Root Canal politics

[Guest]

I enthusiastically refer you all to Tom Friedman's column in today's (Sunday, May 9) New York Times. It's what I've been saying, but of course Friedman says it so much better. (He should--he makes a lot more money than I do putting thoughts and words together.)

Read the column at...

http://nyti.ms/aem6i5

I only hope Friedman is right and that we get political leaders, sometime very soon, who have the smarts and responsibility to do what's so obviously necessary.

[Guest]

Not a bad article but you cannot raise taxes because that will give the government temporary relief and false sense of stability. Just like a household that cannot get a raise, government will have to shrink.
Government is a big pig. It will continue to consume every thing in it's path. Americans will have to learn to be independent again and not count on the government. Just like the pioneer days.
We will have to learn to "suck it up."

[Guest]

I understand what he's saying in his article, but I still have the opinion that the problem IS the overreaching hand of the federal government. This country was founded on equal opportunity and not equal outcome. There are way way too many government services and too much meddling in the private business of private citizens. Less meddling, less taxes and more self-sufficiency is the answer to our problems and the legacy our founding fathers left us; a nation founded to preserve the freedoms of the "individual" with the a belief that these gifts were bestowed on us by God.

[Guest]

I understand what the article is saying also. But I suppose I have a different perspective. I feel like I've already learned lessons everyone is trying to teach through socialist Greece. More government and higher taxes isn't the answer.

Coming from an area in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains where coal mining helped give rise to the unions in the history of America, we quit believing in the tooth fairy many, many years ago. Unions spread to the hospitals, a casket factory, a division of Carter childrens clothing manufacturing and countless other industries in the town where I was raised. It was once called little Pittsburg.

For many decades the unions became strong in all areas of the region from the coal mines. Then in the 1970s, the unions stroked people to strike and picket. I remember very well seeing the word scab on picket signs and my Mom trying to explain what it meant. The workers kept striking over senseless things the union officials deemed unjust. The businesses closed. Virginia became a right to work state.

I chuckle when I read articles about high unemployment in the US. We've had it for decades. The environmentalist tree huggers who don't live in the mountains come in to protect the people who work and hold their lives in place between the mountains and the streams and they don't want their help.

I'm from the land of John L. Lewis, Mother Jones, Baldwin-Felts, the Matewan Massacre, the shoot out with the Floyd Allen family, the Pittston Coal Strike, the Hatfields and McCoys and the Eleanor Roosevelt's failed Arthurdale socialist project . I understand all too well what happens when you let others control your life. It's a lesson we learned when we survived after the unions went to Washington with our union dues.

We survived and were made stronger by the lessons we learned in believing in the unions and tooth fairies.

You can laugh and use the stereotypically way we are depicted by the media, but we learned if you didn't take care of your teeth, you lost them. There wasn't any imaginary person who was going to come into your dreams at night and you'd magically awake with money. You had to earn it.
After breaking their backs and risking their lives helping grow the unions for the good things they were established to do, where I'm from people learned many years ago that the unions turned from the tooth fairy into the monster under your bed.

[Guest]

I just dont understand why people want to make this more complicated than it is.
This country is in debt. The way you get out of debt is pay it back a little at a time.
Take our current income, use 95% to provide services, and use 5% to pay toward our debt. Do the same thing year after year. Problem solved. We eventually become a creditor nation and the world pays us to use our money instead of vice versa. Those who do not want to accept that solution want to spend more and live in debt in the name of social justice or waging war, it is as simple as that.

[Guest]

I agree with JimJoe, the Piper must be paid. The difference to day is that we have a Federal Bureaucracy totally dependent on the self absorbed idiots in Washington that believe the answer is to hire, hire, and hire more employees...and become the largest employer of our country.

[Guest]

The fifth paragraph in Friedman's column says it all, I think...

"We baby boomers in America and Western Europe were raised to believe there really was a Tooth Fairy, whose magic would allow conservatives to cut taxes without cutting services and liberals to expand services without raising taxes. The Tooth Fairy did it by printing money, by bogus accounting and by deluding us into thinking that by borrowing from China or Germany, or against our rising home values, or by creating exotic financial instruments to trade with each other, we were actually creating wealth."
Of course, he's right. Now we have to do something about it...or we'll become Greece.

[Guest]

How exciting it is to see you all willing to read a "liberal" newspaper. You see, papers like the Times or the Washington Post actually present news and a balanced editorial spread. I'd be long dead before I ever saw anything on the "liberal" side like this in "THE AMERICAN THINKER" or on Fixed News.

From the earlier "What is a Liberal?" A liberal s someone willing to listen to someone else's voice, as long as it isn't screaming, "Where's your flag pin!" all the time.

