Stats

Comments Posted By Diane Merriam

Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments

Why Democrats Lag Behind Despite Growing Population Advantages

You’re right, but it wouldn’t be fair to just cut it off. First we have to find a way to buy annuities or some other methods so that those who have planned on it aren’t just left in the lurch.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 14, 2014 @ 11:49 pm

No handouts? Yes. No insurance companies? No.

My only objection there is that employment based health insurance is a government subsidized benefit because it is pre-tax. Remove that tax subsidy and, while I don’t like its past, I’m good with its future.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 14, 2014 @ 11:28 am

100% agree.

I’ve re-read de Tocqueville several times. It’s amazing how well he foresaw both the strengths and the weaknesses in the American experience all the way back in the 1840s.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 11, 2014 @ 12:03 am

SS is and always has been just as much a creature of government funding as any other. No one has any claim to one penny in SS, regardless of how it’s been portrayed. The courts have already ruled on that unequivocally.

The fiction that it is anything else keeps the segment of the population that is the most reliable voters, older and retired people, from screaming their heads off.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge — even to ourselves — that we’ve been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise.) – Carl Sagan

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 10, 2014 @ 11:58 pm

So they buy private insurance for their American employees or for all employees no matter what countries they are citizens of?

I didn’t say that only America does research. I said that Americans are who pays the cost for the development of American drugs. They know they can’t pay for it with just overseas sales. They depend on the high prices US insurance companies will cover and that is what finally gives them the net profit.

Curious … if it had been you that you wanted a test done on, but didn’t have any symptoms, how long would it take for you to get in to the doctor and have them done?

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 9, 2014 @ 1:15 am

I think we’re on the other end … too small to care.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 8, 2014 @ 1:10 am

Bush’s wars were off the books in that most of it wasn’t appropriated in the normal budget proceedings. The bills came due every year though. It wasn’t hidden like the way Social Security has been drained.

Every 10 or 20 years they have made a change to Social Security that was supposed to fix it for all time. Each time the fix didn’t last. This is just the most recent and I don’t see any reason to believe this time any more than the others.

The program and how it’s used is inherently unstable, but since older people are far more reliable voters, for all parties, it will have to get to full crisis point before anything fundamental is changed about it.

There never has been a real trust fund. The government has been using money currently coming in to pay current benefits and then merged the rest into the general funds since the very start.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 8, 2014 @ 1:04 am

I’m much more fluent in type than in person, and especially in front of a camera or crowd. %)

One person at a time is all most of us can do, but if we keep working at it, hopefully, one day, we’ll hit a critical mass.

The late 1700s were a unique time in human history. The peak of the Enlightenment and classical liberalism. The fortuitous combination of the right people at the right time in the right situation and the right cause resulted in the Constitution that has served us so well.

Those days will never come again, but maybe we can make our own if we don’t give up.

Not that is was perfect or that the people who wrote it and started the traditions of our country were perfect, but then they admitted that right up front … “In order to Create a more Perfect Union …” They likely never expected that it would last as long as it has. They also would have been very dismayed with what we have made of it, but not surprised.

A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin when the final vote was taken in the Constitutional Convention, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” His reply? “A Republic, if you can keep it.”.

“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” – Benjamin Franklin

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 8, 2014 @ 12:52 am

There’s a problem with bailouts of any kind. There’s a principle called moral hazard. If someone (or some company) believes that someone else will bail them out if they get into financial trouble, then they aren’t nearly as careful when making future financial commitments.

That’s what really scares me about the Wall Street bailouts. The companies that were thought too big to let fail then are even bigger now and with a corporate knowledge that they have been bailed out before.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 8, 2014 @ 12:30 am

So employees of American countries overseas aren’t eligible for that country’s health care system? I’d never heard that before. Can you confirm that for me?

As to drug pricing, without the US market to recoup their costs of developing a new drug, many of them wouldn’t exist, so as far as that goes, the US is subsidizing the rest of the world.

It’s also a LOT more expensive and takes years and years of testing before a new drug is allowed on the marketplace here. By the time we can get it, the rest of the world has been saving lives with it for years.

Another part is the way we let trial lawyers run roughshod over anyone with anything medically related. There are life saving drugs and life changing immunizations that are known to work, but that won’t get released because of the risk of lawsuits. My old Ob/GYN spent over half of his gross, that’s GROSS not net, income on insurance even though he never had a suit. That money also has to come from somewhere. Unfortunately, lawyers make up the vast majority of politicians, especially in Congress, and they don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg for their brethren (and earlier made some of them the money themselves to go into politics to begin with).

