Monday, December 05, 2005
Capitalism and Israel
There’s an old adage out there: money can’t buy happiness. I always laugh whenever I hear some poor, ignorant slave bark this out with wide eyes and a tremulously incredulous voice. I imagine his master gives him a doggy treat every time he says this.
I’ve found that money can buy pretty much anything in this world. I have no reason to believe that it can’t buy happiness, too. I’ve seen money buy Armani suits, cars that cost more than some people’s houses, politicians to make laws for the buyer, bodyguards, wives, mistresses, jewelry (to keep them both happy), small Central American armies, therapists, vacations, opportunity, admission to prestigious universities, even studies and papers written by intellectual prostitutes who sell the thesis to the highest bidder. Consider becoming a member of the Cato Institute’s board. Or start your own propaganda network, a la Roger Ailes.
In my Chicago Tribune today we have another editorial of sterling intellectual pedigree, the gist of which is that money can’t buy happiness. Just look at all these lottery winners who pissed away 50 million dollars!
I laugh when I see those shows and articles about lottery winners who blew money like MC Hammer and Mike Tyson. The real lesson to me has always been that you can bring the retard out of the ghetto, but you can’t bring the ghetto out of the retard. I’m surprised but not stunned when I read stories of trailer trash winning the lottery and losing the money. If only they had inherited that money instead of winning it they might have been raised in a good enough environment that they would at least have the wisdom to give control of their investments to a decent accountant. Do you think Paris Hilton handles her own money?
This is an aside, however, to the conservative mythology that infects this country. I could ask a bunch of sixth-graders about this mythology and they would know what it is. Money can’t buy happiness. Rich people earn their money: “They’re the ones responsible for all this prosperity” (Neal Boortz). One person one vote. Capitalism is the most successful economic system on Earth and interfering with its operations, whether through regulating companies or taxing profits, results in unemployment, poverty, and generalized unhappiness. Daddy’s always right, even when he hits you because you’ve been bad. We don’t talk about what Uncle Larry does to us in the bathroom because we’re little whores who deserve it and Uncle Larry is an adult who knows better than us.
I want to try it, for once. I’d like to see what this country looks like with no inherited wealth, with no vast inequalities in wealth, with no poverty and universal health care. I would like to see a country that tries something better.
I’m not really talking about a state-run communism. I notice that the U.S.S.R. is always cited as the example of how that doesn’t work. Never mind that capitalism never worked very well for them, either. Never mind that China, with a modified kind of communism, is growing explosively.
I’m talking about progressive values.
CHANGE OF TOPIC
Hahahahaha! In my little blogoworld I can make absolutely no effort to segue. All it takes is a large font. I’m not in a graduate English program anymore, bitches! You will obey BitterHarvest’s Laws of Composition!
Mr. Krauthammer is one of my favorite least-favorite people. Despite the fact that if this were 1930s Germany he would have been one of the first to sign up for the SS, there’s something about Chuck’s voice that makes me feel better about being an American. There is no greater believer in the American Empire than a man I affectionately refer to as “the Hammer.”
The subject of the Hammer’s beat-down in this morning’s Tribune was one of his usual gimps, the Palestinian People. The Hammer, like all Gawd-fearing conservatives, believes in Israel’s right to punish and humiliate any group of people who have even one miscreant in their midst. In fact, in a very Biblical sense, these Hammers of God believe that guilt is a physical thing slightly heavier than air that is emitted from people doomed to the Fiery Pits and it settles and adheres to anyone nearby. This explains both the belief in collective guilt and the excessive washing that I see displayed in the Jewish faith as practiced by the people of Israel.
According to The Hammer the recent lull in explosive violence is due to the inspired leadership of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli people. He credits fences between Israel and Palestine as well (the Hammer loves the fences. He was and is a BIG BELIEVER that the fences salve the problems. Keep the clean from the unclean, if you will). Credit for the diplomacy and policing of the current Palestinian administration is nowhere. He does take a little time to give Yassar Arafat a kick in the ass, even though Arafat’s been dead a while.
It would be nice if any American newspaper had anything but a massively pro-Israeli viewpoint in either the editorials or the news items. Try reading one of the Arab papers to the left. Links are provided. Visit them from time to time. Walk in another’s shoes. It’s good for you.
We see the bias in the endless coverage of the aftermath of suicide bombers but nothing on the brutal policing of the Israelis. We see nothing of the effects of their artillery fire, bombs, and missiles on Palestinian civilians. Because of this most Americans understandably come to believe that Palestinians don’t suffer and die in this conflict. The Israelis are the perpetual victims.
But what’s this? Even the Hammer provides some insight, from time to time! This intifada has “left more than 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians dead.” Hmmm. Palestinians are dying at a 3-to-1 ratio in comparison with the Israelis. Where are the pictures, Time/Newsweek/Chicago Tribune/U.S. News and World Report/New York Times/CNN/MSNBC? Where is the coverage of the true effects of this war?
There is some simple math associated with this. Suicide bombers aren’t the ones being punished. Suicide bombers are notoriously good at both destroying themselves and killing five or ten or a hundred others with their own death. The way the ratio swings back to the Israeli’s favor is when the IDF hammers Palestinian militants and civilians in response to bomb and rocket attacks. When an American-made Apache piloted by the IDF sends a Hellfire missile up the tailpipe of a car containing a Palesitinian militant, destroying him and his driver, as well as a pregnant woman and a puppy on the nearby sidewalk.
But this is just part of the “extremely effective campaign of targeted assassinations that ultimately induced their successors to declare a truce with Israel.”
