Comments on: Goldman Sachs Outrage! http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/ America's favorite blog Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:12:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 by: David http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38996 Wed, 13 May 2009 23:28:13 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38996 Mustard plasters do relieve congestion... Mustard plasters do relieve congestion…

]]> by: SallyMutant http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38981 Mon, 11 May 2009 06:15:03 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38981 OMG! Dijon mustard, everywhere, all weekend. OMG! Dijon mustard, everywhere, all weekend.

]]> by: David http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38927 Sun, 03 May 2009 19:04:30 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38927 Ah, yes, the Calvinist tradition, which is still utterly entrenched in Appalachia, and which has succeeded in looping around the founders and the enlightenment thinking which informed our founding documents and arrived full blown and in charge for the first 8 years of the 21st century at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and on the Republican side of the aisle in Congress, not to mention some real boneheads on the Supreme Court, and moreso down through the federal and some of the state court systems, plus the majority of the slave state governorships and legislatures. Sweet Jesus, who if You are, must be weeping unceasingly. Ah, yes, the Calvinist tradition, which is still utterly entrenched in Appalachia, and which has succeeded in looping around the founders and the enlightenment thinking which informed our founding documents and arrived full blown and in charge for the first 8 years of the 21st century at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and on the Republican side of the aisle in Congress, not to mention some real boneheads on the Supreme Court, and moreso down through the federal and some of the state court systems, plus the majority of the slave state governorships and legislatures. Sweet Jesus, who if You are, must be weeping unceasingly.

]]> by: hedera http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38915 Sat, 02 May 2009 05:25:16 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38915 It has nothing much to do with Jesus, David, but the Calvinist tradition particularly has a strong feeling that if you have success in the world, and get rich, it is a sign from God that you are one of the predestined ones, and therefore you will go to heaven no matter what you do. On the other hand, by this way of thinking, people who do not get rich are obviously not favored by God, and therefore they must be sinners, and it's appropriate for God's chosen to beat on them. I think this is where the idea that poverty is some kind of a moral failing comes from. Unfortunately a lot of early American culture came out of the Calvinist tradition - thank God the Founding Fathers had gotten past that! It has nothing much to do with Jesus, David, but the Calvinist tradition particularly has a strong feeling that if you have success in the world, and get rich, it is a sign from God that you are one of the predestined ones, and therefore you will go to heaven no matter what you do. On the other hand, by this way of thinking, people who do not get rich are obviously not favored by God, and therefore they must be sinners, and it’s appropriate for God’s chosen to beat on them. I think this is where the idea that poverty is some kind of a moral failing comes from. Unfortunately a lot of early American culture came out of the Calvinist tradition - thank God the Founding Fathers had gotten past that!

]]> by: Chris Harlan http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38911 Sat, 02 May 2009 03:20:20 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38911 Well said, David. Well said, David.

]]> by: David http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38910 Sat, 02 May 2009 03:06:29 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38910 Yes, mrNybel. Always was, always will be. Once the triage is complete and the hemorrhaging stanched, it will be time to go after the perps. Kind of interesting that the criminal enterprises were/are the essential engines of the global financial system, and so we cannot shut down the syndicate, only try to transform it. But it was always more inclined toward criminal enterprise than anything else. Exploit the third world after first exploiting domestic labor for 2 or 3 centuries, pillage natural resources and kill anyone who got in the way, periodically have wars, which along with pestilence and famine are, as Dos Passos noted, good growing weather for the House of Morgan. Obama knows all this. I'm just waiting to see how much of it he can transform, given the incredible momentum and power of the ba$tard$. And how much transformation the general public will embrace. But he is quite deliberate, quite even-handed, and plenty smart, along with being possessed of a quiet killer instinct (just ask the ba$tard hedge fund$ who tried to play him for a sucker regarding the Chrysler bailout). He just might pull it off. Just imagine, capitalism as a societally regulated mechanism that actually improves the human condition. It has not other excuse for existence, at least not in the modern world, if it ever did. And greed is bad, not good. The greedhead mantra was one of the strangest of all perversions, embraced by conventional religious folk, and set in motion with a vengeance starting with the Reagan administration. As a colleague at my community college, a centrist Democrat from Illinois' cornfields who taught chemistry (a graduate of Notre Dame/masters from the University of Illinois) said to me, Reagan worshipped wealth. Some follower of the teachings of Jesus. Especially loved all those fundies who roamed the halls of the White House with their jewel-encrusted crosses. That is certainly what the guy in sandals was all about. Yes, mrNybel. Always was, always will be.

