Oh great, now Charlie is trying to teach American history with fucking Monty Python clips! Oh well, it keeps him off of the playgrounds :1orglaugh
What Obama is saying is that successfully people should be ashamed of their success. Successfully people have taken their wealth from this country, not because they earned it by building a business, and he's going to take that wealth back! :disgust

Remember March 31 AL Gores's b day, he should get a gift and a card at the very least. Without that funding, you could of been the cool guy working at guitar center. :) Its not all gov and its not all free market. It goes hand in hand. If it wasn't for the gov. making college free in the 60's and 70's we may have never got a guy like Andy Grove who we all a owe a thank you too. its not cut and dry.
The middle class that most here come from was only made possible by gov funds after ww2. Medical innovation didn't boom until after medicare and the gov started pumping money into the system. Before that it was good home and die.

popcorn is ready for the next civil war ...:2 cents:

That's not true.

First off...I know you're joking about Al Gore (inventing the internet lol)

But if you think I would ever work for somebody else like that...no way. I would never be the "cool guy at Guitar Center" in a million years. One way or the other I would DO something to make great money.

Hell man...I started playing professionally in 1978. Always ran and owned my own bands. Usually 5 piece and always with a 3 man road crew. So I was always making money and paying people.

As for medical innovation not booming before medicare? Really?

I'll let Jonas Salk know that he didn't have anything to do with the polio vaccine. It was the govt.
And that Louis Pasteur guy from a few hundred years ago? What was he thinking by taking credit for stuff? lol

Medical innovation comes from the same place that ALL innovation comes from: The desire to get rich. The guy that finally cures cancer? He's gonna be a zillionaire and remembered throughout history.

Yeah I know that the govt. takes TAXPAYER (us, the people) money and is able to fund large projects. And it should. I have no quarrel with that at all. Some things are just too big to tackle without the funding.

But in every case it was INDIVIDUALS who had the brains, the skills, the ability, and the drive to make things happen.

And most times...as in everyday 24/7...most things funded by the govt. don't go anywhere and just end up costing lots of money.

And that's because the INDIVIDUALS who can really make shit happen are rare. Without that "one guy" in the mix...the govt. can spend money until the cows come home and nothing will happen (and they do)

I heard today that Canadians are now wealthier than Americans. I think that we should send Obama up there to raise your taxes and shut down your oil production and let America get back to business! :2 cents:

Rob, you KNOW that it's a very bad habit to try to introduce facts into a political discussion. History, like the constitution, is a "living document", which is shaped and molded to fit whatever the political view wishes it to be.


Shame on you. What are you? Some kind of "historical constructionist"?




.:2 cents:

Saw that today as well. They are taking advantage of their natural resources (oil and gas).

Damn shame that so many Arab countries are filthy rich too thanks to oil.

WE could be (God only know how much undiscovered oil reserves are here), but I guess keeping us poor and dependent on others is the best thing to do.

Im sorry I was wrong about electric but I stand by everything else.

The government isn't a "business"...It's government, of which Obama has almost four years experience in when it comes to the Presidency....

Also, since Romney has so much business "history", why won't he release that "history" on his tax returns?

You know I agree about the govt. being a necessary "evil". We do have to have a way to organize our society.

And I agree that EVERYBODY should pay taxes,...but equally. (income tax, in my opinion is b.s.)

My main problem is this: The govt. spends more money in a day than the biggest companies in the world make in a year. And it's NOT on roads and education and "helping" people.
Billions of dollars are spent on bloated administration jobs and bureaucratic horseshit and paperwork.
More are spent on giving "free" health care to Senators and Congressmen for life.

Untold hundreds of billions are spent on pork barrel projects (congressmen and senators funneling money back to their supporters)

And UNGODLY amounts are spent on wars and a giant military complex that isn't really needed...not to mention the "war on drugs" fiasco.

Nope...if our govt. just did roads and education and "GOOD" things...I would be happy. And we wouldn't be in debt.

But they are such crooks and so busy lining their pockets that it's just totally ludicrous.

And yet somehow...with the govt. completely bankrupt...they still find a way to "investigate" if Roger Clemens used steroids. WTF?!!?!?!

Show me this fucking "social contract" I signed fuckface. I must have been drunk. I don't remember it.

Those are all projects that were built for less money than our govt. of 2012 spends in a day.

BIG difference between the federal govt. (small and unobtrusive) of the early part of the 1900's and the over-reaching, over-controlling, over-regulating monstrosity that exists today.

NONE of those projects would even be allowed to be built today because of the governments own regulations. (witness the keystone pipeline)

This country need to end gerrymandering and institute term limits for a return to civility. Every politician votes to expand their base and weaken the other party's base. They then have to be the most extreme right/left in theie area or they are called "moderates."

