ASHERMAN WROTE:
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Thank you Frank for posting a short piece that demonstrates that you can present a clear argument in standard English prose. The piece does not represent any special insights or innovative thought, but is a strong personal opinion well stated. There is nothing in it to support your arrogant supposition that you are more intelligent, better educated, or more insightful than any other frequent A2K poster. Unpublished books don't count, half the people here have a closet full of rejected manuscripts. Letters to the Editor don't count any more than a posting on this thread. Editors of periodicals are more concerned with filling space than with only publishing thoughtful gems.
Your posts here are almost entirely short sneering insults directed at anyone who doesn't entirely endorse your own unsupported opinions. Even whackos like F4F and Pachebelle offer something (mostly foolish twaddle about conspiracies), while from your supposedly superior intellect we get, "anyone who supports the President is a bigger fuk'n moron than he is." Of course, I'm paraphrasing and writing a much more complex sentence than we've come to expect from you.
Now that we know you can if you take just a bit of time write something that contains an idea and not just the rant one might expect from a teenaged graffiti artist, why not use that vaunted intellect to compose postings that have some miinimal sustance? Hey, I might even read some of your stuff, and it wouldn't hurt you to read the opinions of those you disagree with once in a great while.
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Yes, indeed, Mr. Asherman. I agree. I DID ENJOY READING MR. APISA'S piece. it does not, as you say, present any special insights or innovative thought. It is, however, as you noted---a clear argument in standard English prose.
I must say that Mr. Apisa sometimes reminds me of the bullsessions in which I often engaged when I was attending the University. We invariably found that those who, for whatever arcane reason rooted deeply in their personal psychology, found it necessary to boast loudly and excessively, of their sexual conquests, while recounting the alleged names and places
of such encounters, were invariably found to be just filled with bragadoccio.
Mr. Apisa pathetic attempt at proving his writing prowess with his references to his many "conquests" appears to me to be quite similar.
BernardR wrote:ASHERMAN WROTE:
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Thank you Frank for posting a short piece that demonstrates that you can present a clear argument in standard English prose. The piece does not represent any special insights or innovative thought, but is a strong personal opinion well stated. There is nothing in it to support your arrogant supposition that you are more intelligent, better educated, or more insightful than any other frequent A2K poster. Unpublished books don't count, half the people here have a closet full of rejected manuscripts. Letters to the Editor don't count any more than a posting on this thread. Editors of periodicals are more concerned with filling space than with only publishing thoughtful gems.
Your posts here are almost entirely short sneering insults directed at anyone who doesn't entirely endorse your own unsupported opinions. Even whackos like F4F and Pachebelle offer something (mostly foolish twaddle about conspiracies), while from your supposedly superior intellect we get, "anyone who supports the President is a bigger fuk'n moron than he is." Of course, I'm paraphrasing and writing a much more complex sentence than we've come to expect from you.
Now that we know you can if you take just a bit of time write something that contains an idea and not just the rant one might expect from a teenaged graffiti artist, why not use that vaunted intellect to compose postings that have some miinimal sustance? Hey, I might even read some of your stuff, and it wouldn't hurt you to read the opinions of those you disagree with once in a great while.
***********************************************************
Yes, indeed, Mr. Asherman. I agree. I DID ENJOY READING MR. APISA'S piece. it does not, as you say, present any special insights or innovative thought. It is, however, as you noted---a clear argument in standard English prose.
I must say that Mr. Apisa sometimes reminds me of the bullsessions in which I often engaged when I was attending the University. We invariably found that those who, for whatever arcane reason rooted deeply in their personal psychology, found it necessary to boast loudly and excessively, of their sexual conquests, while recounting the alleged names and places
of such encounters, were invariably found to be just filled with bragadoccio.
Mr. Apisa pathetic attempt at proving his writing prowess with his references to his many "conquests" appears to me to be quite similar.
You both asked about this...I responded. Now you characterize it as bragging.
What a couple of jerks.
But I love ya both. You make me laugh and smile. I'm getting ready to go play golf...and I will reflect on how far under your skin I've gotten.
I love it.
The sequence was thus:
* Frank in many postings says in effect, "all republicans and conservatives are idiotic unworthy morons incapable of learning from me, so I won't stoop to provide any reasons why my opinion is rigtht and all others are wrong". Over a long period, Frank has been quoting posts from those he disagrees with before replying with sneers and personal insults. We have been constantly hearing variations on "Bush is a fuk'n moron", with no attempt to refute the posts that disagree with him and provide reasons for disagreement.