Fourth is what I described above. People don’t have any idea what their medical care actually costs because we usually just pay a fairly small co-pay. We go in to the doctor for a lot of minor medical problems that would take care of themselves naturally so we spend a lot more to get the same result. I was going to say that that’s not the fault of the doctors and pharmacies and the like, but sometimes that’s not true. There are doctors who find it preferable to have patients that come in all the time for small stuff and give them their prescriptions and make them feel better without the worries of really sick patients. Fortunately not a lot of them, but they are there.

As to the media, it’s been an interesting switch. Used to be lawyers couldn’t advertise and neither could drug companies. Cigarettes and alcohol, well that was a different matter. Those ads were everywhere. Now they’ve flipped.

Anyone, left, right, big, small, rich, poor or any other category you care to use can lie. It is not forbidden. However if your words cause financial injury, sufficient emotional distress, incitement to riot, or wanton endangerment you may be financially and/or criminally liable for the results of those words.

People say that you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater. That’s not true. You can. But if you were lying about it you have knowingly endangered other people due to the ensuing panic. That’s wanton endangerment which is prosecutable. You would also be liable to the theater for the financial damages, if any.

There is a loophole for public figures. The standards are much higher as to what they can sue for. Provable intent to harm is usually required. That’s part of what you pay for being a celebrity.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 8, 2014 @ 12:22 am

There is one budget and one debt. Why has it exploded? Because the legal fiction of the Social InSecurity Trust Fund is finally coming home to roost. Every penny that was taken in as SS was spent and an IOU from the government to itself was created without it being on the books as a debt. Just another unfunded liability, only less so because there’s no contract that can be legally enforced to get it. That cash cow has gone dry so todays deficits actually show up as external debts, on the books and no longer hideable.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 7, 2014 @ 3:29 pm

Why not just fold SS into other welfare programs and get rid of the issue altogether? SCOTUS has already ruled that you have no ownership right to anything having anything to do with your SS “contributions.” It ceased being your money the instant it was taken, no more and no less than any other tax.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 7, 2014 @ 3:21 pm

We spend 20 times as long deciding what car we want to buy that who we think would be the best at running our governments. How many people go to the polls not even knowing who or what’s on the ballot just to pull a handle and make quick decisions based on a quick scan of the text on the ballot? Gee, that name sounds familiar. I’ll vote for her. Of course I don’t want to pay tolls to get across the river. I vaguely remember somebody saying something I didn’t like about this person … I think. Well, I’ll just vote the other way to be safe.

Whether you agree with my positions or not, just the fact that you’re reading this is proof that you’re at least making an effort to learn about and be involved in political/societal issues. Do you realize just how small a minority you’re in?

Get the facts, whether you like them or not (and most of us don’t – reality doesn’t provide free rides to anyone in the long term). Define your goals in as much detail as you can. Forget wishful thinking and “if onlys.” See if those goals can be aligned with the facts. Then, if they can be, see what the best path is from here to there that can actually be followed. Finally, seek out and support people who will help get down that path at each step without ever losing the vision of your final goals.

The only thing in this world that is unlimited is human desires. None of us is ever going to get everything we want, but we can work towards getting as much as we can. Listen to those who don’t agree with you. You may find they agree with more than you think. You may learn something you didn’t know. You may even find that, based on new information or understanding, your own ideas and goals change. While change, in and of itself, is not always a good thing, neither is stagnation or willful blindness, no matter where you are on what issue.

There is only one ability our species has that differentiates us from the others and has allowed us to survive and thrive. That is the ability and choice to use what’s between our ears. So use it.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 7, 2014 @ 2:58 pm

The most basic economic law is that if you want more of something you subsidize it and if you want less of something you penalize it. There should never have been a bailout. No company is too big to fail. By the same token we should never have subsidized home ownership. When the government funds more care for the elderly, the elderly get more care and with it more cost.

Health care should never have been tied to employers. The US is unique in that. It came about as a way for companies to attract better employees when the wage freeze wouldn’t let them increase direct pay. The government even encouraged that more by letting health insurance be paid for with pre-tax dollars.

