tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post7540055783591909681..comments2024-03-19T06:41:24.738-05:00Comments on Althouse: "[T]he BBC has become this country's most pernicious climate-change-denying media outlet in the UK."Ann Althousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01630636239933008807noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-85920354217981290692010-02-04T13:29:21.468-06:002010-02-04T13:29:21.468-06:00"Cook, you do realize that the numerous and l...<i>"Cook, you do realize that the numerous and lavish junkets enjoyed by our representatives, a la Copenhagen, are funded by taxpayer money too. We get nothing back, no liquor, no fun , no sex, nadda. So he should deal with that."</i><br /><br />Who says I'm happy with that? As far as I'm concerned, most of those sitting in office in Washington right now are crooks and should be run out of town.Robert Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06951286299515983901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-20438046748741068712010-02-04T12:53:33.340-06:002010-02-04T12:53:33.340-06:00Cook: I have never used language like this on thi...Cook: I have never used language like this on this blog but I have to now. You don't have the slightest idea of what you are talking about.<br /><br />I for one want all the bass boats and ski-doos and lake homes back from those swine borrowers who lied on their applications and used loan proceeds to fund their stupid lifestyles. And buy tattoos. I want them to go back paying rent instead of using my tax dollars to support "their" homes on which they have an option. I want the President to rail against those lowlifes.<br /><br />Here are a few stories that deal with the so-called "AIG effect" on the hotel industry. By the way, the AIG event that got all the poor people up in arms was what is known as an incentive trip: ie the people on the trip earned it by selling a certain amount of product.<br /><br />You share something with our president that the mayor of Las Vegas pointed out; he said Obama was a slow learner.<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/business/02road.html<br /><br />http://charlotte.floridaweekly.com/news/2010-02-04/Business_News/Meetings_Paradise_in.html<br />http://content.usatoday.com/communities/hotelcheckin/post/2010/01/ritzy-st-regis-monarch-beach-tries-new-strategy-to-lure-meetings-free-space/1<br />http://www.azstarnet.com/business/local/article_629dcd30-b8ae-565d-bbf5-dc6479995c4c.htmlMichaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08258681007386089907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-50967660177718137872010-02-04T12:35:43.933-06:002010-02-04T12:35:43.933-06:00Cook, you do realize that the numerous and lavish ...Cook, you do realize that the numerous and lavish junkets enjoyed by our representatives, a la Copenhagen, are funded by taxpayer money too. We get nothing back, no liquor, no fun , no sex, nadda. So he should deal with that.bagoh20https://www.blogger.com/profile/10915174575358413637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-80327057055910159492010-02-04T10:08:48.550-06:002010-02-04T10:08:48.550-06:00Oh, you mean this?
http://online.wsj.com/article/...Oh, you mean this?<br /><br />http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123620554538133281.html<br /><br />I hadn't paid much attention to this as it seemed perfectly appropriate for the President to criticize companies taking tax-payer dollars for scheduling expensive junkets to Las Vegas. <br />Companies crying poor mouth and asking for help from the government, yet who would continue spending money to hold conferences in expensive LV resorts have no business doing so. Poor, poor corporate welfare babies.<br /><br />"Retaliation from the government?" <br /><br />Please. <br /><br />A company not beholden to the taxpayers for continued liquidity is free as the breeze to yuk it up in Las Vegas; a company taking taxpayers' money has no business spending our money heedlessly.<br /><br />Yes, it is terrible that wage-earning employees of the resorts lost their jobs; I worked in a hotel for a number of years and I know how hard people in the industry work. But their plight is hardly the fault of the President's appropriate criticism of profligate spending by insolvent companies kept alive by transfusions of tax dollars. And it simply provides an example of my point: those at the top are insulated from the bad results of their poor management or of an economy in free fall so long as there are legions of lower level wage earners who can be cut to make up company losses.Robert Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06951286299515983901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-42092256616155651752010-02-04T10:02:54.004-06:002010-02-04T10:02:54.004-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Robert Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06951286299515983901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-35895795114777767792010-02-04T08:15:40.488-06:002010-02-04T08:15:40.488-06:00Robert Cook:
