patrick.net

leoj707,

Wa?

I like having around $20 in dollar bills. It keeps my spending under control, as I see my dollar stash dwindling, I'll skip the afternoon coffee and wait till I get home.

$20 worth of Golden Dollars feels worse in the pocket than a whole roll of quarters in terms of weight and bulk.

I don't need quarters to use soda or snack machines because most of them take dollar bills, so all I need is a quarter. If they make the Dollar Coin the about the same size or small than a quarter, I could deal with that.

The money spent to print money is minimal, it's not even close to 1% of the federal budget. Sometimes I think the banks just want us to use the card so they can charge fees.

I'm sure Europeans don't get out of kilter for having to use $1 bills instead of 1 Euro coins for the two weeks they're in Disney World. What does drive visitors nuts is the ancient, obtuse measurement system. Even the military gave it up decades ago

Simcha, Geologic Strata is a trick by Satan and Goodless Atheists to fool man.

Age of the Earth

Young Earth Creationism proves that the earth is approximately 6,000 years old. That logical conclusion is based on observations and the accurate eye-witness account of history in the Bible, in particular the Book of Genesis. Numerous studies by creation scientists have corroborated geologic events with their Biblical accounts, such as the Great Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gommorah, and the crossing of the Red Sea. Old Earth Creationism, like atheistic junk science, claims that the earth and universe are billions of years old.

From "Geology" on the Conservapedia

http://conservapedia.com/Geology

thunderlips11 says

If they make the Dollar Coin the about the same size or small than a quarter, I could deal with that

Yes, all they would have to do is make it smaller in diameter than a quarter and thicker than a quarter (and thicker even than a nickel) with smooth edges. Also if they made it bimetallic, that would differentiate the coin even more from a quarter.

That 10 franc coin I was talking about that seemed to be the most frequently used coin was bimetallic, smaller than a quarter, but thicker than a nickle. It sounded vastly different than the other franc coins in my pocket and it felt entirely different. I had no trouble fumbling for a 10 franc coin. And, since it didn't weigh very much (about as much as a quarter or a little less) it wouldn't weigh down your pockets.

Not actual size (obviously):

thunderlips11 says

I'm sure Europeans don't get out of kilter for having to use $1 bills instead of 1 Euro coins for the two weeks they're in Disney World. What does drive visitors nuts is the ancient, obtuse measurement system. Even the military gave it up decades ago

What confuses foreigners the most about our currency system is that our our coins have no numbers on them. You must be able to read English in order to determine the value of an American coin. In order to understand the value of a dime, must understand that "one dime" is 10 cents. On the dime the only indication of it's value are the words "one dime." The quarter doesn't even have a word that is a number. It reads "quarter dollar." One word indicates a fraction and the other word indicates a unit of currency, that's it. The penny says "one cent." And the nickel says "five cents."

Also we Americans never use the number value in words to refer to our coins. We say "penny, nickel, dime, quarter." If you don't speak English, this is very frustrating if you are trying to count change or ask for help to count change.

When I lived in the dorms in college with natives from Europe who came here to go to university who had just arrived, I would watch them struggle to use the vending machines in the lobby without much success for at least the first few weeks up to a month after their arrival because they couldn't deterimine the value of the coins in their hand. I remember explaining our coin system to them over and over trying to help them to make sense out of it.

If we were to become more internationally friendly with our coin system we would have numbers on them, "1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, and 25 cents" respectively. That would help visitors greatly.

immigrant says

Speaking of coins, read this interesting article on how some people have scammed the system to gain travel miles!

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/113129/fly-for-free-us-mint-forbes?mod=bb-budgeting

You guys realize that people have been doing this for years, right? Check out FatWallet or some similar site.

My impression, however, was that credit card companies had started cracking down on this too -- e.g. in some cases calling this a cash transaction instead of a normal purchase, or alternatively excluding these sorts of purchases from points.

Truthplease says

The guy didn't get into a major conflict and crushed our biggest enemy. Brilliant!

Hmmm. Are you certain that the Soviet Union wasn't ending anyway ?
Technically didn't they end during George Bush senior's admin ? Why doesn't he get credit ? Is it just because Reagan did a massive Miliary expansion that the soviets went broke trying to keep up with ? That seems like an oversimplification to me.

But even if it's true and it worked, does that mean that the risk (economic and otherwise) was worth it if they were going to end sooner or later anyway ?

My opinion is that when history is written, Reagan won't get that much credit for the demise of the USSR, except maybe in Texas high school History books.

Was it brilliant to cut and run from Lebanon after Bin Laden killed all those Marines?

Regan may have defested the Soviet Union, but he did something far, far worse in the process: He created Al Qaeda back when he funded the resistance to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Reagan helped create the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. Reagan fought a proxy war with the Soviet Union by training, arming, equipping, and funding Islamist mujahidin fighters in Afghanistan. Reagan funneled billions of dollars, along with top-secret intelligence and sophisticated weaponry to these fighters through the Pakistani intelligence service. The Talbian and Osama Bin Laden — a prominent mujahidin commander — emerged from these mujahidin groups Reagan helped create, and U.S. policy towards Pakistan remains strained because of the intelligence services’ close relations to these fighters. In fact, Reagan’s decision to continue the proxy war after the Soviets were willing to retreat played a direct role in Bin Laden’s ascendancy.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/05/142288/reagan-centennial/

Reagan didn't defeat the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union defeated itself. He just claimed credit.

