turn of the screw(ed)

"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase." - Barack Obama (2008)

he lied...

as a matter of fact, when you think about it (assuming, of course, you think), the tax increase hits the poor much heavier than the rich.
and here's the proof:

Income up to:	Marginal Tax Rate 2012	Tax Paid	Effective Tax Rate	2013 Marginal	2013 Tax Paid	2013 Effective	Difference Paid
$8,700	10.0%	$870	10.0%	15.0%	$1,305	15.0%	$435
$35,350	15.0%	$4,868	13.8%	15.0%	$5,303	15.0%	$435
$85,650	25.0%	$17,443	20.4%	28.0%	$19,387	22.6%	$1,944
$178,650	28.0%	$43,483	24.3%	31.0%	$48,217	27.0%	$4,734
$388,350	33.0%	$112,684	29.0%	36.0%	$123,709	31.9%	$11,025
example: $500,000	35.0%	$151,761	30.4%	39.6%	$167,922	33.6%	$16,161

"For they all cast in from the surplus that they had, but this one has cast in from her want, everything that she had; she cast in all her possessions." - Jesus (Mark 12:44)

the problem is simple... the poor need what little money they have... the rich can spare a dime... this is the basis for much of the liberal's arguments... tax the rich; they can afford it... unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in real life... there aren't enough rich people to siphon off.

in 2009 (which is the data i have handy... i'd look up 2011, but i'm being lazy), there were about 140.5 million tax returns in the US... 4 million tax returns (that's 2.8% of all returns) from earners of $200,000 or more... from those under that magic number, there were 136.5 million tax returns (or 97.2%).

of the income tax collected from the 2.8% of rich folk, the IRS collected $434 billion... from the other 97.2% of the poor folk, the IRS collected $432 billion... literally half of all of the taxes collected came from those bastard 2.8% rich people who aren't paying their fair share.

a good liberal will reference Mark 12:44 in an effort to squeeze more money from the rich... the problem is the rich are the ones investing in retirement accounts, investing in businesses, and hiring people... they pay salaries of everyone (economically) below them... they put the most into Social Security (which should make any good Marxist happy)... every tax on the rich is also a tax on the poor... it creates more unemployed workers... it takes money out of investment funds... it means less goes into Social Security.

and for God's sake, stop extending the Bush Era Tax Cuts... it's just less money going into Social Security... 2% every year is being withheld from Social Security because of this... end those, and cut 2% from tax payers over $200,000... they'll invest it... they'll hire people... they'll save Social Security... we'll help the poor, create jobs, and become a profitable nation again.

this is not rocket science... it's economics.

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source:
United States: 2013 Federal Income Tax Update
23 May 2012
Article by James N. Phillips and Timothy C. Smith of Godfrey & Kahn S.C.

ReBlog - why have one standard?

Americans need only to open the daily newspaper or turn on the nightly news in order to see the media’s double standard. Each day we continue to hear the Occupy Wall Street movement’s hijacked the slogan of "the 99 percent" which has been forced it into our lexicon and the media’s daily lingo. And almost comically, Time magazine has decided that "The Protester" is 2011's Person of the Year.

The Daily Caller's Mary Katharine Ham, reminds us to travel back in time to appreciate the media double standard as she points out that:

Obamacare critics flooding town halls to make their dissent known had been called "extremist mobs" by the Democratic National Committee, pawns of the insurance industry by Senator Dick Durbin, "un-American" by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, "brownshirts" by Representative Brian Baird of Washington, "manufactured" and "Astroturf" by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, "evilmongers" by Senator Harry Reid, accused of "fear-mongering" by the president, and been deemed ‘political terrorists’ by Representative Baron Hill of Indiana.

During the Tea Party’s peak, the media seemed to inflame the rhetoric and acted as if the Tea Party movement was about to toss America into revolutionary violence. Despite the denigrating rhetoric and descriptions of the Tea Party movement in the media, there were little or few arrests or acts of violence. While many commentaries have expressed that both movements were birthed from anger over the nation’s bailouts and perceived unfairness, each group has used vastly different tactics in pushing forward their agendas.

Why has the mainstream media vilified the peaceful Tea Party all the while praising and celebrating Occupy Wall Street as a second wave of the civil rights movement despite clashes with police, violence, and general lawlessness? Tea Party organizations and rallies were initially ignored by the press and then dismissed as radical zealots as the Occupy Wall Street crowd was immediately recognized as leading the voice of "the 99 percent."

