Posted on May 11 at 9:24 a.m.

Without compromising your confidential sources, please provide the actual crime stats the city is lying to us about.

On Santa Barbara's Billion-Dollar Tourism Industry

Posted on April 25 at 9:13 p.m.

Defining "social planning" as being equivalent to "bozos" and "nanny states" is about as unthinking and absurd a false dichotomy as one could imagine.

Somehow it also isn't too hard to imagine foo voting for the most conservative, anti-"public employee union", pro-"business experience" candidate and claiming that his choice had nothing to do with "special interests" (a group that would of course include the other guys but not his guys) but was all about choosing someone who was independent, nonpartisan, and had no "narrow agenda" ideology, as if foo's positions were God's neutral, objective views of how life is supposed to be. I'll be voting my partisan ideology; foo will be voting his. One main difference between us is that I'm sensible and self-aware enough to realize and admit it.

On And They're Off

Posted on April 25 at 3:10 p.m.

yes, by all means no social planning. let's just let things happen at random.

and of course not compromised by being endorsed by someone foo doesn't like.

On And They're Off

Posted on April 17 at 7:59 a.m.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs...

Conclusion:

The Conservative-Liberal coalition’s recipe for turning things around amounts to more Thatcherism—more cuts in government spending, particularly welfare benefits; more privatization; more deregulation. So far, it has failed dismally; the limits to Thatcherism are more apparent than ever.

On Margaret Thatcher, Reaganomics, and Our Taxes

Posted on April 16 at 9:46 a.m.

Some practices are best left to the privacy of one's bedroom.

On Margaret Thatcher, Reaganomics, and Our Taxes

Posted on April 14 at 3:32 p.m.

"All of us are responsible for learning from the mistakes of prior generations," unless they derive from the economic policies promoted by conservatives, which can never be considered mistakes, even when they prove disastrously wrong, and always should be trusted to point the way out of the mess they caused. Anyway, just dismiss all that stuff and any other factual arguments about the issues at hand, because pensions. So be bipartisan, which means, sign up for the conservative cause, and regardless of where the argument begins, end up complaining about public pensions.

On We Need to Talk

Posted on April 14 at 2:24 p.m.

Hold a Republican president responsible for the effects of his policies? Deranged. Hold a Democratic president responsible for the effects of a Republican president’s policies? Fair and bipartisan. Evaluate a liberal economist’s judgment based on current facts? Can’t do it, facts might chage. Evaluate a conservative columnist’s judgment based on current facts? Must be correct, so facts, even of past failure, don’t matter. Challenged for comments on a particular topic? As the argument goes on, keep throwing in additional conservative flash cards, relevant or otherwise. Claim that history can do no other than prove you correct. Declare victory.

On We Need to Talk

Posted on April 14 at 11:23 a.m.

Instead of facts (e.g., prove empirically that Krugman is wrong and his critics are right, and show that Democrats support exploding deficits and want to handle them solely by massive tax increases), we get diatribes against those who actually remember which president was in office when the economy collapsed, along with attacks on public employees and their unions, teachers, and baby boomers, together with complaints about "ad hominum" defenses from someone who seems to believe he can achieve victory by using attacks that are fact-free and nothing but ad hominem.

On We Need to Talk

Posted on April 14 at 8:13 a.m.

ps. To make your trolling easier, since the most prominent Democrat is the President, just cite the places where he's proposing massive taxation and ignoring other ways to handle the debt, a debt he says he doesn't care whether it's out of control.

On We Need to Talk

Posted on April 14 at 7:41 a.m.

italiansurg

Please provide the sourced quotes where Dems say that we have "solely" a revenue problem and not a debt problem, that "out of control" debt is a benefit, and that they support "massive taxation without accountability."

On We Need to Talk