pie, Are you seriously suggesting that a public official can avoid oversight by congress by pleading the Fifth and that there should be no consequences whatsoever? I don't have time to look it up, but I believe there is a federal law that union officials lose their right to hold union offices if they plead the Fifth. Congress has legitimate oversight responsibility over the IRS. Lerner is at the center of possibly the biggest scandal in the history of the IRS. The idea that she can thumb her nose at congress and keep her job and perks should outrage anyone concerned about good government. The Fifth Amendment privilege is quite limited. It protects one from having to be a witness against themselves. It doesn't insulate one from scrutiny over their job performance. Obama clearly has grounds to fire her but doesn't. What message does that send?
I have never read Ayn Rand. However, a decade ago people told me I should read it all the time. I presume because I echoed some of her ideas. I did see the Atlas shrugged movie on netflix about 6 months ago. But, it seemed very shallow. Not sure if it was the production, the original work or the fact that the original work has seen so much copying that it has become a bit worn out.
How the media outrageously blew the IRS scandal: A full accounting Almost everything "reported" about the big Obama scandal was wrong, and no one has been held to account (UPDATED) By Alex Seitz-Wald Monday, Jul 8, 2013 12:00 PM MST "The first few days of the IRS scandal that would consume Washington for weeks went like this: Conservatives were indignant, the media was outraged, the president had to respond, his allies turned on him ⦠and only then, the Treasury Departmentâs inspector general released the actual report that had sparked the whole controversy â in that order. Itâs a fitting microcosm of the entire saga, which has gone from legacy-tarnishing catastrophe to... More>>
Thank you. This is precisely my point. Ricter classifies people into these little groups and is completely inaccurate in doing it. He did the same thing about me, saying I was for a return of the gold standard. He just makes shit up about people when the argument suits him.
soviet union, china, europe The party the drones in the soviet union. Same with the edge fo the iron curtain. in Europe from what I learned in my travels back in the 80s.. in the previous decades those with the govt connections got the schools and the jobs running the banks and other parts of the society. central america... you were either in with the govt and taking bribes, one of the powerful wealthy families or you were a poor drone. so I can't really think of too many lefty societies not containing thick castes. so you wish to give us some examples... I would be very interested.
just about all those states were formerly very socialist and then became less socialist. Which was not inconsistent with my statement while traveling in the 80s. Most of Europe if not all of Europe was getting less socialist. so of course they gained mobility. also as recently note the top 4 quintiles of the US. are very fluid. The problem is that since the 60s the U.S. has created and entrenched underclass with its liberal giveaway politics. I just read a paper on this... its seems that child hood stimulation and early schooling can sculpt a kids brain. So it looks like dumbing down our elementary schools is more a disaster than I even feared. We are destroying out people with the choices being made by the teachers unions and the schools systems.
None of that refutes what I said. They (remain) more socialistic than us, they collect more taxes than us, and yet they have greater social mobility than us (granted, the distance from bottom to top is not so great as ours).