Our national media should be held accountable for their performance, just like any other institution. We need to remind the media of their profound obligation to provide the American people with the facts, rather than tell them what to think.

The Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movements may both have legitimate grievances with our country, but distorting their images does not move us towards positive solutions. We can work together to increase awareness of bias in the media and encourage Americans to confront it and demand fair reporting.

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source:
Such a Double Standard: Tea Party Was 'Extremist' But OWS 'Protester' Is 'Person of the Year' | NewsBusters.org

Happiness is.

what is happiness?... Aristotle had quite a bit to say on happiness... and so it seems do conservatives.

PBS (oft-thought as liberal) had a recent discussion about happiness and your ideological beliefs... this may come as a surprise to the liberals out there, but conservatives are happier on average... and the reasons may surprise you... below are some selected portions of PBS's findings:

One of the biggest correlates with happiness in our surveys was the belief of a meritocracy, which is the belief that anybody who works hard can make it. That was the biggest predictor of happiness. That was also one of the biggest predictors of political ideology. So, the conservatives were much higher on these meritocratic beliefs than liberals were.

belief in your own merit makes you happier... the belief that you are owed something makes you unhappy... this is what conservatives call "common sense".

Now, optimism alone doesn't determine contentment. Religion boosts happiness. So does marriage. But Napier's research accounted for that.

JAIME NAPIER: "We adjusted for education, for income, for marital status, religion, people who lived urban vs. rural, all kinds of things. So, you know, on average, just your ideology alone is an independent predictor of your subjective well-being."

did you get that?... i know the jokes about marriage, but it makes you happier... it makes me happier... just ask my wife; she'll tell you what i think.

and "religion boosts happiness"?... oh, the compounding effect of a religious conservative.

they even adjusted for education and income... this means that even poor, stupid conservatives are happier than rich, educated liberals... alternatively, a well educated conservative is still happier.

Napier says American economic malaise of the past few decades disheartened everyone, but liberals most of all.

So, everybody was decreasing in happiness as there was more inequality, but liberals to a significantly greater extent than conservatives.

And, in 1974, the difference between liberals and conservatives on happiness wasn't statistically significant. It was, basically, ideology didn't predict happiness in 1974.

so, the Summer-of-Love liberals were equally happy as their conservative counterparts... and while the inequality of wealth became greater, only the liberals became unhappy... apparently, they seem to think they aren't getting their fair share... the conservatives, on the other hand, aren't looking for a hand-out, so they are content to work for what they earn.

It's not true that conservatives are richer than Liberals. Liberals are actually richer than conservatives.

The reason that conservatives tend to be less concerned with income inequality is not because that they're ignorant. It's not because they're calloused. It's not because they have less of a sense of a morality. It has to do with the fact that they see the world differently.

sorry to take away all of your arguments, liberals... apparently, statistically speaking, you're the rich ones... but, somehow, you've made the claim that the conservatives are the 1%... not true... you've claimed they're ignorant, callous, and immoral... not true.

what is true is that liberals are the cause of their own problem... the expectation that someone else owes you anything sets up a logical fallacy... Person A expects value V from society Z... society Z is the sum total of all persons, "n"... for all persons "A" to each receive V from Z, then Z owes a total of V*n (split equally to A*n)... simple math... (V*n)/(A*n)= V/A or 1V per 1A... however, for society to have V*n to give, it must receive from A*n the total amount for distribution... that means, each A must contribute 1V to Z prior to receiving their 1V in return... liberals don't want to give into the system from which they expect to receive... but if no one puts into the society, it is fallacious to think you can get anything out of it... maybe you've heard of squeezing blood from a turnip?

liberals would have you believe that there are two groups giving into society and two receiving... person A is poor and needy (proletariat)... person B is rich and needless (bourgeoisie)... therefore, the above math goes something like this: 0A+2B=V₁ (value put into society Z)... V₁=V₂ (value taken from society)... V₂=2A+0B... "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need." - Karl Marx

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With regard to what happiness is (men) differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise. For the former think it is some plain and obvious thing, like pleasure, wealth, or honor. They differ, however, from one another -- and often even the same man identifies it with different things, with health when he is ill, with wealth when he is poor.

