It uses bankruptcy law Tom; seems like a very small distinction and certainly not one that is any different than the distinctions between sympathetic and unsympathetic bankruptcies on the personal level.
I am resigned to corporate bankruptcy manuvers and I'm of the opinion that any fair minded person who allows them (like you and I) should be supportive of similar freedom for individuals to use similar legal mechanisms. I consider corporations shedding their pension obligations under the same light as unions seizing the companies (though admissable the former is massively more common than the latter).
It is also flat out incorrect, mind. Businesses can and do enter bankruptcy, discharge debt, restructure and then emerge from bankruptcy very much alive. In fact it's considered a routine part of businesses; see for instance airlines entering into bankruptcy to shed pension obligations and the like.
Thoughtful post though somewhat disingenuous since it draws targets only on those forms of government programs favored by the left and implies that austerity ideally should come only in the form of cuts to such programs as if this is a matter of fact.
I'd note also that the timing is off considering how we're currently looking on as our neighbors across the pond appear to be sinking into a double dip recession (England) and a austerity death spiral (the continent) both largely because of subscriptions to austerity first policies.
What all the kerfluffle (admissibly from both wings) seems to conceal is that it's patently obvious (and politically unpleasant) what needs to be done to resolve the American fiscal concerns. That is that generally austerity does need to be deferred but such deferrals must be accompanied by structural reforms to the current system which will both increase revenues (toxic to the right) and moderate spending on government programs (toxic to the left and in cases of defense and red state subsidies the right as well).
I don't think I follow this. You seem to be simultaniously saying that it would be a desirable policy to kill the elderly yet also decrying the left for (you assert) wishing to do such a thing. Also the idea of the left wishing to make caring for elderly family members illegal so as to force them into government services is utterly outlandish. Do you have any examples of left/liberal politicians ever suggesting such a thing; heck do you even have an example of a leftish of any stripe proposing such a thing??
I'll admit, I've found the snapshot quite a satisfying product. As a car owner who drives only a relatively short distance for work and groceries and little much beyond that they eventually handed down their full 30% discount to me which doubtlessly is a factor in my esteem.
The other inconvenient part of it for Americans is that generally they commenced it and at very best it ended up a draw but uncharitably they got their asses handed to them. Not one I'd want to remember either.
I'm not sure if this is helpful or not mike but here's a recent article from right wingers in the right wing Washington Post no less pointing out that in the past several years the right/GOP has been doing it a heck of a lot more. Mind you they're probably statists but I don't think they're liberals so maybe there's some value to it for ya.
I sympathize, and certainly learning about the casting call from you is more grist for my "shaking your head in disgust at craven Hollywood execs" mill. But that's what Hollywood does; it takes interesting popular cultural phenomena and homogenizes them into lowest common denominator mass appeal products intended to create profitable franchises.
Controversial casting just doesn't fit their business model.
Theatlantics Chris Orr raved about it. Money talks also, it's made as much money just from foreign box office receipts as Green Lantern made in its entire run. I wonder if this is going to be a smash hit? Joss deserves it, I'll certainly be going to see it over the weekend.
All good questions Pyre. One of my own: why is Metropolis still standing? Even your mid range superman baddie knocks over a couple large buildings routinely before he's subdued. What the heck must the insurance rates in superhero protected cities be? Superman shaped hole in the wall insurance? Not to mention explosions! Everything in the DC universe has a tendency to explode when knocked about! Cars, computers, vending machines, industrial machinery, give it a whack with a flying superhero and BOOM!
I turned the Patriot off when Gibson got to the locking all the villagers in the church and burning them point. There's only so much bull one can endure.
It was a no win situation. Okay the book says Katniss has olive skin but that's not quite the same as making her african american, especially when the book likewise identified that Rue and her people 9unambigously african american) were different from Katniss's folks. Add in that district 12 was very clearly an appalacian mountain community and you really don't have much narrative support for an african american Katniss so casting Katniss as one would have been a mighty risky move. Hollywood is not ponying that kind of dough up to make a mega movie and then allowing any kind of risky choices like that to happen. They're a business; they focus group every line of dialogue for fish's sake.