* A few pages back, folks began to ask for citations proving Franks contention that he's a widely respected and published writer. Since Frank has taken the position that he knows and understands more insightfully than others here, we asked Frank what career/profession/discipline it is that he is so renowned in.
* After a few days, Frank lists several citations where his letters to the editor were published in various magazines and newspapers. When one poster was unable to locate the articles cited, Frank insulted the man as incapable of doing incompetent research. I then tried to locate the cited articles without luck, because the articles were all 1994 or older and the magazines/newspapers don't have archives that far back. Oh well ....
* Frand discovers an old letter he wrote about medical marijuana, and posted it for us to read. We read and complimented Frank on his article, but were unimpressed with its insights. We asked if Frank wouldn't try to write as well and with as much substance here.
* Franks response, "Fuk you".
Time to stop letting Frank pull the strings. I strongly suggest that we send Frank to Coventry, refuse to acknowledge his posts until he can take part in a civil discussion. If the monitors won't reign him in, then we as a community should.
Unlocked!
Asherman: An eloquent and usually restrained poster who, obviously, was pushed over the edge by Apisa.
Apisa: The bizarre Agnostic who believes nothing but knows everything. Apisa, by his his own admission, has no beliefs, and therefore one must assume that he knows George W Bush to be a fu*kn moron, and the majority of conservatives to be fu*ckn morons as well. {Man, Frank gets around!]
Is there really any comparison between the value of Asherman's posts versus those of "He's a fuc*n moron" Frank's?
Now we must acknowledge that Apisa has some small cache because of the fact that three or four of the hundreds of letters he has sent to his local editors have been published. OK - BFD!.
It is painfully obvious that Apisa and his cute little devil icons are a pathetic answer to Asherman.
Locked!
Finn, just look at the state of the country after 6 years of Republican control. This certainly validates Frank's views.
The country has declined in many ways, and will continue to do so as long as the Republicans control things. Hopefully, things will begin to change this Fall.
I have had letters to the editor published. I am still an idiot.
Advocate wrote:Finn, just look at the state of the country after 6 years of Republican control. This certainly validates Frank's views.
The country has declined in many ways, and will continue to do so as long as the Republicans control things. Hopefully, things will begin to change this Fall.
What do you mean by the state of the country? Can you give an example of how it has declined under the Bush administration? It is rather bizarre that you would make a point like this without providing at least one example.
Health Care Premiums Have Increased by Over 50 Percent Since Bush Took Office. The cost of family health insurance has skyrocketed 57 percent since President Bush took office. The typical American family must now pay $9,950 per year for health insurance compared with $6,348 in 2000. [Kaiser Family Foundation]
Number of Uninsured Americans Has Increased Each Year. Almost 46 million Americans are living without health insurance. After decreasing at the end of the 1990s, the number of Americans without health insurance has increased from 39.8 million in 2000 to 45.8 million in 2004. A major cause is a decline in employer-sponsored health coverage: the number of people receiving health coverage through an employer decreased from 63.6 percent in 2000 to 59.8 percent in 2004. [Census Bureau]
Winter Heating Costs Have Risen by $438, or 79 Percent. The cost of heating fuels has skyrocketed, leaving American families unprepared to deal with unprecedented increases in heating bills. The cost of heating a home for the winter has increased by $438, or 79 percent, since the winter of 2001-2002. [Energy Information Administration, Short Term Energy Outlook, 12/6/05]
Transportation Costs for Families Have Increased by $1,322. Prices at the gas pump have jumped 55 percent from $1.44 per gallon in January 2001 to $2.23 in January 2006, while the price for a barrel of oil has more than doubled from $29.26 in January 2001 to $62.70 in January 2006. The average household with children will spend about $3,225 on transportation fuel costs this year, an increase of 69 percent over 2001 costs. [Energy Information Administration, Household Vehicle Energy Use: Latest Data and Trends, 11/05 and Weekly Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices]
College Tuition Continues to Skyrocket. Tuition and fees at four-year private universities have increased by almost $1,200 or 5.9 percent in 2005 and 32 percent since 2001. At four-year public universities, tuition and fees increased by 7.1 percent this past year and 57 percent since President Bush took office. [College Board, 10/05]
Housing Affordability Has Reached a 14-year Low. Median monthly home ownership costs, including mortgage payments, have risen nearly 5 percent since President Bush has taken office. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Soaring house prices and higher mortgage rates have put homeownership out of reach for more people than at any time in more than a decade
Affordability has long been a problem for low-income home buyers. But as home prices have marched steadily higher in recent years, many buyers with healthier incomes also are being squeezed." [Census Bureau; Wall Street Journal, 12/22/05]
Intreped, You're talking to the brick wall; all conservatives are rich and doing well economically. Only the middle class and poor are hurting. Middle class salaries are not keeping up with inflation, more are losing their health insurance, and the foreclosures on homes are now increasing dramatically. The federal deficit will eventually have to be paid off, and guess who's going to pay? I guess conservatives will pass on their wealth to their children, so they won't have to worry about the largest federal and consumer debt in American history.
