Friday, March 06, 2009
Joe Biden's powerful mojo
Joe Biden exerts a gaffitation pull on tangible things, warping them into objets de gaffe by the sheer power of his affiliation with them, however attenuated it may be.
16 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Mar 06, 10:57:00 PM:
Just a comment on your last video, regarding the new tax increases. Thanks. It was very good to hear another point of view. Someone actually posted it on Facebook and it started a lively discussion.
I noticed in your profile that you enjoy war movies, like "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Great Escape". Good choices. Have you ever served in the military? Because I have, and I know a few guys currently blind and amputated who sacrificed a bit more than a measly tax increase. I even know a few six feet under who "sacrificed" everything for less than $20k a year and you know what? That 20k got taxed too. We all worked 18-hour days and had no time off, only we did it because we loved our country - not because we were pursuing entrepreneurial dreams. Are they not both worthwhile goals?
You seem like a thoughtful and intelligent man, and I'm glad that our country breeds fine individuals who can pursue their dreams. I just wish they wouldn't bitch so loud until they have something to bitch about. I don't like taxes either, but I'm glad my taxes gave my friends a place to stay - a plot in Arlington. Think about that next time you want to whine about taxes that we voted for. The President told us he was going to do this, this is no surprise.
Thanks, and good luck in your ventures.
By 
TigerHawk, at
Fri Mar 06, 11:15:00 PM:
Of course, I was not whining about taxes. To the great irritation of many of my conservative readers, I accept the need to pay more of them and said so in the video. I was complaining -- whining, if you will -- about being demonized. There is a difference between being called upon to serve in recognition of your contributions and told that you must give back because you are greedy. I understand service to country, even in the paying of higher taxes, but object to the Democrats painting me as unethical or immoral because I do not delight in it.
And, no, I would not dream of comparing my sacrifice to those of service men and women. I'm not even saying that people like me have sacrificed in any meaningful way. Only that we made choices along the way, often choices that others would not make, that have put us in a position to drive a lot more economic growth and create a lot more opportunity for ourselves and others than most people. In my morality that is a virtue, not a sin.
By , at
Fri Mar 06, 11:36:00 PM:
I apologize then, sir. But a suggestion; you may want to go back and listen to yourself - and then read the comments. If your message was that you did not mean to whine about taxes, please pardon me, but you failed as a communicator. I'm sad to say, that is the message I and most of the viewers took from it.
And we Democrats, and yes there are a good number of Democrats who served in the military, do not "delight" in paying taxes either. Nobody was "demonized" until they made an issue out of it. It flat-out sounds terrible to imagine so many of our fellow Americans, wealthy and poor alike, millionaire traders from Lehman Brothers and Drywall installers in Phoenix, out of work and worried sick about their families and their futures, while we complain about "being demonized". That may be the disconnect. Many of these folks, proud Americans, highly educated, highly skilled as well, now must suffer the "demonization" of being forced to take the dreaded and feared "hand out" in the form of unemployment, welfare and food stamps. These are our friends and brothers, and they have been humiliated and hurt, and they must suffer in silence because they have no voice. These are not fools or leeches, they are US!
Now we, the educated ones still lucky enough to have jobs that pay us healthy incomes, to have the doors still open for our businesses, must honor them by accepting the unfortunate circumstances of these taxes with quiet reserve. We do not like it, I don't believe anyone does, but we must not insult their suffering or the suffering of anyone not as fortunate as us by complaining about any element of our blessed lives, either the higher taxes, as many thought you were, or the stereotype, as you say now.
This, I believe would be more productive.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Mar 06, 11:42:00 PM:
So... 'don't complain when the state seizes your wealth, at least you aren't dead.' Is that the essence of it?
How persuasive.
