Typical jaded wingnut response from LaughingBoy. Hard work, self confidence, and "good choices" certainly go a long way towards shaping our lives and making us the people we are. But those who cannot understand or empathize with people who have not had the benefit of a decent upbringing or who have been hit hard by misfortune and circumstances beyond their control are arrogant and callous in a way that is mind boggling. It seems to be the reflexive, immediate assumption of today's tea-party conservatives and libertarians alike that anybody who does not meet their standard of outward social and economic success is a loser, moocher, taker, and deserves nothing but scorn and ridicule. Their arrogance is compounded by the fact that they don't have the good sense or the decency to realize how truly fortunate they are to be enjoying their station in life that makes them feel so superior. They live under the delusion that they are entirely self reliant and did everything on their own. Their pride even goes beyond arrogance. It is unconscionable and disgusting.
Chatt_man, it amazes me how you self-righteous ninnies think that because you offer up your prayers that is the ultimate sign of compassion, or that you are somehow showing MORE compassion than those of us who do not believe there is a supreme being to offer prayers up to. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to believe in a God of such polar opposites, that in one minute he's wreaking havoc and inflicting such pain and suffering and then in the very next minute he's expected to comfort those whose loved ones he has taken, whose homes he has destroyed, and whose lives he has so adversely affected. Oh, I know...your God "works in mysterious ways," doesn't he?
But whatever sort of God you believe in, that is entirely up to you. I certainly understand one's need to pray to some form of higher being and if prayer comforts you, then fine and dandy. But get off your preachy pedestal and cease with your snide insinuations that we agnostics/atheists don't have compassion because we don't bow our heads and pray to your sadistic, nonsensical invisible sky daddy. I cannot speak for every non-believer but my heart aches for the people of Moore, OK every bit as much as yours does, I can assure you.
As for your insinuation that those "on the left side of the forum" are somehow less inclined to pray, that's an erroneous assumption in the first place. There are many liberals who are believers in God and who are church-going Christians. Conservatives don't have the only hot line to God.
Wilma Holbrook, there is nothing more sinful or repugnant than willful ignorance. I suggest that you spend a little more time in studying that Old Testament of yours and come up to speed on the countless other "sins" that your God condemns in addition to a man lying with another man. Had a ham sandwich or a shrimp cocktail lately? Well, I hope you got down on your knees and asked God's forgiveness, you filthy sinner! That's enough to make you an abomination in his eyes. And if you mow the grass or clean out a closet or do any kind of work at all on a Sunday (or Saturday, depending on which day is your Sabbath), well, you might as well be holding a one-way ticket to hell. Same goes if any of your kids have cursed you and you didn't put them to death for it. The list of sins goes on and on.
It never ceases to amaze me how you self-righteous holy rollers focus so much of your energy on homosexuality yet completely ignore the many other "sins" that your God deems abominable. If you'll take off those cherry-picking glasses when you read that Bible you will be surprised to see how much more clearly it comes into focus and you can see it for the utter nonsense that it is.
"Health care as we know it today is a ridiculous maze of smoke and mirrors charging one thing, accepting another from insurance companies and accepting something else from uninsured customers (people with no third party making a profit)...Though it is 'free market' and not government run, health care really is the least transparent thing we pay for. Not even taxes are this hard to trace."
Exactly. I honestly don't understand how even the most radical of the Obama hating, government hating free-market purists can defend our crooked, convoluted system of health care. It operates like no other system in the free market, with little or no transparency whatsoever. Unfortunately those who continue to support it have been spoiled by the good fortune of an employer sponsored health insurance plan or they are rich enough to be able to afford the exorbitant costs of a comprehensive plan. I don't wish ill of anyone but I do wish that those people would have to experience at some point what it's like for the tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford the high costs of health insurance or who have been denied for various reasons. Maybe then they could empathize and better understand how unfair our system is.