Vote republican in 2006 and 2008 to ensure the Bush legacy to destroy our country.
Anybody can quote statistics to illustrate things are terrible, or to illustrate they are pretty good. If it is terrible here, why are millions of people coming here from all over the world to find a better life?
Inflation in health care has been happening before Bush took office. When he took office, he had a few good ideas on this. Have these been passed? One big area would be tort reform, whereby suing over medical problems would be reduced, which would bring about several positive factors as a result. As I said, I don't know if anything has been done in this area?
In regard to energy, gasoline, and utility costs, Democrats have done nothing but throw roadblocks before any constructive plan to increase supply.
Imposter, I am not rich, and I am a conservative. I have always worked, and I have simply lived within my means.
See! I told you you were talking to a brick wall.
Intrepid wrote:Health Care Premiums Have Increased by Over 50 Percent Since Bush Took Office. The cost of family health insurance has skyrocketed 57 percent since President Bush took office. The typical American family must now pay $9,950 per year for health insurance compared with $6,348 in 2000. [Kaiser Family Foundation]
Number of Uninsured Americans Has Increased Each Year. Almost 46 million Americans are living without health insurance. After decreasing at the end of the 1990s, the number of Americans without health insurance has increased from 39.8 million in 2000 to 45.8 million in 2004. A major cause is a decline in employer-sponsored health coverage: the number of people receiving health coverage through an employer decreased from 63.6 percent in 2000 to 59.8 percent in 2004. [Census Bureau]
Winter Heating Costs Have Risen by $438, or 79 Percent. The cost of heating fuels has skyrocketed, leaving American families unprepared to deal with unprecedented increases in heating bills. The cost of heating a home for the winter has increased by $438, or 79 percent, since the winter of 2001-2002. [Energy Information Administration, Short Term Energy Outlook, 12/6/05]
Transportation Costs for Families Have Increased by $1,322. Prices at the gas pump have jumped 55 percent from $1.44 per gallon in January 2001 to $2.23 in January 2006, while the price for a barrel of oil has more than doubled from $29.26 in January 2001 to $62.70 in January 2006. The average household with children will spend about $3,225 on transportation fuel costs this year, an increase of 69 percent over 2001 costs. [Energy Information Administration, Household Vehicle Energy Use: Latest Data and Trends, 11/05 and Weekly Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices]
College Tuition Continues to Skyrocket. Tuition and fees at four-year private universities have increased by almost $1,200 or 5.9 percent in 2005 and 32 percent since 2001. At four-year public universities, tuition and fees increased by 7.1 percent this past year and 57 percent since President Bush took office. [College Board, 10/05]
Housing Affordability Has Reached a 14-year Low. Median monthly home ownership costs, including mortgage payments, have risen nearly 5 percent since President Bush has taken office. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Soaring house prices and higher mortgage rates have put homeownership out of reach for more people than at any time in more than a decade
Affordability has long been a problem for low-income home buyers. But as home prices have marched steadily higher in recent years, many buyers with healthier incomes also are being squeezed." [Census Bureau; Wall Street Journal, 12/22/05]
So, what does this have to do with Bush exactly? Seems like a legislative issue, not an executive issue. Perhaps you should take these issues up with your congressmen... oh, wait, your Canadian aren't you? Perhaps some Americans should take it up with THEIR congressmen.
Maybe I don't understand your method of politics. In most countries, the reigning party is responsible for whatever pluses or minuses the country enjoys or suffers.
Republicans are the majority party. Bush is a Republican. Does that mean Bush is the Majority party?
No. Stop blaming Bush for everything evil in the world. There are a lot more hands in the pot and they are hardly limited to Republicans. I would suggest the no incumbant ought to be re-elected. No candidate in New York State will receive my vote if they held the same office last cycle.
I really don't give a damn about Republicans or Democrats. Bush is an idiot, plain and simple.
If he is not responsible for anything, why do you have a President and what is his function?
Dontcha get it, Intrepid?? See, Bush IS responsible for the good that occurs under his watch, but NOT for the bad stuff. What're ya, ignernt?
