Displaying 151 To 180 Of 508 Comments OK, here’s a grass roots movement that might work. » Posted By foxisms On April 15, 2011 @ 12:51 pm agrippa, “I am afraid that I consider the distinction between a “democracy” and “representative republic” artificial…” » Posted By foxisms On April 15, 2011 @ 12:39 pm Truth, with you all the way. » Posted By foxisms On April 15, 2011 @ 11:52 am There’s always going to be a problem with the choices the public makes. And while I concur we got a bunch o’ lemons in this last election, it was the voice of the people that put them there. It would have been real nice if the people had come together and gave this country elected officials we could build on rather than this…or worse in the past, the Bush regime, twice. But I blame media for most of that. Canada manages this better than we do. Hell, primitive tribes who communicate with the beating on drums does better at disseminating factual information about potential leadership than we do! » Posted By foxisms On April 15, 2011 @ 11:39 am Cher, “Republocrats” or “Democlicans”, doesn’t matter much to me. I see them as little more than different stripping on the same breed of house cat. » Posted By foxisms On April 15, 2011 @ 11:11 am I think I know where you’re coming from, Truth. So I’m not being critical of that. Yet while we are preached to endlessly about living in a democracy, we in fact live in a representative republic…or are supposed to be. » Posted By foxisms On April 15, 2011 @ 10:51 am “Budget cuts disappearing in a cloud of smoke” sounds about right for a show based on smoke and mirrors, Cher. » Posted By foxisms On April 15, 2011 @ 8:12 am If I”m reading you right, Adonai…it’s much the sentiment that was expressed in a very nice piece of music by Steve Winwood/Traffic which chorused with “Guiding your vision to heaven and heaven is in your mind.”. [Great! Now I have to post it on WMT.] » Posted By foxisms On April 17, 2011 @ 1:31 pm That image of the devil guy from Legend, HH, was closely reanimated in a very popular computer game called Diablo, by Blizzard Software. » Posted By foxisms On April 17, 2011 @ 1:19 pm I wasn’t expecting your final sentence, there, Adonai. A genuine LOL! 😀 » Posted By foxisms On April 17, 2011 @ 1:13 pm Adlib: not to steal any of Adonai’s thunder but some knowledgeable people hold the possibility that the concept of hell and the burning pits is a carry over from n area called “Gehenna” which is mentioned in the King James bible (The man-edited and truncated “word of god”) it appears but 13 times in the course of 11 different verses. » Posted By foxisms On April 17, 2011 @ 1:01 pm Adonai: Thanks. » Posted By foxisms On April 17, 2011 @ 12:39 pm Adonai: Once again your articles and research are beyond interesting. A very thorough historical break down and summation. » Posted By foxisms On April 17, 2011 @ 10:17 am The Top PlanetPOV Posts of 2010! Came in a little late to the Planet to catch up with all the articles that had collected during 2010. » Posted By foxisms On April 18, 2011 @ 3:12 pm Cher, Thanks for your diligence in bringing the news of the planet right to my table each AM! » Posted By foxisms On April 14, 2011 @ 7:28 am The Country We Believe In–Transcript bito, you saved me a lot of web crawling! » Posted By foxisms On April 13, 2011 @ 3:40 pm WATCH LIVE: Pres. Obama Speaks On Fiscal Policy – 10:35 am PDT Do they even know what room temperature is? » Posted By foxisms On April 13, 2011 @ 4:18 pm You’re good by me! » Posted By foxisms On April 13, 2011 @ 1:36 pm Thanks AdLib! » Posted By foxisms On April 13, 2011 @ 10:56 am BDM, well said. » Posted By foxisms On April 13, 2011 @ 12:22 pm Nicely put, agrippa. » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 11:12 am No need for formality, BDM. » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 11:10 am Life provides so few certainties. » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 10:50 am Hey, Truth! » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 9:57 am 😀 » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 9:53 am I think they intend to remain in a position of cush as long as possible and continue to feather their nests at the expense of this country and it’s people. » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 9:49 am While all this may appear to be a party issue as many of these posts would indicate; it’s not. Not really. » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 9:04 am I think you are spot on there BDM were it not for the caveat that people like Krugman and Warren and others who have the foresight to remedy some the ills of this economy and this country are deliberately ignored, overlooked and not sought out and put in positions to provide these talents to the best uses of this cause. » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 8:20 am Gonna take a while to wade through all this, but I can see already, that in putting it out here, Cher’, you’ve already done more work on the budget than Congress has in several years! » Posted By foxisms On April 12, 2011 @ 8:02 am GOP Economics – How to Become Taller by Digging Holes AdLib. Nicely done! » Posted By foxisms On April 11, 2011 @ 4:57 pmComments Posted By foxisms
The next time a candidate for elected office and especially to represent the people…and they tell you they promise to vote their conscience, you tell them straight up and right out loud that they can go to Hell.
