[extropy-chat] No Joy in Mudville

[Olga Bourlin]

From: "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey at yahoo.com>

> --- Olga Bourlin <fauxever at sprynet.com> wrote:
> > You know, I was thinking about this very thing today ... this "great
> > divide" that is pulling Americans apart is about freedom and control.
>
> > Loosely speaking (yet seriously speaking) Republicans in office today
> > want *control* over people, and Democracts want more *freedom*.
>
> This is so wrong I nearly don't know where to start. Democratic
> Governor-elect John Lynch here bused up teamsters to beat up republican
> campaigners, they vandalized campaign signs all over the state, and
> border jumped on election day to steal the election here.
>
> Before taking office he's announced he'll ban expansion of the Mount
> Sunapee resort to appease the tree huggers. He's proposed $800 million
> in new spending with no way to pay for it. He'll have to double tax
> rates to pay for it. Some 'freedom'.

An anecdotal story does not constitute proof.  Furthermore, I live in a
forest of skyscrapers, and have no alliance with "tree huggers" (whoever
they are).  Somewhat like the technique Michael Moore uses (except for the
"libertarian" side), you seem to like to puke out a litany of phrases that
you attribute to *all* liberals, but that activity ends up signifying
nothing.

If you want to talk *spending* (everything from the sacred to the profane),
observe:

the $8,000 tax payers spent on draping the Statue of Justice's
bare-naked breasts (this would be at the "sacred" end of the spectrum IMO -
but then I am a First Amendment absolutist) - furthermore, in your opinion,
is this "freedom" or is this an attempt to "control?":

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?artid=26&file=index&name=Sections&op=modload&req=printpage

the obscene costs of the Iraq war (and the incalculable cost of all the
lives lost):

http://www.costofwar.com/

http://www.ips-dc.org/iraq/failedtransition/index.htm

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

Even conservatively, $50,000,000,000 billion was the tab Wolfowitz
predicted:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraqwar/2002063971_iraqaudit15.html

While I sympathize with the Case of the Missing Campaign signs in your
bailiwick, what do you have to say about the lives lost in the Iraq war, the
costs of this war ... and the powerlessness of the dead?

Olga