A healthy citizenry is vital to our country's overall wellbeing, both economically and socially, and it is vital to each individual's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. It should not be treated like just another widget sold on the free market for the main purpose of some CEOs or groups of shareholders to make a profit.
As far as Obamacare goes, I was glad to see it pass in the beginning, but I fear that it is not going to do anything to contain the costs. Too much power has still been left in the hands of the private insurance companies and they will undoubtedly jack up their rates even more to cover their added costs and to continue to see their profits increase. Universal health care, or Medicare-for-all, is the only way to go. Medicare has worked and worked very well for decades. It needs tweaking now, certainly, but its administrative costs are much lower than those of the private companies and the profit-factor is not the driving force, as it is with private companies. Only if Obamacare can somehow transition from its present state into single-payer or something like it will it have a chance of succeeding.
We saw first-hand the sort of federal relief that Congress prioritizes: whatever hits closest to home for THEM. It was amazing how fast they passed a bill to get relief for the FAA so that they and their rich constituents and business execs wouldn't have to suffer delays in their flights. Our do-nothing Congress that can't come to an agreement on ANYTHING EVER had no problem at all in passing a bill, in record-time, that would ease their own inconvenience of flight delays.
There is no more blatant example of how useless and indeed destructive austerity is. All of you half-witted deficit hawk righties who scream and holler all the time about the deficit and how important it is to cut spending only support those spending cuts until they affect you personally. Our government is an outright oligarchy and our society a monarchy of the haves against (and I do mean “against”) the have-nots. America has become a cesspool of greed and self-interest where the rich feel so entitled that they not only have no sense of empathy but in fact feel superior to those less fortunate. Slowly but surely more and more of the have-nots are wising up to how they’re getting royally screwed by the one-percenters and by the politicians who are the puppets of their rich overlords.
Jtwhatever... I hate to be so banal as to state the obvious but you're a buffoon. I do not have a love affair going on with O'Donnell nor does it "hurt (me) that much" that you attack him. What bothers me is someone telling such blatant lies and spreading misinformation, period. I think that O'Donnell happens to have some keen insights and observations but just because he's a self-proclaimed socialist you teabagger-types with your heads up your butts automatically dismiss him as being just another mouthpiece for the "liberal" media. That article you cite (I read it in its entirety) is meaningless. It does nothing to detract from the person he claims to be. I'm not going to deny that any radio or TV commentator who voices their opinion sometimes plays to the emotions of their audience, but that does not mean that they are being phony about the substance of what they're saying. I can't pretend to second-guess who or what anyone really is when they get behind closed doors but everything O'Donnell has said and stood for in both his personal and public life is in harmony with who he claims to be on air. You have taken one quote and tried to stretch it into something it's not. But then, that's par for the course for you wack-doodle wingnuts.
You know what I find particularly annoying about people like you, MyGen? You pretend to be so civil and polite and "nice" but you're just sensitive to the indignation directed at those whom you choose to defend and not those who maybe have a good reason for their anger. You're completely blind or indifferent to the dishonesty, partisanship, and lies that spew from the lips of someone like Robin Smith and you think that because we call her out for it we are the ones who are partisan and filled with hate. Your pretense is obvious. And that line about "You're all about individual rights as long as they are just like yours"...put it to rest. You guys on the right have worn that to a frazzle. You are no more tolerant of differing views than anybody else with an opinion.
You're welcome, MyGen. And thank YOU for revealing what a nincompoop you are. If Mrs. Smith had written an "honest" article, there wouldn't have been a need for personal "attacks." There is no one more guilty of partisanship than she.
PT, I strongly encourage you NOT to read any of it. I fear that, like a vampire exposed to sunlight, you will shrivel and die instantaneously from exposure to the light of truth and logic. Anyway, I know it's much easier for you to get your "knowledge" from those short right-wing sound-bytes that don't require any thinking.