After the president's comments l...Robert Cook:<br /><br />After the president's comments last year on high end hotels and Las Vegas, all major public companies canceled their meetings at these facilities for fear of retaliation by the government. Resorts took the name "resort" off their letterheads. If you followed the financial news you might have known about this. Instead you suggest that I am high, or "freaking high" as you so nicely put it. If you knew anything about Wall Street or the plutocrats then you would know that their firms redlined upper end resorts and Las Vegas for travel and you would know that many many conventions were canceled and moved to safer venues even if more expensive. You, of course, could care less about the people hurt by Presidential showboating because you have the little people's vote anyway. Oh, and your remarks about LV indicate that you know absolutely nothing about its consumer base.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08258681007386089907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-47454842932954158802010-02-03T23:53:48.313-06:002010-02-03T23:53:48.313-06:00Shorter Robert: "AGW is fake but accurate&quo...Shorter Robert: "AGW is fake but accurate"Fenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16734571593963330215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-67834124896986172282010-02-03T22:15:56.068-06:002010-02-03T22:15:56.068-06:00Nearly all problems facing mankind are a result of...Nearly all problems facing mankind are a result of too many people relative to the resources available.<br /><br />Famine, Disease, Poverty, Education, Pollution, Traffic, Housing, War, etc.<br /><br />Take all these problems, keep the same level of resources and reduce the population by half. The result is that those problems that don't disappear, improve dramatically. Of course, I'm assuming that the vast reduction in population takes place among the same groups that are currently overpopulating, because that's the only place any future reduction can be morally accomplished. It is not intelligent nor morally possible to reduce population growth among those already at low rates. I'm suggesting preventing future growth, not eliminating anyone. <br /> <br />The reason this works is that if we reduce population in the future we do not lose resources including the non-material ones like technology, wisdom, culture.<br /><br />The problem is illustrated on a microlevel by the Octo-mom. If you think it was a good thing for her to have 14 children, then we disagree on all of this and then you are probably ok with every mom having 14 and each of them in turn doing likewise. Why not?bagoh20https://www.blogger.com/profile/10915174575358413637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-72607606171710551412010-02-03T21:50:07.070-06:002010-02-03T21:50:07.070-06:00"We need more critical thinking - not fewer p...<i>"We need more critical thinking - not fewer people.</i> <br /><br />Critical thinking is what gets me to my conclusion. Separating ideas from the people or groups who deliver them is critical to thinking about those ideas.bagoh20https://www.blogger.com/profile/10915174575358413637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-16029920273445873552010-02-03T21:38:16.142-06:002010-02-03T21:38:16.142-06:00Michael said:
The president, for good measure, th...Michael said:<br /><br /><i>The president, for good measure, threw in the negative comments about Las Vegas. All this was a year ago and neither the high end hotels or Las Vegas recovered."</i><br /><br />Yes, um...what? You're saying persons have started staying away from Las Vegas in such droves as to hurt business there, causing the layoffs of hotel workers...because the President said something <i>mean</i> about the place? Are you freaking high?<br /><br />Might not a drop off in business in a city whose chief business is devoted to taking money away from the people who visit there have just a tad bit to do with the fact that <i>more people</i> have <i>less money</i> to throw away than they did two, three and more years ago? <br /><br />And since when did alcoholics and gamblers start taking their pointers on where to indulge their vices--and where not--from any fucking politician?<br /><br />Iyiyiyi!Robert Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06951286299515983901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-48285432625715204812010-02-03T20:31:09.124-06:002010-02-03T20:31:09.124-06:00Tg (hey buddy!)
My experience with NewAgers is th...Tg (hey buddy!)<br /><br />My experience with NewAgers is that they're, basically, empty people and, yea, controlling others is a way to validate themselves. Your question reminds me of two things:<br /><br />1) In my ex's diary, she recounted how she took out all her NewAge books, pamphlets, shrunken heads, etc., and asked herself, "Why do I need all this crap?" From what I could tell, she didn't have a good answer.<br /><br />2) The sheer joy she and her friends took in my distress over my marriage coming apart. Me - the guy who was semi-famous, respected, always together, and had an answer for everything - they saw I had *nothing* once I was totally blind-sided by a full-on assault of NewAge nonsense. And they LOVED it. <br /><br />Bagoh,<br /><br /><i>"The problem with Malthusian was that he was born too early."</i><br /><br />Dude, stop it: I've been all over this world and there's no over-population problem - there's a stupidity problem - but not too many people. We need more critical thinking - not fewer people.<br /><br />Cedarford,<br /><br />Study the history of Haiti and you find the bad guys are in Paris. How people, here, have become so enamoured with the frogs - that they'll overlook their long, long history of racism and general venelity - amazes me. The Haitians are surviving, which - under the conditions/situation they were, literally, born under - is an accomplishment that should be admired. As a foster child, I understand that: compared to those with a more conventional upbringing, I can appear to be a joke, but judged by the standards of my (unparented) peers, I'm a MAJOR success story. Sure, Haiti needs a lot of help (as do I) but, most definitely, not in lessons on resiliance (sp?). We've got that in spades.The Crack Emceehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08366101526773588864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-1738625162694315592010-02-03T18:48:44.194-06:002010-02-03T18:48:44.194-06:00@garage mahal