Yes but they're boring documentaries about things like Vimmy ridge rather than dramatizations. Also up until recently Canadian culture has kind of viewed wars as unpleasant and not something to get very ra ra go team about. Though Afghanistan and the resurgance of the Canadian right has produced some rekindling of the warrior cultural ethos in Canada.
I appreciate the additional info. I was aware of the fooferaw about Rue but probably, like the good Doc, missed that Kastniss had been described as somewhat less caucasian than she ended up being portrayed. Personally I think Hunger Games didn't do a bad job and the Hunger Games books were somewhat vague about ethnicity in District 12. For Katniss herself I'm willing to allow a certain slack because it is Hollywood which means commercial considerations are also included. Perhaps they fudged the lines a bit there but I think what caught my attention was pairing HG with Avatar which was one of the most obscene white washings of character I think I've ever seen.
Then again I generally enjoyed the HG movies whereas my reaction on exiting Avatar was that I'd just watched Shamlan squatting and taken a gooey crap on a very enjoyable cartoon series for 240 minutes. So maybe my personal biases are coloring my impression.
Will H, most of the "waste" can simply be reused as fuel. This is not enormously economical at current energy costs and technology levels but if you want to dispose of the waste that is an option. Also waste "leaks" would be comparatively easy to prevent. Keep in mind that the volume of nuclear waste is enormously small, pipelines? Utterly unnecessary. Assuming we can't find the political will to simply re-use the fuel then you could bury it in a salt mine and entomb it until the politcal will comes around.
Certainly more "magic bullet" style reactors like thorium are a ways out but the Chinese and Indians are hard at work at those along with modern pebble bed and other passively safe reactor designs. Here in the US of course we would have little difficulty finding sites that aren't located on fault lines or in tsunami zones.
Heck, if all of that is unconvincing the Canadians have been using heavy water reactors for almost as long as the US has been using light water reactors with no significant accidents. Again economically not competative with fossil fuels right now (and in Ontario and Quebec they are practically drowning in hydro power) but if you ever had a brown out problem *poof* there are a lot of options available.
To heck with coal. I'd rather see predominantly nuclear baseload generation anyhow.
Also anyone predicting the environmentalists could cause brownouts is nuts. It won't be tolerated in the US. Environmentalism is well and good but if brownouts started happening with any regularity both parties would quite quickyl move heaven and earth to resolve it any nothing the enviros screeched would stop them.
Will, that is really fascinating, thanks for sharing it. I had no idea that coal scrubbers are used in that manner. As a collector of interesting info nuggets I'm deeply appreciative.
I disagree with Ryan on there not being significant different between O or R being in the oval office. But I do think we can debate it without being quite so mean Nob my friend. Lets try and be cheerful all this, it's just the League lefty club out here in the internet. There're no enemies in this discussion wot.
Well, based on what Romney has said he'd keep the policies that you criticize Obama for only amp it up to a much higher level.
It should also be noted that while Obama essentially swept the whole torture thing under the rug rather than dragging it out into the light to burn (a conflagration; mind that would probably have taken up much of his first term most likely) he did put a stop to it under his watch.
Romney is a firm supporter of the Bush/Cheney policies on that so you could presume that he would reactivate that entire horror show, especially since he'd need lots more intelligence for the new wars he's comitted to entering into.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “A Capitalist’s Love Ballad to Bankruptcy”
It uses bankruptcy law Tom; seems like a very small distinction and certainly not one that is any different than the distinctions between sympathetic and unsympathetic bankruptcies on the personal level.
I am resigned to corporate bankruptcy manuvers and I'm of the opinion that any fair minded person who allows them (like you and I) should be supportive of similar freedom for individuals to use similar legal mechanisms. I consider corporations shedding their pension obligations under the same light as unions seizing the companies (though admissable the former is massively more common than the latter).
"
It is also flat out incorrect, mind. Businesses can and do enter bankruptcy, discharge debt, restructure and then emerge from bankruptcy very much alive. In fact it's considered a routine part of businesses; see for instance airlines entering into bankruptcy to shed pension obligations and the like.
