2) I have a theory that wildly fluctcating, and especially really HIGH ($4.25/gallon?) gas prices are the cause, and especially the TRIGGER, of many of our worst economic problems. Now, at some point I'll get around to explaining that, but if you ACCEPT it for now, you can see one of the differences between how a conservtive and a liberal think: A conservative concludes that this is a reason to DRILL MORE, while a Liberal concludes that this is a reason to develop alternative energy and stop relying so much on oil.
3) Another difference between liberals and conservatives...
When I was getting my MBA, I had this real libertarian, free-market loving Professor for two semesters of Business Strategy. He claimed to have "an almost religous belief in the power of the free market to solve all the world's problems." And he really was a brilliant man. His name was Karmalash Kumar and 99% of Graduates in my lcass would have named him as the one professor they respected the most; including me, despite our political differences. I really, truly respected him. But one day in class he was citing a study that purported to show that the idea that a company that acted "socially responsibly" did NOT in fact see any increase in profit for this, as the 'liberal' conventional wisdom would believe. The study tracked [something like] 100 companies, half of which were considered 'socially responsible' or 'admired' and half considered 'despised' or 'socially irresponsible.' And it tracked their stock prices over a ten year time period. And do you know what? The results were exactly the same! So he concluded that the was no pay-off to acting resposibly.
And which point I raised my hand and asked, "But... if you're going to make exactly the same amount of money either way, why wouldn't you just want to do the right thing? Especially since it, apparently, doesn't cost you anything to do so?"
He was floored. And his only reply was, "Gee, I... never thought about it like that."
I'm really PROUD of that.
(And it just goes to show how two people can completely agree on the FACTS yet reach wildly different conclusions in their JUDGEMENT.)
4) I just saw 'Inglourious Basterds' a couple of weeks ago. That is a kick-ass fucking movie, and possibly the best writing job Quentin Taratino has ever done. And that's saying something.
5) I'm trying to teach myself how to draw [better.] What do you think?
6) In the Case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled such that Corporations would no longer be limitied as to how much money the could spend trying to influence elections. Now... putting aside that it's basically self-evident how despicable and indefensible that decision IS, in their opinion the majority claimed that "the first amendment was written in terms of speech, not speakers" and that "Its text offers no foothold for excluding any category of speaker."
So... my question is... How the FUCK do you square that "logic" with those same justices' opinion in Morse v. Frederick (aka: Bong Hits for Jesus) where not only the fact that the "speaker" was STUDENT was particularly significant, but the fact thay his MESSAGE, one that the felt was 'obscene' or 'offensive' or whatever, was also somehow significant?!
I was under the impression, mistaken apparently, that it was most most important to defend "FREE SPEECH" when the speaker or the message was one that you DISAGREED with. I guess that's just a bunch of academic bullshit to these clowns. I so hate the Reactionaty Wing of the SCOTUS.
6) "Thank you" to ClassicLiberal, BTW, for giving me that term to call them!
7) Why is it that my web brower only ever responds really quickly when I mistype the URL I want?
