GardenerNorCal's Comments (1098)

“The auto insurance argument makes little sense if any.

The purpose of auto insurance is to protect other drivers. The purpose of health insurance is cover one's self.”

“Prop 13 also allows a tiny minority of Republican representatives to block any tax increase, thus rendering your state an ungovernable mess. Also, if your home is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, you should not be paying taxes on it as if it were worth tens of thousands. That is not how taxes work.”

“ Sorry. Nothing is free.”

“The nature of coal is dirty getting it, using it and getting rid of it. It requires huge industrial capacity. Remeber, America doesn't have to import sunlight, wind, geothermal streams and rivers. It does not have to import conservation or technology if we get off the old grids, systems and technologies.”

“ It's not possible.”

“In an immediate sense it would not. The market has to go through a correction before it can become vibrant again. In the long term, with a strong sound currency, low national debt, good interest rates and sound corporate tax policies our country would be attractive for job creation and investment. This can be done without child labor or insane work place dangers and our people would have money that actually has value.

Right now our money is rapidly depreciating while inflation rises. Hence why everyone wants to dump dollars. Milk costs twice as much as it did five years ago. Ie. our money does not buy as much. It doesnt matter if we make 1 million a year if basic living costs are 1.5 million.

Our government policy just defies common sense. The idea that we will fix the economy by going into greater debt is silly. Report after report show that these measures are not working. We are losing foreign investors in droves. Our own companies would rather go overseas than stay here. All because we would rather go into more debt to temporarily stave off a market correction that cannot be stopped. At some point we will have to bite the bullet.”

“Why risk sending your children to Asian universities, where they could fall in love with someone from a lower economic spectrum, when you can send them to an American university where they can comingle with other Asians who were wealthy enough to foot the outrageous bill?”

“Yes. They did this to themselves. I would laugh be we lost our manufacturing base ourselves (with NAFTA, and other terrible trade deals).”

“supply and demand trumps social prejudice every time”

“Maybe exporting all your female children to childless couples on Manhattan's Upper West Side wasn't such a long term policy success, was it China?”

“You never can be sure if something prevented some other thing. I figure someone in the chain of command wanted these guys taken alive and pumped for information. I would want them thoroughly interrogated. I would hat to be in charge and pass these guys by and have it turn out that something was in the works that could have been prevented.
What I don't understand at all is why torture people? I believe, if you torture someone they are going to tell you whatever they think you want to hear so that you stop the torture. They are not going to give you any reliabe truth that way.”

“Perhaps you should have watched the history channel last night. they showed pictures of Japanese civilians on Saipan jumping to their deaths, taking their children with them rather than surrender. Saipan was tiny and only about 1,000 civilians killed themselves.

The scene was repeated on Okinawa.

Japanese civilians in Japan were being taught to fight to the death.

My wife's brother fought in the Battle of the Bulge, then through Germany into Czechoslovakia. He was going to be transferred to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan. Do I think dropping nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a better dead than having millions of Japanese civilians die killing our troops? Damn right I do.

Do not forget such atrocities as the Rape of Nanking. When some chines rescued some American pilots and crew after the Doolittle raid on Tokyo, the Japanese slaughtered 250,000 civilians as a lesson.

And do remember that the Japanese started the war in 1937, long before Pearl harbor.”

“It's easy to stick your nose in the air and tout your superior morals in the free world that has been handed to you on a silver platter, but the two attacks on Japan were celebrated by Americans nationwide. You can thank a soldier who killed on your behalf for your freedom to criticize. You won't...but you should.”

“Bravo.”

“Funny, when the Germans did it we called them concentration camps.”