On “Stimulus first, austerity later”
Thoughtful post though somewhat disingenuous since it draws targets only on those forms of government programs favored by the left and implies that austerity ideally should come only in the form of cuts to such programs as if this is a matter of fact.
I'd note also that the timing is off considering how we're currently looking on as our neighbors across the pond appear to be sinking into a double dip recession (England) and a austerity death spiral (the continent) both largely because of subscriptions to austerity first policies.
What all the kerfluffle (admissibly from both wings) seems to conceal is that it's patently obvious (and politically unpleasant) what needs to be done to resolve the American fiscal concerns. That is that generally austerity does need to be deferred but such deferrals must be accompanied by structural reforms to the current system which will both increase revenues (toxic to the right) and moderate spending on government programs (toxic to the left and in cases of defense and red state subsidies the right as well).
"
I don't think I follow this. You seem to be simultaniously saying that it would be a desirable policy to kill the elderly yet also decrying the left for (you assert) wishing to do such a thing. Also the idea of the left wishing to make caring for elderly family members illegal so as to force them into government services is utterly outlandish. Do you have any examples of left/liberal politicians ever suggesting such a thing; heck do you even have an example of a leftish of any stripe proposing such a thing??
On “I Can’t Drive 55.”
I'll admit, I've found the snapshot quite a satisfying product. As a car owner who drives only a relatively short distance for work and groceries and little much beyond that they eventually handed down their full 30% discount to me which doubtlessly is a factor in my esteem.
On “Avengers, Culture, Wackadoodle, and Weekend Open Thread”
The other inconvenient part of it for Americans is that generally they commenced it and at very best it ended up a draw but uncharitably they got their asses handed to them. Not one I'd want to remember either.
On “Jonah Goldberg’s Very Small Penis : How One NRO Correspondent Plans to Kill Your Children, Eat Your Puppies & Sodomize Your Kittens”
I'm not sure if this is helpful or not mike but here's a recent article from right wingers in the right wing Washington Post no less pointing out that in the past several years the right/GOP has been doing it a heck of a lot more. Mind you they're probably statists but I don't think they're liberals so maybe there's some value to it for ya.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html
On “Avengers, Culture, Wackadoodle, and Weekend Open Thread”
Thank you Pat I need to find this comic! It will be read by me!
"
I sympathize, and certainly learning about the casting call from you is more grist for my "shaking your head in disgust at craven Hollywood execs" mill. But that's what Hollywood does; it takes interesting popular cultural phenomena and homogenizes them into lowest common denominator mass appeal products intended to create profitable franchises.
Controversial casting just doesn't fit their business model.
"
Well they resolved it in the end. All of Sunnydale fell into a pit. I actually thought it was kindof sad.
"
Theatlantics Chris Orr raved about it. Money talks also, it's made as much money just from foreign box office receipts as Green Lantern made in its entire run. I wonder if this is going to be a smash hit? Joss deserves it, I'll certainly be going to see it over the weekend.
"
All good questions Pyre. One of my own: why is Metropolis still standing? Even your mid range superman baddie knocks over a couple large buildings routinely before he's subdued. What the heck must the insurance rates in superhero protected cities be? Superman shaped hole in the wall insurance? Not to mention explosions! Everything in the DC universe has a tendency to explode when knocked about! Cars, computers, vending machines, industrial machinery, give it a whack with a flying superhero and BOOM!
"
I turned the Patriot off when Gibson got to the locking all the villagers in the church and burning them point. There's only so much bull one can endure.
"
It was a no win situation. Okay the book says Katniss has olive skin but that's not quite the same as making her african american, especially when the book likewise identified that Rue and her people 9unambigously african american) were different from Katniss's folks. Add in that district 12 was very clearly an appalacian mountain community and you really don't have much narrative support for an african american Katniss so casting Katniss as one would have been a mighty risky move. Hollywood is not ponying that kind of dough up to make a mega movie and then allowing any kind of risky choices like that to happen. They're a business; they focus group every line of dialogue for fish's sake.