[Guest]

I understand what the article is saying also. But I suppose I have a different perspective.
Coming from an area in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains where coal mining helped give rise to the unions in the history of America, we quit believing in the tooth fairy many, many years ago. Unions spread to the hospitals, a casket factory, a division of Carter childrens clothing manufacturing and countless other industries in the town where I was raised. It was once called little Pittsburg.

So was this epiphany before or after the totally soicalist/FDR inspired Tennessee Valley Authority and Rural Electric Coops came and "magically" gave you energy, phones and stopped the floods?

[Guest]

How exciting it is to see you all willing to read a "liberal" newspaper. You see, papers like the Times or the Washington Post actually present news and a balanced editorial spread. I'd be long dead before I ever saw anything on the "liberal" side like this in "THE AMERICAN THINKER" or on Fixed News.

From the earlier "What is a Liberal?" A liberal s someone willing to listen to someone else's voice, as long as it isn't screaming, "Where's your flag pin!" all the time.

Is that the same NYTimes that has published secret information that the Pentagon begged them not to. The same traitorous paper that should be indicted for treason?
Liberals are incapable of listening to reason.

[Guest]

Stopped the floods? You really do live in another world don't you. If you honestly believe the TVA projects in eastern Tennessee were for the common good of the Appalachian people, you really need to read some history. Not propaganda. History. The electric power was needed for aluminum plants for airplanes and bombs. There's even more to it than that if you would open your mind and read for yourself a little bit. Read the history of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and you'll see the story of the Secret City built by the US government for development of uranium and plutonium in the 1940s. I'm not being argumentative. Just stating facts.

[Guest]

Stopped the floods? You really do live in another world don't you. If you honestly believe the TVA projects in eastern Tennessee were for the common good of the Appalachian people, you really need to read some history. Not propaganda. History. The electric power was needed for aluminum plants for airplanes and bombs. There's even more to it than that if you would open your mind and read for yourself a little bit. Read the history of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and you'll see the story of the Secret City built by the US government for development of uranium and plutonium in the 1940s. I'm not being argumentative. Just stating facts.

Liberals never let facts get in their propaganda ways. Facts confuse liberals.

[Guest]

Just FYI...From the Oak Ridge, Tenn., government website:

Oak Ridge was established by the Federal Government. First known as the Manhattan Project, it was secretly developed for the purpose of making nuclear weapons which were used to end World War II. In the beginning of the city's history, approximately 75,000 people were brought from all over the United States and the world to construct the facilities and to work in the federal and city installations.

Located in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee, the city of Oak Ridge did not exist until 1942. However, it would play an important role in ending World War II. President Roosevelt ordered the "Manhattan Project" in order to build an atomic bomb since Germany had declared war against the United States after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. In September of 1942, 60,000 acres in East Tennessee was selected for three facilities which met the requirements for security, water, electric power, labor, and transportation. As many as 80,000 construction workers began a race against time to build three mystery plants to be known as K-25, Y-12, and X-10. Houses were built at a rate of two per minute. Originally planned for a population of 13,000, Oak Ridge grew to over 75,000 in less than three years ultimately producing the two atomic bombs that helped end World War II.


http://www.cortn.org/visitors/about-oak-ridge

[Guest]

Is that the same NYTimes that has published secret information that the Pentagon begged them not to. The same traitorous paper that should be indicted for treason?
Liberals are incapable of listening to reason.

Donna if you're talking about the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the entire Viet Nam war as a lie, then you're talking about great patriots following the
1st Amendment- and criticizing the big-bad government. Is this another case of "It's bad when I say it's bad?"

Dick Cheney is the only thing I've seen in the past eight years that should be indicted for treason (George was just his foolish patsy)

[Guest]

Donna if you're talking about the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the entire Viet Nam war as a lie, then you're talking about great patriots following the
1st Amendment- and criticizing the big-bad government. Is this another case of "It's bad when I say it's bad?"

Dick Cheney is the only thing I've seen in the past eight years that should be indicted for treason (George was just his foolish patsy)

Haven't got the time to post it tonite, but I will look it up. The NYT has committed treason a few times during the last two wars. The times is the best player on our enemies team, barr none!!!

[Guest]

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read:

You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

[Guest]

Now don't start quoting great men of the cloth. You'll start a riot...lol. Love the quote.

