For those who want it all except to pay for it

I think that especially RS and LICC, who routinely spout nonsense on this board, should be particularly protective of people's right to say whatever they want.

Wrong, she advocated ethnic cleansing. Subsitute the African Americans and the United States in her hate speech and it's apparerent how there can be no room for such speech. She's also smart enough to know what the Jews who left Poland and Germany were leaving. Crematoriums and concentration camps.

Not really, RS, and I think your interpretation is a far cry from what she said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/06/ari-fleischer-helen-thomas-fired/

steve, are you that dense? Sure, she has a right to her opinion, but when that opinion is bigoted and discriminatory, others have a right to there opinion that such a person has no place in the White House press corps and should be fired.

And your trying to equate anything I (or rs) have ever said on this board to bigotry and anti-semitism is ignorant, mistaken, and idiotic. Par for the course with you.

Maybe you should be more careful before throwing around claims that people's statements here are the same as a person who just told a whole ethnic group to leave their homeland and go "home" to Germany and Poland, where they were slaughtered in the Holocaust.

RS, most of the world agrees with Helen Thomas, and even the British did in 1946.

One thing is to say blacks, who were brought here against their will 400 years ago, should go back to Africa, and another thing is to say that people who just emigrated to Israel have a right to move back after 2,000 years and kick out the people who have been living there because "God gave it to them." It's sort of like if I moved back to Albania and claimed it as my own because my ancestors were kicked out by the Muslim Turks.

That opinion doesn't make somebody an anti-Semite - most of the Jewish people I know and am related to agree with her.

And in either case - even in the case of blacks - if that's what you think you should have a right to say it. I certainly support your right to agree with Rand Paul, who believes that private-sector companies should be allowed to discriminate.

You're on a slippery slope when you fire people for what they say, LICC.

No, you really aren't on a slippery slope to fire a person for public comments steve, unless the person works for the government. This is above you, it really is.

steve has always lived in an idiotic fantasyland, and this proves it. Do you even know the history of the area?

"steve has always lived in an idiotic fantasyland, and this proves it."

Maybe you should be fired for that, LICC?

HAHAHAHAHA!

Helen Thomas just announced her retirement, right after the White House publicly condemned her comments.

Good riddens. Free speech does not protect hate speech.

The final shove out the door came after a denunciation from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who called her statements "offensive and reprehensible."

Gibbs added that her remarks "do not reflect certainly the opinion of most of the people here and certainly not of the administration."

Thomas was also denounced by the White House Correspondents Association, which said it was considering whether to boot her from her customary front-row seat at the White House press room.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/06/07/2010-06-07_helen_thomas_veteran_white_house_journalist_retires_after_controversial_israel_c.html#ixzz0qBgRDkJS

DId they model a cartoon character of her for some movie?

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/helen%20thomas%20AP.jpg

"You can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!"

She's 90, Elen Ratner on Fox said she should be forgiven claiming aged related sinility may have compromised good sense.

Some resemblance to Anne Ramsey of Throw Momma fame

When Bush was president, one of the "journalists" who was frequently in the press room was a male prostitute.

"LIC, I agree with you, but let's assume Tort Reform would only save 5%. Why wouldn't you want to save 5% on your budget?"

What makes you so sure the 5% savings would be passed down to the consumer? It could just be added to the doctor's or insurance company's profits and you would not see any savings.

When Bush was president, one of the "journalists" who was frequently in the press room was a male prostitute

Friend of Barney Frank?

ha ha, your so funny I forgot to laugh.

What makes you so sure the 5% savings would be passed down to the consumer

First get the 5% cost savings.....
Consumer has zero shot of reduced prices without it.

idiot....less than 5% is not 5%.

“It’s really just a distraction,” said Tom Baker, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and author of “The Medical Malpractice Myth.” “If you were to eliminate medical malpractice liability, even forgetting the negative consequences that would have for safety, accountability, and responsiveness, maybe we’d be talking about 1.5 percent of health care costs. So we’re not talking about real money. It’s small relative to the out-of-control cost of health care.”

Insurance costs about $50-$60 billion a year, Baker estimates. As for what’s often called “defensive medicine,” “there’s really no good study that’s been able to put a number on that,” said Baker.

In a letter to Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said changes to current federal liability laws would significantly reduce costs to health care providers and thus to federal government programs like Medicare and Medicaid that reimburse them for their services. The changes CBO looked at included a cap on non-economic damages at $250,000, a cap on punitive damages at $500,000 and shortening the statute of limitations for filing lawsuits.

