The Back Alley Archives

I am perfectly capable of looking beyond what people say - its why I call bullshit all the time on Republican talking points. And it why I have posted links to satirical videos that show as much.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

You're so capable of looking past it...all you do is look to see (R) or (D) and then make up your mind. And yes, of course, you cite to comedians.

I am perfectly capable of looking beyond what people say - its why I call bullshit all the time on Republican talking points. And it why I have posted links to satirical videos that show as much.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

You're so capable of looking past it...all you do is look to see (R) or (D) and then make up your mind. And yes, of course, you cite to comedians.

Oh right. As opposed to your open minded and logical to politics. See since you are incapable of understanding sarcasm, the previous sentence was a sarcastic comment directed at you.

I thought we weren't going to discuss politics.

My party? Apparently you are operating under at least one false assumption. Not everything is Dem vs. Rep. I don't even HAVE a party. My voter card literally says, "No Party Affiliation". So fuck you man--that's why I get personal because you act like you know me when you don't know shit.

I am no cheerleader of our collapse. I don't HOPE that the spending bill fails to stimulate the economy. You seem to confuse my analysis with my personal wishes. I merely look at the numbers, look at the system, and it becomes perfectly clear that we built an unsustainable system. Due to our circumstances, we may not be able to fix our system given our cultural and social realities. I do spread my thoughts because I feel it is my duty to help people prepare, at least mentally, to live rather differently than they have in the past. I know people don't want to hear it, but I feel it's my duty as a citizen.

In order to effectively capture my sentiments on our state: "It's the end of something I did not want to end; beginning of hard times to come. But something that was not meant to be is done and this is the start of what was."

Did you catch the sentiment of that, slider? Even if things do collapse, they will only collapse because they are supposed to so that we can rebuild society better. That, IMO, is not doom and gloom at all. You just don't get to live the fairy tale life Americans expect. Deal with it.

First of all, I didn't know you had no party affiliation. Second, you have acted like you know me as well and you don't know shit about me. Third, I have not attacked you personally, just your comments.

My beef with your comments is this - if you truly think that this country is going to fall and fail, then in your mind it will, regardless of what happens. If the majority of people think and act in that manner in this country, then it will fall and fail. We cannot afford that. This country defeated totalitarianism, cured diseases, built the strongest economy in the history of the world, and put a man on the moon. So don't give me this horseshit that there are too many problems or problems that are too big for us to solve. We can fix this, we just need the right attidude and political will to do it. If you don't think we can, fine. You are entitled to your opinion. I just hope that more people think like I do - and I think they do. I posted a comment on a thread recently that the market is driven by perceptions. If the people in this country think things are getting better, then they have the ability to make it so. And that will improve the economy. Do nothing, and we will fail.

You are perfectly free to express whatever opinion you want to. However, in this case, I think you are dead wrong.

this legislative 'victory' was hardly a victory...in fact, it was a bit of a cluster-fuck.

BHO asks congress to pass it through ahead of the long weekend preventing some from reading it in it's entirety and then goes home to illinois and says he'll sign it on tuesday in colorado...wtf??? ask congress to get it done than go on holiday??? lmao @ BHO.

Its called getting out of the DC bullshit bubble. Every President does it. I don't blame him for doing this - he is shaping the message and avoiding the DC talking heads who are a bunch of idiots.

Interesting political commentary. Keep up that line of thought and you will have a miserable 8 years. 8)

And also keep in mind the reason why we had to have an economic stimulus package in the first place.

I'm sure my misery will last longer than 8 years, unfortunately. Why do you think I no longer give a fuck?

We didn't "have to have" this spending package. I swear it's like you're in a fucking cult--utterly brainwashed. You and people like you are destroying the republic.

Yeah that hands off approach that we have used in the past would surely have worked. It has such a great track record of success.......

Considering your positions and your gloom and doom attitude, it seems to me that you are the one who is brainwashed. I have stated that I think that the best days of this country are ahead of us and that there is no problem that is too big for us to solve. If you choose to believe otherwise, that you can live in your own private world.