Call me civilized, but I always looked on assassination as a distasteful tool to be used as a last resort. The Hammer holds no such reservations. The Hammer realizes that in order to make an omelet, you have to break a few civilians.
I’ve found that money can buy pretty much anything in this world. I have no reason to believe that it can’t buy happiness, too. I’ve seen money buy Armani suits, cars that cost more than some people’s houses, politicians to make laws for the buyer, bodyguards, wives, mistresses, jewelry (to keep them both happy), small Central American armies, therapists, vacations, opportunity, admission to prestigious universities, even studies and papers written by intellectual prostitutes who sell the thesis to the highest bidder. Consider becoming a member of the Cato Institute’s board. Or start your own propaganda network, a la Roger Ailes.
In my Chicago Tribune today we have another editorial of sterling intellectual pedigree, the gist of which is that money can’t buy happiness. Just look at all these lottery winners who pissed away 50 million dollars!
I laugh when I see those shows and articles about lottery winners who blew money like MC Hammer and Mike Tyson. The real lesson to me has always been that you can bring the retard out of the ghetto, but you can’t bring the ghetto out of the retard. I’m surprised but not stunned when I read stories of trailer trash winning the lottery and losing the money. If only they had inherited that money instead of winning it they might have been raised in a good enough environment that they would at least have the wisdom to give control of their investments to a decent accountant. Do you think Paris Hilton handles her own money?
This is an aside, however, to the conservative mythology that infects this country. I could ask a bunch of sixth-graders about this mythology and they would know what it is. Money can’t buy happiness. Rich people earn their money: “They’re the ones responsible for all this prosperity” (Neal Boortz). One person one vote. Capitalism is the most successful economic system on Earth and interfering with its operations, whether through regulating companies or taxing profits, results in unemployment, poverty, and generalized unhappiness. Daddy’s always right, even when he hits you because you’ve been bad. We don’t talk about what Uncle Larry does to us in the bathroom because we’re little whores who deserve it and Uncle Larry is an adult who knows better than us.
I want to try it, for once. I’d like to see what this country looks like with no inherited wealth, with no vast inequalities in wealth, with no poverty and universal health care. I would like to see a country that tries something better.
I’m not really talking about a state-run communism. I notice that the U.S.S.R. is always cited as the example of how that doesn’t work. Never mind that capitalism never worked very well for them, either. Never mind that China, with a modified kind of communism, is growing explosively.
I’m talking about progressive values.
CHANGE OF TOPIC
Hahahahaha! In my little blogoworld I can make absolutely no effort to segue. All it takes is a large font. I’m not in a graduate English program anymore, bitches! You will obey BitterHarvest’s Laws of Composition!
Mr. Krauthammer is one of my favorite least-favorite people. Despite the fact that if this were 1930s Germany he would have been one of the first to sign up for the SS, there’s something about Chuck’s voice that makes me feel better about being an American. There is no greater believer in the American Empire than a man I affectionately refer to as “the Hammer.”
The subject of the Hammer’s beat-down in this morning’s Tribune was one of his usual gimps, the Palestinian People. The Hammer, like all Gawd-fearing conservatives, believes in Israel’s right to punish and humiliate any group of people who have even one miscreant in their midst. In fact, in a very Biblical sense, these Hammers of God believe that guilt is a physical thing slightly heavier than air that is emitted from people doomed to the Fiery Pits and it settles and adheres to anyone nearby. This explains both the belief in collective guilt and the excessive washing that I see displayed in the Jewish faith as practiced by the people of Israel.
According to The Hammer the recent lull in explosive violence is due to the inspired leadership of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli people. He credits fences between Israel and Palestine as well (the Hammer loves the fences. He was and is a BIG BELIEVER that the fences salve the problems. Keep the clean from the unclean, if you will). Credit for the diplomacy and policing of the current Palestinian administration is nowhere. He does take a little time to give Yassar Arafat a kick in the ass, even though Arafat’s been dead a while.
It would be nice if any American newspaper had anything but a massively pro-Israeli viewpoint in either the editorials or the news items. Try reading one of the Arab papers to the left. Links are provided. Visit them from time to time. Walk in another’s shoes. It’s good for you.
We see the bias in the endless coverage of the aftermath of suicide bombers but nothing on the brutal policing of the Israelis. We see nothing of the effects of their artillery fire, bombs, and missiles on Palestinian civilians. Because of this most Americans understandably come to believe that Palestinians don’t suffer and die in this conflict. The Israelis are the perpetual victims.
But what’s this? Even the Hammer provides some insight, from time to time! This intifada has “left more than 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians dead.” Hmmm. Palestinians are dying at a 3-to-1 ratio in comparison with the Israelis. Where are the pictures, Time/Newsweek/Chicago Tribune/U.S. News and World Report/New York Times/CNN/MSNBC? Where is the coverage of the true effects of this war?
There is some simple math associated with this. Suicide bombers aren’t the ones being punished. Suicide bombers are notoriously good at both destroying themselves and killing five or ten or a hundred others with their own death. The way the ratio swings back to the Israeli’s favor is when the IDF hammers Palestinian militants and civilians in response to bomb and rocket attacks. When an American-made Apache piloted by the IDF sends a Hellfire missile up the tailpipe of a car containing a Palesitinian militant, destroying him and his driver, as well as a pregnant woman and a puppy on the nearby sidewalk.
But this is just part of the “extremely effective campaign of targeted assassinations that ultimately induced their successors to declare a truce with Israel.”
Call me civilized, but I always looked on assassination as a distasteful tool to be used as a last resort. The Hammer holds no such reservations. The Hammer realizes that in order to make an omelet, you have to break a few civilians.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 3:20 PM 
