The Goat Pen

IB reminds me of that song "Cheeseburger in Paradise". Except in his case it's "Turdburger in Paradise"...

" For the most part, Great Britain was a civil, humane, world's policeman for the 400 years they had the job"

That's exactly the message I got when I read Heart of Darkness...

hedge wrote:" For the most part, Great Britain was a civil, humane, world's policeman for the 400 years they had the job"

That's exactly the message I got when I read Heart of Darkness...

The most important words that I said that you quoted, were the first four.

"Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives—he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere. "

hedge wrote:"Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives—he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere. "

I prefer the Americanized version of this where Marlon Brando turned to Martin Sheen and asked him if he was an assassin sent by the CIA to terminate his command.

[youtube]YnrX5sn4CtU[/youtube]

"I prefer the Americanized version of this where Marlon Brando turned to Martin Sheen and asked him if he was an assassin sent by the CIA to terminate his command."

In that regard, you are somewhat like Sheen's character with your posts in here crafted to please your republican overlords....

hedge wrote:"I prefer the Americanized version of this where Marlon Brando turned to Martin Sheen and asked him if he was an assassin sent by the CIA to terminate his command."

In that regard, you are somewhat like Sheen's character with your posts in here crafted to please your republican overlords....

I don't know about that. I think I'd make a lousy assassin. I just know that Heart of Darkness was the inspiration for the script writers for "Apocolypse Now." Col Klink took command of the natives (be they Cambodians, NVA, VC, ROV, Thai, whatever-the-fuck-they-were) but they were natives, and in that sense there were as civilized as those same natives in Heart of Darkness.

Col. Klink??

"I don't know about that. I think I'd make a lousy assassin."

You're not an assassin. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill...

hedge wrote:Col. Klink??

"I don't know about that. I think I'd make a lousy assassin."

You're not an assassin. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill...

Sorry Col Kurtz.

As far as errands go, I'm not help there. I'm not good at getting.

Indeed, it seems you didn't really "get" Apocalypse Now nor Heart of Darkness. You're wise to stick with Ayn Rand. That's about your level of comprehension...

hedge wrote:"
But here is the truth: Only a moderate plutocrat mannequin could lose an election to an incumbent with such horrible economic numbers."

Who do you think would've done better than Romney? Serial cheater Gingrich (who I do believe was the best politician and likely the most intelligent repub primary candidate, and for the record, I don't give a shit about his cheatin' heart, but it wasn't going to fly in the general election)? For the love of god, Rick Santorum, who is somewhere to the right of Goebbels? The guy who couldn't even remember what department of government he wanted to cut? Who? Ron Paul was the only real conservative the repubs had running (perhaps the only real one they've got, period), but you know he wasn't going to get major traction, even if people like me would've voted for him if he had been on the ballot. Seriously, what republican was going to beat Obama this year? Or more to the point, what repub was going to win Wisconsin and Ohio? Might've found one that would've won Virginia and Florida, but that still wouldn't have won the election without the other swing states in which Obama did very well. Seriously, who?

I agree with most of what you said above, particularly Gingrich being the smartest. He was my original choice. I could care less about his personal life. He was once second in line to the president, and governed conservatively (unlike Romney). As such, he was enough of a threat to Romney that Willard used his massive Establishment money advantage to bury Gingrich under an avalanche of negative campaign ads in the primaries. That worked. Gingrich could have done better in the general since Clinton proved that the average voter can be VERY forgiving of zipper issues. Much more so than R primary voters.

I also agree that Paul was possibly the most conservative the R's had running. That's why I wrote him in. I loved his ideas, but unfortunately they were being presented by a salesman who came across a cranky and slightly daft old man. Maybe Rand can take up that mantle in 2016.

I also agree with your assessment of Santorum. Being fervently pro-life nowhere near qualified him to be President.

And don't get me started about Perry. He was so Bush-like it was downright spooky.

In short, Obama was a 98 lb. weakling in 2012, but he faced mostly 95 lb. weaklings. The only legitimate challenger (Gingrich) got nuked by a plutocrat doomed to lose in the general.

Gary Johnson could have beaten Obama but the religious nuts of the Republican party just couldn't deal with the concept of Americans having control of their personal lives.

Shouldn't they now be referred to as "The Late Republicans"? I mean really, does that party have any chance of a future?

I tend to agree. There is a very good chance that the tea party and social conservative types will cease and desist from the GOP. That process may have already begun, given the poor turnout for Romney. As a result, the R's will go back to their natural, pre-1980's state - a party strictly by the rich, for the rich, and happy to remain the minority party for generations.

George Will:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ ... story.html

mean ole President Obama for proposing a tax increase that he actually ran a campaign saying that he would increase taxes. A proposal, by the way, which is favored by the majority in this country including many who didn't vote for him. Shock of all shocks.

Of course cutting spending is what is needed more than anything, but let's all play the rich don't pay their fair share game the dims and MSM want to play...fiddling while the economy burns. Until Washington does something about base line budgeting, this will continue as a got'cha game.

What Oprama promised and the public approved was tax increases on the wealthy. Dirty little secret is that Dem leadership know that taxes need to increase for everyone to make any dent into our annual deficits. There is a limited amount of revenue that can be had from the rich. It's even starting to leak out of some Dems that this must occur to keep the entitlement machine going. I'm sure if you took a poll that asked, "In order to lower the budget deficit should the government tax the poor and middle class or reduce spending?" the answer would be quite clear.

Professor Tiger wrote:

hedge wrote:"
But here is the truth: Only a moderate plutocrat mannequin could lose an election to an incumbent with such horrible economic numbers."

Who do you think would've done better than Romney? Serial cheater Gingrich (who I do believe was the best politician and likely the most intelligent repub primary candidate, and for the record, I don't give a shit about his cheatin' heart, but it wasn't going to fly in the general election)? For the love of god, Rick Santorum, who is somewhere to the right of Goebbels? The guy who couldn't even remember what department of government he wanted to cut? Who? Ron Paul was the only real conservative the repubs had running (perhaps the only real one they've got, period), but you know he wasn't going to get major traction, even if people like me would've voted for him if he had been on the ballot. Seriously, what republican was going to beat Obama this year? Or more to the point, what repub was going to win Wisconsin and Ohio? Might've found one that would've won Virginia and Florida, but that still wouldn't have won the election without the other swing states in which Obama did very well. Seriously, who?

I agree with most of what you said above, particularly Gingrich being the smartest. He was my original choice. I could care less about his personal life.

We might as well just stop right there. You are not a Republican so.... whatever.

The fact that you "wrote in" Ron Paul means you are a big part of the problem. Writing in that guys was (basically) a half-vote to re-elect the President. You could hav just stayed home in early November.