Intrepid wrote:I really don't give a damn about Republicans or Democrats. Bush is an idiot, plain and simple.
If he is not responsible for anything, why do you have a President and what is his function?
More important than intelligence
is a politician 's ideology.
We need him to ( figuratively speaking ) pull the rope
IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION,
away from collectivism.
Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Castro n Pol Pot
were not denounced for being
stupid,
but for being
evil collectivists.
Perhaps the difference being that Bush is evil because of his stupidity. The others were just evil.
August 5, 2006
Job Growth Slackened Last Month
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Employers added jobs in July at a slow pace for the fourth consecutive month and the unemployment rate jumped, the government reported yesterday, offering the strongest evidence yet of a weakening economy.
The latest jobs report, coming on top of other signs of modest growth, persuaded most Wall Street analysts that the Federal Reserve's policy makers will not raise interest rates when they meet next Tuesday. That would end a string of 17 consecutive rate increases.
"I would be absolutely astonished if the Fed raised rates next week," said Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics. "The loss of momentum in the economy is all too evident."
The economy gained only a seasonally adjusted 113,000 jobs last month, in line with the average for April through June, and well below the first-quarter pace of 176,000 a month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
The unemployment rate, which usually moves in tenth-of-a-point increments, when it moves at all, jumped two-tenths in July, to 4.8 percent, the highest level in five months. Nearly all of the increase was among African-Americans.
Until now, analysts considered it a close call whether the Fed would continue with its rate increases, which have been aimed at preventing a gradually rising inflation rate from escalating further. But with the new data, the risk of a weakening economy moved to the fore.
Citing the jobs numbers on top of recent reports that housing and retail sales are slowing and business investment has dropped, some economists are now expressing concern that the Fed could push the nation toward recession if it were to lift interest rates much higher.
"The Fed has engineered a slowdown," Robert Barbera, chief economist at Hoenig & Company, said of the 17 rate increases that have brought the key short-term rate that the Fed controls to 5.25 percent, from 1 percent a little more than two years ago. "That will reverse the inflation pressures," Mr. Barbera predicted, "but it will do so as the unemployment rate rises."
Indeed, for the unemployed, finding another job is getting harder. The average number of weeks spent looking for a job grew by more than a week in July, to 17.3 weeks, the largest monthly jump since last August. At the same time, 1.3 million of the unemployed, or more than 18 percent, were out of work for 27 weeks or longer, an increase of 200,000 since June."The underlying economy remains strong," Edward P. Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, noting that hiring had expanded for 36 months in a row and that nominal wages were rising faster than before.
But pay for most workers is still not keeping up with inflation. Hourly wages rose last month for the more than 80 million production workers whose pay is tracked in the monthly employment reports, to an average of $16.76 an hour, up 7 cents, or four-tenths of a percent, from June. Over the last 12 months, this wage has risen 3.8 percent,which is nearly a percentage point more than in the previous 12 months.
But consumer prices have risen even faster, up 4.3 percent in the 12 months through June. So purchasing power has been lost, despite the raises.
Some analysts fear that workers will fall further behind. "Ultimately, a rising unemployment rate will translate into slower wage growth," said Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "But it takes a while."
Manufacturing lost 15,000 jobs last month. That sector has shed millions of jobs in this decade as factories closed, companies figured out how to make more with fewer workers and other work moved overseas. But lately the industrial job market has shown more strength than housing.
Despite last month's job loss, total employment of 14.2 million in manufacturing is slightly higher than last October, and the average workweek rose by two-tenths of an hour, to 41.5 hours last month, the highest level in six years.
"These numbers certainly say that manufacturing is still holding up," said Nigel Gault, chief United States economist at Global Insight. "I am hoping that the slowdown in business equipment spending in the second quarter was temporary and there will be a rebound in the current quarter, strengthening the economy."
The areas of greatest job growth last month were in health services; in a category known as business and professional services, which includes computer system designers, architects and engineers; and in leisure and hospitality, which means employment at restaurants, bars, coffee shops and catering operations.
The weak job growth over the last four months reinforced the view that the economy was now moving to a growth rate of less than 3 percent, which many analysts expect to continue well into next year. For some economists, including Mr. Shepherdson and Mr. Barbera, the slower growth suggests that the Fed should hold off indefinitely on another rate increase. But others said that higher inflation remained a risk and argued that even if the Fed took a breather this month, higher rates were still necessary.
"I don't think the Fed should stop," said Ethan Harris, chief United States economist at Lehman Brothers. "We have had four bad consumer price reports in a row and we think we are in for a period of higher inflation."