Elmendorf told Hatch that liability costs, including insurance premiums and settlements, currently make up 2 percent, or $35 billion, of health care providers' annual spending.

Market down another 100 points. The leader of the regime's blue print for destroying the American economy proceeding as planned. 13 trillion in debt and you knuckleheads are worried about some old hag.

cc, so there is no study on the cost of defensive medicine. Meaning the costs could be enormous. Thanks for proving the point that there should be tort reform.

Stocks are down after Goldman sent FCIC commission a dump truck with 2.5 billion pages of documents and saying to Phil Angelides , "the ones you want are included". Are these guys grown ups?

its truly hopeless, isn't it?

no study = enormous cost?

no...

no study = no study.

if you look at the amount of tax money lost on "social programs" vs the amount of money lost on subsidies to huge, powerful corporations combined with the amount of money lost on tax loopholes and shelters for the rich, what pile is bigger? the one that's a pile of SH*T.
don't you see that they are BOTH govt handouts?
subsides to companies like MONSANTO and EXXON and HALIBURTON are destroying the planet beofre our eyes. somehow the biggest HANDOUTS go to the worst offenders.
american grain farmers were given huge govt handouts to produce 6 times more grain than the country needed. then we go to poor countries in places like africa where they don't like grain, they like rice. but we sell them our grain at an insanely low price, thanks to that big fat govt handout. sure enough they all buy grain, and the rice production dies out entirely in that country because we have manipulated their market. now we have no competition and have cornered the market, so we raise the price of grain. poor people starve and have no other options. US makes money and becomes more "powerful." cheering ensues. the govt is in bed with the MNC's and the MNC's are on top. do you see how this is a bigger problem?

Stocks are down because the regime hates business and is piling taxes, mandates,and regulations on business. The regime is also advocating Krugman's spending ideas. You know, we have to spend money to get the economy moving again.

Kind of silly, but an interesting take...

Everybody in the west knows the fabled effectiveness of weight-loss dietary programs designed around intense cardiovascular regimes which burn huge amounts of calories. The people who work hard, doing as much cardio as possible lose weight. Those that pump iron may get muscular, but they aren’t working as hard and they don’t lose weight, they gain it. The moral of the story? When it comes to losing weight, cardio works, weights don’t.

Yet life is more complex than that. In the real world, cardio workouts alone aren’t the failsafe way to weight loss. If you work too hard, you burn too many calories and your body eats your muscle which slows your metabolism down and makes you gain weight.

Brian’s tale

Let’s look at Brian. He’s a world class athlete. But he has been living high on the hog for quite a while. That wasn’t a problem until recently. Now, he is a bit bloated and fat and wants to go on a diet to lose weight to stay on his coach Hermann’s team. Three of Brian’s teammates, George, Jose Luis and Jose, are also in jeopardy of being cut from the team and need to lose weight. What should Brian do?

Well, Brian consults his sister Angela. She’s also on the team. While she has had a minor weight problem for the last ten years, she’s definitely in better shape than Brian right now. She tells Brian that she has dieted in the past and that the sure fire way to losing weight is working hard and burning a lot of calories in an intensive cardio program. Burning off calories has always worked for her.

Brian’s trainer, Dominque (DSK for short) tells him Angela is right and prescribes a tough cardio regimen for our friend. Brian follows the program assiduously. But rather than losing weight, he gains weight. What happened?

Does Jose Luis learn from Brian?

Jose Luis sees Brian’s experience and is petrified. His fitness coach DSK gave him the same advice. Now he’s not so sure this is the right thing to do. Looking around for answers, he asks his strength coach Rob P for advice. Rob P says "you’re working too hard and burning too many calories. Your body is eating into your muscle, which is slowing your metabolism down. And you aren’t strength training." Jose Luis is perplexed. "Wow I didn’t realize that you could burn too many calories. Rob P answers, "Let me explain how the body works. Your body needs a certain number of calories throughout the day in order to function, and more importantly for you, to maintain muscle."

Jose Luis cuts in with, “I don’t care about my muscle. What does that have to do with my losing weight?”

"Jose Luis, your muscle is going to be what regulates your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn throughout the day. This is known as your base metabolic rate. If you burn too many calories by over-training, your body starts eating your muscles as well as your fat, slowing your metabolism. The result is you lose strength, you end up gaining weight and you become weaker."

"Now I get it. But I’m not sure if I can do that. If people see me doing strength training and not cutting back when everyone thinks eating a lot less is the only way to lose weight, I’m going to be off the team in a hurry?"