But you know what? I bet more people in this country have a positive can do attitude than a negative one. And they will be the ones to save this country. If you choose not to come with, that is your decision.

slider - do you even know that AA HAS no party affiliation?

you're so blinded by your own party rhetoric that you fail to understand the audience you're trying to 'enlighten'

c'mon...you're better than that.

Please see my response to him. And for the record, my comment are my own - not party rhetoric.

First of all, I didn't know you had no party affiliation. Second, you have acted like you know me as well and you don't know shit about me. Third, I have not attacked you personally, just your comments.

My beef with your comments is this - if you truly think that this country is going to fall and fail, then in your mind it will, regardless of what happens. If the majority of people think and act in that manner in this country, then it will fall and fail. We cannot afford that. This country defeated totalitarianism, cured diseases, built the strongest economy in the history of the world, and put a man on the moon. So don't give me this horseshit that there are too many problems or problems that are too big for us to solve. We can fix this, we just need the right attidude and political will to do it. If you don't think we can, fine. You are entitled to your opinion. I just hope that more people think like I do - and I think they do. I posted a comment on a thread recently that the market is driven by perceptions. If the people in this country think things are getting better, then they have the ability to make it so. And that will improve the economy. Do nothing, and we will fail.

You are perfectly free to express whatever opinion you want to. However, in this case, I think you are dead wrong.

And see, I understand your point but you are missing what I'm saying here. What I'm saying is that in order to fix the problem many concepts, services, products, all sorts of things from our former (bubble driven) lifestyle simply have to go poof before we can adequately fix things. What I'm saying is the market and society at large is sending us a message (you must fundamentally change your mindset and your economic way of life) and we are ignoring it, largely due to the shortsighted perspective that you share with the vast majority of those in power. I don't see our current economic collapse as an ultimate failure--I see it as fulfilling our destiny and taking our place in history as the generation forced to pick up the pieces and reshape society and civilization into something better and more sustainable. Every generation has their place and we can rise to the challenge, but we have to acknowledge the real problems.

My perspective, I'm sure, seems irrationally long term or impractically broad to some, especially in today's America where instant gratification comes too late. What I worry about the fact that most folks share your beliefs is that it will end up causing us to waste precious resources and time on red herrings, rather than allowing the market to direct resources where they belong (and, please, spare me the party line about the free market being dead--it was never given a chance to sustain itself but was stillborn and kept alive on the feeding tube of free money from central banks, which are inherently adverse to free market principles). Perhaps, if everyone embraced my ideas, we would be fixing or redesigning the engine of the economy instead of just trying to inject a little gas into the carburetor to rev the engine again. All of our answers to the problem seem to involve increasing the problem itself--debt. We can no longer go back to the bubble era because the bubbles have nearly all popped (save T bonds and the dollar...anything else?). But we're just trying to reinflate like we can find a new bubble to blow. Hell, we're actively trying to reinflate the housing bubble rather than let housing prices decline to more rational levels. It's utter insanity.

I hope you can see why I take issue with your characterization of my position as being utterly negative. In a shortsighted perspective, yes, you are right it looks pretty dismal. But I also think that the only way we can make the best of things is by acknowledging the fundamental problems and then blowing them up and starting over and doing things better. We can't continue doing the things we've done--and that's exactly what your faithful leaders are advocating at a very basic level, although they do a good job of plastering over reality with headfakes, press manipulation and fear mongering.

slider, I just realized I forgot to add: no harm no foul on the insults. I'm just as guilty and let's be honest--it's cathartic for all of us to be able to just blow off steam when we're just frustrated as hell with one viewpoint that we can't seem to address directly enough to keep the conversation moving forward. We're all human beings and we're all petulant little bitches from time to time, myself included. I'm probably more of an asshole in a direct way than the average person, but I do it in a way to instigate things further, to tease out truths that underlie the issues. Plus, I'd never let differences keep me from having a beer or such with somebody...just lettin ya know the insults ain't much of a big deal. I'm a shit talker. You're a shit talker. And we move on.

I honestly don't think we should cut off our conversation, because I think my last post gained some ground in articulating my perspective in a more helpful manner. Perhaps that's me just self-aggrandizing again...seriously, I never know where that line is.