Quote of the Day
When the government restricts return on any particular asset, that asset will be allowed to deteriorate until its value is low enough that it earns an acceptable return. If there is no value low enough, the asset will, one way or another, end up in the government’s hands and become a burden on taxpayers. Whoever…
When the government restricts return on any particular asset, that asset will be allowed to deteriorate until its value is low enough that it earns an acceptable return. If there is no value low enough, the asset will, one way or another, end up in the government’s hands and become a burden on taxpayers. Whoever used the old saw “market failure” earlier in this discussion has successfully memorized a popular socialist catch phrase but does not appreciate the law of unintended consequences. If you force landlords to rent units at below market rents, the affected housing stock will slowly deteriorate. The remaining housing stock becomes prohibitively expensive, and new renters find it difficult or impossible to get into the below market units. The below market units effectively become a one-time property transfer from landlords (who actually took risk in buying and spend money for upkeep and repairs) to whoever had the dumb luck to be in a controlled apartment when the rules took effect. The controlled housing stock is tightly clutched in the hands of a less and less deserving population until it has to be pried from their dead hands, while over time the people who actually need affordable housing stock find it impossible to find because everything that isn’t being held until death is overpriced.
— by lechacal in Democratic Assembly Passes Pro-Tenant Legislation
ok, let’s take these liberal whiners one at a time.
first off lechakakhan;
you attempt to employ that most predictable of liberal whiner ploys; the good old “if you haven’t served in the military you cannot speak about the war” routine.
This is nothing more than a feeble attempt at censorship by a person who cannot argue to the facts of the situation. It is akin to saying, you cannot comment on the conduct of the president if you haven’t served as president of the united states or perhaps you cannot comment on the state of your health unless you are licensed doctor. Silly isn’t it. and yet you fascists on the left (and don’t try and tell me you aren’t) will always go for the censorship route instead of facing the facts head on. So keep on playing the role of Joker from Full Metal Jacket. I’ll keep on being an original personality and not a poseur. Not afraid to speak my mind on subjects far and wide and without much regard for those who believe that speech is to be qualified if it cannot be countered with reasoned thought. As far as the suggestions of anal play, that is not my bag of tea, but hey, if you’re an assclown into teabagging , that’s your thing dude. Go for it.
next we have boxgirl who states with great abandon that she is “poor”. This in itself is not a problem for me, I was once poor myself, could be again one day, who knows? No, the problem with boxgirl is that she tends to wallow in it and then beat other posters over the head with her supposed learned virtues. Let me clue you in sister, poorness is over rated. Given a choice, most poor folks would rather not be poor. It tends to get in the way of enjoyment of life. Now if you live in a society which is capitalist in nature, do you fly off the handle and attempt to bring down that successful society that has given more to the great unwashed masses than any other nation in history, or do you do a little introspection and attempt to play the game as it is and move forward? If you are a liberal you attempt to change the game midway and blame the society at large for your predicament. That my friends is boxgirl in a nutshell. Oh, but I do remember her telling me that she was educated, so why she never managed to get out of her “poorness” is beyond me. Then again, being “poor” in the United States simply means that you are entitled to approximately $30,000 in yearly programs including free housing (section -8) , free food, free job training, free medical insurance, free child care, free transportation and of course free education. Hey, not knocking it, just telling it like it is. Just don’t dare imply that being “poor” in the United States is anything like it is in the third world where it means you have no food, no shelter and your life expectancy is about 30 years. As far as the prisoners at guantanamo, I didn’t hear your response to the fact that more than a few who were released went on to continue their jihaad and slaughter of innocent people. Heard of Mumbai? Heard of Belsan? Heard of London? Madrid? Jakarta? There are a few more nations involved in this radical islamist war. And many don’t even have much to do with the USA.
And now for CMU:
Iraq was invaded for many reasons, following 9/11, and Saddam’s defiance of 17 UN resolutions, following the anthrax attacks (now known to be homegrown)but nonetheless a contributing factor to our national psyche at the time, following the repeated shooting up of US warplanes in the UN mandated no fly zone, Saddam was basically doing a Hugo Chavez, taunting us at our most vulnerable time; add to this the fact that British, Israeli, Russian, French and US intelligence all stated that Saddam had WMD’s (we know he had them because he used them against Iran); what exactly did you expect? what followed was a series of three wars which were all won by the strength of will of the US military; the first war against Iraq was completed in months, the second war against al quaeda was won when Fallujah was taken back and the third war against Iranian backed insurgents was won with the Surge. And in cased you missed it, the Iraqi’s have voted in democratic elections once again. Despite what the left in America stated was a “LOST” war. so you now have a new democracy in the middle east serving as an example, along with afghanistan as two islamic nations that don’t have to go the route of radical islam. And guess what? they now surround Iran, that nation which has been at the heart of much of this unrest since the Carter/Reagan years. but perhaps geo-political flexible strategies is beyond you. Anyhow, keep on believing, we are the problem, you will be ignored by history anyway.
Common sense. It’s what’s sorely missing in America today. and particularly amongst posters here in Brownstoner.
“at guantanamo, where enemy combatants who have been captured in war, in the process of attempting to kill your fellow Americans, have vowed to do so again if given the chance and have actually been documented to do just that once released, are, in your skewed mind, victims of some bad family trip planning to Tora Bora.” -legion’s twist on things.
