Wassup (8 years later)
Ancient Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times. This web site is my attempt to document, from my perspective, these "interesting times".
What would Ayn Rand expect to happen? On the one hand we have the hot shot executives, on the other hand the schmucks who own stock in these banks. Would Ayn Rand expect that the executives would put aside their ambition, their lust for success, their greed, in order to benefit shareholders who are too dumb to even know what a credit default swap is?Baker hits on something that I wish more people understood about Libertarian/Randian theory. It's something that non-libs only get a glimpse of when things go bad and that libs like Greenspan either deny to themselves or just don't talk about because the truth would make their philosophy unmarketable. That truth is that cycles of huge booms and busts are good things, at least according to their ideology.
Not for a second; Ayn Rand would watch the Wall Street big boys run roughshod over their shareholders' interests and be applauding them every step of the way. That is how the game is played. If Greenspan didn't think the Wall Street crew would rip off their shareholders for every last penny, then he was not a worthy disciple of Ayn Rand.
Sorry to say but as a Physician, those lacerations (if you want to call them that)could not come from a knife of any sort, sharp or dull. Also, from the way her cheek is manifesting as red and irritated (synonymous for scratches) makes it an easy prognosis for me:
This is indeed a self-inflicted 'wound' most likely done with either a paper clip or quite possibly a fingernail.
If you would look at the BOTTOM of the letter, there are 2 DISTINCT and SEPARATE marks (what did the mugger do? Go over the same area with a different line?). This is not plausible in any form.
This is a fraudulent attempt at falsifying an attack and is illegal since a police report was filed. Why was she allowed to 'walk away' from the scene or a mugging/attack?
She never offered a description of her attacker other than he was 'supposedly' an Obama supporter. Was he white, black, latino??
This is outrageous and demands further scrutiny. Also suspect are the blackeyes. Although real, the contusions are not reminiscent of a frontal punch as there are no abrasions/contusions above the eye socket (men have big, large knuckles) and the area around the eye socket is sensitive soft tissues. This woman is committing fraud via Munchhausen By Proxy and should be jailed for submitting a false police report/complaint. And the only reason WHY she would refuse to seek medical treatment is that she knows her story would not hold up under a physicians examination.
And no, I am not an Obama supporter, I am voting McCain but these false allegations and rumors must stop. As a Dr, I can not fathom why people go to great lengths to lie about being attacked.
Someone needs to have her examined for 'a possible concussion' from being 'punched in the head', that alone would have allowed the police to forcefully admit her as if she in some way passes out while driving home after the 'attack, the police department would be liable for allowing her to leave with possible 'brain trauma'.
This story is a joke and not funny people.
Right now, Obama is ahead of McCain in a number of Bush states -- and maybe McCain is less interested in wresting those states back than in saying, "Oh yeah? Well, I'm going to fight you in a blue state! So there!" Maybe there's less strategic thinking going on than we think -- maybe it's all gut.As the Civil War dragged on, General Robert E. Lee came to understand that The Confederacy could never beat The Union in a protracted war. Yes, they had several battlefield successes, but the resources of The South were already stretched to the breaking point and could never hope to last against the industrial might of The North. He needed something big to give The Union pause and to impress foreign powers to intervene.
"One piece of press bias is they don't like losers," says CBS correspondent Jeff Greenfield. "When the whiff of defeat surrounds a campaign, the press picks up on it the way sharks smell blood in the water, and then it becomes a feedback loop."I noticed this way back in 1996, even before I became politically active. I didn't like Bob Dole, but I thought the media coverage of his campaign was terrible. I think it was precisely for the reason Greenfield suggests: the press doesn't like losers. But what isn't asked is why they don't like losers. I think it has something to do with the journalists resenting having to spend time on a campaign that they have already concluded is over. They want to move on to the new hotness and a losing candidate is a moldy piece of bread that can't be "legitimately" thrown out until after election day.
Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those that paid them. In roads and airports and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good.And there's nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more or who should be paying less. And for us to say that that makes you a socialist, I think, is an unfortunate, an unfortunate characterization that isn't accurate.
And I don't want my taxes raised. I don't want anybody else's taxes raised. But I also want to see our infrastructure fixed. I don't want to have a 12 trillion dollar national debt. And I don't want to see a annual deficit that's over 5 hundred billion, heading for a trillion. So how do we deal with all of this?