What else would you call that she did? How was it an exchange when the kids didn't get a chance to respond and are, presumably not intellectual equals with Savage? If no one knows for sure are you then saying that she is lying? The time honored tradition of lecturing kids running a lemonade stand? Really you don't see launching an ideological harangue at some kids handing out lemonade isn't being a jackass? Honestly I would just dismiss this but this type of behavior is a slap in the face to what is commonly considered decency. Seriously these are kids, not politicians, not political activists. Also while I don't have kids I am helping to raise two young cousins who have run a lemonade stand for money and also have given away lemonade and other drinks for free to people running road races. If some stranger started to lecture them about the ideology behind what they are were doing calling them a "jackass" would be at the mild end of my response.
Why does it have to be a lie? It's just a happening that has been translated to a newspaper column reading audience. The kids didn't respond. She didn't even, apparently, make a follow-up remark. How did she cut them off? NO-- the time-honored tradition of a for-profit lemonade stand. What lecture? A couple of comments... Launching an ideological harangue? A harangue is a pretty serious offense. Whatever, I guess. You seem stuck on envisioning this as a lecture. Get your cousins, act it out. You be the brother. Find someone to be The Savage. It'll all be over in 30 seconds. How can that be a Lecture or a Harangue... in 30 seconds. I'm off to Thai Food with my girls and some friends. Let me know how the reviews of your play go!
Terry Savage is giving her writeup for FREE on a publication she does not own. What is she selling? They gave her a corner spot in the publication for her to present her writing product. Am I a bad American for wanting to not pay to read her article?
RJ, are you trying to pick a fight? If so, do it over something worthwhile rather than my penury or generousity. Because I don't champion fighting as a sport nor imbibe with regularity is not an indicator of either. But, if it helps your sensibilities, then know that I am catering a dinner party Sunday for about 75 friends and family at a local banquet room and the expenses have already been paid ... by me. BTW, if you would like to attend, I would be happy to share the tab equally.
Yes, purely social, with a little politicking on the side. TEA will be served, you know, it will be served.
Most of my friends are Republicans. I can sympathize somewhat with someone who works hard, feeling that their money is being spent on things they don't want...I feel the same regardless of what party is in power. But to be such a fringey nutty ideologue that the idea of kids showing a little kindness and generosity giving away drinks on a hot day, instead of being little 24/7 small cogs in the great and mighty capitalist machine makes you as angry as the author is SICKNESS. I mean does anyone else get the idea that if this person has their own kids and they tried to share their toys they would get a CPS worthy "spanking"? "NOOOOOOOO, Johnny thats YOUR Baseball...bounce it off a wall by yourself....Susie has her own toys! DON'T BE A LITTLE SOCIALIST!!! WHACK!"
Why is every criticism of the writer so melodramatic? Unless the kids' last name is Summertime, they are not part of any machine; they are Little Entrepreneurs or are they Little Non-profits? Then there's the imaginary extrapolation into isolated play... Oh well. What the kids did is fine. I doubt the author really has serious issues with the kids either. It's something to submit for a deadline. You ever see a Free Lemonade stand in an upscale neighborhood? My fantasy for a business is adult-sized Schwinn Stingray bikes like I used to ride when I was a kid. Anyone giving those away?
Good God you have become drunk on Faux Kool-aid. Keep in mind that they can't even get through their tag line without a lie of monumental proportions. I would also have you keep in mind that the above was not to imply that MSNBC or any other organization is the grand arbiter of truth. I find all of the 24 hour "news" stations to be huge, steaming piles of dung interested only in their bottom line.
As fellow gladiators, we could go tit for tat forever. We each have our own beliefs, and I suspect we will each stick to them. However, we do agree on the assessment of 24-hour news stations so I believe there is room for an accord somewhere.
I like the principle of "keeping what you earn", but the way some on the far right consider welfare akin to thievery or slavery makes them sound like depraved sociopaths.
The author, Terry Savage, was described as follows: suspicious conspiratorial undignified compassion-less in need of a serious ass-kicking ridiculous (having) a stick removed from her ass and beaten with it b**** pompous idiotic ... and that's just from the first page of the thread! Over an observation about a simple lemonade stand? What melodramatic criticism did she level at those children that would compare?
"Keeping what you earn" is an oxymoron for a capitalist society where the accumulation of property or capital pretty much ensures that future generations of your offspring will never earn what they keep or vice versa. This is why I'm a proponent (At least ideologically speaking) of a 100% estate tax (but that is a fight for another day).
It is odd for kids to be just giving away lemonade for free. I could see how that would get under the extreme right's skin. Basically these kids are learning liberal values and will think that it's ok to give to people without getting something in return. The very notion that you'd pick up a piece of trash on the highway, help someone out, provide a glass of water to a thirsty traveler is sick and grotesque afterall and represents the ultimate failure of American Society. What are we, Chinese, Russians? Are we becoming a bunch of socialist commies. Is Obama turning our children into little Lennins? What's next - little boys doing paper routes without seeking payment? Mowing lawns and doing choirs without getting back an allowance? How will these kids grow up to compete in a competitive market place, one that requires the ability to disguise products and services as safe when they are in fact extremely risky. Who will be the champions of derivatives, mortgage swaps, taking political contributions in exchange for lack industry oversight? Who will stand up for oil companies against the EPA and those demanding compensation for well-oiled highly energetic beaches? Where will kids learn to cut corners, skirt accountability, and pillage natural resources unless they learn to use their parents resources to make money? If they give away those lemon mixed with tap water and sugar for free all they will learn that if you give people hand-outs than you will think that the gov't should also give out hand-outs. And what will happen? WHy the gov't would have to wear 300 million nipples for everyone to suckle on - just like they do in Europe. Just like it is in India and China - just look at all that suckling where those Indian and Chinese kids are kicking our kids butts. Why? Because instead of focusing on selling lemonade we are giving it out for free. While the Chinese and Indian kids - why, they don't even have lemonade to give away! If they did, surely they would sell it in upscale neighborhoods that Terry Savage frequent. And some day - and this is the real risk here...you will ride by, and the kids serving lemonade won't be little girls offering up raspberry lemonade, it will be curry and sweet n' sour lemonade served by the FOB crowd. Those foreign kids who took a free education and all those hand-outs and used them to learn how to out-lemonade sell us. Do we really want to see that happen?