Hey, I agree with you on something!...@garage mahal<br /><br />Hey, I agree with you on something! That's the most reasonable position in the current circumstances.MChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08198032263606330137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-718687964063224742010-02-03T18:09:50.527-06:002010-02-03T18:09:50.527-06:00Europe had little choice without our level of coal...Europe had little choice without our level of coal and oil reserves. High energy prices are a kick in the ass even for tree huggers.bagoh20https://www.blogger.com/profile/10915174575358413637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-52295007443202224312010-02-03T17:28:01.816-06:002010-02-03T17:28:01.816-06:00But lefties love Europe and France in particular a...But lefties love Europe and France in particular and there are nuclear power plants all over the place. Why safe there and not here?Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08258681007386089907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-21826143573757456462010-02-03T17:21:09.699-06:002010-02-03T17:21:09.699-06:00I'm a nuclear engineer my very own self, and I...I'm a nuclear engineer my very own self, and I'm not optimistic about the future of nuclear power in the US of A. My pals are, but not me.<br /><br />People, in their heart, are never going to feel it is safe enough. That is why it is so easy for Obama to support <b>safe</b> and <b>clean</b> nuclear power. He knows it will never be accepted as safe enough or clean enough.<br /><br />I've dealt with environmental activists my entire adult life. I've found them to be overwhelmingly Luddites. But that is just my experience. Doesn't really matter. If people are afraid, they are afraid. No amount of talking (I've tried; I was on the rubber chicken circuit.) or educating will make a difference. <br /><br />Excuse me, I'm off to find some good discussions on last night's episode of Lost.Christyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12623422545436294378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-31923803924584527432010-02-03T16:44:46.598-06:002010-02-03T16:44:46.598-06:00Cederford,
I should have said that the only moral...Cederford,<br /><br />I should have said that the only moral and effective way to limit population growth is prosperity and human rights. Human rights is very important, especially women's rights. Societies with women having relative equity to men do not have high birth rates. The properous societies you mention with high births involve comuniites where women are resigned to that purpose. Women with careers don't produce a lot of kids. <br /><br />This is the only thing that will work. China's method will not be adopted anywhere else, nor do we want the government with that power. Make no mistake, the government will take over our choices if we do not get population under control. We will beg for it, as they fulfill their want to let no crisis be wasted.<br /><br />My main points are:<br /><br /> 1) Population is the central problem, because we can't give that many people a good life on this planet. <br /> 2) It is addressable with solutions that we already want anyway: prosperity and human rights. Basically: quality, not quantity of life.bagoh20https://www.blogger.com/profile/10915174575358413637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-60945424560825569322010-02-03T16:28:50.477-06:002010-02-03T16:28:50.477-06:00Robert Cook:
The plutocrats stayed at the hotels ...Robert Cook:<br /><br />The plutocrats stayed at the hotels where the workers worked until the populists railed against the use of high end hotels by recipients of TARP. The president, for good measure, threw in the negative comments about Las Vegas. All this was a year ago and neither the high end hotels or Las Vegas recovered. if the plutocrats had continued to spend their money at these places many poor employees would have kept their jobs. But since the lefties get their votes anyway I guess it doesn't matter does it? <br /><br />The plutocrats were not the problem, the populist in chief was the problem.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08258681007386089907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-45819183208323949452010-02-03T16:19:57.227-06:002010-02-03T16:19:57.227-06:00I agree with Cederford that population is the real...<i>I agree with Cederford that population is the real problem, but the only known way to fix that is by improving standards of living and human rights. The lowest birth rates are countries with these characteristics.</i><br /><br />Seriously, if population overcrowding becomes too much of a problem for us to handle, there will be either widespread famine, or some sort of disease like the plague to knock our population down. <br /><br />Or maybe by then we’ll have figured how to live in smaller space without incident, or we’ll have colonized outerspace. Either way, driving a prius or “carbon credits” or any of this other nonsense is not going to make any difference.Shannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15709594638793030086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-22889169398280348372010-02-03T16:03:49.514-06:002010-02-03T16:03:49.514-06:00Oh sweet lord, Cook, plutocrats?
Seriously?