Happiness is desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else. But honor, pleasure, reason, and every virtue we choose indeed for themselves, but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, judging that by means of them we shall be happy. Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything other than itself. Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient.

Aristotle

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source:
Why Are Conservatives Happier Than Liberals? PBS NewsHour Dec. 9, 2011 PBS

ReBlog - join the Banks-Are-Evil-Bank... capitalism for socialists

The inevitable culmination of the Occupy movement has finally arrived: The protesters at Occupy San Francisco just announced that they are becoming bankers, by filing papers to form a credit union (for real — not satire):

Members of Occupy SF announced their ambitious plans to turn protesters into bankers by creating the People’s Reserve Credit Union. According to Occupy SF’s Facebook page:

The goal of this project is to encourage San Francisco residents, businesses, as well as nonprofit and city agencies to keep their money out of the big banks and to redistribute that money locally. Initial services will include micro-loans for the working poor and homeless, and subsidized student loans at low interest rates.

The credit union is being created with the help of San Francisco’s Glide Community Church and Supervisors John Avalos and Eric Mar. The group filed its paperwork and has already crafted a thoughtful mission statement: The credit union will serve as a replicable model for other financial institutions to reinvest wealth in their local communities. They will support microenterprise, provide educational loans, and foster community improvement projects.

My suggestion for the People’s Reserve Credit Union logo: a “dollar and sickle” in anarchist black.


The difference between the People’s Reserve Credit Union and the other banks is that other banks are eeeeeevil whereas the People’s Reserve Credit Union is good.

Welcome to the real world, Occupiers. The world of regulations and accounting and laws and audits and trying to meet payroll. This should be entertaining.

Of course, there are plenty of credit unions around the country already, and they usually make up for their small size by parking members’ deposits in ultra-safe financial instruments, to minimize the risk of failure during unstable economic times, since they don’t have the resources to diversify, as big banks do.

Will the People’s Reserve Credit Union invest safely, and follow reassuring business practices? Er, not exactly:

• The credit union will employ students and homeless, creating 60 part-time jobs.
• Issue 300 to 500 micro-enterprise loans (max. $5,000).

Occupy SF will soon learn that micro-enterprise loans are incredibly risky, because most micro-businesses fail. Risky loans are what caused the banking crisis in the first place — remember? Or was that too long ago for you?

It’s all fine and dandy to start your own banking institution with good intentions, but at the end of the day, if you are hemorrhaging money due to risky investments, while calming depositors with the reassuring “Don’t worry, everyone’s money is safe in the hands of the students and homeless transients on our staff,” you’re not likely to last a year. That is, unless, you learn the hard way why banks do the things they do to survive and thrive, in which case Occupy SF will become the very “banksters” they loathe.

my commentary:
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!11!!eleventy!!!!!

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source:
The PJ Tatler » If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em: Occupy SF launches its own bank

no wonder OWS wants their debts removed

Earlier this week the liberal media reported that the Occupy protests cost taxpayers over $13,000,000.
But the actual cost is much higher.

Verum Serum updated the total cost estimates on Wednesday.

– Total: $18,450,999
And, here is the latest total of Occupation costs using Verum Serum’s totals plus more recent figures:

• Occupy Asheville – $170,000
• Occupy Atlanta – $652,000
• Occupy Austin – $110,000
• Occupy Boston – $575,000
• Occupy Charlotte – $105,000
• Occupy Chicago – $49,000
• Occupy Cincinnati – $128,000
• Occupy Des Moines – $7,800
• Occupy DC – $870,000
• Occupy Denver – $365,000
• Occupy Eugene – $20,000
• Occupy Fresno – $110,000
• Occupy LA – $120,000 plus estimated $400,000 to repair the lawn
• Occupy Long Beach – $40,000
• Occupy Minnesota – $400,000
• Occupy Nashville – $4,500
• Occupy New York – $7,000,000
• Occupy Oakland – $2,400,000 for police overtime alone
• Occupy Philadelphia – $500,000
• Occupy Phoenix – $200,000
• Occupy Portland – $750,0003.5 million + $50,000 to repair damaged parks
• Occupy Providence – $9,000
• Occupy Raleigh – $60,000
• Occupy Sacramento – $300,000
• Occupy San Diego – $2,400,000
• Occupy San Francisco – $100,000
• Occupy St. Louis – $2,200
• Occupy Seattle – $625,999

