We have been discussing how mean=spirited and nasty the presidential campaign has already become on both sides. With Republicans called Obama a socialist and a Muslim, Democrats are saying Romney would not have killed Bin Laden . . . and now that he is vampiric.
The new ad, “Steel” describes GS Technologies, a steel mill in Kansas City, Mo., that was bought by Romney’s private equity firm Bain Capital. One former mill worker says “We view Mitt Romney as a job destroyer, a vampire. They came in and sucked the life out of us.” “Mitt the Job Destroyer” is still better than “Vlad the Impaler” but they seem to be saying that he is both.
The question is how strong the anti-vampire vote is. After all, Obama is no Buffy The Vampire Slayer himself, but then again who is?
Before the Republicans denounce the ad, they should consider that there could be some positive aspects to an undead president for the GOP:
1. They work nights.
2. They truly can take the bite out of crime.
3. They are always taking the pulse of voters.
5. One meeting of the Group of Eight would leave a group of one.
6. The GOP would finally secure the Goth vote.
7. We would finally have a president who is all bite and no bark.
8. Republicans can re-use those “Drill, Baby, Drill” signs.
9. No one is more anti-evolution than a vampire.
10. Perfect for the slogan, “Better Undead than Red.”
Source: Washington Post
Bron, I am not suggesting that I would want to go to a bad doctor or someone who was not a doctor and who would do me harm rather than good. I am simply pointing out that we cannot “discontrol” or “uncontrol” our economy! It is already under enormous control, and the state DOES interfere with our ability to get what we need from each other in ways we might like to otherwise. Thus, the idea that you can have “free market” just by wishing it is impracticable — in the sense of NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN, CANNOT HAPPEN.
“Good doctors are out there, you just have to find them” is fine. But if you have no money, how are you going to find them, and what are you going to give them in return for your services? And with things going in the direction they are already headed in, in this country, it will not be long before there are a substantial number of people who cannot get good — or even passably decent — medical care. Ever, even if they are very sick with communicable diseases! So what you will have then is a sick society. We can’t wish this away and we cannot undo the hundreds of years of problems that have brought us to this point in time, either.
Malisha:
Why would you go to a person not trained in medicine or to a bad doctor?
Good doctors are out there, you just have to find them. One told me you dont have to be all that smart to get into medical school. He is correct and you have to be very careful about choosing a physician, they can and do kill people due to inexperience or incompetence.
Tony C:
I am all for making the ADA defunct. Women with strollers and kids with skateboards and bicycles have also benefited though and so have the elderly.
Public agencies should be accessible but a private facility should not have to be.
I think the ADA has hampered the ability of people with disabilities to be hired because who in their right mind is going to hire someone that cannot work as fast as someone else and have no way of getting rid of them should they turn out to be sub-standard employees.
In some respects the ADA has been beneficial to the disabled but those benefits have also accrued to women with children and the elderly. The ADA has made it harder for a person with a disability to be hired because of the cost of accommodations and because of the difficulty in getting rid of them if they dont work out.
Bron, we cannot “uncontrol” our economy. The idea might be good but there is no practical way to do it. What we will have is an economy controlled by people we do not get to elect, and people who are answerable ONLY TO THEMSELVES and EACH OTHER and that is where the problem lies. In an uncontrolled economy, if I get sick, I can go to someone who says he can help me, and I can give him something that he wants, and he can do what he does, to help me, and he can succeed or fail. Right NOW if we try this, he and I will be committing three or four felonies by the time I walk out of his tent.
We DO live in the world that has evolved to this point. Within this structure, if we decrease anybody’s ability to survive, it will not be long before that becomes a problem for all but a very few of us, and fewer than either of us would like, I’m sure. I already know rich people who cannot get good medical care. People who have owned things and worked their whole lives.
I am not worried about the future if there is economic freedom, what I am worried about is a future in a controlled economy. In that environment your concerns are justified.
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http://www.rosicrucian.org/
They have a monument in Georgia.
@Bron: But what is more criminal is setting ridiculous standards which have no rational basis in science for the purpose of hamstringing industry.
