snuffbox

I like how Republicans/big-govt-conservatives are so adamently opposed to this bill, when you could fit this expenditure into the Iraq costs about 4 times. I'm not sure why it's so bad to spend on the actual taxpayers but it's cool to blindly ship it to another country.

A) Ayn Rand was an author and totalitarian philosopher, not an economist. B) Don't lump Glen Beck in with libertarians. He loves the Iraq War (and all the deficit spending that goes along with it), the war on drugs, and pines for a multi-billion dollar wall between Mexico and the US. Neocons and libertarians are not the same, no matter how disingenuously the neocon panders to libertarians when they go on his program.

What is the percentage of Bootstrappers that have ever actually laced up a pair of workboots? I'm guessing 2.

Disagreed. No offense, but I don't think my literary tastes are anywhere below you're own (we'll just say we're equals!) I am a fan of both of her big novels. But, I wholly agree with the idea of selfishness. It makes it a lot easier to read a thousand pages that are lined with a particular philosophy if your apt to agree with that going in. If it is foreign or disagreeable, you're probably going to find yourself looking for a way out very quickly. I don't mean this as an indictment of anybody that doesn't like Rand's writing. I can see exactly where you're coming from. But it's not that her prose is shitty.

Ayn Rand was absolutely a totalitarian. I'm guessing that, based on the fact that t doesn't appear that anyone else here has actually read anything by her or looked into her career, none of you know how her Objectivism works. To follow her philosophy, she laid down the law that one must follow every single tenet of that philososphy or they could not consider themselves "Objectivists.' There have been numerous examples of excommunications (both during her life and since her death by her 'intellectual heirs') and strongarming of her former colleagues over the most mundane differences of opinion. There has long been confusion as to why she's never been taken seriously as a philosopher or why Objectivism has never really caught on: It is because of the above. As far as her novels go, if you favor dependence over her thesis of selfishness, it will probably be impossible to get through either of her big novels. For one thing, they're very big and, for another, you would be confronted by a life thesis the stark opposite of your own on every single page, probably every paragraph.

Keep the oil companies taxpayer subsidized, though, right? Don't you ever think, "Christ, do I really need a disengenuous retarded drug addict on tv/radio to tell me how to think? I can do this stuff on my own!"

Why are you trying to make light of, and minimize, Benoit murdering his family? Over the years we made all kind of character assassinations and assumptions about guys like HBK, Nash, Hall, HHH, ext... Because they looked our for themselves and didnt play "fair" with anointed internet favorites. Benoit murders his son and wife and its like "so". Yes he was a great wrestler ---- BUT DAMN. As far as Verne goes, this story is super random. Dont know what to make of it. Getting old sucks. You dont know what the hell you're doing at a certain point. But he was really, really good at it. Much of TSM can forgive brutal, premeditated woman/child murder because of that, why can't you?

When did the GOP lose its once-vaunted political skill? 2005?

I missed all of this. I need to pay closer attention.

A fight between Alzheimer's patients. Another famous wrestler, in his 30s or 40s, planning for and killing his wife and very young son. Same?

The New Deal must not have done a very good job of setting the broken ecomony if it gave out like a balsa wood leg when the crutch started pulling away.

Nobody is denying his popularity or his way with the ladies. Neither of those things are presidential leadership, though. The revisionism, by the way, began with the likes of William Manchester, not with snuffbox.

That's not what my point is. People watch football even though Ray Lewis murdered somebody. I'm not gonna get all emotional because some overrated prick decided to take his family and himself out. Ray Lews didn't kill anybody. Nor did OJ. Was Benoit ever convicted?

I'm sure I've made fun of others for dismissing Benoit's crimes due to his pro rassling abilities up here before.

Considering the already-high unemployment numbers jumped 5 points from 1937 to 1938, I dont think FDR was on the right path. He had a lot of failings in dealing with the Depression. But, what he can be given credit for is doing something to keep the country moving and creating enough confidence among the people. If nothing had been done, we may not have been able to deal with the threats of the 1940s or seen an attempt at a rebellion towards communism. And he deserves strong praise for seeing those major threats of the '40s and choosing to fight them. His is a courage unknown to so many Republicans, then and now, who would rather ignore threats or create trouble elsewhere rather than respond to our attackers.

I don't see how he can be given any more blame than Eisenhower, who had already started the whole 'advisors' deal and first popularized the 'domino theory' (his VP, Nixon, and Secretary of State, JF Dulles, were in favor of American involvement in Vietnam as soon as the French fell). Johnson has to be given the most blame, as the decision to escalate the troop involvement while implementing a confused, dishonest and neutered military strategy were his own. Nixon also deserves some blame as he continued the war for more than a full presidential term before agreeing to the same terms he could have gotten during his first year in office. The decisions to widen the war into other countries was his own. But, even without full blame (he has to be given some) Kennedy still can't be placed in the top dozen without taking his popularity into account. And what popularity has to do with leadership is beyond me.

I think you're confusing 'emotional' with 'not dismissing brutally killing his own child and tying up his wife and murdering her, just because he could work the pro wrestling circuit very well.'

I'm not sure that 'murder is cool if you don't actually know the victim' is a viable philosophy.

And, how does Kennedy make the list at number 6? I know he's wildly popular and all, and I don't actively despise him like noted failures such as Wilson, but he really only showed one major stroke of great leadership during his abbreviated term. His handle on Congress was so tenuous that the Civil Rights legislation would have probably never been passed under his watch, the Bay of Pigs was awful but at the very least did better qualify him for the missile crisis, and, while he may have moved in a better direction had he not been murdered, played no small role in the creeping towards a disastrous adventure in Southeat Asia. I'm not convinced that the one shining moment during the missile crisis episode qualifies him as the 6th greatest presidential leader in our history. Very popular man, though.

I'm not sure I would agree that he got us out of the Great Depression, but it's very fortunate we didn't have one of the bend-me-over Republicans in the White House during WW2. I shudder to think if one of the isolationist/'Hitler's not so bad' Republicans or a modern chickenshit like Cheney or Bush Jr had been in power during that period.

Miwaukee avoided arbitration with Corey Hart and re-signed Eric Gagne to a minor league contract w/ spring training invite.

You can read better than that, smitty. It does not appear that I am taking Y2Jerk, or his argument, into any serious consideration.

http://lacrossetribune.com/articles/2009/0...te/13budget.txt Governor Dickface.

Saw another Doomtree show last night. Sims is still far better than Eminem, or probably any other mainstream rapper.

If that's what the textbook you use says about Harding, then it must be so.