patrick.net

terriDeaner says

He fell to a vote of no confidence this year, courtesy of the liberal party:

He's not out of the picture yet. No confidence just means they have to have an election, and if anything Harper will come back stronger this time around.

terriDeaner says

So don’t take it so personally, eh!

I take the green-voting morons who gave Bush Florida and NH "personally".

People who don't understand how things work are really really annoying.

I piss everyone off since I have voted Republican, Democrat, Independent and Green Party (US elections, I have no voting rights in Japan). Things which have turned me off to the Republican Party is their getting the US involved in costly and unjustifid wars, their unquestioning support of a overburdening military budget and general hypocrisy of wanting to cut the budget (among a number of other things).

In fairness to Chris, he said he "often finds it reasonable." Nomo, the examples you cited are unreasonable, but for someone like Chris (who is dishonest with himself), these are like emotional candy, extremely enjoyable stuff, in fact the best part for him of listening to those guys. That is, even though he knows it isn't true, and that they are unreasonable, it's just fun for him and his ilk. Good times.

Meanwhile it helps to set up the intellectual palate for more subtle lies, which seem relatively reasonable in comparison. Examples would be the bs about evil unions, or about nationalized health (being nazi fascist communist) etc. I saw Franklin Graham (the evengelist) on "This Week" this morning, when asked about the birth certificate controversey, he said, "Obama has problems,...........he could put this all to rest if he would just show the birth certificate." So even their clergy are basically dishonest (in fairness maybe just REALLY stupid).

marcus says

In fairness to Chris, he said he “often finds it reasonable.” Nomo, the examples you cited are unreasonable, but for someone like Chris (who is dishonest with himself), these are like emotional candy, extremely enjoyable stuff, in fact the best part for him of listening to those guys. That is, even though he knows it isn’t true, and that they are unreasonable, it’s just fun for him and his ilk. Good times.

Marcus, come on man, whats with the passive aggressive.

ChrisLA says

whats with the passive aggressive

Maybe inappropriately personal, but not passive aggressive. It's what I believe.

There was a lot of talk on the Sunday morning talk shows about inclusion and reducing devisiveness. I think that ending the lies is the only way it can happen. But then since ignorance and pathological dishonesty aren't going to go away any time soon, I think that we should bring the fairness doctrine back.

The fact that raising taxes on the rich wouldn't sufficiently close the deficit is not a good reason not to do it. Higher taxes on the decision makers, and those with clout over the decision makers will press the issue. Otherwise we continue with a military we can't afford and a health care system we can't afford and so on.

I glanced at a few answers above, but firstly, there are many things that should have been done concerning our economy that were obvious to many and Obama did the opposite.
He has been a terrible president, although probably no one would have been able to solve our economic crisis, he threw gasoline on the fire.
Also as an American, I was deeply offended to see my president bowing, kowtowing, and apologizing for America as he took his worldwide asskissing of dictators tours.
My personal belief is Obama is the product of a bizarre and dysfunctional childhood, who has so many issues it's pointless to begin.
I would like proof of his intelligence, not his birth.
When the whole Rev. Wright stuff hit the fan, he told us with a straight face that after hanging around the church for 20 years he had just no idea what Wright's beliefs really were. It reminded me of someone telling us "I did not inhale".
I saw a US president tell us how much he admired China and that high speed rail, high speed internet, and facebook, solar roof tiles were going to make the USA great. I know that the vast majority of Americans have never been to and never will see China. I have, and that place is not a place where you would like to live. In fact, the 1000 million almost starving Chinese would not like to either, but they have no choice in the matter.
Obama has also surrounded himself with inept incompetents who have no credibility. Choosing Tim Geithner for example was a joke. Janet Napolitano is a clown. Salazar is a nut.
Obama in Libya was led around by the nose into war by Hillary, Powers and they over-ruled the real professionals like Gates who advised against it.
Obama's only shtick was railing about the evil rich, or evil corporations. He said we all need to "spread the wealth." His total complete lack of experience making any kind of decisions shows and he is worse than a weak leader, he is not a leader at all. He is a follower, complainer and fiddler-while-Rome-burns-in-chief.

I wouldn't be apposed to not considering alternatives
that is to say not knowing all of the facts withstanding.

Shirk, why you hatin on your BUDS? After all he hates the iPad just like you do.

shrekgrinch says

Yes, a necessary qualification of being a politician is being a professional hypocrite, too.