Their conscience when not obviously nonexistent is no better than anyone else and they are seeking an office to represent the people.
That means they should, well in advance of any vote, be aware and responsive to what the pulse of this nation is and vote accordingly. No more blank checks hidden behind this empty and vacuous term of “conscience”, or worst yet the end run phrase of voting to represent just their constituency.
This house vote isn’t acceptable or in accord with what the majority of the people have in mind for these cuts or repairing this economy.
So there’s a grass roots movement for even those who don’t wish to get off the couch.
Let’s get back to electing people who genuinely want to represent all the people and this country and stop this “my constituency” and “vote my conscience” bullshit.
Take any 30 Congressmen/women and you might be lucky to put together one friggin’ conscience as far as the sick, elderly, or disenfranchised American is concerned.
You get no argument from me.
What we have now with one foot on one side of the banks and the other on a rock in the stream is a place of no balance at all.
What we have is a deviously constructed blind within a blind. As a result, nothing significant gets accomplished for decades after the need for change arises.
Are we represented? No…we’re a dmocracy.
Do we have a voice? No. Because those representing us think they are carrying out an explicit, cover’s everything mandate simply because they managed to become elected as representative.
End game? No representation and no genuine opportunity for the people to voice their preferences from issue to issue.
While experiments in democracy before us have failed for one reason or many, this duplicity and the double blind we are governed by will be the death of this system in due time.
Only 3 and a half centuries old and we’re up against issues far morecomplex and devastating than what crippled the Greek and Romans…each in some extent the foundations we built this system on.
But human nature isn’t the problem so much as what we have to work with. Unfortunately it’s also human nature and especially those who horde and collect that has set the pace for how we all deal with human nature and did so for so long that it is ingrained in most of us.
Some have evolved and wish to serve. Others remain content to be kept. And those on the other end of the spectrum wish to simply control others. These are all aspects of human nature. But it needs to be worked with, it will never be eliminated. Certainly not by the same humans that are subject to it.
(And it’s sad what happened with the democracy you mentioned above. But again, human nature. We need to learn to work with it. Warring against it has never proved effective.)
That…is unfortunately the down side of democracy and exactly why when this country was founded, the framers dismissed democracy outright, in favor of a representative republic.
As the adage provides, a democracy makes 51% of the people monarchs over the other 49%. But to it’s credit (especially come these well spaced election times) it is, at least on that one day every so many years, the chance for the voice of the people to be heard and immediately acted upon without question. Without that, we would only be left with the self serving Congress (as it is) on and on ad nauseum.
Democracy or no democracy is far from either perfect or as good as being truly represented. But I too concur that the voice of the people through polling is generally dismissed by the “hands out for gratuity” crowd that either party sends to the Hill.
I agree that somebody was punked and that was done across the board.
While I’m still grinning about some of the things the President laid on these guys (fat cats)and the message was long in the coming…all we need now is to see some materialization. Unfortunately relief through legislation in our system, and especially on urgent things often takes decades.
I agree these cats are still mucking around at making cuts when the obvious ones are being left as they are.
Considering how close we are to spending as much of GNP on military than all the other countries of the world I see it screaming,”Take Me! Take Me!”…and then there’s the disparity in taxation (which is personal today for many of us) that could create a lot of revenue…but no, these vampiric entities would rather nickle and dime the poor, disfranchised, the sick and the elderly.
Not a one of these people who supoosedly represent us have suggested any reform to the benefits or salaries they make. Big freakin’ surprise, huh?
