In five days, I’ll be on the way to Thailand, so I’ve got a lot on my plate, but will try to keep the blog going. That’s going to be tough while I’m gone, because I’m not taking my laptop.
So let’s make the most of what we’ve got now:
Netanyahu says no ‘disrespect’ meant to Obama — Yeah, right… OK…
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham heads to New Hampshire next week to test 2016 waters — I can tell him right now, any water up there is likely to be solid.
Iraq ‘seizes districts from IS’ — While the U.S. sits back and watches. Forget the Chinese. Maybe this will end up being the Iranian Century…
Gov. Nikki Haley on economic trip to undisclosed location — Maybe she can say hey to Dick Cheney for us. Seriously, I hope the trip goes well for SC.
Related Posts
You could schedule some blog posts. Most of your blog posts are current events, so you’d have to come up with topics that wouldn’t get stale too quickly.
Or you could turn over the keys to the ol’ blogmobile to some of us the commentariat. Don’t worry, we’ll bring her back in one piece.
I nominate you to nominate >>>*bud* — moderator of the blog<<< in the blog owner's absence.
As the king of the blog, how would this work? Would I appoint a regent?
I don’t know about this. Didn’t John get up to mischief while Richard was away at the Crusades?
King? I didn’t know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.
Now is the winter of our discontent….
###Gov. Nikki Haley on economic trip to undisclosed location###
WIS called it ***Project Unicorn*** (I would almost swear I heard this @ 6PM rpt.)
I sincerely empathize with those dutied with saying something positive about her.
I am still enjoying this bit on the enigmatic House of Cards music:
http://www.npr.org/2015/02/26/389045445/scoring-at-risk-how-the-house-of-cards-composer?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150226
The editing/scoring of the opening titles is extraordinary.
My favorite line from House of Cards Season 3 has been when President Frank Underwood looks into the camera during a speech to the nation and says “You are entitled to NOTHING!”. This is in reference to his plan to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to fund a massive jobs program. I could certainly get behind that objective. We’ve lost focus in this country on the value of work. If the safety net becomes a cushion, it’s a lot harder to get people to get up off it.
Well, I reckon there are some who consider nasty ol‘ F.U. a hero (though those who’ve watched the original BBC series know he is destined for a very unhappy end – assuming the show didn’t slip into a nihilist alternate reality on crossing the Atlantic). But I guess there’ll always be a few folks who think this way – like that lot who see the unregenerate Scrooge as the real moral model in A Christmas Carol.
M. Prince – what are you entitled to? What of mine do you feel I owe to you?
Would you rather have a job or a handout? That’s the premise of the story arc on the show this season. 10 million jobs. Full employment. Everyone who can work gets a job. Even the fictional mayor of Washington D.C. gets on board first with the jobs program (called America Works). Unfortunately the reality of a program like that would be people doing nothing and then complaining that they didn’t get paid enough to do it.
In other words, the jobs are handouts.
Nothing about Frank Underwood impresses me positively.
I’ve watched four episodes of the new season. Don’t know whether I’ll continue.
I managed to slog through last season, and ended up watching “West Wing” for the first time after that. Now that I’ve watched that entire series, it’s hard to sit still for something that doesn’t have a single likable character.
Perhaps I will go back and finish watching the original, British version — even though M. just gave away the ending. I did like it a little better — although I only saw the first season…
How does 10MM jobs cost $500 billion? I mean, they could pay everyone $50K to sweep sidewalks and it would be a lot cheaper than that!
Wouldn’t we want people to make a “living wage”? $20/hr = $41,600 a year. On the show, it was mentioned that companies that hired the unemployed would get a $45K tax break on the salary…
The real problem is getting people to work for their pay. Having experienced the Postal Service first hand for many years, I would expect that there would be plenty of deadwood collecting checks.. and leading miserable lives.
I’d settle for allowing me to opt out of Social Security and Medicare. I won’t expect any entitlements if I also don’t have to pay in. I’ll pay a smaller percentage to cover widows, orphans, and the truly disabled.
To answer Doug more directly, or as directly as I can given that I think the questions are off…
I think when we say things like “what are you entitled to? What of mine do you feel I owe to you?”… you get off course, you miss the point.