Sure, I can play along. You can find any article out there to support any point. Here is an article that supports my views. Reagan was a force that contributed to the demise of the USSR.

http://wais.stanford.edu/History/history_ussrandreagan.htm

"Reagan’s conviction that the Soviet Union was both a dangerous military power and a collapsing economic system derived not from any deep knowledge of the Soviet Union. Yet he proved to be the proverbial right man in the right place at the right time. By whatever means he arrived at his views regarding the Soviet Union, he drew from them policy directions that were devastatingly effective in undermining the rotten Soviet edifice."

Who knows how long the rotting Soviet Union would have been stagnating if it wasn't for Reagan's actions. They may have had enough time to morph their socialist agenda into the China's Hybrid socialist economy model. Remember, the USSR was putting short and medium range Nucluear missiles in Cuba. That's a significant threat to our country and completely irresponsible move by the USSR.

Ugh, revisionist history to promote a political agenda isn't proof. Just because an academic who is infatuated with St. Reagan wrote an article that is an opinion piece that agrees with your opinion doesn't mean that your hypothesis is proven. Again, there is a huge difference between fact and opinion or belief.

China is very different than the former USSR. Here's a hint... China is a country with only a few different ethnicities. The USSR was an empire with many different ethnicities that all hate each other. It was a an empire of very different countries patched together through force. Comparing apples to oranges isn't helping to prove your hypothesis.

Dan8267 says

To be fair, some of the increase in the price in gold is justified. I just don't think the lion's share is.

It depends on what year's dollar purchasing power you are using to measure gold, because the purchasing power of the dollar has been steadily declining.

For instance, see this chart:

corntrollio says

immigrant says

Speaking of coins, read this interesting article on how some people have scammed the system to gain travel miles!

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/113129/fly-for-free-us-mint-forbes?mod=bb-budgeting

You guys realize that people have been doing this for years, right? Check out FatWallet or some similar site.

My impression, however, was that credit card companies had started cracking down on this too -- e.g. in some cases calling this a cash transaction instead of a normal purchase, or alternatively excluding these sorts of purchases from points.

Why would the credit card company care? Wouldn't they be making the 2-3% from the mint?

This occurred when Reagan was president? Really?

No it did not happen during Reagan's presidency.

And what is wrong with what Obama said. He is 100% correct:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/06/poll-swing-state-voters-tax-wealthy-deficit_n_891485.html

Depends on the poll and the wording, as always. Big difference between "Do you support raising taxes?" and "Do you support raising taxes on millionaires to help solve the budget problem?"

When it's phrased the second way, you get the numbers Obama is talking about, and with good reason.

80% of Americans support being taxed

80% of Americans are patriots willing to tax someone else more likely

In WW2 when millions of people were putting their bodies on the line the rich were expected to put their fortunes to work with up to 88% marginal tax rates (50% marginal rate hit at $200,000 income in today's money).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1942#Tax_on_individuals

I'm all for cutting back big government to avoid high taxes on the rich. Knock yourselves out, conservatives.

archaeonflux says

When it's phrased the second way, you get the numbers Obama is talking about, and with good reason.

The biggest lie going today is equating millionaires with "job creators".

Just the usual Republican bullshit messaging/propaganda.

The Bush tax cuts sure as hell didn't create any jobs, and the Clinton tax rises actually did. Funny how that worked.

I wonder what percentage of Teabaggers do not pay federal income taxes. I'm guessing that a decent percentage of the 47% that Teabaggers always claim don't pay taxes are Teabaggers. That's almost one in two, maybe you?

I fail to see the endless fascination with gold. I'm glad idiots are buying and hoarding it though because it is buffing my mining stocks.

I imagine there is some Scrooge McDuck sitting in a cave somewhere on top of his pile of gold like a leathery dragon thinking to himself, "I'm rich my precious, rich!"

Where is your daughter, old man? Oh yeah, she's smoking a J and banging the Mexican pool boy. Follow my investment advice: Sex, Drugs, and Hip Hop. These are paths to great wealth.

Truthplease says

No it did not happen during Reagan's presidency.

Then it's irrelevant to the discussion because we were talking about St. Reagan's alleged role in "defeating" the Soviet Union.

It's interesting how extreme political thinkers simply rewrite history to suit their ideological needs for propaganda.

Don't expect the rest of us to share in the delusion, OK?

I believe Reagan was great and that is all that matters to me.

Reagan sucked. Over-committed us to military spending, which we had to cut back on in the 1990s, and none of that was a good investment, except for the part that was necessary to boot Saddam out of Kuwait with minimal casualties.

Along with the Democratic Congress, tripled the national debt:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=18H

and by deregulating financial oversight too much allowed the S&L crisis to cost us hundreds of billions of dollars.

His biggest crime was nominating Scalia to the supreme court. What a clown that guy has been.

simchaland says

China is very different than the former USSR.