Cook: Anything but poverty
Typical jaded wingnut response from LaughingBoy. Hard work, self confidence, and "good choices" certainly go a long way towards shaping our lives and making us the people we are. But those who cannot understand or empathize with people who have not had the benefit of a decent upbringing or who have been hit hard by misfortune and circumstances beyond their control are arrogant and callous in a way that is mind boggling. It seems to be the reflexive, immediate assumption of today's tea-party conservatives and libertarians alike that anybody who does not meet their standard of outward social and economic success is a loser, moocher, taker, and deserves nothing but scorn and ridicule. Their arrogance is compounded by the fact that they don't have the good sense or the decency to realize how truly fortunate they are to be enjoying their station in life that makes them feel so superior. They live under the delusion that they are entirely self reliant and did everything on their own. Their pride even goes beyond arrogance. It is unconscionable and disgusting.
Disaster prayers and help from a community that knows
Chatt_man, it amazes me how you self-righteous ninnies think that because you offer up your prayers that is the ultimate sign of compassion, or that you are somehow showing MORE compassion than those of us who do not believe there is a supreme being to offer prayers up to. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to believe in a God of such polar opposites, that in one minute he's wreaking havoc and inflicting such pain and suffering and then in the very next minute he's expected to comfort those whose loved ones he has taken, whose homes he has destroyed, and whose lives he has so adversely affected. Oh, I know...your God "works in mysterious ways," doesn't he?
But whatever sort of God you believe in, that is entirely up to you. I certainly understand one's need to pray to some form of higher being and if prayer comforts you, then fine and dandy. But get off your preachy pedestal and cease with your snide insinuations that we agnostics/atheists don't have compassion because we don't bow our heads and pray to your sadistic, nonsensical invisible sky daddy. I cannot speak for every non-believer but my heart aches for the people of Moore, OK every bit as much as yours does, I can assure you.
As for your insinuation that those "on the left side of the forum" are somehow less inclined to pray, that's an erroneous assumption in the first place. There are many liberals who are believers in God and who are church-going Christians. Conservatives don't have the only hot line to God.
Signal Mountain police did the right thing and other letters to the editors
'DCS did more than drop the ball' and more letters to the editors
Wilma Holbrook, there is nothing more sinful or repugnant than willful ignorance. I suggest that you spend a little more time in studying that Old Testament of yours and come up to speed on the countless other "sins" that your God condemns in addition to a man lying with another man. Had a ham sandwich or a shrimp cocktail lately? Well, I hope you got down on your knees and asked God's forgiveness, you filthy sinner! That's enough to make you an abomination in his eyes. And if you mow the grass or clean out a closet or do any kind of work at all on a Sunday (or Saturday, depending on which day is your Sabbath), well, you might as well be holding a one-way ticket to hell. Same goes if any of your kids have cursed you and you didn't put them to death for it. The list of sins goes on and on.
It never ceases to amaze me how you self-righteous holy rollers focus so much of your energy on homosexuality yet completely ignore the many other "sins" that your God deems abominable. If you'll take off those cherry-picking glasses when you read that Bible you will be surprised to see how much more clearly it comes into focus and you can see it for the utter nonsense that it is.
The impenetrable mystery: What health care really costs
"Health care as we know it today is a ridiculous maze of smoke and mirrors charging one thing, accepting another from insurance companies and accepting something else from uninsured customers (people with no third party making a profit)...Though it is 'free market' and not government run, health care really is the least transparent thing we pay for. Not even taxes are this hard to trace."
Exactly. I honestly don't understand how even the most radical of the Obama hating, government hating free-market purists can defend our crooked, convoluted system of health care. It operates like no other system in the free market, with little or no transparency whatsoever. Unfortunately those who continue to support it have been spoiled by the good fortune of an employer sponsored health insurance plan or they are rich enough to be able to afford the exorbitant costs of a comprehensive plan. I don't wish ill of anyone but I do wish that those people would have to experience at some point what it's like for the tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford the high costs of health insurance or who have been denied for various reasons. Maybe then they could empathize and better understand how unfair our system is.