I think they are all like that. Jerry Brown runs around promoting a lie that he is a Democrat, yet he sure likes to make sure that the only "Democratic" choices are the once he and his close friends approve for us.

I usually wouldn't post something like this on Easter Sunday, as it's traditionally a day for tradition not politics, but politicians do get under my skin when it's so close to home.

shrekgrinch says

Do you even know what a Luddite is?

You proved that you don't. Maybe you should call other people an idiot more, which as far as I can see is the closest you will get to seeming like you have a clue.

I would say it for you again slowly but I don't see how that's going to make a difference for you. Jackson is not protesting the existence of the technology, or even that it will displace publishing. You really are even far more of a fool than I ever realized.

Bring back the fairness doctrine. Really it's about ongoing education. We should all be life long learners, and we deserve to hear both sides of issues (regardless of whether our emotional biases prevent us from being open minded about the truth.)

clambo .... excellent post. Now get ready for the all the attacks from the Kool-Aid drinking radical left in here.

almost opened at $50 today

shrekgrinch says

marcus says

I consider myself a conservative, but I am a liberal too.

Then you are nothing but a walking contradiction

Ah, shrek buddy… I know that this may be hard for you to believe, but there are many “liberal” and “conservative” views that are not mutually exclusive.

Bear with me here, but if you could just metaphorically take a look to your left...

See that massive group of people? … now take a look to your right…

See that tiny group of people? All those people are your hardcore conservative/teabaggers…

Now, if you take a look to your left again… yep the big group…

Almost all of those people are called “moderates”. They have some combination of conservative and liberal views.

Now, don’t strain your eyes too much, but look way in the distance…

Yeah, that little clump of people all the way at the end…

Those are the liberal hippies you are so afraid are going to run the country.

@leoj707

>"Bear with me here, but if you could just metaphorically take a look to your left…
See that massive group of people? … now take a look to your right…
See that tiny group of people? All those people are your hardcore conservative/teabaggers…
Now, if you take a look to your left again… yep the big group…"

I love this explanation...can I use it?

@shrekgrinch

Would you consider those advocating massive military spending (the US currently has) to have a conservative or liberal view?

American in Japan says

@leoj707
>”Bear with me here, but if you could just metaphorically take a look to your left…

See that massive group of people? … now take a look to your right…

See that tiny group of people? All those people are your hardcore conservative/teabaggers…

Now, if you take a look to your left again… yep the big group…”
I love this explanation…can I use it?

Of course, but just for good not evil!

clambo says

His total complete lack of experience making any kind of decisions shows and he is worse than a weak leader, he is not a leader at all. He is a follower, complainer and fiddler-while-Rome-burns-in-chief.

You aren't by any chance one of them thar Teabaggers are'ye ?

clambo says

I would like proof of his intelligence, not his birth.

That's a good one.

Here from another thread, about how out to lunch the teabaggers are:

clambo says

The Tea Party are people who are concerned with too much government intervention into our lives, which would include meddling in the housing market. Whether or not you wish to pay higher taxes, no one who wants to keep their own money in their pocket is “full of crap.” Stick to talking about houses being a bubble.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong, and Clambo is a guy who usually votes for moderates, often democrats but just really has some legitimate criticisms of Obama to share. COmpared to other mainstream moderates that Clambo has voted for, he is just really unhappy about Obama.

marcus says

Bring back the fairness doctrine. Really it’s about ongoing education. We should all be life long learners, and we deserve to hear both sides of issues (regardless of whether our emotional biases prevent us from being open minded about the truth.)

A reinstated fairness doctrine would be irrelevant. The doctrine applies only to broadcast media and a large percentage of electronic media is now wired through cable or the Internet. The fairness doctrine was never applied to print media.

Eliminating the fairness doctrine gave a boost to issue oriented broadcast media, particularly radio. Most people tune in what they want to hear and mixing opposing views would be like mixing heavy metal and country music.

Issue oriented broadcast media is well past it's peak, anyway. Most of it's audience is over 35 and advertisers are less interested in an audience which bases it's buying decisions on experience.

The question was, "How do you like Obama now?"

I still like him - he super cool, and I can't wait to watch him in reruns.

How about just hiring a good property manager?

I suspect that after all of the Oil is gone, we'll discover the Earth was using it, for Tectonic lubricant.

Simple: reduce military spending (which is really vote-buying by scattering jobs and plants through congressional districts), reduce medical costs through single-payer, and leave Social Security alone.

and end the wars of occupation. (As opposed to stopping all military endeavors that are short by design).

