money matters has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with national security in the mind of most conservatives - don't you get it?

I shouldn't be surprised (I grew up around fundamentalist religious types), but my jaw always drops at this kind of hypocrisy. I still have not stopped laughing/crying at the "in the 21st century nations don't invade other nations" line of McCain & co.

Ed Morrisey really thinks he is smarter than Glenn Greenwald. His readers think that too. How do you reason with that?

-- masaccio

I'm afraid that you don't or can't. Most of us here try to varying degrees. But for a perfect example of someone who thinks they are smarter than Greenwald, we are constantly exposed to Elephantman, who is undoubtedly one of the stupidest people on the planet if you were to judge him just by what he displays of himself in the comment section of this blog. I don't know who he really is or if he is not as stupid when it comes to, say, changing a tire. But Elephantman not only posts the stupidest stuff imaginable but frequently laces his posts with what he thinks are insults intended to convince us that he is smart and we are the stupid ones.

His latest RW windfall of talking points is about American military deaths in Iraq as opposed to crime deaths in - of course - Chicago. You see, Elephantman's impressive stupidity isn't what really gets my hackles up. What gets my hackles up is that Elephantman is prone to using any and every corner of human suffering if Elephantman thinks that it will not only make his point, but that it will make those he is arguing with seem stupid in his mind.

Remember the movie Shindler's List? There was a scene where a little boy ran from the Nazi's and then hid in an outhouse. When he heard them coming closer he jumped down into the muck-water of the outhouse. I think of that scene sometimes while reading the comments of Elephantman. He makes me feel as if I have had to jump into a sewer in order to get away from his vile glee for death and suffering.

You ask how a human mind can avoid recognizing that it is now saying precisely the opposite of what it has said for the last eight years. There is an answer in today's Salon, as it happens: the article by Burton about fixed opinions and incompetence.

The task ahead for intelligent and competent people (they are not always the same, of course) is to figure out how, without infringing on basic human rights, to keep the boneheaded bozos from positions of power and influence.

Have always despaired of the anti-thought of my country. In this culture, to be intelligent and capable is to be mocked and marginalized, not respected. It isn't just anti-intellectualism. It is the opposition to any intelligence or learning whatsoever.

Stupidity is not a moral failing. Willful ignorance is. It is, in fact, to echo Daffy Duck, despicable.

Oh and BTW did anyone see Bill O'Reilly getting in a huff about Sarah Palin's email being hacked? Now his own website has also been hacked, and he's in an even bigger huff!

"I'm not going to mention the Web site that posted this, but it's one of those despicable, slimy, scummy Web sites," O'Reilly said.

In a subsequent O'Reilly show, he argued with a lawyer about the legality of Wikileaks posting the Palin e-mails, and said that the site was "trafficking in stolen merchandise." Although the lawyer pointed out that as a news organization Wikileaks is covered by the First Amendment, O'Reilly was not swayed by her arguments.

"We have no privacy left, there are no libel and slander laws anymore -- you can do whatever you want," O'Reilly said. "The Web site knows the law and says, "you know, I'm going to do it anyway because I'm daring you to come get me."

WTF? This is Bill O'Reilly, the man who has led the GOP sleaze campaign to push slander of political opponents as far as it can go!

Link at sig, as ever!

The "inhumane" option is when life dishes you up the kind of personal kick in the teeth that leads to an on the spot conversion. Unfortunately, it only applies to the specific kick-in-the-teeth-circumstance; ie; the learning doesn't transfer.

You know I speak from experience. Not only is it non-transferable, sometimes it isn't very durable either.

"Ruffini advises every Republican to vote against the bailout. blow up the entire economy with deregulation, then hang the fix on the Democrats. Clever." --ttb-01

Bwah ha ha!

OK, so first, did anyone tell him we can all see what he's writing there?

And second, does he really think (for a moment) that he's going to be one of the folks who survives the real meltdown he suggests the Republicans cause?

Google is your friend. I didn't find the 2002 youtube clip, but you can see the text of the speech here:

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/63172

and here -

Free Housing Market Enhancement Act, July 16, 2002 introduced by Ron Paul.

They weren't listening then, why will they get it now. At least he tried.

Congressman Ron Paul

U.S. House of Representatives

July 16, 2002

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Free Housing Market Enhancement Act. This legislation restores a free market in housing by repealing special privileges for housing-related government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). These entities are the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie), and the National Home Loan Bank Board (HLBB). According to the Congressional Budget Office, the housing-related GSEs received $13.6 billion worth of indirect federal subsidies in fiscal year 2000 alone.

One of the major government privileges granted these GSEs is a line of credit to the United States Treasury. According to some estimates, the line of credit may be worth over $2 billion. This explicit promise by the Treasury to bail out these GSEs in times of economic difficulty helps them attract investors who are willing to settle for lower yields than they would demand in the absence of the subsidy. Thus, the line of credit distorts the allocation of capital. More importantly, the line of credit is a promise on behalf of the government to engage in a massive unconstitutional and immoral income transfer from working Americans to holders of GSE debt.

The Free Housing Market Enhancement Act also repeals the explicit grant of legal authority given to the Federal Reserve to purchase the debt of housing-related GSEs. GSEs are the only institutions besides the United States Treasury granted explicit statutory authority to monetize their debt through the Federal Reserve. This provision gives the GSEs a source of liquidity unavailable to their competitors.

Ironically, by transferring the risk of a widespread mortgage default, the government increases the likelihood of a painful crash in the housing market. This is because the special privileges of Fannie, Freddie, and HLBB have distorted the housing market by allowing them to attract capital they could not attract under pure market conditions. As a result, capital is diverted from its most productive use into housing. This reduces the efficacy of the entire market and thus reduces the standard of living of all Americans.

However, despite the long-term damage to the economy inflicted by the government’s interference in the housing market, the government’s policies of diverting capital to other uses creates a short-term boom in housing. Like all artificially-created bubbles, the boom in housing prices cannot last forever. When housing prices fall, homeowners will experience difficulty as their equity is wiped out. Furthermore, the holders of the mortgage debt will also have a loss. These losses will be greater than they would have otherwise been had government policy not actively encouraged over-investment in housing.

Perhaps the Federal Reserve can stave off the day of reckoning by purchasing GSE debt and pumping liquidity into the housing market, but this cannot hold off the inevitable drop in the housing market forever. In fact, postponing the necessary but painful market corrections will only deepen the inevitable fall. The more people invested in the market, the greater the effects across the economy when the bubble bursts.

No less an authority than Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has expressed concern that government subsidies provided to the GSEs make investors underestimate the risk of investing in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to act to remove taxpayer support from the housing GSEs before the bubble bursts and taxpayers are once again forced to bail out investors misled by foolish government interference in the market. I therefore hope my colleagues will stand up for American taxpayers and investors by cosponsoring the Free Housing Market Enhancement Act.

And more recent views of Ron Paul here:

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst031907.htm

and a Youtube clip here, though perhaps not the one you were referencing

http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D99ed8reuX5I