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In essense, the bullshit capitalist theories you embrace will not affect, at least not directly, the large majority of Americans.

Listen to this bullshit!

During a recession life pretty much goes on the same for those used to going without. Today we still have 47 million people without medical insuance, that does not include the underinsured. Your bullshit theories are nothing more than speculation. The folks hurting now are a minority, otherwise you'd see some bullshit plan to help them out. But who's getting help right now.

Banks.

Good bye pseudoscientist.

Thanks mate. It doesn't bode well for those our age as we will be going through our peak income years at a disadvantage. I have mostly invested in broad based index funds over the past 15 years and I have something to show for it but mot much more compared to a more conservative approach with more cash holdings. I haven't given up and I expect to ride it through but it will be difficult and take a long time for things to bounce back. My only debt is my condo, but thankfully we can still itemize mortgage interest.

Palo, you're left wing critique is not necessarily off base in that the movers of the economy reap the most benefits, with the help of analysts and lawyers who "play" the system, while the lower classes have to struggle along whether things are tough or not. The disparity between the really rich and working poor over the past 30 years is astounding. It does not bode well for our society. I like the tax plan Obama has presented as obviously I make less than 250K. He will also keep the estate tax, hopefully.

If you are filling your tank at $70 a pop, you better hope those investments work out.

National Review
Jay Nordlinger

What’s cool? &c.

Lately, I’ve had occasion to think about what is cool and what is not. And by “cool” I mean admired, thought groovy, especially by the young. And do you know what is cool — or rather, who is cool? The late-night-comedy people. I don’t mean the Jay Leno types, I mean the Jon Stewart types — the comedians-cum-pundits. The cynics, the sneerers, the sideline jeerers.

That type of journalist is cool too, for some reason. (The New Republic and Vanity Fair are two publications that specialize in such people.)

Anyway, here’s my question: Why is Capt. Ivan Castro not cool?

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.

“Once you’re blind, you have to set new goals,” Castro said. [Is that the most strangely matter-of-fact statement you’ve ever heard?]

He set them higher.

Not content with just staying in the Army, he is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces — the small, elite units famed for dropping behind enemy lines on combat missions.

The rest of the story is here (http://apnews.excite.com/article/200806 ... C6QG0.html). I ask again: Why isn’t Ivan Castro a twentieth as admired as — not to single him out, but . . . — Jon Stewart? How did the whole country become Lenny Bruce-ified?

There is a lot right with America, sports fans, but — as I say repeatedly in this column — a lot wrong, too. And what’s wrong is not necessarily what Ralph Nader and Michelle Obama think is wrong . . .

One more thing, before moving on: I think of something Bob Dole said in that marvelous, Helprin-penned convention speech (1996): “the elite who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered, and never learned.”

It is the phrase “never did anything real” that particularly haunts me.

Like you, perhaps, I’ve read about Israeli prisoner swaps all my life. And it’s always, the Israelis give up 400 Palestinian terrorists for two Israeli soldiers. Or it’s Israel gives up prisoners for bodies — dead Israeli bodies. In other words, live Arab bodies for Israeli corpses.

Well, this is from yesterday:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s Hamas rulers said Monday they would stick to their tough line in talks over a captured Israeli soldier, emboldened by Israel’s decision to trade a Lebanese prisoner convicted in a brutal attack for the bodies of two other Israeli servicemen.

Hamas-affiliated militants captured Sgt. Gilad Schalit two years ago in a cross-border raid. Three weeks later, Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon burst across Israel’s northern border and seized Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, touching off a monthlong war between Israel and the militant group.

After nearly two years of German-brokered negotiations, Israel’s Cabinet overwhelmingly agreed Sunday to trade Goldwasser and Regev’s bodies for Samir Kantar, a Lebanese man convicted of an attack that Israelis perceive as one of the cruelest in their nation’s history.

Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for infiltrating northern Israel in 1979 and killing three Israelis — a 28-year-old man, his 4-year-old daughter and an Israeli police officer.

Witnesses said Kantar smashed the little girl’s head against a rock and crushed her skull with a rifle butt. Kantar denied killing the girl or smashing her skull. Her mother, while trying to silence the cries of her other daughter, accidentally smothered the 2-year-old.

Sure, sure. Same old stuff. The rest of the article is here (http://apnews.excite.com/article/200806 ... GKNO0.html).

Anyway, can you imagine a swap involving Israeli prisoners and Arab corpses? No? I may be wrong, but — me neither.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you’re reading the Middle Eastern press or the right-wing American press — for example, on the subject of Jews in Hollywood. I thought of this when reading a recent bulletin from MEMRI.org (which bulletin is found here - http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD197308).

