Gene Frenkle

You are so insightful. Pearls like this really make reading your posts worthwhile.

I'm sure you can do better than that...you've failed to hit all the usual talking points or even make much sense. You're right, that's a big one too. It's basically the same line of thinking as religion.

It also means that they tend to vote against their own direct economic interests. It's a good thing for rich conservatives that they have adapted to lean on religion and fear of government or they might never win another election, considering the relatively small number of rich voters in this country. Republicans never want anyone telling them what to do until it comes to abortion, stem cells and general "morality". I have little problem with rich Republicans because at least they're not being used like pawns.

I think your math is a bit off and this is really the best list you could come up with? Less than $4 million? Besides, most of these things are fairly reasonable as soon as you get rid of the "it doesn't immediately sound worthy to me so it must be a waste of money" mentality. While you're talking about major wastes of taxpayer money, how's that F-35 Fighter program coming???

I'll just say that rich, thin conservatives are less hypocritical than fat, poor ones.

I loathe myself little enough to take care of myself. I eat plenty, but get off my lazy ass and exercise regularly. Where's all this hard work and personal responsibility I hear so much about?

The question is: what becomes of the outliers? My view is that it is the responsiblity of the system to see that their basic needs are provided for. Minimize the number of outliers by maximizing the efficiency of the system, but also take care of the outliers - is that so bad? In the best system, non-outliers are still benefitting from the rules that create the outliers.

Supply and Demand at it finest. I'm going to grab a protein shake and head to the gym now. This is in no way directed at you, but fat Conservatives jabbering on about personal accountability makes me laugh.

Affected. Americans are, for the most part, a bunch of fat-asses. Stop getting your panties in a wad, eat a salad and hit the treadmill. If you weren't all so goddamn fat, nobody would have to piss you off by telling you what a bunch of sedentary slobs you all are! No, seriously.

We're not far apart on this.

I was given every opportunity, took advantage and am doing well, but I try not to make it all about me. You certainly know what you know. Not everyone has the tools, makeup and happenstance to succeed in a given environment. You call that lazy, and in some cases you're right. You thrive in a SYSTEM that is suited to the skill set you've developed. In a different system, you might be the lazy degenerate.

I'm arguing that the answer is not to segregate, but rather to institute rules that would lead to these troubled youths to once again have a healthy amount of respect and fear for authority figures. Of course that would be harder than just casting out the hard cases.

Congratulations. You're the best around and no-one's gonna ever keep you down. In my view it's a role of the dice any way you look at it. You were fortunate to get some genetic code, environmental stimuli and various life experiences that turned you into the hard working, competent, successful, self-interested person you are today. If you do not see random chance and luck playing into your situation, you're not looking hard enough.

I don't think the odds are stacked against the middle class, but we're not talking about the middle class here. You are guaranteeing a future generation of criminals by writing kids off just because they didn't luck into a stable situation. You're taking your own fortunate roll-of-the-dice for granted, unless I'm mistaken and you want to tell me all about how you came up out of the projects.

It's good to hear that the little freeloader is going to be ok.

Yes, classify and segregate the children based on how ****ty their parents happen to be.

America: the best country that god ever gave to man where nobody gets health care unless they can pay for it. This is a sad example of why Libertarian "dream" is the most idealistic and unrealistic of all. Hopefully this baby somehow gets some of that western medicine that we're rationing. I'm sure that eventually some fine upstanding Conservatives will altruistically throw him a proverbial "bone" (if he's white that is). In fact, with all of their willing and continual generosity, it must be some strange anomaly that leads to this baby not getting the care he needs. Obama must be taxing them too much. Ron Paul, Ayn Rand eat your heart out!

Throw the bums out!

Good luck with that!

I agree, the stereotype is meant to be dismissive, but is obviously outdated. All of a sudden the nerds you picked on in high school are be scary and powerful because of their knowledge, which is mildly refreshing in a way. This has been coming for a long time. The more the world relies on the internet, the more power you give to these people. Sooooo.....now what?

It's impossible to control the internet. These are childish acts, but powerful childish acts.

This is retarded, even by PPP standards.

Are you making more than 250K? Congrats if so.