A healthy citizenry is vital to our country's overall wellbeing, both economically and socially, and it is vital to each individual's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. It should not be treated like just another widget sold on the free market for the main purpose of some CEOs or groups of shareholders to make a profit.
As far as Obamacare goes, I was glad to see it pass in the beginning, but I fear that it is not going to do anything to contain the costs. Too much power has still been left in the hands of the private insurance companies and they will undoubtedly jack up their rates even more to cover their added costs and to continue to see their profits increase. Universal health care, or Medicare-for-all, is the only way to go. Medicare has worked and worked very well for decades. It needs tweaking now, certainly, but its administrative costs are much lower than those of the private companies and the profit-factor is not the driving force, as it is with private companies. Only if Obamacare can somehow transition from its present state into single-payer or something like it will it have a chance of succeeding.
Relief
We saw first-hand the sort of federal relief that Congress prioritizes: whatever hits closest to home for THEM. It was amazing how fast they passed a bill to get relief for the FAA so that they and their rich constituents and business execs wouldn't have to suffer delays in their flights. Our do-nothing Congress that can't come to an agreement on ANYTHING EVER had no problem at all in passing a bill, in record-time, that would ease their own inconvenience of flight delays.
There is no more blatant example of how useless and indeed destructive austerity is. All of you half-witted deficit hawk righties who scream and holler all the time about the deficit and how important it is to cut spending only support those spending cuts until they affect you personally. Our government is an outright oligarchy and our society a monarchy of the haves against (and I do mean “against”) the have-nots. America has become a cesspool of greed and self-interest where the rich feel so entitled that they not only have no sense of empathy but in fact feel superior to those less fortunate. Slowly but surely more and more of the have-nots are wising up to how they’re getting royally screwed by the one-percenters and by the politicians who are the puppets of their rich overlords.
Military Justice
Jtwhatever... I hate to be so banal as to state the obvious but you're a buffoon. I do not have a love affair going on with O'Donnell nor does it "hurt (me) that much" that you attack him. What bothers me is someone telling such blatant lies and spreading misinformation, period. I think that O'Donnell happens to have some keen insights and observations but just because he's a self-proclaimed socialist you teabagger-types with your heads up your butts automatically dismiss him as being just another mouthpiece for the "liberal" media. That article you cite (I read it in its entirety) is meaningless. It does nothing to detract from the person he claims to be. I'm not going to deny that any radio or TV commentator who voices their opinion sometimes plays to the emotions of their audience, but that does not mean that they are being phony about the substance of what they're saying. I can't pretend to second-guess who or what anyone really is when they get behind closed doors but everything O'Donnell has said and stood for in both his personal and public life is in harmony with who he claims to be on air. You have taken one quote and tried to stretch it into something it's not. But then, that's par for the course for you wack-doodle wingnuts.
Smith: Is lying a substitute for leadership?
You know what I find particularly annoying about people like you, MyGen? You pretend to be so civil and polite and "nice" but you're just sensitive to the indignation directed at those whom you choose to defend and not those who maybe have a good reason for their anger. You're completely blind or indifferent to the dishonesty, partisanship, and lies that spew from the lips of someone like Robin Smith and you think that because we call her out for it we are the ones who are partisan and filled with hate. Your pretense is obvious. And that line about "You're all about individual rights as long as they are just like yours"...put it to rest. You guys on the right have worn that to a frazzle. You are no more tolerant of differing views than anybody else with an opinion.
Smith: Is lying a substitute for leadership?
You're welcome, MyGen. And thank YOU for revealing what a nincompoop you are. If Mrs. Smith had written an "honest" article, there wouldn't have been a need for personal "attacks." There is no one more guilty of partisanship than she.
Military Justice
PT, I strongly encourage you NOT to read any of it. I fear that, like a vampire exposed to sunlight, you will shrivel and die instantaneously from exposure to the light of truth and logic. Anyway, I know it's much easier for you to get your "knowledge" from those short right-wing sound-bytes that don't require any thinking.