– Total: Over $21,273,499

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source:
Occupy Movement’s Price Tag Tops $20 Million …Much Higher Than the $13 Million That Was Previously Reported | The Gateway Pundit by Jim Hoft, November 25, 2011

99% = minority

By autumn of the year, a million people across the land had gathered in various places to protest against the politics that had led to their misery. Unemployment. Inflation. The cost of living was unbearable.The nation had borrowed an unprecedented amount of money from foreign nations, and now faced the impending threat of bankruptcy. Unrest roiled the nation. Peasants rose up by the thousands in protest against wealthy landowners. City dwellers, too, met by the thousands to protest, peacefully at first, violently later as the government cracked down on them. It was a leaderless movement driven by the people's passion for national reforms.

sounds familiar?... it's Occupy Wall Street, right?... wrong.

it's the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

here's a little history... the Bolshevik name meant "The Majority", which was a misnomer, because they represented a tiny fraction of the Russion populace... they named themselves this because they narrowly defeated members of their own party (the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) in a decision of party leadership... but when the Menshevik ("Minority") won vote after vote regarding party membership and rules, the Bolshevik split from the party... the Bolshevik minority held on the the "Majority" title.

For at that time we were fully aware that the Soviets were not yet ours, that the peasants still trusted the Lieber-Dan-Chernov course and not the Bolshevik course (uprising), and that, consequently, we could not have the majority of the people behind us, and hence, an uprising was premature.
- Vladimir "Lenin" Illich Ulyanov (emphasis added)

and now we come full circle... we have the "99%" demanding change and revolution, yet they represent the minority of Americans... they claim to represent the laborers and workers, yet they are comprised of college students, aged "hipsters", and criminals.

there is a visible arc to history... try not to stand where it falls.

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source:
Today's Thought: 11.1 A Bolshevik Look at Occupy Wall Street

Tea Party and their guns

The Secret Service searched Occupy D.C. on Monday for a man suspected of firing bullets at the White House on Friday

let's ask the obvious question: "What if this was a Tea Party rally?"... the media has been very lackadaisical about the fact that bullets hit the White House... with arrests at the Occupy DC site including assault and drug possession, and now gun shots, when does the media call for the disbanding of Occupy DC?... when do they begin the disparaging remarks, like they did during the Town Hall meetings?... i'm looking for something like "clinging to their guns and drugs".

So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
- Barack Obama, April 6, 2008

all you have to do is replace "religion" with "drugs", and you have a new slander... maybe throw in some comment about their anarchist political motivations... but i'll leave the defamation to the professionals.

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source:
Secret Service Searched Occupy D.C. Camp For Person Who Shot At White House - Talking Points Memo blog - Ryan J. Reilly - November 16, 2011, 6:00 AM

welfare debunked: the crisis of our time

[The welfare state] is the outcome of a three-stage development during the last one hundred years, beginning with the stage of individual relief graded according to genuine needs, passing through public social insurance, and ending up in today's stage of universal, all encompassing security.

Social demagogues use the promises of the welfare state and inflationary policy to seduce the masses, and it is hard to warn people convincingly of the price ultimately to be paid by all. All the more reason for those who take a more sober and longer view to redouble their efforts to undeceive the others, regardless of violent attacks from social demagogues, who are none too particular in their choice of means, and from the officials of the welfare state itself.

Few people can still close their eyes to the contrast between the extraordinary successes of a social and economic order relying on the regulating and stimulating forces of the market and free enterprise, on the one hand, and on the other the results of a continuous redistribution of income and wealth for the sake of equality. It is a contrast which is intolerable in the long run. One or the other will have to yield -- the free society and economy or the modern welfare state. To use the words of another distinguished British economist, Lionel Robbins, a man who weighs his words carefully, "the free society is not to be built on envy."

Government-organized relief for the masses is simply the crutch of a society crippled by proletarianism, an expedient adapted to the economic and moral immaturity of the classes which emerged from the decomposition of the old social order. This expedient was necessary as long as most factory workers were too poor to help themselves, too paralyzed by their proletarian position to be provident, and too disconnected from the old social fabric to rely on the solidarity and help of genuine small communities.

People regard as progress something which surely derives its origin and meaning from the conditions of a now all but finished transition period of economic and social development. They forget that if we are to take respect for human personality seriously, we ought, on the contrary, to measure progress by the degree to which the broad masses of the people can today be expected to provide for themselves out of their own means and on their own responsibility, through saving and insurance and the manifold forms of voluntary group aid.