I do not know of any examples in which that is true. Do you believe it is anti-science for the ADA to demand ramps of specific slope, width and rails for people that are confined to wheelchairs? I believe that is based upon the science of of physics.
Or do you just think it is okay to relegate disabled people to second-class citizen status and deny them access to common services altogether?
Because that was the situation before the ADA, disabled people is so small a demographic that the free market could just ignore them, it was not profitable to spend any money accommodating them when able-bodied people could climb the stairs and fill the seats. The ADA corrected a free market failure.
If that is your definition of “hamstringing” industry, then I am all for it.
Malisha:
In the 50 years after the Civil War there was an explosion of industry and scientific knowledge. It was brought about by economic freedom.
I am not worried about the future if there is economic freedom, what I am worried about is a future in a controlled economy. In that environment your concerns are justified.
Tony C:
most of that was done when people were ignorant of the effects those chemicals had on humans. To do that now is criminal. But what is more criminal is setting ridiculous standards which have no rational basis in science for the purpose of hamstringing industry.
Setting limits for toxins or setting minimum standards for building construction are not bad things. As I have said many times before you cannot poison your neighbors well and not expect to compensate him or have some penalty imposed.
Malisha 1, May 22, 2012 at 8:40 am
Bron, you will see mass death in the streets if the dying people are not at home or in the hospitals or prisons. One decade, two decades, whatever, one bad epidemic brought on by the poor health care and the negligent social structure we are fostering and you will see plenty of death in the streets. Check into the CCD section of the Public Health Service. That branch of the military could become very active indeed, and at great cost to the whole society. I won’t be around to say, “I predicted this years back.” Fortunately.
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Watch out for the bird flu.
@Bron: and I dont see mass death in the streets.
That is an argument for the current system, not an argument for a system with LESS help from government and LESS regulation and LESS police protection and LESS government protection from carcinogens, pollution, bad medicine, bad food, poisoned water, unsafe products and unsafe work places, all of which is precisely the system you advocate, and all of those regulations are in place because BEFORE them the “free market” was happy to engage in the abuse and failed to correct for it.
Your system was tried, Bron. The regulations against dumping toxic waste in the water supply are there because companies WERE dumping toxic waste in the water supply and no “free market” method of lawsuits or competition worked to prevent them from from dumping toxic waste in the water supply. Criminalizing it was the way we discouraged it; just like criminalizing murder and theft is the way we discourage murder and theft.
Your system was tried and failed, the laws you despise are in response to the failures of the free market, and advocating for their repeal is to advocate for the abuse to return. Your trust in your fellow man is misplaced, because about 2% of your fellow men are sociopaths and psychopaths that will exploit your trust and would have no problem endangering your life to make a buck if it weren’t against the law.
Bron, you will see mass death in the streets if the dying people are not at home or in the hospitals or prisons. One decade, two decades, whatever, one bad epidemic brought on by the poor health care and the negligent social structure we are fostering and you will see plenty of death in the streets. Check into the CCD section of the Public Health Service. That branch of the military could become very active indeed, and at great cost to the whole society. I won’t be around to say, “I predicted this years back.” Fortunately.
Tony C:
“Unlike you, I am not willing to relegate the poor, disabled, or just not very smart to death just because they do not have marketable skills beyond their manual labor.”
I have a dog in that fight and that is why I am very pro-free market. I’ll take my chances in the market place. I trust my fellow man much more than I trust government to do the right thing.
If you had a thriving economy all those people would be gainfully employed or would have ample charity to help them if they could not work.
People dont hire disabled people because of the ADA. They could never get rid of them if they sucked and they would have to spend all kinds of money making their office accessible. And your great government, even though disabled people are typically in the lowest income brackets, have no 8a program for the disabled unless they are service disabled. What kind of shit is that?
The poor get along pretty good, probably too good and the not too smart, average IQ is between 90 and 110, are all over the place and I dont see mass death in the streets. The people with IQ’s below 90 are helped by all sorts of programs both private and public.
Malisha,
Do you really want to compare yourself to a cockroach? Radiation can’t destroy them.