wow... something to erally think about

[sk]

Balence and moderation brothers and sisters...balence and moderation

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

Bananas, aka monkey food, aka yellow potassium sticks, are necessary for rock climbers. Mangos are slippery and difficult to operate, not to mention they leave you with a large, unwieldy pit.

[sk]

perhaps, but mango taste like a little slice of heaven, although not the ambrosia that is a perfectly ripe nectorien

[Bug]

Mangos, bananas, and my personal favorite, coffee, all come to this country at an affordable price because of the poor schmucks who work for pennies a day. That pay scale is also why you will never see clothing manufacturers come back to the US en mass. Without some sort of global awareness we will be peeing in our own soup. Dipshits! We can no longer pretend we are able to exhist on our own. Or are you as willing to go back to making 50 cents a day as you are to shoot poor people?

[mattp]

quote:

---

Originally posted by thelawgoddess:

great cheese, superb wine, and more places to ski and climb.

---

But we sure need those. In a baaad way.

[allison]

Mangoes are a lot like sex. Think of the pit like the wet spot.

 

Bacon, well, merely a way of life.

[Jonathan]

Besmirch not bacon! Nature's perfect food. Along with ramen and tomatoes--real tomatoes, juicy, messy tomatoes, sun warm and just off the vine, not the supermarket variety that are strip mined in East Texas--true gifts of the gods.

 

Jonathan

[Dru]

quote:

---

Originally posted by sk:

I worked in a smal clothing store for 4 years. we sold all cotten clothes that were made in the US, and that was one of our main selling points because it is so rare and expensive to find clothing made in the US. so I guess my question isn't so much what do we need from other countries? but more, what are we willing to do for ourselves?

---

and the "US" the clothes were made in was probably puerto rico or guam....

[Dru]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Geek the Greek:

Try forest products....(that is, wood & paper, most of which is imported from Canucks and others). Or, we could just use less....

 

...yeah, like that'll happen!

 

I don't see a lot of bananas (most popular fruit in the US) grown here, either, but presumably they would be easier to do without.

The US economy would quickly collapse without the global network. If overseas investment in the US alone ended suddenly, it would send businesses spiralling to destruction here. It would be the end of society as we know it! Yay!

---

Bananas are not a fruit. Bananas are actualy a type of fish. They are yellow (just like goldfish) and come in bunches (schools) and even are long and narrow (like eels and pipefish)

 

The adaptation of the banana fish to its arboreal environment is one of the great examples of adaptive convergence and is often quoted in the literature as a rebuttal to creation scientists.

[salbrecher]

[Dwayner]

"..a man's voice, calm, accented with Zulu. Here's what he said: "It is high time that the rest of the world declared war on the United States."

 

Most of these hate-spoutin', flag-burnin', anti-American 3rd-World types can't afford a bus ticket to the next village, nonetheless, come over here and make mayhem. I'd like to hear more calm voices saying "let's not let our politicians pocket away or squander the millions of dollars in generous US aid money and let's build our economy so our lifestyles will improve and we'll be less angry and frustrated."

[Off_White]

Now hold on there a minute Dwayner:

 

Penniless immigrants are not as a rule welcomed into this country.

 

Most of those that come here want to be here, as their best opportunity to improve their lives. They aren't here because they hate the US.

 

The "generous" aid the US gives is the lowest percentage of Gross Domestic Product of any industrialized country. In terms of raw dollars, Japan has always given more up until last year as their economy continued to tank and we were boosted by the 600 million dollars we gave to Pakistan so they would be on our side in the Afghanistan war. In actual dollars, puny little France gives half as much as the US does. In terms of percentage of GDP, Ireland gives three times as much as us. And we don't give it away in ways that directly reach the penniless guy on the street.

 

That said, I gotta echo the earlier comment, c'mon, its talk radio, what do you expect? The term "war" also gets used pretty loosely: war on drugs, war on poverty, war on tooth decay... I'm not in the hand-wringing "we deserved this" camp, but there are reasons other countries are critical of the US, and its worthwhile to examine them rather than engage in knee-jerk "they hate our freedom" pablum spewage.

[Dwayner]

Brother White...I assume that much of what you wrote deals with many of the posts above cuz I didn't say nothin about the ingrate's living here. I don't really care what the percentages are compared to others, we're still damn generous...the fact is, we give out a lot of money, and not just government money, but a lot of private organizations as well. And if someone gives me even $1, if I accept it, I'm going to say "thank you", not "I deserve it so screw you and give me some more." I'd personally like to see more of that money kept here to take care of our own citizens who might be in an unfortunate and impoverished condition.

[Fairweather]

www.cdfe.org/offset_fund.htm

 

I am proud that our president had the balls to stay away from this whine-fest. Read the story.......what a bunch of f-ing euro hypocrites down in South Africa.

 

... and speaking of hypocrisy:

 

www.cdfe.org/daschle_logging.htm

[Off_White]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dwayner:

Most of these hate-spoutin', flag-burnin', anti-American 3rd-World types can't afford a bus ticket to the next village, nonetheless,

come over here

and make mayhem.

---

Thats the line that made me think you were speaking about immigrants, perhaps you were unclear.