[Guest]

Has the thread morphed to a criticism of The New York Times instead of a discussion of the column written by one of the most respected columnists in the country? The last time I looked, there were a couple of truisms about the Times op ed page...
The Times, like any other newspaper which publishes syndicated columns written by columnists, has no editorial control over what they write. They can hire them and fire them, possibly even on the basis of their political leanings. But tell them what to write? No way.
Tom Friedman has a reputation for writing pretty middle-of-the-road and thought-provoking opinion pieces. Today's column certainly falls in that category.
Is the New York Times liberal? I think most people would agree that most of the content of the paper is pretty liberal. But the paper can also be complimented for publishing both reported news and op ed columns that are written for a more thoughtful and educated audience than the average daily newspaper. It is certainly a more thought-provoking media than papers such as the Orlando Sentinel, USAToday or The Villages Daily Sun, for sure. If one wants to read an intelligent "view from the left" on subjects of national and worldwide interest, the New York Times is an excellent choice.
So, if I might, let's agree that the New York Times is a liberal-leaning newspaper. And just maybe, discuss the column by Tom Friedman.

[Guest]

I won't go into the almost laughable things you say about editorial control of columnists at The Times or Tom Friedman's views on globalization's role in environmentalism or Friedman's mixed metaphoric writing style.

I have already given my opinion about Tom Friedman's opinion in the column you linked in this post.

But to the issue of your exalting review of Tom Friedman's opinion column. There is no doubt Friedman is revered. But it is interesting to see informed liberals supporting a "middle of the road" columnist who was pied in the face at Brown University on Earth Day; who attacks and defames Arabs and the Arab world; who, speaking in support of the US invasion of Iraq after 9/11 on Charlie Rose explained the "bubbles" of Nasdaq, corporate governments and terrorist bubbles, said, "...We needed to go over there basically ummm and ummm uhhh take out a very big stick, ummm right in the heart of that world and ummm and burst that bubble...What they needed to see were American boys and girls going house to house from Basra to Baghdad, umm and basically saying 'which part of this sentence don't you understand?' Well suck on this. Okay. ...we could have hit Saudi Arabia... We could have hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That's the real truth..."

Just an observation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOF6ZeUvgXs

[Guest]

ptownrob--- I think Donna2 was probably refering to more recent leaks. In December of 2005, even though warned about compromising on going investigations, the Times revealed the existance of an ultra secret terrorist surveillance program of the NSA. They gave details on how it was implmented. Also, remember when the Times disclosed highly classified US intellegience programs that successfully penetrated the international bank transactions of the alQaeda terrorists? Don't you ever wonder what side the Times are on??

[Guest]

Do not let the Liberal Progressive talk about the New York Times hide the truth from your minds.

The New York Times is a desperate failure because of its biased attempt to promote Liberal causes.

To say that its readers are more thoughtful or better educated than most other people is such disgusting snobbery it makes me sick.

The paper does has and does not only misreport facts it has deliberately told lies.

The so called thoughful readers really ensourage these lies because they think it it helps their ideology.

Thoughtful, by the way, is not a description a conservative would use to descibe a New York Times reader who believes all the lies and spin in that paper.

[Guest]

ptownrob-- How can you possibly say you don't get the liberal side on FOX News??? Liberals not only have their own show, but are on constantly as commentators. When was the last time you saw a "real" Republican on MSNBC??

[Guest]

Good links Bucco,


A Ponzi scheme will only work when there is weekly donations. When 30 million people do not contribute weekly from the payrolls the scheme starts to tumble.
Money goes into the Feds weekly and money goes out weekly. The so-called financial genius's can twist, turn, roll, hop etc. etc. but it is simple math.
You need to get those contributions back again and only REAL jobs will do it. Public "servants" and union pensions are going to ruin us.

I compare the idiots running this country to children running your household. Imagine your children controlling your check book and they just purchase things and only pay enough of the bills so they don't take your house away. Re-finance your house every month and pay one credit card payment with another credit card until you have more credit cards then Carter has pills.
We need to put the adults back in charge in November.

[Guest]

Good links Bucco,


A Ponzi scheme will only work when there is weekly donations. When 30 million people do not contribute weekly from the payrolls the scheme starts to tumble.
Money goes into the Feds weekly and money goes out weekly. The so-called financial genius's can twist, turn, roll, hop etc. etc. but it is simple math.
You need to get those contributions back again and only REAL jobs will do it. Public "servants" and union pensions are going to ruin us.

I compare the idiots running this country to children running your household. Imagine your children controlling your check book and they just purchase things and only pay enough of the bills so they don't take your house away. Re-finance your house every month and pay one credit card payment with another credit card until you have more credit cards then Carter has pills.
We need to put the adults back in charge in November.


Well, now you've hit the nail right on the head! Congress & the entire federal government IS a Ponzie Scheme! Well said.