The left likes to silence opposition in this way. Call people names, use the tragic actions of a deranged person to shame others into silence. It's deplorable, but unfortunately effective. Those are all great examples Whopper, keep it up. Any nut can take any expression of anger or opposition and use it to act violently, that doesn't mean the sentiment is wrong. It's silly to try and cast blame on anyone other than the perpetrator (and if he's as bats**t crazy as he seems, I don't blame him much either, although he still must be held responsible). Firing indiscriminately at strangers/children is not the actions of a sane person who was influenced by political rhetoric. Besides, wouldn't it be better to have evidence of such influence before concocting that narrative in your head?
I'm not so pessimistic about the dolla. I see the EUR/USD heading towards parity in a couple years. Currencies aren't my profession but that hasn't stopped me from playing the FOREX in the past; my friends in banking are just as pessimistic as you.
the dolla has already lost ~ 4/5 of its value vs. precious metals in the past decade.....if it was a stock it would be a penny stock....hard not to be pessimistic about a loser like that :grin: so parity w/ the EUR (if the EUR even survives) is imo irrelevant..
No, but it might be the actions of an insane person influenced by political rhetoric. Which is why all politicians (and media types with influence) have a responsibility in how they communicate with their audience. Its ok to express dissatisfaction with government. Its ok to be angry about government. But when making remarks to the effect that people should fight back with guns -- even if its figurative -- you need to start toning it down.
I think it's sad there was an attempted assassination and several innocent people died including a child and there are people who want to excuse the shooter as being crazy and ignore what incited him.
I largely agree with you and I think we are still finding out about what influenced him. As I said earlier from what little I have seen about Loughner his views seem outside of any standard political persuasion. That said I find the defense that Da Whopper and other posters are trying to do to deflect blame onto Democrats and the Left to also be jumping the gun and frankly strikes me as desperate. We don't fully know what motivated this guy whether he is Left or Right. I don't think he qualifies as either.
This is so conceptual, it will piss you off. The US was unparalleled when it came to creativity and innovation outside of the last depression. They might not have the cheap skilled labor market and resources that BRIC have, but they've got the knack for something new and something big. And the largest R&D grants in the world. And from this so-called depression all these jobless college grad students (the cream of the baby boomer crop went into finance, marketing, different types of business. No one wanted to be an engineer or comp techy competing with guys from India and China) are going to think of creating something, instead of just packing into the norm and living a comfortable life. They don't have the same options available to them as generations in the past. These guys are forced to take the road less traveled. Is it going to come in the form of a new sustainable energy resource? No. Will it come in the medical sector? Eh, possibly. Will it come from a physics/science related development? Yes, that's where my money is (and the big grants). And then the US will have a mini IT boom all over again. This likely won't happen in the near future, but the anticipation of something big is what will always keep the dollar afloat and moving upwards against currencies that are currently struggling. 30 million more cars in China, unemployment figures slowly dropping, as soon as energy demand goes up the backbone of America sits up straight and looks for opportunities to exploit. Optimism baby, the foundation of the USofA. I agree that the outlook for the Euro looks very bad.
If nothing else, pippen, the US always has the pharmaceutical and biotech industry to create jobs in the future. 12 of the top 20 global leaders in market revenue are American, and 7 of the top 12 in sales. And they dominate the R&D percentages.
the private sector is alive and well (and our only hope)... it's the public sector that is a disaster of historic proportions and for the time-being, even a hundred new microsofts and genentechs will not help us overcome
yup - and we also had rham emanuel saying "never let a good crisis go to waste". but there were plenty of republicans who talked about how another 9/11 would bolster support for the war or GOP memos about how we need another 9/11 to scare the american people into supporting bush - did you criticize those republicans who said stuff like that too or is it only bad when its democrats? did you criticize bill o'reilly when he invited terrorists to blow up coit tower in san francisco? what about dick cheney and PNAC who said in 1998 that we needed another pearl harbor in order to get the american people to support their neocon agenda? dont pretend like its only democrats.
I don't think da whopper is trying to say the rhetoric by the left inspired the shooter. I think first and foremost he's just trolling. Secondly he's trying to act like the left is just as guilty of using language that could incite someone to violence as the right is. But since the examples he uses only serve to highlight the fact that the rhetoric from the two sides are dramatically different, he's failed.
there will inevitably be booms going forward b/c there's money to be made that way. they will give the pikers (robbie? just kiddin bro :grin: ) some hope and take some sectors up and then sell out at the top. but the real trends and real $$$ to be made will likely lie elsewhere. to put it bluntly now, the NY markets are like a 33 yr old p*rn star on her last shoots before she has to retire to working in a hair salon or serving at IHOP
I've heard a Muslim friend decry the Tea Party Jihad that's being conducted. Why won't moderate Tea Partiers decry and stop the jihadist in their party?
I don't think we know what motivated the shooter at this point. I don't think it matters so much which side of the political spectrum the shooter felt aligned with. But I do think we can look at the rhetoric both sides are doing and should take a critical examination. It isn't about blaming but about taking responsibility in an effort to improve things. First of all I want to say that I believe that the mainstream of both sides of the aisle don't engage or believe in such rhetoric. It is only the extremes that do this. So while I am critical of the rhetoric I'm not trying to claim that one side in general is guilty of it only that extremes of both sides are. I will point out that I believe the mainstream of the right is guilty of ignoring or not condemning the type of rhetoric I'm addressing. There are comments from the left that are irresponsible as well. I'm thinking of congressman Grayson who compared the right to the Taliban. Despite this, there isn't an equal amount of irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric from both sides. Nor does the level of the left equal that of the right. Only extremes of the right speak specifically about using guns and bullets as being OK when the ballot turns out in a way that is unfavorable to their positions. It is only the extremists on the right like Sharon Angle, Joyce Kaufman, etc. that have talked about violence to political opponents as something reasonable or acceptable. None on the left in the recent election have done this. The two sides are not equal. One is more guilty than the other. Glenn Beck in some sick twisted idea of humor made a joke about poisoning political opponents. Sarah Palin used ill-chosen imagery in putting districts in cross-hairs. Those two however don't rise to the same level of advocating real literal violence. So, no matter what motivated the shooter I think it's time to call out those that are responsible for issuing insane extremist and violent rhetoric.
It doesn't seem that the shooting was politically motivated or connected to the Tea Party movement truth be told. The guys was obviously schizophrenic and probably his actions were a result of that. Doesn't seem like he could even have been inspired by the political rhetoric out there since he was so anti-establishment already, and it does appear he was more of a left-wing extremist than a right-wing one. In any case, it still delivers a message that words are powerful, and even if words of Palin and others didn't result in this tragedy this time, it could very well lead to it the next time.
In other words, even though this guy had no connection to the Tea Party movement or Sarah Palin, all dissent against Dear Leader Obama should be suppressed.