Return the taxes at least to pre-Reagan rates, and compromise to Clinton rates.

CL says

leave Social Security alone

The ages for when one is elidgeable for benefits needs to be raised by at least 5 years and benefits frozen (not adjusted for underreported inflation figures).

shrekgrinch says

Not on this thread, but plenty of others you have maintained that we can tax out way out of the deficit or at least make a severe dent in it via some belief that we’d actually get revenues from increases in income tax rates that would do just that.

I can't believe you continue to spew this nonsense.

Fixing the problem is pretty simple, mathematically. Even without raising taxes.

- Fix social security by raising the retirement age to 75 (phased in over 20 years, 6 months at a time), and, if necessary, raise contribution limits from the current $106k / year maximum (lots of other variations on this, but social security is not the hard problem)

- Fix defense spending by ending the wars, ceasing purchase of new tanks, planes, and ships that won't ever be used, and ending no-bid contracts to defense contractors.

- Fix medicare / medicaid by copying the health care system of just about any other country that has a decent one.

Now, it's mathematically sound, but as soon as you suggest such simple changes, the reactions are predictable:

- Reducing spending on unnecessary military spending means weakening american defenses
- Spending less on medicare means cutting benefits
- Raising the retirement age means raping your grandmother with a hot poker

My prediction for what will actually happen:

- The actual deficit will shrink thanks to the wars winding down and the economy picking up
- Obama will win in 2012, and will be more willing to fight for things, so he'll prevent a renewal of the 250k+ tax break
- Inflation will kick into high gear starting around 2013, eeking up into the 7-8% range. After 10 years the deficit and debt to GDP ratios will seem a lot more like they did in 1995.

Buy commodities.

Kevin says

Fix social security by raising the retirement age to 75 (phased in over 20 years, 6 months at a time), and, if necessary, raise contribution limits from the current $106k / year maximum (lots of other variations on this, but social security is not the hard problem)

Social security isn't broken and doesn't need fixing, not until it runs through at least half of the $2.5T t-bonds it holds. The FICA cap might need to be raised since rich bastards are living longer, but if we need to make social security actuarially balanced, RAISING FICA is a million times better than expecting people to work as great grand parents.

Troy says

terriDeaner says

He fell to a vote of no confidence this year, courtesy of the liberal party:

He’s not out of the picture yet. No confidence just means they have to have an election, and if anything Harper will come back stronger this time around.

We'll see... but don't be too sure. Check it out:

NDP winning support on the right and left, poll suggests
http://patrick.net/?p=688601

"Treat landlording as a business. Develop a system and a set of written procedures for all steps in your rental process. "

The one thing he never mentions is making sure that renting is actually economical. You need to calculate your capitalization rate to make sure you're getting adequate return. Otherwise, why take so much risk for so little reward? This should be #1 and is the most important part of treating landlording as a business.

"How about just hiring a good property manager?"

That can work, but you need some oversight of your property manager even if they are "good." That said, it's hard to find a good property manager who isn't trying to screw you when you're not paying attention.

Another mistake that people make is having a rental property nowhere near where they live. You need to keep an eye on your property and what's going on with it.

@Kevin,

You may be right. Do you also see wage inflation picking up in 2012 or 2013?

I wouldn't mind seeing inheritence tax rates go up for over $5,000,000 (40% marginally) and $15,000,000 (50% marginally). At the same time I would like to see no inheritance tax on the first $500,000 and only 10% on the next $700,000.

Kevin says

Fix social security by raising the retirement age to 75 (phased in over 20 years, 6 months at a time)

The age needs to be raised 6 months every year until the minimum age for any benefits is 75. Not any of thie nonse about people born after a certain year like last time.

Kevin says

- Fix medicare / medicaid by copying the health care system of just about any other country that has a decent one.

Actually the fee for service needs to be replaced with something more along the lines of a HMO type of thing where they get a monthly fee instead.

Note the race of the Father. African. Wasn't it Negro back in the early 60's? That's strange.

Was this a mistake? I've said before that they should have saved this silver bullet for after the RNC selects a presidential candidate. With this action, Pres. Obama has declared he doesn't want to run against The Combover, but instead relishes competition from a real Republican candidate. Will be interesting to see if a Bill Bradley emerges to run against Obama in the primaries, as he is now effectively running a ship slightly to the right of center. Perhaps he can drop Biden from the VP slot and pick up Romney on the 2012 ticket -- I joke...

About time - now the kooks can move on to "Bill Ayers wrote Obama's first book" conspiracy or some such drivel.