Firstly, as others have pointed out, few were actually captured in warfare. Secondly, if they were, they should be prisoners of war, whose treatment is internationally agreed on. Unending captivity in tortuous circumstances is not kosher. Thirdly, if I were in that situation, I’d be vowing revenge on my captors, and, so, my friend would you…think about our societal response to a horrific act (9/11)…invading a country that had nothing to do with it and killing over 100,000? A prisoner’s boastful and desperate wish to destroy America while suffering in Guantanamo is small potatoes compared to that.
Common sense you may have, but the ability to look at facts is what you need.
oops- conservative pals are always looking.
lechacal- actually it’s possible his conservative are always looking, thanks to the Bush Administration 🙂
bxgrl thanks misterbubble for reminding us that legion was part of the very problematic 8 years past and like the rest of his conservative GOP pals has yet to learn how to take responsibilty for anything or learn anything from their mistakes.
and I thank mr. legion for sp beautifully expressing the total confusion and meltdown of the republicans who forever point a finger at “whining liberals”, all the while bemoaning their the fate their beloved neocon party has dealt them.
FIY- in this country, which you keep demanding that G-d bless, we are innocent until proven guilty. there are far too many people in Gitmo being held on little to now evidence and the Bush administration has certainly taken its own damn sweet time bringing them to trial- which tells me they have little to no evidence. I find that more than a little reminiscent of the taliban way of thinking. And more FYI- many of those prisoners were not captured in war- they were picked up on suspicion, rumor and innuendo, not proof.
I love the old I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and if I can so can anyone argument. I worked hard all my life, never been on welfare, did great jobs and crappy jobs and I am still “poor.” Why? Because life happens and lots of things are beyond your control. Common sense should have told you that but anyone who can still bitch about the “whiny liberals” from atop the wreckage left by the so-called conservatives is not suffering from an excess of common sense.
Legion, posts like yours can only nudge me towards the left from my usual center-right post, because they make the right sound like really boring company. When I was in the military (have you ever served, or are you just a flag-humper?) I remember being told by lots of people, starting with my drill sargeant, that I was “too smart to tie my own goddamn shoes” and that “all I needed was some goddamn common sense” etc etc. People like that need to be managed, not engaged. I did quite well in the military thank you very much, and have done pretty well for myself since. So you can take your common sense and shove it deep where you probably secretly put things when your conservative friends aren’t looking.
Legion, posts like yours can only nudge me towards the left from my usual center-right post, because they make the right sound like really boring company. When I was in the military (have you ever served, or are you just a flag-humper?) I remember being told by lots of people, starting with my drill sargeant, that I was “too smart to tie my own goddamn shoes” and that “all I needed was some goddamn common sense” etc etc. People like that need to be managed, not engaged. I did quite well in the military thank you very much, and have done pretty well for myself since. So you can take your common sense and shove it deep where you would probably secretly put things when your conservative friends aren’t looking.
misterbubble thanks this “legion” bloke for reminding us that 9-11 was actually clinton’s fault.
cmu,
you, my friend, are part of the problem.
For people like you throw away something that took millions of years to evolve;
Common Sense.
Common sense is that inherent human trait that allows us to discern in a split second what is dangerous to us or harmful at a gut level, before the need to process it throught the thalamus.
Sort of like walking into a roadside gas station men’s room and getting that first olfactory tingle of the ugliness that lies behind that stall door. No need to use the other 4 senses on that one. Unless of course you are a raving liberal. In which case you will have to see it, hear it, feel it and taste it before you determine that getting anywhere near it is not good for your health. So too is the situation at guantanamo, where enemy combatants who have been captured in war, in the process of attempting to kill your fellow Americans, have vowed to do so again if given the chance and have actually been documented to do just that once released, are, in your skewed mind, victims of some bad family trip planning to Tora Bora.
People like you , also think that, somehow, despite repeated wholesale historical attempts at forced indoctrination into the pleasures of socialism/communism (read Solzhenitsyn), including the largest genocidal campaigns in human history between Stalin (over 30 million served)and Mao (over 40 million served), somehow it will work if we only try just one more time.
Get real. or as Solzhenitsyn put it;
“…to taste the sea, you need only take one gulp.”
as for lechakakahn,
start up businesses and investors thrive on capital gains, that’s the way it works. why would I start an internet widgit company from my garage if I couldn’t look forward to selling shares and using the profits to start another business. check out that guy who started PayPal in college then sold it to start a company developing privatized space exploration and missile technology. Why would I bother buying more real estate, improving it, maintaining it and finally selling it if the profits were going to fund that fat guy down the street watching reruns of Kojak all day long.
If you think that’s simplistic, perhaps you’re spending too much time at the alter of ivy league worship, Wall Street and Washington are full of over-analyzing morons with degrees from Harvard and Yale who have done such a great job these past few years. Look up the name Jaime Gorelick, Harvard educated assistant attorney general under Clinton, who was instrumental in writing the infamous memo placing a large wall between CIA and FBI communications ,responsible in large part for 9/11. Later going on to distinguish herself as a member of the board of directors of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the period of overexuberant government backed home loans, now known as the root of our current economic malaise. She made millions, sure enough, was even on the 9/11 commission. great. lol.
God Bless America.