An Iranian film critic — chew on that! — is pronouncing on Zionist cunning: “Moreover, names may be selected for their rhyming value. ‘Zion’ sometimes becomes ‘Ryan,’ as in Saving Private Ryan. They exploit even the similarity of names.”

Oh, yes.

National Review
John Derbyshire

June Diary


Vile bezonians. Few things are more distressing to read about than the murder of a good and useful person by a worthless one. Shakespeare knew this. As the Duke of Suffolk is led off to be killed by pirates in Henry VI Part II, he says:
Great men oft die by vile bezonians.

A Roman sworder and banditto slave
Murdered sweet Tully; Brutus' bastard hand
Stabbed Julius Caesar; savage islanders
Pompey the Great; and Suffolk dies by pirates.

[bezonian = a beggar, a worthless person, from Italian bisognoso, a pauper; Tully = Marcus Tullius Cicero, great writer, orator, and statesman of late-republican Rome, murdered by a Roman soldier on the orders of Mark Anthony after having been betrayed by one of his family slaves. Brutus = Caesar’s assassin, and according to rumor his bastard son. Pompey = Caesar’s adversary in the Roman civil war of 49-48 B.C., actually killed by two of his own officers in the hire of the (last pre-Cleopatra) Egyptian King.]

Here are two more for the sad — and so far as I am concerned, rage-inducing — catalog.

(1) Beau Zabel, a 23-year-old native of Austin, Minnesota, murdered for his iPod on a dark Philadelphia street June 15. Zabel was an Eagle Scout with degrees in philosophy, Spanish, and math. He was planning to be a schoolteacher, and was to begin his training in a few weeks. He was walking home from his job working the late shift at a Starbucks when he was murdered. Notice his tie (http://www.startribune.com/local/19971499.html).

(2) Gospel singer Matthew Butler and his employee Stephen Swan, aged 28 and 26 respectively, were shot to death by two muggers outside Butler’s recording studio in Garland, Texas. Two men have been arrested for the crime, and have confessed. Their attitudes seem to be somewhat different, though. Demarius Cummings “appeared to have some remorse when asked about the crime. 'I feel real bad, you know,’ he told MyFOXDFW.com. 'I feel it was wrong what we did.’ ” His cousin James Broadnax was somewhat less remorseful: “I kind of regret what I did, but things can’t change so no use crying over it.” Asked what he would say to the families of the murdered men, he replied: “F— ’em.” Well, I guess he gets points for honesty.

Capital punishment? I’m all for it. In fact — and I know, I’m a Neanderthal, avert your eyes please — if we were to bring back public execution for vile bezonians like these, I’d go watch. Heck, I’d take the family, and a picnic lunch (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,371101,00.html).

agentesecreto wrote:During a recession life pretty much goes on the same for those used to going without. Today we still have 47 million people without medical insuance, that does not include the underinsured. Your bullshit theories are nothing more than speculation. The folks hurting now are a minority, otherwise you'd see some bullshit plan to help them out. But who's getting help right now.

Banks.

Good bye pseudoscientist.

The most simple concepts fly over that ignorant head of yours. We're not looking at a simple recession. We're looking at a protracted secular bear market, one with perhaps paradigm shifting consequences that will impact MOST Americans, not just the poor. I explained how in crystal clear terms and logic.

What is happening is beyond central planning, as we have created a snowball that is huge in size. Bineaz hit the nail on the head in explaining how purchasing power is diminishing, not least because there are few places to put your money to keep up with inflation...at least in American assets.

At this point, we better hope and pray that other economies can get their act together and at least offer a safe haven. Otherwise, this can get ugly, even unto the failure of the US banking system. Yes, life will go on and there will eventually be some type of recovery, but the standard of living can take a deep hit for many years.

Maybe this would be good medicine for Americans accustomed to plenty? Maybe it would go to far and result in really bad hardships across the board, offering little relief for many years? I do know that things like retirement and medical coverage are the least common denominator issues, all of which will really hurt if there is a long and deep secular bear market.

Think Palo, you fool you: a secular bear means that real wealth and purchasing power diminish with time, especially because inflation beats what equity indexes can return. This is not theory. This is real. Simply google what happened from 1966 to 1982. This time it can be worse because more people and institutions than ever rely on stocks and bonds.

Wait till more municipalities go belly up because their police, fireman, and teacher's pensions funds are diminishing in value. This can get ugly.

Hold on to tangible value, be it gold, silver, or currencies superior to the dollar. When things bottom, get back in and hold. Easy, right? Well, I have no experience in any of these strategies except precious metals. But, I'm too chicken to trust myself to put more into them.