Right on.

Another Major difference: The Chinese economy revolves around making consumer goods for import using a great deal of imported raw materials; Russia was the opposite - exporting raw materials for hard currency and finished goods.

When Oil prices plummeted in the 80s, Russia's means of generating hard cash evaporated.

Scanning the thousands of hopped-up faces in the crowd, I am immediately struck by two things. One is that there isn't a single black person here. The other is the truly awesome quantity of medical hardware: Seemingly every third person in the place is sucking oxygen from a tank or propping their giant atrophied glutes on motorized wheelchair-scooters. As Palin launches into her Ronald Reagan impression — "Government's not the solution! Government's the problem!" — the person sitting next to me leans over and explains.

"The scooters are because of Medicare," he whispers helpfully. "They have these commercials down here: 'You won't even have to pay for your scooter! Medicare will pay!' Practically everyone in Kentucky has one."

A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can't imagine it.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904

If you ever go to a Tea Party, do NOT smoke. If there is a spark, BOOM, there goes half the Republican base.

Yeah, HW.

Here's more Taibbi Greatness, this time addressing what Troy said above about millionaires.

To most people, the undeserving rich guy is the ex-police lieutenant down the street who's been collecting a six-figure pension for years after spending two decades writing traffic tickets before retiring at 43. Seeing that guy lounging in the dugout pool you paid for with your constantly rising property taxes is enough to piss anyone off, which is why it's not hard to understand where a lot of that Tea Party anger is coming from.

But if you want to see a real asshole, you have to somehow get invited to things like the $5 million birthday party of another guy on Sirota's list, private equity creep Steven Schwarzman. After throwing his elaborate fete for himself, Schwarzman -- who is said to make $400 million a year, and made $600 million when his company went public -- compared Barack Obama to Hitler for even considering rolling back his carried-interest exemption, which, again, allows him to pay 15% taxes while some of the rest of us pay twice that or more. "It's a war," he said. "It's like when Hitler invaded Poland."

If you think your local Andy Griffith is a greedy pig because he retired in his forties and built an addition to his garage with your tax money, try hanging out with a guy who eats $400 crabs, throws himself $5 million parties where he is serenaded by Rod Stewart and Patti Labelle (who sang "Happy Birthday"), and then compares the president to Hitler when word leaks out that he might have to pay taxes at the same rate as a firefighter or a kindergarten teacher.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/the-new-let-them-eat-cake-20110713

The Antoinette Class. I'm definitely using that one.

thunderlips11 says

"The scooters are because of Medicare," he whispers helpfully. "They have these commercials down here: 'You won't even have to pay for your scooter! Medicare will pay!' Practically everyone in Kentucky has one."

"GET YUR GUMMINT HANDS OFF MAH MEDICARE!"

Seriously, the Republicans are good at marketing. How else do you take a bunch of people who aren't well off, convince them that a bunch of lib'ruls and commies want to take their jobs (not really, because those people want skilled jobs), that a bunch of tax hikes to millionaires and deregulation for big corporations will make their lives better, etc. and then f**k them in the a** while doing so? They are so much better than the Democrats at getting people to vote against their own economic interests.

Just read all the ignorant comments by Teabaggers on that link the OP sent. Then look at the HuffPo link HousingWatcher said.

Troy, don't forget the Iran-Contra Affair. Where's Ollie North these days?

simchaland says

Troy, don't forget the Iran-Contra Affair. Where's Ollie North these days?

I'm a proud Gemorran

On Fox News. Where else?

i'm too old to be a porn star, don't have connections to be a drug dealer and not black so can't do hip hop. I'm a bit SOL here.

SoCal Renter says

Follow my investment advice: Sex, Drugs, and Hip Hop. These are paths to great wealth.

This is going to blow big time. Do not touch metals.

Troy says

Reagan sucked. Over-committed us to military spending, which we had to cut back on in the 1990s, and none of that was a good investment, except for the part that was necessary to boot Saddam out of Kuwait with minimal casualties.

Reagan was great; I might use that name for my next born son. I am sure anybody on here could just tear down any president they wanted to.

I''ll admit that Reagan had a personality that was very good for a figure head.

He was the don't worry, Daddy will make everything okay president.

He was the "don't worry, just consume and be happy" president who was ideal for our self centered narcissistic populace. He helped us to put off facing up to making necessary improvements in our government and our culture.

Aside from that, and making possible the terrible debt situation we have today, he was great.

hmm, Reagan did in fact elevate Bullshit over Governance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bullshit

after it quadruples maybe

That's funny Troy.

I think we should start a movement to get Regean to replace Franklin on the one hundred dollar bill. Also, it is time to expand Mount Rushmore. Regean would fit just next to Lincoln.

If they ever build the asses of the presidents on the back side, that would be a fitting tribute to GW Bush.

leoj707 says

Troy says

One would like to think folks like Shrek are getting paid to post their BS

I have often suspected this. Or hoped rather, because yeah the alternative is worse.

If someone is paying 'em to write this crap, they're not getting their money's worth. They could at least hire someone with the ability to formulate thoughts into coherent sentences.