 

And I just wanted to inject a little fact into the classic rant about "the government giving our money away to them miserable bastids over there" and how we are SO generous, when in fact, we're not. I'm not advocating one way or another right now, I'm just trying to point out what is, versus the political myth about how generous the US is. Its like McDonalds trumpeting about changing their fryer oil and at what fabulous cost, when the actual total dollar cost is high but the per unit cost is a fraction of a cent.

 

What exactly those US aid dollars are doing is a different topic, and I don't have any ready facts this morning. I have a sense we tend to prop up the status quo in regimes we deem "on our side" for strategic reasons when we could be doing more to promote democracy, which would do more to give that guy on the street a voice about who's doing what with the money. But, as I said, I don't have any figures handy so I'm just talking through my hat, and damn but its Monday morning and I gotta get to working...

 

Oh, and Dwayner, I know you've done more 3rd world travel than I have, I'd love to hear your observations on it some time, at pub club if not in print. Until Mickey time...

[Greg_W]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Geek the Greek:

Yeah, but I think Ford was wrong on that one. I believe he said that the economy would not survive if workers couldn't afford the products that they were making. I don't know why he said this - would the workers revolt?

---

Ford said this because he understood that the working joe (all of us) held the majority of the buying power in our country.

[Greg_W]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bug:

Mangos, bananas, and my personal favorite, coffee, all come to this country at an affordable price because of the poor schmucks who work for pennies a day. That pay scale is also why you will never see clothing manufacturers come back to the US en mass. Without some sort of global awareness we will be peeing in our own soup. Dipshits! We can no longer pretend we are able to exhist on our own. Or are you as willing to go back to making 50 cents a day as you are to shoot poor people?

---

You are a deluded moron.

[Dru]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Greg W:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Geek the Greek:

Yeah, but I think Ford was wrong on that one. I believe he said that the economy would not survive if workers couldn't afford the products that they were making. I don't know why he said this - would the workers revolt?

---

Ford said this because he understood that the working joe (all of us) held the majority of the buying power in our country.

---

yeah back in the day when the richest 10% only had 50% of the wealth (it's 10% have 80% nowadays... and rising)

[sk]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dru:

quote:

---

Originally posted by sk:

I worked in a smal clothing store for 4 years. we sold all cotten clothes that were made in the US, and that was one of our main selling points because it is so rare and expensive to find clothing made in the US. so I guess my question isn't so much what do we need from other countries? but more, what are we willing to do for ourselves?

---

and the "US" the clothes were made in was probably puerto rico or guam....

---

from what I understand the clothes were made in California.

[Greg_W]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dru:

---

yeah back in the day when the richest 10% only had 50% of the wealth (it's 10% have 80% nowadays... and rising)

Those 10% spend most of the money and pay most of the taxes in the U.S. What is this "hate-the-rich" class envy bullshit?

 

Greg W

[allthumbs]

It's a clusterfuck. I'm glad I'm just a simple moron with an agenda for frisky frolics. "Did I hear what? No dude, I don't own a television."

[Dru]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Greg W:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dru:

---

yeah back in the day when the richest 10% only had 50% of the wealth (it's 10% have 80% nowadays... and rising)

---

Those 10% spend most of the money and pay most of the taxes in the U.S. What is this "hate-the-rich" class envy bullshit?

 

Greg W

 

Actually, the rich save money, they dont spend it. The poor spend a proportionally much higher percentage of their income. If you want to grow the economy then its better to give money to the poor than to the rich, cause the money will continue to circulate.

 

and the rich have crooked lawyers to get themselves tax breaks - many of those rich pay noi income tax whatsoever cause they got all their wealth in Swiss banks or Cayman Islands or whatever. but go ahead and believe they pay taxes if you want - you can believe in Santa Claus and UFOs too if it nmakes you feel warm & fuzzy.

[Greg_W]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dru:

If you want to grow the economy then its better to give money to the poor than to the rich, cause the money will continue to circulate.

---

Handouts do not work (not in the U.S., anyway). People need to EARN a living and invest in themselves. WHy should I GIVE my hard-earned money to some shmoe sitting on his ass? That is highly offensive to me. Peace, Dru.

 

Greg W

[sk]

I have to agree with dru here. trickle down economics is a load of crap. And being that I am the working poor, I can garentee that saving is joke, and all of our income ends up back in cerculation. I don't hate the rich (envey maybe) but I don't think that giving the rich more money more tax breaks will help me in any way. there are some exceptions. There are people that donate to worthy causes and pay there taxes with out complaint. but for example if you own a house you get a tax break, if you are too pooor too purchase a house you can not benafit from that tax break. what I am most sad about is the dissapearance of the middle class. the fewer family wadge jobs there are the wider the divide between the rich and the poor.wich causes unrest and riots and strife. Look arround and you will see that I am correct. When the rich get so much richer and the poor are getting poorer the most poor revolt and become dissaffected.

[sk]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Greg W:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dru:

If you want to grow the economy then its better to give money to the poor than to the rich, cause the money will continue to circulate.

---

Handouts do not work (not in the U.S., anyway). People need to EARN a living and invest in themselves. WHy should I GIVE my hard-earned money to some shmoe sitting on his ass? That is highly offensive to me. Peace, Dru.

 

Greg W

---

I don't think hand outs work either. but there do need to be GOOD FAMILY WADGE JOBS available for people so that they are able to earn enough to LIVE not just survive.