Have ...Oh sweet lord, Cook, <i>plutocrats</i>?<br />Seriously?<br />Have I stumbled into a meeting by the Berkeley chapter of the Weathermen in 1971?KCFleminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00124201866124646626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-841884166906057652010-02-03T15:39:45.087-06:002010-02-03T15:39:45.087-06:00Michael,
All the negative impact felt by lower le...Michael,<br /><br />All the negative impact felt by lower level employees is part of the narrative; the plutocrats don't feel the pain.Robert Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06951286299515983901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-75875418724401528432010-02-03T15:28:43.307-06:002010-02-03T15:28:43.307-06:00So the BBC is impartial until you disagree with it...So the BBC is impartial until you disagree with it.NotWhoIUsedtoBehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14568355742926021406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-56925396515653443762010-02-03T15:23:31.697-06:002010-02-03T15:23:31.697-06:00bagoh20 said...
I agree with Cederford that popul...<i>bagoh20 said... <br />I agree with Cederford that population is the real problem, but the only known way to fix that is by improving standards of living and human rights. The lowest birth rates are countries with these characteristics.</i><br /><br />No, there are several methods, and the idea that prosperity and good food and medical care lowers population growth is not born out by the facts except in the Cultures of the natives of mature industrialized nations. The fertility rates of immigrants to those sanctified USAs and Swedens (Japan wisely does not have mass immigration) goes up.<br /><br />As is the case in 3rd World nations that have religious imperatives to spawn or see rising prosperity as a signal to breed more (the ME today, Ireland in the 18th century as conditions and cheap food and medical care vastly improved.)<br /><br />One other way we know works for sure is China's "one child policy" where for the good of the many - the "human right" to have as many kids as one wants and expect others to support them if they can't has been taken away.<br /><br />People recoil at that "loss of a precious human freedom" created back in the day when whole continents were still largely unsettled, but even within America we may soon have to penalize excess breeding of the "welfare masses"..with something other than asserting that it is a problem but we cannot stop giving more welfare <br />from America's endless wealth to a NOLA breeder woman who has 9 kids by 8 fathers because "it would punish the 9 kids". The limitless land and endless wealth arguments are exhausted.<br /><br />**************<br />Crack Emcee - what is Haiti right now but a Malthusian trap? 4th worlders breeding like crazy while they have largely destroyed the ecology of their once-lush land and half the arable landspaces. With the 10 million now having a piece of Haiti about 178feet by 178 feet for each.<br />It is a Malthusian nightmare, spared a collapse like a lemming or rabbit population only because the rest of the world considers it a moral duty to sustain the Terri Schiavo of nations. Without such external help (which seems to keep people in abysmal poverty and only add to Haitian overpopulation - ) Haiti on it's own would naturally starve down to 2 million or so thugs and the people the thugs protected once the Western wheat and rice and chicken scraps stopped coming in.<br />Nor does any nation really want the excess wretches from Haiti in the millions.<br />Mass migration of the 3rd and 4th world to the advanced countries appears to not solve overpopulation or 3rd world culture but instead is slowly destroying advanced nations as the baneuls of France multiply and grow and as once-flourishing US Cities begin to resemble the dangerous dysfunctional squalor of Lagos or Hirare, Zimbabwe. <br /><br />****************Cedarfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00602418702398818596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-84577766339129945012010-02-03T14:25:30.606-06:002010-02-03T14:25:30.606-06:00Robert Cook:
If we took all the cic cash bonuses ...Robert Cook:<br /><br />If we took all the cic cash bonuses that were paid to all the bankers who got fired and all the stock grants and added it up it would not amount to the income loss resulting from the president's demonizing Las Vegas and high end hotels. Not even close. You wouldn't get to use words like plutocrat but you would be well served to look at the very real negative impact loose presidential lips have had on lower level employees at resorts and LV. But that isn't part of the narrative is it?Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08258681007386089907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-63890327065718492532010-02-03T13:55:09.587-06:002010-02-03T13:55:09.587-06:00Michael,
I should amend my previous remark:
You&...Michael,<br /><br />I should amend my previous remark:<br /><br />You're not a plutocrat unless, when you get fired from your job, you walk away with millions in cash and stock options, or unless you receive million dollar and up year end bonuses that I helped pay for with my tax dollars.<br /><br />If you're in neither of these categories, you're not a plutocrat, but if it flatters you to think of yourself that way, have it at, dude.Robert Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06951286299515983901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-4400616824290836522010-02-03T13:54:55.938-06:002010-02-03T13:54:55.938-06:00The average income of the world is currently $7000...The average income of the world is currently $7000 and dropping. Throughout most of history the most advanced people were the ones growing in population. That has reversed. We are gradually becoming a poorer planet.bagoh20https://www.blogger.com/profile/10915174575358413637noreply@blogger.com