Are we to call it progress if we continuously increase the number of people to be treated as economic minors and therefore to remain under the tutelage of the state? Is it not, on the contrary, progress if the broad masses of the people come of age economically, thanks to their rising incomes, and become responsible for themselves so that we can cut down the welfare state instead of inflating it more and more?

A short time ago, a member of the House of Commons movingly described her father's plight in order to prove how inadequate the welfare state still is. But this is not proof of the urgency of public help; it is merely an alarming sign of the disappearance of natural feelings in the welfare state. In fact, the lady in question received the only proper answer when another member of Parliament told her that she should be ashamed if her father was not adequately looked after by his own daughter.

Today's welfare state is not simply an improved version of the old institutions of social insurance and public assistance. In an increasing number of countries it has become the tool of a social revolution aiming at the greatest possible equality of income and wealth. The dominating motive is no longer compassion but envy.

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source:
Crisis of the Modern Welfare State by the US House Joint Economic Committee in July, 1994
As excerpted from the book "A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market" by Written by Wilhelm Röpke in 1960. Excerpts are from the chapter, "Welfare State and Chronic Inflation."
FULL TEXT

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Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

- The Life of Reason: Volume I by George Santayana, 1905

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History, in par, repeats itslef.

- Mr. Kuhlman, high school history teacher

OWS was known to the Founding Fathers

I presume that there can be no political happiness, unless industry be cherished and protected, and properly secured.

Suppose a poor man becomes rich by honest labor, and increases the public stock of wealth: shall his reward be the loss of that liberty he set out with?

Will you take away every stimulus to industry, by declaring that he shall not retain the fruits of it? The idea of the poor becoming rich by assiduity is not mere fancy.

I am old enough, and have had sufficient experience, to know the effects of it. I have often known persons, commencing in life without any other stock but industry and economy, by the mere efforts before, rise to opulence and wealth. This could not have been the case without a government to protect their industry.

– Edmund Pendleton, speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 12, 1788; "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution," Vol. 3, p. 295

capitalism is raping the earth

and Occupy Wall Street is raping everything else...

Though we do not encourage the involvement of the police in our community, the survivor has every right, and the support of Occupy Baltimore, to report the abuse to the appropriate law enforcement. - Occupy Baltimore internal memo

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source:

• Occupy Baltimore group discourages reporting rape, health advocates say - Baltimore Sun
• "Occupy" Protester Arrested in Sexual Assault of a Child - NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
• Protester allegedly raped at 'Occupy Cleveland' - CBS News
• Occupy Glasgow protesters ordered to leave George Square after woman raped in tent

occupy a history book

Video: Former soviet citizen confronts socialists at Occupy Wall Street

Ex-soviet: What are you going to replace [capitalism] with?
OWS: Socialism.
Ex-soviet: Really? What do you think is going to happen under socialism?
OWS: Well, we wouldn't have people unemployed.
Ex-soviet: Really? You're kidding?
OWS: We wouldn't have hunger.
Ex-soviet: Really?

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cap·i·tal·ism - noun - an economic systemin which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

so·cial·ism - noun - a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

com·mu·nism - noun - a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.

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maybe instead of reading dictionaries, they should do some research.

ReBlog - no, share it now!

Occupy Wall Street has close to $500,000 in the bank -- $483,663, to be exact -- and those in charge of managing all that money have found that consensus process and anarchist principles don't make for the most efficient financial governance. According to Bill Dobbs, a member of the media committee, as of Thursday, organization has spent $66,742 and a remaining balance of $483,663. The New York Post reported on Sunday that the money that's been pouring in through donations online and at Zuccotti Park had started to lead to discontent among the occupiers, as factions within the encampment clamored for their fair share. But Dobbs explained to us, it's not that the group's financial committee is withholding that money or resisting participants' requests for it -- it's just trying to account for all its expenses and approve them via its own agreed-upon process, just like any large organization trying to administer a half-million-dollar budget.