"
Yes but they're boring documentaries about things like Vimmy ridge rather than dramatizations. Also up until recently Canadian culture has kind of viewed wars as unpleasant and not something to get very ra ra go team about. Though Afghanistan and the resurgance of the Canadian right has produced some rekindling of the warrior cultural ethos in Canada.
"
I appreciate the additional info. I was aware of the fooferaw about Rue but probably, like the good Doc, missed that Kastniss had been described as somewhat less caucasian than she ended up being portrayed. Personally I think Hunger Games didn't do a bad job and the Hunger Games books were somewhat vague about ethnicity in District 12. For Katniss herself I'm willing to allow a certain slack because it is Hollywood which means commercial considerations are also included. Perhaps they fudged the lines a bit there but I think what caught my attention was pairing HG with Avatar which was one of the most obscene white washings of character I think I've ever seen.
Then again I generally enjoyed the HG movies whereas my reaction on exiting Avatar was that I'd just watched Shamlan squatting and taken a gooey crap on a very enjoyable cartoon series for 240 minutes. So maybe my personal biases are coloring my impression.
"
Question: Avatar I get but Hunger Games? What character did they cast as white who was black in the books?
"
Hero made my hair stand on end. It was very very very Chinese and came from such an utterly different cultural angle that I found it outright erie.
On “Words And Phrases”
Will H, most of the "waste" can simply be reused as fuel. This is not enormously economical at current energy costs and technology levels but if you want to dispose of the waste that is an option. Also waste "leaks" would be comparatively easy to prevent. Keep in mind that the volume of nuclear waste is enormously small, pipelines? Utterly unnecessary. Assuming we can't find the political will to simply re-use the fuel then you could bury it in a salt mine and entomb it until the politcal will comes around.
Certainly more "magic bullet" style reactors like thorium are a ways out but the Chinese and Indians are hard at work at those along with modern pebble bed and other passively safe reactor designs. Here in the US of course we would have little difficulty finding sites that aren't located on fault lines or in tsunami zones.
Heck, if all of that is unconvincing the Canadians have been using heavy water reactors for almost as long as the US has been using light water reactors with no significant accidents. Again economically not competative with fossil fuels right now (and in Ontario and Quebec they are practically drowning in hydro power) but if you ever had a brown out problem *poof* there are a lot of options available.
"
To heck with coal. I'd rather see predominantly nuclear baseload generation anyhow.
Also anyone predicting the environmentalists could cause brownouts is nuts. It won't be tolerated in the US. Environmentalism is well and good but if brownouts started happening with any regularity both parties would quite quickyl move heaven and earth to resolve it any nothing the enviros screeched would stop them.
On “Jonah Goldberg’s Very Small Penis : How One NRO Correspondent Plans to Kill Your Children, Eat Your Puppies & Sodomize Your Kittens”
Pshaw you vanilla kiddies. Everyone obviously knows I was #1 in Jaybirds pool.
On “Words And Phrases”
Will, that is really fascinating, thanks for sharing it. I had no idea that coal scrubbers are used in that manner. As a collector of interesting info nuggets I'm deeply appreciative.
On “Conflicting Accounts of Obama’s Foreign Policy Achievements”
I disagree with Ryan on there not being significant different between O or R being in the oval office. But I do think we can debate it without being quite so mean Nob my friend. Lets try and be cheerful all this, it's just the League lefty club out here in the internet. There're no enemies in this discussion wot.
"
I suppose partially? But the difference between no torture and torture strikes me as more than a question of echoes.
"
Well, based on what Romney has said he'd keep the policies that you criticize Obama for only amp it up to a much higher level.
It should also be noted that while Obama essentially swept the whole torture thing under the rug rather than dragging it out into the light to burn (a conflagration; mind that would probably have taken up much of his first term most likely) he did put a stop to it under his watch.
Romney is a firm supporter of the Bush/Cheney policies on that so you could presume that he would reactivate that entire horror show, especially since he'd need lots more intelligence for the new wars he's comitted to entering into.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.