And this: "We all worked 18-hour days and had no time off," is patently false. No one can sustain that kind of optempo. Leave accumulates at a rate of 2.5 days/month and you often get off work on federal holidays. Even when you're deployed there are quiet days and the brass usually throws you a week or two of R&R to decompress in a friendly country. I don't know if you're a veteran or not, but don't overstate your sympathy case.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Mar 06, 11:52:00 PM:
What a martyrdom complex... is this how all socialists think?
And does it go both ways? When I wreck my own finances in the future, do I get to ask for handouts? Special exemptions, to be rescued from the consequences?
Will you be ready to pony up 30-40% (or more?) of your wealth again? How about in perpetuity? Because it isn't really *my* fault, you see, or my responsibility. It's society. It's the economy. It's foreign competition. It's malign special interests groups. It's Wall Street. It's those evil fucking Republicans.
And don't you dare complain about it, either, even when your taxes go up to 45%, 50%, 62%. After all, at least you're still alive!
What garbage.
By , at
Fri Mar 06, 11:56:00 PM:
Perhaps I was one whom you read whining about taxes. And the reason for the whining is that excessive taxes destroy jobs and crowd out productive private sector spending with unproductive public sector spending. The ones who suffer most in that instance are not the wealthy, but the middle class and the poor. Taxes hurt the middle class because they hurt American business, which is largely small business employing the vast bulk of the middle class in my native community and also where my own business is situated today.
It is the rich who like high taxes- because they keep the neighborhood homogeneous, well-kept, and safe. It is the wealthy who can plan their way around taxes, with generation skipping trusts like the Kennedy's have so famously used to preserve wealth. If the wealthy voted predominantly Democrat, as they did, in the last election, it was out of perceived self-interest, just as the middle class voted GOP.
If Obama cared, truly cared, about protecting and preserving the livelihood of middle class American, his policies would be vastly different.
By , at
Sat Mar 07, 12:05:00 AM:
TigerHawk -
You have allied yourself with a very impressive set of fools.
Dawnfire82, we got into more trouble because of ground-pounding bigots like you than anything else in my two tours (I read your blog, you genius). You are the reason the right fell the fuck apart - and will stay the fuck apart. Nobody is talking about bailouts here, I'm talking about men who need help. Americans who need help, believe me, it happens to those who don't deserve it.
By MTF, at
Sat Mar 07, 12:21:00 AM:
Of course bad things happen to good people, and none of us are immune. So, I would ask you to leave off the foolish talk, it demeans you and your service, and instead concentrate on what's being said by those with whom you are conversing.
If you really do care about those Americans who need help, then you will be against higher energy costs, higher food costs, penalties on charitable giving, fumbling foreign relations with allies and enemies alike (especially those who might become enemies through amateur mishandling). You will support those Americans who work for the benefit of those, like you, who have served us and our country in the military. And, in doing so, I hope you will work against the destructive policies of the Obama/Pelosi administration.
By MTF, at
Sat Mar 07, 12:23:00 AM:
One more comment- good night sir. Thanks for posting.
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Mar 07, 06:45:00 AM:
Anon -
But a suggestion; you may want to go back and listen to yourself - and then read the comments. If your message was that you did not mean to whine about taxes, please pardon me, but you failed as a communicator. I'm sad to say, that is the message I and most of the viewers took from it.
I did listen to it, several times. I think that virtually all of the nasty comments came from readers who clicked through links on several lefty blogs that characterized what I said. I doubt very much that most of them listened to the whole piece, perhaps because it was tedious for them.
By , at
Sat Mar 07, 08:04:00 AM:
Obama was clever with "95% - 5%".
"95% of you are going to get a tax cut. " "I'm going to do great things for you ... and someone else will pay for it." In effect, he was buying votes.
But the numbers don't add up ... we'll all pay in the end. We'll be a much weaker and more divided country as this will play out.
Link
By , at
Sat Mar 07, 09:12:00 AM:
Um, aren't any of you people concerned that the U.S. State Department apparently doesn't have anyone in the house who speaks Russian with enough fluency to have avoided this gift-gaffe?