"Good point. I don’t know what to say. Maybe you’re on the wrong team. Maybe you need to go solo, Jose Luis."

"Maybe."

Barry takes notes

Barry is not on Angela, Jose Luis and Brian’s team. He’s solo. So he doesn’t have the same constraints where eating less is the only way to lose weight. He has a lot more options than George, Jose and company. If he chooses, he could try strength training too. If he does just enough cardio and just enough strength training, he might be able to lose the weight without cutting into his muscle too much. He would be stronger and his metabolism would be faster. When he went up against Team Euro, he would win hands down.

But Barry is advised by Larry and Tim who studied physical fitness at the same school DSK did. And their recommendation to Barry is that he follow a similar high intensity cardio but muscle-losing program that failed for Brian and that Jose Luis is bent on trying tempered with a bit of strength training. Unfortunately, the cardio is too much and in all likelihood, Barry’s metabolism will slow. He will gain weight but also lose muscle. Who cares, though? It’s not like Angela and Jose Luis are gaining muscle. It only matters to Barry’s family who depend on how well he does to earn a living. And right now, it looks like they are looking pretty depressed.

Deficits, Spending and Taxes

Think of this as a tale of government spending and deficits. The longer-term goal is to reduce deficits as one would reduce weight. There are two ways to go about this. One is to cut as much spending as possible, the equivalent of a highly focused cardio regimen and its calorie burning intensity. The second is for the government to create jobs to increase GDP and the tax base while strengthening the competitiveness of the economy as one might pump iron to gain strength and muscle, increasing the metabolic rate. Clearly, if one over-trains by pumping iron and eating too much, one gains weight just as wasteful spending misallocates resources and increases the deficit. But, there are risks to cardio over-training which causes muscles to atrophy, slowing the metabolism and increasing weight where the economic analogue comes in the form of depression, the dead-weight economic loss of healthy companies’ insolvency, tax loss from high long-term unemployment, and ultimately higher deficits.

Read more: http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2010/06/the-cardio-diet-to-deficit-reduction-a-modern-fable.html#ixzz0qCWQIR31

What did Helen Thomas say to constitute "hate speech". Her insinuation that Israelis should stop killing Palestinians? If the Native Amerindians in North America had access to military might equivalent or greater to Israel's should they be allowed to "take back" their ancestral land and disposses or slaughter the millions in North America? Their claim is much closer in time than any the Jews have in Israel.

LICC: You claim that Steve is dense but it is you who are dense. You are not neutral and you equate resonable discourse as anti-semitism. You resort to ad hominem attacks not reason in furtherance of your religious agenda. And it is because of people like you that the Middle East continues to fester. Muslims feel unfairly treated and in large degree they have been shafted by US foreign policy courtesy of politically connected, well-funded radical Zionists and neocons who are as much terrorists as any Jihadist. Religion is being used as tool to justify control of land and resources for economic gain. The conceit of righteousness makes coexistence between Judaism and Islam impossible and the world suffers for it.

Let Helen continue, I agree. She represents the state run media very well. The regime thinks just as she.But they have to hide their convictions. The regime had to muzzle her, but I say let us hear more of her.

"“It’s really just a distraction,” said Tom Baker, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and author of “The Medical Malpractice Myth.”

Don't you think a law school professor would be biased in saying that malpractice suits don't increase health care costs?

Why do jews for for democrats?

How can you compare Jews emigrating into the territory for decades and agreeing to a U.N. partition of the land to create Israel and Palestine, having the Palestinians and Arab states refuse, and then Israel taking land in defense of itself from military attack, to your dumb hypothetical of Native Americans taking the land by force?

Why is it that the West Bank does not have all these same problems as Gaza? Maybe because the problems are the fault of Hamas, and that Israel must protect itself from thousands of rockets fired into its towns from Gaza?

Talk about dense . . .

Tort reform is harder to implment than most people think it is. The Georgia Supreme Court recently overturned the state's tort reform statutes after finding them unconstitutional. And this is Georgia, not some liberal pot smoking Blue state.

LIC: Reason is wasted on a zealot and that is the role you inhabit. You failed to address my points in any meaningful way and you lack understanding to process my contrasting analogy of Native Amerindians. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is not black and white, hero and villain.

Under common law there is a theory of "unclean hands". More pointedly the actions of the Israelis have been just as reprehensible as those of Hamas. The killing and maiming of civilians, invasion of land, the unnecessary destruction, bombing of hospitals, schools, water treatment facilities.

