Rob's House

I'll give money to the panhandlers with obvious disabilities, like the lady in the wheelchair with no feet - somehow I think she's on the level - but the young able-bodied guys aren't getting a dime out of me. I've got too many stories to count. There was a guy who used to stand on Monument Ave every day with a cane and a sign. One day my friend said something from his car that offended the bums sensibilities so enraged him that he charged the car and smacked it with his cane. Not one to be !@#$ed with, my friend got out and confronted him at which point the bum pulled out his cell phone and threatened to call the cops. Now that the jig was up (cane's a prop, guy has a cell phone) my friend couldn't help but laugh at him and got back in his car. He ran into the bum weeks later at a Subway. After getting his sub he hopped in his Isuzu Trooper and drove off. Same friend ran into a guy who told him he ran out of gas, yada, yada, yada, and he's trying to get home. My friend gave him $20 bucks only to see him 30 minutes later with a pizza and a 6 pack of Sam Adams. And this was after the first incident. That guy was good. But my favorite bum story was of a guy with a "Will work for food" sign. A friend of mine and his boss were driving to work and pulled over and said "all right, let's go." "Go where," he asked. "To work." The guy stutters something about how he's waiting for his friend. I know these are just anecdotes, but now a days you have to be missing a limb or have crazy eyes to get a buck out of me.

Not to mention if you resist the bouncer you're likely to get the **** kicked out of you, an no one's going to do a thing about it. Although I imagine the bouncers would need some solid back in this instance.

The problem is that the temporary market doesn't produce anything to improve the standard of living. It only serves the purpose of war. The ensuing employment, for purposes of domestic growth, is not practically different from paying people to dig holes and then fill them in, and the industry that is produced is no more productive to that end than a factory that produces mass units of boxed air sold to and purchased by the government.

So we agree that increasing production of goods and services, and not employing people to build war supplies, is what creates growth?

How are you increasing the standard of living by expanding an industry that provides nothing but war supplies?

I got pulled over coming home from the bar last year for going 57 in a 45. The cop asked me if I'd been drinking, so of course I said yes. He asked how much. I said I had a beer at my buddy's house and a beer at the bar. He asked a few questions about where I lived, where I was going, etc. and I was all "yes sir, no sir." Then he hands me back my license and says "just slow it down for me." Being [semi]honest and polite has its benefits.

But if you subscribe to the "stimulus" theory, that would have an even better effect because you're putting money into producing war supplies while also putting money into the private sector.

It's a myth that war causes economic growth. Otherwise Iraq and Afghanistan would spur our economy. The reason the U.S. economy started to improve during the war was mainly because all the economic experimentation and tinkering took a backseat to the war and natural economic cycles resumed. Then once the war ended everyone came home optimistic and we saw an explosion of economic growth. It's worth noting that the growth occurred primarily in the private sector and with relatively little government intervention; it was a return to normality.

I think that's true. I also think sometimes these guys are happy to do what they're good at until they make it. Then they want to be taken seriously. Look at Jim Carey or, more tragically, Bill Murray - funny guys who got big and all of a sudden wanted to be serious dramatic actors. A lot of comedians probably get comfortable and want to tell people what they think. 90s Chris Rock talked about the human condition and things that everyone can relate to like men and women and relationships. New Chris Rock talks about political and racial issues. Just the way it is I guess. When I make it I'm going to tell you guys what I really think too.

Because sometimes one thread just isn't enough.

You should read Hayek. He does a good job of explaining the downfalls of expansionist monetary policy.

Even if the other guy was the one that connected it's still accomplice liability which is just as severe as if he were the primary actor.

He was funny in the 90s. It really is a shame watching genuinely funny people lose their touch. His last stand-up was hardly worth sitting through. Maybe it's like Doug Stanhope says, they just run out of ****.

And if his intention is to be annoying then I think he's a douche bag. And no longer funny.

Because if you've never developed skills or knowledge that is of any value to anyone you have to put in a lot more physical effort to produce output that anyone's going to value enough to pay you for. I just put it on my wish list. "FDR's Folly" is pretty good also.

I know the question wasn't directed at me but I'd like to answer anyway. It didn't offend me, it annoyed me. It's one of those comments that's supposed to be witty, but is so trite, unoriginal, and cliche that I just roll my eyes. It's bad comedy, for the aforementioned reasons, and from the racial standpoint it's taking a fairly myopic view and it's also stirring the pot. Yeah, we get it Chris, your ancestors were still slaves when America declared indepedence and I'm holding back a big tear for you. But who is really celebrating the politics of the American revolution when they celebrate Independence day, honestly?

And I don't care if someone pisses on these guys' corpses either. http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/08/world/asia/afghanistan-public-execution/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 They deserve no mercy in life; no honor in death.

Adrian Peterson: http://cutebabypictures.org/v/african-american-babies/cute+picture+of+black+baby.jpg.html

This thread is funny. I've learned a lot about several posters and virtually nothing about the incident.

Not sure. I gave up on Family Guy years ago. I still check out the first 2 seasons on Netflix occasionally.

Yet you somehow fail to grasp the contradiction in asking to be viewed through the same lens as everyone else while simultaneously separating yourself along the very lines you seek to blur. And who's Larry?

I'm guessing he has a vast collection of Palin look-a-like porn.

Today its 2012 and America is still independent. If you're so desperate for grievances that you have to go back and cite that at the time we first became independent we, as well as the rest of civilization, condoned slavery then far be it from me to deny you that pathetic pleasure.

And Chris Rock's grandfather had yet to swim out of his daddy's scrotum in 1863. Not that this is the point anyway. In celebrating American independence we're celebrating just that, American Independence. And I never called him an "America hater", dipshit. GFYM.

Funny how all people needed to know was that Adrian Peterson had been arrested to conclude that racism was obviously to blame. Who needs to know the details? Cartman was right, black people can do no wrong.