In the US, if you wake up with a sore throat and call the doctor, they will usually be able to get you in to see him today. So you go in, pay your co-pay, see the doctor, and maybe get a prescription and told to call back if it isn’t cleared up in a few days. You’re happy, the doctor’s made money, the pharmacy’s made money and you get better in a few days. Problem solved.

If you call your doctor in most of the socialized health care countries, you might be able to get in sometime in the next month. So you don’t bother calling the doctor and the sore throat usually goes away in a few days anyway. No money spent, but you still get better.

US health care costs more with the same outcome. But since we’re not paying much directly out of our own pocket, we way overuse it. Sounds more like an over-insured problem to me, not the lack of available care. Insurance is for risk management, not every day or expected maintenance.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 7, 2014 @ 2:19 pm

Is The United States Of America A Christian Nation?

“dumbed-down”, “truth and logic-challenged” “mistaken beliefs”

Those are adjectives, not facts.

As soon as you start name calling you’ve lost the debate. If you actually want to change anything, as opposed to just venting your angst, then be the one who rises above it.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 7, 2014 @ 11:46 am

Franklin was the closest to being an atheist. He was raised Congregationalist, but never gave or by his actions seemed to have, a preference as an adult. Most of the rest attended Episcopalian services if any, but there’s no question that many of the “big” names, and 3 out of 4 of our first Presidents were Deist or Unitarian, Jefferson being the most public non-Christian. Point anyone who tries to say different to the Jefferson “Bible.”

The Constitution was not deemed to supercede state law except the few places it was explicit i so in many, if not most, cases until the 14th Amendment. Even that is being applied piecemeal by the SCOTUS.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 7, 2014 @ 11:27 am

“They” meant the fundamentalist/evangelical religious right in my reply, a group I’m far from a member of. However, you were writing in the same tone towards them that you object to them using. That’s what I objected to.

As long as the contest/debate is a bunch of name calling and emotion loaded adjectives it’s not going to get anyone anywhere. We can’t change them (although many of us try), but we can keep from using the same methods.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 7, 2014 @ 1:32 am

I’m an agnostic only to the point that an absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence. 🙂

I’ve just done a lot of reading things written in that era and before. Since we’re discussing it in terms of the Declaration/Constitutional I’m using the meaning of the phrase had at that time and in that context.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 7, 2014 @ 1:18 am

Do I hear the pot calling the kettle black? Because they believe something different than you do they are incapable of truth, not in touch with reality, with mistaken beliefs and they must not be allowed to be part of the political process. Freedom of/from religion works both ways or not at all.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 6, 2014 @ 11:36 pm

Freedom of Conscience, as used at that time, meant that you could believe what seemed right to you. What, if anything, you deemed to be the “proper” relationship between you and your deity. Not quite what the word conscience means today.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 6, 2014 @ 11:31 pm

And some more James Madison, Virginia Ratifying Convention: “There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it, would be a most flagrant usurpation.”

John Adams: “This country has done much. I wish it would do more; and annul every narrow idea in religion, government and commerce, It has pleased the providence of the first cause, the universal cause, that Abraham should give religion not only to Hebrews, but to Christians and Mohomitans, the greatest part of the modern civilized world.”

Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word “Jesus Christ,” so that it should read, “a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;” the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.

From the Treaty of Tripoli,signed by President John Adams: “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, — as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims], — and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 6, 2014 @ 11:22 pm

The Court Ruling that Could Kill ACA

There’s a big difference between a one page article in a magazine almost no one had ever heard of at the time 37 years ago and the founding document of our nation.

False equivalence manipulation.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 14, 2014 @ 12:16 am

“You plead your case as a high school dropout and then suddenly shift ground and talk about your six years in college. ”
So I can’t have been both?

” Every time a point of yours is successfully refuted, you claim a different point of view.”
No point was ever successfully refuted. Self delusion manipulation.

“One day, you’re saying people should settle for $5/hr jobs.Then when someone asks a legitimate question about living on that wage, you say “good workers” will always make more.”
I said neither of those things. Straw Man manipulation.

“How good were the wages for “hard workers” on plantations in the South in 1850?”
Red Herring manipulation.

“”cognitive dissonance” charge”
I never made any such charge. Straw Man manipulation.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 14, 2014 @ 12:12 am

No terrorists in Afghanistan until we got there? Bin Laden wasn’t in Afghanistan and didn’t have his training camps there and wasn’t under the protection of the Taliban?

