that blog and the first paragraph are misleading, though. It makes it seem as if no overseas ballots will count in Illinois. Neither article gives a source for the scale of the problem. And, actually, if you compare the first paragraph of the blog to the original WLS article portion: It seems deliberately dishonest to implicate the "Democratic Secretary of State", as if it were a politically-motivated action taken by Jesse White. Based on the WLS article, it seems that the problem comes from some level below the Secretary of State, that it isn't one central office or Jesse White himself sending these out. Ultimately, "the buck stops here" and White needs to answer for any problems in his department, but that blog is slanted to say the least. And, finally, why are Holder and the DOJ being implicated by cknolls? What different action do you suspect would happen with an inner city precinct that didn't get enough ballots or voting machines? Because that happens in pretty much every election. edit: also, in New York, it says the five boroughs were in violation. Yeah, pretty sure that covers some inner city precincts.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 11:06 AM) If I took a loose knit group of people, say "environmentalists" and picked one sect of them to represent the whole, say ELF, you wouldn't have any problem with that? That works for defining all conservatives as Tea Party, and I think it's a valid point. All criticism from the right isn't Tea Party, just as all environmentalists aren't ELF. But, unless you do want to define all conservatives as Tea Party, you're left with the Tea Party being rather nutty and with the figureheads being Angle, Palin, DeMint, Paul, Beck, etc. They're the ones speaking at rallies and meetings, backing or running as candidates that are challenging GOP-backed candidates.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 10:27 AM) I guess I have a hard time understanding how she doesn't represent the Tea Party when she was funded by Tea Party Express and got her nomination because of the work of Delaware 9/12ers. If that's not being the visible leadership of the Tea Party, I don't know what is. She doesn't represent all of the Tea Party just as the Tea Party doesn't represent all criticism and dislike of the President and his policies from the right. But she's one of the main candidates to benefit from Tea Party action and support. She was a big deal in the media before her crazy positions were being reported because she was such a huge upset. But to pretend that her brand of social conservatism and economic absurdity doesn't represent a majority of the tea party is, imo, dishonest.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 10:06 AM) O'Donnell isn't nearly as slick as Palin. Sequels are almost always worse. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 10:09 AM) That is actually a great comparison. I can't believe how many people have latched on to her as some example of the Tea Party's leadership and ideals, just like they did Palin, when the reality doesn't support that. O'Donnell is standing out as the worst Tea Party candidate, but others like Angle, Paladino and Paul aren't far behind. It's the clearest example of "look at the terrible candidates this movement is bringing us." Sarah Palin was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States and was the main "attack dog" in the later stages of the campaign. Since then, she's inserted herself into the public sphere at every opportunity (except when she quit her public job) and is correctly portrayed as one of the leaders of the Tea Party movement, which regardless of its origins, is standard conservatism with populist anger now.

Well, I'm sure she's read Das Kapital and some of Marx' other works, I trust her evaluation. Really, it's just the standard socialism/communism/marxism/leninism/maoism/stalinism conflation.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 08:15 AM) Funny you say that... we just made an offer on a house on Friday, that had only hit the market the day before, which is REO-owned (post-foreclosure). But we're first in line, they gave us a counter with the same price but an earlier closing date, we accepted and signed, now just waiting for confirmation. There are apparently 3 other offers waiting behind ours, made within the first few days on the market, for the same house. Wouldn't have expected that in this market, but it makes me feel better about the choice we made for this one. Should hear today if we really got it or not, but the realtor says it should be good to go. We made an offer on a short sale last night. It's been (back) on the market for about 4 days, already had an offer before ours (low ball) and had intense interest. Price it right, and it'll sell.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 08:17 AM) I saw an article about that debate. Apparently, when asked to comment on a recent Supreme Court decision that she didn't like or agree with, she couldn't remember a recent USSC decision. At all. Sarah Palin Part Deux

Christine O'Donnell needs to study science, constitutional law and Supreme Court decisions:

We had made an offer on an REO property a few weeks ago, but they accepted a competing offer. Feels like we dodged a bullet with that one.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Oct 13, 2010 -> 07:57 AM) How are you doing it? Cuz i'd love to try something out in my car for my trips to and from work (45 mins each way). I can already speak French and have actually heard Italian is easy to pick up if you can speak that already. Rosetta stone is interactive software, not something you could do while driving. The entire thing, aside from set-up menus, is in the native language. There's no vocabulary lessons or translations or grammar. It's supposed to be a more "natural" way of learning a language. I have the software and I started a few lessons, but then I was traveling a bunch and kinda forgot about it.