Comments on: Pelosi Flexes Her Muscles, Republicans Point and Laugh; Democrats Sigh

By: the ginger avenger

the ginger avenger — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:22:29 +0000

As often as I look at myself as possibly prematurely cynical, every time I try to have a little optimism about our culture, the social & economic changes that are going on around us, and what drives those changes, I seem to run double-chin first into disappointment. That being said, I have no issues with being incredibly jaded.

While your foundation for the site is noble and ideological in it’s nature, the reality is that we as a culture are much too lazy to give a poop about what’s going on around us. We pride ourselves on ignorance, greed, and self-righteousness. But when government & corporate America exploit those traits, we get angry enough to email Bill O’Reilly for 4.5 seconds, until, like you said, Angelina (gets? produces? achieves?) another spawn, Terry Schiavo gurgles something resembling a sound (sorry Schiavo family), or Britney flashes her “I’m failing at life! Hooray!” smile to the cameras while leaving the “you’re clearly not fit to be a mother” trial of the century. As great as this country has been & could be again, it’s often disappointing to realize the general direction of apathy, ignorance, & indifference we’re heading.

We’re also getting so incredibly dumb, as I’m sure you’re well aware of. It’s nice to come across an intelligent blog that explains the black hole of personal finance to those of us that can’t even figure out where to find the interest rate for our savings account when we log into our online banking. Big ups!

Dumb = Google’s word of the day for 7/22/08 was “imitative.” Personally, I feel like this should be a word that a) one should already know; or b) one could figure out based on the root word. Sigh, shake your head, stab, rinse & repeat.

By: the weakonomist

the weakonomist — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:27:34 +0000

My argument would be the responsibility does not sit on the auto-makers to make fuel efficient cars. As capitalists, they make what the market wants. The market wanted big cars for our big butts.

The foundation for this site is that we the consumer must control the government and the corporations, sadly the consumer is more interested in Angelina Jolie’s twins than $4.00 gas.

Great comment!

By: steve

steve — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:24:08 +0000

I agree with you that democrats are completely handitarded in their attempts to pass legislation, and they’re basically just poking rather than throwing uppercuts & throat punches. However, this country has a big problem in trying to fix both domestic & international issues because leaders (policymakers, executives, marketers, etc.) draw attention to, and attempt to alleviate the symptoms rather than the actual causes. Those who govern what we do, whether it be through law or what we buy, adopt the “learn to live with it” mentality rather than actually trying to change. It’s indicative of who we are as a people in that everything we do is reactionary, and we’re never ahead of the curve. The obvious example is 9/11, so now we have to live with crayola terror alerts, the DHS, and the lasting effects of Desert Storm: The Sequel.

But in the case of energy, I think that it’s much more unnoticed. Auto-makers had the technology to drastically increase fuel efficiency in the 1970s, but did nothing. Rather, they decided to make cars bigger, heavier, and thus less fuel efficient. Energy companies (for decades!) have felt the outside pressures of becoming greener/more environmentally friendly, and only now are they starting to adopt strategies & policies to change public opinion of them. Even so, I feel like these companies aren’t adopting these policies intrinsically to be more socially & environmentally responsible, but rather to sway their image in public opinion.

Congressional democrats have almost adopted a stockholm syndrome-type relationship towards “change.” You know, the syndrome where the captive/hostage starts to show signs of loyalty towards the captor? Instead of standing strong on issues they bring to the table, they habitually back down, and whimper away full of shame.

I most likely veered off course a tad in this response, but I think you’ll get the picture.

Contemporary politics often makes me stabby.