The Post quoted an organizer of the Comfort working group (the subcommittee in charge of procuring clean clothes, sundries, and so on) who made a request from the finance group: "I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?" Dobbs explained to us that the paperwork was necessary in order to properly account for expenses. That quote, he said, "is a big clue" to the group's sense of responsibility. "Of course you have to fill out paperwork... that's the least that's owed to donors," he said. The group has registered as a 501(c)3, a member of its finance working group explained in an online budget discussion, and it's trying to figure out how to post its revenue and expense reports online. "I guess it's a question of whether to put them in categories or go all the way down to the receipt level," Dobbs said.

It's also a question of manpower, and that brings up a problem with Occupy Wall Street's fully egalitarian setup: In practice, even though all are welcome and respected at the camp, not all are welcome to handle the money. The finance committee requires background checks, according to the online discussion, which may be a good idea, as the New York Daily News points out the round-the-clock demonstration has become a haven for ex-cons and what it calls "takers." But the background checks mean delays in getting more members, and therefore delays on getting the work done of posting the finances online. Finance group member Johana wrote, "we understand the urgent need to get all records computerized but we are all busy with the frequent business within the park, thus creating more transactions to be recorded minute by minute, while trying to create a financial structure that is PERFECT and easily tracked and reported on in a transparent way ... Um, give us a minute?"

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aw, poor babies... they have to use capitalism to run their anarchist / socialist movement... ain't that something?

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source:
Occupy Wall Street's Half-Million-Dollar Headache - The Atlantic Wire - Adam Martin

where do i sign up?

Sharia = no interest loans plus polygamy.

Post-Gaddafi Libya will have Sharia Law as the "basic source" of its civil laws, declared interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil on Sunday. Already Abdul-Jalil has altered several Libyan laws that did not line up with Sharia, such as banning local banks from charging interest and making it legal to again practice polygamy.

no interest AND multiple wives?... who has been hiding this tidbit of information about Sharia law?... and how do we go about getting this implimented here?

wait... if i don't pay interest on loans, then they charge fees for the priviledge of using their money... banks are going to make money somehow... they're not charity groups, after all (sorry Occupy Wall Street)... so, i'm not saving anything.

well, there's still the polygamy!... then i can have multiple wives inform me when, where, and how i've done something wrong.

*sigh*
nevermind.

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source:
Islamic Winter: Tunisian and Libyan 'liberation' leads to Sharia
Mustapha Ajbaili: Libyan NTC chief’s ‘liberation’ speech raises eyebrows

cut on a bias

remember the "Spot the Differences" games?... let's see how many you find here.

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source:
Eric Allie Political Cartoons

nothing more than feelings

According to a Boston police report, a disgruntled homeless man got into an argument at 6:15 p.m. with Occupiers because he “had nowhere to stay.” The man urinated on a tent and then allegedly pulled a knife on a group of 10 shocked protesters. No one was stabbed but several protesters later told cops they felt "threatened" by the incident.

they shouldn't feel threatened... you idiots; when someone pulls a knife on you, you are threatened.

but that's what you get from these hippie-reject wanna-be protestors... they grew up where everyone who participated got a trophy; even last place... where you don't speak badly about someone, even if it is the truth... we have to respect people's feelings...

f*#k feelings!

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here's some news:

• Life is nasty, brutish, and short.

Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.
...
For as the nature of foul weather lieth not in a shower or two of rain, but in an inclination thereto of many days together: so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is peace.
...
In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; ... no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
- The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes [emphasis added]

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more news:

• Life is tough; get a helmet. - Eric on Boy Meets World

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source:
Raymond Flynn to Occupy Boston: ‘Time to pack up... and leave’ - BostonHerald.com:

ReBlog - squat Wall Street

"I’ve been smoking and drinking in here for eight days now,” said Dave, booze on his breath and his eyes bloodshot as he lay sprawled on a tattered sheet of cardboard. “I need to get some methadone. Every day, I wake up, and I’m f--ked up.”
Drugs can be easy to score -- a Post reporter was offered pot for $15 and heroin for $10.
They’ve already fueled at least one violent incident, when a wasted nut job socked a medical volunteer in the face before others hauled the attacker away.
“We are trying to keep everything calm and work with the police, but there are some crazies in here,” said Paul, a security volunteer.
“The other day, there was a guy charging people $5 to use the McDonald’s bathroom. He was on LSD or high on something.”
But the creeps can’t give a bad name to the group’s overall anti-greed message, protesters said.
A coalition of religious leaders and their followers yesterday marched from Washington Square Park to the encampment with a makeshift golden calf in the shape of the Wall Street bull, leading protesters in such spirituals as “We Shall Overcome” and “Down by the Riverside.”
The crowd chanted, “We are the 99 percent!” -- referring to the millions of Americans not among the top 1 percent of the country’s earners -- along with priests, rabbis and imams.
“You are fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah. You have thrown off the yoke. Occupy, occupy, occupy!” shouted Warren Goldstein, chair of the history department at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
The golden calf sat atop a brown platform that marchers carried on their shoulders. On the platform were the words “false idol.”
The clerics -- some holding signs that read, “Jesus is with the 99%” -- said they were there to support the movement.
“You have woken up all of us ... We will stand with you in every city, every state and every country across this globe,” said Michael Ellick, minister at Judson Memorial Church near Washington Square.
Hundreds gathered around philosopher Slavoj Zizek as he gave a speech and answered questions.
“They tell us we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are,” he said. “We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself.”
Some protesters have said that in addition to being against Wall Street greed, they also are for a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq and more help for Haiti.
But as the protest ground on for a 23rd day, it was evident that there were challenges.
Zuccotti Park smelled like an open sewer -- with people urinating and defecating in public.
And some couples have taken advantage of the free condoms distributed by organizers to do the nasty in full view of other protesters.
“It kinda makes me think of what Woodstock must have been like,” said one protester, Sarah, 19 from the Upper West Side.
“I haven’t hooked up with any guys ... but one of my friends did have sex in a tarp with a guy last night.”
The free chow offered to protesters was boosting the crowd.
“People say they are here for the cause, but the real reason is the free food,” quipped Cameron, 26, of Jersey City.
“On my third day, they had smoked salmon with cream cheese. You know how much smoked salmon is a pound? Sixteen dollars. I eat better here than I do with my parents!”
Many of the protesters said they are here for the long haul -- and predicted trouble if cops try to clear the park.
“When the weather starts getting cold, we’re already talking about bringing tents in here,” said Robert, 47, of Pennsylvania. “I’m not going anywhere.
“I lost my job of 22 years, and someone has gotta pay,’’ he said. “Civil disobedience is something we may need to keep this site occupied. If everyone does it at once, the cops won’t be able to do anything.”
Three protesters took their sleeping bags and tried to camp out on Wall Street near Nassau Street last night. When police told them to move, one demonstrator, Zachary Miller, 20, from California, was arrested for disorderly conduct, cops said.
At one point yesterday, a speaker from Washington, DC, told protesters how to break out of zip ties and handcuffs in case they get collared.
The protest vet, Ryan Clayton, 30, demonstrated how use a bobby pin to spring the cuffs open -- while claiming he was “not encouraging people to break out of restraints.”

Sex, drugs and hiding from the law at Wall Street protests
By LACHLAN CARTWRIGHT and BOB FREDERICKS
Posted: 3:28 AM, October 10, 2011
Additional reporting by Hannah Rappleye and Andy Campbell

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Squatters and drug addicts invade Zuccotti Park and Occupy Wall Street protests - NYPOST.com

Occupy White House

or: "from crony capitalism to crony communism in one easy step"

But, then, government of the sort progressives demand — supposed “experts,” wiser than the market, allocating wealth and opportunity by supposedly disinterested decisions — is not just susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.

Solyndra got to the government trough with the help of a former bundler of Obama campaign contributions who was an Energy Department bureaucrat helping to dispense taxpayers’ money to politically favored companies. His wife’s law firm represented Solyndra.

From 1965 through 1968, the left found its voice and style in consciousness-raising demonstrations and disruptions. In November 1968, the nation, its consciousness raised, elected Richard Nixon President and gave 56.9 percent of the popular vote to Nixon or George Wallace. Republicans won four of the next five presidential elections.

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source:
Here's to a long life for Occupy Wall Street | New Hampshire OPINION02 - GEORGE F. WILL - Oct 13, 2011

#iamthe53

In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, [did] not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

The ranks of those whose major federal tax burdens net out at zero -- or less -- is on the rise. The center's original 2009 estimate was 38%. That was before enactment in February of the $787 billion economic recovery package, which included a host of new or expanded tax breaks.

47% will pay no federal income tax - CNN - Money - Jeanne Sahadi, Senior Writer - October 3, 2009

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"If I can do it, you can do it."... quit your whining and get to work.

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source:
I Am The 53% - Tumblr