Terms like “entitled” and “you” and “mine” have no place in the discussion. It’s not a meus et tuus kind of thing.
It’s just about what we consider to be a wise policy consistent with our notions, as expressed through the political process, of how we want our society to function.
For instance, I champion universal health care not because individuals have a “right” to it. I think we’ve had enough of inventing new rights. I believe we’ll have a better-functioning society if everyone has medical coverage that they can’t lose. It frees people up to work and build and take risks and start new businesses without worrying that by giving up their dead-end jobs with benefits they’d be giving their children a death sentence should they contract a serious disease.
It takes a problem and distraction off the table. Just as government building roads removed the problem of getting goods to market, and provided channels for explosive economic growth.
It’s smart policy. That it’s also good and compassionate policy is great as well. But I don’t say anyone is “entitled.”
Re Smart Policy: Anyone who has been in an emergency room lately knows it is packed with people who could be better served at an urgent care or regular doctor’s office. There are signs in every triage and treatment room at the emergency center that states patients can’t be turned away because of inability to pay which means we are all paying. There are more cost effective ways to deal with this situation.
“Use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping?!
Use them after your own honor and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.”
— Shakespeare, “Hamlet”
Indeed. That old boy could WRITE…
He probably didn’t write that.
There’s a huge difference between “medical coverage they can’t use” and “medical coverage that is paid for by someone else”. Everyone should have access to medical coverage without restriction but to suggest that someone is entitled to that coverage without being asked to do anything for it is the basic definition of entitlement.
Why did NPR carry all of Bibi’s speech live? And why did I listen to part of it?
He’s pretty insufferable; even sounded patronizing to Congress – which, for having invited him, may have actually been appropriate.
What is Netanyahu thinking? Does he not realize that the choice is between an Iran who will at least allow inspections and an Iran who will be determined get the bomb because it sees everyone as its enemy? If we increase sanctions and add to our list of demands we will only make them desperate. It will also drive them back toward more extremism (remember Amdinajab?). BTW, if I wanted US cooperation, I would not insult the US president (and Commander in Chief of its military).
Talk about people thinking they are entitled. How about we cut off all funding to Israel and see what happens?
How about we charge Doug the full cost of the subsidized airports he makes such frequent use of, and the subsidized highways, too? And the proportional cost of developing ARPANet, and the vaccines for whatever diseases he didn’t get because he was vaccinated, and the subsidized cost of his and his children’s educations and….
Doug lives in this fantasy world that everyone who has money has earned every penny of it through hard work, wise decisions and completely on their own initiative. Conversely everyone who is broke is broke because they have inferior character, are lazy and probably should just lay down and die and let those Ayn Rand heroes reap the entirety of their rewards. In Doug world no one is ever lucky. No one ever gets an undeserved bit of good fortune NOT attributable to their superior character traits. In this world all government workers are shiftless, lazy, evil beings who should be sent off to purgatory. Likewise nothing private companies do is ever detrimental to the welfare of the people. There is no grey area in Doug world. It’s a dichotomy with clearly defined areas of good and evil. And all the good resides in the private sector.
There is luck. It is a singular event. Successful people are successful despite bad luck. People who work hard, study hard, save their money are miraculously more successful than those who don’t. Luck comes to those who take risks. Luck doesn’t come to those who are afraid or lack the skills to trust their own capabilities. Those people stay in the same job with the same company for life and blame luck for their mediocrity.
Let me edit that for you. No doubt what you meant to say was, “People who work hard, study hard, save their money are sometimes more successful than those who don’t.”
Because THAT’S the way the world actually works…
Thanks, but I don’t need an edit. It’s more often than “sometimes”. I’d like to observe the households where parents teach their kids to not bother working hard because it’s all a crapshoot that only works out sometimes.
But you can test your theory pretty easily. Start doing less at work. Show up late for meetings with clients. Play solitaire at your desk. Don’t bother trying to learn anything new. With some lucky breaks, I’m sure you’ll be successful.
Look around your office and start counting the people who are where they are because of luck as opposed to effort and ability. What’s the percentage? You don’t have to name names because the people you think are lucky probably have overcome all sorts of bad luck during their careers.
Unless they are Powerball winners, most people attain the success they earn.
But you’d also have to include all the people who worked hard, studied hard, etc., and AREN’T successful.