I might one day be selling tacos alongsides you Palo. I can be a fierce competitor. Make room!

Bineaz & Palo

We probably can agree on the fact that we ultimately have been betrayed by American leadership. Who are we? I'm talking about honest, tax paying citizens who managed their debt properly and built savings. In the end, we're bailing out both the very rich in the investment banking community and legions of borrowers who engaged in speculation during the credit and debt bubble that is now popping.

Capitalism should apply common sense checks and balances to tune the system, but even in a democracy like ours, religious fervor by ideologists with a financial agenda can distort this. I will never understand for the life of me why the government allowed interest rates, cheap money, and unchecked speculation to happen, to the point of fraud.

In the end, however, this is ultimately the fault of us, the common person. Too many of us were only too willing to take cheap money and abuse it. Nobody forced people to take bad loans on houses and make bad investments in dot comes that were selling at PEs above 100. Sigh.

Personally, I accumulated a significant nest egg. But now inflation & AMT is threatening what I earned as I diligently pay the jumbo mortgage I signed up for. Meanwhile, I have friends who need advice on how to declare bankruptcy because they don't want to pay for undervalued homes...but yet get new loans for cheaper homes.

We're being betrayed. Period. Don't even get me started on war veterans, who get fucked to the nth degree.

I will never understand for the life of me why the government allowed interest rates, cheap money, and unchecked speculation to happen, to the point of fraud.

It's the free market. It assumes that men act in the best interest of others. And please, honorable couch economist, what political side is the one that encourages and demands no intervention from government?

I can believe that you would ask such a pedestrian question but you're so olut of touch with the everyday person that you have no clue. It's not your fault that you cast stones from an elitist pedestal.

Listen dog, bow down! Down I say!



Now that you are muzzled, let me tell you something. I never advocated neither totally free markets nor outright fraud and corruption, as the latter especially have been going on. And no, you baying moon dog you, this cannot be reduced to partisan politics, where the Republicans allegedly are for crony capitalism while the Democrats are socialist do gooders.

It's a bit more than that, although not too complicated, at least for most of us. For you, sure, this might as well be calculus.

In other words you refuse to admit you're wrong. It's fairly comon for a narcissist to not admit defeat. I will do it for you. Bark at the moon all you want, you were served.

Google Free market economics party affiliation and see what you get.

Check out this hillarious website about Italy:

http://tcc.itc.it/people/rocchi/fun/europe.html

LOL

that's been around for a while.

Well, I am not so sure Europe is as tidy and neat as that video makes them out to be. While some of those depictions of Italy are true, the same is also for the U.S.

Down with vile bezonians!

Gas:

Falc,

I've been watching my gas mileage and have reduced some driving but I usually fill at 3/4 tank and this has kept my monthly gas tab at around $180 (I know!). As I said before I average 23 MPG. Now that the weather is nice I ride my bike to mom's house, which saves 7 miles round trip.

My tank is 18.5 gallons. I filled 18.168 gallons @ 4.259 for $77.38. I let it get so low because Discover (the credit card) has a three month promotion that started yesterday where you get back 5% of gas purchases (you have to sign up); an effective 21 cent savings per gallon.

What the heck are you driving? My Toyota Corolla I think tops off at 12 gallons.

Mate, since you hang out around here a lot and might not visit us in Italy, let me pose this question here:

Juve has signed Dario Knezevic from Livorno. What can you tell us about him.

that he's Croatian...

I know Bilic has a lot of hopes for him, but to be honest, I was going to ask you all about him.



Seriously, I don't know much other than that he is viewed as a solid, but really reserve defender to what we have now. But, as some guys are getting older and he is only 26, he should increasingly be a starter. I don't think he is a star, as he plays with lesser Italian teams and even in the Serie B at that.

But, there is a reason Juventus got him on loan, I suppose. I hope this turns out to be a pleasant surprise. We need a replacement for either Simunic or Robert Kovac. It would come in time for WC qualifying.

A lot of help you are!

Thanks Mate. Livorno dropped to Serie B and Juve are taking him on loan this season with an option to buy afterwards. My guess is that he is looked at as a quality reserve. There was a little tug-of-war with Torino as apparently they made an offer that the Livorno president signed. He also made a deal with Juve. He said it was up to the player. Knezevic went with Juve and apparently, there is no deal until the player signs. The Torino president made a fuss about, stated that he will protest with FIGC but I think it is mostly to save face with the fans. Hopefully his experience Juve will be beneficial for Croatia. BTW, how do you pronounce his name. Bad enough that I need to learn how to spell it.

Knezevic, if I'm not mistaken, means Knyazev in Russian and Prince in English.

The K is going to break Falc's American tongue.

