Some Good Iraq News - For a Change

thats all just fine and dandy. now the iraqis want us to give them money to rebuild the areas/cities that we destroyed. what about us? how bout we get some funding to rebuild the cities in the usa we destroyed?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Nov 6 2007, 06:25 AM) [snapback]535452[/snapback]</div>

Considering your gift for metaphor I would think you would get the point regarding the destruction of US cities. What would you call the opportunity cost of expending over $10 billion dollars a month overseas to fight a war for God know what reason while relative to where we began our own citizens have reaped nothing from it except a staggering deficit? If you don't think the federal government has a responsibility to return its taxes collected to its citizens in the form of aid to cities then where should it go? Eighty percent of the US population or better lives in cities. Funny how what started as an appealing short term trend transmogrified to a well done turnaround worthy of accolades. Let's try one more metaphor...Take your utterly transparent axes and grind them somewhere else. You remind me of the clerks that say "sir" instead of "Go to Hell." You really think you're fooling anyone?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lefat1 @ Nov 6 2007, 09:44 AM) [snapback]535433[/snapback]</div>

:blink: :huh: :huh:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Nov 6 2007, 12:30 PM) [snapback]535563[/snapback]</div>

given basic fact: things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.

by putting $720,000,000 per day into the iraq war, that is the same amount we are not putting into rebuilding our infrastructure. therefore put $720 mill per day into war=take $720 mill per day that we could be spending to lets say, build better levees, aaaaa, maybe better pay to inspectors who inspect bridges, aaaaa, more pay to teachers, aaaa, more police, aaaaaa, anybody for border security, port security...if we're putting out and not taking in, we're destroying our cities by the examples above..i dont know about gotham, but last time i was there it was no hong kong, if u catch my drift.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Nov 6 2007, 08:22 AM) [snapback]535523[/snapback]</div>

If your argument is that since GDP is large, then the manner in which government collects and distributes taxes collected is irrelevant then there is not much more to say. You clearly don't have the data to make that assertion.

I'm not sure what you mean by play "Robin Hood" but ad hom attacks are simply more bluster.

How I feel about NASA is irrelevant. You are then one having trouble understanding the previous post.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lefat1 @ Nov 6 2007, 03:00 PM) [snapback]535745[/snapback]</div>

I think this is called "lost opportunity cost" and its a common valuation. If I got the term right, that is.

I understand the concept, but our legislators are voting in millions for pet projects in their home districts rather than addressing the serious issues of infrastructure. Buildings, museums and other projects that .... surprise! ... get named after them are not-so-subtle ways of lining the pockets of their contributors, cronies and friends. We should have a law that nothing can be named after a living legislator; once the guy dies, if you still respect as much as you did when he held the nation's purse-strings, by all means name your project after him.

If they weren't spending it on Iraq, they would be spending it some other way, but not on infrastructure. There is no pressure from the population to limit spending, and Dr. Berman and I are pretty lonely in the Republican Party with the departure of all the rest of the "limited government" conservatives. I suspect he and I could fashion a hit-list of entire cabinet-level departments that could be eliminated wholesale that would put the old Grace Commission to shame. Somewhere, we Republicans traded the words "limited government" for "compassionate", and in so doing created a much harder life for the very ones who were to be the subjects of all that compassion.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Nov 6 2007, 01:30 PM) [snapback]535563[/snapback]</div>

with some interpretive license -
depending on what 'we' means, if 'we' is a group of people who are the wealthy and privileged, then 'we', throughout the history of our cities, often ignored opportunities to use that wealth and privilege to improve the lot of 'them'. This, in turn, contributed to urban decay, poorer health and nutrition, etc.

It's sort of like the view 'the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence', but with an added twist - if I'm on the less green side of the fence and you're on the greener side, then YOU made the grass on my side less green, and furthermore, YOU are doing everything in your power to keep me on the opposite side from YOU.

Now there, doc - does that make you want to repent your evil ways and give me all your wealth and privilege???

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Nov 7 2007, 06:53 AM) [snapback]536062[/snapback]</div>

Actually, I'm not suggesting anything at all - just adding two cents to the kind of tangent that political discussions often seem to take here! One person makes an emotional reply to a post, then someone else tries to pick nits about the the 'factual' content of the emotional reply. From a 'logic' standpoint, the discussion evolves into a 'how many angels can dance on the head of a pin' thread - so someone else gets frustrated, and starts making other emotional replies that descend into personal attacks.

So, I was being sarcastic.

It looks to me as if your original post was intended to spread 'hope', not 'contention' (and I think earlier in the thread, Evan applauded such a presumed intention). I also applaud you for this - thank you.

My personal political opinions tend to be far different than what I believe yours to be, and I'm pig-headed enough that I doubt you'd be likely to sway those political opinions. But I get frustrated when threads like these descend into the arena of personal attacks, name-calling, etc. So, I repeat - thank you for expressing hope.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lefat1 @ Nov 6 2007, 06:00 PM) [snapback]535745[/snapback]</div>

Pretty strong words from someone who chooses to live in a region that is quite often hit by hurricanes and thus benefits from federal disaster aid.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Nov 6 2007, 07:46 AM) [snapback]535411[/snapback]</div>

It's been chilly in my hometown these last few weeks...confirming that man-made GW is a lie.