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 13, 2014 @ 11:55 pm

Once again, not my responsibility. If you search the comments you’ll see that I put the Koch/John Birch info up two or three days ago.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 13, 2014 @ 11:50 pm

I have no idea. I’m not responsible for what Charles Koch does or doesn’t do because he was our vice presidential candidate 34 years ago.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 13, 2014 @ 11:48 pm

Once again, I never said that anywhere. You’re pretending I said things that I haven’t and then attacking that. Classic Straw Man manipulative argument.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 13, 2014 @ 9:56 pm

@SueInCa From your link

Found: Libertarians’ “Lying To Liberals” Guide Book

The title of your article says Guide Book, but when you read it you find that it’s about two articles published in Reason magazine in 1977. I have told you repeatedly that there is no such “book.” Not then and not now. Repeating something over and over doesn’t make it true. Classical manipulative technique.

“a REASON article headlined “Marketing Libertarianism” written by Moshe Kroy, and published in the February 1977 issue.”

“Anyway, just in case “Marketing Libertarianism” hadn’t got the rulebook out widely enough, REASON ran a second article later in 1977 headlined “How To Get Converts Left & Right: Political Cross-Dressing Is The Answer.”

Two magazine articles from 1977. Can you not tell the difference between a headline calling something a book and it actually being one?

It’s got all the right emotional push buttons, Ayn Rand and Koch Brothers in the header image. It’s laced with adjectives like “rancid” “lying” “tricks” “sheeple” “ploy” “con” “true believers” “Randroids” “snotty” “sociopaths” “marks” “front” “narcissist” “nihilism” “crap” “flak” “suckers” “slick” “tricksters” “imbecile” “cynical” “manipulative” “bullshit” “con-artist” “credulous ” “facile” “smug” “dystopia” “assholes” “hysteria” “lobby” “dupes” “gullible” “fecklessness” “fraud” “crime” “facile”

Talk about emotional manipulation, yet somehow it’s a Libertarian thing to be manipulative. Give me a break.

I went to the Reason link you put up and found the article just fine … Two pages and most of those filled with header and ads so about 1 page of actual text. Do you really think that no one is going to actually follow up on your links? Do you really think that one page is the same as a guidebook?

@monicaangela If you already have and have read the book, then how did you know to get to it using the search text “Libertarian Handbook to Manipulate Liberals” which is a phrase that isn’t anywhere in the book. Even the word “Libertarian” isn’t in the online portions and it’s only in one place in the entire 517 pages. “Liberal” shows up in 15 places just in what’s online and 20 in the whole book.

Were you the one who did the manipulation that linked that phrase to the book or were you taken in and hiding it? Those are the only two explanations I can think of that fit the facts. Especially after you said to Kes, “The book I posted is a book that these people use to learn the art of human manipulation.”

Edited to add the link again:
http://books.google.com/books?id=60WUoMnCBMsC&pg=PT201&lpg=PT201&dq=Libertarian+handbook+to+manipulate+liberals&source=bl&ots=XAEW14f0Bt&sig=4M0NrLToV0amjTRX2hLOtx6nOdQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-bnCU6fbOJSuyATroIFI&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

and it’s the first book to come up on google under that search phrase.

But it’s not a book on how to use manipulation, it’s a book on how to recognize it and defend yourself from it. If you had actually read it, you would have known that. It’s written by a very liberal Brit who is described in Author’s notes: “He is active in European environmental politics and was the successful private complainant in the European Court of Justice in several cases of national breaches of European environmental law.”

Coxall, Malcolm (2013-02-19). Human Manipulation – A Handbook (Kindle Locations 9017-9018). Malcolm Coxall. Kindle Edition.

What a hotbed of hidden Libertarianism there must be in the European environmental movement. It’s just amazing how well they hid their influence on this book. Praising examples of rioting and looting as an acceptable social response and denigrating the “capitalist aristocracy.”

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 13, 2014 @ 9:19 pm

Do you have anything on TA? The Parent-Adult-Child? I remember reading that, probably 40 years ago now and haven’t seen it in a long time. That was an interesting way of looking at a lot of interactions.

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 13, 2014 @ 7:59 pm

How long is it?

» Posted By Diane Merriam On July 13, 2014 @ 7:19 pm

«« Back To Stats Page