Uechi-Ryu.com

You can't generalize like that. There are any number of positions out there amongst the candidates.

That said... Few candidates - and certainly not Obama - have the cahones to deal with the inevitable future collapse of Social Security and Medicare. Third rail of politics my a**. Anyone ever heard of leadership?

The simplest early solution is to raise the retirement age. If all that wonderful Obamacare, Romneycare, or whatever is doing us all the good they claim, then we should have an abundance of increased life expectancy. Am I wrong? It's only fair - and fiscally responsible - to raise the retirement age a few years. A few more years giving and a few less on the take, and the spreadsheet balances. *

I'm ambivalent to privatizing social security. I'm certainly not going to see any of it. There aren't enough younger people to support it by the time I'm well into my retirement years. I saw the writing on the wall back in 1980 when my graduate adviser was showing us the math. Bottom line - don't rely on the government to protect you.

- Bill

* Just a touch of sarcasm...

No doubt. Wasn't my generalization, though.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/09/ ... 85866.html

_________________
Mike

Boneheaded, binary-minded press. God forbid anyone have a unique position or idea that doesn't fit a reporter's party line stereotype.

No worries, Mike.

- Bill

One of GWB's regrets, as he wrote in 'Decision Points,' was that he felt he didn't tackle his priorities in what he felt was the right order, given the political climate. He felt he used up too much goodwill on other fronts to get his SS reform passed. I'm not convinced he could have accomplished that anyway.

Bill, Herman Cain was on Fox News Sunday this morning (I'm really loving having a DVR now), and he got hammered pretty hard on his 9-9-9 plan. He defended it, saying people would only see the full effects of a 9% national sales tax, if people spent every nickle and dime they earned. Nobody followed up with the obvious: that's what most people are doing now. He also got hit pretty hard on where he came up with his plan, as he won't name names, whereas Romney got an up-front endorsement of the Romney plan from a Columbia professor.

Have you seen Cain's 9-9-9 plan? What are your thoughts on this vs Romney's plan?

_________________
Life begins & ends cold, naked & covered in crap.

Jason

My home computer isn't reading pdf files these days. I must not have the right Adobe update.

In my normal round of the Sunday morning talk shows, I caught the tail end of the Herman Cain interview. He was indeed evasive about his consultants, saying they were from private enterprise and had not given him permission to release their names. To be fair... My own company would not let me be part of any such endeavor (health care related) without me checking with them first. I mean I could do it, but... to my peril. Fortune 500 companies these days just don't have a sense of humor - particularly if you upstage the CEO.

I'm frankly not enamored with an endorsement from the dean of an Ivy League school economics department. I would be however if it was the economics department (NOT the uber liberal law school) from the University of Chicago. My brother-in-law is a grad of their MBA program. They're a different breed. (Brother-in-law did extremely well in his career, by the way.)

In principle a consumption tax instead of income tax makes a LOT of sense, so long as you don't include food and pharmaceuticals. It discourages the excess consumption we see here that drives our trade deficit, and encourages savings which the average person in the U.S. suks at doing. Alas these kinds of programs are very unpopular. And yet people don't have a problem with lotteries, which basically is a stupidity tax. Go figure...

I don't yet know enough about Romney's program to judge it. I'd still however prefer it over Obummer's program, which basically is to take anything Congress will pass and claim it as his own.

- Bill

Palin will jump in soon. She's been working hard to repair her position among independents. It's worked, as new polls show: http://tinyurl.com/3rk8vs6

_________________
Life begins & ends cold, naked & covered in crap.

I watched yesterday's debate, thanks to DVR.

Regardless of how I feel about DADT's repeal. Regardless of how I feel about people in the military flaunting their orientation. Regardless of how I feel about the question, or its place in a Republican Primary debate... I can't wrap my head around a Republican audience booing a soldier deployed in Iraq. WTH?

_________________
Life begins & ends cold, naked & covered in crap.

There are social conservatives who will never accept anything but traditional heterosexual relationships. And even if people tend towards more live-and-let-live attitudes, the media exposure seems to be excessive. The more media tries to tell us what is right, the madder they'll get.

Imagine these same social conservatives dealing on the one hand with Chaz Bono on DWTS and some other fellow getting his own TV show where he can talk about his 4 wives and 16 kids. While I feel for Chastity Bono and her gender issues and I wouldn't mind having 4 women running my household, I wouldn't for a second think that would mix well with Evangelical Christians and the biblical teachings they live their lives by.

It's a backlash, Jason. This soldier from Iraq is getting the brunt of some pent up anger that the media has no empathy for. They'd rather preach to us about more "new normal" ways, and collect advertising revenues as the predictable blowback happens. And I'd rather not be preached to by anyone about anything, so I totally get it.

- Bill

- From this blog.

_________________
Life begins & ends cold, naked & covered in crap.

Disagreeing with the booing, I still have a problem with Johnson's logic in opposing it:



I thought the whole point of the video question was that he was no longer being denied freedom of expression on that very issue. No, I think somebody missed the point entirely.



And people are calling POTUS a wimp? We want a leader. I don't see how caving into percieved peer pressure shows leadership.

_________________
Life begins & ends cold, naked & covered in crap.

In my opinion, Jason, all this is a distraction. People are concerned about getting or keeping a job and paying their bills in a difficult global economic situation, and folks want to make a big deal about social issues. I'm sure these issues are important to those who experience them, but Maslov would have a thing or two to say about the relative hierarchy of needs here. In the grand scheme of things I really don't give a damn. It doesn't have to be made an issue, and nobody needs to have their noses tweaked.

I'm sure those associated with actions that caused or perpetuated a dismal economy would love to have these social distractions as reasons to vote for their candidate. Sorry... I'm not listening.

As for the soldiers, I just want them to do their jobs and come home safely.

- Bill

No collection of crowds or happenstance is going to change the fundamental needs of our economy, and the clear dichotomy between the Republican consensus of how to fix it, and that of the Democrats. I get that, Bill, and I agree.



I don't see these things as reasons to vote for 'the other guy,' I really don't.



Amen.

Of the candidates, only two have really been out there promoting their economic plans. Perry says he has one on the way. The front-runner got sucker-punched with that straw-poll result. It's interesting that though Santorum handed out all the social red meat at the debate, it was Cain who plugged his economic plan and got the very decisive win.

_________________
Life begins & ends cold, naked & covered in crap.

Let the distractions begin.


But that would never stop a desperate politician.


Sigh....


Economy? What economy? Jobs? Who needs jobs? We've got social issues to stir up!

Don't get me started...

- Bill

You sure called it, Bill. Now it's all about some stupid rock Perry had no control over, because he didn't OWN the property, he was leasing it from someone else.


And Cain stepped in it with both feet.

Ugh.

_________________
Life begins & ends cold, naked & covered in crap.

Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned

So we have desperate politicians and a complicit press arguing social matters. Meanwhile in this morning's paper...



No, people, we don't have a sense of humor about it all.

This is feeling more and more like the tail end of the Carter era.

- Bill