quote:Originally posted by Unicorn Feelings: Boris. Sounds like you need a girlfriend buddy.
quote:Originally posted by Unicorn Feelings: I don't attack individuals
The irony! It burns, it burns!
I laughed so hard I think I hurt something....
I lived near Detroit, and it is one of the most humid places on the Earth. WAY too much surrounded by water, and it gets well over 100 degrees each summer.
I have never lived in Houston, but I would imagine it is the same, only the humidity lasts longer. MI at least has a winter. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Unicorn Feelings: I was like a block or two away when biggie got shot.
The Petersen Museum is over a mile from La Brea and 3rd (the mile from La Break to Fairfax, measured along Wilshire, IS the "Miracle Mile").
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by kmbboots: UF, there is a certain sense in many of the Calvinist branches of Christianity that worldly success is linked to being godly. See: puritan work ethic. Work was held up as a religious duty. This has often merged into the idea that if people were not successful, it was because they were lazy or ungodly. Charity was a good thing, but had to be applied carefully so as not to discourage work.
This was part of the theology of the people who founded this country. It is seeped into our very bones.
edit to add: Also see: prosperity theology.
Yes. The Protestant work ethic rules.
Being an Investor is NOT working.
But then, I am the crazy fool who doesn't believe Corporations have a right to 'Free Speech." ie Donating money to politicians. And you will never, ever be able to convince me that they deserve "Free Speech".
The Marlboro Man and Ronald Mcdonald deserve to be heard too!
Posts: 262 | Registered: Oct 2008
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As a writer, I am allowed to turn 1 mile into a few blocks, and turn "The Miracle Mile" into Hollywood. It's not like I said I lived in Hollywood and I lived in Orange County.
Ah, Los Angeles, If they say I never loved you, you'll know they are a liar.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Oct 2008
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quote:But then, I am the crazy fool who doesn't believe Corporations have a right to 'Free Speech." ie Donating money to politicians. And you will never, ever be able to convince me that they deserve "Free Speech".
How about the ACLU? Should it have rights to free speech? It's a corporation (two, actually).
posted
I think the core of the problem is that money is considered "speech." I see no problem with corporations speaking on behalf of themselves, but that recurring joke in movies where a scumbag says the protagonist is "talking my language" when he hands over a bag of money is a JOKE.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Unicorn Feelings: No. IF you are NOT a singular human being, you should NOT be allow to donate to political candidates.
SINGULAR AMERICAN ADULT HUMANS ONLY
(sorry for caps, the button is busted, look it is fixed)
I didn't ask about donating to candidates. I asked about free speech.
Anyway, I find your position to be antithetical to free speech, the right of association, and the right to petition the government.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
According to the Internet, Houston is more humid than Detroit, by about 18% (i.e. averages around 75% humidity when Detroit averages about 65%). Even weirder: they say Madison is more humid than Detroit, thus proving that you can't trust the Internet. Of course, it may just be that no one in Detroit, including public offices, can actually afford to run their air conditioning.
According to the same site, violent crime is three times higher in Detroit than Houston, so I suppose it depends how much being shot bothers you when compared to being sweaty. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Why should a Corporation, let us say, Citigroup, one of the largest corporations in the world is LESS than 50% owned by Americans, so why should a NON American entity be allowed to pay and petition our politicians?
Posts: 262 | Registered: Oct 2008
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Why shouldn't a group of people be allowed to contribute to political campaigns or petition our government?
If a group should be allowed to do these things, they why should they lose that ability because they choose to organize themselves in a convenient and efficient way?
Your non-American argument is a red herring here, unless your modifying your original objection to only apply to non-American corporations. Please clarify one way or the other.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Unicorn Feelings: Why should a Corporation, let us say, Citigroup, one of the largest corporations in the world is LESS than 50% owned by Americans, so why should a NON American entity be allowed to pay and petition our politicians?
Because they do HUGE business in the US, and the policies these candidates espouse directly affect their business. Because they employ Americans?
Why isn't being an investor working? Because they aren't digging ditches, or pretending to be able to write?
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Are corporations held to the same donation limits as individuals?
Corporations can't contribute money from their treasuries to political committees for the purpose of influencing a federal election.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
What if those 50 billion dollars in assets are plugged into infrastructure in factories, hospitals, workshops, and businesses that provide jobs and services?
Do you think that Christ requires that he force all those people out of work in order for him to find personal perfection?
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
UF, not quite a pot shot. Read the sentence that Kwea quoted out loud and tell me in isn't worded poorly.
Posts: 1711 | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Unicorn Feelings: It's an odd position to believe that a man should be able to have 50 bllion dollars worth of assets and believe Christ is King.
Jesus told the rich man to sell his possessions and give to the poor. The rich man, saddened, walked away with his wealth. And Jesus watched him walk away, and let him keep it.
It's not an odd position to believe.
Posts: 1080 | Registered: Apr 2006
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"Why isn't being an investor working? Because they aren't digging ditches, or pretending to be able to write?"
Looting the pension funds of people who have worked for a company for 25 or 30 years or more is not honorable. That behavior is what's being rewarded by investors. They encourage the current trend of companies hiring narcissistic sociopaths to be CEOs, who are willing to loot the pension funds of thousands of companies and make all the stockholders rich. Woo hoo. Frickin' good stuff. Seriously, man, after seeing so many 25- or 30-year blue collar workers in the NC textile and furniture industries laid off, with no safety net or pension or anything, I've got a little bit of a problem with this. My girlfriend's parents were both laid off from Unifi after 25 years with the company. Pension? Wasted on some CEOs bonus, and on a slightly larger dividend on the stock. Not just an smaller pension, none at all. Luckily they found other jobs, but they're in their late 50s. There's not going to be a pension for them from those new jobs. They'll have to work until their health fails, then eke out an existence somehow on social security and whatever their only child, my girlfriend, can give them. What a country.
Seriously, the excessive CEO compensation thing is really nothing but rewarding narcissistic sociopaths to be, well, narcissistic and sociopathic. I mean, I understand paying for performance, but that has gotten out of hand.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Kwea, I'm not trying to bust your balls. That stuff is just hitting a little close to home for me.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
And having Corporations DONATE money to politicians is lame, I would argue that money would be best spent on their employees.
...but hey, I understand the corporations deserve free speech too, and this might work in theory, kind of like the 'leave the markets alone and they will work perfectly". Sounds great! But the results are horrible, allowing corporations to pour money into politics is a disaster and it makes the constitution a joke.
Thomas Jefferson said that if we ever allowed corporations to come to America, they'd enslave us all.
Enron was the #1 campaign contributor to George W. Bush from his gubner campaign all the way to they collapsed. They had 88 meetings with W and the White House staff, in the three months up until their collapse.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and all the banks that failed donated billions to BOTH parties. Good for America? Good for people? or just good in theory?
Posts: 262 | Registered: Oct 2008
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"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
That's the closest thing to what Thor is talking about, I think. Which isn't enslaving us. At all.
But maybe that's not what Thor was referencing?
Posts: 368 | Registered: Aug 2007
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quote: Thomas Jefferson said that if we ever allowed corporations to come to America, they'd enslave us all.
He did?
I don't know if he said that exactly, but I wouldn't be surprised if he said something like it. Jefferson thought we should all be farmers, and that if our agrarian system was ever given up for an industrial one, we'd all be day wage slaves to aristocratic big wigs and companies.
To his credit, he was pretty much right until the 1900's came along.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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