Rather than make it a career. Limiting service to 12 years would be a good idea.

Just my opinion.

I'd like to see "one and done"

We don't need "career politicians" We need ordinary citizens serving their country and having a regular job the whole time and keeping their residence in their own home state.

Right now our govt. is run by full time bureaucrats. Not what was supposed to happen.

Actually, the guy who discovered the polio vaccine was part of a project set up by FDR that involved thousands of researchers, scientists, physicians, volunteers, etc. and he didn't make a dime off of it, it was never patented because the idea was to, you know, cure the disease, not become a millionaire. The guy didn't even like the fact that it made him a celebrity, he wanted his privacy.

Matter of fact, I don't think you can name one fucking inventor who was motivated by money. Einstein? Nope. Tesla? Died penniless after the money motivated Edison stole all his ideas and patented them.

This idea that the free market is the prime cause in driving innovation is bullshit.

It is the primary factor in driving innovation. "Necessity is the mother of invention". Now certainly, there are some discoveries/inventions not fueled by an immediate apparent necessity, but did they all come from government extortion (paid for by taxes)? No, Tesla in your case just did it because he had a genuine interest.

The idea that you need taxation to fund discoveries is debunked right here in this video.

Patents are only enforceable in a highly regulated market so I'm not sure you even understand what a free market is.

Denying the motivating force of economic incentives is ridiculous.

I never denied them, I said they are not the prime cause of innovation.

Downplaying the motivating force of economic incentives is ridiculous.

Better semantics?

LOL. Las Vegas was already inhabited long before the Hoover Dam.

But yes...Lake Meade is the only way it could have a couple of million people living out here now. But Las Vegas is the site of underground springs (which come to the surface here) and was an oasis long before it was a city.

And as I already pointed out...it was The Great Depression. Pres. Coolidge needed to get people back to work. So, they paid a private company to build the Hoover dam. That private company hired the thousands of people and did the work. Not the govt. But yes, the govt. funded it.

AND...as I pointed out already...that was back in the early 1900's. Fast forward to 2012...and our bullshit govt. CAN'T do anything like the Hoover Dam today. Matter of fact, IF they tried to build the Hoover Dam today: It would be voted down by Congress and banned by the E.P.A. (environmental protection agency).

That's what happened to the Keystone Pipeline. Thousands of jobs and billions of dollars into the economy lost because the Federal govt. has regulated everything to the point that nothing can be done.

Ziiiiiiingg

There you go. Without the Government industry would turn all the beauty spots into malls. Because malls make more money. :1orglaugh

Wasn't it the local Government who issued the Gaming Licenses for Vegas?

Without these controls elsewhere, no one would go to Vegas to gamble and it would turn back to the place it was before gambling.

List some of the major things the Government does and then tell us where and how you would cut them. Incidently a lot of Overseas Aid goes to despots around the world who bank it in US banks. And keep the country pro Western.

First thing is to make it smaller. Govt. employs so many people and there are tons of them who are bureaucrats who can not be fired and have high salaries and health and benefit packages that are through the roof.
That should NEVER be the way it is with taxpayer money.

Second...cut our military to the bone. We don't NEED to occupy Germany and Japan almost 70 years after WWII. And we don't need to occupy almost 200 other countries either.
The whole military complex is a gigantic money machine.

Third. Push the retirement age back. Everyone screamed bloody murder when it was suggested to move it to 68 before you collect Social Security. I think it should move back to 72 years old. When Social Security started people didn't live very long and 65 was reasonable. These days...Mick Jagger is 69 years old. People live longer and stay healthier and are able to work.

Fourth...get the govt. out of people's lives. We spend billions of dollars every year putting people in jail for...getting high. Or going after athletes for using steroids. And a bunch of other stupid things that the govt. shouldn't be involved in.

And then set a one term only term limit for all political offices. Get rid of these career politicians who don't even have a real job and are only in office to steal taxpayer money.

P.S.: Your knowledge of Las Vegas is way off by the way. The history of Nevada is far more interesting than you know and was based on individual freedom. When the government figured out how much money was being made here by the mob...that's when they moved in and took the whole thing over. Ask any resident of Las Vegas and they will all tell you that the govt. is far worse than the mafia ever was and steals us all blind here with licensing fees, fines, and regulations.

That sucks a bit..

That is because it doesn't work... Ever heard of Standard Oil?

Wow, just wow

America Fuck Yeah.

Hey Chef, you didnt make this delicious steak in your restaurant!!

Somewhere along the line someone else showed you how to do it, now I need to tax the shit out of your ass, period.