Amen to that! I read people like Greenwald, Cooper, Anon. Liberal, etc. every day waiting for them to point out the bleeding obvious - namely that what's behind the erosion of a critical press, democratic governance, legal rights, and so on is capitalism (i.e. greed, corruption, however you want to put it). I suppose talking like this still sounds too Marxist for most Americans. But they'll have to wake up to it at some point.

I'm suprised they haven't flushed that down the memory hole. I would...

i'm sure there's a huge lineup of things being flushed down the hole right now, Ed, so it might take some time.

haggis trumps brawn. the baptist bible college trumps dartmouth.

As I've said before, Jonathon, these people - both the nimrods AND the Killer Billionaires - if left alone, fall into a category known as "terminally stupid." Some of both groups have the potential to be retrained, and therefore COULD be allowed to live. The rest? "Wipe them out... ALL of them." That's part of what being terminally stupid IS; if allowed to live, in their current state of self-enforced ignorance, arrogance, and pure uneducated stupidity, their continued existence endangers the lives of everyone else around them. Period. Most animals, when faced with the terminally stupid of their own kind, kill them. Humans seem to want to SAVE them. Except the problem with the terminally stupid? Some of them CAN'T be saved, because they choose not to be - and they can't EVER admit they were wrong. Once a terminally stupid person has painted themselves into a corner like that, and makes it impossible, down to the core of their being, to admit they were wrong, or to change anything about themselves, it's far more ethical to put them out of their own misery - and ours too - than to allow them to continue to blunder through life, leading others into deadly situations, and being a general danger to all. Until we, as a society, are willing to accept that - as ignorant as it sounds - sometimes, the old redneck phrase "he needed killin', sir" really DOES apply, and that option needs to be allowed (but not necessarily pushed), these nimrods and their Killer Billionaire masters will NEVER change - and neither will the current media system they support.

It's like having children - kids NEED to have a good healthy fear of their parents. Not abject terror, but a good healthy fear that - when those who enforce the rules know that you broke them (whether you were caught in the act or not), you WILL face consequences, and they WILL be consequences you're not sure you can handle. Spanking (not beating) a three-to-five year old -- one or two, hyper-quick, "Oh-my-god-where-in-the-hell-did-that lightning-bolt-come-from" swats, of the kind that scare the hell out of you, as a kid, and hurt more because you almost peed and shit your pants, but didn't, and THEN you realize you're caught, and it makes it worse -- THAT kind of thing tends to work on some kids. For others, it's the kiddie version of "solitary" - and we're not talking cards (that's solitare) - where they have to go sit in a corner, or on a "naughty spot" and not move, not speak, not interact with anyone or anything, for an indeterminate period of time (known internally to these kind of kids as "hell").

But as kids grow up, their punishment grows up too - paying rent or damages when you're a teen, to your own parents, because you already thought you knew it all - except you didn't. Being grounded (a version of "solitary" between "the naughty spot" and "being locked up with Bubba in prison"), having your teenage "rights" [privilages] like phone, car or computer use taken away, or even going to juvie lockup for a night are all bigger versions of the same kinds of punishments some (not enough, IMO) people get when they are kids.

Even then, some folks never learn as they grow. So the ultimate f-up deserves the ultimate punishment - period. Even some of the worst offenders seem to understand, if that kind of penalty possibility is legitimately out there, just the fear of it coming true keeps them just this side of terminal stupidity. Now, we're not talking about the American kind of "you'll be executed for that" so-called justice, where you sit on "Death Row" until you're 80, then die with your Depends on, as your lawyer fights your 90,000th appeal. No, we're talking about a real, honest-to-god chance that you could DIE for terminally stupid actions, shortly after you commit them. Many of the worst offenders in other places in the world that have that type of action/consequence system tend to have a bit more wisdom, and if they're going to break the rules, they try to do it in a way that affects the smallest non-affected group possible. It's not to say that somewhere else in the world, things are perfect - it's just that, in the U.S., in today's world, we seem to have the greatest number of people who are allowed to have that fatal confluence of ignorance, arrogance, and pure uneducated stupidity. Two out of three isn't a winning hand - but it also isn't terminal. Three for three, however, is the losers jackpot - and the KB's and nimrods have it in droves.

As long as they feel they have absolutely NO chance of having ANY consequences for their actions, they'll continue doing what they're doing, as would any terminally stupid animal.

Is there a solution without violence or death? I'm not sure. I used to think so. But the worse they've gotten, the more I see it as no. Their ONLY happiness and peace lies in the misery of any and all others. If the rest of us want peace - or some greater semblance thereof - then the terminally stupid must choose; learn or die.

I still have a big problem with getting rid of these people myself - but I see no real alternative, effective, longer term solution.

For now, I simply resort to killing the KB's and nimrod's hopes, dreams, opportunities, options, choices and legacies whenever I get the chance. The thought that "No one, of ANY consequence will EVER know you and your piddly-ass actions ever existed" usually does quite a number on a person.

However, should it come down to a choice of whether I or someone I love am killed (literally, or in the other ways mentioned), and one of the terminally stupid lives, or whether they die and I live - I'm doing whatever it takes to live. [That's known as self-defense, BTW, and usually doesn't make you Bubba's prison bitch.]

I usually tend to let those I see as terminally stupid know this about me, up front. They may think I'm crazy - but they usually tend to have a good healthy fear of me after that.
And then discipline becomes not much of an issue, and we can get to work on whatever subject I am tied together with these people to do - even if our goals are not necessarily like-minded.

A good healthy fear of doing wrong can be a good thing. It's just a concept that needs to be applied to the KB's and their nimrods more often.

Oh, well. According to Richard Dawkins the only reason living creatures communicate with each other is for manipulating others' behavior to their own advantage... Why would the Billionaires species be any different?

Not to worry, evolution will take care of it, one way or another.

When did "Nimrod" become a derogatory term?

John

John...I think Bugs Bunny is responsible for that.

Silversmith...If I was a praying man, I would pray that "Wipe them out...ALL of them" would no longer be seen as the solution to anything, by anyone.

Silversmith...If I was a praying man, I would pray that "Wipe them out...ALL of them" would no longer be seen as the solution to anything, by anyone.

Exactly. Advocating murder is never acceptable.

Nimrod? Such vulgar language unbefitting this website. My wife says I, people, undermine the public dialogue when I, we, invoke such profane name-calling.

Um... if it makes sense to kill the terminally stupid, what about the obviously psychopathic?

nice slope you got there, silversmith. too bad it's so slippery!

You guys carry on as though killing people was a bad thing. I'll admit, it can seem somewhat "extreme", but how else are you going to put the fear of righteousness into a community? Torture? Well, there's that too, I suppose.

OK, I'll assume J. Alva is just joking, but I'm with the others a bit put off by silversmith's homicidal rant. You don't need to extinguish the idiots, just defeat them politically. We live in a democracy -- an imperfect one, but one that has shown time and time again (sufragettes, labor unions, civil rights movement) that there are mechanisms for winning justice that allow you to win against the alliance of powerful & stupid without mass murder.

Does this happen as quickly as "our side" would like? No. But show me where it has happened better, and in a more peaceful (and hence sustainable) manner? (if you can, then there's the first place to look for examples for improving the U.S.). They've tried the "extinguish the idiots" approach in plenty of places, and it doesn't turn out well.