Do you know how long it took me to learn how to spell Ibrahimovic. Hell, I have had problems with Aquilani, confusing him somewhat with Acquafresca. BTW, the K is going to break my Italian-American tongue. Is it anything like the Duke basketball coach's name (I am not even going to try to spell it as I still cannot figure out how to pronounce his name).

I'll give you a simple one from a Juve past: Edgar Davids. How that name is pronounced here in the U.S. is vastly different than how the Italian announcers pronounced his name during telecasts. And I have no clue how the Dutch pronounce it.

Falc

It's much easier to pronounce slavic K when it's followed by R. No wonder English drops K in the KN combination - it's too hard to handle.

National Review
They are woman, hear them kill, &c.

By Jay Nordlinger


On May 31, an extraordinary article from the Associated Press made its way around the world. It was headed, “Al-Qaida’s stance on women sparks extremist debate.” It drew some comment at the time — but maybe not enough comment.

Frankly, it was one of the most mind-boggling news articles you will ever see. It should be studied years from now, as evidence of the moral strangeness of these times. The article reads almost like a parody — because of its earnestness, its very normality. The reporter is writing about the great desire of Islamist women to kill themselves and lots of others — a desire thwarted, or frowned on, by al-Qaeda.

The article begins,

Muslim extremist women are challenging al-Qaida’s refusal to include — or at least acknowledge — women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.

In response to a female questioner, al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman’s role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaida fighters.

His remarks have since prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, who are fighting or pleading for the right to be terrorists. The statements have also created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al-Qaida.

Later, we read, “Hamas, another militant group, is open about using women fighters and disagrees with al-Qaida’s stated stance.” So does that make Hamas the more “moderate” group — more “liberal,” more “progressive”?

The entire article is written in a state of moral obliviousness (unlike many other articles from wire services, for example on the subject of the environment). It is written as an exploration of feminist, or at least female, angst. And yet these are women whose aim is to murder.

The article is absolutely fascinating — fascinating and appalling at the same time. As I said, it could be a parody, by a Rob Long, Mark Steyn, or Christopher Buckley. But, lo — a genuine AP product.

Knezevic

I think I've heard it pronounced: "kez-nay-vich"

Here is a rough pronunciation of Knezevic

Knezh-eh-vich

The K is a hard consonant as in "kick". You immediately pronounce the "n" and "zzhuh" sound in one fluid syllable.

The 2nd syllable is "eh", with barely a whispher on the "h".

The 3rd syllable you all know.

This Brought a Tear to my Eye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OuJwcRB ... re=related



I still love the United States. We'll fix her up. We will.



Fighting soldiers from the sky
Fearless men who jump and die
Men who mean just what they say
The brave men of the Green Beret

Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret

Trained to live off nature's land
Trained in combat, hand-to-hand
Men who fight by night and day
Courage peak from the Green Berets

Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret

Back at home a young wife waits
Her Green Beret has met his fate
He has died for those oppressed
Leaving her his last request

Put silver wings on my son's chest
Make him one of America's best
He'll be a man they'll test one day
Have him win the Green Beret.

This One's for Felix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLQg-Mv9 ... re=related



Hell, it does sound cool. The German language is sure appropriate for this, err, genre.

Viva La ESPANA!!!

Sing it with me Campi, Red, and Palo...ARMADA!!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cnYeZmRsmI

Leo

Some Moossy Pussy for ya!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Nq2VTAKRU

Would some one just pull the plug on this place?

Its dead. The witch is dead, ding dong the witch is dead!!!!

It will get back to life in time for World Cup 2010...

yeah. I'll hold for 2 years.

Felix is right. We went past another cycle and considering there is no CL, league games in Europe at least, what's there to talk about ? How gay palo is ? We already know that.

Palo actually does have a point. For a long time we have needed to reinvigorate this site. We took our membership for granted in all the in-fighting over the years, in which I admit I always wasn't a peace maker.

I stay on mostly for the sake of nostalgia and to keep virtual friendships. You never know when you might run into somebody. Of course, it's easier to be here during major tournaments.

Still, it would be nice if old posters stopped by once in a while. I sure would like to see Red here. I also wonder why Dezzi stopped coming after his recent return?

In the light of Sepp [idiot] Blatter's recent fit that Manchester United treat Ronaldo like a slave by not allowing him to dishonour his contract and go to Real Madrid, I wondered if anyone here might know where and how I can apply to become such a slave!?

Here are some more overworked and underpaid slaves on the move because they are treated so badly by the evil people who run football clubs!

Nice spin but in rich or not, football players are treated as slaves. They are controlled as property and that my friend, is the principle of slavery. Don't let the golden shackles fool you.