Once the triage is complete and the hemorrhaging stanched, it will be time to go after the perps. Kind of interesting that the criminal enterprises were/are the essential engines of the global financial system, and so we cannot shut down the syndicate, only try to transform it. But it was always more inclined toward criminal enterprise than anything else. Exploit the third world after first exploiting domestic labor for 2 or 3 centuries, pillage natural resources and kill anyone who got in the way, periodically have wars, which along with pestilence and famine are, as Dos Passos noted, good growing weather for the House of Morgan.

Obama knows all this. I’m just waiting to see how much of it he can transform, given the incredible momentum and power of the ba$tard$. And how much transformation the general public will embrace. But he is quite deliberate, quite even-handed, and plenty smart, along with being possessed of a quiet killer instinct (just ask the ba$tard hedge fund$ who tried to play him for a sucker regarding the Chrysler bailout). He just might pull it off.

Just imagine, capitalism as a societally regulated mechanism that actually improves the human condition. It has not other excuse for existence, at least not in the modern world, if it ever did.

And greed is bad, not good. The greedhead mantra was one of the strangest of all perversions, embraced by conventional religious folk, and set in motion with a vengeance starting with the Reagan administration. As a colleague at my community college, a centrist Democrat from Illinois’ cornfields who taught chemistry (a graduate of Notre Dame/masters from the University of Illinois) said to me, Reagan worshipped wealth. Some follower of the teachings of Jesus. Especially loved all those fundies who roamed the halls of the White House with their jewel-encrusted crosses. That is certainly what the guy in sandals was all about.

]]> by: mrNybel http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38901 Fri, 01 May 2009 21:24:20 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38901 one upon a time - in the bad old days of predatory Capitalism, the fat cats protected themselves and each other with interlocking directorates ("You sit on my board, and I'll sit on yours") now they just do the same thing with insurance ("I'll buy your dubious investments and you sell me insurance in case they go south") So the gov't gives AIG $$$$ because all those insurance claims turned the insurance firm into Humptaig Dumptaig...and then GSachs gets a big payoff for their bad derivatives. I am a long-ago English major. When work was criticized as derivative it meant the writers were a bunch of cheaters, plagiarists, thieves one upon a time - in the bad old days of predatory Capitalism, the fat cats protected themselves and each other with interlocking directorates (”You sit on my board, and I’ll sit on yours”)

now they just do the same thing with insurance (”I’ll buy your dubious investments and you sell me insurance in case they go south”)

So the gov’t gives AIG $$$$ because all those insurance claims turned the insurance firm into Humptaig Dumptaig…and then GSachs gets a big payoff for their bad derivatives. I am a long-ago English major. When work was criticized as derivative it meant the writers were a bunch of cheaters, plagiarists, thieves

]]> by: David http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38895 Fri, 01 May 2009 16:19:18 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38895 Wealth is the global oligarch. The rest of us are merely players in the grand game. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Wealth is the global oligarch. The rest of us are merely players in the grand game. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

]]> by: David http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38758 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:47:31 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38758 Just make that one of the geniuses in charge of a high-powered capitalist enterprise, preferably at the moment a financial institution, and I'm with you, Jerry. Not that there's anything inherently evil about capitalism. As Thoreau noted, the problem is with the board of directors. Just make that one of the geniuses in charge of a high-powered capitalist enterprise, preferably at the moment a financial institution, and I’m with you, Jerry. Not that there’s anything inherently evil about capitalism. As Thoreau noted, the problem is with the board of directors.

]]> by: Jerry, The King of Comedy!!! http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38720 Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:28:37 +0000 http://fanaticalapathy.com/2009/04/14/goldman-sachs-outrage/#comment-38720 Two attorneys were walking out of a bar just as a beautiful young lady enters. One attorney turns to his associate. "Boy, I would like to screw her!" The other attorney thinks for a second and said "Out of what"? <em>(ba dum!)</em> Two attorneys were walking out of a bar just as a beautiful young lady enters. One attorney turns to his associate. “Boy, I would like to screw her!” The other attorney thinks for a second and said “Out of what”? (ba dum!)

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