You depecrate so blithely. Unlike you, I would not categorize your statements as dumb, it would be more accurate to say self-serving and wilfully blind.

Lookloftsbk
When your neighbors insist on importing rocks and throwing them over your fence, pelting you and the family during summer barbecue, then we'll talk.

looklofts- you take a completely partisan view trying to justify terrorist attacks against civilians. You fail to address any of my points about Hamas, rocket attacks, the West Bank, etc. The fact is that the Palestinians in Gaza chose Hamas, a despicable terrorist organization, over peace. To compare Hamas to Israel is vile, and that viewpoint is antithetical to peace and the well-being of Palestinians.

Let's just say, that there will not be peace in the area because of the U.N. or some government's getting together. It will Happen when the Imam in Gaza and the Rabbi in the West Bank preach peace. The important thing is what is heard in the mosque and the synagogue.

I think we should hear more of palin. lots more. but not with the bullshit requirements she's imposed to try and limit the obviousness of her idiocy.

go tea party!

LOL. I knew you were a closet Palin fan.
Not me though. The woman is daft!

rs, the problem is that the un and some govts got together and CREATED the situation

oh rs. how sad that the irony was lost.

Riversider: And when you respond to their rocks by slaughtering their children and rationalizing it, I'll know exactly what you stand for.

I have sympathy for all human beings. I have Jewish friends, Iraqi friends, Palestinian friends and so on and on. This conversation stems from my interjection that Helen Thomas' statements did not constitute hate speech. At present, the discourse in America is heavily biased in favor of the Jews at the expense of Muslims and anyone who veers off message is snuffed.

For most of my youth, I believed in the moral superiority of Israel's claims. But their knowing slaughter of innocent civilians, women and children have disillusioned me. There cannot be justice without critical examination of the actions of both actors. Palestine does not exist in a vacuum. If we cannot talk critically about Israel, we cannot speak of justice with any certainty.

United Nations is a joke. When Turkey and Iran have the same vote, When Israel and North Korea have the same vote and Sweden and Syria have the same vote you know something is wrong. A democracy of nations where constituent countries themselves are not democratically elected is flawed.

And don't blame the U.N. for the partition of Palestine/Israel. That was Brittain who double promised it, but as bad as that was, the status quo was not accepted and neighboring countries decided to take matters into their own hands once the British ceded control.

that doesn't refute my premise

finallyjoy, what makes you think you can write Jews with no cap, you paranoid prick?

steveie, if some official piece said, "All gays should be in concentration camps", would your little mind cheer for the freedom of speech?

Great unwashed ELECTED Hitler and many others. Shame on you.

rs, the problem is that the un and some govts got together and CREATED the situation

You're premise suggests that Israel has no right to exist. I hope I mis-understood.

The Brits also gave us the House of Saud, among other wanders of oil fascist regimes. Bravo.

lookloftsbk, "I have (fill the blank) friends" is a classic nazi justification for being a nazi.
It will never die, right? The minute the Jews are lulled into forgetting, you'll do it again. With justification, sure.

Classy salut.

Clearly another multiple identidy asshole.

This is for looklofsbk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBJXtTIbDTo

I don't give a shit about class the way you see it, ar. Sorry.
steve, what's your answer?

Well I don't give a shit about penthouses. But calling someone vain and obnoxious because the tie their self-worth to their possessions is much different than asserting that someone is comparable to a Nazi and "will do it again" just because they look at both sides of the picture.

Again, classy.

Oh, and don't be sorry. I'm hugely glad we don't view things the same way. You make my skin crawl.

Wait...wait...

Could it be?

The next incarnation of penthouse lady?

Run for the hills.

ar, I really don't understand what you're talking about anymore. What vail and obnoxious? What penthouses?Are you just looking for a random fight?
Keep looking for "both sides of the picture", don't let me dstruct you.

Confirmed sighting.

There're a couple of people on this site who seem only to jump into any conversation just for the hell of it and keep barking and barking and barking... the lights are out, the crowd is gone... barking, barking...

Yes. Definitely. Showed up as commoner the other day and herself recently. Hi!! I like the writing mistakes. Although I don't know if they were calculated or stemmed from a high blood pressure moment.

Hilarious. Keep going penthouse lady.

Dstruct may have significant meaning actually.

ar, are you playing detective? I don't like to personalize my posts but just this once: I'm not a "herself", not that it's any of your business. What's your problem(s)?

Deeper and deeper. Can't help yourself, can you? What is the deal with this multiple identidy stuff?