If it’s going to be a democracy, the people should be able to vote more often on prime issues facing this country. Failing that (as it does) I would like to see the people get some genuine representation from these fools on the Hill.
There are a swarm of issues in the air right now, that the majority of the people see differently than the legislators, yet the “representatives” continue to push and support their own clandestine (“pet”) agendas none the less. We can start with the invasions and move forward to climate change, pick up at the corporate power imbalances and ultimately reform health care, the tax system and the economy itself.
It appears more often than not that the people are only represented in the polls taken and simply ignored by the people who should be using them to represent us.
Now that would be closer to democracy and/or a representative republic.
I like to think I watch our politics but I have no idea anymore what sort of system we live under.
But I loved the President’s speech in that he did smack all of these fat cats on the wrist.
And if they would just get off their butts and stop focusing on W.O.W. they could come out with Diablo III already, which has been years in the development!
At any rate, the resultant therapy is noted and agreed upon. Playing this game with the lights out into the night could land someone on that same couch.
It was a place outside ancient Jerusalem known in the Hebrew Bible as the “Valley of the Son of Hinnom” or “Place of the wicked”
where Israelites (retreating from their religion) and followers of various Ba’als and Caananite gods, including Moloch, sacrificed their children by fire.
A less romantic and more realistic view of this area is that it was an area located outside of the south wall of ancient Jerusalem and known as “the burning place” and was a rubbish heap that was used for disposables and a place to cremate the dead.
This story goes on…but I hope I may have given you something to think about as far as the possible origins of “hell”.
IMO? The passing down of religious history is in many ways little more than a game of whisper down the lane.
Sorry if I stepped on your toes, Adonai. I didn’t intend to.
From what I’ve managed to glean in my readings, many of the shapes and attributes “the devil” has been identified with are often synonymous with the embodiment of those preceding god(s) who came before whatever god(s) they were replaced with.
Over time, this creates a rather all encompassing mosaic of many originally well intended behaviors and practices that lend to the portrayal of all that is now commonly interpreted as the living “evil” (d-evil) which the generations of people around the world share it’s thrones reserved for supreme beings with.
Exactly in the manner you have mentioned…to rationalize the duplicitous nature of whatever god they may currently adhere and pay homage to. Until the next god materializes and the methods of worship become just a larger jig saw piece is added to the “devil” mosaic.
Nice reading and talking with you.
Much to think about for the rest of the day and more.
I was hoping maybe you would wrap it up with your own interpretations on the subject but…Perhaps in another article?
I have Manly P. Hall’s “The Secret Teachings Of All Ages” as a night stand read and reference. So I particularly appreciate your articles on the origins and practice of our established belief system(s).
Thank you.
I’m still not there. Alas, I will be voting in 2011.
But these efforts are absolutely stellar!
Each and every one.
If there truly is something to be said about being known for the friends you keep, I’m looking forward to some major personal improvement in the coming year due to the company I’m happy to be keeping here!
Congratulations to each and all!
Thanks for bringing this news “to my door”!
People who use lies as a predatory tool, are not all that lovable. Add to that a dash of believing what’s best for everyone else, makes them insufferable.
But of course,…you’re ‘food’! 😀
It’s no mystery the majority of people have no idea what’s going on in America.
Scanning for this speech on the tube I was presented with everything from The Bold and the Beautiful to every mid-day prime time money maker before I found that the President’s speech had been relegated to CSPAN. And at that it was limited to CSPAN3. Not 1. Not 2. Not all…But 3!
[Rhetorical question]
How in the world do the people turn this mess around and pretend to be involved/interested when valuable information pertaining to the mess is limited to evening news sound bites and pundit/talking head speculation days after the fact?
The point is, thank you, PPOV for putting this out here. Without your efforts, we’re just panning for gold in a coal mine.
Is it still raining in CT?
From one outpatient at the cynic clinic to another, while I hope for the best from this speech, I must admit to sharing your hesitancy to by a barn and everything on it because someone showed you one good looking horse.
At the same time, when my cynicism gets hold of me to the point of ennui, I go with this…It’s from Ghandi:
“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”
I also go by “he who’s name shall not be spoken”…but it doesn’t fit under my AV very well.
