The Goat Pen

I know gas prices were actually $2 a gallon but it was because we were in a global world financial meltdown.

I'm just not accepting that somehow that was Dubya's plan for lowering gas prices at the pump. Gas prices are an indication of the economy to some degree

Gas might have been $2 a gallon at the end of Bush's term, but that's only b/c it came down from $4 a gallon in July of 2008. Not sure why Bush (or anybody) should get credit for the $2 a gallon if they don't have to take the blame for the $4 a gallon just a few months earlier...

hedge wrote:I am not disputing that there are plenty of people out there unemployed, but I live and work in eastern NC and I doubt there is a poorer sector in the nation, and I see people going to work every day and doing whatever hard-scrabble, low-paying job that they can get. It's not like they're expecting a check from the government. Plenty of folks out there are expecting it, I'm sure, but I see plenty more who slog off to their $10 an hour job every morning, without fail. Hell, I've got a guy driving a truck for me, no way he'll make more than $30K this year, and there's no way he'd ever vote for Obama. There are alot of people around here like him. Probably a majority, in fact. Not sure what he thinks Mitt Romney is going to do for him, but he sure has bought into whatever Mitt and the repubs are selling, whatever that is...

The way these people vote against their best interests is amazing.

Also, sadly, there are places that are far worse than Eastern NC. We're struggling, but amazingly enough, there are places in the US that are worse.

Like where?

West Virginia, the mountains of North Carolina...Really, any part of Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta...Those are from off the top of my head...

I actually heard somewhere that if North Carolina east of I-95 was its own state, it would be the poorest state in the country. I can't verify that, but I feel it would certainly be in the bottom 10, with much of the revenue being vacation income from the coastal towns, which is merely an accident of geography...

Asheville/Boone vs. Goldsboro/Greenville......Hmmmm.

Greenville is a college town, it's thriving (at least relative to the rest of eastern NC). Goldsboro, not so much. I'd put Asheville and the rest of the mountain resort stuff on par with the coast, that's just an accident of geography. I suspect the rest of the economy in the western part of NC outside the vacation hotspots is pretty dismal...

hedge wrote:Greenville is a college town, it's thriving (at least relative to the rest of eastern NC). Goldsboro, not so much. I'd put Asheville and the rest of the mountain resort stuff on par with the coast, that's just an accident of geography. I suspect the rest of the economy in the western part of NC outside the vacation hotspots is pretty dismal...

Drive through Chadbourne sometime. That's the most godawful depressing place I've ever seen. There's storefronts there that have been empty since the sixties.

There's a rundown old feed mill in Chadbourn, I sold some corn to them about 10 years ago...

So Florida State is finally good again....

...our ACC luck, Alabama and Oregon run the table, and FSU gets as close to the MNC this year as my BC Eagles.

Chadbourne...there's a town you don't hear about everyday. When Whiteville is more important than your town, you have issues.

Some Stewart Quotes From His Debate With O'Reilly
(loved the Mordor reference)

•Opening statement, after O'Reilly slams Sandra Fluke: "My friend Bill O'Reilly is completely full of shit. A good portion of this country has created an alternate universe in which the issues we face revolve around a woman from Georgetown."

•"I'm here to plead to the mayor of Bullshit Mountain. Talk to your people!"


•"I don't know that I have time to unpack this, but the reasons that we invest in things like public television is that it brings educational programs to people who might not have them."


•"Give me my money back, the $800 billion for the Iraq war, and children's television is on the house."


•"When you need something, it's an entitlement. When they need something, it is what it is."


•“Why is it that if you take advantage of a tax break and you’re a corporation, you’re a smart businessman, but if you take advantage of something you need to not be hungry, you’re a moocher?”


•To Bill's upbringing in Levittown: "You grew up in subsidized housing."


•"This is on the Internet, Bill. Gerry and the Pacemakers is not the reference you want to make."


•Bill: "[Fox News] is making a billion dollars a year, so something's going right."
Jon: "Yes, you can't make money selling crap in America."


•"The first sentence of the Constitution mentions unions and welfare. I don't know what to tell ya."


•"If you think Christmas isn't celebrated in this country as Christmas, walk a mile in Hannukah's shoes."


•"Somebody better livetweet that, motherf***ers! Bill O'Reilly says we should not have gone into Iraq!"


•"The electoral college makes absolutely no sense to me. I have no problem going with the popular vote."


•Moderator: If the U.S. was burning, what famous person would you save?
Bill: "I would say Oprah, she's worth about a hundred billion. Who would you save?"
Jon: "My family?"


•To Bill: "You're socialist too, dude. If you're for social security and Medicare, we're all socialists. This argument is about what shade of red we are."


•On why he's voting for Obama: "Turns out Lincoln's not runnin' this year."


•On his political hero: "I would say Robert Kennedy. He had a passion and a depth of belief, and an optimism, and a tenacity that I very much admired. He was one of the first people I remember learning about, and maybe his death left an indelible mark. I felt that Robert Kennedy was a man of political integrity."


•When Bill says Clint Eastwood should run for president: "Well, why don't we ask him?" [turns to empty chair]


•"I visit Fox News every now and again, and it's nice, because the Eye of Mordor is above the building."


•His advice for young people:"Everybody talks about the entitlement generation. There is no time I would rather live in than now. ...There's a tendency to live in a nostalgic state in this country, and think that other generations possessed an integrity and a tenacity better than the generation that is now. I wholeheartedly disagree with that, and I believe this is a group that will rise up to any challenge that comes before them, as well as any other generation in America would have done. My advice to them would be to please don't think of me as an entitled moocher when I'm collecting my government benefits."

I don't always agree with Jon Stewart but I honestly believe he is providing an invaluable public service

Why extremism can't live long in today's social media environment.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/10/world/asi ... ?hpt=hp_c2

Don't you think it's a little harsh to label a girl advocating civil rights as "extremism"?

"On Tuesday, Taliban militants stopped a van carrying three girls, including Malala, on their way home from school in northwestern Pakistan's conservative Swat Valley.

One of the gunmen asked which one was Malala Yousufzai. When the girls pointed her out, the men opened fire. The bullets struck all three girls."


that seems a bit pointless

fuck it, I don't have time to hear the answer, shoot all 3 of them!

Well it is a peaceful religion after all.

What, no bitching about collateral damage?

hedge wrote:Don't you think it's a little harsh to label a girl advocating civil rights as "extremism"?

No, I'm saying that extremists will ultimately become persona non grata (for lack of a better phrase) in any society with more information. This age of today with bloggers and other social media "journalists" makes it hard for extremists to do some of the things they used to do and not see a growing public backlash in those communities. Fifteen years ago a woman would be shot, or have acid thrown in her face, or any other list of heartless things done to her and life would have moved on. Nowadays, it doesn't play out that way. Extremism can not hold its place when information is freer than before. This poor girl took a bullet for it and may die, but its impact on the nation is already humongous.

It's the greatest benefit to this social media era we're in. We have to live with Kim Kardashian and Perez Hilton because of it, but it's a good tradeoff, imo.