Sure

steve, what's your answer?

Even Steve won't deal with penthouse lady.

Where is there any proof that Israel, to paraphrase, "knowingly slaughtered innocent civilians, women and children"? That is a lie made up by the vile and the idiotic to try to justify terrorist attacks against innocent Israelis.

Maybe Hamas should stop Palestinians shooting rockets from and hiding in schools and hospitals. Disgusting.

aboutready- answer rs' question, do you think Israel has a right to exist?

SE has devolved into an old time AOL chat room. Ultimately, a cesspool of idle chatter and overwhelmingly useless information. Buy low, sell high. Good bye and good riddance.

And den dey eat da poo poo!

salut jews, christians,muslium,all without cpitals. Plus, leader of the regime is lower case.

aboutready- your answer?

interesting how lookloftsbk/steve/socialist disappeared but not before once again displaying where they stand on the issue of hate. oh wait they call it anti-zionism, plus they can say whatever they want since they have 'jewish friends' and after all israeli soldiers drink the blood of all those muslim babies they kill. another disgusting thread on SE

Can someone explain to me why the jews vote for the democrats? The regime thinks just like Helen and is full of radical jew hating leftists.

Because Jews of Eastern Europena descent that came to America had a socialistic background, emanating froma sense of social justice. Many of the labor unions, movements in favor of social and racial equality were started and/or supported by Jews. I'm sure it owes its origins to how Jews were treated in Europe and to teachings in the Bible.

"Can someone explain to me why the jews vote for the democrats? The regime thinks just like Helen and is full of radical jew hating leftists."

I'm Jewish, and I've never voted for a Democrat, ever.

And Jews supported communism in Russia because the Tzars treated them like crap, so obviously they'd support those trying to overthrow the Tzars.

But Jews who are still leftist today, despite the anti-Semitism on the left, are just being blind or stupid.

Yes, There are some Jewish Republicans. Eric Cantor probably would say the same as you.

Last election 80% of jews voted for the leader of the regime. My grandmother 99 years old always votes for the democrats and it kills me. A new dealer and loves Roosevelt. It as if the jews are brainwashed, I really don't get it.

"But Jews who are still leftist today, despite the anti-Semitism on the left, are just being blind or stupid."

it's an overly simplistic explanation. arguably rahm and axelrod are neither (blind or stupid) so surely there's a reason...

Rahm and axelrod are power hungry leftist. Socialist first, jews and americans last.

so much evidence of parallel universes here

Let the record show that aboutready considers the State of Israel a problem created by the UN and some governments.

I think you should stop

The leader of the regime is giving senior citizen $250 to buy their votes. Another example of the regime's extreme corruption and generational theft. The old people lap it up and the young get screwed again. The bankrupting of America. 13 trillion in debt and counting

julialg, I thought your party's party line is that a dead president won the election by giving dead people free cigarettes in a dying city.

alanhart.. I don't have a party. I am not a sheep or lemming. But, address the issue of the leader buying voted with another $250 to the aged.

Why do you talk like a robot?

julialg, you can most easily understand $250 if you just think of it as 125 hits of crack.

alanhart I agree. Good point. On a more interesting note. I saw Eric Johnson at the Irdium last night. Best guitar performance I have ever seen.

"Why do you talk like a robot?" cc You are like a welfare state troll trapped in purgatory. Only allowed to express yourself in a hidden dark grey.

wow. that must be some REALLY good rock.

What is "Eric Johnson"? The name sounds dirty.

Google him, educate yourself.

wrong johnson... Mr. Erect Johnson offed himself by jumping off the cliff after having killed a worker at a porn farm after he (erect johnson) was let go for "poor" performance.

Now where was the International Guild of Porn WORKERS union in all of this?

You can call me Ray, or you can call me J, or you can call me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny,
but you doesn't have to call me Johnson.

(sorry I couldnt resist, everytime I hear Johnson I think of that routine. It's like Roger Rabbit having to break out...."Two.... Bits!" from hearing...."shave and a hair cut.")

truthy... you are our go to "movie" line guy... but plz refrain from quoting "TOP GUN"

One year I had three over the hill MDs who thought it cool to quote TOP GUN quotes all day LONG. Almost drove me insane....

Actually I'm referring to what I recall being either a Saturday Night Live bit, or possibly a Dr Pepper commercial?.... I remember the guy doing the talking having a Keith Hernandez 'stache...
But Top Gun?! From what scene?

BTW, Quentin Tarantino's take on Top Gun was brilliant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzY9a-WmE6o