PJ Media

@127. David S: - Apparently you really do believe that there is a massive conspiracy to paint GWB as a bad guy.
Deflection. You’ve obviously been in a coma up until last summer. Bong- or mushroom-induced, no doubt. The entrenched media is overwhelmingly registered Democrat. They went apoplectic from the day Al Gore failed to carry his own home state in 2000 and lost the election. They’ve been attacking Bush because of that ever since. They have gone to the greatest lengths to destroy confidence in the Presidency, though the heavens fall, all for purely political reasons. Political greed. No conspiracy required.

- So sorry – you used the term transitional, which is a synonym for stop-gap.
No. YOU used the term stop-gap, Zippy. I corrected you. Drilling and refining oil is not an ad-hoc, improvised “fix” to replace something that’s missing. It’s technology that has existed for decades – and will continue to be used for decades, as we transition to more intelligent power sources, like nuclear energy.

- Endless miles of flat, featureless tundra bogs are more important than you realize, …
Not at all. Been there. Talked to the experts. They disagree with you. So does the history of the existing facilities there. You just make yourself look like an idiot every time you you pretend to know something that you don’t.

- I was trying to explain SOMEthing about contemporary technology for your benefit, …
Hardly. Chernobyl and TMI used nothing like the technology availble today.

- I like the 40 hour work week, overtime, and minimum wage laws. You obviously don’t …
Another sad straw man. Your life would be so empty without them, wouldn’t it.

- If you really believe that everyone is currently fairly compensated for their labor, …
It doesn’t matter what I believe, Zippy. When someone accepts a job, knowing the wage involved, they have agreed that the compensation is fair. QED.

- I guess you really get around.
Far more than you have, based on the pathetic little jaunts you discuss on your site, Zippy.

… the “minimum wage” has been a huge success…
Apparently you don’t Care to cite a source for that success.

- We have a basic philosophical difference here on what the role of government should be – it will not be resolved in this comment thread.
Yet you keep… on… posting. It’s a mystery.

- … commerce is anything but flourishing…
Consistent growth, record federal corporate tax revenue and trends leading to a balanced budget (interrupted by the Dems’ majority in Congress) notwithstanding.

- … law and order have been redefined to the detriment of both …
Not in the slightest.

- … peace has become war …
On the contrary, the only significant war has become peace.

- … and security against foreign threats includes an exception large enough to admit jetliners. …
You’re confused – you’re thinking about Clinton’s failures now.

@129: HJ: - An attempt to make a funny observation is degraded by the anti-spock!
I have nothing against Spock. I simply don’t pretend television “philosophy” is automatically valid.

- … whatever the exacerbating factors of this new difference in this country could possibly be, one of, if not the most-consequential factor is the tremendous separation of the classes.
Well, if that’s what you really believe, then I suggest you think long and hard about who has the most to gain by creating and perpetuating a separation of the classes. Who does all the class-baiting? Who benefits by pitting the so-called “poor” against the so-called “wealthy”? It’s not the so-called “wealthy”. And the only reason you could possibly think so is if you subscribe to David S’ idiotic, thoroughly debunked zero-sum notion that there’s a limited amount of wealth on the planet that will never change, and that one person having more means someone else having less.

That notion is utterly absurd on its face.

Did Oprah become a billionaire by taking wealth from others? By making others poor? No. She built a media empire that employs hundreds and has even given away million$ in the process. She started with nothing but a fun personality, imagination, and willingness to work her ass off. And she’s far from the only one. Did I get to a point where I can earn over a million dollars in 7 or 8 years by taking anything from anyone else? Hardly. I volunteered for military service so I could learn a trade. I worked my ass off later in school – working full time while going to school full time – and then through a series of completely shitty jobs to get to where I can now name my rate for the work I do. I wanted to earn more. Was that “greed” in your mind? If I’d continued on to where I make 2… 3… 100 million every 7 or 8 years, would that be “greed” in your mind? Where’s the dividing line? And who said YOU get to decide where it is? If I took my savings and invested it in a company so that the company could grow and hire more employees or pay better benefits, and I could earn a profit on my investment… is that “greed” in your mind? You can’t possibly be that cynical. Or that stupid.

Wealth is created, HJ, it’s not already out there sitting in some bank account, or in Ft. Knox (or wherever they keep gold these days). And humans’ ability to create wealth is infinite as long as imagination and willingness to work are in good supply. Humans have been demonstrating this throughout recorded history.

You have been duped, my friend. Just like David S. You have been fooled into believing that economic greed somehow causes poverty. Nothing could be further from the truth. Economic greed – at the very worst – creates entrepreneurs, creates credit, inspires the creation of buildings and all manner of businesses and services and products, all of which create jobs… all of which create wealth. And not just for the entrepreneurs, not just for the banks loaning the money, but for everyone who gets involved.

Your problem is that you have been duped into thinking that just taking part in an enterprise means that you should have an equal share of all profits, or a larger share than what you agreed to, if the enterprise turns out to be wildly profitable for the people who dreamed it up, financed it, took the risks and worked the 100 hour weeks to make it so. Sorry to tell you that you’ve been misinformed. And that misinformation is the very heart of the fallacy of socialism.

In a just world, people get what they earn, not what someone else, looking for political power, tells them they “need”.