Cheer up!
Or do I have to sing a chorus from Annie for ya? And you think you’re in a funk, now huh….(Ahem…me-me-me-me… Here I go. I’m singin’ over here!)
We may as well have the champagne and enjoy ourselves.
Congress does.
In my propensity to misconstrue lyrics and passages of text, I stumbled on another one in your brief little post, there.
Maybe we should call this thing you mentioned what it really is: “Champagne Finance Reform”. 🙂
If you’re Chicken little BDM…that makes me Valdemort.
Sorry about the dark and rainy…but hey! At least you’re in CT! It could be Newark, NJ.
And no,I’m not in Newark either…so I should be counting my blessings as well.
And when I don’t pay any mind to the (un)workings of our system and government, I can usually do that.
Please forgive me if that has me appear a little bitter.
The whole thing has me a little bitter.
Neither party has, when afforded the opportunity to lead this country in the proper direction militarily, economically, domestically or idealistically provided any real inclination to be willing or prepared to do that sort of thing. And neither has seemed to genuinely consider the required amount of compromise for the position we’re in in decades.
Pundits, right or wrong, left or right remain little more than that, pundits regardless of their accuracy in assessing the conundrum. While each day passes leading us further into the morass as though the best answers haven’t been laboriously shouted from the rooftops as they have been.
The number of voices to be heard from either side of the aisle in favor of an equitable or sound solution to how to navigate this country in the direction it perhaps should be going are for the most part tolerated and dismissed outright by the entire body of Congress as though there were more pressing issues than giving these people any credence or credibility…(note Bernie Sanders’ 7 hour address a short while ago). These voices with the same messages appear on the right as well on occasion and are given the same bums rush n the halls of Congress and in the press.
I know many who would like to see this as a digital experience. There’s 1s and 0s and there’s good and evil and there is no middleground. And too the (somehow) recognized and validated new fringe element party hasn’t helped grease the wheels of government in America.
But to lay the blame at the feet of one party or another in America when in fact the two primary parties are more in concert than we can clearly see or we would like to admit, (albeit steering us in the wrong direction for a long course of time) is simply making us prey to the real obstruction to the progress that is so sorely needed today.
We have been let down by the very people who we have put in office time and again. And we are focused to the point of distraction by party affiliation without so much as counting the chits in order to realize that where we are is the result of a long succession of first one party and then the other leading us down this garden path.
That’s my take on it, at any rate. I do not profess to hold the market on universal truth.
And so the situation continues to deteriorate for the sorry and simple reason that those who lead and represent are not of a mind to actually fix the problem(s) because they have yet to feel the effects of them and likely will never have to regardless of how bad things get.
From what I’ve read of this so far it still appears to me that my (and others) thumbnail sketch of the situation was unfortunately somewhat accurate. The leadership and the lawmakers of this country are interested in feeding and perpetuating what they feel is important (ie…military spending and the like) and those things that address the domestic needs of Main St. in this country can once again and still…”take a number and wait over there”.
It’s a broken system spiraling down like the water in a slow moving tub drain and the effort to find the plug and stop the water from escaping is just not a priority for Washington. Why should it be, when the pain never reaches any further than the average American taxpayer and voter, homeowner and worker?
I think (as others might) that we are coming into a new age in America. Unfortunately it’s reflective of an old age in America.
And it looks a lot like Freedom City of the Great Depression.
While things may or may not reach those proportions again is hard to say. But to some large extent the people of America will need to do without and rely on each other until this situation ever rights itself, while the wealthy (and that includes our government representation) continue to don their Fred and Ginger digs and dance this dark night in American modern history away on the backs and hardship of the people who put them in office and allow them to stay there.
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Unfortunately for those people lining up for PowerBall tickets, the security and financial freedom which once required $1 million dollars (but 25-35 year ago) now requires $7 million bucks or more.
Even upon investing a mill’ you may or may not gen the dividends to clear $30,000.00 per year. And that, is no way for a millionaire to get by.
Today it requires multi-millions in order to allow a septuagenarian the freedom to go out to dinner w/out needing to look at the left hand side of the menu page…or receive medical services without returning to the status of debtor.
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