As for the OT discussion on taxes, I'm with Tigerhawk. I pay a ton of taxes, and accept that I must do so, but for heaven's sake, quit demonizing those of us who have worked our asses off, put ourselves in debt getting educated (including the foregone opportunity costs of being in school rather than working), and now work hard to keep the engines of our businesses running because that keeps thousands of people working in good jobs with good benefits. Money doesn't grow on trees.
I swore off ever voting for a Democrat when Al Gore campaigned to demonize successful people -- how ironic was that by the way. I will never, ever, vote for a Dem again.
By , at
Sat Mar 07, 11:20:00 AM:
Is this what being an American is all about, service to the State?
But don't call it socialism, that's too kind.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Mar 07, 11:39:00 AM:
"Dawnfire82, we got into more trouble because of ground-pounding bigots like you than anything else in my two tours (I read your blog, you genius)."
Look, I've been demonized! I've been humiliated and hurt for the sin of having a different opinion. You fucking hypocrite.
Ground pounding, hmm? What were you, an airman? I'm sure your life was awful. And you sure were quick to change your tune and insult a soldier like those you were eulogizing earlier in order to sell your little socialistic pill. One who has *actually* lost friends to war and seen blood spilled.
I've never, ever known a real soldier (or Marine) to pimp their dead comrades to support his opinions on economic policy. It really shows your pride and appreciation for those in the service. Congratulations on your outside of the box thinking.
"You are the reason the right fell the fuck apart - and will stay the fuck apart."
Fear my vast, malign influence.
"Nobody is talking about bailouts here, I'm talking about men who need help. Americans who need help, believe me, it happens to those who don't deserve it."
Rhetorical bullshit. That's exactly what you're talking about. 'We need to help people financially, but it isn't a bailout!'
Bail⋅out
/ˈbeɪlˌaʊt/ Pronunciation [beyl-out]
–noun
2. an instance of coming to the rescue, esp. financially
Pfft.
By , at
Sun Mar 08, 10:00:00 AM:
TH, I wish you had an "ignore commenter" button on your blog because I surely would use it to block Dawnfire. From his crude political analysis to his even cruder opinions of women, he reads like an irate blowhard who is one insult away from going postal on the next person who deigns who disagree. He needs to back away from the curtain of late night commenting, and find some real friends so that he can learn how to engage in public discourse without offending. Honestly, I've yet to read one of his comments that doesn't.
In the meantime, I'll just keep scrolling past your impudent exhortations.
By Cassandra, at
Sun Mar 08, 12:57:00 PM:
Nobody was "demonized" until they made an issue out of it.
Bull. And I hate to knock you off your moral high horse "Anonymous", but my husband has completed 28 years of those long days you are whining about and countless deployments. Over the years (starting with his very first tour) we've seen so many friends and colleagues die it's hard to remember them all.
Big deal. Trying to guilt someone into agreeing with a frankly silly premise (that you possess the "right" to someone else's earnings) is the mark of someone who doesn't *have* a logical or coherent argument to put forward.
"Shame ... SHAME on you for not agreeing with me because I know dead people" is about the weakest sally I've ever heard.
Military folks volunteer to fight and die to enact the policy preferences of this nation. They volunteer for this duty. No one forces them.
They're not drafted and haven't been for decades. They can choose other jobs. That's the contribution they choose to make to keep society going.
TH never said what you CHOSE to do with your life isn't a worthwhile goal. If you bothered to read anything he's written over the last few years you'd realize he is a big supporter of the military.
Nice straw man.
And beating someone over the head with your military service as a means of telling them not to criticize the President about taxes he didn't vote for and thinks will hamper the recovery strikes me as an odd argument for someone sworn to uphold the Constitution.
If only all political speech could be damped down so easily: "Have you been in the military? Oh. Well then you have no reason to express an opinion about the government you support with your tax dollars."
